In today's lesson we were giving a checklist on what we should include for our pre-production documents, this includes: storyboards, production schedule/call sheets, risk assessments, reece, release forms, talent release, team roles, costume, props and make-up.
The pre-production were quite helpful as it allow us to thoroughly plan our location and what roles we should play when filming our music video, it also allow us to see how the industry works when filming a music video as they needs a reece and release forms to ask for permissions.
In today's lesson my group were planning our storyboard in order to decide what camera shot, movements and angle we should use for our music video, and this is what our plan (image below) look so far. We will do another storyboard to in more details and extend our ideas more.
In today's lesson we were planning our storyboard, and we also planned our location for the scenery in order to reflect the lyrics. We were also planning our camera shot type, and we decided to use close-up shot when the character is lip-syncing so it allow the audience to engage with our. music video.
The image below are some notes we should use when planning our storyboard.
We did an informal pitch to our class and we received feedback. In the end we came together and take some ideas that our class suggest, but overall there was not that much change required.
In
our previous lesson we have to get in a group to work for our official music
video, and each person selected different soundtrack that we could use for our
music video and in the end we made an agreements to do "Dead to Me" by Melanie
Martinez.
Lyrics:
My condolences I'll shed a tear with your family I'll open a bottle up, pour a little bit out in your memory I'll be at the wake dressed in all black I'll call out your name, but you won't call back I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye Cause baby you're dead to me I need to kill you That's the only way to get you out of my head Oh I need to kill you To silence all the sweet little things you said I really want to kill you Wipe you off the face of my earth And bury your bracelet Bury your bracelet Six feet under the dirt
Rainy days and black umbrellas Who's gonna save you now can you cheat from underground
My condolences I'll shed a tear with your family I'll open a bottle up, pour a little bit out in your memory I'll be at the wake dressed in all black I'll call out your name but you won't call back I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye Cause baby you're dead to me I'll mourn you when you go Baby you're dead to me I'll mourn you when you go
I need to say sorry That's the only thing you say when you lose someone I used to say I'm sorry For all of the stupid shit you've done So now I'm really sorry, sorry for being the apologetic one But if I told you again, if I told you again You would think I was crazy
My condolences I'll shed a tear with your family I'll open a bottle up, pour a little bit out in your memory I'll be at the wake dressed in all black I'll call out your name but you won't call back I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye Cause baby you're dead to me I'll mourn you when you go Baby you're dead to me I'll mourn you when you go Cause baby you're dead to me
During the lesson we discussed some ideas we could use by
analysing the lyrics, and the lyrics give off a dark and gloomy moods
especially the line "Cause baby you're dead to me. I need to kill you...
Oh I need to kill you". The theme of the lyrics could be about death,
danger and anger as the lyrics suggest how she wants to take revenge and she’s
emphasising that in order to forget everything that she and the ex-lover
shared, she needs to “kill” the ex-lover. We also discussed on how we can use psychological
problem such as dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder)
which can links with the line “So now I'm really sorry, sorry for being the
apologetic one” by showing her sarcastic side due to her multiple personality disorder
and how she feels truly sorry towards her, however her alternative ego is tired
of being the ‘apologetic one’. We also thinking of using conceptual art in our
music video especially dark art through imagery and props.
In today's lesson we have to get in a group to work for our official music video, and each person have to give in their soundtrack and their ideas and in my group me, Asia and Abbas selected a different soundtrack.
Lana Del Rey - Old Money (Me)
Melanie Martinez - Dead to me (Abbas)
The Weeknd ft Ed Sheeran - Dark Time (Asiya)
To conclude, we came to an agreement that "Dead to Me" by Melaine Martinez will be our official song for our music video, as the lyrics were very meaningful and it can be interpret in many different ways and it also links with the genre of our music genre.
But it must be nice to think that you're always right
And give out this good advice
Well, I've heard enough
But here's my soul, come on and get it
Wrapped in gold, I know you want it
It's not mine anymore
But you'd, oh, walk away from me if my house was burning
And you won't even look back and smile
And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning
Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning
Take one sip and dream up this counterfeit
I wish I could stick to it, then I'd have it all
Here's my soul, come on and get it
Wrapped in gold, I know you want it
It's not mine anymore
But you'd, oh, walk away from me if my house was burning
And you won't even look back and smile
And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning
Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning
If my house was burning, would you run away?
If my house was burning, would you run or stay?
If my house was burning, would you run away?
If my house was burning?
And you won't even look back and smile
And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning
Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning
If my house was burning, burning
Interpretation/Analysis of
Lyrics:
First of all the song start of “Walking in silence… I'm willing to
lose my mind to have it all” this
detonates how she is walking in ‘silence’ which give off a serious and
intense atmosphere, and she’s in shock by her lover action in which she
question herself whether if her lover still love her or not and she’s willing
to ‘lose her mind’ so her lover can answer her question in whether if he still
in love with her.
“But here's my soul… Wrapped in gold, I know you want it. It's not
mine anymore” This suggest that she willing to give him anything and she
willing to give her ‘soul’ that’s being ‘wrapped in gold’ which is a metaphor
to suggest that her soul is precious and it’s like being wrapped in gold, and
gold connotes extravagance in which it is indicating how she gave him
everything precious of hers. ‘I know you want it’ also suggest that she didn’t
know he was a greedy man, and the way it sound was really patronising, moreover
‘It’s not mine anymore’ suggesting that her every precious bit she gave to him
is not her anymore, as he did not treasure and value her thoroughly.
“But you'd, oh, walk away from
me if my house was burning and you won't even look back and smile” this suggest
how he ‘walk away’ from her and if the ‘house was burning’ he would have abandon
her and left her behind in which this metaphorically means that he does not care
for her anymore, and when he abandon her he didn’t even ‘look back’.
“If my house was burning, would you run or stay?” this is questioning
her lover whether if her lover still cares and value her, as she is questioning
him if the ‘house was burning’ whether he would ‘run or stay’ which indicate whether
if he would abandon her or stay with her, as he is a greedy man only cares
about himself even though the woman gave every precious bit of her but in the
end he would have ‘run’ away and abandon her by leaving her behind and this
would make her suffer a lot. Since ‘burning’ could be used as a connotation of
how she is suffocating and is in pain a lot.
Synopsis:
From observing the lyrics it looks like the singer
lover abandoned her, and he does not care or value her anymore, which made her
suffer the pain of not being loved and value anymore. From the music video
there were a scene of scorpion and metaphorically scorpion represent deaths,
this could suggest that when her lover abandon her she felt like she was dying
because she was being betrayed which left her suffocate the pain she’ll be
unable to get rid of. There were a scene
where there was a male character running, and this could reflect to the lyrics “Would
you run away” in which it is suggesting that he would have ‘run away’ instead
of stay and rescue her.
Conceptual, narrative or performance:
This music video used both conceptual and narrative. The narrative
parts tells the story through the lyrics and reflects the lyrics upon the music
video itself by having the male character running which reflect the lyrics ‘If
my house was burning, would you run away?’ and this shows that he is running
away and abandoning her. The conceptual side is using different colours of
lighting which looks really effective and unique as it created a dynamic arts concept
and each light had the singer shadows behind which create a light and dark
imagery. Most of the lights are in warm colours especially orange to reflect
the lyrics of ‘burning’ since ‘burning’ resemble fire.
Lip-Syncing:
There was a lot of lip-syncing being showed in the music video, and
most of the scenes contain the singer lip-syncing in different variety of shots
in which it allow the audience to interact and engage with the audience as the
lyrics may be relatable to the audiences.
Mise-en-scene:
The singer wore a long white t-shirt dress with white platform high
heels, and the colour white could represent purity and innocence it could also
represent how her character were vulnerable. The platform high heels could
represent the feminine, and also in the media most female music video tends to
be quite provocative as it could be another selling point. In one scene there
was a male running and this could be the main male character of the song, and
the mise-en-scene were him wearing all black to portray the light and dark
imagery by showing how the male character is the antagonist while the singer is
the protagonist.
Camera:
There were variety of different camera shots, movements and angle used
in this music video, especially there were a lot of close-up shots used in the
music video because there were a lot of lip-syncing and whenever there’s
lip-syncing there’s always a close-up shot so it allow the artist to engage or
communicate with the audiences. There were some medium long-shot to show the
location and the mise-en-scene. For the camera movements it was mainly static especially
during the lip-syncing part, however there were quite a lot of handheld
movement especially on a scene where there was a male character running in
which it was quite effective because it looks really realistic.
Editing:
There was a lot of editing especially special effects in this music
video, as there was several of scene having a house burning and scorpion to
reflect the lyrics. The cutting rate of this music video in the beginning was
quite slow because the tempo of the music were slow, after all towards the
chorus the tempo became a bit faster therefore the cutting rate increased in
order to match the tempo. However, towards near the end of the music video the
cutting rate became slower and there were several of slow motion effects in
order to match the tempo and the cutting rate.
Target Audience:
The target audience are range between 18-25 year olds the reason being
is because the lyrics is about abandoning relationship and these usually occur
in mature age, and the audience who been through these situation can feel relatable
to the lyrics. The main target audience would mainly be niche audience as Charlotte
OC is not a mainstream artist; therefore those conceptual art that were used in
the music video would suit the audience taste, since those conceptual art are
more trendy within more younger audiences.
Ideas:
By looking and analysing "If my house were burning" by Charlotte OC it gave me some ideas on what I can use for my music video, for example:
Pace the cutting rate to match the tempo of the song, for instance if the tempo is fast then the cutting rate will increase in order to match the tempo to give a intense atmosphere.
Have some scene using a object that could use as a metaphor for the lyrics
The lyrics
tell us about violent abusive relationship, a song that explores the dark-side
of relationship. The line “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” suggest that despite
how a young woman fallen for an abusive guy but she still adores the abuser.
Another interpretation of this line could be saying that being physically hurt ‘felt
like a kiss’, like something good, could mean that she just wants to feel
something. Even if it pain, she feels it’s still better than feeling nothing
and she mistakes the abuse for affection. The line “This is ultraviolence”
could also potentially echoes ‘ultraviolent’ which is a type of blue light, and
the blue light can emphasis on the coldness of their relationship and how the
relationship is emotionless, it could refers to brute and unnecessary violence.
Perhaps she struggles to understand why he’s beating her when he became her
saviour in other ways. The line ‘I can
hear sirens, sirens…I can hear violins, violins’ suggest that She finds
pleasure in being abused, and clearly has masochistic tendencies as she is
comparing the pleasure she receives from being manhandled to the pleasure she
gets from hearing music. Violins also represent romance and sadness, as violence
and violins are nearly homophones in which she is using words to emphasis the
thin line between love and pain. Lastly, the line “Crying tears of gold, like
lemonade” can emphasis Lana’s tears are gold because of the quality of her
relationship with her man, and just like lemonade her tears are a mixture of
gold and water as they burn but taste sweet in which another interpretation of
this could mean Lana is crying and hurt, however she is also in love with the
pain because it feels so good.
Synopsis:
From observing the lyrics we can see that it give off a dark
and emotional atmosphere as the lyrics is about abusive relationship. From the
music video Lana wanders in a white elegant dress and the colour white portray
innocence and vulnerability, by showing how Lana is portrayed as a vulnerable
woman wandering around. She then picked up a white flower, in which white
flowers are most closely associated with purity and innocence. The locations
were mainly in a forest as she was surrounding with nature, it could mean that
she is trap in isolation. In one scene there was a man hands touching her lips
which give a sexual imagery, and how she is Lana is being treated like an
object. Although it give off a negative connotation but Lana seem happy when
the man touched her lips, and this reflect to the lyrics of how she adore the
abuser, even though she is in love but with the pain feels so good for her like
how his love taste bitter but sweet at the same time. Eventually, she ended up
in a church all alone and she was kneeling down at a shrine that resembles a
funeral while holding a white flower, in which the white flower is used in
occasion such as deaths.
Conceptual, narrative
or performance:
This music video contains both narrative but mainly conceptual
based as the narrative part is to tell a story about how she ended up in a
church all alone, and she was holding a white flower while kneeling down at a
shrine to represent her lover deaths, like how she is in love with a man but the
man also give her pain. The conceptual is more conceptual art based on vintage
style which can be aesthetically appealing to some audience, and this was done
by wearing a vintage dress, subtle make-up and filters which give off grain.
Mise-en-scene:
Within Lana Del Rey “Ultraviolence” music video, Lana Del
Rey wore only one outfit and it was a white elegant dress. The colour white
portrays purity and innocence by portraying how Del Rey is a vulnerable girl in
the music video. Although the dress were white however the dress do look
elegant by emphasises her elegance and beauties in the video, on the other
hands the dress also do look a bit vintage which also reflect very well to her
images as she known as vintage chic.
Camera:
There were variety of camera shot/angles used in this music
video such as close-up to show her lip-syncing, and medium long-shot to show
her walking and wandering around the forest. There was also variety of camera
angle used in the music video such as high angle especially when she was
lip-syncing, and the high angle were really effective because it shows Lana Del
Rey vulnerability and how innocent she looks by thinking that she mistakes the
abuse for affection. Many camera movements were handheld especially when Lana
Del Rey was walking, and the camera was facing towards her which looks a bit
realistic like she is walking towards the audience so she can engage with the
audience, because some audience may feel relatable with her. Some camera
movement were static especially on the scene when she was lip-syncing so it
allow the audience focus her more while she’s lip-syncing.
Editing:
The cutting pace between the video is quite long which give
off a slow motion effects to reflect the depressing and emotional moods. This
music video mainly had cut in between the video especially the chorus because
that’s when Lana’s lip-syncing, and each cut will have different scene in
different position or action li-syncing. The music video used effects and
filters which made an impact as it give off a vintage and moody feels, since
Lana is known for her vintage style therefore this video really reflect to Lana
images.
Target audience:
The target audience for this music video is would be aimed
at people who have been in an abusive relationship, although it did not have
any imagery of Lana being abused however the interpretation of the lyrics would
really reflect to the audience who been through those situation. However, this
music video would also be aimed at niche audience for those who enjoy more
conceptual art in music video but it could also be targeted to her fans.
Ideas:
By looking and analysing “Ultraviolence” by Lana Del Rey
gave me so many ideas that I can use for my music video, for example:
·Have variety of camera movements, angles and
shots to represent and reflect the lyrics
·Use props/mise-en-scene that reflect to the
moods
·Add effects/filters to make it more artsy which
is really good for conceptual art in the music video, because some effects or
filters give off the video an arty style.
Overall, one thing that I learnt from this music video is
how Lana Del Rey only uses one props and mise-en-scene to reflect the lyrics.
Although she only uses one props/mise-en-scene however it was quite effective
in some ways, and one thing I love about this music video is the
effects/filters as it really reflect to the imagery of the lyrics, since the
vintage filters were used in this music video it give off an artsy feels and in
a way that it also links with Lana Del Rey images.
This is our final piece for our practice music video, overall this task was really helpful as it enable me to know learn more techniques using 'Final Cut Pro'.
Today is our last lesson to edit our practice music video, and my group were nearly done however we decided to make this task more challenging by adding some effects to make the sands pits white so it looks like snow to reflect the theme of Frozen. Although this task were really challenging but we wanted to learn how to add effects into our practice music video so for our final music video we will feel a bit more comfortable in adding effects.
In order to change the sands pits white we used filter "Colour Corrector", and we made it more pastel blue so the scenery can look a bit cooler give off that icy feels.
This is how our effects look like when being added to our video, although it did not work out really well but I feel that I learn more techniques using 'Final Cut Pro'
In today's lesson we were editing our practice music video, and we were using 'Final Cut Pro' programme to edit our practice music video professionally since we will be using this programme to edit our final music video.
I learnt how to import our video into the programme and different keyboard key that cut in between the video. At first this task was quite challenging as we need to cut the video in order to match with the timing of the sound track.
From this task I also learnt how to mute the official footage of the video, and this was done for us to listen to the sound track "Let it Go" so we know what video we need to cut in order for us to pace the video along with the sound track.
In today's class we started filming our music video for the practice activity, we did "Let it go" by Frozen. In the beginning of the lesson we had a tutorial on how to set-up the tripod, and a few briefs of different settings for the camera.
This is the field that we used for our location and we mainly used the field in the college, however we used different scenery within the field such as sands pits, grass fields etc. in order to reflect the lyrics. Another reason we decided to use the sands as a props, because we were thinking of adding effects of the sands to make it into snow or ice so it'll looks more proficient.
This is the camera (Canon 650D) we used to film our practice music video, and we used a DLSR so the video can be watch high definition. We also used a tripod to prevent shakiness so the video are steady.
This is our group, it consisted 3 peoples as you can see the images I was in charge of recording the music video, and we had a director (Asiya) who was in charge of directing the main character/actor, and then we had a person (Abbas) who was in charge of lip-syncing and acting as Elsa.
In today's lesson we have to get in our group of 2 or 3. We have to choose a track and plan a small music video in order to pratice our skills with camera and editing. We were thinking of using "Summer" by Olaf or "Let it go" by Idina Menzel and we decided to use "Let it go" since the lyrics is much easier to remember.
From the images below, we were planning our storyboard as a way of having some ideas for our location, camera shot and camera movement. We also analysed the lyrics to help aid us in our music video, since the meanings of the lyrics can reflect our music video.
