Music Video Draft 1

Health and Safety Assessment

Casting, Mise-en-scene, Props, Locations Costumes, Cast list

Locations:

Animatic

Storyboard

Draft 1

Draft 2

Production plan

Synopsis

My music video will be a narrative diegesis. I have interpreted the song as a story about a girl trying to come to terms with the death of her boyfriend. I want to represent this in the storyline in the video, by setting it in the autumn, when leaves are dying and falling from the trees and it links directly to the song title, 'autumn leaves'. The video will begin in the present with the girlfriend. It will then make use of flashbacks to tell the story of their relationship. The flashbacks will include the couple looking over their old photographs, walking, fighting, and the death of her boyfriend (which she blames herself for). The present will include the girl experiencing hallucinations, drinking heavily and trying to get over her boyfriend dying. The music video will follow the girl as she tries to deal with day to day life, and cope with the loss of her boyfriend.

Create an Identity for your artist

Audience

Julian Mcdougall (2009) suggests that online age is getting harder to conceive a new media audience as a stable, identifiable.
An audience can be described as a "temporary collective"-group of people who would of moved on in time. McQuail 1972.

Key terms:
Mass & mainstream/Niche/Alternative

Audience - without it a product is meaningless

• Gender
• Dermonphic/socioeconomic status
• Age
• Niche/Alternative

1900's audience was cleary defined but nowadays audience is a lot harder to define.

2 or 3 different newspapers

People tend to consume stuff that reinforce their own belief system. (by watching/watch media)

BBC - main objectives are to Educate, Entertain and Inform. The TV licence pays for the BBC because the BBC is a public service broadcast.

Historically (until the 19th century) the term 'popular' was quite a negative thing with overtones of vulgarity and trivality something not 'nice' or 'respectable'.

In the modern world, the terms 'widespread' liked or at least encountered by many people. It has also come to mean 'mass-produced' i.e made for the 'mass' of people. There is a downside to this of course in that it can also be interpreted as 'commercial' or 'trashy'.

Another definition of 'popular' is literally 'of the people' a kind of 'folk' culture and this is an interesting area, because it encompasses the idea of an 'alternative' culture which includes minority groups, perhaps with subversive values.

The 'indie' music scene is an example of this. So 'popular' culture can and sometimes does challenge the dominant cultural power groups.

Hegemony - ideology presented as natural common sense.

Len Ang (1991) detailed that media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product.

"Audiences only exist as an imaginary entity, an abstract, constructed from the vantage point of the institution, in the interest of the institution".

John Hartley (1987) "Institution are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but crucially for them - to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audience.

Hartley also suggests that institutions must produce "invisible fictions of the audience which allows the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter relations".

Audience Demographics

The magazine instestry use National Readership Survey (NRS) in order to help detail the demographic audience (most consumer magazines have a target relationship of ABC1)

Representation

Representations means how the media shows us things about our society but is through careful mediation. Hence representation.

We rely on the media to tell us what's happening around the world.

Tim O'sulivan et al (1998) Ideology refers to a set of ideas which produces a potential and selective view of society.

Notion of ideology entails widely held ideas or beliefs which are seen as 'common' sense and become naturalised. (Hegemony).

In terms of music videos do we aspire to emulate the 'shaman' as defined by Carlson (1999) through representation.

Representation

• Age
• Sexuality
• Social class
• Regional identity
• Physical Ability
• Gender
• Ethnicity

Though the technical element representation is formed. (Cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound)

Intextuality - text alludes to or references to another text Julia Kristeva (1969) literary critic and sociologist.

Micheal Maffesoli (1985)

"Urban tride" - small groups tend to have similar worldwide views, dress styles and common behaviours - leads to the decline of individualism.

"Sabatage" - The beasty boys

It's a Pastiche (copy) of a cop 70's drama TV show.

We get all of our information through media.

Death of content - thing that are created are made to look good.

Sven E Carlson (1999) media theorist

Music artist represent themselves as:

1) Commercial exhibitionist

2) Television Band

3) Electronic Shaman

1) Present themsealves as a band. Selling their apperence as well as their musical talent. Their face, clothing, styling and lifestyle.

E.g. "Jenny from the block" (Jenifer Lopez)

2) Represent themseves as part of a story as a story teller.

E.g. "7 years" (Luke Grahams)

3) Generally big budget productions where the artist has immortal powers or adopts the alter ego of another iconic character, personality or superhero.

E.g. "Scream" (Micheal Jackson)

David Gauntlett (2007) argues that"Identity is complicated. Everybody thinks they've got one, artist play wirth the idea of identity in modern society."

Gender and ideology

Masculinity and femininity and socially constructed. Ideas about gender are produced and reflected in O'Sulivan et al (1998).

Feminism is a lebel that refers to a broad range of views containing one shared assumptions - gender.

in qualities in society, historically masculine power exercised at right of women interest and righst

Narrative

Bordwell and Thompson (1997) offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the dietetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept.

The structure of the classic narrative systems according to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.
A high degree of narrative closure.
A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.

Tzventan Todorov (1977)

• Stage 1: Stable equilibrium-everything is satisfied, calm and normal.
• Stage 2: Stability is disrupted-creates a state of disequilibrium.
• Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
• Stage 4: Never possible to reach the same equilibrium.
• Stage 5: Restoration of a new equilibrium and changed characters.

O'Sullivan et al (1988) suggest, narratives have a common structure, starting with the establishment of the theme.
Development of the problem an engima (Barthes 1977) creates tension.
Finally comes to the resolution of the plot.
Such narratives can be unambiguous and linear.

Kate Domaille (2001) every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story bases upon which the others based.

• Achilles - one weak spot in every character.
• Candide - The hero that cannot be put down. For example, James Bond, Indiana Jones.
• Circe - The chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim. For example The Terminator.
• Feast - Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him.
• Orpheus - The loss of something personal, gift that is taken away, the tragedy. For example, The sixth sense.
• Romeo & Juliet - The love story.
• Tristan
• Iseult

Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) idea about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated binary opposites. For example, good vs evil.

Micheal Shore (1984) argues videos are:
Recycled styles.
Surface with substance.
Information overload.
Image and style scavenges.
Vanity and the moment.
Classical story telling's motifs.

Andrew Goodwin (1992) argues that in music videos "narrative relations are highly comlpex" and meaning can be created from individual auto-viewers musical personal musical.

3 types of narrative:

• Performance
• Narrative
• Abstract/conceptional

Genre

Definition and examples:
A category of medium's that are divided in to sections, you devise them in to categories based on common elements.
For example, Horror, Action, Thriller, Fantasy, Musical, Rock, Indie, R&B, Crime, Metal, Country, Jazz, Drama, Disco, Western.

The codes and conventions of each genre make it reconisable to the audience. For example a cowboy har, horse and a lassue will tell us that the genre is a western. However you can break these conventions, this could make the story seem more exciting since you don't know what's going to happen to the characters.

Language

LIIAR:
(Media) Language
Institution
Ideology
Audieance
Representation

Media language is semiotics. This is the science of signs, which is denotation and connotation.

Chares Sanders peirce (1931): "We think only in signs"

Signs take the form of ords, image, sounds, flavors, acts or objects but have no intrinistic meaning and became signs when we invest with the meaning. For example, Traffic lights. Why does the red light mean stop? And why does the green light mean go? We gave the meanings of stop and go to the traffic lights, if we didn't then traffic lights would be meaningless.

"Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign".

Another way to use signs is to encode them in cinimatography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound. Audiences then decodes the message or ideology. For example, in an episode of Doctor Who called "Don't blink" there is a clock in a background of a scene with shadows of bars across the clock. This gives the sign of the person being stuck in time. We interpret things as signs largerly unconsciously by relating them to familiar convections.

Linuist Ferdinand de sausure (1974)

Sausure said that signs have two parts:

• A signifier. This means that the denotation (what it is).
• A signifier. This means the connotaion (the hidden meaning concepts).

Icon: recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it. For example, the Empior State Building is an icon of New York.

Index: A signifier is connected in someway (physically of caused) to the signified. For example, a clock represents time.

Symbolic: Things that we have said have meaning. For example, the traffic light.

Roland Barthes (1950)

In the 50's TV's, magazines, coloured film, etc 'exploded' in to peoples homes. This effected how poeple found out things about the world.

Barthes starteed to analyse video. He did this by appling semiotics to video.

"Dennotaion is what is phtotography, connotion is how it is photographed"

Ideology: It has to reflect the values of society at that time. For example, on crime shows the police wear yellow visability jackets, because police wear them in society today.

Micro elements: cinimatography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.

lyric analysis

My chosen song and lyrics

My chosen song is Autumn leaves by Ed Sheeran.


I have chosen this song because it doesn't have a music video. I think this is a good thing since all my ideas for my music video will be original and new. I also like Ed Sheerans and I have chosen it because this is one of Sheeran's lesser known song so I can put my own style on it.

The lyrics:

Another day another life
Passes by just like mine
It's not complicated

Another mind
Another soul
Another body to grow old
It's not complicated

Do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?
Float down
Like autumn leaves
Hush now
Close your eyes before the sleep
And you're miles away
And yesterday you were here with me

Another tear
Another cry
Another place for us to die
It's not complicated

Another love that's gone to waste
Another light lost from your face
It's complicated

Is it that it's over or do birds still sing for you?
Float down
Like autumn leaves
Hush now
Close your eyes before the sleep
And you're miles away
And yesterday you were here with me

Ooh how I miss you
My symphony played the song that carried you out
Ooh how I miss you
And I, I miss you and I wish you'd stay

Do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?
Float down
Like autumn leaves
Hush now
Close your eyes before the sleep
And you're miles away
And yesterday you were here with me

Touch down
Like a seven four seven
Or stay out and we'll live forever now

The history of music videos

Codes and conventions of music videos

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album to include a music promo video togeather with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the band.
• A cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)