Black and White Music Video Sample

Black and White Music Video Sample from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Here is my reworking of the first 30 seconds of my music video, including most notably the switch to black and white. I'm still not delighted with 1 or 2 shots, but as this is part of the rough cut (which will be uploaded on Friday) I know that I'm heading in the right direction. Please enjoy, and comments opinions on the video!

What About Black and White?

Razorlight's music video was filmed in 2006, since then a lot more music videos of the alternative genre have been filmed in black and white, recent bands of the sub-genre of guitar based alternative-pop have favoured a back to basic, retro approach of having their videos put in black and white. It creates this subtle atmosphere which I believe entices the target audiences. Acts like the Jake Bugg and The 1975 have adopted this approach in their videos and I believe I should too, in my reworking of the original song for a modern audience. I am looking forward to editing my work accordingly.

It's Time To Stop and Reflect

Amidst a melee of shooting and editing to meet the demanding deadlines that a music video provides; it would be valuable to pause for a moment and reflect. My ideas of Narrative,

Genre, Representation, Audience and Media Language have all developed to my liking; I have a set view on how i must approach these areas in the execution of my media project. I must elaborate in order to show you (the viewer of this blog) what I'm looking to achieve and explore in each key concept, and how I will meet but also challenge codes/conventions for each.

Narrative

The content of my music video (i.e what will happen, what order and why) became obvious quickly after I decided my genre. Iconic videos by Coldplay and Radiohead taught me to keep it simple, and when discovered more modern videos by the Razorlight and Miles Kane, I saw that potentially a divide between performance and a story would be a good idea.

My plot for my music video has been constructed to link to much of Goodwin's theory, demonstrating my awareness for the conventions of music videos, as there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). Therefore I can add my own unique touch for my target audience to this theoretical convention, to accurately create an effective piece.

Additionally, the tempo of 'In the Morning' is allegro, very brisk and cheerful, demonstrating a contradicting to how the characters in the original video (unable to move normally, zombie like) and the more conventional character in my video is similar in his visible weariness. Again linking to Goodwins theory as there is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Genre change



Early in the process I wanted to make a rap video; attempting to make a psychedelic-come -rap video for Kanye Wests 'Blood on the leaves' Having reviewed my previous efforts of making a rap video or similar, I used my  knowledge of music video theories and representations to understand how poorly thought out the video in fact was. Rule 1 of Andrew Goodwin's- Dancing in the Distraction reveals this (video link explaining the theory); as the low morals of man passed on the floor were not fully explained or justified, creating a confusion which did not view well.
In addition the hazy, slow motion camera shots do not get the effects which was looking for, therefore research had be done into which camera shots suit which genre best.

I realized I would be better suited making an Alternative music video rather than rap, as objectively speaking I have known more about that genre for a longer time. After researching alternative videos like  Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, Miles Kane, and then discovering the video for 'In the Morning' by Razorlight, I discovered that the fast band cuts layered with simplistic narrative would suit be better.

 

Rough Cut Improvements/Possible Reshoot Consultation

After comments from my teacher on what needs to be improved within my piece to make it worthy of a higher grade, I've studied the imperfections of some of my shots in terms of mise-en-scene and image quality concluding that it would be wasteful to re-shoot the whole thing based on what has been criticized.


This is what my teacher had to say about my taster of my rough cut.




In response to this I have argued that as this is only first cut, perhaps re-shooting is pretty extreme. Using the adjust and contrast tools I can significantly improve the master shot; my media teacher added that I could also improve the angle of my master shot using other tools on Premiere Pro. Therefore I am beginning to find a consensus on what needs to be improved and why.