A2 Media Studies - Ellen Smithson

This year for media studies we have had the choice of making between two creative pieces of coursework, this being either a short movie clip or a music video. Having a long and hard think between the two, I have decided to choose the option of the music video, since I already do film studies, this would only mean that I would have to make two film clips this year, when I prefer the challenge of making something different. For this project we have to choose a song from a band or artist, and re-create our own music video using camcorders and our own knowledge and creativity. Since making the video is our main alternative, I must say that I have a positive input for the project; since I do film studies I have a wide knowledge on shot types, different angles, editing skills and have created my own animatics in previous projects.
This task should be fairly easy in that area of work, however challenges I may face throughout this project are timings with the video and music, and possibly even editing in Photoshop, due to the fact I don't have it at home. When it came to choosing the correct song for my video, this took a lot of time and preparation. During one of our media classes, everyone presented a powerpoint presentation or a video describing exactly what they had planned to do for their project, here is what was included in my presentation:

Reasons for choice...

Reasons for my choice of the music video included my knowledge of certain bands and artists which I thought may be relevant for this project, plus I am interested behind the ideology of music videos; showing what they represent, what messages and values are given and most importantly, how artists choose how to express themselves through their music. Nowadays, and in the past 20 years, music videos are primarily used as a marketing device to promote the music recording. This medium is mainly due to the creation of MTV in the 1980’s, and with its popularity, rapidly boosted the value of promotional music sales.

My Music Video

Once I had settled on the idea for making a music video, the hardest part of the project was actually choosing a song to film. Originally I chose an all male band, ‘Buckcherry’, and was going to choose one of my most inspired songs ‘Sorry’. For this idea I had planned on using all males to play on stage as the band, whilst also using clips of two lovers who had fights in relation to the lyrics of the song, but who still loved one another. However, I found this quite a challenge because the males I had chosen to participate in my music video were not in the same place at the same time, and the couple I had asked were willing, but could not do it. This proved difficult and complicated things, so I decided to take on the role of using a female artist and using a mixture of male and female band members.

The Choice...

Another example I was thinking about using for my music video was influenced by the Quentin Tarantino film ‘Death Proof’, where the four female characters in the film are driving in a car back from a long night of partying, and have requested a song from the 1960’s hit ‘Hold Tight’ by the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich and Tich. Whilst the song is loudly being blasted out from the car the girls are dancing simultaneously to the song. Here is a clip from the chosen film/song:

What I gained from this idea is to create a similar experience, except all from one point of view. My first ambition was to attach a camera on the front dash of the car, and film while the girls are singing along to the song whilst driving, and that this would promote the song because it shows the girls having a fun time. However the reason I did not follow this plan, was because since it was all going to be filmed in one shot, it would not portray my editing skills and plus some spectators may find it dull just watching one scene for a whole three minutes.

In the end the songs I narrowed down were:
Heart of Glass- Blondie
Black Velvet- Alannah Myles
Baby It’s You- Smith
Atomic- Blondie
Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon- Neil Diamond
After Dark- Tito and Tarantula

Chosen Song

The song I have ended up choosing to film is ‘Atomic’ by ‘Blondie’. The reason I chose this song is because Blondie is a well-known American pop/rock band fronted by famously iconic singer Debbie Harry. During the years she fronted Blondie her image and unique vocals quickly made her the most recognizable pop icon of all time. Due to her stage presence and street wise capability Debbie Harry was notoriously credited for being one of the coolest and sexiest singers in rock ‘n’roll history. Due to this, I find that she is a very influential artist, and the song ‘Atomic’ speaks the most about her character and the lifestyle expectations of the band Blondie. In relation, plans for my music video include these aspects of representation for the lead singer, and stage presence will all be apprehended during the filming of the band.

Plans for the Video:

Target Audience- 16-28 year old females, because I feel that this age range would be able to relate to the song the most, as well as the young performers and narrative aspects in the video. The certain audience I am aiming for will also be listed in my mood board. Image- The lead singer in the video (I have chosen to use Vicky Sheridan) will have the image of a rebel girl/rocker, who is popular with her friends and is quite a player with the boys. She is very attractive, mysterious, and could become an icon for the viewers.

Filming- Would be filmed in various locations, mainly taking place in a high street and a pub. Filming techniques will include: close-ups, long shots, tracking shots, mid-shots, eye-line match, cut-on-action and a number of significant angles. Also the clips being filmed of the band I was considering to film in black and white, to add to the effect and possibly indicat that it was filmed in the past in relevance to the other clips.

Location- Various areas; including Epsom and Sutton high street, possibly the two main pubs, a shop (showing the singers' activities on a daily basis).

Moodboard

This is my moodboard aimed at the target audience for my music video. It gives pictures and ideas of what my audience would look like, what hobbies they would be interested in and most of all it explains why they are my chosen target audience in relation to the representation of the video.

As seperate tasks combined with the music video, we had the choice to either create a webpage based on the band, a DVD digi pack or a poster. Out of these three, we had the option of choosing two, so I decided to choose the webpage and the digi pack, since I thought I would be most skillful in these areas. I created the webpage using MySpace, since it is a very well known and highly used social network for my target audience, I thought this would be a useful promotion for my band. The link to the site is located here at:

www.myspace.com/blondienataliesaben

For the second task I created an DVD Digi Pack promoting the release of the artisits album I edited and cropped the cover using Photoshop. I already am quite skillful and used to working with Photoshop, as I use it often in my subject photography, where we edit photos using various different techniques and variations to create the most effective pictures. Here are some pictures for the build up to the task, an example of the cover, but has yet to be sized for the correct measurements of a real album.

Creating the Digipack:

Before:

After:

Back of Album cover:
After:

Before:

Inspirations for my video:

When it came to choosing the right song and thinking about different aspects of making the video, there were many past ideas and influences I took into consideration. One example is that I have had first-hand experience working with a video director and a signed band. This all took place when a group of people in my media class were offered a chance to take a three day trip funded by the UCA, to the university of Farnham, where one of the choices was to make a practical music video. I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn various techniques for creating a music video such as lighting, camerawork, communicating with the band and also learning a little bit about the industry. Towards the end I found it helped tremendously and had a fun and outgoing experience learning new things and meeting new and exciting people. The band much appreciated our help with filming, and you can now find the video posted on their MySpace page and on YouTube.

Another helpful activity we had with the music video was a trip up to Liverpool Street, London, to the RichMix Studio. This involved a various number of talks from top producers and agencies, and video viweings from a variety of different videos. We then had a task set where we had to listen to a Paulo Nutini track, then come up with ideas for a suitable video. There were many great ideas mentioned which influenced our creative side, and it also gave us a chance to get involved with video criteria, as well as lots of teamwork and putting our ideas forward.

Ideas from other music videos

As part of my original plan for the making of my music video, I wanted to have various numbers of tracking shots of Vicky walking down a hightsreet whilst miming to the song. This has proved a very effective method throughout the history of music video making, and many widely known artists have used this. However, I feel that a band that uses this in the most effective way is The Verve with their song 'Bittersweet Symphony'. Not only is this very cleverly edited and a powerful video, but it also relates a lot to my original idea, such as having the main focus in the video on the lead singer, while the band are not really credited as much but it still makes a very effective video. Ideas I also gained from watching the video included behind tracking shots as well as front tracking shots to emphasize the idea that you are following the artist and are getting an understanding of what they do everyday. Here is the full footage of 'Bittersweet Symphony, but I do apoligize for the subtitles as it was the only video that would allow me to embed the code from Youtube.

This is the original video from the band Blondie and their song 'Atomic'. The idea of viewing the video for the song and then adapting it into my own gives me ideas of how and what to film in order to get a positive recognition for the video. Since I'm doing this in a way so that it is as if Blondie is a new artist, I must try and represent the band through the video in a similar way that they have been previuosly represented, in order to convey their success.

blondie.atomic

micky | MySpace Video

Ideas gained from this video include the technical aspects i.e. the use of low angles on the artists, distortion techniques such as blurred effects and colour changes, zooms, long shots and close-up's, fading in and out of the picture, and showing images which represent the title of the song, for example the nuclear explosion representing the title 'Atomic'. This video, made in 1980, seems to be of an experimental nature, mainly due to the wide range of awkward angles which seem to turn to their side, and may even be upside down in some cases, making it a very effective use of camerawork, but something that wasn't often seen during this period. What I also think this video was representing was the extreme doses of drug-use during the time, due to the cinematography and visual effects used to make the video disorientating.

Blondie - Hangin' on the telephone

Scorpionwitch | MySpace Video

'Hangin' on the telephone' is another famous Blondie song and what I liked about the video, especially the beginning is the preparation of the band and singer getting ready and the awkward angles that are taken during filming. Most of the time there is a lot of focus on the lead singer herself, and I particularly liked the idea of the camera tracking her from different angles, which is an approach that influenced parts of my video.

This is the music video for the all famous Guns N' Roses and their song 'Sweet Child O'Mine. It was really only the beginning of this video that influenced the production of mine; which was mainly when there is a low angle of lead guitarist Slash as he is placing his amp cable into his guitar as part of the opening introduction to the song. My reasons for choosing this part in particular is because the clip symbolises 'the show' about to start, preparing the audience for viewing the band. Other elements I like about the video include the constant cuts changing the cinematography from black and white to colour, most of the time representing previous moments of the band members.

A rough storyboard

This is a very rough copy of a storyboard that I created when I was planning the construction of my video. I drew it out to get more of a clear idea in my head of the type of shots I wanted, and to keep up with my ideas I wrote all the planning for the shots below the pictures. This mainly included timing and duration for the shots, what type of shot it is, the editing which is required and an explanation of what is happening. There are approximatley 4 pages of the storyboard that I drew, and it involves the planning of the opening and some of the middle part of the video. The rest of the filming I planned out during the course of the production, and in some places I took random footage which fit into the style of the video.

Letter to producer

One concept we had to think about while making a music video and using an existing soundtrack were the copyright purposes. When we upload our own sources of media on the internet where it can be accessible, we must be aware that what we use can sometimes be like stealing material from other sources. So to overcome this problem I have created a letter addressed to the producer for the original song 'Atomic' asking his permission to use the soundtrack. This will then allow me to use the soundtrack willingly without any copyright accusations. Here is the letter I wrote: To Mr Mike Chapman, I would like to ask permission please to use the song ‘Atomic’ by the all famous band Blondie from which you produced from their album. This is for educational purposes as I am an A2 media student who has been assigned to create a music video from an existing song. I ask your permission to avoid any copyright accusations, as it is only the soundtrack I need from the original band, not any of the video coverage. I hope you agree to my terms, and I would be very obliged if you do allow me to use this original soundtrack. Also the video would only be going on a student blog from which my class can view it, and possibly even on Youtube as it is easier to access, but I will make it clear that I have asked for your permission and that I have not copyrighted the song.

Many thanks, Yours sincerely Ellen Smithson

The Animatic (opening scene)