Production Schedule

This is the first part of our detailed production schedule which I was responsible for putting together. The schedule takes us right up to the Christmas holidays.  The project deadline is the first week of March, so I will post the second part of the time schedule soon!

Week beginning 25^th of October – Tasks for the week

*Produce a style guide

*Each member of the group researches their own ancillary task and produces draft work.

*Produce a list of ideas for principle photography including locations, costume and poses.

Week beginning 1^st of November – Tasks for the week

*Have a team meeting

Meeting Agenda

Review completed story board

Review style guide

Share each other’s ancillary task draft ideas

Discuss filming

*Take principle photography

*Review Images

*Decide on any re-takes

*Edit Images

Week beginning 8^th of November – Tasks for the week

*Discuss and plan each shot we wish to take in detail.

*Continue with ancillary tasks

*Shoot footage

Week beginning 15^th of November – Tasks for the week

*Review footage and record ay re-takes

*Discuss each shot we wish to film in detail for the following week.

Continue ancillary tasks

Week beginning 22^nd of November – Tasks for the week

*Have a team meeting

Meeting Agenda

Look at footage taken so far

Review and discuss each member’s progress on their ancillary tasks

*Shoot footage

*Continue with ancillary tasks

Week beginning 29^th of November – Tasks for the week

*Review footage taken so far

*Discuss filming for this week

*Plan shoots over the Christmas holiday

*Continue with ancillary tasks

Week beginning 6^th December – Tasks for the week

*Retake any footage needed

*Continue with ancillary tasks

*Finish ancillary tasks to be reviewed and next week’s team meeting for final changes to be added.

Week beginning 13^th of December – Tasks for the week

*Team meeting

Meeting Agenda

Share finished ancillary tasks

Finalise Christmas shooting

*Make any final changes to ancillary tasks suggested at the team meeting

*Review all footage taken so far

After The Meeting...

At the group meeting we discussed in detail what themes and aspects we wanted to include in the style guide and as the October half term is fast approaching Rebecca is going to put all of our ideas together a create a booklet. This booklet will ensure that although each member of the group will be contributing to the ancillary task in different ways all of our work will have a common theme and house style.

Another topic discussed at the group meeting was the plans for a detailed time schedule, by using our basic time schedule from our pitch presentation we have expanded to include specific dates and time frames I have been assigned the role of typing up and developing the plan from the meeting.

 I will also purchase a notebook so that we can record everything said at meetings, when filming and creating ancillary tasks as well as keeping a log book of our project so the project moves along swiftly and quickly.

As a group we have started to write down each shot that we wish to take in a detailed chronological order to create our music video which I will upload to my blog when it is fully completed! As well as this we also split the ancillary tasks between us. Below is a list of who has been assigned what task.

CD Cover - Melissa

CD Design- Melissa

Booklet / Programme - Rebecca

Concert Ticket - Jenny

Magazine Advert – Rebecca

Poster - Lily

T-shirt - Jenny

Website – Jenny and Melissa

Billboard signs- Lily

I will upload a detailed production schedule as soon as possible!

The Next Step...

The next stage in the production process is to, expand in more detail our production time schedule, finalise a detailed storyboard, create a style guide and to assign ancillary tasks to each member of the group. I will record the assigned roles and production schedules after our next group meeting which is coming up soon!

Approved!

We pitched our music video proposal to Mr White and Mr Palmer on Friday the 15th of October and our plans were approved! I have uploaded a videoed version of our pitch along with a print copy our the Powerpoint we put together as a group and our prepared notes.

For our Advanced Media Production we have chosen to create a music video.We have decided to portray Vanessa Carlton’s, ‘A Thousand Miles’. We chose this song as it is open to interpretation so we were able to choose a storyline that is easy to depict but also fits in with the conventions of the genre and a music video. We will research Vanessa Carlton’s style and other music videos to gain an idea of the style of costumes to use.As part of our ancillary tasks we plan to create t-shirts, calendars, concert tickets, a website and album covers. We will design these around the house style of the artist- for example, using dark colours and Gothic patterns. 

We have researched other artists of the same genre to establish a common house style and theme. We also looked at our artist’s current albums, website and other merchandise in order to help with the draft ideas for our ancillary tasks.

We believe our target audience will be mainly teenage girls but also young women, who can relate to the storyline, specific characters or the emotions that are shown, falling in and out of love, or the loss of a life. The costumes make up and locations may also generate an interest within the target audience.

Vanessa was born in Milford, Pennsylvania to Ed Carlton, a pilot, and Heidi, a pianist and school music teacher. Her interest in music began at an early age; after returning from Disneyland at the age of two, she played "It's a Small World" on the piano. Her mother then began to tutor her on the piano. 
At age eighteen, she decided to devote her time to piano-playing and songwriting she attended Columbia University and performed in bars and clubs in Manhattan until her early success in 2002.

A Thousand Miles was originally titled Interlude, and is a pop song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and recorded for her 2002 album Be Not Nobody. It was co-produced and co-arranged by Carlton and Ron Fair, and was released as the album's first single in 2002.The single soon became Vanessa’s signature song and became known as Carlton's breakthrough hit. 

After listening and analysing our song choice we began by making a mood board of our initial ideas, we decided to use a variety of images, to show location, costume, Movement and themes. Our themes included a Gothic style, using contrasting colours, such as red and black to create different moods of love and sorrow. From this idea we looked at flowers and the moods they can portray, specifically roses and poppies. The poppies gave us the idea of the military, the loss of life and the motion of time.
From our initial ideas we created a storyboard which showed all our shot ideas, looking at camera angles, speed and length. 

To create the motion of time we want to use a variety of symbolic locations, which could link back to past memories. The locations include the beach, Woodland areas, busy roads, busy parks, London landmarks, busy shopping centres. We decided to use these as they were suitable and will appeal to the target audience. 

Our main characters will a teenage girl and a teenage boy, the girl will be a ‘girl next door type’ with a Gothic twist, and the boy will be a solider dressed in a typical army uniform.

Using different media platforms we will create a variety of advertisements to campaign and create awareness of our music video. We will create:

Posters,Calendar's, Tickets, Magazine Adverts, Billboards, A Website,      T-shirts and Album and CD covers.

We have designated different jobs to each member of the group; this is to make the production of the video and ancillary tasks much faster and evens out the work-load.

We have planned to have finished filming by the end of December, finished editing at the end of January, have all of our ancillary tasks completed by the end of January and complete any final editing that has to be done by the beginning of February.

To create a wide variety of strong camera shots and angles we will need to use different types of professional standard equipment. The types of equipment we will use include the tracking device, tripod, jib, video cameras and the green screen.

Music Video Storyboard First Draft

This is a copy of the song lyrics along with the first draft of our storyboard that will be used in our pitch to explain our ideas and what we propose to create.

A Thousand Miles Song Lyrics

Storyboard - Part 1

Storyboard - Part 2

Storyboard - Part 3

Our Music Video Synopsis

After our initial brainstorming we collected together as a group and came up with a basic outline for the video. Here is a basic outline of our video synopsis!


 The main themes in our music video are the notion of love the passing of time with a twist of remembrance and the motion of movement. There are two main characters in our music video one in a teenage girl with a Gothic dress sensed mixed with a girly style and, the second character is a teenage boy who is in the army.


The music video starts which the teenage girl walking into a music shop sitting at a piano and starting to play. The story is then moved along through shots of the girl in different locations which will also include different types of transport ensure a suitable pace a sense of verisimilitude throughout the video.


The lyrics show that the girl is missing the boy and is remembering and reflecting the times that they had together. The theme of remembrance is shown through flash backs and fades. The video follows the love story of the two people continuing even when he is not there.


I will upload the song lyrics and our first draft drawn storyboard!! 

Creation of Mood Boards & Final Mood Boards

The planning and creation of the mood boards was vital for not only the pitch but also if the pitch was approved for all aspects of the task to come. This is because this will shape and influence the whole project, and each member of the group can refer to these boards for inspiration. As well as to ensure we use the ideas we have put together as a group in our music video which will reflect each individuals creativity and artistic influence.

Creating of Mood Boards 1

Creating of Mood Boards 2

Brainstorm - Initial Ideas

Different Topic Mood Boards

Ancillary Task Plans

Initial Ideas - To create this type of mood board we sat together as a group and put forward each of our ideas. Each idea was written down, and then discussed in detail to see how different ideas would fit together to produce a music video. Which would fit in with exiting products, codes and conventions and the genre we had chosen. After we had crossed off a few of the ideas we had originally had, after the discussion we each found different images that represented the ideas we had discussed and had decided where strong possibilities which where suitable for this type of project. 

Different Topics - As with the last mood board we sat together a a group and discussed, and came up with different topics and notions which could be featured in the music video. To help us do this we also looked closely at the lyrics of the song. We then found images to represent the different ideas, and printed out the keywords of the different topics we wanted to include so this could clearly be shown in our pitch. 

Ancillary Tasks - As a group we approached this differently than the previous two mood boards. We firstly went away and looked at the type of products we ourselves had and made a list, as well as thinking of the type of products we would individually like to undertake. We then sat as a group and discussed these ideas and same up with mock designs and plans.
  

Pitch Preparation

To prepare for our pitch we designated each member of a group task to go away and research in detail and report back to the group.

These tasks were:

Genre Research – Lily Smythe

Location Research – Rebecca Barrett

Vanessa Carlton (poses and costume) – Melissa Randall

Ancillary Task Research – Jennifer Surtees

Mood board drawing – Rebecca Barrett

Scripting – Whole Group

After each member reported back we created mood boards representing each section we had chosen to research along with a PowerPoint presentation and putting together detailed handouts of our website and story board, by doing this we are able to analyse our findings in detail to ensure that we stick to the codes and conventions of a music video from this genre as well as our task brief. 

 I will upload pictures of our mood boards and power point presentation!

Music Video Analysis

I have decided to analyse Vanessa Carlton's own version of 'A Thousand Miles' as well as two other music videos. The other music videos I have selected are based on the same theme of our music video - love, loss and reflection. As well as the music video's being those of a female artist similar to Vanessa Carlton and have produced a video which is to a sound track which is similar to A Thousand Miles. I have decided to do this at this stage of the production as this research and alalysis could influence the storyboards created for the pitch and result in playing a major part in the pitch passing. 


I will use my notes and findings throughout the production of the music video. This will ensure that our group stick to the common codes and conventions. After our music video has been created I will compare our final product to these three music videos, showing the similarities and influences these videos have had on the production. 


Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles

When watching Vanessa Carlton's interpretation of A thousand miles. I noticed that there is a lot of movement throughout the whole of the video to different locations. When I say movement I mean the notion of movement and traveling, which links to the lyrics of the song. I also noticed that although this theme matched the lyrics not all of the shots matched or portrayed the lyrics literally. Throughout the video there are a wide range of shots used from low and high angled shots to mid and close up shots. The shots featured within the music video are also slightly longer than I had expected. As well as the shots not always centering on Vanessa, for example in some of the shots she is positioned off center so the background can be shown more clearly. 

Throughout the video there is obvious use of the green screen. The green itself has been removed and replaced by moving images and still images. Furthermore it was drawn to my attention that the styling of Vanessa throughout the video is casual, with naturalistic make up and dress. 

Lastly I noticed that both the beginning and the end of the video link. In this video the link is shown through Vanessa starting off from her garage and returning there as the song ends. This ties up the whole of the video and gives the impression that Vanessa has been of a journey, visiting new and maybe old places.

Cheryl Cole - The Flood

When watching Cheryl Cole's, the flood music video. The first thing that I noticed was the establishing shot of the window, which was a strong beginning. Throughout the music video there are a range of shots used with short cuts. These shots include tracking shots, zooms, close up and mid shots. There is also a shot when the camera sweeps in a circle around Cheryl Cole's head which is extremely effective. 

You can clearly see that although there is one video, you could say there are separate stories running continuously. For example these is one set of shots with Cheryl outside by the water, another with Cheryl by the window in the establishing shot, another of her in bed and lastly shots in front of a green screen. Within these shots Cheryl is dressed appropriately for the location and situation. For example in the green screen shots she is wearing a long sweeping dress, in the outside shots a coat and scarf and the inside shots a jumper. Cheryl hair and make up are also different for each location with the green screen shits having her hair down with noticeable and powerful make up on, with the outside shots Cheryl has her hair ties up and naturalistic make up.

Within the music video there is a shot which is replayed a few times of hands slipping away which reinforces that something is missing. Repeating the shot is also extremely effective. Over the whole of the music video a variety of effects have been placed on to the footage. These include the use of the opacity tool, the alteration of speed and duration and the darkening of certain shots. 

Lastly the last few shots featured within the music video are close up of Cheryl face of her smiling and walking past the camera. This does not link to the first shot but is still an effective way of ending the music video.

Avril lavigne - Innocence

When watching Avril Lavigne's, Innocence music video. I noticed that there was a mixture of green screen, location and flash back footage. The flash backs show a couple together, doing activities and things you expect a couple to be doing. For example, walking along with their arms around each other. These flash backs have had a range of effects added to them. For example the blurring of the footage, the alteration of the speed and duration. As well as the effect making the flashbacks are a different color to the rest of the footage. The flashbacks are also repeated and speed up when the tempo of the song build which is extremely powerful and suits the music. 

The green or white screen has also been used to film parts of the video. The background has been either changed to white if the green screen was used, or kept white if the white screen was used. Having the plain white background is effective and highlights the singer. The footage filmed in this way has also been zoomed in with cross fades and dips to white added. Although these effects where  not only featured in  the sections with the screen but also throughout the music video.

Throughout the music video there are continuous stories filmed in the same location put together and run continuously. This creates the need for a lot of quick cuts to keep the flow of the video. these cuts also separates the past to the present. Lastly the last shot featured within the music video is a flash back followed by a dip to white. Having this for an ending in a music video made to a song with the main themes being reflection and love is both strong and powerful. 

From the Very beginning…

This blog will be following mine and my team’s progress for G324 Advanced Media Portfolio. This blog will be updated regularly showing the stages in production form initial ideas to the final product itself.


After much initial discussion my group consisting of myself, Lily Smythe, Melissa Randall and Rebecca Barrett we have chosen to recreate the music video of Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles which was originally titled Interlude and was released on Vanessa’s ‘Be Not Nobody’ Album. This song has been selected collectively as we were able to brainstorm a strong story board and ancillary ideas from listening to the lyrics and researching the artist herself which followed the project brief and codes and conventions of a professional music video.


Once our choice of song had been selected we had a group discussion to start preparations for our pitch, to record our ideas in more detail, and to discuss our individual ideas for not only our music video but also our ancillary tasks and assigning roles. We decided that we would start with a brainstorm of ideas which will be turned into a mood board which will be uploaded later on in the blog.


These are the ideas we came up with as a group for the ancillary task:

Posters, Magazine adverts, Billboards, a Website, Calendars, Concert Tickets, T-shirts and CD Covers.