Location Research | Canterbury

Our chosen Locations for filming in order for the day:
The majority of our filming will be located in different places in Canterbury. As it is full of different places and things to do and see. Enabling us to get powerful and effective shots of our protagonist and the setting around them shots. Here are our following locations in Canterbury;

• Rainham Train Station
• Canterbury High Street
• King Ethelbert Garden
• Love Lane
• Outside Marlowe Theatre
• Dane John Gardens
• Westgate Gardens

Rainham Train Station:

This will be our first location where we will be filming, as it is the beginning of our characters journey. It is not located in Canterbury however it is our way of getting there. We will begin filming just outside the station, in order show her approach to the train station and confirm to the audience that she is travelling and going somewhere. We will be filming outside the train station, inside, on the platform and on the train. It will almost be a montage of shoots as our protagonist begins her journey. Even though this location will only have a short appearance in our video it is essential as our theme for our video is to portray a story; so the idea of the train station and her getting on the train allows the audiences imagination to wonder where the protagonist is going.

Canterbury High Street:

Our second location will be Canterbury High Street where we will be filming lots of different shots in order to create a montage of our protagonist walking around town when it came to editing. The reason we chose the High Street for this is because it is full of people which would help the video seem more realistic as our protagonist is in a realistic scenario (a busy town). Our main location in the High Street to film will be alley ways where we will be effective long shots, benches, outside shots of little shops and cafes etc. We will be filming during the day as it is the beginning of our protagonists journey; the montage will help with the audience understand that.

King Ethelbert Garden:

Our third location is King Ethelbert Garden. We chose this particular location because of the statues there. I liked the idea of showing the audience all the different kind of things our protagonist sees while she's on her trip. This will also be another location where we see the hooded figure, however it will be very brief, so its not too obvious yet to the audience. The ending will be the big reveal. This is an ideal location choice because it is fairly close to our other locations, meaning we walk past it as we get to the others. 

Love Lane:

Our fourth location is only a small one and there will be only one very quick shot of this in our montage. The reason that we still wanted to walk there and film it even though it will only be there for a couple of seconds is because of the beautiful pattern work on the wall. I felt that it would be aesthetically pleasing for the audience to see, as we plan to film where there are brighter colours that contrast from the screen, making it harder for them to look away. The art work can also go with the Indie Rock theme as aspects that are associated with Indie Rock include different kinds of art.

Outside the Marlowe Theatre:

The reason for choosing this next location is due to the different statues and objects outside of the Theatre. This includes the Bronze Statue of pantomime legend Dave Lee, the metal face sculpture and the River Stour. These beautiful aspects of this location will be effective in our video because I believe they would not only be visually pleasing but also some could give an interesting message along with the overall message of the actual video. What I mean by this is the overall message is about mental health; the face sculpture looks like a mask to me and could represent the protagonist hiding her true emotions to the rest of the world, the statue sitting on the bench could represent her inability to move forward with her life. Much like the statue she is stuck in a spot any cannot move forward with her life (due to her mental issues).



Dane John Gardens:

Our second to last location is Dane John Gardens where the main aspect I wanted to go there for was the fountain in the centre of the garden. I chose this location because I want to get some close up and arty shots of the water. There is also a long path with trees going down either side of it. I liked this aspect as it will allow me to get scenic and arty long shots of our protagonist walking towards the fountain. In fact, the whole garden is aphetically pleasing, which will help the music video seem more professional.




Westgate Gardens:



Our final location will be Westgate Gardens where we will film along the side of the river and in the gardens next to the river. I felt this location would allow us to get some lovely scenic shots, as well as some effective shots that will play nicely along with the storyline. Shots such as, focus pulls, long shots, pans etc. In addition, the long paths will help when we begin the running scene of our video (where one character is chasing the other).

Character Mood Boards

 For character one we wanted a female as it challenges the stereotype when it comes to all make band having a lead female protagonist in their music video. Along with this, I wanted to make sure she would be wearing darker clothing to match the tone and overall message that we will be trying to portray in the actual video. This mean she will be wearing black jeans, a black top, a dark coat an shoes to match the outfit. Along with a backpack, which will help raise the idea of her going on a journey and almost trying to escape something. In addition, her hood will also be up for the majority of the video as it suggests she is trying to hide from something or trying to be noticed by anyone. This will link to the idea of Mental Health and Mental Health issues.

For the lip-syncing part of our video we wanted him to link with our protagonist. The purpose of this is to link their situation and/or state of mind. They may be experiencing the same things. Also I didn't want his outfit to distract from the important aspects, which is the actual lip-syncing. As he is the expressing the actual lyrics of the song through sound. Where as our protagonist is expressing them visually (by her actions). This is why we have chosen a black outfit; black top, black trousers. This will also link with Kaleo's style, as for a lot of their videos they are wearing darker clothing.

Storyboard pre Filming

Here are our storyboards that I wrote out before we went to film. We did it this way because it was more convenient for when we will be walking around in Canterbury. In addition we also wrote it in order of what we needed to film, not in order of what it will be in the actual video because we would be able to get more filming done a lot quicker.

Final Idea for our Music Video

Our final idea for our music video is going to be a surrounding message about mental health, as this is something we both feel very strongly about. It is also something that will link/go well with the overall tone and lyrics of the song we chose; Way Down We Go by Kaleo. Our music video will have a storyline and will show a journey our protagonist is taking through different locations, along with a separate character in a separate location lip syncing the song. Moreover, our protagonist will be walking through these locations only to realise that someone has been following them the whole time. They will chase that person and in between the chase scenes there will be flashbacks from previous scenes where it is made more obvious that a hooded figure is standing beside our protagonist and following them. All while this is happening their will be cuts to the lip syncing character. In the end of the music video our protagonist will catch the hooded figure, turn her around and it will be a reflection of them. They will be looking at themselves. This will be a human form of her mental health. It is dark, hands over head and is never too far away to make simple things/tasks a lot more difficult. That is the overall deep message that I wanted for the video. It will end with our protagonist having a break down in our chosen location and our lip syncing character singing the very last parts of the song.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Create your own user feedback survey

Here is a Questionnaire that will enable us to see what kind of audience our music video will be targeting. This will help our outcome to be a lot more successful as when audiences see it they will most likely enjoy it more as we would have included aspects they wanted to see.

Please feel free to fill out our Questionnaire.
Here is a link for those who need it;
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HBLQL9C

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.