R+P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during Research and Planning

Overall I am very happy about what my group has manged to accomplish within this research and planning period. We have all worked well together as a team with Sian and Meera both contributing significantly to this project.

During Research and planning this is what I contributed:

Test shoot- Filming

• I took on the role of 'AJ'- the artist of the music video
• I encouraged and gave feedback to Meera and Sian whilst they danced
• I was constantly rehearsing my dancing in preparation for the main shoot
• I helped create the lighting set-ups
• I sorted out the background, i.e. the backing curtain, so it worked well with our lighting and had no visible creases on camera

Me (centre) learning a dance routine

Me performing one of my lip sync shots

Test shoot- Editing

• As I have a lot of experience in editing from past projects I took more responsibility for this edit
• I helped organise the shots onto the timeline and then sync them up to the main audio track
• I helped bring in members of our year to watch our edit- audience feedback

Me and Sian editing

Story boarding

• As I spent the majority of our planning time learning how to dance and practicing my lip sync I did not have much of an opportunity to help with the timeline, however I was able to plan out our key storyboard shots and then organise them into categories
• This again was a process I was familiar

All in all, what my group has accomplished so far has been to a very high standard and we have definitely had a lot of fun along the way. I can't wait to see how we progress through the construction stage.

R+P Post 32: Test shoot and rough edit

Our rough cut from our test shoot:

This rough cut was made from our test shoot footage and was therefore very helpful is judging whether our ideas worked well and how we could the adapt them to improve the overall flow and look of the music video.

Overall, the test shoot was a huge learning curve for us as this was the first time we were given full access to the equipment within the studio. This meant is was very useful to us as we wanted to be as prepared as possible when it came to filming our main shoot. The main thing we wanted to experiment with during this shoot was the lighting desk as we had some rather complex ideas that we needed to see. These included 'flicker' effects, strobe lighting and a screen with shadows.

Our blue lighting set-up

However, the lighting set-up we were most impressed with was the dark blue silhouette lighting for the dancers. We thought this looked really professional and cool and definitely fitted the look we were going for; it worked really well when Meera went through her routine and in turn influenced us to have Sian now have a routine with the lighting.

R+P Post 31: My call sheet

To help make sure that all of our actors and crew turned up on time, we created call sheets; these were given out to all the crew and all of our actors. Each sheet shows clearly at what time each actor needs to be on set and all the health&safety details they require, such as fire exits and a risk assessment.

Call Sheet for the Monday shoot (in school/studio)

R+P Post 30: My Shootboard

To ensure that each of our shoot days ran smoothly and efficiently we made shoot boards. These contained details, such as the shot description, shot number, time available for the shot and the cast/crew required for the shot.

Below is a sample of one of our shoot boards:

Saturday Shoot board page 1 

Saturday Shoot board page 2

Saturday Shoot board page 3

The shoot boards also contain visuals from the storyboard which help bring to life our intended shots, thus making it easier on the day to envisage what we want from each shot. Moreover, as they came directly from our storyboard, each picture to the key, i.e. orange note is a close-up, whereas a green background is a long shot. This is very helpful when positioning the actors and framing the shots.

In the set-up column we have also left a good amount of room for us to note down which we thought was the best take so when editing we could located the shots we wanted more efficiently.

R+P Post 29: Rehearsals

To help prepare for our shoot weeks we made a schedule for rehearsals so when it came to filming we could use our allocated time as efficiently as possible, this table can be seen below:

Rehearsal schedule

As this song relies heavily on the emotion of the main singer, we thought it would be best to have a screen test to see how comfortable I was on camera and then to point out any negatives which we could then reflect on and work on. Our screen test can be seen below:

From this screen test we identified that my lip sync was not very authentic so we brought in one of our friends, Tyra, who is a drama student to help work on my annunciations and thus make my performance more believable.

As the majority of our male dancers did not have much dancing background, regular rehearsals with them were essential. In these sessions we worked on routines choreographed by Sian and Meera (who are dancers). 

One of our dance rehearsals, lead by Sian (right)

R+P Post 28: My kit list

For our shoots we will have two different kits, on for the studio shots and one for all of our location shots.

Libec TH-650HD Tripod

Location

• Libec TH-650HD Tripod
• Canon Legria HFG30 Camera
• Canon DM-100 Microphone
• Headphones
• Three Point Lighting Kit
• 64 GB SD card
• Two batteries
• Clapperboard
• Whiteboard Pen + Wipe

Canon Legaria HD Camera

Studio

• Canon 5D MK 11 Camera
• 650 ARRI Turret Lights
• ARRI Studio lights
• Projector
• Cyclorama
• Monitor
• Dolly
• Shoulder support rig for the hand held shots
• Lighting and sound desk

During our test shoot we were briefed on all of the studio equipment, i.e. health and safety checks and how to use the equipment and then pack it all away. In the studio, the equipment is of a very high standard so we will be able to get some very professional looking shots.

R+P Post 27: Casting

When casting for our music video we made decision based on how reliable as an actor they were, how authentic they would be within the role and any previous experience with being on camera/performance training. The main roles we had to decide upon were AJ (main lead), the girlfriend who cheats on AJ, the guy who the girlfriend cheats with and all dance performers.

A table summarising who we cast for each role and why they were chosen can be seen below:

Casting table

R+P Post 26: Set design, locations and props

Other than the studio we plan to film in a variety of other location, for both narrative and performance shots. A table summarising these set ups, along with existing music video references, can be seen below:

We are very confident and excited about the lamp post shots as we think they will provide a very unique lighting which will contrast the lighting of any house and studio shots. Overall, we will ensure each set up is professional, i.e. any photos are taken down and clutter/mess in the area is removed.

Below is the props list we made of every prop we will require on location:

R+P Post 25: Costumes, props and make up

As our music video is a mix of narrative, studio, performance and location shots we made sure our actors had a range of costumes in order to keep each set-up fresh and avoid any repetitiveness.

Narrative- Location

For our narrative shots I picked out several everyday outfits as that was the look we were going for; it makes AJ seem more chilled and laid back, whilst also relatable to his target audience. As the majority of our narrative shots are set in a house, we had to ensure that my costumes were casual but still stylish enough to fit within an R&B music video. Our other actor will be wearing similar clothes to me as we don't want there to be any major costume differences , however he will be wearing a baseball cap so the audience can distinguish between the characters.

My Narrative costumes

For these narrative shots I will also have a shark tooth necklace and glasses on. These will be consistent for all the narrative shots and will be AJ's visual motifs along with his beanie, seen during some performance shots on location. The purpose of the glasses is to push forward AJ's personality as a lovable geek whilst the shark tooth necklace is more of a lucky charm. Examples can be seen below:

Sian's narrative costumes are quite similar to mine in the fact that they are quite casual yet still stylish. She will also have a variety of costume to wear in order to clearly show that time is passing as the video progresses.

Sian's Narrative costumes

Studio- Performance

For the performance shots in the studio my costumes will be much more consistent, with the only item of clothing that will change being the T-shirt that will be alternated between a white and burgundy colour. Aside from this, I will always be wearing black skinny Jeans and a black shirt- this may be removed during dancing shots though. The male back-up dancers will also be wearing similar black skinny jeans and a white T-shirt for the dance shots. 

My costume for dancing shots

My costume for all the studio lip-sync shots

For the girls, the costumes for the studio shots were kept very similar with both girls opting for a crop top and leggings, as seen below:

Make-up

For this music video all the boy will not be wearing any noticeable make-up, other than the basics, in order to reduce the shine and any small blemishes on our faces. Similarly, Sian will have a fairly natural look but will have some fancy eye make up, such as winged eye liner, however this will not be over the top. Examples and inspiration of Sian's make-up can be seen below:

R+P Post 24: Planning my digipak panels

When planning our digipak panels, my group researched a wide variety of existing album covers and listed the conventions we wanted to include in our designs. Our primary aims with these designs are for it to be eye-catching and to effectively promote our artists, AJ's, image.

Below are our flat plans for the front, back and inside covers:

Album art for the for and back covers

Album art for the inside covers

Front Cover

Similar to this R Kelly front cover, we plan to frame AJ a MCU with his head positioned at a diagonal and looking straight into the camera. The title of the album, 'Disclosure' will be in block capitals and white font; it will be positioned at the very bottom of this cover and will stretch the its entire length. In contrast, 'AJ' will have a more stylised/fancy font which will resemble a signature, thus appearing more creative and standing out from the covers other features. The background will be a grey colour and will not having anything going on, in order to keep full attention on the foreground.

Back Cover

The focal image of the back cover will be a long shot of AJ standing on the right side of the panel, whilst running his hand through his hair. After being inspired by this design from 'The Script' we decided on a moving picture created by changing transparencies throughout the action. This will make our album unique and in turn represent what AJ is about- a unique, new artist whose creativity makes him stand out above the rest.

Inside Left Panel

• Side Profile of AJ
• AJ's faced filled with words expressing his emotions, beliefs and thoughts about the album and his career
• Plain dark grey background
• Silvery white text

Inside Right Panel

• MCU of AJ
• Facing away from the camera
• Edited to black and white
• On location shot (Alley way seen in music video- Synergy)

R+P Post 23: Planning my web pages

Below is our flat plan for our website:

The main idea for our website is that when scrolling down from the home screen the user will see different sections of the website with the background image changing with each one. For example as you scroll down from the initial home screen you will see an album section with a different image of AJ. The best example of this in an already existing web page is Jason Derulo's website, as seen below:

There will also be extra links at the top of the page which will take you to different sections of the site, but these will load up a new page instead. The art of these pages will differ from that of the sections on the home page as they will mainly consist of more 'artsy' pictures, rather than the 'photo shoot' pictures of AJ on the home screen. The reason behind this change is that as the home page is what any user first sees, we want to show off AJ and give the user their initial impression of him, i.e. so they have a face to match to the name.

A good example of these links is on Rita Ora's home page, as seen below:

The sections/pages that we plan to include when creating our website are:

• A biography page which tell you all the background around AJ
• A music page which shows you all of AJ's tracks which are available to buy/stream
• A tour page with information about AJ's live performances
• A photos page with promo shots and behind the scene photos
• A social media page with links to AJ's snapchat, Instagram and twitter feed

Jason Derulo's social media links on his website

R+P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

Promo shots are key to an artists promotion as they provide the first impression to any audiences. Therefore they must be appealing but also a true representation of the artists identity.

For AJ's promo shots we are planning to mix between studio and location shots whilst also changing up angles and framing. Our two main inspirations have been Ne-Yo and Raleigh Ritchie. Promo shots of these two artists can be seen below, and in each photo you can clearly see the intentions behind it, for example the 'candid' photograph of Raleigh Ritchie looking off camera shows vulnerability and in turn makes him more relatable to an average audience member. We believe that incorporating this idea into our promo shots will help us get across AJ's identity and personality as sightly quirky.

In contrast to the more 'real' shots of Raleigh Ritchie we also plan to have some more professional shots which can make AJ seem more aspirational and smooth, of which the former is a key convention for any R&B artist.

Below you can see some of our inspirations:

After looking at a wide range of promo shots we came up with a few designs which we think will help us achieve our intended vision for AJ. Some of these rough drawings can be seen below:

R+P Post 21: My key storyboard shots

The key shots of our storyboard

Due to most of our shots being being quite similar and only being shown for a couple seconds, we thought there was little point in drawing out every shot. As a result of this we decided to draw out key shots and then group them by set-ups, framing and whether they were narrative or performance. A key of these groupings can be seen in the top right corner of the storyboard.

R+P Post 20: My Music Video Timeline

Before we made our storyboard, we created a timeline. This was split into three rows: lyrics, shot description and lighting set-up. Our timeline is very detailed and was very useful when creating our key storyboard shots.

           

              Section 1 of timeline

Section 3 of timeline

            

          Section 2 of timeline

    

      Section 4 of timeline 

Section 5 of timeline

R+P Post 19: My influences and vision for the project

To help bring all of our ideas together our group decided to make steal-o-matic. This is a visual pitch which takes short clips from existing music videos; we chose clips which we thought were similar to our ideas and then placed them over our chosen track. This therefore gave us a visualisation of our desired music video and allowed us to reflect on what we could change or worked well. It also helped in terms of timings as we could note down how long each shot should be and in turn experiment with cuts on the beat. Below you can see my group's steal-o-matic:

Below are the music videos references which we took clips from in the above steal-o-matic:

1. Ne-Yo- Miss Independent
2. Ne-Yo- Mad
3. Ne-Yo- Closer
4. Jason Derulo- Watcha Say
5. Mario- Let Me Love You
6. Rihanna- Unfaithful
7. Rihanna- Hate That I Love You, feat. Ne-Yo
8. Jason Derulo- Trumpets
9. Little Mix- Secret Love Song, feat. Jason Derulo
10. B.O.B.- Airplanes, feat. Hayley Williams
11. Beyoncé- If I were a Boy

R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

Lyric video for 'Cry Me A River'

Above is the lyric video which my group used when analysing the lyrics for this music video. This helped us get a sense of the beat whilst still seeing which lyrics appear at what points in the song; this also allowed us to stay clear of the original music video so we could form our own ideas which would be significantly different.

By actually analysing the lyrics we were able to understand the message behind the song, which we believed to be of to be honest and faithful in a relationship.

A section of our lyric analysis

R+P Post 17: My Chosen Track

Cry Me A River

Artist - Justin Timberlake

Album - Justified

Year of Release - 2002

Producer - Timberland

Writers - Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley and Scott Storch

Record Label - West Lake Recording Studios

Below is a pros and cons list my group made when deciding upon this track:

Written up by Meera

As we are remaking an existing song's music video we had to sort out any copyright issues. In order to do this we sent an email to Sony Music Entertainment requesting permission. Below is the email Sian sent to the music company on behalf of our group. So far we have not had a reply so we are presuming that there are no longer any copyright issues restricting us from using this song.

The email we sent to Sony Music Entertainment

R+P Post 16: My Band or Artist

The name of my group's artist is 'AJ'. We chose this name as it is catchy and could easily we put to the face of an R&B singer- this was backed up by feedback we received from peope within our audience groups.

AJ is a 19 year old London teenager. His songs represent how he feels and in turn steer clear of the sexualsied music which is seen quite frequently right now. Instead he focuses on the more emotional aspect of relationships and how is generally feeling, i.e. some songs we writes may be about how a girl broke his heart whereas some other songs may be about any guilt or regret he feels. This contrast from the current trend will set him apart from the crowd.

His personality will also set him apart; as most R&B artists are usually considered to be smooth, AJ will have a slightly quirky and intelligent side. This is reinforced through his clothing choices, i.e. smart shirts, a beanie and glasses. 

Below are some pictures which roughly illustrate what he will look like:

Raleigh Ritchie at the Brit awards

Ne-yo

Dylan Obrien in 'The Internship'

Raleigh Ritchie 

R+P Post 15: My Record Label

Our Record Label

- Subsidiary of Warner Music Group

- Based in London
- Founded by Rita Ora

- Aims to bring forward new artists to the industry and help develop them as they find their style

- Relatively small company with no real high profile name on its books
- Idea of taking something which was old and revamping, such as traditional/old school R&B, it into a more modern version which is exciting and current

Insert Image of Record Label Logo

R+P Post 14: My Target Audience

Our target audience can be broken down into two groups:

Primary audience

As our main reason behind choosing the R&B genre is to create a music video which is more old school and different to what is currently being produced in the industry, our primary target audience are the actual fans of the genre. These are the people who would regularly buy tickets to R&B concerts, such as Usher and Beyoncé. The general age demographic would be between 17-32, and from talking to quite a few people who lie between this age range I have found out that their is a gap in the market which could be filled by our artist in order to reach this audience group.

R&B fans at a concert

Similar audience groups would be the avid fans established R&B artists such as:

• Rihanna
• Ne-Yo
• Usher
• Mariah Carey
• Michael Jackson
• Jason Derulo

Secondary Audience

Our secondary audience would be teenagers and young adults, i.e. 12-25 years old. This is currently the largest age demographic for music consumers. This audience will buy the singles online and stream it online or on their phone. Mainstream music is what they usually listen to and due to the emergence of hip-hop and R&B crossover music, such as 'Unforgettable, by French Montana and Swae Lee, I believe that our R&B track will still meet their needs and make them want to buy into the artist.

Ra Sremmurd concert- Teenage fans