Initial Concept

Two characters, a boy and a girl, are walking in two different natural locations. These are likely to be 1) The woods and 2) A Field/bridleway.
- Throughout the music video, we will cross-cut between the two to establish a narrative  for each character.

- There will also be a third location cut to throughout the video. This will be in a house. Throughout the video we will very slowly pan across a cork board that has a collage of photos of these two characters together. This will give an inclination that the two characters were in a relationship and the separation implies they have potentially broken up. There will be generic photos of the couple as well specific images prompted by the characters visiting certain locations individually. For instance, the girl may walk over a bridge which we will then cut to the cork board where the audience can see a photo of the two holding hands on the same bridge. This is just an example that demonstrates what we aim to achieve by cross cutting to this third location.

- Just to clarify, we have three characters/ locations we will cross-cut between. These are 1) The boy in the woods, 2) the girl walking through a field/ along a footpath and 3) the cork board in the house.

- At the end of the music video, the two characters will make their way to a beach and meet up together. We chose to reunite their pair because the lyrics to the song often include the phrase "a call for your pardon", implying forgiveness and reconciliation.

Annotated lyrics

Genre- shared codes and characteristics

The genre for our chosen song is acoustic pop/folk, this genre has many codes and characteristics within it in order for the target audience to identify it. One of the most prominent characteristic I saw when analysing music videos of similar genres was that they all use scenic and natural locations. Ben Howard's music video for Only Love involves many different locations which are a perfect example of this (A), natural forests, cliffs and waters were used. Other videos also do this however it may be more subtle, for example Let Her Go by Passanger, where there is a massive picture in the background of the stage depicting a sunrise over a forest (B). This still connotes the natural and scenic setting even in a performance music video which would be harder portray this characteristics, as most stages performance videos are made on are inside. Moreover Hey Ho by the Lumineers also develops this convention by although performing through a dark building, having flowers hanging from the ceiling (I), this again connotes a natural and scenic setting. Similarly Mumford & Sons song I Will Wait is performed in a massive stage where you cannot see outside, but they still manage to keep to this generic convention by having it in the prelude (C), so we assume that this is the location of the performance.
Another common characteristic I have identified is the genres use of lighting, it is often very delicate/'pretty' and used in a aesthetically pleasing way. In Passanger's Let Her Go fairy lights are used throughout the video, and especially in the big picture I mentioned that was on stage, because this made it more picturesque. More performance music videos of the same genre that does this is both Mumford & Sons (D), and the Lumineers songs (E), which both again use fairy lights, as I said earlier the settings are often natural and scenic, and that its difficult to have a performance music video outside. So these 'pretty' lights are used to consolidate this, as fairy lights construct connotations of stars, the natural and scenic connotations are still present without having to actually be outside in a rural location.
Furthermore the costumes of the performers are very simplistic and plain (F), this is a key signifier to the genre. Because for example in the Hip Hop genre the artists costume and their outfits are always extravagant and flashy so the artist can show off their money. However in the acoustic pop/folk genre artists costumes are less flashy and more humble, so the attention can be drawn to the music and artist(s) and the emotion in the songs. This can be seen in all 4 example music videos I have used.
The camera usually focuses on the main artist involved in the song- the singer, and usually the singer plays the acoustic guitar, therefore this places a lot importance on this artist and the audience should focus on the artists raw talent rather than anything else. Because nearly all bands/artists within the genre involve a acoustic guitar, it is a massive signifier to the genre so is commonly used. For example in The Lumineers Hey Ho, Passanger's Let Her Go and Mumford & Sons I Will Wait there are many varying types of shots of the artist holding their guitar and performing (G). Even in Ben Howard's concept music video he still dominates the screen time so the focus is on him.
There is also a specific style that the crowd within the music videos dance like (H), this mean that the target audience can identify and relate to this because they probably will have danced like that at a similar gig within the genre.
All of these characteristics, codes and conventions serve a purpose, Gunther Kress said that "Genre is 'a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a (frequently repeated) social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes'". This is implying that a genre is established and identified through repeating of certain characteristics, there are repeated characteristics within the setting, lighting, costume and dancing, therefore the music and music video is firmly placed within the genre for the audience to identify it. 
Christine Gledhill said that "Genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre", so once the boundaries are set on a genre it can be seen if those specific characteristics to the genre are successful. If the genre is successful a loyal audience is created, and they create a demand for the genre. This links in to what Nicholas Abercrombie said, "Economic factors may account for the continuation of a profitable genre. 'Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions... It... makes sound economic sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again. Teams of stars, writers, directors and technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale". When it is established that consumers have a demand for a genre, because they enjoy its characteristics, producers can then exploit this to get as much money and success as possible.

D

E

 

F

A

A

A

A

G

I

C

B & F & G

Applying Andrew Goodwin's theory

Applying Andrew Goodwins theory from ellasaund6

Conformation to use the song by the artist

Final song choice

Possible songs

 Strengths

The tempo has a structure, it is smooth and layered, like at 0.22 when the guitar gets louder and drums are added, so we could have a good narrative music video that has a story, in which we could put more visuals/add to the the story which mirror the layers within the music, also the clear beginning, middle and end, like the music fading in at the beginning, and fading out at the end. The music is of a high quality, and the are lyrics and clear and easy to understand, along with the clear structure like a chorus. this will make our video will look more professional.

Weaknesses

The chorus can be repetitive, however we could use this to our advantage when making our music video, by keep going back to a main theme or use it in another creative way. Its also 4 minutes long, which would mean to make a good quality and professionally looking music video, we would have to shoot a lot of footage and do a lot of editing. However to get around this we could fade the music out earlier as there are opportunitys to do so at around 3.20 till the end.

Strengths

There are many layers to this song, like at 0.34 backing vocals are added, or at 0.48 a violin is added, these especially happen at the beginning. This means we could have a clear introduction into our music video, adding more visuals as the layers come in, this clear synchronisation would make our video more complex and professional looking. Additionally the lyrics and melody set a clear slightly depressing tone in the beginning, but it then becomes more optimistic towards the end, therefore we would have a clear structure and story line to follow if we were to choose this for our music video. Also this song is one of our shortest out of the other possibilities, which means we probably wouldn't run the risk of running out of footage or ideas when planning

Weaknesses

This song stays at a slow pace throughout, without many dramatic changes, and without clear sections to it, this could make it difficult to convey an interesting and visually pleasing music video while also going at the same pace as it. Moreover the fact it has no clear sections means that it could be difficult to make definitive sections/chapters to our music video, which means it could look messy and unprofessional when it comes to editing it.

Strengths
The song has different moods and tones in its structure, like at the start its just  slow and mellow vocals and a guitar, whereas in the chorus she sings in a higher pitch, at a faster pace and a drum is added, which we could mirror in our video making it complex and visually pleasing because we would also change visual styles like the music does. Additionally the song its self has little components in it, of just vocals, a guitar and some drums, this simplicity could mean more attention would go to our visuals, meaning we could make it again more complex and have more subtle components in the visuals fr the viewer to pick up on. There is also a clear theme to the song that is love/heartbreak, the lyrics and tone easily identify this, it also sounds high quality, meaning the audience will quickly pick up on this so they will clearly know, what our mirrored visuals would represent.  

Weaknesses
The songs theme about love constricts us to most likely making a narrative video, because of the simplicity of the song a performance video could be more difficult to make because it could be boring and repetitive consisting of shots of just the singer, guitarist and drummer, making it not visually pleasing for the viewer, and meaning we couldn't creatively explore all ideas for a music video.

Strengths

The song has many different tones, paces and moods to it, like at 1.09 there is just deep vocals, but then it goes straight into a happy and faster paced ukulele melody, this means that we could make a very complex music video and explore many different locations, actors and props with it. This aslo means that there is a structure to follow. Furthermore the song itself is very stylised, you can clearly depict that the artists have a northern accent in the lyrics, therefore we could incorporate this and make our music video in their style, maybe use a well known location for the north of England, or find a different cultural signifier, this will make our music video more suited and pair with this band.

Weaknesses

The different tones, paces and moods could end up meaning that the song is too complex, especially when it comes to editing, and by that point we would have shot all our footage and it will be too late and our video would look unprofessional.

 Strengths 

This song has a catchy and memorable riff so would make it more pleasing for the audience when watching the video, also its themes including politics and the refugee crisis which is a current affair, this means we could make a music video about this theme, which would make it more memorable because people would be reminded about it in things like the news. Moreover if we were to do this our video would have a message to do with the refugee crisis, therefore would be more impacting compared to the other options for a music video. Furthermore this song has variety throughout and clear sections, which means that editing it would be easier.