Casting List // Music Video

Our cast is consisting of a boy and girl dancer and one main singer.

The main girl is Sasha Minyalio:

 The girl dancer is Tash Christensen:


 The boy dancer is Callum Henderson:

Animatic Evaluation // Music Video

I think that our animatic worked well and was a good representation of what we wanted to achieve. 

Here are some words that sum up the evaluation of it:

Our animatic enabled us to see what shots worked well and how important the timing of them were, it was also a good visual representation of what our video is going to look like and it makes us see the repetition of music videos for example our chorus shots were the same everytime but the projections up would be different. 

Ideas About a Digipak // Campaign

We had some ideas about what to have, on the front cover we are going to have the singer on the front and an image on the back.

We thought about what to have as the other images, other then a picture of her, and we came up with using some of my old photography photos of flowers on fire.

We thought that the simplicity of these images worked really well because they have some impact but at the same time they simple.
We also thought that it was a good image for our artist to have because it is different to anything people have seen before so they will be interested in our album.


If we use this it will have a fine art feel to it because there isn't a person in the image. This means that it can have more symbolism to it and be open to interpretation.

Animatic Response // Music Video

We decided that we should get audience feedback on our animatic to make sure that our look is right and to make sure that audiences likes our video.

Our animatic: 

Our Questions:

1 - What moment in particular did you enjoy and why?

2- What moment in particular did you dislike and why? How would you changed it?

3 - What is your overall opinion about the music video? 

4 - What were your initial thoughts when the music video started?

5 - Do you like this song and do you think music video suits it? 

6 - What do you think about set designs and the use of projections?

The Responses:

Georgia McKnight

1 - What moment in particular did you enjoy and why?

- Enjoyed the water moments - felt they would be very interesting and fun

2- What moment in particular did you dislike and why? How would you changed it?

- Didn't particularly dislike any moments, it all went well

3 - What is your overall opinion about the music video? 

- Very interesting but have to look at editing more closely 

4 - What were your initial thoughts when the music video started?

- Thought "oo, what is this? whats happening?"

5 - Do you like this song and do you think music video suits it? 

- Yes, suits it very well

6 - What do you think about set designs and the use of projections?

- Like set design didn't realise there were projections (due to drawings)

Phoebe Wright

1 - What moment in particular did you enjoy and why?

- Enjoyed the air moments - cool to have them on the floor - would be interesting to see how it turns out 

2- What moment in particular did you dislike and why? How would you changed it?

- Didn't really dislike any moments, I liked it all

3 - What is your overall opinion about the music video? 

- Very creative, like the idea of elements 

4 - What were your initial thoughts when the music video started?

- "Whats going on? Oo thats cool"

5 - Do you like this song and do you think music video suits it? 

- Yes

6 - What do you think about set designs and the use of projections?

- Like the set designs but hard to see that it was projections just because it was drawings

Initial Idea Digi Pak // Campaign

This is a digipak that Dom made as a starter for our digipak design. I really like the starting point that this has presented us however I think that we need to make some changes to get a colour theme and to make the artist the main focal point on the front page.

We agreed that trying to find a jetty and to shoot there is going to be very difficult to do because we have to consider lighting, weather, etc. We also want the covers to look similar so they blend into one making it look like a complete set.

Animatic // Music Video

We edited our animatic and uploaded it to YouTube. An animatic helps us to see what shots we need and in what order.

Set Design // Music Video

Dom created this presentation of our set design. This just shows our ideas in more depth.

DILEMMA // Music Video

Because we are using projections we need to find images that we can use. However, one of the artist directors said that we have to use our own footage otherwise we will have to pay for it.

So, therefore me and Indie are going to film our own footage.

Over halfterm India is going to film the water element since she lives by the sea, I am going to film the fire element and the earth element and when we get back to school we will film the air element.

We will shoot this on GoPros

Shoot Day // Music Video

Set Designs // Music Video

Here are our set designs. It is important to do this so we get an understanding of how the sets should look and the people who are designing it get a good visual representation of how we want it to look.

Plain performance element:

Fire - bonfire and flames:

Earth - forest corridor:

Air - time lapse of clouds:

Water - water droplets falling down a window:

Guest Speaker // Polydor Studios

Polydor Records - Based in Kensington London 

In the lesson on Wednesday Emily (who commissions pop videos for Polydor Records) Came in to speak to us. She told us an overview about her job she said that she over sees what happens with the video process, give brief to director, check with director and helps to see what visuals go along with the track. 

These are some notes I made: 

Once everyone is settled on the idea they go to 5-10 directors depending on how specific the brief is. 

The director then puts in treatments, Emily's job is to see what videos the director are coming back with. 

Really important for them to make sure everyone has a rough idea of what the video will be. 

Decided on directors based on the brief - more performance or more storyline 

Directors are generally picked by production company.

Sit down with artist and label to get an idea, decided which one suits the artist 

Prep the shoot (2-3 weeks) see director of photography, editor, locations, casting, art direction. Over see what happens. Keep the budget in check - keep expectations

Styling alone can cost £3,000

Directors want to push it so far to get as much out of producers as possible.

Music videos - have fun - directors want to have this on their CV

The video normally goes to Vevo - offers more promotion then just putting it up on the band YouTube, get adverts on side, get more views

Process takes about a month and a half from when they get the track 

Editing can take 5-6 weeks

Year and Years - King (MUSIC VIDEO) made last December in LA

• Director took on board most important things - dancers, LA, etc
• have 5-10 treatments pick best one that artist and production company like
• Storyboard so they know what to shoot when they get there
• Digital Department - Thumbnails are negotiated 
• day late may miss one of their thumbnails on the side of a Taylor Swift video
• lost millions of views if don't get it done on time
• Side of video gets you more publicity
• Use dancers as metaphor for relationship
• Incorporate other members of band in but make them look comfortable in front of camera
• Production wise better shooting in LA (Years and years)
• Budget was £20,000-40,000 so they had more money (up for awards, breaking internationally, selling more records) more pressure to make video good
• Colour grade to make it look more white and milky
• Used colour grade to mute colours to fit with the song

Other notes:

• Label funds video 
• Very rare to get good subtle product placement 
• Budgets are 50% recuperable (artists will pay back with funds they make)
• Vevo not just about money more about views 
• Radios will play videos with more views to go with their age bracket
• Labels spilt up so loads of different departments to make one video
• Make most money off of Vevo platform
• Depends on artists permission 
• Some fans don't trust Vevo so want to release on their own channel to make fans feel that they are discovering the music
• Try and get an edit that is safe (no nudity, alcohol, etc) Artists always want to push this

Ellie Goulding:

• On shoot day shot exactly exactly same shots but without guns and alcohol to have a censored and un-censored version

They make videos that are represented of the artist.

Setting the tone of whole campaign

Simple concepts are best

Lucky Charms feat. Wiley

• got inspiration from up and coming directors who have filmed cheap documentaries 
• Like the colours and style
• Shot in South Africa - same look as london but different lifestyle and not like all the other videos
• Just sent the camera man out to shoot the video in South Africa
• Under £10,000 

Trust your director and ideas - everyone has different ideas on what its going to look like 

Shooting on location or studio:

• Studio good for controlling light and using graphic
• Location often gives a lot more texture and depth on limited budgets 
• Main stream audience loves a road trip video, not original but can make it different depending on location

You Call It by Dusky

• Animations leading on to different parts and different ideas
• Using posters as inspiration
• Really trip
• That director doesn't alway do animation  - mind is inspired by all sorts 
• Got animator he liked to visual his idea
• Animation is always tricky with budget and time cause it takes a lot time to make
• Wanted it to look vintage but at the same time modern 

• Visual should always reflect musicality of track
• Build towards something at end
• Years and Years - underwater bit during the middle 8 is the bit that keeps it non - repetitive
• First verse - setting tone seeing artist 
• Chorus you want choreography and main bit
• When in treatment phase they are for styles of videos that are like the video they are going to make
• Go to colour grades - to balance out and make some parts different
• Colour grade is important for the video image - can change minds because of the style that it gives
• Look is planned in advanced so they can know the style and feel of the video 

Prop List // Music Video

Props:

• 3 Projectors
• Black sheets
• Big sheets of tracing paper (for forest wall)
• High Quality Projections:

We've had a change of direction so instead of having an actual backdrop we are having projections instead. We decided that this would be easier to film and gives us more space to do more creative shots.

- Earth: Grass, trees, forest (forest wall)

- Fire: Flames all around or a bonfire and her standing by it

- Water: Waves crashing and rain on window

- Wind: Time-lapse of clouds

Shooting and Editing the Animatic // Music Video

In todays lesson we shot our animatic. This is where we have our storyboard and we film each shot for about 10 seconds. We then go up to the editing suite and edit the shots in the order we want and to the pace of the song. An animatic is important because it enables us to get a clear image of what we want our video to look like and we can have a idea of how repetitive the song is.

New Storyboard // Music Video

Here is our storyboard for our new concept:

Notes from meeting with Luke // Music Video

Here are my notes from our meeting with Luke:

Copyright Permission // Music Video

One of the requirements for our music video is that we send a email to the record company to ask for permission to use their song.

Today in the lesson while India researched names for our artist I sent the email the company:

The record label that Shura uses is:

This is the email we sent the record company:

CHANGE OF DIRECTION // Music Video

We have decided to go in a different direction to the glass box because when we talked to Luke (creative director) he said that we don't have any reason to put our 'elements' in the box and it was a burden to our group.

Therefore we have decided to go with using the elements and create an idea based around that. Here are the ideas that we have come up with:

Earth:

- Nature background with vines and leaves all around her

- She is being intwined by the vines

- Leave falling on her?

Water:

- Lying against a wall with water running down on her, black background to make the water look more subtle

Fire:

- Gold/red glitter falling

- Fairy liquid fire

- Fire eaters (around her)

Wind:

- Wind machines

- 2 dancers around her wearing a floaty dress 

Storyboard // Music Video

The importance of storyboarding is to help us plan our shots.

When Ollie Allgrove came to visit us he said that planning is key so therefore a storyboard is an essential part to planning our video. 

Projections with Perspex // Music Video

My teacher found a piece a perspex and said that we could experiment with it for our glass box idea.

We decided to try projections are our first test. We found that this looked good when we filmed from the singers point of view on their face so we now have to question whether we actually need the perspex to make our video or if it will look just as good without it.

Projections // Music Video

When we were doing our storyboard I looked at how we could do projections and I came across this video by Emma Curl.


This video was one take had no post production and they were all in camera effects with projections.


We really like the way the shape projections look on her and the effects they have.

We also looked on google images and saw these pictures of projections that look really interesting: