The Brief

The brief for producing a music videos:

You work for an independent media

production company. You have been

given the task of producing a

three-minute music video for a

fictional dance band/artist signed to Universal Music, and the working

website for the band/artist.

FINAL PRODUCT: Music Video

My final music video
.https://vimeo.com/302732873

FINAL PRODUCT: Website

Link to my website: https://natashab20002.wixsite.com/candidate4022media I have finished my website, not including my music video and interviews as I am going to get feedback from my focus group on what they like and dislike and make improvements so I am waiting before I upload the final product. I like the theme of my website as it is very pink but a strong, empowering pink to suit Ivy Sharp's feminist character instead of a girly girl image. It is also very modern in it's structure with links to social media's to suit my 16-25 target audience.

FINAL PRODUCT: Album Cover

I used Photoshop to create an album cover that I would be able to place onto t-shirts, vinyl and bags. I used a photo that I took of Southend Beach when there was a really pretty sunset and cropped in to fit a square album cover. I then cropped a picture of Lauren (Ivy) so that it was just her eyes so that they are the focus of the album and I wanted her brand identity to be her eyes so that someone could see the eyes on the album and know that it is Ivy Sharp. I then outlined the eyes with white so that it looked like Ivy had ripped through the cover to show her eye.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: on products

PRODUCTION: Interview with James

I chose to edit a short Vogue inspired interview with one of the actors in the music video to give 'fans' of the music video a 'behind the scenes' in the making of the music video. It was meant to be rough and not particularly professional looking to give the impression that it was filmed during James getting ready for a scene as throughout the interview he is still getting his make up done and the make up artist is even included in the video to add further to the 'behind the scenes' theme.

PRODUCTION: Music Video Progress

When editing my music video it was brought to my attention that the 'blue scenes' were to dark and too far away so by editing the filters and the brightness settings I was able to make the shots more aesthetically pleasing and easier to watch and I also zoomed in the shots so that they were more medium to close up shots instead of wide shots.

PRODUCTION: Music Video Progress

After getting audience feedback I was told that the shots in the blue room were too far away and too dare, I fixed this by cropping the clip so that it zoomed in as the clip played and also adjusted the filter settings to make the blue more vibrant and bright. This is more visually pleasing and the audience approved of the improvement. I have begun editing the clips to speed them up or slow them down to add more effect to the video and get the lyrics perfectly synced up with the protagonist's lip-syncing.

PRODUCTION: Music Video Progress

My current stage of my music video is selecting the rough footage I want to use in my music video and syncing it up to the music but not perfecting it as I aim to get the rough video put together before altering the precise timings, filters etc. This allows me to know which shots go where in order to form a narrative that comes across clearly to the viewer and is easily understood.

PLANNING: Deciding on an Artist Name

I asked people from my focus group to help decide on a name for my artist. The options were between Ivy Sharp or Ivy Wolfhart. The results were as followed: Ivy Sharp: 4 Ivy Wolfhart: 5 . The focus group decided on Wolfhart.

PLANNING-STORYBOARD

 This is my storyboard on the rough layout of my music video.

PLANNING: Character Choice

Main Character (female lead): I chose Lauren because she is a very attractive woman who is visually pleasing to the audience. She has very gentle features with big, blue eyes (which I thought would work really well in close-ups) and big lips and so the idea that she's a psychopathic stalker seems out of character, conveying a message of 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. She is very photogenic and takes directions very well. A very strong female lead. Her blonde hair also goes against the stereotype that 'blonde girls are unintelligent' as she is able to carry out stalking the couple without being seen for so long. Her character goes against a lot of stereotypes showing her as strong. The Couple: Boy- I chose James to be the male character in the music video because he has a very kind face and looks very happy and I wanted to portray the couple as perfect and being very happy, therefore Lauren would look even crazier for wanting to break up a happy couple. He also a symmetrical face and was photogenic and so he looked appealing to the audience, the target audience of young girls would find him attractive and possibly side with Lauren and want to break him up with the girlfriend so they could have him. Girl- I selected Emily to be female in the couple for many reasons. One of which is that she looks completely different to Lauren and wanted the contrast between the two to be obvious so they audience never get confused on who is who as I personally find it hard to watch a video where two characters look too similar and you're having to keep looking hard at who is who. She is also very beautiful and so people that are attracted to girls would side with Lauren (as she turns out to be in love with Emily not James) as they would also want Emily. Her bright ginger hair makes her stand out and connotes a fiery and fun personality, again supporting that the couple are a good match, healthy and having fun.

PLANNING: Focus Group - Target Audiences

I created a focus group to analyse the type of people that would watch my music video. I look into their interests, psychographics and demographics to see why they would enjoy my music video and what aspects they would find entertaining. I then looked into my secondary target audience to explore the type of people that would watch my music video for different reasons other than because it suits their taste in music.

PLANNING: Location and shots Ideas

Locations: 

Forest: Protagonist to have bright colourful make up and to be surrounded by leaves and nature to show a softer side to her obsession and to remind the audience that she is human and not simply a psychopath. I also want some outdoor scenes to contrast to the indoor LED lit shots.

Dark plain blue/red room: These shots will show the most emotion and make the protagonist look isolated and insane as she is lit with different colours to show emotion: blue- sadness/despair, red-anger.

Laying down on bed: These shots will show the protagonist as sexy and seductive to seem attractive to the audience and make the music video visually pleasing. The make-up should be dark to add to the seductive look.

Sink: to show the protagonist washing her hands with blood, the sink should be white to ensure the red of the blood stands out.

Beach: To convey the true romance between the couple I want shots of them holding hands on the beach and hugging each other to show the audience that the protagonist wants to break up a perfect and desirable couple.

Shot Types: 

-Lots of close ups to show in depth the protagonist's facial expressions
-Moving shots to add a cinematic effect
-Panning shots
-Extreme close ups of eyes

PLANNING: Pitch

My Pitch:

I intend to create a music video about a girl's obsession over a couple where the audience assumes that she is in love with the male, due to society's norms and values an stereotypes, but a plot twist at the end reveals she is infatuated with the girl. Because the song is about being obsessed I want to use a lot of close up shots of my protagonist where her facial expressions show the emotion behind the lyrics. I also intend to pay homage to Macbeth by showing hands being washed with blood which will be intertextualised into the music video and create an enigma as to how obsessed the protagonist actually, the audience will question to what lengths her love will take her, did she kill the girl or not, they are left on a cliffhanger.

RESEARCH: Industrial Context of Music Videos

This is my research into the Industrial Context including a brief timeline of the history of music videos. I also looked into the different platforms in which the audience can access the music videos. I discovered that record companies mainly rely on the internet to distribute the Artist's music video to the audience such as through platforms such as YouTube where billions of people stream the videos.

RESEARCH: Case Study 1 - Selena Gomez - 'Bad Liar'

This is my first case study looking into Selena Gomez's music video for her charting song 'Bad Liar'. It has a lot of interesting aspects that I have also used in my music video as they are very effective in ensuring the narrative is entertaining to the audience. Some editing techniques such as the slow motion effect and putting 70's inspired filters on certain clips to make them stand out have made their way into my own work.

RESEARCH: Codes and Conventions of a Music Video

I looked into the codes and conventions of a music video to ensure I am following the correct structure for the music video I am aiming for. By looking into aspects such as the mise-en-scene I am able to ensure the artist is being portrayed to the audience in the manner I want.

RESEARCH: Audience Research

This is the brief of the type of audience that would watch and enjoy my music video.

RESEARCH: Case Studies