Storyboard

To make a good music video we need to plan out what we are going to film so that we end up with a well produced and considered music video, rather than a messy jumble. To do this we have created a storyboard, we know what we are going to film and in what order we are going to edit it. This means we will be able to get on quickly when we are shooting and we can plan our time effectively. We have then photographed our images and put them to our music, so that we can roughly visualise our final product. This has been very useful as now we are clear on all aspects of our final video.

Locations

We have discussed as a group locations that we think will be suitable for our video. Ideally they will be somewhere we can all get to easily and that will look authentic. The main location of our video is the theatre our clown is performing in, we have chosen the Ludlow Assembly Rooms as it is a professional theatre that suits the style of our video.It has a large stage and dressing rooms and our group has links with the people who run the theatre, which is important as we will need permission to film and possibly some technical help. We had a meeting with the stage manager at the assembly rooms and he gave us permission to film, as well as emailing us information about when we should schedule our shoot.




Our other locations are around Ludlow town centre, outside a cafe, a jewellery shop and by the river. We have decided on the places in town we wish to use and we will ask permission from shopkeepers on the day, as we are only shooting outside their shops and we can easily find replacements if necessary. 


When looking for locations we took note of any health and safety problems and then wrote our a risk assessment table. 

		Potential Danger	Potential Outcomes	Actions to Avoid Outcomes	Comments
	Assembly Rooms	Tripping on cables, equipment backstage	Minor Injury	Clearing the spaces we will be working in
		Falling on backstage stairs	Serious Injury	No running backstage
		Hurt using Diablo or Spinning Plates	Serious Injury	Act sensibly when using Diablo etc. Give actor plenty of space.	Make sure Luke is comfortable using the equipment, don’t attempt anything too difficult.
		Dropping the Camera	No Injury, Serious Damage to Equipment	Check camera is secure on tripod, use camera strap
		Falling from Balcony	Very Serious Injury	Act sensibly, don’t lean far over the edge
	General	Hit by a car	Very Serious Injury	Act sensibly when crossing roads etc., when filming make sure you are well on the pavement	Very Unlikely
		Pedestrians tripping over tripod	Medium Injury	Have someone watching passers by, don’t place the tripod in very busy or small pavements
		Tripping in High Heels	Minor Injury	Don’t run or walk in unsuitable conditions
		Falling in the River	Serious Injury	Don’t run or walk close to the edge

Actors and Casting

We have now cast the principle actors we need for our video, after a group discussion about who we think looked right for the part. We needed to find people who would be confident infront of the camera and who are good actors.


The main character in our video is the Clown, to play him we have chosen Luke Evans. Luke is an A2 drama student who has had main roles in 2 college theatre productions and is going on to study drama at university. This means he is a confident and competent performer, who will be able to handle the main role in our video, including the emotion and physical performing necessary. Luke also fits into our wider audience, so viewers will associate and empathise with him.

Joe Lacey will be playing the 'Rich Man', he has acting experience from high school and has performed on stage in a college production.Rosie Turner will play the female role in our video, she also has experience in college productions. It was important to find people who are reliable, so that they will be prompt and we won't waste time while filming, as we have a small timescale. 














So that we can easily organise when we will be shooting each persons scenes, we have created a time plan, showing when they are free (Green) and when they are unavailable (Red).


We have also collected contact information for all our actors so that we can get in touch with them if they don't turn up for a shoot or any other reasons.


We will also need some extras for our video but organising a group of people to be extra's is difficult and they can be unreliable. As these are less important roles we will organise them closer to the shooting day. 

Focus Group

To get more feedback about our concept we held a focus group with people we think represent our target audience. Our target audience are all digital natives and so the easiest way to communicate with them and organise an event is by using social media. To organise our group we created an event on Facebook and invited people we thought were suitable, this included a time and place to meet us.

Overall the feedback we got was very positive, the group thought we had a very creative and original idea. They agreed that it was something they would watch and wanted to see our video when we created it. They think the video will suit the style and genre of the song although they did comment about the female singer and wether this matched the male lead actor. The song does also have a male singer, though we will have to make sure that it is clear the male character is the focus of the video. Again there were concerns about how authentic the video would look, in particular the setting, though they thought the Assembly Rooms were a perfect set.

Facebook Group

So that our group can stay in contact outside of college we have set up a Facebook group so that we can share information, ideas and photographs. This will be useful to remind each other of our shooting schedule and informing each other when we have completed tasks. We can comment on what other members have uploaded or completed, as well as being able to get on with tasks if someone is not available.

Costume and Props Organisation

Costume/Props	Source	Potential cost	Person in charge
Suit (patch work)	Charity shops/dads
Wig	Rachel	Free	Rachel
Rings	Rosie-diamond Plastic ring?	Free Free	Rosie Emma?
Props-spinning plates/Diablo	Rachel	Free	Rachel
Bowler hat with flower	Rachel	Free	Rachel
Tight skirt	Rosie	Free	Rosie
Blouse with buttons	Rosie/Rachel	Free	Rosie/Rachel
Posh suit	Joe?	Free	Joe?
Clown Makeup	Emma	Max: £3	Emma

This table shows all the costume, makeup and props we will need for out shoot, where we will be getting them from and how much we anticipate it will cost.

Time Management

To make a good music video in the time we have our group needs to plan it's time effectively. There are lots of tasks to complete before we cna start shooting, to get these done quickly we have divided them amongst the group. We will update our blogs when we complete our tasks, with the results of what we have done.

Target Audience Research - We need to make sure our video concept and style will suit our target audience, this is very important for any product. To do this Emma is organising a focus group who we can discuss our idea with, it will comprise of people who we think represent our audience. This will be at 12:00 on Thursday 26th January.

Casting our Actors - Rosie will photograph the people we are considering to perform in the video, we also need to get contact information are a copy of their timetable so that we can schedule shooting time.

Costume and Props - Rachel is in charge of sourcing all the costumes and props we need to make our video look authentic, if we are borrowing them we need to record where they are from. We have a low budget for the video and so need to find everything as cheaply as possible.

Organisation of Locations - I will be in charge of this section. We will need photographs of our possible locations. We need to ask permission to film and then complete risk assesment forms for each of our locations, including photographs of all possible risks.

We will be completeing our storyboard as a group so that we all have input into what we are filming and so that when we come to shoot everyone knows what we should be doing.

So that everything gets done and we can keep track of the tasks we have used Microsoft Outlook to create a calendar with times we are free are when we will be completing our tasks.

Feedback from our Pitch

Pitching Our Idea

Pitch on Prezi

Our Audience

Profile:

• Mainly female, 16-20 years old
• In full-time education (College or University)
• Household Income at A/B on Jicnar Scale
• With their own part time Job
• Dating & in Relationships
• In their own band

Income:

• Middle class parents
• Job in retail
• Some disposable income
• So they have high end, expensive products - technology, clothes etc.

Buying Habits:

• Lots of CD's and DVD's
• Technology - iPod, Phone, Laptop, Camera
• Clothing
• Make Up and Styling
• Magazines
• Concert, Cinema & Festival Tickets
• Fast Food, Coffee etc.
• Alcohol
• Cigarettes

Branding:

• Very loyal to favorite brands, think branding is important
• Want to find new, niche brands
• Clothing - Converse, Doc. Martens, H&M, Etnies, Topshop
• Tech - Apple, Canon, Skull Candy
• Music - HMV, Fender, Gibson
• Other - Smirnoff, Kopparberg, Rizla

Media:

• Digital Natives, use the internet lots, new media brands
• Facebook and Twitter to connect and share
• Music - Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube - Niche Artists 
• Artistic - Flickr, Deviantart, Tumblr

Other Music:

• Pop-Punk, Niche bands
• Paramore
• Hey Monday
• You Me At Six
• Panic! At The Disco
• 30 Seconds To Mars

Ideology:

• Rebelling against parents and "middle class ideas"
• Individualists - want to stand out and be individual
• Hedonists - party lifestyle, risk takers
• Expression is important to them
• Romantic side - nostalgic, escapist

Our Inspiration

We have decided to use All About Flux's song 'Just Don't Care'. This song is about a 
relationship, as are many of the band's songs, and so we wanted to use this as a base for our narrative. We also looked at some of the band's other videos, in the video for 'Who's Laughing Now?' they had people chasing the lead singer who were dressed as clowns, we thought this was an interesting and entropic idea that we wanted to include.















We have been inspired by two music videos by Panic at the Disco and Take That.
Take That's video for 'Said It All' has the band dressed as clowns, preparing backstage and performing. We really like the video, the costumes used, and the make up. I also really like the way it is filmed, with a hand held camera, interesting composition and the use of backlighting while they are onstage. The video is very emotional, intimate and soft, which would suit our narrative idea. 

Panic at the Disco's video for their song 'I Write Songs Not Tragedies' has a wedding scene that is invaded by circus performers, which represents the relationship of the couple in the video, as the girlfriend is seen cheating on her fiance. This storyline is similar to our video concept. The band is the same genre and this video was very popular, so our video should suit the target audience well.

We have also looked for some costume idea's, we want out clown to look ragged and poor, so his costume will be made up of old clothes that used to look smart. The reason for the couple in our music video having relationship trouble is because he doesn't earn enough, his costume will reflect this and symbolise his depression.

Concept Board

Creativity

Creativity is defined as “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work”.

Creativity relies on freedom from constraints or rules, this allows you to think 'outside the box' and do things differently, like no-one has done before.

To be more creative you need inspiration, this can come from anything: other people, sharing ideas, art, films. You often borrow other people’s ideas and make them your own, called a 'pastiche'. You can also combine ideas, styles and techniques – a ‘bricolage’. 

Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity

Picasso said "All children are born artists." Robinson agree's, he says children can be creative because they are unafraid to be wrong and make mistakes. Children will take chances whether they are confident or not. He also says that often we are not taught how to be creative, we are educated out of it because we learn to think that getting things wrong is bad. The people who don't become afraid of being wrong are those who will be the most creative and original.

Being More Creative - A How To Guide

To be creative you should be refreshed and energetic, so get sleep, exercise and eat healthily. When trying to get new ideas, don't be afraid to let your mind wonder, inspiration can come at any time and from unexpected sources. As well as thinking about other things, learn about different things too, this helps you think in different ways. When doing these things take a notebook to record any ideas you have.


All this information on stimulating creative ideas is important because the best music videos are original and entropic. We are working on the concept of our video which we want to be something the audience will enjoy, but probably haven't seen before.

Pop-Punk Video Analysis

The band I am making a video for, All About Flux, are a pop-punk band and so I am going to look at some music videos of a similar style to see what my audience currently watches.

All Time Low - 'Time Bomb'

Lead singer Alex Gaskarth says this song is about a couple trying to keep a dying relationship together, though they are being pulled apart by outside influences. The dramatic narrative of the video is used to symbolise this, there is a dying woman and a man who has made her a mechanical heart, this represents the couple working to keep the  love (the heart) in their relationship. The man is being chase by a SWAT team who want to stop him, an outside force breaking the couple apart. This romance/action narrative about a couple fighting to be together whilst being pursued by 'evil' forces, is quite redundant in cinema and so has also often been used in music videos. There are references in the song to the "time bomb", bullets, guns and triggers, this fits in with the narrative of the video. The characters in the video are archetypes and so are predictable; the male action hero who is inventive and athletic, the damsel in distress who waits powerlessly for the hero and the bad guys, undeveloped male characters with guns. These stereotypical characters also represent an outdated ideology where the woman waits for a man to come and find her.

This style of music is often used in action sequences as it is fast and energetic so it fits well with the video. There are a mix of close ups on the details and long shots for running etc. and the camera is handheld so it is shaky at times, all this is very dynamic and matches the music. In one verse the music slows down and so this part is used for the intimate moment when the guy finds the girl, there are also times when the music matches gunshot and people starting to run. In the performance parts of the video the editing in just as fast, jump cutting on the drum beat.

The band are dressed in black punky clothes and the hero wears a leather jacket, he also has headphones on, this is to appeal to their audience. In the narrative section of the video the colours are desaturated, it is more dark and shadowed. In the performance aspect the video is more orange and gold, though still quite high contrast and not that bright. This lighting and colour design is typical of the genre. Punk videos also often have a lot of performance and many genres of video have a relationship as part of their narrative.

There are lots of close up on the lead singer as required by the record label to make him recognisable. There are also medium shots and close ups on the other band-members, though these focus on their instruments and their talent at playing them rather than their faces.

There is not really any notion of looking in this video although the shots of the woman in a hospital bed are distorted as though we are looking in through a lens. There is also no voyeurism as All Time Low has a predominantly female audience and this is more often in pop and rap videos.

The storyline of the video is a classic action-romance and so references a lot of films like 'The Adjustment Bureau'. The heart that the hero creates for the woman is also very similar to a device in the Iron Man films. At the end of the video an interesting technique is used, the two parts of the video come together and the couple run across the rooftop where the band are performing. This is also used in the video I analysed of Paramore, a similar band. This is unexpected and brings attention to the fact it is a music video.