Account of shoot day

As a large majority of the cast were only needed for one scene we (the dance break) we decided to film this fist, so as the dance company would not miss a whole day of lessons. As we had already pre set the studio for the club this meant we had to reset, luckily we had the time to do this as the cast got into their costumes and applied their makeup. We filmed the dance section from a number of interesting angles including from behind, as we knew that we wanted quick cuts to match the fast pace of the music. After this was filmed this allowed us to send the 8 dancers back to class.

As the set was bare we moved on to the next simplest setting, the prison sequence first filming the couples dance sections then filming several performances of the whole song with the police guards walking past. Once this was done they were free to go. Next we filmed more of the same performance, shot at different angles and distance, including close ups of faces as well as hands and mid shots.

Next the band went and changed into their main performance dresses whilst we set up the studio to resemble the jazz club, not only were they needed in this footage but this also included, Guy, Stewart and Jason who are seen in frequenting in the club. We shot the performance in wide, mid shot and close up several times giving us plenty of material to play with we also experimented with pans and movement of the camera giving extra dimensions and choice in the editing process. We experimented with a hand gesture of a gun with all three girls pointing down at guy, this sets up at an early stage what the video is about which may be unclear to the viewers. It also showed there power over him being at a high angle and using feminine touch to be assertive. Toward the end of the track we also added a tracking shot of Sabrina walking down the thrust of the stage, this was a change from other footage shot so far as they were normally shot as a group. It will also, hopefully make the audience excited as it will make them feel that she is walking towards them.

We then went on to film so front on footage of Guy who is are main male interest. We shot at several angles and even included some shots of Nico walking down the thrust and him observing. Setting him up as voyeuristic and disrespectful towards women, helping build our narrative.

We then striked the set and went on to film the murders, at this point we were aware we were short on time and were in a rush to shoot them all and intended to film them quickly. We first started with the stab victim, as the shot had to be brutal and at the same time simple it was hard to visually create the effect we wanted so took time to sort out Ted’s positioning as well as exploring how we would use the fake blood. We shot the tableau in, wide, mid and close up shots as well as moving the camera around different aspects of his body. Next we shot the spaghetti murder which was easy to set up, using a table and chair from the club, we also adopted similar shots to the first murder as we wanted them to have a familiar feel. Once we had finished that we realised we only had time to shoot one more murder, and it was essential for it to be guy’s as he is crucial to the narrative and will be the last one to be seen murdered as the audience are aware of his existence, unlike the other murder victims. We shot this on the stairs of the studio, draping him in a dead like position and splattering blood on to the wall, making him look like he had been shot in the head. Unfortunately we were correct and had no more time to shoot the remaining murders, we plan to start editing and see if they are crucial, if they are we may do some more filming of the remaining murders at a later date.

We did come across some complications in timings and this may have been avoided if we had stuck firmly to our shooting schedule, but we only used it as a vague guide. However using this time allowed us to end with hours of footage as well as incorporating interesting ideas and shoots we had not considered before.

Planned Shooting Schedule

Prepare club set up day before.

9:00-10:00- Clothes and makeup, last minuet adjustments to set

10:00-12:00- Film club footage

10:00-10:15- set up dance sequence

10:15-11:15- film dance sequence

11:15- 11:30- set up prison sequence

11:30- 13:00 -Film prison sequence couples dances

13:00-14:00- Lunch

14:00-15:00- Film prison sequence- girls behind bars

15:00-15:15- Strike set and set up for stab murder

15:15- 15:35- Film stab murder

15:35- 16:00 Strike stab murder set up spaghetti murder

16:00- 16:30- Film Spaghetti murder

16:30- 16:45- Strike set and set up poison murder

16:40- 17:00 -Film poison murder

17:00- 17:15- Strike set and set up bed murder

17:15- 17: 40- Film bed murder

17:40- 18:10- Film shooting murder on stairs

Clear away

The Cast

THE HUNKY DORIES:

SABRINA SALMON

NICO DUCKERT

KARIS ARGHIROS

THE DANCERS:

EMMA DALTON

ALEX HALL

JOANNA PAGE

BETHANY QUINN

MEGAN FLOOK

MADINA ISAEVA

YULIA

PAULA

PRISON GUARDS:

ALEX MOSS

CONNOR VICKERY

SAM HINDMARSH

MURDER VICTIMS/ CLUB AUDIENCE

GUY STANLEY

JASON GILFORD

TED JACKSON

STEWART

Costume

Three policemen- we want them to be similar to keystone cops as the music video has an essence of theatre we want them to be more like characters- as reality the policemen wouldn't be dancing with prisoners. Luckily the school theatre department has 3 keystone cop outfits which include jackets, trousers, hats and truncheon,. Hear is an example of what they will look like.

The three murder victims will be wearing suits, showing what appears to be power in the surface, bar man and other member of the club audience. Making it ironic when they are murdered. We have asked the members of staff to bring in a suit which they think is appropriate and as a group we will discuss whether it is suitable. We may also give them props such as cigars and hats.

The 8 dancers will all be waring the same black leotards, fishnets and high heals. As they are all members of a dance company they all have matching leotards which we have asked them to bring in as well as bringing their own heels. We will provide fishnet tights. These outfits will look them look like cabaret performers and make them desirable.

The Three Main performers will have to outfit changes- Their first outfit will be their jazz club performance dress- we don't want these to be to revealing as we want the girls to be seen as clean but they will make them look attractive. We want to find three dresses that relate to each other, in either colour or style. The group will go shopping in places such as http://www.vivienofholloway.com/ to find a dress that fits the 1950s era. The second costumes are for the prison sequence we want them to be warring matching show girl outfits, showing their fun flirtatious side. The theatre department have something that is just what we are looking for so we will borrow three dresses from them. below is a modern equivalent of what we plan to use.

LOCATION

In The Hunky Dories music video there will be four different locations:

The Jazz club

The Prison

Dance space

Mug shot wall

As filming in places such as a club and prison are impractical and expensive we have to create the world we want in the studio.

Here is an example of the jazz club lay out in the studio:

We will dress the set with, red table cloths, table decorations (candles etc), drinking glasses, ash trays and alcohol bottles. The most important decoration in the set is going to be a red silk like curtain behind the stage, this will bring a sense of elegance setting and era. We will use spot lights from low and high angles to create shadows and a theatre like atmosphere.

The prison set up is simple, we will clear the jazz club set and use the same space. Except we we will add three sets of bars loaned to us by the theatre. We will use the same lighting as the theatrical performance is running throughout. This is especially important in this scene as it is inspired by Chicago the musical.

The Dance section is the same as the above with the bars pushed back against the far wall. We also will use the red curtain in this section, all of these elements connect the locations without obviously being the same.The spot lights will help create a sultry sexy atmosphere. We will need 6 cabaret style chairs for the dance in a v shape formation.

As it would be difficult to create are own mug shot wall we will use the green screen in the studio to create a realistic replica. We will then take the green screened footage and add the background in after effects.

Props List

Prison Bars - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Cigars - Provided by Jason (Teacher)
Mug-shot boards x3 - Hand made: rectangular pieces of cardboard painted black with white numbers on
Retro silver microphones - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Money (Notes) - Printed and photocopied
Spaghetti - Provided by Jason (Teacher)
White Plate - Sourced from school kitchen
Poison Bottle - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Knife and Fork - Sourced from school kitchen
Small Tables(Jazz Club) - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Backdrop for Mug-shot -painted before shoot
Glasses - sourced from school kitchen
Chairs for club- Provided by Theatre/Media department
Bar - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Gun (machine) - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Briefcase - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Desk - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Handcuffs - Provided by Theatre/Media department
Bed - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Keith Negus

The Ideologies of the music industry
• “What I’m looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you career. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts… Two years ago I started a dance label… now that’s not a career-orientated label. I mean those records are one-off situations and every now and again maybe you’ll get an artist come out of it.”
• “When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is becoming more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it’s as much about: I sit here and think ‘there’s really a gap in the market for this kind of project…’. I don’t go out to gigs. That’s not how I find my stuff. It comes through various writers and producers. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe I have the front person who I want to launch into the market but I haven’t got the songs. So you put the two together.”

Ideologies of Creativity
• Keith Negus – Producing pop
• Identifies two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry.
• These ideologies shape the way in which the artists’ images and careers are developed, and the way that they are marketed towards specific target audiences.
• The organic ideology of creativity and…
• The synthetic ideology of creativity.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 1
• A ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists
• The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be ‘nurtured’ by the record company.
• The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company.
• The artist is given time to evolve and progress through their career.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 2
• Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue.
• Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers
• Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

The synthetic Ideology of Creativity 1
• A combinatorial approach to artists and material.
• Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal.
• The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company.
• The artist will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 2
• Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums.
• Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences.
• Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company.

Balancing the Two
• In practice, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts.
• Most big record labels will look to balance their roster with a combination of successful synthetic and organic acts to ensure that there are funds available for the day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making potential.

Promoting Organic and Synthetic Acts
• There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artist are represented to ensure short term or long term success.
• Organic acts are often sold on their ‘authenticity’, both musically and socially.
• The image of the artist appears ‘unconstructed’ (although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)
• Synthetic acts are often sold on their ‘look’ or personalities
• The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

Richard Dyer

Stars and Stardom• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music star.
• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Some common values of music stardom
• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour.
• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.
• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg. Advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])
Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.
• The star image is made up of a range of meanings, which are attractive to the target audience.
• Fundamenally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1• The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.

Paradox 2
• The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image
• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the image.
• This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.
• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.
• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony)
• Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

The Star Image QUOTE:
Richard Dyer (stars, BFI, 1981)
• “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person’s “self” from his/her social “roles”, and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg. Gays in recent years). Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Storyboarding Process

First we had to establish what we wanted the narrative of the Hunky Dories music video to be, we were thinking on the lines of something British, quirky and feminine looking at setting it in a laundrette or a sweet shop, however we realised we were limited in these locations due to them having to be filmed in a location outside school in shops, which would be difficult to arrange as well as them being a small space to work in. We also realised that the words "crazy in love" could be seen as quite powerful and strong, this led us on to thinking of a WW11 themed narrative, being set in a village hall or involving jobs women were involved with during the period, this era also links to The Hunky Dories influence of The Andrews Sisters, which would appeal to one section of our target audience of the elderly . We struggled to wright a narrative for this and thought more into the area of women's power which led us to watching inglorious Bastards as well as das boat.- This led us on a new route of cabaret, burlesque and a Chicago inspired genre. We came up with a plot for our storyboard, this was of the three performers being mass murders who murder men as they are "crazy in love". The narrative and performance will be set in a jazz club and prison.

We started as a group by establishing the potential narrative and performance aspects of our ‘Crazy in Love' video. We decided that the narrative would revolve around three female jazz singers who have committed a number of brutal murders as they were ‘crazy in love’. The performance elements flitted between a jazz club and prison cell with extra narrative establishing the murder scenes and the girls having mug shots done. We decided to incorporate a dance break in the instrumental section of the track consisting of upbeat music by prison guards and prisoners in the prison cell.

We created the storyboard the depicted the above including: drawings, location, action, movement/type, sound, editing and timing of the shots.

Organising our ideas like this allowed us to look carefully at our direction and make changes in our ideas such as discarding the exterior night time shots with the girls running across a field. We felt that it no longer linked to the rest of the music video.

We then filmed each individual storyboard drawing and transferred the footage to final cut pro. Next we uploaded the track and fitted the images to the music. (Having a rough section for the dance break). After completing this we realised that it was not consistently in time with the beat and that the pace was too slow, meaning the shots had to be shorter with more edited transitions. To resolve these problems we perfected the timing of editing
And added extra shots to make the video come across as fast and upbeat.


Here are some examples of the storyboard: