Filming Day One

Today I started to film for my music video. I think it went quite successful despite facing a couple hurdles along the way so I made a vlog about how the day went:

 

What is a digipak?

As one of the ancillary tasks, we have been asked to produce a digipak for our artists album. A digipak is a form of packaging for CDs and DVDs. As opposed to the traditional jewel case, as shown, digipaks are made from 300gsm card with matte or gloss varnish - allowing them to be shatterproof. There are little to no restrictions on the size of a digipak. It can easily be increased from 4 to 6 or 8, which allows more information to be displayed. This is more appealing to artists as it is more information to persuade the customer to buy their album. Digipaks are beneficial because its cardboard and it will not snap. Even the plastic CD holder can be made from cardboard as a pose to plastic. It being made from cardboard means its more sustainable than plastic. But on the other hand, it could rip and if it gets wet, can become soggy.
I think the advantages clearly over weigh the disadvantages as can be resolved by layering a thin plastic film to make it some-what waterproof.

Filming Day Reschedule

Today I scheduled to start shooting my music video but it inconveniently began to snow. The section I planned to film was in the Hilly Fields woods and I can not do the shots with the snow so I decided to reschedule that to next Sunday. To make up for the lost time I decided to start filming the indoor shots and get those finished.

Location 2

My second location is the characters bedroom. The bedroom I will film in is mine. I took all pictures and objects in the mise-en-scene down to leave it quite plain and generic. I didn't want her to have a room that didn't suit her character. The character wouldnt have bright walls and pictures of her friends everywhere so I made sure to remove all that to ensure the mise-en-scene is just right. I wanted the room to reflect how vulnerable and lonesome she is.

Location 1

My first location is Hilly Fields where I plan to shoot the overhead shots of my character lying on the floor and just looking around. This picture shows exactly where I decided to shoot. I shot here because this particular spot had a lot of dry leaves where I could lie without getting dirty. One of my shots is a POV shot of where she is looking around and this spot had the sun shine nicely on it and has the potential to create a really nice shot.

Shooting Schedule

Today in lesson I've been planning my shooting schedule for the days that I want to film.
DAY 1: Sunday 10th December
Location in Hilly Fields Forest.
Floor/Sky shots.
Bring tripod, camera, flip camera and SD card.
No props.
Outfit - Black fishnet top and leather jacket... any trousers (they won't be seen).
Dark makeup.

DAY 2: Monday 11th December
Location in my house.
Bathroom/Mirror shots - cosmetic surgery lines.
Tripod, camera, flip, SD card and charger.
Use eyeliner pencil for surgery lines.
Outfit - Large green top and shorts// messy hair.
Little/too no makeup.

DAY 3: Thursday 21st December
Location in school.
Hallway shots.
Tripod, camera, SD card and charger.
Outfit - Black dress and leather jacket??// braided hair.
Dark makeup.

Location in my house.
Bedroom shots - newspaper collage on wall/lying under the bed.
Tripod, camera, SD card and charger.
Outfit - Baggy black top// messy hair.
Little/to no makeup.

DAY 4: Thursday 11 January
Any other shots/ reshooting shots if necessary

Lip Syncing Practice

In preparation for my music video, I decided to do some research on lip syncing and thus I decided to record myself lip syncing to my chosen song then edit the music on top to really see how difficult it would be.

What I Learned About Storyboarding

I learned quite a bit from storyboarding in AS. We didn't spend that much time storyboarding when doing our film opening so didn't do many shots. We kind of skimmed the surface of shots by generalising chunks of shots into one storyboard box. This meant that when we got to filming. we shot too little and ended up having to go back to shoot two more times before we had sufficient footage. Despite this I think that it was very helpful to organise our thoughts and to see exactly what we wanted to shoot. We were able to see what shots were angled the same so that we could film those together rather then shooting them seperatly and then trying angle the camera the same, so it helped significantly with continuity.

Now I'm storyboarding for A2 and I know to storyboard every single small shot whether it's three seconds long or one second long. I've made sure it is detailed with every camera angle and movement specified to ensure its as professional as possible.

Band Name

The band name is essential for a successful music video so today we spent the lesson thinking of creative ways to come up with a band name that each of us like. First we started by writing an adjective on a piece of paper then folding the paper over and passing it to the next person who then wrote down a noun. We kept doing this for another four/five turns then we turn the paper over and see the names. Even though this was a creative idea and it generated many funny names like 'The Walking Cheetos' and 'The Auspicious Girl', these were not ideas that I thought fit my genre so I went online to a Band Name Generator: https://www.bandnamemaker.com and came up with:
ALBUM TITLE: Pyschotic
BAND NAME: Class of Warfare

Band Name Research

To think of a name for my band, I decided to research some artists in my chosen genre to give me a couple ideas.
1. Halsey
2. Melanie Martinez
3. Marina and the Diamonds
4. Madonna
5. Pet Shop Boys
6. Lady Gaga
7. Empire of the Sun
8. Icona Pop
9. Visage
10. Hurts
From this research, I've discovered that most artist/band names are either their real names, or linked to their song messages. I'm going to take note of this and see what I come up with.

Track Names

I've been debating about whether I want to change my chosen songs track name or keep it as it already is "Teen Idle". I've played around with a couple of ideas, that are based upon the lyrics of the song, to see what I'd ultimately prefer.
1. Wasted Years
2. Alive
3. Being a Fool
4. Narcissistic
5. Little Loss
I really like all of these ideas but I don't think they truly portray the message of the song so I think I am going to stick with the original track name but change the album name and artist name.

Copyright Permission

In order to get permission to use the song, I emailed the produced of my chosen song 'Teen Idle' - Liam Howe. This allows me to receive full permission to use the song for my music video without any copyright issues.

Pitch Audience Feedback

After I showed my pitch I got some feedback from my class mates about what they liked about it and what else they wanted to know.
I got a few comments that people liked the surgery lines idea and the use of the hand held camera so I know that's something I definitely want to do. Most questions were about what actors I want to use. I haven't thought about that yet but I need one female, teenage lead and maybe two or three males.
I also got a lot of questions about how I want it to end. The answer to that is that I want her boyfriend to help her through it - to help her realise her worth. Thus revealing the message of the video that social media shouldn't pressure you to feel any differently about yourself, that you are worth it.

Treatment Pitch

Today we presented our pitches for our music videos and got a little bit of feedback at the end:

Inspiration - Cosmetic Surgery

While planning my music video pitch, I began watching a few other music videos for inspiration. I came up with an idea for my music video; to make the female lead draw the lines thats surgeons do to represent where they want to do cosmetic surgery, this'll represent where she wants to change her face/body in order to look "beautiful". Then I came across this music video which shows my idea really well at 2:37 - 2:47.

 

Planning The Pitch

Today, I spent the whole morning planning my pitch. I listened to my chosen song over and over, thinking of shots and ideas to do for each beat/lyric.
I also thought about what I can do with my shot composition, mise-en-scene and iconography to subvert the electropop/indie genre conventions to make my music video stand out amongst my target audience.

Film Opening Vs. Music Video

There are many differences I have learnt of since starting A2 between shooting a film opening in comparison to a music video.
In a film opening, the shots are pretty long (3-5 seconds) compared to shots in a music video which are mostly short (1-2 seconds). Also the pace in music videos tend to be alot faster in comparison to a film opening. These two factors meant I had to shoot a significant amount more shots in A2 to make a music video of the same time frame as the film opening.
Music video conventions state that to make a video effective, the visuals have to be edited to the beat. From editing my prelim, I have realized why this is but I don't dispute the fact that it makes a music video vastly more difficult to edit. There is also the aspect of lip-syncing which is difficult to shoot and edit, whereas in a film opening, the audio comes from the video and is not layered on top.
To conclude, when creating a music video, you need to pay alot more attention to detail in each shot compared to a film opening.

Music Video Questionnaire

I made a questionnaire to research what people of different genders and ages prefer in music videos. I think I got a good variety of results which will ultimately help me make some major decisions in my own music video.

 

Mise-en-scene

I am in the process of coming up with my music video idea and today we learnt about mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of the scenery, props, etc. on the stage of a theatrical production or on the set of a media text. Mise-en-scene continuity is very important in real life music videos so I am to replicate that as best as possible.

Music Video Moodboard

I've been doing a little research into my chosen genre: electropop and the types of music videos that accompany songs of this genre. The backgrounds/locations in these videos are always quite abstract so I tried to think outside of the box via locations for my song.

My friend told me of this art exhibition, called Gods Own Junkyard, with vintage neons lights that I think would be great to use in the video. As far as I am aware, photography is allowed in the establishment so I'm planning to go with my friend to just film a couple shots to add into my music video.

The variety of lights is huge so I want to get shots of lights similar to the ones on the top row of my mood board. I like these ones because they are great visual representations of the song I want to do. The 'sweet like chocolate' light portrays how the female has a sweet facade but inside isn't what see appears to be, hence the 'error' light - showing the error inside her mind. Also, there are many sexual references in the song so I think the 'sex, drugs and bacon rolls' light would be very good to represent that.
I added some photos of newspaper titles because I had an idea that to show the chaotic state the females mind is in, I wanted to have her bedroom wall covered with newspaper articles, words and images all to do with death, suicide, murder, etc as a visual representation of the lyric "feeling super, super, super suicidal".

"Teen Idle" Lyrics

I wanna be a bottle blonde
I don't know why but I feel conned
I wanna be an idle teen
I wish I hadn't been so clean

I wanna stay inside all day
I want the world to go away
I want blood, guts and chocolate cake
I wanna be a real fake

Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen, teen idle
Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a Bible
Feeling super, super, super suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I've come alive

I wanna be a virgin pure
A 21st century whore
I want back my virginity
So I can feel infinity

I wanna drink until I ache
I wanna make a big mistake
I want blood, guts and angel cake
I'm gonna puke it anyway

Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen, teen idle
Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a Bible
Feeling super, super, super suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I've come alive
Come alive, I've come alive

I wish I wasn't such a narcissist
I wish I didn't really kiss
The mirror when I'm on my own
Oh, God! I'm gonna die alone
Adolescence didn't make sense
A little loss of innocence
The ugly years of being a fool
Ain't youth meant to be beautiful?

Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen, teen idle
Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a Bible
Feeling super, super, super suicidal
The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find I've come alive
Only to find I've come alive
Only to find I've come alive
Come alive

Feeling super, super, super!
Feeling super, super, super!
Feeling super, super, super!
Come alive

Group Assignment

In lesson, we were told to get into the groups that we wanted to do our coursework with. I decided to by myself because I prefer to work on my own and I can rely on myself rather than other people. Also, I can do my own ideas and be in charge of all executive decisions to make my video as best as possible.

"Mrs. Potato Head" - Melanie Martinez (Potential Song No.4)

"Teen Idle" - Marina & The Diamonds (Potential Song No.3)

"Carmen" - Lana Del Ray (Potential Song No.2)

"Gasoline" - Halsey (Potential Song No.1)

Potential Songs

I wanted to do a music video based around the fragile mind so I've spent a lot of time contemplating what song I would like to do and after a lot of thinking, I whittled it down to four potential songs before making my final decision:

1. "Gasoline" - Halsey.
2. "Carmen" - Lana Del Ray.
3. "Teen Idle" - Marina And The Diamonds.
4. "Mrs. Potato Head" - Melanie Martinez.

To decide which song to do, I decided to do weigh up the pros and cons of each song then finally decided which one would be best.

Genre Research: Interviews

Over the summer holidays, I decided to do a little more research into my selected genre. I have two potential artists at the moment: 'Marina and the Diamonds' and 'Halsey' so I've been watching lots of interviews of those two artists talking about their music. In the first interview, the interviewer talks to Marina about her songs being two different styles; either more upbeat and dance-like compared to more "coldplay-esk" and sad which primarily is the essence of the electro-pop genre.

In the interview below, Halsey discusses the influences of her life on her music. She promotes the genre in her music videos by basing each video off of cult classic teen cinema where she felt everybody could feel apart of the music and everyone could relate to it - which is a common convention of this genre. She believes that the best way to achieve that is to have as much visual content as possible, which is why music videos for songs are very important.

Genre Conventions - Music Video Research

In lesson, I looked at ten different song music videos in the indie genre, in order to determine what genre conventions there are and which ones I want to conform to or subvert in my own music video.
After looking at all the music videos, I decided that although I want to conform to most of the genre conventions; low-key lighting and casual rough clothing, I also want to subvert some by not having my artist perform to the camera and having to reference to a band or instrument. 

"Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz

I really like this music video because its very unique to its genre. This video clearly demonstrates lots of the conventions of the alternative rock genre. The setting in alternative music videos tend to be quite abnormal - shown here the setting is in a cinema and a lighthouse floating in the sky. The lighting in this video is also quite abstract. The first half of the video shows a very dark, dingy lighting scheme in comparison to the second half which is set outside so the lighting is high-key. The editing also shows this with quick, short cuts verse long shots in the two halves of the video. This contrast conveys the emotion of the song.

 

Electropop Genre Conventions

I decided that I want to do a song from the electro pop genre for my music video. Electro pop is a variant of synth-pop but places more emphasis on the electronic background sound. It combines electronic sound with pop music but features the frequency varying synthesizer as the main instrument. They also feature simple and small dance beats but still differ from dance genres that emphasise the lyrics over the beat.
Music videos is the electro pop genre most often include fast-cut montages which leaves the audience wanting to see it over and over. They're very narrative based and appear quite modern with a lighthearted and relaxed atmosphere. But despite this, videos usually don't tend to stick to easy, safe ideas but instead, seem to be quite experimental. The beat of the song is reflected in the editing and fast pace - which links to Andrew Goodwins theory that there is a relationship between music and visuals to amplify or illustrate the music.
One of the main reasons I am siding towards doing an electro pop song is because there usually is little lip syncing. Lip syncing is quite difficult to get perfect and without it, the audience can relate more.
I have found some really good examples of electro pop songs and artists that i've listed below.

Kesha - "Woman"
This music video exemplifies the conventions of the electro pop genre perfectly. It is edited to the beat but it does have a performance element rather than the usual narrative. I really love this video because its quite light hearted and has got lots of bright colours - which follows those genre conventions.

Lady Gaga - "Applause"
This video is also a good exemplifier because its edited to the beat and there is quite an obvious link between the music and the visuals. There is a dance element and includes quite a modern performance idea with lots of abstract visuals. It supports Goodwins theory as there is a lot of voyeurism and the female body is highlighted quite a bit throughout. Despite this, it also challenges some conventions of the electro pop genre as the lighting is quite dark and has a rather intense atmosphere.

 

Preliminary Task Outtakes

I compiled a few short clips from our filming day; just showing behind the scenes of the video. A lot of time went into the prelim and we got so many shots - even though we only ended up with a one minute video! It was still a lot of fun though!

Preliminary Task Class Feedback

Today the class showed all of our prelim tasks to each other and in doing so, we were able to receive feedback that we can possibly use to ensure our real videos are as best as possible. We did it in the form of a 'what went well' comment and a question.

I got a vast range of good reviews of my prelim. A popular opinion was that it was a very unique song choice and I did it very creatively. The class really liked the range of shots/clips especially the use of slow motion. They said the editing was done well and the contrasting colour use between Black&White and Full Colour was used very well to differentiate between flashback and present. Overall, they said it matched pretty much perfectly to the original video so my goal was achieved.

The majority of questions I got were about how long is took to shoot the video, what I used to film and who operated the camera. It took me two hours and about fifteen minutes to shoot the clips on my friends Samsung phone and I had three different people film for me; Joy, Hugette and Rhianna. I got a couple questions about what I would do differently and in reply, if I had more time I would use more varied locations and filmed more shots with lip-syncing so it would look more realistic. In hindsight, I'm not thinking about using a song in the pop genre like I did for the prelim and I am thinking of song more down the electropop genre. 

I'm so glad I was able to get this feedback back because I can now apply what I've learnt to my own music video.

Preliminary Music Video Task

This is my preliminary music video task the song "History" by One Direction. My original plan was to do "Wannabe" from the Spice Girls but I decided against it because this song had more editing whereas Wannabe is one whole take which would be difficult for me, as I've just started learning about music videos. History also doesn't use too much lip syncing so I was able to ease myself into it. Doing this prelim task definitely opened my eyes to how difficult shooting a music video could be and it got me thinking more deeply about how I want my actual music video to be. I learnt that while miming to the song, 'tis better to sing along and cut the sound out in the editing process. This makes the lip syncing look vastly more realistic. The costumes and location for this video were not spot on or more or less the same than the original but I'll definitely have more appropriate costumes and settings in my own video.

We're showing our prelims to the class tomorrow and I'm quite excited to get some feedback that I can analyse and make sure that my actual video is as best as it can be right from the get go.

Preliminary Task: Characters

In the music video 'History' by One Direction, there are five featured boys; Niall, Liam, Harry, Louis and Zayn so I needed five different girls to be cast as these people. From left to right the characters are:
Niall - Me (Abbie)
Liam - Miruthula
Harry - Kavaljit
Zayn - Sanjidah
Louis - Jamila
I instructed the girls to wear as boyish outfits as they could find so the recreation would look as best as possible.

Preliminary Task: Vlog

I began filming my prelim today so I decided to do a quick vlog about how things went with shooting and editing:

Preliminary Task: Schedule

Unfortunately I was not in on the lesson that the preliminary task was given and groups were assigned so I was hindered quite a bit. By the time I found out about the task, I had only five days to get it completed. Despite this, I have made a clear schedule so I am able to get everything that I need, done by the due date of next Wednesday.
I have study periods all day on Monday and so do the other four girls I need for my video so this is when I plan to film. Here is my schedule:

MONDAY
8:30    Be in school by this time.
8:30 - 8:55    Assembly/Form Time
8:55 - 9:55    Film for one hour
9:55 - 10:15    Break for twenty minutes
10:15 - 12:15    Film for two hours
12:15 - 1:10    Lunch
1:10 - 2:10     Editing for one hour
2:10 - 2:30     Break for twenty minutes
2:30 - 3:30     Editing for one hour

Then if I need to reshoot anything or need to edit more, I have study for another three hours on Wednesday morning so I can do the rest then.

"Busy" - Olly Murs

This is one of my favourite music videos out there. Its kind of a narrative video. Its about Olly Murs, who gets lonely so creates a paper mache female to live with him. The concept is really interesting and abstract and its composed in quite a beautiful way. It conforms to quite a few of Andrew Goodwins music video conventions: the visuals shown on screen link well with the lyrics as the song is all about just enjoying life and not getting caught up in the big things when you can just enjoy the small things in life which is represented on screen by the two characters just going about daily life, enjoying books and having a social gathering with their closest friends. Overall, i think its really well done and represents the genre ideally.

Abstract Videos

'Somebody That I Used To Know' from Gotye conforms to the conventions of an abstract. The videos visuals have no correlation to the lyrics and its main purpose is to create a feeling in an artistic way. It doesn't have much performance and has no story with in which is typical of these types of videos. Though, it doesn't use much editing as it is one long shot, which abstract videos use a lot of.

Narrative Videos

'I'm Not The Only One' by Sam Smith is a great example of a narrative music video. This video tells a story of a young woman who becomes aware that her partner is cheating on her. The video is full with contrasts - especially with the lighting; actor Dianna Agron being in a high-key lighted location whereas the boyfriend and his lover are in a dark room showing the contrast between light/dark and right/wrong. The woman is evidently heartbroken and goes on to burn all his clothing while the man is still out sleeping with another female. Though there is a lot of miming from Sam Smith, the video is still very able to evoke feelings from the audience especially by the end when the male comes home and is lovingly greeted by his girlfriend despite what she knows. Andrew Goodwin believes that videos should ignore using a narrative because it will bore the audience, but as observed by this video, that theory can be proved as incorrect to a certain extent.

Performance Videos

'Rule The World' from the band Take That is a key example of a performance music video. The band is located in a recording studio which is a common location for a video of this type. At 0:52 a screen is shown with band member Howard Donald, this briefly touches upon the 'voyeurism' trope, which Andrew Goodwin mentions is the notion of looking and supports his theory that to be confirmed a music video, all videos must contain at least one of his identified features.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin came up with six different elements to watch makes a music video.

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.

This Convention explains how Goodwin noticed a music videos visuals either have a complete similarity or direct contrast to the lyrics in the song. An example of this is 'If I Die Young' by The Band Perry. Throughout the video, the lead singer is seen floating in a small boat in reference to the lyric "sink me in the river at dawn" and there is a constant reference to the lyrics "lay me down on a bed of roses" as flowers are perpetually used.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals again, either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
Goodwin identified that the visuals in a music video are often edited to the beat of the music and he stated that these visuals are commonly repeated within a chorus to emphasize the repetition in lyrics and beats. 'Thriller' from Michael Jackson exemplifies this as the dance routine fits to the beat of the song creating a clear link of the visuals of the dance routine and the music.

3. Intertextual references to other media products and/or texts.

Goodwin recognised that it was not uncommon to recognise either the visuals or lyrics of a song to be an exact reference to another media text. This is used to engage the audience and provide them gratification if they recognise it. An example of this is 'Fancy' from Iggy Azalea which is a direct reference to the 90s classic film Clueless.

4. They frequently refer to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
Goodwin suggested that in order to attract a male audience, music video's often used the sexualisation and/or objectification of women, focusing on close ups of women's bodies for the males view. An example of this is Fountains of Wayne's 'Stacy's Mom' which extremely focuses upon the two females bodies. Even the thumbnail features the females mother in her swimwear - ultimately sexualising her for the viewing pleasure of the audience.

5. Star image; multiple close up on the artist.

Goodwin found that to improve the artists marketing, they themselves must be included in the music video. This exemplified by Ariana Grande's 'Focus' which features here the entire time and helps to build her image which then becomes recognisable and the audience remembers the artist for that look.

6. Genre characteristics: iconography and style.
Goodwin identified that music videos in a certain genre all include certain icons and style preferences related to that genre. 'Lucky' from Jason Mraz is a clear example of this as it includes many aesthetic shots that may appeal to the millennial teenage audience that the pop genre want to entice.