In
order to avoid wasting time we practiced are opening scene several
times, therefore we would prepare for our first filming. Once we had
gotten enough footage, I then used Youtube to find a footstep effect.
Having both the footage and footstep effect I placed into Final Cuts and
altered them both to make them in sync with one another. I used this as
an opportunity to explore the different effects and video filters that
Final Cuts have to offer. One filter that I found quite interesting was
the 'Sharpen', the more i clicked on the 'Sharpen' the more sharper the
footage became.
Here is a practice footage of our opening clip:
As
you are able to tell the sound of the footsteps replicate the sound of
high heels and I am wearing wellies, as well as the fact that two
different shoes are used in the clip. This is all because we used this
as a test, to not only test our editing skills but who within our team
is more skillful in handling the camera in handled position. It also
helped us to understand in what way and angle the camera should be held,
along with how the individual holding the camera would have to follow
the artist up the stairs.
Also
as you can see during the clip I used the 'Sharpen' filter to give
myself and idea of how the filter could effect our footage.
In order for
our group to understand what fonts would be best for us to use on our
album, I decided to research different type of fonts which are use on
albums. Below are three of the fonts which stood out the most for me.
As our the
artist of our music video is female I decided to look at a variety of
fonts which are used on female artist album covers. For example Beyonce,
the font she used for her latest album Beyonce 4. From my research I found that the name of this font is Dream Orphan. What I like about this font is that it gives a sort of vintage, posh look
to the album without taking away the fact it is an R'n'B album. Also
the colour black (even though it is plain) gave some type of bold
statement, which I believe represent the genre R'n'B. Additionally the
contrast between the colour black and her complexion, gives the album a
rich look Unfortunately I were not able to find that exact font, however a font which I found similar to this font was Apple Garamond from dafont.com.
Using Adobe Photoshop I experimented with our artist name Melanie Fiona, both in lower case and capitals; to get an idea of what it may look like if placed on to the front of our album. Another female artist which I analysed the font on her album cover was Kelly Rowland. This
album in particular is an R'n'B album which includes a lot of dance.
Research showed this particular album was nominated for International Dance Award.
Moreover as you can see the font in which she used is very thin with
both inner and outer glower. This I believes represents the type of
music included
in her album - dance music; the type of music which you would hear in a
club. Nonetheless the font illustrate or 'paints a atmosphere' of a
club. As you can see below I attempted to find the closest font
possible to the one featured on Kelly Rowland album:
This font is called Good Times also from the dafont.com.
Unlike the font featured on the album this font is much thicker and
bolder. This font in particular only has uppercase letter, therefore I
was unable to see what it may look in lowercases. In order to achieve
the similar font on Kelly Rowland's album I had to manipulate the font
in Adobe Photoshop. Below is an image stating the quick steps I took to achieve this look.
Additionally another album font I looked at was Keyshia Cole - A Different Me,
compared to the others I have reviewed, this font in particular was
quite soft with a slight ombre effect. The swerves gives a gentle touch
to the album. In someways the font gives the impression that the album
will reveal a softer side to Keyshia Cole, therefore reflecting the name
of the album 'A Different Me'.
Using the font MTF Under Your Skin from DaFont.com I
tried to recreate the same font, to understand what the name Melanie
Fiona may look like in a similar font; however I used the colour grey. After
reviewing several different album cover fonts, we decided to take ideas
from all Beyonce and Keyshia Cole albums which lead us to the font Apple Garamond. For
example what we liked about Beyonce Album font is that the font looks
bold and stands out, it also looks classy and vintage; additionally the
font makes her name looks like a statement which is how we wanted our
artist name to come across on her album. Furthermore what we liked from
Keyshia Cole's Album font is the ombre effect, in which the colours used
to create the ombre is based on the background. Nonetheless we have
come up with a font which we believe represent our artist as bold and
fearless. CHANGES We
had made some minor changes to the font of our album cover. We found
that using the gradient overlay with the colours black, white and pink
contrasted greatly with the chosen image, therefore we changed the
colours to pink and white. Below is our now chosen font:-
From my research I learnt that to make sure our music video is done in a
professional and safe manner we must conduct as risk assessment.
Nonetheless to make a risk assessment we would need to understand what
it is and how it should be structured.
What is the a Risk Assessment?
A risk assessment according to HSE is a careful examination of what, in
your workplace could bring harm to people, in order for you to make sure
you have taken enough precautions or if you should do more to avoid
harm. A risk assessment is important step in protecting whoever we will
be working with, as well as complying with the law, it helps us to focus
on the risk that really matter - the ones that can cause potential
hazards.
How I made the Risk Assessment
Making the risk assessment was very easy, first I listed down what
potential hazards we could face in making our music videos. Next for
every hazard I mentioned I then wrote a solution for each one. Luckily
for our group there was nothing which had no solution to it (if that did
occur then we would have the 'scrap' the idea and put the safety of our
group first.
To help us organise our filming and get shots we needed done on time, we
decided to create a filming schedule. After considering all the
different locations we needed to film at along with the equipment
needed, Jessica went ahead with creating a digital copy of the filming
schedule. After we had this filming schedule, we was able to see when
each member of the group was needed and what equipment was needed during
each filming.
For the filming we have decided to use several pieces of equipment,
there are various equipment such as two SLR cameras, two tripods, led
lighting, halogen lighting.
Nikon D5100
The Nikon D5100 is a SLR camera which is capable of recording full HD
videos which is a reason why we was chose to use the camera. This camera
is really useful as it is a SLR which includes all of its manual
options which comes in handy when we want to adjust our footage before
we edit which would make it easier to edit. Another reason is that, the
camera has a flip out screen which has the ability to rotate and tilt.
Using this screen, we would be able to film high angle and low angle
shots which gives us great flexibility while filming.
Nikon D3100
The Nikon D3100 is the second camera that we used which was supplied by
our Media Studies teacher, it is also capable of capturing full HD
videos. This camera also comes will other features that are available
with the SLRs such as manual focus etc which allows us to take control
over what we film and the outcome of the footage.
Jessops tripod
The Jessops TP323, is a tripod provided by our Media Studies teacher,
the tripod had three levels of leg which allows us to film from various
heights allowing us to achieve different angles of footage. It has a
head which can rotate either 360 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees
vertically. This gives us a lot of freedom of how we filmed using the
tripod.
Hama star 62
The Hama star 62 is a tripod which also comes with three extendable
legs. Having another tripod allows us to film from two different fixed
points so even when we do cuts, the angle and height of the footage
would not change which would make the film have more continuity to it.
In
order to give our music video the cinematic look, and make it as
professional as possible, we realize that we need certain equipment to
achieve certain looks. Luckily enough for us our school supplied us with
these necessary equipments, one in particular is the dolly.
What is a Dolly?
'High-tech'
dollies as you can see from the image, as usually carts which travel
along tracks. The camera is mounted on a dolly and records the shot as
it moves. Dolly shots have numerous applications and can provide very
dramatic footage.
As
obvious as it may sound dollies are used to make dolly shot which are
also known as tracking shots/trucking shots. Although many professionals
prefer the 'rigid' terminology which defines dolly as an 'in-and-out'
movement (i.e. closer/further away from the subject), while tracking
means 'side-to-side' movement. Most dollies (especially those used by professionals) have levers to allow for vertical movement as well as (known as pedestal move).
Or in other cases a crane can be mounted on the dolly for additional
height and flexibility. A shot which moves vertically while
simultaneously tracking is called a compound shot.
How Effect Can The Dolly Be For Our Music Video?
Using
the dolly would be an effect tool to our music video because it will
allow our group to capture smooth and dynamic footage. For example in
our music video the dolly could used for a tracking shot, as we want
footage of our main female artist walking in the kitchen. With the dolly
we could record our female artist in a way which would put our target
audience in her POV, as well as following her; this could be a way of
interacting with the audience.
Practicing With The Dolly
To
avoid wasting time during our filming with the dolly, we established
that it would be more logically to practice using it. Nonetheless we
split our group further into two groups, Seun and I and Prince and Sath
and practiced using the dolly.
First
and foremost we had to set up the dolly, this was very simple. We first
mounted the camera onto a tripod and then extended the legs. Once that
was done we then connected it to he dolly, by adjusting the knob
(widening the gap) to allow the tripod slip in, to then tighten the knob
(reducing the gap) to the extent that the tripod could not move. This
was done to all three legs of the tripod. Once
the dolly had been set up we then practiced panning vertically up and
down on each other. Below features so of these clips:
Before we can use the song Miguel - Adorn we had to seek permission from Sony Entertainment as the video and the song is copyrighted. Jessica had to write up a letter asking for permission to use this song and email it to them. Prince took the responsibility of emailing Sony Entertainment, and created this email:
Dear Copyright Holders at Sony Music Entertainment,
We are A-level Media Studies students from Wilmington Grammar School for
Boys in Wilmington, Kent, United Kingdom. We are writing to request
your permission to use one of the tracks from Miguel's latest album
Kaleidoscope Dream'. The track we wish to use is track number 1, titled
Adorn.
With your permission this track will be used in out current A-level
Media Studies Project. which involves creating a music video for a
popular music track as well as producing and advertising a digipak,
which will include a magazine front cover and album artwork. If we
receive your permission to use this track, it would only be used in a
educational context and be view by our media class, our media studies
teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It will not be released to are
large audience or uploaded to any public video websites. The artist and
your company would of course be fully recognised throughout the
pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice with
wording supplied from you can be included in the recording project. If
this is required please send full details.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Prince Obode, Sathurshan Gunaratnam, Jessica Obiorah and Seun Osho
In our copyright permission email we ensured to highlight:
- What track we wanted to use,
- What we will be using the track for,
- Where we are from,
- Who will be seeing the video,
- We will not be using the video for any profitable reasons,
By highlighting all
this in our copyright permission email we are hoping that they would
believe that it is a legitimate email not a fraud/scam.
Similar to the Miguel - Adorn music video we were planning on making, we
need to create a copyright permission email to use the song because it
is copyrighted. By creating this email we are avoiding any chances of
being sued for using a copyrighted song without the permission of its
owner.
The copyright permission email is very similar to the Miguel - Adorn
copyright permission email, however we had to alter some of our wording:
Dear Copyright Holders at Sony Music Entertainment,
We are A-Level Media Studies student from Wilmington Grammar School for
Boys Sixth Form, in Wilmington, Kent, United Kingdom. We are writing to
request your permission to use one track from Melanie Fiona's previous
album 'The MF Life'. The track we wish to use is track number two,
titled '4AM'. With your permission this track will be used in our
current A-Level Media Studies Project. This involves creating a music
video a music video for a popular music track as well as producing and
advertising a digipak, which includes a magazine front cover and albu
On the second day of filming with my group I had decided to turn up earlier to see if we come better natural light although we still started filming at 6pm.
Our Plan:
Firstly to redo all scenes because not many were successful
To pay more attention to the detail to ensue for better quality in the final product
to add more variations to shots by having the close up and medium shots filmed at the same time
The Two Sections:
The Bathroom Scene
The Bedroom scene
Props used:
Both cameras
The tripod
The bed
The studio light
The bedroom light
Natural light
Lamp light
Two Box Lights
Bath Soap
Dove Liquid Soap
Hot Bath
Big Bouquet of Roses
The Outcome:
The Bathroom Scene
This shows the setup that we created to film.
Firstly, we made a successful bathroom scene because we used more liquid soap, more used in showers rather than for washing dishes which made the bath far more bubbly with the extra added hot water to make it look realistic.
Secondly, we had bigger rose petals and only rose petals because we wanted a nicer look and a more delicate effect.
Thirdly, we used more lights so that the room was more light and has better quality overall.
2. The Bedroom Scene
Firstly, we used a lot more lights so that the footage ended up being a lot more clearer and allows us to see the female lead's face a lot more clearly.
Secondly, we used different outfits to capture the ongoing of the storyline.
On the first day of filming my group and I turned up at the location at 6 pm without set up of previous experience in filming.
Our Plan:
We had decided to split our filming session into three sections
We had to wait until dark time for our video to have the perfect setting
We had decided to bring both our provided camera by the school as well as using Sath personal camera
The Three Sections:
The bed room scene
The getting ready/kitchen scene
The bathroom scene
The Props used:
Both cameras
The tripod
The bed
The studio light
The bedroom light
Natural light
Lamp light
Fairy Liquid washing up soap
Rose and daisy petals and buds
The Outcome:
The Bedroom Scene
Firstly, we used the natural darkness but that didn't work to our advantage later as we saw that the footage was blurred because the camera didn't pick up near enough light.
we didn't have time to go through the lyrics with the actress so she kept getting the lyrics wrong.
2. The Getting ready/Kitchen Scene
Firstly, that went well because we had recorded the intimacy that we had wanted to create
Secondly, we believed that it was a bit too dark so we had to lighten it up a bit in editing.
3. The Bathroom Scene
Firstly, we used fairly liquid and cold water so it turned the water green and didn't leave many bubbles for us to use.
Secondly, the the flowers that used weren't roses so that petals weren't that big or very flattering to the footage.
Thirdly, there weren't that many flowers put in so the bath didn't look as nice as it could have.
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.
This is our animatic for our new music video choice, Melanie Fiona 4 AM. As part of preparation for our final video we had decided to do a paper practice of our video that we would like to create, we had Sath and Prince to make an animatic.
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.
.
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.
In order for us to get our filming right we have decided to split up the shots into groups so that each member of the group can have practice shots of what we would need on the day of filming.
Firstly, we asked Sath and Prince to work with a male to shoot medium close ups and side way shots as well as moving shots to show how the male lead would capture the video.
Here is a video with what they had come up with:
This would not be the male lead we would be using however, he shows some of the ways our male lead would be filmed.
In the music video there will be one main male artist and two female artists/dancers.
This is one of the two female artists/dancers. Shanike is going to be our main girl. Sarah will only be used during the performance scenes
This is the main
male artist. The reason why he was chosen was because he is able to look
the part for the video and he can also act for the music video.
MIGUEL
For our media project we have decided to do the song, Adorn by the R&B artist Miguel. Miguel's Website
History
Miguel Jontel Pimentel was born on the 23rd october 1986. he was first signed to Drop Squad Records after graduating from high school in 2000, due to a change of image he signed to Jive Records in 2007 where he released his first album All I Want You. although the album wasn't successful immediately, it became a sleeper hit and gradually went up the album chart in the Billboard 100 until it reached certified gold, selling 404,000 copies in the US alone.
Image
His image is very prominent and is often seen as the first indicator to his music. He is all known to have a smart hipster style. He is known for having tight suit with quirky accessories. The colours he usually wears are either bright and bold and black with a futuristic.
The first image displays Miguel signature style by having the qurky bow tie along with the suit like cardigan. As well as this he also has his staple futuristic glasses, which are seen in alot of his looks.
We would be taking inspiration of this by using both a bow tie and a pair of Ray-Bans, taking inspiration from his glasses.
This is another one of his looks where he uses the glasses again and he has more of a rock edge.
I alot of his clothes also consist of leather jackets, which we would also be adapting for our video .
