Evaluation Point 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Point 4 on Prezi

The music video would have been very tough to do in all aspects without the use of new media technologies. They helped in the construction, research, planning and evaluation of our music video.

In our media rooms we were lucky enough to have access to Apple Macs which made the whole process much easier. We used the Macs throughout to access editing programs and produce the music video. All of our research, planning and construction were helped along by the use of the Macs. It allowed us to access Blogger, the Internet and editing programmes such as Final Cut Express amongst others.

Final Cut Express was the main editing program we used on the Macs. We transferred all of our footage from the camera by using the ‘log and transfer’ function which put the actual piece of footage onto the Mac. This meant we could go through and put our footage into a sequence and work with it. To do this we chose the clips we wanted and dragged them onto the timeline while choosing to shorten parts that we did not need. We managed to change the colour of the background in the chorus and split the screen into four parts. Without Final Cut Express we would have had to use an inferior program which would not have been able to create a professional, clean looking product like the music video.

Photoshop was another editing program we used, but for the CD and DVD cover rather than the music video. Photoshop is a professional program which allows us to create a professional product. Photoshop provides many tools which other programs such as paint do not which only increased the cover’s strength. By saving in the highest quality format we were able to produce a good looking CD and DVD cover.

To shoot our music video we used Sony HD cameras which were very good quality. We used a tripod rather than shooting it handheld which contributed to getting well framed and steady shots. Without these two, the final product would not have looked as clean and professional. The cameras had a long battery life so we could film for long periods of time without having to charge them. This was a benefit as most of our locations were outside so we did not have access to a power source.

We used blogger.com to post about the stages we went through with this project and to track the progress. We decided to mainly write directly into blogger as the formatting occasionally messed up if it was copied from word. To counter the messed up posts we had to edit the HTML code. Blogger allowed us to access our project from wherever we were whether it was at home or on different PC’s at school. This meant we could do the blog whenever rather than it having to be on one computer.
Facebook proved the best way to communicate with each other and also to get some audience feedback on our project. We uploaded unfinished work to our walls and asked for comments and suggestions to make it better and looked into any constructive criticism we received. This benefited us as it got a wide range of responses from our target audience which we were able to utilise in our finished product. We were able to talk to each other about scheduling filming and help each other on the blog work when we were not at school.

The Internet was the main technology in our research. YouTube let us watch and analyse music videos which was essential in our research. This helped us understand what the conventions of music videos are and what makes them successful. YouTube also helped us evaluate our work as we could view it at any time once we had uploaded it. Through Wikipedia and Google we looked into successful directors and companies who made music videos. This gave us a good insight in what we should be looking to produce for our project.

These are the technologies that we used to make our music video. Although some of them were harder to use than others, we all came to grips with them after reading around. These are the technologies that we used to make our music video. Although some of them were harder to use than others, we all came to grips with them after reading around.

Evaluation Point 3

What did you learn from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Point Three on Prezi

We have used audience feedback several times during the pre and post production of our music video. We used audience feedback first as a questionnaire to obtain information on the peoples preferred music choices and about the indie genre, secondly to get feedback on our rough cut of the music video and finally to get feedback on the final music video.

For our questionnaire we asked a series of people questions about their musical tastes and about the indie genre. From this we found out that music from the indie genre have stronger music videos that have a band performance or a band performance and narrative rather than just a narrative or conceptual. We also found out that people tend to watch music videos from the specific genre of music they listen to but also watch other music videos, also we discovered that from the people who took our questionnaire that they prefer to watch music videos that are conceptual or have a narrative the reason for this is because these types of music video tend to fall into their favorite genre.

Once we had completed a rough cut of our music video we decided to show it to people to obtain feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of the video and ways which we could improve the videos visual appeal. We wrote down the feedback we obtained and then used it to improve our video.

Feedback we got from the rough cut was that there wasn't really a clear link between the lips and the band performance, therefore we decided to add the colour stripes during the band performance the create a link. Also people said that there was no clear change between the narrative and the lips and band performance, therefore, we added some custom transitions with the pom poms and the umbrellas. Points that were picked out as strengths in the video were the lips because they are different from any other video and they stand out and the use of the stop frame animation the show the narrative which adds another element to the video.

After completing the music video we showed the video to our focus group and then asked them a series of questions about the video which we recorded (http://cbsca2mediagroup1.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html).

Did you like our music video and if you did, what did you like about it?

From the audience feedback from this question the overall opinion of our music video was that is works for the song, some favorite points that were pointed out are the splits screens for the chorus of the song, the use of colour to make the video see lively and up beat, which also keeps a theme ruining thought to link the different elements of the video together and the stop frame animation between the verses.

Did it follow a conventional storyline?

From the feedback we obtained mixed views about the storyline of the video, some people said we did follow a conventional storyline because the stop frame animation creates a narrative between he verses. However some of our focus group felt that the video was a more of a band performance.

Did you see everything you would expect to see in a music video?

The general opinion of the focus group was that they saw everything they would expect to see from the music video, in particular the framing of the shots was picked out as a strong point and also the pace of the editing during the band performance.

Did you think the video looked convincing?

There were mixed opinions about the video with the band performance being picked out as point in the video weaker element of the video, the main reason for this was the casting of the band, however, overall the opinion on the music video was that it is convincing.

Could there be any improvements to the video?

There are two points that were picked out by the focus group that could be improved, they are, when the lead singer of the band jumps forwards to cover the shot with the ukulele and that the storyline behind the narrative could be clearer.

From the focus group we received a lot of positive feedback, in particular the lips and the stop frame animation were picked out because they add a different element the music video.

Evaluation Point 2

How effective is the combination between the main product and your ancillary texts?

Evaluation Point 2 on Prezi

For this part of the evaluation we are comparing and analysing the different aspects of the ancillary products and the main video product for our A2 media coursework. The ancillary part of the course work consists of the album cover and advert that we have made promoting the band and the release of the album.

Our plan for designing the album cover and the advert was to link it with the band name Paper Crayons and to keep it simple so it did not look overcrowded. When researching other album/single covers, colour was a common theme, and there was always one thing that stood out on the album cover so audiences could be instantly drawn to it. Also there usually would be something on the album cover that would link back to the album name or the song name. For example, Take That’s album Circus demonstrated an image of the band on a tightrope an act that is associated with Circuses. This is why we chose the main aspect of the album cover as multi-coloured paper crayons so the audiences can relate to our album which is an important aspect of the ancillary products.

The comparison between our ancillary products and our main video product for our A2 media coursework is that there are a lot of colours. This was the main justification for why the Band’s name is Paper Crayon; every letter is a different colour and the colours match up with the crayons at the bottom of the Album cover and the Advert. These colours compare with the colours in the chorus of our music video as the background has flashing bright colours. Thus, the band Paper Crayons has a common theme running throughout the ancillary products and our video product for our A2 media coursework; when people think of Paper Crayons they are going to think of colours.

We managed to download two fonts “Yo La Tengo” and “Pastel” so that we could use them on our ancillary products. The reason why we chose “Pastel” is because the font looks like a crayon. This adds a really nice effect to both the advert and the album cover. Furthermore to keep with the crayon theme I added a Crayola box to the top right of the album cover so we could put bonus music video in it. The font type is probably the only contrast that the ancillary products have to the music video. We were unable to keep the “Pastel” and the “Yo La Tengo” font for the music video because Final Cut Express was unable to use downloadable fonts.

Ultimately, through the ancillary products the band developed a visual motif with the coloured crayons linking with the bands name "Paper Crayons". Also the music video developed a visual motif for the band in which it associated the band with lots of bright colours. This shows the effectiveness of the combination of the ancillary products and the album cover in creating a visual motif for the band and creating a professional look for Paper Crayons.

Evaluation Point 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Point 1 on Prezi

One of the main ways that our media product uses the generic convention of the Indie/Alternative genre is that we include a band performance which runs parallel with the verses within the song A-Punk. Other Indie Music videos that include band performances are: The Fratellis - Henrietta, Band of Horses - Funeral, Foals - Miami. Thus you can see that our music video has developed the conventions these examples and we have added our own twist thus we have challenged this convention also.

Our band uses and develops the convention of band performance by ensuring that the instruments they played looked like they were playing so it adds to the realism of the band performance which only works when it is realistic. Furthermore, the miming of the lead singer is very good throughout our music video which matches real media products.

Andrew Goodwin suggested six points in which shows conventions of music videos. The first point is that genre characteristics of the indie genre are something that is fun and lighthearted. Even though the lyrics of the song can be seen in a serious, sad manner the actual music of the song is entirely different with a generally upbeat, happy tempo. Therefore, our music video have demonstrate a more fun side with the theme of bright colors that is be present throughout most of the video. We have challenge the genre characteristics of the indie music genre by including a narrative which shows a girl who slaps a boy which offers a slightly more serious meaning to the music video, incorporating our interpretation of the lyrics. This shows that our music video uses, develops and challenges the Indie music genre.

The second point that Andrew Goodwin's analysis states is that the lyrics and the visuals link together. As we decided to use the band performance as the main part of the video there is no real clear link between the lyrics and the visual. However, the narrative part of our video will be about our interpretation of the lyrics, also the link between the lyrics and the visual is not clear because the visual narrative that links to the lyrics we decided to use during the instrumental parts of the song as it fit with the tempo of the music at these points in the song. Thus we are challenging Goodwin's Analysis as we are not linking the visuals to the lyrics.

One of the ways our music video conforms to the conventions of Goodwin's Analysis is there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. During the verses of the song where it is upbeat with lots of drumbeats we have got a lot of cuts so the footage during the band performance to make it look choppy and to relate the visual to the tempo of the music. Furthermore, during the instrumental in the song we have used stop frame animation to give the visual a slower feel in order to match it to the visual. The continuous use of colours throughout the music video amplifies the generally upbeat tempo and the happy mood of the music and also creates a link between the band performance and the lips and then shows a clear difference between the narrative and the other elements of the song. However, the chorus of the song the ‘flashing background’ that contradicts with the slower tempo of the song, we feel this will work really well and it is probably the only place in the song where a contradiction between the music and visuals would work. Therefore we have contradicted Goodwin's analysis but also used it throughout our music video and developed it to how we wanted our music video to be.

The use of the band performance fits into the indie genre of the music because band performances tend to be used more in this genre of music. The motif of our band is most probably the colourful/fun nature as we will have lots of colour running across our music video and ancillary texts, the with the band name being Paper Crayons the colourful theme will almost certainly recur throughout the bands work. We see this in our ancillary products that the colours which is the motif of the band have recurred across the Paper Crayons work. This shows the development of point four of Andrew Goodwin's analysis.

The only ‘voyeuristic’ treatment of the female body is in the chorus when the screen is split up into four. The close up of several females lips will be used which will be a reference to the notion of looking at the female body. Therefore, we have not directly challenged Goodwin's analysis but we have not really conformed to it as we don't really use it within our song, this is because of the nature of the lyrics are quite serious and it would be wrong to portray the song in this way, also you tend to see this more in pop or rock music videos.

We use intertextuality throughout our music video, thus conforming to the conventions of Goodwin's analysis. The intertextuality we are referencing comes from a 30H3! Music video, which is called My First Kiss. For the lyrics “ ’Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay, ‘Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay” we will film the lips of different people on different coloured backgrounds. Our band performance is an intertextual reference to music videos from the indie/rock genre as most use a band performance thus we will have an intertextual reference to that specific genre. The last intertextual reference within our music video is from the White Stripes – The Hardest Button to Button music video. They use stop motion throughout their music video and they portray the band going on ‘a journey’. Instead of showing the band going on a journey we have included a short narrative story within the music and show a journey of a couple during their break up. From this we have definitely used and developed the conventions of Andrew Goodwin's analysis of music videos.

Focus Group - Feedback on Final Video

After showing our music video for A Punk we asked our focus group a series of questions in order to get some feedback on our video.

Final Video

Director's Commentary

Poster for digipak

This is the poster for our digipak, we have added reviews from well know music magazines to make it look more authentic (also these would be the specialist magazines which the target audience would read).

Digipak

Front Cover

Back Cover

DVD Cover

Ancillary Text Designs

Editing Process

In order to make our final music video me used a variety of different editing techniques.

• Split Screen Colour - We used a green screen to be able to change the colours of the background on the chorus. This worked well as we split the screen into 4 with a person singing a line in each screen.
  
• Chroma Key (Green Screen) - We used Chroma Key to remove the green background and also used a spill suppressor to smooth the edges around the person.

• Stop Frame Animation - We used this on the bridge, walking backwards and the band spinning along the steps. It was hard to do and get right but the finished effect looks really good. We also used stop frame animation to create the band spinning across the amphitheatre.
  
• Band Performance - For the band performance we filmed each verse several times from a fixed camera point and moved the band around, we then cut together the shots to give the video a jumpy feel. We have used colour corrector to raise the whites and the saturation to give the shots a brighter feel. We added stripes on the screen during the performance to keep the colour theme running thought the video.

• Mexican Wave - For this we filmed it as three separated videos from a fixed camera point, we then cropped each video and put then in sequence to play simultaneously.
  
• Stripes (Between the Lips) - between the lips we have used key frame animation to show stripes moving across the screen, every other stripe moves across the screen from left to right and visa versa. We uses the stripes to link keep the theme of the colours going throughout the video.
  
• Text - for the lines in the song 'Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!, Ay! Ay! Ay!' we decided to show its visually on the screen as text and shapes flying in, in time with the lyrics.
  
• Gradient Wipe - at the start of our video we have used a gradient wipe as a transition from our stop frame animation into the band performance, this works for this part of the video because it is where the tempo of the music changes and shows a change in the visual in time with the music. For the gradient wipe we inserted an image from one of our shooting locations.

Representation of the People within our Music Video

Our music video focuses on the band performance and the lips with the colourful background so we don't focus on the representation of the people heavily. Although we tried to represent the band using a typical indie style.

A typical indie look would be wearing skinny jeans and shoes like plimsolls or converse, we portrayed the band in an 'indie light' with the clothes they wore. All the band wore skinny jeans which is a stereotypical symbol of indie bands. Furthermore, the different types of footwear the band are wearing are plimsolls and Converses which are items also commonly associated with the 'indie' genre. We tried to use colour throughout the video therefore we decided to get the band to wear bright coloured tops.

Another way our music video offers a representation of people is the stop motion narrative we include of the girl slapping the boy. Both the actor and the actress's clothing can stereotypically be seen as 'indie'. Also they are both teenagers this is because we tried to represent our target audience using the actor and actress.

Analysis of CD Covers

Take That CD Cover

I have chosen this album cover to analyse as the centre image relates to the name of the album. The movements are all in unison, along with the colours being the same, but different tones are being worn by different band mates. This is a good way to show the different personalities within the band yet still keep the bond. Photoshop would have been used to create the Background, of the sky. There is a good use of font, as it does not take anything away from the picture, yet is still noticeable. As Take That is a world wide known band, the image would be the most recognisable thing to create the audience to know straight away who the band are. We took inspiration from this album cover to link in with our band name.

Zola Jesus CD Cover

I like this album cover as it is very basic but effective. The centre image is actually a woman, covered in chocolate, but the final outcome has created a deeper mood. A dark scarier outlook has took place within this final cover. The pure white background contrasting with the dark covered face draws the audiences attentions straight to the centre image, which is what the band would have wanted, as this is the most interesting part. This cover has an almost 3D effect occurring within it, this is done with the blues and reds placed around and within the subject. I like the fact the audience would question what the image is. I feel the theme that the band editors were trying to achieve is a star wars effect. The text font used is narrow and serious, using juxtaposition as the image of someone covered in chocolate could be seen as funny, whereas this band have managed to make something funny, serious. This has inspired my group to make out cover a bit different.

All Time Low CD Cover

This single cover has a cartoon effect added to the people in the shot, which suits the band’s genre of pop punk. The title “Put up or shut up” is reflected in the people in the background looking like they are keeping quiet and then the attention is on the middle person with no face who seems to be rebelling, signified with the colour in the shirt and no face. The 3D effect on the bands name ‘All Time Low’ continues the ‘cartoon’ theme of the overall cover as it looks like the block capitals are drawn in. Also as the centrepiece of the cover the audience immediately can recognise the artist. Putting the song title on the t-shirt is a subtle but clever way of introducing the song, which also looks like it has been scribbled on. Within our own CD cover we hope to implement the cartoon effect of the people, demonstrated here.

Mystery Jets CD Cover

The colour of the artist name is multi coloured, which really suits their indie genre. Along with this the material tied round her legs is also quite colourful, keeping a trend. The photo of the feet does not give much away about the song. We like how the bands name, Mystery Jets, is in a multi coloured font and are going to use something similar to this in our own cover as it suits the genre of song we are doing.

Kids In Glass Houses CD Cover

This CD cover by Kids in Glass Houses show how the song title can have a lot of relation to the image on the cover. The “Easy Tiger” goes well with the legs in the air, along with the short skirt that shows the playfulness. The positioning is done well, with the song title fit snugly between the two legs and the red font of the easy tiger signifies a hot-blooded woman who is playful. The painting effect of the picture ties in well with the painted name of the song, as it keeps to the trend of the cover of the song.

Construction of the Mise-En-Scene in Our Music Video

Mise-en-scene doesn't play a huge role in our music video but it does contribute to our band performance hugely. The inclusion of the two Ukulele's and the Bongo Drums added to the realism of the band performance. This along with the singing of the lead singer is the construction of the mise-en-scene in the band performance throughout the music video.

Furthermore, in the band performance we have included props such as pom-poms and the multi-coloured umbrellas, we decided to include these props as they work well with the chorus as a lot of our music video is based around colours thus there is the construction of mise-en-scene here, which we have used a transitions to link the shots together.

The locations that we chose were the roman amphitheater for the band performance and The Grange which is the park where our narrative was set.

The reason why we chose the roman amphitheater for the band performance is because we thought it looked professional and it was perfect for changing the composition of the shot as we changed the positioning of the band in every shot. It also adds a different aspect of the band performance because of the unusual location which is outside. This contributed to the construction of the mise-en-scene as it adds to the band performance.

Casting

We decided to use ourselves as the cast after weighing up the pros and cons of doing this. We established that it is much harder producing a schedule to film with someone outside the group than it is to do with someone in the group. As there are four members of the group we could use ourselves as we did not need that many people to film. We benefitted from both people in the group and the performance having a indie like look about them which suits the genre of the song.

We used one person from outside our group for the band performance. His timetable was similar to ours so when we needed to film he was available. He also had a certain look about him which suited the music video.

The female and male in the storyline fitted the kind of couple we wanted to portray.

We have decided to cast the following people (Adam, Callum and Tom) for the band performance parts of the song because they fit the profile for members of a indie band which we are looking for.

Adam - A member of group 1 was the bongo player in the band perfomance part of the video. Callum - A member of group 1 was the lead singer in the band perfomance part of the video.
Tom - Not a member of group 1, was the ukelele player in the band perfomance part of the video.

Hannah - A member of group 1 was the female in the story part of the video.
James - A member of group 1 was the male in the story part of the video.

Shooting Schedule

We ended up shooting a lot of our footage across many days.

Wednesday 23rd February - We started filming the lips for the chorus. We needed as many people as we could and didn't run out of time during this session, only people.

Friday 25th February - We recruited more people to sing the line in the chorus. We managed to get all the footage of the lips on the greenscreen on this date.

Wednesday 2nd March - Filmed the stop motion in the park of the male and female character. We also started on the stop motion at the bridge.

Tuesday 8th March - First day filming at the steps. We got three verses done but when we looked at the footage there were some mistakes that we needed to correct.

Wednesday 9th March - Filmed the stop motion of the male and female on the bridge. By here we had everything in the park filmed.

Wednesday 16th March - We corrected the mistakes we made on the first trip and finished the last verse. We also filmed the spinning, umbrellas and the wave.

Props and Equipment List

Props

Ukelele - Used as an instrument in the band performance.

Bongo drums - Used as an instrument in the band performance.

Umbrella - Used as a transition to get to the chorus.

Equipment

Tripod x2 - We used a tripod for all of our shots as we required the footage to be still.

Camera x2 - To shoot the footage.
USB lead - Transfer the footage from the camera to the Mac.
Mac - Put our footage on and make our final product.
Final Cut Express - Edit and sequence our music video.

Costumes - We thought about the costumes carefully. The band wore clothes like polos and checkered shirts and jeans to suit the genre of indie. The female wore a vintage themed look along with the male.

Car - transport the equipment.
Green screen - To edit the background colour for the chorus.
Lyrics - The song is quite fast and not as clear on the most so we needed a lyric sheet.

Locations List

Steps

We found these steps in an old primary school that James went too. On our recce of the location we realised we would have to film during the children's lesson time as it would be noisy at break and lunchtimes. The location was easy to get to and although it required advanced booking it fitted with our schedule.

Bridge

This was at a park called the Grange where we filmed the scene with the female and male character. It was a quiet place during the day so filming went well at this location without many issues. This provided good scenery as a backdrop for the shot.

Park

This was the same park as where we filmed the scene on the bridge. It was cold as it was in autumn but we did not need to stay out for too long.

Storyboards

Target Audience Description

Within our music video my group and I took time in the decisions toward the target audience information the genre of the video affects what gender/age of people it appeals to. The sub-genre of the film further restricts who the film appeals too, for example, a song by someone from the 80’s or before is more associated with adults where as a new modern band or solo artists video would tend to appeal more so to a younger audience.

Our music video is intended to be aimed at teenagers, whom are a fan of bands etc. Our music video reflects our target audience, as the people performing in it are young adults who the audience can idolize and relate too. There is no main storyline that runs throughout the video, which is better for teenagers as they may not pay attention throughout, unlike an older person. Nothing in the video is being taken too seriously, and the bright colours being used in the video. The name ‘Paper Crayons’ also reflects the light-hearted interpretation infused into our video.

The small narrative that runs through the video was purposely chosen as a typical scenario that teenagers might experience. The target audience is not completely just based around teenagers, as adults would most likely have experienced a break up too, causing them to relate to the video.

Gender wise, we hope for both genders to relate to the video. Males would idolize the band, whereas females would be attracted to the band. By using both genders point of views with the small narrative that runs through, our video relates to both genders. The girl and the boy in the video, will represent our target audience, as they are both obvious teenagers. The style chosen in the video was specific to what we feel our target audience would be wearing.

Media grouping for our target audience would consist of films that our target audience may be fond of may be along the lines of Juno and Whip it. These two are both relative to teenagers, and like our video both are not too serious, but do carry emotions throughout both.

TV shows: Skins, Misfits, Scrubs, Inbetweeners and Balls Of Steel.

Other Music: Arcade Fire, Mystery Jets, Darwin Deez and Two Doors Cinema Club.

Questionnaire

Conventions of Music Videos

General conventions

Some kind of narrative going on.

Band or artist shown a lot throughout.

Looking directly at the camera, like it’s a person.

A lot of attention to lighting and the mise en scene.

Some kind of choreography.

The pace of the editing fits the pace of the song, clean cuts.

Authentic looking lip syncing.

Strong use of editing and after effects, normally in montage.

Main character is the singer.

Metal genre conventions

Highly performance based, from previous gigs.

A lot of shots of the crowd.

Fast paced editing to reflect the speed of the song.

Focus on the whole band but more on the lead singer, close ups of them all to put them all in the music video.

Attention to clothing, normally what they wear in day to day life, stereotypical metal look.

Cross cutting between a smaller narrative.

Lighting is often very dark.

Pop genre conventions

Interesting location, attention to lighting, make it have a happier feel.

Lots of focus on the singer/group.

Lots of things going on onscreen.

Highly edited music in sync with lips but sounds unrealistic.

Dance routines with many females/males depending on gender of singer.

Artist changes costumes a lot, very typical 'in' clothing.

Just the artist without any instruments as they do not normally play their own instruments.

Camera work like zooms and close ups showing the artists face and their expressions.

Indie genre conventions

Attention to costumes, polos, plimsoles, check shirts, jeans etc, very casual.

Enquire some band performance, sometimes for the whole thing but sometimes mixed with a narrative.

Band often play in the narrative, lead singer is main character.

The video is often very random and do not follow the lyrics.

Editing is quite fast paced to match the music.

The colour and feel of the music video differs according to the song.

Effects and transitions used here and there.

Song Choice and Lyrics

We decided to make our music video on the song 'A Punk' by Vampire Weekend. When thinking of song choices this is one of the ones that came up and it stood out the most. After looking at the lyrics we immediately came up with some possible ideas and our current idea branched of the initial ones.




















Our idea for the song is to have a band performance thought the song with visual representation that relate to specific lines of the song. Throughout the song we will use a lot of cut to fit with the fast pace of the music.

After filming our band performance we discovered that the performance doesn't work visually in the gaps between the verses where the tempo is much slower, therefore we are going to add in a narrative which will be our interpretation of the lyrics. The narrative will be about a break up in a relationship and the reactions after, however to make this different the whole event will occur backwards.

Original Idea

The original idea for our music video was to use the meaning of the song, which is about a cancer patient in a leading cancer hospital in America called Sloan Kettering, which is mentioned in the song. Our idea was to show the mental battle of the cancer patient as a physical battle through her fight with cancer.

Our idea was to show the cancer patient moving thought two lines of people, who were having a battle across her path. We decide to use confetti, balloons, party poppers and silly string as the weapons for the battle. In the first verse we decided to represent the cancer patient at their worst in the battle against cancer therefore we decide to put her in a wheelchair, in the second verse she would be walking with a drip in a hospital gown, in the third verse she would be in the hospital gown and in the final verse she would be wearing her own clothes after winning her battle with cancer.

Unfortunately, we were unable to follow through with this idea because we were unable to get enough people to create our battle scene, whilst filming we realised we needed around 60 people at least to form the battle which we then decide was unrealistic to attempt to try and create. Although we did film some shots for these scenes we decided we couldn't use them because we had too few people to make the shots look realistic. As the battle scene was the main storyline behind the whole video we decide that we were unable to re-film this idea due to the problems we found with our first attempt.

Goodwin's Analysis

Goodwin’s Analysis and How It Will Incorporate Into our Music Video

Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

The genre characteristics of the Indie genre are something that is fun and lighthearted. Even though the lyrics of the song can be seen in a serious, sad manner the actual music of the song is entirely different with a generally upbeat, happy tempo. Therefore, our music video will demonstrate a more fun side with the theme of bright colors that will be present throughout most of the video.

We will challenge the genre characteristics of the Indie music genre by including a narrative which shows a girl who slaps a boy which offers a slightly more serious meaning to the music video, incorporating our interpretation of the lyrics.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (Illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

We are not going to have much of a relationship between lyrics and visuals as we are going to concentrate more on the relationship between the music and the visuals. However, the narrative part of our video will be about our interpretation of the lyrics.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (Illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Within our music video there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. During the verses of the song where it is upbeat with lots of drumbeats we will have lots of cuts so the footage looks choppy and correlates with the drumbeats of the song.

Furthermore, during the instrumental in the song we will slow the footage, which matches with the change in tempo of the song.

The continued use of colours throughout the music video amplifies the generally upbeat tempo and the happy mood of the music and also creates a link between the band performance and the narrative. However, we will include in the chorus of the song the ‘flashing lights’ that contradicts with the slower tempo of the song, we feel this will work really well and it is probably the only place in the song where a contradiction between the music and visuals would work.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs, which recur across their work (a visual style).

Because of the Indie/Rock genre there is a band performance that runs throughout all the verses. The motif of our band will most probably be of a colourful/fun nature as we will have lots of colour throughout our music video and the with the band name being Paper Crayons the colourful theme will almost certainly recur across their work.

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

The only ‘voyeuristic’ treatment of the female body will be in the chorus when the screen is split up into four. The close up of several females lips will be used which will be a reference to the notion of looking at the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmers, other music videos etc).

The intertextuality we are referencing comes from a 30H3! Music video, which is called My First Kiss. For the lyrics “ ’Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay, ‘Ay ‘Ay ‘Ay” we will film the lips of different people on different coloured backgrounds.

Our band performance is an intertextual reference to music videos from the indie/rock genre as most use a band performance thus we will have an intertextual reference to that specific genre.

The last intertextual reference within our music video is from the White Stripes – The Hardest Button to Button music video. They use stop motion throughout their music video and they portray the band going on ‘a journey’. Instead of showing the band going on a journey we will include a short narrative story within the music and show a journey of a girl and a boy after they have broken up.