Music Video

When considering my choice of song, at the time of listening once again to Man on the Silver Mountain by British rock band Rainbow, I released that most of the lyrics could be reflected by handcrafted visuals, particularly through stop motion. Although the majority of music videos in existence do not mirror the song lyrics, due to having very little knowledge on the design and production of such an art form, I saw Andrew Goodwin's theories on illustration and amplification to be the most suitable way of approaching my task. Furthermore, by using a form of animation to complete my work, I was able to avoid including any real people in the visuals, as most music videos have a tendency to do. Not only did this enable me to work freely, but kept my work unique and different from others.

Since the majority of the video is filmed and edited as stop motion, my main influence was a small collection of pre-existing music videos that implemented the same technique. Although I knew that I would never produce a piece as astoundingly impressive, the principle video that inspired me to use stop motion was that of Peter's Gabriel's Sledgehammer. Winning nine awards at the 1987 MTV Music Video Awards, it is in my mind, one of the most spectacular music videos of all time, not only due to the finished result, but the sheer amount of effort put in by the creators. Two other music videos that also inspired me to approach my task in the way that I did, were the ones for There, There by Radiohead, and Sober by TOOL, mainly due to the fact that they base their visuals around objects that are a combination of being hand-made and small materials taken from larger counterparts.

Unfortunately, due to not having a professional setup to film the video, certain aspects of production are rather deficient and unsatisfactory. For example, the lighting is not at all consistent throughout the video, as although the window blinds were closed constantly, the outside environment still managed to affect the saturation and colour scheme.
In terms of camera positioning, what with creating a stop motion video, the device had to be kept in the exact same position for the whole of production. This requirement revealed itself to be slightly more difficult than I initially imagined. The camera had to be removed multiple times from the tripod in order for it to be charged. Usually, charging would occur between each new segment of the video, meaning that whenever the visuals changed to present something completely different, the background and main set piece of the mountain would unintentionally move position slightly, breaking contingency and visual flow.
Each segment of the video is a general reflection of the song lyrics. Therefore, the segments have to begin and end as soon as the corresponding song verses do, which means that timing is key. Overall, my video has been edited to meet this requirement very well, due to careful resizing and placing of each frame.
The main set piece of the mountain was constructed by shaping a large piece of cardboard into a cone, before sticking on scrunched up pieces of newspaper covered in kitchen roll, and painting it all silver. The man was created by spreading orange plasticine over a small wooden doll in order to determine the structure, while still enabling the figure's limbs to move. Ultimately, I would say that the set design eventuated rather well, and emitted a whimsical, childlike impression similar to my main inspiration. Although others disagreed, I do, however, feel as though the video would appear better if the background room was not within frame by having a backdrop big enough to cover the surrounding area.

In order to improve upon my video, I would most certainly implement a professional lighting setup, and stick the tripod legs to floor, so that the general appearance stays consistent throughout, and a strong level of contingency is present. I would also hope to have a backdrop that is large enough to cover up the background room.