Potential Hazards I May Encounter While Filming

Above are potential hazards I may encounter while filming, and actions I took to prevent them from happening. This was an essential part of my filming, as I obviously did not want to injure myself or others, or worse, damage the camera!

Time Line and Story Board

To help us plan for our music video, we had to create a time line and decided what we wanted to include in the video. All my clips last for around 4 seconds. I have decided to include a narrative part with a girl and the lead singer, and add in the band playing instruments. Some parts will be played in a park, and the rest in a house. The band will perform on a white background. Below are shots of my timeline:

 

To create my story board, I had to use my time line to draw pictures of what I wanted my shots to look like onto post-it notes. I had to show what camera angles I wanted to use, and any addition information was written underneath. Over all, I did about 45 different pictures, which were annotated and I wrote the lyrics above each picture and also the length of time that clip would be shown. I had 8 sheets in total.
I will use them when filming my video to aid me in getting the desired angles and shots.
Here are a few shots of my story boards and there are also some close ups of the images I did and you can see timings and annotations around it:

 

 

After I had completed my story board, I then had to create a video out of them by using Premier Pro.
I used a camera and tri-pod to steady my shots, and then filmed the notes for however long I needed to, although I did go over a few seconds just to ensure I got a good and steady shot. After I had completed this, I caputed the footage on Premier Pro and imported the track which I am using, which is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. I then began to cut my film into what I hope my music video will look like.
Below is my finished video:

Media Proposal

Out of my two options of 'Alright' by Supergrass and 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones, I decided to choose 'Teenage Kicks' for my song, as their music video is them performing on stage, unlike 'Alright' that has a narrative story line. I feel using 'Teenage Kicks' gives me more freedom with my ideas.

Performers - My video features a band and a girl. There is going to be three people in the band, and I'm filming the band performing and lip synching, and also acting out a storyline. This doesn't necessarily challenge convention, however it stops the video being repetitive and boring.

Costume - The performers are not wearing specific costumes, just the clothes they normally wear, as they are portraying teenage boys. The girl can wear something girly.

Locations - I plan to film in a park for when I'm shooting the story line. I also will shoot parts inside a house for the story line too. When the band are performing, they will ne playing on a white background so they are the main focus.

Narrative Ideas - I will have the and playing their instruments, which will be edited in, but I also would like there to be a story line. The lead singer is in love with the girl and is trying to get her.

Camera Angles - When the band are performing, I would like to use close up's of their faces, and also of their hands playing the instruments. I will also film them at a higher angle so the viewer is slightly looking down on them. For the narrative parts, I will use wide shots to get all the performers in, as well as scenery. I will use mid shots of the performers faces, and I plan to film parts with different levels of zoom that I can use in my split screen. The part 'every time she walks down the street' is going to be filmed with the camera on the floor, so you just get the view of the feet and legs walking towards the camera.

Editing Styles - I would like to feature split screens like in the video 'Alors on Danse' by Stromae ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHoT4N43jK8 ). I would like them both horizontally and vertically split, for example, I would like a split screen  featuring the performers eyes and the girl walking past. I would also like one of her, but different parts of her body and different levels of zoom in each screen. In one part I would like to make the editing obvious and jerky to show time passing. I feel this is not often used and may challenge convention. I may speed the footage up in parts to also show time passing. An example of this is in the video 'A-Punk' by Vampire Weekend ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ ).

Style - My chosen song is a 70's punk song. The theme and style of my song is not going to be of that theme, but moreso an indie theme.

Digi-Pak Analysis 2

Below is my second analysis on a digi-pak. I analysed Paloma Faith's album 'Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'

Digi-Pak Analysis 1.

Before I started to create an design my digi-pak, I analysed some existing albums to see what layout, font style, and other aspects contribute to the overall look of a digi-pak. I looked on the internet and found two examples. For my first analysis, I looked at Pink's greatest hits album.

Email to The Undertones.

Below is a print screen of the email I sent to The Undertones asking for their permission to use the song. Unfortunately I have not received a reply.

Music Video Research Two

The music video I analysed was 'Strawberry Swing' by Coldplay.

Music Video Research One

For my research, I looked at the music video for 'Young Love' by The Mystery Jets ft. Laura Marling.

By researching the music video, I can see different shots that are used and examples of split screens. I feel this will help me choose my editing and camera angles.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we had to pick a music video and copy the footage for the first 1:20 seconds.

Filming

I directed a part of the video, and I learned from this was that it can be very stressful, because the people acting may not understand what you are after if you are not clear enough. You need to be clear, firm and calm.

I was featured in the video, but I didn't play one of the monkeys. I was one of the girls and a chef. The costumes were not hard to get, because we needed black tops and bottoms for the girls and our teacher provided us with a white chefs hat. We made some of the props our self, for example the piece of meat on a stick, a watch and a sign.

To get to the area we were filming in, we had to walk through a busy canteen at lunch time, which proved difficult for some people as they felt uncomfortable in their costumes. However, I feel that over all we were quite professional about it.

I also filmed for part of the video, and this gave me an idea of how to achieve different camera angles and being clear with directions. I also learned how to hold a steady shot.

Making a storyboard helped us greatly, as we were constantly looking back and checking we had the right footage, and marking it off when we had finished it.
I feel I have learned how to time manage, as I was not aware of how long the process would take, as you need to make numerous amounts of the same shot, to ensure it is good. Also, I was not aware of how long it would take to edit.

While acting in my parts, I found it difficult sometimes because everyone wanted to laugh and you had to keep a straight face! Also, you had to do repeats of the the scene to make sure you got a good one.
I feel that the people we worked with did very well and even though they may have felt uncomfortable, they still remained professional.

Editing
I feel that this has helped me gain vital experience on Premiere Pro, and I've learned how to import and export footage, cut footage, unlink the sound, scale and re-size clips, and change speed duration.

While editing, I learned the importance of lip syncing, as it was quite hard matching up the words to the motion of the actors mouths. This linked in with pace, and linking pace and lip syncing together made it difficult, so some clips has to be shortened or lengthened accordingly.

Overall, I enjoyed the preliminary task and feel that it was essential to aid me in creating my own music video.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we had to re-make the first minute of a famous music video. Our class decided on 'Bad Touch' by Bloodhound Gang.



Below is the original video: