G324 - Animatic Storyboard

We constructed an animatic storyboard using the finished version of our storyboard on order for us to determine how the narrative would fit with the song and to help us determine whether anything would need changing prior to filming.



Through doing this we discovered that some of the shots would need to have their lengths would need to be either shortened or lengthened in places so that they would be cut more on beat. We decided that we will make these changes during post-production and will ensure that each of the shots we take are long enough to be adjusted accordingly. This saves us time at this stage of the process and allows us to start filming.

Posted by Olivia Calver

G324 - Final Storyboard

It became apparent that some of the shots we had planned to film at a concert of Laurence's would no longer be possible and so we had to rethink the narrative of the video. This lead to us ultimately changing some of our shots and shuffling them around in order to create a stronger narrative that made sense. This is the final version of the storyboard that we created and the version that we shall use to create an animatic storyboard.

Posted by Olivia Calver

G324 - Improved Storyboard

This is our improved storyboard. We had to make a few minor adjustments to the narrative in order for it to make more sense. Not only this but some of the shots that we planned on getting were unrealistic for the time scale we had to film in and so we had to change of these shots. We believe that this is most likely to be the final storyboard as the other shots, at this moment in time, all seem realistic and achievable.

Posted by Olivia Calver

G324 - Props and Furniture

To create the narrative of our music video we need certain props and furniture to add to the scene.

Props
The props we are using is a Polaroid picture, this is one of the most important as it's what we're using to show that our actor is reflecting on and reminiscing in the past. We plan on using a blank Polaroid picture so as to symbolise the way in which the memories he has have faded and lost their meaning. Not only this but it allows the Polaroid picture to become a metaphor rather than an actual physical identity, indicating that the importance remains in remembering the things you have done rather than actually having a physical photo of every moment.

The next prop we're using is a box full of a collection of objects that are all from somewhere different and hold different memories. This is where are artist is going to get his polaroid picture from and start the narrative of the song off.

Another important prop we will need is a guitar as our artist will be performing all the way through the narrative on and off.

We will need an envelope for the end of the song where our artist is sending the picture off to reconnect with his friend as well as finally letting go of the memories to move forward. We will see him write the address and post it.

We will need to write a letter for one scene containing the artist's wife reading a letter from his past to him from his mum, talking about taking a polaroid picture to capture a memory to treasure.

The last prop we're going use is a cowboy hat for the younger version of our artist to wear in his scenes to physically represent the lyrics to the start of the song.

Furniture
Furniture wise, we only need a bed were the majority of the inside shots are going take place. This is where our narrative will start and our artist discovers the polaroid picture.

Post By Samuel Skinner

G324 - Location Scouting

Before filming our music video, we had to decide on the locations that we would use. Location is an important part of any music video as it can alter the message being sent to the audience. If we chose an unsuitable location to film in, it would not only make filming difficult, but would also affect the way in which the audience viewed our video. To prevent this from happening, we scouted out multiple locations for each part of the video before deciding where to film.

Church:

We looked at two different churches of a similar style before choosing where to film this aspect of our video. The first church that we looked at was in Colchester. We decided to look at this church due to its location and because we both knew that we could easily transport all of the equipment there. Upon looking at the location, we saw that it would be difficult to film the long shots we had initially wanted to due to how close it was to the main road in Colchester. However, we felt that the atmosphere surrounding the building was perfect for what we wanted.

The second church that we looked at was near Cambridge. We liked the grey bricks as we felt it made it feel more like a wedding venue however the church itself was very busy and there were lots of people around which meant it would have been very difficult to film there. Not only this but we also admitted that attempting to get all of the equipment and crew to a location so far away was a near impossibility. Due to this, for ease, we decided that we would shoot the video at the church in Colchester instead.

Bench:

We then had to decide on a bench that we would use to film one of our scenes on. This is important due to the shot that we aim on creating. We therefore looked at two different benches in Colchester. We looked at benches in Colchester as it meant there would be less places to travel to, giving us more time to film as less time would have been taken up by travelling. The first bench that we looked at using was near the information centre of Castle Park. We looked at using this bench as it was secluded and therefore portrayed the idea of the singer being isolated. However, we soon
realised that the bench was completely surrounded by walls/ fences and therefore we wouldn't have been able to carry out the shot that we have planned.

We therefore looked at a second bench much further into the park. This bench was, like the previous bench, secluded however did not have the drawback of being enclosed by walls and therefore will allow us to create the arc shot that we want.

Old Arcade:

We need an old arcade for our video in order to reflect some of the lyrics within the song. We originally planned on using the Astoria in London, as stated in the song, however it is currently a building site and therefore we are unable to use this location. Instead, we had to find a location similar in style and so we have decided that we will use the old theatre in Colchester Town Centre as it not only reflects the changes but also is near to our other planned locations.

Bedroom:

For the inside scenes, we plan on using a bedroom in order to make the scenes appear more personal. To do this, we need to ensure that the atmosphere of the room suits the style of our video. The first bedroom that we considered was the spare bedroom in Olivia's step-father's house as it was extremely spacious and would allow us lots of room to set up equipment. However, the room is situated in Suffolk which was extremely far away and would be difficult to get to. Not only this but whilst we were there, we attempted to create the darker atmosphere that we wanted for our video, however due to the size of the room this was not possible.

Instead, we looked at the spare room of a friend's apartment in Kelvedon. The room itself was very compact and we knew that it could potentially cause problems when it comes to filming. However, due to the gloomy environment of the room, it takes away the need for lighting equipment and therefore the small amount of space stops being an issue. Therefore, we chose this location to shoot our inside shots.

Posted by Olivia Calver

G324 - Costume Planning And Final

For our costume we wanted to go with a smart casual folk artist kind of vibe. To create this we are going to find a patterned shirt and every day t-shirt that our actor can wear to get a smart casual look as well as jeans.
We Have taken inspiration from frank turner himself looking at what he wears in various music videos and while performing live to come up with some options.







Shirt ideas
In the video we are planning to use two different coloured shirts to show juxtaposition between shots.

Ideally they would be colours that are opposite but also work together. out of the examples we have gathered the red and blue shirt would be the two we chose.   

 T-shirts

For one scene it is important we have a white t-shirt as we have taken inspiration from a shot in the actual video and are recreating it in our own but for the other times we just want a normal everyday one like the example shows off.




 Jeans
Any normal pair of jeans will do however they shouldn't look too scruffy or dirty and should fit properly.











 Final Decision

We are going to use this red shirt with jeans for everything outside of the house and bedroom shots, and the blue one for all of the inside ones. The Jeans will stay the same.

For the Frank Turner shot from the actual video that we are recreating we are using the white narwhale T-shirt from bellow.
and for the rest of the shots we have found an actually Frank Turner t-shirt we are going get our Artist/Actor to wear.












Post By Samuel Skinner

G324 - Filming and Editing Schedule

Below shows our planned schedule for when we will film and edit our music video. This is important as it will allow us to be able to keep track of what we are doing and will enable us to keep track of our own time management to ensure that we have enough time to film and edit the full video, as well as obtain all the images required for the digipak and magazine advertisement.

Filming:
Saturday 14th November - 8:30am - 11:30am - Outside Scenes
Saturday 14th November - 11:30am - 12:00pm - Outside Photo Shoot
Thursday 19th November - 5:30pm - 10:00pm - Inside Scenes
Thursday 19th November - 10:00pm - 10:30pm - Inside Photos
Wednesday 25th November - 3:10pm - 4:30pm - Children Scenes
Thursday 26th November - 6:30pm - 10:00pm - Gig Scenes

Editing
Monday 15th November - 2:10pm - 3:10pm - Uploading and sorting through footage
Tuesday 16th November - 12:30pm - 1:30pm - Editing outside shots
Thursday 19th November - 10:00am - 11:30am - Editing and colour correcting outside shots
Friday 20th November - 10:00am - 11:00am - Uploading and sorting through footage
Tuesday 24th November - 2:10pm - 3:10pm - Editing and colour correcting inside shots
Friday 27th November - 11:30am - 12:30pm Uploading and sorting through footage
Monday 30th November - 9:00am - 11:30am AND 2:10pm - 3:10pm - Editing and colour correcting remaining footage
Tuesday 1st December - 9:00am - 10:00am AND 12:30pm - 3:10pm - Adjustments
Wednesday 2nd December - 9:00am - 11:30am AND 2:10pm - 3:10pm - Adjustments
Thursday 3rd December - 10:00am - 3:10pm - Adjustments
Thursday 21st January - 3:10pm - 4:30pm - Final Adjustments

Posted by Olivia Calver

G324 - Rough Storyboard

This is our first draft storyboard with our initial plan of how the narrative will run. The storyboard will likely be changed after feedback and we will run through it and check if it all works and is realistic to create and update and improve it accordingly.

Post by Samuel Skinner And Olivia Calver

G324 - Inspiration From Other Media Products

For our music video we have looked at other music videos and media to take inspiration and components to use in our own video. We have looked at 4 pre-existing music videos to take components from. The reason we have done this is to make sure our music video is as professional as it could possibly be as all this videos are real and work. Where as if we tried to re-inventing music video it could end up looking poor.

The first video is Frank Turner - The Next Storm. From this video we are taking inspiration from the camera angles where we are going use a lot of the same angles and close ups on instruments and performance clips. as well as taking inspiration for the second narrative in a darker room completely juxtaposing the high key lighting in the performance. Something which we have planed to do in our own when looking at the polaroid pictures in the room and the flash backs (reliving the memories).

The second video is Some Nights - Fun - Peter Hollens. he is a you tuber that creates music video covarages his self. the element were looking to take from him is two coustumes that contradict each other (black shirt, white tie/ white shirt, black tie). Something that is very simple but looks very pleasing to watch and breaks up the scenes really nicely.

















The third music video we have looked at to take inspiration from is Frank Turner - The Way I Tend To Be. we looked at this one as it is a Frank Turner video and this means we can copy his visual style and represent it in our own video. From this video we are looking to use the type of low key lighting as well as the location shots, as we want to carry his iconography across to our own video as well as have planed a similar location for some of our narrative.



















The last music video we have looked at and took inspiration from is One Direction - Story of My Life. From this video  we have only looked at one thing that we have decided to use in our own. This is the use of pictures coming alive to show memory's and tell the narrative. Which as our song is about polaroid pictures and the memories you can catch with them we felt would be appropriate.

Posted by Samuel Skinner

G324 - Further Artist Research - Frank Turner

Frank Turner, christened "Francis Edward Turner", is an English folk musician and songwriter from Hampshire. He used to be part of a band, Million Dead, but left to pursue a solo acoustic-based career and now tours with his backing band The Sleeping Souls. Frank Turner has currently released six solo albums, his most recent being Positive Songs For Negative People which was released in August 2015.

In the following interview with The AU. Review, Frank Turner talks about his newest album and what it is all about for him and his band:



His previous albums, in order of release, are:
-Sleep Is for the Week













-Love Ire & Song













-Poetry of the Deed













-England Keep My Bones













-Tape Deck Heart













Frank Turner is well known for his liberal stance in politics and has received thousands of death threats throughout his career from conservative individuals. Turner spoke about this by saying it was "Really vicious, horrible s**t, all because of expressing an opinion contrary to the mainstream of thought within the entertainment or creative world. It was f*****g horrible. I don't want to go through anything like that again."


Frank Turner has been signed to XtraMile Recordings for his whole career, however when creating Tape Deck Heart he also signed to Polydor, becoming part of both labels. This dual partnership continues today.





Turner was educated at Eton on an academic sholarship which he hated it and so he spent a lot of his time at punk shows rather than studying. He went on to study for a degree in history at London School of Economics and Political Science. Immediately after graduating, Turner went on tour and remained so for the best part of 10 years. He also played the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Upon the release of his single "The Way I Tend To Be" in 2013, Turner released a documentary about his life, his development as an artist and his time touring.


This research will aid in the creation of my music video as it has allowed me to gain a better understanding of the artist that we will be focusing on and has caused me to be able to notice how various aspects of his life have effected his music and the way it has been constructed. This means that we will stand a better chance in being able to reflect this in our music video.

Video Analysis:


Frank Turner's music video for his single The Way I Tend To Be is a symbolic narrative video, shown through the distinct storyline that runs throughout. There are slight aspects of performance within the clip, shown through the lip sync, however this is to add to the narrative of the video, rather than to showcase Turner's performance.

The video clearly appears to fit the folk genre of music due to the locations used within the video and the simplicity behind it. This style of video is quite common within the folk genre and therefore allows it to adopt common conventions of the genre, such as the artist's clothing and the aforementioned locations. It is, however, quite common for folk music videos to have narratives which appear simple yet have much deeper meanings and this is adopted for Turner's video. The narrative appears to symbolise Turner's uncovering of the past, depicted through the digging of the hole, before walking away from it whilst the crowds of people appear to symbolise the way in which curiosity can compel us to become involved in events of little meaning to us.

The video itself does not appear to tell a complete story but rather is depicting a smaller story from within a much wider one. The video beings with Frank Turner stood in the countryside, wearing a sign, with a shovel over his shoulder. There is no explanation to why he is there which is what leads the audience to believe that the video begins part through a much larger story. The video then follows as he walks
alone a path through the countryside. There is then a shot from Frank's point of view that is used to indicate how far he has come which is followed by another section of the narrative following Frank as he strays from the path. Turner then stops to remove the sign before continuing on his way and it is seen that a female character begins to follow him. Frank then walks into the middle of a field and begins to dig a hole and the female character watches him in confusion. The remainder of the video shows Frank continuing to dig a bigger and deeper hole whilst more people begin to gather around the site, gaining media attention. The video ends with Turner climbing out of the hole and walking away. The lack of explanation to this is what cements the idea in the reader's mind that this is merely a small section of a much larger story.

The record company's role within the video is to ensure that the video reflects and compliments the emotional music. This is important for the genre of music as well as for the representation of the artist. The video features a non-stereotypical representation of gender through the way that it depicts Frank Turner as an emotional person which is usually a trait associated with female characters. This allows him to become more relatable to his audience as he displays a more honest depiction of himself. Turner has a highly active and prominent online presence through social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which he uses to distribute his music and to keep fans updated on albums and singles being released. He also has an active blog and forum on his website which he uses to connect with fans and update them on changes in his career.

The video is set in a few similar locations in the countryside including a forest and a field. This connotes the way in which Frank is attempting to get in touch with his emotions as he becomes in touch with nature. The most dominant colours within the video are the earthy tones of nature which are present for the duration. This creates a sense of calm and simple beauty which reflects the lyrics of the song. My favourite shot composition is at 1:28 when the camera becomes the head of the shovel. This is because it creates a feeling of being involved with the action whilst simply gliding into the narrative of the video.  There are a few instances within the video where the camera becomes the shovel and therefore moves with it which I have previously mentioned. Other than this, there are many instances when the camera tracks Turner which has been done to help accentuate the simplicity of the narrative and the journey that Turner is on. The editing of the video is slow-paced and on beat which reflects the song's purity and serenity.

The target audience for this video appears to be working class teens and adults, between the ages of 14 and 40, which is indicated by the people staring in the video and the simple style of the video. The people featured within the video are all from varying age groups, with no particular age group being represented more frequently. This could be in an attempt to retain his wide fan base that was obtained through continuous touring and a performance at the London Olympic Opening Ceremony. The audience are most likely to access the video through YouTube which allows them to share it across other social media platforms such as Facebook and Tumblr.

This analysis will help me when it comes to making my own video as it has allowed me to explore Frank Turner's own style of music video and therefore has given an idea as to what I should aim to achieve with my own music video for his music.



Frank Turner - The Next Storm
I am doing a second analysis for a folk video to reinforce my knowledge and make sure I know all of the generic conventions and representations shown in a folk genre music video. I have chosen to do a Frank Turner one as he is our chosen artist and it also gives me a first chance to look at his iconography; to make sure when we make our video for one of his songs it fits in and takes themes from his others.




The genre of the song is folk/rock and both the sound of the song and video borrows from both. Doing a lot of its performance in a rock way but the narrative shots telling a story like the folk genre does still borrowing a bit from rock with its content though.

The music video keeps to Frank turner's iconography throughout with a dark setting the use of story telling , However the costume side of things are different while he usually wears very casual clothes that fit to the folk genre; the two things you see him in are very dressed up and dressed down to become a boxer.






The Narrative of the song switches between a performance in a boxing ring with high key lighting and Frank in a boxing match in low key lighting. Todorov equrliuruim theory is very loosely in the video with it starting with Frank the Protagonist in the video training then as the match starts he appears to be outmatched by his rival and looks like his going lose (disruption and recognition), but as the song picks up he finds the strength to overcome his rival (resolution) and win the match reaching equrliuruim again as they shake hands to end.

Oh Brother

The video represents a few of Goodwin's theory's with the video showing stereotypical band playing in the back and Frank dancing around "performing" the song for his fans getting really into it.

The video also represents Franks iconography with represented themes that are seen in videos like "Oh Brother" and "Losing Days"

The characters represented in the video are a hero or the protagonist and a rival the antagonist with it only shown frank as the hero because the lyrics and performance shots conotate to him trying to overcome an obstacle and be ready for "the next storm" to come his way.  

Performance

The music video has used two locations, or one location with different time and lighting. both locations are a boxing ring one in low key lighting at the time of the fight set up to look dark and gritty and give set a serious more action movie mood.

The second is the ring again but this time with high key lighting at the time of the performance this has fans dancing and watching as Frank and his back up band play the song to them. They have used the two variations of the location to create juxtaposition between the performance that just shows the song being enjoyed and the match that shows it has a not so obvious meaning to it conetateing but not obviously to show its about overcoming and being prepared to tackle everything live throws at you.

Boxing match

 

There are a combination of different camera shots used in the video. It contains a lot of close ups usually on the artist face to either promote his face or to show how his feeling in the narrative to add to the message the artist wants to express in this video. long shots and mid shots are used to establish the location and set up the scene. with mid-shots also used to tell a lot of the narrative allowing us tyo see what's happing in the boxing match.

The edit has quite a slowed pace with quite a bit of time on each shot before cutting. it speeds up towards the end of the song.  The edit is slow because the majority of the song is focusing on performance mostly so its not important to move on quick as it isn't trying to tell to much of a story, with the narrative shots included in the video to make it a little bit more interesting to watch.

The audience for this video is young adults late teens. this is because the music is very folk based and the video is mostly performance so would attract this age as they go to lots of concerts.

Posted by Olivia Calver And Samuel Skinner