Diary Post Ten

Since my last diary post I have put up the storyboard that I mentioned, as well as a mood board that I created based on the themes, design inspirations and overall look of my music video. I have also completed a shot list, which briefly describes every shot I plan to use in turn along with the timing of that shot. Although I could just begin filming with a basic idea of what I wanted, and then use whatever footage I had from that to create the video and still end up with something very successful, in the case of my video (because of the song I'm using, the fact that I want visual representations of the lyrics, and also the way I work) I felt it would be much more effective if I knew exactly what I was going to film before I started. I have also got my models to sign their model release forms and I plan to film next week.

Digipack Cover Sketch

This is my draft for my digipack front cover. As the name of the band is Cake, I thought that an interesting design would be to bake a cake and ice the name of the album and band on the top. The name of the album is called Shadow Stabbing, so I had the idea of putting a knife in the cake and then using red icing to look like blood dripping from the wound. I really like the idea of using a cake for the cover, but I am unsure yet as to whether I will use the knife idea as I'm not sure it really reflects the tone of the song and the band.

Animatic

This is the animatic of my music video, which I created by taking the pictures from my storyboards and placing them on a timeline on Adobe Premiere Pro along with my song, and then editing them so that they fit in time with the music. Although this and the storyboard do cover most of the shots I plan to use, there are some parts of the song where I did not have a picture for what I am planning to film. However I have a more detailed description of the shots I want in my Shot List.

Storyboard

For my storyboard, I took the shot ideas that I knew I definitely wanted to use and sketched them out roughly with colour, so that I had a basic idea of what they would look like, even though they were not detailed. Then I scanned these in and pasted them onto a blank storyboard (like the one I used for my reverse storyboard), adding a short description of the camera angle/movement and type of shot, along with the lyric or music playing at the time of shot. Although this doesn't cover every shot I am aiming to use, it gives me a basis of what types of shots I want to use and it made me think more about the visuals of the video.

Mood Board

This mood board represents the overall tone, look and style of my music video. For example, the colours are mainly red, black, white and grey, with a lot of dark eye make-up and red lipstick, which is the kind of make-up I want my models to wear. I tried to include images of the sort of costumes I would want them to wear too, although this is harder as we are somewhat restricted to what people own, so I found photos of short skirts, high heels, ripped jeans, etc., as these reflect the sort of 'look' I want the models to have.

Diary Post Nine

Over the half term I have been working on my sketches for my storyboard and digipack cover and turning the sketches into an animatic. These should be up here soon, with a little description of the camera movements and why I chose these shots, etc. 


As well as this I have begun working towards my audience profile by getting some feedback from peers. I began by putting up polls on my blog asking about people's attitudes to music videos, and then showing some friends (who are not in my media class, so as to give me a less biased view) my proposal and asking them what they thought of the idea. I will write up these results and post them soon.


I also began discussing costume ideas with some of the models I will be using, mostly the sort of colours I am looking for them to wear, as well as the style of make-up, jewellery and hair. Additionally I briefed them on some of the things they will be required to do in the music video and at what part of the song they would be shown. I am hoping to show all my models my proposal, storyboard, animatic, etc, so that when it comes to filming they are fully aware of what it is I am looking to achieve and I know that we are all on the same page.

Diary Post Eight

This week we got into groups of four and filmed some test sequences. These are just little clips of footage that we can use to try out different effects and things and see how they work, hopefully giving us some ideas and inspiration for our music videos. Our teacher gave us a list of different basic ideas, which included dramatic angles, reverse shots, split screening, multiple exposure, slow motion, etc, and we  tried to get as many clips for the ideas as possible (although many of them did not work very well in the end). This was something that I really enjoyed and I feel that I’ve already learnt a bit more about getting interesting and artistic shots. After we had filmed the footage, we edited them individually on Adobe Premiere; I put some things in reverse, changed the colours, and played with effects like ghosting. By seeing the sort of ways that I can manipulate footage using the software we have, I feel better prepared for making my music video as I know what is easily achievable and what is not. As well as this, it meant that I am more familiar with the cameras we’ll be using, so I feel more confident about that.

Also this week I have been sketching out some basic ideas, beginning with my digipack cover and then also the start of my storyboard. We had a discussion in class and tried to come up with some unusual concepts for these, based on either technical skills or an impressive image. When these are finished and coloured and everything then I’ll upload those too.