Rough Cut

Costumes

Singer's costume (Michael Moursi);

(For the narrative sequences).

- The singer will wear a long coat, most likely a duffle coat in a passive tone yet not too earthy, something in the blue spectrum, in a darker shade.

- He will also be wearing tight fitting trousers, in a park tone, but not too similar to the shade of his coat, darker. Black skinny jeans for this sequence.

- He will also wear a muted plaid shirt, featuring red and green, adding in colour into the wardrobe without becoming a singular focus for the outfit.

- For his shoes, we will have the singer wear brown leather and suede chukkas, to help complete this indie outfit.

(For the performance sequences).

- The singer will wear a white, or similar low-key colour, t-shirt. It would be a band t-shirt of a band in a similar style to the band. Something like Nirvana or The Ramones.

- He would also wear black, slim/skinny fit trousers in black.

Drummer's costume (Elliott Slingsby)

(For the performance sequence)

- In this sequence the keyboarder will wear a black hooded jumper.

- He will also wear a checked shirt underneath this, featuring red, blue and white, this will again add colour to this wardrobe but we'll play it down by either covering it slightly by the jumper of desaturating the colours.

Guitarist's costume (Luthais Morrison)

(For the performance sequences)

- The guitarist will wear a white T-shirt, possibly with a print on it, but the print must not be too in your face.

- Luthais would wear loose, baggy trousers.

- To complete his look, he will wear brown boots.

Focuses & Ambient Audiences

For this blog post I will be referencing "Can't Stop" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, which you can see below.


How does the chosen music video appeal to the focus audience:
The focus audience for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is (approximately) mostly males between the ages of 15 - 25, so anywhere between young teens and young adults. The way they appeal to this audience in the video, is mainly the theme of general silliness, and non-sensical scenes. For example, there's a scene where Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer, is getting empty plastic bottles wedged inbetween his legs and arms by one of the other band members.
The whole theme of silliness appeals to the alt rock audience, because people don't listen to alternative rock for whole hearted meaningful lyrics, but just because it sounds good. So making a video of the band being silly seems more real, and people watching can relate to being quirky and crazy.
To add to the theme, there's a wide array of costumes, that go from a "Tent Suit", to a giant purple dinosaur head. On top of this the video has zero to very little narrative, and literally is just a video consisting of crazy non-linear scenes of the band being zany.

Qualitative Audience Research

While doing audience research we used a quick questionnaire to gain an insight in what audiences expect of our song and it's music video.

To get the best results possible we played the audiences the song and then proceeded to ask them questions from our questionnaire.
The questions we used were:

1. Did you like the track?
2. What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead?
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track?
6. If performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative, what sort?

Audience #1

1. It was alright but something I wouldn't normally listen to or find.
2. Average teenager/young adult would probably be the type of person I would expect to listen to this track. "Indie" types in particular.
3. 12-20's
4. Black/dark hair, scruffy facial hair, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Laid back style/attitude.
5. Mainly performance rather than a solid narrative.
6. Small gig e.g. pubs, bars, the junction. Maybe practice sessions like in a garage.
7. A consistent narrative/small, self contained story.

Audience #2

1. Yeah I liked the song.
2. Indie music types. Kings of Leon people.
3. 14-20's
4. Curly/indie hair, skinny jeans and stuff.
5. Narrative based, with a simple story. No performance sequences.
6. Small pub, like the Portland Arms
7. In the narrative, he would be playing a videogame, then the camera would go into the game and the character would be him. Like the "Califonication" video by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Audience #3

1. Yes. It's the style of music i like to listen to but felt the chorus could have been differentiate from the verse in a better way.
2. People who like Indie, maybe some soft rock style of music. 
3. Probably teens to 30 years. Mostly a male audience.
4. Probably quite casually dressed but still with a particular 'look', such as certain haircuts or style or trainers etc
5. I think there would be elements of performance to show off the bands skills and talent, so that audiences would know what to expect at a gig. Also maybe some shots of the audience. This would be intercut with some narrative elements to reflect the lyrics. 
6. Small venue with a small stage, more of a focus on lighting and instruments rather than grand venues and costume.
7. Narrative would feature a band member as the centre of the storyline. In locations that are relatable to an everyday audience member. 

Audience #4

1. I liked it, it's definitely something I'd listen to.
2. Relaxed people, people who put the music on in the background and chill out. Just lounging about.
3. 16+
4. Laid back attitude. Casually dressed but not in tracksuits or anything similar.
5. Mix of both. Some narrative sequences, but the majority of the video is of the band playing, with the narrative sequences just used to accompany and support the performance sequences.
6. Practice session, in a very small location. Not too cramped but definitely not spacious.
7. Singer walking through town, shots of him singing the lines in the song. 

Audience #5

1. The song was pretty good.
2. Ambient music, played in the background of a house. The people might not buy the whole album but this song is something they'd listen to as they relax.
3. 13+
4. Conservative style. No mohawks, dyed hair or piercings. Just a fairly average guy, with a chilled attitude.
5. Mainly narrative based, focusing mainly on the singer but with performance sequences to add to the video.
6. Small, low-key venue, such as a music based pub or a plain room.
7. Relationships would feature, relationship changes like a falling out, a break up and mood changes. Happy to sad etc.

Audience #6

1. Okay, but not my type of thing.
2. Indie kinda people.
3. 15-19
4. Skinny jeans, converse, t-shirts and fashionable haircuts.
5. Them playing I would say.
6. Small venue, just them playing. No crowds.
7. Just walking about really.

Theoretical Study Into Audience - Uses and Gratifications

Our audience would approach and use our product for the reasons that Blumler and Katz argued, that audiences are active and not passive and will approach and use our music video for the following reasons:

Diversion - our target audiences are teenagers and young adults, these people can be pressured by the everyday stress of college, university, coursework and exams (teenagers) and work in general (young adults) and they could use our music video as a distraction to help them overcome the stress and to help them relax for a while.

Personal Relationships - our target audience could gain companionship with the singer in our music video, the audience may be able to feel like they know what the singer is going through. The narrative could also be a centre for conversation with others about the music video because of the fact that it could be viewed a lot of people included in the target audience and that some points in the video could be a topic for conversation, like the similarity/differentiation of our video compared to others.

Personal Identity - the target audience would most likely be able to compare themselves to the singer in our music video through the narrative that is told in the lyrics and represented through the video. They could see that they need to just go out and have some fun like the singer in the video does which would help them to answer a question on their identity and re-affirm what they should be doing.

Surveillance - this is something that the target audience wouldn't use our video for as we don't supply any information throughout the video and so the audience would only view the video for pleasure and nothing else.

Editing Techniques: Cuts

One vital part of the editing process which can make or break a music video is the number of cuts included in the video. Usually the cuts are made on the beat of the song and can make a music video look very smooth and professional. To get an idea of how many cuts we should perhaps use in our video, we decided to look at a mainstream music video and count how many cuts are in the video altogether.

Watch the video here

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE is a mainstream video at the moment which has gone to number 1 in the UK Chart Top 40 and has gained 480 million views on YouTube in the first 3 months. We counted around 170 cuts in the video but it was hard to count as at 2 parts there was some very fast cuts between alternate shots fitting about 20-30 cuts in the space of 3-4 seconds. This isn't something we would do in our video as there aren't any beats in the song to match this speed. However the overall figure of 170 cuts taking out the very fast cuts means that we ought to aim for around 120 cuts for the video to look smooth and professional like the current mainstream videos do.

Storyboards, Shot Lists, and Call Sheet

Text

This shot list shows what shots we want to utilise in our video and where. This may not be exactly what is shown in our music video but will be approximately similar.

These shots of our storyboard are showing the basic premise and start to our music video. This again is subject to change but the basic premise is going to stay the same.

Here we'll have more shots than shown, stressing the importance the performance of the singer at this time.

This storyboard shows the narrative of video. Again this may not be precisely what is in the finished video but the overarching "story" of the video will be the same.

Here we will have more shots of the band performing, making use of a lot of small, quick shots to have a more up-tempo feel to the performance making it fast paced.

Here is our production sheet, showing some locations we'll be using, contacts for that location and who the director and cameraman are for our project.

Alternative Music Videos

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

This video is quite alternative as Johnny himself doesn't actually appear in the video himself at all, most videos have the main singer as the person at the centre of the video. The video also has no narrative structure, the video just consists of various shots of celebrities which has no meaning to the song or lyrics. You do see quite a lot of videos that have a narrative structure, but then you do see a lot that have a weak narrative that is hard to follow. You don't see many with no narrative at all and this and the fact Johnny doesn't appear in the video himself shows that the video is alternative and breaking the norm.

Controversial Videos

Prodigy - Smack my Bitch up

This music video is a typical example of a controversial video. Prodigy 'Smack my Bitch Up' includes moments of assaulting women, rampant violence, cocaine use, and drinking and driving. This is all shot from the point of view of the disturbed minded protagonist. Plus, it all ends with a unusual twist.

Test Footage - Video

We done this test footage to see how some particular shots appeared on screen and to get some ideas for what different shots we could use when we film our music video for real.

Ancillary Text Ideas - Magazine Ad

Analysis of other Magazine Advertisements

We analyzed some magazine adverts to see what attributes reoccur in each of them. Here is what we found;

• Must contain the band name
• Must make it clear what it's advertising
• Either has a picture of the band, or a drawing
• Is either square or vertically long
• The text is big and attention grabbing

Mood Board

Mood Board

Above you can see the mood board we created that we think shows the mood we want to portray in our video. The mood we're going for is a retro feel, with quirky attributes, which we believe is the vibe set by most indie rock bands.

Music Video Script

[At the start of the music video, before the music starts
we will have shots of a guitar being plugged into an amp,
a tuning of a bass and the drummer getting ready]

[The introductory instrumental will be shots of
the band performing the song in a minimalist setting]

Stay at home tonight

Please give me one night
[Here we'll see the singer in a confrontation
with his girlfriend, singing the lyrics to the song
look at the camera to break the fourth wall]

I wish I could use your eyes to

See what it's like
[The argument still going on, point of view shot
from the girlfriends perspective]

But something

Else was on my

Mind
[Here it flips back to the performance
the band, multiple shots of the singer]

You wanted me to stay at  home
[Here we see the singer walking away from his
girlfriend, tracking shot]

But I didn't want to
[Here the singer puts on a coat leaves the home]

I didn't want to feel alone, or forgotten
[Here we go back to the band performing again,
shots of the band playing]

Because I wanted to go out
[Shots of the singer walking through small roads
and alleys]

To make everybody smile
[Here we will just have a quick shot of the singer
walk in and out of an off license and buy alcohol]

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the sunshine
[Here we will flip back to the band again, performing
with quick pans and cuts to different angles and shots of the band]

Is it my fault, no not this time
[Here we're still with the band, watching them perform]

I'm trying to say, I don't

Wanna play your game
[Here we'll flip back to the singer outside, walking towards his friend]

There's something you should know

But I'm not gonna tell you
[Performance sequence again]

I started to smile as

You put out the fire

Because it feels right
                                      

I started to smile as

You put out the fire

Because it feels right

[We'll continue performance sequence until here]

I started to smile as

You put out the fire

Because it feels right

[Again we flip back to singer with his friends]

You wanted to stay at
[Quickly flips back to the performance of the singer]

Home, but I didn't want to

No no I didn't wanna feel

Alone or be forgotten

Because I wanted to go out,

To make everybody smile               [This entire verse will be separate shots of the band performing]

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the sunshine

-Instrumental- [During this instrumental we'd have quick cuts between the performance and the narrative scenes]

Because I wanted to go out,

To make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the

Sunshine

I wanted to go out, to

Make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the

Sunshine

Is it my fault

No not this time

I'm trying to say

I don't wanna

Play your game

There's something you

Should know

But I'm not

Gonna tell you

I started to smile as you

Put out the fire                       x2

Because it feels right

Ancillary Text Ideas - Album Cover

Inspiration
For our single cover, we looked at other indie rock album covers for inspiration and noted down the main recurring characteristics for most of them. Below you can see a set of album covers we picked out that really show the characteristics that we'll discuss.

The main conventions for an indie rock album cover are;

• Filter effects are often used when real photos are the focus of the cover
• Drawings are often the main feature of the album cover
• Minimalism plays a big part on the text layer
• Most real photos look old and sepia, like a Polaroid picture or something taken with Instagram
• The text in the images are positioned in either the far left, the centre, or the far right
• The band often appear in the cover
• Colours appear crushed in real world photos

Practice Album Cover
Taking some of these into consideration, we designed a practice album cover using a picture we got off of the internet.

The original image is the one below. To find this we just google image searched "Field".

Following the convention of crushing the colours, we turned down the green and red. This also gives it a more vintage feel.

To give it more of a cinematic feel, we blurred the background, and left the foreground in focus.

To make it look more vintage, we added a surrounding inner shadow.

To finish it off, we added a cream border to make it look like it was taken on a Polaroid camera, and added the text in a nice minimalistic font. Below you can see the finished product.

Lighting Ideas

We watched this video to get idea for how we might like to light our music video and how we would do it. The video talks about using a rim light in the line of sight to make the face more shadowy on one side, which is one idea we were thinking about using in our video. Another idea is putting lights behind the performer to help throw the background out of focus and create more contrast between the performer and the background. This lights up the edge of the performer to stop them blending in to the background if the clothing of the performer and the background are similar colours. This idea would be good for our video as the song at the start talks about an argument and so it will help to focus on the performers.

This is another video we watched to get more ideas for the effects we could use when filming our music video. The video shows an easy way to make streak filters without spending any money. You can put them over the lens to create a streak effect with the lights used in the shot. You just get a piece of clean and clear plastic and scratch lines into it using a scalpel. You can scratch in lots of different directions to create different streaky effects. We could use this in our video in the same place the the background lighting to create a different effect on some shots at the start of out video.

One Night Only - Stay At Home - Lyrics

Stay at home tonight

Please give me one night

I wish I could use your eyes to

See what it's like

But something

Else was on my

Mind

You wanted me to stay at

Home but I didn't want to

I didn't want to feel alone, or forgotten

Because I wanted to go out

To make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the sunshine

Is it my fault, no not this time

I'm trying to say, I don't

Wanna play your game

There's something you should know

But I'm not gonna tell you

I started to smile as

You put out the fire          x3

Because it feels right

You wanted to stay at

Home, but I didn't want to

No no I didn't wanna feel

Alone or be forgotten

Because I wanted to go out,

To make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the sunshine

-Instrumental-

Because I wanted to go out,

To make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the

Sunshine

I wanted to go out, to

Make everybody smile

Yes, I wanted to go out, to

Waste my time in the

Sunshine

Is it my fault

No not this time

I'm trying to say

I don't wanna

Play your game

There's something you

Should know

But I'm not

Gonna tell you

I started to smile as you

Put out the fire                       x2

Because it feels right

Contacting The Artist

We have contacted One Night Only through their Facebook page to ask permission for the use of their song 'Stay At Home' in our music video.

We posted this on their Facebook to let them know that we are using their music for our coursework.

Presentation Questions

What happens if it rains?

We will instead be filming the scenes where the singer is with his friends at Luthais' house as it has large enough spaces to accommodate the equipment along with the actors and cameramen too,

What idea for the narrative do you have?

For our narrative we'll have the singer and he will be leaving his home after an argument. Then, he will go out with his friends and have a good time, due to the fact that the lyrics say 'Because I wanted to go out, to make everybody smile'.

Are you going to challenge or conform to the genre characteristics?

No we are not going to change our indie genre characteristics for our music video. 'One Night Only' is a typical indie band, therefore we want a to try to represent the indie culture in the music video. We wouldn't want to challenge the characteristics because otherwise it might not appeal to the typical target audience for the genre, however it might appeal to a different target audience instead.

Who's going to be your main performer?

We have decided that Michael Moursi is going to be the main performer. The reason for this is because he looks more indie than the rest of us. Moreover, he is the most suitable role.

What are your ideas for representing your artist?

We will represent the artist as a carefree, chilled out guy.

What are the scenes you want to film in town?

In our town, we will film a number of scenes during the time there, for example the walking scene and the partying scene.

What would you film in the drama studio?

We would film the band playing in the drama studio because it is a wide area, which is vital for the performance.

Isn't the drama studio a bit bland for the genre?

We do not want a vibrant setting for the performance scene. We prefer a simple backdrop for this scene. If this does not appeal to the viewer, we can always apply a filter at the editing stage. In this case, we would choose the black and white filter.

Wouldn't it make more sense to film at someone's house seeing as the song is called "Stay at Home"?

If we were to do that, the focus of the music video would be entirely on the artist's girlfriend who is telling the artist to 'stay at home'. However, he goes out to with his friends. Therefore, it would not work if the video was set mainly at home.

What filters are you going to use in post production?

Possibly black and white filters to sharpen the image, and to give it a professional feel.