Logo designs

Final chosen logo

We decided to use this logo as our official choice as oppose to the other two because this one represents the music that Kehlani creates and the song that we have chosen because the darkness of the purple shows that the music isn't upbeat and happy, but has a slow and deep rhythm instead. Another reason for choosing this is because the font has a special effect which makes it looks rough and unfinished. We wanted it to look like that because it adds to the messy and grungy feeling and for the colours and fonts to match the name of the label is good because they need to link and relate to each other. Another feature we liked about this logo is the glossy effect the brush stoke has, as it stands out from the other features which are quite solid, so it gives the logo a special touch. 

Location research

Locations

For our music video we need at least 3 different locations to film in , but we have researched a variety of locations so that we can have our actor in places that only suit our theme and character, so by having more options we can choose the best for our video. We want locations that are very run down and urban so that we can represent the theme of the song thorough the setting of the video.

One of our locations is Leake Street tunnel, this is the image we want for our setting because we feel as its very urban and run down, but it has a creative and artistic side to it swell, so the different colours would look really good for parts of pure song where we need to show different emotions or a transition to a filler because even if we just have some shots of the graffiti and art it will still look very effective. This tunnel is also in London which is an advantage for us because there are many other places in London that look very run down and dirty so whilst we are there we will be able to film other places and get her lip syncing in different locations that we may suddenly see. The tunnel is also a good place to use because we could use different camera shots with Mikah heading towards the end of the tunnel with the arch which would look very effective especially when it gets darker in the day as her shadow may be all we see. 

Another location is an abandoned stables, this is located a lot more locally in Rainham. This means that its a lot more accessable and will be less time consuming. This is also a good place to use because its been destroyed and vandalised a lot so the dirty feeling will really be represented through this location. Also the stables is very big with many different locations within it, which means that we can use it for multiple shots especially with the different graffiti on the walls it could be very effective with Mikah stood in front of art. Another reason why we want to use this place is because its very dark and the lighting is quite minimal as you can see in the image above the only lighting that is available is coming from the broken ceiling with holes and it would have to be sunny outside for us to even get that amount of light. This is good because we don't really want our video to be bright because that wouldn't really represent the right image of the song, so that darkness is very beneficial to us when creating the vibe we want for the video.  

A third location is a council estate with flats, we have found a specific one in Brompton called Melville Court and we want to use this place because it again has the run down feeling and it looks almost deserted. These themes are beneficial to us because the song is about a gangster, which can either be very rich and successful, or have a lot of money some times but often owes people money meaning that they cannot afford lavish items and we have chosen the second type of gangster so this living accommodation will convey to the audience that she doesn't care if the gangster is rich or poor she just wants his love.

Other we have for our location...

Actor Auditions and advertisement

To advertise for our the auditions for the artist in our music video we created a poster which we put around school and anyone who wanted to do it could contact us with the information on the poster shown below.

This is a video showing the auditions our previous possible actors were involved in, so that we can see who would be best for our video, as they need to be good at lip syncing as well as having the right image and being confident.

Possibe Actors

Possible actors

Rhiannon Elliot

One of our possible main actors is Rhiannon Elliot, we chose her as one of our options because she is a very alternative, expressive and confident. She has an image that is very unique which is what we are looking for our final choice. Whilst taking pictures of Rhiannon she was very confident in front of the camera and did exactly what we asked for her to do. She also showed how she is not shy to pose in different positions that felt comfortable to her.

However when we informed Rhiannon that she will need to be seductive in the role, she was slightly opposed to the idea, and when asked to pose seductively she could not. This is an issue because we need to represent a very seductive character as Kehlani herself is.

Even though she is not seductive, she can show other emotions very quickly, as the picture shows her smiling and being serious, which shows that she can show different emotions that the song may be conveying very easily.

To conclude, Rhiannon shows that she is very confident in the camera as well as outside of it, she follows the instructions we give her very easily and has very good skills when a change in emotion was needed as she completed the change very quickly. But as she struggled at the attempt of being seductive, it is hard to give her the main role as that is one of the main characteristics that our actor needs and the most important.

 

Mikah Arnold

 The second possible choice of actor is Mikah Arnold. We chose Mikah because she is very confident and has the natural attitude we want for our character.

When taking the pictures she showed her confidence in front of the camera as well which was good because she needs to feel comfortable with the camera on her as if we choose her she obviously will be in front of it. However she wasn't extremely confident at first as we were in a room with external people not involved in our media project, but she soon tried to focus on us and became fully confident.

As Mikah wears glasses we thought this may be an issue in the music video as glasses aren't really associated with a gangster, or that theme at all. But we did have this conversation with her and she was fine to use contact lenses instead, which erases the issue.

As we want one of the main characteristics of our lead to be seductive, so when taking pictures of her we asked her to pose seductively and she showed us that she could be very seductive, which is a necessity for us so it appears that Mikah if the strongest person to fit our music video.

Another positive aspect of Mikah is that she has many piercings which the pictures show, on the side profile and she also has a neck piercing at the back of her neck. These are positive because as Kehlani has many tattoos so piercings are a very good alternative as they are both adding to her body.

 

 

 

 

 

Balinder Powar

 

 

 Our third and final possible actor is Balinder Powar, she is also very confident and probably the most confident one out of all three options. She is not afraid to do any facial expression, anything with her body and just if overall open to playing any character usually in a very humorous way.

When taking pictures of Balinder she was very helpful when we asked her to do a certain pose or be in a certain position, but also was very whiling to express her own poses. This is good because when it comes to the actual recording of the music video, we want our actor to be able to do their own   thing without us having to direct every move, it will just make it a lot easier if she can have some input to what she feels she should do in some shots.
However as mentioned previously, Balinder does have a very humorous way of expressing her personality, which shows her as a happy and joyful person. Unfortunately this image is not what we want to convey to the audience, we want the feel of seduction and love, which I don't think Balinder will be able to represent in the video.

After taking in to consideration of all our possible actors we have decided to cast Mikah as our lead characterbecause she is confident in and out of the camera, she can be seductive, and her overall image, especially her piercings, is what we want for our character.

 

 

Lip syncing practise

To practise and get an insight of what lip syncing is actually like we used two member of our group to test it out. It showed us that it was quite difficult to get the timing right so that the lips matched up with the actual song. But this was fairly easy to edit as whilst we were filming we played the song so that they knew the timings of the song, so when we edited in the original music, there was little editing needed to be done.

The difficulties that were shown whilst carrying out our practise exercises, was that the syncing looked too forced and fake, due to over pronouncing and moving the mouth too much, this made it look very fake and clear to see that they weren't actually singing the song. But after we practised it more and more, they became more natural. However if this happens in the real music video and the actor is miming the words too much, then we can get them to sing through the song so that they wont feel the need to make it look real, because they will be actually singing and we will just silence the video when we play the music over it.

Another problem we may encounter is the confidence in front of the camera. This is because even though the two people we used were very confident girls, when put in front of the camera they became less confident and found it much harder to act natural and feel comfortable whilst being recorded, so if the future actor we choose for our music video struggles to be as confident as we need her to be then this would be a very big problem. To solve it we could get them to just practise a lot in front of the camera before we start filming what we need and do whatever they need to feel comfortable. For example if they don't like us watching whilst she lip syncs then we would face a different direction, as this would make her feel better and overall perform better.

However this exercise has helped us learn how to position our actor in the camera and what angles look best in different locations, because as you can see, the girls weren't directly in front of the camera they were actually at the side of the shot because it made it look less basic which has already helped us gain a better idea of what is best for our official video.