P4 Creating my music video!

Originally, making my music video didn’t seem that much of a challenge even with the new COVID restrictions and how my video would have to be made differently compared to what it was meant to be made.  To be honest I was fairly confident that this video would turn out well without having to make that many changes but unfortunately in the last few days of the production the lead singer of my video suddenly got word that her mum had the virus so I was stuck in the mud after that and didn’t know what to do, fortunately I could still stick to my theme of nature in this video but without any singer in the video as I just happened to live in Yorkshire or also known as the most beautiful place in the world.  I’m quite disappointed on how my video ended up to be honest as it looks like even a 10 year old could have even been able to make it.  My camera also broke during this time so I had to resort to using my iPhone but the quality was still quite good.  One thing I’ve learned from this overall is that this pandemic is terrible, not just for the most vulnerable of the world but also for privileged media students like me.  Jokes aside though I’ll get straight into P4.

Graphics - the only type of graphics in this music video is the colour of the footage at the start.  It is all in black and white until the lyrics start where it quickly goes into colour which I was quite happy with but it’s obviously not as good as colour coming out of a saxophone which was my original choice of graphics that I couldn’t add.  When choosing what camera settings i would use I chose 1080p which is the highest possible footage i could use.  Also on the iPad there is a setting called tap to focus which helps me focus on curtain parts of the frame.

Filming took place in the February half term on the 17th and 18th.

17th of February, Wednesday.

Shooting - originally I had evidence of the singer and I in the different areas that were going to be the places where we would shoot but now after all the drama it was just me going on walks and videoing beauty spots of Nature and some urban spots as well.  This is the iPhone that I used.

On Wednesday the 17th I woke up at 8 am so I could set of at 9 am to film nature on my own.  This was quite the experience and I took some beautiful shots of lovely places on the moor and the woods.

These are the places I’ve walked to and shot parts of my video.

When I figured I had enough footage I went home and placed the video rushes on a file on my iPad at 3 pm.  I then put them in premier rush and started to put a video together.  I would have finished at around 5 pm in the evening as the sun set quite early at that time of the year.

These where the places I’ve been to, to film, there was no lighting and no cameras to set up as I was using my phone.  The majority of the photos where images with no people in them.

18th of February, Thursday.  

On the second and last day of filming I met with actor Hattie Kelly at 12:30 and finished at 3 because of the sun going down at that time.  Because of the little time we didn’t have that much footage and there was a few unusable shots as well because of some difficulties with the cameras. 

Here is an unusable shot that was taken by Hattie Kelly, it only last 5 seconds and we decided to not use it as it was too short and wouldn’t work well with the video.

Here is evidence of my video rushes file that I made on my photos app.

Here is proof of when me and the singer before went to film, unfortunately we did not film that much and so when she left I couldn’t use any footage.

At 3 Hattie and I parted ways and I started editing when I got home.  I finished editing at 6 pm in the evening and was fully sorted by then.  

Job Roles.

When we where making the music video there where only two roles which was actor and director.  Hattie Kelly was the actor and I was the director but I also had all the other roles in creating the music such as editor, cameraman and producer as there where only two of us because of COVID guidelines.

Originally when I was working with Erica East the we had a 4 day schedule where we would film and afterwards I would evaluate and edit the video.  Since then though me and Hattie had a two day schedule where one day I would film nature and another day I would film Hattie.  After both days I would review the footage and edit it.  

Permission to film on land

When filming you need to take everything into account and one of those things is permission to film in the place that you are using for example if you are filming outside a shop or hotel for example you will have to get in contact with the owners to see if its ok to film.  If you do not ask for permission then you are technically breaking the law and will have to take the video off the internet.  This also the case for my video, even though my video is mostly taken on council property and no one else owns it i will have to email the local council to film as they may not be ok with it because I could damage the places i go to.

Safety Considerations

Overall the biggest safety concerns where the spread of COVID 19 at the time.  So we made sure to stick to the guidelines at the time and stay in a minimum group of two and I made it safer by wearing a mask behind the camera to further stop the spread.  Another problem we faced was that we went to places that where far from a road and was quite dangerous as we could get injured and wouldn't be able to get back as we where far from a road.  So we made sure to look where we where going so we wouldn't fall and injure our selves.

Locations 

Here are the many locations I went to to film on a map of Ilkley,  all these areas have access to with paths and are not that far from a nearby road.

Making a music video from home due to COVID 19

 Last night the Prime Minister announced a third national lockdown to prepare the country for the flow of vaccines coming in, and therefore it makes the production of my music video a bit difficult to make.  Luckily the exam board has told us that we can film from home and with phones or IPads without being penalised for the bad quality.  There are of course a lot to be done and I will have to change my script a bit so the music video can be made legally.  The whole point of my video is to show a lot of nature so I will be outside with one other person which is legal.  I will make my video with the inspiration of Andrea Motis’s “He’s funny that way” music video and will keep a lot of my ideas with the old one.

M2 Ethical & Legal Issues

 Legal 

Under 16s in film

If an actor under the age of 16 is in the music video they will need a written consent form by the parent/Carer as they are too young to make that decision.  This is because in the future they may regret taking part in this video but does not see any problem with it now.  There parents however will make the decision as they know what’s right for their kids.

Filming locations

Although we are mainly filming on public land that is only owned by the local council and her majesty the Queen there may be areas where we may need to ask for permission like for example the school field belonging to Ben Rhydding Pre school as it may all belong to them even though it is connected to a footpath.  If you do not ask for permission then you are technically breaking the law and will have to take the video off the internet.  This also the case for my video, even though my video is mostly taken on council property and no one else owns it i will have to email the local council to film as they may not be ok with it because I could damage the places i go to.

Copyright

At first I thought that I won’t have to deal with copyright of the song as the law is that after 70 years of the author’s passing the copyright claim will expire and will be free for the masses to use but I soon found out that Billie Holiday died in 1959 which was 62 years ago so I will still have to ask permission to whomever  may be owning her music as of right now which would be her last descendant Louis McKay III who lives in Memphis.

BBFC Rating for music Video

The British Board of Film is an organisation that rates films and music videos alike to show if they are suitable for different age groups of children or not.  There are seven different ratings for films and music videos, there is U, PG, 12a 12, 15, 18, R18.  the ratings that are written before become more mature when you get a higher rating.  Under the guidance of the BBFC on their website I can show that my music video of "I can't Believe that your in Love with Me" is under the rating of U as there are no scenes that may disturb a child of the age of 4 upwards except for maybe the small consumption of alcohol at the start of the video but this is only a small part of the video and there is no alcohol abuse.  UPDATE:  Because of the 2nd lockdown there is no alcohol involved so the video meets the requirements of a U rating.  This video is suitable children of all ages.

Ethical Factors

Now of course when it comes to making media I must not have anything to do with causing harm or spreading violence through my media that can cause others to harm curtain people.  I must also respect the laws on representation.  It is a criminal offence to show a curtain cultural or racial group in a derogatory way and must not in all circumstances make anything that may offend and harm people of said groups. The protagonist in my media product is a girl and so I must also not make anything that my portray her in a derogatory way.  Now after making my music video and having the setbacks that we had as a team there are only a few scenes with her in.  Because of COVID guidelines there is only one person in my music video who is a white female under the age of 18, there is no one of a curtain ethnic group or race so there is no way of there being any derogatory offence to these curtain groups.

OFCOM

OFCOM is another Organisation with orders coming from the Houses of Parliament and they help oversee a lot of important factors to British Communication including airways, royal mail and also film.  OFCOM have made rules that make sure that media is safe for all to see and will not provoke violence in any way.  OFCOM have a Broadcasting Code that all in the UK have to abide by.  But if you don’t you can get fines as big as £50,000.  For example Khalsa Television Limited got fined £20,000 and £30,000 for encouraging British Sikhs to commit violence and crimes including Murder.  This is completely unacceptable and illegal.  My Video however does not encourage any group to commit crimes and violence and in fact it suits well with all ten sections of the code that there are.  My Video complies with the code in many ways; the video does not have any footage that may cause distress to under 18s (Section 1).

The video does not contain hate and doesn’t encourage violence etc. (Section 2 and 3).

The video does not show any hate towards religion and in fact has no reference to religion. (Section 4)

All other sections have something to do with news and Politics which my video has no such correlation with. (Sections 5 - 10)

P3

Here is an example of me emailing a land lord to ask permission to film on there land.

P2 and Full Script

M1

M1 Justifying my content 

What genre is your song? The genre for my song (I can’t believe that you’re in love with me – by Billie Holiday) is Jazz. Jazz is a genre of music that originated from the African American communities in New Orleans, America in the late 19th to early 20th century. Jazz is thought to have roots from Blues but jazz is thought to be more joyful and happy. The genre is manly woodwind and strings instruments, like the clarinet, saxophone, double bass and acoustic guitar. In the song there is a Saxophone, piano, double bass, Acoustic guitar and the drums. 

What conventions do we need to see in that genre for the music video? 

 My music video will be different compared to most jazz music videos as the generic jazz music video is mainly just shots of the band playing the song. However there are a few videos that have pioneered to make great videos like Andrea Motis and the cast of La La Land. La La Land has quite an abstract performance when it came to the videos, whereas Andrea Motis wasn’t that abstract. But both of them are only performance videos, not narrative. My video like the latter two is performance but also narrative. The colours of my music video will be in black and white at the start but then it will go to colour to show the cheerful side of jazz, this technique has been used a lot by many jazz artist and I wish to do the same. To make this appealing to everyone I will edit it to look like colour is flowing out of the saxophone when it is played. 

Why have you chosen Narrative and Performance? 

I have chosen Narrative and Performance because narrative is unique to the genre of jazz when it comes to music videos. I also think, in my opinion that jazz musicians would be more appealing if they made performance videos for there songs as they do tell a story after all. Even though Performance is popular in jazz I also wanted to make a performance video because it will shows the talent and skill that all the musicians have and I have chosen Narrative because it seems fit to do so as the song does tell a small love story in the lyrics. 

How will the visuals will reflect the theme and meanings behind the song?

I will try to reflect the theme and meanings of the song by making the visuals of the video stay true to what the lyrics say in the music video. Also of course the first part of the video will be in black and white and will then go into colour to show the positive and cheery side of the song. What metaphors and symbols do I plan to use? The video will be in black and white for the first half of the song and therefor will show how positive life is, the black and white will represent life through the human mind and how it belittles and hides the happy parts of life. When the colour expands it shows how bright and wonderful everything is when we don’t belittle everything. 

How are your ideas are suited for jazz?

Jazz is overall a very positive genre and which is why it was very popular in WW2 due to the difficult times. My video will not be different as there will only be cheery scenes. Also I have chosen instruments that are actually used a lot in jazz bands. For example the Saxophone and the trumpet. My target audience is targeted for mainly baby boomers but it will try to be more appealing to younger people due to the young cast. This is common of jazz bands. 

What audience pleasures will it offer to its target audience? 

The target audience for this video are mainly women and baby boomers, to appeal to them there are parts of the video that are cliché for jazz videos and that is the transition from black and white to colour. This will appeal to them as I said before it shows a cheery side to the video. Also to appeal to them is a young cast of actors and musicians, this will enhance the feeling in some baby boomers of being young again (no offence to the baby boomers!) Baby boomers are most likely to like songs with actual singing and a proper band other than new synthesised music this has been shown by the little number of baby boomers who like new music whereas to the many baby boomers that like old more ‘real’ music. 

How can you be sure that the target audience you have identified is correct?

I know for a fact that my target audience is correct due to the YouGov website that has made a lot of surveys on topics to do with music. On the website it clearly shows that the vast majority of people that like jazz and in particular Billie Holiday, are baby boomers. 

Distribution 

What methods of distribution will you use?

Now of course jazz is listened to by mainly more older and mature viewers and therefore the way we will distribute the word of this video will be more traditional. I’m not saying we’re not going to use online methods though as that will be very foolish indeed. This is because, even though we are mainly trying to appeal to the older population that may not use the internet that much but that mustn’t stop us from branching out and expanding to other age groups as well! To distribute my music video as well I pill put it on many sites such as iTunes and Spotify, these companies will pay from people’s memberships to the sites.  Now you may think that the target audience may not use apps such as Apple music and Spotify but as of 2020 20% have streaming subscriptions such as Apple Music and Spotify.

Radio

Every minute of every hour of every day, the radio is on and millions of people listen to it. People may be listening when they’re cooking, exercising and of course, driving. The radio will be the best thing ever for us for distribution as the majority of the country listens to it and it can be free to have your song playing on it. Unfortunately there is one downside to radio and that is that you can’t see the video but fortunately it will still encourage people to listen to it again and maybe watch the video. 

Facebook

Even though I said before that the internet may not be that popular with baby boomers, it’s not exactly the case with Facebook! Facebook is a great sight where everyone can post videos, advertise their businesses freely and get huge amounts of information from groups and news companies. Facebook has a great algorithm as well and therefor will target potential viewers, this is why it is essential for us to use Facebook as well.

Technical Aspects

What I would like to achieve on the technical side of this video is a video that has a clear defined type of editing with factors such as a black and white filter at the start of it that can be easily applied by selecting a filter on the software of the video being made.  Also at some point at the middle of the video I wish for there to be a transition of colour by changing the filter to colour from black and white, preferably this transition will happen when the instrumental starts or when the Lyrics start after a long instrumental.  I aim there to be many transitions from shot to shot in my video and the types of transitions I will have will be fade in transitions which fade from one shot to another and a clean cut transition which is a transition where there is just a quick change in footage straight away.  I have used that type of transition as it is common in jazz and i will make the transitions happen on curtain beets which is very common in jazz music videos.  I will use the fade in transitions as it will add a lot more flavour to the video and also it will look great for when i use it for the transition from Black and white to colour.

P1 Proposal