Research & Planning: Location

The subway tunnel idea was something that we all visualised within the first listen to the song. The pace and mood of the song was imaginable in subway tunnel atmosphere, with our artist walking down in the centre. When we visited the tunnel, the lighting in the tunnel was enough to give off that dark and mellow look we wish to achieve.   

Our second location is going to be the drama studio in school. The reason behind this is we found that the lighting and the studio in general prompted an effective location for our character considering her pale skin and blonde hair, which would contrast against the black. The lighting again was another aspect that provided a useful input to our filming, as it looked really good.

Other location shots

Research & Planning: Dr Who? (Cast)

In terms of casting, we have decided on a girl called Kitty. We came across the conclusion that she would be the perfect candidate for this role, mainly because of her unique dress sense, confident personality and visual similarities which resembled the lead singer in London Grammar, also known as Hannah Reid.


We concluded the outfit would demonstrate a vintage vibe which complements the theme of the song and is relatively similar to what Hannah Reid herself would wear. Make up, itself would be relatively simple as it would allow the audience to focus of diverse aspects of the music video, as well as the artist. 

Textual Analysis: Boom Clap Charli XCX

‘Boom Clap’ is a song by British recording artist Charli XCX, released as the first single from the soundtrack album of The Fault In Our Stars (2014) and will also be featured ion XCX’s studio album Sucker which is to be released on the 21 October 2014.

The accompanying music video for ‘Boom Clap’ was directed by Sing J. Lee, it was filmed in Amsterdam and premiered on the 2^nd June 2014. It features a new master of the song with slightly different production, which was released as the main single in the UK.

This video opens with visual that are complemented to the audio sound of XCX shouting ‘BOOM BOOM BOOM CLAP’ before we come across the instrumental of the song. The video opens with an establishing shot of Amsterdam which is accompanied by the first ‘BOOM’, this then follows on with a flash revealing XCX’s name overlaid on the establishing shot which is in sync to the second ‘BOOM’. The final ‘BOOM’ occurs with a close up shot of XCX’s face on the camera (breaking the fourth wall) with aspiring text from overlaying this shot from the film The Fault In Our Stars. The final mid shot has XCX standing in front of the river with her shouting ‘CLAP’. The fact that the ‘BOOM’ has been said three times in this introduction acts as a drum roll with the ‘CLAP’ being the end of a drum roll. It introduces the song in a unique way with the use of visuals that follow the pace of this introduction, efficiently allowing the song and the artist to be introduced.

Through the instrumental at the beginning of the song, the artist has been portrayed in many different shots, enabling viewers to full take in the artist and publicise XCX. Different aspects of the artist enable viewers to see different sides of her, for instance in one shot she is smiling and in the other she is just walking. Also the location, the location is very important in this music video as it takes in consideration the film The Fault in Our Stars. A great chunk of the film was shot in Amsterdam, as the two make a surprise trip. It is considered that majority of the best scenes in the film are in fact in Amsterdam, with the artist visiting those places suggests the artist perhaps telling their story as well as a means of publicising the film.

XCX sitting on a boat on the river, her eyes are currently closed but when the song comes across its single beat, her eyes shot open. When the next beat comes around the corner, the scene suddenly changes. This suggests that the visuals move in sync to the sounds in this song, as this song is quite heavy with the drum and the beat, the sound gives the video an opportunity to fit in more visuals that involve both the artist and the film, suggesting that this song is about the two people in the film.

Features of this music video involve shots of XCX not singing at all to the lyrics, this is something similar to what we wish to achieve. It allows the video to look more realistic and less Hollywood glam. This is because the time of when this was filmed was quite cold, but the general nature of the music video involves the realistic element, which again can be contributed to the idea that the artist is telling the story of Hazel and Augustus. It also allows viewers to differentiate between the two footages of scenes from the film and shots from the music video.

The bridge of the song is slower in terms of beat compared to the verse and chorus. Therefore, the visuals would have that same effect. For instance, this lights and dissolves of one shot to another creates that slowed down, dream - like aurora. This ties in to the film, The Fault in Our Stars, as this dream- like feeling is what Hazel and Augustus must be feeling as they are in love with each other. This represents the stereotypical idea of everything slowing down at the sight of your crush. 

The music video features clips and visual associations to the film, The Fault in Our Stars. Being the song that features in the film, it is only right some clips feature in the music video. Clips from the film featuring in this music video provides a wide and broad approach in publicising the film, the mere act of XCX being in that exact location (Amsterdam) where the most vital scenes of the film was shot. The song itself expresses on these clips featured in the music video as the words itself ‘Boom’ ‘clap’ elicit a thump sound of the heart, portraying the emotion of love, which is done so by these specific clips chosen for this music video.

Textual Analysis: Kings of Leon Beautiful War (uncompleted)

Beautiful War by the American Rock band, Kings of Leon is from the album Mechanical Bull. The band released the Official Video for 'Beautiful War' on November 22, 2013. The song has been described by the Guardian as "a slow-grower about love and fighting," and a "distant cousin of U2's With or Without You". "Beautiful War" was released as a single exclusively in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2013 and June 16, 2014 respectively.

The ‘Beautiful War’ music video is a story that chronicles two men and a woman who go out for a drink at a country bar and the repercussions of jealousy. There are scenes of dancing, fighting brothers, a long walk of shame for an inmate dressed in a black-and-white cowboy outfit and a mechanical bull. It all adds up to a story, and at the end of the clip, the cliched warden character, claps in approval.

The video opens with a shot of the two characters who are romantically involved with each other. This mid shot of the two characters in the car does not complement with any music and acts as an opening to the video like a prologue in a book.

 A close up shot of the character doing chin ups in a jail room, along with this behaviour we come across an instrumental introduction to the song that begins as soon as the scene changes from the previous scene above. The idea of the man doing some sort of exercise creates awareness to his masculinity and hard set of tone, almost frightening persona. This gives the impression that this man is good in combat and the following events will in fact show this man in combat.

We come across a close up of an image taped on a dusty old looking mirror; the picture involves two men and one woman, one of the men obviously being this man. The man picks up the picture to take a closer look at it. A mirror is a reflection of a person, whether it be their true nature or just a simple reflection. This similar concept can be used for this; the mirror having this picture on it could be a reminder or a reflection of the past. During this scene we come across original aspects of the song such as guitars rifts on top of the on-going tune.

These scenes reflect on the past, they are flashbacks of what had happened before the man is where he is now. In terms of music, we are still on the instrumental opening of this son as it does have a very long introduction. But this gives the video a great opportunity to express the bond these three have. There is also chatter over the music which again can be considered a part of the reflection or vivid flashback. 

Research and Planning: Shotlist

This detailed shot list contains a section of the music video for filming and editing purposes, it follows suit a chronological order of the music video which is devised by our production team.

Research & Planning: Treatment

The concept of our music video involves and artistic and abstract approach. We will have two locations in which the progression of the music video would flick back and forth between these two locations. 

Through the use of two dark lit atmospheres portrayed by the dark, lowed ceiling tunnel and the dark studio like set we wish to achieve, we have a chance of achieving this dark yet artistic mood of the song.
By using some objects that are evidently mentioned in the lyrics such as rose and red sand mentioned in these lyrics ‘Turn away and kick out the red sand’ or ‘Black rose, dusty roads and a fire’, we also aim to be creative and use objects that are not mentioned in the lyrics but connote to the dark atmosphere in the song by involving something like glass being smashed in the air or on the floor. 

Due to the majority of London Grammar’s music video based on this sort of concept involving a black and white effect, our production would involve a similar approach. However in order to create individuality among their music videos, we plan to have aspects of the video in colour. For example the rose may be in colour while everything else is in black and white. 

We came up with the idea of using visually representative objects that are mentioned in the lyrics. For instance the artist mentions ‘Black rose’ and ‘Fire’, this could be interpreted and portrayed In many different ways in the music video. The ‘black rose’ could be black because of the fire burning it down or it could be two completely different objects, so we would therefore burn the rose and capture this in a close up shot on the camera. We also came across the idea of burning a love letter and the concept of filming this would follow the same steps as the rose. The reason why the love letter is used is to represent the loss of a loved one and a desperate attempt of the singer to find ways to forget or get over him 

We also came up with the idea of the glass smashing; this is again an artistic and abstract approach to the music video. But, it also tells a story; this is because the glass will begin as a whole and then be smashed. Additionally, the glass falling and the impact of the smash would occur in a slow motion way which fits the tempo of the music and the music video would refer back to it throughout the video. Smashing glass can indicate another desperate attempt to get over the guy or the final scene of the glass being smashed could refer to the guy leaving as the last line of the lyrics states ‘you’re thinking of leaving’

The idea to capture a teardrop was also something we came up with, we wanted to get an extreme close up shot of the tear rolling down our artists face. Again, this was based on the upset feelings the song portrays. The whole song showcases a rollercoaster ride of emotions, which begins with anger (glass), hurt (burning) and pain (tears) with the idea of a loved one leaving. These emotions we wish to showcase in many different ways possible that allows the artists situation to be easily identifiable to viewers. The idea of a black and white effect again implements the bottom line fact of this artist hurting, in order to make this really stand out, aspects of the video such as burning and glass breaking would be in colour against a black and white background.

Research & Planning: Storyboard Draft

This is our drafted version of the storyboard, the few boxes in between that are empty are yet to be completed with a few ideas. During our filming day we all agreed to try everything, even ideas that are not noted down. this is because music videos have many cuts to an extent that there will never be a limit to the amount of footages we have.