Prop List

Sparklers

These will be easy to access in the Autumnal months due to Halloween and bonfire night and should be relatively cheap. However, we may need to get a couple packs as they do not stay lit long and we will need to take a variety of shots.

Dead Flowers

We may have a shot of the flowers alive earlier in the music video, but they will mainly be featured in the last scene as a pull focus will reveal them to represent the death of beauty and innocence due to the violence depicted within the video. We will be able to buy a bunch in any local store and they should not cost too much, depending on where we get them from. 

Fake drugs (tic-tacs)
We can buy these easily in local stores and we will only need one box for our character to seemingly have an overdose.

Large bag and clothes

These will be things we own as not much attention is needed as they will be crammed quickly into the bag. It would also be pointless to buy new t-shirts and jeans just for this shot.

Picture in frame

The picture will feature the couple looking happy and comfortable and will be taken before hand.  The frame will have to be cheap as we plan to throw it at a wall and we do not want to break an expensive frame.  We may also need to buy more than one frame in case the shot does not look right on the first try.

Pearl necklace

The pearl necklace will need to be cheap as we plan on it being ripped from the protagonists throat and we do not want to damage any expensive jewelry.  However, it will need to look authentic as we want to show a sense of loss and make the action seem extreme.  Like the frame, we will need more than one necklace in case the first shot does not properly capture the action. 

Our Star Image

Our Star image has been influenced by different music videos from similar genres such as; Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, Black Veil Brides etc. However, a lot of our influence has come from the lead singer of our chosen-songs band; Beartooth. We will only be featuring the singer, so as not to worry about showcasing a whole band, and we will use back lighting to highlight him. The use of multiple close-ups will also establish his importance and the use of direct address will make it appear as if he is singing directly to the viewers.  Our performer will be wearing all black, with either the addition of a flannel shirt or a leather jacket as this is a convention usually seen in rock music videos.

Caleb Shomo from Beartooth - His appearance has influenced the image and mannerisms of our performer

We will not be portraying our performer sexually and there will be no voyeuristic elements within his shots.  However, there will be extreme close-ups of his face and we will manipulate the direct address of his lip-syncing to emphasize the relationship between him and viewers.

Star Image: Taylor Swift

Richard Dyer argues that  "a star is an image not a real person", this suggest that the way an artists dresses and behaves forms their appearance in the media.  Management can manipulate this to make the artist stand out and fit to conventions or, alternatively to contradict these expectations and cause media excitement, thus drawing the attention of the public. (Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus etc)

Early Star Image

In Taylor Swift's first music video "Love Story" she is depicted as both a young college student and a costumer-drama type character - a young 'Juliet'.  Both characters are wearing subtle makeup and appear innocent as the gaze out from behind their eyelashes.  However, interestingly, the shots where Swift is performing and using direct address as she stares seemingly through the camera, are the shots where she is the most "provocatively" dressed. On the other hand she does still appear sweet and innocent and there is a lack of voyeurism. This created Swifts 'Good girl' image and landed her the title of "America's sweetheart"

This shot with direct address creates Taylor Swift as a sweet and innocent star. 

Star Image Development

Taylor Swifts image began to change with the release of her album "Red" in 2012. This album is more of the pop genre, compared to her older songs which are of Country origin.  Her music video "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" shows Swift with a new hairstyle, free of her iconic blonde curls and sporting a bright red lipstick which becomes an essential part of her image later on. This is the beginning of her 'redevelopment' as a pop artist. However, she keeps her good girl element, perhaps elevating it slightly by showing a cheekier side to her, emphasized by the bright lipstick.

Star Image before "Red". Pictured wearing nude makeup and her iconic blonde curls

"Red" Album.  Taylor Swift has replaced her curls for straight hair and a fringe and began to wear bright red lipstick in her music videos. This marks the beginning of her change as an artist as she begins to conform more to pop music conventions and leave country ones behind.

However, Swift's image truly changed with the release of her new album 1989.  The music videos that accompany some of these tracks show a newer side to Swift. She is pictured wearing heavier make-up and losing some of her 'good girl' appeal. This is especially apparent in her video 'Bad Blood where her day dresses have been traded in for leather shorts and straps and her hairbrushes for weapons. On the other hand, you could argue that this is due to the video being a seemingly comic parody of spy movies.  

How is she sold?

Swift's music videos usually detail narratives between two lovers and more often than not, she plays the female lead of this couple. It is because of this reoccurring theme that she was given a 'good girl' image and her efforts were focused on being America's sweetheart. Recently however, she has tried to escape from this limited title and show both her and her art has many different sides and that she is not limited to one genre or narrowed perception. In these music videos and those that do contain performance shots, Swift is always the centerpiece of a band and a variety of close ups establish her importance as she sings into the camera. There is rarely ever a theme of voyeurism or explicit sexuality in her videos as they are targeted to young adults. Due to this audience, she has been created as an icon for young teenage girls who look up to her in terms of style, appearance and behaviour. Moreover, despite media publicity that portrays her as "desperate" or "needy" due to her numerous love songs, Swift argues that her songs are written based on emotions and significant events and encourages young girls to do the same. 

The celebrity endorsements that she features in have also began to embrace her newer image and replaced the good girl photos with Swift's cheekier side, evident in her latest videos. 

For example, this diet coke advert from 2013 has used Taylor Swift's look from her video "We are never ever getting back together" which was released a year before.  It shows her newly developed pop image and has both a performance shot and a regular shot to show her contrasting images. 

New Ideas

We have decided we need to change some of our music video because we believe there is too much focus on narrative, which could make the video seem amateurish.  Some of our latest ideas include:

• Including more shots of sparklers in intro to remove scenes of shopping
• OR: having performance in 2nd half of intro
• Replacing shopping narrative (First few shots) with shots of person being strangled against a wall. Cutting between shots with performance.
• Replacing shots of happy relationship with a person potentially overdosing (lyrics: "Life can be such overdose")
• Replacing the next happy relationship shots with the effects of the overdose - changing colours, odd camera angles, flickering lights, 360 shots of girls on floor etc

In summary:

 

Make the video themes darker and include more abstract scenes to elevate the professionalism of the video. 

Shot List

Lyric Analysis

This covers some of the basic ideas we would like to include within our video and includes shots we we will edit in time to the lyrics:

Group Notes 18/09/2015

Filming Dates:
October half term.

Technology:

• Canon eos 100d
• Tripod 
• Dolly
• Reflectors
• Portable lighting

Performance Location:

• "The Pit" - School drama room, easy to manipulate lighting and easy access
• A Forest - Atmospheric but dark, will need portable lighting.
• A Barn  -  Atmospheric, slightly easier to manipulate light

Currently favouring Barn or "Pit" for easy access and light manipulation. 

Outside locations

Freeport

This will be one of the first locations for our video and will feature the couples first argument, we believe it will be more shocking if the argument and abuse takes place in a public area. It is also a designer outlet so it is somewhere you could imagine a young, affluent couple shopping in their spare time.

Forest and Hill Top

Parts of our narrative will contain shots of the protagonist running through a forest and onto a hill. We chose these locations so we could get a 360 shot of the empty surroundings around her and to reveal the mental anguish she is feeling about seemingly being all alone.

Barn

As a potential performance place, we may use an empty barn for shots of our performer 

Inside Location

The Dining Room

This dining room will feature briefly as the setting for one of the couple arguments. We want to use relatively ordinary settings so they do not take up all of the viewers attention and so that the scenes we film are capable of being relatable for the people watching.





It will also be relatively easy to manipulate light in here so we can get the best possible effects for our video.








As another part of our narrative, our protagonist will be seen entering this room in a provocative dress before her boyfriend snaps at the sight of her and pulls a sting of pearls off her neck, which will be seen in a separate shot falling onto the  wooden floor:

The Bedroom

We want to feature a feminine bedroom for a final scene where the protagonist is packing and it is inferred she is leaving her abusive situation. It was important for us that the bedroom is stylish and elegant as we want our protagonist to come across as wealthy and affluent.  This is to show our viewers that bad things do happen to everyone but anyone can get out of these situations with a little help.

We also wanted the set to connect with the character, as for us it would seem out of place to have this stylish character living in a jumbled, un-kept room. It would also not fit with the conventions of music videos if the setting was anything but perfect.

Narrative (Detailed)

Our video will begin with a shot of our female protagonist holding up a sparkler against a black background - probably highlighted by an outside light, after we have tested different variables. This will then cut to a shot of her and her boyfriend holding hands, until we see the boyfriend staring at another girl and they argue, causing the boyfriend to snap and attempt to strangle her. We want this shot to reveal to viewers that their relationship is toxic and abusive from the start of the video, but not make it the main focus as the videos purpose is to show our protagonist overcoming her issue. The rest of the narrative will then contain juxtaposing shots of the couple being happy and abusive scenes, which will cut between a linear and non-linear narrative, until they meet with a shot of the girl packing at the end of the film. 

Treatment

Chosen Song: The Inbetween – Beartooth

We chose this song because, upon hearing it, we could easily picture a narrative to go with it and there are a view key lyrics that we would be able to play with.  We also knew what audience to target it at and thus new what would appeal to them and how they would be able to relate to it.

Genre: A Metalcore music video following a narrative of a young couple

Target Audience: Young adults, specifically 13-19 year olds of non-specific gender.  It is likely boys will interested in the video because it will feature a male performer, but girls will also be able to relate as the main character within the narrative is female.

Character breakdowns

Our video will feature three characters and one performer:

•          A male antagonist: Playing the role of an abusive boyfriend
•          A female protagonist: Playing the role of the abused girlfriend
•          A female extra: Seen being stared at by the antagonist

The main female and male characters will be playing a wealthy couple in their mid-20’s.  The female character will be a ruffled blonde, potentially played by either Alice Van Hees or Elena Cullum at this moment in time, who will be seen wearing fur coats and elegant dresses throughout the video.  

We decided we wanted to feature a wealthy couple to emphasize that you can still have everything, money, power etc. and still be unhappy. We also wanted to highlight how toxic abusive relationships can be and stress the need to remove yourself from one as quickly as possible. 

Our male antagonist will be seen in various suits throughout our video as shots reveal both the happy couple and the more abusive sides of things.  We will also see his obsessive side as he rages over a text his girlfriend receives from another man and his own disloyalty, by seeing him stare at the figure of another girl as she walks past the couple, prompting their first on screen fight.  The girl herself, played by our female extra, will only feature briefly in skin tight clothing.

Narrative

Our narrative will follow the lives of a young couple, showing them happy and in love versus scenarios where the girlfriend is being scared and abused. It will also contain shots of the girlfriend packing, running away and looking free on top of a large hill. This narrative will be in an order where scene of the past are going forward but scenes from the present/future are going backward until they meet in the middle, with a shot of the girl packing.  This narrative will also be divided by shots of the performer.

(A more detailed narrative with a drawing can be found on a separate post titled “Narrative”)

Star image

We decided our star image will be for our performer, who, although only seen in brief scenes throughout, will become a main feature.  We will emphasize this image through a variety of close-ups and shots where he stares directly into the camera. This eye contact will create a direct address with viewers and subtly create him as the main focus of the video.

Intertextuality

Our video will not contain a lot of intertextuality because we want it to stand as unique piece.  However, we have planned to film a scene where the girlfriend stands in a bright red dress against a black and white background as a possible reference to the film “Sin City.” On the other hand, whether we decide to keep this shot in the final cut we are not sure of yet, as we fear it may look out of place.

Research

Our research consisted of watching other music videos and linking them to theories and deciding what theories we believe our video could be made applicable for, and watching the music video of a similar band to see what genre conventions our video should contain.  A key film in influencing our production was “Memento”, whose narrative order we decided would be excellent to emulate in a music video as it would make it unique and stand out from other productions.

Influential Videos

Issues - Never lose your flames

This song inspired us because it had a similar message and was of a similar genre to the song we favoured. This video shows a young girl and boy dealing with different issues, the boy trying to get his father to accept he is gay and the girl with negative body images. We realized when watching the video that this theme of young adults suffering and overcoming their issues, was a genre convention and so inspired our narrative to follow a similar path.  This video also inspired us because it had shots of back-lit performances and we realized we would like our own performance to have a similar effect.

We liked this shot of a backlit performance and felt it would be very effective in our own video because it highlights the instruments and their players whilst keeping them ambiguous 

Christopher Nolan: Memento 

We gained inspiration for our narrative order from the film Memento. This film follows the story of a man who has lost his memory and puts the viewer in the same position as him, as we also do not know what has happened in the past. We thought a similar narrative order would be a unique method in filming a music video and believe it will stand apart from other student productions. Our initiative would be to add shots of performance in between to separate events. In Nolan's film, pieces are filmed in black and white and others in colour to avoid confusing the audience between the past and present. We are not yet sure if we want to do this to our video as we are not sure if black and white would suit the genre and it would also make the video look more miserable as we intend to shoot our performance in an all black setting.  However, if we do decide to shoot some scenes in black and white, we intend to do a scene where our protagonist is wearing a red dress and have only the dress in colour.  This will be an intertextual reference to the film "Sin City and remind viewers of the iconic shot. It will also be our only voyeuristic scene as we want the protagonist to look provocative and the colour red will exaggerate her sexuality, especially if it is emphasized by a black and white surrounding.  

However we are also aware this type of shot may look out of place in our video so we will need to reconsider other aspects before we film it.

Group Notes (11/09/15)

Basic Narrative

Shot of Sparklers - couple shopping - male caught staring at other women - fight- male attempts to strangle woman - shot of girl running away - crying - couple on sofa - girl receives text from unknown guy - fighting - shot of girl on hill - girl in provocative dress - fighting - pearls ripped from her throat - running - packing

Intertwined with shots of performer.

*I will do a detailed description of the narrative in a seperate post

Possible Costumes

Female Protagonist:

• In shopping centre: Fur coat and jeans
• When running away: Jogging Bottoms and tank top
• When leaving house: A red provocative dress, heels, string of pearls

Male Antagonist:

• In shopping centre: Casual shirt and jeans, crumpled collar
• When leaving house: Smart black tie event clothes - suit and tie

Performer:

• All black
• Leather

Chosen Song (In detail)

Beartooth: 'The Inbetween"

We chose this song because we believed it would be easy to create a visual counter-part that connected with the songs lyrics.  The lyrics themselves are suited to a target audience of young adults dealing with their problems, we believed this audience would be relatively easy to target as we would be able to empathize and create a visual piece that they connected to. This is also a very large target audience and our video would therefore attract a lot of attention.  The music also has a good pace that would allow us to make a lot of interesting cuts and transitions.

Initial Ideas:

• A protagonist running away from her home (Due to the lyrics "Don't run away" to show indecision and confusion")
• An issue forcing her to leave (an abusive boyfriend)
• A setting on top of a hill (Lyrics:Head to higher ground while there's a chance to live") which would give us a chance to use a 360 shot
• Scenes of abuse to create empathy (attempted strangling and manipulative behavior)

Goodwin's Conventions of Music Videos

Music Videos in Relation to Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

The first video I analysed was ‘Make me wanna die’ by the rock band, The Pretty Reckless. This coincided very well with Andrew Goodwin’s theory, as it opens with the band playing their instruments; a feature Goodwin states is “a typical characteristic” of the rock genre. This genre is also made explicitly clear throughout the video by the dark lighting, used to cast dark silhouettes, and the use of flames as a representation for the anger the singer is feeling.  As aggression is also iconic, in Goodwin’s eyes, as part of the rock genre, it was clearly important to the band that they provided a visual representation of this anger, in this case in the form of flames.  Goodwin’s theory also states that all music videos often use intertextual references, which is again evident in this video.  This reference is created by the character of a young girl, costumed in a long red hood.  This is most likely a reference to the story of Red Riding Hood and is within the video to make it appear like a dark fairy-tale, and to represent the corruption of innocence.   Finally, the video also uses “voyeuristic treatment of the female body” in order to attract attention.  This is created by the lead singer stripping as she holds eye contact with the viewer. However, rather than appearing oppressed by this, the singer looks as if she has control and her stripping loses it's sexual feel as it is understood by viewers this is meant to be the singer revealing her soul, not her body,

The above mentioned girl dressed in a red hood.  In my opinion this is meant to represent corrupted innocence as a beloved fairy tale character has been forced to beg in a dark alley.

The lead singer stripping in a graveyard as she sings at a camera. Although a voyeuristic aspect, the singer appears in control and she is not stripping to be sexualized, but rather to reveal her soul.

The second video was also of the rock genre, a song named ‘Centuries’ by the band Fall Out Boy. However, this is a different variation of Rock and comes under the genre of ‘pop rock’ and therefore has different characteristics to my first video.  The video does contain intertextual references, mainly to Christianity and legends, in order to state that the singers want to be known for ‘Centuries’ like these tales.  However, unlike the first video the band is not playing their music and there is very little voyeurism within the video.  On the other hand, the band does use music and visuals, such as a change in tempo and a sudden movement or action, in order to keep other features of music videos evident.

This shot shows a giant gladiator being beaten by the band using a sling and stone. This is an intertextual reference to the tale of David and Goliath: "when David hurls a stone from his sling with all his might and hits Goliath in the centre of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head." This is a biblical tale which has been known for "Centuries" and is a visual indicator that the band wants to be known for as long as this tale.

The final video was by Ed Sheeran, ‘Give me Love’ and was of the indie pop genre. Due to this genre, we are not expecting to see a band or people singing but we may expect to see people dancing in time with the tune.  This appears later in the video where the main character enters a club and appears to be listening to the song, rather than it narrating her life like before.  This music video also uses a lot of voyeurism but in a more subtle, less sexualized way.  For example, the first shot is of an attractive girl alone in her bedroom but she appears forlorn and miserable.  Then, throughout the video we are granted with midshots and close ups of people kissing.  However, these shots are used to show a connection between people and not just sexual intimacy and to represent what the main character, the forlorn girl, does not have.  The lyrics and the visuals are also key to representing this, for example “Give me love” is a shot of two people kissing which then cuts to the main girl.  This makes it clear to viewers that it is her who needs love and not the two we see already enjoying it. 

A long shot of the attractive protagonist sitting alone and miserable in her bedroom. The misery and loneliness on face means this shot is not voyeuristic like it could be, but instead puts the viewer at a level shot with the protagonist so they can feel sympathy for her.

Group Notes (08/09/2015)

Song:

Beartooth - "Inbetween"


Roles

• Camerawork and lighting: Alice Sandom
• Mise-en-scene and editing: Fern O'Gorman

Possible Casting

• Alice Van Hees for main female character
• Richard Skerrat as performer

Or:

• Eleanor Cullum as female Character
• Brad as male character
• David as performer

Problems raised:

1. Current casting all at uni
2. Where to film
3. How to film performance