Experimental Footage - Moving Picture Test

Shortly after creating the storyboard, we thought that it would be wise to excercise our skills. So by using images found on the internet and a copy of the video 'Just The Way You Are' by Bruno Mars, we created a test of how the moving picture test would look like in our music video.

Experimental Footage - First 18 seconds test

During a classroom session we decided to shoot some experimental footage of a possible composition of the beginning scene would look like according to storyboard details. We have found that timing may be a bit tight but may be manageable when the time comes to shoot the actual footage. The video above shows a possible composition for the first 18 seconds of our music video.

24th October 2011 - End of Research/Planning and Start of Practical Production

I have now finished my planning and research tasks that were needed to help plan and form ideas for the music video and the ancillary texts. Planning and research has helped us understand the way music videos are thought about, the ideas and efforts that are necessary when creating one. This section will hopefully make things simpler in the long run so that time is not wasted and so that ideas may be expanded on later.

We plan to finish the ancillary texts first, before moving on to shooting and filming the footage for our video.

Practical Production Task Schedule

19th October - 30th October
Taking pictures of artist for magazine advert and CD inlay (various places in central London). Complete both magazine advert and CD inlay. Gather all necessary props.

31st October - 20th November
Green screen and local shooting including refilming to make changes to scenes if necessary (in school and in Wembley area)

21st November - 20th December
On location filming of narrative. Refilming of narrative if required (Central London famous landmarks, Westfield Shopping Centre, Shepherds Bush)

9th January - 22nd January
Any refilming if required

23rd January - 27th February
Post-production - all editing and soundtrack editing

Dropping in on Katy Perry's Music Career

Possible Ideas for Ancillary Texts - CD/Magazine

CD Front Designs

Draft 1: This is our first idea for our CD front cover. We tried to emphasise on the album name; 'Still Not Broken' by portraying the artist on one side broken however on the other side she is complete. The themes that we integrated into this design were soulmates, relationships, incompleteness and loneliness. We strongly based this sketch on the storyline of our music video to help reinforce the themes and emotions that we aim to convey to our audience. 

Draft 2: This was our second design of the CD front cover. We decided to use a close-up of Sandhya so that the minor deails of the effects we used could be seen. This deisgn makes our cover unique, as close-ups are not used too often. The effects that we will use on Photoshop to make her face look 'cracked' will hopefully make this design eyecatching.





CD Inlay Designs

 

This design was inspired by the inlay of Bruno Mars' Doowoops and Hooligans album (below). We thought the digipak overall could portray a number of feelings and emotions. We thought that by using a cartoon effect, it would give out positive thoughts in comparison to the music video which we plan to have a lot of negative emotions incorporated into it.

Another design that we had was that we thought about getting an extreme close-up of our artist and use image editing software to put in a tear and make the picture seem like it had been shattered. This was inspired whilst thinking about glass:



Another idea that we had was to take a shot of our artist against a brick wall. It is often the norm to have simple pictures of the artist as an inlay insert so we thought that by sticking to conventional inlay designs, it may actually look as professional as a real inlay:

CD Back Designs

 

Using pre-existing knowledge of back album inserts, we created a design which incorporated the basic conventions like barcode, artist name, album name and track list. This design was inspired by the back album insert that we found on the internet:

 

Magazine Advert Designs

After drawing and analysing the designs for our magazine advert, we decided that when it comes to actually producing the print media, we should combine these designs. This is because some of the elements from one design are conventional whilst elements from the other more appealing.


Other magazine designs

 

Props and Locations List

Equipment List

Mood Board

The Storyboard

Storyboard

Composition of Video - A Narrative Breakdown

Video Planning - Narrative v2

Video Planning - Narrative v1

1. Sandhya waits at a restaurant and guy doesn’t turn up
2. She gets upset and leaves
3. She sees him with someone else
4. Guy and other girl see her
5. Sandhya leaves and guy walks after her trying to explain himself she jumps onto the train leaving him stranded at the station
6. She starts crying
7. And the song starts with a split screen of Sandhya, the guy and a person playing the piano. Sandhya is crying (close up), the guy is writing an apology letter. With cross cuts of Sandhya singing to the camera with a white background.
8. Sandhya walks around various locations
9. Cross cuts between guy and Sandhya walking and Sandhya singing
10. Flashback (verse 2) – flashback of guy and Sandhya together [of what?]
11. Guy writing letter (chorus after verse 2) and Sandhya watching TV and sees a romance scene which leads to another flashback where Sandhya and the guy are in a similar shot to the one on the TV screen. Back to Sandhya on the couch, who gets up and throws things off a table nearby.

Video Planning - Themes for the Music Video

Music videos, similarly to films, can incorporate themes. In the video we plan to incorporate the themes of love, lack of commitment and anger.

Love is a theme that is widely used across many mediums like books, films and music. I feel that it is very important to incorporate an important theme like love because this theme is easy to understand. The song that we chose is about love and how it is broken. So through the broken love, we see the introduction of anger. Our main character would be really angry because before she had loved someone who she had trusted. But because her boyfriend was unable to commit time to her and she is 'stood up' regularly, she dumped him. We though that love song with elements of anger in it would make our video unique as the norm is to feel upset or happy when matters regard love.

The song itself, accompanied by the lyrics, is full of very negative feelings. This justifies the choices we made for the themes that should be involved with the video.

Music Channels Research - Exhibition

Sandhya Acharya - Artist Profile

Sandhya Acharya is just an ordinary teenager who comes from Wembley. She is 17 years old and was born on April 30 th 1994. Her interests into the whole music career stems from her father who inspired her from a very young age. Her successis further enhanced through her coming from a singing background. Currently she is a Grade 7 singer and a Grade 4 pianist. Sandhya is an Artist who doesn’t specialise in one genre; she performs and enjoys different types of music. This allows her to target a wider audience as they can get a variety in the music she performs. Her favourite artist is Demi Lovarto as her “voice is amazing and her song writing is inspirational”.. She also has a YouTube account where on a regular basis she uploads new singles..

In July 2010, she performed ‘You might need somebody’ by Randy Crawford at Wembley Arena. This was a musical event where many Artists performed. Due to her successful performance, she was then on the cover of The Brent Magazine (July Edition). Furthermore, she performs in many family events in East London. This gives her the chance to develop become more cultural by performing cultural songs.

Sandhya has participated in many charity events inside and outside her local school; Preston Manor High School where she is representing her whole school aswel as other students. In ‘One World’ she performed with a band called ‘The Opposites’ which are a group of talented musicians who play instruments such as drums, guitars and keyboards. Alongside with their help, she successfully sung ‘Breakeven’ by The Script. This had an optimistic event as she was better known in her area due to people outside of school attending this charity event.

She is part of ‘The Band’ which is known as The Institute Of Contemporary Music’ in Kilburn. In these few hours every week, she writes new songs and rehearses for upcoming gigs. A recent gig The Band performed was in summer 2011 at Gladstone Park which was a festival of music. As a lead singer she sung Jessie J- Price Tag and a song produced by the band.

‘Tell me your sorry’ is the recent song she has posted on many sites. The message of this song can target teenage girls who go through what she is conveying. In the future she plans to record an EP which is an album without being signed. A few songs to come out soon are: ‘Don’t wanna leave you behind’ and Rise up (with an Indian twist).

Sandhya Acharya - Tell Me You're Sorry (with lyrical analysis)

Sandhya Acharya-Tell Me You're Sorry (Lyrics with timings)

Tell me you’re sorry’ is single sung and performed by Sandhya Acharya, an upcoming R&B artist. The song reflects the view that the ‘love’ is fading away thus the relationship is not what it seemed to be.

The opening verse in the song instantly reassures it is a love song and this can be seen through the song laid out in a form of a love letter. ‘Dear you, you really messed it up this time’ connotes the singer is talking about a relationship with a male and this can adhere R&B stereotypes as these videos are usually focused on male and female relationships. The repetition of ‘you’ emphasises who the song is aimed at. Already from the first few lines of the verse, many audience members can relate to the words of the lyrics due to personal experiences. ‘Mate you’re not worth the wait’ suggests that she was waiting for the right guy to come into her life and when he did she realised he was not the right one for her. ‘I won’t forgive or forget’ shows that the audience is gradually developing an understanding of the male protagonist was unfaithful towards her. This can show conventional stereotypes of R&B videos which are usually based around this topic. Furthermore, the artist can show a typical view of how women deal with men in a relationship. For example, ‘Here I go explaining to you, what you’ve done why it was wrong’ can highlight that she has perhaps done this more than once and it reinforces stereotypes of men that they’re always in the ‘wrong’.

The chorus makes the reader reinforce the meaning of the song as it is a part that is memorable. The beginning line of the chorus: ‘I don’t care, what you say’ implies that she actually does care and this is shown through the alternate tonal shifts, her emotions are conflicting. The thought of love is one that leaves you unsure and confused towards your emotions. There is also emotive language used in ‘you’re under my skin and I swear I will never let you back in’ which can show she still has a sense of passion for him but it is not enough for him to accept. The lyrics also show that the artist believes that in many relationships it is usually the male character that is in the wrong.  The male character and her feelings towards him have left her physically and mentally insecure. This is shown in ‘You don’t deserve me you’re not worth this I won’t make amends’. The representation of Sandhya we see in this chorus reflects the stereotypical representation of relationships in R&B music videos. It can also be argued that she maybe actually wants to be with him. This is shown in the repetition of the line ‘Tell me you’re sorry write me you’re sorry’ which makes the audience remember this part of the song. The emphasis of the word ‘sorry’ indicates that an apology, just being a simple word can change everything in a relationship. In a form, this doesn’t only relate to love relationships between a male and female but in fact relates to a wider audience.

In the next verse, is the artist signifying herself through the line ‘I see you writing on the envelope dear me it reads’ which can show she is not going to open her feelings but it signifies her body as the letter signifies her emotions inside. We also hear from Sandhya in this verse that she is physically broken through the emotive language: ‘You’ve broken me’.  In the middle 8, there is a conventional representation shown of female artists where they want to ‘Plan my revenge but you aint worth my time’. This indicates two different meanings. Firstly it can convey that she is moving on however it can also show she is scared to face him. She says ‘Burning the pictures all of the letters’ which is a personification of herself that connotes she is getting rid of physical memories in order to disguise her emotions. To conclude, the lyrics of the song give a representation of stereotypical teenage girls’ emotions when it comes to dealing with the hardship of a relationship.

Thursday 6th October - Choosing the music track

Together with the other two people in my group initially planned to search for an unsigned music artist on the website, 'unsigned.com'. We had found a music artist with a song that would satisfy our needs. However after several contact attempts we were left with no replies and were forced to continue searching. Finally we decided to approach a friend - a female singer around the same age as us who had composited a track as part of her A Level Music coursework...

Audience Research - Vox Pox Answers

Please view the video in full screen

Audience Research - Vox Pox Questions

What genres of music are you interested in?
Do you watch music videos? If you do, where do you watch them?
What do or don't you like about music videos?
Do you prefer a performance, concept or narrative based music videos?
After listening to the song, what thoughts came to your mind?
What genre(s) do you think that a music video, of this song, could be identified with?
What music channel would you expect to see a music video of this type?

Audience Research - Questionnaire Results Analysis

Audience Research - Questionnaire

Questionnaire for Music Video

Gender Representations (Feminism, Post Feminism and the Male Gaze)

Gender stereotypes is a controversial, sensitive topic when it comes to the music industry. Stereotypes are usually used to help the audience identify themselves with characters. Men and women are the main stereotypes portrayed in music videos.
Men, in music videos, are shown to have the following qualities:

• dominant
• independent
• womanizers
• rough and tough
• carefree

Women, in music videos, are shown to have the following qualities:

• sex objects
• sexual
• aroused
• dependent on men
• provocative

The representation of women in this way is known as Feminism. It was a movement that started in 1960s where women were completely against these stereotypes and generalisations. Voyeurism is another term that is heard when hearing about Feminism. It supports the fact that women are ill-represented and that erotic pleasure is gained by looking at 'sexual objects'.

A theorist, by the name of Laura Mulvey, believes that women in all industries have the sole purpose of showing their bodies off as sexual objects and that they have a to-be-looked-at-ness quality to them. This is known as the 'male gaze', a theory thought up by Mulvey. She thinks that it is this provocative behaviour that is the centre of the 'gaze'. This is evident in quite a few music videos as we see that in some videos, a male music artist is surrounded by female dancers, wearing revealing clothes.

However Post Feminism (1980s) says otherwise. Post Feminism says that there is no 'male gaze' but in fact a 'female gaze' - females desire the men and that they can be 'as attractive' as they want to be, but maintaining control.

Postmodernism - The Blurring and Breaking of Barriers

Postmodernism began in the 1970s and still continues today. It involves the breaking/blurring of barriers between fiction and reality, genres and style, human and machine and space with time. Rather than using reality, postmodernism has led us into thinking about hyper-reality: a mediated version of reality.

Parody

Work that is used to mock and imitate original work with the intention of generating humour and irony.

Parody made in Toy Story 2 (left) from the film Jurassic Park (right) - "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" with a dinosaur running after a vehicle.

Parody made by Weird Al Yankovic (music video 'Fat' left) of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' (right).

Parody found in Superhero Movie (left) of a shot found in the first Spider-Man movie (right)

Pastiche/Homage

An artistic work in a style that imitates (not mock) that of: another work, artist or period. Very similar to homage. Homage - Respectful imitation

Weird Al Yankovic's 'Bob' (left) imitating Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues (right). Weird Al goes one step further and uses palindromes.

Bricolage

The mixing of styles and genres

Shawn of the Dead is a mix between horror and romantic comedy (rom com).

Intertextuality is often associated with postmodernism. Intertextuality is when a text is shaped using other existing ones, often allowing readers to relate to the other texts involved.

Modernism - Reinventing Culture

Modernism was a movement that began in 1890s and ended in the 1960s. It was something that opposed realism, something that reinvented culture that had become old and outdated. Surrealism and avant garde (opposite of status quo, pushing traditional boundaries) were part of the Modernism movement.

The French artist, Pablo Picasso, also followed Modernism through his work. Below are some examples of Modernistic work he created:

Narrative Theories - Levi-Strauss/Propp/Todorov

Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist/ethnologist who believed that narratives involved conflict of binary opposites. He believed them as themes rather than events:

• Good vs Evil
• Man vs Machine
• Hero vs Villain
• Truth vs Lies

Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp was a Russian scholar who used to look at Russian folk tales and thought of a theory that they can be compared to many aspects of life. He thought that characters and the events in a story are shown as narrative functions - they were necessary for the structure of any story (stock characters):

• The Hero - a character that is out to seek something (quest)
• The Villain - a character who opposes the hero and has to stop him for personal (selfish) gain
• The Donor - a character who gives the hero mythical/magical objects to assist him on the quest
• The Dispatcher - a character who sends the hero on his quest for a particular reason (this reason eventually becomes the backbone of the narrative and is the hero's objective)
• The Princess - a character who gets into/is in trouble, waiting for the hero to rescue her
• The False Hero - a character who tries to shame the hero, making himself look like the hero
• The Princess's Father - a character who rewards the hero for his efforts of saving his daughter

These characters do exist in modern, mainstream Hollywood, particularly in fairytale animated films like Tangled.

Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian philosopher who believed that all stories and talks started in a neutral state (equilibrium) which was the disturbed by a chain of events (disruption). The narratives would then end in the resolving of the disruption (resolution).

Equilibrium>Disruption>Resolution