Letter of permission to use the song 'Talking About The Weather'.

Ancillary Tasks.

In order to develop our ideas for the digipak ancillary task, we have been looking at different art and photography, such as modern and abstract, which in turn has provided us with much inspiration. Ideally, we would like our digipak to include trees, or at least weather, to link into the song, whilst at the same time being uniquely artistic.

This particular photograph, links into our theme but also portrays a human face, a rather abstract but effective piece of work;

We particularly like this because of how different it is, it is creative yet relevant. Therefore we would like to try to recreate this style of photography, possibly for our own digipak cover.

Practice Editing of Still Shots

Alongside filming we decided to try out some of the effects that we were going to use in the editing of our footage. We thought it would be easier for us to try out the effects and ideas previously so we are familiar with how the new editing programme works and familiar with how to create certain effects. We did this in order to get ourselves familiar with the programme as not all of us have used photoshop before.

One of our ideas was to show the sky in the iris of an eye which are the visuals to a certain part of lyrics in the song.

This image of the sky inside the iris off an eye was created using Adobe Photoshop, this still image will be used in our final product and linked with the Lyric "When I Look down in your bright blue eyes, I can see the skies."

The process involved was complicated and took a lot of time (about 3 hours). From the original image (featured below) I had to cut around the Iris, then take a copy of the cut out. Next I placed the eye into a new layer in front of a background of the sky.

I then used the magic wand tool to erase the background. After this it was pretty simple I just pasted the sky (which is no exactly the same size as the Iris due to the above the steps. ) Back into the original picture of the Iris, and faded out the sky so that it blended into the eye rather than it standing out like a sore thumb.

The hardest part of the process was getting the reflection of the eye lashes to stay in the image.

At this time we were also thinking about ideas for our ancillary tasks and ideas for the art work of the digipak. So we decided to try and see whether some of our ideas were possible to achieve and tested them on a few random pictures. Some of the editing was very simple and straightforward to achieve the effects we wanted (such as colour grading and adding shadows). Other ideas however took much longer to achieve and needed much more effort (such as creating shilouttes etc).

Before                                                                                                                                    After

Feedback

We really need that footage to come rolling in now! A lot of super research and planning, so we now need to make the product match!!

A few extra elements to work on:

• Zulaikha - section on 'The Importance of Music Videos' - may be worth outlining where you would release your video, given that you are featuring a new artists rather than a big name, and why you would sue this site/outlet... may like to link this to some of the web 2.0 ideas you looked at last year?
• Synopsis of treatment fro music video - why not add your aim here - to amplify the lyrics (and what this means) rather than telling a clear narrative with a full Todorov cycle?
• update entry - need to add more about what Matt did with the eye shot - what programmes/tools etc used and possibly a screen shot. it's impressive stuff and you need to record this to help you later on....
• cast list shots and comments on why you have selected the people - why they suit the roles....

Try and take some still shots of yourselves creating your product and add to your blog...

Mrs Doggart

Pre Production Photography.

As a part of our planning, we thought it was essential to develop our mise en scene and we did this through pre-production photography. On a location trip to Corporation Park, along with our artist Conor Mooring, we took several photographs of the area overall, certain trees we may use for our opening shots and of Conor in the frame. By doing so, we gained a much more detailed idea of what we need to include when focusing on mise en scene.

Here is a selection of the photographs taken on the day; 9th December 2009.

*Post not finished - still being edited*

Update for the week, 7th - 11th December, 2009.

This week has been an essential part of our planning process and we have used the the time to our advantage. At the beginning of the week, all storyboards were completed and posted onto the blog, complete with animations. Risk assessments were made of two our locations (Corporation Park & Zulaikha's house) and we are currently waiting for permission to record in the Music Studio, if this is successful, this will follow with a final risk assessment. Throughout this week, we have travelled to locations, in particular Corporation Park, to take artist and location photographs. The mise en scene of such photographs is incredibly similar to that we intend to use during filming, therefore benefiting our planning process immensely. The final part of our research was our survey and this week all the results and conclusions were posted onto the blog to conclude our research. This week has been a huge focus developing our planning. With the storyboards established and our ideas compiled we began to develop the details of certain shots, for example, Matt worked on photoshop to produce an image of an eye reflecting the sky, in relation to the lyrics 'bright blue eyes'.

Next week, we will continue to develop the details of individual shots and begin shooting on location with our artist and his instrument. Then we will continue to film over the Christmas holidays, with all our footage ready to edit for when we come back and some creative ideas for our ancillary tasks to follow.

Our Storyboard

As a group we put together a brief storyboard so that we know what visuals each section of lyrics will be shown with. Each shot in the storyboard will consist of several small shots from different angles and distances etc. The reason we did not draw the storyboard shot by, second by second, is so that we are able to use our imagination when filming and are able to try and do something different. We have put together a simple storyboard and hope to elaborate on it whilst filming. We hope to use various angles, various types of lighting, and different methods to achieve the effects we want. We are going to try and experiment with the filming so that we are able to achieve something new and this will attract the viewer. For example the shots of the artist performing in the park may be hard to get as due to the time of the year the weather may cause some problems. The shots may not look up to scratch in which case we may replace them with shots of the artists performing in the studio. In the studio the artist will be shot with side lighting only and we hope to achieve a sort of dark silhouette effect. We hope to film footage and both of these settings to give us extra footage in case the original idea does not work as well as we hoped.

Overall we have put together an all rounded idea of what we are looking for as a group and have agreed to the type of shots and angles we will be using.

Storyboard

Risk Assessment

Feedback

Just a few minor things to tweak on the research:

• Zulaikha - how music videos are produced - could add a bit at the end about the Production Triangle Paul Morricone was talking about to show that lack of a budget need not necessarily be a handicap?
• Jess - Indie Audience - just struck me that we don't have a clear definition of who precisely your target audience is - could you do a GRASS analysis at the start of this section to determine who the Indie Audience is? You could also at the end add some brief comments stating what you will build in to your video to ensure it will appeal to and engage just this audience.....
• Matt - Bradford bit - is it worth stating that outfits like Poison Pen are typical of teh instituions that produce music videos like yours and what kind of rpesssures they operate under and how this is similar or differnt to yourselves?

Planning is shaping up but can you add some comments to the colour coded lyrics to tell me what the colours mean and how this will help you???? Look over my list to see what else you need to add for your planning. Location shots - possibly add some comments on why you have chosen these as opposed to other locations - why are they good?

Mrs Doggart

Schedule - Week Commencing 6th December

Monday:- Filming in music studio

Tuesday:- Upload Footage

Wednesday:- No filming

Thursday:- 12:15 - 14:30 Filming in house

Friday:- Filming in Corporation Park

Synopsis

As a group we have decided that our music video consists of both performance and narrative.

We are going to show several clips of the artist (Conor) permorming in the recording studio and performing in the park. The shots taken in the music recording studio will be taken from all different angles so that we have extra footage to work with. We hope to use a variety of shots to create the right music video feel. We will also be using dark shadowy lighting and are hoping to try and create some sort of a silhoutte. Where as the shots that are taken in the park will have a very natural feel to them with natural lighting etc. Although we will still be aiming to create a variety of shots using ur monopod.
During these shots we will also show shots of Conor and his girlfriend spending time together. These shots will be shown as if they are memories by Conor of the time he has spent with her. We will be using soft focus and black and white, sephia tones to show that these are past events that he has spent with her. Some shots will be taken outdoor and some in door. The visuals of the narrative will reflect the lyrics of the song. For example when he sings about seeing the sky in her blue eyes we will show this through the visuals. When the lyrics mention lying in bed together this is what will be shot.

Our narrative will consist of scenes that amplify the lyrics, for example, "Lying in bed together" will show the male and female lying in bed together, this will help the viewers get a clear understanding of the lyrics. We have done this instead of a typical narrative of beginning, middle and end.

Technical + prop list

List of equipment we need at each shoot

Filming in music studio:

• Video Camera
• Music Playing Device
• Chair / Stool
• Mic and Headphones
• Guitar
• Costume
• Torch
• Monopod / Tripod

Filming at house:

• Video Camera
• Music Playing Device
• Blanket and Pillows
• Chair to stand on
• Monopod / Tripod
• Bench in Garden
• Costumes - 3 changes

Filming at Corporation Park:

• Video Camera
• Music Playing Device
• Costume
• Monopod / tripod
• Guitar