4Music; Intuitions

4Music – Music and then some!

The intuition that I feel our music video should be shown on is 4Music. 4Music is a music channel in the United Kingdom and was launched on the 3^rd of August 2008 and replaced The Hits. The channel has a web presence and can be found at www.4Music.com as well as a present on Facebook and Twitter. 4Music is owned by the Box Television Network and is the only channel within the network to be branded under Channel 4, as well as being the only channel in the network to be broadcast in widescreen.

The reason why I feel our music video shown be on 4Music is because the channel is available to a bigger audience as it is available for Freeview viewers as well as Sky and Virgin Media viewers with a audience share of 0.3%. As well as it being a well known channel that is advertised over its sister channels; Channel 4, E4, More 4 and Film 4.

4Music is also now he home for music and celebrity orientated show and comedies that were once aired on Channel 4 as well as exclusive shows on 4Music. The non-music programmes that are being shown on 4Music are:

Being... N-Dubz

The Simple Life

Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood

Bo’ Selecta

Balls Of Steel

Girls Aloud: Off the Record

Alan Carr’s Celebrity Ding Dong

The Friday Night Project

The Kevin Bishop Show

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

Shipwrecked

Planning the Storyline for the Music Video

During our half term our group met up for two days to plan the storyline and shots for the music video we were due to film in less than 10 days. During Tuesday we discussed the storyline, and briefly described the possible shots and where they could fit. While on the Wednesday we when in to much more detail and also tested some shots, such as the playing card shower to test if they worked and in which way they worked better. This would help when we film the shots as we would know the most successful way to achieve the best shot.

Testing of Subconscious Idea for the Music Video

As we decided to put in the idea of subconsciously having props on the set that would symbolise the heartbreak, we decided to have a hot drink placed in the video somewhere which had a heart created on top of it with chocolate dust which would then be stirred showing how the love which was between the couple has gone.

When planning the music video we decided to fit this idea into this part:

“12. Woman finds the key he has left, she goes to ring him. He’s running, rejects the call. He carries on running, her face when he rejects stirs her coffee she made”

To achieve a heart on the top of the hot drink, a stencil and chocolate dust are needed. I tested how easy it was to achieve the idea, and the attempt can be seen below:

The idea is rather easy to achieve and seems it’s tested, the stencil when trying to achieve the heart while filming and it won’t waste time when sorting out the heart whist filming.

Props List for Music Video

After going through the shot list, we wrote up a prop list, of all the props that are needed, we have also given a person a responsibly to get and bring that prop. As they have said they have the prop they are willing to lend or they can get the prop for the music video. The props needed are listed below:

Step Ladder (Ben)

Desk light (Chris)

Suitcase (Lizi)

Playing Cards (All)

Female’s Phone

Males Phone

Dummy phone (Chris)

Cappuccino (Ben)

Cappuccino Cup (Ben)

Chocolate dust (Lizi)

Heart Card stencil (Lizi)

Microphone (Lizi)

Guitar (Chris)

Drums (School- Jack)

Microphone Stand (School – Jack)

Drum Sticks (Ben)

Post-it Notes (Jack)

Pen/Marker (Jack)

CD Player (Jack)

Shot List for Music Video

Scene 1

(Mid shot - the woman seducing the man (No emotion for the man)

(Fades in and out to the beat with a black screen)

Low angled close shot – a door with the man behind it

The door opens and the woman is with another man, we can see his arm.

Close up of woman’s head – Woman is swishing her hair in slow motion.

Close up of man’s face – lip-syncing ‘to this’ (emotion present)

Split screen – close up shot – woman and man writing notes (Sorry, I’m leaving) (Sorry, forgive me)

Close up shot – man leaving the key behind.

Mid shot – man taking the suitcase away

Door closes and then fades to black

Scene 2

PERFORMANCE

Mid shot - Side shot of the house door (lyrics – ‘I’m better off leaving now’

PERFORMANCE

Long/high Shot – Man running away (away from the camera) (Camera

Moving up) (lyrics – I just keep on running)

PERFORMANCE

Scene 3

Close up – Shot of the key as the woman see’s it and walks over.

Mid shot – Woman gets phone

Close up – Phone over shoulder

Mid shot– Phone next to ear

Long/high shot – running to the camera, stops, gets his phone out.

Close up – Man rejecting the call

Long/high – Continues running under the camera

Close up – Woman’s face (Emotion)

POV shot – Stirring the coffee with the heart in it.

PERFORMANCE (lyrics ‘You should come back, come back, come back and look for more)

Long shot – Man comes to a stop outside the pub and takes a breath (But love that run’s to deep)

Mid shot – Walks into the pub (inside the pub) Man walks in.

Close up shot – Man places the phone on the side.

Over the shoulder – Man walks by and see’s one of the friends with a hand of hearts.

Scene 5

PERFORMANCE

Mid shot – slow zoom to the man playing cards (emotion) (lyrics ‘You are the only reason I want it more’)

PERFORMANCE

Mid shot – the man is playing cards and the woman flickers in and out of the shot behind him. (Lyrics ‘I know I want to be on my own tonight’)

Scene 6

PERFORMANCE

Long/High shot – Running away and past the camera at the side.

PERFORMANCE

Long shot - sitting on a wall overlooking the river

Close Shot – Sitting on a wall overlooking the river

Over shoulder shot – looking at phone

Close shot – phone falling into the river

PERFORMANCE – WITH CARD SHOWER

-END-

Storyline/Structure of Music Video

1. Woman tempting the man back to her by seducing him as she has the quality to seduce.

2. Man opens door to see his women with another man.

3. Woman turns around, (hair swishing shot) – White Background.

4. Man lip syncs to “To This.” and the pause. Shot of face!

5. Spilt screen, writing notes “I’m sorry, forgive me” “I’m Leaving”

6. Man leaving the house, leaves the key. Fades to black.

-

7. Performance.

8. "I’m better off leaving now” – Man walking by the side of his house

9. Performance.

10. "I just keep on running” – Man running away, down the street

11. Performance.

-

12. Woman finds the key he has left, she goes to ring him. He’s running, rejects the call. He carries on running, her face when he rejects stirs her coffee she made

13. Performance (You should come back, come back, come back and look for more)

14. Long shot of man outside pub taking a breath, and walking in. (But love that runs too deep)

15. Goes into pub to meet his friends, who are sitting down playing poker puts his phone on the side, one friend has a hand the heart suits, we see from over his shoulder. Subconscious object showing heartbreak.

-

16. Performance.

17. Zooms to the man sitting in a chair, showing his emotion via his body language while playing poker. (“You are the only reason I want it more”)

18. Performance.

19. The Woman flickers in and out of shot (“You know I want to be own tonight”)

-

20. Performance.

21. Running across the shot to the river (“I just keep on running”)

22. Performance.

23. Sat on a wall near river, looks at his phone realising he has #’s of missed calls, lets the phone slip out of his hands into the river.

24. Final Performance with card shower.

Actors Required for Filming

In our Music Video the parts we require actors for are: Vocalist – Narrative and Performance, Guitarist – Performance, Poker Player for the Narrative, Drummer – Performance, Poker Player for the Narrative, Ex-Girlfriend – Narrative Poker Players (4, including Guitarist and Drummer) – Narrative, Mates House/Pub (Location)

After going through the options we had we decided to ask the following to appear in our music video; Kieran Gabbitus, Rob Slipper and Ben Robinson. And for the female part we thought it would be more beneficial if I was to act that part, as it would be easier to sort the costume and make-up of the female part for myself than it would be for someone else.

Cast List

Vocalist – Kieran Gabbitus

Guitarist – Rob Slipper

Drummer – Ben Robinson

Ex-Girlfriend - Lizi Howard (Me)

Poker Players – Rob Slipper, Ben Robinson, Chris Tyler?

Subconscious Ideas for the Music Video (Props)

After our pitch we had a discussion that lead to the idea of subconsciously having props on the set that would symbolise the heartbreak we felt the song contained. The first thing suggested was Jammy Dodgers, and we then came up with confetti that was shaped as hearts. I then when further into this idea and thought in a scene the character that is suffering the heartbreak could have a hot drink that has a heart shape on top, which could have been created by chocolate sprinkled on top of the drink. The drink could then be stirred causing the heart to disappear suggesting his love has gone for his girlfriend.



I feel that having some props that have a heart design or shape involved with it would create a deeper meaning to the parts of the music video and not all viewers may realise that it was intentional unless some props such as love hearts were used as it will make it seem a little “cheesy”.

Representation of the Characters

How the people in the music video are represented is something that needs to be taken into consideration. The facial expressions, clothing, body language and props all have an impact on how the person is represented. So all areas need some thought going into them. The non-verbal communication is important seems there will not be any verbal communication with the characters within the music video and all the areas of non-verbal communication need to be considered.

Non-verbal communication consists of the following:
- Physical Space
- Clothing and Appearance
- Locomotion
- Posture
- Gesture
- Facial Expressions
- Eye Contact
- Touch
- Paralanguage

Facial Expressions
Frown - Displeasure, Unhappiness
Smile - Friendliness, Happiness
Raised Eyebrows - Disbelief, Amazement
Narrowed Eyes - Anger
Blushing - Embarrassment

Eye Contact
Glancing - Lack of Interest
Steady - Active Listening, Interest, Seduction

Hand/Arm Gestures
Pointing Finger - Authority, Displeasure, Lecturing
Folded Arms - Not open to change, preparing to speak
Arms at side - Open to suggestions, relaxed
Hands Uplifted Outward - Disbelief, puzzlement, Uncertainty

Body Postures
Fidgeting, doodling – Boredom
Hands on hips – Anger Defensiveness
Shrugging Shoulders – Indifference
Squared Stance or shoulders – Problem-solving, concern, listening
Biting lip, shifting, jingling money – Nervousness
Sitting on edge of chair – Listening, great concern
Slouching in chair – Boredom, lack of interest

Physical Space
From Physical contact to 18 inches – Intimate space
From 18 inches to 4 feet – Personal space
From 4 feet to 8 feet – Social space
From 8 feet outward – Public space

I feel after researching about non-verbal communication it needed to be considered to create a more realistic and professional music video as especially as we would to show the ex-girlfriend trying to seduce the male vocalist and with a steady eye contact it would help portray this non-verbally.

Location Choices

One element needs to be taken into consideration is the location where each of the parts of the video is going to be filmed. There are 5 locations that need to be identified and depends on where they are and what they are; permission needs to be granted to film there.

We need to find a location for each of these parts of the video:
- Performance Setting
- A Martial House- The Mate’s House/Pub
- Places/Streets he’ll run down
- Black Background set for beginning “fade to beat” shots

Performance Setting
The school stage would be used for the performance part. We might not see the stage as an actual stage, we could possibly lower the curtains and make the stage look darker and make it appear to look like a generic darker room

A Martial HouseA typical home, well cared for…

The Mate’s House/Pub
More messy than the marital house, men around the table playing poker.

Places/Streets he’ll run down
A typical street, near where we are filming for convenience.

Black Background set for beginning “fade to beat” shots
Same as the performance area, although it would be restricted to just showing the black background, we would not be able to tell it was a stage.

The weather also needs to be taken into consideration as it may have a impact on the shooting which we can’t control, although there isn’t many outside shooting, if it’s snowing, it would affect us as they mise-en-scene wouldn’t be right, as well as having take the risk in running down an icy road. Also as it is England the outside shooting, it will most probably be cold. So precautions would have to be made as it gets increasingly difficult to film in the cold weather. So the shooting would have to be planned inside and quickly but efficiently filmed when outdoors, reducing the time spend outside, which is something we learnt from out foundation production filming.

FOLLOWING THE HOLIDAY PLANNING WE HAVE DECIDED TO USE THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS FOR OUR PROMO:

The Performance Setting: We will be using the stage at RMC with a black background. If the stage is only free when we could not use it for whatever reason, we have secured a possible back-up location - we would use the Drama studio at our school. We have been told that black curtains will be being put up in the drama studio for when we wish to film so if, for whatever reason, we could not use the stage, then the studio would be a viable alternative.

A Marital House: One of our actors homes in a small village will be used for a marital house. It is tidy and fairly rural styled inside which will will fit stylistically with the pub and the running scenes. We will be using the kitchen, the hall, the lounge and the bedroom (for the separate 'cheating' scene). Lighting may be an issue in this location due to the dark walls so, to counter this, we will be bringing a very bright desk lamp which hopefully will solve this problem.

The Pub/Mates House: Ideally, we will be using the pub in Haconby, a small neighboring village for this location. If we can get permission to film in the pub then we will be able to create a poker game at a table. If, however, we are not able to film in this location then we will have to change the location to my home. We could use my dining room as it particularly light and I would be able to mess it up.

Street: For the street scenes, we will be filming on the Haconby roads. Due to it being a small village we would be able to film down the middle of the road without having to worry about to many cars. We will be using streets and a country road leading down lane to a river for the water shot when the main character throws their phone into a lake.

Costume Choices

In music video the right ‘image’ has on the video, and how it is viewed and the costume for the actors was somewhat important. I felt as the costume was important it had to organised efficiently so the right image could be portrayed. I started by going through the clothes available in local stores such as Asda, Tesco, Burton, Topman and The Officers Club, as I felt these shops would have the clothing that would fit to the look I felt was needed in the music video. By looking at the pictures available online of “The Colours” we felt it was necessary to use the image they have already created for themselves as an unsigned band. The Colours seems to have a smart casual look, so I searched through the shirts, ties, blazers, t-shirts, belts and coats that were available from local stores and fitted the image we wanted to portray.

The clothes below show the ideas for costume in the music video, however when filming we want to make use of the actors own clothes if they are similar and fit to the style.

However if these clothes aren’t available we would have to purchase them for the music video, so that right look was created.

Male:

Male 1 - in the Performance, Vocalist of band
Male 2 - in the Performance, Guitarist of Band
Male 3 - in the Performance, Drummer of Band
Male 1 - in the Narrative, Main Lead
Male 2-5 - in the Narrative, Playing Poker

Male 1 – in the Narrative, Beginning “fade to beat” shots

Clothing Ideas for Males parts -

Pitch Ideas

This is our Pitch, which we created to share the ideas we had about our music video to our peers to get their opinion on our ideas and to strengthen our ideas by taking on their feedback.

Moodboard

After listening to the chosen song and analysing the lyrics, I went on the internet to find some images that I felt fitted to the song and images that helped show what I felt the music video should contain. With these images I created a mood board, which as well as helping spark ideas for the music video and how the video show be portrayed it helped my group members see what images I got by listening to the music and from the analysis of the lyrics.

Questionnaire Results

These are the results that I attained from asking the target audience of the text my questionnaire.

Album Cover Research

All the songs that I have in my iTunes library have a album cover, and all the album cover differ from genre to genre, artist to artist and also from the time they were released although throughout the years the same conventions have been used, but the technology used to achieve the album cover has adapted with the new technologies available. The album cover should attract you to purchase the CD when brought in the shops as the cover is the first things you see, and that’s what’s attracts you to put up the CD and turn it over to look at the track lists.

The typical conventions of the album cover are the artist name, the song title, an image and also a sticker such as parental advisory sticker if needed. However not all album covers follow the main conventions, however this could be proven effective when the album is released.

Personally I have always felt that a successful album cover should have a eye-catching image, however the examples from my music library show what I feel is successful and unsuccessful when an album cover is quite plain.

These are the album covers to “My Name – Mclean” and “I’m Yours – Jason Mraz”. Although the album to “I’m Yours” has a small graphic included, it’s still rather plain but I think it has been effective. Whereas I don’t feel that the album cover to “My Name” is successful at all, and I feel it would have been more successful if it used the typical convention of an image, and as the other the next album covers to the following songs he has released go with the same design but the song title changes, it isn’t that appealing. However having this same design of a black background, song title in red, and artist name in white, it would create an “image” and his audience would be able to identify his album covers by the repetition design across his singles.

'Image' of Female Character in Music Video

When thinking about the costume of the actor and actress that would be in the music video whatever pitch is refined and created, there would be a male main character and a female main character (the male’s ex-girlfriend) but as I felt there must be a reason for the man to want to “let [her] go” and refer to her as a “mistake”. I felt a background story would have to be identified to convey the right image in the music video. By looking at the lyrics I felt cheating would fix with the feelings the man has, I also felt the female show have a certain image, as I felt it was necessary.
After thinking though the ‘image’ the female needed I felt that she should be a pretty woman, which ‘caked’ her face in make-up and wore hair extensions/had long hair, as well as having fake nails, and wearing a push-up bra and low cut top. When a female has all this features it can seem she is hasn’t the confidence in her own skin, so wore things to get the attention which shouldn’t be attracted when in a relationship. After thinking to far into the image of the female, I felt the make-up could have a major impact have her image so I created some pictures with different combinations of make-up so my group and I can decide which make-up promotes the right image that we want. Another need from the make-up she has red lipstick/lip-gloss applied to show temptation/love through the colour meaning, the image on the right is of a model before I added make-up and the images below are the combinations of make-up which are a possibility as they have the right ‘image’.

As you can see the model with the make-up and without is completely different, I feel that the make-up needs to be taken into account when filming the music video as it gives the woman the right image, I feel the best combination of make-up is the third image as it has the red lips which will suggest lust, and the smoky eyes and long lashes should more of a ‘fake’ look, and blusher would also be necessary however not a lot is needed. From creating these images I have realised how the make-up can have an affect on the image of the person, and as the ‘image’ is important for the female character in the music video what make-up she wears needs to be considered.

Music Deconstruction

My group’s music deconstruction was completed by Jack Marshall;
http://jackmarshalladvancedproduction.blogspot.com/2010/10/music-deconstruction.html

The link takes you to his original post.

Questionnaire Market Research

To find out the information I feel my group could benefit from a questionnaire has been created. Firstly the group make a questionnaire that could be used to get the information we would need, however after asked one person the questionnaire I felt it wasn’t easy for the people to answer if they weren’t aware of the Pop-rock genre and technical media terms, as some of the questions needed to be explained. I then adapted the first questionnaire to one I thought would be more appropriate for the audience we were asking. The questions in the second version of the questionnaire are below, I feel that the amount of questions are appropriate and well give us enough information to work with for our creation of a music video, album cover and magazine adverts.

1. Are you Male/Female?

2. Which age category do you fit into?
11-16 17-24 25-34 35-44 44+

3. What is you favourite genre of music?

4. Do you listen to music that fits into the genre of Pop-Rock?

5. How do you purchase your music? CD Copy or Electronic Copy?

6. Do you illegally download music? If Yes, why?

7. How do you find out information about your favourite bands?

8. Do you listen to unsigned bands? If so have you heard of “theCOLOURS”?

Music Videos
9. Do you watch music videos? Why?

10. Would you rather a video was narrative based or performance based? What percentage do you think it should be spilt?

11. When the video is narrative based, do you think the images should match the lyrics?

Album Covers
12. Would you prefer an album cover to contain the band name and song title?

13. What other features do you like to see on an album cover if any?

Magazine Adverts
14. Do you pay attention to a bands/artists magazine advert?

15. What features attract you to a magazine advert?

Marketing and Promotional Techniques - Katy Perry

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, better known as Katy Perry is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Katy Perry’s style of song is Pop, Pop Rock, Dance-pop and Electro pop. Her songs have been in the charts over the past couple of years, when she signed with her fourth record label. Her first chart hit was “I Kissed a Girl” which came #1 in the UK Charts. Although six months before this single was released “Ur So Gay” however it was released online and Capitol Records offered this song as a free download on her website which was a good marketing technique as it enabled the audience to sample what her songs were late, which would help establish her fan base. In June 2008, Katy’s first studio album was released, which peaked at #11 in the UK album charts. However her recent studio album was released last month. “Teenage Dream” peaked at #1 in the UK albums charts.

When visiting Katy Perry’s website (www.katyperry.com) it uses the typical conventions of a band website such as the latest news about her, her tour dates, pictures, music, video and most important her information about her new releases. On the website there is an advertising banner advertising that her new album is out and available to purchase, as well as in the main header of the website having a link to order the CD. As you can see in the screenshot of her website below:

The Digipak of “Teenage Dream” has been marketed differently as the insert in the CD smells like Cotton Candy which is a common theme of the album release as it matches the album cover which is of Katy Perry lying naked on Cotton Candy. This is an uncommon feature of a Digipak, however it attracted people to purchase the Digipak and not settle for the electronic version. The original version of the album cover was published without the wording “Katy Perry” and “Teenage Dream” on it which is unconventional, both versions can be seen below:

What is Representation

All media texts that some form of reality and represent it – they are constructions that involve selection. Images in text evoke different connotations in different segments of the audience

Possible Representations
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Regionality
- Age
- Class

Voyeurism
- Freud’s Theory = erotic pleasure aimed from looking at a sexual object, preferably when the object is not aware
- Shown be screens with screens CCTV style images, webcams, characters watching characters


Gender Representation
In typical music videos males and females are usually represented as the following:

Male
- Dominant
- Powerful
- In control
- Controlling
- Active

Female
- Submissive
- Sexual objects
- Powerless
- Controlled
- Passive

Digipak Ideas

When we know what song we were creating a video for, we also realised that a CD/DVD Digipak would have to be designed, after talking about ideas about what the album cover could contain, I came up with the idea of a pack of cards but using the hearts suit. The group agreed this was a good idea, to see if the idea could be achieved I told some photograph and edited the pictures to see whether it would be an achievable idea and meet the perfection we wanted. After putting the idea into practise I feel that this idea would be great for the album cover and some of the panels in the Digipak, however I feel that the band name will have to be present as well as the song name as I feel it would be a more effective album cover if it contained the song title and band name, however successful album haven’t always used this convention.

My first attempt at the photographing and editing for the album covers came out with these results:

I felt it was a good idea to attempt the idea now so we could see whether it worked and now I am aware it works I can take these attempts in to account and the negatives about them can be adapted to create a better album cover for the final design of the Digipak.

Ideas For Music Video

To record our ideas we created a mind map of ideas and recorded all the different ideas we had for different parts of the song. Most of these ideas are for the beginning of the song so more ideas need to be thought of, however we feel that the need ideas won’t be recorded the same way and will be put into our three pitch ideas.

Although not all of these ideas recorded will go any further they may spark other and better ideas that would go into one of our pitch ideas.

"Tonight I Let You Go" Lyric Breakdown

After using Wordle to present the data of favourite music genres, I felt it would be beneficial if I put the lyrics to “Tonight I Let You Go” and get a visual of the words that appear most in the song. After seeing it visually it has helped spark more ideas for the music video as the reoccurring words are identified.

I then printed the Wordle to annotate with word meanings and ideas for some of the words, this was easier to do when the words aren’t in context as you don’t think of the idea from what was said before it to make the lyrics link with one another so it was a good idea to collect all different ideas. The ideas/meanings I have got for the following words were:

Loveless: no love at all, the love wasn’t there in the end.

Running: running away, running away from their house/down street, running towards the “next” chapter.

Filling/Mind: unable to express his feelings (typical of a male), so all the new feelings keep that mind filling, and it’s getting to much, the mind is full.

Insecurities: she didn’t show him love, could have made him angry after feeling disrespected, insecure about his performance in life (relationships and work)

Mistake: had a bad judgement of her, ignorance to her bad qualities, once stepped back was able to see them, she wasn’t worth it.

Leaving: packing bags to go, doesn’t return to their house and crashes as friends, note left to tell her to pack her bags (as she was the unfaithful one?)

Better: a change for better, he is the one who has come out superior.

Fools: a person that lacks good judgement.

Temptation: a desire to do something that he knows he should avoid, she has the quality to be seduced.