Planning Iconography

Iconography 

Iconography is very important in a music video as it acts as evidence to support the context or narrative. Different genres will use different iconographical objects to interpret altered meanings depending on the narrative.

Our research has helped us to see which theme would appeal more to our target demographic, and concluding that a theme of life and love would be appropriate to both teenagers and young adults as it is something which they can both relate to. 
A masquerade mask as well as a red burning candle we decided would go hand in hand with our themes of love and life.

In our music video, my group and I planned to use a masquerade mask, as this would emphasise our eyes as we were trying to connote voyeurism; "Where have you been all my life" as we are looking for love in a life which is passing by so quickly. 

The scope of this mask is to hide a person’s true identity, as only their eyes are on show. It also creates curiosity for our audience, as they cannot see who the people in the video are. It also creates a sense of independence on behalf of the person wearing the mask.
We have decided to use these masks to help show our audience how life passes us by ever so quickly, wishing to remain young and fun loving. 
As only our eyes are emphasised, showing that our time is running out, our sadness at the lack of control in finding this man and how it is also becoming harder to have fun.
The scope for our band was to find a prop which would relate to both our oldest and youngest audience, and this worked as it was not too childish or too grown up.

The burning red candle is a representation of time; as the candle burns off at the end of the music video, this is related to the end of our journey, as we have run out of time in finding love. The candle signifies life in a spiritual manner and creates an effect we will use called Final Cut Express to increase the speed of the burning candle as it will be associated with the fast pace of life. 
This iconography is related to the spinning clock as both are an exemplification of time. 
The colour red can be associated to many different things starting form love to danger, but in this music video it represents energy, vitality and passion. 
This would help the audience to understand further our concept of how life is slipping out from our hands.

Fireworks are the representation of youth; the flashing of the lights is conventional to dance genre conventions, even though sometimes associated with love, as they create a romantic scene. But as we intend to use them to the beat of the music, the fireworks could connote a party atmosphere, which would them relate to an audience who is interested in having fun and enjoying life. By targeting young adults/teenagers, we thought that the party life may appeal to them, as they are the segment of the population which are more interested by dance music, knowing that they are most likely to be the ones going out clubbing.

As some of the fireworks may seem as stars, this could be a representation of us, the artists, as a connotation of their success which is staring to shine like stars. This would hopefully also relate to the audience, who intends to pursue their dreams as artists just like "Chic".

The fireworks relate to our music video as it is performance and concept based; they associate with life and how it passes quickly, but also how much fun life can bring, if spent with the people you love and care for.