Risk Assessments

 



Above are various risk assessments that I have filled out to ensure that we are always safe whilst filming our music video.

Progress - What I Have Completed So Far...

• Cross media task - cover, trailer, website, advert? ✓
• LAP chart list? ✓
• Halfway evaluations - feedback - others and yours? ✓
• Shooting schedules? ✓
• Risk assessments? ✘
• Production diaries? ✓
• Planning for all the ancillary tasks - do drawn drafts of all your designs for website, digipak AND progress of these along the way - from nothing to final construction? ✓
• Location and recce shots? ✓
• Changes made along the way? ✓
• Props? ✓
• Costumes? ✓
• Any influences - looks, costumes, videos you like? ✓
• Steal-o-matic? ✓
• Teaser trailer? ✘
• Letter to music producer asking permission? ✓
• Level 4 videos? ✓
• Top blogs like the cranford one, latymer etc analyse what did they do well? ✘

I still need to complete a legitimate risk assessment for each shoot using the forms that have been provided for us. I also need to create a teaser trailer using the footage we've shot so far and analyse top blogs from other colleges.

Digipak Changes

After discussing how to adapt our digipak to fit our band's genre and style more, we decided as a group to use a couple of photo's taken during a brief photo-shoot we took part in after completing our drama studio performance scene.

This is that idea:

The digipak features a plain front cover, a plain back copyright sheet, a CD and a back cover.

 The front cover of the digipak depicts a microphone silhouetted against a white sheet backdrop that's decorated in bright fairy lights. The band's logo will be present in plain white writing towards the bottom-right.

 Above is the plain black back of the booklet that stands within the left hand side of the CD case. It reads "DIRTY HIT RECORDS. © 2014 Dirty Hit Records. THE COPYRIGHT IN THIS SOUND RECORDING IS OWNED BY DIRTY HIT RECORDS. FULLY LICENSED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE UK."

The CD template is inspired by Ellie's original idea however instead of two plain lines on the right of the CD, there will be two lines of fairy lights on a plain black CD with a white rim around the edge. It will read 'Alleyways' accompanied by the copyright details.

I am comfortable with this idea and believe that it fits our bands' musical genre perfectly. Therefore I will be scrapping my independent digipak idea to focus on this one instead.

Rough Draft / Sneak Peek Of Footage So Far...

Above is a sneak peek of the footage we have filmed so far for our A2 Final Music Video. The final video will feature loads more cuts, some cool effects, close-up shots and lots more of the full-colour drama studio performance.

Further Video Inspiration





 

Bring Me The Horizon released a music video for 'Drown' which features a similar style to what we are intending to create in our own music video. There are lights behind the band, bubbles, silhouettes and deliberately unenthusiastic singing which is present in the footage we have filmed so far. However, this video has a narrative linking the scenes together which is not present in our own video and all of the previously stated elements are in different shots in ours unlike this music video.

Evidence of Editing

Provided are a couple of photographs showing us during the editing process of our music video. We will soon be uploading a rough draft.

Photoshoot #3

We had an impromptu photoshoot after we finished filming the Drama studio performance. We all like how the silhouette of us looked and felt that it helped evoke our band image further.

Evidence of Filming #3

After setting up the performance space for an hour, we managed to achieve our best shoot yet! We filmed multiple performances in front of a white sheet decorated with two reels of fairy lights. We also made use of the Drama studio's white spotlight. We filmed from lots of different angles and managed to get a lot of good footage. We agree that the look of this shoot fits our bands electronic image well.

The above video was taken by our teacher whilst we performed using the strobe lighting that the Dram Studio provided. We hope to use this lighting for most of the 40 seconds of instrumental towards the end of the song.

4 Key Choices - Record Company

The record label we chose to be signed by was Dirty Hit Records. They are an independent london-based company who represent artists such as The 1975, Wolf Alice, Marika Hackman and Little Comets.

 

 

 

Dirty Hit Records helped The 1975 rocket to superstardom by achieving a partnership with Universal Records and we hope that this will occur again with Alleyways.

4 Key Choices - Audience

Primary audience: We will mostly accumulate a following of rock fans. Rock is such a broad genre with many sub-genres and we may gain further fans through word of mouth as we are something new and interesting.

Secondary audience: Our secondary audience will be teenagers. As we have a fun, upbeat sound we could attract younger teenagers who are starting to 'branch out' of their music taste and want to expand from pop and chart music but don't want to venture too far out. Due to our influences, we are a mixture of pop and rock.

4 Key Choices - Artist

After choosing the song, we had to come up with an artist. We decided to be a band rather than a singer as most groups have chosen a solo musician or single-genre group and this would be something fresh and different. Our band is also mixed-gender which we think would be our unique selling point - two females and two males.

We were given strict instructions from Pete Fraser to stray as far away from Paramore's image as we possibly can. So the first thing that we changed was our genre: instead of being a female-fronted rock band, we chose to be a female-fronted electro-alternative band as our song choice involves a lot of electronic sounds such as the synthesizer at the beginning.

Ellie will be the vocalist, Dom is the guitarist and Zahra will be our drummer. I will be the bassist. We will all have to have a different personality or 'role' in the band. For example, Ellie will be the energetic, ditzy front woman whereas on the opposite end of the spectrum I will be a quiet, more reserved member of the band.

4 Key Choices - Track

After narrowing our song choices down to three final tracks, we decided on 'Fast In My Car' by Paramore for various reasons. We couldn't do Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' as none of us would have been able to capture the soul of her voice as we all look far too young and inexperienced. We also couldn't do the Bastille's 'No Angels' because their singer has gained a distinctive voice and the song was too slow to make the video interesting - we didn't want to bore our audience.

 

'Fast In My Car' is upbeat and fun and by choosing this song we managed to make our genre different from the original song: Paramore fall under the 'rock' genre but by listening to the song we made our band electro-alternative. The song is also different from the other media classes track choices in our year which will hopefully stand us out from the crowd.

 

Outfits

Ellie, the main star of the music video, will be dressed in kooky, fun and colourful clothing to establish her and the bands personality during the duration of the music video. All outfits feature bright, clashing colours.
 

Dom, the guitarist of the band will be dressed modern and trendy to appeal to a younger audience. Dom is the cool, trendy, funny member of the band which coincides with our band's overall image. We don't take ourselves too seriously.

I will be wearing 'skater' clothing to appeal to, again, a younger trendier audience - I'm a bit more of a quiet character but come across energetic when performing.

Zahra will be wearing feisty yet modern attire to elicit her personality within the band. Her style works well with the rest of the bands.

Further Inspiration - Performing Shots Aesthetic

 

Above are two examples of music videos that have a similar look to what we are trying to achieve in our own. Mumford & Sons' 'Hopeless Wanderer' and Tonight Alive's 'Starlight' both feature shots of the band performing around lights. We will provide fairy lights, lamps and disco balls on our music video shoot to create this look ourselves.



Props List - A2 Final Music Video

Below are a list of props that we will have to provide to make our shots interesting and as genuine as possible for our music video:

1. Instruments - Guitar, Bass, Drums and a Mic - Recording studio/drama studio - performing shots
2. Balloons - Drama studio - performing shots
3. Glow sticks (to spell out 'alleyways') - Drama studio - performing shots
4. Bubble guns x4 - Dom's garden - filler shots
5. Bonfire pit - Dom's garden - filler shots/performing shots
6. GoPro - Dom's car - performing shots
7. Blankets - Dom's garden - filler shots/performing shots
8. Disco Ball - Drama studio - performing shots
9. Trolley? - Street - filler shots/performing shots
10. Fairy lights, lamps - Drama studio - performing shots

Font Research

In preparation for creating our music video, we used the site 'myfonts' to find inspiration for our final band logo. At first, we looked at fonts that were straight and simple in their aesthetic in order to embrace the electronic side of the band. Below are some examples of fonts that we liked:

All the fonts feature straight lines and bond separate letters. They are all either in all capitals or all lower case also. We then considered the idea of our font having a fun, less structured look to it in order to connote the bands' carefree side. We selected the following:

 

 

We retained the idea that all of the letters should be in either upper or lowercase. However, we finally found a font that all involved agreed on to use as our final band logo. This logo would fall under the first category of clean-cut and appropriate for our bands' genre. We believe that it stands out and is individual alike 'Alleyways'.