Music Video finally finished

Music Video finally Finished

With relief I am proud to profess that our music video is finished! After months of going out to film in the freezing cold in central London and weeks of editing, we are done. It has been a long but enticing journey and I am extremely pleased with the product as a whole. This includes the music video, digipak and the magazine advert. When looking at them together as a whole I strongly believe that it is effective and appealing to the eye. The product as a whole came together as we intended and this is only due to good research, planning and dedication. It has been a pleasure to work my group consisting of Dapo, Aaron and Connor and the quality of the music video is a reflection on the hard work that each of us put in.

Digipak

Digipak

Here is our final version of our Digipak. In comparison to the previous one we had, I can gladly say  I'm extremely satisfied with the quality of this digipak. As you can see, we have again kept the black and white theme but in comparison to the old digipak, we have added our faces to some of the panels. We each took pictures of ourself and then opened the pictures in Photoshop and played around with the contrast till we felt that the pictures had a relation to the 'ska' appearance we where looking for. I am very happy with the result and I believe the it will look amazing if printed in real life.

Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert

Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Digipak first draft

Assembling the Digipak for the first time

Here is our first attempt at making the digipak. As you can see, my group and I have remained faithful to our word of keeping the black and white pattern as a base because of the connotations of it with the concept of 'Ska'. The digipak has six panels as you can see below. The front panel is the one at the bottom right hand corner that has the title of the song and the title of the band on it. Overall my group have agreed to disagree in regards to this digipak. Some of us think it is decent for a first attempt and others disagree. One thing we can agree on however is that there is plenty of room for improvement!

Preparation for the Digipak

Preparing to make our 1st draft of the Digipak

In regards to making our digipak, to make a successful one, we need to ensure that it links cohesively with the magazine advert and that the product as a whole, can be seen as one. This means that aspects of the digipak will have clear distinctive links to the music video and the magazine advert. In order to do this we are going to add things associated with the concept of 'Ska'. By doing this we will be increasing our chances of achieving high grades because the product as a whole will look fluent and consistent. On our digipak, we intend for there to be some sort of black and white pattern as the primary base. This is because we have used this black and white checkered pattern with our tie's when filming but also because black and white where the two main colours that where used in the filming process. With black and white as our base, we intend on placing text and images onto it. We will attempt to make these images and text as clear as possible because it is important to be able to clearly see what the key conventions are of a digipak. Overall as a group we have got the foundations to making a successful digipak, but we just need to put it together and we are looking forward to this.

6th Day of Filming - The Last Day!!

6th Day of Filming

The Last Day!

Today was our last day of filming… we assume! It was a day packed with excitement and good quality bits of footage. It was such a relief to finally assume that this will be our last day of filming as we have been to London many times and it was proving to be quite costly to get there and back especially with train strikes! So the plan today was just to finalise everything and our first stop was Tower Hill. It was extremely busy with many tourists and sightseers visiting iconic landmarks. When we arrived at Tower Hill we needed to get footage of Tom singing in front of the famous ‘Shard’. This didn’t take too long because it was a simple shot and Tom has learnt the lyrics very well. The weather was very nice, it was sunny but it became a tad windy as the day proceeded.  After we finished our short scene at Tower Hill we then made our way to Westminister Bridge where the primary focus was to film footage of Tom running around in London pretending to be Superman. We filmed lots of footage because we knew that we still had a significant amount of space to be filled in the music video so we filmed more than we needed just to ensure that we don’t have to go back and also so that we get a choice of editing rather than putting in footage because we don’t have the choice to put anything else in due to a lack of footage. To conclude it was a short productive day and also very enjoyable. It has not been draining and there is a feel of satisfaction to know that the music video is going incredibly well and according to plan.

Costumes and Props 2

Pictures of possible Costumes and Props

We have selected these costumes and props because we feel that these will not only be necessary when we film but it will also look effective and get us a good grade. These items are essential as they fit the 'ska' appearance which we are attempting to portray because of our chosen band 'Behind Bad Luck'. The items will not cost much as we already have black shirts, black shoes and black trousers as we attend sixth form and it is compulsory to dress smart so most of us have these items. The 'ska' tie can be purchased from eBay for less than £3 so the ska appearance is not too costly. We also need a red cape for our lead actor and singer Tomas, who will be depicted as Superman, so the cape is obviously an essential thing to have. We will also need red underpants that Tomas will wear but this is not compulsory, if we find a pair that looks good then they will be purchased. The props are also necessary because we will be doing a band performance with Tomas lip synching the song so he will need a microphone and a guitar and the rest of us using the guitars and bass guitars in the performance

5th Day of Filming - Should be finished soon!!

5th Day of Filming

(the band performance scene)

Today was our 5th day of filming and on this occasion we did not go to London to film as it was the band scene. We filmed the band performance at the drama room located in Robert Clack school. We first had to obtain permission from the head of the department before filming and using the props and instruments. The facilities were adequate and we where able to also experiment with various different types of lighting. We began by first organising ourselves in positions that our cameramen Alex, George and Collins though looked best on the camera. This wasn't a lengthy process because they all agreed about the formation of the band in which they had our lead singer Tomas in front of all of the rest of the band which included myself, Dapo, Aaron and Connor. After we where placed into our positions, we then had to pick adequate lighting that looked good on the camera and this proved to be relatively difficult for Collins as he had never used the lighting machine before and it took him a while to get used to it because there where many buttons controlling 'primary masters' lights and also 'secondary' lights. Once he figured out how to maneuver the lights we could then proceed to the performance. We so happened to find ska hats in the back cupboard which was so surprising and almost felt like our destiny to use them so we put them on and got out the instruments to use. We had 2 bass guitars, 2 electronic guitars and a keyboard. We had to be extremely careful as the instruments are very expensive. We filmed the band performance several times despite the fact that the instruments where very heavy because we needed to ensure that we had enough angles and shots to use when editing. The more footage you have, the more of a selection you have when editing. We eventually finished after about an hour and a half. It was very productive day as we now have just about all the tools allowing us to have a top quality music video we just need to go out one more time to London and film a few scenes and hopefully the grade that we are all chasing will be given to us.

4th Day of Filming - Almost there!

4th Day of Filming

Today was our fourth day of filming - and counting! On this day out it proved to be pivotal as we made a burst in the right direction to completing our music video. It was a highly productive and enjoyable day, only thing that attempted to destroy today was the weather once again with extreme winds that forced me and my other group member Dapo to walk the streets of central London wrapped in brightly coloured blankets! Yes, it was that cold!! We filmed at Piccadilly circus once again, St James' Park and Westminister Bridge. I don't even want to begin to talk about how difficult it was to get to these locations with the District Line not being available today. Let's just say that a lot of money was spent in taking an alternative journey. The first place we stopped at was Westminister Bridge and we needed to get footage of the band performance and also a lot of footage of lead singer Tom in full action. After our filming at Westminister Bridge, we proceeded to our next location of St James' Park. At St James' Park, we got a lot of filming done and it looked very good having watched it back on the camera after Collins (our cameraman) had filmed it for us.

Going further, after finishing up at St James' Park, we took a well deserved lunch break and went to Mc Donalds. After enjoying a wonderful meal, it was back out into the cold again and off we headed towards Piccadilly Circus once again. We filmed more footage of lead singer Tom pretending to be superman and it looked extremely good as they was many tourists that day and their facial expressions where priceless. At this moment in time, we began to run out of time as it was getting increasingly darker, so we continued till we couldn't any further and overall it was a very successful day of filming.

Music video beginning to come together! - Editing

Assembling the Video through Editing

In our group we all have preferences and strengths and weaknesses. Connor undoubtedly is the best person in the group at editing. In today's lesson we got the chance to sit down and actually start to put our music video together (I know!!! Exciting times right!) We used this lesson to upload everything we have filmed on the program Final Cut Express which is the same program that we used last year in year 12 to edit our short Thriller videos. Uploading everything onto the program took quite a while as you can imagine due to how much we have filmed over the last couple of weeks. It took roughly 45 minutes to obtain all the footage. We started to edit our first scene, which was the playground scene and we had to cut and crop out parts that we felt didn't look good in the video, this didn't take long as we all had the same idea in mind. Our first editing session was very successful in my opinion as it set the foundation for us and the rest of the filming that we need to do.

3rd Day, Unable to Film

3rd Day of Filming

(Disastrous weather!!)

The plan today was to once again go out to various locations and get some valuable footage. However, due to the terrible weather conditions, we had to cancel our plans last minute to the annoyance of many of our group members as it is very hard for all of us to schedule a day to go filming due to our various commitments such as sport and work. The decision to call off today's filming session was a collective decision with the interests of our work as the priority. We thought about how strong the winds where and it was quite evident that the strength of the wind was more than capable to blow the camera and tripod away which would be a disaster if the camera broke as it is an expensive piece of equipment, not to mention our tape could also be destroyed in the accident leaving us without coursework. We where also actually supposed to film last Sunday but again due to the rain, it was called off. The weather conditions has put us slightly behind where we want to be but nevertheless we are more than capable of catching up.

2nd Day of Filming

2nd Day of Filming

On our second day of filming, things didn't go as according to planned. This day of filming was primarily to get footage of Central London, which is the main destination of where we are filming. The plan was to go to various locations such as Trafalgar Square and The Shard and get background bits of filming done. Unfortunately due to members of our group having commitments such as their weekly shift on a Saturday afternoon at work, we didn't have all of our group members. This consequently meant that we couldn't really film ourselves because we didn't have everyone doing the performance and if we did film without everyone, then the continuity of the music video will be questioned. Going further, due to the poor weather conditions which included heavy rain and extreme winds throughout the majority of the day, this day was more or less a chance for us to see where we would be filming and discuss what we think should happen and how it should happen when filming at these locations. When we arrived at Piccadilly Circus, it was very busy as expected. We did however manage to get a little bit of filming done their and we proceeded to the next location Trafalgar Square. As we arrived at Trafalgar Square, the ambition was to get some footage of iconic landmarks such as the waterfall, however upon arrival we noticed that the waterfall and other parts were barricaded which denied us access to film, we concluded that there was no point of standing there, freezing cold and we made our way to the next location of "Speedy's Cafe" with the thought to return another day to the waterfall to get some footage.

1st day of Filming

1st Day of Filming

(not one to remember for me)

On the 5th of December 2013, it was the first day that we had the chance to go out and film one of our opening scenes which is in the playground located near All Saints School. This was exciting times as we haven't had the chance to film before due to some of our team members being unavailable due to timetable clashes. The weather conditions did not exactly help as it was extremely windy which actually led to an accident involving me and the camera!! The weather really was not kind to our filming because in the footage, the camera was swaying from side to side in the birds-eye view shots when the camera was unattended at the top of a slide. As the camera was left unattended and the record button was pressed, the wind was so strong that it blew the tripod off the slide and it just so happened to land on my head as I attempted to catch the camera as it is very expensive. Thankfully I caught the camera but unfortunately the tripod hit me on the side of my face and left quite a bad cut on my eyebrow. Anyway other than that accident, we managed to get some decent footage completed and it set us up to go and film in London as we where able to see what went well and perhaps what didn't go according to plan.

Focus Group - Pitching Ideas, Analysing Results

Focus Group

This video contains two of my group members; Connor and Dapo pitching our primary and secondary music video ideas to some students that attend Robert Clack school. Unfortunately, due to a clash of timetables and myself being in lesson, I could not participate in this activity, thankfully though, my group members addressed our questions to these students incredibly well without myself and our other group member Aaron. From the response received, it is easy to conclude which song we are going to use for our music video. They 2nd idea of the ska band - 'Behind Bad Luck' was the one that received more positive feedback and was preferred by all three students. This being because the audience held the view that the ska music will be easier and better to produce an end product as apposed to the idea of the green screen because it was suggested not to be as practical. Going further, our primary idea of the green screen was questioned because to have a good quality end product, we must use a good quality green screen which unfortunately breaks our cost limits staggeringly. The ska band superman idea was suggested to be more realistic and didn't raise as many practical issues as apposed to the green screen idea. To conclude, based on the emphatic response from our audience, it would be very difficult to go against their wishes and pick the green screen idea, so it was an easy choice when our group selected the ska band superman idea as it was also the idea that we wanted to pick anyway. We valued our audiences comments and we hope that this is the correct decision and helps us in producing a grade A music video.

Storyboard

Storyboard

Here are pictures of our Storyboard. The storyboard was simple created to help us when filming. It gives us clear step by step stages of filming and also editing:

Shot List

Shot List

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule