Filming this weekend, hopefully!

I text Caroline today trying to arrange some more time for filming this week. She said she would let me know Friday whether she could film this weekend or not. I finish work at one on Saturday, so hopefully we should have Saturday afternoon and potentially all of Sunday to do some more filming! Fingers crossed Caroline isn't busy! :)

Final Present Day Costumes!

Seeing as I have filmed the opening sequences to our music video, the Girlfriend and Boyfriend's characters final costumes have been decided, and here they are:

I decided to go with a plain white shirt so that in the first few shots he can be wearing just the shirt, and then he puts his black coat on. Indicating that he used to be a good and pure character but he has since done things to change this. There are many other, more in-depth reasons for this costume, but they can be seen in my other post!

As I wrote in another post, with the help of my parents, I decided to keep a red top to imply the love the Girlfriend character has for her boyfriend, but instead of just wearing jeans, we decided to dress the character up a bit, with a skirt and tights! Implying that she wants to impress her boyfriend. The coat she is wearing is purely because it was really cold, and it is obvious it is cold in our footage, so we wanted to keep it realistic and therefore more believable for our audience!

More Filming :)

Today I went over Dj's and filmed his half of the split screen intro. Now I have filmed the whole of the first 30 seconds of the song!! :) Caroline and I are either meeting up Saturday or Sunday this weekend, to do some more filming.
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to film as much as we would like this half term as I am working every day, and last Saturday it was raining. So we are a bit behind on schedule, but the footage we have so far is good, and fortunately, we only have a little bit that needs to be filmed outside, therefore the weather won't affect us too much! :)

Filming... Finally! :)

Dj was round mine today, so we were finally able to get some filming done! :) I set up the camera how I wanted it and then he recorded my parts for the first 30 seconds of the song!
Tomorrow I am going over his to film his part of the first 30 seconds of the song; so by the end of tomorrow we will have the whole of the intro filmed! :)
Unfortunately, we were unable to film anything that involved the two of us as there was no-one there to film it, although we will hopefully meet up with Caroline soon to film the flashbacks and the present day scenes. :)

Possible Ancillary Task

Seeing as we were unable to film today, I decided to think about our Ancillary Task.
This is another part of our coursework, where we produce either a digi pack, website or magazine article to go alongside our music video.
I was thinking a CD cover could be one of our options.
I haven't thought too much into the design, but I thought for the image on the front, this would be a good idea:
The Boyfriend character, could be holding a heart in his hand, away from his body, and inside the heart could be all the shots of the Girlfriend character from our music video.
In terms of locations, I'm not too sure where this could be shot. Though I was thinking, perhaps he could be holding the heart over the lake in Needham Market.
This would relate to our music video really, really well; not only the location, but also with the narrative.

The reason behind the image, symbolises the Boyfriend character discarding their relationship and her feelings by cheating on her.

Another idea I had for the back/inside of the CD cover, could be a close-up shot of the heart that has all the images of the Girlfriend character on it; and the Boyfriend character could be tearing it up.
I thought this would be more appropriate for the inside cover, so that the back of the CD cover could be the pieces of the heart all torn up and floating in the lake.
The whole CD all together indicates the narrative of our music video; the cheating, where he discards of his feelings for his girlfriend, the image of him tearing the heart will indicate the pain he inflicts on his girlfriend and the final image will indicate the break-up with all the images torn up.

None of this stuff is definite, it's just a few ideas I have. If we do go with this idea though, I think we will need to discuss it further, as I think the ideas for the front and the inside of the CD cover, could be swapped. We will just need to do some more planning!
During the half term, I will draw some pictures of what I am thinking and I will upload them to the blog :)

No filming again! :(

Unfortunately, we were unable to film the scenes at Needham Lake today as it was raining loads! I did meet up with Caroline though, and she gave me the camera so that I could film some scenes of Dj this weekend!
So hopefully, after this weekend I will be able to post  about our filming :)

Girlfriends Costume Changes

Today I explained to my parents what mise en scene was and I asked them what they thought would be best for the Girlfriend character in our music video. They thought both ideas were appropriate (a red top and to be dressed up) and agreed that a mixture of both would not only connote the characters love and hope for her boyfriend and their relationship; but also they thought it would make the opening sequence more effective; seeing that she's tried to dress to impress her boyfriend, and then they thought the audience would feel more empathy when they realised he had cheated on her.

Tomorrow, after we have filmed, I will upload pictures of the Boyfriends character and the Girlfriends characters final present day costumes! :)
Additionally, obviously due to weather conditions, both of our characters will have to be dressed in coats, although we will try to keep it as effective as possible; connoting the intended meanings.

Weather conditions!

Tomorrow we are filming, and thankfully it isn't supposed to rain until three considering we are meeting at one, we should hopefully get everything we need to shoot at Needham Lake in two hours!

Locations!

We have a few locations set for filming tomorrow :) the first being Needham Lake:

Although we will not be filming at this hour, I think it is important to show that this is quite a romantic place, implying that the couple have met here before and that they are in love and that it is a meaningful place to them.

Hopefully, it will look something like this tomorrow, and it won't be raining! 

Other places we are going to film, will be in my bedroom, Dj's bedroom and several other places during the flashback scenes, including our houses and possibly outside areas so long as it's not raining.

Steve Archer (2004) - Narrative and performance.

Steve Archer is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is a pioneer of the genre of Jesus music.He is the former lead singer of The Archers,contemporary Christian music Jesus music band who toured and recorded throughout the decades of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. 

He said this about music videos:

“Often, music video will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be part of the storyline, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-synch, close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of the music videos, as if to assure us that the band can really kick it”

Update in Production Schedule

This is our final production schedule for the half term, out aim is to get this all done as we will have a camera the whole time. We are going to stick to this as much as possible and pray that the weather will not be an inconvenience, as Amy will be working and I will be busy. However as we have the whole week this gives us the advantage of being able to change our days around, but this also depends on when Dj gets his haircut as well, because we don't want to ruin our continuity. Also, when thinking about costuming we realised that depending on the weather (it has gotten really cold and wet!?) there may have to be some slight changes to the costuming, or even to the location, but we are keeping our fingers crossed. Oh, and sorry we haven't put our storyboards up yet, theres so many!

Types of Music Videos

We have learnt that there are three types of music videos;

1. Narrative - This type of music video tells the a story to the lyrics, or a connotation of the lyrics, however the video could completely contradict the lyrics. Narrative music videos can also be used to promote the release of films that include that film. The storyline can be virtually anything, and may or may not feature the artist/s.
Here are some examples of narrative music videos:
The All American Rejects - Gives You Hell
Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me
A-Ha - Take On Me

2. Performance - Performance can be anything from live stage performance to just singing. These often include many shots of the artists and the audience performing or just shots of them before of after a performance. Visual styles and close ups are often used in these. Performance is most common in the genre of rock.
Here are some examples of performance music videos:
Beyonce - Single Ladies
Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child
Oasis - Wonderwall

3. Concept - Concpet music vidoes can either be symbolic or thematic, and they are often unusual or obscure for the audience. As concept music videos are very vague, the concept needs to be very attractive to the audience. The rather unusual content of concept music videos can really draw in a audience making then quite popular. There is no particular genre that favors concept.
Here are some examples of concept music videos:
Daft Punk - Around The World
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Chris Cunningham and Aphex Twin - Monkey Drummer

Music Video History

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. - wikipedia

A commercial videotape featuring a performance of a popular song, often through a stylized dramatization by the performers with lip-synching and special effects. - dictionary.com

A videotaped performance of a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dancing and visual images interpreting the lyrics - dictionary

An early form of music video were films which included one song, these took place during the 1940's and were named the Soundies. Most of these were of jazz songs, they were mainly just bands on a film set bandstand. Soundies were created for the Panoram Jutebox, these were located in restaurants or bars and there was a screen to watch the clip whilst the music was played. In the 1950's over 1000 short music films were made as 'television fillers' between programmes, by Snader Telescriptions. From this films that features musical performances. for example Elvis became increasingly popular. 

Music videos began to be created in the 1960's and 70's, videos were filmed for music programmes such as Top of The Pops. Eventually MTV was launched so that music videos became available 24 hours a day. MTV is still dominant today and reaches to over 320million television sets, over 90 countries in 5 continents. since the arrival of YouTube, downloading vidoes of the internet has occurred, YouTube and downloading are particular threats to MTV and the music video industry. The first ever actual music video to be produced was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles. - I this as pretty ironic as the creation of music videos, and TV reduced the audience to the radio.

Music videos are now the centre of marketing popular music.

Costumes!

As we are filming this weekend, I am going to do a blog post on costumes. None of the costumes are definite just yet, these are just some ideas.

We have three characters in our music video, the Girlfriend, the Boyfriend and the Cheat.
All of our costumes will be seen as 'normal' clothing, and will fit in with the weather etc, to add realism to our video e.g. if it's a visibly cold day, they will be dressed in coats etc. Although, there will be some clothing to connote a particular meaning.

The Girlfriend will have a costume that she wears during the present day scenes. This will consist of a red top to show that she is in love with the Boyfriend character and to show that she is desperate (initially) for them to sort things out. This will probably just be paired with jeans to represent her age; as teenagers are often wearing jeans. Although we may decide to dress this character up a bit more to show that she is dressing up to impress her boyfriend.

If the weather is bad, the Girlfriend character could wear a blue coat, with a small bit of pink/red on it. The pink/red will represent the hope she has for her relationship, yet it is surrounded by blue which connotes sadness, therefore her relationship is doomed. This is the coat I am referring to:

There will be quite a few flashback scenes, and depending on what is happening in the scene depends on what the Girlfriend will be wearing. For example, there is one flashback where the characters first get together and are a bit younger. In this scene, she will be dressed in brighter clothing - to imply that she is energetic and happy; like young people are when they are in a new relationship.
There will be another flashback, where her and the Boyfriend character's relationship is falling apart; here she will be dressed in clothing to show that she is exhausted of their arguments etc. Perhaps like what Jennifer Anistons character wears in Marley and Me in the scene where she is tired of Marley, John and her screaming children:

Another scene where the Girlfriend character will need another costume will be during the scenes where the Boyfriend character will imagine the Cheat being his girlfriend. In these scenes, the Girlfriend will be dressed in white clothing to imply that she is innocent in this whole situation. Also to add contrast as the Cheat will be dressed in black clothing.
There will be several other flashback scenes where the Girlfriend character will be dressed in different clothings to enhance the on-screen action. However this is yet to be decided.

The Boyfriend character will also have a costume during the present day scenes. Here I thought it would be appropriate for him to wear a white top, hidden beneath something black. Either a coat, hoodie or a jumper. This would highlight the fact that he is a good person, yet it is 'hidden' beneath the bad he has done. Again this could just be paired with dark jeans to highlight his youth, and perhaps his foolishness in being young and cheating. Notably, these jeans will be dark to create contrast with his costume in the flashback scenes.

The Boyfriend will also need a few different costumes in the flashback scenes. During the flashback where the couple are younger, happy and in love I thought he could wear a colourful top, a red hoodie and light coloured jeans. The colourful top will highlight his energy as a young, happy boy. The red hoodie will evoke his love for his girlfriend. And the light jeans will create a contrast with his darker jeans in the present day scenes.

During the flashback scenes where he argues with his girlfriend and then cheats on her, I think he should wear a top that has many different colours in it; to show his confusion and the fact that he is feeling many different emotions. Or perhaps just a black top to show that he is doing something bad. I think a shirt with buttons is essential in this scene as you will see him doing the buttons back up after he has cheated with his girlfriend.

Perhaps a shirt like this:

Or this:

The blue could represent his sadness and regret

Again there will be several other flashback scenes where he will possibly need other costumes. Yet we will simply just use clothing that matches the on-screen action. For example if it's a sad scene, dress him in blue etc.

The final character is the Cheat. This character is only in one scene, so she will only have one costume. She is a negative character and so she will just be dressed in dark clothing; perhaps a skirt to highlight the fact that she is going to cheat with the Boyfriend character.

Maybe a skirt like this:

New production schedule

We have now decided what dates we will be able to film, they are as follows:

On our previous production schedule, what was said to be filmed on the 28th October, will be filmed on the 27th and if needed, the 28th also

Then what was said to be filmed on the 20th-21st, 27th and 29th will no be filmed on the 3rd and 4th of November

And if we have the camera throughout the whole of the half term, we will film during the week also if the weather is the same as the 27th

We had to change our production schedule due to work commitments and our actors getting their hair cut, therefore we couldn't film due to continuity reasons. 

No filming :(

Yesterday, Dj told me that he was getting his haircut in the half term, so due to continuity issues, we were unable to film anything this weekend.

However, I think we could just make the things I was going to film today, the last things we film in the half term. I kind of feel this has worked out for the best, as this way we will know what we have and what we don't have and we will definitely know what we need to film! Also, Dj's said that he will now get his haircut on the first Saturday of the half term, so after that we can do all out filming! :)

Director's Study - Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry was born in  France, he is now a well known commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. Gondry has quite a varying but short list of films that he has directed, his most favored film is The Green Hornet, which when released was quite popular, he has also directed 'Eternal sunshine of The Spotless Mind', 'Human Nature', 'The Science of Sleep' and 'Be Kind Rewind'. However some of these films are not very well known so his success is mainly from his music video career.  

 He began his career as a drummer for the band Oui Oui for whom he directed their music videos as well, when the artist Bjork saw this she was determined that he create her next music video for 'Human Behavior', overall he has directed seven music videos for Bjork! Gondry is also well known for filming commercials for bands and companies  such as; Levis', Smirn off, talk talk,  and Adidas. Gondy is very intuitive in his music videos, and has become an Academy award winner because of this. 

Facts:

• He played drums in Kanye West's music video for Diamonds from Sierra Leone.
• His Levi's commercial still today holds the record for the most awards won by a tv commercial.
• He can solve a rubix cube with his feet.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-8SMOh9Qg

Chris Brown 'Should've Kissed You' Previous Student Music Video Analysis

I really like the murky sort of effect this video has over a lot of it's clips. I think it makes the video look really simple but effective as it makes the whole narrative ever sadder and cuter, which I'm guessing is what they wanted their audience to feel. The murky effect also made the video have some really nice imagery. For example, the river Thames with Big Ben in the background.
I also think this was shot at a really good hour, it wasn't too dark, but it was dark enough that it had quite a romantic feel, which is another thing I'm assuming they intended as it is a romantic narrative!
Another thing I liked, was the split screen at the end, I thought it worked really well and fit in with the narrative really well!
Similarly, the lip-synching worked extremely well! Which made the music video a lot more effective - After seeing so many student made examples now, I think it is really important to make sure you have a good lip-syncher, as it can turn a really good music video, into a really bad music video as it just makes it so hard to believe as it looks so unrealistic.
Another thing that worked really well was the editing. Particularly the transitions from one shot to another, as it ran really smoothly.
In terms of mise en scene, the costumes even worked really well. I don't know if this was intentional, but as the girl was dressed in a deep red coat, you could tell she was a very warm character, who felt a lot for the boy, but he kept putting off times to kiss her. You could almost say he was being "cold" to her, thus him mainly being dressed in blue colours. Also, underneath her coat, the girl was wearing a white dress, possibly connoting that she was a very honest and true person, and this is why she showed her true feelings by kissing him.

Director's Study - Marc Webb

Marc Webb's Complete List Of Music Videos

Marc Webb was born in Indiana in the US, he went to to graduate from Colorado College with a degree in English. He is now a film and music video director. His career as a director began with him getting the chance to be the director to the hit film (500) Days of Summer, and this brought him Hollywood's attention! After directing this, Columbia pictures then went on to hire him to direct The Amazing Spiderman in 2012 which was also a big hit.

As for his career directing music videos, so far he has been apart of over 104 music videos! Webb has worked with artists from Green Day, Yellowcard and AFI to Jesse McCartney, Miley Cyrus. P.Diddy and Trey Songz. Marc Webb is not all really that exciting, but he has done so so much!

Marc Webb includes a trademark in a few of his videos, and this is a white lamb. Some people might think this a quite weird but many have considered it to be representative of the christian symbol of the lamb of God. The lamb can mainly be seen in Brand New's video for Six Transit Gloria.. Gloria Fades, where it can be seen on a bar door, and also Yellowcard's video for Ocean Avenue on a brief case.

Production schedule so far!

This is our production schedule so far, there may be some changes to make to dates in the up coming week as I may be away for some of half term, but hopefully not! This draft schedule includes our dates, times and locations as well as the section of song the filming is to, our key shots, props and equipment. We are hoping to stick to this schedule as having it planned out should hopefully make filming a lot easier, and we also have deadlines to meet! 

Please click on the image to view it larger..

Detailed plans for editing!

In one of my previous blog posts, I wrote about all the micro elements that we were considering for our video, but I didn't really talk that much about editing.
Since then Caroline and I have discussed editing in more detail and so we have a bit more of an idea as to how we are going to edit our video!
We knew we wanted to use split screen for definite at the end, but now we are considering using it at the beginning too. Instead of cutting between the boy and the girl both getting ready, we are going to have the entire intro as a split screen so you see the girl getting ready in one half and the boy getting ready in the other half. We think this will work really well, as it will show the contrast between the two. The girl will be very happy as she thinks she is meeting her boyfriend to sort out their argument, and the boy will be completely miserable! He will be dreading meeting his girlfriend to tell her he cheated on her after their argument. We think it will look really good as we could colour manipulate the girls half to be really bright and colourful and positive and then colour manipulate the boys half to be really sad, depressing grey/black colours or perhaps even black and white, to portray just how miserable he is.
Our inspiration behind this is from the film 500 Days of Summer!

This was the clip that has the biggest influence on us:

(Ignore the subtitles, and the bad quality, it's just the only one I could find of the whole scene)

Although there seems to be no colour manipulation in these two clips, really similar things are happening in both situations which is how we want ours to look so that we can create a huge contrast. The main contrast and focus is on Tom's different emotions. I really like the way this makes the audience feel, it makes the situation even more sad because you see that he could have been really happy! Hopefully, this will make our audience sympathise more with our female's character as they see how happy she was prior to her boyfriend's revelation. I also really like the way the expectation half takes over the reality part, I think that is something we could use in our video. If the boy's black and white half took over the girl's half, I think that would be really effective as it could sybolise that her world is now going to turn bad (black and white). 

So far, we think we will only use the split screen technique during the intro and as the final shot. However, in the final shot there will be no split down the screen as the two images will be joined together in the middle, making it look like they are sat on the same bench, but they are actually not. Symbolising that they are in 'the same boat'; loving each other, but being unable to be together.

Throughout the rest of the song, there are many present day moments and flashbacks. We really want to use colour manipulation (as I earlier stated) not only in the opening sequence but at other points throughout the rest of the song. So far, we have considered these particular moments to include colour manipulation:

• Throughout the opening; brightening up the girls side of the split screen and darkening or making the boys side black and white
• We are considering making everything that is from the boys perspective black and white, sybolising that now that he has cheated on his girlfriend, he has no good in his life. Therefore, his side of the split screen would be black and white and the cheating scenes would be black and white
• Another alternative would be to have all the flashback scenes in black and white, so that the audience can recognise when the times change. Although, the problem with this would be that as we have so many different flashbacks, it may seem like he cheated on her when they were happy, as there are happy flashbacks and cheating flashbacks
• A similar alternative was just to have the cheating scenes in black and white, to highlight that what he is doing is bad
• A different option, would be just to have the flashback scenes when they are young in black and white, though that was a time when they were happy, so it may not be very fitting with the connotations that are associated with the black and white effect
• And finally, the last option was to have the whole thing in black and white, except the girls half of the split screen at the start and the flashbacks when they were together. Therefore, every moment in our video where we want our audience to feel sadness, will be in black and white

We can't decide which of these to use yet, so we think we are just going to decide when it comes to editing so we can physically see which option looks best :)

Camera booked and filming this weekend - 20th October

This weekend I am going to take a camera home, and film some scenes! We are currently working on our formal production schedule so when that is uploaded, it will have the scenes that I am going to film this weekend on it :)

Although, the scenes I think I will be filming, will be some flashback scenes and some little clips for the montage at the end; just showing the couple happy and in love. We have decided that I should do these scenes now, so that we have less to film in the half term, therefore if we don't get the camera for the whole of the half term, we won't be as pressured to film everything.

Our survey on music videos

Today, Caroline and I made a survey on SurveyMonkey in order to help us improve our music video. Our video is mainly aimed at people our age as the characters in it are our age, therefore we are posting it on our blog so other members of our class will see it and take it! And they are our age so they are included as our target audience! :)
Here is a link to our survey:


Click here to take survey

Controversial Music video. Kanye West - Monster

This music video actually comes with its own disclaimer, "The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative toward any group of people. It is an art piece and it shall be taken as such". It has been criticized for its depiction of violence against females.. and you can definitely see why! The video features a dead woman hanging at the start of the video, and then we see the artist singing next to her naked dead body still hanging and come to realise that there are many dead women hanging around the room! The next part includes the artist in bed next to two dead women, while he raps and moves their bodies around.. this is concluded by many women seen locked in a room, looking like 'zombies'. There is also a shot with the other artist rapping and behind him we are able to see a woman's dead body laying across the sofa. This then goes on to show a man holing a woman's decapitated head, and her hand laying in blood on the stairs. However, at some points  we do see violence against men, as a woman can be seen dragging a man across the floor, and the two women eating from a man's dead boy.

I actually find this video quite scary, the amount of violence in it is pretty disgusting, it is like a short horror film. I think that really this video is just inappropriate, but it does suit the song it was made for. I think that the reason it is so controversial is because of the violence against women and how it's suggested that they have been murdered, and all these people are 'Monsters'.

The video includes many close ups of the artist, which is part of Goodwin's seven definitions of a music video. It also has  at some points a link between music and visuals, and a link between lyrics and visuals.

P.S Sorry the lyrics are so rude! I couldn't find a non-swearing version!

Final Cut Express lesson!

In class we were put into groups and given a technique to practice on Final Cut Express and then make it as a tutorial to teach other people in the class how to do that technique! The reason for doing this was because most of the class were new to Final Cut Express, and these techniques are very useful for music videos, therefore we would need to learn them prior to making our own music videos!

We were given split screen... And this is what we made:

Controversial music video - Rihanna 'Man Down'

In this video, Rihanna tells the story about avenging a sexual assault by shooting the perpetrator in the head. Fortunately, the sexual assault isn't portrayed in detail, yet the shot to the head is. This sparked masses of complaints with the first official complaint being from the Parent Television Council, who protested that the video is violent and inappropriate, and they called for BET and MTV to stop airing it. Rihanna then turned around and tweeted, "I'm a 23 year old rockstar with NO KIDS! What's up with everybody wantin me to be a parent?" and again later: "U can't hide your kids from society, or they'll never learn how to adapt! This is the REAL WORLD!" This sparked even more controversy but BET refused to pull the video, stating that "While we all agree rape is a terrible crime, 'Man Down' offers no positive solution for rape victims except vigilant justice."

I think the most controversial thing in this video obviously is the suggested rape and the border-line graphic shot to the head, however I feel it is something we are so used to seeing in films etc, that it doesn't appear to be a big deal. I think the real issue here is how some people see Rihanna as a role model, therefore seeing her shoot someone isn't something many people feel young children should look up to. I think the video also sparked so much outrage as it can be so easily viewed as there is no age-rating or anything, and that is something people have to consider when creating a possibly controversial music video. 

Why Does Love Do This To Me!

In groups at the start of the year we did a practice music video to the song ' Why Does Love Do This To Me - The Exponents' and we had to show evidence of including green screen, split screen and colour manipulation. No one finished it completely but this is as far as I got in my group with Ellie, Jazz, Ruby and Carla. We have included a lot of green screen, although there is a bit where we have not edited in a back ground as we just didn't have enough time. We also managed to include split screen and some colour manipulation to. Oh, and we also had to include lip-synching to which we have!

The storyboard!!!

Here are our storyboards!

Towards the end there are a few gaps as we were unsure how to draw the montage that we plan to include...

Stop Crying Your Heart Out - Oasis. Previous Student Work

I so so so think this music video goes well with the song! The genre of the song and the tone created by the music video just go so well together. It is narrative as it is the story of a guy remembering his girlfriend, and being really depressed about her so he is walking about looking sad, drinking and then goes to her grave. Throughout this he has flashbacks of theirs time together, which I suppose is similar to what we are going to do in our music video! i really love the fact that it is filmed in black and white, it makes the mood of the music video stand out so much. 

Throughout the music video there are many close ups of the main guy who the video is centered around, if he is the 'artist' then we would see how this music video relates to Goodwin's seven, as the demands of the record label include close-ups of the artist. This music video also relates to Goodwin's seven in that parts of the music video show a relationship between music and visuals, as well as lyrics and visuals. For example, when the lyrics are "hold on" we see the visuals as being his hands.. and of course you use your hands to hold on. 

The filming throughout the video is very good, it is always kept very steady and neat, even the rough flashbacks are suited to the rest of the video. We do not actually find out that his girlfriend is dead until right at the very end because it actually features him hugging her at her grave, but as he walks away we see she is no longer there, this makes the whole video seem quite mysterious as we constantly see shots of her nearby or watching him. the guy's acting throughout the music video is actually pretty good, he genuinely looks sad, I know it is not lip singing but it is still a strength of this music video. I really can not see any weaknesses of this music video except for the fact it does not relate to many of Goodwin's seven, but to be fair is that really even a weakness as not all videos do!

Previous Student Example Analysis - "This Is The Life" by Two Door Cinema Club

I thought this music video was really interesting as I've probably never seen anything like it. the most obvious thing and most unique thing, is their strange choice of costume and make-up! I'm not sure if it works, but I think it is really interesting.
I liked the individual close-up shots of the girl with the wallpaper behind her, singing "this is the life", with such an unhappy expression. I think it would have been really good if the boy's close-ups shot looked as good, but unfortunately it wasn't a very good shot as the lighting was bad and his shoulders weren't in it. So the cuts between the two didn't look very straight.
One thing I've learnt from watching this video, is not to use imovie to edit our music video. You could tell this was edited on imovie, and it really does lack all the high-tech and advanced edits and effects that are only available on final cut express. This is unfortunate as this video is really interesting and could have been really good if it was edited on a better programme.
You can see how limited the editing is on this in the shot where they are cycling on their bikes, and the only editing used here is a black edging around the frame, and it just doesn't look very good.
Fortunately we won't have this problem though as we will use final cut express!
I think the best thing about this video is the effective lip-synching which makes it more believable! Also, the costume and make-up. I'm not sure if it works, but it is good as it is different and they've put a lot of thought into it. I'm sure they have their reasons for the French theme, it's just a shame that it's not very obvious.

Chase & Status Ft. Plan B - Pieces. Previous Student Example

I really enjoyed this music video, and am really interested in what they got for their final mark because I think that it is really good! Firstly the editing at the start of the video is very clever, I really like how they have edited together several clips of the guy moving around in the city location and used split screen too, the editing of the clips and change of the split screen are in time with the music change.. which is one of Goodwin's seven suggestions. Next, as the lyrics in the song change to a rap, the guy begins to lip sing to the faster pace lyrics, his singing is completely in time with the actual song, which is shown through mid shots and close ups. The editing throughout the music video is kept in time with the music, which is also one of Goodwin's seven music video suggestions.

I think that the music video they have created really suits the song that its done to, it is all sort of upbeat but shows anger at the same time. At the chorus I like how they play a sped up version of cars driving and the guy walking along, it definitely went in the with the music. I find the cutting between the clips very interesting as at some points they make it really bright and then it is a different shot when the light dims down again. 

This music video is concept and performance, this is because it features the guy performing and their are many close ups of him doing so, which according to Goodwin's seven is because 'the demands of the record label include lot's of needs of close ups of the artist' (even though its not the real artist). It is also concept because there seems to be a storyline to begin with but then it turns out to be concept as nothing actually happens to follow on that storyline. However right at the end of the music video it does turn to be a narrative as well, the storyline is that the guy comes home and finds his girlfriend in bed with another man, the filming at this point is not very good at all in my opinion, I know it is meant to show a rush but still.. I guess a weakness of this music video would be that it is just mainly clips of the one guy performing or moving around, however it does feature some clips of cars, streetlights and road signs. At one point there is a reversed clip of the guy sliding 'up' a banister, I think it really goes along with this music video.