A2 Planning

Our first Team Meeting: Collaboration

In our first meeting we discussed our initial song ideas, how we would use them to create a video including how we would incorporate narrative and performance of the artist. We all had different ideas from different genres and artists, but after much discussion we came up with the agreement to use McFly's version of Mr Brightside. This song is originally performed by the Killers but the Mcfly version has softer sounds and we agreed it would be easier to get a group of boys that looked like a band of that sound.

   Researching our chosen band or artist: Rebekah- Me

     Our chosen band is McFly a British band formed in 2003, this Prezi explains a brief history of the band, the bands awards and our reasoning behind the song choice.

Research into influential videos of your chosen genre:Amy

The genre we have chosen is pop-rock. The band we have chosen is McFly and similar artists include The Jonas Brothers (S.O.S), Busted (What I Go to School For) and Boys Like Girls (Love Drunk).

These artists are similar because they're songs are lighthearted and still pop and rock. They are influential videos because Busted basically shaped McFly's career before they broke up, and The Jonas Brothers and Boys Like Girls sound similar. For example, the majority of their songs are upbeat and fun, with lyrics that aren't incredibly serious. They are easy to interpret, for example Busted: 'I love a member of the staff' and McFly's Obviously: 'Cause obviously / she's out of my league'. This shows the simplicity of lyrics and means that their target audience can understand what the band are trying to say without confusion.

Both Mcfly's, Busted, The Jonas Brothers and Boys Like Girls  videos have the same feel, with a mixture of narrative and performance. They're narrative usually involves the band, but we decided not to do this for our video because we feel that it would be too confusing for our audience as they're already watching a new video of a cover version of The Killers song! What I think we could get from these videos is the mixture of narrative and performance. The chosen bands all use similar cinematography, such as shot types and editing. Common shots for this genre are close-ups, mid shots and long shots, with the majority of the editing being cuts and minimal fades, and nearly always cut to the beat of the song, as this is the most natural and professional looking.  

Common costumes of the pop-rock genre include t-shirts, jeans and overall just very casual clothes. This is so that it doesn't look like they're almost trying too hard, so that it isn't almost like a music video but real life. The narrative in these music videos is often made to look natural and as real life as possible, whereas the performance often breaks the fourth wall as the singer looks directly down the lens. This means that the person watching the music video feels special, or like the singer is singing directly to them like their own private concert. 

Locations in pop-rock music videos are generally very similar to what is happening in the lyrics of the song, such as Busted's What I Go to School For is obviously going to be located in a school. The narrative usually happens in natural locations such as on a boat (S.O.S) or at a funfair (Love Drunk), whereas the performance is often shown in elaborate locations such as on a stage with thousands of fans screaming wildly - showing the success of the band. The narrative usually follows a sort of story line where the lead likes a girl and has to try and impress her in some way (usually succeeding) or the singer has been heartbroken by the girl and the narrative showcases this. Either way, the audience feels empathy for the singer and wants them to be happy. The narrative may sometimes have a cameo in it, such as Moises Arias (S.O.S) and Ashley Tisdale (Love Drunk). This may show that the band have many other famous friends and that they are really hip and cool. The ratio of performance to narrative is usually pretty equal, and there may be slightly more performance as to show the lyrics and the band - as it is their music video. 

The members in the band are often male, as it is usually females that watch the most music videos and 'follow' a band (be their fan) rather than males. Therefore, the males become 'eye candy' and people the females might enjoy watching. 

 After watching these three videos I think shots that have been frequently used are mid shots and long shots because they showcase the artist the most and look more natural than say if a high-angle extreme close-up was used. I think we will have more male actors rather than female such as the band members and two male actors dressed casually, and our Girl more glamorous. Doing this task has really helped us analyse and understand the pop genre's music videos so that ours can be as successful  as theirs. 
 

Individual Textual Analysis of a Music Video:

After Much discussion we have chosen to create a music video using McFly's version of Mr Brightside, originally by the killers. This version we chose is more pop and softer sounding than the original rock version. Our genre is therefore pop, pop/rock.

For this reason I chose to analyse Sara Barielles Love Song as it is a good representation of this pop genre.

Sara Barielles Love Song Analysis Document can be found here.

Analysing the lyrics: Collaboration- Ideas discussed together and written out and scanned by Rebekah.  

We analysed the lyrics to see what the song meant and was trying to represent so when we could create a narrative we could reflect the lyrics of the song.

Conclusion:

From analysing the lyrics we came up with one of two possible narratives.

Narrative 1: A girl cheats on guy A with guy B. Guy A realises that he doesn't need the girl anymore and breaks up with her.

Narrative 2: A guy falls in love with a girl and obsesses over her, but she isn't single.

Both narratives show off the lyrics with him trying to get out of the cage of his emotions, trying to free himself from his insecurities and loving someone he can no longer have. We chose to use narrative 1 although stereotypical we can work on making it more creative and different to other narratives found in music videos.

     Questionnaires:Megan- Who was still on the course

We carried out questionnaires asking people from different age groups, the questionnaire was the same one for each age group. From it we found teenagers of the ages 13- 17 were our target audience.

From doing the questionnaires it seems that our main target audience are of the ages between 13-17 years of age. They are the age which is right for our genre because pop is aimed for younger audiences. This age wants the video accessible by social networking sites like YouTube rather than being viewed on TV, which would be easiest for us to achieve. It seemed that the majority of people aged between 13 and 17 listen to pop music with the people aged between 18 and 30 enjoying rock. With McFly being a pop band we thought it  to be more important that they liked this genre. Older participants enjoy more classical sounding music so we knew our band wouldn't be right for them. We asked the people if the gender of the band would matter to them and older participants seemed to prefer girls in a band than guys, however our chosen song was sung by a boy band and the younger participants wanted either a mixed sex or male band. Older participants also didn't care much for music videos, meaning having them as our target audience would be pointless. By taking in account all the factors we found that our target audience would be of people of the ages between 13 and 17 because they tick the majority of the boxes showing they will enjoy our music video the most. 

 Mise-en-scene survey: Josh

We asked our target audience what they wanted from a video, costume, location and prop wise.

 

    Team Meeting 1.5- Minutes Amy- all collaborated

     Present: Rebekah, Megan, Joshua, Amy

     Created a list of what we have completed; questionnaire, results, brand research, costume/location/props survey.

Decided that the lyrics needed sending to the band A.S.A.P

The group decided that Amy needs to finish, upload and distribute the influential videos and genre conventions.

Discussed when/where we are going to talk to the band.

Finished original treatment.

Brand Image: Powerpoint- Rebekah. Original BI- Megan. New BI- Amy

We have chosen the colour red because it connotes lust, promiscuity, hatred, evil and death, and we feel that it sums up the song's angst well. This common colour means that it can be interpreted by many people including our target audience. I think that our brand image is very successful because it shows the grungy yet somewhat formal feel and look we want for our music video.

Treatment: Collabaration written out by Rebekah

     We created a treatment with our original idea, after it was criticised and after much discussion we created a new treatment showing our idea fully.

     Original:

Analysed : Notes copied from feedback from Poppy and Sara

Team Meeting:

     When another group analysed our treatment they left us constructive criticism so we could make our music video better because of the fact we had such a stereotypical narrative. After taking these into account we decided to continue on with the stereotypical narrative and characters because its easier for our target audience to relate to and really understand the meaning and the message. However we have tried to make our video as original as we can by adding shots of burning a photo and ending on the photo disintegrating, you don’t see this happening in many videos. We also created an element where Guy A  is watching the couple in a 'stalking' way this is because he is unaware of her affair and he is getting suspicious of her, so he decides to follow her and thats where he catches her, this leads up to the break up. We did this because of the fact you don't really see this in a music video and you definitely don't see it in a pop rock genre music video, so we've challenged a convention.. This links with the lyrics as the guy is not getting over this girl easily, and he is watching them together all the time.

 

     

    

     Pitching to class and teachers: Collaboration- PowerPoint- Amy, some help from Megan. All delivered the pitch

          

     We pitched our ideas to the rest of the class to receive criticism and make sure our idea was good enough to pitch to our focus group. We didn't receive many ideas from the class, but we got questions that we needed to answer before moving further. 

     

     

      After the pitch we had lots of questions to answer, and we recorded the meeting where these questions were answered. but I have written the answers out too because the cameras aren't very good at picking up speech.   

     Questions arising from our Pitch and Second Team Meeting: Meeting notes written by Rebekah

     Have you given the lyrics to any of your band to learn?

     Yes we have given the band the lyrics to learn, we are organising a meeting          with them soon and will be finding out if they have learnt them.

     Are you going to have a rehearsal with the band the day before shooting to get the

     movement right?

     Yes, we are organising a meeting with them to talk through what they will be 

     doing in the video and will be asking them when they are free to have a rehearsal.

    

      Have you allocated which member of the band is going to sing which part of the song?

      This will be discussed in the meeting with the band soon.

      Have you considered how you will direct the band?

      We will talk to them from behind the camera whilst filming as the sound will be dubbed out from our footage. We will make sure they look natural and look like they are enjoying the performance. We will ask them to do little gestures like bopping their heads to the beat.

   

      What will happen in the instrumentals?

       In the instrumentals we will be focusing on the band performance and have lots of close ups of the instruments and have some of the stalking element of the narrative.

      What are the narrative actors wearing? How will this link to the band performance? The actors are older than the band, how will this look?

     The narrative actors will be wearing casual clothes. The girl in the narrative will be wearing some element of red to represent how she is promiscuous. To link this to the band we have decided that in one of the costume changes the main singer will wear a red tie whilst the rest of the band will wear black ties. We have also decided that we will use a younger girl actress to blend the age link between the narrative actors and band. 

      How will you make them look like an established band and not a school band?

      Even though our target audience wanted a school look we have decided that this       won't work, as the band will look like school children with instruments rather          than an established band, and have changed the idea of them wearing a school uniform, instead are asking them to wear a white shirt and tie.

     How is your video going to have a "rock and roll feel" and demonstrate     rebelliousness? 

      I think this idea came with the band being a rebellious school kids, but this idea we decided wouldn't work and the video won't have this look.

  

     We decided that we were going to improve and change the idea against what our target audience wanted from the questionnaire, but will still keep aspects that the audience wanted like the costumes of the narrative actors, the locations and the basic idea behind the narrative. Things had to be changed to make the video look more professional and the band to look more established.

     It is important to mention that promptly after we had done the practice pitch featured above, Megan decided that she would not like to continue in our A-Level Media class. She has not been included in any other work after this moment, and our original team name R-JAM has been changed to JAR. 

            

    Team Meeting 2.5

      Present: Rebekah, Joshua, Amy

     For today’s meeting we decided to create an agenda for the meeting with the band that we are having on Monday. Instruments: Do they have instruments that they can bring in? Rebekah and Amy can apply both an electric and bass guitar.

1   Costumes: do they have black/navy/red/dark rinse jeans and a plain white t-shirt? Do they have either a red/black tie?

     How do they feel with performing in front of an audience?

     When are they free for recording? For example after school and on weekends.

     Have the band learnt the lyrics?

     Which person plays which instrument? And who would like to be the second ‘singer’ in the video?

1   Decided we needed to find a room to hold said meeting. Josh volunteered to ask around.

     The group debated whether or not we needed to give the band the treatment so that they knew the vision. We decided against it, but will just explain the narrative and where they will be performing.

     Decided that Josh would write the reason Megan left the A-Level course and Amy was to create a new brand image.     

 

    Band Meeting: All were present.

     We recognised the band to be younger than 16 so we had to write them a letter asking for health and safety reasons as well as to make sure they applied to the child protection act and the rules of safety around school. It was important as we wouldn't be able to use their image and post their image online for educational purposes without their parents consent.  we received all four letters back with a positive response and had a meeting with the band to discuss their role in the video. The four letters are shown below. We had to speak to Mrs Tunnicliffe our headteacher about the possibility of filming with the students and whether our letter was OK to be sent before filming, otherwise we would have been in a lot of trouble. In the meeting we asked the band the questions we had from the agenda:

     We found out who played which instruments. (Joe on Bass, Matt as singer, Jordan on Guitar and Alistar on the drums)

    

     We found out who had the correct costume, and they all said they had a white t-shirt, but no one owned a red tie. This is a problem we needed to sort by either asking around or purchasing one.

    Letters from all the band and actors used under the age of 16: scanned in by Rebekah

      Pitch idea in focus group: Powerpoint- Amy. Delivery- Rebekah 


     We pitched to a group of around 9 girls between the age of 13 and 15. Because of them being younger than 16 and no permission to film their faces we filmed everything from the back of their head including their feedback. We showed them our narrative idea to see if they could understand it and if they thought it made sense. They agreed with this and said the narrative was a good idea. They also said they can understand our interpretation to the music video. This is great as we achieved what we wanted to. 

I    Improved pitch:

    

       

   Team Meeting 3:

     We found our narrative actor for Guy A wasn't going to be as committed to being in our video as we first hoped. This made us think, we would have to do one of two things either change the actor and find someone else or get Josh who is playing Guy A to play Guy B to. We agreed on this idea, it meant that we had a committed actor as Josh takes the course. It also meant we would have to think more about Josh's costume for both characters. Guy A would be 'Geeky' and we would get him to wear glasses, have his hair brushed back, wearing a tie/bow-tie and braces. Whereas Guy B would be cool and would look polar opposite wearing trainers, and fashion style clothes. 

     Storyboard- Collabaration
    Images: Some are drawn, some photos.

       
 
   Team Meeting 3.5:
    After making our storyboard there was an issue of the two male characters being together in a few scenes, we then had to decide to change it back to the two separate people rather than the twins. We thought this might look a lot more professional as well due to having no budget the possibility of us making the twins look like they are two separate characters would be difficult.

     Shot list- Collabaration

     Shot List can be found here

 

   Location and Prop List- Josh 
     We carried out a prop and location list to make sure we knew what we needed and why we needed it.


Props:

Prop Required	Scene	Any other information	Rationale (why have you chosen this?)
Instruments (Bass & Electric guitar, Drums and a microphone with stand)	Scenes where the band are playing to the song so on stage and the music practice room, the two guitars will also be needed in a bag for one scene at the park.	Sometimes the microphone is used without the stand. And in some shots its just a close up of a particular band member playing their instrument.	This will make the music video more realistic with the band playing the song to the beat.
Black trousers, a white shirt and a tie.	When the band is performing live on the stage and when they are walking the streets, they also wear this costume on the field to show another place to perform.	The lead singer wears a red tie where the rest of the band wear a black tie	We chose this look because it’s a smart look for the band to be wearing whilst performing live. The lead singer wears a red tie as he can connect to the narrative
Black skinny jeans and a white t-shirt	This costume is used when the band are in the music practice room, this is because it looks like a recording studio so they are dressed casual.		We chose this look as it is casual wear for them recording, also the white t-shirt reflects on their innocence
A picture of Lauren	This will feature in one scene which will be cut up and used throughout; it will start off with me just looking at the picture and at the end will finish with the picture burning with the lead up to it disintegrating beforehand.	It will all be filmed in one take but we will edit it to show it through the music video	We are using this because it goes well with our narrative and at the beginning it shows me looking at the picture and at the end it shows me letting go of her.
Lighter	In the shots where I burn the picture of Lauren		To burn the picture so we can make our vision happen.
Mobile phone	In a shot where we will see Alex receiving a text from Lauren saying “Thanks for last night xx”	This will be the first time we are aware of Lauren and Alex being together	We’ve used this to introduce the two characters of being together, this is the whole point of the narrative.

    Locations:

Location Required	Scene	Any other information (bookings etc)	Rationale (why has this location been chosen?)
School Stage	Every scene where the band is performing live, The stage is the main performing are for the band as it shows them performing live.	We will book out the main stage at lunch times the band are available, this will be manly Mondays and Tuesdays.	So the band look like they are performing live, this is a stereotypical convention of Rock Pop
Music Practice Room	In the shots where they are recording the track in the recording studio	We will book this room  out when its available and when the band are available this will mainly be Wednesdays and Thursday lunch time	Too show they are recording the track to release for the audience, it also shows their job.
Local Park	This is the narrative where the band and the actors will and will be in the same place and walk past each other.	We will go here on a Friday after school where we can have the band and the actors for as long as we need them.	This is so Matt the main singer can see what he is singing about, once again this is getting the band involved with the narrative
Field	This will be when they are performing live on this mini brown stage on the field.	We will use this to record on another Friday after school.	This is because it is challenging the stereotypical conventions of pop rock and are performing somewhere different. This location is also cool so suits the genre fine.

 

   Risk Assessment- Amy

  

   Permission Letter - Josh

      Problem Solving - Rebekah

    The document showing the problems and how we could stop them from happening is shown by clicking the link found below:

                                   

Problems can be found here

     Create a brand image for your artist. What colours, images, themes, genre, iconography, mise-en-scene are appropriate? This brand image will be consistently used throughout all coursework tasks including the digipak and advert. Create a presentation of ideas, images and a firm conclusion about your brand image for your artist, how is it like/unlike other artists, how does it suit the audience, how does it meet the target audience?

   General Planning:

Over the course of planning for our music video we used many different programs to make sure all our actors and any members of staff new what we were doing and when. This included meetings with our headteacher, Mrs Tunnicliff, various office staff and music teachers to book equipment such as a drum kit and microphone stand, and locations such as the music practice room and the main stage. We had to have meetings with our band to discuss the treatment, their costumes and what they would feel comfortable with doing. We repeated the same steps with our actors. We also had to arrange a recording schedule and what they would need to bring with them. Sometimes we would film after school so we would have to make sure that the cast had a way to return home, and if we filmed at lunchtime we would issue passes so that those that needed to purchase food from the cafeteria could skip the queue. Sometimes we would ask their teachers if they could leave their lesson five minutes earlier than normal as our lunch times are only 30 minutes long, so it would mean we would have more time to prepare and film for our video. Sometimes we would use the social networking site Facebook to remind our actors what they would need to bring for filming, as well as them being able to text or phone us if they had a problem or were confused with something.

Between team JAR we used emails, Facebook and texting a lot so that everybody knew what they were supposed to do and when/where. It also meant that we could stay in touch with our media teachers outside of class time.
Here I have taken a screen shot of important events that occurred during our Facebook conversations:

Music Video:

This is the first draft of our music video:

Technical conventions of our music video genre:

 

  

Feedback from the rest of the class:



















Feedback from myself:

Feed back from the teachers:

Exemplar Videos:

We looked at this video because we really wanted to achieve an opening that was similar to this, where he walks to the stage and the band too walked on. For our video we are going to record it so that there is an empty stage and the band walk on with their instruments, and it 'flashes'/ jump cuts to them singing. 

We were asked to focus again on movement and the imagery that this video had. It included things that fill well with the song and the video looks great! We decided that we most definitely needed more movement if our video was going to be as successful as this.

This video shows a really well thought out narrative, as well as like before a lot of movement shots. We particularly liked the continuous movement as the band were performing as it looked very professional and we decided that would do this in our music video.


We watching this video because we realized that our music video needed more movement because it was so static and quite simply boring. This music video continuously tracks from left to right and we thought this was really effective, modern and interesting to watch. We decided that we wouldn't do this much movement for our entire video as it wouldn't really serve a purpose as in All Time Low's video the locations move with the camera. This would be almost impossible for us to achieve, but definitely wanted some kind of movement.

Conclusion

We have decided that for our music video we need more movement such as tracks and pans, and are going to re-record the majority of our music video so that it looks as professional and as successful as the ones above.

Music Video Final Cut: