AMY MILAN FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO 09: 2010

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Thursday, 25 November 2010

After receiving feedback from our rough cut, we have discovered what works and what doesn’t. To start with, we believe that our strengths of the video include the
stop motion parts, although it is not completely on the beat at the moment and we need to tighten up the editing, we think that this is a success and that we have spread it over the course of the video. The wide shots are also good and have helped us to gain the level of continuity that we currently obtain and this is why I think that they are my favourite. Our overall structure and the performance aspect of our video is something to be proud of since we have worked very hard to build up a strong concept and worked out a way of getting the lip sync right, even though on the day the lead singer was unsure of the words.

On the contrary, we decided that the hand held camera aspect wasn’t great and the pan/tilt in particular from Lillie’s shoe up to the bassist was not great as this looked very ‘home movie style’ and doesn’t tie in with the style of editing we have. We were also told that the end of the video used much better editing techniques than the beginning and that we needed to match the start of the video to the same quality. We have also decided that the transition from the sitting room (where the boys start off) to the studio (where the boys finish) needs to be a lot bigger so in after effects we will add white frames to ensure this happens. The poster of the amp needs a bigger deal made about it since this is aspiration for the band so in our final version we will ensure this is included. Also as another point, we need to tighten the cutting to the beat of the music to ensure that this looks like a professional video.

Now that we have received feed back and have reflected on our own work, we are able to continue editing to complete a final, professional looking music video.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Evaluation of Shoot Day

The morning of the shoot day we arrived in the studio to our already prepared set. This was helpful as this meant we had a longer time for shooting. Costumes and makeup took much longer than expected and we did not start shooting until 11.30am. As we began shooting we found that following our storyboard was more difficult than expected and we had to simplify the overall all shots. we used three cameras to shoot our pop video, initially we intended to use two cameras, however on the day we found that usingthree would make it more efficient and also give us all more of an opportunity to get involved in specifically camera work but we also each had a chance to get involved in the track playback.

We feel that our shoot day was a great success because we completed our task of gaining all the footage which we need for our post production editing. This was an achievement because we started late and thought that we may not finish on time. This was heightened due to that our lead singer was unsure of the lyrics and timings. The band portrayed the correct image that we intended to present to our specific target audience and fitted the image created by the genre and fitted well together as a band. Although we had problems getting the band members in the costumes we wanted them to wear, due to a small conflict with the band, we were satisfied with the final look. The best thing about our day was that the sets looked great and we were really proud to have got the real amps, rather than use posters of amps as we expected.

The elements of the day that we would change having got the chance would be, to get slightly more prepared in the morning with getting the cast into the costumes that we felt were appropriate for our video. We also wished that we could have achieved all of our shots faster than we did although we were very relieved that we managed to get all of the filming done in one day because at one point this didn’t seem possible. Especially since we knew we had a lot of set changes. All in all I don’t think we would have changed very much about our shoot day because we thought that it was a success.

A lot of changes were made on the day of our shoot. We realised that our storyboard was too complex to follow and we were able to convey our concept of our video in better less complex shots. We also did not have as much time as we anticipated and therefore this added to the changes we made. We had to cut out the number of wide shots and we added in more stop motion, as this is more effective but less time consuming than some of the other shots on our storyboard. For example, we did not use the smaller amps and the build up of electric guitars in our last set. Instead we thought that we would get a more ‘studio feel’ to just have the three massive amps and the band playing.

Permission Letter

To Wildlife Entertainment

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:

Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

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

Amy, Lainy and Chloe
Hurtwood House School

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Thanks for the email Lainy, Amy and Chloe,

In principal I have no problem with this useage. However, could you please advise me the slant/direction of this project.

Many thanks

Geoff Barradale (co manager of Arctic Monkeys)

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Geoff

Thank you very much for the positive consideration of our request.

The video will form part of a portfolio of work put together as part of a unit focussing on marketing in the music industry. Our concept for the video is to chart the rise of an indie band through the changes in their environment. The video will be performance-based, but the set will change over the course of the video from teenage bedroom to recording studio. We wanted to use a track by the Arctic Monkeys because we felt their music and their story perfectly encapsulate the dreams of thousands of bedroom musicians. We intend to use actors from our school as the band members who will lip-synch the track, although if Alex and the boys would like to come and star in the video themselves, we would be delighted to welcome them for the day!

The video project and accompanying portfolio will be assessed by our teacher and the exam board, but we would be delighted to send you a copy when we have finished.

I hope this gives you the information you need. We can provide any further information or guarantees should you require them.

Best wishes

Lainy, Amy and Chloe

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Amy, do you have a number I can call you on please ?
Or you call me
Best Geoff

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After we recieved this email, we rang Geoff to asure him that we would not be portraying the band as negative. He simply wanted to talk more about the concept of the video and gave us information about the bands background which gave us more material to work with.

Friday, 22 October 2010

Digipak Cover Initial Idea

This is our initial idea for the digipak, on the left handside of the picture is the where the CD will go. We have tried to display as spilt effect, although after feedback, we have decided to change the spil to black on white rather than white on black (as shown)

The front cover of the CD is the third picture along. after further discussment, we have decided to change the picture of the band to them playing their instruments much like the picture below.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Animatic Feedback

After screening our animatic, we were given feedback. Much of it was positive, telling us that we had nice drawings which were easy to understand. We understood this would come in very useful when coming to edit our real shoot.

We talk about the use of two cameras in our shoot – one for wide shots which will be placed at slightly high angle and the other for the close ups of things building up, appearing and disappearing. This was to emphasis the change throughout the video.

We discussed the camera and the quality of the image in the video and decided to use a camera with grainy quality to make it stylistically for the beginning of our video and to end up with good quality images. This is to represent the change to sophistication of the band.

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Cast List

This is a list of people which will be in our music video including pictures. We have picked these people as they fit the image we are trying to portray.