Draft: start of the field scenes

 

The end part of the music video where the tempo of the song changes is probably the part of the music video where I wanted many different cuts and for it to seem dramatic so I tried to change the shot as much as I can, however this first draft to me seems a bit too rushed and not every new shot cuts to the beat, so that is something I need to change. Also, at 0:06 the shot sort of seems as if it skips, however this was intentional and cuts to the beat of the song. The shot before this, which is a close-up of Beth's face is also a but blurry so I may consider re-shooting or using one of the many shots I have of Beth in the field. 

Draft: first attempt of a narrative sequence/middle

Although I am happy with the structure of the different shots used in this sequence I think some of  is needs re-shooting, specifically the first shot of Rob as you can see my shadow over him from when I was recording. I also think the 3 shots of Beth and Rob when they're walking holding hands needs to be changed to cut to the beat. On the other hand, I also have some contrast issues with the last shot as well of Beth against the white background I will definitely be considering re-shooting those scenes.

Draft: Beginning of the video

Considering this is my first attempt of the start of the video I am actually quite happy with it, the intention was for the shot of Beth to fade in, then whilst slowly zooming out the shot will come into focus. I think I have achieved the intention of doing this, except I might maybe change the duration of the shot and shortern it down I will decide whether to do this or not once I have a few opinions on it from other people. The next shot however I definitely want to change, the contrast isn't very good as her skin tone doesn't look natural and I would like to change the positioning of her too. The third shot, which is a rule of thirds shot of Beth at Hessle foreshore needs changing too, as you can see by watching the shot I had some trouble with holding the camera very still so the shot moves around several times, however I want to use this shot so one way I could correct this error would be to change the speed of the shot to being very slow. 

Animatic

I found doing this animatic very useful as it gave me a view on what my video could possible look like, however not everything turned out to be as i planned it. When putting the still images with the music i realised that some of the cuts didnt match the beat of the song, this meant that i had to change the length of some of the images and even remove some. 

Test Footage

All of the following clips are footage of the first actor (Jess) who I first used to be in my music video. Although I am not using these specific clips I am still using the same shots but for my new actor. I received feedback from these clips therefore I am referring to these as first drafts and now when I re-film I know what to do and what not to do.

This clip is a medium close-up of the actors back; I was going to include this in the 'body shots' sequence of the music video. In the clip I used the tri-pod to pan, showing the full width of her back, the plan is not very smooth and doesn’t stay at a consistent speed so when I re-shoot this with the new actor I will need to make sure i improve on this.

 

This clip is an extreme close-up of the actors face when she was crying; again the pan isn’t very good so I will need to improve on this, especially as it is an extreme close-up so it will need to be slower.

 

This clip is an extreme close-up of the actor’s eyes, then her looking down. I used lighting specifically on the left side of her face to give a shadow to the right side. This is effective so I will definitely be using this technique when I re-shoot. However the camera is slightly slanted so her eyes don’t look in line.

 

This clip is of the actor sat on a chair in her garden on her phone. I think the shot would have been acceptable to use If I was still using this actor. However the camera slightly moves/shakes.

 

This clip is of the actor swirling her hand around in a circular motion, I wanted to include this shot in my video as it links with the lyrics 'they surround in my head every night'. I placed a light below so the shadow of her hand is on the wall and makes the shot look effective. However I will not be using this shot when I re-shoot the video.

This clip is of the actor against a white background singing the song. I wanted to place the actor of the right using the rule of thirds but unfortunately part of her body goes in the centre. On the other hand, I will still be using this idea when I re-shoot this scene but will make sure I place my actor in the correct place.

This clip is a close-up of the tea-stained quote which was one of the props I used to film. I'm not sure whether or not I will be using this exact shot/idea when I re-shoot but I will definitely be re-using the shot.

 

This clip is of Jess using one of the props (the tea stained quote) and placing it on a mirror then looking at it. I did this to fit in with the narrative, showing Jess reading the quote looking sad yet also happy as she is believing in the quote which is 'What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger'. Although the idea I had fits with the narrative, I wont be re-shooting this shot with the new actor.



Prop List

To give my music video a sense of realism I am using several props in the video, these are:

A mobile phone- this will be used to show a photo of Beth & Rob as the background photo of the phone establishing their relationship.

A Laptop- this will also be used to establish Beth & Rob's relationship, however instead of showing a photo it will be showing a 'home video' of the two, and will represent what their relationship was like.

A Bike- this will be used in the 'home video' scene shown on the laptop.

A Guitar- The main instrument used in the song is a guitar; therefore I think it is very important to include at least one shot of it in the music video as well as a shot of Beth playing it too.

Tea stained quote- The actor I previously used (Jess) has a tattoo on her rib cage reading 'what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger' in latin. I have transcribed this tattoo in English on paper in a script font, I then tea stained the paper and burnt the edges giving the effect of it being a sort of historical document.

Photo of Beth & Rob- I am using a photo of Beth and Rob in a frame at the end of the music video, Rob will then fade from the photo showing Jess alone, connotating that they're no longer in a relationship with each other.

Flowers- I will be using the flowers in several different scenes, the first scene will be a reminiscing scene of Beth and Rob where I will show Rob giving them to Beth as a gift. The second scene will be when Beth is in the field alone and she will drop one of the flowers. And the last scene where I will be showing the flower is when Rob is in the field alone, after Beth and he finds the flower.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule


Tuesday-15/11/11- Shooting with Beth at her house. Shots 5, 6, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 & 92.



Thursday-17/11/11- Shooting of Beth against white background. Shots 4, 12, 16, 19, 20, 37, 42, 49, 54, 56, 59 & 61.


Sunday- 27/11/11- Shooting Beth in the field.- (sunset, 15:56)
Shots 1, 2, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 & 77.


Wednesday 30/11/11-  Beth and Rob shots: 3, 13, 15, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 62, 89, 90 & 91.
Field shots- 25, 26, 27, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 88.
My house- 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 18 & 21.

Shots where no actor is needed (animation)- shots 38, 39, 40, 41, 85, 86, & 87.


Shots already done (previously by Jess)- 30, 31 & 32.

14/11/11-Cast List

Jessica Robinson- the main character, playing Miley Cyrus
I decided to use Jess in my music video, not only because she is a very close friend, but because when I decided i was going to use a Miley Cyrus song for my video, all I could picture was Jess. She's a very confident person and I have no doubts about her letting me down, I know she's willing to do the things i ask of her for the video and I can definitely rely on her.
As previously explained, I have now decided to use someone else to be involved in my music video. So I will now be using Beth Thompson. She has already been helping throughout my previous filming, such as holding lights up and giving me general feed back, so she knows how important the making of this music video is. I explained the circumstances of why I didnt want to use Jess anymore and why i wanted her, and she was more than willing to help and feature as the main character. As I already made the mistake of relying on Jess to film at specific times I made sure I spoke to Beth about when i would need her to film although I did this with Jess too, I have no doubts that beth will stick to the schedule and she is willing to give up some of her spare time for me to film. I have also taken into consideration that Beth also studied Drama at school so she understands and wont get frustrated if I have to re-shoot things.



Daniel Whitbread-because the song is about a relationship I thought it would be a good idea to include a 'partner' for Jess in the music video, even though the song is about giving someone up. Daniel isnt going to be a huge part of the video but he will definitely contribute. I chose him because him and Jess are good friends, so I know they will have no problem with the intimacy of pretending to be in a relationship.
As well as re-casting Jess, i also decided to re-cast Danny. I originally chose him to feature in the music video with Jess because they are friends so they would get along. But obviously as I am not longer using Jess I cant use Danny because him and Beth dont know eachother. Consequently, I have decided to use Rob. He was also more than willing to help out and be in the music video and I am happy with my choice of using him. I also used Rob last year for my music magazine, so he knows the importance of the work, as he now does media and I'm sure I can rely on him.

14/11/11-Locations

As my music video is going to include aspects of narrative as well as performance I need to ensure that i have several different locations to film in, to carry out the narrative in a proceeding way to tell the lyrics of the song clearly, as well several different locations for the performances too so it's not too reaccuring and manages to stay interesting. However, some of the locations to do with the narrative will also be performance locations too, i will refer to these as 'reminiscing scenes' for the actor (Beth).


Wyke green room
I had originally planned to use the green room specifially to use the green screen to edit a background onto, instead I optioned to use the white wall in the room for my actor to be infront of. I had already filmed my actor performing the whole song in this location, the once analysed i will choose which parts of these performances will go into my video.

Hessle Foreshore/ Country Park
I will be using this setting quite a lot as the scenes of narrative of my main actor Beth and Rob who will be portrayed as her boyfriend will be filmed here. Some of the 'reminiscing scenes' will be filmed here too.


Actor's House
To show a true narrative of the actor I decided to use the actors home, it is obviously a place of comfort and shall hopefully help convey meaning. I will also be using the back garden of the house.

Actor's Street


Field

14/11/11 UPDATE!

Unfortunately, due to reasons such as not being able to film at the specific times/days that I need to because of the actors other commitments, I am having to re-shoot the footage I already have, therefore in different locations and using a different actor. The actor I have previously used was also quite unwilling to cooperate a lot of the time, although when I first started to plan and I had decided to use her, I didn’t think this would be a problem whatsoever. Although this is unfortunate I am thankful I have been given the insight to realise how the filming went wrong and where I need to improve. I appreciate the second chance I have been given to re-film as it's not too late to do so and am willing to working even harder to make sure my original ideas and standards are met.

14/11/11-Outfits

To have a sense of continuity and realism of Beth's 'Life' in the music video i need to ensure that all of the different locations she is wearing different clothing as these locations represent different times of her life.


Wyke green room
As the background is white I will be making sure Beth wears dark clothing so to not clash with the wall. I have chosen to put her in a black vest top and jeans, so it looks casual and she looks comfortable.


Hessle Foreshore / Country Park
As the weather will be cold all of the scenes which are outside the actors (Beth and Rob) will always be in coats and other warm clothing such as jeans. In all of the scenes of Beth and Rob together outside Beth will be wearing the same outfit, even though these scenes will be shown throughout the whole video it seems strange to put them in the same clothes as it's as if every time a scene is shown is a different day. However I want these one scene to be continuous and to be Beth reminiscing about one memory of her and Rob.

Actor's House
As the actor house if obviously a place of comfort for her she will always be wearing comfortable clothing in her house which will just be casual. As the rooms where I am filming in her house are very light Beth will be wearing darker clothing, this dark clothing also represents how she is feeling which is sad and to a certain extent, depressed.


Field
At the end of the song where the majority of the shots are in a field I have chosen Beth to be wearing a white dress, which is representing her purity and also connotating her finally letting go of her and Rob's relationship and starting to be happy again. Looking for a specific white dress which I thought would fit the actors persona, as well as looking nice was considerably hard, fortunately I managed to find one which didn’t look 'cheesy' like a wedding sort of dress, but looked 'indie' like Miley Cyrus' style and something she would probably wear.

Tattoo

For one of the scenes in the music video there is shot of the actors tattoo which is on her ribcage and translates as 'What doesnt kill you only makes you stronger'. After this shot is shown i will be using the document shown above which is the tattoo but in english. I have tea stained the papaer to make it look like an old document.

Miley Cyrus-style

In recent years Miley Cyrus has broken away from the 'Hannah Montana' persona, giving the public a different view of her. These days she is known more for her provocative outfits worn on stage and her newly chosen genre of music, which is more dance/rock. I personally value Miley Cyrus' sense of style, not just on stage, but in general too, she is quite 'indie' but still manages to look feminine too. For my music video I want to change Jessica's style to a similar look of Miley Cyrus', although I want my artist to obviously have her own individuality and I don’t want to copy Miley Cyrus exactly, I think it will be interesting to see how much I can change the visual appearance of Jess and her actions for the music video.

Conventions Essay

A convention is something which the audience expect to see within the specific text. This usually leads it to becoming recognised by a certain genre, meaning audiences who aren’t specifically interested in it will still recognise the genre. Generally there are several different conventions of a music video, these are; the cinematography, the editing, the mise-en-scene and the sound.

The purpose of the cinematography to be used is to make the video interesting and keep the audience engaged. For example, close ups are often used to establish someone and their feelings through facial expressions. All different genres of music videos will use this, specifically m y chosen genre, as close-ups are a good way to portray sadness. Many camera movements are used throughout a music video too. Movements such as panning, tilting and tracking  are all used to follow the artist,  the use of these techniques being used means that the video will not be boring, and the different shots help make it more interesting. These movements also help with the realism of the artist featured in the music video, as the audience see more to establish feelings and the setting with these types of shots.

The editing of a music video is very important. Aspects of editing are making sure the footage is edited in time with the music, placing transitions and cuts into the footage, and then making sure these fit in with the tempo and genre of the song is the song is quick and upbeat. The purpose of these things needing to be done is to create a specific atmosphere for the video as well as clearly establish the genre of the song. Within the editing, the transitions and cuts from one shot to another are specifically important as again, it makes sure the video is not boring and shows continuity within the chosen medium. Consequently aspects such as these are not done correctly; the video can look very disorganised.

The mise-en-scene used in all music video’s in generally always the same, depending on the genre, which makes it a much needed and important convention. Things such as lighting, costume, setting and props are also part of the mise-en-scene. The lighting used is very important in setting the right atmosphere in a music video, and obviously in other mediums such as films. For example, if the lighting is very bright it could connotate happiness and liveliness, on the other hand if the lighting is dim it could connotate sadness. Lighting used on specific things and people also help represent feelings too. Props used in a music video are essential. The most often used prop, depending on the genre of the music video, is instruments. The use of using instruments help with establishing the artist and their personality. Specific and usually unusual props are sometimes used as an icon for the artist. For example, the band slipknot all wear different masks in every one of their music videos and also during their live performances, mainly because they don’t want to reveal their true identities, the band explain the use of the masks as ‘wanting the audience to like the band for the music and not what we look like’. The costumes used in different music videos usually have different levels of importance depending on the genre of the artists and what they intend to represent. For example, Lady Gaga is known for her unusual outfits in her music videos therefore she is represented is the media as being unusual herself, meaning her music is seen as this too. On the other hand other artists of different genre’s will usually wear ‘normal clothing’ a main example for this is bands, their music videos tend to just include performance meaning they will be acting as themselves, therefore dressing as themselves and representing their band in what one of their concerts would be like because of the performance aspect. The colours within the music video usually help set the mood of the song, for example dark colours usually connote a sadness, in contrast with the lighting. Whereas if bright colours were used, the connotation of the music video and the song would be the opposite.


The sound used in a music video is the non-diegetic music and vocals, however sometimes dialogue can be involved if the music video involves a narrative. Using speech in a music video is becoming a lot more popular and helps establish and promote the artist as an individual. For example, the band All Time Low have used quite a lot of speech in their most recent music video, ‘I Feel Like Dancing’ the use of this being used definitely helps portray the personalities of each band member and their views.

The genre for my chosen song is considered to be country/pop therefore it doesn’t have specific conventions which need to be involved; it can be a mixture of different aspects of genres. Because the genre of the song I have chosen conveys sadness I need to make sure I use the specific lighting and colours needed to represent this emotion. On the other hand because the genre of Miley Cyrus (my chosen artist) is pop, therefore the song being part of pop, I need to use some of the specific conventions within that genre too. For example, as parts of my music video are going to be scenes of my actor reminiscing on good times, I will be using bright colours which fit within the conventions of pop. My music video is to include a mixture of narrative as well as performance; many genres use this especially pop. However, I don’t want the narrative to be broken, therefore there will be no speech involved in the video. Instead I will make sure that parts of the narrative will be told through the lyrics of the song and the actions of the actor which link to the specific lyrics.

Completed Storyboards

shots 1, 2, 3 & 4.

shots 5, 6, 7 & 8.

shots 9, 10, 11 & 12.

shots 13, 14, 15 & 16.

shots 17, 18, 19 & 20.

shots 21, 22, 13 & 24.

shots 25, 26, 27 &28.

shots 29, 30, 31 & 32

shots 33, 34, 35 & 36.

shots 37, 38, 39 & 40.

shots 41, 42, 43 & 44.

shots 45, 46, 47 & 48.

shots 49, 50, 51 & 52.

shots 53, 54, 55 & 56.



shots 57, 58, 59 & 60.

shots 61, 62, 63 & 64.

shots 65, 66, 67 & 68.

shots 69, 70, 71 & 72.

shots 73, 74, 75 & 76.

shots 77, 78, 79 & 80.

shots 81, 82, 83 & 84.

shots 85, 86, 87 & 88.

shots 89, 90, 91 & 92.

Inspirational music video: Rihanna- We Found Love

Before I had seen this video I had already analysed the lyrics to my chosen song and have just started to produce storyboards. However Jess, the main actor I am using for my music video suggested I watched this video. I did so, and was very inspired. The genre of the song is very different to the song I have chosen, yet it still conveys concepts of a relationship between a two people. However the relationships themselves are very different too, the one conveyed in this music video shows drugs, alcohol, parties etc. being involved, whereas I want to convey innocence in my music video when it comes to the two people in the relationship.

The main inspiration I gained from this specific music video is the 'argument scene' it helps tell the narrative a lot more and establishes how the two people now feel about each other. After watching this scene I realised that in my lyrics analysis I had planned to convey scenes showing how the girl is giving the boy up, yet I had not given any clue on why in fact she has to give him up. So now I have decided to add an 'argument scene' into the video. This will, not fully, but slightly explain one of the reasons why their relationship has to end.

21/10/11- Testing of Jess in green room

Throughout my music video I wanted several different shots of Jess performing in front of the green screen. So to test out what this would look like I brought her to Wyke College to have a practice. It was very practical to do this as it was Jess's first time performing in front of me, me using the video camera, therefore coming to terms with all of the different things I could do with it. And also getting to know how to use other things, such as the lighting in a correct way. For example, in one of the shots of Jess singing I used the rule of thirds and placed Jess on the left, but because I wanted her in the light for her to stand out and the majority of the shot in the darkness I had a chance to experiment with the lights to try and get the setting exactly how I wanted it.

I originally wanted to use the actual green screen to film against, however once I had set the camera and lights up I decided I wanted to just stick to a white background. I did this because I had previously told Jess to look plain on the day of filming, a black vest stop and jeans. Consequently, the contrast of the black top and white background worked well together.

I think testing these skills and bringing Jess to Wyke turned out to be a very good idea, i managed to make almost every shot exactly how i wanted it to be, and Jess was very professional and serious about what she was doing. I will definitely be bringing Jess back to Wyke to have another practice, however, the footage I already have could be good enough to use too. Throughout the day I asked several of my teachers, as well as other media students to come into the green room and view what was going on to gain feedback, fortunately the feedback I received was very positive.

Lyrics Analysis

In this Lyrics analysis I have referred to the actors Jess and Danny, due to re-shoots and changes in ideas I am now using Beth Thompson and Robert Gibbs to be in my music video.

Target Audience/ Audience research

Specific target audiences of a music video depend on the artist/group, the song and the genre. For example, if the genre of a music video was for rock then the audience would generally be interested in rock music and be fans of the artist. If the artist was a band, such as All Time Low it would be expected that the majority of the target audience would be males; this is true to an extent as every member of the band is male. On the other hand, in today's industry artists/bands aren’t just selling their music, they are also selling their self and to do this they tend to do their best to become as attractive as possible and due to this, still using All Time Low as an example, their target audience would expand to females too as they will be attracted to them.  The age group would range from young teenagers, aged 14, to young adults, then for this particular band, I would say the maximum age of someone listening to them would be around 35, mainly because this band are fairly recent (starting out in 2003). Consequently rock music generally has an older population and a wider fan base.

On the other hand, if the music video was for the genre pop, the audience would very different. Because of specific conventions of this genre like bright colours, 'fun' representatives and usually a dance routine; the audience are more likely to be females. On the other hand through the use of sexual representatives the video would appeal to males as well however a male audience wouldn’t necessarily be able to connect with the song as much. Pop music is usually targeted at younger generations varying from any young age up until about 25 year olds. I don’t think older generations would like pop music much as due to today’s industry music and also music videos are portrayed as very unusual. A good example to use for this would be Lady Gaga, younger generations can relate to her as it is something different and individual whereas older generations on the other hand may just think it's strange.

Audiences for indie music tend to be generally smaller than other genre's as it's seen as being 'individual', however in recent years more and more people are falling in the category of being this individual stereotype and it's got the point where just by looking at ones clothing you can probably tell what music they listen to. This genre is mainly considered to be for both genders unlike pop and videos for indie songs usually use different editing effects that aren’t used a lot such as sepia. They also usually use strange narratives that are hard to follow and don’t really make sense to the audience.  In my opinion indie songs are a lot easier to relate to than other genres, specifically pop. Most Indie artists/bands are signed to independent labels therefore having more independence when it comes to their music. They generally write all of their own songs so they're about more real experiences.


The target audience for dance music would generally be people who tend to listen to the radio a lot and who socialise a lot at places such as pubs and clubs; the reason for this is due to the fact of dance music being played at party events. Music videos of this genre tend to be very similar the pop genre as it's generally females who like the song more, yet males also like it because of the video; for example, videos of dance music usually involve having half naked girls dancing. Most dance artists are female, for example, Cascada. Yet there are also a lot of male dance artists, however they tend just to be the dj/producer of the music and have a female, usually unknown artist singing on the song. The age group would usually be between the ages of 18-25 as 18 is the legal age to go to clubs. However the age group could also go to ages as young as 15 as that’s the age people tend to start socialising a lot, and going to underage events.

Genre

The genre of the artist Miley Cyrus, whose song I have chosen to use for my music video is considered to be pop/pop rock/ country pop/ dance. She has a range of different genre's due to the amount of different albums she has done, her sound changing could be due to her changing as a person, her first album was released when she was just 16 and now as she's 19, her opinions and goals have obviously changed due to her growing up.

Miley is signed to Hollywood Records, due to also being signed to Walt Disney because of her TV show aired on the Disney Channel, Hannah Montana. The genre of the Hollywood Record label varies as it also owns many subsidiary labels. However, the artists who are signed are mostly dominated by those who started their career on the Disney Channel, in Miley Cyrus' case, on the TV show 'Hannah Montana' where Miley portrays the life of a teenage girl who two identities, the pop star Hannah Montana and schoolgirl Miley Stewart.



Albums
Meet Miley Cyrus-2007
Breakout-2008
Can’t Be Tamed-2010
(Extended plays: The Time Of Our Lives-2009)

Meet Miley Cyrus
'Meet Miley Cyrus' was Miley Cyrus' first released album by Hollywood Records. The genre is considered to be Pop-Rock. Because the album was a 'hybrid' album, connected to 'Hannah Montana 2' it failed to gain any recognition as the songs on the album seemed to sound a lot like the Hannah Montana songs.


Breakout
Miley Cyrus' second studio album Breakout, was her first album to be not be involved with the Hannah Montana franchise, however, some critics say that the album still isnt a big departure from the Hannah Montana sound. The album has a genre of Pop-Rock once again, but generally did a lot better than her first album, and widened her popularity to more countries.


Cant Be Tamed
Miley Cyrus' third album is considered to be her first album which has totally broken away from the Hannah Montana sort of sound. The genre is more Dance-pop and made audiences see Miley Cyrus for her actual age, and stop referring to her as Hannah Montana. She received quite a lot of criticism, especially when the video for the first single 'Can’t Be Tamed' was released for being quite provocative, later on Miley Cyrus explained the concept and themes behind the album saying, "This record was good for me. I think every album has been almost like a little bit of therapy to just get out what you think and what you feel. I think this is the most honest a record of mine has been. I think this record shows a different maturity in me, a different light but it's also still being the people my fans can relate to. I'm a spiritual person but my main religion that people ask me is the core of what I do and what my songs are about is love. And that's, I think, what this world is lacking and what it's all about".



Giving You Up
The genre of the song Giving You Up by Miley Cyrus is considered to be country-folk/pop, however it's a traditional love song and has conventions of a ballad too. The song has never been released officially or put onto any of Miley's albums; it was just released by Miley herself onto the internet and then released onto iTunes. Due to research into the song I found that the song was originally meant to be featured on Miley's second album 'Breakout' which was released in 2009 but didn’t make the cut.

Chosen song- Giving you up by Miley Cyrus

As part of my poll I asked people whether they preferred 'Giving You Up' by Miley Cyrus or 'Take Me Along', as more and more people answered the poll I was very glad to realise that the majority of people preferred Giving You Up. I was glad of this because as time went on, the more I listened and evaluated both the songs I was more drawn to do Giving You Up, and the idea's that I had in my head seemed to fit more with this particular song. The theme of the song is love and loss and due to the conventions of love songs generally involving talking about aspects of relationships and feelings in a good way and then loss having conventions of more or less the same thing but in a bad, or sad way, I have to make sure the ideas I include in my music video represent the both of these. Because of the theme of the song I also have to make sure the conventions I use have to fit to a female perspective as it is a female artist. During my first year of college when we were shown the second years music video's I had always had this idea in my head that I wanted to do a sorrowful song which has a lot of meaning behind it. The song Giving You Up is replicable to this, so I am happy I have been successful in finding a song that fits within my original ideas.

Evaluation of Polls

To help with the choice of the song i wanted to do, which was in-between 'Take Me Along' and 'Giving You Up' by Miley Cyrus, and to also see general opinions on music videos I created a poll for students at my college, friends and family members to answer the questions. I asked seven questions, as well attached links for both of the songs for people to listen to. These are the questions I asked in my poll, 'How important do you think a music video is to promote a song?', 'What type of music do you enjoy listening to?', 'What type of subjects do you study?', 'What type of features would you want to see being used in a music video?', 'What is your gender?', 'What is your age?', and 'After listening to the songs 'Giving You Up' and 'Take Me Along' by Miley Cyrus, which do you prefer?'.



How important do you think a music video is to promote a song?
This is the first question I asked in my poll and the four answers you could choose from were 'very important', 'quite important', 'mildly important', and 'not very important'. After the poll finished I was glad to realise that 85% of the people that answered chose 'very important' as their choice and the other 15% chose 'quite important'. A music video is in fact very important to promote a music video but it is also important to promote the artist, so maybe the 15% of people who chose 'quite important' considered this, and maybe thought that in fact a music videos main purpose is to promote the artist and no the actual song itself. Therefore if I was to re-do the poll i would ask the same question but on the artists behalf too.


What type of music do you enjoy listening to?
For this question gave six possible answers, these being Rock, Pop, Country, Indie, R&B and classical. However, after I did the poll I realised that these obviously are not the only different genres of music and that if I was to do it again I should add an option being 'other'. For this question, 42% of people chose Rock as their choice, 16% chose Indie and 42% chose R&B. The genre of the song 'Giving You Up' would be categorised in the country/pop genre and the song 'Take Me Along' would be in the pop/rock genre, So as I kept checking up on the poll to see which choices were being chosen I thought it would be interesting to see which song the audience actually preferred as neither of them seemed to really fit in the genre's most chosen.



What type of subjects do you study?
The answer options I added into this question were 'artistic subjects such as art and graphics' which received 28% of the votes. 'Core subjects such as English and maths' which received 58% and then 'scientific subjects' which received 14%. If I was to do this specific question again I would definitely add more options such a sport for example. And also, to me 'media' would be considered to be under artistic subjects but unfortunately I didn’t make that clear.


What type of features would you want to see being used in a music video?
The four possible choices I used to this question were 'Performance', 'Narrative', 'Abstract' and 'Animation'. 34% of the votes went to performance and 66% went to narrative, meaning abstract or animation did not receive any votes. I had already decided before I did the poll that I wanted my music video to mainly consist of narrative with aspects of performance, so I was really glad to realise that the results of this poll were similar to my original idea's therefore meaning my final video shall hopefully be something audiences would enjoy watching.


What is your gender?
For this question 15% of the people who answered were male and 85% were female. Although I expected several people of both gendered to answer the poll, I think it is a good thing the majority of the people were female as the target audience of the both of the songs are generally females.

What is your age?
The four different choices I included in the poll for this question were 'below 15, '16-19', '20-24' and 'over 24'. As 72% of the people who answered were in the category 16-19 year olds it is clear that the majority of the people that answered the poll are in college. 14% of the votes were then towards 20-24 and the other 14% were towards the over 24's.


After listening to the songs 'Giving You Up' and 'Take Me Along' by Miley Cyrus which do you prefer?
More than all of the other questions in the poll this one was the most important to me, as it was going to help decided which song I chose. I had rough ideas in my head of what I would do for each video, however as I listened to the songs more i realised that in fact my favourite song and the one I had better ideas for was 'Giving You Up'. Consequently, i was pleased to find that 72% of the votes were for my chosen song (Giving You Up) and then 28% of the votes were for 'Take Me Along'.

Inspirational Music Video's

Miley Cyrus- When I Look At You

After watching the video for 'Miley Cyrus-When I Look At You' I gained a lot of inspiration. This particular video has used many different locations and varies between these throughout the full duration of the video, meaning that it is interesting to watch and not boring. The use of many different types shots are an interesting aspect of the music video too, several establishing shots are used which makes the video seem more imaginative, than just using close-ups and mid shots. I also found the editing of the video very interesting and inspirational too, which was the use of some of the shots being unfocused, focused then focused once again.

Taylor Swift- Back To December

After viewing this video for 'Taylor Swift-Back To December' I once again, gained a lot of inspiration. I admire the colour coordination of the video and how simple yet effective everything is. Like 'When I Look At You' the video has several different locations varying through each of them. There aren’t as many in this one, which gives it a more simple narrative. My main inspiration from this video is the use of close-up body shots of Taylor Swift, during one of the verses there are several shots of different parts of her body, such as her shoulder and her lips, this makes the video more personal especially whilst she is singing, and is very different from the rest of the video, consequently, using shots like this helps break down the video and all the similar yet different shots which would of been put together.

Analysis of digipack: Miley Cyrus



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L- The photo of Miley Cyrus on the cover of the EP is a mid-shot, showing Miley holding a guitar. Miley is placed in the centre of the photo, sat on what looks like a large sound speaker. The actual background of the cover is lilac with the words 'time of our lives' in a small script sort of font, diagonally written across the page. The name of the artist and name of the EP have been placed at the bottom of the cover, just below Miley's chest in the colour white so it stands out and looks different to everything else. The word 'Miley' is in the biggest size font and is her signature, the same as the cover of Kelly Rowland's album. Then the word 'Cyrus' has been placed below this in capital letters and what looks like the font Arial. In the same type of script font the name of the EP 'The Time Of Our Lives', which is also in white has then been placed below, at the bottom of the cover. The three of these fonts fit together well and the layout looks very different and individual compared to the other album covers I have analysed.


I- The Time Of Our Lives was released in 2009 by the label Hollywood, initially as a United States Wall-Mart exclusive. It was Miley's first EP, featuring only 7 songs and is considered to be the first step of change she showed before she released her third album.

I- In the photo of Miley she is leaning to the side with her eyes closed and her left arm is placed on the side of her head. This gives the connotation that she is thinking about something. Also, because the cover of the album/EP is generally an overview of the songs which are featured, the photo could also connotate this as well as the theme of the songs are generally about love and relationships.  


A- The audience of the EP would generally be fans of Miley Cyrus as well as Hannah Montana. I think the majority of the fans would also be female rather than male too, as at this stage Miley was still considered to be just Hannah Montana still, and the show was aimed more towards young girls.



R- I think the cover of the EP The Time Of Our Lives represents a very positive view of Miley Cyrus. It is a very innocent photo of her, and the guitar being placed in the photo also adds a personal element to the cover, her signature being placed on the cover is also personal too. For the specific genre of the album i would say that the cover is stereotypical of this, but in a good way. It stands out, mainly because of the lilac background, but due to being only an EP and not an album, it doesn’t necessarily need anything eye catching, due to the fact her next album was released shortly after, and it would obviously have to stand out more compared to the EP.

Analysis of Music Videos: Peformance, Miley Cyrus-Party In The U.S.A

Performance: Miley Cyrus-Party In The U.S.A



Written By: Dr. Luke, Claude Kelly & Jessie J

Directed By: Chris Applebaum

Produced By: Dr. Luke

Media Representations
The music video for Miley Cyrus 'Party In The U.S.A' is mainly performance, but also has a narrative which links to the lyrics of the song. Miley is the main attraction/character in the video and is featured in almost every shot. A basic evaluation on the song lyrics/video is Miley Cyrus singing about coming from her hometown Nashville and arriving in Los Angeles, and then explaining how different it is and her thoughts and feelings on it, however because of the name of the song, 'Party In The U.S.A' the song is generally just explaining her thoughts towards a party. Throughout the video Miley Cyrus is represented as someone just genuinely having fun and the structure of the video i set out as a 'day experience' of Miley Cyrus, there are no costume changes for her and at the beginning of the video it's daytime then nearer the end it's gets darker and it's then night time. In the majority of the scenes Miley is seen with 'friends' which are the dancers, and other extra's which are there for the party. Yet throughout these scenes she is still singing to the lyrics as the whole video is just one big performance. However, in the scenes where Miley is by herself she is seen as more of the narrator to the song. It's hard to interpret what a real 'U.S.A party' would be like without going to one, but because of the things Miley says in the song, and the way the video is set out, the representations are very accurate.



Media Languages and Forms
The first few shots in the music video are shots of the location, which seems to be the outskirts of somewhere or a 'desert' type setting. There are lots of cars, and the way everything is set out it sort of looks like and reminds me of the car race in the film 'Grease'. After
further research into the video i found out that Miley herself wanted to replicate some parts of Grease into the video, specifically the part where Miley performs in the jungle gym on a swing, this replicates John Travolta's performance of 'Sandy' in the film Grease. Aspects such as the colours used in the video definitely connotate the meaning of the song, and the tempo of the song itself. It's very upbeat and catchy and the bright colours definitely add to the effect of this. There are many non-verbal structures of meaning in the text such as Miley's facial expressions, gestures and clothing. At 1 minute and 25 seconds into the song the lyrics Miley starts to sing are 'Cause all i see are stiletto’s, I guess I never got the memo', this links with the non-verbal structure of facial expressions as her face looks almost annoyed, then the shot cuts to a shot of the cowboy boots she is wearing, showing that she obviously didn’t get the memo about wearing stiletto’s because she is wearing boots. A survey held by MTV showed that many viewers thought that the costume of Miley Cyrus and the other dancers in the video added 'sexiness' to it, and showed the progression of Miley growing up and distancing herself from the 'Hannah Montana' look (Hannah Montana being a character she played in a TV show). As explained, the iconography in the music video is the musical grease and the relevance of this to the major themes in the video are very important, the settings of the music video help explain the lyrics of the song and Miley Cyrus's thoughts and feelings, and the majority of the setting's used come from the inspiration of grease and other aspects of Miley's life. Setting designs such as the American flag used as a backdrop during one of Miley's performance connotate’s and establishes the name of the song and possibly the location of where the video was actually filmed, it also transmits Miley's appreciation towards the U.S.A. Many establishing and wide shots are used throughout the video, these are purposely used to show the setting of the video and successfully define its purpose more. However, during lyrics which identify and reflect Miley's persona and during the final performance of the chorus which is in front of a crowd many close-ups are used.



Narrative
As the majority of the music video for Party In The U.S.A is performance, these performances must be often throughout the video and easy to identify, of course in many music video's there are aspects of performance, but due to the actual song Party In The U.S.A and the tempo of it, it's important for the performances to be bigger than just the artist miming the lyrics towards the camera. The narrative/performance of the video is well structured, Miley starts out by performing at what could be seen as a 'Nashville party', she's stood on the back of an open truck and singing into a digital microphone, there are also many cars surrounding and everyone seems to be dotted about having a good time. The next performance is Miley on a stage with the American flag as the backdrop and silver confetti falling down, there is no one there apart from Miley, almost as if it is her just practicing. The third performance shown is Miley in the jungle gym with a lot of dancers, after this is the final performance of the last chorus, this time she's on the stage, again with the confetti, but with her dancers and there's an audience. Because of these four main performances the narrative is almost set out in a structure of what Miley's life, in terms of performance has been like up to now, first performing for the fun of it and in front of people she knows, then practicing, then in front of audience. So because of the lyrics too, it's almost as if the video is showing a transition of her when she wasn’t famous, to her now being famous. In conjunction to narrative theories this specific music video fits within the idea's of the narrative theorist Kate Domaille, showing aspects of 'Cinderella' the third out of her eight narrative types. However, I wouldn't say that the music video would fit into Vladimir Propp's theory as his theory studied folk tales, so he has specific characters.


Genre
The genre of the song Party In The U.S.A is R&B/Dance-pop and the general genres of Miley Cyrus since she first started out in the music business are Pop, Pop-Rock, Country Pop and Dance. There are no major general conventions within the text; however you can easily tell that the song is typically within the same genre as a lot of other Miley Cyrus songs. On the other hand, although the music video is more performance than narrative due to the genre of this specific song the video has to include the characters having a lot of fun as well as the video being generally interesting to watch, which it is. I think the generic expectations of the audience are definitely fulfilled in the text to a very good extent, if you're already a fan of Miley Cyrus then you know that all of her music videos are entertaining, fun and show her personality, and the music video for Party In The U.S.A do this well. The characteristics of the genre, as already said, conform to the generic expectations of the genre, but in the case i think they do it playfully and not ironically, Miley Cyrus hasn’t made the video seem like something it's not but then still fit her genre, the video fits perfectly with the genre as well as with the iconography of Grease. Although the song wasn’t originally written for Miley Cyrus, some of the lyrics were just changed to match her persona, it's very obvious that Miley was the main thinker behind the video and managed to make the video match her persona too. Due to my research when i found out Miley wanted parts of the video to replicate Grease, i also found out she wanted it to replicate her parents courting days too. In several of the shots, Miley is leaning against a wall with the writing 'Corral Drive-in' written on it, this is referring to a drive-in restaurant where her parents once had a date. Miley is trying to make the video her own as much as possible therefore including aspects of her real life in the video or things that mean something to her.




Media Institutions
The purpose of the institution is to tell the song Party In The U.S.A as well as the artist, Miley Cyrus. The song was recorded and released with Hollywood records, Miley's current label, therefore meaning that because of the popularity of this label it more or less determined for the song to go straight into the charts. The music video has been influenced by Hollywood records in several ways, one of which being the fact that the video is centralised around American culture, such as the movie drive-ins and the American flag.


Media Values and Ideology
The music video references ideology to generally, a typical American in new surroundings and how they would feel in these surroundings. In this case, someone moving to Hollywood and becoming famous. It also represents the ideologies of any performer, in the different stages of a performance, as already explained, 'Practice, then the big performance'. On the other hand, the ideologies of the song Party In The U.S.A and the video generally stand regarding Miley Cyrus as the song reflects her thoughts and feelings at the time of her moving and getting ready for her first big performance.



Media Audiences
The music video/song would generally be aimed at Miley Cyrus' fans, therefore a lot of which being Hannah Montana fans too. This being the age of between 13-19 year olds. However i would say Miley Cyrus' fans at this current time probably go up to about the age of 25 or maybe even older as her music has now changed and she's seen as a woman now and not 'Hannah Montana'. Even people who aren’t fans of Miley Cyrus would of probably heard the song more than once too, as due to research i found out that Party In The U.S.A reached to number two in the Billboard Hot 100 so it would have been given a lot of airplay. Also due to research i found that due to the song just mentioning the U.S.A it gained a lot of recognition and was even viewed 'The current song of America' at one point.