Final Video

Note to the Examiner: When you start to play the video, click on the settings button on the bottom right corner of the video itself to change the video to the highest possible HD setting.

Music Video - 1st Upload

This is the upload of my completely-finished production; Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran.

NOTE TO THE EXAMINER:  If the annotations appear, once playing, click on the settings button in the bottom right corner of the video window to turn them off, and remember to watch in the highest HD quality available.


For the first showing of my music video to my class, I asked to receive feedback from three people:

 

Conclusively, from the feedback I have learnt that this edit of my video conforms to it's genre conventions. In terms of the genre of production - music video - the imagery fit nicely with the music, matching the rhythm and pace, whilst it also fit the genre of the music - indie/acoustic - as the use of black and white editing added emotion and a deeper sense of meaning. I also combined a nice mixture of narrative, performance and even conceptual to meet the genre of a music video. 

People said that they really liked the use of black and white editing - whilst they initially felt it was quite unusual to have the whole edit in black and white - they said it worked quite surprisingly and really added to the theme of the narrative. They also liked that I used a wide variety of different locations throughout the edit which made it more interesting. The editing worked well and they especially liked the dissolve transitions to show the passing of time.

In terms of improving my video, they suggested that if I can maybe input more scenes which would add clarity to the storyline. However, my thought on my video was that I wanted it to be unclear to add ambiguity and an Enigma Code - in order to hook the audience and keep them wondering about the storyline past the point of watching it. They also noticed that there were some synching issues with the singing, which I had also identified, but I must say that these issues weren't as clear on Premiere Pro so perhaps this is more down to it being uploaded to YouTube, so I will now work to adjust this. There were also suggestions about the colour, in the sense that whilst they liked the black and white editing, I could perhaps try uploading the video in a de-saturated colour and in a sepia tone to find out what the audience prefers as it may change the way the audience decodes the performance. Also in some cases, some of the transitions may need to be faster as this may make the audience bored, and some of the filming was slightly shaky. At times, the filming was purposely shaky as it was supposed to be from the protagonist's point of view, thus it was supposedly hand-filmed. Perhaps I didn't make some of the footage shaky enough to emphasise this idea, so to fix this, I will either work on reducing the pace of the clip to make it look less shaky, or apply some sort of a filter which will emphasise this more.

Official Feedback:

Once I had completed all of my coursework, Paul gave us some feedback and marking for the entire unit. With my video especially, I have several things I need to change, which I will work on to create the final edit of my video. I need to focus on re-shooting my 'singing' sequences to make sure they sync with the music better. I also need to re-shoot the sequence where the character is walking along the grass as an iPod wire keeps falling into the shot. I may also re-shoot the 'eye' shot to make it clearer and neater, which may require slightly better lighting than last time. 

Edit Decision List

Talent Release Forms

Talent Release form for the talent of Yasmin Watkins on the date of Wednesday 5th March 2014 at The Dashes Sports Ground (behind Harlow College). She played the female character in the music video who released the balloons:

Talent Release form for the talent of NICOLA BAXTER on the date of 19th February 2014 at Woodcroft Green. She played the female character walking through the forest:

Talent Release form for the talent of KATY NURSE on the date of 26th February 2014 at The House. She played the female character singing and opening the presents/looking through the photo album:

Talent Release form for the talent of Jessica Russell on the date of 19th February 2014 at The House. She played the female character in the music video who played the guitar:

Talent Release form for the talent of Hayley Bird on the date of Sunday 24th February 2014 at Hollywood Bowl, London. She played one of the characters who went bowling:

Talent Release form for the talent of Jodie Armstrong on the date of Sunday 24th February 2014 at Hollywood Bowl, London. She played one of the characters who went bowling:

Talent Release form for the talent of Sarah-Jayne Barrett on the date of Sunday 24th February 2014 at Hollywood Bowl, London. She played one of the characters bowling. She also was a part of the other London shots such as walking down the escalators.

Call Sheets

Location Release Forms - Music Video

Below is an example of the Location Release Forms that the owners of the premises that I film in will need to complete in order to allow me permission to film.

This Location Release Form is for the location of: MY HOUSE; 25 ABBOTSWELD, HARLOW, ESSEX, CM18 6TF. This location was used for the purpose of filming the music video and for photographing some of the images for my ancillary tasks.


Now that I have completed filming, the filled-in release sheets have been photographed and uploaded below for the locations of; The House, The Bowling Alley and The Station:

Planning for Shoots + Shot List - Music Video

Below is a table of all of the shots I need to film for my music video. The table includes where I plan to shoot the footage, what scene is taking place and the types of shots I need to ensure I include. Additionally, I also included the plan for each shoot including the hair/make-up, costume and the props to give me a sort of 'checklist' for every time I go out to shoot to ensure I have everything I need.

Below is a collection of influential images to help inspire me and to also help me to visually set-up each shot.

 

 

  

  

  

 

Actor List for Main Task

Main Influences

Along my journey of research and planning for my three products; music video, Digipak and website, I have been influenced by various existing products to help me enhance and develop my creativity.

To start with, I looked at existing videos by my chosen musician, Ed Sheeran, to gain influence from his existing products and to develop a realistic sense of branding with my own music video. My two favourite videos of his were The A Team and Give Me Love:



These two videos were the most simplistic of all of his videos, which is what I like and want to apply to my own work. Although quite simple, they're both very artistic in the ways that they portray the lyrics, whilst a few of his other videos are more comical and are created for the purpose of entertaining, whilst these are here to tell a story, which is what I want to also portray for my song. I think the dark and 'grundgy' colours work well in these videos as they give them a serious tone, furthermore helping to portray the emotion and story of the lyrics, so this is likely to influence me to use darker, neutral colours within my music video.

Production Logo

For my production logo, I was torn between two names; 'Roar Talent Productions' and 'PawPrintProductions'. With the former, I was going for a play-on-words with the term 'Raw Talent' often associated with musicians and singers, and with the latter, I liked how memorable the alliteration made the title. Both names associate with animals/paw-prints because this is a strong symbol which relates to my chosen musician, Ed Sheeran, because of his love for animals. He himself uses the paw-print logo on the majority of his merchandise, and even has it tattooed on his arm and engraved on some of his guitars. Whilst there my target audience is mostly made up of women, I felt that 'PawPrintProductions' sounded too feminine and would defer any male fans. On the other hand, 'Roar Talent Productions' sounded more professional, and would suit my mixed target audience of both men and women. As I am making a music video, the logo won't play a vital role like one might do on a film trailer, so it may only make a brief appearance at the very end of my production, hence why I wanted something quite simple. I substituted the 'o' for a paw print as I felt this would give my company a memorable identity, like all production companies have their iconic symbol. Aside from my video, this logo will also appear on any documents I have to print in association with the production of my products, as well as appearing in the credits of my Diigpak and website.

Talent Release Form

This is an example of the Talent Release Forms I will require my actors to sign upon each date of filming for my production. Once they have been signed I will then post a copy of each signed sheet as evidence below:

Treatment

What is a treatment?

"A treatment is a summary of a screenplay, TV show, novel or other story, sometimes in the form of an outline. It can be anything from one to ten pages or even longer in length. Treatments can be used as a tool of development, encapsulating a story's most important elements in a more manageable format, for either the writer's own creative purposes or as a vehicle for a producer to give his or her input. Or it can be a marketing tool, a summary of your story that is easier to share with producers or others who might be considering the value of your project before they decide whether to get involved (either financially or creatively or both).


You may have already finished your entire work and are now reverse-engineering a treatment for marketing purposes (or to facilitate a pitch). Or you may see it as a starting point, a blueprint for your eventual full work."

Log Line: The music video for the song 'Autumn Leaves' by Ed Sheeran follows the story of a teenage female character re-living treasured memories of her best friend and how she eventually came to lose her. Whilst remembering her best friend in a more happier light, the video also follows the character as she moves on from this, desperately trying to find closure after a bad turn of events and wanting to move on with her life. 

Treatment:

For the MTV version, the video will start with a title card in the bottom corner listing the title of the song, the album it is from, the artist, the production company and the release date. This title card will be visible for the entire first scene of the view of the forest, before fading out as the second scene starts.

The main action starts by following someone's footsteps from a point-of-view perspective as the shot moves up the path to an unknown destination, with each footstep matching the strumming of the guitar in the music. The shot then fades to black and then focuses on a girl softly playing the guitar, and then she begins to sing to the lyrics. The shots will all be fairly close-up, constructing an Enigma Code for the audience as they are unable to identify who the character is and what the main plot may potentially be, creating suspense and the need to find out more by the audience.

After fading out from the girl performing the song, the shot then focuses on a low angle-shot of every-day people walking along the street, minding their own business. The clip repeats itself several times, overlapping each other, fading in and out, to give off the impression of a time lapse and that someone's take on life is that something bad has happened to cause their world to completely slow down. This also suggests to the audience that the person's story which is being told in the song is potentially going back in time, and is a distant memory.

After a repetition of similar shots of the girl performing the song, the video then follows several clips telling the story of the female character and her friend who has supposedly died on a journey into London to go bowling. Black and white shots of the underground and the escalators fade into each other before showing one of the characters throwing the bowling ball down the lane. As the next shot of the tube departing the station plays, a shot of the girl playing the guitar fades in over the shot, reflecting upon the idea that most young, talented performers may actually start out busking in london stations. Once this shot fades out, several shots of the London/Bowling scene then re-play in a non-chronological order in between repetitions of the same performance clips from the start of the video.

Once this scene has finished, the video then focuses on the two girls back at home. The central female character of the story is handed a present, which she opens to reveal a photo frame with a photo of the girls and a few other friends inside. It then cuts to several dimmer shots of the female character flipping through photo albums, looking back at other pictures of the girls together. This shot is then intermingled with other clips of the girl performing the guitar and singing the song.

These shots then fade to black, and it returns to the girl opening her birthday lesson. She pauses as she takes a long look at her and her friends in the photo frame. It then cuts to the same scene in the living room, and the girl reaches out from behind the camera to place the frame on the mantel piece. Then, slowly and softly, cards gradually begin to build up around the photo frame, completed with a cross dissolve effect. The cards represent the character's birthday and hopefully creates a warm, happier tone for the audience. Then, the dissolving continues as the cards one-by-one come down and are replaced with sympathy cards, suggesting that at this point in time someone has died, and audiences should be able to make the connection with the death and the characters' friend. 

To break this up, a title sequence appears, with the lyrics, 'do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?' appearing to be hand-written against a background of roses. As the pace of the music increases slightly, so does the clips, with shots becoming less chronological. Close-ups of the character's eye can be seen before shots of the photo frame appear again. The eye then closes slowly and the character begins to cry. Shorter cuts of the clips we have already seen, such as the girls bowling and the public passing-by play again, before close-up images of the girl and her friends and family fade in and out between shots of flowers, supposedly resembling the girl's funeral. One last final shot of the photo frame on the mantel piece, but close than before, plays, before fading out to show the girl standing on a field. She is holding a bunch of balloons, which she slowly releases into the air. The girl turns to face the balloons as they float into the air, symbolising the girl saying a final goodbye to her friend.

The final scene is a jump-cut of the balloons as they go higher and higher into the sky, whilst the girl singing the final few lyrics of the song fades in over the top, before fading completely to black. In the MTV version, the same tile card will appear again in corner as this scene plays. 

Risk Assessment Sheet - College Studio

Risk Assessment Sheet - House

Risk Assessment Sheet - Epping Forest

Risk Assessment Sheet - Hatfield Forest

Risk Assessment Sheet - Woodcroft Green

Risk Assessment Sheet - Harlow Bowl

Risk Assessment Sheet - Harlow Town Railway Station

Site Plans