Change of Mind

Originally the storyline of my music video was going to be that; the girl went on holiday without her boyfriend, and missed him. I thought this was a stereotypical storyline, and didn't like the idea of how plain and simple it was. So after thinking of the idea that the girlfriend and boyfriend broke up, then she went on holiday, I changed it. I did this because I thought it would work better with the style of music video I have envisioned in my mind.

The fact that the girl will be constantly battling herself on whether to get in contact with him or not, I personally think would work well, as I will be able to capture that sense of desperate and depressed emotions through filming with certain lighting, locations and mise en scene.

Actor and Locations

Actor

For my main actress I will be using Georgia Dalton as my main character. I find that she suites the character role well, as she has long brown hair, green eyes, and pale but tanned skinned body; this shows that she can tan well in the sun but has a pale skin complexion.
Other characters will be people around the background, it will be people that have been in the shot of the video.

This is a picture of my model, Georgia.

Location

The locations of this video will be in Texas, South Carolina Hilton Head, Tennessee, Mississippi and England. I have chosen these places as Georgia and I will be doing a road trip around America and these are the states that we will be going. So I thought these would show a good sense of travelling. The shots in England will be done outside on the street and in a house.

This is one of the locations I will film in. This dock is in South Carolina, Hilton Head and every Friday night in summer the display a large show of fireworks. I am planning to film the fireworks show to add to the music video.

 

 

This will be the view from our balcony at the hotel in South Carolina, Hilton Head. I am planning to take scenery shots here and also shots of my model with the view in the background.

Ancillary Task 2 - Magazine Advertisement

This magazine advert is for the debut album of Jessie J titled 'Who You Are'. Already just from looking we are introduced to Jessie J as she is placed at the centre of the advert in a sort of medium, close up shot, this is effective as it tells the audience straight away who she is and people will begin to recognise her which will help boost her popularity and sales of the album. Already there is continuity between the magazine advert and the album cover which both use the same image, which as I mentioned before allows her audience to familiarise themselves with her. As it is her debut this being recognisable is key. The way the she is posed seems like she is opening curtains or a window, this could connote that she is coming out into the world and she is ready to rise and become famous. The way she is dressed not only makes her look classy but at the same time blends in with the colour scheme of the advert which denotes her style and the album being unique and personal to her. She looks directly at the audience which allows a connection with her fans. The font of the magazine advert is also reflecting on how she herself is dressed in a sophisticated, elegant way while also including a hand written title below her name, the style of the write could connote that her target audience is mainly female based, or that could simple be something that presents her to her audience. The mentioning of the 1 international smash 'Price Tag' brings the reader/audience to realise that a song that they might have enjoyed is featured and can grab their interest even if they have not heard it, because of it is a 1 smash worldwide it would bring them to want to listen and find out if her other songs are just as good, also mentioning the feature of an already famous artist will bring a variety of audience, and this is important for her as a debut artist to be able to draw in the fans.  

Gwen Stefani 'Love Music Baby' we see the continuity again which is something all musicians have between their magazine adverts and album cover. We see Gwen's magazine ad and album cover (bottom left) are identical this makes it more recognisable. The colour scheme is another factor that will allow the work to be more recognisable as it is bright but still does it in a way in which Gwen stands out more so the reader is easily drawn to her face and will instantly know this is Gwen Stefani as she at this time she is very famous so a lot of people already know her or of her whether they have heard her music or not. The colour scheme also gives the image a sense of royalty as the colour gold is used a lot which we associate with money and royalty, connoting she might take herself as the queen of music, and this links into the fact that she is sitting on a throne and holding a crown again giving the image of high status. The font is consistent throughout only changing in size, but her name is the biggest font on the advert which again will grab the readers attention straight away as it is in gold and is big, this allows familiarisation again. Her facial expression seems seductive and she looks straight at the reader trying to draw them in to pay more attention and at the same time appeal to  her male audience and female audience a like as she is of an older age but still looks and carries herself as if she was young. 

Straight away audience members who are familiar with Wretch 32' will notice the clever play on word he had used for his album title, making it more noticeable and appreciated which still being easy to say. Similar to Gwen Stefani's magazine advert we see continuity between the magazine advert and album cover as shown in the same bottom left hand corner, this makes the album recognisable, allowing the target audience to find it more easily whether they search online or in stores. The advert is given an urban vibe with the spray paint like effects to depict the flats in the background and the sky being made up of different shades of blue stripes also adds to the urban feel. The artist himself has the same type of spray paint on him connoting that he is of this urban environment and the way he is dressed also ties in. The artist doesn't look directly at the camera as to say that he doesn't want to connect with his audience as he is serious about his music, looking at the camera would require a facial expression which may make him look less serious about his music meaning he wouldn't be taken as seriously. The magazine mentioning who is featuring in the album will attract audience members who listen to there particular artists in order to see if they enjoy the music and this could lead to people enjoying Wretch 32 himself as an artist and because of this his audience will grow along with his popularity. And lastly it is mentioned where the album can be bought which would be helpful to his target audience as they would know where to search when the album us released. 

Ancillary Task 1 - CD Album Cover

This album cover is for Avicii - Wake Me Up.

This CD Album cover shows the artist is the background, almost blended in to make the writing in white stand out more. The image is also simple, where the artist is looking away from the audience, he doesn't interact with them, he makes them wonder what he is thinking.

This album cover is for Daft Punk - Get Lucky.
Not much can be said for this album cover as, like many other album covers it is very simplistic, not a lot going on the cover, though when we look we know who's album it is as the masks are like an iconic trademark when it comes to daft punk as it is also what makes them unique and stand out from everyone else.

This album cover is for Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop.
The image is quit blurred, which represents the way people see things once they've been at a party drinking all night,  which is what the album is going for to represent; as the image is of a party scene and not of Miley herself it represent the main focus of the song which is not stopping when they go out for the night. The fonts are bright and bold and stand out from the background image. 

After researching front covers from current albums, that have recently been released, I decided to find CD's I have at home and see the different styles, codes and conventions they have.

These images show the inside pages of CD DigiPaks; the lyrics pages. By looking at actual media products, it helped me get a rough idea of how I would lay out my media product lyrics page.

On real media products this is the spine of a CD DigiPak. I noticed how they mainly have the name of the artist and the name of the album. This will help me design my CD spine as it will allow me to make a realistic spine for DigiPak.

These are real media products of the front page, these are rather simple, and just show the artists, with the album title and the artists name. This helps me when designing my front cover, as I can follow the simplicity to make it look as realistic as possible. 

The back covers of real media products have the label companies logos, copyright information, bar codes, list of songs in that album and an image. These features will help me whilst designing my back cover as I can make them as realistic as possible. 



MoodBoard

I have decided to create a mood board to show what ideas I have thought of for my music video. I've gone for a travelling theme for my video; such as travelling in a plane, a road trip, beach, pool, shopping and clubbing. As I am travelling around America I thought it would be the perfect for the travelling theme I have created. I will have to consider lighting for certain locations and times, because I plan to do some filming during the night, so I will have to use appropriate lighting to make sure you are able to see the main focus of the shot.
As I wont be in each location for very long, I will have to be careful with mistakes as I wont be able to go back to that location and re-shot. So I will have to shot a scene numerous amount of times so I have a variety to choose from.

Final Song Choice

Disclosure - You and Me (Flume Remix)

This is my final choice of song for my music video, as I feel I will be able to produce a video, that will work well with being mainly narrative. However I will be able to add performance scenes, showing the girl singing towards the camera, so overall the final outcome of my music video will be a mixture between narrative and performance. I have decided to cut thesong shorter, as the song is 4 minutes 41 seconds, this will be too long for my video so I will cut it down to around 2 minutes 30 seconds of 3 minutes, roughly.
I also think this song will work well as it is upbeat, by can be shown as a downbeat sad song; both of these will work well with my video idea concept, as she is happy because she is travelling around America, but feels alone because her boyfriend isn't travelling with her.
I will not be using the original version of this song as the song has a video already, and I feel I might lean towards copying some of the scenes from the video. However I think the song works well with the storyline, so I have found a remix, that would work just as well, maybe even better. In the remix, there are less lyrics, so I can use my imagination more and stretch to different ideas and scenes. Also I can incorporate scenic views to work with the video to show her whereabouts during the video, or where she is travelling too.

Storyline - Girl has gone on holiday, just after breaking up with her boyfriend, everything around her reminds her of him. She misses him and regrets the break up, so is continuously thinking of him. She keeps debating on talking to him, to re-start the relationship, but all brings herself not to do it.

Shot Ideas;

• Girl looking at postcards to send to him
• Car journey - hand out the window, flowing through the air
• Travelling through the airport
• On the aeroplane
• Shot through the window on plane of the land underneath
• Landing in America - shot through the window of the plan landing
• People walking in the street around the girl
• Swimming in the ocean or pool
• Sun Bathing
• Sends him a text message or receives one from him
• Wakes up in bed stretching across to hug him
• Hugs the pillow, because she misses him
• Walking along the beach
• Scenic views
• Sat on the balcony looking at the view
• Having a drink at the bar
• People on the beach sunbathing
• People swimming
• Getting ready to go out
• Eating her meals alone
• Road Trip
• Clubbing - strobe lights

I will be shooting this video in America, as I am going on holiday to Texas, South Carolina, Tupelo Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. I feel these locations will work well with my song and story line as the fit with the girl travelling and missing her boyfriend.

R&B Genre Research

I am considering using R&B Genre for the song used for my music video, therefor I have researched and analysed a pop music video.

Kiss Kiss - Chris Brown

 

The video starts off with different scenes cutting between a radio station, and Chris bBrown walking in a hall way. There's different edit shots, showing three/two scenes at one time on the screen. This video use;s bright colours, dance scenes. Its a performance and a narrative video mixed together. They use diegetic sounds of people talking in the video. The video use's girls as the main focus, showing how the male artists mainly focus on them. Chris Brown plays two charatcers in the video, the 'cool' guy and the 'geek' and shows how the 'cool' guy dominates the 'geek'. Untill the end when the 'geek' wins all the girls over the 'cool' guy.


Music Conventions of R&B Music Videos

• Usually has a narrative
• Close up of artists
• Usually use special effects
• Use alcohol, money party/club scenes
• Women wear minuim clothing
• Dance routine

Alternative Genre Research

I am considering using Alternative Genre for the song used for my music video, therefor I have researched and analysed a pop music video.

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

The video starts off with a girl not in the band walking down a lane in the woods, with her hod pulled up over her head so its hard to see her features of her face. She is carrying a box that is covered, so it raises interest in the audience. It then focus on her eyes. Once the beat drops, it cuts from performance scenes of the band in a dark room, with dull coloured clothes, to the girl walking and then a arena full of people making bets. Throughout the song there are diegetic sounds of water droping, people cheering/screaming and deep breathing; this gives the song a more realistic affect. The video uses stuffed animal creatures that represent animals/people fighting in an arena, so people can make bets. The artists are stuck underneath the arena, where they drop all the 'defeated' and 'dead' stuffed toys. The girl then brings a tiny teddy bear to fight a stuffed toy that is unbeatable, once the unbeatable animal is defeated by the tiny teddy bear, she rescues the band and the tiny teddy bear defeats all the humans left.

Music Conventions of Alternative Music Videos

• Usually narrative video, telling a story; following the lyrics of the song, or will be random
• Usually a performance during the video, either singing of playing an instrument
• Dark colours, not very bright
• Sense of rebelling

Codes and Conventitions

The Style of Music Videos

Performance

Performance is when the music video consists mainly of the artist or artists performing during the video. This type of music video isn't very common, because target audiences are not able to engage fully with the song or video. Although if done correctly with proper studio lighting, costumes and dance performances, it can become a very creative way of making a music video. Which will make the audience interested in watching.

Narrative

A Narrative music video creates a story line, there are two different types of narrative videos; narrative Linear and fragmented A Linear narrative. Fragmented A Linear starts at the beginning of the story, goes through the middle, and finishes at the end. A fragmented narrative is a music video that jumps scenes, and doesn't show the story from the beginning to the end.

Mixture

A Mixture video is a combination of performance and narrative, this is the most commonly used music video. This is because it is hard to create a music video fully focused on narrative, or performance, by using both performance and narrative the video can be made more interesting for the audience to watch and enjoyable.

Cameo

A Cameo video is were a band or artist features in a narrative video but does not perform.

 

The Camera

Camera Shots; these are the most common shots used in music videos, however other shots are used, to show more creative ways of displaying scenes.

Very Wide Shot - This is were the artist is shown visible, but not the main focus in the frame. Emphasising mainly on the location and setting of the video.

Wide Shot - This is were the artist is the main focus on the screen but you can still see the location/setting in the shot.

Mid Shot - This shows the artist from her/his waist to head, focusing mainly on the subject but still showing the location/setting.

Medium Close Up - This shot shows the artist from chest to head, becoming a shot half way between a mid-shot and a close up.

Close Up - This shot focus mainly on the subject, showing either mainly the artists faces or an object, were the camera focuses closely on.

Extreme Close Up - This shot shows the artists face extremely close, for example the artists eyes to mouth, showing their emotions, thoughts, feelings or lip sycning.

Over the Shoulder Shot - This is a shot used a lot in narrative videos, to show what the artist is looking at, or who the artist is talking too.

Cut In - This shot is used in music videos to show something that the lyrics might be saying, for example the artist could be singing about an ocean, and the shot will be of the ocean. This shot is similar to a close up, but used very quickly.

Camera Angles

Camera angles play a huge part in emphasising the artist or to show emotions and expressions. Other camera angles that are simply the most common in music videos, are close ups, showing lip syncing, and extreme close ups were lyrics can be linked to visuals.

Eye-Level - This is a very common view being the real world angle that we are all use to seeing, it shows subjects as we would to expect to see them in real life.

High Angle - This is were the camera shows the subject from above, and the camera is angled down towards the subject, which has the effect of making them appear less power full, less significant or even submissive.

Low Angle - This is were the subject is shown from below, giving the impression of being more powerful or dominant.

Bird's Eye - This angle is showing the subject/scene from directly above, it can be used to add a dramatic effect or showing a different perspective. It can also show the positions and motions of different characters and objects, allowing the viewer to see things the character might not see.

Slanted - This is when the camera is slanted also known as a Dutch angle were the camera is purposely tilted to one side so the horizon is on an angle, this is creative is making interesting dramatic effects.

Camera Movements

The camera moves to follow the artist or to show the performance. These movements include panning and tracking. A director may choose to move action along by telling the story as a series of cuts, going from one shot to another, or they may decide to move the camera with the action.

Pans - This is were the camera scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a trip of, which operates as a station art axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.

Dolly/Tracking - This is were the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very smooth movement.

Editing Techniques

Editing is the process in which that concludes the making of the music video. When editing you cut down scenes, add special effects and add the track to the music video, etc...

Sound

Sound consits of mainly two elements, diegetic sound which is already present in the video and non-diegetic sound which can be edited in. Sound is the main element in a music video, as that is the reason people will listen and watch the video, for the song. People do this to gain a sense f art via different artist's. Sound, like video can be edited to create different effects and variations to the normal vocals that we hear.
Sound Parallel sound is when the music matches the mood of the video. An example would be if the song was slow then the video would also be if the song was slow the the video would also be slow to go with the mood of the song. Some music videos have diegetic sound, where they include sound from the surroundings, such as cars, people talking, this is to make the video seem more realistic. The music itself is non-diegetic sound.

Mise en Scene

The Mise en Scene for music videos focus mainly on lighting, props, costume, hair and makeup, location and colour; these elements usually depend on the genre of the music video and style. These elements are also important in contributing towards music videos, and the genre of music. They are used to convey the importance of the people in the music videos, set the scene and can be used to show emotions.

• Lighting - how the scene is lit / artificial lights / side lights
• Props - performance equipment, band merchandise
• Costume - certain outfits
• Hair and Makeup - style of the artist / certain appearances
• Location - streets, parks, forests, beach etc
• Colour - specific colours representing a mood or feeling

Lighting

The lighting in a music idea can create different views b the way the scene is lit, it allows the audience to recognise the genre and style of the music video. A bright light draws the viewers attention, but a scene can be lit by using - natural lighting i.e. from the sun of light sources, or by using artificial lights, Strobe lights and coloured lights you would most likely see in a dance pop/hip hop videos, bit be very rare in country music videos.
The angle and direction of the light can also determine the genre of the music video as it gives the audience clues about what time of day the scene is taking place. The quality of light in a scene can also hide or reveal things and influence the viewers reaction.

Props

In most music videos props are used to illustrate the narrative, and when linking the lyrics with visuals, props are commonly used. The props in a music video add to the entertainment side, and can be used in a fun imaginative way.

Costume

The costume is used to represent certain characters in different ways. Different artists would also wear different clothes to represent what they are portraying in the music video. Costume can also illustrate the narrative, and can relate to what the song is about. This is shown in the video were the costumes are reflecting the song, and have been used to create a imaginative, fun video also adding to the entertainment side.

Hair and Make-Up

The way an artists hair is, is done for a purpose so it can display a characters personality, or be done as a way of attracting the audience. Depending on the target audience. Hair like makeup is really just about style, and fashion and whats in fashion at the time. Its important that the appearance of the actor/artist is of good quality as they will be looked at by the audience. Hair and make-up can be displayed in many different ways, and can display different emotions, and stories.

Location

The location, and scene of a music video can not only show the audience were the artist is, but also can decide on genre, for instance locations such as the beach, car, party, club, etc; these sort of locations you would usually find in a pop music video, due to the happy lively nature they portray. The location influences the genre, but also relate to the song.

Colour

Colours are shown throughout music videos; they are presented through lighting, costumes, hair, makeup, locations. Colours are used in everyday objects and we generally see the use of colours throughout music videos displaying the genre, theme and storyline of the video. Colour can be used to represent a feeling, mood or to signify a certain thing.

Indie Pop Genre Research

I am considering using Indie Pop Genre for the song used for my music video, therefor I have researched and analysed a pop music video.

Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn

The video is very plain, including the three artists against a black background throughout the hole of the video.
The three artists are being held up by people in black all over outfits so you can barely see them, the artists are wearing bright coloured clothes to stand out from the background. The camera is filming from a birds eye view so it looks like the artist are 'floating'. The video is performance based with the artists sing to the camera and playing the guitar. Occasionalythe camera will do a close up of each artist from their shoulder's upwards. The men holding the three artists up will bring bright coloured fabric in patterns around the artists. Also at the end they release a load of bright coloured ballons up into the air.

Music Conventions of Indie Pop Videos

• Mixture of narrative and performance
• The band will often wear casual clothing
• Colour of the video may vry depending on the lyrics and the tempo of the song
• More of a teenage target audience