Making the masks

For the last three days I have been making the masks for our filming tomorrow. I made them out of paper mache with balloons under them, then popped the balloons, and me and Kiel painted them today in the art department of our school. The steps can be seen below by these pictures I took:

We will be filming the first part of our music video tomorrow, and have planned everything as a back up plan incase anything goes wrong. I will be putting pictures of our fliming on my blog tomorrow. These masks are very basic and crude on purpose, and I think they look very effective as disguises.

Risk assessment

Risk assessment takes into account anything that could go wrong with filming, and is important so that we can prepare to still complete filming if something does go wrong.

• Someone doesn't turn up for filming - we have back up actors incase anyone dosen't turn up on Friday.
• Storyboard - we have made a storyboard so we know which shot to take in order to film smoothly and have continuity.
• Classroom is being used - we have two classrooms that we could use so if one is being used then we can swap rooms. The classrooms are identical inside too, apart from the second choice being just a little bit smaller.
• Props break - hopefully the masks won't break because they took a lot of time and effort to make and people should go easy on them. We will be using signs and desks already in school that we have permission to use, therefore nothing should go wrong with props.
• Weather - if its raining on Friday we will have to make sure we can continue with the same weather next time we do filming
• Teacher - we asked our friend Scott to act as a teacher in the music video, and if he cannot make it in we again have a back-up actor to fill in.

As you can see due to our planning we have made sure that nothing can go too badly wrong, and that filming on Friday should run smoothly.

Shot list

The first part of our filming will consist of a variety of shots and different camera angles and this shot list will describe some of the more interesting ones, as well as normal shots we used last year.

The beginning will feature over the shoulder shots in order to disguise the characters identity, and when he enters the toilets and finds his mask we will be using the reflection in mirrors to catch his new look. He will gradually rise to finally reveal his face and instead of flesh there will be a disguise in the form of a mask. The journey to the exam room will also be interesting as Kiel had the idea of having the masked character walking amidst a crowd, and having the crowd dissolving gradually in and out to show the characters lonliness and difference to others. We need to change the opening door shot from a long/mid-shot to a close-up to establish difference between shots and I think close-ups would look effective for the exam too. We will use a skateboard to pan the camera around the whole group of examiners to get a smooth effect. A straight on full body shot should be used when the main character tips over the table, and I think it would look a lot better in slow motion too with pens flying about. A POV shot will be used but from the masks perspective as it sits on the desk and the other people approach them, wary at first but eventually grasping it. Then we will utilise natural light to create iconic images of the group running down the corridors into the light and escaping their boring lives. On top of these more memorable shots we will use normal panning and match on match action for various angles.

Location list for filming day one

The whole of the first day of filming will take part in the Post 16 area of our school, and we have had to think abour lighting and restrictions of views when considering our storyboard and shots.

This is the list for filming on day one:
1. The video will start off just outside of the main doors into Post 16, and will continue through these doors
2. The actor will then move into the toilets and find the mask, then exit
3. The main character moves through the corridors downstairs until he reaches the door for the stairs
4. We will cut out the stairs and have him opening the door to the upstairs corridor
5. He will walk into the classroom where the exam is taking place
6. Shots inside this room include the teacher starting the exam and the other students writing, before he tips the table over and gives masks out to the others after causing mayhem
7. He leaves the room and the others follow now with masks on too running down the corridor
8. They all run down the stairs in two different angles, one at the top and one at the bottom
9. They run down the corridors downstairs before leaving through the doors the main character originally entered through

Main pitch

Our music video will be for the song Frauds by Scarlet Harlots, as we have already decided, and will be based around the idea of frauds. This will start off in our school to show the dullness of everyday life, before the main character rebels after putting on a mask, and leaves to cause havoc on the local streets. Other people will join him and become frauds, and it is kind of an infectious disease that keeps growing with more and more people joining and wearing the masks to establish them different from everyone else.

First draft of storyboard

Today me and Kiel are making a draft of a storyboard for the first part of our music video. We have decided to split the filming into two different days, and will film the parts at school first, followed by the parts outside on a different day.

We have decided to film next week on Friday, and will need to find actors, costumes and props for then, including making our masks. Below is the first draft of a storyboard:

Location scout 1

On the first location scout we knew we wanted the opening of our video to show to dullness of our main characters everyday life, so we started his journey at school. We planned a rough route of where we wanted him to go and took shots of locations and angles that might be useful, as you can see below:

This is a shot of the class room the character could sit down in, or maybe take part in an exam in. We will use this class room as there is enough room to manouvre the camera and get a straight on shot of the character sat at a desk.

This corridor could be used to show the charcters journey through the school, and there could be interesting use of the lights coming in through the big window at the end of the corridor.

These stairs again could be useful just to get a different angle on the characters journey through school, different angles capturing the audiences attention more.

This lift would again show different angles, and the use of reflection could be interesting. However it is so small we probably couldn't get a camera in the lift, so all shots would have to be from outside.

This is another corridor shot we could use whilst the character is on his way out of school. Again we could use the light coming in through the doors opposite to create iconic images of the character running out.

I had an idea to show the character running past from this angle, just to get different shots for the audience. The idea came from last years work filming a chase scene, and we could also show the characters feet running with a fixed camera focussing on his feet.

The final picture is taken in the toilets, and I think we could make good use of the reflection in the mirrors. The toilets are wide enough to get the camera in and get good shots, and would be perfect for our main character to put his mask on and then look in the mirror.

Permission letter

In order to get copyright for Scarlet Harlots song Frauds, I sent them a message on 14th September 2010 asking for legal use of the song in our video.

The letter read as follows:

Hello,
I am currently studying Media Studies at Ken Stimpson School and our task this year is to make a music promotional video. I am writing to ask permission to use your song Frauds for this. I am a huge fan and the chance to make a video to your song would be amazing.

Thankyou for your time

Yours sincerely, Adam Pickup

I am currently waiting for the reply but will post when they do. I had to set up a myspace account in order to send the message, and the reply will be on here too.

Copyright Reserach

Copyright laws give the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, etc, rights to control the way their materials may be used. The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. Songs such as Frauds by Scarlet Harlots are protected by this law, and therefore I need permission to use the song in my music video. Normally the individual or collective who authored the work will exclusively own the work. However, if a piece of work is produced as part of employment then it will normally belong to the person/company who hired the individual. However due to the band not being signed to a record label I will have to contact them instead of a record company.

Chosen song and reasons for choice

The song our group has chosen is Frauds by Scarlet Harlots. The Scarlet Harlots are an indie band that recently featured on the T4 Unsigned Acts, a competition where unsigned bands compete to get on a record label. Frauds is a typical fast indie song but what attracted us was the name and connotations we could use in the music video. Frauds could mean outsiders , people faking who they are, and we felt this was a strong theme for our video.

This band only have one current video out, and they use crude masks and a lot of origami, this being a theme we could use to establish brand identity, as well as their previous album art work shown below.

Target Audience Research

To find out about my target audience I gave a questionnaire out to males and females around peterborough, aged between 15 and 25. The aim was to find out about what they wanted to have in a music video, and what made current music videos successful. The questionnaire is included below:

The first question concluded that most people thought a music video should last around 3 minutes. When interviewed they said that five minutes and over was too long to hold their attention as the video would get boring unless it was very good. Question two was not as clear cut with the target audience answering the band, song, actors, and overall message were equally important with no clear favourite. Again question three found no clear winner for what genre the most effective music video is; comedy, horror, just the band playing, etc all ranked as equally important as long as the video is flimed well, and captures the audiences attention and holds it. However, question four found that the linking of lyrics with the visuals in the music video are very important, which suggests that reinforcing the songs lyrics by showing it visully on a screen ehances the audiences capability to remember the song. Question five found that my target audience would consider watyching a music video of an unsigned band if it was the same genre as other music they liked, and interestingly question six found that a music video does not need to have the band in it to be successfull according to my questionnaire. Question seven found that faster songs with faster edits and cuts are more successful than slow ones, and when interviewed it was established because it kept the viewer alert and captured their attention. Question eight asked if the link between music and visuals was important in my target audiences opinion, and it was found that they were, again as they cause a link between audio and visual and make the audince remember the song more.Question nine asked which genre of music has the best music videos in my target audiences opinion. This had varying results with some saying grime as the beats are normally linked with the visuals in the video, pop because of the lead singer or band featuring predominantly in the video, indie as these were very creative and different, and R and B because of the actors/actress's used in them. Question ten found this vary in results was due to peoples favourite music videos being influenced by their favourite genre of music, therefore as long as I made a video that fit in with common trends of that genre my target audience would probably appreciate it.

I think there is evidence in my planning and research that I am using all of this research in my video, such as using these anylsis of genres to establish the genre our group will use and the things that audiences want to see in our video such as a fast paced story.

Pitches for ideas

1. Our initial idea was using costumes or masks, and this idea developed into us making crude paper mache masks to use. My idea was to link it in with words from a chosen song but feature a chase to keep the audience entertained and a moral message such as friendship, using the masks to show friends or enemies. I think we will use this idea as it could feature strong morals and strong visuals due to the effects of the masks.

2. My next idea was to make a flip book and film somebodies hand flipping through, showing the story on the pages. I really like this idea as I think it is original, however when discussing it with the group they did not seem so keen as the flipbook would take a long time to make, and the flipbook would not necessarily tell the story clearly that we want to convey through our video.

3. Our final idea is to use toys and written messages on paper to convey our song, as Sum 41 did in their video. This is a very broad idea at the moment but we all agree that it could work and advertise the band and song successfully, especially if we use the flip book idea in this video too. Because of the broad nature of this idea we will have to find ways to clearly advertise the band and song to audiences.

Overall analysis of music videos

As you can see all of the research I have done into other music videos and CD covers is useful in order to establish different genres and their typical conventions. After looking at all of the options available I think we will choose an indie/rock song with a fast beat in order to keep the audience entertained and on the edge of their seats.

The other genres didn't appeal to us because rap and grime are very subject to typical conventions such as rappers just shown singing, and women in little clothing washing cars, etc. We wanted to be able to challenge the genre we picked but rap/grime would not have looked effective in our opinion. In contrast pop videos can include nearly everything as long as the singer of the song is in it. We will not be able to get someone famous for obvious reasons, and therefore the whole reason for a pop video would not be possible, that is to show the singer as much as possible for publicity. The hip-hop genre I analysed was not a good one, retrospectively. This song featured heavily in the charts as only a few songs do, therefore they included lots of shots of the singer Kanye West. As a group we feel we do not know enough about this genre to make and effective video that their audience would strongly identify with, and this is the same for drum and bass.

Indie songs are typically catchy and quick paced, and as you can see from my analysis of this genre they vary a lot. This appeals to my group as we have the freedom to do whatever we want, as long as we loosely tie the video in with the song. We do not have to feature any shots of the band, which is useful as we don't know them, and the idea of a story is also interesting. Though we have so many choices of what to include we want to broadcast the song as much as we can, so featuring the title or lyrics in the video, to establish a connection between these. As well as having these benefits we actually enjoy the music as a genre, therefore we have a good knowledge of what is included in other videos and other themes, such as the band playing their instruments. This original knowledge and blog analysis will hopefully help us present a very good music video that ties in and also challenges typical conventions of the indie/rock genre.