Music Video Development

Song – “You and I” (Nobody in the world) by John Legend

Synopsis

For my music video media product I want to take a song that has lyrics conveying a love song sung from one person to another and reinterpret them as lyrics someone would sing to themselves. I want my music video to have themes of self-empowerment and to tackle themes of gender conventions by following the visual narrative of a boy struggling with his gender identity and accepting himself, this will be visually conveyed by the boy wearing makeup. I want to use video editing to incorporate cloning to show two versions of the same person in one shot to represent two sides of this individual, with one side singing the love song to the other to empower them.

Target Audience

My music video would be targeted towards a much younger audience such as teenagers between 14-21. My music video tackles themes of gender identity, self-empowerment and also the fear of being judged by society. I believe that these themes are very relatable to people of younger ages as many young people suffer from troubles with anxiety and discovering their own identity. Primarily my music video is targeted towards male viewers who may be struggling with their own gender identities or gender conventions that society may hold them to, however it can also apply to women also struggling with these themes. Overall my song is a song about self-empowerment and so the target audience is anyone having difficult with feeling comfortable with themselves and their identity.

Filming Ideas

I want my music video to be both a performance based music video and a narrative based music video, meaning there will be a visual narrative intertwined with shots of the music artist performing for the viewer. I want the performance-based shots to be filmed in the theatre at the college because there is a wide environment with lots of opportunities to convey a stage for the viewer. The visual narrative will take place at the main subject’s house; with both separate narratives eventually joining halfway through, with two versions of the same person interacting together. I hope to achieve this with masking techniques in Adobe After Effects, which I have already experimented with. I want the two versions of the person to be distinguishable by their mise en scene, with the performance version dressed smartly in a masculine suit in dark colours while the other version is dressed in lighter more gender neutral clothes and also wearing makeup to connote themes of femininity and challenge gender conventions.