Video mood board

I have already created a picture mood board, however, looking back I decided that I wanted to improve on my mood board and create a video version instead. So, I downloaded several pop music videos which I believed held many typical pop conventions, through a site called "www.keepvid.com", imported them onto Adobe Premiere Pro, downloaded an MP3 of my music video song "Guns and Horses" by Ellie Goulding, downloaded a few more images of outfits and images I thought fitted in with my music video, and put them all together in one. I made sure to cut and edit each music video into the most interesting parts and made it switch from one to another, so it looked interesting and eye-catching. Overall I think this is a successful mood board as it portrays all of the aspects and conventions I believe convey "pop" as a whole and those that I would like to adapt into my own music video.

Influences of the pop genre

Influences of Pop Music

This is a powerpoint I have created on explaining the influences of pop music. I explained why I chose this genre for my music video, artists of this genre, a brief outline of the pop genre's history and how it began, the influences of pop, and what made the pop genre come along in the early 1900s. Creating this powerpoint/completing this task was very beneficial for me because it gave me a deeper insight into the history of pop which I did not know a lot about before, and how it can effect its audience which was very interesting.

Analysis of a previous A2 music video

Roberto Manfredi's A2 music video

This music video starts off with what sounds like diagetic sound of a tape recorder being put on, with visual faded lights on the screen. I think this starts the music video off very well indeed because it adds a realistic feel to it, making us, the audience, feel as if we are being "plugged in" to a different world. What accentuates this even more so is that you can see a human figure in the background fiddling with the tape player, which I believe is effective as it makes the viewer almost feel as if the soundtrack is "live" and there is effort being put into it. Then, as the acoustic instrumental begins, the audience are started off with a blurry blue coloured shot of some fingers plucking at some guitar strings. As the camera pans up the guitar, the blurriness gradually begins to fade, however watching this almost made me feel like a lot of it was mysterious. I liked this because I think one of the most important aspects you could have in your music video is to persuade the audience to question it.
Then, we are presented with a reoccurring shot of half of a boy's face miming to the music which we now establish is the performance-based part, however it is only half of his face, he looks like he's lying down staring up at the cieling as he mimes, and around him is blood smeared on white walls. The shot overall has a red effect to it, representing a morbid, dark feeling to it which really matches the song's dark vibe. Then, the narrative kicks off. A man in a suit walks into a white bathroom, chucking his blazer on the side. I really love how a very high camera angle is used, because there is almost a distance created between the audience and the actor, highlighting the mystery I had mentioned at the beginning. Meanwhile, there are reoccurring shots of what looks like music equipment but it is hard to make out, with a very red and black effect added to it, again exaggerating the aloofness and morbidity. There are some really smart, interesting camera angles Roberto has used which I find particularly inspiring. These are for example a fish-eye camera sort of effect, where it is only videoing the bottom half of the actor's legs, yet it is so effective because the audience do not know what his top half is doing, and this adds to that mysterious feel because the song is so dark. There is also a slow motion effect added to when the actor's legs begin to move, which suits the slow pace of the start of the song.
The audience are brought back in and out of the performance and narrative shots. There are shots of the piano playing, the music tape, lights, the guitar and more are used to create a feeling that the song is being performed "live" which is really effective. If you look closely, Roberto has also paid very close attention to the mise-en-scene of his shots to create a strong contrast between the performance and narrative ones. In the performance shots, a lot of blue and red is used, whereas in the narrative ones, a lot of red and white is used.
I particularly loved the shot where Roberto must have used an under-water camera to film the actor cleaning his hands in the water. This was quirky and different, and it portrays that a lot of effort and thought has been put into the music video. As this shot is being filmed, the camera sort of shakes around a lot to represent uneasiness and loss of stability. Aswell as this, now there are links between the blood shown on the walls and the washing of hands, things begin to make sense - maybe there is a reason why the actor is washing off his hands. We can see now how the narrative is slowly building with suspension, adding in clues on the way through. This slow, tension-filled narrative is extremely smart.
Roberto has also used Andrew Goodwin's theory of a correlation between the lyrics and the visuals in a lot of the shots. However this is particularly highlighted in the shot where the lyrics state "got someone waiting at home for me, staring at the door" and the audience are presented with a dark, quick shot of a man in a suit in a small room, staring into space. This shot is fast but effective as it is quite "freaky" and again, it makes the viewer question "why" and what's happening.
The suspension is built up as we follow the main protagonist character on their journey to a place we do not know, the shots dark and mysterious, and inbetween we are shown performance shots of an actor miming, but they are only ones of half of his face such as his lips. I noticed something more than half way through the video, too, that the song always refers to "shadows", and this is exactly what Roberto portrays in the video. He is constantly showing shots of shadows and darkness, and this correlation is really effective because the song suits the visuals so much.
During the build up, the audience are almost informed that the "beat is going to drop" because we are shown shots of buttons on the music equipment being turned up etc., which leads up to a massive climax. Suddenly, there are loads of fast shots used with the red effect on them, and most of these shots are finally performance-based. The idea I took from this is that perhaps suddenly the shots are all performance-based is because he wants the audience to really enjoy the music through being shown these different instruments and to accentuate that it's "live". I also noticed that now there has been a climax, we are suddenly being shown the actor's full face in the red effect as he mimes to the camera. It is almost as if he is finally being revealed to us. On the final shot, there is a hand-held shot of the corner of the bathtub we were shown before, with blood all over it. There was no resolution to the narrative of the music video and we as the audience never really find out what actually happened in the narrative, which I think really adds to the mystery about it and it makes you question it.
Overall I think that this music video was brilliant. I believe Roberto really put a lot of thought into it and the ideas he put into the building of tension to the final climax was really effective. The miming was successful, and the pace of shots was brilliant because each shot fitted each beat perfectly, and everything was synchronised. Finally, the fact that Roberto used only one character throughout the music video is great because it means you can focus on one person and the tension is accentuated. Overall, a really successful music video. It kept my attention the whole way through.

Voki creations of my actors/actresses: Matthew Harris

Voki creations of my actors/actresses: Jessica Wambeek

Voki creations of my actors/actresses: Georgina Weatherall

Setting research

I went on YouTube and looked up natural settings, such as fields, woods, rivers etc. and found this video. I found this video really helpful as it shows images of the exact kind of settings/scenery I would like in my music video.

Main protagonist's image research

I have been doing quite a bit of research on YouTube recently into the overall image of what I want my main protagonist, Georgina, to have in my music video. Today I have been looking at natural make-up videos, and I found this tutorial the most helpful. I think I will use this tutorial to have a look at when doing my protagonist's makeup so that she has the most natural, effective make-up look.



I also found a video showing outfits girls can wear in the autumn, and this further inspired me on what sort of thing I would like my main actress to wear in my music video.

Research on an artist: Ellie Goulding

updated Research on Ellie Goulding

Above is a presentation I created on research of the artist Ellie Goulding. It includes personal facts about Ellie, how she became famous, her background, her top 10 tracks, and the albums she has brought out. I found doing this task very helpful because it has given me a much clearer insight on the artist that I am actually doing my music video song by, so I feel that I know a lot more about her personally.

Analysis of existing Digipaks

This is the analysis I have done on two existing Digipaks: "Loud" by Rihanna, and Ellie Goulding's Digipak. I spoke about how each Digipak is effective and succesful, and I uploaded the document onto Issuu so that it is easy to flick through, then uploaded it here, onto Blogger.

Audience research

Below is a Prezi presentation on my choice of target audience. This contains what I think my primary and secondary audience would be, and just generally what sort of people I think the audience for my music video will be. This presentation helped me because it has made me realise how I need to incorporate my music video into aiming it at my target audience when I make it.



However, after creating this Prezi I took it upon myself to create another presentation on some actual research on my target audience. I went around my sixth form and asked precisely 30 students (all my age, because this is my target audience), 15 females and 15 males, some questions, and made this powerpoint on it. The results are very interesting and have helped me in the process of planning and making my music video a lot. You will find the presentation below:

Audience research

Further research:

I thought it would be a good idea to actually get some audience research in a video. So, as you can see here, I told my peer Rag'e about the ideas I had for my music video and asked him for some feedback. I filmed him at school doing so.

Transcript:

Hannah: What do you think of my storyboard so far and the ideas that I've created?

Rag'e: from looking at your storyboard and your initial ideas, I like the fact that you've done an idea that all girls can relate to with the five stages of a break-up, like denial, acceptance, her being excited about like dating the guy and then finding out that he's cheated or he's texting someone else. It's something that really represents all teenagers, so I think that's a good idea.

Hannah: Thank you. Do you think there's any improvements I need to make on it?

Rag'e: In terms of improvements I'd say just make sure she knows the lyrics and that the costume's right and that in terms of filming it it's not too hard to interpret, I'd say. Make sure it's something you can achieve in terms of props and stuff like that and it's easy to grab.

Hannah: What sort of costume do you think my main female protagonist should have?

Rag'e: For costume I'd say that if you're going to do the five stages, make them really distinctive and seperate from eachother, so that when she's at the nervous stage she can wear this really glitzy dress, and when she goes into the cheating stage make sure she wears all black. Make them all really purporised and different.

Hannah: Do you think my ideas actually fit with the song?

Rag'e: I like the idea that it's quite ironic with the fact that this is an up-tempo song, the fact that this is such a depressing/sad moment for all teenage girls and teenage boys, so I like the idea that it's ironic and the fact that it's ironic is even better and it works and it's seperate from the original song.

Hannah: Thank you.

Analysis of a music video

Post-Modern Analysis of Music Video updated

This is a powerpoint presenting my analysis of Rihanna's music video "Rude Boy". It introduces Postmodernity and what it is, about Rihanna and how she is postmodern, it shows the music video, then I took screenshots of key points in the music video and pointed out mise-en-scene, camera work and editing, that all exemplify postmodernity, then I explained how the music video imitates others, its pace, Rihanna's role/star image in the video, and an analysis of the lyrics and how they're postmodern.

Research of equipment and editing software

Equipment

This powerpoint above presents all of my ideas on what equipment I will most likely be using to film and create/edit my music video. This includes practical equipment such as the Canon 550D camera and a tripod, and the editing softwares I will be using such as Photoshop, Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. Creating this powerpoint has actually really helped me because it has made me feel a lot more organised with what exactly I will be using to make my music video and how they will effect the making of it.

Analysis of artist's magazine advertisement

This is the advertisement for Delilah's new album "From The Roots Up". This advertisement is presenting new music, the artist's star image and also welcoming new fans to listen to her music. In plain and simple font (and in caps), it says "the album - out now" below her image. The effect of the words "out now" instead of a date represents urgency and simplicity, which is exactly what the audience like. This will raise awareness, offering people the opportunity to listen to her new music. This is a great way for Delilah to be promoted because she is being publicised as new and fresh with positivity all round.  The title to this magazine ad is in plain white, quite large, and in a robotic, modern, "futuristic" sort of font. To me, this font represents the future and new things. So it's very effective because straight away it's almost explaining what Delilah's music is. The colour-coordination of this magazine advertisement is plain black and white, exemplifying modernity, sophistication and simplicity. The audience again will like this as a whole because it portrays no complication, and just a fresh aura about it. The image of Delilah is strange and unique as she is standing to the side, naked, holding her pony-tail above her with her eyes closed. This image is indeed odd but it is different and it represents her star image - a bold, quirky female. The public as a whole find unique things interesting, so there is no doubt about it that this image may be a key feature to what makes this magazine ad successful and effective. Furthermore, this image gives the audience a first impression of what Delilah's music will be like - quirky and different. Music nowadays can sometimes be very consistent and not very different, so the public may be very enticed by this opportunity to listen to something different. Finally, underneath this image is loads of 5 stars in white, each given by different companies/people. These stand out and tell the audience straight away that Delilah's music is "5 star" and high-quality, enticing the public even more so.

From looking at various artists' magazine advertisements, I have found that the most successful ones are the ones with minimal writing, big fonts and one large image of one artist and one artist only. This means that they are bold and they stand out to the audience, giving them more to find out for themselves and use their imagination. If the magazine ads had too much writing and small images everywhere, the ad would look cluttered and complicated, therefore putting the audience off.

What is a Digipak?

Above is a Word document I have completed on the task "What is a Digipak". Here I have included what a Digipak is, its background, the google definition of it, its success, what's inside a Digipak, and an example of a Digipak. This task gave me a bigger insight on Digipaks overall and how my music video would be delivered if it was put in a Digipak. It's interesting to see the reasons why things are made the way they are, and the Digipak is a prime example of this.

Music channels

 Above is a video presentation I created on Windows Movie Maker about four different music/entertainment channels I researched. I decided to use Windows Movie Maker to do this task because it is a different presentation technique to the ones I have recently used, such as Prezi, Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. It's good to use something different. This video includes details of when each channel was developed, who they are operationalised by, what their main features are, and much more. Creating this video actually really helped me personally, because it has given me more knowledge and more of an insight on music channels and how my video would be broadcasted if it did. Overall, a very insightful task.

Music videos I admire

"Time" - Delilah ft. Chase & Status

The music video to "Time" by Delilah ft Chase & Status is performance and narrative-based and is extremely intense. I find this music video purely inspiring because the majority of it tells a story of the main blonde protagonist girl witnessing her father physically abusing her mother every night, and soon she calls the police on her father, and the audience are almost seeing this all happen through the protagonist's eyes. This creates a personal, emotional bond between the audience and the protagonist, allowing the audience to sympathise with her deeply. The story builds and builds until there is a final climax, and all of this is fully in sync with the music at the same time. For example, when the chorus drops, the shots fasten and the story intensifies. This can help to really keep that interest from the audience at a high level. At the same time as this, there are several shots of Delilah singing to the camera, from an outside perspective. This allows the audience to almost relate to Delilah because she is not in the story, she is outside it, just like the audience themselves. This music video inspires me so much because not only is it successful in its storyline, but it sends out a moral message to stop abuse as it shows the affect it has on teenagers for example (like the main protagonist girl in the music video), and it also makes everyone feel grateful for what they have in life. This is a really brilliant music video to me.

"I'm Lost Without You" - Robin Thicke

This music video is very different in contrast to the first one I talked about because "I'm Lost Without You" is mainly performance-based, with a few shots containing flashbacks of Robin with his "ex". This music video inspires me because it still manages to keep your interest even though it's mainly performance-based. I really like some of the camera shots and angles that are used, even if they are just of his hand plucking at his guitar for example. The mise-en-scene is great because the main colours of the music video are all black, white and some gold, which is very coordinated and it looks very sophisticated and classy. This makes the music video look high-quality. I like the idea of Robin just singing to the camera, because it allows the audience to sympathise with him and relate to him, and the flashbacks just add to the emotions he is feeling about this break up he has had with his ex. Overall, considering this music video is just performance-based and basic, I think it is really impressive and has a great idea to it.

Music video theory: Andrew Goodwin's theory

Above is a prezi I have created on the music video theory I will be using: Andrew Goodwin. Here I have explained all segment's of Andrew Goodwin's theory, how I disagree with some of them and some examples, aswell as how I will be using his theory in my music video. This task really helped me because I now have more knowledge and more of an insight on Andrew Goodwin, and the dynamics of my own music video because I know how I will and will not be using his theory myself.

Tracking an artist: Taylor Swift

Tracking an artist: Taylor Swift

Above is a presentation I have created on the tracking of an artist: Taylor Swift. This powerpoint includes everything from personal details about Taylor Swift, to her early life, to the most popular songs she has released, to the most recent media about her. I actually found this task really helpful because it gave me an insight on the actual artist that my song I am using for my music video is sung by. This means I have a lot more knowledge on her.

Music video codes and conventions

Codes and Conventions

Above is the presentation I made on the codes and conventions of music videos. This contains the performance, the narrative, the mise-en-scene and examples, editing, camera angles and sound. I have given examples for all and explained them fully. This task actually really helped me because it developed and refreshed my knowledge/memory on music videos and their codes and conventions, allowing me to feel a lot more confident for my own music video and how I will make it to be very successful.