Song Choice

When we conducted our preliminary task, we were still unsure of the specific genre direction for our music video. Our group members were interested in the rock genre, so as producer of the team I decided to experiment with this genre to provide potential inspiration for our full music video later on. I suggested the song Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which we used for the preliminary task.

Decision Explained

Firstly, the song is emotional and has a slow pace. This makes it ideal for us to experiment with different shots and their effects in a music video. It was also a good opportunity for me to try out acting, so I volunteered to be the actor featured in the preliminary task. My teammates also thought that using me as the actor was a good idea because I had long hair which fit the ‘poetic guy’ look for the song. Secondly, the song choice suits our available resources. The theme of the song focuses on loneliness, which, and since we were filming the preliminary task during class time in school, there would be no students in on-site locations such as hallways, which provides a ready environment that would be ideal to utilise in order to match the feeling depicted in the song. Moreover, the theme of loneliness makes it suitable for us to have one actor for the preliminary task, which only needed to be around one minute long.

Preliminary Task Video

Evaluating Results

The preliminary task provided us with the valuable opportunity to experiment with different shots and consider what types of shots could be utilised in our actual music video. We also had the opportunity to conduct a rough screening in our Media Studies class and receive feedback. Overall, I was satisfied with the resolution of our filming equipment, but I realised that doing lip-sync and synchronising it with the song through editing was quite challenging. This could potentially be solved through preparing multiple takes of shots and doing ample practise on synchronising lip-movement with the chosen song. It also provided us with some practical insight. For example, the solo chess shot in the beginning was well-received by the screening audience, therefore I began to consider how similar object shots could be implemented to improve the quality of our actual music video.

However, we eventually decided against choosing a rock genre song for our actual music video. The main reason behind this decision was that none of our group members were particularly skilled at band instruments. This makes it difficult for us to satisfy the genre-specific expectation of having instrumental scenes, and it is unlikely for us to have enough time to practise specific instruments to an extent where our instrumental shots would look convincing. We could potentially recruit fellow students who participated in the school band for our project, but this would likely result in difficulties coordinating filming times and further communication issues, also reducing the amount of participation we would have in our project. As a result, we began considering alternative genre options such as hip-hop, which will be further covered in the next blog post.