Testing out Locations- stills photography

Shots 14 from AmazonRose

Mood Board of shot ideas

Here is a mood board I have created using a mixture of my own photographs, google images and screenshots from music videos that influence me. I have selected images that show or are linked to the style and angle of shots I aim to include in my own music video. Collating these images together also gives me a better feel of how the video would look as a whole if these scenes/themes were edited together.

Music Video Analysis- Wood Location

Music Video Analysis- Beach Location

One of my ideas for location has been the beach. I like the idea of setting a video on a vast open space with the stripes of colour a beach provides. To research music videos that have used this location effectively I have completed a detailed analysis of the video "Yellow" by Coldplay.

Coldplay analysis from AmazonRose

Chosen song and Lyric Analysis

Initial and Developed Shot Ideas

Shot ideas

The song I have chosen features a slow melody and tempo. I have decided that a mixture of concept and perfomance based shots would work well in the video to this pace. From my own experience of watching music videos in the genre I have witnessed a majority of shots being based around nature or the natural world. Therefore I feel the tone, pace and melody will fit shots of nature very well in my own video. However since the song is so slow it does have a danger of being too depressive, which is not the effect I desire from the music video. To avoid this effect I aim to include postivie imagery such as focusing on the sun, and general  "happy" images- for example a close up shot of a smile.
 My favourtie music videos are very stylistic and almost film like. For this reason and the fact that I feel the song fits the stylistic approach I intend to include this in my own work. This includes allot of long and short shots of not neccessarily the artist.

A few shots that I have had in mind are: The main melody and musical accomaniment for the lyrics is a piano piece. This is especially evident at the very start of the song.A shot idea I had for this stage was a close up of my artists hands playing the piano. I also had an idea to use connotations of age in my video, so the idea of dust motes being another focus in this shot also appeals to me. This would be a direct link between the visuals and the sound so I would have to have some tight editing to match the two in synchronisation.

Throughout my music video I intend to cut between natural shots and also shots of my performer. Since my artists are not very well known I feel I should succumb to the rule I found through my research and include them. However I find that the music videos which focus the majority of shots on the artist bore me and end up a little tacky. I have researched further into these videos and have found a few which create a good balance between this and concept shots. In my recent study of the music video for "falling" by Haim I discovered the effect of tight focus shots on aspects of the artist- for exmaple close ups of either the lips, teeth, eyes or hair- and then a shot of the artists full profile. This gave a very good effect as the audience never compeltely saw the whole individual, and when this image was shown it created a bigger impact. I also feel this close framing echoes the stylistic approach I intend to use and would work well with the song.

As I have mentioned I would like there to be a heavy focus on nature and the natural world througout the video. This will make the filming trickier as I have specific shots in mind that could be very weather dependant. A few nature shots I had in mind are: A shot of sunlight through branches/trees, sunlight catching dust motes, sunlight on my artists hair. I feel this would create a warm glow and atmosphere that could deter away from the somewhat cold, sad nature of the song. Shots which focus on leaves and plants are something I also noted from the Haim video and is something I would like to add in my own shots. In the video I studied by Foals (Spanish Saharah) there was an abundance of water shots which I feel works beautifuly with slower paced film. I have a few in mind that I feel could work, especially those with waves and ripples or reflections.

The final shot idea I have had is to do with motion. Due to the slow nature of the song I have focused on mostly static shots of close ups. However I do like the idea of adding a panning shot (up, down or across) of a landscape. For this I would need a tracking dolly which could be difficult as I plan to shoot mostly outside on somewhat uneven terrain. A shot I have seen before in a few different places and one I would like to add in is also a moving shot of the sky and trees from a vehicle driving along the road. The camera would be angled straight up so that the framing would catch only the trees rushing by ahead.

These are all just inital shot ideas that I have been developing in my head and still need piecing together or mixing up depending on wether I end up creating a narrative or concept based video.

Initial Ideas for music video

Unsigned Band/Artist profile

Zoe and Gemma
Zoe and Gemma is made up of two- and sometimes three- people. Zoe and Gemma are both 17 year olds studying drama and music and hoping to make it in the industry. Their sound focuses on slower paced singer songwriter music featuring instruments such as piano and acoustic guitar. The genre of this band is hard to place but I would add it to acoustic, folk, and soft indie music.

I am using a band I know personally for my music video coursework. However their music is mostly made up of covers and they would prefer me to use a cover of theirs for the video. The cover they have chosen is of a song by Bon Iver- I can't make you love me. I have permission from my artist to use their cover but I still need permission from Bon Iver for them to cover it. I emailed Bon Iver's management asking for permission for song use as can be seen below. As can also be seen below I am yet to recieve a reply from the artist granting my wish to use their song. However I know that the management of such a high profile and busy band must recieve many many emails a day, therefore I can assume that since I have not recieved an email back forbidding me from using the song, it is okay to do so. Since I will only be using the song for educational intent it is unlikely that the artist would have a problem with me using their song anyway.

Bon Iver song- I can't make you love me



lyrics to the song

Turn down the lights,
Turn down the bed,
Turn down these voices, inside my head.
Lay down with me,
Tell me no lies,
Just hold me close, don't patronize me
Don't patronize me.
Cause I can't make you love me
If you don't
You can't make your heart feel
Something it won't
Here in the dark
These final hours
I will lay down my heart
I feel the power but you don't
No, you don't
Cause I can't make you love me, If you don't.
If you don't,
No you won't,
I close my eyes
I won't see
The love you don't feel
When you're holding me
Morning will come and I'll do what's right
Just give me til then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
I can't make your heart feel something it won't
Here in the dark in these final hours
I will lay down my heart
I feel the power but you don't
No you don't
I can't make you love me if you don't
If you don't,
No, you won't
I found love darling,
I found love darling,
I found love darling,
I found love darling, yeah
I found love darling, darling, darling
Love in a nick of time
I found love darling, yeah
Love in a nick of time

Youth Culture

Youth cultures are formed from a criteria consisting of dress/fashion, music influences, rebellion against "the norm", having a collective identity and being marginalised. Teenagers are the age group which stereotypically fall into such cultures. The word teenager means a constructed social group. They were in part made by marketers to sell products and services to. In the 1960's and 1970's there was an uprising and rebellion against consumerism which led to the forming of "counter culture". The trend has continued by formation of user generated cultures online.

Ketley theory 2007- "Among young people themselves, a wide range of colourful labels such as "Goths, Skaters, Greebos and Surfers" are often used to make distinctions between the behaviours of specific frienship groups"

The youth culture criteria includes:

• dress codes
• music influences
• expression- rebellion and apposing against traditional apperances and views
• fitting into a group but at the same time being an outsider
• literature- fan magazines, fan sites
• cultural practices- behaviours, morals, codes
• being marginalised-  the minority
• having an opinion leader, band member, avid fan- who can change the opinion of the group.

Keu words in Youth Culture

collective identity- the self that finds solidarity with others who are similar

mediated- how the media influences and portrays social groups and the influence this has on their identity.

"We" media- marginalised social groups have often used media as a way of forging their own collective identity. This can challenege how social groups are represented in the media, this is a form of Self Representation. We media is also a word for anything that is produced by us and not by professionals and organisations.

Prosumers- producers and consumers, we consume and distribute- due to proliferation of technology.

The first youth culture were the "bowery boys" or "soap locks". The bowery boys were antivist, anti catholic and anti irish gang based north of the five points district of New York City in the mid-19th century. They were primarily single males who frequently visited the saloons and brothels of the Bowery and dressed in black stovepipe hats, red shirts, black flared trousers, high-heeled calfskin boots and black vests, with oil slicked hair- hence the name "soap locks". The bowery boys were known as a gang and not a group which has uring the New York Draft Riots of 1863, the Bowery boys took part in much of the looting and fighting with rival gangs. They even developed their own dialect- the words B'hoy and g'hal  were the slang words used to describe the young men and woman of the lower working class of Manhattan.

Digipak Analysis 1

What is a digipak?
A digipak is a CD packaging style often used for singles or special editions of CD albums. Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book style) paperboard or card stock binding with one or more trays inside capable of holding a CD.
Digipaks are commonly used throughout the modern music industry.

Here is an analysis of a Crystal Fighters Digipak

This is the Digipak for the album "Star of Love" by the acoustic/indie band Crystal Fighters. The front cover pictured here shows the album artwork for the band. They have used either illustration or digital illustration to create a fantasy scene consisting of three scare crow like figures amongst a rural setting. This creates a mysterious fantasy theme to the album, the viewer is already intrigued by the strangeness of the artwork, attracting them to the CD.  The font of the band name is in a curling, authentic looking style with a multitude of colours. This suggests age and also again fantasy. This mystical world image is enforced by the multi coloured sky.

The inside cover depicts another illustrated image of sunlight streaming through an overgrown window. This image again represents a fantasy world that is taking over thee norm. I feel these images suit the sound of Crystal Fighters which is somewhat unconventional. The right fold over shows a scarecrow character up close as well as a thank you message again in the authentic font that looks aged and mystical.

The CD itself continues with the colour theme and fantasy artwork. The colour scheme throughout this digipak is mainly of pink, yellow, brown and green, with hints of blue and red. This colourful combination and the use of the sun presents a very happy image that is associated with nature and the outdoors.

 The back cover is left plainer than the rest of the digipak. It includes the track listing running down the middle against a soft coloured pink, yellow and blue background that echoes a setting/rising sun in the sky.  There are no photographic images of the band on any of the digipak artwork. This shows that the band are successful/well known enough to be able to only provide the name and be recognised. However it also shows the slightly alternate nature of the band and their music which helps them to stand out from the crowd within their genre. The themes of fantasy, dreams, nature, sunlight and the rural countryside are prominent here.