CD Cover & Poster Pitch

Task 8: Research & Planning - CD Cover and Advert

From Time - Drake Ft. Jhene Aiko (Official Music Video)

Audience feedback on Rough Cut

We screened the rough cut version of our music video to our class today to see if they had any feedback concerning what we could do to improve what he had already before we complete it. We were still working on transitions so we still had sharp cuts between each clip, the timeline was filled with footage with lip syncing in sync. We have planned to put text at the beginning which was inspired by our case studies and other music videos that our artist Drake has featured in. The sound of our video has a lot of echoing because the video audio had not been taken out as it was helping us to fit clips together in case anything came out of place, it also helped us as we mentioned that our actor was found last minute so he did not know the lyrics perfectly so we had to cut into some good clips and put in others to fill in the gaps. Some feedback that we were given was that our female actresses part was quite long, it was suggested that we increase the cutting rate to make it seem a little faster.

Copyright Email to Universal Records

Editing - colour correction

We learnt how to colour correct our clips as shooting from different angles with different cameras, once put together we realised there was a slight change in lighting making the video not match up so we colour corrected some clips. A few were too dark so we had to increase the whites and add back some saturation which was lost. The other clip was more green than the one before which had a pinkish tint so we moved around the colours in the palettes in the opposite direction from cool colours to warm colours.

Third Day of Filming - Location (Drake)

We filmed on location in Limehouse for Drakes verses, using the landscape of the light towers as a backdrop. We took a DSLR camera, tripod and dolley tripod with us to experiment with different kind of shots.

With the dolley tripod, we were unable to use it as we hoped because the ground was not smooth enough for it to roll properly. We captured very high quality shots using the 50 mm lense which also helped us get the lighting bright enough as we could set the aperture to 1.8 which also created a shallow depth of field on our actor making the backdrop have a bokeh effect.

Third Day of Filming - Studio (Extras & Drake)

In the studio we filmed five girls acting natural in individual shots, which will be edited and put together for one of Drakes verses.
We then filmed Drake rapping verse 1 and 2 with a white background this time to give us a variety to choose from when editing. We also took some still shots and close ups for any gaps we need to fill in the video. In this session there were no problems and everything ran smoothly.

Second day of Filming (Hotel & Jhene)

For this day of filming we booked a hotel to be the location for Jhene's part.

Editing

This is the editing of the footage from the first day of filming.

First Day of Filming (Studio)

Today is the first day of filming for my group. We had planned to film at an earlier date but we had issues with our actor regarding availability and learning the lyrics. So we decided to find another actor that was available around the same time as us. 

Planning the Day

Planning

Media Diary

The team and I had a meeting today with our actor Emmanuel who is playing the role of Drake in our music video. We will be filming the first verse of the song in the studio at lunch time on Tuesday. Our actor Emmanuel let us know that he is finding it quite difficult to learn the lyrics of the song in the time frame we wanted him to learn it by, due to this we are no longer having our first shoot on Tuesday, it will be moved to a later date.

From Time: Production

Filming Plan (planning)

From Time: Recces

Location Release Form - Studio

Risk Assessment Forms

River Bank location risk assessment form


Bedroom risk assessment form

From Time Storyboard (planning)

Here is a finished copy of our music video storyboard in order of what we would like to take place for each part of the song.

Media Diary

In today's lesson we made a start on the planning stage of our music video. Firstly we were given a brief talk about what we needed to do during the planning stage. Once we were told we got into our groups and decided who was going to do what during the planning stage of making the music video. As a group we all wanted to take part in the making of the storyboard. We thought this would be a good idea because we all had things that we wouldlike to be included in the music video as this is a very creative task and we all were full of ideas. 

It was a necessity that each of us visited the various locations so that we could get a feel and see what we are working with in order to know if our ideas were realist and if we could expand if it was too small. We all came to a conclusion that Klaudia and Arman would take care of the risk assessments of the locations we would like to use, whilst myself and Jason would take care of permission forms for the talent and location and also call sheets. Our plan this week is to get most of our storyboard frames completed so that we have an idea of what our music video would look like.

From Time Lyrics (planning)

[Intro: Jhene Aiko]
What's up? Been a minute since we kicked it, you've been caught up
With them bitches, I don't get it, you're a star love
You shouldn't have to deal with that
I'd never make you feel like that, cause...

[Hook: Jhene Aiko]
I love me, I love me enough for the both of us
That's why you trust me, I know you been through more than most of us
So what are you? What are you, what are you so afraid of?
Darling you, you give but you cannot take love

[Verse 1: Drake]
I needed to hear that shit, I hate when you're submissive
Passive aggressive when we're texting, I feel the distance
I look around the peers that surround me, these niggas tripping
I like when money makes a difference but don't make you different
Started realizing a couple places I could take it
I want to get back to when I was that kid in the basement
I want to take it deeper than money, pussy, vacation
And influence a generation that's lacking in patience
I've been dealing with my dad, speaking of lack of patience
Just me and my old man getting back to basics
We've been talking 'bout the future and time that we wasted
When he put that bottle down, girl that nigga's amazing
Well, fuck it, we had a couple Coronas
We might have rolled a white paper, just something to hold us
We even talked about you and our couple of moments
He said we should hash it out like a couple of grown ups
You a flower child, beautiful child, I'm in your zone
Looking like you came from the 70's on your own
My mother is 66 and her favorite line to hit me with is
Who the fuck wants to be 70 and alone?
You don't even know what you want from love anymore
I search for something I'm missing and disappear when I'm bored
But girl, what qualities was I looking for before?
Who you settling for? Who better for you than the boy, huh?

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Drake]
Thinking 'bout Texas, back when Porscha used to work at Treasures
Or further back than that, before I had the Houston leverage
When I got Summer a Michael Kors with my momma's debit
A weak attempt at flexing, I'll never forget it
Cause that night I played her three songs
Then we got to talking 'bout something we disagreed on
Then she start telling me how I'll never be as big as Trey Songz
Boy was she wrong, that was just negative energy for me to feed off
Now it's therapeutic blowing money in the Galleria
Or Beverly Center Macy's where I discovered Bria
Landmarks of the muses that inspired the music
When I could tell it was sincere without tryna prove it
The one that I needed was Courtney from Hooters on Peachtree
I've always been feeling like she was the piece to complete me
Now she engaged to be married, what's the rush on commitment?
Know we were going through some shit, name a couple that isn't
Remember our talk in the parking lot at the Ritz
Girl I felt like we had it all planned out, I guess I fucked up the vision
Learning the true consequences of my selfish decisions
When you find out how I'm living, I just hope I'm forgiven
It seem like you don't want this love anymore
I'm acting out in the open, it's hard for you to ignore
But girl, what qualities was I looking for before?
Who you settling for? Who better for you than the boy, huh?

From Time Treatment & Feedback

Showing the class our ideas to the class was very helpful as it helped us see what was missing and what we could possibly improve or consider but everything was taken into account. The response that we received as a group from our peers was positive as they liked our ideas we had for the music video to the song From Time by Drake ft Jhene Aiko.

• An issue that we have is lighting as we plan on filming and getting most of our shots at night time. It was suggested that we use DSLR Camera LED lights or a halogen light so that this difficulty would be resolved. if we are able to have access to either one of these lights it would make things easier for us as the quality of the video would be better.
• Another issue we have is that we do not have any reliable people to play the roles of Drake and Jhene. We are considering to hold an audition to find people that could possibly play the roles.
• It was brought up that the song may have to be changed to a radio edition of 'From Time' as the language used is quite explicit and may be found offensive by the viewers.  

Music Video Treatment Presentation

Production Schedule

Music Promo Task

Notes on Music Video

Summer assignment notes for music video

There are three types of music videos, these include performance clip sync, dancing or bands, the second type is a narrative this is something that tells a story and lastly the third type is conceptual this could imply abstract or odd parts.

Examiners emphasises that the music videos should all include some element of performance.

The artist's have authorage this suggest that they have there own unique style and performance.

We must take into consideration camera, editing and mise-en-scene.

Short Film Overview: Ben and Jackie (notes)

Ben and Jackie is a short film about a cab driver 'Ben' who likes a regular customer 'Jackie'.

FREEZE FRAME TRANSITIONS

• key moments in narrative
• shot in the world of his car
• profile from widescreen to intimacy

SOUND

• voice over is third person narration
• dialogue is first person

REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTERS

• everyday, sick drunkard, driver fancies younger woman

DSLR Training

In a previous lesson I was taught about the DSLR camera and things that the camera is able to do.

THE DSLR

In the reflex design scheme, light travels through a single lens and a mirror is used to reflect a portion of that light through the view finder. The image is seen through the viewfinder is also the image that is captured by the camera's sensor.
The DSLR uses a rolling shutter to film Moving Images, whereby portions of the image are scanned as opposed to regular film cameras where the shutter spins and exposes a frame at a time.

APERTURE

The aperture is the opening at the rear of the lens that determines how much light travels through the lens and falls on the image sensor. The size of the aperture's opening is measured in f-stops. The f-stops work as inverse values, such that a small f/number corresponds to a larger or wider aperture size, which results in a shallow depth of field. A large f/number results in a smaller or narrower aperture size and therefore a deeper depth of field.
For more light we 'open up' the lens and for less light we 'close up' the lens.

SHUTTER SPEED

 Shutter speed, also known as 'exposure time', stands for the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. If the shutter speed is fast, it lets less light in and it can help to freeze action. If the shutter speed is slow, it allows more light in and can create an effect called 'motion blur'.

ISO

ISO was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. It was measured in numbers (100, 200, 400, 800 etc.) The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you're taking and visa versa.
In Digital Photography ISO, the lower the number the less sensitivity your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds, resulting in noisier shots.
100 ISO is generally accepted as 'normal' and will give you lovely crisp shots (little noise).

EXPOSURE

There are three main ingredients to good exposure:

• Aperture
• Shutter Speed 
• ISO

If you change just one part of the exposure, it is no longer perfect so you will need to change another point of the exposure an equal but opposite amount to make that triangle and therefore the exposure perfect again.

EDITING EXPOSURE (The Histogram)

In a 'well exposed image' the blacks should be black and the whites should be white. Histograms are a great way of monitoring this. The wave shape is how much pixels that are being recorded and how bright they are. A 'good' exposure should be a mixture of lows, mids and highs with nothing bunching at either end unless completely necessary for the picture.

DEPTH OF FIELD

Depth of Field (DOF) is the front-to-back zone of a photograph in which the image is razor sharp. As soon as an object (person, thing) falls out of this range, it begins to lose focus at an accelerating degree. 

Two ways to describe the qualities of depth of field - shallow DOF or deep DOF. Shallow is when the included focus range is very narrow, a few inches to several feet. Deep is when the included range is a couple of yards to infinity. DOF is determined by three factors - aperture size, distance from the lens and the focal length of the lens.

CAMERA RIG

To be in conjunction with the DSLR for three reasons:

• To keep the image steady whilst being handheld
• To allow for focus pulling
• To prevent lens flare

Japanese Short Film Noted Overview: Right Place

Right Place is a short Japanese film is about a man that has OCD

SOUND

• Almost all non diegetic sound.
• Ambient sound when moving things on the shelf for emphasis.
• Non diegetic sound makes it tense and precise.
• Post synchronised voice over to connote his feelings.
• Ambient soundtrack.

SHOTS

• Fast cutting rate.
• Macro photography. 
• Big close ups, powerful very visual at the beginning.

NARRATIVE

• Day in his life - breakfast to work.
• Action climax was the socks, pulling the girls socks up she thought he was a pervert and the security thought he was raping the young girl.  
• Resulting in him getting fired after the incident. 
• Resolution becoming a bone setter, putting things in the right place which fits the name of this short film as he likes things in the right place.