Filming Day 2 and 3 - Actress Change

On both occasions of filming using the same planning board I produced for shoot day one, I was unable to film. This was due to my actress being absent for the filming. Due to my actress being a high commended dancer her schedule is very restricted. Due to this happening three times within my planned filmed days we came to the conclusion that it would be too hard to get my actress to each time we needed to shoot, if we needed to re-film this would be difficult for her too and would put me behind in what I wanted to do.
I have replaced my actress Olivia with Elle Thresh, a fellow friend and somebody who I know is available for me to shoot my video with.

Because I had gotten the wedding dress I am using for the shoot fitted to Olivia's size I needed to get someone who was a similar build in order to be able to use the same props for my mise en scene. I picked Elle because she is a good actress, is willing to participate in things others generally wouldn't and is a similar build to my previous actress. In conclusion I am filming with Elle for the first time and creating my first block of filming within the next couple of days.

 

Filming Day 1 Complications

 

On filming day one we were all ready to go with equipment at the ready, timings sorted and locations decided and then the disappointing part. Olivia my main actress was run down anyway from dancing during the week but gets really bad asthma in winter. She ended up unfortunately having an asthma attack leaving us with having to cancel the shoot due to her illness. I do believe that she is well enough to do the filming now so I am going to re plan the filming for a week and a half time so that we can get it done all in one day.
The second filming shoot has now been put forward so that, that is the the section of the music video that I will be filming first.

Planning First Shoot

Shoot Plan 1


On my first shoot I am going to capture shot numbers 0-40. This is the first third of my music video and will be hopefully completed all in one day. The filming session will last for 50 minutes due to strict schedules of commitment between myself and the talent I have featured in the music video. My actress is a dancer with a strict schedule herself, a very committed person who has little time for other things never the less she was perfect for my role and working around the obstacles would make it the best thing for my video and make it successful. My actor on the other hand is very open, he has a packed timetable for each day however is available to make time. 

My first shoot I have planned to do is on the 29th of November, a Friday. This is the day that Olivia who I have chosen to be my actress has free and myself and Jamie are also available. I wanted to check the weather for the day even though I would be shooting inside for this one. That way if I wanted to add anything or use the Christmas markets outside or the train station I would be able to do that with it being dry. The only thing that would stop me filming in Starbucks the place that I had planned would be the fact that we couldn't get/use any of the seating that I planned. This would effect my video because of the cut, tilt and pan transition I have placed after the establishing shot of my actress sat in the seating area.

In order to complete the filming and find out how long I have to do the filming I needed to check my train times. Living over 25 minutes away in a car to the other people in my video and an hour away from my college it is hard to all travel to one place. Knowing I have to be back for six o clock I would have to be on the 5.14 train. The bus below shows that we would have to get the 15:51 train from college into the city center, after arriving we would have around 50 minutes to film.
With none of us having a car it is hard to get the travelling right never the less this is better than not being able to travel at all.

If all goes to plan and the travelling is correct then Friday the 29th will be my filming day. We will have around 30 seconds of footage filmed and the beginning completed with an introduction.
The location I first planned at Starbucks will be used as well as the second shoot within my college and I shall plan both of the shoots through plans. 

I am also going to do a photoshoot of stills whilst in each location so that I am prepared for the digi-pak and elements of the music industry etc that is within the brief.

Feedback on concept 1 before filming.

I wanted to explore my concept abit more and see what other people thought of my ideas before I made it concrete that was what I wanted to do. In order to do this I asked three different people in my class within my target audience bracket and asked them different questions about my concept. Having their approval I think I am going to go with this concept for my final piece.

Health and Safety Precautions

Hazardous material or procedure	Risk (What could go wrong?)	Control measures (Safety Precautions)	Action In case of accident	Remaining Risk (Low/Med /High)
Doorways in college corridors	Talent could trap fingers or collide with public	Have an extra person with me watching this particular hazard so that we won’t clash with people.	Contact somebody with authority in the college and seek first aid. Medical advice from a doctor or the hospital could be necessary.	Low
Stairways in the College Foyer	Falling down the stairs or tripping on them is a strong risk on a stairway	Make sure suitable shoes are worn so that grip is gathered on the carpet on the stairs.	Contact somebody with authority in the college and seek first aid. Medical advice from a doctor or the hospital could be necessary.	Low
Travelling on location in car	We could be involved in a car crash on the way to location taking the talent to film.	Stick to the speed limit at all times, slowing in bad weather. Make sure all seatbelts are worn and make sure all talents families are aware of the route we are taking.	See if everybody is safe in the car, call 999 immediately in a phone is nearby.	Medium if weather is stormy, snowing or icy. Low on a regular day with dry road.
Walking through woods at Castle Howard	Tripping and falling on tree roots and twigs, sharp leaves such as holly and litter may be surrounding the area.	Be along side my talent throughout all movement periods to make sure all talent is safe.	Seek authority at the location for any medical help, make sure there is no injuries.	Low
Walking up grass slopes	If muddy this could be a strong risk of slipping and falling on mud.	Make sure all appropriate footwear is worn; don’t film on a very wet day or when it has been raining hard the day before.	Seek authority at the location for any medical help; make sure there are no injuries.	Low

Hair and Makeup Pre- Shooting

The Beatles - Hello Goodbye

In order to research more music videos and the standard that has been created throughout the last decade I watched Hello Goodbye by The Beatles. The remastered video was a hit created by the band in 1967, the song topped the charted in Norway, France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It was also number two in the charts in Austria and Switerland.
I analysed the video through the four key elements of moving imgae; Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Mise en Scene. The song itself was and is a great song with lyrics written by Paul McCartney never the less the remastered video is bland, simple and has very little camera movement what so ever. The analysis I did of the song was whilst watching the video, not stoppping and starting but writing notes as the video continuously played.
I also found when watching the video the exciting, fun, quick camera movements and range of camera angles came into play when the video of the song had actually finished, and the outtakes were being played. The video was made at a time where there were no conventions to be met therefore there are no rules. In my opinion now that the conventions have been created and put in place there is more access now to break them and create something that seems out of the ordinary. The vide itself is overall not a good example of a music video and that has taught me what I do need to put in, in order to make something really interesting for my audience.

Demographics

Definition from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/demographics.asp#ixzz2Bpm4hYip:

'Studies of a population based on factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment, among others. Demographics are used by governments, corporations and non-government organizations to learn more about a population's characteristics for many purposes, including policy development and economic market research.'

Demographics basically tell a marketer who might be interested in buying a product.

The success of any business relies on understanding the demographics of the target customers you wish to sell the product to. The information known will affect pricing, packaging, promotion and place. Any provider needs to understand demographics in order to decide exactly what product will include. The first step in reaching a customer is understanding who they are and about them. Having information about a person's age, gender, income and education, tells a marketer how likely a person is to make a purchase or require a service. In the day and age we are currently in it is much more cost effective and efficient to be able to target one's message to the people with the greatest propensity to make a purchase, rather than just attempting to advertise to the entire world. Having a full insight into the target audience gives the business selling the product a high advantage to be able to sell the product better. This is why understanding demographics is so important.

This table is a clear indication to the class's of our society. Tables like these are used in order to choose a specific class to target their product to. For example targeting a music package at a university and college students in group E may want the package to be cheap as they dont have that much income, therefore inside the package there could be more for their money, that way people in this demographic believe it is worth buying. It is highly unconventional to take a group such as group E for a product and place a highly expensive digi pack together with extra things included because the consumer wouldn't be able to afford the things being advertised. Therefore they would not sell their products. Demographics provides us with the right products for us such as magazines, digi packs and film as it shows us exactly what we need to see in them by targeting these groups to begin with.

Where to publish my Music Video?

Movavi

By researching about publishing videos on web 2.0 using search engines such as google I came across a site called Movavi.com. This site shows people the ways they could have their work publish or the best place to post home videos. The site was useful as it helped me put a perspective on how many people my video could reach and the type of time it would take to be able to get a video uploaded to each site. When choosing which video sharing sites to review, they took into account their popularity, ease-of-use, file size limitations, format flexibility, and options to download, post or podcast the video.



As the table shows Youtube being the top resource however the supported filed are limited compared to sites such as MetaCafe. It is also reasonably good in terms of storage limites never the less the limites are not as good as sites such as iPikz or Daily Motion therefore you have to choose if you want less storage however an overall round good upload with reasonable about of supported formats or if you choose to export to a specific format but have bigger storage limits. Youtube as a platform on its own is a high contenter across all resources for uploading videos and has messaging, comment and post appliances within it. A downfall to the site is that it has no downloading options where as other sites do therefore people would have to do their research before uploading. iPikz is a great website for sharing a video that can be distributed quickly to social media sites. This can be good for getting feedback for your work and putting a video out there quickly.

If people want to share HOME VIDEOS with family and friends and are looking for ease of registration and navigation as well as options for posting and downloading. "These sites have already gained reputation for providing flexible, easy-to-use services."

These sites are brilliant for sharing videos on but more so if you have premium account which are paid for. Restrictions are lifted once the one off payment or monthly membership has been paid and capability of storage is increased by a very large amount. These features are available on the Viddler and Vimeo sites never the less they both offer free memberships with the restrictions of 500MB per week uploaded and advertisements taken away.
These are some other types of videos that could be shared however they do not relate to me. I wanted to include a snapshot of this for future reference and how much diversity there is in research.





Learning the Roles and Software

I wanted to research the roles that people undertake within a music video to get an idea of if I need more people that who I have already casted. I am going to film, direct and produce the film myself however have a co-director to help me with the cinematography which is Luke. I believe I am capable after researching via videolink and taking notes that I am capable of creating the video I planned with the people I have already cast. Never the less in order to make my video more exciting I could cast some more talent to act as my main actor and actress's friends in the first section to make it more interesting and engaging for the audience as they may get bored with the video if there were only two people in the video throughout.

To be able to grasp the roles of a video producer, director and create a successful video I wanted to learn about all aspects of what a video includes and what I have to prepare. I looked at the stages of pre production along with things I have to take into consideration such as health and safety, typage and applying the correct people for the cast. As well as looking at post production, what is the best programme to use.
I am also going to make sure when I create my music video that I am focusing on all four of the key elements needed in a music video to be able to produce a more complex and well structured final piece. Note taking this information means I always have it on me so that throughout filming I am not missing out any of the things listed on my notes. This way I have a better chance of creating a music video that fits well to my genre and is aimed at my target audience.


Another way that I looked at this information and looked at a more indepth analysis of how to create music videos was the account Film Riot on Youtube. This was created by Ryan Connolly and allows amateurs in the film and photography industry to gain tips on how to create new effects, work software and gain an insight into how things are actually made. The blog is great for learning alsorts about filmwriters and filming in general and is an inspiration for ideas and shows you how to achieve them. The blog is the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/filmriot/videos




As well as the making of the video I gained lots of tips from the video posted below. This is a video to show you how to position your camera angles and cameras in order to get a realistic video with very little overlay or mistake. This is great for showing you the triangle technique and the lighting used within videos. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the videos because they are made with humour yet still show you the techniques they use in a professional way.

Rough test shots, pan and tilts at Castle Howard

Storyboard

My storyboard of images and descriptions about how I am going to produce my music video and the locations of them.

Practise Story Board - With Downloaded Images

This is an example of the kind of storyboard I will be doing, these images are downloaded from Google Images never the less I collected images that related to the lyrics of my song. I wanted to create this to give me a little experience and show how long it will take in terms of drawing, writing up and collecting images.

Costume Research - Dress Experiences and Suit Shoot

Costumes are a main aspect of my music video, at the start of my video I want to have casual wear as it is based in a 'normal' shopping centre, a relaxed environment. The day to day wear will compliment the situation therefore I decided to take images of people in usual wear and look through both genders. This gave me an idea of what to put my model in for the first section of my shoot.



In order to get a feel for the music video and let my main actress get the feel of the role I would like her to play I got in touch with several bridal companies to see if I could photograph my model wearing the dresses. I have contacted bridal shops around Bridlington and Hull in order to try and do this. My evidence for doing so are the following;

I had feedback a week later from one of the shops named Bride and Co. The email I received from the company was welcoming and I later arranged a date and time to meet up with Gemma one of the sale assistants and try on the bridal dresses. I am going to shoot my model in the dresses with all sorts of camera angles to create an indication of how I am going to frame the dress for the actual shoot. I will be meeting Gemma on tuesday the 12th of November at 9.00am to try on the dresses. The images for my evidence are below. 

The final images from the shop were a great success, it made me understand the dresses and how they are made with so much detail. The dresses themselves are a weight therefore I have to take that into consideration if I picked a dress with weight for my talent. She would have to wear the dress for a full day which in a location and this could be tiring as I have her running in the location quite a lot.
This helped Olivia get a feel for her role after she falls into the daydream featured in my concept.



As well as having my actress in character I wanted to portray what I wanted my main actor to wear in the daydream scene. Having smart attire for both characters shows continuity throughout this scene.

Cast List

 

Luke Berry-Dagnal

Luke is a photographer and filmographer from Bridlington, a close friend and great director. Luke is going to be working with me to create the perfect shots and filmography for my music video. Co assisting my cinematography and exploring new vantage points for the camera. He will be in charge of equipment on the day, for example he will be helping me move the tracking equipment.

 Jamie Cording

Jamie has starred in several A2 music videos as he is used to being infront of the camera. He is a confident male and stands out from others due to his tall stance and presented face. Jamie is the love interest in my music video, at the beginning he is just a male who catches the eye of my actress Olivia, this then progresses as they collide in a corridor at their local college. Once this happens the chemistry is shown in a daydream of Olivias. Jamie then turns into a prince charming character, a well dressed soul awaiting his princess at the final location. He has a great attitude and willingness to try new things therefore he was perfect for my part of the Prince.

Olivia Haywood

Olivia is a sweet soul who kindly let me use her as my main actress in the music video. The video is focused on Olivia and will show her thoughts throughout through use of the cinematography and lyrics of the song. I chose Olivia due to her charisma and charm she has as a person, she is also a very talented dancer so her fluidity and freedom in her movements is visible in everything she does. She is very mouldable in her style and structure therefore this is perfect for me to feature her as both a casual girl in everyday life and the princess in the fairytale daydream she falls into.

Annie Harmeston

Annie is a singer songwriter from Beverley, her capablity in range is amazing, a soulful, powerful voice. I loved the innocence in her voice and image therefore after discovering her studio covers on Youtube I was able to get in touch with her further. Annie agreed to contribute to my cast by covering the acoustic song that I have chosen and letting me use it for the actual music video. The vocals will either be layered ontop of the acoustic song in parts for both actor/actress to sing or for the whole song and just have my female actress singing.

A link to one of my favourite videos of Annie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adbc7TEXP10

Chosen Song

I have chosen Cody Simpson - On My Mind for my music video song. I have done this through slow elimination of several others before concluding with this as my final song. I chose this in the end because I feel it is a representation of my personality. However the question is which of the music styles I am going to use... Upbeat Mainstream or Acoustic. Another option I have is an acoustic version with my friend singing the song in the studio to pre record it for my video. This way it will match my concept I want to use a lot more. Having a female voice singing will definitely help the video make sense.

The commercial mainstream song is upbeat and passionate, describing me, therefore I am able to relate to the song very well. I am a dance instructor who teaches contemporary and disco freestyle to children and young adults, I could definitely see myself being able to choreograph and teach to this song if I were wanting to for my video because it is the style and genre I generally teach to my students. Although the song is several years old I feel that it is a song that has always been able to get me up to dance or to listen to if I were not in a positive mood.

I like this song myself because the chorus is split into two different parts allowing you to prolong the main part of the song. This is great for both choreography and for the narrative of the song, you are able to get a lot more in that space of time for a scene. A disadvantage of the song is the fact it is very repetitive and this could become an issue for developing ideas for the concepts of the music video. Nevertheless I think that I could turn that repetitive structure of the song into a positive so that I could develop any idea I create in far more depth than if I had one idea and stuck to that structure. If i decided to use the same footage for the same parts of the song the video would be very boring therefore using the repetitive side as an advantage I am able to capture much more within a short space of time.

This song in my opinion relates to the target audience I want to cover which is around the same ages as who I teach dance to. These are the ages between 10 and 20. I chose this bracket of an audience because I believe the song clasping love and unwanted affection into the hands of this age; every young person dreams of having their prince or princess. The fact that I had built ideas of what I wanted to create gave me great difficulty because then I had to attempt to find a song that matched my idea. Due to the lack of great verses within the song I believe that I could use this to my potential and build upon the lack of narrative in the song to create my own that fits.

I am a budding entrepreneur in the photography industry and try to get involved in anything I can to do with the subject as it is what I want to do as a further career. I can use this to my advantage with A2 Media Studies because I know a lot more about the use of cinematography than others because of this and I believe that is the key element in music videos. My use of photography and having a high technical Canon camera for personal usage will help me create the best subsidiary tasks to the music video which is the poster and the casing for the product package. With my multi talented art skills in both photography and graphic design I think I could make a package that contains designs using multi media sources as well as art supplies such as watercolours, dip pen and ink and print making.

In conclusion I think that this song fits me very well and I can relate the song to the theories of stereotypical boy meets girls but put a twist on that to create a very surreal video. I think that with this song and the use of my design skills I will be able to produce and exciting final product that people will want to watch over and over. My aim in the task is to produce for my target audience but hope that all types of audiences will enjoy it after it is produced and finalised.

Who is Cody Simpson?

Cody Simpson is a sixteen year old Australian pop singer from Gold Coast. Cody was a bedroom singer song writer until 2009 on the hit social media site; Youtube. Shawn Campbell, a grammy-nominated record producer who also produced for Jay-Z and other artists, saw the boy perform and it was later discovered he was rise to recognition was featured on The 7.30 Report in December 2009. 

History on his Career - all information sourced from wikipedia 

 He released his debut single, "iYiYi" (which features American rapper Flo Rida), on 15 May 2010. The music video for Simpson's second single, "Summertime", was released on 20 September 2010.^[15]Simpson relocated to Los Angeles in June 2010 with his family to record his songs with Atlantic Records and his producer Shawn Campbell.^[16] That same month, Simpson appeared onSunrise.^[17] On 22 June 2010, it was announced that Simpson would participate in the Camplified 2010 Tour, along with other artists, touring across the United States. The tour began on 5 July 2010 and ended on 14 August 2010.^[18] Other tours that year included a middle school tour that took place from October–November 2010 and covered 9 U.S states.^[19] An EP, 4 U was released on 21 December 2010. The EP included five tracks in total, four of them being previously unreleased.^[20] Simpson recorded a remake of the song "I Want Candy" by The Strangelovesas the main theme song for the Easter-themed live-action/CGI-animated film Hop. In May 2011, Simpson was "egged" during a live performance at Miranda Fair in Sydney. Simpson told Australian radio show The Kyle & Jackie O Show that he was not in fact hit by the eggs, and that he was upset on behalf of his fans because the remainder of his show was cancelled because of security concerns.^[21]

Coast to Coast was released on 20 September 2011 by Alantic Records. It reached number 12 on Billboard 200 selling 24,000 copies.^[22] On 23 April 2011, Simpson released the single "On My Mind" on 23 May 2011. On 5 August 2011, he performed on The Today Show.^[23] On 6 August 2011 Simpson started his Coast to Coast Mall Tour in Lake Grove, New York to promote his second EP. He played nine dates around the United States and finished it in Orange, California on 18 September 2011.^[24] On 22 September, it was announced that Cody Simpson hiredJustin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun as his manager.^[25][26] In December 2011 The Wish Factory released a Cody Simpson doll in two formats.^[27]