Film Journal

18th February 2014:

Location: Cheney school field

Time: morning - afternoon

Scenes: Scenes for Narrative & Single shots

Actors: Mustafa

Props: Craters & Cigarette

What we achieved in the shoot?

What type of shots did you focus on?

We mostly focused on high angle shots and mid shots throughout the entire shoot. The reason we tried high shots is so that we could clearly see the craters graffiti which helped us implicate the whole gangster and rough look by having the graffiti in the background and character wearing smart wear rapping infront of it.

What costumes did you use?

We had Muzzy who was playing Jay-Z wearing a suit jacket and smart casual wear to match in with the whole smart/gangster look also it matched in with the other shots from the narrative wear he's also wearing a suit.

What went well?

We did get in some good shots but from different angles (mid shots, high angle etc) and we got it done in quick successions and the shoot was done quickly but precision

What went wrong?

When we reviewed the shots we found that they we're to shaky and that the panning and mid shots kept showing the background which was a field so we decided to scrap the idea of using the crates in our music video so we changed up the idea and decided to film somewhere more run down which didn't have things unnecessary things in the background

17th February 2014:

Location: Oxford Business Park

Time: 5pm -6pm

Scenes: Narrative & Studio Shots

Actors; Ahsan and Mustafa

Props: Car

What we achieved in the shoot:

The main thing we wanted to achieve in this filming session was to complete studio shots for the second verse as we have been lacking in footage for this part of the song. We also felt that we needed to change the location between the verses because if we had kept the location the same, the song would have become a tad tedious and boring. 

The actors were dressed in smart but casual clothing. Justin Timberlake is dressed in a fashionable navy blue suit which gives him an up to date look which all R'n'B artist tend to have. Jay-Z on the other hand has more of a gritty look which almost says "I don't care how I look, I'm cool". The look consists of a tie which is not fully tied and an untucked shirt but his confidence takes away the idea of him looking scruffy, the look automatically becomes cool because he's wearing it.

How did you set up your equipment and what went well

We positioned the car behind the actor, beside the actor, and we placed the actor in the car and recorded our actors performing the song. We filmed in a place that lacked lighting, to fix this, we used the car headlights to film and this created a spooky and mysterious atmosphere. This was executed with a good degree of success. 

What went wrong

Due to the fact that we were filming and in a private area and we looked awfully suspicious with the car e.g. we were driving around in circles and looking quite dodgy whilst doing it, we were promptly told to leave the premises, so we decided to go film in another open car park.

What we need to achieve next time?
Next time we need to re-shoot the office scene and get started on the main fight scene.
Write five bullet points about your filming plans for next time.

•  Fight scene
•  Filming of the office scene.
•  More ambiance shots to make the video more dark and mysterious. 

17th February 2014:

 Location: Horsepath Bypass
Time:7-9pm
Scenes: Performance Scenes for the second verse
Actors: Mustafa & Ahsan
Props:Cigarette & Car

What we achieved in the shoot:

What type of shots did you focus on?

We focused mainly on the performance shots for the second verse. We tried to use these shots to help us create more of a distorted and hectic feel for the second verse. This is because we felt as if the first verse was a little bit too clean cut and tamed to fit in with the conventions of Hip-Hop.

What costumes did you use?

The actors were dressed in smart but casual clothing. Justin Timberlake is dressed in a fashionable navy blue suit which gives him an up to date look which all R'n'B artist tend to have. Jay-Z on the other hand has more of a gritty look which almost says "I don't care how I look, I'm cool". The look consists of a tie which is not fully tied and an untucked shirt but his confidence takes away the idea of him looking scruffy, the look automatically becomes cool because he's wearing it.

How did you set up your equipment?

Since we were aiming for a more hectic feel to our video we decided to go off book when it came to filming the second verse of our video. We did this by filming almost the whole verse by hand and purposely shaking the camera whilst doing so.

What went well?

The shots where we see the handsome actor playing Jay-Z walking beside the car work very well as they match perfectly with the non-diegetic music which we have synced with it.

What went wrong?

The shots which we decided to distort. The whole idea of distorting the shots almost worked too well.I looks as if we didn't intend for the shots to be distorted and therefore the quality looks terrible in comparison to the rest of our video.

28th of January 2014: 

Location: Regal community centre

Time: morning - afternoon

Scenes: Scenes for Narrative & Random shots

Actors: Mustafa & Ahsan

Props: Wine Bottle & Glass, Shattered Glass, Playing Cards, Poker Chips, Phones, Laptop & Money

What we achieved in the shoot?

What type of shots did you focus on?

We focused mainly on the shots that are used to set the feel of the video; the glass smashing shows the shattering of our leads heart when he finds out that his beloved girlfriend has been kidnapped. The fire shots represent the anger of Jay-Z when he gets fired up to go save Nini (JT's Girlfriend). These shots are normally seen in Hip-Hop music videos and are used to give more depth to the video.

What costumes did you use?

The actors were dressed in smart but casual clothing. Justin Timberlake is dressed in a fashionable navy blue suit which gives him an up to date look which all R'n'B artist tend to have. Jay-Z on the other hand has more of a gritty look which almost says "I don't care how I look, I'm cool". The look consists of a tie which is not fully tied and an untucked shirt but his confidence takes away the idea of him looking scruffy, the look automatically becomes cool because he's wearing it.

How did you set up your equipment?

We used a tripod for most of the shots. However we adopted a rougher method of shooting by just using our hands for the hi-shots of the glass and the bottle smashing. We also decided to place the camera flat on the ground whilst filming the smashing scenes so that the camera is perfectly level with the glass and the bottle whilst the shards of glass fly towards and past the camera.

What went well?

We established that the shots we took of the glass, the bottle and the fire work amazingly well in slow motion and we achieved our aim of making the video have more depth using them.

What went wrong?

The scene in the office where we see JT and Jay-Z having a conversation just before finding out about the kidnapping.In this scene it seemed like the video has a satirical feel to it. This is not what we are aiming for. Therefore these shots will have to be redone.

What we need to achieve next time?

Next time we need to re-shoot the office scene and get started on the main fight scene.

Write five bullet points about your filming plans for next time.

•  Fight scene
•  Filming of the office scene.
•  More ambiance shots to make the video more dark and mysterious.

23rd of October 2013:

Location: Assembly hall (Cheney)
Time: Afternoon
Scenes: First verse performance scene
Actors: Muzzy and Ahsan
Equipment: Camera, tripod, lighting equipment

What we achieved in the shoot?

What types of shots did you focus on?
We mainly focused on performance shots that featured many different shots to add variation and keep the scene exiting. Examples of shots that we used are close ups of JT's face singing to express emotion. We also included shots such as mid - long shots of Jay-Z performing to express his body expressions to make his scenes more dramatic.

What costumes did you use?
The actors were dressed in smart but casual clothing. Justin Timberlake is dressed in a fashionable navy blue suit which gives him an up to date look which all R'n'B artist tend to have. Jay-Z is also wearing a similar costume which consists of a black suit and black trousers.

How did you set up the equipment?
We used the tripod for most of the shots featured in this filming session and we also used the dolly which was effectively used to create good camera movements that made the shots more exiting. The smooth floor also helped make the shots look much more professional. we also included hand held camera shots for high and low angles which worked well and gave us more freedom in our movement. 

What went well?
We shot lots of the performance scene and the acting on the day was very good as well. Filming was done well and the lip syncing was on point thanks to the actors memorising the lyrics. 

What didn't go so well?
We could have filmed a wider variation of shots which would have given us more footage to work with and would have helped us to pick and choose all of the best shots.

Costume (JT Character)

We took inspiration from Justin Timberlake and the way he dresses and applied that on our music video. We noticed that JT dresses smartly and has his hair gelled back which makes him seem sophisticated and smooth. We are going to try to go for the same affect by making Ahsan dress like JT and act like him in our music video, he will be the centre of attention of the music video because he is the main character so he will have to play a convincing performance to pull it off which we believe he can achieve.

This is the exact look that we are going for in our main task which can be accomplished by Ahsan because he can grow a full beard and he does a suit to wear for the video which looks similar to the one in the screen shot. The darkness of the outfit really gets across that we are telling a story of a kidnapping that is distressful and dark.

The person in the picture is Ahsan and this is the outfit that he will be wearing in the music video. The  outfit consists of a black suit, a black shirt, black tie and black shoes. It will alter a little later on in the video when he puts on his balaclava.

Locations

We will be using the regal community centre which is located on the corner of Ridgefield road in Cowley as one of our locations for our music video. The main reason we chose this as one of our locations is because its a large and open space that can imitate a number of different locations and it would leave us enough space to have an elaborate action scene. 

After having one filming session at this location, we decided that what we had filmed had been unsuccessful and that we would use this location for another scene (instead of the poker scene and the scene where the character realises his girlfriend has been kidnapped which was due to go at the start of the video). We decided that we would use this location for the fight scene because as i said once already, this location has the ability to imitate a lot of different locations.

This is the set where we filmed all of our performance shots. This location is in the assembly hall of our school. This is a very good location because it has a black background and is also a spacious area to work in. It can also imitate a number of different locations.

Cast and Planning

Ahsan as Justin Timberlake

 Muzzy as JayZ

Steven as Bad Guy #1

Ammer as Bad Guy #2

Ayman as Bad Guys Leader

Dominic as Bad Guys Side Man

Good guy #1 - Ishy Daley
Good guy #2 - Mustafa 'Muzzy' Ibrahim
Good guy #3 - Ammer Mohammed
Girlfriend - Grace

Music Video Deconstruction (No Sleep)

Artists: Sway Ft KSI, Tigger Da Author & Tubes
Song: No Sleep
Genre: Hip Hop
Audience: 16-25
Director: Colin Tilley

"No Sleep" is a song by American rapper Wiz Khalifa, released as the fourth official single from his debut major-label studio album, Rolling Papers. The track features production from Benny Blanco, and was written by Cameron Thomaz and Benjamin Levin. The song was released as a single on August 9, 2011. The song debuted, and peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Wiz Khalifa's second-highest charting song, behind "Black and Yellow". The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

This long shot depicts the main artist of the video (Sway) in the middle with all the attention towards him, the other two artists are looking at him and he is the only one looking directly at the camera. He is also holding a megaphone which is used to show that he is the main voice of the song and his voice is above everyone else's in the video. He is also holding a small pocket light which is also used to draw the audiences attention to the main man of the video. All of this contributes to give Sway all the power in this shot and make him seem as the star of the video.

In this shot the attention is diverted to the women's bodies with a panning long/mid shot which starts off showing the women's face and then goes down to show off the women's bodies. This is clearly exploiting the women's sexuality and this is very common occurrence in hip hop music videos. They are also wearing revealing clothing (underwear and bras) to engage the male audience to the video and therefore the song.

This shot is taken in slow motion to depict the action on screen in a dramatic fashion. Someone is doing a backflip at the front of the picture as there is a collection of people partying in the background. The slow motion i used to match the pace of the music and break up the pace of the video to show something of interest (the backflip). They still manage to squeeze in the girls in the back ground which shows that the sexualisation of women is always present and is constantly pushed on the viewer.

Music Video Deconstruction (Fu**in' Problems)

Artists: A$AP Rocky featuring Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar 

Song: Fuckin Problems

Genre: Hip Hop

Directors: Sam Lecca and Clark Jackson

Audience: 16 - 25

"Fuckin' Problems" (edited version titled as "F**kin' Problems") is a song by American hip hop recording artist ASAP Rocky. It was released on October 24, 2012, as the second single from his debut studio album Long. Live. ASAP (2013). The song, co-produced by Noah "40" Shebib alongside Drake under the pseudonym C. Papi, features guest appearances from fellow rappers Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar. On November 27, 2012, the song was officially released to radio. Complex named the song #21 on the 50 best songs of 2012 list.

Most Hip Hop and RnB music video's feature some sort of sexual explicitness. This shot in particular shows a typical woman in a music video with lots of make up and looking right at the camera to tease the audience. They use a close up to clearly show the woman's sexual expressions on her face. This is used to draw mens attention to the video. Women are seen as objects and are sexually exploited in hip hop music video's in particular. They seem to focus more on the women in the video more than the men that are rapping.

The clothes worn by drake on this video is very typical to the type of clothes that most hip hop and R&B artist wear. The Glasses and the Jewellery is the typical look that most of these artists go and the reason for this is to show that they have lots of money because of the expensive jewellery, and the glasses are worn to break the connection with the audience by rejecting eye contact. This distances the performer from the viewer, which puts them at a higher status.  

The sexual exploitation of women are apparent in this music video very often and this is a very clear example of it. This first thing I would like to mention is that she is exposing her body by wearing very little, they did this to make men interested in the video and therefore make the song more memorable for them. Another point I would like to bring up is that the model is covering her face to get rid of her sense of identity and it makes her seem like more of an object to look at except from a human being. 

This shot in particular shows how a particular camera angle can effect the pay a person is portrayed. In this example we get a low camera angle of this rapper which makes him seen dominant and powerful. His body language and hand gestures help to reenforce that. He is stood up strait, with his head held up high, looking slightly down at the camera with his hand held out. All of this comes together to show that he is under control and he is dominating his moment which all comes together to make him seem confidnet. 

Storyboard First Draft A2 MT

Shot practice

We didn't use this first part of our storyboard draft because we felt that the song didn't suit the action and it wasn't dramatic enough. It was just too slow and mellow it was not the right song for what he had planned for the music video. We also had new ideas which lead to changes of the song and main character. The camera angles and shots have been altered to effectively portray the dramatic nature that we are trying to get across in our music video. We have now got a clear idea of what we are going to do on our music video and we will be making a new storyboard to plan our ideas and give us a solid foundation to work on.

Performance practice

The purpose of having this little session to practice the types of shots that we are going to use and how we will be editing the video will come in very useful and will give us some ideas for improvements.

Storyboard