Editing

After editing about 1 minute of a 3.5 minutes music video, we showed it to people from our target audience (16-25 year olds) and asked them if they understood the story line so far. To some it was slightly confusing, although the shots were well transitioned, we had not introduced the storyline quick enough, which for only a short video, needed to be changed.
We swapped some shots about to make the story be introduced quicker, then showed it to the same people and some other people who hadn't seen it before. We got them to tell us what they thought had happened and what they replied with was the story plan, which was positive feedback.
We got carried away with putting in shots that we didn't ned yet, giving them no significance in the place they were irginally in, whereas if we moved them, they held great significance. This just highlights the importance of editing and recieving feedback.

Montage

Montage is featured in a variety of different films/music videos/TV programmes. It is an effective way of getting messages to audiences, setting the atmosphere/tone of the proceedings/good opening sequence.

For example, in the opening sequence of 'This Is England' there is a montage of clips from the 1980's, setting the tone of the film, it has political, popular, influencing and urban aspects of the introduction. Layered over the top of the montage is a song by Toots and the Maytals called "54-56 was my number". In an interview Shane Meadows said that they picked the music before they planned the shots. So using this song was decided before they even thought about using montage.

This is effective as the film has not started yet, but you get a feel for what is to come and what to expect. It is a foreshadowing method. It is also a very specific way to target audiences. For example, people with an interest in Politics, music, war, dancing etc, will take interest in this montage.

Another example is in 'The Killing' and 'Homeland', 2 TV dramas, they both use montage as a way of introducing charters and setting the tone of the rest of the hour of the show. This is an effective way of opening what is going to happen because it manages to show you enough of what has happened and what is going to happen in the montage.
The Killing's montage is edited in a slightly more edgy way than Homeland's, it is a little more distorted and the music that lays over the top is more mysterious and concerning also. It does not reveal as much information as for example Homeland does, it is more suggestive rather than just showing the audience.

 

Recently in a music video by Sub Focus ft. Alpines called 'Tidal Wave' it features patches of montage which has inspired us to use montage in our music video because of the effectiveness of 'Tidal Wave'.
This music video is similar to ours due to the fact that a majority is filmed either at a beach, or on cliffs over-looking the beach. Montage in this video is edited to the beat of the song, enhancing the effectiveness of the continuous beat in the song. It also sets a scene for the video, almost like a title sequence. It introduces the surroundings by flashing shots of the location.

In our music video we plan to create a montage on the instrumental section about half way through the song. It will be edited to the beat, but as it is a fast-paced song, maybe every other beat as we are going to use some iconic shots linking in with our inter-textual references. (The French Lieutenants Woman) This links in with Goodwin's theory - There is often intertextual refernces.This is the element we are trying to highlight. The use of montage in our video will (hopefully) be effective, and the end result will fit with the rest of the video.

Intertextual Reference #1 SONG

Sinead O'Connor's song 'Nothing compares to you' is an iconic song and video. It features her walking through a graveyard dressed in afull length  all black coat exposing long shots and establishing shots of her and the location. In contrast to this, there is a constant stream on close up head shots of her singing the song/lip synching. We can reference the video to our plans, part of one of our costumes of the female actress is her long black skirt which can be intertextually referenced to our music video.

Another aspect of her music video we can reference is when Sinead starts to cry. Planned in our video is around the lyric 'don't fight' to have a shot of a tear rolling down Emily's face much like in the screen shot of Sinead O'Connor. On the lyric 'don't fight'  is a shot of Emily'd fists tightening and squeezing together,, restraining herself from fighting against. This also links to Andrew Goodwin's theory, 'There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals' This can apply to our music video in a respect that fists are with fighting, so by showing her resisting from the fight is applicable.

Costume Intertextual References.

Sinead O'Connor in her music video 'Nothing Compares To You' is wearing a big long black coat, which covers the entire bottom half of her body, which is similar to one of our costumes for Emily to wear. I chose for Emily, a black maxi skirt, which has relevance because she felt her relationship with Nile was long and dragged out, so she cut the end short, which is represented by the sudden colour change to white. It was the want to incorporate sadness and loss into the music video on top of what we have already got that made me realise the link between the two music video costumes. The association of sadness and loss is the key point in this reference.

The French Lieutenants Woman's costume again is a long dark cloak/cape, which can be identified with loss and grief and waiting upon a loved one. The prolonged waiting can be established in our music video by the constant chasing and catching up with each other, but just slipping out of each others reach. The visual image is as important as the inmteretextual reference itself it is how you make the connection.

The final costume link between Ava and characters from textual references is with Jane Eyre in the BBC's version. When Jane runs away from her mannor, she winds up on a rock (which we have also interetually referenced to one of our locations) similarlly she is again in a long dark overcoat which can be associated with the costume we have chosen for Ava to wear.

Final Costumes

The Present day costumes will be as is in the pictures. 

Nile
Plain black T-Shirt signifying the 'dark side' of the relationship, the rocky argumental side.
Grey Jeans highlighting that there were some grey areas of their relationship - not completely truthful. 
Grey DM Boots suggesting he HAD the upper-hand of the relationship. (the renowned and long lasting strength associated with Doc Martens)

Ava
White T-Shirt speckled with black the white suggests she wishes she could go back to it being how it was, however the black speckles are the parts which make her believe it was the right decision to go.
Black Maxi skirt signifying the 'dark side' of the relationship, the rocky argumental side.
                                           Brown buckled belt making the fact that there was some difference                       between the two characters stand out. one of the reasons Ava left.
                                          Black spiked shoes suggesting that Ava sometimes lost her temper and became quite 'prickly' with Nile.

The Past or memories of the two characters costumes will be as in the pictures.

Nile
Blue Tye Dye top the pattern suggests a happy, fun and playful relationship, exhibited via the music video clips.
Blue Denim shorts again, a sense of fun and joy is represented via the colour.

Ava
Blue strap top delight and appriciation is shown through this colour on Ava in their relationship.
Black leggings highlighting that maybe there are a few things that Ava doesn't like to talk about/a secret kept from Nile. 



Nile
Turquoise shirt similarly to the other outfit, happiness and playful, featuring a minute pattern, showing small details in their relationship.
Grey trousers suggesting there may be one or two disagreements or situations that went wrong.
Grey DM boots similar to the trousers

Ava
Sky Blue shirt similar to before, exhibiting her contentment and happiness.
Grey Cardigan implying that there was/is some disagreement between the two of them
Dark leggings suggesting that there is something she is keeping from Nile or something she hates about 'him' or 'them'.
Black shoes similar to 'dark leggings'.

Costume Ideas

The plan is to keep the costumes simplistic and representative or their relationship, the present and the past. 

Present

Black and white - alongside low saturation of video.

Simple clothing - nothing with excessive patterns/ complex textures.

Nothing to detract from what is going on in the video.

Modest clothing - Clothing that covers a majority of the body. 

Past
Simple clothing.
Bright colour - blue theme - co-inciding with the sea/river locations and the high saturation filters on the clips.
Vest tops/t-shirts.

Ultimately, the aim is to have a visible difference between the flashbacks and the present time clips. Despite the difference of them being together in the flashbacks and then on their own in individual shots the costumes are important. They reflect their mood also.
I think they play an important part in the video as whole. 

Actor/Character Profiles

In our video there will be only two characters; young female and male. We chose the two actors (Emily and Fraser) on their creativity influence, acting abilities and appearance.
In my opinion, knowing the people you are working with makes the process easier and more efficient. If you know how people work, their motivation and willingness, then understanding will be fluent. This will work in my favour, Emily I have known since 2007 and Fraser I attend school with. I know them both well.

_______________________________________________________________________

ACTOR
NAME - Emily Greig
GENDER - Female
AGE - 17
HEIGHT - 5 Ft 7"
HAIR COLOUR - Chestnut Brown/Red tint
SCHOOL - Wymondham College
SUBJECTS - Media, Philosophy, Psychology

CHARACTER
NAME - Ava
GENDER - Female
AGE - 19
INTERESTS - Reading and Writing literature, Love Stories, Poetry, watching films, sight seeing, day dreaming, attending concerts, writing own music, camping with friends.
RELATIONSHIP - Ava fell in love with Nile, they were together for 4 years and were the perfect teenage sweethearts. Ava ran away from the relationship, like she runs away with her mind. She felt like she was not good enough for Nile and in the music video is trying to remember them and her old self, as her mind has changed since they were together. At the end of the video she tries to kill herself but fails, she watches him walk away from her (un-knowingly) on the beach.

_______________________________________________________________________

ACTOR
NAME - Fraser Stannage
GENDER - Male
AGE - 17
HEIGHT - 5 Ft 10"
HAIR COLOUR - Dark Brown
SCHOOL - City Of Norwich School
SUBJECTS - Photography, Psychology, ICT

CHARACTER
NAME - Nile
GENDER - Male
AGE - 19
INTERESTS -Writing own music, attending concerts, photography, drawing/graphic design, reading, devising film ideas, acting, being with friends.
RELATIONSHIP - If possibly, Nile was more in love with Ava than she was with him. Nile adored her. When Ava ran away from their relationship together, he was not going to let her go. In the music video, Nile tries to re-trace their steps in their relationship to see how he can 'find' her again. He gets close towards the end, but walks away from the beach. However his quest to find her is not over.
_______________________________________________________________________

Character Names

At first, using the names of the actors as the characters names, seemed good enough, but after researching Kankouran and the meaning, researching names and meanings would fit within our research in its entirety. 

Kankouran's song 'Rivers' acted as a basis for the research into names. A brief internet search for name meanings formed a list of possible names. 

Avon
Ailsa
Dana
Dee
Delaney
John
Cleonie
Miriam
Nile
Douglas

All of the names listed have some connection or meaning to a river, it was just a case of choosing which ones fit the characters look, and fit well together.

After creating many different combinations of names, it was a group decision that Ava, (originally Avon) and Nile would fit best to our characters. 

Lyrical Timeline

Final Casting

Where and when we are filming is posing as a problem to our cast members. We asked two cast members to join us to film in Devon. However the dates that we plan to go down are not available for the female actor (Emily Chawawa) to travel with us. Our male actor (Fraser Stannage) we will be picking up en-route, however this does not solve the problem of us finding a replacement female actress.

One of my friends has put herself forward for the task and has volunteered to come down and be in our music video. Emily Greig is who will be joining us.

It is a shame that Emily Chawawa could not have

been in the video because the references to Kankouran (West-African dance) fitted so well, as Emily C has African origin and therefore coloured skin.

Despite this, I have no doubt that Emily G will act very well, she will hopefully understand our creative intentions and possibly give some input into our music video. As she is from a different school, she will not know about our idea and it will be a fresh set of eyes on our idea.

Moodboard.

These are the final designs for the moodboard inspiring our video and supplying us with some ideas.

Chesil Beach

Chesil beach is another great location that Devon is home to. It is a strand of beach

that has formed due to sediment movement and long shore drift tidal habits.

We plan for some panning shots around the characters so having the hills and the sea either side of the beach will look most effective. It is the location furthest away from where we will be based, so we will have to leave slightly earlier to arrive there! We will also have to walk east along the beach to get to where the river falls behind the beach and have the sea in front of it as well. So when planning ahead things like this will need to be taken into consideration.

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis and The Cobb are going to play a large part in the music video. The Cobb at Lyme Regis have had the likes of Meryl Streep standing on it, filming 'The French Lieutenants Woman', the BBC's version of 'Persuasion' and of course, Thomas Hardy's work was mostly written in the same area.

The Cobb is initially a sea wall to protect the harbour and the coastline.

By using the Cobb as one of our locations, it means that we can inter-textual reference it to other media filmed there, such as listed above.

The Cobb is a spectacular location to film at and hopefully the footage we film will compliment the Cobb.

River Dart/Combestone Tor

The River Dart is a picturesque location, bridges running over it and the weaving roads run parallel to the river. We will be hopefully filming on a footpath that runs under a bridge, the water laps against the rocks, this may be a good place to get some reflection shots if the current isnt too fast.

Coombestone Tor was found when driving through Dartmoor forest. The stacks of rocks make quite a desolate location for filming. Because of its location it doesn't recieve much tourism, cars may stop for a few minutes to have a look and a wander around the area.

Lulworth Cove

Lulworth Cove was again formed due to the erosion of soft rocks and the slow break down of harder rocks. The headlands of the cove will slowly erode and one day become a regular beach. Due to Lulworth Cove being a bay, there is not much tidal activity, the waves hit the rocks and headland on the opening to the bay.

This will work in our favour as the tide coming in and out can sometimes pose as a problem when filming. Aiming to film up on the rocks will make out task easier if the tides are usually calm.

Tourism rates are similar to Durdle Door, people tend not to stay very long. This again will aid us in our filming efforts. If we can find a clear section of beach this will benefit out filming. Lulworth Cove is a beautiful location to film at, picturesque and peaceful. Hopefully if we catch it on a sunny day, it can often look like it should be in the Mediterranean.

Durdle Door

Durdle Door was caused by weaker rock eroding faster than the harder igneous rock. The headland (the arch) is formed of very hard resistant rock, hence why it is still standing today. The arch is a product of hydraulic action. The air and water would smash into the rocks and create cracks, eventually splits in the cliff, caves, small arches, then finally, something as spectacular as Durdle Door.

Despite Durdle Door being a beautifully charming location, it has hosted my many guests. For example, Cliff Richard, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Pink Floyd have filmed there, along with many others. The cast on Nanny McPhee have filmed a section of the film on Durdle Door beach.


The video pictures of the video stills I have embedded are from Cliff Richards 1990 Christmas hit, 'Saviour's Day'. This video can be a direct link to our music video as it is using exactly the same location and for the same purpose.

Having been to the location itself, it seems very suitable, often people do not go all the way down to the beach, because of the very dangerously steep walk down/up to and from the beach. People don't tend to stay very long as the tides change very quickly on the beach itself. Hopefully filming should not be disturbed my people too much.

RESEARCH INTO KANKOURAN

1983 was the year that KanKouran the West African Dance Company was founded by Assane Konte. It was founded as an extension of the arts and they aim to expose local and national and international audiences. The company produce lectures, performances and workshops for all kinds of people. Despite Mr Konte being a native African, (the origin of the dance) the company’s performing artists are from the District of Columbia are and represent a variety of different cultural backgrounds.
The company extracts its name from the people of Senegal, and the Mandingo culture. KanKouran “in Mandingo culture is a guide who teaches young boys and girls the meaning of manhood and womanhood as a part of their transition into adult hood.”

Considering the African dance origin of the name, Kankouran we wanted to intergrate the West African culture and our own idea’s/pre-conceptions together. Our friend Emily Chawawa has put herself forward for the role of the woman in our video. She fits the image we had in mind for the character, young, unique, individual style. She can suit versatile looks, which is what we plan to create.

Due to the generic aspects of the band, we thought it appropriate to have 'youths' acting in this video. This links in with the style of the dance, (the transition from childhood to adulthood) and the individual electronic/indie/pop genre the band represents. The aspect of rebellion is featured in all of these genres and the aspect of youth.

The style of costume we wanted to in-corporate is maybe features of the Victorian fashions, i.e. the long skirts. Maybe some West-African prints (bold prints) on some other costumes, maybe the male's costumes. We also wanted to include some modern day clothing, to appeal to our (intended) target audience, so style's influenced by the band and by the genre.

We think we have found Literature and Film inter-textual references just from the locations so far, and the meaning of the band's name. We have yet to decide on names for the characters and shots etc. However by using the Victorian clothing, we are inter-textual referencing it to 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' which was set in the 19th century. Our video and the film are both using the same location - The Cobb, on Lyme Regis Beach in Devon. We have yet to research'The French Lieutenant's Woman' further but it is a definite area of interest.

The band's name - Kankouran, as stated earlier is a west African dance, and so by incorporating aspects of Africa prints into the costumes gives a nod to the origin of the name and toward the African culture, linking back to the dance and of course the band.

The modern day clothing is going to be integrated into a mix of the other two styles of costumes, hopefully creating an outcome which will look unique and innovative to the audience and try to target the younger audience.

INITIAL FILMING LOCATIONS

To fit with the style of the song, we need to find a isolated, beautiful empty, possibly barren location. Looking at some local coastlines around Norfolk, and rivers around, they are not the image we are aiming for. Luckily enough My family own a house down in Devon, we are planing to travel down at the end of the summer with the cast and film a lot of footage then. This will be towards the end of the summer as the house is rented through the summer. I am going down on a family holiday to the house and I plan to take some stills and visit the loactions then in preparation for the shoot.
We also plan to film in Norfolk/Norwich area as well but having stronger locatins like the one in Devon would stand out and be different from the rest of the videos and give it an edge.

The locations we plan to use in Devon are as follows:

-Chesil Beach
-Beer cliffs
-Exmoor River
-Durdle Door
-Lulworth Cove
-Seaton beach
-Lyme Regis
-Cannonteign Falls

KANKOURAN - RIVERS LYRICS

When these rivers run dry,
Don't cry, Don't cry

I'll be thirsty too

When things ain’t right

Don’t sigh, don’t sigh,

We always get through

When the money runs tight

It's alright, alright

I'm rich in love with you

When tears run down your face

It's alright, I'll take care of you

Things change so fast, so fast

We gotta slow down

Breathe in! breathe out!

Chorus:

When I was young we used to run

We used to laugh,

we used to smile

We used to run wild!

Rivers run dry, the air runs tight, things change, we keep on chuggin man

When I was young we used to run

We used to laugh,

we used to smile

We used to run wild!

Rivers run dry, the air runs tight, things change, we keep on chuggin man

When the air runs tight,
dont fight, dont fight

I'll be breathless too

Things change so fast,

But we'll last, We'll last,

We know what to do

When the day turns to night

We'll smile, we'll smile

A safe life to share with you

Chorus:

When I was young we used to run

We used to laugh,

we used to smile

We used to run wild!

Rivers run dry, the air runs tight, things change, we keep on chuggin man

SHORTLISTING BANDS

Our initial choice of 5 bands/artists needs to be narroweddown to 1. After brainstorming some initial ideas, we looked at what kind ofgenre would fit best with them and what kind of sound it would agree with.

Lewis Watson, Bribry and Kankouran, were the final choices.I emailed each of the artists and racked their websites to find double checkthat they were unsigned, and also permission to use their songs. FIND THE EMAILS BELOW

KANKOURAN EMAILS

LEWIS WATSON EMAILS

BRIBRY EMAILS

After reading the emails, you can probably conclude that wehad the biggest connection with Tarek Musa from the band Kankouran. He was mostinterested in our project. This motivated us to want to use his band’s songeven more. When asking what the song meant to him/the band he replied with this:

“Rivers for mepersonally is about life and death. growing up, things changing. nothing staysthe same. life is always changing, there is no certainty from day to day. thatkinda vibe... its also about sharing that with somebody. that whole experience...its really a dark song, but its been done in a uplifting way.”

-Tarek Musa -Kankouran

This inspired so many new ideas to the project which is whywe decided to pick Kankouran’s song – Rivers. The band wanted us to let themknow how we do and would like to see the final video.

Another reason why we picked Kankouran is because the styleof music worked well with some images we have in our minds of what the videomay look like. The dynamic and pace of the song will compliment the editing toour advantage I think, by using jump cuts etc, it will look very effective.

It is also a personal favourite of mine which is why I putthe song forward in the first place. I am pleased we are using it; I think wewill have a very strong end result.