Reflective Analysis

When it came to making a music video my ideas changed a few times before I settled on what I wanted to do and started planning. At first I had decided to create a music video for a local band but decided against this due to my timescale. After this I decided to produce a video for 'The Boredom is The Reason I Started Swimming, It's Also The Reason I Started Sinking' by The Front Bottoms, with the idea of a guy travelling the world whilst in some scenes a busker can be seen playing the song. I decided against this song and settled on 'Maps' by the same band and decided to combine the idea of the guy travelling and the busker by making them the same person so that it was actually the busker traveling. I settled on this idea as I felt this would be achievable within my time frame and I was only relying on two other people, which meant not as much could have gone wrong.

After I had decided on the song and the general ideas for the song, I got to work on planning specific shots and put together a shot/edit decision list, which included details of location, the shot type, camera angle and movement, shot length, a shot description and which lyric or part of the song that the shot would correspond to, this can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/shotedit-decision-list.html
To accompany this, I also created a visual mood board and a still images music video, I believe these helped me piece together what the music video would look like in my head and I used this alongside the shot/edit decision list when I was filming, this way I could keep on top of the work I had already done and see what needed to be done, these can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/visual-mood-board.html

When it came to actually filming, it went incredibly well and the majority of shots were done in one take, the performance shots were the hardest to film as the timing had to be perfect, I had my subject play alongside the actual song so that when it came to editing it would be easier to match the audio and the visuals. I feel like all of the shots I decided on were relevant and did a good job of illustrating the lyrics of the song whilst at the same time fitting with the band's image. The Front Bottoms take a very laissez-faire approach when it comes to their music and specifically promotion of themselves including their music videos, the majority of their videos are purely performance and are usually just them playing in their living room or garage, their own music video for the song 'Maps' is just the two band members travelling and messing about with each other, The Front Bottoms emanate the idea that they music because they like doing it, they don't care how good they are or how famous they get, they are doing this because it is what they want to do. I tried to replicate this love for music above all else by having the audience see a conflict between the busker and his girlfriend, within these few shots and a few lines we realise the busker is leaving a lot behind to pursue his dream, he has no guarantee that things will turn out well for him and yet he goes on this journey regardless.

After I had gathered all my footage, I got to work on editing, this task was a lot easier than usual as I had something specific to edit to, I knew exactly where I wanted certain pieces of footage and roughly how long each shot needed to be. I did find however that some of the dialogue within the visuals did not match up with the audio, I tried changing the timing of the visuals but could not match them up perfectly, to draw attention away from this I decided to include subtitles where the lyrics are being spoken on screen.

The subtitles I settled on were danish, and I used a very typical font with a yellow colouring, I felt they were aesthetically pleasing and very reminiscent of the french new wave. I also feel I could only get away with this because of the song and band that I had chosen to represent in the video, the song is called Maps and is all about his travelling plans so to use foreign language subtitles fits within the theme of the song, and as previously mentioned The Front Bottoms are a very playful band and I could definitely see them doing something similar themselves. One of my favourite techniques I used during the editing process was the double exposure, due to the fact that my lyrics and visuals are closely linked I wanted to do something to amplify the fact that there are multiple layers of lyrics.

Overall, I am very pleased with my final product, I put a lot of time and effort into research, analysis and planning and I think this can be seen in the final music video. If I had more time I would have added in some more shots, such as a cut in during the first shot just so the shot doesn't feel as long, I tried to deter from this by having the title still be on screen, in Danish, when this shot starts. There is also another long take of the busker travelling on the train and if I had more time I would have included some point of view shots from the busker or him on different forms of transport. I think the inclusion of just a few more shots would have made the video so much tighter but the sometimes slow feel of the video can be seen as amplifying the journey of the busker, he has a long way to go before he makes anything of himself and these shots do a good job of amplifying that. If I were to do this project again I would probably choose a more upbeat song as this would have made me gather more shots and the music video could appear so much smoother but for the song chosen I am very happy with the video produced.

Maps - The Front Bottoms

Research Evaluation

When it came to producing a music video, at first I had to analyse the codes and conventions of music videos, this way I would have a better understanding of what is needed to produce an effective music video. Therefore, the first thing I did was conduct some research on Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, this wholly consisted of secondary research. At first, I took some basic notes down from sources provided by my teacher but after this went on to research the both of them in more depth, I did this by searching for them on the internet and reading their books, Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' and Vernallis' 'Experiencing Music Videos: Aesthetics and Cultural Context' and 'Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video and the New Digital Cinema' The main information I got from other people's summaries but I then checked that this information was correct against the relevant book, I felt this way I got basic points which I could then use the books to expand upon and validate. Due to this, the books themselves were definitely the most important part of my secondary research, I used them both as sources of information and also key texts that I could validate other sources with, this as a whole made the research I had found more reliable.

The next step of my research was vital in the production of my own music video. After researching Vernallis and Goodwin, I used their information to conduct my primary research of music video analysis. When it came to choosing music videos to analyse, I decided to choose two within the same genre of my track choosing two indie/alternative songs and then also choosing a pop song, I felt like this would give me a wider variety of research than just analysing the codes and conventions of the genre that I will be producing a music video for. Analysing the music videos within my genre allowed me to gain an understanding of how music videos of a certain genre are constructed and how they differ to that of another genre, this all helped me gain inspiration and allowed me to form ideas about my own music video.

I also conducted primary research which I then validated with secondary research in the form of lyrical analysis of my song. I decided to analyse the lyrics of the songs that I had chosen to produce a music video for as I felt this benefit me when it came to ideas about how to use the visuals to either amplify or illustrate the lyrics. After analysing the lyrics myself I then used the Internet to see what other people had interpreted the lyrics to mean, I shared very similar views with that of genius.com, a lyric website dedicated to finding the meaning of lyrics. Seeing that my own interpretation matched that of many others on the Internet, I felt like this piece of research was as valid and reliable as it could be for a subjective piece of research.

If I were to undertake this research project again I would definitely analyse a few more music videos, including at least one by the band that I will be making a music video for. This way as well as identifying the codes and conventions of the specific genre, I would have also been able to identify any particular codes and conventions that the band themselves may have when it comes to their music videos. I also would have done some more research into the band themselves but because i am very familiar with the band I felt this was something I could afford to miss when it came to my research project, but with more time I would have been able to identify the band's star image and iconography and tried to incorporate this into my own video to get across that it was still very much a Front Bottoms music video.

Following on from my analysis of music videos and the lyrics for my song, I felt that I needed quantitative data to compliment my qualitative data that I had gained from analysis and so went on to create a questionnaire, the questions and results of which can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/music-video-research-questionnaire.html
This questionnaire formed the bulk of my quantitative data as I structured the questions in such a way that the majority of answers given could be used as hard facts and statistics, for example I asked 'Do you prefer a narrative or performance based music video?' With the options being either 'performance/narrative/mixture' Questions of this style allowed me to gain quantitative data that I could use to inform my own video. When looking back at the data that I gathered, I had only asked very basic questions and as such the data that I gained from it I used as a very beginning of planning my own video, such as using  mixture of both narrative and performance and that people would prefer a fast and energetic music video rather than a slow-paced one. The genre that came out on top was 'rock' closely followed by 'indie', as the music video i'm producing falls under the genre of 'indie' I felt that the other results of my questionnaire should definitely be used to inform my own production. The questionnaire I produced was answered by a total of 37 people, these people were a mixture of all ages, genders and had a variety of different favourite genres, because of this I feel like my questionnaire is quite reliable even though I did have to limit the possible answers given by using multiple choice.

Having gained quantitive data from a  primary source, I felt that the next logical step was to gather some qualitative data, I did this in the form of a focus group with my fellow HNC students. This consisted of me playing an excerpt from the song to the other students, telling them some of initial ideas and asking for further comments on these initial thoughts. At this time I had decided on doing Maps by The Front Bottoms and had done analysis of the lyrics and found that the song was about travelling the world but being reluctant to leave your old life behind. This would form the basis of the narrative of my video but I was unsure of how to incorporate traits of a performance music video into the production. The majority of the focus group agreed with my idea of a music video rooted in travelling and felt that a good mix of industrial and natural locations would be ideal for the song. When it came to incorporating a performance element to the video, a brilliant suggestion was made to include a busker in a few of the locations that the traveller visited. I initially was going to go along with this idea but decided to combine the performance and the narrative, making the busker the main subject of the video, so that he is the one that we follow on his travels. The focus group was recorded as I could only make quick notes when people were discussing ideas with me and as such didn't take it all in, listening back to the recording allowed me to gain more data, all of which I took into account when I began to plan my music video.

Overall I felt that all the research gained helped me get some inspiration and form ideas for my own music video, which is why I had undergone the research project in the first place so I couldn't really ask for anything more. My initial research into Goodwin and Vernallis allowed me to gain an understanding of the theories which could be applied to my work straight away when it came to in depth analysis of music videos. Although the quantitative data was useful in determining basic concepts for a music video such as pacing as narrative/performance mixture, it would have been useless without the qualitative data to expand on these points. The focus group was probably the biggest help as it allowed me to conduct a piece of primary research, the results of which would directly inform my own production. I tried to use a variety of sources when I came to conducting this research project using books and the internet as well as people's opinions, having gathered from various sources I could check my own findings with that of others, this meant that the research I gathered and presented was both reliable and valid. The major improvements I would make would definitely be to my questionnaire, I would ask more questions directly relating to the production of the video and expectations of the people answering the questions, for example I could ask 'What do you think makes a music video appealing?' giving options such as 'lighting/narrative/star image' but also including an 'other' option, this way as well as gathering quantitive data from my questionnaire I could also have gathered some qualitative data.

Visual Mood Board/Still Images Music Video

As well as creating a mood board of my initial ideas, I decided to create a still image music video, this is a very rough draft and I will only be using it for my own benefit, this will go hand in hand with  my shot and edit decision list so that when it comes to filming and editing, I know exactly what i need to film and where I want to edit it, hopefully this will make my production and post-production a lot easier.

The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather

The start of the video is a blank screen with the letters THE NBHD, a shortened version of the band's name, this fades out and we are presented with the band sat in their house. Before the title of the song is even shown on screen there are several cuts between the original shot and other imagery, all in time with the drum beat, including a vinyl and a close-up of a girl's face not particularly in focus and a shot of the band silhouetted against a city skyline. These simple and quick cuts create an enigma code, we gain more interest in the video and want to know what all of these shots mean.

When the title of the song appears we can see a shot of the band in a car, this is easily the longest shot of the video and one that the video often comes back to, this shot is like an anchoring point of the video. It actually contradicts the premise of the song 'Sweater Weather' as the weather is quite clearly not sweater weather and instead is a lot nicer. The music video follows the band as they have a good time throughout the city, scenes are shot at both day and night to show that whatever the time the band no how to have a good time somehow. There is also a lot of cuts between the band and a particular woman, she is always lit with low-key lighting which adds a sense of mystery to the woman, which could be why Jesse Rutherford is so interested in the girl. Furthermore, the girl is only ever shown indoors which actually amplifies the idea that "its too cold for you here and now."

When it comes to band identity, The Neighbourhood are known for doing visualettes to accompany their songs, these are usually just a car journey, they have incorporated the car drive into the sweater weather video. Another key aspect to The Neighbourhood's band identity is their black and white approach to pretty much everything they produce, all of their music videos, album artwork and merchandise use a black and white colour scheme, so much so that the mere thought of The Neighbourhood makes me think in black and white for a second. The Neighbourhood's logo, an upside down house, appears in the music video but the first time we see it, it is the right way round before the whole shot is flipped upside down. The camera slowly zooms towards the house as we see various shots similar shots to ones already used. Sweater Weather was the first major single from the band, and definitely the single that made them a lot more well known, because of this I felt they wanted to make a subtle note of this in the video, the whole shot being flipped so that the logo is the right way round, shows that now The Neighbourhood are here for real and they want to identify a band identity using this logo. At the end of the video, we are shown the opening shot if the band sat down in their house, as the camera zooms towards them, the screen fades to white with the logo once more. This is a simple but effective ending for the music video, it happens during the outdo of the song which gets exponentially quieter and as such is quite calming and the visuals amplify this by just being so simple. 

Shot/Edit Decision List

Song, Lyrics and Meaning

There is a map on my room, on the wall of my room and I've got big, big plans

• While he is still living at home, he has plans for the future, to travel, to be someone, to do something important

And I can see them slipping through, almost slipping through the palms of my sweaty hands

• The sweaty hands are a clear indicator that he is nervous and feels he may be incompetent when it comes to putting these plans into action

And I move slow, just slow enough to make you uncomfortable

• These 'big plans' are 'slipping through his hands' because he's getting older and still has not many any effort to go through with these plans and this is making a loved one of his uncomfortable, they are worries he'll never go through with these plans

You say I hate you, you mean it and I love you sounds fake, it's taken me so long to figure that out

• Couples can happily joke that they hate each other but he is beginning to worry that when their partner jokingly says they hate them, it sounds genuine and the serious statement of 'I love you' feels forced and fake
• It also alludes to how passionate people are when they say they hate someone, it comes from the gut, whereas you tell people you love them as a formality even when it's not true

I used to love the taste, I would do anything for it, now I would do anything to get the taste out of my mouth

• He used to love how saying 'I love you' made him felt but now that he's realised it sounds fake, the idea of love disgusts him

And you're so confident but I can hear you crying in your sleeping bag

• On the outside they appear to have their life in control but they cry themselves to sleep at night so no one can truly knows what goes on behind closed doors

But you were broken bad yourself, you were mad as hell, you felt that if you had done anything with anyone else it would have worked out so well

• This quite serious statement ends on a sarcastic note so I feel like he is implying that although she may blame him for their problems it would have been like this with anyone because of how broken she is

But you are an artist and your mind don't work the way you want it to

• One of the hardest parts about having a creative mind is that inspiration can strike at any time, you can't choose when you want to be creative, this can result in personal frustration and even depression due to waiting for an artistic breakthrough you know might never happen
• In order to be creative you have to think outside the box and as a result of this you might feel like you never really belong hence it not working the way you want it to

One day you'll be washing yourself with hand soap in a public bathroom

• One day you could have a lifestyle which requires you to wash with hand soap rather than taking a shower
• Due to his career goals he has become a nomad

And you'll be thinking 'How did I get here? Where the hell am I?'

• If you're ever in that situation you'd question why nothing seems to be going right for you but at the same time he's very nonchalant about the situation as he feels if he carries on going there is a chance for things to change.

If the roles were reversed, you could have seen me sneaking up, sneaking up from behind

• He thought he had all the time in the world to accomplish his dreams and so ended up relaxing too much but now time has caught up with him and he wishes that he could go back and change things

She sees these visions, she feels emotion, she says that I cannot go, she sees my plane in the ocean

• The loved one doesn't want him to leave as they are worried that there will be an accident like a plane crash and they'll never see him again

'And what about your friends, don't you love them enough to stay?' And I say if I don't leave now I will never get away

• She tries to convince him to stay because all his friends are at home and he tries to explain that if he doesn't leave while he is young he'll become too attached and never want to leave
• The longer you stay somewhere the harder it is for you to leave

Let me a blue raft on a blue sea, I'll blend right in

• Specifically he wants to be lost out at sea but more generally he would rather be lost than in the comfort of his own home

There is a map in my room

On the wall of my room

And I've got big, big plans

But I can see them falling through

Almost feel them slipping through the palms of my sweaty hands

And I move slowly

Just slow enough to make you uncomfortable

But you were broken bad yourself

And you were mad as hell you felt

If you had done anything with anyone else it would have worked out so well

But you are an artist and your mind don't work the way you want it to

One day you'll be washing yourself with hand soap in a public bathroom

And you'll be thinking 'How did I get here?'

'Where the hell am I?'

If the roles were reversed you could have seen me sneaking up

Sneaking up from behind

http://genius.com/The-front-bottoms-maps-lyrics