shot list. [narrative]

shot list. [dance]

shot list. [band performance]

making an animatic.

animatic - a preliminary version of a film, produced by shooting successive sections of a storyboard and adding a soundtrack.

In other words an animatic is the a collection of static storyboards edited into a sequence, therefore giving us an idea of the general flow of our music video.


This is a very important aspect in the preparation process for our music video, as it allows us to know the general flow and pacing of our music video, allowing us to identify bits of the video which we may need to add or take away to be able to keep our audience intrigued and interested.

So how where we going to do this. We began by photographing every storyboard frame, and then pulled all of the images onto the Macs.

To edit we used Premiere as it is a software we have used extensively in the past, and we are all familiar with.

We brought all the images into Premier and began cutting them to the music.

Our animatic -


This has given us a clear indication that what we have at the moment is not going to be long enough, therefore my solution for this is to shoot the whole narrative and the dance in slow motion. Slow motion is intriguing as its something humans can’t experience without technology and therefore suspending reality, making it a cinematic tool. Using slow motion will hopefully mean we can get away with showing less action. However, It may get boring after a while, therefore we are as well going to try to research more things for the old men to be doing throughout the narrative which will make it more intriguing.

For the editing I really Like the pacing for the end of the piece, I feel the timing really fits the energy of the song, therefore I want to refer to this when it comes to the actual edit.

Story board reflection.

As you can see from our storyboards they are not drawn out in much detail. This is a shame as it doesn’t help to give us a clear image of the final image and makes it more difficult for people outside our group to understand what is being shown.

However we created the storyboards in this format due to limitation of time, so we just tried creating the right composition for each shot because from what I have learned from doing research on what a storyboard is, I found that the main job of a storyboard is to show what is frame and therefore the composition. This is a necessity to make at least a sketch so therefore if none of use make it on the day someone should in theory be able to make something from the storyboards.

In reality I doubt anyone else then us would be able to make anything from our storyboards due to the lack of description as well due to the poor drawings. However, the storyboards do give us a clear demonstration of what we will need to be shooting on the shoot day, which will make us more confident and will allow us to be aware of what shots we need to get.

Overall storyboarding is a necessity for not only getting your idea down but communicating it to your team members but not only that but allows you to fall into a flow which allows you to create more creative pieces with an understandable narrative flow.

storyboard. [final]

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our storyboard. [rough]

We delegated the tasks up on creating the story board due to our tight schedule, here is our final storyboard.

storyboarding.

Last year in the first part of the A1 course we did some storyboarding for our thriller idea, however last year the storyboarding was not paid much attention to, with much more work and detail being put into our second year pop music video projects its a necessity to storyboard.

So what is storyboarding? Storyboarding is the process in which a graphic representation of what the camera sees in a sequence, very similar to a comic strip it creates a narrative flow. The story of a film or any other movie picture production can be visualised through a series of drawings which depict the location, character, props and setting of each shot. These drawing representations are accompanied by captions detailing action , camera directions, lighting directions and some basic dialogue.

Storyboarding is used to enable a director to visualise the flow of camera shots and enables them to see what the final product will look like. This is also a necessity as it helps the crew plan and create the desired environment that is translated from the directors mind to drawings which the whole crew can see and understand. The scrip/screenplay or desired action is broken down into units of action which are drawn into the storyboard allowing directors see if what they want will be possible to do and/or work on screen. Once on paper storyboards add to a basis of discussion between the director and DOP (director of photography).

Story boards are used through ought the process of creating the final piece -

pre-production - in the pre production stage (this is before filming) the director and production designer will discuss how to achieve the final look and plan sets and costumes. Then the director will discuss with the DOP whose hob it is to achieve the look of the film on screen, they will talk through specific shots and discuss composition of the scene, camera placement, camera movements, lighting and the equipment necessary to accomplish each shot.

production - during the filming process storyboards are required for each shoot as it enable the crew to understand what placements of lights, camera movement, movement of actors etc is necessary for the final product. On the shoot day the storyboard is used as rough guideline for director but allows the crew to understand what is going on. Storyboards are vitally important for allowing actors to know exactly where they should be in the shot and what they have to react to.

post-production - storyboards should act as a visual reminder of what has been filmed and in what order. They are used by editors, especially in visual effects heavy films, in order to perfectly time and match the action around it. Non linear, digital film editing means that films can be swiftly edited on a computer desktop. While the storyboard remains a blueprint of the original intentions and provides a framework which changes can be judged.

During my research on storyboarding I came across some really interesting and informative video, I have linked them below -

set design meeting.

Today we had the meeting with Laura the set designer.
I printed off the presentation and gave her a copy.


In the meeting I let her know straight up that our piece was going to be very set design heavy, unlike many of the other student music videos. I went through the presentation explaining all the elements and what we wanted.
She showed me some images of couches and we agreed that we could get a couch from my boarding house Cornhill and other elements she would try source her self. 
She explained that it would be difficult to have the platform for the performers as that would mean when it came to changing to the next set we would have less shooting time. So we decided to eradicated the platform.
We came to the conclusion that we would have Japanese artwork for the walls.

Overall I came away from the meeting buzzing, I was very excited from her response and her overall knowledge. She seemed to have it very together. She mentioned to have SFX artist for the tv girls back with the wires but due to lack of time and finance I explained that we could cheat it with a few shots of us holding it their and then just use the girls clothing to hide the connection to her body.

set design. [development]

Our set design meeting has been delayed by a week. After reviewing Claudia's designs, I knew I wouldn't be happy with what we had for the final result.

It didn't work. It doesn't make sense that TV's would be stacked up in an empty old gentlemen's club bar and they just have weird shipping container/prison in the back. As I mentioned in the -initial set design- post I liked the idea of the set design for the narrative piece being in a foreign setting maybe like Bangkok. 

Why Bangkok?

Thailand is very beautiful and obscure country to me. It's a country that I feel has been very negatively impacted by western society. The country is filled with beautiful rich history/art for example the temples. However with the adaption of western culture it has lead the country in a state of confusion like Japan, evolving in a unhealthy way that disconnects oneself from its strong routes into a confused culture. For example Bangkok is notorious for it's ladies boys and they are somewhat seen as gods, and people from western culture fly over to experience these lady boys. This in essence is what I want to capture from our piece. That a More Economic Country Developed (MEDC) country's people e.g. Britain are flying over to a country that is a Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC) e.g. Thailand to exploit it. The main assumption with LEDC's is that there is a lot of corruption and therefore black markets. And this is what are set would be set around.

the set design
After looking for inspiration I came across a scene from inception.

for me this would be my main source of inspiration for the narrative scene.

Here is a birds eye view of the final set design -

Now I believe that the dance and performance element set design could fit together.

I made a powerpoint for our set designer Laura.

Which you can check out clicking here or you can view the GIF below.

for inspiration I have used images from our treatment,  inception and the matrix.

Overall I like the final set design, I feel know this piece has been taken to the next level and can actually look like a believable piece.

contacting make up artist.

Due to our complex make up for our main actress (the tv girl) we are going to need to call in a make up artist that does what they do professionally.

Here is the email we sent.

hair + make up [slideshow]

Here is a slideshow that I believe Jessica put together on the hair and make up for our piece.

make up. [jessica]

Here is Jessica's assignment for make up for our piece, which explains what we want for our final piece.

My assigned target that I have to think about and work on is creating the look that the girl is dying and how she finally dies. Initially we wanted three stages of life to show the progression which would be easy to use with makeup, however we can also show it through the element of acting.


We were still undecided about whether we wanted a girl or a boy sitting in the chair, however we agreed it would be better to be a girl. This is due to the fact that old men are watching the person in a chair, the audience can feel more empathy for the girl as a young girl is much more vulnerable than a boy is.

From our treatment, you can see that we wanted a clear progression of the girl getting weaker and weaker. The photos we used are of drug addicts which show how dugs can effect them, rather than making them look weaker.

Initially we thought that we could show it through the dancing, where the dancer would progressively get weaker through the video to reflect the girl sitting in the chair. However we then decided against that due to the girl in the chair would be different to the one dancing so then we had to think of another idea.


After consideration we thought of a couple of ideas which would be clearest to portray the girl dying.

Firstly, in the editing process, we would change the saturation of the TV throughout to show that the girl is losing more and more energy to power the television that is attached to her. As one of the feedback comments was we needed to portray that the girl was powering the TV, not that her ideas are being shown on the screen. So this element also helps to show this as the colour will show that she is getting weaker.



Another element we thought of was standing next to her was a heart monitor. This will be a clear indication of  her dying as it will get slower and slower. I thought it could be quite effective as the song is quite slow, at times we could match the pace of the heart monitor and the song together to add another element. Obviously this would not be a key element but a few cuts to the heart monitor will add a tense element to the video.



Lastly, the main element to show the girl dying will be through the use of makeup. The makeup tutorial below is the stages of creating a look of a dying girl. However, some of the stages in the tutorial show some good aspects of how we could create a look based around them. Obviously we would take our the glitter and the elf ears but the eye makeup and bags around her eyes could be really effective on camera.

------------back to me------------

The reason I sent Jessica this video of a dying elf, because I don't want the tv girl die a normal death, this piece we are creating could be something from a future reality and the energy that the tvs take from the girl makes her secrete these silver tears as if all her purity has been drained from her.

organising costume.

We need to organise who is going to be bringing in what for costume and whether the school can help or if we are going to have to look else where, and if we are looking else where were can we get it.

costume.

this is Claudia Kingham's work on the costume for our piece.

The Band

This is the type of look we would want for the lead singer. This outfit works well with the genre convention of the music being "indie". This outfit is also original and quirky. Our lead actor Hugo has a very individual and quirky look which means that he will be interesting to watch perform in the band.

This was another idea I found. The idea of the white t-shirt with the black genes I think is a very simple cool look. This is easy and comfortable for our actor to wear which means there performance wont be hindered.

This inspiration is very "cliché" for a band kind of look. I think that one member should wear a jacket to add to the miss match between the band, so that they all look individual. I think the band wearing dirty white trainers connotes the youth element of the genre that was present when I did my research.


The Main Girl

Here is an example of a generic hospital gown. The idea of a hospital gown is really important as it shows that she is being used for an almost medical purpose and the people she is surrounded by (the creepy men) are clever, intelligent men.

This is the second idea of a hospital gown that we could get. This costume, however, looks a bit like what a doctor uses to scrub in on surgeries. Therefore this could confuse an audience.


The Three Men

This is the perfect costume that we would want for the men to wear. All three of them we want to be dressed in smart suits. This therefore connotes their power and wealth that needs to be conveyed in order for the metaphor to come across clearly.

I think that bright and colourful ties will add an element of colour and interest into their costume. It also will add an element of wealth due to having a smart silk tie

Smart polished shoes will be worn. These costumes will be easy to find due to that being what the teachers normally wear.