Storyboard

This is the first page of our story board- this is the narrative part of the music video where the argument is started and finished. We have decided not to include any of the music at the start and use the silence and show what they are saying by lip syncing and allowing the audience to figure out what they are saying. We have combined all of the opening scenes I found on youtube to create a scene that would link to the lyrics as well as creating an effective break-up scene. We have used the glass smashing from the Nicki Minaj break-up scene and have used the powerful female image from Beyonce's song "Irreplaceable". We have decided to use a slow-motion effect when the glass is broken on the floor to add more effect and drama which is what we want to create.
On an interview with Ne-Yo about this song Ne-yo stated "It's about the first time I fell in love with a girl in a way that I completely screwed it up. So it was a story that I didn't have to think really hard about putting it together. A lot of heartbreak went into that song, so that's why I think a lot of people dug it the way they did - because you can feel it." which is why we want to create a video that represents this.

We've used a pan shot in one of the scenes to show the male characters emotions from the back of him through to the front to truly reveal his emotions on the break-up, and we will do this on the woman to show the difference in emotion.

Requesting Song Rights

As part of doing our music video, we had to request permission of the production company that originally produced "So Sick". We had to do this to ensure that no copyright crimes were committed.
First, we decided to look at an existing email that was sent by one of the past A level students last year. We analysed this template and used it as a base for out own letter to ensure the formality of the letter as well as to ensure we covered every point we needed to make. Although we most likely won't receive a reply from DefJam, if any copyright legal action was taken, it would clarify us knowing that we sent a permission letter

We started researching into the song of so sick on multiple websites and found that the label of the song was DefJam, which is where we started to search ways in which we would be able to send this email, we also found multiple other facts such as they have worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West and lots of other world wide famous artists. We searched on the website and we were unable to find their email address which made us look into multiple websites to find their email or a manager who we would be able to send it too.
We found that DefJam was owned by Universal music production so we looked on their to find someone or something where we'd be able to send out permission letter, this took us to a link that would allow us to tell Universal what song we would request for, however later on realised this was for the US. We were then relocated to the UK site, where we found an email address of a woman named Laura who was the leader of this sort of case.
                                                  The email sent

Production Company- Def Jam

"So Sick" is a song by American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. The track was produced by Norwegian production team Stargate for Ne-Yo's debut studio album In My Own Words (2006). The song was released as the second single from the album.

The record label that produced and distributed this music video was a record label called Def Jam Recordings is an American music label, focused predominantly on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group.

After looking at Dem Jams website and researching into what sort of artists they have on their label, as well as producing the original "so sick" song, I feel that Def Jam would be the best option for us to use. We will be contacting Def Jam and writing them a consent form about having permission for us to use their artist and song and placing it on a public sight.

Editing Research

Editing in a music video is one of the most essential parts in a video and could differ the music video from being unsuccessful to successful and the right editing and effects could change the amount of attention and profit a record label/company makes. Effects and editing have to be chosen specifically to fit a specific audience, so if an audience is younger , a record label would tend to use more colour and effects to make it more child-like where for an older audience, they tend to keep it more neutral and stick to simple transitions and camera work. I feel that editing plays a huge part within a music video as I feel an audience can judge a song based on the music video.

Production Schedule

In order to make our production simpler and quicker for the group and I, we have decided to follow a production schedule that would let us know if we were behind schedule and allow us to know what we have to do each lesson and outside of school.

Moodboard

I created a moodboard after we create out first initial spider diagram so that we have some idea in our heads what certain parts of the narrative and music video will look like. I have taken some inspiration from music videos as well as pictures from Tumblr that represent what we are thinking.

From creating this moodboard of pictures for inspiration, I have thought that
I will need to balance showing the good and bad sides of the relationship so show the story of how the relationship went bas in the beginning, this will ensure that the audience understand the narrative at the start of the music video.
I think we should focus a lot of the music video on the dominant character(the male) and emphasise his sad emotions to reveal that it was him that did wrong in the relationship-this will also reveal the woman to be the dominant and with something like her throwing a drink in his face would appeal to a wider female audience which is something that isn't done in modern R&B.

Final Song Choice

After considering the choices of 3 songs and looking over our focus groups, we have finally decided with Tavonga's consent to do the song "so sick" by Ne-yo, we found this to be a song that would be successful as we found that the lyrics of the song would be easy to conform too. We found that we would be able to create a love narrative that has gone wrong and with many music video's being based on this narrative, we will be able to incorporate different ideas from other R&B artists.
From looking at the focus group of year 13, they said that Ne-yo would have been the best artist as they found that it suited Tavonga's character a lot as they all know him from school and they also found that
Ne-yo's songs could create an easy narrative.

Setting

For the setting, we decided to focus more of the urban areas as we found R&B artists are known for their "street/Urban" style and look of their music videos, after looking at the videos that we looked at for our focus groups, we realised many of them were located in the streets or clubs and with us not being able to have the people or authentication to do it in a club, we have decided to focus more on the street side of the music video. We looked into areas based in Manchester city centres and have looked at unique buildings based in the Northern Quarter as well as other places that are quirky like places near Aflecks palace.

We also thought of using a bed scene that would hsow the good times they had it bed like cuddling as a couple then juxtapose this image with the woman or man sat on the bed alone to show that the realtionship is no more. We thought that this would be a good way to create the personal effect on the audience.

Initial Ideas

In Todays lesson, my group and I came up with some initial ideas we feel that would like to the story of the song as well as the lyrics that they tell. We decided on creating a narrative based story whic involved us showing the break up of the couple at the start of the relationship then through out showing good memories that they had, as well as showing how the break-up formed.

With what we found out, we were talking a lot about how we would be able to create a music video that would differ from other music video, we came up with including flashbacks and editing skills such as timelapse to create a music video that would tell a story in a different way. I have looked at the music video of Beyonce's "If I were a boy" as i know that the whole music video is based upon the flashbacks of their relationship and what differs this music video to any other I have seen is that half way through the song they switch roles so that instead of Beyonce acting as "if she were a boy", it changes so that now he is, which shows both perspectives and puts a meaning and a message behind the song inself, showing both men and women how they can act. We want to use something like this within our music video so that the audience are engaged by it though out. We aim to use the good and bad memories of the relationship in the past to show the journey of a relationship and use the black and white effect used in this video to convince the audience that the mood of the music video is negative and gloomy. I feel that this will exaggerate the theme of a heartbreak, which is what the lyrics are about. 

A technique we were thinking of using was a split screen, with the two characters doing the exact same thing eg. sitting on the bed, however acting very different from the breakup, we want to create it so that the male main character is upset and sad about the relationship as it was his fault it ended then the woman acting happy and satisfied with the breakup as she knows she deserves better, this way the lyrics and the narrative have a symbolic link.

Narrative Ideas- Break Up Scene

I have taken this break up scene from Nicki Minaj's song "right through me"which is based on the narrative of a couple trying to sort through the problems within their relationship. I have chose to look at this break up scene as it involves a script based narrative which is what my group and I discussed about having at the start of the music video. Within this music video, i like the way it is the woman that is seen as the dominant character, which is something that isn't seen often in R&B music videos. However, you can also seen the softer side of her which reveals her to still be in love with the male character. This is something that we aim to reveal as Ne-yo's song is based on the same story however, we aim to make the woman being the one walking out and the male character(Tavonga) being the one doing the chasing.
This break up scene has been told so that the break up has already happened as Beyonce is kicking him out of her house, this break up clearly shows her to be the dominant character in this as the lyrics show her to have money and say that she can find another man in a minute. Its a song that empowers women and makes women out to be independent. This song was clearly made to appeal to the female audience and the narrative of the women being the dominant character I believe makes women like the narrative more.
This break-up scene is from the song from Chris brown and Justin Bieber "next to you" it features the dad of the girl telling her never to see Justin Bieber again. it involves Chris Brown waking up to the girl not being in his bed etc. and him panicking with a car blowing up, this creates more drama as the audience believe that the girl is dead. This would be a good narrative to use as it allows the audience to be more involved with the narrative,however we would have to think of different ways to create more drama as we don't have the equipment and money to allow props to be blown up.

Reflection Of Our Focus Group

We have carried out a focus group with one group which is our own media class of year 13's. The session was very helpful however, as we asked a range of questions which aided our initial ideas of how we were going create a music video for the genre of R&B. I had created a consent form so that the class were happy to take part and Eboni created a power point of visual aids which included pictures of R&B artists and extracts of music videos from these artists. This formed the base of our questions and helped narrow down our talk which would give focused and detailed answers.

Firstly, we informed the group about the background of R&B with some information about general conventions and how it had changed over time. We asked what the audience already knew about R&B and who their favourite artists were in general to see if anyone's favourite artist was in fact, an R&B artist. This was not the case however, once we discussed certain artists from this genre, it appeared that they were still very popular with our group. By asking these sorts of questions we were able to question why they liked certain artists and what about them made the stand out from other artists.

There were some older R&B videos mixed with some newer ones and so we could show this comparison to our audience. When asked which type of R&B was better, the audience response was generally that an older type video was preferred as they gave more of a sense of reality. They didn't like the newer videos as they focussed more of wealth and success which came across arrogant as well as the desirable, sexual representation of women which was not approved by many. With the male audience of the focus group approving of the women being represented as sexual, they still found that whilst it is ok for a woman to represented as sexual, they found that the way the women were represented in Miss independent (classy and dominant) was more attractive that limited clothing.

A question that was put forward questioned whether narrative videos were more popular or performance based videos. We showed them extracts of Drake's 'Started from the bottom' which is very much followed with narrative and compared it with Usher's 'Yeah' which is predominantly a performance by Usher himself. The audience were again mixed. Some people enjoyed the story telling element of the music video as it was something to follow however, the more popular choice was the performance based video of Usher as it focuses more on the song itself rather than a story which allows the artist to dance to his own music and let the music do the work.

Focus Group