Introduction

I am in group 1 with Pru Carter-Phillips (8128) and Ella Budgett (8120). To view my portfolio evidence please click on the following three labels, on the right, named; A2 Research and Planning; A2 Construction and A2 Evaluation.
Please view our music video for MiraJax - Best Be Believing

Please view our music video for MiraJax - Best Be Believing

Front and Back Digipak

Front and Back Digipak
Above shows the front and back panels of our digipak

Inside Digipak

Inside Digipak
Above you can see our inside panels of our digipak


Please click this image to enter our site

Wednesday 26 October 2016

R + P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during research and planning

Whilst we were researching and planning for our music video, we all equally split the work load between the three of us. My main job was to create all the call-sheets for our test shoots, real shoots and our back-up shoots. We also came together for regular meetings where we would feedback our work but these sessions also consisted of watching a heap of real music videos and taking more and more ideas from them to develop our idea.

R + P Post 32: Test shoot and rough edit

The Narrative Test Shoot

We decided to do our test narrative shoot on the Monday of half term (24th) when all of us were available, including Jack Brown (our actor outside of the group). We managed to stay on track of time for our narrative test shoot. We travelled from every location successfully and efficiently and all cast and crew members turned up on time with no complications in terms of technology.

Some difficulties we had while shooting and how we will solve them: 

  • filming the on-tube shots proved very complicated because we tried to get Ella to get off the train at any stop then get back on while the doors were closing. We realised this was unnecessary as we only needed her to get off and come on and stay still, waiting for the doors to close behind her as we could edit the footage in-between out in post-production. 
  • while trying to film Jack running down the escalator, we were told off for filming by a member of TFL. She informed us that we need to apply for a free filming permit online which gives us full access to film whatever we want underground. We will definitely do this before our real shoot in order to prevent complications. 
  • we found it difficult filming in Ella's house because of spacing restrictions when trying to get particular angles. Therefore, we need to re-think the argument scene before the real shoot 
The Studio Test Shoot

The media department created a timetable for us regarding when the studio was booked for us to film in. We had blocked in the maximum time available for us to shoot, except for Friday's sessions as I would be absent. 
Our TEST SHOOT schedule
Although we initially thought we had heaps of time to film in, we didn't quite realise how long lighting would take. So we didn't get as much footage as we possibly wanted t. However, as we now have every lighting set-up saved successfully in the studio, we won't waste any time turning on lights at the beginning of our shoot sessions; we will now only have to position them accordingly! 

Overall, I think our test shoot was ok. Although, we want to use the dolly in our real shoot to experiment with movement when filming as our shots were very boring. We also need to direct our actors so we get the best out of them in terms of performance. 

R + P Post 31: My call sheet

We created call sheets for every day we would be filming. This included both narrative shoot days and studio shoot days.





I have inserted some pictures of a few of our call-sheets. These are a vital part of post-production. They let everyone (cast and crew) know where they need to be, at what time and on what day. It also informs them on when breaks will be held and exactly what they will be doing at every minute of being on-set or behind-the-scenes. We will also be creating call-sheets for the back-up shoot but we don't know what we need to film yet so those will be created once we know, in time for the back-up shoot.

These call sheets will be distributed amongst myself, Ella, Pru and Jack.

R + P Post 30: My shoot-board

Below is part of our shoot-board we created. We have made 3 different shortboards. We created a STUDIO TEST SHOOT-BOARD, STUDIO REAL SHOOT-BOARD and a NARRATIVE SHOOT-BOARD. 


We will be creating a back-up shoot-board after we have finished the real shoot and know what shots we need to re-shoot.

The shoot-board has created a chronological list of how we will carry out our filming on the day. It is a very easy guide to follow and makes sure we are always on track of time and on-top of our shots. As well as this, it tells us which characters are needed at what particular point; this way we know when to call in actors and make the most of their time.

After the test-shoot, we realised it would be helpful to have the number the shot is next to it to save time of having to count through every previous shot. We will amend this in time for the real shoot and back-up.

Tuesday 25 October 2016

R + P Post 29: Rehearsals

Rehearsals for our actors are very important so they can become more comfortable infant of the camera as they are confident with what is being asked of them. It also gives us the opportunity to try things out and see if we like it or not so no time is wasted on the proper shoot days. As well as the actors, the rehearsals are also highly useful for the camera and light operators so they can create they previously visualised shots in real life.

I practiced lip-syncing to our track a few times in-front of a camera. I think I need to work on being overly expressive with my mouth and actions because everything is more intense on camera. I should also come up with some rough 'dance moves' so I have actions to fall back on if I feel like I don't know what to do with myself!

Heres a short clip of some of our rehearsal time...

We also practiced some of our more difficult lighting set-ups. Below is an image of our finished pink set-up which we are all very happy with and have saved for the real shoot, to save time. 

R + P Post 28: My kit list

We have formed a kit list which is inserted below...


This is all the equipment we will be using on our LOCATION shoots. In school, however, we will be provided with much more kit such as a sound desk, lighting desk and professional studio lights. But this equipment is not licensed to leave the Seward Studio (where we are shooting). 

R + P Post 27: Casting

There will be 4 main roles to play in our music video, however we have decided to use the same actor to play two of these characters - Jax and boy in the narrative will be played by Jack. The narrative will be a representation of Jax's life experiences.


We created a casting table as shown above. Our cast have found this table extremely useful in trying to determine what is expected of their character; it helped them "get into character"!

R + P Post 26: Set design, locations and props

All our PERFORMANCE shots will be filmed in the SEWARD STUDIO at school. For our NARRATIVE shots, we have chosen to film in Ella's home (the staircase and corridor specifically), Southgate station and underground, Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace. These are all familiar and easily accessible locations for our cast and crew and offer a middle point of all our homes which made it fair. Along with the convenience of these locations, they were also top choices in terms of what they could offer for our production.

Finsbury Park station


Alexandra Palace and view

Southgate Station


In regards to props, we will not be using a lot because we want to focus more on lighting and extravagant makeup. However we still made a props list of the few props we will be using along with how we plan on sourcing them.


We were heavily influenced by the Destiny's Child-Say My Name music video when deciding on our set designs. 





R+P Post 25: Costumes, props and makeup

We created a costumes and props list which I have inserted pictures of below.  


 We want both Jax's and Mira's style to be very edgy, vibrant and youthful. This style has to also be reflected in the dress of the actors in our narrativ sequence. We have chosen to dress Mira in very vibrant outfits. Each outfit matches the colour of that particular set-up design which I explain later.

As well as planning our actors costumes, we also tried out some make-up looks using the school's make-up collection.


The looks we created are not meant to be perfect and detailed close-up but provide a statement eye when under the lights and from the vie of the camera. Below are some shots of our make-up looks under studio lights.















We have decided we want to create a bold eyeshadow look which corresponds with each set-up. We don't want to use eyeliner as we want to mimic the 90's style of makeup that you can see in the inspiration photos below.


R + P Post 24: Planning my digipak panels

We were given a template to base our digipak panels on with the correct measurements for them to be printed in. When planning our album cover and inside panels we had to base our ideas around the typical conventions of album covers we had previously researched. This includes purchasing information, such as a barcode, institutional information, for example record labels, visual variation and bold titles.

our album panels template from Emma (technician)

We knew from the start that we wanted both Mira and Jax's face on the front album cover panel because we felt this was very important in order to represent our artist duo on the debut album. 


We planned to create similar but slightly different front and back panels for the album cover sleeve. They both feature a 1/3 - 2/3 split screen with Mira on the dominating half on the front and Jax on the dominating half on the back. We thought this could be a visual motif for our brand/artist duo because it also featured in our music video.


The title of our album will be : ILLUMINUM which has connotations of lights and vibrancy...


Therefore, on the inside panels we will have a landscape picture of MiraJax with the theme of lights continued visually. Perhaps with a background full of quirky lights or something we will create using Photoshop. 

R + P Post 23: Planning my web pages

A website is very important for promotion in any industry, especially in the music industry. It can be a central hub for an artist to share all the information they need to in order to connect with their audience. It is also a brilliant way to create a visualised image for their brand so as to attract their target audience. The best websites, from research, allow the audience to interact with the website; for example through quizzes. They also feature numerous images and videos to show the audience what the artist is about and allow them to get a feel for what they're like, rather than the audience having to read pages of writing.

We have taken a lot of inspiration from the following web pages:





We want our website definitely to have:

  1. a page dedicated to images of MiraJax - this can be seen on Rihanna's website (the first screenshot) 
  2. our homepage to have several sliding screens - this can be seen on AlunaGeorge's website (the second screenshot)
  3. a latest news page - like on Justin Bieber's website (third screenshot)
  4. a menu bar that is visible no matter what page you are on - this can be seen on Rae Sremmurd's website (image 4)
We designed a plan for the website:


Each page will be on the same whole scrolling page. The website will effectively be one very long page with subsections which can be either scrolled to or navigated to via the menu bar as a short-cut. 

On our homepage, we want to straight away promote the new album (like AlunaGeorge has done). We feel this will establish that this is a music website and give the audience a purchasing option straight away. 

Finally, we want to have numerous social media links so the audience feels in connection with their idols. It also allows for easy promotion of upcoming albums and videos which will be exposed o all the social media page's followers. 

R + P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

Promo shots are the first thing someone sees when purchasing an album; first impressions are key. We need to use promo shots which reflect, clearly, the artists style and overall vibe without being too repetitive throughout the album package; the purchaser needs to be rewarded with more and a variety of images when opening and digesting the whole album.


Above are some of the album covers we researched for inspiration.

Every cover contains either a symbolic or physical representation of the artist as the focal image on their album cover. For Rihanna its her face and physical image and for Kanye West, its his iconic teddy bear image which can be found across most of his album cover artwork. Therefore, we know it is extremely important for us to include the same on our cover. We will include a promo shot of our duo as the focal image on our album covers front panel. We also have ideas that this may stretch across to the back panel aswell so when you open the album up you can see a full image.

We also decided we want...

  • a clear colour scheme
  • changes of make-up, hair ad costumes throughout the shots to create variety
  • to use interesting angles when shooting
  • shoot with blank backgrounds
We will also take shots on all our filming days and hopefully take some behind the scenes footage to use as material for our website. 

R + P Post 21: My key shots storyboard


Above is our key shots shoot board. As we  are making a three minute music video, there is no point making a full storyboard because most shots will be shown for only a couple of seconds and not be major enough to include in our storyboard, therefore wasting our pre-production planning time.
Our storyboard includes 25 key shots which we have to get on our shoot days both in school and out of school for our narrative and performance scenes.

It is a very visual way of presenting our ideas and the post-it notes are colour co-ordinated with what type of shot they are. For example, orange post-its are CLOSE-UPS, green post-its are MID-SHOTS and yellow post-its are LONG and EXTREME LONG SHOTS.

We will be using this storyboard to refer back to on all of our shoot days and hopefully it will be handy in being able to show our actors quickly and effectively what they need to do. It will also help everyone understand what is going on at any time of the shoot day.

A large proportion of our shots are close-ups following the advice of Miss Blackborow. It is important to have a lot of 'beauty shots' and close-ups of the singer as this is a strong convention in music videos.

R + P Post 20: My Music Video Timeline

In the first step of our physical planning of shots for our music video, we made a timeline. In the timeline, we separated the length of the song into nine equal sections  which broke it into the opening, verses and chorus. I found this extremely helpful as a first step to sort out our ideas and match them to the actual track. It was also very useful for deciding the balance of studio shots to narrative shots within our music video. 




The timeline gives us a clear order of shots which will be very useful, also, when it comes to editing in post-production because we know which shots come next.

Wednesday 19 October 2016

R + P Post 19: My influences and vision for the project

              

Above is our group's 'steal-o-matic'. This is a presentation/pitch of our ideas for the music video, shown visually. Recently, after the creation of our steal-o-matic, we came across a music video which we have taken a lot of inspiration from and would have liked to include a lot of clips of it in our steal-o-matic. I will link the video below. It reflects the London culture perfectly without being too obvious in terms of landmarks. It also forms an interesting perspective on youth culture, especially London Youth Culture and we want to also use their shaky, hand-held filming style.

             

A steal-o-metic is an easier way of sharing our ideas and making them come to life; it paints a much better picture than words are able to describe. It also makes sure all our ideas are synced as a group so we have the same vision of what our finished project will hopefully look like. We were able to experiment with how we are going to mix narrative and studio shots and in what order.

We took clips from a very wide variety of music videos including artists from Nicki Minaj to Chase and Status. Overall, I think our steal-o-matic is informative but could have been better.

Here is some teacher feedback we received:

  • need to cut to the music much more
  • be clearer that the start of your music video (the argument) will be without music
  • use the opening lyrics ("na na na na na") to create a fast-paced montage sequence to open the music video
  • we need to go back and analyse the percentage of time we want to be taken up by narrative and by performance-reccomended that we don't go narrative-heavy
  • think about WHERE the cuts can be made-away from performance/into performance
  • use beauty shots for the opening "na na na na" sequence
  • don't under-estimate the use of big close-ups; vital for a  music video
  • main performer (girl) could gradually throw away physical items which are restricting her to symbolise the things in life that hold her back
  • make strong connections with the performer and actor-use of make-up?



R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

We decided to analyse our track's lyrics as we felt it was important to get a clear and in-depth understanding of what they mean and how we could interpret them in the later stages of the process.

Slide Set created by eleanor lynch with GoConqr

R + P Post 17: My chosen track

AlunaGeorge-Best Be Believing




Released: 2013
Album: Body Music
Written By: Francis, Reid, Sam Frank
Produced By: Reid
Label: Island records, Universal


PROS:
  • It has a good beat-light-hearted
  • message behind the lyrics appropriate for our artists-about breaking free from a relationship
  • female vocals
  • synth-pop genre 
  • catchy lyrics-simple for our actress and the audience to remember


CONS:
  • Over 3 minutes long-need to cut it down effectively
  • the literal meaning of each verse/lyric is quite complicated to figure out-could be interpreted differently BUT this is also a pro
In order to stick to copyright laws, I emailed Island records (managed by universal music) to enquire about using their artist's track in our project, on behalf of our group.


We will be posting our finished music video on youtube and therefore, don't want it to get deleted. 

Friday 14 October 2016

R + P Post 16: My band or artist

Our band/artist will be a duo consisting of one female and one male. Their name, together, with be MiraJax. The age of our artists will be early 20s - the female being 21 and the male being 23. Separately, their names are Mira and Jack but we shortened Jack to Jax to sound more catchy.

Below, I made two photo collages showing a rough idea of how our duo will be styled visually.

Jax/Jack

Mira

Richard Dyer's 'Star' theory

Dyer suggests that the audience often admire or relate to certain qualities the star promotes. This could include attitude, dress or even culture. Sometimes this can have a negative impact on the audience, say for example if the star is a drug addict/alcoholic, the audience would still idolise them. Our duo will have a laid-back, 'don't give a f*ck' attitude and promote self-love and being 'different' through both their image and their music. They've learnt to be this way through life experiences, and repeatedly being told, considering their rough upbringing, that they wouldn't get anywhere in the music industry.

R + P Post 15: My record label

We have chosen Island Records to be our record label. This is an existing Record Label which originated from Jamaica but is now based in the UK although, also, having headquarters in the USA.

Artists that are currently signed to them and were signed to them include...

  • Amy Winehouse
  • AlunaGeorge
  • Tough Love
  • Drake
  • Disclosure
  • Dizzie rascal
  • Florence and the Machine etc...
I believe these are all artists who reflect current music trends AND more niche music trends and this record label as a whole represents the youth,diversity and raw talent in the music industry. 

R + P Post 14: My target audience

Primary Audience: 16-25 year olds, predominantly girls

Our primary audience is young people, predominantly girls, aged 16-25. We will hopefully appeal to girls who like to stay 'on-trend' with their fashion, music and cultural choices. They will also be girls who like socialising with their friends and don't like to be too ordinary-girls with a bit of colour in their life! We want them to relate to our artist's vibrant style and personality and not wish to be held back b anything or anyone.


Secondary Audience: Fans of the synth-pop genre

Our secondary audience will be people who love to listen to synth-pop as our debut single, along with the rest of our album will be based around this genre. 


Tertiary Audience: 16-25 year old males (boyfriends and friends)

For our tertiary audience, we will be targeting young boys. They will, perhaps, be the boyfriends/friends/brothers of our primary target audience. These might be the people who decide to buy the album for their girlfriend or take them to see the concert as a friend. 

It is important to have a clear idea of who our target audience is, on every level, so that we can use the most appropriate platforms when starting to distribute our products and artist brand. It is also important to have what the audience is attracted to and enjoys in mind all the time, so we are constantly making decisions referring back to what matters the most - our consumer.  


Tuesday 11 October 2016

R + P Post 13: Influences and inspiration from art, fashion and culture


It is very important for us to present our artist/band with a style which is super edgy and inspired by street-wear. Our TA will then be able to relate with our artist/band but they need to also be able to aspire to the artist so they can become a 'fan' of them. We can do this by dressing our artist/band in styles which are considered trendy and desirable for the audience.

Image result for south african colourful beaded
famous South African beaded bangles
We found a lot of inspiration in South African artwork and culture. Their use of colour is exactly what we would like to achieve in our music video. Rather than going for neons and pale colours, we want the makeup and colouring of our music video to be much richer.
Surma child covered in vibrant tribal paint
abstract art piece by South African artist

Another big inspiration for us is 2000s fashion style. Particularly the clothing worn in old RnB videos. Here are some example screenshots of outfits taken from old 2000s RnB videos...



Even though the style shown above was predominantly American, UK style plays a huge part in our influences for our music video as we want to make it as realistic and relatable to our UK audience.

We came accross the designer CAITLIN PRICE who creates street-wear inspired clothing collections. Some of her collections are sold in Selfridges which is obviously very high end with some of her pieces selling for £620. Our audience would generally be too young to afford or relate to this style of clothing, but the fact she took ideas from streetwear (which is generally cheaper) and some of rave culture which reflects on the style we want to create for our artist; edgy.

CAITLIN PRICE AW16

I looked at some other designers from London Fashion Week September 2016 and found some designers' collections which fit the style we are going for.


FYODOR GOLAN AW16


TATA NAKA AW16
TOPSHOP UNIQUE AW16

J.JS LEE AW16
As you can see, all these collections are very urban and edgy. Some feature a lot of colour and some are more monogram. Some feature patterns which remind me of tribal prints and traditional African clothing. You can also see a lot of street-wear and sportswear worn by youths being reflected in new fashion trends. 
We want to portray youth and diversity through our artist's styling because children are our future and so the styles they create or aspire to now will be huge fashion statements.

 I believe RIHANNA portrays this 'urban' fashion look really well and subsequently many youths aspire to her because of it. She seems to be able to pull off every outfit you could think of! This edgy, funky and urban style mixed with her 'I don't give a f*ck' attitude and controversial dance music, makes her a diverse but inspirational and quirky role model for young people.


I would love to interpret some of these fashions into the styling of our artist/band.