Strengths and Weaknesses of my rough cut

Example of a modelling shot

I think that certain parts of the video work very well and that I have edited them nearly perfectly on time. I also think that I have created a good contrast between some very fast cuts and some slower ones which fit in very well with the music. I also think that I have made good choices regarding what shots should be used and where they should be used to create a good effect. All of the band members look phenomenal and, even though it is still just a rough cut, I can already see that the video is going to look incredible!!! Sunshine is so good at mouthing the words to the song at the exact time which makes editing her shots very very easy.

However, due to the short amount of time we had to produce this cut I was not able to include any of the modelling shots and could only do the band shots. This was very frustrating for me as I would have preferred to add them in already so as to have a rough idea of to where they would have looked better. Also some of the shots are not edited on the beat or strait after a word of the song is finished which looks terrible. I would have to work on these shots a lot more so as to get them to be perfectly on time.

I still really am enjoying the process of editing as its incredible to finally be able to see the video slowly come to life... I really can not wait to have finished the rough cut and be able to start making it all perfect and perfectly on time!!!

Continuing the rough-cut

By doing my rough-cut I'm starting to realise just how hard it is going to be to finish my music video as it is so difficult to sync all the bits of the song together. As we chose to have three parts to our video

Full makeup (in the first part of the song)

Only lipstick (in the second part of the song)

No makeup (in the final part of the song)

it has made the editing process very long and difficult as we need to sink the shots for each ones of these 3 parts separately and to three different parts of the song!!! The first one was by far the easiest as it was done to a beat that we added to the beginning of the version of the song we are editing to and to the one that we played on the day. However for the two other parts there is no such beat so I had to find a beat in the song and then find the same beat in the film. This was not easy as it is a very repetitive song and it is extremely difficult to find the right beat. The hardest shots to sync are the ones with Anastasia (the drummer) because she is playing the drums it is hard to hear the music behind them and so syncing becomes even harder!!!! Furthermore, as we chose her only on the basis of looks, she can not actually play the drums so, very often, she is out of time; meaning that even if I sink her shots perfectly I will still have to move them around so that it looks like she actually knows what she is doing.

Editing process

Screen grab of our 'bins'

So we have to have a rough cut done by the end of the week! We started editing on Monday by naming the shots and 'binning' them. We did this so as to organize our shots better and to make editing easier. We put the shots in bins called

•   Full makeup

•   Lipstick

•   No makeup

•   Photo shoot

•   Close ups

In the 'close ups bin' we put the shots that were of close ups of parts of the girls bodies where you could not see their heads (e.g. CU of shoes, hands...) and so it doesn't matter in what section of the music video they are. 

We encountered a problem with viewing our shots as they refused to open on the computer so we had to re-upload them to the computer to be able to actually view them and start editing.

On Tuesday we started lip-sinking al of the full makeup section this took us a long time as it is a very tedious process and if it isn't perfect then the whole music video is not going to look good.  However it was very nice to do this as we realized just how amazing all of our shot are and the music video is definitely going to look incredible!!! 

Today we started actually cutting our video. This is by far one of my favorite process in the making of a video. I love finding the right beat where to cut a scene and choosing what goes where... Furthermore it is so satisfying to look at the finished product and thinking "I actually did this WOW!!!'

Evaluating research and planning

Our shoot day

The day before the shoot day I finished fitting the costumes and ironing all of them, this took a very long time as the sewing machine broke down while I was taking in the jackets and I had to get help from Loz to fix it. Also due to the material of the costumes I had to use minimum iron on them (so as not to burn them) this made taking the creases out very difficult!

Nude makeup I did on the drummer

On the day of the shoot (21^st of November) I felt confident that everything was going to go well because I had spent so much time organising all of it and had done a good shooting schedule so that we would have had time we needed to get all the shots we needed. Before we could start shooting we needed to sort out all the costumes, finish the set, and I had do the makeup of all the band members. There were many makeup changes as we needed the band members to have no makeup for the end of the video, red lipstick for the middle and full makeup at the start. We obviously started by filming them with the nude makeup (No makeup does not look good on camera as the lights make the skin look very shiny and take colour away so I needed to apply a little on so that the girls didn't look like shiny corpses) as it is easer to apply more makeup than taking it off. For the costumes we needed to decide who would wear which red accessory. The set looked exactly like what we planed very retro with a a platformed stage, a retro microphone and black and white instruments. The girls looked all extremely beautiful and elegant in their outfits. it was exactly what we wanted as we wanted the video to have a very fashionable feel to it. 

Nude makeup with red lipstick I did on the keyboard player

We divided our roles very efficiently. Liza was in charge of the playback, Genevieve was directing with Tilly and I was in charge of the costumes and makeup. This was an essential part of our music video as it is entirely based on image. It was very difficult to get the right makeup (for the full makeup) because to make a strong eye-makeup that doesn't look  slutty with the red lipstick. Also not everyone's eye shape is the same so I had t o create a different makeup look for every girl. Also Bright red lipstick does not look good on everyone so for Dayana and Anastasia's lipstick I had to mix brown and red lipstick together so as to create the perfect shade or red for them as it was essential that all the girls were wearing similar makeup or els the whole message of the video would have been messed up. I think I did a very good job at doing the girl's makeup and making sure everyone was ready on time for the shooting time.

Full makeup on the base guitarist

One of the major problems we had on the shoot day was time management. We did not realise how long it would have taken us to  get all of the band shots and we were not aware that we did not have the studio all day. However we overcome this issue by not doing our backstage scenes and only doing the photo-shoot with the band members and not the extras as without the backstage scenes it would have been confusing for the audience to have other people in the photo-shoot. We managed to get incredible footage for the photo shoot in a very short amount of time. However, we were very successful at getting all the band shots and make the girls look incredible. We got all the shots we needed of the band in all three situations (no makeup, lipstick and full makeup). It was perfect and will absolutely reflected in our theme of image in the music video.

Photo-shoot shot

We also managed our actors very well. Anastasia did not know how to play the drums but we showed her how to play them in a way that made it look that she was actually playing them but still looking very sexy. We explained to all of the girls that they had to look sexy, that they had to get into playing their instruments but at times look detached from everything so as to reflect the fact that they are not really playing them and that they are thinking "we are beautiful, we know it so it doesn't matter if we cant play because we are sexy and attractive so nobody cares". To help them achieve this we showed them the video by Robert Palmer Addicted to love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE&feature=player_embedded as he had a similar approach to the way we wanted the band members to act.
The part of the shoot I enjoyed the most was the photo-shoot as it was very energetic and fun to film. Also helping them to chose the costumes for them and sorting out the costumes so that they looked perfect on all of them was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed helping them choose some of the poses. I am very much looking forward to edit the band shots together as it is going to be a lot of fun to put together the shots so that they start off with full makeup and end with none. I am also very much looking forward to editing the band shots together with the photo-shoot ones. It is going to look so visually appealing and beautiful that I can't wait to see the final product.

Our set with band members

I think that our production group works very well as a team. We are good at communicating to each other and separating the tasks effectively between each other so as to get everything done onetime. The most important lesson I learned on the shoot day was that it is very important to manage time efficiently so as to avoid complications; however you can always find solutions to all your problems as we were able to find a solution to our lack of time in the studio. We are probably going to change the colour scheme of our website to red, black and white so as to fit with the colour scheme of our music video. We will also probably change the font to something more elegant so as to fit better with our star image. 

Organising the websites for our band

So we started off by creating a Twitter page for Reportage so as to help our band use new media technologies to be closer to their audience as many people in our current age communicate with through online media (e.g. social networks) and this is also an essential tool while promoting a new artist as it helps them truly connect to their audience by letting them know what they are doing.

We then created a website using Wiz with a link to their twitter page. This website will enable Reportage fans to have information about the band's tours, look at the band's music videos, by merchandise.... It will, like the Twitter page help the audience connect withe the members of the band and keep them up to date with what the band is doing.

This is an example of the merchandise we will be selling on the website 

Final Cast list

Final Cast list

Band members

Amber Donso

Dayana Pinaeva

Sunshine Alaibe

Gabriella Wilson

Anastasia Rastorgina

Extras

Lavinia Di Lorenzo

Tatiana Zahid

Anne-Sophie VanDWoude

Anna Popova

Finalising our ideas for the album cover

We decided that we would like to have polaroid shots staked up or one polaroid shot on our album cover. We want to do this as it would give the album cover a retro look but it would also make it seem playful and young. It would appeal to our target audience as it is something that is a timeless object of style, furthermore it would appeal to an older audience who would recognise the polaroid film from when they were younger.

 

On these polaroid photographs there would be images of our band members with on the one on top the singer  in a pose similar to this one:

 

Asking permission to use Duran Duran’s song All you need is now

To whom it may concern,

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

All you need is now – Druan Duran, off the 2010 album All you need is now.

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely

Genevieve Corich Van der Bas, Tilly Guttridge, Ottavia Derossi and Liza Ievtukhova
Hurtwood House School

Finalising and ordering costumes for our music video

We bought the jackets for the band members online as it is important that they all have exactly the same as it fits with the fashionable feel that we want to give to our music video.

 

 

 

 

 

We chose to buy shoes for the same reason as the jackets. We couldn’t find any online so I will buy them from Primark this weekend.

 

 

These are the shoes that we prefer as they look very elegant

 

 

These shoes are our second option if they don't have all the ones with the Bow in the sises we need.

 

We also decided that all of them should have a different red accessory the costume department was able to  provide us with a variety of different red accessories



Sketches for a possible album cover

We want our digipack to be fashionable but at the same time respect the conventions of a music digipack so for the cover we decided to link it to fashion, maybe shooting a close-up of the girls outfits. But we still do not have a clear idea for it

For the inside we would have different photos of the band members with a signature and a personal message from each of them to their fans, his would make their fans feel closer to the band members. We would also have a group photo.

 

Research into the name for our album

We did a spider web to find the name of our album. We did this doing word association with our band’s name. At the moment our preferred name is exclusive jealousy.

Album Covers

Mina’s Studio Collection album cover inspires us because of the fashionable look of it and the contrast between her sad expression and the sparkly diamonds this is similar to the feel we want to create through our music video

 

 



We really like the the way in which the photographs on the album covers of Nouvelle vague’s album Nouvelle vague and the album Hollywood mon amour are edited. We are considering doing something similar with our album cover.

We also like the way the album cover of 3 by Nouvelle Vague is laid out and are also considering laying out our  album cover in a similar way and using a similar photo for ours.

We love the feeling of beauty and entrapment in the album cover of Goats Head Soup by The Rolling Stones. This links in very well with the themes that we are exploring in our music video.  

 

The way in which the photo is ‘layered’ in Waldeck’s album Ballroom Stories  creates an interesting effect that we might replicate in ours.  

The photograph and pose in the album cover Mina Straniera by Mina are at the same time elegant and disturbing, this links in with our themes and  we may do something similar for our album cover.

The album cover of Et si c’etait moi by La Grande Sophie  mixes a drawing and a photograph which creates an interesting effect that makes the album seem more appealing to art fans, who are part of our target audience.

The way in which the light is spited through Feist’s neck in her album cover The Reminder to create different strands of colour is also very artistic and could appeal to our target audience.  

The way the photo on the album cover All my friends died in a plane crash by Cocoon is spited in this album cover is very aesthetically pleasing   and we are thinking about doing something similar with ours.

 

The composition of the album cover Diva by Annie Lennox is very elegant, however we do not like how crowded the cover is and if we do something similar we will make it much less crowded.