Final Idea

Final Idea

The song I've decided to go with is Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I feel this song would be a good song to cover as it's a song that is very focused on instrumentals and fits a general idea which is easy to film.


The principle of the song is that the guy is now alone and that he doesn't need anyone despite the video showing of binary opposites of a women and man standing together. But as the lyrics say, the man singing is walking alone.
The extract also features performance scenes which is stereotypical of a rock genre video. This is essentially all that the video covers in terms of what happens. There is no narrative and it's very much just the band singing, this is what I will change.

My idea revolves around a newly single guy just having fun by pretending he's singing the song.
The opening scene will feature only ambient sound as he walks past the camera into shot in which he will place some ear phones in. The music will fade in and begin as he puts in his ear phones.
As the lyrics come into play, the character (played by myself) will begin to mime acting like he is the artist when in reality he's just listening to the song and having a good time on his walk. His attitude towards singing and walking will be energetic as he simply doesn't care what people think and he's happy that he's left his girlfriend who was bad to him.
The relationship with the ex- girlfriend will be shown as a series of flashbacks throughout the video to give the audience some form of context.
Multiple shots of the scenery around him will be shown as well as an effort to add some variety to the video and keep it interesting, however these scenery shots must be quite arts'y to create that form of professionalism.
Performance will be shown throughout the film in a transparent form or focused in the corner to fill the frame effectively. Close ups and angled shots will be effective for showing off the skill of the musician. If I can, I would like to use a smoke machine to emphasise the  excitement and power of rock.

The video will be located in only 2 locations; a countryside pathway in Walsham and the auditorium in Thurston. These locations will allow me to have a walk and perform with no interference from pedestrians which suits the lyrics very well. The auditorium however is perfect for the performance side of the song, where my friend will play the guitar and be filmed on a stage with little lighting to create that rocky feel which is deemed necessary in all rock genre music videos.

History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos 

Originally, music videos were named musical short films. These short films started coming about around the 1920's but mostly came into prominence in the 1980's through MTV's promotional features. Prior to the 1980's, these clips were known as "illustrated songs", "filmed inserts", "promotional (promo) film", "promo clip", "promo video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". 

Now it's simply known as one thing, a music video. 

One difference that you will notice with the evolution of music videos is that performance based videos were more or less the only type of videos developed. This really changed through a massively successful Michael Jackson song - 'Thriller'. This was quite a shock to most as this was among the first few songs that took a narrative based idea and took that as its platform. The sudden change of performance style allowed other artists to be more imaginative with their video. 

Technology has also had a massive effect with the evolution of music videos as the use of special effects and CGI (computer generated imagery) enables the artist to include and do what they want. 

This form of editing, among others, further widened the music styles that artists could pursue for their music video - especially abstract based videos. 

Merchandising has only grown through time in accordance with music videos. Originally music videos wash purely for entertainment purposes with no wide variety of publicity other than posters, radio and news. 

Now it would be virtually impossible to miss a highly rated musician. Not only is our technology better in producing a larger amount of posters or merchandise. But our media is far more expansive. Television has more channels including more news and several channels devoted to music. Youtube has also allowed artists to produced promo and official videos allowing easier access to the music and creating that platform where celebrities can gain recognition, furthering their popularity. 

Short summary of the evolution of music videos:

1926 - 1959 - Talkies, soundies and shorts. 

1950's - Early music clips.

1960 - 1973 - Promotional clips. 

1974 - 1980 - Beginnings of music television (MTV). 

1981 - 1991 - Music videos go mainstream. 

1992 - 2004 - Rise of the directors. (Directors are deemed a necessary addition to filming music videos to promote the artist as best as possible. Film ideas become further expansive e.g Madonna's videos under David Fincher.) 

2005 - Present - Internet becomes video friendly (Youtube publicises music - Vevo). 

Music Video Analysis

Past Student Evaluations - Evaluated

Created with Padlet

Music Director Study

Created with Padlet

Logo Development

Originally, the band's logo was created solely from a given format of a programme called FreeLogoServices, and incorporated with a smokey background. However the given effect that I ended up with lacked a good representation of the band. Moreover the editing skills were of a bad quality as you could see the background lines from the FreeLogoServices editing station. 

My next step was take away the format from the logo programme as it didn't suit the effect that I wanted to show (which is to represent the band's fun and creative nature). All the format gave was the indication that it was music based as it showed off instruments. But in a logo, all that needs to be given is the name of the artist, not their profession. 
For a band that is targeting a audience of teens to young adults, also the fact that the band itself is called the young, I felt that I needed to relate to this through the art used. So I felt a hand drawn spray paint design would suit fairly well. It shows off the band as being youthful and stereotypically, misbehaving. 

However, I found the colours a bit tricky to manipulate as it would either look bad or it wouldn't be visible. So, I scrapped this idea and began to hand draw a few ideas. 

The two that were drawn here were the best of my attempts as I felt they both have a modern feel to it. However I took the devil design into preference as I felt it would appeal more to the audience for being a more creative look and it also describes the personality of the band a bit better as being a bit devilish. This again is a stereotype of being a rock genre artist.
I then took the devil design and began to hand draw it using a programme called OneMotion. This allowed me to get a basic design down to which I would be able to develop further on photoshop. 
Everything including the cloudy background is drawn and I feel this rough, amateurish effect further describes the band further for being young and playful. 

I needed a centre frame however as the text didn't stand out. So with the use of photoshop I went over the text and added in a background shape to make the design stand out more from the background. 

Now I have two final logos; the devil and the spray paint one. I couldn't decide which one I preferred more as both had their good and bad effects. So to resolve this I got my classmates to pick their personal favourite.
With a majority vote, I have decided upon the spray paint idea. My classmates said that the design was easier to understand as it had a simplistic effect and moreover, the colours are more defiant, in that they stand out more. 

Initial Idea Brainstorm