The Piano

The Piano was directed and written by Jane Campion and was distributed in 1993. All of the music heard during the film draws particularly on the piano and was composed by the American minimalist composer Michael Nyman.

The following extracts from the film gave me lots of ideas for shots and linking scenes together.

In the few couple of shots I loved the way the video starts with a long shot of a scene of the beach and introduces the woman playing the piano after this is established with a medium paced pan angled from behind her.



I loved the shadow effect used here too. I will need to find out how to do this in the editing stage as I really want to use this effect.



This high angled shot is very striking with a beautiful dress spread out on the floor with clever lighting.



An editing effect in this video shows the woman closing her eyes and quick shots of black and white images. We can guess that these are her memories or flashbacks she is having. This is a very clever technique that would interest the viewer and is appropriate for my music video.



The clip includes closeups and extreme close ups to identify the emotion of the woman as shown below. I also loved the extreme close up of the woman fingers at the very end.








Double tracking

I realized while watching clips from The Piano that the music is pre-recorded before adding it to the film in the editing stage. I have also chosen to do this as it will make the editing a lot easier to play around with and I can just mime on the piano as you will not see me playing all the time.

The follow shots are from 'The Scent of Love'.

This particularly interesting shot of the piano hammers caught my eye. It would be a useful shot to fill up time.



I will be sure to include long shots of a landscape like this one, perhaps including me walking in the distance too.



I really like this clever shot of the womans feet with the sea water swirling around them. I will need to think up a few effective shots like these to make my video interesting and have variety.

Thoughts and ideas

My first thoughts on making my own music video was to use original material from a local band. After thought on this I decided it would prove a little difficult to find the time for both the band and I to film. Then it occured to me, I will use myself as a solo artist. I will base the video on a solo piano performance with myself playing, directing a friend exactly how I want to be filmed.

I could use atmospheric film music to tell a story. The video would have two parts - varied shots of me playing the piano and also shots of something other that would tell the story. I was inspired by the film The Piano to take this kind of creative approach to my video, as not all videos include dancing and a strong beat! Instead, I will use an interesting approach by including lots of effects.

The white screen

One of the most striking features of early 80's clips was the excessive use of the white screen. These videos were shot on video, with sets consisting of no more than a white floor and white backdrop. They would throw in some odd camera angles and whacky dancing to disguise the fact that the band couldn't dance to their own songs. To be fair, it did not really matter at that time as the music video market was yet to kick in and the market opened up by MTV was a few years away.



A shot from My Sharona by The Knack.
This is one of the most famous white screen videos, thanks largely to the 1994 film Reality Bites. Yes it was released in 79, but this is part of a group of songs that 'belong' in the 80s.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJDNSp1QJA