Props List - N

Props List
For my video, I will not require many props, as the majority of the story will be told visually through the use of the shots and the actors involved. However, there are still several items I will require, each of which I have included below. I have attached a picture of each prop, as well as notes on how each one will be part of the narrative.

Watch - The watch used will be similar to the one featured to the left. The overall style of the watch is not important, as it is the actual presence of the watch that be more interesting to the viewer.

The watch will serve as a clue to the main character, hinting that the missing person has been in the location recently. The lead character will discover the watch in one of the 'daytime' scenes, with the watch giving further suggestion as to what the lead character is searching for. The character will pick up and examine the watch, before continuing in the direction he was previously walking, as the watch will inform him that he is clearly walking in the right direction. As I mentioned, the watch itself is mostly unimportant for the narrative, meaning I will likely just use my own for the required scenes.

Smartphone - Similarly to the watch, the smartphone will also act as a plot device for the narrative. I had the idea of the lead character discovering the phone, proceeding to turn the phone on to check its image background. The background image would be of the lead and missing characters, thereby establishing that they have some form of relationship to the audience. Like the watch, the particular type of phone will not be crucial to the plot, the only requirement being that it can display personal images on its 'home' or 'lock' screen. Therefore, I will likely use my own smartphone, as I know it has these requirements.

'Missing Posters' - This prop would also be used as a plot device, as (when completed) it would show pictures of the missing character. This would be featured later in the video, as otherwise it would ruin the viewer's suspicions of what the lead character is looking for. Below is a quick 'mock-up' of a missing poster I made in roughly five minutes. I did some brief research in order to see what real-life missing posters look like, in terms of composition and layout. The poster used for the video would not require much detail, as the emphasis would be placed on the title and images featured on the sheet. As you can notice, the mock poster below does not feature any images of the missing person - this is becuase I have not yet cast an actor to play this role, however I will add images in once the role has been cast.


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Original Images Before Manipulation - O

Original Images Before Manipulation
I will be using this image for my magazine advert as I believe the use of light and colour to silhouette the 'artist' is very effective and eye-catching. 

I will be using this image for the front cover of my digipak, as I believe the use of an interesting location in juxtaposition with the artist being present is highly effective, as well as being conventional of other digipaks.








I will be using this picture as the background for the 'disk holder' panel of the digipak, as I believe the subtleness of the photo will entice but not distract the consumer from the actual disk.









This image will be used for the inside sleeve or 'booklet' sleeve in the digipak, as it is similar to the magazine advert photo, thereby creating a link between the two texts, which is also conventional of promotional packages.

Risk Assessment - L

Risk Assessment
Below is an embedded Google Docs sheet containing the risk assessment I will be using whenever filming my music video. As you can see, there are not many risks which I believe I will encounter when filming, however I will be sure to add to the assessment if any other risks become apparent.

https://docs.google.com/a/george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRLWeA84SwL_Gi2Gy378heUrM6ZHBdJQ2DjLmCpyUS6srxO8Fk16VEATh0oncf
FhCil_DVAYWf_soPl/pub

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Film Schedule - K

Film Schedule
Below is a film schedule I created in order to act as a guideline for how the filming of my video should take place. Whilst the phone booth and nighttime scenes actually occur at the opening of the video, I detail these scenes towards the end of the schedule, as they would be shot later in the day.

Also please note that I may not actually film each scene on one day, however the timings on the schedule will still apply.

https://docs.google.com/a/george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR2er1XUK6MTbROzEZq-POyBbX9iq4eyWtKRro4fGsiaLbRaZObjElr7gwAb9mcq95oMeu1lxeAEqUg/pub

Costume Shots - I

Costume Shots
Below is a YouTube video detailing my costume the lead character (most likely being played by myself) as well as my reasons for choosing each aspect. I realised upon editing that the first half of the video was shot in Manual Autofocus mode. I realise that this is an annoyance however I hope it does not ruin your enjoyment of the video.

https://youtu.be/YIb_oVfyHAE

Storyboard - H

Storyboard

This is a basic storyboard I hand drew in order to show the basic storyline and shots that will feature in my music video.

Whilst the sequence of shots may be changed in post production and future drafts, I believe this initial storyboard offers an accurate impression ofwhat my video will hopefully resemble upon completing filming and post production.

Font Research

Font Research
Below is a list of several fonts I thought may be appropriate for the title of the video, 'Nightcall'. Including the songs title is highly conventional of music videos, as it conveys a cinematic feel to the audience, while obviously clearly showing which song the video will be based around. Towards the end of this post, I have also included the results of a short questionnaire I conducted after my font reasearch to discover which font would be most preffered by my audience.

I researched my various fonts through the use of online websites such as http://www.1001fonts.com/ as well as software such as Microsoft Word, as this allowed me to easily browse and select fonts -  visualising how effective they would appear on the word 'Nightcall'.

Chapparal Pro - This serif font is highly simplistic in appearance, which could make this font ideal for my video, as it would not be overly distracting for the audience. However, given that this video will (hopefully) appear film-like in appearance, I believe a slightly more intruiging font could be chosen - although I will still include Chapparal Pro in a short questionnaire I will be conducting to decide on what font shall be used.

Agency FB - Secondly, I chose this sans-serif font, Agency FB, as I thought its straight, almost uniform appearance would suit the concrete, sterile scenes that would feature in the opening of the video. Personally, I think this font would be highly effective for the video, however I will wait until I have conducted my questionnaire before deciding on which font to use.

Mistral - I chose this font as it was highly reminiscent of the font used for the film 'Drive', in which Nightcall is used. I thought this would make a subtle reference to the film, without being explicit or derivative. Unlike, the previous two fonts, Mistral is very much like handwritting, meaning the audience could possibly interpret it as written by the protagonist, creating a personal connection to the audience. I persoanlly like this font the most, however I will still await my results before choosing a definitive font.

Franklin Gothic Heavy - This font is more similar in appearance to the first two, however it is more 'bold', making it stand out more. Whilst this font is highly simplistic, I believe that if it were to be used with a suitable background image, it could be highly effective and eye-catching for the audience.

After deciding on these four fonts, I created and conducted a small questionnaire which allowed me to see which font would be preferred by my target audience. Before asking my participants, I gave a brief description of the purpose of the fonts, as well as my reasons for including each font.

As you can see from my data, the most popular font was Mistral, with Agency FB being the second most popular amongst my target audience. Personally, I believe this is a very positive outcome for me, as I had already considered using Mistral for my video, however, with this support from my potential audience, it has been solidified that I should definitely use Mistral. As mentioned previously, Mistral was used for the titles present in the film Drive, in which Nightcall is also featured. I think that by using Mistral, I would create a subtle reference to the film, a feature common in other music videos (e.g. Blur mimmicking 'A Clockwork Orange' for 'The Universal'). 

Overall, I believe that this research has been highly beneficial to me, as it has given me a greater understanding of how my music video should appear aesthetically. This will thereby allow me to produce a video widely enjoyed by my target audience, as well as fufilling the criteria for my video to be given a good overall grade. 

Location Recce Shots - J

Location Recce Shots
Below is a Prezi presentation detailing the locations I will be using for my music video. In the presentation I have included where the location is in terms of distance, as well as how they will be incorporated into my music video.

*Please note that you can zoom in/out of the presentation with the icons shown towards the right of the screen.

http://prezi.com/3k_olapdsbe9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Ancillary Draft Texts - G

Ancillary Draft Texts
Digipak
For the digipak for Kavinsky's 'Outrun', I will be creating a six-panel digipak. Below is the template I will likely follow for the digipak, with the digipak 'unfolding' to have the front and back covers on the reverse of the digipak. Below is also an example of what my digipak would resemble, with the CD case folding out to be on the very right of the digipak.

  



Below is a YouTube video featuring mock-ups of what my digipak (and magazine ad) will hopefully resemble upon completion. https://youtu.be/JZ62I2Pfi-E

Magazine Advert
As mentioned in the video below, I will be designing my advert to resemble a film poster, as I believe this will create a unique aspect for the advert. Here (left and right) I have also featured a few examples of what my advert will hopefully resemble (in terms of composition/layout). The positioning of the title at the bottom of the image is something I will definitely incorporate into my album design - as I believe this would help to better draw the reader's eyes accross the entire advert, rather than just the top.

https://youtu.be/GV_-ckj0XaU

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Mock Digipack and Magazine Ad (Hand-drawn) - F

Mock Digipack and Magazine Ad (Hand-drawn)
Below are my hand-drawn mock-ups of my Digipak and Magazine Advert, the two ancillary texts I will be making alonside my music video for 'Nightcall'. Firstly I will discuss my Digipak, before shortly moving onto my Magazine Advert.


Here is the front panel/cover and inside booklet sleeve for my Digipak. For the front cover I have decided to include an image of the phone booth featured in the music video. I chose to include this as it would create a sense of uniform accross my texts, with themes and imagery being shown throughout. I will express similar themes accross each of my texts as, as I found in my Magazine and Digipak research, promotional material typically features or consists of the actual album or content advert is promoting. Therefore, by using the phone booth for the Digipak, I would be able to link my texts together, making it easier for my target audience to link each piece to the artist/track.

As you can see here, I also chose to draw on a slot for a possible booklet which are often featured in Digipaks such as the one I will be making.

Here are the panels for the front and right-inside tray for my Digipak. As you can see with the back cover, the image of the phone booth is also included, but without the lead character being present within the booth. I thought that using similar images for each cover would help to convey a sense of mystery for the audience, whilst also being reminiscent of other Digipaks such as The 1975's first album (See Digipak analysis blog). As also mentioned previosuly, the majority of the 'white space' shown on this mock would actually be black on the final version, I just did not want to waste time/ink on colouring this rough mock-up.

For the tray, I will likely use a simplistic image of one of the environments shown in my music video. I chose not to draw a specific image for this panel, as I felt it would be the panel most likely to be dependant on what image I think suits the Digipak best at the time of creation.

This is a much smaller sketch I made of the layout of the Digipak. I made this as it would allow me to visualise the structure of my Digipak further into creating it, acting as a reference point for how it should be structured.

This is a mock-up of my magazine advert I will also be making alongside my video and digipak. This drawing hopefully provides a general idea of how the advert will appear upon completion, with the basic composition likely remaining the exact same on all future drafts. As with my Digipak, the image(s) I have included on my ancilliary text mock-ups may not be representative of my final versions, as I may take other pictures which are more suitable to the text and the genre itself. I chose to make these mock-ups to provide a basic interpretation of the key ideas and themes that will be present in my ancilliary texts.

Pitch of my Music Video - E

Pitch of my Music Video
Today I presented my basic premise for my music video to my A2 Media Studies Class, and overall I believe I was successful in making my video sound appealing to a potential audience. Whilst I did use my previous brainstorms and mood board, I mostly described the video off the top of my head, as I felt that this would make for a more personal and invested description of my ideas. I also played a snippet of the track 'Nightcall', which was met with praise from several of my classmates, as they enjoyed the eeriness and 'dark' tones of the song. When asked, everyone in the class gave my idea a 'green light', meaning I will be able to present my future pieces without disruption. I am very pleased with this result, as it allows me to continue to develop my initial ideas into a finalised piece, without having to change my original plan and vision for the video. After the lesson, I also collected some primary, quantitative data from some of my classmates. I did this to ensure that my potential audience were actually happy with my proposal, and was able to more discreetly ask for any changes or improvements that should be made. Below are graphs showing the results I collected from my feedback.

Overall, did you find my idea for the video interesting/appealing?

This result was incredibly pleasing for me, as it shows that the vast majority (76%) of my target audience would be immediately interested in viewing my video. Even the remaining 24% is pleasing to me, as they still think they would possibly watch the video. These results are therefore beneficial to me, as they show the potential audience I would attract upon publishing my video.