PROGRESS

It seems that I am encountering one too many problems of commitment within this coursework. I spoke to Jermaine-the male actor-a few days ago, and he also has the issue of commitment to this project. He said that he does not have any extra time to show up to the dates, that he confirmed he was free on.

Again, after speaking to him I told him that I would need him for one more day only. He did agree, but I am worried that he may not show up on that day. I will just have to keep reminding him and hope all goes well.

Due to this problem, it seems that I have to change my original narrative of the music video. Since I cannot secure a date and time with the actors for the drama hall sequence, I will just have to do with what I have got.

The chase sequence will no longer take place, and Carmen's character will now be the mysterious figure controlling Jermaine. Jermaine will now be walking around trying to look for Carmen, as she remains in her own world of fantasy as a dancer. The question of her existence will take place in Jermaine and the audience's mind.

The fact that the female character is more dominate out of the two, subverts conventions of the male authority. This will hopefully create excitement and challenge the audience into questioning the existence of the characters.

NO SHOW

I was hoping to film Carmen today, but she did not show up. After speaking to her later, she told me that she had other commitments. It was perfectly understandable as she too had exams and other priorities. And she was not gaining anything out of helping me, I understood that she would rather focus on other things.

However at the beginning of this process I made it clear that she should commit to any filming taking place, and that I would work around her schedule as well. At the time she was more than willing to compromise, but I think the stress and workload of an A Level student got to her.

This problem made me realise more about the real world of filming and production. And that these sort of problems come with the job. Ans since she is not a professional paid actress, this was bound to happen. The best that I could do was persuade her to do one last day of filming, as none of the outdoor sequence with Carmen was done. With the rest of the filming I was just willing to work my way around it.

EDITING

Today I dedicated my time to editing and piecing together the footage that I already have.

It gave me a chance to see if the shots I have taken work with the song. And after roughly piecing the footage together, I saw that the music worked well with the shots taken.

The opening shot will be zooming out of a sun and then a worms eye view of trees going by. This will establish the isolated outdoor setting. It will quickly cut to a close-up of Jermaine followed by a close-up of Carmen. This will establish all the main characters at the beginning and give the viewer a hint of what the video may be about.

I am currently working on adding transitions to get the action synchronous to the music.

FILMING

Today I filmed the male actor, Jermaine.

Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time as he showed up late, and therefore I had to rush some of my shots. As I was shooting outside, I was worried that it might rain, but thankfully it didn't so I was able to use the tracking equipment so get various different walking shots of Jermaine.

I will however still need to film the chase scene with Carmen, and she is busy herself at the moment, I will be arranging in the coming week.

OUTLINE OF VIDEO

The Music video is split into three different sequences.

The first sequence consists of Carmen walking into school for a dance rehearsal. She does not notice anything around her and acts as if she is in her own world. While she is walking inside the gates, Jermain is standing outside but she does not notice him.

The second sequence in the drama hall, involves Carmen dancing alone and all of a sudden gets distracted by someone sitting in the seat. As she runs up to the seat, Jermaine is gone. She then sees him walking out of the hall and runs after him.

The chase sequence takes place as she runs after him and ends up in an isolated forest-like area. Several point of view shots will take place as she looks up at the tall trees. She sees Jermaine standing at the tree, so Carmen runs to the tree but only to discover he may be a figure of imagination controlling her and telling her what to do.

I will be filming Jermaine tomorrow in the chase sequence, as he leans onto trees and walks around. Close-ups will be used in order to disguise his identity. I will need to make sure that my framing is right and that all shots in my shot-list are completed so that I am able to keep on track.

SO FAR NOT SO GOOD...

I uploaded my footage of the dance sequence and realised my framing in a couple of shots is not good. I also noticed my tracking shots are not as steady as I wanted them to be. I may have to re-shoot a few shots but it will be difficult due to the lessons and rehearsals in the drama hall.

I also spoke to my male actor today to see if he was free any time soon, so that I could shoot my outdoor sequence. However he told me he is unable to commit to this project as he has other responsibilities. I have already shot a lot of footage of him already, but the main sequence was yet to be done and it was vital that he was apart of that as well.

I had no option but to cast another male actor. I spoke to a friend called Jermaine who was willing to act for me. I gave him the outline of the video and also showed him the song and existing video so he knew exactly what concept I was trying to capture. Clothing is very important as my actors have to be dressed in the right way in order to portray the personalities of the characters.

Since my last male actor's clothing was not that appropriate, this gave me a chance to re-shoot scenes with Jermaine and appropriate clothing consisting of a suit, tie, hat and black shoes.

I will speak to Carmen about shooting the outdoor sequence and some of the dance sequence again.

FILMING

I did a significant amount of my filming today in the drama hall.

My female actor Carmen is also a professional dancer, so I filmed a dance sequence in a majority of different angles.

My teacher talked to the drama technician, who sorted out a spotlight for me.

First of all I took an establishing shot of the empty drama hall, and will create this to be a point of view shot coming from Carmen. I used the tracks to create a shot that follows her through the hall. I did find it a little difficult to use the crane, but in the end I got a long distance crane shot of her dancing and will intertwine that will several close-ups and mid-shots.

PLANNING OF FILMING

I have spoken to my female actor today about filming some of her scenes tomorrow.

It is important that her clothing is right to depict her character, who sees herself as an individual and in esentially in her own world. So she will be bringing in a dress and high heels for the outdoor shots. This will emphasise her sexual appeal, and that she is an untouchable character, who has an affect upon the opposite sex.

As the main focus of the filming tomorrow is the dance sequence in the drama hall, she will be bringing in a leotard, black tights and red ballet shoes to dance in.

I wanted to use a spotlight so that the dancing looks more artistic and highlighting the idea of fantasy. One of my teachers may be able to arrange a spotlight with the drama technician.

I will be doing the female actor's make-up and hair and I will come in early to organise the layout of the drama hall.

I am very much prepared to film as I have created a storyboard and shot list. However in terms of time-management I do not believe I will get everything filmed to tomorrow. I do not want to rush my filming and want to get as many angels as possible, so I will take my time and hopefully organise another date if any filming is left over.

The weather may be an issue as it might rain, so in terms of the outdoor filming it may not be possible to film if it does. This is because I have already filmed the motif and symbolism shots of the leaves and the lighting will not be the same if it rains too heavily. I believe that I am on track and will hopefully be able to produce some good footage tomorrow.

FILMING

Before the half-term, I started filming some scenes and shooting one of my actors. It was successful as I got a variety of different camera angles.

The main focus was to get several shots of the background scenery e.g. trees blowing and leaves falling. The background is important as it reflects the character's mood, so I used a worms eye view of the camera looking up towards the trees. I am trying to create as much movement as possible, so that the video is appealing to my target audience.

I did face a few difficulties with clothing as the male actor was supposed to wear a hat to cover his face but he did not bring one in. There was also an issue with the clothing, as I had thought of something more formal. I did however shoot many Close-ups, so I might be able to get away with the clothing issue for now.

I have organised another date to shoot the female character and since all filming will be taking place within the school grounds, there will not an issue of getting permission beforehand.

My teachers are aware of my shooting schedule, and know when I will require equipment such as the tracks and crane.

SCREEN TEST

I am currently storyboarding my music video and casting characters for it as well.

I decided to do a screen test with the cameras so that I am able to see what people are like on camera.

This also gave me a chance to re-familiarise myself with the equipment and importing onto the computer.

The song that I will be doing a music to is; Jem-'They'. For this video I will need a main female and male character.

After the screen test I have decided who I thought was appropriate for this video, and represented the ethos of the character, and therefore I am now able to storyboard a narrative based on my actors.

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

Recently ATO Records parted ways with Sony BMG and are now distributing through RED, which is a Sony Music Entertainment-owned sales and marketing division that handles releases for roughly 46 independent record labels.

Sucessful RED acts include Los Lonley Boys, Young Buck, Mark Ronson and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Founded in 1979 as mainly a hard rock music distributor called Important Record Distributors, which originally released Metallica's first two LPs in the US. It became RED Distribution by the '90s and changed to RED - An Artist Development Company in 2007.


Apart from ATO, other labels also distributed byRED include; New West Records, Warlock and Cashville Records.

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH: ATO RECORDS

The artist whose song that I am going to be making a music video for is, a Welsh singer/songwriter known for her eclectic music stylings.

Jemma Griffiths AKA Jem, is influenced by a number of genres including reagge, hip hop, soul, dance music and classical music.

Jem moved to America in 2002 where she got a record deal with ATO Records which was founded in early 2000 by Dave Matthews, Coran Capshaw, Chris Tetzeli and Michael McDonald as a division of RCA Records. ATO Records is based in New York City and currently distributes its records through Sony BMG.

ATO Records currently represents a diverse group of artists. The mission of ATO Records is to fully develop each artist and each release with sufficient time and attention. According to the official website, "there is no timeline, but there is a plan to build the label on the quality of the musicians."

Other than Jem, other successful mainstream artists signed to this record label also include David Gray and Radiohead.

PRODUCT RESEARCH-PINK 'FAMILY PORTRAIT'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kwu8kanyFw Pink-Family portait

This is the link to one of the video's that I am looking at for my product research, since I cannot embed it.

The reason why I have chosen to look at this video is because I think the camera shots are interesting and the use of ambient lighting really sets the narrative.

The music video starts off with a birds eye view of the artist lying in bed, which cuts to numerous shots of her in different positions and a close-up to portray her feelings.

The video has a strong narrative that fits in with the song itself. It is about a young girl coping after her parents getting divorced and wishing for a happy future. A lot of people may be able to relate to the song and more importantly the shots used in the video to demonstrate pysical emotions. The artist is shown to be realistic, and that she is an ordinary person.

The day-to-day scene of the bedroom, kitchen, living room etc. prove popular to a mainstream audience. The originality comes from the use of low and high angle shots when the artist is doing daily activities such as eating breakfast. The varied midshots used throughout and the synchronised editing with the lyrics lets the audience come to terms with the situation at hand.

This music video, I believe has high production values as it is a mainstream artist, but the video is portrayed as an everyday scene in which children may be going through difficult times. This gives the video an ideology and lets the artist relate to a much wider audience.

The genre can be defined as urban pop, however the artist has a variety of songs in a range of genres to suit her multiple personality.

The video has influenced me in making decisions about the construction of my video, in which I will use as many different shots as possible, to get as much as movement as I can.

I believe the editing process will be equally as important, as I will try to get the song to be synchronous with the action taking place.

I am also aware of the fact that the ambient/dark lighting shown may have been created by professional lighting and this will be hard for me to achieve. However I will keep in mind that lighting is vital in a music video, and try to create a similar style that been achieved in this video.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: KEY FINDINGS OF QUESTIONNAIRES

• Key Findings:
  Most of my audience are male and female, between the ages of 15-21, and of mixed ethnicity.
  Psychographically my audience can be defined as outgoing, rebellious, loud and being individualists.
  Popular music television channels amongst my audience are MTV, T4 Music, Kiss and Channel U.
  The genre of music that appeals most to my target audience is eclectic range of hip hop, rock, indie and jazz.
  My target audience believe that the way a music video is edited is extremely important so that it synchronises with the soundtrack and narrative.
  
  Key decisions based on my audience research:
  I will use an artist that has an eclectic range of music, so that I am able to appeal to more than one genre.
  I will construct my music video so that it does not have an incredibly complex narrative, however still manages to challenge the viewer in order to make it an enjoyable view.
  The mise-en-scene will be important part in constructing the music video, so that the audience are able to relate to the surroundings depicted. Nevertheless I will still include shots in which the audience can also aspire to be like those featured in the video.
  I will use varied camera shots ranging from close-ups to portray emotions and master shots to show the mise-en-scene. I will also include tracking and panning shots to add a variety of movement.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP RESULTS

This is a copy of my questions for my focus group, in which one of the students filled out.

I then typed up her answers so that I can put it up on the blog.

The focus group proved more helpful than the questionnaire that I did as most students that I gave it to did not fill it properly.

However with the focus group, they took it more serious and I got exactly the answers that I need to do a well constructed music video.

I will now be looking more into music videos of an eclectic genre so that I can get some ideas on camera angels and lighting etc.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP

As a result of my focus group I have decided that I will be doing a music video.

The feedback from my focus group was precisely what I was looking for.

After the students watched the videos they commented on what they liked and disliked and what they thought was unique about the videos.

I showed the two videos which are on the blog, Estelle '1980' and Sunit & Raxstar 'In perspective'. The third was a previous students work which resembled what I wanted to do.

All in all, it was succesful and I shall put up the results on a chart.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

I am going to be doing a focus group soon to try and find out what exactly my target audience are looking for.

I will be getting a range of students from the ages of 15-18 and showing them 3 videos and getting feedback.

I will also be doing questionnaires for my audience research and asking them about the appeal of music videos.

Audience research is crucial, so that I can base my music video upon popular ideas, that my target audience themselves like.

PRODUCT DECISION

With the ever rising rate of knife crime and teenagers being perceived negatively, I think it is a important issue to show the positive side.

As well as a music video, I am also thinking of doing a documentary which looks at a much more optimistic side to youths in London. I could focus on a few teenagers who have stayed onto education after GCSE's, and are changing their life around.

It could be shown on Channel 4, as part of a series that looks at people building themselves a future. Also, as a 3 minute wonder before a prime time show.

The target audience for this documentary could be teenagers themselves, who could aspire to be like those featured in the show. An older audience could see a positive side to young London rather than just the stereotypical negative stuff they hear on the news.

PRODUCT RESEARCH-SUNIT & RAXSTAR-IN PERSPECTIVE

Sunit and Raxstar are a producer and rapper duo based in the UK. They are independent artists, who are not that well known, and appear on Music Channels such as Channel U. However they have still managed to create a major fan base, due to the ethnic mix thrown in Hip Hop.

Their music videos do not tend to be highly glamorous, or have a big production budget. This is due to them trying to capture the realism of life in the UK as a struggling artists who are trying to become mainstream. This has a real documentary feel about it and is obviously made in this way to represent the artist as a much more serious and political voice than more mainstream Hip-Hop artists. In order for me to achieve similar results, I need to find the right artist and song, that uses the same naturalistic approach to video production.

Since I am keeping open about whether I want to do a music video or a documentary, I think it is important for me to see how I can combine the two together.


PEACE!

PRODUCT RESEARCH-ESTELLE '1980'

For my Advanced Production coursework, I am thinking about producing a music video. This is because music videos are hugely popular to promote artists.

In order to research more into music videos and the audience appeal, I be looking at existing videos which are popular. The genre that I am most interested is R'n'B and Pop.

This music video is by UK artist Estelle. She broke into the charts in 2004 with this song '1980'. She has since won several awards including a MOBO, BRIT and more recently, a Grammy.

The reason why I like this video is that creates a sense of realism within the narrative, by using strong lighting and close-ups. This is maybe what I am trying to achieve with my music video-an everyday situation that everybody can relate to.