Music Video Planning

After watching various Bruce Springsteen music videos, I have found out that "the Boss", as he is universally known, wears a different range of clothing, such as t-shirts, shirts, jackets etc. This is because his genre and style of music is so huge that the different clothes he wears compliments the different styles of music, such as a cowboy-styled shirt for a country-style song.

 The "Jacket" Look

 The "T-Shirt" Look

 The "Country" Look

 The "Shirt" Look

Another "Jacket" Look



However, after watching the music video "The Wrestler", which is the song I am planning on doing, Bruce seems to go for the "Jacket" look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6smwWg8bc

I think this "look" suits the theme and style of the song as, in my opinion, it is quite a cold song and the jacket suits it very well.

 The jacket that he is wearing looks very padded and warm. He is also wearing some sort of chain around his neck.

 The jacket looks like it is leather.

Not the best of shots but the jacket suits the song style.

Props

For my music video I am going to need the following props:

• An Acoustic Guitar
• A stool (for the actor to sit on in certain scenes)
• A bench (maybe)

For my music video I am going to use a number of different locations. I have taken some photos of the possible locations that I am going to use, however I am still looking for other locations.

Locations

Beach

I like this location as it is quite secluded, which suits the theme of the song.

When the tide is up, the actor could be standing on the shore looking out at the crashing waves. As the muisc fades in, at the start of the video, the actor could be looking out to sea, but be out of focus, and then is in focus once the music picks up.

By using the Rule-of-Thirds, the actor could stand just off to the side of the screen, making the castle look impressive. Also, I could use Depth of Field to focus on the castle and then onto the actor.

In this shot, the actor could have his back to the camera and be looking out to sea. The Rule-of-Thirds could be used to make the location more interesting as the actor would not be directly in the centre of the frame but rather just off to the left or right of it.

This location would be good as the actor could be leaning against that railings looking out at the boats and this would hopefully give the viewers the idea that he is contemplating about his life, which would suit the song very well.

Castle

From this location the actor can see the castle and the harbour. I like this location as the actor can stand in front of the camera and look out over the castle and boats.

This is another shot of the castle and harbour.

This bench could be used by the actor to sit on as he plays his guitar.

I like this shot as the actor could walk down the road, away from the camera, as the music fades in.

Whilst the music is fading out, at the end of the song, the actor could walk down the lane and disappear from view. 



Back Lanes

Throughout the video shots of the actor walking around/thinking about life will be mixed in with shots of him playing the guitar.

This is another location where the actor could walk down at the end of the song.

I am thinking of using the song "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen for my music video as I really like the song and believe that I can make a very good music video to accompany it. The song is quite slow and I feel that it goes well with a bleak winter's day, which is good as winter is coming up. Also, I feel that the actor in the video could wear a big thick jacket as he walks along a desolate/bleak beach on a cold and windy morning. It is an acoustic song, which means that the locations must not be big urban areas as this would be unsuitable, but it should include shots of the beach and countryside as these go with the feel and style of the song.

Possible Locations

• Beach (on a winters day when the sea is really rough and crashing against the shore)
• Countryside/country lanes (maybe with damp roads running through them)
• Cliff (with camera looking out to a rough sea)
• Places with street lamps

This is a short film I made using the images that I took whilst trying to find suitable locations:

Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

1. Music videos demonstrate gene characteristics/conventions (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band)

The “Streets of Philadelphia” is written and sung by one person so the conventions within the music video reflect this, as it shows the singer, who is on his own, walking down the street. The clothing and imagery that are used are typical of the 1990s and help to set the scene for the tone of the song.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)

The visuals in the music video "Streets of Philadelphia" both illustrate and amplify the lyrics. An example of when the visuals illustrate the lyrics, can be seen around 2.13 as the lyrics say "Night is falling", whilst the visuals show daytime turning to night. Another example of this can be when the lyrics say "I walked the avenue", and it shows Bruce Springsteen walking down an avenue. Also, the majority of the lyrics are being sung on screen by Bruce Springsteen, which can be used as a way of amplifying the lyrics as they are not only being heard, but are also being seen by the audience. Since the song is about the "Streets of Philadelphia", every shot features the streets of Philadelphia as a way to emphasis the meaning of the lyrics.

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals

The visuals in the music video "Streets of Philadelphia" are either illustrating or amplifying the music. For example, there is a very distinctive bass line in the song and it corresponds with the visuals, i.e. in some scenes, the beating of the drum is in time with Bruce Springsteen’s footsteps as he is walking along the street. Also, when there is no singing in some parts of the song, the camera moves away from him and shows shots of parks and schools in Philadelphia as though trying to emphasise that there is no singing at this stage of the song.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work (a visual style)

In the music video, the majority of the shots are medium close-ups of the singer as he walks along the street. Most of the shots in the music video are quite dark and they show a lot of run-down areas of Philadelphia and this is reflected in the album cover as it only features Bruce Springsteen and the colours are dark, which reflect the sombreness of the song.

5. There is frequent reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)

In this music video, there are no main female characters as the protagonist is the singer, Bruce Springsteen. However, there are shots of females in the background yet they are not filmed in a sexually suggestive way or in fact wearing any sexually suggestive clothing as this does not really fit in with the genre of the music video. During some shots, Bruce Springsteen looks directly into the camera and this allows there to be a more intimate relationship with the audience as it seems that he is singing to them.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

The costumes used in the music video are typical everyday clothing that was worn during the period that the music video was filmed, which is the 1990s; the song was released in 1994.