Genre

We have realised by looking at girl band videos (which I shall analyse in upcoming posts) are very 'poppy' and take the artistic approach with camera shots instead of having a narrative. They also seem to have upbeat songs meaning there can be a quick editing pace. This seems like we're off to a good start choosing a girl band as the slow editing pace was a major problem for us for our last music video.

CHANGE OF PLAN

After completing our first draft we were really unhappy with the results and felt that we could no longer carry on creating that music video. So our group has decided to change the idea of a music video.

We would now like to make a music video for a popular girl band. Research into this genre is to come.

Desicions desicions

At the moment, we are debating many different ideas. Most of the feedback agree's that our first draft was no where near as good as we would of liked and it just seems that our narrative and the cover of the song no longer fit or gel together. Our decisions are;

1. Original song?
We thought that instead of changing our whole idea, we'd fit the narrative to the original, more upbeat, Stella song as that is the song we originally based our narrative on and it fits better. Yet we have the tough decision because having the cover makes the song more unique and gives a different twist.

2. Keep the Cover and change the narrative?
Instead of changing the song to fit the narrative, we could change the narrative to fit the song. This would require changing the entire narrative and starting again but may be worth it.

3. Keep the Cover and basic narrative idea?
It was an idea that it isn't all of the narrative that doesn't fit, rather just certain parts and so we could keep the parts that work and just change the rest of the video.

4. Start again?
It was put out to the group that we start again with a different group, genre and different everything. It would take a lot of planning and a lot of research but there is a feeling that this might be the better alternative than the others. Yet this is a big step and we risk not making the deadline in a big way if we start again.

We feel these are our 4 options that we're going to think about and consider before making a rushed choice.

First Draft Feedback

Here is a link to our feedback and podcasts.  http://sophie-kilby-media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/feedback.html

The Snow!!!!

Unfortunately we had to cancel the shoot for the house party and re-filming of the street, last night because of the snow causing crashes and gridlock in Queensbury. This also made my journey home about 2 hours which is ridiculous (I live in Queensbury :|).

We will not have time to re-film before our first draft so we are going to fill the time with more band shots and lengthen the football scene. Hopefully we will be able to get this filming done soon weather permitting. I'll keep you posted.

The Football Scene

We are going to film the footballscene on the at lunchtime on 13th December this, unforunatly, is the day before our deadline but it is the only time that our band can do.

Mise-en-scene

We have a video of the lovely Jess Palmer (in charge of mise-en-scene) talking about the props used in our video with the help from Beth Lavery. (will be online shortly)

Our individual roles for this task:

• Sophie Kilby - Asked Ben to bring in his clothes that he wore for the music video and collected them from him, ready to use in this video.
• Jess Palmer - Jess went to buy the props for the house party and brought them in ready for this video.
• Bethany Lavery - Edited this video together
• Laura Shackelton - I Filmed Jess and Beth talking about our mise-en-scene organisation.

Our New Timeline

Emailing - All Time Low

As Sophie is the chief of sound she had the task of emailing All Time Low's management to see if we could use their original song.

We hope we'll get a reply soon.

Change of Plan

After reading the examiners report and correlating the results of our questionnaire we have decided to alter sections of our music video.

The introduction - We are adding an introduction to the music video before the song starts. Our main protagonist will be leaving the house party and as he's walking away we will hear the start of Stella in the background and this will lead into the video.

Football - We are adding a section where the main protagonist and the band will be playing football where they see the girl with another guy. The band will then be supportive and it will show them in a good light.

The band - From the examiners report we were reminded that this is supposed to be a promotion video for a band and we only have performance shots of the band included so we have decided to have the band as our main protagonists friends at the house party trying to help him get over her. This will show the band in a good light as good friends which will make them more likable. We will also have more performance shots in the video.

The bottle - It also said to avoid copying the lyrics with showing footage of what the lyrics said so we have decided to remove the breaking bottle.

We are going to wait until the first edited draft to see if the falling to the bathroom floor looks to comical and cheesy and also to see if the cover of the song will fit the rest of the narrative.

Shooting the Band - BANG BANG

Today we filmed our band scene.

• We asked the band to wear black and green clothes as they would then be coordinated and we felt it fit the genre and linked with the Stella bottle. On the day all members remembered this and did bring the correct clothing.
• We also spoken to the caretaker a few weeks ago to book the hall so we already knew the day should be smooth due to our location being sorted.
• We also booked out three cameras, tripods and SD cards as we thought it would be a good idea to film on more than one camera at the same time by positioning the camera in different place. This was proven to be effective as we got a huge range of shots (eg close up, mid shot and long shot) of the band as a whole and each individual member.
• At the same time we recorded one of our band members (Adam Trevasani) singing the track. We decided to use the voice recorder to do this however it turned out the quality was better on the video cameras we were using.

In The Woods

Today we went to Beth's house to film the wood scene.

• Like on the first day, we told our protagonist what to wear, making sure he wore different clothes to what he wore when we first filmed. This means we have a variety of mise-en-scene making it more interesting and also so that continuity errors don't occur as if he wore the same clothes confusion may be triggered as the audience may think the wood scene is the same day as the street scene.
• We already planned out our location hence we knew exactly where to go when we arrived. This made things very easy for us and as we wanted to film in the light, the lighting was no problem as we arrived fairly early.
• We filmed all the necessary shots that day and filmed shots more than once so we could have a variety of shots to choose from (ie filming one still shot and also a panning shot)
• We wanted to take another shot of our protagonist and the female actress crossing the river however the camera died on us. This meant we couldn't take another shot and so had to call it a day and head back.
• What we also found as as problem was the dog. When we were filming the dog we wanted her concentration to be on the actors although she kept on looking at the camera. This was a problem however it doesn't matter too much.
• We did manage to get the majority of the shots in our time there, meaning our day was successful and from this we have learnt to make sure our camera is charged fully before we take it out to film as so this event doesn't happen again. We have decided to come back and re-shoot this scene after our first draft has been made as to get the rest of our shots.

I'm going for a stroll

Our first day of shooting was at Sophie's house where every member managed to attend, including our chosen protagonist.

• We filmed the house shots first due to it still being light. The lighting meant we couldn't film outside straight away due to us wanting the lighting to be fairly dark. Our house shots were successful as we managed to get a good range as so we could pick the perfect one for our video.
• We told our actor what to wear for the video as so he was presented with an 'indie' style.
• We organised the bathroom so it looked a bit messy but also hid things we didn't want in shot highlighting we had control over our mise-en-scene.
• Then we went outside and the lighting was perfect at first, however it got dark very quickly so our shots differ in colour which we do not like. This means we will definitely have to come back to re-shoot this part as so there is no continuity error within the video. 
• Although we did manage to shoot all the shots that we needed and brought the correct props such as the outfit and the 'Stella' bottle.
• Therefore, overall the first day of shooting was successful.

Questionnaire Feeback

Animatic

Our animatic highlights more planning for our music video. We went through our shots and took static pictures that reflected our shots on our story board. We used ourselves as the 'actor's as so it was quick and easily done, meaning doing this caused no chaos as we took the pictures in our Media lesson and we were all present. We improvised with the locations so we just used what we had at Sixth Form to represent what we want. However for the real thing our shots will not be done at these locations, the animatic is simply just to show the basic story line Furthermore we have edited the animatic by making the pictures match our timeline so we have the exact timing on there.

Setting

Shooting Schedule

November

December 

 I have now added the schedule for december. - 25th November.

Risk Assessment

Hazard	Person who may be Injured	Property which may be damaged	Risk Controls already in place	Risk Assessment Low, Moderate, High, Extreme	Further Actions Required to Control Risk
Weather	Actors and crew	Equipment	Have umbrellas close by, wear warm clothes e.g coat Have a first aid kit	Low	Be careful if slippy, keep camera out of the rain/snow
Broken Glass	crew	Location	Wear clothing which covers arms and legs Have a first aid kit	High	Keep it in a controlled environment. Dispose of carefully
House	Actors and Crew	Location	Have a first aid kit	Low	Move ornaments to a safe place
Road	Actors and Crew	Equipment	It is a drive so not many cars Have a first aid kit	Moderate	Clear the road if cars are coming, Be Sensible.
Field	Actors and Crew	Equipment	Sturdy shoes and warm clothes Make sure nobody is allergic to the animals. Have a first aid kit	Low	Avoid cows, Keep hold of dogs.
Band/Stage	Band and Crew	Equipment and Location	Be careful around wires Have a first aid kit	Extreme	Make sure everything is turned off as to not get electrocuted

Storyboard

Timeline

Narrative for Music Video

·         Walking down the lane – staggering

·         Got Stella in hand

·         Ghostly image of girl and boy hugging/holding hands. Slow mo?

·         Drinks Stella

·         Falls to the floor slow mo? Camera follows.

·         Black out

·         Cut to band playing on stage, in an empty hall. Variety of shots e.g. close up of instruments

·         Stop at end of verse and start next shot at ‘another night’

·         Bottle braking, shots of glass

·         Group of people jumping around at a house party.

·         Shots of ‘drunken’ people making a mess of the house.

·         Variety of Shots of a mystery girl at the party.

·         Cut to a bird’s eye view shot of the boy laid in bath/falls to floor. Spinning shot?

·         Cut to band performing chorus. Variety of shots.

·         Fast cuts between bathroom shots and the party

·         Then interaction between girl and boy

·         Pans round them

·         Shots of boy in street for ‘Stella, would you take me home?’

·         In woods girl and boy walking dogs towards each other and bump in to each other. (they’re meeting) – In woods? (pans of trees) – Sepia effect?

·         This montage of shots (they’re meeting) is then reversed.

·         Boy is drinking Stella (The beer) – ‘chemical moment’

·         Smashes bottle

·         Back to the hall with an audience clapping along in time

·         ‘falling to the bathroom floor’ – jolted falling to floor repeated first part of falling, officially falls in time with drum beat

·         Shots between Adam – lead singer walking towards camera singing and the mess left after the party, and the boy lying on the road.