Final Cut of Music Video

First draft of Final Music Video

Genre Theory Case Study (2)

Genre theory and intertextuality in music videos from Emily Ore

Props in our music video

Evaluating our first rough edit

This was our first rough edit, and the reason it is unfinished is because half way through filming different scenes we realised that our style of music video didn't fit with the genre of the song and the band and  was not using the conventions set by Goodwin to create an effective music video which engages the audience. My group and I felt like we had a good narrative, however we were only relating it back to the lyrics of the song and not the genre or the style. 

Our strengths and ideas we will keep for the next edit are the basic style and reflections of other music videos and films. We used a Wes Anderson style opening of the classroom and Panic! At The Disco "This is Gospel" shot for Lauren, the main character, waking up. These connotations reflect the genre because Panic! At The Disco have the same brand as Gameplan. In addition, Wes Anderson's qwerky style to filming mirrors the variety of the song and how we want the music video to look like; qwerky. 

On the other hand, our weaknesses were that a lot of our shots weren't framed properly. Some of our shots were wobbly, like the classroom tracking shot, (0.22) so we will try and improve this by using a dolly rather than a hand held camera or using a make shift dolly with an office chair. Furthermore, our shot variety was very basic using forward mid shots and long shots, with limited close ups to connect the audience with the character and to show little movements between the key scenes.  

We also made the narrative of the music video very confusing with the idea of Laurent not liking her reality because it was boring and torture, It would then cut to her waking up in her dreams with her imaginary best friend. Our first problem we came across was that the idea of the imaginary best friend did not work because it wasn't clear whether she was just a random person in her dreams or an imaginary best friend. Also our dream ideas were very cheesy like the paint war. It didn't feel natural, and the theme of the paint war didn't reflect into our genre conventions. 

In conclusion, we are going to improve the music video is by researching more into the genre conventions of our band and how we can reflect similar visual styles they use in theirs. Also, we are going to bring back the narrative and make it simpler, so it is easier to follow. We are going to get rid of the imaginary best friend because it was too confusing to establish her as more than just another random person. 

Behind the scenes shots from shooting

Pitch

A teenage girl with a dreary and unfulfilling life turns to her 'brightly coloured' dreams for exhilarant adventures beyond her bleak reality.

Costume and Actor Choices

Actors: 
Our main character will be Lauren, who is in our media group and also acted in our music video as the main characters sister. She takes drama and partakes in productions outside of school. We chose her because she is in our group so knows the concept of the music video and is easily contactable for shooting. She also lives near all of us so travelling won't be a problem. 

Our supporting actress is Molly, who also goes to our school and is in Lauren's drama class. She is also an aspiring actress and take part in many productions as well. Her role in the music video will be Lauren's imaginary best friend while she is asleep and dreaming. Another reason we chose her is because she looks very similar to Lauren and they could pass for sisters. This reflects into our music video as Molly reflects Lauren 'other' self. Molly is more eccentric and happy and this happiness wears off on Lauren and makes her feel better.  



We will also use extra actors for the classroom and paint war scene, but we will use the people in our group and our friends because they are reliable and we can use them then and there rather than having actors which we would have to scout, but have no real effect on the final cut of the music video. 

Costumes:

Lauren, the main character will be wearing dull, grey pyjamas while in bed and in the beach dream. This connotes her boring reality still being incorporated within her dreams. Furthermore, they also show the audience that she is asleep and aware the audience that this part of her dreaming state. By wearing pyjamas it emphasises her vulnerability when she's asleep and innocence. 

Molly will be wearing a white shirt, black trousers and a pirate hat when we are filming the beach dream scene. This has intertextuality to the film Pirates of the Caribbean 




When she enters the vintage dream, Molly her imaginary best friend helps her become apart of the 1960's era with hair and make up. This reflects Lauren slowly drifting into a deeper sleep and becoming happier and more immersed within her dreams because she is further away from her reality which she finds boring and tiresome. Because the vintage car they will be driving around in is from the 60's we have decided to reflect the costume ideas and hair and make-up around the car. 
While researching I found that the beehive was the iconic hairstyle of the 60's with loose curls that framed the persons face. Other hairstyles included low ponytails and cropped hair but seeing as both of the actors we are using have long curly hair, the beehive seems the easiest option. We would straighten their hair then back-comb the top to make it more poofy and then do big curls at the bottom. A film that reflects the style we want to achieve is Emma Stone in the 2011 film 'The Help'. 

As for make up, heavy eyes is key, using mainly mascara on the bottom lashes and having strong eyebrows and winged eyeliner. Lauren will still be wearing her pyjamas but Molly will wear a polka dot dress as shown below which reflects the fashion of the 60's as well as Marilyn Monroe's style in that decade. 




Paint war

We will use two extra actors for this part of the dream to create 'war' scene. Molly and Lauren will be fighting Abbie and Marcus (two of our friends) who both have fair hair so it creates an opposite to the other team. By this point in the dream, Lauren is completely immersed and interpolated so she is wearing the same outfit as everyone and has her hair the same as Molly. It shows the audience that she is far away from her dismal reality and is happy inside. 
The costume for this dream was a plain white top and black jeans or leggings. We chose this outfit so when using the mid shots and close ups, the paint shows up on the white tops and black jeans to contrast the top and make it stand out on the camera more. 

Storyboards: Vintage car dream (Amy)

This storyboard was made by Amy in our group.

Storyboards: Paint War (Me)

Storyboards: Beach dream (Abbie)

Storyboards: Intro/ Beginning (Lauren)

Setting and Location Ideas (with Lighting choices)



Setting for music video media a2 from Emily Ore

Intertextual References: Influence of Music Videos (part 2)

2. Warriors-Coco and the Butterfields

(by a previous student)

Planning of music video: Chloe Wakefield Planning for Music Video

In this music video the main idea is behind the novel and film Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the 3 bears. I liked these ideas and I also liked her planning behind each story down to the location, costume and props. Furthermore, the ideas of fantasy using fairy tales could work well with our ideas and reflect the fantasy dream world the character lives in. This could be an idea for our video through the concept of fantasy being more exciting and different to reality. We could reflect this through using 

The reason I chose to use this music video was the concept of a fantasy that was more exciting and different to the normal reality. Through the use of exhilarating settings and locations with the use of wacky costumes and props (like shown in the music video, lollipops in bushes), our music video could incorporate these to reflect Chloe's but putting our own unique style on things. 

Intertextual References: Influence of Films

The science of sleep-2006-Michel Gondry

This film is about a distraught young man and how his vivid and intense dreams start to take over his real life through his hyperactive imagination. The qwerky-ness of this story caught my eye. In one scene they throw cotton wool into the ceiling and it stays there reflecting clouds. I like the idea that reality and dreams overlap and this convergence could be a perfect idea for our music video.

Waking Life-2001-Richard Linklater

This film is in animation but the concept of the film I liked. Through the narrative we are travelling through trying to discover if the world is or isn't reality. The main question being asked is "Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?" I like this confusion and by doing it subtly in our music video I feel like it would be effective.

Inception-2010-Christopher Nolan
This is one of my favourite films and the way Nolan explains and comes up with the technical side to dreams is enchanting. Although this film is more of a science fiction thriller, I like the complexity of the dreams. I feel like we could recreate this in a more simpler way by transporting the viewer into different 'levels' or locations of dreams that derive from the main characters imagination and move up and down the levels through camera movements.

Wes Anderson and His style of Film-Making

Wes Anderson is my favourite director and I love his auteur ways of composing films. I have linked two videos below that reflect his ingenious and unique way of framing and filming. He uses the above shot birds eye view to put the spectator in the characters shoes and watch where their eyes and hands go. He also likes every shot to be perfectly be put together whether if that is with using the rule of thirds, centering characters or keeping everything down to the smallest props within a scene 

Another fascinating thing I love about Wes Anderson's work is to make every setting like a dolls house to the audience. In the clip below taken from The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou with him introducing his boat, the camera moves into the shoot through a zoom and out through a pull out and sideways and up and down in one fluid motion rather than cutting to different shots. For shooting indoors we won't be able to recreate this because we don't have a set and we are using a house with full falls without half walls. But when storyboarding and then while filming, we will try and reflect his style of cinematography as much as possible.

Intertextual References: Influence of Art

Monet Painting

This painting by Claude Monet of Madame Monet and his Son painted in 1875. The reason I chose this painting for influence for our music video was because I liked the way the artist uses bright colours with simple shadows and lighting to create the feeling of warmth on the summer day. As the title for our music video is 'Brightly Coloured Dream' I feel that we need to reflect Monet's warmth within our music video. 

Cromer Painting

One of our locations was to use Cromer beach and pier for the 'beach' themed dream. In this painting above, bright colours are used to bring warmth into the photos, but also The sky is bright blue. This is another thing I would want to create in our music video to reflect summer and happiness. In the photo below is a photo from the summer when I went to Bournemouth. This is roughly the idea I want to achieve with the film through the nice blue sky, the rolling waves and the dots of bright colours. 

Terry Draper

While looking for inspiration on the internet, I came across this local artist named Terry Draper who takes photos along the Norfolk coastline. Instead of looking at the colour in his work, I was drawn to the fascinating clouds. They bring a new dimension to his photos and again this is something I would like to recreate. However, it is now getting into Autumn so we are planning of filming in the next couple of weeks to get the best of the weather and before it turns cold. 

The artist says

 "Inside this photographer is a painter who cannot paint, and I try to use the camera with a painters eye, using natural lighting conditions to produce images in which there is something new to see each time they are looked at."

I feel like we will reflect this within our film because we want it to be eye-catching and exciting, reflecting the style and pace of the song we have chosen.

Intertextual References: Influence of Music Videos (part 1)

1. Her Morning Elegance-Oren Lavie

In this music video, stop motion is used to show the character moving in small quick edits. The film is shot in only 2 angles, but the predominant angle is a bird eye view looking down at the bed. This is used to make the stop motion editing more pleasing to the eye and not disjointed. By using the bed, it allows a white blank space to be changed into different worlds and be filled with life without having to change location. The bed is in the centre of the shot and draws the eye into the characters ballerina type movement. I liked this idea for our music video because it is simplistic but rewarding. One way we could incorporate it into our film would be to use it between the individual dream worlds. In this video the sea slowly moves up the bed as if the character is falling into the water. We could do a similar effect for our music video through the character lying down on a forest floor and the sand slowly moving up using stop motion until she is completely lying on sand, where we would cut to the character lying on the beach. It is a fluid movement to transport the viewer and character though the dreams. 

Lyrics:

Sun been down for days

A pretty flower in a vase

A slipper by the fireplace

A cello lying in its case

Soon she's down the stairs

Her morning elegance she wears

The sound of water makes her dream

Awoken by a cloud of steam

She pours a daydream in a cup

A spoon of sugar sweetens up 

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

With  thought she has caught by thread

She pays for the bread as she goes

Nobody Knows

Sun been down for days

A winter melody she plays

The thunder makes her contemplate

She hears a noise behind the gate

Perhaps a letter with a dove

Perhaps a stranger she could love

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

With  thought she has caught by thread

She pays for the bread as she goes

Nobody knows

Nobody knows

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

Where the people are cleverly strange

And counting the change as she goes

Nobody Knows

The music video is an example of illustration and amplification because some of the lyrics reflect what is happening on screen such as the first "she looks at the rain as it pours" and "a cello lying in its case, soon she's down the stairs". Furthermore, the notion of looking at women is raised as the main character is female and even when the other character appears (who is male) our attention is still on the women.

Extra Curricular: From Ruins to Rio

A short film made at the Norwich C4 pop up day run by Channel 4 in the summer of 2015. Our theme for our film was 'solidarity' while referencing the Rio Payalympics in 2016.

Our plot was that a young girl stuck in the life of crime turns her life around when she volunteers for the Rio Paralympics. She finds like minded people to socialise with and becomes a better person because of it.

In the end, we were the winning group and have been invited to the Channel 4 HQ in a couple of months to recieve awards and learn more about the industry from directors and professionals who work in film and TV.

Planning Music Video part 3

After reviewing other music videos and other influences, we decided that the space location wouldn't fit with the rest of our ideas with how we want the music video to look. Instead we are looking at other ideas and locations such as:

-Ballet/dance room: Can use the notion of looking with the mirrors. Have a dance routine between the two characters, using shadows, silhouettes and distorted light to reflect the dream


- Vintage style with a car ride with a chauffeur. Lauren's Granddad owns vintage 1960's cars and we could dress them up in 1960's style dresses with similar hair and make-up

Planning for music video part 2

We have decided on 3 locations to use for our music video, all colourful in different ways to show more of a variety of different ideas and ways people can dream. Are first location/ setting will be Space which will be retro and use a silver palette. The second location will be the beach which will be heavily saturated and use mainly primary colours to keep it childish and playful. Our final location will be based in a forest where we a paint war will happen and we will use slow motion in some shots to accentuate the colour. We would also shoot the war at sundown to get the golden hour shots an to produce a nicer tone to the colours on the camera.

We also want the protagonist to fall in and out of each location using a zoom to a close up and then back out but in a different direction. This will need to be very slick because of continuity factors when editing.

We will end with the protagonist chucking paint over the camera. This will then fade to black and the title of the song will come up.

*Our next step is to storyboard and finalise props/costume e.t.c and then we will be ready to film*

Laura Mulvey's theory into Male Gaze

'Gaze' means to look intently with fixed attention.
Laura Mulvey is apart of the second wave on feminism and in 1975 wrote  an essay 'on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'
This is used to explain why and where the male attention is held in music videos. 
Mulvey says that the mainstream Hollywood "coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order"
She discovered that Men will look at Women as if they were objects and see themselves solely as a spectator. She also goes on to say that this voyeuristic way of looking at women came about through heterosexual men  being behind and in control of the camera.
Usually her chest or curves will be highlighted more during a video through close ups and slow motion to make them more prominent. Furthermore, women also adapt to the male gaze theory when watching other women. They objectify them and are 'fixed' on them in the same way.

An example of Male Gaze in music videos: 

Brightly coloured dream main ideas

Bands permission to use the song

Text sent to Glenn Spooner from Lauren: 

His response:

Lyrics for Song

LYRICS

VERSE
I feel the morning sun shining on my face
I'd better wake up I'm in no fit state
To be laying here, on my own.
I take a walk outside, falling on my knees
Hearing the laughs of friends and families
Cause their used to it..by now
And all the stories tell from the walk of hell
And how we'll laugh when mama fell
How all of this seems to be.

CHORUS
Of my brightly coloured dream
Brightly coloured dream

VERSE
I'm sitting on the rocks a thousand crazy eyes
And everyone seems to be hypnotised
By the golden sky passing by
When the sun goes down we come back around
The drink starts flowing and you hear the sounds
I've never heard before
It kind of sets the scene

CHORUS
Of my brightly coloured dream
Brightly coloured dream

My brightly coloured dream

Brightly coloured dream

BRIDGE

The world passes by

As the sun says goodnight

The world passes by

As the sun says goodnight

CHORUS

Of my brightly coloured dream
My brightly coloured dream
My brightly coloured dream 

Brightly Coloured Dream Lyrics

VERSE
I feel the morning sun shining on my face
I'd better wake up I'm in no fit state
To be laying here, on my own.
I take a walk outside, falling on my knees
Hearing the laughs of friends and families
Cause their used to it..by now
And all the stories tell from the walk of hell
And how we'll laugh when mama fell
How all of this seems to be.

CHORUS
Of my brightly coloured dream
Brightly coloured dream

VERSE
I'm sitting on the rocks a thousand crazy eyes
And everyone seems to be hypnotised
By the golden sky passing by
When the sun goes down we come back around
The drink starts flowing and you hear the sounds
I've never heard before
It kind of sets the scene

CHORUS
Of my brightly coloured dream
Brightly coloured dream

My brightly coloured dream 

Brightly coloured dream 

BRIDGE

The world passes by

As the sun says goodnight

The world passes by

As the sun says goodnight

CHORUS

Of my brightly coloured dream
My brightly coloured dream

My brightly coloured dream 

Media Language Case Study (1)

Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos

Goodwin wrote a book called 'Dancing in the distraction factory' where he outlined the 6 main characteristics of a music video:

1. Genre characteristics: each different genre has different conventions e.g. Rock and punk music would show the band performing on a stage, and Dance music would include a either a dance or a club scene to reinforce the conventions of the music. In the music video fireflies by Owl City, the genre is electronic and this style was developed was in the 80's. To reflect this a lot of the props and objects used in the video are retro and from the 80's era such as a toy robot, and a retro spaceship. 

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. In Owl City, Fireflies the lyrics appear on screen through a typo speak. Furthermore, the lyrics "as fox trot above my head" a shot of fox trot music being chosen appears. Another example is "a disco ball that's just hanging by a thread" a disco ball appears. The lyrics and visuals are working together in the music video to show the viewer what the lyrics really mean. 

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (e.g. upbeat song, shows synchronous cuts, editing will link to a part of a the song) In Fireflies, the whole song uses synchronous cuts with the objects around the bedroom. For example, the typo speak turns on saying 'Hello' when the music starts. 

4. It reinforces the stars image, close ups and motifs. In Owl City's music video he is shown only at a side view, never looking directly at the camera. It reinforces the stars image but in a different way to the conventions. Owl City as an artist is very reserved and this also reflects his style of music; a one man band singing his music, no dancing or swearing.  An example of motifs is Avicii's symbol he uses in his music videos and also at his concerts and on his merchandise. It's a symbol of him as an artist but also a logo for his music. 

5. Voyeuristic treatment of the female body and using screens within screens as a notion of looking and watching. In the music video, the notion of looking is very pleasing to watch with all the lights and different toys keeps the audience interested and wanting to watch more. There is no voyeurism used because there are no women used in the video, nor are any women referenced to in the song. 

6. Using intertextual references. In this case there are no intertextual references, but this alone does not completely make it a bad music video in the eyes of Goodwin's theory. 

Key terms: 3 different types of music videos

Illustration: The video illustrates the song, the images derive from the lyrics

Amplification: The video adds extra meaning to the song meaning doesn't relate to lyrics

Disjuncture: The video has no apparent link to the lyrics at all

Owl City Fireflies, is an example of Illustration as the images reflect the lyrics being sung and the child like tune with electric style reflects the location of the video being in a childrens bedroom. 

Owl city Fireflies music video:

Chosen Band: part 2

A backup song incase our first choice doesn't work is 'Sirens' by Gameplan. It is in the same style of light punk with conventions of pop as well. As for ideas for the music video, I was thinking of using sirens and strobe lighting using either actors or the band across their faces showing different peoples personalities. This would be one part of the video, other locations and costumes/ sets could be used to show another meaning to the song and it's lyrics.

Listen to the music video here:

Chosen Band

Our choice for a music artist is a Norwich band called 'Gameplan' who have 14 original songs. As a group, we looked through all their songs and chose 'Brightly Coloured Dream' to use for the music video. We chose the song because it was upbeat and lively.
Our initial idea of what we want the music video to look like is a girls reality vs her dreams and aspirations. The video will be fun and exciting, and show her normal life compared to what she is thinking or dreaming about. We would use brightly colours to reflect her dreams toing the audiences attention to this part of her world and dull, bleak colours for her normal reality to show how boring it is and allow the difference between her dream and her reality to look like complete opposites.


Listen to the song here:
https://soundcloud.com/gameplan-uk/brightly-coloured-dream

Rhianna Diamonds Music Video Analysis

In this music video, it is mainly a montage of different shots in different locations which reflect the song and it's lyrics rather than a narrative or performance. Many different locations are used, in total 6 ranging from a studio to up in the mountains. By using so many locations and intertwining them all together, it creates a montage. Furthermore, in each different location there is a different costume, creating Some challenges like cost and sourcing and design of different costumes which create a certain meaning. More challenges that could happen would be during post production and editing when putting all the different shots are put together, and making sure they flow without any stutters or choppy edits. This is a conventional pop music video because it combines the different locations and costume changes in a typical video with the montage style. 

Jamiroquai Virtual Insanity Music Video Analysis

In this music video, it is an example of a performance style video focusing on Jamiroquai and his movement throughout the scene. Only 1 location and 1 costume was needed for this video due to the fact that the majority of this would have been shot in a studio or using a green screen and special effects with little or no camera movement. There would be some challenges for the organisation of the shoot, by making sure people were in the right place to then superimpose them into the scene with the green screen, however, because there isn't many shots and all the characters only wear one costume, it is quite simple to set up. Editing would be difficult with joining all the separate components together and creating slick cuts which are unnoticeable. In my opinion, this music video doesn't conform to the typical conventions through only using one setting and moving slickly around the scene. 

Alt-J Breezeblocks Music Video Analysis

This music video has a narrative style with the characters but plays it backwards so is more a combination of the narrative and the performance of the actors. This video only needed one location but different rooms within the house in which they walk into, furthermore, the actors only needed one costume which reduced cost. A challenge that could have effected our shoot would be the continuity between shots and making sure all the props and scenery were in the right place to create the desired look. Some challenges that also could have arisen with the planning and organising of the music video could be having a defined aim for the video and what it's target audience is to understand the style of music video we need to be making. As for post production and editing, the main problem would be how to get the continuity between the shots when running them backwards and in slomotion, and physically how to do that. In some cases, this is a conventional music video because it tells a story, but it does it in a distinctive unique style which contradicts these conventions. 

Welcome!

Hi! This is my A2 media blog, enjoy!