This will be a list of some of the features in our music video including costume, lighting, setting, location and prop. I shall convert this into a prezi as soon as I get in.
Costume
Although we have as of far left the costume down to the actors when we do our actual music video we intend to plan what they're wearing. Currently the actors are seen in casual clothing that they have chosen themselves for the purposes of our draft.
Livvy is seen wearing pair of wintery leggings, a t-shirt that is unseen, a black coat, a wooly hat and a pair of boots. This is during the first scene where Livvy and Ben are walking down a street. In the performance sequence she is wearing a red and white dress with tights and black heels. This is because in most pop music videos the performance element is usually the part where the band make an effort to look 'famous' or out of the average whereas they strive to look average in order for the narrative to make sense.
Sarah's first scene costume consists of a white, printed t-shirt of Johnny Depp topless (bow chicka wow wow), a pair of high waisted shorts and tights. She is not wearing shoes as she is shown indoors. She would be comfortable in her own home and therefore we made her dress as such. In the performance sequence Sarah is seen LOOKIN' FINE AS ALWAYS 'After all this time?' 'Always' wearing a pink, one shouldered dress. Underneath she is wearing a pair of tights and black heels. THEY'RE BLACKER THAN BEN'S HEART.
Hannah, that is me, I am during my first scene wearing a purple top, black and white cardigan, black and pink aztec skirt and a pair of black tights. We all are wearing one item of black which is symbolic to the way that Ben's black heart is tainting us. In our performance scene I am wearing a purple dress with printed gold birds on it, I am also wearing tights and heels.
Jess (though only viewed once but is still pretty fine) is wearing a black coat, tights and shorts and a grey top.
Ben changes clothes quite often throughout the music video. In his scenes with Livvy and me (as they are on the same day), Ben is seen wearing a blue plaid shirt, black jeans, jacket and bag (over the shoulder). He too tends to wear at least one item of black as he is the one with the black heart. When he is with Sarah, Ben is shown wearing a pink shirt with white circles and the same pair of jeans he wore the first day. He is not wearing black in this scene because his darkness is shown through movement however on the day of filming the actual draft I shall have Ben wear some item of black on him.
Lighting
Mostly natural lighting as we had no need for aesthetic. A lot of the shots we filmed were located outside therefore there was no need for extra lighting. On the other hand my scene with Ben is set in the darkness because they are supposed to be watching a horror film but this may change depending on any developments we make later.
Location
1st scene: The location is a street directly adjacent to the Waltham Cross shopping centre.
2nd scene: The location the hall at school. We are on the stage singing.
3rd scene: The location is the garage conversion. In there is a sofa and television so it looks like a living room.
4th scene: The location is my actual living room but set as Sarah and Ben's living room.\
5th scene: As of yet unidentified. We have not filmed this bit yet.
Prop
Ben's phone which Sarah picks up and finds out that Ben is cheating. The big reveal happens in the 3rd scene.
My television remote for Ben to turn the horror film on. I don't see why he does that as it's supposed to be the scary bit. EH.
So today I was given a list of things that I need to include on my blog. One of these things was a list of the cast and crew involved in the making of our music video. Being that we have already filmed our first draft I can state who was involved, what their role was and how that role may differ when we film our final draft.
The cast:
Sarah Byard and I. Sarah Byard who is the love of my life. The beauty in my existance. Actually she is my partner on this project. Last year (as you may well know) we were a group of three known as Cats In Space however due to the decrease in numbers of our class we had to split into a group of two and one. Me and Sarah (after months of deliberation) decided to stick together. Jess decided to work on her own. So yes. Me and Sarah together forever. But on a serious note yes we are working together on this music video. After thinking over our options we decided that the most viable one was for me and Sarah to be a part of the cast and by that I mean members of the band. This was the simplest option as it meant that we didn't need to depend on anyone else. Not that we don't know people who are reliable (as you will soon find out) but we thought it was less hassle and less time consuming if we used ourselves. So in this circumstance Sarah is one of the band members featured regularly throughout the music video and so am I.
Livvy Midson. Livvy Midson who is the love of my entire existance. Even in death. Livvy is our best friend who after being pleaded with for months on end agreed to be a part of the band. This again was our simplest option as she is someone who understands how complex the process of filming and editing is because she has been there on various occasions during last year's post production process. So in this circumstance we trust her to make the time to help us. Livvy is a member of the band (like Sarah and I) who is shown regularly throughout the music video.
Ben Amatruda. First of all i'd just like to point out how grateful we are to Ben for starring in this music video. This is because Ben is a member of our media class who has his own coursework to focus on but still promised to help us film during half term. He basically dedicated all his time to Media and for that we are sincerely grateful. Ben plays a massive part in our music video as he happens to be the "monster" the song is based around. Ben plays a 'lad' who is sneakily dating all three of the band members. He too is shown at regular intervals throughout the music video.
Jess Fells. I'd also like to thank Jess for the time she put into helping us film. She only had a minimal role to play but she still came out and helped us and for that we are very grateful. Jess stars as a girl who Ben (mentioned above) happens to check out while on a date with Livvy. This then causes the pair of them to row and Livvy storms off. End of scene.
The crew:
Director of Dirty Heart by The Machine at Florence - Sarah. If you moderated my blog last year you would know that last year the role of director fell down to me. This year Sarah and I have decided to switch roles in order to see the responsibilities required for each of them. So this year Sarah is the director.
Producer - That would be me. As mentioned above we have decided to switch roles from what we had last year so that we can get a further grasp of what directing and producing is.
Editor/s - Me and Sarah are both co-editors of this music video. We are both taking part in editing the music video together. We've spread these roles evenly between us.
Director of cinematography - There is a divide here between me and Sarah but Sarah mostly dominated the filming.
Lighting - I took responsibility for the lighting. Though a lot of the shots we filmed were in natural lighting so we didn't need any aesthetic.
Craft services - Not really relevent for this music video.
Make up - We left this down to the actors involved. We didn't want to force Ben to wear make up.
Costume - Again we left this down to the actors involved. As long as the clothes weren't inappropriate.
Prop Wrangler - Left down to the actors involved. There were not many props needing to be wrangled.
Transport manager - There was no need for much transport in our music video but we can thank Jess's mum for dropping her off.
Location manager - This was my job as a lot of the shots we filmed were in my house. In fact all but one were filmed in my house. Therefore I am the location manager.
Continuity editor - Sarah as she loves making things correct.
Set dresser - Livvy. As the set didn't need much dressing and she wanted a mention.
There are many similarities between the music video for 'Say my name' by Destiny's child and 'Black heart' by Stooshe which we have been given permission to use for the purposes of our coursework. I should also add that the comparisons I will be making between the two will be based off of the music video we are creating as opposed to the actual video for the song. So essentially I shall be discussing these two bands and their music videos: Destiny's child and The Machine Ate Florence.
Let's start with the similarities between the two shall we?
1. Destiny's child is an all girl band. The Machine Ate Florence are also an all girl band. This means that both music videos should (if one of the most common stereotypes of girl band's is correct) have some symbolic representation of girl power or feminism. This could be shown through use of narrative, Claude Levi-Strauss's binary oppositions, Barthes mythologies or Sassure's theory of symbolism. Symbollically the fact that within the music video for 'Say my name' the three girls stick together in each room is to show how girl power is still dominant within the shots despite the fact that the man is clearly controlling all three of them. Similarily this will be shown in our music video with use of the performance shots including all three members of the band. These will come up within the music video at purposeful moments to foreshadow the fact that even though the male has been in control for the majority of the music video girl power will PREVAIL.
Here is an example to two all girl bands: Little Mix and Stooshe.
2. Destiny's child includes three band members. The Machine Ate Florence includes three band members. Generally there will be different roles allocated to each of the band members - an example being that there will always be one soul sister (the one who sings the long and/or high notes), one front woman and one who sings during obscure moments such as the bridge. During our music video we have allocated these parts to a certain member of the group based on where in the song they sing. Sarah has become our resident soul singer, Livvy is shown as the front woman of the band by taking the lead at the beginning of the song and I will be shown singing the obscure moments in between the chorus and the verses. There is a slight difference however with Destiny's child as there is clash between the soul singer and the front woman. This woman is Beyonce and she has taken the lead within the music video for 'Say my name' and sung all the high strung notes. In this particular music video (as it is quite an early music video) there are four members to the band of Destiny's child but shortly after this song was released the fourth member left. So I don't consider her a member of the band.
3. The song of choice in this particular music video by Destiny's child is about the band's suspicions that their boyfriend/s is cheating on them with someone else. This is demonstrated through the use of the lyric: "Could it be that you are at the crib with another lady?". This links in with the theme of our music video of three girls claiming that the man they are in love with is a monster: "Daddy i'm falling for a monster. Somehow he's scaring me to death". And also links in with the narrative that we are trying to display within our music video that the man is infact dating all three of them. This is shown through use of various shots of Ben (the actor we hired to play the monster who is actually lovely and FAB) spending time in romantic situations such as going on a walk, watching a scary film and his first meeting with one of the girls with each girl at seperate intervals within the song. The purpose of the song 'Say my name' is also reiterated throughout the music video as we see multiple shots of the man in question dancing (symbolically manipulating) with one of the band members while two of the other girls are within the shot with their gaze averted.
How does this music video demonstrate the conventions of pop music videos?
Here is a list of the expected conventions of most music videos within the Pop genre:
Colourful
Close up of artists to establish innocence
Fun and up beat
Appeals to a younger target audience though will include some mature aspects
Shows the artist/s/band involved in some form of dance routine
Leaves audience member in a good mood through use of location, mise-en-scene, cinematography etc
Scenarios tend to be based around love
Videos usually have a narrative
This particular music video conforms to practically all of these conventions which was one of the reasons why I chose to analyse it. I can only see one convention on the list that isn't displayed within the music video.
Colourful.
'Say my name' uses a variation of colours - red, white, orange and blue to differentiate between shots. As the music video progresses the bright colours begin to indisperse with each other to represent how the girl's are being forced together by the realisation that they're boyfriend is seeing all four/three of them.
Another use of the colour changing rooms is to give each member of the band an equal amount of time on camera. With every shot we see a new line up of the band. Each girl is spread evenly between shots with the exception of Beyonce who gets her own seperate shot every time she sings on the track as she dominates a vast majority of the song.
The use of colours could also be a symbolic representation of their emotions on the situation. White could be the shock because of their naivety and innocence. Blue could be the sadness they feel. Red could be the anger at how foolish they may feel and orange could be the paranoia or the feeling of impending doom on their relationships. I don't know. I could be wrong.
Close ups of the artist to establish innocence.
Here are three screencaps of some of the close ups featured in this music video. Out of the three of them Beyonce has the most because of her overall dominance within the song. The use of these close ups is to establish the artist as the wronged party. This is done by placing the close ups at the appropriate moments within the song. This would usually be to show the importance of the lyric to the person singing it however I could not find an example of this in this music video.
The most common lyric used in the close ups of this music video is: "Say my name" which could suggest the desperation the band feel for their loved one to essentially look them in the eye and say they love them.
In this screencap Kelly Rowland's hair matches the background behind her. This could be to represent that she feels blue about having been cheated on or at the prospect of losing this person she loves so much.
Shows some form of dance routine.
It goes without saying that their is definately a performance/dance element to this music video. The bridge which is mainly music orientated is opened onto a dance performed by the band members and other dancers behind them. The dance doesn't particularly consist of much other than bending and spinning but the fact that it is in sync leads to me to believe that it has been choreographed. The purpose of this dance routine is to keep the audience interested during the moments where there are no lyrics to preoccupy them. This may also be in order to appeal to a larger audience through use of the male gaze. By wearing skimpy tops and tight, leather trousers they are attracting audience members who wouldn't usually have listened to this genre of music because of the voyeuristic treament of women in this particular scene.
Although there are aspects of each convention in this music video it is hard to explain them through my analysis. I shall post some more tommorow in regards to the rest.
