Friday, 25 October 2013
Lip Syncing Video
In order to practise lip syncing for our final piece, we had to create a small video of somebody from our group lip singing to a song from a chosen genre.
We chose to do 'Lego House' by Ed Sheeran as this is a very well known song from our chosen genre, and is quite similar to the song we are going to do for our final piece; therefore it will be easier for us to practise the editing too as the two songs are alike.
Doing this practise video also allowed us to experiment with different techniques and shots when filming, and different styles when editing. This is good because we now know what shots look good, and what do not, and we also have an idea of what editing techniques we will use for the final piece.
Charlie Mower
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Research on our chosen artist
Josh Record is a British singer/songwriter who is currently singed to Virgin Records UK, however he has also been signed to another record label, called National Anthem Records. He is a 25 year old man, currently residing in London, however he originates from Stroud, in Gloucestershire.
We would class him as a niche artist as he is not very well recognised to British audiences or audiences world wide. This is something we would hope to change with our music video, digipak and poster. We want our artist to become as successful as possible and so growing his currently small fanbase into a larger fanbase would be something we aim to do.
His main and only music video at the moment is for the song "The War" although we are using this song we would like to create a different kind of video for him and try to fit it more into his genre.
Charlie Mower and Dan Andrew
This is Stroud, the town where our artist originates from.
His main and only music video at the moment is for the song "The War" although we are using this song we would like to create a different kind of video for him and try to fit it more into his genre.
Charlie Mower and Dan Andrew
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Equipment information
Filming Equipment:
Props:
Camera - We will use this to shoot our clips with.
Tripod - This will be used to keep our shots steady, because if the camera is shaking it will not look professional.
Dolly - We will use this to keep our shots steady when we are filming shots that require movement.
Step-ladder - This will be used when we are filming high angle shots of our artist during his performance.
Umbrella - We will take an umbrella when we film our music video as some of our shots are exterior and we may need it to protect the camera from rain or to protect our characters/artist as we don't want their make-up to be ruined between shots.
Will Burnham & Charlie Mower
- Camera (change this to actual camera model)
- Tripod
- Dolly
- Step-ladder
- Umbrella (just incase)
- Lighting equipment such as torches and lamps.
Props:
- Acoustic guitar
- Letter
- Rings (wedding)
- Laptop
- Dead flowers
- Wine bottle
- Newspaper
- Army netting
- TV & remote
Camera - We will use this to shoot our clips with.
Tripod - This will be used to keep our shots steady, because if the camera is shaking it will not look professional.
Dolly - We will use this to keep our shots steady when we are filming shots that require movement.
Step-ladder - This will be used when we are filming high angle shots of our artist during his performance.
Umbrella - We will take an umbrella when we film our music video as some of our shots are exterior and we may need it to protect the camera from rain or to protect our characters/artist as we don't want their make-up to be ruined between shots.
Will Burnham & Charlie Mower
Generic Conventions Found in Music Videos
In all music videos you will find conventions found, however it mostly differs for the kind of genre used. So in most videos it will either go one of two ways; it will either have a narrative theme to it, a artist theme to it or both. The narrative would mean that the music video has some sort of storyline to it such as in Eminem's music video for 'Stan' it has a main focus upon the narrative of a fan. In this video the artist only appears twice, once when leaving the stage and when he's reading the letter sent to him. This is a narrative video.
A music video which mainly focuses on the artist would be a music video which would not have a storyline to it but instead has the artist/band lip syncing to the camera and possibly showing off their iconography which means their objects or sign that they are identified by. Such as in Miley Cyrus' music video of 'We Can't Stop'. In this video we see Miley just lip syncing to the camera and doing outrages things to the camera which would be her iconography.
A combination of both would be cuts between a narrative and shots of the artist lip syncing. Such as in Katy Perrys music video for her song 'Roar' within this music video we see the artist in a jungle being part of the narrative and her singing to the camera and certain parts for her lip sync.
Although these are general themes found in music videos with generic conventions they are distinguished by genre. Here is generic conventions found by genre:
Rap:
A music video which mainly focuses on the artist would be a music video which would not have a storyline to it but instead has the artist/band lip syncing to the camera and possibly showing off their iconography which means their objects or sign that they are identified by. Such as in Miley Cyrus' music video of 'We Can't Stop'. In this video we see Miley just lip syncing to the camera and doing outrages things to the camera which would be her iconography.
A combination of both would be cuts between a narrative and shots of the artist lip syncing. Such as in Katy Perrys music video for her song 'Roar' within this music video we see the artist in a jungle being part of the narrative and her singing to the camera and certain parts for her lip sync.
Although these are general themes found in music videos with generic conventions they are distinguished by genre. Here is generic conventions found by genre:
Rap:
- Urban Area
- Bling/shiny
- Expensive items and vehicles
- Women shown in a provocative way
- Close ups of artists
- Expensive video material
- Dance
- Performance from band/artist
- Sweat
- Sometimes deep narrative
- Instruments
- Audience shots
- Mix between narrative and performance
- Acoustic guitar
- Calm, matching the songs
- Emotional and deep narratives
- Different than all other genres
- Colourful
- Simple editing and video
- Starts from fading from black
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Representation in music videos
Different genres of music videos contain the different representations that are relevant to that genre (class, race, sex etc.) in different ways. For example, rap videos will commonly include representations of class, either being lower class rapping in rough urban areas or being higher class rolling in cash with fancy expensive items (cars and watches). Also an example in hip-hop/rap videos is that they will make it seem as if the male gender is a lot more dominant, and they will portray women as items or possessions to males, whereas a rock pop video would portray males and females to be equal, and they would be shown in a much more stereotypical manor.
This is an example of a video where the artists are wearing lots of jewellery, which is very stereotypical.
Our music video will portray gender in a very stereotypical way, as the female plays a wife, and the male plays a husband, who is in the army. This is steretypical because it is more common for males to be in the army rather than women. Also it is stereotypical for females to stay at home whilst the male in the household is the worker.
Class will also be portrayed in a very stereotypical way as we are aware of the income soldiers get, therefore we are shooting our video in an average sized house, as filming it in a large house would be very unrealistic as a normal soldier would not be able to afford to live in a stereotypically higher class house.
This is an example of the house we would shoot our video at, as it is stereotypically British, which is what we want as it would not be too expensive with regards to house prices.
The costume, location and props will also be relevant to the reprsentation. Our decissions on the stereotypes we want to represent through costume, location and props and why are included in their own posts.
Will Burnham & Charlie Mower
This is an example of a video where the artists are wearing lots of jewellery, which is very stereotypical.
Our music video will portray gender in a very stereotypical way, as the female plays a wife, and the male plays a husband, who is in the army. This is steretypical because it is more common for males to be in the army rather than women. Also it is stereotypical for females to stay at home whilst the male in the household is the worker.
Class will also be portrayed in a very stereotypical way as we are aware of the income soldiers get, therefore we are shooting our video in an average sized house, as filming it in a large house would be very unrealistic as a normal soldier would not be able to afford to live in a stereotypically higher class house.
This is an example of the house we would shoot our video at, as it is stereotypically British, which is what we want as it would not be too expensive with regards to house prices.
The costume, location and props will also be relevant to the reprsentation. Our decissions on the stereotypes we want to represent through costume, location and props and why are included in their own posts.
Will Burnham & Charlie Mower
3 Favourite Music Videos
Dan- Beyonce - If I Were A Boy: This is my favourite music video because I love the narrative of the video and how it changes near the end and makes you completely change your views upon what the meaning was behind the song. I also love the black and white effect, I feel it covers up
minor errors and makes it in a dream like state. I also like the little breaks of narratives that it has as it adds dramatic effect to the storyline and makes the audience think about the hidden meaning of the video.
Another reason why I enjoy this video is because it does not have a gender stereotype it shows both men and women can flirt and cheat at work it is not just a gender stereotype to men. The meaning of the lyrics could imply this gender sterotype but the video suggests otehrwise as it starts with the women being in the wrong.
Another reason I enjoy this is the artist acts as a character in the music video so it makes you more attached to the artist and see more about her, possibly what she has been through in terms of this music video.
Charlie- Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends: The I like this music video is because of a very good narrative and different technical shots used such the close up shots at the start which last for a while to set the narrative.
The break during the song for the narrative I really like because it allows the audience to fully grasp the story line of the song. Another reason why I think this is effective in the video is because not many videos use this technique, but as the narrative for this song is so deep and meaningful, it works especially well.
There are several occasions during the video where the lyrics and the music match up with the visuals, which I think is key to making a good music video.
One more reason why I think this video is so good is because the theme of the song is very serious, and the video portrays it very well, in a very serious manor, and I think this would have been very difficult to re-create. Because of the seriousness of the theme, it would have been quite hard to make the video believable and to make the audience really feel emotional from watching the video, but it is done very well and the audience can really connect to it, and anybody who has been in the same situation can easily relate because it is so well done.
Will- 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War: The reason I like this video is because it has a deeper narrative to the storyline with hidden codes behind the narrative. The music matches the visuals in places and makes a very good music video. The editing is also very complex in the sense that a lot of special effects are used, this adds to the entertainment.
The band members also play characters in the video which is good as you are watching the band you like for the whole video. I particularly like the quote at the opening of the video. It immediately establishes that the video has a serious topic and meaning and also the quote is relevant to the narrative.
The music video has a break in the song where dialogue is used for the narrative, which is something that is sometimes but not often done in music videos.
All of the costumes and locations connote the theme of war, linking to the song title and the lyrics.
Dan Andrew, Will Burnham and Charlie Mower
minor errors and makes it in a dream like state. I also like the little breaks of narratives that it has as it adds dramatic effect to the storyline and makes the audience think about the hidden meaning of the video.
Another reason why I enjoy this video is because it does not have a gender stereotype it shows both men and women can flirt and cheat at work it is not just a gender stereotype to men. The meaning of the lyrics could imply this gender sterotype but the video suggests otehrwise as it starts with the women being in the wrong.
Another reason I enjoy this is the artist acts as a character in the music video so it makes you more attached to the artist and see more about her, possibly what she has been through in terms of this music video.
Charlie- Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends: The I like this music video is because of a very good narrative and different technical shots used such the close up shots at the start which last for a while to set the narrative.
The break during the song for the narrative I really like because it allows the audience to fully grasp the story line of the song. Another reason why I think this is effective in the video is because not many videos use this technique, but as the narrative for this song is so deep and meaningful, it works especially well.
There are several occasions during the video where the lyrics and the music match up with the visuals, which I think is key to making a good music video.
One more reason why I think this video is so good is because the theme of the song is very serious, and the video portrays it very well, in a very serious manor, and I think this would have been very difficult to re-create. Because of the seriousness of the theme, it would have been quite hard to make the video believable and to make the audience really feel emotional from watching the video, but it is done very well and the audience can really connect to it, and anybody who has been in the same situation can easily relate because it is so well done.
Will- 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War: The reason I like this video is because it has a deeper narrative to the storyline with hidden codes behind the narrative. The music matches the visuals in places and makes a very good music video. The editing is also very complex in the sense that a lot of special effects are used, this adds to the entertainment.
The band members also play characters in the video which is good as you are watching the band you like for the whole video. I particularly like the quote at the opening of the video. It immediately establishes that the video has a serious topic and meaning and also the quote is relevant to the narrative.
The music video has a break in the song where dialogue is used for the narrative, which is something that is sometimes but not often done in music videos.
All of the costumes and locations connote the theme of war, linking to the song title and the lyrics.
Dan Andrew, Will Burnham and Charlie Mower
Digipak/advert initial ideas
We have chosen quite a niche artist and therefore we will use our digipak and advert to try and gain a larger audience. The fact Josh Record (our artist) is not a well known artist will affect certain decisions when creating the products. For example it would not be crucial to have an image of our artist taking up the majority of the front cover as audiences wont recognise him, meaning it wont encourage them to pick it up or give it a second look.
Instead we will use appealing images the audiences will be attracted to whilst still linking to the theme and genre.
Instead we will use appealing images the audiences will be attracted to whilst still linking to the theme and genre.
This is our first initial idea for a digipak cover.
As a British artist a good audience to try and attract is a British one. This is the purpose of the image of London. A further development on this idea could be to edit the image of London into a war related scenary to link to the track title. We might also like to move the text into the middle of the cover as it will stand out more. However if we done this the white text might not show up as well against the bright sky and so if we darkened to image, to fit the 'War' theme, then the text will stand out against it better. However as an initial idea the text at the bottom is suitable.
This is a brief example of a music magazine advertisement that would be used alongside the first digipak cover idea. More information is used that the digipak cover and we have included the record label's logo. The font of the information is more formal than the titles as it doesn't need to stand out as much and it needs to be completely readable.
This is our second idea for a digipak cover.
The name of the song is 'The War' and we have used an image that fits that theme. However at the same time the silhouette and sunset adds a calm domina to the cover which relates to the singer-songwritter genre. The white text stands out against the shaded area of the image and therefore will be noticed.
This is another idea for an advert. The music video and song are set in the winter
which relates to the winter setting in the image. Again just like in the other ideas, the white text stands out against the background making it easily readable and can communicate to the audience.
The record label's logo can be found in the bottom left of the image as this is something that is vital to be included in the advert.
This is another idea for an advert. We made this one very simple because some of the most popular artists today have very simple album covers; therefore we thought making the advert simple, it would catch the eyes of more people. Also, all of our other ideas are quite complex and have photo backgrounds, so we wanted to have an idea that was different to the rest of the ideas we already have. The logo in the middle and the big text at the top makes it stand out, as they are bold and the colours are very simple, yet they work well with each other.
Will Burnham and Charlie Mower
Monday, 14 October 2013
Audience Research
Audience is key when creating a music video because music videos are advertisements and promotions, if you do not have an audience music videos are useless. For our genre of singer songwriter we will analyse the music videos which gain the most views on YouTube for us to understand why these videos are popular and the kind of conventions that they use.
We must first find out what codes and conventions attract audiences to specific music videos. What makes a music video enjoyable and entertaining for them. We can find this out a few different ways, we can look at the highest selling music videos in certain genres and then analyse that music video to see what codes and conventions they contain, and we can carry out surveys to directly find out what people want.
The main genre for singers from our chosen genre (Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars etc.) is teens and young adults; therefore we would have to include things in our music video that would appeal to this audience, because the music video can influence people's view on a song, so using the right stuff in the video could effect how many views it gets.
Another section we need to consider is uses and gratifications, this is when the music videos provide things to the audience and the stereotypes it gives to its target audience. The last thing we need to look at is the multicultural effects model, this is when a piece of media appeals to more than one culture as it has certain characteristics that apply to other cultures.
Charlie Mower and Dan Andrew
We must first find out what codes and conventions attract audiences to specific music videos. What makes a music video enjoyable and entertaining for them. We can find this out a few different ways, we can look at the highest selling music videos in certain genres and then analyse that music video to see what codes and conventions they contain, and we can carry out surveys to directly find out what people want.
The main genre for singers from our chosen genre (Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars etc.) is teens and young adults; therefore we would have to include things in our music video that would appeal to this audience, because the music video can influence people's view on a song, so using the right stuff in the video could effect how many views it gets.
Another section we need to consider is uses and gratifications, this is when the music videos provide things to the audience and the stereotypes it gives to its target audience. The last thing we need to look at is the multicultural effects model, this is when a piece of media appeals to more than one culture as it has certain characteristics that apply to other cultures.
Charlie Mower and Dan Andrew
Friday, 11 October 2013
Plot and Narrative Brief
For our music video we want to focus upon the narrative part of the music video as when researching into other music videos of our genre we saw that many of them will focus upon a narrative such as Taylor Swifts' music videos have a lot of this focus upon this.
For our music videos the narrative we want to use is a focus upon war and as the chosen song is called 'The War' it will make sense towards that, our video will however not be focused upon the aspect of war but how it affects the people around them who are not going to war.
In our music video we will have a relationship between two people showing it from the womens perspective who is not going to war but her husband is. At the start of our music video we will show the tension in the relationship and how they are not perfect. Then we see them mend the relationship before he later leaves for war. We will then show how she is coping without him and what she does and how her emotions are rising. Some kind of communication will then be formed and broken between them this could happen once or twice and how she is finding it difficult knowing that any day he could die. She then will have a major break down after drinking too much wine which will innevitably end in her major upset in a corner by herself and the ultimate uplifting moment at the end for when he returns.
We decided we should do it this way to make the audience feel some connection to the piece whether it is through the relationship or through the war itself, we want our audience to feel connected to our character and later our artist for writing and singing the song to the audience.
Dan Andrew
For our music videos the narrative we want to use is a focus upon war and as the chosen song is called 'The War' it will make sense towards that, our video will however not be focused upon the aspect of war but how it affects the people around them who are not going to war.
In our music video we will have a relationship between two people showing it from the womens perspective who is not going to war but her husband is. At the start of our music video we will show the tension in the relationship and how they are not perfect. Then we see them mend the relationship before he later leaves for war. We will then show how she is coping without him and what she does and how her emotions are rising. Some kind of communication will then be formed and broken between them this could happen once or twice and how she is finding it difficult knowing that any day he could die. She then will have a major break down after drinking too much wine which will innevitably end in her major upset in a corner by herself and the ultimate uplifting moment at the end for when he returns.
We decided we should do it this way to make the audience feel some connection to the piece whether it is through the relationship or through the war itself, we want our audience to feel connected to our character and later our artist for writing and singing the song to the audience.
Dan Andrew
Audience - Uses and Gratifications
Uses and gratifications are key to our audience research because it can help show us what stereotypes we want to give to our audience and what pieces of information we want to feed to our audience. Uses and gratifications refers to when a piece of media provides you with information, entertainment, personal identity and social interaction, these are definitely key for music videos. Here is an example of the kind of music video we would like to show to our audience:
We would like to create something similar to this as we want our audience to perceive our artist as not following the stereotype of males in being strong and aggressive and we want to show our artist as sensitive and emotional., this would be the personal identity of our audience as we want our male audience to model themselves upon this and our female audience to 'love' the artist as we shall portray him as the kind of 'nice guy' that some women want in men.
We also use the entertainment in the narrative part of the video and peopl feeling connected to the characters used in this part of the video, this is how we would entertain our audience and make them feel connected to the piece.
The kind of social interation we want to portray is the talking of the video and how it made our audience feel, we also want girls to feel connected to our artist in some way and make them talk about his look and the kind of person he is.
Lastly the information we want to get across is quite important as we want to promote our artist as he is niche at the moment and not very well known, so we would promote him through this video and make people talk about him and possibly talk about the affects of war and how it can damage people in their lives.
Dan Andrew
We would like to create something similar to this as we want our audience to perceive our artist as not following the stereotype of males in being strong and aggressive and we want to show our artist as sensitive and emotional., this would be the personal identity of our audience as we want our male audience to model themselves upon this and our female audience to 'love' the artist as we shall portray him as the kind of 'nice guy' that some women want in men.
We also use the entertainment in the narrative part of the video and peopl feeling connected to the characters used in this part of the video, this is how we would entertain our audience and make them feel connected to the piece.
The kind of social interation we want to portray is the talking of the video and how it made our audience feel, we also want girls to feel connected to our artist in some way and make them talk about his look and the kind of person he is.
Lastly the information we want to get across is quite important as we want to promote our artist as he is niche at the moment and not very well known, so we would promote him through this video and make people talk about him and possibly talk about the affects of war and how it can damage people in their lives.
Dan Andrew
Music Video Brief
Music videos are created to share and promote certain kinds of messages and/or the artist. So this can mean that music videos will provide information and entertainment to the audience allowing them to gain an active audience in hidden connotations in the music video such as using colours and props to connote messages to the audience, so for example if someone was wearing the colour red it could connote danger as red is symbolised as danger usually, or if someone is holding a dead flower it could connote someone is dying or dead.
Music videos are also used to promote the artist/band, this is very common in music videos and they do this throughout all genres. they do this by using many close ups of the artist/band to promote their image.
In our music video we will focus upon an entertaining and informative piece. So we will have a mixture between hidden codes to connote what is the underlying theme so for our song "The War" we may have like an underlying theme of war to make our audience think about what it can do to families but our main plan will be to entertain the audience. In our music video we may entertain the audience through a strong narrative maybe a relationship between two people could be shown and how war effects them. We have not yet finalised ideas for our music video but we are planning on making some strong narrative.
Dan Andrew
Music videos are also used to promote the artist/band, this is very common in music videos and they do this throughout all genres. they do this by using many close ups of the artist/band to promote their image.
In our music video we will focus upon an entertaining and informative piece. So we will have a mixture between hidden codes to connote what is the underlying theme so for our song "The War" we may have like an underlying theme of war to make our audience think about what it can do to families but our main plan will be to entertain the audience. In our music video we may entertain the audience through a strong narrative maybe a relationship between two people could be shown and how war effects them. We have not yet finalised ideas for our music video but we are planning on making some strong narrative.
Dan Andrew
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Lip Syncing Practice
Lip syncing is important to all music videos as it is a key aspect upon most videos. Lip syncing is not in all music videos but it is used in most, because of this we had to create a short video where we had a individual lip sync to the camera, we needed to play around with this so we could understand how to use lip syncing for when it came to our real task.
The first thing we had to consider was what song we would lip sync. The song we decided upon was 'Lego House' by Ed Sheeran. We decided upon this song as Ed Sheeran is a singer songwriter which is the same genre as our final piece and he creates the same kind of music as our chosen artist. We also believed that this slow paced music can link into our chosen song as it is also slow paced.
Dan Andrew
The first thing we had to consider was what song we would lip sync. The song we decided upon was 'Lego House' by Ed Sheeran. We decided upon this song as Ed Sheeran is a singer songwriter which is the same genre as our final piece and he creates the same kind of music as our chosen artist. We also believed that this slow paced music can link into our chosen song as it is also slow paced.
Dan Andrew
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Character profiles
Artist
Our artist must have a naturalistic look, for example he must have a stubble/beard, which would give him a rugged look, which is what we want. He must also not use hair products, like gel or hairspray, as this would take a way the naturalistic effect of his appearance.
We also focused on much smaller details, such as teeth and hands. The hands of our artists must not have any abnormalities or marks, for example scars, as we will be having lots of close ups of our artists hands whilst he plays the guitar. Also, our artist must have nice teeth, meaning they must be relatively straight and white, as we will also be using extreme close ups of our artists face whilst he is lip syncing to the lyrics of the song.
This is what we would ideally like our artist to look like as this is the genuine artist of the song.Male protagonist- Soldier
Our male character is playing a soldier in our music video, therefore there are certain characteristics he must have to actually look like a soldier.
He should have short hair, or even bald, as it is common for soldiers to have short hair or be bald, therefore so must our actor. He must also be quite well built, as this is the stereotypical solider representation. Our character must also be 5"10'+ as we want him to be taller than our female character in order to connote his dominance and authority in the relationship.
This is ideally what we would like our male protagonist to look like.Female protagonist
Our female character is portraying the role of a wife. We need to follow certain stereotypes in order to make her appear believable.
We need our female actress to be shorter than our male protagonist as we want her to be the less dominant half of the relationship and dependant on her husband. She must be visually appealing to attract male audiences which relates to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory.
Will Burnham and Charlie Mower
Monday, 7 October 2013
Research and Planning - Costumes
Artist
We researched into other artists music videos from our genre to gain an idea as to what kind of clothing style they follow. Our main concentration was on Josh Record as we feel it is important to keep a consistency to the style of the artist in their music videos. We also looked at Ed Sheeran as he is a very popular artist from our genre and therefore is a good example to look at.
Ed Sheeran
It is quite obvious that he has a certain style. The first thing to notice is how his hair is styled. The long 'messy' look is the hair style Ed Sheeran uses to contribute to his star image. Ed Sheeran only seems to appear in his videos as himself or a neutral character and therefore doesn't need to change his appearance according the songs narrative. He also seems to wear quite basic and casual clothing which is pretty much what he is seen wearing on posters, in magazines and at his live performances. This 'casual clothing' consists of jackets, hoodies, dark jeans and trainers. He doesn't appear to have any signature items such as a hat or a suit, and he doesn't seem to follow a particular colour scheme in his clothing. The main attribute of his image is his hair, being the stand out ginger colour and the style.
I like the simplicity of his costume in his videos as it's an image audiences can relate to, and isn't something ridiculous drawing attention away from the narrative and music.
Josh Record
We researched into other artists music videos from our genre to gain an idea as to what kind of clothing style they follow. Our main concentration was on Josh Record as we feel it is important to keep a consistency to the style of the artist in their music videos. We also looked at Ed Sheeran as he is a very popular artist from our genre and therefore is a good example to look at.
Ed Sheeran
It is quite obvious that he has a certain style. The first thing to notice is how his hair is styled. The long 'messy' look is the hair style Ed Sheeran uses to contribute to his star image. Ed Sheeran only seems to appear in his videos as himself or a neutral character and therefore doesn't need to change his appearance according the songs narrative. He also seems to wear quite basic and casual clothing which is pretty much what he is seen wearing on posters, in magazines and at his live performances. This 'casual clothing' consists of jackets, hoodies, dark jeans and trainers. He doesn't appear to have any signature items such as a hat or a suit, and he doesn't seem to follow a particular colour scheme in his clothing. The main attribute of his image is his hair, being the stand out ginger colour and the style.
I like the simplicity of his costume in his videos as it's an image audiences can relate to, and isn't something ridiculous drawing attention away from the narrative and music.
Josh Record
Similar to Ed Sheeran, Josh Record tends to have a simplistic and casual costume in his music videos. He generally wears a t-shirt with an open buttoned shirt over the top, along with trousers/jeans and casual footwear such as plimpsoles or trainers (but not branded trainers). In his music video for 'Bones' he also wears a beenie hat. His colour scheme appears to be quite light, however in his music video for 'The War' he wears a dark shirt which could connote the negative moods and themes of the song.
(screenshot from 'Bones' by Josh Record)
(screenshot from 'Bones' by Josh Record)
(screenshot from 'The War' by Josh Record)
Josh Record has short hair along with substantial facial hair which I personally think suits his genre and songs. It is a naturalistic look and the facial hair makes him appear mature, which is beneficial as the meanings behind his songs are quite deep and therefore should be seen from a mature point of view.
This is an image I believe we should follow as we want to remain consistent with this particular artists music videos.
Actor
As we are setting our music video over a period of time (not just one day) it is important to have multiple costumes and appearances, which all must remain relevant and connote the ideas we want to.
The female protagonist
This character is a working class young female and therefore her costume must connote this. Towards the beginning of the narrative she is not as emotionally drained as towards the end. To portray this through costume we will have her wearing nicer and more presentable clothes than at the end.
Her first costume will be relatively simplistic and homely, such as a tank top with a cardigan over the top, some light skinny jeans and socks.
Above is an image depicting the type of cardigan and tank top combo
for the females first costume.
Her hair will be up and looking presentable. She will also have a few jewellery accessories such as a necklace, and a bracelet (along with a wedding ring which she will wear throughout the entirity of the video).
As negative themes start to take over the video and she becomes a bit stressed her original costume will be changed to dark jeans, and no accessories.
When she becomes emotionally drained towards the end she will be wearing trackies and a jumper with no accessories and her hair will be down and she will be wearing no makeup.
The male protagonist
This character is a solider who is the female protagonists husband. He will be dressed in army clothes to convey his his role a soldier. He may be dressed in something more casual at the start of the video just before the audience learn he's a solider going off to war. If we choose to run with this idea then his casual clothing must not be similar to that of the artists, to avoid confusion. His 'casual' clothing will consist of a dark jumper to connote the bad themes set to happen in the video, normal jeans and trainers/plimpsoles.
Will Burnham
Friday, 4 October 2013
Research and Planning - Props
In our production of our music video, we need to consider all mise-en-scene included in the shots we use, this is so that anything that is seen in shot has some sort of purpose and meaning behind it, it may have hidden connotations or mean certain things. My focus is upon props that we will use in mise. There will be two kinds of props we need, one is a main prop that will feature in part of the video, either it being picked up, used or just viewed. Other props will just be in shot and may connote hidden notes towards the video or just there to provide more realism and purpose to the scene.The first main prop that will considering to use is an acoustic guitar. This prop would be key in our music video as we will have our artist playing the song and singing with the guitar, this will have a affect upon which actor we use as we will require him to be able to sing while being able to play a guitar properly, specifically the song we choose. The guitar would feature in many shots where we will have the artist singing to the camera.
The second main prop that we are considering featuring in our piece is a letter. In our music video we would have the letter as part of many shots, as the letter in the narrative will be from her husband who is at war and would have many shots from her reaction perspective of the letter. The letter would be quite key in the narrative part of the music video, however it will not feature throughout the piece.
The third main prop we may use would be rings. These would connote that the couple is in a relationship with eachother and are married to one another. It is put there to instantaniously allow the audience to understand they are together and have been for a long time. This would feature throughout our music video as with any shots where they can be seen upon the actor and it may possibly feature in a close up on the hand.
The laptop would again be key in our piece as we were planning on having a skype call on part of our storyline and we were planning on doing this through the laptop. It would be a main part of the storyline where the recognition of disruption would be shown to the audience and the break down of the character would follow soon after this.
We were thinking of using some dead flowers in a pot to connote their relationship, we would have them alive at the beginning of the video and soon dying by the end to show the cracks in the couples relationship and bhow this war has come between them. This would not be a main part of the video and would feature in the background of the video so it will be a hidden code to the audience, although we may do a close up of the flowers if we feel it to be appropriate to draw the audiences attention to it.
We were also considering using a bottle of wine and a glass, this would be a key prop in our piece as it will have an affect upon the characters behaviour. We were considering using it for when our female protagonist has a breakdown showing the audience she is drinking alone and missing her husband who has gone off to war.
Another prop that may feature in the background of our piece may be newspapers or books to connote that our protagonists are intellegent and avid readers, reading books or newspapers can connote wisdom to audiences, so this would be the reason behind using these in our piece. They would only feature in the background of the shots we use.
Another prop that would feature in quite a key scene would be army netting. This would be used for when the protagonists are on skype to eachother over the laptop and in the background on the males side, there will be some army netting. This will directly allow the audience to see where he is and understand what is happening. It would only feature in a small part of our video if it was used.
A duvet and pillows may feature in our piece where we have our female protagonist in bed having a breakdown crying while missing her husband who will return to her in this scene, he will climb into bed and comfort her and she will have an uplifting moment with his return. These pillows and duvet will only feature as the bed as a whole with her in it. Other pillows may also feature such as in the living room at the start of our music video.
A remote and TV may also feature as another background prop just to add some normality about the scene as most homes in the UK will have a TV, so it attracts the audience who are about middle class and feel some what connected to the characters. The TV would never feature as a key part of the video nor would it be seen playing anything. However it may feature the remote in the hand of the female protagonist and possibly her watching the TV but that would be the only time it would feature in the music video.Dan Andrew
Research and planning - Locations
Locations are essential in a music video, as the location needs to fit the genre and theme, otherwise it can look unrealistic to the audience.
Music videos tend to have a variety of locations. This is a trend that we will follow in our music video.
Run down area
In our music video, we are thinking of using a run down area for the artists performance shots. This would be a good idea because many other artists have used locations similar to this, and it also connects with the negative feel of the song, as run down areas often connote depression and deprivation, and as our song is about war, this works very well.
If we were to use this location, we would have to make sure that everything about it is correct and suits the song. This means that the weather at the time of shooting would have to be very dull, ideally overcast, however rain would be fine too, as these types of weather connote gloominess.
We would also have to make sure the location is totally abandoned and derelict, as if there were people walking around as we were shooting and they were caught on camera without us realising, this would then look very weird in the final cut and in a way, it would take away the sence of negativity, as it would then mean that the artist isn't isolated, which is what we want it to look like.
House
In our music video, we are going to use a house to shoot all the scenes that involve the female and the male (not the artist). We have chosen to set these scenes in a house because the narrative of the video is about the male going to war, with the female staying at home, therefore we believe that it is apprpriate to have all of the females scenes in her home.
We want the house to be an average size house, meaning it cannot be tiny, yet it also cannot be very big, as this is very realistic for a soldiers average wage. The house must be semi-attached or terraced, preferably terraced as this is the stereotypical British house, and that is what we want to show in our video, as they are normally cheaper and more common than semi-attached houses. This would be good as it connotes stereotypical British normality and is appropriate for the narrative.
The interior of the house must be very clean, yet very simple/basic. We want this because in our narrative, neither the male or female are very well payed, therefore it would be difficult for them to afford luxury things.
Rural area
In our music video, we are thinking of using a rural area, for example a field like in the picture below, to shoot all of our performance shots in. We have chosen to use this sort of location to film our performance shots because it will look visualy appealing to the audience, and it will suit our style of music as the song we have chosen is very slow, which connects to a field like the one pictured ,as they have connotations of calmness and relaxation.
Another reason why we have chosen this location is because previous artists, similar to the artist of our song have used similar places like this to film in their music videos. The best example of this in our opinion is Lego House by Ed Sheeran, as a large part of the video is shot in a fielded area, and it looks very appropriate and it suits the style of music.
Ideally, we would also like a bench in our field of choice, so that the artist in our video is able to sit down and play/sing the song. We think this would be a good idea because it is seen as normal for singers to sit and play songs on park benches, therefore it would be appropriate for our song and video.
Charlie Mower
Music videos tend to have a variety of locations. This is a trend that we will follow in our music video.
Run down area
In our music video, we are thinking of using a run down area for the artists performance shots. This would be a good idea because many other artists have used locations similar to this, and it also connects with the negative feel of the song, as run down areas often connote depression and deprivation, and as our song is about war, this works very well.
If we were to use this location, we would have to make sure that everything about it is correct and suits the song. This means that the weather at the time of shooting would have to be very dull, ideally overcast, however rain would be fine too, as these types of weather connote gloominess.
We would also have to make sure the location is totally abandoned and derelict, as if there were people walking around as we were shooting and they were caught on camera without us realising, this would then look very weird in the final cut and in a way, it would take away the sence of negativity, as it would then mean that the artist isn't isolated, which is what we want it to look like.
House
In our music video, we are going to use a house to shoot all the scenes that involve the female and the male (not the artist). We have chosen to set these scenes in a house because the narrative of the video is about the male going to war, with the female staying at home, therefore we believe that it is apprpriate to have all of the females scenes in her home.
We want the house to be an average size house, meaning it cannot be tiny, yet it also cannot be very big, as this is very realistic for a soldiers average wage. The house must be semi-attached or terraced, preferably terraced as this is the stereotypical British house, and that is what we want to show in our video, as they are normally cheaper and more common than semi-attached houses. This would be good as it connotes stereotypical British normality and is appropriate for the narrative.
Rural area
In our music video, we are thinking of using a rural area, for example a field like in the picture below, to shoot all of our performance shots in. We have chosen to use this sort of location to film our performance shots because it will look visualy appealing to the audience, and it will suit our style of music as the song we have chosen is very slow, which connects to a field like the one pictured ,as they have connotations of calmness and relaxation.
Another reason why we have chosen this location is because previous artists, similar to the artist of our song have used similar places like this to film in their music videos. The best example of this in our opinion is Lego House by Ed Sheeran, as a large part of the video is shot in a fielded area, and it looks very appropriate and it suits the style of music.Ideally, we would also like a bench in our field of choice, so that the artist in our video is able to sit down and play/sing the song. We think this would be a good idea because it is seen as normal for singers to sit and play songs on park benches, therefore it would be appropriate for our song and video.
Charlie Mower
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