ALL - Final Music Video

Here is the final cut of our music video after months of long hard editing and re-shoots/filming. Enjoy!

SD - Filming performance aspect

   Me and Katie have taken charge in filming the performance aspect of the music video as we all have exams at the moment we thought it would be easier to split the performance and narrative aspects. Annie Cutillo, Melodie Abraham and I will be playing the girl band roles, we had origionally planned to use Caitlin Rockett as the third band member but she has still got another three exams to go so we thought it was only fair to let her prioritise those.
   We will all be wearing white dresses, two of them being similar and the other slightly different and more fitted which will be worn by Melodie Abraham playing the main singer Beyonce. All of the members will have their hair and makeup done and we are also going to use a white background and light to anchor the convention that mainstream pop and r&b artists are the most glamourous. The other two singers (Michelle and Kelly) Will wear black high heels and the main singer will wear silver platforms.

SD - Digipak Ideas

As a group we have discussed digipaks alot as it is a big factor of the coursework. My idea for our Destiny's Child 'Thought&Emotion' being a potential CD title, is to have the Band in a big dominating picture wich is photo shopped and edited heavily with light (typically pop and highly commercialised) the title and band name will be in glitter, possibly silver and the background a pale blue colour. The back of the digipak will have the list of tracks showing any features and the length of song in italic font smaller than the other text. The background image behind this text will either be Katies idea of lots of words in a newspaper style font such as love, hate, hurt, heartbreak etc or solo images of the band members the glitter theme will be repeated on the reverse of the didpak but track names will appear in a different color maybe gold or pink. 
 Inside the digipak will be two CD trays, one plastic containing the tracks and the other paperboard which will have concert/live footage on of the band. I also want to include a small booklet inside the digipak with pictures of the band, lyric page of the songs and a fan subsciption page.
Asa will also be making his own digipak so we can compare ideas between the group and then maybe combine what we agree on if we have time or choose one of them. Katie will be working on my digipak with me as I want to put quite alot into it. Pictures will be uploaded later of our progress.

AN - Costume

Concerning the costumes in the video, the couple will be wearing everyday, casual clothing. However, they will be have different looks in each sequence to show the passage the time.

The waitress (the boyfriend has an affair with) will be wearing the a white shirt with some of the top buttons undone and a short black skirt. This will add sex appeal to the character and will fit in with the theory that blondes are the most attractive people, since the actress playing the waitress is blonde.

As for the performers, they'll be also be wearing casual clothing during the narrative sequences because they'll be making brief cameos. As for the performance sequences, they will be wearing white dresses and jewellery because they will be performing in front of a white background. In philosophical terms, the performer's clothing will represent that they might be angelic beings, since one of the performers is in the restaurant during the one of the narrative sequence and she disappears when a person walks past her. This also shows that the performers could also be fallen angels, since they are roaming around Earth in human form.

This theory also links in with the Book of Enoch which was written during the old testament because there are seven beings known as the Watchers who had to watch over Earth, but then one day defied God's orders and descended to Earth, becoming the Fallen angels. Not to mention the fact that since the clothing symbolises the performers as being angels and gives their costumes polysemic meaning, they lack wings signifying that they might not be part of Heaven after all...

SD - Footage

We filmed some new footage yesterday with our two actors Francesca Fox and James Newton. We were able to shoot the flashback scenes of the couple when the relationship was going well. We took a varirty of different shots for example the couple kissing in a close up, holding hands in a medium long shot and extreme long shot (POV) over the couple's shoulders showing the setting and the town of Ilkley below them. The Cow and Calf was a good place to film and the couple are featured going on a romantic walk together. Footage of from the day will be uploaded within the next school week.

AN - What Needs to be Done

With the coursework deadline in seven weeks and a day's time, here is what our group has currently done so far:

Brainstorm of music video ideas
Treatment
Lesson on narrative & digipaks
Director case studies (Francis Lawrence, Spike Jonze, Jonas Akerlund)
4 podcasts
1 Vodcast (which STILL needs to be uploaded)
Codes & Conventions of Girlbands (40% done)
Destiny's Child Research and background information
Setting up the company blog
Digipak codes and conventions
Digipak design ideas
Magazine Ads research
Animatic
Setting up a Facebook page
Sample footage

Here's what we need to do now:


Finish off girl groups codes and conventions
Analyse five different digipaks
Possible deconstructions of girlband music videos
Location scouting
Lyrics sheets
Storyboard
More podcasts and vodcasts
Influences on our music video
Digipak creation
Magazine ad research part 2
Magazine ad creation
Rough cut of music video

AN - Animatic

Today, I finished working on the animated story board. I created it by drawing each sequence on twelve pieces of paper and added annotations. After that, I scanned the pictures onto a computer and put them into Windows Movie Maker along with the songs. Here is the animatic itself:

ALL - Podcast 4

In this podcast, we talk about the animatic that I (Asa) created and go through some of the scenes. As well as talking about some of the influences of it.


Here is the fourth podcast:

SD - Contacting the Record Company

Music World Entertainment are the record company that Destiny's Child are signed to in order for our videos about the track to be allowed onto youtube we were told to contact the company about permission (see below). I also left my contact details so hopefully they'll be in touch to let us know either via e-mail or phone.

Hello my name is Sophie Dixon from Ilkley Grammar school in West Yorkshire, England. My question is would it be ok if for my school project to produced a remake of Destinys Child Emotion music video? This video will not be used for commercial purposes and solely for my school and exam board to view but could be uploaded to Youtube so the exam board is able to view our work. The video will be totally different from the original and non of the concepts will be copied.

Many thanks,
Sophie.

AN - Filming Difficulties

Despite having a plan as seen in my previous blog post, we have encountered filming difficulties concerning the actors. We were suppose to be filming on Friday 23rd December, but due to the actors being busy doing Christmas related activities we couldn't film. However, if we manage to get some of the actors this week we might and try to film some footage before we go back. If this isn't the case, we'll just have to film during January despite exams.

AN - Production Schedule

  During the Christmas holidays we will be doing some filming for our Media coursework so that we canbegin to edit and start working on our digipaks and magazine adverts in January. As well as dealing with exams of course!

Anyway, this Friday we'll be filming the boyfriend's aftermath of the breakup in Ilkley. We will only need James for this sequence, since Francesca (who plays the girlfriend) is away this week and Anna (the waitress) is busy on Friday we'll only be filming this part of the music video. We'll obtain the camera and tripod from Faye and Hattie (Haye Fattie) on the day, so that we have the equipment needed for filming and afterwards, we will pass the equipment onto George and Tom (2 Twigs) for them to use.

However, we will be doing some more filming next week in which hopefully all of our cast will return. With that said, we'll be filming most of the narrative sequence so that we don't have to do much filming during January because during that time we will primarily focus on filming the performance. 

That's our schedule for the next two weeks, stay tuned for more updates and informative posts. 

Merry Christmas!

Podcast 3

In today's podcast, me and Sophie (with the absence of Katie) talk about the second set of sample footage we filmed which involved the girlfriend's aftermath of the break up. As well as that, we also talk about how the sample footage will help us in the making with our final product, along with the symbolic meaning of some parts of the video.

Podcast 2

This podcast is about the sample footage that we shot on Monday after school, this footage has now been uploaded to this blog. We talk about our boyfriend character played by James Newton.

Podcast 1

This is a pilot podcast and only involves Asa and Katie as I was away for the lesson. The podcast involves discussions about the idea for our coursework.

AN - Treatment

Here is the treatment for our coursework, which gives you a good idea of what our video is about and how we're going to make it. I apologize for any glitches with the product because it was fine in Microsoft Word.

Treatment A2

SD - Company ident

For our company ident for Blazing Grace productions we've come up with the final idea. We're going to have a 'bad ass' barbie doll as Barbies are often a connotation of purity and the ideal stereotype of beauty for young girls we have decided to create a counter type of this, our barbie will have ripped clothing with a short leather skirt (quite gothic clothing) with a nose ring and messed up hair and smoking a cigarette, example shown left. This is a countertype of the usual Barbie as normally she is the perfect pristine woman that always looks glamourous. The ident will go with the name Blazing Grace productions because Barbie is usually a graceful sucessful woman but in this case she has turned into the opposite, un-glamourous and a mess and a not longer suitable role model for young girls aged 4-10. 
        As you can see this is an old Barbie doll and the kind of image we hope to create although you cant actually see the clothing she's wearing in the image its just a sample of what we hope to achieve with are ident but better. The clothing we will dress her in will make her look essentially like a washed up stripper and just generally a mess, with all her clothing ripped up and maybe some pills lying around her when she's sat on the floor. This idea origionally came from the 'We Found Love' video by Rihanna a video about drug use and relationships failing because of it to signify bad connotations of drug use to our audience of teens for our Destiny's Child video - Emotion.

ALL - Pilot Podcast

This our group's first unofficial podcast on the arrangements for filming. I apologize for the weak sound quality, hopefully it will improve over time. Enjoy!