After much research on websites like Myspace and unsigned.com, I found an unsigned band called "The 99s". They're a country pop genre and I think they are perfect for the type of music video I wish to create. The song chosen is called "Sunshine", I chose this because the lyrics and theme were like songs sung by bands like Scouting For Girls and The Plain White T's. The track in shown in sound cloud below.
For this music video I plan to use inspiration from videos like the ones below:
In both these videos they have a theme of boy chases girl or boy wants the girl, which is something I am going to use for the narrative/story line of my music video.
Also by using the lyrics of the song it can incorporate into the narrative of the video.
Lyrics like :
"You say you love me then you leave without a trace,
The day you left you knocked the smile of my face"
could be used by portraying a female character that spends all her time with her boyfriend then just leaves him sad and lonely because she gets bored, yet still make the video upbeat as the song isn't down and depressing.
This is similar to the video for boomerang by The White Plain T's which shows a story of a girl drop the guy whenever she wants and taking what she wants from him, yet it is still done in a light hearted way instead of a sad, upsetting manner.
My plan is to use a female character and many male characters who chase after her. I will use different locations like a park, house and shops to make it seem like memories. I may also try filming on different days so there are different types of weathers and change outfits for the characters to show the different days and times.
I plan to edit all of the separate shots together as if it were a mirage of dreams from the guy thinking about the girl and their past together, then using shots of him looking upset as they have spilt up. I may also include shots of the guys bedroom wall covered in photos of them when they were together, which I may need to take in advance.
Another idea would be having all photo memories on a wall and one by one have the male take them off of the wall and zoom into each one which turns into a video of the memory he is imagining, so it's like a mirage of memories.
This music video is a little different as it isn't mainly close ups, it uses a wider variety of close ups, mid shots and establishing shots throughout.
The close ups are of the main singer, he sings the lyrics into the camera almost as if he is singing to the audience and showing them his feelings. This helps to add to the star image, putting all the attention on the lead singer and making sure the audience recognise him. The video also has establishing shots of the band to show them all as a group showing more of the star image. They also have establishing shots of the narrative throughout the video, this way the audience can see the whole picture of everything that is going on.
Editing
This video unusually uses stop motion throughout the narrative, showing the girl talking to lots of different guys at a party even though she is standing the same place. It also uses stop motion when the two main characters are talking but each time they wear different outfits to show the different memories and situations were the same thing has happened over and over again.
Like most music videos this uses quick edits between all the shots, this keeps up with the beat of the song and helps the audience to recognise this. It also means that the audience may miss some of the narrative so they may want to watch the video again to pick up on some of it.
Mise En-Scene
Throughout this video is shows both narrative and performance. The performance part is used to make the audience feel closer to the band, during the performance close ups are used of the singers face as he sings the lyrics to the camera. They also use establishing shots during the performance so that you can see the whole band performing together almost as if they were live.
The narrative shows the lead singer of the band as the main character who is being thrown away by the girl that they are singing about. They show the couple arguing then getting along in their bedroom and in many different situations. It also shows the main character looking back at photos on their fridge that are memories of the two when they were happy, making the audience feel sorry for the character and meaning they may be able to relate to the music video; thus implying they may enjoy the video even more.
This video uses a lot of close-ups which is a main convention for music videos. John Stewart says that they should have "lots of close ups and lighting being used prominently for the star's face." A music video is mainly used to show a stars image so by using close ups of their faces and making the light bright and focus on them it makes sure that the audience notices them. Their star image is to help promote the artist.
In this video they have many close ups of the main singer, singing the lyrics into the camera, close ups of the hands for the members playing piano, guitar and the drums. This is to show the band performing and makes the audience feel closer to the band, unlike they would if they saw them live.
In the beginning of the video they show a close up of the woman walking around the bowling alley, but they only have the close up of her feet and they are walking to the beat, which is said to help the audience to connect with the video and bring them more pleasure when watching the video.
Also throughout this video their are a lot of close ups of the female characters body parts, which relate to the theme of the song and could also be seen as voyeurism in music videos. The female character isn't dressed promiscuously but the close up shots try to reflect that all the boys are staring at her because she's attractive and they all want her as their girlfriend.
Editing
This video uses a lot of quick editing between shots, this way when the audience are watching it, they may miss some parts and might go back to watch it again to see what they missed. However it is also because the song itself has quite a fast tempo so the video has been edited to keep up with that.
It has also been edited perfectly so that parts of the video fit in with lyrics to the song, this way the audience can relate to what is going on in the video, it also makes the narrative more interesting.
Mise en-scene
The video includes both narrative and performance, this way the audience can enjoy the band playing and the narrative story that the video is telling. In this video the narrative fits perfectly with the lyrics, a female character walks into a bowling alley and all of the male characters are staring at her which follows the lyrics in the song.
The performance allows the audience to see the band perform and almost feel closer to the band because they can gain eye contact with the members and see their hand gestures and body language.
For the preliminary task, as a class we had remake and produce our version of the Britney Spears video to 'Hit me baby one more time'. Everybody had to take part in all the major areas of the production of a music video, these include:
shooting/filming
directing
editing
lip syncing
taking part in the video
organising costume, props and location
Planning
When it came to planning this task, all of the jobs involved were delegated so that everyone had the chance to organise the way the video was going to be filmed. decisions had to be made on all of these areas:
Location
Costumes
Storyboarding/shots
After individuals had thought up ideas/grou
ps for each other these areas, we all came together to choose and make the final decisions. This way we all agreed on they way our production would run and also when it came to filming, we all would know where to be and what we were doing; making it run a lot smother on the day.
This is a storyboard that was made of all the shots that were needed to put our production of the music video together.
Filming
When it came to the days of film, it did seem a little unorganized, not everybody was experienced in filming and directing so it took a while to get everybody in their places and in charge of some shots. I filmed two shots of the boys walking out of the classrooms, I was included in a section of lip syncing and was a dancer throughout. On the day the acting was difficult as not all of us were that confident in front of a camera and struggled to act probably, but as the end result I think we did a pretty good job.
It took us longer than expecting to, to film all of the shots as we were not as organised as we had planned. It also took longer for us to film lip syncing shots as people like myself, were not comfortable filming them. This is something that we can considering when producing future videos; making sure that we use people that are comfortable and happy with being filmed and also lip syncing in front of a camera.
Editing
Editing was quite a struggle, some of the software at college is slow to use; however I tried to make the most of it. We had done a lot of takes on all of the shots, so it took a lot of time to go through them all and pick out the best ones for the video. I started by picking out all the best clips for each shot and putting them in the correct order, then cutting them all so that they fitted in with the music. Using the original video to help I lip synced each part as best as possible until the video looked okay. Unfortunately we must have missed some shots, so they're not exactly the same as the original Britney Spears Video.
Final Product
When it came to editing the video, I struggling with exporting and uploading the video. This version is a completed video by a class member Richard Kish.
My Contributions
I contributed a lot of hours towards the final production as I was there for all planning, filming and also all of the editing.
I filmed the parts of the video where the boys are dancing in the corridors and out of doors, I helped to direct it and make it look like the original video.
I lipsynched a part at the beginning of the video, it made me fel uncomfortable as I do not like being filmed. I sang to the music so that it looked more like it was in time with the music.
I edited the beginning of the video then everything was put together.
Evaluation
I wouldn't say that our final video is professional, as our camera angles and not everyone's acting is great. However this is because we aren't all professional actors, only a few are drama students, which is why they took the lead role.
It was useful to produce the project as a group, because everyone had to make sure they worked as a team otherwise the project would never have all come together. It is also useful to learn how important it is to be organised before going into making a video otherwise not everything will go right and the video could end up being a lot more difficult to edit.
I have learnt that planning is an important process to carry out before making any production; that way everything will run a lot smoother. I have also learnt a lot more about making sure when filming using a tripod is vital otherwise you can get very shaky on un-professional images. A final thing I have learnt is how to use the complex things on the editing software, which I will use when it comes to making my own music video.
One of the main problems that we all came across was that most people were uncomfortable with being filmed and especially singing. However everybody tried their best. But in the future when I come to filming something, I will make sure I use actors or at least people that are comfortable with being filmed. This was it will not look as awkward and uncomfortable. Another issue that I found was when it came to the editing stage, I didn't have enough or the right amount of shots to make it look the same as the original video meaning some shots had to be manipulated making them look a bit fuzzy.
