Group: Location Reccie- Brighton

External: Brighton
-We chose Brighton due to its deep history relating to music culture. Furthermore the location is known as a clubbing city, therefore it contains connotations of the electronic genre
-We also were interested in using neon lighting throughout our production, we believed that the neon lights used on the front/ the pier would accommodate this while enabling effective exterior shots
-The electronic genre is often assosciated with urban culture. Brighton contains several urban landmarks (e.g graffiti present in the Laines), that will create effective shots relating to the genre/ the narrative
-As Brighton is a tourism hotspot, it is often associated with happiness. Our narrative heavily relies on the mood of the characters, therefore this association would help to contrast the melancholy mood of one of our main characters, and anchor the happy mood of our other main character

Brighton:
-Brighton is a tourism hotspot due to its beachfront location, therefore it is fairly crowded all year round, even during the winter. This may result in difficulty shooting in some of our chosen locations within Brighton such as the front or the Pier.

Overcome:
We have found through location Reccie's that the level of congestion around Brighton solely depends on the time of day, we will aim to shoot on weekdays

Group: Location Reccies- Interior

Location: Home

We chose this location for our party scene in the climax of our narrative. We looked at several different locations to use for the scene, taking several things into consideration such as the the locations aesthetic, its accessibility, and whether it effectively fit into our narrative. We chose this location as:

-Familiar location for audience- establishes present feel/ allows audience to relate to characters and engage with the narrative

-Relates to normal elements of narrative (connotations of everyday life/ verisimilitude)

-Very accessible/ accommodates large variety of shots- No restrictions regarding time of day/ weather conditions

-Open plan lower floor= tracking shots/ space to maneuver camera without interrupting action
                                        Large space allows effective organisation of the cast

-High ceilings = We purposely chose a location with high ceilings to accommodate the use of the jib/ enable the variety of shots that we have planned

 

Problems
-Majority of the problems relate to the content of the scene rather than the location itself. Our main problem will be the organization of actors within the scene, as we aim for the scene to replicate a party realistically, therefore positioning of cast within the shot will be crucial in establishing verisimilitude

Overcome-

-We have already begun to plan out the scene in its entirety, story boarding and open plans of the house have allowed us to decide the ideal locations for each cast member in each shot. To completely overcome this main problem we must finish the planning of the scene.

Group: Brighton Production Log

Production Log:


Transcript:

Dan: We went into the shoot with a clear idea of what we wanted to do, having already planned some of the shots out rhorough storyboarding and an online location reccie. We wanted to represent Brightons culture in our short, whikle also filming shots that were could be applied to our final piece at the end of the year/ would fit into our final pieces narrative effectively

Ed: We wanted to represent all aspects of Brightons culture, we believe we acheived this by visiting multiple iconic locations such as the beach front, the pier and the lanes. We believe our shots in each location represented the culture effectively

Dan: Going into the shoot, one of the shots we had planned was a timelapse. We knew this would be a challenge as none of us had shot a timelapse before. We looked at several different loications, prioritising framing and the representation of the location. We settled upon a location that we are very pleased with, a shot from the Brighton front, using a piece of modern art as framing, with a view of the i360 tower in the background. The timelapse shows the towers viewing point move up and down.

Dan: While our shoot went relatively smoothly, we did encounter some problems and obstacles. The lanes and the town in particular were very crowded that day, therefore shooting in those locations was fairly hard for us. We overcame this by filming the majority of our key shots in less crowded locations, such as the front, which was relatively uncrowded due to the time of day.

Ed: This practise shoot was very helpful going into our final production, mainly due to the fact that a lot of the films we shot are applicable to the final piece. It taught us the importance of establishing shots, particuarly in the genre of the music video. We also now understand that establishing shots are particuarly effective for the printwork of the music video, due to the lack of movement.

Pitch response - Narrative trajectory and transitions

Narrative trajectory:

• Neither the male character or the female character know each other or have had past experiences
• Their relationship will be created in the party scene
• It will be established by the transition from black and white to full colour of the male character when the two brush past each other
• We will use after effects to show videos of the two as a couple in the near future. These videos will be displayed by transitioning onto the screen of a T.V in the room of the party

Transitions:

• The transitions between the male and female character will start as inter-cutting between them in separate locations
• The contrast between black and white and colour will establish the two seperate lines of action, as well as connoting the personalities of the characters
• The two lines of action will be seemingly unrelated at the start, which we intend to use as a method of inciting the audience into the video, increasing interest and focus on the video
• The mystery of the link between the two characters at the start can also increase repeatablity, as the viewer may re-watch the video to see any 'easter eggs' that may foreshadow their meeting
• In time with the first 'drop' in the song, the shit will have the male character in the foreground with the shot in black and white, however, the female character will be in the background, in full colour, contrasting the black and white filter, and drawing attention to her, allowing to cut to a more close up shot of her, creating continuous action
• This method of cutting will be the same on every build up to a 'drop' in the song

Group: Print treatment post

Magazine:
We have chosen DJ Magazine to promote our Printwork.
We chose the magazine due to its large influence on fans of the electronic dance genre, evident from its large readership. They promote artists well through their online polls, for example their poll of the '100 Best DJ's' which gained over 1 million votes, making it the largest music poll of all time. Furthermore the magazines average reader age of 25.7 is ideal for our genre of music/ our video, furthermoe 67% go clubbing every week, a primary location for our track to heard.

We want to create a 6 panel digital, similar to the design below:

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We like this style as it allows a panel for a track list, and a panel to allow images relating to the video.

However, due to the fact that our Digipak is for a single, we will need to fill both of the panels with images relating to the video. 

We want to use images that relate to the content of the video, and the locations used in the video, we have some initial ideas for images:

Magazine Promo concept 1: 

(Without typography/ information)

Pitch response: Colour Test Shots

As colour is a very important aspect of our production we decided to produce a series of Colour Tests to find the colour grade we believe is the most effective:

-We experimented with several different variants of Black & White and full colour, the grades shown above are our favourites
-Our favourite Black & White shot was the second shot:

-We increased the contrast in the shot as well as decreasing the saturation, creating an effect that we believed was both viscerally pleasing and helped to connote the tone of the line of narrative

-We also experimented with the full colour aspects of our production
-Our favourite full colour shot was:

-We slightly increased the shots Contrast to highlight the juxtaposition between the Black & White shots and the full colour shots
-We believe that this emphasis on the bright colours within the shots is very effective in connoting the happy tone in this line of action

Group: Pitch

Class feedback

Strengths:

• Appropriate overall treatment idea. Links to lyrics. Interpretation of themes/moods in track carefully considered
• External location  - Brighton - well researched and considered. Good inclusion of previous trip activities to inform concept development
• Party scene location considered and planned
• Clear visual idea with colour grading - some testing already carried out to inform concept development
• Suitable visual ideas from research clearly linked
• Roller-coaster shot considered, including risk and challenges using kit on the ride

Actions to be taken

• Organise clear cast for the party scene
• Resolve transitions / links between two characters - some ideas discussed, but it needs to be sustainable
• Careful story-boarding in order to resolve exactly what the male character will be doing in his line of action
• Test shots of colour on blog
• Is the love unrequited or is it a 'happy ending'? Clear planning of narrative trajectory
• Need to pitch proposed print ideas - no clear presentation in pitch of magazine advertisment and digipak test shots