Main Task - Production - Shoot 1 (Performance)

Having finally managed to find a date that most of the team could do, we were ready to film. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I was unable to be there on shoot day, but this is the feedback I received from my production partner after film. Luckily, however, one of our friends was able to accompany my production partner on the shoot, and was in control of the second camera.

We were very fortunate in that the day we had chosen to film on was very sunny - something we were concerned about due to the fact that British weather is so unpredictable. If the weather had been bad, it wouldn't have matched the tone of the song, and therefore the entire music video wouldn't have fitted together with the audio.
The drummer of the band had a practice space at his house that he allowed us to use, which helped reflect the rustic, DIY nature of the indie band. The space itself was quite wooden, and therefore didn't look particularly interesting on camera. Fortunately, prior to the shoot day, myself and my production partner had collated a variety of props, such as patterned backdrops and fairy lights. The simple use of a colourful backdrop made the setting look a lot more exciting on screen. The only issue that my partner found with the practice space was that it was quite small, meaning she was unable to get any wide shots of the band from this location.

After filming at the performance space for roughly an hour, the drummer informed my partner about a forest area that was just across the road from his house. So, laden down with camera equipment, instruments and fairy lights, they all headed down to the forest area. This location fitted perfectly with the genre of the song, as indie music videos are often filmed in places very similar, due to the fact they are so easily accessible. 
After having set up in what they thought was a good location, my production partner realised it was far too bright, meaning that the shots were overexposed. Having moved somewhere slightly darker, the team continued to shoot, and managed to get a lot of footage, including some wide shots, in the time they had left. My production partner was very happy with the footage, due to the fact it was what we had envisioned when storyboarding prior to production.

Main Task - Props List

Main Task - Shot List

Main Task - Shoot 1 (Performance) - Storyboard

Main Task - Research and Planning - Lighting and Colour

Our chosen was a very upbeat, light-hearted track, so we knew that the lighting and colour of the music video would need to reflect this.
As we had planned to film in an outdoor location for most of our music video, we were going to be quite reliant on the weather being good. However, if the weather was good on the day of shooting, we hoped that the sun would pick out the greens and yellows of a forest as it goes into the autumn time.

Green has connotations of positivity and growth, and yellow has connotations of optimism and happiness, which fit well with the tone of the song. However, it is ironic that these colours and the tone of the song is quite optimistic, because the lyrics themselves are in a way quite negative, as the singer has lost the person they love.

Main Task - Research and Planning - Location

Performance Shoot
When it came to choosing the location of our music video, we had to think about the logistics of filming somewhere near the band. We knew that, due to the song having an upbeat tempo, we wanted to preferable film somewhere that was outside, and hopefully sunny. The only issue with this is that we would have to rely on the weather being good, and in September in England, 

that is very much 50/50.
After some correspondence with the band, Annie told us how her dad owned a warehouse, so we could have the great opportunity to film in there, and in the countryside surrounding it. However, as the date of production drew nearer, we were informed that there would be construction work happening on production day, so we would be unable to film in the original location.
With production day drawing nearer, we had to go back to the drawing board to try and find a new filming location. Fortunately, the drummer of the band offered for us to film in the practice studio in his house,and get some outside shots in the forest near his house. I was concerned that it would be a lot of work for my partner to do by herself, but luckily she found another person who could film on the second camera, and help with carrying the equipment between locations. The performance space itself was quite plain, so we used props such as fairy lights and patterned backdrops to make it look more interesting.

Narrative Shoot
When it came to shooting the narrative sections of the music video, we wanted to choose a location that would fit seamlessly with the performance sections, without having to go to the same location which was quite far away. I had watched a music video for 'Comes and Goes' by COVEY, and I liked the shots of people walking through leaves and trees. Therefore, we chose to film in another forest location that was close to both ourselves and the male cast member.

Audience of the Indie Genre

I was interested to see what the consumption of music within the indie genre was like, particularly in Britain.

One of the first figures I found showed that within a focus a focus group, more people accessed their music through social networking, as opposed to downloads. This is good as we would be sharing our music video through YouTube, so more people would be likely to view it, than if it was simply available for download.

As of 2014, according to a survey in America, in 3 of the last 5 years (2009-2014), alternative music has been the most popular genre in sales, with over 50 million albums sold each year. This is very interesting, as I would have highly anticipated pop to be the most popular genre, because the pop genre gets so much play time, both on TV and radio. This shows that the genre of our artists Littlewing is far more popular than we initially thought.

Indie music

• When crossover artists are included with the statistics of music genre, country music is the #1 genre in the United States, accounting for 27.6% of all music listened to regularly.
• Classic Rock from the 1960′s to the 1980′s, which is typically #1 in this type of category, came in second place by a full percentage point.
• Indie music, which when listed as its own genre is the fastest growing music genre, still comes in below current Top 40 hits and popular music from the 80′s and 90′s.
• 18-to-25-year-olds are twice as likely to say they are fans of country music.
• For teens, country music in the US ranks as their third most popular genre of music they regularly listen to.
• More people listen to music from their generation when they grew up when compared to new music that is released today.
• Only 3 music genres saw increases in listenership. Besides country, hard rock and 90′s hits saw increases.

     This show that indie as a genre has become a lot more popular in the past few years, and this could be due to the fact that indie artists are now able to distirbute their music a lot easier. Social networking means that unknown artists, such as Littlewing, are now able to get their music online for free without having to pay expensive fees to get an agent to distribute it.

Main Task - Initial Shoot Ideas

When we were initially storyboarding ideas, we weren't sure whether we were going to have just a performance based music video, or whether we were going to also have an element of narrative as well.

Therefore, we chose to listen to the song and just draw images and shots that we thought would fit with the song, putting into practice the idea of synaesthesia that we had previously explored.

Main Task - Research and Planning - Costume

When it came to the costume of our band, we wanted to stick with their existing representation. As Littlewing aren't very well known, we felt it would be best to stick with the way in which the way in which they already were: that way new audiences would be seeing a real representation.
Within the indie genre, most artists tend to wear quite casual clothing, particular in performance music videos, so it would clearly represent the genre of the band, without even requiring music for this to be obvious.