Chevonne

Scroll down for earlier posts…

Post 13: 30 December 2011

FINALLY got all the shots of me singing in place with the other shots, took 3-5 hours to do it, but finally done. Saved a copy i’m going to Facebook to the other media students doing a music video as we are sending it to each other for feed back. All I need to do is re-record my friend and my partner with their lines when I get back as at the moment the sound isn’t right so I’ll use one of the school microphones and put it in.

Post 12:

Found some spooky sound effect and put it into the beginnning of the video as it starts with a minute of narrative before the music starts. Looking good.

Post 11:

Putting the shots in is easier said than done, despite timing them correctly and cropping them to the length of the gaps, everytime I put them in, the other shots move out of place…this is going to take a while.

Post 10: Videod myself.

Not my favourite bit I have to admit, I’m naturally camera shy and prefer to be behind the camera than infront. Filming whilst miming was amusing to say the least. I had a big black sheet I borrowed from the Drama Department at school as a back drop (it was pegged to the curtain rail in my bed room) and I was sitting on the floor with the camera on a tripod, my desk lamp on the desk and the laptop on the floor. I used the laptop to see when I needed to put in shots of me as there were lots of empty spaces, I also used it to play my song so I could mime along to it and be in time with the music.Took a few shots of myself using a shot plan, the hardest one to do was the very first one of me, I was origionaly suposed to be putting a mask on then turning to look at the camera, after many attempts I finally got one that worked. I got rid of one shot which was supposed to be a close up of my lips when I’m miming, but it looked wrong and was too ‘sexy’ for me and the video, my video is very narrative based and the ‘sexy’ lips shot looked out of place and wrong, I also didn’t feel comfortable doing it, which showed in the shot, making it look even more wrong.One little addition I added was a flash gun, I used an old flash gun and put different coloured filters on it, I then flashed it as I was miming to create a strobe lighting effect.

So filming all done, I now just need to put the shots in the video 🙂

Post 9: 12 December 2011

Will be filming final pieces in the next week.

Post 8:

I have put dance into Premier Elements and had it all sorted when I found I’d put the end in the wrong order and had to redo the last section.

Post 7: (Day of the Dance filming)

Morning:

My partner says he’s not sure if he’ll be available for lights so I ask his best friend, Tom, who is also a Drama student to do lights and my friend Jess to control the smoke machine whilst I’m filming

15 mins before dancers are due to arrive:

Partner can do lights and is sitting in the light box working out which ones are working and what we have to work with when my friends, Tim (another media student), Katherine, and Caleb arrive out of the blue to see the big shiny smoke machine in action. I have plugged in the smoke machine which is warming up, pulled the curtains round ready and am ready to go when Tom and Jess turn up. The machine is still warming up and I got to plug my iPod into the sound system when we realize is doesn’t fit, with 5 mins to go I run to music and aske the Head of Music for an adaptor, run back…it’s not right, I send Jess off to get another one whilst I got to see the Head of Dance.

1:35pm

I find the teacher who says he hasn’t heard or seen the dancers today, I have never met the dancers so he goes off hunting the school for them, but since they had an exam this morning  and are in the middle of their Year 11 mocks they might have gone home to revise.

I return to Drama and none of the adaptor’s fit, there is a CD player but I don’t have the CD with my song on so I run off to find Head of Dance. I left Caleb and Tim in charge of ‘smoking’ the studio, rather than a mist on the floor the place is filled with smoke…but I have smoke and don’t care.

I find him hunting the school, he doesn’t have the CD the disappeared student does. Great. He has speakers though and says to meet him in Dance in a few minutes. I return to Drama and grab Caleb and Tim to help me carry them.

Teacher returns – students no where to be found. The massive speaker system I thought we were moving turns out to be two small portable speakers much to the amusement of Tim and Caleb who carry one each pretending they weigh a ton and saying they need more help to carry them xp. During all this a  group of four Year 9 Dance students have come in to rehearse their piece they made earlier that day, the teacher suggests I could use them instead and after some hesitation they agree.

Dancers now in studio I begin filming, Caleb is in charge of the iPod, Jess is controlling the smoke machine, my partner is on lights and I have ended up with Sammy (from the narrative filming) and Taylor-Ann coming to spectate. I begin filming the first take when my camera batteries die. New batteries in after dropping the camera and getting the battery lid jammed when I put one in upside down I begin again. The rest of the filming follows smoothly and I finished just on the bell for end of lunch. Tidy up and have to apologise to the the teacher for filling their room with smoke, but all is done.

Post 6: (Day before Dance is being filmed)

I caught up with the Dance teacher who said the student wasn’t sure when the filming was and so, I put note in her register to remind her and let her know what to do along with details of where to find me if she needs to.

Post 5:

I emailed the smoke machine company and after saying it would only cost £10 on their website they then said they wanted £100 on the day for a deposit, I don’t have this money – I’m a student! But very kindly Tony Witton of The MIC has agreed to let me borrow his for the day…so no massive expenses there then.

Post 4:

I have put the shots from the narrative into Premier Elements along with the music and I will need to rerecord the dialogue through the microphones at school because I have decided to use a soundtrack of a deserted town to help create the atmosphere and there’s too much background noise for an effective deserted town idea to be created. It all fits well and is starting to look good.

Post 3:

So much has happened in the last two weeks so I’ll split it into different posts otherwise this one will be very very long and complicated

Post 2: 25/11/11

So here’s what’s been happening:

A few weeks ago I spoke to the dance teacher at my school about him making a dance for my video and her said he’s get one of his A Level students to do it. The Head of Drama in the school agreed to let me use the studio to film in and the Head of Music said she’d look for the smoke machine for me to use.

On the 25/11/11 I caught up with the dance teacher who said the student had pulled out so he’s choreographing it instead but I need to give him the track again because she student has it, so we’re filming that in two weeks on the 8/12/11. The studio is booked and my partner will be doing lighting for it. The music department can’t find the smoke machine anywhere but when I looked on the internet I can hire one locally for £10 a day, which is pretty decent.

The narrative for the video was filmed on Tuesday (22/11/11) and the outtakes video will be up soon. It involved paint and running around Crawley looking like weirdo’s but I got everything I wanted so that’s all done. The outtakes video was made with Windows Live Movie Makes but I’ll be making the actual video on Premier Elements – which is the video equivalent of Photoshop – because its more professional, reliable and does more. I’ll be beginning making the video today and filming the close-up shots of me sometime in the coming week. Although I didn’t want me in the video, close up shots of the singer are a generic convention and need to be included … damn. When the dance is recorded I’m making a video of it for the dance teacher to use so there will be a Dance version of the video which will probably be finished before the main one because it will be less complex to make. Anyway, I leave this here.

Post 1: 5/11/11

My name is Chevonne Le Monnier and I was one of the musicians chosen for the first ever MIC Project. For my A2 level practical work I am making a music video and it has to be an original song

so I chose my own one I made whist I was at the MIC and which will appear on the album due out December 2011. The song is called Robots and was I was originally trying to write a love song about my boyfriend, but I got distracted in a science geek moment and realized the similarities between robots and humans, which gave birth to the song. I have had to do some background research essays into the history of the music video and the technical and visual aspects of music video narratives, but before I begin pre-production (storyboards/shot plans) I have released a 30 second teaser trailer on the internet on my Facebook and MySpace accounts ( www.myspace.com/524742014 ) to create some hype around the single as otherwise I will be releasing it to a cold audience. Over the next few weeks I will be documenting the pre-production and filming for you to see