Digipak: The Draft

This is my draft of my digipak. I created this digipak in the same program as the magazine advert, Adobe InDesign because it has all the tools necessary, although I did utilize Adobe Photoshop CS6 to edit the picture of the fire in the palms of the hands. I decided to stick with the theme of the polaroid photos on the digipak and the advert because I think it will look more professional, and it will also allow the audience to make more connections with the artist so she will become recognizable by her vintage style. The three images in the digipak design are from Google Images as this is just a draft, but they will be replaced with my own images, however at the moment they are just used for placeholding and giving me an idea of location and size and scale etc.

I am pleased with this first draft of the digipak as it's not too difficult to create and I am fairly confident that I can make this without much altercations.

Visual Progression #2

As you can see this is another visual progression post, and this time I'm portraying the lighting in my work.

Production Diary 10 - Research tasks, moodboard, equipment, filming progress, rough edits, 1st Draft

Music Video: 1st Draft

This is my first draft of my music video. It is not entirely finished yet but this first draft, created using Adobe Premiere gives me a good idea of timing of footage and narrative. The biggest issue with this video is definetely the timing - the song is shorter than I had first expected, and the rise in the chorus part is difficult to match the visuals to, but that is something to work on during the next draft. I would like to do several drafts in order to show you the progress I am making but also for myself to see what I need to do next. The aims for the next draft is to cut down the crying scene of Marcus, include more footage of Beth at the piano and sort out the lip synching as in places it is not quite right.

Visual Progression #1

This is a visual progression post just to let you see how the editing work is going. I am using Adobe Premiere CS6 to put my music video together, and I have almost finished the first draft. Trouble that I've had with Premiere is that it does have a tendency to crash, so if I have not saved work, I will have lost it. Also, it can be difficult to merge audio together. Advantages of using Premiere is that is it fairly easy to use the cutting tools to cut the video, and easy to copy and paste footage. As well as this, the effects and filters in Premiere CS6 are very varied and so allow me plenty to play with. The tools and effects that I have used the most is the Razor Tool, Track Select Tool, Dip to Black, Cross Dissolve, Constant Power, Exponential Fade, and the Black and White Tool. As this is just the first draft I will leave the colour levels etc for the second draft.

Marcus and William footage (rough edit)

 

This is some of the footage I got of my couple William (left) and Marcus (right). I wanted their story to be formed from a classic setting i.e. the falling of the books, looking into each other's eyes, falling in love convention. What some might notice as well is that I tried to make a connection with the two boys by having them both reading the same book - Virgil's 'The Aeneid' (this just happened to be the only book I had two copies of at the same time but actually it worked out well as it's a classic war/love story and fits in with the story). This is just a play around video, the actual video will consist of footage from Beth and Adam too. Also the tear video at the end is going to be reversed, so it looks like the tear is withdrawing back into his eye, however I can't do this on Windows Live Movie Maker, so it will have to wait till I am back in school to use Premiere Pro.

On Location: Grandma's House

Grandma's House from Sophie Boston on Vimeo.

Channels/Festivals

Music Festivals

Music festivals are very popular and a great way to promote yourself and your music. Thousands of music fans flock every year to see their idols perform on stage, camp out in muddy fields, and dress in a somewhat conventional style according to the festival they are attending. Music festivals are also a great way to raise your popularity - if you're not that well known but you have the opportunity to become a support act and get up on stage, then there's your chance to raise your status and reputation.

1. Lovebox Festival

Lovebox is a summer festivals, usually around July time. It's typically held in traditional areas in London and most commonly in one of London's many parks. 65,000 fans come for the variety of music styles including folk, hip hop, indie, disco-punk, rock, world or electronic music. Lovebox has been running since 2005 and has had artists such as Katy B, Chase and Status, Sub Focus, Duke Dumont and Route 94 headlining the festival as well as many upcoming artists. Tickets are ranging from £70+ and there is an minimum age of 16 (which must be accompanied by an adult.)

Reviews from 2014 are below:
General rating: 4/5 stars.

"The atmosphere at LOVEBOX was AMAZING. Seeing all the acts I love being with my friends was AMAZING. If the line -up is good next year, YOU SHOULD GO!"

"Been to Lovebox a few times now and it has changed quite dramatically in recent years. This year (2014) seemed to be the busiest yet and a very very young crowd compared to previous years. Chase & Status were by far the best on the Friday. But the Manor stage had really poor sound."

"All the acts this year were amazing and definitely worked up the crowd. Everyone was dancing and singing along to every act. It was music that brought people together. The acts ranged from Annie Mac , Joey Bada$$ ,A$ap Rocky and Ettta Bond. I seriously wish I could relive the moment all over again!"

 

 

2. The Isle of Wight Festival

The original Isle of Wight Festivals were landmark moments for their time - they sit alongside Glastonbury and Woodstock in festival history.

The first Isle of Wight festival took place on 31st August - 1st September 1968 and featured the likes of T- Rex and Fairport Convention. The 1970 Isle of Wight festival was a five day marathon featuring The Doors, Hawkwind and Joan Baez. Jimi Hendrix also played at the festival in 1970 just weeks before his death.

As the festival is situated on the Isle of Wight, it makes it one of the easiest festivals to get to, with 6 areas on the Isle to sail into. This is particularly useful for the targeted age group of 17+ who are studying at Southampton, Southampton Solent and Portsmouth University and any of the surrounding areas.

Tickets range from £125-195, so it's pretty expensive and this may be a disadvantage of the festival as even a student ticket is £160.
The 2014 line up included acts such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Newman, The 1975, Calvin Harris, Biffy Clyro, Rudimental, Tom Odell and Kings of Leon.

Isle of Wight Festival Reviews:
Average rating 3.5 stars

Telegraph: "Energetic and breathtaking."

"The weekend was great. A good variery of acts. Biffy Clyro and Passenger were particularly amazing. Well worth the cost for the weekend :) and being pretty much as far south in Britain as you can get always helps as there was amazing weather !"

"Absolutely Fantastic festival, can't fault content, stalls, fantastic time, people lovely. Apart from the transport which was abysmal and could have spoilt our weekend if the music hadn't been so greatl! and that's an understatement."

 

Music Channels

 

Music channels are another popular way to promote yourself an as artist. Music Channels focus on relaying music videos from artists and will typically host their own awards and charts. This also extends out to radio stations which converge with other platforms to create music charts e.g. Vodafone's Top 40 UK.

 

 

1. MTV

MTV is an American company which is based in Los Angeles and is a subsidiary company of Viacom Inc. MTV began 1981, and originally its role was to play music videos suggested by television personalities. At the time, MTV's target audience was just young adults, but today it has expanded to not just young adults, but older and younger generations as well.



The original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer (CEO) of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, on New York City television station WNBC in the late 1970s.

MTV's effect was immediate in areas where the new music video channel was carried. Within a couple of months, record stores in areas where MTV was available were selling music that local radio stations were not playing, such as Men at Work, Bow Wow Wow and the Human League. MTV sparked the Second British Invasion, with British acts, who had been accustomed to using music videos for half a decade, featuring heavily on the channel.

The channel received many complaints about the controversial situations that appeared on many of its videos and so MTV has edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia or advertising. Many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

 2. 4Music

4Music is a music and entertainment channel in the UK and available on some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland. It is owned by Box Television, and has many sister channels including Channel 4, Film 4, Magic, Kiss and E4.

4Music also owns many programs, some of the most popular being UKHot40, 4Music Big Ones, The 4Music Buzz Chart and Today's 4Music Top 10.

4Music began in 2008, on the 15th August. The channel launched with an on-screen countdown counting down from ten minutes down to zero. During the countdown, clips from popular music videos were faded through the screen including clips from promotions for the channel. The channel then launched at 7pm with a promotional advert for the channel then fading into "Davina and Steve's 20 Big Ones"; the first song at number 20 being "The Pretender" by The Foo Fighters and Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" at Number 1.

4Music has coverage at both V Festival and T4 On The Beach during the summer, with highlights repeated frequently throughout the Summer. The channel also has stages at both events. At T4 on the Beach since 2007 (renamed the "T4 and 4Music Stage" in 2010) and at the V Festival since 2005 (then known as the "Channel 4 Stage", renamed to the "4Music Stage" in 2008). Sadly, T4 on the Beach ended after T4 closed down on 30 December 2012.
 

 

 

 

Personnel Details

Personnel Details

Risk Assessment

Equipment List

Equipment List

Production Diary 9: Continuing research tasks and begin filming

This week I have again been very busy as not only am I coming close to finishing off the research tasks and most of the planning tasks, I am also planning and started shooting for my BFI short film, 'Title Unknown' - at this point. Today we actually started filming, and as I'm the cinematographer and it's from the point of a view, I essentially have to become the dog, so everything sorta relies on me, a very demanding and pressurising task! It was a long, tiring day however this experience has given me massive insight into what to do when preparing for my music video - I need to think about lighting, props, actors, call sheets etc - as with today you always need to expect the unexpected e.g. this morning was a bit of nightmare, as the calling time was 10am, the actors dropped out, the director's car broke down and the editor and supervisor were delayed by engineering problems, so in actual fact we didn't start till 11.10, which whilst may not seem like a lot, actually put us back an awful lot, especially as now at this time of year the light disappears very quickly - it was very handy that the producer noted the time of sunset so we knew what we had to work to.
As for research tasks, I have continued them and completed the following: Research into Artist, Research into Genre, and also the planning tasks of the Ancillary Task 1: The Magazine Advert. Researching to the artist gives me an idea of how exactly Gabrielle Aplin and her image are portrayed and to convey that over in my music video - how she moves, what emotions she shows whilst performing, clothes etc - I don't want to completely copy her but I did choose her and her song for a reason - because I admire her and want to portray her in my own way and style.
The Research into Genre task helped because it now lets me know what I should (and shouldn't) be including in my music video, the conventions of Indie Music. This is actually quite difficult because a lot of the time music genres overlap a lot and their conventions are similar.
And the Ancillary Task, of which I decided to create the magazine advert first, because I think this order will help me with the design of the digipak.  I created this magazine using the program Adobe InDesign as I have used it before and therefore won't waste time in teaching myself how to use it, and also I think it is the best suited program for the job. I based the design on previous students' work and also my own imagination. Overall it was actually very easy to do and the whole thing only took me about 30 minutes. I cannot do any further work until I have the image of the polaroid photos being set alight by the candle. I have put a Polaroid Camera (Impulse AF) on my Christmas List, so hopefully one will turn up on Christmas Day!

Here is a picture from shooting the short film for BFI to show me in action:

@EastsideLondon Never work with children or animals. Day 1 #bfifilmacademy Baby POV shot. pic.twitter.com/PtF38L3Ac2
— Bevan Walsh (@beanwalls) November 15, 2014

Equipment

Ancillary Task 1: Magazine Advert DRAFT

These are my drafts for the magazine. I have done two because I am undecided whether to add the floral borders or not. I created this magazine using the program Adobe InDesign as I have used it before and therefore won't waste time in teaching myself how to use it, and also I think it is the best suited program for the job. I based the design on previous students' work and also my own imagination. I quite like this first draft however I don't like the typography of the 'includes the hit singles' and the & sign below, so that is something that I will need to work on. I think I prefer the 1st design to the second, because I think the floral borders, whilst they fit in with the boho style of the video and artist, make the poster look too busy and draw the attention away from the information, however I'm glad I created both in order to get a sense of variety.
My colour scheme is black, white and gold, to again reflect the artist's sophisticated musical style. I also tried to keep in continuity with the shapes e.g. the lines to separate the text, and the basic shapes e.g. squares, and circles, to make it easier to read and more appealing to look at. An audience won't be interested if a poster is too complex.
Though I have used the program before, there was one tool that I had not come across before and it's thanks to our teacher that we now all can draw stars equally and more than one at one time. In order to do this, you select the Polygon Tool and whilst still holding the mouse down, pressing the Space Bar and then the arrow keys will allow you to change how many points and edges the Polygon has, and how many of them you want. A simple technique, but one that significantly will improve any rating as the stars will now look the same and professionally done, rather than trying to replicate an already existing one over and over, or even copy and pasting a previous one as it may not be perfectly in line with the other one.
   Overall, I am pleased with this first draft and shall continue to improve on it.

Call Sheets

Marcus and William

Adam and Beth

Actor Releases

Ancillary Task 1: Magazine Advert RESEARCH

Before going ahead and starting to create my magazine advert I decided to do a little bit of research and find out what it is that makes a really good magazine advert. I looked at various websites until I came across one that gave me a lot of good advice when thinking about design.

1. Understand Your Customer - the most crucial point.  If you don't know your audience, the psychographic, demographic etc, then you're probably going to create something entirely different from what they would be attracted to. The website suggested that I look into what media they would be more likely to use and to target them using these mediums.

2. Treat The Customer With Respect - they see so many adverts everywhere now, so don't do anything to annoy or irritate them in some way, and try and be original. The website advised:

Don't use false or outrageous claims. These may make a good headline and grab attention, but when you are discovered as a fraud, the resulting negative word of mouth will have the potential to destroy your brand.

Avoid clichés. These will cause the 'I've heard this before' reaction which will prevent any further message being absorbed.

Don't patronise your audience - they're smart and like to be treated that way.

Don't be aggressive in your style or techniques – this will only cause the audience to become.

3. Attracting Attention - the headline/masthead is the most important part of the whole article in a way, because it's the text that the audience will see first. It needs to sum up what the article is about, without telling the audience everything. The masthead/headline is like a movie trailer, whilst the article is the film itself. Though this point applies more to newspaper articles, some of the pointers below do have some impact on magazine adverts:

Make your audience feel:

• Intrigue
• Emotion
• Association
• Identify a problem
• Make a claim

4. And finally the other relevant point from the website was to make sure that the LAYOUT is appropriate and effective towards your audience. "People will make quick assumptions about your product and brand from the images you use in your adverts. Ensure the imagery used reflects your brand values - premium brands invest large sums of money grading and retouching images to ensure they give the right impression, but cheaper products can often get away with lower quality photography or video."

Moodboard

This is my visual moodboard for my music video 'The Power of Love' - unfortunately I was unable to find the exact song to match the visuals but I found a decent replacement which features the most prominent instrument, the piano, so you still get the gist of what I am trying to convey.

Filming and Editing Schedule

This is my editing and filming schedule for 2014-2015. This schedule depicts every stage of the filming and editing stage and this will definitely help me in terms of planning and time management. As I've already completed the July work, I am now looking toward the November and further months, however I can already sense that things are perhaps not all going to go to plan exactly as we all have mock exams etc, so this schedule may not be exact.

Floor Plan & Location Release/ Reece

Floor Plan

Location Recce

Production Diary 8: BFI Academy/Half Term

In the half term, I have unfortunately not been able to do as much work as I had planned as I have been extremely busy, however since today is Thursday, I would have liked to completed the Channels/Festivals and Research into Equipment tasks by the time I get back to school.
The primary reason for my being busy this week is actually very media related, hence the reason I thought I would mention it on my blog, plus the experience it is giving is significantly helping me in creating not only my music video but also my short film for my Film Studies.
A while ago, my teacher approached me and few others with an application for the Eastside Educational course, run and supported by the BFI (British Film Institute). It's a 10 week course which allows around 25 16-19 year olds aspiring to be film-makers to get together and complete workshops in all aspects of film making, as well as meeting industry professional and visiting places of interest e.g. 3 Mills Studios, London School of Sound. I was fortunate enough to be accepted onto this course, and without sounding cheesy, it is definitely one of the best experiences of my life.
As well as meeting professionals and visiting studios, the main goal of the course is to, within a group of 5, produce a short film, which will then submitted and showcased, and we will be awarded the Silver Arts Award. In the group there is a director, producer, cinematography, screen writer and an editor. I have been chosen to be the cinematographer, which is both a exciting and terrifying role as ultimately it is up to me to shoot the whole thing, and to hopefully bring to life my director and producer's vision on the screen.
This course runs every Saturday but in the half term it was on both Monday and Tuesday, and as it is an all day thing it limits my time to complete coursework, however it is 100% worth it. As the cinematographer, it is my job to not only press the record button, but I will need to have figured out in advance the camera angles, shot types and composition - as well as the lighting - is it going to be natural or artificial? Which side of the protagonist's face does the director want to be lit up? Luckily for me, I have a fantastic and cooperative group and there have been no arguments - yet! The skills that I learn from this role are going to help me so much with the development of my music video (and short film) as I am all 5 roles for that!
Here are some photos from the BFI experience so far:

Production Diary 7: Music Companies, Lyrics Analysis, Contact with artist, what next

This week has been very busy again. I have been mainly focusing my efforts on the research tasks, as ideally I would like to finish them all over the next couple of weeks so I can concentrate on the planning tasks and of course the actual filming of my footage.
As you can see from my tasks posted below this production diary, I have complete more tasks including the lyrical analysis of my song 'The Power of Love' - I found when analysing them there was actually a lot more religious overtones that I noticed more than when I was just listening to it, so maybe I could incorporate this into my video somehow?
Also I have made contact with Gabrielle Aplin's management and have asked them for permission to use the song. Though it is unlikely I will get a reply, it will be my 'safety net' if copyright is breached.
Also this week I have completed more tasks which I have added elsewhere on my blog e.g. initial planning ideas, which I did complete as I went along the research tasks because those tasks were helping me form initial planning ideas. As well as this, I have furthered my research into the genre of my music track - Indie - because I feel this will help in making final decisions in costumes, settings, makeup, camera angles etc. Over the next week or so I hope to make more progress in the research tasks and continue to venture into the planning tasks.

Script

Script for Music Video

Audience Research

I created as survey using the program Survey Monkey to collect data from my audience and find out a bit more about them. Please click the link to view the questions. After I have collected enough answers I will create some result graphs.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S8RJNRK

Here are the results analysed:

Contact with artist

In order to get complete consent from Gabrielle Aplin to use her song, 'The Power of Love' I wrote this email to her management James Barnes Music asking for permission. I told him why I needed the song and assured them that all credit will still go to them and that I would take none of it.

Lyrical Analysis of 'The Power of Love'

Research into my artist: Gabrielle Aplin

Vanishing from image effect

This is the opening scene from the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 1. I included this video onto my blog to show what I mean when I say I want to try and get the male actor appear to disappear from the image - just as Hermione does in this scene. I think I will probably use Adobe After Effects to do this.

Research into Music Companies

New possible location: Rosemoor Gardens, Devon

I was recently on holiday in Northern Devon when myself and my family went to RHS Rosemoor Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the gardens themselves are very aesthically pleasing, with all colours, sizes etc. So, I took the opportunity to film some footage of random things e.g. the sun flashing behind trees, a spider's wet web in the sunlight, and nature occurring e.g. bees and butterflies including the vibrant Red Admiral collecting pollen and camouflaging themselves amongst the plants. It was a gentle, slow paced place, which matches my gentle, slow paced song.

Production Diary 6: Storyboard, music video directors, locations and photo tutorial

This is my sixth Production Diary where I will show you a tutorial of how I removed actors from a photo (which I took whilst out on a planned shoot a couple of weeks ago)

Research into Music Video Directors

Filming Locations

What is a digipak?

What is a Digipak?

 A digipak is part of the packaging involved for CD albums. They typically consist of a book style, which folds and is usually either made out of laminated paper which is then encased within a hard plastic outer case. Digipaks were first created by MeadWestvaco, a global packaging company, and the Digi-Pak is now their trademark item, however since the popularity of them has risen, there are many more manufacturers. Digi-paks are now very common and can be seen surrounding practically every new CD disk coming out. A popular place to see them is music stores such as HMV.

The Digi-Pak is there to sell the CD without the audience necessarily listening to it. The Digi-Pak consists of the album art cover, and looks very similar to the pictures below. The front cover will typically involve a picture of the artist and the title of the album, as well as maybe having a couple of reviews or plugs such as “includes the new smash hit…” The album cover art will depend on what genre the CD is and the personality of the artist e.g. a pop artist like Lady Gaga will typically have bright, neon colours and a fancy/busy cover whereas someone like indie artists Lana Del Ray and Imagine Dragons will have more of a simplistic cover with a ‘less is more’ colour scheme.
The inside of the front will typically consist of all the official information and the copyright and trademark information. The background will most likely be a blurred image or a plain background. Sometimes however, the manufacturers may include a copy of the lyrics in this section.
Next to this one is the section that actually contains the CD. This will also typically consist of a full bleed image of the artist looking straight at the lens, to really capture your attention. In some cases however, the artists prefer to have one image stretched over both inside sections, which can also look impressive. The back cover usually displays the song track titles with an image in the background and may also have more trademark logos.

Videos I admire

1. 'Love Runs Out'- One Republic



I really like this video as not only do I love the song, but I would say it defintely fits into the Post Modern genre - though it was produced in June 2014, it has many aspects of it that perhaps look like it was made many years ago e.g. the obvious green screening. The vibrant colours and weird props help add to this crazy theme, and yet because it is time to the beat of the song, it works, and the lip synching of the lead is perfect. The lighting is continous, this sunset/sunrise setting, and the costumes are also very diverse - much like the actors themselves. The most prominent micro feature here I would say is the editing - quick changes from character to character, the green screening of the weather and background and the editing of the actors themselves - the 'double' effect for example. I love how around 2.15 the music video changes to a slightly dark phase, with lighting, storms, sea, blackness and then changes to bright colours again - however the characters are now in black silhouette. Lastly, I love the way simple props have been used to create sophiscated aspects e.g. the sea is clearly a shiny piece of plastic, yet with the way the lighting has been maneouvered it creates the wave like motion.

2. 'Boom Boom Clap' - Charli XCX

 

This is actually the soundtrack to blockbuster film, 'The Fault in Our Stars' starring Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley. I love the beats to this song, the repetition of the tone and rhythm. With this video, it being the soundtrack to a film, includes scenes from the film e.g. focusing mainly on the two protagonists, Hazel and Gus. Not only does this give content to the video, but it's actually a very beneficial way of selling the movie, and fans especially will be flocking to see this music video. Another thing is that, keeping in with the setting of the film, the music video is set in Amsterdam - it's actually a very simple video, just Charli walking around Amsterdam wearing normal clothes and minimal makeip, with freqeunt cut aways to the film. The last thing I like and admire about this video in particular is how it has kept in with selling the book and film with the various fonts, bubbles and fonts that appear within the video e.g. 'Boom Boom'- it's written in the same typography as the 'Okay? Okay' title on the original Fault in Our Stars book by John Green.

3. Black Widow - Iggy Azalea ft Rita Ora

I admire and like this video a lot because it is based on one of my favourite films: Kill Bill, directed by Quentin Taratino. Though I am usually quite skeptical when music videos are based around something already existent e.g. films, books, I actually quite like this adaptation, and it definetly fits into the post modern category. I love how they have reflected Kill Bill i.e. the female protagonists, dressed in a similar leather jumpsuit to Uma Thurman's character, the motorbikes, the Hattori Hanzo swords, learning to fight, cherry tree snow background, and of course having actors like Michael Madsen, who was originally in the cast for Kill Bill to play the antagonist. I admire the quick editing and the range of shots used, and I also like the idea of having a prologue and epilogue in the video - this is definetly narrative over performance. Black Widow is similar to mine in that it is based on a narrative, however I think I will do mine with lots of inspirations in mind, not just one film.

Music Video Analysis: Pretty Hurts

Key Concepts and Theories for music videos

Storyboard: Anamatic

Production Diary 5: Summer Holidays

Production Diary 5

This will be a short production diary as I am currently on holiday, apologies.

So it is currently coming to the end of the summer holidays and I apologize for the lack of Production Diaries in the past few weeks - it has been a busy few weeks for me, as I have been doing work experience and have also been abroad for two weeks and am now still on holiday, so it has been difficult for me to upload anything. As I have had not much time available, I have not been able to complete as much as I wanted over the summer holidays however I am pleased with what I have managed to do i.e. the shot list, storyboard, script and actually filming one couple's story as well as doing some of the filming and photographing for the other couple, Beth and Adam. I will upload these images and film when I can, it will hopefully be in the next couple of days.
Before we go back to school on the 3rd September, I would have liked to have finished at least one more research task as I feel I have done enough planning tasks but need more focus on the research ones. Personally for me, I find that doing a few research tasks gives me enough ideas to come up with something for my video, and I prefer to do the planning tasks first, so that my ideas don't 'escape'.

The next production diary will hopefully show you the footage and photographs I took with Beth and Adam at "Teletubby Hill" in Ickenham's Swakeley Park and also by then I will have hopefully completed another research task.

-Sophie

Storyboard

Storyboard by SophieMaiBoston

Research into Music Genre - Indie

The Power of Love shot list

Proposal

Proposal

Production Diary 4 - extra footage, costumes, locations, storyboard

production diary 4 part 2 from Sophie Boston on Vimeo.
production diary 4 part 1 real from Sophie Boston on Vimeo.

Music Video Conventions

Music Video Conventions by SophieMaiBoston

I realise that the videos embedded into the powerpoint are not available and so I have embedded them below.

Also, some of my words have been cut off so here they are:

SLIDE 2 - *Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'
SLIDE 3- *

 Examples: ‘Girlfriend’ – Avril Lavigne, ‘Bad Romance’ & ‘Telephone’ – Lady Gaga

SLIDE 6 - *

•Lots of makeup involved

•Tints and filters to improve colours

•Sometimes there are quite simple and repetitive lyrics

SLIDE  7 - *

•Travelling is usually involved

•Sometimes the scene or plot might not make sense, until the end or at all

SLIDE 8- *

•Settings are usually an expensive house or club location

Analysis of previous A2 Media Studies work

Music Video finalfinalfinale from Haydon Media on Vimeo.

Narrative Research

Production Diary 3 - Summer Planning

Production Diary 3

As well as what has been mentioned, I have also created an Inital Planning Prezi, which actually has helped me hugely in what I think I will do, including all the song choices I've considered, the story/narrative, Locations, general ideas about costumes, props, cinematography, and key lyrics i.e. following Andrew Goodwin's theory of matching lyrics to visuals.

Clothing/Style Ideas

Inital Planning Ideas

The History of Music Videos

Production Diary 2 - Further thoughts about song choices and skills needed

Product Research

Production Diary 1- Thoughts about the brief

Production 1 – Thoughts about the brief

This year is going to be very interesting but tough too, and I will have to utilise all my creative skills to help me accomplish the tasks set.

I have looked over the brief and have decided to do a music video, as I think that this will be the most fun project to do, and it will also allow me to explore a new area of media. I have never really filmed anything before, so it will be a new experience, plus in my spare time I do watch music videos and behind the scenes of the music videos e.g. Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’, so it would great to try and create one myself. I have come up with a list of  possible songs I could create a music video to (see picture below) and I tried to vary the genre as well as noting the length of the music video as I don’t want one that is too short or alternatively, too long.

 

At the moment, the song I am wavering towards is Gabrielle Aplin’s version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power Of Love’ which was featured on John Lewis’s infamous Christmas advert in 2012. Aplin’s recording of the song went straight to Number 1 in the UK.

I like this song because of the instruments used i.e. the piano and I tend to like cover versions of songs rather than the original and I think Gabrielle exploited this song in a different, but successful way. I also like the video, directed by Alexander Brown. The video is very simple but effective I think. The whole video has a slight vintage tint to it, which works well with the abandoned mansion, which at first is in dismal light, then gradually as the song goes on, is lit by fairy lights, as Gabrielle stays stationary playing at the piano, the tempo and pitch rising as the fairy lights increase around the room. Very simple, but effective, and I think I would like to try to get someone to be playing the piano in my music video, except I would like to distance myself from the original video – perhaps try to film the piano player in the blackened drama studio, with only a spotlight on them, something like the picture below, which depicts Ian Axel from duo band A Great Big World in the song ‘Say Something’ featuring Christina Aguilera.

 

 

The other alternative song that I like is another cover, this time by Lana Del Ray who recently recorded her version of Disney’s ‘Once Upon a Dream’, originally sung by Mary Costa and Bill Shirley in the 1959 Disney film, ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Del Ray recorded her version for the 2014 film ‘Maleficent’ also produced by Disney. It’s very slow paced and repetitive, but has a dark and eerie tone to it, which makes it stand out.