Music video (Final draft)

Shooting Script Discussion (Liam Parkinson & Jacob Sanderson)

We have now completed our first draft of our music video using our shooting script. After filming and being in the situation we did change a few things on the shooting script. Although we kept all the locations and order of the shots, when it came to filming the shots we sometimes changed the camera angles or movements.

Original Shooting Script

Our reasons for changing this was that when we got there the shot was not exactly how we all visualised it, to get the most out of the shot we adapted and enhanced our shots in order for the best outcome.

One of the shots we changed was the Jamaica street one (Shot 14). The initial plan was to have a long shot of the skaters. We found this very difficult as there was also skaters we did not know at the park and kept getting in the way. Obviously we could not expect them to stop whilst we film our shot, therefore we decided to make the shop a closer medium shot. This still looked great when we went and reviewed the shot & probably worked better as it showed more detail of the skaters in our video.

Updated Storyboard (Liam Parkinson)

Below you can see our final adaptations to our storyboard and genreal plan for filiming our video.
The narrative and whole story of our video has stayed the same since the begining, a young boy who only cares about skating and pretty much doesnt want to grow up. Time seems as if it is moving quickly and he doesnt want to grow up. That is the basic story to our video.

After updating our first storyboard we decided to film john and his mother arguing about him needing to grow up and get a job etc. at the begining of our video as a sort of pre song introduction. We have now scrapped this idea and went with the original sunset start. This is because when we watched our clips we had of this scene we thought it looked very cheap and unproffesinal. Also we had scenes in at the end of john (our character) going to a job interview. Again we thought this took up way to much time in our video and when we watched it back as a group we thought it was quite depressing and boring, and thats not what this genre is about.

John preparing for job interview

Therefore, Once again we sat down as a group and discussed what we could do. We all agreed after conversation that we had lots of skateboard clips of john and his friends & amsterdam music festivile filmed by jacob on his trip away. We looked at videos from our genre once again and thought we would keep out whole story of wanting to skateboard and not growing up, but portray this in a way which is not boring and without scenes of acting out job interviews etc.

Interview scene which we took out

We drew up our storyboards again and this time, used 3 main points of attention Liam (The artist), John (the boy who doesnt want to grow up) & Johns friends (The skateboarders). We decided to use lots of shots of Liam lip syncing from various angles and quick shots alternating with eachother. This we agreed will keep the audience engaged, as it is a constant change and not the same scene for longer than 5 seconds.

Overall we now believe we have finally found what our video was missing and can begin putting it together and get the remaining shots we need in this last week ready to show our video with the class.

Completed Video First Draft (Liam Parkinson)

Today we completed are music video and have it ready to show to the class tomorrow for reviews. This is only our first draft and over the Christmas break we will each be creating our own video to our own specifications rather than 'a group'.

The editing was going really well and smoothly, everything was coming together well as Liam was familiar with the software through his research and mock work. We were about 2/3rds of the way through the editing and it all took a turn for the worst. I (Liam) was editing a clip in time with the beat and in order to do this I had to lengthen a transition. When I clicked the transition and changed the length I did not realise that there was a checkbox next to it saying "apply to all transitions" therefore we went on to compete the rest of the video making everything click into place. Then when it came to exporting the clip, Liam played it back and then we realised the lip sync and timings were not as we originally had them. It took us about half an hour to realise what was actually the problem. Then we figured out it was the transitions they had all been set to 1 second rather than the original 0.5.

Once this issue was resolved we went back and fixed the transitions and then our video was back to the way we wanted it to be.

We our all very happy with our video especially for a first draft and can not wait until the rest of the class see it and pass on their reviews. We can then take there comments on board and go back to the drawing board and get to work enhancing our video for our final draft.

Editing (Jacob Sanderson)

Today we are finally going to edit our video. We have now successfully imported all of our clips into iMovie so we are ready to begin. We have this whole day to put our video together so we are going to use our storyboards to place the clips that we have in the right places. We will be showing our first drafts in lesson tomorrow morning where we will receive feedback and then as a group we will decide on any necessary changes.

Day 1 of editing (Liam Parkinson)

Today we began our first day of editing, we had a set back as it took us a long day to actually get out clips from the phone we filmed on to the PC. This process took about 15 minutes and still we could not begin editing as we had to import the clips to iMovie.

When it came to importing the clips to iMovie the estimated time we were given was 7 hours. So we went for our lunch and left it and then came back to see it still wasn't done. We got on with some photoshop work and got to produce our album cover so no time was wasted doing nothing. Then once we had finished that the clips where finally imported and we could then begin editing. 

Getting to grips with the software was easy as Liam had used it before and talked the rest of the group through it. We are now progressing quickly and are on track to show our finished video to the rest of class on Friday. 

Artist Header/Logo (JacobSanderson/John Masters)

This lesson I used Photoshop to create our artists's logo/header that will be used on our poster and album cover. We have looked at DJ logos and headers and noticed that most of them are just the name of the DJ and they look mostly plain so I have created these two based on what we have seen from looking at similar artists.

Out of the two we have decided as a group to go with the bottom draft because we think that it is a lot better than the top and it stand out more because it is bold. John created the first logo and I created the second. As a group we have decided we will be using my logo.

Contact Revealed Recordings (Jacob Sanderson)

This morning, I sent a message to Revealed Recordings to ask for their permission to use Hardwell's "Young Again" for our music video. I have done this because there are copyrights in place which means that we have to ask for permission for use of this song. 

If Revealed reply I will post this on the blog at a later date.

EDIT 24/12/2014: Revealed did not reply to our email. We have sent another hoping for a reply.

-jacob

Shooting Script (Liam Parkinson)

This is our shooting script which we will be following in order to produce our music video. These shots have been discussed and chosen through various group discussions consisting on what we want to do in terms of our shots.

Having a shooting script will help us to film what we want quicker and more effective. We will be going into our filming knowing exactly what we want to do using both our storyboard and shooting script to help us.

Below is an image of our shooting script we have put together, click the image to enlarge.

Basic Preview/Test of Video (Liam Parkinson)

This is a basic video Liam made to see how our clips looked put together. This was very basic and solely just a test. It looks really good with the transitions etc. even though it is so basic. Our video will be much more advanced than this and also playing the song over the video will massively improve the outcome. Below you can find this preview, Leave comments on what you think of the shots and camera movements etc.

Record Label Choice (Jacob Sanderson)

Since our music genre is dance music we decided to check out the biggest recording labels in this genre. We have found two big record companies which are 'Spinning Records' And 'Revealed Recordings' 

Spinning Records is home to some of the biggest artists in the world such as Martin Garrix. This recording label is constantly promoting its new and young artists through youtube and twitter. Spinning Records do not offer many music videos with their songs and this is why I do not want to sign for this label. 

The other big record label is Revealed Recording which is owned by the biggest DJ in the world Hardwell whom is the maker of our song. 

Dutch DJ/producer Hardwell presented his very own imprint Revealed Recordings in 2010. The young house sensation revealed a fresh and open-minded label. Next to Hardwell’s own tracks and collaborations, Revealed Recordings will also release tracks that fit the versatile sound of the label, whether that be progressive -, tech – or electro house influenced. Within a short period the label has build up a distinct label profile in todays Dance scene with a unique sound, a Revealed sound!

I believe this record label fits our needs and produces many music videos so it is a perfect fit for our artist. 

Filming (Liam Parkinson)

Today we were filming and as our storyboards show we needed footage of skateboarding tricks to fill our video and show the narrative.

As John is a regular skater he has lots of friends who were willing to help, therefore he got in touch with them and arranged for us to go down to Jamaica street skatepark to film them. 

This was a very successful trip as we got all the footage we need and more, it helped that one of johns closest friends (Matty) is an exceptional skater and regularly films himself, therefore he knew exactly what the camera wants to see.

Lip Syncing (Liam Parkinson)

One way to put this, Embarrassing is the best word I can think of. Walking down the street in public singing to myself (badly) and looking quite a fool. However it was great fun and you just have to laugh at these things. I think I done really well as looking back at the clips we have shows I was very natural and when the track is played over this it looks really professional.

I messed up a few times with the lyrics as it is a lot harder when random members of the public are looking at you laughing etc. It really is quite ofputting. As apposed to lip syncing in the green room with my friends. On friday we are going to do a run through of the lip sync in two different locations, A recording studio and Croxteth park. There is then a final scene we have to film also hopefully by friday. This will then enable us to begin editing next week and begin to put our video together, which I am really looking forward too.

Updated Storyboard (Jacob Sanderson)

Filming 3rd December (Jacob Sanderson/Liam Parkinson)

Today's filming went really well, we got everything we needed to do done and more importantly came together as a group and as well as following the guidance of our storyboard, we all put forward our individual adaptations to scenes and this worked very well.



We done our lip sync scenes for the first time today and that went great, it looks really natural and professional due to the locations and camera angles we used.

The weather was on our side as it was really bright and sunny therefore we got some excellent shots of John (Robert Masters) skateboarding for the scenes on the Albert Dock. 



Overall this day was a great success and brought us together as a group. We learned a lot as there were many things in our storyboard we had planned to do and when we were in the scenario, we relised they were not possible or very difficult. Therefore we worked around this and came together as a group in order to produce the best possible shots. We are next filming on Friday for more lip sync and the final scene for our video, then it is onto our editing which we will begin next week.

Contact Sheet (Liam Parkinson/Jacob Sanderson)

Circled here are some of the possible images we are going to use for our promo work such as CD, Album cover & Poster designs. 

This is sheet one of our images we have for our work. This contact sheet is a collection of images which enables us to select and narrow down our options when it comes to making our final promo work.

Update Jacob - I have included my contact sheets in this post, as a group we will decide on the best pictures.

Preparation (Liam Parkinson)

This wednesday is a busy day for our group as we our spending the day filming. It will be in two different locations. We have checked the weather and all seems well so we are hoping it stays this way. We have planned to go to the Albert Dock for a shoot similar to that we done in croxteth park as this is were our video ties together. We have our storyboard to guide us through filming. Then it is on to Jamaica Street skatepark to film both john and some of johns friends who have agreed to let us film them as this is the day that they skate there.

Overall I think we have everything we need in terms of prepartion for this day to be a success and get some great footage for our video. We are now coming to an end to our filming as there is not much left for us to do, Our expected date I and the group have predicted we will finish our filming is this coming friday (05.12.14). Then it is onto our editing, which should be fun as we will be putting together all the clips we have and chosing the best ones we see fit to use for our video.

Group Discussion (Liam Parkinson)

Out of school time to communicate, Me, Jacob & John have a group chat on iMessage. This allows us to see what each one of us is doing in terms of the group work outside of school hours. For example this was great over this weeekend as Jacobs plan for the week was to go out with his cousin who is studying media in university to new birghton beach and film the sunrise. Therefore I messaged Jacob on sunday afternoon asking if he had completed his task and he replied and told me his thoughts on it. iMessage also allows for videos and images to be sent free of charge, so Jacob sent both me and John the video and we were able to give our feedback on the video.

Updated StoryBoard (Liam Parkinson)

This is our final and updated storyboard we will be using during our filming and then onto our editing. We came together as a group and done this using all our creative ideas together for the best outcome. This was through lots of discussion which was very beneficial.

As we have already filmed in our first location this is something we have reflected on and discussed in order to put together this improved and more realistic storyboard. Using all the research we have done on camera shots, camera movements etc.

Hopefully this storyboard will give us the knowledge and guidance for when we go out and film to produce some fantastic shots.

Week 2 Plan (Liam Parkinson)

This is a image of our plan for week 2 of filming, due to us having work this week between us. The best thing for us to do is to do these things on our own if possible to save wasting time therefore we have assigned ourselves individual roles as well as the three of us filming together for one or two key parts of the shooting.

Contact sheets (Jacob Sanderson)

We have decided to create contact sheets with the images we have took so far so we can decide on what photos we will be using for our leaflets, posters and album cover.

A contact sheet is a sheet filled with all the photos from every shoot we have been on, contact sheets are easy to produce and will make it easy to decide on the best images to use. It is also a quick and easy way to get through a lot of images. 

To create a contact sheet we put all images into one folder and then screen shot the folder opened with all the images until we get multiple screenshots of the images in thumbnail form. Once we have the screenshots you print them off and then review them crossing off any images that are no suitable and ticking any that we are considering using. 

Poster Mock (Liam Parkinson)

Today I decided to put together a first poster for my groups project. This poster is of our character (John) Robert Masters riding his skateboard as you can see left. I done this using the techniques I have learned through my photoshop development lessons. Also below you can view a slideshow of how I done this.

Storyboard Verse 1 (Liam Parkinson)

Here is the first verse of our storyboard, this is the guidelines we will follow, I and the group prepared this together using our ideas we had. The shots we are planning to get using this is only guidelines and when we our in the filming scenario we may change some things  or adapt some ideas if we believe it will result in a better final outcome.

Week Plan, Individual/Group Activities (Jacob Sanderson)

This is our second week of filming and we are planning how we are going about filming our next few scenes. Firstly we need to film our lip syncing at the docks, a few more time lapses and finally a clip of the sun/rise set. Our lesson plan for today is - 

My cousin is a media student in university in her 3rd year and she has offered to help us with the filming of a sunrise as she is able to show us ideal and suitable methods of getting a good clip. I will be going to a nearby beach with John and my cousin to film a sunrise on saturday morning which begins at the hour of 7:14am I will be making a further blog post on this on saturday.

We have all agreed to film our lip syncing scene on friday between the hours of 9am-1pm. We will review all of our clips over the weekend and decide on if we need anymore clips and if that is the case we will film any extra clips on wednesday and begin editing next friday. 

Artist Name (Liam Parkinson/Jacob Sanderson)

For our music video we have came up with an artist name, we wanted to keep it simple so we went with 'Robert Masters' as most Dj's go by there own name. For example Martin Garrix, David Guetta etc. 

The concept of our video features a character who is played by John in our group, this has nothing to do with the actual artist, as the artist is played by me 'Liam'. This gave us the best of both as I was a lot more confident with the lip sync than John however his style suited the genre of the music better therfore he will play the character and I will feature in the video for the lip sync. 

We have done various research into songs which use this character/artist style and believe it best benefits us.

Now we have our artist name 'Robert Masters' we can begin to produce posters and album covers for our production. We shall take time out once our filming is done as well as during to do a mock photo shoot for realism and for the best outcome in our product. We will take into account all the photoshop skills we have developed over the past few weeks and apply them to our work for album covers and posters etc. for our artist and music video.

As a group we decided on this name, we wanted a catchy and stand out name. We used inspiration from the DJ Hardwell, his first name is Robert and the second name 'Masters' sounds very cool so we put these together. 

Filming Planning (Liam Parkinson)

As you can see here I went onto the BBC website and looked at the weather report for wednesday the 26/11/2014 we as a group have planned to go out filming more footage for our music video. The weather is cloudy and is okay for us to film effectivley. Planning like this gives us the oppurtunity to see what we have to change. If the weather was predicted to be poor we could change our plans and go for another day. This is something we will be checking each time we go out to film as it will give us an advantage and save us a lot of time.

Progression (Liam Parkinson)

Today we began to progress our storyboard and ideas, We done this as a group as you cans see to the left is an image of our shooting plan we are following. However during shooting we will adapt these ideas and have done already from our initial ideas. We are constantly developing and enhancing our scripts through discussion.

Locations play a big part on our ideas and development as when we get to the place we plan to film newideas come to us and we discuss and then implement them into our video. Being in the environment is different to thinking about it.

Video Style (Liam Parkinson)

Due to our budget we decided that the best thing for a style of our character we come up with was that john used his own style. We based our storyboards and ideas around this as it is a very unique indie style. As you can see on the image to the left with the baggy hoodie and the skinny jeans it fits in well with the micro narrative of our video, being a young man not wanting to grow up and thinking about time passing quickly hens the time lapses in our video. The skateboard is a key part of our video as this is part of him as it is something he enjoys and has done all his life. That is the idea of our video and how the style of the character fits  this narrative.

First Shoot Reflections (Liam Parkinson)

Yesterday after all out planning was complete we went along and filmed the scenes we planned in one of our locations. Croxteth Park in West Derby Liverpool was the first place we went to. This went very well and we worked great in a team and the style we tried to go for was limited as we did not have a budget for clothes etc. We used the best with what was available and think it is very good. As John is the main character in our video we based the character around his skateboarder style to make it easier for us and give it a sense of realism as this is something John is natural and comfortable doing. Overall it went very well and is a great starting point for what is to follow. We had great fun and bonded well as a group as well as being productive and successful with our time.

Narratives (Liam Parkinson)

There are various music videos which take this approach what we are looking at in our group and are going to go with. It is basically a character and then the singer. For example the narrative of the video is a character following a story or the lyrics are linear with what is happening in the video. This is a great approach and something we all agreed on in our group as it gives everyone a role in the performance. Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag, is a example of this and is one of our inspirations. It is linear with the lyrics and tells a story about a character whilst showing lip syncs and shots featuring the artist performing etc.

The Blumler and Katz Theory (Jacob Sanderson)

The Blumler and Katz theory 

Users and gratification's theory. Blumler and Katz is a popular approach in understanding mass communication. This theory focuses on the audience rather than the message that is displayed. It asks what do people do with media rather than what does media do to people. The theory assumes that the audience are not passive but take a active role in taking in media and use the media to affect themselves.

When we take in a piece of media Blumler and Katz say we have to fulfil one of the following things to interact with the media - 

Identify - Being able to recognise the product or person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to your own or the aspiration to be somebody else.

Educate - Learn something from the media, Acquire information, understanding and knowledge from it.

Entertainment - What you see should entertain you, you should enjoy it. You should get some sort of 'escapism' which helps us forget about our worries or problems for a short period. 

Social interaction - The ability of a form of media to create a topic of conversation between people. It can spark debates, enjoyment and create new information between people.

 
This theory is criticised since people believe we have no power over the media and what it produces, It is said we 'let the media off the hook' when it comes to what they produce  as they don't take responsibility in what they do show. The idea that we simply use the media to satisfy us for something we don't need shows the power and influence that the media has over us.

I have applied this theory towards our group music video. 

The purpose behind our video is to interact with our audience and give them the realisation that time goes fast and we don't stay young forever. This would spark a topic of conversation between people and make people talk about the video and the idea behind it.  We want our audience to be active in how they receive our video and reflect on themselves when they have watched it. 

Time Lapse Clips (Jacob Sanderson)

I was out in Liverpool City Centre last night and while I was there I decided to get a couple of time lapse clips from different locations. I got these clips for us to use in our music video because this was one of our ideas that we have had from the start and have held onto because we think that it will make our video look more unique and fit in well with the genre of dance music.

This clip was taken on the Dock Road in the middle of Liverpool.

This clip is from Queen Square Bus Station.

This clip is from Liverpool ONE.

Our Music Video Proposal (Jacob Sanderson)

The idea behind our music video is following the theme of being 'Young Again' and showing how time goes by so fast. Our video follows a character (John) and portrays him realising how he misses his youth and he wishes he was young again. We also feature our artist who sings and performs the song (Liam) who is not related to the narrative . 

We are showing a very short micro-narrative with our character but we are not showing a backstory or meaning to him just clips of him reflecting back on his childhood/youth, the aim of this is to make the audience relate to it. Our chorus will consist of time lapses put together of many different things to give the idea of time going very quickly without us noticing. 

These are the main themes of our video that we want to follow and portray.

First Day Of Shooting (Jacob Sanderson)

Today we started our first day of shooting which was very successful as we have collected some wonderful shots and got more than we expected from the location (Croxteth Park). 

We decided to film each scene in multiple different angles and shots to ensure we have a lot to work with in post-production. We have also filmed in many different kinds of film types, for example we filmed in Slow-motion, Time lapse and normal speed. We have filmed enough footage for the first verse and are now ready to move onto our next location and part of the song. I believe our first filming session has been successful. We will be uploading some images and clips from the day on the blog shortly. 

Filming Locations (John Masters / Jacob Sanderson)

Today, I was in Liverpool City Centre with Jacob. While we was there I took some photographs of different locations that I think that my group could use for filming our music video at. Liverpool is an iconic city with a lot of recognisable scenery that I think would allow us to create a very unique video.

This is the Pier Head.

This is outside the new slavery museum.

This is the Albert Dock.

This is along the waterfront.

This is near the Echo Arena/Liverpool Eye.

This is the dock area of Liverpool.

Jacob -

These photos have been taken around the dock areas of Liverpool. These are the more famous parts of the city and have been done up over the past couple of years so everywhere looks modern with the old buildings keeping the heritage of the city. I think that the mix of new and old scenery will highlight the lyrics of "Young Again" by showing the different generations of the city in the same place.

Filming Preparation Update (Jacob Sanderson)

Today in lesson we looked at what we will need to prepare prior to going out each time to film. We did this so that we had a better idea on what we were going to do each time we go out filming and to make sure that we will be fully prepared for each shoot.

We are now working on getting our storyboards and shooting scripts done so that we can begin filming our video. This is an important part of our project, the planning is key to create a successful music video.