Video Treatment

Story Board
For our story board we tried our best to replicate the shots and the setting as best as we could in the time that we had. We managed to go to the actual library setting we will use in our video and the domestic scenes will also be the same as the video. We didn't manage to go to the park we will use of the lickey hills due to time but be manages to replicate the kind of shots you will see in the actual video when it is complete. This story board really reflects our research in terms of shots, propps and the kind of techniques with the camera we will use. 

ADD IN THE POLAROID BIT*****

Film Flare Montage 
Staying alongside the cute and girly aspect of the video, we have put together some videos with film flares we have downloaded over the top to present how we could make our videos look. This is based on ou research stages of effects on existing videos.




To show our finished idea as a concept we used imovie to put together our storyboard of images to show general timings working alongside our timeline we previously created. Of course, this is just a storyboard and film flares, brightness and costumes etc will be different on the actual product. The acting will hopefully be a little better and more serious, making it look less cheesy - that will come with practice. We can't wait to start filming our actual final product and so we shall leave you with this stop motion storyboard. 

Our presentation: 

Planning our music video

Short re-cap of the documentary

After creating our documentary we really had a grasp on what we wanted to include in our music video and what would be possible when thinking about the money we have for props, transport to places to film and just generally the equipment we have to make it with.

At the end of the documentary we included this: 

Picking the correct song

All the elements above were things we were pretty much certain we wanted to include but also knew that we could due to the software that we have, the camera and the props which we already own. Following on from this we had a search though different indie acoustic songs, covers of songs that male artists had done on a variety of websites and apps. These included Spotify, YouTube and general Google search options. We found that a lot of the covers which females did weren't professionally recorded, or the song in fact didn't have a very good narrative or potential for us to create an effective video. From this we concluded that the best song we found in our searches was a cover which Ellie Goulding did of a Kodaline song - who are also an indie band however she creates a female vocal version in an acoustic means.

These comments from the youtube video for the song are evidence that it appeals to a female audience which is who we are aiming our music video at. Also, the fact that the song was a cover was something that attracted us as there isn't a video to go with this version of the song so we won't get any influences from an original but will make the video purely from our ideas and our research.

Planning our video:

We created a fairly detailed plan of our video showing the lines when each part of the storyline would be filmed. We also included the amount of seconds (roughly) that each line was however made sure that we kept it simple without shots and character names which we will include in the story board and timeline of the video.

Further characters

After knowing what our artist would look like and what her personality would entail, furthermore knowing that we want to create a video (supported by the popular opinion of our audience) with both a narrative and performance, we would need some other characters. These include Aaron and Becky who are included within our note plan. This meant that me and Katie really needed to think about how we would present these characters in order to show off the story line but also whether they reinforce or challenge stereotypes. To do this we did the same as Beth's character: a mood board and a character profile.

The love interest: "Aaron"

The Ex-girlfriend: "Becky"

Our artist idea

Before we can really begin planning out music video including it's micro elements and its general narrative, we needed to look into the artist to shape our video. This is because they really represent the genre that we are trying to covey: indie acoustic. To do so, we went on a website called 'polyvore' which allows you to get images from other websites and insert them into a collage like form. This mood board really allows you to visualise what the artist is all about. 

Our artist/Protagonist: "Beth"

Representation of the artist:

Within class we revisited representation where we looked at the media and it's stereotypes and whether they conform to them or reject them. We looked at some theories and realised that we could go further within research and state whether we wanted our artist to conform or challenge to the stereotypes and how this would be visible through our artist inn the way they present themselves; looks and personality. We wrote some notes about our artists so that we could begin to explore how we unconsciously conformed or challenged the stereotypes of this kind of character in a music video.

An activity we did within class allowed us to differentiate between the different demographics, which make up the stereotypes of an artist/person. These included: 

- Ethnicity
- Age
- Gender 
Within these 3 categories we found some different theorists who focus on that area and create a theory. I did some extra research to explain these theories in more detail but simple enough to understand so that we could easily apply them to our artist.

I have applied all this infomormation and created a mind map where i have explained some theories which exist about stereotypes within the media and whether our artist conforms to or challenges the stereotypes explained in the theories:

Chosing an institution

We began to look at which media institution would be most suitable for our artist (Ellie Goulding) and the video that we will produce. One which will sell the artist best. The first thing that we did was find key words to do with different media institutions so that we had a greater understanding of some aspects of this section of research. I created a table with some key words and definitions to begin the research on institutions.

Looking at the industry in more depth

Before creating a presentation on our chosen institution to promote our artist, we looked at some other institutions which are labelled 'indie' as that is our kind of genre. It came up with a range of results varying from 4AD who are a label that focus on genres such as: Electronic and indie pop, to labels like Sub Pop who focus on the genres: Grunge, Indie and Hip Hop. All of which we looked closer into, mainly studying the artists which they have taken on and if any of them link to our previous research or are well known and marketed well. This is where we made the decision as to who we knew would sell our artist the best; Island records. 

We have made a power point presentation explaining the reasons behind our decision making and also our thought process in a little more detail.

Following up from the work I did on looking at the key terms to do with music institutions, me and Katie studied other terms in more depth which work together with the first key terms. We first found what a media institution was to solidify the meaning and then went onto the two different institutions within that area to help us in later decision making as to what our institution would be classed as and how that can benefit us. This way, we can be 100% that the institution we pick is right for our genre, audience but also make sure that it has been successful for other artists that they have signed.

The first stage of our decision making was through the discovery of artists which Island records have already signed. When we created our documentary on our genre we included music and footage from: Ben Howard, Jack Johnson, Nina Nesbitt, Lauren Aquilina and Passenger which were all signed under this label. This was a big indicator to us that the fact that they are still known for their indie acoustic genre, they are known to a larger audience of people interested in that genre yet are still considered to be small, less mainstream artists which is what the fans of this genre tend to like about them.

Our Documentary

We invested a lot of time in creating a documentary video which concludes all of the research we have done into the indie acoustic genre and existing products.