Fiza's Advanced Portfolio

 Here's the link to the Google sheet where my team and I collaborated to make the shot list:

 For the outdoor locations (park and subrubs) we decided to film in my colony in one of the parks that were relatively larger and the rest in nearby streets. The park was walking distance from my home so conveyance wasn't an issue.  Park: Suburban streets: For the indoor shots, we needed a bedroom, a dining room or lounge for the party scenes, a window where our actress will be sitting and a kitchen. Since we were gathering at my place for the outdoor scenes, we decided to use my room as the filming location, as well my dining room, except we would have to rearrange some furniture. For the window, since we'd be filming it from the outside we decided to use the one in my brother's room which opens to the terrace. However, my kitchen didn't go with our video's theme overall because the structure of it meant that there would be a lot of things in the background that could be distracting, and also my kitche is grey and black so the palette was completely off as well. Te...

We divided this task because we could not meet up to shoot and edit this. Hira took charge of filming the video, while I edited it and Tehreem made the final changes and finishing touches and refinement etc. #teamworkgoals. The BTS of the shoot are on Hira's blog since she did the filming. Here's the final thing: Update: We got our preliminary exercise checked by our teacher and he pointed out the issues he had with them. Firstly, he told us that the scene where the second girl is making the tea needs to establish the character, because right now it makes it look like its the first character who went to make tea. Also, there is a sudden jump in the part where the first character picks up the cup to drink the tea.  Apart from this there was some advice regarding the angles etc. which we are to keep in mind during our shoot.

  Budget 2020 sheet1 from HiraFatimaMallick

 For filming the music video, we will be using the following: camera (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV) tripod handicam reflectors lights We decided that since we also wanted a lo-fi effect in our music video, we would use a handicam where required and deemed suitable. Also, a lot of our filming will be done indoors and in the dark as well so for that we thought it was necessary to use lights and reflectors to achieve the desired lighting.  Now as for the software, we're going to be using Lightroom for editing certain clips if required, and for editing, of course, Premiere Pro.

  Main character/female protagonist:  Tayyaba Fatima Mallick This is Hira's sister, Tayyaba who will be casted as the female protagonist in our video. (Ex) Love Interest: Haadiyah Imtiaz A batchmate of ours.

TEAM ROLES by Fiza Zaheer

Our music video is centered around a female protagonist, and our artist is also a young girl in her late teens. There is a more Westernised representation of the artist. Considering that the indie genre, specifically indie rock, is male-dominated, having a female artist was going against the conventions and provided a bit more diverse representation which we believe is necessary. In Pakistan, the indie industry is very nearly obsolete and is usually revolving around a mix of Western and local representation. Also, the portrayal of teenage girls and women in general in music videos has historically remained more or less similar, focused on glamour and fashion, objectification and hyper sexualisation. Teenage girls specifically are often portrayed as naive and superficial, and in terms of relationships, often hysterical, clingy and over emotional, and this has evolved to become a very common stereotype.  However this representation is gradually changing, perhaps not so much in mainst...

Record Label: NC RECORDS (fictitious) Our artist is going to be associated with NC Records, which is an independent record label that other South Asian independent artists are affiliated with. Considering that the music industry in South Asia, especially in Pakistan is not very developed, this label aims to enhance the exposure of potential indie artists looking for an appropriate platform.  NC Records will also handle the promotion and distribution of the album on various streaming platforms, channels and websites. Production House: Blue Moon Productions (fictitious) Blue Moon Productions will be involved in the concept creation (and of course, production) of the music video, and the creative development of the digipack, as well as in the post-production aspects of the video.  Distribution: According to our survey results, the most popular platform for streaming, listening to and exploring music is YouTube, followed by Spotify, and then other platforms such as  iTunes, S...

Symbolic Codes Symbolism: Flowers These are a recurring motif throughout the music video. We will specifically be using a flower species called butterfly weed, for certain scenes in order establish a connection throughout. This flower means "let me go" or similar alternatives like "leave" and so we decided it was cohesive with our concept.  The girl picks these flowers at the beginning and then in between we see shots of her trying to water these rootless flowers in an empty vase, symbolising how she is trying to flourish and nurture something that possibly can not be. Towards the end we see her disperse these flowers in the wind. Keeping in line with the meaning of the flowers, this scene presents a closure for the protagonist. Eating flowers This symbolises various things and some of the toxic behaviours of our protagonist, which also link with the lyrics. Flower-eating is often linked to an expression of the character's desire for engaging in hedonism ("...

In order to be able to visualise our concept better and to start scouting out locations that would work well with what we had in mind, we decided to make a presentation (assigned to me) of the overall mise en scene of our music video.  Mise en Scene by Fiza Zaheer

 This we decided to assign to Hira. Click the image for the link to the storyboard on her blog.

After we were done with the synopsis and had it approved, my teammates and I started to look for images that went with the vibe of our song - a fair idea of which we had developed while working on the synopsis. We kept saving whatever relevant picture we came across to our Pinterest board and in the end, sorted them out to prevent overcrowding. This is what we finally got:

Click on the image below for the google doc.

 We had multiple different angles from which we could approach this particular song.  One idea suggested by Tehreem was similar to a previous concept that we had though of - that we could show the protagonist and her "sanity" (personified as the protagonist herself, so basically two of the same person). Even though I personally liked where we were headed with that concept, my teammates believed it would be difficult to shoot, in the case of a sudden lockdown which is something we're still anticipating. And also, we would need a protagonist who was really really brilliant at acting. So the mutual though was that even though it was a very good concept and video in our heads, it would most likely be very poorly executed, and so we decided to not go with this one. Maybe some other time :') We decided to go for a more fast-paced concept, which had a simple (pretty cliche in my opinion, but not that that's a bad thing) narrative intertwined within it, showing the story ...

 After we decided our song and had a fair idea of the concept, we took a necessary step of asking permission to use the song for our music video, since it would be published publicly on YouTube, and was the only legal way around avoiding any copyright issues that would result in our video being blocked or other legal issues that we wouldn't know about. We emailed the band's record label, Polyvinyl Records, who own the rights to the song. As for the email itself, I googled a few articles and sample emails to get an idea of how to construct it properly.

 This task was done by Hira. The link to the original thing on her blog is at the end. In my opinion, the song ‘Party Police’ is about a failed relationship, which one party is desperately trying to salvage, using whatever means she has at her disposal. The lyrics of the song ‘i never really know what’s on your mind/is it ever me or just someone you left behind?’ – this to me reflects an uncertainty, an insecurity of our narrator in the relationship. she doesn’t even know how to make sense of it, if he ever really loved her, or is she just a rebound. Moreover, the lines ‘when everyday’s a hurricane/you know there’s something wrong’ show how the relationship has clearly been troubled for a long long time now, even if unclear why – its clear that the relationship has turned sour. The narrator, while knowing all these things, is desperate to keep the relationship going: ‘you don’t have to leave, you could just stay here with me’ and that he should just ‘forget all the party police/we ...

We took the lyrics of the song into consideration while selecting it because we felt that they obviously play a big role in how the music video turns out. So these are the lyrics of the song. Read “Party Police” by Alvvays on Genius

For the two days in which we had decided to split up on the suggestion of our teacher, we all had already considered different songs for ourselves. But after further discussion when we decided to get back together, we seemed to be having doubts about our previous song and so, we chose Party Police by Alvvays as the song for our music video. Hira suggested a different song by Alvvays and from there we explored this avenue even further until we came across Party Police, which we all felt we could work with really well.  The song was released in 2014, as a track in the artist's self-titled album "Alvvays" and is alternative/indie, very much in line with the artist's overall discography.  Here's me writing down the songs we shortlisted (there were a lot more than this).

Remember when I said I learned how to improvise when a pandemic ruins your plans? Well guess who overestimated herself and underestimated Rona. Because here we are, the flaming hot cheetos, pondering over the two options we have: a) We continue to work in a group, for as long as we can at least, and in the case that there is a lockdown imposed, we carry on with the rest of the work individually - whether that be the remaining planning and everything after that, or just the editing that's left. b) We go on our own starting now.  We came to the consensus that it's going to be hard to manage everything on our own and so option A sounded better than compromising the quality of our work and potentially jeopardising everything. In the case of a nation-wide lockdown, which seemed improbable, we would carry out our shoots in limited space (i.e. within the compounds of our home or community).