Altered Storyline

Due to the problem of not being allowed permission to film at the train station, we quickly had to alter the storyline and think of another location where the main male character would first see her. This is then we decided to can it so that he would be walking home down the road when all of a sudden he drops his keys. As he goes to pick them up he notices a girl standing by a bush looking all seductive and fascinating, when all of a sudden a van drives past and she disappears. The main male character looks around in shock and confusment and then continues to walk on home. At home he is watching TV and is thinking of the girl when he has a quick flash back of her standing at the train station. This is where he then dozes off into a day dream.

During our filming in the woods, one of the locations for our music video, we found that as we were filming we had a lot of footage from the previous locations and this one before we had even got half way through the storyline. This therefore then caused us to re-think our storyline to our music video. We thought about not filming the two random scenes of the main male character bumping into the mum and baby and then the two girls having a picnic all dressed up fantasy-like. This is because we already had enough filming to last us well over the song length time and we thought that we didn't necessarily need those scenes anymore as we only really thought of them as we thought we wouldn't have enough filming to last us the entire song. So we decided to change the storyline slightly again to the main male character searching through woods trying to find the main fantasy girl whilst he comes across the two other fantasy-like girls who are trying to seduce and lure him in.

Our first practice music video made last year

At the end of year 12 the whole class was asked to make a music video in groups of no more than five so show a certain type of change. My group consisted of myself, Chelsey, Dan, Louise and Lucy. We decided to use the song 'Moves in her own way' by The Kooks. The storyline consisted of a 'geek' at school who gets bullied by other student because of the way she looks. A girl finds her and offers to go back to her house to change her look and give her a 'make over'. Below is our music video for you to watch.

Practise Music Video from Lucy Simonds on Vimeo.

Although our video didn't turn out too bad, it did have it's flaws. Some things appeared in certain shots when they shouldn't have been. Below are pictures from the video and explanations of what is wrong with each clip.

Fault One

With this picture you can see the reflection of Jack in the door which is reasonably recognisable and makes our video look unprofessional and not thought about clear enough.

Fault 2

With this picture from the video you can clearly see the reflection of jack sitting in the chair to the left and Louise in the middle filming the scene. This makes are video look bad as the audience would clearly be able to see this fault as it ruins the scene.

Fault 3

With this picture you can see that Chelsey, the 'geek' in the video, has gone from wearing no earrings previously, to wearing big hooped earrings. This is a noticeable change as they are big earrings and would be noticeable if she wasn't wearing any before as she is a 'geek'.

Fault 4

With this picture you can see the reflection of a girl sitting at the desk behind who wasn't it the music video before. This looks random and out of place and obviously that she shouldn't have been it the shot.

Fault 5

In this picture you can see the girl that we saw in the mirror before, is still sitting at the desk behind the two girls getting ready. Once again this looks obvious that it is out of place.

Who is our Target Audience?

A key part to the project is establishing who our target audience for our video. We had to think of who would be interested and who would appreciate our type of song choice and music video. This is very important as then we can fully represent the specific genre in our video and ancillary tasks. By doing this correctly this should result in appealing to our target audiece.

Research in the artist Jakatta shows that he is an artist that releases contemporay House and disco music that is very common in the club and party scene in the UK. Therefore i believe that are target audience would be between the age of 18 -30, male and female, and working and middle classed people. I believe our video is the sort of video that you would expect to find on a channel like MTV Dance. I also belive that our song will be played on radio stations such as Kiss 100 and Radio 1 therefore also reaching the target age group of 18 - 30. I think that our target audience is quite large due to the popularity of the club scene in the UK and abroad therefore appealing to a lot of people.

A more detailed explanation of our target audience is explained in a powerpoint presentation by Chelsey Martin, another member of our group. Click on the link below to view this

Target Audience Powerpoint Presentation

Cast of Video

Overall there were four characters in our music video. Here are the pictures of each actors and the roles that they played

Dan Jeffery, playing the main character who follows the main fantasy girl around the woods

Georgia Lateo, playing the main fantasy girl that the main character sees as he's walking home and in his dream she teases him and tries to run away from him

Zara Pearce, playing one of the 'side kicks' of the main fantasy girl

Alice Fortune,playing the other 'side kick' of the main fantasy girl

Risk Assessment

This risk assessment is to assess what risks there could be when going to film and what precautions we need to take in oder to prevent them from becoming a serious risk to us.

1. One of the locations we are looking to film at is Chislehurst station so we would need to be careful whilst we are on the platform and to stay away from the track

2. Another risk at Chilsehurst station will be the attitude of the members of the public towards us filming in a public place. They might not like it if they are accidentally filmed in a shot and might start an argument about it. In order to prevent this from happening we would either have to ask them if they wouldn't mind if they accidentally got caught in the shot or just to film away from them so they don't get caught in the shot at all.

3. Another one of the locations we are looking to film at is the woods in West Kings down so due to the wet weather recently, we would need to ensure that we are careful that we do not slip over. To ensure that this does not happen we could wear appropriate footwear

4. We would also need to ensure at West Kings Down woods that we do not damage the equipment from the wet rain. To prevent this from occurring, we could not film on a rainy day, however, you cannot predict the weather so you would have to let everyone know last minute to film on a day if it was going to be nice weather and people may have already made plans. Another way to prevent the equipment from getting damaged is to cover the camera with a plastic sheet whilst filming so that camera doesn't get wet or damaged.

Risk Assessment Update!

Due to the unfortunate circumstances of not being able to film at the train station, we have decided to alter our storyline and change our setting to a street. Whilst we are filming here we would need to ensure that we stay well clear from any approaching cars and be constantly aware of the surroundings.

We would also need to ensure that the residents on the street are happy with us filming on their street. We could check with a few of the residents on the street if they wouldn't mind us filming, or we could simply be discreet and just film anyway as not many people should have a problem with it.

Make up and Costumes of Characters

Main Girl and two other Fantasy Girls

After researching make-up and costumes of fantasy-like girls, we gathered an idea of what we wanted the girls in the video to look like. Below are pictures of the main girl dressed up in her costume and make up.

As you can see from the images above we decided to dress the main fantasy-like girl in bright pink and with a white top so that it is bold and stands out. The glitter on her tutu almost makes her look like a fairy which is on the same theme as fantasy. Her hair is long and wavy making it look natural and seductive. We chose to do her eye make-up using the same colour as her outfit to go with the pink theme. She is wearing big, pink eye lashes with big, bold eye shadow to extenuate her bright, blue eyes. The pink lip stick draws attention to her lips making her look even more inviting. The gems on the right side of her face under her eye and the pattern on the left side of her face add to the fantasy-like theme of her outfit and make-up.

The other two girls in the video also need to look fantasy and dream-like. Below are pictures of them in there outfit and make-up.

These girls are wearing the same type of clothing as the main girl, however, they are wearing different colours of green and black instead of pink and white. The make-up is also very similar to the main girls but using green and red lipstick instead of pink. We wanted both of the girls to be dressed the same and with the same make-up as one another as we wanted to portray to the audience and make it obvious that they are different to the main girl and so that the main girl can stand out from the three of them. They still have the long, flowing hair to add to the seductive look and with the big bold eye shadow and lipstick. To also show that they are different, they both have blond hair whereas the main girl has dark hair. Their make-up is also slightly different to the main girl as she has gems and a pattern on the side of her face whereas these girl do not. This is because we want to main girl to stand out and be made noticeable that she is one of the main characters. The others girls are really included to add to the whole fantasy/dream-like theme to the music video.

Make-up and Costume Mood Boards

Below is a moodboard of the type of make-up that we are looking for to dress the girl from the music video in. We are after big, eccentric colourful eye make-up that will draw attention to the eyes to make her look mysterious yet still beautiful. All of us like the idea of also using patterns on the face to add to the fantasy look along with the big, fluttering eye lashes.

Below is a mood board of mainly pictures of the character Poison Ivy from the film Batman. I have selected pictures of this particular woman as she is dressed how we want the woman to look in the video. We want her to have long, big, wavy hair wearing either tight leotard costumes or sexy yet not too revealing cloths such as corsets. I think green would be a good colour to use for the costume as it is a colour of nature which works well as the story is based in a forest.

Animatics

To help plan our music video, we created a storyboard with a drawing for each shot and location so if will be easy for us when it comes down to filming for the footage for the music video. We then had to take a photo of each picture drawn on the story board and import them into the program 'Final Cut' with our song choice for our music video. We then had to put each image in order in time with the song as if they were real clips that we wanted to edit for our music video and add transitions where need. These are called Animatics. Below is our Animatics for our music video.

Animatics from Lauren Jeffery on Vimeo.

Opening Scene

The opening scene will consist of the main male character being stressed and leaving his work place. This scene should approximately last 10 seconds and will consist of shots such as:

• over the shoulder shot of him at the computer
• close up of character's face to show the stressed emotion
• close ups of the character pushing the keyboard away in frustration and picking up his keys etc ready to go
• long shot of him walking out of the building

Second Scene

The next scene will be when the main male character gets to the station and whilst he is waiting for a train he sees a girl dressed up in fantasy clothes on the other side of the platform. The train zooms past and she is gone. The scene will approximately last for 16 seconds and consists of shots such as:

• long/over the shoulder shot of him walking into the station
• long shots of him waiting around at the station
• close ups of his frustrated and other emotions emotions
• over the shoulder shots viewing the empty platform over the other side of the platform
• long shot of the girl standing on the other side of the platform
• close up of the fantasy girls face
• long shot of the train quickly going past and then an empty platform

Third scene

This scene will be when the male character returns to his home and begins to eventually falls asleep to start dreaming. This scene will approximately last for 8 seconds and consists of shot such as:

• medium close up of him sitting on the sofa watching tv
• close up of his face going to sleep

Forth Scene

This scene is where the male character wakes up in the woods, confused to where he is and sees the girl that he saw at the train station and begins to follow her. This scene approximately lasts for 32 second and consists of shots such as:

• close up of him waking up
• establishing shot of the woods
• close ups of his facial expressions
• medium close ups of the fantasy girl
• close ups of the fantasy girl
• over the shoulder shot of the fantasy girl viewing the man
• over the shoulder the shot of the man viewing the fantasy girl
• long shot of them following each other

Fifth Scene

The next scene is where he loses the girl and comes across a woman wearing strange yet fantasy -like clothing whilst pushing her baby in the pram. He then notices the main girl again but with two of her accomplices. They then run away and he goes to follow. This scene should approximately last for 22 seconds and consists of shots such as:

• medium close ups of the mother and baby
• long shots of the mother and baby
• close up of the main male characters face
• medium close ups of the three girls, separately and together
• close up of the three girls separately
• long shots of the man trying to follow the girls

Sixth Scene

This scene is where the main male character, 'Jakatta', loses the three girls and stumbles across two more girls also dressed up in strange yet fantasy-like clothing and are sitting there chatting. Once again, the three girls show themselves again and tease the man to want to follow them again. This scene approximately lasts for 24 seconds and will consist of shots such as:

• medium close up of girls chatting
• long shot of girls chatting
• medium shots of Jakatta
• close up shots of Jakatta
• medium shots of fantasy girls together and separate
• long shot of him chasing after the girls again

Seventh Scene

This is where the man loses all three girls again and is let in the middle of the woods on his owning searching. Suddenly the main girl appears in the distance and this time he tries running to catch her. This scene approximately lasts for 17 seconds and will consist of shots such as:

• close up of Jakatta's face
• Long shot of Girl
• close up of her face
• point of view shots looking around the woods
• pannning shots
• long shot of him trying to catch her again

Eighth Scene

He loses her to them notice all three of them in the distance trying to tease and frustrate him until they run away again and he chases after them. This scene approximately lasts for 20 seconds and consists of shots such as:

• medium close ups of the girls separately
• close ups of the girls separately
• long shots of the girls all together
• medium shots of Jakatta
• close ups of Jakatta
• long shot of them chasing each other

Ninth Scene

This is where he loses them once again and finally gives up and goes and sits against a tree. Suddenly the two accomplices of the main girl come round from the tree, either side of Jakatta, kiss him on both cheeks and walk back round the tree. This scene approximately lasts for 12 seconds consisting with shots such as:

• long shot of Jakatta against the tree
• medium close up of him against the tree
• long shot of the girls coming round from behind the tree and going back around the tree
• close up of the girls kissing him on the cheek

Tenth Scene

This is where the main fantasy girl comes round from behind the tree and kneels down to kiss with on the lips as his dream starts ending. This scene approximately lasts for 10 seconds and consists of shots such as:

• long shot of girl coming round from tree
• close up of her kissing him on the lips

Final Scene

This is the final scene where he wakes up from his dream and has lipstick on his cheeks. This scene approximately lasts for 9 seconds and consists of shots such as:

• close up of him waking up
• medium close up of him sitting up

Locations for Music Video: Forest

To help with us chose the most appropriate location for the main bulk of our video, we all went together to three different forests to establish which one we thought would fit best for our music video. These were Shorne forest in Gravesend, another forest in Gravesend and another in West Kings Down. We found that Shorne forest had too many skinny trees which we thought wasn't that appropriate as the girls in the video wouldn't be able to hide behind the trees as the were running away from the main male character, especially with the bit at the end where all three of the girls come round from behind the tree and kiss the boy as they wouldn't be able to hide themselves behind the trees therefore resulting down to not being able to include that scene.

The other woods in Gravesend seemed to have too many wide trees making it all look to spacush and not a very desirable location for the video. The woods in West Kings Down was the most appropriate as it had both skinny and wide trees making it varied and it look dark and mysterious with the sun beaming through the trees in some places. Below are picture of the chosen forest location.

Locations for Music Video: Journey Home

One of the locations for our music video is a station as the main male character goes to get the train home from work. We decided that Chislehurst station would be the most appropriate as the only time when its bust is between 7 and 10 and the rest of the day it is practially empty compared to other train stations such as Bromley South and St Mary Cray. We have decided that we we go to film around mid day which means that there will be hardly any members of the public around to get in the way of shots or to complain that we are even filming. Here are some images of the train station.

Locations for Music Video: Office

For one of the scenes for in our music video, we needed to find an office location. We found this very difficult to find and didn't know how we were going to come about it as we had to also film inside an office as well as outside. Luckily, Zara Pearce, one of the fantasy girls in the music video, asked her dad if we could use his offices on Sevenoaks Way. These offices weren't the best location as it was for a printing company. It would have been better if it was a block of offices as this is the sort of environment that we were looking forward. However, this still was appropriate to our video as it had desks and computers so it looked like an office environment inside. On the other hand, outside the building doesn't particularly look like a professional office as it had an old, wooden door. Overall, this location is appropriate enough for the office scene in our music video.

Copywrite Letter and the Companies Response

Copywrite is very important these days as many people do the same things as each other and get into trouble for it as it is illegal to copy someone else. We as a group had to ensure that before we even began to start planning our music video and all our ancinerally tasks with it, we gain permission from the music company that produces Jakatta music that is was fine to use their American Dream song. In order to do this we decided to write a letter explaining our circumstances and send it off to the company's address. Below is the letter asking for permission.

We were fortunate to receive a positive response back giving us permission to use this their song for our music video. Below is a copy of the letter form the company.