So far, we have planned out some direction for the interviews e.g. some questions and topics to discuss.
Above details some of the questions we have come up with for the interview with Mrs Edmunds. The interviews need not be long and as Mrs Edmunds already has knowledge in the field of psychology, we left it up to her to think about what she might say. We discussed with her a few pointers (as detailed above), but left the topics vague. We want our documentary to be as real as possible. We feel keeping Mrs Edmunds' script flexible will help towards that goal.
Above are the basic questions for Toby. These will be the basic topics for the interview. Toby will play our main character's younger brother.
We have also drafted a rough script for the rest of the film. We want to keep it simple and rough, and let our actors run with it. This worked really well when we filmed Mrs Edmunds' interview. Below is the rough script.
For our coursework, as our two main locations of filming are a house and a busy street in a city centre, we do not require many props. We plan to use the natural environment of the busy city centre and the small slightly overgrown cottage house. We do not want to add anything into the environments. This is because we are making a documentary-style short film so we want it to come across as realistic, and not as if we have placed things within the environments so that it looks real. However, we do require a couple of props for certain scenes. These are those props:
Car - We need a car so that the interviewer can drive to David's house in the documentary. The car we will use is a Hyundai Getz in red. This is Jasper's car, therefore it is always available for us to use whenever we want to film. Furthermore, as Jasper will play the interviewer it is the easiest car for him to drive.
The other main prop we will require is a load of drawings of the person in David's dream to stick on David's wall. This is to represent David's obsession with this person in his dream and finding him. Above are the pictures we drew of the person from multiple angles to stick up on the wall of the house.
1. How will your ancillary tasks help attract your target audience?
The ancillary task such as the CD digi-pack as well as posters will significantly help attract our target audience. The design of the case should be original and showcase bright and vibrant colours which will catch the audiences attention. Within the CD case a small insert will be made which will list song names, related imagery and lyrics. We could also create a poster to help further promote the band and music video. The poster will be either A4 or A3 in size and will be printed onto glossy paper for a premium finish. All the products made should be consistent in colours schemes and font types. This is to keep everything recognisable across the different media platforms.
We had already completed this post before changing our minds and deciding to switch over and create a short film... For short films the ancillary task includes a magazine feature and a film poster.
A film poster will help to attract the target audiences by being technically successful; eye catching and clear. It needs to be bold, visually/aesthetically appealing to look professional and it must accurately reflect/relate to the film. The magazine feature will showcase the film, it must stand out and the style must relate to the poster in terms of imagery, colour scheme and font, a large image (perhaps illustrated rather than photograph as this can be more exiting to look at) and snappy title will entice many audiences to continue reading the article.
Furthermore, we could set up social media accounts to further promote the brand. Social media is perhaps the best platform to showcase the music video as it is instant and effective, being accessible for everyone. This could also be set up quickly and easily, meaning we could update the pages and posts to advertise the final product and gain audience feedback.
By creating these ancillary products we will be able to extend the marketing of the music video and reach out to a wider range of people. The ultimate goal for the ancillary task is to mirror the media industry process from creating the idea, filming the video to selling the product to the consumer. If these products are made well will be able to gain more profit which would realistically go to the band. This is part of synergy, where each marketing campaign and process promotes another leading to more awareness of the band and its identity.
For our short film/documentary there are two main locations; the house which is meant to be David's house where the interviewer will meet David and speak to him. The other main location is the place that David dreamt he met this person and where he goes to wait for the person every day.
For David's house we looked at a couple of different locations, two in Hethersett, one in Wymondham, both of which were either houses of friends or one of our own. However two of these three houses we looked at were very typically suburban and on larger estates surrounded by many other houses. One of them was a smaller cottage, although it was surrounded by other houses it looks way more of an individual house and has an overgrown garden. This we felt was a perfect setting for David's house. This is because, due to his mix up of reality with dreams, we wanted to portray David as not quite your normal person and therefore we required a house that did not look like an every day typical suburban house on an estate. In addition, the overgrown garden we felt we could use to show how David's dream of meeting this person has overgrown into a reality for him and, like the overgrown garden, has got a bit out of control. Also the house is quite simply decorated so if we wanted to decorate it in any particular way or add any props into the house it would be relatively easy to do. This is what the house looks like inside and out:
Furthermore, the house is in Hethersett so it is easily accessible to us all making filming there easy.
Our second location we are using is central Norwich. This will be where we film the scenes in which David takes us to the place that he dreamed he met the person. We decided to go for a busy place like central Norwich rather than a secluded place as we wanted to show that you could wait in a sole place all your life for someone who may never come whilst everyone else around you moves on in life without waiting around - that is what reality is like. Therefore, we needed a busy place where we could easily show lots of people moving. Norwich is the closest big city to where we live and the centre can get very busy and so we felt this was perfect to film this part of the short film/documentary. In particular, we were looking at filming around Gentlemen's Walk and outside the City Hall.
Any interviews we do we plan to do in an empty class room with a dark wall, this is so that it will be quiet and so that if we use lighting efficiently the dark background will look very good and similar to what you would see in a real documentary.
All these locations are quite close to each other and are all easy to reach for all members of the group. In addition myself and Emma both drive so we can also provide transport for any actors we decide to use. Also as all locations are near each other it is likely that the weather will be very similar at all locations.
The short film industry seems to have it’s own target audience being somewhat a genre of it’s own. Although many people may come across short films every now and again there is a niche audience made up of mostly film makers and fans of independent films who follow the industry. With this in mind short films do not reach the majority of the population, so the target audience has already been narrowed down to creative/artsy types who interested in independent productions. I would say that my target audience includes mature teenagers and adults; being a documentary, the plot being relatively complex may need a certain understanding of film, it's a serious topic and would have to be taken seriously and with an empathetic approach and appreciation for the art of short film, the general tone and language used would perhaps be difficult for younger audiences to understand and engage with, who may find it dull or boring.
How does your product engage with the audience?
The film should engage the audience by being an intriguing story line that makes them want to keep watching and with the sense of realism and real psychology the audience will perhaps relate the film to something within their life, wanting to understand more about the character, his story and why he is the way he is.
The Psychologist - This character will be the brains behind the documentary, what she says will give weight to what we are saying. Essentially, like nearly every documentary, we need someone to explain the 'science' behind our main character and his condition. We thought for this character we would get a psychology teacher as they will have the knowledge already to talk about any condition our main character might have.
The Main Character - Documentaries tell a story, and so, with the nature of our documentary, it might be that the audience develops a relationship with the main person. It is likely they will feel sympathetic towards them, and this is likely what we will try to achieve.
The Family Member - Again, this character will help to add weight to the documentary, a bit of emotion. This may make the audience more sympathetic towards the main character, or depending on how they answer the interview questions, may help the audience to see a different side to the situation e.g. is the main character actually quite cruel to obsess over his search and cut off his own family?
The Presenter - This person guides the whole documentary, it is important that they are engaging and get the audience thinking. It is this person that will find out the information from each person we interview as well as take the audience on a journey.
Since we decided to change our idea from a music video to a short film we have a had a few rough ideas. However, now we have a final idea.
Our final idea is a documentary-style short film focusing on a man named David who has spent his life searching and waiting for someone he met in a dream. Our documentary will feature an interviewer following David around for a day, seeing his daily routine in his search for the man he met in his dreams. This stems from our original idea of the blur between reality and dreams and some people not being able to tell the difference between what they're dreaming and what will actually happen in reality. The documentary will feature the interviewer going to David's house to see how he lives as a result of his beliefs in his dream being reality. The interviewer will also get to know about his actual condition/belief. David will also take the interviewer into the centre of a city (in our documentary it will be Norwich) which is where he dreamt he met this man and where he goes every day to wait for him. Our documentary will also feature an interview with a psychology a-level teacher (who we will introduce as a university professor in the documentary) explaining some of the actual science behind how the brain reacts to dreams and how it can somehow confuse it with reality. It will also feature an interview with David's nephew or younger brother on how it has affected David and his interactions with his family. All scenes of interviews/talking with David and any other characters will be linked to eachother by voice overs of the interviewer. We are aiming to make the style of the short film/documentary very much similar to the style of Louis Theroux's documentaries where he follows round people who are the subjects in his documentaries. Not only this but we plan to use very similarly planned shots in the same way that Louis Theroux does. This is our final idea and how we plan to achieve this idea and now we can focus on planning, storyboarding, filming and making the short film/documentary.
To try and get some inspiration for an idea for our short docu-film we asked a group of year 8 students on what they dream about. This is because we knew we wanted to base our docu-film on dreams and the brain in some way but we weren't 100% sure on how to do this. We spoke to a class of year 8 students and got them all to write down something they dream about. Some responses were about ridiculous things however the most common theme was people dreaming about meeting someone, whether it was meeting David Beckham or superman it was still a very common theme. From this we managed to come up with the idea of what if someone has a dream, meets someone in the dream and the becomes fixed on trying to find this person in real life. Although the idea didn't come directly from the research we did on dreams, it definitely stemmed from the research we gained and the common themes seen in the dreams. In addition if we based our idea on something that people commonly dreamed about then it could make our character more relatable to people as they too have dream about meeting someone and perhaps woken up thinking what if that person is real. We felt this made our docu-film more relatable and engaging.
These are the schedules for when we plan to shoot all of our documentary: Psychologist interview - Friday 9th of December 2016 Child interview - Monday 9th of January 2017 Main documentary shooting - Tuesday 10th January 2017
The main section of the documentary we are going to attempt to shoot all in one day, this is because the actual documentary only focuses on following the character for one day in order for the weather to be the same and the actor to look the same.
The Psychologist - We knew that for this role we needed someone with actual knowledge of psychology, as while we know some information, we do not have extensive knowledge of the subject. Out of convenience, we thought that using a psychology teacher would be the best person for the job. We immediately thought of Mrs Edmunds as she is my psychology teacher.
Main Character - Originally, we thought that we should get an adult of some sort, somebody middle aged. The trouble we had is that we struggled to envision anybody we knew in this role. We changed our idea to using a younger person, perhaps in their 20s, as this is far easier to cast. We plan to use Jasper's older brother, Henry.
The Family Member - After our previous success with using Toby as our actor in our preliminary task, we decided we wanted to use him again - this time as a younger brother or nephew of our main character.
The Presenter - This could be anybody, but we decided to go for a younger-looking person, someone who is completely comfortable in front of the camera and properly understands the documentary style we are going for, we would like to use Jasper for this.
The first idea we had was to simply build on our preliminary idea and improve it. Originally we thought that perhaps we could re-use some of our footage from our original piece, but upon discussion and review, felt that it would not be worth it and we needed to create more substance and narrative.
From this, we created a slightly new idea, sticking with the same song and actor. Our idea was that Toby (our actor) would be in a boring lesson and he begins to daydream about a world in which he is a superhero and needs to save the land. Along the way he meets his friends (that we see in the classroom) who lead him to a sort of boss battle in a tower; the boss being the evil teacher we saw in the classroom. Toby wins, his friends chant his name. This creates a sound bridge from the dream back to reality where we see it is really the teacher calling Toby's name to try to get his attention.
This idea did not go ahead as we could not gather nearly enough extras for the video, despite numerous efforts.
2. Change Our Idea Completely
Our second plan was to change our idea and move away completely from our preliminary task. This next idea was to focus on visuals and aesthetics, people driving through fog etc. We wanted it to be downbeat, mellow - the complete opposite of our preliminary. We then thought it might be easier to create if we have some sort of a narrative, we came to the idea of blurred lines between reality and the imagination. We thought that again, we could use Toby and he could be playing with toy cars and making them crash or playing with action figures and making them fight. Then, somewhere in the world, the car crash and the fight is happening. This idea would carry a strong message about the world we live in.
This idea did not go ahead as we knew that finding a song would be extremely difficult and we wanted it to look professional - not just cross cuts. We weren't sure how well we could do this, particularly with our lack of editing skills.
A successful music video should also reflect the vibe/atmosphere of the song. If it is a fun, upbeat song, then make the music video follow suit. If a song is downbeat, but the mise en scene of the music video reflects that of an upbeat song, this can create an element of confusion and detachment.
A few years ago, perhaps prior to 2005, consumption of music videos would have primarily been through TV on music channels. A popular one would have been MTV, occasionally shows were created out of showing music videos. For example, the popular cartoon characters Beavis and Butthead used to have a show narrating music videos. This would have most likely been the most popular, if not the only way of consuming music videos in the 80s-90s.
Nowadays there are many different options available to view music videos. Some music streaming apps e.g. Apple Music, now have the option of downloading the music video instead of just the audio. This is one way of consuming videos. Another way, probably one of the most popular options, is through YouTube. YouTube is an extremely popular video sharing website and is often the first platform artists choose to release their music on. This attracts a huge audience to consume music videos in this way. Naturally, there is still the option of watching music videos on TV on music channels such as Bliss, MTV etc. Music streaming websites also provide music videos occasionally, some artists will partner up with these sites to exclusively release their music e.g. Kanye West and Tidal.
These are the main ways music videos are consumed.
To generalise and summarise breifly, in the current music video era that we live in today the adoption of the 'Sex Appeal' of females has monopolised the music industry, opposed to choosing the more traditional and quality methods because today they are less profitable. Of course there are still many different, interesting, imaginative and heart felt videos being produced however in main stream media what we see most of the time is sex appeal. Another important change is that we can now access videos easily on youtube.
Song choice is very important as the genre of the song and also potentially lyrics are usually what shapes the actual music video itself. If the song doesn't fit the music video then the product as w hole i.e. the song and the video has a much lessened effect. Sometimes however artists decide to go for a music video to accompany a song that has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics and is of a completely different mood to the song, if pulled of effectively this can make for a very good music video, however it is hard to get this right. Most of the best music videos should convey the same sort of emotion as the song itself, for example a sad song should have a video that if you watch you should feel sad. For our coursework we have decided that we will actually make the music video and have that done before we actually decide the song, this will enable us to play hundreds of songs over our music video and try to find something that fits perfectly over the top. This saves us trying to think of a song we like and instead we can create a powerful video and find a song that fits instead of having a think of an idea to go with a specific song.
What genre of music are you thinking of using? As we plan to film our music video and then find a song that fits over the top we aren't thinking too much about thee genre on the song yet. However based on our ideas it will most likely be a quite down beat one or a song that would go with a very dream like video.
What genre of filming do you think will fit with this genre of music? As we are focusing on getting the video done first and then finding a song that will fit with the video after. This means we already have quite a good idea of what type of film making we wish to go with and once it is filmed we will find a song that fits with this. Our genre of film will either be quite a downbeat genre of video or quite a dreamy imaginative genre. Either way we want our video to be focused on good lighting and multiple camera shots and angles. We also want our video to be very fluid in all the different shots and character movements.
What songs are you thinking of using? Why? Because we wish to focus more on the quality of the music video instead of trying to mold a video around a specific song we won't choose your song until after our video is made. We believe this a better way of doing it as once our video is done we can just play loads of songs over the top until we find the perfect one, this means we focus more on making a quality video rather than choosing a song. Also it could lead to us finding a song that fits better with the video than if we decided the song before we did the video.
Setting generally refers to the environment in which a media product is taking place e.g. a house, in the woods etc. It is quite an important aspect of film making and can make or break the product, depending on how fitting/well-made/well-chosen it is.
In terms of music videos, often the genre of the song is what decides on the setting. Sometimes even the lyrics of song can decide the setting, depending on how strong its narrative is.
Pop
This song by Bruno Mars is definitely a pop, upbeat song. The song is quite repetitive and catchy, the lyrics refer to the idea of a rich man and a player and so the video certainly fits with this idea since they are all in Vegas in lavish cars and hotels surrounded by girls. Generally we can say that Vegas is the setting for this video. I would say this does fit into conventions of pop videos as barely dressed girls are involved and there are fancy cars.
Rock/Metal
The conventions of this genre of music tends to be the band playing in a gloomy warehouse/somewhere derelict. There tends to be focus on the band and a lot of slow motion. Mainly, in terms of setting, everything tends to be gloomy and grimy.
I would say that genre can influence the setting of a video, but perhaps not as much as the lyrics of the song. Often the lyrics can lead the narrative. Setting is hugely important in creating mise en scene as creating a setting can lead to a completely different atmosphere/lighting etc. If a song was sad but the setting lead to an upbeat, light mise en scene, this may confuse the viewer. If the song is sad and the setting is a dark place, this is going to create a better understanding for the viewer.
We are doing a music video. This is because we had done a music video for our preliminary and felt we could effectively build on this. Furthermore, we were all big fans of music and watched music videos regularly, therefore we had better knowledge of the style and conventions of a music video, where as we were more unfamiliar with short films and children TV drama.
Who are you working with?
I am working in a group with Emma Hagstrom and Jasper Williams. Rachael Hustler was also in our group however she left to go and work with another group. We felt we would work well as a group together as we get on well (which makes communication and working together much easier) and we have a varied skill set which allows us to spread the work load more evenly. This also means we can all do what we are best at and allow the others to do the areas we may struggle with. For example Emma takes Art Multimedia and is very good at making things like album covers and Jasper and I do not have as much experience with doing things like this therefore we can allow Emma to do this whilst we complete other things, such as filming, that Emma may not be as good at.
Any initial ideas?
We are going to build and improve upon our preliminary task. This is because we felt we had a solid idea and good enough audience feedback to successfully improve upon it. We also felt that as we already had the idea and knew what we had to improve upon this would be easier than thinking of a completely new idea and song. Our song we are using is still the Safety Dance by the Men Without Hats and our idea is based around a young child and the place that he goes to in his dreams when he's bored. The song will feature a teacher who the child is trying to defeat in his dreams. We have other ideas within this general outline however these ideas all depend on how many other actors we are able to get to play roles.
For music videos with a strong narrative, characters can be a quite an important aspect. However, some music videos choose to simply use visuals to illustrate the song that is playing. Characters in a music video can help the audience connect and relate to a song; and for some bands the same characters are used in several videos to create a concept album.
False Alarm - The Weeknd
This music video is quite unique as we see the narrative through the eyes of an unknown character. This is quite engaging and new. Through this POV narrative we can see a focus on one character in particular: the girl.
What makes her so memorable is the fact that the POV we are coming from seems to favour her over the team's targets e.g. the money. This leads to a lot of questions; does the POV and girl have a past? Is the POV simply just kind hearted? On top of this, she becomes more memorable due to the ending where she leaves the POV to die and takes a money bag. This is unexpected, particularly as the girl comes across as innocent - though she clearly shows initiative as she shot one of the captures. It is interesting how we are made to feel sorry for her at the start of the video but this is quickly changed by the end.
This music video won a few awards. It is again quite a unique music video. There are about 5 characters in the music video, but the main focus seems to be on the first cheerleader we see. The narrative is somewhat mysterious and vague, but it still manages to capture and maintain the audience's attention. What makes the characters so memorable is perhaps their movements and the way they dance, coupled with the effects placed in during editing. Put together, this creates a really dynamic set of characters.
The audience can connect to the first character in particular as she ties the start and end together and we can gather that she has died in the car crash along with the other cheerleaders.
Lullaby - The Cure
The song itself tells the story of the Spider Man that haunts your sleep. The video illustrates and brings this to life. The main character is of course Robert Smith who remains in bed being haunted by a series of characters. It has a strong narrative and is led by the lyrics of the song.
We can understand that the character in bed is struggling to sleep and is perhaps an insomniac. The changing happenings and the Spider Man getting closer helps to maintain the audience's attention. I think all the characters used in the video make it so memorable - this including the glimpses of the Spider Man, the shots of the marching band covered in cobwebs, and the character in bed himself. Robert Smith's signature look is still included which helps make the video more iconic.
The main conventions of pop music videos is that they are very upbeat, rather eccentric and tend to revolve around the singer themselves, usually with a sexualised objectification of the women, fitting the 'ideal' body image of women we often see within the media. Although after saying that I would say the same is often done with men in the videos - a lot seems to be just about being sexy. Everyone is made up and naked/nearly naked. The videos tend to place on exotic, brightly coloured, staged location, usually very obviously a high budget production with expensive costume and locations. Often rather superficial.
This video cuts between shots of Ariana Grande singing into the camera, some dancing in the shower and shots of her with a group of girls on gym equipment and sitting on steps. The lighting is an intense blue and orange through out, linking the shots together and creating a strong sense of atmosphere which actually works really well. There is a strong feel of movement through out the video with the shot transitions and the dancing fitting with the beat of the song, the shots slow down and become less busy on quieter parts of the video and sort explode on the chorus, which works well and should be considered for our video. There is little to no narrative.
Indie/Rock
In the indie rock genre the music video will almost definitely be featuring the band or singer performing/ playing instruments. Often there will be narrative, sometimes the artist will be the actor, for example, Kodaline often features as an actor in his music videos whilst cutting back to live performance. Generally the locations and costume are more low-key and low-budget, often just everyday places and clothes.
This video consists of extreme close-ups and close-ups of the band playing instruments and head shots of Julian singing into the mic. The simplicity of the video is really effective, putting the focus on the music itself more than the band; unlike within a conventional pop video where the video revolves around the singer being all glamorous. The mise en scene and costume are very neutral and simple with low key lighting. Again there is no narrative what so ever for the video.
UK Underground Hip Hop
Music videos for UK rappers tend to be very varied but generally still follow some of the same conventions, which is why I chose to discuss it. The majority of videos will be centred around the rapper, lip syncing while in different locations. The camera work is often quite creative, with pans, tilts and short shot lengths to match the pace of the song and keep the video interesting. The locations are usually everyday places, often out on the streets, and with mates, a low-key realistic Mise en scene, often in places full of graffiti. Often the videos can be deliberately quite comical, amusing or wacky or they are very simple and atmospheric, generally not with narrative, for example the video below consisting of only a few continuous tracking shots of a guy skate boarding, fitting the chilled out vibes of the song.
I chose to add this example in as I think that the simplicity and monotonous vibe is really effective and fits really well with the song. The video consists of a few tracking shots following him skateboarding, I think this could be used to symbolise a journey.
Pretty much all our aims and targets for our A2 coursework is to improve upon our preliminary task. For example we want to improve on the narrative of our music video. We would also like to improve on our costumes by using proper costumes for characters such as people living in the woods. We also want to ensure our video is shot in a wider variety and more carefully selected locations. We also want our video to include more extras so that there isn't a lack of content or characters, this will prevent the video from becoming boring.
When editing our music video, Rachael used Premiere Pro as she is most familiar with the programme. We feel that the video was edited quite effectively. We used 2 cameras during the filming process; a basic camcorder from school and a Sony camera, which was of a higher quality. We used two cameras as often we were filming multiple shots and it often sped up the process if we filmed multiple angels at once, particularly if it was a hot day. We employed this technique on the last day of filming as we were filming in a field with little shade. We of course used tripods for a lot of filming in order to get steady shots.
One thing we learnt about casting in particular was that it is extremely difficult to make sure extras can be altogether on the same day. This lead to a confusing video with issues with continuity - even if it is not too noticeable. We also learnt that it is important to make sure that multiple ideas are developed, in case issues arise that mean we cannot follow our final idea. For example, we had to adapt our ending, due to the fact that we had a lack of extras on the final day of filming. In this case, it was useful that we had come up with several alternatives. This was possible through a good group dynamic. We were all on the same page in terms of a theme and ideas, but still able to come up with various ideas with different viewpoints. We all contributed to this process.
Our feedback was very similar from person to person. The positives were often that the camera angles and editing were great, but the story hard to follow. This was not unexpected. With all the issues we had with finding extras and getting them together on the same day, we had to adapt our story line. This, as mentioned before, led to continuity errors. We felt as a group also that better thought needed to be put into costumes and making the members of the alternate world look different. This may go someway to helping the story line be more coherent.
This video appears to follow several characters, yet still maintains clarity. These characters of course cross paths. The fight scenes seem carefully choreographed and filmed with detail paid attention to in each shot. The camera quality itself adds to how dynamic each shot is; placing focus on just one aspect of a composition can be quite intense - this matches the theme of the music video. This is clearly a narrative lead story.
Compared to the previous video, the camera quality is clearly very low - this may be due to the time it was made. What we found effective about this video is that the video occasionally takes priority over the song. For example, the girl opening the door and the music stopping to engage the audience deeper into the audio was extremely effective. Again, this is another narrative lead video, except this one integrates the use of dialogue, however not much. This can be effective in small amounts.
This video has a sense of a story line, but the whole video is not directed by it. The director has chosen to link the start and the end in order to make the main body of the video make sense. However, this seems relatively well done with smooth transitions between the two worlds. This may be useful to pay attention to for our own final music video. The video fits well with the song, which is arguably the most important aspect of creating a music video. Out of all 3 of the student-made videos, this one is closest to our idea.
After a search on google we found out that the safety dance was of the new wave synth pop genre, we therefore found 3 existing professional music videos of the same genre as our research.
New Order - Blue Monday
Blue Monday by New order has a very abstract music video. None of the video is lip synced and there is no narrative or live performance in the video. It is made up of lots of almost random videos put together, it is a very abstract video even though there is no sort of narrative at all. Some parts of the video are filmed in stop motion. The video contains no dialogue or much interaction between characters seen in the video. There are a couple of shots of the people in the video laughing however no actual dialogue. There looks as if there is 2 or 3 locations however these appear to just be different coloured rooms and an all black room. There are also no credits in the video. Overall even though there is no narrative the video works very well and fits the song well.
Pet Shop Boys - Love Comes Quickly
This video is very different to Blue Monday by New Order despite being of the same genre. Pretty much all of the video is lip synced and features the main singer singing the song, however it is not a live performance. It also has no narrative, it is just the singer singing into the camera with various images faded other the top and other effects. There is one main character in the video which is just the main singer of the band, he is centre hot for almost the whole video, there are various other people that appear other the top of the video of the main singer singing. There is no dialogue just the lyrics of the song. There is one location but other images appear faintly over the top of the video of this one location and these could potentially be from other locations but it is not clear. There are no credits.
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
Some of this video is lip synced however some is not. Once again there is no live performance in this video. The video interchanges between lip syncing the song and being a sort of narrative about a film set. It often mixes it up by having shots of the film shoot and then one of the main singers walking through lip syncing the song. There are more characters this time, the two main consisting of members of the band who lip sync the song between shots of the narrative. There is also a couple of locations including a house and a street and the inside of a car. Once again, however there is no credits.
We had the choice between two briefs. One choice was to make a short film lasting approximately 5 minutes, along with a film poster and a film magazine review. The other choice was to make a promotion pack for an album; including a music video, a digipak, and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.
We decided on doing the album digipak as we wanted to continue, adapt and improve our preliminary task, which we felt laid some great groundwork for our final piece. Naturally we plan to re-film a lot of scenes to make sure we create a more solid storyline, but we may still reuse some scenes. Regardless, whether we re-use scenes or not, we will still stick to the same idea and the same main character/actor.
How did you use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluating Stage? We used multiple different media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stage.
Firstly in the research stage we used mainly laptops/computers and the internet (specifically youtube and google images). We used this to firstly listen to the son and learn the lyrics, this was to try and spark an idea that could link to the song and its lyrics. We also used youtube to watch various other music videos from the same genre as the dafter dance so that we got a realistic idea of what real media products similar to ours looked like. We also used the internet to research possible areas in Norwich that we could use to create our media product.
For the planning stage we all used the internet and laptops to finalise research our locations. We also used phones to contact our actors and arrange filming times. We also used cameras to take photos of our final locations once we had been to see them.
In the construction stage we used video cameras to film our actual film along with memory cards to store our footage on. We also used tripods to stabilise the cameras and we used a drone and a go pro for some alternative shots. Whilst we were filming we were also still using computers and the internet to do regular blog posts about our filming. We then used adobe premiere pro on computers to edit all of our footage and to create our final media product. Furthermore we used a camera to take various potential photos for our cd cover and then used adobe photoshop to edit our chosen photo to create our cd cover.
During the evaluation stage we used laptops and computer sand the internet (in particular blogger) to continue with our blog posts and answer the evaluation questions.
We received audience feedback from multiple students who we played or music video to.
The main thing we received in terms of feedback was that once the main character had transported to the different planet there wasn't much clear direction in terms of what was happening. Another big piece of feedback we received was that certain shots lasted too long.
From the audience feedback me and my group have learnt that my shots should be much more varied to ensure that shots aren't to long and don't get boring for the audience. We would also need to include more camera techniques, such as whip pans, to make it more interesting. Also we would need to make sure there was more of a clear narrative to the video to ensure the audience didn't get confused. This would give the video more direction and story. We could do this by re filming the second half of the video and giving clear indications to the audience as to what is happening rather than just jumbled clips of people running around. We could also potentially try to link the music video to the lyrics of the song more as some people couldn't see the link between the lyrics and the video even though we did try to base the music video around a couple of key lyrics from the song.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text (CD cover)?
We feel that our CD cover links very well to our video as it shares the same name as our song for the music video. Not only this, but we chose to use a picture of our actor in costume with the tent used in the music video. This obviously directly links the two products to each other.
We also chose to use text that was not necessarily formal-looking; more child-like and fun. This is quite an effective link as we imagine that the whole album would follow suit with the sound of The Safety Dance - this sound being upbeat and lighthearted. Therefore, it makes sense that the album cover be just as fun and bright. We matched the text colour to the colours used frequently in the video and the costume; for example, red. This also went some way to effectively linking the two products.
Having said this, in retrospect, it may be more effective to create a more subtle link between the final product and the album cover. Often on album covers the cover may not necessarily be linked at all to any of the music videos made for the songs. Take for example The Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead' album cover:
While the title 'The Queen is Dead' is also the title of a song on the album, the visuals themselves have no relation to the content of the album or its music videos. Despite this, the album cover still seems to work brilliantly alongside the content of the album. In some ways, this subtlety could be a far more effective link than the directness of our own album cover.
Next time around, perhaps exploring the art of subtlety might be a better approach, whilst still maintaining the fun and childishness of our original attempt.
In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
In most real media products a child is presented as vulnerable, naïve and ignorant to the real world; a classic example would be Kevin from Home Alone. Our music video really takes advantage of and enhances this view. We use a lot of close ups to show the emotions on his face whether he's confused or scared. Also the fact that his emotions are really exaggerated and clear to see means that the audience is able to connect with the character more than others. For the first minute or so the shots are relatively close up making the viewer feel as if they are part of this characters journey, this is also done with the video transitions when there is a change of location. All these techniques are to present the child as innocent and free. Another convention we used was the representation of a child's imagination which is normally portrayed as illogical and sometimes weird. This shown in the middle section where the footage is chopped up and out of order almost representing this stat of mind.
In the last section of the video an adult figure is introduced and this character completely takes control of the scene. We use high camera angles and a tilt shot to show this character's authority and charge over the other characters. This is also symbolised by his suit and he is normal centre of shot. The fact that he grabs power and is a representation of the real world, this character is able to bring him back to reality.
Day 1 consisted of filming the start of the music video. This meant the majority of the house shots (inside and out).
Day 2 -
During this day of filming, we shot the ending scene (first picture), and then headed out into Wreningham forest to film the main body of the video. For this we brought along a few extras. In the picture below is Jasper on the far left (in our group) and then Caitlin, Tom and Katy. We also employed the help of Nick who lent us his drone to film a few shots.
Day 3 -
Here we filmed the ending of the main body. After being unable to get all of our extras together, we had to change the ending and get Jasper to be in it. Jasper posed as the king of the imaginary land. We filmed at the fort at the Lizard in Wymondham.
A key part of our music video is where the main character transports to another location so Rachael spent some time trying out various techniques of making this transition possible. The first one is a dissolve and directional blur. Rachael felt it did not quite have the flow we were looking for as the shots were filmed on separate days so the composition is slightly different. The second is a cross-zoom. Rachael preferred this one as it hides the cut between the two days better. This will be used in the final cut.
To cast our main character (a young boy dressed as a superhero), we all had a very clear idea of the type of actor we wanted. We wanted someone who was very cheeky and confident who could carry this over to the camera. We very soon found two candidates who we thought fit this criteria well. These two candidates are:
Toby Cooke - We felt Toby would be a good actor to cast as he is naturally cheeky and confident and up for anything. He has an interest in going into media and has experience in front of cameras as he partakes in windsurfing competitions. Toby is in Year 9.
Reef Allen - We approached Reef on recommendation from our teacher. We were told he was very cheeky and confident around those he knew, however, when speaking to him he seemed shy and reluctant. Reef is in Year 7.
Day 1 - Tuesday 5th July
We will shoot all the inside and garden footage at Rachael's house for the first 45 seconds of the video. All three of us will be there and these shots are only of Toby so we do not need any extras.
Day 2 - Tuesday 12th July
This is for the main part of the music video and will be shot at Longs Wood in Wreningham. We have arranged for a drone to help film some shots and for 3 extras to join us.
Day 3 - Thursday 21st July
We will be filming the finale to the music video and any extra shots we need. For this, we have managed to get 4 extras as well as Toby.
The main character (a young boy) puts on his superhero mask and runs into his garden to get into his tent/den.
The tent then transports him into another woodland world in which there will be others all dancing.
In the middle of all the dancing and partying in the new forest the young boy will trip up/fall over in some way and as he hits the floor he will be transported back to his garden and outside the tent/den.
The boy will then realise he's back home and may be greeted by his mother asking wheres he been (that scene will be dependant on availability of actors).
We tried to keep our idea as simplistic as possible, this was to ensure that we didn't over complicate the meaning of the video which is simply just about the young boy enjoying himself in his own imagination when he has the safety of his superhero costume on.
We spent a lot of time debating and brainstorming ideas for our music video. From the start we knew we wanted to bring in some element of dance due to the nature of the song and obviously its title. Our basic premise is a young boy is playing in his den before he gets transported to another world. Here he meets various people dancing as he explores this new world. From here we developed and expanded our idea. For example, we decided we wanted the young boy to be dressed as a superhero: using 'the safety dance' as a means of protecting himself from evil. We also decided we wanted the den to be in a garden whilst the new world will be a forest and various locations within it. What happens and where the young boy goes in this new world is still being finalised. Some of the ideas for this section are as follows:
He enters the new world and finds a party in a clearing and joins in, eventually being hit by confetti/party poppers/paint which cause him to fall and be transported back to reality;
He enters the new world and meets people of the new world along his way that act like guides to him, eventually leading him to the king of the land before landing back home;
He enters the new world and meets new people with whom he plays hide and seek with and parties and dances with before landing home.
We feel our start and ending are finalised. The start is as follows;
The young boy dressed up stands in the doorway of his house before running out to the bottom of his garden to his den/tent.
Here he begins playing before noticing a different exit to usual in his tent. He crawls through and finds himself in another world.
Our ending will be something along the lines of;
The young boy will be hit by confetti/party poppers/paint which turn out to be very powerful in this new world, causing him to fall over. We will use this as the transition from the new world to reality.
The boy wakes us back at home either in his tent, or in the middle of the garden with his den in the background.
