Pre-production: Complete Storyboard

Storyboarding

Lesson Update

My group, Kyra & I were working on our storyboards today and broke down each scene shot by shot. We used another of the artists music video to get inspiration for shot types and also costume and we also discussed the props and as there is reference to money on the track we thought of ways in which we could portray this in our music video. One of the ways we came up with was to print an image out from the Internet as shown in the image above and another way we came up with was to wrap a real £20 note with stacks of plain paper to make it seem like there's stacks of money.

Breakdown of lyrics

Pitch/ Audience Feedback

My group presented our rough plan for our music video to the class and this was helpful as we were stuck between a choice of two tracks and the class helped us decide which one would be more realistic for us to produce within the given time frame. Also, the class fits in with the target audience therefore it was useful to have the discussion with them on what they thought would work and what wouldn't. Although they liked our idea surrounding the first track, they felt that the track SNE- Set it off would be a better choice to go with as its more straightforward in regards to props, actors and locations.

Case Study 3

Fekky- Way Too Much (Ft Skepta)

This song is mainly about the life excesses of the two grime artists featured in the song. The title of the song "way too much" is often repeated throughout and the lyrics suggest that because of the great success they are making in life they are attracting female attention

This is reflected in the video where the two artists are seen wearing big gold chains which often has connotations of wealth and also features the  two artists holding red solo cups throughout which stereotypically links to college party culture and links back to the lyrics. This could mean that the target audience is around 16+ particularly males as they may be able to identify with the artists.

The video is mainly performance based as for the majority of the video the two artists are seen directly addressing the camera whilst using hand gestures to emphasize the lyrics also this type of approach is conventional of the genre, grime, music video's

The camera shot often used throughout the video is medium long shot and is often shown from a low angle cutting pace has been edited to match the beat of the song and also the camera moves about to match the beat of the music 

use of primary colours

Case Study 2

Drake- Started From The Bottom

This music video is mainly narrative based as it tells a story of how Drake "Started From the Bottom" by showing as it features various scenes of everyday life things such as going to work and playing at a football match in a attempt to show the audience that Drake started out as a ordinary person but after hard work has made it big in the music industry. His success is shown through the expensive car and flying in a private jet. The artist is represented as being quite successful and also is represented as being pure in a sense almost like a angel as in the beginning he's wearing all white, this representation could be trying to connote that he's a person that people look up to. 

There aren't huge amounts of lipsynching within the music video but the part that stands out is where he's talking about how people are undermining the effort he put in to his work. The use of lipsynching in this case gives off a sense of passion he has to show people that he did put in effort to get where he is today which links back to the lyrics "we just want the credit where its due"

There are various camera angles used in this video but the most common shots used are medium long shots. Special effects aren't used as such in this music video which portrays a sense of reality and makes the song more believable and makes it seem more like a movie about his life. Due to there being one or two swear words I'd say that the primary target audience are males aged 16+ as they may look up to drake as a role model for being successful or they may identify with his situation of starting out as ordinary person but progressing upwards. I like the idea of showing the contrast between his life before and after and feel I could take this and apply it to my own music video.

Case Study 1

August Alsina - No Love ft. Nicki Minaj

This music video is about a broken relationship because of the male's noncommittal ways which links to the title of the song "No love". This is shown through various scenes of August Alsina mindlessly spending time with another woman and ignoring his lover (Nicki Minaj) who's back at home.

This music video is predominantly narrative based as throughout it shows the progress from the two showing affection to them being distant after she see's the other girl calling his phone. The video works alongside the lyrics to show the contrasting feelings about the situation whereby Nicki Minaj is left curled up on the sofa looking distraught whilst August Alsina continues to spend time with the other girl "Ariana". The video portrays that he isnt the settling down type "if you looking for somebody, tryna settle down, I probably wont be around" and how that affects his lover emotionally. In a sense the video portrays the theme of unrequited love as throughout Nick Minaj is portrayed as a scorned lover although towards the end he tries to make up for his actions by presenting her with a big bouquet of roses

The video doesn't have a great amount of lip synching as it's more focused on telling a story however when it comes to Nicki Minaj's verse where she's finally expressing herself in a harsh tone after keeping quiet for all that time lip synching is used and I feel as though this was done to show her breaking out of her shell and finally letting out her emotions verbally.

Medium close up is the main shot used throughout the music video which allows the audience to see the facial expression of each person whilst also seeing some of the clothing. In the beginning Ariana is seen wearing light colours whereas Nicki Minaj is seen wearing black which could be used for a representation of their mood. Black and white filter is used in the beginning as a flashback of how the two were before. Split screen has also been used on various occasions to show a moving image related to their situation for example they are compared to lightening when they were having their disagreements and compare to a blooming flower when they made up. I particularly like this effect and feel like I could use it in my music video to create a similar effect.

The audience are encouraged to buy the record as the chorus is repetitive and therefore sticks in the listener's head and makes them want to download the track. Also they may be a fan of either artist or both and may want to continue supporting this artist by purchasing their music.

Initial Idea's

We layed out our rough plan for our music video on prezi to make it easier and more visual for the class when we pitch our ideas in the following lesson

Practice Task: "Happy" Music Video

This is our completed music video of the song "Happy"- Pharrell Williams. In producing this we are able to learn from the errors made in this practice task and avoid making the same mistakes in the actual piece. As we only had 4 lessons altogether to create it lacks the structure that a professional music video would have but having more time for the actual piece will give us more time to improve this.

Practice Task: Editing

Lesson Update

We used final cut pro to edit for the music video, one problem we faced was realising that we didn't have enough footage to fit the endurance of the bridge and chorus which is the part we wanted to focus on. This led to us then having to add in some blooper video's to fill out the time. Another problem we faced was having to turn the video after realising it was filmed vertically, this then led to there being a black border around the footage making it look unprofessional however we agreed that due to the nature of the song it we could use this to our advantage to make it look like home video's of happy moments.

Practice Task: Filming

Lesson Update

In today's lesson we went on the field to shoot our music video as we wanted a well lit location to represent the theme of our song choice "Happy". We had some complications with the camera which affected how much we could get done but we got as much footage as we could.

Practice Task

Lesson Update

In order to practice lip-syncing before we start making our actual music video we were given a task which required us to work in 2 or 3's to produce part of a music video for either the song "Let it go" or "Happy". My group chose to only focus our video on the chorus and bridge of the song "Happy" as we felt that in the time given we couldn't learn all the lyrics to the song and felt it was essential for successful lip-syncing. The image above shows a mind map plan for our music video which outlines the roles for each person in our group, the camera shots and the location for our video.

Advanced Portfolio: Music Promo 2015-16 Timeline