Actress choices - Character profiles

ACTRESS 1

WHO IS SHE?
This is Lucy, my first actress choice for my music video. Lucy studies Drama for her A-levels so I already know she can act confidently. Lucy has just turned 18 which is the age I was looking for also. I know Lucy well which i feel will benefit my music video as I can be completely honest with her and tell her if she needs to do anything differently. I have asked permission beforehand to use her in my music video, I have also explained what she must do and checked she is comfortable with doing them. I also explained that the footage will be online which means anyone could see it, she was happy to be part of it. Lucy has a big, bubbly personality and isn't afraid to speak her mind, this is perfect for my first actress as I need someone who can be confident and loud to help create an atmosphere and make my music video be more believable.
WHY DID I CHOOSE LUCY?
As I know Lucy well I already know her personality , I feel she has the right attitude for the music video as I need someone to look and act rebellious and feisty as this is the character I feel will suit the song and the genre of the song. The songs lyrics I think should reflect the atmosphere 'One day baby we'll be old', I want to represent her as the dominating character who leads the friendship who has a care free attitude.  

ACTRESS 2

WHO IS SHE?
The second girl i plan to use is Charlotte, Charlotte similarly is 18 years old which is the age I was looking for. Charlotte does not act normally but feels comfortable acting in front of myself and Lucy. I chose Charlotte because she is close friends with Lucy which means the closeness I plan to capture of the two friends will be more natural.
WHY DID I CHOOSE CHARLOTTE?
Charlotte is a quiet, shy girl who looks innocent and easily led than Lucy with her angelic blonde hair and blue eyes. When the audience sees Charlotte they automatically will link her with innocence as she has all the connotations that represent this.


As a director I gave them detailed notes of how I would like them to act as their characters, I made sure I told them how I would like them to act slightly flirtatiously with each other as I am portraying them as being in a same sex relationship.

Choosing actors

Choosing actors for my music video I feel is going to be very important to make a successful video. I have made a list of some key points that I will look for when finding my actors...

• Must be confident in front of the camera
• Preferably be the age of 16-18 or look around this age range
• Both actors must be comfortable in front of each other as they will be playing best friends in the video
• They must also be willing to wear clothes they may not usually wear (1960's-70s style clothing)

Costume ideas

My video is going to star two old ladies thought to be in there 70's, thinking back to when they were teenagers of 16-18 years old. I realised that costume will be important in this case as most of the filming will have to be set in around the 1960s-70s. I found some photos of fashion of this era to give me inspiration of how to dress my actresses. 

 1.)I chose this picture because the girls look like they are in their teens, so around the age the actresses will be in my music video. All 3 girls in the image are wearing head bands which must of been a popular accessory in the 60's, I could easily include this item in my music video to fit with the style of that era. The girls all wear pastel, quite sickly colours which I think I could include in the costumes also. I noticed that all the girls wear either a skirt of box shaped dress which hangs just above the knee, the outfits are modest and loose fitting without looking frumpy, all girls have a loose fitting skirt above the knee and a high necked top or sweater with long sleeves. I will make sure to include this when choosing outfits for the characters in my music video.

2.)In this photo the girls look a little older than the last one, they also have outfits which are a little more provocative as they wear shorter skirts and shorts. Most of the girls still have the high neck tops which I think must of been a popular style in the 60's-70's, as I have seen this so many times in photographs, I will be sure to include this style in my video. Unfortunately I couldn't find a colour version of this photograph so I don't know what sort of colours would be in this photograph.

3.) In this photo the 4 girls all wear similar outfits, high necked box type style dresses with clashing coloured tights and small heels. I think this is a simple star to replicate and I could definitely use this style in my music video.

Copyright permission 2

We received an email soon after emailing Wanklemut. I found out that they did not own the rights to the track as he just remixed the original song 'One day'. I would have to email Sony to find out if I am able to use the song for my music video.

Copyright permission email to Wanklemut

Myself and my partner in creating the music video emailed info@wanklemut.com to ensure using there track would be suitable. 

Andrew Goodwins theory and my music video

Codes and conventions of dance/house music videos

Cinematography –
Handheld camerawork is mainly used in this genre of music video there is rarely any static shots – the movement adds to the excitement of the video.
There is a wide variety of camera angles and shots , however as in most music videos a lot of close-ups of the lead singers/star image are usually used.

Mise-en-Scene -
Night club/party/festival scenes with lots of flashing bright lights.
Attractive actress/ actors feature as the star image
Alcohol, smoking and drugs tend to feature in dance/house music videos
Sexual aspect
High key lighting for inside scenes low key lighting when outside at night
Fun, happy atmosphere

Sound -

Upbeat music – makes you want to ‘dance'Repetitive drum beat to keep the rhythm going
Repetitive lyrics, making the music catchy and memorable
Majority of the song would be produced sounds – techno/ electronic style

Editing –

Fast paced – A cut to a new shot is usually every 1 or 2 seconds
Edited with thought beats
Usually cut together to tell a narrative – a cliché example would be a relationship between a male and a female. However the narrative in dance /house style music videos are not always clear.
Can be edited to show disorientation when drug references are used

Feedback from pitch

This is the recorded feedback we received from our pitch...

Music video pitch

Myself and my partner Ella thought it would be a good idea to pitch our ideas to our fellow classmates, this would mean we could receive some feedback and to help us develop our ideas further. 

Our pitch is informal as we thought it would be best just to speak of all the ideas we have without any planning as we wanted honest feedback from our audience. 

We recorded all the pitch and feedback so we wouldn't forget anything that was said, this will also be interesting to look back on when we have the final video as we will see how our idea changed and improved throughout time. 

Here is the recorded pitch:

Andrew Goodwin - Music Theory

Andrew Goodwin theory from FloMayo

Preliminary Task - music video copy

Before making the real music video, me and my partner Ella made a practice music video. We thought this would benefit us as it would allow us to use camera work, editing and sound skills so when creating the real thing we would be more familiar and experienced in using these techniques. 

I decided to copy the song 'Afterglow' by Wilkinson, this song has a similar genre to the music video I am hoping to produce, it is a dance/house track which has stereotypical aspects of a dance/house video such as references to drugs, sex, alcohol and parties. The music video is unusual to most dance music videos as it stars a couple and the adventures they have shared together rather than focusing on friends out having a good time which most of the other dance music videos incorporate. 

I am going to create 1 minute of the music video which I have chosen 12 scenes to be included. Each of the 12 scenes will run for 5 seconds and each scene will be different. Myself and my partner Ella watched the Afterglow music video and picked out the scenes we thought were appropriate to re create, some of the scenes we found were inappropriate so we picked out 12 scenes we found we would be able to rein-act. 

Wilkinson- Afterglow copy scene by scene

1) Long shot of a couple. The words 'This is Paul and Dana, they have been dating for 5 years' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
2) Close up of actress' face (5 secs)
3) Close up of actors face. 'Which means' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
4) Wide shot of a house. '1 flat' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
5) Panning shot of living room. '4 rooms' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
6) Wide close up shot of clocks ticking. '1,362,000 minutes' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
7) Close up of spinning globe. '16 trips' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
8) Close up of incoming call. '3987 calls' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
9) Close up of Tv with Xbox game being played. '15,843 kills' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
10) Close up panning shot of birthday cakes, cut to a wide shot. '10 birthdays' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
11) Mid shot, panning up of pile of people lying through a doorway '12 friends left behind' super imposed onto video (5 secs)
12) Long shot of pile of shoes. '52,637 miles walked' super imposed onto video (5 secs)

Mood board

I created this mood board of multiple different pictures to show some of the ideas I would like include in my music video. The video is all about two best friends having fun, going out and enjoying each others company wherever they are. I would like the video to look old fashioned so most of the photos I chose are in black and white or have some sort of filter on them. I chose photos with sparklers and fireworks in as most of the filming I plan to do will be at night so sparklers will be a great way to light up the two characters faces. 

More video inspiration

Inspiration for my music video

INSPIRATION

The following music videos have a similar genre to the one I have chosen for my music video. The videos also have a similar narrative to my own one which is useful as they have helped me come up with new ideas for my own music video.




This video has a similar genre of music to the song I plan to use which is helpful as it enables me to see the codes and conventions of the genre. The genre of the song is dance. The idea of the music video is also similar my idea, it shows a group of young people going out, having fun and creating memories. The cuts in the video are fast and frequent which reflects the fast pace of the song, this is a technique I have found many music videos of this genre use as helps make the video look exciting and feel good. When the song builds up at around 1:00, the shots become very fast which I think is done to excite the audience and show them something is about to happen, I would like to use this in my video to show a build up. After the build up the shots slow down and you see an explicit scene of the 3 characters using drugs, for my music video I have chosen to show this implicitly as I would like to appeal to a broad audience rather than a niche one. After we the drug references, an effect has been put on the video to show how the characters are feeling and what they are seeing, I would like to an editing technique like this in my music video as this would show any alcohol or drug references in an implicit way. High lighting is used to amplify the feel good nature of the genre, it also helps create a euphoric feeling throughout the video which could be 

Genre Theory - Important terms

par·a·digm

 [par-uh-dahym, -dim]  Show IPA

noun

1.

Grammar .

a.

a set of forms all of which contain a particular element,especially the set of all inflected forms based on a singlestem or theme.

in·ter·tex·tu·al·i·ty

  [in-ter-teks-choo-al-i-tee]  Show IPA

noun

the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature;the way that similar or related texts influence, reflect, or differ fromeach other

i·co·nog·ra·phy

   [ahy-kuh-nog-ruh-fee]  Show IPA

noun, plural i·co·nog·ra·phies.

1.

symbolic representation, especially the conventional meaningsattached to an image or images.

Possible song choices

This is a possible song that I could use for my music video, it is a remix of song by 'Asaf Avidan' called 'One day'. The genre of the remix is 'Classical minimal techno' according to Wikipedia, I like this song because the lyrics don't tell a story as such meaning I can make a story of my own within a music video which also links to the lyrics 'One day baby we'll be old'. 

Brief 2

Brief 2

The second brief is to create a short film lasting approximately 5 minutes which may be live action, animated or a combination of the two. Along with this I must include two out of the following 3 options:

• A poster for the film;
• A radio trailer for the film
• A film magazine review page featuring the film

Exploring Brief 1

This is the homepage to an acoustic artist called Ben Howard. The homepage has a navigation bar including news, a blog, his live music, videos, a gallery, a store and how to sign up, there is quite a lot of information on his website which is useful and helps the audience relate and get to know the artist better. The colours on the website are quite plain consisting of greys, blacks and blue which show his music is quite calm and chilled out. The first thing on the page is an underwater video with white text on top which advertises tickets and his latest shows which helps the viewer find out where they can see the artist next.

What is a digipak?

A type of packaging for CD's or DVD's, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more disks, digipaks usually contain images of the artist or their logo, CD digipaks can also contain lyrics to the songs on the CD. 

Examples of Digipaks...

Brief 1

The first brief given is to create a promotion package for the release of album, to include a music promotion video together with two of the following three options:

- A working website homepage for the band;

- A digipak for the album's release;

- A magazine advertisement for the digipak

What am I expecting in the A2 course?

To be completely honest, I am not completely sure what to expect from the A2 course, but I am already excited and have many ideas on what I would like to achieve. I know I have been given few options of what I can actually create, the first one being making a short film and the second creating a music video. I would like to make a music video personally and I expect to gain skills in editing and camera work. 

I already have knowledge on camera angles and editing techniques from studying AS media which I feel will be extremely helpful as I can put my knowledge to good use. As well as learning the terminology of camera work and editing, I also learnt what the effects that they created, this will help me create a mood and atmosphere for my music video as well as making it look professional. 

When creating my video I hope to learn how to use different editing software and techniques. I would also like to gain more skills in filming and sound as I have little knowledge on the two. I'd like my video to surprise and excite people, my aim is for my video to be interesting so an audience would want to watch it for a second time without losing interest.

Reflection on the my AS 'Disco' work

When creating my AS media product, I faced difficulties and challenges which I had to overcome such as using technology I had never used before like the Apple mac computers. I quickly picked up on how to work these and adapted to the differences macs had to a normal PC, I felt like using this new technology went really well for me, which was extremely helpful during my Blog work where a lot of the work I produced was created using a mac. 

Another aspect of my AS media product which I thought went well for me was my photographs for my contents and double page spread. I think these went well because I pre planned the Photo-shoots meaning I had an idea of how I wanted the images to turn out. The images were a success and I felt that was due to my planning, they also went well for me because my previous photo-shoots had not gone as smoothly meaning I learnt from my mistakes and knew how to improve the photographs. 

There are a few things I think I could of done to improve my magazine, one of them being my front cover image. My front cover image was not exactly how I wanted it to be and after over three different photoshoots and time ticking away, I had to choose a photograph which I was not 100% happy with. I would of liked to re-do the photograph again if I had more time, I didn't think the quality of the photo was of the best standards and the model looked a little like she was pulling a false smile. I would of liked the photograph to look a little more natural and happy on a whole.