Stop-Motion Animation

Five hours of drawing, cutting, photographing and editing later, and here is my animated section of the first four lines of the chorus of our song! I found it a challenge as stop-motion is a new form of animation for me, but I was able to get my concept down and found a way in which to make my storyboard come to life.

It's like falling asleep on a railroad track
Or baiting Chuck Norris just to make him mad
Oh, skinny dipping in the pouring rain,
Or sending drunk texts to your boss' phone again



Here are some photos of the process of making the finished product:

Filming at Cliveden

Here is a video of our filming process at Cliveden's Water Garden. We managed to film the entire song in a variety of different shots and settings to get what we needed to use in our video. We are now able to begin part of our editing process.

Cliveden Map

Here is a map of Cliveden's grounds. The area circled in pink is the Water Garden where we are going to be filming our video.
Due to our actress being unwell, we have arranged for another person to lip-sync in our video for us. We have taken weather into consideration and hope for this afternoon of filming to be a successful one!

Bekonscot Storyboard

 Here is a section of our storyboard for the chorus of the song which we planned to film whilst at Bekonscot.

We wanted to keep close to the words of the chorus. As there is a miniature railway we decided to have our singer walking along the tracks and we would do a tracking shot of her feet at this part of the song.

Its like falling asleep on a railroad track Or baiting Chuck Norris just to make him mad
Skinny dipping in the pouring rain
Or sending drunk texts to your boss' phone again.
Swim with sharks just to feel the danger
Or flipping the bird to a mean State Ranger
No - the dumbest thing I could do,
Is say that I didn't love you.

We wanted to allow some freedom for improvisation whilst filming, we wanted the singer's actions to be natural. As a result of this we did not storyboard each section of the song. To compensate for this we storyboarded shots we wanted especially and made sure we were going to film the whole song in each area in a variety of different shots to ensure we had enough footage to work with.

Filming Storyboard

Foundation Shots

In order to film our video we had to create a storyboard. We wanted to be able to have a vast variety of shots to use, so decided to film the entire song from a varying number of angles and areas in each setting.  

 We went on to decide that as a foundation of stock film from each area we would film the entire song at a close-up/mid-shot and possibly extreme close-up also. This would provide us with plenty of footage to cross-cut with when we began our editing process.

Location Shots

We then went on to think about our locations and how we would like to film certain parts of the song in each place.

We decided that as the song is split into three verses and the chorus at intervals we would set each verse in one of our three settings. The first would be in the Model Village, the second verse in Cliveden's Water Garden and the third simply in front of a plain black background.

Verse 1 (as seen to the right) is how we plan to begin the song. We were going to start with a close up of the singer after the musical introduction of the song and then open out into a wider shot to see more of her surroundings as she sings and stands before returning to a close-up once more to complete the sequence.

As we planned to film the whole song in each different setting we also planned how we would film the first verse in our blank setting. We decided that the use of an instrument in at least one of the sections of our video, however brief it may be, would be very much in keeping with the conventions of a pop music video.

Animation Sketches and Storyboard



These are the sketches of my ideas for what to include in my animation.



 After deciding that we would animate the chorus of the song both Rachael and I split it into two parts. This meant that I would animate the first half of the chorus and Rachael would animate the second part.

I began by looking at the lines I would have to animate:

'It's like falling asleep on a railroad track,

Or baiting Chuck Norris just to make him mad,

Skinny dipping in the pouring rain,

Or sending drunk texts to your boss' phone again.'

Here I managed to use the ideas in my sketches to produce a storyboard of what I planned to animate. I wrote in black the lyrics that were to match each section and in green what the animation would be doing and which type of stop-motion I would use for each.

The first example of this is that I planned to draw out the track of the railway on a whiteboard, but use the train as a separate cut-out which I would slowly move over the track in each separate shot.

 

We have now researched and contacted the National Trust and Bekonscot Model Village and have recieved their permission to film in both areas. We have also completed our risk assessments and have been able to visit the locations in order to prepare for our filming and work out which areas we wanted to film in.

Due to the season we were aware that certain areas of Cliveden would not have flowers out at this time of year. In order to help us decide which garden would look best we were able to obtain photos of their current condition by corresponding with the business development manager at Cliveden who was able to speak with the gardeners for us.

Our two options for filming are either the long garden (top right) and the water garden (lower right).

Audience Expectations

We spoke to members of our target audience to evaluate what they would typically expect from a pop music video. Here is our result!

Filming Location Research - Bekonscot Model Village

In preparation for our filming we went to view Bekonscot Model Village with their permission to film our video there. We took lots of pictures to familiarize ourselves with the space we would be working with and to work out which areas we would like to film in. Here is a short video of our trip.

Typical Synopsis

I am going to watch four different music videos from the Pop genre and summarize each in a simple paragraph discussing the main themes, trends and conventions in them. The first video is Rihanna's 'Where have you been'. This song is very much focused on the changing of setting and eyes. The theme of the song is searching, so with each repetition of the line 'I've been everywhere, man, looking for someone' we see the setting of the video change. The shots change and pulsate to the beat of the music. A great deal of close-ups are used and we also see the speed of the shot changes and camera movement is in accordance to the pace of the song at each particular moment in time. There is a use of dance which adds a degree of versatility to the video, too. Overall the song stays true to its lyrics, picking the common theme to link each changing scene to. The shots change quickly and a great deal of movement and colour is used to make the video appealing to its target audience. The second video is Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call me Maybe'. We see a strong simple story being told through the lyrics of the song in which a girl falls in love with her gardener and goes on a quest to give him her phone number. We see a heavy focus on the main singer throughout with a great deal of close-up shots to emphasize her emotions and what she's looking at. We see cross-cutting between the story being told and the main singer singing the song with people playing instruments around her. The lighting is bright and the setting is carefree, humorous and happy. The song once again works to appeal to a young target audience and certain situations which they may well be able to relate to. In this video, Eliza Doolittle's 'Skinny Jeans' we see a few common themes such as people using other people as instruments. We see one girl's back being used as a mock keyboard, and another person's leg being used as a pretend guitar. The video has a playful and imaginative theme, often showing fairly random creative and different clips of something happening at the point of the whistle in the chorus. We have familiar settings which are returned to a lot, such as Eliza singing on her bed with legs swaying in the background. Slow motion shots are used in the chorus, people are dancing, there is a great use of light and bright colours. All in all the video is very much in keeping with the bright cheerful tune of the song. The final video I have chosen to look at is 'Price Tag' by Jessie J. The theme in this video is money and toys. A great deal of close up shots are used, the background is kept as a simple colour wash, occasionally changing from pink to blue, but otherwise remaining simple, the focus being on the singers and the toys. We see some dancing and interaction with the toys on scene, but the main focus is merely on the singer and their performance, the occasional use of something which is referred to in the lyrics such as 'high heels' or 'money' being brought up to link the subject matter and video together.

Katy Perry- Firework. Ten-Frame Analysis

 We see after the initial establishing shots, we are brought straight into a close-up of the singer. This establishes where our voice is coming from.

 The shot then changes to one from another angle, allowing us to see the singer from further back. In this shot we see her entire body and her surroundings once more. The use of light is important here, we can see subtle things such as her dress matching her to the colour of surroundings she is in. The contrast in light colour create an artistic and potentially symbolic scene to set the song in.

 We then return to a mid-shot of the main singer, taking us once again to a comfortable distance of her. We see the light shining from behind her, creating a hopeful setting and tone to match the words of the song. The song being filmed at night also matches the name of it 'Firework' as the focus of the song itself is light, a theme which we see throughout from the many different lights shown in each shot, especially the establishing shots.

 The lyrics at this point of the song are from the first verse:

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards one blow from caving in?

 We can see these lyrics reflected in the kind of shots being used at this point int the video. The song's focus at this point is very much on yourself as an individual. The singer is questioning how they may have felt at different points in their life. We can see the correlation between the lyrics and shots as we see the singer being shown from different perspectives and angles, perhaps reflecting insecurities and the focus on self-importance which the song seeks to address.

 We see the shot now retuning to a mid-shot after the previous close-up. This ties the sequence in together as the shot before the close-up had been a mid-shot, also. This mid-shot, however, is merely from behind the singer as opposed to front, once again highlighting the focus on the individual.

 We see a crane shot here, looking down onto the singer, also reflecting how high up she is. This relates to the lyrics again as there is a certain fear of breaking and the shots used reflect the vulnerability of the lyrics. We also see in this shot, another variety or scattered lights, a common theme in the video.

 We are then taken to a close-up shot of a young boy and his sister with parents fighting in the background. This starts off the song's narrative montage of different people in different situations all over the world feeling the way the song's lyrics dictate.

 We are now shown a different form of vulnerability, the vulnerability of the young. They are shown from behind, showing them as cut off from help, feeling trapped within this emotion. We do, however, see them having a similar eye line to the main singer in the shots. In doing so this is making both the main singer and the children share a sense of similarity and equality; giving the children a sense of significance and importance, something the singer seeks to make the song embrace.

 We return once more as a mid-shot of the main singer is used to cross-cut the story being told alongside. This breaks up the story into smaller chunks, maintaining a good pace and not lingering on one thing for too long, this ensures that the viewer's interest is held.

We then return to the brother and sister once more as their story progresses. We see Katy Perry uses examples of different people and different forms of insecurities in her video. Some of which we see later on being the insecurities of self-image and of life-threatening illness.

We can see that throughout this simple selection of ten frames from 'Firework' that the main singer is very much the focus of the video, constantly being cut back to along other narratives if they are present in the video. The use of close-ups are highly important, too, and the video content is also very much in relation to the lyrics of the song.

Conventions Of A Pop Music Video

Pop music videos often vary widely in regards to content, theme and story. Despite this, many similarities can be seen when regarding pop videos as a whole.

Pop videos hold a large degree of focus on the performance of the singer. Whether this is through merely singing their song and perhaps playing an instrument, or narrating some kind of story through the song. Dance is often used along with a bright setting. The artist is usually always present in their video, singing their song. The videos are set to be trendy with fashionable clothes being worn to appeal to a young target audience.

Music Video Collage

I made this collage of various famous music videos. By just looking at the variety of frames we can see both diversity and similarities. Light and the source of it seems to be highly important, whether this is from artificial lights like the frame from Ke$ha's music video on the left, or from fire or fireworks which we can see in Katy Perry's frame and Rihanna's, both on the right. A great deal of focus is held on the close-up shots of the singers and their expressions. Different perspectives are also used, as we see some shots filmed from above, low down, and within a firm eye-line.

Student Videos

I have also decided to look at some of the work of previous students to evaluate what works and does not work so well in a more realistic portrayal of what I might be capable of creating myself.

In this first video we see that all of the scenes are filmed at night with a poor source of lighting. Consequentially this affects the quality of the clips and perhaps is not completely necessary. One of the largest issues I feel this piece has is the lack of close ups on the singer, there were moments especially at the beginning of the video where it seemed to need some form of cross cutting with close-up shots to keep the interest of the viewer. Another weakness of the video is the fact that the camera is not moving that often. Around the end we see more variation in camera angles and movement, however for the first half of the video it is very static, something which makes the video drag on a little.
The video began by keeping the shot changes very solidly on the beat of the song. This worked nicely, helping it to match the pace well and establish a tone. Some clever editing techniques were used which included splitting the screen to have multiple copies of the main singer and having several still shots of him appearing on a different park bench. These shots worked nicely and added a contrast in pace to the other slower clips.
As a contrast, this student production is more successful. The shots change more frequently with a great variation of transitions and the camera moves with the singer. These techniques used to combine lots of shorter shots work far more effectively than simply using one long lasting shot. The variation holds the viewer's interest and we see a good use of story telling alongside the constant of the black screen in the background returning for parts of the verse and the chorus. The shots flicker and change to match the music, and this changing in pace does not only match the music but it also builds up the suspense to go along with the story being told in the background. There are a great deal of close up shots used, allowing us to see more of our singer and her expressions.

Award Winning Pop Music Videos

Below are two Music Videos which won Best Pop Video in the MTV Video Music Awards 2012. By watching these I hope to pick up key conventions used within popular music videos within the pop genre.
 
The videos play close attention to rhythm, the shots often changing on the beat of the song and these changes speeding up and slowing down to match the varying pace of the song. Chorus is often used to bring to song back to a familiar point, the shots from the chorus are sometimes the same and the setting used for the singer to sing the chorus in remains fairly constant. The star, or main singer is often very much focused on, we see this in both videos as they hold the majority of the screen time in comparison to the other people in the video.

 The visuals do relate very much to the lyrics in both videos. The theme of the first song 'We are Young' by FUN is very much about living life to the full when young and enjoying yourself. The video corresponds to these lyrics, showing a bar full of young people being destructive and acting recklessly for fun. In the second video 'Boyfriend' by Justin Bieber we see the focus of the song is on relationships and couples. Therefore to match such a topic, we see the singer surrounded by couples, along with a girl at his side to sing to.
Both videos show the singer playing an instrument (the guitar), and both use a variety of slow motion shots and close-ups. The close-ups often used in cross-cutting different shots. Another common trend to be observed is that the singer is not always lip-synching throughout the entire song. Often the focus can be away from the singer as we still hear them singing.In fact, few of the shots focus on the lip syncing at all.