Filming Blog

Our group unfortunately hasn’t filmed yet. We are all looking

forward to filming our music video. Since we all actually listen

to the song we plan on making the music video to, it’s going to

be a fun process. It’s an upbeat song that we’ve been listening

to for years. ‘Kiss Me Thru The Phone’ is a classic that came out

in 2008. Like mentioned before in the storyboard blog, we plan on

putting a twist to the music video. Originally, the song is a love song

that centers the artist and his love interest. However, my group and

I plan on making the music video have a plot of a stalker story. Closely

listening to the song and its lyrics we were able to come up with a weird

twist. The main character in the music video will be in love with the other

character but it’s in an obsessive way. The stalkee will be going through

the process of not realizing the stalker, recognizing the stalker, and

confronting her. 

We have planned extensively on what we would like the process of

filming to be like. This includes what was written in the planning blog

and the storyboard blog. We had also talked in person and over text

messages on what we would like to do for our music video. We have

three official locations that we want to film at. These include the

Galleria Mall, a public park, and one of our group member’s house.

The reasoning behind these locations are specific to the settings. For

the mall location, we had wanted to choose somewhere that the main

character can first see her love interest. The mall was perfect because

many people go to the mall so coming across her love interest wouldn’t

be so shocking. The park was fitting because it’s a setting that can be

seen as more casual and not so ‘stalkerish’. We included the house as

a filming location because it’s where the climax of the music video is taking

place. The stalker finally is seen as insane because she had gone to the

love interest’s house. 

Hopefully everything goes as planned. When we were filming our

commercial everything went smoothly to where we got the takes that

were necessesary. However, the editing process was a little more stressful.

Since there was a problem with the editing software, my group and I

had a very short amount of time to actually edit. I feel like if we had

more time to edit, not just an hour and thirty minutes, then the final

product would have been better. I want to do as much as we can to

be able to have as much time to edit the music video. That is why we

decided to film on the 11/26 (Tuesday) even though one of our group

members can not make it. We are filming scenes that she isn’t needed

for. Then we would like to film on 11/30 when we can all film. We all have

positive thoughts in order to have what we have on paper come to life. 

Storyboard Blog

Today our group worked on the storyboard for the music video that we will be filming. After countless deliberation, brainstorming, and replaying, we managed to finish our storyboard, laying down the framework for the filming process. For our music video, we decided that we will be doing the song “Kiss Me Through The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’Em featuring Sammie. This song was a perfect choice as it lacked profanity and would be easy to recreate with the resources we each have access to. We would detach all audio and let the song tell a story itself. Since we were given a minimum of a minute and five seconds and a maximum of a minute and 15 seconds, our plan was to cut various parts of the song given that it is a total of three minutes long. We chose to use the introduction, a phrase towards the middle of the song, and the ending. From there, we divided the song by increments of five seconds, establishing what exactly would be taking place within the said time frame. We knew that it was essential that the audio not only fell between the specified range but also still flowed together. This would help us avoid any inconveniences that could potentially offset our productivity during the filming and editing processes. Since the goal of this project was not to create an imitation of the original music, the creative juices had no choice, but to be activated. Our vision for the project took a sharp detour in regards to the general direction of the original music video. The overall plot of our music video goes as follows: A young teen’s love at first sight quickly evolves into a mesmeric obsession, resulting in the pursuit of a connection to an oblivious boy by all means necessary. Initially, one of the ideas presented was a love story in which the guy pursued the girl with good intentions and romantic interests. We ultimately decided to stray from the norm and go with a more “stalker story” as it was more original. 

Within our storyboard, we divided the music video amongst 15 boxes. The first six take place in the mall. During these scenes, we anticipate there to be bright, white lights as it is a shopping center. There are four actors, all which are members of the group, Autumn, Emilio, Victoria, and Jeffrey. The actors will all be dressed in casual clothing and will be carrying shopping bags. The next 4 take place at a park. Lighting will depend on how the weather is looking that day, though, we intend to film on a sunny day. Emilio and Jeffrey will be dressed in sports apparel, playing basketball, while Victoria and Autumn will be in casual clothing. The final 5 take place in an apartment. During these scenes, Jeffrey and Emilio will be dressed in light clothing such as pajamas. Victoria will once again be dressed in casual clothing. We will likely use dark lighting in order to build the suspense of being stalked. We intend to use jump cuts, inserts, establishing shots, point of view, and various other cinematographic elements in order to not only transition between the scenes (boxes) but also effectively portray our vision. For example, the first box, marked the 0:03 seconds to 0:8 seconds of the actual song, displays a wide shot in which Victoria and Autumn find Jeffrey and Emilio at the mall and Victoria becomes infatuated with Jeffrey. This will jump to the second box, marked 0:8 to 0:13, a close up in which Victoria and Autumn look at each other and notice that Emilio and Jeffrey are gone.

If everything goes as planned, we intend to stick to our story board and end the music video with a minute and fifteen seconds.

Planning Blog

The first day of our planning process was November 18th. The teacher gave us instructions on what to do and we began. The first thing we discussed is what we wanted to do for the music video. We know we didn’t want to follow the normal convention of the music video. The original video shows a couple who is dating and even though they can’t see each other they call and text each other. We decided to change the theme and now instead of it being a couple, a girl has a crush on a guy and she’s delusional thinking that they are together. For this project, things were a little harder because the concept was more complicated than the commercial. The biggest problem for us was figuring out when we were actually going to be able to film. We wanted to start filming this week, but we couldn’t figure out a day when we were all free. Some of us had to work and others had after school activities that conflicted with each other. We talked about our schedule for about 20 minutes before I suggested a solution.  Since not everyone was going to be in all of the scenes, the people who were free a specific day could go filming and film the scenes that they can get, then another day the other people in the group could go filming. 

By the time we figured out our individual schedules and the plan it, the class had ended so we got on group call at night to discuss the video in more detail. We discussed the health and safety issues, the props we were going to use, the costumes and the schedule we were going to be following. 

Location

To create our vision, we figured that the best place to film would be the mall because the mall is a crowded area where people can easily be followed without being spotted. So when the female is stalking the male interest, he wouldn’t be able to spot her in a crowd. The next location that we chose was someone’s house. In one of our scenes, we have the female looking into the window of the male interest’s house trying to see if he’s home while calling him. A one-story house or an apartment with windows on the first floor would be the perfect place to film the scene. The last location that we chose was the park. The male interest is going to be hanging out with his friend playing basketball and the female and her friend are watching him. Once again when stalking someone, the person stalking normally does it in a crowded area. In the scene, you would see the female fawning over the male interest while he is up and active. An important task we had to do was make sure that we were allowed to film in all of the locations that we chose. Autumn was in charge of getting the approval of the people in charge. At first, she called the Galleria Mall, the mall we wanted to filmstrip.  and the manager stated that it was fine as long as we gained permission to film the people in the mall. The next part was getting the house. Our new member of the group offered to use his house so he asked his mom and she said yes. We figured that since the park was a public area as long as we had permission from the people playing on the court, filming shouldn’t be a problem there.

Health & safety 

Because we are filming outside of school campus, we have to make sure that our group, the equipment and everyone around us isn’t put in harm's way. We will have to drive to the locations so everyone in the car will use the seatbelts. Another safety issue is the weather. The weather forecast says there will be days of thunderstorms. To protect ourselves we will stay inside and shoot all of our inside scenes. If we happen to get caught in the rain, we will bring umbrellas to protect the equipment and raincoats to protect us from the rain. 

Props

The props we will be using 

1. Phones
2. Basketball 
3. Shopping bags
4. The room in the house

Costumes

1. Basketball shorts with a t-shirt
2. Jeans and a hoodie
3. Pajamas 

Schedule 11/18-12/9

11/18- Discussed the theme of the music video 

11/20- Plan the props, location, and costumes

11/22- We are going to storyboard, our video, write the script and figure out the kinks with our individual schedule. 

11/26- We begin filming. We will start off at the mall, then make our way to the house to shoot our opening scenes.

11/30- Film the scenes at the park and go back to the mall because we need a shot with all of the actors/actresses in it. 

12/2- Begin the editing process, figure out the scenes and takes we want to keep and what we want to get rid of, adding the music, and doing the voiceovers needed

 12/4- Double check to make sure that the music video looks put together, add any last-minute details that we might have missed and play it back. 

12/06- Turn in the final music video

Music Video Conventions

The day we say goodbye to our finished commercial is here. The process was a somewhat smooth one. Preparing, story boarding, filming were all easy compared to the editing process. We didn't need to re-film any of the scenes which was nice because that allowed us to have more time to edit. The editing was stressful because of the time crunch that we were on. Overall, it was an exciting experience that bettered my production skills. Since the beginning of the school year, I was super excited to make the music video project. Personally, I love music so being able to plan, film, and edit one is going to be fun. 
We chose the song 'Kiss Me Thru The Phone' by Soulja Boy Tell'em. We chose this song because we all think it's a great song that's really catchy. Even though this song came out in 2008, we all listen to it to this day. Also, the song has no profanity so there was no need to look for a clean version and it can be interpreted in a different way than what it actually means. Figuring out the song that we wanted took some time but were able to chose this song out of all the other options. The other options for this music video project were 'Because Of You' by Ne-yo and 'Let Me Love You' by Mario. 
The song 'Kiss Me Thru The Phone' by Soulja Boy Tell'em falls under the genre of Hip-Hop/Rap. 
The original music video has the typical mis en scene that a Hip-Hop/Rap music video would have. The different camera angles, sound, and editing techniques. In a traditional music video for Hip-Hop/Rap, the camera angles are usually low-angled close up shots in order for the main artist of the music video can seem like the most important focal point of the video. Shots that are taken in a Hip-Hop/Rap music video include many two shots, typically with the main artist and a love interest to indicate that they are desirable. It also includes shots like club/party scenes where it gives the artist credibility because it shows how large groups of people are enjoying their song. Depending on the song itself, there can be a range of sounds that are not including the song. There can be sounds of engines revving to depict the luxury the artist or people yelling their name so it shows their importance. The editing, like the sound, also depends on the song and how the director and the artist want the song to be interpreted.

C- Costumes within the Hip Hop/Rap genre, artists tend to wear a variety of apparel. This
may range from designer clothing such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Ferragamo
complimented by expensive chains, watches, and other forms of jewelry. This aims
to emphasize the wealth that the artist has accumulated and is often a reflection
and even a product of the rags to riches story they likely experienced.
L- The lighting can differ depending on what the director and the artist want to use.
There is usually darker lighting if the scene is in a club or it can be outside during the day
or at night.

A- In a music video there isn’t a lot of acting involved unless there is a background
story to the music video. In the original music video you see spots in the video
where the person is looking to be having a conversation on a cell phone. They
did this to signify them calling the other person through the phone.

M- The makeup is also an important part of Hip-Hop videos. Back in 2008, the girls
wore vivid makeup that popped on screen. For example bright eye shadow colors,
or and big eyeliner. Some videos would showcase the girl in a scene where she
would just need normal makeup. The guys however, didn't really a lot of makeup
due to the fact that makeup was more fememine. 

P- Props that are heavily featured in many of the videos of the hip-hop genre
would include phones, jewelry, clothing, and stacks of money. They serve to
captivate the audience’s attention, and portray the characters in the video as
wealthy and well off in terms of power and status. 

S- Setting is very important for these types of videos, as they help to demonstrate

where the video is taking place. Most often in the Hip-Hop genre, the setting is
usually on the street, or a neighborhood, parties, and social gatherings.