Green Screen....

So I was contemplating with the idea...and I did a lot of research online and looked at some tutorials.

First thing I realized was that getting an actual green screen, a professional one that is, was going to be extremely pricey , to be specific were talking £60 - £200 - pretty much out of my hands...but I came a cross a few videos that pretty much encouraged the viewers to just go and get some green or blue fabric, some good lighting and something to hold the screen up.

The key thing that is apparently needed for an effective green screen setup is an even distribution of LIGHTING. This makes sure that there are no shadows when the person stands or sits in front of the green screen as this will tint the fabric a darker shade of green and basically make the editing process hell! (when your trying to key the 'green' out) so I guess that's pretty self-explanatory.

But I did try to experiment nontheless.

The fabric I ordered from ebay came today, approximately seven pounds (plus posting and packaging of £3.35) - now that's saying budget at it's highest, haha. But hey, it's green,it's clear so it should still do the trick. The actual Fabric stated that it was chroma key and could be used for green screening. As you can see there's a snapshot of the package above. It's simply:

2 metres Sherwood Green Suede Look Chroma Key Fabric, nothing more nothing less.

So... I tried it out, with my very awkward set up right in front of the garden door and windows, using my mom as my test dummy. It pretty much failed to stay up at first , even with the double sided sticky tape so in the end I ended having to drape it over a curtain rail pole. As well as that I also had to place the tape at the sides to make sure there were no creases in the material - another essential point to ensure when making an effective green screen set up.
Getting the lighting right was the hardest. The shadows just kept popping up like the flu and I couldnt find a way to get rid of them at first. The dark lighting in my living room did not help either...so i decided to get the three desk lamps that I had in the house in various rooms and placed them as stated: one on the table facing the ceiling ( I learned from a tutorial on youtube that facing the light towards the ceiling helped to reflect it on the green screen), and two on the floor, also facing upwards and hitting the green screen from the bottom left. When I had finished I noticed there was a huge decrease in shadows, and they only seemed to appear when the person was too close to the screen. Voila, I thought. No shadows, yet the green screen only captured a close-up shot of the person as I'd made them stand further away from the screen. I suppose the way I'd draped the green screen fabric over the curtain pole had played a part in this as it was not touching the ground and it was landscape.
So, enough of my babbling, here is the finished result, or should I say: My failed attempt at Green Screening, haha.
But I will have to work on a lot of things if I truly want to incorporate it in my video as I refuse to put up with mediocre results.

Green Screen Test from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

I used the trial of Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD to edit this. The process is quite simple but as you can see you have to get the good footage with no shadows if you really want it to look effective at all.

The Process:
Opened Program > 'Project' on the toolbar > 'Import Media' > Found the Media files I wanted to import (background image and movie file) > Dragged the movie file to the 'Text' section on the timeline and the background image on the 'Video' section of the timeline'> Right clicked the movie file > Selected 'Media FX/Video Event FX' > Selected 'Sony Chroma Keyer' > Clicked 'Add' > Selected dropper tool and picked out the green on the video file by clicking on the green screen > Altered the amount of 'Low' and 'High' Threshold until I got the desired effect

Filming session 2

So I just filmed the traffic time-lapse that I wanted to film, but surprise, surprise the location suggestions I was going to use went completely out the window. Instead I chose to film a bit nearer and recorded it at the bridge located on Bounds Green Road near the Bounds Green station - which to my advantage, was convenient as its just a drive away.
I managed to stay for at least half an hour before I went. At first I had some trouble finding the right angle to film at, because the bridge had bars on it I had to try and fit the traffic in the frame without including the bars in the sequence. When I did that I realised that I still did not have the perfect view I wanted, the tripod was tilted downwards yet only the middle of the road was predominantly shown with the cars coming from the right side only. After 5-10 mins I realised something was wrong, the tripod had to be stretched completely outwards so that the screen displayed the WHOLE road in the frame without showing the bars.
It is then that I realised I could do with a bit more practice and experience when it comes to angling the camera correctly and positioning the tripod appropriately as well; bearing in mind I have only just started using this tripod today. But nevertheless I finally managed to include all of the road in the frame if not most of it and I am quite pleased with the result.
This is my edited version of a section the time-lapse.



Faster Improved Version

Traffic time-lapse from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

Perfect locations for traffic time-lapse?

If possible, I could use the bridge located in Southbury Road in Enfield to film one of my time-lapses of traffic. I thought this would be a good idea as from the bridge you can get a good serial view of the vehicles as they move.

Alternatively I could record it at Palmer's Green Triangle at The Triangle as it is currently decorated well with christmas lights and a christmas tree, this would be beneficial as it would have a very attractive mise-en-scene.

Evaluation of skills so far...

Technical skills:

• Framing shots: I think I've gotten better at framing shots, all the elements in the sequences I've recorded so far are related to the scene. There is no particular improvement though as ability has stayed the same, perhaps I could try and use the filming space a bit better for my other scenes when filming.
• Using a variety of shot distances: I've demonstrated this in the first rough edit of my first recording, with a zoom shot on the main character Rose towards the end as well as a close-up of the clock during various parts of the scene, a mid-shot of the teacher and a long shot of the class. But it is still very early days and I have yet to demonstrate my ability to film the range of shots I wanted to use, for example, tilt shots which I wanted predominantly on the main character during the video.
  
  
• Holding a shot steady: with use of the tripod this has been made easier for me as opposed to last year when there were a few shaky shots of the scene. I do still need to develop the way in which I move the tripod head to ensure I get a smoother camera movement when filming shots such as zooms, pans or tilts. Hopefully this ability will improve if I practise more on the tripod I have or use another one just to see which one works best for me.
  
• Editing: I think I'm a lot more quick on my feet with the editing, doing as I go along so that I have more of an idea of how I want the actual editing process to go. I actually find it better as last year it was my first time using pretty much any editing software and being able to edit anything so it was more of a shock and it took me some time getting used to the basic functions e.g. just adding new titles or using the razor tool when needed, this became very time consuming, but this year although I still have a lot to learn I have more of an idea of how to use the software; making use of my own software at home (general Windows
  Movie Maker which most PC's have) has enabled some preparation for me.

First filming session

The first filming session took place after school today at around 3:45pm. It wasn't originally intended to be at this time of the day but at lunch time I couldn't find many of the cast members as they probably had gone to lunch and the time was running out too quick, disabling the chances of recording a worthwhile sequence.
Secondly, the original classroom I wanted to use was in use by one of the teachers as they were having an after school lesson so i had to relocate the cast to another classroom nearby.
The first scene was fairly easy to film, I instructed the classmates in the scene to act as if they were in a normal lesson, doing a test or exam paper with a few messing around in the background. First I started with a shot that showed the back of the classmates and the front of the teacher at her desk, during this part a classmate in the back row decided to throw some paper at her friend in front of her, to which they both laughed and the teacher told them to be quiet. I was fine with this part, I felt it was good in the way the actresses immediately responded to the "shh!" as this made it more effective in the way that it was sharp.
However half way through filming I had a few problems. The first was the zooming in of the title on the board. I had placed the camera all the way at the back of the class just so the full frame of the mise-en-scene showed on the screen, but as I tried to zoom in when the teacher was writing the title on the board it was not smooth at all, in fact it ended up looking very jerky and unprofessional, although I did attempt to re-film that part quickly towards the end of the session, I ended up with an even worse attempt.
I don't particularly know why I had so much trouble zooming in steadily, I think I just need to practise a bit more doing it smoothly like my first rough cuts of the clock ticking, or perhaps it was the positioning of the tripod (on top of a table)which made it unstable.
I'm not happy with all of the result, for example, the tripod head was very stiff so it was hard to turn to ensure a smooth camera movement every time i wanted to turn. I may need to think of borrowing the school tripod if this one continues to give me problems.
All in all, much more work is needed on the general technical skills of the first scene; this includes improving the smoothness of the camera movement and improving zooming in and out.
I expect to re-film on a day where most of the cast members have free periods, if the editing can not correct the visual problems. An ideal day would be Tuesdays as most of the sixth form have periods 3 & 4 free.

My test edit using Windows Movie Maker at home:


FEEDBACK
My teacher suggested that:

1. I should make the sound muted for the majority of the film after the teacher tells the student to 'shh!'. The silence should be replaced by the ticking sounds of the clock.


2. The main character Rose should not be the last shot in the frame, instead the clock should be ticking last and maybe transition with a fade into the next scene


3. If I'm going to use the warpy/dreamy effect near the end of the intro, it should be either more prominent and powerful or just be replaced by a fade instead.
   

Production Schedule

This is my rough production schedule, I have not finalised any dates yet but I'm hoping to do filming sessions on most weekdays and weekends for certain locations.

Hopefully it will go as planned, but I will have to consider other complications such as changes in weather, snow for example, may prevent me from filming due to slippery surfaces when it melts and also may affect the continuity of the film and if I am re-filming scenes I realize that I need to inform the cast at least a day beforehand so that they can get the same costumes and/or props they were wearing and using in at the time.

PROPS

Props should be fairly easy to get and some of the cast will be able to provide their own such as: shades, jewellery and accessories.

WHY?:

• For the classroom scene, the use of technology is very important to convey the context of the music video. Paper and pens are obvious components which will act as part of the school mise-en-scene.
  
• I thought the cardboard sign is a good idea to be used to show the lyrics 'waving a sign'. In this scene the interpretation of the lyrics are literal, except it is not the 'sign' that the character wants to see. The use of a sign allows a clear representation of the character's misjudgement and creates a comic effect for the audience.
  
• Milshake/food will be needed during this scene so that it fits in with the setting of the scene which is at a cafe
  
• The laptop will be needed during this scene because Rose is seen looking at status' to do with love on a social networking site. This corresponds to the lyrics "Just once I'd like to feel the way that people say it feels, I heard that it's incredible, the ultimate right."
  
• The watch Kemi wears will be a symbolic prop, bringing the notion of time in the scene and reminding the audience that time is passing.
  The shades give Kemi an aspect of 'coolness' to her character, like Lady Gaga's glittery glasses, this can be used as a form of voyeurism, helping the character to pull off their own persona and attitude via their costume. Jewellery and accessories that will be used on the main character will give a similar effect.

Location Report

Time-Lapse Research

I decided to do some more research on time-lapses as it is a main aspect I would like to incorporate in the video.

The article is taken from:
http://www.highballblog.com/2010/08/make-time-lapse-video-edit.html

"A time lapse video consists of footage that is rendered in higher speed than that of the original frame rate. It's basically a clip in which everything moves at high speed - or consider it to be the opposite of slow motion video.

The best subjects or actions to video shoot for time lapse are the ones that take time to unfold/develop. There's a ton of stuff like that around you. Here's a list of the most popular things to capture for time lapse video:

• Weather changes - clouds forming and moving, mist and fog, rain, snow layer building up over time.
• Light sources - sunset and sunrise, sun's travel on the sky, the moon, the stars (especially Polaris time lapse), night transforming into day, beams of light penetrating the clouds, etc.
• Fire - a fire consuming the logs and ending in smoke or a fire that grows bigger as fuel is added.
• Tide - the ebb and flow of the ocean or sea.
• People - crowds moving in an open space.
• Construction work - a wall being build, a tall building being erected, crane booms swinging back and forth - all of a sudden a construction site becomes interesting to watch.
• Car traffic - cars running on the roads at night in fast forward mode look cool.
• Artwork - a painter (artist) creating an oil painting or crayon drawing. Computer graphics creations may fall into this category as well.
• Blooming flowers - a rose unfolding it's petals for instance.
• Moisture (water vapors) rising from a lake early in the morning.
• The road ahead shot from a moving vehicle - a rapid glimpse of an entire road trip/journey."
  
  PRACTISE
  The research has given me insight into just how much of choice of time-lapse I could have, for example, people and crowds may also be a good idea as well as traffic and light sources. I decided to try it out myself with a tripod and my pocket camcorder and here is the result, sped up.
  
  

  Time-Lapse practice 1 from Imani Pratt on Vimeo
  

  As you can see the recording is slightly shaky during the clip, that was due to my dog almost knocking down the tripod! But anyway this is more of a subtle time-lapse and I'm hoping to get a way better result than this when filming, slightly more dramatic - from night to day maybe.
  

Another filming technique I would love to have is stop-motion. I love the way this video effect kind of shocks the viewer in the way that it presents objects as being able to appear themselves. I would like to have this technique during the 2nd part of Kemi's rap/bridge part in the song, this would go nicely with the bit where she says "clock ticks the time away" and you hear the ticking in the background, except I think there could be a different object(s) that could I tried to get some suggestions for various objects/visuals that may symbolise time via facebook to help me out, but I still haven't discovered any of great use to me.

I decided to do some more research on time-lapses as it is a main aspect I would like to incorporate in the video.

Stop-Motion Practise from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

Stop-Motion Practise from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

On Twitter I did get a great idea I could use: Pictures!
For example pictures of the protagonist from the past to present, I think this would work well because not only does it suggest that time has passed, it also suggests that a journey has taken place and thus opens the viewers mind up to another possible journey the main character will go through - perhaps a journey of relationships as opposed to life.
I'm pretty happy with the whole concept, but I'll probably keep exploring more ideas for it that I could use later =].

Re-do of Target Audience Surveys

As you can see from the pie chart above, the percentage of those who have a preference in pop,rock and hip hop is pretty equal at 16% of those surveyed, with R'n'B reaching a staggering 24%. This tells me I have chosen a popular genre 'POP' which means the music for the music video will probably appeal to a large audience. However, it is more on the 'pop' side, as opposed to the R'n'B genre so this could be a disadvantage, but as the artists are generally POP/R'n'B, there is no reason why I could not bring in conventions and codes of R'n'B videos if that is what will attract a wider target audience.

As evidential, the data shows that magazines are not a common media product in the audience I have surveyed, but if I were to allow magazines to appear in the music video I could preferably go for common usage of magazines such as HEAT or OK as these seem to be fairly known.

In contrast, television programmes have a higher level of consumption, with soaps and comedies obtaining the highest percentage of all genres. Others include : cooking shows, sci-fi etc. Consequently the research suggests that if I were to have any of these type of programmes playing in the background of a scene in the music video that I should preferably opt for Soaps and Comedies, e.g. Eastenders, Coronation Street or My Wife and Kids/Friends as my target audience would be able to relate to what is shown on the screen.

Change in annotations

Following some recent feedback on my annotations from friends, I decided to add a new scene to the ending of the music video. I feel crosscutting to the beginning scene works really well because it will signal to the audience that her daydream has ended.

The second changes are provisional, depending on the availability of the studio location.

Casting!

ROSEMARY DARKO - as Main Protagonist Rose

(Singer)

I've chosen Rosemary to be the main protagonist in my music video. Having taken an interest in the band I've chosen, and her familiarity with them I think is an advantage. This will put her more at ease for example, in the lip syncing process, the lyrics are fairly known to her so it wont affect the quality of the lip syncing much. She is also a very good actress in terms of playing dominant roles, she has a very expressive way of portraying how she feels and is never restricted so this will be represented directly on the camera and provide the perfect characterization needed for this role.










EUGENIE WHITTLE & LANA SMITH - as Rose's friends

As both funny, down to earth and bubbly people in real life, I feel Eugenie and Lana will be a perfect choice for playing the friends of Rose in the music video. Both seem to adopt a very childlike manner in the way they behave and they know how to have fun which is one thing I am hoping to convey in my music video; the idea that teenage girls in this modern day and age can have fun and be happy and bubbly and chatty without being immoral and interruptive. Their close bond will also make their interactions in the scenes seem more realistic and genuine.

SHARLENE KAWOOYA & MIKAEL - as cafe couple

Both very good actors and actresses. They will be playing the role of the cafe couple in which Rose comes across as she is walking by. I am confident in their ability to act as if they are genuinely in love in the scene. Sharlene will play a very effective part as she has done drama previously at GCSE and was a phenomenal member of the class.





KEMI OLAWOLE - as RAPPER
I've chosen Kemi to do the short rap in the video (the bridge) because she's a very confident person and that's the image rappers usually portray. Kemi also has a unique sense of style that will help to appeal to the target audience, for example she is quite versatile and can pull off any fashion.She also has the skill of keeping a straight face in funny situations so she will save me doing a lot of outtakes for her part in the music video and this will help me to choose the useful scenes more easily in the editing process.

KATHERINE MANNION - as Class Teacher

Kathy is another excellent dramatic student who has proven to have extraordinary acting skills. She will play the part of the teacher well because she is good at using improvisation and really taking on the role of the character she is put in. She is very talented and uses her body language and gestures well to portray emotion and status.

With her currently taking drama and theatre studies as a chosen subject at A - Levels, I think this will be the perfect opportunity to apply her skills and give her even more practise in the development of her existing dramatic skills.

EXTRAS

Classmates: Avril Fernandes,Jolin Ogu, Katrina Toal, Amy Kyaligamba, Lee-Anne Caiado

Target Audience

Who are my Target Audience?

My target audience are teenage girls aged 14-18 who have a musical preference for POP/RNB.

Research: I conducted some research by giving out surveys to my target audience so that I could get an me an idea of how to appeal to them in my music video. Each person was to write down five main things on the form: their likes/dislikes, musical preferences, ambitions and media consumption

habits.

This is the most important factor in deciding the content of my music video from the camera shots to the costume and the overall setting...so having looked at this piece of research I can't say I'm pleased with the result. I can't conclude anything with these answers, they are too idiographic - too unique, so although they are useful individually they haven't helped me to draw up conclusions overall. I'm going to either need more survey results or I'm going to need to find a way to put these answers to greater use.

ANNOTATION OF LYRICS

So far I've done the annotations for the lyrics and after I have to start applying them to a storyboard format. I'm quite happy with the annotations but I know I'll end up changing a few things such as the setting for certain scenes, for example, the bit where she sings "Saturday comes, it's just another day to me..." in the second verse is intended to be somewhere like in a mall or a public place of leisure but as stated in one of my previous posts, this is very unlikely to go to plan and permission may be limited, I'm going to need to choose my settings wisely as I'll be filming over a period of time with my cast members, so they need to be accessible, quick and easy to get to.

I have a feeling there are so much more editing aspects I can use to really bring the effects I want to have in the music video to the audience, perhaps I could be a bit more original and stop sticking to what I know, for example, fade transitions and black and white filters, maybe I ought to step out of the box a little, but I guess I should leave that until the editing stage and focus on the actual filming part more because if the quality of the film isn't good, no amount of editing will overcome that.

I'm aiming for the mood of my music video to be cheesy, somewhat playful and innocent which will hopefully relate to my target audience as teenage girls are familiar with possessing these attitudes and know how to have fun. =)

MYXX LYRICS

‘I’ll Be Waiting’

I-I-I-I'll Be
I-I'll be
I-I-I-I'll Be
I-I-I-I-I'll be [x4]

[VERSE 1:]
Some say its the greatest thing
How I wish that I could agree
Been waiting for my turn
Seems love just skipped over me
I really wanna know what it feels like to be involved
With someone who can make the stars fall out the sky
I'd give anything to have it right here in my life
I know there's something waiting for me
Waving a sign

[CHORUS:]
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting
I've never been in love
But now I’ve got a taste for it (taste for it x3)
I've never had someone
To help me get the hang of it (hang of it)
(I’ll be waiting)

[VERSE 2:]
Saturday comes
Its just another day to me
Some call it day and night
But that’s never been my routine
Just once I’d like to feel the way people say it feels
I heard that its incredible, the ultimate right
I'm sure I’ll come across it sooner, maybe later
In the mean time, I’m gon wait my turn
I'm first in line

[CHORUS:]
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting
I've never been in love
But now I’ve got a taste for it (taste for it, waiting waiting I’ll be, I’ll be, I’ll be waiting)
I've never had someone
To help me get the hang of it (hang of it, waiting waiting I’ll be, I’ll be, I’ll be waiting)
(I’ll be waiting)

[RAP:]
I'll be waiting, waiting
For the l-u-v to come and find me, find me
It could be right beside me, right beside me, I’ll be waiting
I'll be waiting, waiting
For that l-u-v to come and find me, find me
It could be right beside me, right beside me, I’ll be waiting

Need love like yesterday
And the day before and the day before that
I'll be waiting, I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting
Clock ticks the time away(7 ticks)
No pressure, sign off with my heart beat
Yes I rhyme of it(of it x4)

[CHORUS: X2]
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting
I'll be waiting for your love
To come and find me
Could be right beside me
I'll be, I’ll be waiting

I've never been in love
But now I’ve got a taste for it (taste for it, waiting I’ll be, I’ll be, I’ll be waiting)
I've never had someone
To help me get the hang of it (hang of it, waiting waiting I’ll be, I’ll be, I’ll be waiting)
(I’ll be waiting)

I’ll be waiting.

Storyboard

Music Video Treatment

The whole narrative will be based on the general life of a teenage girl living in London and waiting for love. So during the scenes I think it will be important to capture this in environments that teens my age are familiar with, for example, a friend's house, central London or the city streets etc. I also want to have fun with these ideas, which is why I wanted to include some comical aspects in the music video, but I'll go into more detail with it in my next post.

Ideas for the video!

From the analysis of the 3 music videos I have gathered quite a lot of ideas about the filming aspects I would like to incorporate in my video.


CAMERA SHOTS & CAMERA MOVEMENT:

• In two of the videos I analyzed (Jojo's - 'Get Out' & Beyonce's 'If i were a boy') I noticed the frequent presence of shots that connoted power and control in the female identity. Although i like this convention, I would like to challenge it and stay away from shots such as up tilt shots on the main character, mainly because the whole idea of the song is about 'waiting' and time - which you cannot control, therefore I want to convey the spontaneity of the narrative. In addition i think that I want to emphasise the innocent,vulnerable characteristics of being a teenage girl and not knowing when you'll find 'Mr right', hopefully this will appeal to the target audience of teenage girls more as it makes it more relatable. So I'm thinking using of lot of aerial/serial view shots where the main character looks up at the camera.
• I intend to use many close-ups and/or extreme close-ups of the character, maybe desirable facial features such as the mouth and eyes on her like in the Mariah Carey - 'We Belong Together' video I analysed. Hopefully this will produce the same effect as it did in that video, attracting the 'male gaze' and at the same time encouraging the audience to pay close attention to the lyrics that are being sung.

• I think Panning movements would look great at points in my video. For example when the female protagonist is sitting at the bus stop and turns to see her not-so-idyllic version of 'love', the camera should pan left to right or right to left to illustrate that she is looking at the person. It would probably be a good idea for me to use the tripod whilst doing this to ensure a smooth and less jerky movement.
• Zoom shots - on significant objects such as the clock or love heart candy to emphasise the importance of what each object is symbolic of. The clock for example is symbolic of the theme of passing time so having a zoom shot of it embeds this recurring theme in the viewers mind. The love heart candy relates to the young teenage audience who will be more likely to consume candy on a daily basis, the fact that they are shaped as love hearts further highlights the one of the main themes of love in the song.

LIGHTING:

• I am aiming to use natural lighting. I've decided the majority of the video will be set during the day time so that the lighting levels do not become a problem, from filming my AS thriller coursework I've learnt that filming at night is risky in terms of the amount of exposure that will be reflected in the lens, also video filters will be harder to see if the lighting is too dark.

EDITING:

• Fade and fade dissolve transitions are great editing transitions I would like to use throughout my whole video. I think the fade transitions are a smooth way of carrying the narrative along as they are quite ambiguous and can portray the days,weeks or months that go by, this fits well with my narrative and song choice as the main theme is time. I would like to have a fade in transition at the beginning of the video and maybe a fade out transition (which fades to black) at the end of the video to signify the ending and beginning of 'waiting'.
• I've found that the idea of a time-lapse effect would be very appropriate for my music video seeing as the prominent theme of the song is 'TIME', and waiting.
  
  Right now I'm thinking of using the weather as one source of time-lapse. I quite like the idea of gradually seeing the clouds in the sky part and the sun turning into the moonlight. The second time-lapse i might have is one of filmed raw traffic. I think it could be used as a very effective technical code, symbolizing the passing of time as the waiting occurs.

These are very good examples of what I am aiming for my time-lapse to look like!

• A soft focus on the main character in the video would be ideal. I want to use this as a form of voyeurism as well as a way of illustrating the beginning of the narrative and the active point of view.
  
  COSTUME:

• Uniform? - since the beginning of the story is intended to start in a school it would make sense for my character to be shown at the beginning in typical school wear, so a blouse, a tie, a checkered skirt or even just plain black trousers would be nice so that the target audience (teenagers aged 14-18) will make that instant connection to her position as they also attend school.
• Outside of the school i would like the singer to be wearing trendy, fashionable 'in the now' clothes, in other ways nothing that looks too expensive or that is too revealing but ordinary, ever day clothing most girls my age would wear, for example, jeans/jeggings and a long tunic. I'll probably have her wearing some jewellery or props to glamorise her outfit, hopefully this will provoke an admiration in the target audience by allowing them to admire her sense of style.
  
  
  
  PROPS:
  
  
• Modern day devices - I-pods, mobile phones, i-phones, camera's etc to reflect the modern, lively, young atmosphere at which teenagers tend to possess in pop/R'n'b videos.
  
  MISE-EN-SCENE:
  
  
• Locations will be city based to present the modern western society. I have ideas about filming at a mall, or a cafe/restaurant or any other general public place where teenagers are likely to socialise (to make the target audience feel they can relate to the character) but these are public places so I may face issues in terms of getting permission.

So this is it, these are the main ideas for my music video. I'm quite keen of most of them apart from the locationspart because it may not go to plan, but if I can make the costumes look as intended and make use of editing skillsand improve the whole filming process in general I think I'll be on the right track.

Mood Board

The mood board shows the key aspects I want to include in my music video.
RNB/POP is associated with urban culture hence I want to make an emphasis on trendy, fashionable costumes and maybe props too, the theme of the song is TIME and also LOVE so the video has to be fast-paced in some points to emphasise this, the passing of time should be presented visually via symbolism e.g.ticking clock or editing - time remapping.
Modernity: To represent modern day youth I think modern gadgets or devices such as i-pods and i-phones should be prominent throughout the video. And a city environment highlights the cultural environment and it's effect on the youth of today, (e.g. the way they think, their actions and their general way of living).