Locations

These are the locations that that we were thinking about for our music video. We think these locations can pull off what we were imagining our music video to look like.

 

We are filming some sunset shots and beach shots for our flashback part of the video. We are filming this in Southend as it is the closest beach to us. 

 

We are filming the majority of our flashbacks in London as there are so many places where we can film and make each flashback look like a different place.

 

 

For our performance side of the video we have emailed Chelmsford City Council to see if we are able to use Cramp horn Theatre or Civic theatre, this will enable us to be able to use the stage and the chairs and the lighting to make it look like an actual gig.

 

 

For a few of our shots we are filming in an elevator which is where we will show Katie and myself meeting in our flashback.

Initial Logo Ideas

These are the initial ideas we had on our band logo for 'Loud Summit'. Both of the logo's tried to use the idea of a mountain top as it matches the word 'Summit'. I prefer the second logo as it looks more slick and professional; you could see it as an actual band logo.

Website Research of Similar Bands

The Arctic Monkeys is a similar type of band to two door cinema club, in the way they are dark and mysterious and the genre is indie rock. The website is quite a simple layout and is black and white which signifies their band. They are not into flashy bits and pieces. I like the layout as it is easy to move around the page and get to links easily however for our website, I think we should have a bit more colour to it to make it more exciting to promote our band. All of the links are links that i should think should be included in our website.



I think the Kings Of Leon website is a lot more attractive in the way its set out even though its a similar band to arctic monkeys and ours, it is a lot more colourful which makes it stand out even more, the Facebook and twitter page is clear to see. The layout is a bit more complicated than the arctic monkeys one but it is more interesting. Also on the homepage, we see loads of pictures of them performing which gives us a clearer insight into what kind of band thy are, they have less links but more information on there homepage. Also there layout ties in with our idea of cinematic narrative with flashbacks.



The Kooks website is quite simple on the homepage but because it has more colour it doesn't come across as a tedious website. Their links on the top are very clear and easy to get to. Their homepage promotes their new album in a good way by presenting it in bold on the top of the fold of their homepage.



Imagine Dragons is also a similar band to ours in the way they look and sound, their website as you see it on the homepage is quite dull, however as you scroll down you see a lot more colour and different images and links to take you around their page, the links are very clear which makes it easy for the user to get around the page.

Song Lyrics: Cigarettes In a Theatre

It starts in the theatre, a night of encounters
If I hadn't been there, if not for a cigarette

And you could see it change
Look past the blinding light, look past the blinding light
Just keep talking now
Tell me your favourite things, tell me your favourite things

Difference in opinion was never an issue
Collect all your questions 'cause this time we've all night

And you could see it change
Look past the blinding light, look past the blinding light
Oh, just keep taking now
Tell me your favourite things, tell me your favourite things

And you could see it change
Look past the blinding light, look past the blinding light
Just keep taking now
Tell me your favourite things, tell me your favourite things

Production Diary

21st September - Katie, Max and I pitched our songs to each other and we discussed what we disliked and liked about them and talked about possible ideas if we were to use the song.

22nd September - We pitched the songs to the class to see what they thought about our song choices and our ideas for locations, lighting etc.. They gave us good positive feedback and feedback to help us make our decision.

23rd September - We started to put together our ideas for our song choice, we came up with a range of locations we could film in, what clothes we are going to wear and how the actual music video is going to be put together. We then made a start on our storyboard.

24th September - Katie made a calendar on what days we could do filming and where we are gong, we agreed on Thursday 1st October to go to southend and Saturday 10th October to go to London, we talked about props and needed a projector so we went to the network managers and managed to get a working projector for our video. Me and Max carried on with the storyboard.

25th September - We spent this lesson getting more of our storyboard done, we managed to complete 50 shots on it.

28th September -  We came up with the name of our band which is Loud Summit, I then created the logo for our band which is a mountain with L and S in it. We carried on with our storyboard.

29th September - Katie did the website research and looked at similar artists/bands, she looked at artic monkeys, kings of Leon, imagine dragons and the kooks. I looked at similar bands digipaks to get some ideas on how to make our digipaks looks. Max did research into similar bands to look our looks and their videos. We also did our risk assessment for filming on Thursday.

1st October - We went to Southend for out first bit of filming for our flashbacks. We filmed shots on the beach, in the lift, and in the arcade. We used a variety of different camera shots and at different angles so when it comes to editing we can merge loads of shots together.

2nd October - We had Pete Fraser come in and help us with our music video planning, he gave us some tips on how to make our blogs and videos good. Jake told us about his experience in the media/music industry and how he worked his way up to be a professional editor of many famous songs such as let me entertain you by Robbie Williams. In the afternoon we did performances mimicking this song, we had face paint on and used actual instruments, this allowed us to get a feel of what performing is really like.

5th October - Max put the footage onto the computer ready for editing, which will be edited once we've done the London shots. We also had to change our date for filming in London to the 15th October because Saturday was no longer available for all of us. Katie carried on doing website research and setting up the layout of our website. I chased up the theatre to see if it was available to use.

6th October - We had to carry on with our storyboard to get it finished for our filming.

8th October - We done our risk assessment for London filming. We then did our practice lip syncing videos of our song.

9th October -  We spent this lesson editing our Robbie Williams footage together and blogging about Pete Fraser. this allowed us to get more experience into editing music videos together.

12th October - We heard back from the theatre and it was to expensive for us to film in as it was 100 pound an hour so we had to think of an alternative, so we went and looked at our school hall to see if it was possible to use it. We spent time looking at the lighting in the hall.

13th October -  We did our photo-shoot in the green screen room just to get an idea on what image we are looking for, we also looked up similar band photos to get inspiration. I also did the letter to the artist requesting permission to use their song.

15th October -  We spent the day in London filming more shots for our flashback montage, we went to embankment, convent garden, shard and canary wharf and got loads of different shots. 

16th October - we uploaded our footage and started editing it together as a group, max also did the steel o matic whilst me and Katie went and got a massive piece of wood for our backboard for the flash back, we painted it white.

19th October-  I did the annotated timeline of lyrics whilst me and Max blogged.

20th October -  Me and Katie got a big piece of wood that we painted white for our background when filming our performance, Max finished editing the flashback footage for out performance.

22nd October -  the three of us spent the whole day filming our performance, we set up primmer hall with the drum kit and the microphones and guitars, we decided not to use the white board as it wasn't big enough so we used the curtains to project our flashback onto. we used 5 cameras in different angles, we filmed close ups of all of us using a rip stick skateboard to create smooth shots. We got a few people to come in a sit down so we could film it like a theatre watching out performance. We had to set up our lighting using the light board. We found this very useful cause we used different lighting effects to make each shot look different.

23rd October - We put our footage onto the computer and had a look what we had and then began to edit it.

26th October - I started on the digipak and Katie started on the Website whilst Max did the steel O matic.

27th October - Me and Katie played around with some of the images that we could use on the digipak and I came up with some other song names to put on it, Max carried on editing steel O matic and our video.

29th October - Katie decided we needed to do another photoshoot as we didn't have enough photos that i could use for the website so we decided to do that the following day, Katie carried on with the website and Marcus carried on with the digipak and Max carried on with editing.

30th October - We did our second photoshoot using locations outside to make them look more realistic.

2nd November- Katie used photoshop to edit some of these photos changing the colour, the saturation etc, so I could use them on the website. Max and me carried on with digipak and editing.

3rd November - Katie wasn't here so Max and Me went to a local club and filmed the breakdown of me in there.

4th November - Katie wasn't here again but she carried on with the website, and Max and me carried on editing footage.

5th November - Katie set up a Facebook page and Marcus set up a twitter page.

6th November - We had to do our halfway presentations so I did an emaze powerpoint on what we had so far.

9th November - We then presented these to our class and we got feedback on what we could change about our website, digipak etc.

10th November - We took on board our feedback and our main criticism was colour so we matched the colour of the website and digipak together to make it flow with each other.

12th November - Max did a trailer for our video, me and Katie did the website and digipak.

13th November - We Changed our logo because our other one looks to childish and cartoony so we made something more simple.

16th November - I came up with an album name, 'amplify' and carried on with the digipak, Max edited and I did the website.

17th November -  I made some merchandise using simple base designs from the internet, he made t-shirts, backpacks, hats, vinyls etc. I blogged and Max edited.

19th November -  Me and Katie worked on the logo and I came up with the idea that we could make it into a wave form video so I worked out how to do this on premiere. Max edited.

20th November - Me and Katie took a few photos of guitars and him with a guitar to use on our digipak.

23rd November - Katie put the merchandise into our store on the website and carried on making the website, Max edited, I did the digipak.

24th November - We decided our footage wasn't good enough for our music video so we decided to re film our performance on the Friday. So we stopped editing and planned our filming.

26th November - Katie and Max filmed our storyboard so we could edit that, we also did our interview on radio one. I continued with the digipak

27th November - We filmed our performance again in Primmer using different lighting, different camera angles, and put more enthusiasm into so we looked more like performers.

30th November - Katie did some tour dates poster research and began making our own poster, I started a magazine article and Max started editing our new performance in.

1st December - We watched the other groups videos and gave feedback on them.

3rd December - We looked at the other groups websites and digipaks and gave feedback on them, Katie then carried on with the website, making improvements, I made a wave animation, Max edited.

4th December - Katie carried on with the website, Max edited and I did the digipak.

7th December - Katie got feedback from Miss Brookes for my website and made improvements based on the feedback, I finished the magazine article and Max edited.

8th December - Katie blogged, I blogged and Max edited.

10th December - We all got together and looked at the video and gave our input, Max and I edited. Katie finished the website.


11th December - Max finished the video, Me and Katie blogged and finished the digipak.

Song Ideas

Me, Max and Katie all came up with a song and pitched them to each other. Max came up with Cigarettes in the Theatre, I came up with Fast Fuse by Kasabian and Katie came up with Two Minds by Nero.



This song was Max's idea, at first I liked the song but I wasn't sure how it would work in a music video because of its really long intro. But after Max pitched his idea of the narrative I started to really like the idea. This is the song we chose in the end.



This was my song choice. I felt the song was quite a good idea because of its fast pace, we could have packed lots of editing in which could get us lots of marks. However this song didn't have a narrative to it, it was based more on performance which was something we didn't want to do.



This was Katie's idea. I liked the idea of the 'Two Minds' which we could have done lots of creative editing for with cloning. However this song already had a music video and therefore wasn't available to use.

Audience Research

For audience research I set up a Survey Monkey asking people what they like in music videos, these are the answers I got:

As you can see, 76.19% of people who answered said they liked music videos, which is what I expected as music videos are very popular at the moment.



This question was asking people what music genres they like. As you can see pop is the most popular of all the genres with indie closest behind. Again this makes sense as pop is the most popular genre of music at the moment.



66.67% of people decided that they like to see dancing in music videos.



Just over 70% of people who answered my questionnaire said they like to see they star singer in the music video, which takes away the option of doing an animated music video or a music video based on totally narrative.



Slightly more people like to see a story going on in a music video, which supports the possibility of integrating a narrative into the music video.



Unsurprisingly most people like to see multiple locations in music videos, which is something I will consider in my music video.



Most people like to see action or something interesting going on in music videos.



The most popular answer on the colours is nothing puts you off which is good because it means I don't have to restrict myself when thinking about colour schemes in my music video.



As you can see the result of this question is very even which means its a good idea to use effects, but not to the extreme.


Just over 60% of people said they didn't like humour in a music video, which means I should avoid using humour in my music video.

Rough Logo Idea

Characteristics of Indie Rock Bands

Indie rock, derived from “independent”, describes the small and relatively low budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences.The influences and styles of the artists has been very different,rock and country.The terms alternative rock and indie rock were used interchangeably in the 1980s, but after many alternative bands followed Nirvana into the mainstream in the early 1990s it began to be used to distinguish those bands, working in a variety of styles, that did not pursue or achieve commercial success. 

What Music Means to Me

Mambo No 5

This song was part of my young childhood, it was played at every kids party and everyone liked it.



Boom Boom Pow

This song was number one in the charts for a very long time during the middle of my life, it was very popular and therefore the most significant song of this time,




Crying Lightning

This is my favourite song at the moment and therefore the most significant in my life right now.

Digipak Research

Digipak from bowringmarcus

Chosen song: Cigarettes in a Theater

Theater Sketch

This is a sketch of what the theatre scene in our music video could look like

Logo Colour Schemes (Loud Summit)

Prelim Task Original Music Video

All of our class got placed into groups of 4 in order to copy a music video we were given to improve our research into music videos. Our group got given 'She and Him in the Sun'

Prelim Prop List

Tom - Navy skirt, blouse, brown wig, tights and belt
Jimmy - blue scar, jumper and jeans
Marcus - geeky jumper. books, folder and sunglasses
Katie - normal clothing, skirt.

Lyrics to 'She and Him in the Sun'

"In The Sun"

It's hard to be ignored
When I look at you, you look so bored
My baby, my darling, I've been takin' a beating

Well, all right (Well, all right)
It's okay (It's okay)
We all get the slip sometimes every day
I'll just keep it to myself
In the sun
In the sun

It's hard to take the blame
When I look at you, you're so ashamed
My baby, my darling, I've been thinkin' of leaving

Well, all right (Well, all right)
It's okay (It's okay)
We all get the slip sometimes every day
I'll just keep it to myself
In the sun
In the sun

Well, all right (Well, all right)
It's okay (It's okay)
We all feel ashamed sometimes every day
I'll just keep it to myself
In the sun
In the sun

Recce Shots

 

 

These are the possible locations that we can shoot our music video. We tried to find locations that matched the original music video 'She and Him in the Sun'. This way we could make the music video as accurate to the original as possible. The library was pictured as we thought this would be a suitable area to shoot the section in the video where they are in a library. Also the lockers/hallway was a good location as this matched the hallway in the original music video.

Pictures of filming/planning

Prelim Production Diary

My Song Presentation, Kasabian - Fast Fuse

Practice Lip Synching

Audience

Music Video Analysis

The music video opens with a shot of a dog's shadow, something that is used repeatedly throughout the video. The shot lasts for six seconds, keeping in pace with the slower build up of the song's opening.

The video cuts in time with the beat of the music to the back of the dog's head to show the red van driving past. This is the first red object to be seen in the video and this colour is a subtle theme all throughout the rest of the video.

There are several similar shots here of this character in the video that shows his importance to the narrative of the video. Again the colour red is used.

Here is a n example of thought beats being used in the video. At this point in the song the bass drops and this is done perfectly in time with the ice cream man taking a bite out of an ice cream cone.

As the pace of the song picks up the amount of cuts used increases, showing multiple shots of the ice cream truck from similar angles. Even though the same thing is being shown, the increase in the number of cuts is used to ensure that the pace of the video keeps up with the song.

Again, keeping in pace with the song a lingering shot is used here as the music slows down briefly. This shot is also an example of the lyrics matching what is being shown on screen. The way the kid is moving his hand implies that he's touching something and this matches up with the lyric "feel" being sung at this time.

Cuts in a Music Video

In comparison to the film opening I made at AS, a music video has a lot more cuts as it has to keep up with a music track. To really compare the two I looked at the first 30 cuts of a music video to see how long it took to reach that amount. I have taken a screenshot everytime a cut was used in the music video for the song, Chelsea Dagger, and it reached that number in 44 seconds. This is a drastic change from a film opening which rarely reach that number of cuts through the entirety of the opening.

The video uses a mix of close up shots of the band, enforcing a star image to the viewer. There also a few wide shots, showing the instruments being used, letting the viewer know that the music is being played in the video, as opposed to over the top of it. There are also examples of voyeurism in the video as there are girls shown with less clothes on than the male performers as well as close ups of them, despite not being part of the band and having no star image to convey.

History of Music Videos

Student Video Making - What Level 4 Requires

Level 4- 32-40 marks

The Candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of the following technical skills:

-Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene.

-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use o shot transitions, captions and other effects.

-Recording and editing sound with images appropriately

-Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.

Music Video Narrative

This video opens with two apparent friends fighting each other on the bank of a lake. One of them slips into the lake and is sucked under by the current of a river that runs off it. The music video then follows his thoughts while unconscious underwater. It then ends with the other friend from the start pulling him out of the water and saving him from drowning, showing that they have made up. The video uses a mix of close ups to show the action at the start, as well as close ups on faces to show the character's reactions to the events of the narrative much like a film would. For other parts of the video, a lot of wide shots were used, sometimes to establish the locations and showing characters doing actions in a way that is clear to the audience. This shows that music videos that are heavily pushing a narrative use similar methods of doing so as films.

Digipak/Website 4 Artists

Representations

Hoes
Girls costumes are mainly bikini's, they are shown as objects to show off the men in this video. You don't see much of their faces, showing that they are only there for their body's. their facial expressions and actions are quite sexual.



Pop Princess
The pop princess is fully clothed, their audience is young teenage girls. Throughout the video you mainly see facial shots of the pop princess because they focus more on the star profile of the artist. Their facial expressions are quite normal yet smiley and cringey.


Diva
The Diva is a star who is shown to be powerful and the most important person in the video. There are generally lots of shots looking up and down the artist to make them seem big and imposing. There are quite often lots of silhouettes and out of focus shots because the star is so big that you would recognise them anyway. only very large stars such as Rihanna can pull of the diva image.

Previous Successful A2 Music Videos

What struck me first about this music video was the camera quality. This video shows that the camera quality can really have a big influence on the overall quality of the video. If you compare this video to the others you can really tell the difference, it looks like its very professionally done. Another factor that really impressed me was the acting by the star members of the music video. They really pulled off a convincing performance throughout the whole video. Lastly I like the way the cuts of the music video slowed down during the instrumental, as they were reacting to the pace of the music video.

What I liked about this music video was the overall creativity of it and the narrative that made the music video more interesting. The artistic still shots looked really nice and I thought it was a really creative touch to make the music video more impressive.

Music Video Analysis - Concept

This is the music video for 21st Century breakdown. The whole video is done in a strange almost stop frame animation style of photographs made to look as though they are spray painted onto a wall. There are no cuts in this video as the camera simply moved around the wall and the paintings move around to show what's happening. This video contains no narrative but instead presents lots of imagery and symbolism to convey the message of the song. It shows planes flying over industry buildings dropping bombs in the shape of dollars and there are lots of people in suits shown arguing throughout the video. The video is very abstract and uses this to fit with the meaning of the song. There is typography in this video, that highlight important lyrics of the song, sometimes in a colour other than black and white to emphasize that particular line to the audience. All the different parts of the video are meant comment on society while the song points moves at a very fast pace through them, possibly to enforce the "breakdown" in the title of the song.

Star Profile (Alex Turner)

Prelim Task Evaluation

1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I worked with Tom Richardson, Jimmy Allway and Katie Harragan. We managed the task quite well between each other, I did a lot of the camerawork and I did some acting, whilst doing some of the tasks, such as writing down the lyrics. Tom did some of the acting and a lot of the editing. Katie did some of the acting and a lot of the earlier tasks of the prelim. Jimmy did some acting and some editing. So overall we managed ourselves quite evenly across each task of the prelim.  

2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use?
We took some recce shots of the possible locations that we could use for our prelim tasks to give us a good image of what location would work well to match each scene. We learnt the lyrics of our song in order to make sure we didn't keep forgetting lyrics, saving time whilst filming the task. We created a props list, meaning everyone knew what they needed to take in to filming, so there's no confusion when trying to remember props.

 3) What theories could you apply to the video you chose?

4) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

5) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

6) How successful was your music video copy? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently? What did others say about your production?

7) What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your music video, do you think?

8) How does it compare with filming an opening to a film?

9) What are your strengths and weaknesses as a group member?

10) Looking at the other group's videos which do you think were most successful and why?

Prelim Task

Banana Phone Edit

For this video I tried to experiment with different editing techniques that could come in useful later on in my coursework such as cloning, reversing and stop motion. These techniques can make my final video more original and complex, therefore making it more interesting.

 

Practice Edit

With this edit I wanted to experiment with cutting some video clips to a song. This helped me get some good practice into the use of thought beats.