Planning: Final Idea

From close analysis of the three initial music video ideas I choose along with my group, I chose the most conventional music video that I thought would be most effective and appealing towards the target audience. The song I chose to re-create a music video for was that of Ben Pearce’s song ‘What I Might Do’ which belongs to the house genre. I choose this as it was the best choice in terms of performance and narrative based.

Ben Pearce – What I Might Do

The Lyrics:

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me
To every dude in sight
Look like you working up an appetite for the night, check it
By then I just sat at the back
Peeping you out, the way you act
It was drinking time, getting out of line
And I'm taking you back at your place
All is well and all is cool
Stay in your place, don't be no fool
We'll get along alright
You look like the type that would try to fight
Best off being a friend to me
You don't want to offend me
Better play it cool, don't know what I might do
[x4]

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl
Appetite for the night, check it

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl
Appetite for the night, check it

I knew just what I had to be
When I heard you say what you said to me, baby girl

One of the main reason behind my decision to choose this song as our final idea is due to the lyrics as they were repetitive and somewhat meaningful which would allow us to really compliment the video when editing it and putting everything together. However, the artist and the actual song aren’t seen as mainstream as they are from the house genre. The lyrics are repetitive which allows the audience to learn it very fast. ‘’When I heard you say what you said to me’’ is repeated quite a lot during the music as it allows the audience to relate to this line as they can then convey emotions of them and someone very special in their life. In addition, this helps form a relationship between the artist and the audience.

Star image

The artist star image are together one of the main and most important elements within a music video as they both help create a positive response from the audience in hope to visual appeal and attract them to watch the music video. There were many star image motifs used within the music video in order to make the artist recognizable and easy to identify by the audience. A variety of different camera shots were used such as close ups, mid and long shots in order in order to capture a different perspective of the artist. These benefits Ben Pearce’s as it promotes his image. Furthermore, I’ve decided lyrics and pace of this song will suit the narrative I have planned for this music video as we plan to film two young kids in a transition from their young dancing days to the older version of them in a dance battle. I believe this song will best compliment the visuals as it doesn’t have to share any relation between the lyrics and visuals due to how repetitive and catchy it really is.

Mise en scene

The Mise-en-scene in this video was used effectively as the artist and characters hair and make-up as both artist and character had an afro style hair which looked good against their formal suit and dress. This allowed the artist to look sophisticated and casual out. From looking at this I’ve decided the main character that my character will wear casually smart clothes preferably black in order to relate to the genre of the music which is Rap/house.

Lighting

Low key lighting will be used throughout the music video as it helps set and maintain the atmosphere of the scenes. In addition, this decision was made with the audience’s expectations in mind as they’d expect House genre music to be very dark. However, high key lighting will be used during the first verse of the artist first appearance as he will be singing against a wall. This is effective as it promotes his star image as he will be the centre of attention.

Video Content

The video convent I plan to implement for the song is very conventional as I aim to follow Michael Goodwin’s theory of music videos being performance, narrative or concept based. I plan to make mine performance based in order to help boost my artist star image in hope to visually and lyrically appeal to my target audience. I believe keeping my video performance based with a little bit of narrative will fuel my audience’s interest as well as making the artist recognizable. I plan to implement a bit of Mulvey’s Male gaze theory within the music video as we plan to have a mix gender of characters in order to visually appeal to our audience.

Music video influences:

Disclosure - Voices

‘Voices’ by the Disclosure was one of the music video which influenced my decision to create my decided music video. This is because of the conventional elements it used such as low key lighting which relates to the genre of the music. I also liked the fact that a good and well thought of narrative was put together which allowed the artist star image to be clearly seen in order to make the artist more recognizable and appealing towards the audience. In addition the uses of editing were very familiar to that of our planned music video as a lot of jump cuts and Montage shots were used. Cinematography was also used such as long shots and close ups in order to promote the artist star image. Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory was also exploited during this video as it consisted of all women we were all dressed explicitly which relates to the representation of them seen as sexual objects to visually pleasure men.

My second music video influence is Groover Armada ‘Madder’.

Groover Armada - Madder

'Madder’ was another music video influence to my video as the lyrics were very descriptive which gave me loads of ideas of how to film certain aspects of the video I have chosen. In addition, the genre is not part of the mainstream genre like my music video which will allow it to look very professional when pulled off as it is different.

However, my decisions have all came from a combination of different video influencs and also the questionnaire that I created in which I was able to receive specific answers from my target audience as I was able to ask them specific questions. I’ve decided upon elements such as performance and narrative as I asked my audience what music structure best compliments a music video and performance and narrative were seen as the most popular. This contributes to the idea of me having a narrative of two kids and their transitions from playing in the park to growing up and entering a dance battle with one another but on other groups.

Conclusion



Planning the final idea of my music video has allowed me create a clear outline of what my music video will contain and how these elements will have an effect upon my audience. In addition, micro-elements are also easier to plan due to this clear outline.