Album Cover Ideas

For my AS Photogrpahy work, I created some album cover copies. I decided to have a look back at my work to get some inspiration and ideas for my new own album cover. From doing this, I decided that I wanted Jonny to be on the album cover and also for him to be holding the guitar. I felt that this would help to make it link to our video and it is a motif to help protray the genre on the album cover. I like the idea of the blurred background on 'The Clash' cover, I think this really helps to make the person stand out more, so it is something I can consider experimenting with. Also, I like the use of eye contect in the second two covers, I think really helps to attract people in to picking up the album. Furthermore, another important factor is the use of font, from this I decided that I wanted my font to be clear and most probably in capitalised letter. This makes it stand out and makes it extremely clear to read. From thhis, I am going to go on to deconstruct some existing covers and then will start with the creation of mine. I am experiments with using different coloured filters and effects to try and make my album cover look as appealing as possible. I want it to stand out and ensure my target audience like it as they will be the type of people buying the album.  

Album Magazine Promotion Deconstructions

Here is a deconstruction on the some album magazine promotion. By doing this, I have been able to analyse what features I like and what I dislike, helping me to gain ideas for when I come to creating our magazine advertisement. The artists are in the same genre as the artist of our song that we chose to use, this helps me to get more of an idea as to peoples expectations of alternative rock magazine promotions.

Magazine promotion deconstructions from Kaylee1234

Deconstructing Tour Poster

In the prezi below, I have analysed 'A Rocket to The Moon' tour poster, this has helped me to gain lots of different ideas for my product. Our song we choose is in fact by the band, meaning that by using features similar to this, it will make my product fit the conventions of that genre. I really like the sepia effect of this and would like to consider using different photo effects on my images.
 

Album Cover Deconstructions

In the presentation below, I decided to deconstruct some more album covers. This will help to to gain more ideas and it'll help me to find out what the common conventions of Alternative Rock covers. I can then choose to use or subvert the conventions, I want my cover to be appeal for it's target audience but at the same time for it to stand out from other existing album covers.

Album deconstructions from Kaylee1234

Filming - 15/12/12

Today we carried out some more filming for our music video. We decided that in order to get our filming done quicker it would be a good idea to split up and film different scenes. Therefore, I filmed Jonny and Laura filmed Jess and Tom. The weather today was not great, with on and off showers, however the filming went okay and I managed to complete the scene of Jonny playing the guitar in the field. It was very windy so had to ensure the camera was steady, also at the parts where it started to rain, I had to ensure rain drops weren't coming on the lens and ruining the shot. As well as doing the filming, I thought it would be benificial to take some images as initial ideas for our ancilliary tasks.

Album Cover Deconstruction

I have chosen to have a look at 'The Scripts' album cover as they are in the same genre as our song we chose to use for the video. By looking at their cover, it'll help me to gain ideas for when I come to producing my cover. It is important do this so that the product fits in with the existing products and so that hopefully it would be successful if it was released for real. I have explored the colours, image, font and lighting of the cover in the prezi below.

Looking at Album Covers...

In order to gain more ideas for one of our ancillary tasks about making an album cover, I decided to carry out some research beforehand. By doing this, it will give me more of an idea as to what people expect to see on album covers. I decided to have a look at A Rocket To The Moon's official album covers to see  whether they have any consistent themes running through them. I want the cover to fit with it's genre well but also want it to stand out and be eye catching, to encourage viewers to potentially buy it. Below are some of their album covers with comments about what I like about them each...



I like the bright colours that have been used within this cover, the blue really stands out to me. There is a sort of blurry effect on the cover which I think makes it look more interesting. You can't really tell what the album cover is of exactly, but to me it roughly looks like a wall in the foreground and a fairground ride in the background. The album title is in a sort of random place but I think this again helps to make it more unusual and interesting.

I like this cover, I think that the shot composition is really good. I like the colours that have been used, it all looks very natural. It has a sort of sepia tone to it which I think helps to make it look more interesting. Also, I like the fact that the album cover title is written within the black circle, I think that this really stand out and it is automatically clear who the band are and what their album is called. The shot of their legs is quite unusual, it's natural and just simply showing them walking along the grass/stones.

I think that this album cover is quite unique and unusual. It is sort of a reflection, where on one side it's dark, with mountains and a moon, and on the other it's light with a tree and sun. I like the colours that have been used: blue, light blue and black and think the all blend in well together. Also, I like the fact that the title is written on white font on the black background, this helps to make it really stand out to viewers.





Overall, just by looking at A Rocket To The Moon's existing album covers it has given me a range of ideas to consider. Also, I found out that not many Alternative Rock album covers actually have images of the band on the cover, unlike in Pop music album covers. The albums for our genre of alternative rock all seem to have a sort of natural feel to them, where the images are of the natural environment and the colours also seem very natural, like blues and browns for example. Next, I will go on to deconstruct some existing album covers of bands that are in a similar genre to A Rocket To The Moon, this will help me to gain more ideas and I will be able to pick up on some of the conventions that they all have in common.

Weather

On saturday we plan to re-shoot the bits of Jonny playing the guitar in the field. It's important that we look at the weather forecast again to ensure it creates the right atmosphere for the video. By looking at the forecast, I can work out the best time of day to carry out the filming. The best time to go would be the afternoon, as it gets dark fairly early now, plus it's predicted that the weather will be okay.

Artist Stage Name

We have decided to create a stage name for Jonny and have decided to call him 'Jono' within our products instead. We done this as after speaking to our target audience, they felt that people could make jokes about his name. We thought that Jono is suitable as it links to his name, but it shorter and more catchy. I think it will stand out more on the products and be more memeroable to viewers.

How we would promote and distribute our video...

It is important that we think about how we are going to promote and distribue our video. If it was to be released for real then we would have to consider all the stages of production: from producing the video to distributing the video out to its target audience. In order for the video to be successful within the industry, all stages of production would have to be explored. Therefore, to work out how we would promote and distribute our video, it's important to find out from our target audience about the most common ways in which they consume the media and which ways they believe would be best to promote the video. If this was not looked into, and the video got promoted in the wrong places, it could result in the video being less successful as it would not be reaching the target audience well. I discussed with friends and peers ways in which they consume the media. Responses were all very similar, so here I have decided to make an animation which shows how our target audience access the media...
Consume Media by KayleeH1234 on GoAnimate

As well as this, I also carried out some research on the internet. I found that 'Mobile access and the rise of new social media sites is changing the ways consumers use and view social media'. It is predicted that consumers spend more time on social networking sites than on any other website, roughly 20% of their total time online via PC and 30% via mobile. Over the years, statistics have shown that the total time spent on social media has rapidly increased, particially due to the proliferation of mobile devices and connectivity.  This shows just how benificial advertising on social networking sites would be, as it is a way in which we can easily reach our 

target audience.

From doing this, I believe that the most successful way in which we could promote our video is through web 2.0. It is clear that our target audience are the type of people who are regular users of social networking site, with the most common two being facebook and twitter. These would be a good way in which we could promote the video, whether it be through advertisements down the side or by fans doing status' and tweets to personally encourage their friends to watch the video too. Also, dependant on budgets we could have the music video multi-platform advertised through television adverts too. We found that our target audience are the type of people who would usually watch tv around 7-11pm, so this will be a good time to have the advert. Another way in which artists nowadays can promote their new videos is through their official websites, they usually have email subscriptions where fans can sign up to and receive all the up-to-date information. Therefore, if our video was to be released for real then 'A Rocket To The Moon' can promote it on their official website. YouTube is also a good way to promote our video as our target audience are regular users of this too, we could have adverts at the end of similar songs to help promote our video to people who enjoy Alternative Rock music.

Heres print screens of 'A Rocket To The Moon' official website and Twitter. If our video was real, they could promote the video on these. Fans will be 'following' them on Twitter and signed up to their mailing list on the their website so they can easily be updated on new video releases.

Theories linked to music videos...

Here I have explored some of the different media theories and have said how my video links to the theories...

Theories linked to music video from Kaylee1234

Voice-Over Filming

Above is a voice over of the initial filming that we did. I have briefly talked about the good and bad aspects of the shots. By doing this it helps us to clearly see what we have shot so far and improvements that we need to make. The shots that we like, we will re-shoot again and experiment with them more.

Reflection on our filming...

Today we uploaded all of our filming onto the macs, and we found that the majority of our shots were out of focus and blurred. We decided it would be beneficial to organise some more days to re-shot some of the scenes again. We have learnt from this that we should upload our filming straight after it is done to check it on the computers, and to avoid the same problem occurring. We have also decided that it would be a good idea to possibly use two cameras in order for us to get lots of footage to use. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to try and organise some more days with our actors, it is important that we look at the weather forecast again to ensure we choose the correct days to film the different scenes. This sort of thing happens in the media industry so we have to move quickly on and start re-shooting soon.

Filming - 24/11/12

The weather today was not as we were expecting so therefore we did not end up going to Exmouth. We needed the weather to be dry so we could go to Exmouth to shoot some more of the happy couple together, however it was raining most of the day. If we were to film the shots at Exmouth in the rain, it would make the atmosphere more dull and would not be positively connoting their happy relationship. So, today we spent the time in Ottery filming Jonny in the rain, walking to Jess' house and we also carried out the bed scene again. We believed our previous shots for the bed scene were slightly boring and to help engage the viewers we came up with some different shots what hopefully will be better in attracting people to our video. The filming in the rain was successful, we were able to capture Jonny's emotions to help show how much he's missing Jess and wanting her back. These shots were particulary harder as we Jonny had to rememer the lyrics and lip sync the words. However, it all went okay and we are pleased with the shots we carried out. The only slight problem we may have is the fact that in the shots it isn't really clear to viewers that it is raining, so hopefully his expressions will help to show his sadness.

Filming - 21/11/12

Today we did some filming of the ex-boyfriend, Jonny. The filming today was sucessful and we got lots of good footage of him playing guitar, lip syncing and walking around. Due to the flooding, we weren't sure whether the filming could go ahead, however, we managed to find a nice field where all the water had cleared up. We could not use the field we had originally planned to use due to flood, but I think that the field we filmed in looked okay, as it has the town in the background. The weather turned out okay in the end, it was slightly sunny to begin with, which created a really good atmosphere for the filming but then the sun dissapeared behind the clouds later on in the filming.We experimented with lots of different camera angles and shots so we could just pick which ones we liked best.

Filming Schedule

During this week we plan on carrying out some more filming for our music video. We have arranged some more days and times with our actors, which we worked out based upon the weather forecast. However, if the weather does change and is not suitable for the shots we plan to do, then we will have a back-up plan as the weather is not very predictable at the moment.

21/11/12:
15:00-16:00 - Jonny sat in the field playing the guitar and doing a bit of lip syncing

16:00-16:30 - Jonny walking around with the guitar

24/11/12:
10:30-13:30 - Filming Jess and Tom in Exmouth

14:00-17:00 -Filming Jonny walking to Jess' house

Planning Days to Film

In order to plan some more days to carry out some filming, Laura done a post on Facebook. The majority or people our age use facebook, so she was able to tag us all in her post so everyone gets a notifictaion to look at it. Our actors can then easily ask us any questions they may have and tell us their availability for the days. Here is a screen shot of the post:

Weather Forecast

In order to arrange when to carry out some more filming, we had a look at the weather forecast. This is useful as it'll help us to plan what days we should film the different shots. We preferably need it to be raining so we can film Jonny walking to Jess' house asking her to get back together with him. We also need to go back to Exmouth on a day where the weather is okay so we can carry out some more shots of the couple together. I had a look on the BBC Weather to see what the weather is like this week both at Exmouth and Ottery. Here are two screen shots to show this. Next, we need to take the weather into consideration and arrange days that are actors are free for us to film. 

Continuity Editing

Above is a presentation on continuity editing. I have looked through the presentation and have found certain slides useful. In particular, I have learnt that it is important for the editing to look 'invisible' so viewers are able to read the video efficiently. Also, I have learnt about the 180 degree rule, how it works and what happens if the rule is broken. Crosscutting Editing is another thing that I have learnt from this presentation, it is where two shots are taking place simultaneously. This is particularly useful as we are going to have crosscutting editing within our video: we are going to have shots of the new couple together and then the guy, all lonely by himself.  It will cut between the two, helping to really contrast their new lives without each other. 

Ideal Weather for Rain Scene

We went out and took some pictures on a rainy day that we believed would be good weather for when Jonny is walking to Jess' house. Unfortunately our actors were not free, so instead we used the time to capture what we wanted the weather for our video to be like for the shots...

Tips for Making a Music Video

Below is a slideshare presentation showing some tips on how to make a music video. By looking through the presentation, it has provided me with more of an idea as to what is needed to make a successful video. Some of the tips I have already covered within my blog but others I need to ensure that I carry out. The main thing I learnt is that lots of planning is required in order for the video to be successful. Also, when it comes to us editing our final footage we should get lots of feedback from others, especially our target audience. We want the video to appeal to our target audience so sufficient planning and critical feedback is important.

Rich mix2 from petefrasers

Camera Tips

Here is a presentation on different camera shots and angles. As you can see from the presentation, there is a massive range of different camera shots that we can consider using. In our video we would like to use lots of varied shots to make it more interesting and to keep the viewers attracted, therefore this presentation has helped to give us more ideas as to the different types of shots we can use. So far, we plan on having many close-ups of the couple, in order to emphasise their strong, loving relationship, and we plan on having some long shots of the ex-boyfriend to portray his lonliness without her.

Filming - 30/10/12

We carried out some more filming again today. This time, we done some shots in the bed, down the byes again, in the woods and a bit in Exmouth. The filiming today was more succesful than yesterday and we got some decent footage to use. The lighting on the camera seemed slightly better, but the initial problem we had was not totally resolved. When we arrived at Exmouth, the camera battery was running low and unfortunately we couldn't get much footage of the couple on the beach. Therefore, we are going to have to go back to Exmouth another time.

Filming - 29/10/12

Today we started filming some real footage for our music video. We managed to do some shots of the couple in the car, down the byes and in town. The filming went okay and we plan to use some shots within our video. However, we did encounter a problem with the camera. If the sky was at all light, it would make the actors faces appear quite white, meaning you cannot see their facial features. We didn't like this and needed to resolve the problem for next time.

Filming Schedule For Half Term...

During the half term we planned to carry out 2 days of filming. We made some rough time plans to ensure that we carried out the our planned shots and to help make our filming more time effective. The table below shows are rough plans for each of the days...

Day	Time	Shots to Film
Monday 29th October	11:00	Couple in the car
	12:00	Couple down the byes
	13:00	Couple in town eating ice-cream
Tuesday 30th October	13:00	My house - bed shots
	14:00	Couple on the bridge
	15:00	At woodbury - couple in the forest
	16:00	At Exmouth - couple sat on sand dunes

Discussing filming plans with actors

Before filming our music video, it is important that we discuss our plans with our actors. This ensures that they know what they have to do and gives them more of an idea as to the role they are playing in the video. We listened to the song and got a basic idea of the guitar rhythm that Jonny should play during filming. We also talked about the lyrics that we wanted him to lip sync during our music video. As well as this, we discussed days when he would be free and clothing he would wear.

Talking with our actors

We decided that it would be a good idea to catch up with our actors and show them our ideas. In the picture, I am discussing our storyboard with Tom, who is playing the new boyfriend. We were able to talk about their roles and briefly explain to them what they will have to be doing. It was useful to do as it gave our actors more of an idea about the storyline of our video, so when we come to shotting they have a brief idea as to what positions and facial expressions we require them to do.

Inspirational Shots

I have had a look at some shots from existing love movies in order to help us gain more ideas for our filming. It is important that our video keeps the viewers attention throughout so I had a look at how some popular love films have managed to achieve this. Here are some of the shots that stood our most to me...

In the image to the left, the couple are cuddling up together. This helps to show their closeness and the way he is looking down on her connote how he is protective and cares for her. I like the location of the shot, I like the grass in the foreground and the beach in the background.

I like the eye contact in this shot, they are looking directly into eachothers eyes which connotes intimacy and shows their love for eachother. Also the fact they are smiling shows that they are happy to have eachother. The framing of the shot is also good, I like how their faces fill the frame and that they are the main focus.

I really like this shot, I like how close they are with their arms wrapped around eachother hugging. I think the fact he is kissing her forehead works well and it strongly connotes his love and admiration for her. The location is also good, I like the tree on the left, and think it helps to make the atmosphere of the setting nice.

In this shot, the couple have their heads and noses touching and are looking directly into eachothers eyes. They are smiling which connotes they are happy and in a loving, enjoyable relationship. I like how the background of this shot is out of focus, it helps to really make the people stand out.

I like how the location of this shot and how their are people walking about yet the couple are in the centre not paying attention to anything but eachother. I like the use of the picknic blanket and books, helping to show that they are just living their everyday lives. Also, I like the closeness of the characters and how they look happy to be together.

Prelim Filming

Evaluation of prelim filming
In order to practise filming we have carried out some preliminary filming which has allowed us to experiment with aspects such as shot type, lighting, and timing. In addition it helped us get used to the camera in terms of where buttons are, how to change the settings and how to hold/position the camera. In order to relate it to the theme of our planned music video, we chose to film a couple of people together interacting as if they were in love; however the setting is very different to the settings we are going to include in our music video.

There are clearly many issues with our practise shots, however we can learn from these mistakes so that our final music video is of better quality. One of the most obvious things we have learnt is that using a tripod is essential in order to achieve a steady shot in which the camera is at the right height and angle and the actors are in the right place, as our filming was hand held and was therefore quite unsteady. In addition it is clear that we will need our actors to be comfortable around one another and be sure of what they're doing; it is clear within the video that they feel awkward around one another and are not comfortable embracing in public, also when we got feedback from our prelim filming actors they said that they didn't feel comfortable together because they didn't know each other very well and they had not known they were doing it until the day before we filmed. We have taken this into account when choosing our actors for our music video; we decided to use two people who are friends and will hopefully feel comfortable holding hand, embracing and acting as a couple; we have also planned what we are going to tell the actors to do and we have confirmed that they will both be in the video so that they can consider the role they will be playing and get to know one another even better. In order to avoid laughing which cannot be included in the video, we will ask them to 'get into character' and will use instructions such as 'quiet on set' to ensure that they know we are about to film and we need them to act appropriately so that time and footage is not wasted. 

Another problem that we came across was other objects/shadows/people being included in the shot when they are not planned and they ruin the shot; and example of this in our prelim filming is when a plastic bag was blown into the shot and it makes the scene look untidy, this is not suitable for our video because it connotes negative emotions and situations whereas we aim to create a loving and happy situation during the parts of our video which focus on the couple, and although we could use items such as rubbish to show the sadness of the ex--boyfriend, we do not feel that this will be suitable because we want our video to focus on nature. Therefore we must be sure that our filming will not be interrupted by passers by, rubbish, our shadows, the shadows of the equipment, the shadows of others, insects, etc. 

We feel that the lighting within our prelim filming is suitable for the shots which focus on the couple and are the 'happier' aspects of our music video. However we plan on shooting during slightly duller weather when we are filming our actor who is playing the ex-boyfriend as this is a use of pathetic fallacy as the weather will show how the character is feeling. We will also need to learn how to change the settings based on the weather, for example if it is sunny sometimes facial features are less visible and the shot can be too light, therefore our teacher will assist us in learning more about the camera settings.

At the very beginning of the footage one of the actors makes a noise which may seem like an issue, however we have considered this and we feel that, as there will be no noise in our video other than the song itself, we should allow actors to make as much noise as is necessary because this will hopefully allow them to seem more natural and comfortable within the music video because in reality a couple would not be silent when spending time together; they would talk and laugh, etc, for this reason we have asked our actors to talk and react naturally in order to make the situation seem more real to viewers of the video.

Overall our prelim filming has been very useful and we have learnt a lot which will help us create a good quality and interesting final piece.

Audience Theories...

It is important that I explore the different audience theories as I need to consider who my target audience are and how the audience will respond/read my video.

Hypodermic Needle Theory is the idea that media can easily influence a large group of people without any opposition. It was believed that mass media can ‘inject’ messages directly into its audience, who will immediately be influenced by it. However this dates back to the 1920’s, and in contrast to this, Halloran stated ‘We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do to the media’.

This is suggesting that people nowadays get a lot more involved as to what they want in the media. It tells us that instead of just passively accepting the media we are now more involved and can interact with it. Nowadays, we have a choice as to what media we want to experience, whereas before people had no choice, we can be more selective about types of media, and people nowadays influence the media more, rather than before when the media was massively influencing us. 

The Two Step Flow Theory is the idea that media starts off with individuals (opinion leaders) who pass on their interpretations/ personal influences of the media to others. It states that the majority of people are influenced by the media second-hand, through the beliefs and personal experiences of the opinion leaders.

The Uses and Gratification Theory states that a mass audience is made up of individuals, who consume media for different reasons and in different ways. C.Wright Mills came up with four functions of the media for its audience:

- give individuals identity

- give people goals and aspiration

- give instructions on how to achieve these goals

- give people an alternative if they failed (escapism)

Bulmer and Katz then expanded this theory and stated that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:

- diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine

- personal relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction

- personal identity - finding yourself reflected in text (learning behaviour and values)

- surveillance - information that could be useful for living

Reception Theory is based on Stuart Halls encoding/decoding of a text. It is the idea that the text is encoded by the producer and decoder by the audience, and there may be differences between peoples reading of the same text. This is due to people’s individual circumstances such as gender, class, age etc. By using recognised codes and conventions, and relating to audiences expectations of the genre, the producer is able to ‘position’ the audience and create an agreement on what the code means, this is known as preferred reading.

When creating my video, I have to take the different audience theories into consideration. It is clear from this that the target audience are not all going to passively consume the media, they will bring their own opinions and experience to the video, so will interpret the video in different ways I want my video to suit people’s genre expectation but to also stand out from other existing videos. I aim for the video to make viewers reflect in their past relationships, as well as create a sense of sympathy for the ex boyfriend, Jonny. It may encourage people to have a goal to possibly get into a new relationship or to reflect in relationships that they may be involved in.

Using the equipment

Before going out and filming the real footage for our video we did some preliminary filming. Whilst doing the prelim filming, we were able to experiment with using the camera and setting up the tripod. This was useful as when we come to shotting the real thing, we will know how to set everything up correctly. Here are some images of me experimenting with using the equipment:

Animatic

Above is an animatic that we have created, in order to visually show our ideas for our music video. By doing this, it allows us to clealry see whether our shots will work well in the video and also the timings of each of the shots.

Storyboard

Here is our storyboard for our music video. It is important to have created a stroyboard as when filming we don't have to spend ages trying to decide what to do. We will be able to use our filming time more efficiently, to hopefully create lots of successful shots. In our storyboard, we have included details about: shot length, shot type, weather, setting, type of edit, lyric that runs along with the shot, and the positions and emotions of our actors...

Audience Profile

This is Rebecca, she is an example of our target audience for our video. She is 17 years old and is in 6th form, studying english, media and art at A-level. She really enjoys listening to music and loves watching new videos on youtube. She likes both pop music and alternative rock music, and loves attending lots of concerts to see all her favourite bands/artists. She is a particulary a big fan of Lawson and The Script. Shopping is another one of her hobbies, she loves going to town with her friends and likes shops such as: new look, republic, river island and h&m. She has a part-time job in a cafe earning around £100 a month, she regularly buys music from iTunes and is always seen plugged into her iPod. She enjoys reading and gets a monthly magazine; she likes reading about new celeb gossip, music and fashion.

Tips for our project

Presentation nov 4 from petefrasers

Above is a presentation from Pete Fraser's Media Blog, it provides me with some useful tips for our practical project. By looking through the slideshare presentation, I have learnt more about how to create a successful blog and final product. I am going to take the 9 key words into account and ensure that examples of each are clearly shown in my blog. I have already done some posts on some of the key words, but the main thing I have learnt from this is to do lots of personal reflection along the way. 

Scripting

As we are creating a music video we will not be including any speech within it as this would draw attention away from the song and the final product would probably not be as successful. However there will be some points in the video where the couple are talking to one another as this is important within a relationship, however there will be no sound of them talking as speech does not usually sound good and flow within a music video because it would break up the song. We plan on letting the actors talk about whatever feels natural and fits with the scene around them as this will seem more natural and will not look as though they are just reading a script; it is important for the couple to look comfortable around each other, look like they're having fun and communicate well.
In addition we have asked Jonny (playing the ex-boyfriend) to learn some of the lyrics and the basis guitar rhythm so that he can play/sing some parts for when we want to film him in the field. We have given him a copy of the song and highlighted the parts he needs to learn so that it will be easier to sync his lips with the song.

Filming Tips

Before going straight out and starting our pre-filming, we were given a few tips. These tips were given to the school by Mince, who is a film director for The Saturdays music videos. The tips were:
1- STABILITY (keep elbow in and ensure no shakey movements)
2- SUPPORT (use other people to support you when filming)
3- PRACTICE (practice shot before filming for the real video)
4- DIRECT ACTORS (use markers and ensure they know what they are doing at all times)
5- COUNT DOWN (start from 10)
6- "QUIET ON SET" (use sentences like these to ensure everyone is ready)
7- ACTION ( "camera turning" - 3,2,1 action....)
8- FILM MORE (always film more footage than you need as it is easy to edit/cut down)

By going through these tips, it ensures that we know how and what is required to do when filming, and it also will help to make our final product better. We have to ensure that before going out and filming we check all the equipment to see if there is: a memory card/film, battery, and a top plate on the tripod.

Narrative

The storyline within our music video is partially chronological as we see the first couple together, then we see that the girl is with a new person. However the video itself is made up of shots of the new couple together and then the ex-boyfriend singing and playing guitar. It is implied that these two things are happening at the same time; the new couple are enjoying themselves whilst the ex is upset. However as it is made up of a montage of shots it is not actually chronological like a story, therefore our narrative is known as 'fragmented' as it is made up of separate shots of different activities.

Media Language

The main theme that our music video is based upon is love and relationships. It focuses on both a happy couple and a lonely ex boyfriend. It shows audience how the guy is dealing with the break up and how their life's have now completely changed. The audience will know our video is based on relationships due to the shots we plan to include, such as a couple: holding hands, hugging and enjoying themselves. They will also know about the break up as at the beginning it is going to be Jonny and Jess together and then it will be focussing on Jess in her new relationship with Tom, and Jonny being left all lonely and sad.

To sum up the narrative, basically a couple break up, the girl moves on but the guy is left wanting her back. Our unique selling point of our video is that the cast are good looking; they are all friends and get on well. Also, most of the shots are going to be shot in Sidmouth, making the video local. Furthermore, the music is a mixed genre of pop rock; therefore we are going to have some of the pop conventions and some of the rock conventions, which will make our video more different and unique.

All music videos take viewers on a 'journey', and we aim that our music video makes the audience feel very sympathetic to the ex-boyfriend. But on the other hand we want them to also feel happy towards the cute couple. It could inspire them to possibly want to be in a relationship or could make them personally reflect on their own experiences they have had and relationships they may have been in.

Lighting and Equipment List

In our music video, we are going to use natural ambient lighting from outdoors. We decided not to use artificial lighting as we want to make our video look realistic and natural. We are planning on shooting our video in different weathers: both rain and in slightly sunny weather if possible. The equipment we will be using include: a film camera and a tripod, both of which are available for us to use from school.

Costume

Above is a presentation which we put together to show how we plan on dressing and styling our actors. This planning has allowed us to imagine how the actors will look and make decisions about the connotations we want the clothing and make up to have. Planning costume and make-up are essential within a music video as the looks of the people included and the clothes they are wearing will effect how appealing the video is and how popular it would become.

Jess, one of the actors within our music video, is currently training to be a make-up artist, therefore we will be giving her details about how we want her make-up to look (natural and simple), and she will then be doing her own make-up as she can use this experience to support and practise what she has learnt at college. We feel that the make-up will be most successful if she does it herself as she knows what looks good on her skin and the techniques which work best for her; therefore ensuring that she feels confident and attractive.

Location shots...

Here are some images, showing the various different locations where we are planning to shot out video. The locations we plan to include are: a bedroom, house, fields, bridge, beach, town and woods. We decided to have lots of different locations in order to make our video more varied and interesting. Our choice of locations link to our genre of pop rock; as it is common for pop videos to be based on the beach and in fields, and woods are a fairly common locations for rock videos. Most of our video will be shot in Sidmouth, so we can easily access all the different locations.

Risk Assessment

Location	Risk	Solution
Bedroom/House	1-tripping over items In the bedroom 2-tripping up the stairs 3-falling out of the bed 4-dog could get in the shot 5-siblings could get in the way	1-make sure the bedroom is tidy and the floor is clear 2-ensure the cast use the banister and walk up the stairs carefully 3-make sure cast are safe 4-ensure my dog is out of the way when shooting 5-ensure everyone is out so we won’t get disrupted
Byes	1-tripping over when walking 2-falling in the river 3-other people may be walking down the byes	1- make sure the cast look where they are going 2-ensure that cast can swim and avoid going near the water 3-look around before shooting to see where the other pedestrians may be
Field	1-tripping over something in the field 2-getting muddy from sitting on the floor	1-ensure that cast look where they are walking and wear sensible footwear 2-find out whether the grass is muddy/wet before getting cast to sit down
Beach	1-drowning in the sea 2-tripping over stones 3-seaguls stealing food	1-make sure that actors can swim and avoid going in the sea 2-ensure that cast are careful when walking on the stones 3-make sure food is out of sight when seagulls are near
Town	1-getting run over 2-other pedestrians getting in the way	1-make sure cast are always walking along the path and are careful when crossing roads 2-look around before shooting to see who is about and whether it would be okay to shot or not
Woods	1-tripping over tree roots 2-slipping on leaves	1-ensure that cast are careful and look where they are going 2-make sure suitable footwear is worn and ensure that they are safe

Above is our risk assessment for when we come to shooting our music video. We have thought about the possible risks we may encounter in each of our different locations and have come up with solutions in order to help prevent the risks from occurring. It is important that we have a risk assessment so all our cast are safe and not at any possible risk during our music video.