Research essay

For my final major project I decided to create a music video for the band the LOSERS. So I decided I would do research into other similar music videos to find inspiration from. The song is Oblivion and sounds very much like a break up song and has a lot of different emotions the song wants to the audience to feel throughout. I originally looked into the video being narrative based, it was just going to be a love story which ended up with them falling out of love and moving on with different people. But I felt that it was more dull and bland than my previous work so I tried to give it a more surreal feeling. I looked into songs such as “hey look ma I made it”by panic at the disco’s music video. It had a simple narrative but the lead was a puppet instead of a character actor to make it feel more surreal but this didn’t work with the song when I put footage of similar concepts over the footage so I decided it would be good to change the idea. I started researching into other ideas. Such as I looked up about experimental music videos, paint music videos and Neon paint music. Until I could come up with a different concept for my music video that I was comfortable with. After I looked on YouTube at different music videos I came up with the idea of using different colours and with paint for the concept for my music video. I originally wanted to use paint to pour over someone’s face and in editing I could layer it on top of itself and the put the blend mode to hard mix and invert the top or bottom. I found this out by editing footage I thought would suit the song. I also put it in reverse so that the paint is going up to the persons face; this has a more of a metaphorical meaning. With the paint going up someone’s face it is psychically uplifting and the audience will see it and will relate the emotion I want them to feel for when they see it. Another concept is the use of neon paint. A lot of surreal music videos do use neon paint. I previously created a music video using glow sticks which has a very similar concept so I don’t want to base my music video heavily on to this idea but I feel that it can have a character with red neon paint on their chest so it looks like they have had their heart ripped out, this with colder colours I to their hands and face. However the concept I am most interested in expanding on is by the song by “maroon 5”. During this video they have the people hidden into the background but are slowly revealed as they cover themselves with clay until they are completely revealed. After looking into this concept I tried to replicate this but using green paint and over my skin. I recorded it with a red head light so that shadows aren’t a problem while filming. I then edited by ultra keying the green in premier pro so that all of the green has then been blacked out. I then used the alpha channel so that the background is blacked out and the one colour which is visible was the green I ultra keyed out. I then tried to use different colours, by ultra keying out the hands and then put a colour matt underneath to so that the hands would be the colour of the hands, I also inverted it and inverted it in different ways by using the colour wheel and inverting the footage either with red, blue or green. I also started to look into the style of the video. I want the video to be based on minimalism. I did this because when I looked up other video that use minimalism, the backgrounds would be one colour and would usually be black or white, I like this because after looking up what minimalism, which it’s described as making a complex point by using simple techniques or by using small amount of elements to create the point. The mise en scene, lighting and colour theory will come under the minimalism I’ve researched. For an example of this the mise en scene will have to be one colour, this also comes under colour theory as well. If I make the background black and the paint white it can stand for the light standing in front of the darkness which I believe goes well with the song because of the songs darker tone near the beginning and end. Also after testing this concept I’ve learned that I would have to aware of what lighting I should be using while filming. An example of what lighting I should be using is with a soft box or a ring light. Colour theory is the use of colour in film to create the emotions for film. An example of this for the music video I am working on it sounds lower and builds itself up. So I can use blue and other darker and colder colours at the beginning and then build them up to more warmer and happier questions.

While I was coming up with the original concept for my final major project I felt confident. The story was simple and I felt comfortable with creating it but I felt it was too simple and needed something else to make the video more interesting because the simple premise could be seen as too dull. So I wanted to make the concept more interesting. I decided looking into a puppet for the concept but it didn’t suit the song so I decided to do a different type of music video instead of narrative. I started writing ideas for each style of music video. Narrative, performance and concept. After looking in to other music videos to take inspiration from I decided to do a concept based music video. After looking into paint music video I felt confident that I could create a concept music video using paint. I was originally only planning to use a range of colours with different styles but I felt this wouldn’t go together well so I wanted to make one where the same style was used throughout, so I look inspiration from one of the music video I watched by “maroon 5” and wanted to recreate it with my own style. When I was originally testing this idea I felt overwhelmed and didn’t feel confident that I could do it because I was struggling with the use of colours but after my lecturer helped me to test this concept and so I know how to do this concept in the future. He taught me about the lighting position and how I can use a red head light which creates shadows to have a little amount of shadows shown on screen so that I didn’t have to worry about the green paint being covered by shadows. When I was editing the test footage I was indecisive weather or not what I was creating visually appealing or not. I liked many different tests that I’ve done when I was applying colour such as the ones with the white background and red and pink as the paint colour. I opened it up as a survey to see if my worries were real or not but I found out that the majority enjoyed the video and test 1 and 2 were exactly the same. After seeing the survey results I felt confident in my editing ability and in what type of look I want for the music video moving forward.

During researching and testing my ideas I had good experiences and bad experiences. An example of some of the good experiences are the fact the concept works the way I was expecting, When I was first testing the concept of having someone invisible slowly becoming visible as paint goes over their skin. I put green paint over my skin while using a red head to minimise the amount of shadows on the paint. I then ultra keyed out the green and used the alpha channel as well as inverting the footage so that the background is black and the paint shows up white so that only the white can be seen on screen. I also tried to use colours with the footage. But inverting it in different colours by using blue, red and green. I also used the colour wheel to add colour into the footage as well as ultra keying the footage after nesting it with itself. I then put a colour matt underneath it to add colour to the part what was ultra keyed out. I also layered the footage on top of itself after copying and then set the blend mode to hard mix to give the footage an animated type look which I think suits the style of the song well. However there were difficulties while attempting to create the concept. I was originally trying to get the green paint to be the same colour as the green screen background so I talked to an art department lecturer and asked her the way she would recommend me doing so. She recommended me mixing a dark green with a lighter green while adding yellow into it. However this didn’t work the way I was expecting and I decided not to do this idea because I was mixing the paint by doing it into a dish and because I did it like this I couldn’t pour the paint over anything because there wasn’t enough paint. I then tried to use the yellow paint to pour it over my skin. But when I tried to ultra key out the yellow it got rid of all of the yellow on screen and because I put the paint onto my skin it also got rid of my skin tone as well. The next time I tried to ultra key out the light green but premier pro got confused and ultra keyed out my skin tone as well. I also had problems with the lighting. Because I was using a red head and not a soft box it made shadows sharper and more prominent on screen. But this gives me good experience that I know what to do while filming from now on. I also tried other tests such as putting red x’s over someone’s while on screen. I took a picture of some red x’s on a neon mask and used photo shop to edit the rest of the mask out, I then put the red x’s and the footage I was putting them on in premier pro and put the x’s on the footage over the footage and then scaled the x’s so they were over the part I wanted them to be and then cut up the footage so they would disappear and reappear as a glitch like effect. I like this but I don’t know how I will add it into the story naturally.

As a conclusion I was extremely happy with how things are going for my project. I feel confident with how everything is going for my project. I know the style that I want for my music video. I will cut back and forth with different style through the video so that certain bits will suit better than other. I will be going for the white background with black paint on screen with the animated style look that I can create by layering the footage on top of a copy of itself and then putting the blend mode on hard mix. I am struggling to decide which colour will work best with which part of the song and the results from the survey were indecisive so I will use colour theory to know which parts will need which colours for. An example of this is for the beginning of the song with the slow beat and the low tone I will use colder colours to edit with. The paint will be a darker colder colour while the background will be a lighter darker colour. I’m feeling confident that my idea of having people and objects invisible and slowly becoming revealed as the paint covers them is accomplish-able and I feel that know I know how to edit it correctly I will be able to pull it off as long as I use the correct light such as a ring light or a soft box.

Even though I am happy with my research, I felt that recreating a new idea was the best for my music video. The narrative wasn’t the best I could do and remaking the video as a concept will be better. I am also happy that I’ve learned how to pull off the concept using the editing techniques I’ve learned. I think using this technique will improve my work highly. But if I was to do this again with the knowledge I already have I would use the experimenting with layering footage on top of itself and then setting the blend mode on hard mix. This can give an animated look with clearer colours. I believe this makes footage look more appealing so experimenting with this concept could have made my work more appealing. Also looking into lighting from the beginning would’ve also been helpful because of the importance of lighting with my music video. But I am very happy and comfortable with how my music video has been going and I am confident that the client will be happy with how the music video will be going.