The Shoot Day!
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Planning
19, The A-Team
I've come to realize that team work is an essential part for any projects to be truly successful. I had already started thinking of ideas and initially planned to do this project solo, but I saw that Tashfa was available to be teamed up with, and pitched that we work together. Considering I've worked with her before in our foundation portfolio, I knew Tashfa and I would make for a great duo, considering we balance each other out - she thinks of ideas, and I make them come to life. We also have very similar tastes, which I think will turn out to be a major advantage for this project. As a mere coincidence, we both love purple, and therefore made the themes of our blogs purple (I think it's destiny).
Tashfa and Esha, the dynamic and lovable media students duo that (evidently) doesn't get any sleep.
The Task Division
Tashfa and I split up some tasks amongst ourselves to ensure we get done with our portfolio efficiently and timely (considering the upcoming exams that were about to drop a figurative bomb on us).
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Considering that I had more experience in making videos and designing, and had the equipment we needed, I was in-charge of shooting and editing the music video.
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I also selected the song (due to my impeccable music taste).
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Tashfa was in charge of coming up with the record label, while I made the record label Logo.
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We split the ancillary tasks amongst ourselves: I worked on the social media profile and YouTube channel while Tashfa worked on the digipack.
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When it came to logistics, I had to pick Tashfa up from her house and take her to the location of our shoot.
(to add to our job descriptions, she had to buy me food which is still pending)
20, The Idea Train
Tashfa and I decided that we should have an online Zoom meeting to talk about our ideas. I realized that having some visuals present during our meeting would be a good idea so we could truly picture what the other person was saying. I made the following presentation which listed my initial ideas and plans for the music video.
Here is a picture I took of Tashfa presenting her ideas where we realized that both of us have very similar plans, therefore it was nice to know we were on the same page (and were planning on doing great things together).
We discussed inspiration we both have from other music videos, films, books, and I gave her ideas for songs and themes that I had in mind (which we ended up selecting, but more on that later)
We also made a collaborative playlist on Spotify to see what potential genres and songs we were considering, and if the other person hadn't heard the song, they could do so easily.
Key: Tashfa is the little blue circle and I am the little orange circle in the screenshot.
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21, The Song Selection
Even though selecting the song was a collective decision which we made after quite a few discussions, I had given myself the power to veto that decision (I may have underlying dictator tendencies). Although, this was done for good reasons - the first one being that I had to edit the video, and it would have been hard for me to edit a video with a song I’m unfamiliar with, don’t like, or can’t envision a music video for. I knew that if the song wasn’t perfect, I wouldn’t have been able to think of shot ideas or editing ideas, and therefore, our video simply wouldn't be as great as it could have been. Apart from that, another major reason to have a good song selection was to be able to portray our concept accurately without the song and lyrics diluting the video, or adding too much to it.
After our initial meeting it was evident that Tashfa and I were looking for something that could be open to interpretation lyrically, and we decided we wanted to give our video a feminist touch overall.
The majority of our chosen songs were Alternative/Indie (Tashfa and I truly have superior music tastes). Here are the shortlisted songs we had in mind:
Muddy Waters by LP:
Muddy Waters was the first song I pitched for several reasons:
1, I had already been planning out our music video before Tashfa and I even became a duo(I am sorry Tashfa) therefore I had ideas on how we could shoot and edit the video on this particular song.
2, The lyrics are open to interpretation which was ideal considering we wanted an open concept video, and therefore, the song wouldn’t have been restricting.
3 and possibly the most important reason, It reminds me of my favourite TV show (if you’ve seen Orange Is The New Black, you know what I’m talking about)
Forever for now - LP:
After I initially pitched the idea for having Muddy Waters be our song of choice, Tashfa suggested Forever For Now, which is also by LP. We ended up liking this song a lot because of the lyrics, but there were some issues with it. We had some of our shots planned, and we realised that they don’t match the pace of this song, and that if we choose it, the video may end up being convoluted. Another thing we didn’t like was that the song had an instrumental segment at the start that lasted 40 seconds, and we felt like if our video wasn’t captivating enough, a potential viewer may lose interest fast even if we cut down the part.
Melody Noir - Patrick Watson
This was a song both of us liked even though we were trying to avoid using a song sung by a male artist. My major attraction towards this song was some particular lines in the song such as "You are the sweetest melody I never sung". We ended up not using it because we felt that although some lines matched our concept, the entire song did not.
Love - Lana Del Ray
I pitched Love by Lana Del Ray in our meeting as well and we really liked this song because of how mellow it was, and the lyrics coincided very well with our idea. However, we realized that there was quite a lot of repetition in the lyrics, and because we planned to use recurring motives, it would have been way too monotonous. Additionally, we didn't want to take a song from an artist who was too popular, because we wanted to explore underrated artists and music.
In the end, we opted to choose Muddy Waters because of the range of ideas we could apply to the song.
22, Interpret and Regret
Tashfa and I both collectively came up with potential meanings and interpretations we wanted to portray through particular lyrics of the song. Here is the post Tashfa wrote about it:
23, The Concept Development
A strong concept was the foundational pillar of our project, therefore, we had to ensure that it was well thought out. As a result, Tashfa and I ended up spending hours texting and calling each other whenever we thought of new ideas. Here is the post Tashfa wrote about the process:
24, The Final Concept
Here is the post Tashfa wrote on our final and refined concept:
25, Letter of Permission To Use The Song
Before using the song for our video, we had to ensure we had copyright permission, because neither of us is fighting a court case this early in life. I researched on how to write the permission letter, and who to write it for. As smallbusiness.chron.com suggested, I had to describe my purpose, usage, and agree on a potential fee to use the song.
The following is the list of contacts I took from LP's official website:
Here is the permission letter I emailed:
26, The Moodboard
Here is the post Tashfa wrote about our moodboard:
27, The Shotlist
Creating the shotlist was an essential part of planning considering that I had to have an idea of what I planned to film on the day of our shooting. If I didn't have the shots and locations planned, we would have ended up wasting time and I couldn't have truly thought of new ideas.
(Do note that this was simply a plan and some shots were improvised after looking at the availability or resources present on the day of the shoot)
The following is the link for the shotlist:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18GS2o_Yf0PUDzNFCJjw3ZzVrbFvo486nHMnQhhCFKQs/edit?usp=sharing
28, The Storyboard
Here is the post Tashfa wrote about our story board:
29, The Props and the Monetary Restraints
We needed props for many shots we planned to take, because without them, the video simply would have been 3 minutes of a white wall.
The following presentation I made lists all the props we needed for this project and the budget we had (and lack there-off).
30, The Music Video Mechanism
(equipment)
Equipment was one essential part of our music video that I wasn't too worried about, mainly because I had access to most of what we needed to shoot our music video (a huge thankyou my budding passion for filmmaking).
The following is a video I made on Animaker (a website I discovered after realizing that I may be obsessed with Canva and should expand my horizons) which lists all the equipment we required:
Here's a more detailed version:
1, Nikon D3400 with 18-55mm Lens:
My camera was possibly the most important part of our video, for without it, we would have none. I planned on using a standard 18-55mm kit lens, considering it could give us ample focal range and we could experiment with a good amount of focal lengths. It is also considerably lightweight, and the shots taken by it are much more stable as opposed to the 70-300mm lens I also had available.
2, Long Tripod:
We planned to carry standard tripod (which came brand-less from a nameless factory in nowhere, they didn't bother to label it) to ensure we have something to set the camera on if needed.
(in retrospect, I primarily used it to hit the tops of bookshelves at our shoot location)
3, Gorilla Tripod:
I knew we needed a gorilla tripod for high angle shots, because it's considerably much more flexible than a regular tripod. The camera could also be set at a low height, which was ideal for some shots we planned, therefore it was a good idea to carry this along.
4, Ring-light:
Considering I had never been to the Lahore Heritage Club (our shoot location), I planned to carry along my ring light (which we ended up using for a couple of shots) to ensure that our shoot wasn't halted because of lack of good lighting.
5, Kingston 32GB Memory Card:
A memory card is vital to store all the footage from our shoot day so that they could be manipulated and edited further.
6, Adata Hard-drive:
Transferring the footage we took after the shoot into a hard drive is essential to avoid the risk of misplacing or corrupting my memory card.
(if my brother is reading this, I sincerely apologize for losing your wedding photos, I did not know any better; I was not a media student back then.)
7, MSI GL63 9SDK Laptop:
I plan to use my personal laptop to edit the video (which I was particularly gifted by my parents to edit videos. every mrs. midas fan please say thankyou to Mr and Mrs. Durrani)
8, Soundpeats wireless earphones:
I needed earphones to edit the video to ensure that I can synch the shots with the song.
31, The Software Debates
Deciding what software to use before I began editing was an essential for me in planning our music video. I would have had to familiarize myself with the software we plan to use and ensure I have it installed and running well before time. I considered the following softwares:
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro would provide me with countless options and features to edit with, which was a huge benefit. It is a considerably advanced and heavy software, therefore, one drawback of using it was that the video would take a long time to render, which would have been inconvenient every time I had to make a revision and show Tashfa or my media teacher. I decided that there were also simpler alternatives available to use.
Wondershare Filmora
Wondershare Filmora is one of my favourite softwares to edit on because it is quite simple to use and has numerous features such as in-app transitions, effects, titles, and more. Using Filmora would ensure that I can finish up editing the video as soon as possible because I've already worked on it numerous times. (seriously, that software hates me). Another reason was that it would have been easier for me to show Tashfa our progress because of how beginner friendly it is.
Sony Vegas Pro
Sony Vegas would have been a new software for me to try out because I hadn't used it before and I was trying to push my boundaries for this project. However, I was quick to realize that using it was probably not a good idea, because I could have gotten stuck whilst editing because I wasn't familiar with the software which would halt the process of making the video. Another reason to not use it was that I didn't have it installed, and doing so would have taken up time.
I ended up deciding that I will use Filmora as our main editing software, and if there was something advanced I needed to do (such as stepprinting), then I would use Adobe Premiere Pro on the side.
32, Location Scouting & Recce
The following post is wrriten by Tashfa:
33, Acquiring Permission To Shoot At LHC
The following post is wrriten by Tashfa:
34, The (not so blue) Blueprint
The following is the floor plan I made for the Lahore Heritage Club on https://floorplanner.com/ based on the virtual tour Tashfa gave me. I did this for a couple of reasons:
1, It allowed me to visualize the shots and where they could potentially take place.
2, It allowed me to create the shotlist that we could follow on the day of our shoot.
3, It ensured that I don't get lost on the premises (I am a bit of a flight risk)
Here is a more elaborate version I attempted to make:
35, The Risky Ride
The following post is wrriten by Tashfa:
36, Moonage Records
Here is the post Tashfa wrote about our record label:
37, The Moonage Records Emblem
Creating the production logo for our record label fell under me and was one of my favorite parts of this project, because the creative liberty was endless. I lost a night of sleep over it, but I would say that it was worth it.
Step 1: Organizing my scrambled thoughts
Whilst thinking of ideas, I was particularly attracted to two elements. 1, "Moonage Records" was in itself a reference to David Bowie's song "Moonage Daydream", and I wanted to ensure that I was playing with the same theme, and wanted the moon to be part of our logo. 2, I wanted to include a clock in someway not only to represent the recurring clock motif we planned to have in our music video, but also the timelessness our record label was representing,
I went ahead and created 2 mood-boards from graphics available on Canva (one being, quite literally, a moon-board). This gave me an idea of potential styles I wanted to recreate. I realized I wanted to avoid something bulky and keep it as simple as possible so it doesn't lose the essence of the record label.
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I planned to merge the two in some way, and after rotating the moon graphic 360 times, I got where I wanted to be. Presenting the first draft of our logo:
Step 2: Questioning the idea, my existence, and my future career path.
Although I made the draft of the logo on Canva, I wanted to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to ensure our logo was as original and high quality as possible (and without any watermarks, capitalism is starting to become inconvenient to this project).
Here is a screen recording of me making the Moon part of our logo on Illustrator:
Making the moon was relatively simple, although the shape and size of the moon did considerably bother my non-existent OCD - it had to be perfect, so I kept revising it. As for the clock part, I took an existing vector of a clock icon from Freepik to make things easier and faster, because I couldn't entirely figure out how to design it on my own. The little sparkles were taken from Pngtree, although I manipulated both, the clock and sparkles to how I wanted them to be. The clock initially had numbers which I removed, and the sparkles were white which I turned red. I drew the stars myself by connecting my laptop to my Huion graphic pad to match our stylistic choice of having a hand-drawn illustration for our digipack.
Here is the screen recording of me finishing up the logo.
Step 3: Going through the 5 stages of grief and realizing "wow, that's a pretty good logo"
I showed the logo to Tashfa to ensure we were on the same page before I finalized it, and she thought it was "giving" (generation Z slang is truly something). All in all, we both were pretty content with it and decided to use it.
Presenting my newest invention, the logo for Moonage Records:
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38, Mrs. Midas
The following post is written by Tashfa:
39, The Mrs. Midas Impersonator
The following post is written by Tashfa: