A2 Coursework Final Piece

We came back from our half term holidays and began the planning of our final coursework piece. As we have had more experience in the planning and production of music videos, we immediately chose this option. We then spent a short while brain storming some ideas for songs, actors, genres and story lines. We wanted to find a narrative song that we could capture a story from using the world of film.

My group consists of myself, Kerstin D'Silva and Natasha Breen. During this double lesson, Natasha Breen was absent for the most part and was therefore unable to contribute to alot of our ideas.






Above is the planning sheet we used to brain storm our ideas. I wrote in pink and Kerstin wrote on blue. We did this so that we would be able to present our own ideas individually rather than as a group.

Me and Kerstin (my group member) both have very different taste in music and we therefore had conflicting ideas about the music choice we faced. Kerstin would have preferred to do a rock song as this is the type of music she likes and feels she could portray well in her own music video, and I felt the same about pop music. Therefore we needed to begin searching for songs which loosely covered both genres, a song that could lie somewhere in between the boundaries of these two genres.

The songs we discussed were the following:

• Because of you - Kelly Clarkson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3D8J1rjGLg&ob=av2n

This song is more of a ballad, however as an artist Kelly Clarkson is known for her ability to mix pop and rock together in many of her songs. We felt that this song would be comparable to both genres and an equal compromise from both of us. We also both knew this song and felt we were able to contribute ideas to this dramatic and narrative song. Kelly Clarkson's "rock" reputation would allow us to portray this genre in the music video. We felt we could create a video from this song which would impact its viewers by creating dramatic scenes to go with the lyrics.

• Behind These Hazel Eyes - Kelly Clarkson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svxP2LjBg_4&NR=1

This song was less narrative but the video was inspirational. Once we had watched the video we felt that our abilities and resources were not able to live up to our expectations of the video we would hope to create. We both liked this song however we felt that the video would be too complicated to create. It also restricts our actor recruitment as we would need to find someone with hazel eyes.

• When You're Gone - Avril Lavigne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R95CkWaLNo&ob=nb_av2e

This song was an idea I had come up with. I really liked this song and thought we could have created a very good video in the same style that Avril does, using multiple different situations or story lines that all have the same meaning. In the video you see a wife missing her husband who is out at war, you also see a husband missing his wife who has passed on. I felt we could have created something similar to this and could have used many ideas to fill the song. However, Kerstin was not as keen on this idea as I was as she was not a fan of Avril Lavigne as an artist. The song is very narrative and I felt that the emotion of the song could have been reflected through a well produced video.

By the end of the lesson we decided to go with Kelly Clarkson - Because of You video as this was one we both had ideas for and also both liked. Natasha came in toward the end of the lesson and also gave her verdict on the song, she seemed pleased with our choice and gave her ideas as to how we should present the video.