Pitching music videos

Analysing lyrics is helpful for someone making a music video as it helps them to fully understand the song. This means that the music video can accurately portray the message of the song.

For example, with the song Autophilia by the Bluetones, the lyrics, at first listen, if you were unaware of what it's called or what it's actually about, could sound like a love story between a man and a woman. However, it is actually about a man loving his car.
The following is a pitch for a music video for the song Autophilia by the Bluetones. We had not been told the name of the song and we had not seen the official music video.

Double Yellow Line

Narrative

Walking to intro beat (just show feet)

Arriving at school, sees girl walking in cheerleading uniform and the pompoms are flashing

Starts thinking about future dates. Whenever he drives past a certain place he imagines:

·      Drive-in cinema

·      Diner

·      Rollerblading

·      Picnic in central park

·      Bowling

She looks over and smiles at him

Goes home and plans how to ask her out

He decides to ask her out after she finishes cheerleading but he’s late so he’s flooring it to get there before the end and he parks on a double yellow line

The end

Genre

Video is pop genre

Artist is britpop

Expected: boy – girl meet, stereotypical characters

Unexpected: he has the guts to ask her out

Audience

Teens and below

Set in high school – relatable to audience

Audience access video on YouTube and Facebook and maybe TV

Visual Codes

Set in NYC High School

Street – walking to school

Driving in his car

American football field

Park

Bowling alley

Outdoor cinema

Rollerblading place

Diner

Typography: name of school

Name of song as cheerleader banner

Close ups and mid shots of both of them to show smiling, etc.

Technical Codes

Close up on feet at start – track out and tilt up to show his face when he starts singing

High angle on boy and low angle on girl to show where power is

POV when he’s looking at her cheerlead

Long shot/ establishing shot of fields

Editing – flash forwards – fast pace



The actual song is about a man who loves his car:

This shows that lyrics can sometimes be misleading when pitching a music video. We will get around this issue, when making our own as we will be able to ask the artist what the song is about.