The next stage of our music video project is filming the video. This is where all of our planning has been leading and it is absolutely crucial that you film lots of high-quality shots that give you plenty of options when it comes to editing. Music video filming: top tips 1) Listen: you need to know the song inside out so listen to it again and again while planning and shooting. 2) Lighting: the right setting is important but lighting can make or break a music video. Plan it carefully. 3) Performance: you don’t need brilliant actors but the performance style has to match the song. 4) Shoot to edit: you need to shoot enough video so you have options when editing. Capture everything on your shot list and don’t delete anything.
Raising the level of your camerawork and editing
If you want to reach A* in your music video then you'll need to show creativity and flair in your camerawork and editing. Indeed, it's important that you're already thinking about the editing while you film your video. This video is a great introduction to different types of editing - and there are plenty of other tutorials available from the same YouTube channel - RocketJump Film School.
Use tutorials, examples and your very detailed shot list to make sure you film everything you need. Equipment If you have your own camera or a high-quality phone with plenty of storage, you should use your own equipment. This will give you maximum flexibility.
We will only sign out a camera to students who have completed ALL research and planning tasks.
Please note school cameras are signed out to be returned next working day:
Tuesday > Wednesday
Friday > Monday
Friday end of half-term > first day back at school
Filming deadline: week commencing Monday 6 November
The final aspect of your Assignment 3 Research and Planning is pre-production. This is the planning, sketching and drafting that you must complete before picking up a camera and filming your music video. In your group OR individually, you need to complete the following planning: 1) Lyric annotations 2) Storyboard 3) Shotlist 4) Mise-en-scene planning You need a minimum of 3 pages EACH. You CANNOT put any work in your folder that has been created by someone else in your group.
1) Lyric annotation
This is brilliant way of developing the ideas from your treatment. You can pick out certain words or sections of the song and plan the shots and editing that would fit best.
Make sure you use a clean or radio edit version of the lyrics - you won't be able to submit non-clean versions to the exam board AQA.
Simply find the clean version lyrics on Google, copy and paste them into Word and then plan the shots, action and locations line-by-line.
2) Storyboard
Use the skills you have already developed in Assignment 2.
Create a visual ‘feel’ for what you want your music video to look like – you won’t be able to storyboard every shot.
Use a wide variety of creative shots and draw them accurately.
Aim for somewhere between 5-15 frames (depending on whether you are working individually or in a group).
Make sure you write text in the right-hand boxes explaining the type of shot (must be accurate), camera movement and sound (which line of the song the shot goes with).
3) Shot list
The shot list is the single most important pre-production document – you will tick off each shot while shooting.
Remember, you will shoot far more than you actually use - which means a variety of shots for each event or location in the music video.
Due to this, there will be far more shots on the shot list than in the storyboard.
You will need at least one shot for every second of the track you have chosen - so the shot list will contain 180+ shots.
The most important shot type to plan is close-ups. Ideally, you should have one close up every three shots. That means 60+ close-ups planned in your shot list!
4) Mise-en-scene planning
This document involves all the planning for anything appearing in front of the camera. Remember CLAMPS: Costume, Lighting, Actors (cast), Make-up, Props, Setting.
Use images to show you have planned each aspect of mise-en-scene (phone pictures/ Google images/ Google maps are all acceptable here).
The deadline for all your research and planning will be set by your teacher - it depends on your year group and timetable. IMPORTANT: you cannot sign out a camera for filming unless everyone in your group has completed ALL research and planning documents.
The nominations are in for the Media Awards 2017! With the ceremony just two weeks' away, these are the films and music videos that will be battling it out for a prestigious Greenford High School Media Award. The quality level at both GCSE and A Level was exceptionally high and it has been an extremely difficult process narrowing down the nominations for our Oscars-style event. Tickets will go on sale on Monday 9 October priced £4 for early bird tickets and £5 in the week of the Awards. Be quick - the event sold out in just three days last year! A Level nominations Best Year 12 Original Screenplay Out of Mind Hiraeth Nowy Poczatek Best Year 12 Production Design Voice of the Void Euphoria Nowy Pockzatek Best Year 12 Dialogue/Voiceover Click Approval Euphoria Best Year 12 Cinematography Unstable Voice of the Void Click Best Year 12 Sound Design Voice of the Void Approval Out of Mind Best Year 12 Film Editing Unstable Click Hiraeth
GCSE nominations
Best GCSE Cinematography Take a Bow – Shanella Dammanpilage Done Earthquake – Ahmed Hassan Unfaithful – Blaise Marden Best GCSE Music Video Concept Radioactive – Tyler-Jade Kelly Don’t – Shabd Magon Mrs Potato Head – Areej Mehdi Best GCSE Production Design Unfaithful – Blaise Marden Mrs Potato Head – Areej Mehdi Wolves – Annya Ranshi Best GCSE Editing Symbolism – Mariam Ahmadyar Untitled – Kacper Ikwanty Party – Shahir Joian
Best Actress/Actor
Gifty Kumi – Unstable
Sophie Robertson – Out of Mind
Nasteha Mohamed – Approval
Abdullah Al-Fadhli – Click
Mr Mather – Training
Hussein Hamume – Click
Congratulations to all our nominees and we look forward to seeing you at the Media Awards on Tuesday 17 October!
Sunlight
comes creeping in
Illuminates our skin
We watch the day go by
Stories of all we did
It made me think of you
It made me think of you
Under a
trillion stars
We danced on top of cars
Took pictures of the stage
So far from where we are
They made me think of you
They made me think of you
Oh lights
go down
In the moment we're lost and found
I just wanna be by your side
If these wings could fly
For the rest of our lives
I'm in a
foreign state
My thoughts they slip away
My words are leaving me
They caught an aeroplane
Because I thought of you
Just from the thought of you
Oh lights go down
In the moment we're lost and found
I just wanna be by your side
If these wings could fly
Oh damn these walls
In the moment we're ten feet tall
And how…
Birdy is 21 years old. She is English and comes
from a wealthy family. She won a singing
competition, open mic, at 12 years old and started off releasing cover songs. Birdy is the music industry’s antidote to the commercial,
superhuman likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Rihanna. She travels unnoticed on the Tube,
is thinking of signing up for sketching classes in London, regularly queues up
at McDonald’s (she has a weakness for McChicken sandwiches) and roots
through vintage stores unaided by any celebrity stylist. Her stage name
is a nick name from her parents.
Example:
Target audience
demographics for Birdy:
·Alternative music/rock/indie/folk
fans.
·Age range 15-30 but largely 16-25.
·More females than males (70/30).
·Largely white British race/ethnicity.
·Largely middle class ABC1
demographic.
·Likely to be educated at least to A
Level with 60% at university or degree educated.
·Earnings above average and likely to
do or have ambitions to do a degree-level job.
·Likely to live in towns and cities
but not exclusively.
·Happy adopting new technology and
regularly uses social networking sites and the internet.
Brands/lifestyle for Birdy fans:
·Very likely to own an Apple
product/mp3 player and take their music seriously. Almost certainly owns a
smart phone but could be Samsung or Apple.
·Enjoys a drink – likely to be beer or
wine.
·Self expressive- likes to dress
individually and visit vintage stores
·Sony audio/visual products.
·Red Bull.
·Jack Daniels.
·Levis.
·NME or Q magazine. Niche magazines.
·Probably be in a romantic
relationship.
·Sky Atlantic, Netflix and Amazon
Prime subscribers.
·Interested in singer/songwriters and
emerging new talent.
·May also be fans of Mumford and Sons,
Bon Iver, The Lumineers, Laura Marling.
Watch the original Birdy Video and
note how the props / visuals link to the lyrics:
When the lyrics read ‘sunlight
illuminates our skin’, there is a close up shot of the singer with sunlight
reflected on her face. The video is a concept video, with the performance element
introduced through fancy dress costumes and dream-like figures dancing and
performing in a forest environment. This setting complements the ethereal,
dream-like sound of the music. The artist appears in the narrative but she does
not involve herself with the other people, therefore making her stand out
amongst them. There is juxtaposition between close ups of her lying on the bed looking
sad, and dramatic scenes such as people riding horses which matches the more
dramatic beats. The smoke and colours are edited to the beat.
Now watch the A Level student version of
the Birdy video and note how the props / visuals link to the lyrics:
The video
opens with a shot of a little girl staring at a grave in a graveyard. This
suggests that the song is going to be slow and emotional. The song lyrics are
about losing and finding someone and this person has interpreted that into a
narrative about a little girl whose father has passed away and she is
remembering the good times they shared together. A buried pot signifies the
memories they shared. The use of the narrative is juxtaposed with the artist
(singer) in the field lip-synching and this implies that she is the grown up
girl represented by the younger actress in the memory scenes. Numerous close
ups of the objects that mean something to the girl show the link between the
little girl and her father and this is also reinforced by the close up of them
holding hands. The emphasis is on ‘the rest of our lives’ as the girl will have
the memory of her father with her forever. The location is mostly outside in a
field and in the wood as this represents where she walked with her father and
felt closest to him.
