Lyrics to our song - Brave

You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug

You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing's gonna hurt you the way that words do
And they settle 'neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if you

 

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

 

Everybody's been there, everybody's been stared down
By the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don't run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

 

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

Innocence, your history of silence
Won't do you any good
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don't you tell them the truth?

 

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
See you be brave

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you

 

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you

Animatic

When we filmed the animatic we used an iPhone camera as we found that it was easier to handle while taking the different shots such as the tilt down shot rather than a camera.
We made sure the shots we filmed were cut to the beat of the music to ensure the video will have a clear flow to help the narrative get through to the audience. We found out that the close-up shots took too much time from the song, therefore we decided to have less close-up shots and more mid-close up and long shots to help the viewers get a better understanding of the storyline while taking less time. Therefore filming the animatic helped us to see which shots worked and which shots didn't for various reasons, such as not having the narrative portrayed the way we wanted to, or that the timing of the shots didn’t work as they took too little/ too much time out of the song.

Furthermore it gave us a better idea of how the different scenes would look taking into account the timings of the different shots as well as of the different scenes, as some scenes had higher significance to others as they helped the viewers understand the narrative and therefore needed more time out of the song. Moreover it helped us decided what kind of camera techniques we would use such as the 180 degree rule to help the viewer get a clearer vision of the location.Overall we feel like our animatic was able to capture the different locations well, as through the animatic you are able to tell we have a range of locations.

One thing we did well in our animatic was speeding up the shots when it was getting to the climax so you can see the storyline progressing, up until where the breakup is portrayed. We tried to match the pace of the shots to the beat and tempo which we did well considering an animatic is hard to portray this. Then as the breakup occurs you can see we tried to show that we will slow the pace of the shots down to mirror the slower pace of the song. An issue that we thought about was during the bike scene we have make sure that each time we film them on the bikes, they start from the same place each time; as we want to be able to film the bike scene using a range of shots including wide shot, mid shot and close up. This could be overcome by putting markers on the street to indicate where the bike ride will start.

Changes to our storyboard

So far the only major change we have made is changing the rose prop to a necklace. In the picnic scene when Jared gives Libby a rose, we decided after drawing the story board and filming the animatic, that we wanted to change the rose to a necklace. We thought that using a rose is more old fashioned, especially as we are trying to portray young love, so using a rose doesn't really capture this. However we thought by Jared giving Libby a necklace is more relatable as we feel that lots of young girls would receive jewellery as a presents from their boyfriends, rather than a rose as that is more for older couples who are possibly married. Therefore as a group we decided that using a necklace in this scene will enable us to attract our target audience more easily as they may have received this sort of present from their boyfriend/ex- boyfriend, so it makes our music video even more understandable to young girls. Furthermore, as our artist is organically synthetic we thought using a rose would be more suited to an organic artist as it's quite old fashioned and basic, where as using a necklace will help create the star image as organically synthetic as a necklace is more modern and current, just like our artist. Lastly, nowadays it seems usual for a girlfriend to receive jewellery from their boyfriend as it's more of a tradition nowadays. Therefore using a necklace will support us in appealing to the VALs of our target audience as they are mainly traditionalists so they like to keep things as they are and what they are used to, which is why using a necklace is another benefit for our music video.

Analysis of storyboarding

Drawing our storyboard overall was not too hard but did have some difficult aspects to it. Drawing each shot was quite easy as we had already planned out already what shots we were using and the scenes in each shot. This demonstrates the fact that advanced planning of a timeline helped us formulate our ideas in advance and helped us work out what we wanted to draw for each shot in the storyboard. However, what was particularly difficult was trying to portray exactly what we wanted to show just through a simple drawing. It was hard to capture exactly what we wanted in each scene. For example some of the pictures had to be drawn in some detail in order to show this and this we found quite difficult. Therefore rather than going into detail for some shots we decided to draw stick men as this enabled us to speed up the process and also replicate some of our images twice for different parts of our song. One of the most useful aspects was being able to visualise our ideas on paper as we could see the images together that we had in our head. As we developed our storyboard we changed some of the narrative element in our shots which was quite easy to change however we had to make sure it fitted with the shots we already had and the timings for them. We also included some images to show drone shots which we would like to use however these may have to be changed later on as we have to assess whether they will work well or not.

The next target is to film the storyboard and see if we have enough shots to last the duration of the song. In order to do this we will create and animatic and cut the storyboard to the beat of the song. We have 70 images so far. To cut to a song that 3.5 minutes long therefore the average shot duration will be about 4 seconds which may be too long, we will see when film this. 

Storyboard

Performance element of our music video

Our performance elements will involve our artist Libby,playing as the main character in the music video, acting and singing through out.The singing element will show Libby in different locations to have the different scenery help portray how her emotions and experiences vary in the different places as the video and the storyline progress. Through her falling in love and her heartache when she breaks up with her boyfriend which helps create sympathy towards her star image. In addition the various locations Libby will be acting in demonstrate the period of time they have been together by the amount of memories they have created. This will encourage our audience to identify with her as it is very common and stereotypical at her target audience’s age to experience heartache. This is shown by Libby staring at the pictures her emotions as visible and reflect what she was going through as the relationship progressed and eventually leading up to them breaking up. 
The fact that Libby is visible in every scene in the music video, including the scene where she’s staring at the polaroid pictures of herself and her boyfriend in the video in her bedroom reminiscing her relationship, helps sell her star image to her target audience not only through the audience gaining familiarity with her but as well as selling the storyline of the video projecting her ‘girl next’ door’ image and making her seem more relatable and genuine. By featuring locations the audience is familiar with, through watching various popular teen films and music videos, will help encourage their identification with our artist and her star image. This will result in creating a loyal fan base and encouraging them to purchase her products.
The close-up shots of Libby will be taken where the words she is lip-syncing need emphasising in order to help project her feelings and emotions in different scenes. This helps contribute to her other performance element in the video which is acting. The acting helps project the storyline of the video which sells her star image and the audience tend to think that the character she plays in the video reflects to the person she is. Therefore the acting isn’t too dramatic and seems very real as it portrays the different barriers a relationship in those ages has which appeals to her youthful target audience as they can relate to it. Moreover the activities and memories made with her boyfriend in the video are very stereotypical for her target audiences ages hence helps them understand what she is going through and will intrigue and encourage our target audience to watch the video.

In the music video Libby will be seen moving around, smiling  and having a good time, will encourage the audience to identify with her star image and buy into her by sympathising with her breaking up with her boyfriend.
As an organic artist Libby’s ‘girl next door’ image is clearly represented through the acting and the singing as her performance elements in the music video

Learning to edit on Adobe After Effects

This is a letter we wrote to the media technician at our school, Dov, so he can help us to create the look we want to achieve in our music video through After Effects. In order for our video to be successful we need to be able to zoom into pictures to bring them to life which needs a lot of editing to be able to do. As we have never used After Effects before we thought we would ask Dov for his help. This will be useful when it comes to the editing process of our real video as we wont have to waste time learning to use the software then. This will also make us confident that our idea will work. We may also have to film things a certain way to make our pictures come to life in the editing process and therefore learning how to do this earlier will make it easier when it comes to our day of filming. 

The letter says:
To Dov
We are A2 Media Studies students, who are going to film and edit a music video. Our music video idea will require us to use After Effects. We want to be able to zoom into a photograph, to bring it to life, and we are unsure on how to do this. Please would we be able to arrange a time for you to help us on this.
Thank You.
Darcie, Jade, Noy.
PS. Please can you email our teacher Mr Wood when your available.

Here is our reply from Dov:

The reply says:

Dear Simon

I have just returned from my Paternity Leave to find a letter from Darcie, Jade and Noy asking for assistance with After Effects.

I am very happy to run a tutorial, but it would be from next week.

Kind Regards

Dov