Final Location Visit - With Sandhya Gulsin

Before the day of shooting at Littlewood Barn, Me and Sandhya thought it was essential that we went down there so that we could do a bit of extra planning and have an advantage on time when the day came. We took a few images to help us when we got home.

The barn was absolutely stunning and we we're lucky to be filming in there. There was already lighting inside which could be moved and turned on and off separatly. There was also discrete plug sockets which were even hard to find at times and they were scattered all over the place so that was a lot of help.

Call Sheet - With Sandhya Gulsin

To help with our planning and the smoothness of the day of filming we needed to create a call sheet so that it was proffesional and everything was clear to us and the band.

Planned Costumes

Below are our initially costumes which were planned based on our knowledge of the song and bands in the same genre so that our band will fit in.

Lead Singer:
- Dressed all in black.
- Black leather jacket, in the style of Brandon Flowers.
- Black jeans.

Drummer:
- Fake Sleeve tattoos.
- white patterned vest.
- Black jeans.
Considering going for the style of Travis Barker from Blink 182. As this is quite a risky look we have a back up.
- White T-Shirt.
- Flannel Shirt.
- Black Jeans.

Bassist:
- Blue jeans.
- Dark coloured blazer.
- White T-Shirt.
In the style of Mark Stoermer.

Electric Guitarist:
- Blue jeans
- Brown Leather jacket
- Dark logo T-Shirt.
General style of guitarists.


Example:

Lighting Plans

The place we shall use to hire our lighting: http://www.iasoundandlight.co.uk/hire.htm
They are close, reasonable and also do a massive variety of different lights.

We are planning many different ways of using the lighting. Here is a diagram we mapped up before hand:

Initially we will be using silhouettes meaning the lighting would be behind the band. This may prove harder than initially thought.

We are also planning to do flashing lights from different angles.

We will also use a smoke machine.

We have asked to hire :

3x halogen flood lights - Ordered 1 more than we plan to use just in case we have an issue with one.

1x fog machine

1x strobe light

Editing/ Filming Schedule - With Sandhya Gulsin

As filming is coming closer we felt it was time to get a schedule together and begin our final planning phase. Below is our first plan.

After analyzing we decided that we needed to have another look over and redo it.

I also created a checklist to make sure that we took everything we needed and more on the day and so that we also came back with it.

Props List

Mood Board

Storyboard 2

This is the refurbished storyboard from mine and Sandhyas original drawings.

...

Storyboard 1 - With Sandhya Gulsin

The next step was to actually create a rough draft of the storyboard. This process took 52 minutes to complete and that wasn't including the ideas down on paper. This was very challenging but I feel we worked very well together and communicated ideas effectively.

Narrative Sequence Initial Ideas - With Sandhya Gulsin

To come up with a storyboard me and Sandhya first decided to brainstorm our ideas for the narative to see whether we should keep them all and what ones we can put where and so on.

Risk Assessment

Location:
Risk: Getting Permission for the site. We could get rejected straight away or for other reasons when it actually comes to film we may not be able to.
Actions: Need to make sure that we are allowed to do everything we need to on site, including make noise at times at night and light the place up. We will also have to make other people around aware.

Actors:
Risk: People dropping out last minute. This could cause up particular trouble especially if we have hired equipment and the site and need to get a lot done on that day.
Actions: To battle this we have considered back up actors which will almost definatly be able to step in on less than 24 hours notice to take someones place.

Equipment:
Risk: The cost of hiring equipment could be difficult. Sometimes me and Sandhya think up big things that would look amazing but the cost could go up depending on further plans.
Actions: Try to use one company and maybe get a discount on bulk and because we are students.

Editing:
Risk: loss of files or corruption. Now we will indefinatly make backups of our files but the issue of time would be the one that would have to be addressed if for some reason we lost files.
Actions

Action Plan

Feedback:

After our pitch we had a conversation with our teacher and got a lot of feedback which I found very useful.
To start with the main feedback on our idea was the fact that we need to have people that look older because at our age boys always tend to look younger than girls therefore we will need to get older looking boys especially to suite our song.
She also mentioned that she really liked the idea of childhood memories and maybe looking back in the narrative part of the music video but if its executed correctly.
She agreed with our idea that a barn would be a good set, she hinted at doing it at night but with that means it must be lit correctly and that must also be executed correctly. This also means that we will have to hire lights meaning some sort of cost is going to come into this project. The feedback about the song choice was also particularly positive.


After this we then had many decisions to make regarding many factors including:
Location - We have yet to 100% find a location but a barn is looking the best option.
Actors - We have asked a few people if they would act and have yet to consider anyone for definite yet.
Special effects - We have only had small conversations about special effects at the moment and nothing has been set in stone but we have considered the effect where it looks like the camera goes through the floor into the room above.
Lighting - We have found a lighting company that is local and that is probably where we are going to get our lighting from. (http://www.iasoundandlight.co.uk/hire.htm)
Instruments - We  haven't officially concluded what instruments we will use yet but its highly likely were go with a rhythm guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drums.
narrative - We plan to storyboard in the near future and have many ideas over what the narrative could include.

Once all the filming is done if we don't think the narrative is good enough then we will make the video full performance if our performance filming is good enough.

Copyright

To make sure we weren't infringing any copy write laws and to make sure we didn't have any law suits coming after us I sent an email to the manager of The Killers requesting their permission to use the song.

After not receiving a response Sandhya went searching via different methods. 

She also sent another email which could not be print screened for unknown reasons so heres what was included:

Dear Robert Reynolds,

I am an A level student and I am writing to request your permission to use one track from their second album by "The Killers" entitled Sams Town. The track I wish to use is "When you were young", track 3 on the album. With your permission, this track would be used in my current A-level Media Studies project which involves creating a music video for a popular music track, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist. If I received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would NOT be released to a large audience or uploaded to any public video websites. The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout preproduction
and the final video itself. A copyright notice, with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Sandhya Gulsin

Below is the reply Sandhya got:

Pitch - With Sandhya Gulsin

Below is the final version of our pitch which we presented to our teacher and members of our class.


Our pitch I feel went very well and we came across professional and our ideas well thought through. The feedback we got was mostly positive and we were given the green light to go ahead. There were a few issues that arose the main being the fact that the lead singer needs to look old enough. He also needs to suit the voice, it needs to look as if its coming out of his mouth. Another being the rest of the band need to know how to play instruments so it looks natural. She liked the overall idea of the story line we have planned and took a liking to the idea of the live performance being carried out in a barn.

Below are images and the video of our pitch.

Song Choice

While me and Sandhya were deciding what song we we're going to do, we both came up with a list of songs that we think would be suitable, and we swapped lists and came up with our own two favorites from that list. We then went from there. Below is the video of me quickly analyzing the songs on Sandhyas list.

Families thoughts on what the song means

I filmed my family when I let them listen to the song when you were young with the lyrics, i then asked them what they thought the meaning behind the video was.

Proposed Band Members

These are our original few we picked for multiple reasons and are only possible actors as we need to ask if they would be available but its a start.

Location Possibilities

These ideas are for the live performance location. Other locations will only be featured shortly.

Field Gravesend, Abandoned Swimming Pool, Hall Christchurch, Wrecked Garage, Bluewater Car Park, Road (close), Church

Through putting it on the map I could see how easy each location was to access and also judge whether we would need permission to shoot there.

Song Possibilites

You Me At Six - Reck-less
This song is an option because I really like the beat and the lyrics to this song and they also suggest that love is blind.

The Killers - When You Were Young
This song is an option because its a brilliant rock song with soft verses to a heavy chorus.

All Time Low - Circles
This song is all about a relationship going around in circles constantly. Quite a heavy song throughout.

Avril Lavigne - He Wasn't
Another song about a relationship but this time about it not working out. Woman lead vocalist.

All Time Low - Running From Lions
A metaphor for running away from a relationship for reasons unknown.

All Time Low - Lullabies
A metaphor for losing someone you love, "waiting to say, I miss you i'm so sorry"

All Time Low - Therapy
The song that everyone who has had or has depression will understand more than others.

Blink 182 - I miss you
A song about missing a loved one. Quite a slow song into a bigger ending.

Lost In Colour - Searching for the sun in the dark.
A heaving song. metaphor for every cloud has a silver lining.