Storyboards

How Goodwins Theory is Applied to Music Videos

To begin with, Goodwin's theory consists of a music video having to demonstrate genre characters (e.g. a stage performance in a metal video or a dance routine for a stereotypical pop band). There also has to be an amplifying relationship between the lyrics and visuals, as well as between the music and visuals. This relationship has to be preferably illustrative and contradicting. Due to demands of the record label, the music video has to include plenty of close up shots in order to promote the band/artist, and the artist may develop motifs which shall recur across their work. Goodwin also proposes that there will be frequently referenced to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Finally, there is often inter textual references to films and TV programmes etc. For example, with an "Indie band," such as Razorlight "Wire to Wire" uses the image of a match which is contrasted against the black mise en scene and close up of the lead singers face. This is a sign of using shots to promote the artist, thus also a sign of amplifying the relationship between the lyrics and visual. The use of the match is also very symbolic and connotes a theme of love and passion.



Furthermore, the contrasting light show an amplifying relationship between the music and the visuals. The way that the shot is continuous so you can permanently see the lead singers face of the band is exactly what Goodwin proposes in order to make a successful music video, as it makes the face of Razorlight become well known and consequently successful. As a result, people will recognise them, thus making them more popular. This also results in more record sales, concert ticket sales and overall a popular band.

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!