Time Schedule

This is the time schedule that I will attempt to work to:

Role Allocation - I am the Auteur.

If I was working in a group then, each group member would have been allocated a different role. There should be a DIRECTOR, CAMERAPERSON, EDITOR, WRITER, etc.

However...

I am working as an INDIVIDUAL, so I will be adopting the roles above as the AUTEUR.

AUTEUR actually is French for "Author". Basically, this theory was developed in the 1950's era. It suggests that the director of the film will create the film reflecting their personal opinion and however they envision it, as they are the primary creator - it is made as they would personally see and want it. 

Sometimes the auteur can influence the movie enough for it to put the 'studio interference' to the backburner just using their 'creative voice'.

By law, the Auteur is the original copyright holder also!

François Truffaut above.

The "auteur theory" effected "film criticism" from when it was brought to light in 1954 by film director and film critic

François Truffaut. 

   

The Auteur theory originates from a group of cinema enthusiasts who wrote for Cahiers du Cinéma and argued that films should reveal the director's personal vision. The enthusiasts included auteurs such as:                                                           

                                                                                                                

 

Alfred Hitchcock:   

Jean Renoir: 





             

                                                                                  



 Howard Hawks:



My Story Boards...

The purpose of a storyboard is to photograph/draw/digitalise every shot of what ever you choose to create, it will contain key information written underneath it.

Storyboards allow the director to visualise the whole film before filming and it also allows the cameraperson to understand how the film should be shot.

Storyboards allow us to change elements if they don't work visually before the film making process begins.

Each frame of the storyboard should contain the following elements:

• The shot number -> All shots are numbered chronologically so the sequence can be followed.
• Framing -> Will the shot be a Close Up (CU)? Medium Shot (MS)? Long Shot (LS)?
• Drawing ->A drawing visualisation of what is happening in the shot.
• Action -> A brief description of what is happening in the shot.
• Dialogue -> Single lines of dialogue can be written.
• Sound effects -> Specific sounds? If so, will they be diegetic or non-diegetic? Is the music incidental?

Information about the movement and position of the camera, including the following abbreviations:

1. H/A -> High Angle
2. L/A -> Low Angle
3. POV -> Point of View
4. 2-Shot -> Two people in a shot
5. OTS -> Over the Shoulder
6. Track/Dolly -> The camera is moved on a wheeled platform
7. Crab -> The camera moves sideways
8. Focus Pull -> You change what the camera is focused on.

                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                     

                                                                                               

My Final Proposal:

My working title will be: All these things that I've done
                                by: The Killers

The channel(s) it will be broadcast on vary, The Killers are a popular band, their music isn't neesh. I suppose, due to the genre it falls into the primary channel may be MTV Rocks. formerly MTV Two, MTV2 Europe and M2. This channel will exclusively play alternative rock and indie.

I would say Kerrang, but it isn't as heavy as other songs that are played on Kerrang (Limp Bizkit etc).

Target audience: As The Killers are quite comerical in their music, this target audience isn't very specific. This genre and band may appeal to quite a wide range of age groups and both males and females. I know that I love The Killers and I'm 18, my questionnaire went up to 36+ as I know my parents listen to them also. Class is again quite varied again, there are different demographic groups, yet I think any group below group "A" maybe, will be targetted:

This is just a print screen of a table with the demographic groups.

Genre: Indie/Rock

Style: It will be a narrative more than a performance music video. I envision this music video to start in black and white, the editing isn't fast at the start, I want freeze frames of a calender, a table with a journal and some pills, then an alarm clock. When the boy opens his eyes, I would like to zoom into them, then instead of black and white - the shots from then on will be in colour. I really would like the colour to be heightened and the saturation and contrast at its most.
I may add some slow motion effects, I think I will repeat some shots (maybe the shots of him getting up out of bed or walking down stairs).
I know I will definitely make people disappear in a certain shot. This scene will be black and white, I think I will make it appear much like a flashback. I will be using a tripod, but sometimes I will use hand-held camerawork to portray the boys unstable state of mind. I don't think I will use split screens, I want it to be as real as possible. The Killers music video's are quite down-to-earth. I want the narrative aspect to come out, I want the story to be told, I don't want it to be full of mimes.

Planning: I have permission to film in The Dove Health Center on the weekends, as long as I am with a member of staff.

Analysing Music Video: Message to you Rudy - The Specials.

I couldn't embed the performance video, so I will use a variety of screen shots instead.

Below is the Album that this track, as well as many other amazing ska tracks feature on. The Specials were formed in 1977 and were/still are a very influential ska, 2 tone and new wave band. They were a 2 TONE SKA BAND, as they were signed up to the English Record label - 2 Tone Records, this label focused on releasing ska and reggae music, with a punk/rock influence.



The Specials



The music video starts with a trumpet instrumental for about 8 seconds and this is what we see with it. We see what looks like some archive footage, it looks like a home video of some sort using a hand held camera. There are two average-dressed black men walking towards the camera from a long angled shot (establishing shot of a street at night) and then they walk past the camera as it pans them.

Invisible editing is used as it flicks to the next shot of the same two men joining a group of about 5 or 6 and they are smiling - there are black and white people in this huddle of men. I clarify this as, The Specials were all for integration! They would wear black and white and their album covers usually were in black and white.

       



Back to the video...

After the 8 seconds of the trumpets subtle instrumental, we hear the drum come in and as soon as we hear the first bang of the drum - the editing takes us directly to a close up of a drum kit with the drummers hands holding the drum sticks. So as the drums come in for a few seconds we see the drummer physically hitting the drums.

It then flicks to the trumpet player in a medium close up, he is normally dressed again to reveal the casual persona of the group.



Then the invisible editing takes us to an extreme long shot of a white studio, we just see the pure white background, The Specials with two other men and the instruments they are playing. They are all dressed in the stereotypical "rude boy" gear, with suits and hats.

When the lyrics come in, we have a high angled, medium close up shot of 3 of The Specials members singing, looking directly into the camera above them. I think this is to come across as a warning, The Specials are talking to you when they say "Stop your messing around"

After the warning sang by The Specials we see, what looks like archive home video footage of some young men on the street (long shot) laughing and joking. I believe this was used to act as though The Specials were targeting their warning to young men hanging round on the street.

Then it flicks back to the same high angled shot again when The Specials sing "better think of your future". The same sequence is used after this is sang too - we see again this archive footage of the same young men fooling around again.

This is continued as The Specials sing "time to straighten right out..." We see the same high angled medium close up of the same 3 members of The Specials singing, and then it flicks again to the group of young men again.

As the chorus comes in, the medium close up and archive footage is replaced with the same high angled extreme long shot of all the band members.

When the singing in the chorus is finished, the trumpet solo comes back in, therefore we see the man playing the trumpet again from before. It's the same medium close up shot used, just like at the beginning, showing the simplicity of the song.

We then see a quirky high shot of the keyboard player having fun, he is dancing whilst playing his instrument, showing the laid-out atmosphere of the video. Then back to a high angled shot of the 3 members of The Specials, the high angled shot almost looks like a birds eye view.

When the second verse comes in, after The Specials sing "Stop your fooling around", we again see some (medium long shot) archive footage of some youths on the street, there are 2 boys and one women. One of the boys looks like he is urinating on the wall, with his back turned to us and the camera zooms onto the woman's face, leaving us with a close up of her smiling.

Then it is back to the high angled shot of the same 3 members of The Specials singing again, then instead of the archive footage, it is other performers in the white studio, we see them in a medium/long shot.

Then we have the expected high angled shot with the 3 Specials members, when they say "...you'll wind up in jail" there is night footage of a long shot of a police van with two police officers, the doors of the van are open, and we can see some people held inside. Then we see some action riot looking

archive footage (long shot).

We see the high angled medium close up of the 3 members again, then with the second trumpet solo, we see the trumpet player in a medium close up, after we see the keyboard player in the high angled medium long shot again, then flicks to a close up of the keyboard being played.

After seeing the extreme long shot of all The Specials members and the other instrument players dancing around again, we see the trumpet player with a close up of the inside of the trumpet as it is being played.

Then the instrumental starts, we see medium close ups of some of the members of the group dancing, we see medium long shots of the guitar players' legs and guitar, then a low shot of the drummer (long shot) and finally back to the trumpet player.

After the instrumental, we see the extreme long shot of all of the members of The Specials. Then the sequence of the high angled medium close up of the 3 members of The Specials again, then the footage of more young men on the streets at night.

As expected, we see the 3 Specials again, then the two other instrument players again, however then we see a long shot of what looks like a home video house party almost, on a staircase.

We again see the 3 Specials sing "better think of your future" and when they sing "creating problems in town" we see an extreme long shot of some young people running in the night through some boxes. This shows that the youths are simply creating problems, what you see is the illustration of the lyrics.

Back to the chorus we really see the sequence of the video by seeing the long shot of The Specials singing again, then the shot gets further and further into the distance and when it is as small as the print screen shows, finally fades to black.

Analysing Music Video: All these things that I've done - The Killers.

For my media production, I am planning to make a music video. I am making a narrative/performance music video to the song I have embedded above.

This is the original UK video version of The Killers' song "All the things that I've done":

Brandon Flowers (the lead singer in the band) with the rest of the group members are shown walking towards the camera (following it) in a narrow alley with bricked walls in a medium long shot. This is the establishing shot, it sets the scene. We are left wondering: why are they there? Where are they going? This is all happening during the instrumental beginning part of the song.

We then see archive footage of, what looks like a concert (most likely there concert) - the question is answered: maybe they are on their way to perform. The mise en scene of the concert is dark, dim lighting, the crowd look anxious and they seem to be waiting. The camera pans around the faces of the crowd (medium close ups).

Then it goes straight back to The Killers in the alley, it seems to be nearing the end.

The fast editing shows the longing crowd again - still waiting.

This is done for the first 18 seconds of the song until they are out of the alley, the have crossed the road and on the pavement (medium long shot tracking)

The camera tracks The Killers throughout their journey and throughout the song. Brandon Flowers starts miming the words. We see medium close ups and medium long shots of the band members faces and his.

Then Brandon greets a male random passer-buyer, shakes his hand and then the man starts walking along side the group.

We then see a medium long shot of the legs of the group and the man - showing another person has joined this journey.

There is a shot of The Killers and the man from the side (long shot) but now with more followers - this increase of followers (fans) continues throughout the video. There are a range of shots (close-ups, medium close ups etc) of the members of the group and the followers to show that they look happy (pans around everyone).

Rapid editing is used after "I need direction to perfection" is said, when the "no, no, no, no" part is, it is accompanied by a fast edited sequence of medium close ups, medium long shots and close ups of the group turning a corner.

For the chorus we have a close up of Brandon Flowers' face, then it switches to a medium close up of the group again.

The camera-work is rather intriguing, it looks much like it is hand-held, yet the tracking is very very smooth. The hand-held technique, as well as the mise en scene in general suggests an easy-going, calm atmosphere, not pretentious.

There is a sequence of medium close ups of the followers' and the groups happy expressions.

At 1 minute and 47 seconds into the video, when Brandon sings "Your gonna bring yourself down" and the backing track disappears and we just hear a continuous drum beat. This builds up the suspence. We see The Killers (without the followers) in a high angled shot walking up a staircase in a building.

We flick back and forth (with medium close ups and panning close ups of faces) to the concert crowd looking as though they are still waiting for something, then to The Killers again looking like they are walking backstage, then to the crowd with lead by Brandon Flowers, then back again to the crowd.

Then we see The Killers walk onto a stage facing the same concert audience (long shot). There is the diagetic sound of the crowds roars for their longed for performance.

The camera pans around the crowds faces.

There is a comedy-like aspect to the video as, when the forth "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" part of the song comes in, it sounds almost gospel-like; therefore, with the street scene we see The Killers and the crowd accompanied by a stereotypical gospel choir. The mise en scene is perfect, they have blue gowns on and look like they've just come out of church.

There is then a sequence of close ups of the Gospel singers' faces, then the crowd and then Brandon Flowers (meanwhile we still see people joining The Killers on the street).

The final chorus is again the same, the usual sequence of the different ranges of camera shots (medium long shots, medium close ups, close ups etc) of all scenes (the street scene, the concert crowd etc).

The last shot is panning of the concert audiences faces (close ups) and the diagetic crowd noise drowns out the song itself.

Analysis of The Killers - All these things that I've done lyrics.






This is a copy of The Killers - All these things that I've done lyrics with my annotations (pretty hard to read)

   

Audience Research - Questionnaire and Results

I have created a questionnaire about music videos, this helps me develop my ideas further to give the audience what they want and look for in a music video...


RESULTS:


I asked 10 people to fill in my questionnaire, so I could allow the results to be transferred into percentages easier. I wanted to make my questionnaire have a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. I also assured that my questionnaire was as fair as possible, asking 5 males and 5 females between the ages of 16-36+. The public is varied in ages, so why restrict my questionnaire to appeal to just teenagers?


I noticed that the age of a person doesn't necessarily mean that they like different music genres to a teenager, their song choices may differ, but they will definitely show similarities also.


Questions 1 and 2 (as you can see above) are just asking about gender and age.


The 3rd question about "preferred genre" had a varied result of:
Rock/Indie -> 50%
Reggae -> 20%
Hip Hop/ RnB -> 20%
Ska -> 10%
As I am creating a music video which conforms to the "Rock/Indie" category, at least I know, with the participants who answered the questionnaire that it may (if done correctly) appeal to them, as it had the highest result of half of the participants asked.
I almost realised that I was lucky with this questionnaire, as one of the choices were "other"; yet I didn't write 'please specify' after, which would have helped me develop a more specific answer and idea of what people prefer. 


The 4th question was asking what your favourite music channel, it was a qualitative question, so the participants were required to write down their answer:
Kerrang -> 50%
MTV Base -> 40%
Magic -> 10%
These results were quite interesting. It showed that the 20% that liked Reggae and the 20% that enjoyed Hip Hop were more likely to watch MTV Base. The 50% that chose Rock/Indie, all chose Kerrang as their favoured music channel. And the final 10% that picked Ska music as their favourite genre wrote that they watched Magic (which I know focuses on 70's and 80's classics).


The 5th question is about what format they use most to watch music videos:
Youtube -> 70%
Television -> 20%
Mobile phone -> 10%
This is pretty self explanatory, it just proves that in this generation, we rely on computer technology a lot more than the original format of Television.

The 6th question is asking which type of music video they prefer:
Abstract -> 0%
Performance -> 30%
Narrative -> 70%
The overall reason for choosing the "Narrative" choice consisted of "more interesting" and "enjoy the story behind the music" throughout all results. However, coincidentally, the 3 participants out of 10 that chose "Performance" as their preferred type of music video also all chose "Rock/Indie" as their preferred music genre. Stereotypically, "Performance" music videos are mostly related with Rock/Indie anyway.


The 7th question is about whether the participants like Linear or Non Linear music videos:
Linear -> 100%
Non Linear -> 0%
Even though I didn't add "and why?" at the of that question, I asked the participants why all answered "Linear". I deduced that it can easily confuse people when music videos lack chronological order.


The 8th question is asking whether special effects are liked in music videos and I gave some examples also; these are the results:
Yes -> 90%
No -> 10%
The majority that said "yes" to the liking of special effects such as black and white, fades, sepia and split screens all said it made the music video more "enjoyable". However, I will also take into account the 1 out of 10 that said "no" to liking special effects with the reason of it "easily can lack realism".


The 9th question asked people if they had heard of The Killers:
Yes -> 100%
No ->0%
Thankfully, everyone that participated had heard of The Killers.


The 10th question asked what their favourite Killers music video was:
All the things that I've done -> 10%
Mr Brightside -> 40%
When you were young -> 50%
Other -> 0%
Again, I am very lucky with this, as I didn't write "please specify" after "Other", yet nobody ticked this box. It's good and bad that only 1 out of 10 people who took part in the questionnaire favoured "All the things that I've done". This is bad because it is the music video I choose to recreate. Yet, it is good, as I will try to (by using these results) make it as visually interesting as I can.


The 11th question asks if they prefer it when the music videos relate to the lyrics:
Yes -> 70%
No -> 0%
I'm not sure -> 30%
This definitely helps me, as I have annotated the lyrics of "All the things that I've done" in the hope to allow it to not be obvious representations of the lyrics in visual, yet it will subtly symbolise and relate to the lyrics.


The 12th question is the last one of the questionnaire, it is asking what you watch music videos for:
See the artist -> 0%
Listen to the lyrics -> 0%
Both -> 100%
I now know that the artist is just as important as the lyrics, so I need to have a good performer for my music video.

Ideas...

Idea 1:
Nirvana: Smells like teenage spirit:
This would be a dark video, it would come across as quite raunchy and flirty - yet it would also have a hidden feel of pain and struggle. This video would tell a story of a routine night of a prostitute. We would see her sleeping in the day, and then her getting ready for work at night. We would see her putting on the stereotypical fishnet stockings, bold read lipstick etc. This would all be in black and white, with the colour red being heightened throughout, to symbolise the scarlet lady, seductive and secretively; as well as the scars, the blood from fights maybe.
We would see long shots of her walking down streetlamp lit roads, with cars honking their horn, pulling over, then her getting in to the car. I would like it to be as vivid and raw as it could be with handheld cameras throughout, showing the realism of this way of life. It would definitely be a narrative, but not a performance, as she would not be miming. The "here we are now, entertain us" really does sum up this woman's life and profession - she is an entertainer.


Idea 2:
The Killers: Smile like you mean it:
This would be a narrative about the journey of two long lovers in their quest to be with each other. It is much like Romeo and Juliet in its story. We would see their forbidden love through the attitudes of their parents. Scenes will include close-ups of the young lovers' faces, their longing for one and other. We would see the boy climbing up to the girls window to see her and the parents finding them together.
We see them packing their clothes in the hope of running away to be with each other. We would see them on buses with big backpacks, stealing food, sleeping rough and attempting to hitch-hike on motorways. None of the actors would be miming though.
The majority of the shots will be at night, this reveals their love is dark and hidden.
Throughout the video, there would be normal colour. It would be a handheld camera used, to portray the unstable relationship.


Idea 3:
The Killers: All the things that I've done:
This is the idea that I have been thinking about since I heard that we were making a music video last year.
It focuses on a boy who has problems, he has to take pills and write in a journal as he suffers with nerves and depression. He is in bed, we see that it is his "appointment day" on the calender on the wall. We do not know that this is for, it is ambiguous. Then we see him get up and write in his journal, we see a picture of a girl and him on some swings in a park, the picture comes to life and the girl disappears. We see the boy going to this appointment, it is at a health center to see a psychiatrist. There would be some shot reverse shots used to show conversation between the psychiatrist to the boy. The boy goes slightly crazy and unresponsive in the room. Then the psychiatrist calls security and he gets dragged out.
The boy would be miming throughout the video, there would be both handheld camera usage and the tripod. It would start in black and white, then have heightened colour also.