Research and Planning: Music Video

My Track

SBTRKT - KYOTO, From the Transitions EP.

Analyzing the Track

The track itself is very moody feeling, the deep bassline helps to achieve this, as the beat kicks in it still feels slow and has a serene sounds-cape feel, the synth used in it sounds Japanese, hence the name of the track 'Kyoto' which is an old capital of Japan. The track doesn't include any lyrics but I believe it still manages to achieve what the artist has set out to achieve. 

This image is of Kyoto the Japanese City.

The Artist

SBTRKT (pronounced Subtract) is a masked electronic, post-dubstep and indie-pop artist from the UK. SBTRKT consists of Aaron Jerome, he has collaborated with multiple other artists mainly including 'Sampha'. SBTRKT has released Two albums and multiple EP's.

This is a photo of Sampha, a regular collaborator of SBTRKT 

Clothing and Costumes

SBTRKT usually wears a plain t-shirt ad jeans, but during all live performances and music videos he wears tribal masks like the ones below. Other artists have also experimented with wearing masks such as 'Deadmau5' and 'Daft Punk'. No one really knows why he wears a mask but it could be to hide his identity or simply just an image he is trying to create. 

     

SBTRKT performing in his mask for a Boiler Room set:

Existing Media

Most of SBTRKT's work is very similar, it all has a surreal and unrealistic feel to it, he has experimented with different types of music, some include vocals with beats when others are just complete instrumental. The music videos are usually very strange as well, he has also had forms of animation for them. SBTRKT has recently released an interactive website with all sorts of media, music and release dates. 

Link to SBTRKT: http://sbtrkt.com/home/

Examples of SBTRKT's music videos:

Music Video Idea

My music video idea is based around Japanese themes, due to the fact that the song name is named after Japan's old capital 'Kyoto', I will also include cherry blossom trees in some of my shots because this is also Japanese. 

It is going to be based around a masked character, i thought of this idea because the artist whose song I chose also wears a mask in all of his performances. It is going to have a surreal feel to it and to achieve this I am not going to use a narrative. My character will be dressed in a plain hooded jumper and a plain balaclava, I am still unsure on the colors of these. 

I want to achieve the surreal feel to my music video by using effects from premiere pro or after affects. I have seen a couple of music videos with effects I would like to involve in my music video.

This 3D effect would work nicely with my surreal theme.

(Taken from Kendrick Lamar's Look Out For Detox music video)

  

Some of the color effects on this LSD:Bad Trip video I think would work well.

For some shots in my music video I was planning to use slow-motion to see some objects to be dropped or just to slow down certain parts. Below is a video literally just showing some objects being dropped and how it would look.

The main problem I was worried about is that the slow motion would ruin the quality of the video, so to make sure that the quality of the slow motion on the cameras I was using was good enough I did some test shots by pushing a chair and watching someone beat box.

My character is a masked character, I am trying to stick to SBTRKT's theme with this. I am using a black balaclava and also a black hooded jumper.
Below is a screenshot from the website I ordered my hoodie from.