Closing Post

Dear Examiner,

My A-Level NEA is now completed. You can find all of my NEA work under the label 'AL Research and Planning'. I enjoyed every part of my NEA and hope that you enjoy reading through my blog.

Thanks,

Raymond

Candidate 3117

THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED

Blog Post 10: My Production Review

Throughout the production of my project, I have received lots of feedback which helped me fix and improve any problems or missing content.

Storyboard and Mock-up Teacher Feedback

The feedback I received for my storyboarded narrative overall was positive. The teacher liked the build-up towards the final performance with the boy and girl. However, there were some issues with the narrative. First, the narrative felt weak when the boy and the girl meets, especially when there was nothing in the lyrics to amplify. Therefore, I decided to remove the meeting, and instead draw parallels between the two characters to emphasise each character's independence. Secondly, it wasn't very clear what the boy and girl were signing up for. To fix this, I decided to make it a talent show and put more focus on a poster that both the girl and boy saw. This will anchor the idea that they are both working towards a big performance.

Performance Bed Teacher Feedback

With the performance bed, there were no problems with the performance and some issues with the editing. There was also a problem with the lighting in the motion shots, causing shadows and poor lighting on the face. The big issue was the editing style; I had to edit my video more like a music video instead of a narrative video. So I followed Vernallis' disjuncture theory and tried to make the shots more extreme.

Rough Cut with Narrative Informal Teacher Feedback

When I did my rough cut after the first weekend of filming and asked my teacher to review it, the main problem was the pacing. The build-up of my narrative felt unnatural as the slow-motion shots were mixed in with the action shots during the chorus, even during the fast energetic rhythms. Furthermore, it was suggested that I should more present-day shots of the characters performing, which could be intercut between all the other shots to improve the pacing. There were some acting issues as well with the male actor, as it seemed unnatural and dramatized. To fix these problems, I refilmed some shots and added new shots to be filmed in the studio for the following week.

Website Informal Teacher Feedback

For my website, my teachers praised the design and the consistent house style. There was plenty of good content and the social media pages were professional. However, my second page was criticized, as a merch page was too bland and had little content. Therefore, I decided to switch it to a member page, where it would show example content that one can see if they sign up, with a sign up/log in button at the top. Also, the navigation was mentioned, because many of the buttons that seemed clickable led to nowhere, so I made sure to link them between pages to make my website more cohesive.

Music Video Teacher Feedback

For my first review of my music video, my teacher said that the shots were good and the mise en scene was excellent. However, she was confused about the narrative, as she thought parts of the narrative could be grouped up together so the action parts of the final performance of the boy and the girl could come in at the chorus, while the slower narrative parts could be intercut with the verses. To reflect on this, I created a time sequence of where all the shots will go to make sure I had a clear narrative on paper that was spread out through the music video.

Final Cut Teacher Feedback

My final review from my teacher was extremely good, as I fixed the narrative issues. The major problem was the colour grading and adding a title card with artist information, social media, website and industry information. I aimed to get the colour grade consistent, so no shot would be too glaring when watching it.

Website Teacher Feedback

For my final review of my website, the main issues from the first check were resolved. The only thing I had to do was to make sure that the correct videos were linked so that it would play my music video on the page.

Audience Feedback

One of my participants watching my video

After completing my video, I went to multiple people in my "16-25 year-old" age group to ask for feedback. The general consensus was that it was very professional and the narrative was very clear. Some mention the colour grade, which had some inconsistencies. Other than that, all my participants enjoyed my video.

Blog Post 9: My Website and Social Media Pages

Website Research

In order to create a successful and attractive website, I needed to analyse other websites to see what conventions are seen across all music creator websites.

The main conventions were:

• name and logo

• splash image

• menu bar - tour/live, music/video, merch, albums, my account, news, albums, subscribe

• newsletter sign up

• scrolling home page format.

Bruno Mars Website Analysis

Bruno Mars' Logo

Bruno Mars' website contains many conventions seen in other music artist websites, such as logo, big splash image and a menu bar. He also utilises the scrolling format of the homepage to add lots of content as if it is like a feed seen on Instagram. This is a format that my target audience of "16-25 year olds" who likely use social media like Instagram or Twitter, would be accustomed to. The format, therefore, attracts this audience as it provides a continuous stream of content.

Bruno Mars' Tour Page with the Yellow and Black Colours

A common strip on music artist websites is a tour section. This is due to artists and bands using the website as a hub to sell products around their music to the audience. Many websites will promote their new album, tour tickets or merch in order to sell to the audience. Bruno's website does this most of this on one page, giving the audience a wide range of products to choose from.

His website has got a consistent house style of a white, murky yellow and black colour scheme with modern sans serif font. He keeps this house style consistent to not confuse the viewer with a different style, and to also reinforce his brand image. This links all the webpages together to make it feel like a hub of content.

Interactivity is something that is commonly seen on Bruno Mars' website. His homepage is filled with live feeds from his Instagram and Twitter. He also uses his audience as prosumers, telling them to use the hashtag #24kmagicworldtour, which would allow audience members' posts to feature on his homepage. The interactivity is what keeps the audience engaged, even with buttons link to different websites and embedded Spotify widgets. If the audience finds it hard to navigate between pages, then it may switch off their attention.

Flat Plan

With my website, I wanted to have a clear distinction between general content like biography, single purchase and tour details separated from the extra content to create a feeling of exclusivity for the members who sign up.

In order to plan out my social media pages, I created a list of ideas for extra content, so I could make sure to cover a range of different content for my project. The main ideas were to do a podcast, interview and a behind the scenes video.

For my podcast, I took inspiration from the split-screen used on the 'Waypoint Radio Podcast'. They have a video podcast which has their logo, graphics and promotions for their other content. I plan to create create a similar template for my podcast, with a split-screen between all three of my band members.

I was inspired by the style of Taylor Swift's BTS for her song 'ME!'. In the video, it has a mix of dialogue content and action, with the song playing in the background. I will create a BTS with lots of content that were bloopers or dialogue. I will also include recordings of the recording taking place, as well as a timelapse of my shoot.

Blog Post 8: My Music Video

Planning my production is very important for everything to go smoothly, so I did my pre-production very carefully so I wouldn't miss out on any mistakes.

Narrative Inspiration

My narrative was inspired by Panic! At The Disco's High Hopes music video. Their video starts by establishing Brendon Urie as the main character, coming out of a car. He's walking along the street, being bumped into by others, not being noticed by anyone as everyone is just walking past him. The disruption comes when he approaches a skyscraper and starts climbing it. This surreal cinematography is used to amplify the meaning of the song, which is talking about climbing to the top, no matter how hard the goal seems. This is a literal interpretation of the lyrics, illustrating the lyrics through the video. After he reaches the top, there are shots of people clapping at the bottom, finally giving attention to Brendon. The video symbolises the idea of fighting for your dreams and celebrating once you get to the top. We can see this when the video shows Brendon meeting his band on the roof, breaking into a full performance.

From this video, I want to take the contrast between the journey, the turning point and the final performance. However, I plan to intercut the final performance with the journey, so the audience knows how it's going to end and puts more emphasis on the story.

I was also inspired by 'Stronger' by The Score. They make use of black and white, creating a bleak, gritty feel, connoting raw pain and strength. I want to use this in my video for when the boy and the girl are struggling with their lives, and it will transition to colour for their big performance. This means I can use the black and white effect to represent the past and suffering, while the colour represents the present. In their video, they also utilise a mix of CU and MS at different angles to create a montage effect. This training style montage is something I also want to include in my own video, as I can make it entertaining by cutting between both narratives. At 2:25, they have fast drums paired with quick punches to the beat. I want to achieve a similar effect by creating a flashing effect with my two characters.

For my male narrative, I drew inspiration from the narrative of 'Billy Elliot'. This way, people are already quite familiar with the story and I could explore how a person could break the gender norms and do activities which could normally be seen as an activity only for other genders.





I also took inspiration from Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' video, as it is an example of a pop video that uses ballet. There are a variety of shots ranging from CU of hands to XCU of entire groups. Although Taylor isn't taking her dancing seriously, all of her shots involve some sort of action or hand gesture. I like the idea of focusing on different parts of the body when the boy is performing, using tracking shots to add another layer of movement to the shot.

When planning my narrative, the final shots were intertextual to the final scene of 'Whiplash', which uses a montage of XCUs and a cut to black after a big physical motion. I will do the same, cutting between both narratives, ending with the girl playing a big piano chord.

During my planning, I decided to create a mockup of my shots so I can see how they fit in with the narrative. The shot to the left is the piano chord shot where it will cut to black after being played.

When I chose the song superheroes, I decided to brainstorm some ideas. I initially thought about portraying the song through a literal sense through comic book superheroes with powers, but the audience of comic books are slightly skewed towards male and the CGI would not be possible to do. I also considered other people in society who could be considered "heroes", such as doctors, charities, donors and even bin collectors. Role models then became an idea that I wanted to explore. These society heroes can be considered as role models, contributing a great deal to society, but there are also more specific people who can be one's role models. These people usually are either real or fictional, famous or someone close that you may know. Finally, I looked at being your own hero, treating your body and your wellbeing well, pushing yourself to explore new unknowns. This reminded me of when I performed on stage, how it empowered yourself after you did all the hard work and practice.

On the second page, I looked further into examples of flawed heroes, and how people don't have to be perfect to be a hero. Some examples I used were comic/film heroes who didn't really have a perfect hero performance or played a big role in protecting society, but still had the role of hero in smaller situations. Some other heroes were trying to redeem a past action they had done, ending up taking the hero role even as a change of heart. Alternatively, I looked at talent shows as performers can be role models to others and performing is an act that requires courage. I looked up ballet performances and piano performances to draw from its iconography for my own video.

Planning and Production

To the right, you can see my artist board. This consists of my character moodboard, headshot, costume full body photo, costume design and lyrics. I did this so I could express how I wanted to artist to look like to others and what my artist's values were. Furthermore, the lyrics helped when I was referring to specific parts of the song when directing my camera operators on how to frame specific shots. Overall, it was extremely useful at organising and getting my idea of my music video across.

Above, you can see the location reccie that I performed in order to see whether my locations were suitable or not. I obtained permission from the parent of my actor to film in their house. I performed a risk assessment as it was important to maintain the safety of my crew and actors when they are on set.

In order to organise my week, I used this timetable to plan recording and editing sessions. I noted down which times people were free to make it clear when I could film with people and when I could work on my extra content.

These are the shootboards I used to organise my shoots. I had the day and time, shot number, shot drawing, movement, actors and props, crew roles and best take on my storyboard. This helped me plan out each shot and stay on task, while making sure to plan time for breaks and rests so that my actors and crew stay motivated.

I planned out the rest of my band's costume design based on the moodboard I created for my own costume. It consists of a contrast between dark trousers, jacket and shoes with a light, pastel coloured shirt. I chose yellow, red and blue shirts because they are primary colours, representing each person as different but linking us together as a band. The storyboard is made of post-it notes with details at the bottom. I did this so that I could easily move the post-its around if I needed to rearrange the shots.

To decide on what colour schemes to use, I looked on google for strong colours that people associate with superheroes. I decided to go for the 'Deadpool' colour scheme, although the character himself isn't really a hero but more of an anti-hero. However, I still like the colour scheme as Deadpool isn't a character that can do everything perfectly and is more relatable than most other superheroes due to his casual style. Therefore, it suggests that people don't have to be perfect of widely known to be a hero.

To plan out my narrative, I printed the lyrics to the video and analysed the different interpretations of each line so I could plan out how long each shot will be. I also wrote a quick timeplan for each of my shoots so that my actors knew where to go and what should be happening at a specific time.

Planning my music video well has allowed me to get the desired shots. Furthermore, I was able to spread out my entire narrative on a big piece of paper and highlighting any issues that I had to fix.

Blog Post 7: My Pop Artist or Band

My Song's Band: The Script

From Left to Right: Glen Power, Mark Sheehan, Danny O'Donoghue

My song was written by an Irish band called 'The Script', who were formed in 2007 in Dublin and has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. It consists on their lead vocalist: Daniel O'Donoghue, lead guitarist: Mark Sheehan and drummer/bassist: Glen Power. In 2007, they were signed to Sony Music's Phonogenic Records. They have won three Meteor Ireland Music Awards, two World Music Awards and received two Brit Award nominations.

Artist Inspiration

My band was inspired by Just Seconds Apart. They also have a three person band, with one person as the lead singer/guitarist, one person as the bassist and one person as the drummer. I want to have a similar structure, except there will be a lead singer and a lead guitarist. Since they're triplets, they also have family values in their brand image, and I want to have a similar inclusive brand image as well.

Just Seconds Apart's Instagram - It is filled with band photos, photos with fans, candid shots, and professional photos, which creates a personal journal feel

I'm also inspired by Ed Sheeran, because he has a strong social responsibility, promoting charities for people to donate to. I think having strong values like Ed will help anchor my brand image, so I will put lots of emphasis on specific charities that I think are important.

Case Study: Shawn Mendes

Pop stars are typically represented as attractive, charming characters who are made to be the perfect friend or partner. They will usually be relatable, portraying themselves as very human, being considerate about their fans. Shawn Mendes achieves this through his social media. Although he is presented as a conventionally attractive man on all his promotional media, his Instagram draws attention away from himself and more on what he is doing. This way, he achieves a journal-style feed which may gratify people's need for self-identification, feeling special as if they get an exclusive and personal look into Shawn Mendes' life.

Since Asian pop genres are becoming more popular in the western culture, I took some inspiration for my own costume design from some K-pop and C-pop artists and bands. One artist that inspired my look is Justin from the C-pop band NEX7.  He is a Chinese artist that takes the role as the main rapper and lead dancer. I like the idea of dyeing my hair to an unnatural colour as it is commonly seen in K-pop and C-pop artists. Furthermore, I like the minimalist jewellry with the ring and the necklace. However, I would like to incorporate some denim into my own costume since denim is a big part of western fashion.







My band moodboard

I created a moodboard for my band so I can lay out my ideas clearly for the iconography of my artist. I decided to focus on the costume of me, as I am the lead singer and a lot of the camera focus would be on me. In addition, I could use my moodboard to help describe ideas to others who are unfamiliar with my project.

Blog Post 6: My Chosen Track

My Media Shortlist

Above is my media shortlist for songs. I chose the song Superheroes by The Script instead of any of the other songs because I wanted to to create a motivational video that could provide someone for my audience to aspire to. Furthermore, I liked its catchy chorus and emphasis on rhythm, which is important to a pop song.

About the Song

Album Cover for 'No Sound Without Silence'

'Superheroes', a song by the Irish band 'The Script', was released in the UK as a part of the album 'No Sound Without Silence' on 31 August, 2014. It was published by Sony Music under the Columbia Records label. The song was was written by Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band, as well as James Barry, a producer of the song. Fans could access the song through multiple digital platforms, such as Spotify, iTunes and Amazon, Deezer and YouTube. Its album rocketed to the top of album charts in Ireland and the UK, receiving high praise from all around.

This was their old website promoting their album "No Sound Without Silence" when it came out in 2014

What is "Superheroes" About?
Danny O'Donoghue described it as a "really super positive song" about "unsung heroes". The idea came from the energy of doing tours, inspired by many people they have met over the years. Their idea of superheroes is "Everybody from single mothers, to parents, teachers". They even talk about "people being bullied and sold to the sex slave trade" because they stay strong willed despite their situation. They also said another reason why they made this song was that “It’s nice to have an escape but it’s also nice to have a song that empowers them a little bit."  So this song is made to inspire and motivate, telling people that "If you’re going through hell, just keep going because you will get out on the other side".

About the Video

Analysis of Cinematography of Live Performance of 'Superheroes'

I interpreted the song lyrics to be very motivational, as it explicitly mentions how a male and female character is "fighting" their way through life. I thought I could base it around a boy and a girl both preparing for a big performance, where they finally break out of their situation. To the right, you can see my interpretations of all the lyrics of the song. I thought the boy could be in a situation inspired by 'Billy Elliot', where he isn't allowed to become a ballet dancer, as it is a relevant topic currently about breaking gender roles and gender specific activities. The girl could be doing busking on the streets, which is done to contrast to the boys situation, but I can still draw parallels in narrative across both narratives to suggest that anyone can achieve what they want if they stay strong.
The music video for the song 'Superheroes' takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa. It depicts a father being a role model for his daughter, dressing up in a suit for her to make her proud. In reality, he works on a landfill site, scavenging for objects and valuable resources, bringing home a toy for his daughter. This story differs from my narrative as it only focuses on one person, and on the idea of staying strong despite your situation. My narrative on the other hand looks at two different characters and how they can achieve great things, even in different situations.