Big Project (Pre-production)

 

                                                         Preproduction

Organising

The preproduction of my project is one of the most important and biggest parts of my music video. I knew straight from the start that for this week I'd need to be as organised as possible. I knew this because on my original schedule my preproduction seemed to have the most tasks to complete. So to keep everything as organised as possible I made a separate more detailed schedule for my pre production to make sure that nothing gets forgotten or overlooked. Here is an image of my schedule on the first day of my preproduction. I knew that later on in the week I would be adding tasks that needed completing, so this is schedule will look much different by the end of the week. 

Along with this I also Edited my original schedule and colour coded the sections of my preproduction on how difficult they will be. With red being the most difficult and green being the least. 

After this I knew it would be a priority to create a Miro board that would help me organise myself throughout the week. I did this by using a template my tutor had given me as a base to visualise how much progress I had made on each part of my pre production. Here is what my Miro board looked like on day 1 of my preproduction. 

And here is what my Miro board looks like now

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVGPB8QxY=/?share_link_id=627154915033

planning 

Now that I had an organised base I now had to move onto planning my actual idea. This process was the longest of my preproduction. Where as I had originally organised to schedule my planning for only 2 days, the whole prosses ended up taking almost all week. I will remember this for future projects and give myself more time.

To get a clear understanding of the direction this project would end up. I decided to review everything I had come up with so far. And decide where I could take it next.

My idea originally started as a music video, with the theme of a singer changing his identity by the look of his clothing to try and fit into society. However I found this idea to generic and similar to the my kind of woman music video, so instead I decided to expand on the idea. Implementing a symbolic narrative that reimagined the lyrics of the song "you spin me right round" By dead or alive. While my original concept of a singers identity being represented through clothing stays the same. We now have a suppressed identity that's been personified into what seems like a separate character. This character is then seen to be having a conversation with the singer through the lyrics of the song where the singer seems to be implying their desire to be like the suppressed identity. With lines like "You look like your lots of fun" and "open up your loving arms" expressing this desire for the singer to become thier suppressed self. The narrative then takes a turn when the suppressed identity sings back to the normal singer through the chorus of the song with lyrics like "you spin me right round" implying that the singer should stop holding back and manifest into the suppressed identity. Once we cut back to the normal singer we see him wearing the clothes of the suppressed identity, this is to represent him slowly embracing his authentic self in the real world. The Music video then goes on with the conclusion of the singer becoming a new authentic person. Essentially this music video shows the symbolic psychological metamorphosis of a singer becoming their suppressed identity. 

Now that I had written out what I wanted to convey during my project it was time for me to ask myself questions on how I wanted to present these themes and narratives. Here is a few questions I asked myself during the planning process: 

What gender is the character going to be in the music video???

I decided to give the character a male gender, as i believed that representing a males struggle with identity acceptance would be easier than representing a females. Since as a male I have more understanding of this perspective. Along with this the singer behind the song was a very expressive male. So this fits the lip sync much more. Although I could have had a female lip sync to a males lyrics to symbolise her desire to embrace a more masculine identity, I felt as if I wouldn't really know how to present this. I had also envisioned a male throughout the whole production process so I didn't want to loose track of my vision. 

How could I imply that the separate character is the singers suppressed identity??? 

• The separate character seems to be more confident and expressive as if they are not pretending to be somebody they are not.
• The separate character has a more flamboyant personality as if he is unashamed of his true self. This personality trait also contridicts traditional masculine stereotype's implying that the separate identity is not held down by societies gender expectations. 
• The separate characters set resembles a dream world implying that the character may be a fantasy of what the singer wants his life to be.  
• The separate character is played by the same actor. This shows how they are two sides of the same person 
• The separate character will have many symbolic links to childhood. This is meant to suggest that the separate character is a part of the singers identity that has been grown out of (this idea is inspired by the themes in the teenage adolescents music video)
• The separate character will have many match shots to the singer, establishing that they are the same person (This technique was inspired to me by the film 500 days of summer)
• The separate characters set is confined and walled almost as if he is trapped, implying that the separate character is in a suppressed state. 
• The singer will talk to the suppressed identity through a photo of him on his desk

How will the singer be shown to embrace his identity

• Match shots will be used to show the suppressed identity's influence in the singers life 
• The costume of the singer will change into the separate characters costume as he embraces himself 
• The lyrics will imply that the singer has embraced himself. With lines like "I got to be your friend now baby" explaining how the singer gets to be himself because of the suppressed identity's influence in getting him to accept himself. In these lines he's basically saying  "I got to be my real myself".
• The photo I plan on having the singer talk to, will change when he embraces himself.
• A name tag on the singer will change from the start of the music video signifying that he is somebody new. 
• The singer will seem less boarded and more animated by the end of the music video
• The singer will gradually start singing lyrics from the separate identity's segments as the narrative goes on.
• The singers old costume will be seen spun around in the separate identity's set representing how the singer has forgotten his old self and become his authentic self. This will also match the lyrics of the song.
• The singers perspective will become more colourful and childish as he embraces his identity. 

How will I imply that the singer is not his authentic self and has a suppressed identity.

• The singers perspective will be dull and colourless representing a world where you pretend to be somebody you're not. 
• The singer acts boarded and depressed as if he is wanting more.
• The singers costume is a suit representing how he has based his identity on conformity of society. As a suit is commonly warn as work clothes and clothes are a universal way for people to express their selves and identity. 
• The singer will seem as if he is begging to the picture of the suppressed identity to let him become him.
• The singer appears to be very work orientated as if he has traded his identity for his career.
• While the singer will try to be expressive he appears to be to tired as if he has given I up on trying to embrace himself.
•  The singer will be a lot different by the end of the music video

Asking these questions allowed me to add new ideas and details onto my original idea. I documented this on my Miro board by copying the lyrics to the song onto my board, then colour coding it to  the segment I wanted each lyric to be in. For example the blue lines represent the lyrics that take place during a boring office where the singer wears his suit and talks to a photo of the suppressed identity. And the red lyrics represent a dreamy fantasy set where the suppressed identity talks back to the singer. While the purple lines represent a combination of the two where the singer is embracing his identity by wearing the suppressed identity's costume. Once I had colour coded each line I added the new details and ideas I had gathered from my brainstorming to the side of each segment I wanted them to be in. Here is an example of what this looked like at the start of my planning.

And here's an image of what it looked like towards the end.

During my questions I mentioned the use of match cuts/shots. A match shot is where one scene looks almost identical to another except for different details that can give the other scene a different meaning. I got this idea from watching the film 500 days of summer where they have a great example of this technique. 

Here is the first sequence:

Here is the second sequence, notice the big and small details that differentiate it from the first sequence giving it a totally different feeling:

I wanted to incorporate some similar shots to this in my music video. Shots that look identical just with different props or colour grading. So I came up with a few match shots of my own I could ad to my music video. 

Match shot one

For this shot I want a book on business, a mirror, the photo, and pencils in a line to completely change from the start of the music video to the segment where the separate identity's influence is starting to be embraced by the singer. Here is what I created with my props.

Shot 1

In this shot you can see a book on business which represents a career dominated identity. As well as neatly aligned pencils that represent conformity. Along with a mirror that represents the theme of identity since identity is essentially a reflection of ourselves.  The mirror is located next to what is meant to be a picture of the suppressed identity (I do not have a picture of my actor yet) which could also represent how the singer sees himself in comparison to how he wants to be seen.

Shot 2

In this shot the book on business has been replaced by a Jane Eyre book. The reason I have picked a Jane Eyre book is because the novels main theme is based around embracing identity, and the singer is shown to be embracing his identity during this sequence. To go alongside this the pencils are now scattered around to represent freedom, since they are no longer forced to be aligned. And the mirror is now emitting colourful light. I achieved this by using an infinity mirror that I found lying around. The colour from the mirror signifies the separate identity's influence as he is surrounded by colour.

Story boarding 

Now that I had even more ideas and an even better foundation for my original concept. I decided to begin story boarding. I first began by visualizing each scene while listening to the music, trying to use the notes on my Miro board as a reference. While also deciding what techniques I wanted in each scene. I then drew all this out and wrote text that described what was going on in each shot. Along with the each drawing I wrote down the lyric that would be played during the shot.

Here's what I came up with:

Shot 1

The Music video opens up with a foggy camera lens during the musical start of the song "you spin me right round". Through the blur of the lens you can see the outline of a colourful figure dancing across a dream like set. This sequence lasts around 14 seconds so every 4.5 seconds id like the actor to cut to a different position. similar to the technique I used in my last music video. The actor does this until he removes the camera lens revealing a dreamy set and a colourful costume he is wearing. This character is the separate identity, he then finishes this shot with a playful wink to the camera.

The costume in this scene will be a purple under sized suit. with possible gloves. 

The transition in this scene could have distorted audio to give it an uncanny aesthetic

Shot 2 (match shot 1)

The next shot will be a close up of another character, this being the singers mouth as he lip syncs the lyrics "If I". This shot is a match shot which will be repeated throughout the music video in similar ways. 

Shot 3 

The singer then uses his hand to zoom himself out (breaking the 4th wall similar to how the singer breaks the 4th wall in the my kid of woman music video) revealing the rest of his suit and a name tag that says "my name is somebody". The name tag is vague suggesting that he is somebody pal and bland. The name somebody also suggests that the singer is ordinary and boring just like everybody else. This fits in well with my music videos theme of conformity. A name tag being shown on screen also fits well with the lyrics of the song as it says "I get to know your name". This whole scene will be filmed on a mounted camera

Shot 4

The camera then cuts to the side of the singer where we see that he is typing on a computer. While the camera does cut the shots remain static, this is because while the scenes are more focused on the singer I want the camera to feel restricted and restrained to demonstrate how the singer feels trapped and confined to an identity he has created to fit in. Meanwhile while the camera is focused on the separate identity it is placed on a dolly and is able to move round freely to demonstrate the freedom and carefree personality of the singers suppressed identity. The difference in camera techniques helps to differentiate the two characters and will also help signify their merging when the singer embraces his suppressed identity.  Once the camera cuts the singer spins his head to look at the camera, foreshadowing the songs chorus. Once the lines "when I could trace your private number baby" are lip synced the singer then rolls his eyes and turns back to the computer. 

Shot 5

The camera then cuts to the front of the singer where he seems bored and uninterested while delivering his line. This is meant to show how the singer is upset and unhappy with his life.

Shot 6 (match shot 2)

The camera then cuts to the second match shot that'll be continued during the music video. That being the shot of the photo, book, pencil and mirror I mentioned before. The lyrics "you look like your lots of fun" imply that the singer thinks that the suppressed identity's life is much more interesting then his own. 

Shot 7

The next shot cuts back to the side where the singer opens up his arms and begs to the suppressed identity to let him be him. The lyrics "I want some want some" suggest that he wants to be him, and the opening of his arms match the lyrics "open up your loving arms".

Shot 8

The next shot is from the side and shows the singer talking to the picture with the lines. "I set my sights on you" these lines suggest that the singer has become infatuated with wanted to become his suppressed identity. When the lines echo with " I don't know what else to do" a light shines onto the picture as if the picture is talking back to the singer.

Shot 9 

The shot then cuts back to the singer as he delivers the next lines with a more determined angry face. He then dramatically grabs the picture from the side. 

Shot 10

The singer then looks down at the photo and sings the next lyrics. 

Shot 11

The next shot then replicates match shot 1 but is a close up of the separate identity's mouth as he sings. "watch out here I come". "The lines watch out here I come" are used by only the separate identity but as the music video goes on the singer begins to say the phrase representing how the singer is becoming the suppressed identity by embracing him.

Shot 12

Now the camera cuts back to the suppressed identity in his set where he is seen dancing around having a great time being free. The suppressed identity may wear some glasses to add to the chaos going on. I also want the suppressed identity to be reading a children's colouring book as this links the character back to the idea of being an identity abandoned during adolescents. 

Shot 13

This shot is another match shot to match shot 1 where we can see the singer in his office wearing the separate identity's clothes. showing that he has embraced his separate identity.

Shot 14

The camera then zooms out yet again and the singer is revealed holding some cut out paper friends as he says the lyrics "I got to be your friend now baby". This line while also matching the lyric suggests that the singer now gets to be more like himself.

Shot 15

The camera then cuts to the side and the singers seen moving a wheeled chair closer to the camera matching the lyrics.

Shot 16

The next shot then starts with an overhead shot it then whip pans down then over to the 2nd match shot of the book and picture.

Shot 17

The shot that follows then shows the singer saying the lyrics watch out, before it dramatically cuts to the separate identity finishing the lyrics.

Shot 18 

Shot 18 is then another separate identity dream sequence this time the character is seen spinning around the suit of the singer to signify the change in the character.

Shot 19

The next shot will then be a side by side of the two identity's as they both sing the lyrics "I want your love".

The final shot

The final shot will have the singer say the last lines in his original suit as he winks at the camera. his name tag in this scene is has now been changed to "My name is somebody new" this shows the characters change throughout the music video as he has become a new person after embracing his identity. 

Costume and set design 

Now that i had my story board complete i could really bring my idea to life by planning the costumes and sets i would record my music video with. I would this part the most fun as it really allowed me to experiment and create a unique look for my music video. But before i could create anything i started by planning my costume and set. Making sure i asked questions like. Why am i doing this??? how will this feature improve my video??? Would this work on film??? How easy is this to get into college??? and how how will this feature improve the narrative???. With these questions in mind i began the planning.

Costume Planning

I knew from the start how important the costumes would be for this project so i made sure to do my best when it came to planning and acquiring the costumes. I started planning by first drawing out the 2 characters the way i imagined them in my head. Here is an imagine of what those drawings looked like in my sketch book. 

Each costume shows the main Character in a suit. However, in my mind the separate identity wears much brighter colors that are muted and patterned in comparison to the singer who wears a traditional black or grey suit as if he is going to work. I decided that the characters should both wear suits as this links the two of them together which helps convince the audience that these characters are the same person just different parts of that person, since they are wearing similar clothes yet are both extremely different. I also wanted to convey the difference in personality between the 2 characters, this was more easily done with the separate identity as his personality is very expressive and carefree. This is why in my drawings the separate identity's hair appears to be more messy then the singers. I aimed to achieve this look with the use of hair spray but unfortunately wasn't able to since i never got to ask my actor if it was okay with them. As for the singer i wanted his character to be presented more by his body language and mood yet his clothes still fit his dull and grey personality. In my drawing the separate identity also appears to have chaotic squiggles around him, this was an editing technique i wanted to give to this character where animated squiggles would appear on screen while the separate identity would appear this would give the separate identity more of a childish charm that i wanted for him, it also linked well to the theme of color in my project. 

My character concepts were complete now it was time to acquire each costume. I started with the easiest, this being the singers formal work suit. For this costume i originally wanted to use a grey suit that belonged to my dad but unfortunately i could not get this as my dad was not able to find it. Thankfully however i had a back up suit, That being the one i wore to my prom, which worked pretty well with some black trousers. I decided to not include a tie as i wanted to limit the amount of props and costumes i had to bring into school, and also believed it wouldn't look as similar to the separate identity as i wanted it to. Since i never picture the separate identity wearing a tie. It also helped that tying skills when it came to ties weren't the best, so not including a tie could also save me a bit of time during production. Here is an image of the singers suit on the day i brought it into college:

With one costume down it was now time for me to move onto the separate identity's costume. While scheduling my project i knew from the beginning that acquiring this costume would be a difficult task. So to prepare my self and avoid as many issues as i could i came up with a back up costume encase i was not able to acquire a better costume later on in my pre-production. Here is an image of the costume a came up with as my back up:

As for the main outfit, my friend once wore a joker costume to a sponsored walk. While brainstorming what I could use for my separate identity's suit i realized that the joker costume without the mask would work perfectly as a costume for the separate identity. Here is what that joker costume looked like:

And here is an image of it on the first day I brought it to college:

All i had to do now was get the suit on the Thursday which went perfectly. giving me no reason to use my back up suit at all. The costume its self was a little small but i found this not to be a problem since it fit the character of the separate identity well since he is an identity the singer has grown out off. These costumes were both very successful with not all that many people realizing that the separate identity was wearing a joker suit, with people often getting it confused with a mad hatter suit. Here are 2 images of my actor wearing the suits during production (the singers trousers were a little to small so had to be ditched but this didn't affect production to much):

Set design

With costumes finished, I now had to design my sets. Staring off with the singers set for these scenes my actor would be filmed in a corridor outside of the studio. This set was chosen due to its office like mundane appearance which was the perfect work like environment for my singer. The corridor was also close to the studio so getting lighting into the set would not be a problem. The corridor also had a desktop computer which was something I wanted for my singer since the beginning, The computer also acted as a very good motived light feature which helped my set feel naturally lit with a dark aesthetic.   

The other set id need would be for the separate identity, this set would be much different to my previous set with a dreamy aesthetic that I wanted to feel nostalgic and childish, to fit in with the separate identity's theme of childhood. To do this I took influence from nostalgic pillow forts to create a set that seemed as if it could be a child's dream. My next step was to create mood boards based around childhood and dreams to try and create a better idea of what I wanted my set to look like. 

Here is a mood boards I created 

These mood boards influenced me to add aspects of pink into my set as pink is a colour associated with dreams and fantasy. With this in mind I decided to purchase some pink blossom lights from Amazon that would provide lighting while also enhancing the sets overall aesthetic. Once these lights arrived I made test sets at my home using old blankets and table clothes, to see which ones fit the pillow fort set I had in mind. I then took pictures of each set and decided which one I wanted to keep and how I could improve the one I liked. 

Test set 1

 

For this set i used 2 identical table mats with a separate table mat in the middle. Along with a lamp from my hallway and another table mat on top of a miniature coffee table. While i liked aspects of this design such as the pink blossom lights i had ordered off amazon. I wasn't to keen on the center table mat as i didn't think it blended in well with the rest of the set. The mat in the middle was also a little bit dirty so i decided that for my next set id change it out for an old duvet i had lying around.

Test set 2

This addition to the set worked much better yet i still felt as if the set felt a bit bare so i added a wallpaper sample from my living room and attached it to my set.

Test set 3

With this finishing touch my set finally felt ready. Although when i began filming i did more the wallpaper sample to the far right in or order to even out the sets design.

With my analysis complete I could now bring all parts of my set into college including a lamp that I intended to use for motivated lighting. I used green screen stands, pegs and clamps to keep each part of my set in place while I tested out how my set would look in the studio. Here is an image of my final set in college (the lamp is missing):

Now that I had my potential sets ready I weighed up the positives and negatives of each one to try and see if there were any issues i might run into with these sets. I did this on my Miro board:

Thankfully I came to the conclusion that the positives out weighed the negatives so I now decided to move onto my equipment.

Equipment

My next step was to go over what equipment id be using during my project. It was during this process that I realised I had drastically underestimated how much equipment id need for this project during my budgeting. For this music video id need:

• A GoPro
• A GoPro mount 
• 2 chairs for my actor and myself 
• A spot light
• A soft light 
• A flag to block light 
• A camera mounted light 
• A dolly 
• Props 
• Costumes 
• SD cards
• Micro SD converter
• Camera batteries 
• Cameras 
• 3 Green screen stands 
• A set 
• A Go Pro light

While going through my equipment I discovered that the college did not own a mounted camera. To solve this issue I first attached a Go Pro to a light stand using a bicycle mount. This created a make shift camera mount, that achieved the same effect as a mounted camera. Here is an image of this contraption:

Fortunately however i discovered that the college had an even better solution to my problem as I found a Go Pro mount that worked a lot better then my homemade mount since it was lighter and required less parts to assemble. Here is an image of what kind of Go Pro mount I used.

Since this was my first time using a GoPro I watched a few tutorials to prepare myself for my production. Here's an example of one of the videos I watched.

I now recorded some test footage, for some of the scenes I wanted to use a mounted camera for during my music video. Here is the test footage I gathered. Unfortunately it has been put into slow-motion as i had been experimenting with the Go Pro before filming this test footage.

While I was filming test footage I thought it'd be a good idea to also gather test footage for my lens technique that was seen in the my kind of woman music video. Here is that footage: 

And here is the lens I used to achieve this effect:

From my lens technique footage I discovered that once the lens had been removed the camera would automatically go out of focus. So during my production I remembered to adjust the focus after this technique had been used.

With all my test footage and equipment managed. I decided to organise all my props, costumes and, set pieces on my micro bored, ticking off every prop I had brought into college.  Here is what this check list looked like on day one:

And Here is a dolly that id use on my day of filming. 

Actors

Actors were the most difficult part of my Pre Production. On my schedule I set a goal to send the performing arts class a formal email asking for actors to perform in my project. While writing this letter I made sure to keep it polite and professional giving convincing reasons to why the actors should invest their time into my project. I also gave them references study which matched the kind off chaotic erratic performance I was looking for. Here is an image of the letter I wrote for the head of the performing arts. 

 Days went by and I had received no response so instead of waiting around I decided to go over to the performing arts class in person to try and gather some actors. I presented my idea to the performing arts class and received 3 actors that were willing to perform for me. To then professionally cast an actor I requested a casting video from each of the 3 actors this way I could decide which actor best fit the character I had created. Here are the messages I sent to my actors via teams:

I had also sent them a copy of the email I sent their tutor. Unfortunately none of my actors were able to perform for me during my production as they were either to sick or to busy. While this was disappointing for my project I do now have 3 experienced actors who can help me in my next project. Here are some of the messages exchanged between me and my actors:

Thankfully despite not having any actors from the performing arts class a student from my class kindly offered to do the acting for me. So with almost everything from my schedule completed all I had left to do was fill out a risk assessment which was fairly easy as I had been taking notes on potential hazards all throughout my Pre Production.  Here is a screenshot of my risk assessment:

Everything now seemed complete so I started moving onto my production.