My Chosen Song
The song I have chosen to produce a music video for is the alternative rock song 'Cough Syrup' by the band Young the Giant. The song already had a music video meaning that I had to view it and make sure the video I made didn't turn out too much like the one already produced. However, as I did not like the video already produced I believed I would avoid taking things from it and instead aim to create one of my own, looking at what I would want the video to be like. When deciding on my song I considered another couple of songs such as 'Blow Me (One Last Kiss)' by P!nk and 'Best Day of My Life' by American Authors but decided this would be the best song to use as it is a rather unknown song meaning that it be more likely to intrigue people as they may want to hear a new song. I also believed this song created the best concept without having to copy anything from the original music videos which on the other two songs had bits I like that I would want to take inspiration from. It also helped that it was in a genre along with a lot of music that I like such as The Fray, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons and American Authors, all of who I looked to during my research phase to find conventions that I would need to feature in my music video. I had planned to create a video that would feature both performance and narrative in it and after looking to many videos as well as audience feedback, I knew this was the correct route to take.
Formal Conventions
Genre Conventions
One piece of my cinematography was influenced by a shot I had seen in the music video for the song 'Best Day of My Life' by American Authors. I decided to replicated the bit when the lead singer of the band enters the shot from the side as the song begins as I found I liked this shot in the video. I originally intended to have my artist walk up to a microphone as in the music video but because I was unable to get a mic-stand, this did not end up happening. Another reason I used this shot is because of the video being the same genre as mine meaning that the shot has been used in another video of the genre making it part of the genre.
Challenging Conventions
In terms of performance it could be argued I have challenged the conventions found in the alternative rock genre as it is common for the performances to be featured at a concert, whereas I have decided to have mine appear on top of a mound, not featuring any audience members at all. I did this because by having my artist performing alone, it would continues the theme of seclusion featured throughout my videos narrative.
I have included very little abstract in my video which can be seen as something that is conventional in alternative rock videos. Many videos in this genre will aim to be edgy by including something that will make it appear alternative and unique. I decided not to include this, instead focusing on the narrative, although I have include a small bit of abstract with the dissolves that appear in a couple points of my video. However, this does very little to create an abstract feeling in my video.
Ancillary Texts
I have featured many conventions found on a digipak such as;
- Barcode
- Track List
- Image of Artist
- Label Logo
- Link to Artists Website
- Album Title
- Artists Name
- Copyright Information
I decided to make my digipak feature a continuing theme of black and white from the images to the colours used throughout my digipak. The only exception to this is the album title and artists name which are instead in yellow to contrast with the pictures which have been tinted to appear slightly brownish as opposed to completely black and white.
Much of my digipak can be seen as inspired from a variety of digipaks that sit outside the genre of my music video as I believed they worked better for the theme I was trying to create with my album.
An example of this is my front cover for which I have taken inspiration from the front cover of Sam Smith's 'In the Lonely Hour'. I wanted to take the image of thinking and innocence created by this image and apply it to my front cover. I believe despite the fact this cover lies outside my genre it still works as an inspiration for my album as it captures all the emotion I wanted to create through my digipak.
An inspiration for much of my digipak was that of Taylor Swift's album '1989' which influenced each section of my digipak in one way or another. On the front cover I was influenced by the way the picture was placed on a neutral background with the artists name and the name of the album below it. I liked this plain style for my album cover as I believed it reflected what I wanted the theme of my album to be. I also took inspiration from the back of Swift's album when creating the back of my album. I did this as I believed it was set out in a way that was simple and easy to follow which is something I wanted for the back of my album. I also looked to this when adding the information at the bottom which allowed for it to be accurate in relation to what you would find on a real album.
Another part of Swift's album I gained inspiration from was the Polaroid pictures that she provided with her album. I liked the idea of how she had presented these with the song lyrics at the bottom of the image so I decided to translate this into the appearance of the inside covers of my digipak. I took song lyrics from two of the songs on the album, my single 'Cough Syrup' with the lyrics 'life's too short to even care at all' and 'This Is the New Year' with the lyrics 'and I would give the world to you' both of which I think represent the themes of the album.
Finally the inspiration from the behind where my CD and DVD would sit came from the front cover of Drake's album 'If You're Reading This It's Too Late'. I liked the appearance of this cover featuring handwritten like text on plain background and decided to adapt this into my digipak, using song lyrics again and using a font that appears as if it has been handwritten. This also works for the theme of my album, continuing the simplicity that has been seen throughout my album.Overall, I believe my digipak is conventional because of the inspiration I have taken from these other digipaks which has allowed my piece to be created how it is intended to have been.
Poster
I didn't particularly have an inspiration for my poster, instead having it appear what I thought would best continue the theme I had featured throughout my digipak. I knew I wanted my poster to feature an image of my artist walking down a road as I believed it best represented the theme of innocence, loss and strength I was going for through this album. I decided to add the tint to this image before any other as I believed it added to the effect of the image and believe it accomplishes all I wanted it to and am happy with how it portrays the album. I decided to use to yellow text as I believed it created the best contrast with the colour used on the image and again is a colour that works well with the theme of the album, with the colour yellow often being associated with innocence.
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