Blog Reflections: Week 8

This week we have focused on all of our last few parts for the pre-production stage. This included several things.

Our flatplans had to be our initial hand drawn designs of what we want our magazine advert and digipak to look like. In our job roles we split up this work evenly, it was my job to create the magazine advertisement and my partners job to come up with a digipak. We worked together when brainstorming our ideas so that we could both go away and create two items that still had synergy and had a clear link between each media text. 

It was also my job to make up a production schedule which would help us plan when we would go out and film, where we would go and what scenes we would film. By doing this it will help us meet our deadlines set by our teachers and the ones we have set for ourselves, which will help us keep on top of the work. 

The shot list was the final piece of work that we completed for the pre-production stage. We had initially decided that Tara would work on this by herself, but we decided to work together when completing this so we both had an visual idea of what would be going on when we actually go out and film.  We had to consider:

shot types,movements,angles,duration of each shot,locations,props,equipment,what will be seen in each,shot(what the actors will do), and the lyrics 

Now that we have completed all of our pre - production work we could go on to begin all of our production. We have planned to go out over the half term and visit our two locations to film the narrative side of the music video. These will be Brick Lane and Camden Lock, we will get to these locations by train and hope to find somewhere suited which isnt too over crowded and too busy to film in. 

DigiPak Flatplan

For our digipak we wanted to create something that would have synergy with the music video and magazine advertisement. We had to come up with something that would help brand our artist through the images used, the track list, the album name and the typography. My partner Tara come up with the digipak after we had discussed our overall idea for each media text that we would go on and create. 

This is what we want our digipak to look like, we wanted to keep colours consistent and keep the image of a rose consistent through all three products. We conformed to the conventional digipak as we had 6 sides. We looked at digipaks online and the majority had 6 sides. We used red, black and white because we felt the colours are modern and our target audience can use these colours to identify with as these three colours are currently in. We wanted to show the genre of our artist on the digipak hence the studio and guitar. We also wanted to use a range of shots so the digipak didn't look boring, we want all the sides to be different. We also decided to have the title and the name of the artist on the front because its a convention of digipak, we used the passengers album cover as inspiration as the band is in the same music genre. A big thing for us was that we wanted a simple digipak because the majority of indie artist don't tend to have overdone, amazing digipaks. So we didn't have to much on our back cover other than the track list, bar code and the record label. I picked a white background because it connotes purity, innocence and wholeness. White also connotes how simple the artist is we will also keep him simple in all other products. The name of the digipak appeared on the front cover once and the CD twice. It appeared on the cover once because we had it in a big bold font, meaning the title took up a big space on the cover. We placed it twice on the CD so people know the name when they have the CD by itself. 

Magazine Advertisment Flatplan

This is what we plan for our magazine advert to look like, we stuck with the same colour scheme and used the objects to help create synergy between all of the media texts. For our magazine advertisment we wanted to create something that created a clear brand for the artist. We wanted to make sure that the colours white, black and red are used in all of our media texts to create a brand for the artist. We ended up using the same cross and rose which we put in the digipak and we will include on the artists guitar as a sticker which will help create a strong synergy between all pieces of media. We wanted a close up shot of the artist in the middle of the X in the same costume that he will be wearing in the digipak and the music video. We will make sure the artist is wearing the same hat as we wanted to make this clear to the audience that this is how the artist will be recognised in the industry. We used the colour red as most of his songs will be associated with love and he will sing about his love life and heartbreaks. We stuck with the colours black and white as we felt as though even though it is quite simple it will make the main focus stand out to the audience and the artist is quite simplistic with his music so it works well together. We featured the song "Once in A lifetime" as this is the song that we will be using for our music video, we made the typography of the album title large and at the top so the focus will stay on that. We placed the artists name at the bottom in a smaller font as we felt as though this was conventionally seen in most magazine advertisments. The Interscope record label is placed in the bottom right hand corner as we don't think it is something as important as the artist himself.

Recci Images

Recci

These are some of the locations which we will use in our music video, we picked these locations because we liked the look it gave and we believe these are common locations used in music videos. We don't want to have too many locations in the video because we don't want to confuse the audience.

Back-up location

We then picked Ella's house for the bedroom scene that we need because we have access when ever we like and its very close to school meaning we don't have to travel too much. The locations we will use is her bedroom because its a typical bedroom making the scene look more realistic to the audience. We don't want a bedroom which is expensive like you see in RnB videos we want simple because our genre is indie. This will be a back up location for us to film at incase we don't like any other shots we take.

We will also use brick lane to film the scenes when the couple are all loved up, Brick Lane has the look we want to create for our locations, it has a typical hipster look and fill making the genre more clear to the audience.  We will film the couple around the brick lane market because we like the mise-en-scene. However we may have trouble getting there as we have to get on trains and the cast may not be able to travel when we need them, also if we have to re film it may be hard to get continuity. If this location fails we have a back up of the skate park in Mawney park, because this is typical location which people said they would expect. We also think it has a typical young relationship feel as well as a indie feel. We will film the stuff which will be on the projector at these locations. This location is easier to get too for the actors in the video. These locations both have the feel of a indie music video and will help portray our narrative of a homeless guy. 

We also want to film in Camden because we feel that the miss-en-scene will portray our narrative perfectly. Our narrative is about a homeless guy trying to get a rich girl to notice him, we will have him sitting on street corners and walking around Camden. We also want to film the artist performing to the camera against a wall with graffiti on it. However this location may be hard to get all the cast to because its fairly far from school. If this location fails we will try and use different place in Brick Lane. 

Our final location for our music video is the school music studio, we will have to get permission and book it out but we believe this location would be good for the performance and show the emotion of the artist. This will also strongly show the audience our genre and allow us to have a performance aspect to our video without having the artist against a plain back drop. Our artist will be in this location for more than half of the video so its important we get enough time at this location.

Inspiration and Casting

When looking at who we wanted to cast as our artist and our character who will play the love interest we had to think about who would fit the role best in terms of look, acting ability and how well they can lip sync. We carried out a small casting where we went around and asked people to lip sync a song of their choice to the camera. By doing this we feel as though we have made the right choice in who we have casted as they can lip sync well and have a strong acting ability. When looking for the girl we had to base this more upon looks and how available she will be for us when we need her to film. I feel more confident now we have chosen who will play what role, and we feel that we have made good choices with our two characters as they look how we expect and they are dedicated and reliable.

We also found some inspiration through some pictures which we then went onto make a pinterest board. By doing this its helped us put all our creative ideas together and make something that has inspired as we have gone through the course so far. We put the images together to help us get a overall idea of our inspiration and how this could shape our ideas

Production Schedule

This is the production schedule we will follow throughout the half term and when we return to school. By following this schedule of when we will film certain shots it will help us keep on top of our work and meet all of the deadlines set by our teachers. We have given our self time to film over the half term, and as we wont have access to the schools music studio we have planned to film them shots when we come back. We have also left it so we have more time before our final deadline for the filming so that we can go back and make any changes to shots we are not happy with. 

Blog Reflections: Week 7

Last week we carried out a focus group where we asked several people about our idea, what they would expect to see and how they thought we could develop this idea. From this we felt as though we could get some more answers from a wider population of people. We did this by carrying out a vox pop, this helped us as we asked more males as our focus group only included one and we got their opinion our two narrative ideas.

From this we have shaped our idea and changed it to fit with our feedback and this helped us know which was good and should be included and what we should not use. 

This week we made our treatment, we first used prezi to create it on and this is our initial idea. However we then went on to get more feedback by carrying out a vox pop and this meant our idea changed. Our final treatment included our exact idea that we have finally chosen, however this may change if we feel as though some things arent going to work or be realistic.

This week we also started to design our flat plans for our magazine advert and digipak. 

Treatment

This was our inital treatment which we based our first main idea upon, however from the feedback we received from our focus group and vox pop we altered our idea to fit what people said we should change and improve.

(This presentation can only be viewed on Google Chrome)

Artist :

Our artist is Landon Austin a white,young male who is based in Nashville, USA. Landon belongs to the indie genre and is represented as a simplistic and casual artist. This is shown through his music videos and his appearance  Landon wears typical clothes such as a plain t-shirt and jeans and his music videos are often just him singing to the camera .This tells us that he is laid back and the focus is all on his voice rather than his looks and what he wears. Landon Austin plays a guitar, like most indie artists this connotes that he is a real artist and hasn't been shaped by the music industry. The use of his instrument in most of his songs shows that he can use this to express his emotions and his dedication and passion for his career as an artist. We feel as though the artist may come across as quite smart and more well dressed than we expect when we listen to our music so we have made some changes to make him fit the genre with how we feel he should fit it. Our artist wont be materialistic and will never be seen wearing brands which will make him more appeal able to a people of a working class. He will be branded by wearing a beanie hat, which will be seen throughout all of the media texts to show a clear link.  He will also wear skinny acid wash jeans, a white t-shirt, a bomber jacket and just plain trainers. We have decided to use this style as our focus group said they would want the artist to come across a simple and like a typical hipster. From our survey we carried out we also found that people want our artist to be exactly like that description, compared to him wearing a suit, a shirt, sunglasses or baggy trousers and a hoody.

Audience :

Our target audience for all 3 products are teenage girls from 14-25, we believe this is a good age for them to understand the music but also they will be attracted to the male artist. We would like to appeal to males but from the research males don't have much to relate to with our idea, however we will still try and cast a young attractive female so the males can relate a little. Females are more likely to relate to the artist because he will sing about his feelings which the majority of females like. The colours in all three products will be aimed at a young audience by using current colours such as black, white and red. These colours are in and teenagers will be able to relate and use the products for personal reasons.  The main target audience for the music video will mainly be the white ethnicity due to the fact that both characters will be white. However we would like to open the artist up to all ethnicity by having a different race extras at the party to, also the magazine and Digipak won't be aimed at a specific ethnicity, we will use colours and images which can relate to every ethnicity. The artist will be aimed at working class as the Digipak mainly because a working class would be able to understand him and purchase the three products.  We will appeal to the young female audience by having an attractive male as the artist and keep everything modern in all three products and have narratives which they can personally relate too. We will use costume in all three products to help attract them and make the miss-en-scene look young. 

Our Vision :

Our vision is to have a split between a narrative and a performance which will occur throughout the whole of the music video. We will have three main locations, one being in a normal room where we will probably use the green screen. Our second location will be at a party where we will film the narrative side to the music video and our final location will be used for the performance element where it will be set in a recording studio. Throughout this we will have the artist in the same costume throughout the performance to keep it the same, and he will always be seen singing with his guitar as this is also a strong part contributing to his brand. By showing him in a recording studio it will connote his love and dedication for his role as an artist, and by showing his guitar as a prop it will help show how he can show his emotions through his music. When using the green screen we will create a projection which will appear over the plain screen and the two characters in the narrative will stand in front of it so the projection is over them. We got some inspiration from the music video Ariana Grande-The Way as they use a similar projection over the two artists featuring in the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sV0S8qWSy0). This will help show the audience more about what their relationship is like and the good and bad times they went through. In the location where we see the two characters at a party we will see the boy and girl being quite distant from each other. The girl will be seen dancing with other boys while we contrast and see the boy on his own and this helps connote his heartbreak and longingness for the girl. This will help show the different sides to the relationship and how the relationship has its ups and downs. We got some inspiration from Beyonces music video-If i were a boy as they use a similar party scene where the girl is attracting male attention and the boy reacts in a bad way when she approaches him after (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M). The props will be rather minimal and often found just like the lighting as we don't have resources to be making anything to fancy. I think keeping it simple with just a guitar and using locations which we can use freely will be much better as it will create a sense of realism for the audience and they will be able to relate the artist and the characters more through personal identity. The camera language will also be quite simple, however we will use a range of different shot types to keep it interesting. We will mainly use long takes as we feel as though they work effectively when following the action, we will also use alot of closeups to show the audience the actors facial expressions and long shots will help show how he is alone and quite isolated from everyone else. I think this will help connote his emotions and feelings towards the girl and the artist will also be shot in a similar way but extreme closeups will be used to focus on certain body parts (e.g. focus on him playing the guitar by just showing his hands as this will make it more intimate with the audience and they will feel more involved)

Our magazine advert and digipak will all include a similar feel to what we have seen in the music video. We will add in a object which will be shown throughout all media texts to help create a strong synergy. This will help it be appeal able to the same targeted audience who we have aimed our music video at. In our digipak we will include two objects that will also brand the artist and make him recognisable from a artists point of you. The two objects will be of a rose and a cross, which will be shown through all media texts and the artist will be wearing a beanie in all of the images to help strengthen the brand that we are going for. The rose and cross will be shown on the digipak, and will be incorporated as a sticker onto the artists guitar and will be as a symbol on the magazine advertisement. The rose is a symbol of love and the need for a person, however as the rose will be black it will show that he is unlucky in love and the black x is a symbol of negativity and his love life may come across as not as how he wants it. However we will use the colour red in the typography as it connotes love and passion which we want to show as we believe it will work well with having some colour as the colour scheme will be quite minimal. The shots will be similar in all 3 of the media texts and we plan to show a close up and long shot of the artist in both the digipak and the magazine advert to help create synergy and he will also be dressed in the same costume with the same body language and facial expressions.  By creating this synergy it will help create a clear brand for the audience to recognise and this will help him get noticed as it will be shown in every media text we create.

Technology :

 Through out the production we will be using a standard digital video camera which allows us to film the scenes on, this is because this is the only camera available to us. However the camera which we have access to will be perfect for what we want to film, the digital video camera is easy to transport which we need to get around different locations and film. We will also use a tripod when filming to keep the digital camera steady and straight, making the scenes look more real. The equipment we get will be provided by the school as we don't have a budget for this project. All the scenes we film will be stored on our SD card which is a small memory card which goes in the digital camera. The camera and tripod are very light making it easy to film in different locations and cost us no money because the school provide them. We will also use a I mac to edit all the work together using final cut to edit the music video together. This is a new program however we had a little practise on at the end of last year. For the magazine and Digipak we will be using fireworks and photoshop to create, this makes it easier for us to make the two products look realistic, we also have experience using the two programs meaning we shouldn't take too long with the products. The equipment we are using is given by the school and is all familiar to us making this project easier in term of technology. In post production we will use a flip camera to film our evaluations because it allows us to set it up easily and allows us to transfer the video quickly at a low quality to the computer to upload. We have used a flip camera before making it easier for us and allows us to build on our current knowledge. We will use a range of websites during production such as youtube to get inspiration for editing techniques and to analyse products to get a real understanding of what we are making. We will use outlook skydrive to upload powerpoint and word documents through out the year as it gives the teachers easy access to our work and allows me to view my work when ever i need it. We will use the Internet to get images for the magazine cover like the interscope logo and other logo which we may need. 

Logistics:

 We have a few locations in mind because we don't know if we will be able to get to them or if we are allowed to film in these locations. We need a studio to film the scene when he is singing to connote the genre of indie. We will try and use the school studio however we need permission and need to know when we can film. If not we will have to find an alternative. We then need a location to film the narrative, we will need a party location which will be at my house as we have access when ever we want and its easy to get to for us. We will also need to film the couple doing couple stuff which could be anywhere so we could use the street which we have access to anytime, however if we want a hipster look we have to travel which may be hard with the cast as they might not have the time so we have consider using the green screen, even for our photos for the digipak. The locations we use for filming will be the same for the digipak as we want to keep the three products consistent. We will also use Ella's bedroom as we have unlimited access to it and can film when ever, this location will also be easy to get to for everyone. For the magazine we are going to use a black backdrop, so we will have to book the backdrops at school and make sure we can get the cast all there at one time. We are still considering people to play the artist because we want a certain look as we want a white male who can lip sink and have good chemistry with the female. We have someone in mind but we still want to look, this person will be chosen if they can lip sink and have the look, we really want to create the look of a indie artist so the audience know what genre we are making the video from. The main problems which we might find is finding someone with the look and being able to lip sink, so we may have to settle for one or the other, we don't want someone who is boring in front of the camera. The weather maybe a problem because its starting to get cold which will make it hard to travel to locations and film. They weather may be inconsistent for filming which may make the video look unreal.  We also want someone who will be able to do the photo shoot for the magazine and digipak, we have to find someone who has the time.