Planning - Actors and Actresses

Actors and Actresses

For our music video, Kenz and I used three actors that we wanted to perform in it. We knew that we needed a couple that was willing to act a little cringe and a dancer who was prepared to dance and lip sync for us to Crazy in Love. We knew that the performer needed to be someone reliable and that would be willing to spend a fair amount of time working with us to get the best shots possible at various locations. Straight away Kenz knew a girl who went to her dance school, Lauren Simpson. She was dramatic but not overly so it looked bad but was also professional about everything and would be the perfect candidate. Also, since she was a young girl we knew that it would not only fit with the pop genre but our audience would be able to relate to her as they are of similar ages. 

Next, we needed to decide on a couple that would not mind getting a bit PDA (personal display of affection) on screen. We thought that it would make sense to use a friend that is in a relationship as we thought that they are more likely to be themselves on camera and let the real chemistry show as they should not get as embarrassed. We went through all our options of who would suit our song and also a bit part of our decider would be who would do it since quite a few turned down our request due to the fact they thought it was too cringe. Finally, we came to the conclusion of using Alice and Jack which was a very good choice on our part as they were perfect for the role. 

Planning - Digipak Font Ideas

Digipak Font Ideas

First i created the draft for the back cover of the digipak, i thought that there would be more writing on this side and so i should see what font looks best on this side first. Below are a few examples of different fonts that i liked. I liked the curly ones since i thought they went with the genre of pop and were quite girly which then fits in with our target audience. Although, i thought that these did not really fit with the theme of our songs since they were not as such fun and girly but more deep and meaningful so we thought we should steer clear of anything that looked too childish. Then i just started looking into what serif fonts look like on the screen and thought that they were not the right kind for a CD back or front cover, they made it seem a bit too old school. Lastly, i looked at the font Nueva Std in Condensed Italic, i straight away knew that this was the one. Because it was italic i thought that it did add that pop of fun and immaturity into it but also since it was sans serif it was easy to read but looked professional, this was then the font we ended up using for the back cover of out album cover. 

Planning - Unplanned/Spontaneous Idea Changes

Unplanned/Spontaneous Idea Changes 

We started filming on the 28th of October and by this point we has not planned exactly when we would film the rest of our footage for our music video. We had just assumed that we would plan to film as we went along, and for the most part this scheme worked very well and we got enough footage from the four locations that we did film, these were at Jacks house, the dance studio, the recording studio and the pit. However, from our plan we had thought it would be a good idea to film with Lauren lip syncing over a projector screen with a video of her dancing on it, but once we had filmed in the four locations we believed that we had enough footage for our video alone without the extra scene involved. So, because of this we then decided to not film in this location. 

Another factor as to why we abandoned the idea was because we could not find the space to do, an obvious option would be for us to use a classroom at school because they all have projectors in but they would not have the kind of lighting we need for the atmosphere we wanted. We wanted to have a dark room where Lauren was lit up by the dance going on in the projector behind her and since we didn't have much time left to film we thought that we should just not waste our time in trying to find a location and fit it in and instead focus on the editing of the other footage that we had and that filled up the time space of the song perfectly. 


The effect we were originally going for was something like in the Ariana Grande video 'The Way'. In the video you can see Ariana dancing and singing in front of the film projected on the back wall, we thought that this would look very effective in our video as then we could relate the narrative and performance together. 

Planning - Shot of Busy Motorway

Shot of Busy Motorway

This is the clip that we then edited down and used at the very beginning of our music video, i think that it is very effective how we changed the focus of the camera manually so that it gave this effect. I think that the way it goes from in focus to out of gives a different look to things and was in beat with how the song started off slowly. When thinking about using this shot i had thought that it would be relatable to the fact that maybe she was once able to see things clearly but then love drove her crazy and that is why when it goes out of focus it is representing her losing her mind. Even though there were some very shaky points in this footage due to the fact that it was a very windy night, once we had edited it i think it worked well with out song. 

Planning - Day Four Filming

Day Four Filming

This was the last time we filmed and it was my favourite out of them all, we filmed her singing and then dancing both with a black background. We did this in the pit at school as the curtains were perfect to film in front of to get a solid colour background and originally we thought that it it would look like a curtain but it turned out better than i expected and it looks like just a plain black wall. Since we had the lighting system in the pit i think that this may be why the shots we got seemed so professional and vivid. The contrast between Lauren's skin and blonde hair compared to the dark background makes the shot as she really stood out. Also, being able to change the lighting allowed us to test out where she looked her best and where the light hit her face and accentuated her features best. The main two lights we used when filming were the main white light that came down from all around and is shown in the medium close up image above. We also played around a bit and used the red wash over the lights to see how it looked and i think that out very well and we got a decent amount of shots with her singing and dancing. I think that these add a pop of colour to our music video since most of our shots do not have a lot of vibrant colour. To add to this, it is red which can connote love and then relating back to the song where she is crazy in love. I think that this was a good idea since now there is a bit of meaning and synchronization between the lyrics and visuals. 

The dance shots that we got were a lot better than what we got in the dance studio mainly down to the lighting of where we caught Lauren's features. It was still very difficult to capture a moving shot of her dancing since she was all over the place performing and trying to get a stable shot of this proved almost impossible but we did out best. Since we knew that the lighting was best in either the white or red wash when we got to the dancing we just filmed using these and this meant we had more time to try out different angles and try to capture different ways of her moving. 

Planning - Day Three Filming

Day Three Filming

The next location that we filmed in was the recording studio which is located at our school, we had originally thought that a recording studio would fit our music video as it would give the effect of Lauren recording her new song which is what we are trying to promote with the ancillary products and our music video. Since this location was in school we did not get charged for using it and we just had to keep everything tidy and not actually use the equipment just film them. I think that the shots we got from this shoot were similar to the ones we got from the dance studio since these were both filmed inside and we could have used with some big box lights to highlight and contour Lauren's face. But considering we only had our little LED light i think we did get a variety of different angled shots. This was the shortest shoot we had filmed so far since there were not many different ways we could film her singing into a microphone but we got plenty enough that fit into our music video. 

Planning - Rough Draft of Music Video

Rough Draft of Music Video

This is the rough cut of mine and Kenz's music video. I am happy with our editing skills and how this draft turned out a part from a couple shots that i think we potentially need to change in our final cut. For example, near the end there is an overlay of two shots which i personally do not think work. The back ground shot is of Alice and Jack holding hands and then Lauren singing over the top but where the lighting flickers between white and red on Lauren throughout i think it is a bit confusing and will distract the audience. 

Another point to add is that we didn't know how to end our video, we were not sure if we should have a couple shot or Lauren walking out of the studio. But we have decided to wait until we get feedback from our classmates on how to end it so we have a second opinion. I think that once we know what others think of it, it might let us see the video in a different light. Since we have watched it over and over so may be oblivious to any errors or shots that do not fit together or with the song so hopefully they can help us fix this issue.