Prop, Location, Costume and Cast List

My partner and have decided that she will play the main role of the singer/music artist within our music video and I will take on the role of shooting the video and we will both take-part in the editing process.

The reasons for choosing Ellen to star as the mian singer is because we have both had past experiences of working in situations were you have to rely on other people turning up and we did not want to put ourselves in that position. This way we do not have to work around other people and rely on them to be able to turn up where and when we want them to.

Another reason for this decision is that it is hard to get other people to fully understand what we want them to do in the acting postition and if we got someone to act who we don't know that well there may be confidence issues with the actress and this would slow our progress down and with a short amount of time we can't afford to spend any longer than we need to on shooting a scene. As we both know exactly how we want our video to look it will be more effecient for one of us to take on role of actress and one of us to take on role of camera woman.

Music Video Synopsis

The video depicts one girls story of love and lust over a boy who is out of her reach. The boy is forbidden to her and in that sense it makes him her ‘guilty pleasure’. The video poses the question of whether she is in reality or is it all a dream world, this reflects the idea of getting caught up between fiction and fantasy. This boy is constantly on her mind, portraying him as her ‘sweet dream’, but the constant heart ache and uncontrollable lust can just as easily turn him into her ‘beautiful nightmare. This element to the video makes it a ‘must see’ music video for females as they will be able to relate their own thoughts, feelings and experiences into the medium enabling them to connect to the artist on a deeper level.

story board

Animatic

In order to develop my story board to get a further understanding of how my music video will come together I have created an animatic, this basically a moving storyboard. All the clips have been edited to the song sequence so they appear for the correct duration and point in the song.

I created my animatic by taking individual photographs of each shot within my storyboard. As you can see through the video above the quality of the pictures are not that good, however this isn't an important factor as you can still get the feel it.

As you can see, the animatic has been put together in a basic straight cut format. In the actual video there will be a range of different transitions to create flow, but for now I just want to be able to see roughly how my video will look. In the process of doing this I have already noticed clips which will need to be altered and there are places where I will have to create an extra scene or cut a scene out. It is for this reason why it is important that I made the animatic because from a storyboard alone I would not have been able to spot these mistakes as I would have had no idea how it would form together.

Target Audience

This questionnaire is designed to help me develop a full understanding of my target audience at whom my music video will be aimed at. It will enable me to get a clear idea of their lifestyles, music interests and what they like to get out of a music video. The results which I obtain from this questionnaire will enable me to progress in the planning stages and apply my knowledge into the making of my video.

I handed my questionnaire out at college, to family members and also managed to get responses from a small number of people when handing out my questionnaires in the town center. This allowed me to get a more representative and valid result as it includes a range of ages, interests and ideologies.

I needed to create a questionnaire that was simple to fill out for the respondents and that will allow me to easily define the likes, needs, and buying habits of my audience. In order to make my questionnaire successful I made sure that it was relatively brief, no more than two pages as I did not want to make it look daunting for potential respondents. Also I provided apparent instructions on how to answer the questions and I worded each question with clear and concise language. I included different types of questions to gather general and more specific responses through the use of multi-choice questions for most of the survey and a few short answer questions. I made sure to avoid asking for identifying information as this may offend the respondents; instead I opted to ask general personal questions to help me determine my respondent’s demographic category.

Demographics are defined as "the statistics that characterize human populations". These can be broken down into characteristics such as; age, gender, occupation status, location, family status and lifestyle. It is important to know these qualities as they will belong to those who will be willing to watch/listen to and buy my music video. Once I have drawn up a demographic profile for my target audience I will be able to use this information to help me define my target audience.

The results which have obtained from my questionnaire can be summarised into the following points;

• More students use social networking sites then any other occupation. The most popular genres of music for students appeared to be pop, indie and R&B. In other categories there was no significant difference in genre, the popularity was spread out, showing that people have a mixture of what they like.
  
• Students, Part-time people, the retired and the unemployed appeared to spend the most amount of time participating in leisure activities, on average 3-5 times a week. The majority who downloaded music was students and those who work part-time.
  
• Location did not have a huge significant difference in the type of activities liked, the engaging of social networking, the way in which music was listened to or the genre. However people in the countryside seemed to listen to the most music per day compared to those in towns or cities. This may be due to the isolation factor, having further to walk or less other activities to participate in.
  
• The most hours of music listened to in a day was the 13-17’s and 18-25’s on average this was 2-3hrs.
  
• The age categories that preferred to listen to their music on CD was the 6-12’s, 35-49’s and the 50+. Out of those that said they did buy CD’s it was found that albums were the dominant seller to those aged 26+. Whereas compilation CD’s were the favourite amongst those who bought CD’s in aged 25 and below.
  
• I found that the retired tended to rely on the radio for their music enjoyment, did not engage in social networking and enjoyed genres such as classical, country and rock ‘n’ roll. And the location had no significant difference.
  
• Those aged 13-17 spent the least amount of money on music purchases per month, the majority averaging on spending £0. Yet nearly all of the respondents said that they use music downloading sites and listen to music on I-pods, which leads me to the conclusion that they use downloading sites which enables them to listen to music for free.
  
• The majority who participated in this survey is an active user of a social networking site (the 50+ being the least). I found those who downloaded music and spent the most on music purchases was a MySpace user. I have come to the conclusion that this is because MySpace is more dedicated and well known for launching music careers.
  As a whole more females watch music channels than males. On average females rated the importance of the music video in relation to the artist at 9. In comparison to males who only rated the importance on an average of 6.5. However when asked which aspects of music videos they most valued the majority of females opted for all four options available, whilst the majority of males opted only for the artist.
  
• When asked ‘from what angle do you prefer music video’s to take those who chose abstract tended to be rock fans and mostly males. Females aged 6-12 and 13-17 the majority opted for dance. Females aged 18-25 seemed to value the story-telling angle behind the music video. It was made evident that those in age categories above 25 did not show as much interest in music videos as a whole.
  

Audience Demographic Profile;

Female, white, aged 18-35, with an interest in social subjects and the internet. They can be found in a range of locations, but the majority live in larger cities.

My Defined Target Audience;

Women 84.6%

Men 15.4%

Age
6-12 3.2%
13-17 13.4%
18-25 54.2%
26-34 17.2%
35-49 7.2%
50+ 4.8 %

Occupation
Student 35.7%
Part-time 29.3%
Full-time 13.4%
Retired 2.6%
Unemployed 19.0%

Technology Ownership
Ready access to the internet
Owns an I-pod/Mp3
Owns a mobile phone with music facilities
Ready access to sky/ free-view/ virgin-media

Social Qualities
Regular participation in networking sites
Listens to music on average 2.5hrs per day
Have a keen interest in R&B music
Regular viewers of music channels
Takes part in leisure/social activities regularly
Consumes music in CD format and by download

What I have learnt

In order to produce a high standard and effective production I must first be able to understand the conventions and techniques of music videos. I thought the best way to do this would be to deconstruct pre-existing music videos and analyse how the technical areas such as; cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound and editing relate to the media form, narrative and style.

Close-ups are used frequently to establish the artist for the audience and create a sense of importance of the artist. Establishing shots are used sparingly compared to in film for example as there are less locations within the video but rather repeats of the same location, say in the chorus for instance. Therefore the audiences are already comfortable with the whereabouts of the artist. More often then not the artist(s) will perform a dance routine or bands may include a short sequence from an on-stage performance. This requires the use of a long shot so that each movement and performance can be viewed by the audience in order for them to get the best voyeuristic pleasure. The angles are mainly straight-on, however in particular parts of the song in relation to the lyrics it may require the depiction of the artist to be of authority and in power and therefore a low angle is used. Just as if when they are being portrayed as inferior and powerless then a high angle is called for. If the video shows the artist being very active and moving around then tracking shots are used, although this is not apparent in most videos as the majority are still shots, but make use of the zoom function. Zoom in can often create a sense of intimacy and being brought closer to the artist. The zoom out function is not commonly a technique used within cinematography, as it can create a disoriented effect, however this can be useful if is this tone you want the video to adapt.

In addition to this I noted that the main focus (the artist) was placed slightly off centre in relation to the central frame, because this actually brings greater attention to them. Placing an image in the centre of a frame makes it visually inactive, in the relation to how the audience views it. You want the audience to have to scan the image, this relates to the rule of thirds, creating intersections to where the human eye is drawn. Therefore by placing images around the frame you encourage concentration from audience.

The dominant sound in music videos is the featured song. This diegetic sound remains central for the duration of the music video as the artist is constantly responding to the music within the video. However after conducting my analytical research of existing music video’s I have found that there is often a non-diegetic piece of music at the beginning of the video and occasionally at the end. As music videos often have narrative behind the video the sound that is played before the song starts is key to help set up the narrative, to adapt the tone and film noir. For example in ‘Sweet Dreams’ a unearthly and menacing lullaby is played in the run up to the song. This immediately connotes danger to the audience giving them an idea into the meaning behind the lyrics.

Once the video has been filmed the making of it happens in the post production stage of editing. A sign of good editing is that to the audience it appears invisible by creating continuity. Because the soundtrack is running underneath all the changes the action appears continuous. Short and fast shots are used which cut to the beat creating a sense of rhythm that heightens the power of the scene/song. For example as the tempo drops the shots are long, keeping the pace slow. As tension builds in the song, perhaps leading up to the main vocals in the song, shots become shorter to build energy. I have noticed that inter-cutting is sometimes used as this conveys tension and emotion for the audience. Fades are used to create the sense of a passing of time. It was made apparent that fades are frequently used at the end of the video to signify closure usually fading to black. And depending on the song context dissolves are used most commonly found to signal the beginning or end of a dream sequence, I will take this into consideration particularly in relation to my song choice as it primarily focuses upon dreams.

Lighting plays an important role within the mise-en-scene as this helps to establish the film noir which the video is aiming to create. This is things like mood and tone. A contrast in lighting can often be used to represent a binary opposition within the narrative or to represent the lyrics. Say if the representation of a busy city needs to be portrayed then lighting can be used to create these effects. Lyrical interpretation can often be established through lighting also, for e.g. if the video employs an abstract tone. Props play a big role within music videos, to help create authenticity within the video and also through lyrical representation. These props may play a key role within the song in order for the audience to readily accept the narrative and video as a whole. Within the mise-en-scene as an entirety, if there is little effort made with it then it will be difficult for your audience to be able to engage within the filmic world.

I have learnt that many artists use their music video as a chance for the audience to grasp a better and deeper understanding of the song and the lyrics behind it. It is no longer just a song that you can dance and sing-a-long to, but a story that the lyrics tell as you watch it unfold in front of you. I have also found that within many videos the artists tend to play on the typical stereotypes of which we perceive them to be like. However at one point throughout the performance in the video they try to convey a message to their audience that underneath all lights, camera and action they are normal people, with normal feelings. This allows the viewer to feel more valued in the sense that they can relate to the artist on a more personal level. I aim for my music video to employ this technique.

It is important to the artist that they are able to represent themselves to the viewer. Costume can play a very big part in the depiction of character. I have noted that the majority of artists, mainly females I might add like to entice the viewer with a little added sex-appeal. It is necessary for the artist not to come across as raunchy or face criticism for their fashion flaws in the sense of revealing too much. Many have great voices and maintain a strong subjectivity throughout their songs or performances. Artists such as Whitney Huston and Aretha Franklin are rarely criticized in this sense; the sole factor being is that they do not need to be vulgar or raunchy. They have been around for quite sometime and are respected on the merit of their talents alone. They have proven themselves. It is the younger generation of singers that are the most troublesome. I will therefore make sure that my video strays away from any excessive sex appeal.

I feel confident now that I am familiar with the codes and conventions which are expected within the music video. I will be able to use my knowledge of these aspects and put them into the makings of my own production in order for it to be a success.