Since we can film off of campus it gives us more creative room to make the video come together. We, however, have not started to film yet. Our plan is for Victoria, Jeffrey and Emilio to film at the mall and at Emilio apartment on Tuesday. Then on Sunday, we would all get together to fill the remaining scenes. The plan ended up changing because of our individual schedules. We were all going to meet up in class then film afterschool. I, however, have a volunteering opportunity so I won't be in school. Victoria has a function for her church and Emilio got sick. This means that only Jefferey was going to be at school. Then he told us that he had a shift to cover at his job, so he couldn't film in the afternoon. Because he is the star of the music video, if he can't be there, no film can be taken. So they rescheduled it for Wednesday. I work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. so I won't be able to film again but I have taken time out for Sunday.
The process so far has been more challenging compared to the commercial project. As I have stated many times, dealing with the individual schedules makes getting the project done much more complicated. Because we filmed in class it wasn't much of a problem because we were always in class. However, I think getting to film off campus is much better because it gives us more room for creativity. Another challenge in this project is working with the amount of time for the video. We were told that the video has to be 1 minute and 15 seconds. This means that our storyboarding is longer, the editing process will be more difficult, and we will need many more takes to capture the video in the way that we want to. At the starting of this project, I stated that I think this project was going to be more fun than the commercial, and I look back at it now and I have changed my opinion. I did not take into consideration how much more work the music video was going to be, so it was definitely a surprise. I do hope that once we start filming my views will change about this project though.
My role in this project is also bigger than in the last project. For the blogs that had to be the same for everyone, we implemented a system. We would find the information together but each person would take turns writing the blog and then send it to each other. I worked on one blog by myself and one with the group, the conventions blog. Another thing that I did was reach out to the locations to ensure that it was okay to film in that area. We still have a long way to go in this process, but it feels good to know that I am having bigger roles in the project than the last time. I also plan to be the director this time.
Monday, November 25, 2019
Friday, November 22, 2019
Storyboarding 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.
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 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
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
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Music Video Conventions
Last class we wrapped up our commercial project and I have to say it was such a fun experience for me. Iv'e stated how much the filming industry interest me and getting the chance to learn about it and do some actual filming is something that I can check off of my bucket list. The project did have its ups and downs though. For example, working on the storyboard was an easy process because we all had the same idea for what we wanted the commercial to look like. Because the story boarding process went well, it was even easier to film. I believe that the story board let us know the settings we wanted to film in, the type of costumes we wanted to wear, and what specifically was happening in each of the scenes. While those processes went well the editing process did not. We had problems with the editing software in terms of it would not open on the computers. We had to wait at least a week before we could start any editing on the video. Now that we are finished with the project we can move on to the next project which is the music video. With this project I would like to reuse the same strategy we used for the storyboard;and one thing that I would change from the last time is trying to go ahead of the schedule the teacher gave us so that if we run into any technical problems, the project won't be jeopardized. However, I think this project will be favorite of the two because we get to film off campus.
For the music video the song that we decided to do is called"Kiss Me Through The Phone" by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. The song came out in 2008 and it falls under the genre Hip-Hop/ Rap music. We had a little conflict at first because I wanted to do Because of You by Ne-Yo and Victoria wanted to do Let Me Love You by Mario. However in the end we found Kiss Me Through The Phone in one of our playlist and decided to go with that one. The reason we choose to do this song is because everyone in the group likes the song itself and the genre is easy to work with in terms of what needs to be in the actual music video. The song was also really popular back then by selling over 5.7 million copies Worldwide. Because it is still a popular throwback song, it would be really fun to work it as well.
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 eye shadow 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 feminine.
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.
For the music video the song that we decided to do is called"Kiss Me Through The Phone" by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. The song came out in 2008 and it falls under the genre Hip-Hop/ Rap music. We had a little conflict at first because I wanted to do Because of You by Ne-Yo and Victoria wanted to do Let Me Love You by Mario. However in the end we found Kiss Me Through The Phone in one of our playlist and decided to go with that one. The reason we choose to do this song is because everyone in the group likes the song itself and the genre is easy to work with in terms of what needs to be in the actual music video. The song was also really popular back then by selling over 5.7 million copies Worldwide. Because it is still a popular throwback song, it would be really fun to work it as well.
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 eye shadow 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 feminine.
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.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
The actual editing of the blog
After the computers not working the first day, we were told to just write about what happened that day. The teacher then said that the computers would be fixed the next class period. However, things once again did not go as planned. When we returned to class on October 30th, the computers were still down. To be proactive what the teacher did that day was breakdown how the written test was going to be and have us practice it. Then into the next week pinnacle studios was finally working but only on half of the computers and sadly my group did not get the chance to use a computer that class period. On November 6th we were finally able to use a computer but it was a half day so our class time was shorten. Due to the amount of time we had, we were only able to upload the files onto the computer and import them into pinnacle studios. Today was the day we actually got the editing process done. Especially since today was the last day to work on the commercial.
Victoria was the person who was in charge of editing. What she did was have me look at all of the footage that pertained to our scene. Then she had me choose which take we wanted to use in the actual commercial. Upon looking at all the takes we took we were able to come to a decision quickly since the scenes were taken well. After we went through my scenes, she did the same thing with our other team member, Jeffrey. While she was choosing and putting together the different scenes our other team member searched up the music that we were suppose to put in the video. He looked up different versions of the song to see which one would fit into the commercial the best. Then once he found it he had to download it as an mp3 onto the computer. Lastly he emailed the music to Victoria and she was able to put the music with the different scenes.
My job in this editing process was first figuring out how the different options for editing worked. The first thing I did was look it up online how to use a certain technique. I was not able to find what I was looking for because the information was about newer and older models of pinnacle studios. After that I decided to go to the teacher for help. She told me to bring the computer up to her and she would show me. When I went up there she brought me to the editing screen and showed me which tab to click on to get to where I wanted. The technique we were trying to use was the split screen technique. Once we pulled up the different templates on the computer Victoria was handed back the computer where she edited the split screen so we could all be seen drinking the Gatorade. The second thing that I did was check to make sure that we had everything we needed in the commercial. Our teacher handed a checklist for the things that needed to be in the commercial. For example we had to at least use two types of camera angles and one type of movement. When I looked at the checklist we had everything except a pan or tilt. By then we ran out of time so we were not able to put either of those in but our editing process was finally finished and we were happy about that.
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