References to other music videos

Party Footage & Skate Footage

My group and I really enjoyed filming these shots, they were fun and very colourful and had a really edgy feel to them, something we thought would be interesting for our audiences/viewers to watch. When we edited these shots and tried to place them into our video with the footage we found that the theme of these shots were completely different to the rest of our video. Our video was suppose to have themes of happiness and innocent fun. These shots gave themes of drunkenness and careless fun. The actress and her friends no longer seemed innocent (something our audience would warm to) they just seemed like a bunch of rowdy teens getting drunk. This is something we didn't want so we removed these completely from our music video.

Skate/Park & Trolley Footage

                              

Above is some extra footage we shot in our local area: a park near our school and up the high-street, also near our school. These shots worked really well with everything we wanted our music video to be, fun, happy and colourful. Although the colour wasn't the most vibrant but this footage was easily edited on Premier Pro, once getting to know the software to the best of our abilities. The skate boarding shots were some of my favourites as they went with the urban R&B feel of our song and artist. We were able to put really cool affects on them to exaggerate this. 

Footage - First Day Of Filming Up London

 

Graffiti Wall Footage

The video shown above displays the footage my group and I shot from our first trip of filming. On this first occasion we went up to London and got the majority of our lip syncing filmed. In the above video you see a long corridor with graffiti walls all around, this was our first location when filming in London. We aimed to get as many different shots in this location as possible as we thought it would be our main location throughout our video. This specific location was very well suited to the urban feel we wanted our video to convey. This corridor was also underground with helped give a golden lighting which made the graffiti stand out perfectly on the camera.

There is a close up shot of my lips in this video where I am lip syncing. We was going to use this shot for the opening line of our song/video however once returning home from filming we realised I had a hair across my lips, this was a distraction and something we couldn't fix on premier pro or any other software. Due to the hair in the shot we re-filmed this later on in school. At the end of this video you see our actress (Ellie a member of our group) dancing in a Mid Shot against the graffiti wall. In these shots she is looking directly at the camera. We at first placed these shots within our music video, however, after receiving a large amount of feedback we discovered that having both artist and actress was confusing to the audience, making it hard for them to be told apart and understand what their purposes was throughout the video. Giving our helpful audience feedback we removed these shots and any other shots where the same problem occurred.

Shisha Bar Footage

Along with most of our lip syncing shots we also got some shots of our narrative, one being in a Shisha Bar (video above). This location was very well suited to the urban style of our video due to the cobbled path, outside seating, patterns and colours. The smoke in these shots also related to an idea we had that we would later shoot back at our school (Lip syncing in front of a projector with colourful smoke in the background).  The shots show our narrative to our music video, our actress having fun with her friend in a shisha bar, doing typical teenage things. To emphasise the fun they are having and their relationship I filmed close up shots of the two laughing and looking at one another.

During the video you will see a shot of the main actress blowing smoke directly into the camera. However in the process of editing our video and receiving feedback it was clear that this shot didn't fit into our video. Most audience members said that having both artist and actress look directly at the camera made the storyline confusing, making it unclear who the song was about and what the purpose of both characters were. Unable to justify this we decided to change/delete some footage, including this shot, and re-think how we would show both artist and actress in different ways. Another shot that didn't make it into our video was the ending shot in the video above. Both me, my group members and audience were all able to notice the poor quality of the shot and the fact that again, like the previous shot discussed, it didn't quite make sense.

Table Footage

When planning this footage and specific table shots we imagined a warm outdoors café or coffee shop location however up London this was very hard to find due to the fact we only had a limited amount of time and several crucial shots to film. Being in the location of Kings Cross (where we were set to film our last shots in fountains) we came across this small seating area shown above and decided to film anyway. Although this was one of our favourite looks for our artist there were many things wrong with this shot and therefore we couldn't use it in our video. My group and I noticed the flaws as well as our peers, who we received feedback from.

Firstly the natural lighting in this shot was bad and made the overall look of the shot look very boring and bland, although this is something that could be adjusted on Premier Pro there were other aspects of the shot that could not be fixed without then making the shot look of a poor quality. Secondly the building railings that were in the background of the table and chairs completely distracted the audience from the artist lip syncing her new single. Another distraction was the builders in bright yellow jackets walking passed and stopping to look what was happening. Lastly when trying to place these shots into our video we found they looked odd and out of place, not fitting with the overall feel and look of the music video.

 Messing Around Footage

Like explained above, due to feedback these shots didn't fit our music video and made our audience extremely confused. Not only were these shots bad due to feedback there were also things like the barrier with the caution sign on it, in the background, through the glass. This takes away from the entity of the shot and creates a distraction to audience members eyes. Also like the table footage, these shots didn't fit in with our theme of colour and were very dull; something we didn't want.

Fountain Footage 

                             

Here is the footage we took at the colourful fountains in King's Cross. From the very beginning of planning my group and I knew we wanting to incorporate this location. We were set on having the fountains shots at the very end of our song, rounding it off with a nice ending. My group and I really liked this background the fountains provided, along with the quirky lighting they also supplied.

Although we and our audience really loved the shots, there were some slight issues with them. Once on Premier Pro the lighting we really loved didn't seem to be as clear as we thought, therefore we only were able to use a few of the shots in our final piece. Again, as these were shot on our first outing of filming we hadn't yet discovered that having our artist and actress in the same location or even the same shot was confusing. With this feedback we decided to cut our actress out of these shots and just included ones where our artist was lip syncing.

From our first filming outing I have learnt that my group and I need to be more cautious of the natural lighting and how to find the best lighting possible while outdoors. Also that we need to take more shots in one location.

Music Video - Draft 2

Here is our second draft,we experimented alot more the narrative, to ensure that we didn't want to use the stuff where the narrative is looking at the camera. We found as we added more, that it didn't just look confusing but also awkward and not very natural. We did add more lip syncing in though and we found the shots of london worked really well but we're slightly long and became boring.

Draft 3 - Better Off Without You

This draft is unfinished so still needs a lot of work done and shots shut as the close-up lip shots and 'photobooth' shots need to be re-filmed. I also think some areas in the middle of the video need to be replaced and a lot more lip syncing and longer shots need to be added.

Extra Footage/Out Takes

We plan to put this on our website to give Ivy's 'fans' something extra they can't see anywhere else.

Location & Behind The Scenes images

Location areas:

London - Surroundings by Kings Cross Station

We thought this location suited our video well due to the brightly coloured table and chairs and the lights on the ground. We knew we wanted the lights to be visible in our shots we were going to take so we went to our other planned locations while it got darker. In our first few drafts we used the footage we got from this sight of our actress and her friend moving from table to table in silly positions, for example having their feet on the table. However once gaining feedback form our first draft we found that the shots from this sight no longer worked as our actress's were looking directly into the camera which became confusing for the audience to tell the difference between artist and actress.

                                        Camden Town - Shisha bar                                         

This sight was one that my group and I were set on. Some of us knew the area so therefore knew what the shisha bar was like. It was colourful and pretty with lights and lanterns surrounding the tables, therefore, the colour and overall look of the bar would suit what we wanted our video to look like. We also liked this idea as we planned a shot of having our main actress blow smoke into the camera. Again  after the given feedback that shot no longer worked. Despite this we still incorporated this location into our video as we got footage where no eye contact was made.

Steps by a river - London - Kings Cross Station 

Near by Kings Cross station we found the steps shown above. We decided there and then to have me lip sync the whole of the song whilst sitting on the the steps. We wanted to do this because we didn't really have many shots from that day where I was still. When starting the first draft of our video we incorporated this shot, however, once we had more footage we realised that this shot didn't work with the fun feel we wanted to come across. 

Near by the set of stairs we found were these fountains, which we had researched before hand and decided we definitely wanted to film in and around the fountains. Just from using Google to research them and view pictures we knew straight away that the colour of the fountains and the fact they change colour would work really well with our video and what we wanted it to look like. Once placing them into our video on premier pro we were pleased with how well they fitted into our song and the rest of our video. My group and I decided to only include these shots at the end of our video to end it on a high.

Behind the Scenes:

Shooting for digipack

The two photos shown above show me and a member of my group preparing for our digipack photos. One of our ideas was to use glitter as its fun and quirky and therefore goes well with our artists image. We had various ideas, for example, putting glitter on my face (as shown above), throwing glitter in the air and also blowing a kiss with glitter. It was a challenge to try and capture the glitter in the movement shots however we managed to capture a few good shots. We researched different ways to apply the glitter to my face; in the end we used Vaseline to stick the glitter with, this worked well.

Other shots for our digipack

Above shows me and my group member decorating small daisies to place in my hair whilst I lie down on a white sheet. We decorated the daisies with glitter so it would link to the other shots we had done. We thought this idea would be good to get a long shot with as it would be interesting because I was laying down. 

Digipak - Sample photos

Shown above are some of my personal favourites from the photos my group and I have taken over the passed few weeks. I like the first photo, the kisses on my chest in a close-up, because the true main focus is the kisses which really represents our music video. The second photo I find interesting because of the camera angle, we haven't got any other shot like this. The third shot is one of the few long shots we have so it's nice to see the variety. I also think it will be interesting for our audience to look at because my whole body is in it, therefore, there is more to look at than just my face; there is a lot of aspects to the picture. The fourth photo is one of our best eye contact shots. I feel we definitely need to have one photo within the digipak where I am giving eye contact to the camera, this will be good in engaging the audience. Last but not least the fifth and final photo I have chosen as one of my favourites is because of the story that comes with it and how it relates not only to our video but our track list on our CD. Most of our track list names are about moving on and the future, this picture is almost as if I am looking into the future or looking at the past and moving on.

Digipak Preperation

Behind the scenes - Digipak preperation

The two photos shown above show me and a member of my group preparing for our digipack photos. One of our ideas was to use glitter as its fun and quirky and therefore goes well with our artists image. We had various ideas, for example, putting glitter on my face (as shown above), throwing glitter in the air and also blowing a kiss with glitter. It was a challenge to try and capture the glitter in the movement shots however we managed to capture a few good shots. We researched different ways to apply the glitter to my face; in the end we used Vaseline to stick the glitter with, this worked well.

Above shows me and my group member decorating small daisies to place in my hair whilst I lie down on a white sheet. We decorated the daisies with glitter so it would link to the other shots we had done. We thought this idea would be goo 

Original Digipak Ideas