KG - Responding to a Track

Chosen track: 'My boy builds coffins' - Florence and the Machine

What is the genre of the track? How can you tell?
There are many different opinions as to what genre this is, some say alternative, some say blues, some say experimental. I think I would class this as a combination of indie/alternative because it has the raw acoustic feel that is common in indie music, but also has the beat and style of a slight alternative feel. I think it is mainly indie/alternative because of Florence's voice, it is so distinctive that it is set apart from other artists and so is more fitting to be classed as an indie/alternative hybrid.

Do you think this track represents a high or lo fi video? Why?
Florence has made both high and lo fi videos, with her earlier ones being lo-fi. Personally I prefer the old videos that are shot on a low budget and are made with friends as extras and just filmed in the woods. I think they represent more of the artist than her later videos that have a high budget and are shot in blank studios with special effects. I think however, I would like a combination, I want it to be shot outside but unless we have a powerful enough concept it won't be enough, and this song has a dark undertone that I think will be enhanced by shooting in the school's drama studio and having the singer silhouetted against a blank background. I've noticed that with her later videos the lighting is a key thing and I think we should fully take advantage of the facilities at school to create a similar effect. Plus I think a combination of the two will be more fitting to our chosen song because of the power chords and beat of the song, that give it both a high and lo fi feel.


What videos would be comparable?


Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over [2009]
I love the style of this video and want ours to be similar but not the same, I think from this we can take the idea of decorated our location with things like bunting and bird cages as opposed to just leaving it how it is.



Lady Gaga
I have chosen this still from 'Just Dance', but any are applicable. It is really to demonstrate the use of costume and makeup, something that it becoming increasingly popular in female artist's videos, the need for outrageous costumes. And the perfect example for that is Lady Gaga, although I doubt we create costumes such as she wears, but we can certainly be inspired by them, as Florence is seen in her videos to wear some pretty odd things.

The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
What I think we can get from this track is the use of lighting and colour, and the use of a screen in the background. This is similar to what I had in mind for our part of the video to be filmed in the drama studio.





Find out the budget for one of the above examples.
I haven't been able to find out any exact budgets for the videos, but I do know that Florence's was very low budget as it was filmed by a friend with friends as all the extras just in a local woods, but the exact cost I don't know.
The Horrors video again was fairly low budget but a higher budget than some of their earlier videos. But again I do not know the exact number.
And Lady Gaga, I know that her music videos are becoming increasingly expensive, starting with 'Just Dance', as in interviews she has said it was her first video that was not shot on a low budget, but the true budget is not revealed. In an article in The Telegraph there is talk about her video with Beyonce for 'Telephone' and although it doesn't give an exact figure it does say that due to the economic downturn the average music video budget has fallen to under £10,000.
Obviously our music video will be nowhere near that budget, but we can still get the feel of Florence and these other artists with a fairly low, or non-existent, budget.

Give an outline of a treatment.
I see this video started with an empty field, or with the camera looking up at the sky, and then moving down to reveal Florence possibly with her back to the camera. As the music begins after about 12 seconds, I see her beginning to dance as she does in her other videos. Possibly with balloons floating off into the sky around her, I think black and white ones would look good.
When she starts singing I see her beginning in the drama studio, with a CU and a very strong light source, either behind her so she is silhouetted or so she has a golden outline, or just a spotlight.
If we wanted to have a boy in it, we could maybe film his part already and have it playing in the background when she is in the drama studio as we have the use of the projector. That way we won't need to rely on both actors to be available at once, and we can film during free periods, and it would mean we had a narrative, the relationship between the two, but also the performance based element as Florence will still lip syncing.
Then I see it intertwining between the lighted performance in the empty drama studio or on the school stage at points, but there should never be an audience it will ruin the effect. And between her being alone in a field dancing. I'm not sure about an ending yet.


Identify suitable locations for filming particular sequences of the music.
Well we have already said about the school's drama studio, of which we will take photos of as soon as possible. There is also the option to use the stage in the main hall as well.
Then we want some woods or a field, I think maybe a field with a few trees. It needs to look empty, so possibly the field behind St. John's Park or somewhere similar. Maybe a playing field, but I don't think that will look very aesthetically pleasing.
I know of a park not too far from the school where I have spent many a day in summer and where I have filmed my own version of a Florence video before that might be suitable to use, but it depends on the look of the video, because there are quite a few trees in there, useful for hanging bunting on though, but possibly too many that it might look 'crowded' in the video.

Consider grain of voice. What characters would you use?

The actress we have in mind to play Florence, has performed as her previously in the 'Stars in their Eyes' charity event and so knows the song, knows how to perform and is confident to do so, and can play Florence perfectly. So we think she will be effective. And if there is anyone else we need, we have not yet thought of a part and so cannot say yet who we have in mind.

What pro-filmic and post-production special effects would be suitable?

We might shoot in a sepia tone, which will be effective to do afterwards in post-production as well as maybe altering the brightness and contrast and saturation if we wanted it to have a faded washed out effect to go with the dark undertone of the song. Or alternatively we could raise the saturation and contrast to give it a very bright, pop sort of look. I think ultimately it depends on our narrative and concept, but right now I think it will only really be things to do with the colouring.

We may manipulate the time though, particularly if we use the balloons they may look better floating off at a much slower speed.

Who else would you need to 'employ' to help you with this production?

We just need our actress to play Florence, our second actor if we need them, and any extras if necessary but I don't think we are going to want them. I think we all know how to use the lighting in the drama studio but if we are stuck with anything we will need to get somebody who is confident with that to help us or at least to teach us what to do.

Consider the theorist Richard Dyer and his ideas about stars.

Thinking about our artist in terms of Dyer we need to see her as an image and a product in a sense. We need to look at her other videos to see what her image is and decide whether or not we are going to recreate this or challenge it. We also need to consider the techniques we want to use to create this image like the use of CU and her star motif.

Having said that I think Florence's image is something of a childish outcast. In her videos there is always an element of having fun and her not really caring what she is doing, but also in some a possible sense of vulnerability and being in over her head. I think in our video I want to show the vulnerable nature of her star image particularly as I think that will be more fitting to the song than the quirky one of her running around a wood. However, I do want to keep the childish nature in the video, having her dance is one way to represent this. Her star motif is things like glitter and bird cages that she is so often associated, also colour is an important thing in terms of Florence particularly as her hair is such a vivid red. I think we should in our video either emphasise the importance of colour in her image or get rid of it altogether, by which I mean use a lot of black and whites and possible shoot in a sepia tone.

Florence fits Dyer's first key paradox in that she seems both down to earth and friendly as well as being extraordinary in that she seems adventurous and daring and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. Some qualities that I think we need to try and establish or at least explore in our video. In terms of his second key paradox Florence doesn't particularly fit the criteria as she is present in all her videos and album covers and there is no sense of her being absent. She is such a powerful and dominant presence that it seems unnecessary to have her absent at any point in our music video or digiPak.