Filming

  This weekend we planned on filming our commercial so that we could enjoy our holiday break. But, of course nothing went as planned so we MUST film this week. One of our group members decided she did not want to show up to film so it threw off our whole schedule. But I do believe that it turned out to be a good thing because we did not have all of our props and set location as to where we were filming. This allows us extra time to get prepared a little more. When we do film over the weekend the project will be a lot more thought out. I think we're going to cut out some of our locations because we are trying to compress so much into a minute and fifteen second film. The junk yard scene will most definitely be cut out because we haven't asked permission to film there. It does not throw off our storyboard too much but that means we will just spend more time at one location. Also our scene at a restaurant  will be cut as well.
   When we begin filming, I planned on working backwards. Film all of our dancing scenes first then work our way to the scenes that do not involve our dancers. We wouldn't want to hold them up all day. If we do decide to film over the course of two days we'd at least not have to call back in the background dancers. Once we get all of that out the way, it would eliminate practically half of our storyboard. Also while storyboarding we did not include about three scenes making us a few seconds shirt when it came to our music video. So that was another minor kink that we had to get worked out. The original goal was to go over the time limit by at least ten seconds but considering the way our commercial. We ended up filming about one minute which was a whole thirty seconds over. We do Not want that this time.
   So when we get ready to do our commercial we will be cautious on the amount of time we film. On the other hand we have to ensure that everyone shows up to film. I think our background dancer idea will not be as successful as we would like because some of them will not be here. We really wanted to make the aspect of what a true music video should look like. We also do not know if we will be able to film inside of the skate park so we actually have to ask permission before. 

Storyboard

   For our film we will be utilizing a lot more angles, editing tools, and camera movements. For scene one we intend on doing a burn out into an establishing shot of the skate park, just to give a sense of where we would be filming. In this scene we will be using no music yet and our costumes will be baggy pants, shirts, hats and suspenders. We will also be behind mic stands. For scene two the editing tool we will be using is a fade and non-diegetic sound will begin to play (the song) as we shoot close ups introducing each member of the group. No make up will be used in this scene. The second scene will fade into the third scene of another closeup as we introduce the second member of TLC. The same makeup and prop deal will apply for scenes two to four. Scene four will include the last close up of the last member of TLC.
   The fifth scene, we will all be in the middle of the rink with our background dancers: doing our opening dance. The dancers will all be wearing jumpsuits with scarfs while the members will still have on the same clothes from the previous scene. This will be a wide oblique shot. The sixth scene will include a low eye level angle of the TLC and the background dancers. At this point the words to the song have began. In scene seven we switch locations to Popeye's where we be sitting down eating a box of chicken, capturing laughs between all of us. This will be a hand held shot and will also be in slow motion, same costumes, and no props. In scene eight, we switch scenes again to what will be an art wall (wall of paintings) and we will PRETEND to spray paint on the wall. The same costumes will be used, this will; also be a hand held flash pan shot.
  Switching over to the ninth scene, we will change locations for the last time. We will now be in a junk yard full of old cars. The costumes, make up, and props will stay the same in scenes nine to ten. Scene ten we will actually e on top or in the cars filming. These scenes together will use a variation of pans, establishing shots, track shots, and include the same non-diegetic sound. Scene eleven will include us back at the skateboard park, in the middle of the rink using a God's eye view of TLC and the dancers singing the last part of the song we will be using. The final scene will be an extreme close up of the group. A fade out will be used and the music will cut off and we will use diegetic sound of us laughing. It will then pause in the midst of us laughing and will then list all the credits and eventually black out.

Planning

  We are very excited to start our new music video project. We have chosen to shoot our video at a skateboard park, the idea was to film in the middle of the day when skaters would typically be there. We will be standing in the middle of the skateboard rink with background dancers. A location change will happen to Popeye's where we are sitting down eating chicken, laughing, and having a good time. A third location change will be at an art wall where we will also be dancing and doing close ups to introduce our characters. There are no real health and safety concerns, in our video, but one thing we will look out for is the skaters. Also making sure that no one is like allergic to the chicken, or what may possibly be in the chicken. Making sure that they have on helmets and knee pads, in case they fall. Our background dancers will also have on knee pads for the dance because we will be on the ground.
  Props will be used in some shots, we will be using mic stands, wagons, cars, and anything else that may become present along the way. We do not plan on using a lot of props because everything will kind of just be shot free range of all of us. And also we want to kind of follow how the actual TLC video went and they did not use a lot of props. For the costume aspect of the film, we will be wearing baggy clothes (I.E. over sized shirts, pants, over the top hats, and really bright colors). We will be dressing to the style of each individual person, although they were one group they each had a certain style to them that made them unique. We are super excited to get dressed up and actually film and make this vision come to life. Capturing the true concept of the 90's will be our biggest challenge in the video.
  Our schedule is pretty out of whack, due to the upcoming holiday, we are aiming to film this weekend (Saturday the 23rd). Filming will take place over the course of exactly one day, we don't want to prolong it because we feel it would make the video more choppy if we shoot over the course of days. Our dancers have learned the dance, so that will save us a lot of time when it comes to our day to film . Our back up plan will be to film over the holiday weekend so we can ensure ourselves a little bit more time to make sure it is a great film. Since our project is due on the 9th of December, we plan on giving ourselves no more than three days to edit our film. To ensure that we run on schedule, we constantly check up in each other to ensure that everything will still be happening on time.

New Project

   We have now come to an end of our commercial project. A few things worked very well during the longevity of the project, one being the storyboard. We followed exactly everything we input into our squares of our storyboard so it made filming a lot easier, another thing that worked was our time management. We were able to record the film within the time period of our time given to us and even having about twenty minutes to dump our clips on to the computer. One major thing that did not work in our favor for the process is the editing which was due to major technical issues on our computers with pinnacle studios. So we ended up using IMovie to edit our commercial.
   We decided to focus on the Hip-Hop genre of music, the whole 90's era of Hip-Hop and R&B was an amazing time and era too be apart of. The song we have now chosen for our new music video project is "What about your friends" by the one and only TLC. We really wanted to do a song that no one would think to do and our group is filled with a bunch of kids with old souls, so the song is perfect. We will be using a combination of God's eye view angles, low angles, sound motifs, and many more. Other things we will be using will be, split screens, fade outs, and jump cuts.
   But without any mis-en-scene a film would not possibly look legit. We will be using what we learned in class, the CLAMPS method. 1.Costumes, we will be wearing everything 90's Hip-Hop in the music video. Baggy clothes, bandanas, hats, boots, and bright colors. 2.Lighting, we will be using natural lighting. Some shoots will be inside so of course however the sun is feeling on the day of filming, as well as some shits inside. 3.Acting, there won't be any specific acting like conversational dialogue. But we will be mouthing the lyrics to the songs. 4.Makeup, we do not think we will be using any makeup in this music video. 5.Props, props used will be skateboards, food, and maybe the use of cars. 6.Scenery, the setting we will be in will be an outside skate park, as well as restaurants.

Editing

   Editing has been our biggest, if not our only challenge throughout our whole film making process. We have been experiencing major technical issues that not only my group but majority of the class has been dealing with for the past three days. Others have found ways to work around the problem, but considering my group members and I don't take that much initiative; we wait until class to do it. We were so excited to come in and upload and edit out all of our clips, we thought we did a really good job. The computers decided to work against us and perform very slowly so we were only able to load two clips and crop them. So we asked around and got some other editing skills that we will be implementing within the next few days left we have of editing. One other challenge we may encounter is how to successfully do our voice overs for certain parts of the commercial.We had a great lesson and rubric to follow on editing and what exactly should be in our film so we're trying to stick to it as best as possible. I believe my group is trying to work together but we are all dominant in one area, that we just tend to want to do the whole thing ourselves. without the groups interaction.
  A great concept is what our group believed we came up with. We want to capture the aspect of an old horror story movie. By combining the black and white elements and the creepy, suspense music in the background. We found the perfect song to play in the background! At first I was very confused on how to work pinnacle studios because, there are so many different buttons and elements to be able to effortlessly function it. We aren't sure about hoe to do everything but I am more than positive we will figure something out. The shots we filmed were about 12 seconds each, to ensure we have a good amount of time so we aren't shy of our 30 seconds. I attempted to edit but the computer was functioning way too slow and I ended up giving up. At that point we only had one clip, in which all we had to do was crop it. Our due date has been extended but I hope to finish withing today (Friday).
  Lastly we didn't really do much in class when it came to editing in class on Thursday. Our alternate editing plan is to download Adobe flash and edit through there but making sure we stick within all guidelines. It gives out a detailed guide on how to work the app and edit our films as well as how to input music, etc..This will have to be done outside of school, which can be a problem because we did not record our voice overs to input in our film. I'm also concerned that only one person will be editing and the group won't be involved to say their input. Which is our biggest failure as a group. We decided to waste a whole class period we could've spent editing to do nothing, giving us a bigger time crunch to edit. But what we did was send all the clips to one e-mail and download them to a personal laptop. Download the editing app and do our best.