Preliminary Task- Evaluation

CAMERAWORK PERFORMANCE:
In terms of camerawork, I believe that I replicated the shots in the first minute of the A-Team by Ed Sheeran very well. I have demonstrated that I am competent in framing shots well, at all heights, distances and angles as well as understanding what the effects different types of shots give off. My favourite shot to recreate was the 180 degree shot which was executed very well. It was the most difficult shot to film because it needed to be at a low angle, and pan around an actor smoothly and quickly only taking up five seconds of footage. Despite this, I think that there is some noticeable camera shake in some shots which is difficult to minimise when the camera is in a dynamic state. We couldn't use the tripod in those particular shots as we needed the camera to move with the actor or pan around. Also, in one or two shots we made simple mistakes like leaving filming equipment in the background.

EDITING PERFORMANCE:
The main target of the editing stage was to cut the shots and concatenate them as best as possible like the official video has done. This has meant timing all the shots to the second in order for it to accurately reflect the real thing. Other features of the editing included adding a slow fade transition and adding a black and white filter to our colour footage. Although these were not difficult, it shows that I have made progress and steps to learn how to use Final Cut Express- an editing piece of software I had not used proficiently before. I hope I can continue developing these skills when it comes to editing my real music video. Overall I believe this was the best part of our Preliminary Task.

MISE-EN-SCENE PERFORMANCE:
Mise-en-scene was the most difficult area of the production process of the Preliminary Task because it takes in multiple factors including costume, props, lighting, setting/location, body language and more.
Costume was relatively easy to mimic as the dress code is very casual int he official video. It included a grey jumper/hoody, black tights, a small black skirt, and black shoes. Our actor Jakarta had already got these items so nothing had to be purchased or borrowed.
The only prop included was a blanket. This is used to provide warmth to the homeless character who is forced to sleep on the cold streets, or in this case, a park bench. The character in the official video actually hands a duvet. However, due to us being unable to bring on to the location, we had to use a blanket instead.
For the first few shots, we controlled the lighting to suit the scene. We did this by simply closing the blinds in the room and turning off the lights whilst still having enough light to see what was happening. We couldn't control the lighting in the main block of the footage because it is set outside, where there is natural high key lighting. However, this didn't necessarily matter as it was the day time (which is what we needed) and the video was going to don a black and white filter anyway.
We only needed to select two settings to replicate the first minute of the video. This included a park and a small dark setting. For the latter, we chose a small dark classroom in the corner of a block at our school. The room is only roughly 3x5m squared in size and has a window and blinds. Suiting us as we could control the lighting, the room was perfect especially because it is rarely in use.
I felt the body language and acting by Jakarta was very good and was an easily recognisable performance from the official video. At the time we filmed, we couldn't get another girl to play as the other female so I personally had to step in and pretend. While this isn't ideal, we know that the Preliminary Task is just a building block where we can learn and improve upon.
Overall, I believe the mise-en-scene in our video was well thought out.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER:

-Reducing shakiness of camerawork.

-Making sure nothing was hiding in the background.

-Establishing and building upon my experience with Mac based editing software.

-Getting correct props.

-Ensuring that lighting isn't dismissed.

-Organising actors a bit better.

WHAT CAN WE APPLY FROM THIS PRELIMINARY TASK TO OUR MAIN TASK:
The Preliminary Task has showed me that it is better to take longer organising the production of filming as it generates a better end product. Simple things such as ensuring camera equipment is out of shot degrades the authenticity of the product. Hopefully, by the time of the main task, I will have gotten to know my group a bit better and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This way, we can collaborate and organise more effectively and make a high quality video.

Preliminary Task- Final Product

Here is the final cut of our version of 'The A-Team' by Ed Sheeran.

Unfortunately, the music to go along with it has been muted due to copyright and this is why we will have to contact the owner of the song for permission of usage when producing our main task.

The Preliminary Task Evaluation will be posted soon!

Preliminary Task- Final Digipak

After recreating the opening minute to the music video The A-Team by Ed Sheeran, we had to produce a digipak for our version of the product.

Our song's genre was Indie Folk/Acoustic therefore we wanted to include things that we would typically see in those genres. Indie is a genre in which the artists focus solely on having fun and creating meaningful music. We attended various social gatherings where we decided to take photos of the party atmosphere.

The photos in the main cover are all from a camping party. Due to them being taken on a disposable camera, the picture quality was very poor. This resulted in them being very grainy and the flash of the camera lit up the dark setting. The photos seem amateurish and therefore original. We wanted this effect on the images as it emphasises our artist name and ethos as well as establishing the idea that indie artists aren't presenting themselves as perfect. We called our artist 'Take Two' as we produced a second version of the music video. It also refers to the fact that it is difficult to execute a task/goal successfully the first time round and that practice makes perfect.

At first, we had the original photo as the main feature of the cover but then later added two bars down the left hand side. These bars can be interpreted or related to the stripes on the clapperboard on a film set. This also ties in with the artist name! To some it may look like a 'pause' symbol, which could have implications that this artist/album has taken a long time to be produced.

After with this design, we decided that maybe this image should not be the sole feature of the cover. In response, we decided to add more photos of the party to try and incorporate more visual features onto the cover. I like the photos from this party, not only because of the omitted effects of the imagery, but because of the setting and the atmosphere it provides. Even though the audience were not there in person, the photos represent friendship, fun and youth. These are conventions often seen in Indie music videos. Most importantly, the images make it seem that the audience is there in the scene without establishing a mode of direct address, like the artist looking into the camera.

We used the photos of the artist where she isn't engaged in/aware of the camera. This makes the scene seem more authentic. Having no eye contact on the front cover to some extent gives it some underlying mystery and secrecy, as if she doesn't want us to see her face or in particular her eyes. The song is about how the character has to sell her body to make money to feed her addiction for Class-A drugs.

There is a basic and simplistic font for the front because we didn't want to take the meaning away from the images which are the main feature. The positioning of the title of the album is positioned on the back of the camp chair again referencing film-making with the likes of a director’s chair. The font is very small and in capitals so that is stands out and the use of monotonous colour of white has connotations of the purity and colour of the class A drugs she may be taking- cocaine.

Preliminary Task- Mock Digipack

Here is the mock digipack for our preliminary task product.

FRONT COVER:

As the main image for the cover, we have used a grey scale screenshot from the video. We distorted this using an artistic effect in Microsoft Word named 'Plastic Wrap'. The background which was foliage, is particularly highlighted by this effect and gives it an abstract and hallucinogenic appearance. This ties in with the meaning of the song title, The A-Team, relating to Class A drugs. The main character is featured in the centre showing her importance and conforming to the pop genre that the artist is almost always seen in the middle of the frame. The font that displays the text 'Ed Sheeran's...' is called 'Freestyle Script' and mimics handwriting or a signature. It has been used as a subtle reference to the artist of the song who is known for his audience interactivity. It makes the cover look as if it's actually been signed. The title of the record, "The A-Team" starts in the centre in large, red and capitalised font. The red colour has connotations of danger, fear and strength which emphasises the meaning behind it; it is bold and deliberately plain because of this. A small reflection can be seen below this text which can be interpreted as a metaphor for self-deprivation or a fading away of something that was originally strong (eg. The characters personality and liveliness being lost due to a drug addiction.)

COMPACT DISC DESIGN:

The compact disc features the same text as the front cover so it has the same identity and meanings.We thought our last shot of the character spreading her arms was a particularly good idea to use on the design of the disc as it represents freedom, expression and openness. This is ironic as the audience would have to open the case in order to get the disc out. The background image is blurred out as the title and information on the disc is more important. This time, we used a red filter for the image to surprise the users an further emphasise the colour connotations. The compact disc logo features on the right hand side as does the words "promotional use only". This is because we won't actually be able to produce the disc and design in real-life. Around the edge of the disc there is copyright and production information making our disc look more realistic (as if it were to be produced.) Originally this text was black however it clashed with the darkness of the background image and the important text could not be seen. This is why it is white so it is visible.

Preliminary Task- Digipak Research (Ed Sheeran)

In order to create an effective digital package for my Preliminary Task cover of "The A-Team" by Ed Sheeran, I am going to look at and analyse the artist's album artwork to get a good idea of his style:

https://prezi.com/djci1f_svvqr/ed-sheeran-digipak-analysis-/

Preliminary Task- Lyrics Analysis

Preliminary Task- Lyrics

Here are the lyrics for our Preliminary Tasks song, The A-Team by Ed Sheeran: 

White lips, pale face
Breathing in snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste

Light's gone, day's end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

And they sayShe's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
Cause we're just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
And sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly

Ripped gloves, rain coat
Tried to swim and stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes

Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed, dry throat
Call girl, no phone

And they say
She's in the class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately,
her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
Cause we're just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
And sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly

An angel will die
Covered in white
Closed eyed
And hoping for a better life
This time, we'll fade out tonight

Straight down the line

And they say

She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
They scream
The worst things in life come to free us
And we're all under the upper hand
Go mad for a couple grams
And we don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland
And sell love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
To fly, fly
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly
Or angels to die

Preliminary Task- Risk Assessment

Preliminary Task- Location

The opening to the music video displays two characters in a room with low key lighting. It is a very intense scene and only close ups and mid shots are used to emphasise the emotions. This is done so that the characters emotions are the main features of the scene and not the surroundings. Therefore, our opening scene will be filmed in a small class room at our school, in which all the lights will be off and the blinds closed. This ensures that the atmosphere is how it is intended to be- dark and rather intimate.

The remaining of the minute in the video is set in a park or large common. The only features that the main location needed were a bench, a wide open green space and some trees. We plan to film at our local park in Newport as it contains all of these characteristics and is close by.

Preliminary Task- Recce Shots

As the video The A Team by Ed Sheeran is at first set in a park, we need to film in a similar, green open space that has a bench. The local town of Saffron Walden has a common and I think this would be ideal especially because it has the market centre and church in the background.

We also need a dark room where we can film to first opening seconds of the video. We could use a small room in school with the lights of to mimic to dark low key lighting seen in the video. We didn't need to worry about things like desks and displays in the background because all of the shots are focused on the characters in close up shots.

Preliminary Task- Mise-En-Scene

In the video 'The A Team' the main female character is portrayed as a homeless, drug addicted character; we got this impression due to girl having an overdose at the start and the narrative taking us back to before she died. The costume also supports the idea that she isn't wealthy as she doesn't wear clean or presentable clothes.

The female character has ripped tights and various layers of clothing. This suggests she lives on the streets as she needs various layers to keep her warm during the night. Also, her make-up and hair has not been well established; if anything it is rather messy and tatty.

We will try to imitate this image by replicating all the physical features that we could.

Jakarta (the group’s solo female) will be acting as this girl and will wear her own black shorts and tights to try and replicate the character's outfit. We will try to ensure that the tights used have holes in them or look worn to emphasise the homeless look. Jakarta also owns a grey jumper which is very similar to the one the protagonist has in the video.  We plan to attain a long black coat in the same style from the drama department’s wardrobe. The remaining characteristics such as the hair and makeup should be easy to style in order to give off the messy appearance.  

 

Other Mise-En-Scene such as the quilt/duvet is very important to get right as it is one of the most prominent parts of the costume. We plan to bring one in from home but due to

the large size of the prop, we may have to use a blanket instead.

Preliminary Task- Storyboard

Using the shot list as a reference, I have created an accurate Storyboard for our Preliminary Task. This will help us when it comes to producing our video and has been valuable experience for the main task.

Preliminary Task- Shotlist

For the opening minute of  Ed Sheeran's "A-Team" there are a total of 16 shots. Here is a list of the different camera shots that we plan to use in our remake. Each shot has a brief description of what it contains and adjacent to that, the length of the shot in seconds.
We plan to film very soon.

Preliminary Task- Selection of a Song

For our preliminary task, we decided to replicate the first minute of  A-Team by Ed Sheeran. Apart from being listeners of his music, we liked the narrative of the song and felt this would give us a good basis to start from before we got under way working on the main task.
Here is the song on YouTube:

Summer Work- Artist Research- Ed Sheeran

Ed photographed with his guitar.

Ed Sheeran is a British single/songwriter from Suffolk. He released his first independent EP in 2005 before moving to London to start playing gigs; he played 312 shows before releasing his second EP in 2009.

Ed got noticed when he got invited on tour with Just Jack in 2009; leading on from the successful tour, he released a video online and rapper Example offered him the chance to tour along side him. At the same time of this offer, he released his third EP which features his later debut single The A Team.

The single The A Team was certified quintuple platinum in the United Kingdom. In 2012, he won two Brit Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. The A Team won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. He was the nominated for Best New Artist at the 56th Annual Grammy Award.