Locations for Music Video: Living Room

For the scene of the main male characters living room, we used Georgia Lateos house, the main girl in our music video. We used this as out of all of our houses, hers was the only one available that was free to film. Eventhough we could only use her house, it did have a 'homely' feeling to it when it got darker which was what were looking for concidering the main character has to fall alseep. The leather sofas and the black and white theme of the room shows is a benifit to us as this is a unisex colour scheme and therefore supports the factor that we are trying to portray of this house belonging to a boy. Here are a couple of images of this locations.

Exisitng Jakatta Products

As we have chosen to use the song 'American Dream' by Jakatta, it seems appropriate to analysis some of his existing products. Here is the original video for the song.

Jakatta - American Dream

This story behind this video seems to be that there is some sort of riote taking place, men with angry faces throwing and smashing things all over the place. To add to the dramatic effect of this, shots have been slowed down so that audience can gain a longer image of the sense of emotion that is on their faces. Whilst this is occurring, the shots are interrupted from glimpses of what looks like to be some sort of knitted dress. These shots seem to last for some time, preventing the viewers from seeing exactly what it is therefore building suspense. Then all over a sudden we get to see a close up shot of the woman face, mainly her closed eyes. No one seems to be noticing her and she seems to be in her own sort of fantasy. When the music goes from being quiet and goes back to load to riote gets more aggressive which is encouraged by the loudened tone and quickened pace of the music.

Here is also an image of the existing Jakatta album

The front cover of this Jakatta album seems quite plan simple due to the fairly due images that have been used. This is because Jakatta and his product do not seem to have a brand image, which can be supported by the music video.

Song Lyrics For Final Song Choice

These are the lyrics for our final song choice for our music video. Even though the genre of the song is Dance/House, there are still a few lines of lyrics in the song. Below are the annotations of the lyrics, explaining what they mean and how they can be related to the video. If you click on the image it will enlarge where you can read the lyrics and annotations clearly.

After going through which lines meant, we then annotated the lyrics to see how we could relate it to our video. We found that the lyrics seemed to work well with our music video as the few lines of lyrics can relate to the main girl in our video and how the boy chasing after her is deeply infatuated by her.

Our Final and Chosen Idea

With our final idea we decide to stick with the dance/club genre as we thought that we could made a good video out of using this type of genre. We came across the songs American Dream - Jakatta, Put em hight - stone brdige and Pjanno - Eric Prydes and thought of a good idea that we could use as our storyline.

Our idea consisted of the main characer, being a boy, having a day dream of him following a 'fanatsy' girl (pretty, dressed up in big make-up) as she's luring him in, trying to chase her as she runs away. With this idea we tried to think which of the three songs that we had chosen would work best with this storyline. We concluded that Jakatta - The American Dream was the best one as the both the beat and lyrics work well with the storyline. The songs starts off all calm and mysterious like, which realates to the woman in the story. In the middle of the song the tune and pace starts to pick up, which also relates to the story when the boy is chasing the girl as its exciting and thrilling. Although so far everything seems to be working well, there we a few issues with it aswell.

Developed and Final Idea

The main problem that we thought about with our music video so far was that the storyline was too short for the song. We thought that the viewers would quickly become bored of seeing a boy continually follow a girl about the woods and that eventually we would run out of shots to do. With the shots and footage that we all had in our heads, we realised that it would only run up to about half way through the song. With this problem we had to re-evaluate the storyline and camera shots. For a start, we hadnt even really thought of an appropriate beginning to the video. We then came up with the idea of the main male chacter feeling stressed after a hard days at work leaving his working place to home. Whilst he's waiting for a train home at the station, a girl suddenly appears on the other platform dressed up in fantasy-like clothing looking seductive and fasinating. Suddenly a train goes by and the girl is gone. The male is amazed and thinks it was just his imagination as he is tired and stressed from work. At home whilst he's watching TV he can't stop thinking about this girl which then leads to him dozing off into a day dream where the main part of the video kicks in with the forest part of the storyline. However we also though to alter this slightly as we decided that whilst he's trying to find this girl he would come across these other fantasy-like girls that like to lure him in. To make the video seem more wierd and unusual, he also comes across a mother pushing her child in the pram but she is all dressed up in really fantasy like clothing so it looks unusal and like shes out of place which adds to the weird theme of the music video. He can see her and begins to study her where as she cannot see him and just goes about with her usual doings. he also comes across another similar weird scenario with two other girls dressed in more fantacy like clothing sitting on logs chatting whilst having a picnic. Once again these girls cannot see him but he can see them.

Towards the end of the video the main male character become fed up of not being able to find the girl and sits up against a tree. All of a sudden the two other fantacy like girls that try to lure him in come from behind the tree, kiss him on the tree and go back round. Then follows the main fanatsy-like girl where she then kneels down and kisses him on the lips as he's waking up from the dream.

Song Lyrics for Initial Ideas

Below are the song lyrics for our first and third idea for the music video, Blinded by the Lights by The Streets, It you click on the picture it will enlarge where you will be able to see the lyrics and the annotations clearly. The annotations show what some lyrics mean and how they would relate to the music video, establishing what the filming would be like in some cases.

Below are the song lyrics for our second idea for the music video, Flashback by Calvin Harris. Like the above, if you click the image it will enlarge where you can then read the lyrics and the annotations clearly. The annotations explain the same content as it does in the previous song lyrics.

Exisiting Homepages of Websites

In order to gain an idea of what our webpage for our artists website should look like, we reseached into existing websites of music artists. On of the websites we came across was Taio Cruiz's. We liked the look of the home page of this site and therefore analysed it to see what looks good and what features we could include on our webpage. Click on the image to enlarge it to see the annotations.

Another website that we analysed was Calvin Harris' one. Click on the image below to enlarge it and see the annotatoions of the webpage.

From looking at the researched websites, i like the idea of having the main navigational bar across the top of the page. I also liek the idea of using either a close up or medium close up of the artist on the website. Like with Taio Cruz' website, i like the idea of including a User login form onto our webpage and with the recent music video too. Headings and importants links will need to be bold and stand out for the viewers to recognise.

Exisitng Digipaks

A digipack is a type of cd packaging Made out of materials such as card, paper etc. Digipacks can be made to open out like a book or they can be made in three parts. The digipak that we require to do must have four pictures in it so to make it open out like a book would be the obvious choice.

In order to help create our own digipack for our album, we have researched into existing digipaks music artists albums. Below are images or existing digipaks

Album Front Covers

Having researched album front covers, we found that the majority of covers include either a close up or a medium close up of the artist with a stern direct facial expression. We also found that the artist were often staring into camera to attract the attention of the public of the viewers. This is encouraged by their straight, yet seductive stare into the camera, it draws our attention.

I think using a close up or medium close up of the artist on the front of the album cover will be a good look for our Digipak.

Brainstorming and our Ideas

We began by listening to songs on Youtube or on each others Ipods. After listening to a few songs we all decided that we were edging towards the idea of making a music video for the Indie/Rock genre.

One of the songs that we came across was Blinded by light, by The Streets. We listened to the song over and over again, without watching the music video and really started to like the idea of using it for our own music video. Together, we thought of ideas and the storyline that could be used for the music video.

Our First Idea

In the storyline, the main character has taken a lot of drugs and is walking around in the night along Brighton beach and on the pier. The lyrics of the song tell the story of a man out for the night partying getting very drunk whilst trying to find his friends. He is also taking drugs and in the song his feeling are constantly described and how the atmosphere relates to his state of mind. We used this idea and created one of our own which consisted of linking the feeling of drugs and being drunk to lyrics such as 'lights are blinding my eye'. We thought of the idea of using quick flashes of the main character showing the state he is in with the camera following the character around, along the streets and in clubs. We all became very fond of this idea until we found a few implications with it.

The first problem that we came across was the lighting. In order to follow the storyline and to gain the music video's full potential, we would have to film it in the dark where all the partying is about. This became a complication as we discovered that the picture will be dark and unclear and we would not be able to gain sufficient lighting to make it better. Another problem that we came across was the not all of the members in the group will be able to get into a club to film the music video as we are not all legally 18 years old. Adding to this, the club or clubs may not been too keen with us wanting to film footage from inside the club to use for a music video as they may not believe that it is just for a school project and therefore will deny us permission to do so.

Due to these three main complications we then decided to move onto another idea that will prove to be more sufficient and appropriate for our group.

Our Second Idea

Our second idea was very much like the first idea instead we decided to go for a song within the Dance/Club song which was Flash Back by Calvin Harris. The storyline is slightly different as the main character is a man working in an office and is daydreaming, having 'flashbacks' of the weekend before went he went out to clubs. There is still going to be quick flashes to show the state of mind of the character with the camera following him around on the busy streets and in the clubs. The lyrics of the song work well with this idea such as, 'this is like a flashback, this is like a dream' as this supports the idea of the main character having flashbacks of the weekend before.

Although this seemed like a good idea, like the previous idea, it had the same complications such as the age issue of getting into the clubs, getting the clubs permission to film and the lightening for film.

Our Third Idea

With our second idea we went back to the The Street's song, 'Blinded by Lights', as we liked it and felt we could find another storyline to work with. We still like the idea of using flashing lights and images to go with the lyrics of the song in the chorus, 'lights are blinding my eyes'. We came up with the idea with going to a beach, such as Brighton, and film on the pier where there is a funfair with bright lights, spinning rides and a busy atmosphere. We were going to have a main character again, either on drugs or just looking for a good time on at the funfair and arcade, with all the lights flashing and the camera following him around. However we also came across a few implications with this idea.

The first complication that we came across was that we intended on having about 10 people in our film, one being the main characters and others acting as general members of the public passing by or acting as friends as the main character. Brighton is about an hour to an hour and a half away from us and we when we spoke to the people who we wanted in the video, they weren't keen about travelling down to Brighton as it is a bit far. Another problem that arsied was the fact of it being so cold in the winter that it will be even colder down by the coast so not many people will be on the pier or the fun fair may even be closed. This would therefore rule out the busy atmosphere that we wanted for our video and therefore defeat the whole purpose of the storyline.

Exisitng Music Videos

Because we were looking into the club/house genre for producing our music video, we decided to look into existing music videos of this genre so we could analyse them and see what they have included in their videos. Below is the music video for Pjanoo by Eric Prydz.

This video looks to be set in a dessert where a man is trying to run away from something, maybe escaping from being a prisioner as he has robe tied aroung his wrist at the beginning of the video. He breaks into what looks like an old bar to find water for his thirst. All of a sudden the piano starts playing and what appears to be mini tribal people dancing around the room. I think that this is a figure of his imagination as he is exhausted and dehydrated so is probably hallucinating. Towards the end of the video there are constant slow downed clips of the mini tribal people dancing and in between each clip there in an image of running water as this is what the man desires. The man then realises that the tap is actually running with water and starts drinking out of it with a great sense of desperation. Finally, it starts to rain outside and after the man has his drink he leaves.

In the begininng of the video the camera is following his as he runs, getting a quick shot of the glaring hot sun and then to his face to show the despeartion that hes in for water as he feels so dehydrated due to the terrible heat. I found that certain shots were used in the video at the right time to introduce and exaggerate the change in music. This is shown at the beggining of the video when he falls over and when the piano starts playing before he sees the little native person. The pace of the music quickening is exaggerated when the man frantically starts frumberling round the room to try and find any water to drink, until the piano starts playing which then the beat of the music drops again. When the little native people dance, they are in time with the music so the music video seems like it all flows togther which is highly important.

Towards the end of the video there are random images of the scorching sun and money as this is what he desires. It then switches to shots of a native woman dancing, with slow downed clips that fade in and out of eachoher. This makes the video flow together, makes it seem all dream-like and goes with the type of music that is being used for this video. As the pace of the music builds up the more shots of people dancing, the sand and dripping water flash on the screen which once again exaggerates the fact that the music is picking up pace. Suddenly, a flash of lighting comes in when the beat drops and we return to watching the mini native people dance in the old bar. When the man rushes to the tap to drink the water, there is a close up of his face to show the desperaton in how thirsty he was and this is further portrayed by the shot being slown down. Right at the end of the video it beginnings to rain and there is a shot of the rain beating on the ground with merky water to portray irony as this man wanted so much water at the beginning when there wasn't none then when he finally gets some at the end it begins to rain heavy.

'It's Raining Men' Music Video by Geri Halliwell

In one of our lessons, our whole class watched the music video of 'It's Raining Men' by Geri Halliwell. After we watched it we all had to write notes on analysing it and explaining why certain things have been put in there. I have included this into my blog as it gives the idea of what sort of things we all should be considering when making a music video and making sure the storyline relates to the song choice. We need to make sure we interpret the music. Below is the actual music video for 'It's Raining Men'.





Below are the notes that we all made in class about the music video:

• Starts off like a FAME audition. FAME top she is wearing --> intertextuality
• Very upbeat song/active
• Contrasts of what she is wearing and the judges
• A lot of focus on her physique
• Almost within the first minute of the song we don't know what she looks like --> builds suspense and curiosity for the viewers
• The song is used in the Bridget Jones film --> Empowerment of women, showing shes in control
• Form of song and dance routine --> borrowed form musicals
• Drawn heavily to flash dance
• She puts on a vinyl --> authenticity, iconographic
• Judges --> formal, suits
• --> they all look down there nose at her
• Diegetic sound of her footsteps at the beginning. All we have are fragmented sots --> creates sense of anticipation enigma (puzzle)
• Judge says to Geri, 'In your own time miss Halliwell' --> formal and patronising
• When the music starts the camera is positioned at the judges --> seeing expression on judges faces. Also, notion of looking throughout, framed by judges
• Over shoulder shots --> we as the viewers are looking at it from the judges point of view
• Notion of looking continues with students watching her dance through door
• When she sings, 'Humidity is rising', she raises her hand which at the same time the camera scrolls up echoing the word rising
• As the verse builds, people flock to see her dance
• By the end of the first chorus, the judges have taken their glasses off and are tapping their feet to the music which we are aware of from having a foot level shot. They have abandoned their stern looks and appear to be enjoying the performance
• As the chorus begins, the other students burst into the room and dance carnival style, jumping around wearing colourful outfits
• Geri is always framed in the centre
• In the second the phase of the video, Geri breaks down patriarchal barriers by crawling across the table and kisses the head judge
• She has also had an outfit change into yellow hotpants
• She is seen above the other dancers by a low angled shot making her visually dominant
• Her third outfit is a red top which we see the top half of it as she is given a close up shot of her face and she is singing to the camera, which personalises the video and engages the viewer
• When she sings "berometers getting low" the cameras scrolls down revealing her 4th outfit which is a blue top and jogging bottoms
• There are emphasise of the other dancers as they come in front of the camera doing splits etc however we don’t see their faces
• In the third phase of the video we see Geri doing aerobics/ crunches portraying how she got her physique that has been emphasised throughout
• This video is a typical American teen film - rushing to lesson
• There is a contrast between the two dances seen in the video. She is no good at ballet however she leads the flash dance
• Towards the end she bursts through the front doors wearing a leather jacket, portraying rebellion
• The filming is taken outside to what becomes a street party tightly framed to make it appear busier
• On the words "stormy weather" there is chromakey present. The shot is low angle and the movements are slow motion. the lighting gets darker which we are lead to believe is to do with the storm
  
  

The Task!

For our Year 13 task, our class has been asked to get themselves in to groups of no more than three to complete our coursework project. The class had been given the choice of three briefs to chose one to follow. This is the brief that we had chosen:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
1. a website homepage for the band;
2. a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
3. a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

The three of us decided that for our ancinerally tasks, we were going to produce a website homepage for the band and a cover for its release as part of the digipack.