Storyboards - Miss Georgiou

Within this post I will be analysing our groups story board and the importance of having one is whilst planning and creating our own music video. Storyboards are very important to create when planning to film a music video, this is because the group will be provided with a structured plan to follow, therefore making the process in creating a music video quicker and more efficient. The purpose of a storyboard is to allow and help us to plan what specific content and elements we are going to include within our music video. It enables us to plan second by second all the different elements such as camera angles, location, iconography, sound, editing styles and also the narrative that will be used as video footage on screen. It also gives us a better idea on how to plan the way we want to film all of our footage and how every camera angle will be different throughout the entire music video, this will make everything more simpler for us to follow and therefore know exactly what we need to film and include within the editing of our music video without any confusion through the transition of the making of the music video. It also allows us as a group to plan certain elements together, and follow a structured plan instead of creating certain elements that may not flow with the video, and instead of including elements that we haven’t planned. Below are pictures of my group's storyboard:

Our planned our initial storyboard on paper with a table layout. This enabled us to physically plan our storyboard as a group together in class and including all of the elements necessary. As we listened to each second of the song, we were able to analyse lyrics of the song beforehand to give us a brief encounter of the narrative we were going to include when filming. This then let us plan the storyboards whilst following the song and the lyrics in order to let the lyrics match the visuals in a way that could show hidden meanings or a completely different meaning to the original narrative of the song. We also had included hand-drawn images of what we wanted to include and a brief explanation of what is going on in the image. We continued to do this for every different camera angle we wanted to include, therefore giving us a numerous amounts of storyboards and frames to work with on our music video. We shared the roles equally so that we all had a fair chance of giving ideas to include within the storyboard, and working effectively and efficiently together as a group. We decided to give each other a specific role within the group. 

When filming our music video we followed our storyboards for the majority of the time but we also filmed a lot in bulk, this is because we tried to keep the filming as natural as possible capturing moments between our actors that we simple and true to reality rather than fake and non relatable to the audience.  

Within our groups storyboard a frame number is added at the top, this is so that the group can follow a particular sequence, to keep everything in order and clear for when it comes down to filming. In addition, the duration of seconds is also included as a single shot is not the same for over four seconds, this therefore meant that we didn't want then to bore our audience by creating a simple and unprofessional video so resulted in us noting down and planning ahead with the amount of seconds each shot would be lasting. We then added the different camera shots and drew pictures to show this, as can be seen, we mostly use hand held so that the audience can build a relationship with the artist and the video is more relatable as this cinematography use makes the clip seem like a home video. Next, we use conventional iconography to the indie genre for example, cigarettes and alcohol which is used to tell a story and is typical of the indie genre as most videos within this are true to life and reflect the artist's past experiences. Lighting changes to tell a story, and create different effects. For example high key during flash back scenes of uplifting times and low key lighting during negative experiences and the present time, after the break up, showing the audience the negative effects of this event. Also, it is important that the actors are noted so that not too many people are around the equipment at one time, so that the experience can be as easy and quick as possible. The sound also needed to be noted so that we can add the Goodwin's theory element (link between lyrics and visuals) and so that the group was aware of how long a clip should be to fit to certain lyrics. Overall, the noting of certain elements will aid us in filming the music video.

To conclude, creating storyboards will be an extreme help, as every member of the group will be aware of what is filmed and the filming and overall editing process will be much easier and will take less time. Completing planning such as this, will make the video stronger and more detailed as there is a strict/structured plan to be followed.