Rough Plan For Our Music Video

George Watkins

Our music video has 8 different scenes with over 100 different shots in multiple different location throughout different timing during the day meaning that planning this task well is crucial in meeting the deadline and also making a good quality music video.

To help us for the planning of our music video we have a shotlist which tells us what we need to film, when, where and how.  Using our shotlist we have made a rough plan of how we are going to go about this task for example we have split up the clips into time of day, location and actors in the shot so that we can film each section at one time to make good use of resources available and also time for example filming all the shots that need to be done at one location at one time is easier than having to return to the location multiple times to keep filming different shots.

We will attempt to film this task over a week and a few days before we eventually go to combine the clips on IMovie on the MAC’s in school however to save time we will do some rough editing at home using the IMovie app on an IPad which is just as good and is also a more efficient use of time and then we can put the partially edited footage on the Mac and then fully edit the clips together and have it ready to publish.

Research Into Chosen Artist's Music Videos

Billy Parker

The 1975 used to have all of their music videos in black and white, which was fitting of the genre. All of their music videos feature the lead singer in them regardless if they are narrative or performance based, apart from a few, for example 'Heart Out', 'Chocolate' and 'Ugh'


The 1975- Somebody else

Narrative
The band have also created what could be interpreted as one single love / break up story throughout their music videos:
Robbers - When the two characters are in love
A change of heart - The characters break up
Somebody else - The fallout for the male character



Inter textual references
Throughout The 1975's music videos they have a lot of links with other music videos. In the song 'Somebody Else' The band reference many of their other songs. An example of this is the reference to the song 'UGH' at the beginning of the video where they have a 3 minute shot which is the exact length of 'UGH' and a lot of the visuals link with the actual song.


In the song there are also photographs on the wall which are from the music video 'Robbers'.

In the video there is also a reference to their song 'Girls' with this neon light

There also is a link with another music video 'Chocolate' in which there is writing on a sign behind the main character in french which translates to 'poetry is in the streets in full living colour'.

























This research will help us in creating our music video because we will be able to take the conventions of the band and apply it to our own. For example, the band have used a full narrative video which is common for their songs and so we will also be using a full narrative video.

Research Into Chosen Artist (the 1975)

George Watkins

From: Cheshire, England

Genres: Indie rock, Pop, Electro pop

Years active: 2002 - present

Labels: Dirty Hit, Polydor, Vagrant, Interscope

Members: Matthew Healy (Lead vocals, rhythm guitar),

 Adam Hann (Lead guitar), Ross McDonald (bass) and 

George Daniel (Drums). 

Net worth: $10,000,000

The 1975 formed by a group of school friends attending the Wilmslow High School and the group have been playing together since they were teenagers in 2002. There Gigs were organised by a council worker led band formally signed as ‘The 1975’, finding the name from a posthumous Jack Kerouac Beat poetry book. They eventually signed record deals with Dirty Hit and Polydor after a successful start to the bands life cycle.

The 1975 made their self-titled debut which was released on the 2^nd of September 2013 through the record labels; Dirty Hit and Polydor, topping the UK album chart on September 8. Recently the 1975 have become more popular as in 2016 their album ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’ which was released in late February 2016 which went on to top both the UK charts and the US Billboard200. In their early career when they weren’t as well-known they made several appearances on radio stations to help promote their songs for example in late 2012 radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe invited the 1975 on show to perform their current single ‘sex’ which they released on the 19^th of November in that same year. Also in 2012 the popularity of the 1975 grew further as they toured with the ‘Rolling Stones’ who were a very popular band at this time.

In 2013 the 1975 continued to gain popularity across the globe as in this year they released the album ‘VI’ which charted in the UK and was also aired in several other countries across the globe and they also went on several tours performing at multiple festivals including headlining at the Freedom festivals. 2014 saw even more festivals including festivals abroad as they performed at one of the most famous festivals in the world ‘Coachella’ which is held in the US and also touring in Australia and New Zealand.  

My information was gathered from this source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1975 

Lip Syncing Video

Lip Syncing Practice

George Watkins

The song we are doing for this post is a song by Drake called 'Too Good' featuring Rihanna. The reason we have decided to do this song is because we know the song very well therefore we know the lyrics which will help improve the quality of our lip syncing to the song, also this song doesn't have a very fast tempo so it is easy to lip sync to as the slower the song the better you can stay in time with the lyrics.

Doing this task will help me and my group when we make our real music video as we can practice lip syncing and how if it isn't in time with the lyrics then it can dramatically make the music video look of a poor quality and also we can practice the technique of editing a lip sync clip to make it look as if they are actually singing the song by having the lip sync and the audio attachment of the song itself in time with one another.

The song we used isn't available on YouTube for an unknown reason so here is a slower version by Conor Maynard and Sarah Close :

Our Favourite Music Videos and Why

George and Billy 

George - 

It was hard to pick a particular favourite song or music video for this however in the end I decided to go with the iconic ending of Fast and Furious 7’s ending with the song of ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth.

The reason this is my favourite music video is because of its link with the film of Fast and Furious which created a very emotional end to the film especially with the passing of Paul Walker who passed away in a tragic car accident at the same time as the film was still being made. The Music video from this song has clips from the film as well as clips of the artists as well, this song gained a lot of popularity due its involvement with the film and now has over 2 billion views on YouTube making it the second most viewed music video on YouTube behind PSY’s Gangnam style.

The reason this song had such an impact on the film was due its nature of the lyrics matched with the visuals as throughout the song at the end of the film you can see flashbacks of Paul Walker from some of the previous Fast and Furious films before eventually best friends in the film Paul Walker and Vin Diesel split up and take different roads as they drive off into the sunset making this one of the most memorable music videos for me and is definitely up there with some of my favourite music videos.

Billy

My personal favourite music video would be ' Somebody Else' by The 1975. This is my favourite music video for a number of reasons. As The 1975 are one of my favourite artists this music video caters to me as a big fan of them. This is through the numerous references and throwbacks to some of their older songs and so I have a high respect for the length of time and detail that the band and the directors of the music video went through to make the video a more enjoyable experience. For example, having a sign in the background of the song which has a quote in french from their older music video 'Chocolate' which is only on the screen for about 1 second. I also like the tone of the music video and I like how there is a mixture between serious and comedy. I like how the song links with the video and I also like how the music video is fully narrative based as I personally prefer this for a narrative based song. It is also the last music video from the band's second album ' I like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It' which is an album which signified a big change in the band's style and I personally really enjoyed the album.



This will help us as we will be using some influences from each video into our work and we will be looking to recreate things we like in hope that our target audience also like them.

Representation In Our Music Video

Billy Parker

Gender

In Our video we are going to portray both genders in quite a stereotypical manner. For example a female who cares about her appearance and we see a male who is drunk. However, in our video we also have some non stereotypical representations. For example we see an argument between the male and female and the female seems to take control of the situation which is non stereotypical because it is quite a masculine thing to do. One other example is we see the male checking his appearance in the same way that the female does, which could represent the character's feminine side. We also have the male character sulking and crying in a car which again is expected of females and not males.  In terms of camera angles we will not have any direct angles which are sexual in terms of the female, however there will be quite a few camera angles which are from the perspective of a male looking towards the female which fits in with the male gaze theory. We will also have stereotypical costumes for genders. Our male will be wearing a white shirt which represents his good intentions.

Age

In our clip we will be having people very young around 18 years old, which the audience knows because they are drinking and also the main character drives a car. One reason for this is because this is our target market and we would like to appeal to them as best we can. I also believe that having this young age will have stereotypical representations in the clip as our video will depict how inexperienced and adolescent the younger generation is, with them drinking and getting into child-like arguments and problems. We also have our characters using technology a lot which represents that they are a part of the younger generation.

Sexuality

In our clip we will be depicting two straight characters, which is stereotypical in representations. However, in some parts of our video we will see the main male character depicted as quite feminine in a few scenes.

Ethnicity

In our video we only have representations of white people which is stereotypical as they are seen as the majority.

Disability

We have no representations of disability in our video.

Class

in our video we have representations of the middle social classes. This is because our main character is seen driving quite an old car which shows both that he isn't part of the lower classes (because he owns a car) and that he isn't a part of the higher social classes (car is quite old).

Regional Identity

In our video we have characters from the suburbs area. We have stereotypical representations for our video because we see the main character wearing expensive brand clothes and shoes which is something that is common and expected for young people from the suburbs.

Plot and Narrative Work For The Music Video

George Watkins 

After collaborating the ideas, we had in our group we have come up with a final plan for our music video. The main feature of our music video is that it is full narrative meaning we have no performance shots or any shots of people singing.

In our music video we have a total 8 different scenes throughout we around 116 different shot, having scenes in our shotlist has helped us display our idea for the video.

Scene 1 – the firsts scene is the shortest scene in the whole of the video as it lasts just 16 seconds, in the scene we have a few establishing shots showing where the scene is set and the aftermath of the party the night before which sets up the narrative for the video.

Scene 2 – the second scene is the introduction to the 2 main characters we have in our music video which is a man and a woman who are lying in a bed the night after a party, the 2 awake slowly before stumbling out of bed and getting themselves together before going off in different directions.

Scene 3 – this scene, similar to scene 1 is a very short scene and a very simple scene which takes place in a new location to the video as the man who was previously lying in the bed is now driving into a pub car park before eventually he parks up and sits in his car just before the first set of flashbacks in the video.

Scene 4 – this scene is the first section of flashbacks that are included in our music video, in this set of flashbacks you can see the start of what takes place at the party for example in this video you can see a lot of people having fun at the party expect from a man and a woman who are sitting at either end of sofa until they eventually meet in the kitchen when they go to get a drink and begin to chat and then the man returns to the room where the party is in full swing.

Scene 5 – this scene begins with the woman who has found out that the man is in the pub waiting for her on his own and is looking at a couple on another table in jealousy as his relationship isn’t very stable. The 2 are then reunited in the pub and begin to chat until a disruption to the relationship is caused as the man receives a text from a contact labelled as “girlfriend” and the woman in the pub with him realises that he is using her to cheat on his girlfriend which upsets her and causes her to storm out of the pub leaving the man on his own once more. The man sits by himself reflecting before leaving the pub as well.

Scene 6 – following on from the previous scene you can now see the man who has just left the pub and is walking up to his car before eventually getting in however his car does not start and the man’s problems continue much to his annoyance as he slouches back on his chair then receives a notification on his phone that he has an event to go to tonight. This scene finishes with the stranded man returning to his house to get ready to go to the event that he has been invited to.

Scene 7 – the second section of the flashbacks are shown in the seventh scene which follow on directly from the first section on flashbacks so the man returning back to living room and sitting on the sofa and is shortly joined with the other main character who is the woman who comes to sit down next to him on the sofa, throughout the night the couple laugh away and chat until the woman whispers to the man and then the couple head upstairs and into a bedroom which is where the second lot of flashbacks end.

Scene 8 – in this final scene we have a bit of a loop of shots that have already been seen as the eighth scene almost sums up what has been seen in the video before such as the party, the argument in the pub and most importantly how the couple ended up in the bed together until the video comes to a conclusion ending where the video started which is in the bedroom with both the man and woman lying together after a mixed evening/ night before.

Target Audience Brief

George Watkins

The music video and the genre of the music I feel have two different kind of target audiences as commonly the Indie/Pop genre is aimed at perhaps old teenagers and adults due to the kind of slow tempo and hidden meanings within the lyrics which I have certainly noticed after researching the The 1975 as a lot of their songs are written about drugs however when listening to the song you may not think this. As for our music video itself I think the target audience would be both males and females ranging in age of around 16 - 25 as in our music video the age of our actors fit within this age range and also a lot of people within this age range may do things that are seen in the music video for example going to house parties or going to the pub/ bar if you are over 18 meaning that they can relate to what is seen in this music video and can perhaps get into the kind of music making this age both males and females a good target audience for our music video.

When thinking about demographics and interests for the chosen target audience I couldn't think of a group or location that I would single out to target our music video at as I believe this genre isn't so much like rap or country music which may have more obvious demographic groups of different interests unlike Indie/Pop which is more of a wide spread genre that anyone anywhere may like.

25 Word Pitch

Narrative video showing a love hate relationship between a man and woman showing the fallout of what happened at a party the night before hand. 

This will help us when we create our work to keep focused on our plan and it will also be something we can compare with after we have done a rough cut to see if our original plans have stayed or if they have changed.

Initial Ideas on Music Videos

George Watkins

My group are very focused on one band that we want to use for this music video project and that is the 1975. Between us we found 2 songs that we both liked for this artist and they were the songs ‘Milk’ and ‘A Change of Heart’. We both thought of narratives for the songs we liked and then pitched them to each other to find the best plan of action.

The plan for the song ‘Milk’ which is originally a song written about drug use but this is the idea Billy had for this song;

“For my idea I would preferably have a full narrative based music video which is set at a house party, with a female lead. The narrative flows as this girl is the focus of the camera from the start as she leaves the bathroom, which is hinting to the audience form this she has been doing drugs. This then leads to a large dancing montage at the party throughout the full chorus. As the second verse begins, the lead female is sitting down on a sofa miming the lyrics to someone clearly uninterested in what she is saying and so it appears as a monologue. She then meets up with a man and they seem to have deal which then the female goes into the bathroom and as she emerges it is evident to the audience of her drug use. Another dancing montage starts again but the character seems to be light headed, and eventually collapses towards the end and then the final shot is a bird’s eye of the woman on the ground with blue flashing lights from the side.

I think my idea would be simple and easy, as well as it is obvious to the audience the themes whilst still being a realistic music video.”

The plan for the song ‘A Change of Heart’ is also written about drugs but sounds like it could be written about a relationship between a man and a woman, this is the idea that I had for this song.

After looking at both ideas we have had suggestions of mixing the ideas together using the song ‘A Change of Heart’ which we will develop on as time goes.

Generic conventions of the indie genre

Billy Parker

For Indie music videos there are a few generic conventions which a lot of institutions follow. One of the main ones is how the videos are based on performance, which will be used as a way to show the artist more and to give them more exposure.Another example for conventions of indie music videos is that typically indie videos do not have a large budget and so as an audience we do not see too many exotic locations. The main settings for this genre include a studio , cities , fields and other rural locations. The genre typically focus more on the artist and so they use basic locations to keep the audience focusing on the artist.



 Mise-en-scene in indie music videos is used to help portray the artist in the way they would like to be, which typically for the genre is quite alternative and retro. The key props for the indie genre would be the instruments used in the song as again they would like to keep focus on the artist. In terms of colour, typically we see a lot of darker and more moody tones in a video, with grey-scale black and white being a very popular editing technique.





In terms of camera angle the most common camera angles are close ups on artists which would help them to gain exposure and create a star due to how a close up helps to highlight the talents of the artist.










From this research we will be using a lot of the generic camera angles with close ups on the male character which would be to try to gain some exposure for the artist. At some point in our video we are planning on using flash backs which may mean we incorporate the editing technique of black and white. We also will be having a male main character much like what the genre stereo typically has

Comparison Of Music Videos Findings

 George Watkins

I tried to find comparisons in music videos to try and highlight trends within music videos, the two music videos I looked at are both by ‘The 1975’ as this is the band that’s song we are using to make our music video and also I am using them for inspiration throughout this blog including when making my media products (digipak and magazine advert)

 

The comparison I will be doing is looking at some of ‘The 1975’s’ music videos for example the music video for ‘A change of heart’ and the song ‘Robbers’.

 

 

one noticeable comparison between these two music videos is the fact that there is 2 main characters, a man and a woman even though they have very different appearances with one video having a male and female clown characters and other having normal looking characters.

 

Another similarity between the videos is the storyline, Todorov’s theory has five main sections to it and I believe that both of these music videos has at least 2 of the 5 sections, the 2 are; the state of the equilibrium where all is well and characters are looking happy and also a disruption of the equilibrium which is where something has happened to change the mood or welfare of the characters.

 

The state of the equilibrium in both videos is rather evident however the disruptions often tend to come later on in the storyline, the disruption in the song ‘Robbers’ is when the male actor/ lead singer Matthew Healey is wounded in the store robbery and then the disruption in the other music video is when the clowns fall out due to the male character persistently annoys the female clown causing them to separate and they never rekindle their love/ friendship.

 

Due to my findings and what seems like a running theme in many of ‘The 1975’s’ music videos I will try to include some of the similarities in my music video for example have a male main character and a female main character who are seen to be happy and in love however a disruption is caused and they fall out.                                                         

George Watkins        Candidate Number : 1342
Billy Parker               Candidate Number:  1264