Really want to film now...

I really want to film now, and it's terrible because noone is availible when we want them to film. I suggestted to the group about filming shots that do not include any people, but according to Charlotte, there is none.

I'm just thinking about what shots I could film that don't include people such as the televison shot. As soon as I can get hold of a video camera, I will film that shot, because at least it is something that would be on our video tape.

Filming = Non Existant as of Yet

Unfortunately our group hasn't even laid hands on a camera yet and started to film. The filming has been restricted due to issues and problems that have arisen, for example:

• We had set a date for Wednesday 23rd September, to film after school, however none of our 'actors' that were meant to be in our music video bothered to show up. This is extremely frustrating because we have next to no shots in our storyboard that don't have an actor in them, whether they are pretending to be part of the band, or part of the story-line. We have a few, which we could film, and that we should film now, because we are running dangerously close to our deadline, and at the end of the day it is just not acceptable to not have any filming done whats-so-ever. So basically, we need to do something sharpish.

Here is our shooting schedule - in which we were very hopeful to have 'everything' done by after school today.

That has failed, as we have done no filming as of yet. However you can see the locations, props and actors that we plan to have in our music video, as soon as we start the filming.

Analysis of StoryBoards

In the post below, you can see our storyboards for our music video. Here we have many interesting scenes, including:

• An elevator scene in which a male figure and a female are standing, and a woman pushes the button to go down... there is lots of sexual innuendo there.
• A scene in which a female is dancing for two males who are sitting on chairs
• A scene where a male is lying on a bed, and different women and men enter and exit the bedroom that he is in.
• A wedding scene

Throughout our music video, there is lots of sexual innuendo, and misbehavior, which is linked towards Placebo's official music video, in which everything is 'trippy' and 'graphically natured'. We hope to make it as original as we can - using elements that perhaps haven't been used in commercial videos, as opposed to the alternative videos that you rarely seen on MTV or SMASHHITS...

Storyboards

Taking charge of the storyboards

For the most part, except for a few slides, I was in control of the storyboards. I was able to draw the pictures and colour them in and also add the information for transitions, and general information.

I really enjoyed this task (as I enjoy artwork and drawing anyway) and it was nice to see our music video ideas down on paper, even if the drawings weren't up to scratch (blame my drawing skills). It become more of a task, as opposed to some ideas in the imagination.

I am really excited to now film what is on the storyboards.

Presentation

Here I have made a presentation with the following key information -

• Genre and Song Choice of our band
• The YOUTUBE link to the official music video
• The Image that we are trying to portray
• The Research that we have done
• Target Audience
• Roles that each of our group is going to play/do
• Where are we going to film?

Lyric Analysis

Here are the lyrics for Placebo's Nancy Boy. I have analyzed the lyrics into what our group would like to put into our music video.

Alcoholic kind of mood
Lose my clothes, Lose my lube <---- see him drinking and cuts to an empty bottle
Cruising for a piece of fun
Looking out for number one <---- Car driving down a road looking out at the road, seeing all the people standing around
Different partner every night
So narcotic outta sight <---- See one man in bed, bed cover changes, see different people get out of the bed
What a gas
What a beautiful ass <---- Cuts to a shot of the male

And it all breaks down at the role reversal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me
And it all breaks down at the first rehearsal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me <----- The male is sitting there and a woman is dancing for him

Kind of buzz that lasts for days
Had some help from insect ways <---- There is a TV showing insects on the screen
Comes across all shy and coy
Just another nancy boy
Woman man or modern monkey
Just another happy junkie <--- Cutting between woman, man and then a monkey, moves into slow motion as they are all laughing, make up is smudged and the man looks scruffy.
Fifty pounds
Press my button
Going down <---- Shot of a lift and the man pushing the down button, and you see the women move down as the man stands there in the middle

And it all breaks down at the role reversal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me
And it all breaks down at the first rehearsal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me

Does his makeup in his room
Douse himself with cheap perfume
Eyeholes in a paper bag
Greatest lay I ever had
Kind of guy who mates for life
Gotta help him find a wife
We're a couple <---- See the man passing with his new wife, and there is another man who is standing next to him singing. Happy.
When our bodies double

And it all breaks down at the role reversal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me
And it all breaks down at the first rehearsal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me

And it all breaks down at the role reversal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me
And it all breaks down at the first rehearsal
Got the muse in my head she's universal
Spinnin' me round she's coming over me <----- Spinning around and they are in each other's clothes, and all the way through this final chorus they are each other but don't actually know that they are in role reversal

Target Audience

Our target audience is for older teenagers – maybe 18-24 – who are interested in the INDIE/ALTERNATIVE genre. The reason for such an older audience, compared to 15 or 16 year olds is because of the nature of our music video. The lyrics of Nancy Boy are not exactly ‘soft’ when put into context, and when we place this into our own images for our music video, it might not be suitable for younger ages. The general concept of Nancy Boy is filled with sex, drugs and general misbehaviour so its not exactly suitable for people under 18.

For our fan-made music video, we are using Placebo's 'Nancy Boy'.
We chose this because some of the members in my group are
interested in the genre of Indie, and the alternative side of music.
We also liked the lyrics in the song, even though they link to
images such as drugs, sex and general misbehaviour.
Below, you can see an official video to the song that
we have chosen. Throughout the video, you can see images that
aren't exactly normal - such as legs without a body, and a face smiling
wider than is humanly possible. We hope to include some of these
'trippy' elements into our own music video.

Who are the band we are using the song from?

The band that we are doing is Placebo. Placebo, an alternative rock band, were formed in 1994 in Gravesend, London. The band members consist of: Brain Molko, Stefan Osdal and Steve Forrest. They have become very successful, with such hits like 'Nancy Boy' (which is our song choice), 'Running up that Hill', 'Meds' and 'Infrared' to name a few.

Collage

As our chosen genre is of Indie, our group composed together a selection of images of different Indie bands, and wrote some stereotypical information about them. Here you will see bands such as the The Kaiser Chiefs and We were Scientists, all of which holds a key image into what we want in our music video - guitars, male singers, typical clothing such as skinny jeans, ties and shirts, and a band shot all throughout the music video.

What is Indie Music?

Analysis of Questionnaire

From my results, I can see that the most people I surveyed were male. This may be a stereotypical view at what gender listens to the most music, with females being stereotypically interested in makeup and clothes. I was pleased that my results showed a diverse range of ages from 10 years old to 50+ - it just proves that ALL ages listen to music, as opposed to stereotypical teenagers, however genres of music do reflect the age range. The nationalities in my survey are mostly White British, although I have several African/Caribbean and one Asian/Indian person. It is stereotypical that White British, especially teenagers, that listen to the most music. When I asked what people expect from music videos, almost every choice was circled (across the whole surveys) but the ones that came out most were ‘Focus on Singer Constantly’ and ‘Storyline’ – something to think about when I make my own music video. Most people live in England. Almost all the choices, across the survey, were circled for favourite genre, with ‘Pop’ and ‘Rock’ coming out the most – stereotypical genres that people like best. Question number 7 in which I asked the favourite artist/group didn’t help me at all because it was a too broader question for analysis – I could of used that number of question more productively. When I asked whether people watched music channels like The Box or TMF, it was almost an equal spilt between the people that did and the people that didn’t. It just proves that even though someone can be really into their music, they might not want to watch the music videos to accompany it. A lot of people on my survey download music, but due to some of the age ranges – it was evident that the older ages bought CD’s – maybe because they haven’t got used to Internet technology and the world of downloading. Some people like music videos that are available right now, but some don’t – so it is evident that there is a niche market out there that wants to watch music videos that are brand new.

What bands are we looking at?

In order to follow this indie/alternative feel to the music video, we have to pick a key song and band that will do this effectively.
We had in mind: We are Scientists, Placebo,and Billy Talent.

After much consideration, and looking at some music videos of each of the band, we feel like Placebo suits the mood of what we want to achieve best. For example, in songs like 'Nancy Boy' and '36 Degrees' there are elements that are classed as 'trippy' and would be good to include as it is original like:
* Singing underwater
* Having flashing images of various things, but very very quick cuts
* Having the band play with the singer
* Having 'crazy' elements like having a male sing but without any legs (weird huh? :] ) and singing in the bath

We hope to include and incorporate some of these into our music video

Questionnaire

Here is the template that I used and created so that people could fill in, and I would gain an insight into what people really liked in a music video

My 3 Best Genres

For my research and planning for music videos, I devised a table complete with my 3 best genres...here I have selected a few songs in the genres and gave an insight into the elements and props they used to make a successful music video. Perhaps I could use these elements in my own music video

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity

For our music video research, we had to look at four theories:
* Spatial
* Graphic
* Temporal
* Rhythmic

We had to apply these to a music video in which I was given: Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity.

Here is my presentation, showing how scenes from the music video relate to either Spatial, Graphic, Temporal or Rhytmic elements.

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity Official Video

Here you can see the video that we had to analyse for Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmX1z1NY2c

Edit: Must change to embedded media

Audience Research

Why do you take surveys from the public?

• To find the right market (niche)
• To find a general opinion from the public
• What do audiences EXPECT from this product?

Quantitative

Qualitative

Quantitative - quantity of things, involves measurement of an amount

Qualitative - often used to gain a general sense of whats going on and ideas are explored

You need a large enough sample for results to be more accurate.

Open Questions

Closed Questions

Open Questions - information, more wide ranging

Example: How do you feel?...

Why do you think like this?...

Closed Questions - Do you like this?

Yes or no - are you happy with this?

What things to ask about in a survey:

Ethnicity

Nationality

Region-ality

Genre

Job

Finance

Starting to blog...

After last years blogging, and using the website edublogs.org, just from apperance I can tell that Blogger is so much easier, and more comfortable to work with. It is so easy to go into your dashboard and your individial blogs...and to be able to post without any issues at all (compared to last years in which EduBlogs didn't want to save posts most of the time). It is extremely easy to upload images and to embed media, and to publish without any hassle.

It is extremely better than last years blog, and I am grateful to be using this website in order to do my music video project.