Mood Boards | mysite

My Mood Boards

I decided to do two A3 pages of initial feelings, ideas and moods I felt when I listened to Pyro. I found that I experienced two conflicting voices, the nostalgia of past memories of the relationship, contrasted with the overall angered and violent narrative of the vocals. This to me, transcribed into the fight between fire and water. This is seen in my two mood boards, one being melancholy, and reminiscent, and the other darker and consisting of red dark tones. From my mood boards, I found I was drawn to the human form, seen with the Vitruvian man, hands, the back, and the underwater shots. I'd like to use these as a base for my music video, with repeated motifs of the human (in particular female) form, and repeated shots of submersion in water, conveying her submersion into her memories.

Moreover, the sea, the tide, and the moon all link together, with the moon being a strong symbol of femininity. Therefore, if I can get the right lighting and correct weather, I would like to incorporate some shots of the moon above the sea, and how it illuminates a pathway towards the beach. I feel the juxtaposing shots of calm sea, and raging, storm weather, will convey the false sense of calm above the surface, and the raging anger underneath. I'd like all the shots for these segments to be very darkly lit, and only be lit by the moon, or if there's lots of cloud cover, perhaps very harsh noir lighting. However, I will need some light, so perhaps a bright key light could be used to create some harsh shadowing on the hollows of the face.

For my second mood board, I conveyed the darker, more angry side of the song. This can be seen through the overall colour choices I've used mostly dark browns and vibrant red. Red symbolises passion, desire, heat and lust. These are all themes of the song, so fit in perfectly with the overall tone. The eyes that I've incorporated, are a reference to the Third Eye, which symbolises the stage of enlightenment. This is co-operated well into my song choice, as the narrator realises the wrong doings of their partner, and decided to cut all ties with them. The figure in the top left centre reminded me of witches and supernatural aspects. I want to incorporate these into my music video as I feel the idea of feminine power is very apparent in the lyrics. Perhaps some group circle dancing and heavy makeup could help to portray this idea. With my shooting schedule happening around September/November time, witches, bonfires and dark cold nights will be available to film for my video, giving me inspiration for some shots.

Drawing from the witches idea, I am going to mirror the story of the Three Moiria. This entails the three sisters o fate, one who spins the thread of life, another that measures it, and another that cuts it. This control that women had in Greek culture was perhaps forgotten in modern society, so their ability to control life means they had an abundance of power. This again is a theme I want to portray in my video, so will incorporate the rule of three idea, and a motif of red string running throughout.

With the song title being "Pyro", and many of the lyrics referencing burning and destruction, the theme of fire is going to be underlying throughout, along with the theme of water. The fire will also allow me to create shadows using backlight, and help with making dark, orange tones, instead of bright stark lighting.

My Mind Maps

There are a few themes I would like to convey in my music video. Overall, I would like it to centre around one main protagonist, with a few chorus shots, connoting a "cult" effect. Some themes include revenge, apocalypse, witchcraft, the third eye and fire. I'd like to in cooperate the ideas of fire vs. water, both very powerful elements, as metaphors of men and women. Furthermore, I'd like the video to seem almost "ritualistic", with sacred patterns drawn on the backs of some of the actors, connoting the idea of one cohesive unit. Some of these ideas come from Greek myths, including the Moirai (three sisters of fate) and the different symbols of eyes throughout culture, Third Eye, Eye of God, Hand of Fatima etc.

For my initial ideas mind map, I looked at inspiration, sets, themes and song ideas. The three songs I narrowed it down to were two original songs from my band and one by the Dum Dum Girls called Coming Down. I felt I needed one cover song, so I could have a back up if the recording of our original songs didn't go ahead.

Pyro is a high tempo, heavily distorted, feral song about the termination of a relationship from the perspective of the female. The vocals are raw, loud and gain energy throughout, giving the song an effective climax. The lyrics are anger filled, and hateful but not devoid of passion completely.

"Your hands are foreign to me now"

The heavy bass drum throughout the song will be effective for a almost cult like beat for when I have the actors doing a "ritualistic" dance around a fire. This is reinforced by the bass guitar, which is effective in layering this beat, giving it a rich foundation. Overall the song is dark and empowering, so the colour pallet would be mainly reds, browns, dark and noir lighting.

Moth Girl is similar to Pyro, but less heavy rock, with a break for a guitar solo which has scope for a more layed back, psychedelic vibe. Although it still has heavy distorted guitar, the tempo is much slower than Pyro, and not as heavy on the bass drums. The song is about oppression in relationships:

" You have wings to fly but you never even try"

The more oppressed partner feels trapped in their life with the other member, with symbolism of chains and imprisonment coming through in the other lyrics. The theme of this song is more melancholy and sad compared to Pyro, which is more upfront in it's anger filled and built up choruses.

Coming Down is by comparison more chill, with reverb guitar, and a repeated lick in the background. It's less punchy, and to me has more of a lullaby tone. This song has more of a distanced narrative from the person they were/ are with. For the line

"You abuse the ones who love you, you abuse the ones you don't"

The guitar cuts out and instead, a kick drum and airy synth is used, which gives meaning and urgency to the line. Overall, the songs is dream like, and the lyrics are almost spoken with one foot out the door. Therefore, I think this song is a farewell to a loved one, perhaps asking for a last minute reconciliation of the bad things they did wrong.