Finished Print Tasks

Animatic Story-board

This is the first 55 seconds of my animatic story-board..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQGCYr9oac

Miming lesson

Today I met up with Chas and talked him through what it is he needed to do for me regarding the filming.

He is now aware of the song and is willing to learn the song on the guitar as well as learn the lyrics in order to mime.

Cast Meeting

Today I have met up with Ashley, my new female performer to just run her through what it is she is needed to do for the filming. I have also discussed some dates with her so we can plan filming around her busy work shift.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

My Potential Dangers are:

1) Tripping over the lighting kit & power cables

2) My cast falling out of tree's whilst filming

3) Filming in the early hours and damp/dark conditions

4) My cast walking around bare footed

5) Cast members becoming cold from lack of clothing

6) Damaging equipment

Potential Outcomes

1) Serious injury or even electrocution

2) Serious injury such as broken bones

3) Equipment getting wet and visibility not being brilliant causing difficulties for performers

4) Feet becoming injured or sore

5) Coming down ill

6) Not being able to continue filming

Actions to avoid potential outcomes

1) Cables are to be 'gaffer' taped to floor for the duration of the shot

2) Only using low branches with soft ground underneath

3) Placing equipment in sensible places and putting back in protective casing

4) Only removing shoes when about to film the shot

5) Always having a coat to wear in between shots

6) Always handle equipment carefully and place back in its protective cases

Change of cast

Unfortunately I have had to change my casting for my music video as George and Paul are now unable to do either the photography or actual filming in January.

This change has brought some problems to my planning of my music video and delayed the production of my print tasks as I have been unable to even begin my photography until I re-cast my video.

This weekend I was able to take the photo's for my print tasks using my new male performer, 'Chas Avery.'

I am now able to make a start on my print tasks!

Digipak Design

As you can see by my prezi I plan to feature apples in my print task. Initially the apple's were the symbolise Adam and Eve in my actual music video but I felt that using the apple in my print task may create an entropic and alternative look and appeal to the target audience I am aiming for. Here are some examples of focus pulls I have found of the internet involving apples.

The apples are in focus in the fore-ground and the back ground is blurred. This is the type of effect I am going to experiment with for my photographs for the print tasks. Instead of using apples actually growing on a tree I plan to use an already picked apple and thread it onto a piece of black string. I felt that hanging the apple in this will create a more interesting way of showing the apple and I can also use some interesting ways of framing the apple in the shots.

Here is a photo I found which shows the idea of apples hanging in an entropic way of tree's..

I think that the colours used here creates a really interesting and eye catching shot and playing around with the colours of the apples and the country side is something I may experiment with when in the editing suit once filmed.

Rotting Apples Time Lapse

Here are some video's of rotting apple's I have found which have been sped up. I may experiment with a rotting apple speeded up as part of my video, to link around the idea of Adam and Eve and love/temptation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVICWwMIr24&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWKTS6px2lw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0En-_BVbGc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U-TTaEq-XM

Choreography/movements and blocking

I have taken some photographs of what angels I intend to film shots from, the mise en scene, locations and movements of the performers, in order to discuss the overall effect of them.

The song is called 'Where the grass is tall' and the lyrics tell the story of two lovers in the country side. Some examples of the lyrics are 'Se dared to, take off her shoes...' 'Unbuttoned her Fathers shirt. I undone my tie, soon all my clothes were on the ground near by ..'

In this photo I have shown both a male and females clothes and shoes thrown on the floor and draped on tree's to create an illustrating effect of the lyrics. I aim to have shots of clothes landing on the floor as my performers take of their coats and shoes etc... as he is led through the country side by an alluring female.

In this photo I have also included a dangling red apple off black ribbon to give the photo an entropic twist as the apple connotes the concept of Adam and Eve and the way it is hanging from the tree is an unusual way.

This picture shows the similar idea of a man's jacket draped over the branch of a tree with an apple in the pocket which again links back to my concept of Adam and Eve.
This is an example of the type of focus and shots I want to use in my music video. This is a long shot and when filmed will show the artist walking directly towards the camera, playing the guitar and miming as these shots will show the artist actually performing the song, as other music video's do.

The shot its self is a low angle shot to make my performer stand out and really capture the idea of him walking towards the camera. I also want to have low angle shots of his bare feet walking through the country side.

This shot shows the apple hanging from the tree and in my filming I aim to record with the apples hanging down in the fore-front of the shot and also experiment with the focus around the apple.

This snippet of the Mumford and Sons video shows a man barefooted walking through long grass. This is a perfect example of some of the choreography I intend to include in my music video. This will show the male walking towards and following the trail of the alluring woman and the use of bare feet will highlight the natural look I am aiming to achieve.

1.45 in the same video shows a hand flexing at the side of a males body. This is also a piece of choreography I want to use in my video as I am going to focus on body parts in certain shots to link to link it back to Adam and Eve and the sexual temptation between a male and female.

Costume and Props

Here is a table I created showing all the props and costume I would require for my video. I have also included where I'd source the items from, cost and who's responsibility it would be.

Here are some photo's of the type of clothing and props I was looking for in my video..

Here are some white gowns that I wanted my female performer to wear whilst roaming through the countryside. I wanted to use this style of outfit for the female as I was taking on the idea of natural beauty and the Pre-Raphaelite idea. Originally I wanted a big green and red dress to compliment the hair colour of my female performer but this was going to prove too costly so I have had to come up with a plan B for the female costume instead. Using the white dress will still achieve the natural look of the pretty woman in the country side and using the colour white highlights the idea of being natural.

No shoes are needed in my costume as I want my performers to be bare footed to again really highlight the idea of the video being a very natural one. I have also seen in other folk/acoustic video's this idea being used so it will definitely fit in with my target audience. Also some theorists say that now the performers are trying to show off themselves and their image and not so much just their music any more. By giving my performers less to hide behind and making it more natural I feel that the music won't be 'forgotten' about so much and the focus won't be drawn just to the performers.
This is Paul my performer and he is wearing the style of large top hat I wanted to include in the dress for my video. He is also wearing a waistcoat which doesn't look to dressy or fancy and is the simple style I was going for with the almost hand made patch work look.

The white shirt will be worn in an open style to fit in with the story line being told by the song, (a couple going off into the countryside and undressing as they do so.) Black or brown chord like trousers will be worn as this is what was worn by men back in the period I am planning to make my video fit.

This table has now been changed due to the fact my original performers are no longer able to do any filming or photography for me, which mean that my whole Pre-Raphaelite idea has had to be changed as I no longer have George or Paul to film.

Now my video is going to take a more modern 'folky' style and my performer 'Chas' will now be wearing no such a period outfit but more along the lines of a tweed country jacket, baggy shirt and brown scuffed leather shoes/boots to give it that worn look.

Here is an example of a tweed jacket i want to use.

Here is an example of a style of shoe I shall get my performer to wear.

I dressed my performer up in the style of outfit I wanted to film him in and took some photographs of him.

In this photo 'Chas' is wearing a tweed style jacket and brown worn leather shoes and simple black trousers to give him that folky/country look.

Shoes will now be worn by my male performer but they will be discarded and thrown into the grass during the early stages of the video. This is to again highlight the idea of the couples clothes being scattered through the country side as the alluring woman leaves him a trail of her clothes to follow.

Ashley, my new female performer will now be wearing a simple cotton white dress and will have bare feet through out. Although I can no longer continue with my Pre-Raphaelite theme I am going to stick with the natural look and there for the white plain dress and bare feet will work well. The use of the colour white also symbolises the girls purity through out the video until at the end where we see this white dress on the floor, showing us the audience in a subtle way that she has now lost her purity.

Here is my new table for my props and costumes. I have highlighted in red the costume and props which I was planning to use with George and Paul and which I no longer need. In blue are the items of clothing I shall need to get for my new female performer and the ones in black are remaining the same.

Performers and Casting

I have had to cast my music video and make sure that the people I use to film are reliable and available. The theme of my music video is a pre-Raphaelite one and to achieve this I have had to cast people who with costume can easily fit into this time period.

My chosen male to perform as the artist 'George Clarke' is Paul.

Here are some photo's of Paul. He is a musician him self and has a quirky/folky dress sense. His wardrobe includes lots of waist coasts and chords as well as the fact he wears lots of silver jewellery and can easily pass as a man of the pre-Raphaelite era.

My female performer for my video is Paul's partner, George.

Here are some photo's of George. I wanted to use George as she has the perfect pre-Raphaelite hair that I desired for my music video. She is also a clear example of natural beauty and her clothes also take a quirky edge to them and she owns a pre-Raphaelite white style gown which she has agreed to wear for the filming.

Both of my performers are prepared to be filmed and be directed by me and more importantly are available for filming in January. By using George and Paul the problem of 'costume' is resolved as they are going to supply the costume from their own wardrobe.

I met with George and Paul on the 30th of November to discuss my concept for the video and make absolutely sure they were going to be around for filming. Whilst with them we also brain stormed idea's for locations and their plot of orchard is an option. We have exchanged numbers and they are going to contact me with in the next day with dates they are free to take some photo's for my print tasks.

Unfortunately I have had to change my casting for my music video as George and Paul are uncertain as to whether they are available in January to film. This was also delaying my photography for my print tasks and I have had to abandon George and Paul and re-cast my video.

This change has brought some problems to my planning of my music video and delayed the production of my print tasks.

I have recently re-cast my music video and now my male performer is 'Chas Avery.'

This is Chas and he will play the part of 'George Clarke' the artist him self. Chas is a musician himself and plays guitar and sings him self so learning the song to perform whilst recording won't prove difficult for him.

Ashley Cotrill will now play the role of the female. Instead of taking the idea of playing with the Pre-Raphaelite theme I am now forced to change the idea to suit Ashley's image. She has long black, naturally curly hair and is, similar to George a naturally attractive woman, fitting for the role.

She has a tattoo on her foot and this may look good on the bare-footed shots as it is going to be for a folky audience and there for entropic so the tattoo is fitting and won't cause any difficulty. Chas also has a large tattoo of a guitar on his arm so again this may work nicely in the video.

Print Task Research

In order to create a realistic and proffesional digi pak design I have had to research into them and see whats generally included and what styles are used for the acousitc/folk genre.

Newton Faulkner

These are some CD designs and also a CD its self for Newton Faulkner. What I have discovered from my research is that the same style is carried out on all of the print work for the same artist. These examples are entropic and also quite quirky. They do not contain an image of the artist him self and there for go against the theory that arists are now a days only selling themselves and not focusing on their music, but in this case Newton Faulkner is not on any of his print products.

This also applies to another acoustic/folk artist I have research called Kate Rusby.

Again, her print designs take on the same idea and style for each CD. This time the style is cartoon based and again the artist her self is not present on the actual Digi Pak. Another example of artists using the same approach to print tasks is Laura Marling, also an acoustic artist.


Again her CD covers are all recognisable in the sense that they belong to the same artist. Unlike the examples above Laura Marling is actually featured in this CD cover above, but instead of have a highly edited image of herself in the centre of the cover she has used a black and white drawing of her self instead, again creating this unusual and unique desgin.

Creative Lesson

This week I have been focusing on creativity and trying to undertake a particular creative task geared around my planning for my music video.

For my print designs I wanted to achieve a photo similar to this photo which I found on google.

This photo uses a shallow depth of field photography skill. This is a skill I have never used in my photography before and one I have had to work on and learn how to achieve this week. To do so I borrowed a Digital SLR camera and practised creating a shallow depth of field around a coke bottle.

To create this effect I had to learn what setting to switch the camera to and how to change the aperture level to the widest setting it will go, to change the shutter speed and create this effect.

Once I had learnt this skill I then moved onto working on photo-shop and placing text around my 'mock-up' photo to experiment with the placing of and style of text on my print tasks.

So far I have experimented with text size, style and touched on colour. My 'mock-up' so far looks like this ...

So far I have decided that white stands out against the background of the grass and also the natural colour of white fits in with the natural style of the photo its self. I have used a style of text called 'Vani' here.

Sir Ken Robinson says that creativity is something that we are born with but as we grow older this creativity inside us becomes less and less as we are told what, when and how etc.. to do things by teachers throughout or schooling years. He thinks that we are, from a young age, encouraged not to make mistakes and do as we are told, but by making mistakes and going beyond the boundaries we are being more creative and in fact we should be encouraged that to make mistakes is OK as we are being creative in the process.

I believe that what Sir Ken Robinson says does make some sense as at school we are told how to go about tasks and told how to avoid making mistakes, but I don't believe fully that this is reducing our creativity, as creativity is there, in our dreams and thoughts, its just we aren't always encouraged to apply this to our studies.

I went through the creative process of both driving and walking around the country side and letting my mind wander and brain storm idea's. I also looked through my own folk CD collection for idea's to develop further myself for my print tasks.

Time Management

This is my calendar for November and December, including all the task's I have yet to complete and the date's I plan to complete them on. Below my Calendar is a break down of the task's for each section of the planning.

Because of changes to my casting I have had to re-write my time plan and alter when I was planning on completing certain tasks originally.

Because of my change of plans regarding my performers and casting, photography for my print tasks became delayed and was put back to two weeks before the deadline. This was not how I planned to set out my tasks when I initially planned my calendar but this has given me an insight into the real world of trying to organise the production of a music video and instead of worrying about the casting in particular and delaying everything else I found it was important to still keep the ball moving with everything else, so a not to fall completely behind.

Music Video - The Pitch & Feed back

Here is my prezi presenting my current idea's for my music video, including my target audience, mood board, concept, risk assessment and the song its self, all of which I presented to the rest of my class. I received feedback from my pitch including useful comments and factors I should take into consideration with the planning and filming of my video.

Nearly all of my audience felt that my target audience was well planned out and I had considerd factors such as the jicnars scale well. Most importantly they all felt that my video was appropriate for my target audience and that it would appeal to them well. Some key words I have pulled out for my target audience are 'expressed well, suitable and clearly presented.' A few felt that although my audience research was detailed it may be a little to wide.
My feedback showed me that my audience believed my idea to be highly original and 'quirky,' 'exciting,' 'unusual' and 'natural.' Although some issues raised were the difficulty of gaining acces to period clothing, the filming conditions and whether the video its self may look slow paced due to the lack of locations. In response to these queries I will make sure that i plan my filming according the weather in order to acheive the best out come possible. Regarding the clothes issue my couple who I am filming are quite a quirky couple any way and already have a wardrobe full of suitable clothing.

There were no concerns regarding my health and safety.

My concept of Adam and Eve and the whole idea of natural beauty twisted in with this earthy and rustic look is one which went down well with my audience and I have recieved plenty of feedback saying how original and exciting the idea sounds. One really good piece of feedback was that 'the song lyrics and the natural sound of the song its self really fits with my idea's for the music video and together they could work excellently.

Over all there were no major concers about my video and the idea itself seemed to get the thumbs up from the audience I was pitching to.

The Cultural Studies Approach

There are 3 different readings of the media and these are:

• Preferred - the audience recognises the values of the text and accepts them.
• Negotiated - the audience recognises the values in the text and accepts them in general BUT doesn't necessarily agree with them in entirely.
• Oppositional - The audience understands the values in the text but disagree's with them.

When creating my music video I will have to consider the representation of my main model etc. and how my audience will view the representation.

This is different from 'The Effects Model' as the audience is not passive but instead they are active. Their social background is important as to what reading they would take on the media and representation and not the audiences behavioural factors which is what 'The Effects Model' focuses on.

Research into Music Video's