Beginning to Edit

Today in lesson we started to edit our clips and put them in order this is going to be a very long a tedious process, we are hoping to finish the first by the end of this week. This way we can get the rough cut done quickly and begin editing out final piece. I already have many editing techniques I wish to use in the video which I will explain in more detail in other posts. We have a total of around 60 clips we we need to priorities and put into order. I believe that this will be the hardest process as there are hours of footage that we recorded and we need to find only 2 minutes. 

Some of the clips we have to put into order 

Beginning to Upload - Editing

Today we have started uploading our footage on to the Mac's so that we can begin editing our production next lesson. We hope to by the end of this week have the clips that we are going to use in our production the deadline for finishing our editing is the 20th of January. This is going to be quite difficult to achieve as me and my partner hope to do a lot of editing, however we are determined to spend many hours making our music video as good as we can. We also have a lot of footage (3 SD cards worth) this has meant that it has taken a lot of our time uploading the footage and not being able to edit.

Summary - Photos from London/Experience

Luckily Nick was enthusiastic when it came to to taking pictures of all the locations and environment, we were able to have a few pictures that show me and Harrison at work and also the environment we filmed our performance in.

I believe that the filming in London was a success and we managed to get all the footage we needed, also after recently completing the studio shoot we now have enough footage to begin editing and constructing our final music video. Overall it was a great experience travelling to London and filming our production I'm pleased with not only the choice of song but also the choice of location.

Studio Shoot Successful

I have just got back after finishing the studio shoot with Harrison. We managed to get some good footage and we both believe that this footage and the footage from London should be enough for us to complete our music video. We mainly focused on getting shots of Nick and Harrison messing around and dancing to the music. I feel getting footage of this will satisfy our target audience well as the song is based around an unorthodox/happy mood and this is clearly conveyed in the footage we just shot.

Here are some photos that Harrison mum took whilst I was filming.

 

Studio Shoot Today

Today we are going to be filming the last part of our music video, by filming the last part of the performance in Harrison's studio, we have already planned out what we need to achieve and in what order. I will update my blog later on what we achieved and whether it was successful or not.

Studio Shoot Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm going round Harrison's to film the last segment of the music video which is in the studio. This will mainly consists of Harrison and Nick both going through the song and then them playing around. We wanted them to do this to match our unorthodox theme they will also be messing around using a microphone and headphones to connote a studio-type environment. This will involve lip-syncing and then we will have footage of Nick and I dancing and having fun to use as backup footage just to fill in if any of the footage doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing as we want it too.

This should only take around a couple of hours to complete then after we have completed this we are able to being editing our footage and sough it into different categories. I believe that the studio shoot tomorrow will be successful because we have planned everything that needs to be completed by tomorrow, and I also believe that we will be able to complete this on time and to a good standard 

Filming in London

We travelled to London on the 3rd of December to film the performance and some narrative of our music video. It went better than I thought as we filmed a large majority of what we planned to. As soon we arrived at London we started filming the performance shots. We started with Harrison leaving the train and approaching London Liverpool Street Station. We then headed to the locations we wished to film our performnce. In total there were nine different locations that we used in our performance section in London. Although we got a lot of performance footage we were unable to get a lot of narrative footage of the street performers the reason being because some of them weren't communicating with us and others wished to have a large sum of money for it, for example one guy was asking for a sum of £250. Although we only got footage of three street performers I believe that it is still a reasonable amount and we are able to edit it and see what we can produce. I believe that we have got the right footage that we need in order to produce a successful production.

We are now going to begin editing our footage we will be doing this over a very long period, i will keep updating my blog with information on how the editing is going and how far we are away from completing the production.

Planning - Permission from Levels Entertainment

Unfortunately, Levels Entertainment never replied to our email requesting copyright permission for Unorthodox. Obviously this was quite some time ago  and we have now got to the stage were we are going to begin editing soon. 


This means that Harrison and I are going to have to go ahead and use the song anyway as we need to start filming in a couple of weekends time.


Next lesson we aim to begin our storyboarding for the shoot so that we can take it on the day and use the ideas so we do not waste time trying to work out what we are doing.

Planning - Camera and SD Card Situation

As we are going to London it is vital that we plan what we are going to take with us as if we forget any equipment then are production is going to be less successful. The most important equipment that we need to take are SD cards and cameras. As we are going to London we are going to film as much as we can as we would be unable to travel back to London as it would take up to much of our time and we would need to be editing by then.

We are planning on taking two cameras with us to London as we are then equiped and of one camera stops working we have a backup. The main reason why we planned on taking two cameras with us was because we are going to be filming all day in London and the battery for our initial camera may not be able to last that long. So we are going to take another camera with us just incase this happens. However, a problem would be that the quality may be a bit different.

The SD cards are also going to be quite a large problem as we are going to be filming quite a lot we need to make sure that we have got a lot of footage this means that we need to have a few memory cards so that we are able to film as much as we want. We are planning on taking 3 or 4 so that we have  a lot of footage.

Planning - Lip Syncing

These are the lip syncing test that Harrison and Nick recorded. It was a test to see how well we could fir the music with the video. Also it was a good opportunity for Harrison and Nick to learn their lyrics and get the hang of what they have to perform. After practicing this we now know what we need to do when we come to our filming tomorrow. 

Research - Narrative Codes in Music Videos

The most popular theory about narrative would be Barthes Codes. This theory looks at five different elements of a music video and how each narrative is interwoven with these five codes. These codes are; Enigma, Action, Semantic, Symbolic and Cultural. The first two codes involve ways of creating suspense in narrative, the first by unanswered questions, the second by anticipation of an action's resolution.



Enigma Code

The enigma code refers to plot elements of a story that are not explained. An example of this would be Eminem's I'm Not Afraid. From the establishing shot the audience can tell that the lead singer is perched on top of a skyscraper. Throughout the music video we see performance and narrative, there is an equal amount of performance and narrative in this music video as when it's showing the narrative Eminem is performing throughout. The enigma code of this music video is whether Eminem is going to jump from the top of the building or not. The audience are waiting for this to be resolved at the end of the video, instead of revealing the outcome to the audience straight away the video shows how Eminem got into the position showing narrative. At the end of the music video we see Eminem flying on top of the building resolving the enigma code of if he was going to jump and also how he got himself into that position.



Establishing Shot of Eminems I'm Not Afraid

Action Code

The action code refers to plot events that imply further narrative action. For example, a story character confronts an adversary and the reader wonders what the resolution of this action will be. Suspense is created by action rather than by a reader's wish to have mysteries explained. An example of an action code would be Skream and Example's Shot Yourself in the Foot Again. The reason why this has a action code is because the  relationship in this music video is failing because of the actions that the male in the relationship undertakes. By him ignoring his girlfriend and going out with his mates it creates more narrative as the women is seen leaving the boyfriend after these actions

Semantic Code

A semantic code is a unit of meaning or a sign that express cultural stereotypes. These signs allow the author to describe characters, settings and events. The semic code focuses upon information that the narration provides in order to suggest abstract concepts. An exmaple of this would the music video Jungle by Proffessor Green the culural steriotype within this music video is of young black males. The video connotes ideas of a broken youth and that the young chracters within this music video are seen as intimmidating. By the director of the music video using these chracters it follows the narractive of the song. The mise-en-scene closely abides with this steriotype as they are seen with weapons and also clothing to hide their identity.

Symbolic Code

The symbolic code refers to a structural structure that organizes meanings by way of antitheses, binary oppositions or sexual and psychological conflicts. These oppositions can be expressed through action, character and setting. An exmaple of this would be F**king Perfect by P!nk the symbolic code within this music video is the teddy bear as the protagonist within the music video refers back top the teddy bear to resolve her issues. The reason why this is the symbolic code is becuase it symbolises her identity and is the main focus point within the music video.

Cultural Code

The cultural code is when a text references another text this can be done in may ways some ways would be to make a parody of the text or just simply praise the text and bring nostalgia to the audience. Referencing can be done in two different ways these are horizontal and vertical referencing. An exmaple of a cultural code would be Keri Hiltons Pretty Girl Rock. The reaosn why i have chosen to analyse this text is because it has a huge cultural code within the music video. The lyrics deliver messages of self-love and female empowerment. The music video features Keri Hilson portraying an array of African American female icons of the past, which included Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, The Andrews Sisters, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Janet Jackson and TLC.

TLC

Dorothy Dandridge

The Andrews Sisters

Janet Jackson

 Josephine Baker

Diana Ross



Donna Summer

Studio

As we as going to London on the Weekend to begin filming our performance. we decided that we would also shot some of our music video the day after in a studio, renting out or finding a studio to use was going to be a very hard job. But for once luck was on our side and we were able to use Harrison's mum's studio. This was a perfect setting for what we needed as it had a plain white background and also had some equipment that we could use to help us. This will be done using a white backdrop with my microphone, microphone stand, pop shield and headphones and Harrison and Nick taking it in turns to lip-sync as if we they're in a recording studio environment.

If we are unable to use Harrison's studio which is highly unlikely we are able to resort to the youth centre in Saffron Walden. This isn't a great place to film as it's in a compact space and also the background is very dark and dismal.

Picture of the youth centres studio

We will film in my Harrison's studio the day after London or maybe on the day but we will be very tired after spending the whole day in London and will need some rest. As a result filming on the Sunday would be better as we can put on fresh clothes and I think it will all be a lot more aesthetically pleasing and also be refreshed

Planning - Costumes

When planning what clothes Harrison is going to wear on the day of filming we want to make sure that we choose the right outfit to satisfy the audience needs.  We also wanted to reflect the 'urban' theme of the song and portray Harrison as reasonably trendy and 'hip', which is what we are looking to do. 


I also will be wanting the singer to be wearing something pretty simple and something that consists of plain colours, we want most of the audience attention to be on the characters however we also want them to concentrate on the urban environment and what is in the background. This is fairly easy for us to achieve as we are only having performance within our music video and no narrative this means that we can concentrate all of the attention onto the characters and also the location. 



Here are some clothes that we are considering Harrison to wear: 

Black coat to make Harrison stand out

Headphones to follow typical conventions of Hip-Hop

Jewellery to also follow conventions of Hip-Hop

Bright Chinos to make Harrison stand out

Baseball Cap to follow typical convention of Hip-Hop

New Actor Taking The Role Of Example

Me and Harrison both decided that it was important for use to have specific characters that the audience were able to relate to, we also wanted both of the characters to be of the same hight this would also help the audience be able to relate to the text as the target audience for Wretch 32's videos are the same age as the actors we are going to use.

We thought hard about who we were going to use as the actor and we finally came up with the decision to use Nick Stott, one of Harrion's neighbours he has had a lot of experience performing live and also has had previous experience with media studies and would be able to give us some good advice. I believe that Harrison and Nick would work well together and create a good music video as they are both very energetic and bring a lot of energy to the video.

Here is Nick Stott performing at a gig in Sunderland.

Planning - Train Times

As both em and my partner have both travelled to London we have a good idea of how long it is going to take us to arrive. However, as it's on a Saturday and is near Christmas it could mean that there are many people which could be a problem when filming. We decided that we should leave for London very early so that we can get a headstart on everything we need to do, also it would mean that we have more time filming and also less people to get in our way. It is important to also  think about which train to catch to London. As it is now Winter and it gets dark at around 3:30pm/4pm now, we must catch an early train to allow us plenty of time to commute and get all the footage we need in the locations we decide on.

We have decided to catch the 8:10am train to London Liverpool Street which arrives at 9:13 which gives us roughly 6 hours to get everything filmed we need. However we do not need to film the whole of our produciton on this day as the day after we film at London wse are going to Harrisons mums studio to film another section of our Production.

Planning - Equipment List

It is vital that we bring the right equipment and make sure that we have everything we need when leaving to go to London. If we don't check the equipment it could lead to a disaster and not being able to film anything as we ahve forgotten a Camera or SD card.

This is a detailed list of everything that we are going to take in order for our filming ot be successful. If we forget any of the items below it could mean that we won't be able to film or that our production would be as successful.

- Two Sony HD Cameras
- 1 Dolly
- 2 Tripods
- My Costumes
- 4 4GB SD Cards

Planning - Schedule For Saturdays Shoot In London

Me and Harrison are travelling to London on Saturday to film a large majority of our produciton. It is essencial that we film as much as we can and do it as quickly as possbile. As we only have a few hours to film as it gets dark very is on in the day. Also we have to take into account the weather and how that is going to affect out fliming. We will be travelling with all of our equipment and our actors (Harrison, Toby and Nick).

We will be filming a wide range of different scenes and shots on Saturday so it is vital that we plan what we are going to do and when. If we create a plan of what we are going to shoot it will mean that we don't waist time. Here is a reasonably accurate schedule for Saturday. I have taken into account that London will be packed with people on this particular day due to it being so close to Christmas. However, this is exactly what we want as it makes shots look more interesting and makes us stand out more if we aren't following crowds.

8am- Harrison arrives at my house, we then go a pick the rest of the actors up and drive to Audley End
8:10am- Catch the train to London Liverpool Street
9:13am- Arrive at Liverpool Street and catch the London Underground to Oxford Street
9:45am- Film Narrative in Oxford Street and around that area
11:45am- Film Performance shots
1:45pm- Lunch and check footage and see if we need to film anything again or anything more/get some extra footage
3:45pm- Try and persuade the train driver to allow us to film from the cabin for title footage/ head home

Planning - Weather on Saturday

Me and my partner need to take in account what the weather is going to be like when we go film our production on Saturday. It is very important to consider this as if the weather hinders our progress it could mean that we get little work done. If we take into account what the weather is going to be like we have a way of counteracting it.

He is the weather forcast for Saturday:

From this weather forcast it tells me and my partner that we need to do some more planning. For exmaple as there is a 67% chance of rain it means that we make sure that we get our outside locations shot first when ever it isn't raining. Otherwise when we come to do them whilst it is raining it may be unbearable and impossible to film. In our other production the wind would have been a problem as it would have picked up the noise. However, in the production the wind isn't going to be as big as a problem as we it doesn't matter about pickign up wind noises. Also after analysing the forcast it tells us that sunset is estimated to be at 3:55. This mean that we only have a few hours to film all of the performance befor it starts to get dark. After taking into account what the weather is going to be like me and my partner are now prepared.

Planning - Rooftop

As part of Health and Safety regulations we were unable to secure a place on a rooftop. Therefore we have decided to use a different method. We have decided to use this multi-story car park. The reason why we have chosen to go with this is becuase from the top of the car park there is a lot of scenery in the foreground. This would be a great place to film our production as it has the same amount of impact as it would if we wanted to film ontop of a rooftop. Also this location is much easier to get to and is also cheap. This car park is in Hanover Street near Liverpool Street station and I know how to navigate to it from the station.

Planning - Actors

At the moment me and my partner are looking for the actors that we are going to use in our music video. So far we have two characters that are going to be in the music video we are currently looking for one more, but we are certain that we will find one beforethe 3rd of december. The actors that we have are Harrison who is going to be playing Wretch 32, Nick Stott who is going to be paying example and a student at our school called Toby Quainton who is going to be playing a part in our narrative.

Nick Stott
We are going to use one of Harrisons neighbour and good friend, Nick Stott in the video. He will be singing the part of Example which is the chorus. He has a great experience with performing live and jumped on the opportunity to feature in our video. He is a confident lad who has the right sort of image for the video and nows how important this is to us as he also wanted to study Media at University and went on and did exactly that.

Toby Quainton
Toby is a fellow student at our school, we asked him if he would like to appear in our music video that we are shooting on Saturday. He said that he would love to get invloved. The reason why we choose Toby was because he fits the Narrative perfectly of being unorthodox.

Harrison Cantel

My partner in Media Studies will also be appearing in the music video as well as he has passion with this type of music and would love to appear in the music video. This meant that I was unable to be in the music video as no one would be able to operate the camera. Although i would have liked to be in the production it doesn't bother me that much. The reason why we have chosen Harrison to take the main role is becuase we both believe that Harrison has good experience with this type of thing as he has released a few song's. Also it would mean that we were able to take the production much more seriously.

Planning - Props

We are at a stage now where me and Harrison need to be thinking about what props we are going to use in our music video, as we are going to London we need to make sure that we have everything with us and organised in order. As we are going to a far away location it is vital that we take the props with us as we won't be able to travel back and get them.

We started to think about what clothes Harrison was going to wear as he is only able to wear one set of clothes it was important that the clothes not only portrayed him as someone who isn't serious (relating to our unorthodox theme) but also attracted the audiences attention. This meant that he had to be not only aesthetically pleasing but also engage the audience.

As we are going to a far away location this meant that we were unable to take loads of props as we had to carry not only ourselves but also out tripod and camera equipment. We had to limit ourself we it came to props and carry as little as we could as we would be walking around with it for many hours. This would affect our fatigue and also may lead to less work being completed.

Planing - Narrative in London

Me and my partner have decided that when we go to London on the 3rd of December we film a large majority of our performance with some narrative. The reason why we have decided this is because we believe that we should have split performance and narrative in order for use to get the best grade. On the Saturday we plan take two actors with us if we need to film some of out narrative we are able to. The majority of the filming on Saturday will be Harrison and Nick performing, however there will be short narrative that will be filmed in London as well, as we have the advantage of using London as a location we think we should make the most out of it. We have yet to confirm who the actors are going to be but we have a good idea and have some time to ask people.

Planning - Storyboard

This is a storyboard Harrison and I have created for filming in London. We decided that we would draw up a rough plan of what shots we need to get and locations etc. This mean't that on the day of filming, we know exactly what we are doing and where we are going to film it.

We aim to film everything included on the storyboard and then have some time to go around London and film more footage and film Nick and Harrison messing around to add to the whole 'fun' theme we are trying to portray to meet our audience needs. 

Planning - Other Locations for Rooftop Shot

Me and Harrison are still planning and organising phone calls and meetings to see if we were available to use any rooftops in the London area. We really wanted to use one of the locations as it would be a great way of showing the urban environment and also to keep the audience engaged.

Harrison received a phone call regarding the use of one of the rooftops in the London area. This would be a great location to use as it oversees a large area of London and would make a great shot to use in our music video. Unfortunately the only time they can offer a meeting is during the weekday in the morning which we are both unable to attend due to having school.

As a result we are going to have to research into other different buildings that we may be able to use to be able to film our rooftop shot. We are going to research into a multi-story car park that we may be able to use without any permission this is going to be difficult for us as not many car parks have a good view from them.

Shot List For Unorthodox

Here is a shot list 


Shot List


Narrative


-Shot out of train drivers cabin of train coming out of a dark tunnel/going into it
-Shot of central London in the day, shots of high rise buildings, panning
-Tracking shots of groups of people walking/buildings surrounding
-Aerial shot of both Harrison and Nick messing around
-Shot of public giving Harrison high fives around the street
-Shots of people shopping and having a good time
-Shots of Harrison buying expensive clothes, close up on money
-Shot of Nick and Harrison doing dance moves simultaneously


Performance


-Close ups of Harrison rapping
-Medium/Long Shots of Nick singing with Harrison by his side
-Both Nick and Harrison on a rooftop or raised area singing/rapping
-Shots of Nick and Harrison in a recording studio
-Shot of Harrison rapping on the tube
-Shot of Nick rapping in the middle of a group of people
-Shot from London Eye of Nick and Harrison rapping/singing

Research - Unorthodox Lyrics

[Wretch 32 - Verse 1]
Yea, I got a good heart
I was born on beat that’s a good start
I had a feeling I pushed past
And now I feel like I’m the reason I should last
And I move like my shit don’t sink
But I’m all in a trance no hit no assist
This is all from the heart intro no script
I’m just about writing it down
So now I don’t sleep man I miss those nights
I take planes like trains I don’t miss no flights
I’m the type of guy that will have no life
Just so I can shine like this gold life
And that sounds sad but I’m happy
And the only plans to stay scatty
Yea unorthodox, I made the bar so I call the shots

[Chorus - Example]
We don’t follow no crowd, they follow us
Don’t follow no sound it follows us
Go sit in hell, look down that wishing well
Unorthodox, we call our own shots

[Wretch 32 - Verse 2]
Yea I got a good vibe
I ain’t trynna be bait with my hook lines
I had a feeling I could fly
Before I hopped on a plane or a new sky
Yea I’m a good guy
And if you heard otherwise it’s a true lie
I’m hype I don’t do shy
I bark up every tree and I do bite
Syke I’m only playing
We all got freedom of speech I’m only saying
I ain’t got time for beef I’m on the way in
So the 8th day of the weeks my own lay in
And that’s sounds said but I’m happy
But the only plans to stay scatty
Yea unorthodox, I made the bar so I take the shots

[Chorus]
We don’t follow no crowd, they follow us
Don’t follow no sound it follows us
Go sit in hell look down that wishing well
Unorthodox we call our own shots

No one can hold us down again
No one will touch our crown again
No one can hold us down again
No one will touch our crown again

[Chorus x2]
We don’t follow no crowd, they follow us
Don’t follow no sound it follows us
Go sit in hell, look down that wishing well
Unorthodox, we call our own shots

After examining the lyrics to the song that we are going to do me and my partner have to make sure that the narrative fits the tempo and lyrics of the song otherwise our music video won't make any sense. The parts of the lyrics in italics are the parts that are going to be done by Harrison and the parts in bold are going to be done by Me or Harrisons friend Nick. The end chorus we may get Harrison and either Me or Nick singing at the same time although this doens't happen in ther actually music video we may try and lip sync them in. However, if this is too much hassle then I think we should just stick to what happens on the music track otherwise things may start to get abit complicated. Me and my partner have a good idea of what the narrative is going to be and it follows the lyrics very well and when synchorised together with the music track it should work out well.

Update - Location Permission

My partner recieved and e-mail explaining how we are unable to use their hotel due to Health and Safety reasons. we fully understand their cooperation and that we are unablle to use it. However, this does affect us a lot as we were planning on using this hotel to get a wide variety of our shot's. Although this was our initial choice we still have other options availiable for us to use. My parent is currently waiting to hear back from my hs parents friend who is asking for permission for rootop access at his office. If we do not recieve permission for rooftop access on the buliding then we will have to find some other way of getting the shots we need.

It is very important that we get this type of location so that we can see all of the surrounding area because we were planning on using it in a wide variety of our shot's. It will also help the narrative of our production. If we are unable to find a location and we go out filming me and my partner will have to improvise and try and use whatever we can salvage such as high mounds looking down on a wide area.

Planning - Location Permission

My partner has spent a lot of his time today making sure that we are able to use the right locations that we need to get the best out of our production. We hope to use some skyskrapers in London he has been researching and asking family memebers to help him and get permission to use some locations. His family members are helping him out with getting the locations as well. He called his dad's friend today who works in the Docklands area of London in a six story building. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we are aiming to shoot a rooftop shot somewhere in London. I want the building that I shoot from to be as high as possible so it is easier to capture the surrounding area and get a good idea of where the artist is. It will also add a lot more dramticness and pace to the video.

My partners parents are going to ask to managers of these hotels and offices if we are able to use the roofs of their building to shoot some of our production. My partner's dad's friend is going to ask the management team at his office if this would be possible to use the buildings rooftop. Fortunately, He has a back up plan if we can't not get permission to use this particular building.

This is the E-mail my partner sent the company;

Hello,
My name is Harrison Cantel and I am currently studying A2 Media Studies at Saffron Walden County High School in Essex. I am currently in the process of making a music video for my project and am planning possible locations. 

My neighbour works in a building near your hotel and tells me it is one of the highest buildings in that area. I have also been onto Google Earth and had a look at the building and I feel it will be perfect for what I am to achieve. 

I am looking to capture a rooftop shot in my music video and was wondering if there was any chance I could come along within the next month and use the rooftop for filming. I will be bringing a small team of four students and we will need no longer than an hour on the roof. I am aware that this is a big ask but I was wondering if you could email back and let me know if this would be possible. 

Thank you very much. 

Harrison Cantel

Hopefully we will recieve a reply soon and we are able to use the premises if they don't reply by the time we go out to shoot we will not use this location because they will not know that we are comming and will most likely turn us down if we arrive to the location without them being informed about us comming.

Research - Levels Entertainment

When researching who the owners were of Wretch 32 we dicovered that it was a record label called Levels Entertainment. I decided to get some more information about the institution and see what they are about and who else they may have signed. After looking through their website I knew quite a few of the artist that they have signed including Wiley, Wretch 32 and Vato Gonzales. These are artist that I listen to all the time and have never relaised they would be owned by such a unknown record company.

Levels Entertainment also have three different sections of management these are; Management, Level Songs Publishing and Level Recordings. In each of these different sections they have different artists signed. I will need ot make sure that I look especially at Wretch 32 and what type of contract he has got with the record label in order to find the right information.

Also when looking at the website it has a contact us page. Me and my partner e-mailed the compant through their youtube account, but with this research I have now found a much simplier way of contacing them. We will e-mail them again with the same template as our Youtube e-mail. Hopefully this time they will reply and let us use the song we need.

Copyright Permission for Unorthodox

After researching who were the record label for Wretch 32 we found out that LevelsEntertainment, who are a management and record label company, own their songs. As soon as me and my partner found out we e-mailed them straight away to see if we could have permission to use this song. This is the e-mail that my partner sent to them explainging if we could use thier song.

We went this e-mail on the 19th of october the day that we decided to use this song, however the record label have yet to reply because of this me and my partner have decided to still stick with using this song.

If the record company to fail to reply we will still use this song and we are unsure it's copyrighted or not. We really hope that they reply soon becuase me and my partner have spent a lot of time researching and planning for this song and we don't want to come to the day of filming to find out that we can't use the song.                  
                                                           

We will probably send them another e-mail in the furture just incase our e-mail failed to reach them or becuase they accidently deleted it. We will explain in this e-mail that we wish to use the song for our media project. If they reply and we aren't allowed to use this song then me and my partner will have to think of another idea, although we do have other ideas we wish to stick with this one.

Research - Location

After debating for a short amount of time mer and my partner have decided to film our production in London the reason for this choice is because after looking at our music video examples they were all shot in London areas. We have a range of different ideas that we wish to use and London would be the best place to use these examples.

My partners family has connections in London that can get us on a variety of skyscrapers so that we are able to use a wide range of different camera shot's that we hope to use. This will be great if we are able to use the location. If we are unable to get this location we still have time to scout around and find the location that we need. We have a range of different ideas that we wish to use if one of them fails, which we hope it does not.

Me and my partner will travel from Saffron Walden to London Liverpool Street we will be filming from the start of the train journey there and back we obviously won't be filming the whole time as the battery would be drained before we even got to our location. We will just be taking pictures and short videos that we can go through afterwards to see if we can use them in our music video and also on our blog. When we have arrived at London Liverpool Street we will also be filming some a segment of our music video here of the artist arriving and being greeted by adoring fans. After this has been filmed we will then be going to London Liverpool Street to film the large majority of our production. Me and my partner have a large selection of different shots and angles we wish to use.

We thought that traveling all the way to London just to take a few pictures of possible locations would be an expensive trip. However, in the next few weeks we plan to go up to London for the day and take some pictures as well as get some contacts for locations that may require permission to film in.

Planning - Location Permission

Harrison and I have spent a lot of time today contacting various people that may be able to help us out with various locations that we are wishing to us. Harrison called his dad's friend today who works in the Docklands area of London in a six story building. We are hoping to film some of our production on top of a high building this is so that the audience are able to see the urban environment in the background but also because it will also fir conventions of our genre and also relate to the official music video from Wretch 32 of Unorthodox.  


Harrison's friend is going to ask the management team if it would be possible to use the building rooftop this would be a great opportunity for us and would let us get the right shots that we need. However if this doesn't work we also have another building that we might be able to use if we get a negative response from Harrison's friend. We have just emailed the Hilton Hotel which is opposite Harrison's dad's friend's office and I am aware that it is a lot higher. I have looked on Google Earth and seen the various views from the building and I think it would be perfect for the video and the shot I have in mind.


Here is the email Harrison sent the Hilton Hotel.




Hello,
My name is Harrison Cantel and I am currently studying A2 Media Studies at Saffron Walden County High School in Essex.


I am currently in the process of making a music video for my project and am planning possible locations. 


My neighbour works in a building near your hotel and tells me it is one of the highest buildings in that area. I have also been onto Google Earth and had a look at the building and I feel it will be perfect for what I am to achieve. 


I am looking to capture a rooftop shot in my music video and was wondering if there was any chance I could come along within the next month and use the rooftop for filming. I will be bringing a small team of four students and we will need no longer than an hour on the roof.
I am aware that this is a big ask but I was wondering if you could email back and let me know if this would be possible. 
Thank you very much. 
Harrison Cantel




Hopefully, we will get a reply soon from the hotel and we will be able to proceed with seeing the location. If we are unable to secure both of these locations me and Harrison will have to consider looking at other opportunities that we may have.

Research - Example Music Videos

After looking through many video's on Youtube me and my partner found this music video that is a great  example of a different music video that we will relate to when producing are own. We used this video because it has a wide variety of different camera shots, angles and positions. The cinematography used in this video is exactly what we want to use. It has a wide range of different POV shots from high buildings which is what we hope to do. There are also shot's of the artist driving in his car and traveling around the city. This is exactly what we hope to achieve in our music video for 'Unorthodox by Wretch 32'. Also a lot of the low angle shots make the artist look powerful

Also the location in this video is exactly the same as where we would like our production to be based. it is similar to the Unorthodox music video which is based in small urban areas in London. We will be traveling to London from Saffron Walden to film our production.


These are two examples of the different camera shots that me and my partner wish to use in our production. The reason why we have chosen these shot's is because they are what we wish to contain in our production. As well as these shots being used it is also quite fast paced and contains a lot of cuts to make the audience feel engaged. The experimental aspect of this music video will also relate to ours as well as this is what me and mr partner wish to achieve as well. The mix between performance and narrative worked well in this music video. We wish to use this method and included narrative and performance in our video.

Final Song Decision 'Wretch 32 - Unorthodox'

After a lot of speculation me and my partner have decided to use the Wretch 32's Unorthadox featuring Example. The reason why we have chosen this song is because we believe we can work with it and use many different camera angle and techniques when used affectivly would synchronsie well with the flow of the music.

I think that this video is fun and energetic and is exactly what we were looking for. I have lots of ideas as to what sort of locations I would like to use and Harrison has some ideas as well. When we get back to school after half term we will bring our ideas together and begin planning in detail. We hope to start filming our project in the Winter term. Most of our filminf will be completed during the Christmas half term, we have two weeks to do as much filmibng as we possible can during this period. I believe that me and my partner will be able to complete this.

I would like to film in London with a variety of different locations such as rooftops, shopping centres, public transport, parks and Liverpool Street Station. I think that if there are a lot of recognisable locations in the video then the audience will respond better with the text and become more engaged. We hope to visit London soon so that we are able to get some shots of all the different locations that we are going to use.

My partner will take the role of Wretch 32 and rap all of his lyrics, i will be filming Harrison whilst he is doing this. Harrison also has a friend called Nick that has kindly asked if there was anyway he could help, We were hoping that we could use him for that parts that included Example. This was a good method of planning as when Harrison is raping I could film, then whilst Nick is singing Exmaples part Harrison could be filming so that we could each get the same amount of time filming and so that we are both happy with the outcome that we get. I'm not really bothered that i'm not going to be in the music video although I would have liked to. I will do whatever is nessecary to get the best outcome of our production.

Strangers - If I Found Love

This is our final version of The Strangers If I Found Love.

Strangers - Editing

Today's lesson we finally finished editing our sequence to If I Found Love by The Strangers we all believed that we each took a part in the making of the music video and all learnt something from making it. I learnt about I wide variety of different editing techniques and also learnt about different camera shots and positions that I will incorporate into my music video. We were all very happy with the shots we got I believed that we worked well as a team and managed to each set ourselves tasks. 


I feel we could have possibly got a wider range of shots whilst filming and possibly some more innovative ideas could have been inputted during filming to reflect the music. As we were unable to get close up shots of the artists it meant that we wearn't able to have a wide range of different shot's.

The Strangers

The Strangers

A band called the strangers visited Saffron Walden County High School on the 9th of November. Our class was set up into two different groups to film them whilst they performe. We asked them to play their song 'If I Found Love'. In our group we decided to have three different camera angles; one getting a high angle on the instruments whilst they play and another camera which was facing them directly so that we could get some close ups of the band performing together and finally we decided to have a dolly so that we could pan around the band, we also decided to use this so that we could get some close ups of the band playing their instruments. We will be using all of the footage that we have captured to make a music video for the song that we have chosen to do. Whilst doing this task we have encountered a few problems, for example one of the main problems is matching the tempo of the song to the music video. The reason why this is going to be hard for our group to complete is because the song that they performed live at our school is different from the version that we are going to use to match with out music video. Our group will have to overcome this problem and watch the song with video as close as we can. From this experience is has taught me a lot of things to consider when filming for my actual A2 prodcution. It has taught me that i will need to plan everything and make sure that i'm comfident with each element of the production. This accounts for the Storyboard, prop list, actors, and everything i will need to film my production.