Insomnia casting

Name: Ben Hesketh

Age: 22

Role: Lead Singer

We cast Ben to play the artist in our music video because he wrote the song which makes him a natural candidate for being the lead. Ben is also Nathan's brother which made contacting him easy and he was more willing to be part of the video.

 

Name: Amy Petts

Age: 20

Role: Female that is mugged

 

We chose Amy as the girl who gets mugged because she looks innocent which makes the audience feel for her when the mugging happens. She is Tom's sister which makes her easy to contact and reliable. 

Name: Benjamin Seager 

Age: 20

Role: Mugger

 

We chose Ben to act as a mugger because we knew he could handle the acting. He was used in the last group project (AS Level) and was great at the fighting/stunts and drama which is what we needed for this music video.

Name: Jon Petts 

Age: 49

Role: Paramedic

We chose Jon to play the paramedic because he had a realistic costume for the role. He is also Tom's dad which made contacting him easy and he was willing to play the role for us. There is only 1 scene which Jon is in so the acting isn't much which probably made it appealing.

 

 

-Sophie, Michael 

Britney Spears Music Video Remake

Here is the remake of Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears, done by the whole class. It has helped us to understand the process of making a music video whilst lip syncing and editing to music.

-Sophie

Shot List

(Click to view)

Here is the shot list for our music video. This will be very useful whilst on set as it will make the filming process more efficient and will help us stick to our shooting schedule.



Tom, Nathan, Michael, Sophie

Production Equipment

Here is list of all the equipment we will be using to film our music video:

Canon 6D

 

We will be filming our music video on a Canon 6D, we have decided to use this camera for a few reasons. One reason we are using this camera is due to its impressive low-light performance thanks to its full frame sensor. This is important as a lot of our shots will be filmed early in the morning with little light. Another reason is that we can get a shallow depth of field, giving the video a very cinematic look.

 

 

 

 

Canon 24-70 F4 L-Series Lens

 

We have selected this lens for three main reasons. One reason we will use this lens is its low and continuous f stop. This will help us to get a shallow depth of field. The fact it is continuous means that we can adapt and change our focal length on the spot with out having to change any settings in the camera. The second reason we have selected this lens is due to its versatility. 24mm is wide enough to get any sort of wide shot we need and 70mm is a good enough zoom that it will allow us to get nice detailed close ups.

 

 

 

 

Eimo Steadicam

 

As we have a number of tracking shots throughout our music video where the camera follows the artist, it is important that we get smooth shots. In order to accomplish this we have decided to use a Steadicam. This will allow us to move with the action and get nice, smooth shots. This will help to improve the overall look of our music video. Having movement in our music video will also help match in with our genre of music as in similar music videos there are very few static shots.

 

 

 

Eimo Shoulder Rig

 

We have planned to shoot a number of hand held shots in our music video. In order to pull these off effectively without too much camera shake, we have decided to use a shoulder rig. This has several different attachments that will help us when filming the video. For example, it has a follow focus to allow our DP to pull focus accurately and easily during a shot. The wide handles are helpful to cut down on camera shake and helps to improve specific camera movements.

 

 

 

 

Manfrotto Compact Tripod

 

In order to get stable shots in our music video, we will need a tripod. This will make shots like our time lapse a lot easier. We have few static shots in our music video and therefore we did not want to have to use a heavy-duty tripod. This is why we have selected a small compact tripod that is small enough to move around on set without causing any issues whilst still being strong enough to hold our camera and rig setup.

 

 

 

LED light Panel

 

As a number of shots in our music video are in low light situations, having a source of light will be essential. We have decided to use this small LED panel for a few reasons. The main reason we have decided to use this is due to the fact that it is battery powered. This, as well as the transportability of it, means it is perfect to take on set. Not all of our locations have a source of power that we can use and therefore this will be perfect for those situations. It also has some diffusion jells with it, meaning we can change the colour temperature of the light. This will help us to match the light that is already there to avoid making it obvious that we are using an additional light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft box lights

 

A number of shots in our music video will be inside. In order for them to be properly lit, we have decided to use two soft box lights. Theses both have five bulbs each, which can all be turned on and off individually so we can have varying amounts of light. The light is heavily defused, which helps give it a more natural look. Both lights are on light stands, which will allow us to put them at a any height up to 2  metres. This will help us if we want top- down lighting.

 

 

 

5 in 1 reflector unit

 

As some of our shots are outside, the soft box lights will be unsuitable. Due to this reason we have selected a 5 in 1 reflector to use. This will help us bounce warm or natural light as well as defusing and blocking out light. This will help us to shape the available light when on location to better suit the scene.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Bluetooth speaker

 

When on location, we will have a Bluetooth speaker, this will let us play the song in order have our artist lip sync. Using a speaker will be better then just playing it through a phone as it will be much louder and of a higher quality. The higher the quality, the easier it will be to sync with the music in post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other important accessories

 

 

Whilst on location we will make sure that we have plenty of spare batteries and SD cards. We are shooting on fast 95mb/s cards with 32gb of space. This will give us plenty of space on which to film. We will also have a charger on hand to make sure that we can recharge when ever we need to. Other things that we will have on hand are, cleaning cloths and lens pens to make sure the camera optics are clean. We will also have ND filters ( natural density) to help block out unwanted light. This will allow us to use the frame rate and aperture we need without making the image too bright.

 

 

 

 

 

Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representation in our music video

Our music video doesn't have many representations in our music video but the ones that are in there are easy to spot.

The first representation is that we have a stereotypical female that is presented as weak because she can't stop the mugger from taking her necklace. This is stereotypical because woman are portrayed as weaker than men in the media. They also, stereotypically, show more emotion than men which is portrayed when Amy is in the coffee shop and is feeling upset/distressed about the situation and what she has experienced.

 

In addition, there is a representation of gender which is portrayed as non-stereotypical when Ben doesn't help the girl when she is being attacked. This is non-stereotypical because normally men think they are big, strong and can take on anything but in Ben's case he just carries on getting into his car and drives off leaving the girl to get mugged. This is also non-stereotypical as men are usually seen as hero's and save the "damsel in distress".

Another representation of gender which is stereotypical and includes the white, working class, youth mugger. We said this was stereotypical of that type of person to mug a girl because they would've been brought up in a rough area and not know how to treat people correctly.

 

Representation of age is also shown in our music video as the mugger is young adult and therefore conforms to the stereotype that teenagers/young adults cause trouble and tend to be criminals.

Sophie, Michael 

Animatic Storyboard

This is our animated storyboard. This has the advantage of showing us the timing of the shots in the music video. We will have it on hand, on one of our phones, while shooting to make sure we have the correct lengths of each shot that we need.



Nathan

Lip Syncing Audition - Ben Hesketh

This is a video of Ben having an 'audition' for the role of the artist in the music video. It acts as an audition because it shows Ben lip syncing to the song (which is his own). It's also the first time he's had to lip sync to this song so it is a practice to see if he is any good at it. As Ben wrote the music and we can personally contact him he will naturally star as the artist in the music video.
Nathan, Sophie

Finished Storyboard

Here is our finished storyboard. We will use this when we are shooting to ensure that we get the shots that we need.


Nathan, Tom, Michael, Sophie 

Costume Design

Girl

• Necklace

• Cream jumper

• Black jeans

• Black pumps

Amy wore a cream jumper to show her innocence and purity against the harsh night and the mugger. The necklace is the object that the mugger steals so that's why she needs to wear that.  

Protagonist

• Blue jeans - flashback

• Plain white T - flashback

• Trainers - flashback

• Duffle Coat - flashback

The duffle coat was easily accessible for the artist to get. He is wearing a white shirt to show his innocence in starting fights and the blue jeans will later be connotations of the guilt he has for not saving the girl.

• Comfortable shorts - bed shots

• Plain white T - bed shots

He is wearing this outfit because he is in bed and it is comfortable for him, even though he can't sleep.

• Black shirt - lip syncing

• Dark Trousers - lip syncing

We said that Ben would be wearing his outfit for the lip syncing because the all black connotes his dark atmosphere from his lack of sleep. The Lip syncing allows the audience to see Ben's emotions through lyrics.

Antagonist

• Grey tracksuit bottoms

• Grey hoodie

We decided that the mugger would wear a grey tracksuit because it is stereotypical for a guy with a rough past (chav) to wear an outfit like this. It will show the audience that this guy isn't nice.

- Nathan and Sophie

Target Audience Questionnaire Analysis

We will use this information in our music video by taking into account what the feedback says. This questionnaire has allowed us to understand what our target audience wants in a music video of our genre and will guide us when considering narrative.

 

 

- Sophie

Initial Ideas for Props

Props we have we decided we will be using (may not be actual props used in final video)

• Necklace x2 - Stolen from female (personal item) - The necklace is our main prop and will be a symbol of our music video. It will be stolen from the victim and is keeping our main character from sleeping.
  

• Bed - As the narrative is being shown we will cut back to our artist in bed lip syncing. This shot will be from above and will be a cut away that will be used multiple times in the video.

• Pillow x6 (four for female, 2 for male)
  

• Car - Fiat Punto Grande (silver) because its dull matching the theme of not being able to sleeping

• Fake Blood - For victims nose bleed - During the mugging the victim will be injured and in a later shot the victim will have a nose bleed. This will be seen by the artist connoting his guilt as he didn't help the victim during the mugging. 

• Whiskey - Bottle and Glass - Alcohol - Guilty - The victim will have whiskey to show that he is depressed and is another item that connotes his guilt.
  

• Table

• Chair - For female (Kitchen scene) - This will be used in a kitchen scene were both characters are drinking late at night. Both scenes will match.

• Stool - For male (Kitchen scene) - This will be used in a kitchen scene were both characters are drinking late at night. Both scenes will match.

Lemonade and Glass - Female innocent and pure (non-alcohol)

• Coffee - This will be featured in the coffee shop and when the artist meets the victim to give the necklace back they will both have coffee on the table.

• Sleeping pills - Our artist will need to take sleeping pills to help him to get to sleep, but this won't work as we want the audience to see that guilt is keeping him awake. This will only play a minor part in our music video.



Michael