Storyboard!

Me and Emma have created a detailed storyboard that clearly shows our thoughts about what we plan to do and how to direct our actors when filming. It has allowed me to understand and appreciate how much detail and time goes into the planning stages of creative a filmed piece, although I now feel confident and calm about future filming events. 

The Power of Moving Image

I found a really interesting article about the power of moving image and I thought it was highly relevant to my process to creating a music video, as it allows me a great insight to the influential nature a moving image holds.

"Moving image is the most powerful way to put across any message. According to web business consultancy firm Odysseyuk.co.uk, people remember 30% of what we see, 20% of what we hear but 70% of what anything we watch and hear at the same time. Phrases such as: “a picture is worth a thousand words”, “actions speak louder than words” or “I’ll believe it when I see it” exist for a reason.

Moving image is the most recipient friendly and convincing way to put across any

message."

This quote really summarises my point about it's effective, and manipluative power.

Source

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

Me and Emma have come to a final decision on the song we want to choose for our music video, The Beach Boys' - Wouldn't It Be Nice. Not only is a great, and relevant song, but it is also universally famous and iconic.


Below are the lyrics to the song: 


Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Wouldn't it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby


Here is what one my target audience members thinks about this song: 
"To me, this song exudes hope. I have never seemed to be able to make a relationship succeed, but somehow this song helps me keep it together. No matter how low I can be, I play this song and a chance that there'll be light somewhere in the way just pops up.


In certain opportunities, though, it makes me long for that sometime I haven't lived, in that somewhere I haven't been, with that someone I haven't yet met, but know I will.

Until then, play it once again, and help me make it through. "

- As you can see this song is very meaningful and hold a great sense of both lust and loss, which is something me and Emma plan to include in our video. We want to capture love in it's real and raw state. 

From a editing and directing  point of view the song has high potential due to it's easy tempo, allowing us to cut and plan shots with ease meaning we can try and avoid messy cuts and editing in general. 

Genre

Genre: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterised by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

I have chosen the genre of romance for our music video, because I am part of the target audience (being a female teen) meaning I have a clear understanding of what one wants and can expect from this genre. It also has clear conventions that I can create with ease in my final piece, for example having two romantically inclined protagonists. The songs that I am considering also have romantic connotations ie The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice has hidden meanings of loss of love, or longing for love. 


When asking a member of my target audience (Cassie Shaw) what came to mind when I said the word romance, she immediately said "Titanic". This re-enforces that media is more prominent than the reality of romance.

Taylor Swift - Mine

Me and Emma find this music video, directed by Roman White, very inspiring and close to our own ideas, thus we have screen shot key pivotal moments of the video to help us gain a deeper understanding of the conventions of a romantic music video. 

1. Extreme close up of male protagonist.    

There are extreme close ups of both protagonists, and edited to jump cut several times in this opening sequence. This establishes the relationship, and the audience can read the attraction that both male and female protagonists hold for each other. It is also in a subtle sepia tone, connoting warmth and confort, something that one feels in a happy relationship too. Me and Emma want to experiment with tones when editing our work, to achieve an aura or sense for our target audience. 

2. Thread of photos.

I really like the idea of hanging threads of photographs, so me and Emma are very happy we found this video! It relates to the previous post about the connotations of photographs, and creating memories. This had given us the green light to use photos as a visual motif, as this video is successful. The tone has also shifted as it is now brighter, and in higher contrast. 

3. Two shot - beach location

This has inspired us to use the beach as a key location. It connotes romance and natural love, something that we want to portray. The clothing and makeup is very neutral, and this had made us think about our costume in advance. The proxemics of the shot clearly demonstrate the romance between the couple as she is laughing - connoting happiness, and he has her arms around her. 

4. Walking along the beach

Emma noticed that there was a darkened haze framing the shot. We liked this idea, as it gives the impression of a fairytale story. We will experiment with this during the editing process. The female's dress is white, and she has a flower in her hair, connoting innocence an purity - we want to create a similar image to this, thus we will experiment with various costumes. Interestingly, the male is dressed in black and has a tattoo on his forearm, contrasting with her delicate portrayal. We like the location shot again, especially the sea in the background connoting peace and harmony.

5. Dancing silhouette

Me and Emma really liked this shot! The use of lighting is really effective, creating a silhouette of the happy couple. We find this shot to be a powerful shot because of it's simplicity, but it is riddled with hidden meaning. If it is possible to explore lighting when we are shooting we would like to try this out.



6. Hug

This shows the unity of the couple, and we realise that love s growing.  We also understand the importance of non verbal communication between the actors as this screen shot, itself, tells a story.





7. Close up hands - Jewellery

This clearly demonstrates the genre of romance, with the ring and the touching of the hands being obvious signifiers. Hands, again could be a recurring visual motif, because of the meaning it holds: love. Rather than a ring, we are thinking of using a necklace as a prop to symbolise the couples love, so when it is taken off the love that they once shared  is over.


8. Over the shoulder shot

We are planning to have many over the shoulder shots, as they give the audience a POV perspective and insight.






 9. Fighting


Here we see tones of blue, connoting sadness. These shots are also edited to be in slow motion, which is an extended metaphor for a relationship slowing down, and coming to an end. This is something we wish the explore. Again the non verbal communication is strong, again highlighting the importance of choosing are actors with care.



10. Extreme close up/two shot

Throughout this video it's obvious that these shots are often used. Reasons for this are because of the audience reading: establishing the mood, and understanding the relationship between the characters.

This is an intense shot of the couple - you can almost see fear in her eyes, showing that she is scared to lose him, whereas his stare is more reassuring, conveying the intensity of the love at this specific point.

By deconstructing this video, we have learnt to think carefully about each individual shot as if it were a photograph because each shot has meaning, and the meaning needs to be conveyed with ease to audience. 

              

Photographs

Me and Emma are planning to use photographs in our music video as a visual motif. Reasons for this are because of the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph - memorise and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships. Although this will be hard to create I think with good use of conventions, it is possible.

The sentimental value a photograph holds is personal and meaningful, so we are planning to use hand held camera, so we can have realistic POV shots, adding to that sentimental and empathetic feel that we want to gain from our target audience. 

Match.com

 (Accidental Duet)

(Train Station)

Advertising is a powerful outcome of media, and recently Match.com (online dating site) have created some original and unique adverts for their site. When researching in depth Match.com invested £7 million into the campaign: Start Your Love Story, which aims to "capture that butterfly moment you feel when you find someone special.". I feel these adverts hold a feeling that I inspire to gain from my audience.

When deconstructing these adverts to a further level I discover that the gradient is washed out, possibly representing a 'story book feel', this is again something I am wanting to capture. There are many extreme close ups of the main characters, perhaps to capture emotion and create that intimate sense. I wish to explore these in my own work and see how they work out!

Lastly I found a quote from Katie Sheppard, director of relationships and marketing at match UK, she said: “We’ve always been about helping people find love, and as the best-known dating site in the UK, we have been at the heart of hundreds of thousands of moments like these."

Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

I think this song would be great for my music video, it holds an airy sound, which something that I think a memory would sound like. The lyrics also connote romance, but both the beautiful and ugly side.

"A moment, a love
A dream aloud
A kiss, a cry
Our rights, our wrongs
A moment, a love
A dream aloud 
A moment, a love
A dream aloud"


During this part of the song I can visually imagine quick jump cuts of montage clips of the charters, I think this is a positive start to my media course and I am looking forward to storyboarding and exploring more song ideas. 

Inspiration - Man Ray

Man Ray is an American artist and has worked with a wide range of media, including film. he contributed to the Surrealist and Dada movements. In 1999, 'ARTnews' magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th - It is clear that Man Ray is truly a defining artist, thus he inspires me.

L'Etoile de Mer (1928 Man Ray)

If find L'Etoile de Mer to be very enigmatic; it's simplicity coupled with film technique creates it's audience to be silent and intrigued. I did not want to any reaserch about this short film before watching it so I could gather my own intial opinion, and gain my personal responce. I found it to be highly metaphorical, and the film is in fact the representation of a couple, or/and a love triangle.

I was also interested in the way Man Ray shot his film as it had a very blurred effect, I then found out that almost all scenes are shot either off a mirror like the final shot, or through diffused and textured glass. This is something I would like to explore with my own work. Although it is not high tech, it still creates this mystical lure.

The most defining moment in the film is the ending: The female appears in a mirror with the word 'belle', which shatters. This is symbolic that the love affair is over. I think it is highly important to have a defining ending scene as it is opening scene; this is again something I will aim to achieve.