Positive things to share!

Adding animation and new technology

Having researched the wonders of music videos, particularly from our genre, my group and I came across this quirky and alternative video with hearts incorporated. This gave us the brilliant idea of using our Media Studies classroom to experiment and put the original idea of drawing suns on the model's face with face paint, to replace this with the projector's images. This is really interesting and can be visually thrilling for the audience.

Although this is only linked to the lyrics, this focuses on the creativity and youthfulness of the video.

During our free time and allocated lesson time, we worked on this part of the video.

Spontaneous Work

 As the three of us have discovered our perfectionist ways whilst working on this project, we re-assessed the video as whole once again, and thought it would be really charming to insert a 'LOVE' shot with a girl tying her hair back and this medium close up shot would capture the multi-coloured sign inscribed on her neck. This is alternative and fits in with the young, wild and cultured genre that we are portraying.

 We used felt tip markers to write the powerful word on the back of her neck.

Above is me filming with the Canon camera, finding the appropriate angle and height by panning the camera to estimate the best possible shot. This took me 1-2 minutes to order which I then filmed and directed the actress to re-run the shot 3 or 4 times until the shot looked its best.

Working towards the deadline

Coming towards the end of the production process, we are almost at the end of the editing and now will focus on individual evalutation and audience feedback of our completed video.

Developing the digipak

Applying my ideas creatively towards my final digipak, I have created this useful template to work with.

Team Meeting

Coming towards the end of the creative process before finalizing edits and starting the evaluation questions, we took the liberty to have a very important group meeting to go through the exact shots needed for the music video sequence that are either missing or need to be re-filmed and edited.
Today, Felicity and I filmed with our friend Alex Alter, gaining certain bits of footage to upload to Adobe Premiere.

For example, we completed the planned shots with:
glitter,
number 5 shaped candles
Ribena bottle
'stupid cigarettes'
feet at the edge of the bed
Russian doll shot
and many more

Like last year, from useful filming experience at AS, we feel comfortable on set to experiment and explore new and quirky ideas to incorporate within the music video.

We worked with different angles varying from high shots, low shots, zoom, over the shoulder and more. This enabled us to freely experiment and play with the different types of camera shots possible.

When filming, I used zoom, panning and crabbing techniques.

I feel that today's work demonstrated our positive group work ethic towards the production of the project.

James Dean

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment. In the song's lyrics:

Oh, well I'll look at you and say it's the happiest I've ever been
And I'll say I no longer feel, I have to be James Dean

This intertextual reference plays a part within the wider context of the song which we feel is important to reflect and manipulate in our video.

 

We used this photo to doodle on: horns, a mustache, a beard and geek glasses. This was then filmed and uploaded onto Adobe. We fast-fowarded the timing of the action which added a satirical yet cinematic effect. The black and white photograph used, (yet above is sepia-coloured) is unusual within the sequence which highlights and colours the music video effectively.
 

Iconic symbolism within our video

During the post-production process of filming the video, we have carefully studied and analyzed the outstanding and salient features of the collected footage so far. The third shot of the sequence is myself skipping down a street in Primrose Hill wearing a mango-coloured, bright dress that is the first real establishing shot of the song.

Prior to the shot is the fast-motion shot of the title spelt out in Scrabble letters followed by the successful stop-motion shot of the sun gradually traveling. This connects to the themes of sun, positivity and fun within the song's lyrics as well as our video.

We have decided to shoot more clips of myself/ another actress lip-synching and improvising, whilst wearing the dress in order to develop the video's narrative and allow the viewer to focus their attention on a specific character.

This is definitely influenced by Spielberg's Schindler's list as the little girl in the red dress, is the iconic character in this classic, avant-garde, black and white film: 

The primary colours attract the viewer's attention in order to provoke their senses when watching entertainment or any visual form of media. 

Gymnastics and talent within our video

During our second day of filming we encountered stuntmen who did freestyling tricks in the park where we briefly filmed. This gave us a deeper insight into exploring the possibility of inserting acrobatics and special tricks into our music video. Madonna's pop song: 'Hung Up' spurred us to experiment working with young people and gathering footage of their own freestyle stunts to insert into our final video. This may steer away from the initial narrative yet it grants us opportunity to electrify and urbanize our video for a positive representation of young people.




A friend of mine from my gymnastics club is a skilled and talented gymnast who has agreed to work with us to get some fantastic and jaw-dropping shots of backflips etc.

We asked our actor to fill out a health and safety form as well as a risk assessment before proceeding with the stunts to ensure his safety and assurance during the filming.

More album cover creations...

This album cover allowed us to experiment with different layers of the photo's composition.

 

This is my own draft/brainstorm of the what I envisage the Digipak cover to look like. Using the technical wonders of Corel-Paint 11, I used special effects such as the solarisation tool to alter the colour and tone in order to achieve my studied artist's genre.

I also copied and pasted love heart doodles and positioned them on the corners of the image to create a college effect. I also filled in the backdrop image layer with a blue coloured sky that works well with the overall positive image.