This document summarizes the research and planning process for a student's music video coursework. It discusses analyzing 3 music videos as case studies to understand elements like theme, location, and creating an abstract feel. The student presented song ideas to their group and they agreed on "Eye of the Needle" by Sia. Organizing a model/dancer and location was challenging but they found an experienced dancer and kept searching for the right location. Researching audience was less of a focus than for their past AS music magazine project since the video's message could appeal to varied ages and backgrounds.

1. Researching & Planning
The Moving Image Work
Samiz Mustak

2. ResearchBefore we went on our summer break, we were given a task by our teachers to research music videos and produce a brief powerpoint
on the elements of the videos such as technical elements, location, shot types, angles etc. Begin a person who does not actively listen
to music, this task was rather challenging as I had to find a genre which was to my interest and music videos which I was willing to
spend time on analysing. Finally I came across 3 music videos which took my interest, though each did not share the same genre of
music, the videos caught my attention as they had one thing in common which as discussed my my case studies was the
theme/message of freedom. This came to be most useful when we were planning our music video as we wanted to take this very
element of having a theme/message and do something similar in our music video. Each music video I had looked at into detail had a
very abstract feel to it, we wanted to also take this element and implement it into our music video so my group and I started focusing
on the little elements of the music video which gave it such a feel. When doing my case studies I had realised that the whole abstract
music video element was brought into by the director through mostly the location, props, costume and models. We took this into
consideration and began planning how we could too take the elements listed before and make our music visor have the same feel. Of
course we didn't want to take every idea that had been put into the music videos and emerge it into ours as this would makes us lack
in creativity so we began thinking directly from the audiences perspective thinking of what we as the audience would like to see. That
is when we came up with the idea of having our music video being abstract through dance and props, though the location does play an
important part, we took dance and props and made them our main focus to create an abstract feel. For example, we decided to use a
doll in our music video and this is for the purpose of allowing the audience to actively think when watching the music video. The doll in
the music video portrays the innocence of the female dancer, a part of her which she is unable to let go and this gives an abstract feel
as music videos now have props for the sake of having the music video look good but we want our props to be a little part of the story
we are trying to tell. Along with the case studies of the 3 music videos, I had produced an additional side which had a potential song I
could use for my course work and how I would direct a fragment if it. This was the song Eye of the needle by Sia and in the slide I
spoke about how I would direct the chorus of the song. When we were put into groups and we were deciding on a song, I presented to
my group the song and the ideas that I had for it. This helped a lot in the research process as we were able to agree that this song
would be best for us. We had all agreed that the song had a very abstract feel to it, everyone had different ideas of how they wanted
the music video to be and this is one song which allowed us to take all of our ideas and turn it into a scene in our music video.
This was definitely a very different to the research I did for my music magazine in my AS year. For the music magazine all we had to
do is find different music magazines and analyse elements such as the main cover, font and its size, format and the type of information
that is put into the magazine which all was very similar. Music videos on the other hand are very different as for one there are so many
different genres and now as technology is developing, new and innovative styles of music videos are being made and shown to the
audience and the industry itself. The detail in which we had to look at the elements which fall under a music video was far more than
when I was researching for my music magazine. Music videos evidently move so all at once you are forced to consume a large amount
of information which means you have to keep going over the music video with a fine tooth comb however music magazines allow you
to take one thing into consideration at a time which makes it a lot less difficult. What I have realised though is that since my AS course,
my skills in analysing have improved and I am able to pick up more elements at once rather then one at a time. At the start of my AS
course I could not tell the different angles and shot types but now it is first nature for me to pick up on them. This has also made filming
very easy as when we were filming our practise music video for Let It Go, we had no issues with creatively using different angles and
shots.

3. ResearchWe didn't want to put much thought into who our audience is going to be as discussed in the pitch the message of love and freedom
we are trying to portray through our music video can target all audiences from different age groups and background. We wanted to
keep it very simple and let the music video be very flexible as the way we have planned it is as easy for a person of any age to
understand. When doing our pitch, our class did not have any questions about the audience being just anyone as they too agreed that
having it open to anyone would be best as the message that is being portrayed would be suitable for all but the only difference there
will be is the depth at which it will be analysed by the viewer which we would have no control over. This was a definite change from
when i did audience research for my AS course as we had to find different magazines and their press packs and look at age, gender
and ethnicity. Each music magazine had a different target audience, some were read more by men in their mid 20’s and others were
read more by females in their late teens early 20’s. The ethnic background of each magazine varied to and this was based upon the
content which was included in the magazine with every issue. From this we had to create our own press pack for our magazine and
take into consideration any ethical issues and how we would over come those but with the music video audience research we had no
such issues as the track itself does not have any hateful or violent language and basically just tells a chapter of Sia’s life. The track
gives us a lot of flexibility and allows us to show what we have interpreted through the song rather than what the artist wants us to. I
remember when I was pitching for my music magazine, there was a question form my fellow peer about the type of content I would
have in my music magazine and how it would effect the younger audience. As my magazine was based on hip hop which does in
some parts have a very strong strong messages about its social culture, it was an appropriate question to ask and I do clearly
remember telling my peer my magazine would avoid any strong messages about the culture of the genre and would focus more on
interviews about the artist life, news and fun elements like the quizzes which I included in my music magazine. Music videos in general
I believe don’t focus much on audience anymore, I think their main aim has now became focusing on something that would have the
music video being talked about by everyone no matter what type of music genre they prefer. This I have seen happen recently, an
example of this would be most of Nicki Minaj’s songs in which she focuses on having something in her music video which gets it high
number of views and being talked about by everyone rather then focusing on what her audience (mainly females aged between 15-27)
want to see. This is the very thing we wanted to do too, having an audience e.g 18-25 year olds just takes away the flexibility of what
we as the creators of the music videos can do. We start to think about what only that age group would like rather than thinking about
how we can taggert those outside of that age group. By not placing just a limitation on our music video we are able to reach out to
more people which could work well for us as it could potentially bring more people to watch out music video and expanding the
audience that we have.
When I were researching audience in my AS course I had to also consider where I would like my music magazine to be sold, I had to
list specific stores and areas and give justification for each. This was all because of the focus I was told to put on sales and the
popularity of the magazine. I do recall adding to my research for my music magazine that I would use websites to advertise my
magazine in order to have it reach out to my audience and boost sale. However it is different to the music video as the video would go
on platforms like Youtube (Vevo), Dailymotion and on a Facebook page we as a group want to create for the music video to help boost
performance. The music video I believe doesn't need any of this consideration as it would be going up on social platforms which are
very popular currently and wouldn't need any additional boosts for the music video to be seen by the audience.

4. Logistics Planning
When researching for our coursework, the most difficult part of the research and organisation was organising models and
location. This is because our music video will solely based upon performance and the main model will have to tell the narrative
through dance so it was crucial for us to find someone who has had a lot of experience in dance as well as someone who has a
very authentic style of performance. Luckily for us, Cengi is friends with a dancer and after watching videos of her, we were
certain that we wanted to have her in our music video as she met all our requirements. Once this was sorted, we had to put
most of our focus on location which was in my opinion the most difficult element to organise. We first started searching for old
ruined houses around London but every place we called to book for our work, they were saying it was not possible for us to use
as it required payment or the dates had already been booked out so we had to start considering alternatives. When we were
doing our pitch, I remembered that the class had made suggestions to us, suggestions like using the college theatre or a
garage and this is when we decided we would make use of our college theatre. Our teacher also suggested that we use the
cargo boxes our college has to film as the inside fit the description of the type of location we wanted so we agreed on booking
that out too. We also wanted a third location to fit our narrative and that is when we discovered Hollow ponds and decided we
will use it for our music video. Our team meetings were very successful for us when deciding the steps we wanted to take when
we were faced with a problem, we ensured that we had a team meeting very lesson and often kept in contact with each other
through a social media site called Instagram on which we discussed who had completed the work they had been assigned and
what was left to do. Our group was very successful in the sense that we all spread out our jobs and made sure everyone was
on top of what they were meant to be doing, if one person was finding it difficult to complete the task someone else took over to
complete the task so we were very organised in that sense. Due to this it was very easy to complete the release forms, recces,
risk assessments and call sheets which were very helpful when researching and planning the music video. The releaser forms
ensured we knew which location we wanted to use and when and the recce’s ensured that we knew exactly which parts of the
locations we had chosen we can utilise and which we could consider using too. Every location had its own hazards so the risk
assessments ensured what we need to consider when filming and how we could prevent injuries to both us when filming and
the dancers/models. The call sheets have just made it very easy for everyone to keep in contact as all of our information is
listed on the call sheets.
The music video logistics planning was very different to the music magazine logistics planning as for the music magazine I had
no issue sorting out a model as I used my sister and the only location we had to use was the photography studio. All of the
other images I took were outside of college and in my own time which meant there were no issues with sorting out certain
timing and chasing up people for locations and availability. The music magazine was defiantly very flexible compared to the
music video as the music magazine didn't require as many locations and in general didn't require as much detail into the
logistics. I do remember briefly discussing for my music magazines any problems we would face and discussing hazards and
how they could be prevented however, it didn't require much detail. In general I believe the planning for our music video has
been much more detailed compared to the planning I did for my music magazine.

5. Narrative Planning, Group Work and Blog Work
The biggest problem we had with our story board is that we hadn’t at first properly planned out everything which lead us to having to start
the whole story board again. As we have never done anything like this before, we had no idea how much detail had to go into the planning
of the music video and the story board. As I was in charge of the story board, I had at each time taken two lines of the track and put them
into the same shot and hadn’t properly explained how e would have physically done the shot however the second time around what I did
was take each line separately and fully explained how this shot will be brought into action. I had also considered discussing the shot types
and angles I’d use along with props, costume and where the shot will be taken which became very helpful when we were booking our
locations as this helped us decide how much time we would need at each location. We have also begun filming our music video so the
detailed story board now has come to much use as it guides us through one by one which shot we need to do and how, putting a limit on
the difficulty of the shot. This was rather different to the narrative planning I did for my AS task as the AS task required a sketch of how the
magazine would look however it didn't have to be detailed and I knew I could be very flexible with it as I knew even when creating the
magazine, I could still experiment and it would impose to be a challenge. However this is not the same case when it comes to the music
video as music videos are far more difficult to produce and we as a group know that we need to stick to our plans in order for us to make
progression and make it less difficult for us.
As a group we were very happy with all the tasks that were assigned to each of us and as mentioned before if a task became too difficult
for one person someone else would take over and as a group before submitting anything, we all sat together and with a fine tooth comb
went over it considering factors such as how it could be improved etc. There was no pressure on anyone to do anything they felt not
comfortable doing which is why when we were given any task we asked each other who wanted to do what and didn't have an issue with
anyone taking a certain task as we knew at the end of it all, we will all be coming together and improving it. During my AS year the work I
did was alone so managing it all was very difficult however the task this year has been easy in the sense that everyone has done work
equally and its been a lot less stressful for us all. It has also given us the chance to consider different view points and perspectives in order
to make make our work better, last year we did do some feed back based work however this year it has been on going due to the group
work and it has defiantly been positive for us as we have been able to identify strengths and weaknesses of our group and work quickly and
constructively to make improvements. We have been most successful in managing our time well as when we decided to work together our
goal then and still is to work fast and well and get the course work done so we can start focusing on the exam side of the course. We have
all managed to contribute to the work equally and have been able to help each other complete tasks when need be. This is defiantly very
different to last year as last year I was working alone and managing all the time an the work was challenging however because the tasks
were broken down into little bits, they were doable but I would say the time management and work has been more successful for me this
year then it was last year.
This year I believe I have made use of a lot of Prezies as I believe its a fun way to present ideas and also its a creative techonology that is
very easy to use. Last year I did a lot of work on power point and saved the slides as images and uploaded my work to my blog through
that however this year I wanted to change it up a but and make more of a use of creative technologies like Prezie which I have done.
However for this evaluation task, my initial plan was to do a vlog however because I've been using my camera for filming and haven't
transferred any of the work to the computers for editing yet, I don’t want to risk losing any footage or cause any complications for myself.
Last year when I did my research and planning the creative technologies I used was similar as my skills at the time were not as advanced
as now and I did want to challenge myself with a vlog for an evaluation however this was not possible. For the evaluation for the entire
coursework task, I have already decided that one creative technology I will use will be vlogs.