Planning Group Post : Evaluating the Film Shoot

When we filmed in the abandoned building location, I feel that these are the things that went well:

• Because of the good weather, we were able to film exterior shots
• Because of the wind, in the exterior shots we have Emily's hair blowing in the wind
• Good natural lighting was in the interior shots, providing soft light through the windows

However, these are a few things that we found difficult:

• Because both of our stars are not too fond of heights, it was difficult to get them onto the introduction shot on the rooftop, and the final verse was recorded at reasonable heights as well, making the stars a little anxious. However, this was fixed as we all sang the verse together to reassure the singer.
• The opening shot which included the female star spray painting onto a wall was quite difficult, as the wind was getting out of control, and the paint was very difficult to apply. We resolved this by waiting out the wind and painting from a closer range.
• The shot with The Dorothy shoes was quite difficult to shoot as the shoes were a little too big for the actress, therefore she found it quite difficult to get her heels to touch.
• In the actual location, the ground floor was very dark and difficult to maneuver in, therefore it took is some time to find our way around into the lighter parts of the building.
• Because we could not find an empty brick wall in the building, we had to settle for shooting only one of the opening sequence in the location.

Planning : Thank you

I made the actors of our music video cupcakes as a thank you for helping us with our media project. We are very appreciative for their help as they could have declined our deal.

Planning : Lunch For The Actors

As we were near a Mcdonalds I bought the actors and crew lunch to thank them for helping us with the music video and taking time out of their day to help.

Planning : Record Label Design

Planning : StoryBoard 5 (Abandoned Building)

Planning : StoryBoard 4 (Ryan's House)

Planning : StoryBoard 3 (Brigg Exterior)

Planning : StoryBoard 2 (Greta's House)

Planning : StoryBoard 1 (Brigg Town)

Planning : Responsibilities

Shown here is a sheet of responsibilities each of us have taken, we all decided that we would be responsible for the desired items. We did created this sheet to help us organise who was bringing the items to the day of the shoot. 

Planning : Change Of Filming Day

We had a problem with the filming days as there was a lack of communication between the actors, this therefore caused us a problem as we had to change the day of filming. We originally planned to film on the 26th October 11:00 to 16:00, however we are now filming on the 24th October at 10:00 to 15:00 due to other commitments by the actors. As this has changed we will now have to alter the call sheet in order to be correct.

Planning : Risk Assessment 5 (Greta's House)

Planning : Risk Assessment 4 (Brigg Exterior)

Planning : Risk Assessment 3 (Abandoned Site)

Planning : Risk Assessment 2 (Ryan's House)

Planning : Risk Assessment 1 (Brigg Town)

Planning : Call Sheet

Planning : Weather Forecast

Planning Group Post : Script Breakdown Location 5

Planning Group Post : Script Breakdown Location 4

Planning Group Post : Script Breakdown Location 3

Planning Group Post : Script Breakdown Location 2

Planning Group Post : Script Breakdown Location 1

Planning Group Post : Annotated Lyrics

Planning Group Post : Shot List

Initial Shot-List

Sequence 1- location: abandoned building

INSTRUMENTAL

1. Actors needed: Myles and Emily
2. Shot types: Wide two shot/wide shot, medium centre frame
3. Frame: Left and right
4. Angles: P.O.V
5. Props: Yellow paint/spray-paint

Sequence 2: verse ONE- Brigg town

1. Actors needed: Myles and Emily
2. Shot types: MCU, two shot, MLS, ECU, LS,CL
3.  Frame: centre frame
4. Angles: Worm’s Eye View, POV
5.  Props:

Sequence 3: verse TWO- alley ways- LOCATION-park,alleys,roads

1. Actors needed: Emily and Myles
2. Shot types: Steadicam, backwards tracking, CU
3. Frame: Centre frame
4. Angles: POV, Slight high angle
5. Props: cards, police officer costume, chains

Sequence 4: verse THREE- LOCATION- ALLEYWAYS

1. Actors needed: Myles and Emily
2. Shot types: Location shot, ECL
3. Frame: centre frame
4. Angles: POV
5. Props:

Sequence 5: verse FOUR- LOCATION- INTERIOR

1. Actors needed: Emily
2. Shot types: MCU, full body shot( PUB), wide shot
3. Frames: centre frame, left of frame
4. Angles: POV, low/high
5. Props:

Sequence 6: verse FIVE

1. Actors needed: Emily and Myles
2. Shot types: CU, OTS, pan
3. Frames: centre, left
4. Angles: low, POV
5. Props: balaclava, poker chips, wine bottle

Sequence 7: verse SIX

1. Actors needed: Myles and Emily
2. Shot types: CU, two shot, location, time lapse
3. Frames: centre,
4. Angles: POV
5. Props: blindfold

Sequence 8: verse SEVEN

1. Actors needed: Emily and Myles
2. Shot types: two shot, MCU, OTS
3. Frames: centre, left
4. Angles: low, POV
5. Props: balaclava

Sequence 9: Verse EIGHT

1. Actors needed: Emily and Myles
2. Shot types:  location, CU
3. Frames: centre
4. Angles: low
5. Props: fairy lights, skateboard, red heels

Sequence 10: INSTRUMENTALS

     1. Actors needed: Emily and Myles

     2. Shot types: Worm’s eye view, two shot, track, location, match shot

     3. Frames: left

     4. Angles: high, low, POV

     5. Props: cards, poker chips, glass, mouse trap, skateboard

Research : Possible Music Magazines for our Advert

All of these magazines are possible choices for our advert to feature in. By the research I conducted on the institutions, Bauer was the best and owned the magazines, Q, Kerrang! and Mojo, so therefore these magazines would be the best choice. In addition, as Bauer Media Group are the largest magazine publishers in Britain I think that they would be the prime choice. Q's sale prices are £3.90 this is quite expensive for our target audience as we aim at university students and these prices seem affordable. Q target's an older audience (30-40) because of the mode of address and being more sophisticated. Mojo's sale price is £4.90 this again is extremely costly for our target audience. Mojo's target audience is over 35's as this is more of classic rock than it is indie. Kerrang's price is £2.00, this is an ideal amount to pay for students as they have little money. Kerrang's target audience is from the ages 16 - 24 because they feature gigs and festivals which is usually targeted at the younger generation.

Overall, I personally think that Kerrang! is the best choice as it targets my audience more than the other magazines.

Planning : Costume Representations

Costume Representations from RheanonGreenASMedia

Research : Cross Media Convergence, Synergy, Brand Identity and Promotion - Arctic Monkeys

Research : Technology (Chirbit)

Chirbit is like Soundcloud where you can add audio. This is a new type of technology to me as I have never used this before. 

We recorded the audio on a mobile and then uploaded the mp3 to Chirbit by clicking on the 'Choose File' button. I then named the file TA Research. I then submitted this and copied the embed code and uploaded this onto my blog.

Research Group Post : Target Audience 3

To create this target audience research we worked within our media class, explaining what we our ideas our for the music video. In addition, we described the use of locations, costumes and props to them and further explained the symbolic meanings and theorists that we will use. We also showed synergy through the use of our photoboard and they could see what the main colours would be. We provided our annotated lyrics, a photoboard and our additional ideas, in case during the filming process the original ideas don't look as good as expected. 

Changes According To Our Target Audience Response

• Although the location is rural, it links to the indie conventions of locations, as they are low budget, thus appealing to the audience who are interested in the genre
• The more urban costumes clashing with the rural area are something that the audience likes, as there was nothing said about the costumes for improvement.
• Due to the questioning of the knife, we decided that we will not use this in the music video, as it looks way too violent for what our ideas were for the music video, also the audience did not understand the link to the knife, therefore we will replace this shot with something more appealing.
• Due to the cards being a little confusing to the audience, we will try to use the cards as a strong and sometimes obvious indicators as to what they represent in the shots, and we will also try to use them as a way to foreshadow the future shots/events in the video.
• Due to not being able to use the train tracks, we thought of another way to show the sense of journey after completing this audience research.
• Although we wanted to use the sunflowers, we cannot do that anymore, as at this time of the year the sunflowers are gone.
• After speaking to the audience about the instrumental issue, we spoke about how we could fill those gaps in, and now we have a plan for the filming.
• When discussing the shots which show the male being more vulnerable the audience responded well, which encouraged us more to go through with the concept of the modern male and female.

Research Group Post : Target Audience 2 Analysis

We conducted target audience research using Flickr. By doing this we could receive comments of the public on our photographs. Gaining positive and/or negative responses.

Positive Comments:

• A much better exposure. Could you frame with the supports across the river?
• A lovely shot, it would make a great CU in the music video
• Like - no clutter in the background!
• A super, clean shot with just a little burn out from the flash. I like the diagonal composition.
• I love this shot - great for the music video, you could really get the light to play around and flicker on and off the blade.
• The strength of this is the diagonal composition. You may be able to add artificial flare if you wanted to highlight such.
• I like the location but not sure about the plant and intrusion of the metal on the left.
• Excellent job of keeping the shadows out.
• A lovely shot - could be intriguing if you put blue screen in the mirror and then added the male star moving in it...
• I like this - two objects - two people/ stars - a couple! 
• I particularly like this one - but what about the partial plant? I presume that is intentional?
• A lovely shot - you could get this cropped on final cut pro x into an ECU
• What about filming this and highlighting/ emphasising the 'forever' - would that work with your lyrics anywhere?
• Nice shadow less shot. Just need to photoshop out the top right corner.
• A lovely shot - I think you could film this - maybe where there are problems in the lyrics you could separate the cards and show them messy?
• I like this medium shot pose however, she doesn't look very happy, she looks quite bored. I like the dungarees and mustard coloured top too - the make up is good on the female however, the male has very red eyes- perhaps some foundation is needed for him too.
• A lovely shot and I like the way her hair is blowing. Could be really nice cropped for use on the digipak
• I too like the hair blowing. She looks quite worried. A lovely shot
• A lovely expression and pose- could be good for the digipak. It may benefit from cropping.
• Really expressive - I love this shot. Cropping it to just below his hand would really draw their eyes into the shot and to the audience
• A great costume - I think this would be a good costume to use in the music video. She's not looking into camera which you need for promo materials so I wouldn't use it on the digipak or advert.
• A lighting issue here and quite aggressive. He looks washed out.
• This is somewhat better and has attitude. It depends really on what your intended/ preferred meaning is [Hall reception theory]
• That's a nice shot, I like the way he's leaning into her. Very subtle and well posed. It may work on a pane of the digipak
• A lovely shot, nice angle and could be cropped to a great medium shot
• A great shot. Crop it to a medium close up perhaps as the house in the background is distracting
• Back to back shots can have all kinds of 'not seeing eye to eye' connotations. If they are singing, it might be easier for them if they stand in a slight V rather than fully back to back.
• I love this location and think it is really atmospheric. You could place your star in either light or shade. Is his name Jay?      

Negative:

• Are you planning on using this? Is it disused? Remember it is illegal to trespass on used railway tracks!  
• The jacket/costume on the male star isn't very effective - it looks too big for him. The lighting washes them out and expressions do not connote positivity.
• A lighting issue here and quite aggressive. He looks washed out.
• Strange pose and expression - quite off putting! 
• Why the back of a clock, the ornaments, the shield etc? There is a bike in the shot as well
• For a promo video - it's not very attractive.
• No. What age is your target audience?

Response to Positive:

From what can be seen here in the positive feedback we have received it is clear that our principle photography roughly adheres to the conventions of the Indie genre when looking at the comments and making comparisons to our music video research. I think all but one of the costumes used adhere to conventions of an Indie music and they also attract our TA. We have linked some of the costumes to semiotics and also used them to create synergy for the plans we have for the colour scheme on our digipak. In addition to this we also have reached out to our working class audience by having our artists wearing cheap, casual clothes. We also have a broad range of locations which has also received good feedback, we have a range of different locations that are urban, suburban, busy, abandoned, compact and out in the open so we have near enough ticked all of the boxes for this,  we can also link some graffiti at some locations which provides our TA with a small, extra story line within the narratives which may unfold some of the unknown. Some of the poses by our artists within the principle photography adhere to indie conventions yet they also begin to raise questions to the TA, e.g. Why does the female look confused and sad whilst staring into the distance?

Response to Negative:

The first negative comment highlights the fact that it is illegal to walk on train tracks as it is deemed as trespassing and dangerous, therefore we cannot use it in our video which is a shame because we were going to use it as a discrete method to represent journey and how you can roughly predict what is in the near future, but cannot even begin to imagine the long term future. We think this would've been very effective when supporting the narrative towards the TA, we still intend to use it if we can get permission from the owners of a railway that is temporarily out of use in Louth.

The jacket also isn't effective on the male star in the image pictured above and this is understandable, it doesn't really have any colour towards it and looks bland and dead, this could be a reflection on the spirit of the male star in the narrative in the video however this could be portrayed more clearly using semiotics and linking it with clothing. The pose on the photo is also very off putting and I think it washes away the emotion and story lines in the narrative, therefore I agree with this and we will use another image of them for the behind the scenes images that portray them in a different light rather than what is shown on this image.     

Research : Institutions 6 (Time Inc)

Time Inc from RheanonGreenASMedia

Through the research that I have done on institutions, Bauer is the ideal company to feature my advert.

Planning Group Post : Star Name

We thought about possible names for our stars a while ago, but never came up with something successful, however, today, we thought about keeping our actor's last name 'Champan' and Ryan thought of the name Chase to compliment it, which we all agreed on, as we thought that it sounds catchy and interesting.

Planning Group Post : Photoboard

Dominant colours: 

Yellow
Red
Black
Cream

These colours will help with the synergy in our music video, as one of the most dominant colours is yellow. This colour directly links with the lyrics of the video, as the title of the song is called 'Old Yellow Bricks.' The representation of joy and happiness within the colour can also be used when positive aspects in life are addressed through lyrics and visuals.
The red that is used within the props and the costumes  represent the danger, passion and sex appeal. The relation to Mulvey and the male gaze will be a theory that we will be adhering to with the colour and the voyeuristic costumes/movements, and we rely on the colour red  a lot in order to use this theory.

The use of black and cream in the shots are used to link to the lyrics which refer to nostalgia, and the thought that things were better back then. So we use these colours to try and represent this longing for nostalgia.
The black links more to the neutral/ earth tones within the costumes and the props/locations, as the dark colour links heavily to the rock overtones within the song that we can either pursue or ignore.

Costumes:

We used some contrasting costumes for both stars in order to show diversity and make the costume change meaningful. For example, the first costume on the male is a dark green/black costume which links more to the grungy/rock side of the song, and the neutral/negative parts of the song due to the darkness within the costume. We also have a slight costume change when the neutral shirt can be replaced with a black one, and during this, when we took photos we decided to give the star an aggressive expression and a vulgar gesture of the middle finger. Therefore, the dark dominant outfit can signify the negative and the aggressive side to the song.
We also have a navy/dark green flannel top which creates a more rural look for the male, however, we felt like the costume was missing something, and therefore, upon reflection, we will incorporate the red scarf in order for the singer's costume to tie in with the female's.
However, to contrast both of these costumes, we also asked the star to wear something yellow, which is the opposite of the dark outfits we have seen before. There is no back, as the colours that the star is wearing consist of yellow blue and brown. This can link to the more cheerful, hopeful lyrics and show the more content side of the star. We also decided to use the yellow in order to get the visuals to link with the lyrics (Goodwin's theory).

The female also has four costumes, which compliment the male's. The first costume consists of a Yellow jumper and a blue jean pinafore, which links to the male's yellow outfit. However, we will not have the two actors wearing yellow at the same time, as the costumes will clash too much and be too bright. I believe that we will use them when we would like to accentuate on one of the actors more than the other.
We also got the female actress to wear a red, voyeuristic outfit which will be used more when we would like to appeal to the female and the male audience (Mulvey) by using our female star.  The use of red could be linked to the more romantic, passionate moments in the music video which can relate to the symbolic meanings behind the cards that we will use. Not only that, but we decided to use this outfit with a very calm dark green one from the male, and we thought about adding a small red component to his costume would link the two together really well.
To compliment the dark outfit that our male star has, we got the female to wear a complimenting, feminine black outfit that consists of black heel boots, black knee high socks, a black skirt and a black top. Because black and black does not clash as aggressively, I believe we could possibly use the two dark costumes together if we needed.
Finally, the female has a more casual denim costume which consists of a dark green striped top, a denim jacket, distressed black jeans and chunky black boots. This outfit could go with the male's khaki shirt top, as the colours are in tune and together, which can symbolically show that they are in tune with their emotions, and stable.


Location :

Even though the rail road links to escapism we will be unable to use this location as it is illegal and highly dangerous. The path seen in the bridge image links to our target audience as this is seen of a sense of journey/travel, as our target audience are aspirers they seek travel and change. Many of the locations adhere to the conventions of indie as these are easily accessed places. Furthermore, the bridge and the alley way will give the music video a grunge/rock appearance, which we know the target audience like due to the questionnaire. We had decided on using more rural locations as we can access these and challenges the conventions of indie music videos, as they are usually urban. However, we are adhering to an aspect of this convention, as these locations are also low budget, just as they usually are in indie music videos.


Props : 

We decided to use a red lipstick as this connotes danger, love and sex appeal which links to Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze'. The yellow spray paint and paint links to the song title 'Old Yellow Bricks' as well as the costumes worn by the actors. Furthermore we plan on using the yellow paints in a rebellious and teenagst way, which is used to portray youths in our music video.