Cast for our music video

I should of uploaded this information up a while ago; it is our cast for our music video.

To the left is an email I sent to the girls me and Beccy chose to star in our music video. All of them are our close girlfriends so we knew that we could: trust and rely on them as well as work well with them.

We assigned each girl to a pin up girl which we believe they could portray; all of them seem happy with our decisions and look forward to participating.

What I like about our chosen girls is the diversity and variety we have such as: large, skinny, tall, short, ethnic, quirky, beautiful ect... This helps us target our audience as their a girl in the group which they could at least relate too.

Choosing the lead role seemed daunting as we had to think about who is: reliabel, natural performer understands the time involved and of course if they suit the style and voice of our chosen song.

Below are photographs of the girls who will starring in our music video, I have not been able to photograph the girls but I have got photographs off their Facebook which I believe reflects why we chose them as their certain Pin up girl.

The cast

Above is Abi Wilks who is going to be our LEADING LADY, she will: mime in the music video, feature in both the digipak and advert. I am happy with Abi as our choice, originally I wanted Fern to be our lead singer but as I am not confident that she is very reliable we have gone for Abi who will give a different approach to the character. Her appearance is: pretty, angelic, youthful, fresh etc... it maybe hard for her to act powerful but I am sure with practise she will be great.

Above is Sophi Gardener; she is portraying the GOSSIP GIRL. I want her to wear a towel so it appears she has just got out of the bath then she will use and old telephine prop to chat (gossip). I own a vintage phone; this inspired me to create this pin up girl. Sophie is perfect for this role as she has a beautiful smile which will translate great on camera;

especcailly if we choose to use close up shots.

Above is Beth Small she will portraying the: GOTHIC, SEDUCTIVE pin up girl. This photograph is self explanatory on why I chose her to play this particular pin

up girl. Beth is always a willing model for any art work I do and she is really looking forward to taking part in this music video task. I have been inspired by the burlesque dancer Dita Von Tease who is a modern twist on a pin up girl; I will dress Beth up in corsets and platform heels but being careful not to over sexualise her!

Chenelle is going to portray a GLAM/ DIVA pin up girl so she will be wearing: diamonds drinking champagne etc... She is a very pretty girl and I believe her appearance and personality will come across great on camera.

Above is Lucy (left) and Hannah; Lucy is playing the SAILOR pin up girl and Hannah is a POSH/ GLAM pin up girl. These two have great personalities and are the best people for these roles as they will require a lot of good acting up to the camera.


Below is Sophi Griffth she is the CANDY pin up girl. This is probably the funnest character to play; there will be many props in her scenes such as: sweets etc... Sophie does performing arts so I believe she will perform really well for the iconic pin up girl; many of the audience girls will want to pretend they are this character, as she is: feminine, girly, pretty, bubbly and angelic. Soph could possibly dance (ballet) as this would fun to the character and bring the video to life.

Above is Leanne Gelder who is going to portray a PICNIC pin up girl. She is perfect as she is: beautiful, intelligent, and sweet looking; this is everything the pin up girl should be! She is looking forward to the video production and loves the character we have assigned her.Once again this character requires several props such as; blanket, food, book etc... this creates more of a scenario for her and create a little get away which the audience could relate too.

Finally below is Fern, I wanted her to play the lead singer but as I am not sure she is completely reliable then this idea was scrapped. Instead Me and Beccy decided that she would be perfect for the MECHANIC pin up girl. She is very pretty and has a mature look to her, she loves the 'fake look' and this would really suit the character. This is also a great character and is essentially aimed at the male gaze, as mechanics and a hot girl is what the young male audience would want to see. When dressing her I will have to make sure she is not too sexualised as this can easily happen with this iconic pin up girl.

Digipak and advert up date

Beccy and I have organised a set time and date to work with Abi who is our leading lady (singer ). We're going to take photographs separately and then work on our print tasks individually. We're taking the photographs on Thursday the 9th of December. Hopefully I will capture all the shots that I need to create a digipak and an advert for my song which is suitable for my: genre, audience and continous theme.

To get quality photographs that are professional and interesting looking I am going to use the photographers studio at college. This will provide me space to work in to take photographs but also create the pefect and desired lighting. I will experiement with: lighting, the back drops and postion of Abi and the angles I chose to take the photographs from. I will also be using my Canon 15.1 mp digital SLR camera which I will set on portrait as this gives a soft tone to the photographs.

Creativity

What is creativity?

Quoted from Wikipedia: '"Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) which has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as "valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.'"

Creativity is a big issue in education and teaching at the moment as students are feeling less creative and this could be due to them worrying about making mistakes. We now live in a society where people focus on success and follow everything by book; never thinking out the box!





We watched this video clip above which is from Ken Robison's Are schools killing creativity? In summary from 4.44- 6.35 he talks about how children are not frightened to be wrong but being wrong does not mean your creative but if your not prepared to be wrong you will not come up with anything new and by the time your an adult you have lost the capacity of being wrong. He quotes '


"... we stigmatise mistakes and now we are running national educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make and the result is we are educating people out of their creative capacities!"'

Also from 13.00-14.00 Robison talks about the human intelligence and how women are better at multi- tasking but the purpose he talks about this is because it shows that we think differently: '"visually, sound, kinetically, abstract and movement... creativity comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things!"'


Picasso said: '"All children are born artists, but the problem to remain an artist as we grow up.'"





Above is a American video how to stimulate the creative process which I find fairly useful but to be honest; there is no real guide to being creative. They do make some good points I guess such as: sleep but you need more to stimulate your mind and going places to be inspired.

Being quite an artist person I have to creative at times, as I have to produce my own ideas for art pieces etc.. I can find this fairly difficult at times as sometimes I am just not inspired or in the mood to think creatively. Ways In I believe can make you more creative are:

• talk to people to bounce of ideas
• go places; be inspired by your surrounds
• research work that has already been produced
• take time to just think
• and most importantly trial and error

I believe everyone is creative just others maybe are more so. Some people (including me) think out of the box and create: quirky ideas whereas others are less subtle but yet still is just effective. I agree with both Picasso and Ken Robison that children are born artists but then are educated to be right always which then slows down peoples creativity as they are scared of getting things wrong.

Through out my project I will try and be creative but also no my limits, I will have to think about is my work is appropriate for my: genre, song, audience etc... I believe I will also inspire Beccy to think different and be more entropic with her ideas; she at first did not seem too keen on the pin up theme as she thought it would not go with our song but I persuaded her that the purpose of it was to be entropic.

Digipak research

Female digipaks and adverts

Hey Boy is of the pop/ dance genre so I have decided to research digipaks and adverts which fit with my genre and target audience, all of which are female singers. There are clear forms of codes and conventions associated with digipaks; often the front cover consists of a close up shot of the solo artist with a plain backdrop, this is so the audiences focus solely on the artist. This is so the audience can connect with the artist and become intrigued by their appearance and then hopefully will buy the digipak.

Katy Perry's Teenage dream digipak

is possibly the best example of a current one on the market today. Katy is a solo artist who is charismatic; this is reflected in the actuall digipak.

The album cover and California girl video were inspired by Will Cottons famous paintings of a world made out of candy and clouds made out of candy floss. This is apparent when you contrast Katy's photograph with a painting by Will Cotton (below.) This show creativity can be created when you are inspired by something or someone else's work. This cover works really well as it reflects the target audience and genre as it is: girly, pretty, fantasy and creative.


Katy has been sexulised on the front of the album cover but yet I believe it is done in a tasteful way as I see it as art but others may see it as unnecessary. This done primarily to widen the target audience by creating a male gaze, as the album is mainstream. A simple but captivating photograph is used of just the artist then illustrated font is used for the title of the album and details such as: featured songs and bar code are shown.The inside of the digipak is fun and quirky; it features Katy dressed in a different theme (queen) wearing elaborate costumes and props. There is a contrast of the girly front cover with the colours: pink and blue to the: bold black background in the inside;This mismatch of theme creates a playful tone to the CD (you do not know what to expect from this CD!) she appears to be all sweet and innocent but she can also be dark. The CD itself fits with the front cover theme of candy by it resemblimling a candy cane. This conveys that Katy is: young, 'sweet', fun and carefree. This attitude would appeal to the young girl audience as every girl loves: sweets, lolly pops etc...


Finally the back cover is simple; it continues with the clouds on the front cover. This is so it is not over complicated for the reader to see the songs on this album. The text is clear and fits with the rest of the theme; looks illustrated and reflects the actual CD with the colours of the candy cane.

I really like this digipak, I feel inspired by this by the: contrast, layout and simplicity. I do not think it reflects my genre too much, I think artists such as: Cherly Cole and Cascada which I will look further into.
Madonna

This didgipak is a great example of a continues theme throughout; here it is the lolly pop. I would argue that it similar to Katy Perry's candy theme but it different. This is a example of creativity, artists can be inspired by others but add a twist to the idea. Madonna is more of a dance genre; this is reflected by the photograph on the back cover. The costume, pose and attitude conveys this and the simple towel prop adds a final touch to the photograph .

Technology Skills Week

This week we have to identify and improve our technology skills then experiment creatively with different technology and hopefully step outside my comfort zone. I am fairly confident with: camera's, Photoshop and Premier pro as I have made a film in A2 film, this previous knowledge allows me to have a better understanding of the technology.

For our music video me and Beccy are going to have to be confident when using advanced editing skills and also various new technology and equipment. I have given myself three targets which I should meet by the end of the week, they are:

• Practise with Photoshop to create magazine layouts for the backgrounds for the clips then apply it to Premier Pro.


• Advanced green screen- learn and experiment the desired:background, lighting needed to create quality green screen.


• Do practise filming using green screen e.g. full body shot (including floor.) Then practise with Premier Pro to see what animated translations are available in this programme for our film e.g. split screen, wipe cut.
  

Examples of Pin up magazine fonts

These two print screens displayed are just a few of the many but I chose to display them as they and fairly different e.g. font.

When looking at examples on the internet I noticed that there seemed to be a running theme: bold, quirky, vibrant colurs and most inportanly

relates to the image being shown. I will add better examples in due course to compare how different or similar the titles cant be.

Choosing the: style and the colour to emphasise the word being displayed creates a thought provoking and visually striking contract of the cartoon text and the reality of the actress. Choosing an appropriate name for each individual magazine is also very important; I want each magazine cover reflect the character we are trying to portray e.g. if they are girly I would suggest using a swirly text to represent this impression.

I am going to use Microsoft word to create my own experiment titles for my music video. I thought that I would be easier if me and Beccy created backgrounds using Photoshop to then add in on Premiere Pro when we remove green screen to created more pin up/ pop art magazine layouts, as this will be very entropic and show how creative we are using the available soft we have.

My experiments using Microsoft word

Above are test titles and fonts for our music video. The theme of of our video is pin up so me and Beccy decided it would would look quirky if we created magazine titles and place them behind the girls in the video to create the look as though some of the girls are on the pin up magazines.

I have chosen different fonts and colours to reflect and emphasis the word displayed. Visually they all look striking but maybe I will have to come up with better titles? I will do this in the editing process, as I will then be able to visually see the colour code and font for each different character. I particularly like the SUGAR title as it looks like candy; both the text and font, this is a possible keeper!

For these examples I used the fonts:Baskerville Old Face, Bernard MT Condensed, Harlow Solid Italic and Broadway (very convenient for the theme of of video.)I will continue to create and experiment with different fonts and colour themes until am I satisfied.

Unfortunately I did not complete all three of my tasks due to faults with Premiere pro. However I did complete the second task; me and Beccy made our own green screen using green card and then experimented with the studio lights to create the desired effect. From our first practise we did we realised that the green screen must be lit up; I did this by positioning the lights to illuminate the who of the green screen evenly. When either me or Beccy stood in front of the green screen we had to make sure no shadows were casted on it; we did this by standing further away and strategically placed the lights so none were cast. I already had experience using these lights but Beccy did not so I taught her how to use them which I believe she now knows how to use them correctly. This practise has been a great experience for both of us as it will help us when we are producing our music; both of us know how to set up the equipment and we know how the environment should be lit when it comes to our practical work.

Once again we used the new HD digital camera to capture footage; we plan to use this for our actual music so getting familiar with it is essential because we do not want to worry about how to use when we are filming. This camera is great quality and will make our music video look music professional and polished; close up and extreme close up shot will be very effective, as we will be able to focus on the beautiful girls in the video. Being Light weight allows us to use hand held; we planning to do panning shots etc... and this is more possible with this camera. In comparison to the old tape cameras they allow us to create more advanced, desired effects. I am familiar with lenses this camera is not difficult to work with but of course me and Beccy will have to experiment with what the lenses do and which we want to use.

We filmed ourselves in front of our makeshift green screen doing various scenarios such as: weather report, lift and using a fan I pretended that I was in a windy, cold place. I suggested to Beccy that we should film our feet so we can see what happens to floor when we edit the green out on Premiere Pro; we did this. To replace the green screen I went outside to film the snowy scenery outside to complement the my cold impression. Sadly the Premiere Pro did not cooperate with us; it kept changing the size of the clip and cropping it down with out us telling it to do so. We closed down the programme several times but the same process kept happening.

As we were unable to edit any of the clips instead me and Beccy decided to use Photoshop to create backgrounds to replace the green screen in our music video. We only managed to create one which was only a practise and did not reflect a theme for our characters; I believe it is saved on Beccy's hard drive so I will try to upload it if I find it. In the mean time Beccy has created three backgrounds which I yet to see. I will continue to practise with Photoshop, I am not very confident using this software; I know the basic editing tool but If I am wanting to do more advanced editing eg. air brushing I will either teach myself or watch tutorials on Youtube.

Being creative- Our first attempt at Green screen

This is a very useful and easy to follow tutorial on how to create your own DIY green screen. I know this tutorial is for Premiere Pro CS4 but it is very similar to our latest version of CS5. I found this video the best for me to follow and thought and seeing this video made me believe I could actually create my own green screen. I have always thought that creating green screen was very complex and technical but I realise that I have the nessissary wquipment to create my own. Experimenting with the green screen will be a process of trial and error until both me and Beccy are happy with the outcome.

Our first ever green screen test

This week we have been encouraged to be creative, so me and Beccy decided that we should attempt green screen as we are certain that we will be using it for our music video. We used a large piece of green card, placed it under the class room light and Beccy did some hand gestures. We used the new HD digital camera with manual focus, this quality camera allowed us to capture it beautifully. We used Premiere Pro to layer the two clips together by using Chrome key, and selected the green to remove it.

I am happy with the out come of our first attempt apart the strange arrangement of clip choices. From doing this practise we have realised how important light is for green screen, the screen has to be complete lit up and the model has to stand a far distance in front of the screen so that no shadows are casted. As you can see in our video as we never lit the screen enough the light has bounced onto Beccy's hand which has created an obvious green outline.

Test shoot (displayed in pitch)

Below are the experiments me and Beccy did for how we vision our girls to look for our music video. As I enjoy creating appearances for characters I decided I would quickly put some looks together which both me and Beccy thought would be appropriate for our video. We have talked about how we do not want to over sexulise the girls in our music video which has the theme of pin up, to do this I decided to dress us in costumes that were not too revealing but yet also looked: fashionable, youthful and 'cool.' I will continue to experiment with more looks until I am happy with the apperances for each character.


Above is me dressed how me and Beccy see our lending lady portrayed. I was inspired by the world war 2 poster which has the iconic pin up girl Rosie. I believe creating a modern Rosie for our music video is entropic and fits with the theme of 'GIRL POWER' as the singer will look pretty but also powerful and strong.
Above is the beautyful Beccy portraying the sailor pin up girl. I am happy with the make up and hat but not too keen on the outfit, I think that the sailor girl need the sterotypical, elaborate costume. I want to make her look sexy as the point of her is to lure the male audience. I love the cheeky pose Beccy has given, this is how I want our sailor to act: flirty but also knowing she is in control.

This I would say portrays the gothic/ seductive pin up girl. The pose does reflect the character but the apperance does: with long curly hair, black eye make up and red rose in my hair this look could be enhanced slighty to create a seductive pin up girl. Castinbg for this role is critical as it can not be forced as it will not come across genuine and the apperance as well must be perfect. I have a friend who is perfect for this role and I am sure she will be willing to play this pin up girl.

This is the final experiement photograph. It is an alternative look for our lending lady. I am not as pleased with this look than the top one, as I believe it is not as strong. By dreesing me in a white shirt creates an angelic look which thaen does not give the empression of the strong/ powerful Rosie character we want our singer to reflect. The pose and facial expression is also not as strong as the cheeky wink in the top photograph, as once again it seems to playful and innocent than the: seductive, in control Rosie pin up girl.