My Digi-Pack...

One of the ideas i have is to have an iconic and star constructive album based image. It's mainly to give the artist an image and identity on the Gospel music scene as he's not that well known, yet. I plan to also have his name bold & big, the main image of the star in the centre. Maybe in a place of religious meaning...
These are some examples of music videos album art/covers that have the same intention as me:
Marvin Sapp who has a similar sounding voice and style, in the song he sings and the way he dresses ect...




Also there is Micah Stampley & Kirk Franklin who are in the same genre, age & gender and have the same type of star construction on their album covers;






This cover is very interesting as well as having his name big and bold as it has a picture of him fighting himself asort of caption where a moment i time has bee captured. This is relevant because the name of the album is called Fight Of My Life. Also the codes used are very interesting because he is wearing black shorts in one and white shorts in the other. The idea of this is to depict that white is good and black is bad and he wins against the black shorts (on the floor) in the sense that good triumphs evil.

Filming Difficulties;

Yesterday i tried to do some filming and came across three re-occurring difficulties;
The first was my actor (part time) and the constraints that come with a low expenses budget.
As i am obviously making my video with all my own resources it is hard to find lighting. As i mentioned earlier being this time of the year it gets dark very early and very quickly (4pm), therefore almost all the light has to be artificial. WHICH REPRESENTS A PROBLEM, to find lighting in a shot is very difficult. I had to make use of lampposts, walkway lights and use well light areas. For example one shot i took of D.Montrell (Joshua) was in front of some graffiti but i had to make it a low angle to capture the light. This would be worth taking into consideration i was to carry out the project again.
Secondly, one of my 3main characters had a son. he was a boy named Calvin and he was 4yrs old. Working with kids is one of the most challenging things i had to do during this shoot. To find a child actor is very difficult as there is a lot more issues you have to take into consideration such as times; We had to ensure he was up and ready and at my house on time. Dates; we had to check with his mum if we could take him on the allocated days. Catering; we had to make sure he was fed and kept constantly entertained. Rest; We were under strict instructions that he had to have a nap in the afternoons and most of the time it interfered with shooting. An so much more. In future working with kids is something i definitely consider twice before doing so again.
Lastly my story board (see anamatic). Besides the fact i was already struggling to keep to my story board and kept changing things as i went along, the amount of footage i had, created a problem when it came to editing. I had soo many ideas and only so much song. I had some excellent footage for my narrative and some equally great lip-syncing. When it came down to it, it was a matter of choosing the best of the best to go in the video which i found extremely hard!

Update

The value of a call sheet and a day schedule are highly underestimated. If only i followed it down to the t.
Well firstly the availability of my actors was hard to work out; finding times that we were all able to do the shoot were horrible. With the stress of exams and allocating revision time had to be fast done. Another thing I found was that filming time was fast spent, it seemed like 10mins then I’d turn around and it had been an hr.
To be honest I would have loved to do ALL the filming in one weekend however my specific idea required lots of different locations but not too many props.
One thing I would have loved to change was the time of year in which the filming had to take place.
At this time of the year the days are EXTREMELY SHORTER which makes it even harder to film. It got dark by 4.15pm and I don't live near my college so by the time i would get home and get my equipment it would be dark. Filming on the weekend also seemed to be a problem where by my actors had other engagements such as football & sessions with paid tutors.

Feedback

In class everyone watched each others videos and gave them feedback before they finished it.
My personal feedback was that my audience ws having problems differenciating between the video's characters. My two males leads were black and young and both in dark colours so it wasn't that easy to tell them apart in the shots done in the evening.
This taught me that COLOUR OF THE COSTUME PLAYS A BIG PART.
In that a cruciality would be to know what is going on unless your trying to deliberately trying to confuse them, which is not what i was trying to do...
In futue i will ensure that very distinctive & obvious colours are used for each and every character. Maybe even if they had a signature item of clothing, jewellery or amulet.

My Video

The main aim of my video is to provide a narrative and story to the song. So when the consumers have seen the video the images and story lines will stay with them and be able to assist them in future. I want it to engage the audience whilst trying to tackle and provide a solution to the issues they face every day such as giving in to peer pressure and relationship problems.
My target audience is of an age 11-45. I’ve made it quite wide as the message of the song is one that is quite universal. It can be shared by all people. Also the music video narratively targets issues that could arise and apply to all these ages.

In my video I will have 3 main characters Rebeccah, Issac & Dad-Abraham, of which all are experiencing some trials and tribulations in their lives. The chain of events they are all experiencing will bring them all together.
There is a girl Rebeccah who is phoning her boyfriend but he shuns her so depressed she takes to the streets but having no friends and being known in the local area for being quite promiscuous in her past ways catches the wrong attention. Where she meets an old peculiar man who gives her a few words of wisdom and a strange present???
In the midst of all these dealings her boyfriend is out dreading the worst and trying desperately to solve the problem at hand, he’s running around frantically in an attempt to collect this money when he comes across a strange man (the same man that his girlfriend runs into) and fells almost compelled to give the money he has spent all day collecting to him as he realizes that the life isn’t worth anything without the person you want to spend it with. Meanwhile as Rebeccah is back at home she is drawn to reading this book-the bible. After reading she realizes what her life has been missing and she gives her life to Christ. This is when the dad-Abraham gets a chance to go back home and pay the rent.
When Issac gets to Rebecca’s house she shares her new found faith with him, they pray & the rest is history…

In my video I’ve tried to import the main element of the story however it wasn’t easy as I had to try and incorporate the lip-syncing in also whereas the song is only so long. So it was a matter of literally choosing the best bits and cutting the takes down to a bar minimum.
I also decided to have a bit of (non-musical) narrative at the beginning; this is to give the audience some background info and the basis of their argument.
To capture this technique I looked at videos from;
Deitrick Haddon ft.Mary Mary- Love Him Like I Do
Nelly ft.Jaheim- My Place

Also Chris Brown uses this technique alot in his videos;
-Wall to wall
-Yo (Excuse Me Miss)
-Gimmie That ft.Lil Wayne

Character Intro 2of3

This is my second actor his name is buks and he's playing the part of Issac, Rebeccah's boyfriend.
He's young about 17yrs old and got hmself mixed up with the wrong ppl all in an attempt to be in the in crowd. He's got brains, a bright future and a very well established sports career but almost threw it all away. By doing so he got himself in abit of a sticky situation wherE by he now owes some top "thugs" money (£500).
In his desperate attempt to get the money back he findes himself more in dept than he thought imaginable...

Costume: Dad

This is how i originally wanted the dad to come acros. As a homeless, lowly & Sad man but it didn't seem too realistic according to the situation so instead i decided to change it to a more relateable situation. There are soo many people that have had and are still going through financial difficulitys. Much more people can relate to this rather than sleeping rough and being homeless.

















This is what ola will now wear for the music video. A jacket of this kind as it's simple, looks good but is'nt luxurious...

Costume: Rebeccah

This black dress is what Dorcas-Rebecah will wear at the begining of the video this will show that she is very feminine likes to look good but slightly promiscious at the same time.

















This is what dorcas will change into later in the video. The change of hair, clothes and no make up will indicate a change in her priorities, her lifestyle & her outlook on not only her life but her value of herself.

Costume: Issac

This is the costume for my character named Issac,
He will have to be casually dressed and looking quite youthfull.
However he will have to be in quite dark colours as his costume will have to reflect his actions which are not completely legal
A hat to conseal his face but will be turned back any time we need to fous on his facial expressions:

An some jeans to keep his look casual and not too unaproachable as we want ot portray that although he has got himself mixed up in trouble he's not entirely bad.

Locations- Lip Syncing...

I went out to a number of various locations with Joshua, who plays the main man- D.Montrell and did some lip syncing shots to the song.
We took a number of different shots in different locations and carried round a change of clothes which took 3Days of carrying around the same clothes in the cold...

My Secondary School; The shots of the brown and orange wall in the introduction of the 1st scene. Most of the shots we did on this day were low angle and of him sitting on the floor. We also used the black drama studio and did shots of him against the white wall this was to indicate the contrast of the problems in life which can feel surrounding but the white wall where he was showed that God is the light & the answer to all these problems.

Plaistow Station; The graffiti in the background for the ending scenes where he's singing and going along with the music just improvising for the outro of the song. The scenes here were done to create a connection between the scenes of the church & the drama studio as he looked very nice and the way Buks- Issac was scrounging or money didn't fit so we used this to bridge the gap.

The Local Town Hall; We took some shot of him walking in between the pillars singing & dancing in a suit looking very executive. This locations was used mainly for scenery as i looked very interesting the way the pillars were positioned and we thought that he'd look good weaving between them

My Friends Church; We did a number of shots here where he was standing on the Landing, point of view shots and a lot of high angle shots.
-The singing into the microphone
-The sitting on the landing
-The standing on the landing

A Copy Of The Letter I Sent To The Record Label:

Re: God Ordained Records LLC

Hello my name is Emma & I'm currently reading Media studies at A-Level.
Part of my course is to make a music video to an already established (another artists) song. I've chosen d.montrells God Can't Fail not only because i enjoy the song but also because i find this song can relate to various people's issues of all ages. I just wanted to inform you and ask permission if i would be able to use it.
It won't be publicly broadcast on youtube, facebook etc at all and will only be viewed by my class, my teachers and a professional examiner.
Thank you very much.
God bless.

Character Intro 1of3

This is on of the actors for my narrative music video.
Her name is Rebbecah, girlfriend of Issac
She is 16yrs old and plays the part of the the lost and pregnant girl friend.
She has no-one but her boyfriend and when he decides to leave her she feels she has no-one to turn to. which leads her on a road of self discovery on which she comes across a man who lives on her street and give her the answer to all her problems in all the ways she wouldn't expect it...