Auditions

Person 1:

Person 1was Hannah, who I am in a group with. An advantage of using Hannah was that she knew all the words due to listening to the song a lot when we were deciding what song to use. However we felt we needed someone who put more emphasis behind the powerful lyrics and beats, Hannah also did not show enough emotion. Which was important for our character, as we want there to be a powerful message behind our video. Eventhough we have discussed this and Hannah will not be lip syncing, she has suggested to be just a character for our video. However we are still in the early stages and continuing to discuss different ideas.

Person 2:

Person 2 was me. I was in the same position as Hannah, in that I knew the lyrics of the song very well and had no problem singing them on time. However I struggled showing real emotion whilst looking into the camera and felt I looked very neutral in terms of the emotions on my face. In addition, I also had no movement in my body which I also feel is important, especially with a powerful song such as this.

Person 3:

Our 3rd person to audition was Chelsea. Her audition was good overall, however there were some issues with the timing of the lyrics and the expression she had when lip-syncing them. We felt she was too shy for a powerful and influential song like Way Down We Go. As the lead singer has a harsh and load voice, meaning her character did not meet his singing personality.

Person 4:

Our 4th and final person to audition was Aiden. He was our only male auditionee. Disclaimer: he is in a different location as we had complications when it came to doing his audition. His audition turned out to be very successful as he had a lot of characteristics that we were looking for. He did well with his timing of the song and knew the lyrics well. Moreover, the most important aspect we were looking for was strong emotion when it came to the actual lip-syncing and the movements with the lyrics as well. This is what Aiden did very well; he showed that there was passion and emotion behind the lyrics, which would help connect with an audience.

To conclude, after going over all of the auditions we have made a decision. We will be using Aiden for our music video. Even though we wanted to have a female singer that would contradict the stereotype we felt that Aiden would be able to show a lot more emotion and represent the overall message a lot more. We have also discussed about having a female protagonist who will be in the video as well, more planning for that will be discussed.

Auditions Planning

Advertising Auditions:

In preparation for our Auditions we have made a Poster which we have uploaded online; through Instagram (Account name: emilyknightmedia). We have also put it up on our schools sixth form common room. This is to attract willing candidates to not only audition for our music video but also (if chosen) come with us to our chosen location to film the main thing. This we hope will turn out to be effective as not only will students around the age we are looking for may be interested and turn up, but also a broad audience of people will be able to see it through Instagram. Which is one of the most popular social media sites to date.

Details about Auditions:

We have planned out the process so the auditions go as smoothly and effectively as possible, allowing us to swiftly decide as soon as possible who we will want to be in our actual A2 Music video. The process is as follows;

2:00pm - Everyone who is auditioning arrive at our Media class room

2:10pm - Photos have been taken of each person auditioning

2:15pm - Practise lip sync before we film

2:25pm - Lip Syncing filming begins. Everyone will take turns lip-syncing the whole song. (When we put the whole video together we will cut out all the parts where there is just instruments playing and no vocals).

2:40pm - Auditions finish

2:45pm - Hannah and I will discuss who we think has got the part

3:00pm - Everyone who has auditioned is notified about our final decision.

Production Schedule

Will be updated throughout the production period of our project

Thursday 28th September 2017 - Audition Day:
Hannah: Film the audition
Emily: Play the song

Tuesday 24th October 2017 - Location Research Day (Canterbury):
Hannah: write notes on location and create an action plan for the filming day
Emily: Take testing shots and helping to create an action plan for filming day

To Do List:

• Get on the train to Canterbury at 10:50 from Rainham (Kent)
• Do some tester shots to potentially use in our music video
• Focus on what parts of the city we are going to use
• Take location pictures 
• Work out where everything is and what the best route and time of day would be to film them all.
• Discuss ideas further in more detail

Monday 6th November 2017 - Filming Day (Canterbury):

Hannah: Will be filmed

Emily: Filming

Paige: Will be filmed

To Do List:

• Get filming done 

Thursday 23rd November 2017 - Filming Day (Rochester) - Postponed due to weather:

Hannah: Will be filmed

Emily: Filming

Paige: Being filmed

To Do List:

• Film the chase

Wednesday 13th December 2017 - Filming Day (At School in the Drama room) - Postponed due to complication with the booking of the room:

• Film all of the lip-syncing using the dramatic lighting

Thursday 14th December 2017 - Filming Day (Rochester):

Hannah: Will be filmed

Emily: Filming

Paige: Being filmed

To Do List:

• Film the chase and the meltdown

Tuesday 19th December 2017 - Filming Day (At School in the Drama room):

• Filming all of the lip-syncing using the lights

Our Chosen Song

Here is a presentation explaining our updated and final song choice for our music video. Which is "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo

Initial Song Choice

Here is our initial song choice and reasons why we first chose it and also reasons why we have decided to use a different song.

Lip Sync Exercise

Here is our lip syncing exercise that we did to the song 'Believer' by Imagine Dragons. When we were filming we wanted to make sure that we pronounced and sung the lyrics correctly in order for it do go with the music effectively when it came to editing. We played the song in the background when filming in order to achieve this, it enabled us to know when certain parts came up e.g when a fast paise part of the song was coming up or when a beat drop was coming etc. Moreover, when it came to editing a problem we encountered was when we had downloaded the song and tried to fit it with our lip sync, as we had to cut the song at the right moment in order for it to flow smoothly from Hannah's clip to mine (as mine and Hannah's videos were separate recordings).

From this exercise I know what to look out for when it comes to our main music video. We will need to make sure that our characters lip sync to the song in time, in order for it to fit when it came to editing. To achieve this we will make sure we do what we did in this exercise (play the song in the background as we are filming them). In addition, when it comes to editing we need to make sure that our cuts are perfect in order for the song to flow from shot to shot.

Initial Ideas and Planning

We begun Planning our project by thinking about what we wanted to be in our Music Video. We knew initially we wanted a meaningful and hopefully emotional video, as it reaches out to the audience and connects with them more. Our idea for the story we would use for the music video was to have three individual people who would be in there own locations, and have their own personal struggles that they have to deal with on a daily bases. At this point, we were unclear as to what these issues would be as we wanted them to be reflected clearly in the video. We discussed Location, Costume and Potential People to be in our Video. When it came to Location we wanted four different places to film; three of them would represent each individuals situation and circumstance and we wanted an extra location where they would all lip sync to the song. Potential People to be involved is just a list to help us decide who might be in the video and Costumes are the give us an idea as to what their personality's are like. Originally at the time we had already chosen a song as we felt it had components that fit our ideas e.g. meaningful lyrics, strong and emotional beat. The song we had chose was 'Walking The Wire' by Imagine Dragons.

After the original plan we began discussing more ideas and how we could improve our video. After doing some more music research I made the decision to change the song as I found that the song; 'Way Down We Go' by the band Kaloe was exactly what we were looking for when it came to creating a believable and emotional story. I kept the idea of having three people with there separate locations (three main locations). However I had changed the locations in order for them to fit the characters personality's; one is a runner who struggles dealing with feeling isolated from others so they will be running in the woods. One of the other characters is a student who is does not like the way they look, their location throughout the majority of the music video will be in a library. Finally the last character struggles with not being noticed and therefore keeps all there feels and doubts inside, there main location will be in a High Street/Shopping Centre. In addition a separate location will be used for the characters to lip sync to the camera (there will be cuts through out the video to each character lip syncing the song). Finally the characters will all come together in the end to represent the moral of the music video, which is; No matter how lonely and awful you may feel, there is always someone to talk to and relate to how you feel. 

This was more brainstorming we did on a separate day which included ideas and information about Locations, Characters, Editing, Camera Angles, Props and Costume.