Practice Filming

Today we got given our camera's to film, so during our lesson time we managed to have a quick go at filming, to see how the lip syncing would fit. We stayed local, in and around the school, and actually filmed some great shots! We filmed 15 minutes all together of footage which Sophie and I stayed after school to edit and produce a practice version of our music video.

Here's how it looks!

Questionnaire

1.How old are you?
12 – 16 []
17 – 19 []
20 + []

2.Gender?
Male []
Female []

3.Do you prefer a music video which is…
Funny []
Serious []

4.Do you prefer abstract videos or ones that go with the lyrics?
Abstract []
Goes with lyrics []

5.Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations etc?
Yes []
No []
Why? _______________________________________________________

6.What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch? ____________________________________________________________

7.Do you prefer…
Calm/slow music videos []
Lively/fast music videos []

8.Do you like to see dance routines?
Yes []
No []

9.What’s your favourite music video? _____________________________
Why?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10.What’s your least favourite music video? ________________________
Why?_____________________________________________________________________
11.What charts do you go by? (radio 1, kiss 100, UK top 40)?_________________________________

12.Do you prefer to watch narrative or performance video’s? Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our moving storyboard

We decided to to creative and inventive and draw and film our storyboards to make our filming easier and more reliable instead of written directions. We feel as a group, that this way is a lot easier as it fits in time with the music, so when it comes to filming we will be able to see what scenes we are at easier.

Lip Sync

During our free periods, Sophie and I decided to give lip syncing a go to see how hard and accurate we need to make our music video. Here is a mini video we edited off different songs for you to enjoy, hope you like it!

Andrew Godwin

Andrew Godwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)

1. Music video's demonstrate genre charecteristics. For example, stage performance in metal video/ dance performance for a boy/girl band all need their set stage directions.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between music and lyrics; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens telescopes) particularly voyeurism treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv, music)

Costumes

I have been researching into Pixie Lott's costume and style, the way she does her hair and make up and clothes she wears for a guideline for our music video. Here are a few images I found.

The official Pixie Lott video

New song lyrics and idea's

Here are our new song lyrics. This song is about a girl talking about her current or past relationship. As I listened to this song I could picture our ideas fitting, hense why we decided on the song.

We can still use the idea of a happy couple, with their happy times; meeting at the park bench (As if it is their first date) along with a shot of the fireworks and sparklers together. Also the scene at Southend where they are messing around and walking down the front with the candyfloss etc, as it all fits in with her lyrics of reminicing as if it is all a flashback of the relationship she is missing.

We could possily use animation like Kate Nash does, with objects coming together or appart to imply the couple either happy or not. Possibly a heart, or the couple drawing their names in the Southend sand, then an arrow breaking that up to reflect on the songs title.

I also imagined the video to be in black and white. I took this influence from Pixie Lott herself as she does a lot of effective video's in black and white. I think this will look good and apply to the mood she could possibly in as she has just potenially split up with her boyfriend of partner for instance as so she is feeling very black and white, yet happy as she is thinking back and reflecting on her past times.

We also wanted to make it look more professional and film the girl recording in a studio, still keeping the 'home video' effect, possibly holding the lyrics on a piece of paper and singing to the microphone. So the camera will film the girl singing in the studio the lyrics to the song, and possibly fade into the next scene of her with her boyfriend as she sings and looks back on her past over the years. Then to show that it is all a flashback, we film her finishing in the studio and saying bye or the makeup artist fixing her hair before she sings, to keep the reality of it. This could be an idea for keeping all the seasons like we wanted to use in our old song. For instance, we would film different parts of the year- supposedly, and have them as a flashback; summer, valentines day, the day they met, birthdays, random days etc.

As the opening comes in, there is no lyrics for 10seconds, this part we could fade from white/black into a close up of the girl getting reading to sing. Maybe a makeup artist brushing blusher on her face quickly, or a director giving the all clear and thumbs up, then as the lyrics come in focus on the girl singing (9seconds later), until about the third or fourth line where there could be fades in of pictures from a holiday or previous happy times of her and her boyfriend, or just her boyfriend.

Then when the chorus comes in 'And you're sitting in the front row' - This could be when the different parts of the seasons and memories comes in, possibly the park scene when they first meet.

I am going to meet up with my group tomorrow and continue storyboarding.


LYRICS


What do you do when you're stuck,
Because the one that you love,
Has pushed you away,
And you can't deal with the pain,
And now you're trying to fix me,
Mend what he did,
I'll find the piece that i'm missing,
But I still miss him,
I miss him, i'm missing him,
Oh I miss him, I miss him i'm missing him

And you're sitting in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow.

He's the thorn in my flesh
That I can't take out
He's stealing my breath
When you're around,
And now you're trying to convince me,
He wasn't worth it,
But you can't complete me,
It's the thought that he's missing,
I miss him, I'm missing him,
Oh I miss him I miss him, i'm missing him,

And you're standing in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Live a broken arrow,
Like a broken arrow.

What do you do
When your hearts in two places?
You feel great but you're torn inside.
You feel love but you just can't embrace it,
When you found the right one at the wrong time.

And you're
Standing in the front row,
Wanna be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow...

CHANGE OF PLAN / Outing to Richmix studio's

Today as a class, my a2 media went all the way to Shoreditch in East London for a talk about media, and music video's. The 'Richmix' studios we went to included 3 cinema's, screening blockbusters and up and coming music video's along with a theatre for performances', locally and nationally, along with a huge bar/gig area for bands to perform and even its own art gallery. As you can tell, this place was amazing. We met some amazing people in the business; producers, chief examiners and directors of music video's of this day and age. It was such an influential talk.

From 10-12 we had an inspiring talk from the OCR chief examiner for media studies. His name was Pete Fraser, also a media studies teacher at a school in Cambridge. He lead us through a talk for the duration of the morning. Information and advice was given out to help us all as a group producing our video. It was very helpful, as we watched a lot of previous music video's ranging from the 30's to present day. Video's include Beetles, Queen, Madonna, 50 Cent, Jay Z, looking at the difference in each video and how they varied in genre and shot types.

We also learnt about MTV and facts on how it was introduced and who the company was based around (mostly the white population) No black artists had been seen on MTV until Michael Jackson brought out his hit record 'Billie Jean'.

Songs such as 'Video killed the radio star' was one of the first songs to be played on MTV, a British produced song.

Methods of Analysis - Andrew Goodwin
-Genre characteristics
-Visual relationships with lyrics and music
-Needs to sell the artist as a star
-Voyeurism/looking - artist appearing on screen as the character.
- characters looking at singer- emphasis.
-Intertexuality - Referring to films, previous video's. Making contextual links.
- A live performance, or pretending to be a live performance.

Making your own music video. - Advice given.
-learn to lip sync
-do karaoke multi angle version of track for fun
-remake old video frame by frame
-50 shots per minute MINIMUM
-around 150-250 shots per song
-make it your own video
-write a treatment
-clear idea, be realistic
-plan everything; people, props, locations, costume
-aim to shoot early to get more time to edit
-rehearse and be ORGANISED
-take the music with you and external speakers on location and whenever you are filming
-shoot the performance of a minimum of 10 times
-singer needs to sing first line of song
-lots of close ups
-shoot more than you think

CHANGE OF PLAN
After this we had lunch and that’s when the dilemma started. We began to take in to consideration, Pete's advice. I wasn't comfortable with the song choice we had as it meant we would have to rely on a boy we knew to lip sync the words and act exactly how we wanted. This to me seemed too much effort as the boy in it would not be able to be the main character and be there every single time we wanted to shoot, especially if we wanted to randomly film a shot and we couldn’t because he does not go to school with us. So we began to brainstorm ideas for a girls song, still with the same idea concept of love and relationships, but it would make it a whole lot easier if it was a girl singing as one of us in our group (me I think) would be reliable and not camera shy.

We came up with the song 'Broken Arrow' by Pixie Lott as it is a song about love and a nice song and not complicated to change over with as the lyric's are easy to follow. My group and I began to listen to the song intensely to see if we could pick up idea's and we all agreed it was the best thing to do. This of course means we need to rethink a name for the singer as well as research into the lyrics. Although this is going to set us back a bit, we are dedicated enough to meet up every day this week, texting and communicating to get our video back on form. Hopefully we will be fine as this is the best solution for a successful filming and final video at the end of it.

Back to the outing
After lunch and all decisions made, we went back to meet a producer of a Soho music company and a director similarly from the same company. Both were so interesting learning all about what they do, and how they got there. We watched many of their music video's they had been involved in and created and all were amazing and inspirational.

Overall, the day was so helpful and we all learnt a lot.

I directed my group to listen to 'Watch The Sun Come Up' individually and picture what they can see in the video from their point of view. We wrote down significant words that applied to the song and came up with a few idea. For starters..
- at the start of the song, we could have him lying on a bed, the camera tilts and goes upside down, out of the window into the sky. The next scene will been a zoom out/tilt from the sky then drop down into the busy London streets with cars and buses, to the man walking down the street; cars, trains, traffic lights etc, all sped up to show the hectic life of a city and possibly his day.

Ive also looked ahead into the production side of the video as for a cd cover, the main man could be standing by an iconic item in London. Possibly a telephone box (one's in Covent Garden) or on the Millenium bridge with people walking past at a busy hour.

To get the best picture possible, I would like to possibly borrow my friends photography camera to make the shot more professional.

Treatment Video

As a group, we wrote out an email to Examples recording manager.