Filming day 5

On Sunday we had planned to complete our filming in the woods however due to the weather, and the continuity issues because of it, we had to change the plans and so we decided to film at Tayla's. We got all of the mirror shots done which involves Tayla looking at her reflection in two mirrors. We thought Tayla reflection beaming out of two mirrors would be effective as it would hint to the audience the different sides to Tayla. We set up two cameras and so were able to get a variety of shots. Tara was able to edit the shots to give them the effect we want them to have. Below are some pictures of the shots.

Banks 'Brain' music video

My group and I have decided to have a few shots of Tayla in a circle during the music video. We were inspired after watching the music video "Brain' by the singer Banks. We have decided to do this as we think it will make the music video look professional and it will create 'Star Image' (a theory by Richard Dyer). Below is the music video.

Creative Decision Making

In Fridays lesson my group and I were looking over our footage and playing around with the opacity on iMovie as we want the music video to be mainly black and white with the only colour being from the protagonists red cape. This was proving to be difficult as we couldn't match the colouring of the different shots up. We were also finding it hard to change only the colour of the cape and nothing else as the cape wasn't going the right colour. We are hoping to resolve this problem in Wednesdays lesson as we think that the contrast of the red cape and the black and white will be very effective.

Filming day 4

My group and I began filming in our third location today, which was at Tayla's house, to get some indoor shots. We want a monochrome colour palette, which would conform to Indie music videos, and so Tara has edited the shots to give them the effect we want. Below are some images of the filming day.

 These two shots show the protagonist (left) and the antagonist (right).

The shot on the left shows the protagonist nervously looking out of the window. We want this to show her worry at what the future holds and her nerves at moving on. The shot on the right however shows the protagonist curled up by the wall. The shadows in this shot are meant to portray the protagonists disoriented state.

Here the protagonist is being watched by the antagonist. This symbolises that the protagonist feels overwhelmed by the past and is struggling to move on as the past and her demons are always with her.

Group Vlog on changes to the music video

This week my group has made several changes to our music video. After attempting the projection shots several times my group decided to put some studio shots in place of this. We have also decided to stray from the forest scenes and focus more on studio shots to portray the protagonists internal conflict. However we are still keeping the red riding hood shots as we want to keep some of our original idea about fairytales. We are also keeping the idea of 'escapism' and so we feel that the forest shots will emphasise this. Below is a quick vlog of our changes.

Music video Storyline change

During Fridays lesson my group and I were going over the different ideas we have for our music video as we felt that the storyline we had so far was a little boring. After many failed ideas Tayla came up with the idea to have the music video start with a male character shouting at the female protagonist and then have this male character recurring throughout the rest of the music video. The female character would still be in the forest for part of the music video as a way to escape this person. We all really liked this idea as it kept to our original idea about escapism and also meant that we could keep the forest shots that we have already filmed. I think this idea will be effective as it will leave it ambiguous to the audience to work out who this man is. The audience can decide if this man is a past boyfriend or if he represents the protagonists struggles with herself.

Projection complications

In the lesson today my group and I had a discussion about our idea of projecting leaves off of Tayla as we have tried many ways of executing it but all our ways have failed. Our main problem is we can't get rid of the background as we want the leaves to just project off of Tayla and the background to be clear.  We mentioned a few ideas of what we could do instead of this idea including using water (as water is a recurring factor in many indie music videos), oil, paint and food colouring. We are hoping to get our hands on some of these products by the end of the week so we can try out our other ideas.

BFI trip

On Thursday we went to the British Film Institute (BFI). It was very helpful as we got to see some past A level music videos that had done well and we also heard explanations for them all as to why they had achieved high marks.

Advise

Some advice that we were given when creating our music videos was...
-Include lots of close ups and extreme close ups
-Do one idea very well
-Keep a simple narrative
-Control your environment
-Be innovative
-Practice shots and edits
-Control lighting
-Experiment with shots


Below is the step by step information for creating a music video that we learnt...

1) Assess your resources
-Start with performers

2) Warm up
-Lip sync- film and edit
-Remake video
-Photoshoot

3) Recce
-Limit locations
-Photo footage
-Floor plan
-Access to lights and sound

4) Pitch the whole package
-Treatment pitch
-Mood bord
-Technical

5) Plan beats ideas
-NO IDEA? Don't get stuck
-IT'S ALL IN MY HEAD? Just an idea
-GREAT IDEA! Still just an idea

6) Plan everything
-Storyboard/animatic
-Shooting schedule
-Shoot early
-Make sure performers are rehearsed

7) Shoot
-At least ten times with different set-ups
- Motivate performers
-Shoot extra shots

8) Eit
-Sync
-Paper edit
-Upload a rough copy

9) Evidence whole process
-All pitches
-Research
-Photos
-Behind the scenes

10) Evaluation
-Evaluation starts now
-Make it exciting
-Directors commentar
-Interviews
-Directors websites and showreel



Below is the presentation about History and Theory that we were shown in the first session...



Below is the presentation about Making Music Videos for the second session...

Digipak

In Wednesdays lesson we learnt about digital packs (digipaks) and why they have been such a convenient option as opposed to a standard jewel case packaging. 

What is a digipak?

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

Digipaks are usually 139.5mmX6mmX125.5mm

Digipaks can be more popular as...

-They are more ecologically friendly

-They are more compact 

-They are easier to maintain

-They are more movable

-They are virtually shatterproof

-It makes it look more premium

The Genetic conventions on a digipak are 

-Parental advisory

-Logo

-Tracklist

-Hologram

-Reviews  

-Barcode 

Don't look now trailer

Below is the trailer for the film 'Don't look now' which my group has been recommended to watch. After watching the trailer I can see that the colour palette is similar to the one my group and I want to use for our music video as the trailer is mainly black and white with splashes of colour which is what my group are aiming for. A similarity between our music video and this trailer is the only bright colour in them is the Red coat. My group and I have decided to do this to draw attention to the protagonist as red symbolises danger which shows that trouble is to come. This could possibly be the reason why the film has decided to do this as well.