Pixie Lott lyrics and filming ideas

I would like to re-create this music video but after thinking long and hard about what I would film; breaking down the lyrics and watching music videos from last years A2 students, I don't think my end product would be as good as if I choose to create a video for "I Was Here". I think it could look very unprofessional and because of the areas and equipment I have to film with there isn't much I can do about that. I also don't think I can come up with enough ideas to fill the whole of the audio. 

Pixie Lott character profile and information about Gravity

“Gravity” was released in March 2010 and  was the fourth single off Pixie Lott’s debut album “Turn It Up”. Although it is performed by Lott it was actually written by Ina Wroldsen, Jonas Jeberg, Mich Hansen and Lucas Secon. Gravity was Lott’s lowest charting single to date as it peaked at number 20 on the Official chart on the 28^th March 2010 but it earned her her fourth consecutive UK top twenty hit.

Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott

Born 12th January 1991

Bromley, Kent

Lott gained the nickname Pixie from her mother who said she was “such a tiny, cute baby who looked like a fairy”. Lott moved around London a lot when she was younger and her first experience of singing was at her church school. When she was five she started attending Italia Conti Associates Saturday school and she went on to attend the main school Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts when she was eleven where she received a scholarship. Whilst she was a student she appeared in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and when she was fourteen in BBC One’s Celebrate the Sound of Music in 2005. Also at the age of fourteen she was in the chorus of Roger Walter’s opera Ça Ira. Although she missed a lot of school she was very bright and achieved straight As at GCSE. For the last three years she has also featured on FHM’s Sexiest Women list in the top fifty.

In 2006 at the age of fifteen Lott sang for L.A. Reid and after he had heard her he signed her to Island Def Jam Music Group but after a change of managers and other issues Lott had to leave this label and later signed with Mercury Records in the UK and Interscope Records in the US. She also signed a publishing contract as a songwriter with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in December 2007. Her first full British tour was supporting The Saturdays on their “The Work Tour”.

Lott’s debut single was named “Mama Do” and was released in June 2009 spending one week at Number 1 and eleven weeks in the UK Top 40. It also reached the Top 40 in eleven other countries. Her second leading single off the album “Boys and Girls” was released in September 2009 and also made the Number 1 spot on 13^th September 2009. Her debut album was also released in September 2009 which was followed by a huge promotion your across the world. The album reached Number 6 on the UK Singles Chart and has sold over 600000 copies to date in the UK. The third single from the album “Cry Me Out” was released in November 2009. Around this time Lott was also chosen as the face of Nokia’s “Illuvial Pink Collection” mobile phone range and Casio’s range of Baby G watches.

The fourth single “Gravity” was released in the UK in March 2010 but that didn’t have much chart success. She won two MTV EMA Awards in 2009 for Best UK and Ireland Act and Best Breakthrough Artist. She was the opening act for Rihanna’s Last Girl on Earth Tour in the UK during May of 2010. Lott has also been involved in a new Lipsy clothing range which she co-designed in April 2012 and also in September 2010. During the seventh series of the X Factor she was also a guest judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave and she also recorded a song for the British film Street Dance 3D. In June 2010 she released the title song of her album “Turn It Up” which was the fifth single off the album to be released.

Lott’s debut single in the US was “Boys and Girls” and that was released on the 24th August 2010 with coincided with the release of her debut film Fred: The Movie which aired on Nickelodeon in the US on the 18th September 2010. The single “The Way the World Works” off her debut single was also used on the American medical drama Private Practice. Turn It Up was rereleased in the UK with new singles on it including “Broken Arrow”.

In July 2011, it was announced that Lott has signed a deal with Select Model Management. Soon after this in early September the leading single from her second album “All About Tonight” was released which got Lott her third Number 1 single. This was followed up by the release of “What Do You Take Me For?” featuring the rapper Pusha T in early November and this was the first of Lott’s singles to reach the top 10 without being Number 1. By the end of November, Lott had released her second album named Young Foolish Happy and on the 29^th January 2012 Lott released the final single from the album titled “Kiss The Stars”. This single peaked at Number 8 which made Young Foolish Happy her first album to produce three consecutive top 10 singles.

Lott was lucky enough to perform “Kiss The Stars” and her cover of The Kings of Leon track “Use Somebody” at the Men’s Gymnastics Final at London 2012. She also played a few festivals over the course of summer 2012 including her second appearance at V Festival.

Summary of the summer work I did

At the start of the summer I was unsure about what brief I wanted to choose and I was mainly torn between doing a soap opera trailer and the music video. After looking at many trailers for soaps on YouTube I decided that I didn't know if I would be able to achieve a realistic trailer after considering people available to me, where I would be able to shoot and how I could make a video long enough. For these reasons I chose to create the music video.

To start my planning for the music video I looked at what I think are the obvious different types of video: telling a story, dance routine, film soundtrack containing shots of the film and videos that don't seem to ave anything to do with the song. I used YouTube again and music channels to get ideas about the different types to see which video I would most want to create. I want to create a video that tells a story about somebody.

Whilst I was doing this research I came across the video for Gym Class Heroes "The Fighter" which tells a great story about an Olympic gymnast training for is sport. It also cuts to the band throughout the video and I really liked it. I used this video to create a storyboard and it also gave me a few ideas on how I can shoot my own video. It took me between 10 and 15 hours to complete my storyboard over 5 days.

Choosing my song has been very hard for me! At the minute I am again torn between Beyoncé "I Was Here" and Pixie Lott "Gravity" because I think I could make good videos for them both. I will map out a few ideas for both singles before I decide exactly which song I will go with.

Song choice ideas - Under the Sun

Cheryl Cole is set to release "Under the sun" as the second single off her third studio album at the beginning of September 2012. This song is quite flirtatious and cheeky. I imagine a woman to be showing off to a man when I hear the song so I would want to portray this in the video. I think I would end up making this a bit more of a dance video though which is not what I wanted to create and I think it would be hard to tell the story throughout the song.

Song choice ideas - California king bed

Rihanna released "California king bed" in 2011 and it's a song about either a long distance relationship or feeling distant from the person you love. I would make my music video for this very lonely, filming shots of a woman in an empty place or somewhere with lots of people but where she doesn't belong. When Rihanna lists parts of the body I would have a few close ups on these but not of every one. I would also film some scenes of a man and woman together, embracing each other.

This is the original video:

Song choice ideas - I was here

"I was here" is a ballad by Beyoncé about her wanting the world to know she lived once she had gone and the legacy she wants. Although this song doesn't tell a love story like most songs or of achievement etc, it is a life story and I think it would be nice to create a video of big moments in some body's life. The person I have in mind to be my actress for the video is a performer and singer so there would be quite a few opportunities to film her while she is performing. She is also fund raising which would be a nice twist to add to the video. She is very sporty so these are other opportunities there would be to film and very family orientated, especially with her younger brother. I would be able to create a story of her life and also film clips of her performing the song too.

This is Beyoncé performing the song which has become the video for the single

Song choice ideas - Gravity

"Gravity" was released by Pixie Lott in 2010 as the fourth single off her debut album "Turn it up". This song is about a woman who keeps going back to a man even though she knows it is probably the wrong thing to do. The lyrics talk about her family not approving of him so I could film a clip around a dinner table with the man and woman in question and her family, possibly an argument breaking out at the table. I would also film the woman closing a door like she is ending the relationship and possibly leaning up against it. In the second verse of the song she mentions standing at the end of her man's street and thinking about their relationship and this scene would be easy enough to film and I think it would be more effective if it was filmed in the dark with only the streetlights around to light her up. I would also film her looking at herself in the mirror, maybe applying make-up as she's wondering what decision she is going to make.

This is the original video for this song:

Song choice ideas - Wide Awake

"Wide Awake" is a song by Katy Perry and I think it is very moving. Although we presume this song is about the break up between her and her husband Russel Brand, it could be about failing in anything. I like the idea of creating a slightly different story to go along with the song in the music video, possibly somebody failing in a career or dream and then having to start again and make a difference. The song follows a very simple structure as the chorus is repeated three times which means I could use similar clips during all of the choruses. This is similar to the Gym Class Heroes video and other existing music videos I have viewed. The full length video also uses the feature of a narrative/performance at the beginning which I really want to include in my music video.

The official Wide Awake music video:

Song choice ideas - I learned from you

"I learned from you" is a song performed by Miley Cyrus and her father Billy Ray Cyrus and is featured on the first Hannah Montana album. I like this song because of the relationship of the father and daughter in the lyrics. There isn't currently a video for this song but I think I could create a good one featuring clips of a young girl growing up with her father around. I could film images of a young girl playing games with her dad, having days out and going through hard times that match the lyrics.

I think this would be a very fun video for me to create but the issues I have is finding enough girls of different ages to take part. It could also be difficult with the ages I would want the girls to be and getting them to act like I would want them too, especially if I wasn't using their own dad. It is definitely an idea I would like to look into though because I think I could make it realistic and make it work.

Here is the song:

List of song choice ideas

The first step I took to choosing the song I am going to use to make my music video was to search through my iPod and CDs me and my family have in the house and to make a list of songs I thought I could make a suitable music video for. This was a long process but it gave me a chance to see what my options were and I also came up with new filming ideas while I was doing this. 

About 'The Fighter' Gym Class Heroes

Cinematography

There are two main focuses of this video, one is on the band and one is on the gymnast whilst he is training. The shots of the band are often very similar. A lot of close ups are used especially on the lead singer and the pianist as they carry the song. We also see a few shots of the guitarists and the drummer on their own but they're often mid/long shots so we can see their instruments. There are a lot of long shots used on the band as a whole too so we can see the layout and who is doing what so the whole focus isn't on the lead singer all of the time. During these shots the rest of the band are often out of focus in the background though so we still know who is leading the band.
Various shots are used on the gymnast as he's doing different things in each shot and certain shots wouldn't be suitable. Close ups are used so we can see his emotion as he is either training or afterwards. If the gymnast is on gym equipment, more often than not long shots are used so we can see what is happening.
I liked the way the camera was used in this video as it almost became a part of it. For example in the last shot on page 6 the shot is on an angle. This is because the camera has been placed on the mat that the gymnast jumps onto and it therefore moves with it. Steadicam is used a lot in this film especially when we see the gymnast which makes it seem a little bit more real and not as staged.

The camera does pan around a lot in this video especially when the pianist is involved. Zoom is also used during long shots to get closer to the band and when Travie is stood in the locker room. A tilt is used when the gymnast is doing pull ups off  a high bar to track him back up to the top. As the movement of the person in the shot changes, the camera does too.

 

Editing

 

A lot of the transitions used in this video are just straight cuts from one shot to the next. There are a few examples of jump cuts were the shot is continued with a slight change in what the camera was doing. I found these very effective and they make the video run smoother.

In the shots of the band performing in the gym, I noticed that Travie McCoy's headphones kept changing position almost like they had shot the footage a few times and hadn't checked where his headphones were positioned. I think this is the only thing that changes which makes me think it wasn't intentional but it continues throughout the whole video so I'm not one hundred percent sure. It could be an error of continuity.

In some of the shots of the gymnast there is a grey scale tint. It doesn't occur all the time as there are a lot of colour shots too and I haven't worked out if there was a routine as to when they've used the grey scale. It seems quite random to me although I'm sure that is not the case.

Montage editing is used throughout this video and so is text that is layered onto of the film. In this video it told us the location of the gymnast's training as he prepared for the Olympics.

 

Mise-en-scene

 

The band don't leave the location of the main gym although Travie and the pianist change location without their mics and the piano. Travie relocates to gym locker rooms and here he does some vocals and dances around a little bit more pretending he is boxing. The pianist moves around later on in the video.

Everybody in this video has their own individual style. Travie is wearing what he is known to wear in the media. The gymnast wears his gymnastic kit throughout most of the video or training kit when he isn't in the gym. This would be common sense to recreate depending on the roles of who I have in my video.

When the band are in the gym there is often a streak of light shining through from the top window of the gym hall. This adds to the instrument players been out of focus in the background but creates enough light for us to see the band as there aren't any other lights on in the room that we can see on screen.

In the locations we see the gymnast training properly there is a lot of gymnastic equipment in the shots like mats, high rings, bars etc. This makes the video very realistic and clever. I also like the use of the park in this video as the gymnast is training somewhere accessible to everybody and this is a point I can consider whilst I'm deciding on locations to shoot my own video. The Olympic rings are often in the background of some shots as the gymnast specified at the beginning of the video that he was in Olympic training.

 

Sound

 

We are lead to believe that the band are all playing the music that we're hearing and that therefore makes it diegetic. This is a narrative video because the song is telling us about a 'Fighter' and that fighter in the video is the gymnast. At the beginning of the video before the music begins we hear a voice over from the gymnast introducing himself to us and this allows us to understand the rest of the video (although it would also be obvious who he was without this too).

An evaluation point of creating my storyboard

I decided to create a longer storyboard of 1 minute 35 seconds as it contained a whole verse and chorus. From watching music videos I had realised different techniques are used at different parts of the songs. Sometimes shots in a chorus can be repeated or very similar because they're singing the same lyrics and I didn't want to miss out on this point. It also gave me more of a chance to look at camera techniques and different locations which are discovered as the video progresses.

Storyboard of The Fighter by Gym Class Heroes

This is a storyboard of the first minute and a half of the music video for 'The Fighter' by Gym Class Heroes. I decided to storyboard this video because it tells a stroy and I would like to make this possible in my music video. It is also the same genre of music I will be choosing from.

 



The genre I would like to create my music video for is pop but I would like it to be a song that gives a message so that I can create a story within the music video. This will allow me to use extra people, different locations and plan and prepare everything more thoroughly such as costumes and hair and make-up.

Here are some examples of music videos from this genre:

 

 

The different types of music video

Different types of music videos on Prezi