Planning :Location

After analyzing the lyrics, coming up with a synopsis and planning the storyboard, we have come to a conclusion that we need three separate locations to use when it comes to filming our music video. Firstly, we need a setting where the performance of the song will be held. We ideally need a setting to complete our performance scene in the best way possible. This should be a stage with a drum kit set up along with guitars and microphone stands. We need to create a realistic performance effect so we have researched local studios within Birmingham in which we could possibly hire a room out for around two hours to film our band performing the song. The place we found is called Rich Bitch Studios which is a studio complex with 13 different rooms to hire out at different prices. We have decided as a group that we are willing to pay a small fee each to hire out a room for a reasonable price to film our performance stage in. The room is perfect and what we are looking for exactly with a drum kit already in place, lighting fitted in, and microphone stands already in place. Here is a photo of the room we hope to hire out in which we will visit within the next week to check it is suitable:

Rich Bitch Studios

One of the members in our group recently emailed the manager of Rich Bitch studios to ask for permission to hire out studios for a A2 Level purpose, as we had doubts because we won't technically be using their equipment to their full extent so we felt that we should email first. The reply we received was luckily, very positive, and we have arranged a date to go in to visit the studio and hopefully book the studio to hire. We are very happy that we have access to facilities such as these as we feel it will make our video look the best it can be. It will also make our video look considerably more proffesional than if we chose to use facilities available to us at school.

The second location we have chosen in is a local road as a section of our filming will show the lead singer, as the cheeky male, with the six different girls. The process will go in this order: side views of the six girls walking towards the male (lead singer), front view of the lead walking along with the six girls and front view of lead giving six girls a hug each. We were originally debating between filming it in a local park, but as a group, we felt that a park would appear more romantic and serious, where this is the opposite to what we plan to portray in our music video. We feel a small road will look much less romantic and more simple, which is the the type of relationships we are portraying the male character to have. The male character doesn't really care about these girls and treating them nicely, therefore this setting would potray this factor to the audience. Here we have considered the symbolism of the setting and how it would appear in our music video.

The final location is in a house. We need this setting for several different shots. These are the male lead sitting on his own singing to the camera, the male on the phone to the six girls, we will place the girls in a different room in the  house and show them on the phone which will be the split screen scene, the girls looking at the photos and finally the boy talking to each girl. To save filming time, we will use seven different rooms or backdrops within the house to ensure it looks as if they are all in different environments so that it looks realistic enough to pass as is they are all in different houses. We also need to use the bench in the garden of the house to film the scene where he is informing the girls that he has been a 'bad man' to them.


Problems with the Location

Unfortunately, we faced a few issues with our chosen location for the performance setting. Firstly, it was situated in Selly Oak which meant that our cast members would have to travel to the location, also we would have to take all of the equipment down with us and then bring it back up to the school after we had finished filming. We also didn't know the amount of time we would need to film the overall performance section of our video and the Location in Selly Oak only offered specific time spots in which we were able to film.

Therefore, as a group, we thought it would be best to change the location to somewhere more convenient for both us and those participating in the video. We decided to use the drama studio in our school as the new location. We chose this for several reasons. Firstly, it was easier for the cast of the video to get too. Secondly, it was more suitable for using the instruments in school rather than having to carry them elsewhere. Thirdly, it meant that we didn't necessarily have to worry about how long we were using the location for - the drama studio was available from 3pm to 6pm each weekday. Fourthly, the location was easy to access if we needed to film the scenes again. And finally, it meant that we were able to rehearse in the location thoroughly in order to analyse any problems with the set-up overall before the filming took place.