JH - Costumes

Clothing

After watching various music videos of our genre we have established a suitable range of clothing. Our narrative will consist of the main character wearing a smart suit and tie, smart shoes and possibly glasses. If our original narrative concept goes to plan then possibly on the last day of the narrative he will wear a black suit instead to connote a change on that day which will be revealed at the end. Our performance side to our video was slightly harder to research.

I looked at a large number of bands and groups for the same alternative/indie/soft rock genre and came up with a few ideas of clothing. The idea would be to dress smart/casual which would include wearing casual shirts, most probably jeans and boots or smart shoes. A range of accessories would also be useful including hats and jewellery and possibly glasses.

EU - location research

After looking through a few videos that are set in churches I noticed that they all had quite a religious theme so I think this wouldn’t appropriate for our song even if we do want to connote a death in our video. It still wouldn’t fit due to any mention of god in the song. Such as the song “casting crowns – set me free”.
Churches in music videos are not usually used in an obvious sense and in the back ground. If there were to be a performance in the church then it would be best to make it not obvious at all and only show it is a church at the end of the video. However this may still not work.
Thanks to this research I don’t think it would be appropriate to have the main performance in a church because it may confuse the audience. I do still however think it would be good to have a church in the end of our narrative due to the sad and mysterious nature of the song.

EU - Reccies

We would ideally like to film the performance part of our video in some sort of derelict theatre or cinema because it would give it a sort of sad and creepy feel but this is looking less and less likely as we look in to possible locations. if the case is that we cannot find the right location then it means we will have to get permission from a place like "the assembly hall" in tunbridge wells or the southborough town hall. we have chosen london to do the narrative part of our video so therefore we will need to go up there at some point as a group or indivdually and find some good locations.

JH- Technical Analysis

The video i chose to analyse for this piece is The Script - For the first time. It is perfect in the way of relating to how relevant it is to our chosen track in terms of concept and genre, and is extremely useful looking at certain techniques used that we may try and repeat. The genre itself is the similar being alternate but ventures of slightly to the pop side, however as our track has been covered by a different band it almost now gives that pop effect to it due to the new grain of voice. The concept involved in this video is ideal as it cuts directly between performance and narrative which is exactly what we are hoping to achieve in our video. The narrative side of the video again is similar as it shows a relationship between to characters which although doesn't at first appear positive is certainly optimistic and ends well which could be useful to look at when taking our own song lyrics in to account and how the relationship from our track could be represented. The performance side of the track is very effective and consists of the band playing alone in a dark room with strong use of lighting. This amplifies the narrative and also enhances character exposition relating to the lead singer and general band image. Although we have decided our performance side to our video will be located in a much more open and clear space, the idea of performing alone without a crowd is one that we share and looks to be effective in this video.

The editing throughout the video is extremely fast paced in parts. One section in particular is just after two minutes where the first signs of optimism in the relationship becomes apparant and things are looking up, which could suggest why the cutting rate increases as their slow moving relationship finally seems to be going somewhere which is an effective technique. Another section of the video where the editing is noticeably faster than others is during each chorus where the cutting rate simply speeds up in time with the music which is an interesting technique we could explore with our track.

- Various post cards ontop of each other, turned over by hand - CU
- Girl lying on bed writing - MS
- Girl writing postcard to Mum and Dad - CU
- Back to MS of girl on the bed
- Girls face - CU
- Cuts to picture of the girl and an unknown boy, later shown as the boy in the relationship with her
- Cuts to MS of various photographs
- Girl wiping tears from her face - CU
- Cuts back to postcard she is writing - CU
- High angle MS of her on the bed writing (5 secs)
- Girls face - CU
(Narration of girl writing the postcard throughout this)

Music starts
- Photos on wall - LS
- Cuts to performance side for the first time, CU of lead singer (5 secs)
- Girl leaning againts wall with photos on - MS
- Cuts to performance side, sillouete MS of band member with guitar
- Male partner getting dressed - MS
- CU of lead singer
- Lead singers hands playing piano - CU
- Low angle shot of lead singer at piano - CU
- Cuts back to MS/CU of conversation between girl and boy
- CU of lead singer
- 360 pan of city with a blurry filter on the camera
- LS of man on motorbike
- Lead singer playing piano - LS
- CU of lead singer
- Male partner drinking and spilling wine, camera tracking along with him as he walks
- 180 pan of the couple laughing and drinking
- CU of lead singer
- Couple lying on bed - MS
- CU of girl with her eyes closed, looks like she's been crying
- Band member playing guitar - CU
- CU of girls face
- Couple kissing infront of wall of photos - MS
- CU of lead singer
- LS of band performing, strong lighting throughout
- Boy holding motorbike helmet infront of city buildings - MS
- LS of him riding away on bike
- CU in black and white of couple holding hands
- Low angle shot of trees with a blurry rainbow filter over camera
- Band member playing drums - MS
- LS of band member playing guitar
- CU of boy lying down
- XCU of girls face followed by her smiling
- CU of lead singer
- CU of drum symbols
- Girl looking around city and taking pictures of city buildings, strong use of lighting - MS
- LS of lead singer dancing
- Girl walking along road - MS
- 5 second monatage of girl in city taking pictures, looking around, standing still
- LS of lead singer in spotlight standing next to the piano
- CU of lead singer
- Boy on his bike about to ride of - MS
- LS of boy riding motorbike
- Boy walking through city - MS
- CU of couples faces, blurry red filter over the camera
- LS of city landscape
- Black and white CU of lead singer performing
- CU/MS of couple standing and smiling together
- LS of couple holding up sign which was one of the original pictures on the wall at the start of the video
- Low angle shot of lead singer playing piano
- CU of drummer performing
- CU of lead singer
- LS of band performing and dancing, again strong use of lighting (5 secs)
- Girl smiling by window, light shining through on her face - MS
- High angle shot of boy riding motor bike
- CU of lead singer dancing
- Sillouete LS of band member playing gutiar
- MS of girl sitting outside house on stairs
- Camera pans round to MS of boy coming home smiling
- CU of band member playing guitar
- Lead singer playing piano and singing in spotlight - LS
- CU of lead singers hand playing piano
- LS of boy and girl walking upstairs into house
- MS of drummer performing
- MS of lead singer performing (7 secs)
- Boys hands girl an envelope - CU
Music stops
- CU of girl
(Narration of conversation they have, boy explains they are plane tickets)
- CU of boy and girl kissing (5 secs)
- Fades to black

Overall there were many shots throughout the video that were technically effective and certain ideas used interested me and have encouraged me to explore alternatives to standard camera shots when filming. It suprised me to see the percentage of shots featuring the lead singer to be about 60% even though there was a strong narrative throughout, however i only noticed this when stoping the video every two seconds which shows how fast the cutting rate was. Most shots seemed to be about 2 oe 3 seconds long, although certain shots that really captured the emotion of the track lasted longer at about 5 seconds. An example of this was the first time we were introduced to the performance side of the video and the lead singer was presented. This showed he had a real connection to the track and this was effective. Another example was at the end of the video where the boy and girl were kissing showing their relationship was still strong even after the problems they faced throughout the narrative. Certain camera movement incorporated seemed to create extra pace to some of the shots like the 360 pans and other tracking shots which looked aestheticly pleasing throught the video. All of these shots were useful to anaylise and i will certainly take them in to consideration when filing our video.

OH- Technical analysis of Biffy clyro - many of horror

Why did i choose this video? was it appropriate?
The video that I have chosen is very relevant to our chosen song, due to the fact that it delivers a personal performance, with personal lyrics which brings about a greater meaning to the whole video, just from the performance and the first person mode of address. The use of guitars is similar to what we plan to use, also a similar type of venue that we hope to use, with the use of lighting in form with the performance.

The cutting rate is fairly generic and conforms to the genre charachteristics. The rate works well with the performance giving the artist more time to draw in the audience to have a more focused viewing of the video. We will try to keep our cutting rate up to this standard, this should hopefully keep the audience interested and make the video look more authentic and original.




Technical analysis of Biffy Clyro- Many of horror, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAh--lH0H3U&ob=av3e
This Analysis gives a shot by shot breakdown of the video, giving us lots of help and useful information about how we should create our video.
MS- silouet of the artist performing, lip syncing and playing the guitar in time, with a slow zoom into his face from behind.

Cut to a CU of the artists face, with a light in the back ground panning from left to right, making his head black out the light at one point. Drawing attention to his face.

Cut to CU of his face, taking up the right half of the screen, looking at the ground
looking sad. Using emotions in the performance to great effect.

Cut to LS of the singer playing the guitar with the basist and drummer in the background, placed diagonally and to the right of eachother, so they can all be seen, synced up music to the performance. Zoom out and panning.



Cut to a CU of the singers face again tith the same light, this time a pan from right to left.

Cut to MS of the singer playing the guitar and singing, looking quite sad. With a slow pan from right to left.

Cut to CU of the performers face while singing pan left to right with the light again.

Cut to siloueted shot of the singer playing guitar, this time the zoom tracks back from where it last tracked in, away and to the right of his face.

Cut to MS of the singer playing the guitar with lots of light in the background, giving him more of a pronounced presence.

Cut to siloueted close up of the singer, bobbing his head.

Cut to MS of the singer playing the guitar yet again, lip syncing with his eyes closed, which adds emotion to the lyrics and performance.

Cut to MLS of the basist syncing the base up with the music, of him just dancing around while playing the base.

Cut to MS of the singer, lip syncing, staring at something, as if he has had some bad news or is very sad and in his own little world.

Cut to panning left to right MS of the singer playing the guitar.

Cut to a low angle shot of the singer playing the guitar of his left hand side, panning left to right.

Cut to CU of the artist, low angle shot on his face still lip syncing.

Cut to panning shot of him sitting down from left to right.

Cut to the same position his face was left in the previous shot, and still panning in the same direction. Although in this shot he is playing the guitar.

Cut to low angle silouet shot of the artist playing the guitar. Panning left to right.

Cut to MS of the artist with the band behind him, slowly zooming out.

Cut to side ways on silouet shot of the artist Zooming out slowly from his face.

Cut to MS of the artist playing the guitar, with a slow zoom out.

Cut to CU of the artists face, panning left to right, syncing his lips to the words. With a weird affect on his face, kind of illuminating it, looks as if it is connoting he is going a bit mad, or is just sad and depressed.

Cut to low angle MS of the artist singing and playing the guitar.

Cut to a MS of the drummer hitting his drun intome to the beat.

Cut to LS of the group, diagonally to the right behind eachother so they all fit in the shot, still performing in time to the music.

Cut to MS siloueted, tracking and zooming out form the left while he is performing the song on the guitar.

Cut to CU tracking right of the artists face, while he is gazing at something, connoting sadness and not knowing what to do.

Cut to MS of the band playing.

Cut to a low angle shot siloueted by a big light of the main artist playing the guitar in time to the track.

Cut to MS of the basist, with a slow zoom onto his guitar.

Cut to slow panning shot of the artists face CU, panning left to right, the show has been used many times showing repeatability within the video.

Cut to MS of the singer with the band in the background, with a slow zoom onto the singer.

Bright lights in the background make the screen white, adding affect, this connotes there performing as if on stage but there performing to no one.

Cut to ms slow zoom out of the band

Cut to Zoom in from MS to CU of the singers face, still lip syncing, showing that the whole piece is a performance piece.

Cut from CU of the Siloueted singer

Cut to MS of the drummer hitting his drums in time. Which zooms in on his face.

Cut to MS of the artist, panning right to left with an effect on his face, distorting it. Kind of making his face flash in different places.

Vut to a bright light zooming back, with a MS of the band.

Cut to panning shot of the guitarist and the singer, CU of the singer MS of the guitarist from left to right.


Cut to MS from behind of the artist with a lightning effect added in infront of the artist where he’s playing, connoting power.

Cut to CU of the singer with the effect on it, panning left to right.

Cut to MS of the drummer.

Cut to LS of the singer playing the guitar.

Cut to MS of the singer sitting with lightning hitting his head, with the weird effect on his face again, possibly connoting dementia and going insane because of something traumatic.

Cut to MS slow motion of the singer playing the guitar with quite a lot of power.

Cut to zoom from a MS to CU of the band.

Cut to CU of the drummer.

Cut to MS zoom left to right of the singer performing again.

Cut to zoom form CU to XCU of the artists face with the effect still on it.

Lots of cuts follow of all the band members over the next two seconds of close ups of their performance.

Cut to out of focus shot of the basists head rocking forwards in slow motion.

Cut to a Zoom from MS to CU of the artists face, standing upright with the effect on his face, and bot body, using first person mode of address.
Cutting between the artist in a silouete playing the guitar looking down, and the band performing, with lots of movement.

Cut to the first bit of the song where he isn’t lip syncing, a CU of his face, putting his hands threw his hair as if he has done something wrong.

Cut to MS of him in the top right hand corner of the screen however he is continuing lip syncing again.

Many cuts again between him and the band playing, all closeups while int more instrumental.



Cut between him walking down a path, and the band plying, it’s a tracking shot, low angle MS of the artist walking forwards. Cutting between that and the band performing.

A slow motion effecti is then added to the singer as he is walking towards something.

Cut to MS panning right to left of the guitarist / singer with the band in the background.

Cutting yet again between the artist and the band, closeups of the performance.

Cut to MS with a slow motion effect on it, of the singer getting more into the song and emotional towards it.

Cut Between the drummer and the basist, CU of them performing.

Cut to CU of the artist singing in first person mode of address with the effect on his face. Zooming out

Cuts between that and the band performing when it’s the instrumental part, and the CU of his face when it is the singing part.

Cut to panning CU of the singer from right to left. With a bright light in the background.

Followed to cuts of the band. All looking fairly sad.

Cocclusion, what have i learnt from this analysis?
This technical analysis has shown me many things that i will need to consider when constructing our music video, it shows what a large percentage of shots in a performance piece are meat shots, more than half the video was meat shots and closeups. it also showed me the importtance of lighting and how it can be used to emphasise emotions of a piece, and be used to create silouets. This exercise has been very useful and i will be thinking about it when i start storyboarding and brainstorming more ideas. Also i have come away with knowing that we are more than likely going to have to use a spotlight, since our lighting may not be as good as we want it if not.

EU - Technical analysis

Technical analysis
Milow – Ayo Technology




I have chosen this song because it is a calmed acoustic version of a popular hip hop song. This is similar to our track of a calmed acoustic version of a rock song. The two songs are similar also in the minimal effects and editing and also the content of the song with it being about an anonymous girl.

• Starts with fade from black and a pan up the male singer. Side shot going from his chest to his head – CU
• The shot is then reversed back down from his head to his chest and fade to black – CU
• Fade from black to the singers face with a spotlight on it – CU
• Fade to black of a women dancing in slow motion covered in gold – MS
• Fade back to the singers mouth singing the words of the song – CU
• These previous sequence is repeated 3 more times
• Another fade to the girls face dancing and flicking her hair in slow motion – CU
• Fades back to the singer but now we see his torso holding a guitar and his entire face, showing the audience what he looks like. In slight slow motion but only in a relaxed sort of way – MS
• Fade back to the woman in gold paint as there are 3 very quick shots of her flicking her hair in slow motion. Timed with the music. – MS
• Fade back to the singer as he is still in some sort of slow motion and these large spotlights come on behind him to focus on the woman – MS
• Fade to the woman and we see her entire body now with the lights focused on her – LS
• Jump cut to the girls face as she makes eye contact with the camera in slow motion and flicks her hair. – CU
• Cut back to the singers face watching the woman – CU
• This sequence is repeated another 2 times.
• Jump cut from the girls face to her eye winking in slow motion – CU
• Cutting quickly between shots of the singers face and the girls face one after the other, 4 times. – CU
• Cut to shot of the girl dancing in slow motion then suddenly speeded up – MS
• Cut back to a different shot of the singer in which we see his torso holding the guitar and moving with the music, showing he is reacting to the woman’s gestures – MS
• Jump cut to the singers face then back to the previous shot – CU
• Cut to the singers eyes looking off screen – CU
• Cut to the woman’s eyes as she returns his gaze – CU
• Cut to a low angle shot of the guitar being played by the singer – CU
• Cut back to the woman dancing in slow motion – MS
• Fade to black and then fade from black the woman has many other dancers just like herself behind her – LS
• Cut to reaction shot of the singers face – CU
• Cut to the different woman’s torsos all looking into the camera in slow motion dancing – MS
• Cuts between shots of different woman dancing in slow motion – LS&MS
• Cuts back to the singers face reacting to the many women – CU
• The previous sequence is repeated 5 times.

The conclusion i have pulled from this is that the video is mainly close ups with over 80% of the shots being close ups. these meat shots give that star good publicity and also gives less of a mystery to his star personar. therefore it can be useful to have alot of meat shots in a music video.

OH- creativity with HD cameras.

The fact that we are now using HD cameras, rather than normal cameras has increased the amount of creativity and variability we have whilst constructing different shots and effects. one of the main differences obviously is the extremely better quality of footage, this allows far more detail to a performance piece possibly, allowing the person performing to express more emotions threw the better quality of footage, which would be very appropriate since our idea involves a performance cutting with a narrative.
Also being able to use the effect of pull back focus an be used to very good effect in many situations to connote meaning, such as sadness and depression, which is what we would use it for and lonliness, this will come in very handy during our narrative, since our narrative will be about someones ex partner dieing, this will definately be something that we will implament into our final music video.
These features will give our music video far more depth and meaning than our film opening that we created for A'S hopefully allowing us to gain more marks for our filming part of the course.

JH- Concept development 1

During our trip to Brighton this week we had various conversations involoving developing our concept further in terms of mise-en-scene and technical shots.

Firstly we breifly spoke about the clothing we would wear throughout the video and all agreed that it should relate to the genre of the track which therefore would be slightly indie/orignal to create the correct band image. The narrative side of the track however would consists of the character wearing a smart suit to play the suitable role of a bussiness person of some description.

We also definatly agreed that the location of the performance part would definatly be in an old and empty school or cinema with use of a stage to perform on. We havn't yet decided the exact location for the narrative but assure it will be a certain street in london possibly london bridge or oxford street.

The technical shots we discussed to use in our final video were ones we tried out in brighton. One of these was an extremely effective shot of myself walking towards the camera which is moving backwards at the same pace in to a crowed of people parting either side of me and looking back creating empthasis on the key character, in this case myself. We got this idea from a Bluey Robinson video - 'Gotta be a way'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zqxOCYRdc

The other shot we liked was a suilote shot of myself walking from underneath the bridge from the shaddows and then up the stairs with a strong contrast of light and darkness.

OH- Brighton reccie evaluation.

The brighton field trip provided us an amazing arrangement of different and interesting locations, which allowed us to perform a variety of different, but technically sound shots. The locations we visited all had different parts to them that inspired us to try some different types of shots. For example under brighton pier, there was a arch which allowed a nice natural frams, and with lots of light coming into the frame, it also silohetted the charachter in shot, possibly drawing in a darker meaning, and adding more depth to a clip.
We started on the pier, which gave a wide variety of different amounts of lighting and oppertunities to create some magical shots, our first shot was, me standing and looking over the side of the pier, which owuld have been sped up, so our seven minutes of footage will be reduced to about twenty seconds, i think this could be used to great effect in our real video to connote lonliness, and the emotion of heart break, as if time is going very slowly for that charachter.
Closeups and overshoulder shots that we carried out were just pretty conventional, nothing special compared to what we had done before, however they were still affective shots which will deffinately be used in our music video. a high angled shot of me, from the bier down to the beach, while panning proved affective, however possibly a bit boring and nothing to exciting, so maybe we would have to do something extra to the shot, possibly add an effect to keep the audience interested during our music video if we deciced to use it.
We then ventured under the pier, this gave us alot of variety to use lighting to our advantage, allowing us to use the idea of silouets and gave us room to do tracking shots of the charachter, allowing us lots of variety to improve our ability to use light. this will eventually help us progress with possible use of shadow in our performance.
We then took to the streets of brighton, we drew on inspiration from another artist to proctice a shot, where we track back following a charachter walking towards the camera, whilst they are walking, lots of people are walking against them, possible connotations that you feel as if the world is against you and your not in a good place emotionally. we then went to the shopping center hoping there would be lots of people there, since were hoping to film in london and are hoping there will be lots of people, getting a feeling for the hustle and bustle of London city, there were quite a few people in there but not as many as we were hoping for, we looked at using elevators in our footage, but it didn't work too well, however we tried the shot we used outside, trqacking jack with people either side, but around a corner, it didn't come out as well as the other one, so we will stick with with the idea of just going in a straight line with that shot.
In conclusion the brighton recci was useful in helping us practice some shots that we were thinking of using in our music video and seeing if they would work, we came to a conclusion with most of our shots whether to use them or not, and we drew on our ability to use lighting to a greater extent in our work, this will help us significantly in our music video.

EU - Boyce Avenue - Drops of jupiter

Drops of jupiter - Boyce avenue

1. Post a link to track2. What is the genre of the track? How can you tell?
The genre of this track is chilled out acoustic rock/ballad. You can tell this by the minimal editing on the track making it seem more personnal. Also the minimal amount of instruments in the song. just an acoustic guitar and some sort of tamborine.

3. Do you think this track represents a high or lo fi video? Why?
This track definitely represents a low fi video. A sort of intimate performance at a small club with just the singer and a guitar, maybe the female backing singer.

4. What videos would be comparable? Publish and label some interesting stills from the same genre.
some videos that could be compared are simple performance videos such as the fray and one republic. i think i really good video to use as a base would be "jason mraz" "im yours" but instead of the nice beach and location it would be better to use a run down location or a meaningful place in the winter like a cemetery.


6. Give an outline of a treatment
a video of this style i feel needs to have quite a high budget as i would like to include some specifc shots like all the leaves falling off a tree and timelapses of trees turning brown. also a recurring narative of a lonely man getting angrier and angrier of sadder and sadder will be good. i do however think this will be an iconic video and postmodern in some senses.

7. Identify suitable locations for filming particular sequences of the music
i think a coastside location would be perfect for this video because i havbe an image of a lonely man standing at the top of a cliff with leaves falling off the trees and the wind being extremely strong but have it in a sort of timelapse. maybe brighton. but also the track has a strong theme of loneliness so a man caught in the hustle and bustle of a city in rush hour would be good.

8. Consider grain of voice. What characters would you use?
using a completely normal man and a pretty girl would be ideal for this video in my opinion. i would ideally try to portray the man as lonely and the girl as mysterious. giving them some sort of relationship

9. What pro-filmic and post-production special affects would be suitable?
i dont think many special affects should be used because then the rawness of the video will compliment the songs acoustic feel and the feeling of the song which is a chilled out ballad. i feel it is a sad story that should have a simple chilled out video.

JH- Deconstruction of a music video - Hey, soul sister - Train

I chose to look at this video as it relates closely to the track we will be using in terms of both genre and style and also certain techniques that we will try and create. The genre of musc itsel is similar as its by the same band, Train, who created the original track drops of jupiter which was later copied. This genre is soft-rock/alternative which can be identified in the video due to the general mise-en-scene and other techniques aswel as the track itself.

I think the video would be consumed in an ambient mannor due to the relaxed nature and style of the narrative and how the band is presented in a tranquil and nonchalent light. I think due to the videos simplicity in terms of the performance aspect it would attract a more of an individual audeince, oposing the markist approach as nothing is forced apon them and encouraged them to view the video in a passive sense. I think the record label would clearly have an impact on the promotion of this video and would have to do a good job of publisising the text however due to the genre of music and the type of artist, the originalitly and individuality alone would attract a specific type of audience no matter how much the video is forced upon them and i think the audience would have to have an interest in the artist and type of music in general to view it.

When applying Goodwins theory to the video it's clear to say there is some relevance and it can be identified in certain parts of the text. There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and visuals relating to the obvious lip synching which is common in most music videos but more interestingly the actual lyrics in the form of text that are displayed throught the video with use of post editing techniques. This is an interesting concept as it enhances and amplifies the meaning and emotions linked to the video in general as not only can the audience view the obvious imagery that is infront of them in terms of the simplistic footage and relationship between the band and the female character, but also can identify key phrases and words that may identify hidden meanings and messages. There are also various close ups and meat shots of mainly the band in general identifying star image motif but also of the female character which could be used to enhance character exposition and form more of a relationship between her and the audience, again amplifying the track and video. Although the video itself doesnt seem to present many challenging ideas due to its simplicity and perforance based nature it also doesnt come acroos as being inherently comercial because of its originality and style. The location itself is unusual for a music video as even the performance side is set in the middle of a street as well as the narrative intertwining with the attractive visuals and techniques which in their own right could be conidered as art.

There seems to be no real message or purpose of the video as there is no real narative with meaning, but there is a performance aspect to the video in which it seems the artist is performing the song towards the girl in the narrative and that it's for and about her. This means there is no real social message evident but a band image is certainly constructed from this which seems to be fairly quirky and original. The mise-en-scene is the main visual technique used to do this in terms of the location being unusual and the clothing of the band itself being fairly indie and modern.

The bands star persona is constructed in a positive light due to the relaxed atmoshpere created throughout the video and the positive vibes associated with the track. This will obviously help sell their product as it will create a likeability factor for the audience and if they like this perticular video and track it will encourage them to search for more. Again there are few social groups represented through the video however there is one subtle one. The band members themselves are older than expected but are presented in a way that makes them seem younger by their clothing, style and overall image. This allows younger people to relate to the track and listen, broadening the bands audience even though they are of an older age. This is a key ideological discourse which as well as making the video and track appealing will also improve the bands promotional aspects and again improve their image. The other ideological discourse that is evident is the women involved in the narrative challanging common stereotypes and almost seems in control of whatever relationship is in hand throughtout the video. She is presented as a confident and independent women and if the lyrics of the track are anything to go by is controlling the males emotions in hand. This of course is different from common stereotypes and challanges the ideology of a male being in control of the relationship.

JH - Response to track - The Fray - How to save a life

1. Post a link to track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY2INQnmRyk


2. What is the genre of the track? How can you tell?

The name of the track is how to save a life by The Fray. I would say the genre of the track is a mix between alternative and pop-rock which is similar to that of our genre for our music video. I can tell this is the genre of the track from the instruments used, mostly the piano and the general grain of voice of the lead singer. The image of the band also supports the idea of an alternate genre relating to there overall style and demeanour.

3. Do you think this track represents a high or lo fi video? Why?

The video itself although seems fairly simplistic and plain, the overall production cost of this type of video is actually reasonably high. The performance side of the video itself would be on the lo fi side however some of the special effects included would increase costs as well as the fantastic lighting throughout. The extremely quick cutting rate at times may go unnoticed however this again shows the camera work involved in the production would have cost more than appreciated. Compared to other expensive videos this would be on the low financed side but for how simplistic it at first seems, costs would be much higher than expected.



4. What videos would be comparable? Publish and label some interesting stills from the same genre.

There are certain styles of video that could be comparable to this track but there is one in particular that is very similar to the video itself which is Ordinary people by John legend. The genre isn’t so different from this track but parts of the video in general are almost identical in terms of the mise-en-scene. The idea of a white background and the piano being the main instrument is replicated in both videos with the lead singer being the only character in the shot. The use of other characters forming some relationship in reflection of the song is also used in both, also in front of this predominantly white background.

5. Find out the budget for one of the above examples.


6. Give an outline of a treatment

A rough outline of our treatment would be based around similar genre to mentioned above, alternate/soft-rock. It would be both a narrative and a performance based video, ideally cutting between both. The performance part would be a simple band performing the track possibly consisting of 3 or 4 characters and the image would reflect the genre and again be similar to that of The Fray’s and other bands of this nature. The narrative part of the video would possibly relate to the lyrics of the song and consist of one main character playing either a fairly depressing role or an opposing optimistic one. This would be based around the character missing someone close to them or possibly even losing them again reflecting the lyrics of the track. The narrative would show some sort of progression throughout to keep the audiences interest and also give a meaning to the whole track.

7. Identify suitable locations for filming particular sequences of the music

There are various locations we have thought of for sequence of the music. The most interesting one of these would be for the performance based sequence which we decided could be extremely effective if it was in an empty, old and abandoned school hall or cinema. This way we would still have a stage to perform on but at the same time a rustic and unique style. This location would also connote certain emotions of the song due to the main character reflecting on his past and whom he is missing, representing a feeling of history which of course would be portrayed in this old and abandoned location. The narrative part of the track could be performed in different places but two main ideas that slightly oppose each other but at the same time could be effective is a busy part of London and also an open and empty field or part of woodland. The busy street in London would allow the main character to be surrounded by various random commuters who would seem to be continuing with every day life which at the same time could enhance the main characters overall performance of depression. The empty and open field could also be used effectively if weather and lighting is taken in to consideration and could be used to connote the characters feeling of emptiness and the fact he has been left alone.


8. Consider grain of voice. What characters would you use?

The characters we will use in the video are still undecided; however the main character will certainly be male as will all members of the band. The image is highly important of the band and should reflect the genre of the track. The lead singer is more important in this and should look the part as well as looking like he is actually singing the lyrics to the track and not just miming. The main character of the narrative should also be dressed suitably and it’s important he is presented correctly and comes across as desired to the audience.


9. What pro-filmic and post-production special affects would be suitable?

Special effects would not be a necessity due to our genre of video and the seriousness of the narrative and also due to the fact our band needs to appear as normal as possible without any real unique effects to enhance the image. However there are certain post-production special effects that we could use and include in the performance part of the video that could improve the overall quality. This may be simplistic effects like lyrics appearing in time with the band singing them or certain other filters that may support the mood and emotion of the track.

10. Who else would you need to 'employ' to help you with this production?


As a group we have decided not to include any other people and would rely only on ourselves as this way we can film and complete the video as and when we want to. Other people included in the video would only be people continuing with every day life that have not been asked to act in any different way in order to convey a feeling of normality and realism

OH- response to track

1. Post a link to track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ING1C747Y

2. What is the genre of the track? How can you tell?
The genre of the track is soft rock, you can tell this by the acoustics, the generally soft voice of the person singing and the video seeming like its in a very relaxed atmospheres.

3. Do you think this track represents a high or lo fi video? Why?
I think that the track would generally be quite a hi fi video. i think this because other similar videos in the same genre of music seem to be quite hi fi, due to extravegant locations, however i believe a lo fi video could be made of this genre, while still keeping the genre charachteristics and a original look.

4. What videos would be comparable? Publish and label some interesting stills from the same genre.
Upside Down – Jack jhonson, this video could be compared to our video due to the fact that its got a performance, but with something ele interesting going on, also the acoustic guitar is a very conventional prop to have in all of these same genre of songs, giving a more relaxed feel to the video. Promoting the artist in a positive way to there target audience and fan base.
However Paulo nutins – coming up easy is a similar type of music style, however the music video is more along the lines of what we will be able to achieve. There are shots which are conventional to the soft rock genre, however the artist isn’t promoted as going off to amazing countries travelling, playing the guitar, in this video he’s promoted more as someone who lives near you, in a normal house, just singing in a park. Which lots of people would be relate to, which is a clever marketing scheme to promote this artist.

5. Find out the budget for one of the above examples.
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6. Give an outline of a treatment
Our music video will cut between two lines of action, a performance on some level and a narrative of sorts, possibly of something bad that has happened in the artists life, trying to move on and hopefully get over whats happened, possibly the death of a lover or someone close to him. We will be able to construct this by thinking about godwins ideas that the actions on the screen should connote to those in the lyrics, for example possible slow motion in a normally busy situation, such as London streets, but also possibly somewhere like a park on a blue sunny day, connoting a brighter future after being able to move on.

7. Identify suitable locations for filming particular sequences of the music
I think that a few good locations could be urban, but also rural. I think somewhere peaceful like a park covered in green grass on a sunny day with blue skies, connoting some a good vibe and feel to the video, however we could use a more rural location such as a London underground, acting as a busker, since when I thought of playing the guitar I thought of busking, which would connote a feeling of possible depression, playing weary guitar in a dismal and dark place.

8. Consider grain of voice. What characters would you use?
We would use probably only one main character, since the performance is quite an emotional one , so the shots have to be conforming with his emotions, however we may have other people doing the instrumental. Lots of meat shots would show his/her emotional performance of a song like this which would bring new emotions to the performance.


9. What pro-filmic and post-production special affects would be suitable?
I think that there the special effects that would be suitable are possibly, going threw somewhere and it turning out invisible, like going threw a door in the middle of nowhere and then not coming out of the other side, and possibly go to a different line of action.

10. Who else would you need to 'employ' to help you with this production?
No one our group is of suitable size so we wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else to help us with our music video.

OH- Deconstruction of Dream catch me by Newton Faulkner.

This video in my belief should be viewed in a positive, due to the fact that the sets seem low key and the characters seem friendly and warm. The coffee shop gives connotations of quite a calm place to be, which conforms to the music being calm and relaxing. I think that this video could be viewed in a focused way, due to the fact that most of the characters at points seem to be in a gaze with something, which isn’t revealed to the viewer, making them want to find out what everyone is looking at, cutting between two lines of actions keeps the audiences interest.

This could be seen as a fairly mainstream video due to the initial slow motion shots of an attractive waitress, showing the male gaze, pan’s up of her and slow motion of her face whilst smiling and blinking further shows this. I think that the record label would have a massive role in creating this artists promotional texts, because in this genre of music, even thoug its more about the artists talent and the emotions that they bring to the videos with there performance, he is to some extent marketed himself to fit the genre charachteristics making him to some extent pseudoindividualised so this video
isnt breaking with adornos theories, since the video does give a sense of false needs and acts as a type of social currency.
The video is a cut between two lines of action of the artist performing in a coffee shop, and many different characters gazing at something unknown to the viewer. This is fairly typical of this genre of music since it demonstrates genre characteristics. This is something we will definitely think about when constructing our video. At one part of the song when he says “dream catch me” there’s a show of a dream catcher in a car,

showing Goodwins idea that there are relationships between lyrics and visuals, no matter how subtle they are. There are a lot of meat shots in the performance part, and the narrative part of the video. Showing a performance with more emotion and adding emphasis to the gazes of the people in the narrative.

I don’t really see how this video could be considered as art, although I don’t really have much of an eye for art, due to the fact that it isn’t particularly original and shows many genre characteristics, although it has a good narrative, keeping the audience wanting to know what’s being stared at however I believe that the message purpose throughout the video is one of wanting to break from the normal routine of a fairly dull job, such as a taxi driver and a waitress, and having the confidence to move on with your life and follow your dreams,

(hence the title dream catch me, and why in the video people seem to be breaking free from there lives) and become happy. I believe that this is the message since, the waitress; taxi driver and newspaper salesman are fixed in a gaze in the narrative and won’t take notice of anyone else, possibly connotations that they don’t care about anyone else any more and are just doing what they want to do. When they leave there jobs and walk out, they both seem a lot happier and content within themselves, so the performance of the narrative is crucial to the message of the song, again conforming to Goodwin’s idea that there are links between the music and the visuals.

Meat shots of smiles and the gaze are used to connote this to the main extent, and a relatively slow cutting rate, which adds emphasis to the performance. The meis-en-scene is also important here, showing how the two main actors are working in relatively poor jobs that want to escape from them, which wouldn’t work if they were in better jobs, doing what they really want to do.

Since this video follows many genre characteristics it doesn’t come under the category of being post modern. There are no intertextual references that are obvious; however I’m sure that the use of everyone gazing at something is an intertextual reference. However the performance creates many meanings to the audience, the three main characters are obviously breaking free from there normal lives and doing something they wouldn’t normally do.

The artist is represented In a very positive light, since his performance is very emotional and personal, which is the exact theme that he is trying to portray, there image/star persona is definitely constructed threw the music, showing his musical talent, rather than just having money thrown at him threw marketing, to end up with a really famous, talentless artist. This helps sell there product because there is a big fan base for this genre of music, and they care about the music and emotions in it rather than material goods in the video and looking good.


I think he video also connotes the idea that music is an escape for people, somewhere they can go where they arent troubled by burdens put upon them and responsibilities, its just somewhere where they can go to relax. (which shows dyres theory to be correct.)
There aren’t many different social groups represented in this video, I suppose that a woman working in a coffee shop is a bit of a stereotype, however there are men that are gazing also at what seems to be nothing which doesn’t show that women are being unjustly represented, and also all of the actors seem to be from similar origins, so not many different social groups are being represented in different ways.
Gender isn’t represented in a particularly bad light in this video, this is due to male and female characters being put in the same situation and gazing at nothing, just in what seems to be deep thought, and coming to terms with what they want to do with their lives. It represents people of the age group of mid twenties, people who might not know exactly what there doing with there life, working at a job that doesn’t inspire them at all, one that they just have to get by, then having a realisation that they have to take risks to do something different and have a better/happier life.

What have i learnt from deconstructing this video?
In conclusion I believe that the video is fairly generic of others in its genre however the narrative is well thought threw and adds more of a meaning to the video. however i think that it to some extent hasnt really broken with any conventions, it follows genre charachteristics but has alot of good shots, ideas and techniques that we will be using in our video.

EU - Paolo Nutini Deconstruction

Paolo Nutini – Rewind
Video Deconstruction


I have chosen this video because I think it is perfect for the style we want to do as a group because it has a very interesting way of cutting between narrative and performance. I think this way of performing with specific narrative actions happening behind the singer is a very clever idea. It shows a lot of good meat shots of the artist and also because the song is sad, things happening behind him connote that this could be his past and the audience may be able to relate to it.
Paolo Nutini does have a sad genre and motif about him so this video definitely fits in with his genre as an artist and it also amplifies his sad style with very bad things happening to the main character in the background.
When applying Goodwin’s theory to this music video you can notice that there is the obvious link of lyrics and visuals with the lip syncing performance of it. It does however end there because the video is all one continuous shot and there is not cutting rate in time with the music but I think this works and gives the video a more authentic and honest feeling showing the artists emotion, nothing fancy just and emotional performance. There is no reference of looking because even with all this drama happening around him Paolo focuses on the camera which makes it seem as though what he’s singing is the most important. There isn’t a direct link between the lyrics and the narrative but it is obviously linked with the lyric “going from bad to bad” being sung each time something bad happens at the scene, like the fight or the police turning up.
If one were to apply Adorno’s theory to this video I think it would definitely disprove his arguments. One of his main arguments was that the media creates and exploits the false needs of man but nothing in this video is either glamorous or desirable to the audience. It is in quite a deprived location and doesn’t advertise any sort of luxury in any form. It is quite a gritty very true to life video with a grotty location, average cars and regular people in all shapes and sizes, hardly anything desirable.
The main camera technique in this video is the pull back focus of the camera to switch between the performance and narrative. But other than this there is nothing special being used, no CGI, no expensive camera movement of any kind. But this in itself creates a style of music video that a lot of people aspire to.
Paolos star personar is reinforced in this video with the simplicity and rawness of the video. With the first person mode of address and breaking the 4th wall it gives a more personal feel to the video and to the artist. This reinforces Richard Dyers theory that all stars are created and if we think we know paolo through this video because of the vulnerability we feel from his performance it is just a motif that has been created.

EU - Video i will be deconstructing

Paolo Nutini - Rewind

JH- Drops of Jupiter - initial ideas

Original ideas that first came to mind after listening to the track included difference aspects of the video. Firstly location was an obvious factor to think about and my immediate thoughts were of a busy street in London or possibly in London undergrounds. I also had opposing thoughts to this and possibly and completely empty location like an open field or woodland may be effective in certain parts of the video. I also thought about the structure of the video and a narrative based one seemed more appropriate for the track but I may possibly do some research in to performance based videos of a similar genre and see if this could be included in certain parts of our video. The main character in our video will be one of ourselves and in relation to a girl involved I actually think it may be more effective not to include one and leave this character as more of a mystery which I think could be interesting after reading the tracks lyrics. It also means we wouldn’t have to rely on any one else apart from ourselves to shoot our video or about the quality of acting. It also means we could stay away from stereotypical and almost cheesy music videos and explore slightly different ideas.

OH-Class response to our song choice.

The classes initial response to our song choice appeared to be a very positive one, they said it had alot of potential and they gave us the ideas of some similar artists to research and togather inspiration from. from the relatively slow tone to the music, and the very passionate way that it is being sung, they gave us some feedback that we should include alot of meat shots and incorpirate a performance, and an emotional one at that at points in the video. this gave us some great ideas, which we incorpirated to our initial ideas.

JH- Ross Copperman - All she wrote - Ideas and concepts

Various long shots of main character followed by camera swiftly zooming in and consequently finishing with a close up. These close ups seem effective as character exposition is then enhanced and improves audiences relationship with that main character. The snap shot style screen shots included are also very effective and improves the overall style of the video making it slightly quirky and interesting to the viewers. There is also clearly a main female character in the video which the song is based around and some sort of relationship is not only formed between the audience and the female but also the main character in the female creating a narrative feel to the video. The performance side of the video is good and intertwines with the narrative side of it and the extreme lighting and mis-en-scene enhances this. The weather is also a strong asset to the video and there seems to be obvious use of pathetic fallacy to connote certain feelings and emotions which is interesting. The idea of shooting a music video inside of a music video is also an intriguing concept and works very well in this video, making the audience question which relationships are actually real and creates a sense of mystery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDiReqdfC4k

OH- why this music genre/ track?

We have decided to choose this music video because we blieve that it ofers alot of dofferent technical styles that we could explore and further progress in our creativity of shot angle, lighting and fine tune our filming abilities. Also we all like the song and see that it has alot of potential. it alows us to potentially have a cut between a performance and a narrative, which is playing on our strengths due to the fact that we had a similar idea at AS media.
We chose the genre of music since there are alot of good artists that we could draw inspiration from such as, paulo nutini and jason moraz. Most of these artists appear as ordinary people, but with something special about them making them a star, thay apear in a ordinary paradox, this alows us to create a video on a relatively low budget, however be able to create something asteticaly pleasing, while still keeping with the conventions of most other music artists with similar songs.

EU - Some videos that could be analysed

this video has a brilliant continuous style of scene with him walking through packed places in london. it is a scene that i think would be very affective to use in our music video

EU - Some videos that could be analysed

this video has a brilliant continuous style of scene with him walking through packed places in london. it is a scene that i think would be very affective to use in our music video

Drops of jupiter Boyce Avenue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ING1C747Y

Moodboard styles of possible locations for shoots

This moodboard shows a few possible locations that we would be able to shoot in which are reasonably accessable whilst still astetically pleasing and a hopeful start to the final ideas of where abouts would be most practical to begin our filming.
The images are of parks around tunbridge wells, aswell as the london underground, the london eye and hyde park. these should hopefully give us some inspiration to make some amazing shots for our video.

EU - Moodboard of styles and iconography

EU - General Ideas

i have thought up a good idea for part of the song which involves quite a complex method. we use a program to slow down the song to exactly 50% of its real speed and then i learn it. we then go to quite a busy location like trafalger square and i mime it at the half speed. then when it comes to editing we can speed it up to 200% and it will look as though i am the only one moving at normal speed and everyone else will be rushing.

EU - Song Choice

We as a group have decided to do the song "drops of jupiter" by Traiun but do the boyce avenue cover. it is a soft rock/indie style song and band so will be easy and interesting to make a video to.


"make this to a comment, school computers wont allow me to make a comment..."
This song choice should give us a fair bit of inspiration to try different shots to hopefully make them match with the emotions that the song is trying to portray, trying to keep to goodwells idea that there are links between the lyrics/emotions visable in the song that are being visually portraid in our music video.