Group Storyboard - Miss Miller

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A storyboard is a sequence of drawings, typically with directions and dialogue, which represents the shots planned for a film, television programme or in our case; a music video. When it comes to planning, storyboards are important because they are the best way to show your vision of the production that you are creating. The purpose of a group storyboard is that it allows all members to discuss, evaluate and put forward ideas to create an overall vision of their end product. Another purpose for creating a group storyboard is that it allows us to plan ahead what we are going to include in our music video in terms of the micro elements; cinematography, mise en scene, editing and style of video. If we were not to have a storyboard, it would be time consuming when it comes to actually filming our music video, as we wouldn't know what to do nor include when filming. Also, the editing process will be chaotic because we would be making up styles on the spot. Our storyboard will guide us on what to do and include within our music video, which will help make the process as successful and conventional to the indie genre possible. 

My group consists of myself, Rishika, Bettie and Jess. The storyboard made was for our chosen song 'Wings' by Birdy, which will be the song for our music video. 

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Primary research is research carried out yourself for instance; questionnaire. Me and my group carried out a questionnaire for our music video and the indie genre to find out what the audience expect to see in an indie music video. Questions asked included; what setting do you expect in the indie genre, what type of instrument and camera shots etc. Most answers were conventional to the indie genre,and helped assist with our planning process for our music video for the song 'wings' by Birdy. We also carried out secondary research throughout the whole of the project, and this was through our blogs where we analysed and researched different genres, music videos, the indie genre and our artist to gain more understanding of what to include in our own video. With both our primary and secondary research, we have taken several inspirations from them and tried to incorporate them into our indie music video, so that our video will be as successful as possible in regards of the indie genre. 

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The way me and my group storyboarded our music video, was through sheets of paper that showed drawings and descriptions of what was going to be included in each frame of our music video. This included; the micro elements, narrative description and duration of the frame. This gave us a clear image of what we were going to create and also acted as our guide when we were filming, as we would always look back on the storyboard to see what was next to film. The way we shared the responsibility of the storyboards, was that in class we all started on the first 3 frames together and discussed the overall narrative and how it'll be in greater depth. After this discussion, me and Rishika took responsibility to finish the rest of the storyboard off by halving the amount of sheets between us and communicating at home whilst home filling them out. Through our group chat, we discussed the inspirations that we all had and plotted these within our music video. Our ideas of what we would incorporate into our storyboard, primarily stemmed from our lyrics analysis annotations. 

An inspiration that we gained from our secondary and primary research was the use of an instrument especially a guitar. In our questionnaire, the majority said they expected to see an acoustic guitar within an indie music video and our secondary research into the artist, Birdy, we found that she played the piano in her music video 'Skinny Love'. This gave us the knowledge that indie artist tend to play an instrument within their music video and the instrument tends to be an acoustic guitar. This inspired us to include a guitar within our music video, and as seen in the storyboard, frame number 31, our artist will play a guitar whilst being in the field through the use of a long shot for 7 seconds. We believed this was appropriate to include in our music video as our research proved it to be conventional to the indie genre, as it allows the audience to know that the artist is not only vocally talented but instrumentally too. Also, the use of the artist playing in the field in particular, gives the impression that she is expressing herself to the audience in more depth as she is in an isolated place where she is seen to be 'free' and this implies that she is being herself. This builds a relationship between the artist and the audience, as they will feel the artist is being genuine and honest about what she's singing about but also they can empathise with her because she's allowing them in. Therefore, the use of the acoustic guitar in our music video is conventional to the indie genre and also helps builds an artist and audience relationship. 

Another inspiration that we got from our primary and secondary research was the use of close ups our music video. Our primary research; questionnaire results of 'what camera shots do you expect in an indie music video',had close ups as the overall answer. In addition, my secondary research of analysing Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness music video, she had close ups of her face and objects such as the shattering light bulb. The research inspired us to include close ups throughout our music video and examples of this are in the storyboard. For example a close up is used in frame 20 and this is accompanied with a zoom in. The close up establishes to the audience the narrative of the artist trying to hold her partners hand but then she moves away from the action. The close up highlights the fact that the lover does not want to be public with their relationship and show affection towards her. Therefore, the close up used is conventional to the indie genre, as it helps the audience establish the narrative through the purpose of a close up magnifying something. In our case it magnifies the struggle the artist is in, in relations to a complicated relationship. Another time were going to show a close up is when the artist is singing, for example frame 50 we see the artist singing through a close up the lyrics "For the rest of our lives". The purpose of the close up is to capture the artists emotions that she expresses through her facial expressions whilst singing of distress and sadness which further gives understanding of the narrative. The close up is conventional to the indie genre as it shows the artists facial expressions and also makes her the focal attention which appeals to the audience. Including close ups in our music video, does not only follow the indie conventions, but also Goodwin's theory of "record label including the need of lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. We incorporated the theory by showing the artist throughout the music video in a close up. We followed this because we thought it'll be essential for the indie artist who is debuting to promote herself by showing her face frequently throughout. Also, the use of close ups helps build a relationship between the artist and audience, as it gives the impression of the artist allowing her audiences in because they see the emotions she is expressing. This may make the audience emphasise with what she is portraying or singing about in her music video, which will make them admire her as they feel she's being genuine and honest. Therefore following Goodwin's theory and a convention of the indie genre, as indie artists tend to be low key or unknown and need further promotion especially if they're debuting. 

Our next inspiration that we gained from our research was the use of the artist wearing casual clothing. This stemmed from our questionnaire question of 'what types of costume would you expect in an indie music video" and the majority said casual. Also, in our indie genre research we all found that indie artists such as Gabrielle Aplin, Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Rey had all worn a casual outfit within their video. So with the knowledge of indie artists wearing casual clothing, we wanted to incorporate this within our music video to show our narrative and include it in our storyboard. For example scenes such as the bedroom and fire works scene, our artist is wearing comfortable, casual clothing that suit the setting such as jumper and leggings or shirt and jeans. This is evident in frames 2-4 and 8-9 where we see the artist the outfits mentioned. The use of having the artist wear causal clothing is conventional to the indie genre, as it portrays her as normal and ordinary which makes the audience feel like she's one of them, which helps build a relationship between the two. Furthermore, the casual clothing portrays realism within the video, as they suggest the ordinariness of the artist is authentic and that she is truly showing herself in her natural form. This again is conventional to the indie genre, as artists in this genre rely on realism to convey their narratives or concepts as they tend to be about personal experiences or their life. So the use of having casual clothing accompanies this, as it shows that the artist is being real to her audience and makes her song more believable or understanding. 

The storyboard was helpful to our filming as it prompt us with the ideas and visuals of what we were going to film, making it our guide. This made sure that our filming process was less time consuming and more organised which decreased the level of chaos that would happen. Also, when filming we would always look back on our storyboard to refresh our minds of our music video outline, and this made sure that we didn't forget to include anything.

In summary, we have tried to follow our storyboard and some areas have been successful. For example the bonfire event scene, we did follow the storyboard and filmed what was said to be filmed in our storyboard in our music video. The shots, editing techniques are the same and also visuals. However, there were a few changes within frame 2, as we included fillers such as shots of the funfair rides at the event in between our shots. The reason why we did this was because we didn't know the event would include fun fair rides, and we thought it would help establish the setting that they're in, as well as portray the artist as youthful and innocent. Therefore, the fillers of the rides and fireworks served its purpose of portraying the artist and the narrative further e.g fireworks represent the excitement and sparks of the relationship. Also, we did follow our storyboard when it came to the bedroom scenes; artist looking at photographs and the couple on the bed. We incorporated our storyboard frames that we planned into our filming and captured the scenes in the shot said such as high angle shot of the couple laying down on the bed; frame 34.