Research & Ideas for chosen songs

Group members:

• Luke Thompson - Luke has gained experience with the recording equipment and is confident with operating the camera.He believes that he can achieve different camera angles and editing techniques in order to create a professional music video.
• Max Heath - Max has expressed a range of different ideas to make our music video original as well as aquiring the abilities to use the editing software that we will use to produce our video
• Will Stacey - Will has shown his ability to come up with original ideas and has expressed them passionately throughout our meetings
• Rhiannon Andrews-West -

Meeting 1:

We collected all of our original ideas and evaluated each one to decide on an idea that we all prefered and that would produce the best music video to give us the best grade possible. We considered whether the ideas would stick to the genre coventions of the song that we had selected as well as whether is would successfully attract our chosen target audience. These were our options:

• Song 1: Zinc - Only for tonight

- Narrative idea: We thought that we could take the idea of teenagers receiving their alevel  results as it would reflect the lyrics 'something on your mind' that is repeated in the chorus of the song. We thought that we could also show the teenager going out and being involved taking drugs and drinking alcohol in order to drown out the stress of their alevels. This would then go with the uptempo music of the song and create the correct atmosphere.

- Why we decided not to use it: We decided that the idea was not in depth enough and may therefore lead to the music video looking amateur. We also felt that our other ideas would be easier to carry out and would create a more successful video

Song 2: - Sun dont shine

- Narrative idea: The music video will start in a graveyard with a priest leading a funeral. This coincides with the lyrics on the first line 'ive walked through the valleys' which is a biblical term and therefore lends it to the story line. From here we are going to create flashbacks of the couple's (main characters) memories together to show an insight into the background of the people. This will be paired with the couple being shown at a house party that will be alternating with the flashbacks. This will help to create a faster pace to fit the fast beat of the House/Dance genre. We then will skip back in time to explain the use of the graveyard at the beginning by showing the couple leaving the house party (after having been drinking) and arguing in the car. The next scene is going to be a car crash which leaves the girl laying on the floor.

- Inspiration: Ellie Goulding & Calvin Harris - Need your love / Coldplay - The Scientist

- Why we decided to use it: We have chosen to use this narrative as we all agreed that the song choice fits with the ideas for the narrative better than any of the other songs that we had discussed using. We felt that the song spiralled a range of ideas and that this would lead us to create a more original and effective music video.  

Further analysis:

Mise-en-scene:
- Iconography: Car
- Setting: House Party / Graveyard / Country Road
- Lighting: Light and Dark - Show the good times contradicting the bad - Lyrics link with the visuals

Cinematography:
We havent yet decided on the camera angles that we will use for each shot, however we know that we will need to use a range of them, including:
- High angle
- Low angle
- Close up
- Establishing shot
- Long shot
- Mid shot

Style of music video:
- Narrative - Drink, drug use, death, relationship

Target Audience:
- 16 to 25 - As this is the target audience of the song that we have chosen as it belongs to the House/Dance genre that is fairly new and therefore would attract a younger audience.

Editing:
- Fades - To show the change in time and to make a simple transaction between each scene

Codes and Conventions:
- Conforms to conventions - Dancing, Narrative

We planned our ideas under each heading of the factors that we need to ensure we cover within our music video:

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Meeting 2:

In meeting 2 we worked on gathering all of our ideas and ordering them so that we had a step by step plan of the narrative and what we will need to film in order to create our music video. This will allow us to make sense of all of our notes and ideas that we have already collected and organise them so that each member of the group is able to grasp and understand the concept. 

In my individual research into our chosen genre of Dance/House I researched into other songs within the genre. The song 'I need your love' by Ellie Goulding and Calvin Harris was a video that I took inspiration from as it has many dance characteristics. I thought that the flashbacks shown within the video is the same idea and creates the same effect that we want to achieve for our video. I presented this idea to the group and we all agreed that it would be an idea that we will take forward and use for our own music video. It also gave us an insight into the locations that we would need when filming. 

We further discussed the ideas that we originally had for the music video and looked in more detail at each one and refined them. An idea that was fairly vague was which flashbacks we would use within the video to show the relationship that is presented within our video. We planned some further ideas which included changing the cause of the crash from drink driving to driving whilst on the phone. We decided that it would be more relevant to the narrative that we have chosen as it would link more to a relationship we are conveying. We thought that she could be looking at her phone while receiving a text (arguing with her boyfriend) which leads her to having a collision. 

We then continued to discuss the different flashbacks that we will film for the video and the settings that we will need to visit. Our ideas included: Park (boats on a lake), Forest, Bed, and a suitable place to act the crash (High Beach or David Lloyd). 

Lastly we looked closer at the lyrics of the song and discussed how we could link the visuals with the lyrics so that our video follows Goodwin's theory. We decided that the lyrics 'the sun don't shine, without you, without you' should be when the flashbacks of the crash are shown apposed to the happy flashbacks of their relationship. We also felt that darker lighting should be used in these sections to further reflect the lyrics.