Filming (Day 1)

My group began filming while I was unwell, and they managed to film and edit the first line of our music video. They used stop animation for the iconography of the Rolling Stones t-shirt, for the lyrics "He's got a Rolling Stones tee, but he only knows one song".

Iconography

Iconography is something we are plan to use in our music video as we have found many music videos that have used it really effectively. One example of this is in Wilkinson's video for 'Afterglow':

Many of the lyrics in 'Stay Out' are perfect for the use of iconography, for example "He's got a Rolling Stones tee, but he only knows one song", where we plan to use stop motion to create the effect of a Rolling Stones t-shirt. The references to time and dates are also useful as we can use a flip calendar to show dates or time passing by.

BFI Trip (South Bank)

We recently went on a trip to the BFI in South Bank as a media class to research further into making our music videos. There we met the chief examiner, Pete Fraiser, and he talked to us about the key steps of making a music video effectively and using our  time wisely, including guiding us on key shot types and features of a music video that we need to include to make it successful, for example, aspects of performance and ensuring we have conformed to using the theory of 'star quality'.
We also got the chance to listen to the director speak to us about some of the music videos he has had the chance to work on. We were lucky enough to hear about his thought process when planning some of the videos such as 'Autophilia' by The Bluetones and 'It's raining men' by Geri Halliwell.

               

Richard Dyer's Star Quality Theory

Richard Dyer is an English academic currently holding a professorship in Film Studies at King's College London. He specialises in cinema, queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender. 

Richard Dyer's star quality theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial gain by being built up to target a specific demographic. His theory is broken down into 3 sections: Audience and Institutions, Constructions and Hegemony:

1) Audience and Institutions-
This is the idea that stars are used to for the sole purpose of making money, and the institution modifies the celebrities image around the target audience.

2) Constructions-
The idea that the star is built for an audience and is not an actual person. They are then built with a certain signature to them, making them stand out from other stars. One example of this would be Lady Gaga's loud and fashion sense which separates her from other celebrities.

3) Hegemony-
This is the idea that we relate to the star due to the fact that they have a certain feature or quality that we admire about them or share with them, which then develops an admiration which turns into idolisation. Some people may then replicate what they like about the star, which can have positive or negative consequences.

Location Ideas

These are some of the main locations we are thinking of using. We want to film at winter wonderland this year because we feel the song 'Stay Out' has a very wintery feel to it and would fit well with the setting of fair ground rides and christmas stalls. The next location we want to film in more of a rural location, and we found a cultural park which is accessible to us in London, and the bridge below is where we want to film. We also feel that Covent Garden would be an appropriate place to film as it fits with the theme of our song, along with the record store. 

Mood Board

For inspiration we searched our main themes on Tumblr to create a mood board. Our ideas so far consist of a 60's theme, in which we want to incorporate loud colours from this period, old fashioned items such as flip calendars and vinyl record players, along with a sepia effect to make the footage appear to be old with a retro feel. 

Email for Permission

We e-mailed the manager of the record label Nina Nesbitt is signed to, Universal Music Group  and asked for permission to use her song for our A2 music video to avoid any copyright issues. We are awaiting a reply!