Character Outfit Analysis

Here are the character outfits for both me and Jordan that will run throughout the video:

Equipment List

Here is a list of equipment we are going to use in our video:

Practical Eqiupment:

Cannon 600D x2 (One for side angle/One for cutaways/Twixtor use)
Nikon D5100 (will be used for majority of shots)
Tripods x3
Flash lights x2
Strobe light (rave scene)

Props:

Gold disco ball
DIY Flame torch
Baseball Bat
Cigarettes

Twixor slow-motion software

We have access to the Twixtor software that will allow us to use super slow motion editing whilst still maintianing extremely high qualilty footage and proffesionalism within our video. The camera used in this example video i found on YouTube is similar to ours, however we will be using the Cannon 600D, although the quality of both cameras is almost the same.

Digipak Research Prezi

Guerilla Filmmaking

As we are producing our music video on virtually no budget we are going to have to use guerilla style filmmaking on location to get the shots and correct scenes we need.  However many succesful films such as 'London to Brighton', 'Monsters' and 'Paranormal Activity' have used guerilla filmmaking to lower to costs of producing their films.

Poster Analysis Rudimental/Deadmau5/Fatboy Slim

Evidence of filming/Blog Work

Lyric Analysis of our song - Woodkid Iron

As you will some from my notes the lyrics convey feelings of lost identity, loneliness and consistenetly connote themes of battle of war. To help appeal to our target audience and stick to our chosen genre we want to include the lyrics meanings as much as possible within the video.
  Therefore we will focus on three main themes:

-Lost Identity

-Loneliness

-War/Battle

Visual Storyboard: Narrative (Excluding Performance Shots)

Here is a rough narrative visual storyboard excluding any performance shoots. It is not a definite storyboard but will hopefully give us some initial shot plan.

The XX- Crystalised Textual Analysis Prezi

Here is a prezi presentation of The XX- Crystalised. Through out research we have found 'The XX' to be very similar to our artist, we have therefore put a huge emphasis on them during research to gain as much inspiration from them as possible, asl by analysing their current products we have been to able to recognise common convention of the alt-electro genre.

Rudimental- Deep In The Valley Analysis

Roots Textual Analysis

Here I have done a textual analysis of a similar music video to our artist to gain a better understanding of genre, conventions and what could possibly work well in our production.

Analysis of Location Shoot/Setting Choice

Analysis of Location Shoot

Location Shoot: Factory

Location Shoot: M32 Underpass

Location Shoot: Old Swimming Pool

Location Shoot: Skatepark

Paper Storyboard

Here is a paper storyboard to reinforce my previous visual storyboard. This storyboard gives a rough view of the structure of our finished project. However,  my creative drawing skills are extremely limited and have limited the amount of insight into our project this storyboard will give.

Choosing Our Project

Considering out initial ideas:

Short Film: Although a short film would be an intresting creative project we both felt that the time taken to plan, produce and edit a five minute short film would be extortionate compared to the time taken to produce a music video or film trailer. The fact that a short film can be about any subject and have any target audience and conventions was daughting on our group as we relaised the planning neeed would be huge. However we did consider producing a short film that tied into our AS production, opening two minutes of the film 'Remembrance', but quickly realsid it would be more efficiant and beneficial to our studies if we chose one of the other options.

Film Trailer: As we had ruled out producing a short film we were torn between making a film trailer or music video. As me and Jordan are both passionate in music and film production it was a tough decision to make and took quite a while before a decision was made. I felt that a film trailer would limit our creative freedom slightly as they have to stick to certain conventions and expecations within the film industry. Again we were inspired by our previous AS project to continue 'Remembrance' further into a film trailer but we decided to not continue with the prouction of a film trailer as we had some strong initial ideas for a music video.

Music Video: The choice to produce a music video for our A2 product was based on the strong initial ideas for the project. Immideately we knew we wanted to produce a video for an artist in the Hip Hop or Electro genres as they are genres we are passionate about in everyday life. Similarly to last year we have decided to split our roles equally with both performance and production, although Jordan supplies his own camera and editing software i will produce an equal amount of material and editing space.

My Group/Group Roles

Our Group: Continuing from our AS studies me and Jordan are going to work together in a group of two this year. This decision was made on the basis knowing that we work work well together and have similar creative ideas when it comes to production.

Group Roles: Similarly to last year me and Jordan chose to split the work equally, with the same amount of performance, production, planning and editing from both of us. Jordan supplies the group with his own high quality camera so he may or may not have more of an influence on shot types and framing but this will not effect the overall amount of individual work producd by each member. Traditionally when me and Jordan have worked together i have take a more directive role in the planning and producing of our project whereas he has been the more practical member of the group.







Link to Jordan's WordPress Blog: http://jordanbarclaya2media.wordpress.com/

Skills I achieved from AS

Research and Pre-ProductionHow have you improved so far and and how could you improve further?

During the AS course i developed a vast array of technical and theoretical skills that helped me to achieve a strong coursework grade. Coming into the AS with virtually no technial ability i was able to strengthen my creative ability during the blogging planning stage, working with my partner to plan, storyboard and research a Thriller/Horror two minute film openining. In order to get a good understanding of current products we textually analyised several film openings within the genre. By doing this research we were able to get a good understanding of genre conventions and what aspects of film openings are succesful and common. By drawing up a list of conventions we were able to establish a rough idea of what we wanted to include in our film opening and began to establish a rough storyboard. I created a short storyboard that laid out the foundations for out film opening. We then reinforced the splanning by creating a visual storyboard that worked alongside a location shoot. These tasks allowed us to have a clear path when it came to production which created an organised and smooth filming proccess. I could have improved the ammount of work i put into planning, having underestimated deadlines and research needs i was often lacking in time to complete the work which showed in my final work.

Production (Filming)

How have you improved so far and and how could you improve further?

Coming into the AS course with virtually no technical ability in filming i was able to develop my filming ability which has helped me in both my AS course and other media activities outside of education. Although i have developed some filming skill i still need a huge amount of practise and experience which i hope to expand in my A2 course. Using our own higher quality camera's we were able to achieve proffesional standard quality without wasting time or effort. The high standard of the camera allowed s to use a variety of effects within the production, including the focus tool that allowed to acheive a tense suspensful atmosphere. We also used a variety of camera shots and movements in our film opening, an exmaple would be the titling crane shot that we achieved by using a modified crane shot. In the A2 course i would like to be able to spend a lot more time experimenting with filming, as in our AS production acted, so filming was widely unavailable to me.

Post Production (Editing)

How have you improved so far and and how could you improve further?

Similarly to filming i had very little knowledge of editing prior to my AS course. The post production stage of the project allowed me to experiment with editing and i managed to achieve some intresting results with both picture and sound in Adobe Premier Pro CS5. We used a variety of techniques while erditing to work paralell with the effects created in our filming. For example towards the end of the timeline we backward looped the sound that had ran troughout the opening to siginify a change in atmosphere and emphasise suspense. In the A2 course i would like to have a more direct approach to editing as i am now more confident with the process.

Welcome To My Blog!

Hi and welcome to my blog! My name is Billy Christensen and I am an A2 Media Studies student at John Cabot Academy.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog as well as watching my video.

Thanks!