One important thing to remember when planning on telling a story through the narrative is to use a variety of different shots that will express meaning and emotion through them but also help the audience to understand the narrative sense.

In order to do this, my group and I created a ‘narrative photoboard’ which includes a variety of shot distances and sequences that we will take at the location shoots. The shots that we will be using include:

• Low angle
• Eyeline match
• Ped
• Pan
• Match-on-action
• High angle
• Two shot
• Cut to close up
• Close up
• Wide shot
• Extreme long shot
• Medium close up

Creating a storyboard and putting together a variety of different shots that we will be using will be extremely helpful when it comes to the filming of the shoots because we are able ensure that are audience stay entertained throughout the entire music video. The variety of different shots also makes it easier for us to convey the narrative themes to our target audience. For example, the wide shot of the pair dancing freely will show how far their relationship has developed and how much more confident they’ve become around each other.

Above is the rough cut from the performance shoot.

What went well:

• The mise-en-scene was perfect. The outfit, hair, makeup, jewellery and props all help to convey our indie star image. One thing in particular I like is the huge leopard print bow on the star’s head, it is good because it stands out and highlights to the audience how bold she is.
• The camera flashes that seem like paparazzi emphasise that our star is like a celebrity.
• The bold expressions on the star’s face highlight to the audience that she is very much aware of who she is and her stardom
• The editing is swift and the variety of shots and positions that the star appears allows an audience ton stay entertained

We decided to shoot our performance during lunch time in the Black studio. My group consists of just Henry and I, and I am in the music video. So I had the job of being the star image and expressing all of the elements of a quirky, rebellious character.

What went well:

• We got some really good, unique shots such as a pan shot.
• We were organised and remembered to bring all of the correct props, costumes and makeup in order to convey our star image
• The studio was exactly what we wanted, the black backgrounds help to emphasise our punky and gothic themes.
• The mise-en-scene was perfect and enabled our star to look like a grungy superstar

What could be improved:

• Some of the footage appeared to be fuzzy and out of focus when looking back on it
• We filmed all 4 minutes of footage for every shot we did, which was a mistake because it didn’t allow for our star to take a break or catch their breath
• We didn’t get any close ups or extreme close ups, which would be a perfect shot to highlight the star’s emotion

Overall I feel as though the first performance shoot went quite well as we were able to shoot some good shots and get some good angles.  Focusing forward, my group and I have decided to we will be doing a reshoot so that we can include all of the shots we missed and depict the star image as a moody and punk character.

In order for the performance shoot to run smoothly we need to be organised and plan out every little detail. We planned out everything in this table from the timings that we will be shooting to the outfits and props we will be using. This reminded the group what to expect and reinforced the mise en scene that our star image will express. One thing the group need to remember when shooting is to check the background and ensure that there is nothing distracting such as rubbish or a car that hasn’t been put there on purpose so that our genre can clearly be portrayed to the audience. This should be easy to remember because we are shooting in the black studio, however when it comes to our second shoot, the narrative, this may be more challenging as we are filming in public.

Our shoot on Thursday cannot be done with a risk assessment, as they are essential to ensure key health and safety. They create awareness for any hazards, providing control.

In order to understand the star that features in the music video, I put together a college of images that express her personality. This is helpful because it gives us understanding of our genre and it’s repertoire of elements.

Similarly, to the artist I want our star image to be punk however they will have a grunge, dark, edgy twist which I think will suit our choice of song perfectly. I will covey all these conventions by using cinematography and the use of Mise en scene to create an outfit that stands out. It is very important that our star image will be outstanding because I aim to create a branding out of them. Branding is very important when it comes to successful advertising. It is also very important that our star is coherent across all our products, for example on her social media page, digipack and in the music video. Our star needs to have the same message across all medias as it will help our star to stand out and create a big audience. I would describe our star image as a rebellious and cheeky character and I aim to emphasise her quirkiness, through things such as Mes.

In order to create a music video with a wide range of good shots we need to plan what shots we want to use. I explored music videos from the same genre as mine and identified my favourites by putting together a padlet. I found this very useful because it helped to reinforce the importance of the star image and also inspired me with the cinematography that was used.

By watching music videos from my genre I noticed that a common theme in them is heartbreak or some version of a love story. This is significant because my video too will be illustrating love story. I also found that the structure of most of the videos is episodic. Additionally, when the artist is interacting with the camera the lip syncing is not too dramatic and happens casually, often whilst their busy performing another task.  They also tend to be dressed in brightly coloured clothes that stand out. My genre tends to focus on narratives that are about relationships and are anarchic.

Originally we were planning to use a narrative only music video, however after discussing our ideas with our teacher we discovered that it would be a real challenge. While we thought we’d be capable of it, we also decided that having some elements of performance in our video would make it more interesting. Being conventional is very important to our group, however we also want to experiment with unique styles.

Our teacher helped us come up with the idea of using an 80’s gothic theme with a dash of techno. I am excited for this because I feel as though it will really help us to convey the star image. This style ties in perfectly with the genre of our song and matches the narrative structure very well.

Positives:

• Original choice of song
• Good theme
• Unique MES and costumes
• Interesting plot
• Good locations
• Easy adapting to our preferences

Targets:

• Lip syncing
• More shot ideas
• More detailed costume ideas
• Figure out who are performers are going to be
• Negotiate star image
• Decide when we are going to film

Copyright is a very serious issue in the music industry and therefore when using an artist’s song I need to ask for permission. In order, to be able to use the song we want freely someone in my group sent an email to the management team of artist Grimes.

When working in a group collaboration it is always important to find out each others strengths and weaknesses so that everyone can help out each other. This just ensures that everything runs smoothly. So, we decided to delegate roles to members of the group in order to divide all the tasks and workload. This also enables us to find out who is specifically skilled in one particular area so we can use that to our advantage. When working as a group communication is key, which is why this was helpful because we were able to discuss our responsibilities. This was also useful because it reinforced the importance of commitment and organisation, which we incorporated into the  group agreement when we committed to filming 3 days a week, on a Monday, Tuesday and Sunday.