Health and safety considerations

For shooting it is important that I look into health and safety as it is essential no one gets hurt making the video. As I am only using one room the potential hazards are very limited. The blue room that I am filming my video in contains laptops and other electronical devices. It is important I take care with wires lying around on the floor as someone could possibly trip and be injured. I also must be careful of an other objects that may be in the room at that time, and clear the space that I am using.

StoryBoard

Planning

Ideas

For my video I have been inspired by the original video for No surprises by radiohead. In the video we see the singer of the band performing infront of the camera with a close up shot. The video is quite a simple idea but is very effective. I have drawn ideas from it, for example my video is going to consist of a performer singing infront of the camera, however I plan to change the singers many times throughout the video. I aim to do this by panning the camera left and right, with the character changing once the shot reaches its original place. I aim to have 5-6 singers in the music video, singing different parts of the song. Another idea that I have drawn from the original is the lights. As the performer is singing lights flash around him, giving the illusion of being in another world. I aim to implement this into my video, but am currently experimenting with how to do this. I could possibly film lights flashing on and off in a dark room but i could also have the lights in the background when im filming the performers. I am going to decide shortly which option is overall better and more effective. In this video i beleive there will be a few difficulties I must overcome in order to make the video effective. For example as there is a performace in the video I will have to correctly sync the words of the song with the lip movements of the character. This will require careful planning and will have to be well executed. As well as this I want the background to be very simple, with just black. For this I will have to edit the blue background as I am going to use the blue room. I am using the blue room simply for this reason as it will make it easier for me to edit.

Location

As previously said I am going to set my video in the blue room. I am doing this as i need to fill the background black and the blue will make this a lot easier. It also allows me to shoot my video in light instead of it being in minimal light to achieve the desired effect. This is the only location I will use in my video. As well as this i plan to film lights flashing on and off in the room, but first I will test whether it is effective and possible. I will also require very few props in the video as I want a very minimilistic, simple look. Due to my videos lack of obvious narrative very few other locations will be required.

Below is a link to the original Radiohead- No surprises music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzeqwhNTDk

Cast

Paul Goforth
Jemilla Pir
Rob Marson

LIIAR

Music lyrics analysis

Here I have analysed the lyrics of my chosen song no surprises by Radiohead. I decided to do this as I wanted to find the real meaning behind the song and see what message it is sending out to the audience. As I continued to analyse the lyrics I discovered that the bands thoughts on life and the demise of common morals, beliefs and meaning are very promonant in this song. I would argue that the first two lines are the most important in this song, they send out a very strong message to the listeners. "A heart thats full up like a landfill" gives us the impression of a person that has been exposed to so many bad things that his heart no longer believes in goodness or purity anymore. Just like a lanfill is filled with rubbish and dirt the heart is filled up with negativity, violence and sadness. The is followed by the line "a job that slowly kills you" describes how the average, routine life can get to you, and slowly drain you away until you feeling nothing. This verse then continues to express the bands grief and discust at the world, claiming that the government "don't speak for us". The song then goes onto the chorus which shows repetition of the words "no alarms and no surprises". This gives us ideas of what they really want, just a peaceful life, without any complications or struggles. The use of repetition empahsises this point and makes it stick in the audiences head. Throughout the song the chorus is nearly the same, however towards the end of the song we see the chorus read "no alarms and no surprises please". This encodes a desperation, almost as if he is begging for the quiet life, one which he desires so much, that his tank is running low and he cannot go on like this much longer. One line that I find very interesting is "such a pretty house and such a pretty garden". This seems like he could possibly be dreaming, with everything being so pretty. It appears that he has escaped this nightmare that he desires to leave. He then crashes back down to reality when he returns to the words "no alarms and no surprises please". I believe that analysing these liyrics has helped me and given me a great insight into what the song represents and how I need to show this in my music video.

Music Lyrics Analysed

Here are the lyrics of Radiohead- No surprises

Music video analysis

Artic Monkeys- The view from the afternoon

In this post I am going to analyse my final music video. The video that I am going to look in great detail at is the view from the afternoon by the Artic Monkeys. Artic monkeys are an English Indie Rock n Roll band which burst onto the scene with their debut album Whatever people say I am, that's what i'm not. The album became the fastest selling debut album in British history, surpassing oasis' Definately Maybe. Theie music can be described as very upbeat and a new style of music.

Firstly I am going to look into the mise en scene of the video The view from the afternoon. The first thing that we see when watching the video is the use of location. The location could be described as very run down and bland. Traditionally tower blocks are associated with run down areas. It is very far away from the glamour and riches of some areas, which I beleive is used to almost represant the band and their ideologies. The band very much represent the common man, even after they became famous they didn't want to be in the spotlight and still have a real sense of home. The Artic monkeys songs are a realisation of real life, and real stituations that normal people encounter. It tells us the truth that is far away from the glitz and glamour we see in movies and the tv. So by using this particualar location the audience get a feel of what the band are all about. This is backed up by the lack of any real colour. The black and white gives a sense of lack of excitment, fun and happyness. One again supporting the ideologies of the band and their music. It could also be said that the video itself has conventions of a film noir movie. Film noir is a term used to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasise cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. This could be used to poosibly suggest that this is real life, gritty and hard. Once again suggesting that the things we see in the movies are a million miles away from real life. The use of a shopping trolley at the beginning of the video is also good use of props. We often see trolleys that have been stolen left on a tower block area, so this immediately gives us clues and ideas as to what the video is all about.

The video itself seems to be based around a teenager and his love for just purely playin the drums. The first shot that I noticed in the video is the birds eye view shot directly above the boy. I beleive that this shot draws our attention to his drum set, specifically the pattern on the main drums. It almost seems like a target area, suggesting that the drums are all that matter to him, and that they are his main focus in life. The following shot is a medium close-up, slighlty below the boy. This may have been used to show the boys emotion, and once again his passion for playing. Is seems as if he is building himself up for something, like this is a big display that he cannot afford to get wrong. When he begins to play the drums we see a gradual zoom in from a long shot to a medium close up. This could be argued to be a reaction to the boys drumming ability. As if people didn't think much of him, that he would be poor, but are now standing up and taking notice of him as a musician. This together with the lights directly behind him brings attention to his talent that is not traditionally associated with these run down areas. A common theme that I have noticed is the constant long shots that seem to be on the tower blocks. This gives the audience a sense that someone is watching him, almost keeping an eye on what he is doing. I also noticed that the birds eye view shot is repeated a few times in the video, reinforcing the idea that he is only thinking about his drums, even when the men in the video are throwing chips at him.

The editing in the video is very effective, with a constant theme being shown throughout. The constant cuts from long to medium chlose ups is very interesting. It could suggest that the boy playing his drums is in his own little world. That there is the outside world, then him. This is very much inkeeping with the idea that the boys drums are his world, that nothing else really matters and the rest of the world is looking at him. The constant theme is a stylistic element of the video, which could be described as a motif. There is also a dissolve between the two shots, giving a feeling of a transition between two worlds. If the change was a straight cut it would feel like it's the same world, and that it is merely just changing the view, however with the dissolve it feels like the audience are changing worlds. The cuts are very sharp and quick, which reflects the music well. This allows the audience to establish a relationship between the music and the video.

The sound in this video is simply the band performing which promotes the music and establishes a relationship between the fans and the band. The song gets the bands name out there and produces a brand name. As well as this the only other sound we hear is the sound of the wind, giving a feeling of calmeness and peace. However it does also install a sense of the quiet before the storm as we see that something is going to happen to the boy towards the end.