Initial Group Meeting Notes

On Monday 26th September we gathered as a group to discuss our music video and what we wanted to do. The three of us - Maddie, Jason and Eddie were present and here are the notes from that meeting:

Agenda topics:

1) Initial video ideas and choose song

2) Group roles

3) Specific ideas - settings, costume, narrative, performance elements and specific scenes.

4) Ideas for magazine advert and CD pack design

Full initial group meeting notes:

1) Together as a group we discussed potential songs to create a music video with various artists covering various genres and types of beats. After discussion, Maddie had recommended Adele - Turning Tables and after discussion and hearing the song, we unanimously agreed as a group that Adele - Turning Tables would be an ideal song because it does not at present have a music video other than an official live performance video. The song had not achieved a high chart rating - achieving only 62nd on the UK charts - meaning it was a less popular song that would be chosen by others. Given the high levels of emotion and the story behind the song, it seemed a good choice of song that we as a group could be creative with and we were all in agreement.

2) As a group we went on to discuss strengths and weaknesses in media and agreed we would be best to play to our strengths whilst also allowing each other to experience the various aspects in producing the music video. It was agreed that with Maddie being a strong art student that she would be best to work on the creative aspects of the video - deciding on costumes and makeup - she also wanted to appear as the main actress in the video. Eddie had discussed that he felt strong working with the camera and potentially appearing in the video to aid our efforts to create the emotional atmosphere of the relationship between Adele and her partner which is how the song 'Turning Tables' came about. Jason discussed his strengths in post-production and working with the animation affect software on the mac's and we concluded that it would be best for Jason to work on that with the input and assistance from Maddie and Eddie.

3) We were all in a firm agreement that the whole aspect of the video had to relate to the strong emotion of the background to the song and the lyrics. Based on this we had discussed that we must make use of the various lighting effects to depict the dark atmospheres usually associated with Adele videos (of which she does not have that many). In usual Adele style - we agreed that with Maddie as the main actress for the video, she should wear a black dress with natural skin and makeup. Eddie being the (now ex) boyfriend relating to the background of the song should wear casual jeans, with a suit jacket, shirt and tie. The song is based on an argument that Adele had with her ex-boyfriend backstage at the end of a TV interview recording and how he was unhappy about some of the things she had said and based on the fact that he always turned the tables on her - she decided on the song 'Turning Tables' - we want to convey this emotion and background in to the video with both performance and narrative aspects - telling the story to the background of the video and continued emotional heartbreak after the break up as a result of the arguments but also including strong performance aspects with lip syncing to the song. To show the emotion and heartbreak, we are wanting to find locations such as high rise rooms looking out of windows, rainy/cloudy weather, water, the skies and truly emotional scenes which whilst matching the story behind the song are also pairing up with the lyrics.

4) All three members of the group had strong ideas for the magazine advert and CD cover designs - varying from dark scenes from the video, to lying on piano's and using photoshop to merge a piano in to some stairs. We concluded that we should create all three and then make use of them all.

For the magazine advert - we are considering using the use of a door which will be at the start of the video with the lyrics of "close enough to start a war" with Maddie on one side and Eddie banging the door on the other with a dark black background with text - a very basic, but very effective and emotional advertisement which depicts the emotion of Adele.

For the CD cover, we are wanting to use some black stairs with Maddie lying on them and using photoshop to put piano keys on the stairs. We want to convey similar images on the other three covers but remain undecided on them until we have a better idea on how the actual music video is going to look and how the CD front cover stairs-piano looks.

Additional Locations

Further to our original locations in Alderly Edge, we have chosen to adopt some other locations and settings to depict the varied emotion in the song.

We have chosen to do some night filming in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. We have chosen this location because it is a busy well lit open space in Manchester with some great settings - water fountains, statues, grass areas and cafe's - it is a true hub for social life in Manchester. This vibrant setting is well suited to the video to provide a bigger atmosphere outside of the lonely situations featured in the bulk of the video and to show that there is a bigger world out there outside of their bad relationship.
We have also filmed some of the shots at an office building at the Manchester Science Park.

The facility allowed us to use the stairs and entrance hall to their building to shoot the scene where Madalina is in the lift and Laurie runs up the stairs to meet her at the floor she is destined to. We knew we could have filmed a shot like this in College but with the desire to not film any of our project in College, we sought access to this building which is only a 5-10 minute walk away and added to the separation and emotion of the music video and that the relationship is in tatters - she no longer wants to be with him and is trying to escape.

Locations :Alderley Edge

One of the main locations we will be filming at is Alderley Edge .Its beautiful natural scenery sounds like a great place o film .The trees can really represent the singers growth as a person which is why she is stepping up to the plate and says shes had enough shes moving on in the lyrics .

Lots of cliff edges and canyons could be a very good symbolism of them falling in love but at the same time symbolism how heard the fall would be and coming back from this wouldn't be easy .I am thinking of having a flash back couple scene as a reference to when they were in love and closely followed by her being there alone symbolizing her falling out of love singing the lyrics .Closely followed by an over the shoulder shot of her from were she is sitting symbolizing that the situation is behind her now .

There are some older broken and damaged trees .I am going to use these to symbolize the end of their growth as a couple and separation as i would like to put them on different arches of these deadened trees on opposite sides to represent this more strongly .Her sitting on top of this could mean she is on top of this situation she is strongly fighting it . Him being in the background broken tree could represent him being left behind and thair bonds being broken .we will try to fade him out acordingly .

Walking trough the forest as a couple together admiring the nature will be a direct reference to their relationship .But soon it ill start to crosscut between them walking this path alone to symbolize them braking up and being alone .
BY MADALINA

Production Progress Entry - #1

Today, we hit some roadblocks. We have hit a 'reality check' stage that some of our big aspirations for this video aren't going to be possible - we have had some big ideas for some big shots/scenes that we want to do, but we have realised having attempted to do one this morning that they aren't all going to be possible. So we have decided to resort to some alternate shots, some compromises.

We are going to try and source access to the roof of a high-rise building in or around College - this is one of the creative shots that we know is going to be difficult but we don't want to scrap out of the production we are going to create. We have sent e-mails off to the Co-operative Group, Manchester Science Park and the Beetham Tower to see if either of them will be kind enough to allow us on to their roof! Hopefully somthing good will come out of at least one of them.

We have settled on some locations we want to do some filming in - specifically alderly edge and Piccadilly Gardens. These are public areas which can provide us two completely different atmospheres for the filming when we come to do it - so hopefully we can achieve the shots we're after with the handheld camera we have at our disposal.

Maddie has announced that she really had a passion for wanting to research the makeup and clothing for the video - which we are in agreement that she is in the best position to do so.

Shot list:first minute

1)fade in to close up of hands playing the piano .

2)sweep up to midd-shot of piano player.

3)flash back to happy couple cuddling. fade together with close up of lips singing (lyrics :close enough to start a war )

4)close up to feet on piano pedals , pan to floor behind her with broken things (lyrics: all that i have is on the floor)

5)adele walking to the door long-shot. (lyrics: god only knows what were fighting for)

6)mid shot of actress shouting at the door (lyrics :all that i say you always way more)

7)Actor shouting at the door Mid-shot.

8)Actor punching down the door (lyrics: i can't keep up with your turning tables )

9)adele midshot with back to door sliding down (lyrics: under your thumb)

10)long shot of adele at the bottom of the door sitting (lyrics: i cant breeth )

11) close up of actress putting chain onto the door ((lyrics: i wont let you )

12)bids eye of him banging down the door (close enough to hurt me )

13 )mid shot of her watching him from upstairs lip-singing and crying whilst raining outside (no i wont rescue you to just desert me )

14) zooming out from watching him from the window shift focus to her reflection in the window(lyrics: i cant give you )

15)mid-shot of her ripping off a heart shaped necklace (lyrics: the heart you think you gave me )

16)close up of necklace on the floor(lyrics: its time to say goodbye )

17)Long shot of her walking away into the distance (lyrics: to turning tables )

photo-shoot

The location we have used for the shoot for the covers was originally supposed to be the theater on top of the piano . But after careful consideration we had decided that due to health and safety issues and risk of damaging collage proprety ,we decided to use one of our collages studio's . We have exploring a series of lighting and things to stand on so i can use Photoshop to edit the piano in rather than standing on one .Next i am going to use a series of processes to edit them on Photoshop .

Here you can see two contact sheets of the photos we have taken . Some of the backgrounds may not be desirable but that does not matter as we will reconstruct the image embossed with other images on Photoshop .

BY MADALINA

Photographer Inspiration - Edward Weston

Edward Western is a huge inspiration to me in this project. when i had started the digital package work i had hoped for this work to look professional . As the the basics of any good cover or poster is a good photo and for that to happen you would need a good photographer .Therefore i had started looking for inspiration . I had found many great artists but none had related to Adele Until i came across Edward Western .His work is most delicate and sophisticated yet filled with effortless poise and beauty .Born in march 1886 and died January 1958, Edward western was a very stressful 20 th century photographer.He was called " one of the most innovative and influentioal photographers " and also " one of the masters of the 20th Century Photographers "

Having taken many pictures and published many collections , his experience made him develop allot of his own style . His latest and best work was done mainly in black and white and in Sepia tones . Even-though the sepia tones are very nice and beautiful to look at they do not fit in with my artist of the house-style I am trying to achieve , therefore i will mostly look at his black and white images.

He had mostly focused on taking photos of the flesh and took mainly nude photos , but his work was still never the less graceful and tasteful witch many of today's photographers cannot pull of in today's society . Unfortunately I will not be able to take the photos for out project as i will have to be in front of the camera , however i will get to edit them .But even so i would like to insure that i can show the person taking the photos in witch direction to go and also have a practice at editing to ensure I know my way around Photoshop before i have to edit the covers . So i have decided to ask someone to volunteer to model for me as i shoot a clothed Edword Western shoot for practice purposes.

BY MADALINA

Shot list for the ending part of the video

Two shot- At the house where the arguments going on

Medium shot- the argument/ fight scene

Low angle shot- walking through the city

Panning shot- the camera pans up and down as she walks through

Medium shot- walk in the town centre

Medium shot of the studio shot during performance

Over the shoulder shot at the car park while he is waiting for her

Two shot at the car park showing togetherness but so far apart

Long shot as she is getting into the car, shows she is far away from his reach and driving away/ leaving him.

Medium shot as she is in the car

Tracking shot as the car is driving away the camera also follows

Over the shoulder shot as he is driving following her in the car

Tracking shot as he is scurrying to get to her

Two shot the couples are being “friendly”

Panning shot the camera pans up at the trees to show a continuity in time

Medium shot as he is stood up against the statue

Tracking shot as they walk down the stairs the camera follows their movement

Extreme close shot showing her lips a certain part of her body

Over the shoulder shop of her walking away from him

Medium shot as she is in the middle of the living room

Licensing Permission

The song we have chosen to use is Adele - Turning Tables. Adele is signed to the label XL Recordings which is subsidiary of The Beggars Group and we have received licensing permission from The Beggars Group to use the song Adele - Turning Tables for the purpose of this music video:

We hereby grant you (Jason) permission to use the Master Recording rights mentioned below in your NON COMMERICAL MUSIC VIDEO entitled ‘Music Video (Working Title)’, as part of the course A Level Media Studied at Loreto Sixth Form College PROVIDED THAT the usage is limited to educational or competition use only and FURTHER PROVIDED THAT no profit or income of any kind will be derived from such usage.

I can confirm that this usage is a gratis PROVIDED THAT the Music Publisher also agrees to gratis use.

Please credit us as follows:

Adele "Turning Tables"

(P) 2010 XL Recordings Limited

Written by Adele Adkins & Ryan Tedder

Published by Universal Music Publishing Limited & Write 2 Live

ISRC No: GB-BKS-10-00346

Track taken from the album '21' [XL 520]

Licensed courtesy of XL Recordings Ltd

www.xlrecordings.com

In the event that your project attains commercial success you should approach us for a

commercial licence and we will endeavour to facilitate your request.

(NB all publishing information supplied should be verified with your local collecting

society).

Many thanks,

Emma Lomas

BEGGARS GROUP LICENSING

Production Progress Update - #2

Well, here we are for our second Progress Production Update! Things have been running smoothly, here's a summary of where things are up to:

All has been GO GO GO here in our little production setup! We have successfully completed the filming of all the footage we feel is neccessary - which is good news. We are now in the swing of starting production work.

We are using Final Cut Pro to handle the editing / post-production work. We have all sat around the computer together and created a mock timeline of where we think certain bits of footage should go in addition to the core shots which we prepared in our list, we have taken additional shots/footage to allow us to fill any gaps or changes of opinion we may have.

We are going to get this video production work finished and we have set a target of aiming for perfection (one can only try!). Hopefully the overall outcome is exactly that. I will provide another update f our progress once the editing of the video is done and we are moving on to the print material.