Private Benjamin

Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film starring Goldie Hawn. The film was one of the biggest box office hits of 1980, and also spawned a short-lived television series.

Our girl.

"Our Girl is a BBC drama, and later television series, starring Lacey Turner as Molly Dawes, an underclass, poor young adult who joins the British Army after deciding her life is going nowhere."

'Our girl' is a classic inspiration for our desired narrative, brought to the table by Janadhi it depicts perfectly the struggles and dedication of joining the army, especially being whilst being female.

The locations shot during the beginning of the drama are exactly the kind of landscapes we want to capture in order to portray the dirty city the protagonist is attempting to escape.

Also the costumes and props used, such as the acceptance letter, climbing frames and combat uniforms mirror the exact look we want to accomplish. As Janadhi is an (ex) member of cadets access to these props won't be as much as a struggle, however access to specific army-themed grounds and landscapes will be will request a level of effort.

Lyric Annotation.

Treatment Pitch

So today is pitch day, unfortunately I will be unable to present with the rest of my group as I am not in class today. However the uploaded Prezi below is the completed pitch.
Hopefully our audience will clearly interpret the ideas being portrayed in the way we want it to be leaving them as enthusiastic as us, however I'm also expecting some constructive criticism to help us  improve.

Mood Board

This collection of secondary images found predominately off browser site Google, portrays the characters, costumes, locations and the narrative we've brainstormed so far.

We want our main protagonist to be a young girl who's initial dream to become part of the British army, due to the songs upbeat tempo we thought it would be perfect to include some training shots, for example her running track as well as working out in a gym. Her passion for running and exercising will be shown during these shots, as well as her mental strength and determination.

Our opening shots will showcase the place she is attempting to escape. We will capture dirty streets, council houses and stereotypical hooded teens on bikes, through this we hope the audience will recognise the distance the protagonist feels for her home place, and her determination to join the army.

We have access to costume and army-related mise-en-scene (with many thanks to Janadhi who is an ex-cadet), which will obviously portray her ambitions clearly. We hope to be able to portray the contrast of locations throughout the song, beginning in the busy, crowded and hectic city, which then soon becomes peaceful and vast. This transition will be mirrored with our protagonists journey towards joining the British Army.

Chosen song.

Finally we did a vote and all four votes were for 'ready, by Kodaline.'

Kodaline are an Irish rock band who's genre can be described as 'indie rock' and 'indie pop.'

Ready by Kodaline

You tell me that you're ready but you just don't know

My eyes are getting heavy and it's starting to show

I'd never seen it coming, never seen a thing

Maybe I'll get through whatever's coming to me

'Cause I've been so unlucky, I don't know what to say

I'm running out of money, I've been wasting away

I'd never seen it coming, never seen a thing

Maybe I'll get through whatever's coming to me

If we fall, we fall down

If we fall, we fall down

If we fall down hard

I'll be ready to crawl

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

Look me in the eye when I'm talking to you

It's easy to get nervous, I've been feeling it too

Yeah it's kinda crazy, yeah it's kinda dumb

But never let the pressure overpower the fun

'Cause yeah I'm sure your parents probably said it to you

Follow what you love and you will love what you do

Never let the pressure tell you that you're not

Capable of being anything that you want

If we fall, we fall down

If we fall, we fall down

If we fall down hard

I'll be ready to crawl

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

Look me in the eye when I'm talking to you

It's easy to get nervous, I've been feeling it too

Yeah it's kinda crazy, yeah it's kinda dumb

But never let the pressure overpower the fun

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it

I'm ready, I'm ready for it all

Current ideas!

Despite already deciding on a narrative music video, as well as focussing on the genre 'indie,' we are currently stuck brainstorming ideas back and forth. Our first song choice was 'Smile, by Mikky Ekko',
we found this song held a strong beat and we would be able to work with lyrics that were polysemic.

However after endless sessions of brainstorming and searching on music sites such as youtube and spotify, we found two songs that were perfect for the kind of ambience we wanted to project. Even MORE perfect than Ekko. So we scrapped 'smile' and had to decide between 'I found by Amber run', and 'Ready by Kodaline.'

'I found' entails of a much more darker and somber scene. The constant use of the lyric 'love' in this song was a reminder that this was not what we wanted our video to consist of, and even though we brainstormed the idea that we don't actually need to include any iconography of the soppy term, we still wanted our video to be clear, in the sense of linking the lyrics to the visuals in some aspect.

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'Ready' is an easily enjoyed song, which made it hard to vote against it. It held the conventions of an upbeat indie song with lyrics that hides realms of ambiguity. This song really did tick all the boxes, just one major thing lacked; an actual storyline for it!
We wanted something really shocking in our video, something extremely unexpected, however we just couldn't piece a  gripping narrative to the song.

Finnished product!!

Storyboarding the Prelim.

The section of the music video we selected lasts around 26 seconds. We decided to choose a series of shots from the middle of the song as these shots stuck out as the most interesting. It consists of 7 different shots. 

(between 1.23 and 1.49

 Shot 1

Close up 

2.8 seconds

Slow zoom

Shot 2

Low mid shot
2 seconds
Woman moves diagonally to right hand corner

Shot 3 

Long shot
1.1 seconds


Shot 4

Close up, slight high angle
1.8 seconds

 Shot 5

Close up
3 seconds
Slow zoom on to plant

Shot 6

Close up
10 seconds
Slow zoom to black

 Shot 7

Mid shot
4.6 seconds

Preliminary task.

Our task is to recreate a section of a professional music video. The clip must be between 20 and 30 seconds long and must replicate all of the shots and timings used.

The song me and Kelly have decided to recreate is Riptide, by Vance Joy.

Initially it was both our favourite song at the time which lead to us researching its video. 
We found that the official video uses a unique yet clever technique of filming the song lyrics literal meaning. 

We thought it would be a creative and humorous project to work together on. 

Genre Research, Indie Soul.

HOZIER

He released his debut EP, featuring the hit single "Take Me to Church", in 2013 and his second EP, From Eden, in 2014. His debut studio album, Hozier, was released in Ireland in September 2014 and globally in October 2014.

He's labeled by Rubyworks and Island

His music videos typically are narrative with hidden morals and messages.

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Genre Research, Indie rock.

ALT J

Alt-J, named for the delta symbol that appears when pressing "Alt" and "J" on a Mac keyboard (∆) first formed in 2008 in Leeds.

Their genre can be discussed as Indie rock, Indie pop, Art rock or even Folktronica

Their record labels are Loud And Quiet, Infectious, Atlantic and Canvas back.

The band's debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 in Europe and September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Their second album, This Is All Yours, was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to UK number one.

Their music videos consist of all strong plots, each video differing in a completely different narrative.

Genre Research, Folk Indie.

MUMFORD AND SONS

Mumford & Sons are a British rock band from London, formed in 2007. With their genre fluctuating between Rock music, Folk rock and Indie rock.

Their record labels consist of Gentlemen of the Road, Island Universal, Universal Australia and Glassnote.

They have released three studio albums: Sigh No More (2009), Babel (2012) and Wilder Mind (2015). Sigh No More peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US, with Babel and Wilder Mind both debuting at number one in the UK and US. Wilder Mind is the third studio album by British rock band Mumford & Sons. It was released on 4 May 2015 through Gentlemen of the Road, Island and Glassnote.

Their music videos usually are performance, both performing on and off set. Their filming locations when off set all seem to be very rural landscapes, the choice of locations directly linking to its genre, being Folk/County.

Genre Research, Indie.

YEARS AND YEARS.

Being one of my favourite bands their style of music videos will be a major influence for me when brainstorming ideas. 

They are a British electronica band founded in London, often described as electropop, mixing R&B and '90s house elements. The band is signed to both Polydor Records and Interscope Records both of whom are owned by Universal Music group.

Out of their 6 singles so far released, the most recent single 'King', made it to number one in the UK chart. Their debut album 'Communion' being released to the UK on 10th July 2015 also made it to number one. 

Years and Years have more of a mass appeal mainly focused on teenagers/ young adults as their music style is easily enjoyed and repeated on major radio and tv shows. 

Their music videos majority consist of narrative, and they mostly use steady shots with objects being framed in the centre.

Narrative Music videos.

Music video examples : Performance

Well known band Mumford & Sons can often be seen to adopt a performance style on there music videos. An example would be theIR song; 'I Will Wait'







Secondly, the music video for AC/DC - 'Back in Black' also uses a performance video to demonstrate the meaning behind the song. Andrew Goodwin spoke about how the style of a video can foreshadow a specific genre, one being a performance video most commonly matched with a metal song/band. AC/DC supports this by many of its music videos being composed as performance, more examples consist of 'Highway to Hell,' 'Thunderstruck' and 'Hells Bells.'

Performance Music Videos.

Abstract music video

Gotye, Somebody I used to know.

Despite the music video being classed as a abstract piece of art, the use of voyeurism is used as close up shots of the artist are shown. However he is disguised (painted) as the abstract work itself. This works well with the storyline as it portrays him as hidden as 'somebody that used to be known.'

This example depicts how abstracts videos are still able to hold a vivid link to context and the nature of lyrics with only the use of graphic shapes and colours.



Arctic Monkeys, Do I wanna know?

The use of abstract in this AM music video is constructed using sound waves that move originally to the beats of the bass guitar, however soon into the song the lines start to represent a narrative. The different animations jump from one to another to the beats of the song.