Storyboard Final draft

My final draft of my music video is a storyboard I have created this so I can have a visual layout of what my finished music video will look like but on paper. This should help me when filming as I will have every shot I need to film to get the right footage to make my music video successful and professional. Creating this should also allow me to start thinking about things such as mise en scene and costumes as I will have to fit these around where my locations are which are stated on the storyboard.

Shots 1-8
My ideas have expanded since my first draft as I have added more bits of the song onto the storyboard to make it the full length of the video and what I need to film so I potentially will not have any gaps when it comes to filming, which will be done on FinalCutPro. I added each shot onto the storyboard again so when it comes to filming I have a basic checklist in front of me guiding me through what I need to film and at what points I need to film certain bits in and in what location. I marked some less obvious location shots on there for example when it is going to have a scene at the beach I labelled the shot 'fstowe' and when it is a dance routine it is labelled 'ds' for dance studio. This is a quick way for me to visualise what shots need to be taken in which locations.

I changed some ideas from the first draft. One of the ideas I changed is in the first verse. Previously I had set out for my artist to walk away from her ex boyfriend walking towards the camera to show her leaving him and the relationship behind. This was for the line of the song 'I cant pretend anymore'. In my final draft I have changed it to a mid shot of her face where the top half of her body is showing but the emphasis will be on her face which will be black with make-up stains from crying about her break up. I thought having this at the start of the video will show how weak she was at the start of the video and will put emphasis on
how strong she becomes by the end of it.

Shots 9-16

Research has helped me immensely throughout this process as I got some great feedback from people of my target audience 13-25 which came back showing they liked performance clips the best. I think secondary qualitative research is great in getting a straight forward answer for what you want for example myself getting the straightforward answer to what music videos my target audience prefer out of a choice which I gave them. I am creating a performance clip therefore I have followed theorists ideas into music videos, for this I used Sven Carlson's idea of performance clips which states the artist is seen in a varied amount of settings stating the performance clip can either be song, dance or instrumental. Naturally my own video will be a dance performance clip as it will be easiest to make with the limited equipment I have and will look better for the type of song I have chose e.g. the beat of the song will enable me to come up with some dance moves which will work well with the beat of the song.

Shots 17-24

Another theorist I found when researching Andrew Goodwin stated there is a connection between lyrics and visuals in music videos therefore I have designed my music video to now contain the smashing of a ceramic heart sculpture to symbolise a shattering heart when the line in the song sings 'never by the hands of a broken heart. I have also added the same thing with a heart shaped cushion with the idea that when this line comes back on later in the song the artist will rip the heart in two to symobolise the same thing.

Shots 25-32
















Bottom left: Shots 33-40
Bottom right: Shots 41-48

Music Video - First Draft

For the first draft for my music video I printed off the lyrics to the song I chose to do a music video to ( Ariana Grande - Break Free ). After cutting and sticking the lyrics into chunks onto an A3 piece of paper I went through each line of the song coming up with different things I could create in my music video which would suit and adapt to the lyrics.

Breaking Free from bad relationship is the main narrative behind my music video. The singer will be shown through a series of shots and locations going through the break up with her man, walking out and feeling although she's won and finally shots will be shown of her when she was happy back before things started to go wrong for her.

There will be some visual connotations of the singer in my video breaking free such as running through some woods to get away from her man and her demons inside her head about the relationship. Also in the first half of the song walking out leaving him tied to the chair will be another way to express her breaking free from the man she is with.

As my video will be a performance clip I have chosen to add some choreographed dance scenes into the clip which will be useful when trying to show the artist off to her full potential to audiences which will be something both the artist and record companies would plan on doing.
Throughout the song the chorus's are sung twice each time they come round, the second time they are sung they are more upbeat so each time having a dance routine added to the second half of the chorus will be something that will attract and impress the audience as it will fit in with the beat and genre of the song. I have chosen to add a choreographed dance routine to both parts of the final chorus as the whole end chorus is up beat and exciting therefore this will fit perfectly - this may be something I change through more planning but for now I think it will be something I pursue when making my video.

I have added a few camera angles next to the lyrics for example when the artist is looking up at the camera I will use a high angle shot to get the full effect of her sadness on camera (this is when she has been crying and her eyes are black from run mascara) also I have made a rough note that I want to incorporate a long shot into my work where the artist is looking although she now has the power over the man. This will be emphasise her power and to show shes not afraid of who she is by her full body being shown is a single shot.

I already know I will be using Final Shop Pro to edit my work so I have added a few things to my first draft which I can add in when it comes to the editing process. Having the imagination bubble appear on the screen with the man she is thinking of inside it is a good example of how I will use Final Shop Pro to my best advantage.

I enjoyed creating my first draft for my music video as I feel it has build some foundations for me to move off from and further my production. Through making this it has made me think about locations, mise en scene and people I want to be in my video. I now need to think about what people I can source to be in my video who would play the part of each actor/actress well.
Props are another thing I have given some thought about as I need to source some to make some of my scenes the best they can possibly be. For example when the artist rips the heart in half to symbolise her own heartbreak I am going to need something like a heart cushion to do this with therefore some research into probs is vital for getting this right.

Apart from that my next thing is to look at camera angles, I will need to sketch up a storyboard for each shot and think about what camera angles I need to use to create an effective piece of work, That will be something I will put up on my next post to further my production for my music video.

Final Decision For Music Video Song

The song that I am going to use is Break Free by Ariana Grande ft. Zedd. Although this song already has a very unique video I believe by changing the theme of the video I will be able to create something which can be different but still effective. 'Break Free' can be seen in many different lights and for my music video I am going to use the conventions of a break up to show my artist breaking free from a relationship.this will help me to find the right narrative for my music video as I will have a lot of leeway when it comes to planning. With this I can also explore a number of my target audiences preferences like using both male and female performers which will be one of many things I will be able to add into the music video which I will be able to come up with throughout the drafting and planning process.

This song is very popular right now as is the artist which is why I choose to create a music video to this song as it will be something many people will be interested in watching once it has been created. Not only this but the tune to the song is very upbeat and people will immediately be interested in the song the minute they hear it as it is something very unique to the music industry recently with Ariana only recently becoming big.

Audience Feedback:

To get the best out of my research and planning I designed a survey to find out what my target audience which are teenagers - young adults like to see in a music video for example what sex they prefer to see in a music video and some individual questions such as what sex they are and how often they watch music videos. These were a few questions which I included in my survey to get the best responses out of my target audience which would help me to create my own music video. After creating my survey I sent the link via the school email asking people to do my survey which resulted in me receiving 90 responses which will all be helpful in the planning of my music video.

This blog post will look at the responses I got from the questions I asked in my survey and will be analysed to see how I can incorporate peoples responses into my own work.

Question number 1: 

I thought asking this question would give me a true insight into what gender was answering my survey. This would then show me what gender is answering certain questions, eventually this would amount to me analysing and incorporating the likes and dislikes of each gender and incorporating them both into my music video so it reaches its max potential to meet target audience needs.

Overall more females answered my questions than males. I cannot see that this will be a problem when it comes to analysing my data as it was only by a small percentage of more woman than men that answered (57%woman and 43%men). Therefore having a nearly equal response from both sexes it will show both sexes ideas and what they like to see in this certain topic. This will help me immensely when analysing my responses as I will be able to see what both genders like and therefore go on to incorporate these preferences into my end product. 



Question number 2:

 Secondly I asked my target audience of teenagers/young adults what their favourite music video was. Out of the three asked it was shown that stage performance and aspiration video were the most favored music video types out of the three which surprised me as I thought a specialised dance routine music video would be more popular than a stage performance video, This has given me a good pointer as to what type of music video I should make when it comes to my final product as I will either make my video a stage performance or aspiration video.

Question number 3:

I asked this question so I could gain an understanding of how popular music videos are and how often people watch them. I also asked this so I could eliminate any responses of people who answered 'never' in the ( please specify ) section under 'other'. The majority of responses answered more than once a day and once a week or more therefore it shows that music videos are very popular and need to be made exclusively well to get the views they need to succeed. Responses I received in the 'other' category were comments such as once a month, every two weeks, when an artist I like releases a new one, not regularly and occasionally. From these responses I can see that these people are not to bothered about music videos therefore I believe to get the best out of this research I should eliminate their responses and only take into account those of people who watch them more regularly as they are likely to have more knowledge on the topic.

Question number 4:

I asked this for my fourth question as I wanted to see what people liked to see most in a music video. Like I predicted 'The artist or band' came out with the highest response which is good for me as I am intending on using a pop song for my music video therefore shots of the artist or band I end up using will be essential when creating my video as it will not only fit in with my target audiences preferences but will support pop video conventions as shots of the artist/band will be mandatory throughout.

Question number 5:

After narrowing down some song choices which I could make a music video to I came up with these three. 1) Iggy Azalea - Fancy 2) Jason Derulo - What if; and 3) Ariana Grande - Break Free. My target audience responded with Fancy by Iggy Azalea being their favourite music video which shows me that the conventions used in this video are ones my target audience like to see the most. Ariana Grande - Break Free came least favourtie video out of the three which leads me to believe creating a music video for 'break free' will be the best option out of these three as it is my target audiences least favourite therefore I can improve and add some more techniques my target audience like to see in a music video.

Question number 6: 

  

This question was asked to give me solid information on which sex my target audience of teenagers/young adults preferred to see in a music video. Over two thirds of my target audience responded to the question stating that there preference was to see mixed sexes preform in a music video whereas one third answered only male and only female with female only performances coming in second and male only coming last with only ten people out of ninety preferring to see male only performances. This information has given me the information I need to meet my target audiences needs therefore when creating my final piece of work I will ensure performances are preformed by both female and male acts.

Overall my target audience feedback has been very helpful in getting me the information I need to create a successful music video which will meet the needs of my target audience as it was them who gave me the information I need to do so. therefore I hope my end product will interest and excite my target audience as it will be something they enjoy watching.

Sven Carlsson

Narrative clip - The narrative clip is a music video which can be viewed as a short silent story with a musical theme attached to it. This is easy to follow and contains the visual story of what the songs message is trying to get across. A pure narrative clip is exactly the same thing but contains not one piece of lip-syncing.

Art clip - If a music video contains no perceptible visual narratives and contains no lip-synchronised singing then it is a pure art clip. The main difference between generalised music videos and art clip music videos is the music as the art clip will use more modern, experimental music such as electro-acoustic music. (for example experimenting sounds with guitars and other musical instruments whether they be electronic or not).

Televised bard - Is where he or she is a modern bard singing banal lyrics using television or medium. He/she is a singer storyteller which uses actual pictures and not inner personal images, sometimes the televised bard acts as the story and inserted images help to tell the story. The greatest televised bards create audio visual poetry which transform the banal story of the lyrics employing on screen images to create a story about life or death. however to often televised bards contemplate his or her's own greatness and unfulfilled wishes.

Commercial Exhibitionist -  When the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materialisation. Monger of their own body image selling voice, face, lifestyle, records to be in the spotlight. They want success and try to evoke charisma of stardom and sexuality.

Electronic Shaman - sometimes the shaman is invisible and it is only his or her voice and rhythm that anchor. He or she often shifts between multiple shapes it can animate dead objects or have 2 dimensional alter egos as in cartoon comics. the electronic shaman is a guide through a spiritual journey through blipping images and magical attributes.The electronic shaman's voice and rhythm form the life-line that connects images and sounds creating new experiences and associations for those involved in the conscious-streaming journey outside time and space.

Standard Clip - is a music video which contains more or less these three visual traditions. a filmed singer is blended with inserted images and the presentation is artistically influenced by the experimental film tradition. The video exposes the vocalist and the shots and the editing contain a passable portion which emphases strange artistic features. There is some kind of narrative inserted which highlights the failure and dreams of the singer or the ones they want to portray in the video. The concept of the standard clip is dynamic and has many variations.There might be a singer alter ego for instance a cartoon character  

Performance Clip - Is a video which shows the vocalist(s) in more than one setting. There can be three types of performance, song; dance and instrumental.

Conceptual Clip - Is when the clip shows something else during its duration often showing artistic ambitions.

Research and planning -

As I have chosen to create a music video for my A2 coursework I thought I should do some research into theories and other conventions which work to make a successful music video.

The Andrew Goodwin's Six Features Of A Music Video theory.

He discovered different conventions are used in music videos to demonstrate genre characteristics, he discovered that for heavy metal videos it will be a stage performance, for a boy band or girl band it will be a dance routine and aspiration in Hip Hop videos which will most likely feature the singer(s).

Heavy metal bands generally have stage performances in their music videos.

The Six Features:

 

1: Which is the above that music videos will demonstrate genre characteristics by certain genres following different conventions.( Heavy metal bands featuring on a stage performance in their music video, boy band or girl carrying out a dance routine and aspiration in Hip Hop videos). This can be done either through illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.

 

2: The lyrics and visuals in the music video will link together. There will be a relationship between the two which will cause the lyrics to be represented by the images.

 

3: There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. Again either through illustrative, amplifying or contradicing.

 

4: The demands of the record label will include the need for loads of close ups of the artisits. in many cases the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work in a visual style. This means a reacurring pattern of images produced by the artist.

5: There is frequently reference to the notion of looking. This was origionally done to show of the female body but in recent years has also been done for males for the same effect. This is seen as a kind of voyeuristic treatment to the body. It is regually done through showing the artist in a mirror, screens within screens or having them on stages.

6: There are often references to films, TV programmes or other music videos. For example in some music videos there will be clips from a previous music video from the artist to either remind people of that song or to reference the context of it into their films. Artists such as Hillary Duff who is in many films will have refernces of films in there music video's for example the song 'Anywhere But Here'.

In the Album 'The new Classic' by IGGY AZALEA the images are carried through from her album cover to her music video's. Simular themes and looks are featured on the CD cover and also in the music videos. An example for this is the links which can be seen between the album cover for 'The New Classic' and the music video for a song from the album 'walk the line'. 

  

 

The links between the two create links. Lighting techniques and clothing create this which can be seen from watching the music video 'walk the line' above.

Tweet me from following the link below to let me know what you like to see in a music video whether that be stage preformances, dance routines or aspirations (which can include anything from the way the artists looks or the story of aspiration which is being shown).

https://twitter.com/alexmiltonnn/

Digipaks - A Small Prezzi Presentation on Digipaks

Follow the link below to open the Prezzi -

http://prezi.com/nuxo_soxxmef/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Screenshot of the Prezzi:

Linking texts together -

Linking texts is done to market a film or other piece of media. In this case I am looking at the way the film Alice in wonderland has linked texts together to market their film. The producers of the film used posters and a short trailer to help market their film these were chosen to accomodate the audience who they would be targeting.

A marketing text will be used to attract an audience and will contain key features to do so. these will contain things such as the plot, themes, star vehicles and the genre. In the trailer the mood will be reinforced though main parts of the film being shown this will then be carried out and reinforced on the poster through colours and certain images to show this.

In the trailer the main locations are shown which are the 'normal world' before Alice falls down the tree, the hole she falls down and the parallel universe she ends up in. It also includes the main star vehicles such as the madhatter, the white rabbit, the red queen and Alice herself. The mise en scene and the star vehicles bring excitment to the trailer and set the mood and bring tense to the audiences watching it encouraging them to find out more and go to watch the film.

i have chosen two of the film posters which were made to promote the film both of these have main features of colours, star vehicles and themes which were presented into the posters to bring the same feel from the trailer to the poster. In one of the posters the red queen appears with a bruight red background behind her to carry over the thoughts people had about her after watching the trailer. With pale skin and bright red hair on a bright red background it shows she is the evil 'Red Queen'. In the other poster it shows the mad hatter (Jonny Depp) the main star vehicle of the film. Having him alone on the film poster will be enough for jonny depp fans to come and watch the film but the bright green back ground he is placed on gives a feeling on the unknown and links to the unatural world Alice ends up in.

All the colours encorporated from the trailer into the posters have been done for effect as the bring colours bring excitement making the posters more vibrant and successful. The same typeography has been used in the posters as the trailer to make a link between the two texts which will give consistancy to audiences to recognise the link between all marketing for Alice in Wonderland.

Music videos have been created for many years now and is seen as the norm that when a new single is released by an artist how ever big or small they may be a music video is created. Music videos first started to be made around 30+ years ago they became more and more popular when satellite TV channels were launched such as MTV (music television) being the main music channel provider launched in 1981 and VH1 launched just like MTV. The main purpose of creating music videos is to sell the single, if they make a music video to go with the single it is potentially free marketing once the budget has been paid off by consumers of the single or album.Without a music video these days would make it very difficult for a single to sell as they would not be able be broadcast of music channels therefore advertising and marketing would have to come from live events on TV such as appearances on day time TV shows or shows such as star appearances on The X Factor, radio would also be the other way to market the single. Without the music video to go with the song it wouldn't be able to be played on music channels at all and would not be able to be shown in program's aired on the channels such as the UK top 40.

Music videos are watched not just by people wanting to listen to the song with some visuals but by people who want to see their favorite artists preforming in a video. This is why so many conventions go in to impress the audiences of these music video watches, in the past artists have behaved rebelliously in their music videos to attract the right audience have appeared in designer clothes driving nice cars and looking 'cool' so to say. This is all done for audience attraction and is carefully placed in a music video to attract the right kind of person. The sex appeal in music videos has been running for many years now and has featured woman wearing next to nothing dancing round in a sexual nature. This was first introduced in the late 70's to early 80's and has carried on throughout time and has got even more popular to this day with more and more artists containing a a lot of sex appeal in there music videos. This is all for audience satisfaction and is seen as a big selling point for a single and is why a lot of people like to view the music video in the first place.

Madonna - Material girl was released in 1984 and contains mild sexual references in the way she composes her self in the pink dress being carried around by men and dancing in a mild sexual nature.

As years have passed on the sexual nature of our music videos has got stronger and is a big reason why people watch the music video whether that be because they idolise the artist in what they are doing or because they just like to watch it. In Rhianna's music video for S&M you can see how much has changed when it comes to sex appeal in music videos and within the music industry.

Even artists such as Katie Perry who is seen as a big idol and innocent American girl poses in extremely sexual way in her video for I kissed a girl.

Music videos cost a lot of money to make so a big budget is needed to accommodate the big sum of money needed to create these successful music videos which will stay and be associated with the single forever.

For bigger artists such as Britiny Spears an average music video will cost around $500,000 to produce. This was the figure I found for her song 'you want a piece of me' which was popular back in late December 2007/early 2008. Other artists such as Kayne West with his song 'stronger' budgeted at a massive $1,200,000 to produce which is a lot of money for one music video which is designed purely to market and get money for the single by audiences buying it singularly or in the album.

It costs so much to create these music videos due to the high end equipment used. Camera's costing thousands of pounds and high level editing needs to be done. Produces may have to pay local councils to shut a road off to be able to film successfully with no traffic e.g. if it is in a city or a set may need to be created to make it look like the artists are in the place they are suppose to be posing in e.g. New York. High end producers and directors and other staff will all be high end and expensive due to their high end knowledge they have to be able to create the successful music video the audiences are expecting from the artist.

From this research I can see that the better quality the music video the better the sales of the single or album. Overall the more money spent the better the single will do which is why only a few artists get to be household names not only because of their singing but because of the quality of their music videos to get people to buy their music in the first place. It is like a fight to the top which is why there is only a small amount of artists or bands which are households names and have been for generations. Some of these names are artists like Madonna, Beyonce, Rhianna and Coldplay.

This year I am carrying on with A level media. As part of this course there is an amount of coursework to complete. Set by the exam board are some briefs in which you get to choose one to create as your coursework. Out of the 15 briefs we were shown I finally choose to make a music video. I've always been interested in music and the different types produced, I also enjoy the music videos that come with the song as I think they tell the story of the song especially if the lyrics are not always that clear. I like the idea of creating a music video and have loads of conventions I know need to be incorporated into one to make it successful. This is not only from research but from what I have seen before. After searching on YouTube for examples of music videos that have been made by people doing this course it amazed me what people can do with limited equipment and editing software to make a real successful looking music video.

This is an example of a music video i saw which had been created as part of this coursework, I liked this one as it shows throughout that you don't need high tech quality cameras and editing software to create a good looking music video. This video shows that you just need to be skillful with your camera angles and mise en scene which they have just done through changing light colours onto a background which they are dancing in front of. The use of good camera angles and lighting along with the high level editing make this music video look professional. I hope when I reach my final product it can match something as simple and effective as the one shown above.

1) In the first shot above it shows a dance routine which should be incorporated into a music video if it is a boy/girl band. This is following the Andrew Goodwin theory that boy/girl bands will have a specialised dance routine in their music video.

2) The second shot shows effective editing using limited resources which shows it is possible to do professional looking editing using basic editing program in this case the use of split screens moving across the screen to give the illusion of time moving on.

3) The first shot exposes close up shots which change to something different whenever the beat of the music changes. Various close up's are shown as the fast beat is played, the close up shots last for the first 5 seconds of the song and give a professional look due to exact matching of when the beat changes the picture does to.

Analysis Of Music Video

Analysis Of Music Video

Beyonce - xo

I have decided to analyse the Beyonce 'xo' video as I like the song and think the music video has been created carefully to cater for the needs of the wide audience Beyonce appeals to, I also like the simplistic style the music video has of Beyonce at a fun fair which herself and the film crew allegedly turned up to without any notice to film the music video.

This music video isn't to unusual for Beyonce fans as the majority of her music videos relate to real life things that go on. For this one in-particular it is filmed at a fun fair and for example pretty hurts by Beyonce is filmed to look like shes in a beauty contest.

Andrew Goodwin's features of the music video theory is shown in this music video in a number of ways. The first point in his theory I noticed was the use of a variety of shots of Beyonce in the music video (close and long/mid shots) this is clearly the demands of the record label ensuring the music video is full of shots mostly close ups of the highly famous Beyonce to ensure the music video is a big hit which if it contains many shots of Beyonce it will due to her being a big selling point of her music.

Another point highlighted from the Andrew Goodwin's theory was the notion of looking, throughout the video things occur like Beyonce on a dance machine you get in most arcades and sitting in a Ferris wheel with close ups of her in there/dancing on the dance machine. This fits into the notion of looking point in the theory as it is things that will enhance the audience to look more carefully at notice the main artist more, these two things work like stages as they make Beyonce look more defined than if she was just to walk around singing.

Finally the last point I picked up on from the Andrew Goodwin's theory was the point about intertextual reference. The part in the music video I noticed this was when Beyonce is on the rollercoaster wearing a snapback with a picture of her husband jay-z on it. this is an intertexual reference due to the fact its connecting to her life outside the music video whilst at the same time helping to promote his music. 

Beyonce flicks in between lip syncing with the lyrics to not lip syncing at all, in scenes such as when she is on the rollercoaster she is not seen lip syncing but screaming as the roller coaster fly's down the track which us the viewers cannot see as the song is played over the top of it in the editing stage, when Beyonce is seen singing she seems to have a dance routine carried out alongside other dancers, another example is when she repeatedly sings xo towards the end of the song where there is a close up of her in pink bunny ears lip syncing doing xo signs with her hands which is shown in the picture below. 

There are no reference to musical instruments in the video, this is because Beyonce is a solo singer and isn't in a band therefore no attention to instruments need to be highlighted even though all instrument sounds are probably put together in an editing program.

I think the producers for this video wanted to portray Beyonce as a normal human being as in recent years she has been seen as someone to worship instead of a pop icon, I think this video brings back the reality that Beyonce is just a normal person that enjoys the same fun that others do. The song fits in with the lyrics in places but this is not true throughout, there are some scenes of couples kissing which links in with the lyrics but this is about it for the lyrics fitting the visuals due to the fact the video wants to stay focused on Beyonce following the Andrew Goodwin theory that the record label want endless close ups of the singer to sell the video/song. 

Looking through from sources made by a person called Steven E Carlsson the music video xo by Beyonce seems to be a performance clip. I come to this assumption that this music video is a performance clip as it is mostly a filmed performance. This video is different to any other as it is shot at a fun fair, it still comes under the performance clip section due to it being filmed in a place of interest which is common to most people.

The video contains dance routines for example when Beyonce is lip syncing to the song we see her preform a dance routine which is a common feature to have in a music video that is a performance clip. Dance routines work well in Beyonce videos as she is famous for not only her singing but also the was she appears to be able to dance extremely well in the majority of her music videos if not all. This music video doesn't generally concentrate on much dancing therefore by adding some in will get the audience going and give them what they want to see by making the film more of a performance clip which is think works best for most pop artists videos like Beyonce. There are also references to concerts Beyonce is preforming in when a clip shows her dancing in front of a massive crowd whilst the crowd copy her dance moves with could also been seen to illustrate the power she can have over her fans.