Initial Group Planning Ideas (changes made)

Initial Group Planning Ideas

My group consists of Daisy Morecroft, Millie Cooper, Emma Harris and myself. I chose  to work with these people as we had similar ideas regarding genre, style and representation of artist; in which we came to an agreed idea from a previous discussion.

First Meeting: 25/09/13

We have chosen to make our music video to the song 'Nosestrings & Shoestrings' by Nina Nesbitt because she is  an alternative artist appealing to a niche audience in which we are hoping to expand. This particular song doesn't have an existing video in which our audience can compare it to, favouring us as a group. In our first meeting, we discussed 10 main points which we then transferred in note form onto an A3 sheet of paper:

the A3 piece of paper containing all of our original ideas regarding the content of our music video, further discussed in the text below:

Location ideas

We wish to shoot at a quirky seaside location with traditional romantic beach shots and also an arcade, possibly in Southend on Sea or Brighton which is fuelled by young people, also appealing to our target audience. The narrative regarding the relationship between the two will be based in this location as it is particularly romantic, showing them in their happier days. 

We aim to capture a raw performance in regards to our artist. We have initially planned to shoot the artist miming to the song in front of a blank white wall; this then does not draw too much focus onto the artist but the lyrics and narrative of the couple.

Mise en scene ideas

In regards to clothing, we want to capture a vintage vibe; our female character dressed in a floral skirt with a baggy band t-shirt, a studded leather jacket, polished brogues and tights topped with messy hair, simplistic natural looking make-up and a beanie. Furthermore, we picture our 'misguided' male character to be dressed in a vintage shirt, a denim jacket, chino trousers, rugged trainers in order to capture an indie style which will appeal to our target audience.

Iconography will consist of alcohol bottles/drinks in order to portray our male character as corrupt by rebellion. He will be seen to be drinking throughout the video to correlate with the lyrics for the audience to have a further understanding of the song; that the relationship is almost broken because of his issues. Props like cigarettes and lighters will also create a similar effect, but also that is dependent on such things in order for him to feel in control. Props such as cards and skateboards will be used to convey his street orientated life, lacking sophistication and manner that may be seen as desirable. He has no motive in life other than drink, drugs and being on the street; the artist's concern.

We picture our artist to dress very plainly in a white t-shirt or floral dress with eyeliner and a faded lipstick to establish her image; typical of an indie artist in order for the audience to be able to relate to thier simplistic style and therefore possibly adopt it to become more like them. Iconography for the artist will only include the guitar she is playing, also conventional to the indie genre as it shows pure talent and originality.

Editing ideas 

Editing will begin in the video as being slow, in order to harmonise with the song. We will typically use straight cuts and jump cuts in order to successfully show and establish the narrative rather than using complex editing to take the focus off the story. Slow editing is conventional in the indie genre as artists feel the music is more significant than the music video; it establishes an image of themselves as being dedicated to the music rather than the fame that comes with it, a relatable image in which appeals to the target audience. Rihanna's song 'We Found Love' has inspired us to use a time-lapse to exaggerate the couple arguing over his alcohol consumption. The time lapse will portray how the male is feeling; disorientated and all over the place as a result of his alcohol/drug consumption. It will also emphasise their issues as their appear to be stuck in the same position while the world around them is moving forward. Fast-paced editing at the chorus which is only slightly faster than the verses to engage the audience and encourage them to remember the chorus and therefore this makes the video and song more memorable.

Cinematography ideas

Cinematography in the video will be very simplistic in order for the audience to focus on the narrative rather than the complex cinematography. However we aim to use a range of shots including; mid shot, long shot, panning, tracking etc in order to engage the audience through the use of a variety of shots without boring them through lack of range of shots. 

Music video theory we wish to apply

We will follow Goodwin's theoretical point of the relationship between the lyrics and visuals as that is what our narrative is based on; the lyrics speak of a couple who are having issues as a result of the boyfriend's problem with drink and drugs, in which there will be an illustrative relationship with the visuals as we aim to show such relationship to the audience in order for them to understand the song more.

Artist representation

Style of music video: Our video will be divided between a high narrative percentage (70%) and a performance element too (30%) A concept element is not necessary because we are not aiming to sell/promote our audience an idea or theme. Our narrative consists of a deteriating relationship between a male and female actor due to the males alcohol addiction. It will support the lyrics "He's just misguided I think" and "He wears a bottle inside his vest"

The artist will be in the relationship, telling the audience of her problems and therefore will be presented as concerned and no longer happy with her relationship now, in many people can relate to as it is likely that they have similar emotions and therefore she will be easily related to. At the beginning of the video she will be happy with her relationship to show the stages of her relationship; from happy to no longer happy with her relationship as this is effectively portrays the stages of a breakdown of a relationship.

Target audience

Although our artists target audience is rather niche as she has only just started in the industry as an Indie artist, we aim for people within the teenage to young adults range (particularly females who can relate to the song lyrics/our video content) to be our audience.

Codes and conventions of our music genre

By watching other videos of the Indie genre, we have noticed certain genre characteristics appear regularly including artist representation; an everyday but talented individual who is focused on the simplicity of their music rather than 'sugar coating' it to make it more complex and 'exciting'. There is a conventional significance of the emotion in their music as it is based on the song, not their image, in which we will adopt when representing our artist in order for her to be easily related to.

Also, there are key iconography pieces conventionally used in indie music videos including guitars, typically played by the artist. This conveys to the audience that the artist is in fact talented and not a 'commodity' to be consumed by the audience, proposed by Richard Dyer. Guitars suggest that this is how the artist first became interested in music (typically starting by busking) which shows dedication and realism, rather than a quick climb to fame. Our artist will be seen playing a guitar as our target audience are more likely to be able to play guitar than be able to sing as well as the artist themselves, allowing them to build a relationship with them through similar interests/hobbies and feel more like them.

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Second meeting: 30/09/13

Following our previous meeting, in this discussion we have decided to alter a few of out original ideas in order to make our video more appealing and conventional to the genre. We also started to draw up a rough storyboard as to how we intend the video to start. In order to do this, we also started to annotate the lyrics of the song in order to maintain the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals for the audience to understand more of the song.

Changes we have made and why:

Location Ideas:

Instead of using the beach at Southend/Brighton, we have decided base the video in London as it much more diverse in what we can film. There is more location where we can film the couple having fun including the small beach by the River Thames, Brick Lane which consists of several bars/restaurants and also skate parks by the south bank to show the male's street and rebellious side. The time lapse will be much more effective as well as London is much busier and therefore there will be more people going around them emphasising that they are in such position alone.

Other Changes:

We have also decided against our original idea of including the artist in the relationship.  Richard Dyer proposes that a successful artist will be both present and absent in order to maintain the interest of the audience in which we feel is relevant; therefore the artist will performing throughout the video in order to be 'present' but will also be 'absent' when the narrative is being shown. We have decided to use two separate actors to play the couple that the video is based on in order to create such an effect. It allows the audience to focus on the artist and narrative separately, which may be less confusing for them to understand and focus on the image of the artist rather than their acting skills. 

Storyboard:

Rough storyboard to show how our video will begin

We intend to start the video with photos of the couple throughout the relationship to convey to the audience that they were in fact happy, in which this begins the portrayal regarding the breakdown of their relationship; from good to bad. The frame will then transition to the artist singing to show the audience the image of the artist. allowing them to begin to build a relationship with them. The audience will then see a 

photo of the couple at the beach, which will be zoomed into to transition the frame to a beach scene as this portrays the couple as happy and romantic. The video will continue with the couple in various locations in London. You can see the finished version of our storyboards on the blog post: Storyboards

Annotated lyrics

We began to annotate the lyrics of the song in our second meeting in order to develop our ideas regarding how the video will develop. We intend to have a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals and therefore, by annotating them we began to discuss how we could effectively do so so that the audience can understand more of the song. For example, we discussed an idea for the lyric 'He goes out till the lights up, he doesnt care for the day mmm' in which this would consist of the couple being on a field when the sun is rising, showing that he is out at all hours of both the day and night, presenting his rebellious nature. By having them both there, it suggests that the girl is 

effected by his attitudes, that she is also out because she loves him and attempts to accept the way he is; however later in the video we intend to show that she is no longer willing to accept such behaviour. You can see the finished version of our lyric annotation on the blog: Lyric Analysis

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Third Meeting: 11/10/13

In this meeting we discussed other existing music videos that are significant in inspiring the content of our music video as well as the structure. 

Katy Perry - Thinking of You

This particular video was inspirational in terms of how our video will be structured as it has a similar storyline to our narrative. Katy Perry performs within the narrative as well as being the girlfriend in the video, identical to our idea in which this gave us a inspiration as to how we could also effectively achieve this. The video begins with a distressed Katy, suggested to be because of the loss of a former boyfriend, however the audience are unaware why he has gone, where he has gone etc. The video continues by showing the old memories between the two which is juxtaposed with her current state to emphasise her loss and discontent. When portraying Katy as unhappy, she is performing the song which is included in the narrative, as she is in a bedroom with another man. While performing she looks out the window and metaphorically and literally looks back on her old memories. The audience then find out that her former boyfriend dies in the war as we see him get shot in a war like environment. 

The structure of this video is similar to the structure in which we wish to achieve as it addresses similar emotions such as loss and unhappiness. As a result of watching this video, we have determined how we are going to structure the video as there being a contrast of happy times and bad times, much like this video achieves. It will consist of not physically looking back on her memories but will be mentally. Also there will be a performance from the artist to convey emotion for the audience to relate to, much like the artist does in this video. 

Rihanna - We Found Love

This video is inspirational in terms of our music video as it shows a conflicted relationship between two individuals who have lost each other because of it; much like the narrative of our music video. This video in particular influenced the motif of light in which we have chosen to have in order to represent the relationship as being out of control form the use of lighters, sparklers and fireworks. 

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Fourth Meeting: 18/10/13

In our fourth meeting, we annotated the lyrics of the song as a group, in order to get a deeper understanding of the song and interpret this into our music video so that the audience also understood the song in more depth. We first annotated the lyrics in terms of the hidden meaning behind each lyric so that our interpretation was more imaginative rather than simply illustrative. We then annotated the lyrics once again, in terms of how we wanted the music video to be structured in order to correlate with the lyrics. To see our annotations go to Lyric Analysis blog as all ideas that we had, can be found there.

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