Animatic

Storyboard

Lyric analysis

Update

At the moment we are in the process of producing the storyboards for our music video. We began by listening to the song and jotting down the length of each line of lyrics, so we knew how long a shot needed to be. We are know drawing and writing our ideas down as well as writing what shots we want and want editing is needed. It's a long process but we know once we get the storyboards out the way, we can get on with the actual filming process.

Lyrics

Falling from high places, falling through lost spaces,
Now that we're lonely, now that there's nowhere to go.
Watching from both sides, these clock towers burning up,
I lost my time here, I lost my patience with it all.

And we lost faith, in the arms of love.

Where you been hiding lately, where you been hiding from the news?
Cause we've been fighting lately, we've been fighting with the wolves.
With the wolves. With the wolves.
Red tongues and hands.

Falling from high places, falling through lost spaces,
Courtesy of lyricshall.com
Now that we're lonely, now that we're so far from home.
Watching from both sides, these towers been tumbling down,
I lost my mind here, I lost my patience with the lord.
Oh, with the lord

And we lost faith, oh in the arms of love
(Love love love)

Where you been hiding lately, where you been hiding from the news?
Cause we've been fighting lately, we've been fighting with the wolves.
With the wolves. With the wolves.
Red tongues and hands.

Oh, we lost faith in the arms of love.
(Love love love love love love)

Red tongues and hands.

Conventions of chosen genre

Genre is a critical tool that helped us study text and audience responses by dividing them into categories based on common elements. The category I have chosen is folk/acoustic.

The artist I have chosen is Ben Howard, a British acoustic folk artist that portrays the genre of folk within his music videos by using the conventions of the genre. The archetypes of folk/acoustic are that the genre is traditional, peaceful, historical and cultural and that the artist has a big beard and wears farmer clothes but this is not the case minus a rare few who stick to the archetypes.

The conventions of a folk/acoustic music video would include a variety of different important elements. In all the folk/acoustic music videos I have researched I have come across some similar and conventions and also some dynamic conventions. A lot of the videos include nature, either shot in some woodlands, fields, valleys or forest areas as the mise en scene of nature is a convention within the genre. The mise en scene of the environment compliments the peaceful music as the artist is trying to make his music as beautiful and peaceful as what we see in the music video. Another convention is the artist on their own with their guitar, so we see their performance, their image and their talent; this is the case in Ben Howard- Empty corridors as it’s just the artist playing his guitar. In the videos they use iconographic images all to do with nature, for example trees and flowing rivers, this is a common convention as it gives the video an image and keeps to the stereotype and genre.

Ben Howard uses the conventions of folk/acoustic in his music videos by having iconographic images in them and including the typical and important elements of himself performing, creating an image for himself and his genre. Not all folk/acoustic artists stick to the original conventions but try and be a little more dynamic and do something a little different then the ordinary folk/acoustic music video, for example, Marcus Fosters- I was Broken music video includes him performing in front of a white screen as well as a woman looking in to the camera, this may sound a little to simple but with the song and lyrics you understand what it’s all about and it works, and that’s why sometimes breaking the boundaries from conventions can lead to something completely different and potentially more appealing to their audiences.

Another convention is the theme of the music video, a lot of folk/acoustic music video goes on the theme of romance or past memories, this can mean the songs are about loss, love, happiness or death and in the music videos use relevant mise en scene and conventions such as the iconographic images to portray the theme of the song and in some cases use literal representation. An example of this would be “Ben Howard- Keep your head up” as this video represents the fun he’s having with his friends. But of course they don’t have to literal representation to the song or lyrics or theme, its how the audience portray the genre that the most important factor.

The image of the folk/acoustic artist is another convention as it’s an important element to any artist of any genre. The image of the artists is very natural, scruffy and more relaxed then your average artists. Mainstream artists are usually dressed up in designer clothes with £400 haircuts but that’s not folk/acoustic music is about and their image is like their music, natural and very relaxed, their music, image and music videos compliment each other in the sense that their very similar and all go by the same conventions of the genre. A prime example of this would be the artist I have chosen Ben Howard, he’s very relaxed in all his approaches and I believe it works to his advantage.

The music form of the video’s are usually abstract and performance, not many of them have a narrative, the audience get the opportunity to use their imagination and create a story for themselves about their romance or past memories. They are abstract because of the use of iconographic images and random shot selection; it’s more of a video diary. And it’s performance as in most if not all of them we see the artist performing with or without an instrument. A good example of these conventions would be acoustic artist Nathaniel Ratecliff- Shroud, in this video we see the conventions of performance and abstract as we him perform and we see past memories again like a video diary.

The whole folk/acoustic genre is very natural not just with the conventions of the music videos but with the music videos. I think the music influences you to think of nature and just relax and that’s what I believe they want you to do whilst watching their music videos, just sit back relax and enjoy. All the conventions of the music video in this genre are what the audience who enjoy this genre want to see, they want the full experience, they want to see performance and iconographic images, they want to be able to use their minds and gain emotional and visual pleasure. As for the artist the conventions are to attract the audiences and of course the main purpose to promote their star persona.

Schedule for filming

We have scheduled to film most of the music video on Friday 28th and Saturday the 29th. We have booked a camera for the weekend and will take a digital camera to document our recordings and findings. We have checked the weather for the weekend and it seems promising, hopefully we can get sunny weather and not get stopped by the rain. We need the sun as we want the sun to bring out the valleys, lakes and forest areas. We are planning to leave to Hull to Hutton cranswick in which our main character lives and which is near Millington woods, our chosen location. We are going to go through the storyboards on Friday night and plan what shots we need and in which order. On the Saturday we plan on leaving early for Millington woods just to make sure we make the most of the day. We will need the full day as we want to get as many shots as possible and make the most of the location and sunlight.