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For our first shoot we created a production meeting agenda to ensure we had information on what we were aiming to film and what costumes were required. Production meeting agendas are important as it enables you to be organised so everyone knows what they are expected to bring for the shoot (costumes, makeup, props etc).

Below is the attached document for our production meeting agenda:

REFLECTION

By creating this plan, Kaitlin and I felt like we were prepared of what costumes and props we needed to bring for our first shoot. This made it easier when communicating with one another so we knew who was bringing what.

For our first shoot we created a risk assessment document to ensure we control any risks and have a responsible manner during the shoot. To leave the site we had to get parental permission, due to safeguarding legalities at the school.

Below is the attached document of our risk assessment:

FOCUS FORWARD

From creating a risk assessment for our shoot it will reassure our teacher that we will maintain safety regulations, not only for ourselves but if we come in contact with the public where we will make sure we are sensible and respectful.

In this task we planned and presented our final pitch to our teacher and outlined our narrative and performance ideas. The point of this task was to identify whether our plan was doable and to attain some feedback on what works and what could be improved.

Below is the video of us discussing our ideas and inspiration to our teacher:

6 POSITIVES THAT WE CAME AWAY WITH:

• Getting inspiration from other media texts is a good idea as it allows you to be creative with your costumes, settings, and filming techniques, eg Alice In Wonderland
• The tempo changes allows us to experiment with the cuts, editing, camera movement & framing
• Including both narrative and performance to stick with the conventions of an indie rock music video

6 TARGETS/ASPECTS TO CONSIDER:

• Consider how we can use editing to represent the surreal feel to it, eg match on action
• Ensure we have a clear idea on what will happen with the narrative and who the characters are/their role in the video
• Experiment with the colour correction to represent the emotion behind the scenes, eg confusion when seeing the surreal characters
• Ensure to watch tutorials and keep shots static for some animation/post production
• Include some sort of prop which reminds her of the journey/makes her confused if it was real or not

REFLECTION/FOCUS FORWARD

Having this discussion with our teacher encouraged us to experiment with the targets we were given on how to improve some of our ideas we had for our video. It also was very helpful as if we get stuck on something we can always refer back to this video.

It is vital you ask the artist for permission to use their song because you don’t want to come across an issue with copyright. Copyright gives the artist the right to prevent others from exploiting their work in various ways, without permission. This is why it was important for us to make sure we are seen doing the right thing and request permission from the artist to use their song for educational purposes only (A level Media Studies).

We decided to message Cage The Elephant on instagram, a screenshot can be shown below:

REFLECTION

From asking Cage The Elephant for permission to use their song it shows that we are aware of the copyright issues that surround many artists’ material being used illegally.

In this task we created a document together to establish our strengths and weaknesses as a group. By acknowledging this, we then agreed on scheduling shoots, our roles and responsibilities, communication & organisation, and what we can do if we feel unhappy in the group. By signing the document at the end will ensure we will both commit to our roles and know what to do if we face difficulties.

Below is the attached document:

REFLECTION

Doing this task was vital when creating a music video as we can be more aware of our teams strengths and weaknesses, therefore if we do tasks that play to our strengths and weaknesses we can hopefully produce a successful piece of work. As well as this, by listing skills that each of us may have, will allow us to transfer these skills to the creation of the music video.

For this task in our pair we presented our individual pitch’s to each other. We decided on using Kaitlin’s pitch for the final song choice, and then made up a slideshow of the lyrics of the song, a word cloud, narrative ideas, performance ideas, a moodboard for mise-en-scene, setting, and the inconvenient ideas.

It is important to create a visual representation of our plan for the music video because it enables us to convey our ideas more efficiently to ourselves and our teacher. For instance, what to aim to include, what location to film, who are actors will be, and how to dress the performers. It also allows us create a clear representation of our star image for the music video, and how the audience will view them, whether that is being extraordinary, ordinary, present, or absent (Dyer).

Below is slideshow we have created as a pair for our chosen song  “Come a little closer – Cage the Elephant” for our music video:

REFLECTION

By creating a final pitch it allowed us to work out if our music video was doable, if we can get the performers, and if we had the suitable locations, settings, and MES to make it work. We can also use this pitch to refer back to when we start to film clips for the music video and what to do to make it be successful.

A narrative is a piece of media that aims to tell a story. There are 3 types of narratives; Amplified, Disjunctive, and illustrative. An amplified narrative is when the narrative, is inspired by the song and adds a new element to complement the themes. A disjunctive narrative is when the narrative seems to hold very little relationship to the song and seems quite random. Finally, an illustrative narrative in the video very closely echoes the lyrics & music.

Below is the 3 videos I’ve chosen to represent the structure of a narrative:

Thematic (amplifies the lyrics and illustrate the ideas in visual metaphors)

The music video showcases Ed having feelings for this girl from the very start, but she didn’t seem to pay much attention to him which gave him very little hope of them being together. The group of them went on a skiing trip and he attempts to help her ski and maintain her balance so she doesn’t fall over. When she is skiing or doing karaoke he is always admiring her beauty and bubbly personality from a far until it cuts to a montage of them having a snow ball fight, making snow angles, and eating pizza together. Finally, Ed admits he wrote a song for her and expresses his emotions through the lyrics which makes her come to terms with her feelings as they dance under a candle light in the snow.

Episodic (self contained stories within a story)

This music video is the preparation of creating a music video as you see the directors, performers, and cameras ready in place. As they begin to perform they each have their own bit do to, for example Zayn in the middle of a sumo wresting fight or Liam with a circus crew with acrobats. Near the end they all come together and all have a massive performance to show the talents of the individuals. When the song fades out you see one of the ‘directors’ at the end verbalise “That was alright”.

Linear (beginning, middle and end of a narrative)

This music video begins with her playing cards with a ‘significant other’ but cuts to a scene where the whole fridge is full of beers which has connotations of him being an alcoholic or having more care for alcohol than her. As she is decorating the cake he seems to not care and take some decorations off of it to eat for himself as he isn’t appreciating what she does. As the music video ends you see her coming to terms with her worth and packs a suitcase and leaves him for good.

Below are some of the narratives I have thought of. I created these narratives by doing a task where we randomly selected words and put them together: 

Bitter pills taste of revenge

“I always knew there was something off about the secretary at my hotel, I’ve always been a people watcher but something about her sparked my interest. She wasn’t always secretive about her identity. I’ve always known she was undercover. A detective. She is always lurking around that supply cupboard, aways grasping onto that old book. I always thought I was imagining it but when the unknown identity of the gun was posted in the local newspaper, I realised maybe I wasn’t making it all up. Maybe I should take a look in that supply cupboard…”

Distress signals

In a recent accident along the south-west harbour, flashing siren lights and mounds of detectives were accompanied by the ruckus of distressed civilians as the money-greedy reporters clambered towards the burning boat. The lead piping dripped with a mysterious substance on the boat. “I don’t understand how no one is seeing this body hanging from the rope…”

Return to sender

In an apocalyptic dystopian world where unknown species have taken over a skateboarder’s only mission which is to return a newspaper containing the world’s last hope to the cell. Batting through zombies and on a frightful chase – the only thing getting him to his final destination. A prison cell. Is the power his music holds and what it can accomplish which he is yet to understand.

Reflection

By discovering and creating narratives of our own it will help us as when we begin to create one for our music video. This is because we are familiar with what sort of narratives are used whether that is to amplify, illustrate or disjuncture the lyrics/music. It also lets us be more creative with the piece of work and allows us to connect with the audience on how we choose to represent our star and convey the message we are trying to give off.

Below is a music video done by a previous student which I have completed a self assessment on:

What went well and why?

The video effects have been chosen well and contribute to the overall feel of the video, for example when the character ‘punches the screen’ a comic speech bubble appears in the place he punched. This was a really effective way to ‘show her that I’m a catch’ as it portrays his strength and power.

There was an effective variety of shot distances, specifically in these two snapshots. The close up showcases his emotions as he got rejected, and the long shot portrays what the performer is doing (running).

What could be improved and how?

This clip specifically was the performer playing the drums during an instrumental section. However since it was in slow motion it wasn’t to the beat. Therefore I think the video would have benefited having the drums to the beat of the song.

Some of the clips of the band was slightly shaky and not done with a tripod. However it may represent the overall feel of the video by not having the camera still. They could resolve this by using a tripod of some sort of equipment to get a steadier camera movement.

Why this music video is my favourite?

This music video is my favourite because they display a clear narrative that the audience can encode, but still including some performance parts. For this video they have chosen to amplify the lyrics to allow the audience to also decode some aspects and bring their own ideologies to the video.

The technical conventions were done well, specifically the lip syncing and framing of shots to capture the emotions or actions of the characters. Following on from this, the style of the video and the way it has been designed/filmed/edited conveyed their star as a hopeless romantic as they are attempting to ‘get their ex back’ and listening to his feelings of what he wanted. They also promote the artist as being ordinary (Hall) because he is showing the audience it’s normal to experience such emotions towards someone.

Focus Forward

By doing this task it has developed my knowledge on the skills to create a music video, in particular editing, design and filming movements/angles. For instance, include a variety of shots (close up, middle, long) and creative editing effects to make it more intriguing for my audience and so they decode the overall theme of the video.

Below is a table I filled out to analyse 3 different music videos of different genres; Pop, R&B, and Indie/Alternative

A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Artists may do this in different ways whether that is to produce a video that illustrates, amplifies, or disjuncture’s the song. Illustration is the term used where the narrative in the video closely echoes the lyrics and music, amplification is the narrative, inspired by the song but adds a new element to complement the themes in the song, and finally disjuncture is when the narrative seems to hold very little relationship to the song and appears to be quite random. Music videos are primarily either a narrative, performance or a mixture of both! Performance videos tend to be exclusively a performance in an unusual place, whereas a narrative lacks performance and often tells a socially important story.

I analysed these music videos by considering the following theorists; Dyer, Barthes, and Hall. Dyer’s central idea was that the star image could be described using two key paradoxes; a star is both ordinary & extraordinary and a star is both present & absent. Hall explained how society interacts and how individuals in society have different interpretations and responses to media texts (encoding & decoding). Barthes suggested that texts are open to many possible interpretations (readings) from many different perspectives.

Below is the Taylor Swift music video:

Below is the Beyonce music video:

Below is the Declan Mckenna music video:

Focus Forward

From watching and analysing these music videos, it will influence the way I film and edit my music video, this is because I am aware of some of the conventions of a music video. As well as this I will keep in mind the theorist Hall because when creating my narrative, the audience decodes my video correctly and receive the right message about it.