Todorov's theory in relation to our Media project

We are planning to link our music video to Todorov's narration theory, this is a story board we created as to link our video planing with Todorov's narration theory. This storyboard shows the three stages of our music video which Todorov called equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution. The first stage shows one of us walking out of a lift, the way the lifts opens  represents the start of the music video. The second stage is in the middle of the video where we see people dancing and singing along to our song in the club this represent disequilibrium this will be achieved through the use of fast paced editing. The last stage is the scene where one of us walks into the lift as to show that the night is finished. Our aim is to try and create a music video that can be linked to  Todorov's theory.

Shopping for Music video Props

We decided to buy some shiny gold stars which we can use as a prop in our music video. This will be used to signify that the artist is a star, and with shinny ribbons and stars pouring down on him it will be easy to spot that he is celebrating hes success which is the main narration of the music video.

We decided to buy some masks from the shop so females can use it in our music video as it will make the music video more seductive and therefore here to express the objectification of women. This will the music video to follow the typical stereotype.

Since our Music video is going to be set in a club, we are thinking of using a disco light as a part of the props that is going to show up in our music video. We went out to see if we could buy a disco light, but unfortunately we decided not to buy one because we didn't have any where to hang it on and it was quite expensive.

In typical music videos, money are usually thrown in the air but we wanted to do something different but have the same meaning. So we decided to burn money (fake money) in our music video to show that the artist is rich and wealthy

Music Recording Diary

Day 1
Lyrics Writing.
Location: Cheney school Music department
The three of us that is going feature in the track (Jesse, Josh and Joseph  sat down together and wrote our lyrics together as a group. After we were done, we read  each other's lyrics and we gave opinions about the ones why like and what we could have done better to improve.


Day 2
Rehearsal
Location: Cheney school Music department
we all went to the Music department and rehearsed. At first it we didn't like the chorus because it was not catchy, so we decided to change some bits of the chorus to make it a bit more catchy because Club based Hip-Hop music are usually catchy, so in order to make sure that our Music video fit into the genre and adapt the club theme, we had to make the chorus catchy as well.

Day 3
First Studio Recording Day
Location: Ark-T Center Cowley
On the 2nd of November we had a 2 hours session booked. Unfortunately Jesse Could not make it to the studio that day because he was ill so we knew that the song would not be finished by that day so josh and i went to the studio to record the First draft of 'In the Air' just to see how it will sound and to know if we had to change anything in the beat. By this time i haven't fully memorized my lyrics so my recording did not sound very well because i kept making mistakes. Overall our First Draft wasn't very good because we were not fully prepared. We decide to to book another studio session on the 7th of November in order to rerecord our music.

Day 3
2nd Studio Recording Day
Location: Ark-T Center Cowley
On the 7th of November we all went to the studio which was a 2 hours session. Fortunately none of us was ill and we all made it to the studio on time. Josh recorded first as because he was singing the chorus and his verse was first.   Although he lost his voice a couple of times, overall his recording sounded good. My verse was second and i was happy with my recording as well. The Recording went well because, by this time i had learnt and memorized all my lyrics so my verse sounded well and just the way i wanted it to be.Jesse's verse was last and his recording also went well it took a while for him to his verse right and on time. We ran out of time so we had to book another session to edit and master the song which we have created.

Day 4
2nd Studio Recording Day
Location: Ark-T Center Cowley
We went to the Studio on the 15th of November. After listening to the recorded song over and over again we concluded that we wanted to make some few changes to the song. For example; Josh wanted to add another layer of his voice to the song and Jesse wanted to rerecord the last bit of his verse. They succeeded and everything when well as planed. While the song was being edited we all had ideas of what effect we wanted to add to the song. For example Josh wanted to add a G-verb to the chorus  Jesse wanted to add a delay and an echo to his verse and i wanted to add an heart beat to my verse. Everything went well and the song was mastered to make sure it had the best quality. After the session we were all pleased with the production.

Risk Assements

Tripod	We have to make sure that no one trips over the tripod, especially in the dark when all the lights are turned off.
Lightening equipment heat hazard	We will be using lots equipments; they usually get very hot after they are turned on for some time. We are going to make sure that anyone that is in charge of lightening will we aware of this and they will make sure they do not touch the hot parts e.g. the bulb as it may significantly burn their skin.
Smashed bottle	We will make sure that the smashed bottle is totally cleaned up to stop anyone from getting injured.
Environment	Before we start fill or shooting we will make sure that the area is tidy and there is nothing hazardous on the ground where we are filming.
Fireworks	For legal reasons we will shoot fireworks on Bonfire night so that we will not break they law by shooting it in a public place on an ordinary day.
Candles	We will make sure that there isn't any flammable substance nearby so that the will  not catch fire while the candles are on.
Filming in the dark	Before we shoot at night we will go to that area when its bright to make the area is hazard free.
Camcorder wires	We will make sure that camcorder wires are visible to who ever is participating and the actors to ensure that no one trips over the wires.

Filming Plan/ Dairy

Day 1
Location: Cheney School Media Mac room
Close ups
Before the Day: We are going to shoot close ups of each artist doing doing their verses.

On the Day: We wanted to give our Music video a typical music video look so we decided to record with a plain white background, this was achieved with the plain white board on in our schools mac room. We shot with two big lightning equipment which helped to increase the brightness of the video and made it look more professional.


Day 2-
Location: Cheney School Drama Block
Mid Shots
Before the day: We will focus on mid shots because we want the audience to be able to see and therefore compare the costumes used in our music video with other Party Hip-Hop music videos. 

On the day: At first it didn't go well because the Drama class room which we recorded in didn't have a plain wall so when we recorded, the background did not look clean an it was obvious that we had shot the video in a drama room. As a result of this we decided to change the location. We then changed to location to the Mac room, and we decided to use the white black projector screen as it had a white background. This was a great idea and it worked perfectly.

Day 3 
Location: Cheney School Dance studio
Mise en scene
Before  the day:We will be focusing on mise en scene, for example we are going to have shiny ribbons floating down on the main artist, as this will help to create a happy, celebration atmosphere which will help us to portray the Club/Party theme in the Hip-Hop genre we have chosen. 

On the Day: We shot fireworks exploding in the sky  at night, this will help us to portray the celebratory theme in our music video. We choose to record at night because that is when the fireworks are a lot more visible. Recording at night was quite hard because some of the videos which we recorded was too dark because we didn't really have a big touch and the lamps that we had were too big for us to carry outside and it also needed to be plugged in for it to work so we couldn't really use them. We had to shoot a few times until we got the best result.
   
 Day 4
Location: A Hall in St Clements Oxford
Party
Before the day: we are going to film some parts of the music video in my friend's birthday party which will take place in a hall with lights similar to that in a club. This is because just club-music nowadays, our music video will be set in a Club. 

On the day: We informed everyone that we were going to shoot a video for our Music video and we told them to let us know if they did not want to be involved. Fortunately, everyone  wanted to get involved so it was a lot easier for us to record. This was a success because the location had a lot of lights, which makes the hall look like a club.


Day 5
Location: Cheney Mac room
Close up on Props
Before the day: we will be focusing on shooting little props but very significant to the genre we have chosen, we will be focusing on props such as necklace, watches, rings and Expensive trainers.

On the Day: we placed the trainers on a white background and shot some video clips of it. The outside light was against us so the quality of the video we shot was not very good because some part of it was too bright. However, after shooting a few clips, some was quite good and we decided to keep the best one and crop the bits that was too bright out.
After shooting the trainers we then decided to shoot the jewelries and watches but it didn't go as plan because, the video didn't look right.It did not look right probably because of the white background behind it, we didn't get enough time to change the background colour so next time we shot we will make sure we do this.

Schedule list

Day	Task
Monday	Media lesson video- editing
Tuesday
Wednesday	Video-shooting (at lunch)
Thursday
Friday	Picture shots
Saturday	Sorting out props
Sunday

Planning the Digi Pak (rough idea)

Just like typical Hip Hop Digi Pak, the Front always has the name of the Picture of the artist, the name of the Album (Celebration)  and the artist's name (Josh Jen) on the Front of it.

• Nice Dark shades to make the Artist look cool.
• Close up shot on the artist face so that he's fans can easily recognize he's albums in stores and therefore this will help him sell more albums. 
• Nice bold name on the top of the front of the digi pak so that the artist can be easily recognized.

We also chose to add the name of the Production Company (Fade to Black) on the Front of the digi pak to show who it is produced by.

•  Nice Bold letters for the Title of the Album 'Celebration' to give the audience an idea of what the songs in the album would be like before listening to them.

This is an idea of how the inside of the digi Pak would look like. The Cd will be by the left hand side, an on the Cd there will be a little picture of the Artist's Face on it as well as he's and the name of the album.

On the back of typical Digi Paks all the songs in the album are always listed out with the name of the other Artists Featuring in the Album.

This is The final Instrumental Josh Jen has created for our Music video

A video of Josh creating a beat for our Music video

Magazine Front Cover Plan (Rough idea)

Just like typical Hip hop Magazine front covers, our magazine cover is going to have the name of the artist on the right, the subject on the left and the name of the magazine on top. We are planning to put the logo for Production Company 'Fade to black' on the top right corner like the one on the picture but we have not yet created our official logo and that is just a very quick draft.

Josh On the Front Cover of Our Magazine

• Artist on the front page- Just like typical Hip Hop magazine covers we will have the artist on the front page of our magazine cover, to show that the magazine is about the artist.
• Shades- to show that the artist is cool
• Suit- because nowadays hip hop artist such as Jay-z and Kanye west  appear to be like business men on magazine front covers to show that the music industry is really about business and the image helps the artists to look sophisticated and successful.

Subject: GODFATHER of Alternative Hip-Hop

Music Video Story board (rough idea)

Full Plan of Shots

                                            

Close up Shot on The Artist's Face.

                                                      

















 Close up shot on the artist's face

this is an example of an iconic sign 

because  a face is an icon of their person.

this will be done to help promote the artist 

and help him to become more widely recognized.

This close up shot will focus on the artist's facial expressions which we can use to show that the music video is a celebratory music video.

Clubbers Having a good Time.

• Narration-everyone is having a great time.
• Audience- Clubbers           

In our music video there will be some clips and mid shots  of
clubbers having fun and waving their hands in the air, this is an example
 of an iconic sign which is showing that they having a great time.
  Bright coloured filters  will also be used in our
 music videos to signify the mood of the clubbers and the artists
in the video, because bright colours such as yellow and orange
 have always been associated with fun. This is an example of
 an indexical sign.                                            

Champagne Bottle Smashing up.

                                            

We are planning to smash some bottles in our music video.
This is to represent that the Artists are wealthy and are focusing
 in having the best time of their lives.  Since in Typical Hip Hop
music videos smashing bottles have always been used in order to
show the great fun the artist are having. It is done purposely to
 make to audience aspire to be like the artists.

Free-styling Break dancer/ streat dancer   

               

Through out history break dancing has always been
 associated with hip hop, so in order to follow the
 stereotype we are planning to show a few shots of
 a break dancer in our music video.

Fireworks Display                                                                    

 

 Fire works will be one have the indexical signs that will
 be used in our music video. This is because fireworks
 represents celebration, happiness and fun, which matches
 the title of the album 'Celebration'.

  Dollar On Fire                                                                    

We are planning to burn a fake money in our
 music video. This will be used to symbolize
 the abuse of money in Hip hop music videos.
This is a prove to show that money are often
 abused in Hip Hop music videos. The narration
to this is that the artist are rich and wealthy, they
 have so much money and they can afford to throw
 some away. It is also used to symbolizes that the
 artists are absolutely unstoppable and they can do
 what ever pleases them even thought it may seem
bizarre.  American Dollars are usually used instead
 of any other currency because the Hip hop Genre
 is originated in New York where American Dollar
 is the currency.