Ideas Update

We have intensely brainstormed about the features of our music videos. Our initial idea was to have the setting/concept as summer,parties, festivals etc as this would really suit teh vibe of the song. However, we thought that this was a little bit predictable and 'safe' and we wanted to push the boundaries a bit. Also, we would have been doing the majority of our filming over winter, so this idea was also impractical.

We further filtered through various ideas, and after studying several existing dance music videos, realised that there is commonly a narrative which goes alongside the concept. The concept within our song is love, fighting and forgiveness, so we came up with the idea of having a 2 person narrative between a boy and a girl which works alongside our concept.

Now we had this idea of narrative in mind, we had to develop a concept. Again after lots of research, we realised that colour was an essential theme within dance video, as it exagarates the bold, confident music. Therefore, we have come up with the idea of a powder paint fight. We will film this at night to contrast lights, darks and colours against each other.

To summerise, we will have 2 scenes; the first with a couple arguing in a non-naturalistic house setup (i.e. quite simplistic and representative rather than realistic) and the second, a poder paint fight between 3 couples.

Textual Analysis of Stay The Night - Zedd featuring Hayley Williams

'Stay The Night' is a song by German/Russian electronic dance music producer Zedd, featuring vocals from Hayley Williams (of Paramore) . In terms of genre, it falls under Electro House Ballad with a mix of electric/clubby beats and pop style vocal. Due to it's crossover in genre, it was positively received by a mass audience as it appealed to more than one music type. 

It features an elaborate, contemporary dance between a man and a woman which represents them battling through their relationship, alongside a vibrant close-up performance by Hayley. I absolutely love the editing within this music video; the majority of the shots include some sort of overlay with another which ives it a very dreamy feel. There is a prominent concept of contrasts too, with the red and blue setups throughout, possibly representing different emotions or people etc. The video is extremely dynamic, with constant movement from either the camera itself or the subjects in focus. 

The links between the lyrics and the visuals are not particularly statement, but still exist nonetheless, but more so through concept rather than the narrative. For example, "you kill the lights" relates quite heavily to the dark backgrounds throughout the whole video which makes the subjects stand out even more, and also relates to the concept of night time. Following on from this, in both the pianist and Hayley's setup, there are tiny stars and moons which are out of focus most of the time, but which become more prominent through some pull focuses. A link which does occur between the lyrics and visuals is the element of staying the night, as we can assume from the gestures and setting that the man is trying to convince the woman to stay; red could represent anger and blue could represent sadness or regret. In a lot of the dance moves the man tries to grab or hug the woman who just turns/moves away. 

There are strong connections between the music and the visuals. For example, when we hear the piano playing in the background, a shot of a pianist comes up. Furthermore, the pace of the cuts really match the pace of the song; at the beginning they are more flowing and faded, but throughout the song they start to build up alongside the rhythm until the end where they are extremely quick and choppy, which mirrors the build up of electronic tempo within the song. 

There are several points in the song where clever editing is used, whereby Hayley's actions will link to the dancers, and flow in as one movement, for example at 1:35 where she rolls her head back and before you know it we're thrown back into the dancing scene. As a narrative, this could connote that the dancers represent the emotions in her head; the man is blue, which could represent safety and calmness whereas the woman's section  is red, representing anger and passion. Either way, it is extremely successful as it keeps the audience on their toes and engaged within the meaning of the song. Hayley is kept recognisable to the audience due to her statement ginger hair, bright red lipstick and bold black and white clothes. Although this is her first solo track, she has not made any dramatic changes to her image which shows how she has stayed herself throughout her musical career. 

There is not a theme which closely follows the notion of looking; the music video is more artistic and genuine, although I suppose arguably there is admiration and love between the two dancers, but it's more emotional than sexual. 

This music video clevely intwines narrative, concept and perforance elements together; all three elements complement and bounce off each other creating a dynamic and exciting visual to accompany the sound. Overall, I really love this music video and wouldn't do anything to change it. The overlay effect is definitely something to consider using in our music video as it keeps the visuals moving and adds lots of energy. 

Textual Analysis of Counting Stars - One Republic

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One Republic's popular song, 'Couting Stars' has acoustic tones but builds up t amuch denser, powerful riff. It peaked at number 1 in the UK charts and follows conventions of pop and indie genres with some hints of rock:

• It has an unudual balance of concept, narrative and performance, with a separate narrative and a performance coming together at the end via the concept
• Gripping bassline
• Upbeat and catchy
• Wide range of shots, but several close ups of facial expressions

The music video holds an encapturing storyline, and shows 2 completely different situations eventually coming together at the end. One half is One Republic performing the song in a basement/warehouse in a casual style, like they're rehearsing, as they have no audience. The second half is of a group of people belonging to what appears to be a modern church, who are attending a session of worship. 

WIthin the video, there are many occasions within the visuals which subtly link to the lyrics. One that particularly stands out is, "But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard", for one half of the narrative is centered around the concept of prayer and worship. However it is not the singer of One Republic praying, therefore not a totally 100% link, but the idea is certainly embedded. Another lyric which possibly links to this idea is, "I don't think the world is sold, I'm just doing what we're told" because we are taught in life to follow certain rules, guidelines and/or expectations. One of these guidelines could be to follow a faith, practising prayer to hopefully lead to some form of enlightenment or paradise. However there are many conspiracy theories surrounding the success of the said guidelines, and the lyrics suggest that we are lead into a certain frame of mind by society, "I don't think the world is sold", but there is no use battling it and it is automatic to follow convention, "I'm just doing what we're told".

In terms of relation to the music, the visuals are reasonably in sync. For a start, there is a large performance element with the band performing in an abandoned warehouse, so the instruments are in time with their parts of the song. Alongside this, the pace of the visuals matches that of the steadily increasing pace of the song, which builds up substance and energy as the song progresses. So at the beginning of the video, the editing is quite mellow, with slow motion and panning shots employed, however towards the end of the song, sharp, choppy cuts are in place to build up to the 'finale' of the video.

Again, as the video is partly performance based, there are lots of shots including the band in quite a raw, almost rehearsal-like situation. In comparison to their previous music videos it is actually shares similar aspects, as they often have some sort of unusual performance aspect embedded within a narrative, such as in, 'Good Life'. In some ways, the band name links to the concept of the song, which in my eyes in about breaking conventions, "So no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars" - it is an ambition to steer away from the material world which centers around money and possesions, and instead to go back to natural roots and apprieciate teh things in life which really matter. There is absolutely no reference to the notion of looking within this particuklar music video, as it would not fit the genre or the lyrics.

The music video is primarily split into two storylines, one being narrative/performance based and the other being narrative/concept based. However these intertwine at the end when the floor collapses; a very unexpected and clever twist. I thought it could also hold metaphoric meaning for the idea of prayer - from one outlook that the attempts and hard work will literally 'fall through' or alternatively, if you put enough work in, you can break the mould and be introduced to a whole different world/perspective.

Overall, I really like this music video and the song. It has an essence of revolution within it, portraying the idea of unexpectancy and that things are not as they seem. It is cleverly devised and of high quality, which thus contributed to the success of the song. 

Textual Analysis of Do It All Over Again - Elyar Fox

Elyar Fox is an up and coming pop/dance artist who has risen to fame though filming himself singing at home and uploading these videos to YouTube; a concept which is becoming more and more popular for new artists. His music is growing in popularity and his debut single 'Do It All Over Again' was hugely successful in the charts. It follows conventions of both pop and dance genres:

• Fast pace/tempo
• Catchy, memorable bassline 
• Bouncy
• Lively
• Upbeat
• Raises heartrate - motivational and makes you want to get up and dance

The music video is very up to date in that it focuses on many of the latest trends in terms of content sharing. For example, at the very beginning of the music video, he starts the song as if it were him singing from his bedroom, which links to how he begun his journey as an artist. It poses as a nice throwback for his regular audience. Secondly, there is reference to the concept of selfies which has beome a huge epidemic on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. 

The relationship between the lyrics and the visual elements of the video hold many links however they also have some contrasts. There are subtle links such as, "To wake, wake me up, up, up in time" which link to the bedroom setup and also the darker set layout, which could link to nightime. There is also huge emphasis placed on the girl within the visuals who we would assume to be who he is singing about. Lyrics such as, "She works me overtime, my heart's working overtime" and, "So hey girl, hey girl, why you hesitate, girl?" give further evidence, as she is in most of the shots when the girl in the song is mentioned. Furthermore,  the lyrics, "Do it all over again" are represented in many forms, but through a spherical type set up. The camera frequently pans 360 degrees around the subject(s) from a low angle point of view, which represents repetition, and ties into the meaning of the song. 

 

Another important aspect to this music video is the idea of technology and sharing, which link to the lyrics. Although this does not necessarily link to the music or the visuals, I thought it plays such a huge role in the video anyway I could not ignore it. It is based very much around the platform YouTube and frequently shows shots where the content has been cut into a YouTube type frame. There is much emphasis placed on the view count which is shown to rise massively, connoting both to Elyar's rise to fame and the popularity of the YouTube clips which link to the artist in some way. Additionally, further current trends such as the selfie are addressed, which builds Elyar up as a current, modern artist which is appealing in terms of his image. 

In terms of the links between the music and the visuals, there are quite strong links between the beat of the song and the cuts of the clips in that they often cut to the beat. This makes the visuals easier to follow which means the video is more interesting for the audience. The song also has quite a dancey/electrical tone which links to the blue/purple hues of the setup, but I imagine this was enhanced through colour correction in the editing. 

A large proportion of the video includes close ups, mid shots and angled shots of the artist, which is a common feature in debut music videos as the record label likes to introduce the new person. When he is more established they may tend to experiment with slightly more artistic concepts as I feel like this is quite a 'safe' music video. It works very well for the artist though and represents him as coming from the humble beginnings of his bedroom and using social media to his full advantage to raise his image. 

Furthermore, there is great reference to the notion of looking within this music video. There is a particular girl which the lyrics centre around, so they have transferred this in the music video by focusing on someone doing their make up from a clever point of view angle of her mirror, so it is as if she is looking right at the audience. From a low angle panning shot which follows her to where she sits down, we can see that she is wearing quite a short skirt and is wearing make up, as if she wants to impress someone, so I would say there are very subtle hints of voyerism embedded within the music video. There are also female dancers and other female characters taking selfies with a similar camera angle setup; there is lots to suggest that they are to be admired. 

This music video is more so a mix of concept and performance rather than having any obvious narrative to it. It covers concepts such as selfies, YouTube and 'doing it all over again' - linking to the title of the song. The narrative is very subtle but is basically centred around him gaining popularity, which as a debut appearance is what the record label and indeed the artist are looking for. 

Overall, to improve it, I think I would intertwine some more narriative into the music video, or take it out completely as it is a little bit confusing to follow the action at certain points within the video, so I feel that having either more or less could improve the watchability slightly. Nonetheless, I think that this video really suits the artist and is a great introduction to his work for those who haven't seen it before.