CAMERA TEST

A camera test is essential in order to work out whether the cast members will work well on camera, and if the concept of the pop video is going to work. The camera test needs to film shots which will be happening in the pop video, therefore the filmcrew and decide if it looks good or not, prior to the shoot day.


When doing the camera test we wanted to see how Ruby, the main singer, would look on camera and if she was suitable for the part. We set up a simple version of the design which we plan to make for the actual shoot day; we did this by putting a row of chairs in front of the camera, with someone sitting in one seat, and then got Ruby to perform in front of them. We asked her to be ‘entertaining’ and made her use all the space, this way we got to see how she performs, and if the video would be successful.

We got Ruby to stand and perform in different areas of the ‘stage,’ this way in the editing process we can use the jump cut which we plan to use, and therefore see if it looks good or not. A shot which we attempted to do was if Ruby went off stage, therefore not seen by the camera, and then to pop up right in front of the camera, in the camera test this wasn’t so successful because Ruby was slightly confused with our directions, therefore this shows us that we need to fully prepare her for the real day so she can perform to the best of her ability, to make the video look good.

We also wanted to see how Ruby would converse with the ‘other self’ of her sitting in the chair, therefore we asked her dance and perform right in front of the girl sitting down, and sit on the chairs with her. On the camera it looked really good, because the girl sitting remained reserved whilst Ruby was hyper and energetic beside her, this is something we want to really push for the shoot day.

Our other cast members were picked due to them being advantageous for the quirky style we want to put across. Alistair Toovey is a very good dancer and performer, who will not shy away from the camera; therefore he will be interesting to watch on stage with Ruby. Similarly, Lukas Dressler is a talented gymnast and this will be beneficial for the shoot. Finally, Oscar Jackson is a skilled drummer, and we wanted this for the part in the song where the band member plays the cardboard boxes as drums whilst paint flies everywhere.

Unfortunately, the school computer system failed and lost our camera test that we had previously filmed, otherwise it would be shown here.

STUDIO AND LIGHTING PLAN

The set and lighting designs are done in order for the designer to know what is needed for the pop video. They need to be detailed in order for the specifics to be done properly and therefore the set will look as good as possible.

We tried to draw the plan is as much detail as possible, for a 'birds eye view' perspective. The set design of the pop video is relatively simple because the main attraction lies with the performance element. Therefore, there are going to be a few rows of red velvet cinema seats, and also a white/blue/red room which they are in, the room will be quite vibrant and bright in order to represent the quirkiness of the video, and also contrast to the darkness of the seats. There will be a blue/green screen in front of the seats that way when just the layer of the seats is being filmed, nothing else is seen. On the stage part of the set, there will be doors on either side of the set, this way characters can enter and leave the room, which will give the perspective of the girl being in the same room as the performer: Ruby. Nothing is going to be inside the room apart from what Ruby or the band members bring in, therefore Ruby will have a lot of space in which to perform in.





The lighting of the set is going to be quite bright on the stage area and darker by the seats, therefore representing the girl watching a film. Although the colours will be bright, in order to suggest excitement and enthusiasm, the lights will also be warm so that Ruby and the band members look friendly and comfortable within the frame. In the after effects we plan to put a bright light, almost slightly flickering, above the camera to represent a projector being shone onto the stage, again showing that it is a film being shown, and not that Ruby is within the frame. This contrasts aspects to film and real performance, fiction and reality, and are done in order to play with the minds of the audience, and mess around with perspectives.

STORYBOARD

Storyboards are used to visual the images that will appear on the screen. You work out the types of shot, the angles, the camera movements, the mise en scene, the colours and shapes, anything and everything.

Storyboards are where the real work happens. Storyboards are much cheaper to experiment with, to try things out than messing about on the day of filming. A piece of paper and a pencil and a storyboard artist cost a lot less per day than the million pound a day that will be spent on movie.

Pop Videos are just the same. You work out all the shots on the storyboard before you even begin to think of filming. You spot the mistakes, the things that don’t work, and put them right in the storyboard before you film. It is a bit like creating a puzzle or a plan, which you shoot to, and then you put the puzzle together afterwards.

The storyboard was done in reference to the timeline. We tried to do the timeline in as much detail as possible, that way the storyboard would be easier. It is done to visualise the shot and work out the type of shot to use and why, whether tracking or craning will be used, and why. The details of the storyboard were quite difficult because in each shot Ruby is constantly moving and performing, therefore when drawing an arrow to show the direction which she is moving; it may change depending on how it looks on the day. Much of our camera movement is quite static because we want to represent the performance element of the piece, apart from the complex tracking shot to finish the song.

To help me get into the world of storyboard I decided to look at the storyboard for 'The Lion King.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO49iR0HguE&feature=related

Our piece has 3 layers to it, one is a close up of the seats, therefore only the girl watching is seen, and Ruby if she comes out, 2nd layer is filmed as though the girl is sitting in the room with Ruby being performed to, and the 3rd is meant to represent that she is watching a film with the girl in it, therefore not in the same room. These aspects were taken into consideration when doing the storyboard, due to the drawings having to represent which layer they were on.

A shot that we needed to see whether it would work was the opening 8 seconds where we have a wide shot of the singer jump into the air in slow motion. Our initial worry was that the shot would be too long and therefore tedius, but due to it being in slow motion and the opening shot, therefore setting the scene, we realised that a wide/long establishing shot would be successful, I show this in the storyboard below:

One shot that we decided to use was in the ending sequence of the song, where a tracking in the round shot will be used. This is done in order to show the singer performing, then tracking round and revealing that the girl watching her is in fact herself. This is the main concept of the song that she is performing to herself because internally she is trying to make herself happy. I show this below through the storyboard:
Alot of our editing will be jump cuts, this is shown in the storyboard. This is done in order to give the performance element to the video. By jump cutting the video becomes fictional, because the singer moving round the stage would not be possible, this is therefore playing with perspectives and slightly confuses the audience, which will hopefully lead to their enjoyment of the video. Below I show a few shots where jump cutting will be used:


Our storyboard was a real test of how shots would work together. So we storyboarded – SEE THE EXAMPLES ATTACHED – and then filmed them. We could then edit them together in an animatic style and see how the whole thing flowed or did not flow. This led us to see a lot of shots that worked and a lot that did not.

TIMELINE

The timeline is done in order to link the words and the images together. Therefore when this is written down ,we can see what works and what does not, which can consequently lead us to adapt the timeline to make sure it is successful for the shoot day. In order to begin the timeline we wrote out the words, and separated them into different sections which could represent different shots. For example, each line for the chorus is a separate shot.

The timeline was tricky to begin with due to the concept on our pop video being slightly confusing. We wanted to produce a quirky video, with lots of jump cuts and for the perform element of the piece to be the main attraction. Therefore, when writing the timeline, our main focus was on what Ruby and the band members did to gain the girl’s attention. Another difficult aspect to the timeline was that the song is in French; therefore we needed to get it translated and find out what each word actually means.

Once we had done this, we tried to make some of the performance things that she does to be related to what she is saying, for example, she says “les fleurs change de couleur” which means in English “the flowers change colour,” therefore we decided that she either has flowers which she performs with, or her costume keeps changing colour between the jump cuts.





Another example of a shot that we needed to see whether it would work was the opening 8 seconds where we have a wide shot of the singer jump into the air in slow motion. Our initial worry was that the shot would be too long and therefore tedius, but due to it being in slow motion and the opening shot, therefore setting the scene, we realised that a wide/long establishing shot would be successful.

POP VIDEO : TITLE Ta Douleur YOUR GROUP: Felix, Victor + Tess PAGE NO.1

WORDS or MUSIC …………………..	TIME	PERFORMANCE …..	NARRATIVE……………	IMAGES
Leve toi, c’est decide Laisse-moi te remplacer, je vais prendre ta douleur.	0-8	A wide shot of the singer jumping in slow motion so it looks like she is flying with the character watching in the frame
Doucement sans faire de bruit, comme on reveille la pluie, je vais prendre ta douleur.	8-13	Backup singers appear on the beat 1 at a time – jump cut.
Prendre, ta douelur, je vais prendre ta douelur	13-18	Mid shot of all the backup singers confused to why they are there.
Elle lute, elle se debat, mais ne resistera pas, je vais bloquer l’ascenseur.	19-25	A wide shot of character walking in and sitting watching, getting comfortable etc.
Je vais prendre ta douleur (repeat by BUS)	26-30	Lip Sink close up of singer Link Sink close up of BUS or shots of band dragging the drum set on.
Saboter l’interrupteur	30-33	Lip Sink close up of singer or shots of band dragging the drum set on.
Je vais prendre ta douleur	34-38	Mid shot of singer with hand out “taking the pain” and then a look up to the camera – close up of her face with wide eyes – dolly zoom	Snippets of CU of frog face.
Clapping, noises etc.	39-53	Mixture of shots (ECU,CU,MS etc) of cardboard boxes with paint on them, and the band member hitting the boxes and the paint splatting everywhere.
Clapping, noises etc.	39-53	Mixture of ECUs/CUs of singer and band making the noises with their mouths.
Mais c’est qui cette incrustee? Cet orage avant l’ete Sale chipir de petite seour.	53-1.00	Mixture of shots of her putting make up on, eye, blusher and then puts lipstick all over her face.
Je vais tout lui confisquie ses flechettes et son sifflet je vais lui donner la fessee	1.00-1.07	Close up of frog jumping, then mid shot of her frog jumping over the other band members.	Snippets of CU of frog face then CU of her face
(Je vais prendre ta douleur) by backup singers	1.07-1.09	BUS lip sink and Mid shot Lip sink of singer and her arm.
Je vais prendre ta douleur	1.09-1.11	Cut to CU of her tensing up and it is a massive muscle of someone else
La virer de la recre	1.12-1.14	Mid shot of the cinema seats with the girl and others sitting down, moving round etc
Je vais prendre ta douleur	1.14-1.19	Mid shot of the cinema seats with the girl and others sitting down, moving round etc
Mais c’est qui cette heritiere, qui se baigne, qui se terre, dans l’eau tiede de tes reins?	1.19-1.26	Mixture of shots of her in different costumes – afro’s, big black glasses etc mixed with shots of BUS making the noises
Je vais la priver de dessert lui faire mordre la poussiere de tous ceux qui n’ont plus faim	1.27-1.33	Singer wearing massive over-all which is too big trying to dance
Je vais prendre ta douleur (BUS)	1.33-1.35	Singer see’s a box with ‘pain’ written on it.
Je vais prendre ta douleur	1.35-1.37	Box with ‘pain’ written on and singer destroying it with bat.
De tous ceux qui n’ont plus rein	1.38-1.41	Box with ‘pain’ written on and singer destroying it with bat.
Je vais prendre ta douleur (BUS)	1.41-1.43	Shots of singer in straight jacket trying to get out, Band help her, she runs around the stage.
Je vais prendre ta douleur	1.43-1.45	Mid shot her throwing the straight jacket off at the climax
Dites moi que fout la science A quand ce pont entre nos panses?	1.46-1.54	Bird’s eye view of singer lying on ground singing, mixed with shots from side angle and then at the end she gets up and appears in front of the camera.
Si tu as mal la out t’as peur tu n’as pas mal la ou je pense!	1.54-2.01	Wide shot from behind the character with the singer right in front of her.
Qu’est-ce qu elle veut cette conasse? Le beurre ou l’argent du beurre? Que tu vives ou que tu meures?	2.01-2.07	Suddenly she’s back on the stage with swords fighting off the other band members. OR kart wheeling and flipping etc (Ruby can do this!)
Faut qu’elle creve de Bonheur ou qu’elle change de godasses faut qu’elle cruole sous les fleurs change de couleur	2.09-2.16	Jump cut in different colours whilst throwing flowers, shoes and cake jumping around the stage.
Je vais prendre ta douleur	2.16-19	Lip Sink of singer and BUS
Je vais jouer au docteur	2.19-2.22	Lip Sink of singer and BUS
Je vais prendre ta douleur	2.23-2.27	CU Over the shoulder shot of singer right in front of girl.
Dites moi que fout la science a quand ce pont entre nos panses?	2.28-2.35	Wide shot over the shoulder standing in the rain. (Girl’s head moves showing she is shocked BUT audience don’t actually see her face.)
Si tu as mal la ou t’as peur tu n’as pas mal la ou je chante!	2.35-2.43	Then wide shot over the shoulder of them standing in the rain.
Ah la, Leve-toi (repeat) mixed with noises from band	2.43-3.03	Wide shot of big suitcase and she is chucking everything out trying to find more things to entertain her with, Mid Shot of her almost giving up.	Last 5 secs – Wide Shot -she’s finishing her song, stands still, wide shot of the audience leaving because its finished. Then a ‘tracking in the round’ shot from her back to show the front of the girl watching (who is the same person)