Focused analysis

Analysis of locations:

Our locations as you can see are streets in the day/night, a bedroom (various different places in the room), a bathroom, and a place where the band will be playing. This will be held in an out house that i have, it is dusty, dark and really old which will be the perfect location for us to use because it shows how we have done our research and know how to use good locations which shows our use of intertextuality, chosen within our mise en scene.
We are using simple locations but it is how we will make them look effective in our video.
Some of the street shots will be done at night but we took the pictures in the day so that we could show clearly where we would be filming. The bedroom shots are interesting because that is his place of confinement as it reflects his anger over his break up. The shots of the trees in the park shows how we found a location that has good lighting with shadows through the trees. We were pleased that the lamp-posts gave us enough light in the dark that reflected the effect of chirascuro when we took our photos.
From the comment on my group's 'location' photos made my Mr Raymond. We have decided to use our locations in a m ore 'domestic' way, as he suggested, to make it more interesting. The shots we took of the stairs will be shot (in our filming of the video, to give it effect) in the dark with some lighting from above and then some from below to see how we could possibly make the shot of the stairs more interesting, fitting in with the dark mood and theme of our chosen song. The shots of the streets and out of the window that we have used, we think, can be shot to show a less suburban area and make our locations look more professional, and not just an easy location of a typical street.
But for now, we have decided to shoot our video and edit it the way we planned and then see if it can be improved by using the variations suggested by Mr Raymond, as he will be part of an audience who will be viewing our music video.

This location is important as it is where Sean see's Chris and myself ad it is where he starts the argument and punches chris. We want to so this shot at night time to stay close to our chosen genre with effects of chiaroscuro and low key lighting to stick to a dark tone.

Also, Ben's bedroom is a very important place in this video as it is a reminder to Sean of all his happy memories with me. The flashbacks are shown in here because it was the place where he was with me, giving me the rose to express his love.






These images show the bridge in the park that will be shown in the final scenes. The bridge where I (as my character) first attempt to win sean back. We chose the bridge as it was different to the previous location and the water added to the overall lighting of the film and provided some variety.






This is a shot of the alley way where Sean finally breaks up with me. We began the video with a single lampost-lit alley and now we have ended in one. It's simple setting allows the majority of the focus to remain on the characters and the lighting adds tension and effect i the mood of the video and on the characters faces.






As you can see, the tree's branches hang down which make this location more interesting and create the feeling of enclosure. Ben and I were looking for a dark and mysterious setting for our final shots. This grassy park location was our first choice and we feel that is is suitable for the narrative in our video.








Sound/and music analysis:
My group has chosen Bullet For My Valentine's song 'Cries In Vain', shown in the storyboard analysis, as we think our story line that we have created in our storyboard planning is going to fit very well and through knowledge on theories we will show through our filming that we have a clear understanding of using different shots to create a story and stick to our narrative for the song and how we can stick to our genre without choosing any shots and editing that does not suit our theories. When planning, i have chosen music videos to analyse that are in the same genre as the song my group has chosen. We both listen to rock, so our group was easily put together. For a target audience it is clear to see that our video will attract 'rock' music listeners who appreciate that music. Were not looking to aim our video at people who listen to 'pop' or 'dance' which will show through our editing and our chosen theories.

To make our video effective, we will need the actor playing 'the lead singer' to be in sync with the song so it matches the sound and music in the video. The lead singer will need to look as if he is singing the song live and that he 'is' the real member of the band.




Focused analysis on characters in our music video:
In my group, we have chosen who we will use for the band representing Bullet For My Valentine!
They have said when they will be free which is every saturday in the day, so me and Ben know that we will have to do all of our band shots on a weekend and schedule a timetable nearer to the filming process. Me and Ben both want to be a part of the video, so we have decided, as Ben is in the band, i shall film the band shots and i will be playing the 'ex girlfriend' who is portrayed to be horrible, so on the shots of me Ben shall film those I am the main antagonist and create the disequilibrium in the story. At the end i show how I become the victim. We decided as a group that in the shots we are not featured in, such as the band shots and the shots of me, we shall take it in turns to film these and we will make a timetable and a plan to stick to so we both show that we have had a fair chance of filming the sequence, and stick to the 'group work' scheme.
Our friend 'Sean' has agreed to play the 'ex boyfriend who is dumped' by me and he will be the protagonist of this video as it is about his feelings and his revenge and regret.
We have 'Chris' playing my 'new boyfriend' who will only be in various shots where the song speeds up and the action begins.

Mise en Scene:
The mise en scene we plan to use will be lighting (giving the feel of chirascuro), clothing to fit the 'dark' 'metal' genre.
We will be filming quite a lot at night time so if we cannot find a convenient place to shoot the night shots, we will use a torch to give extra lighting in the shots atmosphere is needed. We will also use various props such as a mobile phone, alcohol and a rose. The phone is important as it is a beginning to the significance of his anger being brought up and the alcohol shows it is something he has possibly turned to as a part of comfort.

Media theories - planning

In class we are currently studying theories such as the theory of narrative, the theory of structuralism and how intertextuality is used within these. Me and Ben discussed what we thought was the best theory to use for our music video. From our story board and chosen story to narrate through the video we decided that Structuralism and Narrative were the best to use.

Vladimir propp exhamined hundreds of fairy tale in the generic form 'the folk wondertale'. He identified eight character roles and three functions which move a story along such as including a punishment of the villain and the ban of an actor.
This is an example of the structuralism theory. He uses intertextuality (other characters such as red riding hood - she has been used before) but structures his films in his own way which brings out the 'structure' part as he is making it different and intresting. He has stated "Structure comes from culture as directors use the typicalness of film and structure it in their own way"

Tzvetan Todorov developed the theory of disrupted equilibrium with in narrative. An exampls is equilibrium " everyone is alive "
disequilibrium " everyone dies "
equilibrium " the case is solved "
So as my example shows, the 'disequilibrium' disrupts normality.

Another theory for narrative is roland barthes's theory. He believed that there are five action codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative.
Two examples me and Ben thought stood out to us, as we could use those codes:
Cultural and symbolic were the two we chose. Cultural shows how intertextuality can be used to show our attitudes to gender or racial stereotypes and Symbolic uses iconography so portray a theme such as image verses reality! - An example of this in our music video will be how we will show an image (of his past/the flashbacks) of his past and how he faces reality. It will show how the past images in his head effect him and how he canno't face reality till the end.

Diegisis:
Non - Diagetic narrative events take place off screen - before the movie/music video started, so it is everything we did not see but through the video we can assume clearly what happened. This is a good theory to use as through our video, we will need to show that there was an event that took place before all the drama in our video, that lead to what is contained in our story eg: the break up, it was obviously bad.

Planning our video: Storyboard

This is a story board me and my group came up with. As you can see, we have decided on 'Cries In Vain' by Bullet For My Valentine as we think sticking to the 'metal' genre will guide us to understand what people we will give our quesionnaire to. At first we did one each using our chosen song and then we showed each other our ideas and merged them together to make one final storyboard that we would use for our filming process. We did this because we thought both me and ben in my group would get our own ideas in the video and have a fair chance of editing it and filming it. We both decided what shots would look good for whatever scene and have chosen different lighting to be used for different parts of the song. I am very happy with the way our planning started and how it is coming along now, as i think that with all our ideas and our media knowledge we can make our music video stand out and look very impressive! We were originally drew two storyboards to merge our ideas together and to finalize what we wanted there and then. We have a clear idea of what shots we want to use and we have noted them down on the storyboard. And editing techniques will come in later planning as for now we want to just picture the video from all of our ideas and images drawn on the storyboard. Shots such as close ups, high angle and low angle shots are the shots we decided to use most in our planning. A shot that i think is interesting to use also is a point of view shot as it gives the feel to the audience that they can see what the actor is seeing/feeling, so i later added that idea to our storyboard and i think that with well planned editing, our video will suit its genre and show the theories which we will later choose.




The video opens with a medium close up of a hand and an ipod turning on the song which signifies the song beginning. Me and ben came up with this idea together, we thought that it was an interesting way for the song to start and i personally have not seen it before, It is significant to the video as we will have a quick close up before of the 'ex girlfriend' as she is the one listening to the song as she has broken up the boy and therefore her cries are in vain as he still loves her but she has decided to move on to make him jealous.

When the music begins to open, There is a close up of the lead singer, using the rule of thirds well. We haven't discussed a lot of editing plans but me and Ben have decided that shalow focus would work very well at this point of the song. (The lead singer out of focus, coming into focus)
Then after the close up, there is a long shot shown of the band, to show it is their song and the video is related around their song. The band jumps in union with the music and when they are in the air the shot it slowed down until they land which signifies the song speeding up. The slow motion shot is used in many rock music videos so we will be using intertextuality of other media conventions.

It then cuts to a mid shot of a girl with her hood up walking down a dark street, as she has her hood up and it is dark, it shows clear links towards the dark mood of the video. There is slight chirascuro/low key lighting shown to add tension, we would like to film this at night and have the effect of the street lights but it may not be enough so we will use our own light. There is a quick cut to her ipod in her hand and she is listening to the song 'cries in vain'. Suddenly there is a cut to an eyeline match which shows she is looking around and is scared slightly/worried. The audience will get to see what shes looking at. It then cuts back to the medium close up of the girl and she goes into 'her' house. Shots like this show the audience the difference between the different characters.

We decided to have a close up of the singer at the words 'lord you know ive cried' as thats when the singing begins, which we feel will work well. Then there is a few quick paced cuts relating to the boy and his reactions to his text. A close up of the phone with the words "its over!!!" then three quick paced cuts in the space of a few seconds fits in with the words and shows how we can edit our shots to fit the pace of the song. Then he throws the phone on the bed, and walks out of his room. To show this we will use a close up of his feet walking towards the camera (as if he's walking to go out of his room) and then a mid shot of him leaving his room.

We came up with this idea that a shot of his feet pacing away from his bed, then to him going through a door, then into the bathroom (where the camera is already there. A mid shot will show him splashing his face then the camera will act as the mirror (secret cut) he is standing in front of and his reaction signifys that he is thinking about something. (we will try this and see if it works) - because they will defenately be effective.
A flashback will have to be edited well to show it's difference to a normal shot, but that is the nest shot we decide to do. A flash back to the past where he is with his ex girlfriend and happy! At the lyrics 'your not there' the girlfriend vanishes. We figured that we will achieve this shot by having to do three quick cuts to make it successful. One shot will be of them together, then a cut to him looking down and smiling, then a cut to him looking to where she isn't. He also gives her a rose to say he loves her and she takes it to keep supposedly . We think that in the editing process, we could use black and white to signify the reality from his memory.

There is then an extreme close up of the boys face to show his reaction to his haunting memory. This also fits into the gloomy mood of the video. There is a quick band shot before the next shot (this is intertextuality as this is shown a lot in 'rock' music videos. There is a cut to a new day, a shot of the boys ex girlfriend (who he still thinks about) with her new boyfriend who kisses her on the cheek. They are walking down the street that the ex boyfriend lives. She seems unhappy which reflects the story. There is a shot of the boy which is a low angle shot, of him at his window. He throws something out the window towards them suddenly there is a shot of her back she looks behind and see's that nothing is there and no one is at the window (suspicious) Shots to show this is a long shot then a close up to a two shot.



A few band shots carry on. Then there's quick cuts to the boy in his room and seeing a new notification on facebook which states where his ex girlfriend is going with her new boyfriend/ that she's going out wit her boyfriend. He sees this and closes it.
The next shot involves an extreme close up of the lead singers face at the 'screaming' part of the song which links to the next quick cut shot to the boys face which matches the lead singers (they're both screaming, different meanings but shows a link) this is a slight graphic match as it is the same face but changes. Me and Ben discussed how we would portray this shot and we thought to make it effective, we could have lots of quick paced cut between the two people to show a speed up and build up of the anger in the song and also the boys mood, but we will have to se if it works as it could be quite difficult with the limited equipment.
A close up of him holding a picture of his ex girlfriend, it then cuts to a medium close up, he rips up the picture and the shot moves on.

There is an action match shot of the boy walking down the stairs and out the door of his house. There's another flashback (happy flashback) which cuts to a medium close up of the boy then a cut to his eyes (anxious eyes) A p.o.v shot shows how he finds some alcohol in his kitchen, which he then drinks (to show he is depressed and he has seen an opportunity to get drunk and forget his sorrows). Me and Ben have not yet decided what camera angles will suit this shot. He then catches up with his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend and meets them in a street,he walks over to them in rage.

There is a quick band shot after the last shot with a view of the band. When he reaches the boy and the ex girlfriend, an argument starts and this is shown by shot reverse shot. At the slow part 2:05 with the guitar playing, this is when the argument builds up a lot and when the screaming part of "look away" comes up in the song, he hits the boyfriend and he swears at the girl. He then walks away from the scene. When the music picks up, the boy starts to runaway from the action. His feet show graphic match with the bass and the snare drum. There is a sudden cut to him arriving at the scene where the band are playing. He takes the mic from the lead singer and he begins to sing (the band still into their song)
The girl follows the boy to this scene and she is in the middle of the crowd. A long shot will show this well. At the lyrics "has no one told you ..." they point at her and there will be quick cuts from crowd to her reaction to show the pace ofthis scene. Me and Ben discussed that maybe we could use a hand held camera here to show her reaction being confused and dizzy!



(talk more about story board)

videos to inspire my group for final ideas

This is a mood board i decided to make with all the different shots from the video below. I chose the ones that looked most effective and the ones that i seemed inspired by to want to use in my own music video.

As you can see, the shots i have chosen to use in this mood board all stay in a dark tone of colour. This fits the song genre and it's mood. This is what me and Ben will want to achieve in our video as it will show how we have used intertextuality and are sticking to our genre.




This video is by the same band who me and ben are using for our music video. Its has a good theory of narrative due to its story line and camera angles.

Roland Barthes believes that there are five action codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative. Two of his codes are shown and broken in this video. 'PROAIRETIC' is basic narrative actions which means - they must be caught for it to be effective. I feel this is used within this video because we see a bully and a boy who seems slightly different and less popular (intertextuality) and he keeps getting bullied, but for the story line to match the song and its darkness something needs to happen, then at the end we see it, he gets revenge and his next 'victim' mirrors the last one.
But i feel that the video breaks the code of 'HERMENEUTIC' as Barthes states that is a 'narrative turning point' and that being - we know where the story will go next. Waking the demon shocked me the first time i saw itr, i did not expect the ending to be how it was which shows how it was not predictable, even though something needed to happen for the storyline to be effective!

I chose waking the demon because Bullet For My Valentine are a modern Metal band and my group is using one of their songs for our media coursework video. This to me is a very good example for me to use as a lot of the band shots and lighting is what i would aim to use for my video. The quick paced cuts of the different band members when the song speeds up is what my group will be aiming to use. I personally liked the classic shot of the boy turning into a wolf, it wasent animated, a slight shadow and a light (showing chirascuro) darkened the moment and created suspense. I want to use effective lighting and different band shots that are effective.
I like the way that the story flows in waking the demon and fits the pace of the song. It has various close ups and uses shalow focus on the shots in the woods. A classic tracking shot of their feet when running is used and i think that my group would like to use this as there are parts of our chosen song what speed up and we could use inspiration from this video and show how we have used intertextuality from a video of the same genre.







This video is by linkin park. It has an intresting meaning behind it as it has a few simple band shot of them playing the video, but in relation to the lyrics, it has images of problems in the world that link to the bands narrative for the video. At the beginning of the video there is a slow zoom into the band shot as the beginning of the song is quite slow paced with the piano to begin with. As the pace gets faster there are many shots of the band and images of problems around the world, quick cuts add to the pace of the song. I saw that intertextuality is used as the images are of mediated images showing world issues, which watch the lyrics. There are various medium close ups of the singer and the various members of the band and also mid shots. Me and Ben will definitely use close ups and medium close ups when shooting our band shots.
When the lyrics 'wash away' occur there is a relevant image of a world disaster - the pollution in the water which links to the songs context.
As the song slows down the slow motion shot of the drums links to the songs tempo and there is an image of a nuclear bomb blowing the snow off trees which is quite a slow processed action. The lyrics 'Start Again' signify a slight positivity in the song which goes against the bad which has been previously shown. The images of the baby being born and a new rose blossoming link to this. This shows me a clear understanding of the 'narrative theory' with in this video. The message in the song and the images show a clear disequilibrium with the negative images at the start then an equilibrium after the lyrics i have mentioned 'start again' then back to negative images with a final shot of the grass growing again which shows there is hope and things can change which is an equilibrium.
The most interesting shot to me is the graphic match from the sun behind the band linking to an atomic bomb which is a disaster!
From looking at this video. me and ben have decided we could use slow motion shots (to create when editing), close ups, fast paced cuts and links to the lyrics and the theories of the video that we will choose!





I chose this video by Foo Fighters because i thought that it had a lot of interesting shots and it had a good story line.
The fact that the song is called 'my hero' and theres a hero in the video links well.
The video analysis:
The music begins when the male protagonist hits the ground, in time with the drums. He begins to run around towards the action which reflects the speed of the drums. There are interesting cuts between his running shots and the band members playing, as if a way to introduce them! There is a slight zoom towards him as the song begins to add the guitar and the other instruments which implies he is nearer to the action/ going towards it.
When he arrives at the door and opens it, the music begins to play, we see the band in the same location which is not typical of a music video. This shows that he feels like he is a 'good simaritin' whish reflects the videos theme. I discussed this with my group and we decided that this could be an interesting thing to use within our video, so we could make links towards my hero when analysing our music video.
The camera seems slightly hand held which gives the audience the feel that they are part of the action, a good example is when he picks up the baby, you can clearly see how the camera had a hand held effect. When the lyrics 'my hero' occur he picks up the baby to singify he has saved it and is a true hero.

The band shots are very interesting because they are in a different room and a different place each time.
As the music slows down so does the hero, but as he begins to run again, the music's speed begins to pick up, the singing begins when he reaches the stairs. What i find interesting is that we never get to see his face so there is a mystery to who he is.
The hand held camera is shown well and used well in this next scene as he has entered another home, ready to save someone/something else. As he is running through there are various shots of different band members without cutting.
I personally feel like i am running with the 'hero' and i really like that effect.
Once again when the 'hero' lyrics occur, he has saved someones dog. At the end all of the people crown around the hero and the camera has a slight rise which shows everyone is happy and the hero has succeeded. This shot is slow paced and is quite a long shot, but it shows the audience the slowing down of the song as it has finished and that the people are calm as everyone is safe.

First Preliminary task

For our first preliminary task we were given a sheet of different camera angles such as:
tracking shots, close ups, medium close ups and over the shoulder shots.
We were asked to got into groups of five and film a sequence as practise using the sheet given.
At first it was very embarrassing to act and i was asked to do 'part A' which was the main part of the filming sequence.
Here are two images of what the sheet looked like as guidance to our filming piece:

At first, i had to run and i really felt uncomfortable being filmed as i was chosen to film. I feel that we could of arranged our filming better and taken more turns in filming and acting so for my real coursework piece, i will make sure me and my partner get even chances to do both and also edit together!
Personally, with our first preliminary task, the shots took a while for us to get the shots right and to make them look effective, but as we kept practising they became better and we shot 10 of each so that we have a wider variety of choice when it came to our editing.

As we were in a group of five, we thought as it was a preliminary task, we could edit it one at a time by taking it in turns so that we all Weren't round one computer. I got the chance to practise my editing skills and created clear continuity . The running shot in the sequence was very well done if i must say. We had a shot of myself running, then a close up of my legs to show I'm running 'to' something and to speed up the scene, then me arriving at the door and entering the room. Editing the piece was great fun because we made a story out of the shots we were given. We weren't told to create any sort of film but we thought that when we were editing it, the story had a little tension, so we added sound effects to the shots to fit in with the narrative we chose and our movie became interesting because of the music and sound effects we chose to use.We just used the sounds that were available on I movie which were interesting to play around with and see how we could add it in easily enough without any trouble. The ending slipped up a little for us as my hair had changed from the last shots we did, therefore we decided to change the end to something funny but it didn't fit in at all, so, we added a 'creepy' sound to make the girl emerging from behind the wall seem like she was scaring us and that she was scary herself . I enjoyed this task as i gained skills creatively and most importantly i knew how to create a theory for my filming by the shots and editing it on i movie. As this was our first time filming a sequence we did not use the tripod, i think that now i look back on this project, it looks too shaky, so for our coursework i think we should definitely use the tripod to make our filming look more professional. I know that this video was not perfect but it is the best way to learn, from one's mistakes, so i know that my group will do so much better on our coursework video!