Verse breakdown

For the song 'Nightcall' for my music video, I have decided that I will not use the whole song. Below are the highlighted lyrics that I will use (highlighted in yellow):

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you (there's something inside you)
It's hard to explain (it's hard to explain)
They're talking about you boy (they're talking about you boy)
But you're still the same


Here, it can be seen that I am omitting the some of the female character's lyrics (having decided between two different versions of shortening). At the 01:35 and 2:18 marks, the transitions are present in this video (shown below) where the lyrics have been removed. Here, there is a better split between the lyrics for the woman and the man that makes this a more manageable song to work with.

Having prepared my new edited song, I will now break up each set of lyrics into different scenes. These lyrics for different scenes can be seen at this Prezi:

Props, costumes and actors

For my music video, I have acquired multiple props that I feel are appropriate for the genre of Synthpop.

Firstly, I have a religious necklace that is a diamond style crucifix. This ties in with the religious element of Kavinsky's "Odd Look" where the protagonist is almost 'God-like' as he is impervious to bullets and attacks, making his appear omnipotent and beyond human (or like God himself or at least a version of God). This also adds a mysterious element to the character.

Secondly, I have a walking stick that I would like to use in my music video to help represent physical disability. As noted on my AS Media blog on disability, this can have "strong connotations that can be made from including disability in a piece of media" which I feel could prove useful for my video in matching the mysterious elements of characters in other Synthpop music videos. (http://samuelpilsworth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/considering-representing-disability-in.html)






Thirdly, I have a pendent with a skull design that I feel will add to the mysterious and dangerous element of the male character. The pendent's design symbolizes death which appears to be a present element in Synthpop music videos (or at least similar dark topics such as violence) that I found out in my research.




Fourth, a prop that I am planning to use in my music video is a hospital gown that the character will be wearing in the interior shots. This links to the walking stick to show the cause of the character's wounds. In Synthpop music videos, mysterious characters presenting evidence of things that need to be inferred is common and so I am including that in my project.







I will also have props that I will use to represent the danger of the male character and his intentions. These are a handgun and knife that will be present in shots but not actually used for violence.








For my music video, I will require one male actor that I will fill as a role.

Filming locations

For my music video, I plan to shoot scenes 1,2 and 5 in this location (left), a dining room. Close ups on the different props such as the alcohol flask, skull pendant, cross necklace, bible and fire will be shot agaisnt the table with the camera positioned above. The shots of the man, candles and matches will be shot against the white wall inbetween the curtains and cupboard. I plan on using the wooden chair present in the image but need to be sure that the chair is not overly noticable in the shot. I will likely make alterations to this location such as opening the curtains and raising the blinds so that natural light is present in the shot instead of artificial light.

For the exterior shots of nature, I will be filming in my back yard. Here, there are a number of different items that can be filmed that include plants, children's windmills and play equipment such as a climbing frame. I also plan to get some shots of the sun in my music video so I need to plan the best time when the sun is present.

For my car interior shots looking outside, I will film from the inside of a car driving between the two locations on the map (right). I plan to film at dusk but need to consider the difficulty of doing that at this point of the year as the change from daytime to nighttime natural light occurs extremely quickly.

Storyboard

Below is the storyboard for my film opening broken up into scenes 1-6. Scene 6 does not have an example shot as the scene only contains on screen titles. The example shots are either hand drawn or sourced images that should only be seen as approximate images but are a good representation of the planned shot.

Planning the narrative

In my music video, my narrative will follow a man who will be present alone in a  room and will be singing towards the camera. The man will be dressed in a hospital gown and be bald (inferring cancer or some illness). There will be inference to him being ex-military, having suffered wounds from that career (hence the clothing). The female lyrics will be matched with positive imagery whereas negative imagery will be present when the male sings. This will represent the man as potentially dangerous and even potentially with evil intention whereas the female voice represents innocence and the beauty of life.

The video will begin with the man singing towards the camera and to the environment around him. The video will then change to exterior locations when the female sings and then back to darker imagery of cars when the male sings again. After that when the female sings, the imagery will show positive imagery again showing how the male has changed.

Carrying generally negative tones, the narrative also follows quite a dark narrative but with a somewhat positive ending of the change in the man.

Planning timetable

After having completed my research into music videos as a whole and then looked specifically at Synthpop, I now feel that I understand how to create a music video that is both unique but also keeps to the characteristics and features of Synthpop music videos. I will now begin planning my music video and will begin to timetable my deadlines.

Proposed by my teacher are the following deadlines:
October 3 2016- Media Research Deadline (General and Synthpop music videos)
November 7 2016- Media Planning Deadline (Storyboard and all pre-production)
November 9-10 2016- Media Main Task (Principal photography and then editing)
November 11 2016- Main task (draft) finished
November 14 2016- Start ancillaries
November 18 2016- Ancillaries and main task finished
November 21 2016- Media Finished Task Submitted

At my current point of finishing my research by September 14 2016, I am ahead of schedule by 2/3 of a month which will allow me longer to work on and finish my project.

What have I done to improve my blog?

In my last post, I identified that I needed to make some improvements to my blog.
Firstly, I needed to increase the use of IT in my blog. Below are some examples of when I have done this and which blog this was done on:

• Addition of an mp4. example to increase ICT use and break up the post "Communication Through Eyes".
• Prezi added to "Nightcall-lyrics" to show which lyrics are placed into each scene.
• Inclusion of a Youtube video to my music video analysis of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble".
• Bubbl.us added to my blog "choosing a project" to show the different options of projects
• Slideshare on my blog FOSMV: Mise en Scene/costume/hair/make-up
• Youtube video example on my post about editing in Snythpop music videos.

I have also added more example and images to blogs to better analyze different Synthpop music videos. Additionally, I have clarified my blog about the tone of Synthpop music videos with more descriptive adjectives than just "dark" to describe the tone. I have also added more information (such as the post on audience and editing techniques) and examples to some posts about the features of Synthpop music videos as well as other details (on posts about performance space).