Animatic storyboard

Here is my animatic story board, this is how roughly the shots will be shot in terms of timing and matching up with lyrics and beats of the song. This is here to roughly show me how the video will look in terms of order of clips.

My production update 24/11/16

Since my last production update which was done 2 weeks ago todays, I have come along with the planning and research on my task. I have now successfully confirmed which people I am going to use for my characters along with the locations I am going to use for each scene. I am very happy with how far I have come and how well I have evidenced it within my blog. I have completed my storyboard and call sheet so that I now have a clear visualisation of what the production is going to look like and whether it will be effective or not. I now know what I need to do in order to succeed within this task, which is to conclude a production schedule and actually produce it.

Props and costumes

With regards to the costumes of the characters, each character will be in 2 costumes throughout the whole production. One of these will be their school attire/uniform which they will feature in until the scene at the park where they will be in their clothes for going out in.

Costumes

Kyle:
-School: Black jeans, White shirt, blazer, tie and black trainers.
-Going out: Black jeans, long sleeved polo shirt, smart trainers.

Jordan:
-School: Black jeans, White shirt, black windbreaker jacket and black trainers.
-Going out: Blue/Black jeans, sweater/jumper, trainers.

Luna:
-School: Black skirt, black tights, White shirt, black padded jacket and school shoes.
-Going out: Funky leggings, bright and funky top, trainers

Props

Kyle's house

- Certificates

- Trophies

- Folded and neat clothes

- Report card

Luna's house

- Phone

- Fairy lights

- Paintings

Jordan's house

-Wine bottles

-Cigarettes

-Ash tray

-Dirty clothes everywhere

School

-Cigarettes

-School bell

Shed

-Fake drugs

-Alcohol

-Cigarettes

Park

-Car

-Cigarettes

-Fake drugs

Club

-Fake drugs

Storyboard

Location scouting

So with regards to the locations I would like to use, I have already got a visual image in my mind of what I want each scene to look like. I will list the number of locations below.

Locations:

Jordan's bedroom/house
I am going to use my dad's flat to film this scene as he is going to be playing Jordan's alcoholic dad. We will have to mess up the flat a bit to get the right level verisimilitude within the scene. I will attach screenshots of what I would like it to look like. This place, essentially, is going to look dirty and uncared for as if there is no pride in the environment his dad lives in.
 









Kyle's bedroom/house
For this location I am wanting to use my own bedroom. I will try and make it look as neat and tidy as I possibly can and I will be using props that I already have for the scene such as trophies and certificates etc.

Luna's bedroom/house
For this location I am going to be using molly's bedroom as I believe it has an artistic setting with the use of fairy lights, mirrors and canvas paintings. This is also the same house where the shed is, so with regards to getting the shots done quickly this will be advantageous for me.

School/school gates
I am going to use my school, Ilkley Grammar School to film this as I have access during the week and within my frees to get the relevant footage shot. I will also be allowed to bring in my friends to do some shooting without going against safe guarding rules within school.

Streets
For this location, I am going to use a set of streets within burley which is actually relatively close to the shed so it will be efficient filming. This area is a predominantly working class with terraced, newly built homes giving it that right level of verisimilitude. This will be incorporating social realist elements into my production by using realistic settings and not setting simply there to please an audience by the aesthetics.

Park
The park is simply a park, my local park within the village I live has perfect features which I can use, I am only using this location for about 4 shots so it isn't the most important scene. I need a bench where Luna and Kyle can sit and wait for Jordan to get the drugs. A bench next to the bowling green is used for that exact purpose by local youths so by using this spot would present the watcher with a real life view on picking up drugs.

Club
With regards to the club, I have emailed the wire club and asked if it would be possible to undergo some filming within their venue. I have chosen this venue as I believe it has the spooky and dark vibe in which my production needs to properly get the narrative to be as blatant and effective as possible.

Shed

With regards to the shed I will be using Molly's outhouse which will have all of the necessary props needed to make my production match the visual image I have. This is because of the sofas and homely atmosphere it has despite the fact it is not a part of the house.

My final idea

 I have decided to recreate the music video for chase and status' blind faith ft. Liam Bailey. My narrative idea consists of using 3 young adults to illustrate how music allows them to escape an oppressive reality in which they live in. This coincides with the lyrics of the song as it states: 

Sweet sensation

I am a man with a heavy heart, and I dare not turn the pages
Fighting with automatic self destruction
It's a blind faith, a cruel waste, one bitter taste
So I know I need this sweet sensation

Sweet sensation
The music that we play will ease your mind
[x2]

What is a man now to do with his mind when it's working overtime?
The best I can do is now dance with the devil
I keep my soul sane, I won't waste this time and space
So I know I need this sweet sensation

These lyrics can be interpreted specifically to follow the narrative of my production. The narrative is basically the characters living within their oppressive realities and how they use the music as a source of temporary escapism from life itself. This will be filmed in a montage using effects such as slow motion to add to the build up of the music and to add to the intensity, specifically, when the drop comes in. When the song is about to reach a climax, all of the characters seen so far are depicted coming together and getting ready to go out on a night out. They have gone from being dressed in school uniform and being treat like children with adult responsibilities to going out and not having a care in the world apart from the atmosphere and mood they are currently living in, in that specific moment. A major sense of euphoria is reached with the help of taking illegal drugs and dancing in a dark warehouse. The music is the sweet sensation described in the lyrics of the song. The anti-climax of the music will result in the characters returning home from the rave at about 5am when societies awake again, and they have to come back to civilisation and face reality once again. This will be depicted by the sight of all of the characters walking in an empty street with the birds chirping, girls holding their shoes and wearing the boys jackets, the boys with hands in pockets trying to keep warm and the constant yawning and monged out state of the characters will be shown through constant close ups.

Character profiles

My production consists of 3 main characters: Luna, Jordan and Kyle. Each of these characters are very individual.

Kyle - Kyle is the most fortunate character out of the 3 as he comes from a wealthy background , always has food in the fridge and a mum who loves him very dearly. Kyle's older brother was sent to prison for armed burglary which has resulted in his mum being over protective about Kyle and in particular how well he does at school. This is because she simply does not want a repeat of what happened previously and she hopes for Kyle to live a life of luxury but by abiding by the law. Kyle feels as if his mum puts too much pressure on him with regards to his school work and he feels as if he needs to escape. You would argue that Kyle is stylish, always wearing nice new clothes, has good relationships with his peers and a love life to envy. He is good looking yet arrogant and often angry, despite this he loves his 2 best friends Luna and Jordan who you would not consider to be as popular or cool as Kyle.

Luna - A very weak but strong individual who feels like life is going against her, her pursuit for normality renders her exhausted. Luna is a lesbian and has been for as long as she can remember despite her often attempts to convince herself that she is straight. Luna has never really been able to fit in with girls at school and has distant relationship with her parents. Her relationship with Jordan and Kyle comforts her however as she is able to be herself around them. Luna often experiences discrimination against her sexuality and has now learnt to ignore it despite the fact it takes a chunk out of her every time. She feels like she is still trying to work out why she is different and ultimately working out who she is. Luna also feels as if she needs to escape.

Jordan - Arguably the most oppressed character, Jordan often feels worthless and hard done by. Jordan's mum died when he was young and his dad has been depressed ever since, this has lead to addictive habits and is also the reason why he is unemployed. Because of this Jordan is incredibly poor and very rarely has clean clothes to go to school in or a clean environment to live in. Jordan is ultimately quiet and shy, he has never kissed a girl and doesn't mind. He believes that he has had the misfortune of having stability and happiness taken away from him for such a long time. Jordan often uses a concoction of drugs to suppress the negative feeling inside of him, he is scared that he is going to end up exactly like his dad: alone, scared and insignificant. Jordan needs to escape more than anyone.

Below I have got photo's of the potential actors in which I would like to use for these roles:

 Max: I believe that max would be able to fulfil Jordan's role effectively as a passive individual himself, I have lots of trust within this guy so I believe he will take it seriously and not let me down.

 
 Darcy: I believe that as she's full of life and always got something to say, she will fit Luna's role perfectly as she will bring a vibrance to the production.

 Danny: I think that Danny will be able to fulfil the role of Kyle very well as he is also a very bubbly individual who's often centre of attention, alike Kyle. I trust Danny indefinitely to undergo the shooting and filming.

Here you can see from each conversation, me asking the individual if they would like to be apart of my production. On each occasion the individual said yes meaning that I have now successfully got my characters.

I have also managed to persuade both my mum and my dad to play the characters of Kyle's mum and Jordan's dad.

My production update 10/11/16

It is the 10th of November and I would say that I am fairly confident with how my planning of my production is going so far. I am however worried at there fact that the wire club are yet to respond to the email I sent them regarding the possibility of filming within their club, because of this, I have conversed with Sir and we have come up with some back up plans in case they do not get back to me.  Despite this slight hiccup, I am well on with organising the production overall, I have got lots of potential actors and locations, a narrative and visual image in my head of what i want my initial production to look like. I am now looking to finalise all of the planning and then basically crack on with filming and putting my production together.

Shot list 2

Audience questionaire

I uploaded a questionnaire by using the online survey website 'survey monkey'. Here I conducted a survey which had generalised and specific questions on genre and music videos. I wanted to find out specifically from anonymous sources what people thought. I chose anonymous because I believe that when people know its anonymous they are more likely to be true with what they are saying and not make it up to please the surveyor.

This is the tweet I put on twitter from my own personal twitter account in an attempt to retain answers from people who are likely to be within my primary target audience.

As you can see below, here are the responses to my survey show statistically.

The above question shows that the people who carried out this survey do tend to watch music videos meaning that the whole concept of them are not redundant and that they do have a purpose.

The above question shows the popularity of each genre amongst the people who carried out the survey. From this information I can tell that more contemporary forms of music are the most popular suggesting that the people who responded to the survey are from the younger generation.

The above question illustrates the point that people are not dismissive when it comes to other music genres and even if my music genre is not the favourite of the audience, they might still be inclined to watch and listen purely because of the video itself.

Above, the question illustrates the point that both narrative and concept videos are effective in enticing an audience however, narrative is more popular which is good news for my production.

Above, this question shows that on the whole people do prefer the music video when the lyrics and visuals have a recognisable relationship.

Above this question's response shows me that people are both open and closed to the idea of it being almost a performance. Many people expect to see the artist but I think this is down to the fact that it is conventional to see the artist so by having the artist not present it would seem weird.

Here it shows that the split was 50/50 with regards to wether they would want to see music videos which are closely related to them.