Planning The Storyboard - Miss Georgiou

The storyboard is something which allows us to plan and edit our idea before actually filming the scenes our self, on paper we are able to discuss as a group what type of camera angles and lighting and actors we want in the scene. Making a music video requires very detailed planning due to that fact that you need alot of different scenes to create a successful music video that flows correctly, this means that each exact shot has to be planned out in extreme detail otherwise it may leave us not having enough performance footage or narrative performance etc. In addition to this the storyboard are a great way to save time while filming as the leave you knowing exactly what you have to do with the exact shots. Before even beginning the shooting of a scene the storyboards help us to organise what scene go where and what locations are needed, as a group this allows us to be able to use the plan as a demonstration as to where everything needs to be and who needs to be there.

While researching our music video we had to analysis alot of music videos. Particularly the indie genre music videos, this allowed us to be able to look up and research what were the typical codes and conventions of an indie genre, the cinematography in the indie genre music videos mainly were shallow focus shots to make the whole video seem more original and beautiful, this is something that we took into consideration while planning our music video as it allowed us to attempt to achieve the same effect of it being more majestic looking. Furthermore the mise-en-scene in the indie genres analysed in particular the costume was mainly very knitted and vintage looking. This type of clothing is something that can really change the dynamics of the music video into something that appears alot more old fashioned. The narrative is a very important aspect of the indie genre as it unfolds the story and allows the audience to really get inside the artists head. Through research I have found that many artists actually include a very touching and personal narrative into there  music video. This is something that i latched onto very quickly, I wanted to make a music video that related to the indie genre and touched the audience in a personal way, this is because as a director/creator of a music video I felt that the audience would be more inclined to buy an album with this particular type of narrative. In order to see if this theory of mine would be successful I had to go on to do further research on my target audience, i did so by creating a questionnaire and vox poc's. This allowed us as a group to come up with a number of questions to ask our target audience ages 15-25 what type of things they liked or expected to see in a successful indie genre music video. Doing so gave us an insight into what our audience really wanted to see. At the end of this particular research we discovered that our target audience preferred the love/heart-breaking narrative this was a massive piece of information for us and it allowed us to finalise our narrative into being a love tragedy between the indie artist and her partner. In addition to the narrative we also where able to discover what type of location and setting our audience favoured in an indie genre, this helped us as a group to come up with the countryside and city locations that would be useful in our music video

When we came to creating the storyboard, from previous planning we where able to get straight into it. First we discussed what order the scenes would go in. We already had an idea of what this would be, but we wanted to be sure that we had it perfected. This allowed us to organise the scenes first being the older 'future' artist and a flashback into the artist and her partner having them meet, and fall in love, and finally him going to war and him dying as a result. The artist would then be devastated and be left heartbroken, finalising his death by spreading his ashes. The end of the music video would be of the older woman again looking at an image of the younger partner, because we were already adamant at what type of narrative we wanted and the order of the narrative. We started to get stuck in with the storyboard I wrote the information on the storyboard sheets while myself, Claire and Sara all took turns in drawing the images on the storyboard as it took longer then just writing out the notes below. While creating the storyboard we thought about what type of camera angels and movements would be successful in the music video, for example frame 13 a POV shot of the dinner table all set up and candle lit, this would provide the audience with an inside into the artists life, we planned on including this for that sole purpose alone as it provides the audience with a more free flowing music video, they will also build more of a relationship with the audience as they would be able to witness the footage through the artists eyes. Furthermore in frame 73 the artist is present in a corn field, the lighting below states that it is natural lighting. This means that we plan to have the artist in golden sunlight, its will allow her to be seen as innocent and this is what we want as the audience will sympathise with her being very natural and pure. To the audience it will make her look alot nicer which is what we want as they will feel alot closer to her as a friend and not an artist. The location is also something we discussed as a group and planned in the story board it allowed us to be able to manipulate the scene emotionally by just adapting the artist to the setting for example in frame 66 we decided to have the boyfriends death in the location of a field. This particular location was written down in the storyboard for a number of reasons. Firstly a field in a indie genre is actually very common and fits the codes and conventions well as it is a natural setting. This allows us as a group to develop this theory further as we can also relate the narrative to this particular choice of location. For example an empty isolated field will exaggerate the isolation of the partner in this scene, the audience can tell he is in a dangerous setting but they can't guarantee that anyone is there to help him due to the fact that he is alone in a field. This will overall add to the suspense of the situation making the audience feel even more empathy in the situation.

Finally as a group we were able to work together to create a successful storyboard that is actually very organised and put together, this overall makes the filming experience as each of us now have access to a joint made plan. Being a group of 3, whom work well together makes it easier to distribute the responsibility equally. In further detail we all worked together to create the storyboard, it was a joint discussion although we all had different tasks. I did the majority of the writing while we all took turns to draw the pictures to follow our information in a box, overall by working as a group we got it done rather quickly. 

·      

Although as  group we did try to stick to the storyboard as much as possible we did have to change a couple of things to make sure the safety of our actors and crew members wasn't jeopardised. In the scene were our actor Morgan is meant to run across the field and get shot. He himself needs to use iconography, in this case a fake gun to provide the idea atmosphere which will provide a successful and war like setting. In the storyboard we planned to carry out and film this scene in a local field. While discussing it with the actor we decided it would be a better idea to film it on private property where there would be less civilians and a lower risk of someone not involved with the film to actually think there is a problem and end up calling the police or suspecting aggressive behaviour.