Emma Hart's Participation

• 'Actors, Locations, Props' powerpoint
• The Script - 'For the First Time' textual analysis
• Contributed to the 3 semiotic analysis'
• Assisted in the filming and editing phases of the main product creation
• Starred in the main product music video
• Creation of the image bank
• Evaluation - "What have you learnt from your audience feedback?"

Mica Joseph's Participation

• 'Actors, Locations, Props' powerpoint
• Snow Patrol - 'Chasing Cars' textual analysis
• Contributed to the 3 semiotic analysis'
• 'CD cover inspiration' powerpoint
• 'Audience theories' presentation
• Assisted in the filming and editing phases of the main product creation
• Creation of the image bank
• Evaluation - "How effective was the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?"

Josh Timms' Participation

• 'Actors, Locations, Props' powerpoint
• Music video pitch presentation
• Eminem - 'Stan' textual analysis
• Contributed to the 3 semiotic analysis'
• Created target audience questionnaire
• Assisted in the filming and editing phases of the main product creation
• Starred in the main product music video
• Evaluation - "How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?"

Charlotte Thistle's Participation

• Added work to, edited, and maintained the blog throughout the project
• 'Actors, Locations and Props' powerpoint
• Music video pitch speech
• Analysed the target audience questionnaire results and created graphs
• Created the storyboard and shot list
• James Morrison - 'Please Don't Stop the Rain' textual analysis
• Contributed to the 3 semiotic analysis'
• Ancillary Text 1 creation
• Ancillary Text 2 creation
• Assisted in the filming and editing phases of the main product creation
• Evaluation - "In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

Email to EMI

Before beginning to plan our music video to The Scientist by Coldplay, we first had to request permission for the use of this song; this permission was required from EMI record label, as they own the rights for Coldplay.  Below is a copy of the email which we sent:

“Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Using Coldplay – The Scientist for our A2 Media coursework music video

Charlotte Thistle, Joshua Timms, Mica Joseph and Emma Hart (4 Media student from Burnham Grammar School, Buckinghamshire) are required to produce a music video to a song of our choice.  We decided that ‘The Scientist’ would be the perfect song choice for the storyline ideas that we had, as a group.  After research, we understand that EMI own the rights to Coldplay’s songs, and therefore we are writing to you to request permission to use this song for the creation of our music video.  The final music video production will be posted on our blog, along with Vimeo, and will be viewed by many people.  There will be no copyright infringements, and no breeches of laws.  There will also be no foul language or acts that are inappropriate displayed within this music video.

If there is any reason why it is not possible for us to use ‘The Scientist’ by Coldplay as a song for our music video, please reply to charlottethistle@btinternet.com, and we will find another song to use.  Upon not receiving a reply, this song will be used.  Thank you very much for your co-operation in this matter.  It is appreciated.

Yours faithfully,

CJME Productions”

18:07    21st September 2010

Image Bank

Shot List

Real time

Flashbacks

·         Black slug

·         Long shot of George playing the piano

·         Over the shoulder shot of George playing the piano

·         Close up of hands on the piano

·         Close up of George’s face

·         Close up of photo of George and Jess

·         Graphic match to the same photo of George and Jess

·         Close up of Jess crying

·         Long shot of Jess from the other side of the platform

·         Long shot of the train

·         Long shot of Jess no longer waiting at the station

·         Long shot of George walking out of the hall

·         Close up of shower head

·         Close up of George’s face

·         Close up of George putting his hands over his face

·         Long shot of Jess sitting on the bed

·         Mid shot of George and Jess on the bed

·         Close up shot of flowers

·         Long shot of Jess standing up

·         Long shot of George walking over to Jess

·         Mid shot of Jess chucking the flowers on the floor

·         Close up of George looking down in the shower

·         Close up of George’s feet getting out of the shower

·         Mid pan upwards from feet to face

·         Close up of misty mirror and George’s hand rubbing it

·         Close up of George’s face in the mirror

·         Tracking shot of George walking from shower room to bedroom

·         High angle shot of bed, half made up, half messy

·         Mid shot of George getting into bed

·         High angle shot of George and Jess (illusion) in bed

·         Point of view from George, mid shot of Jess lying in bed

·         Black slug (point of view blinking)

·         Point of view from George, Jess has gone

·         Mid shot of George and Jess having fun on a bed

·         Mid shot of George lying on top of Jess, play fighting

·         Close up of mobile phone – ‘work calling’

·         Mid shot of George answering

·         Mid shot of George leaving

·         Close up of Jess crying

·         Extreme close up of Jess’s eye, crying

·         Longshot of George playing the guitar

·         Close up of George’s face

·         Close up of the guitar

·         Extreme close up of fingers on guitar strings

·         Close up of George, camera pans to follow him looking upwards

·         Point of view shot, black slug

·         Point of view, long shot of Jess walking from the light into the dark

"For the First Time" - The Script, Textual Analysis

“For The First Time" is the lead track and is the inspirational key to The Script’s second album Science & Faith. “For The First Time” was released in September 2010 and within weeks was in the top 5 of the UKs music chart. The song lasts for 4 minutes and 42 seconds and is has the codes and conventions within the pop/rock genre. I chose this song to do a textual analysis on as it acquires the same codes and conventions as “The Scientist” by Coldplay. The two music videos hold similarities in not only the genre but the camera style, lighting and editing.

The video starts with a close up of a girl on the bed writing a letter and crying. The non-digetic sound of the song, starts playing when it cuts to amid shot of her room with the curtain being blown in the wind. It then cuts to a close up of the singer of the script in black and white, lip syncing. This is what we plan on doing in our own music video. We will use black and white to represent a different time and George (our actor) will lip sync whenever he is on screen.  The next clip of her still on the bed, looking up at her boyfriend rushing around on the phone is a clip we are going to use in our video. We will have Jess (our actress) sitting on the bed while her boyfriend answers the phone and leaves her.

It then cuts back to the lead singer (Danny O'Donoghue) and the guitarist and pianist playing. While in black and white on stage, the lighting is perfect which is what we aim to achieve when filming George playing the piano on stage which is a classic convention of the pop/rock genre. The close up shots of playing the piano, singing and using other instruments are effective shots that we would like to use in our music video.  When it cuts to the couple back in the bed room, the camera is hand held and rushed allowing the audience to feel the same impatience and aggravation. Another shot also conveys happiness and the good times. This is shown by more radiant and brighter colours. The characters are having a good time while drinking and laughing which illustrates the reason they are together. This will also be used in our video by using flashbacks and bright lights to show the good times between a couple and the reason they stayed together.

The camera suddenly goes back to an extreme close up of the girl crying with her eyes closed when the non-digetic music gets more dramatic and stronger. The lighting becomes whiter and natural showing she is lonely; however when the camera then cuts to another shot of the couple being happy and kissing the lighting becomes warmer.  During the chorus, the band suddenly goes from black and white to original colour. This conveys they have come back to life and are energized by the music. The constant cuts between flashbacks, real life, and the music is exactly what we are going to do in our music video. However our flashbacks will be in black and white rather than warm radiant colours but the music and instruments will be in the same lighting and atmosphere. They both holds the codes and conventions of a pop/rock genre by using musical instruments, close ups of the artists, low key lighting, ambiguity and disorientation of time and space.

"Stan" - Eminem, Textual Analysis

This music video was a typical Eminem piece involving real life cases, anger and frustration. “Stan” was one of Eminems first songs and we would be able to tell this as all or most camera shots are inside a house with no out of the ordinary production.  The first camera shot is a mid shot of the window whilst the camera is zooming in, accompanying this shot was a diegetic sound of rainfall along with low key lighting representing mystery inside the house. The music video then cuts to a close up of a male dying his hair the same colour of the man his obsessed about, the non diegetic sound of thunder is then introduced along with the background beat growing in pace which signifies a relationship between the music and camera shots.

The camera then cuts to a tracking shot of a woman walking to the toilet, wearing run down derelict clothing having a baby bump which could signify a typical benefits relationship. When this tracking shot occurs the beat picks up which could suggest conflict or confrontation to come. Throughout the music video there are numerous cuts between the real Eminem and the male who is obsessed. There is a real contrast in clothing with Eminem wearing new designer clothes and the other male wearing scruffy dirty clothes which could represent the luxury that famous people have. These shots are produced extremely well as flashbacks for when we get a 360 degree rotation mid shot of the basement with numerous pictures of Eminem on the wall along with point of view shots of the obsessive male writing a letter to his idol.

The editing throughout the music video plays great admiration to the music video as there is a lot of low key lighting which represents depression, mystery along with anger. The cuts also play a great part as it speeds the motion of the video up in someway as more of the story can be told.  In the music video of “Stan” there is always diegetic rapping from either Dido or Eminem. There is no off screen non-diegetic rapping, which indicates the intensity of work being put into the video. This video was inspiration for our own music video as we are also doing a depressing set up of an old love that died. There will also be a lot of diegetic singing which is the same as “Stan”.

"Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol, Textual Analysis

Chasing cars was released was released on the 24^th July 2006. The lead singer Gary Lightbody created the phrase “Chasing Cars” from his father, in reference to a girl he was infatuated with; he said “you’re like a dig chasing cars”. I have decided to analyse Chasing Cars because the codes and conventions are similar to the song I will be doing for my coursework (The Scientist, Coldplay). The codes and conventions of alternative/indie music are the use of musical instrument by the main character, scenes in black and white, disorientation of time and space; close up of the main character, aspects of ambiguity and low key lighting. The music video is mainly narrative as the video includes a positive format story and the character is sharing his emotions with the audience based on how he feels about his relationship.

The camerawork featured in this video are extreme close ups, long shots, mid shots and high angle shots. The extreme close ups are used to when Gary Lightbody is lying on the ground, singing into the camera conveying his sad emotions through his eyes. The high angle shots convey the character as being weak and vulnerable; which gives the insight to his current state of mind and emotional state. The long shots portray the characters body language and conveys the characters vulnerability and powerlessness through his body language.

The lyrics used in the track “would you lie with me and just forget the world” implies to the audience that he does not care about what is going on around him and only pays attention to the reality of his love. The lyrics in the song are based on him wanting to forget about the world around him and would rather lie on the ground with the woman he loves and share his feelings with her.

The mise-en-scene of the video is set in a busy town which implies that the world is trying to keep their relationship apart. The male character is dressed in a grey t-shirt and blue jeans. The grey t-shirt could signify the sadness and vulnerability he is feeling. High key lighting is used on face to portray his innocence as angelic like but to also emphasise the sad emotion which is portrayed on his face. The slow paced editing is synchronous to the music and the action portrayed in the video.

The narrative based video to Chasing Cars is similar to The Scientist by Coldplay. The narrative behind “The Scientist” is the main character never paid his girlfriend enough attention, then she died and he reflects on how he regrets not seeing her as the love she made him feel, felt good inside. Whereas this reflects to “Chasing Cars” as the main character feels good on the inside through the love that they share and wanting to spend even more time with the woman that he loves.

"Please Don't Stop the Rain" - James Morrison, Textual Analysis

“Please Don’t Stop the Rain”, from the album Songs for You, Truths for Me was James Morrison’s eight single; it was co-written with Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic.  The song was released on March 30^th 2009.  “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” made its debut at number 68 in the charts and two weeks later it had risen to number 39 – it peaked on April 19^th 2009 at number 33 in the UK charts.  The song lasts for 3 minutes and 59 seconds and is of the pop/rock genre.  In this concept, “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” possesses a similarity to “The Scientist” by Coldplay (the song which we will be creating our music video to), as this too is classified as pop/rock or indie.  I have chosen to complete my textual analysis on the first 2 minutes of the James Morrison song; the reason behind me picking “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” is because it has many similar codes and conventions to the ones that we will be portraying throughout our “The Scientist” video, and we have gained a lot of inspiration from this source.  These codes and conventions include close ups of the artist and their instrument; aspects of ambiguity or abstractness; and the use of pathetic fallacy, particularly rain.

The video begins with a black slug which fades to present a long shot of a man on his own, isolated in the middle of nowhere.  This represents some sort of vulnerability as isolation generally connotes being the weakest and most susceptible to pain and death (sharks always attack isolated seals, as opposed to ones in packs).  The music video that we will create will share ideas very similarly to this – a black slug will open our video and the camera will then cut to a long shot of George, our main character who is the scientist, who will be the only character in our opening shot; he too, will be isolated and vulnerable.   In “Please Don’t Stop the Rain”, the camera then cuts to a mid shot of the main character; the mise-en-scene portrays greater isolation as there are cliffs and mountains behind him, and no other characters are visible behind James Morrison.  The lighting is ambient as the character is outdoors.  Over the next thirty seconds, the camera cuts to a series of shots, predominantly mid shots and close ups – this shows strong resemblance to how the first section of our “The Scientist” video will pan out.  It also fulfils one of the codes and conventions of typical pop/rock genre music videos which is to have a number of close ups of the artist.  In our video, we will have George sitting at his piano in complete isolation, and the camera will perform a number of cuts to show close ups, mid shots and long shots of him playing the introduction to the song.  Although we will use cuts, there will be a slow pace of editing to match the pace of “The Scientist” song; this is the same as in “Please Don’t Stop the Rain”. 

Throughout the first two minutes of the clip, there is also some sort of disorientation of time and space in “Please Don’t Stop the Rain”, the same as there will also be in our version of the “The Scientist” music video – this is evident in James Morrison’s video by changes in surroundings, displayed by the mise-en-scene in the background of mid shots of James.  This will be evident in our music video by the flashbacks being displayed in black and white, whilst real time will be in full colour.  There will also be illusion scenes where Jess, George’s girlfriend, will appear in a costume of all white (signifying purity, angels) but, of course, she is dead, and as soon as he goes to touch/kiss her, she will disappear.  The mise-en-scene throughout “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” displays cloudy and rainy skies which are darkening, dull and dismal – these are displayed behind the character during mid and long shots.  The connotations of dark, cloudy skies and rain is depression and sadness – this will be a large code and convention within our version of “The Scientist” as George is depressed that he did not spend enough time with his girlfriend and now she is dead.  Depression is a key theme in our video.  Again, similarly to in “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” we will have a scene that is shot in the rain, where Jess is at the train station waiting for George but he never comes.  This is an element of pathetic fallacy because the weather reflects the mood of the scene.

The editing in “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” is very slow and not frenetic as there is little movement.  There is great use of tracking and panning where the camera follows James as he walks along on his own.  This slow sense of editing fits in with the codes and conventions of pop/rock music as there is usually very little kinetic camera work.  This is, again, similar to the video that we will be producing for “The Scientist” – we have many shots which are long-lasting and the cuts between shots are generally flowing, with few jump-cuts, except those when the camera is cutting between real time and flashbacks.  In “Please Don’t Stop the Rain”, although there is element of disorientation somewhat, the video is all shot in real time – this is a significant difference to our rendition of “The Scientist” because we have lots of different time frames being used.

The mise-en-scene in “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” – particularly James’ costume – contributes to him fitting into the ‘archetypal character for a pop/rock video’ category.  He is a young, white male and these are stereotypically used in most indie and soft rock videos; conversely, characters portrayed in R ‘n’ B and Rap video are more likely to be black to fit the archetype of a rapper.  In this respect, “The Scientist” will be similar to “Please Don’t Stop the Rain” as, Hamish Williams, who will be playing George (our main character) is also a young white male.  Additionally, Emma Hart who will be playing Jess (George’s dead girlfriend) also fits into the stereotype of a white, lonely, pretty, innocent young girl who the audience will become attached to.  Just before the 2 minute-mark in the video, there are several shots (including an extreme close up of the eye, and various other long, mid and close ups) of a husky running around in the same foggy conditions that James is in.  The mise-en-scene suggest some element of being lost or trapped in these surroundings as visibility is very poor, and lighting is somewhat low-key.  The connotations of this fog and darkness could be that the character is unsure of their identity, or perhaps stuck in a relationship.

The sound in this music video is all non-diegetic because the music is added after the video is made, not during the process of shooting the video.  James Morrison is lip-syncing well to make it look like he is singing as he is walking along in the middle of nowhere in his video.  This is the exact effect that we will be aiming for in our "The Scientist" video.  Hamish, our main actor who is playing George, will be lip-syncing for the whole song when his face is in shot.  This will be rather hard to do, but as Hamish is a musician and he knows the words to the song, we feel that this will be achievable.  Another aspect which might be hard to complete will be to synchronise the image and the words of the song perfectly in time.

Music Video Pitch Speech

Charlotte:  We are producing a music video to ‘The Scientist’ by Coldplay.  We chose this song because we are aware of the codes and conventions that are needed to portray the message that Coldplay are trying to put across.  We looked up the meaning of the song – the main character was a scientist and he never paid his girlfriend enough attention, then she died and he reflects on how he regrets not seeing her when they were together because it’s too late now.  We will use this element of reflection within our music video by filming the main character looking into a mirror; the connotation will be him literally seeing his reflection and the denotation will be him reflecting on his regrets.

Josh:  Within our music video we will have two main characters – one will be the male scientist, George who will be played by Hamish Williams, and the other will be the lonely girlfriend, Jess whom Emma Hart will play.  In the flash back clips, Jess will be represented as innocent and naïve because she keeps thinking he will turn up to meet her but he never comes.  Because of this, the audience will feel sorry for her and take her side.  In the real time clips, Jess will be dead and this will be portrayed by her dressed in all white clothing, which symbolises purity and innocence.  George is very dedicated to his job and therefore never sees his girlfriend, which leaves their relationship at breaking point. When he realises what he’s done wrong, it’s too late and he has already lost what he loved.  We chose Emma to play Jess because she fulfils the archetype of an innocent girl – she is pretty, white and feminine.  We chose Hamish because he is a musician and he, too, fulfils the archetype of a typical scientist.  Also, he looks a bit indie.

Emma:  The locations will include the BGS hall, Taplow train station, Charlotte’s shower and a bedroom in her house.  We chose Taplow station because there is no cover and we will get the right effect when it is raining.  Also, it is easy to get across to the other side of the platform, which we will need to do.  Finally, it is nearby so we can access it easily. We chose the bedroom in Charlotte’s house because it has a double bed and it has an en-suite where we can shoot the shower scene.  We will be using the hall in this school because we need a piano in an empty space and this environment is perfect for this shot.  Additionally, because it is in school, we will have minimal distance to travel.

 

Mica:  We will use a variety of different shots in our music video.  There is a scene where George is in his bed and this is shown using a high angle camera shot.  We used a high angle to demonstrate his vulnerability because he is being looked down upon, as though he is inferior. The camera shots as well as the mise-en-scene will allow the viewer to understand the difference between illusions, flash backs, and real time.  The illusions are distinguished by Jess having a completely white costume, which signifies her being an angel.  The flash backs will be displayed in black and white to show that they are distant memories that are fading away.  Real time will be shown in ambient lighting and Jess will not be present in any of these (she will only be in flash back or illusions). However, before we start editing we will consult our target audience and see whether they like it.

Josh:  We are targeting an audience who enjoy alternative/indie music because that is the genre, which ‘The Scientist’ falls into.  The audience is can be any age and either gender but they have to enjoy the song and want to watch the video.  The key codes and conventions of the alternative/indie genre, which we will need to use throughout the music video, are as follows:

• A musical instrument that one of the characters will play (George playing the piano and his guitar)
• Scenes in black and white (flashbacks)
• Disorientation of time and space (flashbacks)
• Close up of the artist (Close up shots of George and Jess)
• Aspects of ambiguity (Jess appearing there but then being gone)