Monday 31 October 2011

Ice Rink Information

I contacted a few ice rinks, to see if it was possible for us to use their ice rinks for filming at a discounted price.


Email that I sent:



Corresepondants:

Canary wharf – brian@skateco.co.uk - no reply
Winter wonderland - info@pwrevents.com - not possible
Lee Valley - icecentre@leevalleypark.org.uk - replied








New Version of Annotated Lyrics

 This is the newer version of our annotated lyrics created by Billy, as we changed a few of our original ideas.



Sunday 30 October 2011

Music Video Synopsis Feedback

To complete this survey, could you please read the 'Original Synopsis to our Music Video' and the 'New Synopsis to our Music Video'






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These are the results from the survey.


This suggests that my audience will be mostly female.


This suggests that my audience will be mainly aged between 17 and 24.


All of my audience feedback indicated that people preferred my new synopsis.


100% of people found my synopsis clear and understandable, which is very important to know when creating my video, as it suggests I will receive positive feedback.


All of my ideas received good responses. However, the 'Placard Scene', 'Photo Booth Scene' and the 'Use of Flashbacks' gained the best feedback.


People thought it was important for my video to have both my male lead and main girl attractive. Also, using the desaturation effect was favoured over using grey scale.



This final question has given me a few ideas to add to or change about my video. For example; I must ensure the difference between the present and the flashbacks is clear as well as the 'trigger moment', something which must happen that makes him decide to go back to her. According to 'Todorov's Narrative Theory' this would be the stage of Recognition.

New Synopsis to our Music Video

 Due to our previous narrative being too complex and time consuming for the song we had chosen, I realised we had to reconsider our narrative and try to make it a little simpler. I decided to remove the character of 'the ex-boyfriend' and instead of showing flashbacks of different times between the couple, just show flashbacks of their date that day. This meant our narrative was not only shorter, but also easier to film as we didn't need to use different costume, a wider variety of locations or props.
The narrative of our music video will now begin with the artist walking the girl home after a date. They say goodbye, but he loses his confidence, so he leaves without kissing her. On his walk home, he has flashbacks (in chronological order) about their date, this will be the performance side of the video as the artist will be singing these scenes. At the end of the flashbacks, the ending changes and he imagines kissing her at the end. It returns to present time, he stops and realises '[he] should have kissed [her]' so goes back to her (This is where we hope to incorporate the placard scene). The video will end on the couple together, and hopefully include an intertextual reference to the 'kissing in the rain scene' from the 2004 film 'The Notebook' directed by Nick Cassavetes. Except our scene would involve snow, relying on weather conditions, to relate it to our 'winter theme'.

 In our narrative, we have  slightly challenged Vladimir Propp's character theory, as even though our main artist is the hero of the video, the main girl will not be portrayed as a damsel in distress. Even though, following the idea that every girl must wait for her 'prince', the girl waits through the whole of their date for him to kiss her, in the end it is her who takes controls and makes the decisions. In doing this we have presented her as more of a modern day independant women, causing our main lead to appear less like the conventional male R&B womanizer.

 When choosing our actors, I aimed for the conventional black male lead, reinforcing the R&B stereotype. However the girl I decided to use challanges all conventions of R&B music videos, as muslim Bangladeshi females never appear in the videos. By doing this I am representing a more independant and westernised muslim Bangeladeshi population.

 In addition, the romance genre of the concept of my music video and the references I have to films such as; Love Actually, The Last Song and What Happens In Vegas, will be recognisable among the majority of my female audience due to classic romance Hollywood films and literature.

Friday 21 October 2011

Animatic

This is the animated version of our story board, created by both Billy and myself. I drew the storyboard whilst he filmed them and added the music, then together we edited the shots into an estimate of our video. Making an Animatic was beneficial to us in our planning, as it enabled us to imagine what our video would look like before we started filming. After creating this, I realised we had to reconsider our scenes as in some parts it became too fast paced. This was the initial reason for us reconsider the order of our narrative. Additionally, creating our animatic advantaged us as we were able to see the timing of our video and learn how long each scene needed to be when filming. Actually making the animatic helped us become familiar with the editing software, which we would later use for the real product.


However, when we initially planned our idea it was summer and a lot of our video was based on the summer weather, as a few scenes were to be outdoors. As it will nearly be/be winter when we start the production of our video, we decided to change the setting. We're now aiming at a more 'christmas themed/winter wonderland' music video, which will be conveniant because of the time of year. Due to these changes, some of our scenes have had to be altered. We have decided to swap the 'cinema scene' for an 'ice skating scene' and have the placard scene at the end, as the scene when he 'tells/shows her how he feels'. In the third verse of our song, we had too many ideas for the length of time so it appeared crammed and rushed. We've now changed it so that he leaves her at the beginning of the video and goes back to her at the end, then the middle will be a mix of performance and flashbacks to create the narrative.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Original Synopsis to our Music Video

The narrative of our video begins with the artist on his way to meet 'the girl'. Whilst he is walking, he has flashbacks of all the chances he's had to tell the girl how he feels, e.g: in the cinema. Therefore, he is regretting all those times he missed his opportunity as he still feels the same way about her, and is now contemplating whether he should tell her or not. Once he's met the girl, he backs out of telling her and leaves to go off with his friends, then afterwards the girl gets a phone call from her ex-boyfriend. Later on, whilst he is with his friends he sees the girl with her ex-boyfriend and the video freezes on the artists facial reaction just before they kiss. The video then rewinds to the point when the artist is in the car with his friends, after just leaving the girl, he tells them to turn the car around and goes back to the girl. Finally he kisses her, lets her know how he feels about her and the video will end on the couple together.

Annotated Lyrics

I annoted the lyrics to our chosen song, in order to give us an idea of what and how much we could include in the video. Additionally, this helped us plan our scenes so that we could develop a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, according to Andrew Goodwin's Theory. The concept of our music video generally illustrates, and sometimes amplifies, the lyrics the video is based on a boy regretting that he didn't kiss a girl.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Permission for the Song

 I emailed Chris Brown's record label; Jive Records, to ask for permission to use the song 'Should've Kissed You' for my music video



Chosen Artist Background - Chris Brown

Chris Brown was born on 5th May, 1989, in Tappahannock, Virginia. He has been an active singer for 6 years and released his first album, 'Chris Brown', in 2005 at the young age of 16. His second album 'Exclusive' was released in 2007 and his third 'Graffitii' was in 2009. He released his fourth album 'F.A.M.E.' this year and is set for another album next year, called 'Fortune'.
His occupations are; singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer and actor. His music genres are; R&B, pop, urban, hip-hop and soul. He has been in three episodes of The O.C., played in himself in a documentary and a televsion special, as well as making a guest appearance in the programme: The Suit Life of Zack and Cody. He played a small role in the film 'Stomp The Yard', a main role in 'This Christmas' and was executive producer of 'Takers'. Chris Brown has had fove tours; his first being his Up Close and Personal Tour in 2006, The UCP Exclusive Tour in 2007, his Fan Appreciation Tour in 2009 and finally his F.A.M.E. Tour this year.