Our music video, as a narrative, demonstrates characteristics that place our video in this genre. One example is the story in the video where a boy and girl both go to a place where they have had many memories together and we included a recurring motif of love. The story is told visually with no narration as it is instead coherence with the lyrics so the images on the screen direct correspond to what is being said in the song such as a case up of a pocket watch when the song mentions growing old. A story told in 1st person is common in current pop and indie music as well as synth pop here such as Alan Walkers faded which is a 1st person story of a male who is finding a lost home or the remains of his past life. Imagery depicting the recurring ideas/motifs in our video and the story being acted out shows our music video to be narrative and differ form that of stage performance for example which would include band members playing the song on stage.
There is a clear relationship between the music and visuals on screen which is illustrative of the lyrics. This adheres to Andrew Goodwins theory of music video which is typical of the Indie genre as well as the sub genres Altertaive R&B, Electronic and Trip hop. The illustrative style allows the audience to focus on the lyrics more as an image reinforces the themes of the song such as time passing by, illustrated in our video by a time-lapse of a river. This is seen in indie rock artist James Bay video for Let it go where the setting and acting can demonstrate the artists feelings/emotions in the song. A room with no lights on with James staring out of a window creates a withdrawn emotion which later turns into emotional pain when the house slowly burns down. A linear narrative also shows the use of conventions of music videos; in particular the pop indie genre as almost all have linear narratives such as Ed Sheerans song "shape of you" which follows his preparation to box in a ring.
The mise en scene aspect of the videos in this genre is very important to create a meaning in the lyrics as the costume can evoke a first impression onto the actor/artist. For instance, we have presented the two teenagers in the video as following the social norm in the style and make of clothes; the female is wearing bright clothes that match her surroundings which is the same in the James Bay music video for Let it go where the artist wears an all black outfit and hat which match the dark room he sits in.
However, the music video does challenge some forms and conventions as we have a time lapse of river and a small waterfall which is not typical cinematography in music videos. As well as this, we have an open ending to the video where the narrative can take multiple meanings or interpretations. A medium shot shows the two finally together in one shot yet it is not clear if they are there at the same time due to a line being die into the frame in the editing stage so it could be inferred the couple are no longer together or the footage shown in the video before is what could be, if they were together.
Q2.
For the ancillary texts, we made the covers of an album for a standard 2 sided cd case. On the front cover are the two actors seen in the music video from the shoulders up facing each other but blended int together with the title of the album cover on the front "Weathered". The digipak folds out once as a double sided album. The design is similar to that of Kings of Leons new album Walls, in that it only shows the band members heads.
Q3.
To gather audience feedback on the ancillary texts, I printed out the two different designs for the album cover and showed this to 10 people outside of my media class. I asked them which the preferred and kept a tally chart to document what the participants felt was the best for an indie genre album cover.
The first design was more colourful and focused on pattern to create a vibrant image that had connotations of light and emoted a happy/playful theme. I asked for verbal feedback from peers in my Media class on how to improve with two suggesting to include the singer or character(s) in the song. After receiving this feedback, the second design included incorporated two characters from the music video we made as well as having a logo on the inside cover. This logo was simplistic in design but matched the font colour and colour scheme of the wording on the back cover.
Although at first the second design received just one more vote, the second design which incorporated the actors featured in the music video was favoured more when I showed people outside of the initial 10 I asked which they thought they would buy if they were buying an album.
Prior to filming, we pitched our ideas on filming to the teacher and rest of the class. The pitch consisted of presenting initial ideas for a narrative in our music video shown via a powerpoint and talking about potential themes and motifs within the song lyrics. At this point, we had already filmed a test shot for the time-lapse of the river near to our location of filming, Hopwas. The sequence was shown to the class and was received well although it was suggested by a few students to speed up the time-lapse as it was hard to tell at first the shot was a time-lapse in the 8 second sequence. We agreed this would be re-filmed and upon editing we decided on the second take of this scene. In this pitch, students mentioned props they would consider important in the Indie genre of music. This included personal items such as diary, a locket and small pocket sized photos of family members or companions. This would help affirm the audience the song would have personal meanings and divert it away from hip-hop genre which is often more to do with partying and breaking up in relationships. Although our production does somewhat fit the latter, it is more concerned with a personal journey of youth nostalgia hence the focus on the collage of photos on the smartphone and the focus on the passing of time (pockewatch) included in the final edit of the music video.
Q4.
For research and planning, I used Spotify to find artists in the Indie genre as this was a genre I was already interested in personally. I decided on Jack Garratt having listened to his music before and chose the song Weathered for this. After listening to the song, I created a mind map using the website called "Mindmup" which allowed me to form initial ideas and interpret the song to create my own music video for it.
The first use of media technology was a graphics tablet which enabled a digital version of a storyboard. A pen on an electronic tablet connected to the computer and we were able to draw and colour a storyboard which could then be printed off; the result was a stark and professional look but I decided the original drawn images were a better result so stuck with this.
When constructing the media product, (music video), I filmed with a Toshiba Camillo X2000 camcorder in HD which I took with me to set along with a tripod. For back up incase the battery run out on the camcorder I bought a samsung compact camera. I experimented to find the right mode to film the video in and opted with a 720x480 ratio in the end and mad use of the macro mode feature for two shots ( the smartphone and pocket watch shots, provide example with picture). In order to have stability in tracking shots and a few close ups, I used a Visionary Tripod which was easy to assemble and could be folded away in a waterproof bag easily, which was essential when filming as the floor was somewhat wet from rainfall in the woods the day before and we didn't the equipment to be damaged.
Some footage was shot on an iPhone using the app (name) which enabled us to record a river flowing under a bridge and have this sped up. This was free and had the best reviews on the App store so we opted to use this and included the footage post production.
As there was lots of raw footage, I uploaded this onto my personal macbook and begun selecting the clips which would be used in the editing stage. We used Sony Vegas Pro to edit the raw footage and first imported all the selected footage before using the trimming tool to trim them to match with the lyrics.
