Filming

For our first day of filming, we went out to Manchester City Centre to film some lip syncing in various alley ways. Our second day of filming consisted of more lip syncing but also the use of green screen. We are planning to go on 2-3 more days of filming to hopefully get the footage we need to complete the video.

Inspirations

We got inspiration for our video from this scene when the necklace is dropped into the sea. We are going to replicate this scene at the end of our music video when the main character throws his ex-girlfriends necklace into the river after he found out she cheated on him.

From this particular scene and other parts in the film, the actors are doing moves that are humanly impossible, but can be recreated with special effects. For our music video, we will have our main performer doing routine acrobatic moves, but when they are played backwards, they will look like we used professional special effects and hopefully it can be comparable to what is evident in this short clip.

We got inspiration from this video that we will use on green screen footage for our video. During Lil Wayne's part, there is smoke coming up from the background, which we will try and recreate by putting green cardboard behind a kettle to capture the steam and use it on the background of some of our performances on green screen.

This iconic scene from Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" made us wonder if it would be possible for us to replicate. Even though we know that we can't do this scene in one shot, we will try to do this shot in different angles and piece them together to make it look like it was shot in one go.

Biography

Justin Timberlake (Full name Justin Randall Timberlake) was born on January 31, 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. He is a famous American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He has won four Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award.

Lynn Bomar and Paul Harless are his mother and step father. His debut album as a solo singer was released in 2002 and it was called "Justified". Then he released the second album, "FutureSex/LoveSounds".

Some of his singles are "Rock Your Body", "SexyBack", "My Love" or "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around". During the years he won many awards, for example three American Music Awards, three BRIT Awards, an Emmy Award and four Grammy Awards.

His career started with 'N Sync and this way he became famous. Besides being a singer he is a songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and actor. The genres he sings are pop, dance-pop, blue-eyed soul or hip pop.

He is the founder of The Justin Timberlake Foundation. He was involved in a romantic relationship with Britney Spears. Another relationship was with Cameron Diaz.

Until 2007 he had collaborations with artists like Timbaland, Nelly Furtado, Britney Spears, 50 Cent and Esmee Denters.

Reference: http://people.famouswhy.com/justin_timberlake/

Location Shots

The locations we chose offer great scenery for our video. Some locations, for example, the tunnel and alley not only fit in with our video and ideas, but will also create/add to the atmosphere and tension built up in the music video. It will also increase the sense of mystery upon the characters and audience, as well as the costume.

Dress Code

We have chosen to use this dress code as it makes the performer seem mysterious due to the fact that he is wearing all black and in the actual music video, the hat will be covering most of the performers face, again adding to the mystery and making reference to the iconic image of Michael Jackson.

Shot List (first 25 seconds)

• 00:01 - close-up of rain dripping on puddle
• 00:02 - medium shot of rain dripping on window
• 00:03 - close-up of car brake lights turning on
• 00:05 - close-up of car driving over puddle
• 00:12 - slowly rising wide shot of rain dripping on a car bonnet
• 00:15 - special effects on glasses of second performer using green screen, playing to the beat of the music
• 00:17 - close-up of rain dripping on camera lens
• 00:18 - special effects on glasses of performer
• 00:19 - slow motion medium shot of performers feet floating in mid-air (performer jumps off a chair, but when played backwards it looks like the performer flies off the ground)
• 00:21 - long shot of performer standing behind green screen (smoke rising from the bottom with black background)
• 00:22 - panning wide shot of tunnel
• 00:23 - panning shot across sky with rain dripping on lens
• 00:24 - panning shot of old building
• 00:25 - long shot of main performer forcing his coat off the ground (coat is thrown to the ground, but when played backwards it gives the illusion that the performer forced the coat off the ground onto him)

Music Video Analysis

The song we chose to analyse is “Mad” by Neyo. We chose to analyse this song because in terms of style and genre, it is similar to our music video. This is because both songs not only target the same demographic audience, teenagers, but also produce a similar type of emotion and feeling upon the audience and characters.

Technical aspects of the video:

When considering the technical aspects of this video, it is important to consider why the music video has been filmed and edited the way it has. This video is a perfect example in reference to this. First of all it has a black and white filter throughout. In my opinion this is used to emphasise on the sad/negative mood and emotion created in the video. There are a variety of different shots used frequently and effectively. These vary from medium shots through to close-up and extreme close-up shots. These camera shots are used so that the audience can not only see but also feel the emotion created by the characters and narrative. There is also the use of high angle shots that look down on the protagonist. In my opinion, this is used to create a sense of him being down not only literally but also emotionally in terms of being sad/upset. Again, this emphasises the negative mood of the narrative. The Mise en scene included in the video is quite typical in terms of the clothes. There is also rain that again connotes and adds to the negative mood of the narrative and song. The lip-syncing and performance are of high quality and therefore increase the overall standards of the video.

Narrative/Genre aspects:

This music video represents a typical R&B “boyfriend girlfriend” generic type song. Not only do the technical features create this, but also the narrative does. The narrative involves the protagonist arguing with his partner and then being run over by a car. He then appears as a ghost, which is confusing at first because it is unclear whether the little boy he tries to save from being ran over dies or whether he does. However this becomes a lot more obvious/clearer towards the end of the video. There is also a performance aspect that takes place. In this video, the artist is singing to the camera whilst being behind a fixed background. These camera shots vary during this for example there are not only long shots, but also close up shots portraying the emotion generated by him.

Overall, I think this is a very effective music video due to almost every factor. There is a powerful narrative, which effectively speaks for itself. The lyrics and narrative also reflect one and other. There is also excellent performing/acting creating a very emotional feeling upon both audience and the characters.