Narrative Shoot- Risk Assessment

We have now filmed our performance shoot meaning we now need to film our narrative shoot. We are filming in the same place as last time but it was still important for us to fill out a risk assessment sheet. As we are filming in school time and this is a school project. I was also useful for us to have a record of who needs to be there, where and when.

Production Meeting Agenda for Shoot 2

We have already filmed our performance shoot, we now need to film our narrative shoot. To do this we created a production meeting agenda to plan where we are going to film, who needs to be there and what we need to bring. Click on images to see full documents.

In this shoot, we are planning to film the narrative part of our music video. However, as our star image is involved in some of the narrative, Naffy is also going to be in some of our shots as well. We need to spend more time on this shoot as all 3 of our actors are going to be on set and need to be in full costume and makeup meaning this will take much more time giving us much more work to do. To help us with this, we created a list of who needs to be wearing what and who is responsible for bringing it. We going to be filming in the Underground Hospital as the majority of our narrative is based there. We are also going to be filming some of these parts outside. It has benefited our group to create a production meeting agenda as we have a space to refer back to when we need to know everything that needs to be brought and completed on the day of the shoot.

For the performance part of our music video included using our star image, we began planning and prepping for the shoot day with Naffy. We ensured everyone had brought all of the correct props, equipment, costumes and makeup that was needed and set off for our location of the Underground Hospital.

(Annabelle and Lois preparing our props for Naffy)

(Naffy in his full costume and makeup)

I believe over all our shoot went well, although we had a few issues. One of these being that we underestimated how long it would take us to set up our camera, lights and props, as well as the time it took us to decide and find a room in the under group hospital debating which would suit our theme best. We ended up spending only 2 hours in the underground hospital which wasn’t enough time as half of this time was devoted to just setting up our equipment and preparing our star image. Once we had figured out all of these points, we did manage to film some good shots of Naffy’s performance. His lip-syncing had improved greatly and his hair, makeup and costume looked fantastic and reflected our great use of MES.

while filming we used our visual shot list on meanwhile filming to remind ourselves of the type of shots and angles we wanted to use. We filmed these well and used a variety of these shots. I feel as though we could have experimented further with these shots and angles as well as suing the camera. We made sure to film all of our shots with the camera on the tripod and in the correct position to allow our lights to work efficiently and reflect nicely on our star images face as well as making sure the camera is steady.

This first shoot was to help us get a feel for our location and and to get to know how long the setting-up process takes. Next time we will…

• Ensure our two extra characters are already in full costume, hair and makeup before we get to the Underground Hospital. This will save us both time and money.
• How long we are in the under ground hospital for as we want to get all of our shots done, including all narrative and any extra performance shots in this session. Despite the money we will have to pay as it is £10 an hour, it will benefit us in the long run as we won’t have to worry about wasting our actors time.
• Lastly, we want to remember to use a wider variety of shots and angles when filming the second time around and expand our shot list.

It was important that we thought about what we want to film before going into our first performance shoot, such as what we need to bring, plan what we actually want to achieve on the day. We did this by completing a production meeting agenda as a group,

We are aiming to film the performance side of our music video as a first practice shoot. It will only include Naffy (our performer) in it for now and none of the narrative will be performed in this practice. He will be in full costume, with all of our props and his makeup will be applied throughout the performance, we can use these performance clips in our music video by editing them in when they are needed.

It was helpful to have a space to write down a list of all the props, costumes, makeup and equipment needed to bring on the day of the shoot. It has helped us become more organized as a team and get on top of our busy schedule. We now know what we need to bring, who needs to bring what and the time/locaton of our shoot.

For our first performance shoot coming up, it was necessary that we looked carefully through all the possible risks and danger we could come across. This being a school project everything had to be assessed thoroughly. We filled out the table below and our teacher checked through it before signing at the bottom. It was also helpful to write down the date, time and location of our shoot as well as who needs to be there/ what props are being used.

In order to get a better understanding of the musicians of our song choice, we created a moodboard filled with news articles, headlines, pictures of them and more. We created our moodboard on Canva,

Key Findings

• From information/headlines on Chase & Status’s website, we can see that they have upcoming tour dates which show that they are active within their career. They aren’t a forgotten band- they are relevant and present.
• Chase & Status use a variety of social media platforms to stay in contact with their audience and keep them informed. This shows that communication is important to them and that they are compassionate artists.
• Pictures we have found of them indicate that they are trendy and modern in the way that they dress. They clearly care about appearance and put thought into their representation in the media.
• We also found that they have repeated colour schemes and themes in the way they represent themselves. Dark colours are often used in their music videos, costumes and digipaks. They have created a brand for themselves and have stuck to it in all areas of their career.

Reflection

Richard Dyer has a theory that a star image needs to be both ordinary and extraordinary and from our research we can see that Chase & Status are successful at doing this. This is called the Paradox of the Star. They are extraordinary in the way that they keep up their busy lifestyle in the spotlight but ordinary in ways such as their clothing and they playful way they act around each other. It is clear to see that these 3 men are close friends and shows that they are only human.

Our reason behind doing this is to research the star image so we are able to see who they truly are and where their inspiration for music comes from. The atmosphere that Chase & Status create will be reflected in our music video. We want our star image to be seen through different emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness and defeat. This will be portrayed through body language, costume, props and facial expressions. Researching Chase and Status will also help us when it comes to creating our video as we have a strong idea of what their past representation and performances are like. We can understand their background, how they like their music portrayed and what they are like as people themselves.

Before we shoot our first performance we thought it was important to plan the type of shots we want to use and what we are actually aiming to film to make sure we get all the shots and angles we want. We did this by creating a visual shot list on Padlet,

This task helped us think about what specific shots we want to use and when we want to use them in our music video. A variety of shots is needed to make sure that our music video is up to a high standard and links well to our initial pitch. We are aiming to use all of these shots in our music video as well as a few more, by doing this we wanted to make sure we have enough ideas for shots and angles that would fit in with our music video.

We decided to get a variety of shots and angles by filming the same scenes multiple times, making our task easier when it comes to the editing process as we will always have clips to use and extra if we need them, therefore making the risk of having to refilm low. Lastly, it is vital we do these shots correctly by ensuring our camera is stable on the tripod, the lighting is correct and the camera is in focus.

Contacting the artist

Before we can even start making our music video, we need to have permission from the artist of our song to be able to use their song. This is due to copyright issues and it is always polite to ask. Holly in my group took on the role of this and messaged Chase & Status on Instagram to explain the situation and to ask for their permission.

This was an important task that Holly did as our group and I don’t want to encounter any copyright claims against our music video and it is the right thing to do. It is unlikely that they will reply to Holly’s message, but it was still an important part of this process that we asked.

Our Final Pitch:

Once me and my group had talked threw all our ideas, we started on our final pitch for our own music video, being a presentation of our final song choice, the mise en scene, our choice of star image and why, the narrative structure, the cast and why we chose them, the type of shots we will use to get the effects we want for our music video, as well as and our use of synthesis.

We did this to discuss our ideas as a group and create a final pitch together making sure everyone got a say in what they liked the idea of and what they could see us doing for our music video. We worked threw everyone’s individual ideas and discussed which would work best and which song would be best to use for this project. By the end of this discussion we can to a conclusion for our music video as our thoughts and ideas have been combined to then pitch for our teacher for another view on it.

Click on image to see full presentation

To make sure our ideas and plan was up to a certain standard me and my group arranged a meeting with out teacher to pitch our idea to her. This was to give us an opportunity to receive feedback on our ideas, it was also helpful for us to speak our pitch out loud so we feel comfortable and confident with this upcoming project.

Positives:

• We have strong, creative ideas for our MES, for example costumes, makeup, hair and props.
• Our narrative idea of Naffy being captured and day of the dead makeup being applied to him is a good idea and works well with the song choice and lyrics.
• We have created a good plan of narrative to performance for the star image with description to remind our self’s of what we intend.
• We have co,me up with a variety of shots we can use when filming. These will work well with our ideas and show off our wide selection of skills.
• Our idea of using paint powder as a way of showing Naffy’s transformation at the end will create a dramatic transformation and transition in the narrative.
• The costumes we will use for our cast and star image are unique and work well with the meaning behind the song as well as giving it some contrast between the characters.

Things to consider:

• To think carefully about the location of some of our music video, for example the dark room where Naffy is going to be tied up. Although we do have some choices for this but have not get settled on one.
• Lighting is another aspect we need to discus in our group as we know we want Naffy to be in a dark room but it still needs to be light enough in order for our filming to be high quality as well as being able to see all the small but important aspects, for example the make up.
• Costumes is another aspect that needs to be discussed, as these will cost money so we need to find out how we are going to spend the money equally as a team.
• The makeup we want to put on our cast needs to be practiced by all of us and we need to determine who can apply this the best. it is important that one of us is able to do this quickly and well to save time on the day, as well as making it look as good and professional as possible.
• We need to figure out a location where we can explode paint powder without it causing a big mess and a disruption to the surroundings.
• Lastly, we need to think carefully about a final conclusion for our narrative as our current idea of Naffy joining the bad side doesn’t quite fit as the song is about resilience.

KEY TERMS: Deconstruct, decode, analyse, success criteria, , , star image, .

For this task I took some opportunity to get a sense of what can be achieved by students and also understand the level of standards I should be aiming for in my music video, to do this I watched through a few students past music videos that I liked the look of, then chose my favorite, While watching this video I used my analyzing skills to pick out, mise en scene, editing, camera, as well as, editing to the beat, lip syncing.

Areas that I noticed in this music video that help to make a good music video:

• Technical conventions like lip syncing, editing to the beat, composition & framing have been used in many different ways in that music video, an example of this is that there is a variety of settings being used, meaning there is a mix of scenery, the swap between settings also match the beat making it look smooth. The lip syncing is also used well in this as not every word is being lip synced, it is also
  exaggerated meaning we can see the words she is saying but not to a point where it looks unrealistic.
• Narrative and performance ratio for example the type of narrative and story line that has been used works well with the lip syncing in a way that looks natural and not forced and the performance and setting looks natural, smooth and the representation of the setting matched the song choice.
• The star has been represented in this particular video as sweet, innocent with the contrast of also being powerful and this is shown using makeup and other aspects of mise en scene.
• This video has the video been styled, designed, filmed and edited in a way to convey that star image and promote the artist as a nice genuine person who’s is also innocent and kind.

How will this help my production work?

This will help me with my own music video in many ways some of these being, lip syncing as seeing how lip syncing is done in that particular music video has showed me how it is properly done and how exaggerated it should be to help it look realistic. Another way this music video will help me is seeing the amount of props used to pull this video together will inspire me to use all the props I can to make my video fit my theme.