Pre Production flat plan and magazine advert

Pre production weekly reflection- week 3

During this week my objective was to continue with my list of pre-produtction tasks and do a little independent research by going to different places in London and finding streets with interesting and recognisable graffiti on it.


Firstly to begin with I have been going through the audience research and finding certain results to be different to how I expected them to be.

 For instance, one survey question was based around hair colour and which type of look the artist may have and most people answered with 'Brunette hair'. I expected the top rated answer to be 'Ginger hair', as I always imagined the representation of the artist to be similar to Ed Sheeran or somewhat like the Kings of Leon. Although the audience presume the artist is brunette, as a team we have decided that we will continue to keep to our idea of using Sam as the artist. 

 At the current moment I am half way through writing up the 'audience profile'/'Fact sheet' about the type of viewer who would be most visually appeased by the narrative and style Sam and I have been planning. The next deadline approaching for all the tasks is within three days, so finishing that particular post and completing the shot list with Sam will be hectic, but I am prepared for this and have planned out how to divide my time between those two tasks. 


I completed my beach combing earlier on and gained a lot of inspiration from the images and styles I found on the internet. After seeing a few pictures of different types of graffiti on google images  I decided to go out into central london to look for something similar to the pictures I had seen, and I found myself looking at ripped colourful paper stuck around a metal door with posters and graffiti meshed together, my thoughts being "Perhaps this would be a perfect location to film for the artist performance". 

I also went to tower bridge to go to a skate park completely covered in a spray painted work of art to get a feel for the location and see how we would film, how we would avoid traffics of people and skaters and how we could visually use the designs and writing to our advantage. Even though as a pair we have decided to film locally using graffiti, after doing a little searching, I have put forward the suggestion that our artist should be represented through a mise-en-scene based in Central London rather than just the streets. I think it would add another dimension and give variety to the video. 

Apart from location, we have tried looking for people who can play instruments and would be interested in being our final music video, but at the moment we have had no luck. It has proven quite difficult to find someone with the skill required and confidence needed to pull off the instrumental performance side of things. We are going to continue trying to find a group of people who may be able to help us. 

A person I have had in mind is 'Rajiv' (left) from our media department. He is a singer and knows how to play the guitar. It would be a smart idea to ask him whether if he would be willing or not as working with him may be beneficial and advantageous, this is because he works with in the department meaning he is easy to get a hold of and we can film straight after sixthform ends in the music room which is conveniently located directly below the media department with the help of a few music teachers. 

Of course myself and Sam will keep our options open and continue to search for other people who can play an instrument. We most definitely want to have a three part music video with an artist performance, 'instrumental band' performance and a narrative. We did consider a dance performance, however it would not have fitted the song and the idea was rejected after giving it a few days of thought. 

During the week we also made a final decision of using the Chadwell Heath Academy Drama Studio and the different lighting styles that come with it. We still need to arrange dates to book the drama studio to be able to film on schedule and not have any delays.

My focus for the next few days will be completing the audience profile and working on a shot list with Sam as well as continuing to look for performers. 

Pre Production Independent research

Pre Production Beachcomb

 Style

The style we want to aim for is very indie and modern culture 'pop-rock'. The clothing sense we have decided to use is very fashionable yet still recognisable. Sam and I made the decision that the above image of the man with the bow tie and chinos will be our artists 'centred look'. We also decided to represent a sense of humbleness, therefore use a hint of Ed Sheerans style along with a more fashionable dress sense. Our target audience will find this 'look' appealing due to how it follows an indie trend that most modern teenagers and young adults associate themselves with. 

 Location

We have planned for the artist to lip sync in local areas or places within london where there are graffiti patterns and designs. This is to provide the viewer with a representation of the artists background. During this week I did some independent research and went to london city to look for examples or possible locations for where we could film and found three places which seem suitable for our music video. Our aim is to present a 'character' with a strong indie flair to him, someone who our target audience as well as teenagers or young adults will recognise easily. The style of the mise-en-scene will be somewhat similar to rizzle kicks 'Down with the trumpets'.

For the narrative aspect of things, we have planned to film with in some areas of school and in a few other local areas, we are going to finalize where we want the 'story' to be set once we explore certain areas to see which mise-en-scene would fit best.

 Inspirations

 

 

 

 

 What we aim to do is to give off an indie vibe, yet still remain relevant enough to appeal our target audience in the market. An option we have kept open is using some animation along with the face of the artist to represent an abstract side of him, the animation would be surreal graffiti matching the graffiti seen behind the artist whilst he is singing. The typography may be in a bold font but with some sort of a 'graffiti feel'- there is debate that this may be slightly too urban rather than indie.

Pre production weekly reflection- week 2

During this week Sam and I have been working on our list of pre-production tasks and sorting out who will do which role. The tasks we had planned to do were divided between us and I was left with having to beachcomb, create a survey and analyse the results for audience research, gain a form of feedback which is visually interesting and hand it out or show people who are not a part of my class, shot list for our music video along with a production schedual and call sheets for filming. 

I created a survey and analysed the results and found what type of things our target audience would like to see in our final video. I found the results to be quite interesting because some answers were not expected such as the question revolving around what colour hair the artist would have, most people responded saying brunette when what we expected was ginger. Sam and I came to a crossroad where we had to decide whether to use a brunette or ginger haired person as our artist. Of course, Sam himself has ginger hair and we thought about using him as the artist due to the fact we would be able to comfortably rely on him.

At the moment we have not come across any problems, everything we have planned and mapped out has been running smoothly at the moment. For the main artist performance we have chosen sam and during his scenes I will take over the camera and film him. All this will require will be the both of us rather than three or four people. For our narrative we have chosen Talha Muharzi and Soraya Bazouaeii, this gives the video an interratial flair as Talha is a mixture of Kenyan and Arab and Soraya is from a Morroccan background. There is a third dimention to our video which will be the intrumental performance, however we have not finalized or decided who we want to use for this. We need to search for someone appropriate and find someone willing enough to help us.

One of my roles during this pre production stage is to gain feedback through a creative method, so I plan to film myself asking people to comment on the embedded video on facebook or if viewing directly from the streaming site, to leave a comment on youtube. I will make the video roughly a minute long, involving an interactive element and allowing me to do this easily all from the comfort of my room. It is not only easy for myself but also easier for other people as they are constantly on social networking sites. It also allows me to communicate the initial idea to people far and wide across the internet instead of restricting myself to school friends. I feel as though it will allow myself and sam to get real feedback, a little blunt criticism and advice from all types of teenagers.

Pre-production a survey made for audience research

I created a survey using 'Survey Monkey' to help me make an 'audience profile' and fact sheet about the type of people myself and Sam need to aim to entertain and appeal to.



Click here to see my survey

Pre Production Allocated roles

• Pre Production

Planning and research:

• Pitch presentation and analysis of feedback - Individual
• Beach Combing - Individual
• Audience research - Joint

Surveys - Noor

Audience Profile - Noor

• Analysing existing products

3 Music videos - Sam

3 Magazine adverts - Sam
3 DVD covers - Sam

• Focus group feedback - Noor
• Detailed flat plan:

DVD cover - Sam
Magazine advert - Sam

• Shot list - Joint

• Production Schedule - Joint
• Call sheets - Joint

Production:

• Photography - Noor
• Vloging - Noor
• Filming - Joint
• Directing - Joint
• Lighting - Joint
• Location schedual - Joint

Post Production:

• Editing - Joint
• Photoshop - Sam

Pre production weekly reflection- week 1

Over the summer I spent my time looking for a song that I could use for my final coursework, I came across the 'Jackie Boyz' and sent an e-mail to gain permission to use their song 'She's not perfect'. Over the past week everyone in my media class pitched and presented their ideas and I found that there was a lot of potential and creativity flowing through certain individuals ideas more so than in my own, such as Samuel Coleman (also known as 'Sam'). His concept was ironic and entertaining using a modern concept of rejection which every teenager, young adult, adult, middle age and pensioners worry about.





At first I wasn't sure of who I wanted to work with but once Sam explained the idea to me before he made his pitch I warmed to his plan. He provided me with a few examples of what he meant with his idea of editing with a 'match on action style'. Sam showed me a few videos by Rizzel Kicks, in particular he showed me a moment from 'Down with the Trumpets' from 2:50 onwards. Although these particular artists focus on rap and hiphop, the editing style could still work very well.

I have my own perception of the style, and already have a specific idea in my mind of how the editing and filming would set out. There is an artist called 'Arden Cho', she is not very well known and uses YouTube as a platform to perform and reflect her work, regardless she still has a large fan following. She has a video called 'I'm just a girl' and in this video there is a lot of split screen and as Sams idea is all about rejection I feel as though the editing style of this video would be perfect. To be very specific, at exactly 1:00 into the music video, the screen is split in two and there is interaction between the two seperate scenes which I found to be clever and representative of the situation both characters in the narrative are in.

Sam had not decided who he wanted to use for his music video, so we are currently at a stage where we are beginning to ask people and seek out individuals who may suit the look and be willing to perform for us. I feel as though the video will be quite successful as the theme is 'tounge in cheek' and is based around a narrative which isn't typically expected and goes against the whole 'Boy meets Girl' persona. I'm slightly concerned with location though, as Sam stated he would like to film around school but I would much rather preffer to experiment with mise-en-scene and try different settings for the perfomance aspect to give more dimention to the video.

Pre-Production Permission gained from the desired artist

Pre production analysis of feedback from focus group

The feed back I recieved was mostly positive but there were a few points and concerns raised about originality. My attention was directed to a few flaws about my initial idea being too stereotypical and my presentation being too 'loose with words' and slightly unclear. The focus group agreed that there was nothing new with in my narrative and story line as it felt to predictable and typical. To resolve this I decided to brainstorm and came up with a new plan. I decided that perhaps reversing roles would be an interesting twist, i.e. the main girl in the narrative is placed in the 'popular' seat and is dressed in very sporty mens clothing and the main boy is dressed in slightly tattered, old fashioned female clothes. This provides unexpected imagery and a shock factor which would make people remember the video and song. The idea is made both, unique and interesting by switching the clothes of both genders. The message I initiallty planned to reflect in my video will still be clear, except much more heightened and visually appealing to the eye.

In regards to permission I had already organised myself and sent an e-mail to the 'Jackie Boyz' during the summer holidays asking if I could use their music for my A2 coursework, to which they responded and gave me copy rights to their creation.

I was asked whether if I would create my video in a 'comic book cartoon style'. My response was that I would prefer to keep it naturalistic and performance based as it would be easier to relate to, of course a few moments would be heightened but nothing would be taken to an extreme at any point. Looking back, I feel as though that is an appropriate decision because the music is not very upbeat and no one would be able to take the song a little seriously if I take a surreal approach.

An issue which was raised whilst discussing the narrative was of renaming the 'Jackie Boyz' to something more suitable as I was only planning to use one person as the artist instead of two. I think the most reasonable decision would be to remove the 'Boyz' and name the artist 'Jackie'. The influence for this comes from artists like Neo, Bruno Mars and Usher, their names are almost like a brand in themselves.

I was given the suggestion of a dance routine being involved with in the video, I took this on board and thought of how and where I would film it- I decided I could use strobe lighting and lights with coloured gels in the school drama studio. The reason why I feel like adding a dance performance into the video would be a good idea is because it would give the final piece a three dimentional quality as stated in my feedback video by a member of the focus group. I would approach the dance scenes in an abstract way, perhaps have shadows or the dancers moving in the dark with a single gel lit behind them as usher has done in a few of his videos.