Sunday 13 December 2009
Choice of main protagonist.
We decided to use Ali Nejad as our main actor as we wanted a male actor who would fit in with the characteristics of the song. When we first listened to the song the character we thought of was for him to look in his early 20s with dark hair and a small amount of stubble to add to his age. Luckily Ali fitted in perfectly with what we wanted, however we weren't 100% sure if we wanted to use him yet as he also had a large amount of work to do and we didn't know him very well. However, with the problems of choosing our actor, the proccess was becoming very time consuming and we needed to get it over and done with so we could start filming. Therefore, we decided to use Ali and were very happy with this as he was very good to work with, as he was professional and had learnt the song, therefore was prepared for filming straight away.
Saturday 12 December 2009
Casting.
As we have changed our idea we needed to find a few actresses to take part in being the 'fans' of our main actor. As we have close friends who go to our school we were lucky to have them willing to take part, as they spend a large amount of time with us anyway so we did this in our free time. As most of the shots with the actresses were filmed in our school premises we used our lunch time and frees to film them. We decided in using ourselves, Jess Afonso, Nilly Tabatabai, Marwa Abuelgasm, Vanessa Gurung and Yussra Ali. This decision was easier to make as it came straight into our minds without needing to think too much into it. When we discussed it we all agreed in using our friends because we knew them therefore making it easier and comfortable to work with them.
Problems in finding our main protagonist.
Before our filming we couldn't decide who we wanted to use in being our actor for our video. At first we decided to use a boy who was in the year below us however, it took some time for him to get back to us and we didn't have time to wait for his response. We also thought he was too young looking for the part so decided to use someone else. We discussed ideas in who we could have used and thought of advantages and disadvantages of their characteristics. We came up in using Ali Nejad and realised that he would fit the part perfectly. With this I sent him an email asking whether he was willing to take part and sent him a video of the song with the lyrics from youtube. Luckily he said yes so we told him the day we wanted to film and we were ready to go.
Friday 11 December 2009
Applying Goodwin's theory.
Coldplay-Fix You
I found that this video in particular hard nearly every point on Goodwin's theory. These are:
1. The video ends in a performance with them doing a live concert, this indicates the genre of the song is alternative rock therefore, a performance sets the mood/atmosphere of the song and we are able to see a link.
2. When 'lights will guide you home' is sang, we see the main protagonist walking under a tunnel with a row of lights on each side of the road. This shows the relationship between the two and the audience can understand the reasoning for why there are certain elements in the video. This provides a connection, which we are able to see, therefore allowing us to empathise with the video.
3. When the video begins, he is walking in slow motion which is in time with the song and when the song speeds up he begins to run. A clear connection is shown here between the two and we can see the relationship with the artist and with the speed of the song. This allows the audience to understand the mood of the song and to listen to it feeling a certain mood, such as relaxation.
4. Close-ups are portayed throughout the video to indicate to the audience that he is the main protagonist by letting us get a good look of him, feeling up close and invading his personal space, even by not being there we are able to see him in different perspectives that we wouldn't usually be able to see in reality.
I found that this video in particular hard nearly every point on Goodwin's theory. These are:
1. The video ends in a performance with them doing a live concert, this indicates the genre of the song is alternative rock therefore, a performance sets the mood/atmosphere of the song and we are able to see a link.
2. When 'lights will guide you home' is sang, we see the main protagonist walking under a tunnel with a row of lights on each side of the road. This shows the relationship between the two and the audience can understand the reasoning for why there are certain elements in the video. This provides a connection, which we are able to see, therefore allowing us to empathise with the video.
3. When the video begins, he is walking in slow motion which is in time with the song and when the song speeds up he begins to run. A clear connection is shown here between the two and we can see the relationship with the artist and with the speed of the song. This allows the audience to understand the mood of the song and to listen to it feeling a certain mood, such as relaxation.
4. Close-ups are portayed throughout the video to indicate to the audience that he is the main protagonist by letting us get a good look of him, feeling up close and invading his personal space, even by not being there we are able to see him in different perspectives that we wouldn't usually be able to see in reality.
Tim pope's quotation.
“The marriage of images and sound is a great form, but a lot of music videos are simply a soundtrack with images that squat on top with no correlation between the two. I try to bind them until it is hard to tell which came first, the video or the song.”
(Tim Pope - Sunday Times 7th April 1999)
I found this quote very interesting because Tim Pope found something that music videos were missing, he wanted to add a certain ambiguity to the song to allow a unique selling point. He personifys 'the marriage of images' which indicates the creative approach he would have taken. Tim Pope directed many videos for the Cure and developed and good relationship with the band. The Cure feels that these videos that he has directed have become a part of their identity. This meant that music videos have a large amount of potential that had gone unnoticed and Tim Pope wanted to intertwine the image and sound of the video to create meaning.
(Tim Pope - Sunday Times 7th April 1999)
I found this quote very interesting because Tim Pope found something that music videos were missing, he wanted to add a certain ambiguity to the song to allow a unique selling point. He personifys 'the marriage of images' which indicates the creative approach he would have taken. Tim Pope directed many videos for the Cure and developed and good relationship with the band. The Cure feels that these videos that he has directed have become a part of their identity. This meant that music videos have a large amount of potential that had gone unnoticed and Tim Pope wanted to intertwine the image and sound of the video to create meaning.
Andrew Goodwin's theory.
Goodwin's music video analysis is what has hugely facilitated the pop videos of our time. His theory suggests what makes an excellent music video and if these are all met/challenged the artist is guaranteed to have a successful video. These are:
1. The genre characteristics of the music video. (For example, stage performance, dance routines, specific narrative.)
2. The visuals and lyrics contruct a relationship between eachother, creating a link. (For example, through illustrations, contradicting images and amplifying the lyrics through the images.)
3. The music and visuals construst a relationship between eachother, creating a link. (Same examples from above.)
4. There would be large amount of close ups of the artist and the artist could develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequent reference to voyeuristic treatment of the female body and to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc.)
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).
1. The genre characteristics of the music video. (For example, stage performance, dance routines, specific narrative.)
2. The visuals and lyrics contruct a relationship between eachother, creating a link. (For example, through illustrations, contradicting images and amplifying the lyrics through the images.)
3. The music and visuals construst a relationship between eachother, creating a link. (Same examples from above.)
4. There would be large amount of close ups of the artist and the artist could develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequent reference to voyeuristic treatment of the female body and to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc.)
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).
Narrative of Our Video
The narrative of our video consists of a male and a female who were in a relationship and the video portrays their ups and downs and the journey of their relationship in which they are reuinted at the end. This was our initial idea, however now that we have changed this we have decided to have our main singer (Ali Nejad), who would be filmed in our schools' drama studios, allowing us to change the lighting to add effect. Basing our video on this idea, we set out to find suitable people to use in our production and decided on using people we are familiar with and all female. This would enable us to still use the footage of Ali and add some meaning behind the video as the females we used would all be portrayed as 'Leo Hunter' fans. As the song is quite emotional we decided to use females to create a less intense video to allow the audience to still feel good when watching it. We want to use different mise-en-scenes for every person to engage the audience throughout our video. This change in our idea means having less time to film and finding more actresses. Luckily, the females in our school are willing to help so we can manage to film them during their free time and as the song isn't difficult to learn they will be able to learn it very quickly so we can film straight away.
Thursday 10 December 2009
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