Music Video Research

After yet more consideration for my music video, it is my task to find music videos of a similar style to mine. After a little searching online, these are some videos I found that I can use to influence my project.

The first video is one I've previously mentioned which is The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

The main plot of the video is that it features a group of youths who are going about their daily life in the American suburbs whilst in the midst of a war as we see scenes of soldiers with guns and other towns being attacked. The kids live in this images but do their best to ignore it whilst getting on with their lives, riding around on their bikes and messing around with the local residents. The video definitely has the sense of a dawn until dusk feeling because around halfway through the video, it suddenly changes to nighttime, and we see more graphic images of the local residents being attacked and arrested by a group of militia. The video was inspired by a short film in which America's surburbs are all mini countries and state that all attack each other. There is a huge dystopian feel to the video and although this is not the tone I want to take, there is no performance in this song. It features a day in the life whilst showing us scenes from dawn until dusk as well as featuring a whole narrative rather than performance clips. These key features are also what I want to include in my video.

Another video idea is Lover of the Light by Mumford and Sons.

The plot of the video is a blind man who goes about his daily life trying to live without the comfort of his sight whilst grieving for the loss of his loved one. We see him going about his daily life such as waking us, getting washed, making breakfast etc. but he still sets two places at the dinner table out of habit. There is also the parallel theme of the deer in the forest which acts a guide for him. As he dresses himself, he walks to the door and is about to pick up his stick when it hits him that his lover really is gone. He runs into the forrest with the intention of potentially killing himself whilst the deer keeps a close track on him. As he makes it to the cliff's edge, the deer is with him. It is speculated that his wife's spirit is now inside the animal, hence why he was able to run through a forest blind and escape numerous times. This video features a day in the life theme to an extent as we see the man in his daily routine, the video also starts with him at dawn and the final scene sees him standing on the cliffs edge whilst dusk begins to fall. There is also a strong woodland theme as well as a tremendous scene of the beach as well, which coincidentally are used in my video also.

These are just two examples of similar themes that I would like to use in my video, however they are not the plot I will be using. My video will feature a day in the life theme but will be on a different tangent to these videos. I just wanted to use them as inspiration as well as showing that the indie/folk genre does contain videos like so.

Until next time,
                          Toni