Filming

Rehearsal

This is the rehearsal we had some of our cast take part in. We did this so that everyone had a brief idea of what was going to happen on the actual filming date. As of result of this it meant that we saved time because we weren't lost and had to think about what to film next because of our rehearsal. In addition to this it also meant that the artist had the opportunity to familiarise herself with the lyrics of the song. This  would prevent things such as forgetting lyrics in the middle of a shot or being unable to keep up with the pace of the song. Furthermore this also meant that actors knew what the had to do in terms of acting as apposed to singing.

Secondary Research

The other form of research that I conducted was secondary research. Secondary research refers to information that has already been found and is available for use at any time. These can be found through other reports like newspapers or annual reports of other companies. If the researcher is doing secondary research, there is no need to search for fresh information because you are using information that has already be found by other people. Secondary research is reliable as it has been discovered before and been used time and time again. This shows that it is 99.9% fact. Secondary research can range from textbooks, the internet and advertisements. However this isn’t always true because some websites can be changed by anyone such as Wikipedia. Therefore it is important for me to list my sources so that people will be able to justify the creditability of the website on their own. One of the ways in which I conducted secondary research was by analysing existing music videos. Below I have given examples of some of the music videos that I watched and the results from my analysation.

One of the existing music video artists I researched was P!nk. The reason why I researched her music videos is because the genre of her music video is similar to the track we have chosen. Therefore I felt it was to appropriate to watch her music videos because it would give us an idea of the kind of image we want to give our artists. The image P!nk gives off from this video is of a strong and independent woman who talks about the idea of being perfect. I found this to be very useful as sounds like the exact kind of character of our music video choice. P!nk seems to wear dark clothing and it would be safe to assume that it is representing the feelings that she feels about being perfect. There is a shot in the video where she wounds herself embedding the word "perfect" on her arm and it all reinforces the fact that she dislikes the idea of people being perfect. There is a similar concept with our music video and I would therefore need to ensure that our cast are dressed in dark clothing.

Another music video that I used as my source of research was from the artist Avril Lavigne. The reaosn why I chose to watch this video is because just like P!nk her genre of music has the same feel as the track that we have chosen. In this video she is portraying herself as a woman who isn't afraid to do anything and just does it without hesitation. I found this to be useful because the character she is portraying is similar to the character of our music video. One of the lyrics in our track is "Oh I don't hold my breath and I don't hold my tongue", implying that the artist doesn't hesitate to tell someone something. This is reinforces the idea of having a strong and independent woman as the artist for our music video.

There are several other music videos that I watched and I have linked the ones that stood out in my opinion. As you may have noticed the similarities between these videos is that the character has her own sense of strong will and independence. In addition to this the genre has this rocky/punk feel to it which is similar to the track of our choice. Furthermore they are all wearing dark clothing such as black and have their own distinctive hair colour. For example we can see P!nk with a bright blonde hair colour with her own touch of pink on the side. Avril Lavigne has blonde hair in most of her videos and the female artist in Paramore has red hair.

Here again we can see the dark colours in the music video and the same dark clothing. The artist in Evanescence doesn't particularly have  her own distinctive hair colour but distinguishes herself through her makeup as you can see the strong dark purple lipstick and eye shadow etc. In the same way all the members of the band are wearing dark clothing.

Another good example of the dark rocky theme that I have researched is from Within Temptation. As you can see from this video there is a dark story being portrayed in the video and the members of the band are yet again in dark clothing. There are also dark colours used in the scenes that make the cast stand out. The female artist also seems to be wearing mostly black. 

All of this information has given me an overview of what we need to include in our music video. In summary I need to ensure that the cast are wearing dark coloured clothing but with something that makes them distinctive. Fortunately we have planned ahead and already decided that we were going to have the members of the band with different hair colours using hair spray. Additionally our music video has a dark comical feel to it, which will have meant that we have successfully implemented the ideas we gathered from existing music videos.

Storyboard

When it came to producing a storyboard we first have to find out the most efficient ways for a production. Taking into consideration that our production is a music video we thought that it was best to do a sample storyboard to see how it would turn out in the end. The one we used as a sample was a 2-collumn storyboard. The 2-collumn refers to a storyboard where you initially have two columns, one of which displays the video whilst the other shows the audio. In addition to this there is a brief summary that acts as the overview for the music video so that when it comes to handing down the storyboard to someone like the actors or the camera man, they have a clear idea of what  the video is about before they actually film it. Its important that the summary is made clear because a camera operator would probably have lots of other footage for other movies to be filming. In the same case other cast members could be in a situation where the have to be working on different sites at different times. The reason why we use 2-column storyboards is because of the type of production we are doing. Since we are only producing a music video it not necessary to do an in-depth storyboard with sketches and annotations of every shot like you would normally do for a feature film. In addition to this since it is only a music video it will not require a long filming duration. As a result of this the directors will not need to leave the set during the film period and will be able to delegate instructions as he sees it. The way in which we benefit from this is that we only have to use detailed bullet points of what we want to see going on because we are going to be on set and will be able to inform the cast and the camera operators of what they need to be doing. Furthermore it is much less time consuming because of the amount of detailed required is considerably less as apposed to a storyboard for a feature film. In the case of a feature film the director may not always be available as they would be busy managing other priorities. Therefore the storyboard for that particular production would need to be extremely clear, precise with sketches and detailed annotation on the side so that the rest of the cast will be able to continue working to meet the producers vision.

During lesson time we had the opportunity to produce a sample 2-collumn storyboard in order to assess the likelihood of whether or not we would find it easier than the last storyboard we had to do. Our previous existing media footage was the opening 10 minutes of a TV Drama and as a result meant that the storyboard had to be clear and precise with sketches and detailed annotation as apposed to bullet points. However this time we are only producing a music video therefore we can afford to use a 2-collumn storyboard.  Below I have included an image of my sample 2-collumn storyboard. As you can see I have included a summary at the top of the page explaining what the video is actually about, although the feedback I received from fellow classmates indicates that it was short but in detail. Therefore when it comes down to the real planning stage of the storyboard I will need to ensure that the summary is in detail and explains everything that happens in the video. It will not be in the same depth as the pitch but detailed enough for the other cast members to know what they are dealing with. Moving on with the storyboard I was told that I had clear indication of the kind of shot angles I wanted and the lighting was clear. For example I said 'several close ups and extreme closeups of characters expressions whilst fighting in dark lighting". I also happened to say that I required facial expression however I never fully explained the types of expression I wanted the actors to have. This could have negative implications on the actually filming day because the actors would not know what kind of expression to make. Although I did note down on one of the shots that I wanted the protagonist to look frustrated and angry, it wasn't consistent for my other shots as I just noted down "closeup of eye contact and facial expression".

This is our 2 column storyboard that we devised as a group. Meg and Alex typed it up as we all pitched in ideas. The way in which we approached this task was to look at our pitch for what was going to happen. We then listened to the lyrics to find out the most appropriate point for where that particular shot should be included. For example on the opening sequence we are going to have multiple shots cutting between the boy and the girls that he is flirting with during different times. The opening sequence will be during the introduction of the song which lasts 4 seconds, therefore we would have multiple shots cutting for 4 seconds before the song starts.

Purpose of music videos powerpoint

Purposes of music videos powerpoint

Pitch

27/11/2012 - When it came to the point of creating the pitch we had a number of initial ideas before coming to a final decision. One of which is that we decided to have an Alice in the wonderland theme where the protagonist would host a party and invite guest from numerous other movies. The way in which we were going to approach this is via a basket. The protagonist would be filmed approaching a bench whilst holding a basket and placing it down on the floor as if she was preparing for a picnic. Afterwards the camera would zoom into the basket showing the area in which the party will be held. On her journey to the party she encounters multiple fictional characters from existing movies and films.  They would be throwing food to each other and the way in which the tension will rise is that the size of the food that is being thrown will gradually increase before the explosive climax.

Another idea we developed in case one didn't work was of a day dream that would occur in school. There would be a stage where the protagonist would be performing and she would be receiving her applause and praise at the end. She would then run to class at the same speed as the applause in order to get in time with the intro of the song. Whilst in class she would see the teaching focused on teaching and her other class members will not notice her singing. She would open her book and see that on each individual page there are shots of her singing or the band playing and previous flashbacks of her life. Time would warp and she would see herself on stage performing just like she did previously however at the end a bell would ring and she would wake up again in class and the lesson will be over.

29/11/2012 - Today we altered our previous idea for our pitch due to the reason that we discovered the idea was very similar to Britney Spears' song 'Baby, One More Time'. Instead we came up with the idea of contrasting the loud attitude of the protagonist with a quiet/sad setting. Our Finalized idea is this; The protagonist will be on a date with her boyfriend and catch him flirting with an older woman on a different table. Then it will cut to a different date where he repeats the flirtatious behavior with a different woman and doesn't pay any attention to her. This is when she begins to sing the lyrics. She storms off and he follows. The protagonist will take her boyfriend home and begin to 'play fight' with him, which escalates into her killing him by hitting him around the head with a giant lollipop. She then goes upstairs to get ready for an occasion that is not yet revealed. Cut scene to snap shots of the funeral. The protagonist is walking (whilst singing) in a field with the band and ends up at some kind of gathering. Close ups of the girls mourning to reveal they are the girls he had been flirting with. Cut scene of the protagonist replacing his ashes with the sherbet. She acts sweetly-evil to the girls by giving them sherbet. The camera moves back to reveal the occasion is her boyfriend's funeral. It then ends with the protagonist licking her lips.

Here is an example of our music video pitch used in conjunction with Freytag’s theory. As you can see we have taken into consideration the 5 steps that will be used in the pitch with Freytag’s theory. If we look at the exposition there is a clear indication of what is currently going on in the plot and introduces the characters as well as the situation that sets the story in motion. In this case the characters would be the protagonist and her boyfriend and they are currently on a date and talking about their life. Next we have the problem or in other words the rising action.  This is where the complications arouse amongst the characters where they are struggling with their issues. In this case the protagonist catches her boyfriend flirting with the other women across the table in the café. The reason why we can consider it being a rising action is due to the fact that the audience’s suspense about the characters tends to rise during this moment in time. Next we have the mini climax this is usually the moment in time where the tension has risen to the point where there is conflict between the characters and the outcome of the struggle between the characters becomes somewhat clear but yet to be fully understood. In this case it would refer to the moment where the protagonist assaults the boyfriend and he seems to be brutally wounded however the audience are unaware as to whether or not he is actually dead. Next we have the climax of the story which is often referred to as the moment in which the tension is at its peak. This tension comes from the constant struggle of the characters being increased and developed throughout the plot. At this point the outcome of the struggle between the characters is clear and the initial conflict between characters decreases. This also applies to the suspense for the audience as they have a clear indication of what has happened. In this case it would be the protagonist replacing the urn ashes with sherbet. Lastly the final part of the story is the conclusion which is often referred to as the denouement. It is the unraveling of the plot and the point where the revelation is concluded. In our case it would be where the protagonist witnesses the other characters at the funeral eating the ashes inside the sherbet packets and there is a close up of her licking her lips.

Permission

This is a screenshot of me asking permission to use a track from a music record label. The reason why I must do this is to ensure that we are not breaking any copyright laws by using this track in our music video. By doing this it proves that we have asked for permission to use the track and realize that the track does not belong to us to use for commercial purposes.

Focus Group

Maxine: ‘Personally I think the lyrics of the song are pretty important and also the beat’ ‘There's obviously going to be some songs where you listen to it.. But you like the beat you like the way it sounds but then you don’t agree with the lyrics’

Iyke: ‘ Tha- Thats bullcrap because  no oh wait, I respect everyone's opinion so,    Basically I think that songs the best songs to an individual are ones that they can relate with so obviously its going to be based on lyrics, the beat doesn’t really matter. You can have a crap beat but as long as the lyrics relate to you , your gonna like the song'

Jesse: 'Actually I disagree with that because there's no point of listening if your…. The lyrics need to match with the beat fam. Because see, there's no point of just listening to lyrics, its just like listening to someone talking'

Maxine: 'I think what iyke said is right in a sense that you nee- there's most times you need to relate to the song.. However if the, if you don’t like the beat of the song, but you like the lyrics the, that, your not, your probably not, its probably going to be one of those songs on your ipod that will come up, you like it but then like naaa. Although you relate to the lyrics you don’t want to listen to it. But it doesn’t mean you don’t like it.'

Habeeba: 'Beats and lyrics are equally important'

Me: 'So who's your favorite artist'

Teni: 'Ed Sheran!'

Maxine: 'Alicia keys because I love her lyrics. Her sound is just amazing. And also lyfe jennings which most people probably don’t know him but he- he's a soul artist. And he's amazing, he has a beautiful voice and he's got a beautiful sound too. Most of his lyrics relate to his life and how he lived it out as he went through so much in his life and he he kinda portrayed them. He says ‘im not a bad person just cause I did this this and this.'

Jesse: 'Also rock music as well, three days grace erm.. Thousand foot krutch

The veer union, eerm, skillet, all those songs, all of those artist they-  they put their souls into their songs and I, I get it from them, they transmit it to me and I love listening to that, it cheers me up, brings me back down I don’t care.'

Habeeba: 'Personally I think eeerm, I think no there are good artists out there now but I prefer old songs… because their.. Like nowadays you see music videos and songs and all they do is like dubstep and stuff, the same old things. Theres only some certain artists out there say like Frank ocean, the weekends, like who are different Chris Brown. Its all about drugs and sex and all that crap'

Focus group analysis

Based on the feedback I recieved via my focus group It seems that people believe a good music video consists of a good beat. However since we have already chosen a song it is no longer in our control, although we might be able to change something to get people to like the song regardless of how good the beat sounds. The way in which I can approach this is by changing things such as clothing that go well with the song that way people will believe that the song sounds good because the characters look good and the match with the pace of the song. In addition to this I need to ensure that the lyrics of the music video relates to the artist about their life. This way my audience will believe that the music video is real and not just something made in a quick attempt to make some money. Another point that I will need to take into consideration is that I need to ensure that the lyrics of the song do not include any unessesary influences like drugs and sex because it isn't what people want to see or hear. The way in which I can approach this task is by watching a video of the song that we have chosen whilst also having another window of the lyrics open. This way we can follow along the lyrics making sure we do not have to promote anything that the audience don't want to be listening to.

Questionnaire & Analysis

Primary research refers to information that has not been found yet, hence the person has to begin with fresh information. This would usual mean that the researcher would need to create questionnaires, surveys in order to collect information from respondents and then analyse the results. Other examples of primary research are interviews or phone calls where you will be asking questions directly to other people on their views. You can benefit from primary research because the information would be up to date because it its fresh information and other people would not have discovered the information yet meaning you can use it to your advantage however the disadvantages to primary research is that it is more time consuming and costly because you have to spend time thinking of the questions you want answered and pay for printing etc.Before deciding on the types of questions to include on our questionnaire we first thought about the initial things that we would want to find out from our audience. Below are some of the questions that we thought would be relevant to input into our questionnaire.

- Do you like music videos

- How do you feel about parody in music videos

- What do you like about music videos

- (Play song) What do you like about the song

- Which artist do you like (Lickert  scale)

- Asking 5 boys and girls

- Finding things people like and implementing those things into the video

- Asking whether or not people like to see tattoos on artists

- Showing them multiple images of clothing to find out what type they lik

- Lickert scale showing different types of rock

I have included a photo of completed questionnaires to use as evidence that we have go out and asked people for their thoughts. Below is an image of the questionnaire I used.

Questionnaire Analysis

    20 People

    10 Male/10 Female

• 100% of Males use YouTube to watch music videos
• 100% of Females use YouTube to watch music videos

From my questionnaire I gathered that all of the participants selected that they use YouTube to watch their music videos. The way in which I can benefit from this is by watching their videos on youtube and finding out why they feel more comfortable using YouTube as their means to watch music videos. In addition to this it means that I should advertise my music video on youtube as it is more likely to attract viewers based on the feedback I received on my questionnaire.

• 80% of Males prefer energetic/fast paced music videos
• 50% of Females prefer energetic/fast paced music videos

In this question I felt it was necessary to ask whether or not people preferred energetic/fast paced music videos. The reason why I asked this question is because the music that we are using in our group is of the rock genre. In addition to this , the track played has an energetic feel to it and it is generally fast paced throughout the song. From this question I gathered that the majority of males prefer this kind of music pacing and therefore I should ask the males who answered my questionnaire on specific details of the kind of speed and feel they want in our music video. Furthermore I should ask the percentage of females who prefer slow paced music on their views as to why they do not like fast paced music. I could then try to implement some of the features in order to increase my target market from just males to both males and females.

• 80% of Males like music videos that are Serious
• 66% of Females like music videos that are Serious

In this question I asked the participates whether or not they like music videos that were serious. The reason why I asked this question is because that is the theme of our of music video. There is a comical feel to our music video as it is a parody however it has more of a dark comical feeling which gives it more of a serious impression. The way in which I can approach this is by changing the clothing of our cast to make it look like they are serious. Taking into consideration that in our pitch it revolves around a funeral event, we would have people dressed in black but for the parody concept, i'd change the hair colours to bright colours. As a result of this I felt it was necessary to find out how many people actually want to see a serious music video and based on the results gathered from my questionnaire I can see that the majority of males prefer music videos that are serious. There I should ask the males who answered my questionnaire on specific details of the level of seriousness they would like to see in our music video. In addition to this I feel it would be best to ask the people who did not include serious in their choice in order to find why and then implement some of the features in the final music video.

• Pink

The way in which I asked this question is so that I could get an immediate response from the participants of the questionnaire. The reason why I just wrote the word "Pink" was so i could get the first words that comes into mind from the participants of the questionnaire on what they think when they see the artist Pink. In addition to this i want them to have a think themselves , i haven't locked the answer to one thing. The reason why I did this is because I wanted a more diverse answer, an answer where there a multiple things I can work with. For example if they said that they liked her clothing , I would be able to implement that with the cast of our music video and have them dress similarly to the attire of Pink.

• What is the most important thing about a music video?

Another question that I asked was what people believed was the most important thing about a music video. The reason why I asked this question is because I want to see what I needed to implement into my own music video. One of the answers I recieved from my participants was that theres need to be a relation with the lyrics. Therefore I would need to make the appropiate changes to ensure that the contents within the video have a clear correlation with the lyrics so that the viewers are able to understand the music video more efficiently.

Research Methods

The way in which we are going to go about our research is by conducting a questionnaire followed by a focus group based on the results we gathered from our questionnaires. We are going to ask 5 boys and 5 girls to ensure that our results are not biased. We would ask people that can relate to the type of song so that we can get personal opinions on how we should customise our artist.

In the focus group we are going to play them multiple tracks that are similar to our track in order to find out their likes and dislikes about the track so that we can then implement the likes into our own music video. We will also show them multiple clothing sets ranging from different styles in order to fin dout what the majority like to see what we should dress our cast in. This could then lead on to us asking further questions about appearance such as whether or not they like tattoos on an artist so we can decide on how to customise our artist.

As for my questionnaire I feel its best that I follow the same pattern that I am doing for my focus group and that I should hand them out to people that I do not generally know their music tastes so that it ensures that the results will be valid. The way in which I will gather data on my questionnaire is via the questions I am going to ask people. I will know which questions to ask based on popular artist. I would have to research reasons why people may favor a particular artist and how I can benefit from that information.The reason why I'm using questionnaires rather than other methods is because first of all its cheap, additionally since its primary research its fresh and takes little to no time at all to do because the people only have to fill in the questionnaire based on their views and what you have given them. Furthermore people are more likely to fill in your questionnaire than to sit down with you and have an interview for a few minutes.

I plan on producing 10 questionnaires because it’s a small amount to work with so it will be easily managed. Additionally I will be able to generate a fair amount of results. I will then be able to choose 5 of the people who answered my questionnaires and bring them together to conduct my focus group.

I have decided its best to have up to 5 people in my focus group consisting of 1 teacher 2 females and 2 males because this will make it easier for me to manage this focus group due to the fact that there is only a few amounts of people. Additionally I considered having the same number of males and females teenagers because It would ensure that my results are not biased due to the fact that there are more females or males etc. Furthermore I considered having a teacher involved in order to gain an adults perspective towards music to generate more interesting results.

To find these students I will look within my school sixth form for people that I do not know what their music tastes are like in order to get different results and asses them. The way in which I am going to collect this data is using my mobile phone or a camera so that I can record the conversation and then analyze it once the data has been gathered.Depending on the kind of results I generate from my focus groups I may decide to go even further for more personal opinions and conduct 1 to 1 interviews because are more likely to open up if they are just talking to another person rather than if they were in a group.

Moodboard

My moodboard represents the feelings that will be expressed in my music video. As you can see there are a variety of emotions and feelings displayed ranging from anger, excitement, peace, pride. I want to give off the impression that a peaceful morning leads to a explosive climax.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, I'm here to show you the steps I've gone through in my music video production.

Track Choice
Porcelain and the Tramps - My leftovers