Production Schedule

Yesterday, Lara and I made the Production Schedule. As our video has only two sets and one location the production schedule is quite simple.

Further development

I am going to start collecting egg boxes as we are going to paint them black and place them on the walls of the recording studio.

We have also had another idea for a third aspect of the video, Luke said that after we have shot our video and after we have finished in the studio, that he could drive us to Guilford to get some shots of our artist and the featuring artist walking around the town.  We will shoot him walking through the several bypass's which Guildford has, which would definitely fit the image of our video. We would be going at around 5:00 which will be relatively dark but still have a dim and atmospheric light.

We have also decided to have a wall hanger which we have to hang from the ceiling in the sofa set as this will add to the image.

Meeting with lighting designer.

Today Lara and I met with Luke and the light designer. As we are only using two sets it was fairly straight forward and clear as to the look we were hoping to achieve. We started by showing photos of studios, we did this as they had the exact lighting which we wanted.   It is a warm lighting which will make the set look aesthetically pleasing. We will also have lights from the ceiling which will focus on the artist which will bring more emphasis on them. The photo below is a very similar lighting setup which we are hoping to achieve.

For the second set we are going for a darker lighting which will suit the image of the set. We showed the designer images representing the lighting which we are aiming for, with lights underneath the sofas and the coffee table and then very minimal lighting with very soft lighting on the faces of the characters. We are also having a drapery hanging from the ceiling through which lights will shine through, the drapery will dull the lighting giving a very nice effect. The photo below is not representative of the colour light which we want, however it shows an example of uplighting the sofa.

Further Rehearsals

We are planning a rehearsal for Thursday afternoon as we want the two artist to get more confident with the song and also the band to have another practice while the artists perform. We also have a new guitarist, Nameer. So we will need to make sure he can perform with the band which we are very confident he will be able to do, he is also a talented guitarist so we are confident he will be able to play the part very convincingly.

Teacher Evaluation to Test Video

On Friday we presented the Test video which all three of us filmed and organised. Cameron then edited the Test video as he has past experience with editing. Phil liked the video, but the main feedback we got from showing him the video was that Jacob and Sam need to sing the song much louder and learn the song off by heart.  In the test video they knew the majority of the song, but still have a few lyrics which they need to perfect.  If they do not sing the song out loud it looks very obvious that they are not actually singing the song which looks really unprofessional.

We also realised from making this video that the guitarist did not fit very well in the video as he couldn't actually play the guitar and this was very obvious in the test video.  Phil said that both of our performers were very good at delivering the performance and have a great image and know they just need to perfect the song.

Phil also thought that Jacob should not sing the vocals as well as the rap as he felt it looked off and was slightly confusing as these voices sometimes overlap, he suggested maybe the girls in the video act as backup singers and they all perform this section of the song. We also realised that the booth which Jacob will be rapping in will have to be quite big so he can comfortably deliver the performance, as if its too small he will likely not have as much confidence. The studio will also have to be pretty large as the performance is the main section of the song, so it has to look professional.

Call Sheet

The numbers below are for everyone in the music video. The numbers are Wills, Jacob, Honor, Roxy, Zoe, Clementine, Milan, Sam, Will and Nameer.

Editing Test Video

After me, Cameron and Lara filmed the test video Cam worked his editing skills to the job and managed to edit a great Test Video. 

Genre Research three different artists

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eULZI2cietgG7zVRpYg2fSEIJOuFh4OU0e09Z25jz8Y/edit?usp=sharing


I made my Genre research presentation on Google documents and struggled to upload it onto my blog so I have given a link above to the presentation and screenshots of My presentation.

Meeting with set designer

We had another meeting with maryanne and Luke yesterday. In this meeting we were trying to get the final ideas of the set across to the both of them. I printed some photos of the aesthetic which we are trying to go for with the party scene with the false wall behind. The small table in the middle of the party scene will be covered in empty drinks and cigarette butts like the photo seen below which is what we showed Luke and Maryanne.

I have some wall hangers and also some posters which I'm going bring to the shoot day for the sets which will look really good in both sets.
As the performance section of the video is very important we need the set to be large so we can get lots of interesting shots and also be able to walk around the set while filming. The performance section of the video will be the majority of the video. We need to have one last meeting with Maryanne to just make the idea of our set very clear so we all know what's happening.

Filming Test Video

Yesterday we spent all of the afternoon filming our test video. Our video idea does heavily rely on our sets as they make the video, this did make it relatively hard to film the test video with no sets using the resources which we have at school. We booked the studio for the whole afternoon and gave the whole cast lots of warning so this was not a problem.
We were planning on filming the party scene in the common room however, it was being used for a rehearsal. We ended up using the media editing suit as this room had a sofa however the lighting in this room isn't the best. The performance scene in the studio went very well, we moved a drum kit, a guitar, keyboard into the studio. We then moved the black curtain around the whole of the studio which made the video look much better ascetically. We also had a boombox and old tv's scattered around the set which filled the space well. We found a see through box which was a similar idea which we are going for using a recording box, we moved it into the studio however the box was to small as our main chart tea is very tall and the box is also very narrow.
For lighting we had several lights on a medium lighting setting, we also had two lights on the floor.
We filmed the video on our phones using several phones per shoot to get as many shots as possible.
We are know half way through editing the video which will be ready for Thursday.

Master Document - Set one

The set idea for set one which is going to be the main performance which will be the largest section of our video which we will constantly be coming back to throughout the video.

We will need in this sett, a full drum set like the one pictured above. The colour or style doesn't matter. We will also need an electric guitar and a keyboard with a keyboard stand. The design and colour again doesn't matter for these.

We will also need a microphone which is hanging from the ceiling or o a stand which is taller than our artist which comes to around his mouth height, like the one seen above.

With the recording booth section of our video I think we are aiming to film parts of the scene in the recording studio at school and then the majority of it in the studio.

This is the look which we are going for.

Further development- Change to our idea

We have decided as a group that the pub scene which we had thought of, does not fit the vibe and image of the song or the character who is going to be acting in our song. After lots of meetings we realised that we had to scrap this section from our idea.
The next few days after we were despiraltly trying to think of an idea for the third concept of our video which will fit the atmosphere of our video and which we can film in a suitable distance from school.
We cameo up with the idea of Cranleigh skatepark, the lighting here will be great and will defiantly suit the lighting and imagery of our video. We had the idea that our main character and the other featured artist in the song could be sitting at the top of a skateboard ramp with their legs dangling of the side of the ramp as they are rapping the song together. The images below show the kind of shot and idea of part of the skatepark scene however it uses very different lighting and costume to what we are going to use as its based in America and the genre of music is different however it shows the similar image to what we are aiming to achieve.

 We thought we could also get several shots of 4-8 skateboarders or bikers circling around our main character which we feel will fit the theme of confusion and loneliness which is presented in our video. It's defiantly achievable, the only trouble is, if its heavily raining on the day this could pose as an issue. I think it will be much easier to find bikers and most people can ride a bike in a circle, finding a group of skateboarders will be much harder as very few at our school can skateboard except from me and four other but they are not available to perform in our video.

The images below show parts of the skatepark however they are very old, bad quality photos. It will be shown much better on Monday when we shoot our test video here.

I can't find any images which represent a shot which we feel would be very cool but the idea around the shot is the character standing looking up rapping into the camera which is being shot from above. A group of cyclists will be cycling around the artist.

Elements which we are going to film.

We are going to use the recording studio and the set and use the same lighting for both. we are going to film this in a way which it appears that we are in one location. We will have a hard wall at the back of both the sets so you can't tell the difference of the two sets.
The dark sofa room set which we will film, will be very messy with beer bottles and cigarette buts around the set giving off the impression of a party the night before. The lighting will be generally dark but focusing on the characters face and also lights which will pick up central points, this will mean the dull furniture won't stick out.
This set has a false wall, which half way through the song the false wall will be taken out of the studio but the camera won't change. The false wall will reveal lots of people standing behind the sofa drinking and what seems like a small party. They will be oblivious to the main character singing the song on the sofa playing on the element of loneliness.

The time scale which is seen below was done by all three of us in the group, originally written by me and Cameron and then as our idea changed Lara changed the timeline adding in the new elements and removing the pub scene from the timeline.

Editing Workshop

We started the editing session with matt briefly going over adobe premiere pro as it has been several months since we last used it. He made the first point that organisation for this is so important as we have only got 9 days to edit the video. He said to very clearly label the specific type of shot when the clips have been placed on the timeline, however don't rename or delete the name of the clips in the rushes. This makes it very hard to find specific videos and even harder for the rest of your group.
Matt showed us how we place the clips on top off each other which was different to how we edited the opening sequences. He said to have the main performance at the bottom of the timeline and the other clips to go on top of these.

When editing the video if the video is a band performance or more than one performer, the video should focus with a close up shot of the main singer to set the scene and to also make it very clear who the lead singer is.
After this shot has been done, establish the rest of the performers e.g. the band, get a wide shot of all of them so the audience can get an understanding of who the band or artists are and what they are about.
After this then match the cutting with the music, e.g. if the guitarist has a solo to focus on a close up of the guitar and the guitarist fingers and then a mid close up which will show who that certain character is. Also if the song is a fast beat song the editing should be quick to match the pattern of the song which will make the video make more sense.

When editing listen to the song in great detail and illustrate what you are hearing at that certain section of the song to that certain part of the video. The video will then make more sense this way.
The performance section of the video will likely be the section which you have the most shots for so use this for the beginning of the song and then all the other settings which you may have recorded to place through sections of the performance, but still keep coming back and forward to the performance. Make sure to showcase the image of the band or artist but also showcase the personality so its very clear for anyone viewing the video, what image and vibe the certain artist gives off.

Matt suggested to us to defiantly not produce a rough cut as this will waste your time and will result in having to make another version of the rough cut taking lots of time. He suggested editing 10 seconds off the video at a time rather than panicking and attempting to edit the whole video. Smaller chunks will make it much more manageable and also will likely mean more detail goes into the 10 seconds. He also suggested doing hour periods of editing with headphones to prevent any distractions and to really focus each hour slot.
Lastly Matt said do not show anyone the video progression while editing the video or ask for opinions about the video from anyone except the teachers as this will waste time showing our friends and also we could get unhelpful criticisms from them.

Master Document Costume

Mater document- Costume 

For the male costumes we have confirmed and I’ve sent emails letting the cast know the full details to what the costume is. The costume is baggy trousers either cargo, dickies or jeans. A baggy shirt or t-shirt or jumper or hoodie which has a baggy fit like the ones seen below. If the actors have them we have asked them to wear a chain and a beanie or hat if they have them but this is not essential. The shoes have to be trainers of some sort. I personally have lots of dickies trousers and jeans and also lots of baggy tops which are perfect for the costume which I will bring on the day of the shoot if anyone needs items which they don’t personally own. 

or the girls costume its slightly more simple as they are just extras and don’t feature very much in the video but we have asked for them to wear dark outfits preferably all black and any necklaces which they have.

 

Master Document Set 2 requirements

Yesterday I made the master document for set 2which includes all the props which we will need for the video. I forgot to add that we will need a coffee table which you can see directly below. This table will be in-between the two sofas and in front of the armchair exactly as seen in the drawing further down my page. The table will be used to place all the drinks on so it can't be too small but as the design goes anything will be okay. The table will have to be low around knee height. 

We also will need a small table as seen directly below which will go in-between one of the sofas and the armchair for the main character to place his drink. 

In the set we will also have posters and wall hangers to make the room look more authentic however we all have several cool different posters and wall hangers which we can provide ourselves. 

Meeting With set Supervisor

Yesterday we had a meeting with our set designer, Marjanne. In the meeting we told her about the whole idea of our music video, specifically the two set ideas which we have in mind. We started by pitching the performance set, this set is relatively simple. Its a small recording box with the band surrounding around the performance box. The set idea can be seen below.
Marjanne thought that this idea would be definitely achievable, however she suggested an idea of using the recording studio glass window for certain shots which we can film in a certain way meaning the audience wouldn't be able to tell it was filmed in the recording studio. She also suggested having a mixing desk outside of the studio which will give a very nice effect. 

We then went on the pitch the second set idea which we have in mind. This idea uses two sofas with an armchair in the middle with two wall panels on either side. The lighting will be dark meaning you won't be able to see whats behind the sofa which plays in part of there video. She also felt that this would be achievable as she said we could have both sets in the studio back to back on each other. she also suggested having posters and wall hangers on the walls which will make the set more authentic and also will give something else for the audience to look at. She also said that the other group would be using a wall which has peeling of paint looking very rough which we could use placing some wall hangings over part of it but still revealing part of the wall adding to the vibe of the video and this particular scene. See the set drawing below which shows the idea of the layout of the second set.
She also liked the idea of the table in the middle of the room which could have lights underneath off the table giving a very nice effect and will bring some more focus and effect on the bottles and mess on top of the table.