Album Art Research

Some Pictures of Album Art i like.

The Album art i have researched above all are fairly simple, which i believe is very affective on the eye. A over the top, image piled album art/digipak is too much for the eye and is unnecessary.
Kanye West's album artwork is out of this world, i wish i could present a masterpiece such as his, however i do not have the resources or artistic value to put together something like them, however, The Fray's album is simple and affective and i am drawn to it, if it is in a pile of albums. In addition, Taio Cruz's 'Break your heart' is simple and yet i feel i can pull that off with my character from my music video, so i am leaning more towards the bottom half of the album art research when it comes to getting ideas for my own album art.

Audience Feedback (Questionnaire)

This is just a draft of what i would ask my first audience of my draft music video when the time comes..

Did you like my music video?
If yes, what did you like about my music video?
If no, what did you dislike about my music video and what would you change?
What Elements within my music video did you notice the most?
What would you Change and/or Improve?
Do you think the narrative goes well with the song?
Do you believe the mise en scene goes well with the song?
Does my music video link with the genre of the song? (hip hop)
Do you think the representation of my characters goes with the genre of the music video?
If no, what representation do you believe would have suited the character better?

(Just a draft version of questions i may ask)

Audience Profiling

I believe my music video will be most suited at teenagers and young adults, therefore i aim my music video at a 16-20 audience. Reason for my decision is that the lyrics within the music video and the music video action itself is a connotation of Drugs and Alcohol and at the ages between 16-20 teenagers are starting to experiment with alcohol and drugs, depending on the person themselves. With the drinking age of the UK being 18, as soon as teenagers turn 18 they are going pubs and clubs with friends, so if i had to pick a age to concentrate on it would be 18 year olds, however i said 16-20 because nowadays people under the age of 18 can access alcohol and drugs fairly easy and the average age of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and pregnant teenagers etc. is lowering. In addition i said up to 20 year olds because this is where students are at university and are clubbing and drinking often, however are growing up. The four year gap between the target market for me is a good range because i believe it is when teenagers start to take notice more into music videos and i also believe it is when young adults start taking less interest in music videos.

To Add, my target audience would be interested in not just alcohol and drugs but music that has a good reoccurring beat towards it, with lyrics with a good narrative. Stereotypically, i feel that the song 'Pursuit of Happiness' By Kid Cudi relates well with people from 16-20 however, the odd older generation may warm to the song.

Filming Schedule (update 27.10.10)

Having looked over my shots from the weekends filming (23rd & 24th October) i have decided that i am going to re-shoot some if not most of my shots this coming weekend.

Looking at the Weather Widget on the right of my Blog page, Saturday's weather looks very promissing to film on, so i have booked a camera and other filming equipment for the weekend. I hope and have to finish filming this weekend with deadline only a few days away.

Label Permission

The only way i could contact the Label of Kid Cudi was via Twitter.

I asked for permission for the song Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi which i shall be using, If allowed, in my music video.

Evidence of filming

 Some Shot's i took whilst filming to show some props and equipment i used. These pictures are from the first few scenes, sadly did not take anymore shots whilst filming. However, More shots of equipment and evidence of editing will be coming soon.

Pure Art

Need i say more?
Kanye West is a incredible creative artist.

And thats a rap!

Today i finished filming, however I'm going to say filming my draft because i feel some tweaks may be needed, so my next plan of action is to do a draft edit of my music video and see how it fits then see where needs improvements and what not.

Risk Assessment

This is my risk assessment for when i film my shots. As a lot of my shots are repeated, some risks could be repeated. Such as falling down the stairs etc. because it happens 4 or so times in my music video.

Potential Risk	Who it concerns	Where?	Action to be taken
Falling down the stairs	Cameraman(myself)	At Home inside	Practice walking with camera down the stairs. Walk slowly.
Falling over plant	Cameraman(myself)	At Home inside	Practice walking over the plant with the camera. Walk slowly. Big steps.
Tripping whilst walking towards car	Character	At Home outside	Make sure the surface is gravel free and character has sensible footwear on.
Car Accident	Character/Cameraman	On the roads	Make sure both drivers have licenses. Wear seat belts. Don’t put whoever is driving off etc. When character has quick glimpse at the alcohol on passenger seat make sure road is clear and visible surroundings so it’s safe.
Getting pulled over	Character/Cameraman	On the Roads	Make sure the shots with the driving and drinking are done quickly and safely. Secluded roads.
Tripping whilst walking towards park	Character/Cameraman	On path at park	Make sure the surface is gravel free and character has sensible footwear on.
Falling off of swing	Character/Cameraman	At the Park	Not swinging too aggressively. Holding on whilst swinging.
Getting hit by a car	Character/Cameraman	On the road next to the Park	Have spotters at each end. Road being in a secluded area.
Trespassing	Character/Cameraman	Field	Check that it is ok to film on edge of the field.
Getting lost in the field	Character/Cameraman	Field	Don’t wonder off. Stay close together.
Getting hit on the head by a thrown bottle	Anyone	Field	Make sure surroundings is clear and safe when character throws bottle.

Schedule

I was planning to get filming finished during half term. 18th - 24th October, however with the weather during the week looking like it is going to rain i shall have to keep an eye on the weather for any improvements.
With issues with cast HERE i will also have to work around their schedule.

It Currently stands at:

Filming (With character)
23rd October

24th October
Additional Filming (if needed)
30th October
31st October
Filming (Point of View Shots)
19th October Onwards (depending on weather)

Editing
24th October Onwards

I hope and i am pretty certain i can get it filmed in two days. Also, as a lot of the shots are Point of View shots, i could do them without the character being there which means time needed by character will be slim and will give me more time on the character shots.
Despite the Additional filming which i hopefully will not need, i hope to have a finished product by the start of November, a few days before the deadline.

Evidence of my research of upcoming weather within this week. Both locations of shots.

Re-think Stratergy..

The person i was going to cast as my character has now came into work over the weekend and is working all week and weekend, which leaves me little time to film, so i am considering using my second option of character to replace him.

Option 1

Option 2

  










Option 1 is Patrick Wintle, he is aged 21 and has been in my previous film productions.
Option 2 is Craig Powis (My Brother) he is aged 22 and has also been in my previous film productions.

As you can see by the picture, Option 1 (Patrick) looks more drug and alcohol influenced, hence why i wanted to use him, whereas Option 2 (Craig) looks more defined and less drug and alcohol influenced. However with recent findings of a job, Patrick cannot be in my upcoming music video due to not having time, whereas Craig has time and can do the job. This only has to make me reconsider the representation of the character. Craig will possibly need make up to make him look more droopy and drug/alcohol influenced.
In addition, i could re-think my mise-en-scene of the music video and have it shot in the evenings, this will make the mood match the song more, however then i have to think lighting. I will spend the next few hours considering both options.

Analyse - Kanye West "Power"

Background: Kanye West is a 33 year old rapper/producer. The Song "Power" has just been released and is charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #22 as a Hot Shot Debut.

I choose this music video to show how simple as this, where there is no movement at all of the main character and still be affective. The Music video is clearly mainly CGI (computer generated images) with the background. In the music video the camera is set in the same spot throughout the whole 1 minute 33 seconds with an additional 5 close up shots of the extras in the shot.


The Majority of the music video, it just contains zooming out and characters coming into shot as the camera zooms out. I TubeChopped this clip because i like the element of how as the camera zooms out the audience learns more about the scene, however i will not be using this in my music video as i don't think this element would work with my storyboard.



I TubeChopped this scene because i really like how the action of the extras matches with the beat of the music. For example, when the two women either side of the main character are lifting their 'staffs?' and as soon as the beat starts the two women bang their staffs against the ground in sync with the beat, and then the big beat of the song comes in and the extra hanging from the top of the scene drops a cloth and the scene speeds up for a split second, it adds effect to the beat and action within the scene. This is the sort of effect i would like to use in my music video, i believe its very affective.



This TubeChopped scene links in with the one above, the close up's act in sync with the lyrics, as the lyric comes out repeating the camera changes close up from extra to extra.

My Pitch

I Pitched my idea(s) of my music video to my class. I believe it went well, i received a number of questions which did not just help them understand more about the idea but also gave me more idea's which helped me. I believe i got positive feedback from the class.

Since my pitch i have decided to move away from the colour manipulation/colour splash idea as i think it will just make the music video look complicated and i don't believe it is necessary in the music video.
I have also decided to lean away from cardboard lyrics idea, however, some how go along with the lyrics coming up in the music video at some point, not like subtitles. For example, when lip syncing the lyrics come out in a cloud or when driving the lyrics come out of the back of the car as it goes by, i would have to test some ideas to see if it would work.

Representation

Kid Cudi's style (Original Artist of the song i am using)   

Representation of the Character i am using..

I am going to try and represent my character as a urban/hip hop style, similar to Kid Cudi's because i want the music and lyrics to illustrate the representation of the character.

• White Plimsolls
• Black/Grey/Navy jeans (I will do a dress rehearsal when character comes back off of his holiday which is today)
• White T-Shirt
• Grey Hoodie
• Black (leather) jacket

Some Google searches i found when searching the style i want to go for.

^^ Not my Character ^^

  

UPDATE

An Animoto of Representation. Including more images.

Storyboard (Updated)

An Overview of my Storyboard. 5-6 Hours of work believe it or not, however i have learnt that this will make the filming process a lot easier than without a storyboard.

(Had trouble uploading pictures so i am currently trying it on animoto, i then had trouble on animoto uploading the song i am using, so i have had to use a different song on the animoto to the one i am using.)

After watching the animoto afterwards i realize that its not all there, its missing about 5 post it notes, however i put them on so i think it may be because i ran out of time on the video.

Update

I used Sony Vegas Movie Studie 9.0 to collaborate the post-it note storyboard and the song i am using together to see if it works, i have then uploaded to YouTube. The Video is still processing last time i checked, i am hoping it will finish processing and automatically work on here, if not the website address is HERE.

Possible Location Shots

This afternoon/evening i went out with my brothers Lumix camera and took a few shots of locaions i had in mind. However, they may still change, depending on the feedback i get.

 I feel strong about the final shot in a corn field this the one above and below.

 I got an idea of having a shot of the character looking drunk on the golf course, however permission may be hard.

 A sunset shot idea i have to add mood to the scene.

 I also had the idea of when going to the field to looking over this bridge crossing a busy road and getting a point of view shot looking dizzy.

 The swings i will use in the swing scene when the character is feelign drunk and emotional.

 A Point of view shot from on the swing.

 Possible bedrooms I may use for the waking up scene.

 Kitchen + maybe that fridge i will use when character is looking for more alcohol.