Final Location Choices

For our music video it was decided to use two separate locations; the fields across the road from College leading over to Bishopthorpe, and a photography studio within College, for the white backdrop, studio effect for the video. The use of opposites adds to the originality of the Indie music genre; other genres such as rock or pop tend to stick within the guidelines of similar sets to create continuity.


Unfortunately due to time constraints, there was no availability to shoot in the Photography Studio at College, however our Media Studies tutor suggested a white blank bed sheet, to create the similar style of a white backdrop. We knew this wouldn't give the same aesthetic for the video as a white studio would, but there was unfortunately no other option. This change in 'location' meant the lighting would have to br brighter, to compensate for the lack of white studio lighting.

Initial Digipak Ideas

In addition to the music video, we needed to make a digipak and album advert as ancillary texts, to accompany the main media product.
The digipak was mind mapped and initial sketches were made, into a four- sided case. This would be to include the album CD and an exclusive DVD on the two inside sleeves. The two outside sleeves would include the digipak cover of the band, either album art or photograph taken from the video, to assert continuity across the separate media texts, as well as the track listing on the back cover.

Our earlier research into digipaks within the Indie genre, showed a very illustrative and 'hand drawn' art, usually produced by Graphic Tablets. Our research into the band Foals, from which we used their song "Cassius", explained that a close friend had drawn all of the band's album artworks to date.

Below are initial sketches and ideas drawn for the plans of the digpak.



Final Shooting Schedule

To create the finalised shooting schedules, the group added contact details of both cast and crew, for emergency purposes. We also created a more detailed time plan, creating organisation and a shedule to keep to. Locations, cast and crew options, and resources were added as well. This gives everyone an overview of what will be shot, when, where, who will be involved and the props needed.

Initial Shooting Schedule

Below is a shooting schedule; it explains what the group will be doing over the two days of filming, inclusive of actors, locations and props needed.
Due to the short time frame to film our music video, we have decided that the two days will be separated in the sense that all filming with the three male actors will be shot on the first day, then all prop work including stop motion shots will be filmed on the second day. It is important to film the boys first as they will need the most direction and instruction; we will need to explain what we want them to do and what will happen in the frame.

Shot Lists

Below is a list of 116 proposed shots for the filming of the music video. Shot lists are used within the media industry to document and create organisation; they allow planning and production teams to stick to schedules and track where they are up to within the filming of music videos. The purpose was exactly the same for us; as we only have two days to film it is important that we know what type of shots we need. We wrote down the framing of the shot, what the camera would be shooting and how many of each frame we would need.

The shot lists are created to provide structure, however not all shots will be filmed in this particular order. A shooting schedule will be created to allow the day to be used entirely, rather than wasting time and daylight (especially when shooting outside) changing from one frame to another.  ABBREVIATIONS:
"   ": written under a sentence, means as above.
M/Mid: Medium Shot.
ECU/ Ex Close Up: Extreme Close Up

Props/ Locations/ Actors

To create a realistic and authentic music video for our chosen song, we would need quirky and eccentric props; this was found in our Indie music video research, and is a particularly similar style to the band Foals, where the song has been taken from. Through storyboarding, we decided to use multiple props within shots as well as single prop shots; we would need to collect a large, varying spectrum of props to allow for a genuine looking video. The use of stop motion along with video footage will create an interesting and aesthetically enjoyable video for the audience; it will hopefully keep them tentative to the plot and hooked as they watch. Instruments were decided as the foundation for a props list; our research into typical audience needs and wants for a video found that the majority of bands use live and studio based performances with their instruments, such as guitars, basses, drums, keyboards and amps.

As a group, we listed ideas for props we could each bring in; although we want to create a genuine and authentic video, we however do not have a large sum budget to work with. Below is a list of the props we would be able to use incorporated within the music video, and that would fit into the eccentricity of the Indie music genre.

We decided to use kinetic props that the band would be able to work and play with. Also featured would be musical props of 2 guitars and drumsticks; within the storyboarding we decided to not use a full drum kit, but to have the quirkiness of just the drumsticks. This still keeps the live musical aspect amongst the video, but as in many other videos, gives a sense of abstract realism, allowing the audience to think about the drumkit rather than it being a literal tool.
The use of spray paint and glitter gives colour to the video, a highly important factor. As the chosen song is very upbeat and fast paced, it was important to create an engergetic vibe across the screen. The band would also be able to interact with the props as well, rather than simply having shots of props then shots of the band.

The locations for the video have also been considered; due to the use of spray cans and paints, it was an obvious choice to shoot in an outdoors location. It would therefore make sense for a section of the video to be filmed outside, to create contintuity and cohesion within the plot. As well as an outdoor location, the use of a white background or studio is a key element; the colourful props would be lost within a coloured, busy background and therefore pop out and catch audience attention. The choice of mulitple locations was taken from the research into Indie band videos; it is considered the norm to include various locations to create interest, and also more simply, to make the video look better. However more particularly within the Indie genre, bands are increasingly using plain white studios or backgrounds, allowing the personas of the bands themselves to carry their own "colourful" characters over the screen.

The results of our online questionnaire as well as existing video research showed us that we would need to use boys as actors for the band members. Of the 9 bands researched, none contained female members. This is emerging as a generic factor within newer, upcoming Indie bands; there are few females seen within Indie bands; our research pointed in this direction too. 

The actors we would be looking for, would ideally already wear labels such as Topman, H&M and vintage clothes, to fit with the stereotypical style of a male Indie boy or fan (see stereotypical Indie fan below). This again correlates with pre existing music videos and our own research into band members.

Storyboarding

We began storyboarding for the music video straight after the initial plans were sketched out, as we knew the elements needed to be used within the frames. Our earlier audience researched showed that we wouldn't need to base our video around a specific storyline; over 74% answered that they didn't prefer a story based script within an Indie music video.

As part of the requirements for the coursework, we need to have at least a three minute video; due to the fast paced tempo of the chosen song, we realised we would need to create a large amount of clips and stop motion to fill the time frame. In correlation to the original Cassius video however, we found that the style of video falls heavily on repetition and similar shots, therefore already increasing the fill of the given time.

Taking all of this into consideration, especially with the stop motion, we knew that on the filming days, a large amount of still photographs would need to be taken in order to fill even a 10 second frame. This is due to the editing afterwards; we know that to create an effective stop motion scene the images would need to be run at a very high speed to allow for continuity.

Below are two slideshows of the frames we have sketched out for the storyboard planning.

Storyboards

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Storyboards

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Initial Planning

To grasp ideas for the storyboarding of our music video, we looked at our research taken from pre-existing Indie bands into the style of plot it should contain. The lyrics of Cassius were also looked at, to see if a form of storyline could be created. However looking through, they didn't appear to contain any form of explanation or storylining, in fact the lyrics appeared to be very random.

"Wish you've gone-a, wish you've gone away, what you've gone-a
What you've got has always gone away
Cassius! Cassius! at best, it's all that we could do,
All that we could do
The wind is in, the wind is in my heart, the wind is in-
Now what you've got has always gone away"

The tempo of the song has been a deciding factor, in the sense that it is quick paced. This therefore means that it would make sense to create a fast paced music video to fit its own individual style, correlating to the original Cassius video. Short, choppy scenes are seen to fit on the beat of the drums; the adds to the clean cut look of the video style. As a group we decided to use this style of filming; to use multiple scenes within short time frames to create an aesthetic connection to the original. As well as video image, we discussed the use of stop motion still images for the video; this idea is becoming increasingly used within bands releasing videos, not only in the Indie genre.

Finally, the use of props within the Indie music genre are also more and more commonly used within videos, according to our pre-existing music video research. Although there is usually a storyline, the use of random and unrelated props are often used; it adds an eccentricity to the plot and viewing for the audience.

 

The use of colour is evident into creating a visually exciting video to engage with the audience; it has been proved that the retina in the eye vibrates with "excitement" when looking at brighter colours.
Therefore the use of props within our own video would need to be bright and colourful, intriguing and interesting to the eye.


Below are the first lists of ideas, and preliminary sketches for planning and possible storyboarding.
We worked together and collected ideas to be influenced within our music video.

These sketches show that the use of props is heavily considered, even within such early stages of planning.




Although the majority of drawings were original ideas, we have influenced a small number of frames from already existing music videos, such as the use of props rolling through stop motion in the video Latchmere, by The Maccabees. The use of glitter as a prop was influenced by Indie/ Alternative band Klaxons, and their video Golden Skans. However we would be using both of these ideas in different ways as to create an authenticity and originality to our video, rather than copying directly from another.

Stereotypical Indie Fan

To create a stereotypical Indie fan profile, we looked at the responses collected from the online survey, as well as taking definition from Cracked.com of an "Indie fan" where it explains the slang term that "Indie music is a term most commonly associated with minor label bands that have a folk/alt/rock/electronic sound" and describes the fans as being commonly found at festivals or vintage stores. This albeit being a light- humoured website does correlate with the previous survey responses and is very representative; answers given were noted that the participants do go to gigs and see bands live regularly.

Urban Dictionary, is an online website similar to Cracked.com and goes into further detail on the appearance of Indie girls and guys.

To the left are stereotypical profiles of Indie fashion on both boys and girls, similarly matching the Ubran Dictionary and Cracked descriptions.



Audience Research- Interviews

We also conducted interviews alongside the online, to collect longer, more personal responses as we would be able to ask further, in depth follow on questions to the interviewees.
Due to time constraints and availability, we were only able to interview 4 males, between the ages of 17 and 20. We chose to interview people who would fit into the category of a stereotpyical Indie music fan; two were asked directly, and another two were interviewed on the phone. We recorded the interviews so we could look over the answers given. Interviewing over the phone was easy as it was quick, and the recipients felt more at ease not having to be filmed.
Below is the list of the ten questions asked to each person, and the recordings of each individual interview.

1. What bands do you like?

2. Why do you like them?

3. How did you get into this type of music?

4. Where are these bands from?

5. Do you think it makes a difference to their sound/style?

6. Do you go to festivals?

7. What do you do there?

8. Do you prefer to see bands at festivals, or smaller venues?

9. Would you prefer to listen to an album, or see the band live?

10. Do you think older styles of music are resurfacing?

Audience Research- Survey Responses

The online survey questions were created to specifically to collate responses for creating a foundation of a stereotypical Indie fan profile, and also to help us create and storyboard our music video.
The first three questions asked gender, age, and occupation; they gave us an initial idea as to who was answering the survey. The average age was between 17- 22, and 77.4% of those who answered were students.

The next five questions focused particularly on personal preference and lifestyle; giving a more detailed profile of respondants ranging from the music preferences to brands of clothing and how they spent spare time.
We provided a list of bands and asked which were most listened to; this allowed us to gauge the general style of music within Indie sub- genres. Bombay Bicycle Club, Bloc Party, Foals and Klaxons were the most popular, which enabled us to research their music videos later on in the research and planning stages of our own video, to incorporate the styles and techinques used.

The follow up question to this asked "How did you initially get into this type of music?"; an open question leaving the participants able to respond personally, rather than selecting a pre-existing answer. Through friends and family was the largest response, however it was noted that websites and applications such as Last.fm,  Spotify and YouTube were repeatedly mentioned as sources. As well as online sources, radio stations and magazines such as Q and NME appeared in the answers numerous times too,showing us that the typical fan is very aware of upcoming music both online and through print.

We then asked what brands the respondants wear, and whereabouts they shop. This was important to collect as it would help to create an image and styling of the stereotypical fan profile, as well as to style within our music video. High street stores such as Topshop/ Topman and H&M were very popular, as well as vintage stores and the brands Vans and Converse.



Audience Research- Survey

To collate responses from our aimed audience, as a group we posted a 10 question survey on the online website Survey Monkey.
It included both open and closed questions, in order to collect specific answers; qualatative data (open answers) to receive a personal audience response, and quantative data (closed questions) to produce graphs, numerical data and statistics, in which we could base our media coursework (music video, album advert and digipak) around.

We posted the links for the survey through social networking sites such as our Facebook accounts, and my own personal Twitter account, titling the survey "Indie Music Questionnaire", instantly portraying the genre of music that the questions were centred around. This was important to convey, as  music genres differ within each stereotypical conventions. The participants would be given an insight, and then respond if they listened to Indie music.

 

The use of social networking sites was important, as they are a platform in which the majority of young people use today; the survey was posted via Facebook status to approximately 2,000 people between the ages of 14 and 30, so we already approximated the responses. My personal Twitter account is a much wider platform to post to, as anybody online would be able to view it. This covered both aspects of the audience research.

Requesting Permission

In order to use the song "Cassius" by Foals within our music video, we needed to receive permission from the record company that the band is signed to.
The request for use was sent as soon as we had decided the song and artist, enabling the group to change if it was necessary, without delaying the planning and production of the video.

Through research, we found that Foals are signed to Transgressive Records, and emailed the team in concern to gain permission to use the song for our coursework.
Receiving permission from the record company was vital, as we would be using copyrighted material.



Below is a screen print of the email sent to the staff at Transgressive Records.