Production of music video : Bourne Estate

Production of music video : thoughts

Both this year and last year I was put  In a exclusively female group . Working in a all girl group can be challenging especially in terms of making a production . In films and music videos we don't usually just see girls in the lead roles, especially in the genres that my groups have studied . Working In a girl group means that we have to find a song and think of a concept that doesn't include males or the second option is to use outside actors. There's nothing wrong with using outside actors but it's Inconvenient and unreliable as we experienced this year, the actor didn't show up so we had to change our plans last minute and that didn't go so well. One of the benefits of working in a group is being able to work with different people and share our ideas , I think having a male perspective would have created a nice balance and could have contributed in our production. 

Looking at the bigger picture it's a privilege being able to work in a all female environment, celebrating female independence. 

EVALUATION -Anjuman

Evaluation on our Pitch:

I think so far, our group planned pretty well for our music video.


We planned everything in a very detailed way so when the time comes for filming next week we will be well prepared and equipped.
The album covers and media products hold a unique factor just like every other artists which marks that its theirs, ours is a freestyle leather, rebel girl.

I realised the most vital part to develop your media star all depends on the audience, therefore the audience opinions and feedback is very important. That is why i input my best effort in researchin up on Cher Lioyd histroy and how she gained her popularity and the audiences approval and after reading through comments and articles i realised they liked to praise her for being herself.
 Our group hopes to have the same effect on the audience who will watch it and from the feedback we recieved from Rebecca and the class determined we were working towards the right track so far.

Pitch and Pitch Feedback - Sophie

After we had our pitch we collected feedback for the rest of our class where in they gave us something they liked about our pitch and areas we could improve on. The positive feedback we got back was;

• We had a detailed storyboard
• Used many different technologies in order to present the pitch
• Our concept was clear
• They liked our costume synergy
• Inspirations for music video
• The pitch was aesthetically pleasing

However they also gave us constructive criticism to help us improve our overall planning;

• There was too much focus on Cher Lloyd (artist from our chosen song)
• As a group we had bad communication regarding our locations 
• The risk assessment wasn't detailed enough and should include more risks and how to deal with them
• We were unclear about the ideas for our music video 
• The digipack needed more detail

Overall we hope to improve by individually making our own digipak instead of doing it collectively, have better communication and more organisation as a group and focus on the artist we're creating rather than the artist we were influenced by.

Pitch: Costume/ Synergy - Anjuman

Pitch: Costume - Anjuman

Aleena Rahman's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Pitch: Draft Digipak

Pitch: Storyboard - Athena, Sophie

For our storyboard we have decided to incorporate a lot of shots similar to the ones created within our draft such as a varying range of close ups (something that we must include in our video); we also chose include some movement through the use of a 360° camera movement around the artist so that our footage is less static and more movement based as a music video should be. The variety of close - ups we will use will act as a way to show viewers the genre of our song especially since they are on the artist the majority of the time so while suggesting pop as the genre our artist will also be promoted from their large quantity of camera time.

Pitch: Audience 1 - Sophie

Our music video would attract an audience of average 16 - mid 20 year olds that have an interest in mainstream pop artists such as One Direction, Ella Henderson, Cher Lloyd etc. The concept as it involves heartbreak and relationships is relatable to this particular audience as it is a common and recurrent issue in their lives. This audience would usually consist of mainstreamer, as they have an interest in buying the latest fashion and gadgets in order to stay on trend. The music they like tends to be the most popular music at the time. They don't usually want to stand out from the public, but stand by and support the artist they are currently fangirling over.

PItch: Concept - Sophie

Pitch: Setting and Location - Anjuman

Planning : Artist Research

Pitch: Audience 2 - Anjuman

Research: Mainstream vs. Indie - Athena Lewis

Pitch: Industry - Athena Lewis

Pitch: Production Schedule - Athena Lewis

Pitch: Draft Storyboard - Athena, Sophie

"First draft of planning for storyboard"
While coming up with ideas for our storyboard we printed out the lyrics and took to generating ideas for shots by looking at the imagery presented by the lyrics. Since we decided to do our song by creating a lyric based concept we have followed Andrew Goodwin's theory on a illustrated music video (a video illustrating the lyrics).
 Planning out our storyboard this way has helped us decide where every shot should occur and where each occurrence will be most effective by capturing the audience's attention while at the same time drawing attention to our artist and the emotions she will present in the video. Looking at this draft we will most likely add more shots and repeat certain shots so that we can follow the conventional theme of our genre (pop) which shows that there must always be repetition to create structure.

Pitch: Brief outline on how our video will follow Goodwin's theory on music videos - Athena Lewis

Pitch: Intial Idea - Sophie

In order to establish how the beginning of our music video was going to be set we used "Go" by Delilah, so we could take possible ideas of shot types that could be used to introduce our artist. From this we decided we should start with a long shot of our artist, change to a close up of her feet, afterwards have a medium close up and then a high angle medium close up shot. Much like this:

We also have the idea of using a shot from our preliminary task where in we used a track/pan shot around the artist and moved to a high angle shot. In order to put this idea into perspective we used "Louder" by Neon Jungle that clearly illustrates the shot type we want to use in our music video.

Past Student's Videos - Inspiration

We also decided on using the video above as a way to suggest that our artist had suffered a break up. This video gave us the idea of making the guy mysterious throughout until the very end when our artist sees him with another girl. This gives us the opportunity to introduce the concept without drawing attention away from the artist.This video inspired the concept for our video we decided to use the 'mystery' guy as a way of introducing her ex in the music video.

We also looked at this one as it had the same urban feel we wanted to go from through our locations, and costume. It also followed the same type of structure of basetracks we wanted in our music video. The lyrics of this song also follow the same type of message as our song choice.

Pitch: Which post production techniques we will use and why? - Athena

Pitch: Animatics - Sophie

Created using Adobe Premiere Pro

Planning : Casting -Danniella

Cast

Main character : Athena

Second character : D'jon

Third character : Anjuman

Camera : Sophie

Director : Whole Group

Costume designer: Anjuman

Editor: Sophie

Pitch: Brand image - Danniella

Brand image

This is the album cover of , ' WHO I AM' Raven Kings first album. The album cover basically describes who she is. she isn't flash or focussed on clothes and  ascetics, she is about being plain and letting the music speak for her. The cover is kept plain with dark tones and simplicity. Raven is a relatable artist who writes her own songs and sings about topic that people can connect with much as heart brake and identity.

Name: Raven King 

Age: 22

Nationality: British
Singed to : Epic

Artist similarity 





Marsha Ambrosius 















Rebecca Ferguson 
















James Arthur 















Sam Smith 













Jessie Ware 

Main Artist similarity 

Main similarity  : Emily sande

Name : Adele Emily Gouraguine
Age : 27
Nationality : British
Singed to : Capitol



Emily's music is popular for the interesting lyrics and meaning. her music talks about subjects such as love,  heartbreak and happiness.  Emily is different to most of the mainstream artists  as she steers away from the provocative language and rap/ rich life style. her music has real meaning and influence which is something unique about her.

I took inspiration from Emily's album cover i did a similar background and used a portrait style. i decided to put an artistic cartoon filter on it because i thought it would fit with the artists image, Thoughtful and creative.

Emily's style is quite laid back and reserved, her style is all about comfort rather than standing out or making a statement. when emily wants to stand out she wears clothes that are fashionable and outgoing whilst still keeping it classy.

Raven King channels the more young casual look, her outfits are casual and chic. Ravens focus is mainly on her music so she doesn't wear anything to extravagant or sexualised. She focuses on basics such as jeans, leather jackets, sweaters and shirts.

Emily's music videos .

Research For Music Video - Skills Audit

Thinking back to how I researched for my AS Practical last year, I can say I have learnt to research much more thoroughly and carefully by looking for the appropriate contexts to follow, what our group will be capable of working on and get inspiration from.
I think our group worked really well together, each member assigned to s specific field to work and research about, e.g.- costume, location, camera shots, group blogging etc.
Also, this year I feel I use more technologies and wider variety of presentation programmes to present my blogs. I also find myself to be more confident in speaking out with my ideas and opinions which i feel will help with the creativity of our group ideas. Even though this years work requires different and a more complex analysis of the work behind the camera techniques used for music videos, also exploring a number of theories, it doe sometimes link back to the previous years points.

Research For Music Video - Synergy Activity

Pitch : Song Choice - Danniella Wright

SIRENS

Artist : Cher Lloyd 

Song : Sirens

Genre : Pop

Record label : Epic

Release date : 17th March 2014

Producers : 

Yacoub,

 

Falk

Original Music Video

Concept : The video concept looks through a girlfriends perspective of her life after her husband has become involved with drugs.

Locations : Kitchen, Front room, Bathroom , Dark brick wall ,

Costume : Casual - Jumpers, tops and jeans.

Themes : Unconditional love , sadness , stress 

Our interpretation of the music video is a little different. Our concept is still going to revolve around love and sadness however our video is going to show the after math of a bad relationship, rather than the effects of being in a bad relationship.

Our Music video

Concept: The video concept explores the main characters emotions after her recent brake up from a long relationship.

Locations: Park , Alley way , Public place , Brick wall

Costume: Casual - Jeans, tops and jacket etc. 

Themes: Heart brake , sadness, Regret , Time 

Planning - Final Choice with short explaination about why we chose it

  We chose to do Cher Lloyd's Sirens out of all the songs on our shortlist because the beat of the song being really slow allows us to easily match the lip sync to the audio. The emotive imagery of the lyrics ( 'I'm getting weaker everyday... I am drowning' ) has also helped us in our decision to chose this song, as we came up with a variety of concepts revolving around the idea of pain and sadness.

Planning : Sirens Lyrics

Cher Lloyd - Sirens Lyrics 

I carry the weight of you in my heavy heart

And the wind is so icy, I am numb

I carry the weight of you heading back to start

With the thousand eyes on me, I stumble on

I am tired, I'm growing older

I'm getting weaker everyday, yeah

I carry the weight of you

I carry the weight of you

Lay down here beside me in the shallow water

Beside me where the sun is shining on us still

Lay down here beside me in the hallowed water

Beside me where the silver lining stays until

The sirens' calling

We follow the sun down low 'til we hit the night

And you hold me so tightly, it's hard to breathe, oh

And I'm tired, I'm growing older

I'm getting weaker everyday, yeah

We follow the sun down low

We follow the sun down low

Lay down here beside me in the shallow water

Beside me where the sun is shining on us still

Lay down here beside me in the hallowed water

Beside me where the silver lining stays until

The sirens' calling

The sirens' calling

Yeah, I'm tired, I'm growing older

I'm getting weaker everyday, yeah

I am drowning, and you're stealing every breath

Take me away and just

Lay down here beside me in the shallow water

Beside me where the sun is shining on us still

Lay down here beside me in the hallowed water

Beside me where the silver lining stays until

The sirens' calling

The sirens' calling

Pitch : Risk assessment - Sophie, Daniella

Risk assessment

Sophie

 Random tips on things to be aware of and some advice.

Daniella

Planning: copyright clearance

Pitch: Social Media - Danniella Wright

Social Media

Social media is really important in promoting and marketing in the music industry. 

So in order to get our music video more views i've decided to create our own accounts on different social media platforms. 

When creating social media for the group i decided to look at the most relevant social media for our demographic. The genre of music we will be focusing on is Pop,  and the social media outlet for most Pop fans is usually Facebook and twitter. 

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

Planning - Shortlist of potential songs

Research: reflection on progress

 Comparing the way I blogged last year to this year I would say my posts are more developed however there aren't as many as there should be; meaning that I need to post more and get my work done at a quicker pace. The post I've completed this year are also done using a variety of mediums, some I used last year such as Animoto, Glogster and Prezi which have made my posts look my diverse in appearance. At this point in time I would give myself a 10/ 20 for my use of different ICT mediums for my presentation and the level of detail within them - as in my opinion I have not yet done enough.

 To improve my blogging I will endeavour to use more ICT mediums such as Vloging to make my posts more personal; I will also try to use a range of presentation software and and more detail to my posts.

EVALUATION . . .

Lip sync video

In my opinion, I honestly think our group did a pretty good job for our first go. However, at first when we started filming it was quite difficult filming especially as most of it had to be filmed by free hand except when filming the base tracks. Also, our group had to change the our first original plan as we misunderstood the instructions thinking the while music video must be filmed within the college grounds. This resulted us in making big last minute changes which did effect us while filming the video as we had to make a lot of plans up on the spot, though we did eventually come to a decision with picking appropriate locations for our music video.

The lip syncing went very smoothly as the lyrics weren't too complicated and wasn't so mouth twisting. We did have to cut and play a lot of times but we finally got there at the end!

We also followed Andrew Goodwins theory using multiple kind of camera shots varying from close ups and mid shots, also using special effects to draw more focus on the main artist.

POINTS TO WATCH OUT FOR NEXT TIME:

- The material WOOL is not suitable to wear when being filmed
- Base tracks need to be filmed more longer
- A more detailed planned is needed and listen to instructions properly from the beginning!

Research for music video: Review of previous students work

                     
A group of students made a video for Florence and The Machine's 'Howl'; from the wild and somewhat animalistic imagery used in the video it is made clear that the video is intended to appeal to an audience of young adults and adults as the video links to the meaning of the song (being about attraction and the primal feelings). This is mostly shown through the mise-en-scene of the setting which is primarily a heavily wooded area.

  
 The video however doesn't portray the many genre signifiers of being a rock song (which is one of two genres Florence and The Machine follows along with soul) it still follows the typical use of imagery that is commonly shown in a Florence and The Machine video. This common imagery that helps to announce a Florence video would be classified through the use of 'hippie' clothing such as floral wreaths and dresses.

 Following the many rules of music videos (regardless of genre) a variety of close-ups and base track editing are incorporated to add structure to the video. It also utilizes fast motion on some scenes to fit the pace of the music allowing the video and song to fit together seamlessly.

Research for music video: overview analyisng costume/ setting/ location in music videos

Research For Music Video - Analysing Costume, Setting And Location

Planning : finding songs

Today we started looking at what types of songs we would like to use for our music video. This is a conclusion of the research we did throughout the lesson.  We each had four songs we sent copy right clearance emails for.

Jessie j - Nobodys perfect 

Clean bandit - dust clears 

Emily sande - next to me

Nico & Vinz - thats just how i feel

After hearing all the options and having a little more knowledge about music videos we decided we wouldn't want to use any of the songs because we either didn't like the genre or the concept and one was from america. 

After this we started brain storming about the genre and type of video we wanted to do we decided that we should go a popular upbeat genres such as pop, hip - hop or R&B.  We decided that the  video should tell a story as thats the conventions of the genres we where looking at.  So we decided to look for songs which would be upbeat and allow us to experiment with different ideas.

Here are the final ideas.

Ella eyre - comeback

Ella eyre - 

Jessie J - Dominos

Cher Llyod - sirens

Research for music video - reflecting on blogging progress

Its been a little harder getting back into blogging since i haven't done it in so long. It's hard meeting dead lines and maintaining  the same quality of  work. I like to use a range of multi media in my blog posts and use a full range of PEE however, as time went on i found it harder to produce work of the same  quality  as there is so much  to do.  I think i need to work on my time management,  using a wider range of multi media because as i run out of time i tend to use the same multi media. I would rate myself 10 out of 20 as the quality of work i produced declined towards the end.

Research For Music Video - Review Of Favourite Previous Student Video

21. Khadeeja, Romy, Andreia, Luke from 283goswell on Vimeo

This music video from the previous year is my favourite one from all the ones we have watched. The amount of edits and numerous camera techniques cleverly used in this video is amazing, they even achieved full marks 40/40 in the mark scheme. The lip syncing is on point, not a moment did it look out of time all the conventions of a music video is explored appropriately. They took special care on with the mis en scene especially.

In this screen shot, i rally like the side shot showing both characters and how both of their expressions can be seen clearly making the audience understand the context easily.

This close up is also one of my favourite shots and is repeated many times throughout the video, the messy hair and light make-up shows how she's fed up and really fits the mis en scene. 

In this shot,a new base track is shot and her costume also changes to fit with the setting- tie dye t shirt against a graffiti wall.

This is final base track they shot their music video, where the music video finishes, and we can see how filters and lighting were used bringing more ficus on the singer.

Every location filmed for this music video fits perfectly with lyrics and young audience.