Here is the storyboard that I have created for the music video "The Jean Genie" by David Bowie, including information on the different shots used and the duration of the shots:

Music video genre and conventions

The genre of my chosen song "Can't Buy me Love" is rock/pop. Here are some examples of popular music videos within my chosen genre with brief descriptions of their conventions:

 

In this music video for the song "Stuck in the middle with you" by Stealers Wheel the song begins with an establishing shot from inside where the band is playing which appears to be an abandoned hall; the camera then moves round in one fluid motion to frame the band. The cinematography of the video uses a variety of zoom shots, e.g. the singer is sat at a table in a close-up shot, the camera then zooms out into a medium close-up revealing people sat at either side of him. The singer is often framed in a close-up shot whilst singing and the other musician's hands whilst playing their instruments are also framed in the same way; these shots then inter-cut with the rest of the action in the video. At one point in the video there is a medium shot of a foot tapping, the camera then tilts upwards into a low angle shot of a woman who is tapping her foot. 

The video features montage editing as shots of the bands are inter-cut with shots of the singer sat down with "clowns and jokers". As the video was made in the 70's, there are no fancy transitions and all footage is edited together using simple cuts to the non-diegetic soundtrack of the song to which the singer lip-syncs. The song's narrative features the singer sat at a dining table between some ill-mannered clowns and jokers who, at the end of the video, are replaced by the band and seen running off. The video ends on a still of this shot.

 

In the next music video for "Break on through" by The Doors, the entirety of the video is created using montage editing of different clips of the band from over the years. The video begins with slow-motion close-up shots of the different band members faces, each of these shots fades into the next. At one point, a series of still images showing the singer in medium shot striking different poses are used in quick succession to give the effect of a continuous piece of action. 

There is a predominant use of special effects in this video as many different animated and grain effects appear over the top of the footage at certain points. Also, at some points in the video the screen splits into two, showing different pieces of footage simultaneously. A variety of different shots of the band performing on stage, often in black and white, are featured; some showing members of the band against heavy back-lighting and making them appear as a silhouette. A series of different wipe and fade transitions are used throughout the video to connect the different shots; the length of which are all very short to fit the extremely fast pace of the video.

The video appears to have a colour scheme of black, white and red throughout and the majority of the action in the video takes place on different stages, with the lighting rigs often creating interesting spotlight effects on the band members. The video montage is set to the non-diegetic soundtrack of the song and is matched up to the action only at certain points in the video where footage of the words being sung from live performances are synced up to the audio.

The video for my next chosen song: "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles begins with close-up shots of each of the band members heads and then a statue's head which the camera then zooms out of into a medium shot of the band members with their instruments when the verse of the song properly kicks in. From differently positioned medium shots of the band, the camera often slowly zooms into medium close-up shots of certain band members or zooms out from medium shots of their instruments. At one point in the video the camera is fixed on an extreme close-up shot and quickly cuts between shots of each of the band members eyes with sunglasses on and then between shots of them taking their glasses off in different ways. 

The mise en scene for the video appears to be in somebody's garden or in a park as the band appear to be always surrounded by lots of trees and bushes and at times can be seen standing on a stone platform or with items around them such as benches and statues. This choice of location which generally has the connotations of fun, happiness and relaxation is very suitable for the song which has a very cheerful and uplifting feel to it. 

The video uses simple cuts as transitions between the different shots and the length of the shots themselves are quite long as each one generally features a different line of the song being sung by the different band members. All of the band members are wearing suits of the same colour (black) which makes them stand out quite prominently against the contrasting background of green and the footage must've been filmed early on in the daytime as the natural lighting is very bright. Throughout the video the band lip-sync with the words of the song and act as though they are playing their instruments which aren't even plugged in; this contributes to the illusion that you are watching them perform the song live.

For my frame by frame storyboard in which I will draw out the different camera shots and transitions for one minute of an existing music video, I have chosen to use the song "The Jean Genie" by David Bowie.

Music video planning

For my music video I have chosen to use the song "Going to Hell" which is a song released by The Brian Jonestown Massacre in 1998. The band's musical style would mostly be classed as psychedelic rock/indie rock. The song itself is quite upbeat, beginning with a twelve string guitar introduction and what sounds like an organ, then the other instruments kick in afterwards. The lyrics of the song appear to be about a woman who is wrecking her own life, possibly through the use of drugs and the singer is singing about how he is "doing real fine". The song does not have an accompanying music video but has had fan-made videos made for it over time.

 

Chosen coursework brief

For my first piece of A2 coursework I have chosen to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the following two options which I have chosen:

• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).