DAY 2 FILMING

 Day 2 was filming at my house and in my neighborhood.

I started off the day by getting in all of the shots I wanted in front of the tarp. The duck shots looked GREAT. I got SO MUCH FOOTAGE. I got all the specific shots I wanted, but I just let them mess around and roughhouse with each other for a while as well. This provided some really funny and great clips.

We then all walked to my neighborhood park to get the shots of scooby doo. I honestly had no plan for how they were going to beat up scooby. I just told them to run with it, AND RUN THEY DID. They beat the absolute crap out of this thing and I again got a boatload of footage.

Finally, we ended the day by swimming in my pool. My pool has this light that changes colors and it made the shots look very sick. By the time they got in the pool, there was little to no daylight left, so a lot of the shots are too dark and unusable. For the shots that weren't too dark, they look great.

Overall, amazing film day. I'm gonna start editing very soon. I'll keep you posted with updates!

Setting up for day 2 of filming

 For day 2 of filming, I had to set up the tarp as a backdrop in my garage. My original plan was to hang the tarps by these hooks that were already in my garage, but they were too close together. I tried to use some heavy-duty gorilla grip tape to hold up the tarp, but it was not sticking to the ceiling. 

My dad then had the idea of drilling holes in the garage ceiling. I was so surprised he actually let me do that. Well, it worked great! I got some hooks and it looked great!

My next immediate thought was to test out the duck shot to see how it would look. I used my mom as a test subject, and with some better lighting, I knew it would look great for day 2 of filming.

DAY 1 FILMING

 Day 1 of filming was at the lot! Here is a rundown of the day:

At 4:30 the band met me at the manatee bay elementary parking lot to follow me to the location. We parked outside the barricade of the road and started walking to the lot. It was a LONG walk and a bit sketchy but it was all good!

Once we arrived I found this huge pile of tires and decided to get a ton of different shots of them with the tires. It also started to drizzle a bit, which I was initially worried about, but gave some of the clips a cool vibe.

We also found this really old and worn-down chair lying in some grass so I got some shots of them smashing the chair.

After all of that, I was basically done at the lot. I had planned to go to the park to get the shots of them beating up scooby doo, but it was really gross out. I'll just shoot those on Friday at my neighborhood park instead of peace-mound park. Overall very successful shoot day.

The phone :(

 So I just got home from my cruise and was met with some pretty bad news. The new phone that I got had in authentic apple camera parts. This means I am unable to shoot on this new phone, and I have to send it back and will not have the new phone on time for the shoot. I still have my old phone and it should work FINE, but it just sucks that I won't have this new camera. 

shooting plan day 2

So for my second day of shooting, we are going to be in another 2 (possibly 3) locations.

1: my garage

2: my pool

(3): neighborhood park

Again at 3:30 on Friday after school, the band is going to meet at my house to shoot the rest of the video. I am going to start the shoot in my garage and do all of the duck shots and just miscellaneous shots of the band with the chattering teeth. 

After that, If I don't have enough footage in daylight of the sooby doo fight the day before, then we will walk to my neighborhood park to finish shooting that.

Finally we are going to end up in my pool with all the inflatables and more rubber ducks.

IF NEEDED WE WILL SHOOT ANY ADDITIONAL THINGS SATURDAY.

This should wrap up shooting though, and give me time to edit.

shooting plan day 1

 So for my first day of shooting, we are going to be in two locations.

1: The lot (abandoned parking lot)

2: Peace-mound park

At 3:30 on Tuesday after school, I am picking up the band and all the equipment and we are heading to the lot. There I want to shoot stereotypical promo music vid shots of the band just playing their instruments and rocking out. This should take about an hour- hour and a half.

Then I will drive everyone to the park where I want to get some more shots of the band playing. I mostly want to shoot the giant scooby doo shots there. I want to include some pov shots of the band just beating the crap out of this giant stuffed animal. 

After all of this, day 1 should be complete!

CRUISIN!

 Fun for me, but not fun for future me is I'm going on a cruise this spring break! Since I am gone the whole week, there is nothing I can really do that requires me to meet with the band or set up for the shoot. I am just going to focus on planning out the shoot days and contacting the band to make sure everything is on schedule. 

DUCK SHOOT SETUP

 So I have been struggling with where I was going to shoot the duck shots. After talking to my dad, we have come up with a solution. He and I will hang a tarp from the ceiling in the garage from hooks that are already there. We have to clear out the bikes and other stuff in the way, but this spot is perfect for these duck shots.

My only issue that could arise with this is lighting, but worst comes to worst I'll just set up additional lights. 

BACK COVER

 For the back cover, I wanted to include the credits. I wanted to keep them simple and to the point. I used this Pearl Jam CD as a reference to put what credits on the record. 

This is how it came out:

COVERRRRR

 So I was playing around with ideas for the cover and was using the album art I shot to come up with a cover but nothing was really working for me. 

           This really wasn't doing it for me:

I then thought that having the actual band members on the cover would be very cool. Being that mouths are a big component in my video, I think that having all four of the band member's mouths on the cover with a big "top this" logo would suit the vibe nicely. I want to have a shoot of the four, but for now, I made this moc up with pictures of my own mouth to show you what I'm going for.

ALBUM COVER EDITING

 I have started editing the cover for the single but finding a place to edit it was difficult. I have never had to make something like this before, and choosing an easy place for a beginner was hard. I stumbled on the drawing website https://sketch.io/sketchpad/. Although the website is meant for drawing, editing on this website was very easy and straightforward. 

On the website, I created a logo for the album. I wanted something simple, but bold and I think I have accomplished that. I took inspiration from a blink-182 logo to create mine, and I think the vibe of the two logos is similar.

Blink-182 logo

Top this logo

My phone SUCKS!

As of today, I have an iPhone 8... that's not the best for filming. Before I go to college this summer, I was planning on buying a new phone, but I am going to just purchase one now for the sole purpose of having a decent camera for this project. Did this hurt my pockets a bit?... yes. I was going to buy one anyways, but now I am getting one sooner rather than later. 

The phone I am getting is an iPhone 12 pro max, which is a HUGE upgrade from the phone I have now. The phone has a much better camera and will give me a better result for the video.

Album art!

 I had a shoot day with some of the props I am using in the video, and they turned out GREAT. 

I used the pool table in my house to give the photos a vibrant green background and set up flashlights and lanterns to get certain lighting.

After some editing just in the iPhone camera settings, these are how some of the photos turned out:

45 vinyl digi

 For the digipack, I (previously mentioned) am releasing the song on vinyl. The one problem with this is that the band doesn't have a full album with original songs. The solution to this problem to release it on a 45 RPM vinyl.

Releasing "Top This" physically on a 45 would allow the single to be sold as a single, rather than waiting to be released as a full-length album. 

45's are still extremely popular within the vinyl-collecting community, and I think would sell really well to Jaggn's audiences.

Those damn ducks!

 So all of my music video props have arrived at my house from amazon, but the ducks have an issue. I ordered 70 rubber ducks thinking they should be more than enough for the shot I want to create. Well when they arrived, these ducks are TINY. 

I just had to order 100 more ducks, which should arrive within the next few days. A very minor setback, but still annoying. The rest of the props look GREAT. The fake tongues look insanely realistic, and I cannot wait to shoot with them.

Instagram Page

 A profile on social media is one key component of this project. Social media is an essential component of every production effort, whether it is for a film, a documentary, or music. I'll be publishing stuff like previews, development details, release dates, behind the scenes and so on. Instagram will be my social media platform of choice.

https://www.instagram.com/_jaggn_/

Shot list!

 For the list of shots for the vid, I really wanted to incorporate as many of the random props as I possibly could. I feel like that is such a key component in my video and I want to really show that.

SHOT LIST:

Pool underwater swimming around

Pov shots of the band kicking the crap out of scooby doo

Underwater shots with inflatable guitar.

Slow-mo of the band playing guitar with rubber ducks being poured on them.

Singing while stretching fake tongues.

Full shot of band playing in lot (day and night).

Ass shot turn around in underwear (Top this!).

Close-up face shot with chatter teeth.

More Locations!

 In the group discussions, we had the other day, people mentioned that only having one location for this video would get repetitive and boring, so I thought of some more locations to film.

For 1, I think that I am going to film at the lot both in the daytime AND nighttime. This will provide more contrast and keep the viewer from getting bored.

I have also added to film at a pool. I think this will add just a pop of color to the music vid, and allow for some interesting shots. 

I am also planning on filming somewhere with a grassy area to provide more of that pop of color. I think that peace-mound park will be great for this given it has open fields and scenic views.