Big problem!

• As I'm using my sister in the music video, it was easy to do tests of the video at home. Doing a test of my music video, I realised that having my sister singing with sand coming out of her mouth didn't look good at all - it didn't fall out of her mouth evenly, ended up coming out in three splurges per mouthful of sugar ('sand'), and just looked terrible. Because of this, I'm having to change my idea. I liked the idea of using sand/sugar in my production, as I think the idea of sand really worked with the lyrics of the song, and was a well thought out idea. I re-looked at some of my previous ideas (e.g. sand falling down whilst song plays + sister sings, sister singing song whilst keeping many sand timers running), but wasn't happy with them so I started to think about possible ideas again.

• I thought of the idea of something filling up with sand, as if the higher it gets the less time the singer has to reveal their feelings. After thinking about suitable objects/ways to fill with sand, I thought it would look good for Ellie to be in a bath, that's slowly being filled up with sand. When the sand reaches her head, it will stop pouring into the bath but she'd now be unable to move as the weight of the sand is tying her down.
  

• After researching into this idea, I found out that the average bath holds 135 litres. After having to convert kilograms to litres, I worked out that nine or so bags of play sand (15kg) will be enough to fill the bath (with a person in it). Each 15kg bag being £2.99, this'll work out to be £26.91 for the whole video. 
  

• I'm having issues about what I want Ellie to wear in the bath. Initially, I wanted her to wear smart, dressed up, seductive clothes, to signify how close she was to revealing how she felt. Then, I thought it might be better for her to wear more casual clothes to signify her what seems to be casual attitude towards the relationship. I've decided to put together two possible outfits, one casual and one dressed up, and take photos of her in the bath as if the sand was being poured on her. This will then give me more of an idea about which outfit will look best, whether it works well with the shape and colour of the bath, and whether sand falls well on it the outfit (e.g. pouring sand on to silk will look very different to pouring sand onto a rough fabric like denim or linen).
  

• Thinking about this, I want to make it look like she's actually in a bath with water. I'm thinking of placing candles around the bath to create an atmosphere as if she's trying to calm herself down and relax in the bath, but the sand is swallowing her up not allowing her to relax (as in her free time she's simply thinking about how time is running out). Half way through the video, I want her to dip her hand in water (that will be placed out of the shot so it's not obvious), and rub her eyes, so her make up smudges as if she's in a bubble bath. This will also add to the idea that she's getting more and more stressed as time goes on, and as the song goes on as she's dwelling on the subject.
  

• As I'm filming at home, I had the choice of filming in two bathrooms. One of them is colourschemed white, blue and green, and the other is more simply white. I've chosen to shoot in the plain white bathroom, as there is a window right next to the bath so there'll be good lighting, and quite a plain background. 

• I'm going to buy the sand in the next couple of days (I may have to go to various different Argos stores as no one store that's close has more than four packs of sand!), and will take a camera home to film the video!

Mock Ups

upload when scanned

Planning

Advanced Portfolio

Long Term Planning Schedule

Week Beginning	To be completed	Resources Required
2/11/09	Finish all blog prep. Finish mock ups for each product + upload these to blog.	Internet (blog). Video camera for mock up video. Photoshop for mock up advert + digi-pack.
9/11/09	Do two days of filming (final video). Upload this to blog, stating what went well and what didn’t. Take final photos for digi-pack and magazine advert (make sure a selection of different compositions are tested). Upload these photos to blog, so able to show difference between original photo and final.	Internet (blog). School video camera. DSLR camera (for high quality photos). Actress – Ellie Perkin. Photography studio – as a setting for final video (enables use of professional lighting).
16/11/09	Begin to put together video – put music and video together, start to edit this. Write about this, uploading it to the blog, stating what I’m happy with and what I need to improve. Work on+ finish digi-pack. Upload thoughts on digi-pack – is there anything I’m not happy with? Upload photo version of digi-pack to blog to annotate. Why have I chosen to make it like this?	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop (for digi-pack). Internet (blog).
23/11/09	Carry on editing video – aim to have finished this by Wednesday. Upload writing to blog. Work on+ finish advert. Upload advert to blog + write about why I’ve decided to lay it out like that. What I found hard, what I like about it.	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop (for advert). Internet (blog).
30/11/09 First Draft / Rough Cuts to be completed (To be handed in on Wed)	When shown to teachers, make a brief of what more there is to do. Upload this brief to blog. Begin final edit. Write on blog about what I have left to do.	Mac – iMovie. Internet (blog).
07/12/09 (Getting feedback on Tuesday)	Aim to finish editing on video to finalise with teachers by Thursday. Make sure digi-pack and advert are ready to hand in – upload finished copies to blog.	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop. Internet (blog).
14/12/09 Deadline Week (Deadline = Wednesday)	Make sure all loose strings are tied up by Tuesday at the latest – there shouldn’t be anything left to do this week concerning production work. Write final evaluation of project on blog.	Internet (blog).

First Idea

• As shown in the previous post, the lyrics of the song I'm using made me think of time, different ways of measuring time, and therefore sand (egg-timers).
• I thought of various different ways of putting this idea across, for example, sand acting as rain over the artist and the artist only as if she's drowning in her sorrows and lack of time, and using the physicality of sand timers - the artist singing the song whilst turning over egg timers to imply her neverending waste of time.

• After thinking of these ideas, I moved onto thinking about how I could portray the artist talking/singing about the matter instead of acting on it, and how that can be percieved as a waste of time. This led me to create an idea of the artist singing, but not being able to get her words out properly as there was just a stream of sand coming out of her mouth. After considering this idea, I decided it might not be best to use actual sand, as this may be dangerous/damaging for the artist's health, so I decided I want to try this but with brown sugar (to look like sand). There's a chance this may not work - the lip syncing may look terrible and not portray the image I'm hoping for, but I'm going to do a test of this at home on my video camera to check this.
• When planning this test, I was having difficulties finding someone I'd like to use. After talking to Phoebe (the artist) about the idea, she'd be willing for it to be used but she wasn't willing to do it - which I was quite happy about because she's not really the style I was looking for. Ruling out Phoebe, I wanted to find an ordinary, mature-looking female.
  After considering who I could use I came up with the idea of using my sister - Ellie Perkin. She's 23, having the aesthetic maturity I was looking for, is a good actress, and is willing to shoot the video (using sugar) - the photo on the left is her.
• After deciding on my model, I moved on to thinking about the setting I'd shoot it in. I was thinking it could be nice to shoot this outside, but I soon decided against this as the weather can be incredibly unpredictable and I don't want to have to rely on the weather to shoot my work, or rush the filming to get it done in one day. I then thought about using a photographic studio (the one in my school - I therefore have easy access to the studio, lighting and cameras.)
• At first I was thinking my idea would be better the more simple it is, but I then realised I can project images/words onto the wall behind her/her face, and I think I might play around with this idea if I choose to finalise this idea.
• I will upload the test footage at a later date!

Radiohead - No Surprises

I watched this music video and immediately got ideas for my advanced production. Although this is not the kind of music I'm focusing on; the simplicity but danger and excitement of the video really intrigued me. It is simply one shot of Thom Yorke (singer in Radiohead) singing the lyrics to the song, but he's trapped in an old glass diving suit. The helmet slowly fills up with water, giving him less and less air to breathe until he's competely emerged in water. This video implies being dragged under and losing control, I think the video portrays this idea really effectively. I like the simplicity of the video, and that it is only one shot. The fact that there's only one shot makes the video less complicated than it could have been - if there were more shots in the video I think it'd have ruined the neverending effect created.

This video affected me so much - I've recently been thinking about how I can create a music video similar to this; grotesque, outrageous but a simple idea. Here are a few of the ideas I thought of:

Brief:

• Music Promotion

Main Product:

• Music Video

Ancillary Product 1:

• Magazine advert

Ancillary Product 2:

• Digipack

Genre of Main Product:

• Acoustic singer/songwriter

Target Audience:

Demographic:

• Female aged 16-25

Psychographics:

• Old brief described a party girl that enjoyed 'roaming free', but after a change of song the first part isn't relevant.
• Likes to roam free, very easy-going, calm.

Lifestyle:

• Stereotypical student life, likes going out, but likes to relax a lot also.

Similar Media Products:

1. KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"
2. Laura Marling - "New Romantic"
3. James Morrison - "You Make It Real"
4. Damien Rice - "Nine Crimes"
5. Beginning of film 'Closer'

Justification for choice of breif:

Scene 1 of Closer - 'The Blowers Daughter' (Damien Rice)

Video of this -

(Excuse the non-English video, this was the best I could find! When the girl wakes up from being run over, she says 'Hello stranger')

I saw the film Closer a while ago, but the first scene has always stuck in my mind. When I came up with the idea of doing an acoustic music video, Damien Rice came in to my head, and consequently, the opening scene of Closer. The first scene is so simple - shots from two different viewpoints : one pointing towards a girl walking down the street, and another pointing towards a man doing the same thing. It's soon obvious that the man and woman are walking towards each other, and they've evidently noticed each other. Although the scene doesn't have much to it, it's an incredibly effective opening, partially because of the song used. It immediately sets the storyline and immediately draws you in to the film. I'm thinking of aiming for the same effect with my music video - something simple but that draws you in and really ties in with the lyrics of the song.