Not filming blog

Tomorrow, November 26th, in my media class we are going to plan out more of our filming dates. Since we didn’t have the class today we couldn’t talk about what we are going to do. We had planned to film this week since we have off for thanksgiving but there are a few problems in the way. First off we were going to use my uncles corvette, however, he is going going away Wednesday for thanksgiving and we won’t be able to use the car when he is gone. There are two possible solutions we could take. One is that we could use my car which is not as fancy as the corvette, or we could film other parts of the commercial that don’t include the car this weekend and then film with the car another weekend. Another problem about filming this weekend is that my family will be down for thanksgiving. We were planning on filming at my house and now that everyone will be here it might be very crowded and hectic which will make it hard to film. On the contrary, we need to film at least a portion of our music video this weekend because it will take us a while. We don’t have long until it will be due so we have to film as many days as possible since it will take a while to finish. Also, we were going to film last weekend but my group mate Reese had a softball tournament which prevented us from being able to film.

Storyboard blog

Today in my AICE media class we had to finish our storyboard. My group mates weren’t in class so we had to compromise since it was due tonight. I FaceTimed my group member Reese so she could help me with the storyboard. We tried to FaceTime James but he wasn’t answering. Due to our poor connection we ended up splitting up the work. We did this by assigning certain parts to certain people. I finished the beginning of the storyboard. Reese finished the end of the storyboard and James completed the middle parts. We ended up finishing the storyboard but due to our issues from today we might have to change it a little bit when we start filming.
In this project we are using a variety of different camera angles, shots, and movements. During different scenes we will include over the shoulder shots when James is looking at the computer. Wide shot of the car for clips such as in the parking lot, transitioning into the car in the beginning, and when James is sitting on the back throwing cash. We will also use a tracking shot of us in the car when we come back from “shopping.” Lastly, we will use a three shot when we all walk into the “nightclub.”
We have a variety of mud en scene spread through the storyboard. Including the Surat that will be used to reminisce in his dream, the computer we will be using to start the dream, and the shopping bags to show that we went shopping. We will be wearing more of a formal clothing look because the song talks about ring wealthy. We will make it look like we are rich by wearing fancy clothing. We have two major lighting changes. One will be in the nightclub where it is dark and the colored lights are flashing. Another one is the natural outdoor lighting when we are in the car or outside of it. Our makeup will be more of a natural look, nothing extravagant because we are trying to look more natural.

Planning Blog

In class today, we began planning for our Music Video and how we would execute the video. After transitioning from the commercial to music video, we had to make a detailed plan of what we would use during the film, from costumes to our health and safety during the process. To help us remember what we need to include in our plan, our teachers used five key points, these were: Location, Health & Safety, Props, Costumes, and finally our schedule for the entire process.

Location- During our music video, we plan on using several different locations as it will better fit the conventions of a normal Rap Song. In our music video we will mainly be in Cooper City because we will be using one of our group members cars, the car will be a corvette in which we aren't allowed to drive far, so we will be using it within the Cooper City neighborhood. Also, we will be in some parking lots as we want to drive the car around slowly, or just have it parked in a certain spot.

Health & Safety- During the course of our music video, there are several safety precautions we must take in order to have a safe filming process. For instance, since some of our film will be shot near or in a car, we needed to ensure that we would off the roads as we planned to go slow; we decided that a parking lot would be the safest location to film the video as it will be secluded with no flowing traffic. Also, when going in the car, it will be mandatory to wear a seatbelt at all times for the duration of the car ride; although it may not be an extremely complex safety measure, seatbelts are an extremely effective way of staying safe. Also, when filming in the car we will have two people in each vehicle, one being the actor and the other being the person filming. In doing so, we will be able to have one person filming while the other is driving to prevent any multi tasking while driving.

Props- Since our music video belongs in the Rap/R&B Genre of music, usual props in Rap/R&B music videos would be nice cars, jewelry, and designer clothes. For our music video we will be using a corvette from a group members family. This will fill the spot of a nice car in our music video, also, a specific line in the song refers to Jeeps, so a group member has volunteered to use their jeep for our music video as well. In our music video we will also be using some jewelry as the song frequently refers to nice chains and watches. In order to fully capture the conventions used in a normal Rap/R&B music videos, we will also be wearing designer clothes such as Gucci and Tommy Hilfiger. For example, I will order Gucci shirts/jackets for the group to wear during the music video so it can be more uniform.

Costumes- During our music video we plan on using two different kinds of outfits to represent two different ideas in the video. At the start of the music video there will be a student in a classroom wearing school appropriate clothes. However, once we transition from the classroom to the scene of the Corvette, we will be using new costumes of designer clothes as well as jewelry. This would fully capture the essence of the song and also bring attention to our video from younger audiences.

Schedule for Music Video-

 11/22/2019- We will finish our storyboard for our commercial and begin to gather the supplies as well as secure locations for the music video

11/26/2019- We will finish our plans and check out a camera to use over the Thanksgiving Break to get the most amount of filming done.

11/29-11/31- We will be filming our music video during these days

12/2/2019- We will begin the editing process of our Music video.

Intro to music video

   As we end our commercial project we move on to a music video. We only had had 3 group members which worked fine although our third group member Amanda didn’t do much work. Otherwise I think we worked efficiently and did a good job on the process. If I could do something different I probably wouldn’t procrastinate on editing because we were stressing at the last minute to finish it. For this music video Reese and I stuck together but we now have a new group member named James. As we were thinking of ideas Reese looked up music videos and found one that high school kids filmed. We were inspired by this video and thought it would be fun to do a rap video. While Reese and I were on FaceTime I mentioned the song Ballin. We decided it would be a cool idea to use that song and so did our other group member James. We chose this song for many reasons as the music video process would be fun, we wanted to do the genre of rap, and we liked the song. For the project we have to plan and film a music video.
    My group and I researched conventions of a Rap or R&B music video. We watched a few music videos and saw many repeated conventions. The camera angles that were commonly used were low angles to show the rapper, high angles to show their location, wide shot to show them bragging about their things, and close ups which would usually show detail on their wealth. The movement is not specific but they had a lot of zig zagging, pan shots, and tracking shots. These movements helped to make the scene more dramatic. The sound would be the song they are promoting in the music video. They also might have diegetic sound relating to where the scene takes place. We saw many transitions such as fade, dissolve, and rotation. In an editing perspective, they edit the sound in after filming the video so the sound is more clear and loud. They also insert text into the video during the editing process to inform people the name and artist of the song. Then at the end they insert the credits which include the people that helped with the production of the video.
   There is many examples of Mis En Scene in music videos. While researching we found that most of their costumes deal with big fur coats or leather jackets with expensive accessories to show their wealth. They usually take place outside or at night clubs so the lighting would be either natural lighting or strobe lights. While researching we noticed that they didn't wear extravagant makeup and if they did wear makeup it was something they would wear on a normal basis. For their hair the guys sometimes would wear durags and the girls would either have weave or braids. During the video they use many props such as expensive cars, drinks, and money. The setting usually takes place on streets, open areas, night clubs, mansions, neighborhoods, and casinos.

Editing Blog

    For the last two days in my AICE media studies class we have been editing our commercial. After the last class when the computers weren’t working we couldn’t edit anything. Our teacher was able to get a laptop cart for these two periods but the computers were still slow. Reese and I were able to import some of our footage but it took up half the class because the computers were very slow. We also were only able to have the computers for 45 minutes because there weren’t enough laptops for the whole class. This meant that with the time we had we were only able to import our footage. We didn’t get the chance to actually edit on Tuesday. Reese and I decided it would be easier to edit on iMovie on our personal computer for a few reasons such as we know how to work iMovie better then we do pinnacle studios, the computers at school were too slow, and we would have more time to edit because we could do it at home.
    Reese and I live very far apart from each-other so we FaceTimed last night to edit the commercial. I have a Apple computer so I offered to edit because we can use iMovie. Tuesday night I imported all the clips onto my computer from my google drive. Since we are using a personal computer we had to save all the videos to our google drive. Reese saved it to her google drive and then shared it with me. I gathered all the clips into a folder and imported them to iMovie. I didn’t finish putting all the clips into the actual commercial. I inserted 6 clips and trimmed them to length I wanted. I also adjusted the speed on some clips to make them look more dramatic. For example, in the clip where Reese puts paints on her cheeks I slowed it down to make it look like a dramatic scene.
    Tonight Reese and I are going to FaceTime again so we can talk about the type of music we are going to add and what transitions we should use. I was thinking we could could use music for the whole thing because we don’t talk in it and it just shows clips of the school. We could use upbeat music which could give the video a good vibe as well as showing the beautiful campus and school social life. Before we filmed we thought of transitions we could include by recording such as spinning into another scene but because of the short time we had to record we forgot about recording our transitions so we will have to insert them through what iMovie offers. Ask because of the delay with the computers our teacher gave us till Monday to work on the commercial which is very helpful because I have been sick and wasn’t able to go to school the past two days so I personally have only had one day to work on it. I was supposed to bring in my computer today so Reese, Amanda, and I could work on the commercial instead of just me doing it but because I am sick I wasn’t able to make it in today. As a result I am bringing in my computer on Monday so we can work on it. The only thing I am worried about though is that we might not be able to finish it all on Monday because we have to add music and transitions and finish it up by the end of that period. I don’t want to procrastinate and put it off to that day but I don’t know what else to add so we will finish it on Monday.