Shot List

I have made a decision to chose the song by Randolph called Kick & Snare.

I have completed a first draft of my music video then have asked for feedback on it. These are all the shots used in my music video.

Click here to watch the first draft of my music video

Shot 1 - Have 3 clones of "Randolph" sitting against a cargo box. 0:00 - 0:10
Shot 2 - "Randolph" saying the first few words directly down the camera. 0:10 - 0:17
Shot 3 - "Randolph" walking towards the camera. 0:17 - 0:21
Shot 4 - Randolph saying "Looking for the fame" 0:21 - 0:23
Shot 5 - Black and white shot circling "Randolph" 0:23 - 0:27
Shot 6 - Randolph saying "I said I'm looking for the fame" 0:27 - 0:29

Shot 7 - Reversing shot 3, so he walks away from the camera. 0:29 - 0:32
Shot 8 - Close of Randolph against the wall. 0:32 - 0:46
Shot 9 - Slow motion of Randolph knocking sweets out of someones hands. 0:46 - 0:51
Shot 10 - Time lapse of the night sky - 0:51 - 0:53
Shot 11 - Randolph walking away, filming his feet. 0:53 - 0:56
Shot 12 - Randolph singing to camera (medium shot) 0:56 - 1:09
Shot 13 - Randolph singing to camera (close up) 1:09 - 1:20
Shot 14 - Randolph against the wall singing 1:20 - 1:43
Shot 15 - Randolph singing with the red background 1:43 - 1:54
Shot 16 - Randolph sat on the green cargo box 1:54 - 2:06
Shot 17 - Black and White Randolph slowly looking up. 2:06 - 2:12
Shot 18 - Randolph sat on green cargo box (different position) 2:12 - 2:14
Shot 19 - Black and White close up of Randolph singing 2:14 - 2:18
Shot 20 - Randolph sat on green box (in another different position) 2:18 - 2:28
Shot 21 - Randolph walking away 2:28 - 2:30
Shot 22 - Randolph singing against the wall 2:30 - 2:47
Shot 23 - Mirror shot 2:47 - 2:53
Shot 24 - Leaves falling from the sky 2:53 - 3:01
Shot 25 - Mirror shot again  3:01 - 3:11
Shot 26 - Slow motion walk across the wall 3:11 - 3:16
Shot 37 - Paint across the screen 3:16 - 3:21.

The feedback I received was to change shots 4,5 and 6 and replace it with something else, I also have been told that there is a lot of shots of Randolph singing, so therefore I should have more shots of him doing something else. Shot 12 and 13 were too long, so I need to film something to go over the top of that as well. The lip syncing does need to be fixed, however most of that is due to the uploading. Shot 16, should have more variety of positions of Randolph sat on the cargo box. The mirror shot from shot 23 doesn't necessarily suit the urban feel that I was aiming for, so I need to change the scenery to something such as a car window instead.

Album Art Research

Here is a few album art covers which I like.

This album cover is from the artist: Randolph, and this was his first album, called Ignorance. I liked this album cover because the background is dark and mysterious, whereas the pink triangle gives off a glow and stands out against the dark background. There is also a moon in the distance which makes the background have more of a dimension, and it also shows a few tree leaves on it, which also gives the impression of loneliness, which I believe the artist was trying to achieve to match his album: Ignorance. I think that there is a good choice of font, as it looks professional. They have also filled up the triangle with the letters, which I think is a creative idea, however, what I would have done differently is have the word Randolph and Ignorance be a bit more distinguished, so maybe change the colour of one of the words, as I think it looks a bit messy. However I also like the shadow of the letters behind the texr as once again it adds dimension to the picture and makes the triangle look more powerful.
This is Randolph's second album, called Fame. When you first look at the picture it is unsure what you should look at, as there are lots of background images in this picture behind the triangles. However there is a big bold black text saying FAME, followed by the artists name Randolph underneath.  I think the white/grey background was a good choice in colours as it makes the green triangles look more significant. There is a zebra behind the triangles wearing a crown, to resemble his album songs, about fame, which I thought was interesting as usually people choose a lion as the animal to have a crown, whereas Randolph has chosen a Zebra, which usually gets chased/eaten by a lion, so I think there may be a hidden message here that he has a harder task to reach fame than other people.

This album cover, is for Kanye West's 2007 album called Graduation, the artwork was completed by Takashi Murakami. The visual art is characterised by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark and twisted undertones. The cover is based on Kanye's theme of student life, showing its a place of dreams and a place to have fun, but can also be a scary and terrible place. The bear you see in the top left, is known as Drop Out Bear, and is known to be Kanye's mascot. Overall I think this is a very creative album colour which would grab your attention if you saw it in a store, and I think there is a lot of meaning to it, however I also think that it doesn't resemble him as a hip hop artist. There are also some music videos which use the same animated effect. 

This is Jay-Z's album called Magna Carta Holy Grail. At first, I thought the album cover looked awful, and not appealing to pick up, however upon further research I have found that the statues above are from a museum called the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the sculpture is called Alpheus and Arethusa. They are from a Greek myth where Arethusa is pursued by the river god Alpheus. In attempt to escape her pursuer, Arethusa transforms into a stream. So I believe that maybe Jay-Z is referencing his own transformation from hustler to rapper to performance artist, or maybe he just spotted the sculpture and thought it would look good as an album cover. 

This is the album cover for Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" which is the 3rd best selling album of all time. At first glance it doesn't look like much at all. There is no sense of normality or convention. One thing I find interesting is that there isn't a name here, and one of the main purposes of the album cover is to attract attention to it, and promote the band/artist, however there isn't anything on here, but I it may be seen as a more effective way of having people be intrigued by the album cover and want to find out more. The symbol in the middle is something recognised by scientist and is to do with the refraction of light through a prism. This denotes that the band are actually quite well educated if they know scientific symbols but then at the same time connotes what the album is actual about; conflict, greed, ageing, and mental illness.

This album cover is for the Artist called David Bowie, and his album called The Next Day. The background image, behind the Title: The Next Day is from an old album of him called Heroes. Some people think what he done here is genius, whereas others believe it was a stupid thing to do. In my opinion, it was a clever idea which had some interesting meanings to it, but judging the album covers art, it is boring to look at. Upon research, I have found that the meaning it has, is that he is still the same person as he was before, and that he hasn't changed, I have also heard that it is suppose to mean that we have to leave the past behind us and move onto the next day, because we have no other choice. The reason I think this is clever is because it can create a lot of speculation, which can help promote the album, furthermore, it may generate interest in his older album called Heroes, so this album cover may have lead to an increase in sales. However if people want to buy an album that has a colourful cover, which inspiring images, then they are not going to be satisfied with this.

This album cover, is for Coldplay's album called X & Y. At first glance, I had no idea what this picture was suppose to be showing, but it was intriguing, so I have done further research for it. The blocks on the picture are arranged in a code developed in 1874. The code uses visual representations of 1's and 0's in a 5 digit sequence corresponding with particular letters of the alphabet and typographic symbols. It is considered by many to be the first truly digital form of communication and was a primary language used for telegraphy until it was replaced by the Morse Code. Reading down, the code in the first column is 10111 which represents the letter X. The far right column reads 10101, the code for the letter Y. The columns in the middle represent the "&" portion of the album title. The colours do not mean anything, but are used for visual pleasure.

Questionnaire and Results

To help me decide what to contain in my music video, I have created a questionnaire for research to develop my  understanding on what people want to see in a music video. To do this I used survey monkey to create 10 questions which can be found here: A Level Music Video.

My questionnaire was sent out to anybody to answer online, and from this I have gained a response of 40 people who have replied. From this, this is the answers which I have received:

1) What is your gender?

From this I can see that the majority of the people who answered my questionnaire were males, as 72% of my audience are. I will target my music video more towards males than females as that is going to be my target audience.

2) How old are you?


























From this, I can see that the majority of my results were people who were ages from 17 to 20, as nearly half of them were. This was to be expected, and it was followed by people who were 13 to 16 with 25% of them being that aged, so it looks like my music video is going to be targeted towards people from 13 to 20 as nearly 75% of them have replied to my questionnaire and they are who I am basing my music video on.

3) What is your preferred music of genre to listen to?

From this, we can see that the highest chosen favourite genre to listen to, is Hip Hop being on 35%, so over a third of the people who completed my questionnaire were Hip Hop fans, which means the majority of my target market are Males aged from 13 to 20 and are Hip Hop fans. So I will probably base my music video on a Hip Hop based theme.

4) What appeals to you most about this genre?

I wanted to find out why people were attracted to their favourite genre, because then I could apply it to my music video so there would be a higher chance of people enjoying the music video. The feedback from my questionnaire showed me that most people thought that the beat of the music was the most appealing thing about the genre, so therefore I will concentrate on picking a song which has a good beat with it, as well as having decent lyrics as that was seen as the second most important feature. A quarter if my replies said instruments appealed them to their genre, but only 5% said the culture. 

5) What aspects of a music video makes it more interesting for you to watch?

Not everyone answered this question, as it was optional, however I still got a varied response from the people who did, and some points which stood out for me, was to have a storyline in the music video, so the audience will watch and want to see how it ends. Another person said to have explosions and fire in the music video which I think will be hard to do, but an interesting idea, a few people said to have lyrics up on the screen throughout the video which I think would be a creative idea and something I will think about doing.

6) Do you enjoy SFX (Special Effects) in a music video?

The feedback from my questionnaire showed me that a staggering 85% of people enjoyed SFX in music videos. This obviously means I should consider using some of the effects for my music video, so I will research different effects which can be used on the softwares I will be using, to try and think about how I could apply my them to my music video.

7)  Do you prefer live music videos which have live performance in it, or narrative? 

I wanted to find out if people preferred to see music videos containing live performances or narrative, to see which one would be best to have for my music video. The results came back quite close, but narrative did have more votes, so I think for my music video I will try and show both live performance, and narrative, but focus more on the narrative. 

8) Do you prefer music videos which are serious or funny?

I wanted to find out if people preferred to watch music videos that are funny, compared to ones that are serious. The results came back that the majority of people prefer to see funny videos, as 80% replied with that. However upon thinking about it, I am going to use my initiative to make a music which is more serious, as I believe that it will be extremely hard to make a funny music video without having professional actors and equipment.

9) What is the most common way you consume music?

I wanted to find out the most common way people consumed music, and 75% of people who replied, said they consume music through the internet, and only 15% via TV, and 10% for live performances. So I know that my music video would most probably be watched on the internet, so websites such as Facebook and YouTube will be used to watch my music video.

Possible Ideas

For the start of the song Kick & Snare, where there is laughing, which is repeated 6 times, so for the start of the song I may use the clone effect to have the same actor appear 6 times at once for each of the laughs, the reason for this, is to attract the viewers attention from the start.

Another idea  I have is to use a reverse effect, so have things play in reverse for viewing pleasure, for example: jumping off something, and put it in reverse as I believed this will be a creative effect.

As I live in an area of lots of country side, the location isn't going to be ideal for me to shoot a hip hop music video as the typical hip hop music video is set in the city, to give a more urban feel to the video. To solve this, I have decided to purchase a green screen, this gives me the option to change the background to where my artist is. I think this can also give me the option to be more creative, furthermore there are still some areas which can give the effect of an urban feel.

For this green screen, I can also use special effects, such as explosions to use in the music video if needed.

Stop Motion may also be a more challenging and interesting editing technique to use, which I will consider using. I had an idea to use stop motion in the dark, and move glow sticks around someone, so with the stop motion effect, they will look like they have a glow around their whole body.