100 Word Plan

100 Word Plan

Hello!

For our media video production, we have chosen to pick the song “Pacifier” by Catfish and the Bottlemen. We researched the meanings of the lyrics in this song to get an idea of how we should plan our music video and what should be included. We made the decision as a group to make the video a narrative video, to represent the meanings and story behind the lyrics. We have decided to film it partly in a house, showing a disjointed, one sided relationship with the two, and the other half of it in a public place.

Mood Board

Andrew Goodwin Music Video Theory

Andrew Goodwin Music Video Theory

Hello!

Today in our media lesson, we learnt how to analyse videos from learning about the theorist Andrew Goodwin and the interesting, different way that he analyses videos. From learning this theorist, we also were shown 7 new elements in music videos which will aid us when we begin making the video. 

Andrew Goodwin identifies 7 key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look for which are ;

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics such as stage performances in metal videos, dance routines for boy/girl bands

• Thought beats - seeing the sound - First step is to look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song, for example, the chorus or verses. 

The second is the voice of the song. The artists voice is unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the grain of voice can be related to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associates of its own. 

Thirdly, Goodwin also points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artists the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device, telling us a story and us listening.

• Narrative and performance - Songs aim to give us the complete narrative ;

We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told. Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising. Music videos should coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand it makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest. The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real. 

• The star image - 

The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process.

• Relation of visuals to song - there is often intertextual references to films, tv programmes, other music videos, etc - 

Relation of visual to song - music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, this is the most common. Amplify. Similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision. Disjuncture, this is where the meaning of a song is completely ignored. These are three ways in which music videos promote a song.

• Technical aspects of music video - holds the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene editing, sound and special effects. Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect. Mies-En-Scene, the setting of music videos is vital, because it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism. Beats, music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm, making the video more entertaining. 

Analysing Music Videos with Andrew Goodwin's Theory 

Writing on the Wall - Sam Smith 

• Music videos demonstrate genres characteristics (dance routines in boy/girl band videos) 
• Thought beats - Seeing the sound in your head - 1. Look at the lyrics 2. The voice of the Song - the artists voice is unique and can form identification or trademarks that will work well with the singers image. 3. Goodwin talks about the artists mode of address, songs can be seen as stories and the artist is a storyteller.
• Narrative and Performance - Songs fail to give us the complete narrative of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told. Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. it is important in their role of advertising. Music videos should have coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand it makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without loosing interest. The artist acting as both narrator and participants helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real. 
• The star Image - The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process.
• Relation of Visuals to song - illustrate - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, this is the most common. Amplify - Similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision. Disjuncture - This is where the meaning of song is completely ignored. These are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song. 
• Technical aspects of music Video (Sound editing, etc) - technical aspects hold the music videos together through the use of camera work, movement, angle, mise en scene, editing, sound and special effects. Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour helps set the mood and emphasis key moments of the dong for dramatic effect. Mise en scene, the setting of music video is vital, it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism. Beats, music videos use cuts to go with he neat or rhyme making the video more entertaining.

Initial Ideas

Hello!

Our initial ideas for our music video of ‘Pacifier’ was to use Performance based video, which would mean the music video showing footage of the band performing their song. This would mainly focus on the band throughout the video, and the genre usually used for this style is Indie or Rock, so this fitted our genre choice. It’s also a cheap way of creating the video. However, reasons we avoided this idea was because the band is required to be quite well known in order for the consumers to keep interested throughout, as ultimately, the band is all they are watching, whereas in a Narrative type video, there is a story line to keep them interested.

We liked the idea of using a narrative video, which is when the video is based on acting out the lyrics in some kind of way, so is story like and has a story line which keeps viewers interested. However, we still felt that the use of a Performance video would work well with the genre of our song, so thought about mixing the two together and using both Narrative and Performance. This means a video that keeps the audience interested with the story line, but also can show the band.

From Goodwin’s theory, he explains that music videos shouldn’t include common narrative; and this is important for their advertising role. Narrative and performance are done in a way in which the audience will find it easier to re-watch repeatedly without losing any interest.

The star image needs to be used, which is plays a big part in developing the star over time. Relation of visual to songs should also be used, which uses a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre. To make the video easier to re-watch, amplify is used which is similar to repeatability. This is one way a music video promotes a song.

Technical aspects of the music video we would be using, are through the use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene editing, sound and special effects. 

Chosen genre - Discussion of Genre and the Forms and Conventions Involved

Hello!

The genre our group have decided to focus on for the creation of our music video, is Indie Rock. This is a genre which became popular and well known firstly in the UK, in and around the 80’s. Part of why we decided to choose this genre to focus on is its uniqueness. It is a genre not many people know of or listen to, and we could take advantage of this because we would be selecting a brand new audience to aim the video too. However this is also a drawback, because it may not be automatically as successful and popular as a well known genre’s music video would be. This will mean the video will require more advertising, and a performance video, because this will focus more on the band and show off the band members in a positive light.

                                     

The forms and conventions used in any music video are to firstly show off the band members, to make a memorable song for the viewers, to portray the band in a good light and also to make the music genre of the band obvious and clear for the viewers. The forms and conventions we would be using for our Indie Rock band, are;

•    Fast cuts to synchronise with the track

•    Band members to be shown acting with an emotion, often to be shown as acting childish

•    Band members are filmed with high angle shots showing their importance and power

Also, these types of genres are well known for being low budget, and videos are usually filmed in easily accessible, cheap environments, which still have a mysterious theme to them. The settings are usually simple, to keep the main attention on the band members. Mise-en-scene is also strongly focussed on, because of their costuming and make up done to give them the specific retro type look. Their costuming creates a specific identity for them and this helps to build the different characters of the band. Props used would be instruments such as guitars and drums, to help make the video look realistic.

The most likely camera shots that would be used, would be close up camera shots to introduce the singer and build a focus on them, and to show their importance. Because the shots are close up, it focuses on the singers emotion and passion to portray their talents, which will build their popularity. To allow different angles, crane shots are usually also used and its also likely there will be a strong use of long and wide shots which are used as establishing shots for building a story like view of the band members.

Editing is also an important aspect used in Indie Rock videos, such as special effects to make the audience feel part of the video, which heightens their attraction to the band. Linking in with Andrew Goodwin’s theory, is how there is a use of fast and slow cut shots to keep up the pace and beat of the music. This allows the audience to feel more comfortable when watching the video.

Letter to the Record Company

Hello,

Dear Communion and Island Records,

I am writing to you to ask you whether it is possible to re-create a music video of one of the bands that you represent.

With your permission, we will be using the song Pacifier, by Catfish and the Bottlemen, and we will recreate the music video that goes along with it because we would like to produce a narrative music video to portray the lyrics of the song more clearly than what they are with the current video. We would like to do this for our media coursework and we thought that it would be best to ask you for your permission so that we don’t breach any copyright laws.

Please could you respond to this letter with your decision so that we can take necessary action as to whether to move forward with the production of the music video or to change our idea if you decline our request.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Roberts, Sophie T Russell and Lauren Orpin from the Buckingham School

Idea Update

Hello,

We have decided that we will be creating a narrative music video based on Catfish and the Bottlemens’ song, Pacifier. We will try and create a music video that reflects the lyrics of the song. When we film our music video we will go to Lauren’s house as well as a park in our local town to try and demonstrate the loneliness and sadness that is portrayed in the song. Other thing that I thought that I’d mention would be that Matt left our group because he didn’t want to continue with the course. This means that we will have to change our initial plan which was to have the couple split up and the girl being comforted by a friend. Instead, we will have to have the girl having no comfort from friends which means she’ll have to grieve from the break up on her own. In actual fact, this works out better because it will show how alone she is when the relationship ends. 

Indie Rock Genre Information

Genre Info

Hello,

Indie rock was formed as a sub-genre to alternative rock and was established in the 1980s. The creation of the genre has helped to create further genres such as; indie pop and jangle pop. As grunge and punk bands in America became mainstream, British bands also began to break through onto mainstream music. The bands that broke through in the UK were deemed to fall into the indie rock category. In the mid-1980s the term “indie” was being more commonly used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk music labels. Indie rock began to grow in the US through college radio playlists, bands such as the US’ R.E.M. and the UK’s The Smiths. The 1990’s saw major changes to the rock scene. Bands such as Nirvana and Green Day in the US and Blur and Oasis in the UK brought alternative rock to the mainstream. In the 2000s the internet allowed underground bands like The Strokes to gain mainstream commercial success. The garage rock revival in the 2000s led to bands such as The Artic Monkeys, The Libertines and Kaiser Chiefs. 

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DigiPaks

Digipaks

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•          A digipak is a patented style of CD or DVD packaging, and is a registered trade mark of AGI
•           Are designed to fold up into a square CD case. They can fold into many different ways and can have different amounts of panels
•           The front and back panels are the main promoters of the CD and are very much used to draw in in the customers
•          The front of digipaks tend to have a large eye-catching picture on them
•          The picture illustrated on the front panels tend to have some relation to the songs or the artist
•          The song/album title is also found on the front panel
•           The back contains the track list, barcode, album artwork, record label and any extra information
•           Inside a digipak there is a plastic holder for the CD itself
•           A lot off plastic holders nowadays are see-through with another piece of album artwork behind which goes with the rest of the packaging
•           Digipaks come in all different styles and designs. They vary in artwork, number of panels and types of fold.

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