generic conventions of romance

Purpose of a music video

The purpose of a music video are to:

• To sell the song, invoke a reaction so it leaves you remembering the song
• To give the listener a better understanding of the song( if the song is narrative)
• To promote the artist
• To entertain the listeners( to show off any other talents the musician may have for example dancing or acting)
• To sell Cd's and DVD's to viewers. Creating a memorable visual to the song increases its chances to sell

Despite all of these being factors in why a music video is important, some people may argue that the end result still has to serve one purpose: promotion. The music video to a song is a promotional tool for the artist. It sometimes serves as a conduit to attention from a label, but more often it is a catalyst for cd sales or artist song downloads.

Shot list for the train station scene

Shot number	Shot used	Characters/description
1	Establishing shot	To establish the location
2	Long shot	Show the female walking across the pathway onto the other platform
3	Mid shot	To show the female walking, and start to zoom in onto her facial expression
4	Close up	To show the females facial expression as she is sat waiting at the train station

For the scene where the female walks from one platform at the train station to the other we didn't need as many shots as what we would the other scenes. We made sure we knew exactly what shots that needed to be filmed before we went out so it was easier and we could get it done a lot quicker.

Shot list for the party scene

Shot number	Shot used	Characters/description
1	Establishing shot	Show all the characters together, and establish the location of the party
2	Long shot	To show the characters together and dancing
3	Long shot	Show the main female character towards the edge of the dancing, highlights she is alone, and doesn’t feel she belongs anymore
4	Mid shot	Show the female’s expression, as everyone is dancing around her, but everyone has their backs to her, so this shows that she feels she doesn’t belong anymore
5	Close up	Close up of the females face expression, to show how the situation she is in is affecting her
6	Long shot	To show the female and the male alone together
7	Close up	Of the female and the male talking together, and also you can see the facial expressions on both characters
8	Long shot	To show the male walking away and leaves the female stood on her own
9	Close up	Of the female stood alone, after the male has left her
10	Mid shot	To show the female walk away and everything fades to black which shows that everything is just memories fading away

As this was a big scene in our music video we needed to make sure that we got the shot list right before going out to film, so that we knew exactly what shots where needed and we didn't waste any time. As there was loads of people helping us film this scene we had to get exactly the right shots and then some extra in case we wanted to put them in. 

Concept

Additional Screenshots from the party scene

 In this image it shows the female and the male stood against the wall with the spotlight behind them so that the audience could see them more clearly, and understand their situation more. Having the male stood taller than the female, and having her crouch down which implies that she is scared of him and he is acting like the more dominant gender, which is using the stereotypical gender of having the male more dominant in a relationship. It also shows that males look down on the female gender thinking that they are not the same as them. The only prop used in this scene was a mobile phone which the male was holding and using, and we did this because we wanted to show that the male wasn't interested in the female anymore, he was more bothered about his mobile phone. The body language between the two in this shot, could also imply that there is a problem with their relationship, as they aren't showing the close intimacy that couples would usually have.

In this screenshot it shows the male walking away from the female leaving her all on her own, and this again matches the theme of heartbreak. We chose to have the spotlight on the wall so that the female stood out against the dark room, and the audience could see her. Her clothing in the party scene were quite casual, as she wore a dip dyed blue and white top, as this connotes her purity and innocence but also the blue could show that she has another side to her, and she also wore jeans.

In this shot it shows the female stood against the wall on her own, whilst everyone else is dancing around her with their backs to her, and this shows that everyone has turned against her, that all her friends can manage without her , and this again highlights her isolation. We used a close up shot of the females face, so that the audience could see the emotion on her face and therefore they were able to sympathise with her situation. We used a dissolve to go over the whole clip as we wanted to show the female confused in her own world, like there are two of the same people in one person, and she is trying to get out of the old her and become the person that she wants to be. 

This shot shows the female stood alone, whilst everyone has their backs to her, and this is shown using a long shot. We didnt want to have the ex stood near her on this part of the video, as we wanted to show that there was something wrong with the couple and we wanted to leave it up to the audience to interpret it how they wanted to. As you see the female is stood in the spotlight again, and this is implying that maybe the only way that she can shine bright is if she is alone. We used a long shot for this shot as we thought it was most appropriate as we could show other people as well as the female.

In this shot it shows the female is shown walking away, and this happens after the male has just left her. We wanted to show the female just alone in this shot as the audience would be able to sympathise with her situation more, and again the female being left alone after a break up shows that she is heartbroken. There were no props used as we didnt want to take any focus off the fact that now the female has lost her boyfriend, she doesnt have anybody else. The low lighting used throughout the party scene gives the idea that something is about to happen.

In this scene, it shows the female and all her friends dancing together and having fun. Apart from the fact that the female is stood on the outside of the group, and this implies that she doesn't feel part of her friends anymore. We wanted to show the female with a smile on her face, because this shows no matter how tough things get in life, the only way to get through things is to smile and try to move on. There was a range of clothing choices used in the other people dancing, because we wanted to portray a wide range of stereotypes of people, again there are people wearing white, and brighter colours which are more females and all the males are wearing quite dark clothing.

We chose to do a party scene, as we thought most teenagers would be able to appeal to this situation because both male and female teenagers like to have fun with friends at a party. Also it was a good oppertunity to show the females isolation, as there was going to be a group of people and placing her on the outside of the shot helps to highlight the fact that she is alone, and doesn't fit in with her friends anymore. We chose to do the party scene as a memory/flashback as the female is going through her phone and finds this memory.

Additional storyboards for the party scene

This image shows the whole of the storyboard for the party scene. We did this so that we would know what we wanted to include in the scene and which way round would be best to do it.

The first shot, is going to be a close up of the female on the beach alone, looking through memories on her phone which then goes to a black screen as it zooms into a party scene which is a video she has on her phone. The next shot is going to be a long shot, so that the audience can see the location of the party and also who is there.

The next shot is going to be of the female alone, not being able to mix with any of her friends anymore. We chose to have this situation happen at the party because every teenager has understood what it feels like not to fit in with a group of people, and therefore the audience could sympathise with the female. Her clothing is going to be white, and this connotes purity and innocence. In the next shot it is going to show all her friends and the male having fun and getting along well. Again we chose this so it highlights the females isolation that she doesnt know where she belongs anymore.

In the next shot, we are going to show both the male and the female together alone, so that the audience just focuses on them two and the situation that they are in. In this scene this is where the male says to the female that they can't have anything to do with each other anymore and again this matches the theme of heartbreak. The following scene is going to be a close up of the females face, to show her facial expression and how she is feeling so that the audience can sympathise with her and understand her situation more.

The next scene is going to be a long shot of the female and the male both walking off in different directions, both going their own way. We are going to show the female upset and more heartbroken because stereotypically females get more emotional about a heartbreak than what males do and this is why we are going to show him just walking off with a slight smile on his face, the audience may think that he is a bit heartless but it's just a males way of coping with things. The next shot is going to be a close up again of the female on the beach looking at her phone, the same shot at the start, so that the party scene feels like a whole circle, starting and ending at the same place.

Additional Screenshots

This image fits with the lyrics ''Have i made the wrong decision, is this the right road to take?''. This fits with the lyrics because it shows steps leading up to something but never knowing whats at the top, and this also then fits with the females situation in the song, because she is trying to decide what is the best thing to do, and doing this she never gets to the top. This shot then fades to the female at the top singing, and it is a low angle shooting up wards, so then it looks like the female is looking up to the sky asking for someone to help her.

This screenshot shows our editing process so far, and the gaps in the song at the end are where we are going to have the party scene and the male and the female together. We thought a party scene would be the best place to show some memories as the couple are surounded by all their friends.

Filming Ideas

In our music video we wanted to have a party scene which was going to be part of the memories section between the male and the female. When it came to planning ideas for filming this, we had no idea on what sort of things to include and where abouts to film the party scene, so we asked people for videos that already had included some sort of party scene, and when we found one that would be perfect to help us was 'N-sync - Gone'. It fitted into the same theme as our song, and its about the male missing the female and the song is all about her, and memories of the two of them, and this has helped us decide what things we could add into our music video.

In this screenshot it shows the male alone in the room which could highlight his isolation now that the female has gone. Also the black clothing choice could imply that he is in a dark mood/depressed now the female has gone, which most people feel after a heartbreak. The lighting also in this shot is quite dull which could also imply heartbreak.

In this screenshot the male is shown with some of his band members, and he is shown towards the left of the screen which could imply that he doesnt feel part of the group anymore, again he is wearing black clothing and the lighting is dark which both suggest he is going through a heartbreak.

In this screen we see the male and the female together at the party which is for her birthday. They are both showing close body language with each other which is a connotation of romance, and this again matches the song theme. Having placed a party hat on his nose allows the audience to see that he is a bit of a joker and likes to have fun.

In this screenshot the male is shown painting the female's toe nails, and this is shown as being quite a romantic thing to do as he is pampering his girl and treating her right. The close body language of the two also imply that they are in love. The shot only has the males face in it, so the audience can see how happy he is with the girl.

This shot just shows the female on her own, and this could allow the audience to see how happy she is. Having her fill the frame tells the audience that she is the main character of the video, as she keeps appearing all the time. Again the title of the song is 'Gone' and the video is about her so it shows the memories that the male has of her but now she has gone, and the memories are the only thing that he has left.

This screenshot shows the male and the female together at the party scene, and again their body language with each other is close and personal which suggests that they are comfortable around each other to act however they like. Here the female is shown putting cream from the cake the male had given her for her birthday onto his nose and this suggests that they are both having fun together.

This image shows both the male and female in the same shot without anyone else, and this can allow the audience to see the expressions on both their faces, as they are both happy. The way the female is stood in the foreground of the image and the male is stood behind her shows the audience how he is always around her, and the way he is looking at her implies that they are deeply in love with each other.

This screenshot matches the conventions of a romance genre music video as there is the two main characters sharing a kiss, this again is done to show how happy they are with each other, and it allows the audience to know that again this is about them two and their relationship.

Here the male and the female are shown in love, and having fun with the one person you love which is what a relationship is all about. Again the clouds in the background and having this shot outside, allows a more natural feel to the video. Just seeing the clouds behind them could suggest that togther they feel on top of the world but without her he doesnt feel real. The composition of this image allows the audience to see both the actors and the location of where they are.

In this image the male and the female are again shown being close with each other, and the male and female are leaning on each other which shows that they support each other. Again the audience cant see the female's facial expression and they do this so that it is just the males expression which is important, and again he has a smile on his face and this again matches with how people act when they are in love.

Here the female isn't shown as being as well made up as she was in the party and they do this because no matter what the male will always love her, and in this shot he is shown giving her a present for her birthday and he gives her a necklace which again is a romantic thing to do. Being able to see both facial expressions on the actors show the audience how happy they are.

 

In this image a close up shot of the male's face is used to show how sad and melancholic he feels after he broke up with the girl, the lighting is dim and he is wearing black clothes which again show that he is struggling without the girl and this matches with how people cope during a heartbreak.

 

In this image the female is shown wearing black clothing which could imply that she is missing the male and doesnt feel real without him. The lighting is dim and she is lit up from the front so that the audience can see her facial expression, and she is shown to have a smile on her face even though it isnt evident and this could imply that even though she is missing him and still in love with him, just thinking about him makes her happy.

 

In this image the male is lit up from the back which creates a silhouetted look and the audience can only make out the outline of the male and cant see his facial expression, so the audience can't see how unhappy he is. Also in this shot he is shown crouching down and is closer to the floor which is how low he feels without the female.

Having the party scene of the video in black and white allows the audience to see that their relationship is over now, and the only thing that the male has left of her are the memories that they shared. The black and white effect could also be used to add emotion and feeling to the video, so the audience can sympthise with him and his situtation more. Throughout the party scene both the male and the female are wearing white clothing, which implies that they are innocent and it could also mean that the female is pure.

After watching this video it has given us some ideas about what we could include in our party scene for our music video, the things that we think would be good to include are the black and white effects because it shows that the memories are old to them now, and that everything that they used to have is in the past and it also adds feeling to the video as there are no colours to effect the way someone thinks about the video. But what i am going to challenge with this video is that as a group we want to show the female on her own, and the male having fun with his mates because at the time the relationship was going through a bad patch and the male wasnt there for the female anymore, also it highlights the female's isolation now that she is on her own. We dont want to have too many people at our party because we dont want to take the focus off the female and her situation.

Screen shots from the music video

This image is showing the female staring out of the window waiting for the male to come back but he never does, which is showing the heartbreak she is going through. The way we have positioned her from the side allows the audience to see her whole facial expression, and also allows them to see other objects in the shot for example the orchid which connotes female, pure, and natural. This matches the female because she is pure and natural.

This image is an extreme close up of the female's face and we did this because we wanted to show her emotion which helps the audience understand her situation more. We chose to do it from a low angle shooting upwards as it was different from all the other shots and we wanted to vary our camera shots. Having the close up of the female on the beach and then zooming out to show the location allowed the audience to see the reason for the facial expression on the female, and it also matches with the theme of heartbreak.

This is again showing the close up of the females face which helps the audience see her emotion more, and it helps them sympathise with her situation. We zoomed in onto the female in this shot, because we wanted to show her full body, and also show the audience why her body language was the way it was, as it was all closed which implies that she is scared and not confident, which matches the theme of heartbreak because once you have had your heartbroken you dont feel like the person you used to anymore.

This shot is showing the female doing her hair and make-up, and we chose to shoot this because we wanted to show the female being the same as every other teenage girl, as her situation in the video is something that everyone goes through at one point in their lives, and some people more than one. We also wanted to get the female looking in the mirror, so that the audience could see her facial expression as she got ready, showing that the female hides behind her make-up which implies she is scared, and also most teenage girls hide behind make-up for one reason or another.

This image shows the female alone at the beach and this is a place where she has memories of her and her ex, and it also fits in with the theme of romance and being in love. She is also sat next to any empty jacket where the male used to sit, and she then picks it up trying to remember him picture him sat there and remember his smell and imagine he is there, again this is showing her heartbreak. We chose to do this at the beach as this was a good location to highlight the females isolation, because there was no-one else around and it feels like everywhere the female goes she is the only person there as she doesn't feel right without her ex with her.

This shot shows the female using her mobile phone, and this is stereo-typically what a lot teenagers do, as they spend a lot of time on their phones keeping in contact with friends, and we wanted to show the female being the same as any other teenagers. We decided to do this scene as we wanted to show that she misses her ex and friends but in order to move on from him she deletes all the pictures of them together and then his number. We then used a panning shot to show the audience where she was going. The last verse has the lyrics ''cause' im losing friends and gaining foes, what tomorrow's bringing no-one's sure'' and we were going to have this shot while them lyrics are playing, as then it shows the female looking through memories of all her old friends, something that she doesnt have anymore.

In this shot we see the female stood staring out of the window again hoping for the male to come back to her, but he never does and this matches with the theme of heartbreak because it doesnt feel real once you have had your heart broke, and she just wants him to come back and say that it was all a big mistake. We chose to do a long shot here so that the audience can see the red of the sofa and the curtains which connote love and romance which is the theme of the whole song. Also the female is wearing white and this connotes purity and innocence

 

We chose to show the female alone in the bedroom using a close up, and we see her holding her head when she wakes up and realises that her ex isn't there anymore, which again relates back to the theme of heartbreak. Her isolation is shown when there is nothing else in the bedroom, and there are no major material possessions which show that she doesnt care on what items she has to her name all she wants is her ex back. Again she is shown wearing white which connotes purity and innocence, but underneath she is wearing a small black top, and this could imply that underneath her there is another side that no-one has seen before.

 

This shot is showing a close up of the female sat on the sofa, still not changed from her nightwear, and we did this because she doesnt feel like getting ready when she has nothing to go out for. The shot implies that she is in a room with red curtains and sofa which connote love, that she is surrounded by everything that reminds her of love but she hasnt got anything.

 

This is a long shot of the female alone in the bedroom and we chose to do this because it can help highlight how isolated she feels now her ex has gone and she has no-one else. As you can see we chose to make the room look as empty as possible so that it implies that she doesnt want anything but her ex back. Again she is wearing white which portrays her innocence and purity.

 

This shot shows the female staring out of the window hoping that the male will return sometime and then she can start to heal this heartbreak but he never comes back, so she says she will make it on her own, and we have to chose to have this shot while the lyrics '' and although the road is frightening im gonna make it on my own''.

 

This image shows the female applying her mascara, and this matches the stereotypes of a modern teeange girl because they cant live without their make up as they hide behind it. When someone wears make-up it can be argued that they are two different people with and without it. We used an extreme close up on this shot as the audience would be able to see her facial expression as this matches the mood of the song throughout.

 

This image is showing the female on the beach and we chose this location as it was a good place to highlight her isolation more and the audience can see that she is alone apart from what she has on her. The mobile phone connotes that she is a modern teeanger who likes to keep in contact with friends and people that she doesnt see anymore. It could also be used to say that she is going through old pictures when she is trying to remember the life she used to have that she hasnt got anymore, and this situation is shown differently throughout the video as it is reminding the audience that she is going to make it on her own

 

We chose to have an egg timer instead of a normal clock because we wanted something different. We challenged parts of the song because we didnt want it to be the same as every other music video about heartbreak. With the egg timer we can see the passing of time when the grains of sand fall to the bottom of the egg timer, and the passing of time is something that you can never get back and this also matches the females situation because she can never get her old memories back like you cant get back time that has already gone.

 

Overall, I think all the shots that we have chosen match with the lyrics of the song, and they show the female and her situation well so that the audience can sympathise with her, as most teenagers in our target audience would have been through the same situation as the female.

Feedback

When we showed the class our music video so far, we got positive and some negative feedback which we are then working on to improve our video:

Positive:

• The use of transitions and edits matched the pace of the song
• The target audience would be able to sympathise with the actor in the video
• The narrative and performance based parts in the video were clear
• The shots matched the lyrics of the song, and the audience was able to see what the lyrics meant
• The actor performed well, so the audience was able to understand her situation more, and the class thought we had chosen the right person for the acting
• The mise en scene used was good, for example the white clothing portrayed her innocence, whereas when she was wearing a black jacket it showed that there are two sides to every person, and one that not many people get to see.
• It was a song that not many people have heard of before so they couldn't relate it back to the original music video, which was good because it made ours unique.
• There was a good varitation of locations used, so the video was more interesting.
• One of the audience said that we have picked the beach as the right location for showing the females isolation.

Negative:

• They thought that there was too much of the female, and if there was too much more then the audience would get bored and we wouldn't be able to keep the audiences attention, so to improve this they said they wanted to see a male or someone else introduced into the video, and include him into the story line along the way. 
• One of the students said that one of the clips was too long and we needed to split it up into different sections so that it wasn't too long and kept the audience's attention.
• The audience felt we could have used more fast cuts because the song has an upbeat tempo, so to improve this we decided to mix the range of cuts that we have in our video, and for parts where there are no lyrics and its just instrumental we felt was the best place to put these.

Overall, after taking into consideration the good and the bad points that the audience had said, we decided to introduce the male in the story into the video that this showed another point of view and kept the audiences attention. Also we have added more fast cuts into the song that it matches the tempo when its fast, and when we asked for opinions on that part people said it looked good

Editing

This is how far on into editing our group has got in 3 weeks, whilst we are editing we are also coming up with more ideas that we could include into the gaps we have got. The locations that we have used so far are the beach and the park and we have chose these because they represent different places where the female and her ex used to go together. When placing all the clips together we have decided that fades and dissolves are the edits/transitions that we have used more as this implies that everything the female used to have has faded away.

This is our music video nearly complete, we have to record some more footage of the female and the male which we are then going to fade out the male so that this shows the memories of him are all fading away.

 

The edits we have used and why:

• additive dissolve - we chose this because it faded the two images together but while you could still see the previous clip transparent underneath the other clip.
• fade through transparent - we chose this because it was a clear fade, and it faded two clips togther nicely and it didnt look rushed or jumped. It could also show that all the memories are fading away
• sepia - we chose this because it is to show the audience that it is old . We put this edit onto the clips of the female stood looking at the statue thinking about her ex.
• Black and white - we chose this because it matches the emotion of the song, and matches the lyrics ''and the night is young, but time is old'' when the female is walking down the beach towards the sea which shows her slowly fading away as time goes by.