Preliminary exercise: Music video extract

 

1) State the song and genre you have chosen for your music video.

The song I haven chosen is "somebody's watching me" by artist Rockwell. The genre for this music video is pop/rock.


2) Choose at least three music videos similar to your song or concept and watch them several times. Make bullet-point notes on everything you watch, commenting on camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene.

BLOW - You killed me on the moon

• The short-film aesthetic as the start of the music video (close-ups and extreme close up)
• The setting is based in a forest.
• Mise-en-scene (props and actors) two men and one female, subtle love triangle.
• The car is a Roosevelt sedan (Marmon) famously used in the 90s. 
• The synergy between the lyrics and the music video
• Medium shot of all three of the actors however throughout the video they're seen eight times shot together. 
• The scenery is used as 'pathetic fallacy' as the rain and fog connotes the darkness and heartbreak the man in the Hawaiian shirt feels as he knows there is some sort of sexual tension between his girlfriend and his friend. 
• The editing is when the three characters are together is fastened which triggers a theme of something slowly breathing to connote a fast heart rate as one of the protagonist is wrapping himself around what is happening. 
• However, the editing overall has a sombre feel to it as the lyrics is about an eerie feeling about  heartbreak. 

Michael Jackson - Thriller

• The music video starts as a short-film and starts to set the scene as dark and eerie.
• The sound effects used at the start includes the wind brushing against trees and frogs burping, this connotes that its just them there. 
• However, its a fabricated scene from a movie that they two main protagonists are watching, the close-up is then showed of the actual actors watching the movie.
• The long shot is then shown of the cinema which is intextualized with the title of the song "thriller" this creates synergy for the audience. 
• At 4:43, the protagonist "Michael"  starts to lip sync the song to his girlfriend whilst they walk through the alleyway. 
• The long shot of him dancing around and signing the background is faded with fog which creates an eerie atmosphere.
• The editing is fast-paced which fits well with the theme of things turning sideways.
• The jump-cut with the beat is shown when Michael claps his hands and it changes to an over the shoulder shot back to his original stance.  

Melanie Martinez - Sippy cup  

• The start of the video the artist is shown in a child's bedroom which she is sleeping and the camera pans out into a long shot of the room.  
• The first shot would've been of an over the shoulder shot of a woman holding an alcoholic drink, this creates synergy with the lyrics of "syrup is still syrup in a sippy cup."
• At 0:26 we see the artist lip syncing which would relate to her cameo in the music video.
• Then there a close-up of the woman pouring that drink into a tea cup and then she's on the floor lip singing to the song.
• The costume in this video would be very old fashion with a modern pastiche twist as they're wearing common wear which links to the "American dream" 
• The pace of the music video would be slow and steady which would link to the death of the two people in that house. 

3) Write or edit your treatment just to include the 30-60 seconds you will make for this preliminary exercise.

My music video concept will be based around the 80's hit by Rockwell "somebody's watching me". In this music video, I will be taking scenes from the video and recreating it to fit what I feel the music is trying to present. This means that I will start the scene with a first-person point of view walking into a cabin which gives off an eerie vibe. The cabin will be placed in the woods and the inside of the house will contain odd and creepy statues, this will create synergy between the music and the video as it's about the hone owner or person living in this setting not feeling safe and feels like someone is out to get them. The video will contain 4 people (characters) but the main protagonist will be around and the camera shots will mainly be medium shot of the main character exploring the house and the other 3 characters will be dressed up trying to subtly scare the main character.  The most important scene would be the scene where intertextuality is introduced through the lyric "maybe showers remind of psycho too much", this means that I will contain a scene from Psycho.

Edited:  For this preliminary brief I have changed the concept a little as the first concept was reacting to the music video so I had decided to still have the same setting which is in the woods and instead of a cabin it would be a camping trip between two male befriends (with 4 actors in total)  which turn dark as the reason the protagonists feels off and like the chorus feels likes "somebody's watching" is because the stalker is actually his befriend. This idea ties in with the movie "Hush" which creates in-textuality within the MV. I will be editing the 40 seconds video to make it look like it was taken with an 80's camera as that will stick with the original concept whereas to fit with contemporary slasher media. I will be taking the video with a fish lens to give an overall personal perspective and real-time feel from both the victim and the stalker. This means that elements of pastiche and parody will be included as the overall theme isn't thriller but will contain comedy as he lip syncs in situations where he feels in danger or is trying to figure out what is going on. 

4) Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing. These additional shots are often close-ups, cutaways, alternative angles or similar. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word to set out your shot list - you can find an example here. 

Shot 1-   The first shot would a pan shot of the location to set the scene for my music video. 

Shot 2- The second shot another panning shot of the set location from a different angle. 

Shot 3- The third shot would be a close-up time-lapse of a clock in the forest.

Shot 4- The fourth shot would be an over the shoulder shot of the stalker putting something into the tent. 

Shot 5- The fifth shot would be a cutaway from the protagonist being watched. 

Shot 6- The sixth shot would be a medium pan of the two protagonists walking with the tent. 

Shot 7- The seventh shot would be an extreme close-up of a clock moving clock-wise.

Shot 8 - The eighth shot would be a zoom of the protagonist near the lake.

Shot 9 - The ninth would be a medium shot/over the shoulder shot of the two protagonists. 

Shot 10- The tenth shot would be a zoom of the protagonist near the lake. 

Shot 11 - The eleventh shot would link to the zoom but from the stalker's POV.

Shot 12 - The twelfth shot would be a pan shot with the camera following the protagonist.

Shot 13 - This shot would be a close-up of the stalker looking directly at the protagonist.

Shot 14 - This shot would be a fish lens shot of the protagonist looking at his hands.

Shot 15 - This shot would a close-up of the blood on the hands of the main character.

Shot 16 - This shot would be a medium shot of the protagonist fixing up the tent.

Shot 17 - This shot would be an over-the-shoulder shot of a stalker staring at the main character fixing the tent. 

Shot 18 - This shot would be a pan shot of the protagonist running from something in the woods. 

Shot 19 - This shot would be a fish lens shot from the stalker's point of view looking down on his friend. 

Shot 20 - This shot would be a long shot of the two protagonists just staring at each other whilst the stalker is holding an object.

Shot 21 - This shot would be an extreme close-up of the object the stalker is holding.

Shot 22 - This shot would be a close-up of the protagonist's lip-syncing. 

Shot 23 - This would be a medium close-up.

5) Plan your mise-en-scene: what iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre or narrative? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting, and setting. For this preliminary task, use just one location to keep it simple.

The iconography used in my music video to ensure the audience understands the genre would be through the props. This means in the first scene I would pan the camera to an 80's newspaper by "London news" which I would then change and put a picture of the stalker (one of the befriend) on the cover to give a realistic and linked nature. The cast will contain 4 actors in authentic costume from the '80s/90's this is to encode that this links with the release date for the actual music video and where it is set. The location for this video would be in the woods where they would camp whilst social distancing. The makeup that will be used in this music video would a light blush on the actors however fake blood will use on the victim. The props used in the music video will be a camping kit, a scream mask, a fake knife, duck tape, and black gloves which will be worn by the predator. The lightning in this music video will be done naturally as the sunsets but also with flood lightning, this connotes to light that fills a specific area that will focus on that scene giving it more significance. 

6) Plan a shooting schedule that will ensure everything is filmed by the deadline. Include when, where, who is required, and what shots you will complete at each time/location. Remember social distancing!

The shooting schedule for this music video will be this Saturday, and it will be filmed at Long Wood, Ealing. It's a nature preserve with great areas for filming my music video and the people in my music video would be my friends as there would four of them. The shots that I will take at each time would depend on each scene and I will take these shots between 4pm to 9pm so I varied scenery shots and a time-lapse. To fit with social guidelines they will make and stay in their own tents and to make it work with my plan and narrative instead of having a close up of the stalker going into his victim's tent I could change it to have an over the shoulder shot of him outside and staring at him.