19. Music Video First Draft and Audience Feeback

Audience Feedback: 

I have recieved a fair amount of feedback from members/fellow students in the media department.

One person said that the casting of the couple was a good idea and matched well with the tone of the song. They also said that I should attempt fixing the amount of Camera Wobble.

I also wrote down feedback from a member of the Media Department itself, below are his suggestions of what to change in my video:

1. Add a dissolve into the 4th frame
2. Add 'home movie' style filter to the footage in the timeline
3. Cut the shot of walking from behind as it doesn't promote anything
4. Edit the close up of the waves into slow motion
5. Edit the some of the walking into slow motion
6. Dissolve the walking and standing shots
7. Cut the shots with a lot of wobble
8. Reverse/flip the 'car shot'
9. Create a slow motion motif by adding more in

This person also suggested an idea that I should create a sort of walking montage within the film in order to give my video stages to make it less dull in the middle. We have edited the video in order to make it less dull also using more fades and dissolves to smoothen out the editing making the cuts less harsh and sudden, I feel that this also reflects the tone of the song we chose as it is fairly slow and calm.

16. Health and Safety Assessment

This is the risk assessment table that I completed, it goes through possible situations/hazards that could put the different people on the set of the music video in danger and gives a sensible action that could be made as precautions in order to come out with a solution to that hazard.

15. Mise-en-Scene: Casting, Location, Costume and Props of my Music Video

Casting: As explained in the synopsis of my video, I have decided to change the casting from what would be the band members to casting a real couple to play a couple on screen in order to give the video more of a narrative and meaning while at the same time as being fairly abstract in the way that it will just be shot as a 'day in the life' of this couple. The performance by the couple will be important in communicating the style of home movie, also communicating the theme of nostalgia, as well as the theme of love.

Props: I was not planning on including any props into my film as it is very candid and I want it to feel like it is being stripped bare without adding layers and layers on mise-en-scene so to speak.

Location: The location that I picked for my music video was the cliffs and seafront of Scarborough's North and South Bay. I chose this location because it is where I used to go as a child, so I knew the area for one but also it has sort of meaningful personal value to me and so does the song so I knew filming a 'day in the life' style of video here would fit and also motivate me because its what I want to do and where I want to film it. 

Costumes: The costumes for my music video will be typical modern indie rock, i.e. a lot of denim, black jeans, Vans shoes etc. The couple that we have chosen to cast in our music video already style themselves in the indie fashion so this makes it slightly easier in terms of costume as it will be their own clothes.  Below are examples of a male and a female modern indie rocker, this is the style that my music video's costume/aesthetic will be modeled around.
















http://s3cdn-lookbooknu.netdna-ssl.com/files/looks/large/2012/03/16/2031145_INDIE_048.jpg?1331923396

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/42/74/32/4274320ed99bbdbf2250182a5ee7dbe4.jpg

Cast List:

• Male in couple             Matty Laws
• Female in couple         Nellie Buttifant

14. Animatic

13. Storyboard

12. Lyrics, Lyric Analysis and Lyric Timings

Firstly the title 'Liquorlip Loaded Gun' suggests some relation to alcohol abuse and how maybe in a drunken state the lead singer may abuse/hurt others around him. I feel that the lyrics reflect this perception quite well, I also feel that love is a fairly major theme in the song too.

11. Defining My Audience

The audience that I would say this particular band would be targeted at is aged around probably 16-25 for a general range, but also suitable for people 25+. The type of audience that I would want to attract is the sort of audience that go to gigs, not necessarily large/arena gigs all the time but more intimate rock/indie rock gigs, sort of in an underground music scene not known to most of the mainstream public. The video for our band would probably not be shown on popular music television stations like MTV, VIVA or even KERRANG! YouTube would be the main place to watch the music video. The style of my audience will be sort of modern indie, i.e. ripped black jeans, leather or denim jacks, Vans etc.

Mood Board:

 Social Demographic:

 

The social demographic that I would be targeting would be D: the working class of unskilled manual workers and E: the casual/lowest workers.

Class D: I would target this class as it usual consists of people in their late teens to early 20's that do sort of manual jobs. Indie bands like Blossoms and Catfish and The Bottle men don't charge that much for tickets to their gigs, this is what Brother Be would be like.

Class E: I have targeted this demographic for the same reason as they do not necessarily make large amounts of money and the fact that my band is an indie band means that they would not charge huge prices for gigs, albums, merchandise etc.

This is the sort of demographic to be constantly listening to indie music on their iPhones, iPods or on Youtube, also looking for the next gig to watch by the next up and coming indie band, drinking in traditional pubs, drinking draft beer like Carling, Coors and Ales like Black Sheep or Punk IPA. Their jobs may not me the highest paying jobs e.g. bricklaying, contracting, joinery and even students. Students would probably be the biggest part of the demographic for my band and products, students spanning from college/sixthform to university. The student life is suitable to this as most indie bands now are used on music sharing apps like Spotify and Apple Music, both of which have a discount price for students with student cards or NUS. Fashion would be fairly important to my target demographic as the new style of indie fashion looks for new more outrageous ways to state ones individuality through clothing, this is ofte reflected in the music that some bands make also.

10. Production Plan

9. Initial Ideas of Media Language

Cinematography:

• I would like to include quite a fair few panning and tilt shots in my music video, these would mostly be of the rural areas that I will be filming, e.g. forrests, beaches, cliffs etc.
• I will use many close-ups and extreme close-ups of the characters in my film, I will use these shots in order to create a certain level of intimacy and build an emotional relationship  between the audience and the characters on screen. I feel this would be effective as I know that the song I have chosen is quite emotional and has some powerful drops in it that do effect the audience emotionally, and I feel that with the right close up shots I can enhance the emotion of the song through them to make my music video have an effect on the audience. 
• I will shots like medium close-ups, tracking shots, establishing shots and others of this kind in order to create that home movie/day in the life feel to the video, These shots are conventional of this style as they give a sense of verisimilitude to the video as home videos are shot very informally, this is how I feel I will achieve this style of filming.
• Low angles will also be used in my music video as I would like to give the a message that love is strong reflected my intended theme of love. 
• All of these conform to the codes and conventions of indie music videos.

Mise-en-Scene:

• The costume of the characters in the video will be wearing typical popular indie clothing, the style will be more modern and more contemporary than that of the older indie styles.
• One note of performance that I would like to use in the music video from the actors would be to be looking into the camera as well as looking away from it, this is for two reasons: the first reason is that the home movie style of film obviously shows the people of film looking into the camera or else it wouldn't be typical home movie; and the second is that looking into the camera creates even more of a relationship with the audience of the video, this is because it could make the audience feel that they are looking  at them specifically.
• Setting/Location: The location that I would like to use for the music video would be the North and South Bays of Scarborough, East Yorkshire; this is a seaside town on the east coast of Northern England where the sun catches the beachfront nicely at certain times of day - given the weather of course. I has the perfect landscape i.e. beaches, cliffs, wooded areas, for what I want my film to look like, the rural areas also conform to conventions of indie rock videos as I discussed in post 3.
• The perfect lighting for my music video would be sunny with preferable clear skies, this is because I would like my video to have a happy tone to it as it reflects a fun day in the life sort of video, also the home movie style of video is typically shot in the sun to give a sort of positive, nostalgic feel. This is the feeling that I would like to get from my music video. Ocean Colour Scene's The Day We Caught the Train is a good example of this too.

Editing:

• The use of transitions will be crucial for my video i believe, the use of too many will ruin the continuity and verisimilitude of the home movie style, however, I would like to use some to go with the more self-reflexive aspects of the video to go with the breaking of the fourth wall, subtly making itself aware of the fact that it is only a music video while still being in-keeping with the home movie format and conventions.
• Visual effects: The visual effects are not so much effects like CGI, animation of special effects, but more in the way of colour effects and filters. In order for me to keep within this often-mentioned home movie format,;I am going to adjust the colour filter on my footage in order to so, I will give the footage more of a sepia filter i.e. a faintly orange tinge.
• The only way that  my video will wont be in-keeping with the desired home movie/day in the life format will probably its non-linear editing, as, conventionally, home movies are not editing and so they take on a linear format in the way that it tells the story as it is happening and it just goes in one line, but I would like to be more in touch with the codes of a conventional indie music video where the shots change from different locations in a non-linear format e.g. Blossoms' Getaway.

8. Music Video Synopsis

The brief outline for the music video that I would like to direct is this; as the song starts there is a count in from 1 to 4 and during this I would like to have 4 different establishing shots (cinematography) of natural/rural locations all changing on the numbers that are counted (editing) then one slow pan of another different location when the piano and the beginning of the songs is playing. When the lyrics start I would very much like to have another closer establishing shot of the band all looking at the camera, I will then cut to close ups of the band, between these close ups I will add footage of the 'day in the life' sort of events that are film throughout the day of the shoot. The close ups will eventually stop in the song and more footage of the band and friends will carry on this time with the shots getting darker and darker towards sunset, for the final frames I want there to be some sort of camp fire related shots where the band and friends are sat enjoying each other's company, my main aim for this music video is that I want it to be very candid i.e for it to feel like the audience is actually their with the band. For the final 2 or 3 shots I will have shot of the band alone walking, then a long shot of the band/group all together looking into the camera as the first sign of breaking the 4th wall and for the final shot I will have an establishing shot of a natural/rural setting again this time at sunset.

In the editing process I will change all of the footage to black and white and then add more of an orange tinge to make it look similar to footage from a super8 camera but with a more modern feel as it reflects the bands modern style.

In reflection of the music video and the casting our group has decided not to cast people to play the band that we have created but to instead cast a couple to be in our music video. I feel this will give the video more of a narrative format rather than an abstract format. The couple will give a narrative to the music video also and will relate more to the lyrics and the theme of love embedded within them. In post production editing I will not change the footage into black and white, I will only change the colour filter to more of a sepia style filter. By not changing the colour into black and white I feel it will reflect the theme better as more vivid colours will be seen.

7. Creating the Mock Band/Artist

Style: 
Sticky Fingers: Sticky Fingers are an indie band that work quite a lot of reggae elements into their music, their earlier style is not typical of the indie genre.

Their more recent style is similar to that of the Arctic Monkeys' style with the smarter more dressy look, featuring a lot of leather and denim. It is useful and effective for bands to change their styles because it can often change what they represent and also keeps them relevant in the ever changing styles of the media world and in society today.

Although the two styles of indie music that the two bands play are different, they still look very similar in the way of displaying more modern conventions of the indie rock genre. We see a lot of dark colours, what we can assume to be black including materials like leather and and denim.

Band Mates:
- Boyo
- Max
- Sam
- Leo
- Harley

For the music video we will have more cast members as extras in the background of the video and also with the band.

The name of the mock band is Brother Be, it will be a five piece band with the conventional indie format in terms of members and instruments; lead singer/rhythm guitarist (Boyo), lead guitarist (Sam), bass guitarist (Harley), Keys and Synths (Leo) and Drums (Max). This style/format of band would the band a typical indie sound but other styles could be worked in. 

Upon further consideration we have decided to use a different approach in the music video, we decided to use a couple to film which we could create more of a narrative with instead of shooting the band, this proved easier also as with our desired location (Scarborough) we would have had to get the whole cast there which would have been more difficult and more expensive too.




This is the look that we went for in the video instead of going for all black and leather, we went for a more modern indie look with the denim jackets. This will be explained in more detail in the mise-en-scene for my video (post 15): https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3478478989231054336#editor/target=post;postID=5474480068548049946;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=13;src=postname

6. Genre Theory

Genre is a type of category that a product is classified in e.g Films are categorized into different genres like horror and comedy. Certain tropes, codes and conventions define these genres and are needed in certain texts to be classified as that particular genre

Genres can be determined by the use of conventions, e.g. the use of scary music to build anticipation and suspense is often used in the horror genre, as well as motifs of spiritual disturbance and death,

Genre is a critical tool that helps us study texts, audiences respond to these texts by dividing them into categories based on these common elements.

Daniel Chandler (2001) argues that the word genre comes from the french - and originally Latin - word for 'kind' and 'class'. The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory and media theory to refer to a distinctive type of text.

Sub Genres:

• All genres have sub-genres
• A sub-genre is basically a genre inside of a genre
• This is were a genre is divided up into more specific categories, it allow audiences to identify them more specifically by their conventions. (Barry Keith Grant)
• However, Steve Neale (1995) stresses that "genres are not systems they are processes of systematisation" - i.e. they are dynamic and evolve over time

Hybrid Genres:

• A hybrid genre is basically a mixture of two or more genres 

• Genre is a process of systematisation; the idea that any text reflects the ideology of the era that they have created.
• They evolved with the times in which they are made.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory: The idea that information/ideas are given to an audience, e.g. the media giving information to the public, and it is wholly taken in and believed.

Generic characteristics across all texts share similar elements of the below depending on the medium:

• Typical mise-en-scene/visual style (iconography, props, set design, lighting, temporal and geographical location, costumes) 
• Typical Cinematography (shot types, camera angles)
• Typical narratives (plots, historical setting, set pieces)
• Generic types i.e. typical characters (do typical male/female roles exist, archetypes? Propps Character Types?)

Levi Strauss - Theory of Binary Oppositions: Strauss believed that all the majority of narratives happen to include in them at least one binary opposition. These binary oppositions were and are still used to thicken up the plot and in turn further the narrative.
Examples of a binary oppositions in media:

• Good vs Evil
• Light vs Dark
• Love vs Hate
• Black vs White
• Man vs Woman
• Young vs Old
• East vs West
• North vs South

Binary oppositions, however, aren't always good in films, they can often bring up issues of stereotypes, the most common being man vs woman, it can often bring up stereotypes of men being the 'hero' of the women being the 'damsel in distress'

Jason Mitchell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that suppress the boundaries of media texts and operate with industry, audience and cultural practices as well.





                                              Genre
Institution↗ codes and conventions  ↖ Audience
                                  ↘      Text        ↙

In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience's knowledge of society and other texts.

6. Narrative Theory

a.) = Inferred events

b.) = Explicitly shown events

c.) = Non diagetic material e.g subtitles

Story = what happens

Plot = how we see what happens

In media res means the middle of things.

Tim O'Sullivan (1998) argues all media texts tell us some kind of story, through careful meditation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves - story of culture or a set of cultures.

Bordwell and Thompson (1997) offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diagetic world of narrative that the audience are positioned to accept.

Story = Fabula

Plot = Syuzhet

Structure of the classic narrative system.  According to Pam Cook (1985) the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

• Linearity of cause and effect within overall trajectory of enigma (problem) resolution (chronological).
• A high degree of narrative closure.
• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.    

Tzvetan Tudora (1997) 

Equilibrium

protagonist

                                 Distribution - Quest - Resolution

Antagonist                                                   Re-equilibrium

Cause and effect

Narrative gives/haves dramatic interests

In short as O'Sullivan (1998) suggests narratives have a common structure staring with the establishing of plot or theme.  Then followed by development of the problem an enigma (Roland and Barthes 1997) an increase in tension.

6. Media Language Theory

Media Language is all based upon semiotics, the science of signs. Media language is used to analyse different types of media, or medium

A medium is one form of media e.g.

• a newspaper is a medium
• a newspaper, magazine and film are all media

Every medium has its own 'language' or combination of languages - that it uses to communicate meaning.

Media messages are constructed using creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication- whether newspapers, TV game shows or horror films - has its creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close ups etc.

In terms of producing a medium with a meaning, the institutions making the products encode the meanings of the product and the audience then decodes the meaning, this could result in the institution's meaning being different to the audiences perception of the media language.

Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language, especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to out deepest emotional core, increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptiblento manipulation.

According to theories CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE "We think only in signs" (1931)

Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavour, acts of objects, but no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.

"Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign"

Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as signifying something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is the meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of concerns of semiotics.

Linguist FERDINAND DE SASSURE (1974) offered a 'dyaic' of two-part model of the sign they defined.

6. Audience Theory

Audience is vital for any media texts.  If there is no audience the media text is meaningless.

Basic media theory:

Target Audience:

• Age
• Gender
• Price
• Social class - economic background
• Niche or Mass or Alternative
• Fragmented

Julian McDougal (2009) suggests that in the online age it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group.  An audience can be described as a 'temporary collective' (McQuail 1972)

Popular was a negative thing - there was no credibility of artistic value.

• Historically (until the 19th century) the term 'popular' was a negative thing, with overtones of vulgarity and triviality.  Something not 'nice' or 'respectable'.
• In the modern world, the term means 'respectable' liked or at least encountered by many people.  It has also come to mean 'mass produced' i.e made for a mass of people.
• There is a down side to this of course, in that it can also be interpreted as 'commercial' or 'trashy'.
• This leads into further consideration which is the definition of 'popular culture' as 'low' culture, something not for the elite but for the 'common' people.
• Cultural value (high culture) has been traditionally associated with dominant or powerful groups - those who have appreciation of classical music, art, ballet opera and so on.
• 'Low' or popular culture is everything not approved of as 'high'. It is vulgar, common or 'easy'.

Another definition of popular is literally 'of the people' a kind of 'folk' culture and this is an interesting area, because it encompasses the idea of an 'alternative' culture which includes minority groups, perhaps with subversive values.

The 'Indie' music scene is an example of this.  So 'popular' culture can and sometimes does challenge the dominant culture power groups.

In terms of media there has always been high and low culture, however it has now become blurry about how it effects audience and how audience consume.

Rigid class structure.

Len Ang (1991) detailed that media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product. "Audiences only exist as an imaginary entity, an abstraction, constructed from the vantage point of the institution, in the interest of the institution".

She also states that"audience is becoming an ever more multi-faced, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences".