Risk & Challenges

Filming: Day One - The Studio

Filming Prep: 

To ensure we were more prepared, Emma and I made lists to keep track of the props, costume and equipment, as well as who was in charge of it. This allowed us to share out all of the items without  over loading one person.

Costume:

We also had Sam wear a white T-shirt, as this is best for viewing colours, and the projector images on. 

Set Up:

 The Set up from our view - We positioned the camera in the centre of the huge white background and angled the lights.

 The set up of the camera/the projector. The camera was placed onto a tripod and was left there at eye level height. The projector was also carefully balanced on the back cabinets, where it was able to shine onto the white screen.

Testing Lights & Filters:

The filters we used:

Coloured Gel filters, borrowed from the school

Filters On Our Model:

Below are the photos we took of our performance model, Sam. We tested all the light filters to see which ones had strong colour and worked well with the camera. Over all, Emma and i preferred the dark reds and oranges, as well as dark blues and purples. 

Filters On The Set:

A Few Examples Of Raw Footage:

             

Task 23: Branding

Logo Inspiration:

I looked at a few popular indie bands / indie rock bands and attempted to find a few common conventions/idea that I would be able to use when making my brand logo. After a bit of research, I found a few band logos.

When looking at the Marooned logo, I really took a liking to the scruffy font and how it stands out against the black background. It certainly gives off a rock vibe and when comparing this font to my chosen font, you can see a few similarities.

 I really like the black circle around the Arctic Monkeys. It makes the font stand out but it also gives it a smooth shape and fully completes the logo. This is something I would attempt to do with my logo as I like the idea of having my font more prominent from a black background.

And finally, the thing I like about Bastille's logo is the A that has been replaced with a triangle. This, while still looking aesthetically pleasing, promotes the indie pop/rock genre that their music fits into.




Creating My Own logo:

         



Other final products:

My Final Brand Logo: 

I really love the look of this logo. It's circular shape gives it a pleasing shape that is soft and will stand out against any album cover. I also love the white curved line that cuts across the black background, giving the impression of the rising sun, which links to the name as it is before dawn. Lastly, I make the font transparent. I did this because I like the idea of the text always being the same colour as the album cover. For example, if the cover was multicoloured, the logo would capture all these colours and stand out. It also offers variation as the colour/design of the font will always be different.

Symbolism Within Our Video

Click writing below to be taken to website 

SYMBOLISM IN OUR VIDEO

Shot List For Amusements:

Amusements: 

Shot List For Abandoned Building:

Abandoned Building

Shot List For Street:

STREET

Skeleton Layout For Our Video

Skeleton from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

We created a simple skeleton of our video, with the correct shot timings just so we could see how it would turn out and it will be easy to put our footage into.

Shot List For Prison:

Prison

Shot List For Performance:

PERFORMANCE

Actors and Actresses:

Character Profiles:

Reasoning for choosing these actors:

• Protagonist: Charlie Woolf
• For the main protagonist we have specifically chosen Charlie because he is confident in front of the camera. Although, his face may not be seen due to the mask, we still feel as though it is important that the actor feels comfortable being films. In addition to this we feel as though because of the mask, body language may need to be exaggerated  to show emotion. This is something Charlie will be able to accomplish to a high standard because of his experience performing in drama plays. 

• Female character: Beth Davies
• For the female character we have chosen Beth Davies. This is because she is comfortable being filmed due to previous experience with modelling for photography students. Although she hasn't had any experience acting, because of the mask she wears and the fact that she isn't the main character we feel as though this may not be as noticeable. As well as being a suitable advocate in terms of her confidence she also provides our video with ethnic diversity which we may be able to link to various media theorists and theories. In addition to this, Charlie and Beth know each other outside of filming meaning that they will give a convincing performance in terms of their relationship.

• Performing artist: Sam Grotzke
• We chose Sam Grotzke mainly because his look fits the alternative genre of our song. He owns lots of clothing which would be suitable for the performing artists costume and is willing to wear it for the role. In addition to this he already knows the song and likes the band meaning he will be able to lip sync the words and sing them confidently and enthusiastically. Sam like Beth has also modelled fro photography students meaning he will also feel confident in front of the camera. Although he is not friends with the other actors we found this an unimportant aspect because Sam will mostly feature in scenes alone. 

• Male robber: Sam Grotzke
• For the theft scene we have picked Sam to perform as the "villain". This is because he knows the other actors meaning that not only will he give a convincing performance, he will also be comfortable and enjoy performing with the other actors. Also, by using the same actor to perform as the artist and villain we are able to link the performance and narrative halves of the video together. It also creates an enigma code for the narrative based half of the video.

Analysis Of Original Video

Camera: 
Throughout the video a range of camera movements are used. Zooms are used repeatedly on the artist to illustrate his importance as the singer and song writer and also his role as the main protagonist. Most of the video also seems to be filmed off tripod creating a psychedelic feel to the video which is illustrative of the music he plays. We felt as though this use of camera was effective as it did enable the concept based half of the video to appear more interesting.

Editing: 
Jump cuts are used on the protagonist to show his disorientated state. This reinforces the artists brand identity which we felt was important to demonstrate in the video because it allows the audience to interpret the artist in a way which is appealing to them. One of the elements of editing which was not achieved to the same level was the pace of cuts. In places the cuts felt too rhythmic which is not a convention of the genre or illustrative of the artists music. Pace of cuts is something we will have to pay close attention to when editing our own video.

Lighting: 
One of the things we liked most about the lighting was the use of a light projector in the performance based half of the video. The projector helped make what could have been a less interesting half of the video up to the same quality as the concept based half.

Mise en scene:
The unusual costumes used in the video helped to make the video retable. A lot of the dancers/ actors in the video are seen wearing work clothes which allows an audience to identify the characters and find comedic value in their dancing. The use of props also helped make the video interesting, for example the barbie doll dressed in an army uniform. It could be argued that this subtly adds a deeper meaning to the video however, we think that its main purpose like the rest of the video was to appear unusual and confuse viewers into watching more. This technique seemed to work well as the video has gained over 50 million views; a lot for an artist which was not known a year ago. Therefore, this uniqueness is something we would like to include in our own video.

Concept/ performance based: 
The use of both forms of video with cross cutting between the two created a great narrator - character feel to the video. However, based on the lyrics we think that the video could have explored the lyrics deeper and created a more meaningful narrative rather than a comedic concept. However, saying that the lighthearted concept behind the video allowed the video to express the songs entire meaning; to relax.

Testing out The Projector

In This video I test out my projector and what it looks like on a persons face (a technique we are going to use in our video). This is because the original video inspired us with their projector performance, and we wanted to make our performance more interesting. Before filming, I wanted to learn how to properly use the projector so less time would be wasted by trying to figure it all out.

Considering the projector's age, the quality is very good, however, it is a little pixelly, but this is hard to avoid as it is to do with the technology and how it projects images.

Over all, I believe if done efficiently, our use of the projector during our performance will be brilliant.

Task 21: StoryBoarding

StoryBoard:

What Have I Learnt? 
I have learnt that by having a storyboard, It is easier to film. This is because there is a pre-planned and structured guide. Storyboards also allow me to visualise a image, and then bring it to life when filming. However, it is hard to stick to a storyboard as there are moments of random inspiration and moment where things don't go to plan, or the idea changes.

Advanced Edits and cuts:

Editing Techniques:
Cuts from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

What Went Well:

• The editing techniques were interesting and required different levels of skill to edit, e.g, the text message animation took a lot of time and editing on other applications (Adobe After Effects).
• The spin from one outfit into another worked better than first anticipated - It is almost a seamless transition, however, small details such as positioning while spinning are slightly noticeable. 
•   Match on action shots are smooth, e.g, bringing hands to face to move hair for the next shot. It matched perfectly, and improved continuity. 
• Range of shots e.g, close ups, wide shots, over shoulder shots, angled shots e.c.t
• Considering this whole thing was filmed by one person, things such as lighting, object positioning and camera angling, the footage turned out well.

What Could Be Improved:

• Slight continuity errors: The hair flip shot + Changing Make up shot - Due to filming this on my own, I would have to start the camera on my own, do make up on my own and try to position myself of my own. Also my camera can only record for short periods of time meaning I couldn't record while changing hair/make up, meaning continuity was harder to sustain as I would have to constantly get up to start and stop the camera, which made my positioning change slightly for the hair flip. If perhaps I had more people to help, I would have been easier to keep continuity. 
• Lighting: over time lighting begins to shift slightly - this is because it took a few hours to film + re-shoots. The natural lighting provided when I first started filming disappeared and I had to turn on my room light in order to keep things well lit.
• Focusing: Some shots are more in focus than others - I had to focus that camera before I started filming but this was without me being in the shot, so as I entered the shot the focus would shift.

Task 20: Locations

Locations:

*Joint task, Taken from my partner, Emma's blog - Link to blog

What Have I Learnt?
From this I have learnt that location is important when filming for music videos as it allows a change of scenery, and if done correctly, could also be cinematic. Emma and I have chosen a huge variety of locations as we don't want to focus on one place for too long. However, these locations may change due to access. 

Task 19: Fashion and props planning

Click Logo below:

Once on Pinterest, please click the images for reasoning behind our fashion and props.


What Have I Learnt?
From this I have learnt that our fashion choices do reflect our genre. We are aiming to have a 1970/80 feel to our video, hence why we have chosen vintage clothing to match the aesthetic of the video. Considering we are planning on using masks, make up should not be a problem. This will also help us in terms of continuity as we don't need to re-create anything every single time we film.  

Task 18: Our Pitch

Our old, not fleshed out idea:

            

Task 17: Lyric Analysis

What Have I Learnt?
From this I have learnt that despite sounding random and crazy upon the first listen, Feel It Still actually has a deeper meaning to it that is hidden in the lyrics. There are plenty or references to freedom, as well as references to the lead singers daughter.

Task 16: Genre Research

The Killers: Mr Brightside

Alt J - Breezeblocks

Foster The People: Pumped Up Kicks

What Have I Learnt?

From this I have learnt the common genres of indie/rock. This will make it easier to make my video as I can follow a few of the conventions. By examining other conventions, I could potentially challenge a few of them, however, this could cause genre complications and or give people the wrong impression of the video and song, as it would be a huge juxtaposition.

Task 15: Artist, Video, Lyrics, Permission

Our Chosen Song:

Lyrics: 

Asking For Permission: 

About The Band:

What Have I Learnt?

From this I have learnt a lot more about the band itself. By knowing the band its slightly easier to understand where the "vibe" of the song originated from. I have also learnt that copy rights/permissions is very important, otherwise we could face a potential fine / copy right claim. 

Task 14: Thinking Of A Concept

What Have I Learnt?

From this I have learnt that I have leaned towards a specific genre - indie. This is because the lyrics have meaning to them and I find it easier to picture how I would want my video to turn out as. With a visual picture in mind, It makes it more easier to bring my vision to life, as long as it is simple to do and within budget.

Task 13: Editing Techniques

Filming this small scene was very time consuming and attention to detail is key. We had to make sure our actors were always in the same spot - we did this by centring them and using a tape measure to make sure they were always the same distance from the camera.

However, continuity in this clip was extremely hard to achieve as there were lighting changes, wind effected hair, and the actors would do different things with their arms which they didn't do in the next shot. This makes it slightly hard to watch without noticing these continuity errors.

What Have I Learnt? 

From this I have learnt that continuity is very important. The audience will notice small details that don't add up, and that will really take away from the viewing experience. It also gives the impression that there was no effort in trying to make sure the video linked up.

Analysing Record Covers

While digging through my attic, I stumbled across mountains of records, some of which date back to the 1960's. When looking at these old records, you can see similarities between records and digipaks, and how digipaks have evolved from record covers.

This record sleeve for Iron Maiden is very interstice as instead of having photos of the artist, it is a cartoon design with implications of death and dark themes.

Record sleeve

However, when looking at the CD/Digipak of one of their recent albums, you can see that there has  been very little change. They have stuck to the dark cartoon design. The only striking difference is the slight change in logo colour and size. On the Digipak, it is more obvious who the album represents are their band name is in huge bold letters.

Something else I noticed on the back of most albums was that they often contained little facts or comments from the artist or band. For example, on the back of Madness, each song has a comment from one of the members, explaining how the song originated. This gives the album more use, as well as allowing their audience to know the back story to their songs. When speaking to my father about this, he commented that he feels that he is in an "exclusive" group as not many people will know of these facts as they do not have the album. 

When records were all the range, most record creators were aware that their target audience was young people. Therefore they tried to more directly pander to them, while offering help and advice. For example, this album is advertising childline, something that most CDs/Digipaks do not do anymore. This is a interesting feature as it shows that in the past there was a focus on protecting their listeners, where as now, in the present, most producers are interested in how to sell their products instead of the audience's wellbeing. 

Editing Lip-Syncing:

Lip-syncing is one of the most important features in a music video. Producers aim to make it look like the singer is singing right then and there, not that music is edited over. So, to make it as realistic as possible, lip syncing needs to be spot on, otherwise there will be a slight delay in lip movements and music lyrics. This small mistake has a huge impact on the video as it makes it look less realistic and the audience will notice the delay, and this will stop them from being fully immersed in the video.

In order to try and prevent this when I attempt to make my music video, I have decided to try to get some extra practice in and test a few different editing techniques. 

Accuracy: 

I attempted to keep the lip syncing as synced up as I could by using a few techniques when filming and when editing:

During filming I would play the song aloud, through my laptop. This allowed my friend to hear the pace of the song and be able to keep up with the lyrics. I also tried my best to countdown toward the start of the chorus so my friend would know when to prepare herself so she didn't miss the start of the chorus. I took many videos, so I had more footage to work with. This is because with more footage, there would be more of a chance of having a good lip sync.

During editing I would go through the usual routine of trying to match the section of footage up with the correct section of music. After roughly matching the music and video, I would keep my eyes peeled so I could notice any errors within the clip and the music. Down below is a clip of a bad lip sync, where there are points throughout the video where the song and footage don't match. The video is slightly slower than the audio.

Bad lip sync from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

However, by tweaking the speed of the footage by 1-2%, I was able to bring the video up to speed with the song. But, there are a few moments when the song doesn't sync with the footage, and this is because my friend briefly forgot the lyrics and stuttered. Down below is the "fixed" version.

fixed lip sync from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

Making it interesting:
Music videos rarely have large chunks of the artist lip syncing. This is because it is pretty boring to watch and the audience loses interest. To prevent this, the performance is usual split up by narrative footage or a different shot of the artist singing. Since I have no narrative footage to work with yet, I edited different angles of my friend lip syncing together.
Lip sync cuts from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

There are a few lip sync errors in a few of the clips, but it makes the clip slightly more interesting than a solid 10 seconds of one lip-syncing clip.

Testing Different Lens:

Using different camera Lens:

Most producers will either add filter over the top of a music video, or use a small lens disk to change the lighting, colour or contrast of the footage filmed. However, I wondered if using lens' actually made a huge difference to the footage. The first lens I tested out is the warming lens. It is supposed to make light more soft and warm. Down below in the original photo. Sarah's face is very red and you can see shine reflecting off her chin and cheek area. 

Without Lens Filter

The photo below is the photo I took with the warming lens. Over all, Sarah's face looks slightly smoother as there is less shine. The over all lighting of the room looks a lot darker that the image above, showing that the lens has clearly changed the lighting of the room. I believe that during filming I will use the filming lens. This is because it makes lighting less harsh and makes objects in the footage a whole lot softer and smooth.

With Lens Filter