Initial Group Meeting Notes

On Monday 26th September we gathered as a group to discuss our music video and what we wanted to do. The three of us - Maddie, Jason and Eddie were present and here are the notes from that meeting:

Agenda topics:

1) Initial video ideas and choose song

2) Group roles

3) Specific ideas - settings, costume, narrative, performance elements and specific scenes.

4) Ideas for magazine advert and CD pack design

Full initial group meeting notes:

1) Together as a group we discussed potential songs to create a music video with various artists covering various genres and types of beats. After discussion, Maddie had recommended Adele - Turning Tables and after discussion and hearing the song, we unanimously agreed as a group that Adele - Turning Tables would be an ideal song because it does not at present have a music video other than an official live performance video. The song had not achieved a high chart rating - achieving only 62nd on the UK charts - meaning it was a less popular song that would be chosen by others. Given the high levels of emotion and the story behind the song, it seemed a good choice of song that we as a group could be creative with and we were all in agreement.

2) As a group we went on to discuss strengths and weaknesses in media and agreed we would be best to play to our strengths whilst also allowing each other to experience the various aspects in producing the music video. It was agreed that with Maddie being a strong art student that she would be best to work on the creative aspects of the video - deciding on costumes and makeup - she also wanted to appear as the main actress in the video. Eddie had discussed that he felt strong working with the camera and potentially appearing in the video to aid our efforts to create the emotional atmosphere of the relationship between Adele and her partner which is how the song 'Turning Tables' came about. Jason discussed his strengths in post-production and working with the animation affect software on the mac's and we concluded that it would be best for Jason to work on that with the input and assistance from Maddie and Eddie.

3) We were all in a firm agreement that the whole aspect of the video had to relate to the strong emotion of the background to the song and the lyrics. Based on this we had discussed that we must make use of the various lighting effects to depict the dark atmospheres usually associated with Adele videos (of which she does not have that many). In usual Adele style - we agreed that with Maddie as the main actress for the video, she should wear a black dress with natural skin and makeup. Eddie being the (now ex) boyfriend relating to the background of the song should wear casual jeans, with a suit jacket, shirt and tie. The song is based on an argument that Adele had with her ex-boyfriend backstage at the end of a TV interview recording and how he was unhappy about some of the things she had said and based on the fact that he always turned the tables on her - she decided on the song 'Turning Tables' - we want to convey this emotion and background in to the video with both performance and narrative aspects - telling the story to the background of the video and continued emotional heartbreak after the break up as a result of the arguments but also including strong performance aspects with lip syncing to the song. To show the emotion and heartbreak, we are wanting to find locations such as high rise rooms looking out of windows, rainy/cloudy weather, water, the skies and truly emotional scenes which whilst matching the story behind the song are also pairing up with the lyrics.

4) All three members of the group had strong ideas for the magazine advert and CD cover designs - varying from dark scenes from the video, to lying on piano's and using photoshop to merge a piano in to some stairs. We concluded that we should create all three and then make use of them all.

For the magazine advert - we are considering using the use of a door which will be at the start of the video with the lyrics of "close enough to start a war" with Maddie on one side and Eddie banging the door on the other with a dark black background with text - a very basic, but very effective and emotional advertisement which depicts the emotion of Adele.

For the CD cover, we are wanting to use some black stairs with Maddie lying on them and using photoshop to put piano keys on the stairs. We want to convey similar images on the other three covers but remain undecided on them until we have a better idea on how the actual music video is going to look and how the CD front cover stairs-piano looks.