Here is our risk assessment:

Here is our PMA:

Here is our Storyboard:

I’ve broken the narrative into key scenes i.e. bed, beanie, dancing in castle, government…

I have developed a simple narrative structure to my video in three parts:

1. The Beginning – How do I establish the story / theme in the video/ characters?
2. The Middle – What is the development of the story or the conflict within the theme?
3. The End – How does the theme/story resolve or does it? What end message do I wish to communicate?

The narrative portion of a music video is important as to make the audience rewatch the video. It can be one of the following:

• Amplified – The video links to the key themes and messages of the lyrics and aids them.
• Disjunctive – The video and lyrics have very little to do with each other.
• Illustrative – The narrative illustrates the lyrics directly.

In order to prepare for shooting our narrative, we compiled this document of initial planning and ideas for our amplified narrative.

Todorov’s Theory:

• EQUILIBRIUM, DISRUPTION, RESOLUTION AND NEW EQUILIBRIUM

Following terms for music videos:

• Anachronic? (flashbacks, flash-forwards, out of sequence)
• Episodic? (Short self contained scenes usually thematically linked)
• Parallel? (Cross cutting between two scenes that meet at the climax)
• Linear – runs in chronological order

Drama is conflict (the resolution often reveals the theme)

These are the binary oppositions/conflicts in your fairy tale:

• Love v Hate?
• Rich v Poor?
• Greed v Generosity
• Old v young
• Innocence v corruption

The narrative functions the character can have:

• Who is the villain?
• Who is the victim?
• Who is the hero?
• Who is the donor?
• Who is the adviser?

Remember: music video narratives are rarely complete as this does not encourage an audience to revisit it as there is no need to – everything has been said.

Music video narratives are often thematic and have episodic and anachronic elements to make the narrative more challenging and therefore likely to be ‘watched again and again’.

Here is the first draft of our music video (performance):

What went well:

• We filmed many different complex shots
• We put all the clips together
• The clips were too the beat of the music
• We did transitions
• We added special effects to the clips

Even better if:

• We made sure we dressed our star in the same things all the time
• We added more transitions
• We added more effects to the clips
• We could add more snappy fitting clips
• Our star learn’t the lyrics to the rap at the end

Targets:

• Add more clips
• More effects
• More transitions
• Film narrative
• Flim rap

Here are some of the photos of me filming and editing the performance:

Reflection:

The shoot went well in my opinion, we worked fast and crafty trying out different angles and ideas any time we could. We aimed to film the first section up to where the music changes, which creates the change in our narrative. We hoped to be able to portray this with our performance too by using a symbolic element of having an umbrella with rain over our star and then removing the umbrella, suggesting it was brighter and sunnier. However, on the day of our first shoot, it was quite foggy and it started to rain. This impacted on how much we could do outside in our desired location. Despite this we managed to get a range of shots outside as well as inside by the fireplace. These included: close ups, mid shots, dolly shots and long shots. Overall the shoot was successful and I think that our Mise En Scene and camera techniques were all effective and worked well, however when editing we realised that we need to do another shoot to get a wider variety of shots such as high angles, low angles, canted angles and steadier dolly shots, so we organised another shoot.

What went well:

• Our Mise-en-scene was effective to show that our star was neutral in comparison to our narrative, as well as creating a sense of being ordinary and reachable for our audience as the clothes were quite ordinary
• Our decision for our star to be barefoot was effective as it showed that she was down to earth and humble
• We got a variety of shots and used good techniques
• All of our shots were in focus

Even better if:

• We got more original shots to portray the individuality of the song
• We held the camera more steady since the first dolly we took was all over the place
• We need to start editing to the beat of our music to create a more professional look
• We need to make sure that our star knows the lyrics so we can re-record the lines she didn’t know

Targets:

• Get some more shots that vary the angles of the shots
• Get some more steady dolly shots – the ones we got were jolty
• Edit to the beat in our editing
• Use different paces of edit in our editing
• Ensure our star knows the lyrics so that our lip syncing can be more successful

This is my production meeting for shoot 1:

Production meetings are important because they help the group know who is in charge of what costumes and what equipment. It also reminds people what they have to bring and creates a sense of responsibility. Here we can also see what items should look like and there are numbers incase we have forgotten anything so we know who to call.

This is my risk assessment:

The significance of a risk assessment is to keep the actors and fillers safe when they are at risk to certain things like steep walkways. This is important because if someone gets hurt we need something to prove we have taken every step to make sure everyone is safe.

Here is the moodboard of my stars image:

These are some of her album covers:

 These portray Dodie as soft and kind. The sun flowers are a symbolism of adoration, loyalty and longevity. They show happiness which is inviting to Dodie’s target audience. The low fi images of her show that she is not threatening and is peaceful in herself.

I will use this research to make my performer into the type of person Dodie is. I will try to give my performer the same star image so she is perceived kind and someone the audience would look up to. This will impact my own production since I want to take characteristics from Dodie and use them in my own performance.

They also construct a set of desires in the target audience to be like them, think like them, love what they love, be involved in their lives and buy what they suggest.

There are huge synergies between marketing and star image! We don’t just buy a product we also buy into the values of the star image and in purchasing their product emulate them. 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 – the star image evolves and is constantly reinvented by media companies!

As a result of the research I have done my star will act in a way that her target audience will find intriguing. For example, she will be kind, weird (in a quirky good way) and happy. In real life I would want her that way so that in the music video we can see her feelings that she has put across. She will be unhappy in the beginning which will shock her fans but when she becomes happy at the end because she is being herself the fans will see her true self and who she is happy to be.

Today we had the task to look at music videos in our songs genre and find shots that they use.

Certain genres (types) of music rely specifically on certain shots as part of the repertoire of elements (conventions, ingredients).  For example:

• Heavy rock might have canted, hand held camera shots with whip pans a plenty, which helps convey a genre that is energetic, anarchic and rebellious.
• Indie acoustic might include smoother, longer, pull focus shots that represent the artist as sincere, laid back and unhurried.

It is important as a producer to create something that is conventional but also different to attract the audience and reel them in. The audience might reject the text if it is not what they like, so it is up to the producer to provide them with what they want but at the same time, push the creative boundaries so it is new and unique.

Here is the Padlet we created around some of the shots pop music uses: