9. Prezi on Goodwin's music theory

Andrew Goodwin on Prezi

8. Mood Board

This mood board is a representation of the indie genre. The black background color is neutral and inconspicuous. It shows the style of clothes our target audience would wear, what kind of lives they life including parties, beer and just "hanging out with friends".

7. Screen shots

I chose nine key shots from the music video M83 “We own the sky” as include the natural lighting of the sun as a tool to make their video more interesting. That technique is going to be used by us as well.

The first key shot is the close up of the feet. I thought that this is very important, as it first of all gives the audience a different view of seeing a story and therefore makes the video more interesting to watch.

The shot were the camera is directly pointed at the sun is one of the most important one for me and we are definitely going to include one of those in our video. I believe that it creates a very “arty” feeling, which would appeal perfectly to our audience.

The close up of the guy shows very clearly that he is thinking about something, which could make the audience curious and they can image what this character is like. Therefore it is important that we take close ups of our characters as well as it also gives much more character to our video because the audience does not only observe the character of the actor but also the whole music video.

Furthermore we are going to include a shot from the back, as the audience is obviously not able to see the face of the actor. That makes the them curious of what the actor is going to do and at that the moment they are only following them, without knowing what the character is up to.

Only showing the legs of the actors gives the viewer a different angle of seeing things, which makes the video interesting. However, it is different than showing only the feet because they can actually see the surrounding of where the video is been shot and is therefore not as much of a secret.

In the next shot the light is very important again and I just personally think that this shot creates a different but interesting view of seeing things, as it is not possible to see the full body of the actors. Therefore it is again a shot, which makes the music video interesting.

The next two shots I chose because the expression of love is very important in most of the music video as the storyline is mostly very simple but love makes it more interesting to watch. Therefore it is important that we include love in our music video as well and show it clearly to the audience.

The last shot is to do with light again. I thought it created a great effect when they first filmed the sun and straight afterwards they put an object in front of it, which kind of took the “magic” away and brought me back to reality.

6.Two Door Cinema- Something good can work...Textual analysis

Camera:

The first shot of the music video is a close up of bushes in a dark environment. As the viewer is not able to see anything else around it could have a slightly scary and mystical effect on someone. Also the mid shots of the setting and the moon are slightly confusing, as it does not really harmonize with the track in the background.

A mid shot of a ginger young man in a bar is followed by a close up of the same person. That clearly emphasises that this character is important as he is sitting on his own and full focus is put on him.

In the next scene a bird’s eye view is used to show a man jumping into a pool. Through choosing this camera setting it is impossible for the audience to see his face and it makes them curious who he is and what he is going to do before he jumps into the pool. As soon as he is in the pool a hand held camera is used under water, which makes it exciting for the audience especially when it gets spun around. That is interesting as it is not often used and therefore it draws attention to the shots.

Throughout the whole of the music video the camera is held in a high angle when the singer is singing and he looks up straight into the camera. That gives the impression that he is directly singing to the viewer and it makes it very personal. It also gives the feeling that someone is more dominant than him.

When location is changed and they arrive in the wood it becomes very obvious that a fish eye camera is used, which makes the picture more interesting and look more modern and also artistic. A close up shows the face of the band singer, while at the same time a focus pull is used, which focuses on him and blurs out the surroundings. That gives the audience the opportunity to fully focus on him and they are able to make their own individual picture of him.

A tilt, which starts at the treetops, goes down to the band. Again, it is a shot to confuse the audience and show them different sorts of perspectives, which makes it interesting.

Another attractive shot was used when they were driving the bumper cars the camera was fixed on the wheel and therefore it was spun around.

The high angle in the desert onto the band indicates that the desert is huge and how tiny they actually and it gives a feeling of freedom. Another feeling of freedom was created when the camera was fixed at the top of the guitar and the player stretched out his hand with the blue sky in the background.             

Editing:

After the dark scenery is shown someone walks in front of the camera and the location changes immediately to the bar. That is an abstract idea and therefore suits the style of the rest of the music video. Quick editing is used, which gives the audience the opportunity to look at the band from different prospective and also each prospective has a different effect on the viewer. One of the guitar players pretends to spin the camera in order to change the scene. As it spins for a while and the audience has no idea what is happening next. That creates excitement and prevents the audience to be bored. Another technique of how to change the location is to blur out the image.

Mise-en scene:
The music video starts off with a dark and remote area, which gives the audience the impression that it is going to be a scary video and probably not what they expected.

The man sitting in the bar who is the lead singer, which becomes obvious to the audience quite quickly as he is the only one seated in that bar, seems to be bored and lonely, which still lets the viewer think that is it going to be a scary or depressing video. The only aspects, which shows that is not the case is the music in the background.

The next scene shows a man in a striped shirt and a hat. He makes the scene mysterious, as someone is not able to see his face.

Although the lead singer has ginger hair, which is in the media often closely connected to being a nerd or an outsider, he is wearing stylish clothes and seems very confident. He also seems a lot more important as he is always in the foreground. At the beginning of the video clip the lead singer is always looking straight into the camera, which lets the audience know that he is aware of the camera. Throughout the video he ignores the camera, which gives the impression as if he does not sing to the audience in particular, which makes him look confident.

The different locations have different meanings such as the wood with the trees is much less open and does not really represent freedom and space like the desert at the end of the clip does.

Sound:

It starts off with diegetic sound of the wind blowing while then the actual song is fading in. The sound of the blowing wind gives the audience a little intro and also a connection to the reality. When the camera is under water it is obvious that the intro will be over soon and someone is going to sing soon. That part is a clever part to start the actual “main part” of the music video as someone dives up from under water, which brings the audience into another environment.

To sum up this video is very inspirational as it has many clever effects in it, which could be used in our music video in order to make it more interesting to the audience. In addition the effects are not hard to copy such as someone walks past the camera and the location changes. Also the different positions of the cameras are interesting to look at and I am certain that similar movements and shots will be used in our production. 

Camera:

The first shot is a tilt from the sky to the main character who happens to be the singer as well. This shot as it is tilting down from the sky might be related to god or spirituality in someone’s mind. People might interpret that differently but that is what I thought when I first thought why the producers used that shot. Throughout the whole video it seems as it would be a long tracking shot, however it was filmed in a studio and therefore the camera stands actually still. Assuming it is a tracking shot, it shows that the woman is on a journey although it might be seen as a journey in her head, which might therefore be closely related to the tilt from the sky down to her. The first time the children appear on the road, close-ups are used to show the children’s facial expression and they are obviously happy.

A close up shows her when she says, “ You did everything.” which means that she is referring to someone who is there for her and helps her out. The following shot is a close up of the paper saying, “ Thank You”, which strengthens the theory that someone is always there for her. The final camera movement is a tilt up to the sky again, which is equal to the tilt in the beginning. This movement sums the video up, as it is symmetrical.

Editing:

From the quality of the video it becomes obvious that she is not actually walking down the street but it is done in a studio. There was probably no other way to film it on the street but after having a closer look it seems unrealistic and destroys the video.

Whenever people are walking in front of the camera, the environment changes. That is cleverly done as the audience is not confused and they believe that the long take would still carry on without a cut.

Mise-en-scene:

The singer’s style is not what someone expects in a music video as it is done with little effort and not as glamorous as someone would think. However, this video is about this woman and the outfit shows a lot about her character. When she cuts her long hair, it is quite obvious that she changed. This change can be seen from two sides. Although it changed her look it might have also changed her inner values and her character.

Throughout the whole of the video she changes her mood quite often. When she is around people such as her boyfriend or the children, she seems very cheerful and happy as she is smiling a lot. However, when she is on her own she is serious and completely different. Does two sides to her show that when she is around people she might not actually show what really bothers her and forgets about it but when she is on her own she has time to think about it. When the bridge of the song comes in, the singer is walking through the dark but then a light of a car is lighting her up. That indicates that there is always a light in the darkness. Although it was dark she did not seem to be frightened and just kept going steadily, which shows that she is a strong person who does not give up. At the very last part of the video everyone is coming together as a big group with the singer still in the front. That shows that everyone who loves her or means something to her is always behind her and she can rely on them.

Sound:

The song is mostly about herself and how she gives her thanks to someone, which can also be related to god. The song ends again with a tilt up to the sky, however without any sound. That gives the audience time to “reflect” and think about the video and the song.

5. Asking for permission

In order to use our chosen track we had to ask for permission as the song has a copyright.

Dear Madame/Sir ,

I am currently an A-Level student at Gordonstoun School in the north of Scotland. As media studies is one of my A-Level choices, I have to create a music video for my coursework. Paul Antauer, my colleague and myself thought the track The End's Not Near by the Band Of Horses from the "OC Tracks Mix6"  would suit perfectly to the story we are intending to produce. Therefore we want to ask you for permission to use the song The End's Not Near for our A2 media coursework.

It would be solely used in my coursework for educational purposes, without commercial gain, no copyright infringement intended.

Thank you very much in advance,

Sincerely,

Anna Stoss and Paul Antauer

4. Our Track and Similar Ones

This is the song we chose, however there is no music video available to that song as it is the soundtrack to the one of the OC California episodes.

The genre of this song is alternative/rock and indie.

1.Our Production Logo.

Change of plans...

Paul and me spontaneously decided not to create a trailer anymore but a music video. We thought about a quite simple idea as we do not have the equipment to create a big show. Although we are not entirely sure what the storyline is going to be, an idea would be that we film everything from someone's perspective and the audience is therefore never able to see his/her face but is sort of on a journey through the whole day with this particular person. However, personally I would like to have someone to pretend to sing in some parts as well and maybe also some dance acts if that is not too difficult and makes the whole music video look unprofessional.
Well all in all I think we have collected some good ideas and we now have to sort out, which mise-en scene and camera works best with our chosen track.

Welcome to my A2 Blog!

Hey,
my name is Anna and this is my A2 Media Blog. Paul, the guy I work with and I decided we would create a trailer. At the moment we are not quite sure, which genre we are going to choose and which actors would be useful and would bring the message across.
Enjoy.