Editing

This is a screenshot of our first start at editing. We haven't pieced things together correctly yet, however have played about with different effects on the Sony Vegas programme. By playing about and finding out how to do things now, will be easier for us when we need to do more advanced editing soon.

Night Club Permisson

Nearer the start of the course, Tom who I am working with, emailed Tokyo night club in Lincoln, to ask if it would be possible to use a room for an hour or so. This was so we could film some club scenes while Gideon was performing. He didn't get a reply to this so we have improvised by using the school hall and lighting instead.
Gideon actually works at this night club Tom asked permission for, and said he is going to ask his boss about it. Because we will be with Gideon there may be more chance they'll let us use it. But we will have to wait to find out soon. If the answer is no we will still use the shots we we will do of a crowd too.

Our Job roles

Each music video needs to be organised well. For this to be organised, each person has their own job role in creating the video.

We need a producer. The producer is the person that from start to finish manages the production and has to be organised with where everything is. In our production, both Tom and I are the producers. We both try to split the work equally so that we have more time to do things like editing, and taking more footage.

We also need in our video, a director. The director is the person that directs the actors and the film crew inn making a music video. Alot of the time just telling them where to be and what shots to take when, etc. In our production, Tom and I both do a bit of directing each and equally direct eachother. We do this to compromise on decisions we make while filming so that it solves us being undecisive on whose idea we use.

In our video, we also need a camera operator. There job is to take shots of what they've been told to, and to basically control the camera when filming. In our music video, again, Tom and I both in turns control the camera so that we both experience it equally and know what to do when we have to. The one that isn't filming at the time, is directing and playing the music through the speakers to keep in sync with the song.

Splitting our job roles equally has made it better so far as all of the things we've done have been a joint effort so that we have no reason to blame one another.

Tom Carlton & Hayley Jacklin.

Filming: Spotlighted Performance

Today we filmed Gideon, our main actor, singing using spotlight effects. We used the panasonic HD camera for this to catch the light more effectively. As the location was a school hall, we had to make sure it didn't actually look like a school hall as it wouldn't work with our genre. We did this by using different lighting effects to highlight only the actor. Before starting to film, we were shown all the different lights we could use on the computer. This picture is showing me setting up the lights how we wanted it to be. Which was a blackout with a single spotlight on Gideon.

After choosing the lighting, we filmed Gideon singing. We filmed this shot several times but from all different angles, so that we can edit it all together so that it's not just boring from one angle.

We wanted to try another kind of lighting after this, which was just the same spotlight but strobed so that it was flickering quickly. This quick paced lighting went well to the music and also connotes the artists lifestyle as a bit busy/mayhem. Again, we filmed this from all angles to keep the audience interested when it's edited together. This is a short clip of what the long shot strobe lighting looked like. I recorded this on my phone while this scene was being recorded properly.

After this, we did the scene we planned to do of Gideon falling on to a sofa, which we then want to reverse using Sony Vegas. For this we used a blue spotlight which almost silhouetted Gideon which worked really well. We went for the blue light here because we wanted a bit of colour in the video to keep it interesting. But we didn't choose pink or red because those colours connote too much of mixed feelings that don't work well with our genre. This (unfocused) image below is one of the blue light and sofa.

We wanted to do some high and low angle shots too. Low which we could do easy connoting the actors big ego making him look powerful. And high which we wanted to do higher than the actual tripod would go. So, we pressed record and put the tripod on a table looking down while Gideon was singing. This worked well with the strobe lighting too.

Student Video Analysis

I have chosen to analyse this video of 'Akon - Beautiful'.
To start with, I didn't particularly enjoy the video as it wasn't very professional, and there wasn't much of a variety of shots. The video didn't keep me intrigued either, which you want to do when making a music video to be successful.
Costume:
The costume throughout the video was consistent. However, a Liverpool shirt is not something that Akon would wear, and is definitely not a convention of hip hop. The other actors clothing also does not connote Hip Hop. If they want to make this more professional, the actors must be wearing clothes that suit the genre, else it doesn't really work. The connotations of their clothing doesn't really signify anything to do with the hip hop genre. They should connote gangsta lifestyle, and show some kind of rags to riches throughout. Instead of connoting a football hooligan.

Lighting:

The daylight high key and natural lighting works well as everything is clear. However the inside shots which i think was meant to be a club scene did not work as well as it could of. The disco lights work well in some videos, but again, for this genre the sort of artificial lights you want to use are more like strobe or spotlights. It wasn't clear who the artist was by the lighting in the club scene.

Actors:
There were three main actors consistent throughout this music video. They all seemed like young lads just having a laugh through parts. The quality of acting was poor in most parts too. However there gestures and expressions were often very exaggerated which was good. These gestures are like what i would like in our video too. Akon is one singer whom sings this song 'Beautiful'. In this video, all three main actors were singing the same parts which was quite distracting and for those who haven't heard of Akon, may be quite confusing.
The use of extra actors was good, as the girls showed the sexualisation and promotes the artist as the idol. Still, they could of been more exaggerated and a bit better actors.

Location:

There was a variety of locations throughout this video, which is good as it helps to keep the audience intrigued in watching it. The outdoor scenes were well thought about, but feel the club scene could of been more realistic. It would be good to have a club scene in our video too, however we hope to make it a bit more realistic unlike this one. The more people in the club the better too. The way the three actors were framed in the outside shots was always good, besides the scene sat on a swing, where the camera was quite shaky and composition wasn't quite right in the frame.

The above is a well framed shot of the two actors.
The one below is a not so great shot, which is also unsteady.

Props:
There aren't many props used in this video. One they do use is a cider can. This really connotes a typical teenage yob, drinking in the park. They could of use things like jewellery, headphones and microphone when they're performing in the club. One other prop they use is the disco lights. These are not really the best sort of lights they could of used for this video. A strobe light is more of a convention of their genre hip hop than disco lights are. Those two props that they used took the attention off the more important things on the video because it makes everyone think 'what's that for?' More appropriate props would give this a more realistic look on the whole video.

Camera:
There are a variety of camera shots throughout the video. However there were many hand held shots. In the club scene, it could be effective to use handheld shots as it could show how the camera is pushing through the crowd. This was not the case here because there wasn't enough crowd to give that effect again because the scene wasn't realistic enough. The above images of some more shaky handheld shots also didn't make the video look very professional. This video could of been better if there was more efficient use of the tripod whilst filming.

Overall, I think they could of done a better job of this and promoted the artist a bit more successfully by making a few amendments so that it fits with the music's genre.
In our video, I would like to see a club scene like what's in this video. But with more people and different lighting to create more of a hectic atmosphere that there is in artists lives.

Storyboards

Before we started filming, we did three base storyboards so that we knew exactly what we were going to film before actually filming it. Each one has seconds wrote on it so we have an even clearer image of what the video will look like by the end of it. We also used these to show our actor (Gideon) so he had an idea of what was going on before we directed him.

Each establishing shot will be filmed in day time, we will be editing into black and white when we edit the video. The shot with the actor falling on the sofa, will be spotlighted and exaggerated. This is to attract the attention on the subject, avoiding background becoming more intregueing. This will then be reversed to match the lyrics 'they say that i'm back'.



On this storyboard, a new idea sprung to mind so we're using it too. The first shot on the bottom row is the new idea. We plan on using mini inserts on the artists lips of him singing. This will be time consuming when we come to do more editing but will hopefully be worth it. We may not do this but is there if we get to a finished edited video, we may add it then.
The on stage performances will be using artificial lighting which we set up. Spotlights and strobelights will help crete a more generic effect of Hip Hop. But we need to make sure the rest of the hall we are filming it in is blacked out so we can only see what is in the spotlight.

We have a backstage shot to do too which we are hoping to get more actors with the same thnicity as gideon to do. This isn't vital but is a good idea because every hip hop song by artists such as Jay Z often show his mates too. This also connotes the genre of 'ghetto' which is where the genre of hip hop came from.The backstage short shots may be a bit more natural lighting however some emphasis on all of the characters may be necessary.
We also have the pole dancing scene on here which we are going do do at Kimberley's house. Lightinig for this is going to be spotlighted with a much smaller light.
The end shot on this storyboard is not going to be right at the end but was an added shot to do in the editing stage. The lyrics 'they know' will flash on the screen in time with the music.

Pole Dancing Shoot

This is another scene we have just shot. The location of this scene is at the dancers house. She is wearing hot pants and a very tight top. This outfit is very provocotive which meets the stereotypical 'slutty' girl that are often in Hip Hop Videos.


We put up a black sheet when we were doing low angled shots to stop there being any background clutter, even though we had a spotlight on her. These images are in colour however we actually shot this with the lights of and a light at the top of the pole.

To make this fit even more to the gere hip hop, we got Kimberley to put more make up on than she usually wears. Also, she usually has her hair straight, in this we've got her to do her hair curly and bigger. This is because big hair is generally a stereotype of 'promiscuous' girls.

To attach the light to the top of the pole, we used alot of sellotape. This could've been dangerous, but was the only way to keep the light up there so we made sure it was really stuck on.

First shoot

We went to Lincoln to film some performance shots of the artist (Gideon). Under Pelham bridge in Lincoln seemed like a very urban place with graffiti everywhere. This is a common convention of Hip Hop and connote an urban upbringing, so we chose to do the first clips here. Below are images of Gideon performing in front of the camera. 

This was the first shot we did of a close up on Gideon's face.  However we later on shot this again as we spotted a continuity error, as he put up his hood. This wouldn't matter too much but we may intend to use this clip after we have used ones of Gideon with his hood up.  Which is why we shot it again.

This is a shot showing a low angle shot which signifies his power.  We also thought without different views in a quick paced song it would become boring, so the more variety of shots the better.

This shot is showing Tom holding a phone which has the song playing on it so Gideon could hear it. Without the song playing , Gideon may of sung out of time which wouldn't of worked when we got to editing. 

The song We Chose and Why

"Headlines" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake. It is the first single from Drake's second studio album, Take Care. We chose this song at the start because straight away Tom and I both knew we wanted to recreate a video by Drake. We also had the perfect actor in line to play Drake. So we spent a while going through his songs, then finally decided headlines was a good song to do. It's less than four minutes which is what we was advised. We also thought the lyrics were easy to relate to. His other songs are mostly quite slow paced and alot longer than 3 and a half minutes. Which is why we chose this song 'Headlines' by Drake.

Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene on Prezi

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment from hjacklinmedia

Before filming, we did a risk assessment. We did this because we needed to identify any hazards before so that nothing can go wrong whilst filming. Also for the safety of others.

Shot List

Outro

In the album version of the song Drake - Headlines, there is an outro. This may be something we also decide to add on the end of the actual Music video. I have not yet discussed this with Tom who I am working with, but is certainly something to consider.
 What Drake says during his outro is:
'I heard once that they would rather hear about memories than enemies
Rather hear what was or will be than what is
Rather hear how you got it over how much it cost you
Rather hear about finding yourself and how you lost you
Rather you make this an open letter
About family and struggle and it taking forever
About hearts that you’ve broken and ties that you’ve severed
No doubt in my mind, that’ll make them feel better'

Chosen Song Meaning

After researching about the lyrics in the song we chose by Drake 'Headlines', I could not find the real meaning. However I think the meaning of the lyrics are quite obvious to pick out the meaning ofthem. I think what Drake is saying is that prior to being successful is that he did things that don't reflect on who he is, but at the time, were necessary to get money. Then he became successful, and the money has changed him in a way that makes him not view himself. Has the money made things better? Or is he still the same guy?

Ideas&Progress

Today Tom and I filmed some shots of champagne with some flashing lights in a dark room. We did this because champagne is a common convention in a Hip Hop music video as it shows classy/rich artists. This short filming we did may not of worked as best as it could because the lighting wasn't at it's best. We may do this scene again with more professional lighting.
While filming this short scene we had more ideas of what to put in our music video as we had notice the amount of good looking provoctoviely dressed females were in alot of Hip Hop Videos. So, Tom and I both found a pole dancer, and plan on filming Kimberley on a pole. I have asked her permission and she has agreed to let us use her in the video. Also, when we get to the editing stage, black and white and flahing white light will also hopefully give this scene a great effect.
This is Kimberley, who we are going to film for our video.

Location

This is a map of where the establishing shots of Lincoln have been taken.
We plan on using the establishing shots in the first ten seconds of our music video.
We plan on putting these shots into black and white as it looks better for the genre of music that our music video is.
Shots like this we have seen in videos such as 'Chris Brown - yeah3x' and 'Jay Z - 99 problems'

This is a view from where the camera was when filming some establishing shots.
 Which gives you an idea of what it will look like. 

Shooting Schedule

Shooting schedule from Tomcarlton316