Initial Ideas

Intital Ideas

Here is my initial ideas, in which I have drawn a mind map on Paint, to show some of the possible ideas I had for the music video. The different ideas are linked together by a branch, that expands to other ideas, that are linked. Some of the ideas, I will not carry forward to be used in the video, as I may feel that an idea, may not work with the main idea.




The images that I have presented above are to show that they have been taken from the internet. I chose to show an image of Sainsburys as it has inspired as a possible idea that I could intially use to film as part of the journey in the video. It is a inspiring idea as it will make the person's dream seem more realistic if they are wondering into a everyday familiar setting. I also chose to use an image of Lewes Town Centre as this is also a familiar setting to the person who is in the dream, also everyday people will be there. Finally I chose to show an image of a man in pajamas as this will give the video an element of being slightly surreal, in order not to confuse the character, as they will be in there pajamas. People in pajamas link to the other two images, as they could possibly feature in these two settings, so as extras, possibly dancers, or even following the main character.

Copying an exsisting music video

I have been working towards re-creating some of the music video Wheatus- Teenage Dirtbag. The experience I have been given by taking part in this task is being able to develop using production equipment, in order to be able to film at a good standard, when it comes to me filming my own music video. I will also be developing skills to be able to plan well, how shots will be filmed, also staging in a shot.

Storyboard

In lesson I was given a storyboard, which was of the Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag video. It features the opening ten frames of the video, giving a analysis of the shot type, camera movement, description of action, also if there is a lyric or audio in the background, when a shot is shown.

Shooting Script and Clapperboard

The shooting script was given of six shots, which we filmed in two groups, it shows an enlarged image of the shot which we had to copy and film. It had a similar layout to the storyboard, as it had the details about camera shots and movements, also write notes about how successful each shot was, each shot has to be logged, to see where each group might be struggling with a type of shot. While learning how to use the shooting script, I also learnt how to successfully use a clapperboard. A clapperboard was shown in front of the camera, before each shot was filmed. There is a procedure, that takes place for each shot. The cameraman has to say "speed" when they are ready to film, so the director knows when starts off the film. Also the director says for example "Shot 4 take 2, action", then the filming can start, and the background actions start.Also after a shot is filmed the director shouts "cut" to notify the cast the shot is finished. Also the clapperboard is useful when editing as you can determine a beginning of a shot, and hear "cut" when a shot has finished.

Communication on Set

Camera health and safety.

• Keep the camera steady when holding it.
• It is hard to keep just main character in focus and the extras out of focus.
• Lighting- had to reposition into the natural light.
• Always think about the final edits.

Always take off the plate off of the camera and back on the tripod. Use white balance when inside with artifical light, so on the camera use the AWB automatic white balance. When filming outside, using the sun shaped symbol, and the light bulb button when filming inside. Also put on the manual setting via the message shaped button.

I was shown how to direct a shot, it is important that to keep the production running smoothly, you need to clearly let the participants know of what is going on. In our exercise the director worked with the camera operator to set up each shot, they set up each actor and extra in position. After checking the shot is how it should be is essiental before able to film. Then the clapperboard is shown in front of the lens and the filming begins.

Setting up the Camera

Mounting to the tripod

Mounting the camera to the tripod can give you stability when filming. It is particularly useful for zooming, panning and tilting the camera. The tripods at college have a spirit level on them which enables you to position the camera to an exact horizontal.

Setting the White Balance:

The white balance has to be set before shooting can begin due to the different conditions. The camera reacts differently to varying light conditions. When outside it should be set to "Daytime Filming" otherwise footage could have a blue tinge to it. Likewise when you film outside the white balance should be set to artifical light. Once the camera knows the conditions it can then calibrate the rest of the colours, which should give even results.

Adjusting the exposure:

When using our Canon XM2 cameras, you should get into a habit of using the manual settings to adjust the exposure and not let the camera run on auto. Usual manual settings will give you control over how light or dark the footage is. You can change the exposure using a combination of the Shutter speed, Aperture and Gain.

Camera Techniques

Composition:

You can change the frame size to be like a widescreen film. This is called a 16:9 ratio. Normally the camera is set to a standard frame size of a ratio of 4:3. Which ever ratio used you can apply the rule of thirds to help you compose the frame.

Depth of Field:

This refers to the focal range of the camera. You can use depth of field to centre the audience attention on a particular part of the frame by having it in focus while the rest of the shot is blurred. This is called a 'Shallow or Narrow Depth of Field'. Conversely, if all the frame is in focus that is called a 'Wide Depth of Field'. Shifting the focus from one part of the frame to another is called a 'Pull Focus'.

This is the link to our copying of an exsisting video which is Wheatus- Teenage Dirtbag
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7qMb6ynzP5WMTA4NzIxZDktMjNjYS00Mjg2LTkxMjYtMTBiN2Y2YzIzZjU0&hl=en_GB

Here is the comparison to our music video, in which is the original gained from ouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJVRcCdvyY

Video Analysis

Ellie Goulding - The Writer video analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ru2glqXAg

The music video of Ellie Goulding's 'The Writer', she is shown as being represented as being part of the 'Electropop' genre by being linked to a traditional Pop music video that has a romantic theme. This is shown by using close up shots to show emotion from the character in the video, which is presented by the first image, showing how induced Ellie Goulding is to focusing on the camera. As the narrative of this video is about changing as a person in order to get noticed by a certain individual person, whom you are attracted to. The other type of shot used are long shots that are taken from a high angle, which could suggest that Ellie Goulding is being observed by the certain person she is attracted to, from the narrative. The last image I have print screened from the music video is an establishing shot of which shows the character and a lighthouse, this suggests that as it is a shot near at the end of the video, that when she reaches the lighthouse, then she will find the certain person, when she reaches there. The lighting and colours in the video are bright and colourful, such as yellow, cream and oranges, to me this suggests this video is very positive and calming, shows that an interpriation of the narrative is mellow, and that the climax of the ending, will occur how it should end. In terms of Ellie Goulding, getting to be happy at the end of the video, after going through many fields to find the destination of finding that special person. This music video is targeted at the fans of Ellie Goulding this is good as this video shows a different approach of how she as an artist is presented. So this would interest her fans more, also shows that her genre of music 'Electropop' does not always have to be kept to the similar narratives that normally relate to Electropop tracks. Overall this music video has a meaning of about Ellie Goulding getting noticed, by the man she is attracted to. This video has a lots of bright white colouring, to suggest she is in her perfect world, like is living a dream. This music video could be inspiring to creating my music video as the type of settings Ellie Goulding uses is mainly outdoors, in fields and forests, so this could be included in my video, so an essence of originality to keep my video, still in relation into her style of music video.

The second music video I will be analysing Ellie Goulding's- Guns and Horses. The genres that this track is from represents electropop and folktronica. The music video has a simple narrative of which Ellie Goulding is portraying a character that is walking through the woods, and is followed by her backing dancers, when she reaches the end of the music video Ellie turns around and reveals the production set of where the music video took place. Ellie Goulding is being represented as a young girl who is out in the woods all on her own, along her way through the journey through the forest, she is joined by soliders, which turn out to be her backing dancers in the video. So this represents that in this video, having backing dancers is random, as they do not relate to the music video. So this representation could represent that Ellie Goulding herself is slightly random in her personality, or how she makes decisions in her life. In the music video, her costume suggests that the clothes are smart casual as she wears a blue checkered shirt, in which is appropriate for a casual walk through a forest. A mixture of different camera shots were used on the main character. This included mid shots, the mid shot is to focus on the character singing, so it shows concentration, on the character, without showing too much emotion. This type of shor applies to the audience as they feel that they are focusing on the whole character without realising it. Also long shots are used to show the location of the woods in the music video. Also are used to show all of the subjects that are involved in the video. This is good as this also shows the staging in the shot shown in the second shot shown above. It shows that the main character is in the centre of the frame, and the backing dancers are placed behind, to show her importance and that she is in control, suggesting that the music video is all about her. The type of audience this music video applies to is the fans of Ellie Goulding, also people who are interested in artists that focus on a unusual representation of how to show a narrative in a video, this video would be good example of that as it is unique. This video does not produce many meanings that could be symbolic, apart from the low key lighting might suggest that the location is quite dull, but when there is some people in the woods, that the woods come alive, and the characters brighten up the location.

The ideas that as a group that we came up with consisted of with that we had some inspiration from the types of locations that she uses in her videos. For example in The Writer' she has shots of outdoor locations that are in fields and on top of cliffs, so we thought logically that we live locally to the coastline, so will have easy access to film on top of some cliffs. So this developed our idea of our character roaming around on the cliffs as part of her dream, that will possibly cut to the character roaming around in a urban area. Another idea we got inspiration from her was that we discovered that in her videos, she doesn't really seem to have an actual narrative to the video, so we decided to add a new element to her music video that we would create a narrative to 'hook' the audience into watching the video. We had an idea that we were going to use some background dancers, as featured in Guns and Horses she has background dancers in the woods, they start off as extras, then become part of the video. So we had the idea of including background dancers that would be dressed in pyjamas to make the music video seem surreal and to confuse the character who is in the dream.

Target Audience of Artist

Ellie Goulding's style of music is Indie Pop, Synth Pop, Electro Pop and Folktronica. So these genre of music suggests that the majority of fans will be interested in Pop and Indie music, so this target audience will be linked to current music magazines, such as NME and Clash Music. Also in terms of fashion she is an

icon as she has featured in the woman's magazine Company

Ellie Goulding is

featured in Q Magazine, being interviewed titled: Ellie Goulding, Starry Eyed, Itchy Feet.

http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/06/interview_ellie_goulding_-_sta.htmlgoulding_-_sta.html

She has also been featured on Clash Music Website
http://www.clashmusic.com/news/ellie-goulding-album-details

On the NRS website it shows the Target audience of Q Magazine which is a magazine that is Indie and that E

Ellie Goulding has been associated with. From looking at the quantitative data it shows that this music magazine mostly appeals to Males aged between 15-44 years old.

From looking at The Reader Profile of NME, it shows key quantitative data about the target audience of that

magazine. Here as follows:

Based on the music magazine’s target audiences I can tell that she is appealing to a 'indie' fanbase. Looking at NIS, I can tell that the key demographic of Q magazine are mostly men aged 15- 44;

I also know from my previous research at AS that the readership of NME is as follows:

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/fd4e20nlh1xefkowjxdha4xu.pdf

The link of where this information was accessed.

From this information I can conclude that the majority of the fans have a socio-economic classification

of ABC1, which suggests they are upper class fans, that are young adults.

In the media Ellie Goulding's popularity can influence her to have a larger amount of fans, by becoming more well known, by social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.

So on Facebook, Ellie Goulding has 226,705 people that have liked her page, so these people would be classed as her fans. Then on her Twitter page she has 88,257 followers, suggesting that Ellie Goulding's fans give her a lot of support for her music. On Ellie Goulding's Facebook fan page, we posted a survey on there to ask for the age range and the gender of some of her fans, to give me us an idea, of possibly what her target audience is such as on social networking sites. On MySpace Ellie Goulding has her own personal blog that gives updates of what she has been doing recently in her lifestyle, this is good as this keeps her loyal fans interested and lets them know where to find her.

This is data from YouTube it shows in which countries Ellie goulding's video: Starry Eyed is popular. The information shows that females are more likely to be Ellie Goulding fans, than males. It seems from the data that she is most popular in the UK, Europe, America and Australia, these countries all have in common is that they are rich countries that have access to multi medias in which artists can be featured and their music could be played. Especially if an artist is on a major record label. So overall this information will become useful, as when we plan to create the music video, we will have have to make the music video appeal to the people from these countries. For example we could keep the same theme, to keep her fans interested, as she might be associated with trees.

Here is a wall post that our group posted on Ellie Goulding's wall, trying to ask her fans what they reckon is the target audience of her fans targeted at. The only response we received was from a person, sarcastically wishing us luck with receiving responses. Also I researched Ellie Goulding's facebook page, throughly and found some photos of her with some of her fans, to give an idea of her target audience, the image above presents this. It her target audience features teenage boys and girls, in this shot it is a mid shot of mostly males, this may not always be the case.

For some of my own personal research I went to see Ellie Goulding perform live at The Brighton Dome in Brighton, it was very interesting to what her general fan base consisted of. I saw people that were mainly aged

between 16 and 24, this featured of mainly females. The males tended to be going along with a girlfriend to support them, or a couple of groups of young adult males, that looked like they just wanted to ogle Ellie Goulding, and didn't seem very interested in paying attention to her music and performance. I managed to also take photographs from the venue as proof that I have seen live.

Ellie Goulding's target audience consists of the upper class group ABC1 and consists of males and females. There seems to be a more females to males, in terms of popularity from the different sexes, this is evidence from going to a live concert. However looking at statistics from NRS and YouTube it seems there is more males to females, therefore, Ellie Goulding is popular with males and females fairly equal. Young adults consist of being between the ages of 16 and 24.

Permission

So that copyright is not breeched, it is essential to the music industry to contact the record company to gain permission, to use an artist's track for a project. If a track is used without permission this is illegal and is plagerism, so the record company could sue the user of the track. Also some recording artists on the internet could of covered a track with out asking permission from that recording company.

Song Choice

I chose to use Ellie Goulding's 'I'll hold my breath', as I am huge fan of her music. Also I feel that this track in particular has great lyrics that can be interpreted in a couple of ways in order for me to make a music video. I feel that a creative narrative can be developed, by the type of imagery given through the lyrics in this track.

I chose against Pixie Lott's cover of Use Somebody as the track did not have much detail that could turn into a interesting narrative, which is a key aspect my group want to encourage when making a video.I also decided to research The Days- Evil Girls, which didn't seem a very long track to create a video out of. Also I decided to research Lady GaGa- Dancing In The Dark, this track I decided against as this is going to be Lady GaGa's next release and will produce a new music video.

These were the mind maps that helped me plan out which song and artist to choose for my music video. This showed a sense of exploring different artists, through different genres and shows that I have chosen from a couple of similar genres.

Ellie Goulding - I'll Hold My Breath (3.45)
The lyrics of the track 'I'll Hold My Breath' by Ellie Goulding is shown in this blog as then you can study the lyrics, to have an insight of how we have developed some our ideas, from the amount of imagery that is presented in these lyrics.

Breathe air you're not used to
Tread floors you don't fall through
make waves...
you crash a symbol hard
follow noone, always play the wrong card
waste days, in foreign places
shed light, on your better side
reassure me that you'll wait for me, wait for me as long as it takes now

hold my breath
i'll hold my breath

until you see me in your dreams
we'll stay awake beneath the trees
we'll watch the buildings turn to dust
a sky of diamonds just for us
you are the risk i'll always take
the only branch i'll never break
those fears we'll blow them all away (we'll blow them all away)

fight fires in your best clothes
touch skin with your eyes closed
chase thunder..
with the volume down
pack a suitcase, wander to the next town
force quit, on your losing streak
solve a riddle in a magazine, be tongue in cheek

tell me that we're still too young
that we're still too young and i'll hold my tongue

until you see me in your dreams
we'll stay awake beneath the trees
we'll watch the buildings turn to dust
a sky of diamonds just for us
you are the risk i'll always take
the only branch i'll never break
those fears we'll blow them all away (we'll blow them all away)

i'm here, i'm here to take you
i'll swim, i'll swim to save you
no fall, i'm here to catch you
i'll swim, i'll swim to save...

until you see me in your dreams
we'll stay awake beneath the trees
we'll watch the buildings turn to dust
a sky of diamonds just for us
you are the risk i'll always take
the only branch i'll never break
those fears we'll blow them all away (we'll blow them all away)

Exploring Music Video

In this blog I will analyse four very different music videos, they will be different in which by significance, also genre as they are conveyed through a different aspect.The music video for

Run-D.M.C. ft Aerosmith - Walk This Way is in the Rap/Rock genre as the song is a collaboration of two different genres a fusion of rock and hip hop. This music video is a classic as it was shown on MTV as being the first Rap hybrid video. The music video represents a rockband and a hip hop band only being seperated by one wall and they breakthrough the wall. This symbolises that Rap music has broken through into music by becoming more mainstream. This music video would be targeted at young men and women aged between 16 and 30, as in the video the crowd consists of this age range in the live audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIbHPs_M55Q

Another music video I have chosen to use Madonna- Like A Prayer, it is the genre of Pop and Gospel as it features a choir taking part in the chorus. This video is very controversial as the key theme is religion and that there are interpretations as not being interpretated correctly such as a the guy being the black version of god, or discriminated for his race, this is also altered in the narrative as Madonna tries to pray and sing for the guys innocence as she witnessed a murder he did not commit. Also a controversy of burning cross fires, convey that in the video Madonna is potrayed as anti-Christ. This is symbolic as this a rare to be shown in a music video as it is a risk

to go against religion which is taken very seriously in the media. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA983t3Rdzs&ob=av2e

I feel that the music video Michael Jackson's - Black Or White is a highly interesting and symbolic music video to explore as it features controversy, love and anger. This is shown as the genre is a mixture rock and dance-pop, this is a key theme for this music genre. It is controversial as it the song title represents the two skin colours in the world. That is controversial as people may find this racist or hurtful towards them, also shown in the video is racist graffiti this is significant as this had to be censored such as 'Hitler rules', which conveys unacceptable in the media. The main narrative in the music video is that the father who is featured he is a white cultured man and he ends up in Africa and has Michael Jackson singing Black and White to him and is surrounded by various cultures, being expressed. The anger is conveyed the fire and the shootings, also the father getting angry at his son for playing to loud music. So this contrasts with love as this may show the father loves his song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA983t3Rdzs&ob=av2e83t3Rdzs&ob=av2e

For a very different music video I have chosen to use Backstreet Boys - Everybody. The genre of this music video is Horror as the narrative is conveyed as scary, features mummys and werewolfs in a castle, also this is a nightmare. As there bus broke down in conveys trouble as it is dark, also the bus driver is shown as being Frankenstein's Monster. It is also conveyed as a horror throught blood and fangs this symbolises danger and horror as it can be gruesome, and negative consequences. The video is targeted at young girls aged 10-20 as Backstreet Boys are a Pop boyband, who are wanting to convey an image that is unlike how they are normally conveyed in the media. Overall this could convey is that the horror is to shock fans of how they can look, so don't under estimate the power of image, it is a huge influence, as this may encourage fans to buy a single. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6XE1XRiLeY