Construction Post

This is a construction post presenting the dance rehearsals and the construction of our dance sequence. The dancers we selected were specifically chosen, two male and two female dancers; to foreshadow the events that unfold in the rest of the music video because we thought the two pairs could represent the romantic relationship between the george and shannon and the other female artist. The dance will be edited very quickly, we also plan to use quite a few separate shots and put them together so it looks like the lights are changing very quickly. We decided that using balloons to decorate the floor space would have been impractical because the dancers might not want to break the unison of the dance if they come into contact with one of the balloons; we decided they would be too much of an obstacle to use in this portion of the video. We thought that Shannon would participate in some of the dance moves too to add some unity to the sequence rather than her just performing, this might have appeared somewhat disjointed.

Filming Log - 3

Filming Log

In this session we filmed in Kingston, near the river because we thought that this would be a conventional location as it looks like a friendly and central area. As a group, we thought that this area looked vintage with all the leaves fallen on the floor, we had planned to film here but thought the fallen leaves and the sun setting had an even better effect because it showed more of a classical image and we thought the lighting worked really well to foreshadow the artist's romantic memories. We encountered some problems with members of the public because we were filming in quite a busy area so people were stopping to watch us film which didn't look realistic so we had to ask people to walk around the area we filmed in.

Filming Log - 2

 Filming Log

On our second filming session my group encountered some issues to do with weather, it was too rainy to film for a while and we decided that after the rainfall the area looked too grey to suit the lively aesthetic of our video. To troubleshoot this in future we plan to film mainly inside on rainy days and try to check carefully that the weather will be substantial enough for filming, we thought that it would be a good idea to test our performance shots which introduce the start of the video. We chose to do this in the location of Wimbledon because it looks like a very cosmopolitan area and the architecture and bustling roads reminded us of central London, which is something that is important for our video because we want the shots in the streets to be very obviously London based and not too modern because the theme for our video is very vintagey, 1950's British style.

Test Shots

These were the shots that we produced from this session which helped us to decide what we should do next time we film here, this was very successful because we managed to experiment with some shots that we didn't think would work originally.

• Shot 1 - This shot would be used to show the artists shoes, which in the video will be high heels. We thought that this would make the audience recognise that they are going to watch a female in the video but we don't want to give away their identity straight away. We thought that if we could use the fig reel smoothly that this shot would have been perfect for the video to introduce the artist and give a symbol of their glamorous image.
• Shot 2 - We tested this similar shot but from the middle because we wanted to show the transition from the feet to the outfit of the artist, we think that a flowing dress blowing in the wind would look very glamorous and would suit the image of our artist. We will put these shots together in our final video and slow them down to create tension as the audience wonders who the artist will be. We wanted to create a smooth transition from these to shots to make them look as though.
• Shot 3 - This shot is the first shot where our audience will get a glimpse of our artist from the back of their head, this shot still won't show the artist's face to increase the excitement of the audience as they wonder when they will first see the artist fully, this clip will also be in slow motion to increase this tension.
• Shot 4/5 - These close up shots will appear later in the video but we think that using these as cut aways would be effective because its a very glamorous beauty shot of the artist looking happy and with their makeup done really sophisticated and this will draw the audience in and make them feel like they are in the actual video and talking to the artist.
• Shot 6 - A slow tracking shot would work well to show the artist lip-syncing and we can shift focus here from the artist to foreshadow that she is talking about something she can't quite grasp.
• Shot 7 - This shot will be more speedy in terms of walking and the artist will be lip syncing to the camera, we thought that the building in the background worked for a location because its very clear and the main focus is our artist.
• Shot 8 - This was a shot that we thought could work really well and we will plan to tracking the artist and then pan around as she walks past the camera and we can watch her walking down the street. This can be a very dynamic shot and it will help to make the scene fllow through to the other shot, we might also do a scene which involves George and another girl to show tension.

Filming Log - 1

Locations Presentation

Locations presentation from 13bms2013

Photo Shoot Plan

This is the plan for our photo shoot with our artists. For our photoshoot, we are looking to get shots that are very sophisticated so we need to plan these out because they couldn't be naturally taken shots. Our artist will have a very posed style in these photos so we have to work carefully to give the idea that lots of thought has gone into this. We are looking to take pictures with a blank white background or we might use the green screen and make the background white so that the main focus is our artist because conventionally in popular culture, the artist is the main focus and image is very important. We also wanted to use the prop of an old fashioned phone because this gives us the chance to show the artist in deep thought and we want her to look concerned but hopeful, as though she is genuinely wishing for something to happen. We want to use a shot that is clearly outside, so we want to take photos with the background of a brick wall, this shot would be the back of the case because we think that using the artist's flowing dress would be a good surface area to list the names of songs. Upon reflection, my group thought that using the dance studio at school would be good for shots which we want a plain background as we have used it prior to this to film our costume post so we think that the white background would be very substantial to show the artist in a focussed setting. We want to use the drama rooms to try and film the photos that we will use balloons in because the contrast of the black rooms alongside the bright balloons will make them look very bright and colourful.

Concepts continued - Idea test

 As a group we created an experimental planning video which helped us to test out some ideas that we could use for our final video. We thought of the idea that George; our main male protagonist, could pose in pictures, possibly pictures from a polaroid camera, with a female that isn't our main artist to give the idea that he is a very sought after and popular person. We thought that this would create a conflict for the main female and cause her to become jealous of this person who is posing with the boy she wishes she was with, which will add to the concept of 'Spying' as she wishes she was with the boy but she has to watch him from afar because he is interested in other girls. We tested a tracking shot that we might use but in a different location which consists of the main character and a friend spying on the boy she likes, we used the fig rig to get a smooth shot of the two characters walking together and we turn to see the boy in the playground. The shot smoothly changes into an over the shoulder shot which shows the boy playing basketball and the main artist goes to join in. We thought that we could use a similar shot in our actual video which could consist of similar events but instead of this happening in a playground we could use a bowling alley or a restaurant. This fits in with our concept of spying because most of narrative parts the video will centre around the artist spying on the male character and trying to get his attention. Although we want to avoid concentrating too much on a narrative storyling and more on the image or performance of the artist. We thought about using backing dancers and we created a short sample of a dance performance that helped us to test out what sort of dance would be conventional for a pop music video and then we used performers that might possibly perform in our final video. This helped us because we got a chance to see how well the dancers could perform to the music and if they had the correct charisma to have fun in our final video.