Mood video

In the lead up to creating ideas for our music video - we thought it would be a good idea to look at a variety of music videos within the 'indietronica' genre and pick out any interesting, good or favourite parts of the videos and merge them altogether into one big 'Mood Video'. I have taken extracts from seven different music videos within the 'indietronica' genre, these include; Owl City, Bastille, Ellie Goulding, The Neighbourhood, Foster The People, Vampire Weekend and of course, our chosen artist; Passion Pit.

The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather

I chose this clip from the 'Sweater Weather' music video because I thought it was very clever in the sense that it was overlapped with other shots from the video, the video merged together various clips through a transparent layout. This clip also features a spray painting of a house, which after I searched on Google, found out that this is The Neighbourhood's logo. Therefore this was an effective use of their logo and also in a sense is self-promotion of the band's identity. I also really liked the use of the black and white effect of this music video, it made it seem somewhat vintage and also created a very dark and mysterious yet also calming atmosphere to the video and the song. If possible, I think it would be a really cool idea to try and use a similar effect to the transparent overlapping of clips seen in this extract for our music video.

Bastille - Things We Lost In The Fire

I decided to use this clip from 'Things We Lost In The Fire' because I really liked the effective use of dark background colours but the main singer is in more visible colours, making him a prominent figure. I also like the over-the-shoulder shot of the main singer fiddling with a bullet in his hand, and once again there is a dark background colour, making him stand out to the audience. I liked the use of this shot because I feel that it was trying to overshadow a dark message related to the bullet which he is seen holding. There is then a close-up of the artist lip-syncing along to the song, and then the shot changes to see a close-up of his hands, once again fiddling with the golden coloured bullet, and once again also showing the importance of this bullet. Perhaps a strong link between the visuals and lyrics. Once the camera zooms out of his hands, it focuses on the main artist looking away from the camera and into the distance, I like this part because it merges into the next scene, as if he is watching the scene change and I think this type of overlapping/merging is very effective when used in music videos. I also used another clip from this video later on, where the lighting used is once again dark, but this time the main singer is also put into the shadow to merge into the background, but the effective use of lighting makes his face stand out from his clothes and the background colours.

Passion Pit - Carried Away

The clip that I have used from 'Carried Away' is my absolute favourite out of all the clips which I have put together in this mood video. I absolutely love it when there is a rewind section of a music video, I think it has a very good effect on both the audience and the song. The rewinding is often found in songs which have a deep meaning or that follow a deep narrative story. The fast-motion pace of the montage of clips help add a good pace to this part of the video and show how much the pair have been through and all within seconds. At the end of this clip when we see the man apologising to the girl by writing sorry in the sky, the audience will know that this scene has already occurred earlier on in the video, yet this time there is an alternate ending which adds a twist to the video. The male is seen apologising for his actions by writing 'sorry' in the sky. However when the audience first sees this scene, they don't see what the female character replies or if she even replies at all. Whereas this time around the audience sees her reply which is 'ok', in other words, forgiving him for his faults and actions. I absolutely 100% want to try and use some effective rewinding towards the bridge/end of the video because this is definitely one of my favourite music video conventions, and it would be great if we could use it for our own final music video.

Foster The People - Best Friend

I really liked this clip which I have chosen from 'Best Friend' by Foster The People. I liked it because it gave off a kaleidoscope effect and the bright colours help to add effect and atmosphere to the song and the video and perhaps also to the artists' nature and personality. I think this clip is also very effective because the musicians are still shown to the audience, just in an effect which merges in with the bright colour-kaleidoscope effect. I'm not sure if I would want to use this sort of thing for our music video, but I think it could at least be considered, my only worry is that this is
definitely not a typical 'indietronica' music video convention and leans far more towards the pop side of music videos, and would thus be defeating the purpose of our 'indietronica' genre video.

 

Owl City - Shooting Star

I chose to use this clip within my mood video because I really like how the artist - Adam Young (Owl City) has used a performance based video with some narrative, yet he is not part of the narrative until right towards the end where he gets up from the piano (performance) and runs into the narrative part of the video. The performance still continues whilst he becomes p
art of the narrative, which is effective for the audience to watch and enjoy. I also think that the quick-cut shots help to add to the pace of this video and also the song.

Vampire Weekend - 'Cousins'

The Vampire Weekend video for 'Cousins' used an interesting technique and therefore it caught my eye and made the cut for the mood video. The band had evidently used a green screen to film this music video. I think this because the lead singer is seen on a platform whilst moving along a street which features the other musicians within the band. The jump-cuts have an immediate effect on the video and also the audience - the jump-cuts also give away the thought that they must have used a green screen to shoot this video.

Ellie Goulding - Beating Heart

I really like how this video starts off with a blurred far-out, wide-shot of Goulding with a black background, whilst she stands out in a blurred crystal white. The shot then goes into focus and Ellie Goulding is shown in the middle of the far-out shot. We can see her holding something, and as the camera slowly zooms closer it jumps to a different shot of her holding a small glass of some blue liquid, the camera stays focused on the blue drink for a good few seconds which must show the importance of this drink to the audience and that it plays a big part in the narrative of this video. The shot then jumps again to a close up of her face from nose upwards and shows her drinking this drink. Obviously this is only a small clip from the music video, but when watching the full video it is easily identifiable that this song was used for the film; Divergent and therefore clips from the film are used throughout the video as the narrative, whilst she performs her song through narrative as well. However the audience can learn the importance of this blue drink shown in the clip in my mood video, that this 'drink' was featured in the film Divergent and played a key role in the film, therefore the video carries on the exclusivity of the role and importance of this drink.