Moodboard for Music Video/ Brief Description of Video and Inspiration/ Location Planning

Our song we are doing is The Wombats - I only wear black, we are aiming to do a video about a monster who is going about his day to day life and he's on road to self improvement and at the end of the video when he feels happier within himself he peels off the monster outfit to reveal a normal human underneath. We are focusing on the physical manifestation of sadness.

Inspiration for the music video:



Here are two video inspirations for the video we are aiming to do, The Fall Out Boy video is a good inspiration because it shows the more human side to the Antler Boy and we are trying to embody this in the later stage of our video. The Sea Fret video is good because it shows the monster we are trying to portray. The hairy monster is a good reference point for us when creating our own monster.

Location

This is the location we have decided to film in, partly due to convenience and also for our music video we are aiming to do a day in the life style video so its useful to have Connie's house available to use to film the day to day functioning of our monster. We are also planning to use the area around connie's house as well, Riversly Park or the big block of green on the map is also going to be a key area that we film in due to its accessibility and its also quite a picturesque place to film.  

Music Video Research Theory

Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis is music video theorist who produced the Kindest Cuts which talks about the difference between the editing in film and music videos, She refers to the role of editing when it comes to narrative, meaning, star image and the way sounds and images are synchronised as well as how the editing imitates the music.

There are four key concepts in Vernallis's theory which are; Narrative, Editing, Framing and Camera movement and Diegsis.

Narrative; Within her theory Vernallis's, she suggests that music videos are a response to the narrative within the song. So what happens on screen reflects the lyrics. If the narrative isn't complete she goes onto say that if it isn't fully realised the video can go on to seem disjointed and fragmented.

Editing; One of the main conventions of music videos is to break the rules of continuity. Editing in music videos can be used as a focal point with editing to the beat of the music or a beat drop etc rather than the narrative. Music videos have a distinctive style of editing with noticeable conventions such as jump jumps, cutting to the lyrics or beat of the music and juxtaposed shots and scenes.

Framing and Camera Movement; Vernallis states that having establishing shots is a important element of music videos as well as close ups of either the artist or the focal point of the video. Camera movement is also important as it moves with the timing and genre of the music video it is in. Slower music videos contain a lot of close ups and tracking shots whereas upbeat songs have more establishing and long shots.

Diegsis: Diegsis or the setting of the music video works in the way that Vernallis says that actions in the video are not always completed and can be disrupted, this can lead to a repetition of shots and frames which will come across as more important than other frames.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin was a media theorist and a director of music, he published a book called Dancing in the Distraction Factory. The book contains codes and conventions that come up with making a music video.

Genre Characteristics; Music videos have a set of typical genre characteristics and they have codes and conventions. Examples of this include that if you were to watch a music video and it was a live performance its likely its a rock or metal band e.g River of Fire by In This Moment. The audience gives a new level of energy to a music video that comes across in the music. Film genres can link to this as they have an impact on music videos, for example a lot of rom-com's have a lot of the same conventions as slower love songs.

 There are five key setups for a music video that can help analyse it:

-Stadium Performance; Stadium performances are mainly used for rock music to show enthusiasm and physical endurance of the music and the impact it has.
-Studio Performance; Studio sessions are for more indie bands and for meaningful songs that aim to convey emotion.
-Location-Narrative-Conceptual/ Experimental

Voyeurism; There are references to the notion of looking and the treatment of both genders in an overly sexualised manner in order to sell records. Through the use of props, for example items such as tv, microphones and mirrors.

Record Label Demands; Record labels have very high and specific demands when it comes to filming a video such as close up of the artist and certain props or themes that have a reoccurring imagery. For example with In This Moment, the leader singer is always dressed in very religious seeming robes with a corset on underneath to portray religious themes counteracted with her being dressed provocatively. 


Intertextual References; Theses are references to other tv shots and music videos or books within the music video itself. e.g Buddy Holly by Wheezer. This can bring in an audience that are fans of the movie being referenced and it gives the video more depth in the production.

Music Video Analysis

Evaluation of Promotional Video

For our promotional video unit me and Connie decided to shoot a studio in Nuneaton called Bliss Pole and Aerial, we got into contact with the owner of the studio and organised a meeting and pitched our idea to her. With this we created a powerpoint that had all of our key points on it and reassured her that we would do the studio and herself justice with our video and create the best video possible. She was more than helpful and had a lot of creative input with the final video.

The studio is a 5 minute drive from Connie's house and a 15 minute drive from me so because of this I had to get the bus to get there and back. When filming ran too late and there was no buses we worked around this by Connie's mum giving me a lift home on a few occasions. We ran into one problem with it came to travel and filming and this was when there was a snow storm in Nuneaton and therefore the buses were cancelled so we had to miss shooting for one day because Connie couldn't film without me because I had the release forms. To make up for this we quickly rescheduled and made up for the lost time.

Another problem we had was that in the hoop room of the studio although it is spacious enough for two hoops and 4-6 students if you add two camera people in to that with limited shooting space and angles we kept getting each other in our shoots which would make them useless. So to counteract this we created a quick action plan so that we would be in opposite spaces at all time and we could avoid each other and we got used to the space after one or two filming sessions.

With our shot list we decided to create one to give us some diversity and artistry to the shot, this allowed us to play around with filming. It also gave us the ability to film a lot quicker and allowed us to communicate with our client about what we wanted and we had hoped to achieve and the shot list allowed us to visualise that before filming.

We had one technical problem and that was the microphone which when we tried to use it was dead and even with the spare battery we packed it still wouldn't work and died quickly after we started the first recording. So after two failed attempts of interviews we released we had a dead mic. Luckily I already had a recording app on my phone from a previous video so we used that instead and ended up with three useable recordings.

With what went well I think we presented ourselves in a professional manner and we held that professionalism throughout our time filming and we included our clients wishes and made any changes she deemed necessary e.g. the website link which was wrong. I think that the editing we both did to our own respective videos was good and they were fast paced and high energy and blended a lot of editing techniques into it like using a voice-over and remixing the music and the cuts and transitions. Our communication with our client was also detailed and constant and we were professional the entire time with our emails. Our client left us incredible feedback with it all being highly rated and well done from the way we conducted ourselves to the quality of the footage itself.

In terms of what to improve I personally think that the footage we got could of varied in angles and shot types but this was hard to do so in a closed environment when trying to stay out of the way of the students and to not get in the way of each other. Another thing we could improve was how stable the shots are. Some of them are a tiny bit off balance and you can see the slight shift in the camera as it moves which could come across as unprofessional and to counteract this we could have used the stabiliser.

Overall, I am happy with the work we have created and the way we have presented ourselves and the work we have put across. From the communication and the planning to filming and then to editing the final video ourselves. Amanda our client was incredibly helpful and we couldn't have asked for a better client.

Client Promotional Video Feedback Questionnaire

Feedback

Music video brainstorming

Promotional Video FInal

Weather/travel/moodboard/release forms for promo vid

Moodboard

This is my gantt chart. It depicts what I am going to be doing with the client and the planning that I will undertake.

This is the journey from the college to the studio, it takes 8 minutes to walk there so we just walk from college to the studio which makes it easy to get there. They are easily accessible.

promotional video shot list

These are the different shot types we are trying to achieve when doing the video, the reason we chose to do a shot list instead of a storyboard because the studio teaches lessons and we cannot dictate what they can and can't do so we chose a shot list to create some structure.

1. I wanted this shot because with the camera being underneath the hoop it would create a shot where the woman would be the centre piece of the shot. I thought that this would be an interesting shot to do.

2. I wanted to do this shot because it would be a good establishing shot of the studio and the space available and it would also mean that several of the women are in the shot at once which would portray the comrade of the studio which is what we were aiming to do.

3. With this shot I wanted to get two angles on the hoop so that people can see the moves from a different angle and it adds artistry.

4. This was our interview shot lay-out, this could so it jus be a person one on one with the camera.

5.  This shot is similar to the hoop shot to add some continuity with the shots and can create a reoccurring sense of style. 

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