Location Location Location...

For our performance shots we wanted to use two separate locations that were non specific and weren't obvious as to where they were - we wanted it to look simplistic but interesting. Because of time constraints and restrictions as to where and when we could film this probably effected our decision slightly but it actually fitted with our overall idea of the mundaneness of day to day life and how everything looks and feels the same and repetitive. For the performance we decided to use our media classroom with the camera facing the white wall like a blank canvas which made the location unspecified, the other location we used was in the Cabot Eye. We used the staircase leading down to the bottom floor as this resembled highly one of the performance shots in the official music video, it was also non specific and followed the neutral colour scheme of the media room - all whites and greys.

For our narrative shots, we needed to have a bedroom and a bathroom to show the protagonist waking up and getting ready for a job interview that day. For this we decided to use my partner Sam's house as his bedroom was much more spacious than mine, provided better light and was generally easier to film in. We also again used the media room but this time to look more like a classroom or office as it was to be used as setting for a job interview that would take place in the narrative. Finally we decided to use the main reception area of the school for the climax of the narrative, we did this purposely as it provided much more colour and life than the Cabot Eye and the climax represents a change in the character symbolised through the change in setting.

Storyboarding some ideas!

Today we started to generate some ideas for our new music video for 'The Ballad Of Mona Lisa' this is what we came up with...

Here we were just brainstorming some ideas about the band and the type of costume they often perform in, we also reviewed some of the lyrics and discussed some ideas about the sort of things we could see in a music video for this song, the idea of Puppets and a Puppet Master were the first ideas we came up and we both agreed that the burlesque antique style of puppetry fitted well with the piano laden music of Panic!

We then took this idea of Puppetry and thought about how we could relate this idea to a narrative, having watched the original video where the Singer performs as himself as well as the main character in the narrative we started to generate the idea that the singer in our music video would be the puppet master and for the narrative the story would focus on a regular persons life being controlled by this puppeteer until he eventually consumes him and becomes him. We started to storyboard the narrative sequence during the lesson deciding that we would sort out the narrative first before adding the performance shots (which were relatively simple) later on in the process.

Narrative Comparisons

Music Video Narrative Comparisons – ‘The Ballad

Research into Panic! At The Disco Music Videos

Panic Presentation

New Song.

After deciding to go with Panic! At The Disco as our band of choice, we decided together that we would use one of their most popular and well known songs 'The Ballad Of Mona Lisa' we felt it was the perfect song for us as a group and we could really build an interesting narrative around it.

Social Media

After deciding on our music video, we decided to research into the ways the band 'Panic! At The Disco' communicate with its fans. We looked on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as the bands personal website to gain further knowledge, this is what we found...

Panic! are always constantly updating their Facebook wall with pictures from their rehearsals and their tours, as well as merchandising and postings of their new music videos. Here, however they are directly addressing their fans - this is evidence of communication between fans and the band through the power of the social network. Here is a similar audience feedback/ communication piece from Twitter...

New Ideas and New Beginnings

We wanted to keep the rock theme that we'd started with but with a more upbeat melody. we felt our previous song although great was too short, dark and depressing. we went back to the drawing board and looked at some of the albums and artists we'd reserached at the beginning to draw inspiration.

FALL OUT BOY - Me and Sam love the pop punk sounds of FOB and looked at songs from the band at the start of the process, we felt the majority of the songs were similar in tone and rhythm to Blink 182 however and wanted something a little more Pop Punk.

BOWLING FOR SOUP - In and attempt to reach for something more Pop Punk sounding we looked at BFS. One of their songs 'High School Never Ends' was actually a strong contender for our song choice in the early stages. However we felt at the time and again now that the songs were perhaps too comical and although we didnt want to go to dark and serious we wanted something with a deeper meaning.










PANIC! AT THE DISCO - As we both felt FOB
were too serious and dark in tone for the songs we'd of liked to use and how we decided BFS were too comical we went for something inbetween the two. We felt the sounds of Panic! were just the right tone of Pop Punk we were looking for and the melody and lyrics were easy listening but with deep meanings, we also noted the fact there are two band members who resembled Sam and I.