Group meeting 1 - discussing narrative.

In this session we were discussing;

- whether or not it should be a comical or serious band.

- which narrative we must chose

- which idea's of performance we must plan

- should we follow folk music video's or rock music videos
- who to select for our cast

We've decided to make our narrative a stalking idea;

1. Band (performance) - The band are shown performing in a music studio, where close-ups of both the band member's expressions and their instruments will be common. These shots will jump cut through the narrative piece and will relate in that whenever the tension rises in the narrative, the close-up shot will transform into a long distance shot to infer movement in the story as well as the isolation that his character may be feeling.

   Narrative - Picture a London rush-hour morning with a a faceless sea of people in suits and work clothes on their way to their nine hour shifts. Its a stressful surreal blur, and no face in particular is highlighted from the crowd, because its all blurred away. Then, a beautiful woman emerges from the crowd to cross the street and the camera comes to a mid shot to draw the audience's attention to her. Following shortly behind her, the lead singer disengages himself from the bustling crowd and follows her with intent. The audience will assume that the two people know each other, as the man stares after the woman and stays within a few feet from her, as if following her. Simultaneously singing the lyrics and following the woman, the man pushes through the crowds to catch up to her, while the woman shows no means of seeing him or even knowing he's there. Suspense is built when the man suddenly catches up to her and is singing directly at her, but only the woman looks past him as if he isn't even there. This continues for most of the video, the man singing passionately and in some parts of the song, viciously - while the woman fails to even acknowledge him, and the crowd bustles on. Before the end, the man suddenly stops and the woman walks out of the camera view, and the audience is suddenly shown a shed that's full of photos of the woman. Close-ups of the pinned up photographs tell us that she is unaware that the photo's were taken, and is therefore being stalked. We end with a backwards creep of the man, standing among the crowd staring lifelessly behind the camera (we assume after the woman)

But to suit all members of our group, we have to reform and adjust this idea.

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire Results Analysis

Our second group meeting.

Today we met up again as a group and discussed topics that concerned us and that were related to the music video. Previously, I had drawn up a few sketches of our narrative and structured them in a storyboard, with description, shot, angle, location, movement and shot duration and number. We then drew upon the rough storyboard and made alterations to it.
From my narrative original storyboard, we have reformed the narrative and have decided to make the storyline slightly comical, with the introduction of the 'living statues' from London. From this, I'll revise our new narrative and create a few versions of the new story, and then produce a final copy of the storyboard.

My first designs for our narrative storyboard. 

The same applies for our performance storyboard as we've decided to select location shots such as the school music studio as well as the school hall where performances are usually based.
Here is our second video where we discuss our preparations and aims.

Creating a schedule for planning/filming

Here we've structured a plan of times and dates in which we'll regroup, film, re-assess our footage and improve. This plan is scheduled in the period of 13 days, and Tuesday 18th December being our filming deadline. We've acknowledged that this is an extremely tight amount of time to prepare and film our music video; and therefore we've set in place 'safety net' days, to ensure that if we do not stick to what was required, or we re-assess our current footage and find that we need to reshoot some scenes, then we have 2 days to fall back on and get those tasks done.We've taken into consideration the busy time schedule of others (cast) and even ourselves, and have thus constructed a plan around these times and dates, we've also dedicated any available weekend to meet up and film.

We've spaced our days out wisely, and have planned the first 4 days to finalise the narrative, location idea, cast organisation and props - so that the upcoming days are organised and well planned for. Throughout these days (lightly scheduled for) we've added that each day we must create individual, as well as group feedback and analysation on what we've achieved and what we aim to achieve. This gives constant feedback and thus generates a clearer visual of our goal and what we aim to achieve.

 To extend our group feedback and to strengthen our understanding and dedication to the plan that we've made, we have created a group feedback video, in which we announce what we've done, and thereby aim to do in the plan. This video demonstrates the groups unity and co-orperation, and how we're stronger in communication as well as preparation.

Rock genre webpage - You Me At Six

Webpage Analysis - You Me at Six

Rock Genre Research - Poets of the fall; 'Carnival of Rust'

Analysing Rock Music - Carnival of Rust

Thoughts/Personal views towards the rock genre

I realised that while our group is trying to find information from our target audience, and even information about audience members who do not appeal to the rock genre - we, ourselves are also audience members.
As an audience member myself, I feel I can give my views/expectations of the rock genre expressively and in greater detail that a brief focus group with fixed questions.
And eventhough some aspects of rock I may not appeal to, my group (and I) can take my opinions/expectations and bring them into account - we then have a broader range of information to draw on.

I have a guilty pleasure for rock bands, but they are quite particular.
I enjoy bands such as You Me At Six, Rocket To The Moon, Boys Like Girls, Kings of Leon and so on - I appeal to light rock, instead of heavy metal bands like AC/DC, Slipknot or Motorhead.
The reason for this is because bands with a light rock genre have more influence with their lyrics and meaning, rather than heavy metal rock bands who influence with their music (for example, guitar solo's, hardly and lyrics, lyrics being shouted instead of being performed in an understandable manner).

If someone told me what I pictured the second they said "rock band" I'd immediately think of this :

Slipknot.

Dark, disturbing black make-up and long dark hair, dark clothes, using their instruments as some form of weaponry/tool for smashing something with suring their music video's.

Here is one of their video's..

In contrast,

If someone gave me a band name like ‘Kings of Leon’ or ‘Blink 182’ – I wouldn’t automatically think of rock, instead I’d picture an alternative/indie genre. This is mainly because; I don’t feel threatened or in any way challenged by their music or their music video’s. They instead, in my personal opinion, focus of lyrical meaning and real vocal talent – instead of instrumental talent/aggressive nature.

So, if someone said alternative/indie and asked me to picture the first thing I'd relate it to - I'd see this..

Kings of Leon

Wearing smart/common clothing instead of different, unique dark clothing. Some may have long hair and beards, but not draped over their face or dyed black. They ressemble normal looking individuals to mirror majorites in society, whereas heavy metal rock bands would pinpoint other groups in society.

Here's is a music video of Kings of Leon...

I’ve taken into account that different types of rock are categorized with different conventions of rock. For example, heavy metal rock and folk rock are two completely different types of rock, and therefore we’ll see contrasting conventions within these genres.

That is why, within my group – we’re speculating between whether or not we should categorize it as a heavy metal band or an indie/plain rock band – and it’s important that we take into consideration the attitudes towards each genre.