Getting That FIlm Look With DV Cameras

For my music video i really want parts of it to have that look of film, such as in the My Bloody Valentine's video for "Feed Me With Your Kiss" (The video can be viewed here). I really like the look of it, and it draws on the genre conventions of psychedelic rock music videos and gives the video a "vintage" feel which is currently very popular. However, i am going to be using a DV camera.

After researching it, what people on forums and advice websites suggest is keeping down the frame rate to 24 frames per second, because that's what 35mm film is shot in, planning the lighting well so that it the censor in the camera has to compensate in an extreme way, and using film and colour effects to get the right look in my editing process. Other sources suggest manually controlling the aperture and exposure levels on the camera whilst shooting.

iMovie Video Effects Trials

I am going to be using Apple's iMovie software to edit my music video. One of the codes and conventions of psychedelic rock music videos are strange video effects, so i thought I would do a trial video to try out what effects I can create on the piece of software, and what they look like when they are compressed into web streaming quality.

The effects I like the most are the "Colour TV", "False Colours", "Newspaper" and "Edges".

My Brief

The band that i am going to be making a music video for are are Bristol based physchadelic rock band called Fly Honey Warehouse. They would like me to make a video for their song "Pick Me Up (To Go, Please)".

I have spoken to the band about the purpose of the video, and they want a promotional video for their myspace page, and to put the video on youtube to direct possible events managers and PR people towards. The video should promote their alternative image and should draw on conventions of their psychedelic roots and be a combination of performance and concept based elements. The target audience for the video will be later teens (16+).

The lyrics to the song are as follows:

Do you know how it feels,

To phase out from what is real?

I need a pick me up to go,

'Cos if theres no lights then there's no show.

And I'd give you whats mine to share,

But you wouldn't even care.

All the little things I hold,

How can i trust they won't get bought and sold out,

Cast away their souls just torn out?

And you,

You aren't the one for which I care.

But you're the only one,

Who's really there,

In this old heart of mine

Now i'm just going through a hard time,

A hard time.

"Going To Hell" The Brian Jonestown Massacre

BJM- Going to Hell

"Ladies Of The World"- Flight Of The Conchords

I chose this video because I feel it follows most of Andrew Goodwin's six music video conventions.

The visual/lyric matching runs throughout as this is where the comedy element is created. For example, when they are listing different types of women, they show them (but are only actually showing 2 or 3 women on a loop)

"All You Sexy Hermaphrodite Lady Man Ladies"

The video follows Genre characteristics of comedy music videos. There are comedy elements to the video, created by parodying the 70s and the folk/jazz genre.

There are intertextual references to the era of the 70s- roller skating and sun-kissed film style colours. This creates a very memorable stylisation to the video and add to the surrealism of the video.

There are close-ups of the stars of the video as they sing, parodying conventional music video stars, in poses and pulling strange expressions etc

The music video is very fitting to the genre and tone of the musical content of the song. The overall brightness of colour and lighting and the general lighthearted nature of the video strongly reflects the song's message ("If all the soldiers in the world put down their guns and picked up a lady, the world wold be a much better place").