2 Minute Rough Cut: Audience Feedback

Today we showed two minutes of our music video to some students in our school.

We had some really good feedback. A lot of people commented saying how much they liked the use of lighting. We have made sure that in the three different locations used so far, that all the lighting is similar in colour, following the red bonfire theme. The bedroom we used is fairly orange/yellow, and the lighting we used during the band cutaway shots were also made to be orange/yellow/red. We had to follow the theme as it connotes the warm, fiery feeling we wanted to portray in the music video.
As well as this, people seemed to really be enjoying the music and the video, which was positive for us as it means that they are understanding our text as we wanted the audience to.

One thing that they did comment on was one shot where Keira looks away during a shot. We will probably re-do that as it looks like she isn't as interested and is just acting, rather than being the star of the video.

Overall, however, it was described as "impressive" and one person told me it was her favourite. That's always good.

Second Phase of Filming: Band Cutaways

We filmed some band cutaways after school, taking advantage of the equipment that the school has. We made sure that the lighting was facing towards the camera, and shining behind the actors so that we could have a similar effect of a silhouette like in the bonfire scenes. However, we also wanted to see their faces more, so we used a whiteboard which the lights reflected onto their faces, as well as torches. 

We found the filming fairly easy, but had difficulty in following some of the storyboard and also controlling a large number of people. We had to say "quiet on set" more than once, but when we had the shots, they looked really good, and still do on the rough cut.

After filming some stationary shots, we also tried to do a dolly zoom using the movable tables and the zoom on the camera. Although it was fun to try out, it didn't really work!

Band Cutaways Risk Assessment

RISK	SOLUTION
We're using a lot of heavy equipment and wiring so there is a risk of tripping over or equipment falling over.	Tape down the wiring so that it isn't loose and can be tripped over. Make sure equipment is checked to be working properly and is in good condition, and make sure people on set are aware of the expensive equipment being used.
Use of instruments could result in misuse or breakages.	Make sure people involved are using equipment properly and are responsible for instruments. Make sure they are aware of the situation.
Props/equipment damage: risk of equipment being damaged by a majority of factors.	Make sure equipment is in bags and covered when not needed.
Battery/memory card running out: if either of these run out of space/charge then I won’t be able to film.	Ensure that battery is fully charged before shooting. Ensure I either have space on the memory card or I have an extra card.

Copyright

To avoid copyright infringement I have emailed the publicity agent for Paramore in order to have their permission to use their music. 

Further Updates

We have planned our storyboard for the next part of our filming.

We've decided to film some cutaways of the actual band like the codes and conventions in music videos. This is because a lot of our shots might look quite bland without the contrast of live rock music. For example;

In this video it is a mix of narrative Hayley Williams/Taylor York/Jeremy Davis and band Hayley/Taylor/Jeremy. There are cutaways from the narrative to the band playing in order to connote live music. This is the kind of thing we are aiming to do with our music video.

We are also going to try and attempt some depth of field shots regarding the picture at the end of the narrative that will be taken of Keira and  a past lover/friend. We're going to make this photo the most important, and try a shot where she is holding up the photo and burns it with a lighter. It will be focused on the photo at first and then we will focus on Keira watching it. This is a really strong shot to symbolise how important it is to stand up and carry on, no matter what.

Digipak Research

Ancillary Task

"A type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs."

For our ancillary task, we need to create a digipak. The image below is a plan of the front and back of the CD packaging, which will be useful in creating our own CD packaging.

As well as this, we are creating a magazine advert for our music video. Most magazine adverts nowadays are fairly small and located at the back of magazines, unless they're big bands like Muse or Foo Fighters who can afford large posters. 

We have created a general idea for what we want, using an image from Google. This is just a rough idea of what we are aiming to create...

Updates

So far, we have done most of the final chorus and bridge shots, most of it including people dancing- and although we really like the shots and how it has been put together, we're at a risk of having it all like this. So we've decided to film some more shots of the band playing, as they do in most rock videos, using cutaways of the band together like a live performance. 

Editing

I have been editing for a while, and have put together around 30 seconds of the end of the music video. The end really involves a lot of movement and warm light, trying to represent happiness, new starts and new beginnings.

I have also found out a useful way of finding where the cuts should be on the beats. I widened Audio 1 to then add markers to the places where the music is higher than the rest.

This will help me to find where the cuts should be and also where I can include more of a star image of her singing. 

So far, the final part of the song is nearly completed, but I also need to film more star image footage of her singing, and also include the band. I might film some of the band shots elsewhere to just show that the band are a collective group in itself rather than just part of the narrative.

Iconic Movie Stills

I found a page on the most iconic movie stills when researching photography and framing. I found this really useful as  it helps to capture what is a successful image and therefore what can be a successful movie, using photography, creativity and imagination. 

Click on the image to see!

Costume Ideas

Clothing will be an important factor in our music video. To represent what we want exactly, the characters will have to wear clothing to connote our meaning.
For the main singer, we want her to wear clothing that is bright and quirky to represent happiness and change, a new start. 

Hayley Williams, the singer of Paramore, is actually a good example of what sorts of clothing we want Keira to wear.
For the guitarist and bassist, we want them to wear leather as it connotes rock, since Paramore are a rock band. However, we might use visual motifs to present the idea of happiness and new starts- so they could wear jeans of a different colour, or paint, nail varnish, jewellery etc.

Lighting Workshop

I attended a Lighting Workshop, where we learnt how different coloured lights affect the scene, especially on camera. This will be really useful with any band shots we want to do, and a cutaway of a drummer playing or even the guitarist/bassist. 

Media Language

This is a wordle I created on Media Language, containing the words that I may find useful to use and to refer back to when filming. I need to know these words in order to create a successful video, so creating a Wordle with all the words I need is something that will be helpful as I will be able to use these words easily during the filming and editing process. 

Character Profile

Name: Keira Townsend

Age: 16

We chose Keira because she seemed a good choice as the main singer; she likes the band and likes the style of music. She also has a fashion sense that really helps with our narrative, she's an individual and is a "spark", doesn't let people walk on her- which is perfect for what we were aiming for in our video.

Name: Rosie Dale

Age: 18

Rosie is our choice for the guitarist in the band. She was a good choice because she herself plays guitar, and loves the band Paramore, seeing them live (with me) and owning all their albums. She has a very busy schedule however, and this could be a concern.

Name: Lissie Flinders

Age: 16

This is our drummer. Although the drummer doesn't have a lot of appearances in the video, we decided that to make sure the video connoted live music, that we should have a drummer, especially to strengthen the mise-en-scene. She is a good choice as she looks the part, as well as enjoys the music that we are using!

Representation

To add, Robert Downey Jr is most well known today for playing Iron Man in the Marvel 'Iron Man' movies. His net worth is around $75 billion, but back in 2001, he was arrested and charged with drug possession. Over time, as you can see below, his representation has been changed drastically, from "Robert Downey Jr's bizarre downfall" to "Robert Downey Jr is the highest-paid actor in the world!" It just shows that there is never an objective representation; it is always changing.

Our music video will feature definite stereotypes. For starters, the main singer is a girl, who is shown to be previously suffering from a break up. This is a common trait in music videos, but where we thwart it is when she throws it away and decides to not let it consume her, but to rather carry on with her life. We like this idea of the main singer being independent, passionate and determined. 

This is going to be shown through the bonfire scenes, that she is "the spark" that is so important in the narrative. 

The Walking Dead Parody: Behind The Scenes

A YouTube channel I follow recently created their own parody for the popular TV show 'The Walking Dead'. I watched the behind the scenes and thought I would share this as something that was particularly helpful in camera work and directing, how these two girls (with a lot of help) have managed to create an amazing video has really inspired me. I will try and use some of the techniques they use on my video.

More Storyboarding!

This is our storyboard for the bonfire scene. We planned this on a whiteboard and so it was easier to edit if we wanted to change it. Also, with it being an image on my iPod, there was no paper to carry around with us which made everything easier to look after!

Some of the shots from the bonfire scene were exactly what we were looking for. However, when we were filming, there were certain scenes we hadn't thought of that we decided to film there and then, and we really liked the results.

Storyboarding really helped and allowed us to understand exactly what shots we were filming. Without it, it would have been incredibly disorganised. We used the storyboard as a template for basic shots, and if we thought of anything else on set, we could film those too. We managed to get more shots than we originally planned, and this was an advantage as we have a lot more footage to use for the final scene.

Risk Assessment

RISK ASSESSMENT



RISK	SOLUTION
Filming the bonfire scenes: these scenes will be particularly dangerous as we are filming around a large bonfire on 5th November. We have asked for help from people to be extras, so will have to look out for them, as well as the equipment (heat damage). Lighting may also be a problem.	Make sure that any extras and our band members are safe from the fire. Ensure that we have sufficient lighting in order to do the shots which were grainy. Also ensure that equipment is only close to the fire at the times they are needed, cameras are covered with lens caps.
Shooting outdoors: a risk of bad weather effecting equipment, bad lighting possibly when shooting at night, actors getting cold.	Make sure we carry coats, umbrellas in order to cover equipment and protect against bad weather. Also check forecast to see which days are best to film on. Make sure we have good lighting sources, bring coats for actors.
Props/equipment damage: risk of equipment being damaged by a majority of factors.	Make sure equipment is in bags and covered when not needed.
Battery/memory card running out: if either of these run out of space/charge then I won’t be able to film.	Ensure that battery is fully charged before shooting. Ensure I either have space on the memory card or I have an extra card.

Lighting

For parts of our music video, scenes require being filmed in the dark next to a bonfire. It was something that I was particularly worried about, as our test shots had been very grainy and shaky due to the darkness. 

We decided, that as we couldn't take out professional lighting equipment from the media department, that we would instead research ideas to create our own DIY lighting.

We found a website that instructed us on how to make lighting using cardboard and aluminium foil.

Storyboard

"The key to any smooth production is its organisation, and storyboarding is a key vertebra."

Storyboarding is a way for directors to blueprint that depicts key scenes such as setting, dialogue and action. It is an important part of pre-visualisation, used in major films to corporate advertising to help visualise what the filmmaker wants. 

 "...highlights the benefits of using storyboards as the skeletal basis of a scene's structure…"

Directors use this in order to create the perfect scene, as well as informing their actors on how they should portray the shot. 

Certain directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese have used storyboarding in movies such as Taxi Driver (1976) and Psycho (1960).

Practice Shooting

Last night, I went out to practice shooting some footage for our music video. What we found while shooting was that is was hugely time consuming, because some of the shots we had to do over and over again. I was aware that this would take a long time, however, so it wasn't as much of a shock as it could have been.

Another thing we found was our lack of equipment. I used my Canon 1200D, and a tripod, but the tripod wasn't very steady. When we tried doing tilts and pans, it didn't move, so we had to do it all by hand which made the shots very shaky.

Finally, because of the lack of lighting, the night-shots were very grainy.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT

What we aim to do now is try and get hold of a better tripod so we are able to do tilting and panning shots which are smooth. Also, we will have to shoot when it is still light so the shots aren't grainy.

Vox Pop Idea

For our music video, we decided that we wanted a short sequence of vox pops at the beginning, asking people how they feel about life, what it means to them and what makes them happy. We thought that this could be really powerful as it shows a personal side to the video, that not only is the song something that a lot of people can relate to, but that normal people can benefit from it.
We found a video by the band Jimmy Eat World called Work, where it demonstrates a similar idea as to what we wish to do in the beginning of our video.

Target Audience

For my target audience, I filmed myself writing a mindmap of certain things to consider when creating my music video. 

I also conducted a survey asking people things like age, gender, social media, favourite books/movies/music and hobbies/occupation. I managed to get several diverse responses due to twitter, people from America and Scotland, but the majority coming from England and Wales. 

Overall, from my research, it is clear that this audience's majority is female, between the ages of 15-18, who are probably middle class due to the social media access, and have a high interest in pop culture and music, the hobbies/occupations being fairly small compared to tv/books/music. 

Playing with Lighting

In our class, we were learning about different types of lighting. We watched films such as Schindler's List with silhouetted lighting, Road to Perdition with bokeh lighting and Terminator, which uses side lighting to light up the human side of his face vs the robotic side, as seen here.

We tried our own shots in class. We tried to side lighting, which was our favourite. We shone the light from the side, and used a torch to create a softer light on the front of his face.

We also tried using the flash from the lighting equipment, but the camera I was using didn't pick it up. However, in the coloured photo, you can see that his whole face is lit up, which was the effect of using the umbrella and taking a photo facing Eddie.

We also tried using the light as they use it in Schindler's List, from behind, to create a silhouette and also to make features stand out, as you can see by Eddie's hair etc.

Last Hope Moodboard

I have created a moodboard for my music video. I decided to collect photos of nature, fireworks, bonfires and bedrooms, because these are the kinds of things that I want to have in the mise en scene. I hope to use some of these shots as inspiration for my video; particularly the nature shots because I want the video to have a fresh feeling, like turning over a new leaf. I also aimed for bright colours to represent the spark in humanity, also in the song "it's just a spark" is my main focus, so the bright colours help to portray happiness and new beginnings.

Click on the image to view my moodboard!