Thursday 29 September 2016
Tuesday 27 September 2016
Monday 26 September 2016
28 Norh Band Contact
Contacting the Band
Overall, in deciding our song for our music video production, it was essential that we contacted the band (owners and creators of the song). With this in mind, we did contact 28 North in order to inform them that we plan to use their song 'Los Angeles' for our music video. The band did in fact receive our message therefore we deemed it suitable to begin planning and production of the music video.
Sunday 25 September 2016
Mise-en-Scene
Reasoning
For Costume, it was thought to be necessary that we present the band image through what each band member and what the narrative character wears. We chose casualwear and relatively ordinary costume due to the fact that we wish to follow conventions of the indie genre and in regards to conventional costume use in the genre there is usually regular, quite trendy, everyday items of clothing such as jeans, t shirts, jackets and trainers. For the choice of this costume we were inspired greatly by similar costume worn by the band members in Imagine Dragons who in their music videos such as 'Radioactive', 'It's time' and 'I bet my life' do in fact wear very casual items of clothing.
Setting is also a very important aspect of Mise-en-Scene that we had to take into consideration with our music video, we had to decide where the sequences of narrative would take place and where the sequences of performance would take place. The settings that we chose were both very simple in the forms of a bedroom and an open field, this is mainly due to the fact that we plan to bring the set to life and give an essence of character to it with the props and the actors in the narrative. The field was chosen for the set of the performance and the narrative as my Narrative Sketch Post states that the performance will feature in this setting on a relatively bright day signifying happiness whereas the narrative will feature in the exact same field yet it will be on a more dull, overcast day representing the emotions portrayed as a narrative. The second setting we have chosen is the small bedroom, this setting will only feature narrative and no performance will take place here whatsoever. We thought this to be a suitable setting for the narrative because it plays the part of the main characters home and the bedroom will have a chalkboard on the wall with string and pegs holding in place vintage postcards from the American states mentioned in the song. In this planning process we visualised an open spaced setting for the performance and narrative thus coming to the conclusion of a country field, in making tis decision, we gained inspiration yet again from the indie/rock genre due tot he fact that this genre is conventional for not featuring too extreme settings and the music videos tend to feature familiar or realistic settings. An artist that we did take inspiration from in terms of our setting choice was Jason Aldean in the music video for 'A little more summertime' where the performance aspect of the video is filmed from a wide shot on a beach featuring the entire band with a carnival in the background. This inspired us because of the authenticity given off by the band in the setting, we liked the idea of performance taking place in a location other than a stage or an arena yet the location is not too abstract.
It is the simplicity of a setting that we wanted to feature in our music video with the character and charisma being emitted from the actors and props being used in the sequences. Another music video that we were inspired by in terms of this simplicity in a setting was Justin Beiber 'I'll show you', and even though this of the pop genre an effective setting is still used and is effective due to its simplicity.
We feel that these two music video examples are so effective because the simple setting as a result draws focus to the other aspects of mise-en-scene in the shot.
Following the theme of Mise-en-Scene aiding the narrative, we plan for the props to be no different. The majority of the chosen props for our music video are for use in on particular narrative sequence. This narrative sequence being the part of the video where the main character's emotional/mental state is depicted with a cut from the performance to him throwing, kicking and making a general mess of the set with sed props. The majority of the props chosen for this sequence are disposable therefore are relatively easily cleaned up and are not too valuable if broken, also, these props/objects are very random and this was due to the narrative and the fact that the whole sequence depicts the characters insanity and unstable emotions. The other props we plan to use in the music video include a chalkboard, string, pegs and a variety of vintage American postcards which play a part for the narrative as well. Finally, for performance, instruments will be used in the video such as an electric guitar, drum kit with drum sticks and possibly a microphone with stand. In general, it is not overly conventional for music videos of the indie/rock genre to feature a great deal of props apart from the exceptions of instruments. However we plan to ignore these conventions and use the variety of props as mentioned due to the fact that we feel their use will have a positive impact for the narrative and will play a significant part. Some inspiration that we got for using a wide variety of relatively noticeable and familiar props is from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers music video of 'Can't stop' where a wide range of props are used such as buckets, lamps, paint and dustbins, however the difference in this music video is that it has a disjuncture narrative and we plan to expand on this use of props by using them within an amplification narrative.
In regards to lighting and make-up, we have little requirements for our music video for either of these aspects, except for the lighting in the performance and narrative scenes in the field which where the performance scenes will be on a brighter day whereas the narrative field sequence will feature on a more dull, overcast day. The narrative sequences in the bedroom will feature artificial light since it is a home environment and it would seem realistic for their to be standard lights used. Secondly, with make-up, we have decided that we do not plan to use any make-up whatsoever as we wish to follow conventions of the indie/rock genre and also our narrative does not require us to use an aspect of make-up either.
Thursday 22 September 2016
28 North Lyrics Analysis
28 North – Los Angeles by Jack Barrell on Scribd
In the presentation above I have outlined the key concepts, ideas and connotations present in the lyrics in 28 North - Los Angeles. Through these subtle connotations in the lyrics, ideas of a wider narrative are interpretable.
For example, there are many hints and references to themes of heartbreak, guilt and loss, this is clear in lyrics such as 'The one that got away', 'She said I broke her heart', 'running from my past' and 'no peace'. All of these lyrics do have strong connotations of past heartbreak and guilt. Furthermore, lyrics such as 'no peace' and 'sanity's a luxury' indicate themes of guilt and open up possible psychological aspects and feelings of the viewpoint from which this song and these lyrics are taken, with the lyrics 'no peace' and 'sanity's a luxury' it is implied that this person is haunted by the past and is struggling to find peace in life, this connotation is then reinforced by the lyrics 'now sanity's a luxury'.
Further into the song, the concept of finding peace is even more apparent yet it is subtly represented with travelling to physically find peace in location. This is evident in lyrics such as 'I could stay in PA', 'moved to California in my 25th year' and finally 'I found no peace in Los Angeles', it is inferred that this person feel lost and that they don't belong in 'PA' and they 'could stay' but don't necessarily feel right emotionally doing so. This metaphorical search for a sense of belonging is further expanded with he lyrics 'moved to California'. After this, in the more chorus sections of the song lyrics such as 'I found no peace in Los Angeles', 'no peace in Los Angeles', these lyrics give the suggestion that Los Angeles is the final place that this person has travelled to in order to find this 'peace', however they are unsuccessful in their efforts as after all the travelling they cannot even find the 'peace in Los Angeles', with this emphasis on Los Angeles it is implied that this person considered Los Angeles a heavenly place and this is considered by many as Los Angeles is nicknamed 'City of Angels'. Therefore the fact that they can't even find peace in this place that they see as heavenly leads us to believe that they are guilt ridden and feel as if they will never get rid of this guilt.
Tuesday 20 September 2016
Sunday 18 September 2016
Music Video Focus Group
Questionnaire
Overall, the focus group after the
Vox Pop, was another way to find out more about our possible target audience.
However, with the focus group, we were able to select a specific group of
people all of similar age but split with three males and three females. The
first part of the focus group activity involved offering the participants a
questionnaire these questions all revolved around a possible song choice for
our music video and we played the song to the focus group while they answered
the questionnaire.
Thumbs up, Thumbs down
After we issued the questionnaire
to the participants, they took part in a ‘Thumbs up, Thumbs down’ exercise,
this entailed the focus group answering four different questions relating to
the chosen possible song and their only form of answering was either putting
their thumbs up or down usually signifying ‘yes or no’. This again was a very
effective method in eventually choosing a song for our music video and
discovering what aspects of songs and music videos they were attracted to the
most. Again, this exercise took place while the participants listened to the
song.
The first question that we asked
the focus group read ‘Does the song provide a wide range of music video
ideas?’, we thought that this was an appropriate question to ask the focus
group due to the fact that we plan to create a music video with an
amplification narrative it is vital that we have selected a song that does
offer ideas and concepts that could be implemented into a music video.
Successfully, the answered we received from the participants were 100% yes as
all participants evidently put their thumbs up. With this information we now
know that members of our possible target audience possibly view the song choice
as original, unique and rich with connotations and concepts.
For the second question, we sked,
if the music video for the song should contain lip-syncing, we again thought
that this was a suitable question to ask the focus group as many of our answers
that we received from the vox pop specified that they preferred an equal ratio
of narrative and performance therefore we intended to find out if members of
our potential target audience wanted to see lip syncing as a part of this
performance or not. Similarly to the previous answer, responses were very one
sided as 5 out of 6 participants answered yes with only the one negative
answer. With this information, we suspect that the majority of our potential
audience do enjoy lip-syncing in music videos and feel that it should
particularly feature in the music video for our potential chosen song.
The third question that we asked
our focus group questioned the participants whether instruments should feature
in the music video for our potential song choice. This question, similarly to
the previous question about lip-syncing relates to the performance aspect of
the music video and we felt it was essential that we discovered which aspects
of performance our potential audience prefer, and would possibly envision
seeing in our music video. The answers that we received for this were
substantially less one sided to the previous responses, the responses we received
were split equally with three answering yes and three answering no. However
this was split between the males and females with all of the girls answering
yes and the boys the ones answering no. These findings intrigued us as they
could suggest that the psychographics of girls are that of liking performance
with both lip-syncing and instruments being played yet boys only enjoy
lip-syncing in music in videos. However, these findings could simply lead us to
believe the girls enjoy the instrumentals to the song more than the lyrics yet
the boys are more drawn to the specific lyrics.
The final question that we asked
the focus group was relatively similar to the first question that we asked in
terms of ideas for the music video, however, in this fourth question we asked
if there connotations and concepts present in the lyrics specifically. This was
essential information for us again due to the fact that we plan to make our
music video with an amplification narrative therefore connotation and key
concepts in the lyrics are key and it is vital that our potential audience can
pick out these connotations. Fortunately, the responses that we received form
the focus group were completely positive as all members put their thumbs up.
These findings now inform us that our potential audience understands the song
and the lyrics in particular.
Saturday 17 September 2016
Music Video Vox Pop
From the Vox Pop question that detailed participants’
favourite music genre, we discovered that even though people do have different
favourite genres such as R&B, Rock and Alternative, their reasoning behind
liking these genres are due to the fact they are not necessarily considered
mainstream and they are all unique in their own ways and they prefer genres
like this to the pop genre for example. This could impact our possible song
ideas for our music video production as possibly more different, less
mainstream genres are more likeable than simply the pop genre.
With the question in which we asked what participants
thought made a music video memorable, we discovered that originality could be
key, this originality could be present in the narrative, as one answer stated
that an ‘interesting’ narrative made a music video memorable. On top of this,
we learnt that originality could also be vital in terms of mise-en-scene as
another answer stated good mise-en-scene makes music videos memorable. As
another participant stated, the music video can simply just be fun and
enjoyable to watch. This could influence our ideas for our music video
production as we have now learnt that originality can definitely be effectively
and in our production we plan to be as original as possible in as many aspects
as possible.
In the question ‘What do you like most about music videos?’,
we gained similar responses to the answers to what made a music video
memorable, these answers included, originality in narrative and song, however
we did learn from this question that positive emotions and concepts are the
most likeable features of a music video, as we received answers such as
vibrance, fun and excitement.
From the examples given by the participants for memorable
music videos their thoughts on what makes a memorable music video are reinforced
as the examples they give roughly contain all of the aspects they have
mentioned to be effective.
In the question in which we asked for the participants’
preference on narrative type, we learned further that people really enjoy a
story in a music video. Out of the five answers we received, 4 out of the 5
chose either amplification or illustration, from this we learnt that people
like to be able to associate the lyrics of the song visually in the video,
whether this is an illustration where the video almost reflects the video
exactly, or if its amplification where the key concepts or ideas are visually
reflected on the video.
With the final question, we intended to find out what type of
performance to narrative ratio people prefer. From the Vox Pop, we did learn
that people do in fact enjoy the presence of both, as we discovered that people
would ‘get bored’ if there was too much performance or too much narrative
therefore a 50/50 ratio would possibly be more effective.
Friday 16 September 2016
Tuesday 13 September 2016
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