This week we filmed our focus group. It was actually quite funny whilst filming it. As the girls we were using got side tracked easily including me. It was a really chilled out environment. i really enjoyed filming the focus group truthfully.
The focus group really helped our production work and our ideas for the music video. As what we were going for clearly did not suit the song chosen as its more of a relaxed, chilled out sort of song. So from our feedback we decided to change the idea to a more of a chilled out vibe but not cliche of a R&B/Soul genre.
Also this week we analysed three digipaks, three music videos, and three magazine ads. This was really helpful as i knew what to do with our ideas for the digipaks, ads and the type of music video. These tasks were shared between Niraj and Me. I felt like these tasks also got Niraj and me communicating with each other a lot more, as to begin with we were not acting like partners however, after the task we have started acting like a team, not strangers. These tasks were very long and took very long too complete. However, the end result was worth it as we finally finished the work to good standards.
Also this week with the feedback we began too look at music videos which inspired our style of the music video. Examples would be Diamond rings by Chimpunk. The reason this inspired me was it has similar features which i would like to include within my music video.
PRE-PRODUCTION Location Manager: DAM Casting agent: DAM Set manager: NIRAJ + DAM Photography: NIRAJ Call sheet: DAM Storyboard: NIRAJ + DAM Flatplan: NIRAJ Production schedule: DAM Treatment: NIIRAJ + DAM PRODUCTION Cast: DAM Camera operator: NIRAJ Lighting: Niraj Director: Niraj Cinematography: Niraj + DAM Graphics: Niraj Make-Up-Artsit: DAM Costume designer: DAM Copy writer: DAM POST PRODUCTION Editing: Niraj + Dam Typography: Niraj + Dam Photo-shop: Niraj + Dam Sound edior: Niraj
This is my focus group and we actually got quite a bit of feedback and it was very helpful to us. It allowed us to break down our idea and find out what people thought was good and bad about it. Overall I think the focus group was actually a success, as we got a lot of feedback from our peers and they gave helpful constructive criticism.
When everyone first heard the song, they all said they imagined an idea that was quite “Chilled & jazzy”. This was right at the beginning of the video and they had already said something that was not what my partner and I were thinking of. They then did however warm up to the idea of a girl walking down the street with different costumes as Tanya said “As long as you make it a bit jazzy I guess”. What was really successful is that they expressed their opinions quite well, as they even gave us an insight of what the character should look like in specific detail: “Side parting, hair all down one side”.
The strengths that they said weren’t that many but I feel as if this is a good thing as it will help us a lot when it comes to developing our idea and what we should do as this feedback is from people that are within the age range of our target audience. Also I personally think this song appeals more too mostly females and in the focus group you can denote that it consists of only girls. However this can also be seen as a problem as there are no males the feedback we got cannot be representative of all the males that would listen to their song and we haven’t got any opinions of what males think of it.
The strengths they did say was that our idea can work if we slow it down and make it more chilled and another strength is that they agreed that some effects would work; adding filters but even when they said that they didn’t agree with the filters that my partner had said to use. Dami specifically said to add a blue filter. The girls wanted to go for more of a laid back video where there was rain and Tanya even said maybe a girl and a boy. To me this came off as quite a depressing video but it has made us think about how we can alter our idea and how we can compromise. They also agreed with one idea that we had which was getting her ready at the beginning of the video and then walking out to go somewhere when the tempo gets faster. This supports us and makes it a likely decision for us to actually do that scene of getting ready at the beginning.
However majority of the video was them voicing their opinions of what they think we should do. Ama suggested an idea of having a character walking down the street in a gown with red lipstick and a masquerade mask on and going to a party. This is a very different idea to our original idea of having it quite funky and having a girl changing costumes. It made us see the song in a different light.
They also then moved onto giving ideas of maybe the whole video should be her getting ready as a lot of R&B songs do this. A thing that was very well done is that they gave examples such as Eunice giving the example of Leona Lewis or even Jada talking about Diamond rings by Chipmunk. This will give us more to look at for inspiration which can influence our idea more. They also gave us feedback on our locations and gave us ideas of where to film. They were quite committed to their jazz idea so they said to film in a jazz bar and if we were not allowed in then we can improvise and use the school hall as it has the props we need. This was quite helpful but I do not think we will be moving into the direction of going very jazzy.
The weaknesses were the fact that they were against masks and dancing but this wasn’t a huge thing as we were quite sceptical on those ideas anyways so it will be easy to just get over the idea. Overall there was a lot of feedback to take in and it was quite helpful as I think it has developed our idea to add a slight narrative to the video to make it more interesting and calmoing down with the upbeat.
The song i have chosen to do is Changing people by Shauntia Toussaint. the song is about finding your ambition and desire and also finding your destination. The song talks about how she is going through her old neighborhood and due to the fact everyone has found there destinies people have changed. One of the lyrics is "Changing people evolves around me it happens
everyday People changing in my world makes me touch the
future day by day" This contributes to finding your own destiny and how everyone has changed and it makes her happy. The second verse is all about finding your soul and your destiny. The whole song is about changing her own world and others around her too. The song itself is very chilled out. It is a happy song. Music and tempo.
The music genre is R&B and soul. This can clearly be denoted by the lyrics used within the song. As most generic R&B and soul songs tend to focus around heartbreaks, love, finding your destiny and luck. This song is about finding your destiny. The tempo is very slow from the beginning however after the first chorus the tempo speeds up and then goes back to the slow beat after the second chorus. At the line "Shout to the sky" the temp of the music is very fast. At the end the sound of the music decreases and the music fades out.
How would i use the song in a video.
The whole basis of the song is being yourself, being happy and finding your destiny. So I would use this in a video which shows that the artist is happy and moving on with life./
Changing people (Eddie Sea}
written by Eddie Caldwell
Sung by: Shauntia Touusaint.
Verse 1
Walking through my old neighborhood I see old faces in new places looking good So many times I’ve said my memory ignites a
flame Everything’s change but the spirit remains the
same There’s Mila with Tammy in Capice’s Café I see nappy head Shawn owns the barbershop by
the alley If you feel that bad moon rise, keep your head
to the sky Believe in your destiny and the stars will
aligned
Chorus
Changing people evolves around me it happens
everyday People changing in my world makes me touch the
future day by day
Verse 2
I see 53rd st still full of rainbow people
smiling and sharing But a few blocks away it’s still a ghetto heaven While people change my dreams remain the same Some people turn two faced and their goals
remain strange My papa said to me, your future is yours to make
incredible My momma said to me, you’re invincible,
unbreakable I realize life is hard, but I still see lovers
in the park Keep wishing on your dream, while my melody
lingers far
Chorus repeat
Bridge
If you believe in your destiny people will see
reality You have stars in your eyes; we all have a
miracle inside.
Section
It’s that same ole’ story about people with a
dream
Last week we showed our class our initial plans for our music videos, My plan was a short documentary based around the impressions and reactions people give her as she walks down crowded streets looking different from everyone else. After showing our initial ideas I ended up working with Niraj. We had chosen to do my idea however, we couldn't merge our ideas together as they were complete opposites. My fear was originally that nobody would like my idea. However, everyone liked it and i received good feedback.
This week we learnt about different music videos such as are they a narrative, performance or conceptual. We also learnt about different digipaks and music album posters and adverts and how they look. We were told what to do and what not to do with it. The challenges we actually faced was finding digipaks as they are not as common as most people just buy music on itunes or illegally download it so its not as easy to find in local stores such as HMV and Tesco.
The key concepts we have been focusing on is media language and representation. As the analysis we are doing of digipaks, music videos and music album adverts show how the artist has been represented meaning how they look , why have they been represented in this way. However, for the analysis we need to know key media languages such as mise-en-scene, camera language, editing and narrative. Even for the analysis we need to know the key media language as shown in the pictures below.
1) Listening to this song, what ideas come into your head what would your own music video consist off if you had to make one to this song?
2) What do you imagine the main character to look like? What colours she would wear? What costumes? Also why do you think she would look like this?
PITCH IDEA- TALK ABOUT DIFF LOCATIONS AND CLOTHING, GETTING REACTIONS
3) So this is our idea, what do you think of it and do you think it actually fits the song? Can you imagine this idea actually happening? If you do not then why not?
PLAY RUDIMENTAL SONG
4) Looking at this song, you can see that it has a documentary feel to it, and that's what we want to do as we are filming people's genuine reactions therefore nothing is staged. What do you actually think of this video? What aspects do you like about it? Do you think we could successfully do this documentary style in our video? If you can think of any difficulties what are they?
PLAY NICKY ROMERO SONG
EXPLAIN MEANING OF CONCEPTUAL- BASICALLY RANDOM, IT IS INCONGRUOUS
5) This song has the same sort of idea we are trying to portray; it contains random people dancing with each other. Do you think something of this conceptual style would fit our song choice? Can you imagine us walking in different clothes getting peoples reaction and just generally being a bit surreal, a bit out there? If not then why?
6) If you had to film this video using our idea, so walk around getting random peoples' reactions; where would you suggest filming? Do you have any locations in mind? With the locations you have said why do you suggest these locations?
AFTER THEY HAVE ANSWERED TELL THEM WHAT LOCATIONS WE HAVE THOUGHT OF AND SEE WHAT THEY THINK OF THEM (ON A ROOF, WINTER WONDERLAND ETC.)
PLAY SNIPPETS OF THE SONG AS THEY ARE TOO LONG
7) Looking at parts of these songs do you think these sorta effects would work in our video? There is the effects of reversing the actual video and the effects of changing the visuals of the video. If you think they would work where do you think we could incorporate it? If you don't think we can use the effects then why not?
EXPLAIN HOW WE WERE GONNA USE THE REVERSE ONE BY MAKING THE MAIN CHARACTER WALK FORWARDS BUT PEOPLE IN THE BACKGROUND ARE MOVING BACKWARDS
8) This work is from past students that were in our school, do you think our idea is too similar to theirs? If so how can we change it up to make it different? If it's not then how is our idea different?
9) Looking at this image, what would you change about it to make it fit?
MAKE THEM TALK ABOUT COSTUMES (WHAT COLOURS, WHAT CLOTHES) LOCATIONS (MORE BUSY OR NOT) WHAT SORT OF GESTURES (DANCES, DIFFERENT WALKS) ETC.
10) What is your favourite music video and why? Try and give a lot of detail if possible.
Narrative- Flashback: A flashback is when you go back to the past.
An example would be Seven Days by Craig David.
This music video shows flashbacks throughout the music video. Craig David is first seen to be in the barber chair however, at 2:15 there is a flashback to his date he was talking about. This makes it more effective as we get to see how things turned out for him and is quite funny. Also the flashbacks matched some of the lyrics he was talking about such as "We be making love by wednesday" they are shown to being in bed together. I would like to sue flashbacks in my work I feel like it is quite effective.
Pathetic fallacy. This is when the weather matches the mood. An example would be cry me a river by Justin Timberlake. Throughout the music video it consists of rain and a misty clouded weather. This is really effective as the song is about breaking someones heart and cheating. The dark weather creates the mood the artist is feeling. This matches the song perfectly the weather.
Restricted narrative: Restricted narrative is when the audience are limited to what they see they only see one perspective. I think Same Girl by Usher and R Kelly suits this very well i believe.
At 2:34 it shows the girl that they both fell for however, the audience doesn't know that they are twin sisters and we only see it from Usher's and R Kelly's perspective. I think this is really effective as it creates amusement for the audience but also reveals the truth which we did not know since it was only see from one perspective.
Todorov:
Todorov suggests that all narratives begin with a equilibrium. Which later gets solved. This consists of five stages.
The stages are
1) state of equilibrium
2) event disrupts the equilibrium
3) Main protagonist recognises event has been disputed
4) Main protagonists tries to rectify what has happened.
5) peace is restored
I think Justin Bieber under the mistletoe would be an perfect Todorov narrative.
The equilibrium is at 0:10 Justin and his girlfriend having a good time together. However at 1:25 this gets disrupted by another girl who Justin was with. The protagonist recognises that the peace has been disrupted as she walks away from Justin and the other girl looking very upset. This gets restored as she receives a present from Justin Bieber at 2:10 the other protagonist tries to rectify and make peace. At 3:00 the peace as been restored and there is a new equilibrium where Justin kisses her and they make up.
Mckee's five part structure.
1) inciting incident
2) progressive complications
3) crisis
4) climax
5) resolution
This music video By J cole presents the Mckee five part structure I believe.
inciting incident: 1:22 when the protagonist and his friend run away from school and are shown to be skating down a road.
progressive complications: This progresses at 1:45-1:55 as they are shown to be stealing sweets from a shop and later on shown to be smoking which they are not old enough to do.
Crisis: The crisis is at 2:45 when the police officer tries to arrest them both and they start to run away however the boys bag gets stuck whilst trying to run away from the police. This is a crisis. However he manages to get away and run off before the police officer arrests him.
Climax: The climax is at 3:00 when the boy runs home after this eventful day and walks in on his mother with another man who is not his father. This creates an climax as he finds out his mother is having an affair. This leads him to running out of the house.
Resolution: The resolution is at 4:30. This is when he runs off and his friend comes running after him too see if he's okay. This establishes a true friendship between the both and he recognises he has a good friend. He then returns back home and sits down and has dinner and acts as if nothing has happened.
