I contacted the record company associated with Fightstar in order to gain permission to use "Hide and Seek" as the song for my music video. They responded within a couple of hours stating that I should go ahead with the project, wishing me luck along the way.
Here's what I sent in the email to them:
"Dear Raw Power Management,
I'm wondering whether you can help me with a query regarding 'Search and Destroy Records' - I understand that this was a venture from Raw Power Management when Fightstar recorded their album 'Be Human'. I need to gain permission to use a song that was recorded as a B-Side on their single "The English Way" (Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap) for my A2 Media Studies coursework.
I was wondering whether you could give me any advice on how to go about contacting this label or whether in fact it is the correct thing to do.
I'd appreciate any help you could give me regarding this matter,
Jack Williams - Year 13 Student at The John Roan Sixth Form, London"
Here's their response:
"Hi Jack,
Yes we deal with this – this is fine. Good luck with your project.
This is a song with a lot of emotion in both the lyrics and the music. The song has also a 'bouncing' rhythm which I think would be perfect for a ballet style dance. I have already secured a dancer to choreograph the dance routine and perform in the video.
How I would link this to a potential storyline would be by introducing two characters, one male and one female to sit by a piano, watching the dance as a metaphor for their relationship. So perhaps some semi-dramatic 'falls' from the dancer would be appropriate as this would correllate with the relationship problems that would be shown beforehand.
I would like to start the video with perhaps the couple arguing or just sitting in silence. I would ideally like to film all scenes in the same setting in order to be more efficient. I could even get the whole video shot in one day with the correct planning.
I've decided to change again what I'm going to produce as my main task. It's a complete change in direction as I'm changing the song and shooting in a completely different style.
I've decided to do this because I feel as if my ideas for the previous song had grown stale. I'd really gone off the whole storyline that I created, even though I had shot a few scenes and put them together to form a 30 second video.
I want to now film a music video that still has a storyline of sort, but it will be much more implicit to the viewer. The narrative would have to be deconstructed in order to fully understand what is occurring. It will be a challenge but it is one I am going to relish.
The song I have chosen is "Hide and Seek" - Fightstar. This was originally written by Imogen Heap but was recorded as a B-Side on their single "The English Way".
This music video circulates around Charlie Simpson, the band's lead singer and a female character, of whom he is in a relationship with or has been in the past. This is communicated through the close ups of the two at the start of the video. The fast pace transition between Charlie and the girl's face shows that they are in some way linked to one another. The facial expression of the girl is seductive, whilst Charlie's face is focused and stern as he focuses more on singing the lyrics in the song. This gives the impression that he is disconnected from the girl and perhaps the relationship.
This growing distance between the two is shown through the lack of colour saturation in the video footage. The desaturation shows a lack of spark in the relationship and a lack of passion betweeen the two. This is something I wish to achieve in my own music video, perhaps going even further and filming the whole video in black and white.
The mise-en-scene in this video also displays a dying relationship as the band are all dressed in black or dark grey suits as if they were going to a funeral. The dark room the band are playing in also empahsises this as there is a neat contrast, at one particular point in the video, between the girl's pale white skin and the dark room and the suit Charlie is wearing. (0:43)
The editing is something to be admired. Facial expression is a key part of this music video and it is conveyed through some skillful editing. To cite one time-frame in particular where this is most effective (0:48-1:10) - the girl looks like an innocent young lady; when her facial expression changes we see the effects the relationship has had on her. She suddenly becomes dispondent and
nothing like the innocent young girl we previously saw. The use of black and white footage furthers this change in character.
So far, this is the closest example I have found in relation to what I want to achieve. I won't be able to achieve the professional editing, but I believe I can create something that has the same effect on the audience as this music video, through the use of mise-en-scene and tecnhical elements such as close up shots and editing the music video into black and white.
The video for 'Handwritten' shows how one record can pass through many different pairs of hands, with each person that previously owned the record having their own individual story as to how they got their hands on the record. This is shown throughout the video via elipsis, as we see around fifty years pass in the space of four minutes.
The title of the song is shown implicitly throughout the video with the use of close ups on handwriting and the messages within the writing; this relates to the lyric "... I'm in love with the way you're in love with the night. It travels from heart, to limb, to pen"- as the theorist Andrew Goodwin would state, this is a way of engaging the audience with not only the video, but the song being played.
The shift in time is also shown through the change in mise-en-scene throughout the music video. The video starts in what appears to be the late 50s/early 60s in an American garage, with a musician playing on a Fender Stratocaster that would have been particularly popular at the time. The musician is dressed in typical 1950s/60s wear, with Levi jeans and a denim shirt. The audience in the venue are all dressed similarly too, which highlights how music in the 50s/60s influenced a lot of young people. The audience (watching the music video) would be able to relate this to today's music industry.
The music video uses performance shots to directly associate the band with what is occurring in the main narrative. The lead singer, Brian Fallon, shows a lot of emotion when he is singing along in the video - which draws the two parts of the video together. The mise-en-scene in these scenes furthers this as they are in an old house, but dressed fashionably in today's clothing. This implies that there is a link between the characters in the main narrative and the band itself within the context of the music video.
There is a patriarchal element to the early parts of the music video, whereby the men are dominant in the narrative, i.e. the musician, the boy-come-man who goes to war, the Father who gives the record away and the band itself (all of whom are male) - this however, does change towards the end of the video as the boy who receives the video grows up to be nothing much at all and ends up selling his records to a woman behind a counter in a record-store. This is a comment on how society has changed from the days of the 1950s, whereby a man would buy a girl a pretty dress and take her dancing (as seen in the music video by the audience) to the society today whereby women are very much liberated and can act of their own accord, not necessarily you're typical housewife or prim and proper girlfriend as shown in the music video.
This is a heartwarming video, which has a deep narrative. In my music video for "Hide and Seek" I would love to recreate the emotion generated from this music video.
So this is the second time I have done a post in this fashion. I'm beginning to think about the setting for my music video (again).
I want the video to include shots of central London as this gives the two characters already something in common (their national identity) - the viewer will begin to see the similarities between the two and begin to think about what could happen further down the line.
I also want some shots of the two characters on public transport, perhaps even on the same carriage but still in split screen.
I don't want to change the location of the shot throughout the video as I think it will lose a sense of flow and meaning. It has to convey a sense of real time.
Over the past few days I've been thinking to myself whether I am going in the right direction with my music video. Although I think that the footage I shot in the summer is of good quality, I just don't think I quite like the idea anymore. Not only that, in terms of practicality I have some major issues.
My actor lives in Manchester so the only time I can film with him in the shot is over the Christmas period and let's be honest, we both aren't going to have the time available to shoot a full music video.
No worries though, as I have a plan 'B' that I will set out in brief bullet points...
The video will center around two main characters, one male and one female
They both will be from London and aged around 20/21
Both of the characters will be having bad days and this will be shown in a split screen style
Similarities and contrasts will be shown via split screen
I eventually want the split screen to disappear as they both come closer to each other throughout the day
And, in the end they'd live happily ever after as they are both as misfortunate as one another
In order to achieve this I will have to get someone else to film the bits of the music video that I am in as I feel that I am a good enough actor to convey the emotion necessary in this music video. I will film the parts that do not have me in them.
I aim to get this all filmed by January/early February. I don't have much time at all between now and the editing process but I am 100% certain that I will produce a high quality piece of work.
