Research & Planning: Final Camera Shot, Angle & Type

I have created a shot by shot list as a presentation to show what camera shots/angles I ended up using...

Final Shot by Shot List Media from Sophie Mace on Vimeo.

Research & Planning: Magazine Advert

Research & Planning: Final Image Choice for Digipak

I have narrowed it down to two images to choose from.

To get the final decision I have created a Survey Monkey to decide between the two.

Click here to see the survey.

Here is screen shots of me creating it. Once I have feedback I will update this post and have my final image to start editing.

Update: After creating it and previewing it I saw that I had accidentally added two of the same questions instead of the one so I went back and changed it to make it right with only one question.

Final Update

After getting peers and putting it out onto my Tumblr with over 4,600 followers to reach a wider audience I got my final decision. Tumblr is a good place to promote my research as majority are of my target audience -

Overall, out of the 14 responses I received 13 out of the 14 went for option B

Option B is -

Now that I have my final image I can start creating the digipak and then the magazine advert.

Research & Planning: Potential Images for Digipak

These are the images I have to chose from. I am going to do some primary research into what photo people prefer/think most suitable and from there chose the top two. Edit them both and then get some more feedback to choose my final image and make any changes needed.

Research & Planning: Changes to Initial Ideas & Plan

In order to see the difference between my initial idea and plan of what to create in terms of my music video I have made the changes to my storyboard using post-it notes to show the changes...

Shots 1/2/3 were all the same as planned. Shot 4 I had planned to also use a map as a prop but decided not too when filming. Shots 5/6/7/8 were also stayed as planned.

Shot 9 and 10 (which I had already altered prior to filming) both stayed the same. Shot 11 was changed as instead I filmed two different shots of her making her way to the lake. 12/13/14/15/16/17 were all the same but not necessarily in that exact order, as was 18. Shot 19 I changed so she dropped the necklace to the ground and walks out of shot which made me decide to remove shot 20 of it laying on the floor and then I made it so it fades to black as planned but also added text at the end.

These are all the changes made to the music video and are all positive changes and they all improved the video.

Research & Planning: Time Management - A Reflection

• So far my time management has been good. I ensured that to get the best quality footage for my music video and pictures for ancillary products I needed to leave enough time after researching to both film/shoot and then go into the post-production stages like editing. 
• Now that I have started to edit I am on a stricter schedule as I need to edit the music video and get feedback along the way and then do the same for the other two products. As I am editing the footage/ancillary products on my own MacBook I have left a shorter amount of time than I would have if editing on a school iMac. 

I will update this post when I have finished in order to give a more detailed, overall reflection on my time management for this production. 

Now that I have finished I would say that overall my time management has been good. I'd say so because, as I said above I allocated enough time for everything to ensure it was of a good quality and I also finished before the deadline, showing that I've been efficient. 

Research & Planning: Digipak Information

I have done some research into what I will need to add to the bottom of my digipak, and about the record label, 'Jagjaguwar'.

Here is their 'active artists' which I found on their website.

Here is their page all about Bon Iver. 

Now that I am more educated about the record label and know what is conventionally on the back of a digipak referring to the record label information when editing it I will add all the information in a suitable font which compliments the other font I'd of chosen. To ensure that it sticks to the conventions I will also add a barcode onto the digipak.

Research & Planning: Development of the Digipak

Fold

• I am going to stick to the traditional two fold digipak to stick to the simple theme of the digipak.

Font

• I'm now looking into what font to use using the website dafont.com 

                  

                                     

• I have chosen to use this website because of the massive variety of fonts to choose from. As you can see from above I have already seen some that I might use/try.
• As you can see from the previous album artwork I'm sticking to the hand written theme

Information

I am looking into finding the information needed for the bottom of the back page.

To create authenticity I will add this.

Research & Planning: Digipak

After researching into digipaks I have got a good idea of what I would like the design of mine to be like. I am going to start by sketching some ideas up. I will then get feedback on these initial sketches and then focus on the favoured one. When I focus more on that one I will start looking into things like, font, colour scheme etc.

Sketches

Feedback

Idea One - Simplicity is nice, image being central is appealing to the eye, title/artist might work better on same line, fits the genre well, conventional, appealing, good that it fits existing albums, font matching is a good idea.

Idea Two- Front being the image might be a bit much for the genre/conventions, background out of place with how busy the front will be, need an appealing block colour, title/artist clearly seen which is good, simplicity nice but a little boring.

Final choice

Overall, after getting the feedback above from 10 different people and asking each of them which one they prefer the final outcome was idea one with 7 votes out of 10, idea two having 3.  

Research & Planning: NME

Research & Planning: Final Location, Costume & Props

Location

Here are some pictures of the final location, to see the post which goes into detail about location, click here.

Costume

I decided to dress her in clothes which suit the genre as well as the target audience. Therefore I thought that his outfit fit the genre & the 'indie' target audience. She also wore this bag:

Props

For the necklace I decided to use this one:

I liked this one as the feather could be considered symbolic to her letting go/moving on etc.

Research & Planning: The Plan - Film, Photo & Sound etc

Research & Planning: Sound, Lighting & Composition

Sound

For sound I have previously done a post to see it, click here. 

Lighting & Composition

In order to research into both lighting and composition in more detail I'm going to compare two similar music videos of the same genre - 

Bon Iver - Holocene 

As you can see the lighting in this video is very dystopian and dark. It fits the mood and theme of the song. This is the style I'm going for. To achieve this I will film at sunset and then in editing add a filter onto the image. 

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

In this music video, although its the same genre - Indie Folk - the lighting is completely different. It is much lighter and also very similar to Bon Iver's Holocene that it fits the theme and mood of the song. 

Overall, for mine I have decided to go with more the lighting that Bon Iver has already previously adopted in old videos. It is suitable for the song I have chosen 'Beach Baby' and the narrative I have created. As I said previously I'm going to achieve this by filming at sunset and then in editing add a filter onto the footage. 

Research & Planning: Distribution & Exhibition

Research & Planning: Props

Props

Props - In most music videos sometimes props are used to illustrate the narrative, and when linking the lyrics with visuals, props are commonly used. The props in a music video add to the entertainment side, and can be used in a fun imaginative way. One music video that uses props to make the video more entertaining is ‘Telephone – Lady Gaga ft Beyonce’. 

To make the props suitable to the genre whilst the prop links to the narrative and adds to the story it doesn't add to the entertainment. This is mainly because with the style of video it isn't meant for entertainment it's more just a story/narrative thats spoken through a video and the lyrics.

The props I need;

• A necklace -  
  

This is the sort of necklace I'm looking to get for my music video. The locket's meaning in the video is that her old love whom you presume she's moving on from gave it to her. She feels as though this is the last part of him that she's holding onto. The music video is her journey of removing the last of him from her life. After she is 'free' of him. 

Research & Planning: Mise-en-Scene, Costume & Cast

Research & Planning: Sound

• The only sound that will be in my music video is the song - Beach Baby by Bon Iver. When adding this I will remove the sound from the video clips and simply add the song into iMovie. As this sound will be added after it's considered non-diegetic because diegetic sound wouldn't be appropriate with it being a music video.
• With this being the only sound it means that I don't have to worry about sourcing original pieces for my production.
• I have thought about whether to keep the song as the actual artist or change it to a different vocalist but overall decided to keep it the same.
• If I have time I will create a timeline of sound which will link the sound to the narrative. 

Research & Planning: Characters Development

Casting of the Character

• For the casting of the main and only protagonist who will feature in my promo music video I chose Emily, who is my sister. 
• I chose her because for the style of my video, I think that with her sense of style and look she will suit both the genre and the music video I have planned. She is also young (19) which is of the right sort of age. 
• She can also drive so this means that for the in the car shots I can film to ensure I get the right kind of shots I want and she can drive. If this had not been the case I would have had to drive and get someone to film for me, I feel more comfortable filming so I know I can get the shots. 

A picture of my sister.

Development of Character

For the development there hasn't been much. I just now know the kind of person I wanted to feature in the productions. Now I have casted I can now focus on the plan of filming etc. 

I think there would've been more development if the character had more of a part in the music video but the music video has a sense of detachment so therefore you don't really have/need to get to know the main protagonist.