SHOOT DAY BLOG

Our media shoot consisted of two main parts. The first part was us filming a DJ spin some decks set in time to the song set in the studio and the second half was a narrative between two gangs while they went on a destructive rampage. Me, Tamara, JJ and Millie all arrived at the studio at about 8:40 ready to film the first half of our Video. Our set consited of some DJ sets which one of the cast members (Jack Palmer) had kindly lent us against a simplistic white background. We observed the set and pondered the lay out. We all agreed it was looking good.



Glen (our DJ) arrived about ten minutes later to admit a slight problem. JJ had given Glen specific clothes to wear for playing the part of the DJ but Glen had forgotten to wear or bring them in. This left us in a dilemma, whether to quickly try and round up some better clothes for Glen or to have him DJ in what he was wearing. We made him take off his polo top and decided to make him perform with the rest of the clothes he was wearing. We placed him behind the DJ decks and waited for Matt and the others to arrive with the cameras and equipment. They arrived about 20 minutes later and we got going with the filming. Matt first of all took control of the camera and demonstrated some useful filming tactics using hand -held camera.



We shot Glen from various different angles using the hand-held camera method to create a dramatic, realistic and face paced feel to the shots. We took close ups of Glen and the decks using the same hand-held method. We felt like we needed to add some diversity into the midst of our shots so JJ and I shot glen using a tracking shot moving from left to right. It was trickier than we thought it would be and we had to move quite fast to get a similar feel to previous shots. Tamara and Millie then shot another tracking shot, this time coming from the back towards Glen, specifically while Glen was clapping to the beat of the song.



After gaining all of the shots necessary we packed up the equipment and went up to the edit suite to discuss the second half of the days filming. We decided that we did not have enough clothing to do the original idea of having all the cast wearing white fighting against duplicates of themselves wearing all black. We decided instead to split the gangs into two groups of four, their differences being whether they wear a cap or not. We also decided to initiate the idea of gang hand symbols. We searched for some ideas of gang symbols on google and came up with two ideas. We decided to have one gang use a more masculine symbol and the other to use a more feminine, using supposed 'phallic' imagery. We had lunch before taking the bus to behind B Webb where our set was located. It was a run down scrap yard, consisting of lots of things to destroy, useful for our video. We split into two groups, one group with one camera managed by Matt, and one group run by Me, JJ, Tamara and Millie with the other camera. Each group took a gang and we choreographed some destruction scenes involving the equipment in the scrap yard.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE POP MUSIC INDUSTRY

The modern day pop charts are littered with artificial money making puppets. The true structure of the pop music industry is that media moguls such as Simon Cowell poor their money into a singer or band to reproduce songs originally performed by someone else (a guaranteed hit) or by writing them cheesy songs using a tried and tested formula which again, guarantees success. The artists will already be famous for something therefore already guaranteeing an audience. They will be famous for something like, for example, being on The X Factor or Britain’s got Talent. Once they have released a few good singles and an album, the audience starts to lose interest and the record company has squeezed every last penny out of the ‘artist’, the record company will drop the singer or band as they are no longer worth anything to the company. Eventually, in about 5 to 7 years, whenever the gap in the market comes again, the record company will re-sign the artist and give them a new album to release. The record company will advertise this new album as ‘The great comeback of (artist’s name)! This will bring the previously lost audience back into the frame in order to buy more records and supply the record label a refreshed income. The artist will then slowly die out again, perhaps for good unless the record company attempt a second comeback.

How my music video will fit in to the pop industry is that it will act as the complete polar opposite to the previous artist. Where there is a market for one type of music, there will be a market for the other type of music. The song will appeal to those angry with society and will represent those who are not already represented. The market will be all of those who dislike the superficial X factor produced band/singer. There is always a market for a good dance track as well, and this is a very good dance track. The destructive youths in the video represent anti-establishment and those who feel angry and isolated in society can empathise with those causing the destruction. The DJ represents those controlling the rhythm in which we live and the destructive youths are rebelling against the controlling shadowy DJ who is controlling the rhythm of the song and their life.

CALL SHEET

WE ARE FROM VENICE

A call sheet is the overall for the shoot day with every detail possible in it. My call sheet is below.

















Song title - We are from Venice

Originally composed by - The Bloody Beetroots

Film date - Thursday, November the 11th

JJ Benzimra
Tamara Middleton
Millie Freeman
Leo Faulks

Film Locations -

Beatrice Webb
Hurtwood film studio

Crew -

Director - JJ Benzimra
Film/ Lighting - Tamara Middleton
Producer - Millie Freeman
Editor - Leo Faulks

Cast -

Lead DJ - Glen Pagado
Gang Members (both sides) - Niall Green
Jake Cecil
Omonelumo Ikanade-Agba
Richard Oxley
Tunde Ogundare
Patch Wadsworth
Suleiman Shittu
Richard Oxley
Seyi Olasunkanmi

Props -

DJ Set
Fake ciggaretes
Fake Drugs
Empty Bottles
Batons

Costume -

Black + White hoodies and slevless shirts
Black + White jeans
Black + White hair accesories
Black + White make up
Black + White bandanas
Black + White Jackets
Hats
Boots/ trainers
DJ costume

Narrative -

Includes:

• A bonfire
• Graffiti
• General Vadalism
• Fighting
• Drug Taking
• Smoking
• Drinking

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

One of the major problems we faced when attempting our project was the problem of finding the right location. We were trying to find a place that was derilict and seemingly deserted. JJ found a great disused place nearby on a website. We believed this to be perfect. After then assessing, some problems sprung up. We realised that we wouldn't be able to make to much noise as we would not want to attract police attention or attention from the general public. The place was indeed very derilict, too much so infact that we realised that it could be a health hazard attempting to do things in the location.

I believe it was Luke who suggested that we instead used the back of Beatrice Webb house to film it as firstly, it was owned by the school and secondly, it looked just as good. We agreed with that and have now confirmed the back of Beatrice Webb as our film's location.

STORYBOARD

The storyboard is a depiction of exactly what the shots are going to be and builds on the work which the timeline has already done. Pictures are drawn to demonstrate what the shot will look like and it helps the director decide what works and what doesn't. The storyboard is the plan that you shoot to, so if it works on paper that makes it a lot less expensive to do than shooting on camera for hours if not day. The story board works out the type of shot, the angles, the camera movements, the mise en scene, colours and shapes, and how the picture composition rules will be applied in the film.

For every line on the time line we have ten shots and each of those shots are demonstrated with the storyboard. We are using short sharp shots for our piece to give a sense of dynamism and drama. We are using tracking shots to give a good asthetic to the piece and to create the sense of movement and fast pace. Here is an example of three pages in our storyboard.

Below we have an example of a story board, in this shot the characters are spraying their graffiti 'tag' onto a wall. The page displays the timing, editing details, what is happening, the audio and what type of shot it is.

Here is a link to a video tutorial on making storyboards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hxoaikaHMA

TIMELINE

We created a timeline to display what we were going to do in each shot acording to the music. We described acording to each part of the song what the imagry would look like and gave information about the timing. The timeline describes what type of shot each of the shots are going to be, whether they are going to be long, close up, mid shot etc. The timeline also demonstrates how long each of our shots are going to be and what type of angle they are going to be, whether they are going to be low angle or high angle.


An example of a timeline


The timeline also demonstrates the narrative flow. It reveals the characters motives and how they are feeling.

COMPOSITION RULES

When film is made, directors often follow by certain guidelines and rules. These rules help dictate to the audience the meaning and flow of the piece and tells the audience consciously and subconsciously what to think. These are known as Composition rules.

TYPES OF SHOTS


The first composition rule I am going to cover is going to be the different type of shot size. There are many different types of shot size and they can all indicate different things. For example, if there is a close up of a person or a specific object, the director is telling you to pay attention to that specific thing. If there is a long shot or an extra long shot, it is usually establishing the location and the shots to follow are often located within the area established by the long shot. Long shots create first impressions. Mid shots and close ups are the establishing shots, mid shots supplying you with more information while close ups supplying the detail. Shots like the Extreme close up are unusual as you do not usually experience imagery such as this in real life. It is often used to ‘shock’ the viewer and can bring objects into a new perspective.



CAMERA POSITION AND ANGLES



Another composition rule is the rule of ‘camera position and angles’. Again, the position of the camera and the angle in which someone or something is shot can affect the audience’s perception of the subject. For example, if a character is shot with the camera angle facing up it can boost their importance and emphasises their strength and power. When the camera is facing down onto the character it belittles them and makes them seem vulnerable and weak, it turns the audience against them. Examples of the manipulation of camera position and angles in news and documentary interviews is if the shot has a wide angle lens it makes the subject look insignificant. If the camera has a long lens it makes people seem equal. When the camera is positioned to make the subject square on it makes the subject look ugly while if the camera is slightly side on it makes a person look slimmer.

CAMERA MOVEMENT



The movement of the camera is another way of manipulating the audience’s perception using a composition rule. The tracking shot can follow the subject and give a more personal feel to the piece as it can show the world from a mobile perspective. Crain shots can help give an impression of the position of a person or object, and can really help bring the film alive if the Crain is moving.

LIGHTING



Another way of putting across a certain message using composition is by using the lighting. Lighting affects not only what people see of what is being filmed, but also their impressions. For example, you can help focus an audience member’s attention to one part of the scene with the help of lighting by lighting the part which you wish to be focused on brighter than its surroundings. Contrast of lighting is also important. If you want to give the film a more mysterious and edgy look it will often have low contrast in comparison to film which is light hearted which would often have a high contrast.



RULE OF THIRDS



Another Composition rule is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a supposed rule which suggests that an image should be divided into nine different parts by two equally distanced horizontal line ands two equally distanced vertical lines. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would. It is used in film to make a shot look better and to help get across what is trying to be said. It encourages the audience to look at these certain points and helps the director portray their message easier. A good example is in the film seven,

COLOURS AND FORMS AND SHAPES



The director of a pop video might use all of these composition rules to put over the meaning wanted. Colours and forms and shapes connote different things to different members watching. For example, red means danger, black means death. While circles are gentle but zig zags are dangerous.

MY FIRST PITCH

The main conventions of a pop video often consist of there being shots of a linear story line, while also having shots of the artist playing the song.

Keith Negus, the pop video theorist, says that pop videos have a number of key conventions or ingredients. These include cutting to the beat, hyper reality, high impact, elements of performance and narrative and images etc.


The mood and tempo of the video always complies with the tempo and mood of the song. In my pitch I am trying to imitate the convention of having a linear story line while also having shots of the artist playing the song. The song I chose is Hall & Oates’ ‘You make my dream come true’. The song is an upbeat and kooky tune which has a certain sense of optimism and simplicity which I am trying to portray in my video idea. I want the kookiness to be displayed through the fact that it is strange that people are so drawn towards this song and I want people to be getting towards the window in strange ways which will hopefully imitate conventions of a pop video as I am reflecting some of the characteristics of the song into the video. I wanted to imitate the convention of having the same mood of the song in the video by making the music video optimistic and to ‘not take itself too seriously’ if that makes sense. The song is reasonably simple therefore I thought the video should reflect its simplicity. I wanted to give the band an image of not being too threatening and help them appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The song is quite a retro song (although we are under the illusion that this is a brand new band); therefore there is the potential to appeal to an older audience. The band should be good looking which would help get a female audience and also relatable looking so that boys will relate to them and empathise. They will be teenagers and the bedroom will look like an average boy’s teenage bedroom. This will help gain empathy from teenage boys (an important market).

I pitched my idea to Luke and I believe he was generally positive about it. One of the problems he believed it faced was the trouble of finding the right house to set the video. He believed it may be hard to get permission from certain people to use their house and he encouraged using a Hurtwood owned property as it would be more convenient. He also suggested that it would be hard to get the right amount of people as well as a lot of people would be needed if we wanted a successful crowd scene at the end. That, he claimed, would be a big problem. Both John and Luke thought there could be some kind of message about the pied piper, I thought there could be posters in the bedroom of a band called Pied Piper or a literal picture of the character The Pied Piper. They thought this due to the nature of the character relating to my video; both play hypnotic music which attracts people towards it. I decided I would look into the right building to set the video in as well as finding the right people to play the part of the bystanders in the video.

Both of my teachers, Luke and John, thought my idea was very strong ‘if not charming’ and quite different from the normal. But my group did not like the song or the idea and because of the difficulties of having a big cast and finding the right house, we went with a different song and treatment.

MY IDEAS, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

To start researching I viewed various music videos which I found on Youtube. I got inspiration for ideas from simply just listening to the music as I found then I could think of ideas specifically for the song and I wasn’t plagued by copying other ideas. I got the idea for my pitch when I was just playing guitar in my room. I thought a good idea for a video would be if a band was simply playing their song in a bedroom and some of the neighbours could hear it coming from the bedroom window. They look up and are drawn hypnotically towards the window while listening to the music. The neighbours could get to their destination (underneath the window) in unique and interesting ways and they could all have their own special character. At the end of the video the band looks out of the window and sees all of the neighbours and passers by standing underneath the window in a big crowd watching the band.



There was consideration of a joke at the end, such as the passers by were actually watching a band next door to them or they were watching someone on the roof. Another idea I had was to show a superhero on and off duty. On duty he is the city’s saviour and the entire city loves him. He has women crawling at his feet and people coming up for autographs. There are then shots of him while he is off duty and at home, where he is just an average person watching TV. He lives alone apart from his cat, who he sings the song too. The song consists of him having the time of his life dancing around his house with the cat. In the cat he finds true happiness and he forgets about the fame, money and attention he gets in the outside world. The third idea I came up with was my least favourite idea, this was to have a band talking in the bus on the way to their concert while watching the people of the outside world pass by. They realise that they do not deserve their fame and success and that there are people who deserve their pay checks much more then them. At the end of the video they stop by the concert they are playing at and get out. Instead of going inside they wander away and give away all of their money to the people in greater need of it.

My idea for how to end my video was like the Pied Piper with my band playing and being followed down the street by the people who had gathered to see them.


I explained the pitch of the band playing in the bedroom idea to my group, but they didn’t seem too keen on it. They preferred an idea of having a rave to rave music.

THE FIVE STAGES OF PRODUCTION

These are:
• Research and development
• Pre-production
• Shoot
• Editing
• Exhibition and distribution
• I followed these five stages in making my pop video.



To go about the production of my pop video I will first of all have to find the right location for my idea. It will be hard to find the right building for my idea as I want it to be set in a rural suburban area and it may be hard to find someone who lives in an area like that who would be willing to let out their house. As soon as the right house is found we can build the bedroom set. All we need is to copy the design of the window in of the house and then we can put it into the studio. The next stage would be to draw up a story board. I think this is important to go after finding the location as we could then work our idea around whichever location we find as finding the location is going to be tricky and it could alter the whole appearance of the video.

Story boarding it will give us a good narrative of the idea. The next stage will be to right up exactly what we need for the video (props, make up etc) so that we can go out and organise them early. The next stage we should cast the video. We will need a big cast as there is a big crowd scene. There are actually two members of Hall & Oates but we could turn it into a trio when we cast the band so that we can have more going on. The song consists of a keyboard, a bass, drums, a guitar, a singer and a backup singer. I was thinking the singer could sing as well as playing the keyboard. There would be someone who will only play bass and someone who only plays the drums while the guitarist can also be backup singer. The final stage will be to actually film the video. This will consist of half studio filming (the scenes in the bedroom) and half filming on a street yet to be chosen (the scenes which consist of the neighbours getting to under the window). We will have a whole day of filming so we can dedicate the first half to filming in the bedroom and the second half filming on the street or vice versa.

MY A2 POP VIDEO PROJECT BRIEF

The breif for this year is to create:

• A pop video for a song by an existing group where we manufacture a new band for the song, including the brand image of the new group.
• A digipak cover for the album of this song.
• A magazine advert for the album for my new group.
• This is to be part of a multi-media campaign to launch and promote the new group.

Story Board for Thriller

This is the original story board for what we wanted the thriller to look like.

Task 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what

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And here is a copy of our preliminary task.

Task 4: Who would be the audience for your media project?

Here I am interviewing Chris Day, he is a member of our target audience. Chris is 17 and goes to Hurtwood House School.


Me: Hello Chris
Chriss: Hello Leo

Me: So, what would you say your favorite genre of film is?
Chris: Well, I do quite like gangster thriller films, you know like have you seen the film 15 minutes?

Me: Do you prefer big hollywood productions or small independent films?
Chris: Defently prefer small independent, hollywood productions lack imagination.

Me: If you were going to torture someone, how would you do it?
Chris: I think I would tie them up, gag them, beat them up a bit first, smash their knee caps in and then smash their toes.

Me: Thank you Chris
Chris: Your very welcome Leo.

Audience feedback on the project

Task 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use

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Task 2: How does your product represent particular social groups?

How does your product represent particular social groups

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Task 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Task 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

What Did We Use To Attract Our Audience

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Task 3:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film would probably be distributed by a smaller, American independent company. It does not need to be high budget and it uses experimental filming which would not be used in the high budget films as the big companies do not want to take a risk, they want a safe and used formula which is guaranteed to make money. Smaller independent companies would be more likely to take on different types of films because they would hope that a gamble payed off. It would be an American independent company because the Americans like gore, a strong plot, violence and a blond protagonist while other independent companies such as British independent companies like strong character based films which are on a slightly more subtle scale. Advertising for this film would generally be based through word of mouth and the hope that it spreads.



This could happen, or the film could go in completely the opposite direction. Since this film is inspired by Quentin Tarantino big Hollywood studios made the gamble then and it payed off, they may try it again in hope that it attracts the same audience of Tarintino’s movies. Reservoir Dogs, a film which influenced ours, was distributed by Miramax studios which produce independent films. It was also co-produced by LIVE entertainment and it was produced by Lawrence Bender. Miramax has released films from My Left Foot to Godzilla vs. Biollante. It has released a number of Tarantino films which include Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill volume 1 and 2. It generally produces independent art house movies and as our movie is not necessarily main stream this would appeal to the studio. Reservoir Dogs contained reasonably unknown actors which later led successful careers, partly due to the success of the film.
The film 15 minutes also has similarities to our film. They both are about two men which are associated with violence and with hidden agendas.

Write up of shoot day

First of all, we gathered up our props. This included fake blood, a car, tape, the right clothing for the antagonists & protagonists, fake nails and various other equipment needed for the shoot. We started off by filming the boot scene where Pip (the protagonist) is looking up out of the boot of the car towards the antagonists. We then drove to go scene the jogging scene and the shots which accompanied the scene. We then went to Adam's basement where we would be filming the torture scene to drop off our stuff before going to get some lunch. We then filmed the scene we were all looking forward to, the torture scene. We tried to think of as many inventive ways as possible to torture Pip and we succeded in trying to make it look as realistic as possible. We all contributed our ideas, helped direct and hold the sound boom and it was very much a team effort.

Account of Locations required

For the thriller we need several locations. Most importantly we needed a room where the girl was going to get tortured. Adam, our media teacher, suggested that we could use a room in his house. We willingly agreed and Millie and I went to go look around the room. We decided it was perfect but decided to take a few pictures to show the others in our group. We all liked it so we agreed on shooting the torture scene there. We also needed a road to shoot the jogging scene. We looked around Ewhurst and discovered the perfect road. Again, Millie and I took pictures and showed the rest of the group and we all it decided it was a good choice. Finally, we needed a car. This didn't really count as a location but we needed to take a shot from inside the boot and it was still important for us to find a suitable car. Roy kindly offered his car so we used his.

What institution would produce the film

The film would probably be produced by an independent production company as it is not an obvious blockbuster. But, Quentin Tarintino started of indie while making it into the main stream so he has opened up the gap for films such as this to make it in the buisness therefore a big production company may get a glimps of this and decide to take the film up itself.

Target audience

The target audience for our thriller will be teenage boys to middle aged adults. It will appeal to the imaginative minds of teenagers while appealing to men up to there middle ages and of all classes. Every man has a sick mind to a certain degree so they will enjoy the torturing out of their own twisted nature.

The chosen idea

The group which I was in was assigned with Ben's idea. My group consisted of Millie, Ben and Danielle. Ben's idea was this,

A women is going on a jog. She is listening to her Ipod and some cheery music is playing. The music is diagetic since she is listening to it as well. After turning down a corner you suddenly see a fist come towards the camera and a shot of her falling down. You see two gangsters who you assume knocked her out. There is a POV shot from inside a boot of a car from the girls perspective who is looking at the gangsters. There is then an over shoulder shot from the gangsters perspective looking down at the girl. The next scene is the girl strapped up in a chair inside a warehouse type place with the gangsters looking at her. They switch on some music and the song happens to be the same song as the one the girl was listening to earlier. The scene progresses with the gangsters doing some imaginative torturing using normal garden tools. They kill the girl in the end.