Lyric Annotation

Here is a gif of our lyric annotations, which will help us towards what we could include in our music video, making the images link with the lyrics. 

Locations

Against a black wall/fence - for the paint scenes. We decided to shoot in a location like this as we did not want the background or surrounding areas to distract from the actions and events which will be taking place between the boy and girl, e.g getting paint thrown over them, drawing on eachother.

PDH/Black drama room - for dancing 'rave' scenes. We have chosen this location as the room can be lit up specially as we want it using flashing spotlights and strobe lighting. This room also has no distractions, and will look like a typical place for a rave to happen. The black colours of the walls will hopefully make the actors stand out more, as they will be wearing bright clothes which is a convention of our genre, synthpop.

Forest - for scenes of the singer performing. We have chosen a forest due to the 'unusual' location type which fits well with our genre, and the fact that we want our artist to appear 'pure' and stand out by wearing a white dress. 

Storyboards.

Here is a sliderocket of my groups storyboards, after we cut them up so we could easily move the scenarios around and add in extra shots if need be. This was an effective way of spreading our storyboards out and helped towards planning.




This is the animatic using the storyboards we created, showing a brief outline of the sequence of our music video.

Initial Video Ideas

During a brainstorm for our initial ideas, we came up with our specific concept which we would like to include in our music video. This and the other ideas around the spider diagram include:

• Romantic relationship
• Crowd dancing --> man & woman either side of dancing, push through to eachother
• Flashing lights
• Neon colours
• Close ups of singers face
• Paint splashing 

Photoshop Practice

In order to practice masking in Photoshop, these are the following steps which I took.

I found an image online, for this example I used a photo of The Beatles walking across a road.

In Photoshop, I created a new canvas in the size of an A4 landscape. I then created a new layer, and put  in my photo of the Beatles. From this, I made the image the same size of the canvas by using the transform tool (cmd + T). Then I duplicated the layer, by clicking on the layer whilst holding CTL.

Then, I went to filters --> blur. From the different types of blur effects available, I chose to add a motion blur. This made my image look this this:

As I wanted the first two people to be in focus, I then clicked on the 'add vector mask' at the bottom of the layers panel. Switching the main colour to black, I took the brush tool and carefully outlined the figures which I wanted to be in focus. This is my final product:

Using this Photoshop practice, I created a mock CD cover for my genre of synthpop. This cover included many skills to create a final product which included a barcode, images in the style of our genre, neon green coloured writing for the track list and name of album/artist. These all fit the conventions of a synthpop CD cover - the images which I shot were influenced by previous covers which I analysed, including Crystal Castles and Ellie Goulding. I decided to use a black background, in order to place neon colours on top to make them stand out even more than they already would, fitting our genre. The tracklist included alternative song titles, which also fits my genre.

Green Screen Practice

In order to get some technical practice, as a class we set up the green screen and filmed a performance with 3 individual cameras. From this experience with the green screen, I have learnt:

• To give enough time to both pack away and set up the green screen, as it requires quite a lot of time to put everything up and away properly. 
• The green screen must be set out so that there are no creases - any darker parts or shadows on the screen and this will be hard during editing to match up with the background, which can be seen in the practice video which I created.
• In order to reduce any shadows, artificial lighting must be set up in particular areas around the screen, however with diffusers as to not create harsh, high key lighting.
• Multiple cameras filming at the same time helps to reduce filming time and can get the images needed to create a short video, seen in this video which we used 3 cameras set up at different angles to the performers.

Sophie and Dayna's Roles

Here is a video explaining what each of our roles will be within our group during our planning and research process, which will aid us towards what we should be doing at each stage towards the making of our music video.

Initial Ideas

This is a spider diagram of my group's initial ideas, which we created from the first time we were discussing about which genre we have chosen. This includes our ideas surrounding synthpop, including props, costumes, locations etc.

Audience Response

A total of 21 people answered my survey about the genre of synthpop. The demographic results of the audience mainly matched those of my target audience, showing that 12 of those questioned were female, making 9 to be male.

The age range mostly included ages of 14-18, which I have identified as the main target audience for this genre of music, due to the loud nature of the music and the intention for the listeners to dance energetically. However, 4 people surveyed were over the age of 26, allowing for an outsiders view of this genre of music, although these people tended to dislike or were unaware of synthpop music.

Next, the audience were asked how they get their music. Although this may not be relevant specifically to the genre of synthpop, this allows for a clearer understanding of what the person answering is like, and how music is general obtained. The majority of people get their music from the iTunes store, however many either download it illegally or use the YouTube converter to get music directly off YouTube.

To get a further grip of the audience's demographic, I posed the question of what they enjoy doing in their spare time, allowing to recognise how many of those asked fit the stereotypical profile of someone that listens to synthpop - usually someone very active who goes to many social parties and clubbing events. However, out of those surveyed, only 13 admitted to going to social parties, and a mere 6 spend their free time clubbing. This could prove that the expected personality of someone that listens to synthpop is not true, and that you can never guess the particular type of person who listens to a certain type of genre.

 The questions then turn to the specific genre of synthpop. When asked if the audience liked this genre, most agreed, however 8 people were not sure whether they had heard of the genre. This could be just that they were not aware of the genre name of this type of music, or that they did not realise the bands which fell into the synthpop category.

When asked where the audience usually hears synthpop music, most replied at parties. This shows that my chosen genre is played at events where people are expected to dance, fitting in with the motifs associated such as raving or clubbing.

I asked the audience what other sub-genres of pop that they listened to, as to get a feel for the most popular type of pop that would be listened to. The responses were manly indie and dance pop, both which are extremely upbeat, quirky and good to dance to.

The results for the next question showed that synthpop music generally makes people feel cheerful, energetic and pumped. This all fits the expected responses, which will allow us to incorporate these feelings into our music video, to reflect upon the audience.

In order to see which artists within this genre were most popular, we asked who our audience have listened to before. The results showed La Roux, Ellie Goulding and Lady Gaga to be most popular, who are featured on the radio quite often. This shows that less people have listened to off radio music artists such as Crystal Castles, suggesting they are less popular synthpop artists.

In order to gain research on what to include on our digipack, we asked the audience what they expected to see on front of this genre's typical CD cover. The results were as expected from my previous research, that the expected things to see included elaborate costumes, exotic locations, lots of colour, a photo of the artist and large, bright title of the album.

When asked what the audience associated with the synthpop genre, the answers included glowsticks, energetic dancing, loud music, discos and neon colours. Again, these results were anticipated, and were featured in research videos that I have looked into of this genre.

To bring the questions to an end, we asked the audience where they have seen these artists typically advertised. The results shown the artists are common to be heard on the radio, shown on TV or advertised on Youtube or other internet sites. As most (16) said they have seen advertisements mainly on the internet, this could show that the artists are less popular due to not being featured on many posters or by word of mouth.

Lastly, the audience were asked whether they would like to hear more of synthpop in the charts. 10 people surveyed said yes, however 3 said no. 8 people didn't care, again suggesting that this is a less popular sub-genre of pop.

Feedback

Here is my peer feedback which I received.