QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire

EDITING TO THE BEAT

I decided that, as we were to get our cameras next week and commence filming, I would practise editing some of our practise footage to the beat and music of Dog Days, it was quite challenging as we did not film much lip syncing I could not really incorporate much of it in the video, however it was useful to attempt to fit the footage we had to the song and lyrics. For example, one of the shots was taken with a hand held walking up a ramp towards a building, i used this shot to match with the lyrics:

"coming towards her"

Another example would be when i used footage of the protagonist walking around a corner, I included a slow paced clip of this to fit the timing of the lyrics:

"she hid around corners and she hid under beds"

Personally I feel that it was quite successful, but I will be able to produce something much better with a wider range of footage and lip syncing material.

SECOND COSTUME FOR ARTIST

For the artists second costume in the performance aspect of the video, in the fields, we wanted her to wear a white or light coloured dress to represent her new life and a pure and happy emotion that she feels. We asked a friend studying textiles at A-level to make us a "floaty, floral sort of happy type dress". So we went shopping to buy some fabrics and start making a dress.

(Left) Rachel starts to make the dress, she has cut up the

floral material into sections to create a bodice and pinned them together. (To the right) is our fabric that we have chosen to use for pars on the dress, including the bodice and parts of the skirt, we wanted to use a floral fabric as it fitted in well with the natural element of the location. The lighter colours present the sense of happiness the artist feels that her life is for the better and the feminine pattern contrasts directly with the leather jacket and boots worn in the previous location. This represents the direct contrast of the two stages in her life.

COSTUMES CONTINUED

For the second character (George) we felt that as his role was very minor he would just wear modern and casual clothes, possibly jeans or joggers and a t-shirt or jumper. The colours will be dark as well to represent his negative personality and character. However, we could include a red t-shirt or top to represent his angry nature, although we do not want to take focus away from the artist.

COSTUME

As we will start our filming in a few weeks we have decided to start seriously thinking about the costumes of the characters.

There are 2 characters in the video:

The lead protagonist/ Artist (Me)

Her Ex (who has a small role in the video, played by George)

As there are 2 different Locations, two costumes are required. The first location, where the majority of the video will be shot, is the roof tops. As this part of the video will represent a negative time in the artists life we feel her costume should reflect this alongside the band image and genre. We felt that the clothes I wore when we did some practise filming were effective and so decided to use them for part of the first costume (above, left and below) A leather jacket was effective as it presented the modern element of our band image, also incorporating the genre, which is

Alternative Rock, it also depicts the more gritty element of the video, connotations of a dark leather jacket can adhere to the rougher and darker image we are trying to create. We also wanted to keep the idea of using black leggings as the colour provided further representation of our dark and negative image, whilst the holes and patches can represent how the artists life is falling

apart.

Further more

if you look at the image on the right we feel that the darker colours really fits in with the urban background and setting that we are using in the video.

However, we will not have Ugg boots as part of the costume in the real video, instead we are considering using mini boots, preferably dark brown or black leather, these will firstly fit well with the image we are trying to create (the leather conforming to rock stereotypes) and as we found when filming, it is very difficult to run fast in Uggs and so some proper shoes or boots are required for the running footage to look effective. We decided as a group that we would not spend extra money on the element of the video as we have to make and buy the second costume for the performance location.

MONTAGE OF 'SAD TIMES' SHOTS

Here is a compilation of shots of the protagonist in the first location (the roof tops, representing the 'sad times') we have experimented with different speeds of clips and practised editing the beat and timings of the song we are using 'The Dog Days Are Over' by Florence and the Machine

PRACTISE FILMING

We decided to do some practise filming before we got all of our equipment and started filming our music video. These shots allowed us to experiment with different camera angles and editing to music, they also gave us an over view of some of the ideas we might like to use in the real thing.
The opening 'Argument' inspired us to film the characters actually fighting, not just shadows in low contrast lighting, although we are laughing half of the time and the emotion displayed does not have the same affect we felt it looked really effective to have our protagonist's bad relationship shown more explicitly to the audience. The second argument sequence, in front of the wall, we felt was particularly effective as it presented a really negative and almost desperate atmosphere to the scene (which is what we were hoping to achieve)I personally like the way in which the characters are shouting but you cannot hear them, I feel that this heightens the sense of helplessness our protagonist feels, almost as if nobody can hear her.
The 'running' shot provided us a number of difficulties when filming. It was difficult to run with a hand-held and keep the camera relatively steady, also it was harder for the person filming to keep up with my running, as they were having to concentrate more, we thought that we would try to overcome this by using a shopping trolley. This allowed us to keep the camera steady whilst moving but was not ideal for speed, another option is to use a car and have somebody film out the window, this will keep the camera steady and keep up with the protagonists pace.

MEDIA TRIP TO LONDON

As a class we travelled up to London, Shepard's Bush, to visit a small studio and listen to a talk and presentation about the music video industry and creating our videos. We took a camera with us to film some of the events that took place!

FILMING ON LOCATION

This is a picture of Emily, Elizabeth and I shooting one of the shots on the urban location, I am sitting on the roof edge of Lidll (Emily is in charge of health and safety) and Liz is filming. (Akua is taking the picture.)

STORYBOARD DRAFT 2

Here is the second draft of our storyboard, it gives us a plan to follow for our first 40+ shots, by presenting them in picture form we were able to visualise our film coming together and rearrange shots and mini clips.
Storyboard Music Video.ppt Recovered]

PICTURES OF US ON LOCATION

Elizabeth and I preparing the camera and lighting for the shot

Elizabeth and I preparing for shots on location to use in our storyboard

HYPODERMIC-SYRINGE MODEL

Hypodermic-syringe model or "Magic Bullet" perspective
This model is rooted in the 1930's and today is considered obsolete and has been replaced by newer and more up to date theories.
The hypodermic-syringe model implied that the mass media (newspapers, films, music e.t.c) has a direct, powerful and instant impact on audiences the model describes it as becoming 'injected' with information through a medium. For example a person who uses the medium of tv to watch violent films would eventually become desensitised and their opinions and views on the topic changed through the medium.

PICTURES OF STORYBOARDING ON LOCATION

Here are a number of still shots of us taking pictures on location for our storyboard...

A mid-shot image of the protagonist in the narrative location, the urban setting and low contrast lighting presents the despair she feels in comparison to the bright rural setting in the performance location.

Me on location, this is a rough idea of a shot where the protagonist would start to sing, we thought we could follow this with a pan arund to the a close -up shot of her face singing.

Emily on location, here she is demonstrating a wide shot we could use for our performance aspect of the video.

STORYBOARD

Here is the first draft of our storyboard, it is not completed yet but this just gives a quick overview of what we are hoping to achieve. We wanted to gain a more overall view of our video and so we visited our location and took a number of photos a short videos of our ides so we could visualise what they would look life on film.

Storyboard Music Video.ppt Recovered]

STORYBOARDING PRACTISE

In our As Media course, we created the opening two minutes of a horror film, however our filming was problematic as we had to repeatedly re shoot footage and add more locations to add more to the video, we felt that this was down to a poor, and essentially absent storyboard.

Without storyboarding the groups ideas a number of problems may arise including,

Before sitting down and storyboarding our actual video we thought that we would do a practise one, as a group we made up a storyboard for the opening of the Pamola Faiths 'New York' video, we felt that this would enable us to gain an insight into storyboarding music video from a similar genre.

WORDLE

Here is a wordle that contains everything we want our music video and band to be associated with, it also includes feedback from our peers after presenting our treatment.

'DOG DAYS ARE OVER' - LYRICS

Happiness hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with her drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink


The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You cant carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had and what was left after that too, oh
Happiness hit her like a bullet in the head
Struck from a great height by someone who should know better than that

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your loving, your loving behind
You cant carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

TREATMENT PRESENTATION

BAND NAME MIND MAP

Here is a mind map of some ideas and themes we want our band name to reflect:

Band Name Mind Map

DOG DAYS ARE OVER: NEW IDEA

After a significant group meeting , we decided that the song, stone cold sober, was not ideal for our music video. We listened to the lyrics more closely and deciding that it would be difficult to lip sync to. We also researched int the making of the video it self, being really flamboyant and extravagant it cost a lot to produce. We also figured it would be difficult to lip sync to as the artist as a slight lisp.

Therefore..

We changed our idea and had a complete 'remodel' of our plan and video. Our chosen song is Dogs Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine

We have decided to produce a performance/ narrative video, filming in two locations. The performance side of which will be set in a wide natural open space and will juxtapose with the narrative being set in typically urban settings. The theme of the video will be getting over hard times and moving on with your life.

We all feel really positive about our new idea and there are many more details in our treatment!

TREATMENT

What is a treatment?
-A short outline of a media production designed to give the client or production team an overview of what the production might include based on a brief*

*A brief being the end product, our brief is a music video and an advert.

Treatments are written descriptions, but can include sketches, images and other types of text. A treatment demonstrates the intention of the production, it aims to "sell" an idea to the client, there is no hard and fast way to do so. It is an integral aspect of the reproduction process.

Treatment
Treatment media - fatm

BAND NAME

I have researched into a number of different band names,

some of the most famous singers and musicians are only known by one 'stage name', for example:

SLASH

CHER

IGGY POP

However there are some bands which name the group together as a whole, despite there being a clear lead singer, some examples of these are:

KISS

FALL OUT BOY

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

THE KILLERS

GUNS AND ROSES

THE SEX PISTOLS

POISON

AEROSMITH

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

In our 'band' there is a lead singer, and possible other musicians, but they do not contribute to the song as much. therefore we could steer towards a name that puts our lead above the others, such as:

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE

MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

WORDLE

This is a wordle presenting all the ideas and themes that we could want our music video to be associated with once it is completed. It also helps us to plan our video and visualise our ideas as a whole.

PLANNING

Our group creating a 'mind map' to display and help plan our ideas, we wanted to get our ideas on a page before we decided what to do and start our treatment. Once we have made the final choices we will start to storyboard them.

Our initial idea is to have a theme of Imagination Vs reality.

We would have an urban setting, quite derelict, lots of drinking, drugs a desperate feel to it. we felt if we over exaggerate the reality it would really contrast to the imagination element of the video. For this we would have a more, natural, rural location and setting, maybe in a woods or a park. We considered linking this idea with the theme of Alice in Wonderland including elements of this in the imagination part of the video. However we are not sure on this idea as it would be extravagant and difficult to film, so we are still mapping out ideas for our imagination element.

MEETING LOG - UPDATE 28/09/10

Meeting Log

OTHER SONG CHOICES

FALL OUT BOY - The take over, the breaks over

We considered this song choice as we felt it had a clear melody, with instruments that stand out individually, so they would be easier to sync etc. However we felt we wanted to steer away from a male singer, in case of re-filming it would be easier to have a female lead, so one of the group could step in in an emergency.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Can't Stop

Initially this was our first song choice, we wanted to create a narrative music video, with an audition them, however we felt that, again, the male lead would hinder our filming process and were concerned that the audition theme could potentially be dull and difficult to edit.

SONG CHOICE

After a group discussion we decided to base our music video on the song Stone Cold sober by Paloma Faith.

Faith suggests hidden reality and themes of surrealism in the song, the lyrics also suggest that there is more to her than initial appearances.

Below is a link to the BBC music Chart Blog:

(A review on Stone Cold Sober by Fraser McAlpine 10:43 UK time, Friday, 19 June 2009)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chartblog/fraser_mcalpine/

GENRE THEORY

WHAT IS GENRE?
A genre is a critical tool that helps us to study text, and audience responses to texts, by dividing them into categories based on common elements.
Daniel Chandler (2001) - Genre comes from the French/ Latin word for 'Kind/ class', widely used in rhetoric, literary theory reffereing to a distincitve type of text.

SUB GENRES

-Genres divided into categories

-They are distinctive, allow audiences to identify preferred, more specific, texts within a larger genre.

Steve Neale (1995) - "Genres are not systems they are processes if systemization"

- They are dynamic and evolve over time.

Jason Mittell (2001) - (cultural categories surpass boundaries of media texts) Argues that industries use genre to sell products to their audiences.

Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume, enables them to fulfil a particular pleasure.

AEROSMITH - PINK ANALYSIS

To help us with our idea of an audition - style music video we studied Aerosmith's music video for their song 'Pink', as it shows a number o different characters lip syncing in different costumes we thought we could integrate this style in to our own video. We can shoot different people auditioning for the band and editing the footage to show the change of person to represent the busy auditions.

In the video, Aerosmith have left gaps between people singing, filling them with hr characters, we thought we could do this with people auditioning for instruments as it would be difficult to editing together lip syncing, as it might not look realistic and be ineffective.

ANALYSIS OF A MUSIC VIDEO

ANALYSIS OF LILY ALLEN'S 'THE FEAR'

I have done a critical analysis of Lily Allen's video 'The Fear', this narrative video explores the effects of fame and publicity on the pop star whilst idolising a wealthy lifestyle.

MEETING LOG

Here is my original Meeting Log which I will use to help my time management by filling in dates and meeting places as well as recording the minutes and progress of the group and our project.

Meeting Log

MOOD BOARD

This is my mood board on the Rock Genre of music. It includes a collection of images I found on search engines and the internet, including famous rock starts and musicians, band names and logos as well as examples of this genre in the media, such as magazines, video games and festival advertising.

Mood Board

MUSIC VIDEO INITIAL IDEA

Our First Idea

After a group discussion we came up with the first idea for our music video, we will have a narrative video of auditions for a band, similar to that of 'Tell Me Baby' by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. the video will include a number of short shots of different people playing/ singing to different parts of the song and will then continue to a chosen band being formed and performing in a studio as professionals.

At the start of the video there will be shots of an auditions sign and people walking into the audition room, this will set the scene of our video and introduce the theme to the audience as well as adding filler to the start of the song where there are no vocals. As the melody starts it camera will change to somebody auditioning for guitar followed by an extreme close up of them actually playing the guitar.

After our discussion we discovered that the red hot chili peppers have a video with a similar idea, of auditions, so we decided to analyse their version and base our own on this. We also found that the band had a song we really liked, this being called 'Can't Stop', that we wanted to use in our own video. (See Video Below).

INITIAL BAND CHOICES

These are some of the bands i would initially like to base my music video on are:



The Killers - When We Were Young

Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

Taylor Swift - Mine

Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

Chase and Status - Let You Go

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't stop

RESEARCH - R&B GENRE

R&B GENRE RESEARCH

Research in the R&B Genre of music videos:
R&B - 'Rhythm and blues' is a popular genre in the music business, Beyonce, probably one of the most influential R&B artists of her time provides a good example of the type of music within this genre.

Her songs include elements of soul, pop and rap and vary in style from her earlier work, such as 'Baby boy, featuring Sean Paul' which integrates rap with pop and soul, this being a main characteristic of R&B music, the mixture of different styles within one genre.

MUSIC VIDEOS RESEARCH

PERFORMANCE VIDEO

Performance music videos involve the artist performing in one or more locations, many videos are shot around the performer walking down a street, Massive Attack have used this method, and it is also common in many rap videos. Panic at the Disco's I write sins not tragedies is a clear example of a performance video as it involves the band performing inside a house and a garden, which they move out into during the video.

MUSIC VIDEOS RESEARCH

NARRATIVE

Narrative music videos can aid the views understanding of the song and aid the artist, the visual clip acts is easy for the viewer to follow and enables them to associate the song with something else. Pure narrative music videos involve no lip syncing, however most will include lip synchronisation.

An example of a narrative video would be Stan by Eminem, although there is lip syncing there is a clear story in the video and a clear start and end to the video.

THRILLER VIDEO

Michael Jackson's Thriller video, a 14-minute music video released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson. It can be arg

ued that the Thriller video is probaly one of the most famous music videos ever, coming in and number one in E4's '100 greatest music videos' it's clear that the Thriller video is timeless.
The video is portrayed as a mini film, which not only includes the song itself but includes a screen play and dialouge. The thriller video can be compared with the more contemporary work of Lady Gaga in her video for Telephone which also features as a mini film.
Featuring in the video, co-starring alsongside Jackson, was former playboy model Ola Ray. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters and The video (like the song) contains a spoken word performance by horror film veteran Vincent Price.

ARTIST RESEARCH

To wider my knowledge on classic and contemporary music videos and artists i have decided to research three different recording artists based on the time at which their videos were made and the nature of their videos and music. I will research artists who have produced timeless videos, for example Michael Jackson and the Thriller video.
I will also research artist who are more contemporary, for example Lady Gaga, probably the most famous contemporary artist at present, or Florence and the Machine, another contemporary musician, who has steered away from the pop genre, which Lady Gaga embraces.
There are also a number of different music videos that stand out to me as being different and more creative than most, for example some of the Coldplay music videos.

FIRST POST

This is my first post.