recording over old stuff

Throughout this project we have learnt new skills. One thing ive learnt is that we always need to stop the tape at the right second as we could record over our work or someone elses work which we did do. However it was okay as the piece we recorded over wasnt needed.

Missed Out On Filming

I wasnt able to be at one of the shootings, but i did get to watch what had been filmed and have my take on what i think was good, bad and needed reshooting. My group members agreeed so we are therefore going to reshoot some of the scenes as the lighting and camera angles werent as good as they couldve been.

2nd day of filming

Today we filmed the main shots were our artist sits in the living room surrounded by candles to represent how she is missing the relatiionship but also how the relationship is burning out, which the candles represent.
We used many different shots such as mid shot to show the artist, long shot to show the room and the candles within the room aswell as to establish its a new location. We also used close ups so they audience remembers to focus on the artist.
We also came up with a shot were we have the camera on one side of sarah (Tia, our artist) to show that she is focusing on somethign afar,disconnected from the audience as she is thinking about the relationship. However, as its a music video and the artist should always be connected to their audience, we did have sarah turn to the camera a few times to keep the fans enticed.

Todays filming

Today we filmed shots for the ending of our music video. We also filmed some shots were our artist is looking out on the view thinking of the relationship.
What i think couldve been better is the time we went out to film. We filmed at about 3.45pm which meant that it would start out light but then get darker which in a way can set a sad mood to the tone of the music video. However as it was getting cold and darker we didnt shoot as much as we would like to. If we have time, we will hopefully be able to reshoot.

Planning for next filming session

As we are planning to shoot this saturday and sunday we have to make sure that the weather ia suitable for the shot. I have checked on 'Metcheck' and they are good days for filming as it will be sunny but breazy aswell which is a good effect on our artists hair. As it will be getting darker as we film, the darkness can represent how upset 'Tia' is feeling and represent that she has no hope on the relationship starting up again.

New Artist

We have decided to change our artist as our current one didnt have the time to be apart of our music video as she had other priorities. I think this was a good decision as our new artist is sarah and as she is a media student in our group she understands the different shots that would work well for different lyrics etc.

'Candle Scene' Inspiration

Christina Perri - A Thousand Years inspired us to have candles lit in our music video as for me the candles represent the love that our artist had with her ex.

At 1:03 there is a scene were Christina is surrounded by candles and we were inspired by that as it can reprent the lyrics so we have used it in our music video. In my opinion the meaning behind having all the candles is to represent her heart as she still wants their to be light in her old relationship. We were also inspired by this music video at 2.54 when the candles were blown out to represent that their love has died out.

Artists Name

As most artists only have one name they are known for ie Rihanna, Pink, Eminem we decided that our artists name should be one name. We have come to a decision that our artists name will be Tia as it is short and snappy and hopefully because of how short it is, the audience and fans will remember and recognise it.
However as having a surname might make the artist more recognisable we thought about creating a surname to go with Tia, however when we asked others that we think would be fans of 'Tia' they said that they prefer for us to create an artist with just their first name. As we are thinking like music executives, we must go along with what the audience would like to see and hear and if having an artist with one name is what they prefer then thats what we will give them.

Discussing the rest of filming

Today we had a group discussion about next weeks filming as its the final week we can do any proper filming. There have been issues on when and where we can film as we have to work around our actor's schedule as we have to consider her priorities.
I was quite relaxed that we will get the main scenes filmed by the end of term and if we need to shoot 'pick-up' scenes then we can do that after christmas. However, my other 2 group members did have worry that we werent going to film it within the next week because of not being able to film in certain locations.
However we have now decided that within the next week on 2 days we will have most of it complete.

kate nash - foundations

The first five seconds of the video uses cutaways to entice the audience so they keep watching to see what type of music video it will be e.g one that tells a story a performance based video.

The toothbrush shot suggests the video is about a relationship as the colours represent that its about a boy and girl from the use of the pink and blue. This therefore is seen as a key feature of music videos, to establish the simple generic features.

There is not a specific beat to the editing of the music video as this in my opinion it represents the bumpiness of the relationship, as the video has no smooth beat and neither does the relationship.

The shots of Kate and her 'boyfriend' playing cards creates the sense of narrative as it may seem as though there is a relationship. We the audience understand from other shots that they have a relationship  through the shot of the feet under the table as they play 'footsie' which can be seen as a romantic gesture.

A cutaway shot that was used was a shot of toy animals facing the camera, then being turned around so we the audience arent able to see the faces. This can signify that the relationship is over and either the girl or boy is turning away from the relationship.

The shots of them sitting on opposite sides of the table and on their own side when in bed can suggest that the relationship isnt what it used to be. It can represent that the relationship is tense.

The close up of playing poker and otu of focus on the guy to suggest his out of pic and need to focus on her so the relationship would last longer.

The close up of the hands drifting apart signifies the narrative of the music video; that the relationship, like the hands have drifted apart but the girl still thinks about the relationship. This connotation of the music video inspired us to use it in our music video.

The cut aways of the hands,animals and the bed show a narrative to the music video which is what we want for our music video, a sense of a story being told.

The fast forwarding of the socks being untangled and tangled in my opinion signifies their relationship because the tangled socks represents their messy relationship and/or how close they are and when the socks are untangled, it signifies that they have lost contact and they have gone separate ways, which the socks are a visual of.

This music video helps the lyrics become visual because of matching the visuals with the lyrics. For example at  1:23 Kate is eating lemons when she sings 'you said i must eat so many lemons'. Another example is at 1:34 when we see a shot of the couple arm-wrestling which is in sync to the lyrics as 'aggressive' is sung when we see the wrestling. A final example of the relationship between the visuals and lyrics is at 1.41 where we hear Kate sing 'wind up' and we visually see windup toys of babies.

At 1:45 there is a shot of the couple making a cake. I think this was used to create a sense of memory to the narrative to suggest that the relationship does hold memories.

When the watches come together at 2:46 it can suggest that they still love each other and want to together but maybe time is what they need or that they just don't have time for each other anymore. The watches therefore can represent the time wasted.

From 3:26 where we the audience see the watches, socks and toothbrush separate it can suggest that like the objects, the relationship has drifted apart and we understand from Kate's point that she wants to move on.

Overall, watching this music video has suggested that the cutaways is what helps tell the narrative of the video.

Todays Filming - 6/12/12

Today was the first proper day of recording for our music video. Overall it went very well because as i am the camera women recording the video, i used close ups. establishing shots, extreme close ups etc because its a video to promote the artist.
We did have some issues such as having to hold the video camera as one part of the tripod that clips onto the video camera wasnt there. However, i kept my hand as still as i could.
Today we did learn to practise the shot before actually recording to see if we needed to alter positioning etc. Lighting was involved as i could see that the room was too dark, so when i actually recorded Yvette, we decided to turn on the lights so it will be clearer to see when Yvette comes through the door.
The issue of lip-syncing went quite well today as Yvette had learnt the song so knew the beat of the song and when the come in.
Yvette had to pretend to know how to play guitar and she doesnt know how to play. However we showed her a few tabs that she can show to make it more realistic. As for strumming, she couldnt fake it as it would look obvious and wouldnt look as effective. I told her to put her thumb and first finger together as if she was holding a pick and to just strum all the strings back and forth so it seems realistic. We looked back at it and it does look okay.
One issue i had today was when Sarah recorded from a different angle which has the banister bars infront of Yvette. We thought it would look effective and they think it does. However i dont think it looks as good as it could be. However this shot is good for a cutaway for when the instrumental is playing.

My opinion on the album title

I like what sarah has done with the Logos. My top 2 would have to be the 'Universal College' logo, the 'Earwig Factory' logo and the 'Allstar' logo.

I like the 'Universal College' logo as it has the 'scribble' effect which can represent that the artist has illustrated it herself instead of using a fancy font. This logo therefore to me seems original and seems as though the artist wants to connect with her audience/fans so by making it seem as though she has created the album cover herself it makes it more meaningful. It also looks bold which i want our artist to be, a strong female and so this logo in my opinion does so.

I like this title as like the previous one it seems more creative as though the artist has personally cut out letters and put them together showing that she has alot of input. I also like this title as i havent seen that many album titles with this kind of style so not only will it make it more orginal.

Contacting Cady Groves

I felt that it was important to contact Cady Groves (the artist) as it shows that we are taking consideration and making sure that its okay for us to use the song as she is an unkown artist and the song is okay to use. I am waiting for  a reply, so hopefully she will reply  

References from other music video for 'Put Your Hands Up'

Cher Lloyd's 'With Your Love' video inspired us for our original song 'Put Your Hands Up' Cher's song inspired us with the concept of hanging out in the house/bedroom with friends having a laugh. We also decided to have shots on the street and this music video helped us understand how to shoot shots when following behind the artist.

The classic 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' video also inspired us because our concept was similar to hers, girls jumping around having fun. The use of narrative at the beginning also inspired us for our music video

1st Dec - First Day Filming

Today was the first day of filming. As we only had an hour to record we decided to film cutaway shots of the couple having fun and being the loving relationship that they had  to use as memories. We took photos aswell as recording as we need some photos of the couple to hang in house to show that they used to live together.