Research into existing music videos 'Biblical' (professional)

This video involves a scenario playing over and over but changing every time it happens, the main character goes through the scenario three times, each time becoming less aggressive, seemingly more content and generally nicer to the people he encounters. The video is a narrative driven video that asks the question of whether someone would change how they acted in a situation given the opportunity to do it again. The video shows a variety of transitional shots, following the main character through different scenes, with him constantly moving, the scenes focus on him performing a certain act and then showing the reaction of the people it affects. The lighting in this video is mostly natural and all the sound is non diegetic but the character is shown to be singing some of the lyrics although it is obvious he is not singing within the narrative. I chose this video to analyse because the idea of the camera following the main character around through a series of different scenes and having him travelling is something I am thinking of using within my own video. I was thinking of having a character who walks through a city looking over his shoulder, looking at all the different CCTV cameras and doing close up shots cutting between all the different cameras he sees.

Research into existing music videos 'Younger' (Professional)

This video is a narrative based video in which the lead singer of the band plays a character who starts off as a very normal seeming character and then progresses to become more of a disturbing character as the narrative progresses. The video shows him attending some sort of inspirational speaker in a street garage and the main character is shown to question what he is saying which seems to irk the audience and they kick him out, he then goes to retrieve a gun and threatens the speaker and gathers the audience around him before kissing a girl who slaps him. The video then progresses to him having tied up the audience and threatening them with a gun and seeming to breakdown into insanity.
The video has a very urban setting to start with, with abstract themes throughout the video, the mise-en scene then changes to what seems to be a warehouse, with low key lighting, the scene inside the warehouse has individual lights shining on different people leaving the background in darkness, the lighting has a blue tint to it, giving a very obscure feel to the entire scene, however there is individual yellow spotlights in the background that seem to have no impact on the actual lighting of the scene.

Mid way through the video the music pauses and shows a scene of the main character being chased by the crowd and then chasing the crowd in and out of shot, adding to the narrative, using a drone sound over the top with the screen dimming and brightening, showing a progression in the plot and then fading into the next scene.

Research into existing music videos 'Outbreak' (professional)

Stray from the path 'Outbreak'

This music video was shot using a fisheye lens, the band themselves said they were aiming for a
'90's lo-fi VHS video' look to the whole video. The exact idea behind this choice is unclear, but my interpretation of this is it creates a seemingly documentary feel. The footage looks like something you would see in a 90's documentary shown in school on an old television. This could perhaps suggest to the audience an argument based in fact, because while this is music, the band creates the music to get across a message and present their political views to the listeners. The song is about the health industry and how illness has become a business.
The video is made up of a narrative story, shots of the band performing and cut in shots of things like pupils dilating and cells within the body multiplying and reacting. The narrative story contains four characters, a middle class looking American family made up of three people, mother, father and son who looks around 11 years old, then a medical professional of some kind who gives the mother what appear to be prescription drugs. Within the video there is no dialogue or diegetic sound, the only sound is the audio of the song tracked over the top. There is limited locations in the video, the house of the family, an office in which the medical professional prescribes the drugs to the mother and a dark abandoned looking building in which the band is performing.
The music video's narrative relates directly to the lyrics and the meaning of the song, with references to how people have become dependent on taking so many tablets and prescription meds so regularly that its actually bad for them. The way that the narrative relates directly to the meaning of the lyrics is something I wish to implement into my coursework, as I think it creates a more powerful message as well as making more sense contextually.

Narrative ideas

I had an idea recently of following someone through Norwich city and doing an over the shoulder view of them walking through the city looking up at the multiple cameras and then chopping in stills of the multiple cameras around the city in increasing speed and editing the video so it looks like the video has almost corrupted and then cut back to the instrumentals, possibly a close up of a drum skin being hit.

Song lyrics

(1939 in review)

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2

Town houses, bugged out
Drop the bomb, smoke them out
Eavesdropper, free thought stopper
In my home, in my phone, in a helicopter
Looking down in the towns with a searchlight
There's a shadow with no sun tonight, alright?
C4 to the door, say hello to your big brother
Now put your hands up motherfucker

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2There’s a storm about to roll in
Boarded up I’m Edward Snowden
Morse coding
Messages behind the men in black
Bite my lip before I catch a bullet in the back of my head
Narcs sleeping in my bed?
Keeping tabs on everything I said
Hand me over to the feds
Drag me to the chemical sheds
And let my last words be:
"Free speech is dead"

"Free speech is dead"
"Free speech is dead"

[Rou Reynolds]
Yes, solidFrom GCHQ to the NSA
When the tables are turned
Laws are nothing but hearsay
They are subject to the whims of stubborn rulers
Taking a drill to a hard drive ain’t gonna fool us
It’s all uncovered, their shadows are lifted
Through the metadata, and content they're sifting, Ask my boy Orwell what the hell do we do
His fiction pervades the future, for me and you

C4 to the door say hello to your big brother
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother

[Rou Reynolds]
Now put your hands up you fuck
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother

Now put your hands up you fuck

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2


I have highlighted parts of the lyrics that have directly influenced ideas for my narrative and will be reflected within the video quite apparently.

New song choice

I have decided to change the song that I am using for my coursework as my previous choice was a bit limited with the narrative options, the lyrics were very hard to draw anything from whereas this new song has given me lots of ideas and options on how to the go about the narrative.
The song is called 'Eavesdropper' from the band 'Stray from the path'