Planning: location

The meaning of location would be where the music video is set. For example, what area, inside or outside etc. The locations I have chosen for my video are London hot spots, so central London, London eye, roads including oxford street or Piccadilly circus. I start my filming in November so I'm at an advantage of the Christmas lights already being up. This allows me to use the lights from their to reflect to my artists, as well as including them in my city scenes to really create that London city effect. Living in the centre of London gives me the advantages of finding these places to do the fast car scenes, urban areas and big fast cars to go with. However if I lived in the outskirts of London, where there's more countryside, fields etc., I would find it more challenging to create that urban, hip-hop type of culture through my video. I will incorporate a lot of bright colours within my video, using the locations I have chosen. I think filming as many locations I can will help me when it comes to editing as I would have a lot of footage to choose from, and can see what scenes fit best with the lyric context of the song and for every beat change.

Music Video: Automatic Artist: Nicki MinajDirector: Anjali Khatri

 Location:Explanation of why i have chosen this location, how does it reflect or convey a message about my artist / song / audience)Action:What will take place in the shots that I will film, on locationLimitations:How does my location limit what I can do: crew and video content?Health and Safety Risks - What health and safety risks my location will pose?Distance and access:How far is the location from my base and how will the artists, equipment and crew travel there. Weather: How could the weather affect my filming? & What back up plans have I in place? 

Day scenes:

The beginning scene will the main artist meeting up with all her friends, the location I have chosen for this is Southbank, which again is in the centre of London. The location I have chosen for this scene really suites my target audience as a lot of young adults, teenagers are familiar with this area. These locations are also filled with walls of beautiful structured graffiti, which is an iconic connotation of what my sub culture is about. It also allows the audience to feel the urban culture through these bright patterns and imagery through the walls. I think a mid-shot would be perfect to start this scene off, so you can see the relationships through the individual characters in the music video, and then followed by a long shot so you can see all the characters together. I will include close ups of the main artist throughout the beginning, of her singing to the camera, to get a real sense of what she is about and what type of character she is. The few limitations I will face will probably getting permission to film in these spots if there already being used, and if skateboarders their will allow us to film them doing their stuff. It will also be difficult to find the right lighting, as it’s not out in the open, so preparing the right equipment for that. Reaching this area would be bus or tube, or for those who live close walking distance. The weather conditions for this is important, if the weather is bad, rainy or even gloomy this will affect the way the graffiti will look and how it will be represented. Once again they only thing to do is to bring addition equipment like torches to reflect against the walls so even if this was to happen it can be dealt with. 

 

Night scenes: 

First scene: The starting 10-20 seconds of the video, when the beat comes in and the pace is fast, the location I have chosen to use is a busy high road or motorway. Reason being the cars would be going fast in these areas and when I speed the footage up it will create a good impact. Roads I would do this on would be Oxford Street or Euston.  This is where I will show parts of London, with the fast moving cars, this will help me link to the pace of the music, creating a link with the visuals and what your hearing. I will make this a long shot, in-between a motorway so I can capture the whole movement. I think the limitations of this would be, the safety of filming on such busy streets and the scene being disturbed by walking by pedestrians. The journey going back and forth from these London locations aren't too complicated, a few train journeys to the centre of London would be the only challenge, carrying the equipment on hand, however all the rest of the locations are either a bus or walking distance. The weather could be a issue, especially filming in the winter times of London, the rain is really unpredictable, this could ruin the footage that I’m trying to film, as it could make the quality of the video look really bad. Another factor I need to think about is, as I am speeding this scene up, I will have to be in the location I am for a while, so if the weather conditions do change I will have to think about alternative ways of making this scene look professions, for example bringing a large plastic cover to cover the lens or to find a place with shelter to film under, which is near the motorway.

Twilight scene:

I want to capture a twilight scene for a scene of my video, this would be a sunset scene, which I would film on a location spot called harrow on the hill. This place is on a high point where you can view most of London from above and you would clearly be able to see a sunset or even a sunrise. I chose this location because I want to catch a clear sunrise and sunset, which really represent a change in day and night, and this is something I need for my narrative, as the actors go from day till night through the music video and I feel this will show a obvious and clean transaction from both . I would use a still long shot for this so I can really capture the whole moment as it happens. Limitations that my occur would be, not getting the timing right at the exact point to catch the sunset or sunrise and not being to get far enough to see a lot of London city, which will course lack of connection with the audience as they may not recognise the place.  The best transport would have to be car, as this destinations isn’t near the centre of London, however the actors will not be necessarily be needed for these scenes so it will only take a few members of my group to get these scenes filmed. Weather could be a big problem whilst filming this scene. For example if its rains it will be difficult to capture the scene and show the lights. If its rains or it is foggy the view or the sunrise will not be shown.

I want to include snippets of the actors ready, dressed up for a night out, walking around London roads, on their way for a night out throughout the video; roads would be located in Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square etc. I have chosen these areas as they are places that my target audience will really relate to, as the viewers will be familiar to these areas, for a good night out, and also for people that don’t necessarily go out, but will also know about these areas as they are so popular.  My vision is of the artist walking, and as they are walking, me and the rest of my group will film their every move, using as many camera angles and camera movements as we can, so when it comes to editing we can really use a variety of shots to convey the story line and see what best suites the beat and rhythm of the song. However, the main camera shot that would be ideal would be a close-up as we m are conforming to Andrew Goodwin's theory which states that there are demands from the record label, which will have to include the need for lots of close ups of the artists. The limitations of this will be getting everyone together at the same time, as the actors we have chosen are studying as well as we are, and as this process will probably be time consuming, we will need to careful schedule times that will fit us all so these scenes can be done. These locations won’t be a challenge to get to, however travelling with a vast amount of people with all the equipment may slow time, so taking buses would be ideal for us to get from one place to the other. As we are filming in the night, the weather being cold and miserable will once again affect the quality of the filming and if it gets too windy or rainy, it may be hard for the actors to concentrate or to be motivated to carry on filming for a long period of time. A solution to this would be, taking 5-10 minute breaks to warm up and drink loads of water to keep hydrated and keep that motivation going.

For one of the scenes I want to get the actors getting on the train, so location would be a chosen train station that’s close to us, such as Baker street, Euston or Piccadilly, we want to show this so that you can see more iconic things of London and see them whist the artist and actors are on their journey. I think this will help explain the narrative really well, of them going from one place to another. The fast moving trains will also go well with the speed of the song, which once again will match the music with the visuals, really following Goodwin's theory. I would choose to film this in a mid-shot, then zoom out to a long shot so you can see the full locations so the views can get a real feel of the atmosphere and be able to relate to it as well. Limitations of this will be capturing the main artists and making sure they stand out from the crowd, as well as our actors being over crowded by the general public trying to get onto the train. These areas are again walking distance, and as we are filming the tube, we can get on it once we have finished filming this scene, to get to are next destination, this may be hard to handle with the equipment and everything else, however as I am part of a group it will be easier to share these responsibilities. The weather will probably not be a issue as we are indoors, however the safety of all the actors and the people in my group will have to be monitored really carefully.