Shoot Day Preparations

Monday 23rd- 1 DAY UNTIL SHOOT!

As only one day remains until our shoot day we began to create the set for our performance element, we began by preparing the wooden slats, and setting them up to resemble a room. One of our main concerns was that lack of wallpaper that matched our prop list, as any sample seemed to be either too bright or had flowers on it, which we deemed inappropriate for the conventions of our video. I had the idea of painting on the wall instead of using wallpaper, and asked the set designer what she thought would look appropriate on the walls, she came up with the design of angular shapes on the walls on the left and right and a white circle in the center of the back wall. These were our results:

Shoot Day!

Tuesday 24th- SHOOT DAY!

The minute I woke up and realized that it was my shoot day I immediately packed various items of my clothing into a bag, to remember for the set, and for the band themselves, in case they had forgotten to bring appropriate clothes in for the shoot. After getting to school we began to put the finishing touches on the set, we finished off painting and scattered some clothes around. As the shoot's art director I began to dress the cast and remind them of the style we wanted them to play/sing in.

This was the set up of the band for our video, a drummer furthest back, both the lead and bass guitarist on either side of the set and the singer in the center. 

We kept this set-up throughout the music video, however we wanted the band members to be energetic, instead of static to portray the bands fun attitude.
As we were shooting, we encountered a few immediate problems, firstly, Josh, our drummer found it difficult to stay in time with the song. Although this could be expected as it was a difficult song to drum to, I had to help him stay in rhythm as I also drum, so I clapped to the beat of the song so he could use that as a guideline, and after this, he found it much easier. Secondly, Sam, our singer, had problems defining some of the lyrics, and remembering some parts of the song. However, we helped him out with the lyrics and gave him helpful instructions on what actions he should perform.
We managed to finish our studio shoot fairly quickly, half an hour early.
After packing our kit into the minibus we headed to Guildford. Fortunately when we got there the cast seemed to want a drink so we took them to the restaurant that we had reserved a table in and we bought them some Cokes. After the short relax, we headed into the record store and introduced ourselves to Ben. We started filming using Nikita's Black Magic camera with his shoulder mount, the quality of his camera was far better than the cameras used at school, so we were more than happy to learn from him how to use it. After getting to grips with his camera, we began filming the record store scenes, and this went far smoother than in the studio, all of the cast understood their roles and the filming passed very quickly, which was very helpful, considering the amount of footage we had to film.
Overall, I feel that the shoot went well, while occasionally our cast lost their concentration and our filming in the record store took much longer than we expected. However, our studio shoot finished almost half an hour earlier than we expected it to, which can only be seen as a positive.

Website Sketches

 We decided to examine some examples of artists websites to see if we could find any inspirations for designs, while also examining conventions of the genre of music that we were developing a video for. In our research, we found that a common inclusion among rock bands in their websites, was to include a photo of the entire band on the homepage, signifying unity and friendship. As well as a link to the song that we have created a video for, As our band's name is 'Sharma Marmalade' we would want their name to be at the forefront of the webpage.

For the Photo aspect of the website, we would want to incorporate both band interaction and professional work ethic into the page. While we would have one photo album of the band having fun and being friends, we would want another album showing the band at concerts and practicing with each other.

For the music category of the website, we would want to include the various albums made by the band, whether they are a single EP or a full length album, we would want to portray the amount of work that the band has done together through this page, while also being the direct access for fans to listen to their music. I would want a feature to be introduced where when an album is clicked on, a direct pop-up linking to Spotify would appear and you would be able to listen to the entire album.

https://play.spotify.com/

Here is the link to the music sharing website Spotify, it allows for free access to music, and also gives unlimited access to bands from across the world.

Inspired by websites from rock bands such as 'The Strypes', this feature of our website would be a database of sorts, full of information about the band, for example, age, instrument, a small interview with some personal information, to demonstrate a care for the fans, and offer them some exclusive information on the artists themselves.

Finalizing lighting and props

With only 5 days to go until the shoot, we met with Jack the lighting director to finalize what we wanted with the lighting and confirm any new props. After briefly reviewing the song, we discussed our ideas the last time we spoke, we again brought up the idea of warm lighting for the bedroom aspect and then Gobos for the bridge in the song. However, we came up with the idea of having the band's performance in nothing but spotlight, which we hope we can carry through to our shoot that is quickly approaching.

Joel also managed to buys some posters off the internet for a decent price, this will help set the atmosphere of a teenage bedroom, as well as a late 1990's rock vibe, which is exactly what we want to achieve.

Researching the Conventions of Homepages and Videos

In order to further our research into music videos, we have been assigned the task of researching similar bands to 'Weezer' and examining the conventions of the music genre, however, I was nominated by Jason to research a band who belonged to completely different genre of music.
After looking through some of my music I found a singer songwriter from the 90s called 'Cat Power', and decided to research her work and compare it to the rock genre.

http://www.catpowermusic.com/

As is shown from the website homepage, the indie songwriter genre is much warmer, and less aggressive than the rock genre that we have settled with, the use of a light blue connotes innocence and calm, while the font does not stand out, yet stays sharp to attract attention of viewers.

Comparing this to rock band that Joel studied, going by the name of 'Jimmy Eat World', various differences are the sharpness of the font, the atmosphere of the website, as well as the portrayal of the band.

This homepage focuses more on a darker color scheme, as well as more band related photos and news, I feel that our website would be more likely to end up looking like this, as it corresponds more with the particular genres that we are trying to encompass within our bands ideologies and star image. 

Digipack video

While researching digipacks, I found this video on the internet, and was interested in watching it, I found it helpful in describing a certain kind of digipack, in the form of a slide cardboard digipack, which we will probably use for our digipack.

Digipack Designs

Each member of our group decided to draw up a digipack idea for the band, and we would collaborate when we had all finished and decide on who's was the best design, and who's fitted the group most suitably. After drawing up some of my ideas I feel that my idea  fits the group well, however, it will be interesting to see the other's opinions, and what their ideas were.

My front cover idea consisted of four segmented images, each with a separate message or meaning to it. The first picture of the record store was to display how the band met, and what they all found a common interest over. The bottom left image was a shaded figure of a man surrounded by a pattern, that could reflect their target audience's search for their identity as individuals, being young and impressionable teenagers, which could attract them to the CD as they could relate to the image on the front. The top right picture displays the four band members dressed as stereotypical figures that they may see throughout certain stages of their lives. The clown representing their younger years, a police officer to represent the rebellious teenage stage in their life, a businessman to symbolize the stage in their life when they must grow up and get a job, the businessman representing their boss. And finally a nurse from a care home, to represent growing old. However, as the band are all male, a comedic factor could be added to the cover as we would evidently show that the nurse was male, but dressed in women's nurse uniform. The final image would then be a picture of the vinyl featured in the music video. 

Shot List

Filming Role

As our group draws ever closer to our shooting date on Tuesday the 24th, we have begun to look at filming roles within our production group, while we understand that we will all alternate through roles, we are beginning to decide which roles are best suited to which person. After much discussion we have decided the these shall be our roles for the filming:
Angel- Producer
Joel- Director
Nikita- Cameraman
Tom- Art Director

We have chosen these roles based on each of our specific talents, Nikita for example has the most experience using a camera to film with, however Joel has the strongest vision of what he wants from the video, while Angel's directional skills will give Joel guidelines as the producer. I feel that I best suit an artistic director as I feel that I can style and create the right star image for the band using costume and art direction.

I found this short clip of an art director on YouTube, explain what she has to do in her job, I felt that the clip helped me research my role specifically and will help me on the day of the shoot.

Audience Feedback For Animatic

After finishing the animatic, we were eager to get some public feedback to see the general reaction to our music video idea. As the animatic divulges, audience found it slightly confusing regarding the locations of the shoot, however, the performance elements were consistently recognized.




After watching the response to our animatic over, we have decided that we may need to make our record shop idea slightly clearer, however, overall, the feedback can be seen as constructive, and there were many elements within the video that were positively commented on.