Audience feedback

I have asked a number of people their opinion on their opinions of my draft as well as reviewing it with my teacher. As a result of this, I have got an idea of what I need to do to improve this draft. Below is a list of ideas for changes:

• A need to revise the exterior shots ("overly domestic looking") of the back yard to be replaced with a female singer.
• A change for a larger majority of the shots to be in back and white.
• A change in the nighttime driving shots to make the shots not black and white but more saturated and to emphasize certain details in the shot without influencing the quality of the shot.
• Rejection of the direct religious iconography in favor of a candle burning down over time in a time lapse way as well as a time lapse of the sun setting behind a hill. This can also be inter-cut with the woman as well.
• Removal of the shots of the burning paper but potentially replace with burning paper with writing on it to add more meaning to it. 

Music video draft

Here is my first draft for my music video.

I now plan collect some audience feedback responding to my music video.

Filming report dated November 10 2016

2/1, 2/3, 2/5, 2/7
For the lyric shots, I struggled (as a non-actor) with my ability to act on screen with singing the lyrics. I managed this by doing a number of takes for each lyric. I played music in real time to ensure accuracy with speed and managed this myself on the spot.

1/2
I decided to break this shot into two parts. The first half was quite simply a shot from top to bottom of the man sitting in a chair but I did have some issues with one takes being slightly blurry. The second part consisted of the man actually walking with the walking stick and so I did a shot of both the hand and the foot whilst walking

1/3
This shot was quite simple by me just facing the camera and staring at the lens which was obtained with little issue.

2/2
This shot of the head had some issues with falling out of focus when moving upwards. However, I felt that this created a preferable 'hazy' effect on the shot that fitted quite well.

2/4
I broke this shot up into two parts with the first half being a wider shot of the spine and then the second part being where the spinal shot move downwards the spine.

5/7
This shot was quite easily obtained by me just standing after being sat wearing the religious necklace and was obtained after a few takes.

Below is some of the raw footage from this shoot. This video is made up of numerous different shots.

Filming report dated November 9 2016

In this shoot, I filmed the shots that were present on the table. This shoot contained a large quantity of shots (13) with around 10 shots being completely original shots and needing extra preparation.

1/1
For this shot, I varied in the way I shot it. My first idea was to film the shot with the camera resting against my chest using the strap on the camera to keep it suspended in the air using a mini tripod to push the camera away from my body to achieve the shot. After a few takes of this shot and reviewing the footage, I decided that the shot was not what I was looking for and so decided to instead decided to use a stationary and taller tripod to gain the shot. After that, I faced minor issues with getting the money put down in the correct location to be in the shot properly. I also had issues with syncing my button pressing on the phone with the button pressing in the song. To counter these issues, I revised the shot multiple times before shooting and used real in-time music to ensure I was in time.

1/4
This shot was relatively simple by just laying the skull pendant on the table, adjusting the height on the tripod and then filming.

1/5
For this shot, I had some issues with the prop as it not only reflected light but also caused some issues with the camera falling in and out of focus. I varied a few shots of tighter frames as well as wider shots and decided that I would also trial shooting a shot of my drinking from the flask but decided in the end not to use this shot.

1/6, 2/8, 5/6
For these shots, I found it worked quite well as I had minimal issues with setting the paper alight and filming it. I did however, have to be careful that I kept the lit paper far enough away from the camera and table to avoid causing damage. The paper burnt quite quickly and so I shot my setting 2 different pieces of paper on fire and was sure to get shots of the fire at different stages throughtout such as its beginning flame, the highest point of the fire and the end of the fire. The paper did burn very quickly which did increase the risk of burning and also led to quite a mess of paper shrapnel being made after I put the fire out.
2/6
For these shots, I filmed the weapons together and separately doing shots that tracked upwards (bottom-up) from the hilt/handle of the weapons to the end. 

5/1, 5/4, 5/8

These shots of the candle were quite easy to shoot and I was able to cover 3 shots after setting up the camera but I had to be sure not to move the candle at all for continuity.

5/2
For this shot, I had little hassle with the shot as I just placed the camera in front of the camera and opened the match box. I did vary the shot on my first try at a side angle but this made it less obvious of what was happening in the shot.

5/3
This shot was also relatively easy as I just struck the match on the match box. I did two takes and ensured the box filled the frame and was not off center. I also slightly lowered the exposure rate on the camera to ensure that the bright light of the frame was not too bright. 

5/5
I had a few issues with trying to make sure that this shot worked with a tight enough frame around the bible. I also had to consider where my hands would be in the shot and also the similarity between the background and the bible itself with the brown color.

Below are some examples of the raw footage from this shoot for numerous different shots.

Filming report dated November 8 2016

In the AM shoot for today, I shot the exterior back yard shots. This shoot was relatively fast and had few issues. My intentions to use the sun's glare to create a lens flare was made possible by the bright sun at the time and the persistent yet light wind allowed detail in my shots of the wind blowing plants and windmills.
Below is the raw footage for this shoot

In this PM shoot, I filmed shot 4/1 that were the night time shots for my music video. When preparing for this shot, I was concerned about the lighting issues with the camera where the footage could be overly blurry. I resolved this issue with the camera by increasing the shutter speed which allowed the shot to be clearer and look less blurry. I filmed hand held and shot in one take as I travelled from location A to location B.
Below is the raw footage for this shoot

Ancillary- Digipak and album advert planning

As well as a music video, I am creating a digipak for the song and an album cover as well as part of the ancillary task. I am creating my digipak off of Kavinsky's album "Outrun" and specifically looking at the cover for Nightcall. I will also look at other Synthpop music album covers and digipaks to identify features and/or conventions I would like to apply to my digipak.

From these, I will draw from the male face present on the righthand side of the cover of Nightcall and will position the text in a similar fashion. I do not believe that I will use the same color scheme as this would contrast with my music video and is quite a unique style for these covers. I plan to use similar looking text to the Outrun album cover.

I found that the album cover that Tove Lo's "Habits" was released under (titled "Queen of the Clouds") is (like Kavinsky's cover for Nightcall and the cover for Royals) quite confrontational with a female face looking directly forward towards the audience. Additionally, this cover uses a black and white color scheme that I plan on using on my digipak.






Looking at other Synthpop music video covers, I have found a style from the cover "LORDE - ROYALS (CAKEDUP REMIX)" where there is a split design in the person's face that I feel would work for my album advert where I plan to vary slightly from this example and create a vertical split between the male and female's face.








I plan to use images taken during the filming period and so will not have to take any more shots at this point. My plan is to use the male's face for the front cover (present with the album's title at the top), a shot of the woman on the back cover with the list of songs from the album (as well as other details like copyright, websites and a barcode). For the interior left page I plan to have a credit page and then a shot of the back of the man's head for the disk tray cover page.

For my front cover, I considered using this cover with the man having a red eye just as the cover for "Nightcall" has. However, I ultimately decided against this as I felt that it did not fit in with the mostly black and white style of the other parts of the digipak. I also felt this detracted away from the color in the titles for "Kavinsky Outrun".






For my album advert, I plan on creating the advert design by combining artwork from my digipak, Looking at this example of an album advert, I have identified elements that I may apply in my album advert, ensuring it is encompassing of conventions of its genre.

Shooting schedule

In terms of the dates given to us for deadlines, we have been given close due dates with the most notable dates being the turnaround between the date that we begin principal photography/editing and then getting it finished. Following a change in the date to complete the research, the due date for production to wrap for the draft is November 11th. Following my planning completion (deadline November 7 2016), I will now start filming which puts me ahead of schedule.

Below is a shooting schedule for each time I plan on filming.

Date	Type of shots	Shots	Time	Props	Equipment	Actors/ crew	Location
November 8 2016	Back yard and night car	3/1 3/2 4/1	1200-1210 and 1830-1635	No props specifically	Camera Mini-tripod and camera strap (for mobile shots)	Samuel Pilsworth Additional crew	Back yard Exterior location in car
November 9 2016	Table shots	1/1 1/4 1/5 1/6 2/6 2/8 5/1 5/2 5/3 5/4 5/5 5/6 5/8	0900-1230 and 1300-1530	Skull pendant, whisky flask, paper, candle, matchbox and matches, training firearm and training knife, bible, religious cross	Camera Tripod	Samuel Pilsworth Jacob Pilsworth	Dining room
November 10 2016	Shots of man	1/2 1/3 2/1 2/2 2/3 2/4 2/5 2/7 5/7	0910-1400	Walking stick, hospital gown, religious necklace	Camera Tripod	Samuel Pilsworth Jacob Pilsworth	Dining room

Verse breakdown

For the song 'Nightcall' for my music video, I have decided that I will not use the whole song. Below are the highlighted lyrics that I will use (highlighted in yellow):

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you (there's something inside you)
It's hard to explain (it's hard to explain)
They're talking about you boy (they're talking about you boy)
But you're still the same


Here, it can be seen that I am omitting the some of the female character's lyrics (having decided between two different versions of shortening). At the 01:35 and 2:18 marks, the transitions are present in this video (shown below) where the lyrics have been removed. Here, there is a better split between the lyrics for the woman and the man that makes this a more manageable song to work with.

Having prepared my new edited song, I will now break up each set of lyrics into different scenes. These lyrics for different scenes can be seen at this Prezi:

Props, costumes and actors

For my music video, I have acquired multiple props that I feel are appropriate for the genre of Synthpop.

Firstly, I have a religious necklace that is a diamond style crucifix. This ties in with the religious element of Kavinsky's "Odd Look" where the protagonist is almost 'God-like' as he is impervious to bullets and attacks, making his appear omnipotent and beyond human (or like God himself or at least a version of God). This also adds a mysterious element to the character.

Secondly, I have a walking stick that I would like to use in my music video to help represent physical disability. As noted on my AS Media blog on disability, this can have "strong connotations that can be made from including disability in a piece of media" which I feel could prove useful for my video in matching the mysterious elements of characters in other Synthpop music videos. (http://samuelpilsworth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/considering-representing-disability-in.html)






Thirdly, I have a pendent with a skull design that I feel will add to the mysterious and dangerous element of the male character. The pendent's design symbolizes death which appears to be a present element in Synthpop music videos (or at least similar dark topics such as violence) that I found out in my research.




Fourth, a prop that I am planning to use in my music video is a hospital gown that the character will be wearing in the interior shots. This links to the walking stick to show the cause of the character's wounds. In Synthpop music videos, mysterious characters presenting evidence of things that need to be inferred is common and so I am including that in my project.







I will also have props that I will use to represent the danger of the male character and his intentions. These are a handgun and knife that will be present in shots but not actually used for violence.








For my music video, I will require one male actor that I will fill as a role.

Filming locations

For my music video, I plan to shoot scenes 1,2 and 5 in this location (left), a dining room. Close ups on the different props such as the alcohol flask, skull pendant, cross necklace, bible and fire will be shot agaisnt the table with the camera positioned above. The shots of the man, candles and matches will be shot against the white wall inbetween the curtains and cupboard. I plan on using the wooden chair present in the image but need to be sure that the chair is not overly noticable in the shot. I will likely make alterations to this location such as opening the curtains and raising the blinds so that natural light is present in the shot instead of artificial light.

For the exterior shots of nature, I will be filming in my back yard. Here, there are a number of different items that can be filmed that include plants, children's windmills and play equipment such as a climbing frame. I also plan to get some shots of the sun in my music video so I need to plan the best time when the sun is present.

For my car interior shots looking outside, I will film from the inside of a car driving between the two locations on the map (right). I plan to film at dusk but need to consider the difficulty of doing that at this point of the year as the change from daytime to nighttime natural light occurs extremely quickly.

Storyboard

Below is the storyboard for my film opening broken up into scenes 1-6. Scene 6 does not have an example shot as the scene only contains on screen titles. The example shots are either hand drawn or sourced images that should only be seen as approximate images but are a good representation of the planned shot.

Planning the narrative

In my music video, my narrative will follow a man who will be present alone in a  room and will be singing towards the camera. The man will be dressed in a hospital gown and be bald (inferring cancer or some illness). There will be inference to him being ex-military, having suffered wounds from that career (hence the clothing). The female lyrics will be matched with positive imagery whereas negative imagery will be present when the male sings. This will represent the man as potentially dangerous and even potentially with evil intention whereas the female voice represents innocence and the beauty of life.

The video will begin with the man singing towards the camera and to the environment around him. The video will then change to exterior locations when the female sings and then back to darker imagery of cars when the male sings again. After that when the female sings, the imagery will show positive imagery again showing how the male has changed.

Carrying generally negative tones, the narrative also follows quite a dark narrative but with a somewhat positive ending of the change in the man.

Planning timetable

After having completed my research into music videos as a whole and then looked specifically at Synthpop, I now feel that I understand how to create a music video that is both unique but also keeps to the characteristics and features of Synthpop music videos. I will now begin planning my music video and will begin to timetable my deadlines.

Proposed by my teacher are the following deadlines:
October 3 2016- Media Research Deadline (General and Synthpop music videos)
November 7 2016- Media Planning Deadline (Storyboard and all pre-production)
November 9-10 2016- Media Main Task (Principal photography and then editing)
November 11 2016- Main task (draft) finished
November 14 2016- Start ancillaries
November 18 2016- Ancillaries and main task finished
November 21 2016- Media Finished Task Submitted

At my current point of finishing my research by September 14 2016, I am ahead of schedule by 2/3 of a month which will allow me longer to work on and finish my project.

What have I done to improve my blog?

In my last post, I identified that I needed to make some improvements to my blog.
Firstly, I needed to increase the use of IT in my blog. Below are some examples of when I have done this and which blog this was done on:

• Addition of an mp4. example to increase ICT use and break up the post "Communication Through Eyes".
• Prezi added to "Nightcall-lyrics" to show which lyrics are placed into each scene.
• Inclusion of a Youtube video to my music video analysis of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble".
• Bubbl.us added to my blog "choosing a project" to show the different options of projects
• Slideshare on my blog FOSMV: Mise en Scene/costume/hair/make-up
• Youtube video example on my post about editing in Snythpop music videos.

I have also added more example and images to blogs to better analyze different Synthpop music videos. Additionally, I have clarified my blog about the tone of Synthpop music videos with more descriptive adjectives than just "dark" to describe the tone. I have also added more information (such as the post on audience and editing techniques) and examples to some posts about the features of Synthpop music videos as well as other details (on posts about performance space).