First day of filming - Final Music Video

Hi guys, today we started filming part of our music video - EEK so exciting! We filmed in the location of a different town called Matlock and filmed for around 2 hours between 1-3PM which enabled us to firstly take a look round the area to see which areas were most appropriate for the shots and the theme we were going for and then, obviously, take the shots planned. It was a hard task as the weather was very gloomy with a wet floor (as it had previously rained) and a lot of fog looming - this put pressure on us to ensure we got ALL the shots needed in this location, as the chance of the weather being like this again was very slight which would create continuity errors in the final piece,

We chose Matlock as it is a very green, spacious area, with lots of pathways, outdoor staircases, hills and forestry backgrounds which was our ideal look! We wanted somewhere that would make the singer/artist look isolated and alone - which was the idea we were going for - as the song relates to abandonment and rejection.

The shots taken will appear in the final music video in Polaroids which will look like pictures instead of an actual video, flicking through time. This will hopefully help emphasise the artists lonesome movements and emotions as she wanders through an empty town. In these shots, there will be no lip syncing as we wanted to focus on portraying the feelings of the artist and telling a story and we felt as a group, if we was to add lip syncing in here, it would take the focus away.

Here is a sneak peak of the location we chose to shoot in:
The second photo (on the right), if clicked on shows an example of what we will be including in our music video, like stated above, they are Polaroid shots in the form of pictures instead of your typical video.

Moodboard - Ideas, Styles and Concepts

I put together a moodboard with key images that best convey the essence of the artist, song and music video I am creating. The images together put forward the type of effect and story we are aiming to tell through the song in the music video. This is a first attempt at a moodboard and helps me put my ideas together and adapt them to reach an ideal image for the music video.

(This will not be the only moodboard you will see and i'm sure the theme of the pictures will change alongside my ideas). 

Here is the link to look more closely at the pictures - 

http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/5Ug14ViK/share

UPDATE (on music video ideas)

So, I need to quickly update you guys on a crucial part of my music video that has changed. This will be brief as in reality, there's not much to say but I still need you to listen. BASICALLY, to put it short, the main character for the music video has changed. Previously, myself - Savannah, was going to be the artist/actor in the video, but we have changed the roles round and now Eloise will be playing the main role. This is a very simple manoeuvre and we feel it is for the best as Eloise has much better acting skills within the media industry and I am more confident behind the camera, so myself and Brooke will be doing the recording of the music video whilst Eloise is in front of the camera. Obviously, we have already created our shot list and know which shots/angles we are using throughout our video so the roles are fair.


However, to make things a little confusing, we are keeping the artists name as 'Savannah', as we feel it has a better length and will look better on the CD cover and website. This means Eloise will be performing as the artist, but she will have my name! Don't worry.. it's not confusing once you've seen the video, CD cover and website!


Check back this blog for any more updates!

Shot List

Hi guys, in terms of planning our music video, we have recently created a shot list (in replacement of a storyboard). A shot list is a full log of all the shots we want to include in our music video; essentially it is a checklist filled with minute details that will give our music video a sense of direction and efficiency. Shot lists help you consider shooting footage based on location and set up; not necessarily in order of the story. With a shot list ready you can more quickly shoot all the scenes at your chosen location and then shoot the rest at a later date. For example, in terms of my production, we are planning to shoot in Matlock (a location 30 minutes away from us), meaning we will try to take all these shots in one day in this location and with the shot list, we are able to tick off which shots we have taken as we go so we are assured, we have not left any out. 

When filling in each row in the shot list, it’s important to take into consideration the following elements:

• Characters in the shot
• Type of shot
• Camera movement
• Major actions
• Important objects

(The grand purpose of the shot list is to make sure that every part of the script is assigned a shot.)

As a group, we decided to create a shot list instead of a storyboard as we felt it would be more beneficial for ourselves. We already knew what all the angles we had mentioned looked like and the locations we were going to film in, so drawing these out was not time worthy and instead we wanted to focus on each individual shot and how many seconds we would use them for. In comparison to our thriller, our music video will have a lot more shots, which is another reason we thought the storyboard would not be time efficient. 

For the shot list, you can see below, we used four main titles - shot, shot length, location and description. The shot represented the camera angle we would take the clip at; the clip length stated how long we would include it for; the location stated whether the shot would be in Matlock, outdoors or the studio, indoors; and the description shows a brief explanation on what we will be doing in each shot and the mis-en-scene, meaning we wrote down any props we needed. By creating this shot list, it ensured we had an idea for each second of the song and would be able to fill it and also, as it was created on a word document, it made it easy for us to go back in and change certain shots if we came up with new/better ideas.

As you can see from the shot list, there is multiple mistakes in the description part of the list where we mentioned Savannah instead of Eloise. Savannah (myself) was supposed to be the main artist for the video until we decided Eloise (another member of the group) would fit the role better, meaning we changed the character but decided to keep my name (Savannah) as we felt it was better for promotion and we had already started on the creation of the website. Where it says 'Savannah', please ignore it and remember, Eloise is the main artist. (To make more sense of this, please read my 'Salt Sisters Background' post). 
Shot List from savsalt2404

The creation of the website

Hi Guys, my group and I have started to create our own website for the main artist 'Savannah Salt' (but played by Eloise Neath). The website is one of my ancillary tasks, along with a CD cover, which will go along side my music video for my coursework. This website will be similar to the aim of our social media links as it will provide, information, pictures, behind the scenes shots, updates etc. However, along with all this, it will be the place where you can find out the most detail about the artist. The website will include background information on Savannah, contact information, the social media links, tour dates and all the artists' music.


The website is a long and hard process to create as we have to use a theme that represents the artist in the right way- this includes using the correct colours for backgrounds and choosing appropriate fonts, so that the website appears professional. Along with this, we need to ensure the website is easily accessible to get to and navigate around so to do this we have added search bars and clear labels at the top of the screen in a bigger font so it is clear they are the main tabs.

The overall theme we have gone for is very simplistic and we have ensured we do not overcrowd the screen on each page of the website as this can easily put people off. When we have included long stretches of information, we have tried to keep it concise and to the point so that the person reading does not get bored or click off straight away. The majority of the writing on the screen (ranging from one worded titles to labels to long descriptions) are in black or a dark green colour with an easy readable font. The simplicity of the website is purposely because we have marketed 'Savannah' as a new and upcoming artist and we want it to appear that she doesn't know exactly what her genre and theme is herself; she is only young and has previously sang a range of songs in a variety of genres.


We have ensured we have included pictures and videos on every page so that it is approachable and it allows the audience to feel like they're getting to know her more the more they go through the website. The 'HOME' page is very basic with a picture of the artist covering the majority of the screen, with her name next to it and her newest song release below it. This allows the reader to create their own view on the artist before reading more in-depth about her. We didn't want to fill the home page with lots of information or very feminine pictures or colours because we want to keep the audience bracket as wide as possible and if we was to fill the home page with teenage pop songs or gifs, this would instantly put off certain readers and reduce the amount of people who are interested in her, before they have even read further into her story.


If you want to read on about the other aspects of the website, keep your eye out for the next update which will be on the 'ABOUT' and 'MUSIC' features of the website!