Here is the process of making the storyboard for my group, which was done by Regine.
A storyboard, defined by Teachfloor, is said to be "a visual representation of a story, often in the form of illustrations or images, arranged in a specific order to show the sequence of events in a film, video, etc."
I had taken the time to learn a little more on storyboards and what is expected through this blog by the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2vrhv4/revision/2 - however my teacher had ended up providing us templates to aid in our storyboard process. It included 2 templates, one wth 4 large boxes for detailed and another with 8 smaller boxes. Our teacher had suggested us to draw out the scenes from a singular location rather than planning the cuts between a performance to a b-roll, with the intention of reducing confusion in the narrative. Because of this, most shots did not have a defined duration, as it can vary depending on where it will be placed in the editing phase.
By the second detailed page, we were asked to show our progress to our teacher and he was able to give us suggestions on our storyboard and narrative. He informed us on his concern over how well we would be able to communicate the different flashbacks/timestamps that were happening since we did not have access to actors of different ages, which prompted him to suggest a different approach of one flashback and a continous display of the artist's journey through her career from the mother's camera perspective. We, as a group, all agreed to this new narrative as it felt as though our message could be delivered more clearly and readjusted our previous planning to fit towards it.
In these first few pages, I had used 2 pages of big boxes to draw out my ideas in detail, however, I will be switching to the pages with smaller boxes moving on to be more time-efficient. Since I would focus less on detail, I will be able to spend more time in ensuring the ideas all throughout the video will be comprehensible (due to the limited space to write descriptions) to both my team members and my teacher. This is the continuation of the storyboard.
There are still some scenes missing, which include the scene from the bridge as my team and I had not been able to have the time to properly discuss our next plan of action and realign our vision. Thus there will be more to come. However, for the sake of the due date, this will be all to submit at the current moment.
Reflection: I didn't really contribute into the making of the storyboard other than giving a few ideas whenever Regine feels stuck on what to do for certain scenes. Though as stated above, we experienced a difficulty in making the flashback and flashforward cuts clear in which this led us to have to modify a bit of the storyline when we thought that our narrative is already fixed. However, it is relieving to receive feedback by my teacher early on in the project as there are always room for us to improve our work before we officially submit it to Cambridge.
This is a lyric sheet that my group used to discuss our vision for each verse.
For this task, we started with a paper of the lyrics provided by our teacher where we discussed the general idea/narrative we wanted. Here are some of our notes from when we did this during class time.
However, we had a limit of 10-20 minutes to discuss this during our class time, thus we decided to continue this at home through Canva. My teammate Regine wrote down her, my other teammate Aurel, and my ideas altogether and gave them some more detailed visuals and wrote them down on Canva whiteboard. This way we could all share ideas and comment on each other's idea.
Although there might be slight changes and features (videos, clear images, comments, and their replies) that can only be seen in the embedded link, I also included our whiteboard in the form of images.
Aurel had commented some great questions and ideas to add on the whiteboard, however most of our discussions were done within our group chat on WhatsApp. Despite this, I felt as though we were able to expand a little bit more on our idea. Not only will it make our music video stand out, but also ensure our vision is aligning as a group.
Reflection: The annotating process on this lyric sheet was quite fun as my group and I got to brainstorm multiple ideas for each verses of the song. However we experienced a few difficulties on what to do on certain verses as what was important to us was making a clear flow in the narrative we want to create taking into account that we are including flashback and flashforward cuts. Thus, we had several discussions in our WhatsApp group chat to come into a conclusion as well as asking our teacher for feedbacks regarding what he thinks would be fitting to do for the verse.
Here is the mood board my group had made to aid in aligning our visions with one another. We had made 2 pages of the mood board as there will be 2 very different settings that we plan to have. The first pace is set in a rural area (village) while the second is in an urban area (city).
Reflection: Creating these 2 mood boards was really fun as all my group mates and I had to do was search for images within one aesthetic in Pinterest. I can use this as a guidance as well to what overall look and vibe my group and I have to follow in my music video, such as specific color grading for the different locations and timeline.
In class today, we studied the Theory of Stardom by Richard Dyer. Here are my classroom notes about the celebrity, Beabadoobee, as her songs are within the same genre as my team's music video song, which is Indie Pop.
This will help me in my music video because I need to create a persona for my artist.
I did this work with my team mate Regine and Aurel.
Here is the statement of intent regarding my group's music video project.
Reflection: A problem that I faced was that when we were tasked to do this in class with our groupmates, I was not available due to my AS exam, thus I couldn't really contribute to the making of it and was only able to read it after my exam where it was already finished, in addition to reading their discussions through the WhatsApp group chat we had which made all my questions answered.
This is my research into the genre my group is choosing, which is Indie Pop.
2 Big Research
1. Light On - Maggie Rogers (2019)
Produced by: Maggie Rogers and Greg Kurstin
Distributed by: Capitol Records
Genre / sub genre:
Indie Pop
What conventions does it conform to?
It takes place in outdoor locations where this can be found in majority of indie pop music videos as natural imageries to give the audiences not only the visual effects, but also the deep emotions that the artist is trying to convey that is connected to how the location is portrayed as well. In this case, several of the scenes taking place in the middle of a barren road and a river were taken in long shot camera angles so they appear wider and more loose, giving a sense of freedom and carefreeness. In addition to that, they also used visual performances that are incorporated with the artist's different emotions throughout the song such as close-up shots of her facial expressions when she screamed in tears and when she was dancing.
What conventions does it subvert?
Unlike most indie pop songs, this one does not include a narrative. Instead, it focuses on the artist's visual performances and emotions to direct the audiences on what the song is about. Furthermore, it subverts to the use of dramatic costumes and props that are used to support a narrative in the music video where the artist is seen to only be using normal clothing throughout the entire song, taking into account that there is no narrative included.
What representations are there? (people / places / events)
As throughout the entire music video, Maggie was seen to be alone such as when she was eating out and through the road trip as well, where this may represent psychographics of those in the society who values individuality and personal growth. To support this, the places in the video are mostly long shot camera angles of fields, river, and forests, which may represent continuous process of healthy growth since nature gives relation to health and how it never stops developing.
What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations?
Camera:
The music video has several scenes of long shot camera angles, showing Maggie's performances in addition to the view of the landscapes such as the fields, river, and forests that as mentioned, the long shot that helps create a look of open space in the nature, where this may help represent her psychographic emotions such as a healthy sense of carefreeness and freedom. There are also times where the camera changes to close-up shots of her during her performances, where this may divert the audience's attention now mainly towards her facial expressions which are used to convey the the deep emotions of Maggie towards the audiences.
Mise-en-scene:
Her simple clothing as the costume makes everything feel raw, natural, and genuine where it also helps maintain the focus of the audiences towards her visual performances instead of being distracted and attracted by the playful costumes usually used in indie pop music videos, according to their genre conventions.
Sound:
The entire song consists of only non-diegetic sound of Maggie's song with the absence of any possible diegetic sound such as dialogues or sounds from the river or the forest. This makes the audience really focus towards the lyric of the song and the meaning behind it.
Editing:
There are minimal amount of cuts, thus it makes the duration of each scene feel longer and allows things to flow and feel more natural. This gives the audience the chance to understand the emotions that Maggie is trying to convey in her song.
2. Lost in Yesterday - Tame Impala (2020)
Produced by: Kevin Parker
Distributed by: Modular Recordings and Island Records
Genre / sub genre:
Indie Pop
What conventions does it conform to?
It conforms to the genre conventions of Indie Pop music videos including a narrative that aids the audiences to the meaning of the song and the use of playful costumes that supports it as a visual effect as well. This music video includes a narrative of a couple's wedding day that is presented cinematically like a memory recording with the dreamy filtered look and overall earth tone color palette.
What conventions does it subvert?
While Indie Pop music videos generally follows a theme related to the meaning of the song, despite Lost in Yesterday narrated as a song about how people distorts or change the memory of their past in accordance to how they want it to be which can be considered a heavy topic to some audiences as it may involve complex emotions such as confusion and disorientations, the music video instead uses quite a bright color palette where this generally connotes to positivity, opposite to the actual decoded meaning behind the video.
What representations are there? (people / places / events)
The scenes repeating over and over again with subtle changes each time represents the psychographic issue experienced by some people where they change how they remember a memory to how they want it to be in order to romanticize it. The wedding reception is the main event in the music video that represents a special memory that can be seen to change and have different versions with the same storyline with the desire of it to be perfect and idealistic.
What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations?
Camera:
Long shot camera angle and slow continuous panning through the individuals in the event where since this keeps on getting repeated, it creates a dreamy atmosphere and a sense of disorientation towards the audiences as there is also no dramatic cuts to break it off to give the audiences time to process what they just saw aside from the performance cue in between.
Mise-en-scene:
The focus lens focusing on the different individuals in the event helps the audiences notice the small differences when compared to the previous scenes, where it gives the audiences an idea on what is desired to be changed such as their expressions and their actions from negative to positive, all to support their idea of a perfect event.
Sound:
The music video only includes non-diegetic sound which is Impala's song where this will allow the audiences to focus on the lyrics and be absorbed and enjoy the cinematics as such of an event generally accompanied by music.
Editing:
During the repetitions of the scenes, they also use smooth cuts thus it gives the audiences an idea of a continuous memory playing and in addition to the repeated same editing where there are subtle changes each time, this would give the audiences a sense of disorientation as everything may seem the same but different at the same time.
6 Small Research
1. Catch Me In The Air - Rina Sawayama (2022)
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of young female adults aged 16-25 with psychographics such as interest in emotional storytelling regarding growth and young dreams they may, where this is decoded from the lyrics Rina sung mentioning "little girl, don't you wanna see the world" and "dreams", which are generally topics thought by this age group as they are still early into discovering what they truly want to do and experiencing adult life. The music video allows the audience to focus on this as it's mostly just clips of Rina singing where there is no narrative to follow.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I like the reference to outdoor landscapes though it was only pictures of them in the music video as to me, the clips of nature enlightens the song and gives implied meaning of personal freedom and release in the midst of the struggles. Since my music video would also be conveying personal growth and freedom or peace within struggles, I would like for natural elements to be used surrounding the artist.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
Since it focuses mainly on the artist's performances, it was quite difficult to connect to the emotions or the meaning that the song is trying to convey when compared to decoding it from a plot of a narrative that typically directly reflects the lyrics of the song. I would like my audiences to really connect with the song they're listening to, thus this type of music video might not work out.
2. Harness Your Hopes - Pavement (2022)
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop and Rock
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of young adults that has psychographic interests in retro and quirky aesthetics as the camera filter and ratio gives that kind of style where it is based on cool tone, has that blurry effect, and random camera movements as well.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I don't really like how the narrative is unclear and how many things added are random, thus I won't use anything from this music video in my own.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
The music video complies several random different scenes unrelated to each other, making the plot confusing as there is no clear flow or structure. I would like to avoid this outcome as I prefer my audiences to easily understand what is being portrayed and conveyed.
3. girl in red - rue (2020)
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of teenagers to young adults aged 13-25 with psychographics where they may have problems related to mental health and personal struggles which tends to be experienced by this age group. They may be appealed by the cool toned, dark and gloomy mise-en-scene as such from the lighting and the type of clothing used as it may connote negative emotions such as sadness and misery, reflecting their own emotions.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
The use of mise-en-scene such as lighting and attire that matches with the theme and the message of the song as when they support each other, it avoids confusion and unbalanced settings that may distort the meaning of the song that is trying to be conveyed to the audiences.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
Nothing really as most of the elements used connotes the same type of atmosphere or emotions, therefore it blends in well together and creates a constant and balanced narrative in that aspect.
4. Be Sweet - Japanese Breakfast (2021)
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of young adults from early to late 20s in correlation towards the mise-en-scene used such as their attires where they are seen to be wearing suits connoting professionalism and props such as computers and a brainstorming board that is related to their careers, where those in this age group may be appealed to as they find relations in their occupation. In addition to that, this may appeal to psychographics of those who are interested in retro and sci-fi aesthetics since the color grading and filter used in the video are cool toned and have high clarity, giving the retro vibes, as well as the usage of playful, unique, and science related props for their mise-en-scene.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
Though not exactly retro, watching this music video inspired me to play with the use of filters and color tones for my own music video where I would like to use warm tones and vintage filters to create a sense of softness and pity on the audience's emotions with the aim of a deep connection.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
The use of playful props that are connected towards a specific genre as such from the use of the scientific equipment. This would limit the type of audiences that would be interested in the music video as they would generally watch something that would suit their personal preferences and having scientific equipment may remove it from being a general indie pop music video to being a more niche genre one.
5. Sunny Day - Beabadoobee (2022)
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of young female teenagers to young female adults aged 13-30 and psychographics of those interested in cottage core aesthetics symbolized by the artist surrounded by nature and mushrooms as well as her soft fashion style that may resonate with that certain demographic.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
The use of warm tone colors and nature surrounding her as it supports the theme of personal growth and freedom that my music video is going for.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
The use of mainly a performance from the artist and the absence of a narrative where it creates a light and simple atmosphere whereas I want my music video to have a deep connection with the audiences through a narrative as it may portray shared and related experiences.
6. Care - Beabadoobee
Genre / sub-genre:
Indie Pop and Rock
Target audience and how they are appealed to:
Demographic of young adult aged 16-25 with psychographics of being interested in rough rock music style and content in addition to liking retro aesthetics as it is displayed in this music video with the repeated blue and purple tones mixed with the warm vintage tones in certain scenes, all in high clarity resolution.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
The warm vintage tone for the color grading of the music video.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
How the music video doesn't have a clear structured narrative as it's more to the artist's performance.
Reflection: Though doing this research was really time-consuming and tiring, it was interesting to see the different genre conventions each music video conformed to though they are within the same genre. In addition to that, I get to take out several features that I liked to be used in my own music video and how to match them with the preferences of our target audience as accordance to my statement of intent.
This is my research regarding music video industries where I will be looking into 2 production companies.
1. Sabrina Carpenter - Taste
Production Company: Freenjoy
Brief description: An international creative direction and production company that was founded by a producer, Nathan Scherrer.
Genre: Pop
Other content they produce:
1. Positions - Ariana Grande
2. ME! - Taylor Swift
3. Formation - Beyonce
4. The hills - The Weekend
5. Humble - Kendrick Lamar
Typical audience:
Demographics:
- Teenagers to young adults aged 15-35
- Female and male audiences
- Audiences located in the US as most of the artists and their music originated from there
- Audiences who knows and speaks in English
Psychographics:
- Those who enjoys listening to music with Pop and R&B as their genre
- Those who are active in social media and have their algorithm based off of their preferences in that genre.
Company size and age:
Freenjoy was founded by Nathan Scherre in 2014, thus it is now 10 years old. Throughout the years, it has grown to be an international production company, collabing with numerous different artists all over the world.
Most successful product: Beyonce's Formation Music Video (2017)
Brief description: A production company founded in 2009 known for their visually appealing music videos, commercials, and films that works together with popular artists and directors as well.
Genre: Pop, Hip-Hop
Other content they produce:
1. "Hurry" - Teyana Taylor
2. Trevor Daniel, Selena Gomez: Past life (2020)
3. Peggy Gou: Starry Night (2019)
Typical audience:
Demographics:
- Young adults to late adults aged 18-40
- Female and male audiences
- Audiences located in the US as most of the artists and their music originated from there
Psychographics:
- Those who enjoys listening to music with Pop and Hip-Hop as their genre
Company size and age:
Founded in 2009, meaning that it is currently 15 years old. Iconoclast has international branches such as in Los Angeles, London, and Paris.
Reflection: This research was quite easy to do and not that time-consuming, thus why I enjoyed it. I didn't really encounter any problem when completing it as well. This gave me an idea on how each production company has a specific style in their production, that makes each of them unique and different and thus made me think on how I can create and implement one in my own music video as well.
This is the preliminary research for my music video.
On the start of my project, I wanted to research a variety of genres and so here are a few of the different genres I looked at.
Reflection: This research helped me break down multiple genre conventions from each genre where I was also able to see unique features in the music video and how they were represented. The part where I had to list on what I like gave me ideas on what I want to use for my own music video. After finishing this research, my group and I decided to go with Indie Pop as we wanted to go more in dept into the genre in comparison to if we were only going for Pop as a genre. I was sick when my classmates were doing this so I was confused on what I had to do and was worried as well knowing that I may have missed an important explanation from my teacher. I then contacted my friend afterschool where she guided me on what to fill in each box. I also asked my teacher on the essential informations I missed.
Reflection: Reading the brief that contains the planning of what I'll be doing each week helped me prepare myself better for the upcoming tasks in which I can manage my time better and since there is already a planned deadline, I can use it as a motivation to take it seriously and complete what has to be completed each week so that everything can be done before the deadline. When i was first read over the brief, I felt excited to do the project as I have never made a music video before and I would love to learn the processes we have to undergo to making one.
This is my weekly progress and plan for my music video project.
W1
30 September
Pre Production
Research
1
Brief
2
Team
3
Weekly Progress
4
Preliminary Research
Broad genre research
W3
W2
7 October
Research
5
Research: Industry
Who makes music videos?
W3
W3
14 October
Research
6
Research: Genre
Codes and Conventions of your genre
W4
W4
21 October
Plan
7
Statement of Intent
Your initial proposal
W5
8
Theory of Stardom: Richard Dyer
A summary of the class, plus your example
W7
W5
28 October
Plan
9
Moodboard
Your visual style
W7
10
Lyric Sheet
Breakdown your song into scenes
W7
11
Storyboard
Shot by shot plan
W7
W6
4 November
Plan
12
Song Research
Background of your song
W7
13
Screen Test
star auditions
W7
14
Classwork
How to: Camera, MeS, Sound, Edit
W7
W7
11 November
Plan
15
Location scout & Risk Assessment
W7
16
Filming Schedule
Film over the break?
W7
W7
BREAK
Week 1
- This week I was introduced to the project by my teacher where we read the brief on what we're going to do in the project, what it requires, and the timeline as well. This made me excited to do the project as I got an overall view of what's going to happen for the next few weeks.
- After that, I created the blogs for the brief, my team, and the research
- My group and I then started on our preliminary research for our music video genre, comparing the different genres of music (the result can be found in the preliminary research blog).
Problems: -
Solutions: -
To-do: Finish preliminary research
Week 2
- Since last week I didn't finish my preliminary research, I had to continue it this week
- In addition to that, this week I had to decide on the genre of our music video
Problems: We had to contemplate on the genre for quite some time as not only are there many options, we had to match it with our budget on props and camera as well as the time span we have.
Solutions: We discussed a genre we like, discussing whether it was doable, and thus settled on that.
To-do: Since we want to start early, we should start brainstorming multiple songs including their pros and cons so that we can decide on a song we want to use for our music video.
Week 3
- After deciding on a fixed genre, I started on a research regarding that genre where I have to complete 2 big research and 6 small research about its conventions, representations, and the effects of the technical elements included.
- Lastly, my teammates and I started brainstorming on the song we would like to use.
Problems: We had multiple options of songs to choose from.
Solutions: We had to lay out all their pros and cons and whether it would fit our budget or not as well.
To-do: Genre research - 2 big research and 6 small research
Week 4
- As my group and I have finished deciding on a song to use, we started on our statement of intent where we thought about our target audience and how we're going to appeal to them, as well as the description of our star and their persona.
- I also learned about the Theory of Stardom in class where this gave me the idea of celebrity personality. This will help me in creating a reel persona for my music video's star actor that will be portrayed not only in the music video, but also in their social media page as well.
Problems: I was sick and at home when the statement of intent was given to my group mates, thus I couldn't really contribute to writing a lot of its parts.
Solutions: We communicated through a group chat we made special for this project where I could tell my group mates a few answers to the questions given in the statement of intent.
To-do: -
Week 5
- This week I started on the mood board for my music video where my groupmates and I planned to create 2 separate mood boards for the 2 different main locations we will be shooting in such as the village and the city. This is as we are portraying them differently to create different vibes and atmosphere.
- In addition to that, my team was given a lyric sheet to annotate our ideas on each scenes regarding each verses of the lyrics.
- We are starting on our storyboard as well and though that isn't my part of the work, I'm excited to see our ideas turn into something visual that we can use as a guidance to what we want our actual music video to look like.
Problems: When annotating the lyric sheet, there were a few times where I was stuck on what to create on certain verses of the lyrics. This is as we had to make a flow and make everything connect, taking into account that we're creating a narrative.
Solutions: On the lyric sheet, we laid down our ideas in bullet points as options for each verses and had discussions on whether it would work or not. Later, we transferred it to an online platform, Canva, where we blended each of my groupmates' ideas together as a finalized narrative.
To-do: Finish the 2 different mood boards.
Week 6
- I didn't come to this week's class as I had an Economics exam, however my friends told me what I missed which are:
-> Doing a song research as a group where we have to research about our song's background, the reason we chose it, and how we're going to make our music video different to the artist's original music video.
-> Made a screen test involving the whole class
-> Classwork regarding technical elements such as camera, mise-en-scene, sound, and edit.
Problems: I wasn't really present during these moments, so there was quite a lot to catch up on
Solutions: Thankfully, I had my groupmates to fill me in on what I missed and my teacher gave me a checkmark list regarding the blogs that needs to be completed as well.
To-do: Song research, screen test, and classwork.
Reflection: This marks the end of term 2 where we are almost halfway in this project. There were numerous different problems that I faced so far, but I especially remembered how quite stressful it was trying to catch up on missing works including their instructions and explanations as I was taking my Business and Economics AS level exams. However, it was really kind of my groupmates to update me on what they were doing in class where I had added it here. Putting it in the format above helped me keep track on what I missed and what I had to complete by that week, thus I can avoid missing a task. In addition to that, reading back on how there was always a solution to each problem I had gave me a sort of motivating feeling as it showed me how I can always tackle the challenges I encounter.
Reflection: We had a few conflicts in the beginning when trying to decide on the groupings as everyone wanted to separate with their group members from the previous group project as we all wanted to try to work with new people, however the slot for one group was limited so not everyone's desired group members were able to be met. Thankfully, my teacher created a solution best fitted for us where it was a fair decision in consideration of who we wanted to team up with. I am happy with my group mates as so far we are working well together where we have gone through multiple fun yet stressful discussions regarding our project.
