STATEMENT OF INTENT

Video

In my music video, I want to capture the overall feeling that the song “After Life” implies. I aim to capture the idea of life after death through the use of surreal locations and special effects. This style of video would deviate from the expected conventions of a dance music video; however, I feel like the chosen song reflects a darker and deeper mood which can be demonstrated in my video. Dance music as a genre generally appeals to a young audience, therefore I will be producing my video with the demographic of a 16-25-year-old AB class person in mind. The main purpose of a music video is to promote the song and artist while making an interesting and entertaining method of consumption. Sometimes they feature narratives which tell a story to keep the audience engaged, or sometimes they simply include the artist singing/dancing to promote the artist directly.

For the mise-en-scene of my video, I would like to include two main settings; a desolate grey neighbourhood/town, and a sunny, colourful and wild forest. These locations are easy for me to access with my budget of nothing and can also be easily contrasted against each other. For each setting, the mise-en-scene will have to comply with the theme of each one. In the town/neighbourhood there will be obvious inclusions such as houses, roads, cars etc. The boy will have his skateboard and have an alternative style of clothing. In the forest/natural scene I want to emphasise the lack of technology and pollution, so I will include shots of greenery, trees, plants and the sky. In order to fulfill the criteria of representing and contrasting two social groups, I will include one main character in my video; a lonesome male teenager. I want to show the difference between two social groups so my main character will represent an alternative style, a different person who is rejected from normal groups. I will contrast this with a group of mainstream girls, who appear more popular but are shallower and follow the crowds. This leads to the main character feeling isolated and wishing to escape the dull world that he lives in. I have seen this style of representing a different or lonely individual against a mainstream group in numerous videos (for example the music video for Marshmello - Alone), and audience members may resonate with the "different" nature of the main character. The overall message of these music videos is that it's better to be different. My video will slightly deviate from this in that the main character finds no resolution but still ends up happier than before.

The song I have selected is by the artist Tchami, as he specialises in EDM and house music, which fits in with the dance music criteria. I also personally like his style of music, which will motivate me to produce a better and more fitting music video. This artist will also appeal to my young audience as the dance music genre is generally more popular with teenagers and young adults and is associated with youthful activities.

Most of the video will be shot using a phone camera as I do not own a high quality camera or other equipment. Most shots will be short and medium to include any characters and also show the setting, however establishing shots will be used to set the scene. As my phone does not have optical/electronic image stabilisation, the majority of shots will be static to reduce shaky footage. During editing, I will enhance the footage using special effects to refine and improve upon the existing videos. I can use special effects to emphasise the difference between worlds by changing the saturation and adding dream-like colouring. Cuts will be timed accordingly to the music to improve the flow and keep the audience constantly engaged.

I will reference a number of films, books and existing music videos in my video. The main references will be to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz, as both of these texts feature two contrasting worlds which can only be accessed by special people. As these are widely known texts, they will be my main area of intertextuality. I would also like to reference book series such as Gone (Michael Grant), and The Hunger Games. This is because both are about teenagers who are isolated in a surreal world. As my target audience is educated and informed about cultural products and texts, they will understand these references as they will have experienced the original texts during their lifetime. The auteur music video director Dave Meyers has influenced me through his extensive use of special effects and high quality cinematography.

Website

In order to create cohesion between the different platforms, I will aim to retain the same theme across all of them. This will make the production seem more professional, as the consistency between platforms is the same. For example, fonts used will need to be synonymous across the website and music video, and the same goes for colours and logos. Through prominently featuring the logo I created in both the website and video, it will become more recognisable and consistent. For the "Tchami" logo, I will use the font "Edition" in both the music video and website as it appears professional and is used throughout the film and music industry. I have also opted to use the font "Helvetica" across my website as it is a simple and universally applicable font, that remains minimal and professional. I will feature images of the artist and use them throughout the website as well as using them for backgrounds. I want to retain the mysterious atmosphere of the music video in the website, so I will use photos that reflect this mood. This will also create cohesion and consistency between the video and website. A short video interview with the artist (or someone acting as the artist) will be present on the home page to introduce visitors and promote the artist. I will create brand synergy by using the same logos and any slogans both in the video and on the website. The function of the website will be to promote the artist and the song/music video. The main pages I will focus on are the "home" page and "video" page. Other functions of the website may include a music tab, an about tab, and a contact tab. I will embed other social media platform links throughout the whole website, so any user can easily find the related pages to follow and find out more information. Other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook can offer different ways to promote the artist and video, and can also increase the audience by posting information. Initially, the website may be limited due to the small amount of content is has to offer, however as with all websites it will constantly develop with the addition of new content and more popularity.