Please click on the above image to view our risk assessment form in more detail.

For this task, we had to complete the above form. This assessed any possible hazards and therefore what we would have to do if we did actually encounter any of these. Moreover, this sheet also included our shoot location, the teachers signature and the signatures of all the members in our group.

From this, we learnt how important it is to make sure we plan ahead ensuring any near disasters are avoided in advance. This will result in time being used efficiently and therefore no time will be wasted in the filming stage of the production.

Please click on the image above to see our timeline in more detail.

Here, we had to construct a visual representation of how we imagine our music video will go. We included a running sequence of the basic version of our future music video, giving us a guide to what we need to film in order to achieve the video we picture. As seen in the above image, both the narrative and the performance are displayed and discussed in the timeline allowing us to have a basic guide to follow when we go to shoot our music video.

From this, we have learnt just how important it is to have some sort of structure to the sequence we are going to film. This will enable us to be much more organised and therefore we will be more likely to handle our time efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, by doing this we have been able to get all of our ideas in the open therefore helping us to decide if they are logically possible to carry out. Moreover, this has helped us to really focus on the smaller details like shots and angles, making sure we have thoroughly thought about everything before we begin to film.

Please click on the image above to view it in more detail.

Due to the fact that we need to eventually upload drafts and then the final version of our music video to Youtube, we had to make sure we received permission first. We went on to Joel Adam’s official website and found the ‘contact’ section. Here, (as you can see from the images above) we contacted Joel’s management asking if it was possible for us to use his work ‘Please Don’t Go’ in the production of our A2 media coursework.

Without taking part in this step, we would not be able to upload our music video due to copyright issues. Moreover, without permission our drafts would eventually be taken down and therefore this is most definitely a crucial part in the process of our music video.

We had to compile a board images for this task in order to display the star image for the performer in our future music video.  The star image suggests how the artist should look and come across to their audience. For our genre (indie pop) we believed that our performer should appear talented, present and yet ordinary. Due to this, we used pictures of artists like Troye Sivan, Shawn Mendes and Bruno Mars to put this idea across. Moreover the metanarrative that can be seen from this particular board shows that a performer from this genre is typically casually dressed and fairly laid back. They come across as the ‘boy next door’ making them relatable and ordinary, therefore meaning their target audience feel more connected to the performer they idolise.

This task has ensured that each of us know exactly what we are looking for when it comes to our artists star image. We can see from this the exact “look” we are searching for and therefore this will help us when creating the necessary image. This will in turn help us to connect with the conventions and repertoire of elements. Once again this means that we will be  able to  give the audience what they are looking for, entailing that they receive the pleasure we predict.

An essential part to making sure that the success of our music video is inevitable, we had to make sure that we really understood our target audience. We have to make ourselves aware of aspects like their interests, hobbies and just general personal information. In order to fully research our audience, we had to create a fake Facebook profile of the typical person we are planning to target our video at. Here we displayed the demographics that  symbolised both the target audience and our future music video.

By carrying out this task, we were able to really display the average member in our target audience. Moreover as well as being able to visually explain our audience, this also helped us to grasp a much better understanding ourselves. We were able to depict what conventions would appeal to the audience and therefore we can now focus on the repertoire of elements that will ensure our video succeeds. Furthermore, this will also entail that we are able to make sure our audience receives the ‘predicted pleasure’ we are hoping for.

Here, we were given the task of creating a presentation about our specific genre: indie pop. We discussed elements like the narrative, star image, themes, music, mise en scene, camera techniques, edits/effects, iconography and finally the digi pack. By exploring all of these features we were able to really explore our genre in a lot of depth and therefore grasp a much better understanding of the what we needed to do. Throughout this task we looked at the very common repertoire of elements, these enabled us to discover what conventions were essential to this genre.

Moreover, this will assist me in the future when actually creating our music video. This is because we each will have a wider knowledge on what is actually needed to create an appropriate video, that fits well within the specified genre. By referring back to this document, we will be more able to ensure that we do in fact make our video comply with the preferred conventions in this genre. Therefore, this will make sure we are appealing to our target audience and so resulting in them receiving the predictable pleasure we are hoping for.

After receiving the feedback from our pitch, Ellie and I have decided to compile a list of the following targets:

• Pick the appropriate location for the narrative we are hoping to portray
• Select a professional dancer who is good enough to demonstrate the feelings and meaning we would like to display in our music video.
• Make sure the ‘abstract’narrative is as good as it can be, for example using balsamic vinegar and oil instead of water and oil.

Due to this, we have learnt just how important it is to set these targets. Once again this task will ensure that the music video will be even better and therefore make sure we include all the ideas that will improve it overall. By setting ourselves targets we are now able to track our progress and make sure we stay on track.

For this task, we had to present our music video ideas to three teachers (Mrs Cobb, Miss Hales and Mr Gregson). After presenting our narrative and performance ideas, our teachers then began to give us feedback on these thoughts. They suggested that we perhaps change the performer who we chose for our dancing scenes, this is because they believed we needed someone who specialised in more contemporary dance. Moreover, they felt this would look a lot better with out video. Furthermore, they also suggested that we use Fort Richmond instead of  the Guernsey Underground Hospital as this would be a lot easier to light. From this, I learnt just how important it is to have an external perspective on our ideas, this will allow our video to be a lot better and therefore we can make it as good as possible.

During this task, Ellie and I created a presentation for our pitch. This displays the song we have chosen, the genre (including the repertoire of elements), star image, annotated lyrics, moodboard, narrative/ performance ideas and finally the challenges ahead that we may face. Moreover, we also decided to do some research on the original artist of this song: Joel Adams. This allowed us to really create a more accurate image of what our star should look like and therefore we now believe we have the right person to perform in our video.

Due to this, I have learnt how important it is to have a solid basis idea for the music video.  We have seen just how necessary it is to come up with ideas for the narrative, performance and star image. This is because now we have a much better idea of how our video will look and therefore we can now be a lot more organised when it comes to the production stage. Also, by thinking about the challenges that may come up ahead we are able to make sure these problems are corrected before they even arise, furthermore this means we can save a lot of time by avoiding these errors. Moreover, we have also found that it is important to make sure the narrative and performance link to the genre as much as possible, this means that the repertoire of elements have to be thoroughly displayed throughout.

The song we have decided to pick for our music video is ‘Please Don’t Go’ by Joel Adams. This is a relatively slow song which does build up as the song develops. We thought this was a good choice for our video, as we believed we could infect do a lot with it. We can incorporate both of our ideas within the video and therefore we believed it was a perfect compromise. Furthermore, this song applies to the genre of ‘pop’ which we both were wanting to do anyway.

The MP3:

The reasons why we did end up choosing this particular song is because it conforms to both of our ideas and thoughts for the music video. It is of an appropriate length, so it is not too long or too short and therefore will be much easier to edit. We also like this song as we believe editing to the beat throughout will be very effective and so will have a big impact on the audience. Moreover, we also chose this song due to the fact we have a lot of ideas for it, we also already have an idea for exactly who will perform in the video. Some of the ideas we had for this song was that there would be a couple throughout. They would start together and then slowly their separation would grow until they were fully apart. The narrative would mostly be a focus on the nature side of things and perhaps elements that represented their relationship (for example the separation of oil and water). Moreover, the performance would consist of the male star singing in the dimly lit black studio. We thought a dark setting would be best for this performer as we really want to portray their emotions during the breakup to the audience, as this would perhaps make him more ‘present’ and therefore relatable to them.