Decision on Brief.

From our research we decided to go for the music video idea. We liked that the music already gave us a narrative and that the story was in the lyrics. This gives us a script and gives us something to work with and helps us decide on what will happen in the video. If we were doing a movie we would have had to come up with a script and a story line which could have been a waste of precious planning and thinking time whilst we come up with the best idea.
We like that we will have Goodwins theory to help us with our music video. This will act as a guide to what we should include in our music video to make it as successful as possible.
The budget side of a music video also appealed to us as we thought we could make a better music video, with a smaller budget, than a good movie trailer. After watching the Hunger Games and comparing it with Taylor Swift we were struck with how much cheaper Taylor's video was. Set within a school and a house, it was easy that we could go along that sort of idea.
Another thing we realised whilst we annalysed these videos were the amount of locations included. The music videos were all one to three locations and easy places, like a school or in the street. A movie trailer (as it has to show bits of the whole movie) had closer to six locations, and this we found with most trailers.
We think we've made the best decision by choosing a music video, as it is better suited to us and our resources.

Movie Trailer.

The Hunger Games (2012)

After looking at two music videos using Goodwins theory, we thought that we had sufficient information about music videos. Before deciding on our brief we thought it would be worthwhile to look at a movie trailer so we could make an informed decision.

The Hunger Games trailer makes you excited for the film. It uses lots of short clips to create a pace which increases until the end when the clips are barely a second each. This helps build up intensity and speed. 

The video provides what it needs to and gives an overview of the film and its story. The beginning lets you know what the film is about. Instead of having a voice over they use characters dialogue to get across the main story of the film. You're introduced to the main character straight away so you know what to expect. As she leaves her house you see the kind of place she's living in and when she's talking to her friend you understand that she is kind of trapped in this place. The woman introduces us to the idea of the Hunger Games and what it's about, therefore giving us a good idea of the film and what it will entail. After you see that the girl is then entered into it you're shown clips of the lead up to it and the clips become faster. 

You can tell this is quite a high budget film from the special effects and the actors in it. The audience is probably older children to late teens. You can deduct this from the age of the main actors as they're of a teenage age group. 

Using Goodwins Theory.

Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

This video is a narrative video. It appeals to Taylor Swifts audience as she is mainly aimed at teenage girls. She's seen as a role model to younger girls whilst always being a bit nerdy and feisty. This also satisfies the demand of the record label, as the video is something girls can relate to and will watch. There's a scene where she is dressing as lots of different stereotypes, like she's trying to find her own style, this will be easy for girls to relate to as they're probably going through the same kind of thing.

The lyrics match the video, like when Taylor sings "she's cheer captain" and there is a scene where the other girls is dressed as a typical cheerleader. Even in the very first scene we see the boy on the phone, looking exasperated, when the lyrics are "you're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset". This happens throughout the video where the lyrics are almost identical to what's happening in the video.

When the chorus speeds up she is dancing round her room singing and the cuts flow with the music and the speed of it. When there's a guitar bit she is on her bed playing the 'air guitar,' which matches the music.

This is very typical of her genre. She's almost quite 'Disney' and this is transposed in her video with the over exaggerated roles. Her other videos are fairly similar in style and this helps her build up her personality and target her audience.

This story is very cliche. The nerdy best friend of the boy has a makeover and steals him off of his horrible girlfriend. It's cheesy and quite tongue in cheek, this is obvious as she's playing both roles and the characters are so stereotypical it's almost laughable. It has a similar story to films like "She's All That" and "Cinderella." 

There's plenty of close ups, especially on the nerdy girl. Mainly so you feel sympathetic for her and empathetic. There are also some close ups of the other girl after she's kissed the boy so you can see by her face she's warning Taylor off of 'her man' and it's done for effect. Taylor is also the only one who looks at the camera as if she's aware of it and she's letting you into her secret. It also helps for people to relate.

The scene where she's in her bedroom messing around is almost quite a private thing. You feel like you're closer to her by seeing her acting silly and it makes her character more real. You also feel embarrassed for her when you notice the boy watching her.

Goodwins theory.

Goodwins theory is based around eight different points when analysing a music video.

Links between lyrics and visuals

On screen actions which where the lyrics match them.

Links between music and visuals 

Complimentary, contradicting or amplifying.

Genre characteristics 

Is it typical and conventional of the genre or contradictory.

Intertextuality reference

References to other media texts or forms.

Multiple close ups

To put emphasis on the main people in the video and emotions.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism is the act of watching people with/without their knowledge. Its usually shown in music videos with intimate behaviour, undressing or sexual activity.

Demand of the record label

Representation of the artist. Who the record label wants the video to appeal to.

Performance based, narrative based or concept based music videos

The Gnome.

In class we were given a practice task of making a music video for a song chosen by our media teacher. This was to help us with our proper coursework task so we would know how much work has to go into the video. It also helped us with shots and editing. When we found out that the song we'd been given was The Gnome by Pink Floyd we were skeptical. Me and my group had never heard it before and when we first listened to it we didn't feel very inspired. After a few more listens we could tell that there was a clear narrative and started to see the appeal of the song.
Before we filmed we planned out what would happen in our video using a storyboard. We cast Hadyn as 'the gnome' and had the rest of the group playing in a band. I would be filming for shots like this. We chose our locations, which were mainly based in the school music room and just outside the school grounds. Here's our storyboard:

On the day we started filming Sam had brought in his own camera so we had two different angle shots of the same thing, this was very beneficial when it came to editing as it meant we could make it look more authentic. We asked Haydn to bring in a hat and scarf, just so he'd look more like a gnome. We took lots of shots so we'd have enough clips to fill out the whole song. The filming of the band was a lot more difficult than we thought it would be. The main issue was that no one knew the words to the song and a lot of time was wasted trying to learn them on the spot. This is something that will definitely help me in the future with other videos. I know now that the people involved should know the lyrics or the script beforehand to save valuable filming time.

This video has unfortunately been removed from YouTube even after countless uploads.

Previous Videos.

Here are two videos we made previously. These were to help us get used to using a camera and how to edit clips.

This was our first video we made. We're lip-syncing The Backstreet Boys - Get Down. This taught us how to use the camera properly and the tri-pod... and that lip-syncing isn't that easy! This was also the first time we used the editing system on the macs. 

For this video we were given a script of a Friends episode. I feel this is better than our first video. I really like the beginning which took quite a lot of time to edit. We had a storyboard specifying how many clips we had to do and from what angle. It was good to see how many different angles something is filmed from. It also made me realise how many different shots and angles we'll have to put into our final piece.