Everything's coming together..

Finally, everything seems to be fitting together. Sophie and I stayed behind in our free periods and after school today to try and fit everything together, as our music video was a bit of a mess earier last week, so we decided to sort it out.

It went really well as by the end of the day we had edited and lip synced all the shots into place, with the right balance of performance and narrative, making our music video seem more like a music video.

After much deliberation between myself and Sophie, we decided to put the whole music video into 'Black and White' with different contrasts so that it isnt just 'black and white' there is a difference in the performance and narrative.

This makes the video look more professional and the continuity of the different shots the same.

SO relieved the music video is finally coming together!

Narratives

Narrative

Narrative Theory From the Theorists of Media

ARISTOTLE'S UNITIES - Perhaps the first 'narrative theory' as such. A narrative should be created within a 'unity' of time, place and action - that is, it should all take place in the same location, in real time, and with all action moving towards a logical (and moral) conclusion.

FREYTAG'S DRAMATIC STRUCTURE- Gustav Freytag was a 19th Century German dramatist and novelist who constructed his theory from the analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama. Freytag's dramatic arc is divided into five parts. (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action & Denouement/Catastrophe/Resolution)

TODOROV’S THEORY – Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative).
PROPP’S THEORY –Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.


BARTHES’ ENIGMA CODE – The narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes along. Essentially, the narrative functions to establish and then solve these mysteries.
LEVI-STRAUSS’ BINARY OPPOSITION – Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. This can be as simple as two characters fighting, but more often functions at an ideological level – e.g., in Westerns, what do the cowboys and Indians each represent? What ideologies are embodied by the opposed sides in LOTR or Star Wars?

Behind the scenes (The Time)

Before my January exams, I had some free time in my free periods so went up to the media studies room and began playing with the footage we had from the first day of filming and extra background stuff we had filmed on the flip camera's. I began putting together a mini music video montage of different clips we had filmed and put it to a popular Black Eyed Peas song "The Time". I used this song as I wanted to try out what an upbeat song would be like to edit. Although the editing isnt its best in this video, I was really porud at how it turned out.

As a group, once they had seen what I done, we decided to put it all in black and white to show that it is practice footage.

Filming Day 4

Alley Pally!

Last week we filmed the scenes of myself singing the song at Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace). We were right on top of the hill so the view was amazing and we got some good shots of London all lit up.

We had to do to get permission by the officials at Alley Palley to film on their grounds to prove we were students and sign a form. After this we started filming myself against the wind singing the song all the way through. From this shot we got the skyline and the view. We used the rule of thirds and composed her in the correct position. We also filmed long shot, mid shot and close up of her singing.

After this we set it up along a walkway and had her singing and walking towards us. Seeing as it was 5 o clock at night and was dark we had a big light that was quite bright and shone it on her. This looked a bit weird in some shots as you could see a big circle where the light was but in other shots, such as when I was standing by an arch way singing, it looked good as it mainly focused on just myself, possibly implying her lonliness.

After Ally Pally we went back to my house and filmed the "Polaroid" pictures that Emmak had made. Seeing as I didn't have any pictures of myself and Alex in Polaroids, Emmak made them by cutting out pictures of them and sticking them on card backgrounds to make them look like the typical Polaroid picture. She also did some green screen's of this to see if it will work on iMovie. This inspiration and use of intertextuality has come from the music video "Airplanes - BoB" when the camera pans across all the Polaroid pictures and then one of them starts moving. We would like to try and incorporate this into our music video, but if it doesn't work, as we weren't too sure, we filmed it with the park bench shot as well so we can zoom into it and the next scene will happen.



We also created a stop motion effect on paper of a printed cupid shooting an arrow and breaking, hence broken arrow. We filmed this in 8 different shots and will create a stop motion of it for our music video. We will also do the picture in picture effect and have her in the background singing the lyrics. We also found on my mantelpiece L O V E letters. We also thought to have them jumbled up, and to move them little by little to create a stop motion of them rearrange themselves and we can also play this backwards so they split up. This idea has come from the Kate Nash - Foundations video.

Filming Day 3

We decided to film our outdoor scenes seeing as the weather was bright for once. We filmed the park bench scene where the couple first meet. We all set out to Enfield Town Park and found a bench that had the best scenery around it and the most light hitting the bench.


When we found the best bench, we took a picture of myself and my boyfriend Alex on the park bench, so when we film over the pictures, we can zoom into the picture of the couple on the park bench as if it "comes alive" incase the green screen doesn't work.


We filmed a wide shot of the pair reading the same book and then talking to each other with some music playing in the background. This would be the scene when they first meet. The book they were both reading was Pride and Prejudice, a love novel, the typical cheesy love stories that are always associated with pop songs. As Neelam and I are English Literature students we both brought our books. We filmed this as a wide shot, close up, and a two shot.
We also wanted to film a "break up" shot of the girl (me). So after the break up of myself and Alex she returns back to her "happy places" that she had with him and looks back on the memories. We filmed the girl with an see through umbrella saying "I love rain." for a sarcastic feel. As the weather was quite nice out and we wanted to make it seem as if it was raining, we poured a bottle of water on the umbrella and then when she opened it up it all splashed out. We filmed shots from below, high angle, as the umbrella was see through you could see my face through the umbrella, and a mid shot.
After this we just filmed us messing around, giving piggy back rides etc, natural shots. Also we filmed myself lip syncing down the path way and just rotating the camera around her.

Track list

As I have researched around at different pop genre's track lists, it has become apparent that the popular number of track songs on a album is between 10-15 songs. In order to keep with the 'Pixie Lott' theme, we are naming our band 'Pixie Mix' and going to have our album tracks as a remake of hers with 12 songs on the list;
For example..
This is Pixie Lott's real track list:
* 1. Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)
* 2. Cry Me Out
* 3. Band Aid
* 4. Turn It Up
* 5. Boys And Girls
* 6. Gravity
* 7. My Love
* 8. Jack
* 9. Nothing Compares
* 10. I Wish I Was There
* 11. The Way The World Works
* 12. Hold Me In Your Arms

Our tracklist will be something like:
*1 Papa No
*2 Drown Me
*3First Aid
*4 Pump It Up
*5Girl Meets Boy
*6 Space
*7My Heart
*8Alex
*9Contrast
*10Wish You Were Here
*11The World Goes Round
*12 Hold Me Tight

And the debut single * Broken Arrow

Second day of filming

On Tuesday we filmed the (500) Days Of Summer scene in IKEA. It went great.



We used intertextuality from the film and incorporated the films idea into our music video. We decided to change the south end scene - reflecting the good and bad areas of the relationship, to the IKEA scene as we believe that it is more achievable and is less costly and time consuming.

We also decided that while we were there, it would be stupid for the characters to later return to the scene at another time during their relationship to the same place and we then realised that they wouldn't be in the same outfits. So we therefore decided that they would either have an argument and break up on that day-wearing the same outfit, or on the second half of the film relate back to the girl discovering problems the day the couple went for a walk in the park, NOT reading the same books or liking the same things, like they did the first day they met. Showing the differences the couple become after so long.

We filmed them sitting around in the kitchen, on the sofas and on the beds, and also running around the shop. We used the flip camera and the actual camera to record our footage and recorded this from different angles such as long shot, wide shot and pan shot.

Also downstairs in the warehouse, Sophie and Emma were sitting in the trolly's (using it as a dolly) and filming a pan shot of 'us' around the warehouse, that we might or might not use in our film.

(footage to be uploaded)

Artist's name

Since we could not copyright Pixie Lott's real band brand name, as it is her famous name, I was out one night and come across a London club called Whisky Mist. The name had a real ring to it and stuck with me for days.. I started saying it out loud until I thought of Pixie Mix. I thought this name sounded even better than Whisky Mist and so put the name forward to my group. We all thought the band name had an edge to it, it was something different and so we began to consider it.

First day of filming

Before the christmas holiday's, we managed to film our "studio scenes in the schools photography room, as it had a profesional light and white backdrop. We did different shots of myself singing, such as high angle shots, close ups, mid-shots etc. We also filmed me in different outfits and we also filmed us filming from the flip camera. Unfortunately due to the lack of time we had we only got a few shots that we thought looked good and fit with the image of our song. We also saw, as the white screen behind her was not wide enough, we had to have very close up shots otherwise the sides, that didn't have a white screen, were on show, and it was obvious that it was a classroom.
Overall, the day went well.

(footage to be uploaded)

If we can't film this again, due to lack of location, we will film close ups of her singing in other places such as through a window or at different locations where she is on her own. Possibly her going back to the starting location of where her and her boyfriend first met on the park bench.

Slight change in idea..

On our storyboard, we said that we would portray the relationship through a scene at south end. We would have used sand to draw a heart to show their happy times and have a shot back at this later on in the song and have him cross it out, symbolising the end of their relationship. Unfortunately, seeing as there has been a lot of snow and cold weather and no sun at all, we might change this idea and extend our intertextuality idea from "(500) Days of Summer". We will use IKEA and have the couple run around pretending that it is their house, and then return back to this scene and have him just walk away, like shown in the film. We also will film a lot more close up shots of me singing to make it more performance based with a narrative to follow.