Story board and Ideas

This is a capture of our story board and some of our first draft drawings and how we started off our video. One of our group members is an artist, so this was to our advantage as they could draw accurately so when we got to our destination we knew what we needed to do and didnt have to guess.






This image is the carry on of the rest of our story board which displays a number of shots and hand drawn images. The reason why we did this is so we could plan all of our shots before we went out to film. Sometimes rather than sticking to the story board we added in shots which we thought of on the spot.



These two pictures display the lyrics of our song. Whilst looking at the lyrics we printed them off so that we could physically write next to the versus and chorus what we were thinking and planning on shooting during these phases. We also timed how long the lyrics would last by listening to the song with the lyrics at hand. This helped us as we had a goal to work to rather than guessing what we had to do.

More shots

We thought of this shot on the spot and decided to print ticks on A4 paper and drop them above our main character to symbolise good aspects.


This shot is showing Crosses which can have two meanings. first can be the bad times, and second can be that kisses are floating away symbolising something is torn away from her.

In this shot we placed a spot light in the background to give it that backlighting effect which was agood time to use it in a single shot.


In the shot above we added in a gamma effect so it gradually focuses in on the light which gives it a dramatic effect.



At first we thought we would just use the female character by herself looking down and depressed.


Instead we manipulated the shot so on screen you would be able to see two of the same character but in different places.



Here again we have the female character facing herself in a sad mood which we also wanted to show a torn person.

Weather and Transport

Since we started off videoing in the summer it was mostly good weather with clear skies and sunny weather. This enabled us to have some very interesting but at the same time great shots.
Now we are coming to winter the weather has become alot worse and becomes dark very early so we have to plan our shots, rather than on when we can do it, but when its best according to the weather.
One way we could keep track of when to film and what days would be the best to film on was by using the weather reports which were reported on the http://www.bbc.co.uk/ website, we could access this from our computers which was very helpful.

Due to the fact that where we live is a rural area and our group members live along way apart from each other, one of our major problems has been to organise transport so that we can get to our various locations and film as a team. Within our group, we live about 25miles appart so our means of transport was limited to a car as the public transportation was not for us.

Problems and Solutions

One problem which we had come to was that one weekend we travelled to a city with two cameras and two batteries and tapes. When we set everything up to start shooting we found out that one battery had no charge in it and the other one had less than 5minutes of filming in it so we were only able to do a few shots. The reason why there was no battery life was due to the fact that the batteries were taken from the back of the cupboard and they had not been used, the battery life had been drained out. To over come this we went out the following weekend and did our shots. Now when ever we take batteries and cameras out, we check the batteries are charged, the camera is working and that the tapes still have film to film with.

We found a very nice location and which had great natual lighting, but because we did not have any sort of speakers to play our song and lyrics for our main singer, this later caused us problems with synching the miming of the words to the songs tempo, to make sure we never had the same problem when videoing we made sure that we had planned to bring in some type of output device to make it easier to synchronise our work.

The best product and easiest to carry around was a ipod docking system as it can be plugged in almost anywhere, although if we were to shoot in the woods or in a town then we would use the speakers from a mobile phone.

Anciliary Task

We are now planning how we would like our music magazine advertisement is going to look like, as this will help us appeal to our targeted audience. The ways we have thought of how to research this is by looking on google images and also reading up on magazines e.g.Mojo, enemy, kerrang, etc... even though we are looking at images on the internet we are not aloud to use them as our own work, which i find confusing as we are aloud to seek permission from copyright owners when it comes to music but not images.

Some companies advertise their product inside magazines. The forms come in ways such as;

Thumbnails which is the least expensive way of promoting a album, sometimes used by record labels to introduce new artist to a targeted audience, in this case its CARGO RECORDS.

This would be a quarter page advertisement, this could be used by producers. This type of advertisement costs more than the thumbnails.

A half page advertisement is generally used as it is less expensive and some companies might use popular articles in ways of attracting the audience.

full page advertisement would be used in order to give more of a impact of the product that is wanted to be seen by a targeted audience.

This is the back cover of the magazine which would be very expensive in comparison to using one of the pages inside the magazine, usually used by big companies.

Our research went well for our cover sleeve, the above picture is of the Beatles DVD cover. I like the use of graphics and animation within the artwork on the DVD sleeve, this has encouraged us to try and make our cover become a animated piece of artwork.

These are some more examples;

I liked this type of DVD cover as it is in black and white and much less cluttered in comparison to the Oasis cover.

The below piece is what I have done so far towards our front and back cover for our cover sleeve. I am very pleased in what I have done as it reflects our work and the image we are trying to project to our audience. This was a hand held camera picture which i had uploaded onto the computer and i used photoshop to change its image to make it more parallel to our song title.

I made this barcode look-a-like by using the technology we have on our school I-Mac computers called photoshot. I thought this would make the cover look more realistic and professional. If it were to be decoded it would spell Torn.

To a more recent time this is now how our cover sleeve is going to look like. I added in the word 'Torn' onto the female characters t-shirt to give it a nice effect and added a shadow of the lyrics to the other side to make it more aesthetic pleasing.

Camera shots

For three weekends in a row we have as a group met up and starting recording for our video. We have a story board, how ever as we start capturing, members of our group keep on adding in new types of shots which helps in linking our lyrics to our actors performance.

We had made sure that in our story board our story was clear to follow and that if there is a unusual shot that it is unusual for a reason. We have added in high to low , low to high shots, close up on shots which play a big part in relation to our songs lyrics.

We have started shooting, we have captured one of the important shots in our video so far, still looking over other past media videos have changed some of our ideas or modified them in ways that it favours our lyrics. we are planning on using shots where one of our main characters seem to be in the shot but then later on disappear to give it that torn effect as our song is all about losing your other half.

In order to make our shots go from plain to something different we have looked at what type of video effects and transitions are available. This allows up to add in cross-fades, additive fades and even dip to black and white which really helps when trying to move from one part of the story to another part.



In this shot, it clearly shows that a filter has been used in order to create a sor of shadowed effect. This is ment to give the effect of being a upsetting time.








This shot has been changed from colour to black and white as it gives that past effect which is good in shots which are ment to show the person is thinking about their past experiences, it can also enhance flash backs.







We really like this shot as our two characters are torn, in the background its the similar situation as one tree on the right is full of leaves and the other tree on the left is dead like without any leaves.

Green screen

We have started filming using the green screen, by doing so this will allow us to add shots in places, in front of backgrounds. This will help us as we will be able to manoeuvre and manipulate the shot and picture into the way we want it to be.

So far we have added into our sequence about 60% of our green screening work and it is going as we had planned it. We are also using effects to make it all that more better. Our drawbacks is that we do not have a green screen which can fit a persons full body, so we have to take into consideration what our limitations are in the sense of the type of shot.

Green screen has its advantages as you can remove backgrounds, add backgrounds, insert visual effects. Its disadvantages is that if it is not used properly it is easily detected and it ruins to the shots, so we have made sure that we do not have to meet this problem.

Our latest shot was done by using green screen since we thought of the idea of having one of our main stars being the dance interpreter to our song. We will also be filming a background for the shots, which we have planned carefully for, that we need a background in order for it to look correct.

Research

Started out by choosing my group, i had to make sure that these were people who had similar taste in music and that i worked well with. I decided to keep the group that i had to make my AS level video sequence as we all worked together without any clashes and produced a good AS level material. We have choosen to make a pop video as we felt that this was the best option that would suit the group. We have chosen a variety of songs and are trying to narrow it down to the one which fits our likings best. We have to be careful in picking the song as in certain songs it would be advised to relate the video to the words or it could just be complete oposite and not follow the story at all.

We have looked into past A level media pop music videos to see what we did and didnt like about their video, special effects and jump cuts were most attractive as they caught our attention the most, unlike shots which were still made the video seem like it was dragging on and lost the plot and lost our concentration. At the same time we are going to have to make sure that we dont use the jump cuts and special effects in surplus as it can make the video seem boring and not enjoyable to viewers.

Today as a group we looked into http://www.youtube.com/ and looked at different artists/songs and how they have associated their music video to the lyrics. There were many aspects of the videos we liked such as in Justin Timberlakes My Love the background changes from black to white. Other media videos which we looked at were some past A2 media groups and this particular group used the green screen to their advantage and it worked out to look very good.




This gives the video a whole different effect and makes the video alot more interesting. Another thing which caught our groups eye would be the way a movie can be played backwards to give that unique effect.



We had picked the song Blame it on the Boogie but due to different opinions on lyrics between the group we have changed our song. one thing which i had thought we could of used if we had done this song would be to use really bright colours with dark figures as dancers as is shown in this video.



The lyrics for Blame it on the Boogie,

My baby's always dancing
And it wouldn't be a bad thing
But I don't get no loving
And that's no lie.

We spent the night in Frisco
At every kind of disco
From that night I kissed
Our love goodbye.

CHORUS
Don't blame it on the sunshine
Don't blame it on the moonlight
Don't blame it on good times
Blame it on the boogie.

Don't you blame it on sunshine
Don't blame it on moonlight
Don't blame it on good time
Blame it on the boogie.


That nasty boogie bugs me
But somehow it has drugged me
Spellbound rhythm gets me
On my feet.

I've changed my life completely
I've seen the lightning leave me
My baby just can't take
Her eyes off me.

CHORUS

I just can't
I just can't
I just can't control my feet.

I just can't
I just can't
I just can't control my feet.

I just can't
I just can't
I just can't control my feet.

I just can't
I just can't
I just can't control my feet.

CHORUS

This magic music grooves me
That dirty rhythm fools me
The devil's gotten to me
Through this dance.

I'm full of funky fever
A fire burns inside me
Boogie's got me in a
Super trance

CHORUS

Sunshine
Moonlight
Good times
Boogie

Sunshine
Moonlight
Good times
Boogie

Don't you blame it
You just got to
You just want to
Yea -
Blame it on yourself
Ain't nobody's fault
But yours and that boogie
Dancing all night long

Yours and that boogie
Ain't nobody's fault
But yours and that boogie
Dancing all night long.

Blame it on yourself
Ain't nobody's fault
But yours and that boogie....(fading)

We are now going to look at the song Torn by Natalie Imbruglia.

These are the lyrics of Torn,

I thought I saw a man brought to life
He was warm, he came around like he was dignified
He showed me what it was to cry
Well you couldnt be that man I adored
You dont seem to know, dont seem to care what your heart is for
But I dont know him anymore
Theres nothing where he used to lie
My conversation has run dry
Thats whats going on, nothings fine Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Youre a little late, Im already torn

So I guess the fortune tellers right
Should have seen just what was there and not some holy light
To crawl beneath my veins and now
I dont care, I have no luck, I dont miss it all that much
Theres just so many things that I cant touch, Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Youre a little late, Im already torn. torn.

Theres nothing where he used to lie
My inspiration has run dry
Thats whats going on, nothings right, Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and Im ashamed bound and broken on the floor
Youre a little late, Im already torn

Reasons why we have picked this song would be because there are so many different and unique ways to express the songs words into physical actions.



In order to let us use the artists piece of music we have sent them a confirmation letter asking if we are aloud to use their song.This is the letters lay out.

De Aston School
Willingham Road
Market Rasen
Lincolnshire
LN8 3RF




Date



Dear

I am a sixth form student of OCR A-Level Media Studies. As part of our A-Level course we are making a pop video. This teaches us creative use of technology, teamwork skills and gives us the feel of working to a tight deadline.

I would like to use your song “……………….” as the basis for my video work. I can confirm that the work will only be used for examination purposes.

I hope that you will have no objection to this. If you do, could you please contact me at the above address as soon as possible so that I may have time to seek out an alternative song .

Always a fan,




Name.