Adding A Narrative.

With the possibility of adding a narrative now looking feasible i have thought of the following idea. My idea for adding a narrative involves the music video that we have filmed being watched on a TV by a small group of people preferably female, as if the music video is actually being watched by and audience of fans/ viewers. The basic plot is that there is a living room with a sofa, table and television in 50's England to keep it in theme with the video and to have a continuous time frame and aesthetic feel. The group of people will all rush into the living room heckling such things like, "it's on" "turn it up" suggesting that The Harmonettes are extremely popular and world famous. When the video begins on the TV the people begin to get excited and the camera pans into the television for it to then be shown like an original video. When it finishes the camera cuts back to the living room to the audience staring at the TV in silence with a stunned look on their face. A slight pause lingers before the group scream and heckle with excitement that they have seen The Harmonettes video for The Shoop Shoop Song in homage to the sort of scenes you get at behind the scenes footage of live shows where screaming girls line the walkway to the stage entrance.

Here are some examples of similar work that has inspired me for this section of the video.





What i like about these videos and what id like to use our narrative if we do film one is how detailed the mise-en-scene is, however this will be difficult for us to do. I also like in both of these videos the audience/ characters or even both are viewing something of a performance. The audience of the OutKast video are shown watching a television as part of the production and then the video cuts to the performance. Also in the Hairspray video we can see two of the characters watching the Corny Collins Show in television and racing to get home to finish their viewing. I want to re-create this notion of watching the performance as an outsider and then being brought into it. In our production i want to use it as a narrative tool where the viewers can be brought away from the performance to view the narrative. I also want to use the narrative as a way to introduce the performance based part of the video.

[UPDATED]
We did decide to add the narrative after lengthy discussions about the positives and negatives in doing so and also taking into account comments from audience feedback. One difficulty we had was sourcing a authentic 1960's television set so we opted to use a radio instead we can achieve the same effect but just by hearing the song and then being introduced to the performance, plus i was able to source a 60's transistor radio.

Illustration, Amplification, Disjuncture.

Aside from genre there are three other factors than can determine the outcome of a music video. These are illustration, amplification and disjuncture. 

- An illustration music video simply put illustrates the lyrics of the song in a visual format. It is straightforward and used to show a performance and/or a simple narrative.



Britney Spears' video for Circus i think is an illustration video because it has many literal connotations to the lyrics plus the song is called "Circus" and the location is a circus tent. Her lyric "Im like the ring leader" is supported by her wearing a top hat and tails and later taming the lions which is traditionally done by the ring leader. Also she often sings "Spotlight on me" and this is supported by her soley being lit by a spotlight and/or her being infront of the light with it strobing into the camera. She also sings "the dancefloor is my stage" and then goes to perform a dance in the circus ring as if it were a stage.

- Amplification, may use both performance and a narrative. The music video amplifies the lyrics and music through the directors creative approach.



In the case of Rihanna's Disturbia video i think it fits into the category of amplification because of its use of mise-en-scene, cinematography, costume and make up. The song is quite dark lyrically and so is the video with many jump cuts creating jerked movements. Most things in the video are out of the ordinary and there is alot of black with the only light being streamed from the background. 

- Disjuncture music videos are completely abstract and have no obvious link between the artist, lyrics and music. Unlike amplification disjuncture music video's do not retain any links to the song.



Adeles Rolling in the Deep music video i think is disjunctured because there is nothing in it that supports the lyrics and music and also for a country song it doesn't contain many of stereotypes that would follow. She is sat in a room singing and there is also a contemporary dance which doesn't support what the lyrics are saying. 

Week 8.

On the day of filming before Molly had left she asked me to let her know how the filming went, so as requested when we had finished sent her a message reading the following.

During the week at school we began uploading the footage and editing. In our groups we split up into two small teams where Zoe uploaded and began to edit the music video and Chelsea and myself did the same but for the DVD extras, Molly was unable to participate because of an exam. At the start of the editing process we filed through the footage and labelled each clip with shot descriptions and take number. As we planned to film our crew interviews during school hours due to there being not enough time to film we didn't have masses of footage to categorise.

Later on in the week during one of our classes theory lessons the class expressed some of our concerns and feedback about the task. I believe that this discussion has been very beneficial to us not only giving us some confidence in our projects but also many solutions. Some concerns that we raised about some projects, ours included, was that to meet our clients requirements we made a performance video with no narrative and it was mentioned that many of the most successful music videos have a strong combination of narrative and performance. With the band members having busy schedules it was brought to our attention that the narrative didn't have to involve the band, this gave me an almost instant idea to pad out our video and make it more inviting to watch. Also for out clients we could supply a  performance video only but for our coursework we could edit a further version that incorporates both. Although i had much doubt about the project before this discussion i felt a little more relieved that our group wasn't the only one with these problems and that their our feasible solutions to meet the criteria and to an extent s production that i would personally be pleased with.

Day of Filming.

Sunday the 23rd of January was our decided filming date and confirmed by all members of the cast and crew before hand so that everyone was prepared. As previously mentioned this was a rather inconvient date to film due to having exams the next day i believe this could have been avoided by not having an early internal filming deadline. At the production meeting during the week it was decided that i would drive Chelsea and Connor, who came to help film and set up, to the location. We arrived within ten minutes after the arrival time on our production schedules due to diverting to my hosue to pick up equipment that would have aided Chelsea in her photography shoot. On arrival at the hall, the previous group who was filming were the only ones there so we were sat around just waiting for the band to turn up. However their instruments had all been left set up from the previous shoot so little needed changing apart from placement on the stage and a little tidying. All the team were present and ready to start but without all seven members of the band we couldn't begin and i thought i was best appropriate to talk with all of the members of the band together about the shoot instead of individually. After much debating and delays the lead singer, Kay, turned up. Eventually after being there for near two hours the band returned from where ever they had been however we were still left waiting for the two female back up singers. Upon arrival the band began practising a wide range of songs that they knew. I don't think that this was wholly professional of them as in a real world situation this would be one thing a band or artist would not be doing and if they were it would be the song the video is to be made for. This was not beneficial as i was trying to discuss plans for the shoot with the singers and which also increased the difficulty to communicate between each other. I chose the shots to represent the band as equally as i could which was one thing that was requested by the band. The set up of the shots was a little time consuming and again the band felt the need to play between takes but i already knew what i wanted and where i wanted the camera to be placed because of the detailed storyboard and shot list that i had made in preparation for the shoot i just had to shout or move around around to let the cameramen know where to be. Overall i don't think this project has been my best and do believe i could do better. I think i was prepared enough in what i wanted to achieve but the shoot felt very lack lustre and i don't think my heart was in the project 100% as the music, genre and band are something that i am not passionate about and there were also many little details that were missing for me personally to be satisfied with to make the project a glowing success.

The Shoop Shoop Song Shot List.

Shot No'	Description	Additional Detail
1	Mid shot of the lead singer centre screen slightly angled lit by spotlight. Only person in the shot.
2	Medium long shot of the three ladies in a triangle formation with the lead facing front and one of the accompanying singers facing left the other facing right. The two at the base of the triangle are lit by low lighting to establish that they are there.	“How can i tell if he loves me so.”
3	Medium long shot of the group all three fully lit, as the accompanying singer on the left sings she walks forward into a straight line formation.
4	Cut to close up of the lead singer.
5	Cut to medium long shot of the group with the third female singer walking forward to complete the straight line as she sings.
6	Cut to long shot of the three singers.
7	Cut to close up of one accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
8	Cut to the second accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
9	Close up of the guitarist.
10	Cut to close up of the lead singer.	“Oh, Yeah.”
11	Cut to long shot of the three singers.
12	Cut to close up of the lead singer.
13	Mid shot of drummer.
14	Cut to close up of one accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
15	Cut to the second accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
16	Long shot of the three singers at low angle from slightly behind and to the side.	One spotlight is flaring into the camera to give a silhouette effect to the girls.
17	Mid shot of the three singers.	“Thats where it is.”
18	Close up of the lead singer.
19	Mid shot of the three singers.	“Its there, in his kiss”
20	Close up of the lead singer.	“Oh no, thats not the way.”
21	Close up of one accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
22	Close up of the second accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
23	Cut to close up of the lead singer.
24	Mid shot of the three singers.	“Thats where it is.”
25	Medium long shot of one guitarist.
26	Mid shot of keyboard player.
27	Close up of keyboard player.
28	Mid shot of second guitarist.
29	Close up of guitar.
30	Cut to drummer.
31	Cut to drummer facing front. Slight low angle.	Spotlight lens flare.
32	Long shot of the three singers.
33	Cut to the lead singer.	“If its love, if it really is”
34	Pan across the three singers from left to right. Medium close up.
35	Close up of one accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
36	Close up of second accompanying singer.	“Shoop, Shoop, Shoop, Shoop"
37	Medium long shot of the three singers.
38	Close up of the lead singer.
39	Mid shot of the drummer.
40	Close up of one accompanying singer.
41	Mid shot of Guitarist.
42	Medium long shot of the three singers.	“Thats where it is.”

Week 7.

At the start of this week i have been working on the storyboard which i hope to upload towards the end of the week. Theres no denying that i've been struggling with this as the band wanted to be represented as a band but am finding difficulty in doing so as the song is predominately sung by one singer and one singer only with the two other females effectively acting as back up. As Cher is a solo artist i couldn't take large amounts of inspiration from the original video plus it is used in a film so the video has clips and images from the film which i something that we can't do and something that the band do not want. I asked the groups designer, Chelsea for some help as the previous week we were discussing it during one of frees. I contacted her via twitter.

On Tuesday media lesson the whole group was able to meet as in the past couple of weeks it had been difficult to due to exams however it was agreed by all the group that a meeting was to be held on Thursday period 1at 9.15. It was made clear the time and location and everyone agreed to being there. However when period 1 came only Molly, Chelsea and myself were there. We covered many details of the day of filming in this meeting which lasted for 20 minutes a little more than we anticipated. Molly informed us of her plans for the production schedule and showed us a draft to know what was expected to come when we receive our personal production schedules. Chelsea informed the group about her ideas and designs for the backdrop of the school stage and in particular some material suggestions which we were having difficulty with. At the meeting i talked Molly and Chelsea through my storyboard to know what i had planned and if they had any suggestions for improvement. Unfortunately without Zoe we missed an opportunity to discuss the technical aspects of the shoot such as where to place the cameras and lighting set up so again this needs to be done closer to the day of filming which leaves us even less time to solve any problems. 

On Friday i added the shotlist which should be the completed version before the shoot and uploaded the storyboard. Both of these things will be essential for the shoot and will need to be there with me and the team. I also need to discuss the storyboard with the band to find out if they fully approve of the final version. 

Function Bands.

The group that we were tasked with to create a music video for, The Harmonettes, described themselves as a function band or some might call them a cover band. Many artists and cover bands have garnered success from giving a certain song a revamp int he studio or just my making it their own. Many TV talent show winners have their first number one with a cover and bands like The Baseballs had their album reach the top ten in 9 countries proving their success and an audience approval for some songs released by cover artists. The band gave us details for their predicted future which didn't involve any professional routes and they saw themselves performing at weddings, parties and possibly local events. The band didn't consider themselves to play songs from a particular genre therefore leaving them to be general artists and meet the criteria of a larger audience. By having a function band for the tasks become more broad so that we didn't pigeon hole them into a niche that would wrongfully represent them as something that they are not so we have composed our material to fit around the song and performance, as a sort of one off feature of the band for them to use as advertising material if they so wish and to give clients a preview before they get well known on the function band scene. As for the audience of a function band i think that we should be targetting middle aged adults and to an extent those in their late 20's where such events like marriages and birthdays that reach a particular milestone in their lives i.e 30, 40 and 50th birthdays. Also the band is singing The Shoop Shoop Song which was originally made popular by Cher and so therefore will be recogniseable to those over the age of 30 at the least. With the band choosing this song to give the best representation of their music and themselves i assume that again their target audience would be those that remember the original tracks and so are as mentioned before middle aged adults and posibly those in their early 30's and late 20's. As for gender the band is neither specific to one or the other. Although the band is fronted by women and a band made up of 3 males and one female they collectively appeal to both genders. As for the mix of sexes in the band their music isn't pigeon holed into a specific genre that primarily attracts male of female audience members and again therofre broadens their appeal.

Genre

Genre is an integral part of a music video as the conventions that come with both the music genres will influence the video. Genre is always changing and new categories being invented with new music. Sometimes genres can even cross over to make a hybrid sound. As with the music itself most music video's would be able to placed into one of several genre categories such as Pop, Rock, Classical, R&B, Country and Alternative. Audience's have become accustomed to viewing many genre stereotypes. An R&B video will more or less always contain a scantily clad female for the singers "persona" in the video's pleasure, dressed to fit a stereotypical "gangster", be wearing too many jewels and driving a large car that has been "pimped". Contrastingly in a pop video the artists will wear whats on trend at the time of filming and film their video in an urban setting and at some point do a dance routine or collaborate their movements in sync. Rock videos however tend to be performance led in many cases and the videos never seem to be too serious. Also on many occasions an elements of skateboarding or BMX riding will come into the video as if to attract their stereotypical target audience. Appearance of the band is never really consider too much like the previously mentioned genres and it almost seems to be more about the music than the artists with many of the bands members playing the instruments. With an audience knowing what they want from a genre and knowing what best representations fit their ideals the music is only a small contribution. The music video, CD sleeve, poster, DVD cover, tour and general persona of the artists all need to compliment each other to be included into one recognisable genre.

The Storyboard.

Here is the storyboard for our music video.

Preliminary Task.

Here is the preliminary task that was completed for my year 13 production coursework. For this task i acted as the Producer and was in a group with Paige, Megan and Zoe again. From being producer i realised it wasn't one of my strong points as i am not a natural team leader and only took on the role due other members of the groups reluctance to do so. I also learnt that i am good at organising myself but not that good at organising other people. It took the group 3 shoots to finish the project and it was the third where we were all prepared the most. As producer the third time around i had booked the location days in advance and notified the groups days in advance as well which is something of an improvement than the previous two. I realised from taking on this task that it wasn't one of my favourites as i felt i was more of a creative person than managerial which is what being a producer felt like to me. Although i wouldn't say i succeeded at this task until the final hurdle it was a good learning curve for me not only about myself and my skills but also about some of the industry standards that go with the job of being a producer. I would take on the role again now i know a bad approach to doing the job so ironically i have learnt from my mistakes when it comes to producer but also identified some of my strengths in other fields of media studies production coursework.

The Director.

Director
- A person who is in charge of an activity, department or organisation.
- A member of the board of people that manages or oversees the affairs of a business.
- A person who supervises the actors, camera crew and other staff of a film, television, film music video or other similar production.

Being the director for the second time on a media studies production task i am fairly comfortable and content with the role. Although one difference for this production is that i am working solely alone as the director. As the Director i am supposed to have overall creative responsibility of the production and will take decisions on which way the production tuns such as scripting, shot choice and music. However with this production being a music video the music and criteria had been given to us and already designated. Also one difference is from reality is that the Producer and myself did not get to chose our own creative team which were again given to us.

Three Female Lead Singers.

The Harmonettes refer to themselves as a band but are fronted by three female singers who we were told are all equals and will be singing an even distribution of the song. Although the main focus of the band is the three singers there are four musicians who are equally important and need to be shown at their request in the music video for any potential functions they play to know that they come as a seven piece and not just three singers.  

Bands with three singers have proven to be a formula for success over many decades. With bands like Destiny's Child and The Sugababes from the last decade and late nineties at the latest proving this, aswell as the well known Supremes fronted by Diana Ross, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and the Marvelettes from the infamous Motown era. With all of these having huge success both commercially and critically it was something that we wanted to recreate in the Harmonettes. Aside from the Sugababes it was prominent from the other bands that one member of the band came across as the lead singer and in many occasions the girls groups that they were ended up as a lead and two backup singers which sadly resulted in many of the bands breaking up. More evident in this case is when one member has their own name as a separate entity to the group name, i.e Diana Ross and Martha Reeves. When a girl band of three disbands on numerous occasions the lead had more success than the other two members who throughout the bands existence would have had less air and screen time. Both Diana Ross and Beyonce became international artists as solo artists and leaving the band was probably beneficial to their success.However one exception i believe is to be the British band The Sugababes. With a number of line up changes that now sees not one of the original members left, over the years of  the changes each singer has more equality both on screen and on the tracks.

This could be attributed to competition of ego's or the record companies insistence that the band won't survive another line up change so the best option is to keep the current members happy by representing them equally.  It is even clear by the photo's of one singers prominence for example the Destiny's child and The Supremes each member is a different distance from the camera therefore appearing like on is more important than The other. When compared to the other two photo's they're in a line formation and all are equally sized, however one could argue that the centre singer in the pictures is the most important. In the Hamonettes we do have to include the band members which is something that these do not.
 

But a solution to this which has been discussed is to use a collective photo of them and place them on the poster as a silhouette that is quite small and featuring less space than the singers. We are also using these images for some inspiration such that we are incorporating both a triangle formation and straight line formation in our video and i think promotional material for reasons that they show some equality and a more creative approach to them standing still and a fair distance apart. I believe that these should work successfully with our approach to the band and their video and promotional material as of the past success explained earlier aswell as us taking

inspiration from the Motown era and how their bands were represented. 

Week 6

Over the Christmas break i have struggled to get copious amounts of production work completed as i previously mentioned the filming date and internal deadline was a large inconvenience because i had to focus my time primarily on my January exams but as these are coming to a close i can continue working on the production.

During lesson times that i am in we have been working on production and planning and during one free period Chelsea and myself sat down together to discuss and plan in words only the storyboard for which i am to complete before the production and hopefully have some images by the end of the week. We also researched some costumes together for the female singers to wear. As the women vary in size it is going to be difficult to get the same outfit which is a convention of Motown bands which is something we wish to emulate but fortunately we have been given a contact from our teacher who maybe able to help us with costumes on a professional capacity.

On todays lesson Molly was away. As she is producer she would have had the answers from Ian that were sent via email. I sent her a text to ask for these answers which came with a reply saying that no email has been received. To overcome this Chelsea and myself went to phone Ian, i went for moral support. Chelsea again asked the questions that were in the email and some that concerned her design tasks and answers were given. I kept Molly updated via text as to what is happening.

Unfortunately we found that we could not use the Peppercorns studio in St. Neots so have had to compromise to use the school hall. This is better logistically for us but it is a shame that the school hall is quite shabby and more technically deficient. There are greater things for us to prepare for now such as removing an awful painting that is currently the backdrop with something that conforms to conventions and that will complement our video.

From a directing perspective i am not worried about the location at all because the video isn't going to contain a narrative and is going to be performance lead which will involve much of the same set up and construction as of that we were to use in St. Neots. One thing that does concern me is that we were told that the three female singers were going to have an equal amount of solo vocals in the song but since receiving the recording i have found that only one woman is doing all of the singing and the other two are pretty much acting as back up singers. This is difficult because they want to be represented as a band and since neither of the two ladies who aren't acting as the lead sing a line by themselves i'm struggling to find a solution.

Previous Production Work

I would like to show you an example of a previous production i made in Year 12 which i was again partnered with Chelsea. We began with 3 members of the group but due to unforeseen circumstances he left school and left us to complete the task. In some ways this was a hindrance as we were a man down and required us to absorb his roles into ours but because Chelsea and myself have a long history of working knowing each other we worked really well together.



Technically this was my first time using a video camera and editing any footage of my own creation. I learnt many things from this task such as how greatly valuable a storyboard is, working with people, working in difficult lighting conditions and time management. Being a psychological thriller i am pleased  with the low light, the range of shots, the soundtrack, the juxtaposition of light and dark over quick edits and in particular the ending which is one thing i am particularly proud of both creatively and technically. Although there is some shots i would have changed looking back, particularly the extreme close up of the antagonist plus we were not as such encouraged to produce a detailed production schedule which after making the preliminary task in Year 13 i have found to be very beneficial. Also with the knowledge of the lighting workshop and the schools increased technical equipment i think i could light a scene better and be more confident about it.

There are many technical skills i will take with me into the Year 13 music video and some that i will take from the preliminary task although i acted as Producer for that. Hopefully my music video will be lit better and be as creative as this piece and contain conventions that make it like some of the original pieces in my research.