Millie's Extra Bit!

Millie did some research before our next lesson, she looked
for magazine covers which we could put in our green screen shots therefore she
researched magazine templates. Millie struggled to find suitable ones as the
majority of them already had models on them when we just wanted the template
although she did manage to find this one.

Week beginning 5th December

In our lesson on Tuesday we decided to reshot the
green screen as on some of the green screen which we had previously filmed
there was shadow, as we didn’t set it up probably therefore we wasn’t able to
take the whole background out. Therefore we decided to re-film our lip syncing
to the whole song just in case! We made sure that we set up the green screen probably
this time by using a diagram which one of our teachers drew for us!

After filming we were left with enough time to editwhat we had just filmed and replace our previous green screen shots. Usingchroma key effect we were able to change the background and make sure therewere no shadows behind us. No we just need to decide on a background to putbehind us. We are thinking of doing one of the ideas we gained from our firstcut feedback, which was to make it look like we are on the front of a magazinecover or a montage of a fashion magazine so we are able to stay with the idea ofbeauty.

First cut

Paige's Godmother's House

When we first decided on our locations Paige’s grandmothers house was on the list as she had told us it was large and had a lot of good synergy for good potential shots. However it
was always hard to find time when her grandmother was free and also when we
could get over there as she lived fairly far away but we managed to decide on a
time where we were all free and we were able to film! The house was above
Millie and mine expectations it was gorgeous and the grounds were perfect! Here
are some of the outside locations we used;



Inside the house Paige’s grandmother directed us to
a mirror which made us look distorted, we were able to film inn this as we
believe it fitted in with the theme of our song. The shots we filmed at Paige’s
godmother’s house we are planning to replace some of the outside shots in
Hanbury Manor as Mrs said they were uninteresting.

Another Outside Location

As the school is closed on Thursday due to an insect day we
decided in the time our lesson would be to get some more filming done. We had
originally planned to film in Fanham’s hall as this is where Paige works and it
has extremely pretty grounds although this wasn’t possible as they didn’t get
back to her giving us permission. As our schedule is tight and we couldn’t afford
to miss this filming session we decided to re-locate to another location so we were
able to replace some of our Hanbury Manor shots. Therefore we decided to film in the grounds
of Hertford Castle as this isn’t private land and has pretty grounds. We used a bridge which we believe fitted in
with our mise-en-scene, we also used and old building which had an outside
doorway which we believe would produce interesting framing.

New Production Schedule

We have refined our production schedule to make the most out
of the time we have left to complete our production. It includes the rest of the
filming and editing, we have left a little extra time to at the end of our schedule
in case we haven’t realised we need an extra shot or a different angle so we
have time to do this.

First Cut - Feedback

We were able to show the first cut of our
production in Tuesday lesson allowing us to be given feedback from our teacher
and other students in our class. This was extremely useful as not only did it
inform us what bits were bad but also how to improve it and even some new idea which
we haven’t thought of before.
On our first shot of Paige, the shot the camera isn’t
steady which is noticeable therefore this will need to be re-filmed in order to
improve, also the mask flutters and isn’t as accurate as we hoped it would be
so we will need to alter the mask we use in order to make it more precise.
Our shots in Hanbury Manor which is one of our
outside locations aren’t very strong as the framing and background of the shots
is not very interesting. To stay in control of our shots in future we will need
to use “Manual Zoom” this is especially important when we zoom in on Millie’s
eye and then zoom out on Maya’s.
Relating to appropriate material our teacher said
that our three shots at Hanbury Manor were “Nice but unexciting” therefore we
are planning to re-film these in another location to make it more exciting. Our
teacher also said we had a good idea with the “shoe shot” but we needed to make
it more convincing therefore we are planning o re-film this using bigger shoes
so you can clearly see the difference in Millie and Maya’s feet.
When thinking about our mise-en-scene we have made
a decision to re-film all the shots of the masks as we believe the transitions between
them are not clean cut enough as different people are holding the mask in
different ways meaning the transition is as precise as we hoped. Therefore we
are planning to put the mask on a stick so everyone’s hands are out which we believe
will make it look smoother.
In the shot of Maya reading we have decided that we
are going to make her read a fashion magazine so this helps to create right
mise-en-scene fitting in with the song, as she is self-conscious about her
looks. We were also given another idea by one of the students in our class to
behind one of our green screen shots a montage of images from different magazines
or make one of us look like the front cover of a magazine.
We were also told that we had editing for meaning well
in relation to the dissolve used between Millie and Maya.
For our variation in overall shot transistions,
caption and other FX: We were told that there was a problem with the green scene
which we had already realised when we came to edit it as there was shadow
behind us. We are also going to try and use a different effect for our second
crowd scene in our chorus to make it more varied and less repetitive.
After receiving all the feedback from our class and
teacher we have decided to improve on the following aspects of our production:
1.
Re-film green screen
2.
Re-film masks
3.
Re-film the shoe shot
4.
Film more shots of Millie and Maya so
the background story is carried on throughout the production
5.
Re-film outside locations in a
different location

Week beginning 31st

The deadline for the first draft of our production was on Tuesday however we didn’t manage to meet this deadline so we were allowed another week due to the fact that when we went to film in one of our outside locations it was almost dark by the time we had set up!
We knew when we finally manage to show our production to the class we will received advice on to how to improve our production, for example what bits were working well and what bits weren’t, in relation to the lighting, framing and if the shot portrayed the right mise en scene. Although the only slight problem with this is the students in our class and our teacher were not our target audience, as our target audience is young adult females. Although It still will be beneficial to hear what they have to say.
On Thursday we managed to meet up and film the rest of our outside locations in Hanbury Manor, we believe the location was extremely pretty and helped to portray the right mise en scene. On Friday me and Millie met up after school to edit what we had filmed to finish our first draft.

A disastrous half-term

During half term Millie went to New York and didn’t come back
until the Thursday so we had planned to film towards the end of this week,
although we couldn’t find a time when we were all free so it ended up that we
had to film on Monday. We met up after school and decided to go to one of our
outside locations but we hadn’t thought it would get dark as quickly as it did
therefore we managed to film a few shots but there wasn’t enough lighting to continue
filming.

Week beginning 17th Oct

In our lesson we had planned to film the mask shots where someone held up a mask and when they put it down there was someone else, relating to the lyrics “people are all the same”. We originally wanted to do this in our local town as we would be able to get hold of many different looking people for example age, gender and ethnic race. Although when we went out to film this the weather wasn’t on our side as it was extremely windy therefore the black card we had brought for the background was hard to keep still so this was a big problem. Therefore we went back into school and asked teachers and student to help us which has worked out. Although when we started to edit this it was a lot harder than we first anticipated so we are going to have to film some of the people again.

Week beginning 10th Oct

In our next media lesson we edited what we had previously filmed on Tuesday. When we began doing this we noticed one serious problem as we had not set up the shots probably as we must have positioned the lights wrong as there appeared to be a shadow just behind us. We discovered this as when we were trying to change the background of the green screen, we were unable to find the right colour to get rid of all the green as our shadow was a different colour and therefore it wouldn’t cover. Although the shots we had filmed individually were mainly ok, as we were able to change the green screen colour efficiently.
The only solution to this is filming the shots of us all lip syncing again as there is no way are going to be able to make them work. All our other shots are working well, we are using the transition “fade to black” a lot for our background story as we believe this makes it look dramatic.
We also experiment with when Millie is lip syncing to put the shots of teh public walking past behind her which we believe works really well and is a interesting use of shots she fades out when in the chorus it says “people are all the same” and you are just left with the public walking, which we believe is extremely effective.

Week beginning 10th Oct

During our lesson on Tuesday we decided to film all three of use lip syncing to the whole song this was once again done using green screen. We decided to lip sync to the whole song as from previous practice from shooting in Knebworth is that you often run out of shots. Therefore if we had us lip syncing to the whole song we should be guaranteed to have a shot to fill an empty space. Once again we all wore black or white to make it simple.
This is an image of the dressing table we used;

After we had finished school we decided to go back to Millie’s to film more shots of her and Maya, we were able to film shots 1-7. We found it difficult to film shots 1 and 2 as this was of Maya sitting in front of the dressing table and then Millie in the same position. As we want to make a smooth transition between the two we had to be sure that they were positioned exactly the same. Also as Maya is only 9 she seemed to get bored and agitated as we had to keep re-filming therefore we had to try and keep her entertained as well.
This is a picture from our story body of the eye shot;

We found it particularly hard to zoom in on Millie’s eye as the camera kept becoming fuzzy and went out of focus as it was hard to keep steady. We wanted to use a transition to merge Millie’s eye into Maya’s and the zoom out on Maya’s. We originally planned to do this the other way round although we believe it looked better starting off zooming in on Millie’s eye as it is like she looking back and fits with the lyrics better. During editing we tried out many different transitions between Millie and Maya’s eyes eventually we decided on a cross dissolve as this was the best option as it stayed smooth.

Week beginning 3rd Oct

In our media lesson me and Millie decided to film using the green screen as we needed to film the shots of lip syncing. As Paige wasn’t in we couldn’t film the shots of all three of us therefore we had decided to do our close ups. We stayed with our colour scheme of black and white costumes which follows the message we are trying to portray that beauty is on the inside, therefore we have chosen specifically not to wear glamorous clothes and a lot of make-up. We have chosen to use green screen so we can change the background to make it appear simple and un-glamorised.
We found green screen was hard to set up and to get the lights in the correct position which unfortunately when we came to edit we noticed that we would need to re-film some of our green screen shots as there is some darker shadows around us meaning that we cannot successful edit these shots.

Filming

Today after our lesson me and Paige decided to do some of the first filming of my little sister, Maya. We decided to do shots 10 and 11 which is firstly a shot of Maya walking in my high heels she then walks into a room and shuts the door, then the second shot is of me, in the same shoes, opening the door then walking out of the room. These are shots for our background story showing me looking back on being little.

Doing these shots we're quite hard as Maya had never walked in high heels before so she kept stumbling over so we had to keep redoing the shot. However, the shot we decided to keep did have her slightly falling over as it suggests innocence and how little she is, with contrasting with me walking confidently suggesting I am older, even though you can only see our feet. The shots were also quite hard to set up as we wanted the change to my feet from Mayas to flow and not look too set up so we decided to use the door so make it flow smoothly.

This is an image of shots 10&11

First editing session

This is an image from the storybard of the shot we edited.

In our media lesson on the 4th of October shots 13 and 26 which are identical shots were edited. I was not in lesson as I was ill therefore Paige and Millie took turns in editing this part of our production, the shots were put in black and white and a solarized setting which allowed the shots to look sharper in order for them to stand out. The titles were also put at the start of our production.

Prop List!

The props we need for our production;

• A white mask on a stick - This will be used in the chorus, someone will put it up to their face and then take if off, when the mask is taken off someone else's face will be there. We believe this relates to our chorus lyrics.


• Black heels - This is for Millie and Maya to show Millie is looking back to when she was younger.


• A mirror - This is also for a Millie and Maya shot to suggest it is the same person just when she is younger and older.


• A magazine - That we will burn so you can tell the girl is upset over the images of "Perfect celebrities"

First day of filming - 29th September!

This is an image of our first filming location - Harlow shopping center

After our media lesson we decided to start filming as we were all free but as for the main bulk of the production we are using Millie’s younger sister Maya. But as we were filming in the middle of the day we were unable to film her as she was as school. Therefore we decide to film our scenes where we filmed lots of people walking and speeded it up during editing to relate to the lyrics “people are all the same”. We decided to film this in a place where we thought it was busy to make this shot more effective so we chose to film it in Harlow shopping centre.
We found it difficult to set up our camera in a position where it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and so it wouldn’t offended anyone or make them feel uncomfortable therefore we had to be discreet. This filming is also unpredictable which made it harder to film as occasionally the crowd died down which meant the shots weren’t exactly what we wanted to achieve therefore we had to film for longer than anticipated.

Our Animatic

Analysis of a professional music video – “The Saturdays – Just Can’t Get Enough”

Analysis of a professional music video – “The Saturdays – Just Can’t Get Enough”

View more presentations from callison1318.

Production Schedule

Pitch for Music Video for Ugly

The production pitch for Ugly

View more presentations from callison1318.

Gabby Janes: Practice music video! Filmed at Knebworth

Gabby Janes: Practice music video! Filmed at Knebworth

Knebworth House

On the 12th of July we were taken to Knebworth house to film shots for our music video, in our brief it stated that the song had to reflect summer therefore we chose to do the song “Higher” by “The Saturdays” This song worked really well for us as we had an all girl group, so we all had the same sort of idea for what we wanted our music video to look like. During our visit to Knebworth house we were able to practice numerous different shots and try out new techniques for example a wip pan and a slow zoom, which we knew would benefit us in our preparation for A2 production.
The timescale we had to work with was a two weeks in preparation for our visit to Knebworth house we were able to get our lyrics and annotate them so we knew exactly what we wanted each shot to look like. Although when we came to film we decided to change some shots as we found better locations. During this preparation time we were also able to practice lip syncing and editing it together to see how challenging we found it.
In total we had two hours filming time in Knebworth house, we had two main locations one was a more peaceful and cynic area while the other one was a more upbeat area with swings and many different children’s activities which could have created interesting shots although we chose to mainly film in our first location, as we believe this fitted in with the style of music video we were hoping to achieve. When we got back to school one of the main problems we found was that we didn’t have enough shots , this was overcome as we were able to film arious shots when we ot back to school so we could fill the extra space we had. Although this wasnt orignally planned I belived tihs worked really well and made it more inteesting. Many of the shots we filmed seemed to work really well especially the 360 one on the roundabout as this gave us an interesting background and stood out form all the others.
I gained some new skills during this production as in our two weeks preparation we experimented with a green screen. In post production we learnt how to reserve shots which made me realise what shots looked good and what didn’t.
I believe this experience has helped me in preparation for A2 production as we experimented with new editing skills and different filming styles. I have enjoyed making our music video.

Exam Revision Materials

All AS students please click this link: Miss Grant-Muller's Blogg for your exam revision materials!

Script

Scene one:Camera taking pictures (Accidentally left on filming)
Gabby: “Nicole, I think you’re filming”?
Millie: What no im not (Checks camera, looks surprised) “Oh yeah”
ALL: LAUGHS
Scene Two:Gabby In the mirror looking concerned
Gabby: “I just cant help it, It must be like another teenage feeling maybe its just a phase? I mean what about Madonna and Brittany? They had a thing, but then they had boyfriends too. ?. Maybe I will just grow out of it. But it’s been going on for so long now I just don’t know what to do I mean I guess I could tell them”
Scene three : (Bedroom, confession starts)Gabby: “ I have got something to tell you,(long pause)…. im a lesbian”
Paige: what!? Are you joking? (Looks at Millie very disgusted)
Millie: “Uhh I got changed in front of you”Scene then rewinds to gabby in mirror.
Scene four:Gabby: “No I can’t do that, she will never talk to me if I told her, it would change everything. I have liked her for like three years now I just can’t keep it inside anymore. She is just not like anyone else I know she is beautiful”.
Scene Five: Cuts to close up of phone displaying message, I need to tell you something.Then cuts to Millie and Paige walking, just having a general chat.
Paige: “Oh my gosh, did you see brogans hair in general studies”
Millie: “Yeah it was so nice (pause) Shame about her face though”
Both: Laugh!
Scene Six: Gabby on bench.
Gabby: You alright (smiles)
Scene seven:
Paige: “Oh my look her here already!”
Millie: “oh yeah, oh my gosh he so likes her”(Both smiling)
Scene cuts to boy walking across to meet Gabby
Scene seven:
Gabby: “what who is it” (Looks Very concerned and confused)
Paige and Millie: “Your date”Split screen of gabby and boy
Scene eight: Boy sits on bench next to gabby; gabby is both worried and confused.
Gabby: “I just cant keep this inside anymore”!

Evaluation of Foundation Production

Locations

Filming day one! - Gabby's Room
Dressing Table - Mirror shots + Extreme close up's.

Filming day two! - Millie's Room
Confession scene + Still images

Filming day three! - School Playground
All three Girls + Lover boy?!

Media

View more presentations from callison1318.

Actors

Gabby Janes - Brooke
The Lesbian

Millie Hicks - Nicole
The Girl she Fancies

Paige Weir - Stacey
The Best Friend

Music

The music in our film opening we believe achieves the mood we want as although the song is not necessarily that girly or even particular happy, but this is exactly what we wanted as it shows there is an underlying problem in the girls life. Our music runs over images of happy points in the girl’s life which may cause confusion with the audience but also this may encourage them to want to watch on. The song we have chosen is a song Paige’s band has covered (Kook’s –Naive) and sung in public it is slightly different to the original and her band also do the backing music as well as sign so we do not see any problems with copyright.