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.