Editing: Technique: Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire

As our song has a rather slow pace and we intend to use a fast style of editing, we feel it is beneficial to look at a music video that mirrors the idea we will be trying to execute. The video we are going to look at is Kings of Leon's 'Sex is on Fire'.

One thing that makes the fast editing work is the continuation of the mis-en-scene. Whilst the shots do differ in location, the overall feel and theme remains constant. This is something we will have to try and replicate in our own work. The effect of this is a fluidity in the music video and helps make the fast editing fit the theme of the video.

Furthermore, the editing is placed on the beat of the song, which doesn't make it seem out of place. As our song also has a strong beat, we will attempt to place the cuts on the beat to make it seem professional.

Planning: Costume, Hair and Make-up - Choices and Symbolism

In order for us to make the most effective music video possible, we must plan certain aspects of the mise-en-scene in advance, and also include some meaning behind them.
Costumes
For the costumes, we have opted for Sarah to wear a series of dresses, as they will enhance her femininity and allow our target audience to better relate to her. Thus far, we have two ideas we could potentially include. This first is a floral dress, preferably of a blue or purple colour.This will allow the actress to stand out from the remainder of the frame and become the sole focus of the shot. Additionally, the flowers on the dress we suggest a delicacy and fragility in our actress, which is one aspect of the character Sarah will be playing. An image of this style of dress is shown below.

The next idea was for Sarah to wear a white lace dress. We thought this would be appropriate as white lace suggests purity, innocence and new beginnings. We feel this would match our interpretation of the song and will thus look to include it. Below is an image of the style of dress we are hoping to include.

In terms of our male character's attire, we feel that including a t-shirt with a skull or skeletal design, which would infer death, may be effective. Below is an image of the type of t-shirt we could potentially use.

Hair
As our video will be film in open spaces, we feel that it would be best to have Sarah's hair down, and either wavy or straight. This would mean that the hair would move with the wind, and mirror the emotional scenes from films such as Pocahontas. Below is a gif showing what we will try to replicate.

Make-up
As we do not want to detract attention away from the emotion portrayed by our actress, we will probably use a more natural style of make-up, as shown in the image below. From the picture, it is clear that her facial expression are not overshadowed by her make-up and that her eyes, the most expressive part of the face, are emphasized by the use of moderately applied mascara and eye-liner.

Research - Product Placement

Product placement in evident in many texts, and is used as a way of marketing products. The definition of product placement is:
A practice in which manufacturers of goods or providers of a service gain exposure for their products by paying for them to be featured in movies and television programs.
Many music videos feature product placements, some more heavily than others, and may be something we could include if we wanted to. Below are just a few examples from many of the products featured in Lady Gaga's Telephone video. The products shown include Diet Coke, the dating website Plenty of Fish and Virgin Mobile.

While product placement is generally accepted, the amount included in Gaga's work was controversial. Therefore, we decided that we would not feature product placement in our work, as we feel it would detract from the meaning of the song and video.

Planning: Filming Schedule

Over the next few weeks, we are aiming to complete all of our filming, thus allowing us to have a considerable time to edit our video. To do this, we have created a filming schedule that takes into account our commitments outside of school and tries to include us all in the project.

From the table above, it is clear that the filming should take no longer than four weeks, which is reasonable. This may be shortened, as we could also film on more weekends to quicken the process. We may also include more filming sessions during our media lessons, just to re-film anything we feel is not of the quality it should be.

The schedule includes any props/items we will have to take with us, which is mainly a change of clothes and the necklace. We have made a note of what we need to film, but this could be changed depending on the weather and the amount of time we are able to film. Locations are included, as well as when we would upload the footage onto the iMac.

Overall, we feel as though this table we be beneficial to our project and allow us to work quickly and efficiently.

Research: Past Student's Work - 'Rough Cut' by Amber Rubarth

To gain further inspiration regarding our music, as well as looking at the standard of music video we will try to achieve, we have decided to look at a past student's work. Last year, a group of students from our school used the song 'Rough Cut' by Amber Rubarth - our back up song. Therefore, we feel it is beneficial for us to analyse this music video.

Strengths

• The narrative of the music video was strong, and supported the meaning of the lyrics whilst also being unique.
• The fades to black and dissolves were effective and added extra impact to the previous shots.
• The use of the reversal feature from Final Cut Express is used effectively.

Weaknesses

• The opening shot was not as powerful as I had expected. Having heard the song before, I know that the lyrics have emotional meaning, thus leading me to anticipate a strong, haunting opening.
• The horizon during some of the lip syncing was not straight, and was therefore off-putting.
• I thought there should be more lip syncing using an extreme close-up, so emphasise both the editing of the lip syncing and the emotion portrayed by the actress.

Overall

As a whole, the piece was enjoyable and to a relatively high standard. Moreover, I thought the editing was effective, and helped make the music video as strong as it was. However, some of the acting was not to the same standard as the rest of the piece, and a few of the shots used were not appealing to the viewer, as they were shaky and off-putting.

From looking at this music video, it is evident that having a strong and interesting narrative will help us create a good product. Moreover, we must pay particular attention to the types of shot we use (whether they corroborate with the timing and lyrics) and the quality of shot, as we want our music video to look as professional as possible.

Editing - Uploading and Editing the Montage Section

After filming the montage section, we uploaded the footage and began to note down which pieces we think will work well together.

From the image above, it is evident that we now have a large amount of footage for a small section of our music video. This is an advantage for us, as it means we have a lot of footage to select from, which will allow us to pick the best shots. Below is an image showing some of the footage we have.

Filming - Montage Section

Over the past few days, we have filmed a lot of footage for our montage section. We hope to have completed this section of our project, as we would like to move on and film the other sections.
As the montage is meant to be a collection of memories over a long period of time, we were thankful for the constantly changing weather. Additionally, we changed our clothes numerous times, and visiting many locations to give the impression that these were memories.

Editing: Using Photoshop - Pros and Cons

Recently, I mentioned briefly that I may try to use Photoshop in order to obtain a more visual appealing music video. Before I commit to this approach, I decided to test this out on a small piece of footage and draw up a list of pros and cons.
Pros
As I am a photography student, I am able to use the software's many functions to a decent standard. This means that the editing process, regarding colour, contrast and effects rather than cuts, will be more flexible, and the results would, in theory, be of a higher quality.

When attempting to edit the video clip in Photoshop, I managed to take a screen grab which we may use for our digipak. Below is said image.

Cons
After I exported the clip and put it into Photoshop, I discovered that the video had become slightly pixelated. This would only increase once I export it again to get it back into Final Cut Express. The quality will worsen once again once we export the music video as a whole.
Using this method is very time consuming, and we may not have enough to edit all the clips we want to in this way.

Editing - Beginning to Upload and Edit

After recently filming some footage, we have decided to upload it into Final Cut Express and see how effective the shots are when placed alongside our chosen song. Below is an image showing the clips in the editing software, as well as the music.

By watching the shots as well as listening to the music, I realised that footage had more of an emotional impact on me, the audience, that it had when I viewed the clips alone. This is a good sign, as it means that when we begin to edit the scenes that we are trying to actively display emotion in, the song will amplify the visuals.

Above is an image of two clips we will aim to use in our music video. At present, the footage is not looking as eye-catching and visually appealing as I would have like. One of the reasons for this was because the weather was poor when we decided to film this section. As a consequence, I will have to use Final Cut Express to boost both the colour and contrast to get the desired effect. Additionally, I will try to export a similar clip into Photoshop and see if the quality changes; I am more competent with Photoshop's function than I am with Final Cut Express, meaning that the outcome will be most likely be better.
Overall, I am pleased with this footage, and am positive they will be successful once edited.

Research - Expanding and Increasing Sales and Audiences

The music video serves several purposes; these include both increasing sales for the artist, and broadening their audience. Therefore, we feel as though it is beneficial to our project to see some examples of this, as well as looking at the possibilities are project could create for Allie Moss if our music video was used officially.
Example
Rihanna is an artist who constantly interests new audiences, as well as keeping her loyal, dedicated fan base happy. She does this by reinventing her appearance, and consequently tweaking her style of music to suit this change. Below is an image showing the change in appearance between her six studio albums.

From the above image, it is evident that Rihanna has utilised the current fashion trends to extend her audience to more and more people.Moreover, her styling also helps her to connect to people of all ages; some of her album covers are light hearted and fun and therefore for younger people, whilst others are either sexualised or emotive, which would be target at a slightly older audience. From this piece of research, I can understand that image is important to the audience an artist wants to target. Additionally, increased sales come from having a wider audience, particularly if a more populated group of people are targeted effectively, such as teenage girls.
Linking Findings Back To My Own Work
As Allie Moss' appearance has an indie vibe to it, her target audience would most likely be young adults; moreover, as she herself is female, other females would be able to relate to her. Thus, we will have to target this demographic. However, we do not feel as though we should be limited to Moss' current fan base and seek to extend it. To do this, we will have to select a group of people to try and attract. The most likely option will be young, male adults. To attract them, we would need to use the stereotypes usually associated with young males and the media they consume. Accommodating this factor would mean the use of an attractive female, which we feel we are using, as well as a relatable male character, which we are again using. This will hopefully enable us to extend Moss' fan base and consequently increase her sales.

The attractive and relatable female character.

The male character who is also relatable to both male and female audiences.

Research - Analysis of Survey Results

In order to gain the most from my survey, I have decided to analyse my results. This will enable me to gain a greater idea as to what my target audience is, and what they are expecting in terms of a music video for particular genres of music.

Question One: What is your gender?

Luckily, the male to female ratio is nearly equal, meaning that the responses gained will not be favoured to one particular gender to a noticeable extent. However, this may prove detrimental to our efforts as we intended to aim our music video at females, thus meaning that it may have been beneficial to have more females complete the survey than males.

Question Two: How old are you?

As we were intending to target a teenage audience, we were glad that half of our responses were from people aged between 16 and 20 years. Moreover, the four categories with the least number of participant were those above the age of 21, meaning that our response are largely from a younger audience. This will better inform us when we make our music video.

Question Three: What is your favourite genre of music?

As the answer to this question involved the participant typing their answer into a text box, I have decided to use Wordle to display the results. As expected, the most popular answer was 'pop', with 'acoustic' being second. This is great news for us as the genre of Allie Moss' music is 'acoustic', and is therefore a marketable genre. This would make it more probable that our music video would be popular as more people would want to listen to the song in the first place. Additionally, there is a lot of crossover between the 'indie', 'rock' and 'acoustic' genres meaning that more people would be inclined to listen to this type of music and consequently watch the music video.

Question Four: What is your favourite genre of music video?

This question was designed in order for us to narrow down our choices of video. The most favoured choices were 'Narrative' and 'Artistic', which will therefore be something we will try to include in the creation of our own music video. Both the 'Comical' and 'Animated' categories were the least selected, alongside a 'Dance' based music video. We will not be looking to include these elements as a consequence. The two 'Other' responses were "Urban" and "One showing a gig or concert". As neither option would suit our song particularly well, we have decided not to pursue these two options.

Question Five: What aspects of a music video do you enjoy the most?

The most selected category for this question was 'Interpretation', which therefore underlines the importance that we provide an accurate and relevant interpretation of the song through our video. 'Costumes, Hair and Make-up' was also a popular choice, which means that we will have to pay attention to this when selecting outfits and preparing for shooting. 'The Artist' was a popular choice, yet we are unable to fulfil this due to us not knowing Moss on a personal level. Additionally, 'Settings' was not selected once by our participants. We feel that this may be because the locations are never the focal point of a music video. However, we feel that they are vital to the portrayal of a particular message and including locations that are congruous to our theme is pivotal in creating a successful and professional standard music video.

Question Six: How many times would you view a music video you liked in a week?

The majority of participants would view a video they enjoyed between three and five times a week. This means that the music video must be able to maintain a high level of interest throughout the many times people would watch it. To do this, we would need to create moments which are memorable, and some that are possibly difficult to comprehend fully in the first viewing. Many films, such as 'The Sixth Sense' need several viewings for the plot and all the small details to be understood in their entirety, which is obviously beneficial for the company who made the film. We will try to include this element in our own work as it means that people will watch it several times without losing interest and gain more recognition for the artist and song.

Question Seven: On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, how important is a music video with regards to promoting a song?

These results were as expected, with participants select either '3', '4' or '5'. This means that our music video will have to be of a high standard as it is key to the promotion of Moss and her music; a poor music video would lower Moss' reputation, which is obviously something we will try to avoid.

Question Eight: What is your favourite music video?

For this question, we were given a range of music video. Below are five which I feel mirror the kind of video we would like to create.

• You're Beautiful - James Blunt
  This music video is simple with a stunning landscape. We feel we would be able to create something similar with our song.
• Your Song - Ellie Goulding
  This video is autumnal and uses several focus changes, something we are able to replicate with the HD cameras.
• The One That Got Away - Katy Perry
  This video has a narrative and uses the past to explain the present, something which we wanted to include through our montage section.
• The A Team - Ed Sheeran
  This video has a strong narrative about a controversial issue. The song is also similar to Moss'.
• We Found Love - Rihanna
  This video uses the conventions of a different genre of music and combines it with a mainstream song. This is a great example of how to successful crossover genres and create something unique.

Question Nine: What makes it your favourite music video?

From the Wordle, it is obvious that the narrative is a big reason why people enjoy music videos. This, alongside the costumes, interpretation and ending are the main things we will focus on when creating our music video.

Question Ten: Would you deliberately go out of your way to watch a music video?

The vast majority of people answered 'Yes', meaning that the video is likely to be watched by people who listen to Moss' music, thus suggesting that we must stay true to the lyrics of the songs and provide a strong interpretation.

Filming - Landscapes and Focus Changes

Over the weekend, I decided to begin filming some footage in my local park's extension. As the two other members of my group were both busy, I decided to go with a friend, who needed to take pictures for her photography coursework, and try to capture some film that was appropriate for our song. I tried to gain a few landscape style shots using a long shot, as these can be used to 'set the scene' in our music video. Moreover, the shots where the focus changes from one subject to another is similar to Ellie Goulding's 'Your Song' video; an inspiration of ours.
Before leaving, I decided to check the weather forecast, which told me that it was likely to rain over the weekend. Unfortunately, this meant I only had about an hour to travel around my location finding interesting areas to film, as well as noting down ideas for when we film with our cast. This consequently only allowed me to gain a small amount of footage, but now that I have grasped the technique, I'm sure I will be able to create similar shots with relative ease.

The technique used for changing the focus was rather simple, once I understood what each symbol on the camera meant. To alter the focus, I first had to set the camera from 'Program' to 'Manual'. I then had to press the 'Focus' button which would tell the camera that I wanted to change the focus and not keep it the same. After doing so, I used the scrolling wheel to change the focus. I think using this technique allowed me to create some really interesting and appealing footage, which I am sure we will use in our project.

Over the coming week, we hope to film a decent amount of the beginning half of our music video, as well as hoping for some sunshine so that we can film the montage section. Also, we will be looking to capitalise on the weather conditions, as we want to give ourselves as much time to edit as possible.

Research - Gaining Survey Results

In order to gain the most useful and conclusive results, we need a large number of people to complete our survey. Therefore, we need to give the link to our survey to many people. The most effective way to do this would be to utilise social networking sites, such as Tumblr and Twitter.

On tumblr, we would post the link and add a message explaining what the link is. From the image below, we can see that my post has 26 notes, which means that 26 people have either liked the post, or reblogged it. As a consequence, I would expect around 26 people to complete my survey.

In addition to displaying the link on Tumblr, I also tweeted the link to around my 140 followers. I would expect around ten of these followers to both see my tweet and complete the survey.

I have also asked family members to complete the survey, so that we can get a range of people completing the survey, and not just young people - the main users of social networking sites.

Research - Creating a Survey

To gain some ideas about what an audience would expect from a music video, I have decided to create a survey. I will be using SurveyMonkey to do so.
Below is a screen grab of some of the options provided by SurveyMonkey regarding the creation of my questions. It is evident that there were several options, so I had to make sure that I chose the most appropriate for the questions I wanted to ask.

Below is an image showing some of my questions and the possible optioned to edit them. I rearranged my questions in order for them to be placed in a sensible order. This will make the survey seem more professional as the questions will not appear random.
Additionally, the photograph shows how my questions are focused on gaining a useful response; we intend to use the information we gain to shape our project and discover an audience we can target.

The third image shows the link provided by SurveyMonkey to distribute my survey across the internet. This will be useful as it means I can get a decent number of results, which will better inform me about the type of music video expected by the audience.

Research: What Music Channel Would Our Video Be Shown On?

In order to successfully target our music video to an audience, we have decided to look at what music channels our video would be shown on.
MTV is the most obvious choice, however they have a range of different channels for different genres. MTV Rocks is the most suitable channel, as the music they show is not limited to rock, and includes more indie artists such as Ed Sheeran.

Other channels that the music video could be featured on would be Viva, 4Music and Chart Show TV. However, these channels mainly show videos of music that is or has been in the UK Top 40, meaning that our song would have to chart in order to be featured.

Research: Inspiration - Wuthering Heights, 2011

Recently, I saw Andrea Arnold's interpretation of Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights, and I feel as though the cinematography of the film is inspiring and will help us in creating our music video.
Throughout the film, there are a number of close-up and extreme close-up shots used, which all create an intimate and claustrophobic feel. We feel as though this technique would be beneficial for us to develop as we are trying to show similar emotions to those displayed in Wuthering Heights. Below are some image I captured from the trailer.

The first two images show how the subject can be incorporated into a well-composed shot, whilst still being able to portray emotion. The second two images are shots of the surrounding nature, and this is a feature we hope to include in our own project.

Research and Development of Idea - Possible Alterations

As the weather is becoming colder and the days are shortening, we realised that we may not be able to film all the footage we need in one trip to the beach. Therefore, we decided to brainstorm some other locations we may use. The brainstorm is below.

 A deserted, vintage-looking house/room

• This location was inspired by the setting of Birdy's 'Skinny Love' video. This location would represent the feelings of isolation shown in the song, as well as creating the vintage feel we aim to produce. This location would be difficult to find, especially in our area, meaning that the likelihood of filming at this setting is minimal.

Public Transport - a bus/train/station

• Public transport is an interesting idea, as people often find themselves alone and isolated at the heavily populated area. I think the contrast of large groups of people and our character will highlight the message of the song and have a really strong effect on the audience of our music video. However, I do not feel as though this locations are limitless in the sense that we are able to show our characters in this location for two minutes of our song. Therefore, lip-syncing at this location may be an option.

Grassy Field - a place with crops, preferably windy

• This idea was inspired by Rihanna's 'We Found Love' video, and the section were she is shown in a windy crop field. I thought this was effective in her music video, and would therefore seek to re-create these scenes but with our own twist. I think having the character almost camouflaged and lost within the field would reflect the song's thoughts upon losing grip on reality and stability after a traumatic event. There is a field of this kind nearby, meaning that this is possible.

A secluded, forest-like area with scattered sunlight

• During an outing for my photography class, I discovered a large, empty space surrounded by trees. This place was quite secret, and contained colours that would look attractive on camera. I thought this would be a good location as it was so interesting and idyllic. Below is a picture of the area.

A busy, urban area - possibly London both during the day and at night

• London would be a good location to shoot as it is a diverse and cultured setting, meaning that we would be incredibly inspired by our surroundings. Moreover, places as Camden offer quaint and quirky areas, whilst more iconic locations such as Oxford Street would make the music video more relatable. Also, having a busy area will reinforce the idea of isolation, and will mean that we will be able to capture some interesting and attention-grabbing shots.

Research and Planning - Filming Schedule

In order for us to efficiently film our music video, we have created a filming schedule. This will allow us to organise props and prepare anything we may need for our filming sessions, as well as knowing the time of our sessions in advance. Below is the table.

From the table, it is evident that we are able to film on four separate occasions during the week, thus enabling us to quickly finish the filming aspect of the project.
In terms of props, we have opted to organise the costume at the beginning of the week, before any filming takes place. Additionally, we have made a note to check the weather for the week before we film, as we want to be prepared for a change in conditions. We have also made time to visit the location if possible, just in case it changes.