Eliza and the Bear- Light It Up

‘Light It Up’ is a song by UK indie rock/pop band Eliza and the Bear. It is taken from the band’s debut self-titled album ‘Eliza and the Bear’ which was released in February 2016. The song is an indie rock/pop song and includes  instruments like electric guitars, bass guitars and drums etc. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). ‘Light It Up’ is an amplification video. This means the director is creative and mixes both performance and narrative together. This isn’t necessarily telling the story, but it is an interpretation of the story which is something pop videos include and sometimes indie videos include. In this video, it shows two male characters doing jobs like cleaning and collecting rubbish. In society, these jobs are seen as boring and ones people tend to avoid. However, in the video it looks as though the character is enjoying his job as he dances along to the song. This could be from the motivational lyrics ‘light it up… when the weight of the world falls on your shoulders’. The dancing characters reflect Steve Archer's theory that a choreographed dance could be part of the artist's performance or used to help visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor as well as showing something different to standing in front of the camera lip-syncing. It also reiterates his idea that music videos cut between a performance from the band and narrative scenes.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). When the lyrics ‘light it up’ are sung, the lighting brightens and the performance space gets brighter; contrasting from the darker space. The male cleaner frequently dances in the video and he does a walk over his should when the lyrics ‘when they weight of the world falls on your shoulders’ which is shown in the gif above. These are the only lyrics that match what is happening on screen and are shown illustratively. This is something that is common in the indie genre as the whole idea of being 'indie' is to be different so the majority of the time, things don't relate and performance's are more common.

                               

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). The band play their instruments in time with the music like a live performance. The editing is fast paced to match the pace of the song and they choreography of the two male dancers/characters is in perfect time with both the lyrics and the beat. The lighting also matches the lyrics and the music. The bright video sets a happy and uplifting vibe. The music is illustrative as everything happens on the beat and follows the correct 8x8 counts.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). There isn’t as many close ups of the band as there are in most music videos, however there are some. The majority of close ups are of the characters within the video; possibly to keep the focus on them. The band have similar themed videos to this which suggests their audience like to see and they like to produce them. The record label would probably want them to have more camera time than the characters involved in the narrative side of the video. Shots like the one below allow the audience to see the whole band and watch more of them than the characters. This links with John Stewart's idea that music videos allow more access to the performer than a stage performance can as the viewer can see them clearly. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. There are no references to notion of looking in the video as the majority of the time the band keep their eyes away from the lens and are normal; possibly to show the realism of the performance. The characters in the video also keep their gaze diverted away from the camera; almost emphasising the saying ‘dance like no one is watching’. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style) The band’s visual style is bright and lively. They mainly have videos with both performance and narrative and use conventions of both indie rock and pop. Both of the images above are taken from different videos by Eliza and the Bear. They all seem to have a similar colour scheme of bright moments, but also quite dark contrasts. Their main colour scheme seems to be different shades of blue and grey which has been repeated over multiple videos. The costumes used are also similar colours. The characters in their videos wear costumes which relate to their roles, however the band make themselves stand out by wearing black items of clothing so they stand out in the video. Black is an extremely common colour to be used in indie videos and the type of clothing worn like shirts, patterned shirts, leather jackets, ripped jeans etc are all part of the indie fashion. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc). There are no intertextual references to films or TV programs within the video. However the video is similar to their previous videos so they could reference them.

Induction Booklet

A2 Induction Booklet

Music Video Analysis:

Music Video Analysis from Hannahmd3

Mini Skills Evaluation:

1. What did you find most challenging about recreating your chosen video and why? (remember to think about storyboarding, props, actors, filming, editing, finance)

•  The most challenging part of recreating our chosen music video was finding all the equipment needed as we had to provide our own instruments, costumes and props. Luckily, being a drama student, I was able to access our prop room and find an old telephone, fence, white boards and binoculars. A guitar was already provided by the school, but a member in the group was able to bring in her guitar from home and some drumsticks we could use on a drum which we also provided ourselves. Locating all of these items was difficult at first as the prop cupboard was messy and we didn't know where to start looking, but after an hour of searching we were able to find all the props we needed to recreate the video. We didn't have costumes that completely matched with the band in the video, however we made sure we dressed appropriately and with clothing that resembled the original ones such as a red dress, stripy t-shirt and shirts.
• Editing the video was slightly challenging as when we uploaded it to the editing software and added the song, it took us a very long time to edit the video so it ran smoothly and the audio matched the lips on the screen.

2. What problems did you face whilst filming? (consider the logistics, could you get everyone together to film, did you have rehearsal time, were you able to frame your shots effectively, could you convincingly play/mime?) How did you overcome these problems? (did you alter shots/props, solve lighting issues etc?)

• Finding a time where all the members in the video could film together was tricky as we all lead busy lives, however we were able to find an after school where we could begin filming the video. 
• The framing of our shots started off well, however some didn't quite match the ones in the music video as we didn't frame them properly and you could see objects in the room in the frame which shouldn't have been there i.e. carpet and light. To rectify this, we are staying behind for another after school so we can re-film these areas and make sure they are exactly how they should be in order to make our video an accurate replica of the original.
• A problem we also faced was looking similar to the artists in the original video. Their band consists of 3 males and 1 female. Our video included 1 male and 3 females. This was an issue as the video would not be able to look exactly the same as the original like we hoped it would.
• Some of our camera movements weren't as smooth as accurate as they should have been, for example when the heads are appearing behind the female singer, we had to zoom out to make sure we captured one members head. This was an issue as the original video didn't do this so we will have to re-film this in our next afterschool slot.

4. Which problems could you not overcome? (were some instruments harder than others to source, could you recreate the look of an artist, could you dress the set, were some shots impossible to emulate?)

• Previously mentioned in the last question, one issue was looking similar to the original band as their band consists of 3 males and 1 female and ours includes 1 male and 3 females. This was an issue as the video would not be able to look exactly the same as the original like we hoped it would. If we were able to do it again, we could have grouped ourselves so we were able to use the correct gender for each role, however we weren't able to. Despite this, we still made sure each member was dressed similar to the original band.

5. What next steps are you going to take? (learn how to film/ edit/ light/ perform/ makeup etc.)

• The next step which would be of most use to me would be to learn all the basics on Final Cut Pro. I found it difficult editing it on my own as I wasn't sure on what every button was and what it did. It would be helpful to learn more about the software and how to do simple and more complex things to help improve my work.
• After watching the video back so far, one thing that could be improved is the level of performance throughout the band. It is easier for myself to perform as I am a performing arts student, however other people may not be as confident so working on performance skills with them may help them loosen up and enjoy it more.