Intro to Music Video Project

      The commercial has been finished. Overall, I found the experience fun and very interesting. I found that storyboarding and filming were my strong suits. Storyboarding helped me visualize and narrow down my ideas on what to do for my commercial, which was extremely helpful to me. However, I found that actually appearing in the video and editing didn't work well for me. I will focus more on improving those skills while working on the upcoming project: the music video project. We have been assigned to make a short music video using a song of our choice.

      The song I chose is Cabinet Man by Neil Cicierega, who releases music under the name Lemon Demon. The genre of music Cicierega makes varies greatly, but many of his songs fall under synthpop. Synthpop is a form of new-wave pop music that heavily utilizes the synthisizer. Because of the genre fading into obscurity, there isn't a lot of music videos to go off of. At first glance, this may seem like a bad thing; however, I believe the lack of standards will give me a lot of creative freedom in how I film my music video. This was a big factor in why I chose Cabinet Man. The other reason was I have a clear idea of the story the song is telling and I think it'd be fun to try to express it through a visual medium.

     As previously explained, the synthpop music genre isn't one that usually appears in music videos, especially today. But, with the music videos that do exist, I was able to get a grasp on what basic elements need to be implemented into my video.

1) Costumes

    Many synthpop songs have a futuristic and techno feel to them. Because of this, most of the costumes are futuristic looking, relying on clothes with metallic color schemes. However, older synthpop music videos use more abstract and costumey outfits that have no relation to technology. I will rely more on the futuristic approach, though, because of the story of Cabinet Man.

2) Lighting

    Synthpop music videos use intense lighting. The video is visually very dark and is only lit with bright, vivid colors, like purples or reds. 

3) Actors

     The actors are often in character in synthpop music videos. However, their roles are often stoic characters that don't express much on their face, but express emotion through their movements.

4) Makeup

     The makeup is similar to the costumes, in a sense that most actors are given overblown and abstract looks. Although, some synthpop music videos are subtle with their makeup and only use eyeliner or eyeshadow.

5) Props

       Because of the technology theme present in synthpop, most music videos include computers or other forms of technology. Besides that, though, the stories told by synthpop music videos vary greatly, so there isn't really a set theme of props that are used. 

6) Setting

        The settings of synthpop music videos are a mixed bag, more so than any other aspect of the genre's mise en scene. Settings can include abandoned cityscapes, empty fields, cluttered rooms, or even just plain white backgrounds. This gives me a lot of creative liberties in where I can set my music video.