Ideas Generation

Mood Boards

Megan Robinson

Props

The props are very important for music videos because very often you see the artists playing instruments. They are also important because when they do a music video it is almost like a little film script, and the props add believability to the script, supporting the story line, adding credibility to it. I chose those images above because they are showing us an example of the types of props that may be seen in their music video. Some of images have instruments in them, and I think the instruments are important for most music videos. Occasionally a music video may not include a musical instrument but will have other props, for example, microphone, furniture or any other prop that will support the ‘story’ of the video. Some examples I have included are a train, a house, furniture.

Camera Angles

Close ups are used above in those images to show a variety of emotions, for example, passion, excitement, love, upset, heartbreak. One image shows an arm in the air with her head on one side and her mouth open. These camera angles are successful because they demonstrate the different artists showing their feelings and emotions. In another image, there are close ups and long shots together with some heads up and some down as they sing. This shows their sadness, excitement, energy. There is an over the shoulder shot in one image showing the artist looking at a scene. This gives us the same view. The camera angles are an essential part of the music video process, it adds to the believability of the artist and the story they are trying to tell.

Costumes

Lady Gaga wears mad, crazy, outrageous costumes. She may do this to send a special message about her music and about herself. In Bruno Mars’ video, he wears a smart suit as he is singing about the girl he loves and wants to impress her. Power dressing is often used in power ballads. For example, Rihanna wears a smart white dress and when Beyoncé sings about love or beauty, she wears a really gorgeous dress. Some songs, the artist/band wears the costume which tells the story of the song. If the music video is a performance then mostly the artist/bands will wear what they would normally wear during the day.

Genre

Different genres are an important part of music videos. It is important that music videos produce the right video for their genre. For example, a rock video needs to be a little darker and edgier. They need to focus on the whole band playing at a high tempo. For a pop genre need to have more of a story telling aspect to them, they tend to be light hearted and are aimed at younger people. An Indie genre can a mixture of dark and light, depending on the lyrics. They can feature the whole band or the soloist or at times none of the band may feature.

Location

• Location of a music video can be key to the narrative of the song. Depending on the genre of the music the location can be a key part in the right mood being generated. If the song is romantic, a love story, the location needs to show this with nature possibly featuring. If a darker theme is being portrayed then a moody, atmospheric location may be necessary to create an edgier feel, graffiti on a street etc. A pop song may require a whole film scene as in the Take That song-’The Flood’ whereby they are in boats. This all adds to the story and feel of the video, it is necessary to draw the audience in.