Filming Blog

Unfortunately, my group has yet to begin filming our music video. Many of the groups with in our class had begun filming since last week. Due to our conflicting schedules after school, we were given no other option, but to push back our start date to November 27 as that will be the only time the whole group could be present. It was kind of crazy how incompatible our schedules were. As we discussed our availability.

Storyboard for Music Video Blog

Today our group worked on the storyboard for the music video that we will be filming. After countless deliberation, brainstorming, and replaying, we managed to finish our storyboard, laying down the framework for the filming process. For our music video, we decided that we will be doing the song “Kiss Me Through The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’Em featuring Sammie. This song was a perfect choice as it lacked profanity and would be easy to recreate with the resources we each have access to. We would detach all audio and let the song tell a story itself. Since we were given a minimum of a minute and five seconds and a maximum of a minute and 15 seconds, our plan was to cut various parts of the song given that it is a total of three minutes long. We chose to use the introduction, a phrase towards the middle of the song, and the ending. From there, we divided the song by increments of five seconds, establishing what exactly would be taking place within the said time frame. We knew that it was essential that the audio not only fell between the specified range but also still flowed together. This would help us avoid any inconveniences that could potentially offset our productivity during the filming and editing processes. Since the goal of this project was not to create an imitation of the original music, the creative juices had no choice, but to be activated. Our vision for the project took a sharp detour in regards to the general direction of the original music video. The overall plot of our music video goes as follows: A young teen’s love at first sight quickly evolves into a mesmeric obsession, resulting in the pursuit of a connection to an oblivious boy by all means necessary. Initially, one of the ideas presented was a love story in which the guy pursued the girl with good intentions and romantic interests. We ultimately decided to stray from the norm and go with a more “stalker story” as it was more original. 

Within our storyboard, we divided the music video amongst 15 boxes. The first six take place in the mall. During these scenes, we anticipate there to be bright, white lights as it is a shopping center. There are four actors, all which are members of the group, Autumn, Emilio, Victoria, and Jeffrey. The actors will all be dressed in casual clothing and will be carrying shopping bags. The next 4 take place at a park. Lighting will depend on how the weather is looking that day, though, we intend to film on a sunny day. Emilio and Jeffrey will be dressed in sports apparel, playing basketball, while Victoria and Autumn will be in casual clothing. The final 5 take place in an apartment. During these scenes, Jeffrey and Emilio will be dressed in light clothing such as pajamas. Victoria will once again be dressed in casual clothing. We will likely use dark lighting in order to build the suspense of being stalked. We intend to use jump cuts, inserts, establishing shots, point of view, and various other cinematographic elements in order to not only transition between the scenes (boxes) but also effectively portray our vision. For example, the first box, marked the 0:03 seconds to 0:8 seconds of the actual song, displays a wide shot in which Victoria and Autumn find Jeffrey and Emilio at the mall and Victoria becomes infatuated with Jeffrey. This will jump to the second box, marked 0:8 to 0:13, a close up in which Victoria and Autumn look at each other and notice that Emilio and Jeffrey are gone.

If everything goes as planned, we intend to stick to our story board and end the music video with a minute and fifteen seconds. 

Planning for Music Video Blog

The first day of our planning process was November 18th. The teacher gave us instructions on what to do and we began. The first thing we discussed is what we wanted to do for the music video. We know we didn’t want to follow the normal convention of the music video. The original video shows a couple who is dating and even though they can’t see each other they call and text each other. We decided to change the theme and now instead of it being a couple, a girl has a crush on a guy and she’s delusional thinking that they are together. For this project, things were a little harder because the concept was more complicated than the commercial. The biggest problem for us was figuring out when we were actually going to be able to film. We wanted to start filming this week, but we couldn’t figure out a day when we were all free. Some of us had to work and others had after school activities that conflicted with each other. We talked about our schedule for about 20 minutes before I suggested a solution.  Since not everyone was going to be in all of the scenes, the people who were free a specific day could go filming and film the scenes that they can get, then another day the other people in the group could go filming. 

By the time we figured out our individual schedules and the plan it, the class had ended so we got on group call at night to discuss the video in more detail. We discussed the health and safety issues, the props we were going to use, the costumes and the schedule we were going to be following. 

Location

To create our vision, we figured that the best place to film would be the mall because the mall is a crowded area where people can easily be followed without being spotted. So when the female is stalking the male interest, he wouldn’t be able to spot her in a crowd. The next location that we chose was someone’s house. In one of our scenes, we have the female looking into the window of the male interest’s house trying to see if he’s home while calling him. A one-story house or an apartment with windows on the first floor would be the perfect place to film the scene. The last location that we chose was the park. The male interest is going to be hanging out with his friend playing basketball and the female and her friend are watching him. Once again when stalking someone, the person stalking normally does it in a crowded area. In the scene, you would see the female fawning over the male interest while he is up and active. An important task we had to do was make sure that we were allowed to film in all of the locations that we chose. Autumn was in charge of getting the approval of the people in charge. At first, she called the Galleria Mall, the mall we wanted to filmstrip.  and the manager stated that it was fine as long as we gained permission to film the people in the mall. The next part was getting the house. Our new member of the group offered to use his house so he asked his mom and she said yes. We figured that since the park was a public area as long as we had permission from the people playing on the court, filming shouldn’t be a problem there.

Health & safety 

Because we are filming outside of school campus, we have to make sure that our group, the equipment and everyone around us isn’t put in harm's way. We will have to drive to the locations so everyone in the car will use the seatbelts. Another safety issue is the weather. The weather forecast says there will be days of thunderstorms. To protect ourselves we will stay inside and shoot all of our inside scenes. If we happen to get caught in the rain, we will bring umbrellas to protect the equipment and raincoats to protect us from the rain. 

Props

The props we will be using 

1. Phones
2. Basketball 
3. Shopping bags
4. The room in the house

Costumes

1. Basketball shorts with a t-shirt
2. Jeans and a hoodie
3. Pajamas 

Schedule 11/18-12/9

11/18- Discussed the theme of the music video 

11/20- Plan the props, location, and costumes

11/22- We are going to storyboard, our video, write the script and figure out the kinks with our individual schedule. 

11/26- We begin filming. We will start off at the mall, then make our way to the house to shoot our opening scenes.

11/30- Film the scenes at the park and go back to the mall because we need a shot with all of the actors/actresses in it. 

12/2- Begin the editing process, figure out the scenes and takes we want to keep and what we want to get rid of, adding the music, and doing the voiceovers needed

 12/4- Double check to make sure that the music video looks put together, add any last-minute details that we might have missed and play it back. 

12/06- Turn in the final music video 

Intro to New Project: Music Video

After finally completing our previous project, the production of a Gatorade commercial, we have now been presented a new task: producing a music video. Based on prior experiences with the production process as a whole, we have come to several realizations in regards to our overall effectiveness in completing our previous project. For the most part, our commercial was success. We managed to secure our locations and record all of our footage without any major inconveniences. We were also able to relatively follow our storyboard. Story boarding played a major part in our project as it enabled us to efficiently plan out what we would be doing and ultimately made the filming process much easier. Taking notes and actively discussing and assigning who would do what made organization much clearer and aided in the fluidity of the commercial. One thing we struggled with a lot  was the editing software. Though we ultimately managed to finish the project, we struggle with certain features such as split screens. For this music video, we will ensure that we have better knowledge and practice in regards to various  the features of our music video. As group, we decided that we will be doing “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’Em.

The original music video has the typical mis en scene that a Hip-Hop/Rap music video would have. The different camera angles, sound, and editing techniques. In a traditional music video for Hip-Hop/Rap, the camera angles are usually low-angled close up shots in order for the main artist of the music video can seem like the most important focal point of the video. Shots that are taken in a Hip-Hop/Rap music video include many two shots, typically with the main artist and a love interest to indicate that they are desirable. It also includes shots like club/party scenes where it gives the artist credibility because it shows how large groups of people are enjoying their song. Depending on the song itself, there can be a range of sounds that are not including the song. There can be sounds of engines revving to depict the luxury the artist or people yelling their name so it shows their importance. The editing, like the sound, also depends on the song and how the director and the artist want the song to be interpreted. 

Within the Hip Hop/Rap genre, artists tend to wear a variety of apparel. This may range from designer clothing such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Ferragamo complimented by expensive chains, watches, and other forms of jewelry. This aims to emphasize the wealth that the artist has accumulated and is often a reflection and even a product of the rags to riches story they likely experienced.

In a music video there isn’t a lot of acting involved unless there is a background story to the music video. In the original music video you see spots in the video where the person is looking to be having a conversation on a cell phone. They did this to signify them calling the other person through the phone.

The makeup is also an important part of Hip-Hop videos. Back in 2008, the girls wore vivid makeup that popped on screen. For example bright eyeshadow colors, or and big eyeliner. Some videos would showcase the girl in a scene where she would just need normal makeup. The guys however, didn't really a lot of makeup due to the fact that makeup was more fememine. 

Props that are heavily featured in many of the videos of the hip-hop genre would include phones, jewelry, clothing, and stacks of money. They serve to captivate the audience’s attention, and portray the characters in the video as wealthy and well off in terms of power and status. 

Setting is very important for these types of videos, as they help to demonstrate where the video is taking place. Most often in the Hip-Hop genre, the setting is usually on the street, or a neighborhood, parties, and social gatherings.