3 Initial Ideas for New Song Choice

IDEA 1

Symbolizing a journey in the protagonists life- follow a dream of their life. As the audience we follow them around a surreal place, somewhere else they wish they could be to get away from their boring reality. As the song opens we see the protagonist shut her eyes (using a fade to white after this to symbolise that this is a dream of hers), then throughout the duration of the song we are following her around this other reality where she dreams about, where everything is perfect for her. Then as the song ends we see her open her eyes again, and look round (fade to black from there). On Monday 10th February I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to New York for 4 days, therefore, for my video I was going to film this journey in order to symbolise a journey for my protagonist. New York City is an incredible city and represents exactly what I want to in my video: a dream world where anything can happen, this is the kind of place my main actor in my music video is dreaming of. 

IDEA 2

To use stop motion throughout as she goes through different aspects of her life. As she finds her life quite boring we see her doing the same routine over and over again to help reinforce how bored she is with her life; showing the audience how desperate she is to get away to a better place.

IDEA 3

Similar to idea 2, yet instead of using stop motion just do normal filming with a black and white effect to help reinforce the idea that she has a monotonous lifestyle that she follows and never changes. Then as the song picks up pace she has visions (shot in colour) of a better place, where her life is more interesting and everything is brighter for her there. Somewhere she enjoys (beach, park etc). 

New Song (Murderers)

This new song by John Frusciante does not have any lyrics in it. This is a feature of the song that I really admire and is why I have chosen to make this my music video, I like the fact it breaks conventions of songs, and will therefore allow me to be more creative with my video- where I could break conventions of music videos.

A little bit about John Frusciante:
He was part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as their former guitarist from 1988 until 1992 and again from 1998 until 2009.He joined Red Hot Chili Peppers at the age of eighteen, first appearing on the band's 1989 album, Mothers Milk. The group's follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), was a breakthrough success. Frusciante became overwhelmed by the band's new popularity and quit in 1992.
'Murderers' is from the album 'To Record Only Water for 10 Days' which was released in 2001.

Applying Theory to my music video...  In Todorov's theory in suggests that a media text (specifically music videos) can either be abstract, narrative or performance. Using this theory I have decided to make my music video 'abstract'. I think this is a suitable way to approach my music video given my chosen song as it does not have any lyrics, I see this as a positive aspect because it allows for my own interpretation of the song and how I can make it in to a successful music video that my target audience will enjoy watching. 

CHANGE OF PLAN...

After shooting for a few scenes of my music video, I decided to change the song that I wanted to do. I realised that the song I chose is quite a powerful song, and I feel like my idea for my music video would not be able to capture the powerful message John Lennon wanted to spread. 
Also when it came to audience, I figured it would be a more appropriate target audience to have teenagers as, therefore, I have decided to change my song choice to Murderers- John Frusciante. One of the main reasons I chose this song was because I liked the way it does not have any lyrics- meaning that interpretation is key when it came to making my music video. 

Filming Day 1

12th November, first day of shooting...

• 4.30pm  (sunset)- Meet Abbie and walked to Scale Lane swing bridge (as it is in walking distance from where I lived I chose this location as it is easy to access and is never usually that busy therefore we would not be in the way of the general public).
• Before we started the filming I decided to change the female lead's costume. We kept the original idea of a plain white t-shirt, but then for the trousers I changed jeans to leggings and converse to plain black boots. I decided to do this because I thought it would look better if they all blended together rather than the white shoes standing out against the dark jeans. 
• Scenes shot for... 'You may say I'm a dreamer...' 'I hope someday you'll join us...' (in total 292 photos taken)

Location

Location- I think this is a good choice of location for these scenes as the sunset and the bridge in the background of these photos look really effective.


THE FOOTAGE I GOT FOR THIS MUSIC VIDEO DID NOT LOOK GOOD TOGETHER AND I WAS NOT HAPPY WITH THE WAY IT LOOKED WHEN I PUT THEM TOGETHER, THEREFORE I DECIDED TO CHANGE MY SONG AND HAVE STARTED FILMING FOR MY NEW SONG: 505- Arctic Monkeys

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

Another audience theory is: Stuart Hall's 'Reception Theory'. 

The main concept of Hall's theory is that every media product needs an active audience that is actively engaged in the media product they are consuming (as oppose to the 'Hypodermic Needle Theory' mentioned earlier in 'Applying Theory' blog post, that suggests a passive audience). The theory suggests that individuals may receive and interpret these media texts in different ways, rather than the way the producer may want them to.
Hall suggests that messages in media texts are encoded by the producer (as the producer puts certain values and ideologies in their texts) and decoded by the consumer. However, not all audiences will decode these messages in the same way, and they will not always decode it in the way the producer intended. 

Reception Theory suggests that there are 3 ways an audience can decode a text:

• Dominant/Preferred (this type of audience completely agree and accept the message the producer encodes)
• Negotiated (agree with some, but disagree with some of the encoded messages- this audience will have their own views on certain areas)
• Oppositional (this type of audience completely disagree with the encoded messages and create their own, new meaning for the text)

Hall's theory also states that there are several sociological factors that may affect how an individual decodes the message in the media text:

• Life experience
• Mood at time of viewing
• Age
• Culture
• Beliefs
• Gender

Although I earlier agreed with the Hypodermic Needle Theory saying that a music video is a good way to send subtle messages to my audience, I will ensure  that when I make my music video the messages I want to convey to my audience may be received in the 'preferred' way, however, I will also accept that my audience are all individuals and will react to the video, and the decoded messages within this video, in different ways, and may or may not accept the messages I have encoded. And if they do not accept the messages portrayed then they might decide to create their own meanings and decode their own messages from this video. I will use my audience research, that will be carried out after my final video is complete, to establish whether or not my intended encoded messages were decoded with the preferred meaning by the audience, or whether I can apply this theory and say that audience's are active and can create their own messages from a media text. 

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Storyboard and Animatic for old song choice

Storyboard from emilykj

Before I drew my final storyboard up, I did a brainstorm of some ideas to help me get my storyboard started, I found this very useful in producing some ideas to include in my video...

Prop and Location List... (old song)

This is the prop and location prezi for my old song choice, the newer one is on a later blog post named: New Prop and Location List

Health and Safety Production Assessment (old song)

1. In the lines "No hell below us, above us only sky" and "You may say I'm a dreamer...I hope someday you'll join us" I will be shooting near water on a bridge, therefore as a safety precaution I will make sure that when I shoot I will not place the main character too close to the edge of the water as this could be dangerous, and if I do need to shoot near the edge to ensure that where I film there is a barrier to prevent them falling or tripping over. 
2. An extra safety precaution to take when shooting these scenes (as they will be at sunset/night) to ensure that my characters are not too tired or hungry when shooting as they may need a rest or need some food which could cause them to lose concentration throughout filming which could mean that it may take longer to make or have to be redone. 
3. When filming the opening scene or the "Nothing to kill or die for..." scene, as it will be inside I may chose to use lights in order to make the quality of the picture higher. As these lights can get very warm when in use I will need to make sure that anyone that is around knows that these lights will be hot and to ensure that they do not touch them to try and move them as this could cause minor burns to them. The wires of the lights could also be a hazard for anyone around as someone could trip over them if they do not see them, therefore to prevent this I will make sure I tape down any wires to stop this tripping hazard and, if I need to (for example if it is quite a busy area where I am filming) place a 'Filming in Progress' sign where I am filming in order to warn people to look out for any props, lights or wires that may be in their way.