Other Media Texts That Have Influenced Me

Questionnaire Exercise In Class

For one of the lessons at school, my class did and exercise where people would answer a questionnaire that I created for them to fill out. The questions included in the questionnaires were on about peoples like in music and how they use music. These questionnaires really helped with mine and my groups research about music video and peoples like in music video. With this research, I has helped our group decide what type of music video to choose from and what to include in our music video. It has also thought about peoples expectations on music video and how well the music video has to be to meet the audience's need. (click on the image to enlarge)

As you can see in both of the screenshots above, there are the filled in questionnaires that I made for the members of the class to fill in to help me with my research about what sort of music video to create. With the findings with my questionnaire it made me think about what sort of genre I should do for my music video and what sort of video. When I came to reading over the questionnaires, I realised there wasn't any type of emo/gothic themed music that anyone was interested in. This made me think about what type of music video and song I should do. To myself, I though it would be a good idea to do some sort of electronic song/rock song with a gothic/emo theme to it. By doing this, this would allow me to show people how the songs and music video's differ from each other but at the same time can still be enjoyed.

The Pitch For My Music Video

My group and I came up with an idea for my music video for my media project. This was called our "pitch". The pitch is the initial idea that my group and I have come up with for our music video. The initial idea for the music video was using the song, "Moonbootica - Pretty Little Angel" This. We thought this would be a good song and we are going to base the song mainly on performance and little on narrative. Here is the original music video of the song:

At the start of the music video, there are two men that talk. This was only purposely done for the music video and not actually for the song. We will not be including the two mens voices at the start of the song as I thought it would ruin the sexual theme of the song. As for the original music video itself, you can see there is not any sexual movement used in the video, but as for the lyrics, you can produce something sexual with it.

 We thought about the idea of including voyeurism and include smothering of paint over exposed bodies and so forth to give it that "sexual" effect of the music video. We also thought of close up's of the mouth showing sexual movement as this would make a strong impact to the audience of the music video. Here's an example:

As you can see, the use of black gothic colours are used in the image and the way the mouth and hand are positioned suggests that the movement of the woman is sexual. Not only did my group and I think about using the sexual closeup's of the face, but we also thought about the props that would be included in the music video. The props (mis-en-scene) that we thought about were including props such as handcuffs, rope, blindfolds and other sexual props that would suit the song. we also thought because the song is called "Pretty Little Angel", the woman in the video would be wearing some sort of black angel wings with a Gothic corset, but we also acknowledge that the video would not be too sexual and exposing.

As for the location of the music video, I thought about a white room where the black Gothic theme really stands out to the audience. Of course, I thought about the editing colour correction, where colours of the shots can be changed which will make the music video more interesting. Sticking to the natural colour of the video would not suit the song too well. As for the changing in the colours in the song, I thought a flickering flash effect would be good when changing between scenes and shots. This also can sync well with the beat of the song and in my personal opinion would look well after the final editing has been completed.

At the moment, I am happy with the initial pitch for the music video that I am going to create for my media project and I think if my group and I but the time and commitment into the music video production, can produce a well made music video.

As for the pitch for my music video that I am going to create, I have more ideas that can be included into the music video. I thought that the narrative of the music video can be about a guy and a girl having an unusual link and relationship with each other. I am thinking that the girl wants the guy but the guy doesn't want anything to do with the girl. I think the guy should be lying on a bed while the girl is all over the guy but the guy isn't showing an interest in the girl. This can be done by using the camera above them like a crane shot, but a lot smaller from a birds eye point of view of the action. The guy that is singing can be looking directly at the camera while him and the girl are in the bed. Once that changes, I thought that it would be a good idea to include the guy walking on his own when the song is more suttle and sounds more personal. I thought it would be a good idea if the guy is walking down a tight alley way or back of the streets which shows he feels lonely and excluded from everyone else. When it gets into the chorus when the lyrics are "pretty little angel, can we play your game" - the imagery on the music video can change and then be a lot more active.

Influential Videos

There has been many music videos that have influenced my pitch and idea for the music video that I am going to create for my A2 media project. One of the main influential music bands that has really inspired me is a band called Seether. Seether are a grunge band that was formed in 1999. The band are a grunge genre band and have made many music videos through out their band career. The lead singer of the band is Shaun Morgan. The band uses the specific instruments such as the guitar, bass, drums. These are the normal standard instruments you would find in any kind of rock/grunge/metal band. This band has influenced me about my own music video idea because of the style they use. I believe that the lyrics they use in their songs are very emotional and you can relate to normal day life if you listen closely. For some people, this may not be the case. Seether have released a few albums since they have formed. The first album that they ever released was called Fragile and Disclaimer in 2000. Now I will show you some of the music videos that Seether have produced during their production of music video.

Seether - Truth (Karma and Effect)

Seether - Remedy (Karma and Effect)

I find that Seether have a really unique way of making their music videos. Some people may find some of the music videos "weird", but I myself find them interesting. Seether have won many awards even though they're not a popular band and well known by people. The awards they they have won are awards such as MTV Africa Awards, Billboard Charts and Media Base. When coming to making my own music video, I would like to include some of the theme and mis-en-scene that Seether have included in their music videos as I think it entertain the audience with something different and not the same as other rock grunge bands.

Another artist that has really inspired me and my group is Marilyn Manson and his style of music. Marilyn Manson is well known for his gothic and sexual videos worldwide. My group and I have been inspired by his style of music video, but we found that some of his videos were too explicit. Here is an example of Marilyn Mansons style of music video:

Marilyn Manson - (S)aint ( WARNING: Contains Explicit Footage)

As you can see in the music video, Marilyn Manson has used a lot of sexual movement, blood and dark colours which represents the gothic theme. There's also sexual movement of the woman on top of him and with the licking and kissing of the neck in the music video. My group and I found that Marilyn Manson was very extreme with sexual movement and voyeurism in his music videos. Even though I was inspired by his style of music video, I thought a bit too much was shown in the video (breasts etc) even though it had a strong sexual image.

Genre Research

During the research for ideas for the music video that I am going to product, I researched about genres. First I looked at my favourite genres (rock, metal, grunge, electronic, drum and bass). During my research, I looked at many music videos on Youtube and researched online about the mis-en-scene of genres and what is expected to be in a music video for a specific genre. For example, I found that in the majority of rock songs/bands, you would find that in the music video, they would included the band playing instruments and singing. The "original" instruments would be included such as the guitar, bass and drums.There are some videos that I looked at when researching the genre for my music video that I am going to create. Here are some videos on Youtube that I looked at:

Moonbootica - Pretty Little Angel

Moonbootica are an electric pop group also know as (electropop) who have quite a unique style of music.There are many things you can do with this type of music. The song "Pretty Little Angel" contains alot of sexual lyrics. Because of this, a lot of voyeurism can be used if I was to make my own music video using the song. The song is also not too fast and can be easily lipsynced. This was one of the songs that my group sugested to use for the music video that we were going to create. Compare to other genres, I thought about other genres such as rap and hip hop and I thought to myself that they would be too hard to lipsync and due to this, the performance may not be as good as might be too hard, considering my group is only two of us so I had to think simple and look for a genre that would be suitable for my group size but at the same time, I could keep the quality and high standard of a music video. When thinking about this type of song, I thought about the mis-en-scene that might have been included in the music video that I was going to make. The props that I thought about were chains, handcuffs, leather gloves, lipstick and many other sexual props that will be used. The clothing that would be included are lingerie such as corsets/black dress for a girl and a topless guy.

Electronic pop was not only the genre that I looked at as a part of my research for my music video. I also look at other genres such as alternative rock. I thought about metal, but when it came to looking at examples of metal genred music videos, I found that the music was too heavy and would be really hard to pull off a good performance, this is why I looked into alternative rock, rock and grunge. Here are some other examples of alternative rock that I looked at.

CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Things

 

Here are one of the music videos that I looked at from the rock genre. The name of the song is CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Things. As you can see, a lot of the music video is complete random and not much is going on apart from stunts. You get to see the band performing and they're using instruments such as guitars, drums and bass. They're dressed casually and sorta like teenagers and not serious like. Even thought this was not an ideal song to produce a music video for, I think it was a good example to show how you can make a music video from doing random things that does not relate to the song.

Star Image

Directors Video

Moodboard

Here is the Moodboard that was made for the music video/artist. I've included many of the styles and features that are going to included in the music video. For example, the emotional relationship between the girl and the guy there are hearts on the screen. There's also a lot of make up on the faces which can represent the sort of gothic/emo look we're going to have for our artist.