Official Risk Assessment Form

We have been reminded the importance of filling out a risk assessment form prior to filming. This is crucial to do in any type of technical project in media, from film, to TV and especially music videos. Since we are planning to do some of our filming outdoor, it is therefore essential to have this documentation fully completed for assurance.

Possible locations

In order to get the best shots and footage possible for our hipster style video, we have researched and been to the quirkiest and cultured places to choose from. We have come up with a bullet-point list of the
best suited locations where will be considering filming. London is a cosmopolitan and unique city with plenty of places to choose from, therefore we are aiming to utilize what we can in order to achieve the very best results. Here are some of our ideas:

• Hoxton
• Clerkenwell
• Camden
• Soho
• Primrose Hill
• Notting Hill
• Portabello
• Hampstead High Street
• Little Venice 
• Covent Garden 
• South Bank
• London Bridge/Bermondsey

Noah and the Whale's website page

As a group, we 'Googled' the band's official website page to browse through their blog, tour dates and music links. This provided us with a deeper insight into who we are working on for our own production of a music video, as well as inspiring us to see what a professional website homepage is like for further reference to make our own.

Synesthesia Exercises: Research Method

In class we learnt that another form of qualitative research is through a synesthetic exercise. This gives the viewer an opportunity to participate in listening to the music. This triggers images and thoughts in the brain due to hearing sounds and noises, automatically responds to visual motions. 

This can be a source of amazing artistic inspiration when creating the video, as it gives us ideas as to what an audience hears and feels. Especially our TARGET audience! It is known to be a unique experience for the participant as they capture colours, tones, images, harmonies, shapes and other elements included.

Musician and synesthetic Michael Levy, made an over 2 minute film on his thought processes whilst listening to composer John Coltrane's jazz music. This was definitely eye opening and gave us a scientific insight as to what we are expecting from our audience feedback.
Below is a filmed interview with a peer, that records James listening to Five Years Time, and then saying his reaction and any thoughts that come to mind right after. Take a look!



As a group, the three of us sat down and did our own, professional synesthesia exercise. We came up with a brainstorm combing all of our ideas.

Group Contact and Networking

In order to communicate and post instant ideas online where the three of us can see, we have created an
interactive Facebook Group that is called: Media A2 for our benefit.
This use of free and useful technology very much assists us to brainstorm and to share ideas and thoughts in this pre-production process.

Facebook was also used for our Media AS thriller title sequence as well as the tool to send our survey out to friends and family on Survey Monkey. 

We also send each other brainstorms and spider diagrams filled with ideas and possible concepts to incorporate in the video. Here is an example:

Our chosen song!

Lyrics to Song from Tyler Alexander-Abt

Audience questionnaire feedback example

Below are 3/10 of the questions from the survey, made into pie charts. This help us to analyse the results strategically and show the difference of information.

Stop motion

Stop Motion is a technological technique used in film and the visual arts in order to manipulate objects to appear moving on their own using still, divided frames combined into a pattern.
My group and I thought that it would be really effective and a nice touch to use this in our own video. First we researched examples of videos that incorporate this.




The objects are moved slowly in a gradual development between the individually photographed/filmed frames, creating the illusion of movement. This looks fantastic when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence creating an almost animated touch to the video. 

We decided it would be well suited to use to stop motion in the very beginning, where there is whistling and a ukulele playing. This transports the viewer from fantasy to reality as we will form a transition at that point fowards. We have created a draft of the stop motion. Our idea was to have a sun gradually moving along the horizon through white, puffy clouds above green landscape. In our free time, we constructed a mock up and cut and glued these components using coloured paper. We then used our iPhone 4 to take separate pictures whilst readjusting the sun continuously. Then, we uploaded our still frames onto our saved file on Adobe for the video, and created a 10-15 second sequence of the gradual stop motion. I found this such an artistic and creative way to introduce the video. This has sprouted many other ideas and possible effects that we will use in the production process. 

Below is an example of the first frame used in our stop motion experiment:

Our target audience

As the indie folk, community, hipster genre is known for a 'share the love' motto, we are promoting a positive and authentic take on music. Having inspiration from 70's subculture, we have decided to choose a 15-16 target audience and older. We aim to achieve nothing explicit or sexually charged yet our video has a focus on culture and youth lifestyle.

Therefore we are steering away from the following aspects:

• horror and gore
• discrimination
• drugs
• imitable behaviour
• language
• nudity
• sex
• violence
• homophobia

Genres like house and dubstep are notoriously known for their rebellious, experimental and wild nature which in our opinion is not exemplary for young audiences.

We have in mind of course that media producers can not control who consumes the product even if there is one specific target audience. Therefore we feel that our chosen song and genre aims to engage with a wide, mass audience which includes a niche group as well. This gives us the advantage for a variety of consumers.

The hipsters are known to express themselves emotionally, spiritually, and politically. Music can make a statement, give voice to a movement, even unite the artist with their fans and target audience. As hipsters explore their inner world, music guides them along in their quest for meaning. We aim to achieve this community, folk style within our final product. 

Getting equipment for filming

This week is half term which is the best suitable time to take out neccessary equipment to use for our project. We have assigned a few days to film around North West London from the 1st to the 5th of October. This gives us a flexible stretch of time to fulfil the required footage for our shots and to get enough done to work on edit once coming back into the Media suite studio.

We have signed a permission take out form from the tech department to use the following:

• redhead lights
• two cameras
• extension cables
• wide lens
• tripod dolley

A rough shooting schedule plan has been written up to give the three of us a structured and organised format to use from.

MONDAY: lip synching and landscape work
TUESDAY: transition shots and genre-related shots
WEDNESDAY: DAY OFF
THURSDAY: core filming and focus on narrative
FRIDAY: review and reconstruction on footage