In order to gain familiarity with our genre we researched into the key features of ska in order to develop the complete repertoire of elements and lay down the blue print and contract for our music video and audience. From this it will help us to ensure we follow the core conventions which surround the new wave 2-tone ska genre which provides an element of predictable pleasure for our target audience producing the best music video possible.

Since joining Year 13 shuffles to my timetable have demanded that I can no longer continue with my old group on our music video and have been put into a new class where I have teamed up with Marcus Rees and Simon Bradley. This group had already pitched their idea for a music video and I will be helping out with the construction of “Mirror in the Bathroom” by The Beat.

Their Pitch:

Filmed Pitch Feedback:

I liked their ideas of narcissism and vanity to link into the performance and narrative since these themes are clearly highlighted through the lyrics. The themes of media representation in our modern age is also an interesting concept to explore especially since it will appeal to a wide target audience. I believe that the conventions of Ska are very clear and will be easy to construct a star image around, we will ensure our performers are smartly dressed. Also the satirical nature of the genre is appealing.

Things I suggested:

• The use of the school pavilion and bathrooms for a filming the location.
• The mise-en-scene of a Harrington jacket for our guitarist.
• The use of newspapers and magazines for the band to dance on in order to send a political message
• A emphasis on close-ups of the instruments to communicate the talented star image.

Following on from our music video pitch to our teachers, Zara, Alex and I have come together to formulate our key targets to think about and improve over the summer holidays. These are as follow.

• Narrative – From our initial ideas of a man wondering through a forest looking in a generally metaphorical way for freedom it was thought that there needed to be a much more clear sense of journey and a purpose within the narrative. We will consider if we can use all of our band members to have individual story lines of breaking out of confined spaces to come together in the performance section to finish the song. For this idea we were considering claustrophobic shots in places such as large bins or cardboard boxes to reflect the contempt at being a self-interested individual.
• Filming the band – It was inferred that in order to get the best, high energy and correct shots of our band performing we would have to ensure that we are very organised. This means it is essential to get all the necessary shots as well as enough extra footage ideally in one filming session as it is counter-productive relying on band members who need to all be transported with instruments to the filming location. To ensure this is not required we will take a far greater number of shots and different angles then required
• Choosing a location – Our original intention of filming in forests and cliffs paths has been deemed unoriginal and difficult to film on, staying it the same location also may cause the video to become repetitive. Due to this we would seek to locate new and original settings although this does not rule out some coastal paths or forest areas since we are considering five separate narratives for each band member, each of these could be in a completely different locations to reflect the extent of isolation and disenfranchisement.

This is a recording of our music video pitch to our three media teachers whereby we attempted to sell our ideas for narrative and performance as well as justifying our song choice. From this we can easily refer back to comments and feedback made. The general consensus from our teachers were that our narrative idea was far too simple and technically very hard to achieve. However, from this we have come up with some very creative ideas about entrapment involving the main band members which are outlined in my next post. Below is the video of our pitch.

In order to convince our teachers we have a solid song and consequently appropriate ideas for both the performance and narrative of our music video we have constructed a pitch in order to enthusiastically sell our idea and prove it is a realistic possibility. This is important as it has allowed us to delve deeper into the more metaphorical meanings behind the lyrics of the song as well as forming the foundations for how to construct our star image and mise-en-scene. You can view the slideshare of our presentation below.

After me and my group consulted about our music video ideas we could not come to an agreement on which of our songs to choice, thus, since then we have decided to choose a song together and we are pleased to have decided on “Pilot” by Amber Run, you can listen to and view a lyric video for the song below.

We decided to choose this song as it is an indie rock song which we feel is a genre that has very clear conventions but also allows us to be creative and add our own different spin on the creative direction for the video. This song also has a band-esque feel which we are very keen to include in our performance for our music video. Following on from our preliminary song choice we created the idea of a homeless person for our narrative and we believe that this song has very clear themes which relate to that idea.

Since I am in a group of three to produce a music video we all decided on a song individually and created moodboards for them this allowed us to have a wide range of choice when it came to possibilities for music videos. Below are the individual songs and moodboards chosen by both Alex and Zara.

Alex’s Song | “Back Seat” by Atlas Genius:

Alex’s Moodboard:

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Zara’s Song | “Where Does the Good Go” by Tegan and Sara:

Zara’s Moodboard:

In order to get an idea going for my group song to choice I decided to find my own song and come up with many ideas for it based on the concept of synesthesia, this is the science of seeing through hearing, from this I have developed a mood board of what I associate with the song. The song I chose was “Neighbour Neighbour” by Violent Soho, below you can view the song.

Here is the subsequent mood board I constructed after listening to the song, view it by clicking on the image below.

I also annotated the lyrics of the song with many ideas I felt we could use as well as the themes that sprung up from the lyrics, view my annotations by clicking on the picture below.

Before we are put into our final groups for production of our music video and related products we decided to collectively decide which personality and technical skills are crucial to having an effective group, below is our mind map outlining preferred skills and attributes.

• What lessons did you learn about planning and the use of Storyboards/Shot Lists and Production Meeting Agendas? Why are they important when out on shoot?

It is important to thoroughly plan for each and every film shoot, our shot list was especially helpful in remembering which shots we had and hadn’t got as well as identify which actors were needed where and when, this allowed us to be more efficient in filming by using two cameras to film individual sections at double the speed. The production meeting agenda was also necessary in delegating responsibility for everything in our shoot and ensured we and our actors didn’t forget to bring anything crucial on the day. Next time  I will ensure I print off more than one copy of each document since some got damaged whilst filming outside and so each member of the production team has one to avoid confusion.

• What should the camera operator be doing whilst filming? 

Directing the performer constantly and encouraging them to interact with the camera as well as ensuring the shot is steady and effectively framed, I found we did this very well but it was often difficult to encourage the performer to be confident and energetic. From this I will ensure I choose enthusiastic and confident people to perform in my music video.

• What lessons did you learn about directing people in front of the camera? What information do they need to know about their character / their performance style? How can the director get them to relax and have confidence in front of the camera in order to perform well? 

I learnt that it is crucial to make the performer aware of who or what they are addressing, for our video is as very important they used direct audience address which meant maintaining eye contact with the camera, before we made them aware of this our performers often didn’t do what we intended. The performer needs to be aware of the key themes of the song in order to reflect it in their performance, by encouraging the performer to practice the sequence multiple time it builds their confidence and gets the best possible performance. Next time I will notify the performer before filming exactly who to address and to allow them even more rehearsal time to ensure we don’t miss out on key shots of lines.

• What lessons did you learn about filming the performance for your production?

I found it was far easier to film the performance of a music video than previous projects I have undertaken, once the repertoire of elements and the genre is analysed it is very simple to get multiple shots and have a large amount of film to work with in the editing process, we found we had far more footage than we needed but this was a positive thing as it allowed us to experiment with variety. I also found getting a large range of shot distances was important to create a visually interesting video. Next time I would like to try getting more long shots and closeups to have an even greater diversity of shots.

• What did you learn about editing and post-production?

Editing was also a much more relaxed and straightforward process for the music video as it was easy to cut between lyrics and beats in the music video with the multiple different shots we had achieved, this meant a rough cut for our section was completed almost instantaneously. Next time I will make sure all our clips in the editing suite are connected together to ensure there inst a short black clip in the middle of our video.

• What did you discover about the use of conventional Mise-En-Scene for music videos?

Mise-en-scene was a more difficult endeavor for our dummy mash-up as we studied the conventional clothing of girl groups we found them to be quite extraordinary and lavish which added to the paradox of the star. We asked our performers to wear clothes they would feel comfortable in on a “going out” night which helped to convey the themes of the song. We dressed our male dancer in jeans and a hoodie however this seemed too simple and boring. We wanted to ensure there was lots of natural scenery int eh background of shots such as trees and plants and so we actively avoided cars. Next time I will more carefully consider the costume of all performer to ensure it follows the conventions of the chosen genre.