Story Line

My music video is based on a young dancer auditioning for a dance school. She starts off in the audition and as she is dancing she falls. She runs off stage crying as she knows that she won't get into the school now. 

The next few scenes we see the same girl at her home, she is preparing for another audition because she is determined go get into this dance school. So you see shots of her running, doing sit ups, and performing a range of ballet warm ups. In this time you get a feel for the character as you see her home, you see her room, her posters and awards and get to know her. 

It then cuts to her practicing in a dance studio. She is very keen to get the dance right and the audience see her perform parts of the dance over and over. You get to see her reactions to bad moves and how determined she really is. 

The last part of this video is her in her final audition. You see who she is perfuming to. The 3 mean judges who have seen her fall on her face so don't expect much. As she starts to dance the camera catches every angle of her. She finnish's the dance and you see the smile grown on her dance. She takes her bow to the judges and exits happy. A contrast to the start. 

This all links into the song I have chosen as the title is Not Giving In and the lyrics tell a story of something or someone who doesn't give in. And in this video it is her and her fight for the dream that doesn't give in. 

My Storyboard

I have created a storyboard so that I can what will happen in every scene. I have mapped out the hole of my music video so that I can make sure i get things I need, have people when I need them and know where they have to be. This is a really useful thing to do because it it a lot of planning all in one place.

My storyboard will now help me plan out what props I need to get. So I need to find a table for the judges, I need to get a CD player and a CD player remote, a bag to carrying all her dance stuff in. It also tells me that I need to find 3 people to play judges and 1 girl to play my dancer. This will mean I will have to hold auditions to see who the best people are for the role. One key thing is getting my location sorted out, according to my storyboard the dancer is in 3 places. A audition room, home, public then back in the audition room. For the audition room and dance studio I need to look around and ask about borrowing spaces for times. 
My storyboard has helped me understand all the organising that I need to do in order to create the best music video that I could. 

Performance and Mise-en-scene in a Music Video

There are different ways that you can perform in a music video. One being having the artist singing the lyrics in the song. 

This would include things such as musical instruments, costumes, stages, settings, extras and props. For example, Jessie J's 'its my party' Jessie J is the artist and she is filmed in the video singeing her song but she also has, other people performing, different costumes, products, camera angles and location. 

 In this shot you can see one group of people who have been hired to be in the video alongside the artist. This is so that you can create a story based around the lyrics. You can tell that they are all the same type of person in this room. This is a contrast the Jessie J herself and this is what her song is saying. That even though they are different it's her party and she will have a good time no matter what. By using these people instead of just singing it makes its easier for her demographic to see that. By using the wide angle camera shot it shows the audience all of the group of people and there costume.

There are parts in the video where you see Jessie J but she isn't singing. This is the story and acting part of the music video. This is to help show the audience that she is telling a story as well as singing her song. In this point in the video she is looking though a key hole at a group of people at another party/ Using this close up to show her looking though the key hole and a group of people allows the audience to see her reaction to the type of people they are. It also allows to audience to do the same to her as what she is doing to them. By using this angle it is almost as if the audience is looking though a key hole at her. 

This is another shot that shows Jessie performing. As you can see she is gesturing towards the camera. This shows the audience that she believes whats she is singing and also carries on with the story. her costume is the same in both this shot and the above shot. And as you can see so is the location. In both shots she is in a hall way. If you look in the picture below you can see that she is in a different location and wearing a different costume. This is on purpose to show the audience the contrast. 

This shot shows her in a group of people. As you can see her location and her costume has changed. The use of the wide angle camera shot shows how she is the centre of intention because she is framed in the middle of the shot and in the middle of the crowed. It's also good because it brings the attention on the audience straight to her as she is in the middle. 

Another way that you can present your music video is in the way that I have researched in things such as skrillex, La La La and Toulouse. All of these are types of narrative music videos. These don't have the artist in them. They may not even relate to the lyrics. These just have a interesting story and the music is the background to it all. This is the type of music video that I like and that I think will fit best with the song that we have chosen. 

All of these types of videos have a range of Mise-en-scene. For example for each video you have consider the costume that your character is going to wear. You have to think about where the are positioned, what light they need, what they will actually be doing and how they will do it. In Our Video we have one main character, she is a dancer so her costume varies from dance wear to casual and sports wear. Her location is constantly changing, and with that means the lighting and camera angles are always changing. All of those things are important to create a good video because without them you loose the professional look to it. 

Questionnaire Feedback

I wanted to get a better understanding of what different demographics liked. I did this by carrying out a questionnaire about music videos. I got a lot of mixed results. I can clearly see that there is a definite link between age and the type of music and music videos that people like. For example I found that younger people listen to a lot more rap, hip-hop and pop music in comparison to middle aged people who like soul and classical. 

When I asked people hoe much music they listened to I was surprised with the result. A lot of people said that they only listened to about 3-5 hours a week. My thoughts were that this figure would be a lot higher. In younger people this was the case and the general result was 11+ hours, but it was surprising to see that people don't spend that much time listening to music. This could create a problem when making a music video, if people don't listen to music why would they watch the video? This is something that we can work on and make something that people do want to watch. 

When researching and asking people about music videos I got mostly the same response. Not a lot of people take time to watch the music videos anymore, this is due to music being portable and people listening to it on IPhone's. IPods etc... instead of watching the video on youtube. When people do watch the video I found out that most people like to see a narrative video. One thing I got as a response is that people hate just seeing the artist singing his or her song and nothing else going on. Another thing people really didn't like was cheesy and over the top videos. This is a good thing to find out, we can now avoid these areas and work on points that our demographic do enjoy. 

When doing this questionnaire it made me think about what demographic we will be appealing to. With out ideas in mind I believe that in effect we could appeal to all demographics. But with the genre of music we have chosen I think it is more appropriate to go for a younger demographic. Teenagers aged between 14-19.     

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that we have created to gain feedback on what music people listen to, the type of videos they watch, things to avoid and things to included. A questionnaire is a good way to find out what people enjoy. You need to know this because you want to please your demographics. 

I analysed my questionnaire so that I could understand exactly what each question will help me with. When doing this I found that a lot of the questions that I was asking would help me understand my demographic better. This is a good thing to do because if you don't know your demographic you can not create a product that will please them. 

Location

Different types of location: 

Outside in the public.

This is a typical city scene. You can use the outside locations for almost anything. It is also good to show the audience where you have set your video. A good advantage of using public places is that you don't have to get permission from anyone or pay to hire it. This will help us because we don't have a film budget. 

Studios: 

These are examples of some studio's that you could use in music videos. The top one is a music studio. This is a good location to use if you want to show the audience just the song, unlike the public area there isn't a story to show it's just about the song and the artist. The bottom one is a dance studio. This can show dancers dancing to the music or you can use it to film in. A dance studio is just an empty space with mirrors so in effect can e used to film almost anything. I think that the dance studio will be something that we will consider because we want our video to be dance related. On problem that we might face is the cost of hiring out these areas. Because they are always in use you will have to pay to hire it and have to find time that fits with the tenant. This could cause a problem with filming time. 

Clubs/pubs/social areas:

These two location are also good for different types of music. The pub could be used to tell a story about the song, and it also set the scene. You could incorporate the public location with this as well. Pubs are good if you haven't got a story behind your song because you can create a story in it. Clubs are another good place to shoot a video. If you use a club the song is usually more of a upbeat hip-hop or dance track. It is a easy location to use because the content of the video is already planned out. The one thing that would be a problem for us would be hiring it out and getting the amount of people to fill it out. You also have to have the right equipment to film it correctly, the right lighting etc...

My Song Choice

Not Giving in Rudimental

I chose this song for many different reasons. The song has a good musical beat and is easy to create something new. We wanted to create a music video based around dance and we feel that the lyrics could relate to a good story. 
This song is seen as a type of dance music. The song is something that I believe I can create a good video to. My idea of a dancer and her story fits in well with the lyrics and relates to the message that the song could be giving out. I like this song a lot as it gives me enough time to show all of the dancers story where it isn't so long but doesn't end up being so long we run out of things to film. There are a range of camera angles and locations that we can use to film our video as the song doesn't limit us to anything.