PRODUCTION: Review of the first day of filming

For our first day of filming, we went to Trafalgar Square as our first location. Once we had gotten there, we had not realised that it was the day for the Diwali festival productions, hence there being a big stage in the background whilst we were filming. We had asked the security guards and the manager of the area if we could have a few minutes to get some shots done; luckily they allowed us, once I had shown my C&I college card, to prove that we were students. 

We recorded a few base tracks there, and even got two security guards to be in it too. What was wrong with one of the shots was that we had left the speaker and our team mates phone next to her whilst she was singing, so it ended up being in  the shot. But, if we had not put the speakers that close to her, our artist was not going to be able to hear the music being played. The location was very loud, the sound of the fountain, the practice mic sounds for the festival, and all the tourists around.

Our next location was the 139 bus to go to Waterloo.  The area we were passing had a good view, so we thought we should film on the bus. I think it was fun, we had to hand hold the camera since we couldn't exactly get the tripod out and adjust it. We got permission from the bus driver too, he allowed us since there wasn't many people on the bus, he just told us to not be so loud. 

Our final location for the day was Banksy Tunnel in Waterloo. Filming here was a great place due to all the graffiti  in the background. At one point, there was a group of boys who came towards us, and they actually asked whether they could be in our video. So we started recording them dancing and hoped we could use these scenes in our music video. 

Some of the precautions we took for our safety, were to keep someone next to the camera at all times. Also, one person stayed next to our belongings so they weren't stolen or anything. Since we did have a lot of people next to us in Banksy, strangers, we had to be even more careful with the camera and have every one of us around it and not far away from it. 

It was a pretty cold day, so after 3 locations, we thought we'd do the other locations another day. I think the filming went really well, we got most of the shots we had wanted to in the locations we went to. However, looking back at some of the recordings, I believe that the Banksy Tunnel place was a little dark, and that we may have to alter the lighting when we come to editing it. 

Production: Review of First Day Filming.

I think our first day of filming went very well, everyone had their jobs to do so that no one was wandering. I think filming in Trafalgar Square went surprisingly smoothly, because i had initial feelings that there might be precautions filming it a tourist attraction, but the guards allowed us to film and were nice enough to let us film them.

Banksy Tunnel was a very enjoyable place to film, as the people there were very friendly and even offered to dance in our video. Although because there was people there we had to bare in mind our risk assessment. We also found some really unique and amazing graffiti that we filmed, that added to the spontaneity of our music video.

We were allowed to film on the top deck of the 139 bus on our way to Waterloo  from the permission of the bus driver and the commuters sitting on the top deck as the bus drove over Waterloo bridge which made the scene much better. 

Overall the day was very good, we were able to film a lot due to it being a Sunday, this enabled us to get to locations quicker because there wasn't a lot of traffic. Having people volunteer to appear in our video was very advantageous because it not only gave us a genre signifer (dance sequence)  it  will also target a wider audience for example dancers or people who don't usually listen to pop or alternative music.

Production: Review Of 1st Day Filming

Well, today was our first day of filming and it was extremely cold but we dealt with it. We were very lucky that we were able to film at Trafalgar Square in front of the fountain. As we went early in the morning they were just setting up the Diwali festival, so it wasn't packed yet, so we were lucky enough to not have a lot of people walking in front of us filming as it can be very time consuming waiting. The shots we got were good but as it was so cold we had to change the outfits, so I still had on a dress as the first outfit but I had tights, boots, leather jacket and scarf as we don't want to risk any of us getting ill. 

We filmed on the 139 as the bus driver gave his permission because there were very few passengers but we also asked the couple at the front of the top if they minded, and they said it was OK. It was difficult filming on the bus as it is very bumpy and turning corners can make you fall over, also the camera was shaking a little. What I really liked was we got the view of the Thames as our bus crossed over the bridge, as you could see houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye. I hope these shots worked well as I think it would look really effective as this is a big part of what people think of as London as they are very iconic places.

Banksy Tunnel/Leake Street was amazing because of all the graffiti makes it so urban and its really good. We were also able to see a few of the artists paint which was also good. It was quite hard to hear myself in the tunnel just because there were quite a few people doing photo shoots  doing graffiti, or dancing but that might of helped us as no one in our group can sing. In this location we danced a lot as a filler for our music video so that it isn't just me standing there by myself singing, and we were approached by some guys wanting to know if they could dance for us which also added a lot of humor and I think it will work really well.

Production: First Day Shooting.

This is a video of our first day on location shooting for our music video.

Production: First Day-Stills.

First Day on PhotoPeach

Planning: Permission to Film

When we were looking for exterior locations to film we found the boxpark in Shoreditch, we went to the management office and asked the manager if it was possible to film she said yes bearing in mind that we had to contact prior to filming.

Skills Development: Planning

The planning for A2 music video I think was a lot better than last year because this year we were a lot more organised. Some of the different ideas we had were extreme or complicated or we just wouldn't be able to accomplish it as we are only college students. Last year I personally think that we were a little naive as to think all of it was going to be really easy and the planning wasn't. Everyone was trying to think of different ideas that no one else would think of or that the examiner wouldn't have seen before. The idea we came up with last year I really do not think that anyone has done it before. This year we had a production schedule that did have to change so we just made a new one, we knew exactly where we were filming and the risks of  filming in certain locations like Trafalgar Square and normally you need permission but the security allowed us. This year I found the whole planning process very enjoyable as we all were on the same page and we all added our own ideas and listened to each other which is definitely an important aspect to working within a group. 

Planning: DigiPacks.

i have recently been on HMV's website and researched the new album releases to see if there was an overall tone to releases out this year.
The overall tone with pop albums is the face, many albums covers i have looked at features the close up of the artists face, i think this is due to the fact that, audiences can tell straight away that that's the album they want to buy. Also i think the audience can connect more with a photograph of the artists face rather than a location.
Whereas indie/rock albums have a lot of scenery in their albums some of them don't even contain an artist or band member.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Our digipack will be inspired by these albums.
As our audience is mainly females between the ages of 12-25 our album will have to have a sense of fun, but should also show a level of maturity to target the 20-25 age group. 

Planning: Review of Practice Shoot.

I think the practice shoot went very well, we adjusted the lighting so that no shadow could be seen as our teacher explained to us that shadows make adding the background difficult. Our female lead lyah was very good too because she remembered the lines and acted rather professionally. I think the practice shoot has helped us with our overall ideas because it will contribute to our final piece having alot of edits which i think will help us when our piece is being marked.

Overall, i think that the practice shoot went smoothly, everyone in the group had something to do and we didnt waste time. I think this shows that i have learnt from my AS studies because i checked to see if everything was correct before we started filming whereas in AS we were quite rushed. I think that involving a green screen will target a wider audience for our music video because we can create anything.

Planning: Review Of Green Screen

Last week my group was able to practice using the green screen as there are certain things that you need to have done. Like there can be NO shadows as it makes is a lot harder to put the two together when you find what the background image is going to be. We know that everything must be set up properly i.e. the camera and tripod because if it isn't in the right place then we aren't going to be able to get the effect we are after. Also make sure that we don't forget the lyrics as you can see it on screen and also make sure you have the song there and then so we don't have to keep finding it as this wastes valuable time. We were able to figure out the lighting pretty quick as you make sure the person is in the right position and then start to move them around to find the right lighting and making sure there are no shadows. I personally enjoyed it as we haven't used the green screen before and it can be used a lot in music video's today so it helped us understand the process a lot more than just hearing or reading about it. This is also a new skill we all have as we did it by ourselves without teachers and it worked quite well. So now we can definitely use it for our music video.

    

Planning: Edit/Digi Pack Ideas

I was watching the video to Olly Murs' new song 'Troublemaker' and saw a few edits that I think could work  well and digi pack ideas. Right at the beginning of the video Olly Murs is introduced by showing three images next to each other with Olly's name in bold in the middle image showing that he is the artist and main character in this video. I like that when they show the girl focus in the video that they do the three shots so that you also see the different outfits as it is quite strong visually. There is a shot as well of Flo Rida in a billboard which I think was very effective especially as there are a lot of them in London as it can could promote are artist normally. I also watched Lily Allen's 'LDN' and even though it isn't in black and white she is seen really bright whereas London is shown dull behind her. So I thought it would be really effective if we could shoot Luna Smalls and have the background black and white and show the colour from her and make the vibrance higher so it is really eye catching, especially as British weather normally is dull and grey it can show her colour even more through the editing.

For our digipack I thought we could do something similar idea to how they opened Olly Murs' video. So I tried to make a similar version with pictures of our artist but we can also make some versions for our back up artist as well so that we have no set backs what so ever. So here is my first try.

Planning: Ideas

This is showing how some of our ideas have been used in music videos before but also how we are going to change it to make it our own.

PLANNING: Review of practice shoot at the green screen

We went to practice in the green screen room, so we had an idea of how to use it if we wanted to include it in our actual video. We had a chair as a prop, and our artist Lyah started to sing the song along with the music. We made sure that there was no shadows that were to be seen, as we were told this would affect the end result of when putting the background in.
We had difficulties actually trying to put the background in, so we need more help on that, and how to do it properly.

Planning: Review Of Pitch

This is my review of the my groups pitch overall.

Planning: Eliza Doolittle Review

Here are some images of a few different reviews that I found for Eliza Doolittle and this shows critics or even fans reactions to either her album or song. Some that I chose are not all good as not everyone in this world or the music industry are going to like them. Some can be more harsh than others but I think it can sometimes keep artists quite grounded especially if they are under the radar type artists that only have a small fan base and really rely on reviews for their confidence.

Planning: Audience

I was on YouTube and found a fan made video of Eliza Doolittle's 'Skinny Genes'. It shows that her music is reaching out to her fans and a lot of fans tend to make there own versions of the video with different characters or have them as the artist. The one I found, was very humorous and you could really tell that she was quite comfortable in front of the camera. Her lip syncing is a little out and the way she is singing/miming shows that its quite obvious that it isn't her actually singing. She is in two different settings which is against a blank wall and in bed, for someone just doing it for fun it is quite good but as we have been studying music videos we are able to see that its a good try but not amazing which is what my group hope to accomplish.

Planning: Possible Risk

As a member of our group has just got a job the filming is going to be a little more tricky, as she is playing the artist. So we have chosen to go out and film as much as we can while with Lyah and then we are going to have someone else play the Luna Smalls as a back up that if in the future there isn't enough footage with Lyah  or variety of shots we can use the back up. This will help our group overall as we do not want to have any set backs as we do not want to fall behind this way we have other options of pursuing. As we know various obstacles can arise we know we need to be organised and be efficient, so that we do not waste time messing around but staying focused as time is valuable and we could be getting extra shots in that time. We know the back up artist needs to be reliable so we want to choose someone else in our group as we can rely on each other even though people have personal lives we all have to pull together as a group to help out and achieve something well put and though out together.

Planning: Intertexuality

I was watching Girls Aloud new song 'Something New' and I really like how they use letters throughout the video. They either spell words or they have it come up as one word, which I found really effective. I think that it could work well for our music video as we could introduce our artist Luna Smalls by having each letter of Luna come onto the screen one after the other 'L' 'U' 'N' 'A' but then have 'SMALLS' as one word after on the next screen to show the use of obvious edits as this will keep our audience/viewers attention. This shows that the words can be on a black background to show different colours as our video is going to be quite bright. 

Planning: budgeting.

Our budget will be quite small, our lead Lyah will provide us with custome and make up which means we do not have to spend anything on most of the mise en scene.
Although, we need to purchase balloons, glitter, and other small props such as  fruit for fillers i.e strawberries, oranges and watermelons.

We intended to buy ballons from a pound shop in dalston or Holloway whereas the glitter will be purchased in Paperchase in Angel.
 We are to buy our fruits from a local supermarket i.e Tescos, Sainsburys or Waitrose. Were the fruits are cheaply priced. Also for our interior locations we are going to film in  Pitcher and Piano and maybe the Big Chill. These are restaurants and we may use their dishes as props, as Pitcher and Piano is a bar so we may also use drinks of some kind as props as well.

As Lyah, Emma and Ola do photography we will be able to print out the pictures, for our motif of guys in skinny jeans. We will make plenty of copies to take while shooting as well for our last scene with them on the bed. We will mainly be taking pictures down Brick Lane as many of the guys down their wear skinny jeans.

Also, as we are all going to play a part in the video my group and i were thinking to buy colourful wigs, to add to the light-hearted and fun tone to video. The shop Zebedee in Angel sells alot of props for a cheap price.

budgeting on PhotoPeach

Plannng: Risk assessment.

Their are going to be many risks when out filming such as the possibly of theft when filming in a vast exterior location for example: Lee Valley Reginal Park, when filming in this location my group and i will have to be very cautious with our filming equipment as to not get them lost or stolen.
During our filming time in Trafalgar Square we need to be wary of the fountain which may use as backdrop for a base track.
My group and I were planning to film in Primrose hill at night this could be risky due to theft, because we need a filler of the view from the top of the hill.

Review of our pitch

Planning: Review of Eliza Doolittle Album.

I took it upon my-self to look at Eliza Doolittle's Album reviews, because i think this could be beneficial when filming.

Most of the reviews were quite posititve and many gave Eliza Doolittle's Album over 3 stars, the overall tone of the reviews was that Eliza's album is very unique and that she has a sweet, mellow sound to her voice. I think we can use this feedback in our final piece because we want to created a light-hearted tone. Although the BBC was quite harsh with their review and stated that too much of her her happy random quality can have unfortunate side effects.

Again, many reviewers said her sound was quite cartoon like, as stated in over posts my group and i wanted to make our video quite animated. 

Planning: Ideas.

Planning: Personal review of Pitch.

I think that overall my groups pitch was very good as we did include a lot of our visual element for example, our motif, animatic, locations and storyboard. This gave the audience a chance to imagine how the final outcome may look or target wider audience.
The general feed back was very positive which i was pleased with, i think this will impact our final piece because, the constructive criticism hat we did receive will help us while filming.

Although, there were areas that as a group we needed to develop, i think we should have detailed our target audience more and explained what our artist will look like and what clothes she will wear during filming so that the audience will have a general inclination to how the video will turn out.

Planning: Practice Shoot.

Video of our practice shoot.

Planning: Permission to film at the BOX PARK

Over the weekend Emma and Derya went to the Box Park in Brick Lane, to view places that the group could film in. The first floor of the box park has a very relaxed feel with wooden benches and tables and a nice view of brick lane. We asked the manager if it was possible to film here and she responded positively saying if we emailed her prior to when we wanted to film it would be possible to film. We also asked her if we could use some of the shops, on the ground floor of the box park as some where quite colourful and vibrant and would relate to our video.

 

 

We thought we could add this gigantic Connect 4 game into our video, maybe our artist could play with it whilst we record her, and we could edit this in time with the song. 

Health and Safety form

Planning: Chart Peformance.

I researched Eliza Doolittle first album which was self-entitled performance with the national and international charts.

Wikipedia.com

As seen in the screen grab in most countries, the album got into the top 100, and in 5 countries reached the top 50. As mentioned in previous blog posts, Eliza's music is popular mainly in Europe i think this is because it has an indie/folk feel to her music which isn't well known or popular in North America.

Planning: Review Of Music Video

  

             

Planning: Permission To Film

Here is written permission, so that our group can film in Pitcher&Piano on the 25th October which is next Thursday, to film from 3pm-4pm. We are going to use an isolated area in the bar/restaurant as we do not want to interrupt or hinder any of the customers experience if they are in there. We have been told that the time we go is very quiet for them so it is very convenient for both parties. They were more than happy for us to film as long as we are not too loud and don't take any longer than an hour as they have a party booked.

Planning: Health&Safety Check

Here is my health and safety check sheet signed by me and my teacher. This is to make sure we know not to do certain things while filming, or after we have made the video. Below is the picture I took of it.

Planning: Digipack ideas.

I think our album cover should be quite cartoon-like and playful, i think that it should feature our artist Luna Smalls' full face on the cover, with her eyes edited so that they look like stars so it relates back to her stage name of Luna.
 Also, her whole face could be edited as to look quite animated and innocent, which will target younger audiences for example tweens.

this is some digipack ideas that i made, as her name stage name is Luna i decided to make space/futuristic feel so i that it would relate to her name. Although this is just a draft i think the final digi pack should be playful and child-like to relate to the song.

Planning: Eliza Doolittle Facebook Page.

This is Eliza Doolittle's Facebook page, she has over 380,000 likes and updates her Facebook page regularly. In September 10,218 people were talking about Eliza Doolittle, i think this was because she confirmed to join Damon Albarn's Africa Express, where she played in London on the 8th of September in Granary Square.

Planning: Location Ideas

I think that our locations to film our music video to 'Skinny Genes' by Eliza Doolittle really fit well as they are not all the same, as we have nature themed locations (Lea Valley Regional Park/Primrose Hill), urban themed locations (Brick Lane/Banksy Tunnel) and also show different sides of London (Trafalgar Square/Regents Canal) all these elements will show different sides and a diverse London. All the locations I mentioned were exterior so we are going to try and get written/verbal permission from managers for Picher&Piano on Upper Street, The Big Chill down Brick Lane and also a Vintage Shop down there as we may show more of journey, we got this inspiration from Lily Allen 'LDN'. Overall I think that our locations will work very well we have other places that we will go film fillers like Holborn where there is graffiti image of The Beatles wearing different coloured bandanas.

          

Planning: Review Of Music Video

                    

Planning: Day in the life of target audience.

Planning: Review of Locations.

I like our locations that we are going to use for our music video, because they are colourful  bright and interesting which i think epitomizes London.
Also because all the locations are spread out from one another, it can contribute to the overall unique tone because there will be  a difference from people in Brick Lane to Holborn which i think will target a wider audience.
The majority of street art, that will feature in our video adds to the quirkiness that our overall tone will have.
The view from the top of primrose hill at night is very magnificent and can act as filler or a base track for our music video.

The interior locations that we have chosen which are pitcher and piano and a few shops in brick lane again have an urban touch to them which contribute to our songs tone.
Furthermore, i think the locations we have chosen are really good and will contribute to the tone of the music and how we want the video to be perceived.

Planning: Analysis of recent music video.

Lana Del Rey - Ride. on Prezi

Planning: Review Of Pitch

 Here is a video of Tanvir speaking to us about  what he thought of our pitch. The feedback was really good for us to hear as we knew it wasn't perfect but we were quite proud of the ideas we had come up with. Tanvir pretty much talks about that he likes our visual ideas and that the animatic even though it was very short it gave quite a clear view of some of the shots and locations that would be used. We also spoke to Natalie who didn't speak for as long as Tanvir but was a bit more concise about what she liked. Overall we really enjoyed gaining feedback as it helps to give an outside perspective if we were going completely in the wrong direction, so it gives us a bit more confidence in our product.

                

         

Planning: Review Of A Music Video

I watched Leona Lewis' music video to 'Trouble' and I really like how simplistic it looked. I understand it isn't really simple but from a first glance that is how it seems. As I think she used amplification as it her narrative does link to her lyrics of her song. Also throughout the video she has a lot of narrative and only has three different locations for her base tracks. One is in front of a green screen showing the narrative behind her, I really like this as I see that it makes Leona connect more with her audience, I think this used well as it shows vulnerability slightly and my group could also benefit from this. Another one is Leona in a room with pictures stuck on the wall, we see that pictures can be really use full through out a music video and a lot of artists do use them. The last one was an exterior location as the background, this is good as it changes the look a bit as it darker with brighter colours in the background but also because the other base track locations are interior and this location is exterior. Overall I really enjoyed the video especially because there are similarities to her and our artist Luna Smalls, they use fashion to reach out to their audience and they also have very strong vocals which is really important to them and their audience.

Planning: Vlog of planning process.

Planning: Banksey Tunnel.

The Banksy tunnel was opened in May, 2008, it is a tunnel where Grafitti is tolerated and is named after the famously anonymous grafitti artist Banksy.

My group and i will use this as a location because it is colourful and creative and is also quite secluded which means we will have privacy.
It also shows really imaginative pieces of work which will emphasizes the kookiness of our video. Also i think that the graffiti will help us to reach a wider audience.

Planning: Ideas

During our music video we did want to show our artist (Lyah)'s tattoo on the back of her neck as tattoo's seem quite urban but it also reaches out to a wider audience as a lot of people know there is meanings behind every tattoo and it leaves a bit of mystery for the audience to find out more of the background story to Luna Smalls. We are going to do this with her hair in a doughnut bun so that all the hair is out of the way as her tattoo is on her neck. We also know that her tattoo wouldn't offend anyone as it is personal to her and gives our artist a little edge, as we are going for a girly, fun, energetic, quirky appearance but her tattoo is almost hidden from sight until the hair has been moved.

Planning: Viewing Locations

Yesterday I went to Banksy Tunnel/Leake Street to see how to get to this location and how accessible it would be. It is very easy to get there as we only need to get on a 341 to Waterloo. The whole place is available for use, as there are many people there. It is also a very good location as we can (with the permission of artists) get footage of them designing their art right there in front of us. Here are some pictures showing the location.

 

 

 

     

Music Industry