The document provides inspiration and a moodboard for a music video for the artist Samuel Ford. It summarizes trends found in music videos by related artists in the same acoustic pop/folk genre. Key trends included natural, non-artificial locations; few characters, often just the artist; close-ups to establish intimacy; and a sense of movement to imply a narrative. The document suggests applying these conventions to develop a music video that appropriately positions Samuel Ford within his genre.
2. Inspiration
We have gone on to the Spotify page of our artist, Samuel Ford,
and researched into the ”related Artists” tab.
This gives a list of bands/ artists similar to Samuel Ford
On top of this, we looked into popular artists within the same
genre.
From here we looked into the music videos of the artists we found
onYouTube
We investigated the similarities and trends in each of the videos
that can act as inspiration for our own production
3. TheArtists and
their videos
1) Fictonian – ’Little Blue Book’
2) Tenterhook – ‘Go Easy’
3) Ben Howard – ‘Only Love
4) Ben Howard – ‘Old Pine’
5) Benjamin Francis Leftwich –
‘Shine’
4. Locations
One of the predominant trends throughout nearly all of these music videos is
that they all feature natural and non-artificial settings
They feature forests, beaches, fields etc.
In addition, a short performance video from our artist, found onYouTube,
involves a brief introduction featuring shots in a natural setting (A). Clearly
this type of location would be ideal for our music video and artist.
Some of these music videos also feature cross-cutting between a natural
setting and a live performance by the artists.This helps to construct a
narrative as well as establish the artist as a performer.They do this because it
connotes the artist to the conventions of the genres sound of naturalistic an
‘down to earth’, therefore firmly placing Samual Ford in the acoustic pop/folk
genre.The organic and authentic connotations firmly contrast the hyper
commercial artificial world of mainstream pop, therefore again differentiating
themselves from this genre. Additionally it establishes the band as organic
and authentic promoting connotations of natural, real music whilst also
promoting the live music experience.
Natural locations is certainly something we would consider utilising as they
seem to coincide nicely with the music of our genre as well as narrative music
videos as a whole.
On the next slide you can see a collection of images from each music video as
well as some ideas for locations we could use across Norfolk that follow this
trend.
7. Characters
The music videos we researched all seem to have very few, often only one,
character(s) in them
This character is usually the artist themselves.
This helps to establish more of narrative and a connection between the
audience and the character/ artist. Allowing the audience to also focus more
on the music and artists talent, rather than for example in many mainstream
pop music videos, there's commonly choreographed dances or theatrical
performances etc. Lots of high energy components and characters to aid the
entertainment aspect of the pop genre.Whereas within the acoustic pop
genre the videos are usually more calm and contain less characters to make it
seem more personal.
We will certainly bear this in mind throughout the planning process.
However, the lyrics of the song we have chosen uses the pronoun “we” instead
of ”I” - this implies the song and the narrative of the video will include several
people, perhaps a small group of friends or a couple, would be suitable, in
order to suitably customize our music video to the song. Because videos and
songs within our genre are mostly personal to construct more emotive
feelings for the audience.
Also, there is frequently shots of the artist/ an actor lip syncing along to the
song. Creating a sense that the artist is directing their performance to the
audience, perpetuating the personal aspect of the genre. Maybe we could
cross cut between the group and a character singing – perhaps on their own or
with the group?
8.
9. Shots
In these music videos, one of the most common shots are close ups,
normally of the characters or artists.
Close ups of the artists help establish a relationship with the audience.
This also lets the artist portray the emotions in their song easier.
This genre of music is quite intimate and emotive so close ups are a
suitable shot to use in our music video.
In addition, nearly all of these videos have some sense of movement
and/or travel.This is because the content of the songs often involves a
story therefore a sense of movement within the videos helps this
because it connotes that there's a destination or ending like the story
would have.
Shots from behind the character are common as well as wide shots of
them travelling somewhere.
Furthermore, several of the music videos use color correction and
filters.This could be for sentimental nostalgia or to appeal to the
Instagram generation, therefore expanding the audience to both the
younger and older.This might be something to consider and
experiment with during our final production.
