Feedback

Miss Mapp took our music video to a bunch of media specialists (one of which worked on some of the new Call of Duty game) and she got some feedback.

The one thing that they picked up on which I'm a little disappointed with is that there is a small glitch in one of our shots where we have added a jump cut in. The leaves on the trees in the background change position due to the wind and they also become a bit darker as there was a shadow covering them a bit it is nothing that can be helped! But, with the audience testing i have done, none of the people have seen this until i slowed it down and showed them myself. So, all in all, it is harly noticable. Maybe its just because that these media people do this sort of thing for a living!

Another thing that was picked up on was the fact that the plot was a little unclear and they couldn't understand what we were running for. I think this a good thing because we wanted the video to be slightly unclear so that is in keeping with similar music videos and bands within the same genre. It also make the video repeatable. Basically, the audience will have to watch it over and over to understand what is going on.

Video finished!

We finished editing on Thursday of last week as we had a day off timetable to it! We also took some photographs for our CD cover, our back cover and an inset for the inside on the CD.

Before we took these photos, we had a look at other CD covers in the same genre as Animal House. One that stood out was the Arctic Monkeys debut album. It is a picture of a man smoking as cigerette. We also searched 'indie CD covers' on google images and it came up with Baby Shambles - Schofflers Nation and The Killers - Day and Age. These covers include fairly random props and images including half a naked woman (Baby Shambles) so we thought we would use this information and research in our our CD cover. But seeing as this is the bands debut album, we thought that we would include the band members in the CD cover so that audience can see what the members of the band look like.

We went back to the long road shot in the video to take the pictures and decided that we would also use the television that in also in the video as a random prop. Using both the scenery of the road and the TV would related the video to the CD cover and vice versa.

Filming

We did all of our filming today apart from the final swimming pool scene because the owner of the pool has swine flu and by the time we had finished our filming, it was dark. We experimented with loads of angles, shots and ideas and we think that we have got a lot of decent shots that will go well in pour music video and that will go well with the song!

Final Plot

3 characters meet in location (to be decided) all receive texts . As they all take their separate routes. There are cuts back and forth from the singer, who, differently to the other members of the band, is waking up, and taking it slow. This is what happens until the guitar solo, when the singer then sees the briefcase in the swimming pool in his back garden and starts to become more suspicious. He goes outside to see it, and turns around, then to see the other 3 members hurtling down the road towards his house. The cuts between the 3 members and the singer will become more and more frequent the nearer they all get to each other. Eventually, the singer breaks away from his "chilled" exterior and gets in on the action by turning round and storming towards to swimming pool. All 4 members of the band then throw themselves, mid-air into the pool, and the video just cuts out before they all hit the water.

We feel that the contrast between the fast paced action from the instrumentalists and the slow, step-by-step morning routine from the singer will be effective and also not to difficult to capture. When it comes to editing, we can really bring the pace to a halt when it cuts to the singer through quick transitions and different lighting techniques in the filming.

More Costume designs

For our different characters in the band we need to have different costumes to identify our different personalities.

Firstly, the lead singer ; Tom Abraham

- As he is the lead singer we have made him the 'cool' one, therefore how he acts. As he is waking up in his home he will be wearing pyjamas, but he will be acting cool and doing everything in a slick style and lip-syncing the words into the mirror.

Second Character, the Drummer ; Charlie Potter.

As he is the drummer he will be the wacky character, so therefore charlie will be wearing ripped jeans, with maybe some tweed to go with his country boy esque transport. This will make it funny to watch him, also his facial expressions will be very 'crazy.' This will all add to the comedic effect of the video.

Our Bassist is Emiel Pronk ; His character will be the 'cool' one, therefore his clothes will be smart casual. He will be wearing a cool suit that will end up getting wrecked as he tries to find the money.

The last character is Richard Gough who is the Guitarist ; He is the rebel of the band therefore he will be wearing a hoodie and some baggy/scruffy trousers. The transport will be a 'stolen car.'

This will add many dimensions to the band and help achieve the 'random' video idea and make the video repeatable to the audience.

Location Confirmation

I now have certain confirmation that we are allowed to use the tracks and outbuildings that i took photos of, in our music video. we are also allowed to use a few old cars and props that are about as long as we leave it the same as we found it.

Ideas for Storyboarding

This lesson we have looked at many different videos to get ideas for our storyboard;

- Vampire Weekend, Oxford Comma: From this video we gained ideas about what to have going on in the video, from the video we have been been influenced to have many things going on in the background, we feel this will add to the video and make it repeatable.

- Beck, Odelay: This video was used as a preference because it is very much the style that we want to achieve; for example having very random goings on in the background and the video seemed very clever and cutting edge.

- Blink 182, All the Small Things: This video works on the basis of intertextuality making it very humorous - we like this video because it brought comedy into the music and we would like to add comedy into our video. We also liked the weirdness of the very random 'What's my age again' video by blink 182 which also showed signs of intertextuality.  With this music video we alo learned techniques of camera angles, for example the running round the corner shot shown at the top of the post.

The last video we looked at was by Chikinki, Assassinator 13; We like this video very much as it uses a range of weird clips and many different costumes on one person. Watching the video you realise how long it would have taken to make therefore you watch the video and appreciate it.

Location Pictures

Pictures of our desired location.

Learning the song

Today the three of listened carefully to the song that we are going to use (Money by Yellow Garage). We took notice of key lyrics, timing within the rhythm and also the use of instrumentation. There are some sections where the drum beat is off-beat and unexpected, these would be great times for quick cuts and modern transitions to maintain the variety and franticness within the video.

We were also thinking of maybe incorporating split screens and tone editing such as having some of the shots in black and white. 

What we need to do as soon as possible is post a copy of the lyrics onto the blog and then also a detailed analysis of where we could change shots and how we would. We also need to finally decide the routes being taken by each member of the band to get to the destination that they are racing for.

Props

I discovered some weird props that would be brilliant if we could use into our video.
I found things like old cars, varied pots and tubs, a mandolin, some camouflage netting and a ride-on lawnmower.

We have permission to use all of these things if we want to as well as anything else we can find as long as we leave the location how we found it.

We want to use random and weird props like in the video 'Oxford Comma' by Vampire Weekend.

Location

i have taken some photos of our desired location for part of our music video as well as its surroundings which i thought would be good settings for the pursuit in our video.

They will be uploaded ASAP. I would have done it last night but unfortunatley my computer crashed at home and is being sorted out today.

Indie Music: The genre

The genre we are going to work with will be Indie. We have already researched into the various songs we could use for the final piece and have found a suitable track, from an unsigned band called 'Yellow Garage.' The track is called 'Money', the reason we picked this song was because we think it will work best with the video we had in mind as the tempo is reasonably fast. The song also includes a clever riff which will go well with the whole 'pursuit' idea.

I think we have made the right choice choosing an indie song to make a video for, as it will include lyrics therefore adding an extra dimension to the video. Also, with the video having four people all chasing an object, and the lyrics being about money, this gives us an idea of what they could all be chasing.

Studying of other bands within our genre

The bands that i am looking at and deriving ideas from are 1) Vampire Weekend 2) The Wombats 3) The Arctic Monkeys

We like the ideas that these bands have included in their videos. Things like that they have totally random props and videos that either contradict the lyrics of have no relation with the lyrics at all. An example of this would be in the video, 'Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma' where there are some really odd props in the background that have nothing to do with the song or the lyrics. Like cows in sheds and 40 children playing 'Cowboys and Indians'. We would like to include some things like this into our music video. Another example is from the video 'Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent' where it shows clowns fighting against some blokes in leather jackets for a reason which is very unclear throughout.

I think that this type of video would go with our song and band image.

I have also realised that bands like these have videos with just them performing. So, the videos are either completely random or are just of the band playing. But the majority of them do not have any link with the lyrics at all.

Video research

We were researching various videos on YouTube as we thought we would like to take some techniques out of them to use on ours. The two videos that we looked at were ; 'The Prodigy - Voodoo People' and 'Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma.' We like the style of these videos as they have very random scenes in, this made us want to make our video very unique by having events in the video that nobody will expect.

Developing our own stars

Our stars will be male icons for the indie/rock music of the early millennium. They will conform to the dress sense linking to that genre at this time, yet will slowly start to make it their own. At the moment when performing, indie performers normally wear casual clothes, as it is more about the quality of the music, rather than the performance given from the band. Here's what indie/rock musicians would normally state as their attire:

- Smart shoes or pointy boots, normally black or brown leather.

- Smart, yet tight fitting trousers. Usually black but white is appearing more and more.

- Often a small, slightly worn-out t-shirt, with a loose long sleeved shirt on top, almost always with the sleeves rolled up. The shirt has a sort of 'dusty' look to it.

- Miscellaneously, they would wear sunglasses, rings, they would have badges pinned to their shirts or their guitar straps, loose belts, rags hanging out their pockets. Recently, there has been a surge in the number of Trilby hats being worn.

Before we start filming ...

There are many factors that we, as a group, need to approach and adjust before we can start making and creating our music video. The obvious ones being :
1. Choosing a suitable time slot for when we all have free time and can all commit 100% to filming the video.
2. Deciding on a final idea or expanding on our original pursuit idea and creating a storyboard so that we know exactly what we are doing and what we want to film.
3. Choosing a suitable location so that the video looks convincing and how we will get there.
4. Getting the costumes arranged. We had one idea that we were all going to be in suits. If so, where will we get them from and on what kind of budget.
5. All group members must also be up to date with work set or that is on the blog so that they can be fully committed.

The more complex factors are:
1. What camera shots and angles do we want to use to create the exact bands image that we want.
2. Making sure that we can get the tempo and the video in time which each other in the editing stage of the project.
3. Making sure we have permission from land owners etc if we want to go running through the countryside if we want to expand on our pursuit idea.

Analysis of Music Videos

The music videos that i have chosen to analysis :-
1) Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys
2) The day I Died - Just Jack

1) To start off with, the arctic monkeys are trying to create a whole new image for themselves by becoming more of a indie rock band than the pop type image that they started out with in their first two albums.
The video starts with strange colouring in the clouds as well as a strange font showing the name of the track 'Crying Lightning'. It gives the impression of something like an old fashioned ghost story. Then the font turns into fog or cloud as the camera tilts up into a long shot to show the band in a boat in the middle of an ocean.
At the start of the song, the music is quite slow and calm. This is also the case in the water. It is very calm and still to start with. But as the song gets into the first chorus with the words, 'Your past times...' the colours in the cloud turn red indicate that the storm and the song are going to get heavier. Also, during the first chorus, the drummer is beating on the snare drum and after very 2 beats there is a change in camera shot. These shots go around all members of the band showing the audience their faces and what they look like.
As the 2nd verse kicks in, the close up, birds eye view shot shows that it has started to rain. This also indicates that the storm and song are being to get heavier. The sea also gets notably rougher and the waves get bigger and start crashing against the boat.there is also a laps or shifting of time where the background goes from day time to night time. This could show the audience that the band have been on this boat for a while and be lost at sea or something similar. As the guitar solo starts and the track really starts to kick in, lightning in the cloud starts in reference to the song name. Also, large figure of the band rise up from the water wearing sunglasses. This is another image editor. They want to be seen as cooler and probably a little more mysterious than the images they have portrayed in the past.
Referring to Andrew Goodwin's theroies of distingishing a music video as a form, I think that the visuals are amplifying the lyrics because of the lighting in the sky towards the end of the song again relating back to the name of the track. Apart from this, there is no real concrete link from the visuals to the lyrics.

2) The first thing that anybody will notice is that James Nesbitt is the main role in this video. This is completely unexpected and gives a little extra surprise to the fans. It can be linked to the song, 'Weapon of Choice' by Fatboy Slim that features Christopher Walken dancing around an empty hotel.
Another immediate thing that i noticed was that that the whole video is narrative and tells the story of this man going through his everyday routine of going to work.At the beginning where he is eating breakfast at the table with his children, i saw that the children blinked in time with the music as well as moving things like the toy cars on the table. This was also done in tempo. There is also a shot a toy ambulance linking to the end of the video. The costume is strange because he is in clothes that are ripped and dirty as well as blood on his head. Like he has already been run over. I thought this may be him reliving the best part of his life before he dies. Like the saying 'Your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die.'
As this is a typical, daily routine of man going to work, this means that the audience can relate to what he is going through. While walking down the street when the chorus is playing, the shot changes in ever 2 bars to give a different perspective on what he is doing and his facial expressions. (He is always smiling).
My favourite piece of camerawork in this video is when there is a man painting on the pavement. James Nesbitt stands on top of the painting of the globe as the saying suggests, 'On top of the world'. This also gives us an indication of how the character is feeling. The high angle shot aslo make it seem like he is standing on top of the world! This could tell us how he is feeling even if we were not listening to the lyrics. This video is defiantly illustrating the lyrics of the song again relating to the theories of Goodwin. And it is so narrative is unbelievable.
Lighting turns grey when he starts to die. It has turned form fantastic sunshine, (all the way through the video) to looking like its going to rain extremely hard. And it does when the doctor, played by Just Jack pronounces James Nesbitt dead.

What we want to re-create

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

These are two that we think are good pursuit videos, and that we have looked at to get ideas about shot selection and shot angles. The first picture is from the song 'Totally addicted to Base' and the second picture comes from the track 'Sandstorm' by Darude. 

We also want to learn good techniques about filming people running so we looked at the video for the song 'Clubbed to death'.

From these videos, we have chosen some shots that we would like to use, for example the low angle shots of the characters running. This gives the impression that the character is dominating, this will be a useful technique to use in a pursuit video.

Costumes

Me and Emiel had a discussion about the various costumes we could use in the video, and we thought it would be good idea for some of us to wear suits. This is because it will add more effect for the end of the video when we will possibly jump in the pool. I also think that this will add some attitude to our band.

Video Ideas

Today in the lesson we discussed possible ideas for our music video. We decided that we didn't want a generic video of the band simply standing in front of the camera playing their song to the audience. We mutually agreed that something along the lines of a race or a pursuit would be 1) Much more entertaining for the audience, and 2) Much more exciting to film, allowing us to be able to use many different techniques and show our ability off as much as we can.

One of the ideas we had, was for maybe the four members of the band to meet in a busy town square area, and for them to run off in different directions, all trying to get to one item before each other member. The video can then cut between all of the members in each of their journeys to the desired item. The members can use all sorts of transport devices such as trains, cars, bikes, quad bikes, skateboards, etc... Once one of the band members gets to the item, they can see that it's not there anymore, and in the distance, a random character has walked off with it. Shortly following this, the rest of the band gradually turn up, and all show their annoyance, for the video then to end.

We feel that the audience will enjoy the idea of this video, it would be much more entertaining to watch, almost comedic in a sense, as it contrast slightly with the genre of the music, similarly to how our band name contrasts with the genre.