Storyboard Anamatic

This is a small video that was put together to show our storyboards. We made this by originally taking still images of our storyboards but more specifically focusing on the actual image. Once we had taken all the pictures we then uploaded them to iMovie where we then put them altogether and in a video form. After doing this we added the soundtrack to add the emphasis of the shots, and allow our ideas to be seen and related to the lyrics of the song.

Song Details - Lock The Locks (The Streets)

Lock The Locks is one of the tracks that I was most looking forward to listening to from The Streets’ new album Computers & Blues, and after hearing it I am glad that I’m not coming away feeling disappointed. Claire Maguire switches her vocal style up effortlessly to provide an instantly catchy hook and Mike Skinner does his thing as usual, signing off on the final track on the album with a bang.

Computers and Blues is the fifth album by The Streets and the final one Mike Skinner plans to release under this alias, officially released in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2011. It contains 14 songs, including an appearance from British singer-songwriter Clare Maguire which of course is in this song lock the locks.

Computers And Blues finds Mike Skinner calling time on his Streets name, and on this album closer he raps about moving on. Said Skinner to The Daily Record: "Recording this song did make me emotional, but it didn't make me emotional about The Streets. It made me emotional about leaving jobs, which I have done... though not for a long time, admittedly."

The song features British singer-songwriter Clare Maguire, who was announced on January 3, 2011 as coming in fifth place in the BBC Sound of 2011 list of the most promising new artists. She told Digital Spy about the collaboration: "Being in the studio with Mike Skinner was amazing - apparently Mike said to my manager while I was singing, 'Oh I didn't realise she could write as well!' He took away the chorus I'd come up with it and put his own song around it, which is just insane and brilliant.

Shooting Schedule

This is an example of our groups shooting schedule. As you can see we have allowed ourselves a couple of weeks in order for us to complete all filming. We specifically allowed this time in case we had to re-shoot or we had forgotten the first time. We will be travelling to our shooting destination so we also must enable some notice. Me, Nathan, and Ryan will all take part in the filming process whether its acting or filming the shot.

Creating a shooting schedule allows us to become organised with our work and allow us to understand what we have to do with a week or more in advance.

Lyrics Annotation

Talent Release Forms

The following forms are all talent release forms. The importance of these forms is to ask for permission whether it will be ok to use them within the film. This will include using them as actors whilst filming, extracting there voice, and possibly using pictures of them in post-production. The form also asks for a signature and authorisation of the actor for being able to go to the locations. An example of this can be found on our talent release forms. For instance, it shows what date we will be filming, where and what he may be using them particularly for.

Nathan Bedford

                                                 

Ryan Clark

Jack Devonport

 

Location Permission Letter

The purpose of setting up this email was to confirm with the teacher that it would be OK to use the dance room facilities. After sending it out us shortly received an email that confirmed us to use the dance studio. We specifically thought of using this for a location as we believe that it fit into our genre by using a black room with effective spotlighting whilst lip syncing.

Assessment - Final Planning check 08th Nov SJA

WWW:

• Jack, the post on 'technical tutorials' is very good - I am pleased you have responded to some of my earlier feedback
• List of 'props, costumes & locations' is quite good - could possibly have more development...
• I really liked your photoshop work on Advert Designs. Really good layout, use of colour and stylised effects. Looks very 'urban' and suits your genre well. I hope you continue down this direction for your digipak cover design.

EBI:

• You still have al arge  amount of work to do to get this section of your blog complete and up to an 'B' standard Jack. You have the 3 hours in lesson today - and that is it. I do understand that your group had a change of song, but there is NO evidence to suggest that you have spent enough time outside of lessons on developing posts and changing planning to suit your new song. I can see that the last time you posted anything to your blog was Nov 1st. That was a week ago??? So, you are clearly not going home from lessons and investing any time of your own towards achieving in your A Level studies??
• Lots of posts are missing and your group needs to work together to get these sorted out today:
• - Song details - missing?
• - Lyrics Annotation / Image Annotation / Concept - all of these need updating for your new song
• - Storyboards?
• - Location shots - these have no written explanation? I have no idea from this post what you intend to do at each location - it is just a collection of images that are meaningless. Why did you choose these locations? How do these locations represent your artist? I can see that these photos are just from Google images - you need to make the effort to scout out your own locations for filming interior and exterior shots - and actually bother to go and take photos of these...
• - Shooting schedule - missing? (We will not let your group go anywhere to film without these posts complete)
• - Location permission letters?
• - Talent release form?
• - Track permission letter?

Lots of work to do Jack. You achieved an 'A' in media last year - but this was only just an 'A' - not a secure confident 'A'. You clearly did well in the exam last year. The exam in year 13 is a lot tougher Jack. It requires you to comment on issues happening across the world in the news at the moment, and requires a lot of sophisticated thinking and analysis. To be as confident as possible, you must must sure your coursework is going to achieve a really high grade.

You desperately wanted to be with your friends to shoot the music video - but it will only be successful if all of you are prepared to plan thoroughly and think every detail through.

Currently there is so much work missing from your blog, I have to mark it as Improvement Needed. 

You have 3 hours to complete to a 'B' / 'A' standard today. This is actually possible - your group needs to stop wasting time and develop a far more mature approach to completing work. If you understand this, you can work together to get the work done.

SJA

Advert Design Draft

Here is an album advert which I created. I created this album advert through the programme called Photoshop. To enable the way that it looks now I had to use a variety of effects and features that Photoshop has to offer. For example, I firstly imported the photo to Photoshop. I then used previous knowledge to apply a range of effects to the picture to make it look effective and appealing. Moreover, I then had to download a suitable font type from ‘daFont’ which I thought would be suitable and attracting to a variety of audiences. After doing this I then put it all together making sure that it looked professional and appealing. For a few extra pieces I extracted the ministry of sound logo and the blackberry barcode scanner to the album advert. By including little extra’s such as the Blackberry barcode enables you to appeal to a younger audience, as data shows that the majority of Blackberry’s are used by people between the age gaps of (16-20). In addition, the use of the ministry of sound logo makes the band and album advert look much more alluring as customers can then see that it is a professional.

DaFont.com

DaFont.com example

Photoshop - Apple Mac

Album Cover Design Ideas

Here is another example of an album that I have created. In this example it uses a variety of effects including colour contrast which makes it look very effective and different to others. Moreover, instead of making the whole cover black and white I made sure that I kept the band name in red. I purposely did this to ensure that it stood out against the black background.

Photo Shoot Schedule

This is a photo shoot schedule which shows the times and date and what we will need for each photo shoot. For example, on 4/11/2011 we have chosen that we going to a busy high street such as Oxford Street, and we will need props, costumes, and equipment including smart and casual clothing, hats, and a still camera.

Creating a photo shoot schedule makes things much more organised, which therefore allows you to know what you are going to be doing on those certain days.

Costume Ideas

This is an image that I have drawn to show different types of costumes that could feature within our music video. For example, this character is show wearing a smart suit, which seems as if he is going out somewhere nice or dressing to impress.

The character is wearing a dark blue suit jacket with smart brown trousers and black polished shoes. This could be an idea of a costume within our music video when the main character goes to see the girl at the train station.

Moreover, we are also thinking of casual clothing to reflect on the urban and street theme. For example the image above is an example of a costume that could work well within our music video. For instance, this costume includes a hooded coat. Hoods are often stereotyped with gang culture and kids on streets, hence why we have included this coat as it could work well with our genre and theme. Also, I have included chinos as part of the costume. I specifically chose these as these are a current high street fashion, meaning that it could appeal to you a young and current market. Lastly, they are wearing boat shoes. These are also a popular trend with the target audience that we are trying to appeal to, hence why it is important to include things like this.

Brand Identity Planning Sheet

This is our brand identity planning sheet. As you can see it includes many of our ideas including:

·         The messages that we want to get across to our audience

·         What our band is about

·         What type of genre we perform music to

·         Font details and ideas

·         Design elements

·         Target audience

Album Advert Design Ideas

This is an example of an album advert design. This advert is only a draft and includes only a few of many ideas. As you can see we have included an urban and street theme throughout, which can easily noticed by the types of costume and also the font type. The clothing on the characters is very casual such as jeans, jumpers, trainers etc. The font is very basic but as a slight bubble effect added to it to make it seem appealing to a younger audience.

Furthermore, another feature that allows the audience to understand the street and urban theme and genre is the silhouette in the background. For example, this is a silhouette of a city which could also have connotations to where some of their music videos are shot. Also the black silhouette contrasts very effectively allowing the colours of the costumes to stand out more and make them the centre of attention. Not only the clothing but the title contrasts well, which also makes it stand out and catch the audience’s eye. For example, blue and red are completely opposite colours causing them to stand out against one another, and attract the audience to read the title, which is also the band name.

Moreover, the use of rule of thirds is very significant. For example, the three characters are equally spread apart on the album advert meaning that they are all caught by the audience’s eye.

Possible Locations

This location is of a quiet and calm park. I believe that this type of location could be used when either lip syncing or when taking filler shots. Within this location shot it shows a small sheltered seating area which would be ideal for a close up shot of some lip syncing. Moreover, the autumn appearance makes the shot and frame look very pleasant. Moreover, another reason for choosing this type of location is due to the colour the scheme. The autumn colours such as the reds and oranges create a vibrant set of colours which makes it look very attractive. In addition, the mood of the image brings out a slow and laid back atmosphere. This is very beneficial as it can also relate to the pace and mood of the song. For example, the song has a slow pace and the location can have some relevance to parts of the lyrics.

The second location is of London. We believe that using this popular location will be very beneficial as it has a lot to offer. For example, London has plenty of lovely sceneries which would make get frames and shots. In the photograph it shows the houses of parliament which is a popular destination, and by including it in our music video, it gives an opportunity for people to relate themselves to the location. This location could be used for multiple purposes but it could be specifically used for filler shots and establishing shots. At night time London offers a beautiful and attractive appearance which will make our music video look even more appealing.

This is another location that could be specifically used when lip syncing. Our idea around using this as a location is by filming the busy background and then using that onto a green screen and then gets someone to lip sync over it. This effective will look as if the singer is there at the time whilst everyone is walking around. The background footage will be sped up, therefore making the singer stand out and put to the centre of attention.

Hamptons will be used in our video as part of the chorus where I will be lip syncing as the scenery around there is very nice, and will provide the viewer enjoyment and aesthetic appreciation of the outdoors when watching our video. It is seen as quite a posh and well looked after place, and as my character is in a bad way, I will be at the top of the hill, looking down upon the goings on around me as if everyone is in a better position than me. Being on top of the hill will create a real contrast with the lyrics as they will be saying "Lost it all to this life" and by being up high it suggests the main character is in a high authority position, when in fact he is at a sort of all-time low.

Another location that we will have is home. We use this location for a shot at the start of the song when it talks about the main character waking up in the story behind the lyrics. The footage filmed in the house will not be long; however it is necessary for out video to begin with. The initial waking up of the main character is key to the storyline as the lyrics and the mood of the song suggests that the day’s happenings for this character are pretty routine and he seems stuck in the cycle and cannot get out. The props in this sequence will need to be specifically placed in order for the audience to get the initial storyline.

List of Props, Equipment, and Costumes

Above is a mood board which contains images that relate to our song.

Below is a video which our group created explaining the mood board in more depth.

Planning posts - checking your progress Oct 16th SJA

WWW:

• Your use of ICT to film a create a mini movie for the 'Initial Ideas' post is a good use of video in your blog to communicate and explain ideas
• The post on 'Lyrics Annotaton' is really detailed - good to see effort invested here
• The photograph you used for the Photoshop practice / CD cover design is really good - nice use of interesting angle and shadow here Jack. The inclusion of the plane was a bit bizarre though - and I didn't think this worked??

EBI:

• You blog posts for 'Planning' are not as up-to-date as they should be Jack.
• You need to really improve your post for 'Technical Tutorials' - where is your Green Screen work and Final Cut editing? Include this and write a thoughtful written reflection on it.
• Your group may need to rethink your song choice as there are aspects of the lyrics that are really inappropriate given that this is going to be submitted to the OCR exam board for your final A Level assessment. References to erections and genitals, etc. need to be either edited out, or a new, more appropriate track from your genre needs to be selected. I will talk to Ms Ingram and the other Media teachers to see what your options can be on this.

Overall assessment of Planning posts so far: IN (Improvement Needed) Too many posts still need development and further work. Some posts that should have been done by now are missing.

CD Cover Practice

 

This is our first draft of a Cd cover design on photo shop. We have never really used photo shop so it was a challenge to produce an okay product. While spending an hour on this CD covers design we came across a few WWW's and EBI's.

WWW - The album name has a double meaning, for example we have called it the 'plain' wall as the picture is of Ryan against a plan wall, but he is also looking up at a 'plane' making it different with a twist

WWW - The font of the album name goes with the genre that we have chosen, which we downloaded individually for this product

WWW - When picking the background colour we came across a tool that picks a colour from the picture and basically copies that exact colour/shade making it really effective

WWW - We played around with a load of tools and effects helping us broaden our knowledge of photo shop, ready for the next time we use it

WWW - The actual picture we chose really represented our genre, with the low angle making him look big and the grimy scenario, a rough plain area

WWW - We also used the editing software called Photoshop which was all sort of new to us

EBI - If we had more time to complete this draft, I reckon the final product of it would look much more better, as we didn't have enough time to experiment

EBI - It would have been better if we included the artists name underneath the album or on the plain wall because we forgot to insert that

EBI - It may appear a little tacky with the plane in the background, so next time we will keep it more simple, but with a lot more meaning

EBI - We should of thought about lighting more so we could of exaggerated his feelings/emotions, and by using high or low key lighting it makes overall look better

EBI - Finally, we have all come to the decision that we should of thought about the costume and how we want the actor to appear to the audience, in our case we want a smart, big looking man

Lyrics Annotation

Lyrics to Charmaine

Concepts

Within our music video i shall take into account the locations very effectivelly.

We will be shooting at multiple locations throughout the music video. This will help prevent viewer fatigue and make the video much more interesting. We do not particually have a main location that we will always refer, but i believe that having a large varierty of locations that also relate to the locations of the song can be very effective. When analysing the lyrics its clear to see that there is a storyline, therefore we will be trying to enforce this.

Setting is very important as it can connote many ideas and suggest many things to the audience. Also, the having a variety of settings can prevent viewer fatigue. Our concept of setting within our music video is ‘street’ meaning that we will use many locations and settings from urban areas. For example, the use of a simple 'brick wall' can have many connotations and can refer to our 'street' ideas.

The locotions, settings, colours, mis-en-scene that runs through our video will also be used throughout our DigiPak and advert. This will help enforce our brand identity and brand image. In addition, we would like our artist to be inspired by other artists from our genre such as Plan B, Devlin, The Streets and Jamie T. We would also like our costuming to up to date with current trends and ‘street’, which also means common, urban and casual clothing like trainers, and jeans/chinos.

The following are some sketches that I have made to show our ideas of locations and props. For example, a park, pub, cars and roads, and a street.

Here is another location- sketch that I made. This shows the main character at the train station either lip syncing or just standing to show the character or setting. The sketch shows the main singer meeting a second character who is the female, who sings the chorus.

Final Assessment 'RESEARCH' Oct 10th SJA

www:

• Well done for going back through teacher feedback quite carefully and investing a last minute effort to improve your blog Jack - It needed it! - You really have improved many of those IN's to something which looks much better, and shows a greater level of effort and time investment - THIS NEEDS TO CONTINUE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR....
• All posts have been generally improved in some way - the blog is overall quite visual, with a good use of contact  sheets, and some effective use of gifs in more recent posts.
• Most written comments make sense, and show a general grasp of media language - although not all written analysis seems genuinely thoughful and reflective. Some seems to have been completed quickly, rather than carefully.

ebi (for Planning & Evaluation Sections now):

• Time management MUST IMPROVE - this is part of the assessment criteria - don't leave it until the last minute again Jack - You simply must be more prepared to use your STUDY periods effectively at this stage of Year 13, and come in to the media rooms to get the work done. You cannot afford to get any more referrals from Ms Ingram or myself.
• Always think of ways (and be prepared to allow yourself time) to really come up with creative and unique ways to present each posts - make sure you use functions like the YouTube tagging feature, or a voice over commentary to talk through any analytical posts. Use JING to 'show' technical skill - this will boost your mark in this aspect of your blog. You should continue to make use of more creative ways to communicate your Planning and ideas - this all takes time - but that's the expectation.
• Be super organised in the Planning stages of your music video now - None of your work over the coming weeks can be thrown together - you will need to storyboard, plan effectively, try out lighting, etc, etc... Always document this and keep on top of blog posts. If the other people in your group are not looking very organised, then you need to take a lead and get the job done - properly. You have a high target grade to achieve, and will have to work hard to strive towards another 'A'.
• Show you are investing effort in the lessons and coming to classes prepared to focus and make progress every day
• You need to clearly LABEL all of your posts under 'Research' and 'Planning'

Overall mark for RESEARCH section: Mid Level 3... I actually think that what I see here is not your best work... Of all the times in your life to really show what you are capable of - NOW is the time Jack. Your posts could develop into Level 4 for 'Research & Planning' if you invest every effort into creating brilliant posts for 'Planning' - You need to use class time much more efficiently Jack, and be more preapred to come in to Media in your STUDY periods to continue to work on your posts and make them creative, original.

Image Annotation

We want our artist to look very typical of a ‘street’ style. We have been inspired by the style of many artists such as Plan B, Devlin, The Streets, and Jamie T. Our aim is to create a style mixed up by all these artists. 

Moreover, here is an image that I have annotated. The image is of the artist Jamie T that produces a large variety of music.

Jamie T

Song Details

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

This is a potential song that we are going to choose for our music video task. This song is very typical of the genre that we have chosen. This song is called ‘Charmaine ‘by Plan B, we have specifically chosen this song because we all like this style and type of music, and we also we would like to recreate something like this. Plan B is a distinctive artist that produces many different type of music such as Hip hop, grime, acoustic and soul. Plan B is a British rapper, singer-songwriter, actor and film director from Forest Gate, London. Plan B first emerged as a hip hop artist releasing his critically acclaimed debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words in 2006.

Technical Tutorials

The above YouTube video is set of publicity images that we have taken and put into a video format. When taking these pictures we took many things into account such as the mis-en-scene, setting, lighting and framing of the shot.

In order to take these publicity photos we borrowed a still digital camera and took them at different points throughout the school. Our main priority of taking these images was to get a feeling of what is really needed in a successful publicity photo, and get a successful photo that represents our genre.

When taking these images we were restricted to only being able to take them within school property. This in a way was a benefit, as it gave us a challenge to use the resources available. We knew that using a variety of shot angles and distances was vital, as it prevents viewer fatigue and makes the image look much more interesting and appealing. Additionally, as we took some images inside and outside we made sure that we took advantage of the natural light. Another very important part that we had to take into account when shooting our publicity photos was facial expressions. This was a major factor that helped distinguish the different genres of publicity photos.

Here is a picture of the green screen that we used in class to practice a small lip sync task. The green screen can be very effective as it is a lot budget way to make things look interesting; however it can sometimes make it look unprofessional if not done properly.

The downsides to the green screen are that people are unable to wear green as it will become affected by the effects. When setting up the green screen we also set up three lights that were carefully positioned and focused on the performer. We also set up three camera’s which were also focused on all the performers. 

Chroma key

Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing (layering) two images together.

A colour range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind.

The Chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production.

This technique is also referred to as color keying, color-separation, green screen, and blue screen.

It is commonly used for weather forecast broadcasts, wherein the news presenter appears to be standing in front of a large map during live television newscasts, but in a television studio it is actually a large blue or green background.

Moreover, when developing our technical tutorials we also created publicity photos. The photo below shows a medium-long shot of Nathan. When framing and composing this shot we looked specifically into the lighting and framing. The light of the sun is very bright and therefore contrasts with the outline of Nathan, making him stand out. In addition, we also took the idea of rule of thirds into account. For example, the lines diving the photograph below show how it can be divided into the rule of thirds.

Roles - Characters

As a group we have allocated many roles and responsibilities throughout the group. For example, roles that will be assigned amongst our group are:

·Costume manager

·Props manager

·Locations manager

·Lighting manager

·Production manager

This image shows a member of the group, and his name is Jack. As you can see he is very casual and calm. You can tell this by his body posture but he also significantly has his hand in his pockets. Having his hand’s in his pockets can suggest to the audience that he is very laid back. His costume or clothing is up to date with current trends, which could appeal to a large audience. We will all take roles and responsibilities throughout the making of our music video. For example, we all are taking turns in the editing, filming and acting side of the music video. In addition, we all have similar styles and tastes; therefore we will all choose locations and props.

Here is a picture of me, in the kind of clothing that our character will be wearing in the video. You can see the casual pair of chino's and a nice t-shirt also a nice casual pair of shoes. While these items of clothing are relatively normal, we will be using these kind of items whilst creating our video. My body posture here is very laid back and natural and you can tell this from the hand in the pocket and pretty neutral smile. As there is only 1 singer in the song we have chosen to split up the roles evenly throughout the 3 people in our group. However it helps that as individuals we all have a similar dress sense, music taste and general personalities, which will be portrayed in our music videos as the ideas will be present throughout.

Initial Ideas

This is another small video that we have created to show our ideas. In this discussion we talk about our initial ideas of what we are going to do. For example, we begin to talk about the genre of music that we show go with. We go about this by asking questions to one another then all joining in with the discussion. Having a discussion rather than just simply writing things down, allows you to go into further depth and create more emphasis. I believe that our discussion was very successful as we went through a lot, and shared our ideas with one another.

Here is a mood board that I put together to show all the things we discussed in our initial ideas. 

Technology That We Have Used

This is the icon used when you download Jing. For example, it shows a picture of a Sun, then three icons coming out of it. The top icon with the cross hairs is the one that allows you to capture or screenshot your screen. The tool is very effective, when analysing pieces of work.

This is an example of us using Jing. Jing is software that allows you to screenshot and records your screen. On the screen is an example of us recording our screen. This is a very useful tool as we could use it for multiple reasons, such recording our voices for a voice over or recording a step by step video.

Another peice of technology that we used was survey monkey. This is a software that allows you to create questionnaires and surveys that look very proffessional. The benefit of using survery monkey is that once everyone has completed it, all the results go straight back to the webiste. This then allows you to create charts and analysis of your data.

The Questionnaire - Audience Analysis

This is a preview of our questionnaire that we used to receive our results.

 In the picture below it shows some results from our questionnaire. For example, this table shows that the majority of people listen to music a few times a week; the second most popular is listening to music less than once a week. This is an important question as it allows us to understand how much people listen music, and how we shall go about adressing the audience our music video.

This table below shows how people choose to listen to music. The table shows that the majority of people listen and watch music through YouTube. This seems to be the most common because people can easily access music this way quickly, and can also download the songs from here.

The second most popular choice was to buy an album from a store; this can be seen as surprising due to the modern world as there is an increase in music downloads, hence why music shops such as HMV are suffering.

Moreover, another question that we asked was, 'What moods do you associate with pop/grime music?' The table below shows the results that we have collected. For example, the most popular answer was mad, what is meant by this is that it makes the audience a bit more energetic and lively. The least most popular answer was sad. This may because the speed and tone of the music doesn't make people feel that way, but for the people that did choose it, it could make them feel this way because of the lyrics.

Here is an example of a pie chart. We gathered this information through the information in the above table.