Music Video Moodboard and Shot list

Music Video Moodboard and Shot list

I initially created a mood board to quickly put my concept and ideas down so that I could also share my ideas for my music video with others so I could get constructive criticism and have my idea expanded on.

I created a shot list as my previous research of Andrew Goodwin and my Survey responses showed that the visuals for my music video aligning with the lyrics would be important for the enjoyability of it, especially as it's a narrative music video and the lyrics help tell a story. 

After listening to the music I knew I wanted the visuals to also match up with the beat like how Goodwin discusses 'seeing the sound can be just as important as showing the lyrics, so for the fast-paced beat at the start that can be found throughout the entire song, I wanted 16 shots repeated to match those beats that told a story and convey the message I wanted to tell of modern life becoming very fast-paced and systematic. So I thought these 16 shots would show the different parts of the average person's day in chronological order and then convey this message. 

When it came to listening to the lyrics, I went through them on my screen written down while listening to them at the same time and pausing after each line when a different shot would be shown. I found this really effective as I could individually analyse each lyric and really think about how I would be able to display this very personalised message they were conveying to listeners about Sufjan's mother, and make it less individualised and niche but instead more relatable for any spectator. This did prove to be a difficult challenge for some of the lyrics more so than others. For example; the lyric "Such a funny thought to wrap you up in cloth" required a lot of thought and consideration which is why the shot I ended up deciding on was more symbolic than others as I shot a shoebox with photos of friends in being shut symbolising the end of a relationship and all the grief and memories being shut away subconsciously and physically. Therefore this shot was more symbolic than others. 

Overall I found the use of both the mood board and the shot list very helpful and effective. The mood board really helped me convey my ideas to others in order to get feedback to be able to further develop and improve my concept. The Shot list helped me when planning days I could film and what days/times I could film shots and efficiently cut down my filming time and also made a really useful checklist, as you can see in the screenshots I ticked off whenever I filmed that shot so I could easily see what I needed to film and what I didn't. I think these planning methods proved to be a lot more helpful than something I have previously used for planning, a storyboard. This is because this music video specifically required a lot of shots that weren't really continuous so therefore a storyboard would've been very time consuming and not as effective as the mood board was at sharing my ideas/concepts with others. It also wouldn't have worked as good as my short list was reminding me of what shots I needed to get.