Production Diary #9: NEW MUSIC VIDEO IDEA

After thinking through my options very carefully, I have decided to change my music video idea. Although it is very late to do this, I feel entirely confident that the new music video idea will be more successful and easier to create. I have decided to use the hit song Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey. This song is a lot more slow and full of emotion compared to my old song, Primadonna by Marina and the Diamonds. I have decided to change my music video as I struggled with the old song and idea as I couldn't visualise it in my mind and didn't have a lot of access to the costumes that needed to be acquired. I also didn't feel entirely confident using the desired effects that I needed. I feel a lot better about my new idea: the video will follow a young woman who is getting ready to go out. I will use a variety of shots such as long and extreme close up. At the end, an older woman, who is revealed to be the young woman from the beginning, reflects back on her life, however the story is that she is still beautiful despite her age. I have already begun to shoot and edit my footage together and plan to have my first draft in by next week.

Production Diary #8

In the past few lessons I have been completing some planning and research posts to keep up to date with the project. This includes an editing software analysis, a location recce, proposal, risk assessment and contact with the artist. I plan on conducting as much research as I can until I film my music video and start editing it together so that I have as much done as possible.

Production Diary #7

This week I have developed my ideas a lot, by finishing off my research and beginning to plan the video. I plan to go along with a modern Goldlocks theme, which displays how the protagonist picks a persona, a man and an accessory until what she finds is 'just right'. I will also be featuring intertextual references with huge, inspirational celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, James Bond and James Dean. I have chosen to scrap my 'Plan B', although if everything doesn't go to plan I can still use that as my safe base. I plan to create a lot of planning posts now as I have some ideas to go from and can even begin shooting when I feel comfortable as more ideas arise.

Production Diary #6

In the last week, I have completed a variety of research tasks in order to consolidate my knowledge of the music industry. Tasks I have completed includes research on the artist I am using (Marina And The Diamonds), existing music channels, equipment and videos I admire. I feel as though the equipment and videos I admire were the most beneficial posts for me, as I discussed the pros and cons of using the equipment I have access to and how I can use them for the project. The videos I admire also helped me as I explained why I am influenced by particular videos and what technicques I could possibly grab with them, for example in the music video 'Fancy' where a wide variety of props for mise-en-scene are used. In the next lesson, I hope to complete a few planning tasks so that I can generally get a move on and begin to shoot as soon as I can.

Production Diary #5

Today, I spent the first half of the lesson completing a task about researching the different genres in music. I discussed pop, alternative, hip hop, rap, country and rock which helped me come to the conclusion that I would like to use an alternative/pop song for my music video. I have chosen to use the song 'Primadonna by Marina and The Diamonds' as the song is very fun and energetic with a great, edgy beat. I feel like the model (my friend, Ruth) I have chosen to play the lead singer in the video will fit the role of Marina perfectly as they share similar characteristics, and I feel as though if Ruth was a real singer then this would be the music that she would produce - which is always a plus sign, which will hopefully benefit my work significantly.

Production Diary #4

After finishing from school a few weeks ago, I have had plenty of time to come up with a few more ideas for my music video. In the beginning of the project, I really struggled to develop ideas that I could use for my video, especially what song to use. I have, however, decided on two genres which I can't seem to pick from yet, which are Pop and R'n'B. I listen to R'n'B a lot more than I do Pop, so it would seem the more sensible choice however I feel as though creating a Pop music video would be more successful as I have more access to the props and locations needed if I were to proceed with Pop instead of R'n'B. I plan on creating an initial planning post which will hopefully help me decide what genre to choose, and maybe even a song.

Pop artists:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ariana Grande
3. Katy Perry

R'n'B artists:

1. Beyonce
2. Rihanna
3. Cassie

Production Diary #3

Over the summer holiday, I mainly plan on choosing a song and gathering some ideas of what music video I want to create. If I can successfully do this, then I will be able to choose locations, costumes and props to use and I can even begin to start shooting for the music video if I get to that point. As it stands, I plan on creating a pop music video which is performance based, OR a R'n'B music video which is narrative - however I want to look into these types of music videos more deeply first to gain more knowledge of each one, so I will also do this over the summer break. I want to achieve all of the typical conventions of the music video so it would be ideal for me to really consolidate my knowledge by doing this.  This will involve looking into the history of music videos, conventions of a music video, analysis' of music videos in both the pop and R'n'B genre as well as research into each genre itself. I also plan to dig deeper, such as researching into band/artists that I plan to use and am inspired by. Hopefully this will enable me to create a music video that ticks all of the boxes and by the end of summer I hope to have at least planned some of the music video so that it is almost ready to shoot.

Production Diary #2

Throughout this week, I started to gather my ideas together for what type of music video I want. At the moment, I am steering towards a pop/R'n'B genre of music. A pop video would be heavily performance based - this can be quite tricky as I need the right performer in order for it to work. However, I think that the editing process of this type of music video would be easier as it involved a lot of green screens and other fun things that I can co-operate with. R'n'B would probably be more narrative based - something that I think would be a lot easier, however thinking of the actual story for a song could be quite challenging. As it stands, I still haven't come to an ultimate conclusion of what music video I want however I am definitely exploring my options as widely as I possibly can.

During the next week, I hope to explore these genres more and come up with a few more ideas so that it will be easier for me to choose when I am ready.

Skills audit:
Some skills that I can bring to the project include creativity and strong sense of the music industry. I am quite creative minded therefore I find it quite easy to come up with ideas that others wouldn't necessarily think of, although sometimes it may take me quite some time. I've grown up constantly surrounded by music and I always watch music videos - watching TV channels such as Kiss, MTV Base, Viva, The Box etc as well as being subscribed to YouTube and Vevo and having the apps on my phone. This has enabled me to see a wide variety of music videos over time so I know what each genre of music generally expects in terms of their conventions therefore when I choose my genre and song, I will immediately know what to include in my video.
I have good time management and scheduling skills as I am used to hitting deadlines. In AS Media we had a week to complete research and create another weekly log of progress, as well as finishing the completed magazine in time for it to be marked by examiners.
I am also confident with using editing programmes, from GCSE ICT as well as when I used to make videos for fun on my laptop using iMovie. 

Production Diary #1

This week we begun to look at ideas for our music videos. Initially, I was quite confused on what to do as I had no ideas however now I feel spoilt for choice! I am quite interested in doing a music video with a narrative - I enjoy to watch music videos that have a story line as sometimes music videos with performers can get a bit tedious at times.

We watched a few music videos and discussed what was going on in them. I feel like this helped me to develop ideas a lot. I liked the ideas of creating a parody, such as in Iggy Azalea's Fancy which is based on the film Clueless. I also find the idea of multiple personalities and transformation of character quite interesting. Split Screen also looked quite fun - it's definitely not something that you see every day so it would be quite exciting to create.
Coldplay created a very fascinating music video for The Scientist. It is filmed backwards so the leadsinger, Chris Martin, had to learn the lyrics backwards so that the lip syncing would fit! I would love to create something like this however it might be a little bit too difficult.

At the moment, I am still quite undecided on what I want to do in terms of genre and what type of music video to create, however one thing I do have planned is who is going to be in it. One of my friends, Ruth, attends dance classes regularly and has offered to help me so I feel that she is a good choice, as a natural performer, so my music video will benefit from her greatly. I also have some other friends who have offered their help if I need any back up dancers.

Some songs that I have thought of using are Beyonce - Run The World (Girls), Coldplay - Magic, Paramore - The Only Exception, Wilkinson - Afterglow, Chris Malinchak - So Good To Me and The 1975 - Falling For You. As you can see, these songs are all from different genres so I think planning ahead with songs will help so that it requires less time to think about when I get to that stage.

Some videos that I am inspired by: