Video Meaning (cyber bullying)

As technology is evolving and contaminating everybody's lives more and more, we have decided to look at some of the negatives that have come from this revolution.

CYBER-BULLYING is "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person".

With Facebook now infecting most young people's daily routine, and most teenagers and children owning a mobile phone, cyber bullying has rocketed. According to a government study, more than a third of 12 to 15-year-olds in the UK have faced some kind of cyber-bullying.

A survey prepared by i-Safe.org in 2004 on children in year 4-8 at school shows that 42% of kids have been bullied while online. One in four of these children have had it happen more than once. 35% of kids have been threatened online. Almost one in five of these children have had it happen to them more than once. A startling 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once.

And quite possibly the most disturbing statistic that was achieved from this survey is the fact that 58% of these children have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.

We decided to brush upon this harrowing topic to show the exremities it can reach and hopefully get the message across to bullies just how much damage they are doing. If the tables were to turn and the bullies would find themselves becoming the victim then they could not take it, they use bullying as a form of defense for their own insecurities. If their victim takes in what the bully is telling them and begins to hate themself for it, then this can soon lead to self-loathing. Without the right help, the vulnerable victims can take matters into their own hands and the bullies have to live with their raging conscience for the rest of their lives.

A story that really affected us as a group, is one that we heard from our teacher as it had been in the news a few years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Megan_Meier

Megan was three weeks away from her 14th birthday when she hung herself as a result of an ex-friend creating a phoney MySpace account of a 16 year old boy to lure her in and then send her harmful, abusive and terrible messages.

MySpace appeared to be an easy way for the ex-friend and her family to contact Megan under a false name, if chatrooms and social networks did not exist then circumstances like this would not be achievable. A lot of good has come from such websites, yet it is articles such as this that make the reader question the necessity of online networking.

Another, more recent article is very haunting also. This occurred a lot more recently to a girl of 7 years old called Kathleen Petrov.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319276/Couple-taunt-Huntingtons-disease-sufferer-Kathleen-Edwards-7-Facebook.html

Both of these stories made both myself an my entire group feel physically ill whilst also getting emotional. The selfishness of the pathetic bullies trying to ruin an innocent child's life is disgusting. These people do not deserve equality with the victims, these people should know what is morally wrong and what is right.

Studying these two incidents in such depth has really opened mine, Jack's, Claire's and Alysha's eyes to just how much damage cyber-bullying can do. We definitely feel that the song choice would be very relevant to involve a cyber-bullying storyline and we also want to spread the message as much as possible to try and prevent this from ever happening again.

FILMING!

Over the past week, every spare bit of time we have found has been used to film. We have been using my house as it is fairly central between the other three in our group's homes. Also, my garden is very plain and looks free and not restricted so it is nice to film some of the scenes there.

Here are some photos of us from some of our days of filming:

My house in which a lot of our filming takes place inside.

Claire and Alysha mid-filming. Camera is rolling.

Claire being filmed.

Me (attempting to be) operating the camera.

Jack using the camera.

Applying dark lipstick to Claire to make her look as mysterious as possible.

Roles

All of us have our own individual roles within the creation of our video.

Jack- He plays the boy in the video. He is in the video quite frequently as it documents his rocky relationship resulting in absolute hatred for his girlfriend who is played by Claire. We decided to use Jack and Claire for the main characters as it was difficult enough for us to organise and find time to film for the video as everybody has clashing shifts at work and lack of transport, so adding other people into that would create an even lower amount of available time for filming as we would have to work around when they are free. Keeping it within the group was the best choice because both of the characters fit the roles very nicely and are reliable.

Claire- She plays the leading girl's role. She is in the video constantly as the story line of the video revolves around her. Her relationship with Jack's character is very futile as we show them violently fighting yet we have also filmed the happier times of their relationship.

Alysha&Charlotte- Both Alysha and myself are in charge of a lot of the filming. We work together to decide angles, shots, locations and lighting. We share this with Jack and Claire obviously, yet as we spend the entire time behind the camera, it is our sole responsibility to get the correct shots. We also have to direct both Claire and Jack with their movements and gestures towards one another.

Mise-en-scene

Props

In our video we use a red rose for quite a lot of scenes. This signifies her and his relationship and the beauty that they once shared. The rose also signifies her happiness within the relationship and in life in general.

(photo courtesy of Alysha)

We also needed a lot of tablets to film the scene in which she overdoses. We bought lots of paracetamol packets to try and overindulge the viewer in painkillers.

Outfits

Claire has two main outfits; a cream dress for the happier times and a black top and skirt for the miserable moments in the video. The cream dress is floaty and angelic whereas the black ensemble is tighter and more rebellious.

For Jack, the clothes are a lot less drastic. He remains the same throughout the video and so he needs to be wearing clothes that are as unattention-drawing as possible. He should look casual so we decided that a top and a pair of jeans would be best. She has to be eyecatching whereas he needs to not stand out.

Time Management!

Copyright Letter Response

We have still had no response from Sub Pop Records regarding the Copyrights to use their song for our music video. We are going to take this as them granting us permission to use their song as if they desperately didn't want us to then they would have contacted us back a lot sooner than this.

Location Shots

We travelled to Horton Kirby to explore the graveyards to use for a lot of our shots. We found an absolutely ideal and remote place tucked away opposite the local churchyard. The weather was extremely frosty which I feel added to the atmosphere and the feeling of sadness that the graves emit.

The gate leading to the graveyard was exactly how we had imagined the gateway to be as it plays a pinnacle part in the video we are planning.

Band Of Horses

Band of Horses is an American Rock band from Seattle. It currently has five members- all of which are male. Their record label is Sub Pop Records who are an independent record label also based in Seattle, Washington.

Their first album received its deserved recognition in Sweden and Norway, yet didn't quite reach the album charts in their desired markets of USA and UK.

Their genre is defined as:

• Indie Rock
• Southern Rock
• Alternative Country

depending on the source used to define their music.

They wear leather, military coats and checkered shirts, with dark coloured slim fit jeans. They tend to wear dark clothing rather than vibrant bold colours. This I feel fits hand in hand with the type of music they produce. There is nothing attention seeking about their music nor their clothing. They do what they want in every aspect of their lives, not seeming to care about the negativity they may receive. This is admirable of young people; in particular, those who fall into the 'alternative' category who appreciate expressing themselves as different through their clothing and appearance.

Selection of Pictures from the Animatic

I drew these pictures and more onto paper and we scanned them into the computer ready for editing with Adobe PhotoShop and then arranging them appropriately in Final Cut Express to create our animatic video.

Animatic!

Video Analysis. Geri Haliwell- It's Raining Men.

The opening sequence is an intertextual reference to 'Flashdance.' The video takes the form of a song and dance routine, a typical sequence of a musical yet draws heavily from Flashdance. The intertextual reference is so blatent it is purposely making it clear that it is using intertextuality.

The judges look a lot older than Geri, they appear very formal and stiff. After 30 seconds, the diegetic sounds create a sense of expectation or anticipation. The fragmented body shots create an enigma.

The panel of judges appear to be looking at Geri in a voyeuristic manner, providing the impression that they have a low expectation of her dancing ability before she has even started.

The judges' mode of address is very formal which has the effect of authority and builds tension further. Their body language is completely closed which appears to be very intimidating.

As the music begins to play within the video, the camera begins to move. It begins with a between the legs shot of the judges. The camera movement becomes motivated by the music; this becomes more and more relevant as the video progresses and the music really picks up. The audience now see an over-the-shoulder shot behind the judges of Geri. She becomes objectified through the shots emphasising her attractiveness.

As we hear the lyric 'rising' the camera tilts upwards connecting the camera movement to the visuals. The audience within the video begins to build giving her 'star status' within the narrative. The video then cuts away to extracts from the film 'Bridget Jones' Diary' as it contains synergy with the soundtrack.

The audience within the video enter the room that Geri is dancing (as they were previously admiring her from a doorway afar). They pile into the room in an energetic and excited manor which almost seems reminiscent of a carnival, the viewer now has their suspicions confirmed that it is in fact a dance school.

The costumes are all very bright and clashing, yet Geri is always foregrounded. The attention-seeking outfits of the other characters in the video does not draw the majority of attention from Geri herself. She is typically centre frame and close up. There is a clear juxtaposition between Geri's knickers and a cut to a clip from Bridget Jones of her knickers, trying to connect the two as much as possible.

The video shows a clear patriachal order (the judges being at the very top) and the boundaries are evidently broken with the extravagant dance routine yet are well received. This shows a huge contrast and transformation from the initial gawky girl who began dancing at the start of the video.

The reference to the film 'Fame' now begins with a clear close-up with a soft focus. The effect wind has upon the shot in unison with the low angle shot makes her seem incredibly powerful and dominant. The viewer now sees her boxing, kickboxing, taking part in aerobics and practicing ballet which is all aspects of a school such as the one in 'Fame'- a New York high school that specialises in dance and the performing arts.

Geri shows signs of being almost a Pied Piper character amongst the other students as she leads them outside. She is now wearing a leather jacket, leather being symbolic of rebellion. We now see a remake of the song 'Dancing in the Street', arguably the most famous song within 'Fame'. She is air punching and very enthusiastic, looking as though she is really enjoying herself. An aerial shot shows us that there are always onlookers throughout this routine yet she seems unphased. Her t-shirt has the word 'Famous' on written in the memorable Fame typeface.

The lyrics now read 'I feel stormy weather moving in' which becomes a literal interpretation, using green screen methods to create a storm behind her. She now wears a crop top emphasising her trim and petite figure as she gyrates in slow motion in time to the music.

To finish the video she kisses to the camera acknowledging the position of the audience.

Working on the Animatic

For the past week and a half I have been drawing images for the animatic of our music video, trying to create the shots that will together be made into our final video, this is why I haven't had a chance to blog any research. I have been busily working although according to my blog I haven't been!

This is a long task due to the number of shots to draw and trying to make them look like what they are supposed to be depicting. I have now made a good start to them and they are well under way.

The entire group has been really trying this last week, just trying to keep on top of all the upcoming work we will have to face.

Alysha has done extensive research on the target audience and the broadcasting platform of the music video.

Jack has been analysing the song, pinpointing all of the major changes in the music and the lyrics.

Claire has been researching iconography and finding locations for our video.

Letter to the Copyrighter

Claire took it upon herself to write a letter to the copyright owner of this song, getting permission would mean that we are definitely allowed to use this song for our video.

Subpop Records owns this song.

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A level student and I am writing to request your permission to use one track from the first album by Band of Horses entitled “Everything All The Time”

The track I wish to use is “The Funeral”, track 4 on the album.

With your permission, this track would be used in my current A-level Media Studies project which involves creating a music video for a popular music track, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist.

If I received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would NOT be released to a large audience or uploaded to any public video websites.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout pre- production and the final video itself. A copyright notice, with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Claire Martin

Basic Plot of Video

We begin with a dead girl. Potentially a long distance shot of her laying with a carnation or some sort of flower.

We then begin short sharp flashbacks of her with a boy, laughing and happy. Very loved up. Interrupted by really really short cuts of angry times, crying and fighting. The frequency increases as the pace of the music increases.

As the electric guitar kicks in we see a fight scene. Sheer anger. This is at 1.28.

She is sitting cross-legged, maybe on her bed staring at her phone whilst a tear rolls down. Close-up to tear. Cut to a shot of the phone, text saying something similar to 'I'm not sorry, I really do hate you.' Boy has gone off with a new girl.

She runs to a forest, barefooted in a dress. She needs to get away, to escape.

We see her write a suicide note and she takes her life (method undecided).

The final shot will be of the funeral. Small, close ceremony, everyone with flowers. Seperate, we see the boy that broke her heart, too ashamed to enter the graveyard. He knows he is resposible, without him she would still be alive.

Lyrical Analysis

Target Audience

Due to the 'alternative' nature of the song, I feel the audience in which this song would be best received would be both rock listeners and indie listeners.

This is a song that could be received on many levels, whether the audience absorb the lyrics or the music itself, there is definitely something to appreciate for everyone.

Rock fans, in an extremely stereotypical nutshell, wear leather, have facial hair (only for the men), go to gigs and concerts at every opportunity, ride a motorbike- the louder the more impressive.

Alternative names could be moshers, rockers, grungers or METALHEADS.

"The Metalheads tribe generally sees more people coming and going than other tribes – appeal wanes for many quite quickly. Metalheads feel no need to justify themselves to others, and are generally a friendly badge-wearing bunch but they do have a tendency to hate Chavs and Townies, as well as generally frowning upon the musical tastes of the Emos and Indie Scenesters.

This tribe is keen on mixing up newer and older varieties of metal, punk and rock – so older classic metal bands like Pantera, Metallica and Killswitch Engage have currency as well as more recent, and more experimental, bands such as Cobalt and Converge. "

You’ll mainly see them wearing black, though not exclusively. A black band t-shirt and blue pair of jeans would be the typical look of a Metalhead.

Amy Winehouse- Back to Black. Inspiration.

Now that we have decided on our sing, I have been looking at music videos on a similar topic to our final song choice- 'The Funeral'. Amy Winehouse's song 'Back to Black' refers to death very frequently as does our song.

The video is very gothic and dark, it emphasises all things morbid and melancholy. There are many shots of the singer casually singing the words, dressed in clothing suited to a sad event such as a funeral.

The singer's lack of eye contact with the camera really intrigued me as she is almost detaching herself from the audience, with an emotionless facial expression.

The entire video has a very serious tone, nothing is taken lightly and the repetitive image of the hurse travelling through the graveyard really does set the tone for the entire video.

This is my favourite extract from the video. There is a short pan of a few graves from the graveyard. This is definitely something I would like to include in our music video as it sets the scene whilst also showing the harmonious nature of the home of the resting. I feel it is important to pay respect to the graves that would be filmed as the topic will always be sensitive. Our video will be one of great seriousness and the entire plot will be taken seriously.

As a group we have been discussing using a symbol throughout our music video, and we thought about using a rose. Roses are an indication romance and love, and incorporating this idea into our video could only improve the strength of the storyline.

Coincidentally Amy throws a rose upon the grave in the video. I feel that our group can gain a lot of inspiration from this video as it holds almighty relevance.

Final Song Choice. The Funeral- Band of Horses

We have finally agreed on a song to use for our video and we are all really happy with our choice. It isn't a fast song like some of our other choices, yet we feel we can really work with both the lyrics and the beat of the song. All of us enjoy the song, not that that is an advantage, but we know how likeable this song can be.

We found this song thanks to a show on MTV called 'My Life As Liz'. I just remembered she sang this song during a talent show and remembered how interesting I found the song to be.

After discussing in depth the possibilities of our video we have been overwhelmed with excitement and enthusiasm to start filming. However, we know that realistically we have so much planning to do beforehand.

Due to the nature of our song we are inclined to focus upon the idea of death and all things related.

We feel there should be a lot of underlying metaphors throughout the video, one of which should be either a burning candle or cigarette that we do extremely fast cuts of at intervals throughout the video but at each one the object will be nearer and nearer to the end of its life.

I'm coming up only to hold you under
I'm coming up only to show you wrong
And to know you is hard and we wonder
To know you all wrong, we were

Really too late to call, so we wait for
Morning to wake you; it's all we got
To know me as hardly golden
Is to know me all wrong, they were

At every occasion I'll be ready for a funeral
At every occasion once more is called a funeral
Every occasion I'm ready for the funeral
At every occasion one brilliant day funeral

I'm coming up only to show you down for
I'm coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow (alive is very poetic)
For'e (before) they died had trees to hang their hope

At every occasion I'll be ready for the funeral
At every occasion once more is called the funeral
At every occasion I'm ready for the funeral
At every occasion one brilliant day funeral

Potential Song Choices

After communally listening to over 200 tracks by over 50 different artists and bands, we have narrowed it down to a few choices. These are the songs that we instantly found our imaginations trying to create a music video for in our heads. And strangely, naturally, all of our thoughts were similar.

Pink Squares- I Was a Cub Scout

Dirt Room- Blue October

My Best Theory- Jimmy Eat World

Self Machine- I Blame Coco

The Funeral- Band of Horses

From here, we are going to listen to these songs over and over and over as a group and discuss our thoughts and opinions on them.

Hunting for songs!

This past week I have spent listening to songs constantly. As a group (Alysha Bennett, Claire Martin and Jack Jarvie) we know the genre of music we would like to use for our video, however, agreeing on a song is so difficult. It isn't that we disagree at all, but when one of us feels inspired by a song, the others don't necessarily get that same inspiration so this process is long and tedious but also quite fun to listen to new songs. Feeling inspired is something personal, what inspires a person differs due to events in their life or certain elements of their personality.

Listening exercises in class last week really helped us to broaden our imagination into the form of a music video. We all listened to some music and wrote down whatever we saw or felt that the music video of each song would include. It's surprising how similar everybody's responses were.

The way to discover new music for us was to use the related searches function on YouTube.

Kele- Everything You Wanted. Video Analysis.

Lyrics.

I see the bags in the empty hallway
and I can tell that something has changed.
I see the pain written over the face
and I know I pushed you too far.

If you want
to leave me,
You must know
one thing.

I could have given you everything you wanted
Everything you needed. x4

I know times I am lost, I am gone,
I am told I'm only half there.
But you were there
in my thoughts,
in my head,
in my heart,
above the left side.

I know the time for us has passed,
but you must know one thing

I could have given you everything you wanted
everything you needed. x4

And I say,
Dale Dale I'm a deero
we're finding it hard to breathe x4

I could have given you everything you wanted
everything you needed. x4

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

The video begins as a black screen, negative space. Yet the audience is assured it is part of the video as four non-diegetic beeps are played. This is followed immediately by a long shot of Kele looking casual wearing a yellow t-shirt, jeans and a red hat. As he walks towards the camera (singing the lyrics) it becomes apparent that the camera is purposely handheld as the camera moves with him, facing him the entire time.

He looks casual, due to both his attire and the way he is moving- wandering across the street. What I find enticing is the fact that he doesn't look at the camera. Eye contact is very significant in this video. It seems as though he physically cannot bring himself to look into the camera, however, is going about it in a reasonably subtle way.

Even extremely early on, the audience realises that the subject is very personal to him and carries so much emotion. This is later confirmed.

Cut to a rear shot in medium close-up of Kele as he walks aimlessly through the streets an unidentifiable city.

Cut back to him facing the handheld camera again, the shot is now a close-up of his face. This draws attention to the fact that he is refusing to make eye contact with the camera. The audience begin to see his emotions through his facial expressions ever so slightly, entwining with the sad and melancholy lyrics. This shot leads right up to the word 'everything' in the chorus.

Instantly cuts become rapid and choppy, fitting in time with the beat of the music, making the song come alive. Shots of coloured lights that are purposely out of focus surround a view of water next to the city. Cuts to snippets of his face and repetition of the lights give the video a new psychedelic approach.

There is an extremely brief cut back to a rear-view shot and is body language as he is singing is so passionate.

During this sequence we see Kele making eye contact with the camera for the first time as we hear the lyrics 'I could have given you everything you needed'. He looks bemused and dazzled, confused and sad. There is a close-up of his face in darkness, with double exposure lights framing his face. He is in a nightscape and his eyes are locked onto the camera. Piercing all the way through to the viewer. This sense of sorrow reflects the lyrics in a way that assures the viewer that Kele is singing of a true experience that happened to him, a break-up and a heartbreak.

The next sequence of shots that we see is of Kele's face in a range of extreme close-up angled shots. The significance of these are that he is only singing in a few of them. The lyrics have overwhelmed him so much that he has too much sorrow to sing. The cuts are short and choppy yet not too short that the audience miss what is happening. There is enough time between cuts to understand each individual shot that the audience gets to see.

Eye contact varies between looking completely away from the camera to face-on, eyes beaming down the lens. The shots in which he is looking straight down the lens are the shots that he is singing to the camera. These are only sprinkled sparsely between shots of him looking too emotional to speak.

He looks down a lot and away from the camera even more, it is as though he is trying to escape being under constant watch by this camera.

Once the verse begins, we see the initial shot of him walking down the street in medium close-up. The background is now out of focus and it becomes apparent that every single shot apart from the opening one has such a shallow depth of field that he is the only object in each shot that is in focus.

This helps to draw the audience to his performance as opposed to concentrating on the irrelevant backgrounds.

The cuts are very long throughout the verses which contrasts the extremely short cuts of the chorus.

The framing for the bridge shows us Kele is left-aligned in shot standing in front of a cityscape in extremely shallow focus. This takes us all the way up to the chorus which once again varies extreme close-up shots of his face, only this time we see tears starting to protrude.

This is the most memorable shot of the entire video. As 'everything you needed' is heard, we see this extreme close-up of his eyes filling with tears. In a sense this shot is harrowing due to the constant attention we have been paying to Kele and his passion for this song.

We see the anger in both his face and his body stance as he almost shouts the words 'I could have given you everything you wanted, everything you needed' down the camera.

The flashing lights continue to strike coinciding with the beat of the music. This extreme close-up of him rubbing his eyes shows the grief he is facing.

We now face a loss of eye contact once again, his eyes are now shut in the majority of the short cuts. This becomes very apparent.

During the lyrics 'Dale, Dale, I'm a deero, we're finding it hard to breathe' we witness a close-up of his face straight on to the camera, tears falling down his cheeks.

Cuts get faster again reflecting both the intensity of the song and of the words.

The lights are flashing throughout.

These are the screen grabs from the final shot of the video. The pace of editing has completely slowed down to subtly prepare the audience for the end of the song. He stops singing for this entire shot, it is just a close-up of his face with tears running down his face. Lights are flashing still yet his face remains visible throughout the flashes.

He has intent eye contact the entire time, just compelling the viewer to watch him. There is a definite sense of helplessness within him yet the very end of this shot shows a flame of courage in his eyes.

Screen goes black and the music fades shortly after.

Briefs

I have decided to do a music video and am now quite excited about it. I think it is exciting because I have never experimented with that media before, or nowhere near to this extent.

Trying to be creative using a camera sounds so difficult, yet as a daily music video watcher I feel as though I should have a basic idea of the uniformities of them.

Here are the briefs:

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

3. The first level of a new computer game, together with two of the following three options:

• the cover for the game's package;
• a magazine advertisement for the game;
• a radio advertisement for the game.

NOTE: All material for all tasks are to be produced by you yourself with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video / radio work.

First lesson back

Now back in the media room, already starting to discuss our ideas for our portfolios. I really enjoy the idea of doing a computer game, however, a music video sounds intriguing too.

Need to think of what I want to do.