Give Me Love animatic

This is the first idea of what my music video will look like. I scanned my storyboard images onto the computer using my Epson scanner and then cut the images down in Microsoft PowerPoint. After doing this I was able to save the images as JPEGs and upload them to Movie Maker. I then added the MP3 file of "Give Me Love" to Movie Maker and changed the lengths the images would be on display to fit the cuts in the music.

Give Me Love storyboard







Below is the full storyboard that I made for my Ed Sheeran video. I completed this before I started filming so that I had an idea of what I wanted to film:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audience

 

My target audience is female biased with 2/3 of my audience being female. The female fans will be the kind of girls who like to follow stars around (fangirls) but the male population that enjoy listening to this music are males who appreciate songwriters and play music themselves. The main age range is 16-19 year olds which belong to the social class group E meaning they are students, unemployed, employed in a low paying job or some of them could have apprenticeships. Most of my audience attend college which could lead on to higher education meaning they have ambitions of a good future where they could be earning a good wage. My audience are very media and drama/dance orientated with a prominent interest in pop and indie music which would suggest they are out going, like to have fun and have an open mind. Most of their music is watched on YouTube, on the music channels, via their phone and social networking sites which means they are people who like to keep up to date with celebrities.

Ed Sheeran clothing

These images show the kind of clothing Ed Sheeran wears on a day to day basis when he is working or not. He has a very simple style of jeans with a tshirt, hoodie or cotton shirt. He only dresses up when he goes to a suite and tie event. I also noticed that he wears a thick black neck chain and pendant. I made my borther wear on of these for the ancillary text photos.

These are the kind of clothes that Ed would wear on a daily basis. I searched clothing websites and these are some of the images that I found. The hoodies on the bottom right are from Peacocks and I bought the green version of the plain hoodie for my video.

Total cost: £16.00

Give Me Love Lyrics

These are the first lyrics that I annotated to get my ideas on what was going to be in my music video



 

 

After a little bit more thought I then looked at the lyrics again to see if there was anything extra I could add to my notes on my lyrics.

About Ed Sheeran

Give Me Love

After thinking about the new song I can create a music video for, I have decided to go for “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran. This song was released on 21^st November 2012 as the sixth and final single off Sheeran’s debut album ‘+’. The song was written by Sheeran, Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard and peaked at number 18 on the UK singles chart. It has had success across the world and has featured in TV programmes such as ‘Home and Away’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’. The music video for this song in my opinion doesn’t reflect the song too much. The lead in the video is a female cupid who travels around shooting people with her arrow who she knows has feelings for each other. The video begins at a crime scene and ends in the same way. The female cupid is dead until the male police officer, who is first on the scene, finds her attractive and falls for her, she’s then brought back to life. 

 

About the artist:

Edward “Ed” Christopher Sheeran was born on 17^th February 1991 and is a successful English singer-songwriter. He was raised in Suffolk but moved to London in 2008 to pursue his music career. Sheeran was raised as a Roman Catholic and sang in his local church choir from the age of four. He learned to play the guitar from a very young age and during his time at school he started song writing. As a child, he used to travel to London a lot with his parents and was involved with the Youth Music Theatre UK, which he is now a patron of. As a teenager he was accepted to the National Youth Theatre.

He began recording in 2005 releasing his first independent EP ‘The Orange room EP’ at this time. He then released 2 independent albums, ‘Ed Sheeran’ in 2006 and ‘Want some?’ in 2007. After moving to London in 2008 to play regular gigs, he auditioned for Britannia High and worked as a guitar technician for Nizlopi, opening a gig for them in Norwich in April of that year. In 2009 he played 312 gigs beating James Morrison’s 200 in a year. He also released another EP ‘You need me’ and toured with Just Jack. He was then invited to tour with Example in 2010 after he’d seen a video Ed posted on SB.TV.

February 2010 saw the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Loose Change EP’ which featured his first single ‘The A Team’. Without making any prior contacts he flew to LA in April 2010, where he played open mic nights around the city. He was spotted at The Foxxhole by Jamie Foxx who offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and Hollywood home for the rest of this stay.

Throughout 2010 his fan base grew due to his YouTube following prompting him to self released 2 further EPs ‘Live at Bedford’ and ‘Songs I wrote with Amy’ (Amy Wadge, another singer songwriter)

January 2011 saw his final independent release ‘No5 Collaborations Project’ an EP including grime artists Wiley, JME, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts. It reached No2 on the iTunes chart which led to mainstream attention and sold 7,000 copies in the first week.

In April 2011, 1,000 fans turned up to a free show at Barfly in Camden.  Sheeran did 4 shows including one outside after the venue closed so that everyone saw a gig. This is also the time he signed with Asylum/Atlantic Records.

Within six weeks of appearing on ‘Later... with Jools Holland’ performing ‘The A Team’ it was released as a digital download in UK. It then entered the UK charts at No3 becoming the best selling debut single and 8^th best seller of 2011 (801,000 copies sold). ‘The A team’ also achieved top ten places in many other countries including Australia, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

Sheeran’s   debut album ‘+’ was released in September 2011, reaching No1 and received good reviews. It became the 2^nd best selling debut album and 9^th best seller of 2011(791,000 copies sold) and has since been certified quintuple platinum. Sheeran had 4 consecutive top ten ingles from it starting with ‘The A Team’; it also made the top ten on several international charts. He has also co-written songs for other artists such as One Direction and Taylor Swift.

Throughout 2011 and 2012 Sheeran won several prestigious music awards such as: Q Awards (Breakthrough Artist and Best Single for You need me, I don’t need you, 2011), Brit Awards (Best British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough of the Year, 2012), the Ivor Novello Awards (Best song Musically & Lyrically for The A Team, 2012); he also received nomination for many more.

His song ‘Give Me Love’ has featured in episodes of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘Cougar Town’. He was also invited to perform at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. These followed a tour supporting Snow Patrol on the US leg of their ‘Fallen Empires’ tour. US chart success with ‘+’ and ‘The A Team’ was followed by a headline tour of 6-9,000 capacity venues.

The 2013 Grammy Awards saw ‘The A Team’ nominated for Song of the Year but his management team; headed by Elton John, couldn’t get him a solo performance place , so Elton asked Ed to perform with him.

Taylor Swift has since invited Sheeran to support her on her 64 date ‘Red Tour’ of North American arenas and stadiums. This has meant a move to Nashville where he will stay for the majority of 2013. During this time he will be writing and recording his second album due for release in early 2014.

Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran (official video)

The song that I am going to create a music video for is:

 

 

 

Character profile of my actor Chris

This is Chris who has agreed to be in my music video for my new song "Give Me Love" by Ed Sheeran. Chris is my younger brother and I asked him to be in my music video because he understands how important it is to me and I know I can rely on him more, especially because I'm his big sister. He is around whenever I need him and I can be more bossy with him without feeling as guilty. He was also the perfect choice because he has an apprenticeship rather than doing A Levels which means once he leaves work or college he doesn't have any work to do which means I'm not taking him away from his studies.

 

Chris Wilson

Born 8th July 1996 (aged 16)
Interests: music, art and woodwork

Studied Music at high school and can play the guitar, trumpet, ukulele and keyboard

He's an apprentice joiner and works for Houlton

My brother Chris saves the day - commitment agreement

My brother has said he will be in my music video for me!!!!

This is a copy of the commitment agreement that I asked him to fill out so he knows what is required of him in the process and so I know he is dedicated to giving me the time that I needed to film, edit and create anciallary texts for my project.

Production plan before New York

I have just under two weeks before I go to New York. Now I have decided that I am going to change the actress and song completely and use my brother in my video, I need to decided what song I am going to do and get some preliminary research done. Before I go to New York I need to:

1. Choose a song to create a video for
2. Research the song and artist
3. Create a storyboard
4. Make an animatic
5. Research clothing my brother will have to wear in the video

Casting options for my new video

This Prezi explains the options that I have about choosing how to make my new music video.

Changing actress in my music video

Last Thursday I finally got some lip syncing done in the theatre. Whilst we were filming I was quite annoyed because Hannah hadn't learnt the lyrics when I'd been asking her for weeks to do so. When I uploaded what I had shot onto the editing suite I realised that her performance wasn't the best and she didn't look believable. I chose Hannah to be in my video because I know she is a great actress but that wasn't showing in my video. The next time we have scheduled to film is in a week which is too far away to get this sorted out to meet my deadline.

 

After speaking to my teachers and showing them the film I have, I have decided to change my actress in my video. Hannah can't give me enough time to film because of her other commitments and what we have filmed needs to be re-shot so it will be the best decision. I now either have to find a new actress or change everything completely.

Filming in the theatre

This image shows my friends setting up the sound whilst I was up in the lighting box setting that up. Eventaully the sound couldn't be set up so I had to use my iPod and one of my friends had to hold it in a way that would project the sound so Hannah could hear it whilst she was trying to lip sync.

This is an image of me filming Hannah while she is perfoming. As the camera was on the tripod, I was able to leave the camera and encourage Hannah in her performance. She couldn't see me and my other friends as she was looking straight into the spotlight so this helped her confidence a bit.

This image shows me standing with the camera as I was filming.

At this point I was holding the iPod to project the sound. The box to the left of me was our initial plan to project the sound but it didn't work as well as we had hoped.

This is a close up on me filming. At this point I decided to close the tripod legs so there was more movement in the shot but it was still steadier than if I was using steadicam.

Theatre outfits

 

This is the first outfit that Hannah wore in the theatre shoot. This is similar to outfits that Beyonce wears whilst performing her slow songs like the one below:

 



The second scenes we shot were of Hannah practicing a dance routine in her joggers and a hoodie

 

 

Technical theatre and media

When we got to the theatre to film for my music video, Andy Feetom the theatre technician had to leave to go to a meeting. This allowed me to use the skills I had learnt on my technical theatre course in my media work. I went up to tghe lighting box and got my friends to stand in the middle of the stage with the mic stand so I could set the lighting to where it needed to be. I decided to use the ain spotlight with a bit of very faint lighting from the side of the stage.

 

The image below shows me in the lighting box setting everything up:

 

Email to ask if I can film in the theatre

Tonight I finally managed to book the theatre out an I filmed in there with Hannah, her friend Laura who helped us by holding the lyrics and encouraging Hannah to perform and our friend Lydia who also helped by reading the lyrics out the line before they came up in the song.

Firstly I went to see Andy Feetom, the theatre manager who showed me the timetable of the theatre and when it was booked out. I had previously spoken to Hannah to ask her a few dates of when she was free to film. We decided it would be best to film after college so we had more time so Thursday 17th January was perfect.

This is a copy of the email I then sent Andy on the day of the filming to make sure the theatre was still free for me:

On the day of the filming me and Hannah organised the outfit I wanted her to wear and her make-up and then went into the theatre to set up. When Andy arrived I went up to the sound and light booth so I could set up the lighting to how I wanted it. I used the information and techniques I had learnt on my Technical Theatre course to make the theatre lighting how I wanted it and eventually I ended up using a spotlight which gave the effect that she was on stage performing to a large audience rather than in an empty room. I carried down the mic and stand and adjusted the mic stand to the height of Hannah in her heels.

I filmed Hannah singing the whole song through numerous times in different carera positions. I shot a long shot, a mid shot, two medium close ups and a close up. I shot three of them from the front and then two from the side.

I used my docking station and my iPod so that Hannah could sing along to the song. I asked her to sing along to the song so that I had the proper movements of the mouth that I would hopefully be able to lip sync better. As Hannah wasn't 100% on the song lyrics, my friend Lydia sat to the side of Hannah out of shot and told her the words just befor she had to sing them. This was the best thing that I could do in this situation as Hannah had had months (since she agreed to participating) to learn the lyrics to the song.

Work done over the Christmas holidays

The main thing that is missing from my video is all lip syncing.

 

1st lip sync scene:

• I will film in the theatre next week. Before the holidays I went to Andy Feetom to see when the space was free and he pencilled me in for next Thursday. I need to check with Hannah that that is okay with her so we can get filming.

2nd lip syncing scene:

• I have decided to make a collage of all of Hannah's favourite things that I will pin to the wall and get her to perform in fron of with a spotlight on her. I want her to have "cool" makeup done so it looks edgy.

Bike riding scene

• Hannah lives down quite a quiet street and it is very quaint so she will be able to cycle down the edge of the road while I film her from the path doing this. I will use a tracking shot.