Storyboards

Storyboards are graphic organisers combining two main parts: images and descriptions of a scene. They are a series of photos, drawings or clip art that outline the sequence of scenes and major changes in a video production. It includes graphics that reveal main action of scene as well a scene description. It also goes into further depth including aspects such as camera techniques and audio (eg. narration, dialogue, voice over, sound effects and music). It allows us to manage the timing of our production and gives us an opportunity to solve any problems that nay arise prior to filming. It portrays our basic idea of the production illustrates to others how the final product is seen as well as clarifying our vision to the rest of the group. 

We carried out a range of primary and secondary research in order to help us to plan our music video and provide us with a larger amount of information. Our primary research included: questionnaires and vox pops. This provided us with information on the preferences and opinions of our target audience as well as highlighting any areas that may allow us to expand our target audience. Our secondary research included: research into our artist and record labels; this provided us with knowledge to understand the style of the artist so that we could follow this within our own interpretation and music video. 

To storyboard our video we followed the outline that we was given and filled in each section to outline everything that we may need to know when filming our music video. To do so we combined each others individual ideas and discussed which would give our video the best outcome, we then transferred these onto out storyboards. The responsibility was split eveny between each member of the group by giving each individual a section of the nusic video to storyboard once it had been decided within the group. 

Our storyboards acted as a guideline to the different scenes and shots that we wanted to include. However this altered as we were filming due to the ivolving ideas that we had once we were in the actual location and the difficulty of achieving some of the shots that we had included in the storyboards. We began to realise that we had not planned the type of shots that we would include in enough detail. For example when the male character is walking through the graveyard and to the grave stone we had not included enough close up shots of his facial expressions in the planning and therefore added these once we began to film. This was the case in several different sections of the narrative, however the storyboards meant that we could follow the basics and adapt it when we felt necessary, producing a more successful music video. 

Our Storyboards:
 

Planning lighting and colour

Lighting is largely important to consider when producing our music video as it will be used to portray the mood and atmosphere of each scene. The colour that is created by the different lighting techniques can also be used to present juxtapositions and connotations and will help to indicate the artist and narrative as well as any hidden meanings behind the actions or lyrics. The lighting is also more important to our group due to the song that we have chosen to create our music video for as the lyrics incorporate the idea of the 'sun' and is therefore vital that we have considered linking the lyrics and visuals throughout. 

We have used naturalistic light throughout our music video to give a believable and realistic view of the scene. This, we hope, will lead to the audience being able to relate to the video more easily and therefore make it easier for them to put themselves in the situation and to connect with the characters and events. We filmed the graveyard scenes in the daylight to contrast the lyrics 'the sun don't shine' and we angled the camera so that the sun could be seen in each shot that we used to remind the audience of the links to the song. For scenes that show the good times of the relationship we have filmed in the dark which again contrasts the lyrics of the song. This contrast will help to show the audience the good and bad times of the relationship and make it easier for the audience to understand and interpret. Our decision to use naturalistic light however goes against the conventions of the house genre that we have chosen. House and dance tends to focus on artificial club lighting techniques as this is where this genre of music would typically be played and enjoyed. It is however the right decision for the narrative based concept that we have adopted for our music video as we have broken the conventions of the genre throughout. For this reason however we also have used sections of artificial lighting to remind the audience of the genre as well as following the beats of the music. It will also increase the entertainment value for the audience as it will introduce a party element and therefore making it easier for them to enjoy, rather than a continuous narrative based focus. 

We have used colours within our music video in order to give a sense of foreboding of the unfolding events. For example we have dressed the female character in black clothing as it gives the character a sense of mystery and holds the connotations of death, foreboding her death within the narrative. It poses questions for the audience and makes them unsure of the following scenes that they will witness, creating a sense of the unknown which will increase the entertainment element for the audience. This is paired with a pair of jeans to give the character a sense of normality so that the audience feel as if it is real and therefore more easy to relate to. 

The decisions that we have made regarding lighting and colour have been discussed by all group members so that all our ideas could be incorporated. We felt that is was important to communicate hidden meanings in the lyrics etc through the use of different aspects such as lighting and colour which is why this kind of planning is important. This will give the audience a fuller understanding of the narrative as well as the song which will add to the entertainment value. It will continue to add to the relationship that the audience have built with the narrative and the artist. 

Lyric Analysis

The lyrics of our song are fairly basic due to the genre of dance/house that focuses more on the beats of the music rather than the words. The lyrics have more of a literal meaning rather than any hidden ones. The lyrics describe a relationship and the love that the artist/ persona feels for their boyfriend/girlfriend. We have decided to use this theme within our music video through showing the ups and downs of a relationship as well as incorporating a narrative in order to provide more depth. The happier lyrics such as 'I love you, don't ever let go' will be paired with happy flashbacks of the couples relationships such as at the park etc. The lyrics ' The sun don't shine without you, without you' lends itself to the part of the narrative where there are harder times of their relationship such of arguments etc. These lyrics will also be linked with the crash to emphasise the idea that she has gone, 'without you' and will use darker lighting to contrast the other more cheerful aspects. 

The younger (teenage) target audience that our song and artist lends itself to a narrative such as the one that we have chosen. This is because they will be at the stage of their life where they will be experiencing similar events and will therefore make the video more relatable to the audience. This will give them a deeper insight into the song and the lyrics and enhance their understanding whilst also entertaining them. We didn't feel that there were many hidden meanings behind the lyrics of the song that we have chosen so we therefore decided the enhance the lyrics that were already present. We therefore decided to choose the narrative of a relationship where the lyrics 'the sun don't shine without you' would be relevant. We decided for it to be about the loss of a partner and that it seems like the sun doesn't shine when she isn't around. We also felt that this would lead to the audience to be able to relate to the lyrics and the narrative and therefore make it more emotive. It also made it easier for our group to make lighting decisions as we would include high key lighting for good memories that they shared together and low key lighting for when he is missing her. Setting decisions were also made easier due to the fact that they had to comply with the idea of a relationship, this lead us to choose the settings that we did e.g: Bedroom, House, Park, Pub. 


(Include annotations of the lyrics) 

Target Audience Research: Pie Charts

We chose to use pie charts to present the information that we collected from our questionnaires. This was in order to make the feedback easier to interpret as we felt that visual aids will be more engaging.

Our first question determined the age of the participants that we were using within our questionnaire. This was so that we could ensure that we were collecting the opinions of a range of different age groups as well as a greater number of participants belonging to our target audience age group. This would make sure that we had collected enough information in order to be useful within our research and that we could broaden and include as wide target audience as possible. As well as this it allows us to specify the people we are targeting in more depth and therefore more accurately to increase the appeal of the video.

We chose to use a sample of both males and females, ensuring that each category was evenly spread. This was deliberate in order to gain further understanding into the opinions of both genders due to our target audience being fairly evenly weighted. This gave us an insight into which different aspects each gender would like to see in a music video, as well as highlighting any correlation between each. It would also result in our music video becoming pleasing for both males and females and therefore broadening our target audience rather than focussing on just one gender  specifically. The genre is a very accessible for both males and females and as a result we wanted our research to reflect this, and in turn our music video.

 Once we had determined the basic information of the participants that we had included we then wanted to deep a bit deeper into their interests, and more specifically their favourite music genres. Our feedback further cemented the opinion that we had chosen the right genre of music for our specified target audience due to the majority of participants favouring the dance genre (35%) over a few selected others. We feel that this is due to an increase in popularity that the dance genre has seen within the teenage generation and is featured in mainstream music. This encourages the fact that our music video will be successful and that our song was well chosen. The genre is also one that is enjoyed by each member of our group and we therefore felt that we had a better understanding of the genre and allowed us to be more creative. This will hopefully lead to our music video of having a higher chance of becoming successful.

The following question also reiterated the conclusions that we had drawn from the previous one. It allowed us to see that the artist that we had chosen was popular within the public and more importantly our chosen target audience. This statistics of a majority of 77% of participants that answered our questionnaires had heard of the song and gave us more hope in that we had chosen a popular song and that our music video will be a success.

It was made evident that the participants that had completed our questionnaires preferred a narrative based music video. We followed the opinions of the participants as it was also one that all members of the group also agreed with. Due to our music video belonging to the dance music genre we felt that we should follow the conventions. As dance music focusses predominantly on the beat of the music