As a group we needed to create a storyboard, this would provide us with a basic image of what our music video might look like shot by shot which made it easier to visualise as a whole. To create our idea for how our music video would look, myself and Laura sat down and brainstormed our ideas, we used a combination of what we had both come up with. Although the storyboard doesn't show all the shots in great detail, it isn't needed as the storyboard is only meant to be a guideline to be used on set, as with most things in the industry things change as they are created. We found that our ideas were expanded more on set during capturing of the shots and we decided to try some other shots to fill more of the music video. Beneath each picture is a short description of what is happening in each shot and what type of shot it is.
As a group we researched areas we could film in before hand before
making a decision. Originally we looked at filming in Red House Park, and then Sutton
Park. But it was after some consideration of the location in relation to our college we
chose to film in Sutton Park.
We decided this as it was
an easy location to get to and we liked the idea of using beautiful
location on our doorstep which is often over looked. We also thought the
location would be good as we wouldn't be confined to one spot and by
using Sutton Park we could shoot more shots of different place in one
day without it causing and problems.
Once our group had decided that we were going to produce a music video we were going to have to come up with a concept for the video, and first of all decide upon a song to use.
We came up with three different ideas for a music video using three different music videos.
We thought of a video to accompany the song Save It For The Bedroom by a band called You Me At Six.
The idea was that it would follow a band performing the song mixed with the narrative following a stereotypical house party, it would show scenes of dancing, kissing and with most house parties include games. It was to focus on the ex girlfriend of the main character. The ex girlfriend is desperately trying to get back with her ex boyfriend (the main character) but he declines her advances when the stories of what she's been up to during their separation get back to him. We'd show scenes of the guys disgust when he's told by various people what she's done. The ex girlfriend becomes increasingly jealous when she sees the guy starts talking to another girl who's more respectable than her.
We also thought of an idea for the song Machines by the band Biffy Clyro.
The idea was to follow the tone of the song which was sad and seem to have a longing for a past love. The idea was about a young couple but the boyfriend is caught in accident and subsequently dies. The video follows the girl as she mourns for her past love by visiting his grave, crying herself to sleep and looking through photos of them and things he has given her. The video would be mostly narrative with intercut shots of the boyfriend playing on a guitar looking like ghost with the use of special effects.
After much discussion we decided we were going to use a song by Katy Perry, we decided against using a song which had already been released as a single from her album 'Teenage Dream' so we ended up choosing the song 'Not Like The Movies'.
After brainstorming we came up with the idea that it would involve a young couple who have broken up, we decided this by listening to the lyrics and matched our ideas to the music. The concept of the video was that the young couple have broken up. It follows the young girl looking back at the good times and the bad times and how they break up. We decided we'd make the video a mix of both performance and narrative as after research we realised that the majority of music videos follow this mix.
To research for this project i gather a group of friends and verbally asked them as i thought this was a more effective way as people were more honest and it was more personally opposed to just handing them a questionnaire.
I asked various questions.
Do you prefer music videos, short films or documentaries?
To this question I found out that most people would prefer music video as they listen to music on both the internet and tv. Short film wasn't particularly preferred but this seemed to be due to the fact most short films need to be found on the internet and weren't on tv. Documentaries appeared to be more popular than short films as most people liked seeming them on tv.
What do you like about music videos?
When asked most people liked that artists were sometimes creative with their abstract videos and valued their artistic skills, although some people hated abstract videos deeming them without a purpose. Most preferred when they had a narrative and performance as they enjoyed the story which was unfolded with a song.
What do you like about short films?
I found out that most people liked the idea of having a story told and it not taking long to tell the story.
What do you like about documentaries?
To this question the group of people i asked said that they like what they learn from documentaries. Particularly they liked learning interesting facts they wouldn't have known without watching it. They also seemed to prefer documentaries on different things like medical conditions (the tree man).
What would you actually watch?
It was obvious that most people didn't watch short films and mainly watched music videos as music interested them, although documentaries were also of interest due to the fact they are regularly on tv and they caught their interest after on shows they'd normally watch.
Where do you go to watch music videos, short films or documentaries?
With this question I found out the main medium for all these three products was the internet. Although tv was a close runner up, although it appeared this was more for music videos (on music channels) and documentaries. On the internet it was evident that the main mediums were 'youtube' and 'BBC iPlayer'. Knowing this it gave me an idea of were to put my media product.
I also made a poll online to see what was more popular.
Question: What do you prefer? Music videos, short films or documentaries?
Answers:
Music videos - 60%
Short films - 15%
Documentaries - 25%
This polled showed me that music videos were the most popular among a larger group which helped me with my decision on what product to create.
Love Field was directed, produced, written and editted by Mathieu Ratthe. The short film combines suspsense, horror and drama. Intially we are lead to believe there is a murder but this view is quickly changed by the end of the short film when we see that it wasn't a murder being taken out but in fact a woman giving birth.
In the field, a
cellphone, money and a purse are dispersed on the land and a woman with
blood on the foot is crying in pain. A vertical panning shot is used to show the items and then eventually the woman. Her dirty feet are something which show she might be in danger something which is already put across the the audience by the panning shot of her things everywhere.
Later in the same shot the woman stops
crying and a man with blood on the hands stabs a knife on the field. This implies to the audience he has just killed her. The blood and weapon are conventions usually found in the horror genre which gives the audience the idea that this short film is a horror
The director used a close up on a crow which can be heard throughout the film. The use of the crow is another convention which is associated with the horror genre as a crow is mostly used to indicate something bad is happening and even sometimes a death, which appears to be the case in this short film so far.
A close up on the man's arm shows a skull with scales tattooed on his arm, this could imply that this character thinks he handles life and death, which is perhaps why he has 'killed' this woman in the field.
Although the next shot which is a long shot implies that the man is now nervous and looking out for someone incase they see.
This close up on the man's hands show how he is frantic to get into the car's boot. He also proceeds to pull a bag and blanket, presumely to the audience this is hide the body.
However in this medium shot it is revealed what has actually happened in the field, something which generally suprising the audience when they see that the woman has actually had a baby.
The editing pace varies throughout the short film, while the man is frantic to get into his car and to look for something it is faster compared to earlier in the film where it is slow as it pans over the woman's thing which have been dropped in the field.
Like most short films it is within the range of length being between 3 and 30 minutes, Love Field is 5 minutes and 29 seconds. It has currently had 1,078,807 views on yotube.
There are many different codes and conventions used withing a short film.
Music: Music is used to create generally to create atmosphere and add to a scene. It can be used in many different ways, for example it can be used in an action short film to heighten the tempo to match the scene, to create tension in a horror short film and even show love in a romantic film.
Camera work: Camera work can be incredibly important in short films as a short film is just that, short, it needs to draw a viewer in even quicker. Also in a short film camera angles can be essential for symbolism.
Acting: This is more important for a short film as it is more focused on than in things such as a music video as generally the audio and acting is more focused on.
Costume: This is another thing which can instantly set the scene and theme of the short film.
Characters: In a short film generally there are only a few main character due to the time constraints, this makes it hard for loads of character to be introduced fully. Budgets: These are generally low for short films as they are clearly different from Hollywood films. These types are films are usually student films, new director films or films to promote causes.
Time: There are generally between 3 to 30 minutes.
Narrative: There are generally quick to the point because of the time constraint.
Super Size Me is an American
documentary which is directed by Morgan Spurlock. He himself stars in the
documentary. The documentary follows Spurlock as he starts on a ‘McDonalds diet’.
It shows how the diet affects his physical and mental health. He also discovers
the power which McDonalds around the glove. Spurlock decided to make the
documentary as America has the highest increase of obesity it the world,
something which many pen as an ‘epidemic’. Another reason for his inspiration
to make the documentary was the law suit two overweight girls had against McDonald’s,
they blamed the fast food chain for their obesity due to eating their food. Like many self made documentaries, Super Size Me
had a low budget, it is said the budget was about $65,000. The low budget is
obvious with the fact shots are shaky and Spurlock is either filming himself or
has a friend filming him. Despite its low budget the documentary film was a
success at the box office as it profited $30,000,00, far more than expected.
The success of the documentary has earned itself a place amongst other documentaries
being one of the most successful documentaries of all time. It was also
nominated and winner of several awards. Something which Spurlock hadn't anticipated. Although the flm was well recieved by the public it had critics split, some praised it while others didn't.
The documentary follows many of the conventions of a documentary.
An example of a convention it uses is archive footage. In the shot above Spurlock uses a clip of children singing a song about fastfood, the clip focuses on the obese children in the group.
It also uses quotes, the one here being from the founder of McDoanlds.
The documentary also uses a voice over, Spurlock opts to voice over his own doumentary ipposed to somneone else doing the voice over.
It also includes facts and figures, such as the one above which is used within the first two minutes of the documentary to show just how bad obesity rates in America are.
Throughtout the documentary he uses many of the codes and conventions to effectively portray his message to the audience
The documentary has also sparked many other self made docummentaries about the fast food change, a notably one found on youtube is called 'Micky D's and me'.
Documentaries have many different codes and conventions. With each documentary different conventions are used by the director to achieve desired effects depending on what they are trying to inform their audience about.
The main conventions of a documentary are as followed;
A music video is a short film which is complied with a music track. It's main purpose is to promote and sometimes used to be artistic. There are many different codes and conventions in music videos, some are technical and some are symbolic.
The styles of music videos can be split into three main types. Although these types often blend into each other.
These are:
Abstract: This is a piece which is random and doesn't tell a story, an example of an abstract music video is Can't Stop by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Performance: This is a piece which generally has the artist performing the track or dancing. An example of this is Single Ladies by Beyonce.
Narrative: This is a piece which depicts a story in the music video. An example of this is A Team by Ed Sheeran.
The demand for music videos came from several different factors. The main one was simple and still remains the same even today and that is promotion. In fact the first music videos were called Promos.
Artists wanted more forms of promotion besides having their tracks on the radio and in shops.
It was the Beatles who can be accredited for creating this new form of promotion. They decided to make music videos to accompany their tracks so they could tour their music videos opposed to actually touring, this was so they could have a break from thousands of screaming girls and foucs on the music they were producing in the studio as they became more serious about their music. The first music video they made was for their track called 'Strawberry Fields'. This was the first proper music video the world had seen, the video was extremely abstract, some people argue it seems so abstract because they didn't know what to do for the music video. But you can't blame them as it was the first music video ever.
The A Team is a song by folk artist Ed Sheeran. The single was released in the UK on June 12 2011 and served as the lead single from his studio album '+'. The single was a success and debuted at number 3 in the UK top 40.
The song was written by the artist himself following a last minute performance at an event for the homeless, the song and music video tell the story of a heroin addicted prostitute.
The music video itself follows the narrative of the song. It follows a very naturalistic display of the story. The video is filmed completely in black and white which is a rarity among music videos, although some artists have opted to use this effect such as Jay-Z with his single 99 Problems. The black and white effect gives the video more of an artistic approach.
The director of this video has used a variety of different shots including lots of close ups. The camera work is mostly hand held, to me this gives the idea that the video is done from the point of view that someone is watching the young prostitute.
The target audience for this music video would be fans of Ed Sheeran and the younger population under the age group 16 to 24. The place where the video gained most of its view from is from the website 'youtube' as of 10/10/11 it had received over 12 million views. Another place which the music video will have had airplay is on the various UK music channels.
Katy Perry - The One That Got Away
Directed By - Floria Sigsimondi
The video
was released on November 11, 2011 to accompany the single. In the UK Singles chart it only made it to number 18 although it performed better in the US pop singles chart as it reached number 1. The single is one of 5 which have contributed to a number of records to do with number 1 singles from one album. The director is Floria Sigsimondi, the same director who was used to shoot Katy Perry's previous video E.T.
This music video is mainly in a narrative although there are a few shots which use performance. The shots of performance mainly include a young and old Katy Perry singing together and taking it in turns to sing.
The video begins with Katy Perry as an old woman living
in a modernistic home with her husband. It is implied that the two are now in a loveless marriage as Katy makes herself a cup of
coffee and goes up to her bedroom. Once in her bedroom she begins to to think about the past. As the older Katy Perry sits on her bed, there is a
cut back to a shot of young Katy Perry with her boyfriend, (different to the man depicted as her husband), he appears to be an artist. As the song plays, Katy and her
boyfriend paint portraits of each other, dress up, and dance at a party. The boyfriend also gives her a small tattoo (one which is seen earlier). The scene of the young couple are mixed with shots of an older Katy as she sadly reminiscing as she continues sits on her bed alone. In the
flashback, the younger Katy and her boyfriend get into an argument,
culminating in her splashing red paint on one of his elaborate paintings after
he did the same to one of hers. He leaves angrily and drives away. The younger Katy appears to the older Katy in her bedroom and sits next to her on the bed
as they both sing. The younger Katy is also shown in a closet, crying and
singing. The boyfriend is then seen driving, blowing off steam from the fight.
At the same time, the older Katy is shown driving out of her garage in the
same type of car the boyfriend is driving in the flashback. The boyfriend opens
the sun visor above him while driving and finds the veil of the dress the
younger Katy had worn while partying. As he stares at the veil, it is implied
that he decides to make up with Katy. However, while staring at the veil, he
does not notice that large boulders had fallen onto the road from a small rock
slide. He swerves to avoid the rocks and accidentally drives off a cliff, dying
in the subsequent crash without getting a chance to make up with Katy. The
song ends abruptly as the sounds of the car violently rolling are heard (the
actual crash occurs off-screen and is simply implied.) The older Katy is then revealed to have
driven to the spot where her past lover had died, while Johnny Cash's cover of You Are My Sunshine
plays quietly in the background. She walks up to the edge of the cliff and
leans against a fence until her boyfriend's ghost, wearing Katy's clothes,
appears before her on the other side of the fence. The two hold hands,
revealing matching tattoos on their hands. Older Katy then comes back to
reality, and the Johnny Cash stops suddenly and the ghost of the boyfriend disappears. Katy then turns back and walks away from the cliff as the screen fades to
black.
The first shot is a long shot which shows the futuristic house which Katy now lives in, it also gives the audience a presumed idea of what year it may possibly be.
This shot is a medium shot, it shows an older Katy Perry which confirms to the audience that the timing of this part of the video is from the future. The shot shows an unhappy Katy who is stuck in her loveless marriage, note that this shot is just before the music starts. It then moves onto a medium close up which further shows her unhappiness.
Special effects are used in the music video to produce a shot which features both the old and young version of Katy Perry, a split screen effect is used here as both of the people featured in the shot are played by Katy Perry.
With some of the shots of a young Katy Perry and her boyfriend a handicam is clearly used, this gives it more of nostalgic feel as if the older Katy is really looking back at these memories.
The editing pace is average and the speed goes with the beat of the song. Jump cuts are used when going from the past to the present/future, these are used effectively to show the older Katy Perry is coming back to reality.
Generally the music video was well received by critics and the public, to date it has reached 102,171,012 hits on youtube. It has also since been made into a Sims 3 music video to accompany a new release of the game.
