Filming and Editing Schedule

This is my filming and editing schedule.

Artist Styling/ Costume Planning

 

This is my mood board displaying the different props and costumes I will need for my music video.  I have selected specific clothes, footwear, accessories and props that I believe will suit my music video genre of indie/pop. I want my music video to look professional and refined and the clothes I have chosen reinforce this idea. It is important for me to think of how I want my actors to look so that I can ensure I take footage right the first time around, without needing to re-shoot and reshedule enabling myself to move and work quicker.

The type and colour of the characters clothing are an important element to my music video as they will need to relate to the theme of my music video - indie pop. In addition to this, the type of clothing my characters wear must interest my target audience which is men and women from the specific age group of  16-25.  I will ask the main singer of my music video to wear a flannel top and jeans as these are common pieces of clothing associated with this particular genre of music. Furthermore, as I will shooting in the drama room at school which is very dark and surrounded by black walls, the singers clothing will need to be a little colourful so they don't blend in with the background behind. I will also ask Aaron to wear converse as these are typical items of clothing from the indie genre. In terms of the narrative sequences for my music video,  I will ask my characters Victor and Sam to wear similar clothing to what they usually wear as I want my music video to look realistic and traditional. Moreover, as much of my footage will be taken outside, they will need to wear coats and scarfs as I will be filming during the winter months.

Props will also play an important role in my music video. For some parts, I will include scenes of my male singer playing the piano as part of my music video includes an instrumental at the beginning of the song. I will also include props such as a kite and chessboard for the narrative pieces of my video to fit the visuals of the song. This is ideal for my music video, as I plan to include flashbacks of the grandfather and grandson having fun and enjoying time together. Towards the end of the music video, the lyrics of the song talk about death. As this is quite a sensitive subject I will take footage in a graveyard, capturing the main singer walking down a footpath. I might also include footage I previously took at Brampton Graveyard as part of my location reece. I will also take a picture of Victor and Sam together and print it out for my main singer Aaron to hold, to show a connection between the narrative and perfomance sequences of my music video.

Character Profiles

Music Video Inspirations

 

Before even thinking about filming my video, I decided to look at a variation of different music videos to gain inspiration from. One of the first examples I looked at was The Scripts 'Breakeven' music video, the video includes flashbacks to portray the past and the present as the video particulary concentrates on the relationship between the protagonist and actress as he describes his feelings and emotions towards the break-up between him and his girlfriend. The video also includes black and white and colour footage, the flashbacks are shown to be much more colourful and slightly brighter than the real-time shots to give the audience the impression that they are looking back in time from the male's memory. I really like this idea for my own music video as the change in colour makes it easier for the audience to understand what the video is about. Another music video I decided to look at was Mikky Ekko's music video 'Pull Me Down'. The video includes low key lighting which contributes to the moodiness of the piece and the main artist. I will perhaps think about this for my own music video and include the unconventional method of low key lighting for the performance parts of my music video, following the emotional lyrcis of my song. Overall, I believe this task was very helpful as it gave me a better collection of ideas to include in my own music video, for example the use of colour and low key lighting.

Production diary 18/10/14

        Today I visited the graveyard near my nan’s house who lives in the small village of Brampton in Cambridge and took some footage which I intend to use for my music video. Unfortunately, I did not take a tripod or steadicam with me which had a profound effect on the quality of my video footage as my hand was a bit shaky as I was filming from a hand-held camera. I will perhaps think about re-shooting some parts to include in my music video. As well as this, I also took footage of my grandfathers memorial which I may include towards the end to reinforce the narrative story behind my video. I placed all my footage from today together and made a video which I used as location reece of my video. I will now take more footage of other locations I intend to include in my music video.

On Location: Graveyard

This is a short video consisting of video footage and images of one of my chosen locations, a grave yard in the small village of Brampton, Cambridge. I decided on this specific location as I already had my camera with me while visiting my grandmother and in the second verse of the song Ed Sheeran includes references to his grandfather's funeral: 'And now we're left here in the pain, black suit black tie standing in the rain, and now my family is one again, stapled together with the strangers and a friend'. After filming, I then edited parts of the video in black and white to fit my proposed plans as I want my music video to be purely black and white. I also altered the brightness and contrast as some of my footage was a little too dark. I will now be able to use some of this footage in my final music video.

Audience Research

 

Equipment list

Proposal

This is the proposal for my music video. I found the proposal to be an important step in creating my music video as it gave me a basic outline of what I wanted to include. I included details of the genre, target audience, plot and the different techologies I will use to create my final video.

Breakdown of song

Contact with the artist

This is a print screen of an email I sent to Ed Sheeran's record label 'Asylum Records' which is currently owned by Warner Music Group asking for permission to use Sheeran's song 'Afire Love'. In the email I explained how I will only use the song for educational purposes and that no copyright infringement is intended. 

Ancillary Task Research - Digipaks

In order to develop a subtle understanding of the technical features and conventions of digipaks, I decided to look at a varied selection of digipaks from a wide range of different artists from the pop/indie genre.  I also looked at Sam Smith's album cover 'In the Lonely Hour' which relates to the song I intend to use for my music video 'Afire Love' by Ed Sheeran as the lyrics of the song are very sad and emotional. 

Initial Planning Ideas #2