Our music feature required a lot of actors which we did not really pay much thought to when planning. To create a believable party atmosphere we would require at least 20 people to have full shots and the likelihood of finding 20 people who were free the same time as my group was very slim. So, we made some alterations of actors. The actors we used were:
Emily- The protagonist. Wearing a large fur coat, Emily was our passive bystander of the partner who shifted room to room observing the chaos.
Bella- The "Mean Girl"- inspired character
Natasha- The artist, inspired by the Chvrches lead singer Lauren Mayberry. This is the character featured in any shots that were in a completely different setting.
Sam- The preppy, nerdy character seen with his partner inspired by the stereotypical preppy fashion. I also played a second role as an athletic character as we had little actors. This character's costume was inspired by college jocks in America; adorning a bomber jacket to mimic the varsity jackets on College campuses.
Georgia- The scene character- initially our goth character, Georgia was cast as a scene kid to be more toned down but a distinctly different personality type.
Jake- Jock 2- Jake played a role of a jock who was in a relationship with the preppy character wearing a simple polo top.
We also had other characters who fulfilled small roles. These include : Megan, Rubi, Alec and Emily. These characters had some distinct styles, most notably Megan as she wore a bright red skirt to play an indie character as well as Rubi who wore double denim to appear indie.
We selected Emily as our main character as Emily already had an effective costume for the character, most notably tall boots. Emily also volunteered to be the protagonist as she was often free for shooting and she could be a most shoots. As she plays the most important character it is only fitting she be available most and Emily was.
Bella played the "Mean Girl" character because the costume was easy for Bella to get and the character was featured often so we could guarantee she would be at the shoot. Although the costume isn't hot pink as the "Mean Girl" outfits are the actual style of a short skirt and colour coherence is still present. The choice of full black was due to the song's dark undertone and black did not suit the theme. We used Bella as our primary negative representation of British youth by encompassing all bad representations of youth in her character. We gave her character a bottle to show she is drinking out of the bottle which is considered reckless and we showed her passed out on the bed. Bella's character is highly chaotic and is therefore our negative representation.
I played two characters as I was at every shoot and we could not find many male actors. I had both costume for the preppy character and the jock character so it was easy to be in the shots needed.
Jake's character was featured a few times playing the preppy character's boyfriend. Jake was the one of three males we could get hold of for the music video. He was a good selection as he was happy to do what ever we needed him to do and helped our shoot happen quicker.
The rest of the characters in our music video were given different styles and personalities but we did not give them their own scene like the main characters. This is because we wanted to have a diverse selection of characters but could not explicitly feature all of them due to time constraint. Also, during our shoot we encountered a few issues so we used some footage from one house and the rest from Natasha's house on a different day. We therefore had a different pool of actors .Rubi for example was only available one day, as was Alec, Jake, Georgia and Emily. Therefore, their characters could not all have their own scenes and were used as background characters. We originally had a large pool of actors however when we got close to shooting our actors dropped out and we were left with a day of shooting where we had to find whoever we could and luckily Emily and Alec were available to film.
Despite the many complications during filming the actors we used did fine and the music video's original ideas, concepts and themes were not altered and our message was conveyed all the same.
Showing posts with label G324 Planning Music Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G324 Planning Music Video. Show all posts
Friday, 3 March 2017
Saturday, 21 January 2017
Narrative Structure (updated)
Narrative is a defining feature of music videos. For example, indie artists such as Hozier focuses on the story-telling element or artists such as Sia focus on pure performance to illustrate a story (such as Sia's "The Greatest" music video in which it is a dance dedicated to the Orlando LGBT massacre. Many pop videos focus on a small basic story with performance shots of the band such as One Direction's "What makes you beautiful".
The narrative structure we want to use was rather complex. We want to use a total of 9 narrative techniques in total:
We wanted to use a crescendo element to match the ending climax. The ending of our song is forte and fast paced and therefore we can use it to create a climax. Our idea is to have fast-paced cuts which are close-ups to intensify the scene and create a climax at the end. This is similar in Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love" during the intense climax which is reflected by the party scene.
We also are using an enigmatic character as our main character. By removing the identity of the main character we can use point of view shots to place the audience into the main character's position. The character is almost invisible; flitting around the party and watching smaller narratives unfold. She is shunned a few times by other characters however the audience do not know why nor what she looks like; creating an enigma.
We are also using a circular narrative as the opening shot is of the main character entering the house and the final shot is leaving the house; creating a circular narrative. This is done to place the party in its own separate world.
We also are using an idea of repetition. We have a repeated motif of a panning shot of bottles in front of unfocused lights. We refer back to this shot throughout the video as it is a shot which is favoured by our group due to the composition and the bottles are significant of parties.
We also use ellipses during the reversed sequence. As the main character is going down stairs there are quick, fast-paced shots to save time. This is a common feature in many music videos to avoid meaningless details and aspects of a music video.
Our main narrative technique we want to employ is a multi-stranded narrative that is partly interweaving and convergent. For example we are going to have a shot of two people in the bathroom and when the bathroom is revisited one of the characters is stumbling out. Each character has more than one appearance and has a separate purpose and story within the music video.
Our plot in our video focuses on one character exploring a house party whereas the story is the convergence of multiple small scenes which accumulate to a dangerous house where the protagonist feels in danger. The main character is telling the story through a point of view; everything seen is experienced as the main character experiences it whilst referring back to some motif shots (such as the shot of the bottles). The music video is a quick exploration of the house which lasts for hours however we of course cut it down. We did this by only showing significant scenes in the party such as the argument scene on the stairs.
Our audience will be able to understand the narrative as it uses some clear narrative techniques. For example, the bathroom scene with blood suggests danger and is followed by the protagonist trying to leave the house party as quickly as she can. The audience will also be familiar with the mix of characters and the broken stereotypes as it is a common topic in our audience's lifestyles. In the recent years stereotypes are beginning to be shunned more and more and therefore the breaking of stereotypes is more obvious and readable.
The narrative structure we want to use was rather complex. We want to use a total of 9 narrative techniques in total:
We wanted to use a crescendo element to match the ending climax. The ending of our song is forte and fast paced and therefore we can use it to create a climax. Our idea is to have fast-paced cuts which are close-ups to intensify the scene and create a climax at the end. This is similar in Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love" during the intense climax which is reflected by the party scene.
We also are using an enigmatic character as our main character. By removing the identity of the main character we can use point of view shots to place the audience into the main character's position. The character is almost invisible; flitting around the party and watching smaller narratives unfold. She is shunned a few times by other characters however the audience do not know why nor what she looks like; creating an enigma.
We are also using a circular narrative as the opening shot is of the main character entering the house and the final shot is leaving the house; creating a circular narrative. This is done to place the party in its own separate world.
We also are using an idea of repetition. We have a repeated motif of a panning shot of bottles in front of unfocused lights. We refer back to this shot throughout the video as it is a shot which is favoured by our group due to the composition and the bottles are significant of parties.
We also use ellipses during the reversed sequence. As the main character is going down stairs there are quick, fast-paced shots to save time. This is a common feature in many music videos to avoid meaningless details and aspects of a music video.
Our main narrative technique we want to employ is a multi-stranded narrative that is partly interweaving and convergent. For example we are going to have a shot of two people in the bathroom and when the bathroom is revisited one of the characters is stumbling out. Each character has more than one appearance and has a separate purpose and story within the music video.
Our plot in our video focuses on one character exploring a house party whereas the story is the convergence of multiple small scenes which accumulate to a dangerous house where the protagonist feels in danger. The main character is telling the story through a point of view; everything seen is experienced as the main character experiences it whilst referring back to some motif shots (such as the shot of the bottles). The music video is a quick exploration of the house which lasts for hours however we of course cut it down. We did this by only showing significant scenes in the party such as the argument scene on the stairs.
Our audience will be able to understand the narrative as it uses some clear narrative techniques. For example, the bathroom scene with blood suggests danger and is followed by the protagonist trying to leave the house party as quickly as she can. The audience will also be familiar with the mix of characters and the broken stereotypes as it is a common topic in our audience's lifestyles. In the recent years stereotypes are beginning to be shunned more and more and therefore the breaking of stereotypes is more obvious and readable.
Inter-textual references
Our music video utilises a convergence of different characters, shown through the different costumes to represent different personality types (e.g the use of a preppy style of bracers and bow tie to suggest the character is smart and indie). The costumes were also inspired by various film characters and therefore we have our own inter-textual references.
One of the characters featured in our music video is inspired by two cult movies: Clueless and Mean Girls. We decided that the costume in Mean Girls created an image of popularity and sexuality. However, the costumes used in the film are not realistic for our music video and so we had to tone them down. We therefore decided to mix the highly feminine fashion of Mean Girls with the sophisticated and couture fashion of Clueless. This mix creates a character who appears popular and sexual whilst maintaining class. The hot pink costume of the "Mean Girls" theme had to be changed to suit our genre. For example, our Mean Girls-inspired character is wearing black. The style of the clothes is there but the colour we changed as pink is too bright and the theme of our song is dark; therefore black matches our genre. Mean Girl's Regina George and Cluesses' Cher both are similar; they are both rich and failing classes. This represents how luxurious lifestyles can still produce failures. This inspiration was taken into account when constructing our kitchen scene. There is a shot of our Mean Girls/ Clueless character on the floor, seemingly passed out, reflecting how despite her popularity she is still at the bottom of life. A similar character is later seen in the bedroom, passed out on the bed with a bottle in her hand. She drops the bottle, representing her drop in popularity, referencing the Mean Girl's scene in which Cady throws up on Aaron Samuels during her party.
Our idea was also partly inspired by the film Project-X as the film focuses on a series of parties which become destructive. The main way we did this is the simple use of the red cups. The cups have connotations of America and heavy partying and the cups have even begun to become a novelty at British parties. However, to fit our cool, low-key indie genre we toned down the size of the party whilst retaining the cups.
We also borrowed Tove Lo's "Habits" Music Video narrative by following one character during a party. We altered it slightly by not showing the face of the character we follow and by having separate scenes to show the mini-narratives in the party. Tove Lo uses a close-up of the main character's face however we changed it for a point of view shot. This allows the audience to experience the themes of the video more. For example, during the end climax the main character bumps into other characters and as it is a point of view shot filmed on a go-pro it increases intensity. The audience is placed into the protagonists's shoes and it forced to endure the exit as the protagonist does. We had to remove point of view shots however mainly due to quality. We had access to a DSLR and a go-pro and the two qualities differ. The DSLR is much more higher in quality so we swapped out some go-pro shots for DSLR shots, mainly in the living room shots. We used the go-pro shots for transitions to other rooms. When the protagonist goes up the stairs the argument witnessed becomes more evident and more natural due to no cut to another angle.
I also made an inter-textual reference to Melanie Martinez's music video for 'Dollhouse'. The music video focuses on the reality of the grand-narrative of family and shows the collapse of the grand-narrative (Lyotard). The music video shows the hidden reality of the perfect family and that inspired our own music video. We wanted to collapse a grand-narrative and expose the darkness within it. We chose a party as it matched our age demographic and is therefore relatable. In the music video there are smaller scenes such as the scenes with the son of the family smoking cannabis behind his parent's back. We also chose to mimic the scene with the mother as a mother is seen as caring, perfect and selfless however the music video rejects the stereotype and presents the mother as an alcoholic and uncaring figure. In figure 1 you can see the mother holding a bottle of alcohol and in figure 2 you can see the bottle of alcohol held by our interpretation of a 'Mean Girl' character. The parallel is an inter-textual reference and we chose to do this as 'Dollhouse' has a very similar theme as our music video.
In my print productions I made some inter-textual references to the fantasy genre of film, most notable Alice in Wonderland. I chose to use a fairy-tale-like colour scheme of bright green, purple and blues. I then used effects which were not physical possible such as a person turning to smoke and water. This was done as people generally like things that are different from the norm. They like things that are out of the blue and a bit quirky. That is why I chose to use interesting effects that appear as though they are from Alice in Wonderland.
One of the characters featured in our music video is inspired by two cult movies: Clueless and Mean Girls. We decided that the costume in Mean Girls created an image of popularity and sexuality. However, the costumes used in the film are not realistic for our music video and so we had to tone them down. We therefore decided to mix the highly feminine fashion of Mean Girls with the sophisticated and couture fashion of Clueless. This mix creates a character who appears popular and sexual whilst maintaining class. The hot pink costume of the "Mean Girls" theme had to be changed to suit our genre. For example, our Mean Girls-inspired character is wearing black. The style of the clothes is there but the colour we changed as pink is too bright and the theme of our song is dark; therefore black matches our genre. Mean Girl's Regina George and Cluesses' Cher both are similar; they are both rich and failing classes. This represents how luxurious lifestyles can still produce failures. This inspiration was taken into account when constructing our kitchen scene. There is a shot of our Mean Girls/ Clueless character on the floor, seemingly passed out, reflecting how despite her popularity she is still at the bottom of life. A similar character is later seen in the bedroom, passed out on the bed with a bottle in her hand. She drops the bottle, representing her drop in popularity, referencing the Mean Girl's scene in which Cady throws up on Aaron Samuels during her party.
Our idea was also partly inspired by the film Project-X as the film focuses on a series of parties which become destructive. The main way we did this is the simple use of the red cups. The cups have connotations of America and heavy partying and the cups have even begun to become a novelty at British parties. However, to fit our cool, low-key indie genre we toned down the size of the party whilst retaining the cups.We also borrowed Tove Lo's "Habits" Music Video narrative by following one character during a party. We altered it slightly by not showing the face of the character we follow and by having separate scenes to show the mini-narratives in the party. Tove Lo uses a close-up of the main character's face however we changed it for a point of view shot. This allows the audience to experience the themes of the video more. For example, during the end climax the main character bumps into other characters and as it is a point of view shot filmed on a go-pro it increases intensity. The audience is placed into the protagonists's shoes and it forced to endure the exit as the protagonist does. We had to remove point of view shots however mainly due to quality. We had access to a DSLR and a go-pro and the two qualities differ. The DSLR is much more higher in quality so we swapped out some go-pro shots for DSLR shots, mainly in the living room shots. We used the go-pro shots for transitions to other rooms. When the protagonist goes up the stairs the argument witnessed becomes more evident and more natural due to no cut to another angle.
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| figure 1 |
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| figure 2 |
In my print productions I made some inter-textual references to the fantasy genre of film, most notable Alice in Wonderland. I chose to use a fairy-tale-like colour scheme of bright green, purple and blues. I then used effects which were not physical possible such as a person turning to smoke and water. This was done as people generally like things that are different from the norm. They like things that are out of the blue and a bit quirky. That is why I chose to use interesting effects that appear as though they are from Alice in Wonderland.
Friday, 20 January 2017
Location and mise en scene
The location we wanted was rather simple; we wanted a house with rooms in order to create our interweaving narrative. We first shot at a house in Longwater where we did not shoot enough within the time. We then had to start again and we shot at one of our group member's house. This house had the rooms we needed as well as a kitchen, allowing us to shoot out video. The shoot took 4 days total with days between each to go through our shots to find which we missed if any.
The best part about the house we shot in is that we could go back to re-film as it was one of our own group. It also conformed to the genre once we placed the fairy lights around the house it created a indie feel to it.
The only problem we encountered was organising actors to come and film the video which took a lot of effort.
In order to create our party atmosphere we placed lots of empty bottles around the house as well as red American-style cups. We also placed fairy lights over a sofa in the living room to give us a source of diegetic light in our shots. We also used food colouring to act as blood in the bathroom shots to show the dark undertone we are trying to create.
We also used a variety of costume in the video; ranging from a formal and preppy costume to dressed down and messy costume. This is done to go against the genre conventions of popularity as the costume portrays each character as a different 'type'. This mix of characters creates a variety of issues we can create in our video.
The best part about the house we shot in is that we could go back to re-film as it was one of our own group. It also conformed to the genre once we placed the fairy lights around the house it created a indie feel to it.
The only problem we encountered was organising actors to come and film the video which took a lot of effort.
In order to create our party atmosphere we placed lots of empty bottles around the house as well as red American-style cups. We also placed fairy lights over a sofa in the living room to give us a source of diegetic light in our shots. We also used food colouring to act as blood in the bathroom shots to show the dark undertone we are trying to create.
We also used a variety of costume in the video; ranging from a formal and preppy costume to dressed down and messy costume. This is done to go against the genre conventions of popularity as the costume portrays each character as a different 'type'. This mix of characters creates a variety of issues we can create in our video.
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
The Pitch
Our Music Video is following an 18 year old girl who witnesses a party rather than being a part of the party. As she visits rooms she sees separated scenarios, creating a multiple-stranded narrative. As the party progresses the scenarios escalate quickly, reflecting the dangerous undertone parties often hold. The protagonist visits the first room to witness a couple arguing. She then wanders into the kitchen to witness beer pong as well as witnessing a pair of males sprinkling an unknown powder into a drink. She leaves the room and she discovers a girl passed out in a bedroom next to an opened bottle of enigmatic pills and a male character in another who lay with a note in his hand, un-moving.
The characters are highly Americanised in order to create a cliche party scene. The cliches are later used to subvert the ideologies held towards parties. For example, the sporty, popular character who will have committed suicide. This challenges the audience's own knowledge and preconceptions of characters as they would assume he would not die.
Updated version//
The music video follows a similar narrative in that there are separate scenes which are passively observed by the main character. For example, one of the first narratives observed includes a male character dancing suggestively with a female and then his boyfriend separates them. Then, later on in the music video the same couple are on the stairs having an argument. As well as this, another "jock" character is in the bathroom with a girl drinking and then is seen walking out with the girl who is in an intoxicated state, casting a dark undertone to the song in order to reflect the bubbly synth sound juxtaposed against the dark, drug-related lyrics.
The characters are highly Americanised in order to create a cliche party scene. The cliches are later used to subvert the ideologies held towards parties. For example, the sporty, popular character who will have committed suicide. This challenges the audience's own knowledge and preconceptions of characters as they would assume he would not die.
Updated version//
The music video follows a similar narrative in that there are separate scenes which are passively observed by the main character. For example, one of the first narratives observed includes a male character dancing suggestively with a female and then his boyfriend separates them. Then, later on in the music video the same couple are on the stairs having an argument. As well as this, another "jock" character is in the bathroom with a girl drinking and then is seen walking out with the girl who is in an intoxicated state, casting a dark undertone to the song in order to reflect the bubbly synth sound juxtaposed against the dark, drug-related lyrics.
Music Video Characters & Initial Ideas (Updated)
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We initially began to mind-map our ideas before we chose specific roles. This allowed us to splurge our ideas onto a page where we could then narrow the roles down and allocate characters to actors.
Our music video was formed from the different character types so creating different characters was the most important aspect of planning.
We then noted down the scenes and which scene required which character. For example, scene 3 is the scene in which the main character is in the hall. The scene would include the main character and so, to create our party atmosphere we need some characters in the hall.We then tallied how many characters we'd need: 6 boys and 6 girls.
We then wrote down each character type we wanted and began to give roles to actors. Initially we could not find actors however as time went on we were able to get the important characters.
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| Preppy Inspiration- A style which combines the high formality, typically seen in Cambridge, with a fashion-conscious. It was originally a style associated with private school children who are wealthy. Its roots began to grow in 1912 from the Ivy League; establishing itself in the 1950s. By 1980 it had become its own, categorised style, being marketed by huge fashion labels such as Lacoste. In the 21st century the style has evolved into a simple mix of formality with an avant-grade feature; something that is different. This usually is in the form of bracers or a bow tie. |
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| This character is based on the "preppy" fashion style as we want to have a wide scope of personalities. The mix of formal shirt and bracers with a bow-tie is a whimsical style, showing another personality. |
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| This character is inspired by our Thriller Opening I did last year and is therefore our inter-textual link to our Thriller Opening. The red dress connotes danger. seductiveness and passiob. |
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| Our jock inspiration- we took our character idea from Ryan Shay from the sitcom Suburgatory. The character adorns a classic varsity jacket which we decided to swap out for a burgundy bomber jacket. We also changed the blue colour to a simple black jeans and white top. |
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| This character is based heavily on the American "jock" aesthetic to match our American-like House Party setting |
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| Mean Girls Costume Inspiration |
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| This character is based off the film "Mean Girls" as we want to have a wide range of character and personality types. |
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| This character takes inspiration from a "gangster" sub-culture. |
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| Similar to our "gangster" character, this character is inspired by the sub-culture of "chavs". |
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Chav and Gangster inspiration- we decided to split this into two separate
characters. This fashion style entered the scene rather late in the 1970s, most notably
brought in by Adidas. The fashion rose to popularity by Will Smith during
his appearance on "The Fresh Prince of Bell Air". In the 21st
century it is now associated with snapbacks and low-waisted jeans.
However, we wanted to try use a 90s style of gangster/ hip-hop so we wanted to
use chains and hats.
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Monday, 12 September 2016
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
Preliminary Planning for our Music Video
We have began to storyboard our shoot, including annotated lyrics with the shot types too.
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| Add caption |
Evidence of contacting the artist
One of our group contacted the artist on their facebook page asking for permission and luckily the artist said yes so we are fine to use our song and begin planning our shoot.
Possible song choices
The first choice is "Bloodstream" by Firehorse. This song has a simple flow with lyrics where we can apply Goodwin's features such as the lyrics "tick, tick, tick" where we plan to have a closeup of a watch with 3 shots on each "tick". The song also has a 80s synth -like sound to it which caught our attention as it allowed us to be creative by making it modern. There is also a modulation to a minor key towards the end which allows us to add a twist in the music video or to change the music video in an exciting way as the modulation is so sudden and it changes to a strong minor key.
The strengths of this song is that we as our group all like the song making it easier for us to develop ideas and work as a team. Also, the song can be easily used for many different videos due to the versatility of the music. Another strength is that the modulation from major to minor allows us to add a plot twist to the video of sort. As well as this the song is in 4/4 time so when editing the music video it will be easier as 4/4 is common in many songs heard daily so we will be able to edit on beat with ease rather than editing to a 6/8 beat.
This song has few weaknesses however the song is simplistic so in order to make it interesting many cuts and plot devices will be required to keep the momentum of the song.
The second choice is "Time Machine". This song is different to the first however its indie charm and character makes it a strong contender. The lyrics force us into a box however as in order to fit the song we would have to use a low-key lighting, grunge costume and sepia pallets. Due to there being no direct way of contacting the artist we are deterred from choosing this song.
Some strengths of this song include the likeability of the song due to the relaxed indie genre.
Some weakness of this song include the lack of interesting "plot twists". The song has no strong change which is important to us as we need to make the video interesting and exciting.
As we were adamant we were going to use the first song, "Bloodstream", we stopped looking and began planning our video ideas for the song as quick as we could
The strengths of this song is that we as our group all like the song making it easier for us to develop ideas and work as a team. Also, the song can be easily used for many different videos due to the versatility of the music. Another strength is that the modulation from major to minor allows us to add a plot twist to the video of sort. As well as this the song is in 4/4 time so when editing the music video it will be easier as 4/4 is common in many songs heard daily so we will be able to edit on beat with ease rather than editing to a 6/8 beat.
This song has few weaknesses however the song is simplistic so in order to make it interesting many cuts and plot devices will be required to keep the momentum of the song.
The second choice is "Time Machine". This song is different to the first however its indie charm and character makes it a strong contender. The lyrics force us into a box however as in order to fit the song we would have to use a low-key lighting, grunge costume and sepia pallets. Due to there being no direct way of contacting the artist we are deterred from choosing this song.
Some strengths of this song include the likeability of the song due to the relaxed indie genre.
Some weakness of this song include the lack of interesting "plot twists". The song has no strong change which is important to us as we need to make the video interesting and exciting.
As we were adamant we were going to use the first song, "Bloodstream", we stopped looking and began planning our video ideas for the song as quick as we could
Friday, 17 June 2016
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