Our Music Video!

Storyboards

Leaving the Death Ambigious (Revised)

After much consideration as a group we have decided upon leaving the death ambiguous to the audience. Reasons for this being that because we are promoting a new band, perhaps having our male protagonist shoot himself and commit suicide would offend an audience, and promote our new band in a bad way, resulting in not popular record sales. Therefore, in order to achieve a higher grade we will work on filming more close up shots, and instead elaborate on the grave yard scene and have our male protagonist "walk into the light" but not actually shoot a death or use recurring images of a gun. Therefore we can focus more on filming higher quality shots.
Leaving the death ambiguous will also be more appropriate, as the lyrics of the song suggest our male protagonist searching for a lost love; in our case a death which is never revealed. Leaving the death ambiguous is a common theme in films, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) where the male actor does not discover he has died until the end of the film. As a result, this builds tension with the added result of shocking the audience when they find out the truth.
We have also decided upon using Madonna's "Like a Prayer" music video as inspiration for our female protagonist to act like.



We are using Madonna as inspiration for our music video because she looks seductive, classy yet she resembles a very strong female character. Above all, throughout the music video there is plenty of close up shots of her face, which helps promote her as a solo artist. Therefore, we shall follow in the lead of this video in terms of filming more low angle close ups and high angle close up shots to help promote the image of our band. Furthermore, our group will try and portray our female protagonist (myself) as a strong representation of Madonna, whilst also being a strong female character.

Possible Alternative Endings

As a group, we have made numerous changes to the narrative of our music video in order to make it more interesting than just having our male protagonist walking down streets. The main change being that we have decided to introduce a twist to the plot. The twist being that our male protagonist is in fact a ghost chasing after our female protagonist, as he is in reality dead.
In order to achieve this, we have decided to have connotations of death which give a clue to our audience that our male protagonist is dead. For example, at points in our music video we are going to use cross fades between both our female and male. For instance, we have our female protagonist over looking the bridge into the water, and then the shot will cross fade into our male protagonist looking over the bridge in the exact same position. Also, we have a "dream scene," where toward the beginning of our music video we shall have our male protagonist knock on our female protagonist door, then the dream part is that our female protagonist opens the door and he is standing there waiting for her and he goes in. However, then the shot will fade back into reality where our female protagonist opens the door, yet no-one is there. In order to distinguish the dream scenes from reality, we shall have a blue tint in the dream shots, to signify a change.
Another idea is that whilst filming, we have filmed plenty of shots using strong slight, and a shot which we will use towards the end of our music video is going to be our male protagonist walking down a lane into very strong light, which is a connotation of heaven, and signifies an idea that our male protagonist is his girlfriends "light." Therefore, by having our male protagonist walk into "heaven" at the end of our music video, we hope that our audience will understand that he has been dead the whole time. We are also planning on developing this idea of light by editing the colouring of the mise en scene throughout our music video. For example, in the shots of our female protagonist, we shall make the lighting of the mise en scene dull, as it signifies that she is grieving and un happy, therefore in the scenes with our male protagonist we shall make the mise en scene bright and happy as it signifies heaven.
Furthermore, towards the ending of our music video, we shall have a sequence which is filmed at a graveyard. For example, me and my group have decided that we shall shoot both our female protagonist entering the graveyard, followed by our male protagonist entering. As a result, we will play on the idea of our male protagonist grieving over him at his grave, yet our male protagonist will be looking out for her in spirit, as he follows our female protagonist as she walks around the graveyard. We have also decided on using plenty of cross fades between low angle close up shots of both our actors to quicken the pace and build a climax before it is revealed to the audience that our male protagonist is in fact dead. Just before the shot of our male protagonist "walking towards the light," we shall have a close up shot of him walking into a grave stone in the darkness, in which bright light is reflecting of it, to signify our male actor walking to rest in his grave stone.
As a result, we haven't decided yet on how we are going to shoot our male protagonist killing himself. We have decided upon our male protagonist committing suicide over his love for our female actress, as he believes that she isn't in love with him anymore. The first possible alternative ending is having our male protagonist shooting himself with a gun. The problem with this however is how to get hold of a realistic gun and using it somewhere which isn't very public. However, another alternative ending is to have our male protagonist drown himself in a bath tub. as we have a running theme of water used in our shots throughout our music video. We haven't decided yet which one, so as a result we may film both then see which ending looks more effective.

Change in Female Actress

Originally, Izzy Davies was going to be our actress for our music video. However, despite the fact that Izzy did fit the profile that was needed for our actress, we encountered some problems. The main one being that Izzy unfortunately didn't have enough time to be able to film what we needed. Furthermore, after the changes which we made to our narrative in order to make it more interesting,we discovered that we needed our female protagonist more than we thought so. As a result, we decided upon finding a new actress to play our female protagonist which still fitted the profile we needed and also had enough time to come and film our music video.

We found this more difficult than we thought so, due to the fact that not many females we asked were willing to perform in our music video. Unfortunately, no-one with good acting experience had time to also be our female protagonist. As a result, we have decided to use myself to be the actress in our music video. (Photo of myself below.)
Reasons for choosing myself to be the actress and play the female protagonist in our music video is that I fit the profile that is needed. For example, I am of correct height as I am slightly smaller than our male actor Tamas, me and my group originally wanted an actress with curly hair which I have got, and ultimately I have the time to be able to film the scenes because I am in our group.

Therefore, I will be participating in both the directing of the music video and playing our female protagonist. This way I will be as involved as possible in making our music video the best that it can be, and by using both myself and Tamas as the actors, it ables us to have more time and say over when we can film, as we don't have to reply on when our actors are available.

Prop List for Shooting

For the days in which we are shooting scenes for our music video, we need certain props in order to do this. For example we need the following:

• The camera - Obviously the most essential prop item in order to be able to film our music video!
• The tripod - Very important piece of equipment as we need the tripod in order to hold our camera up steady so we can film smooth shots, and so that they are not jerky.
• For female protagonist, red coat, black leather shoes, black tights - These items of clothing are essential for our female protagonist to wear, since as a whole these items make a good outfit. For example, the red coat signifies romance, yet also death; which are the two themes associated with our music video. The connotation of a red coat will also appeal to our audience, in terms of popular costume. For example, the colour red matched with black patent, brogue shoes mix well together, and would therefore appeal to our female audience as they aspire to dress in similar clothing. The costume of the red coat also represents a certain type of female fatal. For example, it represents strong women, who are very individual, seductive and above all confident. For example, the colour red is bold and stands out above the crowd and is a colour which makes a statement.
• For male protagonist, Polo Fred Perry Shirt - This shirt is what we want our male protagonist to wear throughout our music video. Furthermore, similar to our female protagonist costume, the outfit will appeal to our audience in terms of our male protagonist looking attractive for a female fan base. The look of skinny jeans (reflecting popular culture) and a Fred Perry Shirt which is a well known designer will be a look that teenage males will relate to, and aspire to dress like. This type of costume represents popular culture which is the reason for choosing this look, and is similar to what other males wear in Indie Bands, e.g. Razorlight, The Killers and U2.
• The tape - Another important piece of equipment as otherwise we wouldn't be able to film our music video!

Images of me and my group creating storyboards

The photos below show the construction of our storyboards, in which me and my group all pt an equal amount of effort in in terms of drawing the pictures and arranging a sequence. We made the storyboards by drawing on plain pieces of white paper, cutting them out and sticking them upon black paper to make the drawings stand out. Then we shall write about each shot next to each picture.

Alterations in Narrative

After much discussion with my media group, we have come to a decission that the narrative for our music video of focusing on just the male protagonist walking is too broing. Therefore we have decided upon tweaking our narrative in order to induce more hooks.
To begin with, we have decided that there will be a murder in the storyline. Our initial idea is for our male protagonist to be driven by such insanity, that at the end of the music video he is driven to shoot our female protagonist with a gun. Therefore, throughout the music video, there shall be recurring images of a gun to connote death. For example, at the beginning of our music video we have decided that there will be a close up shot of the gun smoking, to signify murder. This also introduces a very film noir effect within our music video. We are also going to include plenty of cross fades. For example, we shall have one shot tracking our male protagonist as he steps onto a bridge, then our next shot will be that he cross fades into our female protagonist stepping of the bridge. Therefore, this will mean that it signifies them as a couple, and represents how they used to be together and in love. We shall also have a shot which shows our female protagonist crying over photo's of them being together in the past, and we shall use a close up of her tears.
We also have possible alternative endings for our music video. These include:

• We end in a scene of a grave yard. We have our male protagonist standing by a grave, and he turns round to a girl walking past him wearing a red coat (what our female protagonist will be wearing), and because he thinks she is ignoring him, our male protagonist shoots her. However, after the shooting he will walk over and discover that in fact the girl isn't his girlfriend and is in fact a stranger.
• We have a simpler ending, where we have both our male and female protagonist standing by a tree with autumn leaves surrounding them. Then we shall have the camera focus on simply our male protagonist with a medium shot, then the camera will pan back onto the space where the girl is standing, yet it is now empty. Therefore signifying that the girl has died.

Nobody's Home by New York Fund - The Lyrics

Well I woke up on a Monday
With the morning streaming in,
And I rode over just like I always do

Cos when I sleep I keep forgetting
You don’t live here no more
And when I wake I keep on thinking of you

So I was walking down the street
Get myself some company
For so long I getting ready to die

The girl up in the store
Says you don’t come round here no more
She ain’t seen you for quite some time
Quite some time
Quite some time

Oh baby where did you go?
Where the lights went off
There’s nobody home
Where did you go?
Oh baby we got so close
My darling where did you go?
Where the lights went out
And there ain’t nobody home
Oh where did you go?
Oh my baby we got so close



I got my finger on the trigger
Got your number in my phone
I wanna call, I wanna say
Baby wont you come on over?
And I hear those bells ringing
I hear my devil start to sing
He says ‘

So you can find me on the street
Where I been dragging my feet
Yeah I been dragging them round all night
I went back up to that store
And that girl don’t work there no more
She ain’t been working there for quite some time
Quite some time
Quite some time

Oh baby where did you go?
Where the lights went off
There’s nobody home
Where did you go?
Oh baby we got so close
My darling where did you go?
Where the lights went out
And there ain’t nobody home
Oh where did you go?
Oh my baby we got so close?

Shooting Schedule

Me and my group have been shooting material for the past week now. However, we haven't been able to come up with a set shooting schedule due to the fact we have to rely on when our actors are available to film, therefore the day we will be able to shoot will alter each week. Although, we shall use periods 3 and 4 when we have a double media lesson with ms Barton every Monday to shoot, as that two hours is valuable time in which we can cover shooting a fair amount of footage. The times for these periods are as follows:

• 11.20-1.20pm every Monday
• Evening shots 7.00-9.00pm

Furthermore, we are trying to spend at least around two to three hours a week of filming footage for our music video, until we have finished and can move onto editing and producing an editing schedule.

Male Actor

Unfortunately, our group have suffered with finding an appropriate male actor with enough time to be able to film footage for our music video. Our male protagonist was going to be a sixth form student called Jonny Lawrence, yet unfortunately he didn't have enough time to be able to participate in our music video. Therefore, our new male protagonist is Tamas Dalmay, who is actually in our media group to begin with. We chose to use Tamas because of him being in our media group, we know he has the time to act as our male protagonist, as we can use valuable media meeting sessions to film, or double media lessons we have in which we are allowed to go out and film in. However, Tamas is still a suitable person to use, due to the fact he is a good looking guy, therefore it is easy to visualize him with a girlfriend. Also, he has the right style which we are looking for, and he is of appropriate height that fits our profile for an actor.

Development of Ideas

Below are photos of me and my group discussing possible ideas for when we film our music video. Here we are in Starbucks, and as we were drinking coffee we have come up with certain techniques and hooks to make our music video more interesting to watch, as we have decided that our music video will be based purely on narrative.
We have decided that we shall use different movements within our video. For example, as part of our narrative involves our male protagonist walking down a street in his search for our female protagonist, we could have him walking backwards down the street. From this, we developed an idea of our male protagonist being shot lying down on a cobbled pavement, and then we film our actor through a panning mid shot of him walking backwards alongside the pavement. With the masked idea, we have also begun to think that to add a warped affect to our music video, we could have the odd mask appearing from time to time throughout the first verse of the song, to increase the spooky feel.

Furthermore, throughout the rift part of our song, we thought that in the location of a church yard, (which there is a photograph of in another blog post further down) we could have our male protagonist being invaded by about ten masked creatures, and as they circle around our male protagonist he could faint and perhaps even black out in the middle of the circle, which will be shot by a birds eye view shot if possible. If not then we shall shoot this scene through a long shot.

Finally, the next idea will become more clear through our storyboards, but as an idea we thought that at one particular point in the music video, we could have our male protagonist actually punch the wall in his frustration as he can't find our female protagonist. We thought that this could be achieved through perhaps editing this into slow motion to add to the effect that he has lost hope. This would be filmed through a close shop, and then the shot will cut into a shot of broken glass and our male protagonist hand bleeding. This would signify our actors pain and suffering and feeling of desperation.
The genre of our music video is "Indie" which although is a diverse and large genre, it is also one of the biggest currently in the world of music.

Location Maps

Below is a map showing the location of Colegate Street:
Below is a location map showing Princes Street:

Below is a location map showing Tombland, which is surrounded by streets with possible locations that we could use for filming.

Below is a photo of Elm Hill, which is possibly one of our most important locations, due to there cobbled streets:

Costumes

As a group, we have decided that because the band New York Fund is an Indie band, we need to base our costumes on what an Indie band would wear. Stereotypically, this would be that our male protagonist would be wearing clothes such as skinny jeans, checked shirts, waist jackets and accessories such as trilby hats, which are items of clothing that particularly make the Indie style stand out to an audience. Below is a picture of a jet black waist jacket, which would either be worn over a checked shirt, or perhaps over a plain white t-shirt. The best colour to use would be black as it stands out against the shirt.




Below is a photo of skinny jeans, which is the main item of clothing which is essential for our male protagonist to wear, as skinny jeans are a classic signifier for Indie bands to wear, and when you watch music videos by bands such as "Razorlight," "U2," and "Pet Shop Boys," you always see them wear skinny jeans. Fortunately, our actor Jonny Lawrence owns skinny jeans to begin with, therefore it wont be a problem for us to get hold of some. Skinny jeans are also a symbol which reflect popular culture amongst young teenagers at the moment, and for the time being they are very much in the trends. Whether or not next year the trends will stay the same next year is a different matter as they could be the considered a laughing stock, yet at the moment they are an important item of clothing to include in a music video as they symbolise Indie bands as the members all wear skinny jeans at concerts and in music videos. More "Indie" bands which are an example of this include Rosalita, which are actually a local Norwich group. I've been to see Rosalita perfrom live at The Waterfront (a Norwich Gig Venue) and they were the spitting image of an Indie band, due to there dress wear consisting of the league singer wearing skinny jeans, checked shirts, and a waist coat.



The next photo shows a picture of a trilby hat, which although isn't an essential item to have our male protagonist wear, it tops of the Indie look, as a trilby hat is quite individual and stands out to an audience. A trilby hat would also stand out on a music video because it looks unique and makes our male protagonist stand out and look more eye catching. Furthermore, the most important reason is that a hat will help make our actor look like he defiantly belongs in an Indie music video.

The final photo shows a checked shirt, which as a group we thought would look stylish with a black waist coat over the top. Checked shirts are always worn by members of Indie bands and are very current at the moment in terms of teen trends. For example, when logging onto an online shopping site such as Topman, it is flooded with checked shirts. Therefore, as a result checked shirts like skinny jeans reflect popular culture at the moment, and every time you see checked shirts teenagers associate them with Indie bands. Therefore as a group we decided it was crucial to include a checked shirts.

Below is a link to Topman, which shows how skinny jeans anc checked shirts reflect popular culture. For example, Topman is a very current shop where a huge amount of teenagers shop and buy clothes from. I know this because I work for the Arcadia group which owns Topshop and Topman, and we make a huge amount of profit, in which we have to rely on teengers who are our main target auidence to buy the clothes:

http://www.topman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=17551&storeId=12555&categoryId=38981&langId=-1&top=Y

Meeting Schedule

At sixth form we work over a two week timetable, therefore on the first week we have four hours worth of media meetings, (not including media studies lessons) and on the second week we also have another four hours worth of media meetings.

In this time, we discuss exactly what we are going to film, where we are planning to film, (which mise en scene we shall use out of our choice of locations) and plan and make sure our storyboards have been finalized. Furthermore, we shall also use these meetings to edit our music video after we have finished the filming process, as well as using editing time during our media studies lessons. Time to film our music video will be sometimes used in these meetings schedules so we are able to get as much finished as possible.

The exact timings in which we are meeting are:

Week 1: Wednesday = 10.00am - 11.00am Thursday = 10.00am - 11.00am Friday = 12.20pm - 1.20pm 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Week 2: Monday = 3.00pm - 4.00pm Wednesday = 12.20pm - 1.20pm Thursday = 10.00am - 11.00am Friday = 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Update on our Actor

Unfortunately, our actor Guy Walker who was going to originally play the part of our male protagonist is no longer able to take the part on. However, we have found another actor "Jonny Lawrence" who has agreed to play the part instead. We chose Jonny Lawrence because of his good style and how he fits the part of playing our male protagonist in an Indie genre music video. For example, Jonny has good style and wears clothes such as skinny jeans, checked shirts and cardigans; exactly the type of style we were aiming for. Below is a photo of "Razorlight" showing the members of the band wearing the type of clothes we need our male protagonist to wear:

For example, what particularly stood out with the band Razorlight, is the shirts with their buttons done up right to the rim of their necks, which is a classic Indie music video signifier. Another classic signifier is the skinny jeans which the band are wearing, emphasizing their "Indie look." These are the type of clothes which Jonny wears, which is the reason why he would be a good actor to play our male protagonist, perhaps even more so than our original actor Guy Walker.

More Photo's of Possible Locations

Above is a photo of a cobbled street, which is a perfect location for us as a group, mainly because we need a variety of interesting and picturesque streets, as walking along a street is what our music video is based around. Above is a simple mid shot of the street, which is the shot type we were thinking of using for our music video, so the audience has a clear view of our male protagonist walking.

This is a photo of Elm Hill, which is most likely to main our main and most used location due to its authentic buildings, and most importantly, the street doesn't look commercial. This is a key point for us, as we most defiantly don't want commerical shops in the background, such as "Jarrolds," or "Just Add Water." We also like the tree in the background, due to the fact it makes the mise en scene look pretty; perfect for a romantic storyline. This is a photo of a Willow Tree, which as a group we defiantly would like to include in our music video, as it is very pretty, and as a result, perfect for a love story. What's nice about the mid shot we have also used is that you can see the river in between the Willow Tree. As a result, it's a possibility to have our male protagonist spying at our female protagonist through the trees as she's running on the opposite side of the river.

Above is a mid shot of a river, which we could use as a possible mise en scene for one of our shots for our male protagonist to walk past, as it looks picturesque with a nice red brick building along the side. This particular scene our group thought would look effective in either a blue filter or in black and white film noir, as the scenery as a whole will look perfect for a love story. This river is also next to a bridge which we can have our male protagonist running along in his search for a girl.
Above is a photo of a massive old building which used to be a factory, but has now be turned into offices. This building is impressive and looks nice with the willow trees covering it. We are hoping we could perhaps use a long shot of this building in our music video because it is an older building and doesn't look commercial in any way. Therefore the audience can be transformed out of Norwich and believe that they are in another place altogether.

This is a long shot of the river and we liked this shot type because of the bridge which shows how we could use this location in our music video. Our initial idea is that we can have our male protagonist run across the bridge, then stop, and look like he has given up and as if he is in despair. We are also thinking about having the odd mask appear around him with our female protagonist face on it to spook him out.

Above is a photo of again another cobbled street. We may not use this as a location, because compared to our other locations with cobbled streets, this is the one we like the least, simply because the buildings don't stand out enough compared to the ones of Elm Hill and the cobbled street by the river.
This is a mid shot of the bridge which is the same bridge as an earlier photo. However, this shot shows in a clearer vision what could be achieved in terms of effectiveness. For example, we think that this bridge is perfect to use in a love story, as it doesn't look as if we are filming in a city, yet it gives of an impression we are filming in a more obscure location like a romantic countryside.

Out of all the photos taken, this is my favourite because of the candy floss coloured buildings, and the symmetrical shaped cobbled path which is a perfect location to use in our music video! Also, it is by the river so it a romantic setting to use for a love story. To use this street, I think a long shot would work best, due to the fact the audience can see down the whole street and all the buildings, almost resembling "Yellow Brick Road." This scene also looks very authentic and not modern in any way, which is perfect for what we need. Above is a long shot of a normal road, which our group picked to photograph due to the old buildings, and the way it doesn't look too modern so we can use it as a possible street for our male protagonist to walk across in attempt to find our female protagonist which he is lusting after.

This is a possible location we thought we could use during the rift part of our song choice, but not in this particular part as it's too dangerous as the it's filled with broken glass. Yet around the side of this church which is shown in the photo below, we could use when our male protagonist is being chased by the masked extras and he feels trapped by them.

This is the courtyard of the church, which is the location we are going to use for the rift part of the song when our male protagonist is cornered by our masks. Reasoning for this is that we liked the way that when you use a long shot of the archway, the shape matches up perfectly to the church window in the distance. This is effective and a church is a great setting for our music video as it's an old piece of architecture. Furthermore, we plan to have our male protagonist perhaps faint when he is cornered by the masks, and have him black out right in the middle, whilst using a long shot so it captures all the building.

Overall, all these shots are of British cultural references, especially locations such as the river and the old English church yard.

Response to our letter asking permission to use Nobody Home by New York Fund

What are your idea's for the music video?

Please contact me

This wasn't the best response we could have had, as they haven't given consent yet but we will email them our ideas and hopefully they will like them and give us permission to use Nobody home.

More Locations for Music Video

This street is of a good location near the shop "Just Add Water," and we liked the mise en scene of it because of the authentic looking street and older style buildings, which will look good for certain scenes in our music video.

This is another back street, which we liked because of the red building as it connotes passion, love and danger. We could also use this street for filming various shot while our actor is chasing our female protagonist.

We decided as a group to photograph this following street, mainly based on the colours and architect of the buildings, as we think they will stand out and look effective for the audience. Especially the yellow colour of the building above. We are also thinking about maybe including colour filters; such as blue in the music video, to signify a mood change of the single.

What really stood out to me in this photograph is the white and black old building to the side, which is perfect to use as a mise en scene for our music video, as me and my group decided that we wanted only older looking buildings and not modern ones.

This is just a photograph of the name of one of the streets we shall use to film, and we took a photo of it so we could remember the name of the street. A photo of a tunnel which is on the street is shown below.

In the photo above, we liked the way the photo has caught the light against the dark mise en scene, as again it looks like it would fir the mise en scene for a spooky music video. The shot also looks claustrophobic and you can visualize the image of masked extras crowding the ally way, which would look stunning shot in black and white, inspired by a film noir image.

The above picture is a photo of the tunnel in daylight, as we wanted an image which showed us a way in which we could use light effectively, as some of the lyrics in our song references light.

This is a photo of "Old Post Office Court," which we liked because of the tunnel at the end which has a claustrophobic feel to it, which we thought we could use when the faced masks are chasing our male protagonist, and he feels trapped as he has almost reached a dead end.

We shot this building because of the winding staircases, in which our male protagonist can run up in an attempt to run away from the masks ans chase after our female protagonist.

This is a high angle shot of the staircase, to give us an idea of the shot types we can use in our music video. For example high angle and low angle.

This a photo taken from the building with the staircase again, as we were experimenting with the variety of shots we can use in our music video, to make it not seem boring.


Both these buildings together look very authentic, and we liked the green colour of the building as it will make out music video look more interesting to watch if there are more colours involved.

This is another picture of the building, but obviously taken with more light, so we could experiment with what lighting would look best and more effective for our music video.

Overall, all these photo's show possible locations for our music video. We have so many as we are trying to include a variety of different locations so are music video will keep our adueicnes interest. We are also attempting to use locations which will make our music video contain a warped atmosphere about it, as the new theme of our music video is going to be scary, with recurring images of masks. Warped atmosphere means our group aspiring to make our msuic video contain a quirky yet sinister edge. For example, giving our music video the illusion of it not conveying normal life. We particuarly like the use of the stair case in the building above as we could use it as a mise en scene for our actor being cornered by the masks and he feels that there is no escape.