Planning of Plot
& A brief outline
For my advanced portfolio I decided to choose the song by Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind' I chose this song because i had decided with my partner that we would choose a narrative to follow so the song money on my mind allows me to follow a narrative of poor to rich and then back to poor. This links to the song as it shows how people can go from rags to riches really quick but can also go from riches to rags just as quick.
Me and my partner sat down to make ideas for the music video we began trying to think of less creative ideas such as showing people just partying and drinking but we then came up with the idea of making a narrative of someone going from being homeless to becoming rich but then not knowing how to use his money so going back to being poor.
We came to a conclusion that we want to portray and show representation of money in the real world.
This involves:
*Showing our teenage and older audience the good and bad effects of
using money.
*Showing the differences of what rich people have and also what poor
deprived people have.
*To empathize the importance on how to be wise with money in advance.
(Main Goal/Target)
*To show good and bad locations. (Mansions, living in the city) (Urban
Areas's, Slums)
In terms of editing we came to a conclusion that we should involve:
*Special video effects to be used when appropriate
*To make the music video a montage of clips shown from the beginning to
the video to the end of it.
*Transitions switching through next scenes after the next must be smooth
and not lagging.
*Camera angles shots such as Close Up's and Mid-shot's must be edited
very carefully.
We used a friend who does Drama A-level which helped make the quality of our music video a lot better because we had someone who could keep composed and in character while the filming was taking place i also had two great cameramen who also do media A-level that helped me a lot as they allowed me and my partner to try and experiment while the filming took place. From the beginning i planned to try and get a car for him to get in but luckily my father is a chauffeur and was able to bring one of the fancy cars during filming .
Music video
theories
Waves - Mr
Probz - Todorov theory
The Todorov
theory that says that every story has an equilibrium, disruption and
equilibrium. This can be applied to this music video as it begins with both of
the people in the video being in love and having a nice time in Mexico this
could be seen as the equilibrium of the theory. But they then have an argument
and he has loses her and this is where he is lost in an island this can be seen
as the disruption of the story as he loses her and starts to see images of her
but in his head. This could be due to the weather and also for the fact he just
woke up and came in from the sea. The equilibriums starts happening again when
he realizes that he is only seeing things and that she really isn't there. The
video is polysemy as it’s an open texts as it gives the person many meaning to
the video and people can interpret the video differently.
Naughty Boy
- La La La ft. Sam Smith – Propp theory
The Propp
theory can be applied to this video as the different characters of the Propp
theory can be applied to the different characters of the music video for
example as the little kid can be seen as the hero because he goes around
helping people who are not happy with their lives and tells them to join him in
his quest. The little dog can be seen as the helper in this video as he is
always beside the child and always help the child convince the people the
little kid is trying to help to go with them on their quest. The father of the
child can be seen as the villain as he scares the child away and is against the
kid trying to block out his fears. The Propp theory is applied to this music
video as the different character fit the characters of the theory.
Sam smith -
money on my mind – Levi-Strauss
This video
can have the Levi-Strauss theory applied to it as it shows how the modern
culture is and how society has become nowadays about how the society has become
all focused on the money that jobs produce and that no one does their jobs
because they love it but more because of the financial benefits. The video is
about him wanting to do his job because he loves it not because he wants the
money. The music video shows how the beliefs of the people is now that they
should do a job because they should earn money to support themselves and not to
do the job because they really want to follow that for their career.
Dear Copyright Holder,
We are A-Level students and we are writing to request your
permission to use one of the latest by Sam Smith. The track we wish to use is
Money on my mind.
With your permission, this task would be used in our current
A-Level Media studies project, which involves creating a music video to a
popular music track, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for
the artist.
If we received your permission, this track would ONLY be used
in an educational context and be viewed by our media class, our teacher and the
OCR exam board moderator. It would not be released to a large audience.
The artist and your company would of course be fully
recognized throughout pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright
notice with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the
project. If this is required, please send full details.
Regards
Jorge Alvarez Hoyos
Characters/ props/ locations
Characters
·Pierre Lanappe – He will be posing as the poor person who gets lucky and win money but because of his state of mind loses all of it quickly.
· Lorenzo Orosz – He will be the boyfriend of the girl who wants to help the homeless man but he believes that the man does not deserve help as he put himself there.
·Ildiko Czapar – She will be one of the woman who give him money when he is poor and she argues with her boyfriend as she wants to help the homeless man.
·Lovneesh Chauhan – He will be a paparazzi that takes
pictures that takes picture of the rich man
·Mauricio Alvarez – chauffeur of the car the man buys.
Props/ Costumes
Still poor
· The poor man has no money he will be using cheap old
clothes and be walking around with a bag and a sleeping bag for when he sleeps
in the streets.
·We will be using an old lottery ticket to make it seem like
that’s the winning lottery ticket that gets him all the money.
·We will show a bit of change in a cup that he uses to beg
for a bit of money.
Gets rich
·We will be using
nice and elegant suits that will show his high status once he makes money.
·We will try and get
a nice car to show him spending money unnecessarily.
· We will be using
montages of expensive food and expensive pieces of clothing.
·For props I will be
using a poker table and poker chips to show the man losing his money in
gambling.
·I will also be using a fancy car to show him moving up in
the world buying expensive cars.
Locations
· We will be using some of the back roads in Shoreditch as
not only are they a safe but look a bit scruffy and poor which is what we want
for this music video.
·When the man comes into money and starts to go to fancy
places we will use this location in Mayfair which is a really expensive place
in London.
·We will be using this location in Soho, Central London as
the place where the man will be spending all his money gambling and this is
where his money starts disappearing.
Equipment Used:
Canon 70D Camera (To film our main scenes for our music video)
Apple Mac Computer (Video Software: Final Cut Pro)
Apple iPhone 5C (Used for handheld recording for behind the scenes)
Target Audience Research
What makes the Pop genre so popular:
The pop genre is the most popular and is increasingly expanding and gaining popularity at a fast rate. According to research Pop is the genre that has the ability to have millions of dollars/pounds to produce music video to the mainstream audience. The main reason why people listen to Pop music is because the music is generally nice and fun to listen to, to the listener of the song. In most cases is true, and Pop artists like Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, are artists that are able to make their music fun and easy for the target audience to listen to. While pop music lovers tend to be (according to research) hardworking and have a high self-esteem, they do tend to be less creative and more uneasy. Me personally am a Pop lover but in my music video I aim to challenge my creativity when making the music video I want to show to my target audience, so that the codes and conventions I implement in my music video will appeal to them. However, I have also researched that the Pop Genre has this repetitiveness in music video's of the main protagonist of the video being 'cool' and somehow being able to comfort people. Things such as sex appeal of women in the music videos will comfort a man and make him feel happy maybe to escape from his personal problems for a temporary time. This is where the Laura Mulvey theory of the male gaze comes into play with Pop, that men like seeing certain parts of women's body (e.g breasts, legs, bum etc)
What makes the R&B genre so popular:
The R&B genre is another popular genre that is ever increasing in popularity year by year. According to research, the reason why R&B is attractive and popular is because of the singers thoughts and soul into the music they produce. The majority of modern R&B singers make their songs based on real life issues such as heartbreaks, love and social issues in society. Examples of artists who do this are Ashanti, 50 Cent, and Kanye West. The Ashanti video that I analysed in this blog, the video is about Ashanti's problems with finding a loyal man to be with for the rest of her life, but outlines the problems and issues of infidelity trust problems, lying, arguments and fights, and the struggle to keep and fight for a relationship to continue to be stable. All these issues present in Ashanti's 'Foolish' music video appeals to the target audience. This links to the Andrew Goodwin theory where in this case Ashanti's music video 'Foolish' has a direct relationship between the song and the visuals/moving images shown in the video. I believe that this allows the audience to feel a sense of escapism or entertainment (Blumler and Blutz Uses and Gratifications Approach) which can relate to someone's personal problems and therefore feel that they are not alone by themselves. But in my music video I aim to make sure that my music video gives something for my target audience to think about by showing them scenes that will influence their thoughts on the spending of money of the good and bad sides to it. We will do this by using the Hypodermic Syringe Model to use scenes that will directly impact the target audience's mindset as a result.
So the genre of the music video I am planning to make is a hybrid of pop and r&b. My music video is aimed at a young target audience and above (15+) which I believe will be suitable for the audience to view. I am very confident that the music video that I will produce will have an impact on the teenage audience and appeal to them. We will follow the codes and conventions in order to make sure that this music video is successful.
FOCUS GROUPS
A2 Media Questionnaire
I managed to create a questionnaire on Survey Monkey as part of the plan to plan for my music video. There are 10 questions that needed to be answered and will be given to respondents. The purpose of this questionnaire is to gain feedback from respondents in order to improve the plan and production our music video.
This is the link for my questionnaire.
The link above was sent to several people via email and once they completed it, Survey Monkey will give me the results posted on my profile page.
Evaluation of my questionnaire:
This was my first time sending a questionnaire out to multiple people at one time via email and by looking at it again, I feel that my questionnaire could be improved. One improvement that had to be done was the age difference. The age difference answers provided in the questionnaire looked like they were going on forever. In order to make the question more effective, I should include a '25+' answer for the people who are over that age. This will stop the need of writing too many answers, therefore making it more simpler and more reliable to answer.
Questions 4, 8, and 9 need to be improved too. The questions didn't allow the user to tick as many as they liked, especially question 4 where it talks about what kind of genre people like. I didn't take into account that some people may like more than one genre, so therefore am going to give the respondent more options for there answers, which will also apply to the other questions that need improving.
These are
STORYBOARD
Description: In this shot we will see the main character in his normal day life as a homeless man with nothing to his name except his sleeping bag.The location will help emphasize how poor he is and how harsh his life truly is.
Shot Length: 7-10 seconds
Shot Length: 12-14 seconds
