Google Search Tool

When looking for the images to use in motion I struggled to find images with a transparent background. I needed them to be transparent so they could be greenscreened onto our shot.

When playing around with Google images, I found there is a search tool which enables you to pick specifically transparent images.

This sped up the whole process as I knew all the images could be used, so I just had to pick my favourite! 

Lyrics in Music Videos

I have researched and watched numerous pop music videos and it seems as though it is quite common for the song's lrics to appear in the video at some point. Whether it be appearing on the screen or the artist interacting with the lyrics.

For example, Cher Lloyd's 'Swagger Jagger' video has the lyrics popping up in different animated ways. A lot of the time these lyrics appear on the beat of the song. She also interacts with some of them too e.g. pushing the line 'get out of my way' to the left and the words leave the shot as if she had actually pushed them.

My co-director and I want to find a software that'll allow us to do similar animations of the lyrics in our music video so it follows conventions of similar music videos. 

Editing Experiment - Mirror

To add variation to our editing techniques we wanted to create a mirrored effect on iMovie. However, neither my co-director and I had done this before so we watched a video on YouTube on how to do this.



After watching the tutorial we attempted our own version and this was our outcome:

This shot is for the chorus so we had to sync up the two shots so they were in time with one another and also, in time with the music.

3AM Kate Nash Lyrics

The main reason we chose this song was due to the lyrcis telling a story and us as directors, being able to link visuals to the lyrics. This is important as Andrew Goodwin said it is one of the '7 Key Conventions of a Music Video'.

3AM LYRICS

How did it get to 3 am?
I wish that I could call
But I know that you're probably asleep.
Do I really have to get used
To being alone again?
I wish that you were here
You must know that you aren't my best friend
Do we really have to dream?
I'm perfectly happy here
In reality, I'm wide awake
I think about the things
That I can do tomorrow but I'm trapped
Cause it's so dark outside and everybody else is fast asleep
My hand is glued to the remote
The TV has already said
Good night, I'm frozen in my seat
I want to move but I'm afraid
I suffer from anxiety
And I don't want to be alone!
You see, I want to be with

You
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
Yeah baby

You are the one I think of on a night
And on a night it feels so right
I miss your arms
The way you kiss me
The way you pull me in so tight
It makes me sick the way we fight
When I want you so bad tonight
Yeah baby
You are the one I think of on a night
And on a night it feels so right
I miss your arms
The way you kiss me
The way you pull me in so tight
It makes me sick the way we fight
When I want you so bad tonight

I want to change my need to want
My desires, change my route
Passion is tricky, love is tender
Love is sweet, it hurts, it's you and me
And in one fatal jump she's
Cut off my electricity
And now I'm really stumped
I'll make forever, take forever
Leave the house, it's laugh or cry
And if you cry, you're taken out
There won't be room for mistakes here
I'm afraid this is all or nothing
And I haven't got a hope
At least I thought I had a friend
Turns out I was just a joke
I'm holding on to what I've got
I'm tryna get just what I want
I'll pick the pieces up tomorrow
Cut the pill and take my chances with a half
Yeah baby

You are the one I think of on a night
And on a night it feels so right
I miss your arms
The way you kiss me
The way you pull me in so tight
It makes me sick the way we fight
When I want you so bad tonight
Yeah baby
You are the one I think of on a night
And on a night it feels so right
I miss your arms
The way you kiss me
The way you pull me in so tight
It makes me sick the way we fight
When I want you so bad tonight
If only...

You
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh
You ooh ooh

New Song Choice

After much deliberation myself and my co-director agreed on the song '3AM' by Kate Nash.



We wanted to keep within the genre of a pop song and we feel this song suit the style we want for our video too. We wish to include elements of stop motion and green screening. Now we have decided on a song we can start working on the content of our music video and the shot types etc.

Slight Change of Plan!

After our inspiring trip to the BFI conference my co-director and I came to the joint conclusion that, after seeing other well done student music videos, we weren't too keen on our initial ideas and/or the song choice. We knew it would be a big risk, time-wise, to scrap all ideas and head back to the drawing board but we felt that our original idea wouldn't demonstrate or allow us to use our much developed editing and directorial skills.

My co-director and I now have to come up with a better video idea that we are both happy with.

Music Video Director - Prano Bailey-Bond

AT the BFI Music Video Conference there was a guest speaker who was a music video producer and director called Prano Bailey-Bond (www.pranobaileybond.com). Here is her director's showreel featuring clips of her work from music videos to short films and film trailers:



She is a multi-award winning director and editor and has created videos for the likes of Imelda May and Morcheeba. Her works has been recognised at events and festivals including the BFI London Film Festival and the UKMVA's.

"Her works invokes imaginative worlds, touching on magical realism and fusing dark vocabulary with eerie allure, revealing how beauty resides in strange places. She is fascinated by life's ironies and contradictions."

Here is her most famous piece of work:

BFI: Making Music Videos Conference

On Thursday 26th November, my media studies class and I went to the BFI Southbank to a conference about the making of music videos. It was a really helpful day for us and gave us a lot of inspiration for our own video. Here are the notes I took:

Music Videos - What is it?

• Length of a song or longer
• Usually features the artist/band
• Can tell a story
• Has to be visually memorable

History Of Music Videos

1930s - Colour Box

• Colourful 
• Patterns in time with music
• No people in video
• Lights, textures and scratched films

1940s - Frim Fram Sauce

• Artist present
• One location
• Black and white
• Introduces the idea of a sub-story (imagination)

1950s

• Artists had their own music TV shows to perform their music
• Most artists had a film career too e.g. Elvis

1960s - These Boots Are Made For Walking

• More of a narrative
• Black and white
• Wider range of camera shots (hand held shots too)
• People i.e. dancers around artists to make them seem more popular
• Scoptiones introduced - jukebox for videos
• Narrative slowly introduced
• Simple
• Mainly filmed in studio

1970s - Bohemian Rhapsody

• More advanced
• Layered shots to add variation
• 2 different stories
• Lights/textures

1980s - Rat Race and I Want To Dance With Somebody

• MTV introduced in 1981.
• Narrative
• Artists 
• Studio
• Different locations
• Wider range of shots; low angle, pans, zoom ins, zoom outs etc.
• Reference to song title (Rat Race)
• Whitney Houston's video was the 56th video ever played, also first black artist's video on MTV

1990s - Drop

• Bigger budgets - only 40 videos hit the $1 million price to make. 
• Scream by Michael Jackson costed $10 million to make
• This video they had to learnt the lyrics backwards
• Used dollies to film.

2015 - Hello

• 485 millions views
• 27.7 million within the first 24 hours
• Fastest video to reach 100 million views in 5 days
• Different types of phones to represent the 'hello'
• Extremely detailed close ups; the steam and fire on the stove
• POV shots as flashbacks

Case Study: 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'

• 17 out of 21 shots
• 21 seconds screen time (shots per second)
• Conventions; dancing, exhibitionism, close up and extreme close ups, irregular framing/fragmented bodies, looking at camera
• Colour changing backgrounds 
• Bright colours
• Different scene for verses
• Slow mo hair flicks
• Several costume changes
• Dance routines

Conventions

• Genre characteristics 
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals
• Relationship between sound and visuals
• Sells artist as a star
• Voyeurism 

Relationship: Lyrics and Visuals

• Dance partners
• Night time
• Key symbols - throw guys away

Relationship: Sound and Visuals

• Look changes to music to music - heat = warm colours (orange, red, yellow)
• Editing paced changes with temp

Sells Artist

• 'Lonely heart song' - object of desire
• Romantic obsession
• Obsessive close ups 

Voyeurism 

• Frames within frames
• Looking over fence/through window
• Fragmented and objectified bodies

Intertextuality 

• Film strip
• Multiple dance genres
• Costume/set changes

Making Music Videos

• Same frame, different shots
• One position for lighting and camera
• Repeat use of props
• Consistent theme/genre of characters
• Green screen/ studio performance.
• Do one idea well
• Simple narrative
• Controlled environment
• D-SLR camera
• Lights - grease proof paper to soften and gel rolls
• Fans, confetti, wind, glitter etc.

10 Steps To Making Music Videos

1. Start Performance

• Technical kit
• Locations prep
• Props/costumes
• Time frame

2.  Warm Up

• Lip sync practice 
• Photoshoot with artists
• Ancillary task practice

3. Recce

• Limit locations 
• Take photos
• Make sure location has access to lights and power
• Risk assessment

4. Pitch

• 'Treatment'
• Moodboard 
• Ancillary task (advert and website) 

5. Planning 

• Plan your ideas, don't get carried away
• Re-plan to ensure idea becomes reality

6. Plan Everything

• Story boards
• People, places and props - in advanced
• Shoot schedule 
• Technical prep - SD cards, batteries, lights
• Shoot early - not near the deadline.
• Make sure performers are rehearsed

7. Shoot

• 10 times with different set ups
• Have plenty of cutaways
• Shoot extra angles and lighting changes
• Get lots of close ups
• Motivate performers

8. Editing 

• Sync all clips
• Paper edit - storyboard
• Rough cuts and get feedback

9. Evidence 

• Show all research
• Photos of the shoot
• Behind the scenes 
• Screenshots

10. Evaluation

• Make it exciting
• Directors commentary, 'DVD Extras' 
• Interviews on Director's website

All information from this day can be found here: http://projectmusicvideo.blogspot.co.uk/

My co-director and I have had some ideas about changing our music video's story and we will meet and discuss the ideas and inspiration from the conference to finalise our ideas.

Here are some picture of us at the media conference:

Outside the BFI.

Sat in our seats.

Lighting for Filming - 17/11/15

My co-director and I agreed we wanted to use studio lights to make the green screen shots look more proffesional but we had to decide whether we wanted to use the over-head main lights as well. Luckily for us we have the choice of using either just the right hand lights or left.

I stood in front of the green screen and we filmed a short clip, experimenting with all the different light possibilities and I said which lights were turned on and which were off. When we uploaded this to iMovie we could then see which of the lights worked best.

When watching the clip back, we decided the best light combination was to use the studio lights and to turn off the over-head right lights off and have the left ones on. We decided this because it made the green screen look the greenest - the greener the green screen, the better it will work with a background. The other combinations were too light, too dark and only lit up half of the green screen. To make sure the lighting worked with the green screen we put a picture as the background and all-in-all worked well. The lighting did not create the 'fuzzy' outline which only occurs when the lighting is wrong.

We will use this lighting set up for all our green screen shots.

Artist's Website Research - Mobile View

Whilst researching the artist's website, I came to the realisation that most of the websites seemed as if they worked best when being used on a smartphone. I thought this because of the simplistic layout and the landscape format was designed to fill a computer screen but can be easily adapted into a portrait view for phones. I think more and more websites are becoming mobile friendly due to the rise in people using their mobile phones to browse online, 63% of mobile phone owners use the internet on their phone.

I looked at the same websites on my phone to show the difference when viewed in a portrait format. Here is the result:

When looking at Adele's website on a desktop computer, the page for purchasing her new album shows the album cover on the left and then the links on the right. However, on the mobile version her album cover is above and the links are beneath.

Using this as research, my co-director and I should aim to make our artist's website compatible for mobile phones.

Artist's Website Research

As part of our Ancillary Task, my co-director and I have to create a website for our artist/girlband. Again, to ensure we follow conventions, I have done some research looking at other artist's websites before creating my own.

1.  The first artist I looked at Adele's website and I really liked the simplicity and monochrome colours. This is the first thing you see when visiting www.adele.com.

Following the release of her new 'come-back' single 'Hello', this welcome page is heavily promoting this, providing links to where you can purchase the single. After you have seen this page there is a 'Enter Website' button that takes you onto the main website, where you can view; tour dates, videos etc.

This website was easy to use and the colours worked well together and very pleasing to the eye.

2. The second artist's website was Taylor Swift's. Below is the page you are greeted with;

The front page promotes her new single and music video 'Wildest Dreams' and provides a link directly to the video. There is a menu pane with links for news, tours, and merchandise. Below the advertisement for her music is a unique feature of using a banner in the style of a slideshow to show a collage of pictures from live shows and backstage at concerts.

3. Lastly, I looked at a girl group's website as this would help me relate my ideas for our girlband's website. Little Mix's homepage looks like this;

Unlike the other websites, this is the only screen visible, if you scroll down there is nothing else to see. The menu tabs are accessible through the universally recognised menu icon. This then opens a new window displaying the tabs for their social media links, tour dates, the band members, merchandise etc. This is the menu window that appears;

In conclusion, the main convention for an artist's website seems to be a simplistic design and simple colours. The website must be easy to use with information under obvious tab titles. Using this research I aim to create a mock website for my made up artist. 

Album Cover Magazine Research

For our Ancillary Task we have to produce a magazine advert and a website promoting both, the artist and their new album. To make sure our magazine advert looks similar to others and professional, my co director and I have been looking at magazine adverts that are out at the moment and looking at the typical conventions used.

I created a powerpoint presentation and uploaded it to SlideShare to show some of the magazine adverts I have found and created a word mind map of all the conventions used for most/all the adverts I had found.

I wanted to use a programme called 'Wordle' for my mind map but the software was not compatible with my laptop. To overcome this issue I researched into websites that offered a similar service and stumbled across worditout.com. This allowed me to create a collage of all the different conventions used.

Here is my presentation on SlideShare.

Photoshop Experimentation

After researching into magazine advertisements for artist's and their albums, my co director and I thought that we would experiment using Adobe Photoshop to create a mock advert. Neither of us had ever used photoshop before and it was definitely an experience! We decided to do this task separately so we could experiment and show each other how to do things the other hadn't discovered when creating our girl band's advert.

This is the advert I created:

I had to come up with the artist's name, album name and a release date. I also thought it would be good to link the artist's website so readers can find more information online if they want to.

I wanted the advert  to be simple and without much going on. The simple black font stands out and is easy to read. However, I wanted the artist's name 'Forever Lily' to be a larger font size and a thicker outline of the letters. I found that once I had typed what I needed and clicked off, you could not go back and edit what you have previously typed. I am sure this is possible and I will carry on experimenting with Photoshop to ensure that my co-director and I produce an advert of high quality that can be printed in magazines.

Filming Locations

We intend to base our music video around the idea of the performers being at 'high-school' and it being a high-school crush. For this reason our main filming location will be our own school. We hope to use corridors, the front entrance and I have had the idea of maybe even a classroom - these locations will hopefully set the scene for our audience.

Our second location is for when Imogen undergoes her make over. My co-director and I discussed this scene and both agreed that it should be set in a girly bedroom. We will ask one of our other cast members, Alicia, if we can use her room to film as it is big, modern and girly. 

BBC Vizii Music Video Maker

BBC have come up with the idea of allowing young people, like ourselves, to create a music video using words and animations that is original and is unique to the individual.

Here is the tutorial video from the BBC website:



This is a really good programme and it may be very useful for our music video. The only downside to it is that you have to use the songs provided by BBC Introducing, this is an issue if we did decide to use Vizii. However, this can be overcome by simply uploading the video we created onto iMovie or Final Cut Pro and mute the sound from the Vizii video and use the song that is being used for the rest of the video (about the boy).

Ideas for Our Music Video

We have brainstormed some ideas and have decided that we want a partly narrative and a partly performance type of video.

The story behind the video is our protagonist (Imogen) being a geeky girl and fantasises about being with the popular boy that everyone fancies, but her friends/band members (Alicia and Emma) try and tell her it'll never work and he won't fall for her. Imogen will then ask for their help to undergo a makeover... she will then become a very attractive girl that everyone fanices. We had the idea of her make over being for prom. 

The fourth girl in the video, Maggie, will be the popular guy (James)'s girlfriend who he then leaves her for Imogen, our protagonist. Maggie will also take the mickey out of Imogen and her geeky-ness.

Our New Song Choice

'About the boy' by Little Mix, we feel is very appropriate for our ideas for the music video. Also, it being by a girlband suits our video idea. We have decided that our protagonist will sing all the solo verses, the other two band members will sing Leigh-Anne and Jade's verse. The chorus will be sung all together and for the bridge all three girls will have a line each to sing.

Here are the lyrics:

[Intro:]
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Just something about the boy

[Jesy:]
It's the verse in my head
The words that make me stutter
The swag in my step
The change from gray to color
A guaranteed bet
Oh, I found my lucky number
The feeling that you get
Can't help but make me wonder

[Leigh-Anne/Jade:]
No need to try
He's just right
He's got that something
I can't let nobody tell me no
No I don't mind
Takes me high
I won't stop until the boy is mine

[Chorus:]
He got me good
I've got it bad
He got me feeling like a girl gone mad
Got me running around like I'm a lovefool
Taking me down I can't stop
He got me up
I can't come down
He got me locked and I don't want out
I know he's playing my heart and I ain't got no choice
There's just something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
There's just something about the boy

[Perrie:]
It's the first time we met
The lightening to my thunder
The green light on red
The kiss that pulls me under
It's only for me
If you're the test I got the answer
And I'm all that you need
Now you finally get the chance to

[Jade/Leigh-Anne:]
No need to try
He's just right
He's got that something
I can't let nobody tell me no
No I don't mind
Takes me high
I won't stop until the boy is mine

[Chorus:]
He got me good
I've got it bad
He got me feeling like a girl gone mad
Got me running around like I'm a lovefool
Taking me down I can't stop
He got me up
I can't come down
He got me locked and I don't want out
I know he's playing my heart and I ain't got no choice
There's just something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
There's just something about the boy

[Perrie:]
I know you like to play it slow
But I'm running out of time
It's like I lost my self control
'Cause you are the one
And you know what you've done
My poor heart's come undone
Baby please

[Chorus:]
He got me good
I've got it bad
He got me feeling like a girl gone mad
Got me running around like I'm a lovefool
Taking me down I can't stop
He got me up
I can't come down
He got me locked and I don't want out
I know he's playing my heart and I ain't got no choice
There's just something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
There's just something about the boy

[Outro:]
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Something about
Something about the boy
Just something about the boy

Change of Song Choice

After much deliberation, Chaya and I have decided to change the song for our music video. We changed our song for two main reasons, these being;

• Us wanting to keep our original idea of having our protagonist undergo a makeover, however our original song choice ('Heart Attack' by Demi Lovato) didn't work with our idea, even though the lyrics of the song fitted perfectly.
• To use 3 girls as band members in the video, yet our original song is sung by a solo artist.

Our new song choice is by the girl band Little Mix and is called 'About the Boy'.

Inspiration For Shots In Our Music Video

Me and my co-director agreed that to make our music video more girly we would have a 'geeky' girl get made over into a glamorous popular girl that everyone wants to befriend and the boys fancy. Below are some makeover scenes from both films and music videos:



This clip shows how a normal looking school girl gets transformed into a princess. A shot I would particularly like to use is the one of her hair being brushed and the hairbrush getting stuck in her hair and breaking - this would add a humorous angle to our music video.  To accentuate our protagonist's 'geek-iness' we would have her wearing glasses which, like above, would get broken and reveal a pretty glamorous face. As mentioned in previous posts, we are going to use close up shots of the protagonists nails being painted.

 

This scene shows a stylist throwing clothes and shoes at the protagonist. She looks confused, overwhelmed and out of her comfort zone. This has inspired me to have my protagonist's friends show her outfit options and her looking out of her comfort zone as the fashionable clothes are not what she is used to wearing.




I like this particular makeover scene for two reasons. The first being the camera shot of the girls who are making the protagonist over are looking into the camera and doing the make up as if the camera is the girl. This adds another dimension to the video. The second thing I like is the photographs of her posing after the make over. I hope to do a similar montage but of her and her friends.

Our Final Song Choice

We have decided on using the song 'Heart Attack' by Demi Lovato.



We decided on this song as we feel the lyrics fit well with our idea of a girly pop music video.

Here are the song's lyrics:

Puttin’ my defenses up
‘Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack

Never put my love out on the line
Never said "Yes" to the right guy
Never had trouble getting what I want
But when it comes to you, I’m never good enough

When I don’t care
I can play ‘em like a Ken doll
Won’t wash my hair
Then make 'em bounce like a basketball

But you make me wanna act like a girl
Paint my nails and wear high heels
Yes, you make me so nervous
That I just can’t hold your hand

You make me glow,
But I cover up
Won’t let it show,
So I’m...

Puttin’ my defenses up
'Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack [3x]

Never break a sweat for the other guys
When you come around, I get paralyzed
And every time I try to be myself
It comes out wrong like a cry for help

It's just not fair
Pain's more trouble than love is worth
I gasp for air
It feels so good, but you know it hurts

But you make me wanna act like a girl
Paint my nails and wear perfume for you
Make me so nervous
That I just can’t hold your hand

You make me glow,
But I cover up
Won’t let it show,
So I’m...

Puttin’ my defenses up
'Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack [3x]

The feelings got lost in my lungs
They’re burning, I’d rather be numb
And there’s no one else to blame (no one else)
So scared I take off and i run
I’m flying too close to the sun
And I burst into flames

You make me glow,
But I cover up
Won’t let it show,
So I’m...

Puttin’ my defenses up
‘Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack [5x]

We have come up with some ideas to relate the lyrics and visuals;

• For the line 'I can play 'em like a Ken doll' we aim to use stop motion and an actual Ken Barbie doll. We hope to have the girl pull the Ken doll's head off, showing each stage of the process through the use of stop motion
• As this song is by a solo artist, we have decided to use a girl group made up of 4 girls, however we still want a 'main' girl that sings the whole way through. Her band members will feature in the video and assist her get ready to go out etc.
• In the beginning half of the song we will have the girls be getting ready for a nigh out and will show a range of shots including close ups and mid shots of them applying make up and putting on clothes/shoes. This will create visuals for the line 'paint my nails and wear high heels'.