Cast

Protagonist (character J) - Jessica Opie

Protagonists best friend (character D) - Daisy Caldwell

Singer/ Protagonists dead boyfriend (character O) - Oliver Trivett

audience feedback on opening title

Original cut:

Changes I made:

Editing

Music video timing

Events of the music video and the times they are gong to be shown. This will be helpful for when I comes to editing an I know what part comes in where.  

Opening credits filming

For the opening credits of my music video I have the idea of the name of the song painted in red on a white background. And some form of liquid (I used red grape juice) that look like wine to spill onto of it. The red whine and lettering represents blood and death, while the white background signifies purity, which becomes impure from the spill. Also the fact it's supposed to be red wine give the audience an idea of what the video is going to be about.

Here are some photos of me getting ready to film it;

Ancillary task skeches

I thought it would be a good idea to start sketching some Digipak ideas. Here is what I drew:

photoshop practice

As my ancillary task is a digipak, I thought it would be important for me to practice using Photoshop and gain some skills. From this I learn how to crop images, put those cropped images into other images. I also learnt how to edit the exposure and contrast, and use other effects of the software.

Anamatic Part 1

 My anamatic is helpful for when it come to editing  I can refer to it to know how long the shots are.

focus group

Here is me pitching my Idea to my focus group. I learnt from this that my idea apeals to both male and females, and although they thought the backwards part would be a bit tricky they thought it was a good idea. Apart from that, they didnt say anything negative about my pitch, they thought it was good idea, and I went away feeling confident about my video.

More story boad

My story board will be useful as i can refer to it when actually filming my main product in case I forget anything whilst filming. I can also refer to it in post production when editing.

More location shots

Here are some location shots of places I thought would be great places to shoot, mostly up on east hill, as there are some great view and it has the potential for great shots.

Bekah playing model on the top of east hill (rule of thirds)

View from east hill looking through the trees.

More shots of east hill. 

Premiere pro workshop

Today in class an ex student came in and did a workshop on how to use Premiere Pro and how to make really cool titles on in, which will be really helpful when editing my music video. It would be helpful as the titles of the music video are very important as alot of the time it is what draws the audience in. So getting a professional to come in and teach us how to do complex and excciting titles is important part of that process.















Here is what I made for practice;

codes and convention I plan to use

For my main task video I plan to use a range of codes and conventions, such as;

Andrew Goodwins codes and conventions;
- A star image
- Thought beats
- Strong narrative
- Good technical aspects
- Relation of visuals to video

Powerful music videos codes and conventions:
- Strong narrative
- Controversial topic
- Grading

Backward music videos codes and conventions:
- interesting shots/events that happen that will look interesting while being played backwards

Indie rock music videos codes and conventions:
- originality


Following these codes and conventions will be important, as it will draw in my target audience. If I did not stick to these codes and convention then my video would not turn out good as it probably wouldn't be clear to audiences as to what genre it belongs to, nor would it seem like a music video.

Music video inspiration - Indie rock

I have spent a lot of time looking up different music video which will help me gain ideas for my own work. Ive have had several different music video inspirations for different aspects for my music video.

Indie Rock music videos:

Its hard to depict how Indie rock music videos are represented generally, so I just chose 2 of my favourites to go over;

In the music video "little Italy" by Little Comets has no specific story line with very disjunctured, stop motion editing. Even though there is nota story line it makes for a great music video.

Passion pit's "carried away" is about two people in a relationship who's harsh words in arguments come back to haunt them. I love how this is portrayed quite literally when at the climax of the song, the words come out and literally attack them. Which could signify that even though what someone says in a heat of an argument, even if they don't mean it, wont be forgotten and it will sill come back and hurt you.

Music video inspiration - Powerful messages

Music videos with a powerful message:

I have always loved the idea of really powerful music videos with a strong message behind them. They seem to be the music videos that stand out the most an leave people thinking about them for a long time after wards. The messages are generally based around a specific topic and how that topic effects people. - e.g, Homophobia, Racisism, Sexism, Rape etc. And that how I came up with the idea to base my music video around Alcoholism and the effects it has on people and the people around them.Two very powerful music videos that stand out to  me are Hoziers 'take me to church', and Lady Gaga's 'Till it happens to you'.


In the music video take me to church, the powerful message is about homophobia. At the beginning of the music video you see a man burying a box with chains around it, which could be a metaphor signifying a secret, which to him is his hidden sexuality. He is burying it because he doesn't want anyone to find out about it otherwise there would be consequences. And at the end of the music video his box is dug up by the wrong people, opened and burned, which means his secret is out and and his happiness is destroyed, because even though he wanted to keep his secret hidden it made him happy and he didn't want to get rid of it.

 Lady Gaga's music video "Til it happens to you" is a very powerful music video about the very serious issue of rape in College and University campuses.
There are moments in this music video that are quite explicit causing all of us in the class rom watching to be taken back and really shocked. The music video stuck in our minds for a long time after and discussed the topic for a while, which I hope to do with my music video.

Music video inspiration - Backward music videos

Backward music videos:

As I have said before I wanted to do a backwards music video. When something is filmed and played back backwards, everyday actions come out very peculiar and abstract. I wanted to do a backwards music video because of this and its originality. Also as backwards music videos start at the end of a story line it raises a lot of questions for the audience which will be answered at the end, which is what will probably draw most people in. The two backward music videos that stood out to me the most are AltJ's 'Breezeblocks' and Summer camps 'Fresh' (which is the music video I recreated for my preliminary task.)

The Breezeblocks music video is a massive inspiration for my music video as not only is it a backwards music video but also a music video with a powerful message - domestic abuse. However as it starts at the end where the husband end up killing the wife, we are under the assumption that he abuses her, but as we find out at the end of the video, it is the wife who originally tried to kill the husband as she figured out he was having an affair. So there is another message behind this that domestic abuses is a two way street. A lot of aspects have inspired ideas for my music video, for example the low key lighting, the (backward) smashing of bottles.

In Summer Camps Fresh, music video, There is no real story behind it, it is just really a woman singing in front of a pink background which a few backward shots. However when reversed it looks like she is singing forward so she would have to learn The words backwards, so that it something to consider when filming my music video. 

Lyrical analysis

Carry me lyrics:

Try to keep the options near
Of why we call out what we hear 
(I won’t change)
The lasting song across the track
(Here and now)
The resting never coming back
(I won’t change, here and now)

If anybody wants to know
Our love is getting low
Lighting the cracks in the road 

YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 

(I won’t change)YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(I won’t change)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME

It’s time I let my mind desire
I never meant to cause you harm
Just to try to keep the options near
Of why you call out what you hear

YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 

(I won’t change)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(I won’t change)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME (I won’t change)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME
(I won’t change)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 
(Here and now)
YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME YOU CARRY ME 

If anybody wants to know
Our love is getting low
Lighting the cracks in the road

YOU CARRY ME!

Carry me - metaphorically? (in their heart?) physically? (in a picture)

Our loves getting low - Not the same anymore

let my mind desire - time someone let them go 
I never meant to cause you harm - Didn't mean to cause any pain (what pain?) 

I wont change, here and now - No one can fix/ change them so there is no point in trying

To get more view points on what the lyrics might mean I asked my sister to interpret what she thought the lyrics meant. Here is what she put;

 

Location shots - Opening sequence of music video

As I have decided do have my music video start and end in the location of a church, I went to my village church to see if I would be a good location to film. I took some photos;

Film maker presentation.

The other day, film maker and camera man for the BBC, Andrew Johnson came in to school to answer any questions we had about getting a job in the media and how he ended doing his job. He also showed us a documentary he worked on about a guitar maker in exeter, and how they would go about planning what they wanted to film - He showed us his planning time table (can see on screen behind him in picture below).  Myself holding the camera they use to film the documentaries

Here is Mr Johnson showing us the camera he uses when he films his documentaries.

Here is Mr Johnson showing us the microphone they use when filming, which is attached to the camera

Here he is showing us more important equipment needed in that production. 

Myself holding the camera they use to film the documentaries

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

This was helpful to me to figure out ways to plan my main task, and to somewhat see what it's like to work in the media. 

Lighting workshop

Yesterday in class the teachers did a lighting work shop, where they showed us how to get different lighting textures with the equipment we had available. Here is what they showed us:

example of different angles/shadows

So we were taken into the drama studio at our school where we shown how the lights  that are fixed in there work, incase anyone wanted to film some scenes/ band shots in that room and how different shadows and a positioning of a person can create a different atmosphere of the shot.

Photo of chair under spot light 

They also showed us how create different temperatures of lighting.
This photo doesn't show it so well but half of Felix's face is a cool blue, and the other half is a warm orange. With this light we can change the filters if we want different colours of lighting;

They also showed us a white umbrella light, where the white umbrella diffuses and softens the light so when filming isn't so harsh, which could be good for high key lighting and to fill
in shadows. The umbrella can also be used to create contrasted, low key lighting when in a dark room;

example of the lighting the umbrella makes.

Also they showed how something as basic as the light on the back of a phone can be used for lighting to create a certain atmosphere;

And finally they showed us how something as small as candle light can create an awesome lighting effect. However they did mention it might be difficult to focus on something in that little light with the cameras we have, so they showed how to fix this problem by adding small amounts of warm light on what one wants to focus on, which will still give the illusion that the light it coming from the candle.

 This lighting workshop is going to be extremely helpful when it comes to filming my main task as i will now know how to get the atmosphere I want with the right type of lighting.

Photo of what the room looks light without any special lighting