Influential videos/digipaks
video No.1
Taylor Swift - Tim Mcgraw
The camera shots in this video influenced us - the most attractive being of Taylor Swift laying in amongst the grass and nature - We recreated this shot in the verse basetracks of our video
Our video also imitated the scene of Taylor playing the guitar whilst leaning against a wall, we put our own indie twist on this by having Eva Ellis lean against a tree. Even more indie than Taylor Swift!
Video no.2
Rihanna - Only Girl In The World
We were inspired by the red colours in this video for the male gaze
Our video also recreates the floral and nature scenes in large open spaces to only focus on the artist
We also recreated the falling flowers in slow motion, but we used leaves instead because we had a more greener location theme as opposed to rihanna's vivid red.
Video no.3
Florence & The Machine - Rabbit Heart
An editing feature we took from this was the effects - the colours seem to be corrected to orange tones.
This created a vintage filter over all of the footage which was what we wanted for our indie and vintage style video. The filter looked particularly amazing when the sun was caught on camera! So we made sure we caught it just like Florence!
Video No. 4
Nicole Scherzinger - Try With Me
The high angle shots are what caught our eye. They make nicole look very petite and passive which is also what we wanted to achieve for the feminine pop feel.
The bright coral and pink floral around her whilst she lays looking up at the camera are also lovely, we liked this orangey colour scheme and we also recreated the shot with leaves instead of flower petals. We were on a budget!
We were further reassured that Nicole was also playing an acoustic instrument (piano) in her video - this seemed to be a reoccurring theme in indie/pop videos so it definitely made us happy that we chose to do it too with the guitar!
Digipak Inspirations
CD no.1
Shakira - Oral Fixation
Shakira had EXACTLY the colours featured in her digipak that I'd had in mind during the planning of mine! It featured elements of outdoors nature (tree) and the had an overall green and red colour scheme. It just looked very simple, but still appealing to indie type fans, and also males.
I loved what she did and aspired to create something similar! If you look at my digipak next to hers, you will see that they do resemble eachother as Eva Ellis is also in a natural location & I made the text RED too. The only difference is that Shakira is a bit more explicit than our artist...
Digipak no.2
Taylor Swift
I was inspired by TWO of Taylor Swifts Cd Covers! She did them both quite differently and I decided to mix the two together to achieve that real indie and pop mixture.
The first is very natural, with a location based around nature, and even natural makeup. The format of the text matches her outfit and everything is very well put together and femine.
The second is a bit more bold and risky - it has more of a pop theme rather than the indie vibe of the other. She has made the text very bold here (I guess it's to promote her self branding) and the colour red is very predominant all over, in the lips and the text. She also has the wavy hair which we were very fond of for our artist's look, so we used this. The only thing I did not like or imitate was the fact that she is looking away from the camera, I don't believe it addresses the audience enough.
So here is mine compared to both - I am proud because I achieved the in between look of both of them as I loved them both very much but one was too pop & the other too indie! I took the idea of a natural location & white costume from one, and the red lips, text, and wavy hair from the other. Taylor Swift was definitely an artist that helped me to find out how to mix indie and pop together and translate it to the audience visually!
If i could i would thank all of these existing artists for being so creative and inspiring me with their visual ideas and conventions. my research of them was one of the most crucial things in making my own work a success!
Influential videos/digipaks
By kellie
