Taking Inspiration from the Previous Year

As apart of my research and analysis leading up to the production of my own music video, I watched a collection of the last years work to see what they came up with. Overall I was greatly impressed at the standard of music video they produced, and I can only envy there efforts in creating a professional, unique and creative video to an existing song. Here is a look at my thoughts and first impressions of the previous year work.

I will start by looking at a music video which achieved full marks. This is an astonishing achievement and upon watching the piece there is now under as to why it was awarded the entire amount of marks. Due to this, it serves as a great example of what it takes and the quality of work that needs to be produced in order for it to be successful. I believe that this particular video shares many qualities with that of professional music productions. The video is given a very sinister feel right from the outset, with its lack of colour, sense of entrapment and signs of insanity. The fact that red is the only colour we ever see really contributes to these sinister themes, as the colour often represents danger or even associated with blood. I especially like a collection of very brief shots within the video, much like the girl whipping her hair back, as it was played in reverse. Again I believe that this shot really added to the themes being portrayed, as it is evidently unnatural and almost paranormal. The shot reminds me of Loreen's Euphoria music video, which also took advantage of reversed shots to create a sense of a her being superhuman. I may use this technique in my own music video depending on what themes I am trying to create. Finally it is a prime example of quick shots and fast editing required in creating a visually interesting music video. All shots within the video were no longer a couple of seconds long before moving onto the next. In conclusion, I can take plenty of inspiration from this work in how it has generated its sinister feel and created a visually captivating sequence of shots. The only criticism I could possibly make is that some shots were so brief that at points in the video it felt like looking at a strobe light. Despite this, I admire the effort and attention to detail that has gone into creating the video and evidently so does the moderator.

The second music video I looked at was very hit and miss. Although I do not know the final grade of this piece, it will almost certainly be less than the previous video. Although it is evident that it is not as impressive as the previous video, this does not mean I cannot learn something from the production. What initially struck me was how much slower the editing was and how much longer some of the shots lasted. I found that the longer a shot lasted, the more it took away from the appeal of the music video. In contrast from the previous video, it was not as fast paced nor visually interesting. Ultimately I was surprised at how much the pace of each shot can add to or depreciate the viewing experience and feel to the end product. Despite its faults, I did enjoy the role of the little girl with the red balloon. The way that she was used to connect all of the characters toward the end of the song I found was an intriguing end to the video, acting almost as a symbol of innocence and happiness in a world of gloom. Overall, I don't think I will be taking much from this particular video apart from the effect that the pace of editing has on a music video.

The final music video was of Lady Gaga's Applause. The video demonstrates a good pace, visual effects and even the use of a wind machine! The work experiments with various effects, one of which involves blending two or three shots into one. This adds a new element to each shot, as their is no longer one point of interest in each frame, yet multiple shots overlaid on top of each other. This is definitely an effect that I intend to include in my own music video, as I believe it makes for a much more interesting result opposed to consistent unedited footage. Despite being a good display of multiple video effects and filters, I sense that it lacks in variety of camera angles, as I found myself noticing the same shots constantly repeating themselves due to the lack of filming locations. I also didn't like the fact that the camera was almost always focussed on the singer, and we saw little else rather than her face. This made the video at some points somewhat uninteresting. I enjoyed this music video regardless, and found that the editing complimented the song well.

With the help of these three examples and many other previous work I have analysed, I can gather some ideas and inspiration to take with me into planning my own music video.