Video reference to our own production

City and Colour – Comin’ Home is a narrative that can be referenced for our pitch. It establishes that a male and a female are apart, and uses the divide of two locations (houses) to explain their separation and create a theme of “missing one another” and also loneliness.
The video also places the mise en scene in black and white, which could be taken a step further in the music video I aim to create. This would be done by using the black and white when the video cuts to each character (male and female) on their own, yet when the characters are shown together, colour would be introduced into the narrative. This would connote a link to the pictures we will be using in the video, as when the characters are apart, the black and white would reference in with the photo that was ripped in half at the start of the video, separating the characters. However when colour is restored into the narrative, this places the characters “back together” when the lyrics will be reminisced about and the pictures that will link with the lyrics (showing the characters together) are referred to.
The shot type applied in the video “Comin’ Home” is at the beginning of the video where the male character picks up his guitar and begins to play, with the camera positioning remaining the same and eventually planning out to show a close up shot at the guitar and the hand movements showing that the guitar is being played. A later shot develops this idea and includes the male character’s face in the composition of the shot and uses the vocals of the track to synchronise with the male characters lip movements. This technique will be good to use in our own production as our male character will be “Comin’ Home” to play his guitar and sing about the female character. This idea connects well with our narrative and the close up shots of the mouth synchronisation and guitar playing I feel would be effective, and makes the narrative easier for the audience to follow. To further reference an idea used in this music video, the male character is seen writing something down on a piece of paper. In our own music video production, we will be using this idea in the sense that our character will be writing down these lyrics, using them as inspiration, and a further synchronisation between the lyrics and this time to be what is written in print for our audience to follow, and also as a way of our character to be expressing his feelings and emotions. The motivation between the characters writing things down in both our own production and “Comin’ Home” will be the identical: The female character.
The cross fading techniques used within “Comin’ Home” could be effective also in our music video production, as a way of binding together the time scale, actions and emotions both characters will both be expressing in a parallel fashion.