Group 8: First Shoot Reschedule

• Unfortunately due to the poor weather conditions on October 28th, Monday our group were unable to go to London and film our first shoot as it would not have been appropriate for our music video.

• As a group we have decided to reschedule our first shoot to next weekend, when the weather is better as this is the nearest time the whole group and the cast are available. This is frustrating however is something we prepared for and although we have been delayed should still be able to get the majority of our filming completed in half term.  

Group 8: Concept Development - Digipak Ideas

• Whilst currently shooting is our most important concern at the moment, we are currently putting some creative thought into our own digipak ideas and magazines adverts.
• From previous secondary research such as digipak analysis and analysis of brand image (which is found in the pitch).
• It has allowed us to develop our ideas and opinions on what we want the album cover to look like and what it should represent through different signifiers, and polysemics.
• An example being the brand image for Bastille. As in all their singles they follow the same trends, this being the name of single and word 'Bastille' incorporating within one another. Shown in picture's below.

Group 8: Concept Development - London Plan

Planning this week has been specifically for locations in London, in preparation for our first shoot. Here are specific examples of locations in London, and stations we will need to get to in order to shoot there.

• London Eye, Waterloo Station
• Westminster Bridge, Waterloo Station
• Camden Markets, Camden Town Tube Station
• Hamleys, Charing Cross or Regent Street Tube Station
• Hyde Park, Marble Arch Tube Station or Lancaster Gate Tube Station
• Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross
• Science Museum, South Kensington

We also have several ideas for particular shots:

• Several establishing shots of places in London, e.g. London Eye, Big Ben, etc.
• Track movements of the Thames.
• Close ups of boys emotions, specifically in 'happy places' e.g. Hamleys.
• Time Lapses, e.g. along Thames, traffic, train journey.
• Low angle shots, from the boys perspective.
• Birds- eye view shots.
• Pull Focus.

We also have ideas of props:

• Ice Cream
• Toys

Group 8: Concept Development - Post Animatic

• We have reached the finishing point of the animatic. We have edited all the shots of the storyboards together, showing the appropriate length and right camera movement in each frame.
• There are some final touches that we need to do. This includes putting our track behind the visuals so all can see what is going to happen at what point.
• Furthermore we need to do some last touch ups to make sure all the shots are straight and centrally focused to give the animatic a professional look.
• We have learnt a lot from the animatic.
• Firstly it has given us a good idea of how much footage we are going to need, and what ratio of action to filler shots we will need to prevent the video from being to boring.
• Secondly we can now see what areas we are lacking in. For example a music video should always contain lots of close up shots and have minimal static shots. From our animatic we can now see if we have too many static shots or not enough close ups and then when it comes to filming our first shoot we can improvise and change our planned shots to make them more interesting.
• Lastly we have learnt a lot about the process of making a music video. The animatic has really helped us to map out our shots; we have since learnt that this is vital for any music video to be successful, otherwise it could go wrong and look bad quality.

Group 8: Concept Development - Planning First Shoot

• During today's lesson I planned where we would be filming for our music video in more detail. I did this by noting down specific places and locations that we consider would be ideal for our music video, including road names, nearest stations and areas of interest. This is important to us as a group so we can use our time efficiently and get as much footage as possible. 

• We have decided we are going to shoot in half term and as a group are currently deciding on an appropriate day that ourselves and our cast will be available for. We are very aware that our shooting is relatively whether dependant as we do not want to film in the rain or too murky conditions, therefore it may be a spontaneously decided day. 

• To be well prepared for our first shoot I believe that if we research further into what shots and smaller technical details that we plan to use in each location. These notes will give us more ideas and save us potentially multiple trips when going to locations and we are stuck for shots. Therefore this planning is key to getting good footage for our production. 

Group 8: Concept Development - Pre Animatic

• As a group we have each contributed to creating a storyboard for a music video. This includes 50 drawn shots with descriptions of camera angles and movement on them. During this lesson we filmed the storyboard shots and intend to import these onto our computer and create an animatic storyboard, we also used camera movements to reinforce the movement intended each frame when filming.  

• We believe that the storyboard will be useful when filming our music video as it gives us a basic series of events, assisting our planning and therefore saving us time during the filming of our video as we will know what shots we want to shoot, where.

• However it was also hard trying to demonstrate the feel of our music video through the use of our storyboard as we intend to film a lot of footage spontaneously at our locations, for filler shots. Therefore we were unable to put these in our storyboard. 

Group 8: Concept Development - Storyboarding

• In this lesson Jacques edited some footage he took over the weekend, these were preliminary shots of actual shots we hope to create in our final production. We did this because feedback from our pitch said we needed to practise filming in a house, to ensure we understood the difficulties. One of which being the constant movement needed in every shot of a music video. As well as this some feedback from our pitch was that the pitch audience could not visualise particular shots, meaning we should do some practise shots. Jacques filmed his brother, who is to be our protagonist, to try and show our pitch audience what it could look like.
• Nathan and myself aimed to storyboard our actual concept. We found it fairly easy as we had ideas about specific shots, however as Nathan and myself are not artists we found it hard to make detailed sketches of shots. Currently we have 18 frames, but we hope to have around 40 shots when creating the animatic. Which we will start filming in the next week. Here are some examples of the storyboard sketches so far:

Group 8: Location Reccie

We are planning to use Brighton as a location of the childs dream world. We took shots of different places in Brighton that could be seen as happy and playful. Examples of these are shown below.

 

Group 8: Pitch & Feedback

Feedback

• We pitched our idea to the class and explained our concept in depth in order to establish whether or not we would get the green light and the go ahead to do our production.
• On the whole our concept received positive feedback from the class; it was thought to be a difficult, but good idea.
• We realise that our concept is dependent on the quality of camera work, otherwise it could end up looking like a film as opposed to a music video.
• Some of the feedback we recieved from the teachers was constructive as it made us realsie we need to practise filming our lead character to make sure that the acting does not ruin the idea.
• Furthermore we were asked to look deeper into secondary research and show clips and stills of shots that we liked from other music videos or films.
• We came back and presented our pitch again, this time with more research, both primary and secondary. We included clips which included similar themes, such as Eminem, Plan B and Rudimental music videos. We also included the opening scene from the film 'Sucker Punch' as it has many shots that we would like to dupilcate.

Targets

• Our main target is the filming aspect of our production. We were given very clear feedback that all shots were important and had to be filmed in a certain way. For example we shouldn't have any static shots in our production.
• So when we come to film our first actual shoot, all though instinct may affect our filming in the sense that we might not think about just moving the camera slightly to make the shot more interesting, we have to just think every shot through and take more takes than we realise.

Group 8: Brighton Footage

• This is our footage from the Brighton trip on the 21st September .
• We used a range of different shots too practise for our production and gather an idea of what locations could be used in our actual video.
• The point of the task was too take a set list of practise shots too encourage us to think about different camera angles.
• We found this task very helpful in the sense that it has acted as a Location Reccie as well as a practise.

Group 8: Pitch Development

• Today we started producing our pitch, to do this we had to discuss what each individual member was going to do and then start working on developing our ideas.
• Furthermore we had to make sure there are no holes in our idea and that we have enough A* shots too fill the whole track.
• Here is the beginning of our pitch (screenshots from prezi).

Group 8: Audience Research

Link to our music video survey

Group 8: Concept Development - Domestic Violence Ideas

Rudimental - Not Giving In

• An example of the domestic violence we hope to recreate in our video is in the first 53 seconds of the video. 
• As a group we like the use of slow-motion and grainy colour- grading. 
• Also as it takes place in the intro of the music, there is narrative fuzz; and this creates enigmatic codes. We have had feedback suggesting we should create narrative fuzz, as a music video does not always need to be logical.

Other examples:

PSA Child Abuse Awareness Video.

Group 8: Potential Issues

Our concept has several potential issues which could influence the outcome of our final production, such as:

• The acting of our protagonist: because our main character is only 9 years old it may be a struggle to capture our footage efficiently. 
• The locations: as we all have a variety of ideas it will be difficult to find several locations which feed the needs of the entire group.
• Camera: as we hope to use several slow-motion effects, we will need a camera which can capture a higher frames per second. Which will also produce higher quality shots. 

TH: Deconstructing a Digipak

• I did my print analysis on Kodaline 'In A Perfect World' this is because I felt it clearly represented several conventions of the genre. If other members of the group could do a variety it will allow us as a group to compare and discuss different areas of the genre. By doing this analysis I know understand that our artwork should be disjunctive and incredibly simply.
• When analysing the artwork we can quickly recognise the genre of the track, as we have researched around the genre and found conventions which are common in the majority of Indie work. An example of this is not presenting the artist in a mainstream way, and often not showing the artist at all but leaving them absent to amplify the music. We can identify it is not mainstream 'Pop' this is because Goodwin's 'male gaze' and 'sexual commodification' is not introduced.
• Personally I don't think the bands meta-narrative is represented in their print work, as their digipaks are incredibly disjunctive.

Group 8: Concept Development - Plot

• Boy wakes up in his house, shots of the boys a typical young boys room toys, books etc.
• Boy walks downstairs
• Greeted by his mother and hugs her
• Shots of typical home life of a family, eating talking with family etc.
• Mother then leaves the house, shots of the door closing and the mood changes within the house
•  Boy is left with his father/step father, who he is evidently scared of from the moment his mother leaves
• The boy then does something wrong and the father then retaliates, shouts at the boy, slow motion shots of the father’s dominance over the boy. No violence will actually be shown.
•  Boy runs away upset closes his eyes and then goes off to this happier world of memories/better place that he is comfortable in.
• These are multiple locations –
• Brighton
• London
• Parks
• Brighton boy gets ice cream from pier.
• Mid shots of the boy with his face and body, holding a hand but cuts off at the arm of his face
• Boy on bumper carts.
• Constant close ups of his face smiling showing his happiness.
• These busy locations with lots going on and lots of people also very happy. Therefore we will need establishing shots of each location like the arcade in Brighton pier (some footage we have already)
• London – Boy looking at toys in Hamleys in amazement.
• Park – Boy plays on swings could possibly meet friends.
• The day comes to an end
• Boy then wakes back up after his time dreaming and the video ends with the mother coming back in through the door and greeted by the son.

JT: Deconstructing a Digipak

JT: Auteur Analysis

Jonas Odell

Take me out – Franz Ferdinand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhCXAiNz9Jo (could not find video to inprint, so used a link)

• Post- production stencils work around the band when they are performing.
• No clear theme however there is narrative fuzz that amplifies the lyrics in the video.
• High cutting rate of different clips.
• Band performance in the video.

Martin de Thurah

Bullets – Editors

• The use of slow motion is the main feature of the video.
• Street/city locations.
• 80’s theme.
• Emotional themes, family affairs. 

Tanaman Glazer

Street Spirit – Radiohead

• Video is all in black and white (film noir).
• Both the use of slow-motion and time-lapses are used throughout the video.
• Use of animals feature heavily. 

Feedback - 1 October

Some very good analysis on the blog and examples of good presentation. However you have not responded to all of my comments for improvement and I don't see you using the comment facility to open some discussion about each others posts. There needs to be more interaction and more attention to detail if you are to achieve a level four.

Group 8: Rudimental Response

1.How did your creative process develop, improve from film opening to music video?

• Using a song and basing the idea around the song as opposed to thinking of the visuals first made it easier to be more creative. The different points in the song gave us a que of what type of shots we would need at what time.
• For example there was parts of the song that would be fast and so a high cutting rate was required but then there was also points in the song where a slower cutting rate was needed.

2.What cinematography skills / experimentation did you develop further during this project?

• We really developed the use of sun and shadows in this task. We filmed on an extremely sunny day and so we used it too our advantage and took interesting shots with shadows in as well as using the sun beams in the background.
• We experimented with different speed of shots, for example we used time lapses too speed up our imagery to match the speed of the sounds.
• Too achieve a cinematic look to our production we used techniques such as tracking shots to add a professionalism to the video. 

3.List editing techniques and effects that you used in post-production. Be very specific and include detail.

• Time Lapse and Time Stretch
• Colour Grading to make the shots brighter
• Fade to Black Transitions

4.To what extent did you conform to the codes and conventions of music videos you have studied in your coursework productions?

• We conformed to the conventions of the songs genre is a few ways. Firstly we used to a bright colour grading to make the video more upbeat to match the visuals.
• Secondly we used time-stretch to speed shots up, this is oftenly seen is music videos of similar genre.
• Thirdly the involvment of establishing shots and shots of the surrounding locations, especially with the influence of the sun beaming down.

NM: Deconstructing an Album Cover

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not

 

 

Barthes - Semiotics

• The front of this album is very powerful. Firstly the facial expression of the character which could be perceived as angry. A key aspect of the photo is the mans eyes, they are squinted and not showing any 'whites of his eyes' this could symbolise a wall of defence, for example the character is perhaps angry and secluded so keeps his defence up and remains distant with people looking in. This creates an enigmatic code to the photograph as it leaves the audience wanting to know more.
• Another key aspect of the album cover is the cigarette. Cigarettes are frowned upon in society and it is seen to be an antisocial and yobbish act. The cigarette could connote the lack of care that the character shows. This makes link with the album title as the album name is almost defiance of the public perception.
• There are a number of signifiers that all add meaning to create a signified of depression and sadness. The cigarette along with the facial expressions as well as colour grading of black and white are all signifiers. This shows how there is a paradigmatic relationship.

Dyer - Stars

• Despite the album being a portrait of a man he is not part of the band and so does not represent a star. however in terms of how dyer would have broken down this album cover, the character would be considered both present and absent which is taken from paradox 1.
• The way in which he is present is obviously because he is seen in the album and has a physical presents on the artwork.
• However he could be considered absent in a mental way. The expression in his face and lack of passion shows that he is lost and broken.
• Furthermore we can apply Dyers paradox 2 to this is album artwork which the representation of a star being both extraordinary yet ordinary. The album could be extraordinary in the sense that the actual band are not shown to us and so they our represented as a force above us that has power.
• However there is a sense about the album and the band that makes them seem reachable and as if they aren't so extraordinary after all. Arctic Monkeys were originally a small band from Sheffield who have come up through their own advertising. The bands back ground makes them seem real to us.