Shooting Schedule

This is my current shooting schedule which I will change/update if needs be. 

Development

Whilst I have always been set on approaching the music video at a conceptual angle, having asked a few people for some pointers my idea may change, possibly beginning to follow both a narrative AND a conceptual route.

As the song is quite meaningful and aggressive in some places, I felt that it would look much more interesting and appealing for the audience if the music video addressed these emotions.
Whilst autumn was an idea I wanted to focus on, after having a few suggestions of other things I could do, I'm now thinking that the actress should be considered as a much more important aspect of the video, as well as nature.

An idea that I'm thinking to develop is to have shots from both a sunny day and a dull day to show the contrast between the characters emotions which are connoted through the lyrics.
The first half of the song is quite slow paced and calm, which is where I could have the bright shots of my actress being happy and having fun, specifically connoted through close ups.
As the pace of the song increases the shots would change to darkness, possible showing the character running, injuring herself, unable to get back up.

I had always been set on having my music video outdoors, however I think that changing the location to indoors as well would be a good idea, as I can include more shots from a range of angles and distances, without looking too repetitive.
- The character could be looking out of a window and the dullness of outdoors
- Fire?
A friend of mine who's an art student suggested that stop motion of my character tossing and turning in bed would be quite effective, however if I was to follow this idea I would need to do research into the techniques that are involved.

Progression

A presentation on the ways in which I have progressed helped me largely, as whilst I understood that I had moved on from research to planning, this made me realise the ways in which each step is helping me progress further.

A2 Coursework Progression

View more presentations from HeatherRC.

I think that my research into a specific genre of music video helped me the most, as it taught me what codes and conventions should be included in that specific genre. 

Gabrielle Aplin

This is Gabrielle Aplin's first EP album cover, which is very simplistic. The black and white style creates quite a professional feel about the EP, whilst connoting that the songs may be quite dismal. The positioning of the artist clearly connotes her significance, as she's the only image on the EP. The type-writer style text on the left indexically connotes that the EP is quite personal and natural, which is further connoted through the natural looking image.

Personally, I prefer Gabrielle's second EP album cover as I think the use of colour connotes the idea of being natural, and quite a content and happy feel. The difference between both the EP's connotes a difference in the style of the songs, as well as the progression Gabrielle has made. The pink flowers iconically connote femininity, which is further connoted through the sweeping of the hair across the album cover. The positioning of the artists face on the left of the album cover causes the audience to instantly be attracted to the image, as the small text doesn't divert the audiences attention. As only half of the artists face is on the cover, it iconically suggests mystery, informing the audience that the songs may follow a less obvious theme.


I think that when creating the digipak and magazine advert instead of having an image of the artist on them, I want to try different ideas with objects that could represent the style of the song - I want to conceptualise the magazine adverts and digipak, the same way I'm using the conceptual idea of nature in the music video. However, to progress my ideas I'm going to begin drawing out a range of ideas, and possibly conduct a target audience research to find out their preferences for magazine adverts and digipaks.

Filming 25/09 & 06/10

Filming 25/09
Despite my ideas not being fully developed, I felt that a filming session would improve my camera skills before progressing onto much more time consuming and well thought out filming. I decided to do some close ups of natural objects to allow myself to gain an understanding of what aspects of nature I should consider including in my product. I focused on close ups and hand-held filming, as I used a tripod much more in the AS coursework and I felt that certain shots may look better handheld, as the slight movement of the camera gives a natural effect, in-keeping with the theme of the song itself. I also tried shooting some long shots to judge the quality of the setting I had chosen. As the shot was an ELS of a large tree, I think that having some practise shots helped me to judge whether the tree was central in the frame, as mise-en-scene is an extremely important aspect of filming, especially in the indie-folk music videos. I think that this filming session helped me largely as I felt that it improved my abilities to shoot close ups and I was able to create a soft focus effect due to the HD quality of the camera. However, I think that to improve further I should have practise shots from different angles and distances, such as MS, LA and HA.

Filming 06/10
Even though my animatic is incomplete I wanted to practise a few shots I have on my storyboard; I felt this would give me a better feel for my product and allow me to gain a better understanding as to whether certain shots will work or not. Learning from my previous filming session I focused on a range of distances and angles, as not only did it help me with practising camera use it meant that I could visualise how the storyboard would look with the music when I begin to edit. I think that this filming session was quite beneficial for me as it taught me that my location at the moment is fairly hard to film in; the uneven ground made it extremely difficult to place the tripod so that the framing of the shot wasn't wonky. As well as this, I struggled with filming in the wind as it constantly moved the camera, again causing the shots to appear unnatural. This filming session taught me that I should rethink my location, but as I have another location in mind that shouldn't be a problem. I also learned the effectiveness of certain shots, such as the ELS shots of Emily walking, however I'm beginning to think that I should change the location to indoors as well to allow myself to have a larger range of shots, as well as keeping the audience interested and engaged. The majority of the indie-folk music videos I watched used the same location throughout but by subverting this convention it could benefit my product, or possibly do the opposite. Thus, I'm going to produce my animatic using the storyboard I have at the moment to see how effective it is when with the music, and if I feel that it's too repetitive I will rethink my idea and introduce another location.

Locations

As I was focusing on nature and autumn for my music video, it was essential that the location denoted these aspects well enough to allow the theme of autumn to be clear, I first recorded close ups of autumn features such as leaves and dead flowers from my garden to gain an understanding of the aspects I needed to consider.
I then thought about the other locations I could use to record the actress well. Luckily, the area I live in is quite rural and there are a range of locations I could use to denote autumn. My first location worked quite well, as it was in a wooded area.

 

 

 

 

 


However, out of the wooded area it was extremely windy, causing the quality of my filming to be hindered as I was unable to keep the tripod still, despite being on level ground. I think that deciding the location is an extremely important aspect of my planning, as it has to be an area that I can use when needed, and must denote the conceptual theme of nature well.

I am still unsure as to whether I want some of the music video to be indoors, so to determine this I will keep my storyboard and idea of keeping the production outdoors for now, but if this doesn't work as well as planned I will reconsider my location.

Digipaks

The Digi-pack is the exceptional alternative to standard jewel box packaging. Made mostly from thick card, the digi-pack is virtually shatterproof and allows great graphic display. Originally used for the album packaging of leading musicians, the digi-pack and digi-pack family are now priced reasonably enough to be used for any CD or DVD project. The digi-pack is an extremely versatile packaging. It can be made to accommodate a booklet either by placing in a die-cut slot or gluing onto one of the panels. In addition, the panels can be increased from 4 to 6, 8 or more.
http://www.mediaheaven.co.uk/digipak.htm

I researched digipaks and it was evident that the IMPAC group iniated and owned the Digipak trademark, I decided to further research the group itself, I struggled to find much information so instead researched who acquired the company.

MeadWestvaco is a producer of packaging, specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals. The company has 153 operating and office locations in 30 countries, and serves customers in over 100 countries. Its consumer brands include Mead, AT-A-GLANCE, Day Runner, Cambridge, Columbian and Five Star. The company’s paperboard, package and paper brands include Carrier Kote, Custom Kote, Printkote, Tango, Digipak, Amaray, Dosepak and Vision.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeadWestvaco

This is a template of the style of digipak I would like to use, thus I will design all of my ideas using this template.

Storyboard

Having written a shot list I felt that as music videos are based around the moving image, which communicates meaning, I felt that having my shot list drawn out would help me to visualise what my music video will look like. However, whilst this is an extremely important part of planning, I do think that my understanding of the way the music video looks will not be determined until the editing of the images are put to the song, thus I need to start creating my animatic. Here is my storyboard:

 

 
 

 

 

I think that at the moment the amount of shots in my storyboard is quite good, as whilst I may need more/less I am able to determine a basic idea of what the music video will look like, allowing me to deicde whether I need more or less shots.

Magazine Adverts

This advert uses dark colours and a naturalistic setting to reinforce the folk sub-genre of their music. The separated images of the band members connote a sense of unity, as each image of the band member is in equal size. The rustic styling iconically connotes the bands style, which is further iconically connoted through their similarly styled clothing. The instruments in the advert are symbolic of the indie-folk genre, as the band members are holding guitars & banjos etc. The crinkled styling of the paper and the small white traditional font is also used to connote the theme of a rustic and traditional band, whilst barely detracting the audiences attention away from the main image.




Laura Marling is also an indie artist, however her approach to the magazine advert differs largely to Mumford and Sons. The individuality and uniqueness of this ad can be depicted from the use of simple colours, and with the text in a red and italic font it indexically connotes a sense of romance and love, whereas it could also connote hate and danger. The image appears to focus on nature, having a male almost trapped by the weaving of the plants and leaves, this connotes the theme of the album itself may contain some danger, and possibly reflect on a personal experience Laura may have had with a male herself.

Ellie Goulding's magazine ad uses the cover of the album itself, this causes the audience to instantly recognise the image, in the hope that they receive a large amount of sales. The blackness at the bottom of the ad allows the small text to be quite visible to the audience, however the overpowering image of the artist herself means the majority of the attention is aimed towards the artist. The use of colours such as gold indexically imply the name of the album 'Lights' and iconically connote happiness. The large almost centred text 'Ellie Goulding' in gold iconically connotes stardom and success, used to make the audience believe that the album is worth buying.

Progress

Having done a presentation in lesson on my progress since the beginning of the A2 course, I realised that whilst my work was progressing accordingly, I still had forgotten to research a quite important aspect of music video, the director. I decided to pause my planning for a moment whilst I researched different music video directors, to gain an understanding of the certain styles/methods some directors use.

http://nh7.in/indiecision/2010/02/18/making-the-videos-laura-marling-mumford/
Whilst this post didn't address the more technical aspects of music video, I felt that it allowed me to gain an understanding of the intense planning that goes into making music videos, and the necessity of organisation.

This research taught me that many music video directors often stay within the same genre of song when producing videos, for example Grant Gee particularly focuses on the alternative rock genre, with these being a few of his productions:

Gavin Bryars with Tom Waits - "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" (1993)
Spooky - "Stereo" from Stereo EP (1995)
Spooky - "Shunt" from Shunt EP (1996)
Spooky - "Fingerbobs" from Found Sound (1996)
Radiohead - "No Surprises" from OK Computer (1997)[3]
Mansun - "Six" from Six (1999)
Blur - "Tender" from 13 (1999)
The Auteurs - "The Rubettes" from How I Learned to Love the Bootboys (1999)
Jean-Louis Murat - "Jim" from Mustango (1999)
Coldplay - "Shiver" from Parachutes (2000)
Badly Drawn Boy - "Another Pearl" from The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000)
Mansun - "I Can Only Disappoint U" from Little Kix (2000)
Idlewild - "Roseability" from 100 Broken Windows (2000)
Les Innocents - " Le cygne" from Les Innocents (2000)
Les Innocents - "Une vie moins ordinaire" from Les Innocents (2000)
Les Innocents - "Danny Wilde" from Les Innocents (2000)
Mansun - "Electric Man" from Little Kix (2000)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Gee