R+P Post 19: My influences and vision for the project

In order to fully establish our vision for the project, we collaborated our ideas and created a 'Steal-O-Matic': a visual collection of ideas, references and influences.

The Steal-O-Matic allowed us to confirm that we all had the same vision for the project, as well as to determine how feasible and successful our ideas would be in practice. Additionally, it allowed us to see how we were using and developing the ideas of different music video theories.

Opening Shot:
We decided that the slow pace at the start of the song lent itself to a shot of the band getting ready to perform. This conforms to Frith's theory of music video structure, as this scene allows us to introduce the performance element of our video. This was common in the music videos of other artists within the same genre such as Sleeping with Sirens.

'Establishing' Shots:

After introducing our band in the performance element of our video, we felt it necessary to reveal our concept. These references were chosen to show our 'infinitely white' setting and the lone male singer, who will be our lead.

Concept:
To fully illuminate the previous shots, we intend to demonstrate the first of our concepts. We plan to have several piles of paper with our lead singer in-between working at a computer. These piles of paper will constantly shift height and increase to represent the power of technology. This shot is similar to the effect we intend to use to manipulate the height of these piles.

Performance meets Concept:
From here, we decided that we need to establish a link between our two scenes. This process will begin with elements of each scene crossing over, most likely for the lead singer in the conceptual element to begin replicating the actions of the performance. As we were unsure as to whether this was enough, we found references for our other concepts. One of our ideas was to cover the face of our lead singer with painted circuitry in order to represent how ingrained technology is in our society. This would also allow us to connect our two scenes, as the painted circuitry could appear in both the performance and the conceptual scenes.

Chorus:
We all agreed that our chorus had to have a lot of impact, so we decided that the conceptual scene should have an element of hysteria to it. The lead would become overloaded by the work and start destroying the set, kicking the piles to the floor and throwing things around the room. This would be cut between the performance. Whereas the slower pacing of the verses means we'll opt for more close ups and 'beauty shots', the chorus would consist of more distanced shots showing the whole band. Furthermore, revealing this hysteria in the chorus follows follows Andrew Goodwin's theory of music and visuals; in which there is a strong relationship between the music video and the song. This hyperactive scene during the chorus allows us to illustrate and amplify the energy of the song. 

R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

The analysis of our track began with a group meeting in which we dissected the lyrics and picked out any specific lines which would accompany our ideas for our concept.

We looked closely at the themes of technology present in the verses: the relationship between the subject and technology is described as being quite intimate and gluttonous. In particular the line "Information, I've been craving it" clearly defines the theme of the song. We had to make the decision as to whether we would depict this relationship between man and technology to be positive or negative and we chose the former; though it is clear that technology has become truly ingrained in society, we wanted to express the power it holds.

To clarify our understanding of our primary themes, we complied our ideas onto a mood board: 

The instrumentation of the song is interesting: the bridge and verses are quite slow with the energy and pace being introduced during the repetition of the chorus. This will have a large impact on our editing, as we will probably edit the slower parts of our music video as if they were a short narrative unlike the more sporadic structure of a typical music video. This convention will emerge during the chorus, with each repetition introducing a new theme or element. This will allow us to show a sufficient level of progression despite the more slow pace of our chosen song.

R+P Post 17: My Chosen Track

The track we have decided to make our music video for is Trip Switch by Nothing But Thieves:

This decision was made by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of using this song:

After we had made a decision on our track, we contacted Sony Music in order to obtain permission to upload our music video with this track. As of yet we have received no response.

R+P Post 16: My Band or Artist

Our band is called Come What May, a British idiom that describes an acceptance to fate. We all agreed that this name was the most suitable for our band as the most prominent value we want to express is the unity between the members of our band and their passion for music in both the present and future. We felt that this was a very strong and significant message for our band to promote, and we will create a slightly counter-culture approach to the world in their image. Furthermore, we feel these attitudes and values will be exceptionally appealing to fans of Rock music.

Our artist will be an indie/alternative rock band that prides themselves in their love for music and the enjoyment they experience when playing as a band. 'Come What May' will include a male lead vocalist, two female guitarists and a male drummer in order to ensure the whole target audience is addressed by the gender balance. The band will hold post-modernist views and will encourage their audiences to question the mainstream, a concept that we will utilise as a branding technique.

Below are some of our influences:

Sam Smith

Haim

The Arctic Monkeys

Paramore

Orianthi

The White Stripes

The Colourist