QUESTION 1: MUSIC VIDEO FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

How I have used and developed Goodwin’s principles

My music video, ‘Come Did None’, is a narrative video based on a 3 second clip from the opening of ‘The Watchmen’ where two homosexual lovers are lying on a bed after being killed by a homophobic killer. In the video there are two females, both with quite a niche style. They are in a house that has quite an old style with some modern aspects. There are also some scenes filmed in the garden. This is where the images on the CD cover were taken. The garden is fairly open and light due to the natural light, typical of an acoustic/indie video. These factors therefore connotate the genre characteristics of the acoustic/indie song.

Throughout my video I have established a relationship between music/lyrics and visuals. In some clips of my video the lyrics are represented with images. For example at 0:45 the lyrics are “get sent an angel with broken wings” so I have used a close up of a bird with its wings open, being attacked by a stote. Another example is at 0:25 where the lyrics are “they grabbed her throat and made a slit”, I have put in a shot of Amy Kissing the actress playing Alexa, Lucy’s neck and leaving a red lipstick mark. This gives connotations of making a slit in someone’s throat, as the lyrics are suggesting. I have made a link between the music and the visuals through the transitions. The song is fairly slow and doesn’t have a strong beat so I have used ‘smooth’ transitions. For example a slow blur, or a fade to black. Also I have tried to put the transitions in suitable places so that the clips change in time with the lyrics of the song as there isn’t a strong beat. The shots I used were also fairly long, matching the slow tempo of the music. However, towards the end they start to speed up to match the narrative.

In my video I have used many close ups of the artist and also of start image motifs. This is a convention that music videos have due to the demands of the record label using the star’s image to brand the music. There are several extreme close ups of the artists lips and eyes throughout the video, and there are also close ups towards the end where the artist is lying in bed with red kisses on her neck. Also I have used shots of the dolls house several times throughout the video, zooming in and out.

In my video there is reference to the notion of looking and voyeurism. Lucy is often looking into the camera which makes the audience feel like she is looking at them, and the audience could become attracted to her. Also the clip where Lucy and Amy both kiss could be desirable to some of my target audience. At the beginning there is a shot of the window with Lucy and Amy behind which could suggest that the audience is looking at something they shouldn’t be.

I have developed a visual style and brand identity through the matching of typeography, house colours, location, etc. across the three products I’ve made. The main colour used across these products is maroon. On the CD cover and magazine advert it is used for the main text, and in the video for the door of the dolls house and in the bedroom. The typography on the CD cover and the magazine advert is also the same, with the same fonts and colours. The photos taken for the CD cover and magazine advert were taking in the same place as some of the video was filmed. This shows a link between all three.

In my video I have included intertextuality references to films and other music videos. The song was written about a three second clip from the beginning of the film ‘The Watchmen’ where two homosexual lovers are lying on a bed after being killed by a homophobic killer. Therefore my video is based on this, and especially makes intertextuality references towards the end where Lucy and Amy are lying on the bed with lipstick on their necks and a man standing at the door with a knife in his hand.

The beginning of my video starts off looking at a tree and then moves to the dolls house. This is and intertextuality reference to the beginning of Lilly Allen’s video for ‘The Fear’ where it starts off looking at a tree and then goes to a caravan. Also the plate smashing clips are an intertextuality reference to Adele’s video for ‘Rolling in the Deep’. This smashing of plates represents a broken home.

The type of editing I have used in my video includes slow, smooth transitions between clips, as well as some faster transitions. This is typical of the acoustic/indie genre of the music video. I have also used two different effects on the clips. For the first half of the video I have used an effect called ‘romantic’. This put a white glow around the edge. For the second half I used an effect called ‘vignette’, which puts a black glow around the edge. I have used these two effects to show the happiness between the two homosexual lovers at the beginning and then the sadness and dark side of the homosexual lovers at the end when they are killed.