Alternative Rock music videos

Arctic Monkeys 'Crying Lightning'.
The lighting is low key and there is a narrative as well as band performance.



Dido 'Here with me'
The lighting here is low key. It is purely narrative with no band performance.



Enter Shikari 'Quelle Surprise'
This falls into the alternative rock genre. The lighting is low key with only dark colours included and is 100% band performance with no narrative.



Foo Fighters 'Dear Rosemary'
This music video has low key lighting and is 100% narrative based with no band performance.

Change of actor!

I have recently had to stomach an actor change! The person I had acting in my music video originally, Ed, has had a lot of work on at the same time as me and therefore has been busy when I have been free to film him! I thought this may have been a huge problem, but it happened just at the right time for it not to be too uch of an issue. I had already done my magazine advert, but thankfully, I had not included any shots displaying Ed's face which has made it possible for me to change the actor!

I had no idea who to use when I realized I needed another actor, but just by luck, another student (Georgie Barker) said her boyfriend would be willing to help me out and perform for me. This actually has turned out to work quite well as she comes along as well as her boyfriend and she is very good at telling him what to do for me! Another bonus about this is that I can use Georgie in my music video as well as her boyfriend. She is going to play the girl in the video which will be very easy as Georgie and her boyfriend will not find it weird or awkward to work together.

This is Chris, my new actor:

He is 18 and seems very enthusiastic to help me out. His dark hair and brown eyes are a complete contrast to Ed's features, however they work well and may actually help to show a more grimey lifestyle.

Storyboard

I made a storyboard to get my ideas down on paper. I also did it so I know exactly what shots I need to get when filming. I can have this in front of me when I go and film so it makes it easier for me to remember what to include and what angles to film from.

Inspiring music video

'Drunk' by Ed Sheeran carries some ideas that relate to a few of mine. This video is about him getting drunk to feel better about breaking up with his girlfriend. The ideas I have for my music video include alcohol and drinking to feel better about life and to try to get through the bad dreams and the sleepless nights that the character has.

Ed Sheeran's video carries a slightly more comical feel to it which is shown through the appearance of the cat. However, I like the shots that are used to show flashbacks of the girl and to show that Ed is thinking of her and missing her. I think shots like this could work well in my music video. I could include them between shots of him walking to the pub and drinking. This would work well as it would enlighten the audience to the fact that he is depressed and upset because he misses how his relationship with his girlfriend used to be and he is struggling in life which is why he drinks and gets up in the middle of the night and walks to the pub to get more alcohol. 

Shots in the sunlight of them laughing and cuddling whilst holding hands is what I have in mind. This would be effective as it would show their past happiness and would make it clear that this is what he is thinking about on his walk and is what he is so unhappy about. I will have to adjust the saturation and the brightness levels to make it clear that the shots of them together are flash backs so they fit in and do not look odd throughout the video. 

Narrative of music video

Bad Dream-
Rough ideas:

• Gets up in the night, reaches for a bottle of wine, drinks in bed
• gets out of bed, gets dressed, walks out of the house to start a journey to the pub
• walks down streets and alley ways
• gets to the pub, drinks on his own at the bar, looks around, puts head in hands
• finishes his drink...acts more drunk and begins to walk home
• wobbles and shows that he is under the influence of alcohol
• becomes more worried and begins to rush home

Time framed storyboard:

0-11 secs: waking up, sitting up, drinking wine/some sort of alcohol. (focus in and out on camera to show him waking up)

12-23 secs: getting up, dressed, leaving house

24 secs: starts walking & drinking wine at the same time. Looking down & around as he walks to shows his helplessness

46 secs: stops and looks in a shop window-lip synching (capture the reflection of him in the shop window) then he walks on, still lip synching

1.08 mins: stops and looks in a car window-lip synching (film the reflection of him again) then he walks on, lip synching

1.31 mins: walks around in circles looking up, walking backwards (focus in and out)

1.52 mins: walks on again at 'bad dreams' and continues to sing 'bad dreams' to the pub

2.04 mins: low angle close up of him, walking and looking down singing 'bad dreams'

2.17 mins: he gets to the pub, sits at the bar, gets a drink and begins to drink it. Looks around him as he is sat there (slightly self-concious). Looks up as though he is thinking about his problems.

2.40 mins: gets up, running desperately back to his bed & the girl. (out of focus shots, drunk running or staggering)

2.55 mins: gets to the room-walks (rushes?) over to the girl in bed/walks to the girl slowly with his eyes continuously on her

2.58 mins: gets to girl, kisses her on her cheeck while she sleeps and strokes her face or hair

3 mins: turns over and looks straight up at camera/other side of the bed and closes his eyes

Digipack Continued

Over the weekend, I took photos of different things such as wooden materials and floors with hops that they might work well for the background of some panels of my digipack. These photos were all taken from my house which was lucky as I didn't have to go too far to find appropriate locations!

This is what I got:

photo                                              edit

photo                                               edit

photo                                                 edit

photo                                                    edit

The last photos are of my kitchen floor as we are having a new floor put in. So I was lucky to get the opportunity to take a photo of it! I think it fits really well with the genre of my track and relates nicely to 'The Streets', where I got my insipration from. I decided to use this as the background of my digipack:

As you can see, I have also decided to use a 4 panel digipack instead of six. I think this works better as there does not need to be huge amount of detail and I think it needs to be quite simple to reflect the genre. The grimey look of the floor also does a good job of reflecting the genre of the track and the colours illustrate the depressive feel that I am trying to create in the video to display the troubles in the character's life.

I finished the design for the back of the digipack using the blue colours that I thought worked well with feel the track gives. I again used inspiration from 'The Streets' by using a piece of paper and handwriting the track names. I then transfered this onto my adobe digipack design by taking a photo, editing it on Photoshop and placing it onto the adobe file. This is what it looks like:

And this is what it looks like on the digipack:

My idea for the other panels of the digipack include:

• A polaroid image of the character for the front panel with handwritten/computerised text underneath the image so fit the idea of a polaroid image.

I have gained inspiration from reasearching real media products (album covers) and above are designs that particularly grabbed my attention. I like how the levels of exposure and constrast have been increased and I aim to achieve something similar in my own design. 


• A stretched image that fits both the inside panels. Maybe a photo taken of the character in the pub or walking down the street. I do not want to have different images of the character as that would be too 'pop genre'. I think a photo from the music video would fit well as it sets the scene better and delivers the correct aesthetic.

Whilst researching, I came across these examples of digipaks and particularly liked how one image was used to cover the inside panels. The first example fits my design best as I am planning on designing a four panel digipak. However, after being attracted to 'THE POLICE' album covers, I also appreciated the increased levels of exposure and contrast in the Rihanna digipak.