Prop choices

Ellie and I have chosen that we will include props in our music video this is because it will enhance the genre and will show professionalism, it will also make the audience more interested in the music video, though, we have chosen to keep it simple, by sticking to 2 props. An acoustic guitar and a stool. When we researched into our chosen genre, we found that a lot of their music videos included them sitting down and playing the acoustic, especially when it had mainly performance. For example, we were thoroughly inspired by 'Starring Role' (Acoustic Version) by Marina and the Diamonds. This music video was based mainly on the lyrics and the amplification, alongside the acoustic being used, which was shown by the close ups, this was done purposely to enhance the sound of the instrument and hopefully inspire the audience to also learn the acoustic guitar.
 In our music video, we will amplify the acoustic guitar by having close ups, like in the Marina and the Diamonds music video, we will mainly do this at the start since there is no singing at that point, and it will be a build up.
In addition, since our chosen genre is acoustic/indie we chose that it's best to have an acoustic guitar since it would be appropriate and will give a good feeling to the song; also when the artist is playing the acoustic guitar it will give off the feeling that the artist is actually playing it. It will also create emphasis on our target audience because those who said that they prefer indie music will feel more inclined to watch and feel inspired by it therefore creating a wider audience. The guitar that myself and Ellie are using is, my own guitar, it's a basic colour so it will stand out, though we are aiming to amplify the artists expressions more since it links with Goodwins theory, so it won't distract the audience either, though it goes well with our chosen costume.

Costume Planning

Collage created on picmonkey

Collage created on picmonkey

Choosing the costumes for our music video is essential; Ellie and I both knew that it had to fit well with our chosen genre indie. This took a lot of research, and we found that usually indie people are  associated with simple and vintage clothing, during our research, we found that indie people wear striped clothing, with clashing colours. Also, they like to wear beanie hats for example, Ellie Goulding is part of the indie pop genre, we were inspired by Ellie Goulding because of her fashion choices, however, we were mainly inspired through social networking sites like Tumblr and searching through the “indie” tag to see what those people wear.  In our music video we want our artist to have the same costume throughout, since we want to keep it consistent, also the clothing we get her to wear is important because it will help promote the song and the artist. People may also feel inspired by her and therefore want to dress the same.   In the images below, they show what our artist is going to wear. We decided that we should have a striped jumper since that’s what indie people are known for wearing thus meaning it fits with the genre. The stripy jumper adds colour and effect to the video, but doesn’t distract the audience away from the actual meaning of the song either. This works well, than just a plain shirt/jumper since not only doesn’t it fit well but it looks more grown up. The black leggings are inspired by Ellie Goudling since she is seen wearing those a lot in her music videos, in addition, they were simple for us and easy to get since we were on a low budget.  Finally, the shoes that our artist is wearing are called “Creepers” or “Platform shoes” people who wear these shoes have an alternative fashion which fits well with our chosen genre indie because “indie” is thought to mean individuality, so the fact that our artist is wearing something aslternative reinforces the fact that the indie genre is different and that our chosen costume choices is not what a lot of normal mainstream people would wear. This will intrigue and attract our audience.

A picture of our main character in our music video

The chosen outfit

Shooting Schedule

Shot List

In our music video our artist, is sitting down, most of the time, looking into the camera, therefore we have limited shot usage, we thought it out and we think, the best ones would be:

- Midshot: Of the artist playing the guitar, the surroundings will be  in background, showing isolation
-Close up: We have  many of these as this is our focus shot as it shows emotion and amplification
- Panning
-Establishing: We will use establishing shots  since it links with the lyrics and will show  isolation
- Medium long shot: This gives us the opportunity to show the environment, and to show the artist full body and clothing, the target audience may feel inspired by our artist.

In our music video we will be mainly focusing on the artist, we will be doing this by using a repetitive amount of close ups and panning shots, this also links with Goodwin’s theory of amplification. Close up’s will make the audience feel connected with the artist, showing the emotion of the artist and since she will be looking into the camera it’ll make them feel as though she is telling the story to the audience, leaving the meaning of the lyrics down the interpretation.

Storyboard

Planning

Ellie and I both planned our music video by suggesting different ideas that came into our minds and then writing them down, onto paper. We sectioned our different ideas into different area, since we thought it would look more organised and can easily differentiate from them, and evaluate.  The planning of our music video helped us a lot since we had no idea where to start, it especially helped us with our location scouting, and coming up with the main genre of the music video. We are hoping that we will stick with out plan and that it will show us into the right direction over the next few weeks of production. As you can see above, the diagram shows the ideas that Ellie and myself have thought of and this will be integrated into our music video, we are being creative with our music video and showing Goodwins theory throughout, the planning of our music video will also help us match the target  audience we are aiming at. 

Censorship

Music censorship is an act of eliminating any unwanted content in a music video. Whether it be a certain lyric or a scene in the video.  This is done to protect the viewer or listener, it  is said that media can influence and affect the way young people behave. Censorship is done in many different ways, it can be a TV advertisement that isn’t allowed to be broadcasted until a certain hour, or a song that has strong explicit language that needs to be either edited or bleeped out. There is evidence to suggest that many media productions have gotten many complaints by viewers and productions companies since they have been criticized for censorship because they’ve either applied too much or not enough.  Some examples of songs which are often on the radio for having  edited censored words are:


- Cee lo Green: Fuck you/Forget you 

- Akon: I wanna fuck you/Love you

- Bruno Mars: So fucking bad/So fricking bad


Censorship became popular around the early 1940’s when modern values were being challenged  by the early rock and R&B genre’s. “Sex and drugs were no longer hidden and secretive acts, but something to be exposed and celebrated”. In addition around the time of the 1970’s and 80’s, music censorship prolonged and targeted music videos as well as songs. Genre’s such as, heavy metal, rock and rap music were usually the ones that were targeted by moral authorities, this was because of the amount of violence that was exposed in their music. Later on, this was trailed on by the Parental Advisory symbol which arose in 1990, this was done because the Parents Music Resource Center insisted the government and music industry to create a rating system for music, evaluating the content of the song, in 1985.

The song ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, was released in 1983 but, however was banned from BBC. This gave them popularity and their single shot from number 6 in the charts to number 1 for a long lasting, 5 weeks. This became the 7^th best-selling UK single ever.  Whilst the original video formed a vast amount of publicity, the band thought it would be a good idea to create a clean video, because the original was not being aired and thus meaning that it wasn't meeting the needs of the music video, which is promoting the song itself.  ‘

Smack My Bitch Up’ by The Prodigy’s was released in 1997 and it was voted the most controversial and debatable pop song. The music video was also banned by the BBC because it was alleged for featuring and promoting domestic violence, illegal drugs and porn.  

 

 

Primary Research

Andrew Goodwin

Audience Profile

History of Music Videos

Molly Grace: Our unsigned artist

Indie Genre

There are different ways that a genre can be defined, such as; the general feeling and emotion that the artist gives off to their audience and how their convey the conventions of the genre to their general sound and presence make them noticeable and therefore representing the genre the band/artists music fits into. Another way to define genre would be the conventions of it, for example; the usual instruments used (a rock group wouldn’t use a violin  for example), the sound being used (volume/style of singing/volume), the context and theme of the song overall, and lastly, the appearance of the band. 

In my group it’s just Ellie and I, we have chosen an indie/acoustic song sung  by Mollie Grace. This song fits the conventions of indie, especially through the lyrics and instruments.  Though, the indie music genre is easy to understand  because ‘Indie’ is normally thought to mean individuality, which further reinforces the fact that the indie music is different and alternative to other music and fashion choices, the attitudes are also different since a lot of the time in music videos, the attitudes used mirror being unique and individuality, the lyrics also tend to have a much more deeper meaning that what people originally thought. Since ‘Indie’ comes from being independent, most indie band are signed to small record labels, not many people have heard of.  Rough Trade, are popular amongst the Indie genre and  sign artists such as The Maccabees, which are a typical indie band. Though, this record label is more positioned around imagination, originality and freedom, this is different to major record companies that a lot of mainstream artists, such as Beyonce are signed to, because it focuses on the money side of music production, rather than the fun side of it.   

The conventions of the indie genre are as follows; In an indie music video the instruments used are guitars, also in a lot of popular indie music vidoes they use synthesizers and keyboards so the song has a different and psychedelic tone, which adds to the effect of distinctiveness, that not a lot of mainstream songs have.  Also, Ellie and I have noticed that the indie music videos usually have  male singers, though there are indie artists out there who are female such as, Florence and the Machines, Marina and The Diamonds and Ellie Goulding.  Though there are more males such as, Neutral Milk Hotel, Artic Monkeys and The Killers.  It’s said that the indie genre started in Britain and this is shown through by the ethnic group of the famous indie bands, The Wombats are a popular British band, that are known by many people and are also British. Including, Arctic Monkeys.  Around the time of 1950’s and 1960’s in the United Kingdom, the big record companies had a lot of power and this meant that the independent labels had trouble to become and established company.  Though, around the time of the year 2000 Sweden became well known for its indie music, with the popular record company, Labrador Records, they succeed and now often, the indie music comes from there, ecsepcially the indie pop sub-genre. Additionally, the fashion of the indie genre is rather iconic and alternative. You can usually tell if someone is indie by what they’re wearing, we gained a lot of our inspiration from Ellie Goudling for our music video, including looking at pictures on Google and conducting our questionnaire, that gave us information about what indie people typically wear.  The indie culture is usually, quite vintage, and doesn’t include bright colours, it’s different to what a lot of people wear and they stand out from the rest, this highlights  the fact that they are an individual and like being different.  Their hair is usually long and wear colour tones that are full, wear skinny jeans or leggings, and shirts/jumpers that are used, tend to have strips on them and are a light grey colour.  

Furthermore, the indie genre has different sub genres within it, and example of this is that the most popular ones generally are; indie rock and indie pop. You can easily tell the difference between these two genre, from the instruments and sound used, though as said before, they still use the distorted effect, since it creates individuality.  

 

 

Marina and the Diamonds: Electra Heart, Digipak Analysis