Storyboard

Embedded below is our storyboard created by Georgia and Faye and preented on Imgur.

Additional Research

I gathered together information about the typical conventions of the pop music genre.

Genre Research

The general conventions
Pop music videos are all about the artist selling their music to their audience. Typical eliminates in a pop music video include; Lots of bright colours, dancing, make-up, vibrant outfits and props. Many artists in this industry such as Rihanna and Beyonce are sex symbols as well as a product to help promote their music to the public.
Mise-en-scene typically consists of Bright colours, lots of make-up and fashion accessories.
Editing typically consists of Tints and filters to enhance colours and photoshopped artists so they look perfect.
Camera work typically consists of Many close-ups of artist faces and long shots of dancing and partying.

Narrative
In pop music videos a narrative is not the most common theme they usually go with a performance based theme as this attracts the audience, however if a narrative is used in a pop music video then it is usually based upon parties or relationships/breakups. Such as Little Mix "DNA" the narrative behind that is all these girls obsesing over a guy, this is typical for pop music videos.

Performance
Pop music videos are almost completely focused on the artist and no one else. If there is a dance routine in the music video then then the artists will always be the main front dancers, or if they have a narrative then the artists will play the main charecters. Pop artists always perform in a sexual manner or a cute way to attract the biggest audience base they can.

Group member Georgia created a biography about Little Mix

Biography

Artist Biography (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mix)

Little Mix are a British four member girl band formed in 2011, members including Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall.

They were put together on the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011 after originally auditioning as solo artists, becoming the first ever group to win the competition. 

After the show, they signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records and releasing their winners single, a cover of Damien Rice's "Cannonball".

Their debut album DNA was released on 19 November 2012, and their second album, Salute, was released on 11 November 2013 in the UK and was released on 4 February 2014 in the US. As of October 2013, Little Mix have sold over 4 million singles and over 2.5 million albums worldwide.

Perrie Edwards:

Born 10 July 1993 (age 20), Perrie was born and raised in South Shields, Tyne and Wear to parents Alexander Edwards and Deborah Duffy, with an older brother named Jonnie. Her first audition was "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. She has been engaged to One Direction member Zayn Malik since August 2013.

Perrie's First Audition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYCpNTsiokg&list=PL493AEEC6EE4D2249






Leigh-Anne Pinnock:

Leigh-Anne was born 4 October 1991 (age 22), and was raised in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire along with her two sisters, Sarah and Sian-Louise. She is of Barbadian/Jamaican ancestry. Before joining Little Mix, she worked as a waitress in Pizza Hut. Her first audition was "Only Girl (in the World)" by Rihanna. She's currently in a relationship with Jordan Kiffin.

Leigh-Anne's First Audition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmqXUTyCDfs

Jade Thirlwall:

Jade Thirlwall was born 26 December 1992 (age 21), and raised in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. She previously auditioned for The X Factor during series 5 (2008) and series 7 (2010). Her first audition song in 2011 was "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. Her musical influences are Diana Ross and Cheryl Cole. She's currently in a relationship with Diversity's Sam Craske.

Jade's First Audition (2011):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Kf_A0Pmws

Jesy Nelson:

Jesy was born 14 June 1991 (age 22), and raised in Romford, London to parents John Nelson and Janice White. She has an older sister Jade and two brothers, Joseph and Jonathan. Her first audition was "Bust Your Windows" by Jazmine Sullivan. Since joining Little Mix, she has faced cyber-bullying and struggled to cope during her time on The X Factor. Prior to the show, Jesy worked as a barmaid. She's currently in a relationship with Diversity's Jordan Banjo.

Jesy's First Audition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuJip8PbTzQ

Group member Faye gathered together the information viewing a theory.

Theory Laura Mulvey

The next task is a research task into how women are represented into the media ,e.g. the male gaze.

After researching we will then decide if in our music video we will conform to these ideas of subvert them.

'Film studies: The essential resource - Peter Bennett, Andrew Hickman and Peter Wall'

Laura Mulvey - "In cinema pleasure is related to issues of sexual difference and sexual politics".

The media is mediated by the ways in which male characters look at female characters. A female is identified as an object of desire, she is defined as a passive sexual spectacle. Cinema centres ideas around pleasuring a male heterosexual desire and defines the female as the passive object of male desire.

The term voyeurism refers to a distortion in which a person receives sexual gratification from seeing the genitalia of other or witnessing others sexual behaviour. Linking this to Mulvey's ideas as men gain pleasure by looking at women's bodies. 

Group member Georgia gathered together information about Little Mix to create a biography.

Draft treatment, Padlet and final treatment

Draft Treatment

Date: 5/12/13

Name of artist: Little Mix

Title of track: Move

Outline of ideas for music video (Narrative, Characterisation…) and Justification of ideas relating to artists, genre and audience questionnaire and focus group information ·      This will be a performance-based video formed around a party scene as our focus group stated that this would be preferable in relation to the song. A Christmas or birthday party scene – reference to lyrics. ‘Feeling like it's my birthday, Like Christmas day came early’. ·      Green screen scenes, which include the artist singing to the camera. This is a typical feature within Little Mix’s videos so this needs to be included to incorporate their star motifs. ·      Dance routines should be included throughout the video as the focus group claimed that they enjoys pop music videos which include a strong dance routine and this is a typical convention of pop music. ·      There will be the use of lots of bright colours, this will be incorporated through costumes and props. This is a convention of pop and a star motif of Little Mix.

Resources that will be needed? (Actors, props, settings…) ·      4 “Little Mix” members ·      Extras: Party background and dance routine extras ·      Camera & Tripod ·      Party location ·      Dance location ·      Party equipment (Part poppers, glow sticks, streamers, balloons, banners, cake and candles) ·      Costumes: Little Mix members outfits and extras costumes (provided themselves)

To gain feedback about peoples thoughts in reference to our ideas about our music video , we created a Padlet account to gain feedback. (Link embedded below)
Link:http://padlet.com/wall/j4xg57idqc

Final Treatment

Date: 15/1/14

Name of artist: Little Mix

Title of track: Move

Following the draft treatment , we have made amendment to the areas that appeared to be lacking. They felt that there wasn't a structured narrative to the video and that some of the ideas may be a bit far-fetched. Below this the aspect will felt needed changing.

Narrative

      At the beginning of the video it will show the girls getting ready together for their up and coming party. The main theme will follow the girls 'playing games' with their love interest. The video will be leading up to the party , this will involve images of them getting ready , singular shots of them singing to the camera in front of a green screen and group shots of them dancing together. There is a lot of interaction with this 'Love interest' over social media and phone networks. Toward the middle and end of the video the party will be the dominant and will just show the girls having fun together. In this part of the video the 'love interest' will make an appearance and highlight the plot twist which is that all the girls have been talking to the same guy.

      We have decided against using a choreographed dance routine in our music video as this may be a bit far fetched as it have proven difficult to getting numerous people together to create this part of the video. 

focus group

Focus group

For the location of our music video the focus group had mentioned that a party would be a good place as it fits in with the lyrics and the song, they also mentioned a dance studio. There favourite music videos were, Katy Perry because her music videos are fun, which is something we can take into consideration while recording our music video. Jessie J "Who's Laughing Now" a reason she liked this music video was because of the bright colours which we have previously found out our target audience like so it is important that we do involve this aspect in our music video. Beyonce's music video's because she always have a strong dance routine also Michael Jackson's music videos also because of the dance routines. There were certain elements of pop music videos that they hated we asked them what they were and why, One was having only one shot she said she liked it when there are loads of shot changes and different angles, in different locations. Another member of the focus group also mentioned about having boring shots where the artist will just stand in front of the camera have long shots. It was also mentioned that they hated having random music videos that have no relation to they song at all so we will need to make sure that although we wont necessarily have a narrative, we will have the performance relating to the song. Our focus group decided that performance base is the preferred especially for this certain music video as a story line would not go with the lyrics in this video. The most important aspect of the performance was having a group dance routine, one member of the focus group mentioned how they do not like it when one person in the group takes centre stage and that she would prefer it if every member of the group has an equal role in the video so we will make sure that we involve all the dancers in the group. Another member of the focus group said that performance would be best for this song because it is very up beat and how the lyrics are not very deep there for it would be hard to bring a narrative out of the song.

We have learnt from this focus group that we will be doing a performance based music video with a group dance routine where all dancers are in the video equally, we will also need to use a green screen in able to create the bright colours that the focus group had said they liked to see in music videos, although we are using a green screen we will still need to keep in mind that we will need lots of different camera shots and angles and keep changing the background so that it doesn't get boring, also making sure that the video relates to the song and lyrics.

Conventional music video analysis

Embedded below is the music video of "Wrecking ball" by Miley cyrus and I have analysed 6 shots of Mileys music video that are typical conventions for pop music videos.

A typical convention in pop music videos is having their actions relate to their lyrics,

you can see in this screen shot from Miley’s music video that she is surrounded by lots of rubble which represents the destruction, and this video is based on how she feels after breaking up with her boyfriend, so with her using a sledge hammer to smash down the walls around her connotes her trying to break free out of the box she has been trapped in from being upset and hurt from her boyfriend leaving her, so she is finally building up courage to break out of that.

 “I never meant to start a war” these lyrics show that what she is going through she would compare to war which is a very touchy topic. Which again shows how she is hurt and sad with her saying that she “never meant to” makes us think she had made mistakes that she does regret.

A typical convention in pop music videos are close ups, Miley uses this typical convention of close ups with this close up of her face, she also has bright red lip stick on and her skin is flawless with mascara on and her eyes are bright blue  This “perfect appearance” is typical in pop music, this is because they are in the lime light and very often worldwide so the pop industry have to be body and beauty conscious. This screen shot from wrecking ball shows how Miley has had her make up done professionally.

A typical convention in the pop music industry is that beauty will sell your product, Miley reinforces this typical convention from being naked which is seen as sexy and will help her sell her song. In the pop industry the beauty is the most important aspect. In a lot of pop music video it is a typical convention for the artist to look sexy, whether that is being naked or just in sexy clothing, either way in order to sell there music they need to use there bodies to help sell there products.

Another typical convention of pop music is doing something that will stand out from everyone else, because being in the popular media you need to be outstanding so you are known for your differences, and Miley does this a lot in her videos as shown in this shot she is licking the sledge hammer to show she likes the taste of pain, this is strange and people will remember this and talk about it.

She is not wearing a lot of clothing just a small white crop top with no bra and small white knickers, this represents her being stripped down to nothing and feeling naked without her boyfriend this shows vulnerability almost as though she needs a man in her life. This is shown a lot in typical pop music videos, being in love is a common situation that comes up regularly in pop music video. Also this camera shot is a typical convention to pop music videos, it shows off her whole figure and the outfit she is wearing, both these things are important aspects to typical conventions in pop music videos.

Another typical convention in pop music videos, is bright lighting and Miley uses a bright white light in a lot of her music video wrecking ball, this connotes that she is exposed which is expected in pop music videos as the artist is always the main focus in their music videos and in this shot there is no other focus but Miley Cyrus.

A Star Motif of Miley's music videos is that she will always do something weird and outrageous in order to standout in the pop music industry, here are some examples from her music videos.

This screen shot is from her music video, "Decisions" in this shot she is be promiscuous with a horse which is definitely a weird action that will be talked about and remember by people who watch it.

In this screen shot from the music video"23" Miley is sitting on top of a basketball ring wearing very sparkly and minimal clothing, another action that will be remembered.

This screenshot from "Wrecking ball" Miley is licking a sledge hammer which was a very talked about which seems to be what she wants.

In "We can't stop" Miley is wearing a white leotard and has a huge teddy bear attached to her back, this is something that you would imagine to be in your imagination not something someone would actually do.