Ancillary task plans

For this section, our plan is to create a poster and a digipak for our music video. The images that we will be using are ones from the original filming day, as the audience will then be able to refer to them as one product, which will help represent the song more successfully.
Digipak -

We are going to design and create a four-panel digipak that will contain a jewel case to house a CD, as well as potentially making a small booklet to accompany the CD. This booklet would feature the lyrics to the song, as well as pictures of the cast within the music video.  

• In the rough design of our digipak we have thought about using a group picture of our Vikings on the front cover, facing forward and mostly all looking at the camera; as well as featuring the title of the band and the name of the song on the cover.
• On the back we thought it would be best to have a picture that wasn't too busy, and so we thought about using a picture of a single Viking running through the scenery.
• An idea that we had for one of the inside panels of the digipak was to use a shield as the background - making it the same size as the CD and so the shield would be hidden when the CD was in its case.

Poster -

For this ancillary product we were thinking about simply using a picture from the Viking filming day and accompanying it with the name of the band and the song title. We wanted to keep the poster simple and not too busy, but also to use interesting images to attract the attention of the audience.

Below is a rough drawing of the plans for these tasks:

 

Final characters and casting

As our cast plans have not changed since the initial plans, here is a recap of the plans:
For our music video, the main characters will be:

• Viking group
• The children playing at the end of the video
• The parent, who calls the children in for lunch

The Viking group should bring some realistic footage to our video. We plan to have an authentic looking battle, which will allow the audience to engage with them by seeing the action of their fighting. The cast for this group will be the Wuffa Re-enactment group of Gorleston.

The children should hopefully make the video more relatable. All kids have a great imagination, so by showing this through a pretend/realistic battle, we can really show the full extent of this imagination. For this cast, we plan to use my cousins and my sister. This will mean we do not have to worry as much about finding parents to sign permission slips, making the process much easier.

The final character, parent, will hopefully bring some comedy and cleverness to the video. As he turns to reveal a hidden Viking weapon, the audience will become engaged as they realise that he could have been a Viking all along. After talking to the band at the VIP at their Norwich show, we are hoping that one member of the band will be able to play the headmaster, and hopefully other members will be able to be included too. If not, the person cast for this character will be my uncle Mike Woodrow.

2nd half of filming - problems

For the past few weeks, we have been trying to get in contact with a year 7 student about his 'battle' group that get together to fight each other. We thought that they would be suitable for the final part of our video. After talking to him however, we found out that his group unfortunately has not continued and so he would not be able to arrange or participate in a small battle re-enactment.

To solve this, we decided to change the idea of our last scene, by changing the setting to a house and a garden rather than a school, and to use children in our families rather than looking elsewhere. This filming will take place next weekend at my uncle's house in Norwich. We will use my sister, cousins, and their friends, to battle, and my uncle will play the role of the parent (not teacher) who calls them in for lunch (not for lessons). Even though these changes are very sudden, we think that they will help to make the last scene easier to film, and more successful (as I know the location, and we do not have to ask loads of people/parents for filming permission).

We plan to finish filming asap and get a rough cut done.

Audience research feedback

As most of the questions in the audience research were not specific to our project, it was not easy to respond to them all in regards to our product. Therefore, we have only done so below and we have used the survey to summarise the overall results of the more simple questions. The link for the survey is, again, shown below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-X7TYLQ9Q/

As I said in the previous audience research post, the most important question was the one concerning our project and below are some of the most positive responses that we were given.

'I think it's good because its different' -Abbie Thompson

'It fits the song really well, especially the song and the meaning' -Charlie Segens

'I think it is a really clever idea because it matches the name of the song. Its all about the imagination of children, something I've never seen done in a music video before' -Poppy Frost

'very cool, quite inventive. It sums up the child like nature of adults' -Matt Koster

These have all boosted our confidence in this project, and we are now determined to get a final cut finished to start obtaining these people's opinions of the finished product.

Ancillary task 2 research

Posters are a good way for artists to promote their new music in busy public places or transport systems. This can be a cheap and relatively quick way of displaying the artist's work to all audiences, specifically the target audience. Music posters vary in colour and design, with some being more creative and intricate than others. Below are some posters for various musicians.

This poster is for the promotion of the American rock duo The Black Keys. I like this poster because it uses simplistic colours with the black and gold, but the main skull design is intriguing and eye-catching and so it would easily grab someone's attention when they are walking down the street or when they are using public transport. I think that the skull itself is pretty and intricate and is very appealing to look at. If I saw this on the bus or whilst walking round town, I would definitely read it and potentially want to find out more about the artist behind the poster. 



The band also have some more posters that I like the look of - the two that I like the most are both creative tour posters that use animals in their designs. 

This next poster is from an English rock band called Muse, who are from Teignmouth, Devon, and were formed in 1994. This poster was used to promote their 2012 album The 2nd Law. I think that this poster is interesting to look at the silhouette of a band member is decorated with a galaxy, making it interesting and unique. The fact that the poster also contains the tracklist of the album that is being promoted is good because it may mean that someone who sees the poster will notice the name of a song that they like and then they may be intrigued to listen to the rest of the album - so gaining the band more fans. Another thing that I like about the design of this poster is that it uses different shades of a single colour, pink - I think that this gives the poster a sophisticated look, rather than using as many bright colours as possible. The different shades of pink are also not too bright and so nice to look at and, in some ways, quite calming. 

This poster was used to promote the new release of the 2013 self-titled album by the American rock band Paramore. The main focus of this poster is obviously the band members themselves, and so they occupy most of it and grab the viewers attention. The fact that the image of band members is laid over a black background makes them stand out more and so more likely to be seen by passers by (even though some of the members themselves are wearing dark clothes).

I think that when we create our own poster for the promotion of our Viking music video, we will focus on using a Viking character(s) as the main focus of the poster, with other essential information on it too.

Audience feedback: rough cut

After finishing our rough cut of our music video, we went around other sixth formers in the school. We told them the main idea for our video and what we planned to do next, and let them know we would edit out some of the bad shots we knew were there. Here is their feedback:

The questions
1) What do you expect to see in a music video for the song Barbarian?
2) What music videos have stood out for you in the past?
3) What do you think of our main idea?
4) What do you think of our rough cut video?
5) In what ways would you improve how the rough cut was edited?
6) The next part we want to have children re-enacting what you've just seen to show that it was all their imagination. How would you go about filming this?


Matt Heard
1) Vikings and battle scenes, maybe some shots of the band playing at the same time?
2) OK Go's video's are amazing - they are all so unique and interesting, as well as fitting in with the music.
3) I think its a very good idea and if done well could really get you a good grade!
4) It's very well shot and edited, I liked it a lot!
5) I didn't like the turbines in the background, but I do like your idea of them purposely being there to subtly show that what you are watching isn't real. But personally, if I didn't know this fact, I would try and change that.
6) I would fade in from the warrior on the ground to the other kid on the ground, and then have them fight but less dramatic than the actual battle.


Matt Koster
1) battling and warriors with people playing the music as well
2) Rammstien - Mein Land, Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love, or Obey The Beard by Psychostick
3) I think its a brilliant idea and fits well with the music
4) I like the slow motion shots and the quick cut editing, I think you've done a brilliant job for a rough cut!
5) There were a couple of shots used more than once that need to be changed, apart from that I couldn't find a flaw!
6) I would have a similar style to what you filmed except have it at a much slower pace, and I would have whoever calls the children in for tea/end of break time turn around and have a sword showing on his back to get the audience to think even more.


Poppy Frost
1) I would have people fighting and something related to history, with shields and swords etc.
2) Any video by the Gorillaz, OK Go!, and Take On Me by Ah-Ha!
3) It sounds like a very good concept, and the name of the song and the genre of music fit together very well with the idea.
4) I really liked the shot where the axe comes down on the camera, and its a different location to what many media students have chosen to film in.
5) I think you could at a few more fast paced shots to increase the drama of the battle.
6) The shots need to be longer in length so that it is less dramatic than the actual battle.


Josh Field
1) Guitars and bands, maybe a story line involved to keep the audience interested but doesn't always have to be the case.
2) I don't really watch many music videos, but Twenty One Pilots release some good music videos.
3) I think it's a really different and clever idea. Its good that you'll end watching it with a different perspective to how you started watching it.
4) It was a really well shot and well worked video! The actors you brought in were amazing and it fitted well with the genre of the song.
5) There are a few songs that are the same, so I would edit those out. Apart from that its perfect!
6) I would have it in a different location to where you first filmed it, like a school playground or in a garden. Have the children pretend fighting with cardboard and plastic swords to make it like they are really pretending.

Audience research

For research, we decided to ask people to answer a series of questions. We have edited their responses into a video below:

The video was edited by Dan, and is 8 minutes of responses from over 6 people, some of which we filmed at the same time to try and encourage conversation between the people about their responses. As well as this, we also created a survey which has so far received 14 responses (1/13/16). The link to this is available below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-X7TYLQ9Q/

In  my opinion, the most important question of our research was the opinion of the participant of our current video and idea. This is because we will be able to use their feedback to think of ways we can improve anything to be done, such as the editing.

Final script

From the initial script, our final script is not different at all. This is because we were slightly ahead and so had many pieces already planned, and because there is only one line of dialogue. The previous post was as follows:

As our video is a music video, there will be very little dialogue. The main script will be the lyrics. The lyrics start with a reading by a man with a traditional Norfolk accent:

 

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain
Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless
Barbarian!



 

While this narration takes place, we will see setting shots of the beach, the ocean, and the sky. These will help to set the scene for the video. Each clip will last no more than 5 seconds to keep the audience engaged. The shots will all be long shots, fitting lots of scenery into the shot. As the word 'barbarian' is said, the screen will fade to black. A short moment after this, the next scene comes in (without fading, for impact), and should do so in time with the music.

 

The rest of the lyrics will be as follows:

 

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain
Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless
Barbarian!

Remorseless Norsemen swim ashore
The Eastern coast belongs to us no more!
Shirtless in the rain
The Heathen army's upon us
Once again!
Led by the sons of Ragnar

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain!
Edward the Martyr cut down
By a Dane!
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)

Reducing the feeble citadels
To ashes and blood stain
Enslaving the sweet women-folk
Whilst every man is slain

We'll spare perhaps a child or two
That our legend may grow
We'll take your precious horses
Leave your corpses in the snow

We'll march onward Tanasia
And carve the land a scar
In case you were all wondering
We're the sons of Ragnar!

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
We're the sons of Ragnar!
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
We're the sons of Ragnar!

 

During the song, while these lyrics are being heard, there will be a great battle scenes with axes swinging, shields clashing, and shouting from the Viking warriors. The audience will see a mix of long shots, mid shots, close up, quick cuts, and POV shots. These will be seen in a manic fashion that will emphasise the excitement and the power of the battle.

 

After the battle, as the song draws to a close, the scene changes (see plot) to children. These children will be laughing and giggling and shouting while they pretend to battle each other. The shots at this point will be less fast paced, less frequent, and more basic mid shots. This is because it will allow the audience to be brought back to reality not only by the characters, but by the camera work. As a teacher comes to call them in he will say 'Back to lessons please!' and then turn to walk away. The shot during this short piece of dialogue will be either a close up or a mid shot of the teacher. After this, the camera will fade to black and the video will be over.

Final prop list

When we first had our idea, we did not know how we would be able to provide all the costumes and props for our video, but after choosing to use a re-enactment group, this because much easier. This is because they were able to bring all of the kit that they needed, so we only needed to provide the cameras and other filming equipment. For the second part of our video the props we will need are rulers (for swords) and books (for shields). These books will also have a handle on the back to make the holding of them much easier.
This equipment will be made a few days before the filming day, to prevent them being damaged before they are required.

Ancillary task - Digipak

Digipaks are small cases, made from card, that are usually used when an artist releases a CD single or a special edition of an album. Digipaks are typically made with 4 or 6 panels and contain jewel cases (the plastic bits) to house CDs. Most digipaks will house only one CD but some digipaks are made to house two CDs, with a jewel case at either end of the digipak. The role of digipaks is to allow an artist to cheaply distribute their music to their target audience, as card is a lot cheaper than the typical plastic CD case, although it is not as durable and can easily become damaged. 

The above digipak is from the band Mumford and Sons and is for their album Sigh No More. This digipak has six panels for pictures and text and features one jewel case to house a CD. This digipak uses plain colours and simple, yet interesting images to deliver the product to the target audience. The CD itself is a bold and contrasting colour to the rest of the product, making it easily identifiable and stand out.

This Arctic Monkeys digipak is a four-panel pack that is designed from card to house one CD in a jewel case, as well as also containing a booklet of photos of the band. This digipak uses monochrome designs and pictures to advertise the product to the target audience. One thing that I do like about the design of this product is that picture on the CD matches the behaviours of the man on the front and back cover - I think this is a much more effective design in comparison to having the CD a plain colour. 

The Fall Out Boy digipak below is entirely made from card and so does not contain a jewel case for the CD - instead it slots into a card sleeve. This is a four-panel digipak that also contains a small booklet that is housed in the other side of the case. This digipak was released as a case for the deluxe version of the band's newest album American Beauty/American Psycho. The product features bright, intriguing colours and pictures of the band - all helping to catch the eyes of the target audience, making them want to buy the product. In my opinion I like the inside of the digipak very much and think that it looks artistic and interesting - something that would attract the target audience because the designs are unique and detailed. The picture on the front cover is simple, yet still interesting. The use of the American flag face-paint is appealing and helps to communicate with the audience about the title of the album, as well as potentially hinting at the fact that the band themselves are American. I also like how on the back cover, one of the band members (Pete Wentz) is turning his head to face the camera.

When designing our own digipak, we hope to make it interesting and intriguing to appeal to the target audience. In particular an album cover that I myself have liked very much is from a band called Everything Everything. I like how the front of the case shows the faces of the band and the back cover shows the back of their heads - this is an idea that I would like to incorporate into our ancillary products, especially when designing the digipak.

 

Something to consider when creating our music video and two ancillary products is to have a running theme throughout the three products. In our group we decided that it would be interesting to keep the theme of Vikings throughout our ancillary products and so we have began coming up with design ideas to incorporate pictures of our Viking cast, that have been used in the production of our music video, into our digipak and poster.

Meeting The Darkness!

Yesterday, me and Luke went to see The Darkness at Open in Norwich. We thought it was just going to be like any other gig, but before we left, I got a call from my dad telling us he had got us on the band's guestlist! This meant we would be able to meet the band and talk to them about their music (and our media coursework), as well as getting a few albums signed of course.

During a Q&A with the band, Luke asked if they would be able to watch our first cut and give us feedback, and possibly be in the video. Dan Hawkins (guitarist) said that after the Q&A, we could discuss it with them. We first showed the video to Dan who thought it was brilliant, looked exciting, and he also commented on how brutal one of the Vikings looked. While he was watching, Frankie Poullain (bassist) looked at the video and instantly turned to his manager to ask 'Can we do something with this?' After more discussion, the band said that they would love to participate in the video if they had the time to, as they are not in the area for long and will be visiting family while they are here. We have been given contact details of the band and we have let them know that we will work to their busy schedule to see if something can be arranged.

If they are not free to film before our coursework needs to be finished, we have asked if the band members can give us some quotable feedback on the rough cut of the video that we can use as audience research. As well as this, we are also taking precautions for if they cannot film by filming the remaining scenes without them. This means that if they can film, we can replace the clips, but if not, then there will be no need to worry about rushing the last pieces of footage.

First cut of viking scenes!

After filming a few weeks ago, we decided to put together a rough cut of what we had so far. We did this to get a visual representation of what the final product would be like, and so that if possible, we could show The Darkness what we had to work with. Below is the first cut:

Target Audience for video

The target audience for our music video is any fans of the rock/heavy genre that we are looking at. As music is subjective, we believe that people who enjoy the music will enjoy the video, and the age range for the audience will depend upon which age ranges enjoy the music.
The video engages with the audience mainly by the relatable scene at the end. Everyone was an imaginative child at some point so, for older audiences, they will be able to reminisce about their childhood. As well as this, we have some POV shots during the Viking battle, which will engage the audience by pulling them into the battle.

As well as the video, we are trying to attract a target audience by the use of exciting images for our Ancillary tasks (posters, CD covers, etc.). We will be using images such as the one shown here to entice the audience into buying our products and watching our video.

Initial script

As our video is a music video, there will be very little dialogue. The main script will be the lyrics. The lyrics start with a reading by a man with a traditional Norfolk accent:

 

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain
Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless
Barbarian!



 

While this narration takes place, we will see setting shots of the beach, the ocean, and the sky. These will help to set the scene for the video. Each clip will last no more than 5 seconds to keep the audience engaged. The shots will all be long shots, fitting lots of scenery into the shot. As the word 'barbarian' is said, the screen will fade to black. A short moment after this, the next scene comes in (without fading, for impact), and should do so in time with the music.

 

The rest of the lyrics will be as follows:

 

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain
Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless
Barbarian!

Remorseless Norsemen swim ashore
The Eastern coast belongs to us no more!
Shirtless in the rain
The Heathen army's upon us
Once again!
Led by the sons of Ragnar

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)

One by one the Kingdoms fall
They looked upon this isle and took is all
Harbingers of pain!
Edward the Martyr cut down
By a Dane!
On the orders of Ivar the Boneless

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)

Reducing the feeble citadels
To ashes and blood stain
Enslaving the sweet women-folk
Whilst every man is slain

We'll spare perhaps a child or two
That our legend may grow
We'll take your precious horses
Leave your corpses in the snow

We'll march onward Tanasia
And carve the land a scar
In case you were all wondering
We're the sons of Ragnar!

Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
We're the sons of Ragnar!
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh)
We're the sons of Ragnar!

 

During the song, while these lyrics are being heard, there will be a great battle scenes with axes swinging, shields clashing, and shouting from the Viking warriors. The audience will see a mix of long shots, mid shots, close up, quick cuts, and POV shots. These will be seen in a manic fashion that will emphasise the excitement and the power of the battle.

 

After the battle, as the song draws to a close, the scene changes (see plot) to children. These children will be laughing and giggling and shouting while they pretend to battle each other. The shots at this point will be less fast paced, less frequent, and more basic mid shots. This is because it will allow the audience to be brought back to reality not only by the characters, but by the camera work. As a teacher comes to call them in he will say 'Back to lessons please!' and then turn to walk away. The shot during this short piece of dialogue will be either a close up or a mid shot of the teacher. After this, the camera will fade to black and the video will be over.

Sunday's filming

So last Sunday (the 15th) we filmed the main part of our music video for 'Barbarian'. We met with the WUFFA re-enactment team at 12 in Yarmouth by the coast and filmed for about 2 hours. The filming itself went really well, we had 3 cameras to get different angles and types of shot throughout the shoot so that we didn't have to do too many retakes. We all took part in filming and discussed ideas that each of us made, since we had gotten the basic idea of what to do and what we wanted on film from our storyboard. The WUFFA team themselves were very good as well, as many of them had been in bigger feature films and had their own director who knew how the battle would be don't authentically and safely. The only mishap we had was when one of the actors dislocated his knee while we were filming, and an ambulance was called for him, so he had to pull out of filming, but he was happy for us to use the footage we had. We are considering adding a live band playing the song to the video as it means we only have to use the best footage that we got on Sunday, but were going to have a edit with just the WUFFA done first and then decide afterwards.
Overall the day went very well, and we hope that the next shoot for the last part of the video goes just as well.

Shooting schedule for tomorrow

Tomorrow, we will be filming the Viking scenes for our music video! We plan to leave at about 10:30 and arrive at the filming site in Yarmouth at around 11:30, ready for when the re-enactment group arrive there at 11:00. We are hoping to film between 12:!5 and 3:00. The 15 minutes after the group arrive will give them and us time to practice, set up, and get ready to film.

Final storyboards

Below are the final storyboards for our video:

As you can see, the ones for the Viking half of the filming are the same as we used in the initial plans. This is because we knew the story and the shots that we wanted from the start, so the initial storyboard was perfect for us.

We will try to stick to these as much as we can during filming.

Initial Storyboards

Above are the storyboards for our music video. These are photos of the original storyboards that we used in our dragons den style pitch to a panel of teachers and students.

Casting

For our music video there aren't any real characters as such, its mainly just two groups acting in different scenes.

• The first half of the music video will feature the re-enactment group Wuffa performing a battle scene between two sides - this group of actors are ideal for this role because they already have the skills and costumes that we would want/need for our coursework (this means that we can save time and money on finding the correct equipment and clothing for our actors).  
• The second half of the music video will feature a student drama group from within the school - the good thing about using a drama group like this is that they all joined the group because they have an interest in drama and acting. This means that the students that we will work with will be optimistic and helpful in the filming process, sticking to what we want them to do.  

Initial characters and cast

For our music video, the main characters will be:

• Viking group
• The school children playing at the end of the video
• The headmaster of the school, who calls the children in for lessons

The Viking group should bring some realistic footage to our video. We plan to have an authentic looking battle, which will allow the audience to engage with them by seeing the action of their fighting. The cast for this group will be the Wuffa Re-enactment group of Gorleston.

The school children should hopefully make the video more relatable. All kids have a great imagination, so by showing this through a pretend/realistic battle, we can really show the full extent of this imagination. For this cast, we plan to use a group of children in year 7 at our sixth form's high school. This was arranged after our teacher mentioned that they enjoyed re-enacting battles, and that they enjoy studying history.

The final character, the headmaster, will hopefully bring some comedy and cleverness to the video. As he turns to reveal a hidden Viking weapon, the audience will become engaged as they realise that he could have been a Viking all along. We do not yet have anyone cast for the role of the headmaster, but will hopefully have a choice within the next few days.

Location Research

When researching the location for the first half of our music video, we wanted somewhere that wasn't going to be busy with other people and there was enough space to film comfortably. We did think that a forest could be a good place to film, but we would then have to find an open space inside the forest so that the fighting wouldn't look too enclosed.

And then we thought about using a sandy beach to shoot our Viking battle scene on but soon discarded that idea because we didn't want to have to worry about the tide coming in and so rearranging the crew every so often.

 

After a little more research we found a grassland on the out-skirts of Great Yarmouth - it is the perfect location! The grassland is bumpy with a few big hills, which we can use to our advantage when filming, and there is a lot of space for the actors to run around and act in.

 

We chose to film at this grassland location because the re-enactment group, WUFFA, that we're using in our music video are based in the this area and so we thought that the beach near them would be perfect. This also meant that we wouldn't necessarily have to worry about whether actors could get to the location or not as essentially we would be travelling to somewhere that they are used to and is convenient for them.

 

When filming we hope that the weather won't be rainy or too sunny. The ideal weather conditions would be cloudy and windy. The wind would help make the acting look more realistic as a 'flying' cape will look better than one that just hangs off the actors shoulders.

What makes a successful music video?

A successful music is one that will capture the audience's attention and keep it. The music video also needs to be unique and different, if its something that we've seen a thousand times before then its unlikely to get many views or attention. A music video that is very different and creative is OK Go's 'The Writings on the Wall'. They use a single continuous shot and optical illusions to create their video. Something like this is what would be remembered most by viewers - not so much the tune or words of the song, but the distinctive music video that accompanies it.

 

Another thing that contributes to the success of the music video is the narrative or the picture behind it. By this I mean that a music video may be seen as more interesting, and therefore gain more attention, if it has an intriguing plot and characters that are relatable. An example of a music video that features a plot is Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. As well as Michael being a huge star and having a huge budget for the video, the narrative is interesting and the characters are compelling.

 



 

Some would argue that the bigger the budget, the better the music video will be. In 1995, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson spent $7 million on the video for 'Scream' which would have been over $10 million today. But sometimes, whether intentionally or not, a band pulls off a great music video with hardly any budget at all. An example being Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You' music video. The budget for this video was $800 and it was shot guerilla-style - meaning that it is mostly improvised, there is limited crew members and is usually shot at a location without the owners permission. This music video was shot all in one take outside a California movie theatre. The video was directed by Spike Jonze (Her, Being John Malkovich and Where The Wild Things Are) and he leads the fictional 'Torrance Community Dance Group' as they perform a shaky but captivating dance routine to a live audience of confused onlookers. At one point in the video, a movie theatre employee actually comes and shuts off the music, although it doesn't stop the performers from dancing on.

 



 

At the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards this video was nominated for Best Dance Video, whilst winning three major awards for Breakthrough Video, Best Choreography and Best Direction (awarded to the dance group). 

Consumption of music and music videos

Before the big developments in technology, people in the 1940s would use vinyl (also known as PVC) to play music on a turntable. This format of playing music is becoming increasingly popular with younger generations nowadays.

 

In 1964 the cassette tape was created to allow people to play music whenever they wanted. Although this isn't necessarily about viewing and sharing music video, this was a big step in the consumption of music.

 

In 1981 the TV station MTV was created, allowing bands to share their music across TV stations in the UK and USA. By the 1990s, MTV were playing a combination of pop-friendly hard rock acts, chart-topping metal and rock acts, like Metallica. With its rapidly increasing popularity, MTV was the perfect place for bands to promote their music, as well as bringing around the idea of the music video.

 

In 1982 the compact disc (CD) was created, allowing audiences to listen to music in different formats.

 

In 1990 MTV was the only way for people to consume music video. Most people were influenced by what music to listen to as MTV was a main place for suggestions of 'popular' music.

 

In 2004 iTunes was created as a music sharing platform for artists. This online service allowed users to buy music and film, as well as giving them the opportunity to view music video. Any product purchased would then be made available for consumers to put onto their portable devices, typically the iPod which was created by Apple in 2001.

In 2006 Youtube was created. It is an online program in which users are able to share music videos, and more or less any media, with each other. This is now the main way that audiences consume music video.

Initial plot synopsis ideas

Our plot idea is as follows:
The video will start with a Viking group walking towards another group on a beach/grassland setting. They will start to run towards each other and a battle will commence. A majority of the video will then be many battle shots including point of view, mid shots, long shots, and close ups. Towards the end of the battle, one character will be killed by another, and as they hit the floor (most likely in slow motion), the scene will change to a child on the floor (in the same position as the previous character). From here, the child will get up to go and pretend battle again, and as they do so, a teacher (to be played by an adult), will call them in for lessons, and as the teacher turns around to walk in with them, they will be holding a Viking prop. This will suggest that even though the children were using their imagination, that the imagination will stay with them all their lives, and they will not forget their childhood.

We came to this idea after a brainstorming as a group. We all wrote down our ideas, which were influenced by our preliminary tasks, and came to a conclusion based upon the ideas we had.  I do not like any particular parts of our final idea because I believe the whole idea is clever, original, and will be exciting enough to engage an audience from start to finish.

Footage in a music video

When creating a music video, it is important to divide the footage into the different types of footage that are stereotypical to music videos. These are shown in the table below:

Type of footage	Conventions	Pros	Cons
Lip Syncing	The artists will be singing, playing instruments, etc. This will often take place on a stage or in a single room. In some videos, this will take place in an abstract setting.	It allows the band to be seen. It promotes themselves, their equipment and their perceived live ability.	If synchronisation is not clean and performed successful, the video will not appear as successful.
Narrative story	A story between one or a few characters. In most pop songs, a love story. In some videos, it may be a journey of a character who is mentioned in the song.	It creates a better visual for the audience which can help them to remember the song.	The band may not be as associated as if they were seen in the video. An audience may be expecting to see the band.
Mix of both of the above	Snaps between the lip syncing and the narrative. Sometimes the artist/s may be the characters within the video, lip syncing at the same time.	It eliminates the cons of just having one of the two elements. It allows the video to be more exciting, with no time period that will allow the audience to be bored.	It may be too much for the audience, so the right balance is needed for it to be successful.

For our video, we plan to use just narrative and no lip syncing. This is because we want the piece to be able to tell the story of the song successfully, so if we dedicate more of the play time to a narrative, the story will be more intriguing.

Timeline of Iconic music video moments

1925 - Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues

This is one of the very first music videos and was first shown in theatres in 1925 and is filmed completely in black and white. The video solely features the musicians playing their instruments, like someone is just recording the song being played live. As we can see, music videos have changed a lot since the 1920s.

1956 - Tony Bennett - Stranger in Paradise
This music video was filmed in Hyde Park, London and was the first music video to be broadcast on TV stations across the UK and the USA - this would then lead to the creation of TV stations specifically designed to broadcast music, e.g, MTV and Top of the Pops. 

1964 - The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

This is one of the first music videos to feature a narrative, still being filmed in black and white. This song is also iconic because it features in a film, as well as a music video and is one of the main influences on the creating process of other music videos to come. 

1967 - The Beatles - Penny Lane 

The Beatles started changing the ideas of music video production with their next video. They  started using the codes and conventions of videos that are used by big modern post-production companies nowadays. Some of these techniques included dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. 

1970 - The Jackson Five - I Want You Back

The 1970's saw the music video scene change with more emphasis being put on just the artist singing. This lead to the develop of the 'cross-cutting' technique in which the music video will cut between shots of the artist singing and a complementary narrative. 

1972 - Devo - The Truth About De-Evolution

This music video started off the idea of self-produced music videos, beginning the genre of the 'experimental' music video genre. 

1980 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

This year started a whole new style for the music video, as well as the introduction of the TV show 'Top of the Pops' - which would promote an artist's music and create a competition between them for the best song. 

1981 - The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star

In 1981 it was the introduction of MTV and the first video aired was 'Video Killed the Radio Star, it was a real break-through in the evolution of music videos and as you can see it was a very high-budget video in which we can see more development in editing such as 'over-laying'. MTV was responsible for the success of artists, like Madonna, as it played a central role in their marketing.

1982 - Michael Jackson - Thriller

This music video began the idea of having a storyline music video that follows a narrative, almost like a mini movie. The video contains sophisticated visuals, taking the music video production industry to a whole new level. From then on music videos were seen as big promotional techniques and were beginning to be made with very big budgets.

1985 - A'ha - Take On Me

This comic book/live-action combination is known as 'rotoscoping' and meant the music video took 16 weeks to complete. Because of this unique-styled music video this got the artist a lot of promotion for their work, showing that technology like MTV and Top of the Pops was important for advertising new music in the 20th Century. 

2012 - Emeli Sandé - Next to Me

Most enthusiasts often like the aesthetic appeal of music videos. Many modern artists feel the need to create aesthetically pleasing music videos to show case their songs.

2013 - Iggy Azalea - Work

In the current music video era that we live in today the adoption of the 'sex appeal' of female artists has monopolised the music industry, as these methods tend to get more attention from viewers and so makes the artist more money.