Essay for Mr Seal

My essay is on a powerpoint presentation, which it wont allow me to post on here, it is on a USB stick which i carry everywhere, if Mr Seal/ Ms Barton could help me put it on here it will be seen :)

Music Video Story Boards

This is the first of my rough Story boards.

It basically shows our main character sitting around and waiting for someone. He then turns and sees a girl saying something, this reminds him of his girlfriend, its 'the kind of thing she'd say' in relation to the song title and lyrics. Then theres a flashback of the main character and his girlfriend having fun together, laughing and looking lovingly at eachother.

At an instrumental he plays the guitar looking depressed and thinking about his girlfriend.











This storyboard shows our character looking depressed and avoiding and ignoring the friends who try to comfort him.

This ties into the lyrics, "What you leave for? Everyones here."
He leaves his friends and family, walking through recognisable area's of Norwich, which remind him of his time with his girlfriend.



He goes to a graveyard, where he lays a rose on his girlfriends grave as the sun sets.




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This is my more detailed story board. Again it shows him sitting in the park and time going by. We can show how time goes by with the movement of the sun and lighting, so the light is going to be ambient. We want a high angle shot of him and the tree, this shows he is a sad, character who hides himself away. The high angle emphasises this as his hair will cover some of his face.

He see's another girl saying 'The kind of thing she'd say" in relationship to the songs lyrics, which instantly changes to a flashback of his girlfriend saying the same thing. We want a close up of both girls' faces, and preferably in exactly the same location/position to emphasise the similarity between the two girls. We also want to have it as a tilted shot, so that it looks more distorted in the flashback.

The scene changes to a party, which we'll shoot in the Hewett common room, where a group of friends are having a great time enjoying themselves, and our character cant stop thinking about his girlfriend not being there, and is standing alone. We want a pan/ high angle shot here to show the amount of friends enjoying themselves, in contrast to our character who isnt.

He looks up as someone is leaving out the front door, which reminds him of the same situation of his girlfriend leaving, cue another flashback. We will have a tilt shot of the distorted flashback, again we want the flashback to look as similar as possible to the reality, so same shot type, location and movement.
It then cuts to our character playing guitar in the instrumental, in his room, alone, with low lighting. This shows he's cut himself off from the world and wants to stay in the dark. This will either be a close up of the guitar to fit in with the instrumental or a low angle shot, almost as if we are watching him as he plays on stage.

He looks in the mirror, and thinks he see's his girlfriend waving at him as she once did, and turns to see noone there. We want a close up of his face as he realises he's alone, which we hope will make our audience feel for him.

In our last scene we have an extreme close up of his crying eyes, which cuts to him putting a romantic rose on his late girlfriends grave. We hope to do this as the sun sets as it signifies here spirit leaving and will fade the light out for the ending.

Props

The only props that we are going to need in our music video are:


A traditional, romantic, red rose, which our main character lays on the grave of his late girlfriend at the end of the video. We are using this because we want to show that he still cares for her, and takes the time to make a romantic gesture even after they've been ripped apart.



The other prop we are going to need is an electric guitar.

We are using this in the instrumental of the song. We want to show the main character playing the instrumental because it gives us another link between the video and the song.
It also shows that he is still writing/ playing songs about her, which is romantic and sentimental.

He is playing it alone at the edge of his bed. This is a reference to how musicians play their music as a means of escapism. Which means that our character is playing his music to take his mind off the loss of his love.

Colour of final shot

We want to show a contrast between reality and the flashbacks. We might use normal colour for the normal shots, with black and white on the flashbacks. This will make the flashbacks look more distorted and unreal.
The other option is that we have the present day shots in black and white, and the flashbacks in colour. This would mean that he is depressed and sad, which is emphasised by the dark, dull colours, whereas the flashbacks, of a happier time, are in vibrant colours. So the colour of the shot will reflect the main characters mood.

We are also considering using sepia tone, but we aren't yet sure of how we would use it.


We are going to see which option looks best in the editing stage.

Locations

These are the locations for our music video.

This is a photo of the corner of the sixth form common room, a corner which is almost like a separate room to the entire building. This corner will be where we hold the 'party' during the music video, as it is a small enclosed space where we can fit lots of people to make it look like a general party atmosphere.

These are photos of the path and tree where the main character will sit, and will come into contact with another couple being 'all loved up', where we reference the lyrics 'The kind of thing you'd say'. This location also is shown during a flashback where the main character is sitting with his girlfriend, so it is shown that this is a place they used to go together. It looks like a romantic setting, so suits these scenes well.

7 Story Down

The unsigned band we are using for a music video is 'Seven Story Down', with their song 'The Kind Of Thing You'd Say'. They are an Indie music band consisting of four males. Their influences come from bands such as 'The Police', 'White Rabbits', and 'Death Cab For Cutie'.

http://www.myspace.com/sevenstorydown

Costume

This is the costume for the main male character in our music video. The genre of the band we are using is 'Indie' so we wanted to use the same style of clothes. The checkered shirt and tie, the straight legged jeans and the grey plimsolls help to create this Indie style, similar to the outfits the bands wear, and also to keep the music video quite modern. We wanted to make the main character look smart, yet comfortable and casual, and this has been achieved by the contrast between the shirt and tie, and the jeans.

My research project idea.

For my research into the music industry, I will be writing about: How the rock music industry influences its audiences' identity.

Helloooo

welcome to my A2 media studies blog!!