Update for our group blog

Throughout the construction process of our music video, although we had earlier agreed that we would use this blog for agreeing dates and deadlines for filming (etc) - as we began, it proved to be easier and more convenient to contact each other through text, emails and phone calls as well as seeing each other around school, this is also shown on our group blogs. Unfortunately, we haven't been using the group blog as much as we intended, however, to make up for that our individual blogs contain detailed and regular posts based on the research, planning, production and editing that we did for both our music video, and the two ancillary tasks!

Laurie

Locations

On Thursday 10th Jan, myself and Fran looked at potential locations for when we begin recording our music video. Whilst looking at our shooting script we realised that the main location that we have included is the woods. We walked to the woods and took pictures of places that we would like to record. The Woods is relatively close to where we all live too which is convenient as we are all able to meet there on the days that we are shooting.

It seemed a better idea to take photos of the different locations (rather than e.g. use Google maps or draw an ideal location) as it made it easier for when we begin filming to recognize where we wanted to film.

The two above images are the ones that we are considering using for the flash back/reminiscient shots where e..g I am watching myself being followed. I like the idea of this being a potential shot as it will allow us to (example) be standing beside/behind the tree, or the bush or somewhere infront in the field, however if we'd have chosen a part of the woods which was only grass - we didn't think it would make as much effect if I appeared twice in the same shot easily to see one another. I think it's important that we aim for the 'eerie, reminiscent' feel.

One of the main reasons we liked these parts of the woods were due to the weather at this time of year, the lack of colour and natural beauty in the shots above is very suitable for our theme and genre. The trees and grass looked very dark and grim, like an unwelcoming scene - precisely what we are aiming for in our music video.

Above are images of the drama room that we plan to use as another potential location. The main reason we are considering the drama room is due to it's all black curtains - suitable to our colour use and the connotations we want to portray with black - as well as this we really like the lighting available in the drama room. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures of the lighting in the drama room as my phone doesn't have flash, so the image was just black, however there are lights on the cameras that we can use if necessary when recording. The room is also very spacious which is suitable for the shots we have allocated this room for.

 Above are images of the school stage, similarly to the drama room I liked this location as it has all black curtains which we can close and a variety of lighting effects. The stage is extremely spacious which will enable us to perform our dance well - there is also a wall of mirrors that we could consider using.

All three of these will be our main locations for filming our shots, each shot has been allocated a location though whilst recording I understand that we may come across other locations that would be good to use, which I will update on this post.

This were all group decisions, uploaded by Laurie.

Costume choices

As a group, we are deciding on costumes that we will be wearing in our music video during different shots. To suite the mood and theme of our music video we are primarily looking at black costumes, below is further detail about costumes we intend on wearing within each shot.

We found that the only shots where you can properly see us, were 9 and 18 where we are dancing. This means they're the main shots where our outfits will be visible.
We have decided on plain black leggings and plain black t-shirts as it's minimalistic and the main focus of this shot will be us dancing therefore an extravagant outfit will not be necessary.

In each of the shots below, we will be wearing plain black leggings and a white t-shirt/blouse or dress (anything plain white to indicate innocence) however, for the following shots: (see below)

- Shot number 11a, consisting of 'reminiscent' feel for the viewer, as though each of the characters are having flash backs - this will be shown by a montage of approximately three shots, which will be:
Myself appearing innocent, being followed by the evil character, whilst being elsewhere in the shot appearing evil whilst watching myself being followed.

- Shot number 11b, consisting of 'reminiscent' feel for the viewer, as though each of the characters are having flash backs - this will be shown by a montage of approximately three shots, which will be:
Fran appearing innocent whilst being captured by the evil character, whilst being elsewhere in the shot appearing evil and witnessing herself being captured.

- Shot number 11c, consisting of a 'reminiscent' feel for the viewer, as though each of the characters are having flash backs - this will be shown by a montage of approximately three shots, which will be:
Jodie appearing innocent whilst it is indicated that Jodie has been bitten by the evil character, whilst being elsewhere in the shot witnessing herself being harmed/bitten.

The white dresses/blouses/t-shirts will have no blood stains/tares and rips/mud smears etc as they will be shot before we are captured therefore this will not be necessary. However, when we create the split screening featuring e.g. me onlooking myself being captured - the onlooker will be wearing torn and stained clothes.

The following shots below will include us wearing the same costumes (black leggings & white dress/blouse/t-shirt) which will be torn, stained and ripped to show the effects of us being captured.

- Shot number 4, consisting of us (sitting in chairs in a circle back to back. Camera will track the circle whilst we each break the fourth wall.)

- Shot number 14, Myself Fran and Jodie making sharp movements which we intend to edit into jump cuts

- Shot number 22, Close up of Laurie, Jodie and Fran from the males point of view how he sees the females

This was a group decision, uploaded by Laurie

Story Boarding

As a group we decided to do the story boarding asap, so that we could prepare ourselves for filming. We did this as a group by going through the shooting script and deciding on the amount of different shots that would be needed. We broke up the story boarding into sections, so that we would all do an equal amount. Laurie did the first 11 shots, I did the next 11 and Francesca did the remaining shots. We thought the story boarding process to be more effective to us because we felt it gave us a better idea of how we were actually going to film majority of the shots, and how we were going to fit them all together.

Casting for male character.

Here is the slideshare I created for the casting of our male character, I included our likes and dislikes of each auditionee, ready for our final decision.

Casting of male character for our a2 from harrisf

Uploaded and created by Francesca Harris.

First Draft of our Shooting Script

So today we've all sat together and started planning towards our shooting script. We've had a discussion about how we may add some changes to the script if we feel that we need to because of the amount of fast paced shots that we will be including. This was a group decision, but posted by Jodie Nicholls

Total time 2:32

First 13 seconds of the song will be different establishing shots of settings, for example woods etc. Also includes the opening credits

0:13 - 0:35

Fran- I've been waiting for you
it's been so long
Laurie- I knewjust what I would do
when I heard your song
Jodie- The next thing I felt was you
Holding me close

(split screen for all three to sing) What am I gonna do, I let myself go
(different close ups, on a black screen)

0:35 - 0:42
(On black screen, red lips singing all at the same time)
Jodie- Nothing left to say
Laurie- Take my breath away
Fran- Whispering your name
Jodie- Tie me up in chains
All- No one puts it down like me

0:47 - 0:54 (Jump cuts of doing sharp movement)
Strength I would have known
Make me beg for more
climbing up the walls
banging down the doors
Knowing that you hear my screams

0:54 - 0:58 - (Break from lrics)

0:58 - 1:10- ( Dance/ Montage)

1:10 - 1:22 (Montage, slow motion runs, look at the camera)

1:22 - 1:34 (idea- Flash backs of us remembering, getting attacked, singing while we watch our selves getting attacked.
Alternative- not be in the same place at the same time, Flashbacks)

1:34 - 1:39 (Male arms wrap around fran and break away, all you can see is males arms and Fran. Males hand over mouth and round waist)

1:39 - 1:45 (Mimic Delilah video, camera following the male from behind, don't see the face)

1:45 - 1:52 (Jump Cuts)

1:52 - 1:56 (Close up of different body parts, shows the transition of innocence)

1:57 - 2:05(Extreme close up of licking lips/fangs. Fake blood dripping down the side of lips. Silent scream) 'strength I could have known, make me beg for more... knowing that you hear my scream')

2:05 - 2:08 (Close up of eyes looking from left to right)

2:08 - 2:21 (Dance)

2:21 - 2:24 (Flashing to male running- more fast paced)

2:24 - 2:26 (Male looks back in slow motion)

2:26 - 2:30 (Camera pans in a curcular motion around the male, while he looks scared

2:30 - 2:33 (Back to females (silence/ooo section) extreme close up to show fangs for ending shot)

Working on the shooting script

Today we are working on our shooting script, as we plan to begin filming next week. The shooting script is a vital part to our planning as it allows us to decide specific aspects of our music video that we are filming in each few seconds/minutes of the song.

Fran's Mood Board!

I have created a mood board on the website pinterst, it will keep updating and changing and perhapes we can create a group mood board on the website aswell. The mood board I'm creating involves a lot of images and inspiration for the mis-en-scene of our music video, settings I thought would look good for our video and different effects we can use like black and white, colour contrasts ECT. I have also put this link on my own blog.
Here is the link to my mood board: http://pinterest.com/harrisf06/music-video-mood-board/

By Francesca Harris.

New music video idea

This video briefy explains our new music video idea.
From left to right, Jodie, Fran and Laurie.

Uploaded by Laurie.

Change of music video idea

Yesterday when we met together at my (Laurie's) house we discussed the music video idea we have for the song by Carly Rae Jepsen, Call me maybe and agreed that we wanted to change it, for the following reasons:

- The unfortunate possibility of the video appearing too much like a 'fan video' for Carly Rae Jepsen; with the various people singing along to the lyrics in a variety of settings. We have YouTube searched fan videos and realised they are incredibly popular in the style of the video that we were initially going to do.

- No further/deeper meaning to the lyrics in the song, we understand from AS that in order for a video to make an impact on it's audience and be at the best it can be - it must be significantly imaginative and possibly make the audience think about what they have viewed!

- The vast majority of the cast list that we were asking to help us were letting us down, failing to agree of definite times and dates that we would all be able to record together - and we didn't want to risk depending on other people for our own work.

Meeting together to discuss our video idea

Today we are meeting together at my (Laurie's) house to discuss the idea we have and see how we can adapt it further to a high quality level.

Music Video Idea

Our music video idea is based on a montage of a group of people lip singing to a song. We intend on creating a relatively amateur style to our video as we are aiming for the 'home-video' look. One of our ideas is the 'webcam style' look; as if the people in our video are singing into the 'webcam' to their audience.

As we have decided that our video will be performance based rather than a narrative video; we will be able to break down the fourth wall - having our actors look directly into the camera; creating an atmosphere that they are singing directly to the audience watching.

We are in the process of creating a cast list for our video, we have first created a list of people we know that would possible like to be involved and we will later create a definite cast list by asking the people on the list if they would like to be involved. We want to make this agreement formal, (although we want to have fun with the creating of our video) we still want to take the process seriously and make sure it is done to the highest professional standard that we can achieve, therefore we must ensure we are able to rely on our actors. We are considering having a written or email based agreement from each cast member so there is a defiant agreement to perform in our video - rather than a spoken agreement which can easily be forgot or not followed through. 

The majority of cast members we have agreed on are our friends and teachers from school. We like the idea of this style of cast because we want the video to be humorous for the audience.

We are considering various up beat song that are well known and somewhat comical. We intend on picking a pop song that is in the charts because we can guarantee that a wider audience will recognize the song (than if we were to choose a specific genre that may only attract certain ages.)

This video will be a long process of research and planning, we will have to plan out specific days for the specific people we want in our video, e.g. certain days for certain groups.

These decisions have been made by the group but wrote up by Francesca Harris for this blog post.

Links to our individual blogs

Although we are working as group, we each have individual blogs for our own research, planning, construction and editing aspects of the music video we are planning on producing.
We have attached hyperlinks below that will take you straight to our individual blogs:
Laurie Amos
Jodie Nicholls
Francesca Harris
This was a group agreement we made together - post uploaded by Laurie Amos.

Choosing a brief

Welcome to Jodie Nicholls, Laurie Amos and Francesca Harris's group A2 Media blog.
For our A2 Media coursework, we have been asked to choose a brief between 14 options.
One of the briefs that stood out to us was number 1:
'A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:'
- A website homepage for the band
- A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
- A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).
We have bolded the options we have chosen to do, together with our music promo video.
We instantly came to this agreement as we are all passionate music fans; who regularly watch a variety of music videos together on TV, and YouTube. We believe that we have acquired a variety of Media Studies skills during our AS Level Media studies, that we can combine together to produce an excellent music video.

This is a group agreement we made together - post uploaded by Laurie Amos.