Corerography Rehearsal

Today we all got together to try and do some of the coreography that we had learnt and picked up from our last meeting where we researched different people dancing to our chosen song. It was quite challenging for us because none of us are dancers therefore physically it was challenging. However, we did have fun doing this and the dance we came up with goes well with the chorus as its quite high energy.

Starting Animatic

Today, we worked on the producing the animatic for our video. It was a little tricky at first as we have 12 sets of extremely fast moving images from 0-20secs where we have to get the music beat just right in order for it to flow the way we wanted it to.

However, all of these fast steps were hard to put into place and it ended up taking us the whole 3hr session to complete solely the first part as we were new to Premier. We left it at this, but have planned to definately get it finished by next week, so watch this space :)

quick pic of me whilst doing the animatic :)

Researching Coreography for the Video

We now have a song but we need to come up with a dance routine as part of the chorus and to help us we looked at some ready-made dance routines to our specific song.

Video #1



The dancing in this video is extremely fast moving and getting ideas from it to use within our video was hard as it is very fast. Also, we have taken into account that the people dancing are proffessional dancers therefore the quality of our dancing is not up to the same standards as we think it would be better if we found something slower to match our dancing abilities.


Video #2




This video is still fast moving, however it has many different dancers and they all have their own styles of dancing the same routine whjich was helpful for us as some did it slower than others and we could take some ideas. Overall this video was better as people improvised on parts and we were able to spot newer dance moves that we could alter slightly to suit our abilities and use for our video.

Presentation: Pitch

We have been working on a presentation to show the rest of the class pitching our ideas so we could get feedback on what they thought before we actually start filming as this is the first time we have all come together to share ideas. We all worked on producting the slideshow, each conducting different parts of research for it. However, on the day of the pitch I was unable to make it due to medical reasons therefore Sam and Shiggy were the two incharge of presenting.

This is the final presentation:

Music video pitch

View more presentations from slrose1

This was also recorded for later analysis in the evaluation, as can be seen below:


A2 Music video Pitch Group 1 from Sidney Stringer on Vimeo.


Well done on presenting Shiggy and Sam, very clear and to the point!

Costume Gallery

We also did a dress rehearsal at my house today deciding what outfits we want to wear. We based some of these looks on what we found in our moodboard trhat we created previously as we wanted to keep the dark/gothic theme within the clothing subtle as Rihanna the artist we are doing uses this look often. Below are images of the potential costumes in our video.

Myself

Sam

 

Shiggy

 

Sohail

Make-Up Ideas

These are some of the make-up idea's we came up with when we did a make-up rehearsal at my house. We decided to do it on eachother so we could see what suited who. 

Lips

Make-Up Ideas

These are some of the make-up idea's we came up with when we did a make-up rehearsal at my house. We decided to do it on eachother so we could see what suited who.

Eyes









Styling Ideas

Now that we have decided on the content of the video itself, it is time for us to start considering how the asthetics of the video will look. This will include how we build up the characters within, therefore styling, makeup and clothing will need to be considered. I have conducted some research into artists of the same genre of music, their styling, makeup etc. This is so we can gather some ideas for how we create different looks within the video.

Rihanna

Hair

Tied up, red hair

short black bob

very short crop

Make-up

Smokey eyes, gothic look

girly, full on makeup

Clothing

Beyonce

Make-up

Heavy makeup

Smouldery eyes

Hair

curly and long

quiff

Clothing

short, party dress



glamorous gown

 Ciara

Make-Up

Party, vibrant makeup

Hair

sleek and straight

Clothing

Little Black Dress

Location Ideas

Below are the different location we want to shoot our video in. I have broken it down into which parts of the song will fit in each location.




Parts 1, Chorus, Part 3:
This is the drama room we hired out and want to shoot parts one, two and the chorus on. We booked it out and did a test on how we want it to look and we are quite happy with it.

Part 2:

The two images below are the two bedrooms we might shoot Shiggys bit in, however due to space issues we have decided that Sams bedroom is more suitable because the scene we are shooting involves movement therefore space is needed. 

Final StoryBoard

As we were all together, we decided to finish our final storyboard for the video with all of the different scenes in, apart from the dance scene as we have not yet ran rehearsals for this. Below, shows our final storyboard created by bringing all of our separate storyboards together and creating a final one. We decided to use sticky notes, as this allowed us to move around ideas to where they fit best.

Creating MoodBoard

So its the first day of the holidays and we have all decided to meet in school and design a moodboard of all our ideas for the video as we are set to shoot the first week back im so excited. The main way that this has helped us, is that it has given us more ideas on what colours and costume we should wear for the video. This is helping us to prepare costume and get make-up together for the shoot as it gives us different style ideas.

MoodBoard

Own Storyboard of Ideas

I went away from the group meeting we had yesterday and created my own storyboard of how I think the video should look. It isnt in full detail and as you can see my images arent the best as I'm not the perfect drawer but I now know what I want and I will make I tell the rest of my group the ideas I have.

Work In Progress

 Individual StoryBoard
this is my own version of how i expect the video to look like, I have not yet included what will happen in the chorus as this will be some sort of coreography therefore it is yet to be developed.

Shot Types

Before we can start to storyboard the ideas, I have decided to see the different shot types used in music videos in ordert to get a better picture of what we should create. Below are some videos illustrating different shot types and I have identified why they work well.

This shot is a shoulder shot of the artist Nicki Minaj. It allows the audience to see her up close however still allowing movement to be shown as her video is quite fast paced.

 This shot is a high angles shot on the side and it shows the setting around the two in the shot. It is quite effective as it creates an image as if someone is almost watching the two slyly showing the relationship between the two from a different perspective.

This is a long shot of Chris Brown from a low angle portraying him as being authoritative and the main person. The pose he is in also indicates this, showing he has power in the video and ensuring the audience is made very aware it is his music they are listening.

This is a close up of Rihanna and it allows the audience to see her facial expressions.  

Lip Syncing Rehearsal : Me & Sam

Today, as well as filming eachother do practice lip syncs of the song, me and sam decided that we would do a joint one as in the actual video this is what will happen alongisde Shiggy in some parts therefore we need to figure out timing etc. The video below is just one out of many run throughs we conducted, not the best but we will get better. Had so much fun doing this!

Take One:

Lip Synching Rehearsal - Rihanna Only Girl (Me Only)

Today, I went to Sam's house and we did a rehearsal lip synching for our chosen song "Only Girl." We did a run through together and then a separate one. It was quite a lot of fun and as you can see the video isnt perfect as we keep getting stuck but we now know where to practice on and its given us a better insight into the difficulty of the lyrics. Unfortunately Shiggy wasnt able to be here today, but we will re-schedule a time when is suitable for her to also have a go.

Take #1

Take #2

 

Lyric Breakdown

Now that we have decided on the song and its narrative, we also decided to make a lyric and song breakdown in order to establish exactly how the video run at each part. This is a breakdown of the song, which we all participated in doing:


0-0.14 secs
Long shot, medium shot, close up, extreme close up of Me, Sam and Shiggy in order, whilst saying the lyrics "la la la la". (Each la is a different shot type)


Sams Verse (#1)

0.15-0.27 secs
Sam walking around white screen singing along to the lyrics.

0.28-0.34secs
String globe placed in front of the camera, Sam will walk up to this closer and closer to the camera and eventually get to it then "flick it" to the side.
All of this is whilst she is singing "so boy forget about the world cuz its gon' be me and you tonight)

0.35-0.46
Sam on the floor, and the camera will tilt downwards towards her slowly going from a birds eye view to a close up shot of her.


Chorus

0.47-1.15secs
Each will get 2 lines from the chorus, whilst the camera is placing them in a mid shot:

Sam "want you to make me feel like im the only girl in the world"
Shiggy "like im the only one that youll ever love"
Megi "like im the only one who knows your heart, only girl in the world"

Sam "like im the only one thats in command"
Shiggy "cuz im the only one who understands"
Megi "how to make you feel like a man, yeaah"


1.16- 1.31secs
This is the second part of the chorus and all 3 of the girls will peform a dance routine within this point.


Shiggys Verse (#2)

1.32-1.42secs
This willa ll be set in a bedroom and the first will be an establishing shot of the room Shiggy is in, to adjust people to the new setting from the studio.
Throughout the scene she will be dancing around the bedroom and doing her make up whilst singing the verse.
When she says "like a thief in the night" she will look up and a small window of sohail climbin through will show.

1.43-2.00secs
Shiggy then goes back to the bed and hols onto a pillow.


Chorus

2.01- 3.31secs
(Same as previous)
Each will get 2 lines from the chorus, whilst the camera is placing them in a mid shot:

Sam "want you to make me feel like im the only girl in the world"
Shiggy "like im the only one that youll ever love"
Megi "like im the only one who knows your heart, only girl in the world"

Sam "like im the only one thats in command"
Shiggy "cuz im the only one who understands"
Megi "how to make you feel like a man, yeaah"


Megi's Verse (#3)

2.32-3.02secs
Me in the studio dancing around the screen, with different camera shots and fast cuts to sync with the pace of the music.
Arms will fall to each side when im saying "high, high" to emphasise these lyrics.
In the lyrics "take me by suprise" I will look suprised and raise up my leg to show a cheeky position.


Chorus

3.03-3.34secs
(same as previous)

Each will get 2 lines from the chorus, whilst the camera is placing them in a mid shot:

Sam "want you to make me feel like im the only girl in the world"
Shiggy "like im the only one that youll ever love"
Megi "like im the only one who knows your heart, only girl in the world"

Sam "like im the only one thats in command"
Shiggy "cuz im the only one who understands"
Megi "how to make you feel like a man, yeaah"

3.35-3.56secs
Three will fall back onto three separate beds with different mise-en-scene showing different locations and eventually falling out of "the dream" and going back to sleep.

Colour Coded Lyrics

Now that we agreed on the song, we sat down and chose who will sing what within the song. The lyrics are posted below.We havent made any official arrangements about the chorus yet though as this needs to be planned out in more detail and with more time this will come together.



Lyrics Colour Coded

Song Treatment

The song treatment is mainly about three girls wanting to be the centre of a guys world and them expressing their selfish desires throughout the song. The song is intially about one girl, however due to there being three girls in the group we decided to split this into three.

To show this, the treatment will therefore have to include mainly shots of the three girls and their personalities coming out through their dancing, facial expressions and lyrics. There is no story with the video as such, because we did not want to tell a story we merely want to express the feelings of these girls.

Rihanna - Only Girl (Narrative)

Song Narrative - Group Ideas

In class today, as we chose the song we also decided write down some ideas of what the narrative was about, in order for us to establish some more depth about where to point our video towards. The image below shows our mind map of the ideas we came up with, however we also individually wrote up our developed thoughts on what we discussed.

Rihanna - Narrative Brainstorm



Song Narrative - Own Ideas


The song narrative explores many different areas such as female characteristics but also the attatchment of a male and female when they are emotionally attatched. One of the key concepts the song is about is the female wanting attention from the male and they want him to think of her as "the only girl in the world" and "the only one that you'll ever love." This shows a very needy attitude of females and almost selfish qualities that females possess due to their need of attention and love.

The song also also explores the different types of relationships that can occur as overall love in this song is shown to be a powerful and controlling process whereas in typical love songs love is portrayed as being mesmerising and the negative such as selfish needs are not shown.

Asking for Artist Permission

Now that we have decided on the song choice, we also decided to ask the artist permission to use their song before we our plans for the music video started. It is important to do this, as the artist would need to allow us to use their song or we would be breaching copyright laws.

The print screens below shows us writing to her via our group Twitter account.

Final Song: Rihanna - Only Girl

So we all sat down as a group and we made the decision to chose Rihanna's song "Only Girl" as we all like this and we have a lot of ideas to go with the video. YAYYY. we can now get to the planning of the video :)

The song is posted below, at the moment it does not have a video which works in favour of our ideas as we have no pointers of how it should look.

Lip Synching Session - "Dont Stop Believing" - Video

Today we tried out a class lip synch to the Glee Production of "Dont Stop Believing." I think it went pretty well, I found out however that its harder than it looks!!

The video below shows my group and our practice lip synch, hope you like it :)

Video - Lip Synch






Glee Group 1 from Sidney Stringer on Vimeo.

Lip Synching Session - Backstage Pictures :)

Glee Backstage Pictures

Some backstage piks of us practising the lip synch to glee,enjoy :)

Glee Backstage Piks

Final Three Songs

We cant really decide on which song to use as they all have advantages and disadvantages, below there is a small video showing my opinions on the final three ideas and weighing each up. :)

Kings of Leon- Use Somebody (Video Analysis #3)

This is another video which i have chosen to analyse mainly because I am a big fan of this band but also i like their videos. This video is mainly showing the band as they tour and their lives throughout their music shows which is unusual for videos as they normally show the glamourous side to the popstar lives whereas this shows the ups and downs of their tours and the crowds they perform. however this is one of the main things that makes the video interesting and keeps the audience keen on watching as they are following an almost story like account of the lives of King of Leon.

They use quite a large amount of hand held camera footage which has been filmed at various parts of the tours the band have gone through. This is evident as they have made these shots in black and white therefore hinting this is a flashback into a certain time period and the movement of the camera indicates it was hand held. This is quite effective as it makes the video interesting because we get to a side of the band they haven't exposed previously in other videos, therefore the natural flow of the video is appealing,

Overall, eventhough the video doesn't really go with the song as the song is about needing someone whereas the video just follows the lives of the band it is still a very good video and the variety of shots work well.

Bruno Mars- Just The Way You Are (Video Analysis #2)

This video is quite different to the Florence and the machine video i previously analysed as it is a different genre of music therefore uses different conventions. The location for this video is in an apartment as this is made very obvious from the start of the setting. This is an indication of the lifestyle lived by the artist as the apartment is quite big and sophisticated therefore trying to portray the artist as being very powerful financially as they can afford a large apartment in what looks like New York city from the outside.

The characters in this involve only the artist and the girl he is singing about, this has been done purposely to ensure that the audience focus solely on their relationship. It also goes well with the song as it is about two people in a relationship and he is singing about how he loves everything about her and that she is the centre of his world. This was therefore reflected by the video as they are the focus.

The video also uses special effects in a a large amount of clips. This is mainly the drawing/ animation effect they use throughout when drawing parts of the video in this way instead of filming it all the way through. This is a good effect as it makes the video more interesting and it is unique as no other RNB video has currently done something similar making it unique and challenging the typical conventions of music videos where it is all on set and no animation effects are used.

the video also challenges a lot of  RNB videos, as many are set in clubs with one main male singer and a lot of girls surrounding them seductively. In this however, this is not the case as it is just the male singer and the girl he is thinking about.

Overall, I like this video mainly because it is unique by using the animations and it isnt the normal club scene it usually is.

Florence and the The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Video Analysis #1)

Florence and The Machine- Rabbit Heart

I will now analyse a music video of my choice, in order to get an overview of what a video will consist of.
I have chosen to do Florence and The Machine- Rabbit Heart as it is one of my favourite music videos and it holds a wide variety of video techniques I can discuss.








Video Analysis

Exploring Music Genres

These are some of the genres of music I would like to maybe use inspiration from, these are below with a small explanation to why I like them. :) However they are all so different to eachother, so I will have to make sure I do more research aside from this in order to establish what I want.


Video #1
Name: Rihanna - Russian Roulette
Genre: RnB



I like this song as I think the vocals are strong and the song sounds emotional. I also like all of the music from this artist, however I do think the song would be a little slow moving if we were to create a music video from it.
Rating: 6/10


Video #2
Name: Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
Genre: Electropop, Synthpop




This song is completely different to the one above, as it is faster moving which I like as it would allow us to make a fast moving video to go with the genre. The video that is with the song at the minute however, does not appeal to me as I do not like all of the effects on the video.
Rating: 5/10

Video #3
Name: Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning
Genre: Alternative Rock

I like this song, its one of my favourites however this genre of music is quite slow moving posing the same video issues as the first video where we would not be able to make a fast-moving video out of it as it would not flow. However, it has given me ideas into what songs could work, such as dance-type songs giving me guidance of where to base my research on next.
Rating: 4/10

Pre-production Plan

We talked in class today about all of the pre-production we need to carry out before we actually shoot and its a long way to go before we can pick up any cameras and go and shoot!! The plan we decided as a group is shown below:

September - October 2010

• Analyse Music Videos I like
• Music Genres Explored
• Pick Song and Enusre Permission is gained from artist
• Practice Lip Synchs
• Location Ideas
• Make-up/Costume Ideas
• Practice Shoots
• Feedback on choices made
• StoryBoard Video Idea
• Breakdown song and establish all shots in video
• MoodBoards

This is a rough plan as I'm aware it is an ongoing project and we will continually add to this.

Key Media Concepts

Media Research