Shot List/Script

Floor Plan

                                                       

This is a birds eye view of my floor plan in the drama studio. I will be using three studio lights and blinkers, illuminating the artists' faces with light and the blinkers  would emphasize the band's performance, giving it a concert aspect. I will be using Steadicam as well as the tripod to create diverse camera angles and shots on my subjects by  panning the shoot.

Audience Feedback

megan audience feedback from Alina Haq on Vimeo.


I think that audience feedback is essential, it enables me to improve my music video to the best it can be. The audience would have a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of my music video from an outside perspective. 
audience feedback from Alina Haq on Vimeo.

Animatic

The animatic video of my storyboard was created on Adobe PremierePro. This was done before the production of my music video allowing me to constantly refer back to it, when producing my music video to ensure that I am on the right basis. I had to draw out every single frame and scan it to the computer.

Music Video Final Draft

Storyboard

I created a storyboard to plan in preparation of my music video, to how my music video would look like visually. This would help me when I shoot my music video, as I can refer back to my storyboard to know exactly what I want to do. With the exact camera angle, and mise-en-scene on display. Also, knowing what transition to use would help me when it comes to editing my music video.

Editing Images

I took a picture of my dream catcher using the Canon DSLR 550 SD camera. I knew a dream catcher would be a good image to associate the album's name with, 'Talking Dreams'. Also, dream catchers are commonly used within the Indie genre. Before importing my image on Adobe InDesign I wanted to Photoshop it to make it look like an illustration. I placed the JPEG in Adobe Photoshop.

I pressed, select and then colour range to get rid off the background of the dream catcher. I had to click on the dark shadow, and then the plus sign to get rid off more dark shadows which allowed me to select only the image of the dream catcher.

I pressed 'ok' on colour rage and it selected the dream catcher in the image only.

I then clicked the 'Quick Mask Mode' which turned the selected image red.

I clicked the eye on the main image layer, so the eye dissapears, getting rid off the background and only leaving the red image of the dream catcher.

Magazine Advert #2 Draft

Rushes Log

Contact Sheet

Location Recce

Raw Footage

Brand Guidelines

The brand guidelines I have established follow a consistent theme for my band 'Echosmith'. This document is significant as it provides rules and guidelines  for the way my brand has to be presented, which allows the audience to instantly recognise  products that belong to Echosmith.

Digipak Draft #2

Audience Feedback Survey

Cool Kids Music Video #Draft 2

Location Release

Before I could shoot my music video, I had to get permission to allow me to use the location I wanted to shoot my music video in. I had to get permission from my teacher who is in charge of the Drama Studio. This contract determines that I will abide the terms and conditions to ensure that I can use my chosen location.

Magazine Advert Draft #2

Personnel Details

This is the personnel details for my music video shoot. This document highlights all of the people participating in the production of my music video, with the description of their role and the equipment they need, noted.

Risk Assessment

Equipment List

Call Sheet

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text

In my advanced portfolio, I was required to create a music video along with my ancillary texts of a digipak and poster. I believe that my products cohere effectively with each other, by following a particular theme with house colours that also corresponds with the indie genre.

Initially, I did a lot of planning and research to ensure that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts would correspond with each other. The band Echosmith's album is named 'Talking Dreams', therefore I decided a suitable theme would be 'dreams' following night and evening colours in order for the main product and ancillary texts to conform with each other. I created brand guidelines which is significant as it provides rules and guidelines for the way my brand has to be presented, which allows the audience to instantly recognise the products I have created due to its consistency.

My digipak consisted of images from my music video shoot, which makes the ancillary text combine with the main product. The evening house colours are evident of purple, blue and black along with the images being taken in the evening in a field where the moon is emanated, and also the disk being an image of the moon, corresponding with the 'dreams' theme and also cohering with the indie genre where naturist scenery are palpable. The mise-en-scene of the setting is in focus, as opposed to the band members who are dark silhouettes to draw attention to the continuous theme of dreams that is combined in the main product and ancillary texts.The mise-en-scene of the clothes of the characters in the shots are indie, with the kimono floating in the main image making the character look like a bird, in my music video it looks like this when the characters dance in the field. Digipaks from indie genres are typically quite creative and simple, in which I find my music video and ancillary texts are combined to be. My final product has a range of wide and establishing shots to establish the mise-en-scene, therefore I used the same wide and establishing shots in my digipak to combine the texts. By using my brand guidelines, I kept the font and the logo the same throughout the digipak. I got the font from 'Dafont.com', it was named 'Moon Flower Bold', after checking the copyright regulations, I had downloaded it. I thought  the font was interesting, fresh and very indie, by seeing other creative fonts in other indie albums like MGMT's album and the original Echosmith 'Talking Dreams' album. I used a colour gradient on the font that combined all the house evening colours of purple, blue and black, I thought this was effective to correspond with the images and the overall theme of dreams. 

Similarly,  with my digipak to combine with the main product and digipak 'Talking Dreams', I continued the theme of dreams. As most indie magazine adverts are simple but creative, I thought I would need a clear image that would define the album. Therefore, I took a picture of my dream catcher with the Canon DSLR 550d, thus it's symbolism is associated with dreams and it is commonly used within the indie genre, in which I saw in Milky Chance's concert setup. I believe that continually playing on the indie genre and using the theme of dreams would combine the main products and ancillary texts effectively. Like Echosmith's original 'Talking Dreams' poster, I placed social media in the poster, hence it's a typical convention that is seen on magazine adverts and also  increases the band's popularity by staying connected to the audience. This is significant, as Echosmith is a new band with only two singles and would need more people to discover and be involved with them by posting content, competitions on their social media, behind-the-scene images and videos. Moreover, I think that it's important to include positive reviews from famed music magazines to draw the audience to the poster, in influencing them to buy the digipak as they already know it's good to listen to. This is why I added NME and Q's review on the advert with a five star rating.

In conclusion, I believe that my main product and ancillary texts work well with each other by following typical indie conventions of wide and establishing shots of the naturist mise-en-scene. By the use of evening colours in the font, and shots being taken in the evening, I think it combines the main product and ancillary texts together with the continuous theme of 'dreams'.  

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media technology has played an integral role in the construction of my final products, research, planning and evaluation stages. The advancement of technology has made it easier for me to create media texts, with its easy accessibility and wide-range of tools that are available to utilize. I heavily depended on Adobe and Microsoft Softwares, the internet - Web 2.0 and a professional camera like Canon DSLR 550D for the development of my final products.

The camera I used to shoot my music video with was the Canon DSLR 550D which proved to be effective in its differentiation of manual and automatic settings, this offered me to suit the moving image with the lighting. I used the manual settings when I was shooting outside when it was getting dark, I had to lower the ISO for my display image to become brighter and less grainy. In contrast, when I had to shoot an image of the sun, the display image was washed out and bright, I had to increase the ISO to actually see the image of the sun between the trees. I also used grid overlay, the horizontal lines helped my panning of natural landscapes  and establishing shots to be at level and smooth.  With the Canon DSLR, I attached the lens prime aputa 1.8 to permit various zooms on the characters of my music video, this facilitated me in close-ups of the characters' faces, intensifying their emotions and perceptions of the narrative. Whilst shooting, the characters had to run, I therefore used shutter speed which allowed me to capture fast moments instead of it appearing as a blur. I switched the shutter speed down to 1/60 and then 1/30, which created a smooth moving image.

When it came to my research and planning stages, the internet - web 2.0 was central for deriving information for musical conventions and presenting the information with the sites Prezi, Issuu and Slideshare.  Ultimately, Blogger had been my main source for presenting information, it allows me to upload documents in any format including moving image, which I use YouTube or Vimeo for and also documents in print. Each of my posts can be labelled so that I don't have to search the entirety of my blog to find relevant information I am looking for. I labelled my posts under - research, planning, production diary, drafting and final products, which makes it easily navigatable. Not only has YouTube helped me upload videos of my music video drafts and behind-the-scenes, but it has allowed me to research other similar music videos to make me aware of what mine should look like. This made me realise all the musical conventions that are specified for particular genres, like indie music videos being associated with band performances which I then contributed to my music video. Furthermore, I mostly used the Microsoft software and the site Prezi to present the information I researched. This was incredibly helpful, with its choice of layouts of presentation I was able to look back at my work and remember the information in an easy manner.

I used the Adobe Softwares for the composition of my final products, which includes my music video 'Cool Kids', my digipak 'Talking Dreams' and my magazine advert which promotes the digipak. When using Adobe PremierePro for the editing of my music video, I found it easy to place and add effects of footage. By adding four layers, I was able to incorporate whole footages that were already in sync to the soundtrack of the song, and cut with the trim tool where I didn't want footage from layer two or three and instead place footage from layer four into a particular scene. Also, by selecting footage, I was able to add a variety of effects to it. One I particularly liked was Warp Stabilizer, which smoothes and clarifies shaky footage, making it look cinematic. I also liked the range of filters that PremierePro offered, I used black and white extensively for the flashbacks of the character, which also cohered with the sad, depressing ambience of the character.

Actor Release Forms

The actor release forms determine that my actors are happy to participate in my ancillary task that is part of my media coursework. The document is important as it is a legal form that states that an identifiable published photo, video, performance or silhouette  of a person without an actor release can result in civil liability by the director of the video. Also, permission being granted from your actor or models is necessary to not lead to issues of the public not using or publishing your video. 

Contact with the band/artist

I contacted Echosmith's management 'The Knoller Group and Jeffrey David', to request for the usage of the song 'Cool Kids' for my music video and to ensure that I have no intent for any copyright infringement.

Evidence of videos you admire

           
I like Taylor Swift's 'Style' music video, for its varying shots, mise-en-scene and editing. I like how the mise-en-scene of the woods had fog and filters of the sunlight shining through making it look dream-like, I would incorporate this in my music video, by reflecting the sunlight from the camera's lens on to the person, and also using a smoke machine. Also, the song begins slow-paced but has fast-paced camera shots, with zooms in and out keeping the music video interesting and cohering with the song's beat. The various camera shots of close-ups, wide shots and mid shots in a short period of time, made the video look alluring, even though, most of what was shot was similar. As my song is slow-paced, I would also distribute a wide-range of camera shots with various editing to make the video engaging. I liked the lighting in the video, how some scenes were dark and some were bright evoking the different perspectives of the characters. I would use this with diffusion lights, flashing, in a dark room and also using the sunlight for my outdoor shots. Moreover, I thought the overlay filters were effective, emulsifying the characters and the mise-en-scene of the beach and the white backdrop, enhancing the connection between the characters and again conveying the different perspectives.

          
I like Charli XCX's and Rita Ora's music video 'Doing It', it's simple but the variation of shots and coloured filters makes it interesting to watch. As well as it being, postmodern with its inter-textual references to Thelma and Louise, Natural Born Killers and Barbie. I would use coloured filters to create a variation of effects, to make my video fun to watch. Also, I like how some parts of the music video look cinematic, like in the beginning when the music video is being introduced. I would do this in the beginning or the end of the music video, by using text in Adobe PremierePro and inserting the credits. The music video is a mixture of narrative and performance, I would like my music video to be like that, thus my song is indie and therefore I think it would be a good idea for it to have a band performance.

        
I also like Milky Chance's 'Flashed Junk Mind' music video, as it follows people running around in a naturistic landscape, connoting freedom. This is similar to how I want my music video to be. I like the point of view shots, and would want to establish it in my music video to evoke the characters' perspective. Moreover, I like the symbolism of the horses and motorbikes which again corresponds with the theme, freedom and nostalgia.