Digipak research

Looking at other artists similar to the one we will create Bela to be, we looked at their digipaks for their CDs.
Here are some we liked and thought were relevant:

Katy Perry


Rihanna

















Beyonce


Christina Aguilera


These have helped us realise what we need in our digipak, we will choose a colour scheme of around three colours to link it all together. We will have images of her and a stylistic image or symbol of her as an artist.

Buying props

Our balloons arrived and I practised blowing one up just to see how they look and really like the glossy shininess of them. There are 75 but we think we will only use around 25 of them but have got plenty just in case we need more or something goes wrong.











We also went to investigate the helium canister we had heard the media department had, however when we found it we discovered it was empty. We wrote down its details and then researched where we could buy one. The cheapest one we found was on Tesco for £19.45 and filled 30 balloons so we will purchase this one and then split the cost between the three of us. We decided to buy one instead of getting balloons blown up at a shop to save money and time; if we got them filled up at a shop we would have to go collect them the day before as we dont have time on the day and then they might have deflated by the morning which would be a disaster. Buying the balloons and canister and doing it ourselves means we can then fill them up at any time we want, eg just before the balloon scene and we know nothing will go wrong..hopefully!

I also ordered the Face Lace to school coming to £18.55

Props list

We have sourced all our props and decided which ones we need to get and which ones we can borrow or that the media department can get
I gave this list to the media guys containing all props and sets that they can get for us/already have:

The other props and costume we will get ourselves by having them already, buying them, or borrowing them. We are struggling with sourcing a mirror or dressing table for the dressing room scene however we will ask around and see if anyone has one we can borrow, if we or the media department don't find these then we might cut this scene out and just stick to the four others. 

Costume designing

In our lesson we decided to research and chose the costumes for each scene as these are very important features to the video because her image is key.

Balloon Scene 

For the balloon scene we want an edgy dark outfit to contrast against the white background and tie in with the glossy black balloons
We were inspired by this look in the YSL advert and decided to go for a empowering suit look

However we then went back and watched the official 1991 music video and saw that Azealia also wears a similar look in one of her scenes and therefore we decided to change the look slightly and changed the suit jacket to a fur gilet like this one:

We also want dark smoky eyes and neutral face with wet combed hair like this                      

Black and Red Scene 

For the black and red scene we want an outfit with hints of red to stand out and red lips and heals with red outline. We want a sexy vibe to this one that is appealing and seductive. Simon has a glass sceptre that we are going to give her as a prop to move around with and interact with to emphasise her importance and power.
 

Dressing Room Scene

For the dressing room scene we want to create a seductive, sophisticated vibe with a French essence. Having something like a beret could make her outfit very different to the others and give her something to play with while lip syncing; it is also quite relevant as the song has a French feel to it and speaks in French as the beginning. We got inspiration from this photograph by Helmut Newton which has French sex appeal yet is sophisticated and classy. We came up with a few sketched ideas of the kind of outfit we want for this scene:

Chaise Lounge Scene

For the chaise lounge scene we are deciding on costumes for the boys; they will be in black fitted suit trousers and jacket with smart black shoes, however their smart shirts will be personalised, one cropped and the other ripped. We want to give them a butler look but with a bit of edge, their props will be a tray, a fan, grapes, and Champaign, they will wait on Bela's hand and foot and use these props and costume to show this.

Bath Scene

For the bath scene we want Bela to look edgy and sexy; she has her own leotard body she has created that is black and criss-crosses around her body, this will look good against the coloured water. We have also researched how we could dye the water without using something that would ruin her costume or dye her skin/hair and found a good solution of using a bath bomb! Bath bombs disolve in warm water and change the colour and smell nice, we would go for an intense blue, purple or maybe a dark sparkly colour like this:
       
This is similar to what Bela's leotard looks like:

We have also explored different make up for this scene and decided to go with something really edgy that you wouldn't expect in a bath. This is because we don't want her to look like she is having a bubble bath and relaxing with candles, we want her to look sexy and empowering having fun and being flirty and seductive in the bath. I looked into eye liner stencils and stickers and found some cool elaborate ones you can stick on the skin, I really liked these as they are interesting and edgy and fit the character of the artist we are creating.

 

                                                                          We really liked the one around the face as it adds more to her image and look and we could put one down her arm or somewhere else on her body. After finding these images I researched where they were from and found this website called Face Lace which makes them: http://face-lace.com/products They are quite expensive ranging from £11-28 so we will look for alternatives but they are really nice and would work well in this scene. They would also not wash off in the water as they are stickers and are not actual eye liner that can be smudged and wiped away. 

I found a video of all the face lace's to show how great they look on camera and instantly make these girls look more edgy and cool. I can really imagine Bela in one of these in our video. 

We also liked the idea of her smoking a cigar in the bath however are not sure if we could light it in the studio, but we could still have her with it in the scene.

Looking at Beyonce's website today I was inspired by the grillz she was wearing on her teeth to research more into them as I thought maybe Bela could wear then in the bath scene to make her image more edgy and give her a more aggressive, powerful, sexy look instead of just a plain, pretty girl image. A lot of female artists have been seen in them recently like Rhiana, Miley Cyrus and now Beyonce.

      




I researched them on ebay and they are not too pricey, we could get gold grilz for £7.95.

Rehearsals

Yesterday we organised a rehearsal with Santi, Gabriel and Bela at 3:15 in activities, we booked an hour rehearsal in the studio. We played the track from the speakers and used a sofa as the chaise lounge to practise with, it was really good to be in the studio to practise as our cast got to know the surroundings and could get a feel for what they were meant to do.

Another group came in wanting to use the studio while we were there however they had not booked a spot and therefore had to find somewhere else, it was lucky that we booked otherwise we might have had the same issue; this made us realise that we have to be really on top of everything and keep organised to be productive. It was also difficult finding a time when all three members of the cast and us were free however we will have to work around this and practise as much as possible.

We told the boys about their costume and props and used a CD case as a tray and a dustpan as a fan in order for them to get used to their props and what actions and postures they should have. Next time we practise we will try have the actual props so they can practise more realistically. Bela found a suit jacket and hat she borrowed for the rehearsal to get a feel of her image and look in this scene which was really helpful as she played around with the hat which gave her something to work with. We also used a metal pole as a pretend sceptre which she worked really well with and gave her something to interact with while lip synching which looked more visually engaging.

At first the boys were a bit awkward and unsure what to do, but after some direction and practise they easily got into their roles and worked well. Bela was really good and had clearly practised singing the song as she managed to keep up with the very fast passed lip synch which was really promising to see as it was clear she knew what to do and was also enjoying herself. We practised three different things for the boys to do; one where they just walked up and down behind her lying on the sofa raping, another where they stood still like statues fanning her and offering her drinks, and another where they interacted with her dancing and acting silly and having fun. The silly scene was a bit chaotic and messy so we decided we needed to organise and direct this scene a lot more before we rehearse again.

All in all the hour was really useful and the three got to work together getting to know one another and became a lot more failure and comfortable with what they were doing. The more we practise the more we will overcome any mistakes or un comfortableness they could feel at first.

Production Schedule

Jane and I created a time table showing the order we are going to film our sets. We have done this in a logical order, having the easiest scenes first, we also put the bath scene last as it is the hardest and most time consuming, she will also be wet after the bath so will have to dry off and then go back to lessons. We also made sure the scene with the boys was in activities time; this way they do not miss any lessons and we do not have to get them out of class.
Creating this was a useful task as it has made us more sure of what we are doing and when, it is now clear to us that we are quite limited for time as Bela has a November assessment for maths during the day so will probably have to miss some time out, however we will try to rearrange things so we do not miss anything out or waste time.

Time	Description	Location/Set	Cast Required	Costumes required	Props Required
8:30	Setting up/ turning on cameras and getting sets ready like filling the balloons up and tying them to the floor.	Balloon scene			·        Helium the balloons
8:50- 9:15	Get her ready and film her with balloons, balloons on their own, her on her own etc.	Balloon scene	Bela	·        Fur gilet ·        Black suit trousers ·        Wet combed back hair ·        Smoky black eyes	·        Balloons
9:30-11:15 (including 5 minute break)	Get her ready - film scene empty, then with her lip synching	Black and red scene	Bela	·        Heels ·        Red nails and lipstick ·        Suspender tights	·        Scepter ·        Hat/ wig? ·        Heels ·        Jewelry ·        wind machine
11:30- 12:30	Set up mirror scene and have her getting ready and singing to her self in mirror	Mirror scene	Bela	·          TBC	·        Mirror ·        Drape ·        Perfume ·        Make up ·        Jewelry ·
12:30-1	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
1-1:30	finishing off mirror scene		Bela
1:35-3	set up scene and get boys and her ready. then film variety of same scene - one where boys stand still like statues, one where they interact with Bela and one where they march behind her.	Chaise longue	Santi, Bela and Gabriel	Boys costumes ·        Suits ·        Black shoes ·        Ripped/ cropped shirt Bela ·    TBC	·        Fan ·        Tray ·        Grapes ·        Cigarette
3:10-4:20	Get scene ready and fill bath with warm water from girls bathroom and put in bath bomb for colouring. Then have Bela around the bath, in the bath and sitting on bath.	Bath	Bela	·        Black bandaged swimsuit ·        Eyeliner stickers	·        Champagne and glass and bucket ·        Bath bomb

Sourcing props

We started sourcing our props now in order to save time later on when its closer to the shoot day, this way we wont have to stress about them coming on time or paying more for faster postage to get here or if something is wrong with them we have time to change it and send it back. We looked on eBay for black balloons and they all ranged from around £3-7 and all looked fairly similar. However we decided to go for ones that had an actual photograph of the very balloons in real life instead of just a artificial photograph. We chose ones made from latex which were a bit more expensive but looked better quality and will be nice and glossy on set with the lighting. They came in packs of 25 so we decided to buy three sets, we will properly not use all of these however we decided to be safe and get more than we needed in case some pop or we need more as the others will go down with helium etc. 

I paid using my paypal and changed my address to the school address so they will be sent to school and we can test some out before the shoot. I have since got a message telling me they have been posted so will hopefully be with us soon!

More Castings

When rethinking our four scenes we decided that we wanted to add a few more people so Bela could interact with them in a scene instead of just her the whole time. We decided to create a 5th scene with two guys in the scene with Bela, she would be empowering and take charge of the scene while the guys wait on her hand and foot. We looked at the school list of people and made a short list of boys we thought could fit the role, we then made a Facebook chat and discussed on there who we thought would be best:

We then decided on Santi and Gabriel as our two as they both fit the role and are also AS's so will have more free time than A2s so will be easier to work with. 

We then asked them if they would like to be in our video and if they were free and luckily they both said yes! We then sent them a more formal, detailed email telling them what their scene will consist of and about future rehearsals etc. 

We also sent an email to Bela with details on the shoot day and about general useful information she will need 

Props and Set design list

We had a meeting with our media team and a set designer in order to discuss each of the five scenes with them, making sure everything was possible that we wanted. We then discussed how we would make each set, what lighting we would have and when we would get everything organised. This was a really useful meeting as we got to run through and clarify all the scenes, this made me excited as our ideas were actually coming to life and were giving the all clear. 

We then made a list in detail of exactly what we needed in each scene from the colour of the wall to each prop we need. We then emailed the media team with all of these written up telling them exactly what we need to source for the shoot. Making this list made our group realise exactly what we need instead of just having a rough idea of what we needed, and now we are a lot more organised.

Set Designs

In order to visualise each scene we drew them out with annotations of colours and props. This was a really useful task as we focused on details of what suited the scenes and what didn't. After drawing them we could see which needed to be worked on and which didnt look so good, this allowed us to make mistakes about props and colours before actually doing it and then it being too late to change it. For example in the black and white scene with the colour red standing out we originally thought we should scatter red jewellery and props over the floor for her to work with; however when we drew it out we realised it looked messy and too cluttered and we decided to scrap it and keep it simplistic and clean cut. 

Dressing room scene

Bath scene

White balloon scene

Red and black&white scene

Chaise Lounge scene