Genre

Each genre of music video has specific features and themes which are common to the genre. For example, the metal genre heavily features performance (showing the band playing) and the pop genre focuses around bright and colourful mise-en-scene.
Some key example videos from each genre are as follows:



Bring Me The Horizon's music video for Shadow Moses is typical of the metal/alternative genre. It centers heavily around the bands performance with a slight hint at a narrative with the girl walking. It also has quite a cold look and feel to it (probably a filter or colourisation, but also heightened due to the setting) which is common to the genre (sometimes dulling down the brightness of the video to get more of a dark look). It also plays with themes of delicacy and violence with the juxtaposition of the feathers (with shots of the drummer playing really hard surrounded by them) and fire. These again frequently appear in metal music video by showing for example dead animals (e.g. bunnies).



When The Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys is a key example of a rock/alternative rock music video. It is solely narrative based telling the story of the song, as is the same with a lot of videos of this genre. There's generally also performance or some sort of involvement from the band in this genre however it depends on the song. For example, Teenage Icon by The Vaccines is basically completely performance. The majority of videos from this genre generally have a either dulled down look (as with When The Sun Goes Down) or appear to have a sepia (or vintage styled) filter over them (as with Teenage Icon).


Rihanna's iconic music video for Umbrella is typical of the RnB genre. It shows glamorous mise-en-scene, (for example, raining sparks, the mansion backdrop, painted silver) some dance, with the camera tending to stay stationary and primarily the artist lip syncing the song with a lot of close ups. These are all key features of the genre.



The video for Lose Yourself by Eminem common to the rap music video genre with a gritty feel to the video primarily shot at night and in the more run down parts of urban area, with contrasting shots of how he lives now. It shows a lot of the artist story - trying to make it - which is a typical topic in rap music videos showing the artists 'roots'. It shows a lot of performance with the artist lip syncing to camera and also playing to big crowds - themes which are common to the genre.



Little Mix's Move is exemplar of music videos in the pop genre. Featuring a lot of dance, bright and bold colours, and the technique of using a circular light behind the camera to give a reflection in the eyes making them stand out (all specific to the genre). They also played with light a lot, hiding the singers in shadow until the song starts to kick in, and then the rest of the video is really bright. The camera also continually moves even though it constantly stays in the foreground (in front of the artist) this works in turn with the fast paced editing to create a very captivating video as its constantly changing (camera, costume, setting, lighting.)

The genre of our music video is pop, so will will be sticking to many of these codes and conventions.

Lyric deconstruction

Initial Ideas

We discussed whether or not to include a narrative in our video. I personally think that a full on narrative would not work with our song choice as I think the lyrics lack enough depth to draw a captivating narrative from.
The rest of the group think that it is important to have a narrative as the majority of music videos have a narrative and generally that a narrative is important to making our video good.

We have decided to go for a loose narrative based around a boy and girls relationship in which the boy is older and more boring and the girl is fed up and just wants to have fun. It is loose in the sense that it is an important part to the video but that it won't be the predominant feature of the video.

What makes a good music video? - in depth

Director - DANIELS

The DANIELS directing duo are made up of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They work together to create innovative music videos, one of their more famous videos being Don't Stop (Color on the walls) and Houdini by Foster The People, which are actually some of their more subdued videos.




They frequently work in the indie genre creating groundbreaking videos which are often based around hypnotic themes which give a psychedelic feel to the videos. In the video for Pigeons by The Hundred In The Hands, the use of editing and camera work help to make you feel like you are experiencing what the character is feeling by giving off a disorienting feel.



This is typical of their work, much like the video for Underwear by FM Belfast which again uses editing as a key feature in keeping the attention of the viewer.



Most of their videos use the idea of synesthesia to help carry the video, for example in the video for Cry Like A Ghost by Passion Pit the flow of the video is purely dictated of the movements of the character and camera which are controlled by the sounds of the song.


They often are seen to appear in their own videos, for example here they are shown in Houdini by Foster the People.

Director - Marc Webb

Marc Webb was born on the 31st of August 1974 and made his first music video in 1997 for Canadian Rose by Blue Traveler, the video consists of the band performing the song in front of an american flag and inter cutting of a couples relationship. This was around the time music videos were music videos were just starting to become popular and so it is understandable that the video is a bit basic. He also directs short and feature length films with his debut film 500 days of summer coming out in 2009 leading him to later directing The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012.


He later progressed to make other videos such as Move Along by The All American Rejects which includes clever editing cutting together many different shots of the lead singer Tyson Ritter in different outfits in the same frame to make it look like he is playing many different people that all have struggle. With the climax of the Ritter falling backwards into an empty swimming pool, but being caught by a crowd and then crowd surfing; I think this is one of my favourite videos by him.


He also directed videos like Call Me When You're Sober by Evanescence and 21 Guns by Green Day which featured more elaborate mise-en-scene and concepts, both still showing performance which is typical of the rock genre.



Webb developed a signature of a white lamb which features in some of his videos, such as 'Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades' by Brand New in which it appears on the door of the bar and a girls top inside the bar. It is also present on the black briefcase in 'Rough Landing, Holly' and 'Ocean Avenue' by Yellowcard.



Although the vast majority of Webb's music videos are of the indie rock genre he has made a few pop music videos such as Wait A Minute by The Pussycat Dolls and London Bridge by Fergie.



Marc Webb's most recent music video for Last of The American Girls by Green Day clearly shows his progress and his innovative concept ideas and editing. But still remaining the same with the inter cutting between performance and narrative.

Initial ideas

We have settled on the song I Love it (I Don't Care) by Icona Pop. I am happy with this decision as I think the beat is really good and that we should be able to make a really fun, interesting video with it, I also think that the simplicity of the lyrics is good as it allows us to be creative with our ideas and just have fun with it.

Our main ideas focus around a powder paint party, artistic glow paint and toy cars. I think that our concept is good and would create a really visually interesting piece.