Music Video

This is the final version of my music video. Overall I am very happy with the final outcome and feel that I have come a long way since the rough cut and used the feedback given to me to ultimately produce a highly successful video.

Thank You and Goodbye!

Dear Examiner,

Thank you very much for looking at my work and I hope you enjoy it.

Vinuri :)

Evaluation - Activity Four

Evaluation - Question Four on Prezi

Evaluation - Activity Three

Q3.) What have I learnt from audience feedback?

Feedback from pitch:

From our initial pitch when we presented as a group, the overall feedback that we got was positive.

We also got asked many questions which we thought about and considered when thinking about our video. I chose to encorporate the constructive comments as I felt this would benefit me and lead me to producing a video of better quality. There were other aspects of the pitch and inital planning stages that I would have liked to add into my video but didn't have the chance to. An example of this is where we wanted to have a circling effect on the camera on the final studio shot but this was not possible due the restrictions with space in the studio.

Feedback on rough cut:

I got plenty of good comments as well as many constructive comments on how to improve.

I found the opportunity given to us to screen our music videos highly useful. It allowed me to reach out to my target audience and to a wider audience too in order for me to get their opinions to better my video to their taste.

Feedback on Final Video:


The first comments on my final video were given to me by my peers through a screening. I also posted my video on Youtube to open it up to a wider audience and allow for feedback that way too.

Feedback on ancillary tasks:

Evaluation - Activity Two

Evaluation - Activity One

Evaluation Activity 1

Magazine Advert

Album Cover

Back Cover:

Inside Cover:

Inside Cover (CD Placement):

Final Album Cover:

Album Title Font

Name Designs

I went to the website www.dafont.com to handpick a series of different fonts which I could possibly use for my album cover. When asking my peers and target audience which they preferred and felt complimented the R'n'B genre, the majority of them picked "Brushtip Travis" so I chose that as my main font.

Initial Album Cover

This was the original idea for my album cover and my artist "Hayleigh". I chose this picture to be on the front of the cover as I felt it fit in nicely with the R'n'B genre which I wanted to be associated with my artist and also as it was to be her debut album, I wanted her to be the main focus.
I showed the cover to my peers and others of the target audience and the feedback which I received was:

• the picture chosen is good and shows off the artist well
• the colour used for the background doesn't really match with the R'n'B genre so would be better if it changed
• the font used works well

Re-Shoot

As a group, we felt it was necessary to re-shoot some scenes of the music video in order to meet the suggestions given to us through the feedback.

In response to the first piece of feedback that I got which was about there not being enough narrative and needing to show more of a relationship between the characters, we filmed scenes that placed the two characters in different situations doing things together. We made sure we did it in a way where we just added to the narrative instead of changing the whole story to make them look more like a couple. The majority of the scenes we chose to film and add were the couple in the house; scenes such as the couple walking into the house together and making tea in the kitchen emphasised the fact that they lived with each other.

Another piece of feedback we got was that it would be effective if there was a scene showing the couple arguing. We chose to add this in and it proved to work really well as it established the relationship more adding to the narrative whilst also linking into the lyrics and mood of the song.

Having to work on such a tight schedule to give us enough time to add in the selected scenes, made us work efficiently as a group and keep us eager to complete the task successfully.


The scene featuring the argument between the two characters, is a scene which we chose to add in when filming again as it proves to be very effective and have an impact whilst also linking in with the theme and lyrics of the song.

Record Company Research

The record label that I chose to produce my video is Polydor Records. It is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group and is headquartered in the UK.
It was founded in 1924 as an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammphon Gesellschaft and didn’t become big in the U.S until 1971, when it was graced with the presence of R’n’B legend James Brown, despite opening a division in 1969.

Polydor Records supports its artists greatly and helps to make them chart topping successes. Also being from the UK, I felt that Polydor having an American branch as its defunct, would help boost Hayleigh’s profile.

Rough Cut

When putting the clips together, I chose to go for a slow edit as I felt the narrative would then mirror the pace of the song. I didn't use any effects as I felt that adding them would take away from the video and the meaning that I wanted to get across. My favourite part of the video is when George is seen to fade away when leaving Frankie in the park.

Feedback:
After completing my rough cut, I showed it to my peers and my teachers to get feedback on it to see how I could improve and if there was anything to add/take away.

The feedback I received was:

• Is that there was not enough narrative and more scenes need to be added showing the relationship between the two characters.
• The lip syncing was seen to be off at times so that needed to be fixed.
• The fact that the two characters live together needs to be reinforced.
• There is a clear story.

Artist's Album Covers

Here are some covers from female solo artist's albums.

Above you can see Leona Lewis' cover for her debut album. As you can see Leona is placed in the middle of the cover and her face takes up the majority of the cover with the lighting emphasising her features. This is helpful for a new artist as it enables them to be established and become known. The title of the artist and the album have been strategically placed so that they are made seen but do not take any of the attention away from Leona.

Some more album covers are seen below:

Melanie Fiona - The Bridge

Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten

Corinne Bailey Rae

Photoshoot

These are some of the pictures that were taken on the first day of the shoot. They are the pictures that are going to be used in the Digipak and on the front of the album. The picture that I choose has to be representative of the genre, which in this case is R'n'B, and it has to also appeal to my target audience. As it would be my artist's first album, I would want her to be the main focus on the front.

Star Image

Star Image on Prezi

Album Covers

As the artist for my music video is a female soloist, I made a collage of famous female solo artists and their album covers. I used covers from a broad range of genres to get a feel for the types of looks that are shown and to get inspiration for my own designs.
One thing I found to be common in all of them, despite the different genres, is that the artist is featured predominantly on the front and so is the artist's name making it easier to establish who they are. This is something decided to consider when making and designing my album cover for my artist.

Day Two Shoot

The second day of filming ran very smoothly and we ended up getting more done than we had originally planned. We thought a third day of filming would be required but we found that we were ahead of schedule so it enabled us to get the shots that we needed. Some of the things needed for the shoot had to prepped on the day such as the photo frame of the two actors. The picture was taken, printed and put into the frame shortly before filming the scenes. One of the problems that we faced was that of the glass on the photo frame not shattering when dropped to the ground. We anticipated this to happen so opted to use symbolism rather than a literal meaning.

Schedule for Day Two

Day Two Schedule

Day One Shoot

Before filming even started, we encountered a problem in the fact that the person that was meant to star in our video, couldn't make it to either of the days which we had planned to shoot. This meant we had to work around the situation and ultimately use one of our own group members as the person to fill in the role.

Our first day of shooting was mainly placed in the music studio at Park High. I made sure to get a variety of different shots from different angles to enable us to have freedom with the footage available to us. Once each take was complete, we would discuss if we thought it worked or not and if we had to change anything. At one point we decided to move the lighting that was available as it caused shadows which we felt would be distracting and would effect the final outcome of the video once changed into black and white.
Our timings were precise and we managed to stick to our original schedule. As well as filming all of the studio shots successfully, the remainder of the day was spent on the photoshoot and taking pictures of our star which would ultimately make up the Digipack and the album cover. This allowed us to be creative in coming up with a look we thought would work best for our artist, the genre of music and the audience too.

Schedule for Day One

Day One Schedule

Shot List

Initial Shot List:

This was the shot list that we produced as a group. It shows the shot number, what the shot is of, the actors and any props that are needed.

More Detailed Shot List:

1. Close up - Actress’ face looking out of the window crying – in a house; water and pipette needed to make it seem as if she is crying.

2. Close up – A notebook with the word “Numb” on it and a teardrop running down it – this too will be set in the house and the props needed are pen, notebook, water and pipette.


3. Mid shot – The actress in the studio singing into the microphone. This would be a single shot with only the actress in the scene (to be in black and white) - this will be filmed at Park High’s music studio.

4a. Long shot – This would be of the two main characters walking on screen to sit on a bench looking happy and in love– this would be filmed at Centenary park.
4b. Mid shot – Two characters would be placed directly in front of the camera whilst sitting on the bench and would show the relationship between the two of them.

5. Close up – Back to the studio but from a different angle.

6. Long shot – Will show the two characters cuddled up on the sofa together watching a movie. The lighting will be dim and the majority of it will come from the TV.

7. Mid shot – Back to the studio but again to a different angle.

8. Long shot – Would be the same shot of the two characters on the bench in the park but you’d see the boyfriend walk away from the bench and then fade out.

9. Close up – Back to the studio but this time a closer angle.

10a. Mid shot – Actress walking into her house holding a photo frame of her and her boyfriend looking happy and she is smiling – would be set at the house and a photo in a frame would be needed.

10b. Point of view – A shot of the camera tilting shows the stairs and clothes trailing up them which suggests that he has cheated on her – will again be set at the house and clothes and underwear are needed.

10c. Close up – Shot of hand dropping the frame on the floor.

10d. Extreme close up – The frame is dropped and smashes.


11. Mid shot – Back to the studio to show her performing.

12. Mid shot - Shows the actress now sitting on her own without her boyfriend in the park.

13. Mid shot - Studio shot filmed from the opposing angle.

14. Close up - At the end of the song, the final scene shows the actress closing the notebook.

Storyline Pictures

Timeline

The pictures above show a rough storyboard as to what I hope to achieve in terms of my music video.

The first picture shows a close up of our star and her crying. An extreme close up is next and shows the tear drop falling onto a notebook which has the word "Numb" on it, causing the ink to then smudge and run on the page. We are introduced to the artist through the following shot where we see a mid shot of her singing in the studio. This would be intercut with the narrative; flashbacks of the star and her boyfriend would be seen where they are together and then would lead to us seen him cheat on her.
When thinking about the shoot, I felt that filming the cheating scenes would prove to be difficult and not as easy to accomplish as I'd thought, so felt a more effective way of portraying the concept of cheating would be to show the boyfriend's clothes draped on the stairs along with the "other" woman's clothing. The reaction of this by the artist would be to see her drop a picture of the two of them and have the glass smash. This would symbolise the end of their relationship and mimic the lyrics of the song.

The scene with the clothing on the stairs is a popular one which is seen in many movies and films which links in with intertextuality.

Moodboard

Jamelia Pitch

Jamelia Pitch

Feedback:

What they liked:

• It seems well thought out and the concept behind it is good.
• The locations are practical and suitable to the narrative making it easy to get to for filming purposes.
• The fact that there is no video currently made for the cover version of the song gives us more freedom to come up with an idea for a video and we don't have to worry about our videos being the same.
• It is a good hybrid of both narrative and performance videos.

What they were unsure of:

• Was it going to be black and white the whole way through?
• What effects would we use?
• Was it going to be a slow edit or a fast edit?

Letter of Permission

Letter of Permission

As a group, we felt it was necessary to contact the music company and ask for their permission in order for us to use the track in our video.

Chosen Song

The song that I chose to make a music video for was a cover version of the song Numb by Jamelia. The song was originally performed by American Rock band Linkin Park in 2003. The main task here is to create a music video that would appeal to both types of audiences as the cover version of the song falls into the R'n'B genre.

The cover version of the song had no video made for it so gave us enough freedom as a group to come up with our own idea's for what we thought would make it work. Upon watching the original video by Linkin Park (shown below) we thought of using the studio effect as we thought it had a good base behind it and linked in well with the R'n'B genre as it is a shot seen in many other videos such as One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boys II Men. Narrative scenes would be intercut with the shots from the studio to give the song more meaning.

This is the original video of Numb by Linkin Park.

Performance Video

I chose this video as a key example of the type of effect that I would like to use in my video as it is in black and white and the artist is the main central feature. The lighting is very prominent and used well to highlight the artist. It is also seen to be used during the close ups of the artists body parts which enhances the sexiness and the sexual aspect of the video.

The cuts in the video mirror the narrative behind the story and the lyrics: "I'd give my all to have just one more night with you..." The visuals show mid shots of a man topless which suggests that he is her man and she is singing to him.

What I find most interesting about this video is that the whole thing is filmed in one shot.

Evolution of Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera on Prezi

Star Evolution Through Music Videos

Music Channels Research

Music Channels Research on Prezi

Eminem - Mockingbird

Goodwin states that one of the conventions of a music video is that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This is seen to be key in Eminem's video for "Mockingbird" which is taken off the album Encore. It was released by the labels Shady, Aftermath and Interscope.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, better known by his stage name, Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer and actor born on October the 17th 1972. He quickly gained popularity with his debut album, The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. His following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest selling album in United States history.
The lyrics are a tribute to his daughters about his failed marriage and his relationship with them and his wife. This is an example of Eminem's extraordinary storytelling skills.


The video starts off with a movie reel showing his daughter Haley when she was younger. It then switches to a mid shot of Eminem sitting in a dark room on a chair with the projector rolling beside him. Many close ups are used of Eminem to show his facial expressions and the emotion portrayed.

The film clips which are used in this are all personal clips which makes the song more significant and allows the audience to empathise with him. There are many occasions in the song where the lyrics mimic the video clip shown on the projector. An example of this is when he says:
"I remember back when you and daddy had no money
Mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up
And stuck 'em under the tree and said some of 'em were from me
Cuz daddy couldn't buy 'em
I'll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying..."

Another effect that works particularly well is the faded picture of Eminem and his wife Kim used when he raps the line:
"We did not plan it to be this way, your mother and me
But things have got so bad between us
I don't see us ever being together ever again
Like we used to be when we was teenagers
But then of course everything always happens for a reason
I guess it was never meant to be"

This could be used to reflect the fact that their relationship did work at one point but has faded away and is now gone.

Green Day- Wake Me Up When September Ends

"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a song by American punk-rock band Green Day which was released in 2005.

Using Goodwin's conventions of music video, it is clear to see that throughout the whole of the video, there are clear links between the lyrics, the music and the visuals. It is seen to be a narrative and performance video whereby the audience is shown a storyline taking place whilst also having the video cut to shots of the band performing.

The director cleverly chose actors who were already famous and well known to be in the music video: Evan Rachel Wood (The Missing, Thirteen) and British actor Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, King Kong) enabling them to tap into an existing fan-base, other than the Green Day fans, which would then encourage them to watch it.

The video tells the story of a loving teenage couple who swear never to leave each other. The major turning point in the narrative is when we see them argue when the boyfriend enlists in the United States Marine Corps.

During the acting in the scene, a range of different shots (varying from close ups to two shots) were used to show the emotions of both of the characters. The slow motion build up at the beginning of the scene built up the tension of what was about to happen and it may also reflect the slow tempo and beat of the song.To help this, the door is seen to slam at the same time as the beat of the song so not to interrupt it. The boyfriend interprets his actions as a way to show her that he loves her so much that he would put his life on the line to keep her safe; the girlfriend, however, is heartbroken, as he broke his vow to never leave her, and terrified at the thought of him being killed in war.

An advantage of having a narrative continuing throughout the story is that it captivates the audience and encourages them to carry on watching in order to find out what happens next.

As the music starts to play again, we cut to a shot of the band playing to remind the audience that it is a music video. It may also be a requirement from the record company for the band to be shown. However, even though the band is shown in the video (more towards the end), the main focus is predominantly is on the actors which is unusual.

The continuation of the video shows the boyfriend going off to war in Iraq. The intertextuality used is particularly effective as it was addressing an issue which is present in the world at the time; there was much debate regarding the meaning of this song and if it echoed the events of 9/11. Billy Joe then stated that the song was a tribute to his father. The scenes are intercut with others of the girlfriend tearfully mourning in a quiet field. The video ends on this juxtaposition, emphasizing the pain and heartache of losing loved ones due to the war.

There are many movies that replicate the storyline and theme of the video such as Pearl Harbour, Dear John and The Men.

Music Director Presentation - Jonas Akerlund

Jonas Akerlund on Prezi

Lip - Syncing Activity

For this activity, we were given a track called "You Wanna What?" and clips of students from another school performing it and our task for this activity was to use the clips that we were given and match them up to the track.
It was a highly entertaining task which enabled me to develop my skills and use components such as markers to make sure that the timings on the videos were accurate.

Practise Lip Syncing

For this task my partner, Frankie, and I chose to recreate a video for the song Blue by Eiffel 65. We chose this as it was a song that we both liked and thought it would be fun to film/dance and sing to.
I think I completed this successfully and developed my skills as I learned how to use markers and make sure that the track matched up to the video.

Music Tracks

When trying to choose a potential track for my music video, I came across many different genres and looked at as many songs as I could so that I could keep my options open and keep a broad mind about what I wanted my video to look like.

I first thought about using a song from the dance genre as I felt this would enable me to work more freely with the footage that I'd shoot and would give me more ideas to work with. This also meant that the editing would have to be quick and sharp on order to keep up with the beat and retain the fast pace the video required.
The song that I thought would be good for this was The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name. This was because as there was not much happening in the original video, I felt that there was a lot for us to play with as a group. One of the idea's we had as a group (Disha, Frankie and myself) was when the line "They call me ...." was to have jump cuts of different people's faces on a close up shot and we felt that this would mirror the lyrics.

The next song I thought would work well for us as a group was Everytime We Touch - Casada. We felt that this would be a good possible track as the beat was fast and when thinking about it, we thought we had quite a lot of good ideas to put towards the video. The majority of the video would have consisted of fast jump cuts which would have included a number of shots, varying from close ups to long shots of the main performer. There would also be shots showing a club/party scene.

After a while of searching through different dance/pop songs, I felt that going for a completely different approach that I didn't think anyone else would help us to succeed. As the criteria only allowed us to use a song that wasn't released in the last 10 years or had a popular video, I thought looking at Radio 1 Live Lounge covers would enable us to be opened up to a whole new range of unreleased music.

As a group, we began to search through the several Live Lounge covers that had been performed and there were two songs that particularly stood out to us. The first was a cover of Kesha's Tik Tok by Example and the second was a cover of Linkin Park's Numb by Jamelia. Neither of the two songs had been officially released or had an official video produced for them so they fell perfectly into our criteria.
Ultimately after a long discussion as to which we thought we would be able to produce a video to more effectively, we decided to go with Jamelia's cover of Numb.

Christina Aguilera - Beautiful

Christina Aguilera is an American singer-songwriter who first cast onto television when appearing on the show Star Search in 1990.

"Beautiful" is a song written and produced by Linda Perry and is taken off Christina Aguilera's second album, Stripped (2002).

It tells the story of a girl who tries to deal with the abuse and the hurtful comments that get said to her causing her to feel insecure and unconfident. The song is about how she overcomes it and doesn't let the comment affect her.

The video is both performance and narrative based. The different stories acted out in the video mirror the lyrics and the issues faced of being different and needing to "fit in". Throughout the video we see the characters embracing their unique-ness and continuing on the way theywant despite what others may think.

The video starts off with an extreme close up of Christina's face where she whispers "Don't look at me", which is the message that echoes through about how the characters in the video feel. The main focus then turns to them and the lighting is particularly effective when we first see them as they are all positioned in dark rooms with a spotlight shining on them making them the centre of attention. This is shown using two screengrabs below.

Favourite Music Videos

1.) Paper - The Get Out Clause

The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from Manchester, without funds a crew or equipment turned to footage from CCTV cameras to make their video. They set up their equipment in around eighty different locations in Manchester and played to the cameras. They then, under the Freedom of Information Act, wrote to companies requesting the footage to be given to them.

Only a quarter of the companies fulfilled their request, ultimately leaving them with only twenty out of their original eighty locations.

To help them promote their idea, the band turned to the man who helped to make Oasis big, Liam Walsh, who thought the idea was a brilliant way to sell the band.

2.) Duffy - Warwick Avenue (Label: A&M, Mercury)

Aimee Ann Duffy, better identified by her stage name as Duffy, is a Welsh singer-songwriter who is known for being the first welsh female in 25 years to acheive a number one in the UK Singles Charts. This was with her song "Mercy".

This video premiered on the 23rd of April 2008 on Channel 4. Almost the entire video is composed in a single shot. It starts with Duffy leaving Warwick Avenue Tube Station in the back of a cab and it ends with her still in the back of the cab wiping her tears whilst singing. The director, Daniel Wolfe, had orginially thought that this was only going to be one scene from the music video but thought it felt so real that he continued filming on to make it the whole video.