Our New Story board for the new narrative

Change in Narrative

Due to audience feedback, as well as our teachers advice about our current position in filming and editing, we have decided that our narrative wasn't working as well as we would like it to have. The overall narrative isn't a clear representation of the lyrics and doesn't truly show what we would like. We feel that the narrative is making our video slack, with several re shoots, little has improved with quality and ideas progression which has resulted in a poor narrative. As a group we thought it would be appropriate to amend the entire narrative. With help from our teachers across a few subjects, we came to the decision that the new narrative would be about a middle aged woman who is reminiscing her childhood by going to a school reunion. We thought that this would subtly link with a majority of the lyrics. She is now grown up and is less fruitful than her younger self in the 80s. By using this new narrative, re shooting it will be very easy as are planning on shooting inside our house, with our mum being the protagonist. This is beneficial as the narrative is actually understandable, structured and realistically coincide with the lyrics. The different location also provides opportunity for several different shot angles, lengths and movements. We also feel that by having the new narrative, we will be more motivated to film and get it correct. With our previous narrative it felt sluggish and tedious. I also feel that there would have been a certain unfairness when it come down to the 50:50 split of performance and narrative.

As time is running out, it is vital we film over the christmas break, if we fail to do this, the whole thing could potentially be ruined as we simply don't have enough time to film the whole narrative after Christmas. 

BBC camera

Today a team of two came into our media lesson and spoke about a project they're doing at our school, with the BBC. They're making a documentary about how a group of 6 schools all run by the same system in the local area of Bristol are coping with funding, SEN, facilities and how the children's behavior is being effected by the aspects of education and money within the system. Hugo and Chloe (Assistant Producer and Producer/Director) of the team produced about a 40 minuet presentation about the camera they use, the way the team run and how they pick up sound in various ways. The presentation was very insightful as they didn't just praise the camera, they spoke about it's weak points, as well as how they pick the appropriate way of recording voice in the real world depending on the situation. Chloe suggested the idea that filming in a school has a very "at the right plase at the right time feel" suggesting that as a school day is not scripted, anything can happen. She then described the camera as this was important in the way she could move freely around while recording but also safely etc. not tripping over loose ends and wires. Chloe allowed us to wear the rig, it was surprisingly comfortable and the mount a=was rested on your shoulder and your right arm would hold a outstretched handle. The handle had all the buttons you needed to operate the camera. Record, zoom in zoom out and focus. It was perfect for interviews and capturing a lunchtime at the cantine for example. Hugo was effectively the soundman. He carried round a boomstick, it was smaller than i expected it to be and was extremely light. He explained the correct position to hold the stick while capturing sound in order to capture everything. He also explained how over the years, he has learnt all types of camera lenses and he can judge how close he needs to stand to the action but to be out of shot. Chloe further explained the cost of the camera. The Sony Fs7 MK1 costs £7000 just for the camera and the lens show was carrying that day was over £400. The camera is so expensive because it can film in 4K. The tripod costs £500 or more and the boomstick with all the portable microphones were a further £500. The comparison between quality was sublime. We use £200 cameras and they have a camera which could be used in a blockbuster film. The camera's wealth was mentioned when they said it has a built in sunglasses screen which can darken the shot if it's too bright. Overall, my understanding of further opportunities after 6th form and education has increased. It's motivated me to work harder as i'd love to work in the film industry at some point.

Film Day 26/11/17)

Today, we filmed the who performance side of the project. We were filming at Pirate Studios in Bristol. We had ordered in advance and it came to a total sum of £30, so £10 each. This was very cheap for what we got when we had arrived. Our peers also went here and they came back with information about the place in general. They said that they had a very small room which made it difficult to obtain key angles and movement. We thought this would be an obvious problem as we wanted to go round the back of the drummer and singer. However when we arrived, it was very spacious and cosy. We did have difficulty going behind the drummer but we used spontaneous ideas to counter the problem. For example we took some shots stood upon the sofa which gave us the concept of height, this further developed the layers of the project and makes for unique clips. The lighting was somewhat an issue as we found it particularly dull, even with the lights maxed out. The lights were like mini spotlights as apposed to one big light. This led to the outcome of a grainy video. However we claimed that it fits with the genre and for example "Chelsea Dagger" has this grainy effect. We had booked the studio for 6pm-9pm on the Sunday and the problem was that 2 of us in our group had football in the day which meant we had to trust the actors to make their own way to the studio. We paid them for the bus and they made it on time, likewise. The filming went very smoothly using a shotlist we had prepared as well as the story board. Both Josh and Pete, singer and drummer where very serious in doing it. Pete, who has been playing drums for the past 8 years was exceptional and without him the who thing would have looked extremely poor. Both boys are actors so they were not shy in-front of the camera. It was also very generous of them to give up the Sunday evening when both of them are doing their own Alevels. The last bus out of Bristol on a Sunday is at 9:30 and it's about a 30 minuet walk from bus depot to the studio. We were very careful of this and allowed Josh and Pete to leave 15 minuets early so it would ensure they have enough time to get home. When they left, we tided everything in the room up and made it look the same as when we arrived.

Film Diary (25/11/17) After

Today we filmed the majority of our narrative. The filming went decently well but some of the footage and acting suffered, consequently from the cold weather.

Initially, we went to the Mundy playing fields, our local park, there were several implications with filming that altered our filming. We required certain shots, as part of our main sequence, that required equipment that was not accessible to us. we required 4 bikes in order to capture some tracking shots, however, my brother and I left them at our old house, we both don't have keys to that house. We experienced further implications, due to the weather. It was foretasted to be sunny with slight cloud, when in fact, it was heavy cloud with small pockets of light rain. This delayed filming as we couldn't afford the camera to get damaged with water. This had further implications as the sky got darker resulting in several continuity errors. It also got a lot colder, therefore the actors were getting fed up and just wanted to go as fast as they could. The coldness also affected the battery life, as the camera wasn't ours or used for filming by the owner, she didn't know how long it would last at room temperatures, let alone in 4 degrees. The other huge drawback was the amount of light we had. As we started in the afternoon (2pm) we planned to have been out for 2 hours max. The weather forecast had said it would be sunny with clouds. However it wasn't sunny and the rain delayed us. The filming too until around 5pm. 

The actors didn't mess around, due to how cold it was, they just did what they had to do and not mess around. This allowed us to capture things from different angles and experiment a little. After we got into the filming, it went relatively smooth and efficiently and we captured exactly what we wanted. Now we can review the footage in the editing suite and focus on any parts worth re filming.

Film Day (25/11/17)

Today we are planning to film the remaining aspects of the narrative. This is the core of the narrative and therefore we will be needing to film 2-3 different scenarios today, hopefully it takes about 2 hours as we know exactly what to film. Todays weather forecast is predicting very low temperatures, around 1-4 degree Celsius, however it's sunny/overcast. The scenes are all outside so wearing appropriate clothing. Also, we need the weather to be different from the starting scene and the pyro scene as we want the continuity to be the same because it would make the video unrealistic because not all the memories he thinks of are on the same day.
By the end of filming today, we hope to have achieved a successful days filming, completing all of the required scenes. The first scene will hopefully be at the Mundy playing fields, our local park, the protagonist meeting with his friends, hanging about talking. The social attraction is crucial as it illustrates a healthy social life, which now is rare in the protagonists life. The second scene we hope to film in a forest with a small fire, this however, maybe tricky to film and set up due to recent rain and damp conditions, meaning the wood is wet. Our final scene we aim to film is spray painting an abandoned wall. This again shows social life and more of the "crime"

Digipak Improvements

After conducting audience research,  am going to change the U in "run." The 6 people i asked have said that the line on top of the U could easily mistaken for possibly an O. Therefore i am going to alter this and disconnect the line, hopefully making it visible and legible as a U.

Thanks to my audience feed back, i am much more happier with how my font is looking, i may also further add to this. When i know my overall theme for my digipak, i may include the theme to my font.

Film Diary (22/11/17)

Our second day of Filming commenced on the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd November at our chosen location which was a farm. The weather was crucial for the filming and unfortunately it was the weather we didn't want. It was extremely windy and overcast. As we needed footage, we were obliged to film, altering our storyboard as a sacrifice. We got to the location and knew that we were going to change the storyboard. This made us behind schedule and as we had limited visibility due to filming in winter, we were very tight for time. However, we got the new idea fairly fast and went from there, our friend who owns the farm was very accepting of his time and land and allowed us to film for however long we needed. Our actor was quite hard to work with as he would laugh in shots and this made re filming parts a common practice. Me and Tom both operated the camera as we both had our own visions for angles and movements, this allowed us to leave with several shots meaning editing will be easier. The one major problem was down the the wind and fact we were using a pyro. We had never used one before filming so it was all new to us, we thought that the pyro was going to last only several seconds and therefore we only got one shot with the pyro. I believe that this is worth re shooting as the potential for different angles is huge. The pyro lasted at lease one minuet, if we re shoot, we would be able to capture more engaging footage. Due to the wind, the pyro didn't really have full effect as it was just blowing everywhere. We borrowed a camera from a good friend, the camera quality was far better than using a phone and therefore made the production look far more professional. Overall it was a good day filming, however i expect us to go and re film major parts again to use certain equipment to its full potential.

Film Diary (18/11/17)

On Saturday 18th November 2017, we did our first section of filming for our re make of Fluorescent Adolescent. The initial shoot was only for the first 26 secoends of the song and then the last 10 seconds or so. This was done with relative pace as our shot list and story board aided us throughout filming.

There were several positives to take away from the days filming. As it was our first day recording we didn't know exactly how it was going to work out 100%, however through strong directing from all 3 of us, our actor seemed very confident and sure what he was expected to do. Our actor was Tom's dad and he didn't mess up once, he was very serious in allowing us to capture what we needed in a very efficient time. Our actor also had a car which was very helpful as none of us had one as back up. The weather was also perfect for filming the particular scene as it was very dark and during filming, it even started to rain, this coincided with the mood of our character, this worked very well. The only drawback of the rain was that we did need to film certain parts outside, as the equipment wasn't ours, we didn't want to damage the camera as it would cost us to repair it. Luckily not many shots required us to be outside, as many of the shots were inside the car. However the car shots were very tricky and fiddly to do as we were in a confined space. We used this to our advantage however as we thought of more ways to use camera movement and angles as we were limited to what we had. Therefore, we left the filming with more angles and scenes than we expected, this will benefit us as we have more content to work with during the editing process.

However, there was going to be a few aspects to improve. For instance, we tried to drive as little as possible and consequently, we recorded on an extremely bumpy road, leading to shaky and relentless filming, however we can use this as a metaphor to back up the fact that his life isn't smooth sailing and it's perhaps not as lively or easy as it used to be. An easy method around this is using a stablizer for the camera. This would have smoothed the bumps and made it less harsh. Although it was bumpy i think it will work when we come to edit. This was really the only downside of the filming we did, and as a first attempt i though we did very well, i expect us to do a re shoot on this part, further into the construction phase as our narrative may alter from whats shown on the story board or that the shots were too shaky to be used. All in all it worked well and there was no conflict between us 3 producers as we used the story board and sot list to its maximum advantage.

Task 24 :Photoshoot planning

 Panel 1

 Panel 4

 Panel 2

 Panel 3

Panel 5

Equipment to film

Instead of using an Iphone camera, we have asked amongst our friendship group if anybody is willing to lend us a camera that we can respectively take our digipak photos and film or video on. Our good friend Emma said we could borrow hers for as long as possible. This is great news as it allows us to be further prepared for our filming tasks. The quality is far superior than the Iphone and fits our needs perfectly. The camera she's lending us is a Nikon D3300. After doing some background research on this particular camera i found out that it's around £300. Therefore we do not want to break or damage any part of the camera, however, if we do then we will split the cost and buy Emma a new camera or pay for repairs. The camera has many basic features you'd expect on any camera. The camera provides zoom, in and out, manual focus which is important as the auto focus ussually focuses on the wrong part of the set. Auto focus is also particularly unreliable when filming movement as it has a tendency to completely go out of focus. The camera also has one really annoying feautre to save battery. It turns itself off, this is a huge drawback as it makes preparing the shot lengthy. For example we'd have the camera focused and then it cuts out. it just makes filming very tedious and frustrating. One thing i really liked about our camera is that it came with a strap. Not only did this allow for easy transportation, it will also allow for off tripod shots.

We will also inquire our media teacher about use of a tripod. The tripod will enable us to create perfectly still shots where needed. This gives the whole video a sense of professionalism as it's not just shaking across the screen. Using both camera and tripod, we hope to capture all the needed shots without messing up the use of the camera. We are grateful that we are able to use both parts of equipment at our disposal 

Task 23 : Branding

Here are my Fonts that i considered and the one i finally chose to use in my final piece. I picked from several similar looking fonts as they look like common fonts in my particular genre. Some of them i liked due to originality such as Flower Kingdom, it also gives it a fun aspect as the font doesn't look serious at all. Heavy Heap just wasn't what i wanted as it looks dated and looks as if it would fit into a different genre, maybe something like indie pop. In the end i decided to use Market Deco as it had the cleanest and simple design of the ones i liked. Its simplicity and casual look allows for a appropriate font which will coincide nicely with my designated genre and idea. 

My Font

I decided that this font alone was too simple and doesn't really have anything unique about it. From doing research on the indie rock genre i found that many bands have very simplistic fonts that suit the album cover and their specific style. On photoshop, i decided to play around with the tools allocated on the software to try and alter the original text. I came across a smudge tool which smudges specific areas of the text, by your choosing. after spending some time using the tool on other text pieces, i finally altered my text. To start with, it wasn't perfect and i didn't know exactly how much smudging i should do, I did a reasonable amount and then asked some peers their opinion on my creation. The feedback overall was good as most of it was constructive criticism, which i expected as it was my first ever time using Photoshop. The majority of the criticism was that the line above the U could be mistaken for an O. Personally i didn't see the resemblance but enough people mentioned it to make the U an issue. I decided instead of editing the U, i would just completely cut it from the text. After doing this i realized that my audience research was in fact correct and i'm glad i carried the task out.

I also smudged other characters to make it more of the theme for the text. This also led me to think of an overall theme for the digipak also. I googled smudge png and found many designed that i could possibly use for my album covers and panels. This gives the whole piece some kind of texture as aposed to just simple edits with lighting and colour. It builds layers onto the picture which enhances my knowledge of the software.  

Task 22 : Ancillary Planning

For my digipak i am going to have Josh and Pete along with some of the instrument, amps and landscape esq pictures. My front pannel will be the same picture as the poster which is common in today's music world. As of yet i don't have a set idea for every panel as i'm stil not sure exactly what i want. These will be brief descriptions of what i want at the moment
 I will have a lower angle shot of Pete holding 2 drum sticks and Josh looking at the camera. I believe that a simple front panel with both band members on it would be the most sensible idea as they're the musical creators. It's also important to have them centered as they are the most important. I will have " The Run Ups" running across the bottom along with the albums name.

Panel 2 will consist of a drum set. I don't want to use Josh and Pete in all of them as it will become tedious and unrealistic. The drum kit will be from the studio and so will the majority of the other photos as the studio looks professional.

I'd like panel 3 to have the silhouette of Josh surrounded with lyrics from Fluorescent Adolescent as this could look very creative and unique if pulled off well. I'm thinking of using golds, blues and blacks to pull this off. However i don't know how effective it'll be as i'm a beginner on photoshop.

Panel 4 will be Josh and Pete sat against a wall, in the studio. Depending on space i'll have them both say on the floor and if not one will stand. I expect to edit these somewhat and so they will not look as boring as they sound.

Panel 5 will be an amp from the studio i hope to use. This will look decent as the majority of the pictures will have the same theme and as they're in the same location they should link.

The back panel i hope will be an arty shot of the micrphone stand or i was thinking in capturing something like a woods or a single tree with the track names below the branches and 5 on each side of the trunk. The back panel will have the typical conventions of a digipak. Barcode, record label, tracklist and social media stamps

I am planning on using yellow and black hazard tape to give it some bright colours, it also adds a level of DIY to the album. The binder will also have the album name and bands name.

Task 21 : Storyboard and Shotlist

THis is our storyboard and shot list and has effectively told us exactly what to film at our locations. The storybord allows us to film efficiently and smoothly, filming one scene to another without a waste of time, battery life and difficulty knowing what to do next. Filming with the storyboard was very important, using it as a guide to what we need to film, we took no longer than needed. However when we got to location, our minds changed about some shots. We removed the ones we felt were repetitive and introduced brand new ones from angles we didn't know we could do until arrival. The storyboard was equipment that was vital to us and without it, we'd have become very stuck and found ourselves wasting precious time.

The shot list was also very useful on our day of filming as it's much more detailed in everything but the picture we want. Personally i find a shot list more useful as it has all the key information you need for the specific shot such as actor, duration, actions and angle, but it doesn't show you what to film. I like having the freedom of deciding there and then of what i want as the real life location is simply better than the one in our heads. Overall, we used both storyboard and shot list in order to complete the day of filming. It will also make re filming easier as we can see where we messed up and how we can alter to to being our standards.

Task 20 : Actor and location Planning

This is who our actor is going to be portraying, Alex Turner. We feel that Josh Moore will be suitable for this task as we have worked with him before in a similar context. Last year we made an opening to a coming of age film. We casted Josh as we know he has excellent acting skills and is comfortable in front of the camera. We trust his experience and know that he will do his best on the day of the shoot. Alex Turner doesn't have any noticeable body language when he performs which is a huge advantage as Josh won't have the urge to copy Alex's style or body language. Josh and Alex will therefore be completely different characters and you won't even be able to tell he's trying to impersonate Alex. We had a few several other casting consideration which didn't work out. The other two who we had considered were really not comfortable in front of the camera and luckily they told us before we had booked the studio. We didn't want to force filming upon anybody who didn't want to be filmed as we were afraid it would be destructive when we were filming, they wouldn't have tried if they weren't comfortable enough.


We will also be filming the performance part within a recording studio as it will give the performance side a professional feel and look while we record. However, our friends who have filmed there before have informed us that it's more of a cube shape rather than rectangle. this will mean that we will have limited shots, both movement and angles, this could affect our final grade as variation of shots is needed to achieve top marks. The perks of us using a recording studio is that we have professional lighting, professional look , equipment such as drum kit, microphones and amps. this will make the performance aspect look structured and organized, instead of waslking through bristol or in a woods where the lighting is always different. We can also, if needed, refilm with the exacly same equipment so it won't lack in continuity

Task 19 : Fashion and Props planning

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/adamtanner110/narrative/

learning Comments

From using Pinterest, we were able to create a picture collage with props and costumes we'd ideally like to incorporate into our music video. The majority of the props and costumes are heavily associated with today's indie rock genre, we used this convention to look part of the genre. We feel like we'd be out of place if we tried to be so original as we don't know if it would work as well. The song also doesn't sound experimental so using typical clothes for the genre was sensible and appropriate. We have two sections of our music video that will be cross cutted throughout and therefore we will need a defined and obvious change in content. The studio and props will be the most distinctive feature of the content that changes as the clothing will be relatively similar. Overall, this task has aided my knowledge on what costumes we need to make a successful and relevant music video through the use of suitable costumes and props.

Task 18 : initial ideas

Our Pitch for Fluorescent Adolescent

This task allowed us to illustrate our ideas forward to the class, we also gained some much needed feedback from our peers which we will use to further develop and evolve our idea. On the whole our class  thought the song choice was right which was a really positive outcome. As people our age are the preferred target audience it was comforting knowing that they enjoy the song and know it. Of course Arctic Monkeys are well know in the indie rock. Also performing this pitch made us think about some of our own criticism, for example some parts of the narrative didn't seem particularly good when read aloud, by self assessing our own work, it allowed us to build on our strengths. Our narrative was picked up on as it wasn't clear how the idea of our take on todays youth culture was an accurate depiction of the songs lyrics. At this point, we don't have any further developed narratives and therefore we must carry through with this for the time being. At the end we asked if there were any questions, this was when the narrative was brought up and i'm glad it was. It has made us thing about it in more detail.