Prince thought it would be a good idea to repeat what we did for the Miguel adorn music video for our Melanie Fiona music video. He took out some time to write down the most used shots and camera angle in this music video. Seeing as the story line of the music video was going to be the same as the original it would only be right that we knew what the shots in the original music video portraying (e.g feelings, hunger, hard work...). It also helps as we now know what shots are needed to make our video look good and as professional as possible.
To avoid wasting time or creating more expenses for ourselves than we already have, we decided to a practice filming. What we were able to obtain from our practical filming is each other strengthens, for example: - Who would be good at tracking shots? - Who would be good at pans? - Who is skillful with handheld cameras? - Who could be good at filming long shots? - Who would be best for editing the footage? - The positions to hold the camera, to achieve certain camera shots? All of these questions we were able to determine the answer for by our practice filming. Due to the schedule of lessons we were force to split up into two groups (Seun and I, Prince and Sath). Taking in turns each person had an opportunity to film using several camera angles and shorts. Seun and I mainly focused on the opening scene (the staircase scene), We took several takes,approximately 8 different takes till we felt the opening scene was good enough. By taking the several clips, Seun and I found that Seun was more skillful at tracking shots andPOV shotsthan I, as well as how we should record the opening clips. Being the opening scene it must not only by eye-catching but of good quality, therefore practicing filming the opening scene we thought must be essential For example we learnt in order to create a smooth, crisp tracking shot our artist would need a step ahead on the staircase, and whoever is taking the shot approximately two steps behind. One issue that came to our attention is the POV shot; due to not having the expenses to use high-tech equipment such as a craneour artist would need to know how to hold the handheld camera, along with what position would create a smooth POV shot. Having a high-tech equipment such as crane would help us avoid the issue of our artist knowing how to handle a handled camera. Nonetheless from doing the practical with Seun, we learnt that our artist would need to be bent quite forward to avoid her/his knee from dominating the footage. (Photoshop jess) In this clip below you may notice a few things (which we hope you could ignore) such as the fact that we have used two different shoes, this is because (as mentioned earlier) Seun is better at positioning herself to get a clear, smooth POV shot. Here is short footage of our practice shot - put together using final cut.
In our music video we would have a cast which would be set to to take the roles of:
The main girl
The main guy
The sideline girl
For the lead role we decided to cast Queen Phillips to take the role of Melanie Fiona.
We felt that Queen showed almost all the qualities of Melanie and would portray her accurately.
For the role of the guy we decide after much deliberation, Reke because we thought that he would appeal to our Target audience as well as being reliable.
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For the role of the sideline girl we decided to cast Sarah for the video.
For our initial ideas I decided to make a glog. this allowed me to plan out all our ideas in a more creative way through layering images and adding the actual.
to watch and use the actual glog, please go to our Initial Ideas Glog Post
Firstly, we separated out ideas into images and text.
The images displayed items such as clothing, location and equipment
The text explained our two plot, which would be shown in the video through performance and narrative.
For a number of reasons we have had to change our song. This was mainly down to;
1. Location? Firstly, our first location let us down because they had change management due to their lost contract. this original location was Acacia hall.
2. Location PERMISSION Secondly, our second location didnt let in to film because all of the arrangements we had made with them were all vocal and over the phone, this led us to being blocked in on the day because there was no written contract.
3. Main character AVAILABILITY Thirdly, our main character was male and it was really hard to find a guy willing to do it , this made really hard to find a lead until we finally had one. But when it came to filming he kept letting us down, therefore limiting our time to actually film.
4. Main character willingness to do the video.
In the end he got impatient and quit all together, leaving us with no lead.
This has left us with the decision to change our song completely. Our new song is called 4am by Melanie Fiona, a R&B artist who was recently signed to ROC Nation.
We have chosen this song for multiple reasons. Firstly we think that the bat and the lyrics of the song show exactly what the R&B genre has as some of its stereotypes. Secondly, we think that this is also a good example of an R&B sing without rap within it. This would allow us to use as many of the R&B conventions to make our video successful in its field. Thirdly, this song contain an emotional, heartly vibe to the song, making us able to tap into the protagonist emotions of the current situation. This would help us greatly when picking the narrative and how it should be portrayed. However it also has a vixen edge to her tone of voice, this will enable us to use darker colours for hair, wardrobe and make up.
