Sample of Music

This is a sample of the music we are using on the production called Cry Me A River by Julie London. We are stopping filming at 2 minutes and 18 seconds.

Performers and Job Roles

There are 4 different people shown in the production:

Jack plays the role of the boyfriend, who breaks up with the singer. Jack is suitable for the role of the boyfriend as he has studied Drama so would not get embarrassed with acting and has a retro style. He is also reliable and a good friend to me and Paige, so we are confident he would not let us down.

Dani plays the role of Jacks girlfriend. She is the singer in the production, who lip synchs to parts of the song. Dani is also a Drama student so is able to act of different feelings well, and can listen to our directions. She is reliable and goes to our school, so we can discuss filming days with her easily. She is the owner of the red dress, and me and Paige feel she also has a retro look, as her hair can be styled various ways!

Paige is also filming and directing with me, but as she has blonde hair, we decided she would be ideal to use as the girl that Jack is cheating on Dani with, as there is a clear difference. She is a drama student, and as she is part of the team she is reliable. Paige will be using the camera, shooting each scene.

I (Lucy) will be directing each shot and reading the storyboard, as well as getting the planning ready with Paige such as props and customes. Me and Paige wll discuss each shot when we set it up through the camera, as it may not look right, we could have to think of a new shot quickly. I am a Textiles and English Language student so I have to have a creative flair as well as Paige, who is a Drama and Photography student.

Equipment/Prop List

We need to be prepared, so we have made a list of the props and customes we need to plan for the filming dates by looking through our storyboard...

- Dani needs to wear a red dress, black fur coat, heels, in the outside scenes and a black silk robe in the indoor scenes. Her hair needs to be down and wavy, with a quiff to the side and noticable makeup

- Jack needs to wear a suit, with a bow or scarf tucked into the collar for the outside scenes, including the graveyard. His trousers could be ankle length to give the retro look. His hair will be gelled back in an old hairstyle. In the inside scenes he will be wearing a baggy retro jumper

- Camera, tape and tripod
-Storyboards
-Planning list
-Camera (for ancillary tasks)
- Teddy bear, Fluffy Hand Fan and Pillows for inside shot 10
-Mirror, lipgloss for inside shot 15
-Old mens shirt for inside shot 16
-Hair scarf for inside shot 17 for Paige
-Silk dressing robe for Dani for inside shot 18
-Old phone for inside shots 25,26 and 27
-Wine bottle for inside shot 29
-Picture of Jack for inside shot 30

Location

We have decided to use three locations in our production. The first location is inside, in Dani's bedroom. We have chosen to use her house because the natural light shines through onto her bed, and so we will get a better, lighter image. Also, her room is dated; voiles around her bed and small lights which make the room seem cosy, girly and friendly- a contrast on how she is appearing to feel. Her room is also cluttered, which makes the scene seem complicated and messy- just how she feels.
The second location is Hartham feild in Hertford. This feild is large and has rivers surrounding it, as wel as lots of trees and bridges. Me and Paige thought this would be a ideal location to film Jack and Dani when they are in love as it shows clarity (large empty field) and is a romantic, classic and traditional location as they will only be interested in each other. The nature also relates well to the 1950s as they would of not had many clothing shops, or busy modern towns. Using a feild is an easy location as we do not have to gain permission and no one will be in our way of filming.
The third location is a cementry near our houses. We will be using this in the final two shots of Jack. They represent the storyline climax well as they are suprising and shocking that Dani has died. The graveyard is a scary, sad place- which relates well to the music storyline.

Production Schedule

For our production to be successful and meet the deadline, Paige and I had to plan our filming and editing days. Once our animatic is filmed and can get Paige, Dani, Jack and Me together at the same time we will film the inside scenes first. We plan to film this on Monday 25th January. We are then going to edit these scenes- there should be 17 shots for the inside parts, but we will have to see how well we do with time, as we need to natural sunlight from the bedroom window to stay the same, otherwise some shots will have different lighting, and there will be continuity. Me and Paige have discussed that we will not be able to film the remaining outside scenes untill, unfortunately, Monday 8th March. The reasons for this is that it is hard to get the four of us all together at the same time- people have college/school at different times, working, work experience, university visits etc ! Me and Paige are confident we will get the video edited in one week to reach the deadline, as we will work on it during free periods and after school. During the rest of the time, we are going to prepare our ancillary tasks by making the improvements suggested. We can start cutting out the digipack and make the collage of Julie London, as well as getting the text for the digipack. Me and Paige will also be making planning lists for the next filming date, making sure we have props, customes, makeup and hair ready. As well as this, we will be working on the footage we have already filmed and matching the music to each scene. Our first cut presentation date is the 25th of February where we will show the inside scenes. The final cut presentation is the 15th March, which me and paige feel we will meet. The completion for the ancillary tasks is the 29th March; we will be working on these throughout February.

Main Task and Animatic of Storyboard

The main task is to make the music production which we have been researching and preparing for. The main ideas for our music video that Paige and I must take into consideration is that the aesthetics of the video must be dated, and we will use suitable clothing like 1950's looking dresses, and suits. As well as retro hair styles for both Dani and Jack. When editing, we are going to use a sepia or black and white effect to make it seem dated, and transitions such as fade to blacks to keep it classic and sophisicated. Other important ideas to think about when making the video, is to keep to our storyboard and watch back each shot to see if we need to re-film. With lip-synching, it can be acheived well if we have the music on our phones or i-pods so Dani can get each word on time. This will make the video look and appear more realistic. Other planning that will help us on our filming days, is getting our props ready such as a shirt, wine, picture etc. If we do not include these props, it may effect the aesthetics, and the storyline may not be as clear. As we are shooting outside, it would be ideal to look up weather forecasts to see if this could alter our filming days, and let us get behind. By making a plan before we start filming, it will help us get the filming shot as quickly and efficeintly as possible, without having to re film too much.

Me and Paige have filmed and uploaded an animatic which has helped us with our timings of each scene. We produced a storyboard which included the timings, position of camera and actors and actions. We have matched the music to each scene so we could fit in techniques such as shot reverse shot and also lip synching. The animatic shows us if we need to make any changes in the storyboards.
We collected feedback from our teacher and our classmates, who said that the timing was good as although they are long scenes, it suits the beat of the song as it is a slow jazz song. There are also a range of shots, and also tracking shots which will show our potential when framing a shot and holding the camera steady. Me and Paige have also included a range of locations, which will contrast with each other in the video.

Ancillary Task Two: Magazine Advertisement Evaluation

After having a feedback session with our other class mates, we then took into consideration how we can improve our product in order to meet the deadline. Around the advertisement are comments which are positive, and suggest how to improve it. Me and Paige have decided that in order to make our advert look realistic and fit perfectly to our video, we will take photos for our ancillary tasks during the filming.

In conclusion to this feedback, I can say that our media product uses and developed forms and conventions of real media products by us being inspired by style models such as the ones shown below. We also took into account what magazine we want our advertisement to be shown in, therefore we have developed real media products as they would consider this in industry. We have used a bold title, placing it at the top (this is common) and a large picture covering the whole page - relating to the song. Extras such as quotes and the record label slogan also relate to real advertisements. Me and Paige have learnt from the feedback that we need to think more about the location and the image we want to portray of the song. We realise that not everyone will find this an interesting enough advertisement to look at. However, we did use media technologies in planning and researching- magazines reviews and advertisements (also checking any ad's online). During the construction stages, we used Photoshop 7.0 to edit our image.