AN - Shooting 16/02/12

Today we did some more shooting. During this session we got our very own Katie to star as the girlfriend since we had trouble finding a replacement for Francesca and we've abandoned the third role because of time constraints. As for what we filmed, we took care of the last date sequence and the break up itself.


We used a variety of shots to during filming. These included, high angle, low angle, over the shoulder long, mid and shot-reverse shots. By doing this, we are able to show a variety of shots with our video so that we aren't lacking.

As you can see here in this image, this is our attempt at the broken frame (it's the a cheap one from Boyes so don't ask about the lack of an actual frame).

With the break-up, last date and boyfriend's break-up aftermath filmed, all we need to film now is three more date sequences and the girlfriend's aftermath and we're done.

SD - Digipak Materials

Most digipaks are made from paper board or card and contain either a plastic or card CD/DVD trays internally. Previous digipaks that have been released by the band include ones with titles which include 'Number1's' 'Best of Destiny's Child' 'Soul divas' and 'Bye Survivor' Our digipak will be named 'Emotions' which will contain the track and music video on one CD and on the other their will be other down beat releases that they have produced.

The Digipak 'Survivor' is a Carbon neutral edition (which means that it has a net zero carbon footprint which refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference) making the digipak 'green'

Our digipak will be made of pale blue paperboard and silver and gold glitter will be used for the Track listing on the back of the digipak and for the Name of the digipak 'Emotions' aswell as Destiny's Child or DC in italic swirly font.

SD - My new Narrative idea - change in story line.

Although we have shot the performance aspect of the music video, we still have concerns about the narrative aspect. Our original idea were going to be one or two 'dates' in which the actors Francesca and James would act like a stereotypical couple in a good relationship. We were the going to have the chorus of our chose track Emotion followed by another narrative aspect of the couple arguing the reason for this argument was going to be because James the boyfriend) had been cheating on Francesca with a waitress at the restaurant he had previously taken her to resulting in the couple breaking up.

The new idea is going to involve instead of a third actor (the girl that worked at the restaurant that James cheated on Francesca with) we're going to do a date scene in which James will have to leave suddenly and will leave his phone at Francesca and she reads his messages and finds flirty messages from other girls, this will cause her to smash the photo of the couple which will be shot as a close up on the floor. She will then call James' house phone later on and arrange to meet the following day to return the mobile at a restaurant where the final argument and break-up will take place.

AN - Digipak Feedback

Today I got feedback for my prototype digipak and although, the physical look was praised (i.e. the product being a 6-panel fold out with disc sleeves I got quite a bit feedback concerning the look of it.

• Use more ICT skills. i.e. layering
• The two inside middle panels have a long shot of the band members.
• Smaller text
• Represent emotions in the digipak.
• Across the three inside panels, we have three different shots of a champagne bottle with a picture of Michelle on the bottle.
• Next we have the bottle with a picture of Beyonce's face along with two filled up wine glasses.
• In the last shot, the bottle has Kelly's face on it and the bottle is empty with an empty glass and a broken one.
• Background is too dull.
• Feet on the panel behind the main one.

Here is the digipak prototype:

Front cover

Inner panels

Hidden credits panel (unfinished)

Back cover

KM - Editing Tip!

Just a quick post to say that today whilst editing I have found out that if you click on the Motion button in the viewer section of final cut you can rotate a clip, or if you look at the scale section you can even zoom in to your clips!

AN - Altered Video Idea

Today I spoke with my Media teacher concerning problems with filming and he suggested that due to problems getting actors, our group needs to alter the idea a bit. Here's a list of points he made concerning this:

• Use the Year 10 cafe area to film the restaurant scene and use props such as cutlery, plates and food etc.
• Have romantic conventions such as guy pouring drinks for each other and pulling a chair out for the girlfriend to sit on.
• Have a total of 3 or 4 dates with the last date being the argument.
• Cross cut shots during the argument to show conversation between couple.
• Have one of the dates be a picnic, possibly to add humour due to the snow.
• Have the boyfriend blindfold the girl and take her to the restaurant.
• Linking in with the picnic point, denote the couple as ignoring all of the negative annoyances in life.
• The couple meet each other by accidently bumping into each other, dropping their phones and end taking the wrong phone. (Have to be the same make/brand)
• One of the dates could be at the riverside with the couple feeding some ducks.
• Could use some extras for the restaurant scene to make the place seem more lively and add to the realism.
• Have a scene where the couple are cooking and being playful at the same time.
• I need to use the codes and conventions of rom-coms to make this idea work.

Looking through this list of ideas, I will implement most of them into the video and maybe abandon the idea of a third actor.

SD & KM - Behind the scenes of filming performance (costume choices)

In this vodcast we discuss the choices we made regarding clothing, although it does not include the second costume choices we decided to include later on. The three actresses changed from the white dresses shown above to deeper reds and purple dresses which signify sex, love and passion a countertype of white that is plain and shows little emotion. The actresses come together at the end and become stronger like a unity shown by the colour change to powerful rather then the white, fading into the background.

Untitled from Katie Mallows on Vimeo.

SD & KM Vodcast 1 - Filming the performance aspect

Here is a vodcast, talking about filming the performance aspect of the video.



Untitled from sophie dixon on Vimeo.

AN - VLOG Update 29/1/12

Here is a quick update about my role in the group, filming and digipaks!

SD - Filming Update

We will be now filming the performance aspect of the music video tomorrow with mel and annie and hope to get two cameras so we can have greater shot variation and more choices when it comes down to editing throughout the week we also plan to upload the footage we have already got and editing up on the blog so we can get feedback on work we've completed so far.

SD - Meet Destiny's Child

Annie

Mel

Melodie Abraham is also a media student and does alot of dance outside of school so we thought she would make a good candidate to be in out music video and wouldnt be shy when having to be involved in a short dance sequence we're planning to put together for filming tomorrow. She will be wearing a white dress with silver heels standing out from the other two as she will be playing Beyonce.

Annie Cutillo will also play one of the band members and has also done alot of dance such as poledancing so she will be able to 'throw some shapes' haha when filming tomorrow. She will also be wearing and white dress but with black heels. Annie will play Kelly Rowland.
Sophie Dixon Unfortunatly since our other actress has too much work on with exams at the moment I have had to take on the rold of Michelle Williams during filming tomorrow although judging by the majority of Destiny's Child video she takes more of a back seat than the other two Beyonce in particular which is why I thought i should be her and I have alot less dancing experiance tan the other two so ill just have to do my best.

Sophie

AN - Digipak Concepts

Here is my idea for what the group's digipak should look like, with pictures and annotations to show it.

AN - Digipak Example 1: Britney Spears Greatest Hits

Britney Spears Greatest Hits: My Prerogative

• Instead of being a stereotypical fold out digipak, which usually has 4+ panels. This is simply a 2 panel disc sleeve.
• Picture of Britney Spears on the front wearing a fur jacket, bra and shorts.
• Clothing suggests sexual content because the digipak comes with two discs. (Second disc might have explicit music videos?)
• For example, for most of the My Prerogative video, Britney is mostly seen in her underwear and in the video for Do Somethin' (last track on the disc), she can be seen wearing similar clothing to that on the cover, except that the jacket is white and instead of shorts, she is seen in her "panties"

• A light blue greyish colour is used for cover of the digipak along with the white border.
• This is done in order to make Britney stand out with her black clothing and tanned, shiny skin. This links in with the male gaze theory.
• On the back of the digipak, we have the track listing.
• Below the listing, we have some very brief credits along with three web addresses and copyright information at the bottom.
• Then at the bottom right hand corner, we have the barcode and the company logos above it.

KM - What Influenced my Ideas

Ever since the Spice Girls were spreading 'girl power' across the country as well as many others at that! I knew that girl bands were one of my favourites when it came to my taste in music!

Then came along other girl bands such as The Saturdays, Girls Aloud, & the Sugababes. All very well known and because of this the were automatically a role model for young girls.

Watching their music videos over the years I have noticed things that the "typical" girl band will include sexy outfits, lots of make up, usually they will dance, and good looking boys are used in the videos.

My influence for Destinys Child song, Emotion was from all these videos. Seeing the matching outfits, glitz and glamour. This is how I imagined my video to be.

The common shot types used in girl band video's and usually a close up on specific body parts like, legs, chest, lips and eyes. Also a group shot is used to show the whole band together, this varies the shot types in the video.

Also, as part of our research building up to our final idea, we looked at last years A2 groups and the music videos they had made to see what was good to include.

I looked at Emmie & Megan's music video which was Backstreet Boys, "As long as you love me", for one of their locations used in the video was the Ilkley Moor, which is now being used in our music video. 

Another influence for a specific shot to start our music video was from the film 'Paranormal Activity' (2009, Oren Peli) this is used because there is a part of the film were the picture of the couple together is smashed on the boyfriends face, signifying bad luck to him, or something bad is going to happen to him, which in our case is that he cheats on his girlfriend. 

This shot will be used at the beginning zooming in and then coming to life, this is when the video will start.
Black and white will be included in the video as a flashback. This will be shown in the video when the aftermath of the breakup is taking place on both behalves of the boyfriend and girlfriend. This is also being used in the previous A2 video I watched.

Asa recently looked at The Book of Enoch. "Fallen Angels", play a massive role in this book, and this is what has influenced us to look more in depth at the costume the band members will possible wear. Sophie has suggested black, so we are not 100% which direction we are going to take just yet, but looking at a varieties of options helps us figure out what we can imagine the band members to look like.  This picture could possibly help us figure out which route to take, Minus the Wings!!

SD - Destiny's Child Fansites

In order to get our music video for Emotion out there I have contacted a number of fan sites to let fans know what we're planning to do links for the fan sites are linked below.
The most well known fan site

Others include http://beyoncedaily.org/category/destinys-child/ and http://www.fanpop.com/spots/destinys-child.
All of these fan sites will be contacted via forum or contact pages linked available on each website. Doing this may also allow us to link our final product onto the pages for fans to view upping our views once it has been uploaded to youtube.

SD - Digipak Ideas

  As a group we have discussed digipaks alot as it is a big factor of the coursework. My idea for our Destiny's Child 'Thought&Emotion' being a potential CD title, is to have the Band in a big dominating picture wich is photo shopped and edited heavily with light (typically pop and highly commercialised) the title and band name will be in glitter, possibly silver and the background a pale blue colour. The back of the digipak will have the list of tracks showing any features and the length of song in italic font smaller than the other text. The background image behind this text will either be Katies idea of lots of words in a newspaper style font such as love, hate, hurt, heartbreak etc or solo images of the band members the glitter theme will be repeated on the reverse of the didpak but track names will appear in a different color maybe gold or pink. 
 Inside the digipak will be two CD trays, one plastic containing the tracks and the other paperboard which will have concert/live footage on of the band. I also want to include a small booklet inside the digipak with pictures of the band, lyric page of the songs and a fan subsciption page.
Asa will also be making his own digipak so we can compare ideas between the group and then maybe combine what we agree on if we have time or choose one of them. Katie will be working on my digipak with me as I want to put quite alot into it. Pictures will be uploaded later of our progress.

KM - Advice from other Media Students

I have recently taken a visit to Blackheath, in London to visit some friends, all who take an interest in Media Studies.

The students at Thomas Tallis school, spoke to me about what experience they have in the 'Music Vid' department area, and it just so happens that one of my friends has done a music video using similar ideas to what my group have.
Picking a song by the well known girl band The Sugababes, using their song Too Lost in You.
For the performance side to the video, she made the band members where similar clothing to the original video, casual but sexy, keeping the male gaze in mind. Each band member was walking around the streets of London, using the streets as her setting, giving it a more 'real' feel to it.


She did not include a couple in the video, instead she used a variety of couples and filmed them for a variety of shots, some in love, some crying, some arguing and even two people just meeting for the first time, sticking to the stereotypical theory of 'Love at first sight'. Something all girls dream about having, but it doesn't seem to work as much as us girls would hope!!!
The original video, consists of the girls witnessing men whilst walking past them in an airport, and a 'fantasy' of them seducing them. This gives the audience a sense of 'sexual tension' or 'Intentions'.
I mentioned that I was considering Stop motion for the band, and another student from her class tried this, although it worked, it too a lot of time as they chose to keep pausing the camera after each shot. This can take time and work well, but will the actors be patient enough?!
I was considering using this for the band members, or the boyfriend and girlfriend for the after math.
... Speaking to her and seeing how she worked around her video, helped knowing if you equally split the jobs then stuff will get done the way it should be, smoother and quicker!

"Good Luck to Blazing Grace! Would love to see the final product!" - Niamh, Student at Thomas Tallis School.

SD - Footage

We filmed some new footage yesterday with our two actors Francesca Fox and James Newton. We were able to shoot the flashback scenes of the couple when the relationship was going well. We took a varirty of different shots for example the couple kissing in a close up, holding hands in a medium long shot and extreme long shot (POV) over the couple's shoulders showing the setting and the town of Ilkley below them. The Cow and Calf was a good place to film and the couple are featured going on a romantic walk together. Footage of from the day will be uploaded within the next school week.

AN - Costumes

Concerning the costumes in the video, the couple will be wearing everyday, casual clothing. However, they will be have different looks in each sequence to show the passage the time.


The waitress (the boyfriend has an affair with) will be wearing the a white shirt with some of the top buttons undone and a short black skirt. This will add sex appeal to the character and will fit in with the theory that blondes are the most attractive people, since the actress playing the waitress is blonde.

As for the performers, they'll be also be wearing casual clothing during the narrative sequences because they'll be making brief cameos. As for the performance sequences, they will be wearing white dresses and jewellery because they will be performing in front of a white background. In philosophical terms, the performer's clothing will represent that they might be angelic beings, since one of the performers is in the restaurant during the one of the narrative sequence and she disappears when a person walks past her. This also shows that the performers could also be fallen angels, since they are roaming around Earth in human form.

This theory also links in with the Book of Enoch which was written during the old testament because there are seven beings known as the Watchers who had to watch over Earth, but then one day defied God's orders and descended to Earth, becoming the Fallen angels. Not to mention the fact that since the clothing symbolises the performers as being angels and gives their costumes polysemic meaning, they lack wings signifying that they might not be part of Heaven after all...

AN - What Needs to be done

With the coursework deadline in seven weeks and a day's time, here is what our group has currently done so far:

Brainstorm of music video ideas
Treatment
Lesson on narrative & digipaks
Director case studies (Francis Lawrence, Spike Jonze, Jonas Akerlund)
4 podcasts
1 Vodcast (which STILL needs to be uploaded)
Codes & Conventions of Girlbands (40% done)
Destiny's Child Research and background information
Setting up the company blog
Digipak codes and conventions
Digipak design ideas
Magazine Ads research
Animatic
Setting up a Facebook page
Sample footage

Here's what we need to do now:


Finish off girl groups codes and conventions
Analyse five different digipaks
Possible deconstructions of girlband music videos
Location scouting
Lyrics sheets
Storyboard
More podcasts and vodcasts
Influences on our music video
Digipak creation
Magazine ad research part 2
Magazine ad creation
Rough cut of music video

SD - Contacting the Record Company

Music World Entertainment are the record company that Destiny's Child are signed to in order for our videos about the track to be allowed onto youtube we were told to contact the company about permission (see below). I also left my contact details so hopefully they'll be in touch to let us know either via e-mail or phone.

Hello my name is Sophie Dixon from Ilkley Grammar school in West Yorkshire, England. My question is would it be ok if for my school project to produced a remake of Destinys Child Emotion music video? This video will not be used for commercial purposes and solely for my school and exam board to view but could be uploaded to Youtube so the exam board is able to view our work. The video will be totally different from the original and non of the concepts will be copied.

Many thanks,
Sophie.

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.