Production Diary

This week we have been creating a questionnaire to ask people who are in our sixth form, the purpose on this was to gain an insight into what conventions people would expect to see in a music video from a song of our chosen genre, this also gave us some ideas as to a narrative concepts we could use and concepts that we should stay away from.

I also did a lot of editing this week, editing both our lyric video of Counting Stars done with the words written on paper and I also edited the audience research interviews so they were easier to watch, by dividing the different answers into sections instead of the viewer having to watch all of the videos individually.

Lyric Video for Counting Stars by OneRepublic

We were tasked with creating a lyric video for OneRepublic's song, Counting Stars. Emma and I filmed this video and I edited it.

Audience Research Interviews

We interviewed people from our sixth form, asking for their opinions on different aspects of the song we've chosen to do for our music video. The questions asked are displayed in the video and listed in the post below.

Questionnaire Questions

These are the questions that we will be asking people regarding our music video and the song we've chosen, Beautiful Goodbye by Maroon 5.

1. What conventions would you expect to see in a pop rock video?
2. Since hearing the lyrics of the song what comes to mind?
3. What emotions do you feel when listening to the song?
4. Because Adam Levine is the front man of Maroon 5, who do you think we should choose to play him in our music video?
5. What style do you expect for a front man to have?
6. How would you expect them to act or behave?
7. What type of scenes would you expect to be shown in a love song?
8. Have you watched any Maroon 5 music videos, which ones do you like best & why?
9. What do you dislike about any of Maroon 5's music videos?
10. Where do you hear about music videos to watch?

We are going to go to the study area in our school and get students to answer these questions, giving their opinions on the various questions being asked.

Post by Dean

Production Diary

In media this week, me and Emma created a video which introduced ourselves and what we were going to be doing together this year.

We also studied the competition that Maroon 5 has such as bands that are similar and looked at the conventions of Maroon 5.

We created a list of Disney songs in preparation for the lip sync video we will be doing next week, our final choice was Let it Go from the film Frozen.

Lip Sync Battle

Genre Conventions

Conventions:

• Tattoos
• Fit
• Stylish
• Tight clothing
• Pretty boy
• Confident with himself
• In style
• Modern
• Sleek haircuts
• Put together (made up)
• Musical, talented (plays guitar & sings)

Maroon 5's Competition

These are some artists similar to maroon 5 that were either around at the same time and competing with them or have similarities to the band.

By looking at these videos we were able to draw more inspiration and ideas for our music video and came up with some concepts for the narrative of the video.

Muse

'Madness' has very similar characteristics to Maroon 5's style. This song is based around the front man who is mostly the main focus of this music video much like Adam Levine is in his music videos. The typical narrative of this music video is about anarchy shown through action and vibrant colours which connotes some form of pop element to the song which is very similar to Maroon 5's music videos. Also in Maroon 5's music video, there is always some element of love or lust with women who are featured in the video; In this music video there are actors who portray love and emotion even the dangerous situation that is happening around them. In addition, they show scenes of the band playing to convey that they are all part of this song and that they are real instrumental players.

The Script

'Superheroes' is very much based around the band singing our the the crown of poor people to give them hope and inspiration. This song is about making a change in this society considering that they have been 'fighting all their lives' for change to happen. The Script's songs are inspirational towards people with different needs in every day society however Maroon 5's songs speak about how to fix broken love or how to work with love in relationships. I feel that The Script sing about hope whereas Maroon 5 sings about love and romance. Therefore, they both have something that inspires them to create beautiful songs that are shared out to the masses which is something they have in common.

OneRepublic

The Fray

'How to save a life' is very much like Maroon 5's songs. This song talks about saving someone who you love or once did. This song have many shots of people who are crying and looking sad to emphasis the songs meaning. This is very similar to Maroon 5's music video because they include many facial shots of Adam Levine to portray emotion. Also they include many visuals shots of the band performing to show that they are 'real' talented musicians very much like Maroon 5.

Beautiful Goodbye Music Video Narrative Ideas

Me and my group partner, Emma, were discussing possible ideas for the narrative of our music video, these are what we came up with.

Idea 1: The opening would have our lead singer (male) sitting in a chair who is looking out a window. We can have the camera rotate around him then have him start to sing the lyrics when his face appears on camera.

 Idea 2: We could have our lead singer leaning against a wall to the right to emphasise that he is lonely considering he is the only one in the shot with all this empty space.

Idea 3: When the lyrics 'Beautiful Goodbye, Bye Bye.' is being sung, we could have him looking into the camera to emphasise emotion.

Idea 4: We could have the camera facing side was a he leans up against a wall, tree etc. and have him sing away from the camera to show that it's difficult to hide is emotions even when he isn't looking at the camera (the audience).

Idea 5: We could have him looking through pictures of him and his partner remembering when they were together and having flash backs to what was happening in the photographs.

Maroon 5's Most Popular Music Videos

Throughout Maroon 5's videos there is a constant theme of love and romance, usually revolving around Adam Levine. Visually they use a mixture of high and low saturation shots which sometimes can portray different moods, this is something I'd like to include in our music video of Beautiful Goodbyes, using low saturation shots to portray a sad or bleak mood.

Movie Trailer

Using the tutorials in the post below and with some help from my teachers I was able to make a trailer using Premier Pro and multiple clips from other already existing movie trailers and combining them together with music. It was difficult at first but as I put more clips together I got used to doing it and it became easier, the most difficult part of this task was ensuring that there was still a sense of narrative portrayed within the trailer, since mostly I was using random clips from various trailers. Choosing the music for the movie trailer and fitting it to the visuals was the easiest part of this task as there were a lot of songs that matched the video.

Production Diary

Maroon 5 - Beautiful Goobye Lyric Analysis

I count the ways I let you down

On my fingers and toes but I'm runnin out

Clever words cant help me now

I grip you tight but you're slipping out

And I remember your eyes were so bright, when I first met you. So in love that night

And now I'm kissin your tears goodnight, and I can't take it

You're even perfect when you cry

Beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Your beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye whoa)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Oh yeah

When did the rain become a storm, when did the clouds begin to form

Yeah we got knocked off course by a natural force and

we'll, we'll be swimmin when its gone

And I remember your eyes were so bright, when I first met you. So in love that night

And now I'm kissin your tears goodnight, and I cant take it

You're even perfect when you cry

Beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Your beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Oh yeah

All the pain you try to hide shows through your mascara lines as they stream down from your eyes

Let em go, let em fly, holding back wont turn back time, believe me I've tried

And your eyes were so bright, I remember your eyes were so bright

I remember your eyes were so bright

When I first met you how in love were we that night

And now I'm kissin your tears goodnight, and I cant take it

You're even perfect when you cry

Beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Your beautiful goodbye (bye bye, bye bye whoa)

Its drippin from your eyes (bye bye, bye bye)

Yeah, yeah, yea

---------------------------------

The lyrics of this song are about a break up, outlining his regret for letting her down and suggesting that he's trying to get her to stay but she's made up her mind and is leaving him. He reminisces back to when they first met, how in love he was with her and how he is now in pain because they're not together anymore.

Premier Pro

Production Diary

I Lived by One Republic - Music Video Analysis

Bryan Warnecke

This is a video follows the story of a teenage fan, Bryan Warnecke, who is living with cystic fibrosis. Initially he briefly explains the condition which he continues to describe aspects of it throughout the video. As the music starts it shows Bryan cycling, skateboarding and playing hocket. It also switches through videos of his youth as he explains living with the disease.

 

The main thing in this video is the clips of Bryan in his youth and showing him doing sports, however the camera is constantly switching to Ryan Tedder's face, this is where Richard Dyer's star theory can be applied as the video is subtly focusing on Ryan.

Simon Firth's theory can also be applied to this video where we see Ryan Tedder performing the song live in concert, it also shows clips of Bryan being in the crowd watching him performing and singing along/having fun. The purpose of this is to try and show that One Republic are good at performing live and that people should buy tickets to their concerts.

Bryan

"There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals" - Andrew Goodwin. This theory is another one that can be applied to the video since whilst they are singing about "I did it all" and "I owned every second that this world would give", while there are videos of Bryan doing skateboarding or having fun, showing that despite his disease and to some extent because of his disease he wants to spend every second of his life enjoying it and being as happy as he can be while he still can.

Production Diary *

This week in media, I did a video analysis, looked at 5 videos that I can recreate and a case study of the Auteur, Hype Williams.

Artist Analysis - Maroon 5

Maroon 5 is an American pop-rock band that started in Los Angeles, California. The group was first formed in 1994 (whilst the group were in high school) and was called "Kara's Flowers." The band split up in 1997 after the album they released, The Fourth World, was unsuccessful and the band members returned to college. In 2001 the band regrouped and added a guitarist, naming themselves Maroon 5. This time, the album they released was successful and helped by the fact that the first single received heavy airplay which boosted the sales of the album getting it into the Billboard top 200 chart. Since then the band has had a lot of success and continues to make music to this day.

Final Song Choice

We have decided to choose Beautiful Goobye by Maroon 5 as our final song choice and it is what we will be creating a music video of. We chose this song as we wanted to have a song somewhere between pop and another genre, while this song isn't exactly another genre it still isn't a stereotypical pop song and due to that we won't have to include the conventions of pop music videos in our video, such as the stereotypical scene where the artist bursts into a dance routine.

With this song we will be able to creative a video which has a strong narrative and due to Adam Levine's voice sounding young we should be able to find actors for the video easily. Another reason that we picked this song is it was one of the few that both of us enjoyed and could picture us making a music video for.

Auteur Theory - Hype Williams

Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush.

It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the direction. The film theoretician, André Bazin, explained that auteur theory was a way of choosing the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard of reference and then assuming that it continues and even progresses from one film to the next.

It is possible for music video directors to be auteurs. The platform can allow for more creative and artistic expression than film making, Auteurs may use this medium (music videos) to showcase a distinct style, repetition of themes, iconography (symbolic codes), technical codes and contributing music artists in their work. You should be able to draw clear connections between their work, similar to how you can with film directors such as Tim Burton.

Hype Williams

An example of a music video director who is an auteur is Hype Williams. Better known as "Hype", he was born during 1970 in Queens, New York, he's an African-American video and film director who has directed many music videos and worked with a number of top R&B artists such as Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Nicki Minaj & many more.



Along with directing music videos he has directed multiple short films and also has directed one feature length film.

These are some music videos directed by Hype Williams:

 Within Hype Williams' work he focuses on using a lot of bright colours and this can be seen throughout his work, even from back when he started directing music videos to the videos he currently directs.

One of Hype Williams' signature styles is the fish eye lens effect where one person or section of the shot is in focus and everything around it, you can see this being used within Brandy's video. It was something a lot more prominent in his earlier work than it is in his more recent work. Another thing that he was known for in his earlier work is using a wide screen ratio whilst a second shot is split and placed where usually there would be black bars above and below the video, as seen in 'Check on It' and a lot of his other work. Another signature of his work which he continues to use into his recent work is the scene rapidly switching between shots so you're able to see both at once.

Final 5 Song Choices

Emma and I have been searching through possible songs which we could choose for our music video and have narrowed it down to these songs, some we just liked the sound of and some had other reasons such as us having ideas for a narrative or concept for the video we could possible create for it, below I'm listing my opinions on the songs.

Let It Die by Three Days Grace

Let It Die was a song which I liked the sound of and could see us making a video for, however the music is very much based around the guitars and other instruments which would be difficult for us to include within the video. It's also very fast paced and features a singer with a mature voice, for us to have an aspect of performance within the video (the artist lip-syncing to the song) we would need someone who could fit the vocalist's voice which isn't something I think we would be able to do.

Let It Die by Foo Fighters

Let It Die (again) was another song which I enjoyed listening to and could see us making a video for, this song is initially quite slow and simple but as the song progresses it speeds up and ends up being fast paced and instrumentally heavy. This could make for some interesting concepts for the video with things initially being simple and ending up being more intricate, however it runs into a similar issue as the song by Three Days Grace that the vocalist's voice is mature (also towards the end the vocalist is screaming) and we may not be able to find an actor capable of fitting the voice and style of the band. There are also some parts of this song where it is just instruments playing where we would perhaps need to feature someone playing the instrument (guitar) which again would not be easy to find.

Home by Foo Fighters

Again by the Foo Fighters, but this time a lot more of a simpler song as it is just a piano and strings with vocals singing along. This song would be a stronger pick in my opinion to the other two that have been mentioned as I think we could find an actor capable of fitting the artist's voice as despite the fact that it is the same vocalist as the last song (Let It Die) he is singing a lot more quietly and not screaming.

Beautiful Goodbye by Maroon 5

Beautiful Goodbye is a song which both me and Emma liked the sound of as soon as we listened to it and straight away had ideas for what we could do within the video. It features a simple instrumental with equally simple lyrics and vocals which would mean for a balance between the focus being on the song and the video (if a lot is going on within the song the viewer may be more focused on the song than they are the video.) Adam Levine (the vocalist in this song) has a voice which sounds young and we already have some ideas of who we can use as an actor for the video, so we should be able to easily find an actor who could believably lip-sync his singing as we have quite a few options.

Happy Ending by Mika

Happy Ending by Mika is another simple song which we are considering to make a music video. There would be some complications with making this video such as the fact that there are both female and male vocals within the song, we would need to find actors for both of those. Although there were a few ideas I had for this song there weren't any strong narratives that I could imagine us doing for this song and for that reason I'm not sure it's one that will end up being our final choice.

Production Diary

Possible Song Choices for Our Music Video

Here are the top 10 songs which I am considering using for my music video, I tried to get a mix of different genres in my choices although I did try to stay away from rap as that wasn't something I wanted to have to deal with in my music video.

1. Maroon 5 - Beautiful Goodbye
2. Justin Timberlake - Right for Me
3. James Blunt - Tears and Rain
4. James Morrison - 6 Weeks
5. Owl City - Hello Seattle
6. One Republic - Goodbye Apathy
7. Timbaland - The Way I Are
8. Mr Hudson - Playing With Fire
9. Kelly Clarkson - You Found Me
10. Adele - Rumor Has It
11. Akon - Breakdown
12. Stone Sour - Wicked Game

Me and my team partner, Emma, are currently discussing which song we are going to choose to actually do for our music video and I will make a post once we have come up with our final options.

Team Introduction