When developing my video, I was conscious of ensuring to adhere to the conventions of the genre of my track. I decided that I could play with the conventions of some elements of my video but, for the sake of creating something that was still identifiable as an authentic piece of media, I should be mindful of the need to fulfil certain requirements of a music video. These conventions ranged from very basic technical things such as the style of editing to more complex details such as artistic references and the control of the product’s colour palette.
Given the nature of the track I chose to work with, the conventions of its genre are more unclear compared to a more mainstream song whose genre is plainly visible. Lonely Soul (1998) falls under several categories in terms of its genre so when considering my obligations towards fulfilling the conventions of the genre, there was much room for interpretation. The track, specifically categorized, would be labelled as Trip Hop. This genre is primarily a mix of electronica and downtempo with elements of hip hop (manifested in this particular track in its looped drum rhythm), but given the experimental character of the genre, individual trip hop tracks can be vastly dissimilar from each other and when approaching this task, there was no clearly defined set of requisites that I had to fulfil.
Having said this, the song carries a very strong tone and feel so I felt it a necessity to construct a video that complemented this. The track has a very dark and eerie tone so obviously there were confines as to what tone I could compose in the video. I felt that there were themes within the lyrics that I should present in the video. When researching existing videos, I saw that there were some videos in which the narrative was very closely linked with the song’s lyrics, with the video telling the same story as the lyrics, only visually. I also saw videos in which the narrative was completely detached from the narrative of the lyrics. Another significant portion of the videos I researched included a video narrative that, while not a direct translation from that of the lyrics, does carry the mood that the lyrics create. One such video would be Accidentally in Love (2004) by Counting Crows.
The video presents a different narrative to that of the lyrics but still retains the feel of the song. Something similar to this that many videos use is a narrative that has been constructed from the lyrics that do not tell a full story. The lyrics will not have a narrative that one could extract and are rather simply the basis for a narrative that is shown visually in the video. I would give Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die (2011) as an example. The song’s lyrics do not, in themselves, fully present a narrative. The video takes the lyrics and constructs a narrative from them.
This convention was one that I chose to adhere to. In my video, the narrative I constructed centred around my protagonist, who is a lonely and isolated individual, and involved him experiencing music, specifically the listening to and writing of it, as a means of escapism. This is not what is told through the lyrics. They merely gave me a base on which to build a narrative. Some of the lyrics reflect parts of the narrative I created, helping to hold the two together as a cohesive whole. For instance, the words ‘let your mind drift and get out of this place’ fit with the theme of escapism in the narrative and obviously ‘God knows you’re lonely souls’, ‘I’m a lonely soul’ etc. fit with the themes of loneliness and isolation.
During the production and development of my video, there were many conventions in regard to the technical side of the process that it was necessary I use. Through my research, I gathered knowledge on what these were, paying attention to established ways of using camera angles, lighting and editing. Though these may seem to be very fundamental elements within a music video, the nuances of their implementation reflect numerous things about the genre. A more sentimental love song would likely use a slower pace of editing, as can be seen in Gabrielle Aplin’s Home (2012), which has a slow, steady editing pace that complements the serene tone of the song.
Rap or dance music, on the other hand, generally use a much more energetic and pacing style of editing. One example of this would be Headlines (2011) by Drake, a very briskly edited video. The video’s fast editing fits both with the pace of the song and with what one would expect from that genre of music.
The editing therefore falls under both the categories of technical requirement and convention. Making sure that I had used it to a good standard was simply a technical aspect of the production process and controlling it and keeping it consistent (until the climax, where I purposely quickened the editing) was just part of making a good video. My control over the editing could also let me fulfil the conventions of the genre, helping me adhere to the conventions of real media products.
The same was true with the camerawork. While storyboarding and filming, I was aware of the need to keep the cinematography to a high standard while simultaneously thinking about how I could use it for the purpose of reflecting the feel of the video. Real music videos have certain conventions in regards to camera angles and shot composition. If the video is for a mainstream pop artist, there will almost certainly be a lot of focus on the artist, including many close-ups. Looking at videos for some tracks that were more like my song, I saw no examples of this and the focus was usually more on the narrative rather than the performers. This could be attributed to the fact that my genre is mainly practised by DJs/solo producers who are not frontman material and therefore do not feature as prominently in their videos. For example, the artist of my chosen track, Unkle, is a two-man outfit and neither of them perform vocally in their music. Instead, they often employ guest vocalists. These guests may be focused on in a similar way to an artist starring in their own video. Another note about performers is that, generally, the more famous and popular they are, the more they will be focused on, as video directors realize the value of the artists themselves as a selling point. An artist such as Rihanna will feature extensively in videos of her songs, evident here in the video for Diamonds (2012), in which she appears in almost every shot.
Contrarily, a musical group where the performers/musicians themselves are not as focal will be focused on less, with more attention paid towards the narrative, an example being Crystal Ball (2006) by Keane, which is a very narrative-driven video with less focus on the band. I felt that my guest vocalist would not suit being as focal as Rihanna is and decided that I wanted a strong element of performance in my piece to reflect this.
One convention of high-standard music videos is the use of lighting and colour in such a way that they assist in the construction of the videos’ themes. When planning the use of lighting in my video, I wanted to ensure that it helped me present the themes that I wanted to be in the video. I thought that having the character poorly lit would help show his invisibility in the world. Something similar was done in the film One Hour Photo (2002, dir. Mark Romanek), in which the protagonist’s clothing has been carefully selected to make him blend in to the surroundings, for the purpose of presenting the very same thing that I was trying to.
I also thought that having him well lit would help highlight him in the shots where he is on his own, thereby highlighting the matter of his isolation. My finished video has many examples of both techniques, as well-lit locations were more ideal for having him poorly lit and darker locations provided an excellent opportunity to light him well.
I felt that shots like this reflected the character’s invisibility in the world.
While researching other videos, it was evident that the colour palette is controlled both for the sake of visual consistency and in order to support the tone of the videos. Conscious control over my video’s colour palette allowed me to amplify the tone I created in the video. Through both a careful consideration in the locations I used and post-production visual correction, I tried my best to harmonize the colour palette for aesthetic consistency. I also attempted to weaken the colour in a number of shots because I thought they looked too vibrant for the overall tone of the video, which I thought obliged a bleaker visual tone. The song clearly has a dark, dispirited tone that would best be accompanied by a colour palette consisting of greys, blues and other cold, sombre hues. A controlled colour palette can be seen in Unkle’s Be There (1999), which has a strong green tint to its colour palette, used to augment the slightly strange feel of the video and add to the sense of uneasiness.
I strove to maintain a minimalist colour palette to reflect the tone of the song.
Such dolorously coloured shots I think help sustain the video’s tone.
A convention that is used in many, but not all, music videos is the use of references towards other works. A video may reference a certain painting, film, book etc., for a wealth of different reasons. In the particular case of my video, I made the decision to reference the works of American painter Edward Hopper. His paintings generally present lonely figures in urban environments, something that clearly fits perfectly with what I was hoping to show in my video. Referencing his works helps the themes of those works show in the video. By creating shots reminiscent of particular paintings, a visual comparison is drawn between those scenes and mine and the video calls to mind the Hopper paintings along with all of the reactions they evoke. I attempted to mirror the tone of these paintings through shot composition and lighting. While filming, I was looking to compose shots so as to draw a visual comparison with them and I positioned my actor in such a way that he was isolated in a similar fashion to their subjects. Many of Hopper’s works, Nighthawks (1942) and Automat (1927) to name but two, feature a strong use of light, with numerous works displaying the glowing effect of light amid darkness. Again, re-creating the aesthetics of such works links my video the mood evoked in those works.
Nighthawks (1942)
Automat (1927)
Drug Store (1927)
The stark composition of Hopper’s paintings can be seen replicated in other media works. The film Collateral (2004, dir. Michael Mann) in one scene shows the principal characters by themselves at a petrol station. The shot’s composition and lighting are both reminiscent of such paintings. Mann may have been consciously imitating these works for the purpose of showing that, like the subjects of Hooper’s paintings, the two characters are alone and insignificant. Indeed, late in the film, Vincent remarks upon this, saying ‘millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, and a speck on one in a blink. That’s us, lost in space…who notices?’.
Recurring subjects of Hopper’s works are urban locations. Almost always presented as grim and comfortless, I decided to reference the paintings in order to reinforce the idea in my video of urban locations being melancholy and restrictive. I included myriad shots showing hard, grey urban locations in order to show this and composed certain shots similarly to certain paintings in order to conjure the same mood that they create.
Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928)
Approaching a City (1946)
I also referenced, to a lesser extent, the works of J.M.W. Turner. I thought that the vivid colours of paintings such as The Slave Ship (1940) and The Fighting Temeraire (1838) would act well to contrast with the bleakness in the rest of the video. I felt that the colours could demonstrate visually the significance of the protagonist’s progression into writing music as as a form of escapism. The intensely coloured shots are to the rest of the shots as the song-writing is to the protagonist’s life. I tried to obtain shots aesthetically reminiscent of Turner paintings, primarily through filming skies at the time of day when they are most vividly coloured.
The Fighting Temeraire (1838)
The Slave Ship (1840)
References to art can be found easily in other media products. In the video for Nick Cave’s Where the Wild Roses Grow (1995), Kylie Minogue is presented in a way very visually evocative of Millais’s Ophelia (1852). In this particular case, the reference may have been included to foreshadow the ending of the video, because, as the painting shows Ophelia in her last moments before drowning, it hints at the death of Minogue’s character at the end of the video.
Ophelia (1852)
In the video for Madonna’s Vogue (1990), a number of references are made towards golden-era cinema, chiefly through the replication of the lighting and composition of iconic Hollywood images. Here, references are being used mainly as a homage to other media but could arguably be to create a comparison between Madonna and iconic Hollywood actresses.
I think that ultimately, my video adheres to set conventions much more than it challenges them. During all stages of production I was more concerned with creating a media piece that was authentic and looked like a genuine music video than challenging the conventions of music videos. I was perhaps a little worried that if I disregarded certain conventions, it would harm the authenticity of my video. I feel that what I have done is produce a music video that effectively fulfils the conventions of both music videos in general and of its specific genre. While my video may thus be a little conventional, not pushing any boundaries, it works well as an independent music video, something that I can be pleased with.
McGarry A2 