Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video
Style:
Most indie bands, such as Interpol and Editors, have videos with fast cuts and quick tempo, these videos want to advertise their band and ignore entertaining.
Our song is slow and melancholy which encourages us to concentrate on Mise en Scene and to ignore pace and editing, the shot length can fluctuate as long as the image is powerful. Our slow theme will conform to many conventions in films and documentaries but will subvert from the fast cuts of indie videos like Editors or Interpol.
We also made a Steelomatic to show our influences and inspirations of our product:
Genre Conventions:
From the research and planning labels you can see that we looked at other videos in our indie genre, we took inspiration from the 1975 videos, with black and white moody performances and conceptual narrative, the creative shots in Cough Cough by Everything Everything inspired our product as we used a number of unusual shots such as the underwater worms eye view. We were able to subvert from modern indie videos into a natural river setting similar to the location of Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. This natural location challenges black and white conventions in the genre and creates our own image. We imagined that our band would have a strange and alternative theme, we used the bath and the blood to promote this idea and give our brand individuality which is difficult in the indie genre as a number of bands try to escape trends in their videos.
Narrative:
When researching other videos like Come with me know by KONGOS, narrative generally cuts between performance and narrative, this gives the video a story element but still differentiating the video with the concept themes. We decided to conforms to these conventions as we were able to challenge video themes with camera angles and mise en scene. Therefore our videos is a mixture or performance shots in the river and conceptual scenes in the bath and underwater.
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| Performance |
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| Concept |
Digipak
Below are examples of other real life products, the black and white theme runs consistently and we were inspired b the simple but creative colours. One example is catfish and the Bottlemen, with a simple stencil which has as powerful and controversial message. These covers, such as the XX is simple but has a strong synergy with their logo, website and advertising campaign.
Below is a video that shows annotations of our digipak as well as comparing it to other real media products.
Website
This is a Photobucket showing the research into similar bands websites. The popular themes in these websites are the simplicity, most of the front pages have just the album cover and a link to social media outlets, we were able to challenge this convention by creating an interesting sea background that links to the water theme of our video.
This website lay out had ideas i wanted to incorporate into the website i am currently making. The website keeps all navigation around the website at the top of the page above a picture/video of the band. I liked the idea of this website deign as it highlights similar areas in which our band is also trying to get across. The dark background used here could give off dark themes to the band and connects to our concept thought process. We have looked to keep our website simple to add effect to it like you can see in the artic monkeys site below.
Our simple tour page complies with simple page conventions, the idea is that the information is the exciting not the layout.
The gallery page has general conventions as there are only a limited number of ways to display pictures, this suggests our page conforms with gallery page conventions.
It is important that a band website has purchasing opportunities for fans which will make the band money from merchandise such as t-shirts and mugs. Another important element is interactivity such as buttons and links to social media and videos. We have used many conventions in a product as we have concentrated on buttons and simplicity.
In summary we have used conventions with regards to the website and the link between narrative and concept, however we challenged conventions with our mise en scene and the digipak. Black and white theme is common in the digipak which we developed in our products by incorporating colour and different levels of saturation. The video subverts conventions with the shot length and the editing style.
Final Digipack
After some serious thoughts we decided that we still weren't happy with the digipack so we decided to change it, adding a few different images in it. As we are an Indie band it is essential to keep the black and white theme running throughout the digipack so we made sure we kept ever panel in black and white. We made sure we mentioned a special thanks to all the people that helped make our album as it further enhances the professional edge to our production. The song list was changed as previously we didn't like the font used as it was extremely hard to understand and also it wasn't positioned center of image. The CD cover was changed as previously it was too basic as there was just an image off of Google images of the sea, making it look easy and babyish. Whereas in this one Will used Photoshop to create a mist going over the CD, showing a lot more creativity and originality.
Student Reflection
What I feel I did well when filming
7th October - On this day we went to get some conceptual footage for our video. This meant that we went to war road car park as we needed to get water from the river to put into the bath. I feel that I worked well as a team player to sort out the resources needed as I was in charge of getting the water from the river to the bath. I adopted the role of the photographer for the most part in this filming day and some excellent photos were taken.
14th October - We needed to get another shot of Me drumming on this day. I worked especially well here as this footage was some of the only footage of me being in time to the beat this is because i had learnt when i needed to drum and this lead us to some good results.
18th November - On this day we went to get shots of bottles smashing, so we could put them into slow motion in our video. I worked well here as I came up with different types of shot angles to capture the best footage possible
Even better if
On each of the filming days I feel that I could have helped more with ideas. As a lot of the time I left it down to Will to decide what types of shots we would get. Also we suffered from the battery's to the cameras running out a lot due to my lazy self not checking to see if they we charged. Therefore obviously I would need to ensure they were charged if I were to improve on my filming qualities.
7th October - On this day we went to get some conceptual footage for our video. This meant that we went to war road car park as we needed to get water from the river to put into the bath. I feel that I worked well as a team player to sort out the resources needed as I was in charge of getting the water from the river to the bath. I adopted the role of the photographer for the most part in this filming day and some excellent photos were taken.
14th October - We needed to get another shot of Me drumming on this day. I worked especially well here as this footage was some of the only footage of me being in time to the beat this is because i had learnt when i needed to drum and this lead us to some good results.
18th November - On this day we went to get shots of bottles smashing, so we could put them into slow motion in our video. I worked well here as I came up with different types of shot angles to capture the best footage possible
Even better if
On each of the filming days I feel that I could have helped more with ideas. As a lot of the time I left it down to Will to decide what types of shots we would get. Also we suffered from the battery's to the cameras running out a lot due to my lazy self not checking to see if they we charged. Therefore obviously I would need to ensure they were charged if I were to improve on my filming qualities.
Student Video Marking
Grade 35/40
The reason I have given this grade is due to the editing. The editing is very slick and professional as shown through the moving images being made into a cartoon strip and also the lyrics being shown when they are sung for example when 'INDEPENDENT' is spelled out. Also the shot quality is quite good as the images are bright and not pixelated, which is a challenge to overcome. The editing also cuts on the beats and this enables the group to hide some poorly filmed sections effectively.
Improvements
I feel that this video could be improved if the shot location changed a couple more times as it became repetitive seeing london as the areas they shot in did all look similar and this lead to it being repetitive. The members could also try and improve their lip syncing however this was not a major issue.
Website Research
James has been in charge of the websites design and we have decided to to follow suit with bands that are similar to us. The websites are neat and tidy and give information about the bands, tour and gig dates. We decided that our website would:
- Show where we're touring
- Give information about the band
- Have a gallery
- Look Professional
- Promote the band
- Have links to our social network sites
Group Availibility
This is our group availability timetable for the months October and November and as you can see each day has each of our names and the letter Y or N. The letter Y means that the member is available and the letter N means the member is not available.
Shooting Scedual
First shoot - 7th October 2015
- What we want to achieve - Shots of James and Ben in the bath of blood - Conceptual
- High shots of James bathing in the blood lasting for 3 seconds
- Mid shots of Ben spitting the water out of the bath over the camera lasting for 2 seconds
- Tracking close up of James holding a beer bottle out of the bath lasting for 3 seconds
- Long shot of James smashing a beer bottle against a lamp lasting for 2 seconds
- Long shot of Ben singing whilst getting bloody water poured over him lasting for 5 seconds
- Mid, high shot of Ben on the floor whilst bloody water is poured over him
Second Shoot - 13th October 2015
- What we want to achieve - Shots of the band performing in the river Wid in Widford - Performance
- Long shot of the band performing lasting for 5 seconds
- Long, panning high shot of the band performing lasting for 2 seconds
- Long shot of the bands equipment set up in the river lasting for 5 seconds
- Long shot of the band standing together acting natural lasting for 3 seconds
- Long shot of the band walking through a field, getting closer to the camera lasting for 4 seconds
- Mid shot of the band walking in the river away from the camera lasting for 5 seconds
- Close up of each of the band member performing in the river
Third Shoot - 15th October 2015
- What we want to achieve - Shots of James floating in a swimming pool - Conceptual
- Low shot of James floating above the camera, lasting for 3 seconds
- Close up of James underwater looking directly into the camera lasting for 2 seconds
- Close up of James screaming under water again looking directly into the camera lasting for 2 seconds
- Mid shot of James singing underwater looking into the camera lasting for 2 second
Fourth Shoot - 19th October 2015
- What we want to achieve - Shots of each band member singing the entire song - Performance
- Close up of James singing the whole song into the camera
- Close up of Ben singing the whole song into the camera
- Close up of Steve singing the whole song into the camera
Fifth Shoot - 30th October 2015
- What we want to achieve - A shot of James walking to the camera whilst a girl stood in front of the camera - Conceptual
- Long shot of James walking to the camera whilst Aimee stood in front of it, making James look like a stalker, lasting for 4 seconds
Sixth Shoot - 6th August 2015
- What we want to achieve - A shot of Ben looking into the camera a light moves around his face
- Close up of Ben looking directly into the camera whilst a light moves around his face making it seem as if his face is changing, creating a sinister look, lasting for 5 seconds
Seventh Shoot - 12th August - 2015
- What we want to achieve - James singing the song whilst lying down in the middle of the road - Performance
- Long shot of James laying down in the middle of the road lasting for 4 seconds
Eight Shoot - 14th August - 2015
- What we want to achieve - shots of Steve drumming in a field
- Panning, mid shot of Steve drumming lasting for 2 seconds
- Tracking, mid shot of Steve drumming lasting for 3 seconds
- Close to long shot of Steve drumming lasting for 5 seconds
- Long to close up shot of Steve drumming lasting for 4 seconds
Ninth Shoot - 17th November - 2015
- Various shots of the band in a local park - Narrative and Conceptual
- Low shot of the band walking over the camera lasting for 4 seconds
- Long shot of the band walking past the camera lasting for 4 seconds
- Close up, underwater shot of James stepping into the water, lasting for 3 seconds
- Long, panning shot of the band standing in the middle of the park, lasting for 3 seconds
Tenth Shoot - 18th November - 2015
- Various shots of bottles smashing - Conceptual
- High shot of bottle dropping and smashing, lasting for 2 seconds
- Close up of bottle smashing in front of the camera lasting for 2 seconds
- Long shot of a rock being thrown and smashing a bottle lasting for 4 seconds
Steal-o-matic
This steal-o-matic is created from all the different types of shot and locations which we want to incorporate into our music video, these shots vary from long shots to close ups and reverse shots these shots also include a swimming pool and a river as these are things that we want to incorporate into the music video.
Parody of Genre Video
This is a parody version of Adele's Hello and as you can see they have copied the real music video very effectively and by doing so they have stuck to conventions for example the lyrics and visuals are linked and this is one of the things Andrew Goodwin comments about that makes a good music videe. This music video is also fairly slow paced and this means there is no need for fast paced transitions and this means that this parody is successful.
Annotated Lyrics
Prior to the lyrics in the song, there is 20 seconds were the music is building in volume and rhythm. This atmospheric music is where we plan to use artistic and original master shots to grab the attention of the audience. This includes the close up of James underwater shouting towards the camera.
If you don't wonder off
I'm so excited for the night
All we needs my bike and you're enormous house
When I'm Closer to your height
Till then we'll knock around
What time you coming down?
We started losing light.
I'll never make it right
If you don't want me around,
I'm so excited for the night,
All we need's my bike and your enormous house
You said some day we might
When I'm closer to your height
'Til then we'll knock around, endlessly
You're all I need
Don't you see me now?
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you,
Don't you need me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you,
And on this night and in this light,
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Maybe you'll change your mind
I think I'm falling, I think I'm falling
I'm caught on your coat again
You said, "Oh, no, it's fine,"
I read between the lines
And touched your leg again, again
I'll take you one day at a time,
Soon you will be mine,
Oh but I want you now (I want you now)
When the smoke is in your eyes,
You look so alive,
Do you fancy sitting down with me? Maybe?
You're all I need
According to your heart,
My place is not deliberate,
Feeling of your arms
I don't wanna be your friend,
I wanna kiss your neck
Don't you see me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Don't you need me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
And on this night and in this light
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Maybe you'll change your mind
What time you coming down?
With the opening lyrics I hope to show the performance element of our video. Using an extreme wide shot, the band will be playing in the river and singing the lyrics. This will act as our stabilising shot and will last roughly two seconds. This will show viewers who the band are and what there role is.
We started losing light
For this line we hope to use a time lapse. The shot will show the day fading into the night. The video will last an hour and a half but will be cut down to roughly two seconds. For this shot we will be using a GoPro which will be fixed into position taking an extreme wide shot.
I'll never make it right
We imagine that these lyrics will be accompanied by a performance section from the river. Although it may be possible to cut to close ups of James singing this section.
If you don't wonder off
With these lyrics is a drumbeat that is separate from the rhythm of the song. We want to use this drum as a way to jump cut from the performance to wide underwater shots.
I'm so excited for the night
We hope to use extreme close ups with these lyrics.
All we needs my bike and you're enormous house
These lyrics are fast paced and we plan to get one of the band members to cycle in front of a mansion. This will create a graphic match to the song as well as matching our original and concept theme. We plan to distort viewers depth perception by riding the bike very close to the camera in order to make the bike huge and the mansion look small.
You said some day we might
You said some day we might
When I'm Closer to your height
For these lyrics we hope to use depth perception in our shot as James walks towards a girl so to get closer to her height as the song suggests. These lyrics suggest that he is intrigued by a girl who is older than him and he needs to grow up to be with this person.
Till then we'll knock around
What time you coming down?
We started losing light.
I'll never make it right
If you don't want me around,
I'm so excited for the night,
All we need's my bike and your enormous house
You said some day we might
When I'm closer to your height
'Til then we'll knock around, endlessly
You're all I need
Don't you see me now?
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you,
Don't you need me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you,
And on this night and in this light,
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Maybe you'll change your mind
I think I'm falling, I think I'm falling
I'm caught on your coat again
You said, "Oh, no, it's fine,"
I read between the lines
And touched your leg again, again
I'll take you one day at a time,
Soon you will be mine,
Oh but I want you now (I want you now)
When the smoke is in your eyes,
You look so alive,
Do you fancy sitting down with me? Maybe?
You're all I need
According to your heart,
My place is not deliberate,
Feeling of your arms
I don't wanna be your friend,
I wanna kiss your neck
Don't you see me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Don't you need me?
I, I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
And on this night and in this light
I think I'm falling, I'm falling for you
Maybe you'll change your mind
Website Planning
James has been in charge of the website and because of this He has been looking into a number of bands and their website from this He has decided to follow the same layout as bands that are similar to our own. James aims for the website to look neat and tidy and to provide information about the band and tour dates.
We want the website to show
We want the website to show
- Touring locations
- Band Information
- Photos of the Band
- Links to Social Networking sites
More inspiration for our Video
While we have been filming our music video we have always been on the lookout for anything we think we could include to make the video better. Will spotted Jake Bugg's video 'Two Fingers' and really liked the shot where the mic stand was in focus but the singer was slightly out of focus causing their face to look blurry. We all decided this looked good as it added a element of mystery as to who the performer is and this would help create more enigma code and more of a concept theme.
Logo second draft
Ben created this new logo after looking at his feadbck he decided to stick with the letter N and I working together but he decided to do this in a more subtle way which looks professional when placed upon the No Individual. This logo clearly shows the name of our band while also looking good meaning it would be able to be used on merchandise helping to spread the band name.
Logo First Draft
This is the first draft of our logo, Ben was looking to create a logo that was simple and easily recognisable but also gave the band identity. Ben showed the logo to a number of other students and received the following information.
Positives
- Simple and Effective
- The indie genre is extremely apparent
- Clever manipulation of the letter N and I
- Good use of font, typical indie font.
Weaknesses
- The letter I is grainy on the edges
- From a distance the logo just looks like the letter N
- The band isn't big enough to have the initials as the logo as people don't know who you are
- Not very imaginative.
Logo Reserch
The logo is a very important thing to a band we wanted to create something that is simple and easily recognisable yet something different.
Looking at other indie band logos was our staring point and we came across Lix - records for their logo they have used their initials to form a simple yet effective logo which we would bear in mind for when we create our own. Looking towards other indie logos there was a standout theme of black and white and this is something we want to re create as we are a indie band and we feel that a simple black and white logo is the way to go. Below are a few of the logos we found and these will form the base of our own No Individual logo
Website
First Draft
This is the first draft of our website which James is creating we all feel that this is a strong start and that the finished product is going to be a true gem. The website was viewed by fellow students and they have provided us with valuable feedback as to what they like and dislike.
The positive feeback is listed below
- Colours look good and they go with the digipack and music video
- Love the moving background of the water
- Social media links stand out which is good
- The short Bio's on the band members are good
- Band image is portrayed well
The negative feedback is listed below
- The home page is boring as there is no background to it because of this it doesn't draw attention
- There should be an image with each band members Bio
- Moving water background needs to be on all pages
- Need a merchandise page
This is the first draft of our website which James is creating we all feel that this is a strong start and that the finished product is going to be a true gem. The website was viewed by fellow students and they have provided us with valuable feedback as to what they like and dislike.
The positive feeback is listed below
- Colours look good and they go with the digipack and music video
- Love the moving background of the water
- Social media links stand out which is good
- The short Bio's on the band members are good
- Band image is portrayed well
The negative feedback is listed below
- The home page is boring as there is no background to it because of this it doesn't draw attention
- There should be an image with each band members Bio
- Moving water background needs to be on all pages
- Need a merchandise page
Falling for You
First Draft
This is the first draft for our music video of the song 'Falling for You'. We showed this draft to teachers and fellow students in the hope of good quality feedback and the honest truth in what people thought because without being told what people don't like there is no way we can improve and create a quality video.
This is the list of positive feedback we received from our video.
- Lots of enigma codes which is good as it keeps me interested
- High quality shots, really like water shots
- Good range of different shots
- Clever effects when James is swimming
- Clever cuts to the beat
- Good shot of reverse water splashing Ben
This is the list of negative feedback we received from our video.
- First shot is shaky even after stabilising it
- Cuts too quickly for a slow song
- Don't like contrast from swimming pool to river to road
- One beat doesn't cut on time
- Shot of Ben walking towards the camera is too long
This is the first draft for our music video of the song 'Falling for You'. We showed this draft to teachers and fellow students in the hope of good quality feedback and the honest truth in what people thought because without being told what people don't like there is no way we can improve and create a quality video.
This is the list of positive feedback we received from our video.
- Lots of enigma codes which is good as it keeps me interested
- High quality shots, really like water shots
- Good range of different shots
- Clever effects when James is swimming
- Clever cuts to the beat
- Good shot of reverse water splashing Ben
This is the list of negative feedback we received from our video.
- First shot is shaky even after stabilising it
- Cuts too quickly for a slow song
- Don't like contrast from swimming pool to river to road
- One beat doesn't cut on time
- Shot of Ben walking towards the camera is too long
Magazine Article
First Draft
This is Ben's first attempt at the magazine article, he showed us the article during the session and asked for feedback in order for him to improve the article and get another step closer to the final product. Our article is on the left and the professional article is on the right. The feedback Ben received allowed Him to realise the formatting wasn't quite correct just yet and there was a lacking amount of text.
Second Draft
The second draft of the magazine article saw Ben look to improve the content and the typeface, He found that when the article was printed the words came out too small for anyone to read because of this he looked to improve this by making the writing larger. The bullet pointed column is where ben received feedback on this draft because as you can see the spacing is too large because of this Ben will need to improve the spacing and include more information.
Third Draft
This is Ben's third draft of the magazine article and as you can see there is a great improvement in the amount of text on the main article this is apparent in the way it looks as a final product because it visually looks full and because of this it matched the Radar article perfectly because of this we know the visuals are correct. Ben has improved the way the text fits around photographs and the drop capital making the article look professional.
Magazine Research
Ben has been put in charge of creating our magazine article which will help to promote us as a new and emerging band because of this he conducted a lengthily research programme.
Ben looked closely at the NME magazines to find out how articles are structured and how they read. Articles speak about basic facts about the bands for example when bands were created and why they came together because of this for our article Ben would need to include facts about our band. From his research he also found that the font is generally basic usually in the Roman Times Numeral.
Ben looked closely at the NME magazines to find out how articles are structured and how they read. Articles speak about basic facts about the bands for example when bands were created and why they came together because of this for our article Ben would need to include facts about our band. From his research he also found that the font is generally basic usually in the Roman Times Numeral.
Story Board
We are following a story board to help ensure we get all the shots we want and to help us decide what needs filming in what different locations below is a photo of the story board in use where we are discussing what needs filming so we can then put together a shooting schedule to ensure we don't miss any shots while we are on location.
Digipack Update
The digipack has been causing some trouble as we know what kind of photo we want for the main cover and this being something surrounding water however we haven't been able to take a photo like this and because of this we will need to grab some good stills cameras and snap away until we find something we are all happy with.
The use of photoshop to create the digipack has enabled me personally to become more familiar with the software and what it is able to do because of this we are able to make the best use of the effects and edit the photos to give them the slightly eery concept feeling.
The use of photoshop to create the digipack has enabled me personally to become more familiar with the software and what it is able to do because of this we are able to make the best use of the effects and edit the photos to give them the slightly eery concept feeling.
Magazine
We realised that there are a number of magazines devoted to the music industry and because of this we decided we needed to create a magazine article which could feature and work to advertise our new song. Ben was given the job of creating this magazine article and he first started by printing out NME Radar and he then began to annotate the magazine to find out what we need to include in our own.
Website first draft
James has been asked with creating our band website. He is looking around at other bands websites to try and see how successful bands advertise themselves online, as a group we aren't great at web design however this isn't showing as James is doing a great job of including social media icons onto the website and he is in the process of adding photo albums to show the stages of filming and the different locations we used.
Band Names
These are the band names that we came up with during one of our production meetings some of which were in all honesty pretty naff however the name we decided to go with No Individual was one of the good names to come from this brainstorm.
- Gas Panic
- Jen and the Manetee's
- Dovedales
- Not for human consumption
- clockwork orange
- Tomato omato
- royale with cheese
- outpost 31
- fiddy bucks
- clarance
- wet breams
- Three B's
- gas-mark
- No individual
- Saving James
Video Inspiration 3
Alt-J Breezeblocks this music video offers a whole host of inspirational material because the video is filmed and then is played in reverse because of this there are a larde number of reverse action shots where bottles are smashed and then return to whole, this is something i would like to incorporate into our video as it shows editing skills. The other piece of inspiration i have drawn from this clip is where the woman is lying in the bath with the water turned red like blood this is something I would like to attempt because i feel that if this was done right this could be a hugely effective shot and would open up the video to a concept theme therefore making it something different to what the examiners have seen before.
Video Inspiration 2
The next video I draw inspiration from is the song 'Thinking Out Loud' from Ed Sheeran. I feel that the performance base of this video is solid and allows a star image to be built up extremely quickly and i feel that this is important because a music video is in effect an advert which many people will watch and this advert is firstly selling the song but is secondly selling the artist and this star image is hugely important because of this i draw inspiration from this video as i feel that performance is important and the development of a star is vital weather that be with one individual or as a band.
Video Inspiration 1
This video 'LSD' from A$AP Rocky is very interesting with the way the effects are used because of this i have the video listed as inspiration this is because i think it would be extremely effective to use the bright lighting to help change from shot to shot much like in this video. I feel this would be able to work with a concept video as you would be able to use darker colours to trasition into concept footage which would make the whole transition very smooth and very effective. In this video the light changing works as a bridge between shots for example where the cars headlight blends into the fire this is a seamless transition and i feel this could be achieved in our video.
Lip Sync Trials
To decide who would be the main singer in the music video we first had to figure out who was best at lip syncing to do this we were each given a sheet with the lyrics to the song and then we jumped in front of the camera and these are the results.
As a group we had a vote and the clear winner was James the first singer and he would then end up being out leading man. Second was Ben the last singer in the video who would be the second singer and last was me in the video I sing second and as you can see i am probably the worst so i end up on the drums.
Pete Fraiser Tips
During the day off timetable Pete gave a talk on how to ensure you achieve the highest marks below are the points he raised and highlighted as important.
- Plan, Plan, Plan - Ensure you plan for everything to make sure you make the best out of your filming because there is nothing worse than turing up on location to find out you have forgotten the cameras or the tripods. Make a list and then check everything off once they are loaded into the car to be transported to the location.
- Know Your Equipment - You need to make sure you know the limits and capabilities of the equipment you wish to use because if you want to shoot a extreme close up there is noting worse than the image coming out all fuzzy because the camera isn't good enough.
- Shoot More Than You Need - Pete advised us to shoot from a multitude of different angles with multiple cameras to ensure you get good quality usable footage. He advised to run through what needed filming a minimum of 4 times to ensure you get footage you can use because at the end of the day you can cut off extra footage but you cannot add more!
- The Edit - Piece together a 'Rough Edit' where you can get all of the footage down on the page so it makes some kind of sense and once it is all there in order work down to all the tiny adjustments rather than focusing on small adjustments and then realising the bigger picture is all wrong.
- Use Other People - Gather tips and information from other peoples blogs other teachers and other music video directors as the more you know the more you can incorporate into your video and therefore the better it will be.
What Jake Wynne Thought
We outlined the basic idea for our music video which allowed Jake to give us some feedback which would allow us to adapt certain shots we were hoping for as Jake thought they may not be possible on a small budget. However his main feedback points are listed below
- Structure - Without structure the whole video will not make sense and will look like a random assortment of footage this will then distract from the music therefore making the actual video redundant.
- Performance - To achieve higher marks add an element of performance which will show off the editing skills as it is very difficult getting lips perfectly synced onto the lyrics.
- Flow - Make sure the video transitions so it is easy to understand however it doesn't have to tell a story it just needs to flow neatly.
Social Media
All bands have a large presence on all social media platforms because of this we all felt that we should create social media accounts to enable us to look as professional as possible this would allow us to upload photos and say what we are doing in our filming shoots and when the video will be finished. We have set up a Twitter account @noindividual and a Facebook account which is proving to be more difficult because of facebooks rules about having to have a real name however we are working to get round this in order to be available on there as well. We are also looking to open a instagram account from which we will be able to post photos of our filming and editing which will allow the audience to see what we are doing and therefore become more interested with the band.
Costume Research
Costumes are key in any music video and this quickly became apparent because going out to film wearing our everyday clothes just doesn't look right and because of this we decided we needed to find costumes that we could wear to make us look like a band and also make us look more concept. I thought that we could wear army costumes with boots and camouflage trousers and tops however this idea couldn't be done because the costumes would cost too much and because we are a small band and a group of school age boys we were not able to afford these costumes and the same was to be said for every idea we had. We realised that we had a budget of about £10 total for all of the costumes and because of this we took to ebay to find some budget outfits to our surprise we managed to find some boiler suits and these were soon to become our costumes. We decided to get them in the colours of the union jack (Red,White and Blue) to signify that we are a up and coming British band.
Underwater Reserch
It was starting to become evident that water is a key feature in our music video and because of this we wanted to try and film underwater with the go pro and get some footage of James our lead singer looking like a lifeless body and some close ups of his face with the air bubbles coming out of his mouth. There is only one problem with this ambition and that is that it is hard to film in a swimming pool and still make it look professional. However we thought we would give it a shot because it would allow us to add more water shots into our final film and therefore would enable us to use water as the link we could use on our digipak and website.
Reverse Shot Research
In our video we want to incorporate a shot where we can smash something up and send pieces flying everywhere and then reverse the action to make it look like the object is coming from noting and then becoming whole. This shot will be ambitious for the cameras we have at school so we are thinking about using the go pro to film this shot for two reason the first being the quality of the footage with the go pro will be a lot higher which will ultimately make the finished product look better, the second reason is that we don't want to damage any of the school cameras with flying pieces of glass and the go pro is almost unbreakable so it is a perfect piece of equipment which can be used to film this shot.
Below is what we want to achieve however it is demonstrated with a glass we want to try and use a ornament or something more unusual to add to our concept theme.
Below is what we want to achieve however it is demonstrated with a glass we want to try and use a ornament or something more unusual to add to our concept theme.
Digipak Reserch
We are aiming to create a concept music video and because of this our digipak needs to represent that we are a concept band and not just a every day boy band because of this we need to think carefully about how we show ourselves because we aren't what is going to be selling the records the music is going to be selling its self. A star image is less important to us as a concept band however a common theme is very important as then with this common theme we will be able to show this across all platforms and make the song instantly recognisable.
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