Storyboards

Storyboards

·         What is the purpose of a storyboard?

·         How did you use your primary and secondary research that you carried out, to plan your music video?

·         How did you and your group storyboard your music video?

·         How did you share the responsibility?

·         Did you follow your storyboards, or did you make changes?

·         Include your storyboards

The purpose of a storyboard is to order shots in which make up a story. Each shot switches regularly to portray a change for example in light, setting, camera angle and so on. Putting each shot into order from start to finish allows the camera crew and producers to follow a plan during filming; knowing exactly what to do, which as a result reduces time being wasted and money being lost. Without a storyboard the group an I would have no visual reference to go by, whereas by having one creates a vision. Each frame we included within our storyboards consisted of stating what camera shot, iconography and lighting used, the actors that were in the shot, as well as the sound and editing within. There was then a clear description and picture describing what we wished to view including all elements; creating that clear, descriptive vision. All frames are put into a strict logical order, something that makes sense and flows smoothly. Having the storyboards made our group more focused as there was an urgency to be organised in order for the music video to be successful; this was to be done well in advance before beginning any filming taking our target audience into consideration. Creating a story board allowed us to come up with a general outline, at the same time as coming up with additional ideas to better the narrative. Developing ideas will better the overall outcome would natural increase the general success rate of our music video, potentially gaining additional viewers within our target audience.

When conducting primary and secondary research it enabled the group and myself to gain additional ideas that could be included within our own music video storyboard. Elements of secondary research that was carried out was to look at artists YouTube videos. By doing so we are able to overlook successful conventions that have been released into the music industry with a high success rate, views and likes on YouTube, keeping our target audience in mind. Conducting both primary and secondary research allows us to understand the success criteria of a music video and gain inspiration. An example of this was using the bath scene idea from 'We Found Love' by Rihanna, as we felt it flowed with our narrative, as well as being effective and dramatic for our final scenes. An example  Following these conventions will determine the feedback we receive by our target audience. We planned to use a variety of Nina Nesbitt's conventions that have been successful within her videos, as obviously hers meet our genres conventions. Individual conventions such as iconography and lighting need to be taken into careful consideration to allow the audience to be clear on the genre and enjoy what is conventionally expected. All in all we aim to make our target audiences experience enjoyable, making it understandable and clear of what our music video is about and it's underlying meanings. After carrying out our primary research, being our vox pops and questionnaire we were able to gather up to date feedback; using questions specific to us and our music video, which as a result enabled us take on board opinions from people that are the most influential on our success rate. The newly gathered responses helped to put our story board together, including successful conventions that our audience wants to see.

The way in which our group storyboarded our music video was fair and efficient. All group members, including myself came together giving individual opinions and ideas towards what we wanted the music video to include. Alongside our personal ideas, we then also included elements in which our target audience fed to us through our primary research, as well as the ideas we collected from other successful artists music videos. Obviously when combining all these aspects in to one, the group and myself needed to consider that there was a general flow and that all elements were conventional and that our lyrics were parallel to our visuals. We wanted to use a range of different camera shots and angles, highlighting key conventions , such as the use of a guitar. The audience then instantly associate the use of a guitar with the indie genre. As a group we planned to have the storyboard completed prior to filming and discussed when and where we would be filming our narrative. By doing so, this would ensure that we used our time wisely and effectively. Overall, the group and I wanted to build a strong relationship with our target audience, therefore by including their feedback within our final product will help us to do so.

After an in detail discussion we chose to split the group in to two pairs. Each pair would either work on the camera shots and what was in each shot, the other pair focusing on how it was be displayed in through drawing pictures. Together we decided on the iconography and lighting that were to be used, as well as the characters involved. Luckily we all had a clear vision on what all group members wanted within the music video, therefore sharing responsibility and putting the storyboard together was made a lot easier. This uniformed process ensured that we were happy with our shared responsibilities, and was able to put together a storyboard for our music video that would appeal to our target audience and follow indie conventions.

We luckily managed to follow the majority of our storyboard whilst filming, as myself and the group shared the same views on what we wished our music video to include. An example of this, from the beginning we knew that we wanted portray Georgia as a individual, as well as convey the passing of time through lighting. This enabled us to portray Georgia as the commodity, making it clear to the audience who our artist is straight away, avoiding any confusion. Elements in which we did not follow were changed within the editing process. When placing our footage in order we simply swapped a few shots, as we felt by doing so it would make the video more visually appealing for our target audience. Overall, I felt that having the storyboards enabled the group and myself to refer back to something and keep on target. It set a rough guideline for the narrative in which group members performed and filmed. We kept to a lot of our original storyboard, for example in the performance section and its camera angles, location and lighting. However we chose to change elements such as using additional footage. We shot extra camera shots in Camden then originally expected of a pub called The Apple Tree. We chose to use these shots as it followed Goodwin's theory in the way it it links lyrics to visuals. This builds a greater link between the two and incorporates more of an indie alternative edge. To conclude, the group and myself followed the vast majority of our storyboard whilst filming, however did change a few elements to better the overall product. It followed indie conventions, as well as rebelling against them to be diverse and unique in order to attract a greater audience to better the success rate.