Animatics- Storyboarding

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Music Video Analysis- Delphic by Doubt

This video is the promotional video for the new single Doubt by Mancunian electro guitar band Delphic. This is the song we wish to use for our music video so it seemed wise to analyse this video first. The genre of the music is electro indie guitar music, I feel that the music itself is quite different to a lot of music out there and this is reflected in the music video, which is directed by Andrew Huang. The most obvious characteristic that sticks out is the use of lighting to really heighten the subjects and the music. It is the first image we see, of red led lights. This idea of strong, almost neon lighting is used throughout the whole video, it really works well with the genre, the next step we see it in, is after 10 seconds, with the introduction of a new instrument, there comes an introduction of new lights, this neon lighting highlights the genre of the music once again; capturing the essence of the music immediately. This relationship between the music and the visuals only increases throughout the video. The strange conceptual feel of the video is represented through different human subjects having all sort of animations built around them, squares on the blonde shaggy haired man start to appear on his face around 32 seconds in, and then build until the end of the video. This idea is quite off the wall and seemingly insignificant to the lyrics but they fit with the music. Furthermore in the chorus the director really effectively uses lighting to heighten the senses, to create this feeling of rise in the chorus’s tempo. In the second verse, the building of what i can only describe as animations on the body, develop more, the pace of the movement sits well with the pace of the music, while the movement of the people is slow, the animations are quite fast, it is only by 1 minute 55, where the pre chorus begins that the music slows a bit and the movements are really emphasised, this works tremendously well, and is a similar idea to what we might use for sections of our video. This slow pace movement idea is very similar to their past two videos, for singles Counterpoint and This Momentary, where the filming and editing is quite slow paced. However the editing in this video is not always slow-paced, it is effectively timed to the music in many of the sections of the video, including the introduction and the break between vocals; most significantly however in the instrumental and bridge sections. These sections start at 2 minutes 36 seconds, it starts with the slow pace, before rapidly moving into the led lighting effects that were used previously, once again these effectively work in time with the music, the pace of the editing is still slow. The movement of the the subjects is still slow. However it is the break at 3 minutes 4 seconds that we really see the timing pay off, the editing is quick in time with the beat, while the movement of the subjects is even faster working with the instruments in the song, this is possibly the most effective and outstanding bit of the video. It certainly is my favourite. What follows is the instrumental solo, which still has the pace of the music high but the visuals are slowed again, however this contradiction works well with the music. As a viewer you feel a sense of climax at this point therefore it leads you into that sense of bewilderment and wonderment that is well represented in this section. When the final chorus comes in, the editing is much faster, switching between the different subjects faster, there is now much darker lighting, but the effective use of moving image lighting that we see on the subjects face, give the idea of rave/party feel which works extremely well with the music. lashing to the introduction of the song that straight away gives us that connection. This montage is interlinked with images of LED lighting again, and finally the last few seconds of footage feature fast paced editing of the subjects back to normal in the original white/grey lighting from the start of the video, this gives it the rounding edge, bringing it to the end. The idea of different subjects in this video give you that notion of looking, but we are being welcomed to look at these people, so it is not strictly voyeurism. A majority of the time the subjects are directly looking at the camera, as if they were speaking to us, the lack of clothing and quite morose look on their faces give a sense of vulnerability to them, which comes through in the lyrics. However what I find interesting is there is no feature of the band members at all, no instruments or anything, which is a feature of all their music videos, however this is a good thing, a difference, which will also work in our video. I think this video is quite extraordinary, it has positive aspects to it, like the clever editing to the pace of the music and the lighting effects, however I feel the concept of the video is quite strange, the non-existent look on the subjects faces give an eerie sense of unknowing, this is well representative of the lyrics of the song, and of the band, but it doesn’t stop me having the sense of confusion. However I think it is effective in portraying their music style and their song.

Lyrics and Song Structure

Above shows the lyrics and our notes for the way we interpreted these lyrics. This showing of lyrics gives me the opportunity to explore some more of our ideas. Particularly the intro, during our meetings we had discussed this intro many times. Originally we were going to use these electronic voices and make the people in the video lipsync these words. However to create a theme of disambiguation in the video, we thought we could work with the editing to create a sense of loneliness for the main character, he will be placed central in the shot, while others are around him dancing, he seems to stick out, looking odd against the crowd. This crowd of people will be cut in and out of shot, edited in time with the music however, hopefully creating a really slick effect. The rest of the lyrics will be simply lip synced. In the verses we will create the effect of conversation between him and another. The lyrics he lipsyncs will look like he is talking. setting up the "meeting stage" between the two. The chorus will be lip synced towards the camera at this stage, putting the emphasis on his doubt and regret.

Our Song and initial Ideas

The choice of song was made after we made our first responses to the music. Due to its electro techno feel all of us had similar ideas about setting and lighting but the crux of the idea was based upon the chorus lyrics and title of the track. "Doubt, in it all for me I've hit the wall, all thats left for you is Doubt" is the main lyric that really stuck out for me. My initial response was to play on the idea of doubt, how you can regret your actions. This is the basis for our music video. We decided that to focus too much on narrative would not create a good music video however and that differentiation would need to occur as much as possible, making it more interesting and exciting to view. The next stage for us is to develop the idea, using the music to influence us as well as the existing music videos of the band.