Junction Shoot

Today we had the shoot at the Junction and I think that is has gone really well and we were able to get a lot more footage than I thought we would. I took advantage of the space that we had and moved around the stage, getting many different angles of Becky. These varied from shots from the floor looking up at Becky, to over shoulder shots of Becky playing the guitar. Having a variety of shots will help us in the editing process as it will give us a lot more choice and we will have more to work with when cutting between shots.

We hadn't managed to make a detailed storyboard for this shoot, so we thought that this may make it more difficult when shooting but it allowed us to get a lot more footage and we experimenting a lot more which will help the video.

Myself and Alie went into the shoot with two cameras and this became an advantage as we were both able to go around the stage shooting at different angles, allowing us to get more footage in half the time. The only down side to this was that occasionally we would get in each others shot and this will need to be taken out when editing.

First Rough Cut Feedback from Becky Young

After uploading the rough cut of the music video, I asked Becky to have a look at it and I also asked her to comment on the video and tell me what she thought of it. She managed to give a lot of feedback and tell us what we should think about changing.

Becky thought overall it was a good idea, however, she thought that I could cut in down a lot more and the cuts could be a bit more quicker. She also thought that on some parts where she is just looking blank and not singing that I could shorten it and add in another shot to make it more interesting. Finally, she thought that when I add in the Junction half of the footage, I could add it on the end like I intended but also put in earlier on so that it is a bit more interesting and cuts between her journey and the Junction Gig.

Rough Cut

Here is our rough cut video of Becky's music video. I have managed to get some feedback from Becky and others after watching it, there are a lot of things which we need to change and edit.

First Session of Editing

Here are a few pictures from the first and rough cut editing session we had. Alie took a few pictures while I was beginning the editing and tweaking it before the rough cut.

Target Audience

Even though we are making this vide for a client, we still need to consider the target audience when making this video. I think the target audience for this video would be a females that are 17-18 years old. These girls will be in full time education and quite clever and determined to get good grades.

They would spend most of their free time; hanging out with mates, at local gigs (such as the junction or corn exchange), at starbucks, mostly with friends or working in a job they aren't interested in.

This target audience will most likely wear; converse, dirty jeans and band t-shirts.

Also they would probably play an instrument like guitar and they will spend most of their money on school supplies and coffee.

The audience that will buy her music will probably either buy it on iTunes or download it for free on things like BitTorrent as opposed to buying the cd in a store and they are probably already fans of Becky's music.

Images from First Shoot

Here are a few pictures of our first shoot and this shoot was held on Hills Road, Cavendish Avenue and outside the Junction





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First Shoot - Car

Today, Friday 9th, we began our shooting and we started off with the shots of the journey and shots within the car. We began our shoot with the car stationary so I could get some shots before the car started off. The first couple of shots where of here strumming in the guitar and holding chords on the threat board. Then went on to get a few most complex shots of the guitar and then we started the car, moved off and began to get shots of her singing and the scenery going past.
This part of the shoot was quite easy and quite. However, the camera was quite shakey, it was acceptable but not perfect and we had to use a lot of petrol as we were doing a lot of loops around Hills Road.
After completing the shots within the car, I then went on to shoot the artist coming out of the car at the Junction and a few shots of her going into the Junction. These shots were quite simple but we did have a security man come up to us and ask that were not to have an signs, people or number plates within our shots and we took this into account.

Dave's Website help

Dave has given us a link to a website may help us to make the effect that we wanted within our footage.
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/basic_sky_replacement

This is a video that shows how to changed colours, for example, in skys and colours in the shot. This videos shows you how to complete this in After Effect but we are planning on using Final Cut but we shall watch it for help anyway.

Practise Footage - Effects

On Thursday 8th, in the morning, we went out on Hills Road to shoot some practise footage of our artist. We decided to do this because we wanted to add a colour effect to the footage and getting some practise footage would help use to know what we needed to do before it came to shooting the real thing.
When we brought the footage back to the editing room, we found out that the most easiest way to complete our colour effect would be to use After Effects. However, we felt more comfortable with Final Cut so we have played around with Final Cut effects and we have came up with a video with effects that we want to use now. Even though I used Final Cut, I am also willing try to learn how to complete it on After Effects so that I can compare them and see which is better.

Model Release Forms for Becky and Holly

Below is an image which was taken by Alie. It shows a model release form signed by Holly, who was an actress in our music video. Below that is two images which show one Model Release form which is of Becky Young who had to fill out to say that she gives us permission to use her in the video and her song.

Below is what the form says, as the picture are not very clear.


Model Release Form

Name: Becky Young

Date of Birth: 11/11/1991

Contact Nmuber: 01954 200850

Address: 16 Whitegate Close, Swavesey, Cambs, CB24 4tt

Email: dark-angel626@hotmail.co.uk

I give permission to be filmed in Alie and Philippa's music video project.
Yes

I give my permission for Alie and Philippa to use any footage or photographs taken of me for the project, and give permission to have anything with me in it to be shown on the internet. Yes

Signature:......

Date: 2/11/09

I give permission for Alie and Philippa to use the song "Time" in their music video project.

(Then she signed the bottom of the sheet and dated)

Junction Talk

This afternoon, Thursday 8th, I went to the Junction to Simon, who is the technician, about what we are wanting for the shoot at the Junction.
Myself and Alie have told Simon that we shall need plain a stage, plain background and a stool set up for Becky Young to sit on. This will also mean that we will need a microphone for her so that it looks like a normal acoustic stage set up.

We also had to consider lighting, so we asked if we could have a simple lighting and Simon suggested white and blue and we thought that this would work well. Simon then said everything that we had suggested was fine and he just suggested the possibility of some coloured lighting to make her stand out a bit more.

Our shoot at the Junction should be on Thursday 22nd.

Ed Lovelace's Talk

Today Ed Lovelace, an ex student of Long Road, came in to talk to us about what his career and his time here at Long Road and getting into the media industry.

First of all he started by telling us about his time at Long Road. He was here from 2000 for two years and he completed a media course. As well as telling us of what he thought the course was like, he also showed us a couple videos which he has completed as part of the course. The first video was of a short thriller and it consisted of two guys who came into a house and stole a suitcase. This video was really good and it showed us that equipment doesn't make a film good, its the ideas and how you make it. While he was at long road, they were using cameras which weren't as good as ours and they were only just starting to use iMovie. We have better equipment than they had then and we are still producing the same standard of work.
He also showed us a music video which he had created for the course and it seemed quite complex, even though he had a simple idea. I think that comparing our video at the end with his music video, might be an interesting thing and to see whether we can create something as simple and as visually effective when making the video for Becky Young.

Ed then went on to tell us about what he did after Long Road and he told us that he went on to study at Bournemouth University. I found thisparticularly interesting as this is the university which I am thinking about going to and to know that he went there and managed to get into the media industry quite quickly. It makes you think that he went on the right path and that it may work for us.
He didn't tell us a lot about what he did at Bournemouth as he didn't have any videos to show us and it was hard for him to explain. However, he said that Bournemouth is a great university and he got a lot of chances there, such as, they would bring in people from the industry to teach them and also star in their productions. This included cast from Cold Feet to act in their productions and the director of Harry Potter to teach them.

Finally, he went on to talk about his videos which he has made in his career, they started with as little as a £100 budget, all the way to £40,000. The lowest budget video's which he showed us were of 'Cutting Pink With Knives and 'The Gallows'. The videos were really good considering they has such as low budget. Cutting Pink With Knives video was done within two hours and shot within a faked one shot in a basement. The Gallows video was a live video which wasshot with 8 cameras, with an hour or so of footage.

The bigger budget videos were of Cage the Elephant and these video's were fantastic. The first video were saw was of the band in a padded room and this room was made for £20,000 by an artist. The other video which we saw was of them in front of a projector and a variety of footage was being shown throughout. This was quite an effective video and it was a very simple idea and I was surprised it cost so much.

The final video which he showed us was a trailer of a film which he is currently making. He is working on making a film, almost like a documentary, which is set in America. It was about a guy who left home when he 14 and he has been on tour ever since playing in his band. He was called Viking Moses and the film follows him around America, also playing in people's houses. This is going to be an interesting film and it is a very original thing to document.

Budgeting

To complete this commission we won't really be spending much on producing it. However, if I were to be making this production within the real media industry, we would need to be paying for a lot of things which we are using. For example, HD camera, tripods, laptops, Final Cut editing software and headphones. We would also need to pay actors within the video, the costumes which they would be wearing and also hiring of using the stage within the Junction.

Our actors are willing to act without being paid, we are using the equipment and software from college, which will not cost anything and the Junction stage has been offered to us to use for free.

The only parts of the production which I think we will need to pay for is the transport to and from each set and getting the equipment. So this will include bus journeys from home to college and college to the Junction for all members of the cast. Finally, we will also need to pay for the petrol that we are going to be using for the car within the video.

Health and Safety for Shooting

Here is a list of things which we will have to be careful of or be aware of during our shoots.

Shooting in town -

- It will be quite busy in town and we will have to be aware of lots of people and this will include keeping equipment safe and trying not to get others in the shot.
- Inside the Junction we will have to consider a lot as we are shooting within a staging area. This will include wiring on floor which people can trip over, risk of damaging equipment and there will be a lot of electrical equipment to be aware of while shooting the artist.
- In town we will also have to be aware of traffic, as we are shooting roughly in the centre of town- it will be quite busy and risk of getting run over.

Shooting in Sawston and Field -

- Shooting within Sawston means we will have to consider roughly the same things as in town, traffic and not getting others within the shot.
- On the way to the field we have to cross a main road so there will be a risk again of getting run over so we will be using the situated crossing. There is also a train track crossing to get to the field and we will have to be very aware of this and use it properly.
- On the field there isn't a lot to take into account but there is a small river that runs round the field and we will have to be aware of people falling in and drowning. Also on the field we shall have to be careful of not going on someone else's property.

Details of our Clients Availability

This list below will show exactly when Becky is available for shooting.

Monday's - 12:40 - 14:45

Tuesday's - 12:40 - 14:45

Wednesday's - 11:15 - 13:45

Thursday's - 10:00 - 11:50 and also 15:00 onwards

Friday's - 10:00 - 11:50 and also 15:00 onwards


This list below will show when we have free periods to shoot

Monday's - 12:30 - 13:50 and 15:30 onwards

Tuesday's - 12:20 - 14:30

Wednesday's - 13:00 onwards

Thursday's - 9:00 - 13:00

Friday's - 9:00 - 13:00


From looking at both of these lists, we can see when myself and Alie will be available within the same time as Becky. The times when we are available at the same time are listed below.

Monday's - 12:40 - 13:50

Tuesday's - 12:40 - 14:30

Wednesday's - we aren't free at the same times this day

Thursday's - 10:00 - 11:50 and she can also be at the Junction form 15:00 onwards

Friday's - 10:00 - 11:50


(we are also looking into using a Saturday or two but we will have to let Becky know in advance)

Animatic for Becky's Video

Here is an animatic which me and Alie have created. It shows you roughly about a minute of the beginning of the music and whats she want to create for the video. Completing this task also brought up the issue that we were a bit unsure about how we wanted to start the video and now we have spoken with Becky again and have a very detailed idea. This video makes it easier for us when we want to go out shooting because we know exactly what we need to shoot.