Production: How i'm feeling after first day filming

As a way of expressing how i'm feeling about the project and how filming day one at Greenwich Foottunnel went I made a podcast. I also converted this into a youtube clip.

Production: Backstage footage

First time group 29 are out filming, the location for today is Greenwich foot tunnel we are buzzing! Although we did come into some problems and disasters we managed to make do.

Production: out filming

Filming Day 1 

We were all buzzing to be out filming for the first time at the location greenwich foot tunnel, it was such a nice location much better than any of us anticipated. 

Below I have added some pictures just to give a quick snapshot of how excited we were.

Research, planning & production all in one

Putting thought into it

 

 

Research and Planning - Weather/Travel Conditions for Filming Day 1

We are going to begin our first day of filming on Monday 28th October.

This is how we are going to plan the day:

Between the hours of 12.00 - 15.00 :

We are going to film in Greenwich Foot Tunnel as this is already underground, it is more accessible to film at any time of day. 

The weather is set to be cloudy, which is fine as there will not be any sign of the weather in these shots.

16.00 - Onwards:

We plan to go and take test shots as well as film our footage in Millennium Bridge. 

You can see that there may be a slight chance of light rain, which we do not want and may cause some disruption, however we are still going to go and film, and if it gets to the point where we cannot film anymore, we will have to stop and reschedule.

Source - BBC London Weather 

With regards to any disruption to travel and roads, you can see that there are quite a few, however they are not to disrupt where we are filming directly. 

The yellow triangles indicate roadworks, the blue triangles illustrate signs of moderate impact and there are no major disruptions around the areas we are filming in. Which are all included on the map.

Source - Transport For London

There are no planned engineering works on any of the underground lines, DLR and Overground, and all stations are open. 

With regards to buses, there are no diversion distractions or engineering works on any of the routes we plan to take, however we may take other bus routes as we travel around Central London.

Source - Transport for London

Filming: Test Shot Disasters

As we are filming at night in a place with abnormal placements of lighting it was advised that as a group we go an do some test shots before hand. This was supposed to take place on Thursday 24th however that never happened. I'm feeling abit unprepared after this as filming is due to start on Monday 28th and I have no idea when we will get an pouty unity to get test shots done before then.

Pitch inquiries

Whilst presenting out pitch for our music video, we where asked various questions regarding our location, audience and costume

COSTUME

In our pitch we mentioned that our artists costumes changes may happen four/five times. We where questioned about this and asked why so many. 

Upon researching pop videos we discovered in some videos the artist sometimes has about four or five costume changes, for example in Chris Browns - Don't think they know video, he had 7 different costume changes. 

Costume 1

Costume 2 

Costume 3 

Costume 4

Costume 5

Costume 6

Costume 7

LOCATION

We where asked about our locations and why we chose them. In previous blogs we have explained why we have chosen the locations we have chosen. In popular music videos, it is a common trend to have shots in a studio, shots which consist of fluorescent colours and industrial type shots. For this reason and many others, we decided to pick these locations, Greenwhoch foot tunnel (industrial) Millennium bridge (colours) granary square and city and islington photography studio (studio) 

AUDIENCE 

When asked about out target audience, we where questioned as to why our core audience was not younger. 

When listening to our chosen song, I realised that out song was more on the grimy side of pop, not the younger side. This song is the type of song you may hear in a club, clubbing being a common trend amongst our core target audience.

Planning - Further Artist research

Upon doing further research on Pop Artist, I discovered that another popular trend amongst females is the performance/character aspect of the video. In popular music videos, the video is usually disjuncture which means the artist is forced to perform throughout. Sometimes in disjuncture type videos, there are sly hints of amplification between the song and the video. This can be through use of props, acting or mise en scene. 

Reflection On progress - BLOGGING HEALTH CHECK

After attending my blogging health check with my teacher it came to  my attention that my blog count is not where it should be at this stage. My use of ICT is reasonable but could be greater and my analyses could be much broader. To improve this I will have to dedicate much more time outside designated hours and attend more workshops.

Reflection on progress

A quick reflection on the progress i've made since the last checkpoint 

I've been putting in a lot of work for the pitch so I think I most definitely have improved since the last checkpoint. Since then I have learned to use a wide range of technology so that my blogs would look good. For instance Powtoon (an animation maker), iMovie and camtasia and other software and technology. I feel like I am in a good place and am kind of on track.

Planning: The big PITCH

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Here is group 29's music video pitch that we presented to our teacher and the class. In lesson we presented it slightly different to how it appears as we embedded the prezi link onto our website and accessed it via the website (see previous blogs for website link). However above is the original pitch prezi.

Reflection on Progress with Planning

The planning section of the project has had to be one of the most demanding sections yet. It incorporated all the ideas and research which we had done both individually and as a group, and the research had come in very handy at this part of the course as it allowed us to bring all the ideas together and conclude with some very ambitious production plans.

Looking back at the targets which I had set myself for the future when the research section of the project had come to an end, I personally believe I am stronger and more efficient in the use of my ICT skills in order to create higher standard blogs through a variety of presentation methods. Some of the technologies which I had used include Photobucket stories, Prezi online presentations, GIF image animations, slideshare presentations and a few others. Furthermore, I am discussing with my group more closely such as creating a group chat on our iPhones in order to discuss ideas and plans with everyones contribution. This has definitely improved communication skills within the group.

One target which I'm going to stick with and aim to achieve during the production phase of the project is keeping up to date with my blogging and the frequency in which I blog. Due to the volume of work, I found it difficult at times to come up with ideas as there was a lot of things to take into consideration, however, I am slowly seeing the 'bigger picture' and thinking outside the box. I am going to give myself a 15/20 due to the feeling that I am using a much wider range of technology to present ideas and concepts in my blogs, and also the improved communication. However, being up to date is still something which I need to put a lot of focus on in order for me to score myself a higher mark.

Two targets which I aim to achieve by the end of the production section of this project:

• Ensure I am always up to date with blogging, and blogging frequently in order to show as much of our journey through the project as possible
• Make sure the next section of the project is of a high quality standard by putting my best effort in and contributing as much as possible

Planning - Synergy Incorporation

With respect to synergy, we are using a colour theme of red, black and white. Alongside this we have a logo for our artist; a black rose. This is also linked to her surname - Black.

These aspects will be seen and put in to all three of our media products, bringing them together and giving the artist recognition.

Planning: Industry

The boring stuff 

Goodwin 

In terms of industry the plan for our music video is that it will have a disjuncture structure and consist of a performance from one character mostly action that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the lyrics but will contain some subtle links throughout.

We plan on using location and costume repetition in accordance to where we are at in the song for instance: 

Opening half chorus: Location 1

Verse 1: Location 1

Chorus: Location 2

Verse 2: Location 3

Chorus: Location 2

Bridge: Location 4

Chorus: Location 2 

This is just a rough outline of how we plan on structuring our video but for each location a different costume will be used and the change of location/ going back to a location will be indicative of where we are in the song in order to make it very clear and to all make sense and link. 

In the ending we will be having closure and we will achieve this by having the artist walk away in some way, this links to the song as she is talking about being so in love with someone who is not really the best of people and what we took from this is that at the end the walking away would signify her walking away from that love thus getting closure. 

Mulvey 

The general idea for our music video will be to go slightly against Mulvey's theory. However we plan on still incorporating the theory through certain actions such as dancing touching the body and playing with hair (keeping it appropriate of course), camera movement such as tilting up and down the body, perhaps also subtly through costume like the simple fact the artist will be dressed nicely and look attractive this will help attract the male audience (wider audience). 

Venallis

Our music video will follow all the conventions of this theory.

Planning: Looking for inspiration

After our pitch and getting some feedback I had a sudden brainwave for the beginning of our music video. 

Which was to have a close up shot of me walking away from the camera just of my feet and "Adara Black" and " Love Killer" to appear on the screen as I'm walking 

ANIMATIC

The performer in the animatic is NOT the performer who will take part in our music video.

Planning: Copyright Clearance

As the song I originally obtained copyright clearance for was not our final choice I went about obtaining clearance for Cheryl Cole Love Killer :

Planning: Pitch things

Reaching a wider audience: 

In order to have a forum to post things on I made a group website using Wix. The website is not fully up and running as yet however below is a link:

http://taijaclarke33.wix.com/adara-black-group29 

 (above is a screenshot of one part of the website)

Planning: further audience research

I done some more research to help with our artist

Planning: Our artist

The face behind Adara Black: 

Taija Clarke

We all discussed who would be our performer, who would be 'Adara Black' and after ruling out Djamel and Kevin ( Because they are boys and we have a female song) and Aliyah as she preferred to be behind the scene at this stage we came to a decision that Taija would be our artist. After doing a test lip syncing video we found she suited the voice and the song perfectly. We also felt it would be easy to make her up into a great artist as we have seen her attend college in many different styles and trend yet still look amazing.

Here is the video of our test lip syncing:

Planning: Keeping in contact

Just made a group twitter and instagram so that our group can keep updating pictures, videos, tweets when out filming

 

insta:

Planning: Pitch preparing

Below are some screenshots of the editing processes for animations and videos i created for the pitch: 

Here i created a short animation stating a few risks that could take place when our filming as well as an animation regarding industry. I thought it would be a fun idea to do something like this to make the pitch more visually exciting. 

Here is the industry animation video: 

Below is a screenshot of me editing two interviews i done about audience and what the audience expect from a pop artist in terms of what artists wear, what colours they expect to find in a pop video and what they expect to see going on the video.

Below is a screenshot of me putting together the actual pitch in preparation for the lesson. 

Planning: Production schedule

The most current production schedule for group 29

Planning: Audience research

One example of a core audience member

As a group we had taken in to consideration that audience would be one of the most important aspects of music production. We need to aim to target the correct audiences in order for it to be an overall success.


The name of the member is Nina Cole
Lives in Camden, London
She's 21 years old
She is a female
She is black british
Currently studying at university, a course in Performing Arts
Buys groceries from Asda
During her spare time, she enjoys cheerleading, clubbing with friends during the weekend, and alot of time also taken up by study
She occasionally reads the Metro newspaper. Because she's a university student, she isn't prepared to invest in newspapers each week so she benefits from keeping up to date with world news with a free newspaper she can read, on her way to university for example
She reads the Heat magazine, allows her to keep up to date with celeb news and fashion
She uses the train to get to her university as it is based outside of London
She enjoys using Apple products such as iPhone and iPod, she finds storing music on her iPod very convenient and thinks that iTunes is a great way to purchase the latest music. Her iPhone lets her keep up to date with the people she cares about through social networking sites such as Twitter.
She is very attracted by the Versace clothing line
A store she normally shops at for clothes is Topshop. Because she is on a budget because she is in debt with University, they offer trendy clothing for women and she likes the styles being offered.
She hasn't been to America as of now, however it is her dream to go across seas and travel to America when she graduates from University
Nina particularly likes the Pop genre of music as she frequently listens to it and parties to it while at the club with her friends.

Planning: Costume and Location

Locations and costumes for Love Killer

 

I have order the locations and costumes in accordance to the order they will appear in the video and which costumes and locations will go together.

Planning: Looking for inspiration - Other music videos

Planning - Final Locations

We as a group have decided on the locations we are going to film in. We will be filming in the following locations:

• Granary Square
• Greenwich Foot tunnel
• Millennium Bridge 
• City And Islington Photography Studio

Upon researching pop videos, I have observed that locations such as the ones we have chosen are popular amongst artist of the dance/pop genre. Locations which vary in colour, Industrial type areas, outdoor locations and studio locations, all also popular when recording disjuncture type videos. 

Millennium Bridge

Greenwich Foot tunnel

Granary Square

Risk Assesment

Whilst dealing with the camera, we understand that it must be in somebodies sight at all time, it can never be left unattended. Also, the camera is very expensive, so we as a group know that we have to handle it with care. We understand that there should always be two people minimum around the camera. If the camera is kept at someones house, then it is out of the way of any possible danger and it is a place where it is safe. (Preferably in the bottom of a wardrobe to avoid dropping) Further more, the weather may have an effect on our filming, but more importantly on our camera, therefore we as a group understand that purchasing an umbrella and/or a cover for the camera is essential. The same goes for the various pieces of equipment we will be using (Tripod, Speakers, Lights etc) none of these items can be left unattended at anytime and will be kept from harms way if kept overnight or over the weekend. When we finish filming, we know that it is essential that the camera is dismounted from the tripod correctly, because dismounting it incorrectly can badly damage the tripod, which is another piece of expensive equipment. Furthermore, we are entering autumn, which means it may rain more often. This means it could rain whilst recording and our artist may get wet which could ruin her costume. So we will endeavor to purchase covers/umbrella for both the equipment and the artist. A lot of our shots will be shot in the dark, therefore we will endeavor to keep the camera in our sights. Also, we will check bus/train times to see if there are any delays that could set our production schedule back.

Planning: making decisions

As part of group 29's planning processes and keeping in contact we decided to have group chats via iMessage and here is some of the things we have been discussing over the past few days regarding the pitch and artist branding 

 

 From this particular discussion we decided that it would be wise if our colour scheme was mainly black, white and blue as these colours would appear most in our video. Although they are vey simple colours we can do a lot with shapes and things to spice up the look, also we can use other colours in the video costume and props wise to make the video more like the pop genre. 

Planning - Audience Task

This is a profile of someone who is apart of our core audience for our artist.


Name: Nicolette Taylor

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: Black

What you do for a living?
Go to University, studying journalism. Also working part time at Topshop.

Where you buy your groceries?
Tesco

What you do in your spare time?
Going out with friends, spending time with family, drawing listening to music, reading and fashion.

What newspaper you read?
Daily Mail, Metro

What magazines you read?
Look, Elle

What mode of transport is used the most?
Tube, Train

What gadgets you use?
Samsung Galaxy, ipod, Kindle

A brand that you are to?
Chanel

Where you buy your clothes from most?
Topshop, River Island, H&M

Your favourite drink?
Vodka

Where you may like to go on holiday?
St. Barts

Why you like this genre/band?
Eccentric, edgy fashion sense. I could take some style tips. Her music is easy listening and able to connect with the lyrics, my kind of music.

Planning - Original Music Video

There is no original video for our song, therefore we will be creating our own. This gives us the opportunity and freedom to be as creative as we want and produce a fantastic music video.

Planning - Inspiring Music Videos

This is a previous students Music Video.
I have found this inspiring and really liked it in terms f the song choice and location. I like that it has an urban feel to it and they have used London streets. They look very natural and comfortable. I also liked her costumes and their locations are good, they fit with the style of the song and create a whole image for the artist. I also like how the shots have cut well to the beat, it looks good and gives the video more body and emphasis.
There are a few aspects of this music video which I would like to be incorporated in to our video, such as the use use of colour, location and creating an overall image for our artist.

Planning - Examining the Website for the Original Artist

This is what the official website for cheryl cole looks like:

Already there is a clear link, as this is the cover of her latest album, "A Million Lights". 

Planning - Requesting Copyright Clearance

Here are two screenshots illustrating the request for copyright clearance for:


Eliza Doolittle - Big When I Was Little

Cheryl Cole - Love Killer

Planning - Shortlist of Potential Songs

Planning - Conventions of a Pop Video

When you look at pop videos you notice that there are certain elements that they all use, given that they are all of the same genre.
Some of these conventions are:
 - An upbeat tempo most of the time.
 - The use of colour; there is a theme between the artist and the video.
 - There also tends to be an atmosphere of happiness/fun/joy created in the majority of pop videos.

Another thing that pop videos have in common are the aspects of location, costume and props.
Here are a few videos that I feel illustrate this:

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

In this video there are various costume changes dependant on the storyline. In the beginning she is wearing casual clothes, like going on a day out. Towards the end there is some sort of party on the beach and she is then wearing shorts and a bikini. This video illustrates amplification.

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

This video, I feel definitely illustrates the main conventions of a pop video in respect to the use of colour and the tone of the song and beat. There are a few costume changes and only one location, a house. The story is basically a party, which creates the fun atmosphere. Along with this there are a wide range of props used. This video is illustration. 

Justin Timberlake - Cry Me a River

In this video, there are quite a few props used, however only one location, again. There is a colour scheme but this time it is a lot more toned down. You don't get the same vibe from typical pop videos with this one, as the storyline is different, it has more an emotion element. There isn't much costume change either, which makes it more of a realistic situation. 

Planning: Looking for inspiration - Pop video Conventions

Pop Video conventions

Commonality between these 3 videos: 

1. Studio setting at least one scene
2. Colourful
3. Fun/Parties/Dancing
4. Disjuncture
5. 3/4 Location
6. Random props

Artist Research - Analysis

Costume, Locations and Props are often used in music videos to help the appeal of the video and also to help sell the artist. 

RITA ORA - RIP

I chose this song to analyse because the pace is similar to our chosen song. When analysing the video I noticed that there weren't many characters in the video, only the artist and the featuring artist. This is probably to avoid taking away attention from the artist. There is only five locations in the video and the settings are all very similar. They are all kind of bare/barren - Big empty spaces (They look very industrial/urban) Her costume is informal/very casual, this could be to amplify the fact that she is a pop/urban artist.

RITA ORA - SHINE YA LIGHT

This video, similar to the first one, has a lot of brighter colours. This could be to attract Unlike the first video, we can see in this one there are many characters including the artist. We can also see that the location changes are very few and are all set outside. The locations used are all urban locations (Estates, roads ect)

Reflection on progress

I feel that so far this year I have not been working as hard as I should be, mainly down to the fact that i did not imagine the workload would differ this much in comparison to the AS year.  In terms of ICT skills and the different medias used, I believe I have delivered and shown that I have learnt some skills from the AS year. However I do believe that the level of work will change and the level of detail will differ.

To do this I will:

• Put more hours into media in and outside of college 
• Attend workshops
• Show more commitment towards the group
• Blog on time 

Moodboard - Artist ideas (Costume)

The slide-share below shows various different female pop artist. These are possible costume ideas for our artist(Adara Black). The slide shows different styles amongst the artist but all within the same genre of music. This allows us to have a range of styles we can choose from for our artist.
 

Skills Audit

Research conducted in the AS year:

• Going out taking pictures of possible locations 
• Doing research on the background of our idea (Thriller film opening)
• Researching the background of the thriller film industry  

Developments in my research:

• Researching branding
• Looking at different videos (all within the criteria for our pitch - Female Pop artist)
• Researching artists and they're background

The biggest development in my research from the AS to the A2 year is probably the depth in which my research is conducted. This year I have looked at different forms of research such as magazines, actual albums, different reading materials as apposed to last year which only consisted of me researching on the internet. 

Branding - Colours

When looking at branding ideas for our artist, we looked at various female artist of the same type of pop/dance genre. We looked at the album covers of female pop artist and we noticed that a common trend among the album covers where the colours. The colours which appeared a lot where:

• Black
• White
• Red
• Gold/Yellow
• Pink
• Purple
• Sometimes Blue

Research - Analysing Costume, Setting and Location in Music Videos

Three Videos that I feel illustrate the use of costume setting and location in music videos well are:

Macklemore - Thrift Shop

In this video there aren't that many location changes but he is many different outfits, so he changes costume a lot, however this is also relevant to the title of the song "thrift shop". There are a few settings, but there isn't much range. I'd say that this song is of the Pop genre.

Fergie - Clumsy

Research - Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis' theory discusses editing and camera work in more depth in music videos.
She says that; edits in a music video are more frequent - this links to disjuncture. And that they have a rhythmic basis closely linked to the song. 

The main points of her observations are:

 - The usual rules of continuity editing are broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen - Editing techniques such as wipes and special effects may be added.

 - Jump cuts are used a lot.

 - The camera may move in time with the music.

 - A base track is used frequently to give the video a structure.

Here are a few songs which illustrate a few of her ideas:

All of The Lights - Kanye West

This video uses a lot of special effects and editing techniques, which do draw your attention to the video.

Justin Beiber - Beauty and A Beat

In this video you can see that the camera is moving with the music as well as the artists.

Lady GaGa - Applause

There is a master shot in this video where she is sporting a neutral look. The video keeps coming back to this shot of her over and over again.

Bruno Mars B.O.B - Nothin' On You

In this video there are a lot of jump cuts used as well as the effects which give the illusion that everything is moving itself.

Artist Research

ANGEL - ABOUT TIME


Key Features of album cover:

• Colour scheme - Green, White, Black, Grey, Brown. 
• Close up of artist face
• Different font style (Specific font for artist name) 
• Graphics of the cover - Ripped paper cover

Key Features of music videos

• Artist faces seen in a close up (similar to album cover)

 

• Colour scheme is repeated (green)

 

• Artist font shown

 

•  Artist font repeated again

  

              

WRETCH 32 - BLACK AND WHITE

Key features of the album cover

• Black and white colour scheme (fits in with the theme/name of the album)
• Artist seen in a side view
• Artist name in bold (Bold Font)

Key features of the music video

• Artist font in video

•  Artist seen in a side view (similar to album cover)

• Extras seen in black and white clothing, following the colour scheme of the album cover and the and the album name.