A music video that has had a direct influence on my storyboards is Selena Gomez’s “Come and get it”. This music video represents the theme of love through its choice of settings. The music video begins with quick establishing shot showing the audience the exterior setting. The video is set in a meadow surrounded by mountains. This influenced my storyboards because of how it connotes beauty and freedom, which is associated with love. In my storyboards I used a beach as the setting of my flashback. This was for the same reasons; I wanted to represent the couples love to have been fun, free and beautiful.

One Direction “Night Changes” influenced my storyboards because of the way the editing links to the narrative and manipulates the audience into sympathising with the characters. The editing begins slowly; the opening scenes are quick in order to establish the exterior settings. The editing noticeably becomes quicker in the middle of the music video reflecting the events (i.e. when Nial drops a drink on the girls/audiences skirt) helping the audience acknowledge the characters embarrassment. In my storyboards the opening scenes are longest; this is so the editing is in sync with the story and helps the audience feel the right emotions in the right moment, for example in the flashback I made the scenes quicker so each line of the lyrics matched the scenes being shown.

The camera shots/angles used in Taylor Swifts “You belong with me” also influenced my storyboards. In the scenes with Taylor and her love interest the director has used Medium Close Ups and Close ups to symbolise the growing bond between the two characters. The song and video narrative is about a girl who has a crush on her neighbour, who by the end of the music video realises he’s in love with the girl; they then share a kiss which is considered iconic to this genre of music. This inspired me to use Medium Close Ups and Close Ups in the majority of my scenes with the boy and girl so that the audience acknowledge the bond between the characters. (I.e. when they are at the beach).

 Another example would be Cher Lloyds music video- With Your Love, this video influenced my storyboards because uses the ideologies that love difficult but rewarding. In the music video the director uses balloons trapped in a city to visual symbolise feeling trapped in a relationship, however by the end of the video the balloons escape and fly across the city which links to the lyrics "flying with your love", this signifies to the audience that love is hard but it can also be beautiful and freeing. This has informed my storyboards to represent love in a similar way, for example in my narrative I have used a flashback to remind the protagonist that she doesn’t want to let go of her partner.

Beyoncé’s pretty hurts was another music video that influenced my storyboards. The tightly framed close up used in this music video ( when Beyoncé weighs herself and is disappointed she isn't skinnier) manipulates the audience and forces them to feel sympathy towards her character because of how she causes herself pain to become beautiful, which is essentially what the music video is about. I have reinforced this image into my storyboards in the close up shot of the girl’s sad expression in between the flashbacks to show how these memories hold sadness and to form identification with the audience so they feel close to the protagonist and feel her loss.

Green days- wake me up when September ends music video inspired the plot of my story board. This music video shows typical conventions as it uses props character types, the hero (the boy going to war) who is the protagonist throughout and the princess (his girlfriend). In my storyboards I decided to use these characters unconventionally, instead I had the princess as the protagonist and the boy a mix up of the hero and the villain. This is so the audience are challenged.

Coldplay’s “Paradise” has influenced my storyboards because of the ideologies behind the music video. The elephant (who is symbolically us) is framed tightly to signify that it is trapped; this automatically presents the theme of freedom which links to the chorus of finding “Paradise. This is allegorical to us as an audience as it is saying that people today constantly feel trapped in their lives and gives up on their dreams; the bars are a symbol of our responsibility. The message is for the audience to become more adventurous and be happy in their life. The must chase their dreams. This influenced my music video to hold an ideology, we must forgive the ones we love.

The target audience for my music video is the mainstreamer and the explorer from Young&Rubicam’s 4C’s model. This is because my music video shows typical conventions of a love ballad/friendship. My music video appeals to the mainstreamer because it is cliché and contains drama, Videos that typically appeal to the mainstreamer show familiarity and lack anything too different where as my music video has a twist to this typical convention. It instead shows an unlikely friendship that has developed over many years whilst building up to show one friend  leaving without certainty on whether they will be able to return. This fulfils the needs of the explorer as the built up memories allow the discovery of how the narrative will end as well as juxtaposing the opening sequence.  My music video also challenges the audience’s needs for protection/safety (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) because the audience are unable to protect the other character from going off to war.

My music video includes entertainment and personal identity from the uses and gratification theory. It shows personal identification through the editing and camera. The majority of the music video is flashback edited by a montage depicting the two protagonist’s friendship; it shows them both as children, their first meeting, all the way to the moment they leave each other. At the beginning of the music video there is a wide shot showing Katherine crossing the road to meet Jenny which links to personal identity because it visually signifies the bond being formed by the two girls whilst also symbolizing the bond between the audience and the characters. They are slowly beginning to trust the characters and relate to them. Personal identification is also used through the close up as Jenny looks up to see Katherine walking towards her, the audience is forced to watch the music video through Jenny’s eyes and manipulated into feeling what she feels. There is also a feeling of nostalgia in the music video at the fact that we see our two protagonists grow older together and watch them play familiar street games as children allowing our audience to relate to the characters. In regards to entertainment my music video holds a lot of drama because it shows the idea of two friends having to grow up and move on from each other, whilst one goes off to war the other is left behind, each scene from the flashback intercuts to Jenny on a bus staring thoughtfully out of the window, the audience are never told where she is going until the end signifying that there will be a twist which leaves the audience uneasy. This adds despair to the music video and challenges the ideology that friends are for life when realistically people change and grow up. As an encoder I wanted the audience of my music video to see through Jennie’s eyes; the audience is forced into Jennie’s point of view and feels her emotions during the montage of flashbacks and the intercut lip syncing shots where she stares sadly into the camera, the ideology is that you always have friendship to back you up.  As an encoder I expect the target audience to take the preferred reading and pick up its ideologies in order to full understand the music video. I have targeted teens because the video to the song is relatable to them and their lives as they will be making huge decisions whether that’s going to university or starting a new job, it could also target young adults due to the fact they are growing into adults and previous friendships may no longer seem fulfilling, this video highlights the key happy moments in a friendship which could then help people to reminisce on their own.  The technical codes used within this music video is the black and white filter I have used for the flashbacks during the montage, I have used this because it visually signifies time which is a central theme to my music video, the girls are running out of it. It also connotes certainty which is an extremely important factor in the narrative because there is so much uncertainty. The audience is never told from Jenny’s bus journey where she is going or what she is feeling whereas in the flash backs the audience is shown that they are set in stone and hold no surprises, it is what did happen. I also used it as a stylistic choice because it most commonly connotes the past which creates an important contrast with present. The flash backs are frequently intercut with jenny sitting on the bus or lip syncing which allows the audience to be surprised by the twist in the story. The audio code used is the non-diegetic music, the chorus “Please stay” reflects Jenny’s feelings and signifies to the audience that Katherine was never going to stay.