Research music video 7 : LP- Tokyo Sunrise (2014)

Genre: Indie rock
Style: Performance based

The opening shot of the music video starts with a long shot of the singer walking across the stage which can possibly be used in order to show the audience who will be performing. The costume that the singer is wearing is very simple and casual. What is interesting about this shot is that there is minimal colour and the star's face is not shown, as the dim light is coming from behind her, and this makes her appear like a silhouette. I personally really like this shot and I believe we could use something like that within our own music video, as it can also represent the star, or the actor in a very interesting and possibly a mysterious way, as I believe it can enhance the character that the performer is trying to achieve.
The use of a casual costume that is in darker tones follows indie conventions as they are usually low budget, therefore they are not custom made,or extremely expensive.


Strauss binary opposite theory can be applied to this music video, however, it would not be adhered to. The star image is mostly shown as a silhouette, however, she is not  an evil character at all, as she is just a performer, and therefore, I believe that this way of filming is used to spark interest within the viewers as to what does she look like, or what will happen next? I believe that using shots like that will be beneficial for our music video, however, not as much as in this music video, as we need to show the face of the star that we are launching to create a relationship with our desired TA.
The movements that the star makes within this music video are very relaxed and look like they weren't posed, and happened naturally as part of the performance. Using such naturalistic moves creates an extremely believable star image, which is what we are trying to achieve, that is why we want to include such shots as well.
  
Apart from the singer, there are no characters or any concepts of a narrative in this video, that's why the only other people in the music video are performers. I believe the reason why they are in the video is because they bring in intertextual references to the lyrics that mention Tokyo, as these are traditional Japanese drums that the performers are using. The deeper connections between the visuals and the music are really interesting, and I feel that we could definitely create something like that as well.

However, what is interesting about the costumes that they are wearing is that all of the drummers are blindfolded, which could possibly represent being unaware of what is ahead, of being unable to see the light/future. Or it could also possibly mean blindly following something/ someone, for example the singer in this video.

The use of such an effect can possibly portray two sides to a situation, or two different thoughts/ self conflict about a situation. I believe this is a really interesting symbolic way to portray something like that.
I   feel that this effect looks very interesting in this video not only because of what it represents, but the simple aesthetics of it.
 (I would definitely consider using such an effect in my own music video, possibly to represent self doubt.)

Because the mise-en-scene in this video is minimalistic, there is not much that can be changed, yet the change of colour made a drastic difference to the look of the video.

What is interesting within this music is that something as minimal as changing the colour of the background has such a huge effect and impact. The sudden change to the bright orange hue can represent the 'sunrise' which the song is named after and how strong it is.' we'll see the same sun on the rise' can be the link between the visuals and the lyrics, which is a music video theory by Goodwin that can be applied to this music video at times.

After a long time of only being able to see the silhouette of the singer, a few brief close up shots of her face are shown that reveal to the audience her facial expression and how she is expressing her emotions through the singing. 
I believe that these rare shots are very powerful and have a big impact as they are not seen every second, which adds interest to the music video.



What I noticed throughout this music video is that although the singer's face is seen a few times, she always has her eyes closed and therefore the audience never gets to see them.
I believe this can be linked to the Goodwin theory that states there is a link between the visuals and the lyrics, as she always has her eyes closed possibly because within the lyrics it repeatedly says 'I'll see you again' or 'We'll see-' which can represent that as long as she cannot see the person, she will not look at all. Or it could be linked to the name in the simplest way that the sunrise would be blinding to look at, so it is best to have your eyes  closed.

The final shot in the music video is another shot with effects which shows the artist leaving from both sides. This could imply that there was two ways to achieve/perform something and there would be two outcomes, that is why there were two of them who left.

What I found most interesting about this music video is the use of very simple effects and how the minimal use of some shots can make them very important when they do end up on the screen, such as the close ups of her face and how rare they were in comparison to the silhouetted shots of her full body.

How this research influenced my planning and creativity:

• I really want to try and use lighting to create similar silhouette effect on a performer, although it depends whether it would suit my genre
• The use of props/ movements that could represent lyrics
• interesting effects, such as the mirrored effect on the singer