Testing Locations

Today me, Sarah and Zarah (Saira couldn't make it) went into town to check out our locations in the dark as we were initially planning on shooting some scenes during the 'night'. As it gets dark earlier around 5-6 o clock, we thought we could shoot a scene in the dark as this shows that the girls in the video have been thinking about the boy all day long, showing their emotional attachment to him. However, there were some issues that we encountered with our ideas which I talk more about below. Check out our pictures & videos!

This is the bottom of Millennium Point. We think that the lights look really good as they're different and we could have the girls performing a dance routine there. Although we may not see their faces, we can bring lighting, or even if we just have their figures/shadows showing in the video, I personally think the effect will look good with the blue lights around them.

You can see from the picture above that Zarah is standing on the Millennium Point Bridge with the blue lights in the background. If we were to film the girls here, I think the scene would work quite well as you can still see the girls in the dark. It also gives a unique element to the video as the attraction itself is quite unique. The colour blue relates to the sky and water and has positive connotations as the sky and water represent elements of life and nature. Blue also symbolises serenity, peace, calm, escape and dream. Escape and dream are particularly important for our video as the girls dream in order to escape the boredom that they are experiencing in class during a lesson. 

The video above shows me and Zarah miming along to the lyrics (you can't hear the song being played as it is playing on my phone which is with me) being recorded by Sarah. As you can see it is very dark and you can just about see me and Zarah with all of the lights around, which is an issue we encountered. If we were to record here, we may need to bring extra lighting. Sorry about the noise of the wind!

Above, me and Sarah are practicing walking down the steps to the chorus of the song as they are part of a routine in our video. However, these are not the actual Cathedral steps, but steps that we came amongst near the Cathedral that we'd thought we'd try as we didn't know about this location and it wasn't one of our potential options. We just thought we would try this location out to see if it worked better than the ones we already had. We weren't good with this take as we hadn't rehearsed our routine for the steps before; however you will see the finished and proper routine come into effect in the actual video. We came to a conclusion that after seeing this video we didn't want to use this location and were happy with the locations we'd already chosen. We thought that the scenery in the back didn't necessarily look pleasant whereas the Cathedral steps have a lot more space making it better for our group to choreograph the routine for the steps whilst having good scenery of the Cathedral in the background.

Another Test Shoot In One of Our Locations

Above is another practice video I took of the three girls skipping along in one of the locations to see if it would work for when we film there. Sorry I can't rotate the video and it's short as my camera ran out of memory! What do you think anyway? Do you think one of our scenes for the chorus could work well here?

Test Shoot In One of Our Locations

Here is a practice video at one of our chosen locations, Millennium Point. For our video, we would like each girl to walk one behind the other in single file whilst singing along to the song, as demonstrated by the four girls in the video above. Pay no attention to the boy talking and singing in the background!

Creating Our Moodboard

Today we started to create our mood board, filling it with things that have inspired us for our video. We went through magazines and picked out things that inspired our costume ideas regarding outfits and make up. As you can see, our mood board partially consists of vibrant colours and glamorous dresses as these are two particular themes that we want to use for our video. We also picked out things relating to couples as our video involves an intimate meeting between a boy and a girl. Check us out working below!

Here is our completed mood board!

Animatic

Here is the animatic for our video. We made it on Adobe Premier by using the individual photographs we'd taken of each post-stick note from our storyboard. It didn't take us very long to make which was good because it meant that we had more time to focus on other aspects of pre-production.

Completed Storyboard

Here is our completed storyboard in two parts!

Potential Make-Up Ideas

Today I experimented different make-up looks that I am considering using for our music video in accord to the glamorous image that we want to create for the girls. Let me know what you think!

Eyes:

Lips:

Potential Outfit Ideas

Today I took some photographs of potential dresses and shoes that I am considering wearing for my outfit in the glamorous scene of our music video. Let me know what you think!

Dresses:

Shoes:

Update of Our Storyboard

Here is the updated version of our storyboard of what we've done so far. Check out our pictures below!

Location

Today we went into town after school and took pictures of locations that we are considering using for our music video. If we film in any of these locations we would need to consider the weather as a potential factor which could ruin our plans i.e. it may rain on a day when we decide to shoot which would mean that we would need to re-schedule that scene. Anyway, let us know what you think of our locations!

For this particular location above, we thought that the girls could 'strut' down whilst singing one of the choruses.

In this location we would position each girl on one of the steps for when they sing the line "I'ma be there" each. However, we would either need to find a way of filming at an angle without the bin showing, or cut it out when editing as the bin cannot physically be moved and therefore could distort the authenticity of the scene.

The walkway at the back in this picture above could also be a potential location for when the girls 'strut' together.

The water feature in the background makes good scenery. We are also thinking about using this location for when each of the four girls are together sitting on the bench doing a routine with their legs and arms.

This is located near Priory Point and would be useful during a dance scene; especially if we had each girl standing on each line of the cross.

Above you can see we experimented our idea by positioning three girls on each line, as there were only four of us and one of us had to take the picture.

This walkway could be used as it is in a different location. As there are four located in a square, each girl could go down one and come together at the meeting point to show unity and their friendship.

These balls are situated in front of the Cathedral. We are thinking about using this as one of our locations because of the scenery around it, which creates a sense of peace and tranquility which although contrasts to our song which is upbeat, will work well with the song because the lyrics are very intense. We are thinking about using this location for Sam, as this is where she will meet Ally, the boy for the first time.

We are thinking about using this location for one of the girl's, Megi, as this is where she will meet Ally for the first time. The green scenery gives a natural feel to the location and reinforces the intimate moment between Megi and Ally.

Storyboard

Today we started to do a storyboard for our video. We decided to use post-stick notes as we can rearrange the shots easily depending on if we think another shot coincides and fits better with another shot. This helps us to save time as we can just take the post-stick note off the sheet and place it somewhere else on the sheet without having to rub things out and redraw them in another place.

Costume Ideas

My group did a brainstorm in school of initial costume ideas we would like to use for our music video. We established that we wanted to have more than one look to show different sides of the girls' personalities and show their versatility. We decided on three looks that would be; Street/Hip-Hop, Glamorous and Smart. We feel as though they strongly represent the girls' as individuals. I went home and further extended my brainstorm from the categories and broke them down into what I think they should consist of and what they represent. Below is a picture of my brainstorm that I made:

I did some research in the artist whose song we are doing, Kat Deluna. This helps me to identify the type of artist that she is and the image that she portrays.  From the pictures you can see that she dresses rather sophisticated, glamorous and street/hip-hop. These are the types of looks we are going for in our music video.

Above, Kat is wearing a dress which is rather plain but yet with her accessories she adds sophistication and elegance.

From the picture above you can see Kat wearing a dress with sequins which is rather glamorous. 

The picture above shows Kat looking street/hip hop with her shorts and trainers.

Above, Kat looks glamorous with her dress and hair.

From the pictures you can see that Kat can pull off different looks and styles showing that she is a versatile artist. Also, from the pictures you can see that she doesn't wear a lot of make-up and keeps it neutral which portrays her as a good role model as she sends a message to young girls that you don't need a lot of make-up to achieve a certain look.

Below is Kat Deluna's actual video for her song 'Run The Show' featuring Busta Ryhmes. From the video you can see that Kat has a variety of different looks including smart and street/hip-hop. There are also vibrant colours used in the video, which is an element we'd like to include in our video.

I suggested having each girl in the video representing an individual colour to add a unique element to our video. I gained inspiration from artists such as The Saturdays who first started off with a distinct colour for each girl in the group for their debut single 'If This is Love'. This not only made them look different, but it was also appealing for the audience as the colours were vibrant and stood out.

The Saturdays

Here are the girls wearing individual coloured tights in their second video 'Up'.

The Pussycat Dolls above are also wearing bright and vibrant colours.

The boyband JLS pictured above also have a consistent colour scheme/theme which shows how both boy and girl bands can create their own indentities.