Storyboard

Artist Permission - Fickle Friends

Permission - 

Since choosing a different band we had to seek permission to use their song 'Vanilla' in our music promotional video. We tried to find a contact email, however, we didn't find anything so we took to their Facebook page. We sent them a message and within half an hour they replied, giving us permission to use the song. Obviously, we were thrilled about this as we were worried that finding a band quickly and gaining their permission would be a difficult task. 

Vanilla by Fickle Friends - Song Analysis

Fickle Friends - Vanilla 

'Vanilla' by Fickle Friends was released as part of the bands EP called 'Glue' in early 2017. It is a very popular song by the band and has been played on Spotify over 336,842 times since its release. The song tells the story of a girl who has been mistreated by her previous partner and who she gets over the breakout and becomes a stronger person for it. 

Our New Record Label

Polydor Records - 

• Polydor is a British record label and company that operates as part of the Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope A&M Records label which distributes Polydor's releases in America. 
• This brand was established in London in 1954 as a British subsidiary of German company Deutsche Grammophon, it was renames Polydor Ltd. in 1972.
• It's artists include; The Who, Slade, Bee Gees, Girls Aloud, Take That and of course Fickle Friends.

Though Polydor's American branch is nearly inactive, in the UK Polydor remains one of the strongest labels in the country with many successful artists signed to it. In 2006, Polydor launched Fascination Records, a music label dedicated to pop music. Girls Aloud transferred to this label and created groups including The Saturdays. 

Our New Band

Changing the Band and the Song - 

We decided to change our band and song as after talking to our teacher and discussing the new idea she expressed how she liked it but failed to see the correlation between the song and the video. Predominantly because the song is written and sung by a heavily influenced male band and the video would be being told from a female's perspective. 

Therefore, we researched into the genre we have already chosen (indie/alternative) and found a band with a lead female singer, Fickle Friends. We listened to several of their songs and decided we really enjoyed their sound and lyrics. We decided we liked the song 'Vanilla' and contacted them and we were fortunate enough to get a reply instantly with their permission to use their song. 

Fickle Friends - 

Fickle Friends is an English indie pop band from Brighton. The band formed in 2013 and is made of of Natassja Shiner (lead vocals and keyboard), Harry Herrington (bass, backing vocals), Chris Hall (lead guitar), Sam Morris (drums) and Jack Wilson (keyboard). 

After two years of touring the UK and Europe without a label or publisher and playing at 53 festivals across 2 years, Fickle Friends signed to Polydor Records. The band is recording their debut album in Los Angeles with Mike Crossey.

They have released several singles and EP's including; Glue, Crybaby, Brooklyn, Swim and Hello Hello. Many of these have promotional music videos to accompany them, they are a mixture of concept, narrative and performance and are extremely bright whilst appearing to be upbeat despite the deeper meaning to the lyrics.

Changing Our Idea

Promotional Music Video - Ideas Change: 

After re-watching back our footage for our music video, myself and Abbie decided that we no longer liked the idea we had for our video and felt we could make something more engaging and of a better quality. So in our last double lesson we sat down and revisited the lyrics for The Hunna 'Brother' and together came up with a new idea. 

Our Idea: 

• Our video will be narrative base and follow the story of a girl who is isolated and very insecure about herself. We chose this as a story line as we believe that these are common emotions and feelings that many teenage girls feel and suppress. The video will have several location and the main idea will be that the song will be written by her for the band and throughout the video she tries to find where she belongs and fits it. It will end with her seeing her song being released as a single and her being credited for writing it. 

Location Ideas: 

• Bedroom = We choose this for our main location that the video will keep coming back too as we believe that this is a place where most people feel at ease and can be themselves. It is there own space that they can make their own and escape too.
• Woods/field = This is a second location, this will be used when she is out walking her dog, we also thought that when people need space to be alone the often go for walks around isolated environments to think.
• Cafe = Here we will have her alone writing her music and being somewhere where you would commonly go with someone else to highlight the juxtaposition between her isolation and how society gets on with everything. 

What We Are Doing Now:

For the next coming days we will focus on getting all of our shots and storyboard done so we can get some constructive feedback from our focus group, target audience and teachers. We have already found a suitable actor who is willing to play the role and we know she will give it her best shot. Furthermore, we will find a cafe that will allow us to film in and get permission so we can hopefully commence filming over the next week or two. 

First Draft - 'Brother' By The Hunna

Feedback From Focus Group:

Joe - 

• I like the locations you chose I think it makes it relatable as it is somewhere that you can see yourself being at
• The use of smoke flares are an interesting concept and I like how the reoccur throughout the video
• To improve try using more editing techniques and a bigger variety of shots 

Amy - 

• I like how you used the beat and tempo of the music to cut and edit the video to as it is engaging and increases the pace 
• I also liked the narrative of the video although it could be made clearer 
• To improve I would make the shots less static by including more moving shots and make sure you change costumes for different times/scenes/locations

Rhiannon - 

• I liked certain aspects of the performance especially the bits filmed in the field as the lip syncing was successful their 
• I also liked the smoke flares as they are commonly seen in indie/alternative music videos 
• To improve I would try and improve the quality of the lip syncing in the rest of the video

Ben - 

• 
  

We decided to change our song and concept after speaking to our teacher, peers and focus group and gaining their feedback. Since we still have a good amount of time to make it better we believe it would be in our best interests to change the idea. Also, we wanted to refilm however communication between ourselves and the actors was not the best and their reliability and commitment to the video weren't what we hoped. 

Props List

List - 

• Smoke Flares 
• Notepad 
• Pen 
• Money 
• Train tickets 
• Train map 
• Clapperboard 
• DSLR Camera (equipment)
• Tripod (equipment)
• Mobile phone 

Reasoning for choosing these props/equipment - 

Following on from our props research we have altered some of the props that we used. Our statement prop of smoke flares hasn't changed as they are a big part of our music video. We also added a railway map to our prop list since doing our research as we felt it was useful when filming the flashback scenes of our music video, other than that our props remained the same. We chose a camera that belonged to Abbie who is my partner due to its quality and the functions it has. Also, we chose to use my tripod to take steady and secure shots. 

Mood board of props/equipment - 

Filming Journal

Filming Journal Prezi - 

I chose to present my filming journal in a prezi. Overall our day filming went really well, we manage to get all the shots we wanted and everything went to plan. 

Focus Group Feedback on Digipak

Feedback on Digipak - 

We have settled on a final idea for our digipak and enlisted the help and advice from our focus group so we can make any changes and alterations before settling on the final design. This was our idea we chose and our focus group all loved the concept as well as the message behind it but they had some constructive criticism.

Amy:

• The concept of embossed fonts looks good
• However, the white capital font looks rather plain and could be redone to look more engaging  
• Potentially a more creative design across certain panels to be more appealing to a wider audience 

Rhiannon: 

• I love the background colour and how the merge together on one of the covers 
• I like how they represent both brothers have two different colours and how they fuse together in the cover 
• The colour motif is memorable throughout your ancillary tasks and the music video 

Joe: 

• I like the art style and the shadows of the heads that represent the characters from the music video
• I also like the colours but the orange and white text blend into the background and make it hard to read what it says clearly 
• The tracklist seems out of place where it is so maybe to try and find a different place to make the shadows more clear as they are important and I like them 

Ben:

• I like the way and structure of the cd covers 
• I also like the colours and silhouettes because they contrast with each other well making them stand out 
• Perhaps include more detail than just the heads to have a larger variety 

Focus Group Feedback on Magazine Advertisement

Feedback on Magazine Advertisement -

As a pair, we decided from our initial ideas what magazine advertisement we preferred and the one we felt complimented our idea and themes best. Much like our digipak, there is a common theme of the blue and orange running throughout yet the design isn't too similar to create differentiation but still, have similarities to ensure they are relatable.  

Amy: 

• I like how it is the same colour scheme as the video and the digipak giving it continuity across the advertisement of the song
• I also like how the silhouette heads are similar to the ones on the digipak and how it represents the two brothers 
• To improve, the fonts and text styles could be more interesting and engaging such as having the two different fonts similar to the digipak

Rhiannon:

• I like the silhouette heads 
• However, I think the text juxtaposes to much with each other, possibly have the same font for the title and the artist's name
• Yet overall I really like the concept of the magazine advertisement 

Joe: 

• I like the contrast between the blank silhouettes and the colours in the background 
• Also, I like the text that says Brother and I like the style of it matches the bold colours 
• However, the cursive text at the bottom doesn't fit the style of the poster and doesn't look very engaging

Ben: 

• I really like the fonts that were used due to them being clear and engaging 
• Additionally, I like how the characters from the video are displayed as silhouettes 
• The colours look rather similar and could look rather boring, maybe make them darker to increase the contrast