Similar male solo artists to our artist 'Brandon Cooper'

Seeing as our artist 'Brandon Cooper' is a solo male, I decided to change our star image to just a solo artist, rather than a band. I made this decision because there are many solo male artists gracing the charts at the moment so I thought it would be a good idea to make him fit in with them.

As we changed our idea from having a band to have a solo singer we began to research solo singers to see how we wanted to portray our performer. We looked into people such as Olly Murs, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, John Newman. We liked the idea of a mix between the fun and energetic Olly Murs and the smiley, sweet Ed Sheeran therefore we created our character to fit their best qualities, he's funny, energetic but also kind and smiley. Our performer is a young, good looking singer who appeals to young/teenage girls and who is a synthetic artist. He plays pop music and dresses in casual yet stylish clothes.

I picked Ed Sheeran and Olly Murs as our main stars to base our solo male on due to the fact they're both very ordinary and typical boys, making Brandon relatable to the audience.

Learning how to use Coral Paint

In today's media lesson we learnt how to use coral paint and to match colours by using the original. I found this very helpful for my own preparation for making the digipack for my artist.

Here are some pictures below:

Conventions of a music video

The generic conventions of a music video are defined by Keith Negus He suggests that the music video is the explicit promotion of the artist's "image" as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for consumption on a mass scale. The artists "image" could be based on their aesthetic body image, their generic pop image or their ideological image. In all music videos, without exception will feature the artist either based as the singer or acting to add to the overall cinematic experience. Keith also highlights that there should be a wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movements, without this the viewer will be easily bored. Repetition of recurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography, which is one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promotional video, should also be present in the music video. Negus also advises that a possible narrative structure can work in a promotional music video, in addition a possible performance element will show to the audience that the artist isn't just a generic synthetic artist. The director is allowed to have flexibility to disregard realism, this will mean that the director is allowed to be as creative as possible since the weirder it is the more it will draw in viewers Additionally use of special effects including lighting, animation, CGIs and in-camera effects are accepted, since videos are made to have high impact instantly to draw attention. Shots should cut tightly to the beat of the track during editing, so that the video looks like it fits with the accompanying music track. This will be accompanied with a carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track.

Risk Assessment

Account of shoot day

The Day Before the Shoot our group:

• Transported the camera equipment from the school grounds using one of our team members cars.
• The day before filming took place on the Sunday, I started setting up the Art Studio for us to film in
• I gathered props together including: Painting Paraphernalia - Easel, Oil Paints, Paint Brush, Paint Palette, Old Paintings; Table, Chairs etc.
• Before filming each shot the actors rehearsed the scene a couple of times over, to familiarise themselves with the scene, and to make the scene look as believable as possible.

To prepare for the shoot we had to set up the filming equipment at the first location.
This included the Tripod, Camera Stand, Camera Batteries and the Video Tape, We also had to get the camera at the right balance on the stand so that the shot ins't tilted, we also had to white balance the camera, this was done to make the final cut look as professional as possible.
We also set up the lighting so that it looks realistic and life like.

The first set we filmed at was an art studio, it was based in a garage and therefore we had to remove cars from the facility. The walls were adorned with old paintings, we placed 'dirty rags' over places where it didn't suit the concept, we then placed the Easel with the painting and a stall, in the middle of the room, so that the room looked effective.
Personally I thought the rooms ambience was effective as it looked like a typical dingy and dark art studio.
Most of the shots had low lighting, this links to our Star Image since many artists in the same genre don't go by the typical bubblegum pop of Pink and bright colours, since they try to keep their masculinity which attracts the female audience further. It also means that the video can reach to an ever larger audience including males.

We divided the roles in half

• Myself and Leon were directors. We decided on the shot type; including the angles, where the cameras were placed and instructed the actors. We were also the ones behind the camera; viewing what the final video would look like once in the edit, we also made decisions on extra shots.
• The extra shots we chose were: Close up of Paint pot, close up of Paint squirting out of the paint tubes, Close up of first painting on Canvas, I also decided to have a shot where the artist throws the pictures of the other girls directly towards the camera and for it to actually hit the camera lenses, this was done by bending down where the camera was very low with a high angle. This was my idea and I personally think it is effective, and seems professional since there is a vary of shots.
• Ben and Jake acted as producers, their role was to take care of the actors and make sure that the directors kept to the shooting schedule, we created before the shoot day which explained the timings of the shot day and where we had to be with each actor. And also explained which shots we had to film from the Storyboard we created.

I thought that what we did well was our time management, since we thought it would take much longer to do things so we left a large gap in the shooting schedule. However we were actually a lot quicker than we first thought we would be and so we were not rushed when filming. For example filming Brandon getting ready & prinitng out model advert (shots 2-3, 24-26) we thought would take over 45 minutes but actually only took about 30 minutes.
Also because we had extra timje it meant we could spend longer on each indiviudal shot if needed, and had extra time to film extra shots, that make the video far more proffesional than it would waithout them.

The problems we had on the day of shooting, included:

• One of our actors not being able to show up on the day of shooting, and therefore we had to find a last minute undertstudy to take her role, this turned out to be a far superior choice since our stand- in had done Drama for A Level, plus the actress also knew our other actor beforehand and so the relationship wokred better on-screen.
• Another problem was with the scenes we filmed outdoors. Since it was raining, the shots from outside were rushed and looked bad quality. Also because it was extremely difficult to set up the equipment again outside in the pouring rain, we only used it free hand, and so the camera looks fairly shaky.
• Another problem was that one of our team members not turning up on the day of shooting, this meant that we lacked leadership and we just wanted an extra person for their input.

The most successful part of the shoot was the extra shots that we had to create on the day which we can use with the main shots that we intended to film from the Storyboard we made. These extra shots had the most professional feel, as they looked fairly artistic, and added a sense of depth to our world we created.

The parts of the shoot that I thought could have been done better was the lip syncing section. We could have filmed more of this and used it throughout the video rather than in just one section, however we have planned on shooting again another day, where we have planned to film more of our lead actor lip syncing from all different angles and in differetn locations. The is because, the final video would have more of a cinemtaic feel if there is lip-syncing throughout, as lots of other music videos that have been created for other similar artists in the same genre, have some sort of lip syncing in them.

We managed our actors fairly well, since we were able to get them on set on time. The actors were able to voice their opinion on the different types of shots, however we had the bulk of control of what was actually going to be filmed.

The part of the shoot that I enjoyed the most was choosing extra shots that we could film, this was one of the creative parts of the shoot day as we could experiment with different ideas, and almost everyone had some input in chossing some of the extra shots.

On the day of shooting we tried to use a vary of shots, including: Birds Eye View / High Angle, Extreme Close Up, Close Up, Medium Close Up, Medium Shot, Medium Long Shot, Long Shot and Extreme Long Shot.
We then did shots in multiple angles to create depth, and so that it looks more professional.
We had another shot where we tracked the actress, and the camera moved with her, this was only used for the model that the artist chose, since we wanted it to look different from the other girls that came to audition, we used this technique so that the audience is able to easily identify the difference from the other girls

The onscreen chemistry between our actors, is the one thing I want to see the most out of our footage we filmed. This is because many people seem to judge the effectiveness of media by their actors, and so the relastuionship that we portryed on screen must look real.

Our production group worked very effectively as a team, since we were able to get most of the filming done in a reasonable time, without too much going wrong. While the only things that didn't go right was because they were out of our control, i.e. the weather, meaning that we were unable to film certain scenes outside, since our actors and the caemra equipment would have got extremely wet.

The lesson that we learned from this shooting day was to try to keep to our orginal Story Board and our timing we made beforehand, this would mean that time manganment and all shots would be filmed.
Also shoot as many shots as possible from all different angles, we lacked a vary of shots in some instances meaning that it looks quite dull, however filming again would mean that we can rectify this mistake.