EDITING - A draft of the video

EDITING TO FORM A FIRST DRAFT

First Draft:

Now that we have finished our filming we decided that we would start to edit and form a first draft of our music video from the filming that we have done so far, just to check whether there is anything more we need to film, and also to see what's working well and what's not working well.

We all got together at Jack's house as he has his own editing software which we used for our AS Film and thought was good. This is simply a rough draft that we have devised, also so we can gain feedback from people as to what is and isn't working.

CONSTRUCTION - Day 2 Of Filming - Locations 2&3

FILMING IN THE THEATER AND THE POND

Today we filmed the remaining shots for our music video in Locations 2 and 3 - The pond and the Theater, both at our school. We made sure that we booked out our schools Drama Theatre so we could definitely use it for this day. Also as we wanted to use the lighting in the theater, mainly use a spotlight we got shown how to use it properly so it would be effective in our filming.

Firstly, we decided to film in the theater and do the shots we needed to do here. We made sure that we had all the equipment and things we needed for this filming session, which were the same as yesterday. Me and Lottie again, did hair and make-up on our actress, this time changing costume, this time a purple dress, and hairstyle as we are filming in a different location.

After this we set up all our lighting in the theater and tested it out to see whether it was bright enough or too bright and found a good balance. After this we followed the story board and did the shots that we needed to do with regards to the lighting.

Also, we took photo's again of the whole process of filming.

We had a CD Player in the theater so we could play the song while filming so our actress could effectively lip sync again.

After we finished filming in the theater, we did another costume change and then went outside and set up our equipment to film at our next location - the pond. We made sure that we filmed quite early so it wasn't going to get dark and ruin the filming quality.
We did the shots on our storyboard, again, filming the whole song for each shot and also added some new shots in.

We had some portable ipod speakers so we could play the song while filming, and also took pictures at this location.

Overall today's filming was also very successful and we are now ready to go onto the editing process.


Here are the pictures from Location 2 - The Theater

Here are the pictures from Location 3 - The Pond

CONSTUCTION - Day 1 Of Filming - LOCATION 1 FERRY MEADOWS

FILMING IN FERRY MEADOWS

Today we decided that we were ready to film as we have got all our research and planning done.

Today we only filmed in LOCATION 1 - FERRY MEADOWS (because we needed to book the location at school to film and we booked it for tomorrow which we will also film the pond scene as that's also at school which is more convenient AND we need it to be light when we film that.)

We scheduled to meet at 8pm at Jack's house as we needed it to be dark outside when we filmed. What we had learnt from our AS Project is that when we are going to film outside we needed some form of good lighting otherwise the picture quality would not be good, so we decided that we would drive to our location and use the car headlights for lighting which proved to be very effective. We also used to car stereo to play the song while we filmed so our actress could lip sync to the song effectively.

The first thing that we did as a group was to make sure that we were all available to film on this day and that our actress was available, which everyone was and decided to meet at Jack's house.
We made sure that we had all the equipment, props and costumes that we would need for today, which were:

• The video camera and the tripod
• The board (to create the wind in the hair effect!)
• The candles
• The camera to take pictures during filming
• The CD with the song on to play during filming
• The Costume and make-up
• The storyboard
  

When we had all these things ready, Myself and Lottie did the hair and make-up for our actress, which was a white dress and dark-makeup and then we drove to our location making sure we had all the things we needed. We decided that it would be a good idea to take pictures all the way through filming, like we did in our AS Project, because it was good in showing how we did everything and how the filming process went.

We decided that we would all contribute in every aspect of what was happening as we all got together and drew up the storyboard. We all did some filming and all had a say in what shots were working best and what wasn't working.
When one person was filming, the other would be taking pictures and the third would be doing the car lighting and the music and we all swapped round so we all got a chance at everything.

When we actually got to the location we did follow the storyboard and filmed our actress singing the whole song in every shot BUT we also filmed some new shots that we hadn't story boarded because when we got on location we noticed that they would be effective.

While we filmed we decided that we would want a "wind in the hair" effect so we were using boards outside the shot to create this effect which worked well. For the tracking backwards shot we wanted a smooth camera effect so I filmed out the top of the sunroof while the car reversed backwards which was effective when giving the camera shot a smooth movement backwards.

We decided that our best bet would be to film the whole song EVERY SHOT so we would have a larger variety of shots to choose from when we edited it together.
We made sure that we reviewed every shot after we filmed it to make sure whether or not we needed to film it again so we didn't have to come back to our location.

Overall I think that today's filming was very successful as we achieved all that we wanted to as we were fully prepared and worked well as a group.


Here are all the pictures that we took on this day of filming!

PLANNING - Final Idea and Storyboard

FINALIZING IDEAS AND STORYBOARD

Over the last week we have been finalizing our idea for the music video. As you saw we already brainstormed some idea's for our video but we made sure we had all aspects like locations picked out. We have been developing our initial ideas which has given us enough knowledge to start storyboarding.
Here is what we have come up with:

Locations
We have decided to pick 3 locations and we will film the whole song in each one, this is so we have a variety of shots to choose from when we are integrating all the shots together when editing so the song flows.
Our locations are as follows:

Location 1 - Ferry Meadows (which is a picturesque location with park with a lake etc)

Location 2 - Drama Theatre at our school.

Location 3 - The pond at our school

We have decided to choose these locations as they are all different are when edited all together will give it a variety to make it interesting. All these locations will be filmed in different ways.
In Ferry meadows we want to use the aspect of her being outside at night time where it's peaceful and emotional.
In the Drama Theatre we want to use that for the effects, for example we know that the theater has a spot light that we can use which would be perfect for our video.
At the pond we want to give the same ideas as at Ferry Meadows that being outside is peaceful and the pond represents tranquility and peace and it's a very picturesque location.



Cast
We have decided on our actress, obviously being female as the song is sung by a female. She's pretty and looks very feminine due to her long hair, so this is why we think she is good to play the role, which is stereotypically what females in pop music video's are like.



Mise-En-Scene
We have decided that what the actress is going to wear will be different in all three locations.

• In the Ferry meadows location she will wear a white dress because this is very feminine and from our research we noticed that in emotional songs usually the clothes reflect the song. White is often related to pureness and femininity so this is why we've chosen white.
  

• In the Theatre she will wear a purple dress

• At the pond she will wear a black dress

We have decided to choose feminine clothes because the lyrics in the song are very emotional which is related to women and this will give it a more feminine and personal feel.

Also we have decided that we are going to use loads of candles throughout our video. In the theater location we are going to have loads of candles on the floor beside her and have her carrying one through the trees in Ferry meadows, which also symbolize the light that she craves.

Here are our storyboards. We have story boarded for each location and will film the whole song in every shot, and during the editing stage we will pick and choose which shots will go next to eachother and see what looks best.

(CLICK THE IMAGES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER)

Our overall idea for our Music Video will be very simple. It will be a girl singing along while running to the song very emotionally, and using devices like location (dark locations) and mise-en-scene (candles etc) we will accentuate the mood. As we found from our research, having a simple idea isn't always bad, using things like lighting and editing it can end up looking really good.


We also started discussing the use of representations in our music video. We found that our idea contained many stereotypical representations of women in it. This is mainly as the song is a very emotional song, and we have a female actress being very emotional and singing about love, which is usually a stereotypical view of women to be very "emotional". Also the fact that the clothes we have decided on being very feminine dresses this also accentuates her feminine qualities which is showing stereotypical representations.

RESEARCH - More research into Soft Pop/Love Song Music Videos

MORE RESEARCH INTO SOFT POP/ROCK LOVE SONG MUSIC VIDEOS

As we have chosen our genre and song type ( a soft rock/pop love song) Ive done more research into this type as my other research covered different genres of music video.






This is the Video for "Cold Shoulder" by Adele. This video has no narrative to it, but it obviously relates to the song as she talks about words being like ice, which is why the ice sculptures are featured. This video includes loads of different shot types like Close ups and Mid shots and Long shots, as you can see in this image, which is very effective, as the video is only simple the variety of shots makes it interesting. The close ups are very powerful when showing emotion.
I really like the lighting used in this video, because obviously it's not a happy song, the dark lighting reflects the mood. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGwH-x4VoH8)







This is the song "Cry Me Out" by "Pixie Lott" which as you can see uses black and white to give it an emotional feel. Close ups of faces really evoke emotions and are effective.
Different shots are used throughout this video also to give it some variety. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0mMPOmtCXI)










This is the video for "Broken Hearted Girl" by "Beyonce". This video is really good at evoking the mood ofi the song using a variety of things. Firstly, the use of Black&White is really good, and the location choice is a good one, using a beach. There is no narrative story in this video,m but it's obvious that she is talking about a man, who appears a few times in the video.
The use of layered shots and fades are really good at creating a soft effect.












This is the video for "To Love Again" by "Alesha Dixon" which effectively creates the right emotion of the song. The choice of the location (park/forest type location) and i like the use of the darkness to portray dark emotions. This video features appearances from a male, which relates to the song as she is singing about wanting to love someone. The use of close-ups is good at showing emotion in the song. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ah9HOWzHKs)



A lot of things these type of video have in common are that usually the idea is very simple, but the editing and shot choices make them more interesting. They usually use effects like fades and layered images and black and white, which is what we could use in our video. These are common in many other video's I have seen before (and the previous research I did).

PLANNING - Our Song Choice and Brainstorming Ideas for our Music Video

Gathering Ideas


After all the research into music videos me and my group have decided to go down the route of choosing a slow-paced love song.
Using what we have learnt from our research of slow/love song music video's we have decided on some initial ideas which are below:

At first we were going to choose the song 'You're Not Sorry' by 'Taylor Swift' but after careful consideration we decided that this song is a very cliche, obvious song and we believe that we would not be creative enough when making a video for this song and probably would be too literal when following the lyrics.

So we decided to rethink our choice and the song we have decided on for our music video is Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine, which is an album track from the album Lungs that has not been released as a single so does not already have a current music video which allows us to start with a clean slate, be completely creative and start fresh with ideas. The genre of this song can be seen as "Indie" or "Soft Rock"and is a very slow and gentle song and we have interpreted the lyrics to be about love. We believe that the song lyrics have some meaning behind them and we may use symbolism to show idea's etc to make it exciting and emotional. With regards to a target audience we believe that this song would probably have quite a wide audience, however as it is a slow love song it may appeal more to a female audience.


Below in the Scroll Box are the lyrics to our song which we have annotated and tried to find meaning in:

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes
I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind
(blinded by love?)

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart
(darkness could be symbolic for loneliness or sadness?)

And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat
I tried to find the sound
But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,
So darkness I became

I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you
(being with the other person makes them unhappy?)

We have already been brainstorming some ideas that we think would be good as a music video to this song. Some of our initial ideas are below, but bear in mind we are going to develop these further!

The overall idea of the video
We have decided to take into consideration the lyrics of the song and would like to use the idea of "twilight" which is mentioned in the song, Also this song mentions "darkness" quite a lot so we are thinking of incorporating this idea into it. We may also find our own meaning in the lyrics and use mise-en-scene/location to represent certain lyrics etc. We have a rough idea of what we would to do, which is of a girl wondering around singing the lyrics like they are a personal thing to her. It does not really have a specific narrative and will be more performance based.


Ideas for camera shots and editing.
Also as this is a very gentle, slow song, we feel maybe the editing won't be too fast paced. However in sections the song does speed up and there are drums in it, so the editing could reflect this. In the middle of the song there is a verse where the drums disappear and all that is heard it a harp and the singing, during this part a slower pattern of editing could be used, also it does slow down at the end. We may use effects such as muted colors and fade and dissolves to soften it and give it a mellow feel instead of sharp cuts. We could also use a slow-motion effect as this also gives it a graceful feel. (As seen in the video Only Time by Enya.)

Also we could use effects such as black and white (for example the picture opposite from Break Even by The Script) which can sometimes give it a saddening and temperamental effect. We will probably consider having close ups of the girls face as to show emotion.


We have also been thinking about different shots we can include. We liked the idea of having 2 shots layered on eachother. This appears to soften the shots and give a dream-like effect. For example i took this shot from the song Rabbit Heart by Florence and the Machine as you can see a picture of a river with a coffin floating on it and over the top a close-up of a woman's face.


Locations
Locations that we have in mind could be outside in a field or a street. We would maybe like to film our music video in a location outdoor and at the time of twilight due to the significance of it in the song. Also "twilight" times are often associated with ideas of beauty and peace. As this song has emotional lyrics we believe that the location is one of the most important things. However , from previous filming experience we have learnt that the picture quality of a handheld camera can be reduced when it's dark outside, so we may have to rethink this idea if we aren't getting good enough shot quality.
We are thinking of also using the theater in our school to get lighting effects. For example we may want to use a spotlight to give it an intense feel.
We would like to shoot our video in different locations and then intertwine them together to make it more interesting then just shooting it in one single location. Locations could be in a forest, a street etc.


Mise-En-Scene
We have also been thinking about possible mise-en-scene and could be including objects like candles etc which could evoke emotions. We need to think about what sort of clothes that the girl is going to be wearing in our video.

Actors
As this song has a female singer, we would like to have a female singing the lyrics in our video to give it a personal feel as though she is telling her story which may make it more emotional. During my research i found that in most music video's it is the singer of the song that appears in the video to sing the song. But this is not always the case, however we would like to have someone singing the lyrics to make it more personal.


The next thing that our group is going to do (bearing in mind what we found out about music videos from slow love ballad songs, using there ideas and conventions) is plan our music video and draft up a first storyboard of our ideas.