Inspiration

Elisha showed us this video a while back in lesson, but looking back over it, some of the camera techniques are really effective. The fact that it is in black and white really appeals to me and is something that we have looked at doing within our own music video.

 

Digipak Progress

I have made some progress with my digipak research as i have now decided that as oppose to the common 4 pannel ones, i will be making mine into a 6 paneled one. This gives me more space to be creative with my designs and will also enable me to stand out from other digipaks that are and have been produced. The following image is the basic net that i will be basing my ideas and designs on:

Further edting

After our filming trip on sunday, we have managed to gain a lot more footage that we needed for our video. We have therefore been able to do even more editing on our final piece, its coming along well, but very slowly, with around 35 seconds successfully edited.


We will be placing these two shots one after the other within our music video, most specifically when the tempo of the track increases and we are presented with sudden loud beat noises. The frames will be very quick, to create the effective that the girl is jumping from place to place without actually moving.

Second Draft of Music Video

The end of Filming...Again

Today, we are hoping, will be the last day we go out filming. We did originally think we had all our filming done two weeks ago, however complications arose and we are now going out again today. The weather looks perfect, with the sun out and not a cloud in the sky. We hope to be getting the river scene again today swell as a lot of the filming within the forest. As last time we ran out of light, we are going out earlier today, in precisely 20 minutes, so hopefully we will return with all the footage we need. Here are a couple snap shots from the filming we obtained:

  We, rather unplanned, gained quite a few shots with the sun creating a sort mysterious casting to our main character. I really like this particular shot as the audience are unable to see the girls face, which is a common theme throughout our entire video, with her face always being hidden, to give the video an overall undertone of mystery to it.

 Again this shot shows how effective lighting can be when filming outside, in natural scenes. I particularly love the glares in which the sun causes on the camera, creating perfect diagonal lines to revert our attention to different sections within the frame.

Opening

We have just filmed a quick vlog containing a bit of information about our current progress with our music video. We have talked about some changes we are going to have to make, extra filming we have to do, and certain aspects of our music video in general:

 

Audience Research

In our most recent lesson, we have been looking at why we need to conduct our own audience research fro our music videos. We each created our own mind-map of ideas as to why this is a crucial step when developing a music video within A2 media studies.

Digipak Mindmap

Over the christmas holiday we will be further working on our own, individual, digipaks for our bands. In preparation I have created a mini mind-map of ideas, which will be included on the final product designed.

Final Cut Express Editing

We have uploaded all of our footage into Final Cut Express and have begun editing the acquired footage and things seem to be going to plan. We have made several alterations from our original storyboarding plans, some of which are reducing the amount of locations we will be including, overall in our video, as well as this we have doubled up the frames in the first couple of seconds of our music video.







In doing this we have made our opening few frames more interesting, in that we have contrasting styles of editing, with slow long takes, split with speedy cuts.
We also have come to the conclusion that we will most probably be using the Final Cut Express software for editing our entire music video, as oppose to just using it for certain clips and transferring it into iMovie.

Last day of filming

We went on our last day of filming recently, we hope, and here are a few pictures of what we had to do in preparation on the day. Due to the fact that we are including a hinted modern day witch hunt within our video we decided that we should include our own witch craft symbol, as to not offend any religious groups. 

The symbol is placed subtly within our music video, on places such as trees and her body, to hint further to the fact that our protagonist is a witch. 

The overall result of the filming went well, however we didn't anticipate it to become as dark as did did as early as it did. So we ran out of light towards the end of the shoot. Hopefully we will have gained all the footage we needed however if we do need to go back out to film, then we can and will have to do so as soon as possible.

DigiPak examples

I have created a small prexi, giving more example of CD packs that i quite like and that fit into the genre/style of music that we are using for our music video.

Untitled Prezi on Prezi

Final Cut Express

We finally had a little "starting up" lesson in the technology that we hope to be using whilst editing our footage for our music video. The lesson proved very useful with us learning the basics, such as uploading footage and cutting it to the right size. We then moved on to the advanced techniques, using effects such as layering clips over each other and making them opaque. We also learnt how to alter the speed of the clips, the colour and the sound, to make our video look as professional as possible.

Alterations

We have decided that our music video is going to be a bit different to how we first planned it out to be. We have done a quick vlog to explain what the changes are going to be and why we have decided to make such changes.

 

Filming Round 2

We went filming recently, to shoot the scene in which we are first introduced to another character in the narrative. The filming went well and the weather was really good, we were very lucky with the lighting as the sun is placed in the right hand corner of the screen, giving the diagonal lines of sun rays across the shot.

Here is just a general shot we got, with a bit of landscape in the background, with a shot of the balcony in foreground. However we used depth of field to place the foreground out of focus, as we felt the background suited the feel to our music video more.

This was a quick spare of the moment shot, which I thought, the freedom of the birds, can reflect the girl within our music video, and how she is constantly running, attempting to be free.






The following two shots are just a small example of how we are going to show the contrasting split personality of our protagonist. The light blue jumper shows a happier self.

                                                                              

Where as the dark stripy jumper and the fact that, when zoomed out and we are able to see her full body, it looks as if she is only wearing the jumper, thus giving her that provocative look. This therefore juxtaposes the cute skirt and bright blue jumper look in the previous shot.

Here is yet another shot of the landscape around where we filmed, its peaceful and on this particular shot we have used no effects, and altered nothing. This just shows how lucky we were to have such good weather on the day.

Digipak research

Definition of Digipak:
Digipaks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipaks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipak that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.
There are several types of digipaks available, with a range of different number of panels in each. The usual type consists of 4 panels but this can quite easily become either 6 or even 8 panels per pack.

I have a couple examples of them at home, with a four panel and a 6 panel one. The 4 panel Coldplay - Viva la Vida digipak has several signifiers, the first and most obvious being the use of a foreign language in the title of their album. This signifies a cultural variety to the band, and the signified font gives the cover a messy yet artistic feel to it. The dark colours signify gloomy and difficult times, where as the splash of colour signified on the flag creates a juxtaposition of colours.

Another example i have is The Maccabees "Given To The Wild", which is a 6 panel case, larger than the previous digipak. The obvious signifier is the fire across the wild grass, this signifies a sense of wildness to the cover, thus tying in with the album's title of "Given To The Wild". There is also a mysterious object in the centre third of the cover, thus signifying an abstract side to the band, through the randomly placed, unknown object.

Originally a digipak is made of 300gsm card with either a glossy or matt finish. It can have a variety of colours, with different finishing effects such as spot varnish, lamination and embossing. Based on a standard four panel digipak, the dimensions are 139.5mm x 6mm x 125.5mm, and the number of panels within the pack can vary from 4, 6 or 8. This type of packaging is usually for mainstream or leading artists, however more recently it has been used for upcoming artists and alternative/indie styles of music. Which is why this sort of packaging is perfect for our band, as we are produce alternative/indie music. They are also priced at a reasonable rate and are an extremely versatile type of packaging and it can be made to accommodate a booklet of information if wanted by the artist.

Goffman's Theory

In advertising, Goffman's theory was that the portrayal of both men and women follow specific codes and conventions. Such include the following:

Superiority, Domination and Body Language- 
Men are shown in dominate positions and appear to be reflective of thought and intelligence, this is especially evident when focusing on there facial expressions. Women are physically portrayed in sexual or reclining poses with blank or inviting expressions on their face.
Dismemberment- 
On females, parts of the body such as legs, chest act, are used rather than the full body. This is often applied to sell products which are not related to the body, such examples include the advertisement of mobile phones.
The Voice-Over Authority-
In moving image advertisements, such as TV adverts or animated Billboards, male voices are used as voiceovers as oppose to female voice overs. This is mainly due to a sense of authority and power given off in the deep pitch of a males voice, which is uncommonly found with the female voice.

BFI Trip

We went on a trip specialised on our media course, run by the chief examiner. We gathered quite a lot of footage whilst we were out there and I'v edited together all the clips we gained, and created a little narrative of the day.

 

Band Brand

I have made a quick Prezi to show our progress on our band name, our digipak and the logo we will be using not only on the digipak but also within our music video.

Talk Big Thoughts on Prezi

Progress Vlog

I have filmed a quick vlog about the progress of filming so far and the problems we have come across up until now.


 

However here is a first draft of the opening of our video, we are quite happy with this draft opening, the cut of editing is sharp and consistent throughout. There is no sound to the following clip as the following is just a screen recording, however the song will be uploaded for our final version of the music video.

First day of filming

We have already started to film our first location for our music video. We started in the forest as this is the first location we use, apart from the warehouse which we still have not been able to find yet, in our music video. Therefore we thought logically and went in chronological order of filming. We did manage to do a quick vlog whilst filming, which can be viewed below.

Terminology in music videos

On watching the following music video by Lana Del Rey I noticed several signifiers within it, most of which denote wealth and patriotism.

 

 The main signifier I found within the music video was the obvious two tigers sitting next to the artist:

This causes a great contrast in that we have two very fierce and wild tigers, who have the connotations of fear and power, sitting besides a women dressed in white, which signifies purity and innocent. Therefore the director of this music video has placed these two signifiers within the same frame, specifically to create such a contrast of ideologies.

There is also this frame:

Which has the obvious signifier of an American flag, thus is signified with the meaning of patriotism for  the artists country. Within the frame, it could be said that the artist although topless, signifying her vunerablity, the fact that she is looking directly at the camera, causes her to come across as the powerful and dominant one of the two within the frame.

However within our music video we have placed, purposely, specific signifiers to denote a specific idea. We will firstly, be using a dark/dim/low key lighting in order to convey the other side to our protagonist within the video.
We also aim to use a blurring technique, which the girl is running, to act as a signifier of  her running away from her problems, and with the blurry focus we can also get across the idea of her uncertainty.

As well as these signifiers, we will also include the juxtaposition of the clothing worn by the protagonist. With contrasting clothing, such as a summer dress and dark long jumper, we will be able to create this split personality, clearly, as if it were too subtle the audience might not pick up the distinction we aim to make between the two personalities.
We also hope to cause further juxtaposition when filming fire and water, tow elements that can reflect the clash of personalities as well as proving to be good objects to film, allowing an effective finish to the video.
We will also be using a specific symbol within our video, to hint subtly to the idea of a modern day witch hunt. We were advised to not use an already known symbol because this might offend certain religions so we have therefore invented/created our own little symbol which we will be using in the backgrounds of certain shots.

Signifiers and Signified

We were looking at the different connotations and what specific symbols denote in music videos and how we can apply these to our own music videos. We looked specifically at the theorists Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes.

Saussure created he concept of signified and signifiers, with his statement:
"What does that sign say? It says nothing-It needs to be read"
He defines the two as:
Signified:                                                        Signifiers:
The meaning which                                        Physical form which
we attach to the                                               we can see or hear.
signifier.

Barthes added to Saussure's ideas, by naming the way that signifiers were organised and put together the "symbolic code" of the text. This key terminology is best used when analysing groups of signifiers.

These are key things that we are able to comment on within a music video:
Body Language
Gestures
Clothing
Lighting
Objects
Weather
Sounds
Setting

Final Cut Express

As we are doing all our editing on final cut, we need to get to grips with how the software works, as it is very different to what we are used to on iMovies. Elisha has already picked up a few things that have proved very useful, such as uploading footage and adding different effects to it. However there is still a lot more we can and must know, like for instance silencing a clip and importing music onto the footage we have edited. We will be having a sort crash course in how to use the software but not until the end of the month, so learning as much as we can before hand will come in much use.

Filming Schedule

We have created a little schedule in which we hope to stick to regarding filming for our music video; Filming Schedule

Progress Vlog

Here is a short vlog about our progress in planning to go out on location for the first time on this project:

Items on location

The follwing is a little list of the things that we are going to need to take with us when we go out filming. In creating this list we are more organised and don't have to rush around finding specific props we need on the day of filming:

Filming

As we have finished our story baording, which took longer than planned, we are now looking to start as soon as possible. Our first round of filimg should be this sunday, so that we can get back and do some editing when we come bcak after half term. We are hoping to do the sections within the forest, if the weather is okay, because we have quite a few shots filmed there. It will be a bit of a challege due to the costume and make up changes we are trying to include, but we do love a good challenge so we will just have to see how it goes.

Framing and Compostition

Our task this week was to look at the rule of thrids within framing and composition. I came across this really helpful website, explaining in detail how the rule of thirds work, how effective it can be and also its limitations. If you click on the below image it will take you directly to this website:




Here is also a short video clip i found on youtube, showing exactly how to create a well composed shot using the rule of thirds

:

We were also asked to look at specific shots, within our completed stpryboards, that have a good framing or compostion to them.

Lip Syncing

We practiced a bit of lip syncing to the opening 30 seconds of our song,its just a rough cut and we aren't wont be lip syncing to this particular part of the song, but we needed the practice. We are not quite sure yet if we will be converting all of our footage into Black and White, but as shown below it does create a more professional feel to the video.

 

Weather

The weather that we are currently getting at around 7.30/8.00am is the perfect sort of weather we hope to have when filming our music video. The gloomy fog is great for setting the dark side to our protagonist. Here's a quick picture I snapped this morning on the way to school.

Inspiration

I know that other groups, and perhaps us, want to use silouttes and shadows within their music videos, so i found this little video on youtube that is a perfect example of how a simple music video can be created with the use of effective lighting.

Practice

As we went filming on wednesday, we edited a bit of the footage that we gathered. We will be trying to do the folling effects in our actual music video however we will hopefully be a little bit more experienced with the software in the future. The following is also a rough version of what our music video opening is going to look like.

Filming for Final Cut Pro

In our free periods today, Elisha and I went out to do a bit of filming so that we have a little bit of footage for when we have a learning about final cut pro session on friday. We specifically filmed a part of our music video in which we think needs the most precise form of editing, so we can therefore practice on this mock footage and learn from what we edit with this, when we start actually editing for our real music video.

Advert inspiration

I have seen this advert quite a few times, when watching the T.V, and really love the snappy editing techninques it uses that go with the music.The different camera angles also appeal, specifically the ones where it is as if we are that particular untensil. The snappyness is just what we need to have in our music video.

Finished storyboarding

We finally finished all of our storyboarding for our music video and we created an anaomatic of our storyboards, its a bit wobbely, but thats because i was pulling Elisha on an office chair whilst she was filming! However it does work quite well and can give you an idea, a very rough idea, of how we want our music video to look.

Voyeurism in Music Videos

Voyeurism originally refers to the notion of the erotic pleasures that may be gained from looking t a specific object (Freud) We also discussed The Gaze in lesson today, which refers to how an audience views the way people are presented. There are several different types of "The Gaze" which are listed below:
Spectators Gaze
Intr diegetic Gaze
Extra diegetic Gaze
Cameras Gaze
Intra intra diegetic Gaze

Theorists : Laura Mulvey argues that directors want us to view women as the object as oppose to the subject. Andrew Goodwin agrees and adds that women are frequently objectified within music videos through the fragmentation of body parts which emphasises the sexual tretment of the star.

 Here is just one example of The Gaze, in which the main girl is being followed, so we are given the spectators gaze on her vunerability.

Storyboarding

We've managed to do a bit more storyboarding for our music video, here is what we've got so far:

We have storyboarded around the first minute of the song, so we still have a long way to go, but we are both happy with the progress we've made.

Update

We still haven't started filming our music video yet, but i think it would be best if we waited until all our story boarding is completed until we go out and film. That way we are unlikely to waste any time when we go out filming and our music video will also be more structured as a result of the detailed storyboarding. However in a couple of lessons time we will be having a vitistor in the lesson to help us work out the new Final Cut Pro software. Which i am pretty sure is what we hope to be using to edit our music video, mainly due to the more possibilities that it provides us with whilst editing. Therefore we do need to get a bit of footage so that when she does come into the lesson we have something to work with.

Story boarding progress

Thinking about story boarding last year, we didn't actually do that much of it, which is probably not so much of a good thing. We gathered a basic idea from small story boards about what types of shots we wished to obtain during filming but we didn't actually put anything into a particular chronological order.  This year we need to change this and put more effort into research and planning as oppose to going out one day and having a brief idea of what we hope to film. We need to be more precise in this and story board each different frame we need to gather in order to create a better music video over all.

Looking back at last year, what we did story board did become of use, we used colours to help out setting up the lighting we wanted in each shot and we also used different boxes for different angles of the same shot. Our only main problem of our story boarding last year was the lack of it. But this year we will be doing more and more to obtain a clearer image of what we hope to do in our music video this year.

Filmed Treatment

We presented our Treatment to the rest of the group today and gathered our first piece of audience feed back. The presentation went well and the rest of the group seem to like our main idea for the narrative of our music video.
Here is the filmed presentation of our Treatment:

Possible names

Here is a quick little vlog the two of us produced the other day, describing some names for our band identity!

Treatment

Dead line met! Here is our Treatment in which we will be presenting to the class in a couple of days to see what they think and gain and feedback either positive or negative. I have embeded below both our presentation and our script of what we were saying.

Treatment on Prezi

And here is the script we will be using to present our presentation. Untitled

More Inspiration

I found this video on youtube which I think is a really clever and unique music video, especially if you're looking into stop motion. The video took over 2 years to make and is pictures as oppose to footage. Therefore really highlighting how good and effective stop motion can be. I really liked the idea of the music video because its never been done to this extent before and it stands out from the other music videos out there.

 

 The artist also created a "Making of" video which i have posted below which just enhances how much effort went into making this music video, and how effective a simple yet lengthy idea can have.

 

Research and Planning

Within our music video one of the key symbolic images we hope to attain is that of a Breeze block, and in order for us to include this in our video we need an actual breeze block. So here is a quick video of the two of us trying to find out how much they cost, where we can get them and where....
 

Email Request

We recently emailed infectious reords to see if they have any probelm with us using their band "alt-J"'s record Breezeblocks for our music video..... still waiting for a reply...

Mood Board

This is our little mood board with a few key words we feel relate greatly to our music video and its genre. The majority of the images are secondary however some of them are primary as i have taken them myself.

Mood Board on Prezi

Song Choices

Daughter- Youth

 

 This is the first of our three possible song choices, some of the positives with doing this is that there are female vocals, which would make the song more realistic for the audience as oppose to male vocals. Also with this song, the tempo starts of slow which would create a good narrative however it does become up beat thus making it easy to edit to. However the negatives of doing this song are that it takes a while for the beat to actually kick in and it is generally a slow song.

 Sia- Breathe Me

 

 This is our second choice, and its positives are that the vocals are that of a female, and the slow tempo and lyrics of the song would create a good narrative to go with, however the beat, much like the song above, doesnt really kick into a good beat which is needed for us to edit to.

 Alt J- Breeze Blocks

 

 This is our final song choice, although the vocals are male, we feel that we could create an androgynous character to lip sync to them, the song is up beat and provides a good narrative base line. There is also strong imagery that we can include within our music video as a result of using this song. It is therefore decided that this is the song we will be doing for our music video as it has a varied tempo, a better beat and we feel we can make more of a narrative out of this song as oppose to the other two above.

Inspiration

As inspiration for our music video I have picked several exaples of videos with certain aspects within which appeal to me.

 

 Within this particluar video by Mumford and Sons, the main appeal is the lip syncing aspect. I like the way in which this is shot as you are given a silhoutte of the singer as oppose to seeing their whole face, which is something that I think would be very effective in our own music video.

 

 It is the range of different effects used in Lana Del Ray's video that gives me inspiration for our music video. We have disscussed using effects such as faded, or black and white, and within this video there are perfect examples of how good this can look.

 

 The disorientation within thie video is what catches my eye about it, and I would love to be able to create such illusions and confusion for our audience within our music video. I also like the colour changes within the video as well as the fact that it has a creepy yet intriguing feel to it.

Location

We have recently done a vlog on where we would like to and hope to film our music video, in order get the best out of the city we live in. It is for this reason as to why we wish to use a variety of locations within the completed video.

Storyboarding

Over the holiday, Elisha and I have gotten together and started to story board and list little ideas we have which we would like to include in our final music video. The picture below is of the notes we have made so far, although they are not in any particular order, we found that they have helped us in structuring the process of our music video.

We also produced a quick vlog, explaining the narrative behind our music video as well as explaining how we hope the audience can and will view our overall music video once it is completed.

 

Stop Animation

We have been looking to include some stop animation within our music video, as this will help our video to stand out from the rest as well as help us to learn some new techniques within the filming industry. I came across this quick video on youtube which I really like, and its all done in stop animation.Although the video above is not really anything to do with a song, i found the following video which is:

Finished Star Image Project

Star Image: Green Day on Prezi

Woman in the Media

Here is a quick slide show of the different representations of Women within the media.

 

Women in the british media from Megan Southern

Summer Footage

Over the summer i thought it would be a good idea to get some footage of a completely different environment to the usal ity/park settings. I therefore took the flip camera away on holiday with me to Egypt to just do a little bit of filming there. I edited the footage at school once we got back to one of our song choices just to see what it would be like.

 

 We played around with the colours, contrasts and brightness of the footage to see which effects we like best, we also played with the speed on the clips, slowing alot of the footage down to give a better impact on the audience when watching it.

Project update

Due to the genre of our song choice for our music video being alternatuive/indie it has become very difficult to find a well known singer/band that have been around for a while in this exact genre. It is therefore why I have chosen to do a band in a sort of similar genre of alternative rock music. The band have been around for the last three decades and are well known, and it is for this reason that I have chosen to do my star image project on Green Day.

Star Image Project

Our task over the summer is to create a mini project/presentation on a very well known artist and how their image has changed over the period of when the first became famous, to the present. The "Star" has to be from your chosen genre, so i am having difficulty coming up with a famous alternative/indie band and might just have to go for someone as close to this as possible.

Artist research Prezi

Elisha and I have decided to go for the Alternative/Indie music video genre as we both listen to this music in our own time and find that because we wish to do a narritve music video, this genre fits best. So here is a quick prezi on a few bands that fit this genre.

Artist Research on Prezi

Practicing

Elisha and I have created a short music video, practicing different techniques in which we hope to achieve in our real music video. Such techniques include putting the clips in reverse and playing with their speed. We have also been working on Elisha lip syncing, which will definitely help in preparation for the real thing.

Artist Research

Artist Research

Music video genre

We have decided to go for the genre of Alternative/Indie music and here are a few of the music videos and songs that we have recently been looking at. We have decided to go for this genre of music as not only is it the type of music we both listen to and prefer, it also fits into the narrative music video in which we hope to achieve. We have decided not to do the genre of rap, as we feel this would not appear realistic and wouls be an imature decsion to make, in my opinion. We have also steered away from the POP genre as we feel that  picking a well known song and artist is far too mainstream and creating a music video to go with such a well known song would cause a lot of comparisons between our video and the real one as oppose to the alternative/indie genre in which is not at all well known or mainstream.

Although this particular song does not have an official music video, this live version is, in my opinion, very good and the filming is also very artisic.

This is the type of music video we aim to steer very much clear of as both the somg and artitst are too mainstream. On top of this the video is very well known and of a very high standard in which we would not be able to achieve. Therefore we have decided to go in the very opposite of such a music video as follows.

Researching into songs

Here are a couple of songs that we are looking into for our music video. We are sticking to the indie type of genre but we want to have a fast beat to go with the lyrics. A woman vocalist would be ideal but the song Breezeblocks by Alt-J is a male vocalist, which could add an overall twist to the music video.

Alt-J; Breezeblocks:

Daughter- Youth

Prelim complete

After editing the footage we gathered from our filming day on friday, we have created our Preliminary task as shown below.

 

 We feel that we have made a good start with our A2 media course, however there are certainly things that we can improve on when looking at our Preliminary task. Such things include improving the quality of the lip syncing as well as cutting to the beat of the music which although the original music video that we mimicked did not do this, we could have in some way included it ourselves. As well as this we could have made the "singing" more realistic as within the video above it is pretty obvious that I am not actually sining the song. To improve on this we not only need to work on our lip syncing skills but I think that an important factor that we have already considered is that we do a not use very well known song as it will add to the overall verismilitude of the music video. Other than these minor improvements that could be made, I feel pleased with the overall outcome of the music video and I can't wait to get started on the real thing!

Filming

Me and Elisha went out filming on friday for our Kate Bush prelim. We did a little vlog on how we think the filming went with Elisha behind the camera for a change.

British Film Festival

A quick Prezi on the films that i would include in a British Film Festival

British Film Festival on Prezi

British Films

British Film:
A British film, in my opinion, is a film with a classic British cast, a British director and usually a powerful British topic. A great example of a classic British film is Shane Meadow's film "This is England" and also Tom Hooper's "The Kings's Speech". Both have a large British cast and share the topic of British culture and history.
I don't really have a favourite British film, but there are several that i love which are just the classics like "The Full Monty" and "Brassed Of". I guess the reason that i love these films are due to their raw British content, of true events that have happened in our British History.
I wouldn't say that i specifically seek out any British film but if i have heard about a specific film or one has been recommend to me then i will most probably aim to watch it, other than that i just watch films that take my fancy.

Story boarding

Now that we have decided on a song for our 30 secound prelim we began story boarding the exact frames that we will be using. Here is a picture of our finished frames:

We will only be doing the first 30 seconds of the music video which is why there are only 7 different frames that we will be using.


There are several close up shots that we have used within the storyboards, making it easier for the audience to the singer actually singing.

Prelim research

We have looked at several different music video openings, in order to decided which one we feel is achievable to mimic.
Here are a couple we have found so far:

Kelly Clarkson - Since you been gone

We like this video and think it would be simple to replicate due to the basic setting and easy close up shots used. The different framing of the shots are also easy to replicate and add to the entertainment value of the overall music video.

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

We think that we have settled with replicating this music video as it is a bit more entertaining than the above one and on top of this the variety of shots used are also easy to replicate. The costume and setting is also very simple, thus the music video again appeals to us in terms of ease of replicating it.

Variations of music videos

Cold Play - Paradise:

This video is in the style of a narrative, in that it tells a story throughout, that reflects the lyrics of the song and its general meaning. I really like the idea of including a costume within the video as it adds to the entertaining value of the overall music video, for the audience. The idea of a journey is also portrayed within this music video, showing a wide amount of different settings, one of which is a train in which the majority of the audience are able to relate

Vampire Weekend - A Punk:

This music video is a very different style to the previous one as it doesn't tell a story, but in fact includes the band actually playing the song. The video appears to be all in one continuous take, which is not what we as a group are aiming for but the way in which the actions within the video match the beat of the song perfectly is an appealing factor of this particular video. The use of constantly popping in and out of the shots also adds to the entertaining factors of the overall music video.

Kina Grannis - In your Arms:

Finally, this music video is again completely different from the other two, in both the shooting and styling of it. Firstly this video is not in fact a video but picture on picture, shot frame by frame on top of jelly beans. This would be extremely difficult to achieve but the overall effect of the video is amazing, in my opinion. Its unique and an original video, which took over two years to produce, using around 288,000 jelly beans being used and a total of 2,460 different frames.

Andrew Goodwin

This is a short prezi on the work and theories of Andrew Goodwin within the construction of music videos and how they effect their audiences:

Andrew Goodwin on Prezi

First Post

Here goes, the first post of A2 media.