Revisiting RMAs

Revisiting RMAs:

After gaining feedback from our peers and teacher I decided to re-visit some existing indie music videos to gain more inspiration, specifically looking at the editing and style of shots that were used. 

Lorde - Perfect Places 

This segment of Lorde's music video was something I believed we could incorporate into our own, the fast pace transitions in quick succession that vary in shot sizes made her video more engaging. We could match them to the beat and tempo of our song and try them when she is sat on the bed playing her guitar.

Grace VanderWaal - So Much More Than This

These sections of Grace's music video is something my partner and I could attempt to recreate, the filming, editing and even what is happening in the shots have relevance to our storyline and are simplistic yet have a sentimental effect. We could choose a different location like a bedroom or living room, however, we could experiment with the shots and editing the song to be in time with the music. We could try using other locations, maybe somewhere outside to have a bigger variety and show that our protagonist is writing music and every opportunity she gets. 

 

Props Research (2)

Research Into Props -

For our narrative based promotional music video we only needed limited props that helped contribute to the overall outcome of the video's quality and made sense with the plot line. Addationally, due to having a limited budget we tried to encorporate props that we had access to either that we already owned or could borrow from friends. 

Dog Lead and Ball 

For several shots in our video and part of our storyline we show our protagonist taking her dog on a walk, therfore basic props you would use whilst working your dog such as a ball and lead would make the shots appear more realistic. These props are already owned by myself due to having a dog that we will be using in these specific shots. 

Phone and Earphones 

For the beginning and end of our music video we used earphones and a phone when showing our protagonist selcting a song to listen to on her phone. Since our target audience is 16-24, phones, social media and listening to music our all common activities that our audience can relate. This makes our main character more relatable which from my research I discovered is really important when you can relate to the person you see in the video.

Notepad and Pen

As our protagonist is an aspiring music artist and song writer it is only right that we show her writing her own music and lyrics. Thats why making use of simplistic props such as a notepad and pen that we have easy access to would improve the qaulity and narrative of the video without any expense to us. 

Acoustic Guitar

Again to re emphasize our protagonists storyline, a guitar to show her testing her music and signing to herself in her bedroom make is seem more realistic as well as creating a connection between her actions and those watching. It also allows her to make sure her music is at the right note and tempo. 

Laptop

A laptop is used in the video when she is communicating with record labels in the hope to get a break and release the song she has written. This is to emphasize her struggle as an aspiring artist and latops are common forms of techonology amongst our chosen target audience. Furthermore, both me and my partner as well as our actor have laptops so we can have easy access to one. 

Microphone

This is used towards the end of the video when she is performing her song, it creates realism as it allows the audience believe she is performing to an audience of people even when she isn't. The use of lighting from our schools drama studio will emphasize this more so it would appear even more realistic. 

Costa Drink/Mug

Whilst our actor is in the coffee shop replying to emails etc, having a costa drink will be able to make it seem more realistic and portray to those watching what she is doing and where she is. 

Location Research (2)

Location Research and Ideas - 

Since changing our concept and idea, subsequently our locations have changed as well, we have discussed some ideas for new locations based on our initial ideas, storyboards and shots we have been working since last week. 

Cafe:

We wanted one of our locations to be a cafe, we felt this would be a good place to juxtapose her isolation in an environment that is usually busy and where people go with friends and family. 

Our first idea was Creams in Windsor as we liked the retro, quirky atmosphere with the lighting and the booths. We thought the backdrop would be something that could appear really aesthetically pleasing on camera, as it is something we could play around with some interesting shots. Furthermore, we liked this location as it had a feeling that we felt was associated with videos previously made by the band. 

However, this is something that is much further afield from our other locations so we began researching into cafe's that are more local. So we looked into some locations in Maidenhead town centre. Our first thought was Costa, as it has a nice upstairs that isn't always too busy and has a good atmosphere with sofas and tables. 



Bedroom:

The choice of a bedroom was to make the video seem personal to the character it is following, it also emphasizes her isolation and reasoning for turning to music to portray her emotions. Additionally, it could be used as a reoccurring location throughout the promotional music video that creates a structure to the story. Furthermore, it is a location that is easy for us as filmmakers on a budget to have access to and if anything goes wrong during filming we can easily re film without having to ask permission from someone to use their property. 

Park/Field:

We chose to film some of our shots in the field to have a larger variety of locations, it is also something that is simplistic but would work with our storyline. It was a location we established we would be using when drawing the storyboard and we believe the three different locations would compliment the narrative structure for our music video and we believe we could get some good camera shots. 

Drama Studio: 

Our fourth and final location will be a drama studio, we chose this to make use of the black backdrop and arrangement of different coloured lights that would enhance and compliment the shots when our actor is signing towards the end of the music video. This location is easy for my partner and me to access due to it be situated in our school. 

Initial Ideas Magazine Advertisement - Fickle Friends

When researching into exsiting magazine advertisements we could take influence from but that would be relevant to our ideas and themes, we found that simplistic photos of the protagonist/lead singer was rather common in the indie genre. This is normally contrasted with a brighter background and some eye catching font/text. Fickle Friends have some exsisting posters so I chose to look their first and I found some aspects I liked. I really like the bright background and bold font and this was something we definetly tried to include in our initial ideas. Moreover, I liked that the focus point was on the lead singer.

Below are our initial ideas for our magazine advertisement - 

Idea 1: 

 Here we took into account our promotional music video and digipak and tried to create synergy between all of those products. The use of the protagonist on the front with her guitar has strong connections with our narrative based music video. Furthermore, the hand written font of 'Fickle Friends' shows that she is writing her own music and that again is part of our music video. Also, the floral vanilla flower background links to the song title itself and also appears on our digipak cover. This has similarties with some exsiting artefacts we have already seen, with the bright background contrasting a photo alongside bold text.

Idea 2: 

This is our second idea and is similar to our first idea but it would simply just be the photo we took in a studio with a single spotlight highlight and emphasizing her and her guitar. We liked the simplistic look however we did feel it lacked colour so when we took the real photos we planned on trying to experiment with colour highlights and background and seeing what would work. We may also consider colouring the text and making it bold so it stands out also. 

Initial Ideas Digipak - Fickle Friends

Regarding our digipak, we wanted to incorporate themes that would link our three segments of our coursework together. We wanted something abstract and concept based on our digipak that was bold and made use of bright colours. After researching into some existing digipaks for the alternative/indie genre and looking closely at Fickle Friends album covers we found that for more upbeat songs like 'Vanilla' the artist would use bright and bold colours but to emphasize the genre the design would definitely stem from a concept background. 

Idea 1 - 

This is our first idea for our digipak, on the front, it consists of a photo of our protagonist a that will be lit but a single spotlight to highlight her presence and importance. We used to different fonts which are common on many album covers. On the inside, we chose a lyric that we felt represented the premise of the music video well and this is accompanied by a drawing of the guitar to re-emphasize the importance of music in her life. 

Idea 2 - 

This is our second idea, here we made use of bold colours and more concept themed digipak, we focused this on a vanilla flower which creates synergy between the song title and our ancillary texts. This ties into our chosen genre of indie/alternative music.

Idea 3 - 

This is our final idea, it uses a bold purple colour contrasted with the black font. The concept of song writing and being an artist who writes their own lyrics is something that is shown throughout our music video. We chose to create a scrunched up paper effect on the back of the album and on the inside, we made use of lyrics on scraps of paper.

Digipak Research

Digipak Fickle Friends Research -

For our digipak intial ideas we wanted to take influence from exsisting media artefacts that come from our chosen genre (alternative/indie) as well as looking and drawing on previous album covers for our chosen band. To do this we needed to look into real media artefacts to make sure our ancillary tasks would be coherient of our genre, narrative style music video and be appealing to our target audience. 

Fickle Friends Album Covers:

Fickle Friends have a variety of different album covers already exsisting however they do have a common thred of themes that we can draw influence from and apply to our ideas. Colour is a main aspect of their digipaks, this reflects their upbeat sound which is portrayed in bright colours. Addationally, the use of floral patters and images is used as a backdrop or a main focus on some of their album covers also. The led signer Natassja Shiner seems to be featured on most of their digipaks emphasizing her to be the main and most known member of the band. 

General Indie Album Covers:

Regarding digipaks from our chosen genre, we wanted to take influence from those that have abstract and concept based ideas but also look at some that would have bigger similarities to our narrative based video. We also liked digipaks that have simple photos of the main artist superimpose onto a more bright and engaging background that had links and connections to the song. 

We feel that taking inspirations from exsisting media aretefacts in our chosen genre which have already proven to be successful and well appreciated amongst our target audience will improve the quality of our final product. Overall we felt that using colour, floral designs and photos of the main protagonist/band member in our collection of initial ideas will be benificial to having a wide variety of designs to gain feedback on from our target audience. 

Animated Storyboard - Vanilla by Fickle Friends

Animated Storyboard - 

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.