Props...

Here are some of our images of the props that we are planning to use within our music video:

Guitar- Through parts of the video, we are planning on having clips of the ex-boyfriend miming to some of the song lyrics and pretending to play guitar. He is going to be in natural locations when playing the guitar, such as in a field or in a house, this will help to make it look more realistic. When he is paying the guitar, we are hoping to try and capture his emotion, to really emphasise how much he is missing his ex-girlfriend and how much he wants her back. The use of guitars is common within rock videos, where there is normally a whole band performing: singing, drums and guitars. Because our genre is pop rock, we thought it would be good to use an acoustic guitar.  

We are also planning to have some flowers/roses within our video. We decided this as roses are connotations of love, which our video is strongly based upon. We may have the girl walking along carrying flowers/roses during a bit of our video, showing how she has moved on and is now in love with her new boyfriend, enjoying themselves and having fun. Contrasting from the ex boyfriend, who is going to be playing the guitar, looking lonely and sad.

We are planning on having the ex-boyfriend looking back through old pictues of him and his girlfriend when they were together. We haven't taken the images yet so the image on the left is just an example of what we plan to do. We are thinking of using polaroid pictures as they look more old fashioned, which could be connoting how long they were together and showing all the good memories they shared.

Presenting our moodboard

Here is an image of me and laura presenting our moodboard to the class. It was useful to do so as we were able to gain feedback from both our peers and our teacher. The positive feedback we got were that we had a good range of pictues, showing exactly what kind of shots we are planning on having in our video. Also, the fact we had a range of close ups, mid shots and long shots. The genre was easily recognisable, with all the colours of the images fitting in well. We played our chosen song to the class, and everyone thought that our moodboard matched the song well. The words we had scattered around the page were also liked, as they helped to show the main themes of the video, even though we could've added slightly more possibly. Overall, our moddboard presentation went well, and our moodboard will be helpful for us when we come to shotting our video. 

Moodboard

Here is an image of our moodboard which we created in order to help visually show what our music video is going to be like. In the moodboard, we have included images of some shots that we like. We have images of couples together, enjoying themsleves: holding hands, cuddling, kissing etc. On the other hand, we have images of a guy alone: looking upset, stood in the rain and crying. As well as images, we have included the lyrics to our chosen song and have also got some of the key words written down which relate to our video, like 'memories' and 'love'. We are going to present our moodboard to the class, in order to gain useful feedback from our target audience.

Song Lyrics

Below are the lyrics to our chosen song: 'Like we used to' by A Rocket to the Moon...

I can feel her breath as she's sleepin' next to me,

Sharing pillows and cold feet.

She can feel my heart, fell asleep to it's beat,
Under blankets and warm sheets.

If only I could be in that bed again...
If only it were me instead of him...

Does he watch your favorite movies?
Does he hold you when you cry?
Does he let you tell him all your favorite parts when you've seen it a million times?
Does he sing to all your music while you dance to "Purple Rain? "
Does he do all these things, like I used to?

Fourteen months and seven days ago...
Oh, I know you know,
How we felt about that night.
Just your skin against the window...
Oh, we took it slow,
And we both know...
It should've been me inside that car.
It should've been me instead of him... in the dark.

Does he watch your favorite movies?
Does he hold you when you cry?
Does he let you tell him all your favorite parts when you've seen it a million times?
Does he sing to all your music while you dance to "Purple Rain? "
Does he do all these things, like I used to?

I know, love, (I'm a sucker for that feeling.)
Happens all the time, love, (I always end up feelin' cheated.)
You're on my mind, love, (or so that matter when I need it.)
It happens all the time- love, yeah.

Will he love you like I loved you?
Will he tell you everyday?
Will he make you feel like you're invincible with every word he'll say?
Can you promise me if this was right:
Don't throw it all away?
Can you do all these things?
Will you do all these things...
Like we used to?
Oh, like we used to...

Music Permission Letter

Dear Fueled by Ramen,

We are currently studying A Level Media Studies at The King's School, Devon. For our media coursework we are creating a music video for a song of our choice. We are writing to seek your permission to use the song 'Like We Used To' by A Rocket To The Moon.

Please note, this video will be used only for our coursework and will not be distributed or marketed in any form.  We would greatly appreciate your permission to use this song.

Many Thanks,

Kaylee Hawkins and Laura Dickinson

Facebook Feedback

In order to encourage people to look at my blog and vote on the polls, I did a post on facebook. I decided to use a social networking site as our target audience are the type of people who are regular users of these sites. By doing this, hopefully I will be able to gain a wider range of peoples opinions to find out what they think of our ideas for the music video...

Music Video Synopsis

In our music video we plan on having 3 characters, two guys and one girl, who are aged between 17-18. We are representing the charcters as normal, every day teenagers, enabling the audience to easily relate to them. The video may make the target audience reflect on their peronal relationship experiences and possibly even aspire some to get into a new relationship. The storyline is going to be about this guy who has broken up with his girlfriend, she then moves on and gets with someone else, whereas he is still wanting her back. First, the couple are going to break up, then it'll move on to showing the girl with her new boyfriend. We are going to try and compare their new lifes by having several cuts from the guy alone, to the girl with her new guy. The ex boyfriend is going to be playing a guitar and miming through parts of the video in a natural location, we want to emphasise his loneliness and show how much he is missing her. In contrast to this, the girl is going to be with her new boyfriend enjoying herself in many different locations, out at the beach, park, shops etc. We are going to inlcude a wide range of different shot types (close ups, long shot, shot reverse shot etc) in order to make our video varied and interesting for viewers. We hope that the cuts between both their lifes will help to really contrast their emotions and feelings. To help achieve this we are planning to film the shots in different weathers, the shots of the ex boyfiend will be filmed in dull weather and the shots of the new couple will be filmed in sunny weather. It is going to end with the ex singing, asking if she will get back with him, and then we are going to have him walking away from the camera and will edit it to gradually fade to black.

What learnt from audience feedback?

Audience Feedback

We carried out some audience feedback to find out whether our target audience liked our chosen song or not. We decided to interview people who fit within our target audience as it'll help us to know whether our song would be popular and whether our target audience would enjoy our video or not. The feedback we got from doing this was very useful as we were able to get other people thoughts about the song. They all thought it was catchy, emotive and meaningful song, and we feel our shots we plan to do will fit well with this, and hopefully appeal to our audience.

To gain more feedback on our chosen song, I have carried out a poll on my blog. This is useful as it'll help us to gain even more peoples opinions, the majority of our target audience access the internet regularly so the poll can be easily accessed. Here is a copy of the poll:

Our chosen song

Above is a video of our chosen song, we decided to choose this song as we both like it and thought that it would work well. The video has a very clear narrative to it, with strong lyrics that are kind of explaining the story in a way. We are going to explore further and look ar the lyrics, so we can create shots that will link well to the song.

Researching Target Audience

In order to find out more about our target audience, we interviewed them to find out what genre they most enjoy and also how often they watch music videos. In order to help us gain ideas, we asked them what they think of when we say Alternative Rock, this allowed us to see what peoples expectations are and what bands they feel categorise in that genre.

Looking at photographs

I have done some research on a photographer called Stuart Franklin and have chosen my four favourite images of his. I am going to breifly say what I like about each one below...

I like that this shot is taken from below, looking up at the top of the trees. The angle of the shot helps to make it look more intereseting and also makes the trees look a lot longer. I also like how you can see the light shining through the leave at the top and think that the pattern that it creates looks quite good.

I like the fact that this is a long shot, showing all the buildings in the background. I also like how he has captured the person whilst jumping across the two rocks. I think the long shot helps to show just how big the buildings are in comparison to the kid.  

I really like the effect of the water in this image. The slow shutter speed makes the moving water slightly blurred. I also like how the image has the cliffs around the edges, it's as if they are creating a slight border. The fact that it's in colour also helps to show exactly what it is off.

I like all the cirlce shapes on the floor and think that the pattern of them all together looks really good. I like how it is a mid-long shot, showing just how long the circle bowl type things go on for. I like the fact the image is in black and white, and think that the white circles contrast and stand out a lot in the image.  

Inspiring Photos

I have been looking at lots of existing pop rocks music videos that are based on relationships, in order to gain ideas. I found that Lawson in particular have really inspired me with the creation of our music video. I have got some still shots below which I really like and may consider doing something similar when we come to shotting our video. The still shots are from their music videos, 'When She Was Mine' and 'Taking Over Me'.

This shot is a close-up of a couples faces, the girl is cuddled up to the boyfriend. I really like how this shot emphasises the closeness of the couple, it helps to show the love they share for each other. The fact that the guy has his head titled down looking at the girl, connotes that he cares for her and protects her.

This shot is a close up of the couples hands, the girl is stroking the guys hand. Again, I think this shot really helps to show the closeness of the couple. I think that hands are a good way in displaying peoples love other than having their faces. I would like to include a close up of the couples hands in my video.

In this shot, the boyfriend and girlfriend are looking into eachothers eyes, with their faces being quite close. It looks as if they are about to kiss, and we can tell by their facial expression that they are in love with eachother. I like how their faces fill the whole shot and think that if it wasn't as close-up the effect of the images will be totally different.

This is a wide shot, showing the couple walking along a path. We can see the backs of them, with their arms around each other. This shot helps to give a sense of location and is also helping to connote their closeness. The girl is holding some yellow flowers in this shot, which also could be seen as a symbol of love. In our video, we may consider using flowers as a prop to connote love.

In this shot, the guy is looking through old pictures, remembering 'when she was mine'. I really like the use of having images as a prop and think it helps to show just how much she meant to him. In my video, I am going to consider having the ex boyfriend looking back through old pictures from when he was with his girlfriend.


This shot is of the couple travelling in a car, the girl has her arms wrapped around the boyfriend and is kissing him on the cheek. In this shot, I like the lighting shinning through the car windows and also like the fact that it is a close up shot which just shows their faces.

This is a shot of the couple holding hands, you can see a bit of their bodies from the back and their hands joined together. In the background, it gives you a sense of location, in this particular shot they are walking along the sand in a dessert. I would like to possibly have the couple in our video walking along the beach holding hands.

Lastly, this shot is a close up of the couples faces. I like how the shot is sightly looking up at them so you can see the sky and sun in the background. In this shot, they are looking at eachother smiling. I really like this shot and think it emphasises thier love well. I might consider doing a similar shot for the music video we are creating.

Finally, I really like all of the above still shots and think that their connotations are all very strong. The images have all inspired me and in our video, I plan on having similar shots to really emphasise certain emotions/feelings.

Conventions of Pop Rock

Conventions of pop rock from Kaylee1234

In the above slideshare presentation, I have explored the conventions of pop rock/alternative rock. This is the genre that I have decided to focus my music video upon. By looking at the conventions, it helps to get an idea as to what people would expect from a music video in this genre. I looked at several different videos and decided on the common features that they each had in common. I am now going to be exploring which conventions I will use and which I will subvert.

Codes and Conventions

Below I have created a mind map of the codes and conventions of music videos, which I plan to use. By using the codes and conventions that existing music videos have, it will help to make my music video be successful, and will help it to be able to attract its audience.