Planning : Filming Location

The locations of where we will film our music video will be extremely important to what the music video will end up looking like. We have had to consider a lot of different factors when choosing our music video locations. One thing that we have to be aware of is the availability of the location and this may be a problem with a couple of the locations that we are planning to film in. Another thing that we will have to watch out for would be the general location on where it is and how far we will have to travel to get there. 

Location 1 - Theater

I intend to film most of the music video in the theatre as most of the music video will be the performer in front of a green screen. This will mean that the green screen will be needed for this part of the music video. The point of filming in this location is so we are able to have a spacious and quite location so we are able to film the lip syncing parts of the music video.There is one possible problem with the location and that is the availability of the location. We decided that this would be a good location because of the high ceilings as well as how much space there actually is. Events often take place in this location so we will have to make sure that we book the area well in advance of when we need to film in there.

Location 2 - Corn Fields

During the music video there will be a scene in the music video in which there are 2 children who are posing as the current day artist and his girlfriend in the past are meeting and running through the fields. We have chose this location because once again it is a good open space in which a lot of filming can be done in the one location. The 2 children in the corn fields are a boy and a girl who are boyfriend and girlfriend. The boy is the past version of the artist who will feature in the video. The one problem with this location is that we are unable to change any of the lighting as it is an outdoor area. So on the day we are hoping for good weather and good lighting. If it is bad weather or lighting it means we will have to go and either film on a different day or increase the lighting on the video whilst editing it. 

Preparation: Planning for my production

I have completed my animatic and now I need to get started on the other areas of my production process. Below I have listed the research that I need to do before the beginning of my filming, also the order in which I will complete them;

• Location Planning
• Casting
• Costume Planning
• Props Planning
• Lighting and Camera Equipment Planning
• Shot List
• Filming Schedule

For example, for my location planning, I will make photos of the potential locations in which I will base my music video.  I will be going into to detail about what each location will be used for and the benefits and negatives of using these locations.

For my other 6 research posts I am going to go into the same amount of detail. I am going to make sure that I justify how they will suit and appeal to my target audience.

Animatic

Here is the completed animatic of the song 'Summer'.

The process of completing the animatic instead of just taking some photos of a storyboard was extremely important because it helps us to visualise what the music video is going to look like and now we just need to replace the drawings with actual shots. Making this animatic also gave me the chance to practice with Premiere Pro beforehand. Practicing cutting to the beat and other effects for this animatic is very helpful as these effects will be used for the final product.

Now the animatic is completed I will move onto the other parts of pre-production. I will now do my location planning and casting etc. for my final product.

Planning: Storyboard Animatic - Process

Now that myself and Tom have thought of the idea for our music video we began to put together the storyboard animatic. Firstly, we needed to do the story board part which is easy as we need to put our thoughts onto paper in drawings. We got several paper cards and drew on them with the shots we wanted for our music video. We then made a timeline in which we placed the panels along to clearly show in which order we want the shots.

Making the animatic requires good artistic skills to clearly represent what we want the shots to look like, however the drawings were not very good but they still got the idea across to the viewer. Whilst editing the animatic I needed to make sure that if the were cuts to the beat at points in the song then I had put them in. Throughout the production of my animatic I put in a lot of cuts to the beat.

Here are all of the panels that were used for the animatic. We used some of the panels several times to give a feeling of memories etc. These are not in the order used in the animatic.

Here is the timeline with the panels placed across it, this is our first thoughts and therefore the finished animatic will have developed and changed to make it better, changes that we needed to make were found in the editing process.

Research and Planning Self Assessment

Research Into Existing Music Videos
For the research into existing music videos on my blog I would give myself a 'good' mark on my blog because I have made two posts that have a good level of detail about existing music videos. To improve on this I could potentially go back and add another existing music video and research into that, therefore making it three instead of two.

Research Into a Potential Target Audience
For my research into a potential target audience I would give myself a 'good' as well.
I have done a detailed mind map about the target audience and also explained the mind map with three detailed paragraphs. I am happy with this part of my blog and it is not an area that I seriously need to address but if I have the time in the future I could go back and improve it.

Work on Storyboarding
From what is on my blog I cannot give myself a mark at all as I have not published anything to do with storyboarding.
I have done a lot of work for my storyboard; with several storyboard panels, a timeline showing the points in which the panels will come in and also an animatic that I need to post onto my blog. The work that I have done but still need to post about would be 'good', I am going to make sure the post about it is as detailed as possible.

Time Management
My time management has been extremely poor, there are several tasks that need to be done and I have a long time to do them therefore I have been putting them off for a while but need to get on with them. To improve it is very simple, I need to start doing my work more regularly and stay on top of it otherwise I will do it all at the end at a poor standard.

Use of Digital Technology or ICT
I would give myself a 'good' mark for the use of digital technology or ICT part of my blog because every post has a form of digital technology or ICT, being a picture, video or even Prezi.
To improve for this there is not much more that I can add, however I need to make sure that I keep up the amount of digital technology that I am using in my up coming posts.

Communication Skills
For my communication skills I would give myself a 'good', this is because I feel that I have gone in to a lot of detail for all of my published posts at this point in time.
I have tried to explain everything as well as I can to tell the reader exactly what it is I am doing. To improve there is more detail that I can add of course, I also need to make sure that I keep this standard of communication skills as I continue on with my next posts and even try to improve the level of detail.

Level of Care Taken in the Presentation of Work
For the level of care taken in the presentation of work I would give myself a 'good'.
I think that throughout the posts in my blog that I they are all laid out very nicely to give the reader a clear idea of what I have done and when. For example for both of my researches into existing music videos I have kept the same layout with text next to a picture of the existing music video to clearly show that is what I am talking about. I need to make sure that I keep this level of care in my future posts.

Green Screen Practice

As I am having the green screen effect in my music video I am doing some practice today with editing it. I have a clip of Ellie from my class singing in front of a green screen with Adele's song behind her.

In this first screenshot I am picking the parts of the song that I would like Ellie to be singing and what part of Adele's music video I want playing behind her. I am making sure that she is lip syncing correctly also.

Now, went to effects and put the eight point garbage matte on there and dragged the green screen to show the least amount possible.

At this point I dragged on the ultra key effect and then used the dabber to click on the green screen behind her, therefore removing it.

Here is how it will look with Adele's music video behind her on the green screen.

Here is the finished product, I am happy with how it came out as you can clearly see that she is lip syncing almost perfectly. The only problem that I have come across is out of my control, the footage of Ellie singing was rushed and the green screen not lit up evenly or ironed out therefore making you able to see it slightly against lighter backgrounds.

Planning : Music Video Pitch For Frank Hamilton "Summer"

Planning: Creating An Online Mood Board

Click here to view my mood board.

Here is part of my mood board, simply move your mouse over the image to see reason why I have chosen to add each picture to my mood board as shown below.
I have made this mood board to give the idea of how Frank Hamilton is represented and also general pictures that give you a feeling of what his songs are about.
From looking at this mood board you should be able to get the general idea of what Frank Hamilton's songs are about and what he is like without listening or doing any research into him.

My Chosen Song

Research : Lyric Analysis : Frank Hamilton 'Summer'

To give me a better understand of the song I have chosen I did some lyric analysis, I found the lyrics on the artist's website. From the lyrics to this song I interpreted that when he is talking about 'summer' this is a girl that used to be his girlfriend but they were separated some how and he wants to find her. I know this because at the start it reads 'summer where have you been' then it follows on to say 'I've been trying to remember how you feel on my skin', this tell us that Summer is a person that he then goes on to express how he feels about as the song continues on.
Throughout the song he then goes on to sing about how he feels about her with the chorus implying he will never change how he feels about her.

I have made notes and went into detail about the lyrics some more as shown here:

Afterwards I then went on a website called WordItOut which I entered the lyrics of this song into and made a map of the lyrics with the most used words being the biggest. From the word map you can see  that the most used words are 'summer' which is the name of the song which is a convention to see the song name used a lot in a song, 'change' and 'hope' were also used a lot which are usually used in love songs.

Research: Who Are The Target Audience For My Artist?

James is 20 and was born in Corby, but is currently living in Leicester studying Media at University. James loves Media Studies but is mostly interested in the music aspect of the course as James lives and breathes music; listening to it when he wakes up, when he goes to sleep and everywhere in between when he can. Peter has a huge CD collection including most genres but mainly artists such as Ed Sheeran and Frank Hamilton. Even though James loves his CD collection he still uses Spotify as a way to easily find up and coming artists such as Frank Hamilton who is his favorite artist. James dresses very smartly, like Frank Hamilton, usually with a nice shirt and jeans as he looks up to him as a role model.

Expanding on Frank Hamilton being James' role model he also loves to play the acoustic guitar just like Frank does, and he loves to learn songs from his favorite artists to play with his friend who would sing whilst James plays the guitar. Just as much as James likes to perform he also loves the atmosphere of live performances and attending them himself, as he gets to see how his favorite artists act and behave as they are his role models. James has a lot of friends that like the same music as him, and is always the one to organize days out to see their favorite performers live.

James, like most people his age, is very much into social media. He loves to follow his favorite artists on social medias such as Facebook and Twitter where he can keep up to date on important dates and their life outside of music. He also likes to watch interviews on YouTube a lot as he can find out important dates through these, life events of artists and also just keep up to date on his favorite artists in general. There is information about his favorite artists that he finds out through reading music magazines and other articles also, not just social media, and usually it is more detailed in magazines with articles dedicated to his favorite artists that he can read.In his spare time James likes to play video games whilst listening to his music as this is how he likes to relax during his down time. As James is currently at university he has a lot of revision and research to do and he also likes to listen to music whilst doing this as it helps him keep relaxed and focused.

Research Into Existing Music Video: Jack Garratt - Breathe Life

The music video that i have decided to look into is "Breathe Life" by Jack Garratt. The opening shot of the music video is a shot of what looks like a rocky beach and this shot then pulls out and goes underwater where you are able to see Jack Garratt.

This is only for a small amount of time though. At 19 seconds his head appears from the water and at 21 seconds there is a birds eye view of Jack as he begins to sing his song still with only his head out of water.

At 41 seconds it then goes to a side on shot of Jack and still he is within water and only his head is visible. 

At 1 minute 10 seconds you are able to see a figure in the water with Jack for a very small amount of time.

At 1.13 the beat kicks in and 6 synchronised swimmers jump out of the water surrounding Jack.  Until 1.13 there is only a very slow beat and there is a sad feeling that is within the music.

At 2.06 there is another beat drop and once again the swimmers jump out of the water as the beat drops within the song. This is as if the swimmers are in time with the music throughout the song. At 2.45 it seems as if Jack is giving up and he is now upright within the water and is looking worried. At 2.50 you get a shot of the back of his head and you want to know what is happening to him. 


From 2.50 to 3.18 there is a very strange beat in the background that i think is meant to represent his heart beat as he tries to breathe within the water. Then at 4.01 Jack doesn't sing anymore and starts to fall in the water and the swimmers are there to catch him and take him back to shore which could entail that the swimmers are Jacks angels. At 4.30 the shot begins to crane up and then you just get a look at the open and empty lake.

Overall, I would say that the music video is slightly random as i don't really get what is going on with it. But i do like how when he is within water he is surrounded with the swimmers and how they are synchronised with the beat of the music throughout the whole of the music video.