1. Explain what you have been researching and for what reason?
I've been researching Adele, and the song lyrics to ‘Someone Like You’. I discovered that Adele conveys most of her thoughts and feelings through cinematic shots and filters. She uses black and white as her filter in the music video I analysed which connotes the sadness and depression of the lyrics. I have researched various aspects including; the analysis of music videos from the same artist and, more loosely, the same genre. We looked on the web for ideas on how to shoot different camera shots thus, We can use this information to design our own creative and visually pleasing videos that are either concept based, narrative based, or Performance based. I researched Adele to discover her star motifs to create and expand a wider range of knowledge for my music video that I will be planning. To grasp a better understanding of the lyrics I brainstormed them on a piece of A3 paper after looking at a variety of forums to see the kinds of things other people had to say relating to the genre, themes, colours, date, purpose and audience. The conventions of music videos was my main focus because it included, camera shots, camera movement, Mise-en-Scene, and Editing, Which covers everything.
2. What were the findings from the research?
In every music video by Adele the camera is always on her face whilst she sings, which makes it more performance-based. She usually wears dark clothing because her songs mostly portray negative feelings. Also, the camera shots like to show off her fake eyelashes a lot e.g. more focused on her face. Music videos often have a range of; Long shots, Close-ups, and mid shots. These things can create emphasis on the artist, location and feelings. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. I learnt about camera movement. The movement of the camera used to follow and trace the artist. The camera movements most used were; Tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots. The Mise-en-scene literally means what you can see in the scene, It refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for production of a music video or any other media text. The Mise-en-scene puts importance on a particular subject E.g. In Adele's music video 'someone like you', At the beginning the camera tracks her face and the filter is in black and white. She also wears dark, dull clothing to add emphasis in the Mise-en-scene, which connotes to the overall idea of the lyrics of pain and sadness. The editing stages are important and the dominant type of cut is jump cuts, this is because it allows a sudden change of the mise-en-scene. Similarly, transitions are used such as, fade or dissolve, which gives you a different effect to a straight cut and adds interest to the music video. Other conventions include costume and colour. The costume goes with the scene and reflects the genre. The costume is an important factor because it influences the viewer to wear similar clothing, they are role models to their fans essentially. The colours set the overall tone of the music video, if they were dark colours then they would be more likely to be used in the rock genre or Kings Of Leon to reflect the kind of genre they are through atmosphere that the chosen colours create.
3. How will these findings affect your idea?
It changed most of my idea and brought new ideas to light because when I researched the conventions of a music video there were some key features that I hadn't properly developed up until that point I didn't think the out fit and the scenery could be connected or even the colours would reflect the genre. I did want to keep a similar close-up camera shot to achieve that same performance-based characteristic that her other music videos had, because it really shows what kind of person she is and is her star motif, I'd say, in her music videos. She will be wearing dark clothes that will reflect in the type of location which will be around London’s backstreets. Many things in the background will be happening such as; blurred people walking past like the other artists music video. Gradually towards the end of the song the saturation will increase from black and white to full colour. The main theme will be regret and pain. To prepare myself for shooting the music video I have researched a variety of videos on YouTube to give me some ideas on different kinds of camera angles. I looked through the lyrics to understand more about the song and what the lyrics portrayed. I also created a mood board to make it easier for ideas to flow. It consisted of outfits, locations and colours. It made me think about the variety of shots I could possibly use, Such as; Long shots, Close-ups, and mid shots. Also, I had to think about the types of angles like; Tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.
