FIRST DRAFT MAGAZINE ADVERT

FIRST DRAFT DIGIPAK

1. Panel One - Front Cover

 

 



 2. Panel Two - Inside

 

 

3. Panel Three - CD Cover

 

4. Panel Four - Back Cover



CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER:
4th - introduced to main singer/actress and actor
10th - group meeting to discuss storyboard
22nd - finalise storyboard

NOVEMBER:
14th - photo shoot of Shannon
19th - drama room performance scene
26th - genesis performance scene
30th - Thames barrier park filming

DECEMBER:
13th - winter wonderland shooting

JANUARY:
1st - 31st - dedicated entirely to editing music video

FEBRUARY:
4th - digipak photo shoot
16th - media extension in school
17th - media extension in school
18th - magazine advert photo shoot
4th - 23rd - editing digipak and magazine advert

First Draft Feedback For Music Video

After completing our first draft of our music video, we all had a chance to watch each others one from both classes and discuss what worked well and what needed improving, here is some of the feedback we got:

POSITIVES:

- Amazing cinematography
- Large range of camera shots used
- Editing was in beat with the music
- lip synching was perfect
- Main singer sang expressively
- Both actors looked natural with each other - no awkwardness during love scenes
- Lyrics and visuals matched well
- Clear narration
- Framing good
- Lighting good
- Good camera work

We were extremely happy with the positive feedback as we tried our best for our first draft. We were slightly worried that our editing wasn't good enough however the fact that everyone thought it was was a huge relief.

We didn't have many negatives, however the main one was that there was too much of the Genesis performance scene. There was mixed views on this as some people thought it worked well as there was many different camera angles in this scene whereas some people thought that it was just too much.

Everyone suggested that we should cut some snippets of her singing outdoors and put them in however we were hesitant to do this as we wanted all the Thames Barrier Park footage in one go instead of mixing it up which we though would look messy.

Therefore me and Fahad have decided that we will shoot her singing in an outdoor place, and we have chosen the location of Mile End Park. We chose this location because we are on a tight time schedule and this park is nearby and also has some nice scenes.

We have decided to put the Mile end Park scene between the genesis performance scene. We done this because we thought a change of scenery in the middle would be nice. Also, we chose to do this because our narration style now goes from...

- indoors (genesis performance, locker scene and café scene)
- outdoor (mile end park performance)
- indoor (genesis performance scene and dream sequence)
- outdoor (maze scene, riverside scene and park scene)
- indoor (bedroom scene and drama room performance scene)

we chose to do this because songs from indie folk such as Echosmith - Cool Kids and songs from country pop such as Taylor Swift - Teardrops on my Guitar also follow a patterned sequence like this, therefore we wanted to conform to the conventions of these two genres as our one is a hybrid of the two.

screenshots from notes I make:

CONSTRUCTION OF PRINT TASKS

 

MAGAZINE ADVERT

Magazine Advert Analysis

 

 

• Because we are going to shoot our digipak outside we are also going to do the same with the magazine cover as we want them to look similar and identified together, therefore we will do it in a wooded area most likely.
• To emphasize the lyrics of the song through the image I want to use a bright image that stands out and makes her look powerful, whilst not taking away any of her innocence.
• Because we are not sure whether we want a front of back view of our singer we will make sure we will take a variety of shots.
• The different shots could connote different things, for example the back view - could connote isolation and modesty as the audience cannot view her face. However a front view could connote innocence and youthfulness through her facial expressions. Also because the audience will be able to view her face it will allow her to connect with the target audience.

 

Magazine Draft

 

 

 

Initial First Draft Magazine Advert

 

This was the initial picture we were going to use on our magazine advert. However as it is probably apparent, she does look extremely awkward here and also uncomfortable. This was because when we went to shoot this photo-shoot the weather was freezing, and because she was very cold she could not pose for the photos properly. Due to this we scheduled another photo-shoot for new pictures, and this time we made sure the weather was better. 

 

Here are some more drafts we did of the magazine cover. These pictures will show you the journey we took to get to our final result.

 

 

 

 

PHOTOSHOOTS

 

FIRST EVER PHOTOSHOOT - INITIAL BEGINNING STAGES

 

 

 

 

ACTUAL MAGAZINE COVER AND DIGIPAK PHOTOSHOOTS 

 

We had our first photo-shoot in order to take picture for our digipak an magazine advert. We chose to use the same costume in all of our pictures as we would like to use the same costume across our print task. We also used a hat and guitar as a prop as we are constructing our star based around the Indie genre. From doing this photo-shoot we realised that it is important to be more organised in the future, as we didn't get some of the shots we wanted due to the bad weather. We have taken variety of shots from different shot distances; so when it came to choosing we would have lots of options. From this photo-shoot, some of the pictures came out really, as they display the innocent side of our artist. 

It also gave us the opportunity to film some additional scenes for our music video as one performance scene was very long and we didn't something different that could be used as a break so it did not make the audience feel bored. 

 

 

For our second photo-shoot we were more organised on the shots we wanted to get; for example we took into consideration where we wanted text to be placed when we were taking pictures, allowing space to be left on the left side. We ensured that we took a variety of shots for our print task, as you can see there are close ups, long shots and mid shots. We chose to stay with the costume choice, as it fitted our genre very well. We kept the hat, and the white blouse and blue shirt. From this photo-shoot, we managed to get better pictures for the magazine add, as the previous time we didn't have enough long distance shots.

DIGIPAK

Photoshop Practice

•  This was a photoshop font, however I don't think it was the right choice because it looks distressed and this was not the image I was going for.
• I put 5 album tracks on but I am aware that I will have to put 12 in the final one.
• I made a transparent box to put the album tracks on top of so that it would stand out better and show more.
• Initially I didn't know whether to shown side of the picture which is more green maze. However I decided to show the pathway as I thought the tracks looked more interesting featured here.
• I had a problem with the title blending into the background as the font was white and so was the sky. Therefore i moved the picture more to the left so that there was more green available for the title to sit.
• although the title does look nice on the back cover, it is not needed. Instead of this, in the future I will put her name up instead.

Digipak Planning & CD Cover Analysis

 

 

 

 

• colour seems to a very important aspect part of the digipak as the colours are vibrant and eye catching - because of this we want to make sure that on our digipak we have powerful and eye-catching images
• colour and image seem to be much more powerful than the text placed on a digipak
• audiences of indie folk seem particularly interested in the image of the artist, or another image that may seem irrelevant and meaningless but which appears to be significant towards the album and songs.
• this leaves us with the decision of whether we would like to conform to these above conventions we have found, or whether we want to subvert them by choosing a simple image and a powerful font.
• We have decided to shoot the digipak outside instead of indoors, most probably in a area that resembles wood with nature as a major aspect.
• Overall, we want our digipak to connote innocence and purity and also simplicity.
• When editing, to achieve this look, we do not want to overdo on the editing as we want to stick to the indie folk / country pop genre.

 

Fonts

 

 

Draft Sketches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIME MANAGEMENT

21. schedules

22. Call Sheets

 

ORGANISATION OF EDITING

WORK ON SHOTLIST, LAYOUT, DRAFTING AND STORYBOARD

12. Pitches

In this task we played our song "there is a line" to our class. It was their first time hearing the song, therefore we gave each member of our class a stack of post it notes and asked them to spontaneously jot down any potential ideas that came to their head about what we could include in our music video. Their time limit was between the beginning of the song towards the end. After gathering the post it notes with all the different ideas, we were extremely happy because their was a wide variety of ideas which we have decided to incorporate into our music video such as some point of view shots, shots of the actress sitting under the tree and shots of her falling back into a bunch of leaves.

 

Lyrics Analysis

After gathering all the ideas we thought of and the ideas above, we decided to annotate the lyrics on paper. This helped us make it more clear in our heads what we were doing and also helped us know what scene and location to add for each verse. By annotating this, it has helped us apply Goodwin's theory to it and it has also allowed us to understand what we seem to be missing and what else to add.

13. Storyboard

  

PERFORMANCE SCENE

This is the official performance storyboard that we are going to use when we shoot this scene. We got inspiration from the singer Passenger in his song "let her go". This scene will have various shots of Shannon singing at different angles to the camera which we hope will create a emotional and more personal connection between the singer and the actor.

CAFE SCENE

LOCKER SCENE

WINTER WONDERLAND SCENE:

Because no one in my group has been to winter wonderland before we couldn't really do a storyboard as we didn't know what to expect. Therefore I wrote a list on my phone notepad of potential things we could include as i didn't want to go completely unprepared.

THAMES BARRIER PARK SCENE: 

 

Dream Scene:

14. Animatic and Synopsis  



After discussing all possible ideas that we had we have come to our final proposal. We decided that our music video will have a mixture of performance and narration. Our song runs for a maximum of 3:31 therefore we know we have a fairly large amount of lyrics to cover.

What we have decided to do and why:

·         Genesis cinema performance scene – this is because there is a performance scene in the upstairs of genesis which looks good as it has a very retro/vintage theme to it.

·         Drama room performance scene – we have decided to do a second performance scene in the drama room in our school. This is because we want to try and recreate the performance scene from Passengers song ‘let her go’. This song comes under the indie genre and because we want to conform to the genre we think this will be perfect as it is doable and also because it will be in contrast with the genesis scene as that is quite a bright setting whereas this will be darker.

·          Dream sequence – we have decided to include a dream sequence in our music video as we think it will go well with the lyrics, ‘laid out in all my dreams, you’re sitting like a king in front of me’. Matching the lyrics and visuals is a major element in Andrew Goodwin’s theory therefore we have decided to include it. We got this idea from Justin Timberlake’s song ‘mirrors’.

·         Narration – we have decided to split the narration up in two parts. For the first two verses of the song we will show the female singer pining after her male love interest. We will show her gazing at him and trying to catch his attention.  However halfway through the song we will start featuring her love interest and her as if they are together. We are planning on showing a variety of shots of them and portraying them as a couple. We have decided to do this because in Taylor Swift’s music video’s such ‘love story’ and ‘teardrops of my guitar’ she does exactly this and because she fits under our hybrid genre of country pop we once again wanted to conform to the genre.

·         Bedroom scene – in the lyrics ‘drifting back in’ we have decided to show her waking up from a dream as this fits in well with the lyrics. Because this is after the footage where we will show them acting like a couple it could imply that they she has been dreaming about this all along, and it was all just a mere dream in her head.

·         Enigma codes – we have decided to use an enigma code in the lines ‘Your bullet fired your reckless aim’ where we will show Gabriel visually shooting down Shannon. This action could imply how Gabriel has the power to destroy Shannon and the effect that Gabriel has on Shannon.

 15. Rough Edits

 

we decided to do a draft edit for this scene as it was something completely new to us and we were not familiar with it at all. We achieved this by firstly changing the transparency level. However once we done this one of the characters became so transparent that we were not able to see them. we then had to crop each side of the shots and join them together to make it seem as if they're looking in the mirror at each other. We added fade ins so that the transitions looked smooth instead of jumpy.



We completed this 20 second edit of a specific part of our music video. the purpose of doing this was to get warmed up to editing and also to give us a taste of how challenging it would be. It certainly was challenging, as although 20 seconds may seem short, it actually isn't because it is a lot of space to fill up with different footage.

PHOTOS FROM FILMING

As the performance scene is vital part of our music video, we wanted to practice filming these scenes. It enabled us to understand what camera shots we needed for our actual performance scene, the use of lighting and it also gave us the opportunity to test the try on some of the costumes and props on our artist.

We decided we needed go film an additional scene for the ending as our previous footage did not match the tone of the song at the end, which is very quite and subtle. We chose a carnival location at night as it suited the ending and the connoted lyrics very well.



As nature is a big convention of the indie genre, we knew we had to film outside. We chose Thames Barrier Park as our location as it had a maze where we could get some very good shots, was next to the riverside and had a park. The weather was very sunny which allowed us to film really good shots. At the end of the day we had over 100 shots, which meant that in editing we would have variety to chose from.


These are some of the images from the Cafe scene. We decided to use a cafe in a school because it fitted the convention of teenage love very well. Unlike a normal cafe it was very spacious and not to crowded which allowed us to move around very freely and get the shots we needed.



After we had practiced filming the draft performance scene, we planned and filmed the actual performance. Previous time we had problem with the lighting and decided to find a better location, therefore we gained permission to use the stage in the bar of the local cinema Genesis. The setting suited our genre very well, there was plenty of space that allowed us to film and the lighting was bright and perfect for the performance scene. In addition, we decided that we needed a more subtle performance scene at the end, therefore we went to our original location and this time ensured we used good lighting and framing. In the end all the footage was came out really well.

REHEARSALS

ORGANISATION OF ACTORS, LOCATIONS, COSTUME AND PROPS

8. Actors 

 

9. Costumes 

 

10. Props and Make Up

  

 11. Locations 

THAMES BARRIER PARK:

• The reason why we decided to go to Thames barrier park and film there is because this park is very diverse and has many different settings under one locations such as the riverside, the park and the maze. This is really efficient for us as we were able to shoot a variety of shots in different locations without having to travel to so many different locations which would have been hard for our actor, as we have to take into consideration the fact that she has other things to do.

WINTER WONDERLAND:

• after uploading all of our footage we realized that we needed to shoot some more scenes therefore we searched for different locations we could go to. we finally decided to go to winter wonderland because it had a nice carnival scene. additionally, because we had daylight scenes in Thames barrier park we wanted to shoot a night time scene and because of all the lights in winter wonderland we thought the footage would come out good instead of too dark.

DRAMA ROOM:

•  we wanted to do a performance scene in the drama room because we thought this would resemble passengers performance scene in his music video which is of the indie folk genre. We put fairy lights on the back because according to the conventions of the indie folk putting fairy lights is a convention. We also done this because we thought it would look more interesting on camera instead of a plain black background which would look boring and dull. 

 

 

GENESIS PERFORMANCE SCENE:

• we decided to film another performance scene as one of the conventions of indie folk is a large amount of performance scenes. Because of this convention we decided to do another performance scene as we didn't want to show too much of the drama room performance scene as we didn't want it to get repetitive. We chose to do it in genesis as there is a nice background with bricks. The colouring was natural but very bright and vibrant which is also a convention of indie folk. 

By Nishat and Fahad

POTENTIAL TARGET AUDIENCE

 

7. Research into Audience

 

  

 

 

 

 

This is a mood board that I have made which shows what I believe our target audience for our music video will be. Our target audience in mainly aimed at female teenagers from the ages of 13 - 19 as our chosen song and storyline is about relationships and love which mainly interest the female gender. The reason why I believe that it will appeal more to teenagers instead of older people is because it is around your teenage years you start experiencing all things to do with love, whether it is lust, falling in love or having your heartbroken. It is around this age that girls become more mature and start developing and paying an interest towards the opposite sex. I think the target audience of girls watching this video will be a variety of ones that are single, in relationships or have had their heartbroken  as the lyrics of 'there is a line' are relatable to all three categories. I think the girl target audience will mostly be very girly and into the stereotypical girl things such as make up and shopping. I think that the other types of music they would listen to would be artists such as Taylor Swift and Carly Jae Repson as their songs and videos also relate to teenage relationships, very similar to our own. As the target audience will mostly be teenagers, I believe that they will shop in shops such as New Look and H&M as the clothes in these shops are mostly female based. They are also girly and colourful and affordable compared to shops such as TopShop and Dorothy Perkins which are more overpriced. This is because a majority of our target audience will be in education, and not full time work, therefore the will have to budget. The films our target audience would enjoy and watch will probably be chick flicks like, "she's the man" or "27 dresses" and also much more mainstream popular films such as "Twilight" and "Hunger Games" because of once again; the love entwined storylines and also because of their celebrity crushes such as Robert Pattinson. In their spare time, I think the target audience would be into the latest celebrity gossip and I think they would read popular magazines such as 'Vogue' to find out what's going on with their favourite celebrities.

Questionnaire

Q1) What do you most associate stereotypically with the genre of Indie Folk?

 

a)    Guitar        b)   Piano     c)   Drums     

 

Q2) What do you most associate stereotypically with the genre of Country Pop?

 

a)    Romanticism        b)   Break ups        c)    Heartbreaks

 

 

Q3) What issues do you think surround teenagers these days?

 

a)    Falling in love        b)   Education        d)   Family pressure

 

 

Q4) As a teenager, which pop star do you find yourselves relating to most?

 

a)    Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran        b)   Sam Smith and Beyoncé

b)    Jay Z and Kanye West

 

Q5) Do you think teenagers are portrayed positively in the media texts today?

 

a)    Yes        b) No        c) Sometimes

 

We gave this questionnaire out to our peers to gain some audience feedback so that we would have some sort of clear direction in which our music video should head in.

  

  

All of my peers that I asked for feedback have stated that they like the potential ideas about what we will include in our music video. we have conformed to the generic conventions in our Music Video ideas and this seems to have been the right choice as they all understood the ideas and thought that they would work out well. This is extremely beneficial for us, and also provided us with a huge relief as we can stick with these ideas, instead of changing them which would have taken more time which would have been a huge setback for us as we have a strict deadline which we have to keep within.

Additionally, whilst looking into target audiences, I came across something called the 'Male Gaze Theory'.

1.    What is male gaze theory?

The Male Gaze states that women in film are classically objects of the gaze therefore meaning that the women featured on the screen are portrayed as objects of desire.
 It states that the audiences watching the film have to view characters from the viewpoint of a heterosexual male, which is the reason why women are more or less seen as objects.

Men tend to look at the 'curvy parts' of women. Like the idea that men don't tend to look women in the eyes, but at other parts of their bodies. (Camera in films sometimes focuses more on the women's bodies)
Women looking at themselves:
Women are made to look at themselves in a negative way, picking fault with parts of their appearance when they see how women look in the media; when they have been airbrushed. It triggers a lack of self-esteem and makes women aspire to be like models in magazines or on TV. Women become reflective.
Women looking at women:
Women can look it other in a sexual way. But mainly they judge and compare themselves to other girls. E.g. looking at what another girl is wearing and then comparing it to your own clothing.

(http://www.slideshare.net/beccacobb/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze?related=1)

2.    Who wrote the theory?

Laura Mulvey

      3. How did the theory come about?

      See if you can find any information about male gaze theory and music video.

This links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of Voyeurism. He states that music video contains reference to the idea of looking – this could refer to close up or intimate shots of your artist (which are often from the perspective of male gaze)

Because our music video we are going to construct is primarily focused around a female character we have to be careful and wary as to make sure that we do not fall into the male gaze trap. Because our music video is not explicit in any way and is more concerned with the typical teenage girl crush I doubt this will happen.