Mise-en-scene

There are a number of different factors that come together to create the mise-en-scene within any media product. Mise-en-scene refers to everything that appears before the camera and to its arrangement. This includes:

1) Lighting - The deliberate application of light to achieve some practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting crosses between both cinematography and mise-en-scene and goes far beyond basic exposure, and can even tell a story in itself. Certain lighting and the absence of lighting, can trigger an emotional response from my target audience to the media product. This is because, the intensity and direction of lighting can have a profound effect on the way your media product is perceived, if it is used effectively. Within my media products, I aim to use a variety of lighting techniques during the music video and ancillary texts, as I predict this will provoke a greater response from my target audience. The lighting in my media products will likely be limited to either conventional studio lighting or natural/available lighting whenever I am filming outside. 

2) Colour - A continuous colour scheme or colour style is important when constructing any media product. There are also certain colour schemes and styles that are conventional to particular mediums or genres, and this is something that I will most certainly be taking into account when planning and constructing my media products. The original music video for 'Music is My Radar', which I will be recreating, has a very significant use of colour scheme. The black/white/red colour scheme in that video is present throughout the music video, which really emphasises the dance routine and overall setting of the music video. The colour scheme for my media products will predominantly be black/white/blue, as I want to keep it similar to that of the original music video, borrowing elements from what is one of the core influences of my media products. Another reason for this is that the album name will be 'Electric Blue', so the colour scheme will literally fit the style of the album and artists also. The example below is from an OK GO music video. 

3) Characters - The characters within a media product refers to the living subjects within the storyline, that appear before the camera. The original idea for my media product was for it to include three characters, as the subject and artists within my music video. The only character within my final media product will be 'Maverick', as presented by our subject Charlie, who is the artist represented in each of our media products. The example below is one that is unique and iconic to the band Gorillaz and the animated characters that appear in their music videos. 

4) Costume - The costume used within a media product, is a factor which greatly contributes to the character of a subject. Costume refers to any wardrobe/clothing/makeup and accessories worn by each individual subject used within the media product. Like colour, costume is another element of the mise-en-scene which widely varies depending on the medium and genre of the media product. The genre of my music video will be a combination of rock and electronic sub-genres, like alternative and an element of psychedelic, so therefore costume is very important factor of the mise-en-scene. The subject that we used for our media product fits this costume design rather well in general, though we will have to plan what they are wearing before each photoshoot. 

5) Props -  This refers to any objects that are used in addition or in combination with a character's costume of representation. They could also be objects which enhance the setting or narrative. The original idea for my media product included a band and a sequence within my storyboard where each of the characters would be playing instruments in a somewhat conventional band layout. However, as this is not the case anymore, I predict that our media product will have a little less reliance on props, though a guitar, microphone or perhaps some other props may show up at some point. 

6) Representation - There are seven main areas of representation that can be used during a media product, these are gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, class and status, disability and regional identity. Each of these representation areas are generally demonstrated using a combination of the other areas of mise-en-scene, such as characters and costume. As there will be only one subject within our media product, I predict that there won't be such an emphasis on representation within our media product. 

Location

Throughout the construction of our music video and ancillary texts, we used a range of locations which I thought would both provide good quality photo and video for the finished product, and a location which matches the style and iconography of our chosen genre. A rather large proportion of our music video is shot on green screen and therefore a good deal of my location is in a very opportunistic environment, as I can edit the background of the video footage using the ultra key editing tool in Adobe Premiere Pro. As well as the green room studio, I also used the photography studio for a lot of the photography that I included in my ancillary texts. I did this because I wanted to ensure that my media product had a high level of production quality, such as the lighting which I found to be very effective in this particular photography studio at the college. 

The rest of my media product that wasn't shot in a photography studio, was shot in a number of locations in the local area. Some of the footage was taken around the area of my college and other days we had filming in Beverly and Hull town. When filming, we tried to shoot at locations that I felt fitted the style and iconography of our chosen genre, and where we could shoot a variety of cinematography. 

Health and Safety Assessment

Production Plan & Lyric Analysis

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SrnLEiGzeN4jBGVND3J6hXq_7MhDzFd402xRODdMEbE/edit#gid=0

Animatic

Storyboard

Defining My Audience

I used the online survey website surveymonkey.com in order to construct some research of my audience. Below I have included a link to the survey that I have created, as well as the results for each of the questions on the survey. This has enabled me to gather some relevant information about my audience, including demographics, psycho-graphics and questions related to the original music video and song that I have chosen. The respondents that completed my survey were chosen at random, so there is a large range of replies. I thought that this was a good idea, because it gave me a general view of the people that could view my music video. 
My Survey

The first three questions that I asked in my questionnaire were basic demographic questions that you would come to expect in all questionnaires. The first question shows that the respondents are majority 16-19 years old, which is an somewhat accurate representation of my audience, but could also be due to the fact that, being that age myself, most of the people that I was able to find to complete my survey were also this age. The second most selected answer was 20-25 which I would expect, with a very small amount being 15 and under/26 and over. The second question shows that my audience is predominately male, but there is only slightly less female respondents, as well as a very small percentage who selected 'other'. The third question shows that the majority of respondents are white/Caucasian, with a few respondents selected Asian/Pacific/Hispanic/Latino, and one respondent who said they would prefer not to say. I think that this shows a rather accurate representation of my audience, due to the local region which the survey was obviously completed. 

Analysing the results of this question I have found that people listen to a large range of different music genres, and because this was a multiple choice question, I also found that people generally like a number of different music genres. 50% of the respondents said that they liked Rock music, which are likely to be my target audience, due to the genre of my chosen song.  

This was also a multiple choice question, as people can listen to music a great range of ways, especially in the last few years because of the huge growth in streaming music online. The two most selected answers for this question were Youtube and Spotify, which I would expect because of how popular these two mediums have become in recent years. 

I chose to include this question because I thought that it would give a greater insight into the type of music videos that people like. From the results I found that the most enjoyed music videos are in the form of a narrative, but the other options weren't far behind, with the exception of animation which evidently isn't quite as popular. However, I think that this question would have been more valid if I were to have made it a multiple choice question. 

This results from this question have shown me that music videos might not be quite as popular as people think. If I were to guess, I would assume that this is because a lot of people choose to consume music in ways which often do not include the music video, like iTunes, Spotify, and even physical copies of music bought from stores. 

Although not every respondent answered this video, this question has given me a number of music videos which people enjoy, so that I can view them myself, find out what it is people like about them and try to incorporate something from them into my own music video. 

This question has given me a general idea of what people do and don't like about the original music video for the song that I have chosen. Respondents generally seemed to enjoy the performance aspect of the original music video, which is something that I will try and keep within my music video. 

This question was generally rather interesting because it allowed respondents to give me some ideas on what they think could be changed about the original video, so that I can do just that when I come to make my music video. Some ideas that were given were to incorporate some narrative into the video, to have the music video be very abstract, and to include some element of green screen. 

Green Screen in Music Video

The use of green screen in music video provides countless opportunities for effects that wouldn't be available without. This is why I have chosen to incorporate green screen into my own music video, shrinking the lead singer, including the kaleidoscope, changing backgrounds, and probably many other effects that I will use once I begin constructing the music video and editing later. 

In order to use green screen, I must first record my music video as normal, but instead of using the background that I wish to be in the final video, I will record sequences against a green screen so that I can add more interesting backgrounds during the editing process. Before recording, I'll also want to have a good idea of how the final video is going to look, so that I can make the necessary movements during the recording process. Then, once all the footage has been taken, I will begin editing in order to add in any of the necessary special effects and cut out the background so that only the artists, props and any other mise-en-scene is left within the frame of the video sequence. Then the final stage is to add any backgrounds that I like, whether this is a background that I have previously recorded, effects that can be found on the editing software, or third party effects that can be purchased online and added to the editing software. 

The video that I have included below comes from a Youtube channel called flomotion.eu, and demonstrates effectively how green screen can be used within a music video scenario to manipulate size and scale, which is obviously relevant to my music video, as I am planning to do something very similar. The editing process that has been used in this video is known as keying, which is  essentially an editing tool that is available on video editing software, which removes the green background from an image/video. Though, the youtube video below is particularly impressive is that there is movement of the camera, which means that they would have also had to go through the process of motion tracking which does make the process of using green screen much more difficult than if you had a still camera.

The image below is also another influence for my music video and comes from the video for 'Coffee and TV' by Blur. It is a character known as 'Milky' who is essentially a person in a costume who has been shrunk, probably using some green screen, and is the main feature of that video. 

Kaleidoscope in Music Video

A kaleidoscope is an optical instrument invented by Sir Eoin Cussen in 1815, containing glass which is held loosely at the end of a cylindrical rotating tube. The instrument shows continually changing symmetrical forms using multiple reflections where several mirrors are placed at an angle to one another. 

In 1972, John Lyon Burnside and Harry Hay invented an improved form of the kaleidoscope, now called teleidoscope, which uses a lens and an open view so that it can form patterns outside of the instrument itself. Modern editing software means that we can now create unique and creative visual effects like a kaleidoscope from a computer, which I would imagine is significantly easier than using the actual instrument. 

I think that using the kaleidoscope effect in our music video will greatly show the alternative and even psychedelic rock elements of our chosen song. These kind of effects will interest the target audience for my music video due to the unique and alternative visuals that it creates using green screen during the post production of the music video. Researching the use of kaleidoscope in music video, I managed to find two examples that I think are very effective use of the visual effect. These two examples are 'OK Go + Pilobolus - All Is Not Lost' and 'RUFUS DU SOL - Sundream'. 

RUFUS DU SOL - Sundream

Video artist Katzki and director Jackson Mullane built a large floating kaleidoscope in order to create the unique patterns in this music video for the Austrialian dance act 'Rufus'. The kaleidoscope was made by the director's friend Hamish Johnstone and every sequence apart from the beginning was created using the extraordinary instrument.

I think that the use kaleidoscope in this video is a brilliant example of how the instrument can be used effectively in music video. The video was created using a 4K television and a specially created, large scale kaleidoscope which clearly had a great impact on the quality of the video, whereas mine will be filmed using a standard HD camera and the Final Cut Pro editing software. However, the kaleidoscope effects created using green screen and capable editing software will hopefully be good enough to make this effect look effective so that the target audience can appreciate it properly.



OK Go + Pilobolus - All Is Not Lost

This music video was released  in August 2011 and features the band members dancing the song with the dance company Pilobolus. Pilobolus is an American modern dance company that began performing in October 1971 and has since performed over 100 choreographic works in over 64 countries around the world. They have also won a great number of awards for their work, generally dance related, but they have also won a Guinness World Record for fitting the most people into a mini cooper. The music video was released as a Google Chrome experiment, that was made in association with Google and was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for the Best Short Form Music Video.

I would expect that this video was made on a smaller scale the 'Sundream' video, but the band OK Go are famous for creating several unique and innovating music videos, which all have a remarkable online following, most notably on Youtube, which is probably why Google decided to make a music video with them. The visual effects that everyone involved in the project created makes this video very unique, especially with the interesting choreography s featured within the music video.





Synopsis

Working alongside Alfie Adams, I will be creating a new and original music video for the song 'Music is My Radar' by Blur, which will feature our new artist 'Maverick', performed by Charlie Sommerville. The original idea as represented by the storyboard created, was going to include a band of three. The original synopsis is as written below.

The music video will be an abstract video, with some elements of performance and narrative. The music video will incorporate a of range micro elements that will be conventional to music videos and our chosen genre of rock, including green screen and use of rhythmic editing. The video begins with the lead singer of the band falling from space, to which he will land and eventually find the rest of the band. Shortly after this, there will be a flash of light and this is when the second act of the music video begins. This section of the music video is set inside a house and includes a lot of keying using the green screen. Then the final act will be set as though it is on a television music channel, where the band will perform in front of a green screen background, until the music fades out with the video and the song ends. 

Identity of The Artist & Casting

The original idea for my artist was an alternative band called 'Electric Blue', consisting of three band members, Charlie Sommerville, Chloe Parry and myself (Ben Knapton), as demonstrated in our storyboard. However, due to a series of complications, we ended up going with a solo artist, still featuring Charlie Sommerville. I decided to incorporate 'Maverick' into this, from my first year blog. The name of the album is now 'Electric Blue', as I think that this is still conventional with the style and genre of my artist. The track 'Losing my Edge' by Lcd Soundsystem, is featuring Chloe P on the track list, which was the main artist used on my first year blog. 

Maverick's style and costume throughout my digipak and video fits the style and genre of my chosen track well, and this will allow the audience of my artist to connect with the ideology of Maverick.                                

'Music is My Radar' - A Textual Analysis

Video release date - 30th July 2012

Produced by Ben Hillier
Genre - Dance-Rock/Psychedelic Rock 

Lyrics:

'You really got me seeing you
Really got me done y'all

Music is my radar
Really topped my joy y'all

Really topped my radio
Really got me done y'all
Dealing I'll be seeing you
Really got my beats now,on my ear...

Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now

Really got me changing from my bill from job
Intro a new life, oh you really got
Really got me singing elsewhere, oh my girl
Really got me dancin', dancin' in my head now baby

Tony Allen dancing 
Tony Allen dancing 
Tony Allen gets what a boy can do
Really got me dancin'
He really got me dancin'
But I don't give my soul
All y'all need and yeah don't give a soul
You really got me drifitn'
You really got me dancin'
You really got me dancin' in my head

Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now
Aah don't stop me now

Aah don't stop me now (You really got me dancin')
Aah don't stop me now (You really got me dancin')
Aah don't stop me now (You really got me dancin')'

The three lines that I have highlighted above 'Tony Allen dancing' x2 and 'Tony Allen gets what a boy can do', were the inspiration for Damon Albarn and Tony Allen working together recording the abum 'The Good, the Bad, and the Queen'. Apart from this, there isn't much else that can be interpreted in terms of the lyrics. However, the lyrics that are used do relate to the music video and the genre of dance-rock, as the lyrics are about dancing and I suppose the thrill of dancing that does relate to the ideology of the target audience. 

The video for 'Music is My Radar' by Blur is almost all performance based, but unlike the video for 'Popscene', in this video, the band are not performing, and instead are watching a performance by a group of performers, much like the audience. The narrative for this video is that the video is taking place on a television talk show and Blur are guests on that talk show. This means that there is only the one diegesis present in this video, as the performance is itself, a part of the narrative. There is also some diegetic sound present in this music video, as the TV talk show host talks to the audience, as well as the conventional sounds from a TV talk show, like the countdown beeps at the beginning and an applause at the end of the video. The non-diegetic sound in the music video is obviously the lyrics of the song, like any music video. 

The mise-en-scene in this music video is arguably the most important part of this specific music video, as well as many other music videos that focus on some sort of performance. Though, I think that the most impressive and influential element of the mise-en-scene in this music video is the colour scheme that has obviously been incorporated into the setting, costume, etc. in a very thoughtful manner. The image that I have included is a collection of screenshots from this music video, which evidently suggests that there is a clear colour scheme of black,white and red within this music video. 

The colour scheme has been incorporated into every aspect of mise-en-scene in this music video. The synchronised costumes that the dance performers are wearing, the setting, the lighting, among other things, are all examples of effective use of colour scheme within music video. Also, the other elements of mise-en-scene are used effectively in themselves, such as the brilliant use of artificial lighting and the huge hanging posters that each have a black and white image of the band members, which reminds the audience of the presence that they have in the music video, even though they are not performing. Often mise-en-scene can be limited by a music video like this one, as the setting is basically one room, however there is so much going on in this particular setting that this doesn't matter. 

A good range of conventional cinematography is used within this music video, like close ups, wide shots, medium close ups, etc., but it is the the shots and camera movements that you are less likely to see that stand out in this music video. There are two points in the video where the shot is from behind the camera, the first of which is from an over the shoulder shot and the second, a close up. This gives the audience a behind the scenes which means to show the music video being created. Just before the first of these two shots, there is a great backwards tracking shot which moves with the performers as they approach the camera. This shot sets the tone for the rest of the music video and the vast amount of quick camera movement throughout the video. Lastly, there is an aerial shot of the seating  area where Blur and the TV talk show host is, which looks effective, as it is a dipped circular seating area which looks good from above. Also, everyone in this shot is dressed in black as this demonstrates the colour scheme, except the host. I believe that this could be because he is really part of the narrative in the music video and therefore he should stand out. 

The editing in this music video isn't as interesting as that in the video for Popscene, but it is still conventional editing for a music video. This means that the editing is generally in time with the non-diegetic sound, which is really quite quick paced. One interesting piece of editing in this music video is during the second sequence I previously mentioned where the shot is behind the camera. During this sequence, the host is directed to a particular camera, so the first shot is a medium close up of him looking for the camera and then there is a match on action cut to the close up of from behind the camera. 

'Popscene' - A Textual Analysis

Video release date - 30th March 1992
Produced by Steve Lovell
Genre - Britpop/alternative rock

Lyrics:

'A fervoured image of another world

Is nothing in particular now

And imitation comes naturally

But I never really stopped to think how

And everyone is a clever clone

A chrome coloured clone am I

So in the abscence of a way of life

Just repeat this again and again and again

Hey, hey come out tonight

Hey, hey come out tonight

Popscene, all right

I'm leaving town to run away

Right into your twisted arms

No queues and there's no panic there

Just dangling your feet in the grass

My lack of natural luster now

Seems to be losing me friends

So in the absence of a way of life

I'll repeat this again and again, and again

Hey, hey come out tonight

Hey, hey come out tonight

Popscene

Hey, hey come out tonight

Hey, hey come out tonight

Popscene, all right

Hey, hey come out tonight

Hey, hey come out tonight

Popscene'

The video for 'Popscene' by Blur is almost all performance, with a very small amount of narrative towards the end of the video, which does fit with the lyrics and meaning of the song. This means that the video does effectively have two diegesis, just that one is much more consistent throughout the video. In terms of the sound within this music video, there is no diegetic sound and therefore the only sound that is present is the sound of the actual song. However the sound that is used in the rhythm of the song is paced in a way which is quite quick but also contains some repetitive parts which may be the influence for the way in which the video for this song was edited together. 

The mise-en-scene in this music video is very conventional as to what we would expect to see in a rock music video with a band performance, as well as the small amount of somewhat abstract narrative which is included towards the end. The video includes a variety of shots and camera angles which show each member of the band performing with their own musical instruments in a conventional layout with the lead singer at the front, two guitarists to the right and left, with the drummer in the back, just in front of the sign that displays in bright letters the name of the song. The design of the carpet and wallpaper is also quite iconic to the era and the band themselves, as they use very similar mise-en-scene in other music videos, like 'Song 2' and 'Beetlebum'. The costume design of each band member is also what you would expect from the early 90s and possibly earlier, as well as being very conventional to the genres alternative rock and britpop which were hugely popular during this time. 

As I briefly mentioned, this video uses a good range of different camera angles and movements throughout, which is what makes it look as appealing as it does, along with the unique over-the-top editing techniques which I will come onto shortly. A very conventional camera angle in music video which is present the most is the four shot, long shot from eye level displays all the band members in the conventional performance positions and stances. As I have noted before, this makes the target audience feel like they are included in the performance, watching the band perform live, which is a big part of the ideology of this particular target audience, particularly within this time period. The video doesn't use very many close up shots, but it still does use a few, most notably of the lead singer 'Damon Albarn' and during the narrative clip, to romanticise the couple.In general, the cinematography in this music video is quite quick paced - even more so than may be conventional with music videos in general, possibly to reinforce the editing that is being used. 

The editing in this music video is probably the most notable technical element being used throughout this video. This is due to it being rather unconventional at times, as the editor has clearly made the editing and the full video in general look rather amateur in the way in which it has been created. However, this has been done intentionally and therefore it does not decrease the effect that this music video has in any way. The two most obvious points of editing that have been made are the 'loop editing' that is included, as well as the lyrics that are projected on screen during editing, in time with the song. Both these editing techniques seem rather simple to do, but are likely not very easily to execute in a way which is effective like this video has done. Be that as it may, I would be interested in at least attempting to include these two editing techniques within my music video. If this does turn out to be quite successful then they could be a part of my final product, however if not then I will include them within my blog at some point to show how the idea turned out.