Music Video Ideas: The Neighbourhood - Afraid

Overall, this song is very deep and meaningful therefore has striking visuals in the music video which complement the definition of the lyrics. The lyrics can be interpreted in a range of ways, but mainly express the feelings of anxiety and depression. In addition to this, the video being in a black and white format reinforces the powerful message which is being put across. The neighbourhood are known for their black and white imagery through their artwork, clothing style and sense of visualisation. There are several specific aspects/shots of the video which I found really interesting and I want to recreate the ideas into something similar for my music video.

Features I like in this video:

Music Video Ideas: Bad Suns - Cardiac Arrest

In this music video, I really liked the way four different colours are used in effect to emphasize specific parts in the video. Theses colours are consistently shown and set the tone of the video. In addition to this, the wide range of shots, build up enigma for the audience, where they want to find out more, as these shots can be seen as a form of hiding the identify of the girl in the video, however, the narrative which is briefly constructed, unfolds towards the end.

Features I like in this video:

Research & Planning: Test Shots on Location

Shots in the subway: While we were in the subway, we took a few test shots to see what type of angles and camera movements we may use, for example, a low angle long shot composing a shot of the artist sitting on the floor suggests that she's feeling upset and emotional. We also tested the lighting in the subway, figuring our weather we needed additional lighting other then the daylight. The process of getting our test shots, gave us an insight into the visualization of what our music video will possibly look like and gave us the intention of making the concept better or be adjusting certain parts before we start filming for real.

Shots in the studio: Our plan was simply to have the artist against a blank studio wall, where we would use a range of perspectives and viewpoints to film her singing the song. We also tested against a white painted brick wall, which could show contrast and a deeper depth of field between the background and foreground of the photo.

Research & Planning: Artist Test Shots

Today, we met up with our artist who will be appearing in our music video as the main focus. Our original location was called Denmark Studios which we were using for the studio shots of our artist, however we came to the conclusion that it wasn't the most appropriate setting that we wanted and it didn't appeal to us. However, we didn't let the day go to waste and took our initiative to practice what type of shots we thought would look best in this particular type of indie music video. These test shots were beneficial in terms of us being able to visualise the way we will take our final shots.

Close Up Shot

Mid-Shot

Long Shot

Research & Planning: Video Test Shots

Pathway & Subway: The first video portrays a low angle close up shot of the artist walking down a set of stairs, we have planned to have this footage towards the beginning of the video to set the scene and also as an act of passing time as it's an instrumental verse. The second video is just a portrayal of our initial ideas of having elements of footage which show the artist expressing her feelings in precise ways.

Studio: For this video, we were playing around with the idea of having a 360 degree panoramic shot with the location set as a blacked out studio, which is consistently cut back to throughout the video, with a form of flashing lights which would look really effective; to keep the shot smooth, we could use a steady cam. Personally, I think the shot should be incorporated with the beat and rhythm of the song.

Research & Planning: Location Shots

Overall, we have two set locations to film our music video in. One is a studio where the walls are blank and the artist will be filmed singing the song, including a range of perspective shots. The other location is a subway arc which we used to an effect of setting the scene, of a urban type environment. In this specific location, we will be using a tracking shot which will keep appearing in fast cuts throughout the video, forming a sense of journey.