Music Video Planning

Due to several changes with my song and location, I had to re-plan my music video to fit alongside my new song choice, 'The 1975 - Head.Cars.Banging'.

 

The 1975 - Heads.Car.Bending (Music Video)

Music Video Evaluation

This was by far the hardest unit I have encountered during this course. From the start I was forced to deal with problem after problem. The first major problem I encountered was the original location I intended to shoot my music video at. I managed to agree to film my music video at a local bowling alley which I thought would be a great location in order for me to obtain footage; However due to staffing issues at the location, it was deemed impossible for me to shoot my video. I therefore had to create a completely different plan that would fit a different song, the only thing that remained from my original plan were the cast who agreed to star in my music video.

I decided to choose the song 'Head.Cars.Bending' by 'The 1975', which had a really nice beat and style to it which I felt I would be able to quickly create a video for. The added bonus that came with this song was that it didn't already have a music video produced for it and therefore I would not be influenced to copy a similar style that a song may have already in a video. I did view music videos that the band and similar groups had produced as part of my research (Unit 2) to gain more of an understanding for when it came to producing a music video of my own.

I encountered further problems through technical issues. Two cameras I had taken out with me to start filming the video were not working correctly, therefore my shooting dates were pushed back further. In the end, the entirety of my footage was shot in one night.

From my research I noticed that music videos that had the same sort of style music to the song i had chosen used a black and white filter on the footage to create a dramatic feel to the video. This is a convention that I decided to use for my own video. To do this I used the 'ProcAmp' feature and lowered the saturation of the shot which created a black and white look to my shots which I felt accompanied my song well. Some of the files I recorded were shot at night and therefore when i went through the same process of editing with them, it was difficult to view what was happening in the frame. I therefore had to raise the brightness which may have decreased the quality of the footage slightly, however it meant that you could see what was happening within the frame.



Also from my research of music videos (Unit 2) I realised a lot of music videos, not just the genre of song I was using, cropped the top and bottom of all the shots that were used. I decided to try this convention on my own videos and was impressed with the professional, cinematic look it gave my footage and therefore I included it throughout my music video.


For the whole duration of the time I spent filming, I had a GoPro situated on the dashboard of the car in which the cast of my music video spent the majority of their time. This allowed me to obtain large amounts of footage (Over 3 hours worth of footage) and capture the whole surroundings of the car due to the curved 'Fish eye' effect that the GoPro produces. This meant I had large amounts of footage that I did not originally plan on capturing however turned out to be extremely useful. The only negative aspect that comes along with the GoPro is the quality of the footage. The quality isn't as good as the footage I shot on the Canon 600D, however it provides a unique angle and perspective, one that is rarely used in music videos, so therefore I am pleased with it as I did wants certain parts of my footage to be experimental.

Editing My Music Video

During the time I spent editing, it was important that in my Premiere Pro session I kept my content organised so that I ensured the little time I had was spent efficiently. I had a large variety of shots that rained from files I had recorded on a GoPro to shots that were self taken by the protagonist within my Music Video. Creating 'Bins' in my Premiere Pro session enabled me to drag and drop each file into the correct Bin allowing me to access the file I needed for my sequence with ease.

Music Video Change

Due to unforeseen circumstances I have had to change the location of my song. There was a problem with the bowling alley and therefore I have not been able to shoot my music video there. As I feel that the song I chose suited the original location extremely well. Due to the change of location I now have to choose a new song and new location to shoot my music video.

The new song I will create a music video for is 'The 1975 - Head.Cars.Bending'. I chose this song as it doesn't already have a music video and therefore I instantly found it easier to generate ideas for creating a video for the song.

The Idea

I have decided to shoot a music video for the song 'Head.Cars.Bending' by 'The 1975'. The video will not necessarily contain a narrative but will almost be a montage. I intend to base the majority of my video in a car which is driving throughout a city with lengthy close ups of an individual miming the lyrics. Accompanying these shots of someone miming the lyrics, there will be shots of the city, car, etc to keep the viewer engaged to the video.

I will definitely be linking Goodwin's theory to my music video as the individual who will be miming the lyrics is styled to look like Matty Healy, the lead singer of 'The 1975'. Shots of this individual will create Star Iconography due to his style however I also intend to use multiple close ups which will also generate ideas on artistic branding and artistic portrayal.

Effects & Editing

I may edit my video so that it is Black & White, however this is not definite as I will see how effective it is with my footage. I am also planning to slow down the city shots, a regular convention I discovered when researching music videos, although I feel I will only be able to apply this to certain shots. In regards to Goodwin's research I will be editing the visuals of my music video in time to the music of the song.

Equipment

I intend to shoot at night so I will be using an LED light source position away from the camera to help the light in my shots as although I want the frames to be dark, I do not want to shoot in a high ISO and lower the quality of my shots.
I will be using a Canon 600D to shoot the majority of my footage and may also use a GoPro to capture certain experimental angles in the car and around the City.

Location

The majority of the video will be shot in a car showing a group of friends, however I intend to shoot certain shots around Coventry and Birmingham to capture shots of a city night life to break ups shots of the individual in the passenger seat miming the lyrics of the song.

Planning

 For my 'Unit 32 - Promotional Video' unit, I produced a promotional video for my client, Nuneaton Town Football Club. After multiple conversations with the management there, I was given the task of producing a promotional video for the newly established Football Academy there. The Manager, Kevin Wilson and Assistant Manager, Steve Chettle, showed me a video that was produced for them at their previous club and told me they wanted "something similar, however put your own twist on it".  I was provided with a lot of freedom to create this video, although I wanted to view similar football promotional videos so that I had a better understanding - http://kechncbenshakespeare.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/planning-shooting-schedule.html

I was given dates for when to shoot, provided information on where the Academy players train and where I would film. With this Information I ensured that I had all the right forms filled out, such as risk assessment, talent release etc.



As I had many tasks to pursue throughout this unit, I wanted to make sure I kept my time well organised. To do this I created a gantt chart which was extremely useful. This enabled me to see when I was free to film, where I had to be at certain times etc.

Unit 2 - Effective ways to present and evaluate research methods

For the production of my music video, before I began my pre-production I conducted plant of research to further my understanding on the regular conventions used within the videos but also what music video viewers wanted to gain from viewing the video. The first part of the research I conducted was taking notes from the powerpoint that my teacher showed us during class. After one lesson I got a clear understanding of two theorists who base there theories on conventions within music videos, Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis. I then typed up this research onto my blogger account and began to add to it using secondary sources such as other webpages and books. I felt that the most useful information I collected was from SlideShare Presentations, however it is well known anyone can create and upload these, so I decided to cross-check the findings with other SlideShare accounts as well as blog posts, articles etc and it seemed to me that the information was accurate. 

Although I am a regular viewer of music videos, previously I have viewed them passively and not really paid much attention to notice regular conventions. However after researching into Goodwin and Vernallis I viewed many music videos and applied their theories to my own analysis of multiple videos. This increased my knowledge of music video conventions so that when It came to producing my own video, I knew exactly what conventions featured in certain genres. For example, I produced a music video for the Alternative genre, common conventions include the video cutting in time with the music, close ups etc.

To gain further research into what audiences wanted from their music video viewing experience, I conducted an online survey via 'Survey Monkey' https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9VG9RJ7 .

Producing this survey made me feel like I would collect more research and build up more of an understanding before I went away and produced a music video of my own. From answering online surveys before, I know how long and dull they can be so I have tried to capture as much information as I can from people in only 5 questions. I did find some of the answers interesting, particularly the 

'What is your favourite genre of music?' question as 'Dance' came back as the highest percentage of votes, the genre I am producing a music video for. In that respect the survey was useful although there were a few insensible answers, which f course is always a risk of running online surveys.

Focus Group

After gathering more information through my analysis of five music videos, some new and old, along with my online survey, I had a much clearer idea on what you can typically expect to find In music videos and what viewers can expect to see when they watch the ideas. However I wanted to listen to other ideas my fellow HNC Creative Media Production students had. Focus Groups allowed me to gain data and information from a primary source which would then further my knowledge on music videos.

Conclusion

After I gathered all of my results together, I realized that for the production work I was creating, I hadn't really gathered qualitative  findings that would help me to produce my own music video. The results I collected can definitely be seen as unreliable. The focus group I carried out with my fellow HNC students did provide me with some ideas and knowledge in the form of primary results, however it was indeed all opinion based. The online survey I sent out was disappointing in terms of how successful my finding turned out to be. I sent out my survey online via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, however may of the answers were not serious and were of no help in the production of my music video. Therefore the most useful research I carried out before producing a music video of my own was actively  viewing a variety of music videos and studying notes from renowned theorists Goodwin and Vernallis. From viewing videos I could visually see for myself what the regular conventions were in a music video and how I could produce a professional looking music video of my own. The notes I had taken from lessons and online on the work of Goodwin and Vernallis meant that I could then take my own findings and compare them to the findings of renowned theorists such as Goodwin to discover for example, the most common conventions in music videos.

Improvements I would make In The Future:

-Record the audio from the Focus Group to use for evidence
-Collect a wider range of books and online sources to further my research
-Replace the questionnaire with a different form of research.