Planning : Storyboarding and Animatic

For planning my storyboard I drew out around 25 panels and arranged them into what I felt suited the continuity and illustration best for the song. This is to help me visualise what the finished article will look like and also helped me to get more practise using Premiere Pro. When editing them together I also got to practise with cuts to the beat.
To ensure that the cards were in order I wrote out the lyrics onto a timeline so I got an accurate visualisation of how long the shots will last and when they will appear.

Research and Planning Self Assessment

• Research into existing music videos

I think that the current level of research into existing videos is basic. I have added a decent amount of detail for the music video of Kendrick Lamar and  Drake's 'Poetic Justice' while also using images and gifs. To get to the next level I will have to make a post with the same amount of detail for at least one or two more music videos.

• Research into a potential target audience

I think that my research into a potential audience is fairly detailed and could not have much more added to it. I have got 3 full paragraphs and a conclusion so I am pleased with this part of my blog.

• Work on storyboarding

The storyboarding still need to be uploaded to YouTube so, at this present time, cannot be marked. To get the marks I will have to uploaded to YouTube and embedded into my blog with an explanation of the task which will be completed as soon as possible.

• Time management 

My time management has been fairly poor and needs to be improved if I am to get my target grade. There have been a few tasks which have not been completed and published on time. From now each task set will be aimed to be on my blog by the deadline.

• Use of digital technology or ICT

On my blog there have been plenty of uses of different types of media. For example I have used gifs and images in my research into an existing music video, I have embedded videos from YouTube and also audio from SoundCloud so I think this aspect of my blog is good.

• Communication skills

I think my communication skills are good and I put a lot of detail into most of my posts and I think my written communication is very easy to understand. To improve I would have to include maximum detail into all of my posts, this would get me a lot more marks.

• Level of care taken in the presentation of work

I feel that my presentation is very good and neat. When I create my posts I put them in a way that they will not look untidy so they are easy to look through and understand. For example in my 'Planning: Locations' post I have an explanation of the location followed by a picture, then the next location.

Planning: Location

My music video will be filmed almost entirely in London. I think this is very fitting as the majority of British rap/grime/hip-hop is filmed in the streets of London. Because this is now to be expected in the music video I will follow the codes and film in London. However I will have to set a date and make sure to get it all filmed in the time I am there as if I miss an important shot it will be very difficult for me to travel there a second time and film in a way that doesn't damage continuity. For example if it is a sunny day on the first time I am there but I go back on a rainy day to film some missing shots it will look very unprofessional. Another bad thing about filming in London is that in some places it could be too crowded which would prevent me from creating a professional looking video without people getting in the way.

The separate locations I may be filming at are Nando's in Stratford, the streets in Central London, Vue Cinema and outside the Olympic Stadium.

Nando's is a suitable location of which to film a short section of my video in. This is because the restaurant is mentioned in the second verse and will make the video narrative as well as performance.




Filming Darrel lip-syncing in front of iconic London landmarks not only contributes to making the video both narrative and performance but also backs the idea that it is his 'Day Off'.

I will have a short clip filmed in and outside the cinema in Leicester Square because it is mentioned in the second verse and contributes to making the music video illustrative.

I will try to film in the brighter parts of London as this will match the mood of the song. For example I would film in a place like East London if the song was about negative things. This song has an upbeat tune and would only look good if it is filmed in a bright and positive place.

Green Screen Practise

To use the green screen I took the original footage and audio from Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' and some footage of Ellie singing to the same song in front of a green screen.
Making sure the green screen layer is on top I applied the 'Eight-point Garbage Matte' to trim the size off the edges of the video to just leave a minimal amount of green screen.
After syncing the audio from the music video and the lip syncing from Ellie I applied the 'Ultra Key' filter and set the key colour to green to get rid of the remaining green screen, which can be seen in the second image.

The finished result can be watched above.

Planning: Casting

For my music video I am using the artist that made the song so I didn't need to go through casting for the main role. The reason I chose D-Rey to be in the music video is because he is a natural performer and his lip syncing will be near enough perfect as he wrote and performed the song himself.

There is a video of him performing in front of a camera here:





It is important that Darrel is comfortable in front of a camera as this could be damaging to the professionalism of my music video. However, from the video, it clearly shows that he would be more than happy to perform without any problems. If he was not a confident performer this may cause the audience to feel disconnected with the song and the lyrics.

There is some evidence above where Darrell agreed to let me use his music on an email. He agreed to appear in my music video, although there is no evidence of that because the conversation happened in person.