Our Moving Storyboard

Now we have finished drawing out our storyboard, we decided to take photographs of our drawings and put it together with the music to get a taste of how our clips will look when on film. As the pictures are still the video seems very slow paced and will definitely be more interesting when filmed. Despite this some shots were still too long and we decided as a group that they need to be cut up to stop the video from becoming dull and repetitive.







Here are the photographs of our storyboard before editing;

Molly's Gallery

Last weekend Molly's friend presented his photographs in a gallery called The Rag Factory off of Brick Lane (20th-21st November) and I came and visited to support her work. We decided to take the flip to documentate the visit and to also help us practice editing.
Here is our video of the day;

Questionnaire

1. How old are you?
14 or under [ ] 15-16 [ ] 17-20 [ ] 21-25 [ ] 25-30 [ ] 30+ [ ]

2. Are you male or female?
Male [ ] Female [ ]

3. How do you usually watch music videos?
TV [ ] Internet [ ] Download [ ] Other [ ]

4. What is your favourite genre?
Rock [ ] Pop [ ] Alternative [ ] Jazz [ ] RnB [ ] Heavy metal [ ] Classical [ ] Other [ ]

5. How often do you watch music videos?
Never [ ] Everyday [ ] Every week [ ] Every few weeks [ ] Rarely [ ]

6. Do you prefer funny or serious music videos?
Funny [ ] Serious [ ]

7. Do you prefer music videos that are reaistic or non realistic?
Realistic [ ] Non realistic [ ]

8. What are your expectations of rock music videos?

9. How do you interpret the lyrics "She's such a charmer"?

10. What music channel would you expect to see a Kings of Leon music video on?

11. What colours do you think represent the rock genre? and why?

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is used when composing film, art or photography. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. It also states that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

Here shows a use of the rule of thirds on film. The shot is more interesting as it looks like the man is looking on at something rather than if he was in the middle of the shot.

Twitter..

After reading Pete Fraser's recent blog he suggested following some people on the social networking site Twitter. As a media student I do pay attention to my own twitter account and have decided that following some of Pete Fraser's suggestions can only benefit me and my group.

I have decided to follow Julian McDougall (@JulianMcDougall) as he wrote the OCR textbook for media studies and tends to tweet useful links for A2 students.

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

These points are taken from Andrew Goodwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (Stage performance should be used for my video as it is of a rock genre)
2. There can be some kind of relationship between lyrics and visuals.
3. There should be a relationship between music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motif which recur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (Use of voyeurism)
6. Often intertextual reference is used.

Tips from Miss Poulten

In lesson our teacher, Miss Poulten showed us a short PowerPoint with some tips for our videos on it. These were the given tips;

Lip Syncing
- Know your lyrics (One mistake could ruin the entire look of the video).
- Pronunciation (Words need to be clear to the viewer).
- Mouth what it sounds like.
- Only lip sync the lead singers words not the backup as it can ruin continuity.
- Play the song whilst miming.

When we practised lip syncing we also found it easiest to actually sing the song as that way you mouth the words clearly and do not need to think about what you are doing. As long as you know the words to the song, our tip should work.

Lyrics
- Lyrics tends to establish a general mood, feeling or sense of subject matter, rather than offering coherent meaning.
- Key lines may play a part in the associated visuals but rarely will a music video simply wholly illustrate the lyrics. Remember mise-en-scene.

Music
- Take note of the tempo and pay attention to this during editing.
- Repeat with the beat.

Genre
- Some music videos do transcend genre while others can be categorised.
- Some music channels focus on genre, pay attention to this and think of what channels your video will be played on.
- Show genre conventions through; Mise-en-scene, narrative themes, performance, camera & editing style

Camerawork
- Take note of your camera movement, angles and shot distance.
- Camera movements may accompany the movement of the performers or be used to create a dynamic feel or disorientate.
- Close ups of the singer usually dominate.

Editing
- Usually fast paced, pay attention to the pace of your song.

Composition Practice for Performance

In Fridays lesson we also practiced where each of the four band members would stand in our real video. We have decided to use our school stage, however we are going to get a black sheet at the back of the stage as the current curtains are very dull. We decided to put the stage in black and white (similar to Jay-Z's '99 Problems' video) because the school curtains and stage do not conform to our genre and look very dismal. We placed ourselves in each position and even though the video was meant to only be short we all improvised and had a laugh with it and it came our much better than we thought. So here is the video featuring Molly as guitarist, Sarah as singer, Aimie on drums and myself on bass. In our real video we are either having two guitarists or the lead singer will also play guitar similar to Kings of Leons' line up.

Lip Syncing Practice

On Fridays lesson we decided to get some practice with me lipsyncing as it is very difficult to master. A lot of the time it is not obvious enough what people are saying but sometimes it can be over the top especially with softer sang words.



After watching it we realised it is slightly out of time. This is because we have accidentally fit my lipsyncing with a different part of the song I synced to. Overall, I think the scream managed to fit well enough without looking over the top.

Our Video from Richmix

When we went to Richmix we took our flip cameras with us to document the day, the video is quite amusing as we had such a fun and interesting day;

Trip to Richmix (Afternoon Session with Corin Hardy)

After Liz Kessler we had a session with director Corin Hardy. Corin started off directing with an obsession with monsters and creatures which he used animation to show. He was a very inspiring speaker as I could relate to him as he took the same A-Level subjects as myself and is in a career I would want to pursue in.

Of all the videos Corin showed us my favourite was The Horrors 'She is the New Thing' which is very creepy and Gothic due to the ink drawings throughout. I had seen the video before but after hearing Corin's story of the video it made it even more interesting that ever before. He told us that it took him and a friend 3 weeks to illustrate all the drawings and that each of the drawings were pinned up drying in Corin's house. For every 3 seconds of footage there is a different animation, I really like the effect it creates as it makes the band look more animate and the drawings look spookier as they are slower.

Here is the video;


Before we finished our morning session with Pete Fraser he set each of the 7 schools and colleges a task to create a pitch for a music video for the song 'God & Satan' by Biffy Clyro. We were played the song and given our lunch break to create the pitch as a school and to elect a spokesperson to present our pitch during the afternoon session to Pete Fraser, Liz Kessler and Corin Hardy.

As we had our flip cameras we managed to film our pitch. Dominique and I did it because we were both nervous about speaking in front of people, here's our pitch and the feedback;

Trip to Richmix (Afternoon Session with Liz Kessler)

The afternoon session began with Liz Kessler speaking to us about her job as a music video producer. She spoke about her most recent project which had been shot the day before for alternative/rap duo Chiddy Bang in Central London. She explained there were many difficulties shooting in a public place but the video managed to work with determination. Not many people had seemed to have heard of Chiddy Bang however I enjoy their music and will keep a look out for the video when editing is completed.
Liz continued to explain how a video is made; someone commissions a directing and production company to work with the record label, they then make up a concept for the music video, it then moves on to the director to be produced, the band do not always have input in their videos. In a later talk Corin Hardy went on to mention that the bands first video from a new album is often not their own work whereas their third or fourth will be.

Here is a video that Liz Kessler and Corin Hardy worked on together for Paolo Nutini's 'Pencil Full of Lead'. This is an example of a music video where the artist doesn't want to star but wants to be present. Corin and Liz are both featured in the video when the back room is shown. Corin is on the left and Liz is on the right;


Another video Liz produced is 'Cash in my Pocket' by Wiley where he decided he did not want to be on the video on the day and the crew needed to improvise without him.
I think the video is outstanding considering the conditions, also it is all filmed in one long shot with the same camera using many actors. Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bNKS8QAjM.

Liz Kessler also introduced us to finance for music videos. Lissie's video for 'Everywhere I Go' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyJqqgNjSbI) cost £28,000, due to importing, filming, hiring and sending back an elephant.

To finish Liz's presentation we were shown 'Changes' by Will Young.

Visit to Rich Mix: Pete Fraser (MTV to Youtube; Rise of Music Videos)

Pete Fraser moved on to show us a history of music videos. He began by showing us 'Frim Fram Sauce' by Nat King Cole which was written in 1945.
We were shown the video also. The video shows the beginning of a trend of voyeurism in music videos. At 0:38 you can see Nat King Cole watching himself on a jukebox.



The jukebox that Nat King Cole is shown on was called a 'Soundie' and was popular in America in the 1940's. Pete also showed us the 'Scopitone' which was a jukebox used in Europe after WW2. It would play music videos similar to the Soundie.



We were shown another old music video from The Beatles for their song 'Can't Buy Me Love' to modern music videos such as '99 Problems' by Jay-Z. I had seen this video a few times before but not all the way through however seeing it displayed on such a large scale on screen made it much more interesting. I think the video is very creative and original with the black and white running throughout. A particularly great shot in the video is where Jay-Z is walking along a bridge shown with low angle shot so that the bridge is moving as well as he walks, this is shown at 0.33 in the below video. A use of voyeurism is shown in this video which conforms to the stereotype for a rap video, Jay-Z is shown on screen in the street at 0.35.
Both these shots are used within the first 40 seconds of the video. By the time the video reaches 35 seconds in there has been 56 shots shown. I think this shows how fast paced a music video must be to create interest.


Not all videos use voyeurism, it often depends on the genre. Pop, rap and hip-hop are the videos that use voyeurism the most due to it being the most mainstream music types. Both these videos show a use of voyeurism as well as representation of women as sexual objects.

It is shown here in 50 Cents video for 'Candy Shop';


And in a pop music video for Madonna's 'Open Your Heart';


Pete Fraser also showed us one of the first high budget music videos by Michael Jackson for 'Thriller' which began a trend for many black artists to have outstanding music videos. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MuUcxHATo)

We finished on being shown Andrew Goodwin's Analysis of promotional music videos of what should be expected from a music video;

- Genre Characteristics - obvious expectations of the different genres.
- Relationship of music/lyrics with visuals - amplify the lyrics rather than simplifying them and illustrate the lyrics.
- Intertextuality - refer to films/other music videos/theatre/books/etc.
- Star Image - emphasis on the star's image
- Voyeurism - idea of looking and observing

Visit to Rich Mix: Pete Fraser (Len Lye - A Colour Box)

On Tuesday our media class visited Rich Mix arts centre in Shoreditch to be part of their educational session called "From MTV to YouTube: Studying Music Video".

The morning session consisted of a presentation from Chief Examiner for OCR A-Level Media Studies, Pete Fraser. This presentation was very helpful for us and we were shown videos which Pete had moderated and enjoyed himself. Peter's presentation was based on the history of the music video, codes and conventions as well as top tips for making our own video.

Pete first showed us what he believes should be considered the first ever music video called A Colour Box by the artist Len Lye (1935). The video shows experimentation with colours and patterns on screen to represent music;



Whilst watching the video I immediately thought of a video I had previously seen on YouTube. I am unsure if it is the original music video or if it is fan made however it does show similiarities to the Len Lye experiment;



I also thought of the video when a screen shot of Bob Dylan's "Homesick Subterranean Blues" was shown by Pete due to how the lyrics are shown clearly in the video.


Pete showed us a modern video that also uses the same techniques as 'A Colour Box' as bright visuals work with sound. I think in this video by The Go! Team gives a very vintage feel using such techniques;

More Ideas for Music Video

After another group meeting we decided to write even more ideas down so that we do not lose track. Here is our list of specific shots we want to include in our music video;

Group Meeting & Storyboarding Practise

Over half term we storyboarded the first few seconds of On Call by Kings of Leon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DK_8VZm_Dg&ob=av2e) to practise for when we storyboard for our own video. We found that even though the song begins very slowly there are still a variety of different camera shots to add interest despite the slow, instrumental beginning.



All of us agreed that we could use a similar shot to that of the close up shot of the bands feet walking past a camera on the ground as it is unclear who each person is until their faces are shown. We want to use this shot with a boys feet being followed by a girl in red heels who represents the "charmer" in our video.

Audience Theory & Hypodermic Syringe effect

Audience Theory
Audience theory is an element of thinking that developed within academic literary theory and cultural studies.
With a specific focus on rhetoric, some, such as Walter Ong, have suggested that the audience is a construct made up by the rhetoric and the rhetorical situation the text is addressing. Others, such as Ruth Mitchell and Mary Taylor have said writers and speakers actually can target their communication to address a real audience. Some others like Ede and Lunsford try to mingle these two approaches and create situations where audience is "fictionalized," as Ong would say, but in recognition of some real attributes of the actual audience.

Hypodermic Syringe Effect
The hypodermic syringe model is a model of communications also referred to as the "magic bullet" perspective, or the transmission-belt model. Essentially, this model holds that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is largely considered obsolete today. The hypodermic syringe theory implied that mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on their audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.

Developing our Ideas

My group decided that it would be a good idea to write down all of our initial ideas
We have decided to make a spider diagram to note down all of the groups ideas for our video before we begin to storyboard to clarify every part of the video and what we are going to include.

We have decided to base the video on the theme of "obsession". The theme will help us as we will always know what vibe we are trying to create. It will help the actors also.

This is our spider diagram;

Possible Band Names

As a group we discussed possible band names we could use for our band brand and music video. We looked at our two previous wordles, we also used the website www.bandnamemaker.com/generator. We used words that reflected "Charmer" and "Kings" after the band Kings of Leon. This wordle shows these ideas;



Most of the names that came up are amusing but would not be used seriously for our genre so we are still undecided on a name.

Band Brand

To create a band brand we have used wordle again but with words representing our song, band and genre.

These words will help us come up with a band name at a later date. It may also help us with further ideas for our video.

Treatment Feedback

After we presented our treatment the class were asked to write words down to describe our song and ideas. We noted the comments down and created a wordle out of them to present the feedback on www.wordle.net. This is a wordcloud and the words used most often are the largest and the boldest. This is ours;

From our wordle we can see that people mainly think our video will look creative, professional and different.

Treatment

As a group we made a treatment on our planned music video to present to the rest of the class. It included
• A background of song
• The basic narrative or concept of our video - performance, narrative or concept
• What ‘feel’ we want to provide for our audience
• How we will achieve this
• What are the codes and conventions of our genre
• In what ways are we conforming to or subverting them
• What themes are running through our video
• How we will use costume and make up to convey our messages
• The location

The treatment was made up of a powerpoint and a word document which was printed as a hand out for the class.

Here is the word document;
Kings of Leon Treatment

This is the Powerpoint;

Kings Of Leon - Charmer Treatment

We also filmed our presentation where we explain the ideas ourselves. Aimie and Sarah were not present so only Molly and myself are included;

Charmer Lyrics

Here are the lyrics for Charmer - Kings of Leon, our chosen song;

She's such a charmer oh no.
She's such a charmer oh no.
She's always looking at me.
She's always looking at me.
She's such a charmer oh no.

She's stole my karma oh no.
Sold it to the farmer oh no.
She's always looking at me.
She's always looking at me.
She's such a charmer oh no.

Born in west virginia oh no.
Married to the preacher oh no.
Shes always looking at me.
Shes always looking at me.
Shes such a charmer oh no.

Shes always looking at me.
Shes always looking at me.
Shes such a charmer oh no. Oh no.

As the songs' lyrics are very simple and repetitive we think it would be quite difficult to think of a narrative to match the lyrics so we have chosen to not base our video on narrative. We are not sure on what the lyrics mean exactly but we have discussed setting up a gig type setting with a band and an audience of just girls. One girl would be dressed in bright clothing compared to the rest of the audience to make her stand out to the lead singer to cover the narrative of "She's always looking at me". For the narrative we discussed a possible split screen to represent the different instruments in the song such as in Kings of Leons video for The Bucket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZmWE8JG3M&ob=av2e)

Rock Music Moodboard

Here is a selection of photographs I have found from Google.com and Flickr.com which represent our chosen genre of Rock. The mood board can help us understand common features of rock music whihc we may use in our video such as hwo the artists themselves look or which instruments are included.

Rock Music Soundboard

Genre Theory

What is genre?
A tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by parting them into different categories that have common elements. It has been argued by Daniel Chandler (2001) that the word "genre" comes from the French for "class". The term is used in literary text, media theory and to refer to a distinctive type of text

Sub genres
This is a genre within a genre. Genres are divided up into specific categories to allow us to identify them specfically by their recognisable characteristics. Steve Neale (1995) says that genres are not "systems" but they are "processes of systematization" meaning that they are are not set in stone and genres are dynamic and evolve over time.

Our Email to producers of our song

As we are going to be using an established artist's song for our music video, we need to request permission from the musics' producers (Angelo Petraglia and Ethan Johns) to use the song so that it does not appear we are claiming the song as our own work.
This is the email we sent to Angelo Petraglia and Ethan Johns as they are the producers of Kings of Leons' third album "Because of the Times" which features Charmer;

Dear Sirs,

Our names are Molly Wing, Aimie Condon, Sarah Isaacs and Charlotte Boag and we are media studies students at Enfield County School and we are currently in the early stages of producing a music video and promotional digipack alongside that. The reason for our email is to request your permission to use Kings of Leons' song 'Charmer' that you produced for our chosen video song. We have no intention of selling our video and we can assure you there will be no copyright issues at akk as it will solely be used for educational purposes.

If there are any issues please feel free to contact us.

Yours Sincerely
Molly Wing, Aimie Condon, Sarah Isaacs and Charlotte Boag

Our Groups Chosen Song for Our Music Video

As a group we have decided to make a music video for Charmer by Kings of Leon. Each member of our group likes the song and it has a very memorable riff throughout the song which can help us while editing. The song is made up of 4 instruments (2 guitars, a bass guitar and drums) which we all own so we can cover the performance side of the music video too. The lyrics are very easy which will also help us when getting someone to mime.




Despite our initial decision we decided not to continue with our Ska genre with this chosen song as the song edges more towards begin a Reggae song. The narrative of the song would also be difficult for us to show because the song is about going to prison for possesion of marijuana. The age of the song also makes it difficult for us to make a video for as the quality of the music is not as good as a recent song.



We also considered doing an older song (Jumping Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones) but we had difficulty deciding on the narrative as the lyrics to the song are very basic and do not tell a story. The song is also very repetitive which could end up very boring for our video.

Group Discussion On Our Initial Ideas

In our group we had a discussion about what bands and songs we would like to use for our music video. Some of our initial ideas on songs were;

Madness - One Step Beyond
The Specials - Ghost Town
The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night
Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
The Specials - Gangsters

We have settled on the genre of Ska as it is a very fun genre due to being a mixture of reggae and rock. We have decided to make our music video for "54-46 Was My Number" - Toots & The Maytals as it is a Reggae-Ska video so our video can reflect where Ska music comes from. The song features in the "This is England" soundtrack which is mainly made up of ska and reggae songs. This song does not have music video either meaning that there are no expectations of the music video.

My Chosen Video

This is one of two music videos for Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness. This version is directed by Megaforce. The song features vocals from MGMT and is produced by Ratatat. The video features footage of members of Ratatat.

Narrative Music Video

Narrative music videos are like short films with musical backgrounds. They sometimes tell the story of the song's lyrics in a visual form. The story's are often easy for the viewer to follow so that they remember the video as well as the song.

Here are two examples of narrative music videos;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEukS2YN9B8
This video (Leave Before The Lights Come On by Arctic Monkeys) shows a narrative video that does not follow the lyrics of the song but still tells a short story.



This video (Step into My Office Baby by Belle & Sebastian) shows a narrative video that does follow the lyrics of the song to tell a story.

Performance Music Video

A performance music video is where the the vocalist and/or the band are shown in the video singing, miming or playing their instruments in one or more setting.

This is an example of a performance music video (I Am Not a Robot by Marina + The Diamonds). This video shows singer, Marina singing or miming along with the words of the song in 3 different settings, each with different extravagant make up to add interest to the music video. We can not tell if she is singing or miming due to good editing techniques and timing.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band from Sheffield. They formed in 2002 and the band is currently made up of;
- Alex Turner (Vocals & Guitar)
- Jamie Cook (Guitar)
- Nick O'Malley (Bass)
- Matt Helders (Drums)

Their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" released in 2006 became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history and still remains. The band have since released another two albums; Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) and Humbug (2009).

The band are signed to Domino Records.

Gallows

Gallows are an English punk rock band from Watford, England. The band was formed in 2005 after the disbandment of founding member Laurent Barnard's previous band, My Dad Joe. Gallows' debut album, Orchestra of Wolves, was distributed in the United States by Epitaph Records, they were subsequently signed to Warner Bros. Records for a £1 million album deal which had previously been unheard of for such a small alternative band.

The band is made up of;
Frank Carter (Vocals)
Laurent "Lags" Barnard (Lead Guitar)
Steph Carter (Rhythm Guitar)
Stuart Gili-Ross (Bass Guitar)
Lee Barratt (Drums)

Gallows were founded in 2005 and released their first album, Orchestra of Wolves, on 'In at the Deep End Records' the following year. The album caught the attention of Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz, who released it in the US on 'Epitaph Records', featuring new tracks such as a cover of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown". In an interview Gurewitz named Orchestra of Wolves as one of his favourite albums of 2007 and praised it as being the best hardcore album since Refused's 'The Shape of Punk to Come'.

Gallows first UK top 40 single appeared at number 31 on 25th November 2007 and it was their third single, a cover of The Ruts' "Starin' at the Rude Bois". The band in February released a single, "Just Because You Sleep Next to Me Doesn't Mean You're Safe", the video for which was filmed at one of their renound live shows at Emo's in Texas. In January 2008, the band's show at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California was cancelled after Disney chose to ban them from performing. after listening to Orchestra of Wolves. Gallows contributed a a cover of "Wrathchild" to Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden.

After a long break, on August 18, 2008, the band made available on their MySpace profile the song "Gold Dust." It has been confirmed that the song will not appear on the band's second studio album, but that it is "...just a little treat for everyone that's been asking for new Gallows songs for a while.", the listeners reception to "Gold Dust" was very positive.

On 5th December 2008, Gallows revealed that the title of their second album would be Grey Britain, that it would be released on 2nd May 2009 and on the day of release they would perform a free gig and signing at Rough Trade East in Brick Lane, London.

On June 6th 2010, Gallows played at Rage Against The Machine's victory parade at Finsbury Park in London, UK. They also supported Rage Against The Machine and Gogol Bordello at the 02 in Dublin on June 7th 2010.
Gallows played at the Soundwave Festival during late February and early March of 2010 and are expected to play at the Sonisphere UK Festival 2010, July 30 to August 1. They are also rumoured to return to Reading and Leeds festival 2010 under a secret name.

I have met Gallows twice out of coinscidence and they are all very passionate about their band and are keen to speak to fans such as myself. I have met vocalist Frank Carter several times also, most recently he tattooed my Dad.