This is our schedule for our shoot days. This outlines what times we will be shooting, where we will be shooting, who we need and what they will wear as well as props.

This means we can mange our time more effectively because we have it laid out. This also means we wont forget any props or costume because we can tick it off the list once we have them.

We have been discussing our set for the band part as well as colours and the way the video looks as a whole. We found this country music video which has a few things in it which we like the look off.

We had two potential ideas for the band section. The first one was to have the band backstage at a gig just chilling but we felt that was not visually pleasing. We have decided to go with a more homely feel resulting in setting it in a living room/band practise room. We got the idea about having lots of vases with flowers in from the video 'If I die young'. We want the room to be covered with flowers which will be very visually pleasing because of all the colours.

This is the sort of look we want for the guitarist. Its got a retro feel to it - he is in a suit and tie which looks nice but we may need to rethink this because if our band are just chilling then would they be dressed up? 

We love the cinematography in this video - the colours are very soft but stand out. If we can we would like to copy this for our music video but we would need to talk to camera guys about this.

To FEN
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

KISS THE FUTURE

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely


Ned, Alex, Maddie

Hurtwood House School

 

This is a letter we have to send to the artist asking permission you use their song - Luckily we do not have a problem with our artist because we are using her and her song which she has agreed to already.  

To decide whether or not to go with Kiss The Future or whether to go with a different idea I went out and did a test video shoot on Fen to show the rest of the group what she was like in front of the camera. I then edited the video together to show her from different angles. The main problem was I could not get the song onto my computer therefore I had to use the live music from the filming. This means the music sounds slightly different in parts of the video but the main thing was that Fen looked good on camera.
LUCKLY she did! and the rest of the group really liked her which lead our decision to choosing Kiss The Future.

One thing we learnt from seeing this video is that she is not the best dancer in the world which means we will not shoot her dancing - instead walking. 

WHO WILL BE THE OTHER GIRL?......

The other section of our music video is of a girl walking with a suitcase therefore we need a girl. There is a girl in the year bellow us called Darcy who we thought was right for the job. Me and Alex went out and I filmed Darcy to give us an idea of what she was like on camera. We got her to play out the scene but sadly we didn't have anything for her to throw out of the suitcase which meant she had to mime(which she was very good at). She did a very good considering she had not had a rehearsal. There are moments of the video where she looks a little depressed but that is easily changeable as when we were filming we did not ask her to smile(therefore the fact that she does not look happy is understandable) Darcy has a very good face for the camera and she did not look uncomfortable at all. She was very natural in front of the camera and she is very good actress. She was very good at taking direction which is a very important aspect because we need someone who we can work with as well as them needing to look in font of the camera.

I went away and edited the video together as best as I could, adding the soundtrack of the song so we could get a feel of what this strand will look and feel like.
I have learnt from this that when we come to film the real thing we need to make it look more uplifting otherwise the audience will get bored and depressed. The way to do this is to add colour rather then have it in black and white and to make the girl smile more as she throws away her bad memories and maybe make her wear more colourful clothing.

COSTUME....

 

 We as a group have been discussing Fen's outfits for the different strands.
For the band part we thought about having her in this dark blue denim dress because it is smart casual which fits well because when we think of denim we think of dungarees. Dungarees are what country people wear so the denim would fit perfectly. After thinking about this dress for a while we decided it was to formal but luckily Fen had another denim dress which didn't look as formal.

The dress on the right is the dress she is going to wear. Its simple but looks good. Its not a dark shade of blue like the other dress which may come across as looking depressing.  



This picture is the complete outfit for the walking section of our video. We have added a green coat to the outfit because we know it will probably be cold outside when filming. The coat looks good with the outfit and makes it all look more realistic because when you go outside in October you don't normally go out in a dress[unless its hot, in which case we may get rid of the coat]. She will be wearing her cowboy country shoes which are just a nice touch as they are real cowboy boots - they make the video look more country.

The  picture bellow is a picture of what Fen will wear in the performance strand. We wanted to keep a continuity between the outfits to make the video look slick rather than having random different costumes which may look messy. The continuity is that she will be wearing a dress for each scene. The dress we found for the jamming scene is bellow. Again it is casual but it doesn't look shabby. Its a nice white dress which looks good next to the blue dress. dress(white & blue look good together).  

 

For the last strand we are having a close up on Fen's face where we will only she face upwards. This is when she will be wearing her brown hat. The best part about the all the outfits are that they are Fen's clothes which means they fit her perfectly and she will feel comfortable in them.      

ALBUM COVERS.....WEBSITE IDEA'S.....

 

 

As a group we were looking at potential website and album cover deigns and layouts. We looked at a few artists who had a similar feel to Fen.

WEBSITES                                                   

This from Sara Evans websites which I feel could have the same feel as our artists website(design). The colours are very neutral and calming which works well for a country artist because country music is very laid back and unfussy. Pop music

 and rock music's design are wacky and bold unlike country. There is a picture of Sara Evans in the website and she looks very elegant which is what we would want for Fen. Country artists don't put sexy photos of themselves on their album covers, their pictures are all about the music.

This is Kacey Musgraves website which is similar to Sara Evans in the sense that it uses soft colours and they both show the artist as a person rather than a sex symbol. I prefer Kacey's website because there is more to look at. I like the big font because it is eye catching and fun. Small touches like the repeated arrow(arrow under the words as well as the arrows allowing to move to different parts of the website) works well(continuity is a good thing). 

 On Kacey's homepage she has links to her Twitter, Instagram, Upcoming events and featured video's. This is so all her fans can follow her in what ever she is doing whether that being a concert, new music video or photo's. I found this layout to be the same on most websites therefore I feel we should defiantly use this for our artists website.

 

This is Amy Macdonald's album cover which is similar to what we want for our artist. It's simple but still has its own style. The guitar suggests she is an organic artist because she writes her music, plays the instruments and even sings (this is what similar to our artist so maybe adding a guitar to our album cover will give off the same impression as this album cover). The background is old and stained which gives the artist a retro look. The background suggests this artist has worked hard because the background is tattered and is has been around along time fighting different conditions. This may represent the artist and how they have had to work hard and fight to earn their place in the music industry. This is a positive thing because they haven't just been given their Carrera on a plate, they worked hard for it. This is how we want our artist to seen as - a hard worker. The guitar also gives of a country feel because guitars are often used by country artists.   

This is Sara Evans album cover which we can see is very country. She is outside in the countryside which is what country is all about(outside with friends drinking, horse riding etc - its all normally outside or in an open plan barn). She is wearing denim which is the country look(farmers/dungarees = denim). Its all about her in the space, not about her trying to be sexy like most pop album covers.

We want our artist to be outside for the album cover and she has a nice denim dress which she can wear as well.   

Example of a typical pop artist trying to be sexy(Normally with pop artists the image is just as or if not more important than the music whereas with country its all about the music).