Album Poster Plan

After talking to members of my target audience, I have discovered that the majority of people feel that the artist should be on the album and poster rather than the couple, because this will show that he has created the album. In addition I recognise that it is conventional within the genre of indie/alternative rock for the cover to either feature a photo of the artist or cartoons / drawings / artwork. Therefore I have decided to create an album cover with a photo of Jonny and his guitar on the front as this will show what style of music he plays. In addition the same image will be included in my album magazine advert in order to create a sense of cohesion between my three products. Below are the sketches which I have created and labelled in order to show the ideas I have for the the album poster. The labelling includes explanation of each idea and details of colour, layout, writing, location, editing and conventions.

Final Video

This is our final music video. We have adapted some shots in terms of brightness, saturation and contrast. We have also added in some more transitions and have made the necessary changes to the timing of certain shots and transitions. In addition I have changed the title scene from black with a white font, to an image which I created using photoshop of a map with the artist name and track written in the font used for my ancillary tasks; this will create a sense of cohesion between my products and shows that they are connected. We are very please with the final cut as we have had great feedback and we feel that our video fits with the storyline and genre of the song.

Album cover initial ideas

This is a set of drawings which I have done which show the ideas I have come up with so far for my album cover. Some of them feature just Jonny, some feature the new couple and some feature all 3 cast members. The majority at based on Exmouth beach or in Ottery St Mary's park as I think that they're very pretty and natural places and the theme of nature is convention of alternative rock music. I plan to take some when the sun is bright and some when the sun is setting. I need to decide whether to feature Jonny or the couple; in order to assist this decision I will be asking members of my target audience for their opinion. The facial expression of the cast will be essential as it needs to show how each character is feeling and tell the story in one still image - if I use a photo of Jonny he will need a serious facial expression to express sadness and heartbreak, where as if I use a photo of the couple they will need to look happy.

Digipak deconstructions

In the following presentation I have deconstructed some already existing digipaks in order to learn the conventions of these; this will assist me in planning and creating my digipak.

Research - A Rocket to the Moon's album cover

Below is a presentation which I have created in order to deconstruct A Rocket to the Moon's album - That Old Feeling. As we be creating our own album cover it will be helpful to analyse other alternative rock videos, as it will further my insight into how an album cover is put together and why certain decisions are made; this will assist us in making decisions when we plan and make our album cover.

Artist name

We have deicide to create a 'stage name' for Jonny, as after talking to our peers we found that it was felt that jokes could be made about the name Jonny. Therefore we have chosen to call him Jono as this is a short and catchy name which is very similar to his real name. In addition I feel that it would fit well and look good on an album cover because it can be bold and can be read and remembered very quickly and easily. We discussed using his full name, however we felt that a shorter name would be easier to remember and more noticeable  Additionally we considered names such as John, Jon, Jonathan or Jonty and also discussed some very different name such as Hayden or Austin, however we felt that Jono was most suitable because it is catchy and easy for people to remember.

Research - Magazine adverts

In the slideshow below I have deconstructed 2 poster style magazine adverts which promote bands albums. I have then looked at 2 adverts which promote more than one thing, for example a tour and a single. This poster style magazine advertisement is very common within music magazines, therefore I plan on making my magazine advert look like a poster. By looking at adverts similar to the type it has become clear that conventionally alternative rock album advertisements use a range of natural, pastel colours (rather than bright colours that pop adverts conventionally use), additionally alternative style posters are usually quite simple, as this could suggest that the band focus simply on music. I believe that Jake Bugg's advert stands out because it is simple and black and white; this focuses the attention on him and his guitar. This has inspired me to create an album quite similar to his, in terms of position of the artist, facial expression, location, and I will also experiment with the use of black and white.

Research - The Maine's album cover

I have deconstructed The Maine's cover for their album - Black and White. As I will soon have to put together my own album cover this will be really helpful because it will further my insight into how an album cover is composed and why certain decisions are made; this will assist me in making decisions when I plan and make my album cover.

Research - We Are The Ocean's advert

Ancillary - key terms

I have created a 'Wordle' map to show they key terminology which relates to the promotional package we are required to create. These are all words which I will need to consider when planning and creating my poster and album cover. Many of the words relate to the creation process, such as 'editing', 'framing' and 'picture quality', it will be important that I bare these in mind in order to ensure that my final products are appealing and eye catching. Other words focus on things which I will need to include on my promotional products, such as 'website' and 'font'. In addition I will also need to show a 'connection' between my video and my poster; there will need to be cohesion. During the planning stage I will need to carry out 'research', 'deconstructions' and 'sketch' out my ideas. In order to create a successful package I will need to remember to consider 'target audience' and 'cross media promotion' as these will be essential in creating a buzz about our video; if this was an official project cross media promotion would encourage the audience to watch the video and buy the album. I will create a 'digipak' as this is just like an album cover but it folds away and often includes more images and extras such as 'artist information' and 'lyrics', this will be more popular with my target audience as it will be more visually appealing and will also be more environmentally friendly because there is no need for a plastic album case. 

Ancillary Tasks - initial planning

As part of this project we are required to create an album cover and a magazine advert to promote the album. For the album cover task I have decided to create a digipak as recently it has become very popular to create 'digipaks' instead of simple albums because they are more eye catching, interesting and eco friendly as they are made of card and paper and therefore do not require a plastic case. 


For this reason I have chosen to make a digipak; this will take more planning, however I feel that it would be far more eye catching and appealing for my target audience as it will have more pictures and information such as information about the artist, track lists and a message from the artist. The image to the right shows an example of a digipak. 





After researching promotional packages I have decided to make a magazine advert which looks like a poster as this is a style of advert which is commonly used throughout music magazines, particularly on the inside front cover and on the final page of the magazine. An example of this style of advert is Biffy Clyro's advert in Kerrang! magazine. This poster style advert filled an entire page and was therefore very eye catching, therefore I feel that creating a magazine advert which looks like a poster will draw the eye and encourage as many people to buy the album as possible. I plan on writing the artists website address and twitter page on the poster style adverts as this will encourage my audience to go to these sites, find out more and possibly buy more music or merch or watch music videos. This technique is known as cross media promotion. 

Promotional Package research

In order to decide what style of poster I should create I have decided to research what other bands and artists have done to promote their albums. In the slideshow below I have looked at the ways in which other bands have promoted their albums; this will help me make decisions about the style of advert I should create in order to advertise Jono's album as successfully as possible, whilst still being realistic about the costs of this in reality.



As an A2 level student I am only required to make an album cover and a magazine advert, however in reality a promotional company would need to do far more than this to reach as many people as possible. Therefore if I worked within the industry and was to promote a real music video I would not only use a page of a magazine to promote the album, but I would also use websites such as twitter, facebook and youtube; I would also advertise through Spotify as many music lovers use it. In addition I would create a tour poster and incorporate the album design into this in order to cross promote. Another way in which many promotional teams advertise is through posters and billboards; I am going to make a poster style advert for the magazine advert as this is very common within music magazines and is most eye catching, however many artists who have money to spend on advertising also use large posters and billboards in towns and cities (particularly near music stores and venues) in order to promote albums.

Editing - Slow motion

This screen recording shows how I edited a clip of the couple throwing leaves into the air in order to make it slower so that it would fit with the soft/indie rock style of music. I watched all the different shots we filmed of the couple doing this and then chose the most suitable one based on length, angle, acting and how the leaves were thrown. I felt that the original was quite fast paced and therefore didn't fit with the steady beat of the song; it is conventional to edit on the beat within music videos and therefore I wanted the clip to fit well with the song in order to do this. In addition I also felt that by using slow motion the scene would focus more on the fun they have as a couple, where as the original speed gave very little insight into their relationship because it did not fill enough time for people to see their happy facial expressions. For these reasons I converted the clip in order to enable the pace to be edited, and I changed the speed to 50%.

Audience feedback about our rough cut

After showing our rough cut to our peers we have received very positive feedback about it. Our class mates believed that our video is appealing because it has a strong narrative and fits with the song well. One person said "The story would be clear even if the song was not playing, you don't need the lyrics to understand what is happening", this suggests that we have been successful in following the storyline and creating a visual representation of the lyrics. It was also expressed that everybody felt a lot of sympathy for Jonny's character, as the rain, the sad music and Jonny's facial expression makes it obvious that he is upset; in addition, by showing how happy the new couple are, our audience believed that we have created more sympathy for Jonny's character as it emphasises how alone he is and shows what his relationship with Jess' character could have been like.

I also put our rough cut on facebook and asked people to give me some feedback about it. Below is a screen shot of their comments...

Similarly to our class peers, our audience on facebook have suggested that the storyline fits well with the music and lyrics, in addition it has again been said that we have successfully created sympathy for Jonny's character. I am very happy with the feedback I have got from peers on facebook. It has been very positive and has helped us ensure that our filming and editing has been successful and that our video is appealing to our audience.

Rough Cut

Below is a rough cut of our video. We watched our footage and selected the best shots to include in out video, we have edited this together and experimented with editing the exposure, contrast, brightness and saturation of shots in order to show the emotions of the characters. We have also explored using transitions in order to make the scenes connect and flow. We will get audience feedback about our rough cut so that we know what changes to make for our final video.

Editing - Transitions

I have captured a screen recording of part of the editing process - within the video I am adding some transitions to our film in order to make the video flow well, this is important as it will make our video better quality and more appealing for an audience because the change from one scene to another will be smooth.

In order to add transitions I picked three shots which I felt did not flow or connect very neatly, I then chose two types of transition from the menu; I drag and dropped these into the gaps between each shot and lowered the time each transition takes, in order to keep up the quick pace of the video and efficiently change from shot to shot. 

I chose 'Cross Dissolve' for the transition between the two dunes shots as the shots relate to one another and the transition needed to show that the two shots are connected and Cross Dissolve overlapped the two shots and then reveals the second shot. On the other hand for the change between the dunes shot and the shot of Jonny in the rain I decided to use 'Cross Blur' because this blurs the sand dunes shot and then shows the next shot; I feel that this suggests that the scenes are not related as it does not merge the shots together. For a similar reason I chose to time the first transition to 0.2s and the second transition to 0.3s in order to create a slightly larger gap between the dunes shot and the shot of Jonny, so that it would be clear that they're separate.

Editing - Contrast, Exposure, Brightness and Saturation

Above is a screen recoding of the editing I did in order to adapt a shot of the couple at the beach to look as though the weather is sunny. On the day we had scheduled to film this scene the sun was not very bright and the shot therefore looked quite dull. During the shots of the couple we want to connote happiness and love, for this reason it is essential that the weather looks warm and the shot is well lit. As the original shot is dull it would have connotations of sorrow and loneliness, so I decided to experiment with the levels of exposure, contrast, brightness and saturation of the shot, using iMovie, in order to make the shot sunny and more appealing.

Evaluating our recent days of filming

On the 21st and 24th of November filmed the rest of scenes for our music video and we will now be able to edit our video together and create the final product. The scenes which we shot were the bed scene, a conversation between Jess and Tom under the covers, and Jonny walking to Jess' house and asking her to get back together with him. These are key scenes in our video as the bed scene shows the separation at the beginning and the Jonny approaching Jess scene shows the attempt to fix their broken relationship.

Each day I wrote a diary within which I reflect upon the days filming and consider how we could deal with any issues with the filming we have done:

We will be editing our video over the next couple of weeks; creating rough cuts and receiving feedback from our teachers, peers and target audience as this will help us to ensure that our video is as entertaining, appealing and successful as possible.

How our audience consume media and how we would promote our video

If we were to create an official music video for a singer or band in real life, decisions about advertising and promotion would be essential in order to ensure that it was revealed to our target audience. This is important because if the video was promoted in the wrong places/websites then the number of views of the video would be significantly lower than they would be if the video was advertised to the correct target audience, and therefore the sales of the song would not be as successful as the artist and their team may have hoped. When creating and promoting a music video you have a responsibility to access the target audience and encourage people to watch and enjoy the video. Therefore if the music video we are creating was officially created within the industry we would have to carefully consider how our audience consume media and where would be the most successful places to advertise it.

 

In the video above I have interviewed a student in my year called Heather Scutchings, she is 18 and the A Levels she is studying are drama, photography and media studies. The questions focus on how and when she consumes media; this will help us consider how we would advertise our music video if it was to be an official video for the song.

I also did some research about the amount of time our target audience spend using different modern technologies. I found that young people,ages 13-24, spend an average of 16.7 hours a week online, excluding email, this shows that as we are targeting a teenage/young adult audience the internet will be a key place to advertise our music video. Additionally I found out that it has been suggested that teenage girls spend more time on social netoworking sites than boys, this confirms that using internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter would be successful places to promote our video because our target audience is predominantly female. It has also been estimated that on YouTube girls spend more time watching music videos whereas boys spend more time watching comedy or action short films, therefore I believe that YouTube would be a useful way to target our female teenage audience. I also discovered that young people spend an average of 13.6 hours per week watching televeision, therefore TV would also be an ideal place to advertise our video to our target audience. In addition I found out that over half of spotfy users do not pay for either unlimited or premium use, therefore over half of users listen to adverts between songs; therefore I also believe that spotify would be a suitable place to promote an atrists song, album or music video if we were to create an official video.

After carrying out these two forms of research me and Kaylee, my partner for this media project, we have come to the conclusion that the best places to advertise would be using websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. These websites are very popular amongst people within our target audience and they allow users to share, like and comment on posts, therefore if people enjoy our music video they can easily share this with their peers. Another form of promotion which we believe would be successful is during the adverts on television, from our interview with Heather we have concluded the best times to advertise would be between 5pm and 10pm as this is when the majority of our target audience are home from school and would be watching television. In addition we could advertise on Spotify and on youtube (as the video is loading) as these are both sources with the majority of music listeners use and our target audience will be very aware of.

In addition through deconstructing music videos and looking at album covers / adverts I have noticed that the majority of artists have a website where people can find pictures, videos, merch, and updates about the bands tour dates/songs/albums, in addition the majority of websites allow fans to sign up to a mailing list; this is a very useful way for bands to keep fans updated and advertise their band. An example of a website which our would be similar to is Lower Than Atlantis' website which is shown in the screen shot to the left. The address for this website is included in all of the bands advertising, such as magazine adverts, tour posters, and adverts of sites such as YouTube and Twitter. Therefore we feel that if the video we are creating was official we would always show links to the bands website in advertisements, for this reason when we create a magazine advert for the song we will ensure that a website address is included to show that if we this was an official video for the band we would show links to A Rocket To The Moon's website.

Therefore if we were to work in the industry and create an official music video for the song 'Like We Used To' by A Rocket To The Moon, we would advertise using social networking sites, magazine adverts, a website for the band and possibly television adverts in the evening, however we realise that this sort of promotion is very expensive for the majority of bands and therefore is not always an achievable way to advertise. In addition we would create video adverts to include on music websites such as SoundCloud, YouTube and Spotify as these are accessed regularly be music listeners and can be accessed on laptops, phones and newer technologies such as ipads.

Teachers feedback

I have recently spoken to my media studies teacher about how I can improve my blog, the feedback she gave me was that my blog is currently at a good standard, however if I wish to develop it further I should:

• Include more audience feedback.
• Put more pictures on of shot ideas.
• Include more pictures of myself carrying out activities such as editing and filming.
• Go into more detail about what I have learnt from the presentations I have put on my blog.
• Consider how your audience consume media and how you would advertise to them if the video was official.

In order to improve my blog I plan on making all these improvements and they will assist me in filming, editing and evaluating my work.

Filming Schedule - 24th November

On Saturday the 24th of November we will be filming the bed scene at Kaylee's house in Sidmouth, this filming will take place between 11am and 1pm, as this is when the room will be most well light by the sunlight. We will film Jess and Jonny in the bed and then Tom will swap with Jonny and pretend to lie next to Jess, we aim to edit this to show that Tom suddenly replaces Jonny is Jess' life, therefore Jess will need to lie very still and stay in the exact same position so that the editing is smooth and to ensure that the quality of this part of the video is good. We will also film the couples feet touching at the end of the bed to show intimacy.

We also plan on experimenting with filming a scene where Jess and Tom as sat under a white blanket and talking. This idea was inspired by the film 'Like Crazy' which I watched recently; within this film the couple have a deep conversation in bed, which shows love and intimacy and a concern for one another, this is the type of relationship we hope to portray within our video, therefore I feel that we should see if we could create a similar situation.

Throughout our day of filming we will take photos which we could use for our ancillary tasks, we will be looking out for any situations when we could photograph the cast for our album cover or poster as we would like to have a lot of choice of images when we come to creating our promotional products.

Filming Schedule - 21st November

On Wednesday 21st November we plan on filming one of the key scenes for our music video. We will be filming at my house in West Hill, which will pose as Jess' house, from 12pm-3pm; we will use this time to film Jonny (the ex boyfriend) walking to ask Jess to take him back. The weather on Wednesday is forecast to be rain and cloud in the location we wish to film, therefore this weather will be ideal for filming this scene. 

We will also be taking photos of Jonny which we could use for our poster or album cover, the majority of these will be taken at Exmouth beach as the beach is a key location within our video and if the weather is cloudy as predicted then a photo of Jonny playing guitar sat on the rocks would show how his character is feeling as there are a lot of sad connotations, in addition this type of photo would tie the whole video together as it would show the on of the key characters - the musician, his emotion would be clear, in addition it would show a key location but from a different perspective of the character who has not found a new happy relationship. I believe that this would be a successful way to promote our video and provide the audience with some insight into what the video is about.

Planning filming - weather forecast

In order to decide when to film each set of shots we will need to take the weather into consideration. We have looked at the weather forecast for the next few days and will keep checking it on a daily basis. This is essential as we may need to change some of the days which we have planned to film; on days where the weather will be dull and possibly rainy we will need to shoot the scene where Jonny walks to his ex-girlfriends house and asks her to take him back, whereas on sunny days we should film the scenes which take place at the beach and the parts of the video where Jonny will be pretending to play guitar in a field in Ottery.

Below is a screen shot of the weather predicted by the BBC for the next 5 days, we chose to look at Exeter's weather forecast as it is close to all the different places where we will be going to film. Taking this into consideration will be very helpful as it will aid us in filming efficiently and making the most of the time we have.

Organising filming times with actors

Below is a screen shot of a post which I put on Facebook arranging when we will do more filming for our music video. Facebook is the most efficient way to contact our actors as I can easily tag them all in a status and they all check their accounts on a daily basis. They can all talk communicate with each other as well as me as they can comment on the post and therefore they can ask me and Kaylee questions and tell us if they are unavailable on any of the days or times.

Ideal weather for the scene where Jonny approaches Jess

I have taken some pictures of the ideal weather for the scene in which Jonny walks to Jess' house. As our actors were not free at the point when it was raining, I felt that capturing what the weather was like would help us choose another day to film this scene. Although it will be difficult to organise filming for a day when it is raining like this as we cannot be sure what the weather will be like, I feel that rain as shown in the images below would be ideal for our video. We will have to check weather updates regularly to see when it is likely to be raining. 

Continuity Editing

This is a presentation from Tom Whittaker about how to edit successfully and use a variety of different types of shot and edit. It also taught me about the 180 degree rule and how editing can effect the quality of our final product.

Continuity Editing from Tom Whittaker

Adaptations to the shots we've planned

We have recently spent 2 days filming about 1/3 of the shots for our video, this was quite successful as the weather was sunny and allowed us to film many shots of the new couple. However whilst filming we realised that many of the shots of the new couple contain them doing the same sort of thing (hugging and talking) which would become very repetitive and boring within our video. Therefore we are going to film a lot of these shots again and ask the actors to do many different things so that we can choose the most suitable scenes for our final music video.

I have been inspired to include a wider range of shots by a film which I came across recently called 'Like Crazy'. Within this film a couple are attempting a long distance relationship and therefore they are very intimate when they are together. For this reason almost all of the shots of them are doing different activities together; despite this they have managed to keep it interesting by showing the couple not only cuddling but also having fun together. Therefore we plan on doing some more shots of the couple being active which we could include.


Another way they varied the shots within this film is by switching from a close up on the girls face as she looks at the boy, then the boys face as he looks at the girl, then back again. This is often known as shot reverse shot. This shows how they are feeling and moves away from having the couple standing and hugging in every shot. For this reason we are planning on including some of these shots in our video. One final way they made their video more interesting was by showing the couple in many different settings; this is one technique which we feel we have already planned to include in our video.
Watching this film has been very useful as it has helped us to improve our filming and making it interesting for viewers and showing more aspects of the couples relationship.

Reflection on filming - 30/10/12

In the video below I have reflected on the filming we did today. Evaluating aspects such as weather conditions, timing, how the footage fits to conventions, will help me to make decisions about our film in the future.

Reflection on filming - 29/10/12

In the video below I have reflected on the filming we did today. Including weather conditions, timing and shots we experimented with. Evaluating the filming we have done will help me make decisions about filming in the future such as  arranging times, locations and shot ideas.

Filming Schedule 29th and 30th October

On Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th of October we plan on filming about half the shots for our music video. On Monday we are going to film between 10am and 2pm as this is when the weather will be most suitable for our chosen shots. Then on Tuesday we will film between 10am and 4pm as this will allow time to record the scenes (such as the couple sat on the sand dunes) which need to be filmed when the sun is setting. Below are the plans we made as to when we would film each set of shots...

Monday 29th:
Weather forecast - sun and cloud.
10am - Sidmouth - Jonny playing guitar in a field.
11.30am - Sidmouth - Experimenting with Jess and Tom's ice cream scene.
12.30pm - Sidmouth - Jess and Tom spending time together - the park and the beach.

Tuesday:
Weather forecast - cloudy morning, then more sun later on in the day.
10am - Woodbury forest - Jess and Tom spending time together - hugging and holding hands; we also plan on experimenting with ideas such as throwing leaves around and having fun.
1pm - Exmouth beach - Jess and Tom walking along the beach, holding hands and hugging; we will also experiment with ideas such as writing in the sand and splashing in the water.
3pm - Exmouth dunes - Jess and Tom sat on the dunes wrapped in a blanket, we will film this from the front and behind.

Going through song lyrics with Jonny

In this image I am showing Jonny the lyrics he will need to know and discussing how he could learn these. I also asked him to listen to the song as many times as possible so that he could get an understanding of the pace of the lyrics and the way in which he should sing them. In addition, listening to the song will help him get an idea of the beat of the song and the pace at which he should play guitar. It is essential that we explain each aspect of the video to our cast so that they know what to do when we go out and film; this will allow us to be more efficient with our time and fit more good quality filming into the day.

Narrative and genre - Andrew Goodwin's theory

In the presentation below I have explained Andrew Goodwin's theory about music videos and related his ideas to the plans we have for our music video.

Selecting costume items

I have previously looked into costume and given images of the ideal clothing I would dress my actors in, however as we do not have any budget to pay for new clothing we have had to use clothes which me and the actors already wear. I have asked informed the two guys about the style of clothing they will need to wear and about the different costumes they will need for different scenes and they are going to show us the outfits they think are most suitable. I feel that Jess' clothing needs to be quite varied in order to show that time has gone by between each setting they visit; this adds a sense of realism or verisimilitude  it will also make shots more interesting, in addition different outfits may encourage female viewers to want to be like her or have her clothes; this will create an interest and buzz about the video. Therefore I have planned different outfits for each scene based on clothes which Jess and I already own. It is important that we focus on representing Jess to be fun, girly and pretty, as this is a similar style to many members of our target audience, and we also need to ensure that she seems like a normal girl, so that viewers will be able to relate to Jess.

The beach and dunes: 

For the scene where Jess and Tom walk along the beach and the scene where they are sitting on the sand dunes I have considered two dresses, both are summery and light in colour as we plan on filming these scenes on a sunny day. Both dresses are the style of clothing which the type of girl we are trying to represent would wear. We like the plain dress because  it is simple and the belt pulls in at the waist, in addition it is a length which shows some skin and therefore draws the eye, but it does not look too short or provocative. Despite this we have decided that the slightly more colourful dress is more suitable as the colours will draw the eye and make the dress stand out from the pale background of the beach.


The woods:
In the scene where Jess and Tom spend time in the woods we have chosen a navy dress with flowers on and a red cardigan. The dress has an elasticated waist and therefore will show Jess' figure, and then the casual red cardigan will add a sense comfort and relaxation, it will also be more suitable for the weather conditions which we are likely to encounter. The dress will finish just above the knee, and Jess will be wearing black tights in as she said that this made her feel more confident and comfortable, in addition black tights will be most suitable for a forest setting. This style of clothing shows her as a feminine, pretty and happy girl; this is the type of person we are trying to represent. As the dress is feminine and mid length it is more likely to  attract the male gaze.

The picnic:
For the scene where to couple will be lying on a picnic blanket we have chosen a classic red coat for Jess to wear. She will wear this with dark jeans. We feel this will be suitable for the weather conditions which we are hoping to be sun and cloud on the day we chose. In addition the simple and casual outfit will show a different side to the character, as in many scenes she is wearing very feminine dresses, the simple warm coat will contrast with this. The shoes which Jess will be wearing for many of the scenes are exactly the same as the boot shown in the image to the right, these are practical,comfortable and warm, but still add height making her more provocative and appealing. In addition her style may encourage female viewers to aspire to be like her. 

More Preliminary Filming

Recently we went out and practised a lot of the shots we are planning to use for our music video and in the video above we have put clips of our filming together and analysed each shot. Within the video we have recorded our feelings about shot quality, the framing, the lighting, the acting and the general success of each scene; this will be very helpful when we come to film and create our final video as we can learn from the mistakes we have made in our preliminary filming. 

Carrying out this prelim filming has been really useful and encouraging. It has shown me that we will need to be careful when choosing which camera to film with; as we chose not to use a school film camera for this filming and the quality is not very good. Therefore this has helped us save time, because if we had not tested the camera during this filming we would have wasted a lot of time by filming our final video and I would not have been happy with the quality of the shots. Our prelim filming has also been a chance to test out shot ideas and see what works well and also hightlighted some shots that we may need to adapt or reconsider. It has also helped me estimate how long each shot will take to film and which camera angles and locations are more successful. This filming has also been a chance for the actors to come to terms with each scene and experiment with the different ways that they could act in each shot; this will speed up the real filming process as they will already know what to do and I will have already explained each different scene during the prelim filming.

Running through our storyboard with our actors

We decided to go through each shot with our actors to discuss the role which they're playing. This includes positions and facial expressions, and we also informed them of any parts which they have to lip sing to so that they will have some time to consider lyrics. This discussion was very helpful for us and our actors as it allowed them to ask any questions and also gave them an idea of the storyline and what will be required of them. Below is an image of me going through our storyboard with Tom, who will be playing the new boyfriend.

Costume and make-up

Below is a presentation which I put together to show how we plan on dressing and styling our actors. This planning has allowed Kaylee and I to imagine how how the actors will look and make decisions about the connotations we want the clothing and make up to have. Planning costume and make-up are essential within a music video as the looks of the people included and the clothes they are wearing will effect how appealing the video is and how popular it would become.

Jess, one of the actors within our music video, is currently training to be a make-up artist, therefore we will be giving her details about how we want her make-up to look (natural and simple), and she will then be doing her own make-up as she can use this experience to support and practise what she has learnt at college. We feel that the make-up will be most successful if she does it herself as she knows what looks good on her skin and the techniques which work best for her; therefore ensuring that she feels confident and attractive.

Tips for making a music video

Rich mix2 from petefrasers

This is a presentation which we were advised to look at as we have chosen to make a music video. It has been very useful in helping us make decisions about our video, for example when we began to decide on actors and filming times, page 5 'plan for everything' reminded us that we should shoot as early as possible before the deadline in order to avoid stress, in addition it taught us that we need to be very organised in meeting with actors and ensuring they know their parts.
I also found page 6 very helpful as it has given me more ideas about how to make my blog more interactive and interesting.
In addition page 7 can act as a checklist for when we go out filming in order to be sure that our equipment is set up correctly and will work; this will avoid wasting time and making mistakes.
This presentation has also taught us a lot about how much footage we should film and how we should edit it to make a good quality music video.

Narrative - Storyline

The storyline within our music video is partially chronological as we see the first couple together, then we see that the girl is with a new person. However the video itself is made up of shots of the new couple together and then the ex-boyfriend singing and playing guitar. It is implied that these two things are happening at the same time; the new couple are enjoying themselves whilst the ex is upset. However as it is made up of a montage of shots it is not actually chronological like a story, therefore our narrative is known as 'fragmented' as it is made up of separate shots of different activities.

Media Language - filming techniques

Below is a presentation which we were shown about the different types of shot/lighting/positioning/angle/etc that we could use in our video.

Cinematography from jamarch

Clearly not all of these techniques will be suitable for our video as our is a music video about romance and therefore will not include any action such as fast motion shots or canted angles. The main techniques which we plan on using are long shots, close ups and some mid shots as these will be most effective to show the relationship which the couple share and their emotions. To show intemacy between the couple within our video almost every shot (other than the ex-boyfriend parts) show the couple together in shot; however in order to add variety and make our video more interesting we will also include shots of each persons face for example when they are looking at one another we will film each persons expression to show how they feel about one another. Similarly when the couple are falling asleep together we will film from the boyfriends perspective in order to show the audience the situation from his point of view which highlights his feelings for the girl.
When we focus on the ex-boyfriend we will use natural dull lighting to create a sense of sadness and many of the shots will be long in order to highlight that he is alone. In addition we will film close ups of him playing guitar as this shows his musical talent and this is a convention of alternative music videos. We will also show his emotions by filming his face close up.

Risk assessment

Below is our risk assessment for when we come to shooting our music video. We have thought about the possible risks we may encounter in each of our different locations and have come up with solutions in order to help prevent the risks from occurring. It is important that we have a risk assessment so that everyone involved is safe and not at any possible risk during our music video.

Location	Risk	Solution
Bedroom/House	1) tripping over items in the bedroom 2) tripping up the stairs 3) falling out of the bed 4) dog could get in the shot 5) siblings could get in the way	1) make sure the bedroom is tidy and the floor is clear 2) ensure the cast use the banister and walk up the stairs carefully 3) make sure cast are safe and don't mess around 4) ensure my dog is out of the way when shooting 5) ensure everyone is out so we won’t get disrupted
Park	1) tripping over when walking 2) falling in the river 3) other people in the park could get in the shot where not wanted or we could bump into them	1) make sure the cast look where they are going 2) ensure that cast can swim and avoid going near the water 3) look around before shooting to see where the other pedestrians may be
Field	1) tripping over something in the field 2) getting muddy 3) insect bites/stings	1) ensure that cast look where they are walking and wear sensible footwear 2) find out whether the grass is muddy/wet before the cast sit down 3)use insect repellent and have bite cream available for use
Beach	1) drowning in the sea 2) tripping over stones 3) seagulls stealing food	1) make sure that actors can swim and avoid going in the sea 2) ensure that cast are careful when walking on the stones 3) make sure food is out of sight when seagulls are near
Town	1) getting run over 2) other pedestrians getting in the way 3)tripping	1) make sure cast are always walking along the path and are careful when crossing roads 2) look around before shooting to see who is about and whether it would be okay to shot or not 3) ensure everyone is aware of uneven surfaces
Wood	1) tripping over tree roots 2) slipping on mud / leaves	1) ensure that cast are careful and look where they are going 2) make sure suitable footwear is worn and ensure that everyone is aware of slippery surfaces