FIRST MEETINGS/IDEAS

After some of the problems which occurred last year to do with groupings, myself and my previous group made the mutual decision to work on separate projects. Personally I know I work better in a group and therefore I did not feel it suitable for me to work on my own although I did have a brief idea what I would do if this was the case. After assessing who was working with who and who else was left working by themselves, I have decided to work with Christopher Walls, a fellow A2 media studies student. Although many of fellow students see this as an extreme challenge, I feel that myself and Chris will both be able to bring a variety of different skills to the team and we will also have a larger selection of creative ideas compared to what we would have had if we worked by ourselves. I do understand this will be a challenge due to the differentiating opinions that we both hold and the way be both look at work/grades but I feel this will make the project ever more exciting.

Once we knew that we were both working together we needed to meet for a first meeting to discuss ideas. This did not go as plan for many reasons including us being unable to find a suitable song which we were both happy with and the lack of enthusiasm between us. Without this song we were unable to make any further plans meaning we were unable to plan our music video or even our digipack and this put us in a very tough place.

Throughout the coming week, myself and Chris spent all our free time trying to find a suitable song, including asking friends. Personally I am not very knowledgeable in music and therefore Chris played a key role at this time in the project. One suggestion another member of my class gave me was to put my iPod on shuffle and whatever song came first is the song that we should use. Although this was possible and we did try it, we found it very hard to find a song which we were both happy with and had any ideas for. One of the major problems I think we had throughout the song choosing period was that we were focusing too much on any ideas we already had and trying to find a song which fitted these ideas instead of trying to find a song and then fitting ideas around them. Chris and me shared many different song ideas this period, some which neither of us had heard of, some ideas which are very much out of our comfort zone and also some which had such iconic music videos we did not feel that people would take our edition seriously.

The first song choice that Chris put forward was ‘Two Doors Down’ by Mystery Jets. Although I listened to the song many different times, I could not seem to appreciate the lyrics of the song and therefore did not want to create a whole project on that given song. I did ask many people within the class for their opinion with mixed results. I felt the song was very dreary and monotone and therefore did not feel like it was the kind of song I wanted to use. I already had a basic idea of an upbeat song in my head and what I wished to do with this. As you can see from the video below, the quality of the video is very poor and I do not feel that there was much which could be adapted from the original due to the lyrics.

Another idea that we deeply considered was ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City. This would of easily fitted the ideas I was having about what I hoped for our final product but I understood that many A-level students had already attempted to create their own versions of this given song and I wanted to do something original. Although it was not as upbeat as I had hoped, I felt that the lyrics were very random and therefore it was possible to create a concept based music video. We also looked at a selection of other songs by Owl City although we couldn’t pick one which be both agreed on. Chris did like this song but he did not feel it would create the type of music video we should be aiming for. We came very close to choosing this song but it was towards the end of this process that we decided a lot of the ideas we had were similar to what had already been attempted and therefore we would not be gaining marks for our own initiative.

A really popular song which we looked at, suggested too us by a large amount of our class mates was ‘Every tear drop is a waterfall’ by Coldplay. The idea behind this music video is very creative and although I wasn’t very fussed about the lyrics, I really liked the theme of the music video and how it was put together although we understood as a pair that it would be very time consuming and also very expensive to carry out which was difficult as we was on a very small budget. Once again we felt the video would be very familiar to the audience and therefore it would be very hard to produce another video to this song with the WOW factor. This type of bright and upbeat music video which is full of creative ideas as well as performance is exactly what I wish to do although it was not appropriate for us to do this song.

A very peculiar music video that we considered, courtesy of Chris’s suggestion, was ‘Little Talks’ by Of monsters and men. When I first heard the song without the visual connection of the music video, I considered using the song because the lyrics were really random and did not have any real meaning which meant we could create a concept-based video. After watching the music video for this particular song I was generally freaked out by the story line but I did feel it was very unique. Another negative about this particular song was the length of it. The video edition of the song was 4:15 which would mean a lot of footage to fill such a long period of time. Thinking about the idea over a few days, and after much debate with Chris we chose not to do this song because we were unsure what crazy kind of idea we could do on such a small budget and how we would drag this out to fill the given time period.

We also went through many other ideas, looking briefly at some and in more detail at others. There was so many things to consider like what ideas we had for it, how popular and well known the song/video were, our budget, time scales, possibilities, preferences etc. This made it extremely hard because we could always find something wrong and something right with each song. It took us around one week to find a song which suited us both greatly and that we were both sure that we could create a high quality music video too.

OUR FIRST MEETING

Chris and I met together for a first initial meeting where we discussed any possible ideas we already had previously. We also needed to discuss what type of thing we were trying to achieve including looking at what songs we were interested in and what skills each member of the group could bring. We created many different mind maps, all looking at different genres of music and songs we would be happy to use. We found it increasingly hard to find a song we were both happy with and went through both our iPods to try and find something we could agree on. It was considerably hard seeing as we both have very different tastes in music. After a long time discussing the different options we could us, we decided that we would both spend some time apart considering what type of song we wanted and we each needed to draw together a shortlist of five songs and we would then pitch these ideas to one another in our next meeting so that we could use our initial meeting to discuss other elements of our project.

Another thing which we covered in detail in this meeting was what actors we would require. It was obviously made more difficult as we were not sure of what song we were doing but we were able to eliminate myself and Chris from any acting. Chris is a very popular person within school and therefore we felt we should use this to our advantage when planning who to use. We wanted a very up to date music video with an up-to-date fashionable actor so therefore we felt it only sensible that we use a fellow pupil of our age, whether that be male or female, so that we could style them how we wanted. We did consider costume although it was hard as we did not know the genre of our music video and felt that we could come to this at a later day.

Within this meeting we also assessed each other’s strengths and weaknesses to know what we could each bring to the group and how best to make the most of such a strange pairing. Whereas I am more academic and find it easy to plan and arrange certain things while being able to write lots, Chris has a more popular creative side and therefore I felt it suitable that while I plan things and take note, Chris provide as many creative ideas as possible especially seeing we had to make a Digipack including album cover and poster/homepage and a music video. It also appears that Chris has much more interest in music than me so therefore he is aware of all the different music videos/genres etc which are available. We also considered last year’s projects where we both worked in different groups as this allowed us to see where we both needed to make improvements. Although myself, my subject teacher and many of my friends were worried about the grouping between Chris and myself because the different approaches we take towards education, it appears we do have a good selection of strengths we can use to hopefully create a good piece of work to secure us a good grade.  Being aware of each other’s strengths and the urgent need to choose a suitable song, we decided to go away, continue singular research and meet within one week to discuss further plans when we had our final choice of song but would remain in contact between now and then.

MIND MAP OF POSSIBLE IDEAS

As you can see from the mind map above, I used a variety of colours to help me brain storm possible ideas which I could use for my final product. This is a very simple form of planning as it takes only a few minutes and allows some quick thinking which is said to be the best way to find the best ideas. If you spend too long speculating over one given idea then you could be missing some seriously good ones. Due to the previous research I carried out in this project, I used the three main headings [narrative, concept and performance] to help me form suitable ideas so that I knew what type of music video I was creating.

It is clear from my mind map that there is much more opportunity for ideas if creating a narrative based video as this can be taken along any avenue. Throughout the planning stages, I had many different ideas including focusing on appearance or travel, as they are something which would be close to the heart of people in my age range. I also wanted to consider the target audience for any music video I create and it is clear to see that the majority of these would be aimed at people my age which will make it a lot easier to create. The concept based videos would be the biggest challenge as this would mean creating an original idea, using a wide range of special effects.

To provide myself with a challenge, I have chosen to create a performance based music video. When considering this, it felt suitable that I consider the genre of the song as this particular type of music video is generally used for set genres. The three main genres I could think of for this was metal, rock and scream. Due to my own personal tastes, it is not normal for me to listen to this type of music so therefore I will need to carry out more research in the hope that I can undercover a song I am happy to use. Another thing which I need to now consider is suitable actors to perform as the singer/band, who is comfortable to lip sync and act I the hope that the music video will appear more professional.

Secondary research: POP UP VIDEO [YOUTUBE]

One way of researching the codes and conventions of different music videos is by using YouTube and looking at a range of ‘pop up videos’, originally shown on MTV and VH1. These were the original music video paired with extra information about the creation of the music video or the artist/band. Although the information was not really appropriate, I did feel the information I received about the different ways to create music videos were great in providing me with ideas for my own music video. It also opened my eyes into different ideas and problems which could occur when we were filming our own music video. One benefit of this type of interaction with the consumer is that the consumer is being interacted with and therefore feels like they are involved in the production process of making the video, which would be especially good if this was your favourite singer or band and to create a star image for the popstar.

Below is an example of a pop up video, covering the Madonna song ‘Vogue’. Although some of the information provided is not relevant, it did include information about actors and about the filming experience. Obviously I am aware of what things work best when filming due to my experiences in my AS coursework, but it was nice to see that I was not the only person who sees terrible mistakes occur when filming.

This was a very brief form of research which I did not find particularly helpful although it was interesting seeing how professional directors and singers underwent the production process. One thing which would of assisted me greatly if included would be editing techniques and problems which occurred during editing. Much of the information provided was very irrelevant and I could not use but it did provide me with a range of ideas suitable when carrying out an evaluation of my product.

PRIMARY RESEARCH; Looking at existing products

As I had some spare time on my hands today, I used modern technology to do some primary research; looking at existing music videos. I did this by watching a selection of channels on extra-terrestrial television including MTV and KISS. One thing which I realised by carrying out this task was that music channels are not just about the music instead and also include programs suited to the particular age range. It also allowed me to see that while companies such as KISS chose to broadcast non-visual copies of songs on their radio stations, they also provided a music channel which showed viewers the corresponding music videos.

Although this was a very simple form of research it allowed me to see the specific conventions of different music videos and how this was largely affected by the genre. It has opened up many opportunities for me and I will take some ideas from the videos I watched today and attempt to include them in my final piece. One thing that I do need to consider in relation to this type of idea is the difference in budget. Although I will be able to use a HD camera and top quality editing facilities, some special effects/ideas will not be suitable due to the low budget I have.

I could have looked at a variety of different music videos on the internet with websites such as YouTube but I do not think that would have had the prescribed effect. By watching a random selection of music videos on the TV, selected by a random member of the public, I was able to concentrate on a wider selection of genre’s/types. This would not of been possible had I chose to use the internet as not only would I have been distracted by other social websites but I would have chosen specific videos which I was aware of already. This would not of benefited me in any way because I wanted to open my imagination and see what type of effects/videos were already out there.