"Sorry" Moodboard

I have used Pinterest to create a moodboard for the our music video, to demonstrate the overall aesthetic that we want to achieve in our final video. Creating a moodboard has allowed me to clearly identify the image we are trying to create, and it provides inspiration for when we are filming for our video. We wanted to use rainbow colours/imagery to be representative of the LGBT+ theme, and we wanted to use dark imagery to be representative of our protagonists inner conflict, and the subsequent misery this creates. Additionally, we wanted our characters to wear clothes similar to those we have included in the moodboard, as these are stereotypical 'edgy' clothing, and outfita auch as these are often worn in indie/alternative music videos.

"Sorry": The Meaning of the Song

One of the reasons that we chose to change our song to 'Sorry' by Nothing But Thieves was because we felt that the lyrics were really fitting in order for us to be able to portray the narrative of our piece effectively. We felt it was important that we developed a knowledge of the purpose of the original music video, and gain an understanding of the meaning of the song to the artists.

Using the 'Songfacts' website, we were able to gain the following information:

Point 1 - Conor Mason (lead singer) sings of causing heartbreak now he's moved on from being a carefree teenager. Joe Langridge-Brown (guitarist), who co-wrote the track with Mason, explained: "'Sorry' is about getting older and the difficulties associated with it. It's about looking inwards and facing your demons. The song hinges around a flawed individual who can't hold down a relationship, both to the detriment of themselves and their partner" 

Point 2 - Conor Mason told 'Kerrang' (Rock music magazine): "We made the setting feel dark, desolate and hopeless, which reflects the song. It's about looking forward, facing your demons and having a moment of clarity. The video is representative of that moment, where you have no choice but to face your true self. It's your last two hours on Earth, so, what do you do?"

Point 3 - Conor Mason told 'The Sun' (Newspaper): "It's a song about dealing with growing up, the problems you come across and the flaws you can't seem to escape"

How does this information relate to our music video and its narrative?

In regards to point 1, our narrative is about finding yourself as you grow up, and not being afraid to embrace who you truly are. In our piece, Hannah begins to succumb to her inner demons, and turns to drinking and smoking to help her cope with her questioning of her sexuality. However, as the piece progresses, she faces those inner demons and chooses to embrace her sexuality. In terms of a 'flawed individual', this relates to how Hannah views herself at the beginning of her piece. She doesn't accept her sexuality, and sees herself as being abnormal for it. This inner conflict driving her to drinking and smoking, as previously mentioned. Not being able to hold down a relationship could be compared to the relationship of Hannah and Josh, though Hannah does not end this relationship without a justified reason, so it does not compare exactly. Alternatively to the point made by Langridge-Brown, it was actually holding down the relationship with Josh that was detrimental to Hannah, not ending it. Though, fitting with his point, ending the relationship was detrimental to Josh's happiness.

In reference to point 2, we used a black and white effect at the beginning of our video in order to reflect the misery and isolation Hannah feels, and the darkness in her life. Hannah looks to her future, and her moment of clarity comes after her inner battle with her sexuality, where she decides to not try to suppress her feelings any longer. I think it is true that the narrative of our video is fitting with Mason's statement: "The video is representative of that moment, where you have no choice but to face your true self". Hannah reaches the point in her life, where she is unable to hide away from her sexuality due to how unhappy she is feeling, and her bad habitats she has developed as coping mechanisms. She feels as though she can no longer waste her life in attempting to live in denial, and can no longer live in the gloom and misery that this comes with.

Finally, point 3 relates to our video in ways similar to those that I have previously mentioned. It is Hannah, confused about her sexuality, and turning to alcohol and smoking to try to cope. She views her sexuality as a flaw, until she overcomes her fear and embraces who she is, though she faces the problem of breaking up with her boyfriend, Josh.

Contacting the Artist & Copyright

The song that chose to create our music video for was not our original piece, and we had no input in its creation process. This meant that it was essential for us to attempt to gain permission from the artist to use the track to avoid any copyright issues.

I took to Twitter to attempt to contact Nothing But Thieves, to ask for their permission for us to use their song "Sorry" in our production. Unfortunately, I was unable to gain a response, though we are hoping that we may hear back at some point. In order for us to avoid copyright issues, when uploading our piece to YouTube, we will state in the description that all rights of the song go to the artists, Nothing But Thieves, and we will specify that we are not attempting to take any credit for the track that we have created our video for.

From my production of the thriller opening sequence for my AS Level production last year, I learnt that YouTube have a copyright bank, which your uploads are checked against to look for any potential copyright issues. I knew this year that our upload would be marked that it included copyrighted content, and that this would mean the video would not able to be monetised. It is illegal to take credit for other peoples' work, and to earn money for this content, which is why YouTube have developed this very useful tool. Instead, the copyright claimants will be able to place adverts in front of our video, in which they will gain revenue from. They will then be able to earn money from the song being featured in our video, which means that we can continue to have the video posted in the site without having to acquire and pay for the rights to the track. This also minimises the risk that our video will be removed from YouTube.

Pictured above is a screenshot I have taken from the copyright page of our AS Level thriller opening sequence on YouTube. It details the content of the piece that YouTube has found in its copyright bank, which was 'The Abduction - Gennessee". It shows that the the copyright claimant 'The Orchard Music' on behalf of 'Noble House Records', and that the copyright policy that had been applied was that the video could be monetised by the copyright owner. The disclaimer towards the top of this page states that Ads may appear on our video, which is because the copyright claimant is consenting for us to use the track, as long as they can gain revenue from the views that this video obtains.

When we upload our piece to YouTube, the track will be identified by YouTube's copyright bank. It is likely that the copyright claimant for the track "Sorry" by Nothing But Thieves will lay out conditions that are the same as those that can be seen on our AS Level piece. This means that despite the fact that our video will include copyrighted content, it should be protected from YouTube removing it from the sight, as we are not claiming any revenue, or any credit for the track.

Filming Day: Party Scene

Location: Hannah's house

Date: 15th of December

Group members present: Hannah Martin, Jade Dibble and Jasmine Greene. Josh East was also present.

On this day, we wanted to achieve the 'party scene' shots for our video. We needed Josh, Hannah and Jade for this scene, and this was the only date at this time that we could co-ordinate us all to be at location to film. We wanted these shots to not only to demonstrate Hannah and Josh's characters relationship. We wanted them to show how Hannah was trying to pull away towards Jade's character, and to also use them to demonstrate the downward spiral of the emotions of the protagonist.

Much like what we found when filming inside using artificial lighting when we were filming the bathroom scenes, we had difficulties with the lighting of this scene. We managed to eliminate the severe grainy effect by swapping from using the main room light, to using a stage light lamp, as we found this was better, and created a darker scene, which was more party-esque.

Here is a video in which you can hear my direction of the shots:

Changing Our Song

Shortly after beginning the editing process, our group noticed that the footage that we had was not very fitting to our original song of choice. We had encountered struggles when filming in terms of being able to fulfil the grunge aesthetic that we wanted for our piece, which meant that the visuals were not suiting to the song. We did not realise that creating such looks for our piece would require the ability to hunt extensively for dingy locations, and a budget for obtaining the correct clothing and props. No members of the group have passed their driving tests, which means we were limited to what local locations we could use, and none of them seemed particularly fitting for the aesthetic we were aiming to achieve. We did not have a budget to acquire extra clothing, props and equipment, which meant that the overall look of the piece did not have the 'edgy' mise-en-scene that we desired.

We liked the footage that we had already filmed though, and we wanted to keep the same narrative for our music video. So, the search began for a new song. We needed to find a song that was from the alternative music genre, of which the lyrics could be interpreted to fit the narrative of our piece. As we are all frequent listeners to the alternative music genre, we took to listening to some of our favourites bands to search for a song. Eventually, we found what we thought would be the perfect song for us, which was "Sorry" by Nothing But Thieves.

The song tackles the themes of relationships and self-conflict. It describes an individual that is unhappy in their relationship, and as a result, this relationship is breaking down. It talks about overcoming your demons by learning to accept yourself. The lyrics of the song, however, are not restrictive, as there are no mentions of pronouns, and there are no specific details mentioned. This meant that the song was open to interpretation, which was exactly what we needed it to be. The song was more upbeat than our previous choice, which was much more suited to the footage we had accumulated, such as the shots that we took in Winter Wonderland.

Lyric Breakdown:

Editing: Adobe Premier Pro

Editing Day 1





Location: Bridgend College
Date: 12/01/2018
Group members present: Hannah Martin, Jade Dibble and Caitlin Elward







Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the first editing day with my group due to commitments for one of my other A Level subjects. However, I was briefed by my group on their return to school about what they had done, and they had shown me a clip of what they had put together.

The software that we will be using to edit our music video is 'Adobe Premier Pro' which, as a group, we have previous experience using. We used this software to edit our AS thriller opening sequence, and therefore, we could work this software to use very basic editing techniques. We employed the help of one of the editing experts at the college to instruct us on how to use some of the more complicated editing features, and we hope to be able to use them in our piece. For example, we were instructed on how to isolate a single colour in a shot, which we thought could effective in terms of highlighting our protagonist's emotional struggle.

The first editing session primarily involved creating a basic foundation of the video, by ordering the shots in the timeline of the programme. They used this session to cut down footage, so that only the shots that we needed were selected. This was a time consuming job, due to having ample footage, and multiple takes of some shots, to ensure we had choice when it came to editing. Due to the amount of footage we had acquired at this point, they found that it took quite a while to import it all onto the mac that they were using to edit on.

The basic outline of the order of shots that was created acted as a guide for us to evaluate what footage we needed to obtain in future filming sessions if it was necessary. It also provided a template that we could experiment with, and if we were not happy with the changes we made, we could revert back to this to reconsider how we would work to alter and improve it.


Further Editing on Adobe Premier Pro...

We visited the college on one further occasion after our first trip, in order to make more progress in the editing of our piece. However, we were told shortly after our second visit that we would no longer be able to visit the college to use their facilities due to health and safety issues, and lack of completed risk assessments. This proved to be a challenge for our group, as none of us owned the 'Adobe Premier Pro' software, so we could not carry on editing using this. We were forced to find different editing software that we had access to, in order to complete the edit of our music video, so we decided we would transition to iMovie. The need for transition prompted another issue for ur group, which was that we were unable to convert our current draft of the video from a Premier Pro file to one that could be edited on iMovie. This meant that we had to start our edit from scratch again, which was a set back to us. Thankfully, we had exported our draft as an MP4, so we could view what we had edited so far, and we were then able to follow this as a template to recreate it on iMovie.

Filming Day: Bathroom Shots

Location: Hannah's house

Date: 8th of December

Members of the group present: Hannah Martin and Jasmine Greene

Our aim for this filming session was to capture some shots of Hannah appearing to have a breakdown in the bathroom. We chose this location as we wanted to use the mirror in order to create some interesting shots, with dimension and depth to them.

Only Hannah and I were able to film on this occasion, as we decided to do it very last minute. It was not an issue to us, as it was only a very short filming session, as Hannah and I were scheduled to spend the evening studying prior to arranging to do this.

We encountered an issue with showing Hannah's emotion effectively on the camera. We attempted to create the effect that Hannah was crying, by her administering eye drops. We found that you could not see the fake tears on camera, so we had to brainstorm a way to demonstrate the emotion more clearly. As a result, we then applied heavy coats of mascara to her eyelashes that Hannah attempted to smudge with the liquid from the eye drops, to give the effect that her make-up was running. However, we found this to be ineffective, too. The make-up smudged too much and did not give the desired effect. Hannah and I decided that we would not focus on showing emotion through tears, and she removed the make-up. We decided that she would solely use her body language and facial expressions to portray her emotional breakdown. Our attempts can be seen in the video below:

In the bathroom location, we did encounter another problem; the lighting. Though the lighting appeared to be ok, the nature of the colour of the lighting meant that it was difficult for the camera to focus correctly. You can hear me telling Hannah about the difficulties that I was having focusing the camera, and trying to make sure the footage was not grainy:

Filming Day: Scenes with Josh

Location(s): Josh's house (Pencoed), Woodland's field (Pencoed) and the common (Pencoed).

Date: 2nd of December

Group members present: Hannah Martin and Jasmine Greene. Josh East is also present.

We wanted to use this day to film the majority of the shots in our piece that would be representative of the relationship between Josh and Hannah's characters. Josh had very little availability at this time, so we dedicated the entire day to filming all of the shots that we would need to be filmed in these locations. Unfortunately, there was very little availability with the members of our group on this day. However, as we had to work around Josh's availability in this instance, we decided that we must film despite only having two group members present. I was responsible for direction and camera work, as I had done on previous occasions, which mean that the footage did not suffer in terms of its quality and content, because I had experience in doing this. 

As we were attempting to display the relationship between the characters, we made sure to include shots that connoted a normal relationship. However, we chose to dress Hannah and Josh in dark clothing, as we thought this would be symbolic of the misery that surrounds Hannah's character in this relationship, despite it appearing to be a very stereotypical relationship. Of course, it was necessary for us to capture shots that displayed a time when Hannah did feel at least some happiness in the relationship, which we made sure to film with good lighting. These were often filmed outside, as the natural light was bright and the denoted a content mood. We believed that including shots that showed a decline in the happiness within the relationship would help to anchor the narrative, as the audience would be able to compare the shots in which the couple were happy, to those when they are not, providing an explicit demonstration of the fact their relationship was disintegrating.

Happy:

We used this shot to be demonstrative of the happy part of their relationship. We did this by having Josh show Hannah physical affection, and by having the lighting quite bright. However, we still wanted to show that Hannah was not entirely comfortable in the relationship, which we attempted to do by having her not react to the affection. Her body language allows the audience to perceive that she is uncomfortable with it.

Miserable: 

We used this shot to highlight part of the decline in their relationship. In this two shot, Hannah is positioned with her back to Josh. This suggests that she wants to put their relationship behind her and move on from this, and also, that she does not wish to focus on him as it would make her feel even worse. The contrast to Hannah acting unhappy, is provided by Josh sleeping in the background. This is reflective of how Josh's character is blissfully unaware of Hannah's character feels, and he feels very content in the relationship.

One difficulty we encountered whilst filming was attempting to achieve the birds eye shot that we wanted of Hannah and Josh lying in bed together. We only wanted to see their head and shoulders in the shot, meaning we wanted to achieve a close up, birds eye, two shot. Josh's ceiling is slanted above his bed, due to the nature of his house, which meant there was not a lot of room to achieve the shot. Additionally, I had initially planned to stand on a stool to film above them, but having the stool at the end of the bed meant the shot was not centred where we wanted it to be. Therefore, I had to get up onto the bed and stand between Hannah and Josh, in which I leaned over them to obtain the shot. This was safe, but as the bed is soft underfoot, it meant that it was difficult to maintain a shot that was not shaky.

Here are two clips that demonstrate my directing on set:

Prop List

To ensure we were organised when filming, we needed to compile a list of the props that we would use throughout the filming process. We needed to identify what scenes we would use the props in, so we could make sure that we had everything we needed when going to location to film.

Here are the props that we will be using in our music video:

The prop list may be subject to change, depending on the scene/shot changes.

Filming Day: Winter Wonderland

Location: Winter Wonderland, Cardiff Central

Date: 15th of November

Group members present: Hannah Martin, Jade Dibble, Caitlin Elward and Jasmine Greene






We chose to use this location to film, as we wanted to make use of the bright and colourful lighting that this venue has. We thought that these shots would be representative of the LGBT+ themes within our video, and they would create a stark contrast to the more melancholy coloured shots with Josh. In the evening, the rides light up, which in previous years has created some wonderful landscape photography opportunities for us. It was these experiences that made us consider this location, as we knew that it looked good on camera.

We arrived at location just prior to 5pm, to ensure that we could start filming at that time. We had worked out with our previous visit to scout the location, that 5pm was the optimum time for us to film. The lighting at this time mean that the colourful lights would stand out very prominently against the dark background in shots. We were concerned about the quality of the shots we would have achieved in dark lighting, as the filming equipment we had was not advanced enough to film with flawless quality in minimal lighting. However, we discovered that the lighting at 5pm was perfect, as it did not cause the footage to be grainy, and it did not reduce the quality as we had previously worried about.

We planned the shots we would film in this location carefully. We wanted to use them to enhance the focus on the developing relationship between Jade and Hannah's characters. As a result of this, we ensured that we would use multiple two shots, and also P.O.V shots. As demonstrated on the left, the P.O.V shot aims to help to develop the audiences understanding of the relationship between the two females, by giving the audience the impression that they are viewing Jade's characters through the eyes of Hannah's character, as the shot is from her perspective. This helps the audience to engage, as they feel directly involved in the narrative.

A problem...

Whilst we were filming in this location, we did encounter certain issues. Most were very minor, however, there was one in particular that caused problems; the volume of members of the public present at the location.

The day we chose to film on was a Friday, as this was the only night we could organise to travel there together in which we were all free. Winter Wonderland is always very busy on a Friday night, as it is the beginning of the weekend, however, we had to make it work. It was necessary for us to achieve what we needed to when filming on this day as we were not aware of a time that we could revisit the location.

When filming, we found that people would walk in front of the camera, and this would obstruct and ruin the shot that we were trying to achieve. This difficulty can be demonstrated in this clip:

It was off-putting for Hannah and Jade whilst they were acting, as I often had to stop and start scenes spontaneously due to where people were walking, or in regards to us finding a gap in the crowd. However, they were both very professional and worked past these difficulties.

In my role as director, I was responsible for instructing what would go on in a scene. I had to tell Jade and Hannah what to do, and how to do it, whilst describing the shot that I wanted to achieve out of it. Here is a short video in which you can hear me directing Jade and Hannah:

Casting

During the creation process of our AS thriller opening sequence, we discovered that it was very difficult to gather people to act in our music video. Therefore, we had to resort to using people within our media class.

We encountered the same problem this year, as we could not gather any people external to our media class to be involved, as only minimal people showed interest. It was then found that these individuals were not able to adere to our filming schedule, so they had to be discounted from our selection.

We chose the cast of our video out of willing individuals in our media class. The roles and subsequent candidates are as follows:

Female Roles:

• Female protagonist
• Best friend/love interest

Candidates:

Name: Hannah Martin

Age: 17 

Role: Female protagonist

It was decided that Hannah would take on the role of the female protagonist, as she was the most comfortable in acting, due to her previous experience studying Drama, and performing in school productions. Hannah has good relationships with everyone in the media class, which meant that she would be able to work well with whoever we chose to co-star in the video with her. 

Name: Jade Dibble

Age: 17 

Role: Best friend/love interest

We thought that Jade would be most suitable for the role of the best friend/love interest, as she has also had previous acting experience, from her studies of drama. Jade also has a very close friendship with Hannah, which we hoped would contribute to ease of filming the more relationship orientated scenes.

Name: Caitlin Elward

Age: 17

Role: N/A

After consideration, Caitlin confessed that she did not feel that she would be entirely comfortable in front of the camera. This meant that she was not a suitable candidate to be cast in the video, as obviously, the foundation of the production is video based.

Name: Jasmine Greene

Age: 17

Role: N/A

We decided that I was more suited to roles behind the camera, as this is where I am most confident. As I have taken on the role of director, it would be difficult for me to fulfil this role effectively, whilst actually having to act in the piece.

Male Roles:

• The boyfriend

Candidates:

Name: Josh East
Age: 18
Role: The boyfriend (Actual)

Josh was not our original choice for the role of the boyfriend in our piece, as he has a lot of other commitments outside of school time. However, after discovering Rhys had broken his leg, Josh agreed to step in and help us with the video. We made an effort to work our filming schedule around Josh's other commitments, as he had volunteered to help us.

Name: Rhys Jones
Age: 18
Role: The boyfriend (Initial)

We chose Rhys to play the role of the boyfriend in our music video, as his schedule was more free to allow us to organising filming times well. However, Rhys was unable to fulfil his role in the music video, due to breaking his leg. 

Filming Day: Bridgend Town

Location: Bridgend Town

Date: 13th November 2017

Group Members Present: Hannah Martin, Jade Dibble and Caitlin Elward

Our use of this location was inspired by alternative genre music videos we had seen. We wanted to film in a dingy, urban environment, that did not have particularly stimulating mise-en-scene. Our inspiration as a group for this location came from watching videos such as 'Sweater Weather' by The Neighbourhood:

We thought that a location like this would help to highlight our protagonists emotional trauma, as the dark lighting would connote the misery that she feels. We wanted to use a location that was a blank canvas, as this would mean the protagonist would stand out against, and this would show her importance in the piece. We decided that filming in a location like to this would reflect the loneliness and the isolation of Hannah's character.

Unfortunately, due to other commitments I had with school, I was unable to attend this day of filming. However, before my group left, we had a discussion as to what the objectives of the filming day would be, and what we wanted to have achieved by the end of the day. Additionally, when they arrived back at school, they updated me on what they had filmed, and showed me the footage that they had gotten.

This was my favourite shot that they achieved on this day. The sunlight shining through the window isolates Hannah in this shot, which sets her apart from the dark background. This helps to portray the isolation of her character, and how to her, the world feels dark because of the emotional trauma she is experiencing. In this shot, she is holding a cigarette, demonstrating the bad coping methods she has turned to in order to try to cope with her self-hatred and denial. Cigarettes are common props used in alternative music videos, and have become conventional to their mise-en-scene.

The purpose of this over the shoulder shot is to demonstrate the distance between the two characters, and to demonstrate the longing that Hannah's character feels for Jade's character via her facial expression. As with the nature of over the shoulder shots, its purpose is to show the relationship between the characters, so Hannah is purposely positioned quite far away from Jade. Hannah is stood in such a way that makes you perceive that she wants to get closer to Jade, which represents her wanting to get closer to her emotionally.

The long two shot shown here has the purpose of demonstrating how Hannah's character is influenced by Jade's. We wanted to demonstrate the protagonists development of feelings for Jade's character, which we thought we could encompass in our video effectively through making it seem as though Hannah's character holds Jade's character on a pedestal and idolises her. Jade is influencing Hannah's characters to smoke, and the fact that she does whatever is suggested to her by Jade in an attempt to impress her, shows that her rational thoughts are overshadowed by her feelings.

In all of these shots, we focused on the lighting to make sure that it appeared dreary and miserable, to create a sense of pathetic fallacy, reflective of the protagonists clouded mind. We made sure that Hannah and Jade were in dark clothing, which is a common convention of alternative videos. They often focus their aesthetic around dark colours and lighting, and wear grunge-style clothing.

Risk Assessment

Before we began filming in each location, we needed to carry out a risk assessment of where we would be filming. Carrying out a risk assessment in necessary to ensure the safety of our actors and filming crew, throughout the filming process. Assessing the risks can allow us to implement control measures, so that we can reduce the probability of incidents happening.

To complete the risk assessment, we needed to assess the likelihood and severity of the risk, which we did by using this grid that we found on the internet:

Our Risk Assessment:

Group Roles

During the production of any media piece, there must be a highly skilled, enthusiastic and committed crew. Each individual must have their own assigned role, which is suited to their area of expertise, as this ensures that the production of the final piece will be of the very best standards possible. Roles within the crew also prevents confusion in responsibility throughout the production of the piece.

As we want our music video to be of the best standard possible, we decided that it was important for us to allocate roles within our group. This would also make the production process a little easier for us, as we would be clear on our responsibilities.

Obviously, despite us having our assigned roles, there will be areas of production that we will work on together. The planning of our piece, such as the narrative ideas and the storyboard, need to be contributed to by everyone in the group. Having each of us input to the ideas for the video will make sure that the piece is the best it can be, and that the narrative is as fully developed as possible.

After sitting down to assess the attributes of each of us, these are the group roles we decided:

Director:

The role of the director is to oversee the production as a whole. They are in charge of directing people on set whilst filming is taking place, to make sure that the scenes that are shot are suitable for use in the video. The director makes sure that the filming process runs as smoothly as possible, by having a clear knowledge of the aims of filming each day, and by monitoring the roles of the other crew members to make sure everything is being completed to a necessary standard.

Jasmine Greene

It was decided that I would be the director of the music video, as I have strong leadership skills. I am innovative, so I can improvise on ideas if we encounter problems with filming certain shots whilst we are on set. I am also a strong communicator, which means I am able to explain my ideas to the group well, and that I am able to direct them properly in terms of minor details within each shot. Being able to communicate with my team also allows me to be able to monitor everyone's progress and make sure that all tasks are being completed, and to the necessary standard.




Producer:

The role of producer predominantly involves planning and organising all aspects of production. It involves making schedules for filming in co-ordination with cast members' availability, co-ordinating editing and overseeing the process, and arranging any props that are needed for filming. They also lead the casting process.

Jade Dibble

We chose Jade to be the producer in our group as she is a very organised individual. She is skilled at planning and organising, and enjoys making schedules. Jade is also a good communicator, therefore, she can be relied on to converse with cast and crew members to ensure their availability, and then organise a schedule around this. Jade is also very observant, which means that she will be the perfect candidate to oversee the production process alongside the director.






Editor:

The editor is responsible for the post-production of the film. They need an incredible eye for detail, as well as the intuitive nature to decide which is the most interesting, yet logical, order for the footage to go in. They must also have the ability to be able to match the footage to the music, to ensure that it flows well.

Hannah Martin

We decided that Hannah would be responsible for editing as we know she is very methodical to her approach to tasks, and does pay meticulous attention to detail. Her creative mind allows her to make excellent decisions when it comes to what she believes the audience will most enjoy. Hannah is also musically talented, and therefore, is suited to making sure that the editing fits to the rhythm of the song.







Costume and Make-up:

To be in charge of costume and make-up, an individual must be fashionable, and must be skilled at applying make-up. The person chosen for this role must also have the ability to pay attention to detail, as they need to ensure that there are no continuity errors in wardrobe or make-up areas.

Caitlin Elward

Caitlin was extremely suitable for this role, as she is a very skilled make-up artist, and has a good eye for fashion. Her role will involve putting together outfits and creating make-up looks that are symbolic in terms of their placement in the video. The costume and make-up is essential to add to the aesthetics of the video. Additionally, Caitlin will use her organisation skills to create a diary of outfits and make-up, to avoid any continuity errors.

Audience Profiling

I have used the information I gathered via the target audience questionnaire, in order to create an audience profile for the possible target audience for my music video. I created the audience profile using Xtensio, and my creation is pictured below:

Some observations and justifications of our target audience...

We believe our target age range is suitable as the actors in the music video will be 17-18 years of age, meaning the characters will be relatable to this audience. Additionally, we have chosen not to specify a gender that we will target the video towards, as there will be both males and females in our video. Our piece will be made suitable for males and females, as we found that both genders watch music videos quite frequently, so it is important that the piece has diverse appeal.

Our video will be suitable for individuals that are single, or in a relationship. We aim to tackle the theme of relationships and self-acceptance, and we hope these themes would appeal to people in all relationships statuses.

We found that the methods of marketing and distribution that our target market liked the most were television and online/social media. These were shortly followed by the option of mobile phone, which highlights that our target audience are very competent in use of technology.

UK Tribes and Audio-Visual Identities:

Using the uktribes.com website, I was able to conduct some further research into my target audience, and gain a more enlightened perception of my potential audience profile.




My target audience are part of the alternative tribe, and pictured to the right are some examples of smaller niche groups that would identify as part of my target audience.





Here is some information about the alternative tribe that was on the website. It gives an insight into their trends, lifestyle and interests:

 My target audience fall into both the "Vod:Bingers" and "Short: Snaps" AV:IDS categories. AV:IDS stands for audio-visual identities, which refers to anything that people watch or hear. The age range of my target audience spans both of these, which means they are both applicable to my potential viewers.


Here is some information about these AV:IDS profiles that I found on the website. They include information on the consumer habits of individuals, and some information about their lifestyles:

Draft Storyboard

Seen below are pictures of the first draft of our storyboard:

Our draft storyboard was created over a number of days. We began it during a session in which we brainstormed what our video could potentially look like. We considered how we would use mise-en-scene symbolically, and how we could use it in our piece to make it visually appealing. We talked about how we could use cinematography in order to help portray the narrative of our piece, by using close up shots and extreme close ups to signify importance of elements, and to portray the emotion of the characters. We also spoke about significant lyrics within the song and considered what shots we would use to represent them. 

We found creating the first draft of our storyboard to be challenging, as it was something that we were starting entirely from scratch. Though having full creative control over the project was something we liked, it was a very daunting task when you have to start getting your ideas down on paper, and turning them into a plan for a piece that could be viable. Once we got into the process, however, we found that it was an enjoyable task.

Over the process, our storyboard will change and develop. During the production process, we will conduct more research (particularly into already existing products) that will influence changes to our original plans. Other influences will include experimentation with shots, and what we are faced with when we reach location. 

Contingency Plan

A contingency plan is vital when undertaking a creative project, to ensure that the production process can still run as smoothly as possible if you run into any problems. The contingency plan outlines any disruptions to filming that may occur, and how we will overcome these issues.

For our contingency plan, we needed to consider the availability of the members of our group, possible weather conditions and methods of travel to filming locations. We decided that these are the factors that would be most likely to go wrong/cause us problems during filming, for these reasons:

The availability of our group - Members of our group have lots of other commitments outside of school time, such as part time jobs, which means that they may not always be able to attend filming sessions. It is difficult to arrange a period of time in which all members of our group are free for a long enough period to go out to location and film.

Weather conditions - The weather is out of our control, so it is always a possibility that this may affect our ability to film; especially as we are using a multitude of outdoor locations to film in.

Methods of travel - No members of our group have the ability to drive, and therefore, we are reliant on being able to have lifts from other people. We will have to attempt to schedule filming around the availability of people that will be giving us lifts.

Our Contingency Plan

Availability of our group - If Hannah is unable to film, then we will have to reschedule our filming session. This is because Hannah plays the role of the protagonist in our piece, which means that she is included in nearly every shot in the music video.

Josh and Jade are featured in many shots within the video, so it is important that at least one of them is present at most of our filming days. If one of them becomes unavailable, we will attempt to arrange to film with the other, so that time is not wasted. They are not initially planned to feature together in any shots, which means that it is not necessary for them both to be present. If we know Josh is unavailable on an occasion in advance, then we will attempt to schedule to film with Jade on this day.

It is essential that there is a member of the group available to operate the camera when we are scheduled to film. It was decided that I will be the main camera operator, and if I am unable to attend a filming session, then Caitlin will take on this role. However, if neither Caitlin or myself are able to attend, Jade will have to be the one responsible for filming. This will mean that during these shooting sessions, scenes with only Hannah, or with Hannah and Josh can be filmed. We would be unable to shoot scenes with Hannah and Jade, as although Josh is in our film, he is not in our group, which means it would be unfair to ask him to assist us in this way unless it was absolutely necessary we filmed on that occasion. If no one is available to operate the camera, then filming will be required to be rescheduled.

In order to be able to communicate effectively about our scheduled filming days, we have created a group chat on Facebook. This allows us to have a place to discuss times, and also provides a platform for people to use to tell the whole group that they are suddenly unavailable, rather than having to message everyone separately. This also allows for ease of attempting to alter the filming arrangements if the original plans have fallen through, as we could see who else was available.

In Jade's role as the producer, she is responsible for making a filming schedule, and co-ordinating when everyone is available. This proves to be difficult due to the late issuing of work rota's for some members of our group, which means that there may be a few last minute changes to schedules. In order to try and combat this problem, we will have multiple filming plans that we could carry out on each day that are reserves for the original plans. This will mean that we will not need to waste the time that we have allotted to filming, and it will help us keep on track with our time management plan.

Poor weather conditions - Unfortunately, the time in which our production process will take place is winter. This means that it is likely that we will be faced with a lot of bad weather, which has the ability to be the reason of cancelling a scheduled filming session. With review of the weather forecast, we will attempt to arrange filming for days that weather conditions are meant to be ok. However, as the weather is so unpredictable, if we find we have a reasonable day with lots of time available, we will attempt to film as many of the outdoor shots we have planned as possible. This would prove to be an advantage to us if we were hit with a period of bad weather, as we would have all of this footage to work with during this time. Additionally, if we make sure that we film outside on any days that there is appropriate filming conditions, we would be able to film all of the indoor shots during a period of bad weather.

Methods of travel - Relying on friends and family for lifts to filming locations that are not accessible by public transport can prove to be unreliable. As we have to work around the schedule of those people, this limits our availability to film. We will not be able to venture to filming locations as of when we would like to, which adds pressure to our filming sessions, as we will have to ensure that we film everything well, and that we film as much as we can in the time we have at each location. If no one is available to give us a lift, then we will be unable to film.

As an attempt to try and combat this, we have tried to mostly choose filming locations that we could reach by public transport, or that we could walk to. This would mean we would be able to get there without the necessity for anyone to drive us there. Additionally, to attempt to alleviate pressure of filming in locations that we cannot access without getting a lift, we will try to come to agreements with certain people of when they will be available to take us to location. Planning this in advance will help us to be able to fit our schedule around their commitments and their availability, to try to make sure that we stick to our project timeline.

If our arranged lift cancels last minute, we will attempt to arrange another lift. If this is not possible, then we would have to cancel filming on that day, and reschedule it. However, if we were approaching our filming deadline, we may have to brainstorm a similar filming location to those we have planned, and making the best of what we can access ourselves at that point.

Target Audience

In order to identify the target audience for our music video, it was vital that we created a questionnaire. Below is a PowerPoint presentation that I have uploaded to SlideShare that details the results of the questionnaire, and includes analysis of these results.

Audience research from Jasmine Greene

As a result of our target audience research that we carried out through our questionnaire, we will aiming to create a music video that is suitable for both males and females between the ages of 16-20. We will create a narrative music video for a song of the alternative genre. We will focus on developing the narrative so that it is interesting, and we will ensure that the cinematography of the piece is varied and enticing. We will look to distribute our music video on YouTube to begin with, as this platform is free and easily accessible, and is used frequently by our identified target audience. We will aim to have our music video distributed via other methods, however, TV marketing is expensive unless the song is featured in chart shows.

Filming Schedule

Here is a filming schedule that we created so that we all knew what days we were expected to film. This also provided us with a basis to make sure that we were on schedule with filming, and including what the aim of the shots were for each day gave us an idea of what we had left to film. 

Here is the filming schedule we created:

In compliance with our contingency plan, we needed to allot time for any extra filming that may be needed. Here are the extra days that we dedicated to filming if we needed them:

The filming schedule may be subject to change last minute, due a variety of reasons. However, having produced a schedule means that we are able to keep track of what has and has not been filmed, and then we can attempt to rearrange filming/arrange to film something else in compliance with what we have not marked off on the filming schedule.

Filming Locations

It is vital that after deciding on the narrative of the piece, and after having brainstormed some ideas for scenes and shots, that you venture out to scout locations to film at. The locations that you choose must be suitable for to film in, the mise-en-scene must be appropriate and they must be accessible for your cast and crew.

We sat down as a group and, considering our initial ideas for our music video, we came up with a list of some of the locations types that we would need. We followed this by identifying locations similar to these in our area, and we then set aside time to go and assess these locations for their suitability.

Locations types needed:

• A beach
• Dingy/graffitied areas
• A house
• A plain white wall
• Open fields/natural places
• Somewhere with bright and colourful lights

Locations similar to these near us:

Beach:

• Ogmore-by-Sea
• Rest Bay, Porthcawl
• Southerndown

Dingy/graffitied areas:

• Multi-story car park in Bridgend town 
• Graffiti wall in Cardiff Central

A house:

• Josh's house
• Jade's house
• Hannah's house

A plain white wall:

• Shopping arcade in Bridgend town

Somewhere with bright and colourful lights:

• Winter Wonderland in Cardiff

Assessing the locations:

The beach we chose: Ogmore-by-Sea 

Ogmore-by-Sea is the beach nearest to us, and therefore, it was the first place that we thought of when we knew that we wanted to film some scenes at the beach. We have all visited this location many times, yet we still went out to visit the beach again, to assess its suitability for filming.


Upon visiting the location, we found that it would be a very suitable place for us to film. There were a variety of different levels on which to film, which would allow for opportunity to gain lots of interesting shots via different angles. We also thought that the different surfaces that were available, such as pebbles, rocks, grass and sand would provide interesting mise-en-scene. Additionally, these varied surfaces would provide the ability for us to acquire a lot of shots that had a similar look to them, but that were all different, which subsequently would make the overall look of the scene more appealing to the viewer.

We visited Ogmore-by-Sea on a relatively bright day, which allowed us to get an idea of how we could use the scenery to connote a happy atmosphere. However, from having visited here on many occasions, we knew that if the weather was gloomy, the scenery could very much reflect a melancholic mood. We thought that we could use this to highlight the misery that the protagonist feels with her boyfriend, and that it could act as pathetic fallacy.

We found the pebbled surface to be difficult to walk on, and we thought the uneven surface may provide difficulty in maintaining steady tracking shots, etc. However, we thought that this could be overcome by wearing appropriate footwear, and by choosing our paths carefully.

The beach is very open, which means that it can be very windy there. This is a disadvantage of the location, as it may have an impact on the look of the shots that we would attempt to achieve, particularly with the protagonist's long hair. This is something that can be expected of most coastal locations, particularly in the winter months, which is when our filming period is.

Ogmore-by Sea is the closest beach to us, at about a 15 minute drive. It was important to us to chose the best location for filming, but also had to make sure that it was within a reasonable distance, due to us having to be able to obtain lifts there.

Beach: Rest Bay, Porthcawl

Though Rest Bay is one of the beaches in our local area, it is the furthest away. It is also difficult to reach by public transport, as there is no train station, which means that unfortunately, we were not able to visit this beach to assess it for filming. Though we know the beach the beach very well, the difficulty we faced in trying to get there to scout the location, showed us that we would not be able to feature Rest Bay in our music video.

Beach: Southerndown

Southerndown beach is just a little further in the car than Ogmore-by-Sea. However, the location is a lot more remote.

We visited Southerndown in the evening after school, which meant that the sun was setting. This provided a really nice shot, as is pictured to the left, and this provided us with some inspiration of how we could use a setting sun in our piece to signify the end of the protagonist's relationship with her boyfriend, and to signify that Hannah's character is reaching new horizons.

An advantage of the relatively remote location is that the beach is often clear of people, especially in winter months. The beach is less open than Ogmore-by-Sea, as the pebble beach falls in between two cliffs, which is an advantage as it meant that it was more protected from the wind.

The cliff edges in Southerndown provided a unique platform for some very poignant shots. Though, in order to make these shots look their best and create the desired effect/mood, we discovered that we would have to stand very close to the edge.

We decided that this location would not be suitable for our group, due to its relatively remote location, and the fact that we were concerned for the safety of our cast and crew in certain areas that we desired to film in.

The dingy/graffitied area we chose: Multi-story car park in Bridgend town

Caitlin had recently used this location, and therefore, we did not re-visit it to scout it. Caitlin had told us that she thought there were multiple locations within the car park that were fitting with what we wanted to use. She said that there was a stairwell that we could use, that was very similar to the one in the image below that inspired us to include a shot similar to it.

Caitlin had said that there were window adjacent to the staircase that, at midday when she was there, the sun shone through that acted as a spotlight. We thought this would be very useful for us to film a shot with Hannah sat on the stairs, as the light would shine on her, making her the focal point of the shot. However, it would mean that the rest of the staircase would appear darker, making it look more even more dingy, which would help to create a gloomy atmosphere.

There was also a large white wall close to the entrance of the stairwell, which would is something that we wanted to use in our video. We desired to have a shot of Hannah stood against the white wall, to signify her isolation. We also had the idea to have her wearing a white t-shirt, that we would gradually cover with splashes of coloured paint between shots, taking inspiration from stop-motion filming techniques. The colour in this shot would be another method of including LGBT+ flag colours/rainbow colour imagery that we wanted to include throughout the video to signify the protagonist's sexuality. 

We chose to use this location as we could reach it easily by just a 5 minute train journey. This meant that we would not have to rely on lifts from anyone, which meant that the location would be convenient for our group. 

Caitlin also mentioned that there was a graffitied section of the carpark wall outside, which meant that the location incorporated everything that we were looking for. The graffiti wall would provide a contrast to the white wall, and the graffiti imagery is conventional to be included in alternative music videos. Additionally, as we had planned to have the protagonist drinking alcohol/smoking against the wall, as part of her breakdown sequence, we knew that there is a societal association between graffiti, drinking and smoking.

Dingy/graffitied area: Graffiti wall in Cardiff Central

 As a group we were aware of this location next to the Principality Stadium along the boardwalk. However, we wanted to assess the location as none of us had visited there previously.

We caught the train in Cardiff Central one evening after school, but fitting with the time of year, it was just starting to get dark. Thankfully, this did not affect our ability to assess the location for filming use, and we actually thought that the slightly dark lighting provided a nice contrast to the graffiti wall that was popping with colour.

As you can see from the photo above on the left, we trialled some shot types to get an idea of if the location would be suitable. We liked the busyness of the graffiti, and we thought that this could be useful to reflect the confused nature of the character, and be representative of her overflowing thoughts.

As shown in the picture above, there were multiple different graffiti wall designs, which gave us the idea of creating a montage from us replicating a shot that we would take of Hannah in front of one of the walls, in front of each of the different walls, to give the effect that the background was changing.

This location is a 20 minute train journey away from us, which is a manageable distance for us to commute. However, the trains to and from where we are based to this location only run once an hour. This would make it more difficult for us to be able to get here and be able to film unless we had a considerable amount of time at one time.

We decided that this would not be our primary choice of location, though we may visit here to film if we think that it will improve the look of our piece.

Houses: Josh's, Hannah's and Jade's

These were locations that, of course, we were all very familiar with, and we decided that we would feature all three of these locations in our piece. We needed three different houses, as we needed one to represent the houses of each of Josh, Hannah and Jade's characters.

When creating the opening sequence for a thriller film for our AS level piece, we filmed it in Josh's house, so we knew that it was suitable for filming. We knew that as it was Josh's house that it would be suitable to use to represent the relationship between Josh and Hannah's characters, as we could use Josh's room., which is a stereotypical presentation of a male's bedroom.

Hannah's house will be suitable to film the party scene, as she will have just moved house at this point. This will mean that there will be limited decor, and that the living room will be a blank canvas for us to use. Hannah's bedroom will be very neutral and bare when she moves in, which we will use to reflect how her character feels numb and empty.

Jade's house will be featured in our video as Jade's characters house. The decor in Jade's bedroom is very feminine and this is will provide an excellent contrast between that of Josh's room, which will be reflective of the difference between Josh and Jade's characters, and subsequently, will highlight the change the difference in Hannah's sexuality.

Plain white wall: Shopping arcade in Bridgend town

 As previously mentioned in the post, we were looking for a location with a plain white wall that we could use for some shots of the protagonist.

We remembered as a group that in Bridgend town, there was a section of a shopping arcade that had recently been painted white, which can be seen in the pictures on the left.
We liked that the whole area was very plain, which meant that it fitted the blank canvas look that we wanted. Additionally, the walls are tall, which would give us the ability to film a long shot of Hannah, but still have the whole background plain.

We decided that we would not use this location, however, as due to it being the entrance space to a shopping centre it, it is frequently used by lots of people. If we were to film here, we could inconvenience shoppers, which means that it is not a suitable location.

An image I found online

Bright and colourful lights: Winter Wonderland in Cardiff

We knew that Winter Wonderland was a beautiful location that features lots of bright and colourful lights. We thought that it would allow us to create some visually beautiful shots, whilst the colour would be representative of our narrative that focuses on sexuality. We also thought that the lights created a magical effect, which would make the sequence of footage very dream-like. We thought that this could highlight how Hannah's character feels as though she is dreaming; now that she finally has embraced her sexuality, she feels free.

We visited this location on the same day as we did the graffiti wall, as we were already in Cardiff Central. As we got there, it was dark, which accentuated the colour of lights. Therefore, we decided that when we would use the location to film, we would visit in the evening.

We had to consider that this venue is very popular, and that it gets very busy in the evenings. Additionally, many of the venders here sell hot drinks, which means we will need to be cautious when filming whilst walking through the crowds, to avoid bumping into anyone.