There
are three different costumes that our actor/actress will wear, this is because
we have three main scenes, which are; pyjamas, office type clothes and
weekend enjoyment clothes. We need outfits for both men and women as in case we
cannot get a male actor then we might need female actress and therefore will
need a costumes for her.
Pyjamas: We have chosen these as we feel they are simple and would work well with our video.
Weekend: We have chosen these as we feel they are simple and casual but are very different to the office clothes to show the difference between working and weekend.
Office: We want the office clothes to look uncomfortable as we want to show the pain of work so we need to select this costume carefully.
When we were deciding on our genre of our music video and the
type of music video we wanted to create. We were inspired by a number of
different films and videos. One film we were inspired by was ‘imagine dragons –
radioactive’ the start of this music video was very helpful for us as a group
as we knew we wanted to start the piece off quite slowly with the camera facing
towards the sky and then panning downwards into a woodlands type area. Moreover,
when I was conducing my research into music videos within our genre I came
across this video and it really inspired us in how to start our video.
Also, another music video we were inspired by was ‘Coldplay –
yellow’, this was due the fact we had an initial idea of the camera following the
performer whilst they are walking. Although this video doesn’t really show this
it helped us as we had so many ideas in mind and when watching this it made us decide
on what we thought was best.
Furthermore, we were not really inspired by any films as such, this is due to the fact our genre is quite unpopular in comparison to other genres like RnB etc. this meant that we took a lot of inspiration from music videos within our genre.
The Verve are a English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990. It was formed by vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury The band's breakthrough was in 1997 with the album Urban Hymns, one of the best-selling albums in UK Chart history. The album features the hit singles "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Lucky Man". In 1998, the band won two Brit Awards. In February 1999, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. Soon after their commercial peak, The Verve broke up in April 1999, citing internal conflicts. This information was found on the official The Verve webpage.
Our chosen artist is the group The Verve and they have made a wide range of songs and music videos therefore when we were researching we looked a broad range of videos to try and gather as much information as we could to try and broaden our knowledge on our chosen artist and the type of videos they produce.
We
looked at:
·Sonnet
·Lucky Man
Sonnet is a very futuristic music video as the props that are used are very colourful and there is a chair that looks like it is floating in the air. The colours are very bright as stated above and the house they use towards the middle of the piece is also bright. This video is very different in comparison to Bittersweet Symphony which shows how our artist target different audiences.
Lucky man is a lot different to the previous video, firstly the use of lighting is different, the lighting within this video is bright however it has an old theme running throughout whereas the other video was a futuristic one. This video is a performance based video which connotes they can not only perform narrative based videos but also performance.
We decided to do some lip syncing practice before we actually
went straight in and created our real music video because we needed to get a
feel for how lip syncing worked. We decided to take a rather slow song to start
with so that when we edited it, it would be easier. We took the song ‘Drake – hold on, we’re going
home’ and took about 40 seconds of the song and decided to experiment with lip
syncing. Luckily someone already knew the song inside out so when he was miming
it he was confide because he knew the song so well.
Lip syncing really helped us because it gave us a basic understanding
of her lip syncing works and what types of editing techniques are useful when
cutting from one bit to another. Having a practice go before the real thing also
meant that we could have play around with the technology and understand what
button does what. Below is the song from drake and the one next to it is the
short section we did to try and gain an understanding for lip syncing.
My favourite music video is Coldplay The Scientist. I like this videos as it has a narrative that is strong but it is not to similar. The video is filmed backwards which makes it different and therefore making people want to watch it more. It shows performance as the main character is the singer and we see him throughout the video. The line 'I'll take you back to the start' is exactly what he is doing in the video as he moved backwards in time. I like this as it is cleverly filmed as it goes back in time and the artist had to learn the lyrics of the song backwards in order for it to work which it think is very clever. -Jenna
The music video I have selected as my favourite is 'Snow patrol - chasing cars'. I have chosen this one as my favourite as I like the narrative throughout and it has been clearly thought out as a project. Also the lip syncing is really good as the lips correctly match what is playing in the background which creates a professional look to the video.
-Aaron
The music video I have selected is 'Wiz khalifa See you again'. I have chose this as it is my favourite music video as I think the narrative is clearly projected through the lyrics of the song with the visuals shown within the music video.
There are not a lot of representations in our music video.
Despite this we have got a representation of class in our music video. The video and song represents the working class. They are a 'slave to money' and have to work 9-5 to keep food on the table.. We feel that by presenting a man working and conforming to the ideology that the working class work for the upper class and have to work to keep alive and don't get to enjoy the money they are earning.
We are also using the stereotypical representation of the man being the person in a relationship to go out and work as our main character is male. This is a stereotypical representation of gender that we are portraying in our work.
Age is represented in our Music Video. Our main character is around the late teens early 20s mark. This is our target audience age so we feel that our audience could connect and understand our character and storyline. We feel that this age group are usually the most hard done by with money.. They have university to pay for or may be moving out and having to pay rent and mortgages. Therefore we feel that this links in with Bitter Sweet Symphony bad is representing the struggle of this age group.
Our initial ideas we have are displayed below in the different
scenes.
We start off with the camera facing the sky and slowly
panning down towards our actor. Song will then start to play in time with the
footsteps of our actor.
Camera will then cut to bedroom where actor will be waking
up. Camera will focus on clock to show the time he has to wake up for work. Also
show a close up on his face to show the audience how tired he is.
Next
scene is where our actor has to get on the train to work. We will show various
shots of him walking whilst moving through the highly populated area. Hoping to
use a panning shot to show the whole station and then go close up of our actor
moving. We have permission to film here by the station as they granted our
request to film. The station will be used twice, going to work and coming home
from work.
This is where our actor works; its showing what he does for a
living and the use of close ups will be used to show the boredom/tiredness of his
face.
Here is our actor “letting his hair down”, this side of the
narrative is to show the difference between what he is like at work and how he
acts when he is having fun and not at work. Lots of cuts will be used here and
fast paced editing as we want to create an excitement and buzz around our actor
to show he is having fun.
From research we have decided to aim our music video at people aged 18-25. This is a large age gap but feel that people from these ages are more likely to listen to this music genre so will aim it to this age. We feel that this age is mature enough to listen to the music and understand the lyrics.I also feel that this music is alternative and different. I feel this is the age that people are experimenting with their style and their sub culture. This means this song would appeal to an alternative group of people and these ages seem to be where people experiment.Overall I feel that this song would appeal to males due to the artist and the feel of the song, it will also appeal to females but it may be more appealing to men. The demographic group for our music video would
be D/E (students and working class) we have chosen this because of the age group we have specified. We will target this group by keeping the music video as realistic as possible. It will not include expensive possessions and therefore will appeal to people who cannot afford expensive items. We will keep the music realistic and easy to relate to for this demographic group. Also this age group are likely to be this Demographic as they are not earning as much as older people. We want to target people who go to University or work everyday and don't enjoy it. Therefore meaning they can relate to our video. We want this as in out video we link the lyrics with the visual as we show someone hard at work with the lyrics 'you're a slave to money then you die'. By aiming our video at somebody who works allows them to relate to the music video. We will try to show the difference between working and partying to the target audience by using different lighting to show a dull and boring work setting and a fun weekend setting, we hope that this is something our target audience can relate to. We are using Hypodermic Needle Theory in our music video as the song and video are 'injecting' the message that you are a 'slave' to money. We will also use Goodwins theory in our music video showing the typical representations of music videos.
We have chosen bittersweet symphony by the verve. It has a clear narrative which is what we are looking to create. The song is also rather slow in terms of tempo therefore when we are doing lip syncing it will be easier for our actor to lip sync to make it look industry standard.
Our initial idea for our music video is to show a lady or man working all week. This shows a link between the lyrics and the video with 'being a slave to money'. We then had the idea of the weekend coming and showing to change in character from hard working to 'party animal'. We had the idea of them going back to work on the Monday and being back to normal but for the weekend to be thrilling and exciting.
Music videos tend to include long shots, close ups and mid shots this creates emphasis on the locations, emotions and the artist. Close ups can be used to show emotion but also its shows a link between lyrics and the video. The camera tends to track the artist to show that all eyes are on them and they are the main attraction. Mise en scene is important in music videos its means the arrangement of performers, props and the scene of production. The mise en scene usually links in with the lyrics but it depends on how the video is going to work. Jump cuts are very popular in music videos it shows a sudden change from scene to scene and usually there are faster cuts with a quicker music pace. The colours, props, lighting and costume really depend on the genre of music like pop music is more likely to have bright colours with high key lighting whereas rock is more likely to have low key lighting with darker colours. Some music videos are black and white or have black and white parts in them this emphasises a particular mood so are more popular with sad songs or alternative/rock music. Artificial lighting is used in some music videos to put the artist in an enhanced look. Props aid to create a significance to a particular object or people, they are used to link in with the lyrics sometimes and to show a narrative. Costume is important and has a slight influence on how the viewer will dress. Pop/ Hip Hop videos tend to be up to date with fashion and wear clothes that are branded and in more mainstream fashion areas. Whereas alternative/rock tend to have their own style of clothing and set a style to viewers who want to look like them but don't set as much of a trend as pop and hiphop.
The generic conventions of music videos differ depending on the genre of the song. The pace of the video, costume, colour, shots, props, location and narrative will change depending on the genre of the music video.
The conventions of Indie/Rock/Alternative music videos are: A use of dark colours and use of low key lighting, sometimes filmed in black and white or sepia to add an effect and show the genre of the music. The artist is shown a lot throughout the music video as It tends to be a performance based music video. There are also use of a lot of close ups and some long shots. The longshots are used to show the setting of the music video which adds to the theme of the music video and close ups are also used to show the emotion of a character or artist. There are some use of special effects in this again adding to the theme of the genre of the song. Dependent on the song the music video can either be fast paced or slow paced. Heavy rock music tends to have fast paced music videos to show the pace of the song itself whereas Alternative Rock may have slow paced videos to work with the pace of the song.
This is a heavy rock music video and shows the conventions I have noted above.
This is an alternative Rock music video and follows the codes and conventions notes above.
The conventions of Hip Hop music videos are:
The use of lively and busy locations are usually used like Clubs and parties. There tends to be a use of alcohol and possibly drugs. In these videos you can usually see branded clothing and accessories and these videos are usually up to date with fashion and sometimes set trends. Money is regularly used in these videos including expensive cars and houses to show wealth. To show the money the camera shots used tend to be long to establish and show the money involved and also close ups to show the money in jewellery and assets of the artist. Women tend to be the main part of these videos and women tend to be attractive and wanted by the men. These videos do not usually follow a storyline and Includes a lot of performance based parts.
The conventions of Pop videos are:
There is a regular use and occurrence of bright colours throughout pop videos as they are usually up beat and have a happy narrative. They are usually performance based and include dance or a strong narrative. The narrative usually links in to what is being said in the lyrics. The artist and other characters tend to wear designer or in trend clothes to ensure they are looking their best they are also setting a trend. Pop videos are usually fun and lively which usually appeals to a younger audience like teens.
The conventions of House/Dance videos are:
Dance and House music videos tend to be upbeat and involve a lot of dancing and routines. The setting of these videos are usually clubs and party scenes showing where the songs are usually played a fitting with the theme of the song. Women like Hip Hop are usually shown to be sexual in these videos and don't tend to wear many clothes. Bright colours are also used in these videos with main colours being blues and purples. The narrative in these videos rarely link in with the lyrics and tend to be random.
This will help us when we create out music video as it allows us to understand the way different genre's have different genetic conventions. It us allows us to add things to our music video which we know suits the genre of our music video.
This is a rough guide to the digipak I am looking at creating. It is very basic, however it outlines the ideas I have in mind. I want to have an image of our actor on the front cover to connote what his life is like now and then I want a brick wall on the other panels as I believe it will contrast well with the 'poor' theme this is shown throughout.
