Research into similar products: Music Videos

This is the Basshunter track "Now your'e gone". 

This track is similar to mine not because of the full  plot of the video, however there are parts to the video that are similar. It is more because of the type of song. The genre of song is similar to mine because like mine, it has a European sound to it and there aren't very many words. 

The lyrics to the song are the chorus song through in an anthemic way with the rest of the track being the dance instrumental similar to my song "Be Free" where the lyrics are also only the chorus.

There are parts of the plot which share the similar theme to my video. The characters in the video(Especially the girl) are trying to get back on their feet after a break-up in their relationship and because of this, they've both decided to be free for the night and let go of all the stress of their relationship.

The choice of colour for the costumes are very showy and bright. Bright colours are in a way a symbol of freedom as in wearing whatever shiny and colourful outfit you want instead of the same depressing grey or black for the entire outfit.

Research into similar products: Music Videos

This is the Basshunter track "All I ever wanted" The song much like the "Now your'e gone" is similar to mine because of the track more so than the video. The track consists of the chorus being song in an anthemic way with most of the track consisting of lyrics. Much like mine.

The song has a European dance floor sound and it is one that is a club dance classic. My song also has a European club dance sound to it as well.

Throughout most of this video, particularly at the very start, the narrative of the on screen story is directly linked with the lyrics being sung. For example, we see a girl looking at and holding pictures of her ex boyfriend, whilst the lyrics at that moment are “pictures on the wall”. This clearly reinforces what the lyrics are trying to say, and the negative emotions that they are portraying. Within this narrative, there is no lip syncing to the music, meaning the story relies on the sound of the beat and lyrics along with the acting along. 

The editing of this music video is linked as well with the beat of the music, generally, as the beat speeds up, as does the speed of the editing. So in this case, it begins slow, speeds up, slows down again, speeds up for the club scene, and then slows does to a fade for the ending.

There are a lot of close up shots of girls holding each other and dancing, highlighting their youngish age, but also the role of women in a lot of these ‘dance’ music videos. At this stage, where they are dancing together, they are not adding anything to the storyline, they seem to be used for their attractiveness, which seems to be the norm in a lot of dance videos.

This video is a good similar product because it is the same genre as my song and I like how the editing links with the instrumental. For my music video I will want to use this as inspiration, for example if a section of it is louder, then I will use shots that have more aggressive dancing than others.

Research into similar products

This is the video of the Lady Gaga song Just dance from her album The Fame. The song is about dancing and being free due to being intoxicated at a club. 

This is at first different to my idea of a video because in my video my character is choosing not to go to a club. However the lyrics of "Just dance, gonna be okay" still show an idea of being free. Also is the part of the video where the scenes show various people kissing, and then it goes to Lady Gaga turning down someone so she can carry on dancing. This fits in to my video idea of not doing what other people are doing.

In the video she is wearing a bright coloured top to bring attention to herself. In my video my character will be wearing a bright red and white jacket which looks good on while dancing in a modern urban style.

Most of the shots in this video ware central frame shots. This is used as it not only shows the characters in the video dancing using the objects around them.

My new Storyboards

Research into similar products

This is the David Guetta song featuring Usher called Without You. This is similar to my song because it is of a similar Pop-Dance genre. It is also similar in that the lyrics are very limited to a few lines and a repitition of "Without You".

The video shows Usher on his own singing during the bits of the song that are low in volume and match the lyrics of "I will never be the same withouth you". He sings this during the quieter parts of the song to show he is emotionally hurt from a break up.

During the choruses he is performing in front of a large, partying crowd. The beat is louder and more instrumentals are added in to the chorus. The partying croud and heavy atmosphere help to showcase the difference from Usher's sadness to him going all out partying with the croud.

New Narrative

At the start of the video my character receives a text from a friend that talks about going on a night out with them. This is something that my character thinks a little about a decision. He then opens his wardrobe and looks through potential clothes to wear. He spots his red jacket and then the camera zooms into his forehead and the set changes from his wardrobe to him dancing with the red jacket on him. He will be dancing in front of a crowd, and then the set changes back to his face. This shows that the dancing that just happened was in his head and it is what encouraged him to make the decision to stay at home.

Following his decision to stay at home, his receives text messages from friends telling him about what he could be missing out on. However he is happy to miss out on these things as he just wants to have a night in to himself and not always have to go somewhere because other people are. He responds to the texts saying he is not up to it.

The dance scene is going to be similar to the Tom Cruise dance scene in Risky Business as I will be making reference to it, even showing my character watching it on the internet before dancing.

My character will be wearing the red jacket that he had imagined himself wearing before while singing along to the lyrics of be free. The song and video go well as my character is being free by himself whereas he would not have been if he went out.

My video ends with the character doing a epic pose his dancing. He then goes back to his normal activities like using the internet. He watches a new video and imagines himself dancing like the video. The camera then does another close-up on his face and shows him happy about the thought of dancing again.

New song choice

http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/DanceMusic-2.html
This is the song I chose from unsignedbandsweb.com. The name of the song is Be free and the artist Morano. To use this I first needed to ask for the artist's permission to use the song for my music video.

This is a print screen of the email as proof that I have sent this email asking for his permission.

Research into similar products

This is the film risky business business staring Tom Cruise. In this scene of the video Tom Cruise is enjoying some time to himself and dancing to some loud music. In my video my character very much does the same.

This is a good video to research into because of the casualness of his clothing. Just a shirt on over his boxers really does say something about what it is he is planning and that is he doesn't really want to do anything else.

The camera angle throughout most of this is a central frame. This is good for the scene as it allows the surrounding area to be shown and works in Tom Cruise's favour because all the surrounding area is, is part of his house. It shows nothing different from what you would expect from a house. Staircases, dining table fireplace e.t.c. The audience watching this will be able to relate to this because plenty of people have danced at home to music when they were alone.

In my video, I want to use this kind of sequence to make my dance scene for normal while being interesting for an audience. During the scene I will make reference to this video with specific dance moves for my character to perform that was done in the original scene while maybe even showing my character watching this scene.

Ancillary Product research: Magazine advertisements

This is the Plan B album "The Defamation Of Strickland Banks". The black and white picture of him in his suit is in keeping with the overall genre of the album as an soulful jazzy sound to it. The main font of the artist name and album title are written in bold font to highlight the importance of this to the advert.

At the bottom left-hand corner of  is the album cover, this is so people will know what it will look like before they buy it and the artist wears the same outfit in the album cover as in the magazine advertisement.

Final set details, Inc. Photos of set locations

The image above is an image of my corridor. I took this at night because I could get a good view of my shadow this way. My shadow is there because during the song the bass will drop lower and sound slightly darker and the camera will capture my shadow dancing on the wall.

The Common room will be used as a place I can run to when the excitement from everyone is getting too much for my character in the video only to find more dancing.

In the video. The playground is where the football will be played and also where I will see the first set of people dancing which I will evade as my character is meant to be in a bad mood.

This is outside of my house. In the first verse, I will be leaving my house to go to the school, and later on I will be coming back into my house.


When I am coming back home this is the camera angle I want to use this camera shot while crossing the road. During the song there's a pause and then the instrumental suddenly starts back up again. Me running through quickly emphasises this.

I walk down the staircase to reveal my the red jacket I will be wearing, because earlier in the video the camera will zoom on the red jacket to foreshadow that I will be wearing it. Walking down the stairs without showing my face at first is a way of quickly reintroducing the jacket in the video.

Props/Costumes/Equipment lists

1 A red and white jacket as this will bring more attention to me as I am dancing or in the middle of a crowd
2 My wardrobe will be a prop as this is where I will take my jacket from. The camera will zoom on the jacket and the scene will change
3 An American football. This is the sport I have chosen to film me and a few others playing.
4 A key to my house. I will be opening the door with the key before reading a note which lets me transport.
5 The note that I read will have written on it "Squeeze and think of where you want to go"
6 A Blackberry Curve 8520. I will receive a text which will have importance to the rest of the video but it is undecided what the text will say.

Complete story boards

 Narrative 

In the beginning of the video there will be an alarm that wakes me up. The screen will be black to represent my eyes closed and when my eyes open, there will be a close-up on my face which shows my distaste to the alarm ringing on my phone and to getting up in general.

Shot-List and Edit List and Narrative

Edit List:
Straight Cut to Black
Straight Cut from Black
Straight Cut
Match Cut
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Jump Cut
Jump Cut
Straight Cut
Reaction Shot
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Motivation Cut
Straight Cut
Jump Cut
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Reaction Shot
Cross-Cut
Straight Cut
Straight Cut
Jump Cut
Straight Cut

Shot List
High-Angle shot of the presenters presenting my video.
Mid-Shot close-up of me talking to the audience
Title Shot of "Flying"
Central Frame of the surrounding area at the start of the proper video
Mid-Shot close-up group shot of me talking to a few people in the school
Tracking Camera while dancing to enhance audience viewing participation.
Eye-level camera on me when Miming the words
POV shots of me at eye-level
Low-Angle shots of me
High Angle/ with POV shots to show difference
Mid Shot close-up of me dancing
Establishing Shot of Hall used for dancing
Title Shot of "Flying"

 Narrative 

In the beginning of the video there will be an alarm that wakes me up. The screen will be black to represent my eyes closed and when my eyes open, there will be a close-up on my face which shows my distaste to the alarm ringing on my phone and to getting up in general.

Then after as I am getting changed I open my wardrobe to find the red and white baseball jacket of mine, the camera zooms in on the jacket and then the scene cuts to me dancing in the red jacket on a stage as the main music starts up. With the way the camera zooms in on the jacket and after the frist dancing scene, the camera cuts back to a close up of me to create the feeling for the audience of me imagining that scene happening in my head.

As I walk down my staircase the camera will be at a position where you can't see my face as I want my facial expression to be revealed slightly later. All the audience see is me walking down with the red and white jacket on, and the jacket is highlighted compared to the dull surroundings of my staircase to foreshadow the importance of that jacket to the my characters mood and behaviour later on in the video. The camera cuts to my face to show the tiredness and dissapointment of my character to going outside of the house, and this happens around the time where the lyric that is song is "Just loving being all alone". This plays to the video because my character is unhappy about leaving his house to go outside as he wants to be all alone. the audiencce can suggest that my character is going out because he dressed up in obvious going out clothes, although the next time my character dreeses up in those clothes, he is planning on staying at home and going nowhere.

Then my character is using the computer on facebook talking to one of his friends about going out drinking all day, for an "All day session" and then going out in the night. My character then disagrees and replies about the expenses of going out today and how he has spent too much money. The lyric "So what if you think I'm wierd" will come up as part of the conversation and roll across the screen as I plan on making a couple or more references to the lyrics. 

Final Music Video Idea

After considering the options that were inspired by my research into similar products, my final music video idea will be the idea that was inspired more by Chris Brown's "Beautiful People" and Sak Noel's "Loca People".

However I will still use some of the influence from "Rolling in the Deep" and "Human Nature". For e.g the constant zoom in on Adele in "Rolling in the Deep" on various angles and the sketchy effects of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", although the latter will be harder to achieve.

The thing I loved about Sak Noel's video was the comical editing and for Chris Brown the little skits of individual dancing and reactions to his songs. For my video I already have a host of ideas for individual dancing performances from certain people I have in mind and I would like to create a laid back, relaxed attitude to the overall editing of the video, even though the actual editing process won't be so laid back and relaxed.

In my video the use of the central frame angle and the slow tracking camera movement will be in abundance as I feel it is the best way to show dancing in a way the audience can feel like their watching it actually happen right in front of them.


THE MAIN PLOT
There is a presentation competition called the 2011 Media arts junior honours and I am one of the contestants who couldn't be there so has to be viewed from the screen by the audience. When my video is next to be shown there is a video uplink from me introducing the video as a presentation on me and some of my friends and school friends.

I will appear at various points of the video and at the start as I talk to the camera in my hand, while trying my best to avoid a Cloverfield impersonation at all times.

After the video is shown, it will be treated to a round of applause and the victory in the competition will be assured.

POSSIBLES
I may add a scene at the very as a tribute to one of the artists that I researched into similar products but this seems to be to cheesy to me so it is not clear as to whether or not I could add this after finishing the rest of the video.

I thought of having, in the middle of the video, an interruption because there was a fault with the projector showing my presentation, however I do feel as though this may be very unnecessary and bordering on absolutely pointless. This may just work if the video ends up having a very comical effect, if not then it is something I will definitely leave out.

Some Props and costumes

Inspiration: Central frame shot while dancing

I love this shot and how it showcase the dancing in the centre from the show "Shake It Up" on Disney Channel. The shot strongly resembles the proscenium staging commonly used in theatres in which the audience directly face the actors on the stage. As the Actors are performing, in this case dancing the audience directly face them and because of this, it is easier to watch the dance moves.

There is also a mid-shot  of the character as the speak about performing the various dances. Doing this will ensure that the audience are not too far away from the conversation as well as showcasing the various characters confidence of their abilities with their arrogant bodily expressions after completing their little dance segments.

The scene cuts from mid-shot to central frame and back to mid-shot every time they dance. The flow of this is used to interest the audience. The central frame is used to show the actors' full body and the surrounding area while they dance so the audience can see it better, and the mid-shots are used to show the bodily reactions of the actors to the dancing, which the audience will also be interested in seeing. The central frame used while the actors were dancing also shows the importance of dancing to the show as the central frame is only used to showcase the dancing.

The audience are more involved with the scene as the central frame keeps you in line with the performers. The scene impacts on the audience even more when the camera slowly tracks "Ty" as he moonwalks which reflects the way the audience would watch him. 

As my music video will contain varied individual dance performances, this sort of camera shot is vital to make the audience more interested in the video and the dancing shown on it.

Audience secondary research

The results of this questionnaire where varied to say the least, however the three most importannt questions to my music video were questions 1,4 and 5

The results to number one were similar because 9o% of poeple circled most of the options, so this made my decision on the type of song more difficult because the answers were more widespread.

The answers to number 4 leant more towards comical, but I did get 30% of my responses stating other and writting that they would like a sexy video. In the end I am more likely to make a video comical, as I am not sure of the boundaries of sexuality for this music video. Although perhaps the actors I use for this video may be described as sexy by some or many.

For the fifth question 60% of the aswers circled Sak Noel while 30% circled Michael jackson and 10% circled Adele. I wanted my video to be more comical so my audience choosing Sak Noel worked to my advantage.

Target Audience

When recording the songs, I decided that based on the songs themselves, my target audience would be a younger audience who like a wider variety of music, but louder music nonetheless. I believe the age group would be from 15-26 which is a larger age group than most music has because most of the songs I recorded were based on songs that had a larger age group.

I have to keep my target audience in mind when choosing the song as I feel it would be too unpredictable to have no target audience for my songs. When having a target audience, it becomes easier to research into similar products, thus making your own product better. However most pop songs do appeal to a general audience even if they only have a small target audience anyway

Audience Primary research

This is the questionnaire I have done for my audience primary research:

What type of music do you like?
Hip Hop  R"n"B  Rock  Pop  Dance  Folk  Country  Soul  Other
Please state if other.................

What is your favourite music video?


How often do you watch music videos?
Everyday  5 days a week  3 days a week  Not very often  Not at all  Other
Please state if other.........................

What type of music video do you like
Artistic  Real life-like  Performance based  Comical  Other
Please state if other...................................

Which of these artists do you lean more towards
Sak Noel (Loca people)  Michael Jackson  Adele  Chris Brown

The results of this questionnaire where varied to say the least, however the three most importannt questions to my music video were questions 1,4 and 5

Initial ideas

My initial idea is a basic one with plenty of people miming the words to the song at various parts of the song. However based on my research on pop videos, I have been inspired to use some of the various camera movements and editing techniques used in those videos as well as the content of the music videos.

The slow zoom in on Adele's face in her "Rolling in the deep" music video at various angles repeatedly during the video was something that I liked because the slow zoom in slowly brings the audience closer to her, or feels like it does anyway, although my first choice song is not as emotional as "Rolling in the deep", but the slow zoom in does attract an audience so it is a good idea if I want my video and mimers to be attractive to the audience.

The animation of the "Loca people" music video by Sak Noel when the colourful bars are shown as subtitles of what they are meant to be saying is what I liked the most about the video. It adds a simple but very effective comical effect to the video. As my first choice music video is going adhere towards comical more than serious, I believe it is a good idea to add silly comedy and not always necessarily intellectually stimulating communication betwwen actors and audience.

The individual dancing from Chris Brown in "Beautiful people" inspired the performance based part of my first choice music video idea. I wanted to have performnaces but didn't want a big choreograped number, so looking at how this music video incorporates the dancing shows me how to make match the music video, even though there isn't a particular storyline in the music video.

Ancillary Product research: Magazine advertisments

The following image is a magazine advert of Ellie Goulding's album "Lights". The image is of a mid-shot close-up of the Artist, which shows a bold side to her which helps her to promote herself showing that she is confident to have her face as the main image that helps sell the album and that the magazine is confident in her that her face is enough to help the album sell, which in turn gets more people to buy the magazine, if they have advertise successful artists.

The Artist name is bold to signify that she is the important one. Not only that but both the artist name and the album name are lit up, linking to the name of the album "Lights" The font is plain but expressive as it has a certain edge to show to the costumers that the artist has more to her than is seen on there.

I would like to use the font to as an inspiration to make mine expressive to the type of artist I eventually  come up with as I am just in the initial stages of the product.

Ancillary Product research: Album covers

This is the Jim Hendrix album cover for the album Axis As Bold As Love. I like the colouring of the cover as the colour makes the album quite bold, which obvioulsy bodes well with the title as well as making it brighter and it makes the animation look like a trendy painting, making it look quite cool..

 I like the animation of the cover. I originally wanted, for my cover, to have the artist masthead with various figures or objects surrounding them. i wasn't sure how this would look so I went investigating mirror effects on paintings and album covers, thus finding this. Looking at this cover, I realise how I could possibly make my cover similar to this, and look good using the resources at my disposal.

I have been stuck on with of these covers I like more. They are both just mastheads of Michael Jackson from the albums Ben and Forever Michael, but with two differences in the angles. The Cover for Ben is at a high angle, whilst the cover for Forever Michael is at a central frame.

If I make my cover similar to Ben and the high angle of Michael Jackson then it would create an idea of my artist as being slightly dominant in a way, perhaps in a "He or she is a famous musical and your'e not", indicating he is dominant in only that term, or maybe in a more composed sense t show wisdom or talent beyond the artist's years, which the latter does here for Michael jackson in his Ben album cover.

The Forever Michael album cover creates an idea of maybe an equalness between buyers and the artist as Michael Jackson is looking at the camera, meaning he is looking at the buyer and the central frame. I personally prefare the High angle of the Ben album, but I can take certain things from the Forever Michael album cover, like the font, the boldness of Michael Jackson's name against the much smaller font compliments his importance to the marketing of the album.

Target audience

A target audience is a way of marketing to a specific group of people ie age, gender, fiancial status e.t.c. It is known to be easier to market to a specific group than to everyone because it is easier to know what, for example, a group of teenagers would want to listen to in terms of music, than it is to know what everyone would like. Although if you do manage to appeal to everyone from different age groups, genders and financial statuses, then the benefits are a lot greater. This can be seen with artists like Adele and Michael Jackson, who have set household names for themselves making music that a lot of people can like.

Chris Brown Feat. Benny Bennasi Beautiful People

I have chosen this video as part of my research into similar products mainly because the actual plot of the video doesn't actually match the actual song but the rhythm and pace of the video do. This video is a key inspiration for my music video because the plot of my music video could be some dancing to the beat of the song with no strong plot.

The artist is featured on here as well as a load of other artists that are his friends. I want to include myself in my video but for a lot of the video I would like to show a lot of other people maybe dancing to the music or interacting in some way.

The music video is aimed at a younger audience, from the awkawrd pre-teen age till the twenty-somethings, which is similar to one of the song I have in mind.

Sak Noel Loca people

This video has a very comical and animated style in its editing, with the words flashing across the screen with different colours surrounding the words for different people and different moods. Also this video has a comic effect with the man in the sunglasses A.K.A Johnny who is actually Sak Noel.

 I would like my video to be more comical, as well as a mixture of other genres and moods as this would make it more interesting if used well and also I was planning on having someone else star in my video, while I have a lesser role so this is a good similar product in that respect.

Michael Jackson: Human Nature

The main plot of the video is just Michael Jackson walking around a town looking at different images that have significance to him or his career. I like the still shot shown behing or infront of him to show him walking away or towards the camera, although the video looks like a lot of shots of drawings put together in chronilogical order of the plot, or direction the video was going.

I would like to use this video as an inspiration for my video in the way the still shots show him against the background and how they make him stand out, or blend in to the surrounding area, and the speed of which he walks is in time with the counts of the song.

More Camera shots/angles

Close-up

Close-ups are one of the most used shots in film making.
Close-ups are often used in distinguish important characters in a scene of a film or the whole film. They are more common in television series than in films, especially in soap operas.

The video for the Adele song "Rolling In The Deep" is one that matches the song with various items and acrobatic moves. Like when the drums come in to the song, the video matches this by showing countless numbers of cups filled 3/4 of the way while the floor shakes to get an earthquake-like feel to the song.

The video itself has a very dull lighting with black and white being the dominant colours. On the whole it makes the video look very natural, which in itself is relating to how natural it is to feel like taking revenge after a break-up you feel was down to the other person.

I also notice how the camera slowly zooms in on her for almost every shot, as the original shots show her against the empty room which is unfinished as relating to her unfinished business with her ex, but as the camera zooms in, we get sucked in to her world and her feelings which help make the emotion of the song even more apparent and because Adele is the main focus of the video, the camera zooms in on her when she is singing, to make her words the only things that matter.

The song is meant to be about a break-up, which would usually mean a video where the singer is very emotional, but this video doesn't stick to the regular mould of these types of songs. In this video Adele is sitting down on her chair and going nowhere whereas in other videos the singer would be pacing about almost in tears and holding their hands on the head. Adele's position represents her defiance to do so and when the camera focus is further away, we can see her in the middle of the room, not letting the spacious room overwhelm her and cause her to stick to the corner of it crying.

The breaking up the cups in the video are there to represent the fighting throughout the relationship and how often these fights happen while the dancer that throws powder as he dances distorts the screen, this may represent the distortion in her relationship.

One of the video ideas I have for my video, is an emotional love song, and I think Rolling in the Deep is a good similar product because not only is the song similar to my song, I also like to dull lighting to reflect the naturalness of her feelings which is something I will be looking to take inspiration from for my video.

Various camera shots/angles

Long shot/ Wide shot

A long shot would usually shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surrounding area. A long shot is now often reffered to as a wide shot because of its use of a wide angle Lenz. When A long shot is used to set up a location and its objects/people, it is reffered to as an Establishing shot. This shot is what I will use to establish each setting that could be used shown in the video and how the character in the video reflects or opposes to the setting.


Mid shot Close-up/Medium Close-up

A Mid shot Close-up is halfway between a mid shot and a close up. It is usually used to cover the subjects head and shoulders. I could use this to show the character glances at something that causes an emotional response, and then move in to an extream close-up to really draw out the reaction to looking at something.




High angle shot

A high angle shot is usually when the camera is located above the eyeline.
With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus often get "swallowed up" by the setting. High angle shots also make the figure or object seem vulnerable or powerless. High angle shots are usually used in film to make the moment more dramatic or if there is someone at a high level that the character below is talking to. I could use this to show a challenge bigger than the character in terms of size, extent or importance.

A2 Media Studies- A promotion package for the release of an Album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options.

A website homepage for the band/artist

A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).