Mis-En-Scene Part 2

Now the thoughts we had for the use of the journal, we wanted this journal to be used to write songs within it. My partner and I had the idea to write a song that Annie has written in the same album, as it would be a little easter egg. Once we actually had the journal in our hands we thought that we couldn't start writing in the first page of the journal and we couldn't just skip over those pages cause it would then just be weird. So we talked on the ride home on what exactly did we want the prior use of this journal to be. She thought maybe like a diary where she used to write her thoughts but stopped. And I was thinking more of like poetry so it would make a little more sense on how she knew how to write songs.

While talking about what to write in it we had to think how much we were going to need to write and we settled on a place where it seemed good. We settled that we would do a mix of both diary and poetry, so it would be a brief explanation of her day and then make it into a poem. Which seemed like a nice and simple idea. Now since my partner was leaving over break, we decided that I would take it and write in it. So I went through the days and wrote some nice nonsense. I made sure to write dates, and titles, basically making sure I was using all the correct rules to write these things. Here is an example:

Social Media

My partner created an official Instagram account and then gave me the credentials for it. We then talked about how we wanted the first post to be like. As an intro post we both had the idea to be a simple "hey i'm and i do..." kind of thing. So i got to thinking what could this be that is easy to read and attracts people to read it and follow. Most people on social media don't really want to read a long caption under a post so I had to think of something short and simple. As well, I wanted her to have a little catch phrase that was sweet and made people feel related to. So after lots and lots of thinking i came up with: "hey i'm annie lemasters, i'm a pop singer and i write songs about things i can't always say out loud." As the closing phrase it was "welcome to my little world". My partner thought that it would be good idea to add that to the bio of the account which i think was a great idea cause it matches with the vibe so perfectly. 

For the actual image of the post we wanted it to be a simple selfie picture to be sweet and welcoming. We created a rough of image that we wanted the image to look like and sent it over to her to see if she could try to take it for us to be able to use it as the post. She was able to do it and we used it as the image for our first post on instagram. Also this picture has the colors orange and blue which really represent what we are trying to show within our music video so it was a really great introductory way of full circling the picture to the video. We also of course had to choose an emoji, which with her orange hair we just had to choose an orange heart because it perfectly depicts what we want to convey. 

Mis-En-Scene

Within the music video, the girl is essentially going through heartbreak and trying to find herself without him. She will be going through a series of hobbies to find what she likes to do but in the end none of it works out for her. SOO i had this brilliant idea to put a scene in her room where there isn't much color but there is a BRIGHT journal standing out. The girl will open this journal and start to write songs, she begins to find herself and heal. Specifically in this part of the 2nd verse i knew it would work perfectly: 

Leave behind red for maroon 

But I remember breathing easier 

When I was up in blue

Me and my partner were thinking for this journal to be maybe red, maroon, or blue but there is already a lot of reds going on throughout the video. So ultimately we decided on blue for the journal. That meant the search for the perfect bright blue journal.

We originally went out looking for a plain blue journal. We only wanted it to be bright. We found one and we clung to it as we searched the rest of the store. But then, we found something better. We found a journal the perfect shade of bright blue that we imagined, but it also had a wave pattern on the cover. And Gaby and I knew that it was the one for this project. It had a sense of foreshadowing, as it connects to the finale of the video. This also uses the input I got from my group meeting, which was to connect the beach. throughout the video and not just make a jump cut into it. Here is the picture of me and my partner as soon as we found it. 

 

Finalized Shot List

Truthfully, this shot list is written here because we do not want to be looking at each other mid way down the day and see that we do not know what we are going to do next. We are only two people and our friend, we cannot afford to lose time out to play with the camera or even have to remember that there was that really good shot we thought we had last week. This list keeps us moving. It is similar to a cheat sheet that enables us to tick the things off a list so that we could in fact complete this project on time and not be stressed throughout the entire period of time we are filming.

The primary aim is to ensure that we are successfully getting approximately sufficient footage to produce our vision and actually make it look good to send to our artist. Nothing like making it home and working on an edit and realizing we forgot a close-up or a particular transition that allows the story to actually cohere. Having such a list ensures that we are first after the things that we really need. In that manner, were we begin to get time-starved or our actress makes the call, we already have the key stuff in the bag and we are not scurrying at the last minute.



Production Day #1

Last week we went out to the coast because we finally got the bridge and the final chorus of the music video on film. We were after that particular afterglow, the sun had already gone down behind us, but the sky over the water was changing these crazy colors of pink, orange and deep violet.

I had an idea that I would put the name of this song in the sand as one of the shots. I thought at first of going out and finding some seashells and make the letters out of those, but as I stared at the light as it went down, I saw that we would spend all the night finding shells enough to make it look right.

Therefore I glanced down to the earth. These enormous expanses of dark and tangled brown algae had been left all over the sand by the high tide. It struck me just then why I was seeking shells, when here was the very thing I wanted, the ink.

I simply mentioned it to my teamate and we sank on our knees and began picking up handfuls of the soft seaweed. There I began moulding and twisting the little brown strands into the letters of the title. It was, in fact, a great deal more enjoyable than the shell idea would have been, making my hands dirty and literally constructing the name of the song of the very beach. It was much more real, and the dark brown in contrast to the damp sand was much better than I had imagined.

We improvised with the remaining light as we did not have any strict plan. That freedom is more of the entire mood of the song in the first place, that sense of being able to finally get away and do whatever you like. It was a disorganized, off the cuff day but truthfully, it was a massive success. I am glad I got those photos of me assembling it all together.

Vinyl Research

 A vinyl release needs to visualize itself as a big artist to people to become prominent in the current age when people cannot overlook a large visual in social media or in shops. To an artist such as Taylor Swift, the best approach is to build a film world. Apply huge gatefolds and use professional photos of a high contrast which occupy the entire interior spread. The vinyl then appears in the style of a poster of the movie of that album of that time. This macro perspective causes individuals to believe it is an occasion and it gives the artist the image of an international star, thus fans perceive the record as a tangible structure rather than merely a computer file.

In the case of an artist such as Gracie Abrams, a personal, intimate brand comes into the limelight. The print must reach out to her as a personal invitation to her world. Incidentals, such as soft-touch matte laminate on the outer sleeve, or hand-written lyric notes on hefty cream paper. The information makes the record look and feel like a better, higher-end product, which the fanbase would want to display as an accolade of their lifestyle. This true style serves to make the artist a household name as he or she draws attention with style alone.

With bold text, the best textures, and massive images, we ensure that the vinyl is not just a thing to stream. It becomes impossible to pass over. This makes music a powerful branding tool which informs all people of how significant the artist is to the industry.

Vertigo Vinyl. (n.d.). Taylor Swift. Retrieved March 15, 2026, from https://vertigovinyl.com/taylor-swift?srsltid=AfmBOopGyJtRxG94sy_R3ajXk0eP8xVMw5Wap4u6KSAycgWqfztFA83g

Mills Record Company. (n.d.). Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Amber Vinyl]. Retrieved March 15, 2026, from https://millsrecordcompany.com/UPC/602465931266

Scheduling Shooting

 We have now begun to transition into the planning stages into actually shooting the portions of our music video, which is very exciting. At this moment we are almost complete with the list of shots we are going to use in the project and we have already shot one significant part of the video.

The initial scene shot was the last chorus of the song I will call you when I have made it. We had initially planned to wait when more of the video was well organized but we chose to shoot it earlier since it was during sunset at the beach. The time change had occurred this weekend, which meant that the sunset would begin to occur much later, and we wanted to have that kind of lighting that would fit our schedule. We have not been able to establish a definite schedule with spring break in our near future. However, we are going to shoot when we have an opportunity.

Thus far we have been able to complete the March 6 th beach shoot which was a great success. The lighting of the sunset was excellent and produced the atmosphere that we wanted in the last scene. It would have been ideal to film the west coast and get the entire sunset shot of the ocean but we used the location we had and still managed to get some really nice shots.