Practice filming/editing

We had another opportunity in a lesson to have permission to film, now that we have been given the cameras and equipment. However, our camera only had little charge which meant that we had to stay inside as we had to film with the camera plugged in. This didn't limit us as to what we could film within the lesson time, however it also gave myself and my group a strong reminder as to remember to fully charge our camera when out on location.

We decided to film some practice "studio like" shots as this is right at the start as our music video and it made sense to start there. We went into the gym of our school as it has a white bricked walls and putting Elle against these, it was a replica as to what we want when it comes to actually filming.



We took our research from 'The rule of thirds' into consideration and applied our newly formed knowledge when we filmed these scenes. We played our song in the background when filming and when editing we took parts from our footage so we lip synched random parts which is what we will do in our real music video to break up the narrative.

Framing and Composition

In order to gain a successful shot when filming, it is vital that as a group we understand about the "rule of thirds". The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photographyand design.The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

Headroom

Headroom refers specifically to the distance between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame, but the term is sometimes used instead of lead room, nose room or 'looking room' to include the sense of space on both sides of the image. The amount of headroom that is considered aesthetically pleasing is a dynamic quantity; it changes relative to how much of the frame is filled by the subject. Moving images such as film and video cameras have the same headroom issues as still photography, but with the added factors of the movement of the subject, the movement of the camera, and the possibility of zooming in or out. Headroom changes as the camera zooms in or out, and the camera must simultaneously tilt up or down to keep the center of interest approximately one-third of the way down from the top of the frame. The closer the subject, the less headroom needed. In extreme close-ups, the top of the head is out of the frame,but the concept of headroom still applies via the rule of thirds.

Practice Filming

Last week in our media lesson, we got given all our equipment so we could go and film the material needed for our music video. Myself and my group went out and filmed a few shots of Elle in different locations and came back to the media room and uploaded it. For 3 hours worth of work, I am impressed with what we managed to produce, here it is:

Lip Syncing

One day in our free periods, me and Elle decided to get to grips with the whole "lip syncing" (even though it's Elle who is playing Pixie Lott in our video, I thought I'd have a go as well). We tried lots of different songs, from all different genres and used different effects on the web cam to fit the mood of the song. the slower songs we put in black and white as this really added to the effect of the slower songs being more serious. The more upbeat song like "Check it out" we put in the "pop art" effect which includes colours such as red, yellow, green and orange.

We stayed after school and edited all the songs together to make a "montage" of different clips and here is what we finished off with, hope you like it!

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is the shaping texts meanings' by other texts. so, its when a music artist, takes something from another similar music video, film, TV programme or magazine advert and make it their own and put it into their video. J-Lo and Geri haliwell did this in their music videos and got the intertextuality from the common dance film "Flash dance".



For our music video, we have taken inspiration from Kate Nash who is another female artist that fits in with our genre and her video "foundations". The way the socks move together, the toothbrushes twist around each other etc is a great way of putting intertexuality into your film. We thought, to fit with the title of our song "like a broken arrow", that we could draw a frame by frame animation (similar to our moving story board) and speed up the clips when we edit it. This way the arrow will shoot in to some sort of drawing of a heart or something and then break, so it will create the image of a "broken arrow".



As this is an acoustic version of Pixie Lott singing, we would like to incorporate the use of a music studio into our music video to add an element of performance to go alongside the narrative. We will make a studio from using the white backdrop and lighting in our school's photography room.

Stop Motion Story Board

In order to have a well planned out storyboard to follow when it comes to filming, we decided to do an "animated" version, something that we picked up on from the Richmix trip a few weeks ago. We drew out a small picture for each lyric of the song and wrote how many seconds each frame of the song lasts. It took a while to put together and here is the final product. I really hope this comes to our help when we finally get filming!

Pixie Lott

With the chosen song being now from Pixie Lott rather then Example, I am having to do some artist research on her so that when it comes to interpretating her in our music video, we have the right style/image/mise en scene as to what she would have, but at the same time, making it unique and our own.

Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott (born 12 January 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, dancer and actress. Her debut single "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)" was released in June 2009 and went straight to number one in the UK Singles Chart. Lott is often credited for her live performances and style. Lott appeared as a guest judge on The X Factor, covering for the pregnant Dannii Minogue.
Lott was born in Bromley, south-east London. Her mother gave her the nickname Pixie because she was "such a tiny, cute baby who looked like a fairy". She started singing in her church school and when she was five she attended the Italia Conti Associates Saturday school in Chislehurst, she went onto the main school at 11 Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts where she was awarded a scholarship. At the age of 13, Lott moved with her family to Brentwood. During her time as a student she appeared in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, and in BBC One's Celebrate the Sound of Music as Louisa von Trapp

Pixie Lott - Factfile

Birth Name - Victoria Louise Lott
Stage Name - Pixie Lott
D.O.B - 12th January 1991 (age 19), Bromley, South London
Origin - London, England
Genre - Pop, soul, electro-pop, dance-pop, R'n'B
Occupation - Singer, songwriter, dancer
Instrument - Vocals/Piano's
Year's Active - 2006-present
Labels - Mercury/Interscope
Website - www.pixielott.com

Richmix trip - the day in film

From previous posts, I have written about what I have learnt from the trip to Richmix studios. As we brought our flip camera with us, we were able to film the days events and together, myself and Elle have put together a "montage" of clips from the day.

We put "Supergrass - Alright" as we thought this went well with the days outing, especially the "see our friends, see the sites, were alright!" as we were all friends and on our way to the trip, we managed to take in many sites of london, enjoy the video!

Change of Song choice

After visiting the Richmix Studio trip, our group was having concerns that the song we had originally chosen "Example - watch the sun come up" was going to be too challenging in the time that we had to film and so we decided to go with "Pixie Lott - Like a Broken Arrow".

Here are our new song lyrics. This song is about a girl talking about her current or past relationship. As I listened to this song I could picture our ideas fitting, hense why we decided on the song. We can still use the idea of a happy couple, with their happy times; meeting at the park bench (As if it is their first date) along with a shot of the fireworks and sparklers together. Also the scene at Southend where they are messing around and walking down the front with the candyfloss etc, as it all fits in with her lyrics of reminicing as if it is all a flashback of the relationship she is missing.

We could possily use animation like Kate Nash does, with objects coming together or appart to imply the couple either happy or not. Possibly a heart, or the couple drawing their names in the Southend sand, then an arrow breaking that up to reflect on the songs title.I also imagined the video to be in black and white. I took this influence from Pixie Lott herself as she does a lot of effective video's in black and white. I think this will look good and apply to the mood she could possibly in as she has just potenially split up with her boyfriend of partner for instance as so she is feeling very black and white, yet happy as she is thinking back and reflecting on her past times.We also wanted to make it look more professional and film the girl recording in a studio, still keeping the 'home video' effect, possibly holding the lyrics on a piece of paper and singing to the microphone. So the camera will film the girl singing in the studio the lyrics to the song, and possibly fade into the next scene of her with her boyfriend as she sings and looks back on her past over the years.

Then to show that it is all a flashback, we film her finishing in the studio and saying bye or the makeup artist fixing her hair before she sings, to keep the reality of it. This could be an idea for keeping all the seasons like we wanted to use in our old song. For instance, we would film different parts of the year- supposedly, and have them as a flashback; summer, valentines day, the day they met, birthdays, random days etc.As the opening comes in, there is no lyrics for 10seconds, this part we could fade from white/black into a close up of the girl getting reading to sing. Maybe a makeup artist brushing blusher on her face quickly, or a director giving the all clear and thumbs up, then as the lyrics come in focus on the girl singing (9seconds later), until about the third or fourth line where there could be fades in of pictures from a holiday or previous happy times of her and her boyfriend, or just her boyfriend. Then when the chorus comes in 'And you're sitting in the front row' - This could be when the different parts of the seasons and memories comes in, possibly the park scene when they first meet.I am going to meet up with my group tomorrow and continue storyboarding.

LYRICS
What do you do when you're stuck,
Because the one that you love,
Has pushed you away,
And you can't deal with the pain,
And now you're trying to fix me,
Mend what he did,
I'll find the piece that i'm missing,
But I still miss him,
I miss him, i'm missing him,
Oh I miss him, I miss him i'm missing him

And you're sitting in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow.

He's the thorn in my flesh
That I can't take out
He's stealing my breath
When you're around,
And now you're trying to convince me,
He wasn't worth it,
But you can't complete me,
It's the thought that he's missing,
I miss him, I'm missing him,
Oh I miss him I miss him,
i'm missing him,

And you're standing in the front row,
Wana be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love has still hit me,
Live a broken arrow,
Like a broken arrow.

What do you do
When your hearts in two places?
You feel great but you're torn inside.
You feel love but you just can't embrace it,
When you found the right one at the wrong time.

And you'reStanding in the front row,
Wanna be first in line,
Sitting by my window,
Giving me all your time,
You could be my hero,
If only I could let go,
But his love still hit me,
Like a broken arrow.
Like a broken arrow...

Audience Research - Questionnaire

In order to put together a successful music video, we need to know what a variety of different people like and dislike. So, as a group we put togehter this template for a questionnaire:

1.How old are you? 12 – 16 [] 17 – 19 [] 20 + []

2.Gender? Male [] Female []

3.Do you prefer a music video which is… Funny [] Serious []

4.Do you prefer abstract videos or ones that go with the lyrics? Abstract [] Goes with lyrics []

5.Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations etc? Yes [] No []
Why? _______________________________________________________

6.What aspects of a music video make it more interesting for you to watch? ____________________________________________________________

7.Do you prefer… Calm/slow music videos [] Lively/fast music videos []

8.Do you like to see dance routines? Yes [] No []

9.What’s your favourite music video? _____________________________
Why?____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________

10.What’s your least favourite music video? ________________________
Why?_________________________________________________________________
____

11.What charts do you go by? (radio 1, kiss 100, UK top 40)?_________________________________

12.Do you prefer to watch narrative or performance video’s?
Why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew Goodwin - Theories

Although I have already goen into detail what Andrew Goodwin thinks makes a good music video, here are the 6 key points summarised together:

Andrew Godwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)
1. Music video's demonstrate genre charecteristics. For example, stage performance in metal video/ dance performance for a boy/girl band all need their set stage directions.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between music and lyrics; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.


4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens telescopes) particularly voyeurism treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv, music)

Method of Analysis - Andrew Goodwin

Taken from his book written in the early 1980's about the music channel MTV,
Andrew Goodwin came up with a method of analysis about what is often found in most music vide os and what effect this has. There are 5 points which he covers which are:


- Genre Characteristics
- Visual relationship with lyrics and music
- Needs to sell the artist as a 'star'
- Voyerism
- Intertexuality (referring to something of a different media medium e.g Film/TV/Adverts)

Genre
There is always a certianstereotypical music video fro a certain genre characteristic. For example, Boyband videos are always considered as "cheesy" and usually are performance based rather then narrative. Also, in terms of mise en scene and costume, they are usually all dressed very similarly and are singing in the countryside or an open space.




Visuals and Relationships

Relating back to the candy shop video, the title of the song is a metaphor. He isn't buying any "candy to eat", but the candy for him is simply the half dressed girls in this "candy mansion". The popular 80's band "Madness" had a successful hit with the song "our house". In this video the band dress up as a whole family and show them living inside a house. This makes the visuals and relationships funny to watch as the band members are all male and so some have to be dressed as female characters. Also, the single "Thriller" from pop legend Micheal Jackson, is more of a horror music video then thriller. Thriller usually isn't as graphic as this video is as it includes zombies and scary sound effects etc and so this is a way in which Micheal Jackson "played" with the visuals and relations of his video.


Star Image
It is always very important for a music video to make a good impression to the viewers of the artist/band who is singing and performing. Whether its a performance of narrative video, it should always include plenty of close ups of the artist/band and so that the image projected to the viewers watching is positive. According to Andrew, at least 50 close up shots should be included per minute of the song.


Voyerism

This is the technique used within music videos which had a "screen within screen basis". This is shown in within many music videos such as candy shop - 50 cent. In this video, the girl in which 50 cent wants to "be with" she appears in photos along the corridor and they start to "come alive". In Jay-Z's most recent video "99 problems", before walking underneath a subway to catch a train, he is shown singing within an advertisement poster singing, this too is a symbol of voyerism.

Voyersim has been around for a while but it all began back in the 1940's with the famous soul singer Nat King Cole. The act that in his music video he is sitting in a cafe singing, you then see him watching himself, on a video screen, This was fascinating back in the 1940's as it was a "moving image within another". Since then it has been popular ever since.

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts, so in terms of a music video, when an artist is borrowing something from a film or TV programme they have seen and make the "theme" of it their own. It is used very cleverly in videos so that the public who watch them would have already seen something similar before and will therefore grow to like it straightaway.

J-Lo and Geri halliwell both used this concept in one of their videos. They took the opening scene from the popular dance film "Flash dance" where they walk in by them self which what appears to be some kind of dance audition and putting the needle on the record to play their song. Geri however takes a more comical approach and falls over during her dance and says "can I start again?" and then it to her music video of "It's raining men".

Robbie Williams hit single "millennium" in 2000, had intertexuality in relating to the theme of James bond. The casino champagne, white suit etc. James Bond is a film loved by many people of all different ages and Robbie thought this would attract a variety of different people to watch his music video.

Similarly to this, Madonna has also used it in her video Vogue by using the concept of "diamonds are a girls best friend" by Marilyn Munroe.




User Generated Content
This is when things that already exist in a music video are changed into something else. There are lots of examples of this on the Internet, but here are the most popular:

This is a remixed video of Jay-Z 99 problems with a famous Beatles song. The way they have used voyersim in the video makes it look like this is the actual original video created.



This is a send up of Micheal Jacksons video thriller, but is by a group of Asian prisoners

Artists of today

Today, 25 years on, MTV has become one of the most popular music videos across the world with over 4 million viewers a week. It was so popular, it now had 3 sister channels, MTV Base, MTV hits and MTV dance. This is better because now the music videos can be categorised and watched separately. They plays such a wide variety of artists, it has proved very popular all over the world.

Jay-Z
One of the artist they play are black African rapper/hip hop artist, Jay-z. He has had many hits from 2000, when he had his first breakthrough, and his latest single "99 problems" has just been released. The video is so effective, I really like it. It's only been released for a couple pf months and already has over 3 million hits on YouTube and is proving to be a great success. I really like this video because it's all filmed in black and white and slips away from the stereotypical "rap" video. It deals with issues such as violence, drugs, racism etc and is shown very well through the camera angle and mise en scene in this video. Jay-Z is with the record label "Rock" and he produced and directed this video and to this labels joy, it has been a huge success. This was one of the most expensive music videos Jay-Z has ever done costing a lot of money and including over 350 cast members.




50 Cent
50 cent is another example of an American rap/r'n'b artist and is very popular with many of today's music channels and radio stations. He has had many number ones including albums and single both in his home country America and here in the UK. Amongst all of his singles, one that caused much controversy was the song "Candy Shop". It was spoken to be "one of the most expensive and extravagant black music videos of the decade". It was a video which had classic conventions of drama in which a music video needs to draw attention to the public. This "drama" included his big mansion, his sports car, sexuality from the girls and then of course the whole "it was all just a dream" concept at the end. Although it is looked down upon by some people, it still has over 24.5 million YouTube hits.

1980's

Big hair, bright jewellery and wedged platforms where all in fashion in the 1980's. However, in 1981, the launch of MTV was shown to the world. This meant that music promos first started showing on TV. The First music video ever shown on MTV was the Buggles' 80's hit single "Video killed the radio star". MTV specifically chose this as the title of the song reflected the launch of the music channel very well. It may not have been one of the best videos, but it definitely launched the channel with a great start.



The 1980's was an era in which many artists first started. For example, Madonna and Micheal Jackson were both very popular with their music video promos on MTV. Madonna worked with many different music directors throughout the 1980's to fit many of her different music videos she produced. One of the most memorable and watched was "open your heart" released in 1982. This video really started her career in the music industry.



Micheal Jackson was a very popular artist on MTV. The fact that he was the first ever black artist to be played, he has supposed to of "made history" within the music video industry. He had many famous singles, but his biggest and most memorable breakthrough was the hit single "thriller".

The 1970's

Not only were the 1970's famous for flared trousers and flowery shirts but it was the decade in which one of the most memorable early music videos was created. Queen. A legendary band which had many number ones, not forgetting one of their most famous, Bohemian rhapsody.This music video was almost a "kick start" in the music video industry and was a huge influence for other bands and artists in this era. It used visuals that went along with the track which appealed to the Queen fans and was a huge success. Even today it had over 12 million YouTube hits and is still known as "one of the greatest music videos of our time, even 35 years on.

The 1960's

The 1960's was a great era of both music and and music videos. The Beatles were a very popular band in this decade and were famous for their weird and wonderful videos that they had produced.








This video for their number one single, "Cant buy me love" is a simple video of the four of them running around in "private property" doing different shots. Such as helicopter high angle shots and simple handheld ones.



Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and The Who were also too different band that were popular across this era and they also did similar things with their music videos.







Bob Dylan was also a very famous solo artist in the 1960's. he too, was famous for his quirky videos. In a certain video, It is simply him standing behind The Garrick Theatre, looking directly at the America just holding signs with some of the lyrics written on them. This confused people, but proved a great success.

With all these artists mentioned, it was great because if they couldn't make a TV appearance on for example, Top of The Pops, then the TV programme would simply play their music video instead.

History of Music Videos

It all began in the 1940's which was known as "the Soundies" era. "Video Jukeboxes" were a common thing found in many diners/bars and were a promo video for the song. So, people would put there money in and select a song and the video would play along with it.

Nat "king" Cole



This music video is mostly performance as it shows Nat himself watching himself on the video jukebox. These video jukeboxes died out as it was seen as inappropriate and too expensive. However, in the 1960's France created a similar thing, but better then the original. It was known as the "Scopitore". This was popular all across the world and antique ones can still be bought today.

From MTV to You Tube

What is a music video?
It's something that lasts the length of the song or sometimes seen longer and features the artist singing along and sometimes playing an instrument to the song, but the artist isn't always shown. It can tell a story, but doesn't have to and it should always be memorable to the viewer and should be worth "repeat viewings" so that once watched it can be looked at again.

1930's experimentation
Where did it all begin? There was a 1930's experiment called "A Colour Box by Len Lye".



This experiment was very much about putting film to music, which was where the whole concept of a music video began. It included trying to fit the images in time to a specific beat or rhythm or tune. This was also shown as an advert for The Post Office throughout the 1930's and was usually shown in cinemas.

The Go Team



This was one of the first music videos made. It doesn't have a narrative and instead is just lots of random images such as scenes of New York and even a group of professional "skippers". It also include lots of found advertising brands and different landscapes and locations. It was a success and was what "kick started" the music video era.

Richmix Studios - Media Trip

On Tuesday 9th November myself and my media class visited Rich mix Studios in shore ditch, Bethnal Green, East London. The trip was for us as a class to gain a better understanding of the A2 media course and to learn how to create a successful Music Video.

The Schedule for the day was split up into two sessions, morning and afternoon. The morning session included a welcome by Thalia Cassimatis, the Rich mix Education officer. This was then shortly followed by a presentation and clips from Pete Fraser, the head of the media department for the OCR examination board. His presentation included the history of music codes and conventions and top tips for making our own pop promos.

In the Afternoon session was a presentation and clips with Lis Kessler, who has been working in the industry and commissioning and producing usic videos. After that, was a question and answer session with Corin Hardy, who too has worked as a music video director. I will divide the next few posts in to the different topics and conversations that were covered and talk about what I learnt from them.

Audience theory

Audience theory is an element of thinking that developed within acaemic literary theory and cultural studies. With a specific focus on rhetoric, some, such as Walter Ong, have suggested that the audience is a construct made up by the rhetoric and the rhetorical situation the text is addressing. Others, such as Ruth Mitchell and Mary Taylor have said writers and speakers actually can target their communication to address a real audience. Some others like Ede and Lunsford try to mingle these two approaches and create situations where audience is "fictionalized," as Ong would say, but in recognition of some real attributes of the actual audience.

Effects Model

The Hypodermic Needle Model - The intended message is directly recieved and wholly accepted by the reciever.

Two-step flow - The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.Uses and gratifications -People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.

Reception theory - The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences

Obstinate audience theory - This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message

Hypodermic Syringe Effect - The hypodermic needle model (also known as the hypodermic-syringe model) is a model of communications also referred to as the "magic bullet" perspective, or the transmission-belt model. Essentially, this model holds that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is largely considered obsolete today.

Discarded song choices

Theses are all the songs we choice not to do. Some of the reasons where because it would simply be too difficult, the existing video would b too hard to compete with or simply because the song didn't fit with our chosen genre well enough.

Katy B - On a mission


Eminem ft Rihanna - Love the way you lie


Magnetic Man ft Katy B - Perfect Stranger


Inxs - Need you tonight

Audience Feedback Wordle

After our media class had watched our treatment presentation and seen all our ideas, we asked them to write 3 or 4 words which fitted our music video theme the best and then also to make a few comments on what could be improved or changed and why. This was the final result of our audience feedback wordle:

There was also a few comments that were made to:

- the whole "couples" concept was a good idea
- excellent choice of locations to film
- good themes that fit with the song
- this music video has great potential for different shots and editing techniques
- conforms to our genre well
- fabulous song choice
- slight confusion as to how things will fit together
- try not to follow every shot filmed to the relating words in the song as it will be boring to watch

Wordles

Wordles are a great way of getting "all your ideas down in one place" and making it look fun and quirky at the same time, We created as a group, 2 wordles. Our first one was when between the 4 of us, we each wrote 5 or 6 words that we thought summed up our music videos the best. These words ranged from all different things such as "fun" to "quirky" and "romantic" to "flirty".


After typing all the words in to the website (www.wordle.net) this is what are wordle looked like:

The larger the words appear on the wordle, it means the more they occured and so the stronger the oppinion we felt that word fitted with our music video.

Meeting log 4

This meeting between the group was all about the possible locations in which we can film at for our music video. We wanted to think about practical locations in which we would have permission to film at, we could access easily and more then once.

Considering we will be filming the material for our film in the months of November December and January, we have to think of the weather conditions that will more likely to occur and that it will be dark earlier, so all of this will have to come into consideration when choosing our locations. Here is a list and description of the suitable locations we came up with as a group where we think we would be able to film:

1) Alexandra Palace - With it;s picturesque views of London in the distance and great landscape, this would be a perfect for filming the couple together. We could film at this location at both day and night and still get some great footage for our video. Also, with the horizon view we could film the sun coming up, or setting in to night and then speed it up when it comes to editing.

2) South end-on-sea - Candyfloss, popcorn, fish and chips and funfairs and all things which you accociated with a good visit to the seaside. However, I think that going to the funfair and doing these things is an ideal day/night out for a couple and so we decided to chose this as our second locations. Walking hand in hand on a beach or even having fun on a funfair ride brings the "fun" side to our music video and shows what a good time couples have when in a relationship. We also thought that we could even write something in the sand or from their footprints and speed it up as we thought this would look good and fit with our initial ideas of it being fun, quirky and flirty

3) Enfield Playing Fields - One of the biggest open spaces in Enfield it would be almost weird to not want to film here with the trees, grass etc. However, there is one thing as a group we particularly ike and that it the main entrance walkway. A wide path surrounded by trees and fallen leaves on the ground from the seasons of Autumn/Winter will really make a nice setting for a romantic shot of the couple on a "stroll" together.

Initial Idea - Brainstorm

Here is a photo of my groups initial ideas on our music video. These ideas include:

- Calander idea = flipping the pages through different months having different ideas for each. For example, watching the fireworks in novemeber, decorating the christmans tree in December and on some of romantic date in Febuar for Valentines day.

- Red Dress = When the song mentions "Red Dress",the girl acting in our video will appear in a red dress.

- Alexandra Palace = This would b a perfect location for us to film the couple walking together and having fun, sitting on a park bench etc.

Treatment - The video

Our Treatment
First things first, what actually is a treatment?

-An outline of a media production which is designed to give an overview of what the production might include based on a brief and presented to a client/Production team.

-Included written descriptions and images to demonstrate the intention of the production.

-It is used to 'sell' an idea to a client/Production team and is an integral aspect of the 'production process'.

Here is a video of myself, Emma, Neelam and Elle presenting our treatment on our music video to the rest of our media class. This treatment outlines what we are planning to do with our chosen song (watch the sun come up - example) for our music video. It included ideas about costume, make up, locations, initial ideas and any extra research that links with our song.

As it isn't very clear on the recording, here are some of the songs we got our ideas from:

Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
Despite the fact that this song is about how he feels about a girl which is similar to watch the song come up, our chosen song, we like the idea at the beginning of the video. When Bruno shows the cassette, this is what we would like to do at the start of our music video before the song actually starts, but with a VHS tape being put in to a video player and then the title of the song appearing on the TV screen. We as a group, also liked the way the film itself was unravelled in to the song title, so maybe we could achieve something similar but more unique, for example a cartoon drawing writing out the title of our song.

Kraak and Smaak - Squeeze Me
This isn't a very well known song, but whilst I was in the hairdressers the other day it came on the music channel and caught my eye straight away. I really like the fact that this is a narrative based video and you hardly see the words actually sung at all. This is similar to what is going to happen in our own video. The whole "note pad flicking" concept as it makes the video more interesting to watch, hence why it caught my eye straight away. We would love to achieve something similar but with our "calender" idea, so instead of a notepad flicking, we will be flicking through the different months instead.

Kate Nash - Foundations
As a group we really like how some of the objects in this video such as toothbrushes, watches and slippers are filmed shot by shot, frame by frame, edited and then spead up so it looks like they are moving on their own. We would love to have something very similar in this video whether its with an object, or even some writing like a certain lyric from our song e.g "you and that red dress"

idEst

I took a photo of our group from last years filming progress and added our band brand name to it for preparation for when it comes down to making our groups "digi pack" which includes a magazine cover and CD cover too. I really like it in a plain simple font such as century Gothic (as shown above) and I love the capital "E" as it makes the name look rather edgy and i think this fits our song and group well.

Band Brand/Meeting log 3

In order for us to make this music successfully to Watch the sun come up, the four of us in our group need to come up with a "band brand". This is basically so us as a group have a collective identity for our music video.

To start with, we remembered that "Examples" name originally came from his name "Elliot Greaves" and so he took the initials "E.G" and realised that that stood for example and so his brand name was founded. We thought as a group what could we come up with and we decided to type "Example" in to the search engine on Theasurus.co.uk in order to find out different words that mean the same as example. Here are a few examples of what came up:

- Paragon
- Exposure
- Illustrate
- Prototype
- Idest

All of the following mean or have similar meanings to example. After much discussion, we decided to chose "Idest". We thought it stood out the most and was "edgy" and we thought this went well with our song and group. However, when it comes to writing it, we are going to use a capital "E" to make it stand out more and look that little bit different. So, when written our band brand name is "idEst".

Email of permission

In order for us to film a music video to the song "watch the sun come up" by the popular pop artist "Example" we have to send a letter of permission. Obviously, we aren't expecting a reply, but we have to do this in order to pursue what we want to do. So, I went on Example's my space and blog and needed to get the email address, however this was unavailable, so instead I decided to contact the management of Example himself instead. The email itself will outline the media course I am studying, why we chose his song and most importantly, asking for the permission itself!

The Email:

Dear MickShiner@Puregroove.co.uk,
My name is Sophie McNamara and I attend Enfield County sixth form in North London and are currently studying Media A2, after gaining a B at a.s level, I wanted to carry it on.

With A2 media, the course itself this year is to film, edit and produce our own music video to any song of our choice. We have a complete free choice and can decided whatever we want to do in our groups and the reason why I am contacting you today is because myself and the 3 other girls in my group would wish to use one of Example's songs for our music video.

This project will involve us going to various locations, planning and creating our own storyline to go along with a song of our choice. The song we have decided to do is one of example's earlier songs, "watch the sun come up". It really stood out for us and we were able to come up with a good storyline straight away that we knew would be achievable with our filming and editing skills.

We have no intention of selling this video on, it is simply for educational purpose only. I hope you will take in to consideration what I have said and I would love it to be possible to use your song as it is perfect for what we want to achieve.

Yours Sincerely,
Sophie McNamara

Our chosen song

Song Lyrics:

Verse 1:
How can I explain it scratchin my brain
How can 10 hours feel like 10 years?
I cry 10 men's tears as it disappears
With the passionate atmosphere
Took your glove as a souvenir
Left the other on the pillow as I stroked your ear
One last breathe of your hair, stared for a second
Then the doorway beckoned
I'm a lover not a fighter
So I didn't fight the fact that I more than liked ya
Didn't matter we were under influence
Made sense this was more than lust
I don't own you, you don't own me
One night only, if only
I could take you back and just show you off
But I guess if I did that, the magic is lost

Pre chorus:
Believe me I wanna stay
But I'm off and away

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want another day with you

Verse 2:
You and that red dress
What a pairing
I kept staring, you couldn't have said less
Cant let my head rest, thinking about ya,
Really wanna look into your catwoman eyes
Turn back time, cause it flies by
You know, them Marty mcfly vibes
See, I can picture the bright lights
Sights and night skies and boats go by
I don't why it happened so fast
When I tried to speak your language
I'm happy you laughed
Cause I'm hardly a linguist
Spoke through kisses you didn't speak English
And It was hard to distinguish
Love at first sight or holiday romance?
Don't care I was lost in the moment
I really shoulda missed that flight

Pre Chorus:
Believe me I wanna stay
But I'm going away

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want just one more day with you

Middle 8:
I don't think I could be dreaming I felt your touch
No I remember you breathing when I woke up
Now all I have are these memories I can't trust
Just one day, wont be enough

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It's calling
I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It's calling
I want another day with you

Verse 1:
How can I explain it scratchin my brain
How can 10 hours feel like 10 years?
I cry 10 men's tears as it disappears
With the passionate atmosphere
Took your glove as a souvenir
Left the other on the pillow as I stroked your ear
One last breathe of your hair, stared for a second
Then the doorway beckoned
I'm a lover not a fighter
So I didn't fight the fact that I more than liked ya
Didn't matter we were under influence
Made sense this was more than lust
I don't own you, you don't own me
One night only, if only
I could take you back and just show you off
But I guess if I did that, the magic is

pre chorus:
Believe me I wanna stay
But I'm off and away

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want another day with you

Verse 2:
You and that red dress -
What a pairingI kept staring, you couldn't have said less
Cant let my head rest, thinking about ya,
Really wanna look into your catwoman eyes
Turn back time, cause it flies by
You know, them Marty mcfly vibes
See, I can picture the bright lights
Sights and night skies and boats go by
I don't why it happened so fast
When I tried to speak your language
I'm happy you laughed
Cause I'm hardly a linguist
Spoke through kisses you didn't speak English
And It was hard to distinguish
Love at first sight or holiday romance?
Don't care I was lost in the moment
I really shoulda missed that flight

Pre Chorus:
Believe me I wanna stay
But I'm going away

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come upI
t's calling
I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch the sun come up
It's calling
I want just one more day with you

Middle 8:
I don't think I could be dreaming
I felt your touch
No I remember you breathing when I woke up
Now all I have are these memories
I can't trust
Just one day, wont be enough

Chorus:
Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It's calling I want another day with you
Hey, Good Morning
Watch The Sun Come Up
It's calling
I want another day with you

Ideas on lyrics:

- in the song where it says "how can ten hours feel like ten years" we have thought about filming a clock ticking and then speeding it up in fast motion to show that the time is passing fast throughout the couples relationship. Also, this links in with our idea of green screening a calender as the months pass, it shows that ten hours in their relationship can actually feel like a lot longer.

- "you and that red dress" we will have a clip of the girl from the couple in a smart red dress looking like thecouple are going on a romantic night out. By wearing the red dress, not only will it link to the lyrics of the song, but will also relate the colour red well as red is usually imitated with either love/romance or anger and in this case its for the romance side.

- "watch the sun come up" we will film a clip of the sun rising and leave the camera rolling. Then, when it comes to editing it, we will speed it up, so the sun actually rises fully within a few seconds.

Meeting Log 2

This was a very important meeting as it was the day that we had to decide on our final song choice. After many discussions and debating over what genre and song to do, we have finally come to a decision. The song we have chosen is "Watch the sun come up" by the electro pop artist "example" who i have already done some artist research on.

I think this song holds great potential for our group as it has a fast, yet slow beat so we can have some slower more relaxed camera angles and some fast paced ones. Also, the change in beat will affect how we edit our video as we can have some fast paced edited clips and some smoother ones.

Meeting Log 1

On the 22/09/10, my group and I realised that we really needed to knuckle down on the plans for our music video, when we realised we hadn't even decided on a certain song yet!

The possible options we discussed were:

Katy B - on a mission, louder

Magnetic Man - I need air

Example - Kick starts, watch the sun come up

Eminem ft Rhiana - love the way you lie

Hopefully, next meeting we shall be able to finally decide on a song and then we can get going on our ideas!

Meeting Log

In order to maintain a successful schedule when it comes to filming, editing and research our music video as a group, I will fill in a meeting log after every session. Whether its simple discussions in class, or an actual filming session, all the important information will be written down in my meeting log so I can stay on top of our group decisions.

As imaged above, every time I will record a meeting blog in order to make sure I record every decision made. Hopefully by doing this, it will help keep myself and my group more organised and will help us look back at previous decisions we have made and see whether they really were the correct ones.

mood board

As you can see from this mood board i made, the genre that we as a group have chosen to research is electro pop. Electro giving pop the slightly more modern twist then pop was before such as "the cheeky girls" and pop, simply because of what it stands for today "popular music".

The images in my mood board are taken from the search engines "Google" and "yahoo", both popular in the media today. I chose to put orange as the background as it is a bold, bright colour which represents our genre "electro pop" very well. The "MTV" logo represents just one of the popular music channels in which electro pop music is played on a daily basis including artists such as Katy B, Katy Perry, Example and so on.

there are also various images of a few artists who are either pop, electro, or electro pop as one combined genre. These include Katy Perry, The Cheeky Girls, Girl Aloud and Example. The 3 in which i would like to focus on in further detail are Katy B, Katy Perry and Example.

Narrative Music Video

The other type of music video that you can achieve is whats called a Narrative Music Video. This is the opposite of the performance one. Where in a performance video all that can be watched by the viewers is the band/artist playing the song and singing in a location, narrative actually have a storyline for them to watch.

By having a narrative running alongside the performance of the band/artist it makes it more interesting to watch, especially if the storyline actually fits to the lyrics of the song. An excellent example of this type of music video is "Stan" by Eminem and Dido. The reason why this video is so clever is because this song is about an obsessive fan over ermine and is girlfriend (dido) is started to become worried by this. the fact that the person playing the obsessive fan looks like Eminem makes it easier for us as viewers to follow and really absorb the narrative 100% and listen to how it fits the lyrics of the song.





I hope that when it comes down to making our own video, we can achieve both a mixture of performance and narrative combined in order to making it a successful music video and something that is thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

Performance Music Video

This type of music video is when the band or artist who sings the song is the main focus in the video and its just of them performing in different locations. This locations can vary from a gig, to a music studio, or even in a completely different setting like another planet for example, but there is no storyline to it.

There are many different example of this but one that I though showed this particularly well is the classic pop song by Outcast called "Hey ya!". It shows the band performing on a TV show to a live audience and there isn't really much of a storyline to it apart from the vague plot which fits in to the lyrics with the song.

Genre Research - 'Florence and the Machine'

Florence and the Machine is the UK's newest artist in Indie Rock. It can be described as various genres from different people such as rock and indie, to even soul.


Florence was born on the 28th August 1986 in London and has grown up there her whole life. Florence grew up in a fairly wealthy background and attended The Camber well college of Arts in studying her speciality, music.


Once graduated, she opted straight for starting her own music. The name "Florence and The Machine' comes from Florence's backing band. "The Machine" part of the name came from an idea she created herself when she was a solo artist, before she then came together with her backing band.


Her first album "lungs" reached number 1 in the album chart in UK in 2008 and also reached number 13 in the European charts. Since this big success, Florence and the Machine have been performing at several gigs and concerts around the UK and the globe. In NME Magazine, dated 20 March 2010, Welch revealed further details about her second album. She confirmed she had been in the studio for "a two-week stint with producer Paul Epworth" She claims that much of the inspiration for the second album has been scientific because "a lot of her family are doctors or trying to become doctors, so much of her conversations are fixated on medical stuff." The stint in the studio resulted in two tracks being completed and a new sound being discovered, she revealed that one track that will feature on the album is called "Strangeness and Charm", which she describes as "7 minutes long and relentless". She debuted "Strangeness and Charm" on May 2, 2010 in The Olympia Theatre, Dublin during her Cosmic Love Tour. Florence described the new sound as "dancey, but it's also dark as well" she explained that they also featured "relentless drums and heavy, droning bass." The album is due out in 2011.




This is one of my favourite videos by Florence and The Machine. Although it is very plain and quite simple and only includes a few different types of shots, I really like the subtle lights used in the background to put Florence in the spotlight so that all the audience's concentration is always on her and perhaps this is something we can consider to do in our own music video. To focus on the character themselves, rather then having a set storyline or narrative.

Genre Research - The Streets

Micheal Geoffrey "mike" skinner, normally goes by the name of "the streets" stage name. Born on the "7th November 1978, Mike has been in the music industry since a very young age.


At just 5 years old he started to learn the keyboard and it grew from there. He lived on a suburban council estate in the heart of Birmingham and had a pretty rough upbringing. In the mid 1990's he attended Bourneville Secondary School, but left at just the age of 15 to pursue his music career with no qualifications. However, he soon went straight into producing his own music. His music goes by the genre of contemporary/rap. It included both fast and slow beats and in some songs Mike 'raps/mc's', where as in slower songs such as "we never went to church" where he actually sings along to the lyrics rather then "song-talking".



Between 2000 and 2003 and he worked on his first album "Original Pirate Material" which was nominated for the mercury prize award. It was a success with the public and entered the top 20 in March 2001. It included singles such as "lets push things forward", "has it come to this" and "don't mug yourself". As you can see, by the names of the songs, What mike writes and produces is all true knowledge based and is hoping people will listen to the lyrics carefully as they mean a lot to him.


Between 2004 and 2005, he released his second album "A grand don't come for free" which again went into the top 20. In fact, one of the singles "your fit but don't ya know it" went in at number one in the charts in early 2005. "...Being number one for the first time, was by far the best moment of my life so far..." states Mike.


Since 2005, Mike has gone on to produce another 3 albums "The hardest way to make an easy living", "everything is borrowed" and his current album he is working on in 2010 is "computer blues".

He does lots of charity work and also enjoys doing live performances such as Party in the Park, and various private gigs and supporting work around London.

My favourite video from The Streets its definately the single "your fit but don't ya no it". I love the way that photographs are used as moving images as its from a point of view camera angle so its almost as if we are looking at Mike Skinner's photos. I also like the way how almost no "camera tricks" have been used in that it look like it has been done realistic and modern day and hasn't got anything false like artificial lighting or special effects. I makes the video look cleaner, sharper and crisper and I think it fits this song really well. The best thing about it though is Mike is pretty much playing himself in this video, so it makes it really fun to watch.





Another video by The Streets that I enjoyed was "when you wasn't famous". It has a really good comical edge to the video and made me laugh. Again it isn't a "show off" video as in "oh look at all the special editing techniques we can do" but has still been edited well and shows continuity throughout the video. I enjoy the streets videos so much because I like their music and how the videos really fit the genre and lyrics to their songs. I also think that this video would b able to be achieved as it isn't overly professional and so myself and my group aren't being too over ambitious.