Re-filming the 'Headshot' Scene

One of the scenes we knew we had to change was the shot of Connor’s face when the lyrics say ‘Headshot’. Due to the fact that we have to repeat this footage throughout the song as it is in the chorus, this footage had to be perfected. The reason for why we had to re-film this footage is because in the original footage, Connor seemed to look like he was smiling which ruined to mood of the video. When we re-filmed this scene, Cally had to hold a thick cover over the door frame to control the lighting while I filmed him. We also covered up the windows to make it extra dark.

We had Connor sitting on the floor against a white wall again, but this time he was wearing a black shirt which we thought showed up better against the white background. It also shows that it is another day as he is wearing a white shirt in the scene it will go after in the music video. Black also represents depression and darkness which relates to our tone and mood perfectly.

In this footage of Connor, he is looking left and right and down at his hands rather than at the camera. This is to show the audience he is hiding his feelings which are one of the reasons for his drinking. He has isolated himself due to what has happened to Lily. We have the camera positioned head on while Connor is sat at a slight angle; this is so that it stands out when changing from each shot as it is placed in a scene which involves Connor being head on.

Cally tried to film Connor using a panning shot to create a variety of shots. However, the location wasn’t successful as there was gym equipment filling the room which ruined the shot as they were sometimes visible. The gym equipment being in the way also made it difficult for Cally to go round him successfully. There was also a mirror on the wall which meant i was shown filming him in the reflection which made the footage look unprofessional.

We tried finding another location to do this shot; however, no room was dark or bare enough. We couldn’t use our previous empty room as we previously used Cally’s spare room and she had moved house therefore there was nowhere for this shot to be completed so we improvised and kept the camera still.  

Filming Connor at the Bar

This is one of the last filming sessions we did. This setting was successful as it shows his repetitive drinking as it is clear he has a bar in his home. The black bar with the red chairs works really well with our tone and message as it relates to his clothes and the connotations of these colours are danger and death which links to our music video.

This footage starts with Connors face, we then see him drink, once he has put the bottle down it starts to zoom in on the label of the bottle, this is to highlight his problem as the lighting shows it is clearly the middle of the day yet he is still drinking. We made sure we kept his hands in the shot as he had them in fits and starts to tap them on the bar which makes it clear something is on his mind which is why he is drinking. It’s as if he knows what he is doing isn’t good for him, but he still does it anyway. The setting is successful as there is bottles of wine next to his head and it is visibly clear that he is sitting at a bar in his own home which shows how drinking is a regular occurrence. We found if quite difficult filming this shot as there was a mirror behind him and, therefore, we were able to see a reflection of what was happening behind us which we had to get out of the shot. We had to set up a chair for the camera to sit on and then we relied on the zoom, this was so that we didn't show up in the mirror. This ruined our shot a bit as we wanted to film him drinking and then move to the clock on the wall next to him, however, we changed our shot as we were unable to film the clock due to the mirror being in the way.

The focus of this shot is more on the bottle than Connor; however, we showed it was Connor at the beginning of the shot to show the audience it was him. I then zoomed in on the bottle while Connor made a fist in the corner of the shot showing his aggravation and desperation for the thought to leave him. This is a successful shot as we see that the main focus is the alcohol, which is the main feature in the video, alcoholism.

This footage is successful as Connor is looking at the bottle in his hands; he then makes a fist and puts his fist on the bar which could either mean he is disappointed and angry with himself for drinking, or feeling angry about what has happened with Lily which is drawing him to the drink. This makes the audience think that Connor is guilty about something. We start to zoom in on the shot and then we zoom out this is visually unsuccessful as it looks very unprofessional and makes the video lack quality. Connor then looks at the bottle with his hands in fists and then looks at the clock to show how it is a viscous cycle as he drinks throughout the whole day. Him clenching his fist shows his frustration with what he is doing and what has happened.

In this shot Connor looks at the bottle and then the clock, we then zoom in on the bottle and his hands as he starts to move his fingers along the bottle as if he is thinking about what he is doing. This shot is successful as it shows how Connor drinks while he thinks which is the main reason he is an alcoholic as he is drinking to escape his thoughts.

In this shot Connor looks at the bottle before drinking. He then closes his eyes as if trying to escape his thoughts. He then puts the bottle down and shakes his head as if it hasn't worked in taking away his memory and the thoughts that are clearly bothering him that is originally driving him to drinking. He then looks at the clock as if to say how much longer will he have to drink before he forgets his problems. This tells the audience that his drinking is clearly repetitive and destructive all throughout the day. The shot ends on the bottle and Connor's hands as he makes a fist and puts his hands together as if thinking or praying this shows how desperate he is for the drink to take away his problems and his frustration of what he is doing to himself and the people that care about him.

Creating the Video

Importing:
Each clip had to be imported individually and then cut the desired part of the footage from the rest. This involved watching all of the clips and then choosing the best parts from an array of them, once I had decided on the best clips I then imported each one and cropped them together to create the final piece. I imported the audio in order for it to play throughout the clips which was successful once I had un-linked the original sound from the footage.


Editing: 

Editing the video was essential as continuity is vital in a music video, this was a challenge as we planned to have our video changing scenes at a quick pace. Editing our video involved many aspects as I had to un-link the individual clips in order to remove the audio from the videos and replace it with the audio from the song. Once the chosen clips were decided they had to be trimmed and split in order to piece them together and create the correct tone and visual aspect we were aiming for. I used these tools regularly as I paired many different clips together in order for the video to change angle and camera shot which highlights how wide range of filming. This had to be done successfully to ensure it doesn't skip or jump when watching it. 

Transitions:

The transitions from each clip were crucial as it had to blend and run smoothly. I used 3 tools in particular; cross fade, cross blur and pan zoom. The cross fade is shown when our model is burning a picture of Lilly while a shot of cars driving under a bridge is shown. These two clips were overlaid to highlight how he is constantly affected by the memory of Lilly as time is visually passing yet he is still thinking of Lilly throughout. The cross blur was used on some of the clips of Lilly to illustrate that she is an Enigma, the blur makes the audience question whether she is really there which is what they are made to wonder throughout the video. This tool visually represents the message of our video. The pan zoom gave the effect of the camera moving up or down across a selection of photos that highlight Connor’s relationship with Lilly and obsession with drink and partying. This tool makes it visually successful as the pictures become more of a feature as it moves from each one in time with the music.

Digipak Design Research

Kanye Wests Digipak:

Most CD’s relate to the cover on the front of the CD case. On this CD the link is the bear as it is the same bear on the CD and on the front. This is what we are planning on doing with our CD. Advantages of this CD are that it is simple but effective as it links to the album cover. Is the CD was lost from its case; it would be easy to put the two back together as they link. It is important to keep the colour schemes the same to create the correct mood the artist wants to give. This makes the digipak relate to some of the songs on the album. Whatever the mood of the album shows, it is likely that that will be the mood of the songs. The front of the CD case seems to be very bare not having the name of the album nor the name of the artist. However, the CD has the name of the artist and the name of the album on it but nothing more. This must mean that the rest of the information must be at the back of the cd case.

Drake’s Digipak:

Similar the previous CD, the CD and the front of the album are closely linked due to the picture on the front of the album is almost identical to the picture on the CD. Again, like the other CD, there is bare minimal writing on the front of the CD and the album. However, the CD seems to have more writing than the last CD we analysed as this CD has the names of the producers writing extremely small around the edge of the CD. Due to the artist being so well known and that picture of the artist being so famous, the name of the artist isn’t needed on the cover of the album as people would already know who it is. Using the same image is successful for Drake as it has become his promotion for his whole tour for this album which makes it recognised, however, we don’t want the image to be the same on the cd as that image will already feature on the poster. Therefore, we would rather all of the images relate and lead on from each other rather than repeat. 

Ukiyo Live Digipak:

 

This Cd is how we would like ours as it has a small image on the cd which links to the whole album but isn’t a repeated image. The image carries on when the cd is taken out as it is clearly related to the album therefore it is fitting. We are going to have smoke instead of fire.

Similar CD’s:

All of these CDs are very similar in the way that they are all simple but effective. Unlike the other two CDs, these don’t use a picture of the artist or the same picture on the album, they just say the name of the artist, the name of the album and the executive producers written very small around the edges of the CD. We will be doing something like this with our CD as we feel that because we are using the same picture on the front of the CD and on the poster, we don’t want to be using it on the actual CD as well. The Cd's aren’t overcrowded and the simplistic design actually benefits them. There colour scheme works well as they are binary opposites which means that they stand out from one another, making is simple but effective.

Adding the 'VEVO' Sing to our Video

Using Fireworks, Marie had to use the magic wand tool in order to remove the existing white and black background, Marie then had to flatten the image and save it as a PNG file. Marie then had to export the image into MoviePlusX3, create a new video track and transform the image to place it in the correct area of the video. Lastly using the properties Marie decreased the opacity during the middle of the video to ensure the logo isn’t the main focus. 

Why we decided to use VEVO:

Vevo is a video hosting service owned and operated by a joint venture of Universal Music Group, Google, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media. It launched on December 8, 2009. Most official music videos played on YouTube are now presented by Vevo. With the rise in technological convergence, we thought that it would be better to ‘advertise’ our music video on an online music video hosting site because we felt it would be more fitting to our target audience. For example they could use their IPhones to watch the video via the YouTube app on their phones, or they could even go on to the Vevo website to watch our video. Kendrick Lamar himself is Vevo certified along with several other artists for example: Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Tinie Tempah, Wiz Khalifa, etc.

We felt the Vevo would be the best platform to ‘advertise’ the video as opposed to a channel such as MTV because statistics have shown a decrease in the amount of 15-25 year olds who actually watch TV.

Photo Shoot for our CD Cover

For the photoshoot, me and becky set up in my living room and Marie and Cally were unable to make the shoot, with a white screen. We wanted to have a picture of Connor and Lily as we want to show the audience that they have some kind of connection, as it shows in the music video. We tried many different poses but used the same mise-en-scene. We wanted our picture to be similar to the cover of TheWeekends.

Setting up:

We set up the white screen in the correct position and then got the professional light out and put that in the right corner to give the correct lighting. We set up a stool for Connor for him to sit on and then asked lily to stand behind him and put her arms round him. We decided that because there is a sense of mystery in our video as the audience never find out what happened to lily, we thought it would be a good idea to cut her face out, again, making it mysterious.

Lighting:

We used one of the professional lighting lamps so that the lighting improved the quality of the photos so that we could edit the tones to make them darker rather than lose the quality of the images by trying to photograph them in dark lighting. This is what the images looked like without the professional lamps on; as you can see the quality is poor and it is difficult to see what the model looks like. Therefore despite us wanting the images to be dark to create the correct depressing tone and mood it was necessary to shoot the photos using the best lighting and then edit them to produce the right tone. Although we can easily edit them to change the brightness, however, the quality has to be good from the start.

Mise-en-scene:

We chose the mise-en-scene carefully as we wanted everything to have a message to it. We added the bottle as a part of the iconography as we have used alcohol throughout the process, in the video and on the back of the album. We dressed Connor in all black to portray the darkness and the depression he feel and then asked Lily to dress in white to show her purity and innocent. We also painted her nails so they stand out from Connor’s black clothes. White is also a colour linked to angels which give an idea that Lily may have died in the video, again creating some mystery. These contrasting colours worked well as it coincided with the tone of the video as the colours were continued throughout the music video. We wanted Connor to look quite rugged as he is a victim of alcoholism and mental depression so we asked him to not shave to give this look.

Photo shoot outcome:

We decided to take some shot of Connor on his own in case we decided this would look better on our cover. We also took them in case we could use one for our poster. We took some with him just looking depressed on his own and we took some with him holding wine bottles, again, showing his alcohol addiction and therefore, relates to our video. We had Connor looking at the bottle as if he is relying on it and aware of his problems. In one of the photos we had Connor holding two bottles to show his extensive drinking. Despite none of these images working the ones with the bottle definitely worked the most therefore we will keep this variable the same throughout as it relates to our music video and message. The photo's needed more mise-en-scene to fill the empty space in order to attract the audience.

We then decided to add Lily into the picture. We found that these images were more successful as it creates a better effect. Also Lily’s arm frame Connor which adds a good feature. By using Lily in this position it visually shows the hold she has on Connor as she is draping her arms around his neck which could be classed as quite suffocating. By having the wine bottle in the shot, it highlights how she has made him rely on alcohol and caused his drinking problem. We found that these photos are more successful than the other ones as Lily adds a visual aspect which makes the photo more interesting and eye catching. We made Connor turn his head from left to right in order to show how he is turning away from life and his problems, the fact he is looking away could be in desperation or despair which matches our tone and mood.

We then thought it would be a good idea to ask Lily to hold the bottle showing that it is because of her that Connor has turned to drinking. We had Connor look left and right again as if he is turning away from the alcohol bottle as he knows this is a problem. We then had Connor looking at the bottle while Lilly holds it to highlight how he is aware of his drinking problem.

The Chosen Image:

We chose this as our final image for our CD front cover as Connor is looking up at Lily and she is holding the bottle, Connors hands are creating a nice feature as he is holding his hands quite intensely. Lily becomes almost angel like as she is standing over him in her white clothes, he is in black as he is depressed and in danger due to the alcohol bottle she is holding as she is the reason he is drinking. He is looking up at her with quite a lonely look on his face as if he is desperately missing her and looking at her for help form his alcohol problem. We thought that for our front cover it would be best to edit it to make it black and white but then keep the colour of the wine bottle showing that it is an important aspect of the picture.

FINAL FRONT IMAGE:

This is the edited version that I created to put on the front of our cd. By doing this I made the image black and white by decreasing the saturation, and then enhanced the brightness and contrast in order to improve the lighting. By doing this, this made that background clear white and made the dark aspects of the picture stand out. I then created another layer for the wine bottle so that we could make it red to stand out against the black clothing. We couldn't make it too red as this would be unrealistic as red wine isn't very red when it is in their normal dark bottles. 

CD Holder Research

Most Cd cases use similar or the same images from either the left hand side of the case or the design of the CD for the area the CD sits in. This is to ensure continuity and a package that all relates and incorporates every feature. Ours will follow this convention as it is popular in many digipaks as it looks more professional and creates a package that corresponds with every feature used.