Group Production Meetings - Decisions

After joining a group of students in my A2 Media lecture, the same group as in my AS lectures (Josh, Emily and I), we discussed the songs which we each wanted to create a video for. While Emily wanted to do a video for a song by Marilyn Manson, I wanted to do either a video for a Chris Rea song, or as Josh and I had agreed earlier, maybe a David Bowie song. Unfortunately we could compromise, which is when Josh spoke of a band called Noah and the Whale. The song, 5 Years Time, was recognisable from an advertisement for a car on television in a commercial break. This was the better choice, because musicians such as David Bowie and Marilyn Manson have already have a “package” around them (in other words, they are famous and already have an “image” in the public eye). Whereas, a lesser known group such as Noah and the Whale didn’t have the same amount of fame as David Bowie, and this choice of music seemed vital, since we then had the chance to create a new impression of the group.

The term ‘narrative’ is not used as much as ‘story’, but people know that, in some way, it refers to stories. In fact, stories are endemic to our lives; so taking this into consideration we were able to start to think about the synopsis for the video in our own individual ways. Most music videos contain performance, but since our band wasn’t a small, local band it wouldn’t be possible to have them in the video. So my initial idea was to have a narrative-based video, and to somehow incorporate some performance into the video - maybe one of the characters miming along to the lyrics.

As with any television programme or film, the narrative in our video must orientate the audience quickly, giving them unambiguous signs about things like a hero or villain, a recognisable setting, an understandable style (Rap, Hip-Hop, Rock, Pop, Classical or Opera, and Easy Listening), and a conventional narrative structure - the cause, the effect and the motivation.

After a few group production meetings, I was able to gather my thoughts about the song and produce a rough synopsis and treatment (ECMS - Editing, Cinematography, Mise-En-Scene, and Sound) for the video. This was completed before the next group production meeting, the following week, so that we could discuss each other’s ideas and start to collaborate our ideas into more of a group synopsis and treatment. For the group treatment, we first had to decide our group roles. As I enjoyed being cameraman last year, I took the opportunity to do it again, and to be the Co-editor in Post Production. Josh stuck with his post, as the Writer /Producer of the video, and Emily returned to her post as the Art Director, taking into consideration all the factors within the Mise-En-Scene of the project (including: location, costumes, and make-up). Our lecturer had suggested that for this project we form a group of no more than three members, and since the Editing post had been incorporated into the Writer /Producer job, Josh was announce as the Editor.