Practicing Green Screen

You should really watch this video on mute! Mainly because its really repetitive and we forgot to mute the sound in editing.

In the clip below there are examples of 3 different uses of lighting against different backgrounds to see which type of lighting and which colour/texture of the background it will look the best against.

We have repeated the 3 different green screen clips on different backgrounds so the sound will be repetitive and sound a bit muddled but we aren't looking at the sound so it's ok.



We have found that using as much lighting as possible on the main figure when shooting against a green screen and then layering those shots on top of darker backgrounds gives the best effect and won't be as noticeable to an audience if used in this way in mine and Kelly's music video.

Kelly and I have decided to use the green screen technique in the music video. The shot will be of a photo of a boy and the singer and the singer will come to life and start singing. The photo will be in black and white so that any interference when shooting the green screen shots won't be noticeable. However if it is noticeable we will try altering the texture and colour tint of the photo until we get the best results we can.

Planning for the music video

Firstly, we searched for the lyrics of the song, which are;

Everything Lies lyrics

Don't hide behind that pretty face of yours
You've got everyone believing that you would never be this deceiving, pretty eyes
I can see through all the lies you tell
That sweet exterior is what you were
And now you are becoming something new

And I can be broken just as you now seem to be
And well you should go on now but it will have to be without me
Cause everything lies between you and me

You think this song is all about you
You say I've done all the changing while I'm watching all your rearranging, silly boy
You seem to constantly out do yourself
Why don't you admit that you're not fit to try to run a race against me, yeah

And I can be broken just as you now seem to be
And well you can go on now but it will have to be without me
Cause I can be broken just as you now seem to be
And well you can go on now but it will have to be without me
Cause everything lies between you and me

See everything lies
between you and me
Everything lies
Ohhh
Everything lies between you and me

You can go on now but it will have to be without me
And, I can be broken just as you now seem to be
And well you can go on now but it will have to be without me
Cause I can be broken just as you now seem to be
And well you can go on now but it will have to be without me
Cause everything lies
Everything lies
Everything lies
Between you and me

We have interpreted the lyrics to be about a girl who had a boyfriend who was quite 'full of himself', messed her around and possibly cheated on her, so she left him and now he may be regretting the way he acted towards her.

General ideas for the music video;

• Some of the edits are going to be on the beat and some are going to be edited to the lyrics - so we can emphasise certain phrases and lyrics within the song.
• The music video will be co-dominated by a narrative and performance, the verses will be dominated by the narrative and have some aspects of performance in them whereas the chorus will be dominated by performance and have some narrative incorporated. Towards the end of the song there will be a balance of both.
• The basic structure of the narrative will be losely based on Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory. The first stage, which is equilibrium will be shown in the first verse, where the female singer and the male are a happy couple. The second stage, which is the equilibrium will be disrupted will be shown in the second verse, the male cheats on the female singer with another girl. The final stage is a new equilibrium is produced, this will be shown when the female singer breaks up with the male. This links to Andrew Goodwin's theory of conflict being restored. We are going to show within the music video the female walking away from the male, as the music has a closing beat to it after the slight change in it and lyrically the words "Everything Lies" are repeated, as borrowed from the chorus.
  

Casting for the music video;

• Main parts - Charlotte (me) as the female singer (also referred to as female 1), Kelly as female 2, Tom Bee as the male.
• Extra's are still to be decided and asked.
  

Locations for the music video;

• Countesthorpe community college's - theatre, drama studio, infront of design, and the field which is shared with leysland.
• Winchester Road.
• Tom Bee's house, infront of his house & on his road (the pathway on his road).
• Kelly's house.
  

Props and things we need;

• Video camera, digital camera, tripod, a dolly, greenscreen fabric, duck tape, make-up, a rose (maybe more than one), several photo's of me & tom, pieces of paper which are made to look like letters, brush, gel/wax, microphone & stand, a drum kit, a sign saying 'Everything Lies' on it, two A4 sized pictures of me and Tom, gym equiptment, mobile phone.
  

The actors in our music video will be wearing a variety of different clothes throughout which isn't demonstrated by the images.

Storyboard:

Audience feedback after they had listened to our song & read/looked at our storyboard & any advice:

• I think it's good, well planned, take time filming - so it will live up to what you want it to be.
• Detailed and well planned.
• Detailed, it fits to the song - could do a little selection of storyboard - filmed & edited to show people an example.
• It's good, goes with song well

• Story sounds good, goes with song cause it's angry.
• Looks good - likes blended lips with other shots.

• It's good - asked how long it took to put the storyboard together.
• Really good.
• It's very interesting & It will keep everyone interested - there's a lot going on. When I first heard the song I thought of just two people being involved however after looking at the storyboard, it goes well & the storyline is better with a 3rd person - like a love triangle.
• I like it - it goes with the story - you & others should make it look convincing, & look like your taking it seriously but have fun & try not to laugh when acting unless your meant to.

Summary and Conclusion of research for music video's, digipaks/CD's, and relevant posters

Overall, I found that there were clear links between the digipak/CD covers, music videos and relevant posters of most of the artists I researched. However with 'The Killers' genre of alternative/rock music, the CD cover didn't really link in with either of the music video's for their debut single released from 'Hot Fuss' and there was only one real link between the CD cover and the newspaper advert. On the other hand with 'Mcflys' genre of pop/rock music there were clear links between the digipak, the music video for the debut single released from 'Radio:Active' and the tour poster. This was due to there being a single image presented in or on all three media products along with other, more subtle representations of images. Also with 'The Hoosiers' genre of indie music there were a few links between the CD covers, music video for the debut single released from 'The trick of life' and tour poster. This was due to mainly there being one version of a logo for the band's name which was present in and on all three media products and also there were other images and representations which crossed over the three media products as well.

• 'The Killers', 'Mcfly' and 'The Hoosiers' all had performance elements in their music video's, this is due to them being a typical 'band' meaning they all have an instrument/instruments they play as part of their performance for example guitars, bass guitars and drums are typical of a band in this sort of genre. It may just be that as one of the conventions of the rock or indie genres they have to show a performance of their band in the music video. This suggests that if I was to choose a song from the rock or indie genres then it would be conventional to have a music video dominated with performance and if I wanted I could incorporate other genres of music video into it for example abstract images.

With the 'Black Eyed Peas' genre of r'n'b/dance music there were very clear links between the CD covers, music video for their debut single from 'The E.N.D' and the tour poster. This was because the same theme had been used in and on all three music videos for example the theme of a computerised world.

• The 'Black Eyed Peas' had a mostly abstract video which seemed to be dominated by lip-syncing and shots of people dancing (but it's not really classed as performance) this is because the genre of music they are associated with concentrates more on the artist and their vocals rather than them playing an instrument. The shots of people dancing in the music video may just be a convention of the dance genre. This suggests that if I was to choose a song from the dance genre then it would be conventional to have shots of lip-syncing and shots with dancing in them. Also it may help to have an abstract video however it does depend on the meaning of the song and if an abstract video would be appropriate.

With 'Beyoncés' genre of r'n'b/soul music there were very clear links between the CD covers, the music video for her debut single from 'I Am... Sasha Fierce' and a poster advertising the CD. This was due to mainly the mise-en-scene used for the shots and image of each and the edits to alter the colour to a grey tint instead.

• 'Beyoncé' had a narrative based music video and shots of lip-syncing weren't displayed until it was nearly the end of the song. This gave emphasis to the narrative throughout the song and then at the end the lyrics were the focus of emphasis. This is a unique example of a music video for the r'n'b/soul genre. However it does suggest to me that a narrative is more likely to be used inbetween shots of lip-syncing. So if I was to choose a piece of music which was within the r'n'b/soul genre it would be an idea to use a narrative and lip-syncing in the music video.

With 'Kelly Clarksons' genre of pop/rock vocalist music I looked to see if the music video for the fourth song released from her album still linked in with her CD covers and tour poster. I found that there wasn't really a clear link between the music video and the CD covers/tour poster. However there were still very clear links between the European album cover and the tour poster (which happened to be for somewhere in Europe). This shows to me that the link between a debut singles' music video and other promotional work isn't continued into the singles released after for example the fourth single released.

• 'Kelly Clarkson' had a narrative based music video where there were shots of lip-syncing between some shots of the narrative. The verses were dominated by the narrative but had some shots of lip-syncing in and the chorus' were dominated by lip-syncing but had some shots of the narrative in it. This suggests that if I were to choose a song from the pop/rock genre and they were a female soloist it may be a good idea to use a mixture of a narrative and lip-syncing in the music video for the song.