Star Image

As we changed our idea from having a band to have a solo singer we began to research solo singers to see how we wanted to portray our performer. We looked into people such as Olly Murs, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, John Newman. We liked the idea of a mix between the fun and energetic Olly Murs and the smiley, sweet Ed Sheeran therefore we created our character to fit their best qualities, he's funny, energetic but also kind and smiley. Our performer is a young, good looking singer who appeals to young/teenage girls and who is a synthetic artist. He plays pop music and dresses in casual yet stylish clothes.

Idea change

After realising how many music videos were so similar to our idea we decided to slightly change the idea from a dopey superhero, to represent the child in every adult and the day in the life of one of those extremely childish adults. The music video follows our superhero around for the day, making children smile and enjoying his own childish nature. We feel this type of narrative fits well with the song as the song is an upbeat, vibrant and fun song, while at the same time the lyrics apply to our main character quite well for example 'I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed', referring to the dim-wittedness of our playful character. Also we decided to use one singer instead of a full band as we realised that most of the bands we were trying to represent were bands that just used multiple singers, we didn't like the idea of having a band, and selling multiple people so we decided to stick with selling one singer. 

Location: Studio

For the performance parts of the music video we wanted to convey our artist in a light-hearted way. We want the audience to have a good first impression of Connor James so therefore we stripped back the set and left it with just a black curtain and our artist. This idea came from researching other artists like Ed Sheeran who, in his music videos, portrays an organic image, he is a well loved performer who is obviously passionate about his music, we wanted the same ideas to be portrayed while watching Connor James. Connor is a synthetic artist, we want his personality to shine through in the music video so the audience can connect with him as a person as well as respect him as a performer. 

Filming Day 2

On our second day of shooting we focused on the close-up shots of our main actor singing in the performance element of our music video. We only filmed close-ups on this occasion in order to be able to flesh out our video and ensure we had the widest variety of different angles to make the best music video possible.

Close-up shooting is a convention of the genre we are producing. It also has parallels with the synthetic nature of our boy band. In a lot of music videos by real bands in the genre there are many examples of close-ups notably One Direction, SmashMouth and Union J. The close-ups are used to show off the good looks of the artists/bands i.e. their star image.  The  artists often look directly into the camera to connect to the audience.This engages the audience to see the expressions on the face of the musicians as they are performing. Synthetic bands are normally sold on looks and merchandise and release songs based on current trends in the music industry. A convention in synthetic artists videos are  close-ups on faces and image. This contrasts to more organic bands such as Alt-J and Mumford and sons whose music videos include close-ups of instruments and other musical devices as they are being sold on the 'realness' of their music.


A great point of primarily filming our lead separately to the rest of the band was we were able to make  our actor feel at ease in front of the camera and break him in easily as this was his first time filming.

An element we struggled with while filming was the lighting of the room. We had to constantly make sure we adjusted the white balance every time we changed the lights. Secondly the changing lights caused the camera to become unfocused on a number of occasions. We only realised this in playback during the day so we realised we had to re-filmcertain shots. Luckily we noticed while we were still in the studio otherwise we would have to book the recording equipment out for another day which may jeopardise our filming schedule.

Filming day 1

From producing our filming time schedule sheet, we began to film our music video on Saturday the 29th of November. We had decided that it would be best to focus on just the narrative element of the music video on this day in order so that we could focus on each element separately to ensure we produced the best possible shots. The other reason for doing this was to make sure that our actors and helpers were not wasting their kindly donated time by standing around aimlessly, and becoming de-motivated.

On the first day (Saturday 29th) we focused heavily on the narrative element ‘ a day in the life of an average superhero. In this section it is pure acting and no singing of miming. We had checked the weather prior to filming and were happy to see good weather all day in London, specifically the South Bank area. We met at my house at 10am as I live the closest to a train station that has direct routes into London. Before we left we all checked the shooting schedule one last time to ensure we all knew where we needed to be at what times. As part of our video features the tube, our protagonist had to get into costume and be in character for the whole journey.  

We started filming in Bakers Street station before moving on towards Waterloo station. From here we went straight to the London eye and the surrounding Jubilee gardens where we filmed a variety of shots whilst intermingling with the general public. From here we began our walk down the south bank climaxing at the millennium bridge. All the way down we were filming our character and how he interacted with the people around him. We filmed in some very cool locations such as the skate park and outside the BFI.

 

In order to get enough footage, we filmed Harry (our male lead),throughout the whole day, from many different angles: straight on (mid, close ups and extreme close up), from above and below, over the shoulder etc). By doing this it gave us a wide range of footage to play around with and use when we came to edit our project. As well as giving us a variety of creative shots to consider, it also meant that if any shots were not suitable (out of time lip syncing, objects in shots, marks on the camera lens) we had enough footage of each shot so we could ensure that at least one of the shots was usable when editing.

 

We shared duties throughout the day and tried to rotate and be fair when allocating. The main jobs we divided out where of course filming, along with lighting, lighting aids (reflectors, filters) and 'water control', which meant keeping equipment dry, as well as the actor and lens of the camera so that the footage was not ruined with unwanted rain marks on the lens.

On the day we decided to shoot at Waterloo bridge instead of the Millenium bridge due to time constraints and the crew feeling tired from a long day of walking around London. Using a wide angle lens on our GoPro we were able to capture the full bridge to the same standard if not better than we would at Millenium bridge. This enabled to achieve a higher clarity of shot and a wider vista of London.

Furthermore, we had to use a lot of  close-ups especially while tracking our hero as he navigated the streets of London. We had to do this because if we were stationary and far away from the action, the crowd tended to swallow him up and he disappeared from many of the shots. The close-ups allowed us to be up close and personal with the character . This element of the narrative has parallels with the genre we are trying to recreate. In the pop-punk/pop-rock genre the narrative is often about telling a story and bonding with characters, I believe through using  our camera shots  it has allowed us to portray this to an industry standard level.

Audience Feedback

Timeline of Shots

This is the timeline of the music video depicting both the narrative and performance elements of the storyline. It briefly describes the length of each scene, the shot type and what will be occurring. Having the seconds of each scene lasts for will help us when we need to cut to the beat during the editing process editing.  Secondly this will also help massively when we shoot, as we will know the duration of each scene, what position the camera needs to be and what shot type will be required. We will take the timeline both when we shoot and also when we edit in the hope that it will simplify the processes. Doing a timeline of events is very helpful as it shows our clearly thought out preparation and planning.

Shooting Schedule

Timing		Props/No props
DAY 1: 12pm-12.45pm:	Filming the scenes in the bedroom of the house, (the superhero getting dressed)	·         Superhero costume, toothbrush (for the brushing teeth during getting ready).
2pm-3.30pm:	Walking down street, walking grandma across the road and filming on the bus	A bag for the grandma to hit the superhero with
DAY 2: 1pm-1.30pm:	Filming on the go-pro, skateboarding.	·     Skateboard and go-pro
2.30pm-2.45pm:	Climbing up a ‘wall’
3.00pm-3.30pm	*TEA BREAK*
3.30-4.00pm	Girl falling off a bike scene and hero helping- in road.	·     A bike, and a girl.

Cover idea

This is my first idea of an album cover for our band. The image is a laid out version of the whole cover to show the back page and the front page. The back would be water because our band's name is 'Lazy Sharks' so I also would have out logo of a shark on the back too. Also the songs and other information such as sponsors would be mentioned on the back in writing. The front background is black with half the face of the superhero we are going to use in our music video, I would use an image taken by us instead of a google image. The front would have the name of our band and the album name in contrasting colours to the black, in the cover the water fades to black for a mysterious look. I stopped making this cover because I felt that it was too dark a cover for a band like 'Lazy Sharks'. They are a young boy band playing pop music to a demographic of teenage girls who I feel would not appreciate a cover like this. 

Evaluation of Our Animatic

Animatic

Our Perfect Audience Member

Kim is a teenage girl who loves music and mainly boy bands. She is a great example of a person from our main demographic. She makes fan pages on Facebook and Twitter for boy bands like One Direction and has many followers. She really gets into her bands and loves going to their concerts and trying to meet them. She likes bands such as Union J, The wanted, The Vamps, One direction, Little Mix. She would definitely come to see our band in concert and would their merchandise.

Camera

As a group we have decided to use a GoPro to shoot a lot of our footage due to its incredible versatility. However as well as this we will be using a DSLR camera from Costco in order to get multiple shots. We have decided on this as its a small camera so versatile and easy to transport through town. We will be using this instead of the school video cameras as we have decided that they are too large to use around town and will become too much of a hassle to transport.  

Canon EOS 100D DSLR Camera with 18-55mm DC III Lens Specification:

Lens: 18-55mm DC III

Screen Size: 3 inch
Weight: 407g
Brand: Canon
Motion Recording: Yes
Digital Zoom: n/a
Optical Zoom: n/a
Mega Pixels: 18MP
Memory Card Capability: SD, SDHC and SDXC (USH-I)

Costco Camera

School Cameras 

Our GoPro Camera

Other album covers

From the album cover 'beautiful freak' by the band 'eels' we can see that the band are selling the name of their band more than the album itself and more than the image of the band. We can tell this initially because the band's name is in a lot bigger and more colourful font compared to the name of the album, also the cover is very plain, white and simple, there is no image of the band on the cover and more of creepy image of a girls face that has been distorted. From this album cover I can deduce that the band 'Eels' are not similar to our band 'Lazy sharks' and therefore we shall not make our album cover similar to this. Our band has opposite traits when it comes to the music, as our band is targeting teenage girls and they produce pop music. It is obvious that 'Eels' are not targeting teenage girls and the plainness of the cover is the opposite to the striking cover most pop groups have as they are more colourful to attract attention.

One direction's album cover for 'Up all night' is extremely different to 'Eels' cover and a completely different type of band. This album cover represents a classic boy band cover for pop music. The cover is obviously trying to sell the image of the boys and the name of the band, opposed to the name of the album. The fun, colourful and adventurous image of the boys on the front of the album allows teenage girls to get excited over the band themselves and tries to sell the personality of the boys as well as their image. The band are synthetic artists who were formed a reality TV show, they have a huge following of fans. The demographic of their audience is teenage girls. This band is very similar to our band so we will take into consideration what they have chosen to do to sell copies.

This is an album cover for 'Is it me' by 'The Kooks', from the cover we can deduce that the band are not selling their image because although we are able to see their silhouettes we can not actually see their image of faces, we can assume they are an organic band. This colours in the cover are very contrasting to the text which is in bold. The colours are quite dull with black and grey tones, this would not appeal to our main demographic of young girls and would mean the band probably do not produce pop music.

Website Analysis

'The vamps' are a similar band to our band, 'Lazy sharks'. The website is filled with pictures of the band, the photos are extremely vibrant in colour and the use of a fun fonts brings the website its own personality. This makes us able to understand that they are a synthetic artist. The colours and fonts are appealing to teenage girls as they are bright, the home page uses a social media sort of layout which is appealing too.

The merchandise for the band is all around the £20 mark.

'The Vamps' are a pop band.

The website has many connections to social media, for example their is a live twitter feed on the website so fans can keep up to date with what the bands are tweeting. Also there is a link to their instagram. There are many youtube videos playing on the website too.

Target Audience

My Digipack Ideas

Initially my main idea is to use a simple two fold digipack cover, not too complicated and easy to use. I would put simple pictures on the front and back covers of something to do with superheroes for example a mask and a cape. The design will not be over complicated. The background will have a black fade. The inside of the digipack will be two pictures of the band in something like a warehouse with their instruments. On the front underneath the images will be the band's name: Lazy Sharks.

 This is an example of what I will have on the front of the cover, probably just the eye slits.

 The cape in this image is similar to what i would want to use on the back cover.









This is also a similar idea to what I want to put on the cover.

GoPro in London

This video inspired us with lots of ideas for a wide range of camera angles shots that we can us with our Go Pro camera and cannon cameras while we film our music video around London.

A few examples of shots we are planning to use are as follows. At the beginning of this video the Go Pro lays on the floor of the train station and watches the train pass by in the station. We believe these two shots would be good to use in our music video as in will give a good view of our superhero and a wide view to see everything going on in the train station.

The Go Pro is also left to record around London as it pans across many sites. We would like to use this having our superhero standing still throughout the centre of the frame, while the footage is sped up as seen in the video above. We believe this will look good and go with certain parts of our music video.

We have also chosen to incorporate a Go Pro camera due to its versatility and ease of good quality shots.

Similar Video

We recently found this music video of '5 Seconds of Summer' for their song 'Don't Stop'. It was created in May 2014. Watching it now we see a large similarity to it in our music video idea which is quite unfortunate and makes our idea seem quite unoriginal. The scenes where the boys are dressing in their superhero costumes is very similar to the shots we have already agreed on and decided to do. We also had a similar idea of having an old lady being helped across a road when she actually doesn't need help. Having found this music video we have to try and make sure that we don't make ours too similar to theirs. Although there are overall differences in the sense that these superheroes are achieving their goals by the end of it, whereas our superhero will be a failure throughout the whole video.

Another Location

We are planning on filming the majority of our music video along the Thames at Southbank. We like the idea of capturing real responses to our actor wearing a superhero outfit in public so Southbank is perfect as lots of people will be there, especially tourists. But at the same time Southbank is filled with people wearing weird outfits and performing shows so he will also be able to fit in.

We also want to use the skate park in southbank in scenes to emphasise the failure of our 'Superhero'.

Music Video Tips

Our teacher gave us some useful tips on how to make a successful music video:

• The essential idea of what we are doing is manufacturing a band or a song, and this will be that bands first release, and it is our job to make the video successful.
• we will start with the image of the band, ensuring that their style is fit or the style of the song and that they know how to play the instruments required so they can realistically mime the track.
• The band we are creating obviously has no fan base, so it is up to us to get them out their via various marketing techniques and digipacks.
• The best type of music video contains three different narrative strands, a performance element which the label think is vital as it act as a fail save. A lip sync element, just simply singing in a situation with very few props. Lastly, a narrative element, the story, which will be led by genre and style. The music video will then consist of constant cutting between these narrative strands, this keeps the video exciting and interesting.
• we were advised to make a 'mood film' or prezi, this involves a set of images or a simple video to create a short film to demonstrate the ideas for the final product. This helps clarify the idea, and helps identify potential problems.

Evaluating Our Storyboard

The storyboard was extremely difficult to do, mainly because the group were quite indecisive about a lot of the scenes we wanted. We wanted to make sure that the storyboard was accurate to make the next steps as easy for ourselves as possible, for example making the animatic would be very difficult to construct with a messy storyboard and could easily confuse us when trying to edit it. Also we will be using the storyboard on the day of filming to make sure we have all the shots we want, so have a scruffy and inaccurate storyboard what complicate the already stressful day.

It took a long time to produce our final storyboard as we had to scrap a couple other storyboards when we changed our minds, each drawing had to make sense and and we need to relate it to the timing and what was being sung at that time.

VAL

What is a VAL?

VALS ("Values, Attitudes And Lifestyles") is a named research methodology used for psychographic market segmentation. Market segmentation is designed to guide companies in tailoring their products and services in order to appeal to the people most likely to purchase them. (source  Wikipedia)

This is some research I have conducted into the demographic breakdown of 3 films based around failed superheroes as this is the main recurring theme throughout our video

 As you can see, I have learnt that the main demo graph for these films have been young adults between the ages of 18-29. We aim to appeal to the lower age of this spectrum for both males and females.

I can use VAL's to further describe who would be classed as our 'ideal target audience member. For example, they may read comic books, be out going people, not afraid of danger and confident people

Val's are about profiling your audience we have learnt that our target audience enjoy watching films about failed superheroes. Therefore.Therefore our music video will incorporate this narrative element to appeal to our target audience. We also watched films like a clockwork orange so we have used an inter textual reference in a tunnel but we will change it to make our character the hero.

Genre – by having a superhero element we will appeal to the same target audience as bands like Weezer (buddy holly) and Fountains of Wayne (Stacys mum) who appeal to ages 15+. Both these bands have a pop-punk sound that is different to classic synthetic artists such as McFly/Busted. We therefore thought that by creating a intertextual reference to a classic film we will distance ourselves from synthetic bands as above and move towards the organic end of the spectrum.

Star image

Our star image is based around a fun organic act but with some synthetic elements. The failed element suggests they are a more organic artist. They have grown naturally and have had time to develop. As seen through films above who use indie music to signify that the protagonists start out as losers and unlucky in love. Start nerdy and end up cool. The failed superhero so indicative of Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim will appeal to indie fans who like that nerdy aesthetic.