Music Video: Costume and Colours

Costume plays a key aspect in the construction of our iconography, probably the most important since it is the aspect that will be receiving the most attention in our music video. Nature is something that plays an important part in Amanda's image, and therefore will be a key theme in our project. It appears on nearly all the photographs on Amanda's website and Amanda herself has an eco-clothing line on the website Esty, promoting vintage and eco-friendly clothing. For this reason it was mutually decided that all of the colours and textures that Lorna will be wearing are going to be bright, natural colours all connoting to nature and natural beauty. Below is a collage our team mate Cary constructed to start to brainstorm ideas.




On the day of the location research, we decided that we were thinking of a possible costume contrasting a pair of biker-style boots (similar to images displayed above) with a short, bright dress which would reflect the similar contrast in the location between the rough, autumn-leafy ground and the bright green colours of the tree tops. The images of the dress below is the costume we have allocated specifically for this location. During our costume planning we also discussed a way of perhaps dotting parts of Lorna's costume and hair with flowers and other natural decorations. However, as it is not the season for many flowers, leaves were the alternative and fit in best with the autumn landscape anyway. The dress below is our completed costume with hand-sewn leaves to represent Amanda's close relationship with nature.

In addition to the dress above, we discussed having a "billowing dress" in some of our shots, to reflect the liberation from the pressures of being "perfectly beautiful" shot in the open areas of our locations. The sketch completed below by Cary demonstrates the ideas we had for either constructing this dress ourselves or (the most likely) using a pre-existing dress and simply adjusting it. 

Colour 

The colour selection for our music video will be the natural colour palette of our locations (green, brown, blue) in addition to the bright hues of the costumes. Green is going to be a particularly key colour, appearing in nearly every single shot due to the locations we're filming in and will most probably be accentuated in the post-production process. The colour of the thread is a primary concern of ours and if it will be bright and bold enough to stand out from the darker browns and greens in shot. For this reason and also to reflect a brighter mood, high-key lighting is what we will be aiming for to give our shots as much light as possible. This may prove to be a particular challenge considering our locations are mainly wooded areas. Through choosing neutral but bright colours for the costume hopefully the red colour of the string will stand out. 

Music Video: Storyboard

VKLC Storyboard 

The first scene we have of Amanda will be a side-on tracking shot of the string (Shot 1)  woven through the twigs on the floor, gradually catching up with Amanda's feet following the string. We liked the idea of starting the music video off with the diagetic sound of twigs crunching beneath our actresses feet (discussed in my location post) to introduce the location of the forest- the environment that best defines our performer and taking inspiration from the nature sounds at the beginning of Amanda's Heartwood album. The moment Lorna's feet come into shot is the moment the music will begin (Shot 2). As the intro gradually builds up to the verse, the camera will be tracking up to Amanda's face whilst still maintaining a side-on positioning (Shot 3). The moment the lyrics come in, the camera will start to move from its side-on positioning to revolve around our performers head and reveal her identity (Shot 4). 

Quickly establishing a relationship between the viewer and the performer, the shot where Amanda starts to sing the opening lines will be a stationary close-up with a shallow depth-of-field (Shot 5). During the line "I will find a silver lining sometime" the shot will switch to a mid shot (if we're lucky enough to get one- if not it will just be clouds) of a silver lining (Shot 6). Following this will be a shot that changes from sharp focus to blurred focus of our Langley park location, not only following a conventional shot in music videos but also matching the lyric "blur my vision" (Shot 7). Inter-cut shots of nature (Shot 8). 

As the tempo increases and the chorus begins, the camera will switch to a close-up of Amanda's feet running towards the camera to the beat of the song (Shot 9). The camera pans across Amanda performing by the Heartwood tree discovered during our location research- she smiles during the lyric "with every smile and every laugh there's something I will always lack" (Shot 10). A panning long shot follows this of Amanda moving in behind a tree whilst singing the lyric "an imperfected me will not be seen" (Shot 11). Shot in tandem with the lyric "burn forever in my mind"- a close-up of a magazine photo being burnt (Shot 12). 

Another panning long shot/mid shot of Amanda in the green wooded area to lyric "and those greens..." (Shot 13). Mid shot of clouds again- blue sky reflects lyric "and those blues" (Shot 14). Shot of magazine photos attached to tree in sync with lyric "there is something I will always lack" reflecting the idea of "perfection" we are all chasing within ourselves (Shot 15). Amanda runs towards camera- shot at a high angle (Shot 16). 

Close up shot of Amanda with direct eye contact- maintaining relationship between the viewer and the performer. In sync with lyric "this beauty is not clear to me" (Shot 17). As the music picks up tempo again we wanted to contrast the speed with the slow motion close up of the billowing dress, flowing through the hands of Amanda- close-up shot (Shot 18). During the final choruses, there will be shots of Amanda starting to tear down the "pictures of the magazines" reflecting her dismissal of fake or constructed, conventional beauty. Shot in sync with "burn the pages of the magazines" (Shot 19). (Shot 20) A combination of all the previous shots, inter-cut using a quick editing pace as the song reaches its peak in the song.

These final shots will be shot in the location of the Heartwood tree concluding the journey that our protagonist has experienced to find her inner beauty lies where her journey began- within herself. In sync with "this beauty will be clearer..." Amanda approaches the Heartwood tree in a mid-shot whilst singing these lyrics (Shot 21). When the lyric "...to me" is sung, Amanda will meet eye contact with the camera closing contact with the audience in a close-up shot (Shot 22). The final shot is a close-up of the heart being held in Amanda's hands. 

Music Video: Testing Shot

This was just an attempt (and a failed one) to practice shooting the first frame in our storyboard of the panning and catching up to Lorna's feet. One of the problems that we faced during this test was getting into a position to keep the camera movement steady, which we'll attempt to solve before the day of the shoot.

Music Video: Shot List

Thinking in terms of practicality we thought it best to shoot our music video over the course of two days. Granted that we have not shot a music video before, we are expecting to re-shoot after our scheduled shooting days. However, should everything go to plan and the weather cooperate we should be able to get the most important parts of our music video filmed and completed throughout the course of these two days. Seeing as Langley park includes most of the shots we thought it best to start off with this location- also because it is the most important of the two and will be most featured in the music video. Since we are already having to deal with low lighting conditions, we thought it would be wise to shoot in the poorest lit areas first- i.e. the forested area. Following this we would shoot the "filler shots" for our music video, including our nature close-ups and also the scenes taking place in open areas. 

After having visited Black park on our reccie day, we began to envision it as the area where we would shoot our red thread scenes in. In addition to this shot list, we wanted to give ourselves time for creative freedom and film any impulsive shots along side of these that may come to mind as we have discovered sometimes our best ideas come to us with an appropriate amount of creative freedom on the day of the shoot. 

Music Video: Lyric Analysis

Although the image below perhaps does not display it very clearly, it is the analysis of the lyrics to our music track. We approached this analysis using a similar process to the one we went through doing our textual analysis: establishing the very important (although sometimes unnoticeable) visual links with the lyrics. There were also many ideas circling round the group, but it would sometimes be difficult placing them within the visual timeline of the music video so we decided to annotate how we saw the order of shots being inter-cut throughout. 

We all agreed that nature is a VERY key character in this project, and therefore thought the best time to place these nature shots we were discussing would be at the beginning of the song. This- as in feature film- will principally establish the settings of our music video- a key convention in film of this genre according to our textual analysis. It's not uncommon for music videos to begin with the artist in frame, however since nature is such a vital aspect to Amanda's representation and to this song in particular, it would make sense for it to be established before the artist herself. 

The Importance of Music Videos

Chris Parr is the Vice President for music programminng and talent relations at CMT (country music television), which is a subsidary company of MTV. In this video he gives his insight into how music videos can help music (particularly country music) artists and the role CMT plays in establishing new artists. 

The internet has now become the prime platform for discovery of music, especially through the (quite recent - 8 years ago) establishment of Youtube. An interesting point that was mentioned in this video was the ease of discovery of new, up and coming artists, which is beneficial for us as an audience in broadening our musical tastes and marketing for the musicians. 

Many have argued that visuals are being put in priority before music, which to a certain extent is true, but no music video no matter its brilliance can compensate for the lack of quality of the music. At the end of the day, the visuals play the role of the intrigue that will hook audiences, the rest is up to the artist to figure out. Parr mentioned that the guarantee of the average person liking country music is low, compared to the possibility they like a particular artist associated with the genre. In a way this is healthy for the music industry, because not only is it allowing great new artists to become popular but also it's becoming more about their individuality and music than the preconceived stereotypes of the genre they belong to. As a result, these stereotypes of music genres are being broken as new music borrows and lends conventions of different genres and increases in individuality. This musical fusion therefore allows for a broader audience and finally, a greater revenue.Youtube is also no secret. Billions of people use this site every single day and a variety of different people discover the same music everyday. This as a result forms a broader fan base from different genres of music, and is again- free publicity stimulated by an audience. As with film, audiences are choosing and making what they want to see and hear, so it's important for an image to appeal to an audience just as much as the music.

According to Parr, it's been particularly hard for country musicians to break free of their genre stereotype and break into the mainstream. Music videos allowed for that to happen and give these musicians a chance to express themselves visually. Particularly since our society is mainly visually stimulated, you can see how important music videos are in forming a musical artists image. Parr also makes the point that music videos are essentially an entry point for niche genres (not only country artists), which gives their music the same chance to be discovered as with other artists. 

A music video is a chance for an artist to express themselves and establish their image. It can also help guide the audience to create their own understanding of the music/song, and establish a meaning for themselves. It creates a closer relationship with an audience particularly since audiences are becoming less passive with what they absorb online or TV. And it's not uncommon now for fans to make their own music videos, (it's even become a part of the A2 curriculum) and share their enthusiasm for the music, which as a result promotes the artist (for free) and develops future film makers. 

Should the music video be a success, it's then up to the distribution methods to fall into place at the right time- when the hype has been generated and people want a place where they can go and buy this music. 

Overview of Points Mentioned :

• Allows to discover new forms of music you may never have thought to listen to.
• Breaks barriers of steretypes
• All music videos from all genres are on the same platform in terms of ease of discovery- we can all acess them
• Expresses what an artist is about visually and lets them break free of any stereotypes- let's them be an individual
• Very healthy for country musicians where audiences may not choose their music because of the "generic genre conventions".
• Gives artists a chance for their music to be heard through capturing audiences with visuals
• Allows merging of audiences from fans of different music genres thanks to the publicity
• National distribution of music after a music video release or show
• Less independent labels in country music when compared to Rock.

Music Video: Audience/Actor Research

We were once told that to create a successful video, the two most important things to consider are "who you cast and where you place them" (Emil Nava). 

Actors

Throughout the process we have be  going through in the pre-production stage of our music video, we were envisioning ideas about whom to cast as Amanda Rogers. Evidently when we came to discussing our ideas openly, we all had different visions. Initially most of the group was heading in the direction of either Keeley (second photo down) or Cary (last photo) as we thought they were close to resembling Amanda's features. What we were forgetting was the ability of our actress to portray Amanda- the acting part. Our final decision (which was decided upon after a vote and the consultation of our classmates) was Lorna; since she was taking drama and felt more than comfortable in front of the camera we decided she was most appropriate for portraying our main protagonist and artist Amanda Rogers. This decision also meant that the roles in the production of our music video would be most appropriately distributed. 

Keeley Burridge

Cary Banks

Audience 

It was important for us to chose an appropriate actress not only to represent Amanda but also to fit in with the representation our target audience will expect. I've already mentioned the difficulty we're having in fixating upon a specific genre, particularly taking into account the diversity of audiences for music genres in the on-line age. However, we thought the most probable listeners would not only be fans of indie music, but perhaps more specifically fans of the more mature genres from which Amanda is influenced- Jazz, Blues, Rock. For this reason, older listeners are most probably going to be a part of our market. On the other hand, the lyrics and particularly initial albums evoke a sense of inner teenage turmoil Amanda experienced as she developed into her star image today- "This Beauty" in particular discusses an issue experienced without a doubt by most teenagers. In this respect young listeners perhaps between the ages of 14 to 27 are also a prospective audience. 

Music Video: Props Research

The props are a very important aspect in the construction of the music video. Everything that we present visually in the frame is contributing to our construction of Amanda Rogers's star image, therefore it is vital that the props along side with the costume are chosen appropriately. 

The items below are the main props we'll be either creating, bringing or buying for the shoot. 

1. Red String 

The Red string is absolutely vital we get right since it is the main concept running throughout our music video. We were inspired by the existing album cover of Amanda Rogers when coming up with this idea. The string will serve the purpose of a metaphor of a journey our main protagonist(s) embarks upon in the video- discovering her self-beauty. The red string will eventually lead to a heart constructed of this string inside a tree i.e. "Heartwood". Due to our group filming in a darker, wooded area, my primary concern when buying this string was if it would be bright enough to be seen on the camera. 

Specifications: 

• Must be bright enough to be noticed on camera
• Must be woven- no lose hairs to catch light and result in a "glow" 
• Must be red 
• String must be thick enough to appear on camera
• Must not be more expensive than £7 per roll

Most probably our first choice for red string

2. Woven Heart

The heart is the final destination of the journey our protagonist will embark upon- it is a symbol for natural beauty and will be discovered somewhere in the forest. The woven heart will most probably be constructed of the same string as displayed above for colour matching purposes. We previously decided that the most feasible option for something close to the ideal image below is cutting out a heart of cardboard to then wrap in red string. However, when I was purchasing these items I managed to find a ready made woven heart from straw and covered this in the purchased string instead to save time and money.

3. Photographs Strung on Trees

One of our ideas for this shoot was to present a comparison between the natural beauty our "Amanda" is discovering and embracing and the "unclear" constructed beauty the media presents, discussed in the lyrics. Ideally (once we go location scouting, we will decide as to whether this is a good idea), the photographs would be torn out of magazines and perhaps framed to look like polaroids then strung to some string on the branches of the wooded area where our protagonist would be walking. We also has the idea of several narratives going on simultaneously- all of the characters on the same journey of self-discovery. I think we  were subconsciously inspired by Taylor Swift's music video Mine in which she also strings up photographs. There is also a certain aesthetic appeal in having a set like this which fits in nicely with the lyrics as well as fitting into the "music video" genre. The question is whether or not it will look as aesthetically pleasing on camera. 

Music Video: Update

The location reccie not only allowed us to envision a stronger image of our music video but also eliminate and contribute new ideas. We decided not to run with the idea of using a stop motion animated notebook due to the time constraints. The notebook would require a lot of thought and planning input in order to be achieved successfully and we were worried that this would distract us from filming the remaining sections of our music video. Had we enough time and experience this may have been a plausible idea.

Another concept that we're debating over eliminating was the location of the studio or room where our main performer would be seen amoungst paper-plastered walls. We were concidering whether or not we could achieve this whilst filming on location in Langley/Black Park and simply attaching images of "beauty" as presented by the media today on string hanging off the branches of the tree later to be torn off by our performer. One issue that arrises is the clash of the wooded location with the idea of burning the images of magazines/newspapers as it is highly dangerous and will most certainly be prohibited by the officials at Langley/Black Park. The idea of this concept may have been influenced by Taylor Swift's music video "Mine" displayed below.

The video above is a sample of an idea we had for a first shot in our video. When we arrived in this area, the floor was completely littered with cut down branches cracking beneath our footsteps, and we thought it would introduce the theme of nature really well. Not only that, but it's also a sound that's pleasing to the ear.

Another video from our recce of Keeley discussing possible ideas for the costume of our performer and colouring. Apologies for the blurriness of the landscape- I only just discovered how to manually change the focus on my camera. 

Music Video: Location Reccie - Langley Park

The second location we visited was Langley Park, which we have decided upon as the primary location for filming, mainly due to the variety of possible filming areas we discovered. We visited Langley Park during the second half of the day (at sunset) and all agreed upon filming at a similar time of day in similar weather. Mainly, we wanted to highlight the importance and beauty of nature in this music video, to reflect its importance in Amanda Rogers's image.   

One advantage of filming in Langley over Black Park is that there are less people, meaning it would be easier to focus on our project rather than worrying about the right of the way of the public, which was a challenge in itself when we were filming on the London Underground for our previous task. 



We were fortunate enough to stumble upon this beautiful tree which we thought evoked the theme of "Heartwood" perfectly. This will be one of (if not the key) location for our music video.  Originally, heartwood is the centre of the tree which is not living, however without the support of the heartwood the tree would cease to exist and as the tree ages the diameter of the heartwood increases. There is a diagram of this on the interior of the album case, explaining that "there is growth in everything, even in death". 

Initially, our group planned to film on a minimum of two locations (one on location and one in a studio or indoor space). However having explored the areas of Black Park and Langley Park we considered filming our concept for the indoor space in one of the two parks to save time.One problem that may arrise though is the lack of variety in locations, which may not be enough to maintain the attention of the viewer- which is something we have yet to decide upon.

From a certain angle the interior of the tree resembles the shape of a heart- reflecting the theme of heartwood. We considered having an extra team member taking photos to use as part of our album artwork and magazine advert as the tree will probably be a central location to the music video. As the song is representing the main theme of the album, it would make sense to incorporate the locations and shots used in the video into the advert. 



We considered using this structure we found in Langley Park, if it won't be destroyed by our production day