Planning cinematography

You have provided a range of examples to support your justifications, on why you have planned to use a certain camera shot. But further explanation is needed of the effect it will create. This can be achieved by considering the style and narrative of your music video in further detail. 


Cinematography consists of the shots directed and seen by the audience throughout the music video. Without the crucial role of cinematography, the music video would not exist!  Therefore, it must fulfil the dual purpose of entertaining and informing the audience. 

During our group meetings we have discussed a variety of shots we would like to use. One of the shots we aim to use is a mid-shot of the artist performing which will act as a motif throughout. 

Mid-shot of artist

We aim to include a motif of our artist performing throughout and this will be in form of a mid-shot. This will ensure the audience will have a good understanding of who the artist is and potentially begin to build a relationship with the artist, therefore following Goodwin's theory. This shot will only show the artist from the shoulders to the waist therefore not allowing the audience to view the whole of her body. 

Close-up of guitar 

We have also discussed using various close-up shots of the guitar of which the artist will be playing. This will be used to present the artists talent to the audience whilst also exploring genre characteristics which commonly appear within Indie videos. I have archived the above images from Google. On the left is a close-up shot of the artist plucking the strings rather than displaying the chord they are holding whereas the image on the right-hand side shows the neck of the guitar and the chord out of focus with the audiences main focus upon the plucking. I personally like both of these shots as they achieve the sole purpose of engaging the audience whilst displaying Indie characteristics and the artists raw talent (all of which we aim to mimic throughout with all of the planned shots)

Establishing shot 

We believe it would be effective to include establishing shots of various locations we aim to use. These establishing shots will serve the dual purpose of making the shots flow evenly throughout whilst making the audience aware of the location they will see before the next sequence of shots which will consist of the artist and her love interest.  

On the right is a shot of Southbank skatepark which establishes on of the locations we would like to involve within our music video production (reasons why included within my setting post) We have been inspired by the various Google archives of the location and will therefore set out to achieve a similar shot to make our audience feel more involved and therefore enjoy our production more. We are particularly fond of this location because it attracts many young people who adopt a diverse image and also it relates to not only the Indie genre but also represents the boys thinking/destruction space.

Low-angle of boyfriend/high-angle of artist 

We have also discussed incorporating various camera angles within our music video. Camera angles are often explored throughout music videos of the Indie genre in aim to display a clear relationship and present issues of status. We have discussed that a low-angle shot of the boyfriend will depict his intimidating nature whilst a high-angle of the artist will convey her to be an individual who lacks status in their destructive relationship. 

We have specifically chosen cinematography which will be conventional to the genre of music we have selected: Indie.  The close-up shot we aim to include is of the artist playing guitar which is typically seen throughout Indie videos as it is the main instrument played to construct the song. It also expresses the artist to adopt a raw talent rather than the use of synthesisers often used in pop/dance genres where the audience would see images of a busy dance floor or vibrant flashing lights to create the desired effect of making the audience want to become involved with the party atmosphere depicted.