The Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46HO9LnQzM
Here is our completed video which we have uploaded onto Youtube

Evaluation

As a group we developed the forms of a typical real music video but most importantly, we challenged them. When we were recording we wanted to include as many camera shots as possible including, long shots, medium shots, close ups and extreme close ups. In the song ‘Everyone’s at It, we wanted to have a serious mood in our video yet, keeping to the ‘Lily’ way, we wanted it to be quite playful also. Using the right camera techniques and effects in editing, we believe we could get across the issue of drug abuse and its effects. The song itself varies its speed throughout giving us a chance to show how we could work with all kinds of situations, this is also handy as it enables us to ensure the audience is still interested with the video.

This is one of the big opening shots for our music video. Using the time tool in Final Cut Pro, we were able to make this, what was rather long piece of footage, into an effective time elapse. This shot really starts the pace of the video showing the masses of people walking through Lewes.
This shot is also most importantly, our first establishing shot. With what is mentioned above, it gives the audience an understanding of where the majority of the setting is and where the character will be.

This long shot was primarily used for the up tempo drum and bass ‘breakdown’ where we wanted to get the message across ‘Lily’ was feeling the effects of the drugs she had taken. We had used the same tool in Final Cut Pro to speed it up giving the sense of a hectic environment and how her head is feeling after taking drugs. Not only is this a serious matter showing the audience how the drugs can affect you, but it gives the audience an amusing picture as an outsider can just see she is spinning on a spot.

This mid-shot was primarily used during our time in the Television Studio. We used this footage during the choruses as we wanted the story to be primarily during the verses where the story is in fact being told. Filming this presented us with a number of problems, primarily with the white background and shadows.
The background we used were white pieces of walls, which unfortunately had quite visible joint marks which during the video, if looking at the background you could see quite clearly. We tried various techniques of lighting and effects in editing to try and remove this but the line was too prominent so we had to compromise and just leave it there rather than abandon the footage.
This close up shot was to really show the emotion of the artist involved and to also keep the interest of the audience by having multiple camera angles and different shots. During the time on the pier we had ‘Lily’ miming along to the words and had shots varying from long shots to close ups as seen above.
Close ups are used an enormous amount in a music video especially when the director is wanting to capture the emotion from the subjects face or maybe even body language. With this in my groups knowledge we used close ups as much as we could without over using it.
In our music video we had also used a number of quite interesting quick extreme close-ups, for example of the coke can and the cigarette being flicked.

Extreme close-ups are also used as often, if not more than close ups. The reason for this is because they can be vital parts to the storyline, for example a text on a mobile phone. However we did use the extreme close-ups to be part of the story line, but to be a break from the miming and from the artist, giving the video variety.

The target audience is associated with the youth culture that is so often commented on by the media, saying they are rebellious and full of anger and attitude which is really what we wanted to achieve with this extreme close up. What we were also proud to achieve was our ability to use the camera’s settings to really highlight the blue in her eyes. This shows, as well as the attitude, that there is femininity and will appeal to our female audience.

During the drum ‘n’ bass breakdown we wanted the sense of paranoia to come across as it is a common affect on someone when taking drugs. What is meant to be happening in this shot, is that the artist feels as though she is being chases by the woods, constantly looking over her shoulder due to severe paranoia.

Overall Evaluation
Our constraints consisted of horrendous weather conditions which made it impossible to film in as no one could leave there house, this knocked us off guard which may have decreased our confidence slightly. Instead we had similar shots in a location we could all get to easier and more often. We took the opportunity to film during some lesson time which was a huge benefit as we were sure we would all be together. Timing was becoming an issue when recording as we were constrained by the weather, as we were hit by series of weeks giving snow or rain which we really could not use to record in.
Filming this video was a tough enough challenge as it was trying to fit everyone’s ideas into it but it became more of a challenge due to the lack of experience we had of actually recording decent footage. If we wanted a clear shot of the Artists face we made sure to have the camera with sun behind it. If we wanted a silhouette style photo making the Artists face dark, we would face the camera towards the sun but not directly as it could over expose the shot or even damage the camera.
We made sure that lip syncing did not become a problem, we did this by discretely placing an ipod in her ear so she could hear the song exactly how it was and mime correctly. She had to make sure to take a drag of the cigarette and blow it out at the right time to start miming in time of the song starting, as it made it easier to keep filming. This wasn't easy and took a couple of takes. We originally used a clapper board to help us in the editing process. In terms of computer programming, I used Blogger, Adobe Photoshop C3 and 7, Microsoft Word, Apple Final Cut and Microsoft Paint. I used Photoshop 7 to produce my Digipack and Advert. We used Final Cut to edit the film which was tricky to do as none of us had used it before, it was a case of it getting taught to us briefly and playing around with it to try and understand it better. I personally found the programme reasonably easy to use and spent most of my time making sure every detail was paid attention to such as the transitions between the shots and the quality of footage we were using.
I found it quite tedious repeatidly zooming in and out of the timeline to match things together and see each frame, but extremely satisfying when I see the end result.
Our group also had to make sure the artist made note or remembered what she was wearing every time we filmed in case we were to go back to the same location to do more filming or re-do any parts. Throughout the whole time we were filming Olivia we had to think about what she was to wear to target the right audience, which is mainly twelve to twenty year olds both male and female. The age as young as twelve because that's roughly the youngest age Lily Allen's fans are and as old as twenty because of the moral issues and themes of the video. The reason why we believed 20 was a good age to stop at was because they will understand more of the morals behind it whereas the 12 year olds will be more concerned on the exciting shots and the fast editing.

Advertisement

When designing my advert i wanted to have an idea of what other adverts were out there by other pop artists just as well as Lily Allen. One i found was of Katy Perry.

Katy Perry and Lily share a very similar image and infact, quite similar music so i believe they aim for the same target audience. This becomes very useful when thinking i should both Lily's references and Katy's. Katy's poster relates largely to her album cover, suggesting it was perhaps taken at the same time on the one photo shoot to promote the album aswell. Katy has decided to go for the 1950's style clothing, although she has changed clothes from the album cover to the advert.

With Lily's and Katy's genre, the idea of innocence but sexy is quite a key figure when advertising themselves. Their audience is obviously young from the colours used, the Mise En Scene used. The paddling pool is linked to the idea of playfulness but to the target audience.

Although Katy Perry's clothing is quite revealing it doesn't make her look tarty as its mainly showing off her legs rather than too much her cleavage/breasts and midriff. She has the stereotypical pop artists look about her in this photo, having pinky red lips, an elegant stance/pose, wearing high-heels, a pink blouse with cherries on which alludes to lyrics in 'I Kissed a Girl' 'taste like her cherry chapstick.' She is also holding a heart shaped lolly-pop which alludes to the theme of innocence and child like fun.



As you can see from this photo of Lily she has also gone for the same colour scheme as Katy which closely links to the Pop genre and playfullness. Lily's clothing is her typical style as she likes to wear girly dresses but the photo shoot has been designed carefully as they wanted to include her footwear. The reason for showing her footwear which are a pair of chunky trainers is to show the rebellious side, the fact she is wearing a lady like dress but then wearing trainers instead of pretty heels or colourful flat shoes is proving a point to her audience.

As Katy Perry did for her album and CD i wanted to make sure my advert closely linked to my Digipak. As you can see above i have chosen 3 of the main photos ideas from my video and digipak. However unlike Katy and her poster form, i wanted to make mine to a hand out form like given out on streets to promote CD's and events happening. My idea would be handing out around quite youthful clothing shops before the digipak release for example.

[MISSING PHOTO]!!

As you can see, my final design followed closely to the colour scheme i used for my Digipak. However on this advertisement i decided to experiment with the colouring using white on top of the white rather than the black. One reason for this was to give variety to the fonts, but it was also because i wanted to create a trademark ‘Lily Allen’ logo for my advertisement and Digipak as most artists have their own mark on their work.

I chose to include the whole body of the subject because in this photo particulary, it has a laid back feel and has the sense of a mind oblivious to what might be going on around her.

Rather than take it from directly beside her, i wanted it slightly behind so we could see what she was staring into whilst she is on a come down and contemplating. The shot is not precisely over the shoulder, but in more ways, a long shot.

Digipak

When designing my digipak, i wanted it to appeal to my target audience but show what is also in the main single, Everyone's at it. The colour scheme that i used for my digipak was to largely involve pink for the female audience however instead of being purely pink i added black. By doing this it gave it a more unisex look onto so not just scaling my target audience to one sex.

A large part of my designing for both the digipak and my advertisement later on, is to give a real sense of attitude coming off Lily. As you can see below on my final design, using only half of the subjects face and the rest the part of a forest, it really achieves the attitude and darkness which i was aiming for.

My back cover i wanted to show the video off so used the whole design as the lewes forest which is where the memorable drum and bass breakdown is recorded for the video. The reason for this is because our target audience is quite young and listens and enjoys such genre of music when going to clubs. However using a forest is a good idea in one perspective but bad for when trying to make my font visible due to the large range of colours in the forest. I had to brighten up the pink quite alot for it to be clearly seen which doesnt particulary match my scheme on the front cover.

[MISSING PHOTO]

My inside right design was planned so when removing the cd, you will see Lily looking away into the forest. In Lily's other digipaks and album packs, The inside right design tends to be really quite busy with extreme colours. But i believe this shot also links closely to the idea of drug taking, that it is typical for a 'come down' where the user can just sit somewhere for ages while their body levels out the chemicals.

However with that in mind i wanted at least 1 design to stay to a very youthful expression of busy layout and colours. As you can see from my Inside right design, i have Lily Allen posted all around but with 1 solid Lily Allen clearly stated which has really created the montage effect i was hoping to acheive.

Shooting The Video

Compromise. Our initial ideas of how we planned our video had to be seriously compromised due to difficulties of the shots and timing. We did however before making serious compromises, get a lot of decent footage in Brighton and especially on the pier. We managed to capture the exact shots we wanted apart from such shots as the sun coming through the window and running through the arcade. What we learnt from that is that we needed to plan out properly permissions to film inside the pier and plan out so we do not get horrible weather.

Weather became quite a problem especially when filming on the pier. We started majorly filming in January which is not exactly sunny and so establishing shots were compromised, as well as long shots and low angle. Taking risks with driving all the way to Brighton to find weather was proving non-productive so we decide to shoot the majority closer to college so we would know the weather and less risk taking.

We did take a risk however with trying to film with light rain. This did land us with serious problems when looking back over footage as droplets on the lens really did ruin our filming and we lost a lot of time due to this.

One setting we did find quite resourceful was the Lewes forest by our college. One thing that we did find a problem for when shooting footage was there was some housing close by so we tried to shoot as little as possible in their direction as the idea was to think Lily was in one giant forest, seemingly on her own.

We managed to get a quite large amount of establishing shots done in Lewes in the form of time elapse. We believe this would be very useful to bridge between Brighton and Lewes but to also use, if necessary, to bridge bad filming also.

One problem that really did become a routine to fix was the balance of the tripod we were using while recording. Every different shot used we had to make sure the camera was straight as otherwise what we were filming would look crooked and not the shot we were trying to achieve.

I also had to make sure I made note or remembered what I was wearing every time we filmed in case we were to go back to the same location to do more filming or re-do any parts. Throughout the whole time we were filming Olivia had to think about what to wear to target the right audience, which is mainly twelve to twenty year olds both male and female. The age as young as twelve because that's roughly the youngest age Lily Allen's fans are and as old as twenty because of the moral issues and themes of the video. The reason why we believed 20 was a good age to stop at was because they will understand more of the morals behind it whereas the 12 year olds will be more concerned on the exciting shots and the fast editing.

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B84xdRWtIy7kNmYzYzI1N2ItOGI1Yi00NWIxLWI3YzAtYWYxMWY5NGMxOTcx&hl=en

Our group decided to create a presentation of our plans for our music video as though we were pitching it to a production company or even Lily herself.

Target Audience

http://www.nrs.co.uk/toplinereadership.html
When looking at the survey taken from NRS, you will see on the January '09 - December '09 the table above

As seen by this chart taken from nrs.co.uk, Q magazine has a substantial lead with 554 in the 15-44 year old age group as opposed to 483 in the 45+ region.

There is further information about the target audience in the presentation later on in my blog. The Target Audience is one of the most important things to know when making something that is going to appeal to an audience, although target audiences can often be stereotypical, it still makes the produced much more successful in term of advertising. In our case making a music video, advert and digipack we need to know who our target audience is. A way to do this is to look at things associated with the song and the Artist; Lily Allen - Everyones At It. To find out this information we looked at her fan sites and her social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. We also had a look at magazine sales with her as the front cover or with her featured inside the magazine to get an idea of who bought the magazine in terms of age and gender, this information is in the presentation.
The age of the target audience is roughly between 12 - 20 although many older generations like her music as well I think it would be more affect to focus on the younger generations as generally they are the ones who take more interest in music videos. In terms of gender, it is quite equal but perhaps slightly more females.