Research: Punk and Indie Music Videos 1: Locations

1. Sandi Thom: Punk Rocker

This Music video is fully performance based and is unconventional- the entire song focus is Sandi Thom singing into camera. As the music video follows Thom- it becomes evident that the song's music video is made up of one location- an inner city built up area- this is used to contrast with the lyrics, in which Thom makes reference to the 70's and how different life was then and to now. The location of an inner city, built up area could be replicated in a couple of places near to us, such as Brigg- which is slightly less urban, and Scunthorpe- which is more urban and much busier.

 Plain White T's- Hey there Delilah- frames pictured above
The music video for Plain White T's features five locations, however, they all have a blue tint to them which provides synergy across the locations. The performance element is always done in the same location- the white, empty room pictured bottom left, I feel that this is used so it becomes obvious to the audience who the main singer of the band is. The rest of the music video is conducted in an urban setting, the first being the girl waiting at a relatively small train station, this is also used in the end of the music video to create a full cycle. Then, there is a point of view shot from the inside of the train, in which the audience are notified that it is raining due to the rain on the window- this is used as rain connotes sadness. There is then a location inside an urban building, featuring a heavy rusted staircase. Finally, a scene is also done in a busy urban setting- it is used to make the girl pictured seem small and really out of her depth. These are also urban locations, however, these have much more reference to cars, hence we could probably do this type of shot on the motorway bridge in Wrawby, the interior shots are quite grand, and could probably shot inside Normanby Hall- due to its grand appearance.

Owl City-Fireflies
The music video for Owl City- Fireflies is purely performance based, however, there are changes within the actual location itself through the use of stop-motion. The toys with in the location seem to "come alive" and then stop towards the end of the song. This matches the lyrics, in which the artist explains how magical dreams can be and the places that they may take you.
Within this music video, only one location is used, the interior of a messy bedroom, this could be done in the majority of houses, however, inside, the lighting would be incredibly difficult to get right due to the lack of natural light inside, and artificial lighting tends to look forced inside.

The All-American Rejects-Gives you Hell
Within this music video, a total of six different locations are used, the first is outside the exterior of the two properties- it acts as an establishing shot. Then, the music video uses contrasting locations in order to create a sense of conflict between the two neighbours, on one side, a rather sheltered couple who live in a quiet house, on the other a loud boisterous group of lads, in a way, this could be used to represent the contrast between different generations- such as the young adults and older people, in the end the two come together and show similarities. Within this music video, two heavily contrasting properties are used, this could probably be done in two homes owned by two contrasting groups of people, one of the properties probably owned by a younger family, or young adults- as it would tend to be livelier and contain lots of colour. The other a home owned by two older people, this is as the house would probably be more minimalistic and beige in appearance.

                                                                                    Train- Marry Me

 
Train marry me uses 4 locations, one of these being used to show performance from the lead singer and the instrumentalists- this is used to give the audience and idea of who the band behind the song are. The same lead singer is also used in the narrative aspect of the music video, the other 3 quarters of the music video follow a love story in a cafe, hence the other two
 locations are the interior and the exterior of the cafe, the music video also represents the idea that you could meet someone in the strangest situation- a stereotypical love story. The first aspect of the music video follows different couples sitting on a sofa explaining how they first met- iterating the message that you can meet someone in the strangest of situations.
Within this music video, the performance and establishing shots could be shot in a studio, or somewhere with a black sheet in order to make the background look seamless. The shots in a cafe could be shot in a cafe, in order to get the realistic image shown by cafes.

 

 

How Research has informed my planning and creativity: Within these music videos, I have come to realise just how may different locations are used within music video, however, I think the overall look will be created when we choose which song we would like to work with, however, I have already had the idea of shooting outside- in order to create lots of natural light, and shooting with lots of green and flowers, in order to enhance our rural setting.