Music Marketing Project PT.1
My "music marketing project" group and I were assigned rock songs. From the variety of song choices, we decided to choose "Mountain at My Gates" by FOALS. Moreover, we went with this song because of the symbolism and rhetorical metaphors that it reflects. My group and I imagined the "mountain" to represent an obstacle or struggle that our protagonist is facing; in this case, the mountain would symbolize struggling to accept death. Our music video idea consists of an opening scene (before the song starts) which takes place in a funeral. Subsequently, with a variety of low-angle shots and mid-shots, we plan on capturing the teenagers' emotions as they bury one of their best friends. The opening scene would end with each of the friends going up to casket hole and throwing a handful of dirt; it is intended for the dirt to completely cover up the camera and this would serve as a transition to the beginning of the song. During the opening scene, there won't be any music playing, however, the audience will be able to hear the pastor's words in the background.
When the song commences, the music video will showcase the protagonist (one of the teenagers) struggling to execute daily activities such as getting out of bed, cleaning themselves up, and eating. While these shots are shown, there will be an interchange of shots that demonstrate the protagonist climbing up a mountain in order to exhibit the progress they have made. Nonetheless, the protagonist will experience moments of "visions" in which they see a reflection of the dead friend in mirrors. For example, when they're brushing their teeth in the bathroom, they think they see a reflection of their dead friend, but when they turn around, no one's there. A similar instance occurs again when they're driving and they see a reflection of their friend in the rear view mirror. In situations where they keep hallucinating that they see their friend, long-shots are utilized to demonstrate them at the mountain, struggling to climb it and instead, ending up at the base of it again, thus showing that the progress made has been lost.
As the song comes to an end, the audience notices a distinct change of attitude within the protagonist. They drive to meet up with their friends (same group of teenagers who attended the funeral) and they use art as a coping mechanism by painting on canvases. While everyone is painting for fun, a variety of close-up shots will be utilized to capture the protagonist's focus as they paint a mountain. As they paint, there's an evident interchange of scenes which will demonstrate the protagonist gaining more speed, which represents motivation, as they climb the mountain. At the end, the protagonist has reached the top of the mountain and we see this in the smile they share with their friends while they paint.
Likewise, my group and I created a Google Document in which we organized the types of shots needed for the music video. A screenshot of the Google Document can be seen below:
