Shooting schedule

09/02/2011
We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 12.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 12.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 1.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 1.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

11/02/2011
In our lesson at 2.00pm we plan to start capturing back the footage from the tapes and start editing which bits of footage worked well for the video and which didn't. As well as any footage we may need to re-take.

18/02/2011
We plan to edit and finish capturing back the footage from the first shoot in our lesson at 2.00pm.

21/02/2011- 27/02/2011 Half term break

03/03/2011
We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 12.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 12.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 1.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 1.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

04/03/2011
We plan to edit and finish capturing back the footage from the first shoot in our lesson at 2.00pm.

09/03/2011We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 1.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 1.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 2.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 2.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

11/03/2011 We plan to finish capturing back our footage from the second and first shoots in our lesson at 2.00pm.

16/03/2011 We plan to finish any filming that needs to be done, for example intercuts- interesting shots to add into the video to keep the viewer interested.

18/03/2011 We plan to have captured back all footage, possible capture the cut in's if any and start doing a rough edit in our lesson at 2.00pm.

22/03/2011
We plan to complete the rough edit of our footage- making sure all footage is in order.

25/03/2011 We plan to start doing a final edit in our lesson at 2.00pm

30/03/2011 We plan to be near the end of editing our music video and sinking the music to the video.

01/04/2011 We plan to be near the end of the editing process, to be done in our lesson at 2.00pm.

04/04/2011 We plan to have finished our music video.

Equipment list

- 3 XM2 cameras

- Lighting rig

- Green screen

- 3 x tripods

- Black tape to tape down the cables to stop tripping hazzard and make the rooms light tight.

- Costumes

- Props -flat caps, cigars and money

Health and Safety

When shooting our video we made sure that all cast and crew knew of the possible hazzards and risks of filming in a room. These risks included things such as fire hazzards, cables trailing accros the floor, dark lighting, live electrical sockets in the walls and tripod legs sticking out.This is an example of the risk assessment form we had to fill out every time we booked out the cameras and equipment as well as the Tv Studio. Health and safety is a very important factor to think about when planning to shoot a music video as the safety of the crew and actors comes before anything else. The safety precautions we took were good practise for industry and the real world. Another reason is that will be able to have a smooth as possible production experience if we make sure that all health and safety has been thought about and dealt with.

As well as the risk assessment form I made a call sheet for the group, actors and I. The call sheet is a simple list of everyone working on the film with a reference to their contact details such as mobile phone number and/or email address. This enables the group and I to be able to contact one another at any stage of the production. The call sheet is a vital document as it enables me to save time and allows me to contact anyone involved in the filming at short notice. My call sheet is on a sheet of paper as well as on my mobile phone so that if I do not have the sheet I can use my phone instead. I have the numbers of the group-film crew, the actors, the media technician Craig as well as contact details of my teachers. It is vital to be organised at all stages of the project, from start to end.

This is my call sheet..

Stroyboard

Storyboard
Our ideas are based around challenging the racial and sexual stereotypes and conventions of rap videos by using the opposite genders and race to normal rap videos. We feel there are too many dominantly male video's, where woman are used as a sex objects and men are portrayed as being in a position of power and dominance, by switching the gender's around it would cause the audience to think twice about what they are so used to watching in video's and see woman portrayed as the more powerful and dominant characters. With the added humour of the blonde females lip sinking to obvious male lyrics.

We have chosen to use a more improvisational technique by drawing out our key ideas and shots on the storyboard but continuously using similar shots of each verse and character. This storyboard is a guideline for all of the group and crew to know what we are looking for in terms of shots. We have decided to shoot against green screen as we feel that we will be able to make the lighting look more professional in a studio as well as add interesting footage onto the green screen if we want to.

We want the woman in the video to be dressed in clothing that the public would associate with urban culture and music;for example over sized jackets, hoodies, flat caps and chains as this is typical of Wu-tang Clan and Hip Hop video's and will add to our overall aim. This will be used to add humour to the video to keep it light hearted as blonde woman will be rapping and wearing male clothing.

We decided not to follow a narrative for our video because most videos in the same genre do not have narrative but instead have the characters perform to camera- engaging with the viewer.

Our key camera shots and movements will be close ups, slow zooms in and out, slow pans across and up from the feet, many different angles- from high up, from the side and from below. As well as using a variation of people that fill the frame, sometimes being solo, a duo or a group of three. We feel this will work well for our genre of Hip Hop as well as keep the viewer interested and engaged.

We have chosen to use many close up's of the characters faces to show their expressions and emotions as this will gain the attention of the audience and engage with them. We have chosen to use many mid shots as these are typical of many music videos to concentrate on the characters upper body. We have used some profile shots to add interest to our video and vary the different shot types. We have chosen to use long shots in our video as this will show the audience the characters figure expressions, dancing as well as their costumes. Finally we have chosen to use a static shot of the characters stood still staring into the camera menacingly as this will convey to the audience the power the woman have and how they can be dominant just like men.

The storyboard is a vital part of any film/video project. It allows us to pre-visualise the film before setting out on the long journey to making it. It is a working document that should be referred to at all times of the project and by all member's of the production team at all stages of the production and post production. By setting out a proposed idea on paper in a shot by shot format showing images of shots with detailed descriptions of what happens, it makes sure that the film will flow well and captivate an audience. I am glad we made a storyboard as it will be useful to look at for help and to make sure we stick to our initial idea as much as we can.

Shooting Script

After making our storyboard we created a shooting script which is used when actually filming. It enables us to set up a schedule for the day of filming including a list of shots that we intend to film. There is space in a shooting script to write information about each take of every shot to indicate which shots were best and which were not so good. This saves time in the editing process as we will only need to capture back the good footage.

This is an example of our shooting script..

Booking Equipment

In the real media industry, production equipment such as cameras, tripods and lights are usually hired from specialist video production companies. In this case you would have to pay a hiring fee and if the equipment was late to be handed in then a fee would incur. As you would have to pay for kit then it is essential that there is a tight well thought out plan and schedule set out so that you can maximise time with the production kit. Filming therefore is taken in the smallest possible time period, saving the director money in the long run.

In my case however there was no hiring fee but there were specific rules to be followed such as needing to book equipment 48 hours in advance and have it for a maximum of 2 days. This is because kit is in high demand all of the time. We will have to fill in risk assessment forms whenever taking out equipment to cover insurance and to make sure everyone is aware of the possible dangers.

Mise-en-scene

Setting and Location

The settings and locations we plan to use are a mixture of urban looking locations to compliment our Hip hop video. One of these locations is the town Brighton as this will give our video an urban feel and there are a few key locations with famous graffiti art in the back streets of the North Lanes which would create an eye catching back drop.

Another location we plan to use is Lewes, the setting being the skate park as this would create a young and urban feel because of the way the people there act and dress.

Props

The props we plan to use are dollar bills as this is a common prop in Hip hop themed videos. We would also like to use cigarettes or cigars for the same reason. These ideas for props are inspired by Wu-tang Clan's other music videos as they seem to enjoy showing their status of wealth.

Colour

My group and I would like our video to be quite vibrant in colour to attract it's target audience and to correlate with Wu-tang Clan's existing video's.

Change of location

After much debate as a group we all collectively decided it would be best if we filmed in the TV Studio at college as this was a more reliable location weather wise and it is easly accesable, the equipment would also be much closer and we would be able to get help with any technical problems we come accros with the technisian being just next door. Another reason we changed the location was because of the busy streets in Brighton, people may have got in the way and distrubed the filming, the actors might have felt more uncomfortable and shy and not performed their best. As well as the problem of having to get approval by local councils to film in such public locations could have held us back time wise. But the biggest reason was because we- as a group want our music video to stand out and look as proffesional as possible, using the studio, we feel we will be able to achieve this aim to the best of our ability. Using a green screen background would allow us to add different backgrounds in the editing process and the lighting would look much more proffesional and dramatic with the lighting kit.

The Pitch

For this blog my group and I had to make a powerpoint pitch to the group Wu-tang Clan trying to sell our idea's for a music video.

This is the powerpoint...

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4-5YKV5LgbpY2E4ZmZhNDgtMmJkZi00OThkLWIyODEtZmRkN2QwNzY5OWIx&hl=en

It is an outline of our ideas and research results.

This is a link to our Powerpoint Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4-5YKV5LgbpOTMzMzFjMTctNzMxMS00Mzg2LWFlMmEtM2I4OGY1Nzg1ZTRk&hl=en