AN - Filming difficulties

Despite having a plan as seen in my previous blog post, we have encountered filming difficulties concerning the actors. We were suppose to be filming on Friday 23rd December, but due to the actors being busy doing Christmas related activities we couldn't film. However, if we manage to get some of the actors this week we might and try to film some footage before we go back. If this isn't the case, we'll just have to film during January despite exams.

AN - Production Schedule

During the Christmas holidays we will be doing some filming for our Media coursework so that we can begin to edit and start working on our digipaks and magazine adverts in January. As well as dealing with exams of course!

Anyway, this Friday we'll be filming the boyfriend's aftermath of the breakup in Ilkley. We will only need James for this sequence, since Francesca (who plays the girlfriend) is away this week and Anna (the waitress) is busy on Friday we'll only be filming this part of the music video. We'll obtain the camera and tripod from Faye and Hattie (Haye Fattie) on the day, so that we have the equipment needed for filming and afterwards, we will pass the equipment onto George and Tom (2 Twigs) for them to use.

However, we will be doing some more filming next week in which hopefully all of our cast will return. With that said, we'll be filming most of the narrative sequence so that we don't have to do much filming during January because during that time we will primarily focus on filming the performance. 


That's our schedule for the next two weeks, stay tuned for more updates and informative posts. 


Merry Christmas!

AN - Digipak Ideas

I have begun to come up with ideas of what our group's digipak will look like. I have come up with the idea that the digipak will have compartments for two discs rather than one and the digipak will fold out into three panels with the track listing in between the discs. The first disc will contain various songs by Destiny's Child, while the second is a DVD which will contain all of the vodcasts that we've done, behind the scenes footage, interviews with the cast members and outtakes.


I came up with the idea when looking around my DVD collection and found the Team America/ Beavis & Butthead/Jackass the Movie collection and noticed how it folded out and how three disc trays were used instead of one. I then thought that if I used a similar design for the digipak, then it would make it look more unique in comparison to other digipaks of this day and age.

The cover of the product.

This is what the product will look like when folded out.

Here is how the set folds out.

SD - Jonas Akerlund Director Case Study

Jonas Akerlund is a well known Swedish film and music video director who has worked with stars such as Madonna especailly but also Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera , Pink, Malatica and Blink 182. His first music video that he directed was in 1988 with Candlemass - 'Bewitched' (see below). He is known for being quite controversial after a number of his videos, mamily including the ones he was involved with in Madonnas music including 'Music' and 'American Life' which featured scenes from the American at war with Iraq. As you can see in the table below he has become increasingly popular with Pop and R&B stars in recent years. It's not surprising that from his looks, before her bacame a director he was part of a Swedish 'Viking Metal' band called Bathory before the band split in 1984.

Candlemass - Bewitched...was Akerlunds first work as a director back in 1988.










Videography


1988


"Bewitched" for Candlemass [1]


1989


"Whats the noise" for Walk on water


1992


"Så länge det lyser mittemot" for Marie Fredriksson(Female half of Roxette)


"Mellan sommar och höst" for Marie Fredriksson


1993


"Fingertips '93" for Roxette


1994


"Run To You" for Roxette


1995


"A la ronde" for Sinclair


"Vulnerable" for Roxette


"Pay For Me" for Whale


1996


"June Afternoon" for Roxette


"She Doesn't Live Here Anymore" for Roxette


"Un Dia Sin Ti" for Roxette (Spanish version of "Spending My Time")


1997


"Do You Wanna Be My Baby?" for Per Gessle (Male half of Roxette)


"James Bond Theme" for Moby


"Kix" for Per Gessle


"I Want You To Know" for Per Gessle


"Smack My Bitch Up" for The Prodigy


1998


"Ray of Light" for Madonna


(Won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video)


"My Favourite Game" for The Cardigans


"Turn the Page" for Metallica


1999


"Whiskey in the Jar" for Metallica


"Wish I Could Fly" for Roxette


"Canned Heat" for Jamiroquai


"Anyone" for Roxette


"Corruption" for Iggy Pop


2000


"The Everlasting Gaze" for The Smashing Pumpkins


"Music" for Madonna


"Porcelain" (version 1) for Moby


"Try, Try, Try" for The Smashing Pumpkins


"Try" (15-minute alternate version to "Try, Try, Try")


"Beautiful Day" (version 1: airport) for U2


"Black Jesus" for Everlast


"Still" (version 2: white hair) for Macy Gray


2001


"Gets Me Through" for Ozzy Osbourne


"Walk On" for U2


"The Centre of the Heart" for Roxette


2002


"A Thing About You" for Roxette


"Lonely Road" for Paul McCartney


"Fuel For Hatred" for Satyricon


"Me Julie" for Ali G and Shaggy


"If I Could Fall In Love" for Lenny Kravitz


"Beautiful" for Christina Aguilera


2003


"Beautiful Day" (version 2: Eze) for U2


"American Life" for Madonna


"Good Boys" for Blondie


"True Nature" for Jane's Addiction


"Come Undone" for Robbie Williams


"Sexed Up" for Robbie Williams


2004


"I Miss You" for blink-182


"Aim 4" for Flint


"Tits On The Radio" for Scissor Sisters (internet video only)


2006


"Rain Fall Down" for The Rolling Stones


"Jump" for Madonna


"One Wish" for Roxette


"Mann gegen Mann" for Rammstein


"Country Girl" for Primal Scream


2007


"Wake Up Call" for Maroon 5


"Good God" for Anouk


"Same Mistake" for James Blunt


"Watch Us Work It" for Devo


2008


"No. 5" for Hollywood Undead


"Undead" for Hollywood Undead


"Sober" for Pink


2009


"Paparazzi" for Lady Gaga


"When Love Takes Over" for David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland


"We Are Golden" for Mika


"Celebration" for Madonna


"Pussy" for Rammstein


"Fresh Out the Oven" for Jlo


"Ich tu dir weh" for Rammstein


(Won the 2011 Echo for best video national)


2010


"Telephone" for Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé


"Hot-N-Fun" for N*E*R*D feat. Nelly Furtado


"Let Me Hear You Scream" for Ozzy Osbourne


"Who's That Chick?" for David Guetta feat. Rihanna (Day Version)


"Who's That Chick?" for David Guetta feat. Rihanna(Night Version)


2011


"Hold It Against Me" for Britney Spears


"Hear Me Now" for Hollywood Undead


"Moves Like Jagger" for Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera


"Girl Panic!" for Duran Duran


"Mein Land" for Rammstein










As well as this Akerlund has directed a number of short film but has also directed commercials and trailers such as Dior make-up and scent adverts and Bazaar Magazine.
Filmography

Spun (2002)
Madonna: I'm Going to Tell You a Secret (2005)
Madonna: Confessions Tour - Live from London (TV Special) (2006)
Madonna: The Confessions Tour (CD/DVD Release) (2007)
Horsemen (2009)
Small Apartments (2012)

ALL - Podcast 4: Animatic

In this podcast, we talk about the animatic that I (Asa) created and go through some of the scenes. As well as talking about some of the influences of video idea such as Paranormal Activity.


Here is the fourth podcast:

AN - Animatic

Today, I finished working on the animated story board. I created it by drawing each sequence on twelve pieces of paper and added annotations. After that, I scanned the pictures onto a computer and put them into Windows Movie Maker along with the songs. Here is the animatic itself:

SD - Change in Cast

We have had found out today that Sammy Bullock (who was supposed to be playing the waitress that James has an affair with) can no longer perform in our music video due to personal reasons according to Asa although we have found a replacement Anna Simpson (right). She will be more fitting because blond women are stereotyped as being more attractive than women with different coloured hair and by having both Francesca and Anna as the girlfriends we'll be able to portray this point.

AN - Narrative & Digipak Presentation

Today, we did our presentation on Narrative and digipaks in music videos. During the presentation, we talked about the different narrative theories and how digipaks are presented.

Narrative in music videos asa sophie katie

View more presentations from Alabzam

AN - Final Actor

Our final actor, Sammy Bullock.

Today I managed to get one more actor for our music video, Sammy Bullock. In the video, she will play the waitress in the restaurant who James (the boyfriend) will cheat on Francesca (the girlfriend) for. 




During the restaurant sequence, she will be wearing a waitress' uniform in order to portray the waitress stereotype. One part of the uniform will be a short shirt, this will obtain sex appeal attracting a male audience. However, it won't be over-the-top and feel more realistic to fit the tone of the video.

SD - Company Ident

For our company ident for Blazing Grace productions we've come up with the final idea. We're going to have a 'bad ass' barbie doll as Barbies are often a connotation of purity and the ideal stereotype of beauty for young girls we have decided to create a counter type of this, our barbie will have ripped clothing with a short leather skirt (quite gothic clothing) with a nose ring and messed up hair and smoking a cigarette, example shown left. This is a countertype of the usual Barbie as normally she is the perfect pristine woman that always looks glamourous. The ident will go with the name Blazing Grace productions because Barbie is usually a graceful sucessful woman but in this case she has turned into the opposite, un-glamourous and a mess and a not longer suitable role model for young girls aged 4-10.

As you can see this is an old Barbie doll and the kind of image we hope to create although you cant actually see the clothing she's wearing in the image its just a sample of what we hope to achieve with are ident but better. The clothing we will dress her in will make her look essentially like a washed up stripper and just generally a mess, with all her clothing ripped up and maybe some pills lying around her when she's sat on the floor. This idea originally came from the 'We Found Love' video by Rihanna a video about drug use and relationships failing because of it to signify bad connotations of drug use to our audience of teens for our Destiny's Child video - Emotion.

ALL - Podcast 3: Sample Footage 2

In today's podcast, me and Sophie (with the absence of Katie) talk about the second set of sample footage we filmed which involved the girlfriend's aftermath of the break up. As well as that, we also talk about how the sample footage will help us in the making with our final product, along with the symbolic meaning of some parts of the video.