Pictures of Locations

We decided to do some of our filming in Brockwell Park, we chose this location because we want to show Marina (Alicia) being almost lost in her old world as she sings about her lover whilst walking down the path, as well as that it will be where she bumps into him again as he is taking pictures of the park scenery. Another reason as to why we choose this location is because Brockwell Park has a very beautiful scenery with a lot of flowers, flowers represent love,peace and in some cases lust. These are themes that we want to show during our music video.




We also intend to do some scenes in Carnaby Street, in which we show Alicia walking through this city with the nice city background behind her, this will also be the scene in which shes bumps into her lover for the first time and takes his business card.

Breakdown sheet 3

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number:  8

Date:     12/11/14                                                                    Time: 3/4

Setting:                  Park                                                              Location: Brockwell Park

Crew members and roles:  Ashleigh – Cameraman, Joyce – Director, Chantelle - Director

Cast members: ‘Alicia’ – Chantelle

Extras: passers by in the park

Wardrobe: casual

Make-up: minimal and simple

Props:  newspaper or phone

Special effects: none

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: a potential problem we could face is chantelle being unable to make the shoot. To overcome this we would film another scene that doesn’t require chantelle’s presence so that we have footage. Another potential problem is the weather, if it rains for example we wont be able to film material, as ‘Alicia’ has to sit down in the scene. To overcome this we would check the weather in advance and make sure we plan according to the weather.

Anamatic Feedback

We had to create an anamatic which consisted of all the scenes we intend to show when we create our music video.We showed our ana matic to our peers and we got some feedback on what went well and how it could be even better.

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  We were told that our storyline was clear and makes sense. As well as that our shots fit the sound of the music.
- As well as that we had a variety of shots types, that had clear meanings as to why we chose to use them.

EBI

- On our anamatic some of the shots stayed on the screen for too long, so we were told to have more scenes so that one scene doesn't take up a lot of the time.
- Some of the scenes in our anamatic were unclear so it was rather difficult for the viewer to understand what was going on.

Link to anamatic : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A3YSLjC1YU

Breakdown sheet 2

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 1

Date:     13/11/2014                                                                                          Time: 6:00 pm

Setting:  Cafe                                                                                                    Location: Lambeth

Crew members and roles:  Ashleigh - Director

                                          Joyce -  Director

                                          Chantelle - Camera

                                    

Cast members: Lashay & Chantelle

Extras: Zaila

Wardrobe: Casual outfits

Make-up: Soft neautral

Props: Magazine

Special effects: None

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: Cast members may be unable to come so to overcome this, we will film scenes later on in the music video so that we are not wasting any time.

Breakdown sheet for shooting

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 2

Date: 14/10/2014                                                                                            Time: 3/4pm

Setting: Street                                                                                               Location: Westend

Crew members and roles: Ashleigh - Cameraman

                                         Joyce - Director

                                         Chantelle - Director

Cast members: Chantelle & Lashay

Extras: Random people walking by

Wardrobe: Casual clothes

Make-up: Soft netural makeup

Props: Card

Special effects: None

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: As this scene is outside to avoid any delays in our filming, we would have to check the weather before hand to make sure it is suitable for us to shoot in.

Music Video Pitch

My group and I had to present our ideas of our music video to the rest of our peers. We did this by creating a pitch using power point in which we discussed the location/setting of our music video, who's involved, the costume, the problems we may encounter, audience profile as well as the what we gathered from our survey. After we showed our pitch to our peers we got some feedback as well as some positive comments. They liked how the ideas we had for makeup and costume fitted in with mood of our music video as well as that they liked how our mood board had elements that reflected what we wanted to show in our music video. The suggestions they gave us to help improve was to make sure we were working with reliable people so that we didn't get disappointed, as well as that with the locations we chose we should be realistic and make sure we will actually be able to go there.  Below you will find images from my power point, that outline the ideas for our pitch.

MoodBoard

My group and I decided that the artist we wish to focus on will be Alicia Keys, as we were stuck on which song to do, we decided to produce two mood boards. One for ' If I Aint Got You' and another for 'You Don't Know My Name.'

Below you will find images for my mood board that somewhat describe some elements of my vision for the song Alicia Keys - You Don't Know My Name.
I have chosen the put an image of a man and a woman together to show how shes thinks about the man she desires for and how she pictures them in her head to be together. In the picture the man and woman seem rather close and intimate, as well as that they are just embracing one another's presence. Which is what she would want to do with her lover.

I deiced to put a variety of lips on my mood board to show the different feelings she embraces whilst she is with this man or even when she is simply just thinking about him. The lips on the mood board vary from her smiling as she is happy to see her lover, to her biting her lips as she sometimes tends to get nervous/shy around him. But I have chosen to put more lips on my mood board that show a smile as she is always happy to see him.

 I also put a face of a beautiful woman who is gazing into the distance, to show how her face would be if she sees her lover or even just thinks about him,  because she is totally in love and mesmerized by this man she really forgets about everything and anything around her and is lost in her own world.

I've also thought about to putting the word 'Love' on my mood board because she is deeply in love with this man, and really wants to be with him to be able to show him how much she loves him.
I've also put images of some beautiful scenery because when she thinks about this man her mind really wonders and embarks on a journey to these unknown places, were she wishes she could spend some quality and alone time with this man she is in love with. I also thought this type of beautiful scenery is where people who are in love tend to escape to as an romantic get away. I also put in image of an apartment due to the fact that some of our scenes that we film would be in an apartment.

 

Copyright Letter

                                                                                               
As a part of our research and planning we had to try and get in contact with the copyright owners of the song we have chosen to use,due to the fact that we are using a video that they own. We proceed to do this by writing a letter to the owners, so that will would be able to get a reply and be given permission to use their song. Below you will find the letter I have written to the copyright owners.

                                                                                                            La Retraite RC School

                                                                                                            Atkins Road

                                                                                                            London SW12 0AB

                                                                                                            UK

745 5th Ave

New York, NY 10151

United States

Midtown West, Midtown East

17 September 2014

Dear Copyright Holder

I am an A level student and I am writing this letter to ask for your permission to use a song for my music video which I will be creating for my practical work in Media Studies. The song that I will be using for my project will be Alicia Keys. ‘You Don’t Know My Name’.

I can assure you that the music video will only be shown to my Media Studies class, my teacher and the OCR exam board. Your company and the artist herself will have an opportunity to view the final video if you wish.

If possible, could you please send me a written copyright notice to be included in my coursework portfolio?

Yours faithfully,

Chantelle Ayoku

Music Video Survey

So that I was able to gain more knowledge and understanding on my target audience, we created a survey that contained a variety of questions that would help us to create a music video that appealed more to our target audience.

Below you will find a link to my Music Video Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2YRC82Q

Audience Profile

This is Cara Blu, she is 19 years old and lives in Central London. She loves listening to Rap,Hip Hop and Soul/Neo Soul music. During the weekends she loves to go out shopping with her friends, she also enjoys going to her favorite restaurant which is Five Guys, as well as that she likes to go to the cinema and just chill out with her friends. On her lazy days in she loves eating, watching movies and listening to music. The breakfast cereal that Cara would choose for breakfast would have to be Coco Pops with cold milk. Her usual mode of transport would be taking the bus, and if she is in a hurry she would take tube, but Cara enjoys walking to her destination when she isn't in a rush as she likes to stay fit. Her favourite drink is water!  she loves a nice chilled glass of water as she finds it very refreshing. Her favourite TV shows consist of: Americas Next Top Model, Love and Hip Hop, Criminal Minds, Family Guy and Simpsons. Her favourite vegetable are carrots. She doesn't play or watch any sports. On holiday she would go to America,Hawaii or Thailand as she enjoys going to places that have beautiful beach views or somewhere she can get a lot of shopping done. For restaurants she would enjoy going to: Five Guys,Vapiano, Burger and Lobster, Tinsel Town, Ping Pong Dim Sum and Satay Bar.

Music Video Research

In a Hip Hop music video you would usually expect to see, that the location is in a party,club or a very big mason/ generally a fancy location. The characters would mainly consist of a lot attractive women, as well as men and of course the artists of the song. In an hip hop video there doesn't really tend to be a story line it just more or less follows the flow of the song as well as simply following the genre.

In a hip hop music video you would surely see some use of alcohol in one way or another, and people just generally having a good time (depending on the song). You definitely find a lot of recognized expensive brands and clothing, expensive cars and houses everything would be big and flashy. There would be a variety of camera shots in a hip hop music video from long shots to show all the money involved, the setting and all the big cars and houses. There would also be close ups to show all the expensive jewellery being used in the video and all the assets of the artist. You may also find close ups of the womens face.

Here is a Hip Hop video of French Montana 'Pop That' this video has a very typical style of a Hip Hop video and  fits all the conventions that a Hip Hop video should have such as the attractive  women, the big expensive mansion and cars, all the alcohol, there is also plenty of close ups shots showing all the jewellery and designer clothing.

  

Below is another example of a Hip Hop video that fits all of the conventions a Hip Hop music video should have.

Below is another example of a music video, this one is rather different compared to the other two videos. It contains less woman/attractive woman, and its more of the original style of hip hop or 'old skl' its contains a lot more dancing and is more or less how a hip hop video would of been like a few years ago. Although it does have some simple conventions of hip hop video such as the close up of expensive jewellery and clothes, the party settings at some point etc. The only thing making it different from the other videos is the lack of alcohol and attractive not fully dressed woman and i think that is because of the fact it is more of an older hip hop video and the conventions of a hip hop video have changed since then.

VMA Awards

I think Miley Cyrus video 'Wrecking Ball' did deserved to win the VMA of the year. From the simple alone fact that no other music video has had such a large social impact this year like 'Wrecking Ball' did, and in addition to that numerous people have used their time and effort to make parodies of this video displaying how successful it really was.

Some may watch the 'Wrecking Ball' video and question many things that occur in it, thing such as her lack of clothing, the licking of the hammer, swinging naked on an actual wrecking ball etc. But I think what Miley was trying to portray in her video was something more psychological and very with literal as we see in the video. The wrecking ball is actual tearing her apart which is more or less symbolizing what the person she is singing about has done to her. Apart from her using nudity to raise/draw more attention to her music video (which it certainly did) I think she used it in a way to expose herself, showing how they boy she is signing about has torn her apart, to her lowest possible form.

I think Mileys 'Wrecking Ball' video definitely contained a few elements which add up to create a strong video. Such as her use of very bright lighting throughout the video which made everything much more visible and clearer to viewer of what was taking place and especially her extreme close ups of her face with the white background which really just shows her emotions and how hurt she really is, the video is very 'white' in a sense of color, the background is white, her clothes are white ( when she has some on ) as well as the very bright somewhat white lighting. I think all this white symbolizes how trueself, and how pure,weak and vulnerable she really is due to the boy that has caused her all that pain. Although the white does clash with her mood which is more angry and loud. I get the idea that she is using the color white as a facade in her video to show how she truly feels about the situation at hand.

Lastly, i think this video deserved to win the VMA of the year because a lot of young girls/teenagers and boys in some circumstances can relate to the song and the pain/anger she shows throughout the video.
Below you will able to watch the video.

Evaluation

Whilst re-creating my music video we decide to change it up slightly so its more personal unique. Although we did keep some elements such as some of the outfits that Britney had on as it we thought they looked nice and suited the kind of look we were going for. I think this did improve our music video because it was nice and different to see the similar elements of the original video with a twist.

Whilst filming we did encounter some problems such as learning the choreography to a high standard and finding more back up dancers, at times we also struggled with locations as we often used the same location which made our shots seem more repetitive. There are a few aspects that I would change if I was to plan this again, such as making sure everyone knows the choreography perfectly and that they are in sync, as well as trying to hire more back up dancers.

We received a lot of feed back from our peers and teacher, we received positive feedback such as: the scenes went well/flowed with the music the lip syncing was done very well, nice dancing, cinematography was excellent, our framing and choice of location worked really well together, the camera was steady and the fact that we chose a good person to play our Britney as she had very good facial expressions, and lip syncing was on time and looked good as well as the fact that she had  very similar movements to the original Britney. On the other hand some negative comments consisted of: we needed a more variety of shots, in one of the scene we could hear some of the sounds when we were recording as it wasn't towered properly whilst editing, the choreography was quite weak the dance moves were half-hearted and it didn't seem like we put enough energy and effort into it and it didn't look as professional as it could have , the scene were we are in the car park didn't really work well and we should have chosen another location for that particular scene and there are quite a few repetitive shots also the long shots were quite faint.

As a result from the feedback I got there is a few changes I would make to the video, for example the dancing being a main factor, I would ensure we have people that can dance very well as well as making sure that we have a very structured choreography instead having an idea in our heads and trying it out without putting to much thought into it. I would also try to think of a variety locations so that we don't tend to have repetitive shots. As well as that whilst we are filming I would make sure eliminate as much background noise as possible, so that when it comes editing the process it is made easier and we dont make the mistake of not lowering the background noise.

Research , Britney Spears recreation task

To start of my A2 course i was assigned by my teacher to re create Britney Spears music video to ' Hit Me Baby One More Time' My first reaction was quite confused why we would have to do such a video. But my team and I managed to pull it of and work with the benefits we have such as using our school as the location, we also tried to do very similar dance moves as the actual video as well as keeping make up,hair and costume very similar to the original video.

Below you will find the original Britney Spears video:

 

Research

Roles; whilst we were in our group we decided to allocate each team member with a different role, so re-creating the music video could be done and a more easier, rapid pace and so we can achieve the best outcome possible.

Kristal was the executive producer.
Ashleigh and myself were back up dancers as well as the choreographers.
Alice was the camerawoman
Luke and Shariece were the directors and were in control of sound throughout the filming.



                                                                        


Casting/Choreography: Myself and ashleigh decided to do the choreography for the making of this music video, with the help of other team members putting in their input of what moves/dance works best so we can achieve the best out come for this music video.

We chose Elle to be our Britney because we feel as if she suited that role the best as she had that 'look' we were going for. She was very natural when we started recording and looked great in front of the camera, she also had a lot of ideas hat helped benefit our music video and made it better.




                                                                                                                                       
                                                              We also had Ana & Chantelle G as back up dancers to help re crate the music video to its best abilities, they were very good with the dancing and picking up the moves quickly as we as having a lot of ideas that helped to benefit our team.
 

Britney Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time Recreation Video

Here is a link to my Britney Spears video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vvk39Apsrk

Great Music Video

For this task I have been assigned to chose a music video that I think is very good. I have decided to go with Erykah Badu's 'Window Seat' I think this music video is very good & inspirational I also think this is a great music video because of the message that Badu is trying to put across. Throughout the length of this video we see Badu taking a long walk, as she goes on with her walk she removes layers of her clothing. I think this long walk that she is taking shows her walking through life and also shows her as a female in the music industry evolving into something bigger & better, as she proceeds to take of layers of her clothing, as she is walking suggest that taking that walk in life requires a lot of bravery. I think her taking of her layers off clothing represents us as females taking all the stress of life/stress we may receive from our society. I think she was trying to address the situations females face in the media industry and she was to trying to be different from the so called 'group' everyone seems to follow, which many female artist would be afraid to do so.


  

Evalution Question 5

The Unique Selling Point (USP) of our film is that it has many different attributes which enables the film to be very successful as well as being popular which will lead to being enjoyed by many. We highlighted a majority of horror convection and made it different which made the film more interesting and helps build more tension and suspense whilst the audience is watching. We did things that subverted the stereotype of how horror film convection would usually be, for example the protagonist of our film was the killer who was portrayed a young girl that was dressed in while. This subverts the stereotype of killers in horror films usually being older and dressed in more dark and colours to give that sinister feel about them. and the fact that she is a young girl will really intrigue the audience and make them feel uncomfortable whilst they are watching the film.
A lot of our insipiration came from another affluent film 'Sinister' here is a trailer to 'Sinister'

This film received a lot of good service from the media, and using ideas from the film 'Sinister' and entwining it with our own idea we hope to receive the same success if not even better than 'Sinister'. Below is a video of our horror film including a voice over than explains why decided to make certain decisions in our horror film and the effect we wanted those decisions to make.

Here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7mfyEwnqxw

Horror Film Conventions

In a horror film the setting is where the horror film takes place. For a horror film the ideal setting is usually and isolated and abounded location which has a absurd and dark past which is usually used to create tension and fear in the atmosphere for the viewers/people acting in the film.The usually settings are: a lake, woods, haunted house, abandoned buildings,cabins, deep waters and basements.

    
The killer is usually a horrible character that has a bad past which in some circumstances made them the way they are. They killer will also usually have a trademark weapon of phrase to make them move discoverable to their victim. 

 

The victim is a stereo typically blonde girl (preferably a teenager) as they seem to come across dumb and vulnerable. As well as a group of stupid/immoral teenagers that are usually a group of friends that go about the wrong way with things then always end up get killed.
  

 A hero is also a character you may find in a horror most likely a male there aren't many hero’s in a horror film but when there is he/she portrays a brave role of authority. Its very rare to see a woman portraying the role of a hero as they aren't really thought of highly in the film industry.

The victim is normally wearing light/pale colors to indicate that they are pure, innocent and vulnerable. The killer wears dark colors such as red to show they are dangerous and to show a sign of terror towards their victim.

The sounds in a horror film are an important factor. Silence helps to create suspense and builds up tension and makes the audience be on the tip of their chair as they are unaware of whether the silence will end with a loud noise or something quick and sudden taking places on the screen.Screaming, rustling winds, whispers and fast heart beats are sounds we may also notice from a horror film.

High and low camera angles can be very effective as it can display the different characters authorities. It can also show characters fears and nightmares as well as being used to connote fear and power. Point of View shot is a good shot to use, it is used a lot by the killer this allows the audience to see the world from the characters evil perspective it almost makes the audience feel as if they are the ones committing the crime.Wide shots are useful during horror films as they enable the audience to get a good view of the setting and background of the area.
Editing can create a mood through the build up from such techniques such as jump-cuts and slow cutting to 

Question 3

Our film Carolina was made on a low budget and is no where near to any Hollywood films. Although it does contain all the convection and elements to create a horror film. our film may be able to be screened at film festivals such as the London Short Film Festival the will beneficial as they specialize to premier UK for cutting edge UK independent films.




This event will be a good experience for our film to have a breakthrough and make more people aware of our film and the things we get up to. after we start of by distributing our film at London Short Film Festival it will become mainstream and be able to be screened at venues such as the Odeon, CineWorld, Vue etc. after our film has had its time to be screened in the cinema, it will then be available on DVD/Blu Ray DVD this will be at places such as large supermarkets like Asda and Tesco as well as places like HMV. where people visit more or less on a daily basis. meaning i film will be able to reach a wider audience as hundreds or people visit these supermarket daily.

       



Our production company 'Coldgate Productions' would intend to employ a good distributor such 'Paramount Pictures UK' this is because produced very good horrors such as The Ring, The Devils Inside & April Fools Day. Although they are in the UK they are based in Hollywood this is a great platform for our film due to the fact if it is to be very successful american audiences which are already big audience.