Initial Group Planning Ideas- Miss Georgiou (Mon)

Within my group there are three members, myself, Charlotte Monksfield, Heather Everingham and Leandra Saunders. We are all working together to create a successful project and an indie video that will appeal to targeted audiences. We all contribute equally within the group and share tasks to ensure our project goes as smoothly as possible and that all deadlines are met.

In out first meeting as a group, we created a mind map, brainstorming initial ideas for our music video. We had looked at many different music genres and artists in whom we thought could be an inspiration to my group and I and we also looked out for elements that we could include in our own production. The first song we had as initial idea was Ed Sheeran A Team. Myself and my group discussed this song choice and we believed we could include many conventions and edit it to conform to and indie genre yet when it came down to characters, we believed this was not the right song for our group and we therefore changed the initial song choice, however this song was one we highly considered. The next song we thought about doing was How Long Will I Love You by Ellie Goulding, again, we believed that the conventions and miss-en-scene would make this video highly indie and successful, yet when discussing about the other Ellie Goulding songs, we believed that we would pick another song to do. 

Further on in our planning process when had finalised the song choice, which will be Burn by Ellie Goulding. We had another group meeting where in this time we went into detail about what we would be including in our video, elements such as codes and conventions, mise-en-scene, cinematography editing and how the artist will be represented. We did this by annotating the lyrics thoroughly, allowing us to consider what filming elements would look most successful linking with the lyrics. This allowed us to be able to include conventional mise-en-scene elements which conformed to the indie genre. For example, we analysed the words by seeing what elements would be most effective. Throughout the song it says 'we gon light it up up up' as this connotes something being set on fire, we used the iconography element of a lighter to make it seem as if the artist is lighting something up. This is effective as the fire element used creates a danger and more rebellious look for the artist, enhancing her artist image. By analysing this as a group, we were able to come together successfully as a group and decide on elements that we all liked as a group and what we are all happy with. We also decided that we wanted performance based concepts within our video and where would be most acceptable to put these. By looking at the lyrics and listening to the song several times, we were able to see that the chorus would be the most effective place to put this. We included the iconography of the guitar within the performance clips as it shows off the artists talents and shows off her musical ability as she can sing and play an instrument. This allows for the audience and artist relationship to build as the audience may be inspired by her and want to be like her, encouraging people. By planning this as a group we were able to discuss the certain essential mis-en-scene elements that were needed for our music video, we also discussed the matter of cinematography elements such as camera angles close-ups long shots, high angles low angles and many more to see what went well with the footage we were planning on filming, and also to follow different theory's such as Goodwins and Dyer's star theory. 

The next part of our planning process again meant the group coming together and discussing specific elements we would be using throughout the music video. We disscussed things from mise-en-scene, music video theory, target audience and cinematography. By annotating these different micro-elements as a group we were able to identify many different connotations of our music genre. The mise-en-scene was specifically important for our music video as we wanted to be able to represent the indie music genre successfully and we would therefore need to include supportive elements. We looked at iconography and make up in a lot of detail. For example, we included a guitar as this is very stereotypical of the indie genre and this would be able to inform people of the genre and reinforce the genre. As well as this, it makes the artist seem successful and multi-talented, making the audience want to know more about her. The clothing that we decided on was also highly stereotypical of the indie genre. We wanted to dress the artist in a big denim jacket, jeans and big boots. We decided upon everyday clothing as we believed that it would attract a wider audience. The casual clothing makes the audience realise that the artist is like everyone else and can therefore relate to her more and find her music more relatable. Also, the clothing portrays her as grungy looking which is typical of the indie genre and makes the audience aware of the genres and will attract the target audience. Within this meeting we also looked at cinematography elements that we wanted to include. We decided upon many different camera shots such as close ups and zooming in. Close ups we believed would help the audience connect to the artist more. The audience are given a clear view of the artists emotion on her face and can therefore see what she is feeling. The audience then may be able to know what she is going through as they have experienced the emotion before and can therefore sympathise with her and gives the video a more personal feel. Zooming in is also effective within the music video as the audience feel as if they are being shown more into the artists life. The zooming I'm shot makes the audience concentrate on 

What is going on as they are being dragged closer into the artists world and what she does in everyday life.

The next meeting as a group consisted of us applying for copyright and researching into our chosen music genre. We applied for copyright in order for the record label to use their song 'burn' for our own use. We got in contact with the record label in many different ways, such as, email, Facebook and twitter. We did this in order for a more likely chance for them to get back to us with regards to their song. My group and I however do understand that record labels are very busy so we may not get a reply at all, as we are still waiting for a reply from them. When researching into the chosen gener we looked at the many different micro-elements in order to see what is conventional to our specific chosen genre. By researching many different indie artists for example, Nina Nesbitt and Kate Nash, it enabled us to see the streotypes that we could use to show and to prove that our artist is an indie/pop artist. It gave us many ideas on mis-en-scene, cinematography and also editing, and some of the things that are key to the music video.

It is essential and very important to carry out meetings with your group members as it shows we are able to work effectively as a group and also gives us time to discuss things that may not be going to plan and things that we can improve. It also allows for every person in the group to get their view pints across and make successful pointers in to what may enhance the video and what may look better rather then what we already have.We have worked and co-operated well as a group as we decided and took on point everybody's ideas, and decided to take into account everybody's ideas instead of mainly one. This helped us to listen to each others ideas and then to work better as a group.