Thursday 20 September 2012
Next..
I haven't decided whether I want to produce a video for Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka, or a video for She's Always A Woman To Me by Billy Joel. I am going to create mood boards, questionnaires and possibly even a story board and then in a week or so's time I will make an educated decision as to which one I want to do.
Monday 17 September 2012
Friday 14 September 2012
Calendar Girl Lyrics
These are my annotated lyrics for Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka. A few lines have been left blank as I need to work out the timings of each line to see if its possible to fit in a different scene. For example, after the birthday scene in September, I need to decide if it would overflow into the following month or if there is enough time to show a Halloween related scene for October.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
5 Song Shortlist - No.4
The fourth song on my shortlist is She's Always A Woman by Billy Joel. It was released in 1977 and is from the album The Stranger. It is a love song about a modern woman, with whom he falls in love for her quirks as well as her flaws. I do think however that this song is open to interpretation and could be about any relationship involving women, i.e mother, daughter, grandma, auntie, friend etc.
(VIDEO)
My idea for this music video is to have the artist sat at a piano playing and miming to the song. I'd then have clips in the style of a 'home movie' of the different relationships with woman. So, a mother with a baby, or with her young children, a couple, a grandma and her grandchildren, friends etc. Behind the artist playing the piano would be a wall filled with photos of the same people in the clips of the different relationships.
(VIDEO)
My idea for this music video is to have the artist sat at a piano playing and miming to the song. I'd then have clips in the style of a 'home movie' of the different relationships with woman. So, a mother with a baby, or with her young children, a couple, a grandma and her grandchildren, friends etc. Behind the artist playing the piano would be a wall filled with photos of the same people in the clips of the different relationships.
Monday 10 September 2012
5 Song Shortlist - No.3
I have spent a lot of time looking through various different songs from the 1960s hoping a song would stand out. I even got out all of my vinyl collection which proved useful as I found the song Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka. The song was released in 1960 and reached #4 on the US Billboard chart in 1961. In the lyrics, Neil recites the months of the year and explains how events throughout the year give him reasons to celebrate the love he has for his girlfriend. The events primarily relate to Western and American holidays. Despite the song being incredibly cheesy, almost immediately I had an idea for a music video.
It would be centred around the same girl mimicking the lyrics to each month. For example, "(August) When you're on the beach you steal the show", the 'calendar girl' would be wearing some form of swimming costume, sunglasses and with a towel. Or, "(March) I'm gonna march you down the aisle", she would be wearing a white dress (doesn't have to look exactly like a wedding dress) and with a bouquet of flowers. In some of the months, the artist can feature to make the shot make more sense, eg "(June) They'll let me take you to the Junior Prom", a shot of the couple together would be appropriate here. When it gets to the chorus of the song the artist would be the only one in the shot singing. He'd be dressed in a suit with quiffed hair.
I'd try my hardest to keep the video in the 1960s meaning, appropriate clothing, hairstyles and I would try and alter different colour effects to make the video appear as though it was produced in the 1960s.
The song does not have an existing video as official music videos were not introduced in the 1960s. This means that my idea would be completely original and wouldn't be influenced by an exisiting video.
It would be centred around the same girl mimicking the lyrics to each month. For example, "(August) When you're on the beach you steal the show", the 'calendar girl' would be wearing some form of swimming costume, sunglasses and with a towel. Or, "(March) I'm gonna march you down the aisle", she would be wearing a white dress (doesn't have to look exactly like a wedding dress) and with a bouquet of flowers. In some of the months, the artist can feature to make the shot make more sense, eg "(June) They'll let me take you to the Junior Prom", a shot of the couple together would be appropriate here. When it gets to the chorus of the song the artist would be the only one in the shot singing. He'd be dressed in a suit with quiffed hair.
I'd try my hardest to keep the video in the 1960s meaning, appropriate clothing, hairstyles and I would try and alter different colour effects to make the video appear as though it was produced in the 1960s.
The song does not have an existing video as official music videos were not introduced in the 1960s. This means that my idea would be completely original and wouldn't be influenced by an exisiting video.
Tuesday 4 September 2012
5 Song Shortlist - No.2
The second song I have picked for my shortlist is Old Red Eyes Is Back by The Beautiful South. The track is from 0898 and was released in February 1992.
The lyrics are about a man named 'Old Red', clearly a man suffering with alcoholism. The verses detail Old Red's drinking habits and how it is affecting his health; "He pours another drink and listens to his body thaw" before the final verse announces; "Old Red he died..." The chorus reminisces about the things he has sacrificed for his drink "...all the things I could have done instead" The subject matter is a common theme throughout the Beautiful South's material, but 'Old Red Eyes Is Back' is arguably the most graphic account of the perils of alcoholism amongst their song catalogue.
The idea I had for a music video for this song would be both performance/narrative. The narrative would be solely centred around Old Red in various different locations: a bedroom with a floor littered with empty bottles, a park, outside an off licence, in a pub. He'd be dressed in shabby clothing and never without a bottle of whiskey/vodka. The video would be interspersed during the verses (not the chorus) with the artist sat at a piano singing the song.
The only problem I can see with this video is that it would be really hard to not have a similar concept as the original video to this song, purely by the nature of the lyrics. I'd be constantly comparing mine to the original and so would others.
The lyrics are about a man named 'Old Red', clearly a man suffering with alcoholism. The verses detail Old Red's drinking habits and how it is affecting his health; "He pours another drink and listens to his body thaw" before the final verse announces; "Old Red he died..." The chorus reminisces about the things he has sacrificed for his drink "...all the things I could have done instead" The subject matter is a common theme throughout the Beautiful South's material, but 'Old Red Eyes Is Back' is arguably the most graphic account of the perils of alcoholism amongst their song catalogue.
The idea I had for a music video for this song would be both performance/narrative. The narrative would be solely centred around Old Red in various different locations: a bedroom with a floor littered with empty bottles, a park, outside an off licence, in a pub. He'd be dressed in shabby clothing and never without a bottle of whiskey/vodka. The video would be interspersed during the verses (not the chorus) with the artist sat at a piano singing the song.
The only problem I can see with this video is that it would be really hard to not have a similar concept as the original video to this song, purely by the nature of the lyrics. I'd be constantly comparing mine to the original and so would others.
5 Song Shortlist - No,1
The first song I have chosen for my shortlist is Born In The U.S.A by Bruce Springsteen. The song is from his seventh studio album Born In The U.S.A and was released on the 30th October 1984.
The concept for the music video I came up with was purely from the title of the song "Born In The U.S.A. It involves getting a group of people of all ages and dressing them up as an iconic Americans )eg Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe etc) and then each singing a section of the song. I've seen a few videos that incorporate this style, a popular one being Rockstar by Nickelback. I love the way the video looks and the style gives you a great opportunity to have a comical element. This type of video would be categorised as performance. The song also has a great drum beat at the beginning so I would try and incorporate drums into the video. I would be likely to end this video with the last section of the song being sung by the actual artist so that viewers can easily make the connection between video and artist.
The concept for the music video I came up with was purely from the title of the song "Born In The U.S.A. It involves getting a group of people of all ages and dressing them up as an iconic Americans )eg Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe etc) and then each singing a section of the song. I've seen a few videos that incorporate this style, a popular one being Rockstar by Nickelback. I love the way the video looks and the style gives you a great opportunity to have a comical element. This type of video would be categorised as performance. The song also has a great drum beat at the beginning so I would try and incorporate drums into the video. I would be likely to end this video with the last section of the song being sung by the actual artist so that viewers can easily make the connection between video and artist.
Sunday 2 September 2012
Song Ideas
Throughout the holidays I have been researching into the different videos, different genres of music produce. For my video, I am most likely to do a song from the 80s or 90s as this is my most familiar period of music. A few artists I have been researching are The Smiths, Oasis, The Beautiful South, New Order, Joy Division, Bruce Springsteen and The Cure. I have also been looking at music from the 60's as I wouldn't constantly be comparing my video to the original because none of them had videos. Billy Fury and Jerry Lee Lewis have been my favourites so far. Lastly, I briefly looked at 21st century music as this would be unknown territory with me not being a massive fan of modern music so it would be more challenging to do a video for this era of music.
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