Initial Idea 1

Youth by Daughter

 Music Video 

The video would centre around a 17 year old boy representing an image of corrupted youth. The majority of the video would feature this boy dancing through a bleak and desolate forrest. Through contemporary, gritty and abstract movement he would reflect emotions of fear, adrenaline and sorrow, as an escape from reality. As depicted by the song his dancing would represent his loss of innocence. Due to the success of this video by Sia I feel that this could be a very gripping and enticing music video.

However unlike this video, my idea incorporates a studio shoot of the artist; a 19 year old girl with an individual and very organic style, accompanied by 1 drummer with 2 large 'bassy' tom tom drums. By doing this the artists image is incorporated into the music video, furthermore it adds another element of interest to sustain the viewers attention. The studio in which they perform would be very dark and mysterious using a chiaroscuro lighting style, Similar to this however not in black and white.

As a lighting effect, bright spotlights would flicker in from above when the main beats of the song occur, this will light up the artists fully for a few split seconds, other than this they would be moderately hidden, with smoke and low key lighting. On these main beats, the drummer will also beat down on his drums which would have water on; when he hits the drums water will fly in the air and be illuminated by a coloured light from beneath.

The person staring as the dancer in the video would be my friend Josh. He is a professional contemporary dancer with training in both acting and dance. He has adopted his own individual style of contemporary dance which expresses more emotion through the movement than traditional styles. Here is a video of a recent class he taught in London, which I filmed:

Josh Baker Choreography from Ben Radcliffe on Vimeo.

Here is a solo video of him freestyling, showing some more impressive tricks throughout the dance that would be incorporated into the music video:

 Campaign 

The live performance aspect of the video would feature the 2 artists behind the song. A female lead singer and a male drummer. It's rather a weird combination for a band however I think thats what will make them stand out. The group would have a very dark themed album, with their image playing a front role on their cover and website. The artists would have very contrasting appearances - both good looking in different ways. They would aim to be an artist like Ben Howard, aiming their music to a similar audience and in the same genre of music. Together the sound they create would be quite relaxed and light with heavy beats to add a sense of excitement and power to the music.

In terms of similarities with existing artists, there are few as it is very rare for a group to have just one instrumentalist. however there are many boy/girl bands with a similar image.

This group called the civil wars, shares similarities with my vision of the duos appearance. I picture my group to look like a much younger version of these artists. With the male drummer having long hair dressed quite smart apearing quite rugged, and the female to look more gentle and pretty.

I imagine the website to be very similar to this one by the London Grammar. It uses a dark colour code with a focal image of the band using an old fashioned blurring effect, which in todays music world appears quite different and cool.