The Treatment

My group spent a considerable amount of time on our treatment, we talked through and decided on a story line and what we wanted to happen in every scene. We the further discussed the camera shots, locations and props we would need for every shot/scene we wanted to film.

0-8s
Point Of View shot of a scrapbook opening, the photographs of Ben and Lilly inside the book are changing as the pages change

9-20s
Long shot of Ben knocking on cottage door for Lilly, she comes out to play, they run up the path

21-23s
Long shot behind Ben and Lilly Running down a dusty path in the countryside

24-28s
Shot from the side panning Ben and Lilly running down the path in the countryside

29-32s
Low angle long shot from behind of Ben and Lilly walking through meadow holding hands

33-35s
Med shot from a low angle of Ben and Lilly laying on the grass in the meadow looking at clouds and pointing

36-37s
A gigh angle shot of Ben and Lilly look at each other, they are still sitting on the grass in the meadow

38-42s
Lilly pushes ben in a friendly way, shot from behind of both Ben and Lilly

43-46s
The band are singing the chorus in a field, the lead singer is looking through the camera, with the rest of the band singing the backing vocals. The camera tilts from the ground to normal level, long shot of band

47-50s
Side on view of the band singing the backing vocals; ‘Sun is shining‘

51-54s
A medium shot of the lead singer singing the chorus in the countryside

55-57s
Zoom in on lead singer in the Countryside

58-59s
The band singing in the countryside

1:00-1.02m
The camera pans around the band of the band singing the chorus in the field

1:02-1:025m
A high angle shot of Ben is asleep in bed

1:026-1:09m
Close up of clock sped up showing time progress, photo animation showing him grow up

1:10-1:15m
A long shot of Ben walking to work, he walks past the cottage where Lilly used to live

1:16-1:21m
Medium shot of the band in a tree singing

1:23-1:26m
Med shot behind Ben walking down the path, he then knocks on the cottage door

1:27-1:30m
Cottage door opens:Point Of View shot of Ben arguing with the Mum by the front door of the cottage

1:31-1:33m
POV of the mum slamming the door shut

1:34-1:36m
Medium shot from the right of Ben sitting on a bench waiting for the train to go to work

1:37-1:39m
Med shot opposite Ben on the train, reading the newspaper, the headline of the newspaper is ‘sun is shining’

1:40-1:42m
Over the shoulder POV of Ben reading the newspaper. The images are animations of the band singing and Ben and Lilly together

1:43-1:46m
Med shot of Ben dropping the paper and getting off the train

1:47-1:51m
Long shot tracking Ben walking past the station ads. The ads are of Him and Lilly in the past, waving at the camera

1:52-1:56m
ADVERT:Medium shot of Ben and Lilly run into the field behind them laughing and looking happy

1:57-1:59m
The camera zooms into the ad

2:00-2:03m
Long shot from behind of Ben and Lilly running through the meadow

2:04-2:06m
Long shot from in front of Ben and Lilly running through the meadow towards the camera

2:07-2:09m
(medium shot) Ben and Lilly stop, they look at each other and hold hands

2:10-2:12m
Close up of Ben and Lilly holding hands

2:13-2:14m
Long shot of Lilly pushing Ben to the ground, she then runs out of the cameras views (meadow)

2:15-2:16m
Ben gets up and chases Lilly , they both run past the camera to the left (Long shot)

2:17- 2:19m
Long shot from behind Ben and Lilly, then run though the meadow

2:20-2:25m
Long shot of Lilly running over the stepping stones

2:26-2:31m
Long shot of Ben chasing Lilly over the stepping stones

2:32-2:35m
Long shot of the band running through the field doing kart wheels and fooling around

2:36-2:38m
Close up of the lead singer doing a kart wheel

2:39- 2:42m
Medium shot of the band are all sitting in the field, laughing and joking

2:43-2:46m
Long shot of the Band are running through the meadow

2:47-2:50m
Low angle shot looking up at Ben and Lilly sitting on the bridge with their legs dangling of the

2.51-2:52m
Long shot from the right of Ben and Lilly sitting on a bridge with their legs hanging off

2:53-2:54m
Med shot from behind Ben and Lilly sitting on a bridge with their legs hanging off

2:55-2:56m
Close up of Lilly’s hand on top of Bens

2:56-2:58m
Med shot from behind of Lilly fading out and leaving Ben sitting on his own on the Bridge

2:59-3:01m
A medium close up of the Book closing, ‘The end’ is written on the back cover

Desk
Camera zooms out and returns to the book from the beginning (POV down on book)

Bricolage

Three main influences for our music video:

Flickr:
Flickr is an online site where unknown photographers upload their photographs on the site for all to see, its a way of gaining publicity and also to get their photographs well known. From October 2009 the site hosted over 4 billion images.

> We liked the effect created of the sun shining in the background and the couple walking through the long grass holding hands, we thought this looks really good and wanted to create something along the same lines as this. We also like the grainy effect that the picture had.

> At the start of our music video we wanted to show a POV shot of some one opening a scrapbook. They would flick through the pages until they find a picture of a boy and girl running though long grass in a field. We wanted the scrapbook to look old and full of memories, something like the book in the picture to the left.

> Half way through our music video the boy turns up at the girls house, we wanted the cottage to look almost picturesque, with a dirt path and surronded by wild flowers. We want the cottage to have style and character, but also fit in with style of our music video. Overall, when we found this picture on Flickr we knew we wanted something along the lines of the cottage pictured.

DrawPictures:
DrawPictures is a website where lots of visionary directors, writers artists and producers work together to create all types of visual media, this visual media is then uploaded onto the site for all to see. The site hosts different kinds of video genres, from commercial to journalistic content. The site explores new ways to integrate and market cinematic entertainment.

There was one particular video by an editor called 'GoodTimes', we looked at some of their video's and came across a music video for a song called 'Can't Stop Moving' by Sonny Jim, when we came across this fun loving video my we (my group) knew that we wanted to gain the same kind of effect that this particular video used. We liked the grainy effect the video had, we thought this gave the video a really nice sun kissed look. We liked how the video was filmed next to a big ugly block of flats but the video still looked really good and professional despite this.

(http://www.drawpictures.co.uk/promo-directors/goodtimes.go)

The Feeling:
The feeling were one of our main influences, mainly because they sung the song we were making a music video for, we tried to base our video on some of The Feeling's previous video's. We liked parts of the 'Join With Us' video and we tried to replicate the scene where the band is running through long grass doing cartwheels and hand stands.

- These two pictures are clips from The Feelings 'Join With US' music video, this is the effect that we want to create. A grainy effect with the band running through long grass messing around. This will contrast well with Ben and Lilly's troubled relationship.

Analysis of a Music Video: Pendulum - Granite

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQA1d0QQvf8)

This music video is very different compared to other video's because its make up of hundreds of different news reports and home videos suggesting paranormal activity. The quick and snappy editing fits in with the genre of the song, drum and bass.
At the start of the video the camera is zoomed in on blurry pictures which are hard to make out what they really are, when the song actually kicks in the camera flicks to and then zooms in on lots of different pictures of UFO spaceships in the sky, this brings about speculation to whether they are really real. There are several home video clips of families at Christmas and on the beach.

Storybording

To make filming easier my group storyboard our treatment, this meant that when it came to filming we knew exactly the shot and angle we needed. This would be a good time saver, as we anticipated that it would be hard for us to film a whole video shoot in one day, this is why we decided to draw the storyboards so when we start filming we can take them along and get through the filming nice and easily.

Shot 1/ Scene 1

Shot 10/Scene 1

Scene 20/Shot 1

Scene 30/Shot 1

Scene 20/Shot 1

Scene 47/Shot 1

Analysis of a Music Video: Lily Allen - LDN

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p_V0y7C9vc)

LDN is short hand for London, in the video Lily is walking round singing about how great London is. The video starts when Lily is is a record shop talking to shop assistant about a genre of music she is interested in when her phone rings, she is chatting to someone for a few seconds, but we can gather from this that she is going to meet someone. She puts down the phone and the music starts. Before the music starts diajetic sound is present, she is having a conversation with the record shop assistant and there is music playing in the background.

Lilly then walks out of the shop and the shop transformes into a new modern record shop. When Lily sings about London she makes it seem like its not as nice as every one says it is, as if its all a lie. And this is what the director has used in this video, changing the colours and scenery to a much more desirable setting.

After walking out of the record shop, Lily turns to her left and walks down the street, the view behind her continues to change behind her, the rough looking street transforms into a posh looking row of houses. The camera changes to a close up of a lolly pop on the floor, as Lily walks past it, the lolly pop changes to a needle. Also later on in the video we see a £5 note placed on the floor, as Lily walks past, this note changes to excroment. This again enhancing that what people say about London is a lie, and Lily is trying to show the real truth about it.

Lily then shortly arrives at her destination at a lovely row of shops, the sun is shining and everyone is smiling. Her phone rings shortly after she arrives, from what we can gather from the phone call, whoever Lily was meant to be meeting has not turned up. As soon as she puts the phone down the area changes to a derolict row of shops, the sky in over cast and grey and diajetic sound starts again, such as road works and people speaking.

Throghout the video Lily is wearing a smart red ball dress, yet again contrasting with the dull and gloomy backgrounds. This is also in keeping with her trademark ball dress and trainers look. The shots flow in soft transitions, there is no fast editing throughout the whole video. The video and music are happy and jolly, but when Lily starts singing the lyrics suggest otherwise. They are as follows:
When you look with your eyes,
Everything looks nice,
But when you look twice,
You can see its all lies,

The video is sometimes in contrast with the lyrics as the video starts of in a record shop which looks post and presentable, as soon as Lily walks away from the record shop, the setting changes to a derelict shop.

Feminism

Feminists look at the way men and women are portrayed in the media, and by doing this the challenge the power structures and the roles of women. The media feeds us stereotypes of men and women, and its these stereo types that feminists are trying to change. Masculinity is seen as having strong, hard working and dominant, where females are seen to at home cleaning and looking after children, they are usually portrayed timid and look up to dominant males. This stereotype determine by the media and what culture think. Most feminists argue its about the visual gratification of women now, and now what they do - its about how they look. Because of this, women are made to adjust them selves through men's eye's.

Naomi Wolf – ‘beauty is a currency, like the gold standard. Like any economy it is determine by politics and the modern age in the west. It is the last best politics system that keeps males domination in tack.’

Music video's conserning feminism
Rihanna – Disturbia: The video mainly contains men, Rihanna is singing about how she is being held captive, there are scenes in the video when she is chained up and struggling to escape. Feminists would argue that it shows she looks week, she is clearly being controlled by men.

Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot : There are about four women in the video, they are always standing behind Snoop Dog and the other rappers. They are dancing seductively with minimal clothes on, they are portrayed as objects and not people. Apart from the women dancing, the other people in the video are all men.

Post Modernism

Post modernism is described as a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions. Post modernism rejects the normal codes and conventions, it also doesn't like the idea that ‘Shakespeare’ is more important than a normal everyday advert. It subverting things is the way forward, things change their meaning and are then re-used. For example, a cardigan that your nan got you at Christmas isn't fashionable, a few year later, it becomes fashionable so you start to wear it.
In most post modern articles now days, there isn't a meaning (Empire of The Sun - We Are The People: it doesn't matter how hard you look for a meaning in this video, you wont ever find one). Post modernism is about playfulness and taking ideas and putting them in your head.

Post modernism makes us look at the media in three new ways
1. Simulation: We don't need to go to Africa, It's on the TV. Everything is simulated and not real anymore
2. Implosion: We don't see the difference between things anymore, speaking to your friend online or speaking to them normally.
3. Hyper reality:

Music Video's concerning Post Modernism
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet: This video is very futuristic and at the same time its very 90's. Its in the form of a 90's video game. However, it breaks the normal codes and conventions of a music video because it doesn't have a narrative and because its int eh form of a video game.

Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow: This video is very post modernism, just like Move Your Feet it breaks he normal codes and conventions, its computer generated and there is nothing else like it at the moment.

Other Post Modern Media Texts
Mighty Booch
Abstract Art
The Maytrics

Analysis of a Music Video: Rihanna - Disturbia

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6zdhHLvT7k)

Disturbia means contemplating or being disturbed about something, the song is about how Rihanna's mind is in Disturbia. This is obvious from the video set up, with all the dark colours, fast pace shots and flashing lights its clear the genre is related to horror in some way. The way the actors dance and flash from scene to scene make the underlying theme of the video seem evil and that there is something bad happening.

During the introductory period the camera flicks to a man who is turning a big ship like steering wheel, this gives me the impression that Rihanna is on a boat. In some scenes she appears to be tied up and help captive and in other shots she appears to be captain. This swapping or roles gives me an impression of juxtaposition, when good and bad or black and white are placed next to each other, in this case, its a prisoner and a captain.

At the start of the video Rihanna is sitting on an office like chair with dancers behind her, she looks almost superior to them, like they are her slaves. During the opening sequence, the camera flicks to a shot of Rihanna behind bars, there is a guard standing to the right hand side off the shot, it almost looks like she is being held capture under the watchful eye of a guard. Later on we see Rihanna with a rope round her wrist, she is struggling to escape, this enforces the fact that she is being held against her will.

Roughly half way through the video, the camera flashes to a scene with dancers, the shot is lit from behind, this gives the dancers an almost silhouette look about them. The dancers are dancing simultaneously to the beat of the song and almost look like zombies, to be more specific; they look like zombies from 'Michael Jackson’s' 'Thriller'.

The editing is very jumpy and cuts quickly to the next shot leaving no time for the viewer to look at characters properly and draw meaning from the video. The editing sometimes moves to the beat of the song. The lyrics match the codes and conventions of the music video, the first lyrics of the song are:

What’s wrong with me?

Why do I feel like this?

I'm going crazy now

Rihanna is asking us what’s wrong with her, why does she feel this way. Then she tells us she is going crazy now as a result of this. This is shown in the video by the scary looking dancers and the location, its always dark and looks very industrial and uninviting.

Camera movements in this video are no longer than two seconds, this is to keep in timing with the video as many shots change on the sound of the beat and to the fast pace music. The shots continue to flash on and off throughout the video. At some points in the video it is clear that some shots have been played over each other, for example, 44 seconds into the video we see Rihanna sitting on a thrown like chair, then her face appears in the left hand side of the camera. The two shots have been played over each other so you can see two clips at one time. Giving the impression that one shot is an imagination.

Short snippets of film and still images are constantly played over each other to give the impression that an actor or Rihanna is moving, when in real life it just a fast played sequence of still images and short clips. half way through the video (roughly 1 minute and 46 seconds), we see a dance scene where this technique is used to make still images look like the actors are moving/dancing.

While in this video Rihanna is playing herself in the narrative she does however perform to the camera, the camera is usually focused on her, and if not, one of her dancers. In most shots Rihanna is aware of the camera but in some she is not, and doesn't try to sing onto the camera, for example, at 3 minutes and 20 seconds into the video, we see Rihanna chained up by her hands and by her ankle, she is sitting on a chair struggling, and trying to escape. She does not notice the camera till the end of the scene, this is one of the longer scenes of video.

Close ups and medium close ups are regally used in this film to capture the emotions of the characters.

The lighting in this video is done very artistically, the scenes are mostly dark, but the scenes that are lit are usually lit from behind. Creating a silhouette like appearance on the dancers and actors. This fits in well with the mise-en-scene and creates a dark and eery look just like the rest of the video. In some shots fire is present, also enhancing the dark and evil theme.

When the scenes are lit, they are lit my long cylinder like florescent white lights. in some scenes when they are quite dark, the florescent-lights glow and emphasize the mise-en-scene.

Sound in the video is mostly non diajetic (the music) apart from the beginning and then end when there is diajetic sound. You see Rihanna run her fingers along the piano keys which makes a noise, this sound of the piano keeps playing throughout the introduction and until the music starts. The shots change on the sound of the piano, the camera flicks to a dancer who is chained up, this dancer moves to the sound of the of the piano noise. The editors have used sound very cleverly in this introduction, using the music as diajetic sound, like its not meant to be there and the characters have created it.

Task: Questions

1. How does the music video content relate to the song's subject matter and lyrics?

The video and lyrics to the song relate well together, Rihanna is talking about being 'in Disturbia', and then later on in the song she says 'release me from this curse, I’m trying to escape but I’m struggling'. In the music video during these two parts of the song, Rihanna is behind some metal bars, her eyes are fully white like she has a curse upon her; she is pulling at the bars and looks distressed. This relates back to the lyrics as she says 'release me from this curse', and 'I’m trying to escape'. This makes the lyrics more real and emphasizes the video and it meanings.

2. How do the place and atmosphere generated by the mise-en-scene and technical code relate to the musical style and vocal delivery?

The place that the video is recorded at looks very horror film like, its dark and eery scenes emphasize the atmosphere generated by the mise-en-scene and technical codes. The beats to the song are fast and exciting, true to the genre, the music video follows along with this, its fast and jumpy editing creates an unusual sense of evil, something like you would find in a horror film.

Analysis' of Music Videos

I wanted to do some extensive research on different types of music videos as this would help my group when we come to making our own music video. I gathered together some videos from different genres and analyzed them, I got several video's from different genres as it would help me to decide what the codes and conventions are for different genres.

I have analysed:
Rihanna - Disturbia
Lily Allen - LDN
Pendulum - Grantie
Empire of The Sun - We Are The Peopl
The Feeling - Never Be Lonely

The Song: 'The Sun Is Shining'

Our first decision was to decide what song we chose as this would determine everything about our coursework, our group decided to use a b-side track by the feeling called 'The sun is shining'. We decided to use this track as its never been released as a single so there isn't any copy right laws against us using it.

First we started on thinking about stereotypical music video's for a song called 'the sun is shining', we came up with the idea of a boy and a girl running through long grass with the sun shining in the background. The couple should appear to be happy and in love.

Then we started to think about underlying themes we could run with, one which was of a much deeper and darker meaning. So my group started to brainstorm, an we came up with the idea of raining city center, with gangs and knives. Something that you wouldn't expect with a song called 'The Sun Is Shining'.

We then decided that the darker music video would look good but overall decided that the 1st idea would be the better option as it was more suited to the song even though our group liked the darker themed video.

Overall the song, The Sun Is Shining' is a happy and jolly piece of pop music, but after intensely analysis the lyrics, we decided to subvert the normal ideas that are conveyed when listening to this song with a deeper, more meaningful music video that looks at the story of the song, which actually is sad and depressing in comparison with the melody of the song.

To convey the message my group decided to split our video into two parts; the first being the present and the second being the past. To create this we would include a grainy 60’s/70’s film effect; make the perfect mise-en-scene for that era and edit the footage to create this grainy look.