Music Videos That Have Influenced Us

Below are a few videos that have elements that have inspired the idea behind our own music video.

Chamillionare - Hip Hop Police

Even though this music video is worlds different from what we want to do, it did inspire us to use intertextuality. The music video features a news report being delivered by the main artist in forms of the lyrics, the news report is being interlaced with a narrative which relates to the lyrics and the report. We really like this idea and decided to also make our main male artists.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication

 Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Camera movement/editing/transition between shots.

Editing Part 2

Today in media we edited some some new footage that the group shot last week.

These are all the clips we were using today while editing

This is what our timeline looks like now, as you can see we have the beggining edited already.

Here is us playing around with colour corection, we wanted to make this shot brighter so it matches with the ones that were shot in the sun.

Filming day two

Today we filmed all of the solo male lead parts, this was more successful than filming day one as we shot more footage using different shots and locations. The weather made it filmable as it was sunny which also helped with the shooting as it didn't make the footage too dark. Unfortunately not all of the crew could make it, which had let us down. What made it worse was that the group member promised that she will meet us on location but was running so we made do without her. Luckily we took a spare SD Card for filming. Furthermore, we had to play the song from YouTube because the group member who couldn't make it had the original song we're using. Luckily we found one which had the right lyrics, despite it being a cover version. Other than this, I believe that what we had filmed is good enough for the music video and ready for editing.

Obtaining Copyright Permission

In order to use the song 'nine2five' in our music video we need to obtain permission from the record label to use it. To avoid our video being taken down for copyright reasons we need to contact the record label, in our case the record label is Polydor Records, I found that out through a quick Google search of the song, the Wikipedia page provided the information.The record company seems to be owned by Universal Music Enrterprises (Polydor Records Website)







The next step was trying to find an email address or contact information so that we can ask for permission.
Below is an email I wrote and sent to the record company:

Editing First Piece of Footage

Today in our media lesson we started editing the footage we shoot back in December. The sequences only feature the female artist since her performance is separate from the main male performance.
We have a variety of different locations, unfortunately we have to re-shoot some stuff because some shots are baldy framed and in some bits the singing is off and for one scene we should have used a tripod.

Upon reflection we see that we should have shot some more close ups of our star since the long shots/medium shots really make her seem distant and in a music videos it is important for the viewer to connect with the artist. So next time we are filming we will take these thing into consideration.

For our project we are using FinalCut Pro, because this is a good piece of software for editing and its used in professional industries

These are all the clips we have shot so far.

This is what the time line looks like now, we already have the song on the timeline and we are starting to fit the footage we have to the lyrics.

Meeting five

Once we filmed the parts for Lady Soverign we were ready to move onto filming the band and male lead. In terms of costume and prop ideas we have decided that the band (The Ordinary Boys) should wear smart-casual wear to go with the idea of jobs but also to look casual in order to attract the right audiences. Before doing so, we looked back at the footage that we filmed for Lady Sovereign to check that everything is filmed at its best quality and from this we discovered that we need to re-do some shots for a number of reasons. Some of which were due to an error in the lip-syncing, not enough shots or a fault in the framing of the shots. Therefore we will be re filming these bits done on the same day as the filming for the band and lead singer to make use of the time available.

Shoot 1: Lady Sovereign Scene

Our first day of shooting on the 20th December consisted of filming all of Lady Sovereign's involvement in the music video. We filmed in two seperate locations, down an alleyway and in a park fitting the urban genre of the song, we also made sure that our actor was dressed in a way that matched the urban image Lady Sovereign portrays.

Here are some images we took during our day of filming:

Meeting four

Once we had made final decisions upon what would be most filmable in terms of props, locations and the storyline. We were ready to film the Lady Soverign scenes for our first day of filming. We have tried to keep it simple as of amount of props that we can get hold of and accesable locations as said before. Because of this, the role of Lady Soverign only needed to bring herself. For her costume, we have decided to keep to the street image of tracksuits, large jewellery and sleek hair. This will show a contrast in artists which will be good for the music video.

Final Storyboard

Here is the final idea that we have decided upon together as a group, although very brief due to the constraints of time to organise filming schedules, for what we wanted to produce as a collective for our music video. However, we are still unsure of some aspects of our storyboard and we have discussed changing these at a later date during the filing and editing process as we feel that our narrative may be lost or could be become confusing and to allow for the easy change of location and props, for example.

Meeting three

Once we got a firm idea of the pitch and locations etc we were able to decide where exactly to film for our music video. Before Filming Day One we searched for locations and after deciding between Beverley park in New Malden and a park next to the Malden Centre; we decided that the second location would be most useful as it includes a park bench, graffiti walls and swings. This made it easier and more accessible to film as everything we need is there.

Possible Location Shots 2

Here are some more pictures from when we went scouting for locations. We looked at various different places surrounding our school since we needed them to be close by to be convenient, we needed to find something urban and gritty and we wanted it to be easy to get to for the actors and us. We went to a park near by, where we though we would shoot one of the narrative scenes, then we looked for a something that we could use as a backdrop for a performance by the two artist, something that fitted the urban style and image of the singers but also something that was simple and would not distract from the performers but would add to their edgy look.

We saw this building in the park and we thought it was simple and we thought we could use it as one of our locations

This is a small alleyway we found, we ended up using it later on for a quick shoot of Lady Sovereigns performance

We really like the run down look of this alleyway and the lighting there was quite good, so that was a bonus

Possible Location Shots 1

These are images of two different locations we may use in our music video, they both help portray the urban genre that our song is fitting to. The park scene will involve Lady Sovereign whilst the car park/urban landscape scene will involve a band performance

Initial Storyboard

Here is the initial idea that we came up together with as a group at an early stage in terms of what we wanted to created for our music video, although we understand that we need to and have already started to develop our ideas further for what we wanted to include and feature within our final product and this is something that we will demonstrate through our final storyboard and planning up towards this.

Meeting two

The change of the initial idea meant that we had to change the concept around and stick to the literal meaning of the majorety of the lyrics. These lyircs are about disliking jobs, hence the title of the song 'Nine2Five'. As we stuck to the lyrics we have decided upon having the main singer as working in three tiring jobs which are a rubbish picker in a park, a window cleaner and a worker at a plain and boring office (may be subject to changes). The part of Lady Sovereign would just be of her rapping to the camera on swings in a park, an allyway and infront of a graffiti wall. This would be only a side perfromance as the main focus is on the band The Ordinary Boys as they sing most of the song.

Initial Thoughts on Lyrics

Our first thoughts on the lyrics were that they were telling a story, about a normal person who goes through the motions of everyday life and working a meaningless job as the title suggests 'nine to five' referring to the average work hours.

The song was written by Louise Harman, Gabriel Olegavich, Sam Preston, William J. Brown and performed originally by Lady Sovereign, the remix came later with The Ordinary Boys being added to the track and signing two verses and the chorus, it was then featured on the 'St Trinians' soundtrack.

Below is a poster we made on glogster, that briefly analyses the lyrics.