This piece of footage is a rough cut of the first section of the video. This a combination of the footage which we took at Erith Pier and the footage we took at Hall Place.
From this rough cut, we have decided to keep to our original idea of having the scene fade from the clips of nature to the clips of the model walking towards the Hugh Street (something which we are yet to film). The footage taken of the nature elements from Hall Place is something which we need to reshoot because the clips itself is quite shaky due to us not having the tripod. The footage that we have of the model from Erith Pier is probably what we will use in the video itself as it is what we were going for. However, we may reshoot some elements of it in order for it to be perfect for our video.
The camera which we used was the Cannon Legria FS306. We also used a tripod in order to stabalise the camera and make sure that we got smooth, professional-like shots.
We kept the make-up the same as our first shoot with the blue eye-shadow and liquid eyeliner to make the eyes stand out on the model. However, the picture above shows the costume change which we made due to a group discussion about what the model should look like.
In order to keep the model warm, we made sure that she had a coat on during the moment between when we were actually shooting.
This gif shows a shot from our video and what our model looked like in action.
We returned to Erith Pier to re-shoot the original pier footage, featuring the changes to the model's outfit and better use of the camera. The model's outfit now featured no coat and a bowler hat, which we managed to borrow, and we had a more clear idea of what we definitely wanted to achieve. From this footage, we have managed to achieve the first section of our music video. This section involved the model on Erith Pier and her walking off the pier. We think this filming went very well as we managed to get the placements of the model right. We also have managed to test out the editing techniques that we wish to use in our video. Although in this footage we did not have the bonus of having the natural sunlight due to the cloudy weather, we still did manage to get some footage that we are definitely considering using in our music video.
The pier managed to provide some good light for the model and highlight her profile, due to the open space meaning that nothing was blocking the natural light that was on display.
However, after looking at these pictures we have decided that the coat and boots in this footage do not look right in the video as they give a 'bulky' appearance to the model and do not look smooth and consistent in the video.
We shot our second set of filming at Erith Pier. This time the filming featured our actual model and we were in the location where our video will begin and where our dancers should be being filmed. We found this location to be very good as it is quite empty and open spaced so there is no interruptions in our video. We also found that the natural lighting, especially the use of the sun during the golden hour, created the right romanticised effect that we wished to have in our music video. The sun is very effective in the filming we completed as not only did help to create the soft effect we wanted on our video, but it also helped to highlights the model's face. However, there are some things which we need to change in order to improve our video. The clothing which the model was wearing did not look as effective as we thought it would when we were planning our video. We have therefore decided to remove the model wearing a coat and just have her wearing the dress. We also felt that the boots made the outfit too 'clumpy' and so we will have the model wearing ballet pumps instead. (In attendance: Katie, Hannah and Danielle) (Edited by: Rosie)
As a group, we decided that a tracking shot would be a nice thing to have in our video and therefore, research has been conducted into looking at this.
Whilst we like the effect and idea of having a tracking shot in our music video, due us still being in sixth-form, we are not able to gain the high-tech equipment used in films or actual music videos. However we have found a technique of using a wheelchair or a chair on wheels that the camerawoman would sit in and are able to create a tracking shot, which we hope would be smooth. (Research by Hannah)
We visited Erith Pier in order to see what it was like as an overall setting and what it would be like to film on there. The picture below show the pier in the lighting
We found the pier was a very good location to film on as it is usually quite empty, meaning that it will be quite easy to film on. The pier also has extremely good use of the golden hour and this works very well in our video as it helps to align the model's profile and frame her well and also create a soft and romanticised feel to the shot.
In order to see if the black and white effect worked on our video, we decided to edit some of the clips which we had from our first day of filming. This editing helped us to see that the black and white did in fact work very well in our video and we will definitely be keeping this in our video.
Section A - Animal Life:
Most of these shots were taken from Hall Place as this featured most of the nature in our filming. Quite a few of these clips were quite jumpy, however we are still able to see the potential of adding this to our video as the opening of our video. However, we are slightly reluctant to use them due to them not being in the original concept of our video.
Section B - Leaves:
This is quite a short sequence to display how we could assemble different angles and clips within our video and which one would be the most effective and suitable for our video.
Section C - People Interaction/Hugging:
Much like section B, we filmed the hugging scene from nay different angles in order to see which angle would look the best to film this from. The angles which this section have been placed in has been made to go in a specific order so that it looks as though the camera is moving around the couple whilst they hug.
Section D: Every Day People:
This section of the video was particularly difficult to film as we were attempting to film people without knowing they were being filmed in order to capture the 'day to day' activities that they performed. The inspiration of this section comes from the original video as it also features clips like this. One of the first clips of a man shutting down his shop, which is an everyday activity however not one that people would usually see.
Due to certain difficulties with our group, we did not get as much filming completed as we wished to so we have made a vlog of the filming that we did get of Hall Place. We found that Hall Place is a good location for us to end our video on because it has quite a romaticised feel to it and will help to create a soft and hopeful image to the video.
In order to film the dancers effectively, we had to research into how dancers are filmed with camera angles, transitions and effects. We particularly looked at the way the camera and decided that after researching, the dancers shall be filmed in a way which appears as if they are moving towards the camera:
To make sure that we are able to film our video using a tripod and video camera, we practiced type of shots that we we would be using in our music video. These shots are show below in a video:
Due to filming these shot by hand, they are quite jumpy and we are looking into ways that we can make the footage smoother and more professional. (Testing by Hannah and Rosie)
We created a group Prezi to demonstrate out research on the Depth of Field and our testing on this. This testing of depth of field was helpful as it allowed us to see the difficulties with achieving the right effect on the Canon camera. The type of depth of field which we plan to use in our video is the shallow focus as this is more the effect and idea in what we had in mind. (Research by Katie, Prezi by Rosie)
In order to make sure that our hair and make-up worked well and turned out exactly what we expected, we tested the idea that we previously had. This testing is displayed in the video below:
(Make-up by Danielle, Model by Katie, Photos by Hannah, Video by Rosie)
After deciding on what shots to use in our video, we took some pictures ourselves of these shots in order to gain a better understanding of how theses shots would need to be set up.
At the end of our music video, we plan to have an extreme close-up on the lead females face, a close-up, a mid shot and then a wide shot. There are then three chords at the end of the song and on each song we plan to zoom out on each chord. We feel that this will have a more dramatic effect to the end of the video.
Another idea is to have our lead female opening a gate and walking into the field in which she started. Most of this will be down from shots behind or in front of the lead.
We plan to film our lead female walking down the road from the side, possibly going past people in need of help in order to keep the concept of the video evident to the audience.
When our lead female is walking along the pier, we plan to take some over the shoulder shots. Some will be in focus of everything including the lead females back, however some of the shot will only be in focus on the background and blurred of the females back.
We plan to have close-ups on certain aspects of nature. In order to create a sophisticated effect, we plan to change the depth of field which will make the background blurry and focus on the aspect we are doing a close-up of. (Photos by Rosie and Hannah)
Our locations for filming our music video will be Hall Place (specifically the gardens) in Bexleyheath, Erith Pier and Erith High Street. Hall Place will be used at the start and end of our music video whilst Erith Pier and Erith High Street will be used in the middle of the music video for the concept of helping people. Hall Place:
In order to make sure that our team worked effectively and managed to complete all of the tasks we needed to, we designated roles: Katie - Researcher/Lighting Hannah - Filming/Producing Rosie - Editor/Director Danielle - Costumes/Mise-en-scene As a whole team:
For us to be able to use "People, Help The People" by Birdy, we had to seek and gain permission from the record label to use the song. Birdy herself is signed to may different labels, however we decided to contact the British record label: 14th Floor Records, a joint record label with Warner Music UK. The picture below display proof that we contacted the record label and left a forwarding email address.
This is what was written to the record company:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am an A-Level Media student working in a group with 3 other students, and for our A2 coursework we are required to make a music video.
We have an idea of using the song "People, Help the People" covered by your artist Birdy but of course we need your permission to do this, this being the reason for my email.
If you could please contact me with a response by the email address above then this would be most helpful.
We then also looked into more music videos which focus on the journey, particularly with multiple walking shots. The Verve- Bitter Sweet Symphony, showcases exactly this, with the lead singer miming to the song whilst walking down a busy street. The music video location is particularly urban, shown by the shutters of the shops, the road sign and multiple people walking. We will use this urban mis en scene in our music video, as both the Birdy video and the verve video incorporate this. We will use the high street as our 'urban setting'.
The location shots in Sinead O'Connor- Nothing Compares 2 U are also something we would like to use as inspiration, particularly the use of the water which is reflective and matches the theme of our song. The video also shows images of the lead walking through the park which we will try to recreate.
As we plan to change our video from black and white to colour, we researched into music videos which were mainly in black and white. There were many videos which used this feature yet limited ones which changed to colour. We found the scripts- If you could see me now as this used both colour and black and white in the final cut. The black and white is inter-changed throughout the video, rather than the black and white changing to colour as we are interested in trying to achieve. We do, however, we do like the fact that the colour is used symbolically, during times of happiness which we also want to use.
As we were interested in initially incorporating dance into our music video. We struggled to find a dance video which used a soft ballad rather than a full dance to a club song. We settled for Pink- Try as this used the contemporary dance which we liked. The music video uses a vary of angles when shooting, which makes the overal look dynamic. The music video also has other features other than dancing, meaning we can also add a narrative which seems to be a usual choice for most music videos. We will have to look further into the dance filming as the sequence will have to be choreographed around the camera to ensure fluidity. (Research by Hannah)
After deciding on our idea for our music video, I decided to do more research focused on the idea we are hoping to achieve with our music video. This research included looking at the official video for our chosen song "People, Help The People" by Birdy. "People, Help The People" by Birdy
The opening scene of this music video is a wide shot of London with a taxi driving past in slow motion. This is effective as the sun slowly creeps through into the video as the taxi drives more into the shot. This idea is one which we would consider using in our video, however we would open in a field and have the sun shining through leaves in a tree instead.
The middle close-up shot of the lead female is a shot that is usually used in many music videos. It is effective in this video as it introduces the lead female and makes the audience know who she is.
The editing technique here of blurring the close object (this time the lead female's face) and focusing on a object in the background (this time an old woman's face) is one in which we would consider using as it is quite a sophisticated technique and would suit the style of our music video
This shot of the street in the video is one in which we would use as an idea for our video is to have the lead female walking down a street. The shot of the street is one which we could use to convey where the video is taking place and to show people in need.
'The A Team' by Ed Sheeran
This close-up on the actress in the video is a good use of a close-up which would be good to use in our video as it manages to show the emotion on the actress face and how this will influence the audience.
This shot is like an idea we would have about our lead female handing over money to a homeless person, as this would fit with the whole idea of helping those in need. Also from this video, we like the idea of having a homeless person on the floor and speeding up the people walking by them:
We were originally set the task of researching music videos ourselves and deciding on what idea we thought would be best. I was looking at more of the 'pop' area with artists such as Taylor Swift as I feel this is what I would enjoy more. However, we were assigned teams of who to be with and I was placed into a group with Rosie Acton, Hannah Griffin and Danielle Scott and discussed our ideas which we had individually thought of. Whilst Hannah and Danielle did have their individual ideas, like me, they were unsure of how to pursue these ideas. We therefore decided to use Rosie's idea as it was the strongest and most well thought out one.
Rosie's song choice was 'People, Help the People' by Birdy, a 2011 song which fits into more of the indie genre. Rosie's original idea was mainly focusing on a girl who had been in a broken relationship but at the end finds her boyfriend again. However, after discussing this idea in a group we decided that this did not particularly fit with the lyrics of the song, which are more noticeable about helping the people of the world due to the slow tempo of the song. We then decided to follow the narrative of the lyrics about helping people. As Danielle was rather interested in a dance idea, we decided on using contemporary dancers into the instrumental section of the song, as using the dance scene would be easier to shoot as miming would not be needed as much, which is difficult for non-professionals due to timing issue. We discussed ideas such as:
Fading from black and white to colour
Slow motion
Dance section
Manipulating the narrative/playing with time (starting at the end and finishing in the same position)
Female lead - most accessiable for us and suits the feel of the song
Walking through the streets - require outside shooting
Handing help to people
Miming - this would only be in a small part of the video as this is rather hard to pull off
'22' by Taylor Swift The '22' video by Taylor Swift is a music video released this year and from Taylor Swift's latest album 'Red'. The video features Taylor Swift herself and a group of friends and cuts between them in front of a screen to getting ready to go out somewhere. The video is filmed with a black frame around it and this last for the whole video.
The video opens on Taylor Swift standing in front of the screen. By using her as the starting shot of the video, the audience automatically knows that this is the main character of the video and who the focus will mainly be on through out the video.
The other scene featured in the video is of a group of girls getting ready for a night out. The setting is a kitchen with drinks and food around them and the group are having fun and just messing around.
The group of friends are also shown in front of the screen. They are featured wearing red heart shaped glasses, with pom poms and jumping around and dancing and posing. I think this concept manages to reflect the idea of the song being a fun and good time for girls.
This shot is important to the video as it shows Taylor Swift making the number 22 with her fingers, conveying the name of the song.
From this video, I like the idea of using the screen and having a group of friends in front of it, having fun by posing and using props as I think this would be something that an audience could relate to. I also like the use of the frame being featured through out the whole video as I think it adds a vintage theme to the video and is like a picture being taken of the video. 'Me and My Girls' by Fifth Harmony The 'Me and My Girls' video by Fifth Harmony is a music video released this year by American girl band Fifth Harmony. The video is focused on the idea of the girl group having a girly night in but then also cutting between them being out at a party. From this video, I would use the concept of having a girly night in.
The scenes which show the girls having their 'girly night in' are in one of their bedrooms with the girls wearing funny props and having a good time.
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