Location Recce

As we had decided not to film the paint fight in the forest due to the difficulty of filming on a weekend and at a different location, we had to try out our alternate location. This location was the wrek which backs onto the school making it much easier to transport the paint to this place as well as getting the actors together.

We had to test this out in order to see what framing would work due to the minimal woodland behind the grass. Therefore, we tested out different framings as well as camera movement in order to see how we could frame this scene while avoiding revealing that the school is visible behind. This was incredibly useful as we would not have to worry about this on the actual shoot day and so it hugely limited time wasting.

Performance Rehearsal

Before we began filming we brought Georgie in for a performance rehearsal. This meant that we could direct her and inform her of how we wanted these scenes to look. We also needed to check her lip synching for this particular song.

The video above shows one of the run-throughs we did with Georgie. The rehearsal was successful and we could really see Georgie taking on the role of the artist. However, it was not a perfect performance. This rehearsal showed us that Georgie needed to work on learning the lyrics, but most importantly we had to work on our directorial skills and really provide Georgie with a clear image of our intentions.

This showed us the importance of rehearsals. With the limited time we had in the studio in the following weeks we had to ensure that we were utilizing our time properly. This meant that there was very little time for practice during these sessions.
From this rehearsal we took away the knowledge that not only would Georgie be very good and cooperative in her role but also the fact that we had to direct and inform all of our actors of their role in the video prior to filming.

Shoot Board

 Shoot Board for our first shoot:

The shoot board enable us to see the time and date that everyone needs to be in the studio. We have used blue to colour in the parts that aren't actually filming so we can see when we need the actual equipment set up for. This works with our kit list as the kit list states all of the technical equipment we require in the studio.
The shoot board functions as a shoot schedule because it has a break down of each shot and the timing it will take us to film each shot. This is incredibly important for the shoot as it allows us to see how long we will need and gives a schedule to keep to in case we are taking longer than necessary.

Before we created the final shoot board/schedule to use on set, we made a shoot board of each shot we were to film:

 

 

This allowed us to have a list of shots that we could then use for our shoot schedule once we had our final scheduling. This is a more detailed breakdown of each shot which we can use alongside the final shoot board/schedule. All of the documents work well together in order for us to run an organised and fluid shoot every time we film.

Call Sheets

We worked out our call times based on when everyone would be needed on set. We worked it out so that we would have time to for setting up, for hair and makeup, and for filming. By having a call sheet we could inform people of the exact times they would be needed. The call sheet also helps us as it lists equipment and gives us strict times to stick to so that we ensure we don't run over.

Schedule of Studio and Location Shots

Studio schedule:

The studio schedule was broken down into weeks, with different colours corresponding to different groups. We were all given equal time in the studio according to when we were free. Our group was coloured in red.

We scheduled our location shoots according to when our actors were free and when we could get the equipment. This resulted in them being scheduled for 12:30 to 1:30 on both the 17/11 and 20/11.

Kit List

Publicity Shots

 For our publicity shots we are going to take lots of pictures during our shoot as we feel that these will be most synergistic with our album release. We are going to take both shots of the band and single shots of Georgie as well as the DJs together. 

 

We would like to take shots like the Paramore promo shot above as this is a really nice shot and creates a serious band image while keeping with the powder paint theme.
We would also like to take some more natural and playful shots like the photo below as we feel that this will connote the relationship between our artist incredibly well. This is also in keeping with our festival style and friendly feel that we would like to create. The two are quite different but show the differing sides to our artist.

As well as the paint fight scene, we would like to try some promo shots with the balloon scene, especially with the static of the balloons. We are going to do this as again it is in keeping with the friendly and playful artist image we are going for, while being interesting and exciting for the audience.

In addition to these shots, we are going to take some shots of Georgie alone. We have more complex ideas for these, based around the following inspirations:

We really like the way in which the layers of photos creates a sense of long exposure. These work particularly well in the Ellie Goulding promo shots and we would like to use shots like these for our promo shots of Georgie.

Finally, we would like to do some more basic shots with the DJs messing around together, again with their playful and friendly nature emphasised. Despite being incredibly simple, these shots work really well in the above pictures of Disclosure; a big artist inspiration for us.

The promo shots will be used on our website. Visuals are incredibly important on websites and so it is crucial that we use these to create our intended artist image. As according to Richard Dyer's 'star' theory, we want to focus on the image of our artist according to character and personality. Dyer says that the 'star' begins as a 'real' human, being very much of their time and generation. Therefore, the members of our band are going to be represented as fun and relateable; realistic presentations of what the audience expect. However, they will also have the 'star' side which we will bring out by using more serious and constructed publicity shots. This is what Disclosure do well, so we would like to achieve a similar impact.

Costume, Hair and Makeup

        Georgie

Georgie will need a different outfit for each of the four setups.
For the White setup she will be wearing:

Grey jumper, light jeans and red shoes. We chose this outfit as she is supposed to appear as a normal girl, before anything has happened to her. We also wanted to use light colours as the setup is supposed to be very light. We chose the red shoes as the lighting brings out the colour well against the white flooring.

For this setup she is going to have very simple makeup similar to that pictured on the left. This will consist of light eyeliner, mascara, very light lipstick, foundation and powder to keep her from being shiny. Her hair will be straight down and natural.

For the paint fight Georgie is going to wear the following:

White tshirt, black leggings and black trainers. We chose this because the paint will show up best on a white top. The colours will also contrast well with black, and the paint wont stain black clothes so we have chosen black leggings and shoes. We wanted to keep this outfit simple because this would ensure that the main focus is on the paint and it wont clash with any clothing. It is also easy to dress everyone in the paint fight the same if we keep it simple. Her makeup will be simple with black mascara, lipstick, foundation and powder but this time with pink and blue eyeshadow as well. This follows our colour scheme and adds some colour to her face which makes it differ from the performance. Her hair will be down as normal.

For the balloon setup Georgie is going to wear the following:

Purple disco pants, tie dye top and white and green Nike trainers. For this setup we have chosen to dress everyone in bright colours which will make them stand out. This is because we want it to be really colourful and vibrant in order to suit the pace of the song as well as keeping with the Alice in Wonderland theme. Her makeup will be more colourful in order to correspond with this styling, having her eye shadow blue and pink while the rest of her makeup is quite simple.

For the performance Georgie will be wearing:

Black and gold sparkly jumpsuit and black chunky heeled sandals. We chose this as it is more high profile and dressed up than the other outfits and so brings out her artist persona rather than her just being herself. Her makeup will be more intense for the performance with smokey eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara as well as dark lipstick and foundation and powder. This will be similar to the makeup shown on the left. Her hair will be down again but this time slightly wavey and with more volume in order to make it seem more stylised than normal.

Gavin & Eugene
The boys are going to be dressed similarly throughout the video. We have based their styling on genre conventional styling, as well as current trends within fans of their music. This means that their styling will be very audience driven and so increase their appeal, while maintaining a star identity and fulfilling genre conventions.

For the performance they will be wearing short sleeve shirts with dark jeans and trainers; this will make them dressed up for the performance but not overly smart as to not lose their intended artist image. The following slideshow contains inspirations for the kind of look we are going for:
For the balloon scene, the boys will be wearing brightly coloured shirts in order to incorporate the colourful and dream-like nature of the scene. They will also have bandanas as this is stereotypical festival attire which furthers the look we are aiming to produce.

For the paint fight they will be dressed similarly to Georgie, with white Tshirts and plain dark jeans. This is so that the powder paint will show up effectively like this:

The extras for these two scenes will dressed similarly in order to keep with the styling of the video. They will wear bright colourful clothes for the balloon scene and white tops for the paint scene.

Lighting and Set Design

Adjusting the lighting for White Set-Up

Lighting:

For our three internal set-ups we have programmed lighting in the studio. We decided that each set-up should have differing lighting in order to differentiate between them and correspond with each mood we are trying to create.

The first set-up is where Georgie first enters the studio and sees a cupcake waiting for her. This scene also includes shots with overlayed Alice in Wonderland footage. For this set-up we are using white spot light on the subject (and the cupcake in front of her) along with white light on the backdrop. This will hopefully create a bright white appearance for this scene.

The second set-up is the balloon scene. For this, in keeping with our colour scheme we have lit the white backdrop with blue and pink lights while lighting the floor and subjects with bright white light.


The final studio set-up is performance. This lighting for this set-up proved more difficult to programme as we wanted a specific look which was harder to get than plain white light. We also had to test this lighting extensively in order to get it right, as shown in the video below:



Through testing it with people and using the camera, we were able to get a much clearer idea of what it would look like for the real thing. As there is not much going on in this scene except for performance, the lighting was incredibly important. We decided on three spotlights; blue for the two DJs and pink for the female lead. This was because it created a differentiation between the two, thus making a great impact, and was in keeping with our colour scheme.

Our external set-up will be in the forest, and so in order to get natural lighting we are going to start filming very early in the day in order to maintain natural brightness. This will be difficult due to the time of year, but we are going to try to ensure that there is consistent lighting in these scenes. In addition, if some scenes do appear to be dark, we will fix this in grading as a last resort.

Set Design:

We have a different set design for each four of our scenes/setups. A brief outline is given on these in the following Prezi: (page may need reloading to view Prezi)

Casting

Our main female role will be played by Georgie. We chose to use Georgie as she has acted in numerous media projects before, including the leading female role in our music video remake. This meant that she is confident in front of camera and will excel in a music video as she has experience in lip synching and performing. In addition, as she studied media for AS Level, Georgie understands the demands of media and the way in which music videos are produced.
 

One of our DJs will be played by Gavin. We feel that Gavin will be good in the role as he has previously acted in media projects and so is very confident on camera. He is also incredibly confident with the production side of media and so will be helpful when producing our music video. As Gavin is currently working on his own music video, we know that he will be reliable and cooperative. 

The other DJ will be played by Eugene. We chose to use Eugene as he is confident and so will be comfortable acting in front of people. He is also friends with Gavin so there will be natural on-screen chemistry between them. As he is the brother of a group member we know him very well and are assured that he will be reliable and hard working.

Website Flat Plan

For our website we have decided to go for a simple yet visually interesting design. We want it to be aesthetically pleasing and go with the colourful nature of our artist image, album cover and music video.

The above design is a very basic version of what we intend to achieve. Specifics of our website include:

• The banner will be filled with a promo shot of powder paint, used in our music video, in order to create a synergistic campaign and consistent branding.
• We will use what we see as the most important and conventional features of an artist website as our tabs below the banner. This includes; Home, News, Live, Gallery, Store and Contact. We want to include the essentials while not overwhelming the audience with choices.
• In order to increase connectivity with the audience we feel it is incredibly important to use social media. Therefore, we will have links to the social media accounts (ie. Twitter and Facebook) accessible through logos at the top of the page.
• We will also incorporate social networks into the homepage via live Twitter feeds and an Instagram feed which automatically updates, keeping the fans constantly up to date with the artist.
• In order to keep with this interactivity, we will also have Youtube videos of back stage and behind the scenes footage.
• The main appearance of our home page will be a collage of pictures including promo shots, behind the scenes photos from our shoot days, album promotional photos and other photos which we feel convey our artist image. 
• For this style, we have looked at other artist websites for inspiration:

Beyoncé Website

The 1975 Website

Third Week's Production Meetings

Now that we had our track decided we had to plan out our video in detail. In order to do so we had to create a storyboard.
However, during our production meeting at this stage, we decided that it would be most efficient for half of the group to work on the storyboard while the other half worked on other miscellaneous jobs such as costuming, makeup and props research, and we took turns in the two jobs. This allowed us to be most efficient with our time and get everything done as fast as possible.
We created the following storyboard; more can be seen about this in my storyboard post:

Meanwhile, the other half of the group worked on costume and makeup. We did extensive research into what would look best, as well as asking the actors what they have so we could source as much as possible in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

Costume & Makeup List

We made an initial list of what we would like for the costuming and after discussing these ideas in more detail came to final conclusions at a later date. We also had a meeting with an ex-student in order to learn how to do the make-up that we wanted. This proved extremely helpful and allowed us to have a clearer understanding of make-up.

Notes from our Makeup meeting

Photo of Maisie modelling our make up example

Our final costuming and makeup along with more in-depth explanations can be seen in my Costume and Makeup post.

We also looked into props so that we could get these ordered as soon as possible due to shooting being imminent. We created an essential props list and researched into all the things we needed. From researching props we were also able to find more props that would look good in our music video. We cut these down to the essentials in order to reduce costs and ordered them as soon as we could.
Once we had these factors decided, and had completed the storyboard, we then created an animatic. This gave us a visual representation of our music video along with images and time coding so we could see what it looked like with the song.
The animatic and details on this can be viewed here.

Album Flat Plan

First of all we looked into the conventions of debut album covers and what their purpose is. We decided that the key conventions we should focus on were:

• The focal image; creating an artist image and identity 
• Consistent theme; branding and styling is very important  
• Placing and styling of the artist and album name; conventional of debut to be self-titled 
• Industry conventions such as barcode and copyright information

After spending a session brainstorming together, our initial ideas for the album cover were:

• All of members of the group on the front cover
• Powder paint on the inside cover
• Colour scheme of bright colours, similar to our video
• Feeling of friendship and fun/partying
• Realistic and believable, not overly edited

After we had made these decisions, we researched into other album covers which would influence us to make further, more specific choices. Some of these influences included:

MGMT- Oracular Spectacular

What we liked about this album cover:

• Styling gives it a festival feel
• Colour scheme of background works well
• Artist shot gives a sense of friendship and closeness of the group
• Text is quite basic but very clear
• Gives a clear representation of the artist

MGMT- Oracular Spectacular

We also really liked the back cover of this album. This was because:

• Again there is a sense of friendship between the people
• The costuming is creative and interesting
• The typography is basic but the image is striking so they balance each other
  
  

  

  Radiohead- In Rainbows

 Due to paint and colour being a main concept of both our video and our artist image, this album cover was very influential. As we want an artist shot on the front, we have used this as inspiration for the inside cover of our digipak. The mix of colours is striking and effective. From this we have decided to use powder paint on the inside cover.

This is the effect we want to create on the inside cover of our digipak. We would like an image of the lead singer blowing paint across the inside cover:

It would hopefully have a similar effect to the image above, however we intend to use a white background, closer framing and the colour scheme in the image to the right;

We like this colour scheme as we feel the colours blend together really well to create a gradient, and they particularly work well with powder paint.

This colour scheme will be a consistent element of our branding across the music video, album cover, promo shots and website.

These album covers were also huge influences as we like the contrast between the simple white typography and the lightly coloured images/backgrounds. The gradient styled colouring is the sort of look we would like to achieve with our background.

After doing this research and discussing our desired album cover, we produced these final flat plans:

Front

Back

Production Meetings

Having produced our animatic, we decided that we should test out some practicalities for our video. The first of which we attempted was overlaying narrative shots with archived footage of the 1951 'Alice in Wonderland'. 

In order to do so, we filmed some basic test footage of Maisie as the subject, downloaded clips from Alice in Wonderland and then edited this over the top of the footage by changing the opacity. This was a very basic version of what we are intending to do for our actual video but follows the exact same concept.

Originally, we were going to attempt to use projections. However, having done this test we are now certain that we will use this method of video overlaying. This test was very successful and we think that it will work incredibly well in our music video.

Animatic

Once we had made the storyboard we had to put the shots into a sequence with the track in order to see how the track and visuals will fit together. This meant that we had to figure out the exact timing for each shot.
In our animatic we have used the following colour coding to represent each set-up:
Green for forest
Pink for performance
White for white studio
Blue for balloon studio
Black for neon

We have produced a sequence of our main shots as well as smaller ones that we definitely want to include. Due to the nature of our video being incredibly dependent on the footage that we get on the shoot day, we weren't able to include every single specific shot. In addition, we have re-used images various times as our video is highly based around cross-cutting between set-ups. We intend to film the whole song in each set-up and camera positioning so that we can use the best shots from each one.

After having found our storyboard incredibly useful, the animatic was even more crucial to our planning process. It enabled us to be more specific to each part of the song and see how long each shot would last. In addition, we were able to edit the animatic in order to make the video illustrative of the music. Producing the animatic gave us a realistic visualisation of the music video, and meant that we could now move on to the shoot-board and planning for the actual filming.

Storyboard

In order to produce a clear image of the music video we then created a storyboard:

This enabled us to break down the sequence into specific shots and set-ups. Each set-up is represented using different coloured post-it notes. We used yellow for the forest, pink for performance, blue for the balloon set-up, white for the white studio set up and blue with highlighter for the neon scenes.  This meant that we could visualise the sequence and determine the weighting of each set-up. We all had input in the storyboard, each drawing some shots and suggesting ways to adjust the order.This proved incredibly beneficial and led us to move some shots around. For example, we decided to introduce the performance much earlier than previously planned as we felt that it should be a clear part of the video from the beginning.

The storyboard was incredibly important to our planning process as it gave us a visual representation of the music video as opposed to purely written words as we had before. It also enabled us to visualise which shots would work and whether they were in the right place in the sequence. 

Second Week's Production Meetings

Now that we had the track decided, we tried to be more specific about the set-ups in our music video and what we would need in regards to set design:

We also decided on specific shots that we knew we wanted in our video, having produced the steal-o-matic (see previous post). After attempting to be specific from purely listening to the song, we realised that this would be incredibly difficult. Therefore, we looked at the lyrics and produced a breakdown of what we envisaged at each part of the song:

To our surprise, this proved to be one of the most beneficial parts of our planning process as it allowed us to create a relationship between the lyrics, image and music; the key basis of a music video. This stage of planning also helped us to decide whether our video would illustrate, amplify or offer disjuncture with both the music and the lyrics. We decided to make our video an illustration of the two.

Having made the key decisions behind the codes and concepts of our video, we then decided to return to the planning of our specific set-ups and set design. We found that this was much easier now we had decided on the basis for our video:

Having looked specifically at each set up with regards to both visuals and technicalities, we had a much stronger concept for our music video. This also provided us with knowledge of practicalities. For example, we previously had the idea of using neon paint, however before speaking to the media technician we didn't know if this was possible. Having discussed this, we were able to re-adjust our idea to make it practical for a smaller space as we were told we could only black-light a small room. Similarly, we changed our original idea of projections to overlaying footage as, after evaluating the practicalities, we realised that projections would not look as good in the final product. In addition to this, we created a list of things to try out which would be crucial to our video:

Throughout the planning stage, we found that making lists of things to do was very useful as it enabled us to use our time in the following meeting most productively and efficiently.

Now that we had looked at both the practical and visual side of the project, we decided that we were ready to move on to the next stage of the project.

Steal-O-Matic

Our steal-o-matic is a compilation of all of our influences and inspirations. It is made up of a range of media texts which we feel best represent our idea. This includes music videos, television clips, youtube videos, images and gifs.

The main concepts we wanted to convey from our video were:

• Dancing; with our track being a dance track we feel that this is essential to the music video
• Partying; this is quite a key concept to the genre, along with dancing, however we are particularly focused on this due to its appeal to the 16-24 audience
• Friendship; this is often incredibly important to the young audience
• Playfulness; we want our video to seem fun and enjoyable for the audience
• Vivid imagination filled with colours; this goes along with the fun aspect, but also links in with the lyrics 'my head is a jungle'

Our steal-o-matic is not only intended as a visual reference for the concept but also for some more specific shots and effects we would like to use. Some of these include:

• Reverse shots
• Balloons coming into the camera as a transition
• Neon face paint close-ups
• People throwing powder paint
• Double exposure and overlaying of videos
• Pinata explosion

In order to create a consistency throughout our video we have decided to use one main reference; Alice in Wonderland. Some footage and images of this appears in our steal-o-matic. The key elements of Alice in Wonderland that we are going to incorporate include:

• Eating a cookie/cupcake which has weird effects
• Archived footage of the 1951 movie
• Shots in a forest
• Set design and props including a giant mushroom 

We have also used performance footage from music videos in order to present the intended representation of our artist:

• Female lead; shown through artists such as Katy B and Aluna Francis as well as female leads in television such as Effy and Cassie from Skins
• Two male DJs; shown through artists such as Disclosure and Paramore

As a whole, the steal-o-matic was supposed to convey both the visual identity and genre of our music video as well as the technical specifics such as shot types, editing and lighting. The steal-o-matic has proved incredibly useful in the planning stage as it has allowed us to collectively visualise our ideas together and see if they actually work. It has also enabled us to produce a media which we can show to our audience and evaluate how effective it would be when turned into our final music video.

Track Permission

In order to use the song for our music video production, we had to ask the record label for their permission to use the track so that we did not infringe any copyright due to their ownership of the song. On behalf of our group, Maisie sent an email to a member of Universal Music to kindly ask for their permission. 

Our email request

Their reply

We were granted permission to use the track as long as it was purely for educational purposes and following the set of guideline which they attached to the email. This meant that we could use the track for our music video.

The conditions we were given

Artist

Our artist will be a three piece dance group containing a female lead and two accompanying male DJs. We chose this setup as it isn't incredibly generic, however mixed groups are becoming increasingly popular and we want to stand out from the average artists in the charts. Some examples of these are AlunaGeorge and Clean Bandit. Having a mixed gender group also widens our audience appeal, and with audience at the heart of our music video, this is incredibly important.

With our audience being determined as females of 16-24 who are fans of the dance genre, we decided to create our female lead based around an understanding of this audience. Rather than taking the form of the generic sexualised female, we wanted to create a likable and aspirational figure for the audience. Therefore, we are going to focus on making her appear strong and confident yet normal and relatable. We have based our female around artists such as Keisza, Aluna Francis, Jess Glynne and Katy B.

Influential female artists

Our two male DJs are quite stereotypical of the genre, however in order to differ them from other male artists in the music industry we are going to present them as cool and friendly as opposed to overly egotistical like some recent popular male artists. We have based our male artists around artists such as Disclosure, Nero, Wilkinson and Flume.

Influential male artists