Friday 30th September

Friday 30th September 2011- Whole group- Beddington Park:
Today we went to film a large part of the video in various sections of Beddington Park. We aimed to film a lot of naturalistic shots and we filmed in some wooded areas and used a lot of trees in shot. The weather was also to be to our advantage and we made use of the sunny and warm conditions. We did some lip syncing for the video and our actor had to make sure he was wearing the same suit. The first areas we went to was a leafy area in which we filmed some POV Shots and some shots of the sun through the trees. We also filmed our main actor against a tree with another group member playing the guitar in the background, something which we are using as a motif throughout the music video. We filmed a lot of close-ups of our main actor and also filmed shots of nature including the river, plants and trees. Also included in the filming was some reverse action shots in which our main actor was filmed walking backwards and taking his blazer off, something in editing that we reversed to make it look normal but with the effect of the blazer automatically coming up to fit on his body. Again in this we had the other group member playing the guitar to back up the motif of the video we he is always there behind the main actor. We also filmed some more 'behind the scenes' of various aspects of filming and preparation which will be used in a seperate edit and uploaded as an extra. We also had a camera to take various pictures of some live action including some stop motion filming in the river. It was yet again a very productive day and we got a lot filmed in the rare end of September heatwave.

We are also way into the editing stage and the shots have come together nicely on the timeline as well as some good special effects. The intro is looking good and the timeline is slowly being filled with various edits of shots and lip syncing. We have also added some audio and sound effects consisting of diegetic and non diegetic sounds to accompany the intro and the ending to coincide with creating atmosphere and mise-en-scene.

Tuesday 27th September

Tuesday 27th September 2011- Whole Group- Croydon Car Parks:
Today the whole group took off to start the main bulk of filming for the music video. This included the introduction and various parts of the ending for the video. We went to Croydon to film and started off in Centrale Car Park but we got moved along by security after filming for a short period. Included was also some 'behind the scenes' footage of various aspects of filming.

We also took some pictures of the actors involved and of the group/band to be used for recreational purposes and for the digipack design to be finalised later. We then moved along to Whitgift car park where we filmed the introduction from a wider range of angles and also some elevator scenes and shots of one of the group playing the guitar. We were in Croydon for a good 3 hours and we went around filming various shots and angles including canted frames, POV shots and establishing shots that included both high and low angles. It was a very productive day and it was a great start to the main section of filming for the final video. We also gathered a few short 'behind the scene' shots of the group talking about various aspects and the progress of filming in the several locations we visited in Croydon. We managed to film a good 20-30 seconds of the video and we have already started to edit some parts of it.

Storyboards and lyrics for our music video

Representation of people/groups in our video

Representation of media groupings

View more presentations from BradleyRussell1

Construction of the mise-en-scene in the music video

Mise-en-scene

How are we going to utilise mise-en-scene in our music video?

Lighting is often overlooked when talking about mise-en-scene but we want to use lighting to create an atmosphere as well as captivating the audience. One idea would be to use flares combined with lens flares to create a streak of light across the screen. This is a powerful image and something that isn’t done often; it will set our music video apart from others and it is also an interesting and creative technique.

The lead singer plays an important role in our music video because we are following his story and the video revolves around him. However, we also want to make him look vulnerable and make the audience empathise with the character. The use of props and lighting will reflect heavily on the character, as will their surroundings. For example, looking in a mirror in a rundown bathroom will give connotations of his emotions or rundown life.

For costume, as the theme of our song is ‘rebirth’ we feel it would be important to change the costume of the lead singer. Binary opposites of black and white are likely to be used for the costume with changes throughout the song to indicate progression which leads back again to the connotations of change and- with white, for example- innocence.

To communicate the rock/indie genre it is typical of other bands to use instruments as props in their videos so we are likely to do the same as it is a reference to the genre to show we understand different conventions. This can also be said for costume as there seems to be a ‘dress code’ for indie bands with certain clothes being worn and certain clothes being avoided.

The message of our song is the change in life so we can show that through a variety of locations to once again reflect the change in character but it also is an effective way of telling the audience what is going on without explicitly stating it.

To attract, appeal and entertain our audience a lot of unique techniques and elements may need to be used. We are considering unique lighting effects as well as abstract ways of delivering our message and also a unique take on the song through the video. The twists in the narrative are also good examples. The non-linear structure of the video would appeal to the audience. This is similar to other videos in the genre including The Killers’ video for ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’

By Connor Sleet, Bradley Russell, Ryan Almond, Jacob Caria-Preen

Preliminary Test Shots

We started our test shots very early on in our music video production just to get a feel of what a day out filming would be like as well as experimenting with different types of shots. Overall, it was a very productive period of filming, it enabled us to get shots in that we otherwise would have felt would be too risky.

The variety of shots we obtained made inspiration for the music video a lot easier. We also managed to get screen tests for our actors and we scouted a few locations that we could use in our video. We were able to get more familiar with the equipment which gave us an advantage when it came to starting the actual filming.

General Music Video Discussion (video)

Music Video Plan

Intro:

EXT- Before the music starts we see a man standing on the edge of life in dark clothes on a rooftop who looks like he is ready to jump to his death. It is an eery morning setting just on sunrise and we can hear jumbled voices in the background that sounds like arguments. This then fades out.

Music Starts:

INT- We now cut to a man who is waking up in a messy room and he is represented from a high angle to show his vulnerability. It then zooms out from his face and we the room in more detail. He then gets up to open his curtains to reveal the sunlight shining on his face. He has a new lease on life and he plans to go an a naturalistic journey to 'find himself'.

We deceive the audience by showing his demise (his death not being visually shown) at the very start of the video in the quick introduction and then we gradually progress and see his journey throughout the rest of the video up until the very end where he has made his way onto the rooftop edge. In an abstract way we show a person who is different and who wants to feel good about himself, changing clothes and appearance along the way.

The man now gets dressed but is in a rush to get out of the house and goes through several places on his journey.

EXT- Parks, Woodland, Fields, Alleyways etc.

Music Plan:

Intro Scene (No music)

0.00- 0.12- Music (Intro)

0.12- 0.31- 1st verse

0.31- 0.43- 1st chorus

0.43- 0.49- Plain music

0.49- 1.07- 2nd verse

1.07- 1.21- 2nd chorus

1.21- 1.24- Plain music

1.24- 1.50- Megaphone (3rd verse up to "For me")

1.50- 1.58- "FOR ME"

1.58- 2.17- Rest of the 3rd verse

2.17- 2.25- 3rd chorus (up to "And I'm feeling good")

2.25- 3.11- Various vocals and Plain music

3.11- 3.14- "Feeling Good"

3.14- 3.17- Fading end music- THE END

By Ryan Almond

Focus Group

Our focus group discussing the feedback from the questionnaires:

List of people involved

Bradley Russell
Jobs: Cameraman, advises editing, Digipak/Advert designer.

Jacob Caria-Preen- Main Actor
Jobs: Main actor in music video, advises editing, photographer on set


Ryan Almond
Jobs: Main cameraman (also films behind the scenes posts), editor

Connor Sleet
Jobs: Actor in music video, provides instruments, advises editing, advises on Photoshop

Jason Fox- Media Technician
Provides help and advice on any software as well as opinions on our music videos.

Shooting Schedule & Locations List

Locations List:

Naturalistic places

Forests/Woodland areas- establishing shot/pan-sun through trees

City- London- time-lapse, urban scenery

Centrale- tracking shots

Alleyways- dark and creating mise-en-scene

Abbey Mills- the water flowing

Beddington Park-

By Connor Sleet, Ryan Almond, Bradley Russell and Jacob Caria-Preen

Shooting Schedule:

Session One: (weekday): Match up storyboards to locations, discussion with brief filming

Session Two (weekday): General scouting of locations, preliminary filming. (close-up shots, establishing shots)

Session Three (weekday): Opening of music video filmed and edited- possibly Abbey Mills (medium shots, pans, tracking shots)

Session Four (weekend): Extensive shooting in more than one location of the entire song to intersperse with other footage. (variety of shots, including low-angle, high-angle, canted, long shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme close-up)

Session Five (weekday): Time Lapse/More abstract material (long shots)

Session Six: (weekend): Extensive shooting, the focus will be on the outro. (medium shots, tracking, pans)

Session Seven (weekday): A day filming in Richmond Park- rural scenes. Woods/forest (a variety of shots, see above)

Session Eight: (weekday) Stock footage (the majority of these shots will be close ups)

Session Nine: (weekday) Final location filming (a few final establishing shots and long shots)

Session Ten: (weekend) After editing, any shots that need to be rectified and changed will be re-filmed. (as applicable) 

By Connor Sleet, Ryan Almond, Bradley Russell and Jacob Caria-Preen

List of equipment & props

We are going to have to use muliple pieces of hardware in our filming process in order to record a successful music video. This will include, of course, different cameras and lighting equipment (among others).
Hardware:

HD hand held video camera- provided by CBSC (school)
Tripod
(Possible) Digital SLR with HD recording (in order to save time and create focus pulls)
Lyrics and Storyboarding- To know exactly what we’re going to shoot
Time Schedule- To stick on task and not run over schedule.
Light stand
Microphone Boom
Mp3 or music playing device (Phone)
Make-up set: Blusher to reduce shine on band.

Software:

Final cut express
Adobe photoshop
Adobe illustrator

Props:

Band Clothing (varying dependant on the day)
Instruments ; Guitar, Microphone, drums.  Microphone Stand.
Lighting ; Flashlight, flare
Mobile phones, and other personal effects the character may use in the video.

By Jacob Caria-Preen, Ryan Almond, Connor Sleet and Bradley Russell

Research into Digipaks and adverts for Digipaks

Research into Digipaks

Digipaks are often used as substitutes for CD cases for, in many cases, special edition copies of albums or singles. Digipaks are made from different material to normal CD cases and, as such, are a lot rarer.

Digipaks fold out in to either four or six panels which may increase their cost. Because of the increase in cost Digipaks aren’t used anywhere near as much as CDs and they are a lot harder to market. However, some bands utilise them for purposes such as a special album or as a marketing tool. A limited edition run of digipaks may sell incredibly quickly compared to normal CD packaging.

The digipak for the album ‘The Place We Ran From’ folds out in to four panels and lyrics are included within the packaging. The front cover is only a part of the whole photo which is a very interesting style and, although only one disc is in the Digipak, the extra space still works well. The example of the six-panelled one above highlights how useful they can be when extra discs are used and this special acoustic set of Oasis songs is mirrored by the unique packaging.

The 'drawn-on' font is very reminiscent of country and indie music. This gritty nature and dark, naturalistic colours also represents the mishmash of genres very well. The dark brown, yellows and the worn out look gives the album cover and digipak a real sense of character and, as it's a unique choice, it may help it stand out on the shelves to its prospective audience.

The packaging for Rihanna’s album ‘Loud’ is influenced by her artistic tastes. The wider shot of the woman draped over the inside of the album is a complete opposite to the title. I think this works better than the other Digipak I analysed due to there being a more obvious reason for the Digipak (2 discs, special artwork) so it certainly makes the Digipak feel more special.

Because this is a pop song special attention has gone in to the design. Bright, garish colours are the norm in pop videos and there isn't anything different here. Although the picture isn't too clear the font is very minimalistic and washed out. This lack of colour looks very good on the clear, crisp red and it also has to be taken in to account that red is a connotation for love and Rihanna is often associated with the colour red.

When I create my own Digipak I should take in to account that Digipaks normally use more than one disc so I should plump for a 4-disc panel with lyrics possibly on the reverse of the cover. A colour scheme must be striking throughout and the design should probably be minimalistic, judging by the two covers.

Research into Digipak Adverts:

Digipak advert analysis:

Digipaks, as has been mentioned, are special versions of CDs so their adverts need to match this in scope and scale as well as design. The first digipak advert I am going to look at is the advert for the single Loud by Rihanna:

Because this single is part of the pop genre then it is a necessity that bright colours help the advert jump off of the page but one could delve deeper and use Laura Mulvey’sGaze Theory to suggest this is a very male-driven advert with Rihanna being draped in red- obviously a connotation for love and lust. The R in the top corner is an example of brand identification, Rihanna’s brand is now bigger than ever and having something as simple as that on a poster helps fans identify it. The choice of image may sell records on its own which is an incredibly deceptive, yet effective, form of advertisement.

The picture dominating two-thirds of the advert is also a clever move but the minimalistic font helps because it is an opposite to the outlandish top half and the choice of wording (i.e. ‘highly anticipated) puts thoughts in the reader’s head that, without any form of prior knowledge, it is still going to be a good song or successful.

Overall, I think this is a perfect example of an advert for a digipak. The singer is shown clearly on the poster and the phrase sex sells certain springs to mind when looking at it so it is clearly a good advert. The composition is also well laid out with the font and text being clear enough but not diverting attention away from the ‘brand’ as it were.

It has to be taken in to account that this isn’t a professionally-designed advertisement but it is still very effective in both its idea and execution. The ‘windows’ theme is very cleverly designed and, once again, the singer is shown clearly dressed in what would clearly be identified as someone from the ‘indie’ genre. The grid layout works fantastically well though there are a few issues I have with the advert.

The bottom left-hand corner uses pictures that aren’t of a high quality when compared to the rest of the advert which is a shame and the font isn’t clear enough. The black, whilst it may be a hallmark of the indie genre, certainly doesn’t work on this rather vibrant piece. I do, however, like the quote from NME as it adds a degree of authenticity to the advert, as does the tour dates although it is unlikely that they would feature on an advert for a single. Other than that everything you would expect from an advert is here.

The layout would be my favourite part of the advert as it is a very clever idea although you could argue it doesn’t look like something from the indie genre as it has more of a country vibe with the setting of the picture. Overall, for a student-made advert, I think it is a very good piece with a lot of clever ideas that advertises the single well and includes several conventions from the indie genre.

Questionnaire analysis

By Connor Sleet, Jacob Caria-Preen, Ryan Almond and Bradley Russell

We decided a questionnaire would be an extremely valuable resource for audience feedback which we could build upon in our discussions. The audience were varied with different age groups and genders being queried. Our questionnaire (as shown in the scan) incorporates a general idea of what the audience like in music and music videos so we can gauge what catches an audience's eye in a music video and what techniques we can use.

The first question was: What kind of music video do you generally watch? The majority of the answers were predominantly indie and pop- following the trend of the general public but some transcended genres and simply listened to songs that appealed to them or songs in the charts. It was interesting to see there wasn't the wide variety of genres that we expected as genres such as country, classical and metal were scarcely represented or not represented at all.

'Why do you watch music videos?' was our second and probably our most important question as we are in the process of creating a music video and the audience's opinion is vital. The music video, according to the feedback, heightens the meaning of the song and adds emotion and extra depth to the lyrics. A storyline or visual representation of the lyrics is deemed to be a main reason why people watched music videos but it can also be broken down, again, to something as simple as liking the song.

The third question was 'What genre do you listen to?'.  Although we are doing an indie/rock song it is important to classify our audience by what genre they listen to. Rock and indie were up there with the most popular genres but there was a wide variety of genres compared to the first question. Another interesting trend would be the similarity in answers between questions one and three.

The question 'Why do you listen to this genre?' can be described simply as striking a chord with the listener. The Uses and Gratifications Theory comes heavily in to play as escapism and entertainment seems to be a main reason for listening to the genre. The style of the song in relation to the general characteristics of the genre seems to help, as does relating to the person's feelings.

The final two questions explore the audience's favourite music videos and why. The videos tend to stick to the genre given in the previous questions but the reasons why differ massively. Some said the idea of the music video stuck with them whereas other felt the idea and concept of the music video helped enhance the message of the song.


Examples of Questionnaires:

Copyright Letter (addressed to Warner Music)

To Warner Music,

For our A2 Media project we are considering using Muse’s song ‘Feeling Good’ as you are the relevant copyright holder and hold the rights to Muse’s material we are requesting your permission to use the album version of the song in our final piece. The title ‘Feeling Good’ and the band’s name will also be used on our adverts and digipaks but they will not be used for promotional purposes or monetary gain and will simply be used as a piece of non-profit work.

The music video will not be released or be sold in any way, shape or form. The music video will only be seen by the OCR Exam Board and anyone in my media class but no one outside this circle. A copyright comment will be placed at the beginning of the music video to ensure no disputes with both Muse and Warner Music namechecked.

Yours Sincerely,

Bradley Russell, Ryan Almond, Jacob Caria-Preen and Connor Sleet