Deadline Schedule

Deadline Schedule

This is the final version of my schedule and as you can see I have been able to film every scene and edit it in time for the deadline. I have gone back and re-edited my music video to make it better and create more of and eerie presence about it, and export it in time for the deadline.

Day Five on Location

Day Five on Location

Today was the final day of shooting as I managed to get two scenes done in the time we were filming. This was because the locations were very close to each other and allowed us to work quickly and swiftly between the two. When filming the weather wasn’t on our side as it was close to raining, this meant that we had to be very quick when filming. However we were able to experiment with a variety of new shots and ideas, an example would be the ‘swing’ shot as Charlotte walked past the camera. This meant having the shot upright and normal then swinging it below to create an upside down effect emphasising the fact that dimensions here may not be all they seem.

Schedule Update

Schedule Update

As I have a few weeks left to finish filming before any re-takes are done I have decided to post an updated version of my schedule, it has ben updated to syncronise my starting filming dates on both the blog and the schedule. Also I have changed some of the scene ideas as some were practically unable to happen, and finally I have changed the deadline date as it is at the 12^th of December rather than the 2^nd.

Editing Day Four

Editing Day Four

Today I edited the section that was filmed in the classroom. As I wanted each of my scenes to have a different quality to them I decided to give this scene a darker feel to it by making everything seem fine to it at first then for it to suddenly go out of control and become a nightmare. I also wanted to experiment with using lower shots and this really paid off in the editing process as it gave a different feel about it, I think that this is still sticking to my idea of showing differentiation in my scenes.

Day Four on Location

Day Four on Location

Today the third scene in the sequence was filmed; I felt that I should keep this in the school still to give more of a lasting impression and to explore new ways of turning normal school life into a fear or hell. To do this I focused on the more human aspect of school, so rather than basing it in the corridors of the school, I set the scene in the classroom giving it a more personal feel to it, as if we are looking into her and starting to realise what is happening to her. This scene I thought would be good to have students for my lead actress charlotte to interact with, so a typical lesson setting with classmates talking gives this scene a sense of realism. The only complication of filming today was finding the actors to film with as not many were available, however this problem was solved and I managed to get sufficient actors.  

Day Three on Location and Editing

Day Three on Location and Editing

Today I filmed the second part of the music video; I had the idea of demons in a school a while back and thought it would be a good element to have in this abstract video. With charlotte playing the main character I wanted to add some more abnormal effects, in this section I thought of the idea of the world ‘glitching’ and at different points it would jump from one point to another as if it was breaking. This went to plan apart from a few shots where the rest of my actors did find it hard to not corpse whilst filming.

Whilst editing to create the glitching effect i cut certain images down to millisecond length and put them close together making it seem as if the world this was taking place was breaking. Whilst editing i encountered no problems making it a very successful edit.

First Cut

First Cut

Below is my first cut of the music video, this isn’t the fully finished version as I haven’t gotten all of the shots to complete the song. However I am pleased with the outcome so far as it still follows the original plot line of fear and paranoia that was created for it, this plot line has allowed me to experiment in many different ways of how create fear not only within the video itself but in the audience who watch it.

 

Unfortunately my first cut is unable to import onto blogger so it is unable to be shown at this time.

Schedule Update

Schedule Update

Over the past few weeks I have been filming and editing my music video but to make sure I’m on track I have been sticking to my schedule and have allowed a week or two for anything to go wrong. As you can see below I didn’t start editing until the third week, this is due to technical malfunctions along with my actors being unable to film at the time. However I have managed to catch up with both filming and editing and am close to completing a first full draft of the video.

Demographics

Demographics

My target audience for my selected music video is aimed towards males between the ages of 16 -26, I have chosen this because this genre of music appeals to them more and usually like the darker style of music video that I am making. Most of the people that will listen to the song and watch the video will hear this in clubs around the London area, so the social group will be aimed towards those close to the city area. The social class of the music video as a whole will fall between the demographics of D, C2, C1 and B; this is a wide range as many people who are in those categories are able to listen to it on a daily basis. This doesn’t affect those in the categories of A or E though as people who are in the A category will prefer to listen to music of a higher class e.g. classical which has sophistication about it, on the other hand the people in the E category will be less likely to listen to it as they are used to listen to gritty songs with a lot of swearing and sex references. The ethnicity genre for this song will be mixed as everyone is able to understand it as most of the song as a whole doesn’t have many lyrics so everyone from all walks of life will be able to understand and enjoy it.

Style of My Music Video

Style of My Music Video

My music video is different from a normal music video, in that there isn’t any lip syncing within it.  This is mainly brought on by the fact that my chosen artist doesn’t focus on lyrics within their songs and their music videos replicate that. I have also chosen to not do this because I feel that it is better focusing on the storyline rather than the normal conventions such as lip syncing. To make my work more interesting and unexpected I plan on keeping the shots in the gritty natural style that they were shot with. This is to create a pure, natural, raw feel about it as if we’re seeing it just as if it was happening just at that very moment, hopefully drawing the viewers in and feel a part of this story. This allows me to play around with the story more and reach the highest potential that I can get to with this piece of work.

Editing Day Two

Editing Day Two

Today I was able to edit what I filmed last Thursday in Presdales Woods and apply many different effects to it. As it is a very climactic part of the music video I have experimented with the speed and the duration of the shots to make it seem more abstract and as if we were looking into a different world where the laws of physics and time do not matter. This will hopefully give me a different look to my music video making it different to everyone else’s.

Day Two On Location

Day Two on Location

Today we had the morning off, so I took this opportunity to film some of the final scenes for my music video. I chose to do this now because the weather is getting colder and my actors will be less likely to come out when it is freezing. The result of this ended up with a great piece of work as all of the shots went fluently and we tried to get the best quality of work done possible.

Editing Day 1

Editing Day One

Today I was finally able to start my editing, the reason why it has taken me a while to start is because my shots would not convert and the memory card corrupted. However now that I have started to edit, the beginning part of my music video is complete and now allows me to film more of my production and hopefully become up to date with my schedule.

Characters

Characters

Throughout the music video I will have one main character which will be one girl who goes through this supernatural world and discovers what or who she fears most out of all of the fears that we see. Other characters in this music video will mainly be behind masks representing different fears so the actors behind those masks are able to change.

Locations

Locations

For my music video I plan to use a variety of locations to represent the different areas the ‘fears’ live within. These locations will consist of, inside a house, by a train track / on a pathway, in a forest and inside a school. This will show a diversity of locations and will allow me to experiment with a wide amount of shots and editing techniques whilst telling a story of how my main character becomes more paranoid as the song goes on.

Day One On Location

Day One Filming

Today we filmed the first section of my music video, by doing this it sets a pace for the rest of the music video to feed off of. This gives me a better chance for success when I film the remaining parts of the music video. Although overall the day was a success in getting every shot that was needed, there were some minor setbacks due to re-shooting shots and making others better where there was corpsing within it. The shots that were mainly used throughout the first scene were medium shots and extreme close-ups on the characters feet either walking or running.

Costumes and Props

Costumes and Props

As I have taken inspiration from the band Hollywood Undead in the sense of masks and clothing my characters will be just like them in wearing normal clothes; t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, jeans etc. This shows that the characters are normal people and that this music video isn’t too abstract for the audience. As I knew I wanted to use masks in my music video I made sure that the props (the masks) were made before the production was started, this is so I didn't have to waste time during the production stage making the masks and costumes for the characters.

 

 

Animatic

Animatic

To prepare even more for the filming that will be taking place for the music video we have to film an animatic to show and give us an estimate of what our shots will look like and how long it will take overall. Here is my animatic.

 

 

As you can see i used a transition effect to show that my storyboard was too long to complete. but i added the final two shots to show that it will have an ending.

Music Video Influences

Music Video Influences

The main influences I have for my music video is from Hollywood Undead, this is mainly because in their first album Swan Songs, they mainly wore masks and have very fast paced music videos. Their first lot of music videos have inspired me by the speed of the cuts and the masks that they wore during them, these were their first masks and were the easiest to make. Just like my music video they try to cram as much detail and story into each of their music video’s but their original music videos which the masks have been based on only focus on one small story and mainly it is to do with drinking and partying, generally not giving a great storyline to take influence from. So at this point it is hard to compare or take influence from them appart from the use of masks.

This then leads to their second album American Tragedy when one of the band members left and was replaced by Danny in a gold mask. Their style of music videos instantly changed in this album the pace slowed down a bit but the focus on the plot line became greater and in their music video for Been to Hell they focused on three stories rather than one. In the music video it shows how people always deam of coming to Hollywood to make a name of themselves and find that it is harder than they think it is. Because of the evolution of the music videos, the masks evolved, they become darker and had electricity running through them co create a bigger impact towards the audience. I am inspired by their American Tragedy album as their music videos became darker in lighting and plot line.

Finally their latest album Notes Form The Underground and one of their latest music videos We Are, this music video is the darkest one yet and focuses on six storylines rather than one or three. Trhis is mainly where the inspiration for my music video comes from they show many dark images and make sure that they show a plot line unlike other music video’s which just show lipsynicing.

Schedule

Schedule

Today we created a filming schedule, this is so that we can make sure we are up to date in blogging and making sure all our shots are in place and ready for editing by the next lesson. By creating this it optimises our chances of getting better grades and creating a higher quality video.

Shot List

Shot List

Here is a shot list of my music video:

• ·         The music starts and we see a girl walk out of her house and down the hill towards town.
• ·         Cut to a shot of her feet walking past the camera.
• ·         We follow her into town as she goes into a shop.
• ·         As we see her shopping / looking at an item we see a dark figure looming in the background.
• ·         She buys the item and leaves.
• ·         She walks down the street and the dark figure follows.
• ·         She looks back and he is a normal person.
• ·         She carries on walking.
• ·         She looks at him again and he’s wearing a mask (showing that he has become one of the fears).
• ·         She starts to run away from him.
• ·         She is chased down the street.
• ·         The girl sees an alleyway or a building and runs into it.
• ·         She appears in a school corridor.
• ·         The girl looks at her arms and realises that there is writing on it.
• ·         She walks through the school looking into empty classrooms.
• ·         She turns round a corner and walks corridor.
• ·         A door opens and a person walks out in a PLAIN mask.
• ·         Other doors open down the corridor and people wearing plain masks appear however there is one that is different and he is the ‘boss’ of this area.
• ·         They creepily walk towards her putting their hands on the walk trying to grab her.
• ·         She backs off and runs away.
• ·         The girl now appears in a bedroom.
• ·         As this is a new area more words have appeared onto her arms.
• ·         She hears something and makes her way downstairs.
• ·         A ‘party’ is going on, there are people sitting around gambling and doing bad things.
• ·         There are 2 bosses here; she is scared / horrified of what she’s seeing.
• ·         Someone gets up and offers her a drink.
• ·         She drinks it.
• ·         The girl falls over unconscious.
• ·         She wakes up in another room.
• ·         Her arms and now almost fully covered in writing.
• ·         She sits up and sees messages on the wall.
• ·         She looks round and sees messages on all of the walls.
• ·         She starts to go mad and sees someone in the corner; it is one of the final bosses.
• ·         She stops in front of the tree staring in awe.
• ·         The camera spins round to show she has a mask on.

Presention

Presentation

Today we presented our ideas to the class and were given feedback to help us progress and make our idea’s better.

My idea for a music video is based around paranoia and how one person sees fears everywhere she goes, to do this the song I have chosen is Witchcraft by Pendulum, by selecting this song it allows me to experiment with many ideas. This has been influenced by David Bowie’s music video I’m Afraid of Americans where he himself is paranoid. I have used this concept and have manipulated it to become more surreal and abstract. I will be using quite dark fears such as mirrors, demons and amnesia. To enhance these I will also be taking inspiration from Hollywood Undead who use masks in their performances to create a bigger impact onto the audience and public.

 

I was then given feedback by my teacher and classmates and overall they thought it was great idea and it was a really good song choice, however some questions were raised to how I was going to represent / create some of the fears. I explained how I planned on doing them and they understood my point of view.

 

Media Studies Music Video Practice

Music Video Shoot

To practice for producing music video’s we did a location shoot at Knebworth Park, which has given us valuable experience on what shooting music videos on location are like. Throughout this Eleanor filmed the majority of it whilst Shirley and I acted on camera, even though Matt wasn’t there on the day he then edited it back in the class room. Over a week or so we had almost fully finished the song as requested so we had completed the task that was asked of us.

 

 

Question 7

Question 7

Since the preliminary task that was set to us at the start of the project I have learnt a lot from it. I have developed my skills as a cameraman and learnt how to make shots look more exciting. An example of this is after the 2013 appears on screen when you first see the Protagonist running; the shot that I thought was very effective at this point was the one where the camera was in the bushes / grass and you saw the shadow of him running against the sunlight. This adds a bit of mystery to whom this Protagonist really is and why he is running. It also adds contrast in the shot in the calmness of the sunny day to the terror / panicked state that the protagonist is in adding juxtaposition to the scene.

Question 6

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies in the process of constructing your film?

Whilst creating the film opening I used a variety of applications and programs to help me. In the planning and research stage I used DVD’s to look at how certain directors showed their antagonist as evil through the use of camera angles, lighting and costume, this helped me design my antagonist. I also used a digital still camera to find locations

Question 5

Question 5

For my targeted audience my film opening is appealing to them in that it is a very stereotypical horror / thriller film. The camera style is a mixture of hand held shots to put us in the lives of the hero and very long shots towards the protagonist to show that he is menacing and the evil force in this film. The editing style in my opening is jumpy and very quick, but there is the use of slow motion to show the audience that something terrible is about to happen. The music that has been used is dark and slow to enhance the mood and to make the film seem more like it’s a horror film rather than an action and an adventure one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeAUn78T1bE

Question 4

Question 4

The age group that will be targeted with my film will be 15 year olds to young adults as this film is quite graphic and isn’t for family viewing. With this film stereotypically mainly male audience members will watch it as they tend to be attracted more to these kinds of films. The social groups that are attracted to these films are ones of Goth’s or those who like a lot of gore and mystery.

 

Question 3

Question 3

Seeming as my film is a low budget film the company that I have chosen to fund this film is chosen Channel 4 as they focus on a niche audience and I feel that this film is mainly focused on a niche audience of people. I feel that this opening and the rest of the film is focused on teenagers to young adults as I don't think this is for family viewing. This is also most likely to be shown in an Art House picture cinema as they specialise in showing smaller budget films and that’s what my film is.

 

Question 2

Question 2

Protagonist

My Protagonist overall is presented as a weaker force in this opening compared to the Antagonist but when he is running down the path there are many low angle shots which could suggest that even though he is running he still has power and strength. The class status that is represented through the Protagonist in this opening is that he is an average day middle classed person; we are able to tell this through the clothes that he wears e.g. Jeans, a hoodie in good condition and new shoes.

Antagonist

My antagonist has been based on such villains as Bane, The Joker and Scarecrow by using masks to hide the true identity of the Antagonist and to create a stronger and more intimidating impact to the audience. My Antagonist overall is presented as a stronger force in this opening compared to the Protagonist especially when he is standing at the end of the tunnel in the dark showing us that he is both powerful and evil. The class status that is represented through the Antagonist in this opening is that he is an average day middle classed person; we are able to tell this through the clothes that he wears e.g. Black coat, Jeans.

 

Question 1

Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title

In the past conventionally titles have been made to appear right at the start of a film but I have followed the more recent conventions of the latest films by having my titles appear towards the end of the opening.

Setting

For my film opening it is using a stereotypical setting for its genre. My genre for the film opening is Horror / Thriller so the location of a dark underpass is appropriate.

Costume

The costumes that have used for my film opening are dark rugged clothes for the antagonist to make it clear to the audience that he is the evil one, and the costume for the protagonist is made up of lighter colours and fewer layers to try and show that he’s able to move more and the use of lighter colours would suggest to the audience that he is the protagonist. But the costume and chatracters have mainly been based on what i would wear in these situations and what i had available to me at the time.

Target Audience

My target audience for this film opening is like any other Horror or Thriller audience, teenagers to young adults. I have chosen this audience as I feel it is suitable for them and that this opening isn’t a family viewing one.

No Knife

No Knife

For my opening I have decided to get rid of the knife as a prop, as I think that it may be giving the wrong message when filming around the public. It was a risky prop since the start of the project, and by getting rid of it I feel that it will make it safer for both the crew and the public. I also think that it will open up more opportunities to experiment with what is available to me.

Re-Filming

Re-Filming

Today I took all the feedback that I got from in class from my first draft of the opening and re-filmed certain scenes and parts that needed to be re-filmed. We mainly focused on the tunnel scenes as I was told that they had to be focused on the most an example would be when the antagonist is talking and his face is in shadow. To overcome this we moved back into the light a bit making the expressions easier to see, this will hopefully bring my opening up and make it better overall.

Funding

 

To fund this film i have chosen Channel 4 as they focus on a niche audience and i feel that this film is mainly focused on a niche audience of people. I feel that this opening and the rest of the film is focused on teenagers to young adults as i don't think this is for family viewing.