planning #1

During the first planning meeting we needed to finalize various decisions that would affect our music video such as the costumes, actors, settings etc. We started to look at what sort of costumes would be suitable for different eras from using our own individual knowledge as well as doing some research as well. We also finalized the era's that we would use in our music video and we settled on the 1920's, 40's, 60's, 80's and modern day 00's. we decided on using these because there is a significant gap between each era so the time change can be shown clearly and be obvious to the audience.

we also decided what sort of scenes we were going to use to represent the era that our main character is in. For the 20's we are going to do a petting party which will show the types of people there and the outfits worn will illustrate the era and make it clear to the audience. for the 1940's we decided to do something related to the war for example and end of war party or gathering between soldiers. To illustrate the 1960's we are going to do a scene from a diner where it will have traditional diner layout and for the 80's we are going to do an aerobic class as the outfits will be very colourful and will help to show the type of fashion during that period of time. For the present modern day we will show the girl going back to her boyfriend and reconnecting their love for each other in the end.

Lyrical analysis

Lyrics

I don't want to wake up in the morning
But I've got to face the day
That's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say

I don't want to do things independently
But I can't make you stay
That's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say

But if you wanna come back it's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back
Do you wanna come back? It's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back to me

I don't want to see you with another guy
But the fact is that I may
That's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say

Give it just another couple months or so
Then you'll be ok
That's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say

Alone, all alone
I am on my own
Alone, all alone
I am on my own

But if you wanna come back it's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back
Do you wanna come back? It's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back to me

If you wanna come back it's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back
Do you wanna come back? It's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back to me
Do you wanna come back? It's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back to me
Do you wanna come back? It's alright, it's alright
It's alright if you wanna come back to me

The lyrics denote a sense of a man's self distraction as he attempts to block away his loneliness "Alone,all alone". The song describes his desperation and lack of self assurance "If you wanna come back it's alright, it's alright" - repeated to empathise his longing and addiction to the 'fix' he has lost "I don't want to do things independently". Throughout, a sense of paranoia and angst is expressed, "do you wanna come?" as if he is constantly questioning the return of her feelings & feels as if his love is not mutual and as if he must earn or seek her approval or commitment. He attempts to detract from her presence by relying upon social compforts "That's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say" - but the repatition throughout shows that "months" "friends" "morning" will not change his state of mind -stressing her significant importance above others in his life. Our video designed to this lyrical track will help to physicalise his partners unwillingness to leave him as well as her determination to move forward with her life, we aim to show a mutual relationship between the two characters by having her as the key visual narrative performer & him as the key vocal performer in order to collaborate their importance in not only the video but their relationship. Rather than focusing on his depressed existance with out her - slumping out, bingning, lazy, upset etc, we want to focus on her journey forward yet twist this concept by making her travel back to reiterate the fact she does still love him but is almost fooling herself "just give another couple of months or so" - it will take her far longer for her to get over him so its as if she is being pushed back centuries to exaggerate just how much she unknowingly loves him . We hope to examine the way the opposite sex's minds work in conjunction to one another to explore the uncertainties of relationships as well as delve into the world of the past and the constants that never change (love). The lyrical message throughout "If Ya Wanna" sets it up to be a very versatile which leaves us with so much scope. The ambiguity enables us to develop upon the original meanings as well as further developing and exploring different interpretations of what we can make them mean in order to correspond & amplify our visuals. Furthermore the continual repetitive rhetoric questioning fits perfectly with the notion that our female protagonist is trying to search for something - the answer to her future & her identity (with or without him), as though she is constantly going over & over, round & round (literally as she is traveling for era to era) her options in her head with no conclusion apparent. Also the structure of the lyrics makes them appear as though they are a continence ,(or her continence) the voice of her true emotions (or his voice) in the back of her head (or the back of the scene as we intend to edit him into the shots using special effects in order to make him appear ghostly & translucent). 

Editing idea influenced by other music video

Whilst looking through various music videos we found different editing techniques used that we would also like to try and recreate when making our music video. One of these editing techniques we found in Angel's Time after Time music video. Just after 50 seconds into the music video a technique is used where figures slowly appear whilst moving and then disappear. As we want the male in our video to seem kind of ghost like and not humanly present as she travels through the era's looking for love, we figured that if we could also use the technique used in Angel's' music video it would work really well and show exactly what we want.

Inspiration from other media texts & videos #3

One video that inspired us with our initial idea was Black Eyed Peas - Where is the Love? Although this video isn't similar to our video idea at all, the concept of the song relates to idea we want to come accross in our music video. The song and video is about looking for love and the fact that it feels like there is no love which is similar to our idea of the girl unsure whether she is in love or not. Our character moves through time to find love whereas in the Black Eyed Peas' video the group moves around the city sticking posters everywhere to ask everyone 'where is the love?'. The idea of looking for love is something that many people of any age or sex can relate too which is possibly why the Black Eyed Peas video is so successful therefore we thought that by bringing that element into our music video - many people will be able to relate to it and therefore find it enjoyable to watch.

Audience Questionnaire

Audience Questionnaire's on Prezi

Inspiration from other media texts & videos #2

One music video that has majorly influenced the idea for ours is this: Stupid by Sarah McLachlan. Although the story is slightly different, she uses the same concept of different time periods to highlight the message in her song. In her video, she is seen with the same guy in three different time periods: 1800s, 1900s and 2000s, making the same mistake over and over. This amplifies the lyrics 'how stupid could I be", and is very effective. We liked the idea of using the different eras in our own video, and also liked the idea that the man was there in each era, as if she couldn't escape him. We thought this would also be appropriate for our video, with the girl trying to run away but failing miserably.

One thing we could possibly consider changing after seeing this video is the size of the set: Sarah McLachlan has tried to recreate the different eras on a private scale, whereas our initial idea was to do a full hall full of people. This would be extremely difficult to do, so perhaps we should try doing it on a smaller scale just as McLachlan did. 

______________________________________________________________________________



Another video that has influenced us is The Only Exception by Paramore. Although they do not go through significantly different time periods in this video, the lead singer does visit a variety of locations in order to figure out how she feels about a particular guy, and discovers towards the end that he was there for her all along and she decides to stay with him. This story is fairly similar to ours, except where the lead singer was running through locations ours will be running through time. It was from here we got the idea of using different doors as the gateway to different eras. Obviously we do not have the same kind of budget as Paramore did, so instead of building an entire set with different rooms we plan on using continuity editing to make the girl run out of one door and back in it again, with her seemingly in a different room when in reality we've just dressed up the same hall. We like our idea of the girl running through time as it fits well with the concept of her trying to move forward but actually moving backward. 

Inspiration from other media texts & videos #1

Even though it isn't a music video in developing our idea for our own production we drew many elements from some pieces of advertising as well as of course other artists music videos.  I personally really liked the concept of the John Lewis advert "Never knowingly undersold". Throughout the ad a couple from two different eras (one modern day, one from 1925 - the year the store was opened) go on a journey / have a relationship with one another, through the use of split screen; ultimately they end up together (or it is proposed) at the end of the clip.  In particular what I really liked about this style was the interesting mis en scene that made each era distinctive & visually pleasing & understandable - the costume choice, the building design, the posters, the cinema architecture, the transport, the street feature, the interior design of the bedrooms, the technology, the bicycles,  and so on (similar to the intertextuality within music video that adds an extra sense of pleasure for the viewer). This is something I really want to embody in our piece, this attention to detail - the little features that the viewer spots and can identify to a particular time period. In addition the love story idea - the exaggeration of space & romantic distance through playing around with chronology & history - something which I feel will make our video  have a much greater sense of depth. 

Another advertisement we drew inspiration from was 'John Lewis''s 2010 campaign - 'She's Always A Women'. We liked the idea that this one girl is growing & developing throughout the piece with a familiarity from a continual thread. A concept in particular which we want to borrow is the repetition of using the 'door' (or another object) in order to flip the linear structure; we want to use this idea in our video in order to connect our different eras & show a clear flip from each time period. We liked their concept of playing with time in order to create a personal & literal journey - something which we wish to convey to illustrate our unique vision (& transformable style) of the lyrics from 'If You Wanna' by 'The Vaccines'. The use of the symbolic 'red' top to connect the sequence is also something we will want to incorporate - keeping one element the same in each different era we jump to in order to develop a sense of continuity & a story line - embedded with performance sequence & shots which are more abstract and harder to follow as a viewer (in order to uphold the conventions of music video & create a piece which differs from that of a structured film which endeavours to keep the audience fully aware of the happenings and leaves less room for interpretation)