Narrative Map - Wings by Birdy

 This is our carefully thought out and detailed narrative map of our music video, step by step we have outlined what will take place for how long (seconds) and at each time a lyric is sung. Ranging from performance from the main character to flashbacks of happier memories with the character and her best friend. We decided to change our storyline to something that appeals to us more which is of two friends who have to deal with the hardship of separation due to the girls parents wanting to move abroad and how the friend left in London deals with this transaction.   

This is constantly referred back to within the narrative map as can be seen below. 

Each section has been colour coded, Pink =Beginning, Green=Middle and Orange = Ending.

Target audience research

Existing CD covers- Inspiration

Outline of our idea (Post-Production)

Outline of our idea-

When we began to brainstorm our idea we agreed that we both wanted the video to be narrative based. We also agreed that our video had to have a griping concept as when we began to think about our ideas we were leaning more towards doing a slow song.

The idea we wanted to portray in our video is the story of a girl who has gone blind. We noticed through various media such as film and television that a lot of depictions of blind characters are mostly the same, often showing them as weak and incapable. In our video we wanted to show the concept in a much different light. In our idea we didn’t so much want to focus on making our character be portrayed as weak but rather to show that they have feeling and emotions just like other people. Our aim is to present a story that goes much deeper into how it feels to be blind.

Our idea for the video follows the girl and her as she begins to acknowledge her condition. The idea we were imagining was a scenario in which the girl is thinking back on her life as it was before, when she could see. We were thinking about making the main body of the video be a flashback sequence almost like a montage of the contrast between then and now and how it affects her.      

Psychographics of our Target Audience - Indie Pop

Demographics

Videos with complex narrative

 
          
The video follows the story of a transgender woman. the way the video is set out is very reminiscent of a short film. The shots that are used are very cinematic this make it easy for the story to be recognized. although it uses strong elements of film making techniques the video also stylizes some aspects of the story to make sure it appeals as a music video.



What i liked about this video was it play on style. again like the previous video it is very much set out like a short film. but what i liked was the scene of mystery. it raises the question of why is he angry? where is he going? who/what is he angry at?. I like when videos make the audience question and guess what is going to happen. and i also like the BIG reveal at the end of the video.



With this video i used it to link to our theme (blindness). although the story isn't quite the same but i like the way in which the theme is portrayed. i also like how the video takes the form of (like the others) as a story.



This Video is great. the video follows two friends and it is about how one of them deals with breaking up with his girlfriend. the video itself is liberating and made us look at tell our story from a lighter point of view (leaving the viewer with hope at the end). the best part of the video is the ending. i think i was a really interesting move to carry on the ending like a film because it really adds t the narrative of the video.

Narrative based music video - Wings

We will be using a narrative based structure for our music video as our idea is such a complex one that involves the emotional battle between a young girl and her new found disability, the loss of her sight. The story will progress into how she chooses to over come her battles and come to terms with her thoughts and feelings for her friendships whilst discovering her new persona.

Questionnaire - Target audience research

1) If you were watching an Indie Pop music video, what conventions would you expect to see?

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2) Would you expect a music video to convey a meaningful moral?

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3)Should a music video be Simplistic or Abstract?



                           Simplistic                                  Abstract

4)Within society today, what would a 2015 music video look like?

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5) Within an Indie Pop music video would you expect to see signs of capitalism or any other political debate?


                                  Yes                                 No


6)When you watch a new music video do you bring it up in discussion with peers?


                                  Yes                                 No

7) Would you be shocked to see an Indie Pop music video featuring the main character and storyline to be based around a female group/?

                                 Yes                                 No

Inspiration for Music Video Idea (The Book of Eli)

The Book of Eli 

At around minute eleven Eli is shown to be feeling the book with his eyes closed, mouthing what he reads. At the end of the movie the camera shoots close-up to his eyes. There is no other reason to do this except to highlight his eyes, and there is nothing remarkable about them except that they don't see. The bible's braille. The writer very well knew the phrase "blind faith" would come to the viewer's mind. I'm reminded by this discussion page how ineffective Wikipedia is doomed to be. You go through the whole of your life assuming things. You assume your teacher is right. Often they are half-right. You assume your most trusted media outlet gives you true information. You assume there are people on this earth, though the only evidence of that indeed comes from your own "original research" through observation. Wikipedia should not exist on the opinions of people whose qualifications cannot be assessed, and for that you have the wisdom of sources, which themselves inevitably trickle down to original research through observation. Not everything is quantified. 

For our video we took a lot of inspiration from the film 'The Book of Eli'. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The film centres around the idea of survival, initially not revealing the main character (Eli) is in fact blind. The concept of the movie inspired use to follow the story of making the main character in our video be blind. Studying the film influenced as to think of a lot of different ideas to how exactly we could portray the notion of blindness in an effective and unique way.  

Draft story board

This is a rough draft of our story board for our music video. The yellow post-it notes are in order and cut from scene 1 all the way up to scene 12 whilst the orange post-it notes are extra scenes that we want to some how include. 

The main idea is the video will start with ambient sound such as nature (birds whistling) and everyday noise such as cars passing by. Throughout we will repeatedly cut to the "artist"to show her performance and singing in time to the lyrics. We also like the idea of using photographs as a gateway to go back in time to each memory the artist has, one example of this is, Bonfire night. There will be a picture of the main character and her friends and as she looks at it she has a flashback to the night out with the fireworks in the background showing the difference in time since she became blind and how she feels now compared to then. 

However, we also like the idea of showing the characters progress throughout the music video and to discover that she has a new found love and talent, playing the piano. We want to some how insert this idea and make it clear towards the target audience. 

Researching our song (Wings- Birdy)

The song's Sophie Muller directed video shows Birdy with guests at a flamboyant mansion party. It was shot in and around Pylewell House, which is located near Lymington in Hampshire, England. The clip also stars Birdy's best friend, her younger sister Caitlin, as well as a couple of cousins. "The song is about having a wonderful time and the memory of being with your friends and kind of wishing you were back there, so I wanted it to feel like a festival, and then the director had the idea of putting everyone in carnival clothes to make it a bit weirder and more interesting," she recalled to The Mail On Sunday's You Magazine. "We had a brilliant time making it, everyone just looked so amazing. My little sister Caitlin and two of my cousins are the ones riding the horses, and in the shots of me on the swing I am with my best friend Becky."

Record Label Research (post-production)

14th Floor Records- 

14th floor records is a British subsidiarity record label of Warner Music UK, founded in 2002 by part owner Christian Tattersfield. The label has released albums by artists including: Biffy Clyro, Damien Rice, David Gray, Longview, Mark Joseph, Nerina Pallot, Ray LaMontagne and The Wombats.  

Globalisation diagram

In our media class today we discussed the positives and negatives of Globalisation, the positives are in blue whilst the negatives are in green. This is a topic we need to take into consideration when thinking about our music video, Wings by Birdy, and how we are going to address it, whether that be in an obvious light or a subtle one.

Costume and Model ideas for "Wings" (Music video)

Initial plans for our music video

This is a sheet of our first initial ideas for our music video, Wings by Birdy. Of course this is just a rough draft to fit some of the ideas and decide what ones are good and useful and others that are not as strong.

Andrew Goodwins Theory.

                                     Andrew Goodwins Theory put into practice
                                                Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Andrew Goodwins Theory consists of 5 major steps:
                                1) They emplify genre characteristics
                                2) Frequent references to the notion and looking of women
                                3) Succinct relationship between music and visuals
                                4) Star appeal - focus on the artist as the star
                                5) Use of intertextuality and the referencing of pop culture

Taylor swifts - Blank space:
                                1) The video does emplify genre characteristics as it has a typical love narrative and the break down of a relationship and most music videos are now based around love of the effects of love. What makes it different is it consists of a story based around Taylor Swift and the male character acts more of a prop whilst the lyrics she sings act as the words to the argument they are both having.
                                2) The video doesn't make a lot of reference to the notion and looking at women in a sexual context as such but it could be argued that Taylor swift is looked at in a stereotypical view of women in a more psychopathic context. What I mean by this is the narrative of Blank Space symbolises how women are insane when they are in a relationship and so it could be argued that women are stereotypical seen as "crazy" in this music video rather than obviously sexualised as suggested in Andrew  Goodwin's theory.
                                3) The music video Blank Space does amplify the relationship between music and visuals as one of the lyrics is "They'll tell you im insane" and then a shot of Taylor Swift with mascara running own her cheek whilst holing her hair and bulging eyes does fit the criteria of insanity. That and the lyric (and title of the song) "I've got a blank space baby and ill write your name" whilst a visual of a tree comes into shot with Taylors name and the male characters in a love heart. Hence proving Andrew Goodwin's 3rd factor of his theory to ring true.
                               4) This music video definitely uses Taylor Swift (the artist) as the main star of the music video and how the narrative is entirely devoted to her and her relationship with men. This is evident as she is in practically every shot, whether that be her standing on a horse singing to her stabbing a cake on her bed whilst chocolate spurts out of it instead of blood. All the while adding to this idea that her and women in general are "crazy" when trapped in the web of love.
                               5) Intertextuality and referencing to pop culture is evident in this music video through its use of location, narrative, performance and props. Every detail has been carefully considered and constructed to ensure the targeted audience not only feel Taylor swifts style of music but also what is popular in that genre (pop) today within modern society. This is reflective in the use of Red lipstick on Taylor Swift, the horse to symbolise wealth and narrative of a typical love story.

Overall, this is a perfect example of Andrew Goodwin's theory and proves that most music videos fit his theory in more than 3 of his top points.

Genre research - Indie pop (Pre-production)

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the united kingdom in the mid 1980s. It generated a thriving fanzine, label and club, gig circuit. indie pop differs from indie rock to the extent that it is more melodic, less abrasive and relatively argst free. The term indie pop became a genre due to the release of NMEs C86 tape in 1986.
 Therefore our chosen song, Wings by Birdy has been defined as a indie pop song and this is typical of the artists style and thus generates a range of ideas for our own project.

Inspirational Shots from Existing Videos

We started to look at different videos to get some inspiration for possible shots we could use for our video. the shots we looked at used really unique and effective camera angles and frames. all of the videos we looked at all are narrative videos. our aim for this exercise was to brainstorm some ideas on how to convey our story through the different shots.