Filming Sarah 2

Today I filmed Sarah again just to add more variation of locations to my video. I decided to use some pink rose fairy lights which connotate perfect happiness. We used a plain white wall at stuck sellotape to the wire and stuck them to the wall in an uneven semi circle to create a more random effect. She dressed in a flowery dress to match and she wore a flower in her hair too. We turned the fairy lights on and we did a few practise shots of her turning and blowing kisses at the camera with the lights in the background, they went fine so we did them properly and they turned out well. However, we did each shot twice, once with the room light on and once with the room light off because I wasn't sure which would look better when it came to editing it. I did a series of close ups, medium shots and twisty hand held camera shots which I thought looked very effective! She performed very well by repeating what she did in the test shots by blowing kisses at the camera, turning on the spot, looking up at the flowers and pretending to smell them and laughing at the camera, it looked really girly and cute so hopefully once I have uploaded the footage it will look good!
I also recorded her playing with her little white dog in the back garden and I did two handheld camera shots and twisted the camera around at the same time. She was smiling at the camera and kissing her dog and it looked like a home video which is a good memory to have.
I need to upload the footage, record more of Danny singing in a different location and find a background to put behind the green screen clips and then I can carry on editing my video!

Edit

I uploaded the footage of Danny singing in the green room today and it looks really good. I renamed each clip to each sentence of lyrics in the song. I managed to lip sync up quite a lot in this session as I had two hours. I did upto two minutes of lip syncing and I think it looks good. The performance narrative goes really well with the idea of memories of them together and memories of her. I think that another three sessions of editing and I will be almost finished. However, I think I may need to film some more footage of Sarah doing stereotypically girly things and I need to film Danny in a different location so the video doesn't get tedious. I also need a background now to go behind the green screen clips!

Shooting in the green room

Today we filmed Danny in the green room singing. We played the song on my phone so that he could sing along in time with it, this is so that it would be easier to lip sync. We did mainly medium shots and few close ups but I want medium shots to be the main shot because it shows his dancing and his gestures. I was really happy with how it went, he performed really well and he got really into character so now I just need to upload it.

Edit

I uploaded the footage of Sarah today and I was very pleased with it!
I renamed all of the clips so that I could recognise each one and I put a sequence together of her putting her makeup on then doing her hair, putting her dress on, zipping it up and then posing in the mirror. I think it looked really good.
I also put it into black and white and it looked how I imagined it would so I was very pleased with the second lot of filming. I have managed to put certain clips of Sarah together at different stages in the song and now all I need to do is to film Danny performing in the green screen room.

Re-shoot!

Now that I feel more confident with the camera I feel that todays filming went better than the first time! Today I have been filming Sarah alone so that we could do his memories of her. I took a variety of high and low angled close up and medium shots of her doing her hair and makeup in the mirror. I also took shots of her in different dresses and of her posing in the mirror. I did the shots so it looked like she was changing into different outfits, for example, I took a close up of her feet when she was slipping her dress off so it looked like she was taking it off, I thought this shot would look quite effective! I also did close ups of her zipping up her dress because I am planning to do a sequence of her in my music video of her dressing up. I also did a close up of her smelling some flowers which I thought was quite stereotypically girly.
We went outside into my car and I did a few shots of her driving with the roof down which again, looked very girl like.
This was all I did today but hopefully, they will look effective and they will be good memories to use in black and white for the video.

Editing and change of plan

Today I uploaded my footage onto the editing suite, I had never used an editing suite before so I wasn't too confident. But I opened up Adobe Premier and rendered all of the footage, I then renamed it all so that I could recognise each clip. I also uploaded the audio onto Adobe Premier.
However, once I watched my footage in the dining room where they were supposed to have an argument I realised it was not going to work! The acting was poor and they just couldn't get into character, I feel that I can't make the actors perform so a better option would be to change my video.
I am going to change my video totally and use a different narrative.
I have decided to keep the foreshore footage because the mood and the tone is very romantic and soft which I wanted, and the acting was really good in these clips. Also, the footage which was filmed in the wood was also good so I will still apply this to my video.

Change of idea
I am going to use the foreshore clips and the footage filmed in the wood but I will not use the argument. I am going to apply more of a performance narrative to my video, I feel that this would probably be a better idea anyway as it fits with the conventions of pop music videos more. I think I will use the romantic scenes as they are but continue to film the female performer by herself doing girly things so it looks like memories of her. I will put all memories in black and white to show the seperation between performance and narrative. I will need to use the green screen room to film the artist singing and I am going to get him to apply subtle dance moves and make it quite gestural so it doesn't get tedious and too repetitive. I think this idea will work a lot better than the original idea because looking at the storyboard now, I feel it is unrealistic and there is far too much narrative rather than performance.

Nicki Minaj 'Pink Friday' album cover

This is the album cover for rap artist Nicki Minaj', 'Pink Friday'. The language on the cover consists of the name of the artist and the title of the album. The colour scheme of the cover is light pink, white and silver which interlinks with the title as it is called 'Pink Friday'. Her name is in silver, very bold font, it appears to be simple but effective. The word 'pink' is in pink and a more handwritten font which emphasises the iconic connotations of the colour; femininity and girliness. The title of the actual album 'Pink Friday' suggests that the artist is very feminine, and the use of the word friday could possibly indicate, that as it is the last day of the working week, the artist could like going out or partying. The medium shot of Nicki Minaj appears to be very staged, its almost like a ballet pose which is reinforced in the costume. Her shimmer tights and pink boots suggest a ballet theme but a more trendy and tough version of a ballet dancer because of her big heels. Her dress is very revealing but also has a balletic and icy feel to it because of the chiffon material, however, its slightly more dramatic and over the top. Her hair is a silvery pink wig which suggests that she is slightly angelic but the blunt fringe has a 60's style feel to it, she looks almost doll like. It also matches the colour scheme of pink, silver and white. The white mountain in the background supports the colour scheme aswell but also it suggests that this album cover is set in an icy, mountainous place. The floor is also bright white which supports this idea. Due to Nicki Minaj's image on this cover, she could be taking on an 'ice queen' role which is a fairytale character often associated with icy places in films such as, 'The chronicles of Narnia', but she is more fashionable and portrays an edgy attitude. The lines at the top of the cover have an ideology of 60's televisions as they used to have the lines at the bottom of them, this reinforces a 60's theme from her wig. Her genre is hip-hop/pop which would predominantly attract a young adult or a teenage audience. The audience would also be a bit funky and quirky as her lyrics and her attitude in her songs come across as very individual and different to most other artists on the market. The parental guidance logo placed at the bottom right of the cover tells us that this album is not advised for kids or children, but teenagers and young adults would probably be targeted.

The songs on this album consist of:
01. I’m The Best
02. Roman’s Revenge (Feat. Eminem)
03. Did It On’em
04. Right Thru Me
05. Fly (Feat. Rihanna)
06. Save Me
07. Moment 4 Life (Feat. Drake)
08. Check It Out (Feat. will.i.am)
09. Blazin’ (Feat. Kanye West)
10. Here I Am
11. Dear Old Nicki
12. Your Love
13. Last Chance (Feat. Natasha Bedingfield)
14. Super Bass
15. Blow Ya Mind
16. Muny
17. Girls Fall Like Dominoes
The songs featured on the album also contain popular rap and r'n'b artists which would again refuel the teenage and young adult audience.