RESEARCH...

Principle Photography:
From my initial research, I found artists such as Roman Fischer, Hurts and Elton John to be the most successful and well-known with the Piano Rock genre. Therefore, I am going to watch several of there videos in the hope of gaining inspiration for my groups own through analysis of mise-en-scence, lighting and variety of camera shots.

• Roman Fischer:

Probably the most useful as he, along with Hurts, is one of the more modern artists and therefore more relevant to a Vanessa Carlton song.

Roman Fischer- Lightscapes

If it were up to me, I would definitely construct a music video of this style. I absolutely love the metaphorical repetition, slow motion and eery darkness used to portray the message of the song. The video has been created without taking the lyrics literally. For instance when the line: 'so walk along with me' is sung, this video's director did not have two people walking along together- he depicted the inner turmoil of being left alone in a mirrored room. I would love to design a more artistic video such as this one, however aware I am working in a group and having to be considerate of other members thoughts and opinions on what direction to take the video- we are going to construct a very literal video with lots of walking- 'A Thousand Miles.'

The long tracking shot from 0.48-1.02 is my favourite feature of the video.

• Hurts

Hurts- Stay

 

I have to say, my favourite shot of this entire video is the downwards tilt/establishing shot right at the very beginning- the location is fantastic. I would love to mimic something like this but to find a location like that would be very difficult! Again, as in Roman Fischer's video, there seems to be a really strong artistic vibe. The dancers are a great touch- irrelevant to the lyrics of the song but used all the same to convey the message. I think dancers are a feature we could easily incorporate. Not only do we have several friends of the group studying dance or dancing as their hobby, but we could ask one of the GCSE classes to possibly allow us to film their Set Piece. It's just an idea and I may put it to the group at the next group meeting.

• Elton John:

Elton John- Your Song

In terms of video analysis, I don't think that this one will be as helpful as the other two seeing as music videos were constructed rather differently in 1970! However, I don't think I could have fully researched the principle photography without seeing what videos Piano Rock legends like Elton John had made seeing as they undoubtedly would have influenced the more recent artists of the genre. The central focus appears to be on the piano and it incorporates several track and pan shots too. These are conventions that I don't doubt will feature in the group's video.

Having conducted this research, I know have a much clearer idea as to what the genre creates in terms of video. I plan to discuss the idea of not taking the lyrics so literally with actions as I don't see any evidence for this as a convention from my research. But if this is what the majority would prefer then I am happy to go along with it.

Lily-May Smythe