28.12.11 - Filming

So today was our first day of shooting our video! Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side and it was extremely windy and rainy, however this did not deter us from working. As a group we decided to meet early in the morning, however as mentioned, this time was negotiated to become later due to the weather conditions. Also as a result of this, our initial location (Greenwich Park) was changed, and we met at Abbey Ruins, a scenic picturesque site, ideally close and perhaps even more fitting than our first chosen location for the video.

Feedback from the day, by the other group members and myself, along with the actors and other people who were on set who voluntarily helped were:

• Shots were very simplistic- story boarding perhaps was not as evident as it could have been
•  The location fit the genre of the song (romantic scenery)
• The acting and lip syncing was initially very good, but could have been tighter- will be worked on in the next shooting
•  There was a variety of camera work (steadicam, crane etc) - must continue to do this!!
• The day went well, despite the weather conditions

    Here are some still photographs of our first day:

Narrative theory

Whilst producing storyboards for our music video, it became apparent that narrative theory would coincide with our work.

Narrative theory examines the way storytelling frames the content and meaning of media messages, and is used in fictional and factual media, in this case, fictional. Storytelling is at the heart of all human interaction, and we use these stories to explain an event to an audience, and perhaps even our internal thoughts. The aim for our video is to portray the spontaneous love between a couple, and therefore storytelling will become almost second nature within this media text. The narrative depth within the video gives objective character identification, therefore the viewer is given unique access to a chacrater's point of view such as seeing things from their mind, dreams or memories.

The narrative begins with the couple, and although does not have a direct story, it explains of their struggles (wedding planning, parents getting involved) to their highs and delights in their relationship (park scenes etc).

This theory also includes the proposition of character functions by Vladamir Propp, and the cycle of equilibrium by Todorov. In terms of this video, the character functions are not all that clear as there are few characters seen within the video, however if we were to allocate roles, they would be as following:
- Bruno Mars: hero
- Love interest: the princess
- Mum/Dad: Villians or those who interrupt the equilibrium
The equilibrium is established at the beginning of the video, interrupted throughout the planning scenes however settled towards the end of the video.

Storyboards

Above are some storyboards that my group and I have produced, containing each camera shot type, the location and the lyrics to show where in the song these shots will be. I believe that by having storyboards to work along side whilst filming helps to keep the group organised, and allows there to be no time wasted. Naturally there may be a few changes when the filming begins due to perhaps weather, change in location or simply a change in the shot ideas; there may also be aspects where we add in certain shots to improvise with the time/locations available, however the majority of the filming will be created using these storyboards.

Lyrics

This is a short blog post showing the lyrics of our chosen song. Over the next few days, our group will be producing storyboards that will accompany these lyrics, which will lead us in the right direction for our video. The lyrics will help to decide the mise-en-scene of the video, and other factors e.g. location scouting.

It's a beautiful night,
We're looking for something dumb to do.
Hey baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Is it the look in your eyes,
Or is it this dancing juice?
Who cares baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Well I know this little chapel on the boulevard we can go,
No one will know,
Oh, come on, girl.
Who cares if we're trashed got a pocket full of cash we can blow,
Shots of patron,
And it's on, girl.

Don't say no, no, no, no-no;
Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah;
And we'll go, go, go, go-go.
If you're ready, like I'm ready.

Cause it's a beautiful night,
We're looking for something dumb to do.
Hey baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Is it the look in your eyes,
Or is it this dancing juice?
Who cares baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

I'll go get a ring let the choir bells sing like oooh,
So what you wanna do?
Let's just run girl.

If we wake up and you wanna break up that's cool.
No, I won't blame you;
It was fun, girl.

Don't say no, no, no, no-no;
Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah;
And we'll go, go, go, go-go.
If you're ready, like I'm ready.

Cause it's a beautiful night,
We're looking for something dumb to do.
Hey baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Is it the look in your eyes,
Or is it this dancing juice?
Who cares baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

[x2]
Just say I do,
Tell me right now baby,
Tell me right now baby, baby.

Oh, it's a beautiful night,
We're looking for something dumb to do.
Hey baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Is it the look in your eyes,
Or is it this dancing juice?
Who cares baby,
I think I wanna marry you.

Colour schemes

Through conducting existing research, it is evident that Bruno Mars' promotional packages all consist of the same colours, yellow/cream. This consistency must also be reflected in our own individual work, therefore as a group we decided on two colours that we each liked.

Nick: Black and white

Me: Gold and white

Hannah: Red and white

The logos that we created reflected these colours, and we chose what we thought were the most appropriate and proffessional colours: black and white. We did not however dismiss the colour yellow, which may be used in an alternative way throughout our tasks.

Logos!

As part of our ancillary tasks, whilst evaluating the codes and conventions of other products, a logo is an essential. Initially, we had created a “Glee” logo; however, as our song consists of the one vocal, the Bruno Mars original vocals, our logo must also accompany this.  We continued to draft various logos using Adobe Photoshop, changing aspects which we feel would appear better, always taking our audience into consideration.

Here are two of our Glee logo’s:

The Bruno Mars logo for his album cover is a simple black silhouette, with an aeroplane going off into the background, with the title again, very simplistic.

Bruno Mars' Album Cover



One can connote from this that, the aeroplane, perhaps symbolises his journey for his music career as an artist. This small but iconic object is now very well known as being attached to Bruno Mars’ persona and this concept was used when creating our own logo. As our song is “Marry You” we felt that rings would be fitting. A black and white outline is simple in itself, and the title or background could differentiate with each logo draft.

Here are the drafts, which show the logo progressing:

 

As a group, we have decided to use the first Bruno Mars logo as our final one, due to the fact that after researching Bruno Mars as an artist, his work is very simple. He doesn't generally use a lot of colour, and if he does, it is usually of a pale tone e.g. yellow. To ensure we didn't mirror the original logo, we have decided to use a plain black and white, but to incorporate an animated image of two rings, therefore one can connote from these rings the song title "Marry You."