A2 Media

Once we came up with our idea we started discussing possible locations to film that fitted with the story and were accessible for us to film. Today I went on a location scout to Longs wood, which is in my local area to see if it would be suitable for our music video. As well as woods there's also some open fields and areas which would be useful if we can get a drone for some aerial shots; this will also offer a bit more diversity to the close up angles that we can film in the more wooded areas and on the small trails. There are some different sites within the wood like the stairs, bridge and some ponds which we could use to capture more interesting shots and make it seem like there's a few different locations. As it had rained over the previous days the paths were very muddy and waterlogged so we will have to consider the weather when creating our shooting schedule.

Tears for Fears - head over heels doesn't have a similar storyline to our idea but it was produced at the same time as the safety dance so it is useful research for our music video. The story is pretty easy to understand the boy likes the girl, but the feelings aren't mutual. The video has a few strange elements, such as the monkey. The footage is a lot of long, close up shots that show the emotion on the singers face well; these we could use on the boy. On the editing side there's a lot of transitions like cross fading between shots, which we have talked about using to link the locations in the music video. The storyline has a definite ending, showing them in the future, this is going to be important for our music video so the story is explain and it all makes sense.

Our video will be in the form of a narrative. There won't be any live performance involved in the video or clips of the song being sung. This is because the song is a very upbeat song and so we felt it would be more effective to have a very full of energy, story-based narrative to accompany the song rather than break up the video between narrative and performance. Also, the fact that we had a very solid idea that we all agreed with and very much liked meant that we wanted to put that idea into full effect. We feel our idea is engaging enough to not need any live performance to accompany it.

These are the lyrics for the safety dance, they're quite a few lyrics about a place out of this world which directly links in with our idea of the child imagination. As well as the super hero costume links to safety.     We can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind 'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance Well they're, no friends of mine Say, we can go where we want to A place that they will never find And we can act like we come from out of this world And leave the real one far behind And we can dance, We can go when we want to The night is young and so am I And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet And surprise them with a victory cry Say, we can act if we want to If we don't nobody will And you can act real rude and be totally removed And I can act like an imbecile And say We can dance, we can dance Everything's out of control We can dance, we can dance We're doing it from pole...

Within my group (Jasper, Abbey and I) we will all be doing slightly different roles to spread out the workload and work to all of our strengths. Filming - All three of use will be there for the filming and help to film and direct the whole video. Editing -  I will do the majority of the editing as I'm the best at it and will do this role most effectively, however, we will all have input into how it is edited. CD Cover - Jasper and Abbey will create the CD cover whilst I am in the editing process. This is because Abbey have spent many years doing art at school and have experience creating and designing. Jasper also has many ideas for the CD cover and considers himself to be creative and computer-savvy. Blog Posts - All three of us will contribute to the blog posts, however, when all the footage has been captured Jasper and Abbey will do most of the posts to allow me to focus on the editing. Casting - All three of u...

The music video to Don Diablo - Got the Love has a storyline based around a child similar to our idea however this clearly attempts to show the child's imagination. The use of the child's toys and the low angle shot at the beginning showing him looking up to the moon tells us he's in his own little world dreaming about outer space. Also the special effects of the lights show his surprise and excitement and make it seem unusual and mysterious. We understand this is his imagination from the close up shots of his face linking everything to him, this would be good to include in our video as well as child's emotion.

  To get ideas for our music video I found some similar music videos on youtube that included a kid and the idea of him being transported to another place and has some link to his imagination. I thought this video was useful because though there isn't a strong, detailed storyline there is a wide range of shots that make it really interesting. I noticed that some of the shots are from a high angle, looking down on the scene as well as the tracking shot of him on the bike; these shots were probably filmed on a drone. I thought this would be really useful for our video as we are mainly filming outside. Also in this music video there is a lot of slow motion shots that look really affective; this combined with close up shots would add a lot of variation in our music video.

Our initial idea is to have and young kid put on a superhero costume and run outside into his den. Then he's going to appear in another place, supposedly in his imagination, he will go exploring and meet some other people, they do some nice dancing together before he wakes up in the garden.

Our final choice was the safety dance and carrots help you see in the dark. We have decided to do a narrative rather than an idea with a band or lip syncing and the story will probably be based around a child and his imagination.

To give us a starting point we were given a list of seven songs which we had to narrow down to three and then pick a final song from. On the right is our final three choices: Of monsters and men, Miley Cyrus and Men without hats. We chose party in the USA because it is upbeat and would have been easy to come up with an idea for as it doesn't have a strong of a narrative so we would have probably shown a band and singer. Little talks was more because of the opposite as its narrative is key to the song, which we could use to create a story from, though we felt this could get complicated. The safety dance was in our top 3 because it has a quick tempo and an understandable narrative. The two stimuli we thought we could link to these songs were carrots can help you see in the dark, this was because we felt it linked to childhood and imagination or myths. The day at the seaside we thought would fit as a location and starting point for party in the USA. ...

In preparation for next years coursework, we have up till summer to complete the preliminary task: to create an original music video as well as an accompanying CD cover. We have been given a list of songs and stimuli to help kick-start our ideas and have been put in groups. I will be working with Abbey and Jasper.

This is my A2 media studies blog to document my coursework where I will end up creating either a music video or short film. This blog will show the journey from my initial idea to my final cut. Over the next few weeks I will be posting about the preliminary task that we have to complete by the start of summer.