Our song 'Hypnotic' talks about feeling hypnotised, with the chorus repeating 'hypnotic taking over me', this is one of the most important lyrics in the song and one that we want to address visually throughout our music video. I thought that it would be beneficial to research the definition and history of hypnotism to gain a larger understanding, this will help us to incorporate hypnotic references in our video.
Below is a link to a webpage briefly describing the history of hypnotism:
http://www.stateofmindhypnosis.com/men/historyhypnosis.html
Friday, 11 September 2015
Lighting Inspiration
Whilst researching other music videos, the group discovered two techniques that we are thinking of using in our music video. The first is from the Calvin Harris & Disciples video for 'How Deep is Your Love':
I like the use of different coloured lights as it helps to create an energised atmosphere. The vibrancy would make our video more unique and exciting, I like that we could use colour as a way to express the character's emotions as colours are usually associated with a specific feeling, I think that this would be very effective as we want to present a reckless, disorientated character. I think that we could achieve this effect either by using a filter on the camera, coloured lighting or in post-production where we can change the colours of clips in iMovie.
The second technique that we liked is from The Weeknd's video for 'The Zone':
I like the idea of projecting images or videos behind the character in the music video, it makes for a more interesting background instead of a black or white screen. As we wanted to film in an urban area, this would be relevant as we could project onto a brick wall similar to the one in the 'The Zone' video.
I like the use of different coloured lights as it helps to create an energised atmosphere. The vibrancy would make our video more unique and exciting, I like that we could use colour as a way to express the character's emotions as colours are usually associated with a specific feeling, I think that this would be very effective as we want to present a reckless, disorientated character. I think that we could achieve this effect either by using a filter on the camera, coloured lighting or in post-production where we can change the colours of clips in iMovie.
The second technique that we liked is from The Weeknd's video for 'The Zone':
I like the idea of projecting images or videos behind the character in the music video, it makes for a more interesting background instead of a black or white screen. As we wanted to film in an urban area, this would be relevant as we could project onto a brick wall similar to the one in the 'The Zone' video.
Initial Ideas
After finalising our song choice, we started to brainstorm ideas for the narrative of our music video. One lyric that jumped out at us was 'Make me feel like someone else', we want to show two different sides of the character in the video, her 'normal' side and the 'hypnotised' side. The lyric 'I don't wanna come back down' has connotations of being high, however, instead of drug use we are interpreting this as not wanting to return to reality from her 'hypnotised' state caused by her overwhelming emotions, we have the idea of presenting her as quite a reckless character. We though that, in order to shock the audience, her 'normal' side should be revealed at the end of the music video, showing the character to be a strong, professional woman, this would allow us to explore themes of feminism and what society thinks a woman should be.
We also started to think about location, we decided that we wanted to include urban areas to appeal to younger audiences as well as to create a busy, confusing atmosphere.
We also started to think about location, we decided that we wanted to include urban areas to appeal to younger audiences as well as to create a busy, confusing atmosphere.
Final Song Choice
Today we looked closely at the lyrics of our three main song choices, looking for ways in which we could apply Goodwin's theory of having visual links with the lyrics. By doing this we discovered which song had the most potential.
Song Choice 1 -
St. Patrick - PVRIS
Song Choice 2 -
Hypnotic - Zella Day
Song Choice 3 -
Hold Me Down - Halsey
We decided that the best song was 'Hypnotic' by Zella Day. We felt that the lyrics were more substantial and that there is a lot more imagery. The verses in 'Hypnotic' are much longer than in 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me Down', providing us with more opportunities for visual links. The words used in 'Hypnotic' are also more interesting and varied whereas 'St Patrick' repeats many words in the verses, for example 'chemicals', 'spiritual' and 'miracle', this makes the song sound dull, there aren't enough exciting, descriptive words to create an entertaining music video.
We also thought that 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me Down' were too repetitive, both have extremely short verses that are overshadowed by the long choruses. In 'Hold Me Down' the verses are only 4 lines long as opposed to 'Hypnotic''s 8 lines. In total, the verses in 'Hold Me Down' take up 8 lines of the entire song whilst the chorus and pre chorus take up 36. This is a verse to chorus/pre chorus ratio of about 1:4.5 in comparison to 1:2 in 'Hypnotic'.
Although we felt that the beat was more powerful in 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me down', we decided that lyrics were more important.
We hope that by choosing 'Hypnotic' there will be enough emotive and descriptive vocabulary to provide the basis of a strong narrative for our video, it will also make it easier to apply Goodwin's theory.
Song Choice 1 -
St. Patrick - PVRIS
Song Choice 2 -
Hypnotic - Zella Day
Hold Me Down - Halsey
We decided that the best song was 'Hypnotic' by Zella Day. We felt that the lyrics were more substantial and that there is a lot more imagery. The verses in 'Hypnotic' are much longer than in 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me Down', providing us with more opportunities for visual links. The words used in 'Hypnotic' are also more interesting and varied whereas 'St Patrick' repeats many words in the verses, for example 'chemicals', 'spiritual' and 'miracle', this makes the song sound dull, there aren't enough exciting, descriptive words to create an entertaining music video.
We also thought that 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me Down' were too repetitive, both have extremely short verses that are overshadowed by the long choruses. In 'Hold Me Down' the verses are only 4 lines long as opposed to 'Hypnotic''s 8 lines. In total, the verses in 'Hold Me Down' take up 8 lines of the entire song whilst the chorus and pre chorus take up 36. This is a verse to chorus/pre chorus ratio of about 1:4.5 in comparison to 1:2 in 'Hypnotic'.
Although we felt that the beat was more powerful in 'St Patrick' and 'Hold Me down', we decided that lyrics were more important.
We hope that by choosing 'Hypnotic' there will be enough emotive and descriptive vocabulary to provide the basis of a strong narrative for our video, it will also make it easier to apply Goodwin's theory.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Hypnotic - Zella Day
Today the group discussed another possible song choice for our music video, 'Hypnotic' by Zella Day. I like the beat of this song, however, it isn't as strong as that in our other song choices. I think that there is a lot of interesting imagery created by the lyrics, this would allow us to have a variety of visuals in our music video.
Zella Day is an American singer-songwriter signed to Pinetop Records and Hollywood Records. Her music is classed as indie pop which is fitting as we wanted to produce an indie music video. 'Hypnotic' is the first track on her debut album, 'Kicker', that was released in June 2015. As she is quite a new artist, she is yet to make the charts but her album has received positive reviews.
Zella Day is an American singer-songwriter signed to Pinetop Records and Hollywood Records. Her music is classed as indie pop which is fitting as we wanted to produce an indie music video. 'Hypnotic' is the first track on her debut album, 'Kicker', that was released in June 2015. As she is quite a new artist, she is yet to make the charts but her album has received positive reviews.
Friday, 14 August 2015
Hold Me Down - Halsey
We have found another possible song choice for our music video, 'Hold Me Down' by Halsey. I really like this song as it has a very strong beat that would be easy to edit to. The song also changes in pitch and volume throughout, this helps to create different moods and would be great to use for a music video with a narrative as the feel of the song helps to tell a story. There isn't currently a music video for 'Hold Me Down' which I think is advantageous as we can make our video wholly unique, unaffected by an existing video.
Halsey is an American singer-songwriter signed to Astralwerks and Capitol Records, Astralwerks focusing mainly on electronic and dance music. Halsey is categorised as indie/electronic pop so this song is perfect as we wanted something belonging to the indie genre. 'Hold Me Down' was released in June 2015 ahead of the release of her 'Badlands' album in August 2015. She is rising in popularity, with her previous album 'Room 93' reaching 159 in the US and 'Badlands', released only a year later, peaking at number 2 in the charts.
Halsey is an American singer-songwriter signed to Astralwerks and Capitol Records, Astralwerks focusing mainly on electronic and dance music. Halsey is categorised as indie/electronic pop so this song is perfect as we wanted something belonging to the indie genre. 'Hold Me Down' was released in June 2015 ahead of the release of her 'Badlands' album in August 2015. She is rising in popularity, with her previous album 'Room 93' reaching 159 in the US and 'Badlands', released only a year later, peaking at number 2 in the charts.
Wednesday, 5 August 2015
St Patrick - PVRIS
We have found a possible song choice for our music video, 'St Patrick' by PVRIS. I really like the intro of this song and think that it has a strong beat. The song is quite fast paced which creates an energetic atmosphere that is suited to a performance video. I think that the religious references in the lyrics would provide us with interesting visuals and locations.
PVRIS are and American band signed to Rise Records and Velocity Records, both independent companies. Although they are a band, the lead vocalist is female, making it easier for a member of our group to be in our music video. Previously a hardcore metal band, we felt that their current music, which is categorised as electro/synthpop, is better suited to the style of video that we hope to create. 'St Patrick' is from their debut 2014 album 'White Noise' which peaked at number 12 on the UK Independent Album Breakers chart.
PVRIS are and American band signed to Rise Records and Velocity Records, both independent companies. Although they are a band, the lead vocalist is female, making it easier for a member of our group to be in our music video. Previously a hardcore metal band, we felt that their current music, which is categorised as electro/synthpop, is better suited to the style of video that we hope to create. 'St Patrick' is from their debut 2014 album 'White Noise' which peaked at number 12 on the UK Independent Album Breakers chart.
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