Costume and props research

Here is an example of the all white outfits I want my male model to wear when he is featured in the video. White will be used to signify purity, kindness and emptiness( the emptiness welcomes the bad side= the dark model) because of this it will show that there are bad sides in all good situations and good sides in all bad situations.

Little details such as the edges of the female will be included to add to the intense visual effect I intend to create when recording the music video. These little touches are important as it adds more of a professional element to the video.

The outfits featured here are an inspiration for what my characters in my music video will look like, the woman will be wearing black and this man will be wearing white. To signify good and bad/ dark and light/ ying and yang. 

I will need an array of small candles to create my candle star formation, these are essential as they will be used to show the evil activities practised within the video. They will add to the eeriness of the video and I might include these in the outside as well to emphasise the darkness overshadowing the song.

Location research

The mirrored characters will be featured here, I want a lot of the video to be outside, to show a contrast of nature, which is beautiful and brings life to the bad character, who brings death and sorrow. It emphasises the contrast of good and bad (ying and yang)

I will set up my own home photo studio, this will be for the lip syncing scenes, I don't want too much to distract the viewer from the words so the area will be as plain as possible focusing on the character in the scene.

Sticking to the dark mood of the music video, I want to portray that something evil is happening within the video, so using this candle formation is a common way of showing witchcraft. The model dressed in black will be featured in the middle of the candle formation and this shot will be flashed throughout the music video to reiterate the tone of the song.

Video inspiration

Janelle Monae- Tightrope (the definition at the start and the mirrored faces)

Sets the tone of the music video, I felt this was a useful way of preparing the audience for what they are about to view. It gives a brief overview about what the video might be about.

The two mirrored faces jumped out to me as they were quite elusive and creepy. The tone of my music video is set on  'witchcraft' (voodoo) so I thought these characters would be useful to include in my video. Small changes like making the overalls red. I chose this colour because it connotes death, sexual desire and danger.

This is an example I have done with the inspiration from the first picture. I might decide to use this in my music video to set the scene.

Erykah Badu- You got me (the bodies lying on the floor)

In this picture a body is lying on the video. Because my music video will be mainly narrative I thought this would be interesting to include as it could look like they are in a trance like state due to the 'spirit possession' that will occur.



A lot of Frank Ocean's songs have dark tones within them, for example in  the song 'Swim Good', he murdered a woman and took her body to a woods and burnt her and the car he brought, at the end there was an eagle in the shot to emphasise freedom and power. In the 'Novacane' there is a heavy reference to drugs and sex, it seems as though he is channelling his feelings into something that will make him feel better for only a short time, this could be something that appeals to young people and there is always a slight gesture that shows: if you turn to drunk, drink and sex to tackle your problems it will only become worse. Because Frank Ocean's music video are usually very sombre and tell a story this is my biggest inspiration in doing my own video. 

Song choices

• Song length preference: 1:30-50(because i'm working on my own it will be easier for me to create a narrative based music video at good quality if the video is shorter)
• Style: R&B, rap, hiphop

1.Kanye West- Bound 2
2.Kanye West- Power
3.Kanye West- Devil in a new dress
4.Frank Ocean- Novacane
5.Frank Ocean- Pyramids
6.Tyler the Creator- She
7.Childish Gambino- 3005
8.Frank Ocean- Voodoo (1:38)- I have decided to choose song choice number. 8, this is because when I listen to the song it makes me think of a lot of creative visuals, the ideas are able to flow freely which has been useful when it comes to thinking of an original authentic music video. The song is also short and because I'm working by myself I won't be cutting corners and my creative desires can be fully met as I can pack lots of visuals into a music video.
9.Frank Ocean- Acura Integurl
10.Kendrick Lamar- ***** don't kill my vibe.

Music video conventions

The conventions of music videos can be seen here in note form, this is important for me to refer to because it shows me whether I am producing a music video that will stick to the conventions. If I have included enough conventions then I have a good idea of how my music video will turn out. In my music video I will include long shots, close ups and mid shots( especially to show the mise-en-scene. I will feature tilts, panning and tracking in my music video, jump cuts and fade to black will be frequently used for editing and I might occasionally use black and white scenes to add to the video. Props might include the fruit I will include (apples).

Andrew Goodwin's music video theory

Music videos tend to include a demonstration of typical generic characteristics.
For example, half naked women and flashy items/big mansions are featured in a lot of rap videos/hip hop genres. intertextuality can also be featured e.g. Rock videos have strong influences from horror movies.
Frequent references to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
'looking' refers to women being portrayed seductively or if there is eye contact with the camera. mirrors, cameras, binoculars, magnifying glasses: are all props to emphasise the action of looking. Voyeurism is used to sell artist's music through sex appeal- Nicki Minaj, Superbass. Beyonce, Partition. Miley Cyrus, Wrecking ball. Voyeurism is one sided, leaning towards female artist's as an audience doesn't usually see or expect a male artist exploited sexually to sell music.
Correlative relationship between music and visuals
e.g. either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
The record label who manages the artist's usually have demands to met within the video.
Certain artist's have a certain 'look' usually introduced by the record label for example, spice girls was a manufactured girl group, they had their own individual style however they had to fit into slots of what the label expected of them (scary, sporty, posh spice etc).
The '4th wall' is broken frequently when the video is a performance. This is a direct address to the audience/viewer to make it seem like the artist is singing to them.
Intertextual references
As mentioned before, rock music videos feature references from horror movies, there is specific reference to films and TV series. Another example would be Destiny's child when they perform 'Independent women' they reference the movie Charlie's Angels throughout.

Video idea for separate video 'torn'

In class, I did a 15 minute brainstorm of what I wanted one music video to look like, we were given a random song and encouraged not to look at the video so the piece we would write down would be original and authentic. I felt this was a useful task as when the class got back and shared ideas everyone's ideas and views of their music video was very different. It showed that it was important for me to remain individual to my ideas and not copy or plagiarise others work. Some of the ideas, if I used this song for my music video, would not be featured and that is why we did this 15 minute task to show that ideas can adapt and change and there is no reason why I have to stick to rigid ideologies of what I want my Music video to look like.