Research and Planning

Research and Planning Powerpoint by HansenLydia

Account of Shoot Day

Our shoot took place on the 20th of November in the studio. We built the first set the night before the shoot in order to maximise our time the next day. This proved to be a very wise decision as the next day was very busy. The previous night I also practised some hair designs on Gigi and settled on her having her hair down with flicks at the end as I thought that while this is cute and suits the era in which our video is set, it is also quite casual and not over the top.

I also chose to add a sparkly hairband to reinforce the idea that her character is pleased by superficial 'face-value' items. As well as this, I went down to the costume store with the Wardrobe Mistress, Loz, from the Theatre dept. to choose the costumes for the shoot. Fortunately, the costume store is plentiful and we found everything we needed; we also brought backups up to the studio in case some items didn't look right or didn't quite fit- despite us measuring the actors.

On the morning of the shoot day I felt quite prepared but, of course, a little apprehensive of how the day would pan out. I was very aware, from filming our thrillers last year, that filming is a lot of work and I was also aware that it can be very easy to lose track of time and not stick to the schedule. We all met at the studio at 8:30AM to have a quick meeting and plan the day in accordance to our shooting schedule and call list. After we decided the plan for the day we finished off dressing the set and adding the props in for the actors to use. After this, we called the actors in for hair and make-up; our make-up artist was Sophia Stanway, a fellow student who is training to be a make-up artist and has attended a 3 week intensive course in make-up artistry over the last summer. I took on the responsibility for hair, make up and costume design because I’m a theatre student and am used to working with these areas. I did some research and decided that the main girl (Gigi) should have very natural makeup, with light blusher and mascara so that she looks quite perfected when she wakes up, but not fake or like a cartoon doll. I stayed to watch and guide Sophia to exactly the look we'd envisaged while she did Gigi's make up and I then recreated her hair from the night before. Whilst I did this, the other group members continued to dress the set. For the main boy, Finbar, I did the same thing; Sophie and I both thought that he should have a foundation layer of make up on so that the light doesn't reflect off his skin and we used a face powder to ensure that his face was matt and all one shade. By doing this, it also made his skin look flawless; perfect for his 'ken-like' character. His hair was left casual and brushed to one side- we considered having a comb-over style but decided this would make him look to geeky, a different stereotype than the one we were going for.

When we arrived on the shoot, we were well prepared; to make items in the house appear as if they'd turned into cardboard we decided we would wrap them all in brown paper and I suggested that we do this the day before and then film all the shots of these items before we film the scene. In doing this, we saved a lot of time as we didn't have to film the scene and then wait to continue filming whilst we wrapped the items before filming them again in the correct location. As well as this, we'd made a plan the night before so that when we came in on the day we all knew what we were doing and wouldn't be lingering waiting to allocate jobs; for example, I knew I was to go with Gigi, Fin and Sophia to do their hair and make-up.

 When we first arrived in the studio, the set wasn't completely ready to shoot and neither were the actors of course, but after an hour or so of preparation we were ready to go. The set, I thought, looked impressive and realistic- the bedroom was the first set we created with the en suit bathroom; we spent a fair amount of time getting the lighting right because it was an aspect of the mise en scene which we thought was very important to create an authentic bedroom. At first we felt the bathroom looked a bit bare, so we took some time to dress the set and make it look 'lived in'; this actually included adding a small tree into the room as decoration. I feel the set for the bedroom was very successful in creating the look of our concept; when we first designed the look of the room and the mise en scene we knew that it might not look exactly the same as how we'd planned it, but when it came to it, it was almost exactly the same. The one item we forgot to bring was a bottle of aftershave for Fin to use in his scene which could've been a problem but fortunately we found a friend who was willing to lend us theirs, however this little mishap made me realize the importance of a well-considered props list and if we were to do a similar project in the future I would be careful to pay more attention to props. The next set, the living room, looked slightly different to how we'd planned it to look but I will still very happy with the image. The colours were warm and cosy which created a warm atmosphere which you would find in a home. If I could have changed anything, it would have been the kitchen; however this was due to a lack of time. Due to the way we want our video to run (tracking across through the walls) we had to build a dividing wall on the set. For the first set, we placed the wall at a point which made the bathroom much smaller than the bedroom, like an en suit usually is, however this meant that when we came to film the living room and kitchen, the kitchen was really small. This resulted in us changing a scene in the video which I was initially apprehensive about but after we sat down and discussed a solution I was much calmer. I had a lot of influence in directing the scenes because of my experience in theatre and the actors were really cooperative and took the direction well.

With regard to allocating roles and jobs on the day, I felt we all worked well as a team and took on an equal amount of work. We all filmed varied shot types, including using the dolly to create the tracking shots; usually Francesca handled the camera, Annabel pushed the Dolly, Alice controlled the lighting and I directed and cable-bashed but we swapped roles too; sometimes I would push the Dolly, Annabel would do the lighting and Alice would direct the scene. I think it was important that we all have a go at doing the different jobs because filming a shot is obviously completely different to deciding how to light a whole scene or instruct actors without distracting them.

 Personally, I think I worked well in preparation for the shoot, making props, designing and sourcing the costumes and creating the general narrative of the video and then recreating it when it went wrong. I came up with the initial idea for the video and this meant that I had clear images in my head of shots, angles and sets. When shooting our thriller last year, we found that one of the most difficult things to do, due to our apprehension, was to get in to the studio on the morning of the shoot and start dressing the set but this year, because I was so clear on the concept I directed the group and we got on with our jobs straight away. This saved time on the day and meant that we didn't feel stuck, before we'd even started.

On the day of the shoot, we realised that because of the way we'd built the first set, the second set didn't work as well; the bathroom would later become the kitchen, however we'd put the dividing wall in such a place that the bathroom, and subsequently the kitchen, was quite small. We had initially intended on moving the wall when we redressed the second set but when the time came, we realised that we didn't have enough time for this. We had planned a whole scene in the kitchen but it was obvious that this wasn't possible and so we had to change the narrative slightly and come up with another plan. When we planned the video, in the shot by shot guide, we suspected that we may have too much footage to fit into the time space of the song, but thought it's better to have too much than too little and because of this, it wasn't a huge surprise when we needed to change a section of the narrative. As I've mentioned before, I'm a keen theatre student and so I sat with the actors and Francesca and discussed some ideas I had to get the narrative back on track. After a lengthy conversation over our break we discovered a solution; increase the length of the 'Scrabble Scene' in the living room and change the focus of the scene in the kitchen to the toaster turning to cardboard, rather than the couple arguing. Despite this being slightly stressful, I think this change actually worked out for the better because it meant that we created a cross-cutting effect; at the same time as the toaster turns to cardboard, so does the scrabble board. This effect is more effective as it makes more sense in the narrative; rather than objects seemingly randomly turning to cardboard, now the objects change because of the argument the couple have just had.

I think the 'Scrabble Scene' was most successful because, personally, I thought the set, lighting, mise en scene and narrative all worked really well. The section where we see the characters' hands placing the letters down I think will look really effective when we've edited the shots together. Furthermore, we got some really good close up reactions of the actors and I think these could be quite comical once slotted into the narrative.

If I could change anything about the shoot day, it would be the organisation of the crane shots. Due to the situation with the kitchen being too small and having to change the narrative, the transitions were effected and I'm worried that we don't have a transition crane shot going from the living room to the basement where the band are playing. We found ourselves rushing slightly, due to the changes and quick readjustments we had to make and therefore didn't consider the change to the transitions. I really hope that we can find a way to get round this issue and I'm sure we can as we all work really well as a team and have a lot of creative ideas, but if I could change something about the shoot day, this would've been it.

I think we managed the actors well; one thing I did worry about was them getting cold as it was a particularly cold day and the studio reflected that! However, my room is on-campus and so I went and got blankets for Fin and a coat for Gigi so that they wouldn't freeze. As for their acting, they were brilliant to work with; Gigi is my roommate and a talented actor so I was always confident that she would provide the performance we needed however I didn't know Fin before we started filming as Alice knows him and suggested that we use him in the video. Fortunately, Fin was brilliant too; he took direction really well, looked good on camera and was offering ideas for the scene work which added detail to make it more believable.

I most enjoyed filming the tracking shots because they're more risky than the other shots. The extended length of time in filming means that there is more involved in the shot so it's almost more risky and interesting to film. I also enjoyed creating the set and dressing the actors and the band because it was satisfying and exciting to see the image in my head come to life. My group members were also great to work with and we jelled well so come up with interesting and aesthetically pleasing ideas which we hope will come through in the editing.

When we edit, I'm most looking forward to seeing the effect of editing the rooms in to the dolls' house. I think the effect will look really impressive if we can achieve it properly, so as well as being excited to see how it turns out, I'm also nervous to see if it works. In my research and planning I noted that it's particularly important to film the rooms from the correct perspective in order for this effect to work and this is something we kept in mind whilst filming but we can't be totally sure how successful it is until we finish editing the video.

I felt that the production group I was in worked well as a team. It's easy to get frustrated with one another with so many ideas being offered and people trying to create their own vision for the video but we didn't have any clashes and I felt, and still feel, that we have worked well together to create a group idea. We each have a skill which we brought to the team and as well as using these skills to create an effective music video, we also transferred skills to one another; before the shoot day I'd had very little experience with lighting whereas Alice works with the Tech Crew in the Theatre dept. and so lights the shows that I'm usually in. We worked together and she taught me how to light a scene or person effectively and I now feel confident that I could do this myself. In our thriller last year, we used lots of tracking shots and so I showed Francesca how to operate the camera on the dolly and so she filmed most of the tracking shots.

I've learnt from doing this shoot that organisation is key and if I were to do it again I would make more lists and schedules to ensure that all areas are covered, as there's lots which can be forgotten. As well as this, I would also have a back-up plan, properly and fully organised, in case the original idea won't work. While we managed to fix the problems we encountered, thinking of these solutions took time, but if we'd have planned in advance then we could have saved time meaning the process would've been less stressful.

Shooting Schedule

8:30-8:35 = Establishing shot of woman
8:35-8:40 = Establishing shot of man
8:40-8:45 = Mid shot of woman sleeping
8:45–8:50 = Close up of woman’s alarm clock
8:50-8:55 = Close up of woman’s slippers
8:55–9:05 = Wide shot of woman leaving
9:05–9:10 = Close up of man’s alarm clock
9:10-9:20 = Close up of man’s eyes
9:20- 9:25 = Close up of man’s slippers
9:25-9:35 = Wide shot of man leaving
9:35-10:00 = BREAK- MOVE SET (BATHROOM AND LIVING ROOM)
10:00- 10:10 = Mid shot of woman looking in the mirror
10:10-10:15= Mid shot, us as camera, woman scooping water in her hands
10:15-10:20= Mid shot, us as camera, woman washing face
10:20-10:25= Mid shot, us as camera, woman drying face
10:25-10:30= Mid shot, us as camera, woman putting on mascara
10:30-10:35= Mid shot, us as camera, woman smiling
10:35-10:45= Mid shot of man looking in the mirror
10:45- 10:50= Mid shot, us as camera, man smiling
10:50-10:55= Mid shot, us as camera, washing face
10:55- 11:00= Mid shot, us as camera, man shaving
11:00-11:05= Mid shot, us as camera, man drying his face
11:05-11:10= Over the shoulder shot of man looking in mirror
11:10-11:13= Mid shot, us as camera, looking at man
11:13-11:15= Mid shot, us as camera, man going down to wash his face
11:15-11:18= Over the shoulder shot of man looking in mirror (mirror is cardboard)
11:18-11:20= P.O.V of man’s hands scooping water
11:20-11:25= P.O.V Camera underwater
11:25-11:30= Hands wiping eyes (camera)
11:30-11:40= Pan shot from bathroom through living room to basement
11:30-12:00= BREAK- MOVE SET (KITCHEN)
12:00- 12:05= Establishing shot of living room
12:05-12:10= Close up of woman’s angry face
12:10- 12:15 = Close up of man’s face arguing
12:15- 12:20= wide shot of TV (in cardboard)
12:20-12:25= Establishing shot of her walking in
12:25-12:30= Mid shot of woman putting toast in
12:30-1:20= LUNCH BREAK
1:20-1:23= Over the shoulder shot of ingredients on counter
1:23-1:27= Mid shot of her putting pan on stove
1:27-1:30 = Toast popping up
1:30-1:35 = Establishing shot of him walking in and going to embrace her
1:35-1:37 = Close up of his irritated face in hug
1:37-1:40 = Close up of her irritated face in hug
1:40-1:45= Mid side shot of couple smiling at each other
1:45-1:50= P.O.V looking at her smiling, stood at the end of the table
1:50-1:55= P.O.V looking at her walking towards man with food
1:55-1:56= P.O.V looking down at food
1:56-2:06= P.O.V time lapse of eating food
2:06-2:10= Mid side shot of man leaning back and picking teeth
2:10-2:13= Close up of woman’s angry face
2:13-2:20= Pan from kitchen to living room
2:20-2:27= Pan from living room to kitchen
2:27-2:30= Establishing shot of couple playing scrabble
2:30-2:35= Mid shot of couple smiling at each other across the table
2:35-2:40= Birds Eye View of montage of playing scrabble- word ‘cuddles’ is placed down
2:40-2:43= Birds Eye View of woman placing down “love”
2:43-2:45= Birds Eye View of man placing down “lust”
2:45-2:47= Birds Eye View of lust (turned into cardboard)
2:47-2:50= Birds Eye View of man pushing away scrabble pieces
2:50-2:52= Close up of woman’s angry face
2:52-2:56= Mid shot of woman leaving
2:56-3:00= Mid shot of man leaving
3:00-3:25= BREAK- MOVE SET (STAIRS)
3:25-3:30= Wide shot of woman coming down stairs
3:30-3:35= Wide shot of man coming down stairs
3:35-3:40= Man walking up stairs
3:40-4:00= BREAK- MOVE SET (BASEMENT)
4:00-4:05= Wide shot of band setting up
4:05-4:10= Close up of guitarist 1 playing
4:10-4:13= Wide shot of guitarist 1 playing
4:13-4:15= Extreme close up of guitarist 2 playing
4:15-4:20 Close up of singer at microphone
4:20-4:25= Wide shot of band playing
4:25-4:30= Close up of guitarist 2 playing
4:30-4:35= Wide shot of band playing (second half of song)
4:35-4:40= Close up of guitarist 1 playing
4:40-4:45= Wide shot of guitarist 1’s guitar being played (not cardboard)
4:45-4:50= Wide shot of guitarist 1’s guitar turning into cardboard
4:50-4:55= Mid shot of drummer playing with drums turning into cardboard
4:55-5:00= Mid shot of guitarist 2 playing
5:00-5:05= Wide shot of band with guitars and drums as cardboard
5:05-5:10= Close up of singer performing
5:10-5:15= Wide shot of band performing
5:15-5:20= Close up of singer performing
5:20-5:25= Extreme close up of guitarist’s fingers playing
5:25-5:30= Close up of singer performing
5:30-5:35= Mid shot of guitarist playing
5:35-5:40= Wide shot of band playing
5:40-5:45= Mid shot of guitarist 2 playing
5:45-5:50= Close up of singer performing
5:50-6:00= Montage of objects turning into cardboard
6:00-6:03= Extreme wide shot of band playing (in focus) with dolls house in corner (out of
6:03-6:05= Extreme wide shot of band playing (out of focus) with dolls house in corner (in
6:05-6:10= Lead singer walking down towards doll’s house
6:10-6:15= Lead singer closing the door of the doll’s house
6:15-6:17= Fade to black

Production Schedule

Coincidence!

Whilst browsing videos on YouTube, I cam across this which is strangley similar to our concept- even the basic layout of the house is the same!
So this video gives a really good idea of what we're trying to achieve with our video, especially the wide shot where we see them walking around the house.

Typography

Costume Organisation

I emailed the Wardrobe Mistress from the theatre department enquiring about the costumes we've chosen:

 

 

Similar Bands

Similar Bands

Risk Assessment

When filming our music video we need to be careful of events which may occur that will disrupt filming.
There will be many hazards around the room; wires and leads from the lighting and cameras, the rubber tracks from the dolly and the huge amounts of electrical connections which will be around the room.

Each of us will be delegated a job so ensure that no one is too busy to be careless on set and we will aim to keep the whole areas tidy and organised to prevent any mishaps.
These are health and safety risks, however there are also risks involving the expensive, high quality equipment we will be using. As for physical safety, we will ensure that everyone has an equal amount of work to do and that the process is a team effort to ensure that no one is stressed and rushing around and hopefully this will mean that we are careful with the equipment.
Furthermore, we need to be very careful that we include all the shots we've planned so this will also require communication and organisation from all members of the team. Otherwise, we could muck up the video and find that we are missing essential shots and as we're taking each set down after we've filmed all the shots in it, if we miss any, we cannot go back and create them. Continuity is also a risk that we must consider and, as I have a sharp eye, I will keep an eye out for continuity errors whilst filming.
The creation of a shooting schedule, list of shots and use of our storyboard should ensure that we avoid this problem.

Costume

Cast- Band

Cardboarding!

Throughout our music video, objects throughout the house are going to turn into cardboard to show that, despite their search to be the perfect couple, their life is becoming so fake and forced that everything is becoming 2D. Furthermore, the idea that they're cut-outs of objects begs the question 'were they ever real in the first place?'

We realise, however, that turning objects, possibly big ones such as a sofa, in to cardboard is going to be a challenge and so we researched ways of doing this.

Firstly, we though that we could just take high quality photos of the objects we want to change and then send them to a company to have them printed onto life-size cardboard cut-outs. However, most websites we found were charging quite high prices, for example, £60 for one cut out of a person.
http://www.posterprintshop.co.uk/poster-printing

This lead us to seek other methods and I went and spoke to the set designer/builder, Al, who said that the Theatre Department have a piece of software which allows a person to take a photo and print it on to however many pieces of paper needed in order to assemble them on to a life-size cardboard structure: like a jigsaw. He said that we are welcome to use it as long as we cover the cost of the ink, which might be expensive so we will need to research this further.

Props List

This is the props list for our music video. We've laid it out so that we know which props we already have at the school and which we need to supply ourselves.

Barbie and Ken Couple

Band Name

Set Design

Perspective Filming

Perspective Filming and Set from LydiaHansen

Storyboard

Mardy Bum Storyboard from LydiaHansen

Animatic for Our Video

This is a rough cut animatic of how our video will run. When we film it, it will look slightly different as it was hard to draw all the shots we're envisaging, however, the animatic conveys the general idea of how our video will be.

Male Actors

These are the people we have in mind to play the man.

Will Van der Wayden

 

 

We chose Will because he's good looking and has brown hair. We wanted him to have brown hair to look like the stereotypical 'Ken' doll. He is taller than both the females we would use and is easy to work with.

 

 

Finbar Shepard

 

 

If Will is unavailable, we'll use Fin because he has brown hair and is also good looking. He's taller than the female actors, is of a similar build to Will and is also easy-going.



Female Actors

These are the girls we have in mind to play the woman in our music video.


Leila Toulmin

We chose Leila because she's blonde and classically beautiful as well as being petite and a talented actor.

Gigi Rice

 

If Leila is unavailable, we will use Gigi in our video as she also has blonde hair, has classic beauty, is petite and a talented actor.

Concepts

Target Audience Profiling

Primary Target Audience

Age: 17-23          Gender: Male or Female          Social Class: Lower and middle
Lifestyle: goes to concerts, watches TV, enjoys festivals and music consumption, quite social
Geographical area: Western areas (Europe; Germany, Great Britain, France), America and highly populated English speaking areas.

JICNAR: C2- E (unemployed students)
VAL: rebel/groupie/innovator

Storyboarding

Mardy Bum Presentation

Mardy Bum Presentation

Treatment For Music Video

We developed the concept for Mardy Bum into one that's less obvious and the ideas in the video have more clear connotations.
Our idea is that we see a family of four in a perfect house and throughout the video we see them becoming so fake that parts of the house begin to turn into cardboard cut outs of the objects they are. For example, they'll be eating dinner and suddenly the food on the fork turns to cardboard and as they stand up, the table turns into a cardboard cut out and falls over. This is meant to insinuate that trying to live in the perfect household will never work as everything becomes artificial and begins to fall apart, no matter how perfect it looks on the outside. Throughout this, we see the band in the house as well, perhaps in the attic and eventually they turn into cardboard as well and at the very end of the video, we reveal that the house is a dollhouse to further reinforce the idea that 'the perfect family' is a childish dream that is false and simply cannot be achieved.

Mardy Bum

Whilst writing up the treatment for the music video to Video Killed the Radio Star, I realised that the concept was foggy and unclear and I was worried that it might be becoming too complex to execute well. I was looking for the video style of the Arctic Monkeys and so searched one of their songs Mardy Bum into Youtube and discovered that they actually have no video for this song- something which surprised me as the band is well known.

This sparked an idea in my head and so I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and quickly created a storyboard whilst listening to the track on my phone and came up with a treatment which I then pitched to the rest of my group... and they liked it!

We're still deciding if we definitely want to abandon our original idea; I think we should because as well as the idea become less and less clear, the song's original video is also iconic and it would be hard to make a new video which didn't appear to be a copy, but I'm excited to look into this idea and hopefully develop it into the pop promo which we choose to make.

A Talk with Emily

Today we had a talk with Emily, a video commissioner from Polydor at Universal Records and she spoke to us about her job and the process which artists go through when creating a music video with Polydor.

She showed us copies of the original presentation of the treatment for Ellie Goulding's music video 'Burn', which Emily was in charge of and she also showed us the treatment for some other music videos.

When I looked at the presentations she showed us, I realised just how detailed they are and when we watched the videos, I realised how much the videos looked like the original idea and I gleaned that this success came from good planning, a clear vision and being realistic.

When planning the treatment for our music video, I'm now going to plan in much more detail to ensure we can produce the video we're all envisaging.

Arctic Monkeys

Click Here for the Arctic Monkeys Website



 

 

 

Fuzzy TV

Stars

Songs- Video Killed the Radio Star

After spending time focusing on the idea for Sit Down by James, we decided that we're not hugely keen on the song because it's too slow and 80s style for our target audience. We looked for an updated version and found a remix but we still didn't think it was right and decided to consider other songs.
We came up with the song Video Killed the Radio Star and were all really keen on the idea as there's a modern version, in which the bass is emphasised and the overall sound is more modern and synthetic. Furthermore, after reading the articles about Music in the Online Age and how technology is making it ever harder for artists to establish themselves, we thought the song could communicate this modern interpretation. Whereas before video killed the radio star, now, technology is killing the music artist. We also thought about communicating the idea of the 27s Club and thought this could be an interesting section of the video as it explores glamour and the theme of stars being killed by the consumers. Here, we could incorporate old footage of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse and other stars that died as a result of a "live fast, die young" attitude.

Our concept for the video is to have a pile of old TVs and band is displayed on them. This is an example I made on Photoshop.
Then people will come in and take the TVs away as the band are still singing and replace them with new TVs that are better quality however they put the TVs in the wrong order, carelessly, and so the band is all in the wrong order. Something like this...

This process will take the length of the video and would be the performance section of the video.

Bohemian Rhapsody

My third idea is one which I like but I think the song is too iconic and well known to do a music video to. The song Bohemian Rhapsody is by the world-famous band Queen and is a sad song about a man having to leave, perhaps ending his own life, after murdering someone.
The lyrics are the man telling his mother he's just murdered someone and now he's got to go and so I think it would be interesting to show the man's (singer's) life in flashbacks- just key moments- to illustrate that his life is flashing before his eyes. At the end we see the singer leave or commit suicide, however we choose to interpret the lyrics, so it's obvious that the rest of the video has been his life flashing before his eyes before he "leaves it all behind".
The concept would be hard to do because we'd have to find people who look the same but at different ages and we'd also have to recreate lots of scenarios or use footage we already have.
I have an image in my head of James Blunt's You're Beautiful video, where he's lining up all his possessions before falling into the freezing water in order to be with the "angel he saw on the subway".

I really like this idea of sorting out his possessions and so I thought this could be an alternative to the flashbacks which still shows the singer's state of mind.
We could have him sat at a chair and the whole narrative section of the video will be a medium wide shot from the front. Firstly, we see him pick up a pen and start writing a letter to his mother - writing the lyrics we hear- and then people in blacks, like stage hands, will quickly move the table and chair and put something like a chest of drawers in front of him so that he can take his possessions out, perhaps old photos and other sentimental things and line them up on top of the chest. By doing this, movement, it's as if the scene changes and he's now in a different place sorting out his possessions but we don't cut the camera so the whole narrative is one long shot. This could continue until the end where we just see him step up on to a stool so that his head is out of the shot and then the song ends, connoting that he ended his life and then the camera does its only movement to the table where we see the note and all his possessions lined up.

These ideas might be too complex for our video but I will discuss them with the group anyway and see what their thoughts are.

Mardy Bum

My second idea for a music video is to the song Mardy Bum by the indie rock band The Arctic Monkeys.
They seem to be 'normal people' and in their songs and music videos portray the lives of everyday working class, young people in urban areas. Their songs communicate realism and the band doesn't sugar coat the message they're trying to convey as they seem to want to communicate the gritty lifestyle some people lead. For example, in the original video for When The Sun Goes Down, the saturation of the images is low which makes the scenes look dull and grey, suggesting that's the way of city life. We clearly see the connotations of prostitution and abuse and the video appears quite violent.
For Mardy Bum, I would have a couple as the main focal point of the music video as it's narrative storyline and would cut between when they're happy and getting on and when they're arguing. I would highlight a number of specific scenarios where he's late home and she's had a whole evening planned, perhaps with a table laid for a meal or he's late to meet her at a restaurant and she's humiliated.  This corroborates with the lyrics "yes I'm sorry I was late, but I missed the train and then the traffic was a state." Throughout the video we could portray the man as genuine and that his excuses for letting her down 3 or 4 times are true. However, at the end we'll cut to moments before each of the scenarios where we see him with another girl and we see that actually he's cheating and so there's a twist in the plot.
An interesting idea would be to keep the concept of the video but have a female singing and try reversing the roles to subvert the stereotype of the 'cheating man'. Another idea would be to change the class of the couple, so instead of being a working class couple, perhaps they're upper class, again a change from the usual angle that the Arctic Monkeys show.

Sit Down

An idea I had for a music video is to create the scene of a psychiatrist's waiting room, similar to Eminem's Slim Shady music video and have about 8 people stood up doing contemporary movement.
This idea stemmed from 'chair duets'- a theatrical device used by the company Frantic Assembly to show inner thoughts or relationships through movement.
My concept is that all the characters are stood individually doing movements which require other people to interact in order to continue. For example, they need someone to catch them but no one is there so they fall or other people's movements will seem incomplete and fragmented. Then, in the bridge of the song, the lead singer collects all the characters and they all sit in a row- similar to the original video. The singer tries to configure them into an order where they all fit together and in the end, all the characters' movements fit together, for example, people who were once falling are now being caught. This communicates the message of the song which is that we can all help each other and people can solve each other's problems without going out of their way.

When filming the beginning, when the solos don't fit together, I would vary the shot types and speed of the filming in order to show the disjointed nature of their thoughts and how they don't fit together.

The band could be characters in the scene- for example the lead singer could be behind the counter and the drummer, guitarist and bassist could be characters in the scene.
As well as this, we could cut to the band playing the song in a different location, perhaps a shopping mall before it opens and as the song goes on, the location gets busier and busier and the band interact with the audience until they're singing along. This reiterates the message of coming together and helping eachother.

Pop Music Genre

"Image is a key paradigm for music genre, with an artist's look categorising them before they start singing or playing."

This is the main point I gleaned from this article and is something which I'm very aware of.
It's true that when I look at an artist who I've never seen before, I'll make assumptions about their music, messages and whole image before I've even heard their music and will judge whether I listen to their music dependent on my opinion of their image. This means that, without creating an image which is the same as every other popstar, when making my artist's image I have to research into the target audience for the genre of music and make sure the image is spot on.
A signature element is also something which I would like to create. For example, Elvis' flares, Micheal Jackson's glove and Amy Winehouse's beehive are all things you could look at in isolation and would remind you of that artist- perfect examples of good marketing of their images.

In the music video, the clothes they're wearing make a big impact on the seriousness of their work so this is something I'll pay attention to- if their message is of non-conformity and rebellion then I'd dress them in wacky clothes to signify this, whereas if they sing ballads and love songs, I'd put them in more normal or slightly dressed up clothing to look romantic but relatable.

We can see these ideas are often applied in the music industry, with 70s punk rockers The Ramones wearing leather, ripped clothes and long hair in order to show their disregard for social norms whereas we see Adele often wearing romantic black dresses with demure makeup and her bigger size helps with her likability for her target audience.

The Formula for Future Music Business Models

The main point of the 15 minute presentation by Mike Masnick is that there is a simple business model which artists can follow in order to achieve success in the music industry and this doesn't mean that the artist has to become a "cookiecutter popstar" but actually, you can execute this formula in an "infinite variety of creative ways".

Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model (££££)

NMTs mean that there is a tremendous amount of new ways for artists to connect with their target audience and fans and to offer real reasons to buy, which can only aid their overall success. "Those that complain about what's been lost in the past need to turn around and look at the vast open fields of opportunity in front of them."

Using new technologies seems to be the best way for any artist to apply this business model and we see artists doing this every day.

Twitter is a perfect way for artists to talk to and follow back fans in order to keep interest and make them feel valued as fans and is also a perfect way to advertise tours, singles and albums through both their own tweets and pictures on their profile- as we can see above.
Apps such as Instagram also give the audience the feeling of insight into their chosen artist's life and makes them feel personally connected with the artist; again, helping the business model.

I'll apply this to my artist's business model and create a Twitter and Instagram account in order to connect with fans and promote their work and the messages behind their music, giving fans a real reason to buy.

Why Piracy is Perpetuating Plastic Pop

Piracy means that, especially for younger artists who haven't had chance to "make money from the music industry before the advent of digital piracy", music is being cheapened and it's harder for artists to get their money back on the music they're creating.
It also compromises the image of certain artists and can defy their whole reason for making the style of music they make and the messages they convey through their music. For example, Billy Corgan, of Smashing Pumpkins, emanates a rebellious attitude and says that showing this attitude in his music and then "begging for attention" is "completely counter intuitive to why he became a musician in the first place."
So not only does piracy deplete the number of new artists, it can also destroy the images of others.

If applying this ideas to my own music video, I would focus this idea into the artwork for the CD cover. Instead of making something generic and pleasing to the eye, perhaps something more thought-provoking, controversial and individual would gain the audience's attention without "begging for it" and would mean that the artist's individuality is kept.

An example is The Sex Pistols, who created a controversial album cover for their single "God Save the Queen" which is relevant to their views; rebellion against social conformity to monarchy and which changed the face of music and grabbed everyone's attention whilst sticking to their own morals and the messages they convey in their music. They didn't conform to the popstar norm in order to achieve demand for their music and fame.

Account of Lip Sync Shoot

The day began with us learning the lyrics to an extract of the song 'Get Lucky' from Daft Punk's new album Random Access Memory as this is the song we were giong to lip-sync to. The studio was set up in three ways to enable three different performance spaces; a room with a sofa, the rocky side of a cliff and a green screen wall. We split the whole group in half and one group set up a camera on the 'cliff' and our group set up a camera on the green screen.
Next we allocated each person a job; director, cameraman, sound engineer, floor manager and assistant but before we got on with our own jobs we decided to have a wide shot, a medium close up, a close up of the subject's face and then some more abstract shots, for example, her body and feet.
After filming this the groups moved around and so we filmed on the 'cliff' next. I was on sound for this section so I didn't see much of the filming, but the group used a dolly to create a tracking shot of one of our group members walking by the cliff. On the third set, I came up with the idea of filming more than one of our members sat in different places around the room and then in editing, we can layer the shots to make it look like people appear and disappear, on the beat. We also did close ups of eyes, mouths and feet.
At first, there were a few shots we couldn't use because the subject didn't know the lyrics as she didn't have much time to learn them, however after printing the lyrics off and running through them a few times, the problem was solved and we continued.
I really liked the shots of the eyes and mouths because I think that the extreme close ups in juxtaposition with the wide shots create interesting contrast and I didn't see any other groups with extreme close ups of features so it was nice to have individual ideas.
We could've varied the angles of our shots more as most of them were at a front-on angle but if we'd have changed the angles a bit, perhaps using a Dutch Tilt, the aesthetics of the whole video would've been more interesting.
I enjoyed using the studio as its artificial qualities meant that we could control the lighting an surroundings to create almost anything we wanted or needed.
We used synthetic lighting, including redheads and blondes and to ensure the lights weren't too bright and blinding for the subjects, we used spun to dim the intensity of the lights a bit. The lighting worked well but we had to keep an eye on it whilst filming against the green screen because if a shadow is cast on it, it won't work when it comes to editing. We were careful in checking for shadows and this meant that it wasn't a problem.
During editing, I tried to cut on different beat patterns, instead of just every 4th beat, in order to keep the video interesting and fast paced. I started with the shot of Leila's eyes and then used the other group's low angle shot of Tom on the sofa to contrast this- I liked the other groups shot because it made up for the variety of angles which we lacked during filming.
Also, whilst editing on Final Cut Pro, I found that because there were so many layers of footage on the timeline, sometimes I could hear sound that I didnt' want but couldn't see where it was coming from and had to scroll down really far to track it down. Before I'd worked out where the noise was coming from it was disturbing the editing process but once I'd figured it out, it wasn't a problem any more.
Through doing this practise run my editing skills have developed a lot because this style of editing is enturely different to that which we used when editing out thrillers as sound and timing is much more important- especially as out thriller didn't rely much on timing as the narrative was quite abstract.
During filming, we all worked well as a team and managed to gave a go at most of  the jobs available. When editing, I worked on my own, which I enjoyed because it meant that I had free-reign on what I could create.
By the end of the day, I hadn't finished editing the video, but I'm hopefully going to go back and complete it because it's really enjoyable. I was happy with what I'd created and had a really productive day, both in terms of the film I created but also the skills I learnt and I'm looking forward to making a whole music video with a concept I've planned and can really get my teeth into.

Analysis of Queen Album Cover

 

Evaluation 7

The camerawork in our preliminary task isn't too bad, but the shots we decided to use aren't very adventurous and, due to issues with continuity, the editing isn't perfect.
However, in our thriller, we tried to use more interesting shot types, such as the tracking shot, the slider and the unusual idea that he looks into the camera as if it's the computer screen. The camerawork in our thriller was more effecttive when trying to create suspense because it doesn't reveal the whole situation too soon, however, part of this comes from the better use of the mise-en-scene.
The darkened room, with mostly blue and green colours, doesn't replicate an ordinary situation and so this keeps the audience in anticipation; asking where the boy is and what he's doing.
Editing our thriller was more challenging than editing our preliminary task because it doesn't have much of a narrative in the sequence. In our preliminary task, there are three characters and the scene has a journey whereas with our thriller, it does have a journey, but it's harder to narrate, less obvious and is much shorter. This meant that we used a lot less of our footage than what we intended, which was a shame but there would be no point in using footage which didn't aid the sequence.

Throughout this experience, I've gained a lot of knowledge about filmmaking; it's harder than it seems.
I enjoyed being able to use a professional camera and having the opportunity to create something completely from scratch has been really exciting. If I were to go through this process again, I would plan a sequence with a much clearer narrative and would use more than one character because I think speech is something which obviously lacked in our thriller- we had originally planned to have a voiceover but we simply ran out of time.
I enjoyed working with my group because we all played a useful part in the creation of our thriller, so I would be happy to work with them again, but I think it would be useful (and fun) to switch roles and to try things which push us out of our comfort zones. We definitely played to our strengths when distributing tasks and so it would be good to mix it up and by doing so, develop strengths in other areas.

We found it hard to find a soundtrack which accompanies our footage well- originally we were going to create our own music- so if I were to do this task again, I would start looking for music much earlier in the process to ensure that we don't fall behind with it.
With regard to appealing to our target audience, it wasn't too challenging, for a few reasons.
Firstly, our target audience is teenage boys and so we could easily research what appeals to them and could get feedback after they watched our thriller. Secondly, because we chose to make a techno thriller, we could easily get the props, such as laptops, iPads and monitors, because we live in such a technology-centred society.

I've learnt how to execute more creative shots and in particular, I've learnt how to do a focus pool- something which I've always thought looked really cool. The most prominant thing I've learnt from the preliminary task is how to use a camera and tripod, set up and alter the lighting and how to create an interesting a realistic set. From making our thriller, the main thing I've learnt is how to effectively edit footage and how to create titles from scratch.
As well as learning practical skills, I've also learnt the importance of research and how to manage a project. Making our thriller took a lot of organisation; however it wasn't as organised as it could've been, but making this mistake has emphasised the importance of organisation and means that the next time I make a media product, I will be more organised and will plan much further in advance to ensure that we don't run out of time.

Evaluation 6

This is our thriller, on YouTube, with annotations added about the technology we used to create it.

Evaluation 5

We attracted our audience by using colours and themes which appeal to teenage boys and young men as well as focusing our film on technology.

The main colours throughout our title sequence are blue and green, which are male orientated colours and the majority of the backgrounds are either black or dark blue. This use of colour attracts our target audience as they're male and so these colours would appeal to them more than girls. It also creates an enigma which is a major reason why people watch thriller films as they gain enjoyment or plaisiar from being able to guess the outcome or try to work out in advance what will happen within the film.

 As the camera tracks backwards, it reveals the whole screen and shows that the audience is looking at a moving map on a computer screen and later on, when the audience sees a tracking shot of the tabletop, we see all the technology the boy has in his room; an iPad, and iPad mini, two laptops (one old and one new) two large monitors, two small computer screens, radio technology and a small screen with green codes on it. This large range of technology is bound to interest our target audience because they're interested in the latest technology as well as the evolution of technology (and therefore older, pioneering technology too).

Again, the camera continues to track and reveal the whole shot- a boy sat under a table, surrounded by the technology, in the dark. The boy is of the same age as our target audience; we did this on purpose to try to make our target audience wonder what this character is doing as it would appear to be something which is accessable to them. Also, one of the main reason we chose our actor Nick, is because he would encourage our secondary audience (females ages 18-40) as he is an attractive young man.

The mise-en-scene, the darkness alongside the dim blue light, adds an eerie atmosphere, suggesting that whatever he is looking at is of great importance. We wanted to create this idea, not only to communicate the storyline, but also to generate curiosity amongst our target audience: what can a boy of their age be doing that is so important? Another reason people may be attracted to our film is because it involves something that could be real, the idea that someone could hack into the FBI manframe or something similiar is a very real fear. The fact that this deals with real life issues is another way we addressed our secondar audience of the over 25's who enjoy technologcal thrillers but want a sembleance of reality from them and not superficial in the way of a film like Die Hard 4.0

Then, the film cuts to the titles we created in after effects. These were inspired by images of the hacking game 'Uplink' which is a game enjoyed by people who're in our target audience. We tried to keep the style of these hacking images similar to that of games such as Uplink in order to appeal to our target audience. As you can see, the numbers and letters in behind a layer of the world map suggests hacking and intelligence. We also tried to keep the theme colour blue in order to stick to the boyish and cold themes which appeal to our target audience.

We chose posters with Boeing 767s and fighter jets on them to appeal to our target audience, because, from our research, we found that often people who're interested in computing technology are also interested in cars, planes and other technical modes of transport. This would further attract teenage boys who would hopefully come with their friends and girlfriends thus atracting our secondary audience as well.