Casting

It is important that when casting I choose the

people that will be the most suited as well as do the best job.

For my final production it will include two characters. The video will be following the story of one main character as well as include her memory of the second character. I felt as if the main character of my final production should be one that is female, I felt that a female lead would be more suited to my production as the role and stereotype of love and romance is one that is better related to a female characters. My song choice also features female vocals and although this did not necessarily mean the character had to also be female I felt the having the vocal match the character in some way would help my overall production feel more fluid and whole. 

My group and I agreed that our main character and female lead should be played by Megan, Megan is very comfortable around the camera and has good awareness of were and how she should stand due to her performing arts training. Megan also played the lead in my production and our experience working together as well as her being in my team will help to ensure that we get the outcome that is desired. Appearance wise Megan is also suitable as her hair colour is and complexion is fairly natural which when paired with appropriate costume with help with the switching between scenes. 

For our male supporting actor my group and I decided to cast our friend Joe, alike Megan, Joe has also previously acted in student media production and we felt the his experience would help us be able to work productively and efficiently. Joe's appearance was also suited to my final product as his look lacks mainstream style which is perfect for our independent song. Below is the images of my two chosen actors.

Megan

Joe

When deciding of the costume and the look of the characters, for the summer scenes, we want our characters to be dressed appropriately but still stand out to the audience. I would like to keep Megan with neutral hair and make-up as it will keep the natural and organic feel to the summer scenes. We asked Joe to ensure that he was in light colours which was able to maintain the seasonal feel.

Artist Consent

I am aware that due to the fact that I have chosen to complete the music video brief I am required to ask permission of my chosen artist if I would be able to use their song. My chosen artist is a band called 'Mausi'. Mausi are an independent band and I felt that the best way to contact them was through their official social networking pages including Facebook and twitter. I found their official pages by accessing their website at http://wearemausi.com/. 

Below is the following message that I sent to the band on Facebook.

I sent this message of behalf of my group and I felt that it was direct, consisted and polite. 

Audience Research - Music Video Questionnaire

Before I continued with further production planning I felt that it would be beneficial for me to carry out some audience research in order to find out the views of my peers about existing products.
My group and I created a simple questionnaire consisting of five short questions that allowed for a mixture of open and close answers. By choosing to carry out audience research It was able to help me establish my target audience in relation to gender as when compared the females who completed the questionnaire provided slightly different answers to the males. 
Below is a copy of the questions that I chose to ask.

Each question that I decided to ask was set in order to provide me with the specific information that I needed in order to benefit my final production. Initially I felt that specifying age and gender was relevant as it would help me to establish a demographic and a target audience which could potentially influence the way in I will market final product when paired with my ancillary tasks. All the people asked said that they felt that music videos were very important with in the music industry and most either answered sometimes or often when asked if they regularly watch music videos. Some answers to question three involved reference to song choice, if they enjoyed the song then that would draw them in to the music video. This factor is down to personal taste however my group and I feel that are song choice would appeal to many people who enjoy a mix of music genres. The majority of answers to what appealed to people when watching music videos was focused around the creative aspects of the videos and if it had a interesting narrative then they would be more likely to want to watch it. 

When asking what kept people engaged I found that many responses included reference to appealing visuals and a range of imagery, this finding is very important to my final product as I want to be able to create a product that keeps people's attention and wanting to watch on. In order to prevent people clicking away or becoming bored I will make sure that the visuals are aesthetically pleasing which will help keep peoples concentration throughout the duration of my piece. 

I feel that my music video would appeal to females more that males as when asking about story line more girls felt it important that music videos had one than boys did, this is relevant to my final product as my group and have a narrative and story line to our product. 

Lip Sync - Practise Task

After researching some existing products I found that there were reoccurring themes that appear in most music video productions. Many music videos that I have watched feature lip syncing as part of the the product, from this I felt it was appropriate to familiarize my self with this convention by exploring the technical aspects of creating a lip sync video.

Being able to practice lip syncing gave me the opportunity to discover how to achieve as well as execute it in a realistic and professional way. Below is the short clip of our lip syncing attempt.  

By carrying out this short practice I came to conclusion the shooting my whole product with lip syncing would be challenging technically and it could also potentially take the audience away from the creative elements of the product. Instead my group and I disused the possibility of including elements of lip syncing in order to emphasize certain parts of our music video. I am very pleased with the overall out come of the video above and I feel that it has benefited my group and I as we now feel confident that if we wanted to use lip syncing again at any point we would be able to and we would also be able to perfect it to a higher standard.  

Production Diary

Currently my group and I are in the pre-production stage and we will soon be entering the stages of early production. Since we created our production pitch we become more confident with our idea and we have also decided on our song choice. In addition to this we have completed the storyboards and completed a scene break down with shot lists, I now feel that we a prepared to begin further planning and we will soon be ready to begin filming. 

We still need to decide on location and actors and once this is complete we will be ready to start our initial filming.

Storyboards - Final Production

Once my group and I felt confident with the idea for our final production I felt that we were able to begin to create a storyboard. The images below show the full story board for my final production however, my group and I are planning to include a variety of abstract shots within the piece and at this time we were unsure of where they would fit best so I decided not to draw them into the storyboards as we are still undecided. The storyboard follows the chronological order of my final production and includes a range of establishing shots as well as the main scenes of my main character. 

Having completed the storyboards will benefit my group and I as it will enable us to visual the desired outcome of the final product. Creating a detailed storyboard also helped my group and I to ensure that we were on the same page and knew exactly what shots we want to achieve when filming. Storyboards are also helpful during the filming process as they help to make sure that we stay on track and achieve what is required.  

Shot list

Storyboards are a crucial part of any production, however when it comes to drawing them I do not create them shot by shot. Although drawing the storyboards shot by shot would be an effective way to visualize my production I prefer to draw them generally following along the scene and then create a shot list in text in order to show more detail of the shots and angels that I want to include. I find that a scene break down paired with a storyboard and shot list is an effective way to make sure that all shots are able to be planned for. It is also a good way of identifying any gaps as well as providing the opportunity to easily fix/prevent problems showing up in production.

Ø  Shot list

Ø  Insert shots to be inserted as appropriate during the editing process

1.      Traffic and street life

-        WS of moving cars and traffic

LA establishing shot of buildings

-        LA close up of street lights

-        WS of many moving people walking across the street

2.      Establishing main character

-        LS of crowd and movement, character shown emerging from crowd

-        MS of character walking in to shot and walking towards camera

-        Upwards tilt of camera towards the sky

3.      Beginning of initial summer scene

-        From sky downwards tilt in to natural open environment

-        ES shot of scenery (grass/tops of trees)

-        CU of flowers

-        MS of couple sat/laid on grass

-        MS of couple walking together in to shot

-        LA close up of hand holding

-        CU of male facial expression

-        CU of female facial expression

-        SRS

4.      Back to main character in city environment

-        LS of back of character stat on a bench

-        CU on her expression

-        OTS shot to show bracelet

5.      Cross fade into same bracelet shot

-        LS of couple looking into water

CU

-        MS boy giving girl the bracelet

-        CU hugging

-        LS walking together

6.      Back to city environment

-        MS girl moving location

-        CU sign post

-        LS arriving at train station

-        LA shot of girl looking over rails

-        Panning shot following her walking into train station