RELEASE FORM FOR CAST.

I have chosen to create a cast consent form in order to get proof of full commitment for each of the cast members, the form also has a section where under 18s can have their parents/guardians sign to prevent any misunderstanding about what their children may be up to. Details of the cast members are also asked for on the consent form so that us as directors can get hold of cast members when they are needed with out any unnecessary stress.

- This is a print screen of the top section of the consent form.
I plan to distribute the consent forms to the cast members and extras tomorrow in my sixth form study period. Hopefully I can upload the pictures of the completed consent forms at the end of the week.

LOCATION.

Since we have analysed the results to our questionnaire Georgia & I have come to a conclusion about our music video location. We decided on Jubilee park for the beginning of the video to connote the innocence/vulnerability  of the narrative in our music video, for the second half with the help of the results from our questionnaire we collaboratively decide on Georgia's house where her bedroom will be the main focus.

LOCATION 1:-

Access Difficulties.
An access difficulty with our first location is that it is a public footpath which could interfere with shooting the first scene as well as inconvenience to the public if they have to walk around our filming equipment , however we could avoid this problem by analyzing what times the park public footpath is busy ahead of our shooting date and then use the information gathered to see what the best time is to film in that location.

Health & Safety Issues.

Being in a park with possible high tech digital equipment is a threat to our cast and crews safety and well being, incidents could be prevented if filming times are allocated at a sensible time and not late in the evening and if we are cautious and alert of our surroundings. Another health and safety issue is the well being of the public, who could easily trip and harm themselves on the equipment, this again could be prevented by being aware of our surroundings and considerate to the public.

LOCATION 2:- 

These are a few shots of Georgia's bedroom, the first shot is of her white bed sheets connoting innocence and virginal purity the other shots are the possible surroundings that might be established in the video.

Access Difficulties.
We are lucky in the sense that our second location is Georgia's house, making it less 
likely for there to be difficulties in this location.

Health & Safety Issues.
The well being of our cast getting to and from this location from their homes and sixth-form could be a potential hazard, this could be prevented by making sure filming does not finish 
late into the evening.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE & ANALYSIS OF RESULTS.

We created a questionnaire as our primary research to go along with our focus group, our main aim was to find out what our target audience would like to see in our music video. 

Below is a the questionnaire copy and pasted from word document:-

I am a student from Bishop Stopford’s school carrying out a Questionnaire about Music videos for my A2 media coursework. Please answer the following questions as honestly as possible, Thank you.

Age: ............. Gender: ............................

Current borough where you’re living: ...........................................................................

1. What are your 3 favourite music videos and why?

a)

..................................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................................

b)

..................................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................................

c)

..................................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................................

2. What makes a good Music Video?

Special effects

Fast edits

Slow edits

Various camera angles

Other (Please specify in the space below)

___________________________________

3. What type of things do you expect to see in a new music video?

Animations

Split screens

3D effects

Various camera angels

Other (Please specify in the space below)

___________________________________

 Our music video will be ‘Like a virgin’ by Vince Kidd. We chose this because it is based around sexuality which is a huge topic in this day and age, as the age that virginities are lost is getting lower and lower. The song is a modern take on Madonna’s original version, both artist contrast in age, gender and sexuality showing the change of time era.

1. Which location do you think would be best for a music video about virginity?

House

Park

School

Theme park

Beach

Other (Please specify in the space below)

___________________________________

2. What type of lighting do you think would be suitable for this music video?

Bright

Dull

Dimmed

Dark

Other (Please specify in the space below)

___________________________________

3. What random prop would you like to see in the music video?

Condoms

Pregnancy test

A white wedding dress

Other (Please specify below)

___________________________________

EXTRA QUESTIONS!

1) What is your favourite music genre?

Jazz

Classical

            Grime

RnB

Afrobeats

            Reggae

Other (Please specify in the space below)

___________________________________

2) Do you prefer listening to Mainstream or Underground artists?

Mainstream

Underground

3) Which Artists/Bands produce better Music videos, Mainstream or Underground?

Mainstream

Underground

Below are some results drawn from some questions from our above questionnaire...

The results from the question showed us that people perceived mainstream music videos to be far better than underground

probably because there would automatically be a bigger budget for the mainstream videos automatically making it better quality and more eye catching.

Questions like this helped us with the nitty gritty details for story boarding our music video.

As you can see some of these questions were not relevant to our research but did give us an insight into the relationship

between  the music genres that people like and the music videos they like.

These are results drawn from a question about possible featured props we'd want in our music video, we 

did this so that our target audience was involved in the creation of our music video.

Another beneficial question for the making of our music video.

FOCUS GROUP.

Before story boarding our music video we decided to carry out a focus group, we did this to give us some extra ideas from our target audience (which I hope to clarify in detail in upcoming posts) to incorporate into our video.

Wanna hear a joke ??? ...

I'm gonna tell you anyway ....

TAKE ONE!

I was trusted to record the focus group at first which went great until ... I found out a couple of hours later it only recorded for a couple of seconds ..

TAKE TWO!

You'll be glad to hear that Georgia recorded this one ...

However it did take us a couple of times to get through the focus group because of interruptions that were occurring in the study room from other students.

WHO TOOK PART IN THIS FOCUS GROUP ?

  GOLDIE CARR

DANIELLE WILLIAMS

LEYON STOLTZ-HUNTER

                          DAVID JAMES                                                                                  

Below are videos of the takes that went wrong and the full length focus group video:- 

WORKING LIGHT-BULBS...

Based on me and Georgia's last experience working on a media video we realized what we lacked in our last  project and that was our own personal STAMP on the product ..

So we have decided to create our own logo with our production name on it ...

'DOUBLE D PRODUCTIONS' 

We haven't yet confirmed what our final animation/logo will be but Georgia has had a fiddle around with some things and this is what we have come up with so far ...

  WE'RE ON A ROLL HERE ...

We have also come up with the idea of a voice over to go with our logo ..

The voice over would simply be Georgia & I saying 'DOUBLE D PRODUCTIONS', we 

came up with this idea listening to the beginning of Vince Kidd's video - Like A virgin where SBTV had a jingle whilst the logo appeared on the screen before the music video.

The jingle and logo appear from 0-12 seconds

COPYRIGHT LETTER

The song that we have chosen to use doesn't belong to us legally, so I took the liberty of creating a copyright letter to send off to Vince Kidd's manager who works at Island records. The letter ensures his management that the song is being used strictly for educational purposes and it asks for permission for the song to be used, sending off this letter prevents any payment fines or potential of being sued.

PlAN UPDATE! / MUSIC VIDEO SYNOPSIS

- For the past few weeks Georgia & I, have discovered what the content of our Music video will be...

                    Our Music video will be based on ...
                                                                 SEXUALITY
HOWEVER.... The way that our music video will embody this will be unconventional, as said in previous posts our music video will be Like A Virgin by Vince Kidd meaning that our video will be about virginity. In society it is generally a big deal for a female to lose their virginity ... We are going to play around with this convention, with the help of our lovely media teacher Mrs Folan we came up with the idea to take full grasp of Vince Kidd being a homosexual male singing about virginity and apply it to our video, we flipped the stereotype making the male the peer pressured virgin.

Synopsis:-
A boy with a crush is pressured by his male companions to have sex with the girl he has been fantasizing over for a while. The boy is innocent (A virgin) where as the girl isn't she has no issue with having sexual intercourse however the boy has anxiety issues and doesn't know if he's ready he therefore takes every opportunity to delay the intercourse with childish acts connoting the innocence of both the teenagers ages.

The above photos relate to the context behind our narrative for the video.

- Its probably obvious from the information above that the music video will be narrative based rather than performance or concept based.

Although we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do we haven't finished our story boarding yet, we hope to finishing drawing it up by the end of this week so that we can upload it onto the blog.

Here is a preview of what we have already done ...

                                   

CONVENTIONS.

CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEOS.

CAMERA SHOTS:-

• Music videos normally include:- long shots close ups and mid shots. 

Long shot

Close-up

Mid shot 

Music videos tend to use these shots to emphasize the artist, subject matter,  location and emotion.

Close-ups are the conventional use to put emphasis on the emotion being used in a music video....

However close-ups are not only used for this they are also used to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

CAMERA MOVEMENT:-
The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band.
Camera movements include...

                        
                            Tilts                

                                               
                                                  Pans   












                                             Tracking                               

                                   

                                        Crane shots           









 The above movements are used to trace/ follow the movement of the artist/band.

Camera shots and editing can also be used to create a story line depending on what type of song it is all types of representations can be displayed.

• Genres  tend to have particular conventions in the music videos.

POP:- Pop music videos are normally performance based through choreographed routine and a narrative story line that connotes the lyrics. The band/artist tends to lip sync to the song. The tone of the song tends to be upbeat, fast paste and bright, with the band/artists looking trendy in mainstream clothing. Pop music videos tend to appeal to a younger audience.

Examples of current pop bands/ artists :- The Saturdays,          Katy Perry, Little Mix, JLS, Jessie J.

RnB/HIP HOP:- These music videos tend to be slightly similar to pop music videos because of the conventional bright tone.The music videos tend to have original artists performing a narrative story line in a club, beach or mansion (wealthy setting), usually using props such as expensive cars to outline the richness of the music. There are normally sexualised female dancers to highlight the nature of the lyrics and artists usually lip sync to the song similar      to the way pop artists/bands do.

Examples of current artists/groups that do this:- MMG, Chris Brown, Ne-yo, Rick Ross, Young money.

ROCK/METAL:- These music videos are normally presented in a sort of edgy way to create a certain type of atmosphere, the video tends to be more performance based focusing on the band and lead vocalist. The tone of the music is normally quite dark which is also reflected through costume of the band/artist which tends to be black (stereotypical rock look)The mis en scene is usually black and white and editing generally fast paste to match the tempo of the rock/metal songs. Example of a rock/metal band:- Salem

INDIE:- These videos tend to have a combination of conventions such as bright and dark or black and white depending on the tone of the lyrics and music. Indie music tends to cover a mixture of performance based and narrative whereby the focus point is either on the main vocalist or whole band. Indie narrative based music videos are usually more representational/symbolic rather than illustrating the lyrics making the music videos versatile. The editing techniques differ to the paste/tempo of the song. Artists/bands are presented in a casual manner reflected upon their outfits. Examples :- Kaiser Chiefs & Gotye

CATEGORIES OF MUSIC VIDEOS.

There are 3 main categories of music video which include:-

• Performance Based videos
• Narrative Based videos
• Concept Based

Performance Based videos:-

Performance based videos tend to show the band or artists performing there song (at a gig or studio setting)  Below are a few music videos demonstrating just this...

                                                               E-Whizz Airbourne - One for my city 

Above is a music video of a local underground band who attend my sixth-form. They are performing one of many of their songs. The rapper talks about his struggle to get where he wants to be and how he will always remember the city he came from and the people who made him into the person he is today.

                                                                             Green Day - American Idiot
Above is another example of a Performance Based music video but with a mainstream band instead.

Narrative Based videos:-
Narrative based music videos have a story line through out the whole of the video. 
A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through the moving image. Usually involving actors, the story is sometimes linked to the lyrical content of the song.
                                                                     examples ...

                                                                          Bon Jovi - Always
The video entails Bon Jovi telling the tale of a relationship that went terribly wrong of his own doing. There are a use of flashbacks to show the audience just how romantic his relationship was later on showing how it went wrong...  The story in this video hasn't just been told using lyrical content, it had the help of actors and moving image.

                                                                   Alicia Keys - Teenage love affair
This music video uses lyrics, still images and moving images to tell the narrative of a 'Teenage love affair' 

This is a print screen of one of the still images that helped to tell the narrative.

The video tells the story of where their 'Teenage love affair' started ...
What it lead to ...
& how it lead to it ....

                                                                        Kelly Rowland - Stole

                                                                                   Beyonce -  Best thing I never had
Its quite obvious that in this post I have done the most research on Narrative based videos... 
                                        I bet your wondering why... 
                      hmmmmmmmmmm
I'll take you out of your misery and tell you ... Our music video will be a NARRATIVE BASED VIDEO!
Concept Based:- 

Concept based music videos tend to have no story line. They are generally a random concept and sometimes tend not to tie in with the band or theme of the song at all.
Below is a concept based video...

                                                                     OK GO - Here it goes again
INTERTEXTUALITY IN MUSIC VIDEOS

Intertextuality is when media text reference another media text, this can either be reflected in the style of the video (a pastiche) or done in a humorous way (a parody) it can help audiences take further levels of meaning away from the text.

Intertextuality is like a short cut to meaning, it uses people’s understanding of media texts to make new meanings. 

A good example of this would be the reference to the famous Kray twins renowned from their crime around east end London in the 1950s an d 60s in Kanye West & Jay-Z's song 'In Paris' the hook of the song ended with the words "That shit cray", giving those who have the foreknowledge of the Kray twins and indication of whatever their rapping about is crazy like the crimes committed by the twins.

The Kray twins

                                                                            'In Paris' music video
                                                                                                       (The hook is at 1:34)
Pastiche:-
Pastiche is the imitation of text's features by other text. The styles can be the same or a copy of the original and could be a style of a certain time period. Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is a pastiche, its style is conventional of 1950s horror movies.

Michael Jackson - Thriller 

Beyonce - Work it out

 The video takes the style and time period of the 'Austin Powers' movie it also has actual features of the text.

Beyonce - Check on it

Another example of Beyonce taking the theme of color from the 'Pink Panther' film and features

of the actual text in the music video.

For the particular music video that we are creating for our A2 project I would probably use a pastiche to incorporate intertexual references...

I would do this by incorporating  the original 'Like a virgin'  by Madonna into the video..

e.g. having the song play off a iphone with the  CD single image on the phone screen before the music for the actual music video starts.

 

Parody:-
A parody is a comic version of the original. Parody often exaggerates features of the original.
Below is an example of a parody, based around the music video 'Call me maybe' by Carly Rae Jepson. The parody takes features from the original version such as the costume that was worn by Carly Rae Jepson and is worn by a man who is supposed to be her.

The Key of Awesome! - 'Call me maybe' (Parody)

                                                         Carly Rae Jepson - 'Call me maybe' (Original)