1. Characters:
1.1. Husband:
1.1.1. Like Disclosure's and Lorde's music video for their single "Magnets" I proposed we could echo a storyline with similar characters to what they use. This includes a cheating husband. However, my group didn't like the fact this supports the feminist view that men are in control and hurt women. This resulted in us thinking of other ideas.
1.2. Wife:
1.2.1. This would be another character used similarly in the way she was used in the "Magnets" music video. For my first thoughts about my group's music video she would've been the stereotypical wife and women: emotional, hurt and betrayed, especially if she learned about her husband having an affair.
1.3. Girlfriend:
1.3.1. The character of a girlfriend came from the idea that a girl could be playing the woman a husband is having an affair with. However, to be more original my group decided we could also make a video revolving around just a boyfriend and girlfriend.
1.4. Boyfriend:
1.4.1. The more we thought about how the characters of a girlfriend and boyfriend could work with our song choice, "Desire," by Years & Years, the more we liked it. We also decided that if we included the boyfriend character he wouldn't necessarily play a main part. Instead, we'd focus on a female character, focus on them breaking up and follow her journey in relation to it.
2. Narrative:
2.1. Open narrative:
2.1.1. My group member and I like the thought of having a music video which is open to interpretation. This means that it it could be cryptic and obscure which could make it really interesting and original.
2.2. Non-Linear narrative:
2.2.1. To make it even more engaging we thought about making the music video too. This is because we thought adding flash backs would add more in-depth detail to the narrative we're trying to create. This means the video could move in a way which wouldn't be methodological which could help describe the characters' lives, dramatise their stories and help viewers empathise/sympathise with them.
3. Potential audience:
3.1. Young ages:
3.1.1. Since we are planning for making a music video for a pop/dance song and thinking about casting relatively young, teenage characters we thought we would also attract an active, teenage audience. This would also help us if we were real artists as they would be able to share our music video on social media to raise awareness about our band, music video and song. This would increase sales and help to build a fanbase, which happens to real artists.
3.2. Gender:
3.2.1. If we were going to focus on a female character, this made us think that it could possibly attract more viewers who are girls as they may connect with her more. However, a mixed gender audience may be attracted to the fact we may feature a broken down relationship as they could sympathise/empathise with it.
4. Camera shots:
4.1. Close ups/Extreme close ups:
4.1.1. These could be used of our female character. Using a close up of crying would really emphasise how sad the fact she may be if her boyfriend has split up with her. We could also use close ups of her putting on her make up or taking it off to represent her not needing make up to be confident and look a certain way for people like her ex boyfriend.
4.2. Low angle shots/High angle shots:
4.2.1. These shots may be really interesting to use for scenes including both the female and male characters. By using low angle shots we could show one of them displaying more power, whilst using high angle shots could show one of them having less power. This may be useful to represent the dynamics of their relationship.
4.3. Over the shoulder shot:
4.3.1. We have also considered making our video with a narrative that focuses mostly on either the female or male character. Over the shoulder shots may be useful to alienate one of the characters slightly, so we still include them and have them as part of the video, but with focus on the other one of them more. This could help represent the division between them.
5. Editing:
5.1. Non continuity editing:
5.1.1. Non continuity editing is the editing of footage so that it is in non chronological order. This refers to our thoughts about including flashbacks to show past experiences in relation to our couple's relationship.
5.2. Match on action:
5.2.1. This refers to cuts that go from one shot to another shot which links to the what the first shot shows. For example, a person beginning to open a door and then going through it. I thought this would be something we could use for our music video. I like that footage showing our character(s) going through different doors could show them going through a lost, labyrinth like stage in life, moving from one state of mind to another, trying to find happiness.
5.3. Overlapping editing:
5.3.1. This is when an action is repeated in one or more shots, despite that action occurring once. We could use it if we wanted to include a scene similar to the one of Gigi Hadid in Zayn Malik's Pillowtalk music video. She's shown as being colourful and ghost like since footage of her moving in different positions is merged together. We could include something like this to adhere to the norms and conventions of dance/pop music videos. We could include fotoage where our female star moves, but then that movement is shown more than once. We could then include this from different distances and angles to show better coverage of her.
6. Mise-en-scene:
6.1. Costumes/Make-Up:
6.1.1. Girlfriend:
6.1.1.1. We thought that since the girlfriend could be depicted as inspiring and empowering she could be possibly dressed in bright colours or brighter colours than her boyfriend. This would also fit with the codes and conventions of actual pop/dance music videos since their usually colourful.
6.1.1.2. Make-up is something we also were thinking about using significantly. For example, we thought that the female character could wear pink or red lipstick, which could connote romance and danger. We also though that a scene where she's crying, dramatised by ruined mascara, would also be an effective addition to the video.
6.1.2. Boyfriend:
6.1.2.1. In contrast, to what his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend would be like we thought that the male character could wear darker/black clothing. This could result in him being embodied as the evil character within the music video. Levi-Strauss's theory of Binary Oppositions could be applied to this as he believed opposite characters are found in media products.
6.2. Props:
6.2.1. My group liked that the official music video for the song "Desire," included fire. This led to us thinking what fire related props we could have in our music video as it could emphasise the pain and destruction of their relationship since it's ending. We therefore thought about including candles, lighters and cigarettes. We also thought about props which were relate to love like flowers and hearts which could help in making it more sad that they characters are breaking up.