Drafts

DRAFTS:

As a group we designed these two drafts, with each of us having our own input. Both of these drafts are DVD templates. To me, I believe that both drafts have both their good and bad elements. For example, the first draft, I believe, has a back page that is designed logistically well as, if it was made it would have a lot of information on it yet it doesn't appear too crowded and there is still some dead space to complement each section of the draft.

However, the front cover of this first draft is far too simplistic for my liking with just one image in a box as well as the 'Marry You' being far too small. Yet, the front cover on the second draft advertises the band and the song better than the first.

Further idea: To take the back page from draft one and the front page from draft two and combine them.


UPDATE:

As a group, we have all decided that making a video for the Glee version of 'Marry You' will be to hard of a task to complete within the time frame that we have been given, Therefore we will use the original Bruno Mars version.

Production schedule

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE:

To ensure that our group has allowed time for everything and so not to forget anything we have produced a production schedule. As you can see our pitches and research have been completed on time, something that shows a very promising start to the whole production. 


As the final production completion date is the 16th March our group (if everything goes to plan!) will have a week to make extra finishing touches and will also be able to receive critical feedback from both our teachers and peers allowing us to improve even further.  

Narrative theory!

Narrative theory refers to the structure of a film/video and how it affects our perception or it.


As a group, we hope to achieve an extremely clear narrative, due to the fact that we are adding our own theme into the video; the struggle between the bride and her parents. Throughout our planning we have discussed how we can make this as clear as possible and came to the conclusion that when the couple are together they are in a state of romantic bliss, however when they are apart this is when the struggles are evident. 


UPDATE:


In our peer feedback it was clear that they all understood what the narrative was and was also something that was commented on with good favour. Our narrative theory worked!

Genre theory has played an important part in the discussions of the making of the video. Fiske says that genres are “attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts” thus codes and conventions come in, something that is shown visually and aurally. Our video, ‘Marry You’ has the genre of hip-hop but is also balanced with romance, something that will aid us in coming up with a variation of ideas and will be shown clearly throughout our music video and ancillary tasks.

The iconography within this video will be clear so that the audience knows what to expect. As the song is about marriage and a wedding we will do our best to add what is normally considered as iconographic of a wedding day; dresses, confetti, flowers and wedding cars and to also aid in showing the chemistry between the two actors. 

There are two main themes within our video; the evident love between the couple and the struggles between the bride and her family. Both of these themes will run parallel throughout the video. These scenes will be easily recognised as the male actor will not be present during the difficult scenes between her and her family. However, contrastingly their true love will be shown when they have been apart and have come together.

The genre will also be established with the help of locations. Throughout our research into Bruno Mars and his videos it is evident that many of his romantic songs are set in outside, spacious locations, something that we will also do. 

Storyboards!

To aid us in our production we storyboarded many of our ideas for the video - hopefully we won't have to deviate too much from these storyboards, but if needs be we will!

The shots start with an establishing shot and progress through to low angle etc. These storyboards are just a small selection of the shots that we hope to achieve. 

Style guide!

Throughout each of my tasks within both my GCSE, AS and now A2 media courses I have always produced a style guide to aid me in my research and design process. As a group we all had our input as to which fonts we personally liked and assembled them within a word document so we could analyse them together. 'Bauhaus 93' was a firm favourite throughout the group.

UPDATE:

Sadly, the Glee version of 'Marry You' has been decided against due to the complexity of the video. Therefore we will be using the original Bruno Mars version for our Advanced Portfolio. 

Due to the song being changed another style guide has been produced using the same fonts that were previously used. However another favourite was chosen, this being 'Nueva STD Cond' as it fitted the 'look' of the words Bruno Mars and also represented the romance of the song more clearly than 'Bauhaus 93'.

Locations!

As a group we are aware that the types of locations used can either benefit the song or distract from the meaning. As the song is very romantic we decided that large open, green spaces were needed - with this idea we decided that Abbey Ruins will be an ideal spot for large amounts of filming.


However, as there is a struggle within the song, sections of filming are needed where there are parent figures around. Therefore one of our homes will be used with our parents present to show the struggle within the relationship and give the idea that their love is so strong that it overcomes all. 

Target Audience!

Bruno Mars' has a target audience of both genders between the ages 14 - 25. The majority of Bruno Mars' promotional work is on the internet, something that I believe is due to his target audience being surrounded by the internet. The promotional work for 'Doowops and Hooligans' is largely on the internet with the use of a website, Twitter and Facebook. As a group we believe that our video will fit tightly within the 14 - 25 bracket - as Bruno Mars has not produced a video for Marry You we believe that our video will be 100% individual. 

Lyrics!

The lyrics for 'Marry You'

As a group we have studied these lyrics and tried to find locations that will fit the genre and lyrics. However, 'chapels' and 'choir bells' have been mentioned within the song, something that as a group we can not incorporate as no location is suitable enough for this (without using a real chapel - highly unlikely!). Therefore, we are going to film certain sections as to how we perceive them. For example, open spaces, parks, homes etc.

It's a beautiful night

We're looking for something dumb to do

Hey baby

I think I wanna marry you

Is it the look in your eyes

Or is it this dancing juice?

Who cares, baby

I think I wanna marry you

Well, I know this little chapel

On the boulevard we can go

No one will know

Oh, come on girl

Who cares if we're trashed

Got a pocket full of cash we can blow

Shots of patron

And it's on, girl

Don't say no, no, no, no, no

Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And we'll go, go, go, go, go

If you're ready, like I'm ready

'Cause it's a beautiful night

We're looking for something dumb to do

Hey baby

I think I wanna marry you

Is it the look in your eyes

Or is it this dancing juice?

Who cares, baby

I think I wanna marry you

I'll go get a ring

Let the choir bells sing like

Ooh, so what ya wanna do?

Let's just run, girl

If we wake up and you

Wanna break up, that's cool

No, I won't blame you

It was fun, girl

Don't say no, no, no, no, no

Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And we'll go, go, go, go, go

If you're ready, like I'm ready

'Cause it's a beautiful night

We're looking for something dumb to do

Hey baby

I think I wanna marry you

Is it the look in your eyes

Or is it this dancing juice?

Who cares, baby

I think I wanna marry you

Just say I do

Tell me right now, baby

Tell me right now, baby, baby

Just say I do

Tell me right now, baby

Tell me right now, baby, baby, oh

It's a beautiful night

We're looking for something dumb to do

Hey baby

I think I wanna marry you

Is it the look in your eyes

Or is it this dancing juice

Who cares, baby

I think I wanna marry you

Our second pitch!

SECOND PITCH:

After our first pitch, we went back to the drawing board and begun our second pitch. With our song choice definitely being 'Marry You' the Glee version we began to look at locations and casting among other things in more detail.

The research that we undertook included genre posters, looking at the original Glee version in detail so see how many singers there was, the combination of male/female vocals, appropriate locations, props and whether or not a band would be required.

Alongside the research for the main production we also began looking at ancillary tasks and the requirement of a ‘digipak’. Our group began to think about what tasks we should do and decided on a DVD cover and insert, CD cover and insert (both inserts will have around six or more double sided pages within the booklet) and a music magazine front cover. As there are three of us within the group there will be nine (or more) ancillary tasks in total.

Here are a few sections from our presentation:

Our first pitch!

PITCH:

After deciding on the two versions of 'Marry You' we was then given the task of pitching our idea to our media teachers. As a group we worked on our presentation and discussed ideas for; casting, locations, costumes, codes and conventions and the mise-en-scene that would be needed to make our music video a success.

However, as you can see this pitch was our 'first' and will do our second pitch on the 20th October due to a misunderstanding with the Glee version of the song. The Glee version has a cast of eight cast members, both male and female throughout the song. Part of the misunderstanding was that we had decided to keep this Glee version 'simple' and have two cast members, one male and one female, however this would have meant that the harmonies would be different throughout.

Song Choice

SONG CHOICE

Our group, the 'Music Minions' went through a "boot camp" style process to decide on our choice of song. The genre's of each song varied greatly, for example we had M.I.A 'Paper Planes' which is alternative hip hop to Nina Simone 'I put a spell on you' the jazz singer.

Our first choice of song was 'Don't you want me baby?' by The Human League, however it was then decided that the genre was 'new wave' and the majority of people wouldn't be familiar with this, another problem with this song was the original video which had been made in 1982. The codes and conventions of the video are not clear and it was decided that the song was unsuitable due to these two factors.

However, all was not lost and we decided on a new, more recent, song, Bruno Mars 'Marry You', however there are two versions of this song, the orginal by Bruno Mars and the recent Glee cover. As a group we are currently unsure as to which version to chose, therfore we are going to go through a production process of both covers, including drafts, casting, locations etc and then choose the song with the most potential.

Both songs are popular and will be easily recognisable for our target audience - 12 - 18 year olds.

http://vimeo.com/25027563 - Have a listen of 'Marry You' by the Glee cast.

Introduction

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome bloggers, this is my advanced portfolio for A2 Media! Along with my fellow bloggers, Priya Nashad and Nick Porter we will complete the task of creating a music video!

- Song Choice: Unknown
- Music Genre: Unknown

- Our Group - Music Minions!