Production- Filming (Day 4)

Today we filmed in two locations, the canal and Alishas house. Here are some pictures of today :)

Production- Filming (Day 3)

Today was the third day of filming which was done in Highgate. Here are some pictures of todays filming session! :)

Planning - music video's which have influenced our final decisions

Looking back at 'Reflection on progess' blog

Looking back at my previous post, I have managed to blog much more frequently and reached an acceptable amount of posts. I still feel that I have a lot more when it comes to using digital software such as final cut pro, but this will show once we have finished all of our filming, which is then when we will start to edit. I feel that I have achieved a lot in the past few weeks when it comes to the coursework as I have developed my blogging skills even further by using a variety of different posts.

Now that we completed day 1 of filming our canal scene, I have a more clearer idea of the process of the camera work and how the scene/'s will look and all fit together in the end. I set myself a few tasks during the next few weeks; one, being to carry of frequently posting and updating our experience on formats such as blogging, our group instagram and twitter which will help to reach out to our audience. I also believe that I can improve my writing skills even more by constantly annotating images throughout our whole process whilst using specific terminology which is relevant to the media study course. Looking back at the mark I gave my blog previously (15/20), I think its safe to say that I have improved my blog and I think I will carry on maintaining the frequency of my blogging whilst improving the actual content of my blogs which is why I would now give myself a 17/20.

Planning - Schedule update

Since today is the last day we have, to discuss the dates for our filming, we decided to carefully plan out the days which everyone in our group was available to film. We decided to book the equipment during half term so that we could finish the entire filming within the week. This means that after filming all of our scenes, we could edit our entire music video which then gives us more time to concentrate on our blogging. Here are the dates we planned out which include the locations and times we will be meeting at. 

Planning - Analysing the original artists website

Here I have analysed the official Marina and the Diamonds websites and closely looked at the elements which are included which help promote the overall image and style. I used an app called pixtick which allowed me to annotate the different web pages.

Filming day 2

We filmed in the media room which was pretty good as it was a change from the hell we faced during filming outside in the freezing cold! We got the video ready (which will be posted below) to be in the background of the set to make it look as if we had a film playing behind me as it suited our song choice and looked good. I think the filming was pretty easy as it was a simple set and the most i had to do was just sing in front of the interactive white board whilst entertaining the camera.

 I think the hardest thing we faced was trying to get the right shots, as Naziara is shorter than me so it was hard for her to get my head in the frame and when Alisha would film I had to constantly direct and show her how to get the right shot and to move about because it looked quite static.

The costume I wore was pretty easy to work in as it was a red dress that I could move easily in and looked great on camera.
I think the choice to use the media room/ using the projector was an amazing choice on my part as it worked well with the genre/song we are using, the filming wasn't hard to do and we weren't disrupted by the location or weather.

What I would improve is we should of practiced the scene more as there was a lot of "what moves should I do whilst singing" or "how should we film this shot". Other than than it was good :)

Filming day one

soundcloud clip of our first day of filming.
Main points said:

• We filmed at the platform next to the canal, didn't really work with the video due to the lighting and location so we moved further down to the canal.
• I went barefoot wasn't the greatest thing, we had no speakers so we had to  strap the music to my back and signal to each other when the music started and when to start filming
• we mainly used the tripod as we forgot we had to move the camera more and aim for mainly using the figrig rather than just static shots.
• Overall filming was good, good shots, great pictures for digipaks, favourite part of filming was filming right next to the canal where i sat in it and i thought it looked really good.
• it was quite windy which was a plus and a minus as it worked well with the clothing but our equipment kept flying away and my hair would often get in the way of my face so we had to reshoot bits sometimes. 
• Working as a group went well as we all listened to each other and talked about what would be better to do.
• What I would Improve for next time/Reflection: Maybe a better location, Another canal?, go on a day where the weather is better, try and aim for mostly using the figrig for camera work rather than the tripod. 

Reflection on progress 2

Planning- Reflection on Progress

• Discuss your progress in relation to the three things you'd hoped to improve

The three things I said I needed to improve on, in my last "Reflection on Progress" were:

1. To use a range of ICT.
2. Post extra blogs (blogs that are not on the blogging checklist).
3. Blogging everyday rather than leaving it all until the deadline.

I definitely feel like I have improved 2/3 of the things listed. Posting extra blogs that are not listed on the blogging checklist and blogging every 1/2 days is something I have improved on. Unfortunately I still haven't been able to use a range of ICT, which I need to do in order for my mark to be higher than 13/20. I think the thing preventing me from using a range of ICT is having the pressure of actually getting on with the blogging and making sure its done rather than focussing on what different ICT I could use to present it. For the production part of the blogging, however, I will ensure that I have enough time to plan what different ICT to use.

• Set yourself two more targets and give yourself an updated mark out of 20

Two targets I would set myself for the production is:

1. To use a range of ICT.
2. To ensure that there are no unfinished blogs as this is bringing my marks down.

Out of 20 I would give myself a 12. This is because I feel that even though I am up to date with all my blogging and it is all in a clear order, I still cannot get higher because I need to use more ICT.

Analysing 3 music videos

Production: Filming - Day 2

Day 2 of one of our scenes was filmed in the media room in front of a projection screen. We thought the simplicity of filming in the college was relevant in terms of it being a close environment where we could get the filming done in a safe environment. It was Einas' idea of filming in front of the video as it appears to be significant towards the attitudes and feeling of the song and by displaying this behind Einas, it represents the emotions which we are trying to reach across to the audience.
At first I assumed that the whole projection idea would look unprofessional; I didn't wan't the scene to look as if we used a green screen but I later realized editing the scene to purposely distort the visual elements would add a depressive tone to the video, as well as the song which is what we are hoping to accomplish. Fortunately, this turned out to be the quickest scene we shot so far and it was all filmed in under an hour, leaving us spare time for blogging.

Pitch Video

A video that has inspired me in camera work

Whilst watching the new TLC movie (which I loved!) they recreated some of their music videos. I watched one of the music videos (Baby, Baby, Baby) and I noticed that they would have camera movements where they would tilt the camera then move it to the right and then tilt it the opposite way and then move it to the left. I felt that this idea could work well in our music video so we don't have too many shots of the performer being still but to have more camera work variety which would work really well. When next shooting I will show my group this idea and show how to incorperate it into filming so our MV looks le top du top!

TLC - Baby Baby Baby.

Planning - Incorporating synergy

 This is the item we are going to be using for our main product which will signify the overall image of our artist. We picked this necklace due to the boldness of it. The piece includes a floral design which helps us to connect with our main audience which is young teenage girls. We thought that the piece is generally feminine and the fact that it is quite large, it would be easy to incorporate it into a majority of our scenes for our music video. This piece belongs to Naziara as we realised that it would be best to use items for props which we could find at our homes as we have already gone over our budget; this way we could incorporate our personal styles into the music video.


Here are a few photo's we took on day 1 of shooting our music video. These photos are taken of different parts of the music video where we show the synergy:

Production: Filming - Day 1

Today was the first day of filming and it I think it went better than we expected. First of all we thought that due to the weather prediction, it would rain. However, it was a bright day despite it was windy (ironically helped Einas' hair blow back). After Einas found a nearby location to change into her outfit, we immediately began to shoot. There was some slight issues we had whilst filming our video; the first one being that random people constantly walked past the camera while we were filming, but since we've decided to chop up and cut a lot of the scene with other scenes, this would not be and problems and we would end up having more than enough footage. We filmed this 3 or 4 times in the different angles, places and positions. Our day was successful as we ended up finishing our filming withing 3 hours.

 Here are some of the photos I took:

Day 1 filming – canal from Alisha

Production- Filming (Day 2)

Audience research!

Synergy

We have chosen to use this magnifying glass necklace as our item of synergy. I think that this will work well as it will interest our audience demographic (16-21) as it is an modern fashion item that will be considered popular when our music video comes out hopefully.

I think it is a good item to use for synergy as it is easy to put into make significant in our digipaks, music video and tour picture, it isnt big, heavy or difficult to have around in the music video so we can easily put it into every scene and somehow bring focus to it such as a quick close up, etc. 

I personally like this as we were considering different items to use as synergy such as flowers, a hair piece or an item of clothing but using flowers in the MV could be difficult as it can wilt and die before we can use it in all the scenes or look out of place, a hair piece can be easily lost in the costume, prop and set as people may want to focus on other things rather than constantly look at the artists hair and we have to change our costume a few times so we cant frequently have the same clothing as it can look boring. 

The necklace was provided by naziara <3 so we are grateful for this. 

Einas out! xo

a song to put you in the mood for filming

like all music artists we must be prepared for filming and be in a good mood. I was listening to usher and this song has put me in the mood to go out and film! I AM READY!

we all need to pop our collars once in a while, to look fresh and good for the music video


Einas

xo

Production- Filming (Day 1)

Today was the first day we began our filming for our music video. Although it was stressful, it still worked out to be a successful day of filming. We decided the first day of filming would take place in our third location, which was the Canal as it was the closest location to begin with. We were worried about the bad weather condition, as it was likely to rain however we carried out precautions such as carrying enough umbrellas to make sure the media equipment, and of course our main star, Einas to be well protected from the rain. Fortunately for us it didn't rain, and was in fact a bright day :)

I was mainly in charge of filming the footage, whilst Alisha took shots of what was happening. Here are some shots Alisha captured during the day.

Planning- Final Quark photo storyboard

Final Quark photo storyboard, with a brief account of the difference between the draft and final storyboards

This is our final storyboard which is slightly different to our draft storyboard. This is due to several reasons;

• Accurate photos of some of the locations (Canal)
• Changed shots (wide shots, mid shots etc)
• Better lighting in the pictures
• Costumes are used

Ideas we considered

- LED fairy lights for the trees in highgate scene - Unfortunately it goes past our budget
- Real flowers instead of plastic - Also too expensive and may die before we get to film
- London Bridge scene - We have enough scenes for now and it might not match with the theme of the song although we will have this location as a backup
- A bath scene in my house (Alisha's house) - Not relevant
- Party poppers in the media room scene - Still considering but me and Naziara don't full understand

Details we must think ahead about

Things that we carefully need to plan is the details on the day we film. Small details like having the artists nail painted is all essential for the outcome of the video. Here is a few things we need to address:

- Who's going to be doing the makeup/bringing it in
- Who's going to bring what on the day of the filming
- Backup props
- Backup plans incase something breaks (eg. the mirror)
- What's the weather going to be like on the filming days
- What exact times are we going to be filming
- How are we planning on getting there and coming back
- What type of clothes will we have to bring due to the weather
- Ways of preventing any equipment from getting damaged (umbrellas)
- How will the costumes and props relate or go with the theme of the location
- Will every member be committed to make it every filming date
- Are there going to be people in the way of our filming
- Would we be allowed to film in the chosen locations
-

Interview with a Marina and the Diamonds fan. (Audience Research)

I asked a Marina and the Diamonds fan if I could do a Q&A with them for the music video planning and what we should have, what style we should go for, what kind of fans she reaches to, etc.

His name is Noel, he is an American Male and is 20 years old. here is a photo of him with Marina and the diamonds at her concert.

How long have you been a fan of marina?

Ive been a fan of Marina since July of 2012

What about her made you a fan?

What made me a fan was how she stood out in term of lyrics and sound when compared to her counterparts plus the overall feel of Electra Heart sonically had me hooked from the moment I played Primadonna

How would you describe her personal style and how is this applied in her videos?

I would describe her personal style as… Marina. Her first album videos were very her in that they felt as though they weren't exactly concocted by a label or management but felt personal and cheeky. Her second album was about a character she had created and so that made for easy application via videos

Has being a fan of her influenced your life in anyway? If so how?

Being a fan of hers has totally influenced my life! Her character Electra Heart is a total b*tch and doesn't let love or relationships get in her way and is her own independent being which totally inspired me to be just the same

What would you expect to see in a video of hers if she were to put a new one out? (Including costume, set, props, themes)

Well if she were to release another Part in the Electra Heart series I would expect to see something rather dreary as all of the Parts were bleak + grey + and somewhat dark

 Regarding her song valley of the dolls, what would you expect in this video?

As for Valley of the Dolls I would expect total Sylvia Plath + and also the pill popping mindset of then 1950s including the mindset of a housewife 

Describe marina in one word

Marina in one word… sublime

Our Pitch Presentation

Name change

We have chosen the name for our female artist.
Her name is (cue drumroll):

APHRODITE!

We chose this name as we think it conveys a very feminine power feel as its the name of a greek goddess meaning love and beauty and the previous name (Electronica) didn't really fit with our concept as it was the name of a genre in the 90s and we didn't really like it.

Planning - Interviewing a fan

As my sister happens to be a big Marina and the Diamonds fan, I have decided to interview her to explore her personal ideas and thoughts towards the making of our music video.

Q1. How long have you been a fan of Marina?
Since the release of her hit single "I'm not a robot"


Q2. What is it specifically about Marina and the Diamonds that made you decide to become a fan of hers in the first place?
Well, I found her music very refreshing and also it was very catchy. However, the thing that drew me to her music mostly was how much I could relate to it. The fact that her music was so different compared to other artists made her very original and at the time, there was no other artist like her.
Additionally, the fact that her lyrics to her songs as well as the videos did not contain sexual references, made me respect her a lot as she kept her dignity and integrity so I knew she was a very good role model for young girls and women in general.


Q3. What is your favorite song/music video of hers and why?
My favorite song of hers is "Numb" which belongs to her album 'Family Jewels'. This is because you could really lose yourself in the music and the lyrics of the song. You could relate to them in your 'down' moments, but at the same time they help to lift you and raise you spirit. My favorite music video of hers is 'I am not a robot' as it was the first video and song I have seen of hers which I feel is very memorable. The video itself was innovative and artist and you could tell that there was a lot of effort put into the video and it wasn't just thrown together last minute and I believe the fans really appreciated that effort.


Q4. How would you describe her personal style in terms of clothing, music and attitude and how does she differ from other artists?
I think she's definitely original and the word 'alternative' comes to mind. She kind of reminds me of Gwen Stefani in her overall style which really shows her personality. The fact that her style is so diverse, she appears to influence her overall style from a lot of different ideas which isolates her from fitting into a specific category as her style appears to change over the time of her career.


Q5. What would you expect to see in a Marina and the Diamonds music video?
Its always unexpected; you never know what you're going to get. One day you could have something really fun and catchy with bright colors and random objects and then other times its kept much more simple and emotional and you're just looking at differences between how the lighting is used in black and white. It really depends on the tone of the song, whether its a slow emotional song or a high spirited pop song.

Planning - Twitter Account

This is our Official Twitter account for our group. Using this account we are able to follow a majority of Marina and the Diamonds' fans and engage with them, being able to ask them what they would expect in one of her music videos which would help us with the ideas for our music video. This account is also going to be used to promote our music video which would appeal to her fans which would usually be females, which would range from ages 16-21. Social network sites such as Twitter enable is to appeal to our ideal audience. Since Twitter is such fast spread and inexpensive way to approach our audience, I followed a large variety of Marina and the Diamonds' fans hoping they would be able to promote our Artist and brand.

Einas and Naziara vlog

vlog of us going to highgate woods.

web annotation

Planning - Test footage

Here we are testing the footage to make sure that our artist (Einas) is comfortable around the camera just to take precaution so that we won't have to switch our main star last minute, which cause a big conflict and cut our preparation time even shorter. As you can see, Einas has been successful as she has expressed her passion and confidence within this video, therefore we know choosing her as our artist is the correct choice.

Planning - Animatic

Planning - Detailed Risk Assessment

Planning- Overview of the audience task

Interview with a big Marina and the Diamonds fan 

What about Marina and what about her music videos made you become a fan?
"Her whole style and personality made me become a huge fan. How she breaks the conventions of the normal "pop star" look is what I most like about her. Its also how she brings the 50s look into her music videos as she creates it in her own way and makes it look very modern. Her songs are also very catchy and I absolutely love the lyrics to all her songs".

What makes Marina different to other British artists?
"She embraces the American culture much more".

Briefly explain one of your favourite music videos by her and link it to the camerawork and editing.
"My favourite Marina and the Diamonds music video would be "Mowgli's road". This is because the video itself is very simple. The editing they use is simple yet absolutely amazing. I like how they make her legs into these paper legs and change her body parts to almost look like a jack in the box type thing".

Because "Valley of the dolls" does not have a music video, what sorts of things would you expect
"I would expect the music video to this, if ever created, to have dark themes and a kind of scary and spooky type editing to create suspense for the audience as this will help keep them engaged. I would, personally, want it to be very weird and haunting. A music video that leaves you wondering what the actual meaning behind it was".

Which British artists are most like her and what are your reasons for this?
"I don't think most British artists are like her. Her attitude and vision separates her greatly from other artists in the British music industry and this is why she has a strong fan base following her in America rather than in the UK".

Planning- How you will incorporate synergy

As a group, we came to an agreement that we would use a necklace of a magnifying glass as the item of synergy.  The reason as to why we chose a necklace as a use of synergy is because it goes well with all the costume changes, it is a simple piece of jewellery and also easy to remember to incorporate into every part of the video. And here it is!

The original artist of our chosen song also incorporates synergy, however this is done with a heart drawn onto her cheek. 

Planning- Examine the website

Examine the website for the original artist and discuss how they use it to promote their brand image and songs.

Marina has several different elements to her website in order to help promote her brand image and her songs. Firstly there is a store called "Marinas store" where there is clothing and accessories being sold. Marina and the diamonds biggest fans will be excited and consume her products, therefore promoting her further. Secondly there is a space for all her photos and also all her music videos to allow fans to keep updated with her latest songs. Also news about her music videos and tours in which she will do are all up and much much more! This helps to promote her brand image and songs as it engages the audience and her fans as it gives them an insight in everything,  helps to keep them updated with her latest music videos and even allows them to do a bit of shopping online :)

Marinas Store

Photos

Videos

Shows

Lyrics

News