Now that our artist has a look and style, it was time to come up with a name. Seeing as one of our inspirations for our artist was Yolandi, we thought that a foreign name would suit Genny well. Another reason to not go for an english name was because people might then think that our artist is into grime.
Scandinavian names are very sexy but are also quite obscure so this is route that we took. I first looked at Swedish names such as Saga, Thyra and Mila, however Lova stood out the most because it has obvious connotations to love and its not too long.
To further our choices, I looked at names from countries such as Norway, Finland and Denmark, but they all seemed either quite common or too pretty.
I decided to go for Lova because It was simple but effective and it can be seen as both a cute, pretty name but also dark and harsh.
I started sketching a few ideas for the potential website for our artist. This first image is my idea for a possible logo for the artist:
Up in the top corner I had an idea for using an anagram as the artists name design. My other design was very simple, having the artist leaning against the "V" and to have the "V" and "A" joint together because Scandinavian letters such as "A" and "E" are put together.
I then started to think even simpler by changing the way that the "L" looked but I feel that this is too basic and our artist needs something cool and wacky.
Later on in the day, I had a huge brainstorm and I tried to come up with as many weird ideas as I could. My favourites are the one in the top right corner and the one just below that right on the edge of the page.
There is still more work to be done and I will be progressing further with a select few and then see which fits the artist the best.
For the shadow set we are wanting a lot of close-up shots of the face, lips and eyes which heightens our artists sexuality.
Here is an example from Dangerous Women - Ariane Grande
The full music video to Dangerous Women has many more of the types of shots we are wanting to shoot.
To help with the shadowed effect we were going to shine light off material. This is the type of material we will use however we will not have our artist engulfed by the material.
Adore You - Miley Cyrus
If the elements come together the way we want, we should end up shadowing our artist similar to that of Hailee Stenfield in "Starving", however there would be black material floating behind her as well.
After a few chats with the group, we have decided to scrap the idea of the bed sheets. Although we thought that the set could look cool and it portrays the idea of the song well, we felt that it was too seductive and wasn't quite the look that we were going for.
We then had the task of finding a new element. We knew that we wanted an element which enhanced the pace of the song so we went back to the basics and just focused on the song and the message we want to show behind it.
After listening to the song numerous times, we knew that in order to match the pace of the song, we need our new element to appear on the drop and reflect what the music does. To us, a DJ seemed the most appropriate and it adds to the performance level to the video.
Today's meeting we focused in nailing the concept because it has been our biggest criticism. We have now moved onto 4 elements of the video, being loss, desperation and being trapped. We have kept the original set of the light corridor, the studio set with the dancers and then Genny in a large black bed with sheets. This keeps with our dark elements and instead of Genny having the power in the original idea she now has had that taken away from her so the idea is to have her struggling for freedom. As well as the heavy amount of light throughout.
Lighting is crucial for our music video as it sets the tone and lights our artists in creatively.
Our first use of light will be within the first couple of shots of the video where light is reflected off material to shadow Genny. From this we are hoping to portray two images for Genny. One being of a provocative nature and the other being edgy/mysterious.
We are also creating an image for our dancers with the blinders. Hopefully, the blinders should make the dancers look like shadows which will link with our shadowed theme from the first set. It will also mean that their faces aren't very visible and therefore they represent the emotions behind the song rather than being seen as people dancing.
Our light corridor is our third element. The light corridor is going to be very bright, almost too bright so that it makes the audience squint. We want it the strength of the light to represent the power that Genny has as an artist.
Our DJ set will be very colourful, giving the set a club/party vibe. We want to reiterate the fact that the DJ is remixing an original song and by showing the DJ at work, the audience will become more engaged.
We have two main aims when lighting our video. The first aim is to use light to shadow so that we stick to the artists image. The other aim is to contrast the shadow by being vibrant to match the intensity of the song to the video.
We are now on a one week break and we come back on the week commencing 31st October. We shoot on the first Friday, 4th November. Meaning we need everything in place by then such as our set. Our set is being built over half term however we need to construct our set on the afternoon of Thursday 3rd November. Also when we come back on the 31st we are set to have a production meeting with our cast to discuss the shoot as well as review the choreography in order to check it works. We also need Genny our lead to show that she knows her lyrics, and that our DJ Heath is comfortable with what he is doing. The email read as below:
We sent another email concerning what we have to get hold of ourselves in terms of props - our props include a full DJ set, luckily we have 3 DJ's who have offered to kindly lend us their kit -
In todays lesson, we met with Laura who used to go to Hurtwood. The plan was to tell her what our plans were for sets and then she would tell us if it was do-able and or if it would be too expensive and time-consuming.
These were the four sets that we proposed to her:
Light Corridor - Used for Mid to Long shots of Genny lip syncing
Blinders - Used to light the dancers
DJ Set - 360 degree to show the mixing of the song
Shadow Set - Another set for Jenny to lip sync (more sexual)
The light corridor:
This had positive feedback. We decided to use LED strips and build them into the wall so that they would not stick out and look unprofessional. We chose to use these lights as we can have different colours and we can change the light speed and direction. This is helpful as it gives us more to work with on the day. We looked at whether the lights might be too heavy to build into the wall, but we came to the conclusion that it can be worked around.
The blinders:
This is the section for the dance. This was one of the easier ones as it was relatively easy to make as all it required was a large space with blinders.
The DJ set:
This was the complex one. We wanted to have the DJ desk as a 360 degree mixing desk on perspex so that we could shine light through it and it would bounce off. However, the set designers said that it was hard for the perspex to hold up the mixing desks, and for the set to be big enough for 360 and for the light to properly bounce off. We came to the conclusion that we could have a 180 perspex mixing desk that would look as though it was 360 as it would only be half perspex and then half table.
Shadow set:
This was easy as we just wanted to bounce light off curtains to hit the artist's face to give a shadowed look. This was simplistic as all that was needed was black curtains and lights.
This is the type of shadowed look we are going for with our website because it matches the shadows used in the video. It is important to link the website design to the music video as the website would act as an advertisement for the video. We also like the was that the artist has designed her name as it is simple and effective. The only issue with this website is it can be seen as a little boring, so we will try to avoid this issue when designing our website.
This is a very vibrant and animated website and it's effective because it makes the artist stand out. What we particularly like about this website is the animation of the artist herself. It promotes her image according to the audience she is targeting and gives her a sense of mystery. The moving boarders at the side are very catching for an audience as they are impossible to ignore.
Our third potential website design is that of Azelia Banks. It keeps the theme of shadow and darkness and also manages to portray sexual ideas through abstract artwork. From these three examples we have decided that we want to keep the dark theme to match with our video and at the same time we want elements that will attract an audience and make our artist stand out.
All of the websites that we have seen so far follow a similar pattern in their layout. They also use the website to promote the artists latest song/album.
Firstly, they all have a section on merchandise which make sense because they can increase their sales and make profit without needing to promote merchandise in a separate campaign.
They also have a section promoting social media, such as this Instagram feed from AlunaGeorge.
The websites also include current and near future tour dates and links to buy tickets.
There would almost always have a link to go and buy the latest album.
Although typically the DJ writes the songs and features an artist, we have turned the tables so that the DJ is the one remixing the song of the main artist (Genny).
The image for DJ:
We want our DJ to seem as though he is very experienced with what he is doing. As our set will be either a 360 or 180 degree mixing desk, we need the artist to uphold the image that he is very talented. The image of the artist will be similar to Jamie XX and DJ EZ. They will uphold the image of being cool, edgy and confident. For this particular artist, their target audience will be aimed towards around 15-25. This is both because of the type of music they make as well as their image itself.
Lead Singer:
We want our singer to have quite a few elements to her. We want her to have sex appeal and seduction to fit with the intensity of the song. As well as this, we also want there to be a lot of confidence as the lyrics in the song have very dark meanings that need to be shown through the performance. This is a cross between Haliee Stenfield and Yolandi. The idea to keep her as the only person in the lipsync helps to keep the idea that she is strong as well as having a fame element. For this particular audience, it looks to the 15-25 year old male and female spectrum, the men finding her attractive while the women wish to emulate her. Lastly, we want her to have an element of darkness. This is to give the artist an edge.
As our idea has changed, we have drifted away from the idea of using tight black costumes for Genny. David and Megan.
We are still looking to show a sexual element and for our artist to be edgy but we aren't silhouetting anymore and their faces will be more visible.
Therefore we have decided to make Genny's costume more naturalistic. Here is an example:
This costume would be used for the light-beam set showing Genny at medium and long range. It makes her look sexy but the colour scheme suggests a dark subtle undertone.
Hailee Steinfeld, Grey - Starving ft. Zedd
Plain black bra with fish net top
Cheryl Cole, Fight For This Love
Leather Trousers
This next idea would be for the other shots of Genny where there are close ups of her with some shadow and material floating around her. By wearing a top that sits off the shoulders, we will be able to film from the top of the shoulders and above to make it seem as if she is nude. This helps to promote her sexuality and confidence.
Today we held auditions for our lead singer, all of a similar age, look and style. After reviewing the auditioned we have decided to go for Genny (Second). This was beause she had the most confidence and responded to directions very well. She was also the most enthusiastic and was the easiest to work with which we felt would work in our favour on the shoot day.
George (a former Hurtwood student) came in to talk to our groups and work out what lighting would be required for our ideas and if we even have the equipment to support what we want.
George has already been successful in his career being on tour with Cats the musical and lighting for films and TV.
List of possible equipment we could use:
Atomic 3000 DMX (3000 Hz stands for the amount of light) - Used for strobing
UV Cannon 400W - A UV light also known as black light, it reacts to white but the white needs to be strong.
Rosco - A company which specialises in colour, paint and lights
Profile light (spotlight) ETC source four junior zoom 25-50 - An ellipsoidal reflecter spotlight used in stage lighting.
Tungsten lights - Tungsten lighting is a term used by photographers to distinguish between fluorescent lighting and strobe lighting. Similar to the natural light you get in your house. Has shutters which closes off parts of light to make it more square or circle and can have gels put in front of it to change the colour.
Thomas 4 CYC - Green screen and infinity screen, used to wash anything you point it at with light to even out surface meaning there is no shadows which makes the job easier.
Rosco Silk 110 LED soft light - A beauty light soft box style, light melts around what it's pointed out, can change colour temperature and match the camera to the light, 2800 is bright white up to 6500 which is more orange daylight.
Pixelline 1044 - Just short of a meter and made up of LED lights, many effects can be created and can be seen in action in the 2014 Hurtwood video Tessellate:
Sharpy Wash 330 - Tight beam, wide beam and any colour, change frost. Top Hat on front of the light to stop any extra light spilling out and ruining effect.
Mac 700 profile - The most versatile light, bigger/smaller beam, any colour, can be static or can rotate, can have more than one or just one, softer/harder edge, water, fire and aerial effects are possible.
We knew that Jenny would wear a low cut top such as a bando in the close up shadow shot, but we still needed to find some sort of fishnet top for the long shots of Jenny in the light beam corridor.
At first, we thought that this top was perfect because it was tight and long-sleeved, but then we decided that it was too see through.
This top was long-sleeved, tight and went well with skirts and tights.
We wanted both David and Megan to be coordinated with their costumes and the song suggests a hip-hop styled costume. David would wear black trackies with a red top and Megan would wear red trackies with a black bando.
After a long chat with the group, we have decided that the DJ will be Heath Ostrer Instead of Charlie Ridgeway because although he is full of energy, Charlie has a young face.
The group and I went up to the media suite to edit our Animatic. An animatic is an animated storyboard put together with editing. This was edited on Final Cut Pro. As well as cutting the storyboard to the timeline we had created, we also had to match it to the song as well.
Our first attempt was very rough and basic. Our shot duration was way too long and it was hard to picture what the music video would look like frame by frame.
So we started again and with the editing skills of Ben, we made something special...
I feel that after making the animatic we need to create more shots in order to fill up the video with a wider variety of shots and prevent the audience from getting bored. If I needed to change one thing it would be to cut between shots more to show the hectic manner of the song, as it is a dance song, and I would want to add one more set.
In the actual shoot we will focus on getting the main shots (wide, close ups, mid shots e.t.c) of both the Artist, DJ and the dancers and then after this will shoot more creative shots in order to make the video more entertaining and fun to watch.
This animatic has been very useful for our music video concept as it has allowed us to visualise what the shots will look like and we can see whether or not they work with the set and song e.t.c. We have identified that progression of pace with editing will look effective in our video because there are multiple moments where the pace of the song changes.
Feedback we received from our animatic:
An idea for our editing was to use letter boxing however when doing this we have been advised to record percentages of how much we cut the screens in order to make sure it is the same for every shot, making the process more time efficient and looking more professional.
Using strobe randomly without it being in the whole video can be seen as desperate and is a common device used when there is no other options.
If we use letter boxing there needs to be progression as well as progression with editing making the piece more chaotic as it goes on.
Putting our lead Genny on another set will give us more to work with in editing. One of the big problems we have had with the storyboard is that we did not have enough footage in order to make it fast paced and an exciting piece like the song.
Genny Lewis Genny will be the main artist for our music video and her role involves lip syncing and potentially some movement. She has an abundance of confidence and fits the look of our artist. She is pretty yet she is quite edgy and can give a very piercing look. As you saw in the casting she can also move with confidence.
David Heal We have chosen to be one of our dancers as he is in dance company and can pick up choreography very quickly and perform it well. We also believe that he would go well with Megan.
Megan Mckay Megan will be our other dancer in the music video. Again she is in dance company and can pick up the choreography very quickly. She has also competed in dance competitions around Europe, which gives us reason to believe that she has a lot of confidence and a lot of talent.
DJ We are still looking for potential DJ's and we will be hosting an audition very soon. We want the DJ to have preferably DJ'd before and to also have a lot of energy when they perform.
