Plan for filming on the 01/10/16

On the 1st of october wehave a big day of filming, where a lot of our footage will come from. We are filming in Nottingham city centre and around hockly, in the streets and inside some shops. It is important that we get all the shots we need in this location on the planned day of filming so that we don't delay editing any more and don't have to revisit Nottingham as it takes quite a lot of time to get there.

Importing clips and starting editing 30/09/16

Me editing.

Today emma and I decided to upload all of the footage we've got so far on to the computer we plan to work on. We copied these into adobe premier pro which is the editing software we will use to edit on. We used this last year for our coursework and therefore are well acustomed with how to use it and this will hopefully give us an advantage this year as we won't have to spend time looking into how to use the software but can instead just get straight on editing and this will allow us to be more efficient.

Part of what we started to  edit.

Although we started to edit some parts of the video together with what we had, we hadn't yet got all of our footage which made it hard to put it into an order so we decided to just pause and focus on gathering the rest of our footage before we continued to put the video together.

Filming 29/09/16

Today we filmed singular shots of the female character, played by me. This included shots inside of my house of the female character pregnant and losing the baby. Also close ups of the sonogram and some aesthetic shots. This was valuable as it gave me an opportunity to film some of the shots. We also learnt that when you're inside it is important to set the white balance, otherwise the footage can look orange toned and ruin the overall look of the clip. We learnt this the hard way after some of the footage taken in the bathroom turned out looking orange, but once we amended this it returned to a good quality.
We also filmed shots of me running outside of the house to the hospital and this gave us an opportunity to get a good variety of shots ranging from close ups to low angle shots of the female character running.

We also went out on to Attenborough nature reserve and filmed a lot of shots of the me walking around and close ups of my face. This is meant to be filmed as point of view shots from the male character, like he was watching her. These shots will be good to insert through out the video as they act as good shots to fill empty space as they aren't crucial to the narrative.

Filming 28/09/16

Today we filmed at my house and shot all of the footage inside of the house successfully. We used studio lighting as inside we wouldn't have as good natural lighting and we also used a trip and the cannon 700D camera. Emma filmed a lot of the footage today as I am acting in our video although aesthetic shots or shots just of our male character, acted by rob, would be filmed by me.

Today was very successful and we have gathered a lot of clips. The main scenes we filmed were the ones set in the bedroom where they are happy and chilling together and the shots where the female character runs out of the room as she's pregnant. We also filmed the shots of the characters baking together and they will all work well once they are cut down. We managed to do all of this by following the schedule we made and also following the storyboard to make sure we use a range of shot types.

Filming 27/09/16

Today we filmed for the first time, at our first location. This was at the QMC (queens medical centre) hospital. When we got there we thought that we should have done some more forward thinking and planning into whether this would be an appropriate location. As hospitals can be sensitive places we felt uncomfortable filming and so decided to move to some steps slightly away from the main hospital, this way we wouldn't offend any patients by having the camera out.

Another problem we faced was that the tripod we took out was broken so some of our footage wasn't straight and could have been shakey. This has been a valuable, although not completely successful day of filming as we haven't got lots of good footage but we have got what we need for now and it has taught us to check all the equipment properly before we take it out and properly plan out what needs doing and the shots we need to collect every time we film.

Filming schedule

I have created a filming schedule in order to stay organised and ensure that we manage our time well and film everything that we need to film. This filming starts next week which gives us plenty of time to edit.

Prop list

I have created a prop list so we can be prepared and gather together our props before filming to make sure we're as organised as possible and everything goes to plan.

Original images before manipulation

I went out to Attenborough nature reserve with my friend Ella who kindly agreed to model for me. We went out for a couple of hours and got around 400 photos as I didn't want to be in a situation where I didn't have enough to pick from and would require her to go out again. I am very pleased with the images I've got and since taking them I have gone through and picked some of my favourites which I will further narrow down to pick my final images for my digipak and my magazine advert.
Here are those photos;

Potential photos from izzyhumphriss

Camera movement practise shots

Although we aren't planning on having any performance based footage in our video we thought it would be a good idea to test it out just in case we decide otherwise. We shot 3 different potential camera movements shots and i've looked at some real life videos to compare.

Camera movement practise shot 1

via GIPHY

Here we have used a simiar shot to that used in little mix's video 'shout out to my ex'. A panning shot from the side canj be an effective way to introduce a person into shot and is more interesting than simply appearing on screen. In the example the real music video the camera movement is much more sudden and this is effective for making it fast paced so would be something to consider if we were to include it in our video. 

Camera movement practise shot 2

via GIPHY

Here we have filmed a tilt shot to introduce the artist into frame. The example I found of this in a real life video is in the video 'Rockaby' by Clean Bandit. However, here the shot is used as more of an establishing shot to the setting rather than an artist or character. This is something to consider if we add in performance as it may be a more conventional aspect of a music video in terms of setting a location.

Camera movement practise shot 3

via GIPHY

Here is a straight on shot of the artist. In our video there is a slight pan to introduce him but the main purpose of shooting it was to show how our perforancer would be filmed head on. This is much like Sam Smith in his video ' i'm not the only one. This is an effective shot as it allows the artist to establish a diret address with the audience. 

Character profiles

We decided to come up with a basic character profile so that our actors can get in the midst of the characters they can play them effectively.

Character 1- Zara 

Gender: Girl

Played by: 

Age: 18 years

Character occupation: Student  

Background: Zara is from a stable background and has a caring family.
Zara is a dedicated student to begin with, but after the misscarridge with Rory, her personality becomes darker and this changes her as a person.

Character 2- Rory

Gender: Boy 

Played by: Rob Lowe

Character occupation: Works in a record store

Background: Rory grew up with his Mum after his Dad left, so he formed a close relationship with her. He also has two sisters and so his relationship with Zara means a lot to him. When they break up he is heartbroken.

Digipak draft ammendments

When I created my digipak I decided to base how it fit together on rhiannas 'loud' digipak as I liked the look of it. After further research, I found out this isn't the common look of a digipak and it usually consists of a front cover, a back cover and four inside pages, one of which being a CD holder.
I will therefore stick with my original digipak draft but add another photo into the inside pages to fit with the 6 slides digipak rather than one with 5 slides.
The photo I will add to the digipak will be a photo of my model stood up near a tree.

Risk assessment

We thought it'd be a good idea to create a risk assessment in order to prevent any accidents happening on the days of filming and this allows us to be safe and make sure nobody is harmed.

Audience feedback on draft digipak

I decided to gather some audience feedback on my digipak to see whether I should make any changes when shooting for my actual digipak.

What do you like about it?
'I think overall it is a good digipak. I like the colouring you've used as it sets a mood for the sort of music that will be played in the album' I particularly like the positioning of the girl on the front and back cover as on the front where she is central it looks symmetrical and like a proper album cover and on the back, where the face only covers a quarter of the page.'

'I really like the font which you've used and that you've used the same one throughout the digipak. I also like the colouring and the CD with the yin and yan on, that's a really clever idea for helping with the representation of the album.'

What should I improve?
' I think that you should consider where you are going to shoot each picture as the background will be important as well as the main person modelling. You should also think about the lighting of each picture as they all have to fit together and you don't want one picture to be really bright, representing one thing and the other really dark, representing another.'

'Make sure the pictures in the middle slides relate and fit with the theme of the whole digipak. Beware that it might be hard to get a picture of the shoes and make it look effective. Also think about the costume, will it be the same throughout the digipak?'

What I've learnt from this 
My overall basic idea is a good one and I will keep the main person as a female model. I will also take the photo using the rule of thirds, either centeral of the left, the right or in the centre of the photo. I have since considered my background and location and I will shoot my photos on Attenborough nature reserve, using a range of lactions within the reserve but they won't look too far different. In terms of lighting, I will use natural lighting as this often produces the best photographs and means that with this basic lighting, I can then manipluate it later on with editing. I have also decided that for my middle slides, I will probably take the original photos as planned but also experiment with some different shots on the day and use ones of the female model as these link together easier. 

Draft magazine ad using borrowed images off the internet

Here is my draft version of my magazine advert. I have used images off the internet to create this and once I have taken my own photo this will be the basic layout.

Mock up of magazine AD

This is a mock up drawing of my magazine ad. I have chosen to have a close up shot of a girls face. She will have bright, bold red lips, simple eye make up and a drawn on tear under her eye. I think this tear will be effective as it will show how part of this girl is always sad and it can't just be brushed off. It will also contrast the fact that the rest of her face won't indicate that she's sad. This will be the same girl that I will use for my digipak to make sure there is a link between the two and this will be recognisable to audiences.

This girl who is acting as the face of my digipak and magazine ad is meant to be the theme of who the artist is singing about in their songs. 

I will have the name of the album at the top of the ad to make it stand out so if people only remember one piece of information from the advert it will be that. The artists name will then appear below as this is also important information. I will have a little label on one side which says 'featuring best selling track 'ANYTHING' as this is the name of the song i'm doing and it promotes this song as the best on the album, which is why there would be a music video made for it.

Storyboard

We decided it would be a good idea to create a story board of the narrative and also different sorts of shots we would use to help us develop our idea and give us something to refer back to when filming. This way we don't forget to miss out any key bits of the narrative and can picture how the music video will flow from start to finish.

Storyboard from izzyhumphriss

Location recce shots

To be organised, I decided that it would be good to visit some of our filming locations and take shots of the area to see the sorts of places and shots we would get when filming. This also meant that if there were any problems with the location we could work them out or change location before the day of filming to minimise stress. We have only taken photos at a few of our locations due to time restrictions but the only main place which we haven't taken recce shots of is in Nottingham city centre and around Hockly. These are areas which I have visited many times before and so I am not worried that we will have any problems there.

Location 1- Attenborough/ Attenborough nature reserve

The road which the male character runs down.

A place which they can be filmed walking.

A place where they can be holding hand walking.

A place where they can walk/dance along the trees and play air guitar.

A bench which they can sit on together and then the man sits n alone later.

A secluded place where the female character can come when she's
upset about the news she's been told.

Location 2- Stapleford

Stapleford church which could be used for them to walk around.

At the cemetry, a possible place for the man to come alone.

Costume

Idea development

Today, Emma (my partner) and I sat down to complete our story board and as we got chatting we were trying to figure out how to end our music video as at the moment it seems a little dull and we wanted to make a more gripping narrative. I then started to think of an idea and as I discussed it with Emma we both li

ked it and came up with a final idea we're both pleased with. Here is our updated storyline;

The start will still be the same, we will shoot a couple doing lots of fun activities together, we will use a range of shots and put it together so it seems like it's happened over multiple days. Then they will be lying in bed together and the girl will run out and throw up. She will come back in to her boyfriendf looking concerned and she will look down and hold her tummy, indicating that she's pregnant. There will then be a timelapse of the sky to show that time has passed and it will cut to a shot of her in her room, with a pregnant bump, folding baby clothes. Her boyfriend will walk in, hugging her from behind and they will look at a baby scan together and smile. It will then cut to another day, she will be looking at her tummy in the mirror and feel a sudden pain, bending over in pain and call 999. A few hours will pass and she will be shot walking out of hospital, having recieving the news that she has lost her baby. There will be another timelapse of her sat still on a bench whilst many people pass her quickly and this signals her trying to process the news. Then we will see the boyfriend running frantically down the street to her house but when he gets there she has been crying and won't let him through the door and gives him back a ring which he got her. She then writes him letter and posts it to him, it explains that she can't be with him because seeing him reminds her of the baby and it hurts too much.
It will then cut to the future when the girl is now an old woman. There will be a panning shot of assorted pictures of them together as well as the sonogram of her baby. The old ladies hand will run across these photos and she will then pick them up and put them in a decoupage box labelled 'memories.

Draft of Digipak with borrowed images from the internet

Digipak draft from izzyhumphriss

Digipak mock-up drawing

This is a hand drawn mock-up of what my digipack will look like. Including the front and back cover as well as a design of the CD and the inside pages. I named the album 'Juxtapose' as this is the verb form of juxtaposition which means two things which contact each other. Therefore, to juxtapose something is to place to things of people close together for contracting effect. This represents the theme of what I feel the album would be about. I see it as being an album about a man who is in love with a girl but they are rather different and can't make their relationship work.

The front cover will be a girl, shot from behind looking out across something, maybe a lake, maybe in a forest or maybe somewhere else (i'm not yet completely decided) to show that she is contemplating the greater world. The back cover will be a close up of her face with her eyes closed to represent the girl which the artist sings about. This shows that he can be very close to her and see her for what she is on the outside but she's closed off and he can't work out who she is on the inside.

For the inside pages of the digipak, on one side I drew an image of a girl walking down a road with angle wings on to represent her as angelic which is how he sees her in his eyes, it also fits with the theme of them contrasting each other as she could be seen as good and he could be seen as bad in his opinion. The last page of the inside pages I have drawn a close up of the girls feet. She will be wearing some sort of shoe to help create the representation of her as unique or different. For the CD and the CD casing I went with the theme of 'Ying and Yang' this is the classic symbol of how opposites attract and how two people who are different can fit together.

Music video pitch audience research

Music video pitch

Today we pitched our presentation of ideas to our A2 media studies class in order to see what they thought of it so we knew if there was any key changes to make or things that they really liked the sound of that we would make sure appeared in the video
This it the presentation:

Music video pitch from izzyhumphriss

Lyric analysis

Anything
I think that the general basis of the song is about a boy who loves a girl and is trying to make their relationship work, whether that be a friendship or a romantic relationship.

 











It gets difficult to talk when you nearly deafen me cause you start laughing
But if it means that we get through
And though you’ll mix up every detail of every story that you’re ever gonna tell me
But if it means that we get through
Y’know I never wanna trouble you when you’re working so I always try to wait
But if it means that we get through
And when we drink it just gets funnier and to be honest I don’t mind us drunk
But if it means that we get through
I think that this means that the person who's perspective the song is from notices all of the little things that the person they love does and they are saying that they accept all of them as long as their relationship can continue. 

Chorus
I won’t smoke if you don’t no more
Cause I know you hate the taste of it
And I don’t wanna picture our first born
If you’ve stopped discussing names with me
But if it means that we get through, then you know I’m up for anything
This means that he will do whatever she wants for them to stop smoking and that they won't rush anything with their relationship, taking it at their pace and completely letting her decide what happens. 

Y’know I always try to settle you when I’m away cause we struggle sometimes
If it means that we get through 
If it means that we get through
If it means that we get through
This shows that he wants to be there for her.

Chorus

Same as written above.

Anything you need at anytime at all I want you to phone me
Everything you feel on every night alone is because you need me
Anything you need at anytime at all I want you to phone me
Cause everything you feel on every night alone is because you need me
This is showing how he wants her to be okay and feel happy and that he is willing to be constantly there for her to make sure this happens.

Chorus
Same as written above.

Y’know I always try to settle you, when I’m away cause we struggle sometimes
But If it means that we get through.
This shows that he takes on the responsibility of her happiness and not only sorts out her problems but the problems between them both. 

Mood board

To fit with our new idea I decided to edit my original mood board to fit with the new theme and ideas. This will be useful to refer back to when we film and edit to give us inspiration for the sort of mood we want our music video to have.

New idea

After changing our song idea we had to brainstorm new ideas. We started to formulate the idea of a male and female character who are best friends. We will film them doing all sorts of activities together, showing the time they spend together and the fun which they have. At the end something will happen which means that they are separated from each other, maybe one leaving on a train. This idea still needs to be developed but brainstorming ideas has allowed us create the basic idea for our music video.

CHANGE OF SONG

In our research today we found that this song already has a music video which is very popular and has over 67,000,000 views on youtube. We therefore want to do a less well known song so that people won't think of the video when they see ours. After lots more consideration, we have decided to choose the song 'Anything' by catfish and the bottleman. We are sticking with our initial ideas and mood board for inspiration but the story line will change as it becomes more developed.

Lyric analysis

"Fluorescent Adolescent" lyrics

You used to get it in your fishnets
Now you only get it in your night dress
Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness
Landed in a very common crisis
Everything's in order in a black hole
Nothing seems as pretty as the past though
That Bloody Mary's lacking in Tabasco
Remember when he used to be a rascal?

From these lyrics I infer that a girl used to sleep around a little bit and is now more faithful, the words 'now you only get it in your night dress' suggest she is only sleeping with people at night, in her bed which is the more consertavie view this act and shows that she has changed and is now with one person who is good.

Chorus 
Oh that boy's a slag
The best you ever had
The best you ever had is just a memory
And those dreams weren't as daft as they seem
Not as daft as they seem,
My love, when you dream them up...

This is talking about how the rough boy she onced loved is no longer a part of her life but how she reflects back and enjoys the memories of them together.

Flicking through a little book of sex tips
Remember when the boys were all electric?
Now when she tells she's gonna get it
I'm guessing that she'd rather just forget it
Clinging to not getting sentimental
Said she wasn't going but she went still
Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle
Was it a Mecca dauber or a betting pencil?

This again talks about how she used to sleep around and be a different person to who she is now. 'clinging to not getting sentimental' shows that she never wanted to get feelings for anyone and not have anything serious. 'Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle' is another reference to sleeping with people.

Chorus

Oh, Flo, where did you go?
Where did you go?
Where did you go? Whoa.

This is representing how she left and that she is a different person and in a different place. It could have a very literal meaning, in the sense that she dissapeared or a more metophorical meaning in terms of where did your old personality and self go.

[2x]
Falling about
You took a left off Last Laugh Lane
You just sounded it out
You're not coming back again.

This shows how shes's left and doesn't have an intention of returing 

Chorus

Letter to artist

In order to be able to use their song, we need to email the artist/record company to request permission for making a music video. Before I send it off I thought it would be important to create a draft. 

Dear Sir/Madam
My peer and I are 17 year old Alevel students currently doing Media studies at George Spencer sixth form. As part of our media Alevel we are required to make a music video and I have chosen to use the song 'Fluorescent adolescent' by the Artic monkeys. We will make our own music video for this track and it will then be published to youtube so the examiner can see and it can be moderated, however it will not be seen by the wider public. We would like to request your permission to use this song?

Your signature below, under “confirmed by,” will indicate that you will agree to permit this use without payment of a fee.  Please let us know if you have any questions concerning us using this.  Also would you please let us know as soon as possible if this song cannot be licensed so that we can change it and it will not impact our media course timeline. 

Thank you for your help with this matter and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely, 

Isobel Humphriss  and Emma snow

Confirmed by:

_________________________

[Name of the Music Publisher]

Mood board

Here I decided to make a mood board for inspiration for my video. It creates a mood for what sorts of themes, costumes and general feeling of the video will be like. On one side of the board I have created what sort of look and feeling the parts of the video including the male character and the male and female character together will have. This is a very grunge feel as they will be dressed in these sorts of costumes, not have a lot of money so wandering the streets for entertainment and being into drugs. On the other side of the board is inspiration for the girl in the present day, once she has dropped the 'bad girl' personality and become more pure. 

Brainstorming ideas

Today me and my partner, Emma, decided to start brainstorming ideas for our music video. We spent a long time listening to different songs and seeing if any of them sparked an inspiration. Eventually we started to form an idea of a boy who smokes, hangs out in the city, wears grunge sort of indie clothing and loves a girl very similar to him. There will be shots of them together and shots of him alone except the shots of them together will be set in the past and therefore like flashbacks. The girl and him will have grown apart and she will have become more of a good girl, this will be shown through shots of her individually in the present day. We are yet to create a proper narrative but this is the basic idea which we will build upon and the song will be Fluorescent adolescent by the arctic monkeys.