Narrative Idea

My main idea follows an abstract narrative however it does have some set pieces of plot. In the intro the shot shows a couple walking down the street and they hold hands. When the song “drops” the shot reverses and the couples hands break apart. The rest of the video follows an abstract montage of shots of the main male character and visual effects. There may also be some minor appearances of the female character. I plan to make use of reverse filming in the street to show the characters sense of isolation as well as the use of psychedelic visual effects. The video will end with a shot of the girl walking away or the main character standing all alone and the camera zooming out.   

Treatment

My vision of my product is of a mainly abstract video but with some elements of narrative. It will feature a male main character and a female character and some lip syncing performance. I will use a lot of reverse filming in the editing stages to reflect the theme of the song. My main mise-en-scene will be in a busy street which I will juxtapose with some scenes in a forrest/wood.

Video Research

I decided to do some research into other music videos in the psychedelic genre to find the conventions and common features. What I found were the occurring themes of abstract/surreal narratives and settings, the heavy use of visual effects, attempts to make the video feel vintage/amateur through the use of handheld cameras etc and natural settings and mise-en-scene. I decided to look at some different videos within the genre to look at how they used these features.

Half Loon- Swearword
This video by London Based band Half Loon contains some elements of performance blended with visual effects. However these visual effects are used to create a vintage style feel using sepia colours. The video follows an abstract narrative and features scenes of nature. I like how it uses a mix of features however I feel it gets repetitive with its lack of any sort of narrative structure.

Melody’s Echo Chamber- I Follow You 
This video features a heavy use of colourful visual effects along with a nature related mise-en-scene with features such as the protagonist swimming under water for the whole video and a reoccurring film of a tiger. It follows an abstract narrative that doesn’t seem to bare any relation to the lyrics and no performance elements; making it more of an art clip than a conventional music video. I like how even though it follows this abstract narrative; it still seems to suit the song very well and I love the slowly changing colours in the visual effects. However I feel like sometimes it is hard to tell what is happening in the narrative.

Allah Las- Follow You Down
This video heavily features vintage style filming techniques and a surreal narrative and setting that seem to be loosely based on the western film genre. I am a big fan of this vintage effect achieved through the use of effects such as purposely grainy filming and hand held camera filming which really gives it an old-school/amateur feel. The band themselves perform as actors while there is limited performance elements; only featuring lip syncing by the backing vocalist. I believe this video is very successful so I am struggling to find a negative point about it; however it’s lack of colourful visual effects does make it less conventional within the genre than other videos.

Temples-Shelter Song
This video is a very conventional psychedelic music video. It features performance, vintage style effects/filming, psychedelic visual effects and patterns and nature settings. I like how it uses a good mix of all the features of psychedelic videos, however I dislike how the abstract narrative seems to have no sort of order at all.

Tame Impala- Half Glass Full Of Wine This video features a heavy use of visual effects mixed with performance. It also uses a large amount of psychedelic art and animation compared to other videos; which I liked. It again follows an abstract narrative using montage editing. What I also liked about this video is that it turns the clips of performance of the song into psychedelic effects themselves, creating a very trippy feel. I also like the use of the image of a walrus which could be seen as intertextually referencing the Beatles song “I Am the Walrus” which is seen as one of the first psychedelic songs with a m video. The only thing I slightly dislike about this video is the sometimes heavy use of drawn animation whereas I prefer video and visual effects.

Lyrics Timing

                                                                          "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"

(0.04)It feels like I only go backwards baby(0.10)
(0.10)Every part of me says "go ahead".(0.16)
(0.16)I got my hopes up again, oh no... not again.(0.23)
(0.24)Feels like we only go backwards darling.(0.30)

(0.33)I know that you think, you sound(0.35)
(0.36)Silly when you call my name(0.39) (my name)(0.41)
(0.41)But I get it inside my head all day.(0.45)
(0.46)When I realize I'm just holding onto(0.48)
(0.50)The hope that maybe(0.52)
(0.52)Your feelings don't show...(0.55)

(0.56)It feels like I only go backwards baby.(1.02)
(1.03)Every part of me says go ahead.(1.07)
(1.08)I got my hopes up again, oh no... not again.(1.15)
(1.16)Feels like we only go backwards darling.(1.21)

(1.23)The seed of all this indecision isn't me, oh no,(1.32)
(1.33)'Cause I decided long ago.(1.35)
(1.36)But that's the way it seems to go when trying(1.39)
(1.40)So hard to get to something (1.42) real,(1.44)
(1.45)It feels...(1.46)

(1.47)It feels like I only go backwards darling,(1.53)
(1.54)Every part of me says "go ahead".(1.59)
(1.59)I got my hopes up again, oh no... not again.(2.06)
(2.07)Feels like we only go backwards darlin'.(2.12)

(2.13)Feels like I only go backwards baby,(2.19)
(2.20)Every part of me says "go ahead".(2.24)
(2.25)I got my hopes up again, oh no... not again.(2.31)
(2.32)Feels like we only go backwards darling.(2.39)

(2.39)Feels like I only go backwards baby,(2.44)
(2.45)Every part of me says "go ahead".(2.50)
(2.51)I got my hopes up again, oh no... not again.(2.57)
(2.58)Feels like we only go backwards darling.(3.03)

Song ends 3.12

Chosen Song and Genre

                                                                                                                                 
 The song I have chosen to make my video for is "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" by Australian psychedelic band Tame Impala. The song is from the bands 2012 album “Lonerism” and is probably their best known song. The song already has a video directed by Joe Pelling & Becky Sloan; however this video consists entirely of animation, therefore this is a feature I shall try to avoid in the production of my own video.

Psychedelic music originates from the hippie and psychedelic sub-culture that developed in the 60’s. It aimed to replicate the mind altering experiences of psychedelic drugs such as marijuana, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. Psychedelic music tends to feature effected guitar sounds, studio recording effects, surreal, drug related or literary inspired lyrics, the use of synthesizers, more complex song structure than standard pop songs, focus on instrumental parts of songs and eastern musical influence; such as drones and the use of Indian instruments such as sitars. Some key artists of the original psychedelic movement included The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, early Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart.  

Towards the end of the 60’s and into the 70’s the popularity of psychedelic music started to die out with the end of the mainstream hippy movement and the illegalisation of most drugs. However its influence could still be heard in other forms of music into the 70’s such as heavy rock, glam rock and progressive rock. Psychedelic music received a revival into the early 80’s post-punk era known as neo-psychedelia through key artists such as The Teardrop Explodes and albums such as Siouxie and The Banshee’s “A Kiss In the Dream House”. Since then psychedelic music has had some sort of influence on popular music cultures; such as its influence on the late 80’s/early 90’s dance influenced “Madcheshter” scene bands such as The Happy Mondays, the 60’s influenced bands such as The Stone Roses from the same era and also “Shoegaze” bands in the late 80’s such as My Bloody Valentine that mixed elements of psychedelic music with noise rock and post-punk. Neo-psych has gained particular attention again in recent years through the popularity of bands such as Temples, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Allah La’s and also the brimming psychedelic scene in Perth, Australia where Tame Impala and their fellow Australians Pond come from.  

What makes a Good Product?

To find out what makes a good music video product we were given the task of researching five different videos to get an understanding of the conventions of music videos and what makes them successful or unsuccessful.

Bruno Mars- The Lazy Song
The first video I watched was "The Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars.

The video for this song features a comedic choreography routine of people in monkey masks and features and unconventional single shot throughout the whole video. These were features that I liked about the video however I felt that there was no narrative or relevance to the song, which I disliked. This showed me how important a narrative can be to song and how it is part of what makes a good music video.
                                                                                                                                           Dev- Take Her From You
 The Next video I watched was "Take Her From You" by pop singer Dev.

 The video features a fairly clear; if strange, narrative filmed in a vintage style in high contrast black and white which suited the feel of the song. These were both features that I liked however I disliked the fact the song only really featured one character when the song theme would suggest otherwise. This showed me how it is important to try and theme your video around the lyrics and theme of the song and how the editing and effects can really add to the quality of your video.

                                                                                                                                          The Fray- Heartbeat
The third video I watched was "Heartbeat" by pop rock group The Fray.

The video features a clear narrative of everyone going to a beach party at first before fading off into more focus on the band performing the song. I liked the strong sense of setting and mise-en-scene in this video set on the beach however I felt that while the performance element of the video is important this particular video over emphasises it which I disliked. This video therefore helped me recognise the importance of a strong sense of setting in a video and the importance of the performance element. however it also showed me that you can concentrate your efforts too much on one area of the video.
                                                                                                                                            Fatboy Slim- Don't Let the Man Get You Down
The next video I watched was for "Don't Let the Man Get You down" by Dance Producer and DJ Fatboy Slim.

The video follows a comical narrative filmed in a vintage style about an apparently racist man who doesn't like young children who then gets run over at the end of the video. I liked how their was a very strong narrative that addressed a certain theme however I felt that the video did not seem to really take the music itself into account. This video therefore taught me that while a strontg narrative is good, it is important to make sure your music relates to the music.

                                                                                                                                             Die Antwoord- Rich Bitch 
The Final Video I watched was "Rich Bitch" by South African rap group Die Atwoord.

The video for "Rich Bitch" follows a comedic and strong narrative while also featuring elements of performance such as lip syncing. I like the strong sense of narrative and the comedic value of the video however I felt that the mise-en-scene was overly bright and distracted attention from other features of the video. I therefore learned from this video that a good mix of performance and narrative is one of the main keys to success while producing a music video and that overly bright elements in a video can be distracting to the audience.

                                                                                                                                     Ian Brown- F.E.A.R.
We were also asked to choose our favourite music video of all time so i chose "F.E.A.R." by Ian Brown

The video for "F.E.A.R." features an abstract narrative of Ian Brown riding a bike through a city but the the film is played in reverse and slowed down. It is this use of editing to create this abstract narrative that I particularly like about this video. The only feature of the video that I don't like so much is the featuring of lyrics on the screen; however I feel that it could be seen as necessary in this case as the song relies heavily on its poetic lyrics which are the main feature here.  

Coursework Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

•a website homepage for the band;

•

•a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

•

•a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).