PRELIMINARY Final plot idea

At the beginning of our narrative music video a boy and girl meet in the school café in the queue where the girl knocks over her drink and the boy helps her clean it up, the drink will fall in slow motion to empathises the importance of them meeting and how time has stopped as they notice each other and feel a connection instantly. The couple then go on a series of dates and everything is looking good. They then go for dates on walks such as by the river and in the woods. Also, we will use a split screen to show the male and female individually sitting at home on their phones texting each other and looking really happy and smiley at their phone. Next time the couple see each other they're on a walk through town holding hands and they walk under a ladder, after that everything spirals down hill. Their relationship goes wrong and there's lots of argue and shouting, here we will focuses greatly on their body language and capturing the couples facial expressions that show their emotion. Then everything rewinds backwards, all the way back to where they first met at the café at the end when the lyrics say "baby if you could would you go back to the start".

This plot fits with our stimuli of walking under the ladder brings you bad luck, as everything is lovely and happy and they're in love and then they walk under the ladder and everything goes wrong with the relationship as it falls apart - which is the bad luck.

PRELIMINARY Location ideas and final locations

We plan on using a range of locations for our music video. To start with the video will show the boy and girl meeting in a café when the girl knocks over her coffee and he helps her clear it up. They then go on a range of other dates such as walk along the river Tiffey and a date to the courtyard café in Wymondham and we will show a split screen of the couple texting from their homes in their bedrooms. We have chosen to pick locations that are all in Wymondham as it makes it easier to organise days with the actors, ts alsp less expensive and time consuming. In town the couple will walk under a ladder that's lent up along a wall (which brings them bad luck). After this we will show them argue at different places e.g. on a walk in Wymondham and in a house.

If we use the Courtyard Café in Wymondham we would have to get permission from the cafe owners to film, all other places are outside in public areas so its easier to film as we don't need permission.

PRELIMINARY Casting ideas

For our music video idea to work we need a male and female. Preferably we want characters around the age of 20 rather than people our age because it would look more professional and realistic than people our age because often teenagers around the age 16/17 aren't taken seriously with their relationships.

PRELIMINARY Plot ideas

As we were presented with the task four days ago, we are just beginning to explore plot ideas. Tommy came up with an idea that a boy and girl meet and begin to fall in love - we are not sure which point to take this up to, whether they go on dates or as far as moving in together. At this certain point we are going to make it appear that the couple fall out of love, arguing a lot. The idea is to then have around a third of the narrative shot and reversed which has particular relevance due to the song frequently mentioning going back to the start. Because of the stimulus walking under the ladder, we could make it so that when the man walks under the ladder, the filming reverses from that point onwards. We are also looking at the possibility of a time lapse at some point, if it would fit in.

PRELIMINARY Lyrics of the song

I printed the lyrics out to Biblical and as a group we looked and annotated the lyrics.

Baby if you could would you go back to the start?
Take any fresh steps or watch it all fall apart again?

Play another song here, then you can leave
With your delicate wings, I used to weave
Maybe there's an undertow here
Or maybe this is stuck up in the air
I know how it looks but all that glitters ain't gold

You gave me magical, I gave you wonderful
Cut that invisible cord or I'll starve you
Of what's understandable
Let's make immeasurable moves to the left
Or the right but not central 'cause
[x2]

You gave me magical
I gave you wonderful
Let's make this biblical
And hang from our invisible cords

Baby if you could would you go back to the start?
Take any fresh steps or watch it all fall apart again?

It could have been a wonderful year
Instead we might not make it to the end
Everybody cares, but nobody knows

You gave me magical, I gave you wonderful
Cut that invisible cord or I'll starve you
Of what's understandable
Let's make immeasurable moves to the left
Or the right but not central 'cause
[x2]

You gave me magical
I gave you wonderful
Let's make this biblical
And hang from our invisible cords
[x2]

Baby how can you walk away? [x8]

The lyrics are really deep and meaningful, such as "you gave me magical, I gave you wonderful", due to these lyrics I think the music video should be a narrative video and it should focus on one character and all his emotions so the audience synthesises towards him. As we have to use the stimuli walking under a ladder gives you bad luck I want the video to show all his bad luck and how its getting him down. Likewise, the tempo is rather slow at the beginning however it does build up at times, this tempo shows the up and downs of the mans life and therefore show these moments in our narrative film. Lastly, I think the genre of Biblical is alternative rock. We can tell that it is about something to do with love and relationships. It feels as though it is related to a broken relationship so due to this it is likely that we will use a couple, a male and a female, for our music video.

PRELIMINARY Format of video

After researching further into the song Biblical we have decided to do a narrative music video like the existing video to the song, we thought it would make the video seem more real to engage the audiences emotions as its quite a sad slow song. Also, after looking at the lyrics to Biblical we researched into other songs with similar lyrics and a high majority of them also had a narrative format, which all worked effectively.

PRELIMINARY Roles

We designated roles within the group so we can work more efficiently and get more done at once. Currently, Olivia is researching into existing narrative music videos to gather ideas for our own music video, Hannah is then coming up with ideas and Tommy is in charge of organising which includes when we will film and who we will be acting and the location and is taking on the editing when we get round to it as he has the most experience with software such as premiere pro! Lastly, I have taken on the role of managing everyone to make sure work is being done and writing up the blog posts on our progress.

Here's a group picture...

PRELIMINARY song choice

From the list of songs we were given we decided to go with Biblical by Biffy Clyro. Originally we struggled to decide between Where is the love by The Black Eyed Peas and Biblical By Biffy Clyro. However, our group decided on Biblical because we all really liked the song and knew the lyrics which made it a lot easier to work with than the other songs. Also, we thought this song fits best with the stimuli we were given- which was walking under a ladder gives you bad luck. We thought as the song is slow we can show the emotion of the character in the music video as they get bad luck walking under the ladder by close ups of the characters facial expressions and body language, which should hopefully make the audience sympathetic towards them.

Preliminary task

In preparation for our A2 coursework we have been given a trial effort over the next month to produce an original music video, and accompanying original CD cover for the release of the song. I will be working with Olivia, Tommy and Hannah. We have been given the following songs to choose from, Black-eyed peas- Were is the love?, The stone roses- She bangs the drums, Biffy Clyro- Biblical, Kimya Dawson- Loose lips?, Kodaline- The one, Razorlight- Pop song 2006, McFly- Star Girl.

Also, we have been given a stimulus to base the idea around and see where it takes us, our stimuli was' walking under a ladder brings bad luck'.

Welcome

This is my blog for advance production portfolio for A2 Media Studies!

PRELIMINARY Research

I researched into three different songs that are of a similar genre to Biblical by Biffy Clyro.

Tom Odell - Another Love

This song is really good at engaging with the listeners emotions, as they can relate to Tom's clear lyrics especially people upset after a break up. However, the song is quite repetitive as it repeats "one another love, another love, all my tears have been used up" it also is boring how the boy in the video never moves he sits still throughout the whole video. In the music video its all narrative like the Biffy Clyro song Biblical. This video is different from Biblical's in the sense that On Another Love has the typical male and female in the video where as Biblical is talking about a woman although there isn't one in the video.


Bring me the horizon - Follow you

Follow you is a narrative music video like Biblical, I thought it was similar to Biblical's video in the sense both videos have the same principle catalyst despite different meanings. Both videos focus on a male walking around. They both have a man walking round and resemble some form of violence rather than a male and female together. I like how the video is random and has lots going on to keep the audience entertained.

Coldplay - Up and Up

Another music video similar to our genre, this one does show some singing from the lead member of the band however in a foreign setting, as opposed to a studio. Rather than telling a mundane, everyday story this ones interesting and colourful making it even more engaging and my favourite one of the videos I have studied.

All of these videos are unique making them engaging and seem to have their own takes on things which makes them different from other music videos out there, for my music video, Biblical I would like to do a similar narrative video as the ones above.