Here is a list of props and costumes we will need. Wuffa have their own costumes for the battle scenes, but aside from this we will need -
Stationary (including rulers, pens, pencils)
Books to be used as shields
School uniform for the children fight scene
A logo or significant object to be used in the battle and to appear at the end of the music video with the head master.
We will borrow the stationary and books from the school, the uniform the children should have on them anyway. The logo or significant object will be obtained on filming day.
Above are the storyboards for our music video. These are photos of the original storyboards that we used in our dragons den style pitch to a panel of teachers and students.
As we are doing a music video, we have decided that there will be very little dialogue, making the lyrics the main 'script'.
The song begins with a reading by a man with a traditional Norfolk accent:
One by one the Kingdoms fall They looked upon this isle and took is all Harbingers of pain Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane On the orders of Ivar the Boneless Barbarian!
While this narration takes place we will see setting shots of the beach, the ocean, and the sky, helping to set the scene for the music video. Each clip will last no more than 5 seconds, to keep the audience engaged. The shots will all be long shots, fitting lots of scenery into the shot. As the word "barbarian" is said, the screen will fade to black. A short moment after this the next scene will appear (without fading, for impact) and should do so in time with the music.
The rest of the lyrics will be as follows:
One by one the Kingdoms fall They looked upon this isle and took is all Harbingers of pain Edward the Martyr cut down by a Dane On the orders of Ivar the Boneless Barbarian!
Remorseless Norsemen swim ashore The Eastern coast belongs to us no more! Shirtless in the rain The Heathen army's upon us Once again! Led by the sons of Ragnar
One by one the Kingdoms fall They looked upon this isle and took is all Harbingers of pain! Edward the Martyr cut down By a Dane! On the orders of Ivar the Boneless
Reducing the feeble citadels To ashes and blood stain Enslaving the sweet women-folk Whilst every man is slain
We'll spare perhaps a child or two That our legend may grow We'll take your precious horses Leave your corpses in the snow
We'll march onward Tanasia And carve the land a scar In case you were all wondering We're the sons of Ragnar!
Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh) We're the sons of Ragnar! Barbarian! (Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh) We're the sons of Ragnar!
During the song, while these lyrics are being heard, there will be a great battle scene with axes swinging, shields clashing, and shouting from the Viking warriors. The audience will see a mix of long shots, mid shots, close ups, quick cuts, and POV shots. These will be seen in a manic fashion that will emphasise the excitement and the power of the battle.
After the battle, as the song draws to a close, the scene changes (see plot) to children laughing and shouting while they pretend to battle each other. The shots at this point will be less fast paced, less frequent, and more basic mid-shots. This is because it will allow the audience to be brought back to reality, not only by the characters but by the camera work. As a teacher comes to call them in he will say "Back to lessons please!" and then turn to walk away. The shot during this short piece of dialogue will be either a close up or a mid-shot of the teacher. After this, the camera will fade to black and the video will be over.
For our music video there aren't any real characters as such, its mainly just two groups acting in different scenes.
The first half of the music video will feature the re-enactment group Wuffa performing a battle scene between two sides - this group of actors are ideal for this role because they already have the skills and costumes that we would want/need for our coursework (this means that we can save time and money on finding the correct equipment and clothing for our actors).
The second half of the music video will feature a student drama group from within the school - the good thing about using a drama group like this is that they all joined the group because they have an interest in drama and acting. This means that the students that we will work with will be optimistic and helpful in the filming process, sticking to what we want them to do.
Our plot idea is as follows: The video will start with a Viking group walking towards another group on a beach/grassland setting. They will start to run towards each other and a battle will commence. A majority of the video will then be many battle shots including point of view, mid shots, long shots, and close ups. Towards the end of the battle, one character will be killed by another, and as they hit the floor (most likely in slow motion), the scene will change to a child on the floor (in the same position as the previous character). From here, the child will get up to go and pretend battle again, and as they do so, a teacher (to be played by an adult), will call them in for lessons, and as the teacher turns around to walk in with them, they will be holding a Viking prop. This will suggest that even though the children were using their imagination, that the imagination will stay with them all their lives, and they will not forget their childhood.
We came to this idea after a brainstorming as a group. We all wrote down our ideas, which were influenced by our preliminary tasks, and came to a conclusion based upon the ideas we had. I do not like any particular parts of our final idea because I believe the whole idea is clever, original, and will be exciting enough to engage an audience from start to finish.
When researching the location for the first half of our music video, we wanted somewhere that wasn't going to be busy with other people and there was enough space to film comfortably. We did think that a forest could be a good place to film, but we would then have to find an open space inside the forest so that the fighting wouldn't look too enclosed.
And then we thought about using a sandy beach to shoot our Viking battle scene on but soon discarded that idea because we didn't want to have to worry about the tide coming in and so rearranging the crew every so often.
After a little more research we found a grassland on the out-skirts of Great Yarmouth - it is the perfect location! The grassland is bumpy with a few big hills, which we can use to our advantage when filming, and there is a lot of space for the actors to run around and act in.
We chose to film at this grassland location because the re-enactment group, WUFFA, that we're using in our music video are based in the this area and so we thought that the beach near them would be perfect. This also meant that we wouldn't necessarily have to worry about whether actors could get to the location or not as essentially we would be travelling to somewhere that they are used to and is convenient for them.
When filming we hope that the weather won't be rainy or too sunny. The ideal weather conditions would be cloudy and windy. The wind would help make the acting look more realistic as a 'flying' cape will look better than one that just hangs off the actors shoulders.
The school children playing at the end of the video
The headmaster of the school, who calls the children in for lessons
The Viking group should bring some realistic footage to our video. We plan to have an authentic looking battle, which will allow the audience to engage with them by seeing the action of their fighting. The cast for this group will be the Wuffa Re-enactment group of Gorleston.
The school children should hopefully make the video more relatable. All kids have a great imagination, so by showing this through a pretend/realistic battle, we can really show the full extent of this imagination. For this cast, we plan to use a group of children in year 7 at our sixth form's high school. This was arranged after our teacher mentioned that they enjoyed re-enacting battles, and that they enjoy studying history.
The final character, the headmaster, will hopefully bring some comedy and cleverness to the video. As he turns to reveal a hidden Viking weapon, the audience will become engaged as they realise that he could have been a Viking all along. We do not yet have anyone cast for the role of the headmaster, but will hopefully have a choice within the next few days.
A successful music is one that will capture the audience's attention and keep it. The music video also needs to be unique and different, if its something that we've seen a thousand times before then its unlikely to get many views or attention. A music video that is very different and creative is OK Go's 'The Writings on the Wall'. They use a single continuous shot and optical illusions to create their video. Something like this is what would be remembered most by viewers - not so much the tune or words of the song, but the distinctive music video that accompanies it.
Another thing that contributes to the success of the music video is the narrative or the picture behind it. By this I mean that a music video may be seen as more interesting, and therefore gain more attention, if it has an intriguing plot and characters that are relatable. An example of a music video that features a plot is Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. As well as Michael being a huge star and having a huge budget for the video, the narrative is interesting and the characters are compelling.
Some would argue that the bigger the budget, the better the music video will be. In 1995, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson spent $7 million on the video for 'Scream' which would have been over $10 million today. But sometimes, whether intentionally or not, a band pulls off a great music video with hardly any budget at all. An example being Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You' music video. The budget for this video was $800 and it was shot guerilla-style - meaning that it is mostly improvised, there is limited crew members and is usually shot at a location without the owners permission. This music video was shot all in one take outside a California movie theatre. The video was directed by Spike Jonze (Her, Being John Malkovich and Where The Wild Things Are) and he leads the fictional 'Torrance Community Dance Group' as they perform a shaky but captivating dance routine to a live audience of confused onlookers. At one point in the video, a movie theatre employee actually comes and shuts off the music, although it doesn't stop the performers from dancing on.
At the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards this video was nominated for Best Dance Video, whilst winning three major awards for Breakthrough Video, Best Choreography and Best Direction (awarded to the dance group).
When creating a music video, it is important to divide the footage into the different types of footage that are stereotypical to music videos. These are shown in the table below:
Type of footage
Conventions
Pros
Cons
Lip Syncing
The artists will be singing, playing instruments, etc.
This will often take place on a stage or in a single room. In some videos, this will take place in an abstract setting.
It allows the band to be seen. It promotes themselves, their equipment and their perceived live ability.
If synchronisation is not clean and performed successfully, the video will not appear as successful.
Narrative story
A story between one or a few characters. In most pop songs, a love story. In some videos, it may be a journey of a character who is mentioned in the song.
It creates a better visual for the audience which can help them to remember the song.
The band may not be as associated as if they were seen in the video.
An audience may be expecting to see the band.
Mix of both of the above
Snaps between the lip syncing and the narrative. Sometimes the artist/s may be the characters within the video, lip syncing at the same time.
It eliminates the cons of just having one of the two elements. It allows the video to be more exciting, with no time period that will allow the audience to be bored.
It may be too much for the audience, so the right balance is needed for it to be successful.
For our video, we plan to use just narrative and no lip syncing. This is because we want the piece to be able to tell the story of the song successfully, so if we dedicate more of the play time to a narrative, the story will be more intriguing.
Song choice is massively important for a music video. This is because the song of choice will represent the video and vice versa, so they need to work together for the product to be successful. I believe that the music video should represent the ideas within the song. So if lyrics are about a certain time, place, or narrative, then this should be shown within the video.
For our video, we decided upon a battle scene. From here, we ended up choosing the fast paced rock song 'Barbarian' by The Darkness. We chose this video because it has strong supporting lyrics that will work with the video, the heavy genre supports a battle scene, and because it is a song that most of us listen to all the time, so it will be fun working with it.
For most heavy songs, whether this be rock, metal, etc, the video will often be fast, exciting, and full of all the logos and artwork of the band. This is because the high energy level of the video is a perfect companion to the high energy level song.
Before the big developments in technology, people in the 1940s would use vinyl (also known as PVC) to play music on a turntable. This format of playing music is becoming increasingly popular with younger generations nowadays.
In 1964 the cassette tape was created to allow people to play music whenever they wanted. Although this isn't necessarily about viewing and sharing music video, this was a big step in the consumption of music.
In 1981 the TV station MTV was created, allowing bands to share their music across TV stations in the UK and USA. By the 1990s, MTV were playing a combination of pop-friendly hard rock acts, chart-topping metal and rock acts, like Metallica. With its rapidly increasing popularity, MTV was the perfect place for bands to promote their music, as well as bringing around the idea of the music video.
In 1982 the compact disc (CD) was created, allowing audiences to listen to music in different formats.
In 1990 MTV was the only way for people to consume music video. Most people were influenced by what music to listen to as MTV was a main place for suggestions of 'popular' music.
In 2004 iTunes was created as a music sharing platform for artists. This online service allowed users to buy music and film, as well as giving them the opportunity to view music video. Any product purchased would then be made available for consumers to put onto their portable devices, typically the iPod which was created by Apple in 2001.
In 2006 Youtube was created. It is an online program in which users are able to share music videos, and more or less any media, with each other. This is now the main way that audiences consume music video.
This is one of the very first music videos and was first shown in theatres in 1925 and is filmed completely in black and white. The video solely features the musicians playing their instruments, like someone is just recording the song being played live. As we can see, music videos have changed a lot since the 1920s.
1956 - Tony Bennett - Stranger in Paradise This music video was filmed in Hyde Park, London and was the first music video to be broadcast on TV stations across the UK and the USA - this would then lead to the creation of TV stations specifically designed to broadcast music, e.g, MTV and Top of the Pops.
1964 - The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
This is one of the first music videos to feature a narrative, still being filmed in black and white. This song is also iconic because it features in a film, as well as a music video and is one of the main influences on the creating process of other music videos to come.
1967 - The Beatles - Penny Lane
The Beatles started changing the ideas of music video production with their next video. They started using the codes and conventions of videos that are used by big modern post-production companies nowadays. Some of these techniques included dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing.
1970 - The Jackson Five - I Want You Back
The 1970's saw the music video scene change with more emphasis being put on just the artist singing. This lead to the develop of the 'cross-cutting' technique in which the music video will cut between shots of the artist singing and a complementary narrative.
1972 - Devo - The Truth About De-Evolution
This music video started off the idea of self-produced music videos, beginning the genre of the 'experimental' music video genre.
1980 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
This year started a whole new style for the music video, as well as the introduction of the TV show 'Top of the Pops' - which would promote an artist's music and create a competition between them for the best song.
1981 - The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star
In 1981 it was the introduction
of MTV and the first video aired was 'Video Killed the Radio Star, it was a real break-through in the evolution of music videos and as
you can see it was a very high-budget video in which we can see more development
in editing such as 'over-laying'. MTV was responsible for the success
of artists, like Madonna, as it played a central role in their marketing.
1982 - Michael Jackson - Thriller
This music video began the idea of having a storyline music video that follows a narrative, almost like a mini movie. The video contains sophisticated visuals, taking the music video production industry to a whole new level. From then on music videos were seen as big promotional techniques and were beginning to be made with very big budgets.
1985 - A'ha - Take On Me
This comic book/live-action combination is known as 'rotoscoping' and meant the music video took 16 weeks to complete. Because of this unique-styled music video this got the artist a lot of promotion for their work, showing that technology like MTV and Top of the Pops was important for advertising new music in the 20th Century.
2012 - Emeli Sandé - Next to Me
Most enthusiasts often like the aesthetic appeal of music videos. Many modern artists feel the need to create aesthetically pleasing music videos to show case their songs.
2013 - Iggy Azalea - Work
In the current music video era that we live in today the adoption of the 'sex appeal' of female artists has monopolised the music industry, as these methods tend to get more attention from viewers and so makes the artist more money.
A setting is a time and a place in a moment of film. This could be anything from a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean, to someone's bedroom. I believe that setting is incredibly important to making a successful film because it helps to set the scene for the audience. A poor or fake setting would make a story less believable.
Stereotypical settings in the common genres:
Genre
Typical Setting
Comedy
In my opinion, comedy is the only genre in which the setting options are not limited. This is because a setting can be chosen for the characters, mise-en-scene, or to create comedy itself. From the comedies that I have seen, the most common setting is one that is familiar, whether this be a school or a small town. This will be a common setting because it allows a connection between the characters and the audience.
Horror
Haunted houses, the woods, a familiar place (used to scare the audience, cause them to feel unsafe and unsure), or a very unfamiliar place (to make the audience feel lost and scared with the characters).
Romance
In teen romances, the most commonly used setting is probably schools and small towns. This is because it is a relatable setting for the typical audience, which will be teens and young adults. For older romance stories, the setting could be anything as it may be telling the tale of new love at an old age or how young love has aged over a couple’s life together. I think a suitable setting for this could be a small town during the build-up or end of a world war. This is because the war will be a very powerful equilibrium that could be used to separate or bring together the couple, and an older audience could relate to this story and setting.
Drama
In a period drama, the setting is very easy to depict and decide upon, as it has to be sensible and suit the time period. This could be a manor, a small town, or a city. Other dramas will often use normal settings that suit the time period such as a modern day city. This, such as in with many other genres, is done to create a connection between character and audience.
Documentary
The setting for a documentary is often easy to predict if given the focus of the documentary. This is because they use real footage, so the setting will be focused around the subject. For example, in a wildlife documentary, the setting during real footage would be a habitat dependent upon the species being filmed. Or for another example, a documentary on drug users would have a setting based around their homes and the streets in which they live.
Settings within our area options:
In a kids TV show, the typical kind of setting that we would expect to see is a school. This is because it is a relatable setting to a very large majority of the target audience, which makes it more enjoyable for them to watch. While this is true for many kids TV shows, some will still try and break conventions by choosing a far more abstract setting.
In a music video, there is not very often a common setting throughout, however most music videos will use the setting of a recording studio/stage for part/all of their video. This setting, when used, is usually used for the lip synchronization parts of the video, in which we will see the band/artist performing. The rest of the setting will usually be part of a story that may follow one or more members of the band. For our music video, we plan to use just a story and no live performance. This is because the song is only 3 minutes and we would prefer to use this short time to tell the story and show some brilliant cinematography.
In a short film, there are an infinite possibility of settings, and these will depend upon the genre of the film. This makes genre a very important part of setting, because if you do not successfully match the setting to the genre, it can be difficult to know which genre you are trying to achieve. For example, in a horror short film, you would expect to see settings such as haunted houses or dark alleys, so if you were to create a horror film with a light and 'happy' setting, this would not work for the genre, and the film would appear to be mocking a traditional horror film. However, as I have said in previous posts before, conventions can be broken, and it may be that the setting of a film is changed to shock the audience.
With regards to the mise-en-scene, setting is very important as it allows the characters, props, costumes etc. to work together in an environment that helps to portray the time period in which it is based. For example, a Victorian style film with Victorian costumes, props, and character names would be unfinished without a fitting Victorian era setting.
