Inclusion into Video

In the Halfterm I am know going on a Kitesurfing holiday. This is another filming oppourtunity for us. We can see a kitesurfing videoing themselves. This is another example of an extreme sport that can keep our audience interested in our video. The footage could look really good but does come with some risk. The person has to hold onto both the kite and the GoPro. The camera could be dropped and therefore sink to the bottom of that water. To reduce risk we will ask a professional to film themselves rather than me doing it myself. We will also need to stress the importance of how expensive the GoPro is. this should discourage them from attepting any particualy difficult tricks.

Artist Pictures

 

This shows our artist facing right to left front and back. Te idea behind this was to creat a collage like poster. We could use this as a square for various marketing techniques. Posters, Merchandise and even EP players.

Problems Filming

We have encountered a couple of problems with filming. We had orginally planned to film my cousin and dad, playing in the park and mountain biking respectfully.

The biking fell through due to an injury to my Dad's knee, he would find it very uncomfortable to cycle. This means we have had to substitute him in the filming. We will now fil a classmate on Staurdya 25/10. This means we can get the footage that we need done and ready to edit. The sooner we start to edit the better we can make our production.

The park trip on the other hand fell through as result of date confusion. It means that we will have to film it another day. We have planned to film this on saturday as well. Hopefully we can get two sets of sucessful peices of footage.

Biking Footage

We looked at this footage and unfortunatly we do not think it is appropriate for what we are after. Although the footage could be appropriate for sections of the video we need more shot of both the bikers POV and the biker himself.

We need to film more footage for this section of the video. We want to have the camera videoing the individuals face whilst he's riding downhill.

We will take a visit to Danbury Common in order to capture more appropriate footage. We plan to this on the coming Saturday 25/10/2014.

I still believe we can use a little bit of this footage especially when the weels come close to the camera. I think this is an effective technique to break up the footage, if we have just one type 0of shot it may cause the audience to become quite bored of the footage.

Barcelona Footage

Sarah from our group went on a city break for an art trip to Barcelona. We wanted her to capture various footage such as plane journeys and city life whilst on her trip. She came back with over 5 minutes of footage from her trip, this is a good thing because we have to make 29 seconds of footage and want to have lots of cuts in the video. If there was say 1 minute of footage then it would make the video really slow and boring. I have edited it down to exactly 29 seconds of footage this is a good amount of time for the footage as it does not become broing and keeps the audience interested in the video. We can see from the clip that we need lots of footage to make the video sucessful. We should aim for 5minutes of footage for each recording section. This way we can use lots of jump cuts to keep our audience interested.

Something the group and I are unsure about is if we are leaving the plane shots for to long. I is important for our video that we have lots of short sharp cuts. To achieve this we need plenty of footage. We may look at reducing the plane shots and then increasing the in city shots.

Overall, we are happy with the footage. We see a lot of Sarah whuich is important as we are showing her life and what she is enjoying doing. The whole idea is selfie type shots so this is exactly what we are after.

Album Cover Idea

This was the first draft of our album cover for our Alex Echo record. I came up with the idea of the picture which was edited on photoshop. The reason I used the bright colours on a black background was to make the album stand out. This makes the album stand out when someone is looking through a large amount of CDs. The album and artist name is clearly stated at the top this means the audience can clearly see who the artist is even at a quick glance.

The rest of my group liked the cover put wasn't sure if it was appropriate for the actual album cover. They thought it would be more appropriate to have an image of Alex Echo on the front of the cover. This way the album is more linked to the artist and easier for a fan to find in a shop.

We could still use the cover above for something related to the artist. The back of the album case could be an idea or perhaps even the disc. We would have to consider this at a later date. If we used it as the actual cd picture then it would not have to be adapted. If we instead used it as the back of the cd case then we would have to change it to have the song names on the album. This could be as well or instead of the current text.

GoPro Idea

Song Breakdown

This shows all the natural cuts in the song such as chorus's and instrumentals. We will use this as a guide to help us to decide when we need to introduce a new character. Ideally we would like to have a different scene for each section. The problem with this is that one of the shots will then only last for 1 second. This will not be appropriate for us to introduce a new character. We have the idea of using Dom our main character in peformance style for each of the chorus's, we will most probably just overlap the action into this instrumental to irradicate trying to introduce a new character too quickly.

Storyboard

 

Storyboard Ideas- First Draft

This was our old storyboard ideas, ther are a few problms with our idea such as it is not very clear as to the ideas we have for the video. we did not really think about our timings for example crtain shots such as the mountain biking needs a longer section of the song than the child in the playgroud. We need to work at spacing the shots ou efectivly. We also need to consider shooting the scene from different angles. This is important to get different cuts of the scene so that the film does not become boring, music videos typically have lots of cuts we need to follow suit with this as not to bore our audience. We had not considered the time taken to get the GoPro in and out of the bag. It is a good idea to useohe cameras as well as he GoPo o break up the video. This might be having the bike ride past as stationay camera. This can be quite an effective technique.

When we worked out the real transition timings we realised that one of the clips would be left with just 1 second alloted time. This means we have to adapt our storyboard to correct for this poblem. After drafing the storyboard we will have to make it a lot clearer and irradicate the problem o the 1 second shot.

Shooting Location- Chelmsford Multi-Story Car Park

We would like to use the multi story car park to film the opening shot of our video. This would mean that Alex Echo/Dom Punt will be filming him self just enjoying himself travelling through the car park going up the ramp etc. We then would like for our lead singer to jump from the car, doing this would mean that he would have a high angle shot of the City and we would get a very wide angle shot of the entire skyline. This would mean two completely different shots from the car to the city view. We believe this would be a successful way of introducing the music video. This is because we will be introduced to the lead singer early on and a variety of shots would instantly intrigue the audience.

Shooting Location- Oaklands Park

Oaklands park is another location for our shoot, The 1st picture is a birds eye view of the park and the second is of a new build playground within the park. Our idea is to have a small boy (my cousin) running through the park and into a playground. It gives us a good variance in ages for our video. He will be videoing himself running and then enjoying the playground. This could be using a slide or going on a swing. Whatever it is we need him to be doing his normal day to day thing that he enjoys.

The problem that we may encounter during this shooting section is because my cousin is only 6 it may be hard for him to understand exactly what we are after. The best way to work around this will be to get him to re-film it a lot of times from different angles or perhaps even attaching it to him. We will have to film this shot a lot and most probably use a lot of cuts to make the scene realistic.

Shooting Location- Danbury Common

We want to have a shot of some downhill mountain biking. We have selected Danbury common as our shooting location, It is a popular location for mountain biking. We had the idea of attaching the GoPro to the handle bars of the bike. We would need to attach this probably with some electric tape to ake sure the camera does not come away from the bike. Securing the camera to bike will be the toughest part of the shot this is because we need exactly to right angle in order to get the shot. We need to have it of the cyclists face as he is travelling down the hill. This will also help us to capture the up and down shot. Ideally we would like to see the camera being placed  onto the handle bars by the cyclist however this will be challenging as the tape will be awkward to attach. We would perhaps need to use some editing tricks to make it look like the camera is just being placed onto the handle bars. In the other shots in the video the camera is being held in the person other hand. Due to the extreme nature of the event, it is not possible to hold the camera in one hand as both hands are needed to control the bike.

The first picture i have attached is the actual shooting location compared to the second which is just a generic mountain bike. I have previously been to the area of the common we have used both to recki the course and make sure it is appropriate for our needs. The only thing that could affect our ability to film is previous heavy rain. This would mean large puddles in the dips of the course this would make the course quite dangerous meaning filming would have to be delayed.

Although it is quite a trek for us to reach the common. It will take us roughly 30 minutes to reach it. This does not include setting up test runs and repeating the shot or dealing with problems. This means it is going to take a long time to film the event including travelling so it would be ideal to get the filming done within one recording session.

Shooting Location- Riverside Chelmsford

Riverside, our local swimming pool is a very important shooting location for us we need it for 2 very important shots. The second picture is just a location highlighter. We will not actually be shooting outside the leisure center.

The first picture i have attached to this post is of the diving boards at the leisure center. We have an option of a 1 meter, 3 meter and 5 meter boards. We will most probably film the jump from all 3 board heights. This will allow us to see what angle and water entry we like bets. the shot will include some underwater action which may be more appropriate from specific board heights than others.

Finally, I have included a picture of a water polo player ready to make a shot/pass. We have a friend who i a competitive polo player. We will use him to take a few shots or do some dribbling. We want to have a clear view and snippet of him enjoying his game.

Shooting Location- Barcelona

We have 3 images to represent Barcelona shooting idea. I have included a various idea of shots that we could use. The first is an airplane window we could use this for highlighting a build up to a holiday the girls on the plane ready to leave. They will be filming themselves finding their seats and getting excited for their journey. This can also be during the journey; sky shots of the cloud etc.

The girls can also video themselves during their in-city behavior. This can be drinking coffee amongst other things. I used the image of the cafe to represent this community and intercity living type shot that we would require. This is important as the video needs to represent what people do in there lives. It does not all have to be extreme sports or highly paced.

Finally, i have included a sky line picture of Barcelona. It would be a nice to include a sky line view of the City, This can be from anything from a Ferris wheel or just a tall building. I think a high angle or wide show could be a really good at capturing a city experience as a sky line view is stereotypical of a city break.

Peer Assessment

Audience Questions

How do I consume music?

Do you have a daily routine? Do you listen to certain music at certain times?

Where do you listen to music?

Do I share my music taste?



How do I listen to music?


What are the pleasures with music consumption?

3 Song Ideas to present to group

The ideas I came up with for the group were The Rifles- Go Lucky, Shelter- XX and What If- Bombay Bicycle Club. Both Bombay Bicycle Club and Rifles are both quite similar with regards to video ideas as they are both upbeat and of an indie rock genre. Where as XX is very indie and would require a totally different style of video due to its alternative style.

Song Lyrics

The moon is waiting for me
It finds me feeling all loaded up and alone
With no one there to hold
In the art of my control I found my calling
And I've been fooling out of bars'
There's a banging in my head that aches
And my fingers start to shake like I just gave my heart away

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change I'll better make
I'm stuck and it's not enough
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

And now it's so hard to please, the way I'm feeling
Better buckle up, be all the way, I might just finally chase
All the time of yesterday, will I be leaving
But little things are never wrong
'Cause there's much pretty things like love
Pay little mind, gotta step the game
'Cause it took too long to take a walk down the temple anyway

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change I'll better make
I'm stuck and it's not enough
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

Would've said that I loved you
Would've thought those silly lies
If I could give my world to you
Would it feel like another lie

There's a banging in my head that aches
And my fingers start to shake like I just gave my heart away

One day to another day
I wasn't looking for a change but a change came anyway
I'm stuck like a sitting duck
But if it wasn't for luck then I wouldn't make the same mistakes

The sound of the song sound quite happy however when we analyse the lyrics we do not get this same impression. It comes across as trying to get a girl back. The idea of having to step up the singers game to impress the girl. Due to the upbeat nature of the song we would have to do a fast pace video for it to make sense. It does not especially matter if we do a happy medium as that is what the sound represents. 

I could go and ask her first,
You could try but it won't work,
I don't want my cover blown,
I should do this on my own,

The night has gone,
And I'm walking home,
But I still don't,
I still don't know,

The night has gone,
And I'm walking home,
But I still don't,
I still don't know,

If only, one of us,
Had the guts tonight,

Its so hard to find the silent type,
Someone shy who won't spread the hype,
You're so cold and you're in this crowd,
I am on my way now,

The night has gone,
And I'm walking home,
But I still don't,
I still don't know,

The night has gone,
And I'm walking home,
But I still don't,
I still don't know,

If only, one of us,
Had the guts tonight,

You could go and ask her first,
You could try but it won't work,
I don't want my cover blown,
I should do this on my own,

If only, one of us,
Had the guts tonight,

And what if one of us,
Had the guts tonight,

The lyrics to this song are quite strange they also do not match the upbeat sound of the song. This is a similarity of the two songs that i have already shown. They are both upbeat and fit our idea of picking up a camera and passing it between each other. The song seems as if it is a conversation between to individuals this could be an effective idea for a video a music video. For example you could have the same individual on either side of a wall singing the same son either at the same time or different times. The lyrics are quite alternating so it is important to adapt as the song goes on. 

I find shelter, in this way
Under cover, hide away
Can you hear, when I say?
I have never felt this way

Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on
Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on

Could I be, was I there?
It felt so crystal in the air
I still want to drown, whenever you leave
Please teach me gently, how to breathe

And I'll cross oceans, like never before
So you can feel the way I feel it too
And I'll mirror images back at you
So you can see the way I feel it too

Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on
Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on

Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on

Lastly XX, the sound of the band is completely different to either Bombay Bicycle Club and The Rifle. Their sound is so unique and recognizable that they are very hard to do. The song would take lots of planning and lots of shots to make it successful. I imagine making the video in a very dark environment o even black and white like the album cover. It is important to feature both a man and woman in the song as well to make it realistic. When making a video such as this i think the acting is especially important. I am not sure our group members or even classmates are appropriate for the acting. We may need to outsource this to the older environment. They are quite a sophisticated and minimalistic band. There sound is so noticeable which means they are probably not appropriate for this task. The lyrics and sound to the song are quite depressing which means a totally different focus to the video. The lyrics suggest trying to cope with a problem and needing somebody- each of the songs reference love throughout. For this music video i would not want to see lip sync but a peice of acting instead. The individuals would not have to sing at all just play out a story. 

Lecture with Pete Fraser

Today we had a two hour lecture with Pete Fraser a media teacher who has been in the industry for over 25 years. He gave the entire class tips on how to succeed in their work including the breakdown of the course and how it was important to pick up as much as possible from your digipack blog and other things. He encouraged me to post more on my blog and that it was important to get everything onto our blogs. This will help to give an examiner a clearer understanding of the development of our work and ideas.

He told us that it is important not to get hung up on the band original ideas and looks and that it was important to create our own idea and branding of the product. An interesting idea was that he said that a video does not have to be over-complicated by extravagant ideas. He followed this point up by showing us a video of a song called razorblades in a Radiohead style technique.

In essence the video was just a teenager laying on the pavement singing the song.You could see people walking past and just them going by and him staying still. It was as if the whole world kept moving and he was the only one remaining still. The video also showed him having his shoes and wallet being taken highlighting the fact that people will seize any chance they get to acquire materialistic product. The video was so simple and basic yet incredibly effective. I believe this is how student videos should be. We are not a high budget production so keeping it simple and clear is a good technique for getting the best grades, over complicating the idea causes the video to look quite cheap and tacky.

He also mentioned the power of editing and how it can amek or break a video. This was clearly evident in a video he showed us called "Pop Culture".

It tells a story of a youtubers rise to fame and then crash of losing this fame due to drug related issues. The video is a clever idea and different which is what makes it so successful. The video has clearly taken a lot of editing to make it so swift. So many cuts and pictures of the artist on a massive stage, magazine articles to big stage shows. It is important to stand out when making a video as you want to interest the audience/examiner into seeing something new.

Finally, I spoke to Pete about our idea for the song The Rifles- Go Lucky. He said he liked the song choice and that the fast rhythm to the song could make a good video. I spoke to him about our ideas for the shots and he said that they were interesting and that we would need to film a lot of takes to get it right. He also stressed the importance of encouraging the actors to go for it and push themselves when acting to get the most realistic video possible. Another helpful piece of advice was that it is not imperative to use a GoPro throughout the video. This means that we could vary our shots more dramatically when filming performance. We can use a greater variety of shots and angles to get a more realistic video impression. This is prominent in things such as close ups or panning shots.

This is Pete's presentation in full which will help me as i can refer back to it should i need to reconsider his advice or memory jog anything he told us. 

Textual analysis of 3 music videos

Forms and Conventions
The first video is quite a traditional band and therefore you expect quite a normal and safe video such as a lot of band shots and a big feature of the lead singer. We see this in a lot of band videos and even other videos of this band. The band decides to use a puppet for the entire video. This is quite surprising for a band such as this. The video is showing an aftermath of a car crash with a puppet taking place for a human.

The second video starts off as with what appears to be a recording studio and then develops as the video continues. We see a focus of the boy and the girl and then the development of the rest of the ban for example the orchestra playing violins etc in the background. the video then appears to to be on a stage. The lights begin to change and the camera zooms out from the stage showing the actually performing live to a large theater. the band use a really interesting technique where they focus on someone in the crowd who turns out to be the lead singer who is the only person signing in a completely static audience.

The third is a strange video as it does not seem to match either the speed or tempo of the song. We see various extreme sport such as canyoning and also things like firing fireworkds off the back of a truck. The band is very alternative and indie so we expect something quite strange, making you think and make you question the idea. This however is quite simple and is just some young people enjoying themselves.

Representation

You could argue that the 1st video is exhibitionism are invited to look at the character, not in a sexual way however you are still shown the character at a very dramatic and personal time. The character has invited you in not to be attracted to them but instead to feel sorry for them.

It is hard to find any strong representation in this video the lead singer is not really sexualised or exhibiting herself as she is just performing a regular gig. You could argue that there is a hint of male gaze the woman is shown constantly throughout the video and being an attractive woman we see a lot of panning shots of her which can represent male gaze.

In the final video, Left Hand Free we see a demonstration of both male and female gaze. We see a lot of both sex's in swimwear as they do not know we are looking at them and they are sexualised we can clearly see that they have been sexualised by the video director.

Audience

The band fans will be interested and then again quite surprised by the video. The average band age fan is probably around 30 this means that perhaps the video will not be especially popular. This age market will not be too bothered about music videos and choose t listen to their music on ipods for example it seems a bit of a waste of their time to watch and find the video. It will be more important to the audience for the audio to be better than having an especially good music video. This is a result of being proper music fans and not listening to high budget mainstream music.

The band have recently become popular and have been quite well advertised due to having a lot of money put behind the album this is quite surprising for this type of band as it is not a particularly mainstream or generated sound. It is very much focused around the voice of the lead singer. The audience targeted by this video would be indie music fans. i like the video due to the technique of turning what looks like a studio recording to what looks like a west-end theater. Fans of this new band will be very impressed by the video, i would imagine.

Alt-J have become very popular amongst music fans with having a lot of success with their first album "An Awesome Wave" and recently releasing their new album "This Is All Yours" . The band will of created a strong fan base which will generate success for the new album this audience of Alt-J fans and indie/alternative music fans.

Institution

They are all popular videos which means they will have a varied but relatively large budget. They are difficult for various reasons. The Interpol video would have been difficult to film as it is all animation so would have taken a lot of shots and re-filming in order to complete it. Animations take a long time to complete so therefor will cost a lot of money as it is quite a desired skill to have to have strong animation for the film. London Grammar's video would only have been expensive to create that theater and live feeling for the song. For them to do this would also have been an editing dilemma. The stage is set and looks expensive so the facilities are most probably quite expensive. However as I previously explained the band got a strong financial backing which means that they can afford to be quite extravagant in their music video production and create interesting videos such as this. The Alt-J video is most probably the lowest cost production. The equipment required is not of any great expense and in essence the video is just some young people having a good time in water and driving cars. Nothing of which is of real high risk or great cost to the band.

Breakdown of Go Lucky - The Rifles

0:00 – 0:32   –   Musical Introduction

 

0:32 – 0:54 – First Verse

0:54 – 1:01 – Bridge into chorus

1:02 – 1:12 – Chorus

1:12 – 1:17 – Instrumental

1:17 – 1:39 – Second Verse

1:39 – 1:46 – Bridge into chorus

1:47 – 1:57 – Chorus 2

1:58 – 2:11 – Third Verse

2:11 – 2:44 – Instrumental

2:44 – 2:52 – Bridge into chorus

2:52 – 3:03 – Chorus

3:03 – 3:13 – Chorus 2