Lip sync task

Before filming we practiced the song and lip syncing to it in the green room in media. We did this to see who was best at lip syncing and who was best at performing, this will help us decide who will be the main performer.

Here, we have edited and uploaded a video to YouTube to see who was best at the performance.

Before we changed the group to just being Soraya, we decided from this that Soraya was the best performer therefore she would be the main singer in our group, however now we have changed it to just Soraya as it was better with her on her own, because of this when it came to editing the task we have used footage of mainly Soraya singing in the group lip sync as she will need to be the main focus.

Creating our backgrounds

Our main idea for the music video is the use of art, colourful and unique backgrounds. To follow this we have created our own backgrounds to link to our lyrics to follow our arty look to the video. We have bought some large pieces of wood to paint white as a base which we will cover in our own designs.

 

Shown below is the designs we have created and the process of each background we have followed. We have taken many hours in lessons, after school, our free periods and at home to buy and produce many arty ideas to add to our backgrounds.

 

The first board we made was the fire wall. With the use of red, orange and yellow tissue paper which we ripped into small pieces we created small flames which we covered the wall with. The reason we chose this first board was that it links with the lyrics 'A wild fire inside me burns' and 'let the fire in the city burn' so when these lyrics are heard, we will use Soraya to perform in front of this board.

 

 

Fire background from lucy_harding98

 

 

 The second board we created was the eye background. We also created this to go with more lyrics that repeat themselves, 'Wide-eyed' and 'Strange eyes wandering'. We will present this board when these lyrics are introduced into the song.

 

 

Eyes background from lucy_harding98

Filming 22nd October

After creating the eye wall in lesson we took about 3 hours after school filming more shots. We used the main assembly hall of the school to film this. We used the stage and the lighting in the hall to create another dark image to film. Soraya used the stage to perform with the lights for one shot. We also used the eye wall with the lighting to film and we re-filmed the fire wall so we had backup if it worked better than last time.

 Before this we also used outside locations at school to film which included the trees on the field as the leaves and sun made really nice colours and lighting, we did this first until we had access to the hall.

Shown below are some images we took whilst filming to show what set up we had and to show some locations we used.

 

Filming 20th October fire wall

In todays media lesson we filmed our next scene using the first of our canvases. The one we filmed in this hour was the fire wall. After spending around 4 hours on this wall we lent the board up against the wall outside and got Soraya to sing in front of it. I think we got some really nice shots with the help of good natural light from the sun, a slight breeze from the wind and the height was right with the use of the chairs. By using a tripod we created good angles to show the layout we had and I took some photographs whilst Issy had a go at filming, these images are shown below to show what position we had things in.

Similar artists websites

On slide share in lesson myself and Issy created a presentation to show and annotate other websites of other artists. We researched similar artists and looked at their websites and described the things we liked about them. Whilst myself and Issy did this, Soraya researched other artists digipaks onto a power point.

 

 

 

 

 

This task will help us when it comes to creating our own website as we now know what features we like and dislike so we can include the good things within the site, for example we like the small pictures which link to our twitter, Facebook and instagram page and the more simple and classic layouts.

New album covers

Here is one possible new album cover. We have had to look at more as we changed our group to just Soraya, however we would still like to use the same photo-shoot photos of just Soraya and have a similar effect. This is only one idea to test the text and colours.

 

 

Similar photoshoots re-done due to changes

Another thing that has changed due to our band becoming a solo artist is the photo-shoots however they have not been a waste of time as we now know what poses Soraya suits for the role when we do more.

 

Also shown below are some more similar photo-shoots of other solo female artists including Ellie Goulding and Taylor Swift, we haven't chosen theme for their genre this time, we have chosen them for poses and positions for our next photos. 

 

 

We liked these because of different reasons. We liked the facial expressions, the settings and how they use their arms and hands. For example we liked the setting of the Ellie Goulding images outside, we like how her hair is slightly in her face and how she stares at the camera. We also got inspiration for the facial expressions from Lana Del Rey and how she presents herself in front of the camera, they all suit our genre really nicely. The bottom left images show the two girls with their arms in the air with feathers/confetti surrounding them as it falls, we loved this idea so will consider it when filming but perhaps with a different crafty item such as paint or glitter.

Issy has also done some more research into more photo-shoots similar to ours which she has presented on slide share shown below.

 

 

Filming 11 october sunrise

This morning I got up early as luckily I was already due at work at 8 and the location for the sunrise filming was on the way. I got to the location at 10 past 7 as I knew the sunrise was going to be at quarter past, this gave me 5 minutes to set up in a good spot to film which was plenty of time. I managed to film about 4 minutes of the sunrise but after this the cloud cover was at the same position of the sunrise so I had to stop filming but I still got a couple of minutes of the sun which may still be useful for the music video as it will set the scene of the common we will use later on.

 



Filming 11th October Grafitti wall

On the 11th October our group went to film at a wall that is used for graffiti artists. This location is perfect for our video as we are using a variety of different colourful and arty background for Soraya to sing and perform in front of. Ever since our group have become a solo artist, we have managed to have some really good ideas which has improved our video already.

 

These three images are of Soraya using the steps to sing and make more appealing. The contrast of the colours with her dark outfit makes her stand out more as she sits on the steps we found there. Also shown is an image I took of Issy using the tripod and camera which we took turns of. This angle looks really nice on camera as we captured some of the wall in the foreground and Soraya on the steps in the shot too. 

 

 

The clothes Soraya wore really suit the location as they are dark and plain which makes the art behind her look even better. As prepared in a different post, the weather stayed how it said it would and we were really lucky to film on such a bright day, this helped us capture some really nice footage as the sun gave us great lighting which helped with showing both Soraya and the wall.

 

 

I took these images to show the angles we got, I believe we got some really nice footage which will look great in the video. With the use of my iPhone and filters, I created these edits which make the location look just how we wanted it too.

 

Finally, here are some photographs of the layout of the filming, the tripod was set up with the camera facing Soraya on the steps and the last photo is one Issy took of me using the tripod and camera.

 

 

 

 

Preparation for next filming

A lot of our filming is going to be outside therefore we need to prepare for the weather. Ideally we need it to be bright and dry so we have good lighting. Before filming we need to check the day before for the weather as this will help us avoiding rain showers.

 

We will be filming tomorrow (11th October) at the times of half 7am (Lucy filming the sunrise) and around the time of 12'clock to 2 in the afternoon. For this footage we need bright and dry conditions and for the sunrise that I will be shooting on the way to work I need to know what time the sunrise will be and if it will be cloudy.

 

Below are screenshots I have taken of the weather forecast for the day and the time of sunrise.

 

 

 

The sunrise as shows is at 7:16 therefore I need to be in a good location for me to video it. I will get to the common in Galley wood (where we will be filming for the video another time) and set up the camera at about 10 past 7 so I am ready to film.

 



Filming 9th October

Today we filmed in the drama studio again and re-filmed the projected images shots again. We filmed this again because we changed the group from being a band to just Soraya so we needed to get some more footage of just Soraya. However the internet wasn't working so we couldn't use the laptop therefore we couldn't have access to the time lapse video. Because of this problem, we just filmed Soraya with a blank background and we can edit the time lapse in later, we may need to film this once more because this way didn't allow us to capture good shadows, although the lighting was a lot better as we had help using the lights and made them purple.

 
Here is a photo I took to show the layout we had when filming. Soraya was against the all and we had purple lighting, we had to be careful when shooting as there was a radiator in the way but we managed to crop it out. We used a tripod to film with the camera.

Lyric Timeline

Below is a lyric timeline of Night Owls Early Birds. This tells us which lyrics is in which shot and what time it is said in the song.

 0:05 - Do the walk of shame in your best dress' put your hands up
0:10 - in the air
0:11 - in the air, even though i'm still sleeping
0:14 - paint the
0:15 - roads on these walls
0:17 - just to feel
0:19 - like i'm going places
0:23 - join the rest of the road
0:26 - in the dawn of the new morning
0:32 - strange eyes wandering
0:36 - the night has come
0:41 - were all under0:42 - the ground, can't be found
0:50 - night owls early birds
0:52 - wide eyed looking like you're under a curse
0:54 - save me, save me
0:56 - go underneath the ground
0:59 - a wild fire inside me burns, why do i look like i'm wear for worse?
1:05 - save me, save me, go under-
1:06 - neath the ground
1:14 - let the young hearts fool around
1:15 - break away and live mistakes and live fallen
1:24 - let the fire in the city burn
1:27 - want to feel
1:29 - feel the embers warming
1:34 - strange eyes wandering, the night has come1:41 - were all under the ground can't be found
1:52 - night owls, early birds, wide eyed looking like were under a curse
1:56 - save me, save me
1:58 - go underneath the ground
2:00 - a wild fire inside me burns, why do i look like wear for worse?
2:05 - save me, save me, go underneath the ground
2:09 - owww oww owww
2:25 - strange eyes wandering
2:31 - the night has come, were all under the ground
2:40 - can't be found
2:45 - night owls early birds
2:47 - wide eyes looking like were under a curse
2:49 - save me
2:51 - save me
2:52 - go underneath the ground
2:54 - a wild fire inside burns
2:58 - save me save me, go underneath the ground

Changes along the way!

 

On the 9th October as a group decision we changed our ideas to having just Soraya on her own instead of having a band. The difficulty we have had before now has been that we have all imagined the video in different ways because our ideas are all arty and illustration therefore we have all had different ideas to how they look.

In the lesson we decided that having Soraya on her own would be better for many reasons. One being that after filming in the drama studio for the first time, one of our ideas didn't work very well because the image didn't look as good having all three of us in the frame where as having just Soraya, the effect we wanted was a lot better and worked really well. This image was the projector on Soraya with the time lapse behind her. When all three of us stood in front of the screen/background I thought it looked odd having us all in the way of the screen so we couldn't really see the time lapse background and we also made it too busy therefore the audience would have too much to look at.

One mistake we have seen in the past from another media music video group was similar to what was about to happen to our group. They didn't seem to know who was the 'band' or 'artist'. Ours started like this because I thought it was just Soraya, Issy thought it was a band and Soraya thought it was different and thought it was going to be a bit of both. Because of this we sat down and discussed why this had happened and came to the conclusion that it would be best to change the group from a band to Soraya alone.

Because of this, things have had to change and other things may have to change along the way. For example, the album cover ideas previously were of all three of us which will  now not make sense, therefore we will have to re-create the album cover. This relates to another thing that may have to change, the photo-shoots we did were of all three of us which doesn't go with the ideas anymore therefore we have to do more of just Soraya on her own. This would be good because it means me and Issy can concentrate more on getting good shots of just Soraya. This will also help us when filming because instead of having tripods to film us we will now have both myself and Issy available to film different shots which will make the footage look so much better.

Another big change we have now made is the change of name. We decided that the name 'vision' was more suited to a group/band and that just 'Soraya' would be nice on its own as obviously Soraya being her actual name and it is quite a unique name which suits her being different from other solo female artists. This change has luckily only affected a couple of things along the way such as digi-pak adjustments for the name changing and the social media accounts but these were quite quick and easy to change in the account settings.

Group timetable

 We have created a group timetable to see when we all have free time to work on tasks and filming. Luckily three times a week we have either frees or a media lesson last which gives us time at lunch  and this lesson to go to either film, edit or anything else that needs doing. We also have frees first and second on a Friday morning which gives us a good couple of hours to work on tasks.

 

First time filming!

Here are some images that were taken from when we first filmed. We took about two hours after school setting up the location we used which was the drama studio. We adjusted the lights and set up the projector to make the right lighting to view the video behind Soraya and set up the

 

We all had a go at performing together and we did some filming of just Soraya on her own. I think it would be best to have just Soraya on her own as it would make the effect of the shadow better and clearer. I also think it makes more sense to just have Soraya as she is the only singer in the group so it looks a bit odd for me and Issy to be standing next to her.

 

I think it would be best for us to film this again because even though we got some footage of Soraya, I think we need more because it looks best with Soraya on her own. This way instead of having all three of us together which makes it look more crowded, me and Issy can use ourselves to film rather than using tripods, this way we can capture better angles and make better footage of Soraya filming.

 

This will have to be filmed again but it shouldn't take too much time as we now know exactly what we are doing with the set up, lights and order of performance. We can quickly set everything up and get Soraya to sing the song a couple of times with the background so we have her in different angles.

 

What went well about this filming was how well the image came out from the projector and how the lights from the time lapse changed the whole footage. This was good because not only is there shadows from the image in the background but we also got colour changes and light/dark parts in the video which make it look effective.

 

 

 

  



Drama studio email

Time Lapse video

At sunrise one morning, myself and Issy both filmed the sun coming up to make it into a time lapse. However the one I filmed did not work as the detail was not as good and I couldn't film the whole time. Issy however got some good footage and has filmed the sunrise for the video which will be sped up for the projected images and the final video which we will use is shown below.

 



 

 

Photoshoots of similar artists

 Here are some photo-shoots of similar bands that have the same theme/image to ours. We wanted to have a similar look to them and wear similar clothing. The images above of the band 'Haim' are very similar to our band as they are also made up of three girls.

Progress along the way

Along the way I have taken images of Issy and Soraya whilst we have been working to show what we have been doing that lesson. I have also asked others to take some of me to show evidence of what the whole group has been doing.

These images are of us three working on our blogs, we have all been posting daily to show our work we have been doing. To make it easier we have helped each other with tasks, for example I posted a prop and price list and have updated the production diary each day for the others to have and they have done the same for other tasks. Also in these images, Soraya and Issy are working towards the storyboard.

These photos are from the first photo-shoot we did. They were outside by a brick wall which gave a good background for our photos, we got some good photos due to the good natural lighting.

On the 9th October we did some short filming just outside the school in the field. We got some good simple footage just to get some ideas when we go to the common in a few days time. We have also been having fun with our filming which is good because we have enjoyed filming so far. 

Filming schedule

 

Each time we planned to film, we added the location and what props and equipment we needed so we knew what we needed. Props for example would include whether we needed a tripod or not.

Below is an image of the shooting schedule we created.

 

Risk Assessment for filming

 

Here are some photos of the risk assessments we have produced in order to prepare for filming. We have done a different sheet for each location to show how much risk there is at each location and how we can prevent these risks from happening.

 

 

Shooting obstacles

One problem we have had along the way is the transporting of the canvases as we need them in school at times and sometimes they are needed out of school which means moving them from place to place which is difficult because they are big and none of us can drive which is another problem. However we can use the cars of parents to move the boards but this will be hard trying to find the time to have their help this therefore will restrict our timings to film. To over come this so far, we have kept the boards at Issys house and will try to film all of the canvas scenes at Issys house as it is only walking distance from the school and closest in the group. This way we can walk to Issys in our frees and after school and can use her garden to film. We plan to do this first time in the afternoon of the 19th October.

Another problem that has occurred a couple of times is the weather. The weather is quite a big factor for our filming because a lot of it will be outside. We have also got to consider the fact that it is Autumn therefore it gets darker quickly so we will have less time to film in the afternoon/evening if we need light. We also need dry and sunny days to get good lighting and if it is raining we will need to re schedule filming which will be an issue we can not control. However, so far we have been really lucky with the weather as it has rained on days we have not wanted to film and has been nice when we want to film.

Capturing a sunrise was a big issue. I had woken up early a couple of times to film the sunrise but both times were not as successful as I wished. The first time was on the way to my work which was convenient but the cloud cover was at the same time as the sun rise which meant the last of the sun rise was difficult to see. The second time I tried to film the sun rise was also a convenient time as I was going to a uni open day therefore I was getting up early. I checked the weather forecast for that morning the night before and it said the clouds shouldn't interfere but when I tried to film the sunrise the clouds were too big therefore I couldn't film as I couldn't even see it myself let alone capture it on camera.

The second week before half term Soraya was going to a wedding in Spain therefore she would be absent that whole week. Because of this it caused a problem as Soraya is the singer in the video therefore we couldn't film anything as we need her. However myself and Issy used this time to create the backgrounds so they are ready to use when Soraya comes back.

One problem we had in half term was that we had forgotten to get a camera and tripod from school to use over the week and weekends. However luckily we had Sorayas camera and tripod that we used which was good as it had good quality, although we may have to consider re-filming if the change is noticeable.

Steal-o-matic

 

Here is a video showing our ideas to include in our music video by looking at other music videos.

 

 

Photoshoot 2

In the lesson of October 6th, we did another photo-shoot which we planned to do in last lesson. We used my cannon camera which was a lot easier and better to use then the way we did it before. First time we just used a camera to film us in different poses then used the images from that, these came out okay but were a bit blury so in our second photo-shoot we used my camera and the green room to adjust the lighting. A few of the portrait photos came out a little blury but most were really good and the lighting was a lot better.

 

We liked these photos of our group as it shows our theme of colour and shows we are more indie then girly as out clothes are darker and we have more of an edgy look in the photographs we took.

 

Soraya being the main singer and main focus in the song, we also took some photos of her on her own. The name of our band is 'Vision' so we have created a 'symbol' which is shown in the first image. The circle of the eye relates to the name 'Vision'. Here are some images of just Soraya from the photo-shoot from Flickr.

 

Myself and Issy also did some on our own which will go on our blogs, twitter and Facebook pages.

Photoshoot 1

 

On the 5th of October in our lesson time, we spent the hour sorting out outfits which would be good for our band. All three of us bought in outfits although Soraya is the main singer as me and Issy will still be seen in the background being the drummer and keyboard player. We looked at the outfits we all had and discussed what colours were best and what went well together. We decided that we would all wear skirts/shorts with tights and boots and dark colours such as blacks and greens.

 

When we looked at our outfits, we took some photos using the tripod and our phones.

 

Firstly we used a white blank wall inside the school which we used as a background but as we took photos, we realised the lighting would be better in natural light so we then used the brick wall just outside which the result was a lot better and clearer. However, lighting could still be improved and could use a better camera to avoid photos being out of focus and blurry. We are thinking of doing another photo-shoot next lesson with different outfits, better lighting and a better camera. I have a cannon camera which will help us get better quality photos and we can use the green room to use good lighting.
 

Possible Album covers

 

Using different editing programmes such as fireworks, we have produced some possible album covers. Below are the two final images which are our favourite. To decide on a final one we will ask other people for their opinion.

 

We like this one because of the hand over eye position we are in, I like our facial expressions and how me and Issy gaze into the camera where as Soraya looks away.

 

The second one however, I like the colours and the effect. We realty like the name and font so we will keep this.

 

 

Final band name and text

 

These images show the top two text we like for the name of our band which will appear on our album and social media sites. We decided to go for the second one as it is more suitable for our band. We liked the text type and think it will go well with images on the album cover.

 

 

Robbie Williams Re-make

 

On Friday the 2nd when we met Pete Fraser and Jake, in the afternoon we used the hour recreating the music video of Robbie Williams 'Let me entertain you'. We used face paint to look like Robbie himself in his video and we took turns being different people in the video. There were two guitarists, two backing singers and one drummer as well as one person being Robbie the main singer. It was really fun to paint on the 'mask' and perform with others in the group. We also had about seven camera people who either worked the main camera or others. The main camera focused on the main singer and the side cameras focused on the guitarists, drummer and backing singers.

We learnt a lot from this task because we have previously done little editing tasks that has helped u develop our skills where as this task really helped us with our filming as we learnt new ideas on how to film great footage by techniques actual directors use. For example we used spinning chairs to film, one person sat on the chair and held the camera in a still position and another person pulled the chair around the room and the performance area, this gave us really good and smooth footage because it wasn't jittery and looked professional.

 

We also learnt about performing, it seemed easy to start with but we then realised how much effort you need to put into the performing to make it look good and that the whole group/band need to put in the same amount of effort because if one person puts in more effort this makes the rest of the group look less professional. This helped our group for our task because we are thinking of including performance in our video so when it comes to filming, we will have these little tips to make our video look good and like any other successful videos.

Below is the video that we re-created and the face makeup used, it was detailed but looked basic so we created this on the faces that were in the video. Also shown below are images we took to show our makeup.

 

I also took some photos of what the hall looked like, we made the lighting so everyone on 'stage' could be seen and it made the performance look even better. This will help us when performing ours to make our location look realistic.

 

 

 

These photos are of one of the performances we did. I took part in this one and was a backing singer, now I realise how much effort is needed from every position on stage to make it look professional.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete and Jakes workshop and tips

Music video top tips from Great Baddow High School Media

 

This is the slideshow that Pete and Jake showed us on the Friday workshop. They really helped along with the activity we did in the afternoon.

Shown below are some photos that were taken when we were listening to Jake and Pete.

 Jake gave us many useful tips to what has helped him in the past. He also showed us some work he had done like the music videos he has directed. He listened to our groups ideas which was really good for us to listen to as he does it as a career so he knew if they would be successful or not. He said that he liked our idea as he thought the illustration idea was different. He also gave us tips about the locations we will use. He explained that we need to leave enough time in our filming schedules to set up our location and get there as this will take more time then we think it would. When it comes to filming, we need to leave time to get to the location, set up, sort out final makeup/costumes and set up cameras then take a couple of hours filming and making sure we get more than needed footage so we have enough to work and edit with.








 

Band name and text

Looking at other similar band names which have the genre of indie and pop include names like:

-Vampire weekend

-Passion pit

-Bastille

-Florence and the machine

-The kooks

-Foster the people

-The stone roses

-The 1975

Looking at these names and thinking of our own we have come up with a few ideas which include:

-Violet Luna

-Luna Violet

-The vision

-Coast

-Indie rain

-Strange eyes

-Luna

We choose these names as they were suitable to our group, we asked loads of people in our class, in other classes and our friends to see what name they liked best, the top two were 'The violets' and 'The vision' and everyone realty liked both but the best one people said was 'The vision'. However a few people said that it sounded better and more snappy as just 'Vision' therefore we are considering to have this name on its own.

Below are some images we have made online to see what text looks best for the name.

Letter of permission

 

Here is a photograph of the letter that Issy wrote and sent to ask for permission to use the song for our music video.

 

Twitter and facebook accounts

For our band we have created an account for twitter, instagram and Facebook, we will upload any photos we take and update it regularly. 

 

Gmail: visiongbhs@gmail.com

Twitter: @vision_98

Facebook: Vision musician/band

Instagram:__vision_

Screenshots from our Facebook and twitter accounts are shown below:

This is our twitter page which we have created, we have displayed an image on the page of Soraya at the graffiti wall as it makes a nice header, it shows the personality/genre of 'Vision' and it is a sneak peak of the music video. We will upload images and tweets from when we film and behind the scenes.

Similar to this we have created a Facebook page for 'Vision' for fans to follow and like. We will upload more images to this site and add more comments to the twitter page. We already have 17 people who have liked this page.

 

UPDATE!

 

The images above are the pages we had when we were a band/group but now it is just Soraya as a solo artist we had to adjust the pages to make them just Soraya. This meant we had to change the twitter page fully but we just changed the names of the Facebook and instagram accounts and deleted images that had myself and Issy in them.

The following usernames are the updated names for these accounts due to the name change:

 

 

Gmail: visiongbhs@gmail.com

Twitter: @__s0raya_

Facebook: Soraya musician/band

Instagram:__s0raya_

 

Here is an updated image from the twitter page that has actually changed the most out of the social media sites. We created a new page as the name needed to change so we started it again. We added more photos and this one has a profile picture which already makes it look a lot better then the previous page. We have added tweets and will continue to do so throughout filming and editing.

 

 

Here is a screenshot from Facebook that has been updated from the name change. It can still only be edited and accessed by my Facebook (Lucy) therefore I need to make sure it is updated as Issy and Soraya cannot, however Soraya will mainly be uploading to instagram and any of us can upload to instagram and twitter.

I have added some more image from photo-shoots and have added information about the new magazine.

 

 

Mood board 2

 

This is other mood board that Soraya created, it is different to one I made because I did the lyrics and art we will use where as Soraya included costumes, identity and theme. She printed off images of different possible outfits Soraya could wear in the video, started to list possible names for our group and looked at the theme which included the locations and colours in the video. We came up with a couple of names we liked most and will decide as a group on our final idea.