SHOOTS:

Main Shoot: Seward Studio

(ABOVE: Line by line shot list/plan, highlighting what we needed to shoot)

During the main shoot, we focused a lot on shots that we had missed out on the practice shoot and the shots which didn't look up to standard.

BAND MEMBER CONTRACTS:

To ensure our band members were fully on board with the project we wrote out a contract for each of them, signed by us and then by them. This was to confirm that they would be available on all the shoot days as scheduled and would not have to pull out later in the project.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Technical Rehearsal: Video

Band Images:

Although just test photos of the band, I decided that since we'd decided on a name and font that I would try and create some simple band images and I am rather pleased with the results and I hope that they can be used somewhere in our production, maybe on the website somewhere...

Band Name & Font:

We decided after a long time and much thought that our band would be called 'The Fix'. The name 'The Fix' connotes the idea of the band being an obsession - something that the fans cannot live without. We then proceeded to find a good font for the band name to act as the band's logo and we found the font 'coalition' on dafont.com...

Technical Rehearsal

We had a successful technical rehearsal on thursday in the Seward Studio and I am currently editing together a video of the rehearsal which I will post as soon as it's available.

We also took some tests shots of the band, and although they weren't styled properly, I edited the photos; here they are...

New Location:

We have found a new location in which we can shoot our music video - it is a photographic location about 30 minutes drive from where I live. Here are some pictures of the location:

It would be great if we could use the bottom level to take the photographs, the the ground floor level for the video as it looks very classy and connotes weath and money.

Here is a link to the website: www.lordshippark.com

First Rehearsals: Video

Technical: Seward Studio

The locationfor our music video will be in our Seward studio and the plan is to go for a purely performance based video. On tuesday we had dance sessions with the whole band who learnt a routine for the song. Not being much of a dancer myself, I got the chance to have a play with the tech in our studio - as a member of the Sound and Lights Team I had already had the basic training for this new facility. Here are some pictures I took on my phone whilst I was up in the technical area watching the band dancing...

Location: SEWARD STUDIO

Since we have now decided on a boyband, what better place to do a performance music video than our schools new Seward Studio:

We plan to make full use of the lighting capabilities and use all the floor lights so that they become a prominent feature of the video...

RECORD LABEL:

We have chosen to make 'FOCUS MUSIC' the name of our record label. FOCUS MUSIC part of the FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT company who were responsible for the film (opening 2 minutes) that we produced last year.

Change of Plan:

For various reasons we have decided that it would be best not to use my band 'Indecisive' for our music video, so instead we have gone down the boy band route following the success of our lipsync to 'Keep on Movin'' by '5ive'.

After looking through tracks from all the great boy bands we settled on the track 'Just Got Paid' by 'Nsync'. This is the perfect choice as it is a great song but was never one of Nsync's major hits, meaning that it does not have a music video already.

Track Selection Ideas:

Our group have very different musical tastes so deciding on a track to make a music video with will be an interesting task. However, as copyright of certain tracks may become an isssue we have the very real possibility of choosing a track which has yet to be released by my own band 'Indecisive'.

I showed the track to Hugh and Ciara and they said that they really liked it and would be very happy to produce the music video for the track. The advantages of doing a music video for my own band is that we will not be restricted by copyright and so will be free to post it all over the web.My band have also won £500 worth of advertising on MUZU.tv which has over 100, 000 followers on facebook alone. The plan would be to release the song and the video simultaneously when it is finished and use the advertising to draw in a big audience. Our channel on Muzu.tv has already drawn in an audience of nearly 20,000 with a similar number of video views so this big promotion for a new single with a music video will hopefully bring in a very large audience.

The single is called 'Story Without Words' and could be described as upbeat soft-rock. The band consists of drums, guitar, keys, and bass and for this song the bass player is the lead singer, with all voices joining in in the chorus. I think it's a very likeable and catchy song but also contains quite an interesting love story in the lyrics. The song was written by the bassist, David Thompson.

Camera Test:

We took the camera that we could be using to the Seeward Studio and had a go using it, locating the slow motion and all the manual settings. We also have the idea to film in 21:9 widescreen (aspect ratio used in cinematic productions) but as we don't have access to a wide angle lense we will have to fake the effect by cropping the top and the bottom off the image. In this video we have done this very thing but it is a much wider ratio than 21:9 and looks a bit ridiculous. We will hopefully however fake 21:9 and make the final production look much more cinematic and professional - a lot of music videos these days use 21:9 widescreen.

WorkShop Edit

Keep on Movin' - 5ive Lip Sync

'In The Sun' - Lip Sync

Preliminary Evaluation:

1.What do you think you learnt from Monday's workshop?

Monday's workshop taught me a lot about working on a real shoot. As I am normally behind the camera, the constant involvement gives the extremely long hours more of a purpose, but as one of the main actors for the day I got to experience life in front of the lense and I learnt a great deal.

I learnt formost the importance of timings on the shoot and getting everything done as quickly as possible with little fuss, I also learnt about how the actors need to be helped, encouraged, and complimented in order to pull the best performance out of them. As far as technical things go, the addition of the monitor was very helpful in giving a better perspective to the director of what was actually being shot, and from there he could comment on the lighting, framing, and acting very easily.

2. For you, what was the best bit of the day and why?

The best bit of the day for me was probably the library scene in which, as the main guy, everybody else would have to dance perfectly, yet I could just sit at a desk and read what was actually a dictonary!

However, I also enjoyed all the scenes in which I got to play the guitar solo, despite sometimes tedious.

3. Are you pleased with your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am pleased with the edit, and somewhat thankful that I do not have to continue to endure listening to 'In the Sun' on repeat! We edited our version of the video to the exact frame, even including 2 frame cross-disolves where they featured, and overall this makes the edit more or less exactly the same as the orginal with the footage we have to use.

One problem we encountered was the lack of light in a lot of shots, obviously we had only one day to film, but if we were to do it again, it would definately be worth spending more time trying to light each shot properly.

4. Have the lip sync tasks benefitted you in any way?  

The lip sync tasks have really helped us as we have become more efficient at editing music videos, and we have built our confidence up greatly, both in the ability to perform in a video, and in our ability to shoot and edit a video in a few hours! 

5. How do you think the work you have completed for the preliminary tasks will impact on your real music video project?  

The work completed in this preliminary task will help us a lot when producing the real thing. We can now edit quickly and confidently, and we have an idea of what we each look like as a performer so can start to make decisions about the potential cast...