Final Song Choice

After changing my idea constantly about what song I was going to use in my final production, I decided to use an acoustic version of an original song. I chose to do this as I listened to the original and the lyrics were very relevant to the storyline but because it was by a slightly "punk rock" band, the beat was a bit harsh for the mood of the video and there was a lot of heavy electric guitar and drum use. This was not ideal for my production as the atmosphere of the production is relatively slow and this needs a softer and more comforting track to go with it to make it seem as though they compliment each other well. The original song can be seen below:

I had listened to the above song plenty of times as I am a fan of the band and therefore have listened to a lot of their records. Because of this, I decided to see whether or not their acoustic version of this song would fit into the production with a more complementing fit. The lyrics are the same and the way it is sung is completely the same but the difference is that it is very light drum use and just an acoustic guitar, which gives a softer touch to the song and makes it seem more suitable for the mood that the video is trying to portray. This is why I decided to choose this song and therefore this is my final choice for my production. The song can be seen below:

Production Alteration

As you may have gathered from looking at some of my previous posts, I have 2 characters in my production with the girl playing a more dominant role than the guy. I have been having difficulty finding times when they are both free to do some filming and it is normally due to the male character being unable to make it to the filming destination because of their work commitments. Therefore, I have decided to alter the way I will be going about my production and I will be using the idea of one of my previous posts as inspiration for my idea.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned a couple of music videos that use the camera from the point of view of one of the characters so it is like you are seeing the situation through their eyes. I like this idea because it gives a more personal feel to the video and could make the viewer seem as though they are more inclined to watch the video for one reason or another. With this change of idea on how to shoot the film, I have also decided to alter some of the scenes and some of the props that would have been included in the original idea. I wanted to change the idea of pictures or photo album to either an old video camera or a DVD which the girl can watch the "flashbacks" on as this will save more time of me getting the photos developed and it will also be easier to transition between the watching of the film and the actual film itself. I also might change the idea of the last scene and alter the other two scenes to make them easier to incorporate with the idea of the point of view filming. As well as this, I have also considered changing the ending to make it happier and so I can incorporate more camera angles to try and bring my mark up.

I have also considered changing the song because I wanted to make the video more of a happy video and this would be difficult with the original song I had planned. The song I was considering as a replacement still has an element of sadness to it but the lyrics make it sound more happy. The alternative music choice will be placed below:

Alternative Shots Idea 2

Recently I watched a music video that I thought captured the way in which the artists were seen differently and the whole video could give the viewer more of a personal feel towards it as it is filmed through the eyes of someone opposite the artists and therefore makes you feel as though you are actually in the video itself. The music video was Night Changes by One Direction. Normally I am not one to listen to artists such as One Direction but I heard this song on the radio one day and decided to check out the video. I was interested in the idea of the videoing in first person and it gave me the idea of doing this in my production.

The concept of filming in a first person view like they did isn't seen much in music videos as you normally are able to see the main characters in third person. However, I thought the use of the first person was very clever as it was not something I had seen before and thought that the way in which the band members interacted with the camera was very good. An example of one of the interactions I liked is very near the beginning where the band member puts the scarf around whoever was filming. The video also gives the feel that it is actually a person and not just a camera as you see the band members holding the camera woman's hand at a few points and you also see her foot and lap towards the end. This was clever use of the camera and this gave me some inspiration if I was to change the idea of my production. The only drawback with using this in my production is that I need to include a wide range of camera shots and angles and with this method I will only be incorporating one type of shot and it would need very little editing which may bring my grade down unless I was to be very precise with filming and ensuring I make it as perfect as possible.

The video for One Direction - Night Changes can be seen below:

Alternative Shots Idea 1

I was looking through some of the music videos that are associated with the type of song I am using and I wanted to see if there were any ideas that I could interpret and produce in my own production. One of these ideas was the idea of a couple at dinner and this appealed to me as I work in a restaurant and thought that I may have the ability to make this work. This would be very good as it would incorporate a better surrounding and would make it seem more realistic than some of my other scene ideas as this would have more people in it rather than just being the two main actors.

The types of shots that would be possible in this would be slightly limited as there is only a limited area where anything can be done and the restaurant itself will not want the filming to disrupt the atmosphere of the restaurant and make the customers feel uncomfortable as this would generate bad business for them. Therefore I would probably try to use more shot reverse shots and use the 180 degree rule when shooting the shots of them sat down for dinner. The restaurant I have in mind does have a step ladder so it may be possible to do high angles shots in some places.

The Video that gave me this idea is shown below and the moment it occurs is at the 3 minute mark and follows through until the end:

Scene 1 Shot Ideas

In class I have been looking back over my scene ideas and listing the ways I want the shots to go in each scene. This is just a plan and it is my ideal situation which may not happen because of difficulties when filming or some other problem. the ways in which i will be presenting my first scene shots are described below:

1.       Establishing shot of the house with a slow pan from left to right.

2.       Pan from top right to bottom left of the room the girl is in. The girl will be lying on the bed at the left of the screen and the pan stops when the bed is fully visible and the sun is shining through the window to give a slight bur affect.

3.       Slow pan upwards to give closer look at girl as she is playing on her phone.

4.       Shot behind her looking at what she is doing on her phone.

5.       Shot of her (quite close up) as she puts her phone on her table. Hand goes out of shot and you hear a thud on the floor.

6.       Looking at her from under the bed as she searches for her phone.

7.       Gets closer to her as she finds the phone but takes a second look because she sees something.

8.       Shot reverse shot of her and the box before she grabs it.

9.       Not sure whether to show her grabbing it then coming out from the bed or having the camera where the box is and watching her move from that perspective.

10.   Slight above shot of her dusting off the box.

11.   Shot of title of the box.

12.   Level shot of her standing up and as she walks off the camera stays still – cutting off her top half.

13.   Next shot is her sitting down at her desk from the side view.

14.   Close up as she opens the box, slight pause before she puts her hand(s) inside. (music starts playing potential 1)

15.   Quick shot of the emotion on her face.

16.   She pulls out a bunch of photos and starts looking through them.

17.   Aerial shot with slow pan as she flicks through them. (music starts playing potential 2)

18.   Different angles of her flicking through the photos until the lyrics come in – side view, view of just her ands flicking through, other sentimental objects around the room etc.

19.   She stops on a specific photo that we are unable to see, we only see her stop and the reaction on her face.

20.   As the lyrics “I will laugh with you” come in, it cuts to the first flashback scene.

Production Example 2

Recently I watched a music video which I was impressed by the lighting and general effects of and as it the music video takes place mostly in a car, I thought it would be a very good example of how I should edit the car scene that I want to use in my production. The only downside is that the music video is kind of a happy video and therefore wouldn't reflect the mood of my music video so I needed to find a music video which showed a similar background (car, couple, woman getting out of the car etc.) but with a more upsetting or argumentative feel towards it.

At this point I remembered in the "Rihanna - We found love" video, there was a scene where the couple had an argument and the woman stormed out of the car. I could not find a clip to show of just her storming out of the car so I found the timings of that section from the entire music video and will post the video below. This is a good scene as its the only car and the argument shows how both sides are upset and angry which makes it similar to what I want from my production. The only downside is that it isn't raining but if you try to imagine it with the effects from the other video then it will be ideal for my music video. The video clips can be seen below:

Ideal Effects: Keith Urban - Somewhere in my car

Ideal Scene: Rihanna - We found love ( 2:51-3:03)

Media Production Location Ideas

For my production idea, I will need at least 4 different locations. As well as this I will also need a brief shot of a singular house with appealing aesthetic features on the outside at the start of the video but this house does not have to be the same one as I will use in another scene. The locations that I feel I will need will be listed and explained below:

Scene 1 - Girl's Bedroom:
The start of the music video takes place with the main character in her room where she finds the photos under her bed. Ideally I would like the room to be as tidy as possible and it to be very basically coloured i.e. white and light colours to match it. This is so that nothing draws attention away from the main character. The box she finds should be dark colours (black or a dark navy blue) with a white label so that it seems like the box contrasts to the room and it gives a sense that even though the memories are happy ones, the whole flashback aspect of it is a negative one. This scene will be mainly at the start of the video and will feature briefly between each flashback and it acts as a kind of safe scene compared to the sadness and bad memories of the darker scenes.

Scene 2 - Park:
This scene is meant to be the placing of the first meeting between the two characters. Ideally I would like the scene to be filmed in a park with a few trees around and on a bright sunny day but in the time frame I have and the current season, this will be difficult. I may try to do something with the fact it is autumn and all the trees have had their leaves fallen to the base of them. The two characters happen to meet by chance and quickly begin to start talking and walking together (maybe holding hands) and end up sat together on a park bench. The scene stays the same but now only the female character is present and the lighting turns darker to give the feeling she is now alone.It would start with her near the bench and walking around looking at all the places they had been but now it is empty and dark. It would then turn back to the bedroom scene until the next flashback.

Scene 3 - Oxford Covered Market:
I want this scene to be filmed around Christmas time as the Covered Market begins to have decorations all over it. This will ensure a cute theme is present and the brighter Christmas colours suggest a happiness between the pair. I would like the girl ideally to be dressed in either a white or red coat to make her stand out with the man wearing more of a navy coat as this will make him seem more like he just wants to blend in to the background. The pair would be happy and seem as though they are in love and I would like to end the scene with a shot of them from high up so I can also get a close up of a clock. When it turns to the darker aspect of the scene, I would start it from the same position I left it but this time no one is in the background and the time is still the same as before. Then the girl appears from the side and it then cuts to a close up of her with a slight rotation in an arc shape looking up at her. After this it is her going to all the places they went before and ends with her leaving the market alone.

Scene 4 - Car Park/Car:
The final scene should be filmed in a car park which is preferably empty or with very little cars around. It will be filmed in the dark and will also be filmed whilst it is raining. I will also want part of the scene to be filmed with both characters in the car along with some shots of the girl outside the car and the male character still inside the car. This will give the idea of an argument occurring between the couple and the rain will signify that the man is inside the car and will be safe and secure with the break up but the woman has been left out in the cold and all her feelings have been destroyed.

The music video will cut back to the other scenes for like a final flashback and will end with the girl running down the stairs of her house and bursting out of the door to see the boy stood there. They hug and the screen fades away.

Production Example 1

As I am doing a music video, I felt that it would be necessary to look for some music videos that are similar to what I am doing and see if I can take some of the ideas they use and implement them into my production.

Firstly I looked at one of the bands that may provide the music for my production, Against the Current. They are a relatively new band who have only made 3 original music videos but their video for the song "Another You, Another Way" captures the same sort of ideas that I want to include in my production. The video is based around a boy and girl such as mine and involves the girl looking back on all the good times she spent with the boy, which again is just like my idea. The video is very clever in the use of photos when the video shows band performances and it also shows various different events that happen between the boy and girl which I would consider using such as the firework scene.

There is one main drawback to the music video however and this is that it is mostly filmed in the summer and with the time frame I have to produce my music video, it will be very difficult to have the same sort of weather and to perform the same sort of activities. It would also have an effect on the lighting and the general mood of the video.

The music video for Against the Current - Another you, Another way can be viewed below:

Song Ideas for Production

Choosing the right song for my production is the most important and most challenging point of the whole project in my opinion. The video needs to be able to match the song correctly and reflect the mood that the song gives. It also needs to be able to fit the timings of the song so that certain things can happen accurately and correctly such as slowing down the video when the song becomes slower or ensuring the actors lip sync the lyrics accurately etc.

I have chosen a few songs that I feel will be able to reflect the mood of my story. There are two which I definitely feel will reflect the correct mood of the song through the pace of the music and the softness of the lyrics and there is a third option which has a different approach to it and if I choose to do this song I think I will have to change the dynamics of my storyboard slightly in order to incorporate the faster paced music and the louder, much harsher lyrics. The three songs will be listed below with the titles of both the song and the artist:

Song 1: Alex G - Find You

Song 2: Tyler Ward - Dashes

Song 3: Against the Current - Gravity

Production Story Outline

Since choosing to do a music video for my coursework, I have been brainstorming different ideas and seeing what I could do to make the video and music link together perfectly. After a lot of thought, I have decided on doing the following:

Intro Scene:

·         Girl lying on bed playing with phone.

·         Drops phone off the side of the bed and it bounces slightly under the bed.

·         Shot from one side of bed looking under as she leans down to look under the bed.

·         She picks up phone but sees a dusty book further back.

·         Picks up the box and looks at it, rubs off some of the dust to reveal the title.

·         Moves it over to her desk and sits down to start looking through the photos.

·         As she opens the box the song begins to play.

Music Begins To Play

·         Starts flicking through pictures.

·         Stops on a specific picture.

·         Flashback 1 begins just before chorus starts.

·         Chorus starts at 1:09 hopefully start at roughly 0:40

Flashback 1 – preferably sunny and dry, may have to film very close to finish.

·         First meeting.

·         Park Bench, Train Station, Party, Classroom?

·         Classroom – First day at school, sat next to each other, start talking, girl smiling as boy speaks to her.

·         Park Bench – Boy walks up to girl, introduces himself, start talking, and eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Train Station – Boy on train, girl is rushing to train, by holds door for the girl door closes just behind?

·         Train Station – Boy walking through a carriage to find a seat, girl moves her bag so he can sit next to her/opposite her, start talking, eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Party – Boy and girl both with different sets of friends, they both look at each other, begin to talk to each other away from everyone else, start talking, eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Party, Train Station will be more difficult than the other two.

Flashback 2 – Certain time frame for filming (Christmas Holidays)

·         Oxford Covered Market/Cornmarket Street at Christmas

·         Covered Market – Lights, Christmas trees, festive atmosphere, and festive food.

·         Cornmarket Street – Lights, couple running around, laughing, hold hands.

·         Women dressed in a puffed up coat/fur hood? With a hat and gloves. Man dressed in darker colours just a basic autumn/winter coat, jeans, boots/dark shoes. Woman has more vibrant colours (red).

·         A shot of them walking holding hands from behind, then cuts to just the girl in the same pace, darker coloured atmosphere (Navy Blue or Grey).

·         Walking around, barely anyone else there, looking at similar things as the couple were earlier.

·         Ends with her looking at the same object the photo was taken.

Flashback 3 – Only film on rainy evening

·         Break up scene.

·         Inside a car, argument, rain outside, girl gets out of the car, cuts between boy and girl both showing emotion, anger at first turns to sadness.

·         Location – Car park (Pear Tree services, somewhere in Oxford, Woodstock?)

·         Ideally in the rain but need to find way of keeping camera dry. (Umbrella?) 

A2 Media Ideas Powerpoint

A2 Brief Ideas

For the A2 side of my Media Course, I have been given a selection of design briefs in which I am allowed to choose from as the base of my coursework. After some thought, I decided that I wanted work singularly rather than in a pair or group as I felt it would be easier to get to do exactly what I wanted even if it meant more work has to be done on my part. I analysed the selection of briefs and found that the main two the caught my attention were the music video and the short film. Again I looked over these two options and searched up some past exemplar work on YouTube before deciding that I wanted to do a music video. However I do not want to do just any old mainstream song, I am a big believer in promoting artists who do not get the same recognition as the artists who currently dominate the charts. Therefore I would like to look into songs I enjoy listening too and that I can provide an adequate music video for. Below are some of the songs I want to try and base my music video around: