Introduction
When searching for unsigned artists to potentially use in order to create a music video, I aimed to explore a genre that could be conveyed entirely through a visual narrative as opposed to featuring cut-away shots from a band. Therefore, looking through genres such as Trip Hop, Electronica and Instrumental Hip Hop seemed like the best option. As a reference point, artists very similar to DJ Shadow and RJD2 are ones that I was looking for to grab my attention, this is as sampling would potentially be a very interesting technique to illustrate within a music video. Here are a few examples of tracks that I gave me inspiration when looking for artists.
(I am likely to further explore the RJD2 video in another blog post, as it is one that has an interesting aesthetic)
Song Choice: Fold - "Mr President, We're in Trouble (ft. Jimmy Carter)"
When browsing SoundCloud I came across an interesting band from Leeds called Fold. In terms of genre, their music seems to go along the lines of experimental trip-hop and they are described as operating in a "similar vein to DJ Shadow". Additionally, and probably more interestingly, Fold incorporate speech samples in to the majority of their music that reflect vital truth and convey messages about society. The band say themselves that "at the core of their music is a fundamental belief that equal societies are better for everyone.". In terms of action points, I have been in contact with the band to ensure they are unsigned and to get permission to use their track for the basis of a music video, so far they have been very co-operative and have offered to send me a mastered track and a DVD of the sample used within the song.
Furthermore, the reasons for choosing this particular track is that out of all that I have listened to so far, "Mr President, We're in Trouble" gives me the strongest visual idea of how a music video could pan out. Thus far, I building my ideas around the theme of economic inequality and am deciding how to best illustrate the gap between the rich and the poor, as well as perhaps featuring corruption. In terms of structure, I think that a linear narrative would work well, however, as further planning commences there could be chance to have a more un-structured narrative. In addition, adding clips from the sample used may work well as cut-aways from the video, or perhaps having it playing on screens within the story to keep coming back to the speech. Below is the sample used within the track.
