As the next step of our music video we began to develop ideas for the narrative for our music video. When completing this Extended Step Outline sheet it allowed us to focus on the different elements to our narrative including the structure, themes, mis-en-scene, and locations. This allowed us to plan out how we were going to portray our story and the key themes.

To summarize, the narrative focuses on the sorrow and grief the man is feeling throughout and uses boxing as a coping mechanism for this emotion. At the end of the video there is a sense of redemption as he walks away from the inner conflict and stife.

Here is our first rough draft of our music video. From this first draft we learnt the importance of filming a range of different shots from various angles and the effects they give within the video. It has also allowed us to see what areas we need to film more of and let us play with different transitions and edits.

As a group we have worked well together to complete our first rough draft. We have recognized each other’s strengths and weakness in order to work effectively together as a group.

Overall, our video so far has some strong points and some weak. As a group, while editing, we’ve had to keep in mind we still have two more shoots to complete and that we can take time to experiment with different techniques to make the video as successful as possible. We’ve taken time to achieve accurate lip syncing throughout the video and seen which clips look best in certain areas of the song. Within this first rough cut the whole music video is performance but it allowed us as to plan out points where we would like to include narrative clips and play with the positions and effects. So far we have successfully completed our first rough draft and has helped us see what type of shots we will need in further shoots.

To improve our music video we will need to:

• Include many narrative clips to add a story to the music video which will make the video interesting and intriguing.
• Ensure we take many various shots from different angles during the next shoots.
• Experiment with more interesting effects and research inspiration to make the video engaging
• Include many bright colours within our mis-en-scene

From our performance shoot, we took many photos of our group filming in various locations. We spent one session in the White Studio at school, and another at an Industrial site.

Overall, our shoots were successful as we filmed many shots in various locations at different angles. Our mis-en-scene was also very effective as it suited our star image of a bold, confident individual. The shoots went very smoothly and we managed to gather some suitable shots for our music video.

Targets for next shoots:

• Pay attention to small details which can make the shot look less professional e.g. hairband on wrist.
• Ensure that all of our shots are in focus before recording.
• Consider using different angles each take instead of many mid shots.
• We should take time to do makeup and organise our costumes as it can be a rush.
• Consider the right time of day to film as the lighting kept changing throughout the shot.

As a group we created a Production Meeting Agenda sheet to include all of the details for our upcoming performance shoot. Our aims for the shoot include:

• Filming many different shots taken from different angles all in focus and clear.
• Use a clear and suitable background for our star image, without any random objects in the background.
• To ensure our costumes is bright and unique for our star image.
• To stay organised and prepare for our shoot by knowing who is responsible for what to bring.

Here is our risk assessment for our shoot to ensure we have permission from our teachers and parents to go and film, as well as the dates for our performance shoot.

For this task, we created an online concept moodboard in Canva to portray the star image of our artist Jorja Smith. We took the star and analysed the genre to create a ‘concept board’ on how they she is ‘represented‘. We found examples of news stories, incidents, events, digipak covers, music videos, articles, blogs, tweets that all contribute to their ‘star image’. The way they are represented is called their ‘metanarrative‘ (over arching story about them).

How our star is represented in our video and on the digipak and social media page is crucial in constructing the values, attitudes and beliefs of the artist in the mind of the target audience. Music videos are made primarily to promote the star, in order to sell their music, in order to make money. They are also constructed to construct a set of desires in the target audience to convey their thoughts and what they suggest. Media representations of the star image is crucial in terms of raising an audience awareness. They are essentially walking talking brands, who use their branding to advertise, publicise and sell to fans. Stars have to remain constantly interesting to keep the fans intrigued. This shows that the star image evolves and is constantly reinvented by media companies.

This task will help me in the future during the production of my music video because it will help us convey how we need to present our performer. This is because of the importance of the star image to the construct the values, attitudes and beliefs of the artist.

As a group we created a padlet to study other bands of a similar genre as well as our own, and then collate screen shots and made some GIFS of conventional shots, frames, angles they use in their performances. This way we began to learn what is conventional to our genre. We considered our audience to make sure your video conforms to their expectations so that it will follow conventions but be different and new and unique enough not to be boring, ultimately it will be the same but different.

This is essential because the audience will be expecting a certain type of visual style which we need to provide them with. In particularly the repertoire of elements, set ingredients but as a creative we then need to make it different to make it stand out which is what genre is all about, the same but different.

This task will help will be useful when filming for my music video because it will remind my group of the different angles and shots we need to use when filming to portray our genre and narrative. It will also remind us of the importance of these shots as well as what each one can achieve. The different shots will prevent our music video being boring and simple but it will engage the audience.

In order to understand our audience we looked back at Blumler & Katz, who suggested that there were four Uses and Gratifications that an audience seek from their media. Their theory describes an active audience: 

Stuart Hall Reception Theory

He argues that an audience decodes what the producer encodes in a text. However, how they read the text will depend on their

• Demographics – age, gender
• Psychographics – beliefs, politics, religion
• Cultural competence – their knowledge of ‘stuff’
• Circumstances in which they are consuming the media   

In preparation for our research into our audience demographic, we asked ourselves these questions to consider to design our perfect audience member.

• What platform is your production to be accessed on?
  • Generally our music video will be accessible on Youtube.
• What is the product’s function? (What is it trying to do or achieve?)
  • We’re using our video to promote the message of letting go and the key themes of what the song is trying to achieve. As well as using this as promotion for the artist and song.
• What genre(s) does your artist typically work in?
  • Typically Jorja Smith creates contemporary R&B, Pop and Grime.
• Who are the target audience?
  • Teenage girls are the target audience as they are active on Youtube so most likely will see the video
  • The song could inspire them as it is based on a heartbreak which they could relate to.

After considering these questions we then discussed the different features from our target audience:

• Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?
  • Beyonce and Rhianna
• What other media they would consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences…
  • R&B and Pop music
• What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them.
  • A lot of teenagers focus on being confident and their image.
  • Interested in trends and fashion
• What broad demographic groups do your audience fall into (gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, cultural background)?
  • Teenage girl audience

To conclude, we made sure that we could fully understand what we would need to consider for the audience to decode and understand the message behind our music video. Also the factors that would enable them to engage with it and the different ways we can make it successful. From our research we focused on describing an audience member who our music video would be targeted to. This allowed us to create a connection to the audience. It’s important to know your audience to be able to engage with them and create the feeling of them knowing the star personally. The theories are essential when considering our audience for our music video. This is because we must consider their ideas during the production of our music video for it to be successful.

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From our conversation, our teacher gave us feedback on the positives and areas we need to improve for our music video.

The positives are:

• Miss Cobb thought our general idea of using the key theme of letting go was a successful concept to concentrate on.
• She enjoyed the beat of the song as it is unusual and we can experiment with this.
• She agreed with our ideas of bright clothing for the MES as it fits well with the genre.
• As well as our ideas for possible locations in an industrial area
• She liked the lyrics to our song as we can experiment with them and link them to our narrative.
• She thought the ideas we had thought of including ‘turning over a new leaf’ would be a successful way to convey the key theme and message from the song.

Our goals:

• She asked us to research into more ways in which we can convey the key themes in the song.
• She told us to ensure we have a confident performer that is familiar with the song.
• She advised us to have an actress for the narrative and a different person for the performance.
• She told us to explore the ideas of ‘letting go’ and think about new ways we can portray it.
• She also told us to ensure our Mis-en-scene conveys the message and emotions of the song and how the actress is feeling.
• She told us to make sure the performance is on beat.

As a group, we sent a tweet to the artist for permission to use her song. We sent this message in order to comply with copyright regulations.

This step is important before we start creating our music video to this song, so we can attempt to gain the permission from the artist. This is essential even though we are only using it for educational purposes, the artist is aware that their music is being used.