Steal-o-matic

Storyboard

Letter of approval to artist

Timetables

Above is a picture of Megan's timetable.
Below is a picture of my timetable.

In order to gain a clear understanding of when Megan and I are free, we decided to look at each others time tables, to determine when we can spend the hours working on our music video.
The times that we distinguished when we are free together are:

- Monday period 1
- Monday period 3
- Monday period 5
-Tuesday period 1
-Tuesday period 5
-Wednesday period 2
-Wednesday period 3
-Wednesday period 5
-Thursday period 1
-Thursday period 3
-Thursday period 4
-Friday period 4
-Friday period 5

Props

Throughout our music video we need a variety of props, in order to make the music video/ narrative seem as naturalistic as possible. Here are a few props that we have chosen:

 

We hope to include these rose petals, in the scenes with the artist lip syncing.

 

This holdall bag will be use near the end of the music video, when Millie becomes a strong and independent woman, and finally decides to leave her abusive boyfriend.

Here is a burgundy rose, in which the boyfriend will give Millie, in order to emphasise the fact that they are always going round in circles, because he says sorry by buying her something, and she feels sorry for him, so she forgives him each time.

Costumes

As the artist, we chose this top to wear. Firstly, the colours represent the synergy, as our chosen colour is burgundy. We also wanted to create an image for our artist of being stylish, but innocence. We also think that this top gives a sense of an 'indie' theme. On the bottoms, we're looking at black jeans to wear, in order to casual it out.




Millie - narrative

For Millie, we thought of giving her darker colours to represent her mood and hurt, by using a symbolising colour. We also wanted to keep our costumes naturalistic and casual, in order to emphasise the serious nature of the narrative. Therefore, during the sadder scenes, Millie will be dressed in dark colours.

For the happier scenes however, we decided to chose Millie to wear a different top, in order to portray a 'different mood'. We thought that we would again stick to our synergy theme of this burgundy colour.





Male Clothing

For the male's clothing, we chose to wear a plane dark blue top, in order to portray a sense of masculinity, but also darkness within this character. We wanted to try and show something that has a naturalistic feel and theme.






Woman in the bar

We chose this dress for the woman in the bar to wear, as we believe it represents something naturally, that you would wear on a night out. We wanted something a little dressy, but not too much, in order to keep the focus on the male and his actions. We also chose the colour of burgundy, to match with our synergy also

Locations

Below are some pictures of the locations we want our music video to include:

 

The above picture is a picture of a lake. We want our music video to include shots with this surrounding, not only because we think it will be a beautiful surrounding, but also because we believe that it fits out 'Indie pop' theme, and contrasts with some of the darker themes within our music video.

 

 Here above is a picture of the Southend Beach, where we hope to film a variety of our shots. As, we believe it is a good scenery to express the happy concepts of the music video.

 

This street will show both the beginning shots and the end shots, which will tie the music video together. We wanted this shot to be a little darker, to represent the narrative.

 

This will be featured in the Bar scene, where the guy will be seen by the audience as a slimy cheater, highlighting his 'devil side'.

 

Here is a clear picture of a room, in which we will use a basis for the majority of our scenes. We didn't want a flashy room, but at the same time, wanted something fairly big in order to film in.

Here are some more images of Southend, where we hope to film the happier scenes and film a variety of shots, in order to vary the themes.

Shooting schedule

Risk Assessment

Shot List

Lyric Timings

Lyric Annotations

In order to gain a thorough understanding, as well as our own personal interpretation of the song, as a group, we discussed what we interpreted from the lyrics. In order to gain a clear and visual understanding, we decided to annotate the lyrics to the best of our ability, highlighting the hidden meanings, as well as the obvious ones. This is not only so that we are able to match the lyrics with the narrative, but so that the audience can gain a visual understanding of the lyrics, as well as just listening to them. We also found it interesting as a group, because after annotating the lyrics, we felt that it really helped us to visually see more of the narrative, allowing all of our creative ideas and opinions to flow tremendously.

Music Timeline of events

 

Shot List

Music video director study

Artist digipak and website

As a group, we felt that the artist most similar to ours would be Lana Del Rey. As a group, we decided that our music genre fitted 'Indie pop' best, making Lana Del Rey a great role model for who we aspire our artist to be like. In order to gain a better understanding as a group, we decided to look into Lana's digipak and website.

Here are some images of Lana Del Ray's website. You can clearly see the tab bar at the top with links that say:


-News
-Live
-Music
-Gallery
-Videos
-Merch store
-Music store
-Newsletter


This gave our group a clear indication of the things we need to include on our website. We also need to decide on a theme as a group, so that it can be linked to synergy and can occur throughout our digipak, website, social media and music video itself. We feel that this is a vital step in the production and planning as we want to highlight our artist as much as possible, by making her stand out and easily remembered.

Similar genre videos that inspire us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelHwf8o7_U

The video above 'Love the way you lie' By Eminem and Rhianna is not a similar genre however it has some great narrative ideas which we are able to adapt on. For example we wanted to have the narrative about this young girl who is in an abusive relationship and we felt this video particularly outlined some great ideas, not showing too much of the abusive side and more of the upset traumatic side the has effected the girl. Due to the video being too explicit i have attached the link as the video will not show on this website. However we do not want to make it too explicit so that a younger audience is unable to watch it. The abusive relationship co insides with the name of the song 'Devil side' outlining that his abusive ways is the devil side that the singer sings about.



 Due to our genre being 'Indie pop' i have chosen Birdy's song as i feel it is one of the most similar songs to our one, Devil Side. Both songs have a similar pace and a lower calm tone. This video also focuses on a lot of close up head shots of the singer which is what we would like to do also, we also like the idea of close up of the eyes, allowing you to see the emotions of the singer, this is important in ours as we want to show that the singer is singing about the narrative as if it was about her.

 In the video below there are a lot of dark scenes which allows the camera to focus more on the singer and as we are having a very strong narrative so we do not want too much going on in the background of the singer as it could cause confusion. However having the singer against a black background the whole time like this one can get a bit boring which is why we want to make sure we can draw the audience in by having an interesting and satisfying narrative.

Lip Sync

Here is a video of myself and Megan lip syncing. We did this, so that we would gain a visual understanding of who suits the role of the artist the most. We wanted to visually see who has the 'look' and the confidence to sing the song the most.

Music ideas feedback

Song 1 - Birdy Deep End

• Friendship instead of stereotypical couple
• Not be cheesy
• No boy girl romance
• Look into the lyrics for more detail
• Birdy has a distinct voice and may be hard to pull it off

Song 2 - Foxes Wicked Love

• Least favourite
• Changes so much from the beginning
• Compromise for Jess Glynne song
• Fun and upbeat still
• Two sides to the wicked love
• Tez boxing and showing off
• Narrative as well as the performance

Song 3 - Foxes Devil Side

• Some prefer Jess Gylnne, mixed opinion between the two
• Tez boxing, getting his anger out
• Black eyes - subtle abusive scenes
• Best one to use for a narrative
• Singer on same set as the narrative
• Somewhere interesting to set the story

Song 4 - Jess Glynne

• Distinct voice, would be hard to pull off
• Megan would suit the singer, very upbeat and quirky looks
• Dancing all around, fun and colourful scenes
• Nice contrast from the others
• Quick pace videos and cuts

Song choices

Video Thoughts

Here are rough notes on our ideas for a music video, we decided to allocate people roles early in order to cause less confusion later on and hopefully get things done quicker and easier.

Group Pitch

Synergy

Cross media promotional package - 60 marks

website - 10 marks
digipack - 10 marks
music video - 40 marks

Snergy can be created in the cross media promotional package through:

Costume
Props
Appearance
Location
Colour


Synergy is very common to use in music videos as it allows them to be able to promote other things such as their CD tracks and their websites. Some music videos like to also release a teaser video to get the public excited and ready for their video. For example -

Labrinth's album- Electronic Earth.

The cover of this album already highlights and defines the title, the picture of the city behind labyrinth is all lit up and edited to look 'electronical' and the earth part is defined from the two different locations shown on this cover. One in his glasses reflection and the other in the background. His face being in the middle highlights how the earth surrounds him.

Even at his concert he decides to have the effects of flashing and vibrant lights in the background as well as dressing smartly in similar vibrant colours. Still therefor highlighting the 'Electronical' part of he name.

Furthermore -

On the back of his album he has the city lit up in the background , however it is dulled down a lot compared to the front of the album. I think this is so he can highlight the songs in this album. Still keeping the electronic earth effect as well as clearly showing the name of his songs.
And lastly one of his music videos -

BANANA PHONE

From doing this I was able to refresh my memory of editing and all the different things I am capable of creating through this. I was able to experiment with different things such as having the same person I one exact shot. As seen in the video above I was able to edit three videos of Chloe into one single shot. As well as this I also practiced reverse and focus shots which will become very useful when it comes to the editing and making of my music video later on in the year. Trying to sync the music to what the person in the video was saying was quite difficult but with a little practice and patients I was able to succeed in this.

Marking previous music videos

Cold Hands -

• 25, Level 3
• The camera was too blurry.
• Actress smiled at camera and came out of character, this ruined the effect of a sad girl.
• However it was a good storyline and the singer fit the part extremely well, it look as if it was his real voice the whole time.
• Some shots are not controlled (out of focus).
• Clear narrative with shooting material appropriate to the viewer.
• A lot of the shots included the 'artists' back, meaning lip syncing was missed and it looked like the 'artist' has their back to the camera/audience.
• Not a variety of shots - could have been more tracking/panning shots.
• The artist could have been more enthusiast during his performance - a lot of it was just him standing still playing his guitar.
• The images/shots were appropriate for the viewer.
• Not too many effects used, however this matched the pace of the song.

East of Eden-

• 35, Level 4
• Amazing editing skills.
• Horses/unicorns added an interesting effect and made me more intrigued.
• Great reverse shots.
• The singer in the pool was random and I felt it was unneeded as I did not see the point of her being in there and what it represented.

Bad Romance-

• 21, Level 3
• Should not have chosen a well known song that already has a music video as you will never be able to be as soon and raise up to the expectations presented.
• The singer did not fit the part.
• Looked unnatural.
• Cringy.
• However the editing techniques were quite interesting but good.
• Guitar was not appropriate for the song. This means some of the visuals were not matching of the lyrics.
• Lip syncing was not always adequate for such a powerful song.
• Props and costumes were clever, matching the genre and the artists usual image.
• I liked how the shots weren't repeated a lot, meaning you were always wondering what was going to be the next scene.
• Effects with the cloning were clever.
• Camera shots were not always controlled.
• Was creative.

Dull boy-

• 32, Level 4
• Synergy with the colour purple.
• Good use of editing to add in purple to the lights and backgrounds.
• Great cuts and nice reverse shots.
• Good storyline, drew the audience in.
• Not always controlled use of the camera, for example at the beginning there was a out of focus/jumpy tracking shot.
• Editing with the pink/purple was clever.
• Images were appropriate for the genre.
• Variety of shots.

 

Donnelly&Vans de Zande -

• 39/40
• Content/visuals appropriate for the genre.
• Controlled use of camera.
• Cloning edit for clever.
• The transitions between the shots were clever.
• Close attention to mise en scene.
• The transition between people around the dinner table to mannequins was clever.

 I Kissed a Boy -

• 35/40
• Visuals were appropriate for the lyrics.
• A large variety of shots used.
• Controlled use of camera.
• Editing was clever with over laying shots and with the ghostly effects.
• I liked how every so often it was flicker to colour imaginary.
• Could have been more locations used as was quite predictable.
• Visual pace matched the music's pace.
• Mise en scene could have been more adventurous.
• I liked how it was edited in black and white as it matches the vibe of the music.

Audience

I consume music through headphones from my spotify on my Iphone, apart from when I am alone in my room as I just listen to it out loud without earphones. I consume music on a daily basis - mostly to cheer myself up and distract myself from the stressful school work. Apart from listening to music at home in my bedroom, I also listen to it whilst in the car through a radio, at work and at parties. I find my music choice is always to upbeat my mood and not to bring my mood down. However I occasionally like to listen to slower paced music if I have no energy or are feeling calm. Music sometimes also plays in the background when I'm home alone so the house isn't in silence. It also able's me to express myself through what I listen to, a person's music taste often gives someone an insight into who they are and what they like.

Summer Homework

After looking through all the other music videos I have come to the conclusion that this is my favourite video-


I really like this video as I feel the girl playing the singer really fits the part and plays it well. Its a very fun and entertaining video which makes you want to get up and dance! The editing with all the cuts is exceptional as even though they have so many they are still able to sync the music with her lips and of what I could see, there was no mistakes. The camera quality was also a big factor of it as it made the whole thing look so much better, the more detail you can see the better it looks.

I find this image above really sets the scene and immediately allows the audience to know who is the main star and who is higher than the others. Sitting the main singer in front of the other girls shows that all focus needs to be on her, especially as the other girls are blurred out.

Her bright blonde hair also helps with this as it makes her more out going and eye catching.

 

However in the picture below she is still the main focus even though she is at the back, it is showing that wherever she is and no matter what situation, all eyes are on her at all time. Although it still allows you to look at the attractive men as well as the pretty girl.

 

Prelim Task

MV prelim tasks from Katrina Brookes on Vimeo.

Our prelim starts at exactly 3 minutes 10 seconds.

Evaluation