Production Log 18

I have now completed my digipak and magazine adverts after looking at my audience feedback. I decided to experiment with different fonts as my audience did not feel that century gothic suited the style of the digipak and adverts. After trying out a few different fonts, I decided that Times New Roman looked the best and was the font that was recommended most by my audience. I thought that this font was still nice and simple, yet had a bit more style to it compared to century gothic font. I decided to add some logo's of digital download sites to the magazine adverts including iTunes, Spotify and Amazon MP3 as I thought this made the advert look more realistic as this is a common convention of music magazines to promote where the album can be bought from. I also took the advice I was suggested by audience, to make a version where the advert and digipak is in black and green. I think that using two different versions also influences the theme of my narrative of positive and negative decisions, positive being influenced by the colour version whilst negative is shown by the black and green version. This also creates diversity within letting an audience have a preference rather than one style. Another piece of advice I took on board was moving the artists paragraph on the digipak down to the bottom left hand corner rather than the top so not to cover the branch. I think that this makes this page of the digipak more appealing as you can see more of the tree branch and the writing can be seen a lot more clearly. On the front of the digipak, I removed 'Medicine' from underneath the bands name as suggested as medicine is seen on the label within the bottle. My audience suggested it should only either be on the bottle or under the bands name rather than twice. I think that the new simplistic style of just having the bands name at the top makes the image more bold and due to it highly linking with the video, I think it is important for the image to be the most visually eye capturing thing on the digipak. Making the bands name slightly smaller has also influenced this. One last touch I made was reducing the amount of black at the bottom of the last page of the digipak. This was also recommended by my audience. Once again more attention is drawn to the images whilst the track list is still clearly visible which is what I would want, so I am happy with this outcome. The only thing I did not change that was recommended was the images I used on the digipak. I feel that my images clearly represented my music video and did not feel that they needed changing due to how visually capturing they were. Overall my audience seemed happy with my changed and I valued their feedback.

Medicine out takes and issues I learnt when filming

This video shows some of the out takes that I could not include within  my video. This has taught me that filming is more difficult than it looks and that it take a lot of filming before the right shot is created. I experiemented a lot with shots and this made me have a lot of footage at the end.

Adjustments made during post production

Production Log 17

Today I have filmed the performance part of my music video. I think that it went really well and the footage I got was better than I planned it to be as my actress managed to cry which I thought looked visually capturing and ideal for the music video. I now have to edit this into my current video footage as well as amend any changes to this footage following up from the audience feedback that I have reviewed. My next stage is to gather audience feedback on my magazine adverts and digipaks to make any finishing touches to them and ensure that they also look professional and suit the target audience. I think for this I will try a different method of gathering feedback. Maybe by using a video and disccusion type based feedback rather than written feedback and see if this method of collecting information is better and more useful.

Production Log 16

I have now completed my first draft of the video.After looking at my first draft through again, I feel that it appears to be more like a short film than a music video, and that it is missing diversity, even though it is narrative based. To make it better, I think that it might be worth involving a small performance based part to the music video. I think I will get the main actress to mime some of the lyrics to the song and put them into parts of the video inbetween certain scenes. To do this I will use the drama studio as it is dark and use lots of lighting to create an effective look. I will also have these shots in black and white to add to the sorrow of the video and detail. To make sure that my video really attracts the right target audience, I have created a sruvey which I will publish to find out what other people think of my first draft. i will then look at this information and see what I can do to improve my music video.

Production Log 15

I have now filmed in both locations for my music video. Filming went well and I have maintained all of the footage that I need. I have now put together a rough cut of some of the footage I got. This is where I have not used any editing and have simply placed the raw footage onto a time line and incorportated the soundtrack into it.  This is to give me a rough idea of the timing of the scenes and the general feel of the idea. My next task is to create a first draft using the basis of the rough cut and then see if there is anything I can alter to the first draft to create a final video. I will asses the first draft once it has been completed. This is what I am currently working on and wish to have completed fairly soon.

After looking at the rough cut, I think I will need to alter a lot of the colours of the footage. I want to make it look darker so that it has a more sad feel rather than bright and in your face which would resemble being quite happy. This would emphasise the song and create a better atmosphere suited to it.

During editing the video, I will also be trying to complete my digipak and magazine advert.

Production Log 14

I have now completed my actor release forms. This has enabled me to get permission to use them when filming so I can now start to film when I am ready to do so. I have also researched equipment that I may consider using for my music video, so this has also helped me plan ahead to think about what I am going to need to record my music video.

My next step is to start filming, I also want to get my digipak and magazine advert sorted relatively soon. I feel my time management it picking up a little better now as I was quite slow to begin with as I wanted to perfect my music video idea.

Production Log 13

I have now done a second draft of my digipak and magazine advert. This has allowed me to experiement more with my own photographs that I took during a photoshoot. I created a contact sheet of all the images I took and edited so that it would enable me to see what images I took more clearly and to compare images better. There are a few that I liked in particular and thought they would be good to use for my advert and digipak so I edited them and did a another draft using these images. This was a good test because I got to see what the images would look like. It was benefical because I actually decided that I wasn't too keen with the images being completely black and white and that adding some colour would enhance the advert and digipak to capture the audiences attention.

My next step is to fully finalise the advert and the digipak.

Production Log 12

I have now completed my photoshoot for my digipak and magazine advert. I based my photos around the images I used in the draft of my ad and digipak as I liked the idea of resembling what my music video was about. Seeing as the video has the narrative of someone who someone sees alchol as a form of medicine, I used a lot of bottles in my images. I have only edited a small number of photographs so far, but will edit a few that will be used for my ad and digipak. I am continuing to develop this further and hopefully have both fully completed soon.

I have also chosen my locations for filming and have finalized an idea. I have also gotten permission from my two actors that I am going to be using which I did using a contact sheet. I will upload this shortly.  I completed the health and risk assessment based on the locations that I chose to use and in terms of equipment and actors health and safety as well as my own. This has helped me to think about how I can prevent an incident from occuring. The next thing I plan to do is to get an equipment list of everything I am going to use on the day and also which programs I am planning to use for editing and piecing the video together. I will also plan what costume and makeup my actors will wear on the day of filming. I plan to film within the next week so hopefully I will have the majority of my planning done by this time.

Production Log 11

I have now completed my first ideas and draft for my magazine advert and digipak for my album. The next stage from here is to take a photo shoot for pictures to replace the images I used on the digipak and advert. This is because I took those images from the internet to use them for a template, and also to generate some photo ideas for my own pictures.  I think that due to high safety reasons with smashing a bottle, it may be difficult to take photos of a smashing bottle, so I may have to rethink what image I can create instead of this. I think the best idea would be to experiement with some images and see what works best.

In terms of planning, I have started to think about beginning to film, but I think that getting some audience feedback about my ideas will be best first so that I can be sure that my idea is going to be liked by audiences. This will allow me to replan any scenes that my audience might think won't work and this will make filming more successful. I am also going to start planning more so that I can prepare to film, such as creating a health and risk assessment after choosing my locations.

Production Log 10

I have now finally completed my story board and have a clear idea of what I want to include in my music video. However after speaking to my class about my idea, it has become apparent that some people think that a constant split screen may be slightly hard for audiences to look at and understand. This is also due to the fact that both sides of the split screen will have very detailed story's happening and may also be very difficult to film due to timing. Each scene would have to be symmetrical for it to look aesthetically pleasing to the audience, and I feel this may be beyond my capability. I do still wish to experiment with split screen, and do wish to use it in my music video, but instead of having it throughout the whole video, I may use it at certain parts to show two different characters.  I am also starting to consider that I should only use one character, due to the fact that my song is very bold in terms of lyrics and I want my audience to be able to concentrate on both the music video and the lyrics of the song as this will create a strong emotion and visual appearance. My current thought is that I will film a music video based on one character, following the story that she seems to live a happy party lifestyle until a sad event happens (such as a breakup with her boyfriend) to which she then drinks an excessive amount of alchol which causes her to pass away/ become seriously ill.  This would still have a moral basis, yet I think this would allow the audience to experience an emotional attatchment to the video.

I have created a mood board which helped me to visualise a range of ideas for my music video including styles for advertising and my digipak, outfits for the music video, and props. I also sent my letter of permission to the bands record company asking if I would be allowed to use the song for my muisc video. If the letter is declined, I will keep the same idea for my music video but find another suitable song.

I have booked camera equipment for this week thursday and friday and for over the weekend. I hope to take photographs of my chosen locations for filming and maybe also include some images of the props that I wish to use in the music video. I would like to start filming either this week or next week as I will be unable to film during half term. I may be delayed with filming, however I would rather have a set idea on the storyline before filming. Therefore I am having a slight time delay due to changing my idea slightly.

Production Log 9

I have now finally drawn my story board for my music video. However I need to finish by adding in the timings to work out how long each scene will be and what type of shot I will use with the camera. During filming, I may decide that one shot may suit the clip better than another, and might decide to change it. Therefore my story board is only to give me an overview idea of what should be happening and when. I will write what is going on in each shot and scene to help me film on the day, so that I know what I should be filming and when. This will also help me when editing, as I may decide to film different scenes at different types rather than in order. So the story board will help me to place scenes at the right points.

My next stage is to create the shot list. Which I should have done by the end of next week. I have also started creating my magazine cover and digipak for my CD.

Production Log 8

I have now completed my research for digipaks. Looking at existing digipaks helped me to get ideas for my own, as I now know what most of them should generally include to make a good digipak. I also looked at magazine adverts for albums which also helped me to develop ideas for my own advertising. I am continuing my research and planning so that I can begin to film as soon as I have everything ready. I feel that I should not begin filming until my research and planning has been fully completed as this will enable me to focus simply on filming. The planning will also help me to create the best footage as I will know exactly what I am doing on the day I film, which will also save a lot of time.

I continute to draw my story board, it has taken quite a while because of how many cuts there are in the video, but I feel the more detailed my story board is, the easier it will be to film as I will know each exact shot I wish to take and in what order. This will also help when it comes to editing as I will know what clip should be where and should hopefully save me time.

Production Log 7

I have finished writing my script. This has helped me to plan my video and know what is going to happen during each scene. I have made some changes and I am also continuously thinking of new ways to improve the script by adding new ideas. My story board is also coming along. To help me story board I'm using my script to draw out each shot and scene just to give me an idea of a visual plan for my video.

During both my script writing and story boarding, I am starting to consider whether I should keep with my original idea of having a split screen and two characters, or whether I should follow just the life of one of them. This is because I think that the song is so powerful and my idea is quite sensitive, having two sensitive stories with this song may be a bit emotionally upsetting to people. I want my music video to have an impact on people, but I don't want to confuse them with too much going on. I would rather they could have a clear story and see what is happening as this would make the song more clear. Because of this, I have decided to film my original idea, along with some extra scenes from each character, and then look at the footage to see what I think I should use. If I think the footage can be editied in a way that makes the split screen footage clear to the audience then I will stick with my original idea but perhaps change the endings. If not, I will choose one of my characters and use their daily lifestyle for my music video.

I have now looked at what digipaks are, and my next step is to analyse some of them to gain some ideas for my own and see what they need to include. I also plan to get my story board finished within the next two weeks.

Production Log 6

I have recently been writing the script for my music video which is coming along nicely. I'm near to the ending which I am starting to plan out to put into the script. During this I am also making slight altercations to the rest of the script as I develop more ideas. Now that I have started writing my script, I can start to create my story board. This will help me to make my music video as it would be fully planned before I start to film.

I have continued with my research to help me with my coursework. Lately I have been looking at research into my band and artist and research into music channels. This helps me to get a better understanding of the music industry and what I should be thinking about.

I am now moving onto research into digipaks which I should have onto my blog shortly. Today I am going to begin story boarding and will hopefully finish my script by next week.

Production log 5 / Finalising my music video idea

 

 This is my finialised idea for my music video. I have now chosen my song and have selected a basic idea with a beginning middle and end to it. I have considered what genre, representation, media language will be used, as well as which audience I plan to be aiming my music video at. My narrative is based upon the lives of two different people who first appear to be quite similar but then the audience is then able to see that they are living with different problems in their lives. The story is that one has a problem with alcohol (although does not really see the issue and continues to enjoy the party lifestyle of a typical teenager) whilst the other character (also a teenager) is going through cancer. The video will be split screened so we can see their lives in symetry. I want things to be mirrored in their lives but with different aspects. For example in one scene I want the alcholic character to take a swig of drink whilst the cancer character takes some pills with a glass of water.  Scenes like this will continue throughout their day. In the end I want to end the video with the alcholic having a bad event happen in her life such as a split from her boyfriend and then passes away from over drinking or drug use. However the cancer patient receives good news as her cancer is terminated and she wakes up ready to start a new day.  The narrative is quite sad but I think that it could describe many different morals and has many mini narratives within one.  I either plan to make the one who drinks an alcoholic or just a typical party animal to fit in with the typical stereotype for teenagers. This is so that it could appear her life is all great and fun whilst the cancer patient has to suffer through a bad time and is not so stereotypical as many people don't expect to see teenagers with cancer. Therefore in the end the tables can be seen to turn, and the girl who seems to be having the better life ends up going downhill whilst luck comes to the girl who respects her life more.

 

 

 

Production Log 4

This week I have been looking more indepth into the music industry itself. I have done this by investigating different music labels. This was helpful as it allowed me to learn more about current artists as well as some I had never heard of before. Not only this but it helped me to see how artists are shown in the media via the labels websites.

I have also started to narrow down my ideas for my music video as well as potential songs I could use. A friend of mine is in a band who writes their own music and I think it would be interesting to use one of their own songs. They have already said that I have permission to use one of their songs and use them in my music video. However I will clarify this in writing if I do decide to use the band and their music. At the moment I am thinking of either using the band to do a performance and narrative based music video, or using a really slow song by Daughter and doing a simple narrative/split screen. The narrative being one character is shown in one screen to be young and partying like  a typical teenager, whilst the other screen shows a girl of a similar age but she finds out she has a very bad illness (cancer). We see how they both live their lives, the girl on the left having fun whilst the girl on the right is clearly upset struggling through her situation. In the end, their is a role reversal where the girl on the left ends up getting some bad news or ends up in a bad situation whilst the girl on the right is cured of her illness and continues to live a happy life.

I am finding it harder to decide/create a narrative for my performance/narrative based video. I want to choose a narrative that is not used all the time. Such as a break up between girl and boy, however these do tend to work very well with audiences as they can relate to this situation and songs can fit to this situation. I will continue to note down any narrative stories when they come to mind and try and decide what would be most do-able and look the most professional in the end once completed.

Production Log 3

I have now started to consider what kind of music video I would like to create. I have formed some initial ideas to demonstrate the variety of options I could use for my music video. They are all very varied but seem to all follow some form of narrative. What I plan to make is currently dependant on what song and script and i decide to choose. I have also started to think carefully about what actors I have available as well as how easy or difficult certain scenes or shots might be to film. I have to consider these things so that I can make my video flow smoothly whilst remaining professional. I want to be quick in choosing an idea and sticking with it as I think this will help me plan a lot better and make my research more based on the type of video I plan to make.

Production Log 2

I have now chosen my brief and have decided to make a music video. I have done my first part of research by looking at the history of music videos. It's important to know the history of these as it allows me to see what purpose they had in different eras and why they are used today. This would help me think about ideas for my own video as it would have to suit a certain target market in order for it to be both interesting and have purpose. I have also now started to look at exisiting music videos to see what has been created already. The point of this is to gather a range of possible ideas that I could use for my own music video. I can also research a range of songs to see what style of music/song I think would work best. I have started to consider using either a slow meaningful song or a more pop rock style of song/ Depending on which song I choose or music idea I choose this will effect my overall choice for what style of video I decide to make. Currently I have the idea of using a pop/rock song by Paramore or Jessie J and using a performance and narrative based video. However I also have an idea of using a more slower softer song and using a stop motion video combined with a narrative and maybe a small clip of a performance, (such as an acoustic guitar). I think that because I have so many ideas, I should go back to looking at my resource sheet and consider what would be best to use off the sheet. Thinking about time,place and characters will help me to make a final decision on what video and song would be best.

Production Log 1

As you can see from below this log, I have started to think of what brief I would like to choose. I am currently indecisive about whether I should do a short film, music video or documentary. After doing some research into current ideas for the briefs above by looking at previous examples, I think that I am most likely going to make a music video. This is because I think I can really show my creativity and that there are enough music videos to gain ideas from whilst remaining original. Below at the examples I have mainly looked into stop motion videos as I think these are very creative and can be used for a variety of songs. Song wise I really like the idea of using 'Foundations' by Kate Nash and I also really like the video. However I would not use both. I think I would either use the song or use the basic storyline of the video. I have created a resource sheet to see what I could potentiallty use for a music video or short film. This will enable me to see what I have access to and if it is enough to produce either brief. If I do not think that I have enough resources to make a good enough music video or film then I think it would be wise to consider selecting a different brief. At the moment I think that I do have the possibiliy of being able to make a music video, yet I lack a few ideas for a short film. Therefore I believe that I will chose to make a music video.