In today's world, the social media can have a huge impact on people's; careers, relationships, and lives. It is so influential, and the majority of our world use it. Therefore, i chose to not only post my video to youtube but to also share it on twitter and facebook. (as shown below)
To my surprise, as a result of this, those who featured in the music video unintentionally helped advertise the music video. They mainly did this through taking snapshots of themselves from the video and sharing these photos via instagram (a hugely successful photo sharing application- shown below)
In order to carry out our filming as quickly and efficiently as possible, i drew a rough storyboard which depicted how each scene would look like as well as how the videowill progress. The storyboard is shown below...
I found the process of making a storyboard extremely usefulas, during our hectic filming days, when we lost our place or forgot what to shoot, we could always relate back to theseimages which were not only recapping what we had initially intended to do but also inspiring us and stimulating further ideas.
Before filming, I created a mood board of various ideas, messages or simply images that i would like to incorporate into the music video such as; happiness; love; sweetness; lollipops; joy; hope; etc. Here it is....
This was really useful as it helped to highlight the main themes that i wished to portray in the music video. Thus, when filming i focused more on the nuances of each shot and put more detail into each second of footage rather than putting all my focus into merely the image as a whole.
Before creating our storyboard, Lauren and i went through the lyrics of the song in a chronological order and analysed its meaning in an academic manner. We also told one another our interpretations of each of these lines whilst also taking into consideration how we would like the audience to perceive them. As a result of this method, we wrote rough ideas of what we intend to put into our storyboard for the different shoots and here's what we came up with....
Lauren and i decided to create a call sheet for the home shoot that we sent to each member of our music video. This helped us to organise our actors, which therefore gives us more time to shoot and rehearse as we are aware of our schedule and what we need to achieve.
When deciding on where to shoot our music video, Lauren and i strongly agreed on the fact that more than one location to shoot was essential. This is because we wanted to evoke a sense of adventure in our music video and various locations would help to do this. For our first shoot (Saturday 5th) we choose to film at a studio in Boreham Wood. In order to achieve this, we emailed the owner of the studio. He very kindly let us, as seen in the snapshots below...
For our second shoot we chose a less complex option of filming nearby. For the first half of the day we decided the shoot would take place in my garden as i have a climbing frame which suited the playful style of our video. For the second half of the day we asked a close friend of ours if we could use their top floor (which is very colourful and spacious) to shoot. Fortunately, they also let us use their place to film. Here is a screenshot confirming her approval via Facebook...
Overall im so pleased with the choices of locations as they are both very different yet suited to the style and genre of our video. I cannot wait to start filming !
As the song 'Lollipop' is very much child orientated and colourful, i felt that it would be appropriate to have some of elements of my final digipack drawn by hand, rather than computerised. This would furthermore emphasise the originality of our piece and make it somewhat idiosyncratic in this particular aspect of our project as it is known for artists to have professional photographs taken for use in the digipacks rather than handmade images.
Here are some rough sketches that i came up with to perhaps be replicated in my digipack...
These two images above depict a black and white version of what i intend to be the colourful album cover. It involves the title of the song 'LOLLIPOP' in a rainbow-like format, with each letter having it's own little deco ration (e.g. polka dots). In the centre of the cover shall be a little girl sucking on her lollipop innocently. To the left and right of her will be various objects/ideas/things/items that young children are typically fond of (e.g. hearts music sweets teddy bears etc) all piled on top of each other creating a collage-like effect. At the bottom of the cover I will write the name of the artist (Mika). I chose to use this curly and sketchy font as it stuck to the main theme of my cover which is youth.
The image above shows another one of my potential digipack covers. It has a different style of font from the previous one, this time being a lot more sketchy. In the centre of the image there is a swirl lollipop surrounded by different sized hearts. I found this would be significant as it conjoins the two main ideas of the song (love and lollipops) together and forms an attractive picture. At the bottom in an informal font the artist's name is written. Therefore the audience can identify who sung this piece of music and furthermore they can associate this artist with their perceptions of love and lollipops.
This image shows some of the different styles of font's that i experimented with in the process of making these pictures.
In order to contact our potential actors and actresses for our music video, as the majority of them were under the age of 10, they were unlikely to have a mobile phone device. Therefore we agreed that Facebook would be the most efficient source of contact. Here is the message i sent out to both groups of actors for each shoot...
SHOOT 1 (10 children)
As you can see, this inbox only contains 7 of our 10 actors. This is because some of them were too young to have a facebook account. Therefore, i forwarded this message to each of the younger children's parents to which they all replied with a positive confirmation.
As part of our final project a digipack of our chosen song and artist will be produced. A digipack is a patentedstyl of CD, DVD or BD packaging which typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays that can hold a CD or DVD attached to the inside.
In order to be as successful as possible when producing my digipack, I practised creating the cover of one on an artist callled 'Forged Stone'. Here is how i made it...
STEP 1
I opened the programme 'Coral Photopaint' and uploaded the photo of a mediocre looking man playing an electronic guitar. I chose this photo as the character playing the rock instrument is unconventional to our typical expectation of a band of this genre. This relates to 'Forged Stone' themeselves as they too are individual and do not stick to the stereotype (messy hair, studs, etc). Instead they have a more surreal approach to their audiences.
STEP 2 I decided to duplicate the photograph and add some effects to the colours in order to add a funky feel to it. Then i typed the name of the band in capital letters at the bottom of the cover. Then i added the sketch effect to the font as i felt it work cohesively with the band name which includes the word 'stone', thus giving it a rough edge.
STEP 3 I discovered that the band were fond of masks so i experimented with this idea and incorperated a mask into the digipack cover. However, after analysing the outcome of this, i concluded that it doesn't look as good as i expected and the cover would be more attractive without it. I also changed the font to a more significant and bolder effect which is more appealing and eye catching
STEP 4 I then added a 'water colour' effect to the image of the man playing the guitar, and i adjusted the 'bleed levels' and density of the paint to produce this edgy effect.
STEP 5 This is the finalized cover that i produced. It represents the surreality and edge of the band whilst also sticking to its roots as a guitar is clearly visable. Hope you like it !
As our chosen song is very musical and rich in texture we felt that it would be necessary to accentuate some of the individual instruments such as the saxophone (through the blow up sax), the drums (through the lollipop drum, foot tapping and hand clicking), the trumpet (through a plastic and colourful child's trumpet), the guitar (through blow up guitars) and the piano chords (through an electronic piano).
In order to make our music video look as professional as possible, i felt that it was necessary to learn the actual chords of the music. They were pretty simple, so it didn't take too long to learnt. Here is a picture of the chords...
I filmed the piano scenes from a high angle, and ensured that only the keys were on show, nothing else. I had to film a couple of times as i wanted to have the motif exactly in time with the music from the song. Here is how I filmed it...
This photo depicts how I used auto record. This involved me playing the piano and watching myself do so whilst the camera separately was recording this.
This photo illustrates how, for some shots, I played the piano whilst watching myself do so through the camera lens. This procedure was much more difficult
One notionwhich we would like to include in our piece isANIMATION
I personally think that this would work very well in our video as it fits the fun, innocent and youthful feel to our video. Furthermore, it is something different, thus keeping the viewers entertained and excited throughout.
A very influential music video which also includes animation is 'Nowhere Near My Heart' by Kori Pop...
Although this video has some dark meanings to it, the general concept of having paper characters and moving objects (e.g. houses) really intrigues me.
The reappearing motif of a bear tapping his foot is very inspiring. The song 'Lollipop' has a very strong and significant bass line, as does the song shown above. In order to highlight this leitmotif i would like to create something animated which moves in time with the bass line also.
The paper people are a very interesting element of this video which i would love to use in my piece. It adds authenticity and excitement. In this video, i perceive the synchronised movement of the paper people as a latent representation of the lack of control we mere mortals have over our constructedrelationships and the roles we must play within them. However, if i was to use this idea in my piece, i would arrange it in a way that is representative of teamwork, child play and harmony.
I'm not sure of what the animation is going to look like just yet however here are some ideas
that i have come up with...
The stereotypical 'lollipop girl' cartoon
A wackier representation of the 'lollipop girl'
A rough sketch of a lollipop (main theme)
A sketch of a conventional young boy
'Say Love' (significant lyrics taken from the song)
A talking/moving lollipop (elicits the notion of imagination and creativity in children)
Boy holding large lollipop
Boy sucking on lollipop
Boy sucking on lollipop with text in capitals quoting the reoccurring lyrics 'Love's gunna get you down'
A broken heart to illustrate the deeper meaning that lies within this joyful song
Considering that one of the main themes in our music video idea is colour, Lauren and I decided that a variety of fun and creative props were necessary to emphasize this notion.
Some of our props were handmade. For example; the large sweetie canvas which we produced in order to use as a background; and the placardswhich we created in order to use as a vehicle to portray and emphasize certain, significant lyrics (such as ‘say love’). The video below shows the process of how Lauren and I created these props...
The rest of the props were bought. Some were from Amazon, some from The One Pound Store and some were from a warehouse of a novelty shop. Each prop was chosen with great care, and for a specific purpose...
This photo depicts me holding a box
containing some of we got from the
Novelties Direct Warehouse
The props and I
Me with some of our many sweets
A lollipop drum - amplifies
the lyrics
Sparkly and funny hats, confetti, blow up instruments, balloons beach balls, feather boas, and funky shades
Lauren and i experimenting with some of the props
Lollipops were an essential prop used in our piece
The props being put to use (e.g. bubbles)
Our 'prop table' where every prop was kept safe
Hopscotch - reiterates the notion of youth
Roses were used as a prop to symbolise the young and innocent view of love being shown through gestures
All the studio shoot actors making use of their props
