Task: 20 - Idiots Guide to Storyboarding

·       It is important to complete the script before beginning the storyboard, however because our storyboard is based on a song, the script is already created, meaning the storyboard can be started immediately based on each section of the song.

·     The storyboard is comprised of square boxes in which the contents of the scene is drawn in the box with space underneath to fill in action, dialogue or notes.

·      The first box should establish the scene and location. Any important objects should be drawn in the first box in order that they can be used and understood in the subsequent boxes.

·      Use arrows and notes to show any movement in the shot. This means that instead of using 5 shots to gradually show movement happening, you can have one shot and use an arrow in the direction of travel.

·      Sounds can be written below the drawing along with sound effects as the storyboard is essentially a comic strip of the music video.

·      A new frame must be made for every significant action movement or new camera angle.

·      Notes should be made about movements, sounds or special effects.

·      The camera should be angled to ensure that the pictures are not 2D and flat.

·      The camera angle can be used to portray the opinions on certain characters and their importance.

·      Establishing shots = can be used to illustrate the set, location or start position of characters.

·      Full, Medium, Close, Extreme Close: If you're showing a character, how much are you showing? Full (FS) shows the whole body, Medium (MS) shows waist up, Close (CU) shows shoulders and head, and Extreme Close Up (ECU) shoes only face.

·      Up Shot / Down Shot: Up Shots look up at a character, while Down Shots look down from above. "Worm's Eye" and "Bird's Eye" are the extreme versions of each.

·      Over the Shoulder (OTS): One of your most important terms, these shots have one person or thing on the side of the frame, back turned, while looking at another. Very common in conversations between two people.

·      Two-shot: When both characters, usually speaking to each other, are both in the frame at once. When drawing dialogue, two-shots often alternate with OTS shots.

·      POV Shots Are simply when the camera mimics the point of view of a character.

·      Include different camera angles: "Tracking' is when the camera follows the action without cutting, like following someone as they walk down the street. Use arrows to indicate motion, and multiple frames if needed.

·      Pans are when the camera simply rotates in one direction, often following a character as they move or exposing something near them. Draw an arrow illustrating the camera's direction.

·      Trucks are when the camera physically moves in or out. Imagine a shot of a TV, then the camera slowly "trucking" back to reveal a family watching the TV in the living room. Use 4 lines, pointing from the center of the screen out to the corners, to show trucking.

·      Rack Focus is when you have a blurry object in the background and a clear one in the foreground, then the focus shifts from one to the other (it can go in reverse, too). Draw a line indicating where the focus starts and where it moves to.

·      It is important to mention the location of a subject in the box:

• ·      Foreground (FG): The area close up to the camera.
•  Midground (MG): The center of the frame
• ·      Background (BG): The are furthest from the camera.
• ·      Off-screen (O/S): Helpful if there is a noise, dialogue, etc. that the viewers can't see, or if a character enters or exits the frame completely.
• ·      Overlay (OL): When one object or image is superimposed on another but both are visible.
• ·      Lastly, it is important to number the shots correctly in order to understand the order that each shot goes in.

Task: 19 - Our chosen record label - OVO Sound

I completed research into OVO sound, the record company that I have chosen to represent my music video and ancillary tasks. I chose this record label because it is Drake's own personal record label and as we are using a Drake song, it seemed only natural to use his record label as well as clearly this record label understands his music as it was created for that very purpose! Through researching OVO sound I also learned more about Drake and how he has created quite a business empire as well as simply being a recording artist. I have tried to reflect this into 'Bailes,' and create his image to be one of wealth and power.

It was very important to research into the chosen record label and to choose one that would work well with the chosen song because the record label needs to get the song out there and reproduce it in the right places where this genre of music should be heard, and as a group we decided OVO sound was the obvious choice.

Task: 18 - Target Audience Profile

This is a PowToon on the profile of our target audience. This was a highly important task to complete as it taught me all about the different social gradings that are involved when deciding upon a target audience and helped me understand further what my target audience, according to statistics, are likely to want from my music video and ancillary tasks. This helped develop my understanding of secondary and tertiary target audiences, something I did not know much about before and thus I now know how I can tailor my music video and ancillary tasks to what my target audience would want to see and to relate to their lifestyle.

Task: 16 - Second/Amended Idea

Our target audience found our treatment to be fitting for the song and thus an amended treatment could be seen as unnecessary. However when sitting down as a group and looking for faults in our treatment as a team, we decided that there was one main issue and this was touched upon by some members of our target audience. 

The issue can be found at the beginning of the first verse in "Why you gotta fight with me at cheesecake?". The idea that we had was for the male in the video to get slapped in the face with cheesecake by his partner. On one hand, this would be comical and present the lyrics visually, however as one of our interviewees said "it could influence violence amongst viewers". It is for this reason that the idea has been scrapped and instead the scene will be filled with a different shot.

Below can be found the amended treatment:

Song – ‘Childs Play’

Artist – Drake

The phrase ‘Childs Play’ is used to refer to a task that is easily accomplished. In this case, Drake has acknowledged that the girl he has been seeing has been seeing him for his money and status, rather than for his personality. However, Drake still likes having her by his side and spoils her. He boasts this through his riches. Buying his girl a new outfit is a form of ‘Child’s Play’. 

As a group we have come up with a variety of locations which will be featured over the course of our ‘Childs Play’ music video, these include:

• A shopping centre – Preferably Brent Cross in London
• A dark alley way – There is one near Lea’s house
• A restaurant or room where food can be served – location on day of filming
• Shops along Oxford Street – including the Disney store
• A location with a high status vehicle – Lea’s drive or up in London
• A busy area with a scenic background – London bridge, with Big Ben in shot
• The drama room at school – for the use of the bridge as well as the stairs 
• A dark room – drama room at school
• A room with an area of seating – dark class room at school or drama room

The music video will require two main actors, a male who will play the leading role, and a female to support him as his partner. As well as these, actors will be required to feature in some of the dark scenes which will be filmed at school. Contact has already been made and the actors include:

• Our very own Bailey Plaskow – For the role of the leading Actor
• Abbie Novack – Providing the role of the partner 
• Various Students from the Jcoss Sixth Form – Extras to act in the background of some of the school based scenes.

Lighting

Because of the nature of the R&B genre, we feel it appropriate that the lighting is dark for the bulk of the music video. However, we may also need artificial lighting, such as in the Drama studio, where we have professional resources such as coloured spotlights. This has a stronger impact on the audience because ‘Drake’s’ face will be lit up in a dark surrounding, which makes him the obvious focus point. Luckily, we should be filming from November- December, when the natural light gets dark early which is very useful for us when filming the darker shots.

Shots

To achieve the best marks, we will try and use a variety of shot types to make it more interesting. These will include medium shots, high/low angle shots, close ups and extreme close ups. Each shot will be used for a different purpose. For example, the shot at the shopping mall will probably be a medium shot, because the audience will need to be able to see their hands, and the clothes they are picking up, whereas the scene in the alleyway may require more of a close shot when Drake is rapping.

As outlined above, there is a narrative behind the song ‘Childs Play’; however we as a group have decided that our take on the hit will be along the lines of a performance based video. References will be made to the lyrics throughout the video, allowing the viewer to understand easily what is going on, as well as the ideas that the artist is trying to get across. The nature of a performance based video requires the use of multiple locations, and the plan for our video can be seen below:

1. Childs play begins with the hook – “I say bounce that sh*t like woah”, which is repeated many times throughout the song. For the opening hook, our group concluded that as the lyrics are suggest a woman being spoiled by her partner, which meant that filming would work best in a shopping centre. We decided to use Brent Cross, London as the location for the hook. There are many designer stores on sight which can be filmed in and walked passed by the actors to portray the main actor spoiling his partner with his riches. Phrases such as “Take you to the mall and get you a new outfit” can be easily matched with these visuals.

2. The verse will contain shots from other locations such as the dark alley which will be cut to and from at various points in the verse. The alley scenes will be performance based, and include the main actor isolated in the dark, rapping aggressively at the camera. 

Other locations in this verse are used for the purpose of narrative, to allow an easy telling of the story. These include the Disney store which will either be used for the purpose of flashbacks to the past (therefore featuring the main actor and the partner), or will just be rapped outside of by the main artist - “go to Disney, they don't need to now all of our business”

Our very own Lea’s house is another location which will be used for filming in this verse, especially her drive. The line “In my Bugatti, I took the key and tried to hide it So you can’t drive it and put on mileage” refers to an expensive, pretentious sort of vehicle, which we as a group believe can be visualised through Lea’s fathers car.

3. The song then returns to the hook which is when we believe the video should revert back to performance. This hook will feature the main actor rapping at the camera in a variety of close up and mid shots which will be tracking backwards. The chosen location for this part of the video is London Bridge (at night), with Big Ben illuminated behind the main actor whilst rapping and moving towards the camera at the same time. 

4. Next is refrain 1, which features the line “Rode that d*ck like a soldier”. For this part of the video we came up with the idea of the main actor sitting in a dark room rapping at the camera, almost breaking the 4th wall.

5. Our idea for the second verse is that the main actor breaks the 4th wall. This is going to be done by having the main actor addressing the audience aggressively with the lyrics through close ups. To get the main actors feelings out, we decided as a group that this part of the video would have to take place in a dark room. For this, the drama studio is perfect because it has no windows and can be blacked out. There is a bridge which can be walked across in this verse as well as a set of stairs which can be sat on and rapped from. Also, because it is up high it would make it easy to do a high angle shot, which represents power and status, which parallels Drake’s character very well. We also have an idea of the main actor sitting around with friends in a dark room, having a laugh - this would be presented in slo-motion.

Task: 15 - Feedback from Target Audience

We each individually went out and filmed our target audience give feedback on which ideas they preferred and which they thought we should discard. This was highly useful as it helped us in choosing where to film, which ideas we should use when we film and critiquing some of our ideas such as being hit in the face with cheesecake as it could influence violence among views, something that we as a group had not thought about before. We also gathered information about where the filming itself should take place, from this we decided that it would be best to film outside school in order to vary our shots and that studio lighting would assist us in portraying the R&B/Hip Hop genre. We also gathered information from our target audience about their opinions on shot types which influenced how we filmed our footage.

Task: 14 - Naming the album

I completed some research with my target audience as to which name was the most appealing for my album. This was important because without a catchy and easy to remember name, my target audience would not necessarily remember the album, nor would they be particularly interested in picking it up off of the shelf in the first place. The name that came out with the highest number of votes when I questioned my target audience was 'cutaway,' and therefore this is the name I shall choose for each of my ancillary tasks.

Task: 13 - Treatment for video

Media treatment from brandonforan

As a group, we have come up with a treatment for our initial idea for our music video. A treatment is our initial ideas put together for each section of the video, understanding the meaning of the song, choosing locations that we feel would be effective to film at and choosing actors that we feel would be good for certain roles. We also had to consider factors such as lighting, the shots that we are planning on filming, the narrative and how we would demonstrate this in our video and our overall plan for our video shot by shot.

It was important to create this treatment because it meant that we understood what needed to be included in our video before we set about filming it and to ensure that everything was planned so as that everything was completed at the scheduled time and we could meet each deadline.

Lead up to Treatment (Task 13)

The following is a video showing everyone in our group writing down our initial ideas for the treatment for our music video. This was a highly effective way of documenting all of our individual ideas and then bringing them together and deciding on the ones that we wish to use. I have also included pictures of the individual sheets with our ideas on them so as that they can be clearly seen, and I can see at the end when the final product is made, which ideas were successfully used and which ideas were discarded. It is important to be critical when deciding on which ideas to use as these are only the initial ideas that we have come up with only knowing the song that we wish to use, this may not go entirely to plan when we come to film it and we need to plan for such circumstances and have back up ideas if we feel we need things changed.

Task: 12 - Mind map ideas of potential music video songs

Each person in our group pitched an idea of a song to use in our music video, with their vision of the costume, narrative, context, colours, actors/dancers, edits, lighting and location for that specific song. I personally chose 'feeling good' by Michael Buble because I could see a clear vision of being able to create our own version of the video with a relatively simple concept. I could see viable ways of creating a music video to go to this song however, we decided as a group that the best idea would be "Child's Play" by Drake as it is more exciting and gave us more scope to be imaginative with our music video.