My group that is creating this music video is made up of 4 people in my media. These are George Hoy, Aimee Austin and Amie Fountain. We have all come together in the initial planning stage to come up with ideas for our music video. This has allowed us finally agree on the choice or song, settings and other factors. We are all very creative and came up with some good ideas and themes, however we are all technically different and our skills are vary. For example, Aimee is very good at editing and so she will lead this role where as I am better at deciding on camera angles and acting in the film.
My group and I eventually came up with the song 'Wake Me Up' by Avicii to be the selected song. This is because it is a current song which we can relate to and therefore we should be able to connect to the video and story line more thoroughly. Before coming to this decision, ideas such as performing a performance-based video to the song, 'London's Calling' were presented. We discussed making the setting in the back of a black cab, therefore relating the lyrics to the visuals. However, after deliberation we came to the conclusion that the song was too old fashioned and would bore the audience. Aimee then had the idea of using a very current song which has only just been released called, 'Sonnentanz'. However, we could not find a way to relate the lyrics which would accurately captivate the viewer and link the visuals to the lyrics. I then found this song by Avicii which the group automatically warmed to and we knew that we had chosen the right one. Then I presented the idea of a concept and performance based video, which would include George and I being the main characters. Firstly the video would start with us waking up in a camp site after a clearly heavy night and hung-over. The idea was then for us to then 'wake up' and go to a church, where we would become enlightened as to what we want to achieve and be in our lives. This would relate to the lyrics 'when I'm wiser and I'm older'. During this role-play part, we were going to keep repeating shots of the night before. This would allow the viewer to get an insight into our livers and understand we want to find out how we should live our lives. We planned to keep each shot relevant to the images on screen and for example, the party scene would be shown during the chorus to show our up-beat lifestyles. However, we eventually tweaked this idea but it was still the basis for our end product.
Our end product and idea is as follows: George and I are the main actors in the video, whilst Aimee and Amie film the music video. However, we will still be putting all of our input and ideas into this video to ensure that it is a success. The first scene will consist of the two characters asleep on a bench in Central London dressed in party clothes and with alcohol surrounding them. As the music starts, they will wake up to discover where they have ended up after a night out and to stabilise themselves. They then start there journey to their own houses, at which point the scene cuts to flash backs of the night before. This will come in-sync with the chorus to captivate the audience and make them feel the party atmosphere. The characters will eventually go their separate ways, going to their own family homes. This is where the concept based idea will be introduced, that the boys realise, after seeing their families what is import, and that they 'didn't know they were lost'. However, we will highlight this by having one boy going home to an empty house where he has been squatting and the other going home to his family. This character will signify the importance of family by giving his sister a kiss on the cheek whilst she is still asleep. The other character will signify this by showing his frustration with the use of body language showing how upset he is at the situation he finds himself in and that he should really be with his family, like the other character.
We then had to break down each element of the music video to show how we would relate these elements to the viewer and have a successful, relevant outcome. Firstly, we looked at mis-en-scen. Here, we argued about the costumes that the characters would be wearing. We decided that they should wear casual, typical partying clothing as this would relate to the dance theme and therefore the song overall. This would make the video more genuine as the audience can relate as the characters have normal clothing on. This conflicts many famous artists ideas as a lot of them try to make their audience admire them by wearing expensive clothing and jewellery. Lighting was the next stage of the topic. We decided that to keep the video realistic that we would use low-key lighting in the club and natural lighting outside when we are waking up. This would be easy as we could film the opening early and get a realistic setting for it. Also the club scene will be realistic as it will be shot in a club and therefore the lighting will be dark. We will be using basic iconography such as empty alcohol bottles and other small features. This will allow the viewer to relate as we will not be using expensive iconography or props. It will also make it more realistic as this is what is usually seen on a partying night out.
The locations that we use for the video will be a club, London and 2 houses as well as transport we get to those houses, which we are still undecided on. This will give us a variety of locations. George and I will be in the centre of the shots in order for us to stand out from the other people within our music videos. To represent the artist we will constantly be showing the audience the Avicii logo. However, this will be subtle as it is more effective and the audience will try to spot it.
For cinematography as a group we would like to include close-ups to show emotion. We want to use establishing shots to show the genre setting and we will use mid shots to relate to the party scene. During editing i would like to use fast and slow editing. During the slow editing we would like to use fades and during the fast editing we would use straight cuts. The style of the music video will be 20% performance, 20% concept and 60% narrative as we feel we will have a mixture to relate to the song.
The codes and conventions that we want to use will include strobe lighting, dancing, alcohol and all the other features of a normal party. We will set this up in a club to make it look realistic and genuine. However, we are breaking conventions by relating the partying lifestyle to the concept of family meaning everything. This is a positive as it makes our video very unique from the others. The target audience will be young adults and teenagers that are our age as they are the audience who are most likely to get the most out of this video. This is because they are the same age as us and most of the population enjoy the same thing as what our video is based on, which is, partying. Also they can relate to the struggles of growing up and realising what is important in life. We will be following the theories of Goodwin and Dyer, to inspire us and help us create this video by using their ideology.
This post demonstrates some good planning and discussions that you and your group have carried out and this is evident through your planning sheets above. It is also clear to see the outline and style of your music video.
ReplyDeleteNow aim to include your weekly meeting schedule, to demonstrate further discussions that have taken place