Shoot 3 - 29/11/13

On Friday the 29th, we filmed the older girl footage. We used the same location (bedroom) as the younger girls and outside locations to signify the urban genre, such as a street and a skate park. The girls all came with their hair and make up done big and bold to save time so that we could begin filming straight away. We started in the bedroom and shot footage of them 'doing their makeup' and some lip syncing shots. We then went outside onto the street and shot a catwalk and footage of the girls walking towards the camera and dancing. We shot the younger girls performing a catwalk, so made sure we got shots of the older girls doing this as well, as we thought we could experiment with the two shots fading together. After we shot on the street, the girls got changed into their performance outfit, and we went to Addingham skate park to shoot the choreography and other performance footage.
   The skate park was a good location as there was no one else around so we had the area to ourselves, and it created the urban feel that we were after. Poppy, Jess and Abi all performed a dance routine together as they dance as a hobby so they could pick the dance up easier. We did get footage of all 5 girls dancing together as well.

The girls were professional when performing and we got the majority of the shots we needed. In the future, we may need to do another shoot to get some additional shots, however the shoot did go really well as the girls all did as we wanted and the performance footage was effective with the colourful dresses and dancing.

PP: Creative Arts Evening - Viral Video

On creative arts evening we plan to get footage of a range of people of all ages to perform a small section of our simple choreography. We will then use this in our viral video persuading people to send us their version of the dance to get the opportunity to win to be in the next pussycat dolls video.

MJ - MKTP Twitter

Recently we launched a new twitter account for our production group MKTP Productions. We follow all the Pussycat Dolls on twitter, as well as a few fan accounts. 

Twitter homepage

Shoot 2 - 24/11

On Sunday the 24th, we filmed our 2nd shoot with the younger girls. They all came round to my house and we filmed in my bedroom. Firstly, we started filming them dancing in a group and singing into hairbrushes and hairspray cans, to signify a performance. We then filmed them individually singing, dancing and practicing signing their autographs.

As we previously did a shoot on Friday, they all knew what we would expect from them so it didn't take long to get started. We briefed them on the shots we needed and then began. They worked really well and listened to Poppy and I whenever we asked them to do something in particular.

Podcast 4

Shoot 1 - 22/11

Charity shop

Our first shoot took place on Friday the 22nd after school. We met the 5 girls in the main entrance of school at 3:00PM at went on to walk down to the charity shop. We filmed them going into the charity shop and then filmed various shots of them inside looking through the clothes and then trying the clothes on. We asked them to previously bring their own clothes so that when 'trying clothes on' they used their clothes rather than trying on the clothes within the charity shop and therefore disturbing any customers. After filming in the charity shop, the girls got changed and we walked down to Ilkley park where we shot footage of the 5 girls playing in the park.

Once we had the footage of them messing around, we got shots of them dancing and performing a catwalk, to represent the longing to be famous. They played in the park and performed an improv dance routine, which worked well as it signified their age.

Filming outside the charity shop

Because we started filming at 3, it got dark quickly by 4:30ish meaning the shots at the park are darker than those walking down to the park.  We also had an issue in the charity shop with customers walking round in the background.

All in all, the shoot went well as all the girls were willing to participate therefore making it easier to give instructions. They were enthusiastic to work with which made it easier and enjoyable, and they did what we asked of them first
time.

Tilly directing Millie

TD - Costumes for the Narrative

For the narrative section the older PCD will be wearing smart dresses and heels corresponding with their colour which they wear when they are younger. Here are pictures of each and who will be wearing them.

Tilly - Black/Red

Jess - Purple

Millie - White

Poppy (me) - Pink

TD - Goals Allowed

Yeovil Town may not be making a big impact in the Championship but they are joining forces with a record label to launch their own girl band in a bid to climb the pop charts and attract a new generation of supporters to the club.

They are bottom of English football's second tier but will be the first football club to have a girl group and the plan is for the band – to be based on the Pussycat Dolls – to perform at home matches for the rest of the 2013-14 season.

Auditions for females aged 18 and over will be held at Huish Park on 4 December and the successful girls, a lead singer and a group of south-west-based dancers, will work with the Famous Company to record a single that will be released on iTunes. The record will raise money for Prostate Cancer UK – the Football League's official charity.

PP - Younger Pussycat Dolls

Here are the girls we have cast to play the younger versions of the PCD in our video. We cast them through an audition process and they all seemed very eager and excited to be in the video. We thought this was very important as we want our cast to put full effort into acting and performance to make our video as effective as possible. 

Nisha 

Niamh

Izzy

Izzy

becky

MJ - Idea Update 2

Our music video follows the Pussycat Dolls looking into their past, remembering how they wanted to be famous. There will also be some performance footage included throughout the video, with dancing & lip-syncing. There will be shots of the band as younger girls in various locations such as bedrooms, clothes shops/music shops, a bathroom, in a park & walking around town. We will also have shots of the band as they are now, in some of the same locations. We also see them getting out of a limo/black car onto a red carpet, and then looking back at their old rooms. The performance footage will be choreographed by Poppy, & the dance scenes will be filmed in an urban setting, with large spotlights behind the dancers, as this is commonly seen in Pussycat Dolls music videos.

Our music video summed up in one sentence - (Craig Mcneil said at the ASFF that usually a sign of a good music video is when it can be summed up in one sentence.)
"a girl-band reminisce about their lives and revisit their past, before they were famous"

MJ - Planning Update 1

On Wednesday 13th November we had a meeting with half of the cast of our music video. At lunchtime, we met with Becky Izzy A, Niamh,  Nisha, Izzy W, who are playing the parts of The Pussycat Dolls as young girls. During this meeting we talked about the production schedule, and we sorted out exactly what days and times the girls could film, and also sorted out what costumes and colours each girl will wear.
Jess Mitchell + Izzy W - PURPLE
Abi Birch + Becky - BLUE
Tilly Dennis + Niamh - RED
Millie James + Nisha - WHITE
Poppy Padgett + Izzy A - PINK

We came to the decision that we will hopefully be filming all the scenes with the younger girls on Friday 22nd at 3 - 5:30pm. We planned to film mainly at the charity shop, but also some shots in the streets of Ilkley. We made a list for each girl (what we need them to bring as their costume) and we made sure that each girl had a whole outfit that is suitable for their character. 

ASFF: Aesthetica Short Film Festival

The ASFF is held in various locations around York city centre, and this year it ran from the 7th - 10th November. 

Firstly, we went to White Stuff to watch a variety of music videos. Personally, I only recognised one video and artist, as most of the artist were indie and have not yet been hugely recognised by the radio and TV. Despite this, there was a range of different techniques and effects used, although one element I noticed in all the videos was that they were all animated in some way. They all used special effects and animation which made the videos modern and therefore more engaging for a younger audience. From watching these videos I had a few ideas to incorporate different effects into our own music video, as I think that it would make the video more interesting and eye catching for our primary audience. 

Adele

After attending the first venue, we went to a masterclass given by Craig McNeil from the Beggars Group. The Beggars Group is an independent record company stemming from the Beggars Banquet record shops opened in London in 1973. It is a conglomerate, with Rough Trade Records, Matador Records, XL Recordings and 4AD as its subsidiaries. The group has signed a variety of artists such as The Horrors, Vampire Weekend and Biffy Clyro, as well as directing music videos for the likes of Adele, Basement Jaxx and Dizzee Rascal. 
   He spoke about the history of music videos, and how videos such as Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' are still influential to artists even today. He also talked about how platforms have developed from Top of the Pops to MTV and other music channels to allow artists to promote their music, and how YouTube is another huge platform for advertising and screening new material. Lyric videos are often created by both fans and the distributor themselves, to provide another way of promoting the video. 

Attending this talk and event as a whole has enabled me to view the ways in which music videos are created and promoted, and has given me some new ideas that we as a group can experiment with. 

Casting and Auditions

For the older versions of the PCD we intend to use ourselves and another 2 girls who we have approached and are willing to participate.

For the younger versions of the PCD, we created posters asking for year 7s and 8s to come to the media room and to audition. Luckily, a group of 5 years 8s turned up and we explained our idea to them and what would be required of them, as well as getting them to write down their school email and tutor group so that further contact could be made. All 5 girls were enthusiastic, and they have featured in our MiniVid for One Direction - One Thing, so we knew they would be reliable and enthusiastic to take part throughout the process.

Characters

After discussing our idea further, we decided that we are going to require 10 characters instead of 5. There will be 5 Pussycat Dolls as the formed and older group, and then there will be 5 younger Pussycat Dolls. The characters will need to show intertextuality and reference to the Pussycat Dolls themselves, so they must be a similar looking as possible to achieve verisimilitude.

PP - Make Up

For the older set of PCD in the video we want them to have dramatic eye make up. This is seen throughout girl group examples such as The Saturdays, Little Mix and The Pussycat Dolls.

The Saturdays

This is done not only in music videos but whenever the groups are in public or advertised. This is shown in the picture to the left of Mollie from the Saturdays on a magazine cover. 

Make-up is done like this to make the girls look more glamorous so they appeal to men (male gaze theory) and also so younger girls aspire to be like that as they look fashionable. These are both audiences we want to target and by doing our casts make up similar we aim to do this.

PCD

Little Mix 

The make up looks tend to be very unnatural and smoky looking. In our music video this will work especially well as it will create more of a contrast between the older PCD and the younger more innocent version of themselves when they will wear little to no make up.

practice example

At first we questioned how easy it would be to do this dramatic make up and make it look professional and effective. However, after doing research online we found that there are YouTube channels dedicated to tutorials of celebrity inspired looks and how to look like these glamorous people. These are easy step by step tutorials and after following these we discovered it is quite easy to achieve these looks.

Here is a practice example I did of the dramatic make up on a volunteer friend. It wasn't time consuming and I already had the make up and equipment needed meaning that the make up won't effect or increase our budget for the music video.

practice

practice

PP - Younger Transformation

For our music video we hope to cast younger girls to play the younger version of the PCD. However, another option we are considering is making the older cast look younger. By doing this it increases verisimilitude as they will actually look like their younger selves and be more recognisable and make the narrative more clear.

pigtails and braces

To do this we would make the cast wear minimal or no make up and style their hair in an immature way such as plaits or pigtails. They will be wearing younger clothing also that is suited to the time era that they would have been younger in, e.g, 90s or early 2000s.

minimal make up

We could also buy clip in braces and make the younger ones wear glasses and other things that signify a teenage audience. This also helps connect to the tween audience as they may might be dealing with these kind of things yet it shows them that in time they will eventually grow up to be glamorous like the older PCD.

PP - Set Up Ideas

We brainstormed a list of set-ups and ideas. We came up with more than we plan to use and we will film a lot of them and see which work most effectively.

1. Bedroom
2. Bathroom
3. Garden
4. Park
5. Street
6. Car park 
7. Shops (Charity Shop)
8. Milkshake bar
9. Hairdressers
10. Dance Studio 
11. Performance
12. Red Carpet 
13. Limo
14. Concert

PP - Locations

Earlier in the week, the group got together to find possible locations that we think would work effectively in the video. All the footage is from locations in the local area, however we do plan to also get some footage from slightly further away. The locations shown are a train station, urban street, car park, park and charity shop. The footage is shaky, but this is just a quick video made to give an idea of the kind of things we are looking for.