In our first group meeting there was lots of discussions about the theme and genre we were going to use. As a group we felt that the genre of a song reflected the theme we could include, for example we felt that a dance song which was fast paced would connote happiness and friendship whereas a slow country song stereotypically connote heartbreak and sadness. As a group the main theme and concept we wanted to include in our video was happiness, friendship and family rather than heartbreak and sadness. After discussing this we decided to do a dance song as hapiness, having fun and partying with friend is one of the many conventions of a dance video. We then decided on the song Wake me up by Avicii, we feel this song is upbeat and the lyrics are positive enough for the themes we would like to include. We also feel the slow paced at the beginning and end of the song and the fast paced beat throughout the middle of the song will enable us to create a contrasting narrative. As a group we had other idea's such as 'Londons Caliing' by Clash, as we wanted to include an element of being in the city however felt the song was too slow and drery. We also considered 'The sun don't shine' by Sonix which we was close to choosing however we felt the lyrics in 'Wake me up' would connote our themes and concept ideas more. The way we are going to choose to connote out themes are through a narrative/concept music video there will be some performance such a dancing but this will be used within our narrative and not a performance direct to the camera.
As our basic concept is about family, friends and having fun we chose our narrative to consist two teenage boys, who were best friends going to a party. Although our music video narrative is of two best friends going to a party out music video will start from the morning after. We chose to do this in order to create a flashback affect by using jump cuts and fades to flashback back to the night before. We wanted to include flashbacks of the two boys partying rather than the narrative going in chronological order so we could represent the lyrics of finding their way back home. The boys do not know how they got to the place they find themselves waking up in the morning, but the flashback help them gain their drunken memories back. In between flashback the two teenage boys will be filmed making their way home laughing at te flashbacks if the night before, eventually the boys go seperate ways so they can go home. Upon arrival we will use a split screen to contrast the differences between family life. One boy will return home to his warm family home greeting his little sister whereas the other will be an only child going to a place he doesn't really like to call home. The idea of this is to contrast how friends and having fun is important however your family will always be the ones you go home to yet some people are not lucky enough to have families like others.
The first point we considered once we had come up with our basic idea was mise-en-scene. In order to make out party scenes seems realistic we wanted to include realistic clothing therefor our characters will be dressed in casual party clothes as they are teenage boys and they tend to wear very basic clothing also because the party we are portraying isn't massively glamorous and teenage boys do not tend to go to party's in suits ect. For lighting we chose to use lowkey for the party scene with flashing lights as it is conventional to the party scene and dance genre and natural lighting for the day time scenes as when filming it will be light out showing it is the morning after. Icongograohy was another important element of mise-en-scene we needed to include to portray a realistic party scene. As we will be filming the party scenes of out music video at an actual party this will not be a problem as we will have all iconography needed which will include thins such as alcoholic drink, empty beer bottles, lights ect. For location we chose to film in a club for the party scene as our party scene will be real, London for the scene where yh boys wake up as we feel this is an iconic location in which people will recognise and remember and out own homes for the scene where the boys return home in order for out scenes to be realistic. Characters will be positioned centre frame throughout the video as they are the significant characters and the narrative is based around them.
The second point we discussed was how the artist is being represented. The real artist (Avicii) will not be featuring in our music video as we are recreating the music video. However as our music video is not performance based we will not be aiming to re-represent the artist through our characters either therefor there will not be a representation of the arist only on the characters who are part of the narrative.
Cinematography was the next element we discussed. As a group we talked about using lots of variety when talking about cinematography, we started off with the basics such as close up to show emotions such as happiness and confusion then decided on mid shots and long shots to show the characters movements, then decided on panning shots to establish setting.
For editing we decided that we will include fast editing such as straight cuts and jump cuts to follow conventions of the dance genre and party scene as well as slow editing as it is commonly used to slow down scenes in order to let the audience see what is happening in a party more clearly within dance music videos such as 'we found love' by Rihanna. We also chose to use fading techniques to fade the flashbacks in and out to make them seems like they are actually fading back into the characters memory.
When choosing the style of music video we wanting to create more of a narrative based video. This is because it would be difficult to create a performance type as the dance genre is more about listening to the beat and dancing to the song rather than feeling the emotions of the words sung. We also chose to include concept as we did not want our music video to be meaningless, but have a positive message to our target audience.
Another vital element we had to consider when planning our music video was the codes and conventions we where going to follow. The dance genre portrays happiness and having fun therefore we chose to include party scene and being happy with lots of friends. Within the party scene we wanting to include all the conventional elements of a party for example flashing lights, alcohol and dancing in order for our target audience to be able to relate to the music video and be able to build a relationship with our characters.
Our target audience was something we also had to consider, we discussed who we thought our narrative idea and style of music video would best relate to along with the actual song. Our target audiences ended up being young teens/adults (15-25) we decided on this age group for many reasons. Firstly the song is very current and doing well in the charts along with the dance genre which is also recently become very popular amongst young people and more dance songs are appearing in the charts such as kissfm top 40 which is watched by a lot of young teens/adults. Another reason is that Avicii's target audience is roughly the same therefore as it is the same song we feel ours should be similar. And lastly we feel the narrative we want to create appeals best to young teens and adults as they are currently at the the age where they are going out partying, having fun with their friends however facing tough times with finding themselves or even at home with family as teens tend to argue a lot with parents.
When discussing what theory's we wanting to follow we chose to follow both Goodwin's and Dyers however not all the points. For Goodwin's theory we knew we wanted to ensure our music video contained genre characteristics, this was so we had more of a chance of getting our music video appealing to our target audience also because we simply liked the characteristics of a dance music video and want to recreate it as we feel it will be very fun. We also wanted to follow the second and third point of his theory where 'music and visuals' and 'lyrics and visuals' share a relationship, we chose to follow these points as we feel it contributes a lot towards making a music video appealing as we feel that as teenagers when we watch a music video and don't get the meaning in connection to the lyrics, we feel less affected by the song. We do not want our audience to feel like that as we want the visuals to highlight the meaning and beat of the song. We decided we would not follow his point of voyeuristic treatment of the female body as we want to keep the attention on Jake and George and we also felt that intertexual references where unnecessary as we wanted to focus on the concept of our music video.
For Dyers theory we decided to use 2 of his most common values of a star which where youthfulness and rebelliousness, along with many of our own values such as fun, loving. We also decided to try and follow his 2 paradoxes of an artist being simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary as well as present and absent.
We then carried out research in order to build our inspirations and ideas for our music video. This included us researching other music videos from the dance genre and more into Avicii as an artist. We also annotated the lyrics of 'Don't wake me' in order to gain further understanding of the meaning of the song. This research has been presented in other posts.
When choosing the style of music video we wanting to create more of a narrative based video. This is because it would be difficult to create a performance type as the dance genre is more about listening to the beat and dancing to the song rather than feeling the emotions of the words sung. We also chose to include concept as we did not want our music video to be meaningless, but have a positive message to our target audience.
Another vital element we had to consider when planning our music video was the codes and conventions we where going to follow. The dance genre portrays happiness and having fun therefore we chose to include party scene and being happy with lots of friends. Within the party scene we wanting to include all the conventional elements of a party for example flashing lights, alcohol and dancing in order for our target audience to be able to relate to the music video and be able to build a relationship with our characters.
Our target audience was something we also had to consider, we discussed who we thought our narrative idea and style of music video would best relate to along with the actual song. Our target audiences ended up being young teens/adults (15-25) we decided on this age group for many reasons. Firstly the song is very current and doing well in the charts along with the dance genre which is also recently become very popular amongst young people and more dance songs are appearing in the charts such as kissfm top 40 which is watched by a lot of young teens/adults. Another reason is that Avicii's target audience is roughly the same therefore as it is the same song we feel ours should be similar. And lastly we feel the narrative we want to create appeals best to young teens and adults as they are currently at the the age where they are going out partying, having fun with their friends however facing tough times with finding themselves or even at home with family as teens tend to argue a lot with parents.
When discussing what theory's we wanting to follow we chose to follow both Goodwin's and Dyers however not all the points. For Goodwin's theory we knew we wanted to ensure our music video contained genre characteristics, this was so we had more of a chance of getting our music video appealing to our target audience also because we simply liked the characteristics of a dance music video and want to recreate it as we feel it will be very fun. We also wanted to follow the second and third point of his theory where 'music and visuals' and 'lyrics and visuals' share a relationship, we chose to follow these points as we feel it contributes a lot towards making a music video appealing as we feel that as teenagers when we watch a music video and don't get the meaning in connection to the lyrics, we feel less affected by the song. We do not want our audience to feel like that as we want the visuals to highlight the meaning and beat of the song. We decided we would not follow his point of voyeuristic treatment of the female body as we want to keep the attention on Jake and George and we also felt that intertexual references where unnecessary as we wanted to focus on the concept of our music video.
For Dyers theory we decided to use 2 of his most common values of a star which where youthfulness and rebelliousness, along with many of our own values such as fun, loving. We also decided to try and follow his 2 paradoxes of an artist being simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary as well as present and absent.
We then carried out research in order to build our inspirations and ideas for our music video. This included us researching other music videos from the dance genre and more into Avicii as an artist. We also annotated the lyrics of 'Don't wake me' in order to gain further understanding of the meaning of the song. This research has been presented in other posts.
This post demonstrates some good group planning and discussions that you have had, which is also evident through your planning sheets. Now aim to include your meetings and discussions records too.
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