4th Filming Day

On Thursday 18th January we filmed the shots of our female protagonist getting fired from her job and the location that we filmed at was in Enfield Grammar School in an office, as we wanted it to be realistic and for the audience to be emerged into our narrative.

We also had lip-syncing present during these shots to these lyrics in particular:

"I had a job but the boss man let me go

He said
I'm sorry but I won't be needing your help no more
I said

Please mister boss man I need this job more than you know"

 ..which we will now edit to the lyrics on IMovie.

3rd Filming Day

On Tuesday 16th January, we filmed the shots at a range of locations such as the..

• Job centre 
• Our protagonist busking at the train station and a band stand in the middle of Enfield Town 
• Applying for jobs at shops with a job application like 'Subway' and a local corner shop.
• Rachel's house for the car washing shots.

We filmed at a variety of locations on this day as they were all in town and in close proximity to one another.As a result of filming at multiple locations we also had outfit changes for our protagonist for specific locations to allow the audience to identity it as a new day.

The equipment we used was the tripod and the camera. The only problem we found was the weather as it was a little windy which meant the tripod kept losing it’s balance.

Behind the scenes 

Editing in Soul Genre Research

Editing within the soul genre typically involves straight cuts,editing to the beat and fast cutting.

Editing usually follows the illustration ideas from Andrew Goodwin 'Dancing in The Distraction factory' theory in that the video mainly revolves around the performance of the artist.This is repeatedly done in music videos from soul artists as they tend to rely a lot on performance and capturing the emotions whilst singing the songs as they want to place greater emphasis on  the personal connection they have with their music and how passionate they are.

I looked at Duffy's 'Warwick Avenue' which is an ideal example indicating how the artist is the central subject within the frame throughout the whole duration of the music video and close-ups of her facial expressions are shown,which is effective in conveying her true feelings within the lyrics.

Nick Waterhouse-I Can Only Give You Everything

I analysed Nick Waterhouse's music video for 'I Can Only Give You Everything' which is classified within the soul genre.



The whole song had a black and white effect on the shots giving an old school soul look to the music video and is edited to the beat making the shots flow well together.
Low key lighting is present and used effectively to create ambiguity and mystery around the artist as the lighting cover his whole face and the audience are not able to see him,which makes them wanting to watch on.There is also use of high-key lighting as in particuar shots a bright light contrasts the black background (1.10)
The shot types consist of mid-shots,close-ups and panning is also included specifically at 1.25 giving a hazy effect along with the depth of field at 0.55

In addition to this the narrative of the music video is about love,which is typical of the soul genre as we also see this in Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black'.
Backing singers are also used within the song as they sing in the background "everything" resembling a gospel sound.

Lastly,the mis-en-scene conforms to the genre as the male singer is wearing a typical black suit and tie and props used include guitars,a vinyl record and a vintage telephone adding to the verisimilitude of the old school aesthetic that the artist has aimed for.

Audience Research: Genre and Age Survey

As we have decided to choose the soul genre for our music video,It was important to have a specific demographic that our music video will appeal to most as we must consider it's success if we were to produce as a real-life media product and catering it to have appeal to them as we would like to generate revenue and more acknowledgement of our artist.

I created a Survey Monkey Questionnaire(www.surveymonkey.com) to see how many people that responded listened to soul and what age group they were.Having collected quantitative data to discover who are audience are was beneficial as we can now cater our video to elements that would relate to them.

Actors for Music Video

For our new music video idea we decided to have Jana as the central actor who drives the narrative forward in our music video. 

Our reasons for this being was the music video will have a sole focus on her and her struggle to gain financial stability. Also when arranging a timing schedule she would be available more easily this. Likewise she represents a teenager/ young adult, therefore the audience respond well in terms relatability.

Location for Our Music Video

For our music video, we filmed in the following locations:

B&Q

Enfield Town Market Banister

Enfield Chase Station

Job Centre

Enfield Town Park

In terms of our music video,I noticed a pattern of having more than 2/3 locations in videos that were from the soul genre and so we decided to replicate this into our product.By doing so the audience will distinguish change in times and days as well as be attentive as the locations vary as well as the actions,preventing it from being consistent and repetitive to watch.

We used these locations as we want our visuals to be a more contemporary and modern reformulation of the soul genre but still have the traditional sound of soul .We aimed for a fusion of the two.

Lyrics Annotations

As we have created our storyboard,I decided to annotate the lyrics in order for some of the visuals to match. Below is an image of all my annotations and initial ideas surrounding our product and the specific lyrics we will lip-sync as we will not be lip-syncing the entire song.

  *all lyrics underlined= lip-synced 

Does our USP fit in with our Genre ?

Our USP is centered around financial struggles and I feel as though it does fit our genre as it is typical of songs within the  soul/blues genre to complain and sing about the hardships and struggles in life that they have dealt with and their perseverance through this

Some music videos I found that had similarities in terms of plot to our narrative from our genre were...

Andra Day-Rise Up

The music video's narrative is about about persevering and shows a realistic portrayal of a woman who's husband has disabilities and how she supports and continues to be patient especially when times are tough.

Sam Cooke-A Change is Gonna Come
This song is similar to our USP as it focuses on the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans, and contains the refrain, "It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come." and like our song is quite a meaningful and deep in the sense of the topic that we explore,which as we can see from Sam Cooke's song is typical of our genre.

2nd Filming Day

This Tuesday we filmed the shots at B&Q for our music video.
The concept was to make Jana look like she worked in B&Q and capture some shots of her lifting material and running errands,and we also see her being a little distracted on the phone,resulting in her losing her job as a consequence.

A problem that we found whilst recording these particular shots was the timing that we had available as it was private property,which meant we had to rush our shots and had a limitation on how long we could spend filming.

Below are some of our shots that we collected:

USP for Our Music Video

For our product, we wanted to have a USP focusing on the financial struggles people face, in particular young adults as our central character is played by a young adult who is seen doing various unconventional jobs in order to make a stable living.In some ways we introduce the possibility of poverty and the consequences this situation can result to e.g deteriorating mental health. 

We have chosen this as our USP as we felt that this topic is not commonly spoken about on products like music videos  and also the fact that this is such a realistic topic, the audience are easily able to relate to this and this destroys the status difference that is usually created with singers and their audience,as our USP will not make them feel inferior.

Dealing with financial struggles is a very common reality as articles have indicated that "Young adults are the age group most likely to be living with a debt problem, according to the MAS. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, one in four live with debt problems."

Camera File Problem

After having our first filming day during the Christmas holidays,we returned to select and cut the footage that we would use and discard of.However when it came to importing the shots onto the Mac we found that we were not able to import it into IMovie as the file format was an 'AVCHD' when we were recording on the camera and we figured out that it had to be changed on the camera to an MP3/4 in order for us to import it. Therefore as a result we were unable to use this footage and decided not to re-shoot it.

The positive to this was that we were in the very early stages of editing and did not have a large amount of footage that we had loss.Therefore we avoided having recorded all of our footage in this file format and realising at the very end.

We figured out how to alter the file format on the camera and will have this as an automatic setting.

Plan B-'Prayin' Music Video Analysis

Plan B is an artist that combine the soul genre with other genres in order to create a mixture of sounds. In the music video 'Prayin' there are definitely aspects of the soul genre heavily present specifically the sound of the song is very reminiscent of a gospel song mainly at 0.31 as we can hear an instrument in the form of a brass band, these are a key trait of soul music.  Also the way he sings is very expressive we can tell this from the tone of his voice and the desperation that he clearly puts across in his lip syncing.

In addition to this the mis-en-scene is typical of the soul genre as the low-key lighting has been included in the majority of shots but on the other hand there is also a juxtaposition as the use of high-key lighting is used,by challenging the traditional black and white effect on the shots,I think it is effective in highlighting the more contemporary feel of the song. Also the fact that the video is set in prison shows a darker side to his music which connotes his very rough up bringing in London. 

The shots are a mixture of close-ups in order to emphasise the emotions o the artist and draw on the intensity of the lyrics as well as mid-shots and use of depth of field is also  evident in the music video at 0.50 in order to create a focus on the singer .

New Idea: Audience Opinions/Queries

After deciding to change our idea I thought it would be useful to collect the opinions of my audience as to what they thought of our new song 'I Need A Dollar' and the narrative that we envisioned for it.
Some of the responses I received were...

This qualitative data is useful as I now how my audience feel towards my new idea in terms of narrative as they had more clarity and suggested some elements to think about before filming.I am also more confident now that my music video will appeal to them.

Narratives In Soul Genre Research

The narratives within this specific genre are often focused on how the artist feels regarding problems to do with love,which a large majority of their audience will be able to resonate with or the narrative may talk encourage the audience to find or look for love.An example of this can be seen in Leon Bridges 'Coming Home' as he sings about coming home to "tender and sweet loving".




However the narrative could also be around struggles and hardships in life and could either be complaining about these or take an inspirational route.An example of this is 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.



Our narrative takes a negative approach to the hardships in life and the artist talks about drinking alcohol in order to rid his sorrows however we made a decision to not illustrate but juxtapose the lyrics at this point as we follow the female protagonist and embed shots which show her as happy and not sulking,as we wanted to incorporate Goodwin's theory about the visuals illustrating,amplifying or opposing the lyrics.

Amy Winehouse -Back To Black

The mis-en-scene was very typical of the soul genre as the singer opted for a smart and sophisticated dress and the men were wearing suits,as the narrative followed a funeral,which is further emphasised with the low key lighting adding a melancholy mood to the music video.The locations consist of a living room,bedroom and church graveyard which add to the sombre atmosphere.

In terms of narrative it was focused on the theme of love and heartbreak and  a woman wrestling with herself which is similar to other songs within this genre as it focuses on realistic and meaningful experiences.

The editing is again very distinct to the genre as the monochrome shots throughout the entire video is a convention associated with the soul category alongside the slow paced shot's resulting in a more dramatic and exaggerated narrative.Also I noticed that the shots were edited to the beat which helped the sequence of shots flow together cohesively.

The cinematography involved close-up shots in order to capture her expressions and high angled shots in order to capture how isolated the singer felt.
Furthermore I noticed the tilt shot on Amy,which conform's to Laura Mulvey's idea's on the male gaze and is an exemplar of how the female singer is hyper-sexualised at the expense of male desires.