When listening to my chosen soundtrack, I came across the studio instrumental version. This reminded me of when I was planning to create a music video like Euan Baker's with no lyrics and just instrumental sound. Therefore, in finding this, it has made me curious as to whether this would work better than with Hackman's lyrics. This would therefore make my music less of a literal representation and would leave more of the interpretation for the audience. With this in mind, I have decided to add this soundtrack to my video and see what works better and whether or not it gives me more ideas for the cinematography within my current music video draft. I will be re-shooting fairly soon, so my shooting diary should upload within the next few weeks. This could be a total disaster or it could make my music video better - I will put the updated music video with this soundtrack on this post within the next few days.
Okay so I set the music as the studio instrumental for my final piece music video and also I think it sounds quite eerie and mysterious, I believe the music video fits better with a lyrical background. I really like the bass-line in the studio instrumental which actually still fits in with the video-editing on screen, just some does not as some editing is synced with lyrics. Therefore, I have decided that my finished product is going to be with lyrics.
I decided to use all the footage from my water filming shoot to create a full-feature -length music video to my chosen song Marika Hackman - Drown. This is a very literal representation of this soundtrack, however, I think it still works well as an abstract music video. The contrast between the still video and the much more active video, shown in the chorus starting at 1.51 mins to 2.14 mins for me, represents the ups and downs within this girl's life. The slow, almost depressive stages and then the physical act of drowning represented by the faster-paced footage could present the stressful and maybe un-copeable aspects within her life.
My research of Chris Anderson and his opening scene to 'Dexter' really helped when editing my chorus and certain upbeat aspects to the song. This is because, like the opening scene to 'Dexter' I was able to understand different rhythms and when to input a cut-shot. For example, 2.16 - 2.27, there is a collaboration of shots that coincide with each other but also sync with the timing of the lyrics and rhythm to the melody. Just like in the opening scene from 0.33 - 0.35 in Dexter where the same shot is cut into three to create an edit that matches that matches the music and the theme of the production.
This literal representation of the song still works well as an abstract music video as there is no lip-sync and no consistent storyline. For a first draft, I am very pleased with this outcome but plan to re-shoot some aspects such as the sped up section starting at 0.30 seconds as I believe this needs to be done with a tripod to make the effect more successful and professional. When creating this final draft, Marika Hackman brought out her music video for this song at the same time. Although this is very coincidental, I noticed that she had also created a literal representation of her music video.
November 24, 2014
I found this video very interesting as it completely contrasted with what how I thought she, as an artist, interpreted the song. As you can see, someone else is pushing her down and 'drowning' her, this could be as literal as the visual act of drowning (a person in her life making her feel insecure..etc) or, like my idea, could be society and life in general making her suffer. Whichever, this has certainly helped me understand the song a lot more and maybe even accept that the literal act of drowning works very well.
However, at 1.40, you can see blood oozing from her mouth. This contradicts some of my research on Eric Anderson's 'Dexter opening scene' as I said 'it may break the conventions to input explicit, violent, slightly immoral scenes as it doesn't usually fit that genre' and in this case, I was unjust with this statement. But I was right when stating 'I can cleverly integrate mundane aspects such as getting up in the morning or going to bed, but in a more graphic narrative and subversive way' which does reflect this model. I now know that violent, graphic aspects can be integrated within the footage without breaking too many conventions and putting people at unease. Although, I do already think that this song creates a very literal representation and therefore the water scenes work well with the metaphorical narrative of the lyrics.
