Production Diary 16 - The British Film Institution

Production diary 16 from Laila Jaleel

The British Film Institution

My roles for the production - London

When we went up to London to film, we split the filming equally between us.

 I filmed some of the shots went we went to Regents Park. These kind of shots will consisted of our artist and her friend playing around and having fun. For example, I filmed the shot of our artist and her friend spinning around together on the field. The shot was a mid shot in order for me to capture them close enough to see their facial expressions but not too close as I wanted it to be clear where the location was.

We all took it in turns to film various shots of our artist walking around and we also took it in turns to hold the equipment whilst we were walking around.

Production Diary 15 - Filming in London

Yesterday, the 21st November we headed up to London to film for another load of shots. We started the day off by heading up to Camden and we filmed our artist, and her friends, walking around the markets, looking in shops etc. Then after Camden we walked by the river, filming our artist walking along, and we came by a bridge where we did a shot of our artist singing the whole song. We walked over the bridge which took us to Regents park where we did some more filming. At the park it started to rain slightly so we started to pack the tripods away however we kept one camera out because we noticed a rainbow form so we tried our best to get a shot of the artist in front of the rainbow. After this, we started to head back home however we carried on filming random things aswell as trying to get shots which would match our storyboard.

Overall the day was good fun and we managed to get a lot of useful shots!

Representation of women - Nicki Minaj

  

Nicki Minaj came into the music indutry alongside other well known rappers such as Lil Wayne, Drake etc. She was first mainly noticed in the 'Bed Rock' video. Her attitude was very confident and it was very refreshing to hear a new female rapper. Before she was signed by 'Young Money' Nicki Minaj was a normal and young looking girl. To help start off her new image she used to wear wigs, like Lil Kim. Nicki Minaj most likely knew that basing her image would be controversial and gain a lot of attention and it did. Many people still say to this day that Nicki Minaj copied Lil Kim's image when she started off. I think that she did this on purpose to become noticed however later on we see how her image changes over time.



Once Nicki Minaj started to become noticed she seemed to dress weirder and weirder, for a while. Her being a new female rapper and having this strange sense of style about her was new to everyone and thats why she became so famous so quickly. Another thing that was largely noticed about Nicki Minaj was the size of her bum. Her bum is well known for being really big and she has started to use that to her advantage.





Slowly, she started to feature her body into her videos more and more. Her image started to become more about her bum rather than her weirdness.

Now that Nicki Minaj has made a name for herself her image is very different from the wigs and weird clothing. She now has her hair back to her normal colour and she wears normal clothes. Her image is a lot more toned down compared to how it used to be as she doesn't need to make herself stand out anymore. In a lot of her videos she uses her bum to her advantage as that still gains a lot of attention but it terms of her image she has toned down a lot!

Production Diary 14

Production diary 14 from Laila Jaleel

London

We would like to film a lot of our shots in London which has taken a while to plan as we would like to film in several locations. We thought it would be a good idea to write out a list of things that we would like to do and then cross out the ones that we would not end up filming at. This will be helpful because it means that we can plan our day properly as we will know what trains to get on the day etc. Here is a list of locations that we could use but will not necessarily film at:

-Leake Street (graffiti tunnel)

-Big Ben

-The London Eye

-Park

-Coffee shop

-Camden Market

-Buckingham Palace

- o2 cable carts

-Canary Wharf (Christmas lights)

-Harrods (Christmas lights)

Release Form

These are the release forms that has given us the permission to leave the school premises on the 27th November which is the day we plan to film up in London!

Storyboard

This video shows the storyboard that we have drawn and come up with in order to try and show where we are going with our video. Our aim, when filming, is to try and capture the shots is a very similar way to this storyboard, as I think it flows well. This is only a rough idea of how the shots will look as the drawings are not detailed or specific. However, the aim of doing this storyboard was mainly to show how our music video will be narrative, that the shots will be quick and we would like to use some effects (writing).

Representation of women - Rihanna

I have been doing some research into the representation of women within the music industry and have noticed patterns with certain artists such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, for example. A brief explanation of how this pattern goes is by the artist starting off as a normal girl, then becoming more sexualised to gain attention, then dressing or acting weirdly to gain more attention. Once that big amount of attention has been gained the artist will then start to tone down. This is because now that they have made a name for themselves they can start to act and dress how they really want too.

Here is Rihanna's transformation...


1st stage

Rihanna came into the music industry with her first album 'Music of the Sun'. As you can tell by this image Rihanna looked like a youthful and innocent girl. She didn't neccessarily have anything about her that stood out apart from the fact that she is pretty. At this point her image would have been simple because she wouldn't have had the money to portray an outstanding character.









2nd stage

Then, when her second album came out 'Good Girl Gone Bad' we can start to see how she has started to become more sexualised. This is so people will stop seeing her as this young and innocent girl and they will start to see her as a sexy woman. In this image we can see the outline of her body which means she wants people to notice her curves and womanly figure. In comparison to her first album cover we can see the the image is much more proffesional. Now that she has become noticed she has more money to portray a prestige image.





3rd stage

This is the stage where Rihanna had to do something big in order to get herself noticed. She decided to dye her hair in a vibrant red colour. This seemed to really work because once she had dyed her hair red, so many girls also started to dye their hair red. At this point Rihanna was also doing things like smoking weed and this was drawing media attention towards her.










After a while the red hair hype started to calm down so then she needed to change her image again in order for people stay entertained. The next thing she did was cut her hair into a pixie cut. Frankie from 'The Saturday's even cut her hair like this. By this point Rihanna had made a name for herself, she is now very famous and is known by everyone.












4th stage


Now that Rihanna has done her job of becoming noticed she has started to tone down her image.  Previously, it used to be her hair that gained a lot of attention where as now she has her hair back to her natural colour and longer length. Today, she gets noticed for her fashion and she has gone into the modelling industry but she hasn't done anything extreme recently to stand out.

Production Diary 13 - Filming at the beach

Yesterday, the 14th November, we managed to get all of the shots that we needed at the beach. We went to Frinton-On-Sea for the day and luckily the weather stayed sunny for the whole time we was filming. Even though we have only filmed at one location so far, we think it will be a good idea to start editing the music video as well as planning to film in London soon.


 

My roles for the production - beach day

We are planning to film at Frinton-On-Sea on the 14th November which is coming up very soon therefore we have decided, as a group, who will be doing specific jobs on the day. We have split the job roles fairly and equally.

We are going to be using two cameras so we can film different shot types. I will be in charge of one camera and another member of my group will be in charge of the other. My job role involves me using one of the cameras to film close up shots of our artist lip singing. Whereas the other camera will be used to film longer shots. I think that my job role is important because we need to make sure that we get good quality shots of our artist lip syncing as these kind of shots will be used frequently within our music video. Its important that we get a range of different types of shots.

I have also been assigned to another role; prop handler. This role will include me blowing up the inflatable equipment that we will bring to the set on the day. We need to make sure that we bring along an inflator otherwise it will take a very long time as the inflatable duck we are planning on bringing is very large.

Production Diary 12

Production diary 12 from Laila Jaleel

Nicki Minaj VS Ella Eyre

Both of these music videos come under the dance genre however they are two completeley different videos.

In Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' video all we see is women showing off their bodies and twerking throughout the whole thing. Nicki Minaj is well known for having a big bum, its almost like her trademark, therefore we see a lot of it in all of her videos. Laura Mulvey's male faze theory clearly applies within this video because the video will mainly attract male attention due to showing off the female body.

Whereas Ella Eyre's video we see her having a fun day out with her friends. A key code and convention in dance genre music videos is to see people dancing. We see her and her friends dancing but in a non provocative way which is completley different to Nicki Minaj in her video. The other girls who are featured in Nicki Minaj's video are portrayed more like back up dancers rather than her friends which makes the video more serious rather than fun. We see Ella Eyre having genuine fun, laughing and messing around with her friends.

Out of these two artists we would like our artist to be more like Ella Eyre than Nicki Minaj. Not only do we want our video to have similar attributes to Ella Eyre's video but we would also like our artists image to be similar to hers. In the 'Good Times' video Ella Eyre's outfit is slightly similar to Julia Roberts outfit in 'Pretty Woman'. This outfit represents a kind of intertextuality as many people will recognise that outfit from the film. She's wearing the outfit in a cool, modern and trendy way rather than a sexual way. Throughout the video we can see her smiling and laughing with her friends which makes you think she is a kind character. This is how we would like to represent our artist aswell.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is what goes into a music videos preparation such as the costume, lighting, actors/artist, make up, props and setting. These kind of things are really important and need to be thought about and planned before making a music video. All together they will create a theme and this theme will, usually, be consistent throughout the music video.


Mise-en-scene for our music video

Costumes

This is the outfit we came up with for our artist to wear in the beach shots. In these shots, as she will be on a beach, we want to portray a summery look. This look fits that criteria aswell as still being funky and trendy. The reason for wearing the kimono aswell is because we don't want our artist to come across as being provocative as this goes against the message in the song. This way the artist is still being seen as fun and carefree but not being seen in a sexual way.

Reasons for choosing this outfit is that she needs to be more covered up as she will be shown in a public place around strangers. However we still want her to look trendy so we chose this outfit according to what is in fashion right now. Currently, knee high boots are very popular so if our artist is seen wearing them then her target audience, girls, may feel as though they can relate to her.



Lighting

The 'London' and 'beach' shots will have natural lighting as these will be filmed outside in daylight. The natural lighting should show up to be light which is beneficial as bright lighting can be associated with positivity. If there is a positive and bright vibe then that fits with the genre of our music video.

We are also planning on filming some shots of our artist in front of a projector and a green screen. We practised using the green screen once before and we pointed a spotlight on the artist as she was singing. We found out that this should not be done because when we put an image over the green screen there was a green glow around our artist and we think that this happened because the spotlight had created a shadow around our artist whilst filming. So when we come onto filming with the green screen we will make sure that the lighting is neutral. However, when we come onto filming our artist in front of the projector the lighting will need to be dark in order for the projector to become effective. Although the lighting will be dark it will not convey a negative image because the projector will project patterns and colours etc.

Artist

Our artist will be portrayed as a young, fun, trendy and cool girl who many girls may aspire to be like. We want to show her having fun in all these different places with her girl friends because this kind of theme fits with the lyrics of the song.

Make up

Beach


This is a make up tutorial that we have previously looked at and have decided to use for the beach shots. Reasons for choosing this is because the make up is very dramatic and really stands out. As we will be shooting at the beach, may of the shots will be mid or long so that we can capture the background images too (the beach) so it is important that her make up can still be seen even from a distance. Also, our artist's character is out going and fun so it only makes sense that she would want her make up to be sparkly (the eye shadow) and bright (the lipstick).


We thought that this soft curl look will be suitable for the beach shots as some people interpret this kind of hair style as beach waves. The look is casual, simple and trendy which is how we want our artist to be seen as.

London


This hairstyle has been based on how Ariana Grande has her hair a lot of the time. She is also an artist who sings dance songs and her character is fun and bubbly so we thought it would be a good idea to have some relation to her. This big and curly hairstyle appears to be a lot more fun.



We have decided to go with this look for our artist when we come onto shooting in London. By the time we shoot in London the weather will not be summery so the fact that this is an Autumn look is beneficial as it will, hopefully, fit with the scenery.

Props

6 feet inflatable duck!
- We plan to use this inflatable duck when we film at the beach because it is something that you would not usually see. Our plan is to inflate it when we get there and then to film our artist standing next to it playing around with it and possibly jumping onto it. We want to incorporate it into our video because we want our video to come across with a fun vibe to it. Hopefully, the audience will view it as entertaining.


Beach ball
- We want our artist to be seen having fun and playing around at the beach so a prop like a beach ball will help portray this. A beach ball is something that someone would use at a beach in the summer so it only makes sense to show our artist playing with one as we want the shots at the beach to have a summery vibe to them.

Setting

Beach
-The first set we plan to film at is the beach, Frinton-On-Sea. The genre of our song is dance so it is important to portray this genre through our video. Things like smiling, dancing, singing and summer are codes and conventions for dance genre therefore we want to incorporate as many of these things into our video as we can. The shots at the beach will help to portray a summery vibe therefore it will help to portray the genre.

London
-We want our artist to be known as someone who likes to go out and party, have fun, be silly etc. So we think that filming in London will help add to this kind of persona because London is a big and interesting place. Our artist could be seen walking around, going into shops, trying clothes on, laughing with her friends etc.

The music industry

About the music industry
The music industry is an industry which consists of companies and individuals that make money by creating and selling music. An artist, who would usually make the music, may go to a company and then the two could collaborate and work together in order to sell that music. However some companies may also create the music themselves too. There are many ways to create and sell music and that's why the music industry is so huge.

Purpose of a music video
Most of the time, especially in much more recent times, an artist/company will release a music video to go along with one of their songs. There are many purposes of a music video for the company/artist who make them but the purpose may differ depending on who the artist is and what they want to portray. Here are some reasons as to why an artist/company may want to make a music video:

1) To help exaggerate and portray an image that they want to be seen as.

2) It can help to sell the song by leaving the audience with a reaction therefore making it easier for them to remember the song.

3) Possibly to show other talents such as dancing or acting.

4) Could feature other well known artists/people to get a certain type of reputation.

5) The video could attract more attention than the actual song itself - promotion.

6) Marketing strategy - the video could be aimed at a specific kind of audience to gain fans.

Hello - Adele



This is an example of a successful music video featuring Adele, herself, and directed by Xavier Dolan. This song became number 1 in almost every country but not only did the song become a major success, so did the video. The reason that this video has been so successful is because of the simplicity of it. The video is shown in a sepia tone throughout which makes us think that the video is quite old as does all the furniture in the house. Dolan has tried to keep everything as simple as he can, such as even using a simple flip phone, so that the audience can mainly focus on Adele's voice as this song is very vocal.

Money
The average amount of money to spend on a music video ranges from $200,000 to $500,000.

The estimated production costs are:

• Producer fee: $500 – $1250/day
• Director fee: $500 – $1250/day
• Camera operator: $500-1000/day
• Camera equipment rental: $150 – $3500/day
• Key grip + assistant + lighting gear: $1000 – $1750/day
• Wardrobe: estimated $20 – $1000/day per character project
• City permits: $25 – $1000/day (depending on the city, exact location, whether roads need to be closed, etc…)
• Location fees and rentals: $250 – $2500+/day
• Actors: $200 – $1200/day (each)
• Extras: $50 – $200/day (each)

(Estimated production cost info is from 'http://garrettgibbons.com/music-video-budgets/')

I have been looking into what the most expensive video has been and many artists have showed up such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Puff Daddy, Celine Dion etc. But the top name and video was Michael Jackson's video 'Scream' which cost $7,000,000.

It is hard to say what the cheapest music video is of all time because people are constantly making music videos with tiny budgets but some of these videos do not get recognised. However one of the cheapest music videos to be recognised is 'M- Pop Musik' directed by Brian Grant. The cost of the video was about $400.

Universal Music Group 

Universal music is a production company founded in 1943 and it is still one of the worlds leading music company. This company records artists and songwriters and helps to produce, distribute and promote these artists and songwriters.

Universal music group artists:
ABBA

Ariana Grande
Drake
Ja Rule
Ludacris
Madonna

As you can see the Universal Music Group have been producing music for hit artists/groups for a very long time! Although ABBA and Drake, for example, are from two completely different times the are both big and well known artists. This is the impact of Universal Music Group.


Azealia Banks

Azealia Banks is now an artist of the Universal Music Group. '212' was her break through song and the reason why she became so big. We can see that the video has been made on a cheap budget as it is very simple and doesn't feature much except herself rapping. Once she became popular, people and production companies started to notice her. The second video was made once she had been signed by the Universal Music Group. Now, we can see that the second video has been made on a higher budget as she looks very glamorous in it, special effects have been used, a variety of locations have been used, her outfits are more expensive looking. Also, Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory has been used as Azealia is seen sucking on a lollipop which can be seen as provocative by many. A production company would be well aware with what all of the media theories are and they would want to try and incorporate these theories in order to gain audience attention.