Evaluation

Question1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge conventions of music videos?

The first convention that we chose to use was to use performance shots of our artist singing the lyrics of the song and playing a including an instrument. This is one of the most important aspects of Indie videos as the artists want to be portrayed as credible musicians. Much like the David Grey video that i have previously analysed (insert link) we have created performance shots from lots of different angles to highlight the artist’s skills as a musician. We wanted to have close ups of the fret board of the guitar as well as the sound hole to show both pieces of a guitar. We also have a lot of close ups of our performer holding and playing the guitar. Also including the instrument is a very important part of the Indie genre because these artists want to be seen as convincing musicians. We thought that it was necessary to include a guitar to emulate this. We took this one step further by having our artist switch from an electric to acoustic guitar towards to end of the video. This adds variety and interest as well as highlighting that our artist is a versatile performer.

                               

Another convention we used was Steve Archer’s theory of integrating the performance aspects of our video with a narrative such as John Mayer’s Shadow Days (http://youtu.be/daGcpvxPbCo1) . This will help relate the lyrics to the visuals of the video and will give the audience something to relate to. It also gives the artist a sense of identity. We decided to amplify and illustrate some of the lyrics in the song. For example “pass it up into the sky” is portrayed with a kite being thrown up into the sky and the use of slow motion editing emphasizes this. We also had the artist saying some of the lyrics to the girl in the video, again illustrating the meaning. We also chose to amplify some lyrics such “whats the point in this mystery”. The whole video revolves around the idea that nobody knows why she is leaving. This follows the enigma code and keeps the audience interested.   We chose to have cross cuts between this story and performance shots as well as adhering to Steve Archers theory it also creates binary opposition between him being alone and with the girl. In one particular scene we chose to use adjacent cross and additive dissolves which fades between these two opposites making it more obvious.

We have developed the idea of the digipack showing our artist in more details. We in fact have made our artist more mysterious as we haven’t got a shot of his face in a single CD photo. As we have seen from typical CD photo booklets and digipacks, including the John Mayer album I have previously analysed, there is at least one shot where you can see the artist’s face. This helps the audience to identify the artist and almost get to know him. It also makes the album seem more personal. We decided that we didn’t want to do this. We wanted to still have that sense of mystery that can be seen in our video. Our artist is included in our CD photos: we see him from the back and from a slight angle, but never from the front. 

A convention that we have developed is the use of intertexuality. We wanted to use the basic conventions of Romantic Comedy movies. The way that we challenged this convention was to change the ending of our narrative to contradict the usual convention of a happy ending. We wanted to do this so that our audience would expect a happy ending throughout the video but then surprise them by having the girl walk away and leave the boy. Much like certain rom coms we wanted our video to reflect the “happy montage” scenes that are typical in these movies. We did this by having our video in chronological order from the morning to the evening. The use of the “home video” hand held shots on the camera phone also give more of an insight into what seems like  a happy and playful day.  We used fast cutting rates and mid shots of the two characters together to emphasise this. To then contrast with this we used a slower cutting rate and more additive and cross dissolves as well as a lower key color filter to highlight the problems between the couple and create a more melancholic atmosphere.

A convention we challenged was the use of point of view shots. Most music videos will have an to objective to help to audience identify and feel closer to the artist  like in the Joshua Radin video where the subject is very personal to the artist. We took this a step further by introducing “home” handheld footage shot by the artist. This allows the audience to see exactly what the artist is seeing and help them feel closer to him. It also makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him as they get to see what he is losing; seeing him at his most vulnerable  The use of the overlaying flashing credit identifies the footage as being on a phone and we also lowered the resolution to make the footage less high quality. This creates a contrast to the rest of our footage. This is different from most music videos where the footage will be filmed in the third person and the main focus will be the artist whereas we chose to focus on the girl.

Another convention that we challenged that was also picked up on by our audience was the absence of the remaining instruments featured on the track. Even many solo artist have a band featured with them if there is a "band-like" arrangement in terms on instruments on the track. We decided not to have to so that there was sole focus on our artist. When we originally started planning our video we were going to include shots of a drumkit and other guitarists but then decided that it would detract from our artist and may also give the audience the impression that he was part of a band. This can be seen in the David Grey video that I had previously analysed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqIFYv1_yHI) where a drummer is featured even though the artist is solo. To compensate for this however we chose to use a variety of different camera angles including close up and mid shots of the acoustic guitar and then close ups on the bridge of the electric guitar. We thought it was important to emphasise the fact that the video is for a solo artist and we wanted to focus to be on the storyline.

;

Question2.

Question3.

As well as showing the video to peers from our target demographic I also showed the video to my family to get some initial response. Like some of our other audience members they were slightly confused as to what story we were trying to tell and were left needing to watch it a second time to understand it. Looking back, I think that we may have tried to convey too complicated a storyline and should have stuck to something simpler that we could have portrayed more effectively. They did however like the home footage that we shot as it gave a new and different perspective to the video. My mother in particular thought that some of the transitions we used could have been smoother or more thought about in terms of what dissolves we used as she found it a little repetitive.

Overall we have had mixed feedback, some audience members found it to be a very effective and well executed music video that they would watch again and some found it a little confusing. Obviously it is impossible to please everyone but I think that there are minor adjustments that we could have made to overall create a more authentic music video.

Question4.

Overall I used many different media technologies to plan, create and evaluate our media product. Some of these technologies I had used before such as blogger and the HD cameras and final cut express but now I feel that I have developed these skills and have learnt new and more effective ways of using them such as opening numerous sequences in final cut express and adjusting the settings on the camera. Using photoshop was a new experience for me as I had never used it before. Watching tutorials on youtube helped me understand the more advance skills that I would need to learn but ultimately playing around with the programme and creating practise images is how I got to grips with it. I now feel that I am pretty competent in using this programme. Sliderocket and Slideshare were also new websites that I used and they became particularly useful in keeping all my presentations in one place and it made it easier for me to embed this information into blog posts via an embed code in the HTML box in blogger.

Ancillary Texts

Digipack Photos

Front Cover

Inlay 1

Inlay 2

Inlay 3

Inlay 4

Inlay 5

Back Cover

Advert

Final Product

This is our final product.

Digipack Dimensions and Layouts

There are different templates that can be used when creating a digipack booklet/inlays and each one has there advantages and disadvantages

This is a new way layout of CD where the CD case it integrated with the covers and inlays. This creates a continuous line of photos with the 3 inlays but the still keeps the back and front cover separate  allowing for some subtle differences in fonts and colors without it looking miss matched. This caters for 4 inlays (one behind the disc), a front and a back cover.

 This inlay booklet does allow for a continuous line of images as the whole booklet folds out into one. This is good if you want to display lots of images of your artist or if you want to display the lyrics for all of your tracks. I think that this type of template means you need a running theme throughout all of your images. This caters for 6 inlays, a front and a back cover.

 This is the standard booklet that you would find separate from the CD and the front and the back cover. This would be typical if the album was being sold as a hard CD and not a digital download. It is a very common template used by popular musicians. This allows for 8 inlays.

This is a more basic form of digipack booklet used for albums with minimal images. It only allows for 2 inlays, one behind the disc and a front and a back cover. This kind of template could be used by artists who pride themselves on being minimal and simple and could be good for an Indie artist.

Masking- Photoshop tutorial

For our advert we want to cut our our artist from a previous photo and mask him onto a different background and the mask the album cover over the blank board that we had him hold. With everyone in our group being new to photoshop we thought it would be good to find a tutorial that would show us how to do this.

Creating a Contact Sheet- photoshop tutorial

For one of our inlays of our digipack we wanted to have a contact sheet of behind the scenes shots of the overall production of the music, video and photoshoot for the digipack. This would allow the audience to feel more connected to the audience and would also show that he is involved in all aspects of the album making process and is a credible artist.

We did not know the best way of creating a contact sheet so I found a tutorial on youtube explaining photoshop's default setting for creating one.




 

Magazine Advert Analysis

Especially for Indie artists, it is important to have an eye catching and effective advert displaying an album. Even with the rise of the internet, magazines such as NME and Mojo are still extremely popular in advertising new Indie music. Here are some examples of these adverts.

This is an advert for a single rather than an album but it still shares some characteristics that we would use in our album advert. 

Layout- All the features are equally spread across the page and everything is framed appropriately adhering to the rules of thirds with Bugg  being displayed on the right. The layout along with the choice of sizes fro the fonts, lead your eyes down the page to be left with his website. 

Color- The color scheme is very "greyscale" with not much color. It is also very minimalistic which reflects his music. The black text is bold and stands out in front of the lighter background. This color scheme also adheres to the BBC radio 1 logo which is always black and white.

Font- the font is very simple and plain and all the text is written in capitals which shows a certain determination and boldness. It makes the artist seem strong and confident. 

Content- It is very simple with just one picture of the artist. He is also holding a cigarette which hints at the idea of rebellion and almost freedom which is what Indie artists often emulate. There is also very little text which means that the text that is there stands out. He is looking straight to camera which makes a connection with the audience but the profile stance adds an sense of mystery and is almost intimidating

Ed Sheeran has been a breakthrough Indie artist in 2011 and 2012 and has gained critical success. 

Layout- The layout of this advert again draws attention to the artist himself. And the way the text is set out draws your eyes down the page to the legal text and the text displaying other platforms to consume his music. 

Color- The colors follow the recurring theme of Ed Sheeran with the orange, black and white. This gives the artist a certain identity and makes the advert instantly recognisable. These colors also contrast well meaning that the text stands out on the page. The orange also reflects Ed's distinct ginger hair.

Font- the fonts is the same that is used across all of Ed Sheerans text and is instantly recognisable as his own. This again creates a sense of identity.

Content- The advert again is very minimalistic and simple, reflecting the simplistic nature of his music. It has a quote from a credited source which makes the album more desirable. Something that we would want to emulate in our advert. Sheeran is not looking into camera but the extreme close up of his face creates the connection with the audience and makes it more personal. 

This is the 2nd album from artist Jack Johnson after his very successful debut album "In Between Dreams" 

Layout- this is a slightly different layout to what we have previously seen with the page being split into two. The top half shows the cover of the album so that it could be easily found in a music store etc. The bottom half contains all of the technical details, text and legal text. 

Color- the colors are all quite cold except for the pop of orange in the top left hand corner of the page. This color scheme links with the album cover and generates an overall theme between the texts. 

Font- the fonts of artist is different to the rest of the text on the page. The "Jack Johnson" text is in a font that is used on all of the artists work and creates a sense of identity and makes it more recognisable. The font of the rest of the text is plainer and easier to read. It also makes the page less busy in comparison to what it may have looked like if the first font was used the whole way through. 

Content- there is more text on this advert compared to others that have been looked at. It includes the name of his new single and also the different means of buying his music including 9" which is a vinyl record. Something that is becoming increasingly popular amongst Indie artist and audiences. There are also logos of record labels and websites and social media sites where the audience can learn more about the artist.

Vampire Weekend are an Indie band who have earned a loyal fan base through their unique style of music. 

Layout- this is  avery simple layout which hardly any features. The large image catches your eye immediately and the writing is laid out down the page with the artists name at the top. 

Color- there are quite a lot of pastel colors with the yellow of her shirt and the pink background. The white writing stands out on top of this but is still in keeping with the overall softness of the advert in comparison to if the text was black for example. 

Font- the font is very plain and again is written in capitals suggesting a boldness.

Content- there is very little content on the advert. The image is the cover of their album and bears no link with the band itself. There is very little legal text apart from the small print at the bottom. I think that the simplicity and boldness of the advert catches the audiences eye and is very effective 

Editing Progress

Because, when we filmed we were unable to film certain shots and filmed extra shots, our final product will be different from our original storyboard. Also we realised that our storyboard had a very fast cutting rate so some of our shots in our final piece will be longer and therefore some shots have had to be removed as we cannot fit them in.

We are also having trouble making our iphone footage recognisable as being filmed on a phone and we are looking for ways to possible get a "recording" symbol in the corner of the shots, or possibly having a multiscreen showing all of the footage at once. We are also looking into filming another shots of our artist looking at the footage in his phone and then zooming in to blend the shots and then it will be obvious that is is phone footage.

RIsk Assesment

Not filming at school means that there are many risks that we need to take into acount.

Risk: Going to far out to sea and equipment/actors being pulled out into deep water
Precaution: We shall only paddle in the shallow water and not tke any equipment into the water.

Risk: Filming the last shot in the road and obstructing cars
Precaution: we will have one person looking out for cars in the roads at all times and will warn us if there are any cars coming

Risk: getting burnt or catching fire to things whilst lighting and filming with the tea lights
Precuation: we will take extra care when lighting them, making sure there is no hair or clothing in the way and will also have one person checking the tea lights whilst filmiung is taking place

Risk: Our artist dropping the girl whilst he is spinning her round
Precuaition: he will pick her up in the proper manner and we will stop frequently so that he can put her down and not hurt himself

Risk: Sitting on the sharp rocks or falling off rocks
Precaution: we will look around the various rock pools and pick the safest and most suitable place for him to sit, making sure that it is level

Risk: falling when trying to sit on top of the beach hut
Precuation: someone will help Harris climb on top of the beach hut whilst someone is watching and standing beneath him in case he falls

Risk: filmer or actor falling off the beach hut whilst filming
Precaution: somone will be watching them whilst they are filming whilst another stands beneath the hut to advise the two where to postition themselves

Filming Schedule

Because we only have this one day to ilm we thought it would be a good idea to plan out our day. It will also help us sort our footage and make sure we have all of our shots.


9:00am - everyone meet at my house to set off for Frinton.

11:00am - arrive at Frinton beach.

11.10am - Shoot the car scenes, have our artist drive the car, park up and get out with female.

11:30am - Check the shot list, and check that we have all the relevant car scenes.

11:35am - Go down to the beach and start filming all of the beach scenes.

1:30pm - Check that we have all of the relevant beach scenes.

1.35pm - Start filming all of the rock scenes, making sure that he sings the full song through for every shot that we do.

2.30pm - Check that we have every rock shot.

2.35pm - Start filming all of the beach hut scenes, and again make sure that he sings the whole song through for every shot.

3:00pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the beach hut scenes.

3:05pm - Start filming the kite scenes (have to make sure that the weather isn't too dark to film this, as the kite needs to be very visable)

3:30pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the kite scenes that we need.

3:35pm - film the pavilion and ice cream shots. 

4.15pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the pavilion shots that we need to have.

4.20pm - Film the tea light beach scenes, making sure that it is the right light. This means that we need it to be dark enough to use the tea lights and have them visable, but not so dark that you can't see our artist whilst he is performing.

5:00pm - Refer back to the shot list and check that we have every shot that we need. Check the shots and make sure that they are a good quality and that none need to be re-done.

Final Props and equipment List

The final prop list for our filming day at the beach are:

-CAR
-GUITAR- electric and acoustic
-SMALL GUITAR AMP
-KITE
-ICE CREAM
-IPHONE
-TEA LIGHTS

The equipment we will need is:

-CAMERA
-TRIPOD
-REFLECTOR BOARDS
-STRIP LIGHT
- CAMERA CHARGER

Digipack- practice wallpaper

Having come up with a concept for our front, back and two of the inlays of our digipack, we decided it would be good to test out the wallpaper idea. We bought some brick wallpaper and wrote the lyrics on it. More wallpaper was then stuck over the top ready to be torn off.

Digipack Font Research

OUR ALBUM TITLE

Photoshop Tutorial - Filters

For one of the inlays of our digipack, we are creating a production montage. For this particular inlay we want to add a sepia type filter to all of our photos. Having not had much experience with Photoshop, I decided to look for a tutorial to find out how to add filter layers.

Video Narrative

Music videos often have a mix between the narrative and the performance. This narrative has to have some relation to the lyrics of the video.

Indie videos in particular have a connection with the lyrics and often tell a relatable story that the audience can identify with. They often tell a love story or a story of desperation.

This is evident in Ed Sheeran's music video for The A Team.

This video tells the story of a young girl caught up in drugs and prostitution. The use of a handheld camera adds to the sense of poverty that the video emulates. It is shot much like a film and follows the day of the young girl. This is something that we want to take and use to follow our artist throughout the last day from the morning to the evening. Although the story of the video may not be one that audience members can directly relate to, it is an everyday problem and highlights sadness which is a common feature of indie music.

Illustrating and Amplifying Lyrics- Joshua Radin

Illustrating lyrics directly depicts the meaning of the lyrics in the video, whereas amplification shows the meaning but through symbolism and other meanings.

Joshua Radin's video for Rather Be With You does both of these.

The very first lyric of the song is illustrated as "sitting here on his lonely dock" and he is seen sitting on a dock by himself. The idea of illustrating lyrics gives a direct correlation between the video and the lyrics of the song.

Amplification is also used. For example the lyric "you waited on me for so long" doesn't actually show her waiting for him, but the reaction that they have when they see each other. Showing that they have been aart for a long time.

We also hope to use a mixture of amplification and illustration in our video to give meaning and links between the image and lyrics.

Filming

Unfortunately we have been unable to film over half term like we had planned because of various reasons from all of us. We plan to therefore film this coming Saturday  In the mean time we will start working on our digipack as we are not using any shots from our video to do this.

RomComs

Our video will share a lot of features with RomComs so I thought it would be good to have a look at some of their conventions

Features of RomComs on Prezi

Intertextuality

Audiences come with background knowledge across all media platforms, not just music videos. This allows producers of music videos to reference other media texts within their video.

Goodwin argues that intertexuality in music videos there are always intertextual references to other music videos. films or TV.
Where Stewart said that there are always visual references including cinema, fashion and photography.

Not all audiences will spot the reference, singling out those who do, making them feel special, important and more connected wih the artist and their interests.

Because so many music video directors started their careers as film graduates, they draw upon cinema as a starting point, therefore making intertextuality a common feature.

Actor organization

There has been a slight change of plan with our actors as we have been unable to find a day which is suitable for everyone. We therefore have had to consider using our group member Harris as the artist. We will hopefully still use Sian as our female actor and find a day during our half term which everyone is happy with.

Practise Footage

This is some practice footage that we shot, looking at different camera angles, panning and using the new dolly.

Credit storyboard

This is a storyboard that i created showing all of the shots in order over our song. This will then help when making our shot list and when we come to edit our footage.

This helped a great deal in intergrating our narrative with our performance shots and also showing uo how much footage we will need. The cutting rate was faster than i had first thought.

Evidence of Planning

We are currently making a moving story board with our song playing underneath so we can gauge how fast our cutting rate needs to be but to also identify which lyrics we will be illustrating and amplifying. There is about a minute left that we have to do.

After we have our footage we thought it would be a good idea to lay our footage in the timeline above our storyboard to then edit to this. 

Filming days

We have decided to film during half term as one of our actors is not at our school and we needed a time when all of us were free. It will either be tuesday or wednesday.

Looking at the weather we think that Tuesday would be the best option as there is less chance of rain and more wind. The wind would be quite important in creating a windswept "hair blowing" type effect.

Actor Analysis

We are having 2 main characters in our music video. The first will be our artist Richard Lown played by Micheal Jordan. The second will be a girl who he is spending his last day with and she will be played by Sian Thompson. These are our actors

The basic storyline of our video will be that she has to leave and he wants to spend her last day together. The performance aspects of our video will be him looking back and rememebering this day.

Jack Johnson Digipack analysis

In Between Dreams was the debut album from Jack Johnson. The cover is very simple using only 2 colors, the yellow and green. It creates a silhouette like image with the yellow being the light from the sun. Johnson is only seen very small compared to the tree and we cannot see his face making it more mysterious but also gives the impression that he is less about his image and more about his music. He can be seen with his guitar a prominent feature in his music and this gives him the credibility as a musician. The font is relatively small and simple again reflecting the simplicity of his music. The slight view of the sea in the background represents his home town of Hawaii but also adds a sense of tranquillity and relaxation. The image of his guitar emphasizes the genre of his music and is a running theme throughout all texts by Jack Johnson. 

The back cover again is yellow and black creating the silhouette effect and the font is simple. The composition of the texts mirrors the branch and creates a balanced layout.
The spine also follows the theme of the whole album. The small print offers the audience other platforms to find music and special features; something that we would ideally like to mimic.

This is a contrasting inlay compared to the one seen above. It shows a collage of photographs from the music making progress and it almost a "behind the scenes" look. It confirms Johnson as a credible artist and someone who is involved in all aspects of his music. It also has a "thankyou" section which helps connect with the audience.

We are beginning to start organizing our actors for our day filming. So far this is what we have achieved.

Costume and Props

We has a discussion today about the costume that we want our artist and the girl in the video to wear and the props that we want to use.

John Mayer Digipack analysis

This is the cover and one of the inlays of John Mayer's album "Room for Squares". Compared to the last album of his tht i looked at you can see that this one has a much brighter color pallete using orange and yellow tones. On the front cover there is no eye contact with the camera which is not challenging to the audience. He is also dressed very casually making him seem very relaxed and laid back. Also Mayer is featured in the left third of the screen which again does not challenge the audience. He is sitting down which adds to the relaxed approach of the cover. His guitar is featuerd which imidietely links the artist to the Indie genre. The division of the cover into smaller squares links to the title of the album "Room for Sqaures" and creates an interesting way of dividing up the page. The black emboldened writing contrasts with the stark white backgroud that it has been placed upon but lso contrasts with the warmer yellow color scheme that is seen throughout the rest of the digipack.

The inlay includes thankyou sections which helps the artist connect with their audience and maybe even thank them for buying the record. The photos follow the color scheme and again the guitar is featured. The overlapping photos creates a square linking wit the title. However in the lower photo we see Mayer directly adress the camera but in a playful way with a slight smile so again this is not challenging the audience. The lighting in the photos seems natural and bright which is more suggestive of happiness.

This is the back cover of the album. Again we see the black writing on the plain white background which makes the song titles easy to read. The squares that can be seen make up the shape of the periodic table which links to science. This I think implies that there is a science to art and music but also includes the sqaures that are mentioned in the title of the album. Even the colors match those of the color scheme. The legal small print on the album is inbetween the two sections of the table where there would normally be writing on a scientific version of the table.This creates an almost accurate representation of the table. However the squares are empty which creates a simpler and more basic pattern and almost reflects the pattern on the cover of the album. The barcode is situated in an unuasual place (we would expect to find it at the bottom of the cover somewhere). This may be so it does not interfere with the table of sqaures that we see.  

This is the CD artwork and again shows the periodic table but this time in its entirity with all the elements being labelled in the boxes. Also although the orange keeps the color scheme it is brighter and less soft and against the black background creates a greater contrast. The text is also in orange making it stand out against the black background. The black background itself creates contrast witht the rest of the album which contains very little black. Even though this is the case it does not create sadness as one may thinks. The website is displayed on the disc showing the other platforms that the music can be consumed on. There are also lables and small print round the bottom of the disc which confirm its credibility as a CD

Filming a guitar solo

This music video is contains a memorable guitar solo in which slash appears out of the sea and plays whilst standing on water.

There is strong emphasis on the guitar and at 8.18 a close up shot of the body and lower neck of the guitar gives focus to his fingers and the playing of the guitar. This could give the audience the idea of learning the solo from the video as well as displaying Slash as a credible artist.
The shots are constantly moving but does have a slower cutting rate. This almost mimics the playing of the guitar as it is constant and smooth.
The choice of color filter also matches the lacquer on the guitar and against the black costume of Slash again brings attention to the guitar which becomes the main focus of this particular sequence.

Location photographs

This is frinton beach that we would like to film at. We would like to film the majority of the performance shots on the beach and also amongst the rocks. Because this is a public place we would not have to seek permission to use it but we will have to be more careful as to not have unwanted people invading our shots. Filming outside also means we will have to be careful with the weather and protect the equipment if it begons to rain.

This beach would be the ideal space to film the candlelit beach performance section of our video as there is a vast amount of sand and the beach wall is behind it which would be perfect for us to film higher angled shots. We do however realise because we are filming this outside nearer night time we will have to sort out a means of lighting the scene as we know that when the footage is exported, it becomes darker. We think we may have to get a battery pack to then plug spot lights into to light the artist.

We also want to film some of the performance elements of our video sitting on top of some beach huts. We will take the appropriate health and safety precautions when doing this. 

We will not be filming the entire video on the beach. We want to have some elements in the pavilion shown above as well as on the grass and in the town of frinton. Again because this is public we will not need permission to film here.

Location Filming

 Wanting to film on a beach we wanted to look at a similar product that effectively films at a beach. The long establishing shot at 0.11 shows a "postcard" shot of the beach. In our video we want to create a romantic setting for our artist. Framing the beach shot and frequently returning to it will emphasize the romantic setting and enhance the relationship between our characters.

The slight sepia color filter when filming on the sand of the beach highlights the sun rise and gives the video a softer overall look. It also gives the shots a yellowish tint much like the color of the sand on the beach.

The performance part of the video is soley set on the beach with mid and long shots from the back of the artist. This creates shadows and emphasizes the sun and the water. This is something that we want to emulate in the performance part of our video

Planning meeting

Our planning meeting discussing shot lists and locations for our music video.

Looking at Filming Preludes

This is a good example of the story before the music video that we would like to include in our music video. Although it helps set up the story it doesn't give too much away and it leaves the audiences asking questions adhering to the enigma code. It is filmed similar to how a film would be filmed.
It uses a lot of close up shots of hands and faces which enhances her emotions. This is something that we want to take in and use for our story to amplify the emotions of our artists. It includes diagetic sound that adds to the movie concept of the video. The slower cutting rate sets the prelude apart from the music video which usually will have a faster cutting rate.

The use of the prelude gives meaning to the title f the song without detracting from the performance. It also avoids having to explain the storyline in the music section of the video. 

This prelude is around 50 seconds long. I don't think that we will have ours this long just due to planning and time restraints on filming. 

Audience comments of song

After playing our song to the rest of our class, we asked them what they would include in the music video that we would create.

These are the results that we got:

1. -girl he's singing to, walking about singing to a girl, "calling out" to her

2. -sunset (low lighting), fields, country girls, he sings about her but not too her

3. -happy and upbeat, urban, love song to or about a girl, dancing

4. -band playing from the start, a guy singing to a girl, but cant see him

5. -acoustic guitar, unique voice, mellow, slow, indie rock, love, relaxing

6. -city scene, see a girl (with hazel eyes), maybe bumps into her a lot, singing as walking, he pictures her in his head, flashbacks, smiling at each other, tries to ask her out but always gets cut off

7. -guitar (acoustic), sun, drums, love, eyes, beach

8.- urban (maybe cambridge), black and white, looking out of the window, shirt (tie?), guitar- cutting to electric guitar being played by someone else, no girl (maybe photograph), shot of him performing in bar/cafe, following a day, time shots of different views walking around, outdoors but city



We are still going with the idea that we will film at the beach but we will take the idea of following the day, so starting in the morning and ending in the evening. We will also have guitars as a prominent feature of the music video. This is also a huge feature of videos in the indie genre.

Ideal Audience Member

Idea Audience Member on Prezi

This explains our ideal audience member for the genre of Indie. 

Lyrics and inspiration

This is an email sent by the artist we are using giving us the lyrics to the song we chose. He also explains the inspiration behind the lyrics in the hope that we could develop some more ideas for the story of our video.

Our Artist

John Mayer- looking at integrating storylines

Steve Archer suggested that "often music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song. Sometimes the artist (especially the singer) will be park of the story, acting as a narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of the music videos as if to assure us that the band really can kick it." This is why integrating the storyline well into the performance aspects of the video is crucial and is something that we will definitely be using in our own video.

• First of all, the video has a short introduction with diagetic sound to set the location and the tone of the video, containing several establishing shots of a city scene which then contrasts with the country and rural setting of the rest of the video. As a group we were considering including this again to help establish the story of the video and introduce the artist and the characters of the video to the audience. 
• The artist plays the only role in the video which is himself which almost helps the audience get to know him better as he can be himself when he is alone, but also contributes to the lyrics of the video and his "shadow days" of being alone. 
• There is a mid profile shot of Mayer in the car and him singing along to the radio which happens to be his own song which I think is a really original way of combining both performance and story in one shot. 
• Overall the story is shown through a montage of establishing shots of the scenery which creates a good and effective way of setting the story apart from the performance; however cross cutting between them and the performance helps keep the video fluid and creating a good blend between performance and story. I don't think however that we would use this sort of technique purely because we dont have the means to shoot lots of locations or have the really eyecatching surroundings to shoot in
• The story includes him as a musician buying and playing the guitar but not as a performer which could connect to the type of audience that he attracts as many of them may be guitarists. This also helps us connect with him, showing his passion for music and guitars and we almost see him at his most open and vulnerable, especially at 1.17 where the slightly low angled mid shot across the bed shows him playing the guitar alone in a motel room
• The overall story of the video shows him as a "regular" man, going into the rural depths of america and not having to worry about being spotted or noticed by fans like he would in the city. It is an escape to him and he enjoys getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city

David Grey- How to shoot a performer

 David Grey offers a very different approack to recording the performance aspect of his music video. The fact that the piano is suspended up in the air gives a more varied range of shots that can be used. This has been taken advantage of as we see numerous different shots being used. The shots used are static though, offering no examples of panning or tracking or movement of the camera.

•  A mid shot, face onto the camera gives the opportunity for Grey to directly address the audience by looking straight down the camera lens. This is something that we want to replicate in our video. Addressing the audience is something vitally important in all genres of music: because our song is about love and lost love we want to create a sense or desire and adoration towards our artist so having him sing down the camera would be a good way of achieving this.
• There a frequent low angle shots of him and the piano which offer a unique perspective of what the people walking in the streets of the video would see (as the piano is in the air above him), helping to cleverly integrate the performance in with the story happening below. This would be a difficult concept for us to copy but we would still consider looking at using low angle shots to provide an interesting angle on the instruments and him as a performer. 
• A birds eye shot of Grey at the piano gives a great overview of him as a performer and shows the location of the video really well. This might be something that we want to emulate in our video as a way or showing our performer as a whole and will also show off the location that we will choose to use. It may also be a way for us to link the story to the performance side of the video. We will hoever have to find a safe and efficient way of filming this as a birds eye view shot can be difficult with the equipment that we will be provided.
• There a several shots such as another birds eye view shot focusing on his hands playing the piano which gives him credibility as an artist as he is playing his own instrument showing him as a true musician. This is something that we definitely want to use, but we will have to focus on a guitar rather than a piano. This again will show our artist as a credible musician but also lives up to the expectations of the Indie genre

what is indie to you?

Coldplay

This video displays perfectly the idea of binary opposition, contrasting the solitude and isolation we see at the beginning of the video, to the large arena performance in the second half of the video. This video is primarily a performance video and does not display the storyline which we see in a lot of music video. The apart of the video is made up of a long shot using a constantly moving camera following Chris Martin (will be abbreviated to CM from now on). It changes from a long and wide shot to a close up of him from the shoulders upwards. There is an affect of the video almost being in slow motion as the lip syncing isnt quite in time to the music. Having the location outside exaggerates the fact that he is alone and the low lighting created gives a more solemn atmosphere. At 0.58 the camera slowly zooms out showing CM's full surroundings as a building site, quite industrial and dirty. This makes the audience wonder what he is doing there and in what circumstances, this adheres to the enigma code that is sometimes used in music videos. There are connections between the lyrics and the composition of the video. The line "lights will guide you home" is shown as CM is walking down the street with a line of street lights in the left third of the screen as if he were following them to get to where he belongs. From 1.32 there is a montage sequence showing his current surroundings and it allows the audience to take in his location. He is alone in all of these shots, emphasising his loneliness. It is uncommon for a band to have such focus on just one band member. In contrast to this the performance sequence shows the full band. It is also implied that the lights have guided him to the stage which could be the "home" that he refers to in the song, meaning that he finds being on stage is like being at home and the line "and ignite your bones" refers to the excitement that he feels when he is performing on the stage. The camera switches from showing performance shots of the band to reaction shots of the audience in the arena. This gives the audience watching at home the impression that they are watching the band live like those in the video- this again creates that relationship that has been previously referred to.

Coldplay are a british rock band who have found success through their heartfelt memorable lyrics and amazing stage presence during their live shows. They attract a large and loyal fan base because of this. Early
Coldplay portrays the men as "normal guys" as they do not dress like rock stars or have the rock star persona that the press like to exploit.

Here you can see an example of how Coldplay look like "regular men". They are not flash or flamboyant and this is what so many people like about this band. This is a promo shoot for when "A rush of blood to the head" was released. The black and white filter adds a simplistic approach much like their music did on this album. The hands crossed and hands in pockets along with the challenge to the camera (looking straight into the camera) gives the men power and makes them seem more in control. Also the slight low angle of the camera makes them seem bigger and more powerful. In spite of all this, the band do not look menacing as you would expect. The direct address to the camera connects the audience to the band and begins that important relationship that an artist needs to have with their audience. The warehouse gives an industrial look to the shoot and with low lighting gives a sense of melancholy. Also the focus isnt as sharp as you would expect from a promotional shoot and their faces aren't entirely clear adding mystery to the photo.

Later on in the bands career they begin to develop a new and individual image, using fluorescent paints and bright colors. The extended from their music videos, to their live performances.

This is a photo taken from their performance on their Mylo Xyloto tour. As you can see brightly colored painted balloons have been released into the audience. Not only does this give the performance an interesting and unique visual along with the staging and lighting but also allows the audience to participate with the show as they are able to bounce the balloons around the arena. Also in this particular photograph the balloons look like planets and gives the impression that their music could speak to anyone in the universe and still mean something to someone.

This is a screen shot from the video "Every teardrop is a waterfall" and shows the fluorescent paints that Coldplay are now known for. Against the dark brick wall, these bright UV paints stand out immensely and create large collages of drawings and patterns, creating unique visual effects for the audience. The UV paints also cover their costumes and instruments giving the song and album an overall concept that the audience can recreate. Their instruments are covered in lyrics from previous songs reminding the audience of their previous songs but also creates sentiment for loyal fans that have loved the band since their first formed in 1996.

After marrying Gwenyth Paltrow, lead singer Chris Martin became more known in the media but they still have a clean image with know scandal forming in the media; unlike many rock bands that we know. They have managed to keep their personal lives fairly private and are much more about the meaning of the music. The lyrics written by Chris Martin do however give some insight into his private life but also help build that all important relationship with the audience and give the audience something to relate to.