Behind the scenes of storyboarding

Here is our group creating our storyboard, we have managed to do more than 10 pages which shows that story boarding is not an easy task; and it does take a while to complete. Our group has taken TWO WEEKS to complete it. But finally we have managed to complete it, creating not only visual images of our camera shots but also we have written the shot type, costume, location and duration as well as the lyrics.

Annotating Lyrics

Here are our initial ideas for our song choice. We have taken inspiration from other music videos and have applied them to ours, for example in the first image we have annotated for the first verse, the protagonist surrounded by her friends however she would be singing into the camera and this was inspired from Years and Years "Real"

Track Listing

As a group we have done our research and found that artists and/or bands, tend to have 10 or 11 songs in their album, however they do tend to have bonus or hidden tracks which boosts the track listing to 12 songs. As a group we felt we wanted to have 12 songs as our album is going to be a deluxe edition.
Some of the song choices we have come up with include and in no specific order:

• Melliflous
• Sonorous
• Hiraeth
• Etheral
• Limerence
• Serendipity

The reason we like these song titles, is because we liked how exotic the words were and how mischievous they sound.

Album title idea

I really like the album title to be called 'Hiraeth' and this is because it is a welsh word for homesickness. We thought it was a nice title to the album as well as this, it would be part of our unique selling pint as the album represents the isolation of the artist.

Coming up with a band name

As a group, we really like the word 'Nefarious' and this is because we liked the way it sounded. It means wicked, villainous and despicable, and we thought it sounded intriguing.

Costume ideas #2 ...

For our second costume idea, we have decided that we don't want our protagonist to stay wearing one outfit throughout so we have chosen to mix it up by changing between two different outfits. So the second choice is her wearing a casual outfit that will include the following: 

Bottoms: Black jeans

Shoes: Chelsea ankle boots

Jacket: Black Leather Jacket

Top: Plain white T-Shirt

Researching artists and albums

For us to come up with a band name, we have had to do some research into other artists and find what was popular with the majority of indie pop artists. We had seen 5 artists that we thought would inspire us as well as their album titles, these include:

• Aurora - Winter Bird (2016)
• Florence and the machine - Lungs (2009)
• The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (2011)
• Foster the People - Torches (2011)
• Awolnation - Run (2015)

Costume Ideas #1 ...

As a group, we have already decided on the type of costume/ outfit we are going to have the protagonist in for the music video, however we do have two different costume ideas for her to be wearing. This costume choice below is for when we are shooting her in the park scenes; when she is isolated.

 Makeup: Dark eyes and bright lips with natural tone foundation

Shoes: White converse

Dress: White lace dress, short no sleeves

Inspirational music videos

Both these music videos include the same idea that my group want to use when creating our music video and in this case it is the part where the protagonist looks directly into the camera whilst singing. In my opinion I find it quite intriguing if the artist looks into the camera whilst surrounded by other people who are oblivious to this as it gives a sense of isolation. This works well with our chosen song choice and this is because the concept behind the song 'Little White Lies' is how the protagonist fights to keep things to herself, so having the camera on her singing towards it whilst people are in the background gives this impression that she is by herself fighting these "lies"; this is used to represent her inner struggle.

Taylor Swift 'Shake It Off'

Disclosure 'Omen' ft. Sam Smith

Permission Request ...

Coming up with Band Names...

In todays lesson, we played a game which was sort of like a home made name generator. We had to write down a noun and fold the sheet over then write an adjective. We then had to rotate each of our sheets round to each member of the group and they would do the same. We done this three times until we were ready for the final reveal. We had opened them and some of the results were...well the least to say rather...interesting. However it was a very fun task but I think its safe to say we have a mission at hand to come up with an appropriate band name.

Xenomania

Who are Xenomania?

Xenomania are a british songwriting and production team, which was founded by Brian Higgins who are based in Kent, England. They have written and produced for renowned artists such as Kylie and Danni Minogue, Cher, Pet Shop Boys, The Sugarbabes and many more after he had met Miranda Cooper.

Miranda Cooper and Brian Higgins

Xenomania had wrote and produced UK number one singles for both girl groups Sugarbabes and Girls Aloud. 

 Sugarbabes

Girls Aloud

A bit about Florrie...

Florrie Arnold

Florence Arnold better known as Florrie, born December 28th 1988, is an English pop singer, songwriter, drummer and model. Since Florrie had joined with Xenomania production house, she had become their in-house drummer in 2008, playing live and on record for popular artists such as Girls Aloud, Kylie Minogue and the Pet Shop Boys. 

Nonetheless, in 2010 she began her solo career. With drawing positive reactions from her audience from the online music community, she had announced, after further release of a few albums such as "Introduction", "Experiments", "Late" as well as the single "Live A Little" for Sony's XBA-C10 in-ear campaign, she had signed to a major label - Sony Music.

In an interview with Ponystep, Florrie had described her style of music as a mixture. This including "kind of a sixties, organic feel merged with modern pop beats and electronics". 

Little White Lies written by Florrie alongside 3 others was released on August 15th 2014 as her lead single. The original version of her song was premiered on the 3rd July 2014. 

Group Vlog 1

In this blog we are discussing our storyboards, change of song, and a few ideas.

Our Lip Synching Task

Our task was to create a video of our group miming the lyrics to our chosen song, which for us is Florrie 'Little White Lies'. We had done solo pieces and group pieces, so this could show a serious yet fun side to the project. I personally really enjoyed this task because not only did I enjoy singing the song with my fellow peers, but I also really enjoyed editing it in iMovie.Although it was enjoyable to edit, I found it quite hard to sometimes match the lyrics sung in the song to the lip syncs we had recorded. I feel the best way to overcome this problem is to have the main protagonist emphasise the words so it is easier for myself and my other peers to edit.

A possible idea for our music video...

With our new song choice, I feel an idea we could use in our music video is, as the weather is becoming colder and winter is approaching, we could possibly have a mid shot to begin with of the protagonist standing in the snow with the depth of field focusing on her and not the background; blurring it out so we don't see the location; and each snowflake falling could represent a "little white lie". This could be used when the beginning of the chorus "Little white lies, we keep to ourselves, and will never tell, ain't hurting nobody" is sung.

Then after the first part of the chorus, I was thinking maybe we could zoom out into a long/wide shot of the protagonist in this huge field surrounded by the snow which represents all the "little white lies" she has told.

We could have the protagonist stand in the centre of the field covered by all white, this conforms to Goodwin's theory of having relatable images to the lyrics (signifier/signified), this shot would last for the second part of the chorus as she sings "Little white lies, nobody else needs to get hurt, oh 'cause they'll never know".

New song choice

We have decided on changing our song to Florrie's "Little White Lies"and this is because it is more upbeat compared to our previous choice. As well as this, we can still use the same initial ideas as we first came up with in our previous choice representing the good and the bad. 

New Idea!

Our group, have decided to change our minds, and this is because due to our lip-synching task, we felt that in terms of editing, it was very slow-paced and in my opinion, I like a challenge editing to fast paced songs. Our original chosen song that we had decided to do was Digital Daggers "Heaven or Hell" and when editing and completing our lip-synching task I personally felt that the song was not fitting for myself; this soon led to me feeling negative towards the song choice.

However, we have spoke as a group about this and with the chosen song choice of "Heaven or Hell' we felt we were very limited editing wise and so we have decided to change our song and create a music video to Florrie's "Little White Lies" and we really enjoy this song as it is not only upbeat, but it also allows us to expand on a few new ideas, taken from our previous song choice and with new ones too.

Audience Feedback

This is our audience feedback, from watching our pitch.

John Lewis Advert 2012

This John Lewis Advert gives our group ideas for when we are editing our music video. We all really like this advert and we feel that in our music video, just like the advert, parallel editing would be good to replicate in our music video because the lyrics include "this could be heaven or hell" and so showing the two worlds side by side "colliding" just like the advert which shows past and present side by side, would be fun to create.

Inspirational Video

Justin Timberlake - Suit and Tie ft Jay-Z

The editing in this music video has captured my attention and this is because I find the most interesting the black and white effect. I feel that it gives the music video that vintage feel towards it. Moreover, I also enjoy how at around 4:40 when the band jump into the air it changes from a black background to a white background and I feel that this is quite a cool effect.

Inspirational Music Video

I find intriguing the lighting used in La Roux's music video and this is because I feel that in our group music video dark lighting would give off a sinister impression to the audience and so it would also be great to use to represent the evil side to the protagonist 'Lilith'.

Inspirational Video

I really liked this music video and this is because the part I find most intriguing is the lighting changes, where as he passes a tree with a thick trunk it gives the artist the opportunity to show a change in atmosphere; in this case it, it changes from day to night. I feel that this video can be an influential video when creating our own and this is because i feel that the light and dark effect would be good to represent the good and bad side to our protagonist.

How have Digital Daggers promoted themselves?

Digital Daggers have produced scores for many tv programs such as 'Nikita', 'Ringo', Once Upon a Time', 'Teen Wolf', 'Pretty Little Liars', 'CSI:NY' and the motion picture 'The Roommate' as well as so many more. Through these tv programmes and films, they have enabled to promote themselves.

CSI:NY

The song was a cover by John Kander and Fred Ebb which was performed by Digital Daggers in the Seventh Season, Episode 20.

Once Upon A Time

Teen Wolf

Their song 'Bad Intentions' was featured in Season 2 Episode 5 of the TV Series 'Teen Wolf'

Motion Picture: The Roommate

In 2010, Digital daggers had made the single of the week "no easy way' which had gained well over 150,000 downloads to promote the debut digital EP Human Emotion. Moreover the title track was used by Ferraro Rafaello in 2011 for a tv commercial. Not only had they promoted themselves through film and tv but also they do have social networking accounts one of which is with Twitter so they had tweeted about their forthcoming albums.