I would need to research into my chosen themes as well as other music videos to take inspiration from. Before starting this project I had a rough idea of what I wanted my music video to look like, running with a sketch like theme. By having a sketch theme for the music video will enable me to get everything to flow but also showcase different animation techniques. I looked at similar videos with similar themes and began to take inspiration from them so I could use similar techniques within my video. A video I found was created by Galantis – Louder Harder Better (Lyric Video). Although very basic and it being a lyric video it still runs with the kind of theme that I want within my video, a sketch like theme with bright colours, something always going on within frame. Although a lot is going on within the frame sometimes the audience doesn’t get confused due to it being a lyric video they would need to follow along with the words on screen. The black background allows the sketch style, illustrations and bright colours to really stand out and this is something I am considering doing for my own work. So to follow on from this I would research other music videos with bright colours and sketch illustrations to get more inspiration from them to help with my work.

When thinking about what I should do for this project I came up with a few different ideas, each being a little different from each other. The first was a history app that would allow the user to construct old historic ruins and see what they would look like when they were first built. Using a sort of augmented reality to build the ruin, by pointing the phone at the ruin it would then be constructed on the phone for the user to see and enjoy. After looking into this idea I realised I wasn’t that interested in it and it would be very hard to design the app let alone make it work so I started to think of some other ideas. I then thought of doing an educational project for children, allowing me to test it at a school and make something that could teach people something which did interest me. The idea was to create a huge map that kids could stand on/in, using VR they could travel around the map and travel through history or learn about the romans and what they did during their reign etc. I would’ve created the map and the programme that would run on the VR for the kids. There are risks of children hurting themselves when using VR though and the map would take time to create. I was also thinking of using augmented reality for this project so they could walk around the map and see things pop up on the phone, however getting music and sound to match the augmented reality pop ups would be difficult unless I played them separately and might have been too much of an issue and could’ve gone wrong easily. Lastly and the idea I have decided to go with is an animated music video. With creating an animated music video I would be able to create it from scratch using multiple techniques to showcase my skills, I would also be interested in the project as I like music and creating something for an artist would be a great experience.

After researching some different music video briefs I then needed to decide which one I wanted to move forward with, I would need to take in every factor and see which one would allow me to not only create something that looked professional and fitted to the brief but something that I would also enjoy making with the potential of getting some feedback from either the artist or the targeted audience. I’d also take into consideration the themes that run within the song, the audience its aimed at and the style of music it is and if I would be able to come up with something that would match. After taking everything into consideration I have decided to go with the Royskopp brief. After listening to the song I could start to imagine what I wanted parts of it to look like, the fact its a fast paced electronic song but with meaningful lyrics allows me to explore many avenues and techniques within animation. I want to show a lot of techniques within the animation to showcase my skills and having a fast paced song will allow me to jump from one technique to another without it looking strange as many things are going to be happening within the video. The audience the song is aimed at is my age and would allow me to research into something that I’m not only interested in but something that is within my age group, not only this but I also enjoy the song which will allow me to be invested within the project as I am going to enjoy every aspect of it. With Royksopp not being too mainstream and the competition for their music video over I would not be able to showcase my work on Genero’s website. Like previously said with Royksopp not being too mainstream there is a possibility I would be able to contact them, send them my work and get some feedback from them the creators of the song, which would be a huge compliment to my work.

Before starting anything to do with my own music video I would need to research into some music video briefs Genero.TV has to offer. After looking through the site unfortunately there are no current live music video briefs as the site also has corporate briefs up for grabs. That being said there are some music video briefs that have already ended that did interest me, this does have its disadvantages a major one being that I cant enter the competition, my work wouldn’t be showcased on the website for people to see and I have no chance of potentially winning the competition let alone getting feedback from other people within the industry. So for this project I will be looking at the closed briefs and creating my work like it was still a live brief and instead trying to contact the creator/artist I decide to create a video for and see if I am able to get some feedback about my work. Taking all this into consideration I started to look at some briefs, listening to the song and seeing if I got some inspiration just from listening to the music and watching the official music video for each artist. After looking through many briefs I narrowed it down to 3 these include the following:

Galantis – “Louder, Harder, Better” – https://genero.tv/galantis/project

Royksopp – “Running To The Sea” – https://genero.tv/runningtothesea/project

Bombay Bicycle Club – “Lights Out, Words Gone” – https://genero.tv/bombaybicycleclub/

Once choosing three briefs and songs that I took an interest in I wanted to critically analyse them, to get a sense of the themes, audience and also the style of music.

Galantis are quite a mainstream group creating music within the electronic dance scene. With this style of music there would need to be a lot going on within a video to not only match with the fast beats of the music but to keep the audience entertained and you can see this within their previous videos. The brief says “the creative direction is being left completely open, so let the music be your guide.” The brief also states that this is a lyric video which instantly gives me less creative freedom as I would need to incorporate the words into the video as well as other techniques to show my skills within animation. It does however allow me to listen to the song and whatever inspires me at that moment can then lead to me creating it which is a huge bonus. The audience would obviously be people who like electronic dance but due to Galantis being a very mainstream group people that are fond of chart music, who are normally between the ages of 13-25 would also enjoy this song and due to the audience being quite young the video like said before would have to be engaging or the younger audience members would get bored and uninterested.

Royksopp are very similar to Galantis, although they are less renowned they also create music within the electronic scene however still have their own sound despite the similar styles. Although the music is fast paced with quick beats looking at their previous videos they try to tell a story within their music and also their videos. The brief like most of them is very simple, they are looking for someone to create a music video for their upcoming single which allows for complete creative control. The videos do not need to be fast paced and match the pace of the music but instead needs to give meaning to the lyrics to back them up and make them have more of an effect on the audience. Like said before due to the group not being as mainstream as the others I have picked their audience is a lot smaller, again people who like the electronic music genre and fans of the group however in general I would say their audience is a little older ranging from around 18-30 years of age. This is purely because they aim more for meaningful lyrics so people are able to connect with them instead of repetitive lyrics with a fasted past beat in the background, they aim for a more mature audience that can properly appreciate the music.

Lastly I chose Bombay Bicycle Club as they are a personal favourite of mine and It would be great to create something for one of their songs and get potential feedback from a group that I listen to. This style of music if completely different to the others I have picked as I wanted the choice of a little diversity and to not just stick with one genre/style of music. The genre they create music within is indie rock, not normally fast paced music this is more of a chilled out vibe which would allow me to explore different styles and themes within my work. Like Galantis they are quite a mainstream group and are normally within the charts when they create new material, this gives me a larger audience to appeal to and again some more creative control over other briefs like Royksopp. The brief is very simple it merely states they are looking for someone to create a music video for the selected song, which would allow me to look into a range of different techniques/skills and still keep to the brief. The audience would again be around 13-25 and looking at previous videos they like strong visuals that engage the audience allowing them to enjoy not only the music but the video as well. Not all the videos actually fit with the song which again works in my favour as it gives me a lot of avenues to explore.