Location Shots

The first Images you see are of Sidmouth. I hope to film there at sunset to add a created lighting effect and implement silhouttes into my piece to contrast with the lighting. Sidmouth is easily accessible, and as clear to see, you can tell the images will be fairly symmetrical and look srong given added natural lighting.

Torquay will be responsible for a fair amount of my shots, therefore I will look to book a weekend away soon to have time to film. What helps, is that according to a Telegraph article, Torquay is one of the 3rd top destinations in England for tourism or even seaside visits. Therefore it will be good to use for imagery given how remarkable the place looks at night, and the potential I have at my disposle. As you can see from these images, there is already aesthetic potential.

Stuart Hall | Reception theory

Stuart Hall IS an IMPORTANT theorist, perhaps one of the most crucial I can learn about.

He is behind the Reception theory whereby the media is the encoder (who set the set the idea), and us (Society) are the decoders (people who interpret and breakdown the text in our own ways).

Hall claims there are 3 different ways the audience can interpret the proposed idea;

1. The Dominant Reading - where the audience agrees and accepts the codes of the texts that the director purposely gives off, in which the audience reads and agrees. This makes the code more natural and transparent.

2. The Negotiated Reading - The reader partly believes the code, and breifly accpets whats infront of them. However, they may still wish to partially challenge and interpret some views of their owns to reflect own interest.

3. The Oppositional Reading - The background of the viewers plays influence, and they simply do not agree with what is being encoded and therefore reject the product.

This is important particularily to my piece, due to the way I wish to interpret the female gender. I will film it in a Negotiated Reading portrayal as there are some aspects into which will adhere to some viewers, but some features will not. However my piece is inspired by modern day textuality where new ideas that are not old, are now socially accepted, and with Hall's theory I can apply it perfectly to my piece.

Smply because people will agree with the piece, and feel revolutional. Perhaps interpret it differently but still essentially agree with what is being encoded, or just completely disagree and not accept what is portrayed. This all depends on the background of my social audience and their philosophy (Conservative- More for the Oppositional Reading, Liberal - More for the Dominant Reading).

Shot List

Here is a mock up of my first planned shotlist. Some dates are unconfirmed or not written down due to the fact I am unsure when we can arrange a trip to the place (in this instance Torquay). However, I know for sure it is possible to film there way before the deadline, just exact dates I am unsure on.

The shot list helps me as it allows me to see what proposed scenes I need to film are there and when done I can tick off. It gives me power to understand, when, where who and what I will be filming on the given days written. As you can see, some dates look unrealistic, however this does still help me as it's a reminder that I will need to film the given shots anyway.

NEW song choice

The new choice of song for my idea is 'Sleepwalking - Chain Gang Of 1974.' I used this song in my piece last year for added effect on a drama genred opening, I feel given the context im using the song in it will fit perfectly. However, it is popular but this is given to its promotion by GTA V, which in its self challenges ordinary conventions, as you'd expect 18* rated stuff however, my text will not follow those conventions of the song, nor will it follow the representation in the original video.

Here are the Lyrics:

Destiny turned her face

Nightmares and violent shapes

State of dreaming 

Has left me numb

Blue eyes and wandering lips

True lies with fingertips

Hidden tales of forbidden

Love

You've left me miserable

Miserable

Miserable

Mis-er-a-ble

Love

You've left me miserable

Miserable

Miserable

Mis-er-a-ble

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Visions of better times

Kingdoms and lilac wine

Why did God fail

To improve us

Teardrops of acid rain

Burning down through my veins

Can't I just sleep for now

Now

Despite my fears 

I dance for you

And did what others knew

I

Would care

Would wait

And live again

More desperate

Desperate

Yeah

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Yeah

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

(Now despite my fears I dance for you)

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

(Oh would care would wait and live again)

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Maybe we're just sleepwalking

Orange highlighted text,  simply signifies that the visuals will remain ambient to the lyrics.

Blue Highlighted text, will signify the area of the song where it will be animated to represent a dream.

Learning the lyrics helps me as it allows me to plan my shots to the lyrics, but also to the timing of them, therefore if I choose to use lip-syncing the piece won't look off.

Equipment list

As I'm producing a music video, I will not need sound equipment. However equipment is still key for me to achieve my full film potential. What I will be using is;


A Camera - To which I can capture images.
A Tripod - To stabilise the camera and achieve a steady moving frame for professionalism.
An iPad - To double images captured and be able to preview and edit on sight to ensure shots used are sufficient to my piece and editing.
Premiere pro - Editing website to piece my product, finalise and perfect.
After Effect - Achieve added effects to accomplish proposed idea of animation etc.

Half-term weather planning

During half term I hope to potentially get my first draft/mock up of my new proposed idea. I am hoping to film the shots at dusk for full visual effect, from my potential taken shots. I will be travelling to two locaions of which fit both my genre, and frame planning. These places are Torquay and Sidmouth, both coastal areas which are very common in relationship videos, and are a key signifier to genre.

Filming in Sidmouth looks fairly comfortable given the weather predicted, as I personally want the sun to have an influence on the frame as the effect it has on the sky can make for a really good aesthetic shot. I will go down later in the day which means my schedule doesn't clash with my working hours. For me the weather is the biggest factor in Sidmouth, as its half the harbour Torquay is visually, so I will need weather to be onside to construct the best composed shots I can take to increase the quality of my final piece. To achieve this I will focus on going perhaps on the Sunday (quiet time, avoid frame interference), as it offers me an advatage and looks to be the best possible day to do it given extensive weather research.

Torquay will be the bigger issue given its distance from where I am based in Devon, however having plans to partake a holiday with my girlfriend one weekend will be a huge factor to contribute with my plan of Torquay. As it means we're there for a period of time where we have far longer to focus on muiltiple of the same frames, and not worry about travel times to come back home, it would also be too costly to go for one day, so I have chosen to go up for a weekend, whereby I have muiltiple chances to perfect my frame potentials, which means I will not be going during half-term. 

It is important I can learn the weather and pre-plan, so that I dont last minute turn up anywhere, rush my shots and have the visuals ruined (like last year where the weather was bland, and poor). This is also key for me as it allows the chance to visualise the best possible weather times and work around this. Using this info, I can use the weather to my advantage, pre plan trips and get the best possible weather that fits my creativity and the audience' visual needs, and achieve a top quality production.

Project update!

After recent evaluation and thought. I have decided to change my idea. I felt the project proposed simply wouldn't work, and if it was to work I simply wouldn't have the high budget to include the aesthetic shots, like seen in all of the researched videos I proposed. This however is not an issue. I have had talks with teachers and have a new idea and song I will opt to do.

More to follow.

Brief for new A2 task

My new final decision is to do a music video based on relationships. I have used a contrast between Music and genre to pull in both audiences male♂ and female♀. The music is used in a male based audience game, and the genre (idea) is commonly viewed by females in music videos produced by artists such as Taylor Swift. This is an example of my text being post modern as I'm contrasting two different kinds of media and combining them. I I will also challenge the media concept of relationships by including animation (inspired by MGMT - Kids) to add a post modern aspect - Playfulness.

The whole idea is to show the narrrative of a guys dream about the girl, which will be emphasised by the Lyrics/song of choice. My key way to draw in the audience is by using strong aesthetic visuals and by that I will be usign Torquay and Sidmouth, two places of representative beauty which also give added effect to the relationship context of my project.