Music video inspirations

Music video inspirations

In order to plan and makes our own music video, I have taken different inspirations and ideas from other music videos from a variety of different genres in order to find out what suits my initial ideas best and where we could use it. These inspirations are taken from the different micro elements of the video, the music video style e.g. whether it will be performance, narrative and concept based, the music video genre, theory and our choice of song. Each of these elements all have different codes and conventions that are essential in making the video successful and are what makes these popular, mainstream artists who they are today, something we will aspire to recreate and copy as part of making our music video as popular and conventional as we can. 

The first music video I have chosen to take inspiration and ideas from is Justin Bieber's 'sorry' lyric video. This song is the lyric and narrative style music video which differs from the original dance and performance style video for the song that is the originally produced video for the song. Where the dance music video is more conventional in terms of matching the visuals on screen and the tempo and genre of the song, this lyric video both converts and subverts the indie genre with its concept and narrative based video that can be suited towards a pop or indie song, not just for a dance track like Sorry. This song helped to provide me with inspiration to create my own music video as although it belongs to a very different genre to indie rock in 'dance', it contains many different ideas, scenes and elements of production that help to represent the artist as having star quality with his creativity and talent yet controversial side towards him, and through the use of mis en scene. One inspiration i have taken from this music video is where the girl in the narrative is on the computer and looking at her notepad with the lyrics appearing on the iconography of the video as they are sung in the song by Justin Bieber. The lyrics are a plot by Justin Bieber to attempt to win the girl back and they girl is constantly seeing the lyrics as an apology, hence the name of the song 'Sorry', and it shows a effective form of the use of iconography through the use of mise en scene as setting and iconography is used to help define the concept of the video. This is conventional as it shows how the song and video is well produced it follows many codes and conventions of a strong narrative based video, despite being subversive to a typical upbeat and lively dance video that contains performance based elements. This however helps to represent the artist as it shows although he is a dance and pop artist, he is able to create a different style video which shows him as having a softer and more personal side to him and how his star quality helps him to become more versatile and successful in creating hit after hit. The audience are able to relate to him through this as it shows him as more down to earth and natural as he can create a good and simple video and not just highly produced and financed videos. I will incorporate this inspiration into my own music video through my performance based shots as these will be used to match the visuals of my music video with the lyrics.I will use a variety of different performance based shots that I will then edit to match the lyrics of the song and will make sure the conventions of the shot I filmed match the tempo and concept of the song and lyrics. For example, I will use a performance shot of the girl screaming and looking angry and frustrated whilst looking at the camera in the form of a mid shot for the high tempo parts off the song and a close up one of her looking calm and happy for the slow tempo happy parts of the song. My audience will be able to relate to this and engage further with my artist as they can clearly see the emotions she is feeling. 

One video I have chosen to take as inspiration for creating my own music video is Ed Sheeran's 'Give me Love'. This song helped to provide me with inspiration to create my own music video as it is an already existing, extremely popular indie music video with a variety of codes and conventions that relate to my chosen target audience and that help to portray Ed Sheeran as an artist, someone who's work is very similar to Gabrielle Aplins. Ed Sheerans video contains many elements of theories such as goodwins theory, codes and conventions off the indie genre and conventional camera and editing techniques throughout. There are many conventional micro elements in this song with one key micro element I have identified and taken inspiration from is the mis- en scene of the song. This applies to the different settings the video for 'Give me Love' is filmed at and the costume and iconography the girl in the video wears and uses for the narrative and concept of the video. Indie music videos are known the be quite low budget and the main settings of the video are in the studios, cities, parks and tunnels. These and places that can accessed easily can they can create lots of mysteries. These settings are kept simple because it is typical of the indie rock genre and their music videos in order to focus more on the concept or narrative of the video or the artist performing, in this case the concept of love. All of the video for Give me Love is also shot during the night time in order to bring out the best of the setting by having the city lights of London pictured in the background and in order to add a mysterious feeling for the audience, an inspiration i will again take into my own video. It is also filmed in many dark alleys or tunnels around London and quiet places to both support the narrative by adding emphasis to it and  to add a creepy, mysterious feel for the audience in the right ways in order too keep them engaged. We also see shots of the girl sitting in her dark lit, small apartment room lying on a single mattress with tools and arrows lying around to to add to the narrative of her being an possessed angel obsessed with love. We will use these micro elements of mise en scene and setting for inspiration into our own video as we are focusing on the theme of love and these settings are a perfect example of helping to portray that and our storyline, with scenes of our girl and boy reminiscing past experiences of love and trips to London being key for this setting. The plain and simple brick wall laying and fairy light setting of the room and two ideas we also liked and have taken inspiration from and will use to show as the girl in our videos room. 


Another inspiration I will take into my own music video is from pop video 'story of my life' by One Direction. For this video, I will use take the inspiration from the idea where the band members are looking at memories from their childhood or past experiences, both good and bad, and printing them out in water and pinning them up on the wall whilst looking at them deep in thought and signing. This inspiration shows a number of different conventions with them showing a narrative, performance and concept based video at the same time and in the same shot and the use of the photos playing a big part of mis en scene with iconography and setting being in place. The three elements of the video show there creativity and star quality of how they are able to do three things at the same time and still create an emotional and deep effect on the video for both their characters and the audience, something that makes it very successful. The photographs are also symbols of their life's showing that they are down to earth and natural and not afraid to open up about their personal life and experiences. The audience are able to relate to this and see them as more thoughtful and emotional individuals who want to engage with their fans and music. This is something I can create in my own music video with the similar narrative of the memories in the memory box which she pulls out and sings with and it will create the same emotional effect as in story of my life. My video also has a similar concept of love and past experiences which the artists have learnt from giving me inspiration for the structure and style of my own music video.

One other inspiration I will take from existing music videos is from the rap song 'Take care' by Drake and Rhianna. The inspiration I will take from this video is the editing styles of slow cut and motion style transitions (slow motion editng style). This takes place in the start of the video where slow motion editing is used to show the transition of shots and to add extra dramatic element and effect when showing a new part of the song and its setting. Slow motion editing is used as although it is a rap song, it is a low tempo and depressing song that's tone and lyrics give it a more dramatic and deep and meaningful feel for the audience rather then a conventional upbeat song and video that we would expect from artists such as Drake and Rhianna and the rap genre and the slow motion editing helps to support this. It gives it a dramatic and mysterious feel towards the video and visuals on screen for the audience and the audience are able to relate to it as they feel engaged with the video and are able to focus on the lyrics and setting of the video. I will make use of this in my own music video when we see the artist on a date or memory with her boyfriend so the audience can capture the moment and see the emotion in the shot and dramatic effect we aspire to create.

These inspirations I have taken from already existing and professional music videos will help to make my music video a more successful product as it means I will have taken inspiration and examples from conventions of different genres and developed or challenged them in my own way to make my video more conventional. This makes my video more successful as the conventions I have taken have already been proven and effective in the music industry and will be used to portray my concept of the video and my narrative. For example, I took inspiration of conventions that have been identified in micro elements so a close up would be an convention of the indie genre as it is used to identify and show the artists emotions. This will also make my video more successful as the audience will be able to identify with my video more and be more engaged with it as they familiar with the conventions and the video has been produced to and edited to a professional and successful standard. 




You need to:
1) Explain how you will incorporate each inspiration into your music video, with an analysis of what this creates for the audience and how it is conventional or not of the indie genre
2) Include an example of camera 
3) Include an example of artist rep
4) Include screen shots to support points made