Wednesday's Filming...

We managed to get a ton of filming done on Wednesday and it was all looking really good. We did the bits for the first verse and chorus in Tostock and in Bury.....

Somehow we managed to record over/or the camera wiped a pretty big majority of what we had filmed.

So after much agro we have decided to refilm the Tostock stuff next Tuesday from break untill lunch, weather permitting and fingers crossed this lot will not get deleted!

Other than losing the footage the filming went quite well, we spent a lot of time on Rosie's hair make-up and clothes as she is the main focus and needs to look perfect. We went for really sexy/attitudey clothes for her two outfits.

The "bad" outfit was a black corset and black skinny jeans, the "good" outfit was blue jeans and a ocean bluey top with navy jacket which i felt represented her charcters well. We chose intense black eye make-up which we weren't going to change for the different characters as it just wouldn't be consistent or a productive use of time, and i feel the makeup works well anyway as its such a dancy track.

Most of our intended shots went well, we had the "split screen" stuff lined out and rcorded really well. i'm quite confident we'll be able to have "two rosie's" in one shot once we've edited. Although it's difficult to set up and requiers alot of thinking and organisation it's worth it to make our narrative work. The point of the two personas of rosie's charcter is to convey the concept of addiction as the song is about "being addicted to bass", so the bad charcter wears black, smokes and drinks vodka-(it's ok Rosie's 18), and taunts the "good" character who is trying to run from her addiction.

Another difficulty was keeping our shots stedy as using the tripod on the dolly proved less steady than filming the walking shots handheld. But in the everycloud has a silver lining thought process by refilming everything, hopefully our shots will be even bettter; more expertly framed, steadier etc as we have a good idea of what we need exactly having done it all the way through once before!

Test Shots

Only just gout round to uploading them. Me and Kat aren't going to star in the video but we did just play around with some test shots! They are short but sweet!











Oh i hate watching myself back, so embarrassing! Anyway, filming day number 2 tomorrow! yay! Hopefully the weather won't stop us this time!

wow you've been busy posting...
oh, please remember to put the test shots we edited ages ago up here, I really wanna get writing about them!
I think you've covered pretty much everything we need to do and take. Obviously we prepared all this in class so we have storyboards, shot lists, scheduals and numerous plans wich we've been working on for a while now ready to take with us. These will hopefully makesure that we don't leave anything out and manage to film efficently (when we get a chance to film that is -damn weather)
so untill wednesday (fingers crossed) our production has come to a bit of a stand still :(
I really can't wait till we've filmed and can get editing! xxx

Cold Times =[

After many arguments between me and kat we finally decided to do some filming due to the whether...unfortunately though, due to protective parents we did not film today! Probably the best idea as the condition weren't really very safe for driving in...and we were only going to do a few of the shots...slightyl anxious about the time w ehave left and we are both very dissapointed that we didn't get any filming done today as planned...but oh well, better safe than sorry i suppose!

So we have decided to reschedual for wednesday afternoon/evening when all 3 of us!

Winter Wonderland!

Morning! Well it is the day of filming and it is snowing! Quite heavily...there is already about 3 inches on the ground here in Ixworth, shall give Rozi a ring in a minute to ask what it is like over in Tostock where we plan to film.

KAt said she would prefer not to film today because of the driving conditions, which is a fair point. But we decided we shall see what it is like in an hours time and decided then. If it has stopped snowing and it is jsut on the ground then i think we should go for it, as how many opportunities do you get to film in the snow?! We must make sure we wrap up warm lol And have a supply of blankets, tea in a thermos and biscuits for Rozi!

Filming!

So the day has arrived...well not quite yet, we are filming tomorrow! *cheers!* a little late is better than never!

Not all of the footage can be filmed yet as they're are some locations that are still to be decided BUT we will film tomorrow as if we are filming the entire film, so we get our lovely actress - Rozi Leathers - to perform the lyrics numerous time so we ensure we have plenty of footage to nearly complete the video, then later on in time we can get rid of the bits we film tomorrow and substitue in the new footage where appropriate.

Shots we aim to do tomorrow are as follows...
1. Walking shots down lane in Tostock of 'good' Rozi
2. Shots in Tostock of 'bad' Rozi
3. Car Shots
4. Bury - possibly the abbey?- Streets, later on the eveing so its slightyl darker
5. Top of multistorey car park.
6. Still shot of traffic below which shall be sped up later on in the editing stages.

Shots we plan to do later on
1. Padded cell - we have no had time to prepare the pros and setting for these shots yet so we have decided to get on with the rest of filming and come back to the later
2. Club shots - we need to get in contact with t he manager of the club Deja vu in Bury and ask for perm ission to film the their perhaps during the day when the club in empty
3. Shots with some choreography and possibly other cast...

We would definatly like to use these shots within the video as it will add lots of variety and contrast, i feel the shots we are getting in tomorrows shoots are the maot essential as they will be the basis for the whole video, but also are the most simple and predictable shots.

We aim to get to Rozis house for about 11 and then hopefully finish and be back home at 3.30, 4 at the latest. The first hour we shall spend preping Rozi and going through with her what we shall be doing first etc and also costume, hair and make up. Luckily Rozi has a very large clothes collection so we shall decide on the outfit for both good version and bad tomorrow, to save time we deicded that hair and make up would stay the same for both characters as long as the contrast between the two is obvious within the clothing. Also it looks like it is going to be lots of layers due to this freezing whether we have received!

Equipment for tomorrow...

• Camera + charger
  
• Tape
• Tripod and Dolly
• Portable flood light
• Amp speaker
• Mobile mp3 with the track on it for Rozi to lip sync too
• Lyrics, Storyboards and shot lists
• Kat car...not that we will forget that!
• Costume and Make-up

Thats it i think!

Hopefully it shall be good whether conditions, even though it wont be pleasent we hope it to be quite gloomy and grey, we would even welcome some snow, and the atmosphere we think reflects the song well.

Wish us luck!

Textual Analysis of Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For"

An artist we focused alot on when looking at what makes a "good" music video was Gwen Stefani.

Here I have decided to do a textual analysis on the video for "What You Waiting For" directed by Francis Lawrence. Who has directed many popular music video's for successful artists such as;

Jay-z "girls best friend"
Destiny's Child- Independent Women"

Aerosmith- Jaded
Britney Spears- I'm A Slave 4 U
Shakira- Whenever, Wherever
Michelle Branch- Goodbye to you
Avril Lavigne- Sk8er Boi
Jennifer Lopez- Jenny from the block
Justin Timberlake- Rock your body

In this particular video I liked how the conceptual theme of Alice in Wonderland is used in co-operation of the physical meaning of the lyrics. The full length video begins with Gwen expressing her trouble with the album needing "inspiration" and going to get help for her "writers block" amongst the lyrics "How did the years go by, Now it's only me".

Then once she is transported into the fantsay world the lyric's "Naturally, I'm worried if I do it alone Who really cares, cause it's your life You never know, it could be great Take a chance cause you might grow" which express her deeper troubles are jux-taposed and perhaps tvialised against an exciting concept based video.

It works so well becuase of the detailed costumes and sets which really do it justice. Something we would like to include in our own music video but budget and practicality will restrain what we can competantly create. Concept however is something that does not have to be extravagant and a theme which we are really keen to include in our music video.

This video continues to import meaning into the lyrics whilst Gwen is stuck in a fantasy world by cross cutting between the fantasy world and her in the recording studio to remind the audience what the song is really about. The fantay world is also not just for show, i think the images of her being stuck in a too small doll house etc show her inhibitions about the record, especially when teamed with the lyrics "You got your million-dollar contract And they're all waiting for your hot track, What you waiting for?".

These two strong ideas I feel work really well within this video and i hope to make a video as entertaining and in keeping with the song. This video was very successful getting over 2,401,3oo views on you tube of this one post alone (as on you tube you usually find the same thing posted several times) and the video was referred to by Stylus magazeine as "I sigh with admiration and wish every video was this alive" and won the award At the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, for Best Art Direction and was nominated for Best editing.

I really like the extreme use of colours and costumes within this video as it suits Gwen's excentric personality and makes the video very entertaining. the variation of material and camera angle keeps the video moving wiht the song beat a sit is very fast. the series of edits which fade to black excell this feling during the middle of the song when the temp slows slightly. Another thing I like about this video is that almost every lyric is lip sync-ed. I think music video's work much better when the artist "sings" every line within the video as it includes some performance, and as music video's are big selling points for the artist I think it is important that the audience makes the connection berween the artist and the song. Also it allows for the feeling within the audience that the song is being directly sung to you- if the lyrics are not lip synch-ed i think the video then looses some of its impact and becomes less engageing, almost like just another video. Lip syncing also allows for many conventional, tightly framed closeups of the artist which I think are effective and essential to a professional looking music video; again the audience wants to see the artisit.

This was a very succesful concept based video and gives me lots of indirect inspiration for my own video; I am not going to copy the concept used but am excited about the consept I will hopefully be able to use in my own video to create a music video as entertainig and different.