Audience Feedback

I asked people in my media class and my siblings what they thought of my VHS Cam and PHHHOTO trial shots, and obtained feedback to discover what things are popular and what aren't.

• The VHS Cam trial shots were more popular than the PHHHOTO shots, because they felt like it looked like more of a 90s atmosphere.
• People didn't like the colour effect on VHS Cam, but the normal effect makes the colour in the shot look quite dull.
• The colour in PHHHOTO shot is enhanced but it makes the shot look a bit grainy.
• The back and forth effect of the PHHHOTO shots wasn't really appealing, and many people questioned what the point of it was.

Trial Shots - PHHHOTO

PHHHOTO is a 'camera app that shoots moving pictures', which can be saved as videos and I had an idea to include these in my video, so I filmed different parts to trial the shots. It takes five photos of a moving scene and creates a video like a GIF, that repeats itself over and over. I like this effect as it makes the video more fun. Also, in my song we can hear vinyl scratching, so these videos might fit well here. I then imported the videos onto Adobe Premiere Pro to put them all into one sequence (below) and then put it onto YouTube for easy reference. 

I took these videos whilst on my holiday, so I wouldn't be able to use these in my music video as it would have a different scene to the rest of the video and not really work very well. The only issue with the video is that is creates an effect that is different from a normal camera, so it may look odd to include it at random parts in the music video. Using the effect the whole way through isn't an option as this would look very odd and extremely repetitive. 

Shot list

I have created a brief shot list for our first filming session, so that I know what shots I need to get on this day.

Close-ups of faces - not looking at camera
Mid shots of talking/eating/dancing - can be standing or sitting down
Shots of feet & walking
Whole range of different shots of dancing - showing the others watching or in the background
Low angled shots

Trial Shots - VHS CAM

To create some trial shots for my video, I came across an iPhone app called VHS Cam, which 'creates videos and photos that seem to come out of a VHS tape, recorded with a Camcorder'. As my chosen genre is hip-hop from the 1990s, this effect would work really well to establish an authentic 90s video. I then imported the videos onto Adobe Premiere Pro to put them all into one sequence (below) and then put it onto YouTube for easy reference. 

I did this on a train journey just to trial what the effect looks like, so obviously this footage wouldn't be included into my real video. Although I like the app a lot, it makes the colouring a bit more dull unless you choose the more colourful effect, however I think I would prefer it to have the normal colours. As it changes the colours, it would look a bit odd if I used the effect for only some parts of the video, so I would probably have to commit to using it for the whole thing or not at all.

Casting

The dancers in my video must be young to represent youth culture, and preferably represent a range of cultures. My friend Tom is a dancer so I began by asking him if him and his friends would be in my music video. Tom is a 17 year old mixed race boy who dances with other young people both white and black, so they would be great for my video as these are the demographics I am aiming to represent. Also, it is an advantage that Tom is my friend as I know I will able to rely on him and he lives down the same road as me, so it extremely easy for me to meet up with him. To arrange the filming day and ask Tom to agree to be part of my video, using Whatsapp was the easiest and most convenient method. Below, I have included screenshots to evidence this and the planning for filming. Whatsapp also allows you to create group chats which I found really helpful, and this is seen in the third screenshot.

We eventually arranged to film on the following Sunday, which is the 31st January. After this, I am going to upload the shots onto Adobe Premiere Pro and assess whether I need to plan another filming day.

Planning for filming

I found out that the car park I have chosen is open but isn't used on Sundays, because people who work in the shops below park here but they don't work on Sundays. Therefore, it will be best for me to plan to film on a Sunday because we won't be disturbing anyone and will be able to use all the space. Also, we obviously aren't at school on Sundays so hopefully the dancers will be free on Sundays too.

Hop Scotch

I have decided to include a hopscotch grid in my video. This is because the video will be filmed outside, so this adds to the mise-en-scene and will make it look more interesting. It reminds me of the double-dutch scene in the video Gold Dust - DJ Fresh, and I am keen to represent the same street style that is seen in the video.


I am borrowing chalk from the art department at my school in order to draw the grid. I have got white and blue chalk - I am thinking of using the blue to add more colour however I might just keep it simple and use white.


I searched hopscotch on YouTube, to see how different people film their hopscotch videos.

 

 

Here, they have written in the hopscotch boxes which is something I could think about doing too. They have filmed the hopscotch grid using a fish eye lens.

This low camera angle is effective because it focuses on the footwork doing hopscotch. However, the people in my music video will be dancing on the grid rather than actually playing hopscotch, but I could think about using this camera angle to film the footwork of the dances.





I am really keen on elements of stop motion in videos, so I thought the hopscotch grid could be displayed in this way, matching the initial beats which are at the start of the song. I drew my ideas out onto paper and made an animatic out of it to visualise the idea:

 

The first video shows each individual square appearing on each of the 9 beats which open the song.

 

However I thought that looked a bit tedious, and so I made a different one which shows a couple of squares appearing on the beat. I prefer this one because it speeds up the process of showing the hopscotch grid. It also allows me to fit in other scenes into the first 9 beats of the song, which I think is important as the opening of music videos is significant.