Development: Rough Draft of Final Edit

Above, is one of the many drafts for our music video. This draft represents the half-way mark to completing our task; we had filled just over half of video's timeline with footage. Therefore, blank black screens are present to show us where we need to add more clips as well as the video featuring clips that we would later take out and replace.

Development: Unconventional Advertisements

I designed the following advertisements to enforce the fact that I was creating a brand throughout my ancillary task. However, I wanted to design some different advertisements in terms of style; I decided to design and construct two pre-release 'teaser' adverts for both the bands new single and album. I have used different fonts in these two advertisements than those planned in our groups 'style guide' as I wanted to experiment to see whether our motifs could be applied to different styles and genres of promotional advertisements.

 The idea of the above 'teaser' advert is the bands new single and it's accompanying music video; I have extracted the two themes of the music video and incorporated them into the design to give the audience an insight into what they can expect. I've used the video's stalking theme - the cutting-and ripping-up of pictures of the band - to present the advert's main image in a collection of overlapping squares that I felt bared a resemblance to cutting-up and layering pictures while the main image itself is one taken from the music video's band shots; drawing together both narratives of the music video into the advertisements construction and style. The unsettling nature of the stalking theme also inspired the sketchy 'the new video' font- a warning to the audience of the video's darker themes - accompanied by a bold (and conventional) release date. The minimal information ensures the audience is left with the important information; the band name and the single's release date. Although this advert was an experiment to see whether my advertisement campaign could stretch to unconventional and more unusual ways to promote, I did however include the conventional band logo and band-related image - both of which are two motifs of all our 'Paramore' advertisements.

Development: Applying Media Theories

We wanted to use our knowledge of certain media theories and incorporate them into our music video. We had developed the 'crazed-fan' narrative; when filming this footage we wanted to remain aware of 'Reception Theory' - the idea that our text would be open to interpretation amongst the audience. This meant our shots contributed to an abstract narrative - 'why is this character burning images of the band?; 'who is she?'; 'what is she capable of?'; these questions that our polysemic text was asking with the help of the camera and constructed mise-en-scene, were ways to engage and confront the audience.

Indeed, the fact this character was burning props, shown in dark lighting, and generally being portrayed as 'different', meant that we were following the generic conventions of Vladmir Propp's 'chracter functions'; the 'stalker' was being portrayed as an antagonist to the band - who were portrayed as having fun as well as being in a lighter and therefore brighter set; therefore the band was the protagonists in this abstract open-ended narrative.

Further, the fact that we had created these characters with their own respective 'character function's, helped enforce the abstract 'cycle of equilibrium' - the 'stalker' was disrupting the equilibrium by being menacing and a potential threat/mystery to the band.

Evidently, by using our knowledge of Media Theory, we were ensuring that we were
applying the conventions of a media text to our work, to help make an enjoyable music video for our target audience.

Production: The Editing Process

Throughout the project we have uploaded and edited footage on the 'Video Editing Machines' (above and below). Through its video-editing software, Adobe Premier Pro, the machine has allowed us not only to construct our final music video, but also many video blogs used to evaluate our ideas and current work.

The 'Premier Pro' programme allowed us to edit and manipulate our footage, such as adding layers to create overlaying translucent images; moving frames around to create splitscreens; add filters to create grainy and black & white footage; alter the timescale to speed up/slow down the footage to help with the synchronisation process or create slow-motion shots.

Development: Filming Band Shots

The following pictures give an understanding of how our 'band shots' were filmed.

Joanna (left) uses a hand-held HD camera to capture the band performing. This hand-held approach to filming allowed us to record footage that had a degree of movement attached to it - particularly effective against the backdrop of our fast-paced non-diagetic song choice, 'Misery Business'.

Pictured above is just some of the equipment we utilised in this filming session. We had learnt from previous sessions that ensuring we had all the equipment we needed when filming required a lot of planning; we had to borrow: musical equipment such the drum kit, lighting equipment from a Photography studio, and filming equipment form the school's Media department all on the same night so we had to ensure we planned ahead to make sure we weren't left without any essential aspects needed for filming.

To show the extent of what we needed to plan in order to ensure we had everything we needed for the filming session, is this outline of a checklist we constructed:

'Equipment Needed' List:

Music:

Drum Kit w/ sticks, stool

Guitar w/ amp, plectrum, strap, lead

Microphone w/ stand

iPod Dock w/ iPod containing 'Misery Business'

Media:

Camera w/ spare batteries, upload cable

Steadi-Cam

Tripod

Dolly

Tracking equipment

Photography:

Lighting equipment

Costumes:

Three conventional costumes of the Rock-Music genre

Make-up

A simple shot showing the 'band' setting up whilst Hannah and Joanna, the camera crew, direct them where to stand during filming to ensure effective shots.

Development: Filming the Narrative

As an essential aspect of the mise-en-scene, we used several props during filming; pictured above is the mannequin that we employed to enhance the 'weirdness' of the stalker character in our narrative - we cut from footage of our lead-singer to footage of the motionless mannequin to show the stalker was imagining the lead-singer that she was fascinated with - just from staring at a motionless object. To enforce the stalker's insanity, we added an effect found in the effects on Premier-Pro; this addition of unnatural effects during the editing process only added to the surreal nature of our narrative.

We gathered many props for our carefully constructed mise-en-scene, however some, such as the doll's head above, we decided against its inclusion in the video as it was agreed that it gave the video an element of the horror genre, a genre that we didn't think was conventional of the music video.

To ensure we recognised every aspect of the mise-en-scene, we made sure that the set/setting in which we were filming was housing the conventions that we wanted to be included in our video. As our narrative was concerning a stalker obsessed with the band 'Paramore', we used a garage that had simple, white walls. We then painted the band's name onto the wall in dark, brown paint, before printing of countless photo's of the band - taken from our photoshoots for the Digipack and Advertisement tasks - and plastered them to the walls. This instantly personalised the location; transforming a plain set into one that had several recognisable elements that featured motifs of the band - the band name and the band themselves.

Another picture of us constructing the set; the left wall shows the plain, white wall while the wall to the right shows how we have constructed the mise-en-scene - adding posters and paint to transform the set.

The above-picture shows the make-up for the narrative's actress; as yet another aspect of the mise-en-scene, the make-up was important in portraying certain characteristics to the audience. We opted for naturalistic make-up, with an emphasis on eye-liner; her hair had two different colours - this coupled with her costume of black-leather jacket and black skirt, we felt were conventional of the rock-music genre.

This final picture shows an example of the importance of lighting; the actress is lit from beneath using a lamp with it's shade narrowed to focus the light on the actresses face. This gave an eerie and unnatural lighting to the set, to enforce the weirdness of the character. Indeed, we used several different lighting techniques when filming, from flashing lights to candles - each carrying different atmospheres and emotions through their unique ways of lighting.

Planning: Band Shots - Location

Below, are potential locations for filming our band shots. From previous attempts at filming, we had learnt that the set/setting was an integral aspect of the mise-en-scene; our previous footage was ruined by poor set/setting choice - the drama studio and sports hall were deemed to unconventional for a band of the rock-music genre. We therefore decided to look at other locations that will represent this genre more effectively.

(Above and below) Boiler Room

(Above and below) Abandoned Garden