Thursday, November 21, 2019

Storyboard for Music Video


   
 Our storyboard starts off with the introduction of the song with an establishing shot that has the melody play as we walk with swagger. We are all wearing eccentric pieces of clothing to establish the mood and aesthetic of the video. The shot shows the thrift store to set the location. A shot that I had wanted to do was take a tricycle and ride it towards the camera and as the tire eclipsed the shot, that would be our transition. The next shot is of us entering the shop. We then cut to me and my partner in flashy clothing walking down the isles of clothing racks as we mouth the lyrics to the song. We then walk to center hallway as we do our dance number and performance. There's an upcoming scene where we replace an expletive with showing the audience us holding a clock to add comedic effect. A problem I can foresee us having is the write our way around the expletive words in funny and creative ways. The use of props that sound like the expletive is how we are going to attempt this change. The next few shots are of us just rummaging around the thrift store finding pieces we like. Another shot I would like to do is top-down shot where one of us throws a clothing item and the camera is at an above high
angle so that the shirt and fly into the camera; this
could also act as transition. The final scenes are of us
trying on outfits and vibing to the music as the video
fades to black.




Planning & Procedure for Music Video

Theme and organization: Our music video will revolve around the euphoria from shopping at the thrift store. The original music video by Macklemore shows the protagonist wearing eccentric clothes at a local thrift center whilst rapping about the benefits of buying quality goods at a cheap price. Our aim is to replicate the same tone and establish an environment the mimics the original video.

Setting: We plan to film in a local thrift store, with permission of course, and a Goodwill. In the original video, they show two sets, one that is reminiscent of the classic, local thrift. While the other looks like a regular chain thrift store, like Goodwill. I want a certain aesthetic for our first scene. Choosing a  local thrift with a certain retro aesthetic is essential for the tone of the video.

Image result for thrift store aesthetic
Example of the location aesthetic

Actors and Props: The main characters in this video will be myself and Preace. We will be wearing flashy, eccentric, 80's themed clothing with chains and coats to parallel the look of the original video. Our props will mainly include the different outfits we'll wear throughout the video and the accessories we'll wear. In one part of the song and expletive is used to describe a penis, so we'll replace that with a clock, a play on the rhyme of the two words that add a comedic effect. For background and extras, we'll try to enlist some of our friends to act as extras.

Production and Set: Obviously, to film this project we need some help since we are only a two man team. Preace offered the help of his brother, who is an amateur film maker to help film our in project. We plan the shoot to happen over two days, but if not we an make due with one. I will be directing and choreographing the sequences. Yes, there will be certain, small dance numbers that will have to be reviewed and practices, but we a considerable amount of time to go over it.

Music and Interpretation: As stated before, we will be closely following the themes present in the original music video. Our outfits and cadence will imitate what was shown in the video. We will be playing the music as we go over our shots to keep track and pace and get the cadence of the song. In post is where we'll actually incorporate the music as well as edit down certain parts of the music as we have to meet time constraints. 

Thursday, November 14, 2019

PreMusic Video

  Today we are starting our journey of making a music video. We had previously done our Gatorade Commercial and learned a lot about filming and editing of a film project. There were some difficulties with editing but hopefully the new laptops will relieve that struggle. We will be using the song “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Obviously, we will be using the PG edited version of the song since the original has profanity in it. The theme of the song is “ball’in on a budget” which is making the most out of a limit amount of money in a thrift store. The premise is quiet entertaining since the mis en scene of the video give off fun and quirky vibes.

Some conventions in the Thrift Store music video is the use of old, flashy clothing styles. Fur coats, button ups, baggy jeans, and assorted shoes are common place in this video. The use of pre owned and somewhat worn out clothing has a certain charm to it. The idea of “retro” clothing is trendy and can give the video a sense of character. The actors in the video will include myself and my partner Preace and maybe some extras. The attitude of the video is one of confidence and self expression. Wearing these clothes requires confidence to pull it off.

Placing the music video in a thrift shop and goodwill will be appropriate since those are classically thrifty places. Filming in a thrift store provides that added realism to the film and give it tone of joy and youthfulness. We will not be exactly copying the video, but we’ll be providing our own twist on the video. Some of the same themes and calling cards will be present in the video, but it will creatively different.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Gatorade Commercial Finale

   Doing this Gatorade commercial, I learned the many intricacies of film making. The process of filming was a long journey. Trial and error was prevalent throughout the process. Me and my partner had no prior experience in film making and it was learning curve to produce and edit the film. We knew that the premise of a Gatorade commercial revolves around the refreshing quality of Gatorade and how it rejuvenates athletes to keep on training. It’s obvious that the aim of a sports drink commercial is to convince the audience to buy the product. In our commercial we attempt to show the effects Gatorade has an how it give athletes an edge and continue their training.
   Filing of the commercial took place over 2 days and consisted of me and my partner, Preace. We had to use school equipment to film, so there were some draw backs in the process of shooting. First of all, the equipment we had was out off date and slightly broken. In fact, on our first day of shooting, our camera had died because it was not fully charged prior to our filming time. We did have access to tools like tripods and an SD card reader to dump our footage into the desktops. Speaking of desktops, the whole rooms' desktops were slow and simply did not work. We literally could not start the editing process until the next class period. The next class period, we had gotten a hold of some laptops to use as our editing device. The laptops were much more usable than the desktops but they still had some issues with processing power.
   Even though we experienced all these pitfalls, I had learned many valuable lessons in the process of film making. I learned that one has to be persistent in getting the right shot and that can mean staying gout in the filed for an extra couple of minutes to make sure the you get the shot you want. This process also drove out the more creative side of myself. Formulating interesting shots and transitions had really open my mind to the numerous possibilities of expression through film.