Music Video Filming

    As of today, we have concluded all our filming. The footage has been shot and imported into Pinnacle Studios, with zero complications. Luckily we had no technical issues and no problems getting the footage to load, the files didn't change unlike last time, and Pinnacle Studios kept running until we had finished importing. With that said,  we had no issues following the plan either, we filmed on the eighteenth of November just as intended but I, unfortunately, was unable to make the trip there. We as a group rearranged the roles, as a result, of my absence, having Emily film, Victoria and Andrea act. With everything covered I delegated myself the task of editing the footage in order to still contribute my fair share. I was able to get updates about the filming luckily but only to the extent that I can retell what the others can recall.
    From what I was told, the middle school location held up quite nicely. There were no issues using the grounds and we were able to film wherever we pleased. The stage we had planned to use, unlike the one at our school, was in the cafeteria and it took some looking around to find but there was ample space to film. Both inside and outside the building of the school suited our needs for filming so the scenes we had planned weren't affected in the slightest. In terms of the actual filming, the scenes were again shot separately,. I know this first hand because I got a chance to review the footage. Since I would be the one editing, I made sure everything could be used to tell the story as close to the storyboard in which Emily made.
     The filming was divided into three. There were essentially three locations in one. There was the stage, the outside walking area, and then the outside seating area. The stage was used to shoot the dancing scenes. The walking area was used for the playfull 'transitional' scenes between. And the seating area outside was used for some scenery shots and concluded the film. With all that, the scenes were shot and the day ended. The only scene that is in the film that wasn't shot at the location would be the opening scene of the radio. Emily was able to take the camera home and shot the scene of her turning on the radio. The footage came out nicely, in all,  I'm not sure if a tripod was used, but it looks to be a lot less shacky. My absence may have actually benefited the group. The fact that I wasn't there allows me to fully focus on editing now.

Music Video Storyboard

    In the storyboard, we start off with an establishing shot with a radio. This severs as a opening and an introduction to the music, having the overlapped sound act as diegetic. We then fade to curtain, to introduce the subjects as the music starts playing. The two subjects come out from the curtains and begin to dance, as they dance we then transition outside. Running the two subjects exit stage left, and begin explore the grounds, holding hands. We then have a sequence of jump cuts, featuring the two running, playing, and skipping. We then have some transitional shots of the sky to tie the outdoor feel together, ending with the subjects again to concluded the film.

Music Video Plan

    For our location. We conventionality ran into an opportunity that allowed us to shoot at a local middle school. We plan to use the school's stage while shooting some scenes outside. As far as a back up location, not much thought has been put in to it, seeing that our main setting has already been secured with no sign of complications. If we had to, a reasonable back up would be the beach, especially since it fits with our goal of creating a clique love story or sorts. I personally like the idea of shooting on the stage because, it the closest we have to an actual speakeasy. While it may not be as classy as one, I hope the scene can be set within reasonable parameters. That with the outside shots, a nice composed film should be easy.
    For props, I don't see us using any. At the very least, I don't see us bringing any props to the set. If we manage to get our hands on some musical instruments at the school, we could defiantly use them, otherwise we won't have any props in our final film, other than the radio used to open our film. For costumes, we'll have the two subjects wear dresses, similar to the dresses worn to time of the Song, the 1950s. The possibility of makeup is there, but we might cut it out. It's a tad extra, in my option.
    In terms of our schedule, we plan of filming November the eighteenth, and editing until December the tenth. We thought that the sooner we film, the longer we'd have to edit and everything, especially since we had so many difficulties editing for the commercial. Technical issues are to be expected and we want to take this music a step above our commercial. In order to do that we wanted to jump start our project and film as soon as possible and get editing just as fast. Over the course of time we plan on figuring out ways to turn our footage into black and white and also figure out some transition effects we could use to better the quality of our film.
     With all this said, since we are filming on our own time, we did have to consider health and safety. We, as a group, do not have any health obstacles to over come. Our location is safe, being that it is a school, and there will be numerous facilitators present on the grounds while we film.  We do not plan to have anything on set that would cause us harm, chiefly because we do no plan on using props at all. If we end up filming on the beach, we all know how swim so we wouldn't be subject to drowning. Nevertheless, we would make sure to film near a life-guard tower, even though we don't plan on implementing the water into our film.

Moving in to our music video

    Today, we have officially moved on to our music video. From our commercial, I found that storyboarding didn’t really work for me. Personally, having pre-planned our project helped but it ultimately had a smaller effect than I thought it would. I thought having our thoughts on paper would be effective but the plans ended changing and while we keep a majority of the storyboarded material, it didn’t all translate on film. Storyboarding made us as a whole feel attached to the scenes we had already thought of and it made it harder to move away from them, even though they weren’t working out.
    We chose the song “ Fly Me To The Moon” by Frank Sinatra. We chose this song because we want to create a controversial story. With Frank Sinatra being a staple for the 1950s and 1960s, it more than actually depicts the time scene we want. We’re thinking of having a pro-homosexual theme, based around the time period of the song. We’re thinking of placing it in a classy dance hall, jazz in the background and instead of the classic love troupe of a man sweeping and wooing the woman off her feet, we want to replace that we two men or two women.
    This idea mainly comes from the time period but also goes against the common conventions of  Jazz. Through the few music videos made for the Jazz genre, the overall premise of each made by the artists is the same. The video made wouldn't even be considered music videos. They were either just videos of the band performing normally, or a recreation of the band or a band for a film.
   
    For the purpose of our music video, there are six guides to stick to.
 
   Number one, Costumes. In the time period of 1950 and 1960, the act of wearing fancy dresses and such for a night out was common. Women wore flowy dresses that spun as they did, while men wore collared shirts and suits with the notable bow tie.
   Number two lighting. The scenes that Jazz was often played in were bars, pubs, and restaurants. It was lit in a way that centered the band, yet we’re dimmed to the point where the whole room would not always be seen.
   Number three, acting. In films where Jazz is featured, the acting can be only described as cheerful and upbeat. The acting often centered around how the people responded to the somber sound of Jazz.
Number four, makeup. The makeup around this time was very light, with blush and nude shades of lipstick were common with some times red and velvets used to highlight a woman’s attire.
    Number five, props.  Any props used would most likely be interments or anything related to music like mics and speakers
    Number six, scenery. Scenery, Jazz music often took place in fancy areas that men and women dressed up just to attend.

Editing Our Commercial

     Today we actually edited. Despite everything, we put together our footage quite nicely.  This said it wasn't without its various issues though. First off, we were divided in our first half of editing. Victoria was homesick and Emily was home due to the recent passing of her uncle. With me and Andrea on the scene, we went through our many takes and picked, sorted, and ordered them to illustrate our story. Out of nearly thirty takes, seven were chosen. Unsurprisingly, not many takes would be, what one would call, "perfect". The seven chosen were just the best out of the worst. This is more of a self-critique more than anything else, but. many shots could have been shot better.
     In terms of the issues we ran into; we faced many technical difficulties. Oddly, when importing our footage from the desktop, the files somehow changed. This wouldn't have been an issue if our instructor recognized the file change and could fix it. Needless to say, she did not. We were advised to switch programs since Pinnacle Studios couldn't read our files. For a while, we did attempt to use the secondary program. I forget the name, but I believe it was Microsoft Editor. We did, at the same time, also attempt to continue using Pinnacle Studio since we'd already achieved so much. While trying to play our ordered footage Pinnacle crashed. Luckily, with the self-inflicted shutdown, Pinncal miraculously started to read the footage and all was well until it was time to save. When saving we were again advised, this time advised to upload our film onto Google Drive, and somehow, it saved as an audio file, switching the files yet again. We had to trust that saving it on Pinnacle would be enough and left and the conclusion of the class.
      In the second half of editing, taking place a day later, we took our ordered footage and started taking out unnecessary scenes and splicing them and connecting altogether. This was more of a challenge rather than an issue, but worth saying none the less. When editing, Victoria and I ran into the issue of making a smooth transition in each of the seven shots. Since they were all separate, they all had different perspectives angles and camera movements. Like I speculated before, it was rough. We ended up combining some shots outside the chosen seven to fill in some gaps we had. I would like also to say that, because of the separated shots, the film feels fast, despite it being a little under a minute long. To me, it antiquity tells the story we had envisioned but seems rushed in a way. Overall I think our film is coming together nicely, we're doing all we can and I feel like it'd be something both myself and my group members can be proud of.