Initial group planning ideas- Miss Georgiou

My group member is James Barry. In my first meeting we discussed what songs we could use for our own music video we also discussed what music genre our music video was going to be. We chose electronic/dance to be our music genre and our song we chose was 'Blame' by Calvin Harris Feat John Newman. We made a mind map coming up with all our ideas we wanted to include in our music video.  As a group we were thinking to use songs such as "sun don't shine" by Sonnentanz, also we were thinking of  using 'Rather be' by Clean Bandit. We discussed whether we wanted to base the song on either a relationship, friendship or family, in order to make the music video realistic. As a group we had felt the song blame was a good song to make a music video as we could play with the narrative and could use fast paced shots for the beat drops. When we decided what genre and song we were going to use we printed off the lyrics and their me and james both put forward our ideas of what we wanted to use, we straight away agreed we wanted a narrative with the concept of friendship, after going through the lyrics we believed the best narrative was going to be the group of friends being dead after a car crash and they are blaming their death on the night, the video will show the crash at the beginning of the video then it will rewind and show what the boys had done all that night, which is going out partying and drinking. Before we could begin filming this narrative we first had to apply for copyright so we could legally use the song in our music video we done this by emailing Calvin Harris' record label.

To gain inspiration as a group we researched other dance music videos and saw from this it is conventional to use party scenes when we saw this we knew we wanted this to be the main shots for our music video. To help with the planning of the music video on an A3 paper to look at the different elements we were going to use for our music video- Mise-en scene and location are both extremely imprtant elements in our music video as we are using a lot of iconography such as smoke bombs and fireworks and a car. The location for our music video is set in clubs and concerts around London and shows the group of friends having a good time. We felt for cinematography that a lot of point of view shots were important to use especially for the party scenes as it helps engage the audience with the artist as they are seeing the artists lifestyle through his own eyes, this shot is commonly found in dance music videos along with wide shots which we are also going to use. To help make everything go straightforward we made a risk assessment and filming schedule, this was to help make us film our video quickly and coherent- we did follow our storyboards for most of it but did change certain shots the filming schedule helped with the production of the film as we managed to do this very successfully as by planning evrything properly my group had a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve from filming our music videos.

As part of our planning my group had group meetings to help us plan our music video. Group meetings and discussions are important for a music video as they help the group to discuss and decide on elements they would want to use within our music video. We can look at the different elements such as editing techniques, camera shots and iconography etc, and make a decision what we are going to use within our music video to make it as good as we can. It allows the group to have a input with how we are going to create our music video and what features and conventions are going to be included within it. It is important that all of the group have a say and can actually contribute to that making of the music video. I believe our group of me and james worked well together and managed to plan our music video successfully, which made it easier for us to produce.

photo shoot Miss Miller

It is important to carry out a photo shoot, especially when creating a digipak and magazine advert  because you can take a number of shots and pick which one you think the best is that gives you a lot of  options and you will be able to get inspirations from each one. You could even use part of one and join  it in with another one. The digipaks and magazine adverts are an important part of our coursework so it  is vital that we get the correct shots in the photo shoot otherwise it would be a waste of time.  My image will be used on the music advert because as our song comes under the genre of dance and as I have a photo of me dancing I therefore, thought it would be best to use it as the music advert. The music advert is where your going to get the audiences attention it needs to be lively and stand out from the rest if it is going to succeed. By it standing out creates attention and leads to the audience wanting to listening to the song, audiences don't want to look at bland and blunt music adverts because it wont entise them to have a look or listen to it. By the audience listening to the song generates sales for the company.

We took several pictures of our artist, locations or objects that we came across whilst we were carrying out our filming. The pictures that we took will be used for both our album magazine advert and our digipak, therefore it was important to take variety of different images also using different camera angles so that we had more choice. The digipak includes four images itself therefore we needed a wide range of images so that we did not become repetitive or boring, using different angles also added a professional effect to show that we know the different influences each angle represents. The clothing in the different shots is simple, with him pictured wearing plain coloured t shirts. The effect of this, rather than showing him in fancy designer clothing, was to make him seem more relatable to the audience and also more humble, not flash. This in turn could encourage people to listen to his music as they can see he is not just a show off, and is not flash like many other artists. All our photos are showing the artist staring right at the camera to the artist this helps make a connection as the fans feel they are closer to them. We found for the dance music genre that the photo shoots are kept simple with the emphasis being on the video and music so we have follwed with this theme and from our research we found this was commonly used. With our simple photos we managed to use them on photoshop and edit them to look like they belong to the dance video genre. By having the same picture but different clothes makes the DJ have a cloud of mystery with no facial expressions except for staring straight at the camera to the audience this makes the audience want to find more out about him as he comes across mysterious.

Filming schedule

Afilming schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production. It is normally created and managed by the assistant director. The schedule represent a timeline stating where and when production resources are used, this important when planning to film a music video as it allows us to be organised and time efficient. Having information that informs us when and what we have to film will be very useful as we have limited time to film our music video considering we have two different locations to film at and plenty of footage to record. The more time efficient we are, the more time we have to edit our music video and make it as good as we can, we will also have more time incase we need to re film scenes due to any mistakes or changes we want to make. 

Shot	Date & time	Location	Content /Action	Shot type & Duration	Costume/ hair/ make up	Iconography	Personnel	Equipment
1	13.11.14 8:00pm	Luxborough Lane, Chigwell.	A boy is walking down a dark deserted alleyway on there own when a car is heard behind them and they turn around.	Mid shot Artist head and torso. Switches to a long shot as the boy reaches the bottom of the alleyway.	Artist Costume: Cream jumper and grey joggings bottoms with grey trainers.	minimal iconography	Actor, Camera man, Location manager	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card and the headlights from the car to provide a good light.
2	13.11.14 8:10pm	Luxborough Lane, Chigwell	Two people are seen in the car driving down behind the boy from the first shot.	A two shot is used from the back seat to show the back of their heads	as the figures are silhouettes there is no evident costume of make up visible	the inside of the car	Two actors and a camera man	Digital camera, batteries, tripod, Tape / memory card and the vehicle.
3	13.11.14 8:20pm	Luxborough Lane, Chigwell	The car then pulls up next to the boy and he gets into it	An extreme close up of his hand on the car door handle.	N/A	N/A	Actor and Cameraman	Camera and tripod.
4	14.11.14 9:00pm	The car	A time lapse of the boys journey back to the house which also cuts to handheld shots of the boys having fun in the car.	wide shot of the road and close up POV shots when the camera is held.	regular clothing such as tracksuits and jumpers.	balloons and cigarettes	3 actors	camera batteries and tape
5	15.11.14 5:00pm	My house	A series of still photos of the main character trying on different items of clothing.	mid shot of the main character	multiple different t shirts and shirts	plain background	main character and camera man	tripod and camera

Risk Assessment- Miss Georgiou

To help our filming schedule process go quickly and successfully my groupthought about what might harm ourselves as group members and also pedestrians surrounding us and also the reasonable and relevant steps that would help to prevent the risks and any harm they may cause. By considering all possible risks and the prevention methods put in place before filming will help us save a lot of valuable time when filming as without injury all the scenes will be able to be filmed on schedule. Setting up precautions to take whilst filming will help us be more organised when filming as well as making me more aware of the extra props, behind the scenes that are needed to ensure peoples safety. For example, as a result of the risk assessment table I now know we need to buy gaffer tape to secure down leads and bring towels to filming to stop any water falling on the floor.

I feel that the risk assessment was highly beneficial as all of the group members became aware of risks that they may not have thought of previously. It prevented any accidents happening to group members and pedestrians whilst we were filming.

Music video storyboards-Miss Georgiou

The purpose of a story board is to create a more realistic feel for your narrative. It helps the narrative come to life and highlights if theres any errors in my videos plot and if any shots are unrealistic. It also allows me to create a time frame onto each shot so I can have a better understanding as to whether I need to edit or lengthen my storyboard and scene. Each of the frames contain information of how i want my want my shots to come out of and included camera shots, location, iconography, lighting, lighting, actors, sound, editing and narrative information. After giving out this description I then drew a picture which links with the description I have written and gives an idea of what the scene will hopefully look like. 

I found creating a story board very useful as it help me visualise my ideas and help them come to life. This gives me an overall idea of where I would want the actor to be positioned and what mise-en-scene I would want to be present in each clip. This will help when creating a group story board as our ideas will be easier to explain and demonstrate to the group, meaning decisions can be made quickly as to whether or not we would want to take the idea any further and incorporate it into our final story board.

Planning Digipak - Miss Miller

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book style) paperboard or cardboard outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the cd. Digipak style packaging is often used for cd singles or special editions of cd albums. Digipak style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000's. Digipaks are a lot better than CD'S for fans as Digipak's contain higher quality images and meaning in them, these also include a personal message from the artist to the fans this makes the audience feel closer to the artist as it gives a more personal feel. The Digipak has 6 sides this means there is more opportunity for visible pictures, information and promotions than there is on a CD. This helps the artist to attract fans to buy this productas the Digipak is more than just a disc with songs on it, it is actually more meaningful to the fans.

The digipak is conventional to the genre as it has the background of the party scenes on the front cover, which are darkened and the strobe lights have been made lighter to have a greater effect on the audience. The audience will clearly be able to see that the front cover will be able to represent the party scene and they will be able to relate to this background as it was taken from a scene in the music video. The photos are conventional also as James will be standing staring at the camera with his party glasses on this will attract the audience as it will look like he is staring directly at them. The colours that i have used are conventional as i have carried on the theme all the way through the music video, poster and now the digipak. It brings all of the three together and allows the audience to relate to the song all the way through these three. The target audience will be able to build a relationship with the target audience as they will be able to understand how James is living a party lifestyle, which most of our fans will want to live. The digipak will be very simple with bright strobe lights on every side to show the audience it is from the dance music genre. I will include a personal message to the fans to make the digipak more relatable and the typography will be a funky electronic font to show the audience clearly this album is dance music. There is 6 songs on the album and an additional 2 bonus songs added as part of a advantage of the digipak, the bonus tracks will be written in more noticeable font to show their significance of being special. The layout of the track listings will be in the middle of the back page so that the presentation is conventional to a normal CD/Digipak.

This draft will assist my group in making the decision of choosing a digipak for the group as i will know that i will be looking for in the others digipak, in which i like on mine and then what i would like to change in order for our group to chose the best digipak we can.I found planning my digipak useful as it allowed me to evaluate all of my decisions and from this I can decide what elements I wish to change or tweak for example the colours, images or font. I am more aware of what images to include within my digipak as it has allowed me to focus on how I want my artist to be represented and how I can reach my target audience by being conventional to the genre.

Planning editing styles-Miss Georgiou

Editing is important within a music video as it puts together all the different types of shots and it makes them have an effect. For example rather than just putting straights cuts in a shot, a more effective shot would be a fade. As it would give more meaning to the shot and show the emotions of the people in the music video rather than just using loads of straights cuts. Using colour filters as effects will make a shot seem more effective to an audience such as having a black and white scene for a dance seen i feel would be more effective than having a colourful scene.

The first editing style that we are going to use within our music video is going to be fast editing when we set the scene for the music video. We are going to use fast editing for the London scenery as we feel this will make the location seem more effective and the target audience will understand that London is actually a big city. This editing style is conventional to our dance genre as it will explain that the world is moving quickly when the boys are out having a good time and then when we see them on the bench at it go back to normal to show that the night is over. The target audience would be able to understand that people do not care about what is happening in the real world when they are having a good time in a bar. They will be able to relate to this as they would have experienced this when they have been out or been on holiday.

The second editing technique that we are going to use in our music video is going to be slow editing. This will occur when we want the audience to think the boys are drunk; the slow editing will show the feeling the boys are feeling and possibly suggest that the main character is under the influence of alcohol or possibly drugs. We felt this gave the video quite a unique feel and by not particularly conforming to the genre stereotypes made the video more attractive to viewers. This will be used to represent the artist within the music video. This is conventional as in music videos they artists are shown to have party lifestyles and by showing them as drunk can help relate them to the audience who also like to party, so that the audience know who the song is by.The audience would then be able to relate to his songs as they would have been in a club setting when listening to it, stereotypically under the influence of alcohol.

The third editing style that we will include in our music video will be a fade in and out. This will be evident when the boys get off of the bench. This has been used to show that the night is officially over and that they are moving back into the real life and working world. This is conventional as people would forget about their worries ion the real world and just want to live for the moment when they are in a club setting. They would not care about what is happening in their work or academic life they would just want to enjoy themselves. The target audience would be able to relate to this as they would have been put in a situation where they would have would have forgot about their worries that they have had and they would just want to live for that moment and that place. Another editing style I am going to use is Jump-cuts as these are a conventional editing style used within almost all genres but especially dance, they are used for the purpose of switching immediately and subtly between the narratives. We are using jump-cuts to move from one setting to another within the storyline, for example we will switch from a calm shot of the friends together in a car travelling around london and when the beat drops we will jump cut to a club scene and keep cutting to different shots in the club this is conventional and commonly found in dance music videos. The jump-cut aims to avoid the audience from waiting or being confused between the transitions of scenes as well as making them run smoothly and professionally. The jump cuts will follow the beat of the music and help make the music video more entertaining.

The final editing technique that we are going to use in our music video will be a straight cut. This is when the shot will cut from the establishing shot of London to the foot steps of the working people which will show that it is the morning and the boys have just woke up on a park bench and they do not know where they are. This is conventional as in Dance music videos the shots change really quickly to show a new meaning or explain what is happening in the shot. This will then explain to the target audience that the boys are in London and that they are waking up in a the morning and people are going to work. Another editing technique is to add an effect of flashing lights across the screen this will follow the conventions of a dance music video, which usually contains bright flashing colours, the flashing light effect will give a feel that the audience are in a club, which will make it more entertaining for the audience.