Planning Individual Magazine Advert - Miss Georgiou

Planning Individual Magazine Advert 

Having a magazine advert is extremely important in relation to promoting an artists album as it is a summarisation of the artist as an individual as part of the indie genre. It gives the audience an insight to what the album may be about and the type of material that will be included in the album. It also gives the audience a sense of the artists personality so they can find them more relatable as a person.

Colours

The colours I have decided to use for my individual magazine advert are green, brown, blue, yellow, orange , pink and purples. Some of these colours are for basic objects such as a brown gate, green bushes and trees and an orange guitar. I have decided to use the realistic colours for these objects to show a sense of realism to the audience which ultimately makes the artist more relatable as the audience could imagine themselves in this setting and seeing these objects which makes the artist seem ordinary like them. 
However I have decided to use other colours in my music advert as they have connotations that are conventional to the music genre. For example, I have decided to incorporate a natural sunset as my background which will include colours such as pink, orange and purple. I have decided to use a sunset in my background as it will give the advert a humble and calming look which connotes the personality of our artist, our narrative and also the name of our album which is called "Illuminate". The sunset could portray this as the colours of the sky could represent that the album represents sunshine which is a happy and positive feeling that may encourage the target audience to look into the album and the artist and their material.

Conventions of the genre

I have tried to include many different indie conventions in my individual magazine advert to make it more recognisable as a advert for an indie artist. I have included things such as a field setting with a gate which the artist will be sitting on holding a guitar. This is conventional to the indie genre as it gives an automatic indie feel as the audience would expect an indie artist to own and play their own instrument. The natural and low budget setting is also a convention of the indie genre as indie artist usually promote a sense of realism with their settings so the audience could access the settings easily and imagine themselves in the situation which makes the artist more relatable for the target audience, to which they could build a relationship with them for. Another convention incorporated in my individual magazine advert is the use of artists costume, hair and makeup. I have chosen to have my artist look very natural with minimal makeup and a simple wavy hairstyle. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are usually presented as ordinary and natural to make them seem more realistic to the audience to create a sense of realism. This is beneficial as it makes it more likely for the target audience to build a relationship with the audience as they see them as one of their friends or someone who they could confide in.

Images used

The main image I have chosen to use in my individual magazine advert is a long shot showing both the setting and my artist. The long shot will show my artist sitting on a wooden bench in an open field holding a guitar. I believe that using a long shot is conventional to the indie genre as it shows both the artist and the sparse location which also represents an idea of isolation which is a common theme used in indie genres. The setting of a field which is shown in the long shot will also be conventional to the indie genre as low budget settings are usually used in indie music videos as they give a sense of realism.

Layout/design

The layout and design that I have decided to use for my individual magazine advert is to have a long shot with a large typography of the artists name at the top middle of the advert just above the image of the artist sitting on the bench. I have also decided to have in smaller print the typography of "Featuring No 1 Single "Wings" at the very top of the advert. I have also chosen to have a piece of typography that says "presents new debut album "Illuminate" 

I have chosen to use this in my advert because it will give my advert a sense of professionalism as the artist should promote their work and material to the target audience in order to be successful and recognisable. This is conventional to the genre as the audience usually find out more information about the artist on their own accord as indie artist are usually quite quiet and humble people,

Typography

The main typography that I have decided to use in my individual magazine advert is the most important pieces of information for the audience to focus on. By only including important pieces of information such as the artists name, the name of the album and the featured song this will ensure that the target audience only focus on these pieces on information and this will make sure they know everything that they need to about the album and upcoming events that the magazine advert is promoting.

Language


The language I have decided to use in my individual magazine advert is quite simple yet informative. I have decided to only incorporate key parts of information about the album and the artist to ensure that the target audience have the correct and key information to then go on to find out more information about it themselves. The artists name which is "Sharna Rae" will be presented in the middle of the advert alongside two tag lines which state "Featuring No1 Single Wings" and "New Debut Album Illuminate".  I have decided to include these as it will also ensure that people who aren't familiar with the artist may also be intrigued by this and may want to find out more about the artist. This is conventional as it is promoting the artist and encouraging people who enjoy other genres to look deeper into the indie genre and the artists.






In conclusion I feel like this planning and production of my own individual magazine advert has helped me to gain a better understanding of what things make my advert look more indie and also conventional to the genre. These include things such as the setting, iconography and colours used on the advert. I believe that I also now know the best suited piece of cinematography to use for my advert which is a long shot as it shows the setting, artist and all key parts of information for the target audience.

Photoshoot - Miss Georgiou

Photoshoot


Whilst filming my own indie music video there are also various other projects that I have produced for promotional purposes. These include of a magazine advert and a CD digipak album.
For these projects I had to take my own pictures of my chosen artist and make sure they looked as conventional to the indie genre as possible in order for it to give off a sense of realism and also capture my target audiences attention. I also had to make sure all my images had similarity so that the theme I was going for flowed between all my different projects and ultimately gave the audience an idea into what my music video would be about and some of the material that would be included in it.
It is important that I took a variety of photos so that I had a bigger range of photos to choose from when producing my magazine advert and digipak. I understood that it would be more efficient to have more images than not enough and this would ultimately guide me into making a professional and clean cute magazine and digipak. Another reason that a variety of pictures is important is so that there is a variety of different camera shots and angles to ensure that the digipak doesn't look boring or lacks interest for the audience. The range of photos makes the digipak more exciting and realistic which gives a sense of realism to the audience.

This is one of the pictures that I took and chose to use for an image in my digipak. I chose to take a picture of my artist walking through the field as I believe that it portrays my artist as someone with a sense of freedom and also someone who is reminiscing on memories and also someone who appreciates the nature of the setting. I wanted my artist to be portrayed in this way not only as it is conventional to the genre but also as it makes her seem more realistic to the target audience. By these characteristics being shown through this image it is also making her seem more like an approachable, open and honest person which would make it easier for the audience to build a relationship with. I also thought this picture was extremely conventional to my chosen indie genre. This is because indie artist usually go for the more natural theme which gives off a sense of realism and makes them seem as though they are ordinary people just like their target audience. Indie artists also mainly use settings which are easily accessible for their target audience and also use settings which the audience may have visited or could imagine the sensations of being there. This is to also help build a relationship with the target audience as they are able to relate to the same experiences as the artist. Therefore by using a field setting this is one of which the audience could relate to being there and this will present a sense of realism.
One aspect of this image that I like is the body language of the artist. I feel as though her tilted head and her hand on her hair shows that she is happy and free which is also conventional to the indie genre. She looks as though she is having fun and this is motivational for the target audience to be this way.

This image is the one I have chosen to use for my front cover of my digipak album. I have decided to use this mid shot as it shows my artists facial expressions, body language, costume and also the setting. I decided that this was the best picture to use for the front cover of my album as I felt as though it was intriguing for the target audience as it gives off a mysterious feel but doesn't give too much away at the same time. I felt as though her blank facial expressions allows the audience to immediately think about what she may be feeling and thinking about and therefore also what the narrative of the music video could be. I also like that the setting also shows through in this picture as it gives the image a natural feel which is conventional to the indie genre. It also flows between all of my pictures as they all include the same background which creates familiarity which is recognisable for my target audience within all my projects. This image is conventional to the indie genre as it clearly shows the artist costume. The costume that my artist is wearing concludes of a grey dress with a jean jacket and a black chocker. Her makeup is also conventional as it is quite heavy with winged eyeliner, dark eye shadow and red lipstick. The costume and makeup that my artist is portraying is conventional to the indie genre as it is unique and shows a sense of style. Indie artists usually portray themselves through their use of creative style and how they make themselves unique and different from all other people. The red lipstick represents passion and love which is also conventional to the indie genre as indie artist usually sing and write songs about real life experiences which usually include love stories and heart break.

I feel as though this image would help the audience to build a relationship with the artist as it represents the artist as someone with a story to tell and this is intriguing for the target audience. The setting that the artist is portrayed in makes her seem vulnerable which is another element that would make her seem more relatable and therefore easier to build a relationship with for the target audience.

The next image is the image I have chosen for my track list image on my digipak album. I have decided to use this image for my track list as I felt as though it left a lot of space on the left hand side that would work very well with my track list as it wouldn't be too cramped or looked too lost within a lot of open space on the photo. I also felt as though the grass background would work well as it is maintaining the familiarity between all of my chosen images and is keeping the same setting on each which will help the audience to understand the narrative and where the artist is. I also felt as though my artists body language towards the empty space would make the overall image look as though she is looking at her track lists and the songs that she has written and produced. I felt as though this would work nicely as it is almost as if she is reminiscing on all the issues and problems she has overcome when writing these songs. It also represents her as someone who is strong and passionate as she has created all these songs of which she has written about her own personal experiences. It can also been seen as though she is looking back on memories that she has had and this also makes her seem more relatable in this way. This is because the majority of the target audience will also have memories that they look back on and miss and by looking at the artist also feeling this way will make them think about their own personal anecdotes and therefore feel a particular way that will make them want to listen to her songs and also watch the music video. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually write about their own personal experiences in order to make themselves relatable to the target audience so that they can feel comforted by the way that a famous indie singer also experiences the same emotions and heartbreak as them which portrays and represents her as an ordinary person just like them.

This image is an image that I have chosen to use for my magazine advert. I decided to use this image for my magazine advert as it shows my artists facial expression,body language and also the setting of a field. This particular image shows my artist sitting down in the middle of an empty field. This portrays the theme of isolation and also represents my artist as vulnerable and mysterious which will make the audience want to figure out the artists story and narrative. Also by the use of her body language and the image showing her to be sitting in an empty field it is also portraying her as being unique and at one with nature. This is conventional to the indie genre as it is representing the artist as someone who has their own style and has a unique personality. Indie artists are usually people who write and produce songs about their own personal experiences which also gives a sense of realism which makes them relatable to the target audience as they may have also experienced similar feelings. I also wanted to include the field background in my magazine advert as I felt as though this would help to maintain the same nature theme and keep the familiarity of all my projects the same and make them look clean cut and professional. An element of this photo that I like is the natural sunset that was included  in the image. The background includes of a natural light sky in the late afternoon with a slight sunset. I aimed to take the picture at this time to maintain an image that would portray innocence and freedom as this is what I want my artist to be represented as. By showing my artist as being free this is motivating for the target audience who may watch the music video and look up to the artist and also want to feel this way. The feeling of innocence is very positive which gives my magazine advert and artist a positive aura from the immediate reaction.

The next image I have used is a mid shot image showing my artist laying in the grass. I have decided to use this shot for one of my images used within my digipak album. I decided to use this image as I feel as though it is very conventional to the indie genre. I feel as though the artists body language which shows her laying in the grass shows she has a sense of freedom and also a sense of tranquility about her. It represents her as someone who is at one with nature and doesn't care to be in the spot light as she is in a location which is easily accessible for the target audience. This also makes her more relatable for the target audience as it is portraying her as someone who is ordinary like themselves and they could therefore build a relationship with her as they understand similar feelings and emotions that she does. The artists facial expressions in the image are also quite plain which creates an enigma for the target audience. This is another element I like about the photo as it will intrigue the audience to want to look further into the artist and her material which is further promoting her as an artist. I also like that the background of the image is grass. I like this because the colour green represents many different characteristics that are conventional to the indie genre. For example, the colour green represents balance, growth and generosity which are characteristics that I want to be portrayed within my artist to make her seem more humble and honest. This is to make it easier for the target audience to build a relationship with her and find her more relatable. This will also make her seem iconic and almost like a role model for the target audience which may motivate them and encourage them to carry on following the artist and her material.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed taking the pictures for my digipak and magazine advert. I felt as though a lot went well as I came out with a wide range and variety of different photos with different camera shots and angles and there was a lot of choice to work with for all the different images I needed to include in various projects. However, on the other hand there was also elements that I struggled with when participating in the photo shoot. I felt as though trying to make the pictures look natural and effortless was hard to capture and look professional. This was because sometimes the wind would be blowing the artist hair in the wrong direction and the cold weather would also make our artist look cold and uncomfortable in the pictures. However, once these aspects were illuminated from the situation the images were easy to produce and looked of a high standard quality and looked conventional to the indie genre. Overall, I wanted my pictures to represent my artist in many ways. I mainly wanted her to be portrayed as an optimistic, free girl who has her own sense of style and doesn't care about being in the spotlight. I wanted her to be portrayed as ordinary to make her more relatable for the target audience and this may help them to build a relationship with her.

Meetings and Discussions - Miss Miller

Meetings and Discussions

It is important that me and my group have regular meetings and discussions to share our ideas and work together to produce the best ideas for our music video. By having meetings for each new task that we have we can fairly interpret everyone's ideas and negotiate to an idea that everyone is happy with. It is imperative that an idea from everyone gets interpreted as it would only be fair due to the music video being of a team effort.
Me and my group organise our time by meeting when each member of the group has a sufficient amount of time to sit and discuss different elements of our music video. A lot of time is required to make sure we don't make rushed decisions and regret some of the choices we make in the end. We had to keep to a schedule as we couldn't have meetings without each member of the group as this would then become unfair and one of the members who are absent may dislike the decisions that the rest of the group make.

Overall, I believe that my group worked extremely well together. The reasons for this was that each member attended each meeting that we had scheduled and interpreted so many different ideas. We were open and honest with each other to ensure that each member of the group liked the final product that we had produced. Another reason that we worked well together as a group was because we all created a chat on our phones for discussion and planning outside of the lesson to ensure that we could always reach each other for media purposes and for scheduling when and where to meet to film the content for our music video. This was very beneficial for us as a group as everyone was involved and found it easy to contact another member quickly. It also made sure each member was aware if there was any changes to me made with any of our plans or anything hat we had scheduled to do within the group.
It was extremely beneficial for us to keep a record of each meeting and discussion that we held as it jogged our memory each time we looked back on that particular meeting. It also made us aware of any changed me may have made that we had forgotten about. It was also beneficial for us because it helped us keep more organised as a group. This is because we could easily go back and clearly be notified by what we discussed on that meeting and this would mean being much more organised than having to remember and asking other group members what we had discussed in that meeting.

Filming Schedule - Miss Miller

Filming Schedule

A filming schedule is important to have when filming a music video as it helps to keep the group organised as we can follow the specific guidelines we have created to follow the dates to film our material. It will help us to know what locations we need to visit and to film what scenes and everything that we will need within this scene to help us be prepared for each scene and not forget any essential items that we will need. 

Whilst filming we followed the filming schedule as closely as we could as it kept us in sync and allowed us to be prepared for each scene. When we were filming we kept as closely to the filming schedule as we could to ensure that we kept everything manageable and we were organised for what scenes we were to film on each day. On the date 7/11/15 we had scheduled to film shots in the forest and field. However the weather was extremely windy and rainy which made it very difficult for us to film and get stable shots. The quality of the shots wasn't as good as we had hoped as the wind kept blowing our artists hair in her face which looked unprofessional and messy. Therefore, we decided to leave the field and film on the 10/11/15 when the weather was much brighter and the sun was out. This was much more sufficient for our field scenes as the lighting worked well with the backgrounds and quality of shots and it made the shots look very professional and clean cut.
We also filmed some additional shots as we discovered some scenery that we thought would work well within our music video. For example, when we travelled to camden to film we noticed a lot of different buildings that looked very indie and conventional to our genre. Therefore we filmed quick snippets of these buildings to use as fillers in our music video. for example, close up shots of a colourful 3D elephant on top of a shot. 
Through the use of a filming schedule, I have learnt that its role has great significance in helping the group to stay organised and help us to remember the specific equipment that we needed to film for each shot. It helped us to remember what shots we had filmed and also what ones we needed to film.  

Risk Assessment - Miss Miller

Risk Assessment

The purpose of a risk assessment is to analyse and make ourselves aware of some of the risks that we could overcome when filming our music video. We have to be aware of the back up plans we have incase anything was to go wrong with the resolutions of our risks. We also have to be aware of the risks that could happen as we would have to bring certain things for if we was to overcome any problems. For example a first aid kid and a bucket of water to cool down any burns from the sparklers.

Whilst filming for our music video we tried to follow our risk management schemes as much as possible to ensure we didn't encounter any implications whilst filming. A problem that we encountered whilst filming was the weather. When filming in the forest and field the weather was a huge implication as our artist and the camera crew was extremely cold and this had an impact on the way she performed to the camera. The artist looked extremely uncomfortable and freezing cold which portrayed in the shots we were filming. This made the quality of the shots look very unprofessional and messy. Therefore we had to leave filming on this particular day and schedule to film on a day were it would be warmer and more comfortable for the artist to film and express herself in a way that was conventional to the genre. 
We have learnt by having a risk assessment that all the implications that we came across had a management and we could overcome it with ease. It also made us more aware of the implications that we could come across and this helped us to be more aware of the equipment we needed to avoid these as much as possible. For example, everyone that was scheduled to film the field scenes wrapped up with many layers, coats and gloves to ensure they would be warm whilst we filmed in the field.

Music Video Inspirations - Miss Miller

Music Video Inspirations

It is important to consider inspirations from different music videos as this can give you ideas that will connote things you want to portray in your own music video. other music videos make use of different shots in many different ways depending on the narrative, concept and style of video. 

Ellie Goulding - Explosions

In Ellie Goulding's "Explosions" music video I have taken inspiration from the editing effects used in the video. The music video makes great use of filters as it applies a black and white filter effect over the whole duration of the video. I have taken inspiration from this as I believe that it can represent different things in the video for example a memory, a thought, a flashback or a past experience that makes the audience feel emotional or sympathetic towards the artist. I believe that this will be effective in my own music video as the narrative of my music video is to narrate the broken relationship between the artist and her girlfriend and how the negative elements of their relationship forced them to break up. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually tell a personal story to the audience to relate with them. Therefore a black and white filter helps to make the memories that the artist is thinking about more clear for the audience as they can understand that the darker colour represents a negative and past event. This type of feature helps for the audience to gain a better understanding of a narrative based music video which is the type of music video that I will be producing with my group, to help the audience understand how the artist may be feeling. It also helps the audience to understand that Ellie may be going through a hard time as the dull colour filter gives off the impression of negativity, sadness and isolation which will ultimately make the audience sympathise with her and this will help them to build a relationship with her. Most indie artists write material about their own personal issues which will give off a sense of realism and help the audience to relate to similar situations as they may have experienced this before and can therefore gain comfort in understanding that their favourite artist also feels the same way. This will work well within my own music video as it will connote the negative feelings and emotions that come with break ups and the breakdown of relationships. I will incorporate the black and white filter in my own music video by choosing a black and white filter and dragging it over the top of the clips of the memories to symbolise a past experience which the artist is reminiscing on which will further make the artist more relatable for the target audience as reminiscing on memories is something that the majority of the target audience would do themselves and therefore could also imagine themselves in this situation.

Sam Smith - Writings on the Wall

I have also taken inspiration from Sam Smith's music video "Writings on the wall". The inspiration from this  video from the use of close up shots. Close up shots are used in this video to express his emotion and feelings towards a certain situation. The close up shot shows Sam Smith singing the lyrics to his song which I particularly liked within this music video. The use of a close up shot shows the artists true feelings through facial expressions which helps the audience to gain a clearer understanding of how they might be feeling. Also by having a close up of Sam Smith whilst he is singing it is giving the audience more focus on the lyrics because as the audience see him physically singing this lyrics they are more likely to pay attention to the lyrics and this may be a lyric that has some importance or significance to the audience. I like this idea and believe that we could use this in our music video to have importance on some of the lyrics in the song. I will incorporate close up shots in my music video in many different scenes. I will use a close up shot when the artist is singing towards the camera as a close up shot will show the artists facial expressions and this will help the audience to understand exactly how the artist feels about a certain situation. This may also help for the audience to build a relationship with the artist as they feel as though the can relate to them as they have also experienced similar feelings and emotions when they went through this situation. This is conventional of the indie genre as indie artists usually produce narrative music videos portraying themes and situations that the majority of the target audience would have experienced themselves like heartbreak or isolation. Therefore, when the target audience watch the music video and watch how the artist deals with the situation that they are in themselves ,this will motivate them and also inspire the audience to be more like the artist as they will feel like they can also get through anything that they may be struggling with as the artist is capable of doing this aswell.

Birdy - Light Me Up

In the music video "Light Me Up" by our chosen artist Birdy, I have taken inspiration from her use of locations. In this music video Birdy is seen dancing and singing around a London street with graffiti walls and cars parked on the roads. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually use settings which are low maintenance, low budget and are easily accessible for the target audience as this gives of a sense of realism and makes them seem more relatable as an artist to the target audience as they could imagine themselves in this situation or have already visited it themselves. By having a location which is easily accessible to the target audience it gives them a deeper understanding of what it is like to be in this position themselves and also gives them an insight into where Birdy spends her time and what places she likes to visit which is giving the audience a more personal feel of the video and makes the audience feel as though they have a connection with the artist and this way can build a relationship with them. This is helping the audience to recognise what Birdy is like as a person which they could relate to as she is someone who goes through the same everyday situations as the target audience and this would make them more likely to want to watch more of Birdy's material as she is an ordinary girl who they can relate to and recognise the ways in which she deals with situations that they may also be experiencing themselves. I particularly like this feature because I feel as though it makes the artist seem more like an ordinary girl and shows she is still herself with her own personality which the audience could relate to and build a relationship with her from. From this setting it makes Birdy seem as though she is down to earth and doesn't care about the attention she receives from being in the public eye. It shows she doesn't care about being in the spotlight and taken advantage of her position and welfare of being a celebrity singer. I will use this location within my own music video. I will use this location for our market scene when we are relaying memories of the couple and the artist is reminiscing on the positive times in their relationship. I will use this in my video by visiting London and finding a location that looks edgy and unique which is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are usually portrayed in this way. A location such as Camden which is known for its edgy, unique and extraordinary elements would be a perfect location to film a scene for my music video as this is conventional to the indie genre and will immediately tell the target audience more about the artist and her lifestyle.




Lana Del Ray - High By the Beach

Lana Del Ray's music video "High by the beach" has given me inspiration through the use of artist representation. In the music video a handheld camera technique is used to follow Lana as she runs through the building. I believe that this is conventional to the indie genre as the hand held camera technique gives off a sense of realism and also makes the audience feel as though they are part of the scene and are directly behind Lana in her music video. It also represents Lana as an important and angelic person. Through the use of her costume which is a white dress with a light blue long cardigan she presents a theme of purity, innocence and angelic elements. The handheld camera technique follows Lana as she runs through an isolated beach house. It is very windy and her long dress is blowing in the wind which almost makes her look as if she is flying which is also symbolic of an angel and purity. This could present her as vulnerable and someone who could be easily hurt and this is also conventional of the indie genre as most indie artists present themselves in this way so that they can make it more relatable for the target audience when they represent the way in which situations can hurt them and how they dealt with this. I feel as though this camera shot would be effective within my own music video as the concept and narrative of love and heartbreak is a situation that most of the target audience will be able to relate to and by having this camera short representing the artist in a innocent way they will feel inspired by Lana and will idolise to be more like her as they feel as though if she can get through this then so can they. This will also help them to relate to the artist because they will feel as though they are experiencing the same situation with the artist first hand and can personally understand what Lana is going through. This will help for the audience to build a relationship with the artist because they feel a sense of loyalty to them as they have followed them on this journey and they will feel closer to them and feel as though they have a connection with them as they can understand where they are coming from. I will use this technique in my own music video as I feel as though the handheld camera technique makes the audience personally feel as though they are watching in the characters point of view and this is why they feel as though they can understand how the artist is feeling. I also think the way this technique represents the artist shows her to be vulnerable yet innocent which is conventional to the indie genre and this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards the artist and this will help the audience to build a relationship with the artist.



Rihanna - Diamonds

The next inspiration I have taken is from the music video "Diamonds" by Rihanna. The reason I have taken inspiration from this music video is due to the performance element that is used in the video. For the majority of the footage in the music video it shows Rihanna singing towards the camera. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are usually recognised for their talent and not their ability to have extravagant music videos for example videos from the pop genre where a lot of green screen and CGI is used. By having the artist performing towards the camera it is showcasing the talent of the artist so the audience can appreciate the talent of the artist and also aspire them to follow their own dreams if this is also what they want to do. The use of a performance style music video also gives a sense of realism to the audience as they feel as though the artist is singing directly to them and that the artist is confiding in them and sharing their problems with them. This represents the artist and down to earth and humble as they also have problems even though they are famous. It allows the audience to connect and relate to the artist as they can physically see the pain on their face, their body language and also them singing with passion. I think this would work effectively in my indie music video as it will represent our artist in a way which makes it easy for the audience to understand how she is feeling and emphasise with her in this hard time in her relationship.

In conclusion this planning has given me an insight to how I will make my music video as conventional to the indie genre as I can. It has given me inspiration to look deeper into indie artist such as Lana Del Ray and Ellie Goulding as their music videos have a vast amount of elements that are conventional to the indie genre for example black and white filters, hand held camera techniques and also performance style elements used in the music video. I have taken inspiration from the songs "Wings" by Birdy, "Explosions" by Ellie Goulding and " Born to Die" by Lana Del Ray. These are three current possible songs I may use to produce my own indie music video. I will share these ideas with my group in our group discussion giving examples of the different micro-elements that work well within their music video.

Group Storyboards - Miss Miller

Group Storyboards

The purpose of a storyboard is to help organise and produce a successful and conventional indie narrative and purpose for our music video. It is imperative to plan our music video before we begin to film as it will help us to create stable and professional shots as we will have a greater understanding and idea on how to guide us to a conventional indie genre music video.

Here is photographic evidence of the planning me and my group have made in the storyboard format. Here we have discussed each frame individually including specific detail on timings, iconography, settings, actors included in the frame, lighting and editing techniques and also the narrative description of that specific frame.

As a group we carried out primary and secondary research which gave us inspiration for our music video. We carried this out in the format of a questionnaire and vox pops which included questions on the indie genre. Some of the questions we used were, "what types of locations would you expect to see in an indie music video?" and "what types of camera shots would you expect to see in an indie music video?". The most popular answer for these questions was a field and close up shots to show the artists emotion. Therefore, we incorporated these into our music video as this gave us an understanding as to what our target audience expected to see out of our music video. We used a field location to shoot our artist singing towards the camera, we felt as though her being alone in the field location would also portray a theme of vulnerability which is also conventional to the indie genre. We also incorporated many close up shots as this showed the artists facial expressions which enabled the audience to gain a deeper understanding of how the artist was feeling and the emotions that she felt when singing certain lyrics. This was also conventional of the indie genre as the artists usually portray themselves in situations that are relatable for the target audience. For example, going through a heartbreak as this is a common situation for the 15-25 year old target audience and they could therefore relate and personally understand how the artist may be feeling and this helps to make the artist become someone that the target audience would idolise. We used a variety of open and closed questions in our questionnaire and overall used a number of 10 questions. We gave our questionnaire to 40 members of the public from a range of target audiences ranging from 15-60+ although we focused mainly on the target audience of 15-25 as this was the main audience we would be targeting with our target audience. Once we received our results we made pie charts to make our results more organised and easy to follow. Once we recieved the highest numbers for our video we took inspiration from this and tried to include these elements in our music video. These included things such as a strong narrative, a relatable star and a isolated setting such as a field.

Most of the inspiration for our music video was taken purely from other music videos from the indie genre and also the results we got from our questionnaire that we gave to 40 members of the public. We took inspiration from similar artists to our chosen artist "Birdy" who is from the indie genre. We looked at artists such as Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Ray as these are two extremely successful indie artists and their music videos contain conventional connotations which my group can taken inspiration from and begin to incorporate some of these ideas in our own music video. We took inspiration from all micro-elements such as cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing. This includes various shots to help our artist connect with the audience, different editing techniques to help the video flow and make it easily understandable and also mise-en-scene to make our video and artist hold a sense of realism which helps for the audience to relate to the artist.
However, we also took inspiration for our music video from the ideas and inspirations of those of our group members. Each week the group would participate in group meetings to discuss and identify elements which we liked and disliked in our music video production. In these meetings the group participants were also able to describe any ideas they had to incorporate in our music video to improve any elements that were unclear or didn't work well in our video. This is where we took the inspiration for one of the key settings within our music video. Jemimah Ali, one of my fellow group members clarified that Camden Town in London would be a very conventional setting to use for our music video. She identified that in Camden there is many unique and exclusive buildings and individuals that look conventional to the indie genre as most indie artist represent themselves as individuals who have their own sense of style and have the freedom to express themselves the way that they want to. Therefore, the whole group agreed that this location would really fit into the theme we was going for and the representation we was portraying for our artist. We decided to use this location for a positive memory scene to show the couple shopping in one of the Camden markets on a date as not only did this portray a sense of realism to the target audience but it was also relatable as Camden is a popular and well known location which the majority of the target audience would have visited before further making the artist seem more ordinary and relatable.
Another inspiration that we received from group meetings and came from a group member was myself  and this was for the use of iconography which included of coloured smoke canisters. The idea was to let the smoke canisters off in the forest to create a unique and exciting atmosphere to also represent the rebellious side of the artist which is another relatable theme for the young target audience of 15-25 year olds. We decided as a group that this would also make our music video seem high budget and professional as you wouldn't usually expect to see big splashes of colour in the forest in a low budget indie video so this is also making our music video exclusive and unforgettable as this would have an impact on the target audience making them remember the music video and artist for being extraordinary. The use of smoke canisters is also used in Rihanna's video "We Found Love". She uses this type of iconography to represent the fun she had with her boyfriend and how they were rebellious and got into trouble with each other which her target audience could relate to. This is because she is from the pop genre which is usually symbolised with alcohol, drugs and rebelling which is conventional to the pop genre fans. However, we also took inspiration from this as indie artists sometimes write material about personal experiences where they have personally turnt to alcohol, drugs and rebelling which is represented in our video through the use of letting off smoke canisters together in the forest and having fun which is also portraying the artists personal life to the target audience which they could also relate to.

Rihanna using smoke canisters in her "We found love" music video

We took inspiration from many other artists and their music videos to overall gain a better understanding of the genre we was looking into to try and make an extremely conventional and successful indie video. Therefore, we looked at a variety of artists such as Lana Del Ray, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith. There are all successful indie artists with multiple music videos to analyse and identify key features.
One inspiration that we took from Lana Del Ray's music video "Summertime Sadness" was the use of a time lapse at the beginning of the music video. We took inspiration from this editing technique as we believed that this effect portrayed hidden meanings which were conventional of the indie genre. For example, the time lapse was of clouds which the clips speed had been increased to make it look as though the clouds were floating and moving forwards really quickly which would have indicated to the audience that the days were going on as they travelled through daytime to night-time. We felt as though this would portray the artists journey and show the audience that the artist had an experience to share with the audience through the narrative based music video. Therefore, we used this technique in our own music video by incorporating a time lapse of clouds to represent the journey the artist had been through before we narrated the artists story of her broken relationship. This is also conventional to the indie genre as the artists usually make their music videos narrative based to make themselves more relatable as the audience can understand how the artist must be feeling after the journey and situations they have been through.

Me and my group storyboarded our music video by discussing each frame in order. All the ideas we had mind mapped and discussed before were incorporated into the storyboards. From the beginning shot to the end shot we drew a snippet of what the frame would look like with a brief description underneath which listed : camera shot, location, iconography, lighting, actors, sound , editing and natrative description. Every detail of the shot would he explain making it easier for us to visual exactly how we wanted the shot to look like and also the shot we wanted to follow. We sat down as a group and discussed each frame in our story boarding process and each member of the group took turns to draw and write the description of the frame. As we were storyboarding we would look up specific camera shots and editing techniques from other indie videos that we liked the look of and believed would work well in our own video and natrative , along the process we would take new inspiration to incorporate in the storyboard to ensure we had a lot of detail to go by helping us to visualise and put the video together.

For most of the shots storyboarded for our music video we did follow, however, for different reasons we didn't follow the storyboard exactly to plan. Most of the important shots showing artists emotion and performance was the shots we filmed the same, however on the other hand, shots that we planned to use for transitions didn't work out as when we got to filming we came up with ideas that looked better than what we had originally planned. For example, we planned for our end shot to include a close up of our two love interests making a heart shape out of sparklers. However when it got to filming this didn't work out and the original idea we had for the sparklers to fizzle out didn't come through. Instead we decided to take shots of the girls walking hand in hand and playing with the sparklers to show they loved each other and were at a strong point in their relationship.

Storyboarding our ideas was helpful for filming because it enabled us to follow a guideline of what was conventional and successful in the indie genre. When filming it can generate stress for the group with the pressure of producing good shots with limitations such as weather and lighting so to have a guideline to follow makes it easier and less stressful as it makes the process more organised. This helps for the group to remember more ideas they had when they see the storyboard and remember the shot we have discussed as a group.

Storyboards were beneficial for us to create before filming as it allowed us to gain a better understanding of the effect we wanted to create and also in which way we would create this effect. For example, we notified in each shot which piece of cinematography would be used, what lighting technique and also what iconography would be used. This helped us immensely to understand exactly what we expected to come out of each shot and this helped us to create successful shots as we understood whether or not they would fit into our indie genre from previous research we had done on the five micro-elements.

Lyric Analysis - Miss Miller

Lyric Analysis

The purpose of analysing the lyrics of our chosen song is extremely important in order to create a successful and conventional artist image and narrative style music video. By understanding the hidden meanings and underlying connotations that the artist is portraying through the lyrics of the song will ultimately help us to create a conventional yet relatable video for the target audience.

Our planning and analysis of the lyrics can help us in various ways with different planning methods such as colour and lighting, cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing techniques as the lyrics give us detailed ideas into how the artist may be feeling and also their personality. The lyrics also helped us to develop ideas on different things we could include for the five different mise-en-scene elements as some of the lyrics enhanced our ideas. For example, the lyrics "sunlight comes creeping in", we created this effect to match the visuals to the lyrics and used a long shot of the forest to show the sun creeping through the trees.

Our chosen song "Wings" by Birdy is a song written and performed by the artist herself. The song symbolises personal situations that the artist has experienced that could be relatable for people in her target audience aged between 15-25. The immediate indication that the song lyrics gives to the audience is the theme of love, relationships and as the lyrics have parts of negativity this is portraying a theme of heartbreak and breakdowns of relationships which is a common issue for the majority of Birdy's target audience. However this is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists most commonly write material on subjects that they feel most strongly about so that the lyrics have an honest meaning and are completely relatable to how the artist is feeling. Me and my group decided to annotate our lyrics in four different sections; hidden meanings, artists representation, mise-en-scene/ narrative/ style and target audience relationship. We used a different colour highlighter to elaborate on these different elements and wrote our ideas and inspirations for this line in our video. We used the colour yellow for hidden messages, the colour orange for artists representation, the colour green for mise-en-scene/ narrative and style and finally the colour blue for target audience relationship.

The first lines we annotated were "sunlight comes creeping in, illuminates our skin" as these were the opening lines of the song. As a group we believed that these lyrics held a hidden message and instead represented two people from the plural "our", we decided that to fit in with our narrative of one girl who is unable to express herself in a lesbian relationship, that this line could represent the two of them together. Also with this being the introducing line at the start of the song it could portray the happy times at the start of the relationship when they "illuminated" as a couple. This is conventional to the indie genre as the narrative style of music video matches the codes and conventions of the indie genre. This is because indie artists usually portray their situations through a narrative style music video. The reason for this being because it will have a connection with the lyrics and also make it more relatable for the audience as they can physically witness and understand what the artist went through. This may also be conventional as the target audience may have also experienced similar issues themselves as they are of a similar age to the artist and have the same interests as her due to them both enjoying the indie genre. If this is the case then it further helps to promote the artist as the audience are more likely to want to watch the artists material if they mentally understand and connect with them on the situations that the artist writes about and how they represent themselves.

We also recognised as a group what lyrics we felt would suit best with a specific piece of cinematography. We decided that the lyrics "we'd remember tonight, for the rest of our lives" which feature as the last lyrics in the song would be beneficial to play alongside a close up shot of the two girls hands slowly parting and moving in different directions. We felt as though a close up shot of this image would work well as a lasting image for our video and give the audience an indication of the end of the video but also the end of the relationship in the narrative which is almost leaving the music video on a cliff-hanger as we have this image followed by a fade to black effect. This piece of cinematography is usually conventional to the indie genre as it captures sentimental moments that need to be focused on by the target audience. These shots are usually used in order to capture the artists facial expressions to help relay the narrative to the audience and make it more relatable for them. This will help for the audience to be more intrigued by the narrative and may also have an impact on them as they may have experienced a similar situation and will therefore look up to the artist as someone to aspire to for advice and comfort. The lyrics may also be an element that the audience could relate to. The lyrics may help the audience to think of a time which they have struggled with forgetting for example a past partner who they had a heartbreak with and this may help them to think about this situation as they watch the music video as this will help them to remember a very personal experience for them and this is finding comfort for themselves in material from my chosen artist which is further promoting her as an artist and providing comfort and entertainment for the audience. This is because they will want to be reminded of the experience they feel when they listen to the artist's music.


We also analysed the lyrics "It made me think of you" for a cinematography technique. We decided that we could use a close up shot for these lyrics of the artist looking at a photograph of the couple together. We felt as though by using a close up shot for this lyric it would support Goodwin's theory which states that one of the elements portrayed in most music videos are links between lyrics and visuals. It would also help for the audience to understand that when the artist sings these lyrics that she is referring to herself and her partner and this would give the audience the indication that the music video will follow a narrative of the common issue of heart break and isolation for the target audience of teenagers to young adults. The use of iconography of a photograph also represents a sense of realism as the audience would be able to imagine this scenario as most people have photographs and reminisce on memories from photos as it takes them back to a time when they were enjoying themselves and a positive time in their life. A close up shot is also a conventional piece of cinematography as it portrays the artist facial expressions which allows the audience to understand how they are feeling and how the situation has an effect on them. This is where the audience are able to build a relationship with the audience because they may have also experienced similar situations and this is where they can form a connection with the artist and build a relationship with them as they feel as though they can rely on the artist as she is also suffering from the same situation as them. This will also make the artist someone who the audience can look up to and aspire to be like because they are strong enough to get through the heartbreak in the music video which is something the target audience can strongly relate to.

Another element we analysed our lyrics for was editing techniques. We analysed what editing techniques we felt would best suit the lyrics in the song. One example that we analysed was "my words are leaving me, they caught an aeroplane". We felt as though these lyrics portrayed a sense of letting go and being alone. We felt that to portray this element we could use a slow editing technique of feathers and flower petals blowing in the wind in our field setting. We felt that this image with this editing technique would work really well alongside these lyrics as they would correspond and represent this physical image of items blowing and flying away like what the lyrics say. We also felt that this was conventional to the indie genre as it shows a slow and gentle movement which represents the characteristics of the artist in this part of the song. Also by using the objects of white feathers this represents an angelic and pure feeling which tells the audience that although the artist is letting go and is standing on her own that everything is going to be alright and she will succeed. The pink flower petals also represents admiration and respect which is also conventional to the indie genre and the specific narrative that we have chosen. The admiration could represent the admiration 0ur artist has for her partner and the respect could represent the respect she has for herself as a person to let go as her partner is unable to express her true self in the lesbian relationship.


Another editing technique we have chosen to use in our music video is montage editing. We will use this technique for our market scene when the two girls in the relationship are portraying the good times in their relationship. The lyrics we analysed for this technique are "I'm in a foreign state, my thoughts they slip away". We have chosen these lyrics as they represent that the artist feels in her element when she is with her loved pone. It represents her as being blinded by love as she doesn't see, feel or think about anything when she is with her loved one. Therefore we decided to portray the good times in their relationship with these lyrics to physically show that the good times in the relationship made the artist so blinded by love which ultimately made it much harder for her when the relationship started to fall apart. By showing the audience the good times they can follow the journey with the couple and almost relate to them as they feel they known them on a personal level as they have seen everything that they have been through. This is conventional to the indie genre because it gives the audience a personal feel which is the aim of the artists. They want to make the audience feel special and almost like a friend so they feel emotions towards them and want to follow them in their career and follow their new material.

The next element we analysed our lyrics for was lighting which is part of mise-en-scene. We analysed the lyrics " we watch the day go by". We had the idea to use a day to night time lapse of the sky in a field for these lyrics and the beginning of our music video. We thought that this would work really well as it connotes the lyrics but also gives our music video a professional look as it makes it look colourful, intriguing and mysterious. We also felt that the time lapse is physically explaining the words in the lyrics as it is showing an exact moving image of the day going by which makes it easy for the audience to understand the lyrics and also the emotions of the artist. This could represent many different emotions to the artist including loneliness, grief and sadness which could help the audience to sympathise with the artist further and build a relationship with them.
We also analysed the lyrics for the element of positioning of characters which is another part of mise-en-scene. For the lyrics "I just want to be by your side, if these wings could fly" we have decided to use two ballerina dancers representing the two girls in the failed relationship dancing behind a screen to show a silhouette effect. We felt that the two dancers could appear at every chorus to represent the different stages of the relationship throughout the song and perform dance moves that would represent the current situation that the two girls were experiencing in their relationship. We felt as though this was conventional to the indie genre as it helps the audience to understand further the relationship of the two girls and also the narrative. However it is also another way that helps the audience understand the artists emotions which is conventional to the genre as indie artists usually write and perform material that are about real life situations and experiences that they feel strongly about. Therefore this helps the audience to believe and understand the artist more in order to build a relationship with them.


The next element we analysed our lyrics for was iconography which is another element of mise-en-scene. The lyrics we analysed was "how you told me after it all, we'd remember tonight, for the rest of our lives". These lines appear multiple times in the song at the end of every chorus however we analysed these lyrics as the final end chorus. The iconography we chose to use for these lyrics was two sparklers that the two girls are seen using on a camping night earlier in the music video. However we felt that by using these sparklers again at the end of the music video we could have the sparklers fading out to represent not only the end of the video but also the end of the relationship. We felt as though the sparklers could represent many things to the audience. For example, the faded sparkler could represent the loss of spark in the relationship or the failure one of the girls felt as she couldn't express herself as her true self as a lesbian. The light from the sparkler could represent her as a lesbian and the faded out sparkler could represent how she hasn't let herself be true and honest and therefore has lost out on her relationship and someone who loves her. This is conventional to the indie genre as it is ultimately portraying the feelings the artist felt when this happened to her and she is portraying to the audience her honest opinion which the audience can respect her for and build a relationship with her.
The next element we analysed was setting which is another element of mise-en-scene. We analysed the setting with the lyrics "oh lights go down, in the moment were lost and found". We discussed that the setting we would use for these lyrics would be a normal female bedroom. We decided to use this setting because we felt that it would give our artist and music video a sense of realism and that it would make the artist more relatable to the audience because of this as they could imagine themselves in this situation. We came up with the idea that these lyrics could demonstrate one of the underlying problems in the relationship. The lyrics symbolise that they relationship is at its highest point when the lights go down and no one can see them. This may represent how one of the girls doesn't want to represent her true self as a lesbian which is why the relationship is falling apart. By using a dark bedroom which most of the target audience could imagine will create a sense of realism as they can physically imagine how the artist may be feeling when she is being neglected. This is because the target audience may be able to relate to this as a common cause of failed relationships is when one person neglects the other. This is conventional to the indie genre as the artist usually perform material that they have experienced personally and want to express their emotions about it in a song. The audience could then build a relationship with the artist because of this as they can relate to how they feel.


The final element of mise-en-scene that we analysed our lyrics for was costume. We decided that in our bonfire scene our artist would be wearing black tights, black boots, a grey dress , a denim jacket and a hat. This is because these pieces of clothing represent grunge and indie as they are unique and out of the ordinary. The lyrics we want to show our artist in this costume is "under a trillion stars, we danced on top of cars". We believe that these lyrics give a visualisation of a camp night in a field with an indie feel as this shows isolation other than the two girls together happy in their relationship. This scene will show a positive period in their relationship which will help for the audience to understand the pain that the artist feels when the relationship begins to break apart. This is conventional to the indie genre as the audience can emphasise with the artist because of this and build a relationship with them as they want to follow them and see them enter a positive state again.

The style of music video that we want our video to follow is a narrative based music video with elements of performance. I believe that having our video mainly narrative based is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually have actors recreate their own personal experiences which gives the video a sense of realism and makes it more personal to the audience. However I also believe that by having performance elements of our artist singing also helps to portray emotion if the audience can clearly see the emotion of their faces. My group also analysed the lyrics for facial expressions and body language which is another part of mise-en-scene. When the lyrics "oh damn these walls, in the moment were ten feet tall" which is part of the chorus is played we are going to have the image of our artist singing to the character. She will be looking into the character which is conventional to the indie genre as it is as if she is looking straight at the audience and telling them the personally which also makes the video seem more personal to the audience. Her body language will be passionate and will show that she feels strongly about the situation. This will include things like singing with her hands and lifting her arms up to show she feels really deeply about this subject. This will portray to the audience how hurt she is and this will make them feel empathy towards her if they have experienced similar feelings before.

I will use my annotations in order to create a professional and conventional storyboard. I will specifically take ideas from my cinematography and editing points as they have given me a clear visualisation of the look we will create in our music video and I want my storyboard to have a strong resemblance with this. I will use our ideas we have discussed as a group to create a unique yet intriguing look that will attract an audience and create an interesting atmosphere to watch. I think this planning has really helped me to understand the hidden meanings and messages in the song and the true emotions that Birdy felt when writing and performing the song. I believe that this has given me inspiration to create an emotional and conventional indie music video as it gives a sense of professionalism and realism.