A Trip To The British Film Institute

For a trip we went to the British Film Institute to learn about making music videos and to meet a music video director for a Q&A. The trip was great and overall I learnt a lot and cannot wait to try out everything I have learnt.

If the powtoon does not show up please use this link:

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dfYxKlQsbJL/british-film-industry/#/

Forest Shoot #2

Today we went for our second shoot at of forest location to film some more storyboard shots. We filmed both the beginning of the music video and the wondering around the location shots which were both planned on the storyboard. We also filmed both close-ups and long shots that both represent different messages and feelings. We plan to head back to our location once more to finish up all of our location shots. The link below is a glog containing all of the screenshots from our footage and why we chose to film certain shots:

http://lucysaunders240565c619c75011.edu.glogster.com/forest-location/

Risk Assessment: Forest #2

Before heading off to our location tomorrow to film we are required to write a risk assessment to show that we understand and acknowledge all of the risks present. We have identified these risks and the ways to avoid them.

Audience Research: An Interview With Jamie

For a deeper insight to how our target audience thinks my group and I prepared some questions to ask someone that falls into our target audience. We interviewed our fellow classmate Jamie and as she has never seen our project so far we questioned her about the genre and her thoughts on location, even though we have decided on a location. This way we would be able to see if it was suitable and if not we would work out another location.

Unfortunately I made a mistake in the editing process of the interview as the end text contains a small mistake as the filming process has already started and should read "when continuing to film and begin to edit" rather than "start filming and editing". Sorry for the mistake!

Practising Photoshop

In preparation for making a digipak I decided to practise editing images in Photoshop. I have briefly used Photoshop before however I felt like I needed a refresher in the basics. I took the behind-the-scenes picture we took at the forest, on top on a hill and I wanted to remove my group and I from the top of the hill and replace it will Noxa on top instead and then put one of the logos in the corner:

Simple yet it was good practise with removing one object and replacing it with another, adding some text and trying out the colour contrasts. It was overall good practise with Photoshop basics and it will help when I come to editing my digipak images.

Drama Room Shoot #2

Yesterday my group and I went to our drama location to film our first artistic scene. We decided a while ago that we wanted to use masks to display some of the themes that are introduced in the song such as the loss of of innocence. We had one white mask that symbolized innocence and purity and one black one to represent darkness and evil and the removal of the white mask in replacement for the black portrays this theme in particular:

All of the shots we filmed have a metaphor or meaning behind them and correspond to our storyboard. We decided to focus solely on the artistic shots rather than lip-syncing as we wanted to film our first artistic shoot. The image below is screenshots from every piece of footage that we filmed:

I also edited another edit but this time I concentrated more on effect such as lighting and slow-motion than the lip-syncing. I also added every shots that we filmed in this edit to showcase everything we filmed which is why some shots do not match the lyric or beat or similar shots are repeated:

Risk Assessment: Drama Room #2

As we will be filming in a drama room tomorrow with filming equipment and we had to identify the risks and figure ways around these risks. We have written up a risk assessment to show that we have identified the risks.

Forest Shoot #1

Today we went for our first scheduled shoot the in forest to film some of the shots that we had planned on our storyboard and animatic. Unfortunately everything seemed to go wrong (which we are going to blame on Friday 13th bad luck!) as the dress got dirty, it started to rain and it was freezing cold. However we did manage to get a few shots during the time we were there and we plan to return next week to continue were we left off. Here are some of the screenshots of the footage we got:

Risk Assessment: Forest

As we are heading to our forest location to film some shots tomorrow (13/11/15) we were required to fill in a risk assessment. This is to show that we have recognised the dangers of filming in our location, the level of the risk and ways to avoid them. Luckily none of the risks are extreme and the highest risk is slipping or tripping over but this is easily avoidable.

We will be filming and checking the footage tomorrow to check over what we have filmed and where it could fit in with the song.

Animatic

My group and I have finished the animatic! Despite having some scary-looking drawings in the animatic I feel like it will be a great help when we start editing. As our animatic is like a storyboard to music it helped us identify where we wanted the shots to be in the song and how long we wanted them to be. The animatic should also make filming a lot easier as we know what shots we want in each location, however we have decided that we wanted to film more shots than we have planned so if we changed our mind on a certain shot we will have a wide choice of replacements.

This is our finished animatic:

Making an Animatic

Over the past few lessons my group and I have been working on an animatic to help us gain a better idea of what we want to film for our music video. We have sketched out the shots on post-it notes and have taken pictures of these notes before starting to edit the images alongside the corresponding lyric or sound.

Although we do not have enough shots for the entire  song we still have a lot of shots to film whilst we come up with new ideas. The animatic gives us an idea on what lyrics in the song have shots related to them and how they will look.

First Shoot

Today we had our first shoot which took place in the drama room. We decided to use the session as a practice to see how quick we could set up and pack away the lights and cameras and tested different lighting. We decided to use a blue covering over the lights to make the scene purple which makes a simple standing shot more visually interesting. The following shots are some screenshots taken from the footage we took during the session:

When editing the footage into a short piece I noticed that the medium shot cannot be edited next to a similar shot like the medium close up. It disturbs the flow of the song as the jump cut makes the lip-syncing jump forward. This is something I have learnt and will know to avoid when making the final video. Unfortunately we did not manage to film more than 6 shots (as several other contained behind-the-scenes footage) and when editing the sequence I had to use a cut as described above due to the lack of footage. However the lighting effect matches the feel of the song and this was a good chance for me to practice my editing skills when syncing the song to the lip-sync.

 

Treatment

TREATMENT

Rock music is hugely popular and has a gained very dedicated fan base this includes the many sub-genres that are all part of rock music. One of these genres is alternative rock which has a smaller fan base than rock music but is still very popular. Much like a music video of any genre the video contains certain shots, colours and themes to display what the genre is and alternative rock also applies to this rule. Alternative rock music videos have to contain all of the above in order for the genre to be identifiable however my group and I want to experiment with what would suit the music and to see if we can add something new to the genres stereotype.

Our artist's name is Noxa, which is Latin for the word 'harm', and perfectly represents our song “Narcissistic Cannibal” by EarlyRise. The song falls under the alternative rock genre and the average age of this genres fans are around 16 to 25, making this the age of our target audience. This audience is perfect for our video as we intend to use lots of metaphors and hidden messages throughout the video and as our target audience are, or where recently, students they will have a easier time interpreting the video to find out the themes and messages that we are hinting at. The themes that the song brings up will be displayed through artistic shots which the audience will have to interpret. However we would also like to have a element of narrative in our video but this too will be very vague and can be taken in many different ways. This allows our video to link to our audience as we want each person in our audience to interpret our video differently and to suit them. To use the song we have written a copyright letter to EarlyRise asking for their permission to use their song to interpret into a music video.

Our video will be an artistic piece with a few narrative shots to create a sense of storytelling within all of the metaphors. An overview of the song is about a woman trying to 'survive' after escaping the 'narcissistic cannibal' however she is still trapped in her own misery. Our aim is to display all of this through metaphors and creative shots to make the video visually interesting to watch but still linking back to the lyrics. An example of a metaphor of this is the line "pushing on I can't escape". During this line our character will be in the forest so we plan for her to become stuck in this location and to link back to the line we planned on having tree vines wrapped around her arms as she tries to escape or have her on the other side of a set of bars to symbolize that she has no means of escape even though she keeps trying. We also hope to stain something white to symbolize the lack or disappearance of innocence which could link back to any line in the song. The hidden meanings behind each shot can be discovered when linking shots back to lyrics or annotating what colours and locations could represent. We intend on using the colour scheme of black and white within are shots to show the transformation of the character and her descent from good to evil. Some examples that we have planned out include a birds-eye shot of Noxa lying down wearing a white mask to symbolize her innocence but this mask is removed and replaced with a black one causing Noxa to open her eyes, representing the darkness has woken her up. Another is a close up of Noxa's hand as she crushes a white rose showing that we is in control of her emotions and that she no longer wants to be 'good'. These shots are all quite dark and have hidden meanings to match the style alternative rock genre as all of the alternative rock musics that I have studied have similar colour schemes and themes within the video. Our target audience would enjoy these as they can figure out the hidden messages.

Our character is our artist Noxa and she plays the role of the woman desperate to escape. She will be the main focus of the video as the song is about how she is trying to free herself from the 'hell' that she is living in. All of the shots will be centered around her and the theme of loss of innocence. Her purpose is to display the themes and to be the character expressing the thoughts and feelings that come across in the song. We have also considered including the 'Narcissistic Cannibal' to show the cause of the thoughts that are conveyed through the song. The Narcissistic Cannibal would also be used for narrative shots as they are a main part of the song. The final characters that we have considered using are the 'figures'. The figures will stand behind Noxa in all black and will also wear a black mask to create the illusion that although they cannot be seen very clearly they are there. Their black masks also serve the purpose to make Noxa seem pure and innocent as she will be in white showing their lack of innocence.

Our main location is the forest which has many places inside such as a field, long pathways, a river and many more places that we intend to use. The forest was our first idea and will serve as Noxa's person purgatory where she is trapped alone. As the forest offers so many places to film it has become our main location. We also plan to film in a drama room where all the walls and floors are black. This location will be used when we want the darkness to symbolize something in particular or to make Noxa stand out.

The lightning in our video will be dark to make Noxa stand out more in the locations and to create an atmosphere. Noxa's clothing will alternate between black and white to show the transformation of losing her innocence. This will also help her blend in or stand out from the lighting. Some of the props that we hope to include in our video are something we can smash, roses that we can crush and paint or water that we can throw but we also hope to use the environment to our advantage such as tree vines and gates.

During the filming process we will need to use more than one camera for certain shots -  such as staining a dress or rose as once stained they cannot be ruined again - to get different angles. As we are trying to avoid using to many medium shots we plan to use a lot more close-ups and long shots to create a diversity within all of our shots. We also want to use birds-eye shots as well as extreme close-ups to allow more detail to be shown in each shot. We will also use a tripod for the shots that need to be steady but with more than one camera we can have also take a handheld shot. All of this equipment will be borrowed and returned to and from the media department as all of the cameras will need to have the same lenses to make all of the shots the same quality.

Some editing techniques that we hope to use include reverse and slow-motion shots to create a impression of slowed time or dysfunction. As both of these techniques require a certain pace of editing they will be put onto shots that are correspond to the editing pace. For example the beginning of the song will start of with slower paced editing to the beat of the song but as the song goes on the beat picks up therefore making the editing speed up. At the end of the song the artist of the song scream sings and we plan to make the editing fast paced and have quick, exaggerated shots to emphasis the song in more depth. For example when the music begins to pick up Noxa will throw her hair back - this shot will be in slow motion but will be a quick cut to the next shot to keep up with the editing pace but to also create a effective shot. We have not planned to use any titles or any other sound effects than the song in our videos but have considered putting effects onto certain shots to make them lighter/darker or to add a certain texture or colour.

Some potential struggles include our schedules as getting to our location takes some time and we only have a short amount of time in lessons. To work around this we have created a shooting schedule with we will update regularly to coordinate our working schedules. Another issue is the risks of filming  in a forest. With large tree branches and dips in the ground there is a lot of opportunity to fall over! We also planned to possibly film a shot from up a tree which means the person climbing would be at risks to falling or injuring themselves. Therefore we will need to fill out a risk assessment before each filming session - especially shoots that take place in the forest - to show we are aware of the risks of filming in a certain location and we know how to avoid them if possible.

To conclude my group and I are creating an artistic music video to the song 'Narcissistic Cannibal' where our main location will be the forest as it creates a sense of wide open space but also being alone and trapped within the trees. We hope to use multiple cameras and a tripod and are overall aware of all the safety risks.