Filming: Matt's Bedroom - Sunday 20th January

• When we were planning when to do filming, we decided to film the bedroom scenes at the first weekend possible due to the fact that the location was simple to get to and was not weather dependent, meaning that if needed, we could easily re-shoot any of the shots once put on the timeline.
• The camera set up was simple for this location, so it gave us a good opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the equipment, giving us a better understanding of how the camera works and how we needed to use it to get the results required.
• We stuck to the storyboard religiously while filming because we had many shots to do with varying camera angles and we wanted to film everything at least twice (if not three times) so that we had a choice about which shot to use.
• We mainly used the tripod to set up the shots, but we did an experimental shot where I held the camera at arms length as I laid down on my bed. Whilst we had originally planned this shot, we were not sure if it would look good or whether it would look too shaky due to me holding the camera myself.
• All the shots turned out really well and there should not be any need for reshooting anything, but now we are in the stages of editing, we may need to film some addition shots to fill any gaps on the timeline.

Lead Singer Performance Shots - 18th Jan.

We had planned that we would film the lead singer performance shots on the same day as the guitarist shots because the two locations were near to each other and therefore it would be logical to visit both plavce while we have the equipment. In addition to this, these shots would be potentially very tricky and we thought that filming them first would give us more chance to return to the location to re-shoot them.

The filming went very well and we managed to film the performance shots for the first two choruses, however, due to time constraints we were unable to film the shots for the final chorus after the mid-8. However, because we filmed some experimental shots that we had not storyboarded, we have a few extra shots that we can use for parts of the final chorus. An example of this was a simple close up shot of the lead singer doing some 'passionate singing.'

Therefore, we have learnt from this filming session that it is benifical to experiment with shots and try to film everything at least twice, so in future, we will try to give ourselves more time. We will also continue to experiment with unplanned and extra shots. We used different camera angles such as high angles, low angles, and close ups as well as zooms and panning shots so we have a variety of interesting shots to choose from. Considering there was a strong wind, we were unable to film any handicam shots, which didn't affect us much considering we hadn't planned to use any.

Guitarist Performance Filming - 18th Jan.

We decided that our first shooting session would be the performance shots of our guitarist. We chose to do these shots first because they will only make up a small percentage of the final video, so this meant that we could experiment with these shots a lot with loads of different camera angles. Also, if our filming did not turn out the way that we planned due to our inexperience, these would be the easiest set of shots to re-shoot.

We were worried that the weather, which was particularly poor, would hinder our shots, but it ended up enhancing the background so that it sort of contrasted with the music being played in the track, and fitted in nicely. Also, we will be able to turn the contrast up on the shots to make the them brighter.

Using our storyboard that we took on location, we had a solid idea of what shots we needed to do, and using a small grassland area discovered during our reccie-hunting, which would provide a good, and authentic background for the guitarist.

The shots went as we had planned, and we were able to experiment with our different shots such as zooms and pans. We filmed the shots we had intended to do, and then went back and experimented with new shots. One shot in particular which we didn't originally intend on having was a simple shot of the guitarist playing, and we rotated the camera so that it was at a diagonal angle. We kept this in when we captured our footage, and noticed that it worked particularly well.

The last shot we did was when the guitarist stood across the road from us whilst we filmed the cars passing, keeping the camera in exactly the same position. the guitarist was not allowed to move. When editing, we will speed this scene up so it only lasts for as long as the electronic jingle. This will give our video a unique, interesting look.

Our guitarist wore a black shirt to make him look smart and like a rock star, with a red top underneath to connotate the love narrative.

Storyboard Animatic

This is our finished storyboard animatic, which is now on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIoVw22AeeM

Filming

Exciting news!!! We will begin filming on Friday of this week. (18/01/08)

On the Friday we will be filming on two exterior locations; firstly, we will be filming our guitarist scenes on a greenery by the A26 in Tunbridge Wells. Secondly, we will be filming all our lead singer shots on top of the Tunbridge Wells multi-story car park by the Assembly Halls.

We will then keep the cameras over the weekend so that on Sunday we will be able to film on an interior location; Matt's bedroom, which will be used for the first verse.

Creating Animatic

• In order to create our storyboard animatic, we had to film every shot that we had drawn for our storyboard for several seconds.
• Once every shot had been filmed, we captured the footage onto the editing software.
• We then put the whole uncut version of our storyboard onto the timeline.
• We went through the whole piece and had to split the footage so that every different storyboard picture was seperate, allowing us to edit them individually more easily.
• We had to change the length of each shot to correspond with the music track and the time that we wanted a certain frame to appear on screen.
• Once every shot was at the correct length, we had to do some post-production work to certain shots. This included using the horizontal and vertical pan presets as well as the zoom presets. This gave us a better visual idea about how the final video would look as it created movement within the shots.
• We feel that we have planned enough for the video, with our only concern being the mid-8 of the song, but the tempo change allows the cuts to be longer providing we use movement within the shots.
• However, we will still film some 'filler' shots when on location just in case when we come to edit the final piece some shots do not work in the way we intended, meaning we have to delete them and fill the space with something else. For example, in the mid-8 we will film Hannah (the love interest) walking down the street at various angles to vary the shot (it seems a bit too long on the anamatic) but also it will mean that if one angle doesn't work (ie. too dark) we can just use another angle.
• The thing that we learnt most from our anamatic was the fact that we have to put a lot more movement into our shots than we originally planned, so that the video looks varied rather that purely static shots which last around 2-3 seconds.

Track Treatment - Can't Stop (Maroon 5) and Response to Pitch

The track "Can't Stop" by Maroon 5 is a very upbeat song and is less than three minutes long, which makes it suitable for us to create our own music video to as we should be able to come up with enough ideas to keep the video varied throughout, so it does not become stale and repetitive. We feel that we would benefit best by creating a performance themed video (due to the typical conventions of rock songs - requiring scenes of the band playing), with a narrative running throughout the verses, considering the nature of the track and the feedback we got from our target audience. The narrative would contain an amusing sequence of events around the fact that it appears to be about a man obsessing ("all alone in my room" and "think of you at a rate that is truly alarming") over a woman. Due to the audience response we received, we will portray this in a humorous way. The most obvious element in the track that would make it more "comical" would be the idea of the woman being uninterested in the man, with him attempting to win her over, getting increasingly desperate along the way.
This could lead to certain situations, such as the man appearing outside the woman's house with a bunch of flowers, which she closes the door on, leading to him increasingly attempting to win her love by going more over the top with chocolates and increasingly lavish gifts.
We have decided that we want the performance shots to be filmed in a large empty space, with us seriously considering using the top of a car park. It would give us more freedom and space to shoot.

Our pitch in class went very well as we were thoroughly prepared with a detailed Powerpoint presentation outlining our initial ideas, reccies and moodboards. The feedback we got back was very positive and some people have really helped us develop our ideas into exciting, more complete ideas.

Here is a YouTube link to the track we are going to be using (it does not have a video already, this 'video' on YouTube is just the track with a title screen runing throughout):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgpR42JWYdY

Location Reccies

These are location shots of the roof of the car park in Tunbridge Wells, which is a location we are considering to use as an ideal location for the lead singer performance shots. It would be interesting if we shot at night or at least early morning, especially seeing as we do not want masses of cars in our mise-en-scene, although a few would be ok, but ideally we want a large space to be able to play with. It could look edgier at night anyway and some of the views could be improved just by the fact it is night. There are lights on the roof (as seen in some of the pictures) so we would have enough light to shoot, however, these could give a horrible orange glow, which we would not want. The last picture of this section is of a doorway on the roof which I thought we could have the lead stand/pose in for a few quick cuts:

The following are location shots of a rural area in Tunbridge Wells with trees and grass on a hill, where we could get some great shots of an idyllic setting. If we go for the idea that all the band members are in different locations, I can see this being a good one for the guitarist for some reason:

Audience Research - Focus Group Question Sheet

The idea behind our focus group is that we will play the track first of all, let the group answer the first three questions from their first impressions and then allow them to either write down any ideas or draw a mood board for question four or five while the track is being played for a second time.
We felt it was important for the group to hear the song at least twice - we will probably even play it a third time if we have enough time - so that we can engage people's initial recations as well as what they think once they've had time to appreciate the song a bit more.
We also wanted to give the participants as much freedom as possible so that we get their true feelings about the song, rather than just simply answer questions we put across. This is why the main focus of the question sheet is questions four and five where people can write whatever they want. Questions one to three are there because we hope these will help us resolve issues we have with the track/video already.

Listen to the music track and answer the following questions:

What category do you think the music video would fall under: ‘Concept’ (abstract), ‘Narrative’ or ‘Performance’? (You may pick up to two of these options.)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

When doing performance shots, do you feel it would be suitable to focus on the lead singer solely or do you feel it would be necessary to have shots of the whole band?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What connotations do you already have with this genre of music and band? ie. What you expect to be in the music video.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Listen to the music track a second time and while doing this either answer question 4 or 5:

Write down any comments about what you think should appear in the music video (eg. narrative ideas or where to perform) and/or stylistic techniques to use.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. Use the back of this sheet to illustrate and draw any images that you think of while listening to the track. This is known as a mood board.

Technical Analysis - The Delays - Hideaway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS0im89Arnc

This video is mainly a narrative focus. The idea itself is very simple; a couple running away from a man in a suit (connotations of government-type figure with earpiece.) So there is an obvious relationship between the lyrics and visuals (Goodwin) as the couple are trying to 'Hideaway' from this man. This relationship is presented through amplification, rather than literal meaning. The editing is quite fast in some places with some shots lasting only one or two seconds to make the narrative seem quicker, more varied and exciting. The video does also have elements of performance in it as the band are present, but this not the focus of the video.

0:00-0:02 - Long-shot of lead singer walking down stairs at the side of a house. As part of the mise-en-scene, the house contains the colour yellow to connotate a light-hearted side to the video. Just because the song is slow-paced does not mean that the video is gloomy. This contrasts with the singer's costume of a black jacket, dark trousers and a white t-shirt, which has been used to emphasise the lead's star motif and present him as being cool and sexy - female gaze (Laura Mulvey.) This shot establishes the lead singer as the focus of the band for the audience, which is more prominent when watching the video than their matching costumes to try and represent equality.

0:02-0:03 - Mid-shot of the lead singer on the stairs putting his sun glasses on, which connotate him as being cool and enigmatic (what sort of man is hiding behind the glasses?) and also has connotations of having a good time when viewed with the mise-en-scene as it shows that the sun is out and the mood is light and cheerful. This is an example of the demands of the record company (Goodwin) by setting up a recognisable star they can commodify (Dyer) to promote and sell records.

0:03-0:05 - Mid-shot of the lead singer being given his guitar by another member of the band. It is a generic convention of a rock video for the band to be playing their instruments, even though the song itself may be slow paced. However, the video later subverts this convention as there are relatively few shots of the band playing their instruments. There's no organised performance within a studio. The two members' costumes are identical, showing that the band have a distinct look and style, which acts as their star motif. They are a union rather than just a male solo star or a lead singer who dominates the lime-light - the costumes represent equality.

0:05 - Medium close-up of another band member, this time wearing a green jacket, which contrasts with the other members' matching black jackets. Could be an example of meta-narrative - is this member the rebel of the band? However, another interpretation is that he fits in with the mise-en-scene of bright colours. He does also conform to the band's style as he is wearing the sunglasses to show he is cool.

0:06 - Close-up of the fourth and final band member walking - he is wearing a black jacket like the first two members seen and is wearing sunglasses to reinforce the star image.

0:06-0:08 - Close-up pan - very voyeuristic shot and an example of dismemberment. The shot begins with a close up on a woman's breasts and pans up to her face with her eyes shut to protect her eyes from the sun - she is not a band member so does not wear sunglasses. It is also more seductive; by having her eyes shut and leaning her head back towards the sun she is there purely for objectification - male gaze (Laura Mulvey, 1970.)

0:08-0:09 - Long-shot of the blond woman, leaning back on the car, facing the sun. Her costume is a bright blue summer dress cut to show off her boobs, legs and arms for male pleasure. The fact she is leaning back on a white car raises enigma as to what she is doing leaning on the car - waiting for someone? Going to make a getaway? It also makes her more sexy and voyeuristic - leaning back connotates her seducing the men, but at the same time the car connotates her as being independent. The notion of looking (Goodwin) is obvious here.

0:09-0:11 - Extreme long-shot of a black car driving down an empty suburban road towards the camera. The colour is chosen to contrast to the girl's white car - good versus evil. The mise-en-scene sets the scene as everyday life; the message applies to everyone, even if it is presented in a dramatic way. This makes it easier for the audience to identify with video and therefore the song and band, which is an audience gratification identified by Blumler and Katz, 1974.

0:11-0:12 - Medium long-shot of boy sitting in a living room on the sofa looking down at a table, where he opens something, which causes light to being emitted. This is a very enigmatic shot to catch the audience's interest as to what is in the box. His costume is a red top to connotate danger.

0:12 - Long-shot of the black car pulling up outside house - sense of danger and foreboding.

0:13-0:14 - Close-up of the boy's face in the living room looking down at the object he has got out on the table, light still being emitted on his face. He leans down to get a closer look, which is, again, very enigmatic as the audience want to know what it is he is looking at and have the feeling that it is important enough to make the black car pull up for it as well.

0:15-0:16 - Long-shot of man in suit getting out of car and looking around while the camera zooms in slightly. Connotations of danger - he is looking around to make sure there is no one about - a fact that the audience know about due to the long shot of car driving down the street. Enigma building - is man going to attack boy? Steal whatever the object is?

0:17 - Close-up of boy looking up from the object he is holding - the light gets brighter on his face. Enigmatic - why is this? Also, why has he looked up? Does he know he's in danger? Is it a look of self-satisfaction on his face - blissfully unaware?

0:18 - Extreme close-up of government-type files the man in the suit is holding, with a picture of the boy with the object on it and the name 'Spartacus' written in bold letters with something crossed out - enigmatic - what is crossed out? Is Spartacus a code name? Confirms that the boy is in trouble and the man is after him - but is it because of the mystery object?

0:19 - Close-up of man's face from the left hand side looking at the documents. The camera pans around the man's head so the focus goes from the documents to his face - it is visible that he is wearing an earpiece like a secret agent or government body. Intertexual reference to films such as Men In Black or James Bond. Shows his status is high - he is an important man not be underestimated - serious threat.

0:20-0:22 - Close-up of man's face from the right hand side, focus is of the back of the head with the documents visible in the background. The man walks off towards the house - heightened sense of danger - the camera stays in it's position so the man walks away from it, but the camera does pan to follow his path.

0:22 - Mid-shot of band member with green jacket sitting in a chair with his sunglasses on looking moody. Cut away from narrative to put focus back on the band and the song - the music video is meant to promote the band as a commodity.

0:23-0:24 - Mid-shot of lead singer - not actually singing, but playing the guitar - relationship between music and visuals (Goodwin) as guitar melody is prominent part of the song running all the way through. There are two other band members in the background standing on the porch of a pink house. Again, the mise-en-scene has bright colours when the band are on screen to contrast to the dark enigmatic nature of the narrative. This technique makes band more appealing and enhances their star quality. The member in the green jacket jumps off the porch, which could be seen as part of the meta-narrative again as it shows he is the rebel trying to draw attention to himself and not conforming to the group.

0:25 - There is a quick cut, which is shorter than a second, of a bag being zipped up. The bag has a bright light being emitted from it, so it is obvious that this is the boy ready to go and hideaway - relationship between lyrics and visual (Goodwin.)

0:25- There is then another very quick cut showing a high angle view on the boy zipping up the bag. The room is very dark to create enigma and reinforce the sense of danger. The light is dimmer to highlight how dark the mise-en-scene is.

0:26- Long-shot of man in suit approaching front door of house - danger getting ever closer. It's like a game of cat and mouse - the cuts are getting a lot quicker to emphasise the increasing tension.

0:27 - Another high angle shot of the boy, but this time he is going up some stairs with the bag. He looks behind him, acknowledging that he knows he is in danger and needs to hideaway - relationship between lyrics and visuals (Goodwin.)

0:28 - Extremely quick cut back to man in suit at front door - reinforces connection between the boy looking over his shoulder with the man the approaching door.

0:28-0:29 - Mid-shot of lead singer putting on his sunglasses and then beginning to play his guitar; an example of a genre characteristic (Goodwin.)

0:29-0:31 - Jump cut - the camera has moved to the right and upwards a bit so the lead singer is not in the bottom left of the screen with another band member walking from the right of the screen to the middle. The attitude of the band is very laid back - not taking performance very seriously - subverts genre characteristics but at the same time inflates their star motifs as being relaxed and cool.