Costume: Opening Sequence

In my opening shot of a young woman walking down a lonely road, I will get my actress to wear a large navy blue duffle coat similar to the one above, paired with simple jeans and black boots, to connote the colder weather that will later contrast with the sunny locations of California. 

Character Casting

As previously mentioned, I will be featuring my sister Emma in my music video, following her stage name of 'Emma Lauran'. I made this choice based upon her experience with performing and therefore know her ability to act in my video will be strong. 

Furthermore, finding the appropriate time will be simple as I can easily communicate with Emma. I am pleased with this decision as I know she will do an excellent job and help me to come out with a powerful music video to present to my audience. 

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs, the word itself coming from the Greek 'semeiotikos', which means "an interpreter of signs". Signing is vital as it underlies all forms of communication; gestures, facial expressions, clothes, music, film etc, anything that is used for human communication can be defined as a sign. Signs are composed of differing elements, and strategies are deployed to establish, maintain or change meaning.

With semiotics, 2 readings can be obtained from a sign, these are the denotation and connotations. A denotation is about making meaning from association, coming from the Latin 'to make a mark'; signifieds or concepts are denotated or linked to various signifiers. The development of a second level of meaning is its connotation; while denotation allows us to make a direct link between a signifier and its referent, we often have other influences that modify the meaning of a sign. The signifier (denotation) is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (connotation).

There are 3 main signs: symbolic, iconic, and indexical; 

• Symbolic: Those in which the relationship between the sign and its meaning are completely arbitrary.
• Iconic: Resemble their meaning in some way, such as the Queen's face on a coin. 
• Indexical: Signs that indicate what they stand for by some kind of casual link.

In terms of my own music video, it is essential that I maintain clear signs and symbols, allowing for strong connotations and denotations in order for my video to be read easily by my target audience, using codes and conventions that are iconic to the country pop genre such as a guitar, close ups to show expressions, and an appropriate narrative. 

Shot Inspiration

As a result of viewing and deconstructing Angus and Julia Stone's music video 'Big Jet Plane', I have chosen some key shots that I feel are particularly inspiring to my filming, including both a variety of camera angles and proxemics. Above are 6 of my favourite examples in which I will replicate or base some of my shots upon, from a medium close up of the character to show both her expression and the setting around her, close ups of a clock, maps, and postcards to bring certain connotations of time and travel, and finally a creative over the shoulder shot that captures both the character's thoughtful state of mind and the lights effectively. 

Deconstruction: Big Jet Plane

Big Jet Plane was written by Angus Stone, Julia Stone and Govinda Doyle, whilst the video was directed by Kiku Ohe. The music video follows a narrative structure, showing a young female in a dull and exhausted routine of working at an isolated supermarket whilst she dreams of being elsewhere. It is conventional of indie folk music due to the nature of the song.

This idea is apparent from the very beginning where we see a low angled shot of a woman's hair blowing in the wind; connotations of freedom and warmth come from the sunlight that illuminates her hair, contrasting immediately with the mundane surroundings of the supermarket and the acknowledging of the desktop fan. A close up has been used to present the character's vacant expression; she finds no satisfaction or fulfilment from this lifestyle.

Repetitively stacking and unstacking shelves, wide angled and panning shots from the front and behind establish her solitude and detachment from anyone; leaving her to easily reflect on herself and her own desires. Here, we are introduced to her simple outfit: blue jeans, a black t-shirt and work overalls, challenging conventions of youth as this is not an outfit she would usually wear. However, she wears bright pink nails which give connotations of youth and freedom; as the only bright colour we see on the woman, the idea that she is restricted in what she wants to do is reinforced. 

Further close ups of her character nervously fiddling with her fingers are paired with creative shots of maps and postcards, bringing connotations of travel and wanting to break away. I really love the effect of the fairy lights at this point as the sparking blue colours contrast with the dull colours of the supermarket, illuminating and silhouetting her face. The slowly fading focus onto the hand as well as the extreme close up of the woman's eye suggest she is in a thoughtful state, contrasting with her blank expression as she walks down the aisles. The long shot of the world map and with travel clippings surrounding it reinforces her dreams of travelling around the world. As the lights are flashing above it gives an urgency in that she has to fly or travel soon and also shows that it is a constant desire of her to fly.

Perhaps my favourite shot is found towards the end of the video; the woman is riding in a car with her hair blowing through the open window. The use of slow motion and careful editing in this clip is really effective and portrays the clear sense of freedom that this character desperately searches for.

This clever over head shot is used to show the woman sweeping up colourful confetti and stars, perhaps to represent how by sweeping up the confetti and stars she is in fact 'sweeping' up her hopes and dreams; accepting that she will not be able to escape the routine. The music video ends with the girl spraying the windows at the original setting, showing a full circle in the narrative; her life and routine remains the same.

The edits throughout are cut at a slow pace to match the beat, making the video seem more calm and sobering, matching the gentle nature of the song. In total there are 18 close up shots, 12 long shots, 4 field of depth shots, 7 medium close up shots and 1 panning shot, presenting a wide range of visuals that will engage and be well received by the audience. 

Footage: Initial Edit

After the completion of my preliminary film, I decided to edit together some more footage, re-using my favourite shots from before. This time, I focused on the idea of journeying, with a clearer progression in the lead up to the airport and faster paced cuts. Despite acknowledging that there is still a lot left to be filmed for the beginning of the video, and many further improvements and cropping to be done, I wanted to receive some more feedback at this stage so that I could make appropriate changes. Here, I started the music half way through because I have yet to film the beginning, so it would be inappropriate to place this section of the video at the start of the song when it only fits the last section.

+

Some interesting shots
Narrative gradually becomes clearer

Nice colours and lighting

Opening shot is effective

Good use of slow motion

-

Repetitive and shaky shots

Some uninteresting shots

Some clips need cropping

I am pleased with the comments received for this initial stage of editing, as although some were of a negative nature, these were to be expected and I know there are aspects that I now need to improve. These include being more precise with my editing, such as cropping, and use of slow motion. 

Roland Barthes: Case Study

Born in 1915, Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician (study of cultural signs and symbols).

He describes text as “a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signfieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilises extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable”. This suggests that text is like a tangled ball of threads that need to be unravelled; once unravelled, we encounter a wide range of potential meanings.

Although there are differences between individual narratives, they all have a limited number of organisational structures that affect our reading of texts; these are called ‘Narrative/Enigma codes’.

Enigma Code: Any text, such as television, film, or a poster, makes the audience question something and intrigue the audience to draw them in; making them ask questions. Barthes' theory of the 5 codes is a way of grouping signifiers according to the role they play in the media text, categorised as:

It is important for me to acknowledge and incorporate the ideas of Barthes into my own work as it suggests my music video will be read by my audience in many different ways; despite there being a variety of codes, including cultural and symbolic, he explains that "none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one", and so I need to make sure that all aspects of my music video and its codes are strong. 

Risk Assessment

This is my risk assessment which I created to consider when filming my music video.

Genre Theory

Here is a powerpoint, created by Sophie Christophersen and myself, to aid us in our presentation of genre theory. Through the research and analysis of different theorists and ideas we now understand the importance of genres, as well as audiences, as a result of theory investigation.

My Chosen Song - Lyrics

For my music video I have chosen to use the song 'Lonely Road' by Emma Lauran, my older sister, as I really love how relateable the lyrics are to my narrative. I have briefly annotated these, above, highlighting their relevance to the type of shots I could use. 

Audience Profile

I have created my own profile to portray someone within my music video's target audience of the Country Pop genre. I would like it to appeal to others that fall into the older teenager/young adult category, whilst although here shown appealing to a female audience, could engage with male audiences also. 

Survey - Results

Below are the results from my survey that I created on surveymonkey, which I have presented in pie charts. By doing this it has allowed me to see the percentage of answers, making it clearer to establish the largest vote for each question. I mainly aimed this survey at my desired target audience of young adults and teenagers, as it appears that over half (57%)of the 30 people asked fitted into this the 19-21 and 21+ range, and 40% were between 16-18. However, I included people below the age of 15 to participate as to gain a range of responses and possibly more answers that I can take into consideration. 



My first question was to establish the gender of my target audience, which I found to be fairly equal with 14 males, and 16 females, suggesting I will need to produce a video that will appeal to both genders. By asking both how often my audience watch, and if music videos have the ability to determine their opinion of a song, I could see that they were highly important factors. As over 50% of people watched a music video once or twice a week, with 20% every day, and 67% of the people answered always or often to if the video determined their love or hate for a song, this has confirmed the significance and influence of a video on an audience.

I also made sure to include a multiple choice question to discover the types of genres of music that people within my target audience enjoyed listening to. The most popular in this case being Indie (22%), Acoustic (21%) and Pop (20%), with Country and Folk following closely behind. Although I am creating a music video within the Country Pop genre, where these results confirm the appeal to this genre, I also have confidence in the fact that my video will still fall under a few of these other popular categories; hopefully creating a successful and appealing video. As well as asking the obvious question of whether or not someone would be willing to download a song after viewing the video if they enjoyed it, where 100% of people answered 'Yes', I asked where this audience typically views such videos; by establishing online websites such as YouTube, and smartphones, as the main platform for presenting and discovering new music videos I could see how my own video could be consumed by the audience through media and technology.  

Lastly, I wanted to find out if out of these 30 people any listened to music within my chosen Country Pop genre, and 84% answered either all the time, or sometimes, confirming that those questioned definitely fit under my target audience and can use their feedback as reliable information. Overall, I'm very happy with the results of my primary research, as they have, and will continue to help me throughout the creation of my music video, and have given me a further insight into the view of my target audience.

Survey - Advantages & Disadvantages

As I am in the process of carrying out my own survey in order to collect primary research for music videos, I have decided to investigate the many advantages and disadvantages this type of research includes. 

Advantages:

The responses are gathered in a standardised way, so surveys are more objective, certainly more so than interviews. Generally it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire. However, in some situations they can take a long time not only to design but also to apply and analyse (see disadvantages). Potentially information can be collected from a large portion of a group so you gain a greater insight into your target audience.

 Disadvantages:

 Open ended questions can generate large amounts of data that can take a long time to process and analyse. However, you could limit the space available so the responses are concise or to sample the group of people and survey only a portion of them. Respondents may answer superficially especially if the questionnaire takes a long time to complete. Finally, some people may not be willing to answer the questions fairly.  

Overall, surveys clearly have their own strengths and weaknesses which I need to take into consideration when reviewing my data. By creating a survey I'm hoping to gain useful data and information including opinions and suggestions to help me to produce a successful music video in the country pop genre.

Survey - Questions

In order to carry out a piece of general primary research, I decided to design an online survey on surveymonkey to gather information about the viewers of music videos, more specifically my target audience.



I created a variety of open and closed questions so that I will receive more reliable feedback that I can use for my own music video. Such questions involve the potential importance, style and way of consumption of a music video, where I can inevitably review the results that will influence the choices I make to do with this video in its future development.

Preliminary Filming

As a preliminary task, I combined a few clips from my initial filming. This was to practice my ability to edit media as well as portraying a sense of continuity in film. By using the ending of my chosen song 'Lonely Road', I could place specific clips in time to the beat and explore a range of effects such as slow motion and fading transitions. After completion, I presented it to my target audience who gave the following feedback:

+

Good progression

Easy to tell the narrative

Fits song appropriately

-

Camera seen in reflection

Window frames one of the shots

General framing of certain clips

From this constructive feedback in both a positive and negative nature, I can take on board specific points including the way in which I frame certain shots, and to be careful with the reflection in certain window clips.

Narrative

After completing my storyboard and briefly going over each scene that I would like to include, I thought I would create a post explaining in more detail the extent of my narrative and how it will play out throughout my music video.

To portray my main theme of journeying, I want to begin in a desolate location; a young woman walks down a secluded pathway, or a 'Lonely Road'. As she takes this peaceful moment to reflect on her life, we are given the impression that she wants things to change. This is further emphasised as the narrative moves to her thoughtful state of writing a song with her guitar (the actual song that is playing simultaneously), and she soon begins to plan an inspiring trip to America. We then see this being put into action as she physically plots locations on a map, begins to pack her bags, and prepares for this new and exciting journey. The camera then followers her course in the process of getting to the airport and boarding the plan that will take her thousands of miles away. For an effective ending, my narrative will include shots taken in different areas of America to finally conclude her journey and allows the audience to fully be immersed in her story. 

Storyboard

A storyboard is a visual, drawn rendition of different key shots in a film, or in my case, a music video. Through the creation of a storyboard I can envision, prior to filming,  how to use certain techniques or conventions to portray certain denotations. For example, I know that editing will be important in regards to the length of shots and scenes, the relationships between them, and linking sound and music to the action. I have made sure to include what is known as “master shots” — shots of the overall action or people together in the same shot, as well as separate close up or mid shots of the same action so that I can combine this material to create a variety of different perspectives on the narrative. 

I first began by planning 8 basic shots, or scenes, that I would like to include in my music video. By briefly explaining the contents of each section, I moved on to a more detailed storyboard (below) which described both camera angles, shots, and an outline of my narrative. This will be extremely helpful when it comes to the filming of my music video, along with a shot list which I will create later on, as I can refer back to it in order to produce a successful music video, though certain shots are subject to change.

Andrew Goodwin: Music Video Theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory suggests that music videos can be defined or analysed by a specific set of characteristics;

1 - Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals:

These can be either illustrative, amplifying, or contradicting. Using aspects such as themes, mise-en-scene and events of the video to match the lyrics, the message of the song can be portrayed. This convention explains how Goodwin noticed a music video's visuals either had a complete similarity or direct contrast to the lyrics of the song.

2 - Relationship between the music and the visuals:

The cuts and edits of the video are in sync with the rhythm, whilst the beat of the song matches different effects to specific beats or notes.

3 - Genre characteristics:

Certain features are expected out of a video depending on the genre of the music, for example a girl bands/artists are expected to have dancers and close ups of the singers, whilst an Indie band is expected to have performance shots of the band with fast paced editing.

 4 - Star Image:

The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative, which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, has an important part to play in the music video production process. Often due to the demands of the record label, artists videos will include many close ups and will often develop motifs that recur across multiple videos. This allows the record label to promote a set image for the artists, which will help target audiences connect to the music. 

5 - Intertextual references:

Music videos reference other forms of media, most commonly film, but can also be television and other music videos/artists.

6 - Thought Beats:

Seeing the sound in your head allows the audience to understand the music far more easily. Music can be used to tell stories, which is why a music video can become an important medium in which the viewer can watch an unfolding story. This can be achieved by taking into account the structure of the song, such as the chorus or verses, including the voice; the artist's voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with the star image. 

Roland Barthes' theory of the Grain of voice can be related to this: He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own. 

7 - Narrative and Performance:

Audiences only tend to understand a small part of the song's real meaning, making up the remaining narrative for ourselves. Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative, for it is important in their role of advertising . Narrative and performance working hand in hand makes it easier for the audience to watch without losing interest. The artist acting as both narrator & participant helps to increase the authenticity; if the audience does not find the performance believable, they cannot connect to the music.

8 - Technical Aspects:

Technical Aspects hold the music video together through the use of camera work; movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special effects. Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour helps to set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect, whilst mise-en-scene, if authentically used, maintains professionalism. Beats and specific cuts to go with the song's rhythm, make the video more entertaining to the audience.

Representation

The literal definition of representation is the "description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature."

"Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. Rather than examining media representations as simply reflecting or mirroring "reality," we examine how media representations serve to "re-present" or to actually create a new reality." - Source

In the media, people are represented in a variety of different ways such as age, gender, ethnicity, culture, and even status, through signs know as codes and conventions. In the example below, taken from Taylor Swift's music video 'You Belong With Me', a wide range of characters have been portrayed, representing very contrasting stereotypes within a high school setting. 

These first pictures have been taken from the beginning and middle of Taylor's music video. Within them it is apparent that the director's have attempted to represent her character as a shy, nerdy girl who carries connotations of big glasses, books and dull, basic clothing. Not only does this stereotype become immediately recognisable to the teenage audience but it allows the viewer to empathise with her quiet personality in the situation portrayed. 

This second character is in fact played by the artist again, but portraying a completely different teenage girl. Highlighted through the recognisable conventions of a cheerleader uniform, sunglasses and sports car, the viewer can see a stereotypical 'popular girl' that directly contrasts the initial shy character. 

The last stereotype presented in this music video is shown through the identity of the male protagonist. He carries conventions of being the school 'hunk'/sports star because of his relationship status with the popular girl, his charming looks and his position on the sport's team.

As a result of this analysis, I have realised the importance of representations and how they manage to connect to the audience through a variety of different signs, codes and conventions. This has inspired me to carefully consider my character choices and how they will be represented in my music video.

Composition Practice

As a result of looking at some examples of Rosie Hardy's work, I decided to experiment with taking a few different shots in order to develop my knowledge of compositions within photography. This will not only help me when it comes to filming my music video as I can frame each scene appropriately, but it allows me to practice working with a camera. 

This first shot of my sister, who will in fact be the actress featuring in my music video, I took as a medium close up. Not only does this composition frame her face very well, but it allows the viewer to see the her features in greater detail. 

With this photograph I made sure to position the tree slightly off centred so that it became more aesthetically pleasing, following the rule of thirds at the same time. The rope hanging down from the branch subtly became the central focus and I feel it added another layer of depth to this photograph. 

Using a variety of objects that are relevant to the narrative of my music video, I positioned the props in a variety of angles so that the many straight lines became the focus of this picture. As a close up shot I believe this was successful as it allows for a large amount of detail within the map etc. 

Another extreme close up is used in this photograph, again highlighting relevant items to my narrative of travel. The proximity of the camera to the map gives an opportunity for the viewer to clearly identify this recognisable location, whilst the composition of the trailing pins to the bottom right hand corner gives a sense of movement within the photograph. 

This final shot features a similar close up where it provides relevant text as well as an instrument relating to my country pop genre. The composition in this picture, however, provides a different layout where your eye moves from the guitar at the top to the journal and the bottom left. Overall I am pleased with my 5 shots as they not only provide a variety of compositions but also display scenes relatable to my chosen narrative and genre. 

Audience Theories

Hypodermic Needle Theory:

This first theory surrounds the idea that audiences passively receive information from the media, accepting many ideas without real thought. In other words,  we are easily manipulated, and have our behaviour dictated, by media creators. It does originate from the 1920s however, suggesting this theory is less effective amongst the passive audiences of today; we are becoming much more involved with media, dictating the experience for ourselves. 

Two-Step Flow: 

Continuing from the previous theory, this two-step flow suggests that information surpasses important, influential figures, or 'opinion leaders', before reaching the wider audience. As a theory, the two-step flow presents the media to be less powerful, suggesting other factors such as personal beliefs can infiltrate an audience's interpretation. 

Uses and Gratifications: 

This important theory recognises the fact that audiences are increasingly becoming passive when it comes to reading media texts, bringing their individual preferences for their consumption of media. Charles Wright Mills, an American sociologist, suggested individuals follow the four functions when it comes to media: 

• To give people instruction
• To give individuals identity
• To give people aspiration 
• To give people a sense of escapism. 

In 1974 researchers Jay Blumler and Elihu Katz extended the uses and gratifications theory, publishing their own list of purposes for individual media choices:

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, for example substituting soap operas for family life.
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviours and values from texts.
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living, for example weather reports, financial news or holiday bargains.

Reception Theory:

This final theory was highly influenced by Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist, who by producing his encoding/decoding model created the new idea that the same text may be interpreted differently depending on the individual. This includes their gender, class, age, ethnicity, beliefs etc; encoded by the producer, decoded by the audience. 

It is most important that I refer back to these different theories throughout the development of my music video, making sure to include recognised codes and conventions that can be easily interpreted by any individual within my target audience. This can be achieved by obtaining audience feedback throughout, making it more possible to create a strong final video.

Photographer Analysis: Rosie Hardy

'Winter'

Rosie Hardy is a Manchester based photographer who began developing her interest in photography at the age of 17. On the 31st of March 2008 Rosie decided to make an art project called '365' where she would take a photograph every day for a year, helping her to learn how to direct and pose herself as you get used to being on both sides of the camera. 

'Spines to rest your spine'

'Untitled'

"I'm a 20 year old aspiring photographer with Peter Pan Syndrome. Surrealism rules my world, as does naivety and logic. I'm an existentialist, and I think I just told you all of that in the wrong order. Re-read it backwards and it'll make sense, most things do when you look at them differently." - Rosie Hardy

'Come Back'

'Hideaway'

What I particularly love about Rosie's photography is how she can create such interesting effects using clever editing and photo manipulation in post production. Her completed version of 'Hideaway' was created by cloning and transforming the surrounding buildings to make artificial roofs and walls to fill the blank space. After moving the umbrella around in 20 different places, Rosie created shadows in GIMP, an image manipulation programme, adding smoke and sky layers. As explained on her blog, she much prefers to build a square scene rather than crop as it helps to focus on composition, as well as the fact that if she'd shot this further away it would have been a lot smaller and the finish not as effective.

From Rosie Hardy's photography I can take inspiration from her interesting editing style as well as multiple compositions that she uses in order to construct my own scenes in my music video. Furthermore, her ability to build unique locations through her square crop method reinforces the idea that I should pay careful attention when framing each and every shot.

Moodboard

In the follow up to the making of my music video, I decided to create a moodboard that could express my thoughts visually. Using images I collected from Tumblr, as well as my own photographs, I arranged a variety of inspirational views, words, and symbols that link to my music video narrative - travel. Furthermore, I included a copy of the lyrics from my chosen song 'Lonely Road' by Emma Lauran, taking lines such as "see the world" and "make a new adventure" to emphasise my journeying theme, featuring them around my moodboard. Once completed, I presented the board and talked about some of my ideas to the class in order to obtain some initial feedback.

--------------------------------------

 Feedback/Comments:

+

"I think your images show a theme which is really linked to the song's lyrics."

"You explained a clear narrative."

"The images are bold and give a clear feel of your music video."

"It's clear you've thought about your narrative really well and made sure that there is an on-going mood."

-

"Apart from the lyrics, there is no real narrative on the mood board."
 --------------------------------------

From these constructive comments I have received, I now know that I need to focus on presenting my narrative. Although this is something I am sure of in my head, it is important that I begin to present these ideas surrounding the story of my music video by carefully planning and constructing a storyboard. By doing this it will be considerably easier to work from and develop my music video plans as I can refer to my chosen narrative throughout which is subject to change and improve. Overall, I am pleased with how my moodboard turned out as it presents the main themes of travel and aspiration that I would love to portray, as well as some inspirational images that I can use for compositional ideas.


Above is a slideshow I created to show the images I used for my moodboard.

Consuming Media Products

Since the start of AS Level, when I first began learning Media Studies, I can easily say that my knowledge of media texts and how they are read has noticeably improved. In both the way I read, or consume, media products that we come across every day, the development of Web 2.0 has dramatically enhanced this process - making media far more accessible for everyone, particularly on social networking sites. 

Web 2.0 is the term given to describe "a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online." - webopedia. In other words, it is the new branch of the internet; the media is heavily reliant on social networking and user generated content. This means that there isn't a clear divide between a media consumer and a media producer, bridging the gap between the two in our modern age. 

At this very moment we are living in a remix culture; we have become a part of society that allows as well as encourages derivative work (work based upon one or more pre-existing creations, such as a translation, motion picture, sound recording). This is achieved by editing or connecting current materials to produce a brand new product, changing, and even improving its original, hence the term 'remix'.