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On Monday 8th, Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th November we had our final three days of filming. On the Monday we were able to shoot the most important part of our video - the chorus. In our chorus, the audience witness our protagonist being 'attacked' with varied colours of paint that each represent an individual sin and their fight against him. Due to our using paint, we had to make sure that we prepared our shooting of the chorus carefully. Fortunately our planning payed off and we were able to get a number of effective shots, that we eventually used in our final film. As well as shooting the chorus, we were also able to re shoot a number of shots that we felt didn't fit with the overall balance of the film and we also managed to shoot some of the shots we had previously been unable to film. Overall we felt the last three filming sessions went very well and we were extremely happy with the end result.

On Monday 1st, Tuesday 2nd November, Thursday 4th November we had our 6th, 7th and 8th filming sessions in which we were able to reshoot a number of shots that we felt weren't as good as we wanted them to be, helping to improve our film and make it appear more stylistic. We were also able to film a number of additional shots that we felt would work well with our film giving it more of a music video vibe.

Throughout our music video we thought it best to keep our use of colour to a minimum so when it was used it remained extremely effective; this was part of our reasoning of putting the main bulk in black and white. Each of our sins were associated with a certain colour, although wrath (who turned out to be our protagonist) and lust had the same colour. We felt this would be effective as it would make the two inextricably linked and link Elliot even further to the six sins he meets. Envy was associated with green due to the cliche it holds and we hoped it would help our audience figure out for themselves that the antagonists he meets are in fact the seven deadly sins and the same applies to gluttony. We linked greed to gold due to the obvious connotations gold holds with money and wealth. Sloth we associated with the colour blue due to the connotations blue holds with calmness and coolness. As stated before, the colour used was kept to a minimum, we felt the black and white gave the film a more professional look and colour was therefore used only on impact. This conveyed to the audience the impact the sins were having on our central figure as they could literally change the colour of his world to the colour they represented. We felt it important to keep consistent wth out use of colour and this resulted in a lot of re-shoots having to be done so that all the sins could leave a mark. Although this was frustrating it definitely paid off and we are extremely happy with the result.

On Sunday 24th October we had our fifth filming session in which we filmed some of the performance aspects of our music video. During the day we shot a number of shots that involved a friend of the group performing with a guitar. We were able to shoot a number of angles and shots for this particular part of the video that will hopefully help make the video more effective. We also filmed a number of shots that involved members of the group singing along to our chosen song so as to give the performance aspects some diversity.

On Wednesday 20th October we had our fourth day of filming for our A2 project. Before leaving to film, we looked at the shots that we still had to film and made a decision on what shots we would film during the session. After arriving at our location, we were able to get a good deal of shots done, such as the interaction with the sins Greed and Gluttony, that helps establish a verse of our song. We felt the session went incredibly well as we got a number of our shots done and were able to work more footage when it came to starting to edit.

On Tuesday 19th October we had our third day of filming. We saw this day as a good opportunity to get lots of shots done as we finished school early that day. We were however met with a number of restrictions such as changing weather conditions and members of the public constantly entering the shots. Despite these issues, we managed to get a number of our shots done, including the protagonists interaction with the sin lust.

On Monday 18th October we had our second session of filming in which we were able to film the majority of our walking shots (something that features heavily within our film). We were also able to shoot some additional shots for the opening sequence to our film. Overall we felt the session went extremely well and that we managed to get all the shots we wanted filmed on that day. We were also able to re shoot some of the shots we had already filmed but were unhappy with, making the whole session highly productive.

On Tuesday 12th October we had our first filming session for our A2 music video. Before leaving to film we decided on the shots that we wanted to film that day to try and help make things go as smoothly as possible. Despite planning the shots we wanted to film, we were unable to film all of them but felt that shots we did film were good and would look effective in our final project. Overall we felt the session went well as we were able to get some of our crucial shots done and got most of the opening to our project done. Whilst filming we were met with some difficulties such as members of the public walking into shot, but we felt we were able to overcome these issues successfully.

This test shot is for the opening sequence of the music video, we felt it needed to be tested as the editing needed to be synced and we were not sure how it would look. Whist editing we played around with speed and colour, finding that slow mode worked the best as it fitted the pace of the song and the black and white was the best colour as it made it look more professional. Overall, we are extremely happy with the effects and how they impact the opening and we feel the close up shots add mystery and work with the song.

We felt we needed to test this shot as we were unsure as to whether or not it worked. However, we felt it was such a good shot to do and would tie in our chorus and verse so well that we wanted to make it perfect. The change in colour, from normal colour to black and white, conveys the difference between fantasy in the chorus and reality in the verses.

Tuesday 12/10 - Double Lunch and After School
Opening Shots and Test Shots
Close ups
Cinematics
Introduction of Pride
Crossing Road (if enough time)

Monday 18/10 - Additional opening shots
Walking/track shots

Tuesday 19/10 - Double Lunch and After School
Finish previous work
Crossing Road (if not completed before hand)
Lust and Envy Interaction

Wednesday 20/10 - Final chase scene
interactions with greed and gluttony

Sunday 24/10 - Performance aspects of the video

Monday 1/11 - Reshooting shots as well as shooting some additional shots

Tuesday 2/11 - Double Lunch and After School

Thursday 4/11 - Lunch and After school

Monday 8/11 - Lunch and after school - Chorus (i.e paint throwing sequence)

Tuesday 9/11 -Lunch and after school - reshoots

Wednesday 10/11 - Lunch and after school - reshoots

We wanted to add a bit of variety to our backgrounds instead of having one continuous location so sat down and discussed possible locations and we came up with all of these locations:

- Park
- Street
- Alley
- Shopping Centre
- Bowling Alley
- Gym
- School
- Work
- Woods
- Fields
- Beach
- House
- Arcade
- Tunnel
- Canal

We decided that it would be best for us to film outside as it would provide better lighting providing we set allocated times for consistency purposes. Also it would be less distracting to the public and we would be able to perform better. Being out in the open would also allow us to do our scenes involving the paint throwing.

After collecting all of these ideas we narrowed down all of the options to the most likely locations and we decided on:

- Park
- Street
- Alley

1. Paint (Red, Green, Purple, Blue, Gold & Pink)
2. Bike
3. Art House Glasses
4. Costumes (Red Dress, Heels etc. for Lust; Purple Shirt and Suit Trousers for Pride; Green Clothing for Envy; Dull Pink T-shirt for Gluttony; Browny-Gold Sack for Greed; and for Sloth Baggy Blue Jeans and T-Shirt also Blue. The Protagonist will wear a Black Suit, White Shirt and Black Tie. During the Chorus' he will be wearing a Plain White T-Shirt to Emphasise the Paint with Black Tracksuit Bottoms)
5. Fast Food for Gluttony
6. Money Bags for Greed
7. TV Guide for Sloth

Song Choice: Black Thumbnail - Kings of Leon

The majority of the song will be filmed in black and white, with bursts of colour in places to highlight certain aspects of our concept. The song with open with close ups of the protagonists feet , hands, head etc to create a more stylistic introduction. The protagonist will then begin to walk, which will be slowed down when editing, whilst being back tracked by the camera. In the second verse of the song the sin, pride, will enter the shot and will stylistically portray a conflict between the two characters of which the protagonist will not remember and will therefore continue walking. This will be repeated another two times within this verse with different sins all of which the protagonist will not remember. As the chorus of the song kicks in,in heightened colour, the location will change highlighting the videos surrealism and the protagonist will be hit with paint filled balloons by the three sins he had met in the previous verse. The protagonist will then move into the camera making the shot black, he will then move back completely clean from paint in an entirely new location and subsequently resume walking. This idea will be repeated in the next verse and chorus of the song with different sins. The only change in the next verse will be that the sins from the first verse will be walking behind him at a distance though still in shot and commence to follow him for the rest of the song. Within the song there is a fast paced instrumental that follows the second chorus which will result in a chase scene. Our protagonist will acknowledge that he is being followed by six of the deadly sins and begin a slow jog and ultimately jump on a bike and begin to ride as fast as possible. However the sins manage to keep up with him; he cannot escape them. At this point the song will draw to a close and the protagonist will dismount his bike and assault the sin sloth resulting in a black out and our protagonist thus becoming the final sin: WRATH!!!! Our video will close with a montage of the seven deadly sins each posed in a mug shot stance. The final shot will be of our protagonist holding a placard with Wrath written across it, he will then throw it at the camera which will then zoom towards it on the floor before fading to black.

Wrath also known as anger or rage, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred or anger. Anger, in its purest form, presents with self-destructiveness, violence, and hate that may provoke fueds that can go on for centuries. Anger may persist long after the person who did another a greivous wrong is dead. Feelings of anger can manifest in different ways, including impatience, revenge, and vigilantism. Wrath is the only sin not necessarily associated with selfishness or self-interest.

Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathy, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive.
Sloth can also indicate a wasting due to lack of use, concerning a person, place, thing, skill, or intangible ideal that would require maintenance, refinement, or support to continue to exist.

In almost every list Pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God).

Lust or lechery (carnal "luxuria") is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature

Like greed, Envy (Latin, invidia) may be characterized by an insatiable desire; they differ, however, for two main reasons. First, greed is largely associated with material goods, where as envy may apply more generally. Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it.

Greed (Latin, avaritia), also known as avarice or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power

Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony (Latin, gula) is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. In the Christian religions, it is considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food or its withholding from the needy

For our project, we have decided to base it upon the seven deadly sins and, by highlighting their characteristics, showing how they can always loiter in the back of one's mind. The video consists of a man walking through a series of environments, being shot by a single, steady backtrack as he walks towards the camera. As he journeys, he encounters six of the seven deadly sins in turn. They are:
- Pride: Vain person dressed in a suit with a bright purple shirt, sunglasses and admiring himself in a mirror.
- Lust & Envy: Lust will be dressed in a red dress with heels and wearing a lot of make up i.e red lip stick, mascara, blusher etc etc. Envy on the other hand will be dressed in normal clothes with a green top or jumper and not looking as glamourous as Lust which emphasises her jealously. There will be a contrast between the red and the green clothes that the two personifications of the sins will be wearing.
- Greed & Gluttony: Greed will be holding lots of money ( Monopoly? adds to surrealism) and dropping it and then trying to pick it up because he has so much and cannot handle it all. Gluttony will be behaving similarly but will possess fatty foods rather than money. They will be dressed similarly to show the close relation between the two sins.
- Sloth: Lazy, badly dressed and unkept. Lying on the floor, causing the protagonist to step over him, emphasising his laziness and also representing how our main character attempts to distant himself from the seven sins.

They all appear in the video as they follow our character along his journey, shadowing him (Sloth trailing behind, with Envy always just one step behind Lust, we will have Greed and Gluttony side by side and Pride will be on his own to emphasise his vanity). Eventually, they corner him and pressurise him into releasing the seventh and final sin: Wrath.

-Wrath: The protagonist will be dressed in normal everyday clothing, maybe a plain suit for a man commuting to work, so that when he transforms it is a real surprise to the audience. However, when he becomes Wrath, there will be a lot of red, possibly underneath his original suit.

Both Sian and Jamie worked behind the scenes on this project on media conventions, it was extremely helpful in helping us understand the most effective shots to use.

Our first Project in AS was to create a video about an exam and we decided to have someone late to their exam and their journey to get there. Over the top we put a song over it to create a tense kind of action effect.

In preparation for deciding whether to choose a short film or a music video we undertook a task in which we created our own stop motion films. It was extremely helpful in that it made us realise the complexity of stop motion and how time consuming a 5 minute short film would be. If we were to use this technique it would have to be used as a hybrid with normal filming to ensure we could realistically complete the task.

Our task was to come up with ideas for a montage, an abstract and a narrative short story for the word 'Anger'. First we brainstormed words that we thought connoted anger. Our first idea was the stereotype of the colour red representing anger, and from this sprouted many ideas.
Concept 1: Montage; Our first idea was to have clips from cartoons and films in which anger is shown. For example, in cartoons where steam comes out of their ears, we decided to make an unusual twist on that idea, by changing the stereotypical reaction of the antagonist by using a more aggressive, human reaction.
Concept 2: Abstract; For this idea, we decided to have a man living his normal, everyday life, all the while becoming angrier at everyday circumstances, such as road rage, hardship from work and lack of common courtesy. As the video, we would use a lot of POV shots to show his increasing rage through placing a red tint over the images, gradually deepening in colour until he is eventually blinded by rage.
Concept 3: Narrative; A storm strikes over London as normal, everyday people are commuting to work. Unbeknown to them, the rain contains an infection that converts people from normal to bloodthirsty, aggressive zombie-like characters.

We decided that Concept 3 was our best idea as we could develop our ideas further more easily and it had more impact than our other two ideas. We opened with a long, low-angled shot of a storm passing over. We would then sweep downwards and match cut the rain falling from the sky, to falling on the people. As the people run for cover, some stragglers are left out in the rain, and as they begin to turn, we would use a sweeping zoom shot into one of the victim's face, followed by switch to POV of their hands. Following scenes would be of people being attacked and being turned as well. In between these scenes we would have news clips explaining the situation. Our final scene would detail a news reporter claiming a simple cure has been found, however she is attacked before she can reveal the antidote, causing her to fall to floor as the camera drops and it shows her turn, before the screen turns to black and cuts out.

For our A2 project we were asked to each pick a song and discuss the pros and cons. It was extremely helpful in terms of our research as it allowed us to technically think about whether the length was correct whilst also discussing creative concepts.

For a bit of fun we decided to use lots of clips already on the program iMovie filmed by other groups and from previous projects and compiled a music video to the song Stayin' Alive.This improved our use of the program and got us used to editting and making the most of what we have as all the clips were already on the computer we added a few performance clips to the video to keep it entertaining and add some variety to the clips by addressing the audience and performing to them.

“The show” written and performed by Australian singer/songwriter Lenka Kripac and released as her début single between December 2008 and June 2009.

In the opening 30 seconds of Lenka's début single “The Show” released between December 2008 and June 2009, the audience see Lenka herself is seen sitting alone on park bench on a calm summers day. As the video begins, the audience are greeted by a large red curtain similar to that off a staged “show” perhaps indicating how life is almost like a show for most people. The red curtain could also symbolise how we are also being watched and judged in life the way actors are on stage, as well as our desire to be noticed in life (this is shown via the red colouring of the curtain). The camera then gradually zooms towards Lenka who is sat at the park bench alone. The gradual zoom could be used to emphasise how it takes to time to understand what a person is really like and that as an audience we are going on a journey with the protagonist of the video.
As Lenka performs in the centre of the shot, people can be seen far off in the distance. The framing here could be used to emphasise how she feels detached from others and has failed to find where she belongs in society and that as the song connotes, she is still searching for where she belongs. The fact that the opening of the video is set in a park environment could symbolise the calm nature of the video, but the green colours could contrast this and symbolise how Lenka feels envious of those around as they have found their place in society unlike herself. As Lenka is placed in the centre of the shot, the majority of light is placed on her perhaps connoting how she is innocent as well as the central figure of the video.

As the camera zooms in on Lenka as she sings the opening lines to the song, a number of people pass by her, but refuse to pay her any attention. The fact that Lenka is ignored by the passing strangers could be to emphasise how she is isolated from the rest of society and as the song suggests, has not found her place in society. It could also suggest that Lenka's struggle is induced by others in society who fail to notice her, and that she is ignored by those who could help her.
The video then moves to a close up shot of a flower, that Lenka has been holding throughout the performance, and stop motion is used to show the wilting of the flowers vibrantly coloured petals.
The gradual destruction of this flower could symbolise how Lenka has lost all sources of protection in her life, as the flower was placed solidly in front of her like it where her protection. The flower connotes almost childish qualities and could symbolise how Lenka is being forced to make decisions in life and to grow up and join everyday society, who are taking the protection childhood provides her. The flower could also represent purity and innocence both linked to childhood.

Lenka then begins moving in a puppet like motion, as though she is being controlled by some invisible being. This movement could emphasise how Lenka is being controlled by others in society and she is being forced “to be something [she's] not”. Soon after this a close up shot is shown of two birds in a tree, both of which appear to be puppets. The use of these fake birds give the shot a childlike quality and emphasise the meaning behind the lyrics of the song. When the shot returns back to Lenka, a child's play park can be seen in the distance. This frame could emphasise how Lenka wants to remain close to her childhood but she has gone too far from it to ever return and that she needs to integrate herself into everyday society.

It is fair to say that Lenka's video for “the show” is a mainly performance based video but also one where there is almost a concept behind it, that being that everyone needs to grow up and find where they belong in society and that life is like a show, and you have to “enjoy” it to live it to the full.

In preparation for our A2 Music Video, we were asked at the end of last year to film our own versions of Britney Spears's "Hit me Baby one more time" shot for shot. We found this mini project extremely helpful in preparing us for making our own music videos. It helped us to understand the different shots used and the amount of shots used as well as the shots often used in Music Videos. It also helped us learn what difficulties can arise when filming for a music video, making it an extremely insightful project.