Next Shoot Plan

After discussions within the group of what are music video needs, we have planned to shoot again with Grace of the ballet dancing. This is due to some of the original ballet footage being out of focus and not having her all in the frame. We plan to re shoot this ballet dancing in the second biggest drama studio with lights set up, also there will be more than camera and we plan to use the steadicam. Another point made clear to us was at the ending of the video, to try and make a more significant ending connecting the narrative and the artist together.

New Planner for Shooting

After the screening session in Wednesday's lesson we created a new extended calendar for when to shoot which is a rough plan depending on the flexibility of Poppy and Grace. We have planned so far ahead because the amount of film we need to produce for the next screening before half term.

 

Planning the shoots



As in today's lesson we made a shot plan of when all of us could film in a week and when are two actors Poppy and Grace would be available. Laxmi did a colourful brainstorm of what specific days each individual could do, as a group we decided that for filming footage that there should be a minimum of " members of the group at the shoot alongside one of the actors. All of shoot times are based around when Grace and Poppy are available to perform/shoot.

 

In addition we made a production of log of when we are going to shoot in a calendar so we can easily write in who we are going to shoot and what day, so everyone can clearly see it. It has also been colour coordinated, so Grace's shoots are in yellow and Poppy's shoots are in pink. We have only planned the log up to end of January because we will not know that  far in advanced when people are free because of other commitments.

 



New Storyboard

We wanted to as a group redo the storyboard for the music video, so the frames are more a clearer showing on what should/will be included and this will support a easier understanding of the music video in general.

In addition when we first begun to redo the storyboard the main feature we wanted to change was the illustratiosn for the visual  that were produced for each frame of the music video. They were not clear and defined enough, so when the drawings for the new storyboard were drawn, we applied these requirements to them. Also this was taken upon to be applied to the cinematography and sound parts of the storyboard, were by more detail and simple statements were made for each shot.
    After when looking at the original and now new storyboard you can clearly see the higher level of time has been taken with the new one, I also believe someone who had no idea what we was doing for our music video would also have  a basic idea of what is going on.

Change of the Narrative

After are group pitch we noticed from the feedback and our own personal opinions that are narrative might be to complicated. We came to this decision after thinking about the little girl growing up to her older self we need two ballet dancers who look similar and can shoot on the same day.

We are still going to keep my little sister, Grace as the ballet dancer in the music video, however we are going to use our artist Isabel beau played by Poppy in the video more. The new narrative is going to be Grace's story which will be  the same, but Isabel Beau's early life experience of what she went through as a young girl and now she is singing about it in the present. Also Grace dancing will be in black and white to show that is the past and Isabel Beau(Poppy) singing will be in colour to show the difference between the past and present.  In addition we are going to have their hair style name so the viewer can see an obvious connection between the dancer and the artist. 

Typography for Album

As a group we began to look and think about the typography for the title of the album, 'Uncovered'.  When first looking at other Pop album's from female artists we found they mostly all had simple and non fancy font for their album titles.This was also supported by our own personal research into digipak analysis at the start of the project. We all believed that by using a simple and basic font for the cover it would amplify the focus of the artist which is a genre characteristic of the Pop. 

To start off the research for the album title typography we used the online website, 'DaFont' again which we had previously used for the typography of the artists name. We chose a range of simple and sophisticated types of font and end up choosing 7 different types. We also asked a sample of fellow media students to chose their favourite aswell us individuals in the group. From this doing chart and answering it in a tally we found that a certain font in particular was the most popular out of all the rest.

We concluded that, Roboto was the most popular and would fit in best with the Pop genre characteristics for our digipak. Me and Hayley decided to stick with this font for our digiapaks, however Laxmi and Aaron decided to go with, Futurist fixed-width for the digipak design. This makes no difference to our digipaks because they are all individual.


Also when thinking about digipaks I had a design idea that would make the album title stand out a bit more by having a capital, 'U' and 'C' - UnCovered, and Laxmi tried this idea on DaFont and we all decided it did not fit in very well once it had been made. So with that idea seen and it didnt feel right to us that it would present our artist perfectly we disregarded this idea.

Online Chat with Poppy - New Artist

Once we had changed the artist for Isabel Beau I began sharing information and talking with Poppy on a group chat on Facebook so we could easily communicate on behalf of my group. We spoke about certain topics such as:planning the digipak photoshoots, costume and general conversation about what kind of Pop artist she would be portraying.

I believe by having this easily accessible chat with Poppy outside of 6th form hours has really benefited our group because when we get new ideas we need to share with Poppy. This means,instead of trying to locate her in school I cam just message her at any time so both of us are updated and know what is going on.  Looking forward I am going to create a bigger group chat with all members of the group and Poppy so we can all chat and share ideas.

New Location/Reshoot for Digipak

When looking to do a shoot for our digipak at Notting Hill we didn't really have any idea how to get there or how long it would take. After researching where about specifically it was we found it out it would take us over an hour and a half away from where we all live in Welling. It would be awkward travelling with the tripod and paying for travel for Poppy to come along with us to do the shoot, we found from our teacher that in Blackheath which is 20 minutes maximum away there are pastel coloured houses there also. 

We have made a final decision to do a photo shoot for our digipak at Blackheath, Dacre Park in the next coming weeks so we can also begin to create our digipak. This also has various coloured houses but not as many as Notting Hill, however there are more benefits to shooting here, such as : travelling and accessibility. With it only being 20 minutes away from where we all live it is a perfect location to use for our digipak. I believe with the right day scheduled where there will be bright sun and no dark sky we can get some really high quality and interesting photos. 

These are some street view screenshots of, Dacre Park where we are going to set up our shoot for our digipak. Also if these photos don't turn out the way we want them to with have a last option location which is in Greenwich.

Storyboard - Music Video

In Wednesday's lesson me and my group started to begin our storyboard for our music video. We had the music video up for the song so we could listen to it while creating certain scenes and shots, also we had the lyrics up also. This was because we were using Goodwin's theory of their being a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this is not in all parts of the music video but in some shots. Also we used the song playing alongside so we could match the beat of the song to create emotions and build up.

We finally finished are first draft of our storyboard for the music video with annotations and drawings. In addition we have used timings slot from the actual song found next to certain shots/parts of the music video, this is so we know when we want specific things to be shown, start and end. The lyrics to relate to the visuals on the screen are also included on the storyboard.  This is only are first draft for our music video so the drawings are very basic and some parts of what we are going to include in the music video are still a bit faint, however we have a structured narrative for the music video and know what we want to show the audience, through the young ballet dancer and the artist performing in the video.

Group Chat - Facebook

I created a group chat on Facebook, this was so we could all discuss and plan ideas outside of lesson time so we can still communicate easily. It has helped us plan the test shoot for our digipak and this was the main reason for creating it.
However now I believe we can use this group chat through our coursework so we can keep in contact when we are not in school and discuss more planning ideas. Also I think we are going to create a new group including the model for our artist, Poppy. This is so she can be involved when we are planning photo shoots on what day and times so we can know when she is available to do them. Also planning her costume for the shoot and hair etc.

New Artist

When we was at Danson Park doing the shoot for the Digipak we was talking about the photos and me being the artist for the music video as well. We all agreed that we wanted to amplify the Pop feel and look more in our photos with a new artist and I strongly agreed with this because I also want to have more involvement behind the camera.

A girl in the year below, Poppy who is also in sixth form, she does media and photography has a keen interest in both of these subjects and we believed she would make the perfect artist. She has the look of young and innocent and blonde hair which is stereotypical to similar artist we have looked at.  Whilst being at the shoot I messaged her and asked if she would help us out with being the model for the digipak/poster and being in the music video, she came back with being more than happy to help us out. We have a new artist and I believe now are creating a very strong artist profile even more now with this change of artist.

These photos were not taken by our group.

Digipak Photo Shoot Ideas

For my digipak when thinking out how i am going to create it, i have been influenced by, Pixie Lott's front cover image.It is a extreme close up of her face showing emotion which i want my digipak to amplify because of the music video being an showing emotion and the album is about Isabel's story . In addition the black and white edit of the image of Pixie is also how i want to edit my front cover image to also relate to the music video, however i am not going to relate it ballet. Also the use of colour in Pixie's album cover is done by a cross going in turquoise going across it, where as i am going to our artist name in colour, at the moment the colour i think will be pink to keep with the girly theme that is a genre convention of Pop. I want to shoot these extreme close up shots in a studio style room such as the gallery we have in our school building which is all white walls.

Furthermore i am also going to include inside the digipak on one panel is a wide shot of the artist standing in front of a row of multicoloured pastel houses which are located in Notting Hill we are going to set up a shoot there also. I will keep this image in colour to add a more fun and young feel to the digipak inside to also abide to the genre conventions of Pop, which will appeal to Isabel's target audience of 12-25 year olds. Also there will be 2 CDs within the digipak, one of these will be the album CD which will include all the tracks from the album and also the other will be a 'Day in the Life of Isabel Beau'. This is so her fans can get a real life personal one to one view of her life which will appeal to her young target audience, so she can connect with her fans more. The CDs i want to be plain white with light pink typography to relate to the pink typography on the album cover , they will have on them her name and the album title.

The other 2 panels will be the track list for the album and a lyric booklet for the songs on the album CD. Also the track list will be in pink typography to keep the theme going but the i want to include an image relating to the music video battle and the back cover so i am going get a high shot of a ballet dancer draped over holding her feet relating to the music video. The background will be black so the lyrics can then be positioned on the blank part of the image. In addition the lyric booklet for the album i want to have is an over the shoulder shot of our artist but i am not sure in what location. The lyric booklet will appeal to the target audience of Isabel because, the young girls can sing and learn the lyrics to her songs so they can be more like their idol. Also when they go to her concerts they can sing along and wont be left out. 

Pitch Contribution

As a group over the half term we have to create a pitch to present to our fellow classmates and teachers on the whole concept of who are artist is and the music video we are going to produce alongside a song of our choice. To make this process easier we decided to do some aspects of the pitch as a group such as the storyboard because this is crucial part of the music video. Also we all need to have our personal opinions and imaginative ideas brought together. So from deciding on this idea we split the rest of the pitch between the four of us, my task for the pitch was to: EXPLANATION OF WHY YOU HAVE DECIDED ON THIS CONCEPT AND HOW IT WILL APPEAL TO THE TARGET AUDIENCE AND 'FIT' INTO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. DISCUSS THE INFLUENCES YOU HAVE HAD.

This is my part of the pitch:

Start of the Storyboard

In lesson we began to draw out and plan our storyboard. The whole of the music video is going to be in black and white we all agreed on this as it supports the emotions in the music video and this will keep the focus on the girl and her story. however some colour will be featured in the music video for an example;blue lights when the girl is dancing.We first began with the opening sequence of the music video and planning it along with the lyrics to connote emotions and support the narrative.  Laxmi was drawing out the frames of the storyboard, while i was replaying the music so we could decided what shots would relate to the lyrics. Also while this was happening Aaron and Hayley were contributing with cinematography and miss en scene ideas.

The music video begins with the instrumental of the song, the music video will then show a wide shot of a young ballet dancer in a black room with a single spotlight focused on her while she is sitting on the floor. Next the camera will pan round her face and then cut to an extreme close up of the ballet dancers face to focus on her facial expressions. Once the lyrics begin the scene will cutaway to Isabel Beau singing, this supports Goodwin's theory of Pop genre characteristics. This is because the record label will want close up ups and shots of the artist to be shown for advertising and promotions to her fans and the wider audience.

For the music video we are going to be shooting it hand held by using a tripod or a steadicam for it.  The music video will cut between the artist, Isabel Beau singing along to her song and the narrative for the video. The narrative for the music through a range of shots and settings show the struggle of this young ballet dancer who has to deal with the struggles of her parents arguing and show her eventually overcoming this and expressing it through her dancing(ballet).
We believe the shots for the video will have to be short takes and a lot of them to fit the conventions of a music video. 

Group Discussion

In lesson time we decided to have a group discussion about the production of our digipak photos, we spoke about topics such as: location,costume and planning the days when to do it. I believe from this discussion we all came up with good ideas and comprised with each other on what what we could do for the photo shoo.t Also decisions were made that were possible for us all to get the best images we want individually for our digipak.

Mood Board

We began to create our mood board for our Pop artist, Izabel Beau. 

As individuals we got images from google that related to our artist such as her:appearance,interests and theme for the music video. We chose to do this because it is  visual brainstorm of our artist and instead of explaining through words, we decided through pictures and creating a theme it would be more interesting to look at and understand.

Furthermore after printing and sorting through the range of images we all collected we selected the ones we all agreed would work for the mood board. After making this decision we got an A2 piece of black sugar to stick the images on, we also printed off flowers to use as another background to show girly stereotypical Pop style. We included many ballet images such as the costume and poses that we are going to include in our music video, also the theatre scene we are going to use for our music video. The track list for the album is on the mood board so we can easily access it.

Production Log

We had 4 categories to plan for for our photo shoot for our digipak photos
which were: location,actors,costume and checklist. Also in half - term this is when when we actually will be taking the photos to included on are digipak.

Location

1. Drama Hall - We can use the drama hall which is big black room based in our school to use for our photo shoot because there is access to lighting equipment which we can make spotlights to keep with the theme for our music video of dance. On Monday after school we have decided to go to the drama hall and do a test shoot of pictures and concepts we can use for our digipak.
2. Gallery - In addition another location we can use for our actual photos is the, gallery which is a white room with natural lighting and we can use are own in the space. This would enable us to take pictures of the artist against the white background, so the primary focus would be on her which is genre characteristic of the Pop genre.

Actress/Artist

• I have been chosen to be the actor for the photo shoot this is because when we need to go to shoots and plan we don't have to comprise as much, given us more flexibility.

Costumes

• As a group we are unsure on the specific outfits we are going to use for the various photo shoots but I am going to get some outfits out go ether that are bright coloured and girly, which is stereotypically of the Pop genre. I am then going to bring the pictures of the selected outfits in on Monday and share them with the group and then chose the outfits from what i have.