AR: Deconstruction of a Digipak

GENRE

How is the genre of the track/artist evident?
The genre of Lana Del Rey's music is alternative pop, specifically chamber pop with an electric style that also places her within the trip hop sub-genre of music. She has an original cinematic style that appears to reject rock and grunge endeavouring to return to the elegance and classically based style of 1960's baroque pop. The period is reflected in Del Rey's star image and visual motif through how she dresses and the style of her makeup and hair evident in this album cover where her hair is in the wavey thick style of the 50's/60's and the top button, white collar shirt, red lips and winged eyeliner also reflect this era effectively. The obvious American, cinematic, film noir esque theme is shown in this image as the blue sky, white shirt and red lips emphasize the colours in the American flag, also colours often used throughout Del Rey's print work. Her female pop image is shown through how she faces the audience, looking at the camera with a powerful, serious expression proving herself as an original individual lacking in weakness within the music industry.


MEDIA LANGUAGE

What visual techniques are used? (rule of thirds, texture, colour, tone, mise-en-scene)
-The artist is placed in the centre of shot which connotes an intimidating, threatening person as it breaks the rules and stands out so grabs a viewers attention and asserts the artist's talent and dominance in the music industry. The symmetry is aesthetically pleasing however it has a dismissive connotation making the artist appear simultaneously present and absent like Dyer's identified paradox.
-Costume involves a see-through top with an obvious red bra underneath conforming to the use of women as objects used for sex appeal in the music industry.
-The background is slightly our of focus so all attention is put on Del Rey's sharp image.
-Red to blue colour scheme is used predominantly in female pop artist work that I found out in previous research into album covers shown in my mood board. It produces a parallel of stereotypical feminine colours and male colours and rejects any warmer yellow tones.
-The location used is a very normal suburban area obvious by the wooded gate, blue sky and green trees. The artist is ordinary and accessible which are features of a star identified in Dyers critical framework of 'star image' paradox theories.
-The body language of her chin up and shoulders back standing face on with the audience has a similar stance of a strong, powerful soldier which opposes Dyers star characteristic of an artist with an anti-authorial attitude. However it does have originality because women are not shown emphasising their feminine assets by pushing out their breasts and bending their waists instead no sexual image is suggested in terms of how she stands.

How is meaning generated through these techniques? (semiotics)
-The slight low angle shot is a sign that conforms to the social myth that female pop artists are totally inaccessible and extraordinary as she appears to look down on the consumer.
-Her costume appears to subtly emphasise her sexual desire with her red bra showing through the white top this reinforces the social stereotype that female artists are promoted in their videos through 'soft porn' and fetishism.
-The use of the red lip stick emphasises her voluptuous lips which are part of her visual motif and an iconic sign that connotes her femininity.
- Her costume acts as an iconic signifier that rejects the social myth that an artist is extraordinary because the plain white shirt is a universal, multi-gender garment that is not dependent on who you are or how much money you have.

What linguistic devices have been used? (look at emotive language, use of quotations, connotations of song/album title)
As well as the artists name the title of the album 'Born to Die' also appears. It is a powerful statement that reinforces Lana Del Rey's metanarrative of often having focused themes on Philosophy and God influenced by her religious upbringing. It is named after the song from the album, a common feature of music albums to further promote a specific song and to relate with an audience that may have only heard that song so it compels them to listen to more.

Is there any intertextuality/references to popular culture? How does this create meaning for the audience? Think about postmodernism here, use of parody, pastiche.
There is a subtle reference to 50s/60s pop culture which is a feature that has developed Del Rey's visual motif into what she looks like now. I noticed her stern expression looked like the blank expression the 60's model, Twiggy, is known for. In these images of the model I have selected certain aspects relate to Del Rey's album cover like the bold pastel pink similar to the sky blue tone used. Also her slight low angle with the camera positioned just under eye level.

REPRESENTATION

How are the band/artist represented? Does this add to their 'meta-narrative' in any way? How does it help sell their product?
Lana Del Rey's metanarrative is most predominantly her struggle with alcohol dependence from a young age and her interest in philosophy and God spurred on by her Catholic school education. Her narrative follows her self-styled gangsta image as she appear involved with dangerous  high-profile mobster type men. This image is reinforced with her subtle hoop earrings that have a rough, 'independent female' connotation. She is shown to be innocent which is emphasised by her 'Lolita' relationship with older father-figure sort of men. Her innocence is evident in this text by how the top button of her plain white shirt is done up; symbolic of purity. The fact that her bra can be seen through the shirt however gives an idea of the sexual desire behind her innocence.


INSTITUTION AND AUDIENCE

How might this print text be consumed? How is this evident in the way it is constructed?
The text could be consumed on the album art of online digital downloads from internet music shops such as Itunes and Amazon. It could also be as part of the CD or vinyl cover sold in highstreet shops and supermarkets.

THE BACK COVER

The back cover displays important information about the product such as a track list, bar code and details about the label and key names that went into the albums production. Simple colours white and light blue are used that synchronise with the colour scheme of the front cover. The same font is used for the track list, in capitals also. The image is reduced to just a plain white background with no photography or texture, this gives it a very clean cut, neat look.

Group: Review of Thursday 23/10/14

Amelia
In class: I took photographs of my drawings then together we edited all the images in time with the track to create our animatic.
Out of class: Finalised preparation for filming our Field shots during the following week: props and equipment.

Emma-Louise:
In class: Collected images off the internet to use in our animatic then uploaded them onto Premiere along with the track.
Out of class: Finalised preparation for filming our Field shots during the following week: cast members and travel schedules.

Group: Animatic

 

 

1. What was your individual contribution to the storyboarding and animatic task?

Charlie - I helped plan the shots we were going to be including within our music video, discussing composition of the actors in the frame.

Amelia - I drew the illustrations in the storyboard and edited them into an order based on our shot outline post. I added the track and built the shot entrance and exit around it.

Emma-Louise - I found the images online or used images we had taken in previous location recces to represent some scenes more realistically than drawings and helped Amelia edit them into an order.

2. What have you learned from completing this process in terms of, camera - distance, movement and angle; editing - duration and transitions; sound - relationship between lyrics/sound and visuals, emotional colouring; Mise en scene - locations, character blocking?

• In order to conform to the pop genre, we included camera angles such as CU, LS and MCU within our animatic that would help to establish a rapport between the actor and target audience, which most pop music videos intend to achieve. This also helped us to visualise what the shots would look like when we actually film them, enabling the filming process to run smoothly and go to plan.
• Furthermore, constructing the animatic was a very useful process as it helped us to get a feel for the composition of the actor/s in the frame, placing them in the rule of thirds or centre frame to evoke specific emotions such as isolation and dominance.
• In terms of editing, we were able to time manage each shot by cutting them in time with the music on the animatic. This provided us with knowledge as to how long each shot would appear in the video to conform to a pop genre style of a fast cutting rate.
• We have manipulated the beats in our sound track as indicators demonstrating when we need to cut the visuals to fit the lyrics being sung. This will make our music video flow better as the narrative fuzz will be apparent as well as an amplified effect we aim to show.
• By being able to draw shots we plan to use, it gave us a clear idea of character blocking when we came to film the field shots particularly. It allowed us to portray status amongst the actors, by placing the female in front of all the male animals communicating her importance and significance in comparison to them.

3. How else has this process fed into the development of your concept?

• It helped us cast a realistic representation of what our final outcome will look like by ordering all our shots into the right order. This gives us a visual example of how it will look so we have something to follow.

4. How was this task more complex/different from the same task at AS?

• This task was a more complex process to construct compared to last year, as we had to jumble up shots within the animatic to make it conform to an amplified music video look. Whereas last year, we simply drew out shot by shot each scene location which made it easier to form and know exactly where each shot would go.
• This year, we included digital images collected from the internet to go into our animatic in order to show the multimedia skills we have learnt from last year. Also, it allowed others to visualise our conceptual ideas and the colour grading's we intend to use on specific shots which we couldn't achieve through just drawing the images.

5. What were the challenges/difficulties of carrying out this task?

• Most music videos include multiple spontaneous shots that make them unique in comparison to existing videos already in the charts. Therefore, having to plan every single shot in detail was hard for us to do knowing we will include unplanned shots when we film.
• Placing the shots in the correct order to which we are going to have them in our actual music video was also a challenge, as we didn't have a distinct idea of definite shot positions.

Group: Review of Wednesday 22/10/14

Amelia
In class: I finalised the shot outline and clarified with the other group members that they were happy with what I had created. I then went on to start drawing sections of the storyboard getting ready to produce the animatic.
Out of class: I will finish my drawings and collect images ready to put into premiere and edit in time with our track to form our animatic.

Emma-Louise
In class: Edited the track in 'Audacity' so that it was double the speed but the same pitch in order to help Charlie lip sync easily in the speed ramp section of our final piece.
Out of class: Will embed the fast track into a post and outline its uses.

Group: Speeded Up Tempo

We want to include a speed ramp in a section of our song while still having Charlie lip syncing accurately so we speeded up the tempo while keeping the pitch the same so Charlie can lip sync to that before we slow it down to it's normal speed. Then the song will be the normal speed and the visuals will be in slow motion to give a dreamy effect.

Group: Review of Tuesday 21/10/14

In todays lesson, the group adopted the same approach as within yesterdays lesson in completing different tasks.

Charlie
In class:
Today I changed the blog post explaining our animal mask concept, in saying how we now want all of the animals to be different whereas before, we wanted them to be all the same. This is because having different animals with help to portray a naturalistic feel, with not all wildlife animals being the same. This will make our music video idea explicitly clear that we are not trying to present all men as being the same. We want to imply how some men treat women with disrespect (in this case, via a one night stand) and therefore women perceive them in a negative light. After I have finished making these adjustments, I helped Amelia finalise her blog post about the shot outline.

Out of class:
Plan for storyboarding and finish completing the call sheet and risk assessment for our film shoot in half term on Monday 27/10/14.

Amelia
In class:
As Amelia had left gaps out of the shot outline where she was unsure about what shots we could use, she consulted both me and Emma-Louise to see if we had any ideas which could fill these gaps. We both managed to contribute what we felt appropriate to fit certain parts of the song and managed to complete this post fully.

Out of class:
Plan for storyboarding

Emma-Louise
In class:
Emma helped Amelia fill the shot outline gaps primarily and spoke about plans for Mondays shoot on the field location which is close to her house. As she knew the area fairly well, we asked her about what shots would look appropriate and where abouts in the field they would look best according to her location reccie.

Out of class:
Plan for storyboarding

Group: Review of Monday 20/10/14

In Mondays lesson, all group members were allocated different tasks needed to complete the planning process to creating our music video.

Charlie
In class:
I finished completing the blog post regarding feedback we received from the pitch. This included answering questions from the class who were slightly unsure on certain aspects of our concept. I managed to answer all questions, providing a clear outline of what we were going to do in response to the animal masks, representation of males and the final shot.

Out of class:
For homework, my job was to learn more of the lyrics in our song, as I am the main female actor who will be lip syncing to them.

Amelia
In class:
Started the shot outline of what shots we were going to be doing at different parts of the song. Amelia made a list with time references which made it clear for the whole group to visualise shot ideas and how many seconds they will last for.

Out of class:
For homework, Amelia finished this post off and communicated to me and Emma-Louise (via social media) about animal mask ideas. This was very successful as we have now all decided what animal masks we want to use and have also ordered them off Amazon.

Emma-Louise
In class:
Finished the blog post regarding the conclusion to our music video, in saying how it is going to end. Emma also included a video showing some of the ideas we have for the ending, in order to make it clear to the teachers especially what we plan our ending to look like.

Out of class:
For homework, Emma created a blog post giving more detail on the animal masks, including screenshots from music videos which use them. She further explains how they support our music video concept and what effect they have on the video as a whole.

Group: Animal Masks

Animal Masks

Foxes - Youth (2013)











Marina and the Diamonds - Radioactive (2011)

Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (2013)

Bruno Mars - Lazy Song (2011) 

 Martin Garrix - Animals (2013)

• Animal masks in music videos are a very generic feature especially in pop because there are a variety of meanings and connotations assumed from them.
• These can include:
• Suggestion of animalistic characteristics, implying someone is violent, aggressive or rude.
• Wild nature, often used in dance videos to connote a wild party life, like in Martin Garrix's "Animals" above.
• To create a surreal world.
• To construct a natural sense to the video, eg. using outdoor locations

For our video we wanted to construct males as animals to cast them in a negative tone, as a contrast to our concept of empowering women. The animals are only part of our "surreal world" location in a field to fit the animals into a natural scene, as a part of our protagonist's mind, not in reality. We decided on using the animal masks based on the repeated reference to animals in the lyrics of our song and decided it would be effective to base part of our video on that to continue our conceptual theme.

Group: Shot outline

0.00-0.09: Walk in the street.
0.09-0.14: Lip sync, put hands in the air against white wall, then a projection of her sleeping face.
0.14-0.0.20 Walking through streets, against a wall.
"Like I'm going places"
0.20- 0.23:Walk through the camera into the field.
0.23-0.29: White wall conceptual shot
0.29-0.32: Walks into the middle of the field and spins.
0.32-0.36 :Introduce masked animals. A pan from one of the animals faces.
0.36-0.40 :"The night has come"-projection of a moon.
0.40-0.50: Charlie moves and the animals follow
0.50-0.52:Start of the chorus, against the white wall.
0.52-0.54: Field.
0.54-0.56:"Save me, save me" conceptual shot, pleading to the camera using non verbal language.
0.56-0.59:Field
0.59-1.07: White wall
1.07-1.16: (no singing) Have very small clips of the characters standing still, moving around and in and out of shot in time with the piano.
1.16-1.19: White wall- young hearts projection
1.19-1.25: Field
1.25-1.32: Projection of fire.
1.32-1.34: Field
1.34-1.38:Focus on the animals faces
1.38-1.42: Focus on Charlie's face in front of the white wall
1.42-1.52: Field
1.52-0.53:Start of the chorus, against the white wall.
1.53-1.55: Field.
1.56-1.58:"Save me, save me" conceptual shot, pleading to the camera using non verbal language.
1.58-2.01:Field
2.01-2.10: White wall
2.10-2.27: Very fast speed lapse, of the animals moving around Charlie as she is still.
2.27-2.44: Slow motion speed ramp with animals dancing (jumping skipping) around Charlie.
2.44-2.46: (continued) Field, real speed
2.46-2.49:White wall
2.49-2.51:Field
2.51-3.02:White wall
3.02-3.24: Rewind of the beginning shots from walking back through the camera into the street and even further back to new footage of her coming out of a house and a bedroom and a double bed shared with a boy. It ends with her eyes closing (opening backwards).

In all the gaps there is a constant switch between the conceptual shots in the white room and the shots in the field.

Group: The Male Actors

Masks
-We have decided we want to have all the masks be different in order to provide a conventional feel relating to nature.
-Not all animals are the same and we wanted to communicate CLEARLY that not all males treat girls the same. Only a certain few.

Madonna-Material Girl (1984)

-Using the example of Madonna - Material Girl, we want to replicate the fact that all the men's movement is based around what the female does,  always reacting just after she does. This symbolises her dominance and prevalence within the video.

Representation
-We want to dominate and empower women in our video as our concept revolves around the main female actor going off the rails and hating men for using her for one thing.
-Therefore, with this concept in mind we want to present men in an animalistic way, as this will convey the inner thoughts of the actor.
-Furthermore, with references relating to nature and animals, we want to represent the idea of the female actor turning to nature as a sense of release from the pain she feels from the one night stand. She is almost drowning her sorrows as she is forced to think about her actions throughout the video.

Shot ideas
-Final Shot

We want the final shot to look similar to this picture featured within Foxes-White Coats. This will summarise the female actors emotions towards the situation of the one night stand whilst also presenting it clearly to the audience, as it is only implied at the beginning of the video that she has been out all night.






Costume
We decided against our original idea of dressing the animals in suits to give a sense of non identity as we think it will portray males in too much of a sinister way and that they will look to mature for our female protagonist. We also feel our second idea of black hoodies would also look to sinister and give them a "thug" representation. To resolve this we decided on black t-shirts, to keep are theme of non-identity, but to get rid of any sinister connotations, replacing it with a more casual tone.

Group: Conclusion

Ideas:

• Implied ending - audience aren't sure if outcome is positive or negative.
• Rewind of beginning shots - walking down the street - but going back further than the start.
• At the beginning there is no clear reason of where she is walking from, a one night stand is only implied.
• At the end, it is made clear as rewinded footage of her waking up and leaving a bedroom is shown, so the end appears to be of her closing her eyes.

• Breezeblocks by alt-J uses a rewind effect throughout the video, giving a sombre tone to the video and a sense of realisation and finality at the end.

CB: Contribution to the Pitch

Overall Contribution

• We all prepared the pitch together and were allocated different sections to do individually which we would be talking about to the class. However, although we put these slides together separately, we all looked over each others slides and scripts to make sure that the ideas were correct and we were communicating what we wanted to convey.
• After we finished putting together our slides, me and Emma-Louise sent them to Amelia to fit together in an orderly way so that they flowed together smoothly. She further went on to add animations to the transactions of the PowerPoint in order to give it a professional look worthy of being presented to an audience.
• I managed the slides regarding genre, costumes, difficulties and digipak designs. I only included simple bullet point ideas on the PowerPoint slide initially, as I didn't want to overcrowd the slide with too much information which would have been complex for the class to look at. Therefore, using my script I went on to explain my given aspects of our concept further as I spoke. I included a few simple pictures on my slides of examples of what I was saying so that the audience could visualise what I was attempting to portray.

Genre
We want our music video to contain performance and conceptual aspects, as we felt this would be an appropriate way to approach our chosen track of Foxes - Night Owls, Early Birds. This is because the track makes many animalistic references to nature in which we could adapt an amplified effect to connect the lyrics and visuals together, in showing a picture of an 'owl' or 'bird' toy for example when the lyrics relating to animals are sung. We also wanted to include narrative fuzz in order to relate the conceptual shots with the performance shots so that they didn't look disjunctive to the song and made sense with the mood and atmosphere. Furthermore, we want to make our music video conventional of the pop genre in using stereotypical locations such as fields and streets, to maintain a pop feel and clearly communicate that this is the genre we are representing. Being an all girl group, we thought it would be appropriate to symbolise female vulnerability as the mood of the song is quite dismal and connotes a one night stand at the beginning of the song. This would be easy for us to replicate as we could manipulate the use of make up and costume to show that the actor hasn't been home from the night before. Finally, due to the nature of our video containing a solo female artist/actor we could include a large aspect of voyeurism in following the actor and lingering the camera on her to establish a rapport with the audience. To maintain a conventional pop look, we could add some fetishism in focusing the camera on sexualised features of the actor such as legs, arms and chest which would conform to the artists star persona of being viewed as a 'sexual magnet'.

Costumes
To connote the one night stand from the beginning of the song, we want to keep it realistic in dressing our actor in a plain, dull, purple dress. This will represent both the mood and feel of the song whilst also showing the situation in a negative way. The main actor will also be holding leopard print heels in her hand as we want to show that she has slipped away quietly from her messy night before. We wanted to use the leopard print pattern for the actors shoes as this has connotations of being cheap and tacky, with the age of the actor (being 17) not having much money to dress herself eloquently. As one of our main themes is to empower women throughout the video and demonise men, we want to dress the male actors in suits and animal masks. This will under represent them and display them as animals (according to the actor as she is angry about being used for one night stand).

Difficulties
One of the difficulties we will face when filming is the issue with travel in getting to our field location which is situated in Knockholt. Another difficulty will be punctuality of the whole cast as there is 9 of us in total. With different people having different responsibilities and work commitments it may be hard for us to gather everyone together on the same day. For the beginning shots of our song, we pictured it to be early in the morning with the idea of the one night stand. Therefore we would have an early morning schedule which everyone might not be able to make. For the street location particularly, we will face the difficulty of filming in public which would get unwanted extras in our shots which could make it look unprofessional. This is not what we want. As we are including narrative fuzz, we could face the risk of making the whole video have a narrative feel which is not what we want either therefore avoiding this will be a challenge. Finally, with weather conditions being fairly rainy and us filming in public locations, we will need to ensure that all equipment is safe from damage.

Digipak
For our digipak design, we want to keep it fairly simplistic to conform to the style of Foxes the artist who mainly has album covers with plain colours and bold fonts. Foxes also has a MCU of herself looking into the camera as the main picture on her album to identify her with it and establish that it is her album. Colours we would want our digipak to have are pinks, purples and blues as this is what Foxes uses and further doesn't divert attention away from her image.

ER: Contribution to the Pitch

I worked on the concept, cast and audience research slides for our pitch.

CONCEPT:
We want to base the video on the lyrics of the song in a conceptual way rather than following a narrative so we can create an amplified relationship between lyrics and visuals.
Throughout the song the girl is struck with the realisation that she can be independent and free from relying on men for her happiness. It starts off with a sense of despair, confusion and regret as if she is lost, possible having an identity crisis. By the end she has overcome this and a sense of inspiration replaces the previous negative emotions. The main concept of the song is about how we can't expect everyone to be the same, as everyone is completely different like "night owls" and "early birds".

CAST:
We decided to use Charlie as our female protagonist again as she worked so well in our horror piece last year. She fits well with the voice of the song, being a young, white, Biritsh female and is also easily accessible. She will stand alone as the only female to show our themes of female independence and feminism. We are using a group of boys including Dan, Ross and Will to be in the background of our video, wearing animal masks which are a generic feature of pop music videos used for a variety of meanings. For our video there are a lot of animal masks which are used for a variety of meanings. For our video there are a lot of animal references in the song and we wanted to portray men in a negative light by dehumanising them. They will all be wearing the same clothes to take away any identity so they are merged together as all being the same.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH:
Our audience feedback was useful in showing the direction within our themes that would be the most effective to take. The overall feeling was that the song is full of despair while having an inspirational feel to it. Locations and prop ideas all had a naturalistic theme to them and the female protagonist is expected to be attractive, following the star image and stereotypes of female pop stars. There was also a large sense of female rebellion about it that our audience decided was about the sense of freedom and independence.

AR: Contribution to the pitch

• Initially as I group we went through every slide together getting everyone's basic ideas to each section of our product. This allowed us to each have a perfect understanding of everyones opinions brought together so that from that point on we were on the same page about the direction of our product. 

• Next I was in control of the slides and script for colour scheme, location and shot ideas. We needed to make sure only the general idea was written down on the blog and that our scripts had more bulk to them that would help communicate our ideas. Good quality images and colour swatches were a great technique I included to push our ideas clearly onto the audience. I also filmed and edited footage of Charlie lip syncing and included this as a hyperlink in the shot ideas section of the pitch. I edited photos taken on location reccies to give the audience a very clear understanding of our colour grading ideas and by showing the before and after the mood we were trying to portray was emphasised 

• Charlie and Emma-Louise sent their slides to me and I turned it into a finished presentation developing minor details such as position of text and including more images. I added animations to the text so that the pitch could run smoothly and be visually pleasing to the audience. They were very punctual on sending me the areas they were responsible for so it meant the final pitch could be finished in time without having to be rushed and leaving time to practise presenting it. 

Script

Colour Scheme

We have decided on a colour scheme anywhere on the spectrum of pink to blue (including purple, turquoise, grey, white and black) so all cold colours avoiding orangey, warmer tones. This decision was made based on all our research into existing female pop music videos and digi-packs that all commonly used this sort of colouring.

The effect of these colours is a more bluesy mood that suits the negative nature of the song with its serious themes of female rebellion and loss. They have a raw authentic feel that narrows the grave tone forcing the audience to relate to the characters being portrayed. Warm colours would not suit our piece as it is not upbeat and we are focusing more on the sorrowful, aggressive, downcast themes.

I have edited some photos from one of our location reccies in a field to give an example of the kind of colour grading we will use. They are also very flattering colours that make the image look more professional.

Shot Ideas

•       Lip Syncing-Speed ramping-By manipulating the speed of the track so that it can be sped up or slowed down in editing to fit the original track. 

•       Split screen-Using split screen the same shot is repeated three times side by side in this triptych composition. The thick black borders in the shot have emphasised the thirds which sets up an attractive composition. Each shot is identical so the extraordinary nature of the artist is emphasized. This technique will be using as at times during our video we want to emphasize particular expressions and body language from the 'artist' that connote loss and despair.

•       Mirror- the artist has been reflected vertically in the right third in an MCU shot, Faith's shadow appears in the left third which emphasizes her absence. We will include this in the more conceptual representations of the artist as it has deeper readings.

•       Pull Focus

•       Overlay

•       Time lapse

•       Slow motion

•       Reversing time

•       Walk through the camera- To take the artist from one location to another.

•       Tracking shot

Location

1.Blank wall with projections, possibly a fan to blow Charlies hair which is something we saw in Rihanna’s projector scenes in ‘We Found Love’ –This inside location will be used for the really conceptual parts of the video to potray inner thoughts and feelings of the artist.

Things we will be projecting includes party our own footage that we want to get of a slow motion vase with flowers that is being smashed because of the connotations to beauty and also violence and aggression.

Other projections will be more textured clips from existing videos like fire with the lyric ‘city burns’ but we decided a blue flame could be used to fit our colour scheme.

We want to use the track and dolly here for our opening shot.

2.A street in the early morning sunrise for our narrative fuzz, no performance, “real world” sequence at the beginning of the video.

We will hopefully film this the same day as the previous location as they are both in Tonbridge so we will also aim to use the track and dolly to follow charlie walking along the street.

3. A field also in the morning, for the surreal performance shots which inculdes other actors with the animal masks. This is where we plan to be experimental when it comes to editing with the time lapses and speed ramping. 

Group: The Pitch

Finished Pitch

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Feedback

-What ideas do we have for the final shot? What conclusion will our piece come to?
-We need specific understanding of when we are using certain shots and basically specify every fraction of our product. This could be through starting to storyboard certain locations and sections of the song.
-Sort out purchasing/locating the animal mask props so we know exactly what they look like and what we can do with them in shot.

Feedback - Planning and Research

Well done girls, a very well presented blog with visual ideas throughout.  Analysis tasks include insightful comments on complex ideas and excellent use of media terms and some theory.  All of you could improve this aspect by including more signifiers from the videos as evidence.  Planning shows a proactive, organised approach with deadlines being adhered to in most cases and a progression of ideas.  At this stage you must be updating your concept development after each lesson.  Amelia and Charlie - your contributions to the blog are a high level four and you are in line for A* for planning if you maintain your current approach and make sure all task are on the blog.  Emma Louise - you have gone back and made amendments to some of your posts which has improved your grade.  To achieve a level four and maintain that grade, you need to be more of a presence on the blog and complete those outstanding posts.  Please all read my comments carefully and email me when you have made any amendments to tasks. 

Group: Colour Scheme

We have decided on a colour scheme any where on the spectrum of pink to blue (including purple, turquoise, grey, white and black) so all cold colours avoiding orangey, warmer tones. This decision was made based on all our research (music video analysis' and mood boards etc.) into existing female pop music videos and digi-packs that all commonly used this sort of colouring.

 





The effect of these colours is a more bluesy mood that suits the negative nature of the song with its serious themes of female rebellion and loss. They have a raw authentic feel that narrows the grave tone forcing the audience to relate to the characters being portrayed. Warm colours would not suit our piece as it is not upbeat and we are focusing more on the sorrowful, aggressive, downcast themes.

I edited some of the photos taken on our location reccies by colour grading; adding hues and enhancing light and dark and the contrast of the colours in the shot. For the first edit there is a low contrast and brightness so this really emphasises the depressiveness of our song. The purple sky in the second edit suggests a majestic beautiful, extraordinary location reflecting onto the star image. The edit in the final shot extracted the red out of the shot which is extremely flattering on the artist and makes them appear beautiful with golden cream skin and thicker darker looking hair. 

CB: Six Key Frames Analysis

We Cant Stop (Miley, 2013)

 

 



In this shot, Miley is positioned within the rule of thirds, slightly off centre to the left hand side of the frame which diverts the audiences attention directly on her. As the shot is a MCU, it clearly captures Mileys abrupt, rebellious facial expression that presents her star image to have anti-authoritarian motives. The use of the plain white background further places Miley to be centre of attention, with nothing else to look at in the frame apart from her. In filming our own music video, we could include this technique in order to establish a rapport with the audience whilst also appearing present to them by breaking the fourth wall.

 

This shot again is positioned within the rule of thirds, placing the actor to the right hand side of the frame. This makes the shot visually interesting as we are forced to concentrate on one aspect of the frame which is manipulated to connote rebellion and promiscuity. The key visual signifier presenting this attitude is the addition of the 'censored' sign over the actors mouth, which communicates to the audience that she is possibly saying something inappropriate. The dark black colour of the actors costume is juxtaposed by the crystal blue colour of the water, as blue connotes a sense of purity in contrast to the harsh black which formulates an image of recklessness. We could use this idea of contrasting colours within our video as it would be appropriate to the mood of our track, with emotions such as feeling lost and hopeless being felt.

The skull made out of chips is a very conceptual and unique idea that features within the video. It represents many aspects of negative connotations associated with youth in that the chips can be identified with the well known fast food restaurant 'McDonalds' and the skull itself can be linked with rebellion and anarchy (commonly connected with teenagers). On the other hand, taking an objective view of the skull we could also say that teenagers are presented in a positive way, as artful and talented which goes unnoticed as their creativity is kept within the domestic family sphere.

This shot is presented to the left hand side of the frame and is again a conceptual shot, with the actor pretending to slice their fingers off. The pink paint which is used to represent blood takes away the seriousness of the action by providing humour and child like connotations, with the act being idiotic and unnatural. The incorporation of the act being carried out on a clean white surface could portray how teenagers are pure when they are first brought into the world, but become impure with the amount of social media symbolising them in a disturbing manor (such as music videos). I like the idea of using colours to create meaning in this video and think it could be something we could definitely experiment with when formulating ours.

This conceptual shot in my opinion is very clever, in the way it creates the illusion that the actor is facing us straight on with her glasses slightly tilted to the right. This is created by the pair of lips drawn on the side of her face with make up which makes her seem as if she is abnormal possessing 2 pairs of lips. Although I have previously distinguished the colour contrast between white and black to represent different attitudes, in this particular shot it looks very retro and stylish.

 

This shot uses quite cold colours of blue and purple which add a sense of mystery to Miley's character. Her non verbal language of holding herself up out of the water could further suggest that she wants to come out of the dark and show people the true her.

 



AR: Six Key Frames Analysis

Paloma Faith- Black&Blue (2013)

Here Faith is positioned in the right third of the frame, her body language shows her looking down, hunched over making her look partially absent from the video. It is a medium close up shot that emphasises Faith's sad, dismissive expression. This is the kind of non verbal language that would suit the woeful, emotive song we are using. It is a high angle shot so the audience is made to sympathise with Faith as she appears small and fragile which would suit the idea of a vulnerability of women in our song.

Faith is positioned in the centre of frame but her shadow appears in the left third, the right third is left blank. There is an attractive composition of shot created that perfectly frames the artist. This voyeurism of directly gazing into the camera makes it feel like the artist is telling a story, breaking the fourth wall and allowing the audience to feel involved. This neat framing and voyeuristic gaze would be good in our music video.

The camera is still and the composition is a profile outlook on the scene that shows the side of the character and the TV. It is a long shot that distances the life of the girl from the life of the audience. This character blocking and arrangement of props in relation to the position of the camera has set up a great view of the story that is being visualised. It has a cinematic feel that it great as part of a narrative fuzz because it forces the audience to try and understand the story being told.

Using split screen the same shot is repeated three times side by side in this triptych composition.The thick black borders in the shot have emphasised the thirds which is a very visually pleasing composition technique as it sets up an attractive, artistic look at the musician. Each shot is identical so the extraordinary nature of the artist is emphasized. This technique will be something we consider using as at times during our video we want to emphasize particular expressions and body language from the 'artist' such as loss and despair.

The artist is presenting a lot of skin to the camera which may be a techniques to create fetishism in order to help sell the product. Here the artist has been reflected vertically in the right third in an MCU shot, Faith's shadow appears in the left third which emphasizes her absence. The symmetry of her body stance has created a heart shape which, as well has having obvious connotations to love, looks good in the frame. This is something we may include in the more conceptual representations of the artist as it has deeper readings.

The dress is shown to sparkle in the varying focuses which presents Faith as very glamorous and beautiful. There is a shift of focus from a soft focus to a very blurred out unfocused image. The pulling in and out of focus is something we have used before such as in our Brighton reccie so it is definitely a technique we know we can accomplish that looks good so we will be using it in our final piece.

ER: Six Key Frames Analysis

ER: Location Reccie

Field

 Rihanna - Only Girl (2010)

Rihanna - We Found Love (2011)






Selena Gomez - Come & Get It (2013)






London Grammar - Nightcall (2013)








Fields are very generic locations for pop music videos as they have a variety of connotations. They can signify wild inner thoughts or behaviour, they can suggest animalistic references and they can imply naturalistic, stripped down ideas.
Colour grading is very important in the videos I have looked at above as this can completely change the whole mood of the song. "Only Girl" by Rihanna has very saturated, warm colours like pink and red, promoting happiness and love. However "We Found Love", also by Rihanna has very drained colours to match the depressing tone of the song. "Come & Get" It by Selena Gomez uses bright but cold colours like blue, which creates quite a mystic and emotionless feel to it. Finally, "Nightcall" by London Grammar uses low key lighting to form a dark, sombre atmosphere. I did my location reccie in the afternoon on a sunny day so the colours are very bright, connoting happiness. For our concept we will want to edit the colours to be colder, more like "Come & Get It" to go with our themes of despair and regret. I experimented with establishing shots, long shots and close ups to use a range of common shots that will be essential in our music video.

CB: Location Reccie

 White Wall

 

Let Go for Tonight (Foxes, 2014)

 

 

MCU

 

 



MLS

 

 

LS

 

We Can't Stop (Miley, 2013)

 

 

MCU

 

 

MCU

 

Wrecking Ball (Miley, 2013)

 

 

BCU

 

 

MCU

 

Own Shots