Narrative ideas:

As the final stage of my research and planning, I am going to consider some feedback I received after posting my Animatic video onto the blog. The comments I received included:

-          A problem based on why emotional redemption is achieved. A lack of visual illustration was believed to be in my video so the narrative didn’t make sense.

-          Another issue involving visual illustration was how the song consists of the man sitting there without any movement. It was claimed to appear boring. The suggestion being a more interesting way of getting the man in the video (me) to speak during the lyrics being played while drunk on the floor. Possibly with the girlfriend crying because she seen me in the house in a drunken state. This was considered to be a solution.

-          A problem was raised in the locations used, as well as high I was going to make the scenery AKA my house fulfil its intent to be messy and damaged to create illustration towards the narrative.

The problem was raised that the music video does not make it clear as to why emotional redemption was achieved. It seems that the man suddenly becomes happy, because the video gives no clear indication why the character has become happier. It just happens naturally.

In response, I defend that the video does supply a certain amount of narrative content and illustration to give out the reason as to why the man becomes happier. In my video, as the 2^nd verse ends, the man looks at an image of his girlfriend. This was not demonstrated very clearly in the Animatic, as my drawing skills are poor. The way in which it is evident that the girl is his ex-girlfriend is by the relation of the illustration, and visual events occurring, to the lyrics of the song themselves. E.g. the line ‘could you stand another drink’ is related to my added narrative of the man in the video walking home drunk. In this case, the line ‘do you wanna spin another line, like we had a good time’ if perhaps the best indicator of a relationship crisis. The original Proof video included this line also, and the facial expressions, combined with the content of the lyrics, provided the implication that the man in that video, played by Chris Eccleston, had just been part of and ended a relationship, and was depressed until he achieved emotional redemption. In my case, my added narrative and illustration of the man walking home drunk, being depressed through verses 1 and 2, and now holding an image of a girl his image shortly after those meaningful lyrics played, overall, at least strongly imply that he has been in a relationship and the source of his depression of his loss of that girlfriend. The end montage of the video of his memories with the girl, such as walking with her away from the camera, will further send this implication to the audience. The shots of the man’s memories in the end collage will be identifiable via the stereotypical editing patterns inserted onto those certain shots so that the memory shots appear black and white. Furthermore, the original Proof video did not visually make it clear why the man suddenly got happier either, but the lyrics in relation to facial expressions sent the message very well. With my added narrative, the meaning and strength of this message will only be more significant.

The second narrative issue revolves around how there is a lack of visual interest in certain parts of the video, such s the main close-up shots of my face playing during verses. The suggested alternative being that I sing during the shots, while on the floor, lying down, suffering from a hangover type of condition mixed with visual depression.

In response, while this certainly provides more illustration to the video in places where it is probably needed, this suggestion does not sound like it will work. Since the objective is to make my music video appeal to its intended target audience of soft rock young adults, who are not necessarily educated with vast media knowledge, this approach does not seem appropriate. Keep in mind that to media teacher, experts, and even student, this idea would be preferable. Particular media experts would understand the use of improved illustration in this suggested idea and would be appealed by its usage far more than anyone else. But since my target audience does not necessarily consist of media experts with high amounts of media knowledge that a college teacher would have, the use of this idea would probably not make the video appeal to them. An approach involving the man (me) lying on the floor while singing to the music would probably appear to be somewhat ridiculous and would not interest them in the video at all. However, this does not mean to say I don’t intend to consider this feedback at all. I did look at my Animatic, and it is clear that the fact remains valid that the illustration becomes unnecessarily dull and inactive during certain parts of the video. I do now intend to reflect on this advice and change the parts of the video that contain a lack of visual events, mainly during the actual playing of the verses. Perhaps added use of camera movements, or even new shots, maybe necessary to consider, for instance. Some decision will be made further along in the production of my music video. Most of my footage is original, so flexibility in change and improvements is not a problem.

It has been argued that in my location shots, the rooms and places used look too clean, and to really capture the image I want, I really have to trash up my living room beyond the placement of a spilt beer bottle, etc…

This is a valid point to consider. While my location shots were obviously taken when the locations were not set up and ready for filming, it still seems that the overall appearance of the house does not help me to send the message to the audience that the man in the video is a depressed, drunken wreck who is destroying his life around him at the start of the video.one suggestion was, for the inclusion of the messy shirt I will wear in the video, I should get a cheap Primark shirt and gradually ruin it for the filming. This is what I intend to do as well. Another suggestion is to use other props to mess up the living room such as messy clothes, destroyed objects and furniture, etc… this is another consideration for me.

Schedule list:

This is a schedule list from post Friday the 28th of September. This is a guide on what I can and should do with my time period during the Media coursework. This schedule will consist of when I should be filming practice shots of the video, filming the actual product, etc...

Schedule:
- 2nd October: Learn about generic campaign conventions for the promotion of my music video.
- 4th October: Conduct research on existing media examples. AKA CD covers, band websites, magazine artists, etc...
- 5th October: Continue to conduct and gather useful research for the project.
- 9th October: Begin annotations and analysis of mock-up ancillary products for media.
- 11th October: Produce a set of drawings and/or photos for the advertisement.
- 12th October: Produce the drawings and/or photos for the advert of the music video.
- 16th October: Create colour palette and collage of images as part of the analysis.
- 18th October: Fully construct a magazine advert using research and ancillary products as part of the featured content.
- 19th October: Finish and complete all research, analysis, ancillary product development, and advertising and submit what is required by 3.10pm.
- During half term: Conduct filming of whatever is necessary and can't be done during school days. E.g. shots of the girlfriend might need to be recorded at this point.
- 30th October: Borrow school camera for filming at home. Most recording for the draft video should be recorded on this night if no problems occur.
- 31st October: If possible, borrow camera for a second night and continue filming and finish gathering essential footage.
- 1st November: Begin editing. Editing will be basic, completion of the draft video may be necessary if time is available to do so.
- 2nd November: Make various tweaks to the video. Submit draft version at 3.10pm to Media.
- 6th November: Recieve and use feedback for the improvements of the final video. Begin editing improvements in necessary.
- 8th November: Make various essential and small changes to the music video. Try to improve it's overall quality and standards to as high as possible. The following night, if any new footage is required, get it by borrowing another video camera.
- 9th November: Finalise adding footage, editing, and producing tasks of the video and submit the final product to Media at 3.10pm.
- 13th November: Recieve marks and feedback from teachers on music videos and use it. If there is time, update blogs with valuable feedback.
- 15th November: Continue and finish adding blogs with feedback. Begin a plan of action for necessary improvements.
- 16th November: Progress with plan of action for further necessary improvements for video.
- 20th November: Continue making improvements to video product.
- 22nd November: Finish any needed filming of added shots for greater production if needed. Also continue with editing.
- 23rd November: Continue to edit the absolute final music video version.
- 27th November: Finalise video product and ask for any feedback. Then reflect on feedback.
- 29th November: Reflect on feedback and finalise the video once more ready for submission.
- 30th November: Complete and submit video to Media by 3.10pm.
- 4th December: Recieve lesson on how to write-up evaluation questions.
- 6th December: Produce draft evaluations in essay form.
- 7th December: Finish evluation drafts and submit them to Media at 3.10pm.
- 11th-12th December: Plan and agree on effective ways to creatively finalise the evaluation write-ups.
- 13th December: Produce question 1 and 2 to creative media formats.
- 14th December: Produce questions 3 and 4 to creative media formats.
- 15th-17th December: Produce remaining questions to creative media formats, and hand them over to Media by 3.10pm at the media office. Coursework is then complete!

Risk assessment:

Throughout the filming production of my music video, various things can occur that cause problems for the production. These issues include safety, problems with equipment, etc...

Risk Assessment

The risk out of 10 measures the likelyhood that something will occur. The assessment measures its significance and level of effect if it does. The risk assessment averages these two figures out of 10 out to reach an overall risk assessment concern level. The higher the number the greater the risk or assessment.
Also in the table is the hazard itself, the judgement of the risk level, or a short explanation of how likely the risk it. Also included is an effect column, explaining the effects of the hazard if it occurs. Finally, there is advice on how to avoid the hazard, and what to do and deal with if it happens...

Location shots:

The location shots are to show what will be used for the filming of my video. I have selected all of the most significantly used locations for my filming and these are them...

This is the street I will use for the first shot of me walking home. The shot will start from here...

And the first shot as we walk with a camera in a handheld shot will take us to the front door of my house. I then go to walk in, as the shot fades out and then in again to the second shot.

This is a shot of the living room. In the actual video, the shot will also shows the floor and furniture below with lots of mess across it to put emphasis on the narrative, such as dirty clothes lying around, possible food lying around. Also signs of rage will be shown, such as some things on the floor that shouldn't be, that have been thrown on by the man in the video, or so pressumed to have been.

This is the table that will be used for the video. Beer will be dropping off the table. The bottle itself will be placed on the table to show that the man has been drinking and is in a great state of depression.

A shot of the living room from another angle. The TV will be shown still working and playing in the video much like in this shot. This will display a lack of focus within the video.

NOTE: These shots were recorded at night with a camera on flash light setting, so the lighting in these images my not be accurate...

Narrative theory:

Part of my research towards the production of my music video is to apply relevant narrative theorists towards the meaning and making of my video. This need is only amplified since my video is clearly going to be narrative...

Andrew Goodwin's theory of analysis:
Goodwin's theory is being applied in many ways within my music video:
- The technical aspects. Goodwin believes that camera movement is important to conisder in the production of a music video. This is being used, as I have carefully planned both the shot type and movement used in each shot. E.g. in shot 1, the camera is going to be in a handheld movement so it captures the life-like feeling and imagery of the scene, this being a man walking home drunk and depressed.
- The use of illustration, disjuncture and amplificiation. As stated in previous posts, is going to be used multiple times in my video. Not only will illustration be used in general as part of the added narrative property, but it will also be used in particular instances. i.e. in the shot where the image of the girlfriend reflects the light to make her look heavenly. This visually shows why the man in the video is depressed over losing her. Amplification will be used in some cases, for instance, when the shirt is shown in a close-up, all messy and worn out. This will amplify the narrative content of the man's new adoptive 'trashy' and self-abusive liefstyle via an assist with illustration. Disjuncture will be used starting from verse 3, when despite losing such a great girl, the man starts to think more optimisitcally, and separates from his depression and despair, and remembers only the good times. He then gradually becomes more happy throughout verses 3 and 4.
- Another important issue from Goodwin's theory is the star image. In this case, the star AKA me, will have to look worn out, depressed, and somewhat dirty. This will be aided in both my depressed look, and my messy clothing which I will wear during footage. The man in the video must look like a wreck to fit in with the video's narrative, which I will do and have planned.

François Truffaut's Auteur theory:
The term Auteur translates from Author in France, as the creator of the theory was a French film director and critic.
- This theory tends to focus more on individual stylistic features rather than generic conventions. This is an interesting property from the theory, and my video actually applies to it. My video is inspired by some unique yet simple videos such as Proof and Nothing compares 2 U. Videos like these have specific features such as simple production, low shot quantity, in Proof's case, just 1 shot, and these videos, particularly Proof, use more of visual effects and facial expressions and reactions to amplify meaning of the lyrics than other videos, since other music videos also focus on background scenery, appearance of the star and his/her clothing, high production methods, etc...
- This theory focuses on how texts are determined via an artist's creativity. In the original Proof video, this was not so apparent, however, in my video, with added shots and a narrative property, this will become very apparent. I am the artist, as well as the producer of the video. Since most of my footage is original, it will be up to my ability to not only produce shots and edit them effectively, but also perform in a fitting and visually impressive way that specifically establishes my video as both unique, and appealing to the target audience.
- The artist's body of work and how it helps to emerge a text is another key issue regarding this theory. In my case, I will mostly be focusing on my facial expressions for the making of this video and it's content rather than body movements. I will use my face expressions to tell the story, and make the viewers understand the meaning of the narrative in a much greater depth and feeling. Much like with the original Proof video did itself.

Vladmir Propp's theory:
Propp was a man who composed fairy tales in the 1920's. His theory focuses generally on movies, and books and their characters, but the theory can be applied here as well.
Propp's theory is that the hero (in the video, I will be this) seeks something. In my video, I seek at first to regain the girlfriend (princess in Propp's theory) and later I seek to achieve emotional redemption as part of the video's story. Which happens. The girlfriend in my video (Princess in Propp's theory) is at first what I hope to seek as the hero and main protagonist of the music video story. Later, she suddenly seems to be a helper/donor in Propp's theory fitting as her presence in his memory helps him achieve his redemption. This somewhat subverts Propp's theory however, though in a dynamic way, by the hero achieving his goal with the help of the helper and donor despite them not appearing in the present tense scenes physically or even trying to help the hero. This video plays things differently.

Ronald Barthes' theory:
Barthe's theory is made of 5 codes, these being action, enigma, symbolic, semic, and cultural.
Action is used casually at the start as the man in the video (me portraying my artist Josh U R) is walking home drunk. You see the internal struggle physically via the handheld movement of the camera. Then while you don't see it, action is implied via the view of a messy living room, which has been trashed by the depressed man.
Enigma is used at first as the audience does not know why the man is depressed. The narrative and events that occur later in the video explain this.
Various symbolic things are used in this video to support the narrative. For instance, the shot where the image of the girl reflects the light. This symbolises her as heavenly then the man remembers the good times about her. Also when the sun goes down, this symbolises both the end of the video and the depression. The beer being thrown in the bin also symbolises the man overcoming his depression at the end.

Claude Levi-Strauss' theory:
Levi-Strauss focuses a lot on the use of binary opposites in media texts. E.g. light-dark, peace-war, etc...
In my video, there will be some uses of binary opposites. Perhaps the most significant would be weak to strong. This is what the man will achieve emotionally as the video progresses and he begins to get over his girlfriend. He becomes stronger from an emotional view due to his gained ability to cope with the loss of a great woman. Another example is the binary opposite of light to darkness, and how the video progressively becomes 'lighter' as the emotional redemption kicks in... This will likely also be demonstrated with the use of illustration in my video. The start of the video is set at night, on a road, and then when we enter the house, it has a messy and damaged living room due to off-screen rage by the character in the video. Then we see metaphorical darkness via the depression shown in the facial expression, movements and positions of the man in the video. As the video goes on, while the man begins to feel happy, the 'light' will become stronger, as the song picks up in high tone, the illustration is more positive, the man becomes happy, the atmosphere of the scenery becomes more light and tidy, and the shots from the montages generally become less negative through progression of the video as well. The transfer to a 'lighter' mood and atmosphere in the illustration of the video naturally comes from the narrative story of emotional redemption.

Considering representations:

Who: I will be the performer in the music video, posing as the artist Josh U R. This is due to the artist being only 18 years old, and being a young yet depressed figure in a relative narrative content feature. I will also use a female friend of mine for the secondary protagonist role, as she will play the girlfriend that the man in the song is sad over losing.

What: It will be a narrative video dominantly filmed at my house, with a few other locations which may be used if necessary. The video will consist of 17 meaningful shots, and the artist, me, will be performing in front of the camera.

Why: My target audience is young adults who can associate with the depression/emotional redemption storyline, and of a low middle class socio-economic background. The video was narrative so it would be easier to appeal to them with the use of my original footage and techniques. The video has to be appealing to the audience otherwise all research and planning seems pointless. Which is why I used primary research on the audience to check.

Where: I will be filming mostly at my own house and street for most of the shots. I will use my street, living room and kitchen for the filming of different shots, as I designed in the storyboard and Animatic. This location is so filming is much easier, and because it's how I planned in my planning and research stage.

How: I have selected shots where it won't be hard to film myself. The shot quantity is not unreasonable and will allow further flexibility within production time constraints. The props required won't be too hard to access and the filming should not take too long. The production is easy to follow, yet if managed right, the end product can still be both visually impressive and appealing to the target audience, like I plan...

Music video - production ideas:

Snorricam has been a suggested object for use in production. This device is supposed to be built to allow greater movement and stability if self-made camera shots. The original intention was for me to use handheld camera shot techniques in certain shots such as shot 1 for life-like feeling of movement. In shot 1, the man in the video is walking home drunk based on narrative description. The handheld shot shows the movement in a more life like and realistic manner. The Snorricam seems like a very useful device for most videos, as it allows far more to be filmed in a professional looking way. However, based on narrative relevance, I will probably maintain my handheld shot idea. Firstly, it's easy when production purposes are an issue. Second, the camera movement and lack of stability provides a metaphor which assists to amplify the narrative property of the video. This being the drunken state of the character within the video.

The significance of zooming in for verse 4 in the song has been debated and discussed. The zoom in seems to be irrelevant in the sense of the video’s production techniques. While the original I am Kloot Proof video is one whole single close-up shot that gradually zooms in to the man’s face, my new video is based on a more dynamic narrative story and use of shots. In other words, due to the shots I am placing in between verses 1 and 2, and verses 3 and 4, the redundancy and lack of effect seem to be a problem for the use of a zoom in for the video. I have argued against this by stating that the zoom in only occurs as soon as verse 4 starts, so even though the montage of shots plays after verse 2 and sends the viewers of the video to a new focus rather than one shot, the zoom in afterwards would be ineffective to the video’s progression as the amplification of focus and meaning of the technique would be reduced by the montage of shots switching the viewer’s focus over to the shots rather than that close-up. Despite this issue, I have argued that since the zoom in is not to occur until verse 4, that gives the audience all of verse 3 to regain focus of the particular close-up, thereby adding effect back to the use of that technique. Regardless of this, the more technical side of production is also important to consider, since the filming must be my own, I will have to film myself. This will be hard because I will have to zoom in on myself while I look at the camera. This will be a problem anyway. Perhaps I could slightly change production plans so that verse 4 fades out and in from verse 3 and is automatically a further extent of the already placed close-up of verse, i.e. extreme close-up for verse 4 shot.

The shot quantity is an important issue, too. The original Proof video I have been inspired by is a one shot video. My video will be based on it primarily, with features from other videos and music conventions as well, and be a more dynamic and narrative type of video. My video will have a total of 17 shots, or that is the plan as of late September. However, the point was raised that my video is lacking the all or nothing principle. In other words, it was debated that I am merely taking something so brilliantly simple such as Proof and am pointlessly adding in some new shots and narrative content to make a poorly thought of and produced video. It was further stated that in order to truly create a more dynamic video in the way I was describing, I would require much more than 17 shots, a minimum of over 100 shots. This is not only practically impossible, based on production requirements, and time constraints, but is unnecessary for me to produce the video I want. My intention is to produce a video inspired by and similar to kloot’s Proof. But as well as this, it will use properties from other videos and be more dynamic and visually interesting because of its added narrative, target audience appeal, and use of illustration, disjuncture, amplification, and other media techniques. 100+ shots is not needed or desired for the creation of my video. What is being overlooked here is the presence of Proof’s original predecessor in terms of simply produced videos, and its main inspirational source, the video Nothing compares 2 U by Sinead O Connor. This video consisted of many of the same production and media techniques as my planned video will have, it also contains around the same quantity of shots. This video didn’t use a really small or large amount of shots to be successful, what it did was use each shot, as well as each resource and media technique effectively, to produce an overall, amazing yet relatively simple video that was no. 1 in its time. My video plans to use the same method as this and various other music videos have before. The purpose of each of my shots is to provide meaning to the narrative, amplify the story, supply illustration and interest in visualisation to provide effect towards the video and its overall quality and appealing content to its target audience.

The visual properties within each shot during filming must be accurate to the intention, or must be there only they fit in with the narrative content in the story. (I.e. a house full of flowers is hardly acceptable in a music video with a narrative content of a suicide story.) This is why my video choice is apparent. My plan to create a new video based off a simple video like Proof provides much more flexibility in production. Almost all of my shots, as well as my story, and flexible in development, and there is much more freedom in what I can include, since most of the video properties will be original. For instance, in my shots of the living room, the things within the room in the shot will fit in because the artist is 18, thereby still living at parents’ house most likely, so regular house appliances and equipment being within the shots will not be unfitting in any respect. This is why I chosen a narrative story of my own, whatever it was and it included would be capable of being handled by me during production.