Our music video follows several aspects of Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin's theories on camerawork, editing, and structure. Goodwin observed that music videos do not present traditional narratives, which is true of our own video. Instead, our artist looks back at the camera as she lip-syncs for the majority of the song. However, one of our shots portrays Poppy running through the woods, which can be seen as her taking on the role of a character. This is another convention of media products - where the artist is seen as both the performer and character. Our video also relies heavily on repetition - whether its through our base tracks that appear throughout the video (e.g. projections, fairy lights) or recurring mise-en-scène (e.g. costume, make-up, location). Like Goodwin notes, our video also follows conventions in the way in which it builds to a climax, reflected through the fast cuts that build up towards the end of the song.
On the other hand, Vernallis believes that editing in music videos is much more frequent than other media, with many cuts that follows the rhythm of the track. This is true of our own video, since the majority of our cuts follow the instrumental. The rules of continuity editing are also definitely broken, with many different shots interlaced to the form our video. In addition, we have several obvious edits that are designed to draw attention, such as speed editing, which we played around with in our slow motion running scene, as well some of our projection shots, which enhance Poppy's movements whilst her lip syncing is still in time (see bottom left). Other obvious edits include one that we only used a single time in the entire video - a glow effect which matches the instrumental (see bottom right) - and the jump cuts we used early on that depict Poppy disappearing and appearing behind the trees.
We also drew inspiration from several music videos, many of which are by British female artists. I have blogged about this quite extensively before, for example in this blog post, but since our music video is now complete, I will go ahead and compare it to our sources of inspiration.
During the planning stages, we though quite extensively about existing music videos and how we could draw inspiration from them. The first prominent example we looked at and decided to have influence on our own work was Lifeline by Imogen Heap, which spawned two prominent base tracks, as well as a few other shots that made it into our music video. What we liked about the video was its use of a projector to display various imagery on the artist, and so we adapted this by having Poppy stand in front of our classroom whiteboard whilst we used the projector.
Above you can see a slideshow which depicts all of the different projections we used, which include an image and video, both of a wolf, that we sourced externally and decided on because of our song name's connotations ("Howl"). Whilst Lifeline influenced the content of our work, we also drew on its mise-en-scène - specifically the use of white face paint, although we opted to only use it around Poppy's eye area.
In addition, the video for Lovesick by Emily Osment further influenced our projection idea. Its highly stylized visuals instantly inspired us and we decided that, whilst we wouldn't be able to pull off something of the same calibre, we would try to replicate its eye-catching and abstract use of colour. The way in which we did this was to use a simple graphics painting program to "draw" over Poppy's face. Despite the simple way in which we produced this effect, we consider it just one of many shots of which we're proud of.
For our projection shots, we concentrated on mid-shots and close-ups of our artist, as both of the videos above also use these shot types. We additionally made this decision for practical reasons too, since we were shooting in front of a whiteboard. Because of this, the outcome wouldn't have been as effective if we used wide shots that made our shooting location evident, not to mention the fact that it is a convention of music videos to feature prominent close-ups of the artist.
Next, we looked at several female artists that have used a woodland or forest setting in their videos. This is because this was the main location that we collectively visualised for our music video, and so I figured it would be helpful to research how other artists have implemented this setting. The videos that we looked at were by Leona Lewis, Kate Bush, iamamiwhoami and Dido, and they collectively inspired the overall feel we wanted to achieve by shooting in the woods. In addition, I previously talked about how of the four videos, Dido's Don't Leave Home was my favourite in terms of what we wanted to achieve with our own video. I talked about its effective use of slow motion and fast cuts, both of which we adapted. I also liked the overhead shot that is used in the video which depicts the artist laying on the ground (see below). This particular shot inspired several of our own, which you can see on the right.
However, this isn't the only shot in which we've taken inspiration from an existing music video. For example, we have a base track running throughout which consists of a close-up of Poppy's mouth as she lip-syncs. We have witnessed this kind of shot twice before, in the music videos for Imogen Heap's Lifeline and I Am Not A Robot by Marina & The Diamonds (see below).
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Finally, whilst planning our music video, we made a conscious effort to not just copy Florence + the Machine's videos. However, it was inevitable that we would be influenced by the artist of our song choice. For example, it is fair to say that Poppy's performance in the video is influenced by Florence. An example of this is the gestures that she conveys whilst lip-syncing, such as putting her hands together as a symbol of prayer during the lyric: "A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night". This is similarly done in Florence's video for Drumming Song, when she sings: "I pray that the water will drown out the din".
Furthermore, the lighting in the video can be compared to that of Oh Land's for the song Heavy Eyes. Like our video, it uses a strobe-like effect, although the flashes are in a much quicker succession, that creates an eerie atmosphere. In addition, we used a spotlight for several of our shots. Heavy Eyes uses similar lighting achieved with what looks like a flashlight, again creating a dark atmosphere.
Because of all of these influences (see video below for a compilation) and our following Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin's theories, it is clear that our music video develops the forms and conventions of real music videos.
For my ancillary work, I researched many different examples, drawing on existing digipaks and magazine advertisements I had at my disposal. My digipak was influenced predominantly by Bat For Lashes, who's digipak inspired me to produce a promotional slipcase, in addition to the digipak. Like this example, I chose a completely different image to the digipak for the slipcase, and created a sticker that is affixed to the front in order to advertise the digipak's features. The format of this is similar to that of Two Suns, as they both repeat the artist and album name, state that the album is a special edition version, and display a star rating from a review.
All the panels of my digipak have a recurring dark theme, predominantly in terms of the background but also the shadowy photos I opted for, which is fitting for the album's title. This was influenced by albums such as Lights by Ellie Goulding and Bjork's Biophilia digipak. For my inside panels, I added a typographical design aspect inspired by the deluxe edition of Imogen Heap's Ellipse, and as a whole, my digipak is conventional in the fact that the artist is depicted on each panel, as the focus is on promoting her. However, whilst most albums tend to feature photos of the artist looking directly at the camera, my digipak does not. My choice in depicting Poppy looking away in an artistic manner is reinforced by the fact that neither Ellie Goulding nor Bjork maintain eye contact for their album covers. In fact, I've found that this kind of pose is actually quite common, or at least within the genre I'm working in, and is also adopted by Florence + The Machine on the cover for Ceremonials. Because of all of this, I believe my digipak does not challenge the conventions of real life examples.
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| Shots inspired by Dido |
However, this isn't the only shot in which we've taken inspiration from an existing music video. For example, we have a base track running throughout which consists of a close-up of Poppy's mouth as she lip-syncs. We have witnessed this kind of shot twice before, in the music videos for Imogen Heap's Lifeline and I Am Not A Robot by Marina & The Diamonds (see below).
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| Clockwise from top left: Imogen Heap, Marina & The Diamonds, Poppy Power |
Finally, whilst planning our music video, we made a conscious effort to not just copy Florence + the Machine's videos. However, it was inevitable that we would be influenced by the artist of our song choice. For example, it is fair to say that Poppy's performance in the video is influenced by Florence. An example of this is the gestures that she conveys whilst lip-syncing, such as putting her hands together as a symbol of prayer during the lyric: "A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night". This is similarly done in Florence's video for Drumming Song, when she sings: "I pray that the water will drown out the din".
Furthermore, the lighting in the video can be compared to that of Oh Land's for the song Heavy Eyes. Like our video, it uses a strobe-like effect, although the flashes are in a much quicker succession, that creates an eerie atmosphere. In addition, we used a spotlight for several of our shots. Heavy Eyes uses similar lighting achieved with what looks like a flashlight, again creating a dark atmosphere.
Because of all of these influences (see video below for a compilation) and our following Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin's theories, it is clear that our music video develops the forms and conventions of real music videos.
For my ancillary work, I researched many different examples, drawing on existing digipaks and magazine advertisements I had at my disposal. My digipak was influenced predominantly by Bat For Lashes, who's digipak inspired me to produce a promotional slipcase, in addition to the digipak. Like this example, I chose a completely different image to the digipak for the slipcase, and created a sticker that is affixed to the front in order to advertise the digipak's features. The format of this is similar to that of Two Suns, as they both repeat the artist and album name, state that the album is a special edition version, and display a star rating from a review.
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| Clockwise from top left: Bat For Lashes - slipcase cover, Bat For Lashes - digipak cover, Poppy Power - digipak cover, Poppy Power - slipcase cover |
All the panels of my digipak have a recurring dark theme, predominantly in terms of the background but also the shadowy photos I opted for, which is fitting for the album's title. This was influenced by albums such as Lights by Ellie Goulding and Bjork's Biophilia digipak. For my inside panels, I added a typographical design aspect inspired by the deluxe edition of Imogen Heap's Ellipse, and as a whole, my digipak is conventional in the fact that the artist is depicted on each panel, as the focus is on promoting her. However, whilst most albums tend to feature photos of the artist looking directly at the camera, my digipak does not. My choice in depicting Poppy looking away in an artistic manner is reinforced by the fact that neither Ellie Goulding nor Bjork maintain eye contact for their album covers. In fact, I've found that this kind of pose is actually quite common, or at least within the genre I'm working in, and is also adopted by Florence + The Machine on the cover for Ceremonials. Because of all of this, I believe my digipak does not challenge the conventions of real life examples. |
| Top: pages from the booklet of Imogen Heap's Ellipse, which depicts the album's song names in a "light graffiti" style. Bottom: the inside panels for Lights Out by Poppy Power. |
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Finally, my magazine advertisement also follows the conventions of existing examples. Whilst producing it, I adopted a similar layout to that of I Blame Coco for their album, The Constant, whilst an advert for the digipak edition of Dark Horse by Nickelback informed me in deciding additional information to include. The latter also gave me the idea of including the cover art separately, or in my case, the slipcase cover art, which allowed me to use my digipak's image in big to advertise my artist.
(Click to see images in full-size)
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