For the pre production of our pop video we had to conduct a lot of research into the common conventions of the content of a pop video. This meant we used youtube to watch other music videos and analysed the elements in them that were common and what we liked about them. When doing our research we also studied the theorist Keith Negus who explores the common generic conventions of popular music promo videos. Theses conventions are:
· The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artists image
· The featuring of the artist
· A wide extensive use of shots types camera angles and movement.
· Repetitions of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
· -A possible narrative structure
· --A possible performance elements
· --The flexibility to disregard realism
· --Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
· -- Use of special effects (lighting, animation, CGIs in-camera effects)
· --A carefully constructed Mise en scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
· --High impact instantly!
As I have previously mentioned we watched lots of other pop videos in the research stages of our pop video. From watching theses videos we were able to try and imitate certain elements in them. This would give plaisir – the expected pleasure to the audience. This theory comes from Barthes. As well as imitating conventions we also subverted some of the conventions. This would develop Barthes theory and give jouissance – this being something mew or unexpected.
For our pop video we choose the song ‘La La La’ by The Bird and the Bea. The song its self is about being youthful and free. The lyric of the song are very light hearted and fun. We decided that we were going to put our own meaning across on the video how ever. We wanted to portray the twins as being close and intimate with a feeling of freedom and in places connotations of etherealness. We manage to show this by using tight close up shots to make the girls appear close and comfortable around each other. For freedom element, a lot of our footage was shot free hand or was a pan. This is good because it meant we had more freedom with the camera and the viewer would not feel so restricted when watching it. We managed to create a light heavenly mood by dressing both the twins in white dresses, this also aimed to show their purity and that they are not rebellious – which would have been the case if we had dressed them in dark and dull colours.
This image is a still from my video its self. As you can see she is wearing a white dress, as I have previously mentioned to give the impression of good girl and angelic. Furthermore, the dress has a slightly floral pattern and you can see the orange flower next to her head. We did this to make the video have a feeling of fantasy and girly. This imitates Negus’s conventions of having the flexibility of disregarding reality, which is what we wanted to achieve within our video. You can also see from this image that we used multicolour lighting and projections again this was to imitate Negus’s convention of having the ability to disregard reality as well as imitating his convention that most videos have the use of CGI or special lighting in our case. We placed her on the right hand side of the screen as this was a factor we wanted to keep consistent throughout our video, her twin sister was always framed on the left hand side of the screen.
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This is another still that I have screen grabbed from our pop video. Although you cant see it because its a still, this particular scene is where were we panned over the top of the girls free hand. This goes to show the freedom and fluidity within in our video and fulfils the impression we were aiming to give off. The fact that this scene is a pan also subverts Negus’s convention of having short sharp cuts that cut to the beat. The reason we subverted this was because this is the opening scene the music is flowing nicely and we wanted to mirror this in our camera work. In terms of Mise en Scene, you can see in this still that we used fairy lights and flowers this was in an attempt to create mystical and fantasy atmosphere. This still also high lights that we used twins because they would be very comfortable with each other, meaning that we could easily capture intimacy and portray the closeness of the two girls.
It is difficult to show what this is from a screen grab as it was a moving image originally. On the shoot day we filmed lights and projections through a piece of flowing material. The effect looks as though it was light coming through water and that we were filming underwater. We did it with lots of different colour lights and placed it along with a high-pitched chime that is repeated throughout the song. This imitates two of Negus’s conventions the use of lighting and special effect and the ability to disregard reality. The first convention we imitated was in order to help up achieve the second.
This scene is very under exposed the reason for this was because we wanted the lights to be the main attention in this shot, hence why they are framed on two of the four hot spots. From this still you can clearly see the projection that we were using onto the sheets. We also built a tent like structure to film inside with the idea of it being a get away from reality and a world with in its own.
This is the front of our CD cover, as part of our digi-pack. I wanted to carry our the theme of the fantasy and lights, hence the whips of pink round the outside. This also helped me frame the twins and so that your eye is focused on them and lead towards the middle of the picture. Negus suggest that a common convention is to have ‘the explicit and unashamed promotion of the artists image’. We were not promoting our band in this way and subverted this by showing their innocence and their purity instead as it followed the theme of the song and our image for our band. The lettering I did and took me a long time. I kept the colours similar to the ones used in our video in order to have a direct link with the song. I also added the floral patterns on the lettering as we has a lot of flowers in the video and the fact that it is a reminder that the twins are fun and light hearted. 
This is also part of our Digi-pack. It is the back cover to the CD. As you can see we wanted to keep this theme of fantasy and dreamy feeling consistent right the way through from the pop video to the CD. Here you can see the keyboard to show that they are an organic band and play all their own music and are very original. This was the image that we would like to be associated with our band. The lights and the feathers were from the video and I feel adds nicely to the mise en scene. In the top right had corner is the name of the music company the band are part of. This is a standard requirement and must be on the back of all CD covers. I edited the bar code so that it was blue, although it is unrealistic it keeps the colours consistent thought out the image.
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