Another Possible Performance Location

Here is another location that I believe could be suitable for the performance part to our music video. It has great benefits as it’s close to other bands members and there is a lot of room for us to work in. Furthermore, I can easily get permission because my neighbour owns the field, he said as long as we don’t make any mess and don’t upset anyone else then it is fine. However, it does have some disadvantages, we were looking for a place that would look quite interesting, from all angles. Only from certain angle does this location look quite good and we were trying to look for a place with a hill. I will carry on looking for more places that we could use to get an interesting background that is suitable to use.

Possible Location

As we have planned to do film our narrative and performance parts outside we need a suitable place. We need enough room to set up equipment; we also need to have a place that is out of the way so we don’t upset people, such as making too much noise. We also need a place that looks quite interesting and is away from distractions. This is a possible place for where we can set up the performance parts. It’s out of the way and we won’t have to ask permission to use it because my friend owns it. If we don’t use it for performance it would be ideal to use it for our narrative as we were planning to have a shot of someone walking past the vocalist, this location has a bench and again is out of the way and there would be no problems with permission.  

Narrative Ideas

Me and my partner wanted many different aspects to be represented in our music video. Firstly, we want to represent the genre of music we chose. This will be done through the style of our cinematography and our mise-en-scene. We will use a wide varied of shots, especially with performance shots, this is commonly seen with heavy rock music videos. This keeps them music video interesting and helps the video to flow, it also connotes the fast paced instruments  through varied shots. We want our target audience to be able to relate to our main character as someone that fits their type of image, and for people to look at our music video and be able to stereotype our main character as a heavy rock fan. This will be using an element of Roland Barthes' cultural narrative code. This means our audience will use their own knowledge to understand certain  elements of our music video, such as the type of clothing and the music itself.

We decided we are going to imply some sort of journey into our video as part of the narrative. This will represent our main characters falling out with band and throughout the music video he will often walk past them or pass them in the street. We decided to make it interesting and use a lot of different locations,  in some of the shots we brought the instruments and set them up. This will make the video seem interesting and build up the narrative of the song. Our ending will be the narrative and performance parts joining together as we will see the main character joining the band and playing together as a band.

Filming For Our Music Video - Narrative

On Sunday we started filming for our music video, we worked mainly on the narrative part of the story. We filmed a introduction part of the song which consisted of the main character walking out of his house towards his car. We took time to choose what sort of location we used to have a deliberate effect. We chose to use an area which looked quite urban to show how the main character is like an every day teenager. We want to amplify the meaning behind the main character and the music he listens to, we done this through the mise-en-scene of the shot. We used grunge style clothes which consisted of baggy ripped jeans, skater shoes and a ragged well-worn jumper. This was so it matches the audiences image of the stereotypical grunge fan. We used this urban area to represent how the average teenager will listen to this music, which is something our audience can relate to and understand. We had a shot of turning up the music on the radio which when we are editing we shall turn the volume up on the soundtrack. This tells our audience a couple of key aspects of our main character. Firstly, it shows what music he listens to, secondly how he listens to the music loudly and how grunge fans want to rebel and are show a sense of pride of their music.

Equipment List - Narrative

For the narrative part of our music video we will not need as much equipment compared to the performance part. However, it’s still very important we have all the necessary equipment otherwise it could cause delays or we may not even be able to film at all.

·        HD Camera

·        Tripod and Dolly

·        SD Card

·        Storyboards

·        Costume

·        Car with enough fuel

Shot List Schedule - Narrative

I have planned a shot list for our day of filming, this is so we have schedule to work with and will help us to get organised. As we plan to film the narrative part first we are going to need to start with the introduction and then work from that. Due to the fact we are working in the winter we only have a limited amount of day light, so we need to make sure we are efficient with the limited day light we have. Here is the schedule for the day.

12:00pm – Meet partner and then drive to friend’s house to film our introduction

12:20pm – Start to film the intro, both walking out of house and driving off.

12:30pm – Once finished drive to Audley End to film the walking shots.

1:30pm – Finish the long shots; go to the brick wall to film

1:50pm – Move to the country lane to get the long shots

2:30pm – Get the band members ready, fit drums together, then film walking past

4:00pm – Drive to the bridge location to film walking past the guitarist.

4:20pm – Review the footage, record a new take if necessary, if not finish for the day. 

Props Required

For our music video we are going to need certain props, some are necessary for meeting the needs of our target audience. For the performance part of our music video we are going to need instruments, such as guitar, drum kit, microphone and amplifiers. This will make the performance look more interesting and realistic. As I am in band we already have these things, I have asked my friends and they were fine with using their equipment in a rural location. For the narrative side of our music video there are not many props needed. We are going to need the costumes as talked about earlier, we will also need a car for the introduction, fortunately I can drive and me and my partner believe it will be suitable for our plans. Having the right props will help us to meet the needs of our target audience. From my research I know these props are necessary to represent the grunge genre.

Suitable Costume

From my research I know costume is going to be an important element in our music video. My research has shown me that they wear very plain clothes, nothing branded or expensive. It won’t be hard to obtain these types of clothes because me and my band members all have clothes like it. We are going to have to need to wear trainers, baggy ripped jeans, plain shirts and jacket. I also believe the main character needs to wear clothes which are different from the rest of the band to represent how he feels “exiled” from the rest of the band. We have decided that I shall be the main character and I have picked plain black clothes, baggy jeans and old skate trainers. I believe this is suitable and because he is all dressed in black shows how he “pushed” away from the rest of the band. 

Storyboard for Our Music Video

Me and my partner drew out a storyboard for both performance and narrative, this will make it very useful for when we are filming our music video. We can relate back to it and we will already have a plan and idea for the different types of shots. However, some may be different if we the shot is not possible, for example if there is something blocking the shot that we want. Below are screen shots of our storyboard.

Research Conclusions

From my research I have been able to gather some key points that I have seen throughout these videos. One of these elements is the use of this sepia, washed out effect, I have seen this effect used in most of these videos and I believe it gives the video an old, warm feel to it. I believe I am certain to use this effect in my own video. I have also seen many shots of the band together and individual shots with their instruments. I believe it is so important for me to do this in my own music video and its clearly something many grunge/rock/metal bands do. It also helps match to other media products, such as posters and websites. The mise-en-scene is often very simple, with dull lighting or in some cases good lighting, such as Alice in Chains. I believe I will be using darker lighting to overall make the video look darker, it will also match the mood and message we are trying to portray in our music video. The mise-en-scene is also interesting as there are often urban locations, however, i have seen that there are some example of rural locations. Again, because of the message we want to portray we will be using rural locations. This research has also given me some ideas for props, costumes and actors, this information is helpful and is likely to help me produce a music video that my audience can relate to. It will also help me make a music video that will match the typical conventions of the grunge genre.

Grunge Research - Pearl Jam

When researching into this band I have learnt that they are often compared to Nirvana. This video also seems to be the one thats most similar to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. They both have no narrative part to the video and is based completely on the performance. There is also a crowd in both videos, which isn't something I have seen in the other videos. I can see similar mise-en-scene throughout all the videos I have seen, all the band members have long hair and do not wear any fashionable expensive clothes. The clothes all seems to be very plain and baggy. This is something I am sure to incorporate into my music video if it is clearly something that is a clear element in grunge music videos. There are also many close ups on the instruments, again something I have seen throughout all the music videos, as well as the camera focusing on the band together and individually. I believe I must use these aspects in my own music video if it clearly something that many grunge bands also use. This will help my target audience to be able to relate to it. I have also realised that all these music videos have a sense of rebellion but also pride in their music. 

Grunge Research - Stone Temple Pilots

This is the third from the list of the top 5 grunge bands voted by fans. From this video I can see there are several elements that are in common to the other videos I have researched. There are again close up shots of the band members and instruments. I have also commonly seen that there are more close-up shots of the lead singer more than anyone else in the band. In this video there is also special effects to make the video look more abstract. There is also a split performance and narrative, it seems the performance parts are longer in comparison to the narrative. There is also no clear message behind the lyrics, which I believe seems to be quite common in the videos I have researched. The costumes the band are wearing are not high end fashionable clothes, but plain looking clothes. This is something that also seems common from what I have seen. (apart from Alice in Chain's "Your Decision") The band seem to be in a small room that looks like a disco, to me this is in complete contrast to their genre and I think it connotes the sense of rebellion that seems to be common in all of the music videos I have researched. 

Grunge Research - Alice in Chains

This is the 4th band that I will look into, I have decided to choose the most well known videos from each band, this is because more people have watched them and when they watch our video they are more likely to be able to relate to it. This music video, "Your Decision" by Alice in Chains has some features I have seen in Nirvana's and Soundgarden's music video, however, there are some differences. This could be because it is a slower song compared to the other two as well as having a different meaning behind it. From this video I can see that there is a lot of focus on the band members, both close-up shots and long shots of the band together. This is something I have seen in the other two music videos and I believe is very important that we do this in our music video.

 I can also see that the band has very long hair, this is something that also seems common for bands in the grunge genre. However, they are not wearing the typical clothes that I have seen with the other music videos which I believe they have done this to support the message in the music video. They also have a split narrative and performance which is something Soundgarden also done. This is something we are going to do but possibly bring them both together. There is also many close up shots of the instruments, again this is something I believe we will be doing, this is because it is something that I have seen in many other grunge music videos.

Grunge Research - Soundgarden

I will be looking into 4 other bands and their music videos, this is so I can see what these videos may have in common. I can then incorporate some of these ideas into my own music video, as this will help our audience to be able to relate to our music video. This was 5th on the list of the top 5 grunge bands I found on a huge fan base website. Although this video is very weird and creepy I believe it has a lot of symbolism behind it. I believe there was no real meaning behind the lyrics and when doing research, I found that other fans did not believe that there was one true meaning behind it. The video itself contains a lot of surreal and apocalyptic sequences, it seems to follow a suburban neighborhood that eventually gets swallowed up by a Black Hole, linking back to the name of the song itself. However, from this research I can understand several things, there is a lot of abstract, surreal imagery. Something that may be common with other music videos in this genre, comparing it to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, I do not believe there is much in common. The band is also playing outside in an open field, this again is in complete contrast to Nirvana's music video. Overall, I believe both music videos have this message of rebellion and pride which may be quite common.

Equipment and Weather Check - Performance

For our day of filming we needed to make sure that the weather was good, if it was raining it would mean we would need to look for another day and this could be hard as we both are quite busy during the week. Fortunately the weather wasn’t forecasted to be raining, but the weather did say that it is likely to be grey and cloudy. This isn’t much of a problem because it will match the emotions we want to portray in our music video. Our message behind our music video isn’t very happy as we want our audience to understand that the narrative is about how one of the band members has had an argument and is being “rejected” from the rest of them. This is our equipment list.

• Camera and SD Card
• Tripod and Dolly 
• Instruments and Amps
• Actors, Band Members
• Same Costumes
• Storyboards 
• Car for transport 
• Ipod, Speakers and Lyrics 

Band Members Costumes

It was important for us to make sure that our band was wearing the right costumes; this was so they matched the conventions of the grunge genre. This would then allow our target audience to relate to our music video and see the similar elements when compared to other grunge music videos.  From our research we know the typical fashion of the grunge genre, as we have decided that the main character wears black clothes to signify how he is different. Our band members are going to wear non-branded clothes, such as a simple jacket, baggy jeans, t-shirt or long shirt and trainers. From our research we also knew it was very common for grunge bands to have long, scruffy hair, we are fortunate that most of our band members have long hair, ranging from different lengths. These different key elements will help our audience to relate to our music video. Here are some images of typical grunge fashion, similar to clothes that our own band members will be wearing.

Planning and Ideas for the Music Video

Me and my partner decided for our music video to have both aspects of performance and narrative. However, we decided we want to show both of them throughout the music but then at the end they combine together. We are going to to this by showing how our main character of the narrative is a fan of the music. We then want to keep cutting back to shots of the band performing the song, but telling a journey of then arrative and the main character. We also came up with the idea that as the main character is experiencing different suprises and actions in the narrative that he keeps walking past band members, completly taking no notice. At the end of the narrative and nearing the ned of the song we have decided to link the narrative and performance together, we will do this by showing how the main character picks up a guitar and then joining in with the song. We believe this will create a dramatic effect and show the relationship bewteen fans of the music and the band that creates the music. Our target audience is quite niche and the fans generally only listen to that type of music, hard, grunge rock. We wanted to demonstrate a symbolic relationship bewteen the music and the fan and we believe this twist in narrative and performance can do this. It also demonstrates Roland Barthes' symbolic code becuase there is a lot of meaning bewteen the music and fans and people that listen to this genre of music will understand this. This also demonstrates Barthes' cultural code because fans of the music will already have an understanding and knowledge of this type of performance and the music itself.

The Strangers

We had a band come down from Manchester to play a gig at our school, during third and fourth period we were given the oppurtunity to record them live. We were split into groups of 4/5 and given cameras, we then set up in different parts of the location to record the band. Being split up enabled us to get different variations of shots and footage. We recorded the song "In Chaos" by the band and we had 3 cameras. We had one camera on a tripod on the ground floor as well as a handheld camera. This allowed us to have close up shots and medium shots of the band and the instruments. We had the third camera on a dolly on the area above the ground floor. This was effective becuase we could get great shots from aobve and a bird eye view of the band and instruments. When we combine the footage from all three cameras we can make a music video which will help with practising for our music video. I learned a lot from doing this practise, it gave me a better understanding of how much work it can be to to record music live and how much organisation is needed.

Researching Into The Grunge Genre

I want to understand fully about the genre that I will be working with, this will be able to help me understand what their audience is like and the style of their music videos. I researched into a similiar band called Pearl Jam who very similiar to Nirvana. They both were very popular in the 1990's and along with Nirvana are voted one of the best Grunge bands ever.




When comparing this music video with Nirvana's I can see there are many

similarities. For example, both seem to have been shot in one location and filmed in dark lighting. They are wearing similar clothes, such as baggy shirts and jeans and long, uncombed hair. We can make sure that in our music video that we represent this by choosing a character with long hair and similar clothes. Furthermore, the connection between the band and their fans can be seen very strongly here, something I have already similarly seen in Nirvana’s music video. This is done by using many shots of the both the band and the audiences together, symbolising the connection caused by the music. It seems this is something both bands have done, so it might be worth doing something similar in our music video.

I can also see that during slow parts of the song such as the intro, ending and verses that there are longer shots and fewer cuts. But during heavier parts such as the chorus there are many different shots and faster cuts, to me this represents the energy in the music. This similar style was done in Nirvana’s video. This comparison tells me how I could film my music video, such as low lighting. It also tells me the fashion of both the band and the fans and what people would expect the characters to look like in a grunge music video.

Genre Research

I researched further into the grunge genre and found another popular band which is still very popular even today. Alice In Chains were very popular in the grunge genre along with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, what I found interesting when looking at comments and forums is that all these bands seem to have very loyal, dedicated fan bases. This tells me that that to reach out to this audience we are going to need to show that we respect the music and film it in a similar fashion to what they are use to.





This music video has many qualities which when compared to Nirvana's and Pearl Jam's videos I can see that there are some strong similarities. For example, in all three of the videos there doesn't seem to good lighting, and they are all shot in dark locations. In this video there are many locations, unlike Nirvana where there is just one main location. The first minute of the video has some amazing effects, using different colours, fish-eye effects, slow-motion and different angles. This makes the video very interesting. When comparing all three of the videos i can see that the pace of the shots is more varied and quicker cut at a heavier bit, and less, longer shots for slower parts of the song. This seems to be a common theme in these music videos and something our audience will recognise. This could be something we incorporate into our music video.

Lyrics Meanings

These lyrics don’t seem to have a direct meaning or to be aimed at anything in particular. When looking at people comment on forums it seems that there is a lot of discussion on what the lyrics actually mean. It seems that there is two main suggestions as to what the lyrics might symbolise. One suggestion was that the lyrics were aimed at the people that did not like their kind of music. I have learned from my own research that it seemed grunge music wasn’t the most liked genre of music and there was a lot of competition and rivalry between grunge and punk, hip-hop and many other genres.  I also believe that it’s not all about the lyrics but how they are being sung and in what way.  The music gets a lot heavier in the chorus which suggests to me that they are getting “angry” at the people which don’t like their music. It is a lot softer during the verses where lyrics such as “oh well, whatever, never mind”. Which suggests that they don’t care and will move on and forget about the haters.  Furthermore, I can’t work out what these lyrics could mean as they are pretty random and don’t have a strong structure.  But this is the style of Nirvana and many other grunge bands, this allows people to create their own meaning and symbolism for the strong, rather than being one main belief.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit Lyrics

I looked up the lyrics to our song for two main reasons, one reason being becuase our vocalist will have to sing and the second reason becuase it can help us with ideas for the narrative. These are the lyrics:

Load up on guns,
Bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's overboard self assured
Oh no I know, a dirty word.

Hello, hello, hello, hello?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, how low, how low?
Hello, hello, hello.

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
i feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulato!
An Albino!
A mosquito!
My libido!
Yay! Hey! Yay!

I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end

Hello, hello, hello, hello?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, how low, how low?
Hello, hello, hello.

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulato!
An Albino!
A mosquito!
My libido!
Yay! Hey! Yay!

(Solo)

And I forget just why I taste -
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it was hard to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind

Hello, hello, hello, hello?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, how low, how low?
Hello, hello, hello.

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mullato!
An albino!
A mosquito!
My libido!

A denial!(x9)

Nirvana Style Video

Nirvana are well known for having a lot of symbolism in their music videos. It worked well with following their lyrics and the narrative of the music video. Many of their music videos showed a lot of performance and a lot of their audience. This was very popular for an alternative, grunge rock band such as Nirvana as they preferred being seen as a less mainstream audience. Their music videos demonstrate grunge fashion which was normally ripped jeans, band t-shirts, old skate shoes or boots, or long sleeve shirts. Normally they messy, long hair with no style. The picture below demonstrates the type of clothes and hairstyles they had.

We need to research this type of information to make sure when we are filming for our music video that our characters look like the typical stereotype of that genre. Being in the grunge genre we need to make sure we meet the audiences demands and expectations of this type of fashion, we are going to need to find some people we can use in our music video which meets this style and of the grunge codes and conventions.