Filming day 1

Today was our first day of filming. We arrived at our college during half term (19/12/12) for a 10.30am start.

Today we aimed to get all of the indoor studio filming completed. We started by dressing our studio by using a white back drop and studio lights to create a bright setting without shadows. We faced the lights away from the set so that we still got the benefit of their light but it didn't look too clinical. This is important to make the video look professional. We also ran fairy lights along the top of the set to give it a bit of character and add to the soft, feminine look of the video we wanted to create.

We decided to film the whole song at one angle and then repeat this for each style of shot we wanted to include. This meant less organisation of the different shots we wanted to film for each part of the song and simplified the organisation process of the video. Then we will just wait until we edit to pick out which parts of the song need which style of shot.

We filmed four different shots with the white backdrop. These were...
-Sat down mid shot.
-Side shot
-Close up
-Extreme close up

We then changed the costume from subtle day clothes to a glittery party dress to add some variation and also changed the backdrop to a black colour and kept the fairy lights.
We filmed the entire song in each of the following ...
-Mid shot
-Close up
-Side shot

We found that using the black background it looked better with less lighting so we faced the lights further away and turned some of them off. It gave it a magical and pretty look.

We also took the opportunity of having Hayley (our singer) in costume with a set to photograph pictures for our album cover. We found that making the photographs out of focus on purpose gave a lovely effect. It was soft and intriguing to look at. I think these would be most appropriate for the back cover of the album or the inside because on a pop album cover the front needs to have a clear picture of the artist. So we also took a variety of in focus profile shots of the artist to use as the front cover.

Shooting Schedule

Filming day 1:

Arrive to college at 10.30am

Prepare the studio with white back drop and lights.

Props needed for white backdrop:

-Brown stool

-Costume: 

Wooley cream/white jumper

Blue Jeans

Scarf

Ugg boots

-Natural hair and make up

Sing the whole song through at different angles

Prepare studio with black backdrop and fairy lights

-Christmas lights (dressed across the set)

-Costume:

Sparkly dress

Purple heels

-Natural hair and make up

Sing the whole song through at different angles

-Mid shot facing camera

-Mid shot facing away from camera

-Long shot stood up

-Long shot sat down on stool

During the shoot we plan of taking photographs for our album cover. We want to include: 

-Close up shots of her face

-Strong image of her on the stool

-Mid shot of her on the black back drop

Filming day 2:

In Thursday afternoon lesson

Outside filming in a countryside setting, better on a day with good natural lighting. 

Costume: Winter clothes, scarf, big coat. A warm and cosy look.

Sing the whole song through at different angles

-Mid shot facing camera

-Side shot

-Long shot 

-Close up

Then film a couple (Izzy and Tom) playing in the grass acting loved up and flirty with each other.
-Running through the grass
-Holding hands 
-Their feet walking together
-Piggy back rides

Changes to my idea...

I started to try and arrange locations and people for my video this week. I have found it difficult to find the appropriate people to star in my video. It has been difficult to find an old couple who are willing to star in my video. Therefore, I have changed my idea in some parts to fit this. 

Instead of using an old couple I am going to use the girl who is singing in the performance space and include her in another performance part with a teenage boy. This will be a lot easier to do as I know lots of boys at my college who would be willing to perform in the video for me. The video will now have a bit less of a narrative story. It will now still include the girl alone performing in a studio, with soft lighting and candles. The other part of the video will be of the girl and a teenage boy in an outside location- Bleadon Hill or Ashcombe Park. It will include shots of them having fun outside and looking like a  loved up couple. I will then edit my video so it shows parts of the studio and then the outside locations in a mixed up order to give it some variation. 

Green screen filming

Above shows my finished experimentation using the green screen, this comes from inspiration from the Labrinth/Emeli Sande music video. We filmed Hope (dark haired girl) infront of the green screen acting as if she is playing the piano and Hayley on a plain background lip singing. We then imported the clips onto Final Cut Pro and changed the green screen to be the clips of Hayley singing.

Green Screen experiment

Today we set up a green screen in a photography studio to do some experimenting. This came after getting inspiration from the Labrinth and Emili Sande music video shown in the post below. We filmed Hope in front of the green screen sat on a chair and then we filmed Hayley in front of a plain background (both shown below.)  

  
We had the intention of adding Hayley's part onto where the green screen is that Hope is sitting in front of. I used Final Cut Pro to experiment with the techniques of green screen. I found that it looked really unprofessional putting Hayley's part onto the background behind Hope because the two separate pieces of filming don't blend totally together. 

I decided because of this not to use green screen in the filming of our music video, but I am glad to have experimented with the technique because I did like the video inspiration that used a similar technique but it looked much better done in a professional way rather than what we did using Final Cut Pro.

Inspiration

From listening to the radio and following the UK charts I discovered this duet from English artists Labrinth and Emeli Sande shown above. I want to take inspiration from the piano parts of the video. I also like the way one of the artists is shown on a screen beyond either while the other singer is singing or when they have lines together. 

 To the left shows screen shots of the piano parts of the music video. I want to try and copy this technique using a green screen to then edit the artist into the background. It creates a dramatic performance look in the first screen shot and in the second it looks quite personal and emotional because of the close eye contact from Emeli Sande. The blue/grey colour palette also adds to the feeling of emotion, however I don't think I will include the similar colour scheme because my video is meant to reflect the Indie music video theme and I think this will be shown better with natural colours such as green and brown.

Target audience

Target audience is an important thing to think about when planning a music video. You need to think about who listens to that style of music, what video they would like to see. How they consume music normally as a group, etc. Not knowing enough about your target audience would mean less sales than you would have hoped for.

Before thinking in more detail about planning my work I did a mind map about the target audience who I thought would listen to my chosen song. I wrote down ideas about who would listen to the music, who would like the ideas for my music video, etc. Belows shows my mindmap scanned into the computer.

I think our video is going to have a wide target audience because it can attract young girls due to the romantic narrative or older people who liked the original song written by Elton John.

My chosen song....

Ellie Goulding's cover of the original Elton John classic - Your song. Below shows the original, it is more instrumental than the modern cover.

Here is the cover version of 'Your Song' performed by Ellie Goulding.



Initial Ideas...

My initial ideas for my video are to film a time reverse video, using the editing technique I tried out in pre-production where you film a clip and then reverse it to create a backwards, out of sync piece. I want to create the video using two different locations- a performance space in a studio and an outside location. I want a combination of a performance based video and a narrative story. I will film the performance of one girl, singing to the lyrics in a studio environment. I want the lighting to be very soft and pretty, maybe use fairy lights or small candles to create this effect. This will match the soft nature of the song. I took some inspiration from Christina Perri's music video for her song 'A Thousand Years' for the lighting ideas.

The video however is quite dark, i love the way they have used so many small candles. It makes the video really beautiful, I want to create this on a smaller scale and add some more artifical lights to brighter it up more and make it softer than the Christina Perri video.



I want to then combine this performance element with a storyline. This is where the time reversal comes in to play. The story will be about an old couple who are in love and how they came to meet. It will start with the old man who has now lost his wife, he is very emotional and it goes back it time to look through all the good times of their life and how they came to meet. I want it to be very reflective with flashbacks to him as a young and old man. 

Permission to use music email

For this project it is important to request the permission of the company who own the rights to the song before using it on the web. I sent an email to the company 'Universal Music' to ask their permission to use their song for educational purposes and for none profit use. 

Inital song ideas and treatment

As a starting point I am going to pick two songs that currently do not have a music video to accompany them and do a brain storm of ideas I can think of for the treatment of a music video for that song.

The first song I have chosen is from Labrinth and it is called 'Vultures.' Although this is a song sung by a male I don't think it should make a great amount of difference to the video as the lyrics are not specific enough to be sung by just a male aritst. I learnt to love the less common, chart topping songs that Labrinth has produced after going to see him live in Concert recently and discovering all his less famous songs.

Below shows a mindmap of my inital ideas for the music video for 'Vultures.'

The next video I decided to mindmap ideas for is Nicki Minaj's 'Marilyn Monroe.' This song also does not have a video, I chose this as Nicki Minaj is one of my favourite artist's and I like the song itself. Below shows a photograph of my ideas for the treatment.

Album Artwork

Album Artwork is a key indication to what genre the music is from. Album Artwork normally follows elements of the style of music videos from the album so that people recognise the work of the artist. Also any other merchandise from that artist will be designed in a similar style, like a magazine advert for example. 

My chosen song is from the artist Ellie Goulding. She works in the genre of pop. I used the search engine Google and typed in the phrase 'Pop Albums' to see what the general conventions are of a pop album cover. Below shows some examples from both Male and Female artists ....





  



































As a general rule Pop album covers are normally close up photographs of the artist with their name on it and the name of the album. This is normally as the artist is easily recognisable and to promote them more as an artist. Colour schemes of the album covers are normally dependant on the sex of the artist and the style of their music. For example Adele's album cover for '21' shown above uses dark colours and she looks unhappy in her photograph. She also doesn't make eye contact with the camera which is quite signifiant to add to the sombre mood of the album cover. This fits well to her style of music as she writes emotional ballads about her negative experiences within love.


However Rihanna's 'Loud' album shown in the top right hand cover of my set of album covers above is the opposite of this. Rihanna writes up beat, dance music that is fun so this is reflected in her album cover with its bright, vibrant colours and    connotations of love and affection are created with the use of red colours. 

Ellie Goulding follows this pattern of photographs of herself as the main image on her past album covers, below shows some examples of this.

For my chosen song, Ellie's cover of the Elton John original 'Your Song' there is already an album cover present. Below shows the front and back cover of this album. 

When I come to making my own album cover for this song I am going to keep with the idea of having a photograph of the profile of the artist as the main image. This is because it is a very well used convention in the majority of female pop artists album covers as show in other album covers at the top of this post. I am going to change it slightly however by using a photography studio to photograph my artist on a plain background rather than one with Autumn colours like in Ellie Goulding's album,

The use of lights/spots in this album cover is successful as it adds to the dreamy, wonderland feel of the song. I don't want to copy this so I am going to experiment with other sources of light like candles or fairy lights  possibly to create a similar effect. 

Filming Experimentation

To make a start with preparations for my music video I decided to do some more practise filming to try out some techniques. Above shows my results.

 

For my real music video I thought about doing something relating to time and going back in time to see someone at a younger age. So, for my experimentation I filmed a clip of a friend walking backwards and throwing a water bottle on the floor and two other people walking backwards past her. I then put this into Final Cut Pro and used a reversing tool to make the clip go in the opposite direction. I think this technique worked really well, it gives a surreal effect and you can’t tell automatically when it starts that it is in reverse, this is one of the things I like about it. For next time though I just need to remember that if I record anyone speaking this will also be in reverse on the video so obviously you won’t be able to understand what they are saying.

 

For the second part of the video I used the same technique. The people in the video walked backwards and then I reversed the clip. I like the way everyone is walking at different speeds. The video has a strange surreal look too it which I think could really successful with the right location and props in a music video. When storyboarding and planning my ideas more exactly I think I will defiantly include this editing technique.

Video Conventions- Experimentation

Above shows a video filming task I did. This was to test out different conventions of a pop music video. It is for the Katy Perry song 'Hot N Cold.' The video doesn't include the music because it was just to focus on practising the different filming techniques that are normally used in a pop music video.

Pop videos normally include lots of close up shots of the performers face. To put the focus of the video on them as an artist and to promote their work further. Like I did in my video shown in the screen shot to the right.

Another common thing seen in a pop video is for the artist and/or dancers to act in a provocative way. This is normally done by doing close up shots of sexual areas of their body. For example things or bum on a woman. This encourages the viewer to look at the artist in a provocative way. Another way this can be done is by the artist performing to the camera in a sexual way through dance and actions. I did this in my video by getting the artist to sit in a provocative way and stroke her leg, this is shown in the screen shot above.

Another convention that I used heavily in my video is the element of a performance. Pop videos most of the time are mainly performance based focusing on the artist and then momentarily on their backing dancers. Camera angles are focused most of the time on the artist to remind the viewer who is the artist and to promote them. Above shows a screen shot of my video where I focus the camera on my artist.


Locations are key in a pop music video. They reflect the theme of the song and sometimes the lyrics of the song. In the screen shot to the left it shows part of the video where I included people from around the college. I asked them to look shocked when they saw my actor (Katy Perry) to show what a big star she is.

Firth/Karlsson

Music videos can be characterised by 3 very broad typologies, written by 'Firth' in 1988. These typologies like I said are quite broad and don't apply to all music videos.

The first of these would be a 'Performance' based video. These videos are mainly to convey a sense of an in-concert experience. Being all performance based encourages the viewers that the music is the most important element to the video.

A performance based video is normally from the Pop genre, setting out to promote it's artist. For example Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Usher, etc.

Above shows the link to a Nicki Minaj video called 'Super Bass' this is a classic example of a performance based video. It doesn't have a story line, it is mainly built up from shots of different locations where Nicki Minaj along with her backing dancers and other characters perform. There are lots of costume changes, bright colours and things to look at.. like a concert or a show you might go to watch.


The next type of music video you may see is a 'Narrative.' This is a video that holds some kind of story for you to follow. The story will normally be a love story of some kind, these are normally the most common as that is what most songs are actually about.

'Action is the story and is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen' - Shcwichtenberg 1992.

These videos are most commonly produced by female artists who are either criticising love and expressing their hate towards males or telling their own love story. The most well known artist for always producing narrative videos in my opinion is American star Taylor Swift.

 

Above shows an example of one of Taylor Swifts music videos 'Love story.' It tells a mainly positive love story, the lyrics of the song also sometimes coincide with the actions in the video.

 

However another view taken is from Steve Archer in 2004. He said that often music videos will be cut between both a narrative and a performance based video. Also additionally a choreographed dance routine may also be included in the artists performance time. Sometimes the artist will also take two roles, acting as a narrator to the story and then again being a participant in the video at the same time.

 

The video to the right called 'Troublemaker' by Olly Murs feat Flo Rida is a good example of a performance video and a narrative video. It tells the story of Olly's relationship with the girl and he is also the narrative and performing through out most of the video.

 

 

The final type of video is a 'Conceptual' this is the least common of the 3 I would say. It uses metaphors to create a mood and the video seems to offer multiple meanings. The videos can be seen to be quite strange and sometimes even abstract. Sometimes they don't even include and people in the video but can just be a mash of bright colours and shapes. This style would be more common with your Drum and Bass/ House music (the ones without song lyrics but just a beat.)

 

To the right shows an example of a music video that fits the 'Conceptual' bill. It is called 'Somebody that I used to know' and it is by 'Gotye'. It could be seen as slightly performance based as the artists are actually in the video but it is very strange and abstract with it's earthy colours and triangular shapes.

 

 

 

According also to Firth and Karlsson artist's themselves are categorised into three different types of performer.

 

Firstly, there is a 'Commercial Exhibitionist,' an artist who is very famous and well known. They make mainly performance based videos to show off who they are and their talents. Also to promote themselves as an artist. The music genre that this will normally apply to is pop. The artists are normally very good looking, perfected people only. Their music is normally in most cases written for them by somebody else and they just take part in the performing. An example of this would be Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce.

 

 

 

Secondly there is an 'Electronic Shanan' artist. This is an artist or band that create video without a narrative storyline or performance. The video will just consist of visuals, bright colours, patterns, sound waves etc but no people. This style of video is best suited to music that sometimes doesn't have song lyrics or drum and bass/ dubstep music because they have a lack of storyline to the song so there is less to create visuals on. Music like this seems to be mainly written by the artist themselves but sometimes it can be written by another professional. An example of artists that this theory can relate to is Skrillex, DJ Fresh and Raw Theory.

 

Finally the last style of artist is a 'Televised Bord,' this is an artist who isn't necessarily the most glamorous, rich and visually appealing person but 99% of the time writes their own music and is very passionate. They probably had to work very hard to get into the music business and it wasn't all just handed to them on a plate. This type of aritst normally relates to singer songwriters in the indie and accoustic music genre. For example Ed Sheeran, Newton Faulkner, Damien Rice etc.

Michel Maffesoli's theory

Michel Maffesoli is a French Sociologist who discovered the theory about 'Urban Tribes.' According to Maffesoli urban tribes are micro groups of people who share common interests in urban areas. These small groups of people tend to have similar views on the world, dress sense and behaviour patterns. They also share a common interest in urban areas. 

An example of a urban tribe would be the 'Punks.' Shown below, famous for their bright mow hawk hair styles, extravagant make up styles and leather clothes. They all seem to share similar ideas about music taste, listening to rock and punk music together. Drugs, drinking and sex can also be seen as an important part of their life styles.

Myself i think i would belong to the 'Rahs' tribe. Males and Females who follow high street fashion within shops like Topshop/Topman and New Look. Sometimes they follow more expensive clothing lines such as Jack Wills. People from this Urban tribe are normally from a more Upper Class background although this has probably been downplayed since birth. This group is very apparent within society and people who follow this tribe are either loved or loathed by people outside of the group.



Different groups with consume music in their own way. For the 'Rahs' we consume music by listening to the radio while doing our make up in the morning. Through our Iphones while on the move and maybe using music channels on TV in the evenings. Music is quite key and an interest but isn't necessary. It is more apparent on weekend nights when socialising and partying is involved.




Different music genres are linked to Urban Tribes and this is normally recognised within society. For example the 'Chavs' - Council house and violent are known for wearing tracksuits, fake Burberry and consuming lots of alcohol. They would listen to rap/grime music. You will normally see them consuming this media by playing the music out loud on their mobile phones or loud while driving around in their cars. An example of a song a 'Chav' might listen to is shown above. It is called 'Who's Dat,' and it is sung by DJ Cameo and Paperbwoy feat The Grime Wave. The artist's in the video represent the same Urban Tribe by wearing tracksuits and heavy chains.

An example of another Urban Tribe is the Metal Heads. Similar to Punks but a lot darker and more Gothic influence. They are known for dressing mainly in black leather and Doc Martin boots and wearing lots of silver metal on their bodies and clothes.They would listen to heavy metal rock bands like Slipknot or My Chemical Romance.Consuming their favourite music would probably be through using their headphones and Ipod or at a Rock or Metal Concert. To the right shows a video from the Heavy Rock band 'Slipknot' called 'Psychosocial,' the video reflects the Urban Tribe well as the video is very dark and gothic. The costumes and fire in the background add an element of danger and fear as they are quite creepy to look at. The singers also scream some parts of the song in a husky scary voice which adds to the effect.

Frame by Frame

Before doing my full music video I did a preliminary task to gain a bit more experience in filming a music video and editing it. Above shows the finished edit of Miley Cyrus's song '7 Things.' 

What went well ?

-All of the props and costumes we needed to copy from the original video were things we already had from home.
-The background of the video (grey screen) was easy to find, we used a photography studio we found in our college.
-From an editing point of view the continuity is quite sharp, the clips all seem to run smoothly one after the other to give it a professional look.
-In the original video it was all shot in the same location, so we managed to do all our filming quite quickly in the same place.
-I think the soft lighting works well as it doesn't look too harsh and is more airbrushed and clean like how the lighting in a music video looks.

What would I improve for next time?

-The lip syncing is a little bit off time in some parts of my video. To improve this next time I think it would have been better to actually sing the part of the song and then mute the clip in editing to make sure the movements of the mouth are in time and they look more realistic.
-Include either clips from the original video of the band playing or film my own so that it is even more like the original video and gives the audience something else to look at.

 
 
Below shows screen shots comparing the original Miley Cyrus video and my re-make.

The lighting used in the Miley Cyrus video is quite simple, it looks like it was filmed in a studio with soft lighting to highlight areas of people's faces. The lighting is quite flattering and plain. As you can see in the screen shots below we tried to copy this grey background with soft lighting in our studio. It did work well but I think we should have used more soft lighting around the face of the person singing to highlight their face and almost airbrush it, like in the Miley Cyrus video.


We also tried using similar props to the original video to match the look in the Miley Cyrus one. This include a rose, teddies, a mobile phone and a snow globe.

 

Narrative Theory

Todorov, the Bulgarian Philosopher developed his own ideas about Narrative structures of media texts. He came up with a theory which was the norm to him and what he believed to be correct. We can apply this to music videos.

His theory starts off with an Equilibrium- this is where everything is normal and as it should be. There is then a disruption to the Equilibrium- this upsets the normal balance of life. Then something effects the hero- this is the recognition of the disruption. There is then an attempt to repair the disruption and the hero continues on with his quest. Equilibrium is then restored, not exactly the way it was before but the hero defeats the villain.  

An example of a music video that agrees with this theory is from the band Blur for their song Coffee and TV.

Click here to watch the full music video.

The Narrative begins with the family being happy and all together this is the Equilibrium. However then the Son goes missing, this is a disruption to their normal equilibrium and upsets the family. Pictures are posted on milk cartons to help to track him down. As shown in the screen shot above.

The milk carton then tries to cheer the family up with his dancing as he sees how upset they are. This is where the milk carton or the 'Hero' recognises something is wrong with the families equilibrium. He becomes upset because he sees how upset they are so he goes off on his mission to find the missing person.

The milk carton then attempts to repair the disruption, he goes on a quest to find the missing man. He speaks to different people- shown in the screen shots to the right to see if they have any information for him to help find the missing man.

The milk carton then discovers the missing man playing in a band. He brings him back to his family and they are over joyed. 

This is the part where the
Equilibrium is restored. However it isn't exactly as it was before because the milk carton then dies.




An example of a music video that disagrees with Todorov's theory is Coldplay's song 'The Scientist.' It tells the story of a couple that are in a car crash. However it goes back in time. Chris Martin, the lead singer walks backwards through out the whole video. Back in time until he reaches just before the crash happened. It doesn't go in chronological order like Todorov's theory states is correct.

Other Narrative features that music videos use could be:
Multi-stranded... where different of different narratives are woven together.
Fragmented... where different parts of narratives that may not be woven together are put in any order.
Flashbacks... a part of the narrative that portrays something that has happened in the past.