LIP SYNCING TASK

I completed a lip syncing task, to decided how difficult it will be whilst filming my music video. Overall, we found it extremely hard because although we new the song, we didn't know the lyrics off by heart. Therefore, when we film our actual music video we are going to make sure that our actors learn the lyrics off by heart, to ensure everything goes smoothly. Making a lip synching task was useful in learning about timings for the singer and working out movement so that we could determine how we want our singer to move when singing. These are the things I will to bare in mind on filming day during preparation. 

STORYBOARD

Creating  a story board for our music video has helped my group and I to have a more realistic idea of how it will plan out. Firstly, it has allowed us to have a rough idea about the duration of each shot, therefore we are able to keep within the time frame of our song 'I gave it all". Furthermore, it has allowed us to visually see each shot. This ensures us that we are using a variety of shots to keep our film more exciting, for example by using quick jump cuts we are increasing the pace of our music video in order to highlight intense moments to the audience.

Moreover, the illustrations in our storyboard gives us an indication of what the set would look like within each scene, which helps my group and I to plan what props we need and it helps us to think about the perfect locations. Also, the illustrations allows us to explain our idea clearly to people, especially the actors staring in our music video. Therefore our actors will have a better indication of what our opening sequence will look like, making their job easier. 

Additionally, after completing our thriller opening sequence last year, we found that a shot by shot list came into use during editing, because we were able to refer to the storyboard to ensure we were placing the clips together in the correct order. 

Overall, my group and I have learnt that by using a storyboard, we have now set up a plan for production, therefore when it comes to filming everything will run smoothly. Lastly, our storyboard will ensure that we don't forget what shots we were initially going to use. Therefore, in conclusion I believe our storyboard is extremely effective because it shows our story clearly, making filming and editing more straightforward for my group. 

HOW TO STUDY MUSIC VIDEOS-

Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we, the audience, should look out for;

- Thought beats – Where you ‘see’ in the sound
- Narrative and Performance
- The Star Image
- Relation of visuals to song
- Technical aspects of a music video

‘Thought Beats – ‘Seeing’ the soundStep 1. To look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song.

Step 2. The voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form indentificatio or trademakrs that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice can be related to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own. 

Step 3. Goodwin points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device – them telling us a story and we listening. 

Narrative & PerformanceSongs fail to give us the complete narrative.
We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told – An negociated view of a text.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertiseing.
Music videos should coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand its make it easier for the audience to watch over and over without loosing interest.
The artist acting as both narrator & participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real. 

‘Star Image’The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process. 

Relation of Visuals to the song

there are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song;

Technical AspectsTechnical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special effects.
Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera.
Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasise key movements of the song for dramatic effect.
Mise-en-scene, the setting of music videos is vital, it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism.
Beats, music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm making the video more entertaining.

JOHN STEWART

John Stewart talks about the way in which MTV has heavily influenced music videos and that they are designed to appeal to an MTV generation. Therefore, they have the visuals of an advert combined with the fast pace structure of MTV that combines to create this new kind of music video that ram-raids the media texts and becomes a brick collage, a collage of different media texts. This is to encourage repeated consumption by the audience, so that they don't just watch it once they watch it many times and they really want to buy into it. 



John Stewart also talks about how in music videos there should be lots of quick cuts, there should generally be a montage, there is generally some form of unclear narrative that encourages repeated consumption.