Casting

For our music video we are looking at casting two teenage characters around the age of 18. We feel that this is a good age to highlight because there is increasing awareness about mental health in young adults. We hope that our music video will encourage people who may be suffering from mental illness' to open up about how they feel and we think that by using characters of a similar age to our target audience is the best way to do this as they will feel they can relate to it.

Character Profiles:

Name: Callum O'Brian
Age: 18
Why we chose them: He is a performing arts student and has performed at big venues such as The West End and The Norwich Theatre Royal.
 

Name: Chloe Diggines
Age: 17
Why we chose them: She studies drama at A-Level and is confident when on camera.

Initial Idea Character/ Performer List And Profiles

For our new idea we are needing a male and female character to focus our storyline on. Ideally we want the characters to be around the age of 18 years old as we feel this will allow our target audience to relate to the media product. We have also chosen this age bracket because awareness for mental health for this age bracket is constantly increasing.

Characters:

Name: Callum O'Brian
Age: 18
Why they would be good: Performing arts student and he is comfortable on camera

Name: Chloe Diggines
Age: 17
Why they would be good: A-Level drama student

Initial Plot Synopsis Idea

Our initial idea was to create a music video to a very upbeat, summer song that you would expect to hear on a beach based holiday. As a result of this I decided to film a lot of our footage in the previous summer break when I was on holiday in Cape Verde. The footage that I had mainly consisted of idyllic, peaceful beaches, as well as several shots of the African cultures that existed around the island. As a group we decided that we would incorporate these shots with a narrative storyline of a young adult in this country dreaming about going on holiday to this relaxing island. We would show contrasts of where they were now and where they wanted to be and the differences between the two locations.

Towards the end of the AS year myself, Olivia and Annie were all very keen to do an upbeat summer video and so we decided that we would work together to make this idea a reality. When we returned to school following the break I showed the girls the footage that I had taken and we were happy that we could make the footage work and so we continued with the idea of making the summer video.

As a group we liked the majority of this idea however we were a little concerned as to whether we would be able to make the contrasts between the two locations link in some sort of way as we wanted there to be continuity throughout the video. In particular, we loved the summer footage of the African cultures as we felt that it was something you would expect to see in a music video to a very summery song. We were also excited about the idea of getting the young adult character to 'drift off' and start thinking about the more exotic location as we felt that this was something unique that isn't regularly portrayed in music videos.

Below is some pictures of the scenes of the footage filmed in Cape Verde:

 

    









However, after much deliberation and thought we later decided that although the summer idea was a good one that we all liked, we began to feel as though there was little meaning to the idea and that it would soon become just a montage of footage without an underlying storyline which we all were keen to have. As a result of this we decided to change our idea to represent a much deeper and meaningful storyline about a young man who is suffering from depression and feels as though everyone is against him. As soon as he starts to share his depression with other people he realises that he isn't as isolated as he first thought.

Success Of Music Video

What constitutes 'success' for a particular media ext in music videos?
There is such a variety of music videos out there for everyone to consume and  I don't think there is a certain area of success that constitutes a good music video, however, the most successful music videos all seem to share similar aspects.

• Inclusion of a linear narrative - This is very common in music videos often when coincided with  a live band. A music videos usually involves a short film within the videos. This gives the audience and understanding of the meaning behind the lyrics and also helps the viewer to gain an emotional attachment to the song, both of these points help make the song become more memorable to the viewer.
• Inclusion of a band performance - This often coincides with the linear narrative. It helps to fill in empty spaces in the narrative to let the viewers mind wander to interpret the music video as they wish.  Having a live band helps keep the audience engages. With this engagement it can seem like a live performance with inclusion of a band. 
• The length/duration of a music video - On average a music video lasts aorund 2-4 minutes, this time is just long enough to keep the viewer engaged, any longer and the viewer may get bored and switch to another song. On the other hand, if the song is too short the viewer may not fully grasp an understanding on the song and may get confused with the video and equally not listen to the song again so it's all about getting the right balance.

Consumption Of Music Video

The impact of modern technology especially the internet has greatly impacted the way people consumer music videos. there are now more platforms to watch videos due to the inventions of smart phones, tablets and laptops which can be used constantly on the go. Most people in the United Kingdom own some kind of portable device that allows them to watch videos for free whilst connected to the internet via WiFi or wireless internet, people no longer have to make time to watch music videos on television as they can easily watch them anywhere they go.

There are many ways nowadays to consumer music videos such as, purchasing them through the apple store or other music stores, music channels on the TV, or on the internet through websites such as YouTube. YouTube is currently the most popular way to consumer music videos. This is because it is cheap and an easy way to get hold of a music video just through the click of a button. YouTube also comes up with suggests of familiar genre music videos it also shows the current trending music videos which gets viewers hooked into watching music videos. 

Chronological Key History Of Music Video

• 1930 - Music started to be used in films which made the experience of watching the film more enjoyable, this was the first sort of music videos that where seen, however they were very different to the music videos that we have become used to today.

• 1940 - Short clips with music were showed on TV that featured jazz bands of the time, this was the first live performance style music video that was shown and could be an inspiration for the music videos we see today.

• 1965 - The beetles began to release promotional music videos before they released the song/album to help promote sales of the album. This is an early example of how extra ways such as shooting a video can help to increase the profits from an album and that success isn't solely about the music or performance. 

• 1974 - MTV was introduced, the first time a channel solely dedicated to just showing music videos was on television and at the time was the only way that people could watch a music video, this allowed people to be introduced to more genres of music.

• 1983 - One of the earliest narrative music videos was released; Michael Jackson's Thriller  - one of the longest music videos that has ever been made to date and was and is still incredibly popular.

• 2005 - Developments in technology led to the invention of online sites such as YouTube and iTunes where people were able to stream music videos fro free or have them on their personal devices. These are now the most common ways to watch a music video.

Footage

We are planning to divide up our footage with a mixture of a lip synced live performance as well as a narrative story.

Although this is what we would like to do for our music video it is going to be something which we won't be able to decide until we have finished all of our filming and can see what fits together, as our narrative story is going to be focused on a very intense storyline it may feel as though it is simply unnecessary to add live performance. Another issue is to what our extent the male actor would feel comfortable with lip syncing so therefore means we could have an issue with trying to find somebody to do this. With narrative story, it can be problematic in a music video because too much can make it seem like it is trying to be a short film as opposed to an actual music video.