Lyrics Timecode

This is the timecode for the lyrics of our song; I went through the song and wrote down the time every line starts. We then went through the time code as a group wrote out shots for each individual line - giving us a much clearer initial idea for the video. By visually seeing how much time we had for each shot, and by looking at the phrasing of words on particular lines, we were able to slot in both shot ideas we already had, and also new ideas based on lyrics in the line.

The lyrics with time coding also allowed us to decide where we would use the narrative structure of her walking backwards, and where we would show her lip syncing the song. We've decided that we want the lip syncing sections to be filmed on a bench with an iconic view of London as the backdrop. Ideas for the reverse theme have really begun to take shape and the group has also agreed on a new idea of the singer changing clothes throughout, with four striking clothing styles being agreed on.

Timetable

We've decided to plan ahead for the next two weeks and make sure that we have meetings every day, for around 30 mins and if we don't, we'll plan in the lessons.

Weather Prediction

Weather this month has been notoriously unpredictable, ranging from pouring rain to blazing sunshine, and so we cannot guarantee good weather conditions for our half term shoot at all. The BBC website predicts a lot of rain for the half term period of 22nd - 31th October, which is bad news considering we plan to shoot our video outside on a bright, Autumn day. If we are indeed forced to shoot on a rainy day however, there will be some positive outcomes, eg. reversing rainfall will be an interesting effect to play around with, and there are some possible shots with umbrellas we can incorporate. There really is no way of telling what the weather will be, as the BBC weather forecast is quite often hopelessly wrong, and as they say themselves on their website: "predicting the weather beyond about a week ahead stretches even the most experienced weather forecaster".


Here is a link to the official BBC forecast for the month:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209

Reverse Testing

It's Despina and Anisah here. We decided to take out a camera and take some shots to see how successful the reverse effect would be. We recorded some actions, such as walking, sliding  down banisters, taking clothes on and off and they all looked quite good reversed.

The shots that we really like are:

• Despina taking her hair out of a bun - looks really cool
• Sliding down the banisters
• Walking - simple, but effective and suits the London street look of our video

We're going to show the video to George, Joe and Miss B as well to get feedback from them.

Group Meeting - 7/10/10

In the group meeting today we went over the newly-timecoded lyrics sheet and started to plan exactly where our shots would go and which shots would suit which lyrics. We got through most of the sheet in this way and now have a much clearer idea of how we are going to put this music video together.

We made some crucial decisions regarding the performance too. We decided that direct address to the camera would be the best way for the star to stand out from the people around her and would increase her connection with the audience.

While we were brainstorming, some great new ideas for possible shots came to us, including a shot where the star takes a coffee from a man reading a newspaper and catches a coin that fires itself out of a wishing well/busker's guitar case. The idea of the star swinging backwards round a lamppost also appealed to us.

We have new location ideas, including a bench near Notting Hill which overlooks London. This location will be used primarily for performance and lip-synch footage. We decided that a carousel would be a great location for reversed footage. We also added the Underpass at Hyde Park to our possible locations list. We intend to do a rekkie within the next week.

We decided that costume changes will be a bigger part of our video, being used to represent the psychology of women and relationships - changing their identities and having different 'faces' at different times. Our actress will be dressed in three iconic costumes throughout the video; we have yet to finalise these.

We learnt from Anisah how to reverse camera footage, which is a crucial technique for us to master in this particular project, and we intend to do a test shoot in the near future.

New Actress

We have agreed that Liv, a girl in our year at school has a more suited image for the main actress we are after than the other two girls, as we wanted someone with darker hair who was a little "edgier". She has agreed to take part and seems really enthusiastic. She takes ALevel drama, so is confident, and is good-looking without looking too innocent or "cutes-y". We want her to have a dark, sexy edge. She is also reliable and we all get along with her well, so she is ideal for the role.

Mood Board for London style