Filming

Yesterday we managed to get all of our filming done. We filmed in the Earl Haig Pub in Whitchurch, Cardiff.
Niall was our performer and did exceptionally well.
Everything went smoothly and we managed to get what we wanted. We filmed everything about 4 times at different angles to ensure that we had enough footage. 
I am pleased with how the filming went and believe that everything was successful. 

Practising

 We selected our location, which is the dance studio at college. 

This is the equipment that we used and will be using. The arri lights, gels, tripod, dolly and camera. We also plan to use these again on Monday.

We tested different coloured gels and these are the colours that we like, a blue and a pink/red.

We used Emma to test the lighting and gels within the dance studio to see what worked. Another reason for using her is that she is going to be within our music video.

 We tried different angles, iso, apature and gel colours to find what we liked and what worked.

Costume Ideas

 This is the idea that we would like for the girls. Plain black leggings and a plain white t-shirt. we thought this would be good as it is simplistic and wouldn't draw too much attention to them as we want the attention on the performer.

This is the look that we would like for pour performer. The smart suit trousers, shirt and braces and the black and white shoes. This represents the 'ska' look.

Sharing job roles

Me and Saffi have been sharing the role of Corran as he hasn't been in much lately.
We have had to sort out what lighting and effects that we want to be able to book the equipment.
We have also had to create the story boards together ready for production.

Cake sale

I am doing a cake sale at work today to raise money for costumes and costume lashes. I am selling the cakes for 60p each. This will help raise the money. It won't raise enough to get everything that is needed so I will have to do more than one sale. I made 48 cakes which will give me a total of £28.80.

I made a poster which wil help advertise the cake sale. I have 3 of them up around work. This will help draw people in and buy a cake. 

After doing the cake sale on Saturday I raised £21.26. I have 12 cakes left to sell which I will be selling tonight in training. I will still be selling them for 60p. Hopefully i will be able to sell them all. If i manage to sell them all I will have a total of £7.20 from those 12 cakes. The final total i will have will be, £28.46.

This will hopefully be enough money to be able to buy costumes. Some on the people performing will have leggings and a white top or shirt which will help reduce the amount of money that we will have to spend on costumes which will help reduce the amount of money that we need to raise from cake sales.

I put a post on the Facebook ground that I have for the Monday night class that I teach telling them that I will be selling the last 12 cupcakes that I have left. This will help me sell them and raise the rest of the money that is needed.

Casting

I posted a status on facebook to ask if anybody would like to be one of the performers within my music video. I also sent a text to one of my friends who I knew would want to be in it. This is all perpetration ready for when it comes to filming. I have asked Niall, who is in my class if he wanted to be one of the performers. Thank fully he said yes.

My friend Emma agreed to take part within the music video.

Lyrics

This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, is coming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
too much fighting on the dance floor

Do you remember the good old days
Before the ghost town?
We danced and sang,
And the music played inna de boomtown

This town, is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry

This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town

About The Specials

Origin: Coventry, England
Genres: 2 tone, Ska, New Wave, Reggae
Years active: 1977 - 1984, 1996 - 2001, 2008 - active
Labels: 2 tone, Chrysalis, Virgin, Kuff
Associated acts: The Selector, Fun Boy Three, General Public, The Colourfield, Special Beat, The Skabilly Rebels, The Spatial AKA Orchestra
Past Members:  Jerry Dammers, Neville Staple, Silverton Hutchinson, Tim Strickland, Dick Cuthell, Rhoda Dakar, Garry McManus, Stan Campbell, Egidio Newton, John Shipley, Nigel Reeve, Caron Wheeler, Claudia Fontaine, Aitch Bembridge, Mark Adams
Active Members: Lynval Golding, Horace Panter, Terry Hall, Roddy Radiation, Joh Bradbury, Jon Reed, Adam Birch, Tim Smart, Drew Stansall, Nik Torp

The Specials
The Specials are also known as The Special AKA. The 2 tone and ska revival band formed in Coventry, England in 1977. Danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude. The Specials focused and informed people on political and social stance alot more than other ska griups did.
In 1980 their song "Too much Too young" reached number one in the UK, which was only 3 years after the band had formed. In 1981 "Ghost Town" also hit number one in the UK.
After 7 UK top 10 singles within the UK, 3 band members left and formed the group "Fun Boy Three".
After releasing new material in 1984, which included the top 10 hit "(Free) Nelson Mandela", founder and songwriter Jerry Dammers dissolved the band and persued in political activism. The band refored in 1993 but without Dammers.


Career
The Specials where formed in 1977 by songwriter and keyboardist, Jerry Dammers, vocalist Tim Strickland, guitarist/vocalist Lynval Golding, drummer Silverton Hutchinson and bassist Horac Panter (also known as, Sir Horace Gentleman).
Strickland was replaced by Terry Hall after the band had reformed.
The band was firstly known as the The automatics. They then changed to The Coventry Automatics and then The Specials AKA.
Vocalist Neville Staple and guitarist Roddy Byers (Roddy Radiation), joined the band in 1994, a year after their reformation. 
Joe Strummer from The Clash attended one of their concerts and asked them to be an opening act for his band on their "On Parole" UK tour. This gave them a new level of experiance and national exposure. They briefly shared the same management with The Clash.


Reunion Tours

• 1993
• 1998 - Japan (Panter missed due to illness)
• 2000 - limited tour lineup
• 2007 - Hall and Goulding performed together for the first time in 24 years. They played together at two festivals. At Glastonbuury Festival they performed the song "Gangsters" with Lily Allen
• 2009 - Goulding claimed that performing with Lily Allen played a massive part in their reformation
• 2008 - Autumn reformation tour
• December 2008 - tour dates announced for 2009 for their 30th anniversary
• April 2009 - guested on BBC Two - Later....with Jools Holland
• July and August 2009 - Australia and Japan
• 2010 Dutch Festival Lowlands
• 2012 Performed in Hyde Park for the Olympics
• American tour 2013 - sold out crowds at: Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver

Test shots

We did some test shots to see what lights we would need and how we would set them out. We also tried different colour gels too look at different effects that where suitable for the look we want to go for. We did the test shots so that we can plan ahead what equipment we need, how we are going to set it out and to see if we are able to acheive the look that we want to go for.

 This is an image of the lights that we used set up and ready to be used.

 When useing Fresnel  lighting we had to use gloves when moving the barn doors and adding or taking down the gels. This is because the lights and barn doors get VERY hot.

We added different colour gels to see if we could create an old looking effect that wasn't too bold.

There was a few differnet colour gels that we liked that we thought could be used within our video. We liked this blue/green that we thougt that we would be able to use. We thought that this would work as it is a happy colour and could be used when the words 'do you remember the good old days before the ghost town' as this is referring to happy memories.

We also liked this orange look as it gives a sepia look which makes it look old.

We looked at different camera angles and lighting angles to get the best look and the look that we ae going for. 

This effect can be used within our music video if the camera is going to be moving or at the first time you see a doll. 

We tried creating a very harsh shadow using very harsh lighting. We half got the effect that we wanted but the lighting within the room was too bright although the blinds where down. We needed less light and to change the aperture and ISO to create a more dark look.

We experimented with different angles with the camera and moving the light around. We also changed the ISO which gave us a more dark effect/look creating a harsh shadow which is what we want to go for.