Little Missy Animatic

We recently completed our storyboarding and the process of creating a music video consists of storyboarding and then turning these still images into a shot-by-shot layout and filming style for your music video.

First we took a picture of each of the individual shots from the storyboard using a digital camera. We then uploaded them to a computer and then pieced them together using Final Cut Pro and lay the music down over the images. Below is the Animatic…

At the beginning of the Animatic we have used several shots of London to establish where the drama is taking place, a bustling urban environment. We fade out of a night skyline of London when the piano in the song twinkles. Lyrics begin with Dana applying eye make-up in a mirror. We chose this shot because we thought it would make it more interesting to the audience and to connect the viewer to the artist by showing personal moments.

Our next significant shot in the music video is when Dana is singing on the stage, we thought that this would contrast the busy life of her boyfriend with her relaxed pop singer’s lifestyle. Furthermore the master shot that we keep referring back helps us create her image and makes the artist a more powerful woman.

Another vital shot in our video is when Dana will be singing against a graffiti brick wall. We feel that we should try to appeal to audience and we have shown the classy office life and the upmarket club scene, therefore having Dana sing the song against a brick wall connects with a different audience.

From our talk with Jim Coles we have taken his constructive criticisms and have some adjustments to make to our music video.

Jim suggested that we introduce Closeups of Mandy with Dana's boyfriend earlier on in the edit, and also introduce Dana's boyfriend into the shots where Dana is getting ready and include some intimacy in these, as this will help to establish the storyline for the viewer, as Jim suggested that from the point of view of a member of the audience it does not come across clear enough.

Jim also suggested that we use a backstage location at Powers Bar - one of our filming locations - in order to support the suggestions of Dana's performer status, as she is performing on stage in the video, whilst over looking her boyfriends office party.

As beauty in the video is to be aspirational, we intend on re enforcing Dana's glamourous image, and are therefore considering changing our idea of 70's outfit in the bar/club scene. We are still intent on demonstrating Dana in a 'stepford wives' manner in scenes where she is in the home or playing the 'perfect girlfriend', as the irony adds to the humour that we aim to achieve in our video, but feel that it would be more beneficial for the promotion of our artist to have her dressed glamorously in order to emphasise her personality and status.

Update- 22/10/09

Just a short update on what has been going on in our lessons and with our Music Video; recently Jim Cole - a music promotion director came in to talk to us and we ran him through our concept and our animatic. He liked what we had done but also gave us a professional view on our concept and ideas, and gave us constructive criticisms that we have taken into account. We will be uploading shortly our animatic shortly.

How to Direct a Music Video

While I was doing some research on music videos I came across this and found it very interesting how different directors plan and capture a music video.

The director in this video is directing a Hip/Hop video and even though our music video will not be like this, they will have the same pre-production and set-up as our own. He shows many of his methods and tips for shooting the artist. He talks about a 'wide shots' and 'master shots' and the method of 'covering', where if you have several locations with different props in them, you need to get all the shots done in one day to avoid wasting time by revisiting the location.

This is Jessie Harris who will play oue secretary, Mandy, she has had past experience with working in music videos as she has been in 'Little Miss Anyone', a video directed by two ex-King Alfred students.

Our locations for the music video will include a bar scene where Dana will be singing on stage. For these shots we will be using Power's Bar:

The opening shot of our music video will be of Trafalgar Square, which we will also return to for shots of Dana singing the lyrics:

This is Sam Hayes who will be our 'boyfriend', Steven, originally we had not intended to use him as he is in our A2 music video group however, with major setbacks and communication problems he has bravely stepped up to fill the gap. He has had no prior experience however being part of the A2 group we feel that it will be easier for him to act and communicate with the other actresses.
As you can see he is comfortable in a suit which will help as he is to play the role of a city office worker.

Katy Perry - Waking up in Vegas

We have chosen this Katy Perry song as it represents Dana's fun and mischievous side while maintaing class.

P!NK - So What

Below is P!NK's video for So What, we have chosen this video because it represents power, humour and anger.

The video begins in a tattoo parlour, Pink is getting a tattoo of a red void mark on her arm across an existing tattoo before the scene cuts to Pink riding down Sunset Boulevard on a lawnmower and drinking alcohol. Pink is then shown entering Guitar Center browsing guitars. She pretends to play before attempting to smash it into the ground, but she is restrained by a store clerk which leads to them engaging in a fight. Pink is shown cutting down a tree engraved with her real name and her ex-husband's names with a chainsaw. She cries on the chainsaw, while telling herself that she is all right, right before the tree falls and nearly crushes her neighbor (played by Will Sasso). After this, Pink is sitting in a bar after losing her table to Jessica Simpson, accompanied by a man who is playing the drums out of glasses.

The next scene goes to Pink on a motorbike, while a newly wedded couple in a car pull up beside her. Jealous and outraged at the happy newlyweds, Pink is shown throwing objects at the car and popping the blown up condoms used to decorate the vehicle, before climbing onto it and playfully (albeit violently) attacking the vehicle. Pink is then shown stripping on the red carpet, surrounded by photographers, she takes off her jacket to reveal her (blurred) nude body. The paparazzi all snap photos of her as she does choreography from Michael Jackson's video for Thriller naked. Then while getting her hair done, her stylist applies hairspray, as Pink turns on her lighter, accidentally setting her hair on fire. Also shown are two men peeing in bottles, which they give to Pink, however Pink passes them to two guys walking past her. They drink it and then realizing what it is, spit it out in disgust. Finally, Pink is shown surrounded by men and women in their underwear engaging in a pillow fight. The video then cuts between all the scenes shown in the video before ending with Pink poking her tongue at the camera with her husband.

Pink is also shown performing the song in concert near the end. Pink's husband Carey Hart makes cameos throughout the video, such as a scene where they are talking as newspaper headlines flash behind them. Producer Butch Walker also makes a cameo. Pink has stated that Hart had not heard the song prior to arriving for the video shoot.

Lily Allen - Alfie

Below is Lily Allen's video Alfie. I have chosen this specific video as it is very comical and represents Dana.

Alfie Video

The music video was directed by Sarah Chatfield, who wanted do to a Tom and Jerry-like video, where the human character is cut off at the waist. Hence Allen was not going to be part of it originally. However, she did appear on the video, which starts off with an opening title parodying Looney Tunes and shows Allen in the kitchen preparing a cup of tea, while Alfie, impersonated by a puppet, smokes in his miniature bedroom, watching television. The singer enters the room and takes away his hookah, as he unsuccessfully tries to get it back. Next, Allen irons his tuxedo and marks a job announcement called "The Puppet Show" in the newspaper, as the lyric "You need to get a job because the bills need to get paid" is sung. Meanwhile, Alfie is in his bed, staring at a magazine in which there are undressed dolls, titled "Roxy & Babs get it on!" and proceeds for masturbation. Allen walks in on him with the newspaper and suit as he does so, but immediately exits out of shame. With the start of the bridge, puppet birds sing outside the home, while Alfie sneaks out of his room and tries to get beer out of the refrigerator, but is ultimately caught by Allen. She then takes off his "stupid fitted cap", as he scrawls a picture of her, which is also the cover of "Littlest Things".The final scene happens at night, in the kitchen, where Allen is lying on the floor, watching her brother dance. After the last lyrics, "Please don't despair, my mon frere" is sung, he punches her and the video ends. There is also an alternate version, where the words "weed" and "THC" are blanked, the hookah is replaced by a joystick, Alfie does not smoke, and, when Allen walks in on him masturbating, there is a big "censored" sign.

Music Video Influences

The theme of our music video is mostly based around humour and so below are some of our inluences.

Although Dana is an individual artist and doesn't compare herself to anyone, these three artists are what we compare her to.

P!NK

P!nk is an eccentric woman much like Dana.

Katy Perry

Katy Perry's music video always have sexual references in them however we feel that she adds a touch of class to them.

Lilly Allen

Lilly Allen's videos are always very comical as you can see above where she is showing her relationship with her little brother.

Cast

This is our main actress Sophie Shalsson who will be playing Dana.

Conclusion, final Video Concept 3, and Annotated Brainstorm.

Taking into consideration results from the Focus Group Analysis, and the interview we had with out artist, we have come up with a final video concept and brainstormed some rough ideas to follow our desired theme. We decided that humour was an important aspect to include in the video as it was something indicated as important to our identified age group, and important to our artist who's opinions we decided were key to consider, as her personality will come out through the song. Here is our final video concept:

Dana – Little Missy

Video Concept 3

Artist/Girlfriend – Dana

Office worker/Boyfriend - Steven

Secretary/Love interest – Mandy

Dana and Steven are in a relationship but Dana has always had suspicions about Steven’s secretary’s intentions with her boyfriend. Mandy is flirtatious and suggestive with Steven in the office and has texts on his phone from Mandy, that unknown to Steven, Dana reads. Dana decides to take matters into her own hands and confront the problem by catching them out, and aims to throw Mandy off her boyfriends scent by sabotaging her plans.

To add a humorous spin to the video Dana will play the perfect girlfriend and different locations will reflect different time periods. For example the disco scene will reflect 70’s, and when at home Dana will be the perfect 50’s housewife. The video will play out Dana following her boyfriend to work or following his secretary home in an attempt to catch our their ‘affair’, although her boyfriend will be oblivious to Dana’s plans. Dana’s emotions such as surprise and anger will be over exaggerated in order to add to the humour of the video and her costumes will be eccentric in order to emphasise the time periods.

The video will animate the storyline through the visuals and include Dana singing the lyrics throughout her antics. The video will be eccentric, energetic and include vibrant colours in order to lighten the storyline and demonstrate her personality and emphasise her individuality.

Analysis from Questionnaire

Recently we held a focus group of people aged between fourteen and twenty-six which consisted of friends, school pupils and family members. There were around eighteen people that turned up to our meeting and we had varying results.

Most of the group thought that the song contained a lot of love; hate and humor; from this we have incorporated humor into our video concept as this describes the artist very well. We had anticipated that the focus group would pick these three words but it was good to actually hear from them to reinforce our ideas.

We asked them about certain images that came to mind when hey listened to ‘Little Missy’, the results contrasted with each other but we shared ideas and thoughts on it. They varied from playground romance to adult themes, like money, business and sexual deviance.

When we asked the group whether or not they liked the song not just if they would buy it, they were split down the middle. The boys enjoyed listening to the song but they said they wouldn’t buy it because it was “too repetitive” however the girls clearly loved the song and would buy it as they walked out the door humming the tune. This brings us onto our next question about audience, from the results the focus group felt that ‘Little Missy’ appealed to a much larger audience than we had suggested. They said the age gap was from sixteen to thirty. There was a unanimous decision about gender, they all thought the song was aimed at a female audience; this piece of information is very useful as it changes the dynamics of the music video completely.

When asked about important aspects of a music video mostly all of the group said that artist representation and gender roles are very significant. Furthermore a music video with a story, humor and purpose is much easier and more interesting to watch. The younger volunteers in our focus group said that if they could relate to the video concept it becomes more accessible to watch as most videos are aimed at a slightly older audience.

Generally people preferred video concept two as it was more humorous and easier for the younger part of the audience of 16-25 to relate to.

Dana - Little Missy - Focus Group Questionnaire

Name:_______________ Age:_____

*You will now be played the song we are using for our A2 Media Coursework, ‘L:ittle Missy’ – by Danica Karic*

(Please circle your answers or write where necessary)

1. What three words would you use to describe the impression you get from this song?

2. What images come to mind when you hear the song?

3. Would you buy this song?

Yes No

Please justify why:

4. What audience do you think this song and artist appeals to?

Gender: Male Female

Age Group: Under 16 16-25 25-30 30+

Please justify why

5. What aspects of a music video do you consider important, and encourage repeat viewing?

6. Please read over the two video concepts we have given to you. Out of the two, which do you think best suits the audience and music?

Video Concept 1 Video Concept 2

Please justify your choice and state if there is anything you would change:

Interview with our Artist

Q. What gave you the inspiration to write these lyrics?

A. (She laughs) Funny story, it was years and years ago, my ex-boyfriend had this best friend who I knew was totally in love with him. I kept telling him that she loves you and he didn’t listen. She was easing her way into his life and I was like (she mutters under her breath) Bitch! So basically I got the inspiration from her and telling him that he was an idiot, also she was trying to get me out of the picture. She is Little Missy!

Q. Which Artists have influenced you the most?

A. Ah Lots really! Well actually I guess its different genres that have influenced me not artists, I just listen to everything that there is! So I have no specific person who I prefer. But I guess all this kind of alternative: rock, soft rock…um I’m not sure really! Literally, if I have a moment where I think that I want to kill someone, I would write a song about it!

Q. What genre do you consider your music to be?

A. Well for that song (little missy) it was mainly like pop/RnB, but now I’m changing. Most of my songs are like a soft rock, pop, soul I guess you could say.

Q. If you were to direct the music video, what kind of story would you have?

A. I think it would be interesting to have a teenage version of the story you already have, maybe it to be a high school setting rather than an office/club one. I like a music video to be colorful and exciting, different to an MTV video, if you understand what I mean? The two friends should end up hating each other! She should be angry but funny, she should look is about to kill her but she wont really do anything!

Q. What age group would you consider your music appeals to?

A. I’d say, from like fourteen to thirty. Although for this song because of the language probably a bit older, let’s say eighteen!

Q. Could you describe yourself and your personality in six words?

A. Hah, I’d say, my personality in six words?! Well…(she laughs to herself): Energetic, Inspired, Social, Musical, Fantastic (she cackles) I love myself! And I have been told I’m a ‘complete nutter’.

Video Concept 2 and Annotated Brainstorm

Dana – Little Missy

Video Concept 2

Artist/Room mate/Girlfriend – Dana

Boyfriend - Steven

Room mate/Love interest – Mandy

Dana and Stefan are in a relationship but Dana’s room mate Mandy has a bad reputation when it comes to infidelity and is well known for being flirty and promiscuous, even within their circle of friends. Dana doesn’t like how Mandy acts around her boyfriend, when he regularly visits the dorm or spends time with her friendship circle, which includes Mandy, and she is not afraid of showing it as she is assertive and has no respect for infidelity.

As the storyline is set in a university, the girls will therefore be seen as bitchy and the tensions and issues will be tackled silently, through schemes and deception. The video will demonstrate the tensions of girls in the dorm and put a light hearted and humorous spin on a relatively serious storyline, which the young target audience will be able to relate to.

Dana will be represented as strong and sassy and therefore the music video will include scenes of her singing – in order to follow demands of the record label and include close-ups of the artist, which are vibrant, energetic and fun. Mandy will be represented as flirtatious and attention seeking yet dominated by Dana’s strong character and intimidated by her actions and presence.

The music video will cut from scenes of the storyline/lyrics being animated through the visuals, to scenes of Dana singing the lyrics in various locations.

Video Concept 1 and Annotated Brainstorm

Dana – Little Missy

Video Concept 1

Artist/Girlfriend – Dana

Office worker/Boyfriend - Steven

Secretary/Love interest – Mandy

Dana and Steven are in a relationship but Dana has always had suspicions about Steven’s secretary’s intentions with her boyfriend. Mandy is flirtatious and suggestive with Steven in the office and has texts on his phone from Mandy, that unknown to Steven, Dana reads. Dana decides to take matters into her own hands and confront the problem by catching them out, and aims to throw Mandy off her boyfriends scent by sabotaging her plans.

The video will animate the storyline through the visuals, and include cutaways to shots of the artist singing the lyrics, with vibrant colours and energetic scenes in order to bring excitement and individuality to the video, and help to support the eccentric representation of our artist. The video will follow our artist as she plans events such as introducing her boyfriends love interest to other men, and follows the pair in an attempt to catch them out.

The cutaways from location to location, and narrative to non narrative will create a fast pace to the music video and therefore add to the energy and eccentricity that we aim to achieve.

Mood Board

Artist Concept

Born in Serbia, Dana was thrown into the world of music from a young age. From the age of ten Dana attended a music school. Music was her passion and she had learned to play the piano from the age of six and her musical talent came naturally to her. She had always dreamt of becoming a classical musician and aspired to compose and play her own music to an audience.

At the age of thirteen Dana moved to London with her family, she began to discover the different music genres that London had to offer, from the high tempo pop beats to the jazz melodies. This eclectic mix is now evident in her music, and most famous song ‘Little Missy’.

After developing a taste for this new mix of sounds Dana began to write and compose music from her bedroom. After she had compiled a few of her compositions she decided to take her work to a record company but was turned down because her music was too alternative for the label’s audience. Dana decided to set up a MySpace page where she could advertise her image and her audience could sample her music; leaving feedback where necessary. This allowed for her to take her criticisms constructively and gain confidence in herself and her talents, and take control of her success.