Inspiration.

We decided to look at existing music videos, past and recent ones, to gain inspiration, and to have visual evidence of our initial ideas. From looking at several videos of either rock or urban music, we have noticed some conventions:

• Dark and dramatic lighting
• A dark blue or green tint to the lighting
• Several close ups of the artists
• Heightened contrast with lighting

Brand New - Sic Transit Gloria.. Glory Fades [link to video]
This video depicts a man who finds he can control others around him, making them copy his every move. He is tormented, screaming the lyrics and using his powers to create chaos by smashing glasses and turning over tables. There is a twist to the video that we really liked; he is really being controlled by a man in the shadows.
Things that we liked about this video:

• Use of mirrors to disorientate
• Close ups of anguish/screaming
• Close up of glass smashing
• Imagining a person is there
• Being destructive
• Out of focus lights in background

Glassjaw - Ape Dos Mil [link to video]
We liked this video of a couple who are dressed as clowns, and the wife is adulterous, and the husband, who watches her via CCTV, finds out. There are two parts to this video; a performance and the narrative, and it switches between the two throughout.
We really liked the soft focus/out of focus/close ups in the bedroom while the wife is cheating on her husband, as it reveals the intimacy of the situation, and we could employ this filming technique for the intimate parts in our video.

Evanescence - Everybody's Fool [link to video]
This video shows a models despair at the false life she leads, and how she hates the way she is portrayed in the media. The contrast between the modeling footage and the hotel room footage is shown with dramatic lighting changes; the dark lighting and shadows illustrate her dark mood. We also particularly liked:

• The sunlight through the window making her silhouette.
• The shadows on the wall
• The use of mirrors
• City lights in background
• Running make up/crying
  

Green Day - 21 Guns [link to video]
There was only a small section in this video we liked; the way the lighting changes quickly and dramatically, almost like spotlights, and the way that the mirrors are smashed and fragment and distort the mans face, showing his anger, frustration and confusion.




Plan B - Stay Too Long [link to video]
Plan B, one of the artists in our chosen song, has recently released a new song and the accompanying video features an interesting effect, shown in the images to the right. We could use a similar effect to show disorientation or reflection of past memories.

Pieces - Chase & Status ft. Plan B [link to video]
This video by the same artists as our chosen song, features a girl getting revenge on a partner. There are some aesthetically interesting shots in this video that could inspire our own footage. We also really liked the use of a fisheye lens for some of the video, and seeing as I have a fisheye conversion lens, we could experiment and include some fisheye footage in our own music video.