Beat Sheet:

Below is the beat sheet for the song My Blood where I have looked at the different parts of it and split it up into sections so I have a larger understanding of the song.

Second Draft of my Music Video:

Here is the second draft of my music video. I have made considerable changes using the audience feedback from my first draft. I have taken out the random shots towards the end and shot and put in a positive ending of Beth getting over the death through the help of her friend. I had planned to do this in pre-production in my treatment sheet but did not include it in my storyboard as I changed my mind and thought it'd be more effective to end on the grave. However after watching it, I decided that it was important to have some aspect of friendship as it is the main thing that will appeal to the target audience.

Anymore comments are welcome :)

Notes on Key DIrectors:

 

Directors:

Ray Kay

Ray Kay is a Norwegian-born director based in Los Angeles.
Ray has created sleek cinematic music videos for music’s biggest stars, such as Britney Spears, Lady GaGa, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Cher, Steven Tyler , Diddy, Jessie J, Enrique Iglesias, Cheryl Cole, Willow Smith, James Blunt, Gloria Estefan, Nelly Furtado, Adam Lambert, Girls Aloud and more. He has won numerous music video awards, including MTV Awards. All in all, Ray Kay's music videos have been viewed more than 2 Billion times on YouTube, and his music video for Justin Bieber “Baby” is the 2nd most viewed video ever, of any kind, on YouTube, with over 825 Million views.
 
 
Below is a printscreen from the official Ray Kay website that shows all of the music videos from the main artists that he has directed.

 

 

 

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is a french director who grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young he created a pop-rock band with friends called Qui-Qui. They released 2 albums and a number of singles until they separated in 1992. Michel Gondry was the drummer of the band but at the same time, he directed their music videos. When one of these videos was shown on MTV Bjork saw it and asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Draft of my Music Video:

This is the first draft of my music video, but I have not finished editing the end and plan to film more. I hope to receive some audience feedback, but ask that they take into consideration that it is only the start and middle that I have fully edited. It is open for suggestions and improvements :)

My 5 top videos:

Below are Youtube clips of my top 5 favourite music videos and an explanation of why I like them and what they involve.

Rihanna- We Found Love

I like this RnB styled music video because it fits Rihanna's image and is fun whilst at the same time having a narrative that involves a man, which adds to the interest. It abides by the typical codes and conventions of her genre as it focuses a lot on her appearance as she has several costume changes, and it is a mixture of performance and narrative. The story line is fairly easy to follow and it has a strong performance aspect of it, which is typical to Rihanna's other music videos. Unlike a lot of artists of the genre, this music  depicts her life as not so good at times and the lighting and colour create a dreary tone, which fits in with some of the shabby locations such as the apartment blogs. When the rhythm becomes faster and the volume becomes louder in the build-up to the chorus the takes are shorter and faster with quick straight cuts that go between different scenes to give a sense of a fast-paced life and a lot of excitement or anger, depending on the part of the song.



Beyonce- Run the World (Girls)

This is similar to Rihanna's video because they are in the same genre and there is performance in them both. However, in this particular video of Beyonce's, it is completely performance based as she is the focus with several backup dancers. She is dancing and singing the whole time which represents her known image to her target audience- her style and dance moves. She doesn't wear typical clothing which is usual of Beyonce and it is obvious that the video is set in a desert with some sort. This indicates a particular tone of the video as it is slightly military based which is directly relevant to the lyrics of "Who run the world girls."

 

Nickleback- Rockstar

 

This is a particular favourite of mine because thee video itself is also directly relevant to the lyrics- even more so than Beyonce's video. The song is about how everybody wants to have a rockstar's life, and it is also solely performance based. However the main difference between this and the previous video is that the artist, Nickleback, only appears in the video occasionally and briefly, and it is mostly made up of random members of the public singing along in the street. Celebrities such as the Playboy bunnies appear in it also, which adds quality and appeal to the video for the specific target audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katy Perry- Part of Me

 

I like this video because it is unlike Katy Perry's previous videos where she is very feminie looking and it's all about her image. Though there are still several close-up shots which identifies the artist and her unique image, this video is in a military style and has a strong story line which is fairly similar to mine in the sense that there is a plot that the audience has to follow along to. However my music video idea is a lot more sombre and there is no performance aspect of it, as it simply does not fit in to the context of my video. In Part of Me, there is an element of performance that matches the narrative. A mix of these two styles will keep an audience interested in the video, expecially for this genre of mainstream pop.

 

 

Carly Rae-Jespen- Call Me Maybe

 

Finally, Carly Rae Jepsen's video to Call Me Maybe is amusing as it has an aspect of a storyline and has twist at the end, with the boy she likes turning out to be homosexual and asking for another man's phone number. Carly Rae Jepsen is a fairly new artist and this was her first video which means that it would have to include her as the main part and focus a lot on her image and certain things she does, in order to create some form of brand image and awareness amongst the target audience so that they will remember her in her following videos. Therefore, the tone is upbeat and comical, with a lot of bright colours and lighting to portray her young and lighthearted style. The story line is simple and is directly related to the lyrics of the song, which is a typical girl/boy romance, until the end.

Notes on Narrative:

The use of narrative in music videos is used to give a repeatability factor to the video as they often do not give a detailed storyline but are non-linear and usually leave it up to the audience to suggest the story behind it. It is common in music videos to have a narrative factor in conjunction with some performance from the artist, and as Steve Archer states in 'Teaching Music Videos', "additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor. There are some examples of a mixture of narrative and performance based videos below.

 

 

Below is a music video of Ke$ha's which is completley narrative but is very different to other videos as it is made up solely of photographs showing how the storyline progresses. This is likely to appeal to her teenage target audience as it is a bit out there and fun, giving it the repeatability factor.

 

My music video will be 100% narrative because it has a very strong storyline that has to take up the whole 3:44 minutes. Also if there was a performance aspect in it it wouldn't fit the mood and style of the video and the feelings of the main character. I am including narrative because it appeals to the target audience as it provides a plot to follow along to.

 

The cast will be Beth as mentioned before who is meant to be Ellie Goulding. However, taking the audience feedback into consideration from my first draft, I have decided to film some more to add in to the end part of the music video, using my friend Natalie, who will act as a comforting friend to Beth and help her get over the death of her boyfriend. In order to make it more clear that Beth is missing somebody at the beginning of the music video, I am thinking of having a flashback of her recieving some sort of letter and looking at a photograph of a boy in military uniform.

 

The majority of the narrative in my video is linear to some extent, because it is mostly in order of events that occur in her life, but there are a lot of elipsises to show that time has moved on, and I do this by using cross disolve transitions for example. I'm also implementing flashbacks into it, to mix it up a bit to ensure that the audience will remain interested throughout the duration of the video and will want to watch it again. 

Action Plan!

As I approach the end of the coursework period, I have made an overview of everything that I have done and what still needs to be completed or any other research that I may want to undergo in pre-production.

Below is an action plan of the commencing weeks and what tasks I need to do in order to ensure the best quality of coursework. Effective planning and preparation before carrying out tasks and filming in particular is vital in order to create an overall high quality package of my music video, digipak, advertisement and evaluation.

11th-15th February 2013:

• My top 5 videos
• Notes on narrative, representation and media language
• Notes on key directors and audience
• Audience research

18th-22nd February 2013:

• Textual analysis and research of digipaks
• Analysis of research and adverts
• Beat sheet
• Flat plan for digipak
• Drafting digipak

25th-1st March 2013:

• Recce info.
• Recce shots
• Rough cut of video (with feedback)
• More evidence of filming and editing- screen prints of own work
• Evidence of experimentation with effects
• Photoshoot of digipak and advert (weekend)

4th-8th March 2013:

• Drafting of digipak with notes
• Drafting of advert with notes

 11th-15th March 2013:

• Final video
• Final digipak
• Final advert

18th-22nd March 2013:

• Finishing off and improving previous posts
• Evaluation of the video, digipak and advert