Final Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvZKfyiew0


Overall i feel that our music video works well with our song choice and shows conventions of atypical music video by staring off with out a narrative and when we are shown the artist we begin to see the narrative and how they are involved in it.

45 seconds into the video we see the clear narrative of the guy cheating. The next shot is of me sitting on the gorund, i run my fingers through my hair and the next shot is of me doing the same but in a different position, this is subtle but works well in continiuty. Again, the edits are to the beat and they switch from different shots quickly, which makes you want to watch the music video agian to take it all in.

At 1:03 we see a shot of another artist singing and this shows that we are in the same position as each other. We have also experimented with shots as we see a mid shot of her singing and then a long shot of her looking into the distance which simply shows she is involved with the narrative. We put in another shot of the guy with the artist to show that the narrative is still continuing, it shows Lucy and Jacks relationship as well. The next shot is of me singing the next part of the song continuing on from Danielle, and the shot that follows this is of me and Jack which shows our relationship that we are all oblivious to what is going in the narrative but it's as if the artists are having flashbacks.

At 1:32 the chorus begins and the shots that follow are of the artists, there aren't any shots of them with the guy this shows the viewer that things are changing. The artists are singing to the camera which creates a connection withthem and their audience. Like they are telling them their story.

At 1:47 we see the band walk together showing unity, this is the first time we see them together even though we don't see their faces. At 1:52 we see Lucy spinning around a post which we have sped up to create a different effect, this is code for that things are changing in the narrative.

1:57 we see a series of short edits and it creates a good effect that is in-keeping with the iconic style of the video. Lucy and I look as if we are waiting for someone oblivious to the fact that it is the same guy we are waiting for. At 2:11 we see me sitting on Jacks lap singing to the camera whilst he is ignoring me and talking on the phone. The artist here is involved in the narrative and being the artist at exactly the same time, showing that she knows about his cheating.

We see an obvious shot at 2:21 when we are standing together facing the camera and the next shot is of Jack looking at the camera, this involves the audience as they are representing us on each shot.

At 2:23 we see Lucy and I talking, the audience may already know what is about to happen but we build up suspense as we show the progression of the conversation. At 2:28 we see a shot of the picture on the phone, now the narrative is in play again and we see my reactuion and how things are about to unfold.

A series of shots show the progression of the break ups, Lucy refuses to kiss him by turning her head away, Danielle and Jack loook unhappy in their shot and i take matters in to my own hands and confront him. We show this last shot in small frames to build up suspense and a small climax.

At 2:39 there is a shot of me singing to the camera with a slight smile showing that we have been triumphant. The following shots portray this too.

Our end shot is of the band walking together towards the camera and on the last music note opf the song we are seen wlaking out of the brightness together away from the camera showing our unity and that we are 'done' methaphorically and physically with the guy and in the music video.

V.V. Browns Image

V.V. Browns image is iconic with her hair style and outfits. We want to incorporate her style but still adding our own element. She is fashion forward and usually wears iconic pieces such as above (the hat) and bright clothing. I wanted to incorporate her style so i decided to wear a hat like the one above, it isn't my usual style but as we have based everything around her i thought i should. I also wear a bright scarf which is noticeable to the viewer as it is not the convention of music video but it was suiting to her style and the feel and genre of the music video.

Showcasing our video

Today we showcased our video to the rest of our media class. We received helpful feedback from our peers to help us improve our work. the feedback we received was as we expected and a little more, when we showcased our production we hadn't finished it completely, so the obvious main point expressed to us was to complete the production which was clear to us anyway. We was also told to improve the editing in certain parts of the film to make them more sharp.
When we created the story line we got so carried away with the concept of 3 girls dating the same girl we forgot about the ending, so originally we  didn't have a narrative arch. This meant we had to return to filming and capture some footage to create a narrative arch. This was not a problem because we had the room and the facilities to do so on the school field without having to go back to London.
The feedback we received overall was extremely helpful and we was able to go back and amend the problems that were mentioned.

Costumes...

Costume and star image plays an extremely important role in an artists success. The way they dress, perform, act and market themselves creates their success. The genre we was interested in was indie/alternative, because of this I decided to raid my wardrobe and the internet to gain inspiration. It wasn't to hard for me however to find outfits, I generally dress different from the social trends and tend to deviate myself from society in order to make a statement. I thought it would be a good idea to  think about my costumes, and the way and reason I like dressing how I do.

In this particular video the situation is 3 girls dating the same boy, it would be silly for us all to dress similar. So I thought if I was to dress slightly edgy and experiment it would help create my character, I will be deviating from the trends the other girls are following which will make me stand out. However this can be said about all of us....

Here are my costume choices...

My Outfits

I tried to keep my costume quite plain but having a few key items that were quite bold or bright, i dodn't want my costume to distract the viewer, i wanted my costume to add to the feel and style of the song and having a resembalance of V.V. Browns style.

My costume changed throughout due to the weather but i also wanted to change my outfits throughout the music video to keep the interest and make it look professional. I also changed my outfits to help the narrative of the story look realistic as i wanted it to look like it had happened over time not just a few days.

Reviewing our progress so far

Our progress has stemmed from the beginning as we begin to get to grips with 'Final Cut Express' and the HD camera we use. We took a while to get organised so after Christmas we began to realise that we were pushed for time and due to the snow our filming was delayed.

Once we had clear weather and the basic idea of how to edit and film we were straight to London and began filming. The problem we had was people in the group being ill and having to film without them but we still worked well as a group as those who wasn't present would be working on the footage we had already and editing that as well as blogging.

Extras, Organisation and props

As we set our location in London we had to be a bit more organised than other groups as we had to keep travelling up with the equipment. We had to be organised and have a clear picture in our minds of what narrative and shots we were following as instead of only one of us being the main artist we decided to be a girl band.

We didn't use props as we thought that this would distract the viewer from the action happening in the music video. We kept our costume as what we would wear when we go out, so the style was casual and we had different outfits on which we aimed at doing so the group could be represented as individuals with their own style but still a united 'quirky' group.

The shops we filmed by in London represented the Bohemian style of the group but still being part of the iconic city of London.

Planning of Filming shoot

We have decided to set our music video in central London, mainly the location of Bond Street. As we have visited there before and liked the architecture of the buildings and the boutiques in the lanes away from the hustle and bustle of London. 

As V.V. Brown is a British artist and in her previous music videos she has ben dressed in iconic British clothes such as what the guards wear outside Buckingham Palace and the flag also appears as a main image in the background.

We decided to make more of an effort to travel to London as we wanted the music video to look as professional as possible instead of taking the easy option and filming it in school. However, we did encounter some problems as not everyone was available on the dates we set due to illness and other reasons. We had to arrange the date for filming in advance as we had to make sure we was all free as our chosen location wasn't that local and we had to travel up to London with the equipment. 

We was also worried about the weather conditions, which as everyone knows Englands weather is unpredictable. 

Tuesday 18th January 2011

Today we travelled up to London, Me (Maddie), Jack and Danielle, unfortunately the weather wasn't great! So we had to wear quite wintery outfits. We found the perfect spot outside Bond Street station and began filming there. We played the song on the ipod out loud and sang along to it as we found out that helped the lip-sync be in time. 

We filmed each other in different locations to help show the story line and improve on the narrative of Jack who we wanted to show flirting and 'playing' all of us.

The day went well and we got a  lot of footage set in different parts of London.

Tuesday 8th February 2011

Today we are returning back to Bond Street to film more footage but unfortunately Danielle is ill so it is just Me (Maddie), Lucie and Jack. But today the weather is very sunny and bright which is great for filming but it will be hard for us to incorporate these shots in with the other ones but it could also work in our favour as it creates a more of a realistic music video as they weather changes and we have purposely wore different outfits to show that the narrative and Jacks 'cheating' has happened over a time period.

We went to a park set in the middle of London today and this worked really well with the Bohemian style of the music video. We continued to work on the narrative of the music video.

Tuesday 1st March 2011

We have set today to go up to London again but another person is missing so there is only three of us, Me (Maddie), Danielle, Lucie. We focused on individual shots as we needed to build up the representation of us being the sole singers but we wasn't able to film us singing together. 

We went to different areas of London to build up a variety of shots. I feel that we achieved our aim of focusing on using different types of shots.

Overall i feel that our filming went well as we chose a great location and it represents the song well. We overcame the issue of the weather changing for the days we went up to film as we have fixed this with our edits. Not being to able to film as a group did hinder our progress and the fact we set our location quite far away but we carried on and i believe it will pay off as we will result in having a modern realistic music video.

Photo's from the shoot...

Alongside our filming day's we thought it would be beneficial to capture some of our work in still images, by doing this we have given ourselves the ability to reference back to our work with the aid of another piece of equipment rather than simply relying on the moving images we filmed. These images also help us show our filming methods and how we worked together with the camera and the location to create our music video.

Here is a image that shows some of the equipment we used to ensure that our film was steady and consistent in distance from the camera and the performers. These are all things that make our shoot slightly more professional.


We ensured that we got footage from a range of different angles and heights to make the best video possible. WIth the knowledge we have of music videos we asa group are aware that the best video's incorporate a variety of angles, heights and view points into the project and in order to be a strong competitor we had to do the same.

Marketing Strategies Used for V.V. Brown

Even though V.V. Brown isn't in the current charts and haven't been in them for a while now she is still dominant in Britain and in America. She is still writing songs and is in America working on this. However V.V. Brown has been signed to M&S and has appeared on the adverts therefore is great publicity for her and her music.

CANUTE - The Bands Name

King Canute was the Danish King of England he is mostly known for his futile attempt to stop the tide from coming in. We chose him to be the band name as we felt that the word Canute is dominant and a strong word that we thought would be easier for people to remember and is different from other bands names such as 'The Wanted' and 'Girls Aloud'.

"Canute is famous for the tale of the incoming tide. According to legend, Canute’s courtiers flattered him into believing that his word was so powerful that even the tide would recede at his command. Canute is said to have taken this compliment literally and had his throne placed by the shore and vainly attempted to command the waves to recede until he almost drowned. An alternative version states that Canute was extremely wise and put on this practical demonstration to show his courtiers that he was not taken in by their flattery. The event is commemorated by a plaque at Bosham." (Ward's Book of Days)

Using this idea we were then able to come up with the album name, 'Playing With Tides' this works well with the band name as this is their first album we wanted to link the name and band together which shows that it is personal to them and that they have given it a lot of thought.

How did the shoot go?

We finally completed all of the shots that we needed to get in the city. The shoot itself I felt went well. The shots that we wanted were available to us in a variety of locations and we also managed to get more shots than we wanted simply because the locations gave us ideas for more shots that we though we could use.

We still have more shots to create for our video which we intend to create within a forest next week. This will be done whilst the editing of the current video footage is being edited. All of the members of the group used the equipment shown in the collage below. We experimented with many angles even though we did not involve them in the story board.

As a group we also found that the weather helps a lot. we managed to get a shot with a sun flare in, a shot that we wouldn't otherwise have been able to get if t had been overcast. (obviously)

pending more...

The day of the shoot

Today we will be shooting our video on location in london Bond Street.

We have booked the camera out all day from the school and i have decided to bring my photography camera to take pictures as evidence of our work. One member f the grip is sick however we have filmed and she has filmed some pieces for the video that we have done previously.
All tech i s fully charged and ready to go....

A report on how the shoot went will follow

Costume

For our shoot we will have to pick out a costume that will will use that will help represent the artist and the video to the audience.

For the video i have chosen the following clothes to wear:

Military jacket :   - Postmodern, jacked was used in the Beetles Album cover 'Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band'

Chinos :  - Smart and casual trousers, skinny leg very often worn buy artists and Celebrities whilst out and about. A straw belt that gives the costume a folk/indie vibe

Military stile Boots: - Again very casual, worn by anyone and appeals to anyone

Costume and Tech

We are using various pieces of technology on our shoot.

HD XACTI 8 mega Video Camera
SLR CANON photo camera
Tripod

Our group working on both our group and individual blogs

Our group has constantly been discussing what things we want to include in our video, and we are constantly researching material that will help use to create our final product.

Music video ideas

After analysing many music videos we have decided on an artist and a song. VV Brown is our chosen artist as her style is unique from her appearance to the style of music. After much deliberation we chose 'Shark In The Water' for our song as our record company is based around the indie style. VV Brown is an indie pop singer and the song suits our record label as it has a laid back style but is upbeat.

We have decided to film a narrative with our music video as it links in with the lyrics and also I feel it makes the video more appealing. We will construct this through camerawork, lighting and mise-en-scene. The lyrics also play a big role in constructing a music video narrative as they introduce the general feeling or mood, only key phrases or lines can be associated with the narrative of the video.

The singer will be the story teller and therefore uses first person mode of address which helps the music video stand out.

We plan to film our music video in London, Bond Street. We decided on this as VV Brown is a British artist and relies on this factor to promote herself in some of her videos.

This clip is from one of her music videos 'Game Over'. VV Brown is now well known in America and her unique style keeps her in the public eye and breaking boundaries, not only with her music but with her fashion. VV Brown and her eye-catching outfits have generated a new fashion and trend for others such as Lady Gaga to follow. 

Following her British theme we have decide to use some ideas from her other music videos such as 'Game Over' to portray the artists style in some way in our music video. As we have decided to set the music video in London we want to film some shots of us outside Buckingham Palace to incorporate her British influence.

VV Brown's 'Shark In The Water' music video follows a narrative as well as having unrelated shots. We liked the idea of her walking down the street singing as if she was in her own thoughts. However we have decided to change it a bit by having two female lead singers but they would still be included in the narrative. To achieve this we will use a range of close-ups from different angles but also a long shot to establish the setting.

Our idea of a narrative has stemmed from the strong meaning we have interpreted from the lyrics and with her music video portraying a story as well. We are keeping with the theme of the male being the 'cheat' and the singer knowing about it. Long distance and point of view shots will be important for filming this as these certain shots will help us achieve the effect that the viewer feels involved and that they are seeing something that shouldn't be happening. 

An over the shoulder shot helps the story evolve and develop as the viewer is able to see all what is happening. And unknowingly the reader sides with the singer in the narrative. 

I like this idea of the guy being behind railings as it looks like he is in prison which is a code for that he is in the wrong. It is also a close-up so we are able to clearly see his face and we are thinking of using this shot and idea in our music video as we are doing a narrative so it would tie in nicely.

There are many shots of musical instruments in VV Brown's music videos and in her 'Shark In The Water' we are shown a man playing the guitar and another musician with his drum sticks This is a code and a typical convention in music videos for the artist showing their love and passion for music.

This side shot of VV Brown singing is effective as the viewer is able to see the artist and the setting. She isn't looking at the camera which i think helps as its different from the other shots of her.

Story boards

From my previous blog of rough ideas about how I believe our music video will unfold I have created story boards for us to work from.
They show what types of shots we will be using, who will be singing and when and some of the narrative we plan of filming.

Planning

Today i decided to print off the song lyrics for our chosen song V.V. Brown's Shark in the Water.

I created a rough idea of how i believed our music video should unfold:

• Who would be singing when
• When do certain parts of the narrative need to be shown etc.

I thought this was needed as it would not work to just go out to film before planning, as no one would know when or what they would be doing.

Even though it probably will not go exactly to plan as after filming we may have better shots of say Mad singing where we thought Lucy would etc. you still need a rough base to work around. This is why we have chosen to have each person sing the entire song from all different angles rather than just the verses and chorus' we have chosen for each person therefore we will have plenty of different shots to use and switch between. We also plan to go up to London on more than one occasion as we do not expect to get everything filmed in one day, we do not want to rush this and end up with lots of messy shots we can't use.

We also know that things may not go to plan first time and we need to go up there again anyway.

The images above are a far more detailed version of the song lyrics at the top. It just states how I believe our music video will look and what should go where.

Conventions of our music video

Some of the conventions we plan on involving in our music video are:

• the artist singing 
• narrative behind the song
• montage of fast, quick edits
• high, low, wide angle shots, close ups
• realistic mise-en-scene and costume etc.

Our storyline...

Group: Danielle, Lucie, Maddie, Jack

Record Label: JMDL

Genre Choice: Indie

Artist Choice: VV Brown

Song Chosen: Shark in the water

Story Line...

Having listened to our chosen song numerous times we have gathered our ideas on the lyrics, the main theme and message of VV Browns version. We decided  that our story line will follow the relationship between a boy and his girlfriend, along with the females he has an affair with. This is very close to the story behind the original version. As this was a personal story from V.V Brown we decided to keep close to it. The song 'Shark in the Water' is a metaphorical record about anxiety and Brown's own experience in life.

Star Image

Ellie Goulding is a solo artist who grew up in a small town near Hereford, England. She has been writing her own songs since she was 14 and rose to fame after winning the Critics' Choice award at the 2010 BRIT Awards. She released her first extended play An Introduction to Ellie Goulding, followed by her debut full-length studio album, Lights, in 2010 and has recently signed with Polydor Records. 


Ellie reaches out to her audience via intimate gigs, updates via her own official website, facebook and twitter this allows her to have a more personal relationship with her fans which gains loyalty and encourages the build up of a bigger fan base. From her website fans are able to view her videos, news, gallery, tour dates and stores and she encourages her fan base to download current singles for free. Her singles and albums are also available to buy in stores and online such as HMV and amazon and are available to download on Itunes & Spotify. 

Official website: www.elliegoulding.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/elliegoulding
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elliegoulding
YouTube channel: elliegoulding
Twitter: www.twitter.com/elliegoulding

Music Video mood board

During our planning we thought it would be a good idea to watch several music videos within a similar genre as the song we have chosen to recreate. When we done this we decided to create a mood board gathering a selection of our favourite shots  and images that other artists have used.
When doing this we found that the majority of the artists within this genre adopt the convention of home videos as a major concept of the video, they also tend to stick to strict colour scheme of blacks, whites and greens with a lot of natural daylight.
By using hand held video cameras it personalizes the video creating a connection between the artist and the audience.

We have been influenced in our ideas hugely through watching these and have decided to adopt the convention of hand held cameras and 'natural' shots opposed to completely structured images throughout the video.  We feel this will be more enjoyable and just as effective as it is already well established within the genre we are interested in.

Overall by doing this mood board we have gained a wider knowledge of what is expected for a typical indie genre and have began thinking of how to portray this genre within our music video.

How we are communicating as a group

Communicating as a group can be very hard especially when some members of the group live quite large distances from the others, to overcome this we all exchanged phone numbers to make sure we could speak quickly and effectively if anything was urgent or just involving one other person. For things that involved the entire group we created a facebook message in which we could reply to and all see what the others were saying. We are using this for things that aren't so important or do not need sorting urgently.

Advertising

As we are making a music video for our recently signed band 'Canute', we need to think of ways of advertising to the public. We need to think of our target audience, who would buy their music, listen to it and watch their video. We believe the main target audience would be both males and females aged 16-21, very interested in fashion and music.
We would create t.v adverts advertising our debut album which would be played on music channels such as MTV, VH1, The Box, VIVA, 4music and Kiss etc. They would be played at certain times throughout the day, not so much early in the morning, but late at night from about 8pm onwards and also around lunchtime. This is because the majority of our audience would probably be students so would be around to hear the adverts at these times. We would also have them aired on the radio (similar stations as just mentioned) all throughout the day. I would create posters that could be shown in train station across London, stations such as Elephant and Castle, Oxford Circus, Camden Town, Shepherd's Bush etc and bus stops all across these areas and more as these are some of the places our audience would be interested in.
Our band would also have their own website, MySpace page and Facebook page etc where fans would be able to view their music videos for free, download tracks for free, view band photos, band blogs and talk to other fans via message boards and chats. Fans would also be able to sign up to the band's mailing list where they would receive information on tour dates, CD signings etc.
We will be allowing fans to download Canute's debute single 'Shark in the Water' for free directly from their website. This will encourage people to not only listen to their music and pass it onto friends but to also remember that Canute think of their fans. They are very important to the group and want to relate to them in every way they can.

History and Target Audience

As a company we would like our artists to reach out to a wide, mainstream audience. The genre of indie allows us as managers, and the artist to branch out. Indie, rock originating from the U.K and the States in the 1980s inspires and interests people of generations since then. Many see the genre with a specific artistic aesthetic and would have originally been produced by bands working alone, with independent record labels for example Oasis and Creation Records but throughout the noughties this has become far more relaxed and led to further distorted meaning of the term 'indie rock'. In other words there has been far more genre boundary crossing and hybridity.


We aim for our target audience to be teenagers between 16 years and 21 years, both male and female. They are more than likely students, with a very low income. They are fascinated by fashion and music, which causes which and combining the two. They will enjoy 'hanging' out with friends, shopping and going to places such as Shoreditch, Brick Lane and Soho. 


We intend to use current fashion, trends and images inspired by the 80s to represent the band, fashion is a major influence in how our band is perceived. With fashion bringing back styles from an era of experimentalists and the increasing importance of designer brands, we aim to encode this edgy, retro look within us. 

Preliminary Task

We decided to chose 'Reach For The Stars' for our prelim by S Club 7 which was released in 2000. The song is upbeat and fun which made it easier for us to practice our lip-syncing and editing skills. We filmed in school but ranged in settings and shots as we would be doing this for our real music video.

We filmed one minute as this was the required amount of time however we still experienced problems in editing as we hadn't used the programme before. However we picked the skills up quickly and was able to edit.

I feel we achieved our aims as we experimented with our camera angles and different positions. We also did well in the timings of the lip-sync which was a challenge as we hadn't done anything like this before but after a few attempts we improved.

PRELIM AIMS:

When we decided to create our music video we thought it would be a good idea to practice and gather all our knowledge into a small project to improve our ability to produce a moving image. When filming our real video we have to ensure we complete a video of high standards, in order to do this we have to identify what makes a good music video and what makes a bad video. We hope to have achieved the ability to do this by creating a prelim.
A main concept that needs to be practiced before we do any filming is lip syncing, in order to  have a piece of work that is of a high standard timing is crucial.  We done this by choosing a song and practicing random shots, long, mid and close up. doing this we enhance the professionalism of the video which will in turn improve our grades .
As well as ensuring timing in synchronised we have to make sure that edits fit within the tune and story of the video. We practised this throughout our prelim experimenting with different types of edits and as a group we feel strong enough in this area to produce a successful product