Similar Genres and Artists

Both of the artists above and the music video to go with the singles inspire us with our performance and image for our artist, Alex Echo. Both are clearly very indie, you can tell this by the upbeat song and the style that they are dressed. Alex Echo has a similar image as he wears leather jackets and tends to stick with the black and white theme, he also has upbeat and playful songs.
We really liked the lights used in The Vaccines music video, we like how the lights change to the beat of the music and leaving just the silhouettes of the band. 

The Rifles - Go Lucky Timeline

0:00 – 0:32 – Musical Introduction

0:32 – 0:54 – First Verse

0:54 – 1:01 – Bridge into chorus

1:02 – 1:12 – Chorus

1:12 – 1:17 – Instrumental

1:17 – 1:39 – Second Verse

1:39 – 1:46 – Bridge into chorus

1:47 – 1:57 – Chorus 2

1:58 – 2:11 – Third Verse

2:11 – 2:44 – Instrumental

2:44 – 2:52 – Bridge into chorus

2:52 – 3:03 – Chorus

3:03 – 3:13 – Chorus 2

Shooting schedule

Date	Which parts to be filmed	Props/camera needed	Who was present
16-19/10	Barcelona segment	GoPro, suitcase/bag	Sarah. Extras = Emma and Alex
22/10	Water sections at Riverside Ice and Leisure	GoPro, Water Polo ball	Sam and Dom. Extras = Dan
24/10	Last two chorus’ in the drama studio	Sony HD, stage, microphone	Dom, Sarah, Sam and Megan.
29/10	Young boy at the park	GoPro	Sam. Extras = Coalin
4/11	Biking through the woods	GoPro, bike	Sam. Extras = Nick
5/11	First 30 seconds, leaving the house and arriving at recording studio	iPhone 5, car	Dom. Extras = Dan, Alex, Emily
16/11	Studio performance for first chorus	iPhone 5 and Sony HD, microphone	Dom and Sam.
17/11	2nd chorus in Drama Studio	GoPro	Dom, Megan and Sarah.
19/11	Refilming of bike scenes	GoPro	Sam.
11/12	Refilming of second chorus and end	GoPro and Sony HD, microphone, stage scene	Dom and Sam. Extras = Max

Our Chosen Song

This is the song we have chosen to create a music video to. The song is by indie band 'The Rifles'. It has a fast tempo, which is what we were looking for in a song.

Lyrics

The moon is waiting for me
It finds me feeling all loaded up and alone
With no one there to hold
In the art of my control I found my calling
And I've been fooling out of bars'
There's a banging in my head that aches
And my fingers start to shake like I just gave my heart away

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change I'll better make
I'm stuck and it's not enough
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

And now it's so hard to please, the way I'm feeling
Better buckle up, be all the way, I might just finally chase
All the time of yesterday, will I be leaving
But little things are never wrong
'Cause there's much pretty things like love
Pay little mind, gotta step the game
'Cause it took too long to take a walk down the temple anyway

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change I'll better make
I'm stuck and it's not enough
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

Would've said that I loved you
Would've thought those silly lies
If I could give my world to you
Would it feel like another lie

There's a banging in my head that aches
And my fingers start to shake like I just gave my heart away

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change came anyway
I'm stuck like a sitting duck
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

Other A2 Music Videos

After watching many A2 music videos on YouTube i thought that this was  the most successful. I really liked how they included pictures in a comic book effect to help tell the story by showing facial expressions. They also used them for transitions which worked very well. I also enjoyed how they included a lot of comedy in the video, this mixes well with the fact tempo of the song.
They explored many different locations which keeps the audience intrigued rather than having the whole video in one location which will make the audience slightly disconnect with it.
The acting itself was very good as they were very over the top with all the expressions, but that made it comedy.
Our music video is going to fast past and upbeat similar to this video. We are also going to explore various locations as this will keep the audience interested. 

Dom Lip Singing Task

We did this lip singing experiment to see how well Dom was able to sing a song making the words as clear as possible. This was also helpful as we were able to experiment with editing it to make sure it was spot on, we had to play around with speed etc.

Final Idea

After researching more into our idea of using an animal costume, we realised it will be very costly to hire the costumes (with the risk of it getting ruined) and train fair to the different locations. Taking this on board we decided to completely change our idea to a graphic match based video. We are going to use a handheld camera throughout the filming, as well as a tripod for the performance sections. The video is going to open with introducing the artist Alex Echo with him holding the camera, the camera is then going to go into a bag to be pulled out by someone else to film their journey and then place it back into the bag and so on.

 

We got out influence from Calvin Harris' and Ellie Gouldings music video for 'I need your love'.

 

Group Discussion

After much discussion between the group, we have decided to change the band into a solo artist named Alex Echo. This would make more sense as the voice is only one singer and wouldn't seem right having two people sing it.

Music Directer study - Jonas & François

Jonas & François  were born in 1982. They are a French directing team of music videos and commercials.

 

They are signed to Division Paris for global rep.


2006  - Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive

2007 - Justice - D.A.N.C.E

Kanye West feat. T-Pain - The Good Life

2008 - Flairs - Better than Prince
The Presets - Talk Like That
Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland - 4 Minutes

2009 - Sébastien Tellier - Kilometer
Depeche Mode - Peace
Mr Hudson feat. Kanye West - Supernova
Muse - Undisclosed Desire

2010 - Audio Bullys - Only Man
White Lies - Bigger than Us

2013 - Iggy Azalea - Work
DJ Fresh VS Diplo feat. Dominique Young Unique - Earthquake
Iggy Azalea feat. T.I.- Change Your Life

2014 - Jack White - Lazaretto

Awards / Nominations

The team won the Video Star award in 2007 at the MTV Europe Music Awards for the music video D.A.N. C.E for Justice. They were also nominated for the Best Dance Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan in 2008.
They also won two awards in 2008 for the music video for Kanye West's 'The Good Life'. They won Best Special Effects at the MTV Video Music Awards and Video Of the Year at the BET Hip Hop Awards.
They were nominated for the Video Star award in 2008 at the MTV Europe Music Awards for the music video for Madonnas '4 Minutes'.
Only man by Audio Bullys won them two awards. The Best Visual Effects at the UK Video Music Awards in 2010, and the Silver Pencil Animation & Special Effects at the D&AD in 2011.
They were nominated for three awards in 2013 for the music video for Work by Iggy Azalea. The Artist To Watch at the MTV Video Music Awards, The Best Urban Video at the UK Video Music Awards and the Best Styling In A Video at the UK Video Music Awards.










As you can see from the three music videos above the tend to stick with performance videos. I also found that in a lot of their videos they place things infront of the camera, for example for the video for Only Man there is a glass surface placed infront of the camera, this allows them to use a low angle and have the artists walk over the camera. In Jack White's Lazaretto video they've also placed a glass surface infront of the artist, which they then smash. This helps it fit into the genre of rock.
Another thing that i found with a lot of his videos is that the artists look directly into the camera while performing, this makes it seem that they are singing to the audience.

They also sometimes work with the art movement Surrealism, for example...

Music Video Choices

Music Video Choices 

 

As a group we presented our three individual chosen songs, and then agreed on the top three choices. We then presented out ideas to the class.

After presenting to the class we took in the critism and opinions. Overall the class liked the idea of using an animal costume and going through london on a journey. Similar to Coldplays music video for Paradise.

Our three ideas

Three song choices

Individually we chose three songs that we felt could creatively be turned into a music video. Here are my three choices...




I've chosen this song by Ed Sheeran as an idea because the music is quite upbeat whereas the lyrics are the opposite. This gives us the opportunity to play around with different moods and can use any method such as concept, narrative or performance. This song gives a wide variety on the themes of the video.



The second song I've chosen is very different from the first. Its a lot more upbeat, with a song like this we can create a video that's quite humorous and quirky.




The last song I chosen would fit well with a narrative music video, the song sings about youth and how one day we'll be old. This fits perfectly with our age group.