The History of Lyric Cards in Music Videos

In our music video, we plan to use lyric cards - I have written about this in detail in another post. The inspiration for this idea has come through several music videos where lyric cards are used to make the music video stand out and appear different.

One of the first music videos to use the idea of lyric/cue cards is the music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan. This black and white music video only put the most significant words from each line onto each card - this simplifies the lyric cards and stops them from becoming confusing. Because of this, we will try lyric cards with only the major parts of each line on them as well as the lyric cards with the whole line written on them that I have already made.

This music video is also set in an industrial location that connotes the position of the industry of the 1960s. In our music video, we plan to set the shot with the lyric cards next to a red Postbox that will act as a cultural signifier of Britain - this is similar to using the location of the music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues as a signifier of the position of the industry at that time.

This music video is so iconic that it has been copied and referenced many times - one example is the parody of the music video performed by Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard as the intro to the BBC's coverage of the 2012 Australian GP (a Formula 1 race).

In this video, the location is used as a cultural signifier again. The graffiti on the wall is a signifier of the modern age of creativity, art, and youth. The lyric cards are similar to the ones used in the original music video, in terms of the lyrics themselves, but there are many exceptions. These exceptions are there to make the song relevant to Formula 1 - as it is a Formula 1 TV show - but some of the exceptions are very similar to the actual lyrics used in the original music video. An example of this is when Jake Humphrey reveals a card with the word "off" written on it and "laid off" is heard in the background - a reference to when Sergio Pérez had to miss some races after a large crash in the third qualifying session for the previous years (2011) Monaco Grand Prix. This is similar to the point in the original music video where the lyric card with "laid off" is revealed and the same words are heard - these points in the two music videos are very similar, but also very different. This intelligent adaptation of the original music video produces what is, in my view, a worthy, high quality parody.

Furthermore, the montage of the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship that is placed onto the wall in the background of the parody not only strengthens the links to Formula 1, but supports the graffiti as another reference to the modern era that has embraced technology.

Idea for Music Video: Lyric Cards

After watching and analysing the music video for Paradise by Coldplay, I became interested in the lyric cards that are used in that music video (albeit in a slightly original way, by using them to also progress the narrative of the music video) and several other music videos and decided that we should try them in our music video for Tonight I Let You Go by The Colours. To put our own mark on the technique, I also thought that using different colours for the lyric cards could help to strengthen our use of colour in the mise-en-scene to connote different emotions and situations.

The lyric cards that I have made will be tested out in our next shooting session, where we plan to have the main character go through them while standing next to a red postbox - a cultural signifier of Britain.

The verse we have chosen to write onto the lyric cards is the chorus - this is due to the chorus often being the most striking part of a music video, and the part that is focused on most. In our chosen song, it also contains many emotional references that work well with the colours of the lyric cards - for example, the first lyric card talks about "heart break" and love is often associated with the colour red, so we used red card for this lyric card.

Shooting Session #5

After me and Joe had finished our fourth shooting session, we thought that we had the majority of the shots needed for the music video. However, on 23/10/12, there was a lot of mist around and we thought we could use that for creating a good atmosphere in our shots. As our tutor had given us the advice that we needed to film in urban areas away from the housing estates that had been used frequently in our shooting session, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and go into Norwich to film shots in an urban location while also using the mist to improve our shots.

Unfortunately, a significant amount of the mist had dissipated by the time we had got into the city - while it was still visible in some of our shots, it was not as visible as we had hoped. Despite this, we still gathered some valuable shots in the city that could improve our music video - these shots are shown below (uploaded in 360p rather than the 720p video quality that will be used when we edit our music video so that the video would not take a long time to upload):

What's a Girl to Do? - Bat for Lashes - Music Video Analysis

The music video for What's a Girl to Do? by Bat for Lashes focuses on the artist singing by using both music and visuals. The artist is visible for nearly the entire video, and she is always in the centre of the picture, as well as being at the front of the picture. This focuses on the artist, and this is a genre signifier and characteristic - in this genre of music (pop) the artist is often heavily marketed (sometimes more than the actual music).

While this music video appears very unique and original, it feels like a normal music video. The music video is surreal and dream-like, while focusing on the artist and the music. In this sense, the music video for What's a Girl to Do? is an example of modern music videos.

There is many examples of intertextuality in this music video. To begin with, it links to many old horror films - this may sound unlikely, but there are many examples of this. The crashed car and the eery smoke that is often used in films to build atmosphere and tension, the ghostly figures by the side of the crashed car that resemble death and loss, and the classic horror movie sounds used (e.g at the point when you see the crashed car) are all intertextual references to horror films of the past. Also, the masked figures riding behind the artist in this music video are another intertextual reference to horror films - many horror films contain terrifying masked figures. The location is also a reference to these horror films - there are many examples of horror films which are shot in dark, unsettling woods.

In addition, this music video has intertextual references to many children's stories - which constructs a great contrast between the horror film intertextuality and this. The three intertextual references to children's stories are to Red Riding Hood (a girl in the woods with a wolf close behind), Alice in Wonderland (a girl in the woods experiencing many unusual occurrences, such as odd creatures around her), and The Jungle Book (the tiger, the bear and the child in the woods). As aforementioned, the juxtaposition between the intertextual references to horror stories and the intertextual references to children's stories adds a unique appeal to this music video - it has an innocent, playful feel while also having a disturbing, menacing feel.

The BMX bikes used by the cycling characters in this music video represent popular culture in contemporary Britain - BMX bikes are especially popular among the youth of Britain. Connecting with the target audience and representing stylish items is a genre characteristic of the pop genre - pop music is possibly the most mainstream genre and therefore it is common for it to show the mainstream styles of the time. Fans of popular culture will often be persuaded to buy things, such as smartphones, if pop star are seen using them in a stylish way. The uniqueness added to the music video by the BMX bikes is also something worth noting - cycling is not often used in music videos.

The lighting in this shot from the lights at each side
of the shot adds to the dream-like feel of the music video.

Furthermore, the costume in this music video is another genre characteristic - if you observe the artist that is primarily focused on in this music video (Bat for Lashes), you will see a very mainstream look - often referred to as an "indie" look - that immediately tells us the genre of the song before we even hear the music. The young, attractive woman's groomed hair, colour eyeliner, t-shirt and bottoms create a very mainstream style that is associated with the pop genre and popular female pop artists. This style makes you think about how she looks over how she sings - this voyeuristic treatment of women commonly occurs in the pop genre.

Finally, the lyrics of the song used for this music video are yet another genre characteristic in this music video. In the pop genre, the theme of the lyrics is nearly always love and sex - this is another way that the pop genre both creates what is mainstream and conforms to the mainstream audience and what they want. The lyrics that talk about "When you love someone" are the kind of lyrics that are commonly featured in the pop genre.

Overall, while this music video appears very original and different when you first watch it, when you start to analyse it and go deeper into the music video, you will find a music video that contains many genre characteristics and intertextual references.

Shooting Session #4

Our fourth shooting session was carried out on 21/10/12. This shooting session was focused on the second half of the music video, which contains shots containing the girl. We also had to shoot shots of the main character walking through a different, more urban environment in comparison to the housing estate we shot him walking through for the first half of the music video.

The flashback shots are vital to the success of our music video, and while some were superb (in my opinion) - such as the bus stop shots and the shots of the main character walking past his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend - some were unsatisfactory. The happiness flashback shots were poor, as the main character and the girl did not show emotion for each other in that shot.

Once again, we uploaded the footage in 360p (rather than 720p) so that it would upload faster - that is why the footage is blurry and unfocused. This will not be the case in the finished music video. The footage had to be uploaded to YouTube in two parts, to get around the 15 minute upload limit for videos when your YouTube channel is new and/or does not upload footage regularly.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Shooting Session #3

In our third shooting session on 18/10/12, we primarily recorded supporting shots for the video - this contained shots of the crossroads by our school (CNS - City of Norwich School) - this shot will be sped up when we edit, to create the visually appealing effect of the cars and the changing traffic lights flashing past in a blur. We did this shot in several different ways, with tilts, shots containing the main character, and more.

When shooting, we noticed that we could get up a hill to a path next to a train track - while it took up a lot of time (we had to wait for three trains - which were about 20 minutes apart), we managed to shoot some very striking shots of the boy walking with the train in the background. We used the time in between trains to shoot extra shots in that location, where there was a very useful vanishing point. The shots of the train in the background connote life going against or with him, depending on the direction the train is travelling respective to the main character. This can be used to further emphasize the sense of progression we are trying to create in our music video.

We uploaded the footage in 360p instead of the standard 720p so that it would upload faster. That is why the shots look blurry and unfocused - they will look a lot better in the final music video.

As YouTube only accepts up to 15 minutes of footage for new and/or usually inactive channels, we have had to upload the footage from our third shooting session in two parts:

Part 1:



Part 2:

Paradise - Coldplay - Music Video Analysis

The music video for Paradise by Coldplay (genre: pop) can appear simple, but there are many connotations contained in it. These appear throughout the music video, and are often portrayed through contrast - such as the contrast of the man in an elephant suit and the everyday, contemporary world around him.

The first shot establishes the main character
and the first location immediately.

The music video starts with the man dressed up as an elephant escaping from captivity - this represents how animals are often mistreated and abused. The first shot of the main character shows him looking through bars sadly - this immediately establishes the location and the character, and makes you support this character immediately. This shot uses the bars to express the feeling of imprisonment - just like the prison-bar-like lighting in the into to the thriller Essex Boys. This music video demonstrates the will animals have to escape - and this is done by showing a stereotypical wildlife enclosure location. The shot that really strikes you is the shot of the real monkey chasing the dressed-up man - a surreal image of a fake animal and a real animal next to each other.

This contrast becomes even more apparent when this dressed-up man manages to escape from security on... a bicycle! The long shot of him riding away is a memorable image that draws you into the music video. The next shot, of the man riding his bike into London (next to the cultural signifiers of Britain in the mise-en-scene, a red postbox and an Underground sign - cultural signifiers are a common characteristic of the pop genre, so this helps to establish the genre early on) continues this trend of contrast. The cultural signifiers of Britain are extended upon when the main character is in the Underground - shots of the Underground, including the iconic escalators and trains, help to establish the location. A shot that stands out is the shot of the main character sitting in the train, mostly ignored by the other people - not only is this shot brilliantly framed by using the window of the train door as a frame, but it is an accurate representation of what would happen if someone dressed as an elephant was on the train. People would probably ignore it as they are usually concerned with their own problems, and would not be too interested by this figure - this shows how much people sometimes have to deal with in contemporary Britain. The type of shot used next is one which I would like to focus on.

This music video uses a variant
of lyric cards

The shot of someone showing cards with the lyrics of the song on has been used many times - it is an iconic and recognisable shot. This makes the viewer connect more with the music video, as they feel more familiar with it. This music video uses the lyric cards in the mise-en-scene to progress the story - the main character is trying to get money so that he can travel. The location of the main character is also changing every time he is begging for money - again showing the progression of the narrative.This is enough to set this variant of the lyric cards apart.

The lighting in this video is subtle but very effective - if you watch closely, you see that the lighting (along with the attractiveness of the location) becomes lighter and more visually appealing throughout the music video. The lighting that particularly stands out is when the main character is riding a unicycle and the sun is shining onto him. This gives the main character even more of an otherworldly feel - but then this surreal character is suddenly destroyed when the suspense is broken and you find out that the main character is indeed a member of Coldplay (the band which produced this song) inside an elephant suit. This unexpected twist keeps you absorbed in the music video.

The unexpected moment when the main character finally
reveals himself to be a member of the band - Chris Martin

When you see the man walk into the wilderness, colourful, visceral shots of the location are used to again establish the location. The lighting becomes lighter again when the main character meets the rest of his group - the rest of the band Coldplay, also dressed up in elephant suits. The meeting of the elephant and its natural habitat, and the band member and its fellow band members (which is emphasized in the shots of the band dressed as elephants, but on the "natural habitat" of the stage) are similar - they are both something returning to its natural habitat.

The shots of the band playing on the stage show the genre of the song - music videos for pop songs often show performances that include fans. Fans are a big part of the pop genre and its popularity - more so than other genres. The artists are often more important than the music in the pop genre in terms of marketing and the fanbase.

Shooting Session #2

Due to YouTube only accepting videos of maximum length 10 minutes when you are a small channel, Joe had to upload the footage from our second shooting session in three parts.

Due to the longer upload time for 720p videos, Joe uploaded the footage in 360p so that we can get a rough idea of what the footage would look like - when the music video is finished, the shots will be in 720p and will look much better - it will be sharper, have more vibrant colours, and will not be blurry like the videos below.

We tried to use the feedback from our tutor Ms Barton to make this shooting session as successful as possible.

Our more detailed shot list enabled us to get the shots done more efficiently - we know what we had to do for each shot.

Part 1:


Part 2:




Part 3:

Skyfall - Adele - Music Video Analysis

The recent track "Skyfall" by Adele is the official song for the upcoming James Bond movie of the same name, Skyfall. The music video for this song (genre: pop) is quite basic on the surface - but if you go into it, you realise that it ties in with the theme of the movie and its marketing very well.

This music video focuses primarily on the lyrics and what they connote. The most prominent lyric is "Skyfall", as you might expect, and this lyric is always enlarged and highlighted. This relates to the marketing of Skyfall - the main part of the film that is being advertised is the name and the brand (possibly due to it being James Bond's 50th Anniversary).

One of the bus advertisements for Skyfall

An example of this is the large advertisements on the sides of buses - I have seen these many times as I walk through the city to get to Sixth Form, and this means that people in the city are very likely to see this advertisement. The advertisement focuses on the name Skyfall, and the character of James Bond - and that is it. The title of the film and the brand are the two things focused on the most, just like in the music video for Skyfall.

The first major image of the music video immediately
establishes what the music video is about

The start of the music video shows both the main character, James Bond (in the iconic down-the-barrel-of-a-gun shot to immediately establish the genre, theme and purpose of the music video - this is also an intertextual reference to all of the Bond movies) and the artist, Adele. This is another example of the music video focusing on the main points of this song - James Bond and the artist Adele.

Whenever the chorus starts, it is started by the line "Let the Skyfall". This is usually emphasized by the background changing to a more vibrant, eye-catching colour - usually a red/orange fire colour. At one point, near the end, the chorus is also backed by an elegant blue/black/grey/silver colour arrangement. This reflects the deeper, richer part of the James Bond films - the shining effect of the lyrics also strengthens this connotation.

The beginning of the chorus in the music video -
notice the emphasized "Skyfall"

Overall, this music video successfully markets the music and the film it is promoting above everything else - if there was a narrative or something more than lyrics and background effects, the music video would take away from this. This simplistic method of making a music video for "Skyfall" would not be as effective if the song was poor - the fact that the song is high quality and is recognisable as a James Bond song extremely helps this music video.

Final Shot List

This is the final shot list for our music video. It will serve as a guide to what we need to shoot when we start the large shoots on our shooting schedule.

1. Circular movement shot of boys face as he sleeps in bed - close up bird's eye view shot

2. Slightly high angle  medium-close up shot of the boy in bed (red and white covers) with a photo frame of his ex-girlfriend and an alarm clock on the bedside table. The boy wakes up and hits the alarm clock, causing it to light up red.

3. Static close up shot of the photo frame and window as boy gets out of bed, determined to get his ex-girlfriend back

4. Tracking shot of boys feet as he walks out of his bedroom - intertextual reference to the opening of Kill Bill: Volume 2

5. Worm's eye view of the boy running down the stairs

6. Static close up tilt of the boy walking out of the door, putting on his dark grey suit - intertextual reference to the conventional costume of thrillers such as The Third Man. The door closes behind the boy - this acts as a link to the final shot where the door of his ex-girlfriend closes.

7. Extremely low angle shot from the shingle in front of the house of the boy walking onto the street. Shingle takes up bottom part of shot.

8. Slightly high angle medium tracking shot from the side of the boy walking down the street - this contains several occurrences:

-The boy having to avoid people and obstacles - occasionally knocking into these people or obstacles - this is an intertextual reference to The Verve's music video, Bittersweet Symphony.

-The boy having to step up - over something or onto a higher level. This could also reflect the boy having to mentally "step up" if he wants to be with this girl. This step up leads into the next shot.

9. As the boy steps up, the background changes - this is the next shot. This is the same shot, but going up a staircase. This shot is less of a high angle shot to reflect the progression of his mental state (linking to him mentally "stepping up", as previously mentioned). The shot tracks him up a staircase in an urban environment.

10. As the boy nears the top of the staircase(s), it switches to a front shot (slightly high angle, medium shot) as he gets to the top. This is an intertextual reference to the camera angle in Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. To strengthen this intertextual reference, we will have the boy knocking into people again, like the main character does in Bittersweet Symphony.

11. As he reaches the top of the stairs, the location switches back to the street (still a medium front shot). The shot becomes a slightly less high angle shot (again). Going up the staircase represents his increasing maturity through this part of the music video. 

12. When the boy gets to the corner of the street, the shot switches to a high angle shot of the corner (each side of the corner is symmetrical - it will resemble a triangle). These two sides represent the two halves of the music video - the first half is when the boy is still quite underconfident and immature. As he progresses to the second half (when the chorus starts - approximately halfway through the song) the boy starts to become ready to reunite with his ex-girlfriend.

13. As he turns the corner and the chorus starts, the shot becomes a close up static shot - no high or low angle as the main character is starting to gain a significant amount of confidence. The lighter, more positive tone is reflected by the new location - the boy is now walking down a different, better lit street which contains more people. This progression of lighting through the video is an intertextual reference to Paradise by Coldplay, were the lighting gets lighter, brighter and more positive throughout the video. The increase in people in the shot reflects the convention of fans being featured in music videos such as Coldplay's Paradise - fans are a big part of the pop genre. Several things will happen as he walks down this new street, such as:

-Meeting his ex-girlfriend in the street - this will be presented in a way that suggests it could be his imagination, or she could be real. This will be done with tilt shots and slow motion when we edit the music video together. Walking past the girl is an intertextual reference to when something similar happens in The Verve's music video for Bittersweet Symphony.

-He will bump into people, such as his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. The two will eye each other up, and will proceed to knock into each other in a close up shot. This will help to establish the character that is his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend.

14. The next shots will be the flashback shots - dream-like shots where the boy walks through locations and situations that are prominent in his memory of the relationship he had with this girl. Colour filters will be used here to associate each flashback with an emotion. These shots will include:

-The boy walking past a bus shelter where the girl is sitting, waiting - the music video will then cut to a splitscreen of the boy deciding whether to meet her, and the girl sitting alone at the bus shelter, upset and abandoned. A red filter will be used here to associate their break up with anger. This decision, to leave the girl, is one the boy regrets - this shows the immaturity of the boy when he was in a relationship with the girl.

-The boy walking through a park, where the girl and her new boyfriend are sitting together on a bench - the main character will stop, and the three characters will exchange awkward glances. Then, the boy will keep walking. The colour filter used here will be a green filter, as green is associated with envy. This will connote the envy the boy has for the couple.

-When the boy finally sees the girl's house, you will see him get out an image of the girl (the same image of the girl that is on his bedside table to establish the character of the girl at the start of the music video - this causes the two shots to be connected and makes the consumer think about the music video and the links contained in it) and look at it for a moment in a close up shot. The colour filter used here will be orange, as orange is associated with bravery and determination - and the boy is determined to get her back.

15. In this shot, the colour filters will be removed as the boy is returned to reality - the shots of him will now be low angle to show his progression from weak and irresponsible (high angle shots) to strong and confident (low angle shots). He will see the house of the girl and go down the pathway to her house in an over the shoulder shot.

16. There will be a static close up shot of the boy walking up to the door of the girl's house. He will knock on the door, and the girl will let him in without a word - she knows everything she needs to know with one look. The door will close, and the final image will be a static close up shot of the door - this links to the close up shot of the boy's front door, which creates a connection between the two people. The mystery of what happened inside keeps the consumer of the music video interested right until the end, and will make them think about the music video after it has finished - it could make them want to watch the music video again.

Feedback from our First Shooting Session

After our first shooting session, our tutor Ms Barton watched our footage (shown below).




Positives:

Ms Barton really liked how we had arranged the mise-en-scene to relate the music video to the name of the band "The Colours". We have tried to use colour a lot, and the red bed cover and red light of the alarm clock were examples of this working very well. Ms Barton told us to do more of this to really emphasize it.

Our tutor also liked the amount of shots we had done - she thought the amount of different angles and shots we had experimented with was good. This will ensure that we have enough footage when we start editing our music video together.

Negatives:

Ms Barton told us that we needed to get out of the location of the house as quickly as possible. While we only spend about 30 seconds in the house in the narrative we created, this slightly dull location could put people off the video before it has really begun. To fix this, we are planning to go to more interesting areas, such as car parks and bridges.

Continuing on from this, while she said our range of shots was good (as aforementioned), she said that we needed more shots that are different and diverse. A shot we decided to try was a circular moving shot of the boys face at the beginning of the music video. We got the inspiration for this shot from the openings to two movies - Shallow Grave and Apocalypse Now, which both use this shot in their opening sequences.

Our music video will have intertextual references to the start of Shallow Grave other than this, though. In this video, we see a point of view shots of someone or something travelling through the city, and this relates to the walking/running theme of our music video. Also, the shot of a wood at 1:20 are similar to the shots I took for a possible shooting location for our music video. So, overall, our music video has a strong intertextual reference to Shallow Grave.

While not a criticism, a problem we ran into in our first shooting session was that our initial camera did not read SD cards - as we had no time to go and get another camera, we had to use Joe's camera. While this was quite good, it is not quite up to the quality of the school's cameras. Because of this, we will have to reshoot some shots - but this does not make too much difference, as we were planning to reshoot most of the opening shots anyway to improve them following Ms Barton's advice. We have learnt from this - we will thoroughly check that the camera and the SD card work before leaving to start shooting next time.

Finally, our tutor expressed her largest concern - that we would not finish shooting in time. We have taken that on board well, and in the next week (15th October - 22nd October) we will be shooting for approximately 20 hours, as shown by our shooting schedule (5 hours on 16th October, 3 hours 20 minutes on 18th October, and all day on 21st October). We should now be able to get our shooting done before the deadline.

Shooting Schedule

EDIT: This shooting schedule became partly obsolete due to complications while shooting. The actor for the female performer (the girl) had few days where she had free time to help us. We did successfully shoot the shots we needed, but this did change our shooting schedule.

Furthermore, we had to reshoot sections such as the lyric card shot as certain aspects needed to be changed or added to - for example, the writing on the cards was hard to read the first time we shot the lyric card shot.

Overall, while the shooting schedule below represents the majority of our sessions, we had to abandon it quickly as dates and times of shoots quickly fluctuated.

Shooting Schedule

Cast List and Costume

Character: Main character (late teenage boy)

Actor: Joe Stevens

Age: 17

School/Subjects: City of Norwich School/Media Studies, Psychology and Design and Technology: Graphic Design

Lives In: Norwich, Norfolk, England

Costume: Casual T-Shirt: shows the mainstream, pop genre of the song. The writing and light colours reflect this side of the genre through the character.

This image of the band shows their
costume - our main characters
costume reflects the costume
of the band

Dark Grey Suit: this reflects the costume of the actual band (The Colours) that contains suits and waistcoats. This relates the main character to the band. It also has references to several thriller movies where a suit is a generic piece of the costume. We can use this later in the music video if we want to create intertextual references - such as the shot of the main characters feet walking out of the bedroom which has an intertextual reference to the start of Kill Bill: Volume 2 where you see Bills feet as he walks (the clip is shown below).

Navy Blue Jeans: The darker colour of his jeans in contrast to his top and suit connotes that there is a darkness hidden away in the character - he appears happy and content, but there is regret and jealousy inside him.

Stylish, Converse-Like Shoes: These show the style of shoes usually worn by 16-25 year-olds (our target audience) in contemporary Britain. This makes our character relevant and a reflection of our target audience.

Character: (Ex-) Girlfriend (a similar age to the main character)

Actress: Alice Childerhouse

Age: 17

School/Subjects: City College Norwich/Film and Media, Social Media

Lives in: Norwich, Norfolk, England

Costume: Red Jumper: Red is often associated with passion and love, which is a major theme of our music video. Colours are often used throughout our music video (to show emotions and to play on the name of our selected band, The Colours), and red is the colour used most of all (e.g. in the bedroom at the start of the music video, there is a red bed cover and a red light-lit alarm clock in the mise-en-scene that are focused on heavily), so this red jumper would really strike you and compliment the use of colour in our music video.

White T-Shirt: The small amount of the white t-shirt that is visible on the girl connotes that there is a purity and kindness to the girl underneath the emotions (shown by the red jumper, read above) as white is associated with purity.

Jet Black Trousers: These trousers construct a visual contrast in the girls costume.

Location Shots for Boy Walking (Second and Third Verses) and Red Filter (Anger) Flashback Shots

These location shots will be used for the second and third verses, when the boy has left the house and walks down the road (with several other things occurring around him).

These verses are:

[Chorus] Cause you’re the heart break that I couldn’t deal with
You were the mistake
That no-one could save me from
But I know
I’m better off leaving now
You are the only reason I want it more
You know I want to be on my own tonight
I just keep on running
You know I want to be on my own tonight
Tonight I let you go

My insecurities
Playing on my mind, colours never change
You should come back, come back, come back (And look for more)
But love that runs too deep
Stolen moments we couldn’t keep
You should go before the night time lets you down

The shots of the bus shelter will be used for the red filter (anger) shots. These will involve one member of the couple (the boy and girl) not turning up to meet the other. These shots will explain how they broke up.

Shooting Session #1

This is the first shoot for our music video - it contains shots for the first part of the music video (where the boy leaves the house).

Audience Research - Festivals

Festival Research

Over the last decade, music festrivals have rose in popularity - this is a result of several factors, including the rise of social media - this is one of the key factors. Popular music festivals such as Latitude are often discussed on Facebook or Twitter - this word of mouth advertises the fetsival among its main target audience - 16-24 year olds. This age group is also the main consumer of social media - these things combine to increase the popularity of music festivals such as Latitude.

The poster for the
2012 Latitude festival

The posters advertising music festivals are a vital part of the marketing of the festival. Different posters are clearly advertising their respective music festival in a different way - this is usually down to the nature of the music festival.

The poster for Latitude is clearly trying to market the social and family aspects of the festival - the poster has an image of a rural, safe-looking area that invites you in. The art and border around the poster also makes it look elegant and traditional. Also, the poster does not only display information about the musical entertainment at the event - it shows you information about the poetry, comedy and art events at the festival.

Our Chosen Festival for our Band

The festival that would suit our chosen band (The Colours) best would be the Reading festival. This is mainly due to the mainstream nature of our band and their music. The genre of The Colours' music is also similar to the genre of the bands performing at the Reading festival.

The poster marketing the 2012 Reading festival

 

A big part of how the Reading festival promotes itself is through its poster. This poster has kept the same design since the conception of the Reading festival, with it only changing when colour was introduced to the poster - it has kept the iconic yellow design and red and black font since it introduced colour. This continuity allows people to instantly know what the poster is and what it is advertising - which allows them to focus on the acts and other information on the poster.

Lots of the bands featured are mainstream bands that many people recognise - whether they are music fans or not. Other festivals (e.g. Download) are focused on an audience that wants to see the music with like-minded fans - they are there for the music rather than the experience.



The poster for
the 2012 Download festival

The timing of the festival is also important - as the festival appeals to the mass market, staging the festival in the summer holidays gives people the opportunity to attend the festival - if it was staged in the time of the year when most people are working or at school/college/sixth form/university, then these people would be put off of attending the festival.

The Reading festival's website is vital to the marketing of the festival - social media is obviously important to the advertisement of the festial, and this is clear when you go onto the website. You immediately see symbols that link you to social applications - Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and forums. These are all ways for people to connect and discuss the festival - which further promotes the Reading festival.

Location Shots of Boy's House for our Music Video

Joe has taken location shots of the house of the boy in our music video. This will be where the music video begins, with him waking up and deciding to walk through the rain to the house of his past girlfriend.

The boy's bedroom, where the first shots will be filmed.

The front door, shot from inside the house. This is where we will film
the boy leaving the house, determined to win back his past girlfriend.

The driveway outside the boy's house - there will be shots of him walking
out of the door and down the driveway before turning onto the street.