Draft Filming Schedule

Above is a picture of our Draft Filming Schedule, we are going to use this to help us understand what we have to do on the day and the days leading up to the shot. We are going to make a more in-depth version of the schedule for Friday, which is the day we film, however the other days are in-depth enough as they just involve us preparing and organising the house and getting the lighting, costumes and props we need for the shoot. We have also decided to spend the day after the shoot checking over all of the footage we got to make sure we didn't miss any shots and that we are happy with everything we shot. 

Posted By Abbey Newton & Charlotte Hester

Draft Storyboard

We created our storyboard to give us a rough template to go on when we film. This will make filming on set easier as we have a planned idea of how each shot will look. We will each have a copy of the storyboard on the set so we have complete control of what is going on on the set.

Posted By Abbey Newton, Charlotte Hester and Amy Coster 

Music Video and Films for Inspiration

Music Videos

 Closer - Tegan and Sara

We have taken inspiration from this video as it shows a party situation similar to what we want to achieve when our video is finished, the artists are also not well known and alternative, like Ben, our chosen artist. 

We liked this music video because it is very similar with how we want our music video to look at points. The lighting is the main element that captured our attention because it is soft and naturalistic which juxtaposes the wild atmosphere captivating the audience. We liked the loose but effective use of narrative in this video, and also the equality which is seen between genres and sexuality, it is an effective video because it shows a large mixture of people all enjoying themselves.

 What a Night - Lovable Rogues

 

This music video is a little bit more wild than the video above because it is mainly dominated by males who stereotypically have a crazier time, we like the party scenes used in this video however the representation of gender is not something we would be likely to use in our video.

  If I Were A Boy -  Beyoncé

We have chosen this Beyonce video as it is done in black and white, which we want sections of our video to be in, and also because she shares similar emotions in the video to what we want Ben, our chosen artist to feel in our video. Although we don't want any inequality in our video with regards to how gender is represented we do like how this video challenges the typically gender conventions seen in music videos.

Films:

The Breakfast Club (1985)

We have chosen this film as we believe it contains similar themes and feeling that we want to include in our music video, such as love and feeling lost as a teenager/young adult.

Posted By Amy Coster, Charlotte Hester & Abbey Newton

Rough Plan For Music Video

Rough plan of music video

0:00 – 0:05 - Walking with camera upstairs, to reveal Ben in bathroom.

0:05 – 0:08 - Close up of Bens face as if the camera was the mirror.

0:08 – 0:11 - Ben walking towards keyboard.

0:11 – 0:13 - Ben places hands on keyboard.

0:13 – 0:18 - Flash back rewind of the nights events.

0:18 – 0:23 - Two shots, one of Ben walking towards lamppost and one of Ben under lamppost. (MUSIC STARTS)

0:23 – 0:30 - Various different shots of people arriving at the house for the party.

0:30 – 0:34 - Ben walking through door into party, camera pans round him to show facial expressions.

0:34 - 0:36 - Ben walks into living room.

0:36 – 0:40 - Camera circles round Ben to show confusion.

0:40 - 0:43 - Ben at keyboard, filming from behind.

0:43 - 0:48 – high angle, filmed from the stairs of people at the party.

0:48 – 0:50 – Ben running down the stairs.

0:50 – 0:52 – Front door slams and Ben leaves.

0:52 – 0:55 – Ben walking towards wall.

0:55 – 1:00 – Ben lip-syncing while sat on wall.

1:00 – 1:04 – Party people, high angle.

1:04 – 1:07 – Shot of ben from behind, zooming into a close up of his hands on the keyboard.

1:07 – 1:09 – People doing shots, have general party fun.

1:09 – 1:12 – Ben coming back into the house.

1:12 - 1:15 – Ben distressed walking back into the house, pushing through people

1:15 – 1:18 – Hand held iPhone shot.

1:18 – 1:20 – iPhone recording of people at party.

1:20 – 1:23 – Still handheld, people letting off streamers.

1:23 – 1:28 – More handheld close ups of people at party.

1:28 – 1:31 – Trampoline handheld shots.

1:31 – 1:33 - Tripod shot of people filming on trampoline.

1:33 – 1:36 – Shot of Ben on keyboard.

1:36 – 1:38 – Close up of Ben’s hands on keyboard.

1:38 – 1:42 – High angle looking down from the stairs at people partying.

1:42 – 1:46 – Ben sat on wall lip-syncing.

1:46 – 1:50 – Close up of cans and bottles around house.

1:50 – 1:53 – People letting off party poppers.

1:53 – 1:55 – People playing with balloons and streamers.

1:55 – 1:58 – Mid angle of people leaving party.

1:58 – 2:01 – Ben in a corner with streamers.

2:01 – 2:04 – Ben running up stairs.

2:04 – 2:08 – Camera watches Ben go upstairs, Camera follows.

2:08 – 2:12 – Fade out of Ben in bathroom.

Doing this rough plan of what our music video will be timed and cut like has made us realise that we either need to make our shots longer or add in more shots as our video isn't long enough to cover the whole of the song at this time.

 We are using the plan as a rough guide throughout the process of making our music video, due to the natural of some sections of our music video, for example the group scenes, we are relying heavily on the actors to deliver, and using the shots they give us during filming. Therefore we can't plan out perfectly certain sections of our video. However we will be sticking to the plan in all other sections. 

Posted by Abbey Newton, Charlotte Hester and Amy Coster

Research Into Chosen Artist

The artist for our music video is a very talented friend of ours, Ben Pavitt, who is working hard to be signed. We chose this artist because his songs fit the genre of music that we wanted to base a music video around and he is a very enthusiastic performer who will co-operate and work well when filming the video. As he has not been signed yet we will not have to request permission from a record label to use Ben’s song.

Ben started singing from a very young age, and went on to learn the piano at 10 yr old which is the main instrument he used when he wrote ‘lights’ so we will incorporate some shots of Ben at the keyboard to show how his journey started. When Ben turned 16 he auditioned for a music college on London and earned a place there where he studied for 2 years making music. During his time there, he recorded many covers of popular songs and put his own style on them which inspired his own songs. On Ben’s journey he has entered many competitions where he was just missed out winning at the last post but that hasn’t stopped him from pushing through and he is currently gigging in and around London. Ben's quirky style of music is refleceted in his quirky style of clothing and personality which is what people fall in love with when they meet him.

This is one of Ben’s first covers of a popular song:

Posted By Charlotte Hester

Lip Syncing Practice

For our group's lip syncing practice we chose to do Lily Allen - Smile because it is similar to our chosen genre, that of a solo artist singing about love and their feelings. We practiced lip syncing to expand our knowledge and experience when it comes to filming our actual music video, and we will find it a lot easier and less time consuming.

Posted By Charlotte Hester, Abbey Newton and Amy Coster

Our Favourite Music Videos And Why

Amy: My favourite music video is for P!nk’s song ‘Raise your glass’ It has a loose narrative, various scenes that contain its own narrative, and mixed with the song it makes you feel motivated and inspired which is why it is my favourite music video.

Abbey: My favourite music video is ‘Still into you’ by Paramore; this is because of the vivid colours, and the full on atmosphere that is really uplifting and memorable. All the band members are shown equally and the whole music video has a ‘feel good factor’ that makes you feel like you can power through anything. The use of different rooms within the grounds of one house make it feel very intimate as well, this gives you the feel of being close to the band members.

Charlotte: My favourite music video is by ‘One Direction’ and is called ‘Best Song Ever’ because it has a strong narrative and goes against generic conventions of the pop genre. The video starts with a narrative even before the song starts and is much longer than the song itself. It is catchy and appealing to a wide variety of audiences due to the comedy aspects at the beginning.

From looking at our favourite music videos, I have found that all our videos are different and have a quality to them that we can all appreciate. This will help us to see what we all look for in a music video to make our own eye catching to a wide audience.

Posted By Amy Coster

Representation In Music Videos

In music videos the representation seen differs depending on the genre of the music video.
 

Hip-Hop: in this genre, men typically are portrayed to be dominant over females who are objectified and submissive. If the video is based around a male artist, the women in the video tend to be scantily clad in the background whereas if the video is based around a female artist, the women in the video tend to have more significance. Typically areas of representation such as sexuality aren’t seen to be equal due to the use of words such as ‘faggot’ which are seen to be belittling homosexuals. Usually people featured in Hip-Hop videos are seen to be rich as they normally have things like sports cars and expensive jewellery featured in their video.

Pop: In this genre, men are typically portrayed as dominant over females, but not so much as a genre like rap or hip-hop. Men in pop are usually singing less about how attracted they are to a woman and more about how much they love or have feelings for a woman, meaning that women naturally will be less objectified. However women can be portrayed as being the perfect house wife or girlfriend, doing things that are seen to be stereotypical of women in the video, an example of this can be seen in Jake Bugg’s  - Two Fingers video. However women in a pop usually are objectified as this is a demand of the record label, they usually don’t get a choice in how they dress, however some women can go against the norms in some of their music videos, especially when they are singing about females. People in pop videos are either seen to be similar to people in Hip-Hop videos as having a lot of money or they are seen to be portraying a narrative or story so it shows their everyday lives which are less glamorous than usually displayed or the life of a character they may possibly relate to. Sexuality is much more respected in pop today and not as abused as in Hip-Hop, an example of homosexual equality in pop videos is shown in Macklemore’s – Same Love video.

Rock: In rock videos usually women and men are seen to be equal, due to the fact there are few front women on the rock scene, men tend to take the lead, however when women feature in their videos it is usually as their partners or as their love interests but the men very rarely objectify the women and are seen to have a lot of respect for them. Rock videos are usually very basic and don’t represent the people featured to be rich or wealthy, they are usually seen to be very everyday people making them more relatable than characters seen in Pop or Hip-Hop videos.

Gender: Recently in the media, more than ever before, there has been controversy surrounding the representation of women in music videos. Certain genres of music are known for their misogynistic representation of women, however this degrading representation seems to have spread to other genres of music and has even been deemed as acceptable. A perfect example of this can been seen with probably the most controversial video of 2013, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, the video has hidden messages surrounding rape and the 'blurred lines' between what is seen to be rape and what is not. The women in the video are seen to be more of possessions than actual people with feelings, we will not be creating any equality between men and women in our video as if it were to be released we would want it to be popular because it is well filmed not because it is controversial. Blurred Lines shows perfectly how 9 times out of 10, women are seen to be below men in most music videos.


Posted By Abbey Newton

Moodboard On The Look Of Our Video

Posted By Charlotte Hester

Plot and Narrative Outline

Our music video will start with ben washing his face after a night out, trying to evaluate what happened. Then there will be a rewind montage of the night’s antics. He then walks to the keyboard, looks up and remembers, the music then starts playing. The main narrative of the story is how Ben feels secluded in society, like many teenagers these days, and the party will reflect the alienation.

 The people at the party steal the camera and film what is going on round the house, but never really filming Ben. There will be many shots of Ben walking around outside and there will be a shot of him sitting on the wall lip syncing. Ben will re-enter the house as everyone leaves, after the party has got out of hand and he will be left alone in a messy house. There narrative is very strong and relevant drawing in a wider audience, this is because the artist will not be portrayed as a big star more a regular teenager feeling lonely. 

Posted By Charlotte Hester, Abbey Newton and Amy Coster

Target Audience Brief

In the end we have decided to target our music video at teenagers 16- 21 because this is the age group that will be mature enough to appreciate a different genre of music and fully understand the meaning of the song. Also this age group would know what it's like to go out and party with their friends which is important for the concept of the video because we want to target people who have been in the same secluded position as the artist. Our music video won't be targeted at a specific genre however we feel that the female gender may watch the video more so we will include pretty girls so the male audience will be inclined to watch the video.

The demographic group for our music video would be D/E (students and working class) because of the age group we have specified. We will target this group by keeping the music video simplistic and realistic, using a homely atmosphere and a concept that would have included many of that group before, a party.

We also want to target people who like to hang out with friends as well as people who lack friends and feel lonely sometimes. We will do this by showing the artist who feels lonely in a positive light telling the audience that it is ok to be alone . We will also show the party goers in a positive light so the audience who like to party and hang out with friends don't feel guilty about it and can enjoy the music video as well as maybe feeling sympathy for the artist.



We don't intend on using the effects model in terms of audience theory as we don't want their to be any negativity given out to the audience. We may mildly use the Hypodermic Needle theory as we will be 'injecting' the fact that some people can feel excluded or out of place in society. However the theory which we intend to include the most is the uses and gratification theory as we want the audience to use our video for pleasure or for their own gratification, we want the audience to use our video, as opposed to our video using the audience.

By Charlotte Hester and Abbey Newton

Target Audience Moodboard

 After looking at previous information we had gained from looking at target audiences and what they like we put together the above mood board to give us an idea of what we think our target audience looks like. The above picture will help us when it comes to making our music video as we will use things such as, what the people in the above picture are wearing and include them in our music video with the hope that it will help attract interest from people similar to that on the mood board.

Posted By Amy Coster and Abbey Newton

Target Audience Mind Map

Above is a mind map which we have created to give us a rough idea of the type of audience we are going to be aiming our promotional package at. We have included demographic categories and different theories which will allow us to do in-depth research into the audience and age group we will be aiming our product towards, this will allow us to tailor each part towards them, which will create great interest in our promotional package.

 

Posted By Charlotte Hester and Amy Coster

Music Video Brief

We have been instructed to produce a promotional package for the release of an album by a British artist of our choice, we must include the following parts:

 

- A Music Promo Video (60%)

- An Album Digipack (20%)

- A Magazine advertisement (20%)

 

Music videos are a key tool when it comes to marketing an artist, their album and specific songs they have chosen to release as singles. The increasing use of internet video hosting sites such as Youtube and Vimeo have allowed artist to easily put their music videos on the internet to be viewed by a potentially global audience. The music video typically contains a loose narrative (depending on genre) which typically suits the songs storyline, music videos usually contain the artist lip syncing to the song, to give the illusion that they are doing a live performance in the video. Music video releases, for well known artists usually contain a great deal of anticipation which means that large amount of people will watch them, which will in turn, encourage them to buy the single.

 

Our music video, Digipack and Magazine advert, similarly to that of actually industry level artists will all link together and contain similar images, this helps make the promotional package a whole rather than individual pieces of work.

 

Posted by Abbey Newton

Initial Ideas For Music Video

 

Above shows a mind map we did on potential ideas for our music videos, we did the mind map without having any ideas for a song we wanted to use, at this stage all we knew was that we wanted it to be of a genre around the indie/alternative zone.

 

After talking about artists of that genre we knew or would be able to contact, we decided we would use someone who was relatively unknown, as opposed to using a famous artist as it would be easier to work with them and they would be able to star in our video.

 

We decided we would use Abbey and Charlottes good friend called Ben Pavitt as he has recently written an original song called 'Lights' which fits with the genre we wanted to make a video around.

 

Poster By Charlotte Hester, Abbey Newton and Amy Coster

Music Video Conventions

Posted By Abbey Newton

Music Video Questionnaire Analysed

After asking people from various different age groups we have created the presentation above, which highlights the information we gained from what we asked the various age groups. We will use the information we gained to help us when we create our music video, because the questionnaire highlights different age groups, we can add different aspects into our video to help us aim our video at all age groups and as many viewers as possible.

Posted By Charlotte Hester & Abbey Newton

 

Music Video Audience Questionnaire

 

 

This questionnaire has allowed us to ask a broad age range of people questions about what they enjoy seeing in music videos, meaning that once we have analysed the results, we can use it to help us in the construction and making of our music video.

 

Posted By Charlotte Hester, Abbey Newton & Amy Coster