Music Video Research

Before making out own music video, we decided it was very important to look at other artists' work to gain inspiration from it. This way, we would be able to see what makes music videos successful.

Tom Odell - Grow Old with Me Analysis

I chose this music video to analyse because the storyline and narrative is loosely related to our ideas. He includes various different narratives alternately going on throughout the music video: Singing while playing the piano as well as the relationship between the boy and girl. A lot of music videos include many narratives in order to make it more interesting and complex. This gave us the inspiration to use the same kind of outline in our music video. We will include one narrative of the artist singing, and one of the build up and break down of the relationship between the girl and boy. We also found that the video includes a lot of close up camera shots of the characters faces. This highlights the emotions of them, which is something that we could also consider doing to capture the true feelings.

Ed Sheeran - The A Team Analysis

This music video and song by Ed Sheeran relates highly to the initial ideas that we have about our own project. Many aspects of the music video such as the setting, camera shots and storyline have given us inspiration for our own work. First of all, the close up camera shots are very effective in this music video because of the emotion that the woman has on her face. Furthermore, the use of the high angle shot connotes the vulnerability of the woman at the difficult stage in her life. The establishing shots of the city setting are also effective, especially with the use of the black and white colour. The location of where it is filmed is very important, which is why we are using this in our own. I also think it is a clever idea to pick the location of a city with the contrast of a lonely girl. It signifies the fact that even though there are thousands of people around, the character is still completely alone. This could be used in our music video because of our narrative. The main character results to drinking and drugs, and we are using the urban setting of Bristol to create the same lonely and eerie tone.

Birdy - Help The People Analysis

In this music video, the artist really revolves around the setting and the people who are around us. It relates loosely to the ideas of our music video because of the lyrics and overall storyline. Birdy's song highlights the fact that everyone undergoes their own problems but live life among everyone else as humans every day, just 'getting by'. I like the use of silhouettes throughout to show the contrast between dark and light - this is something that we would like to include in our video. I also think the use of close ups really expresses the deepness and melancholy tone of the song. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs expresses the basic and essential aspects that we, as humans need in our lives. It is a motiviational theory which explores the way in which humans fulfil these needs.

• The first hierarchy is Physiological needs. These are things such as breathing, food, water, sleep, sex, homoeostasis and excretion. He discusses the idea that if we do not have these basic things, we will be motivated to fulfil them in order to live.
• Next in the hierarchy is the Safety needs. These aspects are very much revolved around self actualisation and the things we need in life in order for us to grow and be the best that we can. They include security of the body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, health and property.
• Furthermore, the next hierarchy is the Love/Belonging needs in life. These are aspects such as friendship, family and sexual intimacy. These aspects involve being interactive and communicating with people - if these are not met, then we will motivate ourselves to do so or we will not be the best that we can.
• Next is the need for Esteem. Maslow discussed that he thought there were two aspects to this need - the reputation other people have for you, as well as the self respect and way you see yourself. These needs include: self esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect of others. Returning respect from both ends of the spectrum is what makes us happy in ourselves.
• Finally, the Self Actualisation need. Maslow explains that these are needed in order to live up to our full potential. These aspects include: morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and accepting facts. These things will help find your purpose, drive you and motivate you to be the best that you can be,  

In order to create a successful music video project, it needs to relate closely to the target audience of males aged 17-25. 

One aspect of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs relating to our storyline is the Safety basic needs such as health. It is evident that the main character in our music video has resulted to alcoholism and so needs to fulfill this aspect of life. This could be relatable to the target audience because as humans we undergo the same problems.

Another basic need relating to the music video could be Love/Belonging needs. The storyline very much involves the problem between a boy and girl in a relationship which fulfils the need for love. Watching a music video which shows someone go through these problems may help the target audience with their own.

Finally, Esteem is something in the Hierarchy of Needs which may help the target audience. In our music video, the main character undergoes a lot of discomfort and troubles in life but seeing the 'light at the end of the tunnel' is a positive. He eventually finds himself and the self respect that was lost for a long time - he also meets a girl at the end. This is an aspect of the music video in which many viewers may find to help them.

Genre Codes and Conventions

The genre of our chosen song, 'Warriors' by Esco Williams is a mixture of many different genres. This includes:

• Romance
• Acoustic
• Soul

In our music video, our beginning shot includes a time lapse of a gloomy sunrise, with the clouds uncovering the clouds. The narrative of our music video begins with the arguments and breakdown of the relationship between a boy and a girl. The dark and dreary lighting at the beginning signifies the dark and bitter emotions coming from the boy. Furthermore, we have put the lighter sunrise shot, filmed on a brighter and more sunny day which creates a golden and warm tone. The whole idea of doing this surrounded the fact that the boy started off in a dark place and went through emotional and physical struggles. The outcome is that he manages to deal with this, and finally ends up resolving the issue, and even meeting someone new.

The settings that we use are also an important factor to creating a successful music video. The frequent use of the urban location of Bristol helped create more of a dark tone. Especially with the use of alcoholism to solve problems, walking the streets is something that a lot of people go through because they don't have anywhere else. So, I think the setting will help people to relate to the video and the song.

The low key lighting and bleak colours used throughout the music video contrast with the high key lighting when the flashbacks of the relationships are shown. The happy memories which are shown at times symbolise the times before the relationship broke down. So, the change in colour and lighting really shows how different the emotions of the boy are. We did this by filming the memories in the day time, facing the sun so that it created a lighthearted tone to the shot.

The Iconography that we used during the lip syncing shots, I think, are really effective. The silhouette of the male singer contrasts against the bright white background. A hidden meaning in this which others may not realise is the difference between black and white, dark and bright colours. This signifies the good and bad times throughout the singers' story. Furthermore, I think its a creative idea, and we took advantage of the equipment provided to us in our course.

Other songs with the same genre as 'Warriors' include different codes and conventions such as close up camera shots, paralinguistic features (facial expressions), miming of the song lyrics, establishing shots of the location and in most cases, shots of the artist playing the instrument. In our music video, we aimed to include most of these features so it fitted to the genre well and attracted our target audience too.

Narrative Conventions

Film Narrative - Connection of events presented in a sequence of moving images and through use of sound

The Narrative Conventions of our music video very much revolve around the relationship between a boy and a girl. Some of these include:

• Boy meets girl
• Romance and love
• The break down of a relationship
• Looking back at old memories
• Dealing with the breakup
• Looking into the future and seeing positivity

Hollywood's Classical 5 Stage Narrative:

• Exposition - Shots to introduce the setting of Bristol and the main male character/singer
• Development - Relationship begins to break down, shots show the couple looking aggravated with each other and the male character shows signs of distress and frustration.
• Complication - The tension of the music builds up as the storyline gets more tense and interesting. Shots of the argument between the boy and girl are shown to explain the breakdown and obstacles in the relationship. Main character turns to alcohol to heal himself.
• Climax - A decisive moment is reached - the boy and girl walk away from each other mid argument. Feelings are still tense and they are still very angry at each other.
• Resolution - The main character finds peace and deals with his alcohol and emotional problems. The narrative finishes with him meeting a new girl, seeing the 'light at the end of the tunnel.'

Esco Williams

We have chosen the artist Esco Williams because he is not a well known artist. Part of the specification is that we promote an up and coming artist, and using him will hopefully do so. We didn't want to use a very well known song that is on social media or in the charts a lot. This is because people who listen to this kind of music will create certain expectations in their heads of what a music video like this should look like. Additionally, we wanted to try something different and use something that would keep us excited and create a challenge for us.

Target Audience - Demographics and Psychographics

The target audience of our music video isn't that different from our previous one. We have decided it will be mainly aimed towards males aged 17-25. The narrative of our music video is surrounding the effects of relationships going wrong, which results in heavy drinking by the main character. As this is not suitable for teenagers below 17, it is mostly focused on the people who would experience this kind of relationship trouble and obstacle in life.

However, it is not being said that problems like these do not occur with younger people too. It is very apparent in todays society that many people below 17 face alcohol and relationship problems as bad as in the storyline. So, by using the main character as a teenager, it may help the audience who are younger relate to the song.

Furthermore, the focus on the male gender could be reversed. The fact that Esco Williams is a male singer meant that we needed a male main character in order for it to work. However, we want our music video to be able to relate to females too, but obviously with the male being the focus in the video it will be mainly aimed at male teenagers.

We chose the younger audience of teenagers because of the artist himself. He is quite young and so the urban and youthful song genre will hopefully appeal to a younger target market, making it more successful.

New Song Choice

Since making our music video to the song '4U' by Black Bear, we realised it wasn't the right song for us to be using. We knew that it would be hard work to complete the project with the time given, especially because the beats and build up were not ideal for our level of producing. Furthermore, we felt like we decided on the wrong song because we did not enjoy listening to it - this limited the amount of motivation we had to make our project amazing.

Instead of using this song, we decided on a different one with a more suitable beat and lyrics. Esco Williams - Warriors wasn't what we expected our song to be at all. At first, before starting our project, we had the idea of a rap/trap music to highlight the urban setting that we live in. However, once we brainstormed ideas to this song, we quickly realised that we could use the setting to our advantage.

In order to save time, as we have a deadline approaching after Christmas, we have carefully chosen shots already taken from our old song which luckily fitted to the new tone. We have made good progress and after changing the who concept of our music video we are feeling more confident on achieving a good grade.