Music Video Rough Cut- BEN RODWELL, TOM HUNTER, ANTON GODWARD, RUTH COBO

UPDATED: Narrative Structure- BEN RODWELL

When planning our music video we had two options: a narrative based music video or a performance based music video. Andrew Goodwin stated that music videos fall in to two categories: videos focused around performance or videos focussed around narrative. Taking Goodwin's theory as an insight in to generic music video convention, we decided that while we wanted to incorporate a performance element in to our music video, trying to base our video around a performance would be difficult as we did not have access to the band who wrote the song. So instead we decided on a narrative focus for our video. We decided to use a traditional three act narrative structure. This act is the basis for most narrative music videos and can be seen in examples such as Mike Posner's video for his song "I Took a Pill In Ibiza". We also wanted to incorporate some kind of cyclical structure to our video and the 3-act narrative structure can incorporate this well. The main theme of our music video would be the ida of duality; the good and bad within one person. We wanted the narrative structure of our music video to relate to and represent this theme in someway.

This is how our music video will align with the 3 act structure:

Equilibrium- The super villain ( metaphorically representing the bad side of an individual) is portrayed as being washed up and powerless. He commits minor offences and annoyances but does not do anything to seriously disrupt anyones lives.

Disequilibrium- Slowly his crimes start to become more severe.  He squashes someones head, fights with people and eventually ties up his ex-nemisis, the super hero (who metaphorically is representing the good side of an individual), and harasses him. This section of the narrative structure is key in highlighting the theme of duality and furthermore the struggle between the good and the bad.

New Equilibrium- The super villain, the bad, is in control having tied up the super hero, the good. The balance between the good and the bad has been disrupted, the super villain portraying how one side can often overpower the other.

Disequilibrium (etc)- Returns to the beginning where the super villain he has lost all his power and control and dominance. He is yet again washed up and powerless. The cyclical structure is complete and could continue for ever. The theme of duality has also been repented as fluid and intertwined; often one side over powers the other, but both always remain.

In addition to this we implemented other narrative techniques: 

UPDATED: Explanation of Planning- BEN RODWELL

Throughout our planning we decided on most elements of our music video via group discussions and then transformed these discussions in to blog posts. On initial prezi mood boards, we all contributed aspects and ideas. We would then discuss these further in class. On certain prezi mood boards, we would allocate certain people to write up different parts of our discussions. For example, I would write about the decisions we had made about costumes where Tom would write about the decisions made about locations. The tasks were divided equally among al four of us.

UPDATED: Case Study: How is gender represented in Queen Of The Stone Age's video for '3s and 7s'- BEN RODWELL

Inter-textual References- BEN RODWELL

Many texts have influenced and inspired aspects of our music videos. Throughout our planning and research we have incorporated  these texts in to our video via implicit and explicit references. We feel that by making these subtle references to other texts, our work is more sophisticated and has more meaning and value behind it.

The costume of the main character and the thematic basis of our music video was inspired by the video for The Hoosiers song 'Goodbye Mr A'. This videos's premise is that the band kill Mr A, a super hero, and then take his place as vigilante protectors of a town. The cliche, comic book-styled super hero basis of the video was what influenced and inspired our music video's theme. We think that the idea of a hero vs a villain is a well trodden and explored path- in essence it's bout good vs evil. However the super hero vs super villain take on this classic narrative conflict is modern and has lots of opportunity to adapt it. As well as providing inspiration for there basic thematic principle for our video, the style of the superheroes in 'Goodbye Mr A' was a large influence on us. The costumes worn by Mr A and then consequently The Hoosiers, provided us with inspiration for our own music video style and costumes. We decided to add a slightly more modern twist to the style however we feel we kept enough classic, cliched elements such as boots, a cape and a large sign on the chest, to provide the audience with a subtle reference to The Hoosiers video.

One of the main themes that we are trying to portray through our music video is the internal struggle people face between good and evil. For example the line from our chosen song "try as I might, I'm loosing the fight, to get better" highlights this well. The super villain is in conflict with himself. The 'good' side of him is "loosing the fight" to the bad side of him. This is a classic thematic and narrative structure in media and literature. One of the famous example is "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". This novella is about a man who experiences two very different personalities, one of them good and one of them bad. We wanted to take this traditional, classic narrative theme and add a modern edge to it. We feel by mixing this idea with a superhero theme, we have achieved this. This reference is less explicit than the stylistic reference to  The Hoosiers and instead is implied through the repetition of the lyric "try as I might Im loosing the fight to get better" and the visuals which amplify this lyric.

Finally, a far more explicit reference we made was to the music video "Passing Out The Pieces" by Mac DeMarco. In this video a melon is used as visual effect to make it seem as if someone has squashed and stamped someones head. In the video a quick cut is used to make it seem as if someone has stated and squashed someones head where in actuality it was just a watermelon. We thought this comedic affect was highly affective and wanted to emulate it in our video. We feel that this effect is both surprising, innovative and adds comedic value.

By including explicit and implicit references to different media and literature texts, our final product arrives far more meaning and overall is a stronger piece of media text itself.

Locations- BEN RODWELL

Our thriller will have 3 main locations. These will be a forest or wooded area, an urban/suburban/streeted area and an indoors location. To decide on these locations we visited each, took photos, evaluated the light and space potential and then made a decision based on these properties.

Potential locations

Forest/wooded area

1. Smock-mill Common- Newton Flotman

Advantages:

• Large and open wooded areas
• good light
• good variety of locations
• large site

Disadvantages:

• Not easily accessible
• Far from Norwich
• Very popular and busy

2. Marston Marshes- Norwich

Advantages:

• Not very busy
• close to central norwich
• easily accessible
• good light

Disadvantages:

• Smaller site

Chosen Location: Marston Marshes. Because of the ease of getting there and the good light we chose the marshes. As we only needed one scene filmed there the smaller size of the site would not be an issue.

Urban/sub-urban/streeted area

1. Norwich Lanes

Advantages

• Easily accessible- central
• good variety of locations
• large site
• good light

 Disadvantages

• busy
• legal issues with shops being in footage

2.Cringleford/Eaton

Advantages

• Easily accessible
• good variety of locations
• large site
• not busy
• near to Marston Marshes

Disadvantages

• Not as central as Norwich Lanes

Chosen location: Cringleford/Eaton. Logistically it makes more sense to film here as it is very close to Marston Marshes. Additionally it has a good array of different kinds of urban locations and has streetlights and open areas resulting in good lighting.

Indoor/House location

Chosen location: Ruth's House. One member of our group, Ruth offered to let us use her house to film in. The advantages of this were: 

• The room was well lit
• The room was large enough to film in
• Its layout worked well with our storyboarding shots
• It was central and easy to get to
• It was available at any time due to ruth being in our group

This as the location we chose.

UPDATED: Shooting Schedule- BEN RODWELL

ROLES OF THE GROUP:

When we are not in the scene as extras or main actors, me, Ruth and Anton will uptake different roles to ensure a smooth, productive shoot.

Ruth- Makeup, Costumes, Lighting
Ben- Composition of shots, Camerawork, Camera Angles, Positioning of Actors
Anton- Shot schedule (ensuring all shots are filmed and in correct, logical order)
Tom- Although in almost every shot, Tom will help with the composition of shots                          and camera work

For four of the main scenes which included multiple camera shots and camera movements we drew up rough shooting maps/floor plans to help us on the day of the shoot. These included numbered cameras telling us in what order to film specific shots, placement of actors and rough diagrams depicting the camera and actor movement. As well as helping us on the day, these diagrams helped us ensure that we didn't break the 180 degree rule as we could clearly see the position of each of our cameras.

This is the scene where the hero is tied to the tree being intimidated by the villain. As this scene effectively occurs twice (at the beginning and end) lots of shots are needed hence why there are 5 camera angles. Camera 3 will move back and forth capturing the action via a moving shot.

 This is scene during the first verse. Because we are filming inside in a specific space, we knew the area we were working with well. We could therefore effectively plan where cameras should be placed to achieve the shots we wanted. Camera 3 breaks the 180 degree rule. However this is not an issue as camera 3 will be showing the audience the villains perspective.

 This floor plan is a very rough guide to depict how we want the handheld, lip sync shots to happen. We'll film the scene once with Tom (playing the villain) walking and miming toward the camera and then once again where he is walking backwards away from the camera.









This is the floorplan for the scene where the villain fights with the anorak man. To help with seamless, continuous editing, this scene will have 3 camera shots which will be cut between. This helps the audience see al aspects of the fight and is far more effective than a single camera.