Research into Magazine Adverts

From this task I have learnt what magazine adverts do to promote an artist and their songs. They do it by highlighting their name and adding what the songs have won to get the audience interested in the artist and their songs.

Research into Digipaks

For this task I have written about artists and their albums. I have learnt what a Digipak is, and seen the techniques the artists use on their digipaks to engage the audience. This has helped me in order to make my own as I can take ideas from their digipaks and use them on my own.

Music Channels

From this task I haven learnt more about music videos and who owns them. I can see that they are key in advertising songs through videos; the songs get more recognition by having a music video. I can use these methods for my music video to get it 'seen'.

Research into the Relevant Genre

From doing this Prezi I have learnt more about the Synthpop genre; what is included in them, what was successful about them and the most influential. I can see that lighting is a huge part of the synthpop genre and will use this for a greater effect in my music video.

Analysis of the Lyrics

I printed out the lyrics and put them on a piece of paper so I could analyse the lyrics. I highlighted specific lines and write down some ideas that I could do in my video. This is what I came up with:

From this I was able to get some structure for my video and some good ideas down. This has helped me to plan my video as from my survey I could see that the audience like to see visual interpretation of the lyrics; so by analysing the lyrics and writing ideas for what I could do for them allowed me to have a visual interpretation of the lyrics. My video will link to the lyrics.

I then started thinking about what the lyrics were talking about as a whole. My first thought was insomnia; so I write down ideas what people do when they can't sleep. I then looked at the song from a different point of view; the person might not want to sleep because they might be scared of their dreams, or the dream world is much better than their real life - they want to stay asleep and not wake up.

This allowed me to get another scene in my head as I quite liked the idea of the dream world. The small picture shows what the scene will roughly look like; the singer and his friends stargazing. I haven't decided if this will be part of his dream or will be reality; but I could make the video so the audience don't know what's real and what isn't - the singer could wake up in his room but have an item from the camping/dream world in his room.

Inspiration and Influences

This task has helped me gather inspiration mainly from other music videos outside of my genre and from films. I like the idea of a 'dream land' as the song fireflies links quite closely to this, depending on how I go about the song. In other music videos they make it clear that it's a fantasy by adding special editing effects on the screen, such as making it yellow like in Paramore's video, or editing extra lights like in Katy's. In Ellie's video (which is in my genre), edited lights are around her and they fly about. I like this idea, and will use it for my own music video.

Filming/Editing Schedule

  

This is a guideline for when I will be filming and editing my A2 music video. The blue boxes are when I plan to be filming and the green boxes are when I plan to edit. The red boxes are for any extra filming I need to do if I think of any new ideas/need to re-record something.

Health and Safety Evidence

Editing Software Plan

I will use Adobe Premier Pro and even After Effects to edit my music video.

While editing I will experiment with a few different things to enhance my music video:
-Colour correction - I will record my video in the day, but I want it to be set at night. I will change the colours by bringing them down to almost black and white and adjusting it more by using the curves tool. This will make it seem like it's been filmed in night.
-Adding additional lights - I will edit in a light using after effects which will go around the screen.
-Animated sheep - I will need to use after effects to create a sheep which links to the song's lyrics.
-Brightness - I can brighten some areas of my video for example the lights to make them seem brighter and stand out more.
-Lens flare - I could add lens flare to my video like from what I've seen before in my research.

Contact with the Artist

Below is a copy of my letter that I write to Universal Republic, asking for permission to use Owl City's fireflies song.

Dear Universal Republic,
I am an A Level student studying at John Cabot Academy and am writing to you to ask permission to use Owl City's fireflies song as for my A2 music video. I am writing to tell you that I will use it for education purposes only, and will not portray the artist in a negative way. I hope you will accept my request for the usage of the song for my media coursework.
Thank-you for taking the time to read this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Leah Riley

This letter is good as by asking for permission I am freely allowed to use their song and have it not taken down or have the audio muted by YouTube. The company will know I am using their song and can't claim against it.

Props List

Small Tent - To be placed in the background when shooting the ending scenes.

Jar - For the glow sticks to be placed in.

Glow sticks - To be cracked and then leaked into the jars to create glowing jars.

Globe - To turn around slowly - links to lyrics.

Guitar - For the artist to be playing.

Disco Ball - Links to lyrics.

Bed - Could start in a bedroom - dreaming on a bed.

Glitter - To put in jars.

Blankets - To lay on in the ending scenes.

Lights - To add to the scenes.

Raw Footage of Locations

Photographs of Locations

One of the places I plan to film in is a field. I also plan to film in my bedroom. I chose these locations because they're reliable.

Costume Planning

For my music video I plan to have at least 4 people featured in it. Based on my research I want all of them to wear casual clothing which consists of jeans/trousers and a plain shirt with a hoodie. I think this suits my genre (synthpop) as it's about everyday life which links to the song. There will be two boys and two girls in my music video; all wearing similar clothing. One girl will have a hat on to symbolize it's cold. These are pictures of the costume and the actual people who will be taking part in my music video. The artist will wear different colour shirts; in the bedroom scene he will have a plain shirt on which will be either of the ones below.


Artist:

Boy 2:

Girl 1:

Girl 2:

Moodboard

Initial Planning Ideas