INTRODUCTION
The task we've been assigned now is to make a music video since we've never done it before. This task is supposed to help us understand the process of how a professional music video is made and we'll try to implement all the codes and conventions as well as the professional techniques that are used by filmmakers.
The genre we've chosen is Indie Pop which is the same that we've chosen for the final product. The entire process will be showcased on this blog, from the storyboard to the production process.
WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO
According to wikipedia,
A music video is a short film that integrates a song with imagery, and is produced for promotional or artistic purposes.[1] Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie-in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie-ins and merchandising can be used for toys or for food or other products. Although the origins of the music video date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they again came into prominence in the 1980s when the channel MTV (originally "Music Television") based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these kinds of videos were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".
Music videos use a wide range of styles and contemporary video-making techniques, including animation, live action, documentary, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos combine different styles with the music, such as animation and live action. Combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variety for the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may not have any concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live concert performance.
TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS
There are different types of music videos that work best for different artists and different types of music.
Performance Music Videos
This is the staple, it is the oldest type of music video and most videos consist of this. Performance music videos are exactly that, the artist(s) performing the song.It could be in front of an audience which would make it a live stage performance, it could be at a location that matches the feel of a song like the grounds of a country house or how about in a recording studio with acoustic instruments making it a live lounge video. How it’s shot, where it’s shot and how it’s lit are important decisions to make because it will influence the outcome of the video.
Narrative Music Videos
narrative music videos are music videos with a story; they have a beginning, middle and end. This allows directors to tell the stories they want, how they want and even in the genres they want.
Concept Videos
Great name right? But what would be considered a concept? What is a concept music video? The best description I can give is that it is an artistic expression. There’s an idea behind it or theme that drives the visuals. Now these can be quite fun because where narrative videos can have less rules; concept videos have none. It’s a limitless playground where anything is possible. CGI? Sure. Stop motion fun? Of course. A series of shots depicting different people’s expressions? Absolutely!
Animated Music Videos
First things first; the term “animation” is an umbrella term. We sometimes get artists saying they’d like an animated music video, here’s the thing; that could mean anything between cell animation like old fashioned cartoons, CG like Monsters Inc, stop motion like Wallace and Gromit, filming against Green Screen then placing them into another environment and many other variations. They all require different skill sets and disciplines, each very respectable. Animation is basically giving movement to something. In the context of music videos animation can be applied to all types; it can be a narrative stop motion video, a performance video against green screen or a 3D CG concept video full of fun and weird shapes.
ABOUT MY PRELIMINARY VIDEO
I'm going to be making a narrative type video. In which I'll be trying to convey a story. It will have a beginning, a middle and an end. The story will be an alternative interpretation. I feel like this is where a film maker can really shine because they can tell a story in the genre and cinematography of their choosing, without adhering to the rules of storytelling.
SELECTED SONG: JULY
Artist: Noah Cyrus
Album: July
Released: 2019
Genre: Pop
ABOUT THE SONG
this track is actually about is Cyrus being emotionally ensnared in a toxic relationship. That is to say that despite realizing that she made the “wrong” decision by falling in love with this person, she still lacks the wherewithal to “move on”. She just can’t seem to quit the romance and move forward with her life. This is primarily due to her being “afraid of change”. So she is putting the onus on her partner to initiate the breakup instead. In other words, she states that if he ‘wants her to leave’, she is more than willing to do so. But conclusively there is no stated guarantee that he will ever do so. So the song pretty much ends where it begins, with Noah alluding to the emotional abuse she suffers “every day” at the hands of her significant other while simultaneously
acknowledging that she will “still stay”.
So despite obviously being with someone whose words and actions are negatively affecting her self-esteem, Noah endures the relationship. And the insinuation isn’t so much that she is doing so for love. In fact while trying to convince her partner that they should part ways, she tempts him with the idea of his being able to ‘find someone that loves him better than she does’.
Rather, as mentioned earlier, her true issue is a fear of the unknown. She’s scared of what her life would be like devoid of this relationship that she has grown accustomed to, despite its destructive qualities. So all things considered, it is pretty safe bet to assume that the singer will be caught up in this situation into the foreseeable future.
VIDEO ANALYSIS
The video perfectly captures Cyrus' L.A. edginess while nodding to her Nashville roots, she wears a cowboy hat and Canadian Tuxedo with silver chain necklaces as she dances around golden wheat fields. She frolics along an empty, dusty road with a pile of suitcases. The video, directed by James Pereira, is meant to symbolize her discarding of the baggage in her life. “Even though it’s hard and it hurts, there is something beautiful on the other side,” she says in a statement. The vintage-filtered video — directed by James Pereira and shot on 16mm film — Noah takes the song's warm country vibes to a literal old town road. As she meanders a sunny trail in a cowboy hat and all-denim 'fit, she leaves her baggage behind, blissfully whistling as she contemplates a fresh slate. In a press release, the 19-year-old explained that the vid symbolizes her "attempt of letting go and walking away from the baggage. Even though it's hard and it hurts, there is something beautiful on the other side."
WHAT NOAH SAID ABOUT THE SONG
Based on Noah Cyrus’s own words, this song is meant to have a positive message. Its lyrics reflect an actual period in her life when she “felt like (she) amounted to nothing to someone and never felt good enough for them”.
But that is the premise of “July”, not its conclusion. Rather the track is meant to espouse a message of individuals “walking away from the baggage”. Put differently, it encourages us to walk away from emotionally-depressing experiences which continue to weigh us down, even though Noah acknowledges that doing so “is hard, and it hurts”.
LYRICS AND MEANING
VERSE ONE
I've been holding my breath
I've been counting to 10
Over something you said
I've been holding back tears
While you're throwing back beers
I'm alone in my bed
MEANING
I was in a relationship with somebody who had a substance abuse issue. And that was always our make or break for the few years that we were together, was, “Please be sober. Okay you don’t want to be sober. Fine.” And I was always bending the rules and I understand like you’re young whatever, but whenever it came to life and making sure you’re okay as a person I’m going to step in. And I would be going to bed and him and the homeys would be up until 6:00 AM and I would be in bed, like I’m alone and that’s not my thing.
PE-CHORUS
You know I, I'm afraid of change
Guess that's why we stay the same
MEANING
I think because you get so comfortable with somebody around you that almost their verbal abuse or whatever type of abuse that’s going on, you become way too comfortable with it. And whenever it’s not happening, for me there was always chaos. So when the chaos stopped, I was like … it was almost uncomfortable. Does that make sense? And so when I came to the decision of we need to break up or we’re not going to be together anymore, the scariest part was going home to the house that we lived in together and going to bed alone, hearing it completely silent in the hallways. Just me, the dogs, that was the scariest part. Not the person, because the person treated me like shit for two and a half years. And we’d been doing this for a long ass time. But it’s the comfortability of being able to come home and turn on the TV and sit next to somebody and you’re not alone. But really whenever I’ve thought about the good outweighing the bad, that didn’t ever happen. There was always more bad than good. Yeah, we were sitting on the couch watching TV, but it’s not like we talked or we wanted to talk. Or it’s not like whenever we woke up in the morning we were excited anymore to hang out.
CHORUS
So tell me to leave
I'll pack my bags, get on the road
Find someone that loves you
Better than I do, darling, I know
'Cause you remind me every day
I'm not enough, but I still stay
MEANING
We had a bit of a issue with being faithful to the other person, let’s just say that. Like little bit of issues with him sticking with one girl.
VERSE TWO
Feels like a lifetime
Just tryna get by
While we're dying inside
I've done a lot of things wrong
Loving you being one
But I can't move on
MEANING
It was just repetitive. And so if you’re living the same day, every day for two and a half years, it is exhausting. And it’s like you are so tired by the end of the day, it’s insane. And every day was walking on eggshells. So just trying to get by. That’s me, stepping around like, “Oh, I do not want to say the wrong thing.” The way of talking, you just had to be so careful and move the right ways that it just was like walking on eggshells almost. And that’s a really hard way to live. Even though 24 months, like you said, it’s not that long. Be it feels like fucking forever just living the same day, every day. Same conversations, same arguments, everything’s the same. I think just because I put so much emotion and energy and time into this, the fact that it didn’t work out crushed me, and I felt I did everything I could possibly do, and I felt I gave as much love as I could possibly give. And so, the fact that that wasn’t enough just crushed me inside, and I think dying inside is also like we’re fucking miserable. So it just not work out and it feels slow and it feels like this never-ending cycle.
BRIDGE
If you want me to leave
Then tell me to leave and, baby, I'll go
MEANING
Everything’s a cycle for this song. It’s all about the repetitive cycle. So we’re back to the same conversation. Fuck, I just sang this whole fucking song and you’re still like, “If you want me to leave, bro, I’ll go.” So it’s like you’re just bringing that back of like this is so fucking repetitive. You still haven’t even gotten to the point of, “Do you want me to go? Because I will.” And that that was my big question every day, was do you want to break up? Because we can. But tell me that you want to leave me because I don’t want to have to wonder every day. Wondering was the worst part. It was like, “Does he not love me? Does he not think I’m pretty? Does he want to be with her instead? Are they texting? Are they whatever? Do I need to go through his phone?” I don’t want to go through your phone. You can always get mad at something. I’m just saying whether he’s doing something that sucks or not, you can always find something you’re going to get mad at. So that’s just never a point that I want to get to ever again is where I feel like I have to go snooping through somebody’s phone because that made more problems than anything.
OUTRO
You remind me every day
I'm not enough, but I still stay
MEANING
"You remind me every day I’m not enough, but I still stay,” is my favorite line of the song because that’s what I’ve truly, honestly felt. I genuinely felt like I was not enough and that I would never be enough, and that was the worst feeling ever. And I still have pain from it when I talk about this and I can see it in my head because no one knows the exact situations. I’m sitting here talking to you guys, and in my brain, I’m seeing everything that’s going down. And I just felt like every day there was always something that needed to be changed about me. And I never was right, I never was good enough, I never fixed whatever you needed fixed. And I’m not going to be able to do that and you tell me every single day, and you’re beating a dead horse at this point. I kind of give up at the end of the song. I’m like, still you don’t really get an answer by the end of the song. The only reason I got my answer was because something big happened. But I swear if there had not been an incident that was like, this is the incident of why we’re breaking up, we probably would still be going through this cycle.
PERMISSION LETTER
As we're using the original song 'July' by Noah Cyrus, its mandatory for us to ask for copyrights to use the song. Below there's a screenshot of the message we sent to the artist herself, requesting for permission as well as a screenshot of the artists's instagram page.
STORYBOARD
MIND MAP
A TRIP TO CITY42 (VLOG)
Our school arranged a trip for us media students to go to a media company that is quite popular in Lahore. So we decided to use this opportunity to make a vlog and document our trip.
MOODBOARD
TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT
CANON D3400
CANON D3500
TRIPOD
RING LIGHT
AUDITIONS
In order to select the actors for my music video, I, along with my group members held auditions.
CAST
FATMA KHANN
FEMALE PROTAGONIST
ALI AHMAD
MALE ANTAGONIST
CREW
Fatima Zahra, Aleeze Khan (Me), Shanzay Eman
SHOOTING EXPERIENCE
The overall experience was quite interest as well as intense. It took really long for us to shoot the shortest scenes as it was our first attempt. But still we tried to keep our cool throughout the process and made sure that we don't get under pressure. The process was really fascinating and I got to learn a lot.
SOFTWARE
Adobe Premiere Pro
We chose Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our video as it is widely used by professionals to edit real media texts. Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing app developed by Adobe Systems and published as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program.
PRELIMINARY MUSIC VIDEO
ANALYSIS
The music video we created was based on the song ‘July’ by the infamous singer/songwriter ‘Noah Cyrus’. The genre of the song is Pop. The video is narrative based with a non-linear storyline.
We tried to create a relationship between the audio and the visuals and we kept the storyline non-linear in order to invoke a sense of amusement. There are two characters in the entire video: a male antagonist and a female protagonist. The theme of the video revolves around the breakup of a couple and the feelings of the female character after going through heartbreak, its also about as Noah Cyrus said ‘letting go of emotional baggage’.
The video begins in a dark-lit bedroom, where both the antagonist and protagonist lie in bed and the protagonist gets up and packs her bags. Lowkey lighting was maintained in order to add a dramatic effect. The shakiness of the camera has been maintained throughout the video in order to provide a sense of instability and uneasiness. The transitions throughout the video make it flow smoothly from one scene to another, the mainly used transition is ‘dip to black/white’.
The female character walks in a dark street at night with a suitcase in her hand. The suitcase denotes her ‘emotional baggage’. The camera pans upwards to show a close up shot of her face. Close-ups are an important way to establish and give a ‘personal’ insight of the artist’s connection with the song. It is a way of emotionally connecting with the artist and the lyrics.
The character is seen smoking cigarettes in various scenes, this denotes her indulgence in harmful substances after going through an emotionally strenuous time in her life.
There are several flashbacks in the video that the female character gets of the times spent with her past love.
The video is made in such a way that the audience can relate to the emotions the main character is feeling. The entire video has a cool tone purple-hued effect but the scenes that are shown as the flashbacks have a warm tone effect on them.
In the end of the video the main character is seen relatively happy on her own despite the heartbreak. It is seen that she has let go of her ‘emotional baggage’ and is seen as unrestricted and free all by herself and most importantly, happy.
The ending of the video has a lip-sync scene, It adds a more dramatic ending to the song and makes it more ‘strong’.