My Music Video Inspiration

I have analysed many different music videos, encoding the codes and conventions for my genre; love pop. Throughout denoting and connoting these codes and conventions I have use some of the visuals, camera and editing techniques as inspiration in developing my music video. The following is a brief outlook on some of the conventions I have decided to take as inspiration when producing my own production.

Selena Gomez's fairly recent song, 'Kill Em with Kindness' (2015), music video gave inspiration in shot types and angles for my music video. Gomez's music video features her sitting on a stool in a studio, singing to the camera. This is an aspect I have chosen to manipulate in my production- where as instead of artist singing to the camera it will be a sequence of shots frequently placed throughout the video, with a spot light behind the artist, creating enigma, (the use of enigma conforms to Barthe's theory of enigma).

Calvin Harris', 'I need your love' featuring Ellie Goulding, is a dance-pop genred song, however due to the codes and conventions decoded on screen, the video music conveys and connotes a more love pop fashion. The use of the hand held (selfie) angle of the two artists, denoted in a romantic way- connotes the use of a form of archive footage. I have chosen to use this style throughout my music video, as it signifies a sense of reality in the narrative, rather than seemly showcasing a performance through visuals. This will allow my artist to connect more with her target audience on a person level, where the demographic feel as if they can relate to the visual, conforming the uses and gratification theory.

Ariana's Grande's music video, 'The way' featuring Mac Miller is another music video, holding an element in which inspired my production. For the entire duration of the music video Ariana Grande and Mac Miller is denoted in  the same location, a studio. For the most part Ariana is lip syncing to the music video with a projector showcasing footage onto the wall behind her; this is duplicated in my music video, as it is a effective and professional but yet simple, form and shot type for a music video, it will also separate the two very different footages, where the target audience begin to understand the different between reality Vs the artist's fantasy and past Vs present- this conform to Levi Strauss theory of binary opposites.

A fourth music video I duplicated codes and conventions from to apply to my own, is, Carrie Underwood, 'Heartbeat'. The love song is set in a forest, signifying the comparison between  nature and her (and her lover's) love, connoting it as a natural force. This is the same connotation I plan on using in my production. Secondly, a convention that inspired an idea for my music video, is that the music video is denoted edited in a almost cloudy, soft focused fashion, signifying a disillusioned reality- I will use this effect over my archive footage to encode to the demographic a clear division between past and present. The overlay of shots used in my production was inspired by this music video, as it conforms to a mental breakdown and/or confusion state of my artist; conveying and signifying as the mind of the protagonist, and the struggle to keep her mind clear of this uncontrollable force of love.