Shootboards

In order to organise when each group would have time to use the studio to shoot their music videos, our teachers created a shoot schedule to plan out the four weeks of filming and allocate slots:

After reflecting on the feedback given on our animatic, we were able to take our original storyboard and coordinate with our new ideas and create a new improved structure easier to convey as a music video. 

Once these ideas were structured, we used our shot list and shoot schedule to produce a shoot board- one for each shoot day- with a detailed listing of the shot we are trying to achieve, where it shall appear in the video, who is in the shot, props, lighting and specific lenses necessary for the shot.

The first version of our studio shoot board, created using pictures from our storyboard

Shoot board for our first location shoot

We compiled separate shot lists for both studio and on-location shots, meaning that it we are certain to remember every shot necessary to complete the video, and although it is not intended to be continuous as it is a music video, the list will ensure that the narrative flows logically.

Proposed shoot board for our second location shoot

Choreography

Acting upon the choreography plans set out in our storyboard and animatic, we studied the lyrics of the song, picking out specific lines as prompts for the artists movement. The list below shows the lyrics in bold, and the artists actions whilst singing them below, as we want to apply Vernallis's ideas of the lyrics being conveyed through the video, and the video snapping to the beat:

After creating this, we took to the studio in a free period to allow Josh and Vivian to rehearse the planned sequence, and after a few practices, we were happy with the simplistic, yet obvious and effective sequence of the two artists addressing each other, before eventually coming together at the end of the song. We then filmed this routine, before uploading onto our edit suite to see how it appeared on screen, d once again, due to its simple structure, there were o visible issues- the video of the rehearsal can be viewed below:

Production & Rehearsals evidence

After finalising our shoot schedules, we spent time in the studio in order to set up the correct lighting, adjusting and focusing the lights in the correct positions for our shoot. In the sound and lighting booth, we used the zero-88 lighting console to adjust and create specific pre-sets to ensure continuity and easier set-up when returning to the studio.

Me coordinating sound & lighting during the first shoot

 Whilst preparing in the studio, we also set up a simple HD camera on a tripod so that after trialling each lighting pre-set, we could play it back on the camera display to ensure that it looked professional and was thee look we wanted to achieve- highlighting both sbjects in the shot.

Seb Taking control of the camera

This experience also gave us a chance to gain a sense of the space we were working with in the studio- we noticed that on camera, the lighting made the actors look much closer together, and as a result, we adjusted the spacing of the set.

Lighting Test

By conducting a lighting test, we were able to both experiment with different lighting styles- altering colour and intensity to see which matched the artist aesthetic best, as well as seeing how the artists appeared on Camera, and on the big screen.




After reviewing our footage from the lighting test that we wanted to retain the artistic feel of the video by keeping a minimalist black and white theme- using intense clear lighting for the white shots, and dimmer warmer focused spotlights for the black shots.

Shootboard

After reflecting on the feedback given on our animatic, we were able to take our original storyboard and coordinate with our new ideas and create a new improved structure easier to convey as a music video. 

Once these ideas were structured, we used our shot list and shoot schedule to produce a shoot board- one for each shoot day- with a detailed listing of the shot we are trying to achieve, where it shall appear in the video, who is in the shot, props, lighting and specific lenses necessary for the shot.

We compiled separate shot lists for both studio and on-location shots, meaning that it we are certain to remember every shot necessary to complete the video, and although it is not intended to be continuous as it is a music video, the list will ensure that the narrative flows logically.

Call sheet

Lighting and set design

Costume/ Hair/ Props/ Make-up

As the studio shots within our video are rather simplistic, yet take up the majority of screentime, we decided that in order to ensure that the focus is on the actual artists, we decided that we should use Costume, hair and make-up as a main source of attraction.

In order to begin to develop the artists look, we  created a Pinterest to group all of our ideas and inspirations together on an image board;

http://www.pinterest.com/latymermedia201/group-5-the-artists-image-girl/

We decided on using a specific colour scheme of black and white patterns such as the pattern below:

Black and white woven pattern

However, we found this rather difficult to locate on clothing, so we became more interested in the idea of tribal patterns such as the clothing and make-up pictured right more specifically for Vivian:

After realising the complexity of our old ideas, we decided to stick with a more basic theme of black and white inspired by various other artists videos such as FKA Twigs, Telana and AlunaGeorge, who al use 

, and have created a visual plan of the costumes- shown below. These costumes represent both the black and white scenes, as the costumes shall be exactly the same, simply a white version of everything.

We managed to source all of the costume for josh from our friends and family, however, we did not have a dress suitable for Vivian, therefore ordered matching black and white ones online- as shown below. We decided on matching outfits as it would add the swift transition between black and white to create a shocking effect.

We also will be using the dots similar to those used by music artist Simone Battle pictured left, as we felt that it would add an alternative cultural look to the artists, and bring more attention to their faces in the video. In order to achieve this, we bought two styles of greasepaint- black and white, to use for the different colour scenes. After practicing witht the dots, we decided that we should definitely use them within the shoot.

                                                      Simone Battle's and our Tribal Dots

 We also will be using the dots similar to those used by music artist Simone Battle pictured left, as we felt that it would add an alternative cultural look to the artists, and bring more attention to their faces in the video. In order to achieve this, we bought two styles of greasepaint- black and white, to use for the different colour scenes. After practicing witht the dots, we decided that we should definitely use them within the shoot.

However, when specifically focusing on make-up, we liked the use of contrasting white on black skin- such as the  eye make up on the model below, we asked around but nobody had it for us to borrow, so we sourced it online and ordered it to test it out before the shoots:

Ordering the white eyeliner

After rehearsing our studio performance, we realised that the visual side of the video was still rather dull, and to combat this. we ordered a couple of accessories for each character:

A jewelled headdress for Vivian- this would draw more attention to her head in the video.

A Claw finger ring- this was a spontaneous idea, as we felt that we could have extreme close ups of this and the headdress to reflect the alternative style.

White necklace

Black necklace

We then also ordered necklaces for Josh, a black one and a white identical one, as we felt that he too lacked visual style on set.

 We were also inspired by the use of netting to add a unique style to the artist's look- such as the face net worn by Rihanna below:

The image below is a visual representation of the make-up and netting together- we were convinced by this image that our look would be effective. However, we eventually decided that as we already had a headdress for vivian, the face netting would probably look too over the top, therefore opted to stay with the minimalistic style.

The netting we decided against

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Casting

CAST LIST

In order to ensure that our video production was as professional and high quality as possible, we tried to use people from our media group, whom had received prior training on how to perform in a music video- 3 of the 4 being classmates. Below are brief biographies of the 4 individuals involved in our production and their roles:

Vivian Oparah

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 8"

Role: NTLS female band member

Vivian is already a member of our media group, therefore we cast her as the role due to her previous experience with music videos and lip syncing in our remake as part of the A2 prelim. We know that she will be reliable and available when necessary as she is available for the same periods as us.

Joshua Brooks
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Height: 6ft 1"
Role: NTLS male band member

Josh is also in our media group, and we cast him the role due to his strenghts on camera- as he has been a media student since GCSE, he also appeared in the A2 remake, so has the same knowledge as Vivian, therefore we feel they will work together well on camera.

Louis Caldwell

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Height: 6 ft 2"

Role: Boyfriend

I was cast as the part of the boyfriend because, again as a member of the media group, I am readily available to commit my time to the project. My group mates feel I will fit the role of a boyfriend well- especially when performing alongside  Gina, the girl cast for the role of the Girlfriend- hopefully creating a believable relationship.

Gina Corrieri

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 6"

Role: Girlfriend

Gina is a good friend of all group members, and we know that she is not only reliable, but also has experience acting due to studying GCSE drama. Furthermore, after reviewing filming plans, she has confirmed flexible availability to the dates we have proposed to film on. 

Health and Safety Training

Before we were able to use the studio, we had to be shown how to operate the various systems, and how to carry the shoots out in a way that would not put anyone at risk.

Taken from our call sheets, the terms below highlight how we decided to operate in a professional style to prevent any issues regarding health and safety, however, if they did occur, we were well prepared:

Website Plans

When researching websites as influence for our own artists, we were drawn to 2 in [articular: SBTRKT and FKA Twigs- under the same record label as one another, the sites carry a similar minimalistic house style,  revealing only the artist name and album cover- with a single colour scheme- to match the album covers. \we used this as inspiration for our layout, lhowever, decided we wanted  more visually appealing background.

Before creating a website for the Band, we decided that it was first essential to create a logo for them to be identified by, to be placed on the site, album cover and on promo shots. Since our artist name is pronounced nettles, we thought it only necessary to base the logo on a leaf, here are some of our initial sketches:

After deciding on a basic logo, we moved on to the main visual image of the site: the homepage- creating a variety of sketches from our influences- with the similar visual of the artists in a forest just as on the album cover, here are the sketches:

An idea for the backdrop image of the site

A basic sketch of the idea of layering to hide/reveal the artists when clicked

After this, we set to work on the actual design of site, using the website production application wix (www.wix.com)- here we were able to use the visual ideas we had created in our sketches and on photoshop to develop a basic template for our site as shown below:

As seen, this includes The logo in the top left, a visually appealing background- the same as the album cover therefore related directly as a signifier of the artist, as well as a picture of the actual artist and details of the name and release date of the album (TBC).

Production Meeting - 29/09/2014

Development

-After a meeting with our teachers, we were advised to find a more up-tempo and suitable track, and as a result, we scrapped all of our original song ideas and settled with The XX - 'Heart Skipped a Beat' taken from the Alterntive Artist's self titled debut album (2009).

- We realised that this track was more suitable to the task in many ways;

             - It has no official video
             - It enables us to include the new video ideas we have been developing
             - Although it is over 3 minutes, its repetitive beat will make it easy to crop


W made no major developments in deciding our Record Label or Artist, but decided on the record label name Red Pigeon Records-  based in London and a subsidiary of XL, they are specialised around alternative and electronic British artists.

We also managed to refine and develop  primary secondary and tertiary audiences.

Primary : Electronic/Alternative music fans aged 14+

Secondary:  Late teens/early twenties

Tertiary: Late 30s / Early 40s

Production meeting 1- 22/09/2014

Within our first group meeting, we came together to firstly introduce our ideas to one another, as well as deciding on the four key concepts: a shortlist of tracks for the video, a record label, an audience, and an artist.

Firstly, we listed our preferences for the song, settling upon the following 3:

1) Ghostpoet - 'Cash and Carry Me Home' (2010 Brownswood recordings)

2) Glass Animals- Holiest

3) Spooky Black - Without You

However, after review we decided that 'Holiest' Lacked vocals to work with, and 'Without You' was too slow to produce an effective, entertaining video with- we settled with 'Cash and carry me home', awaiting confirmation from our teachers.

Possible video ideas for 'Cash and carry me home':

- Narrative of many people of different races lipsynching on their night out

- Using a Go-pro to create a strange first-person style

-Breaking the fourth wall to engage the audience ( similar to videos eg. White lies- Bigger than us)

 Record Label

-We all agreed that the artist should be British  and signed to a british indie label such as young Turks 

-We also felt tat this label could be an off-stem of the multinational XL recordings, particularly based in London

Audience

- Our primary audience is those in their late teens/ early twenties

- The audience would most likely be british, with a large proportion from London and surronding areasable to connect with the urban artist.


 We then decided that we should set u a pinterest ( online image board) to host pictures of our target audience and what we aim for our artist to represent.

Artist

- As our chosen song is by a solo male artist, we will most probably use Seb as the artist as he best matches the voice, with others as the extra lip syncers.

We plan to research our artist identity and bring ideas to the next meeting after our teachers have made a decision on the track.

Production meeting 2: 24/09/2014

Taking the advice of our teachers, we decided that using 'Cash and carry me home' would be impractical due to the fact that the vocals are rather distinct- a deep black male voice- therefore rather than trying t fond someone to fit the role, we should choose a song which we can utilise the abilities of our group with.

We made a new initial shortlist of 2 tracks:

1)Glass Animals - Holiest

2) FKA Twigs - Video Girl





FKA TWIGS- Video Girl

-No official video
-We thought up some really creative studio based concepts for this song
-However, slow tempo and lack of change makes it harder to make an engaging video

After disregarding both of these, due to their slow tempos, we created a second shortlist of more upbeat, narrative songs:

1) Basement Jaxx – Good Luck 
2)The xx – Heart Skipped A Beat

3) Little Dragon – Klapp Klapp

4) Bad Idea – AlunaGeorge

5) DJ Fresh – Gold Dust

-

In the end we opted for number 2- The XX- Heart skipped a beat, due to a few distinguishing factors:

- Simple narrative lyrics, not too slow or fast
-Possibility of male female duet
-Obvious storyline
- NO official video

Our initial structure:

- Based on studio shot footage of white male black female duet artists singing to one another in studio- (lip-sync) reflecting the somber mood of the song and introducing the alternative debut artists.

- Also use of archive footage to present a second narrative of a couple's relationship- following from early stages through to a possible eventful break-up.

-Possible use of lyrics such as "sometimes i still need you" reflected through both narratives- as we see one couple fall apart we see the artists come closer together again.

-However, the song has an excessively long opening which we must cut down if using it in rder to stay within the three minute cut-off point.

Next meeting we will focus on both adjusting the target audience to for the new artist, decide on their name, and create a suitable record label to sign them to.

Animatic

After revcieving consultation from our teachers and audence feedback regarding our stealomatic, we were able to use real stills of our cast and artists in order to create a shot by shot animatic of our updated video sequence.

Here is what we produced:



However, after recieveing further feedback on our animatic frim our teachers, we made further changes, before compiling the new sequence into a new updated animatic, as shown below:

Production meeting - 13.10/2014

In this meeting, we focused on the storyboard, animatic, publicity shots and flat plans.

Animatic

- As our storyboard was now complete, we used its structure to begin to compile an animatic- a timeline of images over our cut down 2:57 track
- We used this as a template to then contrast the archive (VHS) footage we had already shot with the music, and after adjusting minor issues such as the placement of the climax in time with the musical climax, our narrative was finalised.
- The scenarios are listed below:

1)Party  -Laughing/Dancing/Drinking/ First Kiss

 2)Happy Relationship  -At the park/ At home messing around/ On the street walking together/ Brithday celebrations smiling and laughing/ Days out in iconic London Locations/ Shopping

3)Relationship Breakdown  -Same locations as before, just not quite the same feeling of happiness -Louis uninterested, pushes Gina away -Small aruments and Louis goes off with his friends

4)Breakup  - Louis Dumps Gina- she is crying, shouting and leaves the room - She begins to throw stuff at him (his belongings) _ Louis slams the front door as he leaves - Closing shot of Gina crying on her bed

Animatic

- As our storyboard was now complete, we used its structure to begin to compile an animatic- a timeline of images over our cut down 2:57 track
- We used this as a template to then contrast the archive (VHS) footage we had already shot with the music, and after adjusting minor issues such as the placement of the climax in time with the musical climax, our narrative was finalised.

Progress

- We now have a first draft for or stdio shootboard, although we are aware that this will most likely change after the group animatic review with our teacher

- Also, now that we know which location/ archive shots we need, we must work out when and where we shall shoot them- meaning that recces should be done soon

- Promo shots planned and some sketches/ mockups created, but should be developed before the shoot days.

- Started Album Cover flat plans- set up wix.com page and have started designing, as well as creating graphics on photoshop

- Screenshots need to be taken to record progress in designing the site and for later reference

- Designs shortlist cut down to 2 final ideas- same shot and location but minor costume/ stylistic variations. However, we are still contemplating other ideas, so shall create more detailed mockups on photoshop and take a second look

Album cover Ideas

Kit List

As part of our planning ahead of our studio shoot, we constructed a kit list in order to ensure that wehad everythingwe needed available to us, and also so that we could use it on the day of the shoot as a check list to avoid forgetting to bring any kit to the studio.