Planning Setting and Iconography - Miss Georgiou

Locations and Iconography are extremely important elements within a music video as they keep the audience interested in the scene and also make it relatable for them as well in some circumstances. In other extraordinary locations it may appeal further to them making them want to have the artists lifestyle, therefore watching the video multiple times as this is what interests them.

The locations that we are using for our music video have been picked for various reasons that include the artist, song, audience and conventions to the genre.

Locations used and reasoning will be as follows:

Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street, Docklands, Stratford City Centre, London City Airport

These are the main locations that will feature in the music video. This are the most prominent locations in London that we recognisable by our audiences, this is due to the fact we want to make our video relatable for the audience, we feel as a group this is one of the faults of the genre itself and that videos primarily tend to have very basic narratives and setting that the audience cannot understand nor relate to. We wanted to do this as it increase the strength of the relationship between artist and audience. It therefore feels like a video has not just be produced for the sake of it and not for the benefits of the audience which we want to reverse. We want the audience to feel involved and liking the artist not just for there music but the quality of the video that they produce. The song has various connotations that we feel can relate to the settings that we have chosen, this will be explained in the next section of the post. These locations are clearly not conventional to the genre as they are not random and have been carefully selected by us to get the message of the artist across clearly.

These locations will form a basic around the main body if lyrics as these will feature in the part where the actor is contemplating his thoughts about the relationship.

House,

We feel setting the start of the video in this setting is a strong point for both audience and artist. This is most defiantly the most relatable location for the audience as they will be able to relate to there own home. The house that we are using is standard so it will relatable for the vast majority of our audience, which is not the case for other music video as they sometimes lose connections with audiences due to the use of massive houses to empathise wealth, whereas we are keeping it rather strictly relatable. This setting is going to be used to set the scene for the music video and will take up the narrative start that we have opted for and the start of the song itself.

Ultimately this is the location we will be using to start of the scene at the moment this is scene can either be used to set up the narrative with dialogue or with the first paragraph of the lyrics which could potentially do the same job without detail.

" It feels like I only go backwards baby, Every part of me says go ahead, I got my hopes up again, oh no, not again, Feels like we only go backwards darling."

Train Station,

This is one of the locations we will be briefly using throughout the music video. We feel that this is needed to make the narrative of our music video make sense to the audience. This will be used to bring settings together as otherwise the audience may not understand the where or what the artist is doing.

At the station we can use lyrics such as "Every part of me says go ahead" as we see the actor contemplating suicide which is one of the themes that we want include within the video also as an addition "the seed of all this indecision isn't me" where he's blaming all of his errors on her and the ultimate reason why he wants to end his life.


Actions will be at each location is as follows:

Canary Wharf,(Escalator, Bridge)/Docklands

Liverpool Street,(Time Lapse, him thinking he has seen his ex. )

Stratford City Centre,(Images of Indoor Skaters)

House,(Argument, Walking out)

Train Station, (Panning Shot off of Train)

London City Airport(Time-Lapse)

I wouldn't say that our choices of setting completely reflect the codes and conventions of our genre, but this is due to the fact that our group has made the choice to try and break out to a wider audience by making the music video highly relatable for the audience by using recognisable locations as seen around London. To over come this we still want to reflect theses themes within a video to give a 50/50 ratio so that it will appeal to both sections of the audience. Therefore when filming we will try to use locations that we feel can reflect the expect items of the genre such as the usage of drugs through flashing lights etc. that can be made more prominent when editing takes place.

3)Limitations

Health and Safety risks when filming and to crew are as follows:

Tripping Hazards, these are hazards on the floor that we need to look out for. To overcome this as a group we need to scan the local area for any potential lethal to our own personal safety before we deem the setting to be adequate for filming, otherwise we will have to move to another location in the setting will we deem safe to complete the set tasks we have given ourselves.

Lifting Hazards, this will probably not occur while filming as the equipment we are using is not that heavy and can be carried by any member of the group. But if we are lifting external source that we feel need to be moved because they are block a shot that we want to achieve then we will have to consider the weight of the object and how collectively as a group we are going to move the object at question. If the object is light enough we will simply move it, but if we need to move a heavy object I suggest that we simply try to push it before we attempt to lift it. If it is determined that it is too heavy and cannot be moved we will simply leave it as we do not want to inflict injury on any member of the group.

Camera Risks, this is one of the basic needs of our group to perform before any filming does take place on site. This are simple checks such as we need to see that the camera is probably fitted on the tripod and if the tripod sits completely flat on the surface that we are filming on. In addition we need to see if the surface is suitable, as if it is wet it can be hazard to the camera and ourselves as both may slip.

Water, this is the most harmful health and safety risk that we may come across in the filming process. Water is a harmful substance and may lead to the highest of outcomes being death or damage of equipment which may beyond recovery. So I suggest that we identify any lethal amounts of water before we start filming. If these sources are prone to falling in with them being deep enough for a member of the group to actually drown or cause lethal harm, or if the camera/tripod has any potential to fall in we will move away from the location to a suitable distance or find a new location.

Time Pressure, Finally we as a group need to think about time considerably. We need to feel that there is no time limit (within reason) this will in turn avoid rushing and take out an errors within our work and reduce the risk of injure due to not concentrating.

5)Weather

This is an extremely important factor that we need to highly considered before we start to film this being for two reasons. Firstly if the weather is not suitable for filming in certain locations that are outdoors, for example heavy rain and strong winds we will not be able to film due to the fact that this could be harmful to both the equipment that we have been given to film i.e. Camera and Tripod and ourselves. If the wind is strong enough it is possible for large objects such as trees to become lethal hazards. So before we start filming we collectively as a group need to make a major decision if we feel it is both suitable and safe to film in outdoor locations. If this does occur then we will make the decision to film only indoor scenes as they will not be impacted by weather and therefore as a result we will not be wasting filming time which is rather limited.

Iconography

There are three main uses of Iconography we can see that are plausible within our music video these are a mobile phone, ticket/oyster card and pill/tablet (for reference to drugs)

Mobile Phone, this will be used throughout for the artist to see texts and the time. This will be shown on screen to the audience. We have decided to use this for the reason that we feel that it can be incorporated into the narrative that we have a clear understanding of what it is going to be like. We could reference this to the break up of the artist themselves talking to his ex and him keeping track of time to refer to it being lost as we will make it apparent as if it is going quicker than thought as he is constantly thinking about her and time is going fast as he is keeping busy.

 

Secondly we plan to incorporate the use of a ticket or oyster card into the video. We feel this necessary as we are using London as our overall setting, therefore it is clear that a transport system will be needed with the tube system being the most prominent of all ways into and around the capital. This is the way people pay to use the system all of the time so we feel it is needed as it is highly relatable to our audience and because it will link our first setting to the second as it gives the audience the idea of traveling.

Finally the last use of Iconography in our video will be the reference to drugs which is needed as we want to use some of the conventions of the genre, with this being quite high in priority as this is want the genre is focused around. We are going to get the artist to pull this out of his pocket and then place in his mouth. After this we are going to use editing techniques to directly the audience to think that the artist is under the influence of drugs with colour tints and kaleidoscope effects.