Final vs. Draft

I decided to put together a video with both my draft and my final video next to eachother. This could show the particular areas/shots I improved on. At first glance, the final version doesn't alter much from the draft but when you look a little closer you can see the various shots that have been replaced. These shots were either grainy, out of focus or just unprofessional-looking. This transforms the overall look of the music video into a more realistic music video that you could see on MTV.

Visual Progression/Image Systems

I managed to achieve visual progression by the use of cuts and through the editing pace. As the song builds and begins to get faster and more upbeat I start to introduce more and more shots and make the cuts quicker so that the audience can feel and see a clear link between the speed of the song and the duration of each shot. I have found some examples in my work and put them all together so hopefully it's clear where the music is slower, so is the footage and editing of the footage.

I have created the video in order to demonstrate the way in which I have linked together the lyrics and the visuals of the song as opposed to a clear visual progression. I would say it is more of a musical visual progression.

Brand Guidelines

Below is a run through of my Artists brand identity and guidelines. This is necessary to create in order for my print based and marketing material would be recognisable and have a running theme throughout from colours, to fonts and image styles. The main aim of brand guidelines is to make my artists advertising and productions consistent and easily identifiable.

Equipment List and Borrowing Forms

I needed to create a list of all the equipment that I needed to enable me to film my music video. I noted everything down and then had to ask sir for the equipment that I did not own and would have to borrow. I then signed an agreement with Mr Fisher which allowed me to use the various bits of equipment for a set amount of days.

1st Draft of Music Video

Here is my two first drafts of my final music video, there are sections that I intend on changing and replacing but it is coming together nicely. You can see the difference from my draft to my final video and the parts that I have replaced make the video look 100x better. I have also added in a title screen of the song and artist in my final video as opposed to this version. It makes it look more professional and realistic.
The second one I have uploaded is a slightly improved version but they are very simliar. The second one is more like my final one as I have only changed two sections in it.

Idea Alterations

Over the half term I have met up with my main female protagonist in my video and have arranged the final days for filming the remaining scenes. The scenes left to film are the Chinese lantern scene and the dancing scene. I have got together all the props I need; 10 Chinese lanterns which are multi-coloured, a big ball gown for the dancing scene and female suit for the mirror dancing scene.

I am going to do a mirrored performance in two separate shots. I am getting Mollie to dress in her big purple gown and do an entire routine by herself in a blacked out room. I then want her to scrape her hair back, wear natural make-up and black trousers and blazer jacket. She will then perform the exact same steps as before and I will cut between them to help create the illusion that they are separated partners.

The dates I am filming the dance scene is 17th October and 31st October
I am filming the garden Chinese lantern scene on 7th November

Locations

Here are a few photos of the locations I have shot my footage in. You can see how the scene looked from a distance but how different it can look when close up shots are used. As the majority of my shots are close and mid-shots, it meant that I only had to pick a small area of location as it wouldn't all be seen in the shot.

Narrative Structure of my Music Video

This is the basic narrative and structure of my music video, it explains the possible reasons why certain things were placed where they were. The overall structure is explained as being uneven in the fact that the scenes are dotted around the entire video to keep the audience informed that it's very surreal and that the female is seen in all the locations throughout the length of the song.

Garden Scene Time Lapse

Again, I filmed me filming some of the footage for the scene garden scene with the lights and sparklers. I used the lights effectively in order to maximise the video quality. I also played around with the ISO to make sure the lighting and image brightness was perfect.

Drama Studio Filming - "Male Dancer" Scene

Here is a short bit of footage of me filming Mollie for the male dancer scene. As you can see, I have arranged the light in such an effect it looks as if Mollie is in a pitch black room but the quality of the footage is outstanding.

Preparing the Model

I put together another time lapse of me doing mollies hair and make up for the second shoot in the drama studio. This time Mollie will be dressed in a suit and acting as the "male dancer" I did a basic, natural look apart from the eyes which I made exceptionally dark and dragged the eye shadow all the way to the sides of the head where it met the hairline. This made it dark and mysterious. Her hair I put in a high bun, using a hair donut. I then hair-sprayed it all into place.

Setting up the Garden

Here is a sped up version of Clare and I setting up my nans garden for the filming of my last scene. We stretched 2 washing lines across the garden but once we had set it up we decided that it looked better with the lights on the actual washing line in another location. We put tea lights in jam jars and used string to tie them to the washing line. Also, we got dangling Christmas lights and attached them to the washing line also to make it look very bright and full of light.

Call Sheet - Filming

This is the call sheet I created for the various days I filmed my music video and an outline of who I needed with me, what equipment and props were required and a rough description of what I was hoping to get out of filming and a vague description of what was happening in the scene.

Dancing Scene

  In the dancing scene I have decided to go for a different idea slightly and steer away from just having Mollie dancing in a studio but having her in a big, glamourous dress dancing alone a dance which is made for two. I will then film it again exactly but with Mollie dressed in a black blazer, white shirt and tie with black trousers. Her hair will be scraped back into a bun and her face stripped to minimal makeup. This will highlight the role reversal that she will be performing and show how she doesnt need a partner to perform this dance. I will film this scene in the drama studio at school and light it so that it will be pitch black in the background.

Location Release

Here are the scans of the 3 documents I had the owner of these locations to sign to allow me to use the space and film my Music Video. There are two different gardens used and a drama studio which was used for two different scenes.

Model Release

Here is the release form I had to get my model to sign. I had Clare Hanington model for my magazine advert and digipak so I just required her signature in order to gain her consent to use her photos for my work.

Actor Release

This form I had my main protagonist, Mollie Knights, to complete to give her consent for me to use the footage of her in my music video and allow videos to be posted on this blog and used for eductational purposes.

Lighting is Key

     On Monday I began to film my footage for my music video and came to an obstacle that I assume everyone will face if they are shooting outside and especially if they are shooting at night time.
     Without the perfect lighting - video quality is reduced massively due to the aperture soaking up all the light in the shot. As all the light is being soaked up and you can see the shot - the image quality gets reduced as a result of this.
     To avoid this happening, if shooting at night you need bright lights facing where you are filming (unless you want the low key, muffled footage) For mine I used the garden flood light which worked pretty well but it wasn't portable so a movable one is more practical.
     As you can see from the screenshots of the different lighting - one has a much grainer, blurry effect compared to the crisp, shallow focus of the well-lit scene.

Location of the Garden Scene

I took photos of the different areas in the garden that I filmed footage. Some of the areas such as the bench and the lantern hut have not been used in my music video as the video quality was not good due to low aperture. The footage can be seen on my 'Lighting is Key' post where you can see the difference between the two different locations.

Make-up and Hair Styling for filming

I decided to style Mollie's hair and do her make-up myself for the filming so I could create the exact same image I had in my head. I let her hair down natural and curled a few bits to give it some body but I wanted to emphasise the 'natural look'. Regarding her make-up; I didn't go crazy on the base as I didn't want her to look fake or too orange etc. So I did the right amount so that her skin looked almost flawless. I highlighted her eyebrows using a Benefit Eyebrow kit which lifts the face completely. Her eyes were where I put the most effort into looking good. Her eyelashes as really long so I just focused this by putting on some mascara. I then did liquid eye-liner along the eyelid to open her eyes and make them seem bigger. I then did some smokey eye-shadow effect by using white, grey and black eye-shadow. Finally, I used a nude coloured lipstick to keep in tune with the natural theme.