Production Diary Final

So that's it, everything is done and dusted and I feel satisfied with my products that I am sending off, my music video, digipak and magazine advert. I have worked hard on all the individual tasks but hopefully the hard work and many hours will pay off. I am confident in using the programs Adobe InDesign and Premiere and other programs such as Prezi, YouTube, Vimeo and other online platforms.

For me personally the biggest challenge I faced with this coursework project was probably managing my time with all the tasks that had to be completed, as of course I have other subjects too. I worked around this by staying after school and completing the tasks I could at home, as well as downloading the Adobe Trials so I could work on my music video and evaluations at home.

The thing I most enjoyed about the project was being able to watch my products back and seeing people's reactions to it - I accepted critical feedback which I took into account, but it was also nice to see emotional responses too, as my video is very much narrative based. The ultimate best part has to be finally pressing the 'Publish' button!

!I very much enjoyed this project and coursework as it allowed me to explore my creative side - I have always wanted to create a music video and finally I got the chance to do it. I am very grateful to the following people, both onscreen and backstage, for their help in this collossal task: Beth Harvey, Adam Menia, Deane Gerrish, Claire Boston, William Hobbs, Marcus Knight Adams and Eli Beristain. I'd also like to thank the teachers at Haydon School, in particular Mr Fisher and Mrs Baker Perkins for their help and advice.

Production Diary 12: Alterations Made Along The Way

Alterations Made Along The Way

Although the initial planning ideas and research went well in my project there have been a few alterations that I have had to make in order for my tasks to work in the way I wanted them to. For instance, the big change I've had to consider is removing Marcus and William altogether from the musuic video, as too many people who viewed it said they could not understand the relationship between them and the footage of Adam and Beth, it was too confusing and almost like Marcus and William's appearance was a little disorentating to the music video. Removing them was a hard decision however I think I may create 2 music videos if time allows, one with them not in and one with them in. This will depend on time though, and I am running out of it. Removing them had one benefit - it allowed me more time to put in other footage such as the forest and abandoned piano which I chanced upon very suddenly during summer work experience last year. 'The Power of Love' had not even  yet been formed in my mind but it was such a unusual object to stumble upon I decided to shoot some footage of it, and I'm glad I did because the instrument matches perfectly with the modernised grand piano in the Roll A footage.

Other alterations I made included not involving the footage I took whilst in Rosemoor Gardens in Devon. I decided against using this footage because I didn't feel it looked particuarly professional and

didn't fit in with the storyline. This being said, I have included one tiny snippet of it - the spider web scene- because it did fit in with the lyrics about 'being beautiful' and 'sparkling lights' because of the way the sunlight plays with the dew drops on the cobweb.

 

 

 

 

 

Production Diary 11- Digipak Design, Feedback from 1st Draft and last bit of filming

So now I am coming to filming the end of my music video which has been very tiring but exciting to do. I did the last bit of shooting a couple of weeks ago in my local graveyard which I choose because it has good lighting opportunities and the setting is beautiful and archaic. Also it is convenient as it is quite close which means my actors and actresses don't have to trek too far!
The filming was successful and luckily I had my mum take backstage videos and photos for me. The weather was so cold however that it was difficult for my actors to act so really we could only do one take of each scene which is a shame but my own fault for picking that day to film!
I also received some feedback from my first draft which you can see below. I got feedback from my fellow media student Geeta and my fellow students at the BFI Academy which gave me good criticism and praise, and I have definitely taken into account their improvements.
I have now finished the final draft of both my music video and my digipak design, and I'm trying to find where I have saved my magazine advert! I'm pleased so far with my music video and digipak design as there is now only a couple of tweaks to make with them.
The next stage is during my own time is to finish off the 3 tasks but that should not take too long as there is only a few things to do on them, however the magazine advert may take longer as I have been unable to find it and may have to start again.                                                                                                         

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

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

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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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

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.