Why do you need feedback from anamatic?

We need feedback for our anamatic because this allows us to get an understanding of what our target audience want. If we are told that it is not good or they do not like it, then at this stage it is easy to change and would be possible to adjust the video to the wants and needs of the target audience. It is also important to show the anamatic to the band so they can have an idea of what their music video is going to look like when it is completed and wether they have any ideas that they would like to involve in the video. Feedback therefore is very important during this process.

Copyright request to record company

We emailed the record company of placebo so that we could ask permission to use their song for out a level media project coursework. This was the email that we sent:

Our Final Video

I was extremely happy with the end product, i think it gave people an insight into what the artist 'The Obscure' were about and what type of audience they were trying to real in. The band all had the same look about them and i think we were able to work really well with the people we had chosen. The whole group planned to bring the props in so we were all prepared for the day. I think the amount of props and detail that we put into each set made the video more realistic. However, i do think that this extra detail is what made us run low on time during the shoot day. Although i think that having these three rooms in fact worked very well.

Whilst editing we decided that the beginning and the end of the video were to link up together, in the final product i think that this seems to work very well. Other shots we used were extreme close ups of the main singers face for beauty shots as well as one of my favorite shots of the main singers hand and microphone with the ring on it. Not only was it a good shot but it suggested to the audience that the band are rebellious and gothic, making them intrigued.

I was very happy with the editing in the final video. However, i do think that the movement from one room to the other looks slightly unrealistic, it was a large improvement from what we had seen in our rough cut.

In general, i am very pleased with the video and how it turned out. I think we managed to capture the picture we had in our minds. Not only was it a fun process, but also allowed us to use a very creative part of our minds in which we don't get to use in every subject. I found the most difficult process post-editing, as it was hard to get used to syncing clips and keeping them there without damaging anything we had done already. The most fun part for me was the creating of the sets and the designing of the shots. I felt as i do photography i had a upper hand and a greater interest in this part of the process.

Identification of Institutional Context

The band that we create would be part of a small Independent record company such as Warp. It is a small budget video, with organic artists. The artists which are signed by Independent company's are normally quite organic bands such as 'The Flying Lotus' (below), signed by Warp Records. It would not be possible for a Small Indie Alternative band such as 'The Obscure' to be signed by a major record company. Normally the types of artists that are record companies such as Warner Bros are large names such as 'Biffy Clyro' 'Birdy' 'Muse' and 'Michael Buble'.




An Independent record label (or indie record label) is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.


This is a music video from a major record label: 

And here is a music video from an independent record label:

Why did we choose these shots??

We chose specific shots like this one which i think are very cinematic and almost movie like. We used shots like this in the video as she looks very creepy. It almost looks like girl is connecting to the audience, looking at them. We then used a focus pull to focus on the skull, this exaggerates the creepy/ dark affect. Focus pulls are done during production rather then in editing, with the camera. We used jump cuts of the girl doing strange things so that it would reinforce her not really having a story, but more of an odd personality and mind.

We decided to also use this shot of the band because it is flattering on the main singer and also gives off an extra addition to his character. The skull ring on the finger shows him as a rebellious person which would intrigue the target audience. 

Editing.. Rendering

During editing i was confused to what rendering was and why we always had to do this during the post production process. I decided to find out in further detail what this was and why we had to render our files when we moved them most of the time.

I found a basic Youtube clips which gave me a better understanding:

Doing this helped me to have a better final video as it is giving me more experience with the programme, and a better understanding of how to use it.

Editing Continued..

We began by adding affects to our video to make it look less boring. We used the effect 'Broken TV' which shuttered and blurs the image.. This matches to the look of our video. However we decided not to use this all over the clips, but only on certain ones throughout or it may look too much.

We also cut the song down to 3 minutes as it was 5 minutes long and this would make the audience bored and not keep their attention. We cut off some of the end of the music clip so that we could keep our editing we created at the begining.

Editing Continued..

Today i was in the editing suit and had finished the first bedroom shoot, performance shoot and so now began the bedroom shoot. We used the tracking shots that we took on the day to move from the living room with the performance, to the bathroom (the narrative). We came across some problems such light seeping throgh the gap in the tracking shot. This made it difficult to make it seem believable. However it was only a rough cut so we would deal with this problem later in our post production process.


A tracking shot is when the camera is placed on a dolly which then moves slowly through the shot. In our video we were using it to connect two rooms together.

Here is an example of a tracking shot from the movie Goodfellas:

What is Post Production?

Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art. It is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

Post-production is, in fact, many different processes grouped under one name. These normally include video editing, editing soundtrack, adding special effects or sound effects.

Research and Planning

Research and Planning Powerpoint for Evaluation 2012

Editing Continued..

This is a recording of the video when we were editing. Its showing a rough cut of the first half a minute of our video as we are going through to see how it looks, and deciding what clip goes next. When placing the clips together you cant move it or it will become unsynced. Instead you have to drag it from one end and use the blade tool to cut it inbetween. I found this process to be more fun then syncing as we were able to use our creativity to see what shots looks best together

 

 

 

Editing continued..

We went up to the editing suit and contiued to sync the song to the clips. As we had practice from doing this before, we were able to speed up and edit faster. We were able to get all our syncing done in this lesson. We then made new 'bins' names 'bathroom' and 'bedroom' to place each clip in the correct place. This would make it easier nex time when we went to FinalCutPro to begin editing.

These are what bins look like in Final Cut Pro:

First Day of Editing

We went up to the editing suit to go and look at our shots and start editing. I was very pleased with the shots we had taken. However some of them were repeat shots that we didnt need. We went through all of the shots and labeled them as 'best take' 'good take' or 'b take' depending on how useful we thought the shots would be in our music video. Once we had done this we began to synch the clips to the song. This is very important to ensure that it looks realistic and that the bands movements are linked to the song, for example the main singers lyrics linked to the music, and the guitartists strumming are also linked.
I was very happy with the shots that we took and was excited to start putting the shots next to one another!

Post Production Planning

 

 

This is how we planned for our clips to be edited next to one another. This will include jump cuts of the girl all the way through to create a quirky effect.

 

Shoot Day: Narrative Set

Shooting the narrative was a lot harder then the performance. At around lunch time we began to set up for this half of the shoot. The first room we filmed in was the bedroom. We set this up quickly and began getting our main character, Jess Adam, comfortable in the part she was playing. We dressed her in the nurse outfit and began putting dark goth-like makeup on her so she matched the star image and the target audience we were trying to convery for the band.

Below is a shot of our main character on her bed in her bedroom surrounded by her props for the shoot.

This is one of the shots that we used in our music video - we focused first on the skull and then used a focus pull to reveal the girls face in the background.

This is another shot that we took as we used the dolly so that in editing we can move between rooms through the wall.

Our second set was the bathroom. We changed the floor to tiles and added a tile background. We also changed the position of the window so that it looked more like a different room. Although we had white paint to fill the bath with, we were running low on time and decided we would waste more time filling up the bath with buckets of water. Instead we filled the bath up with leaves. I think this turned out to look really good. We also placed the leaves and candles around the bath. Adding the pigs head that we got from the butchers on some scales on the floor. This really added the strange look to the set that we were going for.

 Jess was great at the part and we were very happy with our choice of character. Although we did not have time to do our fourth set (the kitchen), i think this shoot went really well and was pleased with everything. As we did not have time to do a fourth set, it meant we were able to grab more shots of the sets we had made, giving us enough choice when editing.

Shoot Day: Performance set

We came in feeling positive about the day ahead, knowing we had previously set up.
To begin we got a keyboard from music tech, an electric guitar and a dj set which we had earlier organised for two other students to bring in for us to borrow for the shoot. We then used a table to the set for the dj set to sit on, adding skulls for aesthetic purposes, aswell as candles on the keyboard.

We then set the camera up on a tripod, remembering what we had learnt in AS from the thrillers. The camera was then linked up to a tv screen. The group then discussed what we thought of the shot through the tv screen, which showed how it appeared on the camera. Jason pointed out that the laptop we were using (a silver mac) didnt work with the rest of the dark image. We found a backup as Sienne luckily had a purple mac cover which looked much better.

Getting the band into character meant adding eyeliner for the grungy rock image, aswell as using studded chokers and lip peircings to enhance this look. They all remembered to wear dark grey and black clothing, however we also added a long black coat for the main singer, and a black denim jacket for the guitarist. We then planned where all the band members should be placed in the room, moving them about on various occasions to get it completely right. This is a picture of our final decision:

To get the band more comfortable with singing the song, we played it on repeat so they could get used to the song and being on camera. Whilst doing this we adjusted small details about the shot. For example we placed joker cards into the singer pocket at first, but then decided this didnt look good, and tried out using a dead flower from our props. This looked much better so we used this for the rest of our shoot.

We started with a shot of the whole band together so that the audience straight away got a feel of the look we are going for as a whole. Then getting close ups of the main singer, the guitarist, the dj, and the boy on the keyboard. We tried to go for shots which looked different to draw the audiences attention. We also got close ups of the singers hand on the microphone with his skull ring, which added a creepy image. Shots of the keyboard with the candles in the background were also used, aswell as the dj with the skulls on his table. All this small detail would give the audience a further idea of the image we are going for, grabing our target audience's attention.

However during this shoot we came across a problem, as Jake our main singer, had to go for an hour and do a test. We decided that during this time we would take more close up shots of the guitar strings, keys, keyboarder, and dj. We just had to make sure we managed our time well and got as many shots of the band all together before he could leave. He then came back later to take more shots that we were thinking of whilst he was away. I think we overcame this problem well and we were on track with time.

 

 

Shooting

We began shooting our music video after getting the band into their positions and making them comfortable with the song. We devided the parts so that everybody was once the director, the person on playback, and the camera man. The other person in our group helped to pull together the look of the set and how they think it should be to make it look best. Out of all the jobs i felt this was my favourite as it allowed me to use a lot of my creativity.

The Day Before Our Shoot

After the group before us had finished shooting, we went straight into the studio to begin working on our set design for the performance, as we were filming this first. In this room we planned to have wallpaper on each wall in the studio. However, we found that we hadnt provided enough wallpaper to do this. We thought of a backup plan and decided that we would use plain white walls, but make them look dirty and old so that it fitter in with the theme of the girls house. To do this we used a spary on the walls which made it look like there were damp patches.

This created just the effect we had in mind, although we thought it needed something more. Ollie had the idea of drawing on the walls and flicking ink onto it. However we decided as a group that the drawing might not work, but that the ink was a great idea. We used black ink from the art department and flicked it over the walls. We agreed as a group that this worked very well, but to stick to only black ink without adding any bright colours that could ruin the dingy effect we were creating.

We then talked to Dan about the lighting again, and discussed the idea of making a silhouette of light around the bodies of the band members. To do this we needed a lot of back light, which we would use as coming through the window. Although, we didnt want it to be too bright so made a curtain out of some old material we found that already had been stained. Whilst doing this we figured out that if there was only backlight that you wouldnt be able to see the band members faces too well in the video. To fix this problem we places strobe lights at the front of the set facing inwards. This worked perfectly. To end this set we placed a lamp as furniture in the corner. We didnt want much else in the room as we wanted the band to be the main focus.

Once we had completed the set for the band we started cleaning out the bath for our narrative shoot of the girl in the bathroom. The last group had used this with glitter inside so we had trouble taking all of this out, as glitter is completely different to the look we were going for.

We were now ready for our shoot so we could get straight into it and not waste any time!

Here is a video clip of us the day before the shoot explaining whats going on:

Group Meeting

Our group met today to discuss if we were ready for our music video happening on Friday. We have all remembered to bring in our props allocated, aswell as extra unusual objects which we think will be useful for our music video setting. It was hard to discuss props over the half term as we all live in different areas, but as we had thought about this before hand and given each other props to bring in that we had each been allocatd too it was okay and we all managed well. However, none of us were able to bring a fish into school for our 'fish in a lightbulb look'. We are going to go into Cranleigh together this week as they have a pet shop and ask if they have any goldfish here. Otherwise we can ask in the Science block and see if they let us borrow their goldfish.

Placebo Website

Click here to view the website of Placebo. This the bands music that we are playing in our video. We looked at the website to see wether there are any features that we would imagine our artists website to look like and anything that could influence these.

Placebos website is simple and easy with not too much going on. However it still is able to reflect the darkness, and the quirkiness that we would like our band, 'The Obscure' to also contain.
The website is also very visual, with the music video to their new song appearing straight away. This means you can easily see their new music, so it can get across to people easily.

Having a website means you have the ability to market your band in the way you want to, so you can directly attract your potential audience. You can also use the website to market your CD aswell as your music video, by displaying it on your website for your audience to see.

Album cover's Similar to how we would like ours to appear

Alternative rock album cover's that would be similar to what our band 'The Obscure's' album cover will look like:

This album cover is simple, and not too crazy. You are able to see the name of the band easily, and the line drawing is affective and unusual- just what our band are trying to convey.

 

This album cover is almost surreal like. The birds floating out of the hands resembeling freedom. Our band also has a lot of symbolism inside the music video, and possibly we could use this also within our album cover.
This Helio Sequence does not have their own website, but they are signed by Sub Pop Records. Click here to visit their page on the record company's site.

 

This album cover is possibly my favourite - it shows a 3D sort of affect in the picture as it seems as if he is scratching the actual album cover. This draws attention to the cover, which is the main purpose of the cover - to grab someones attention and make the audience pick it up and look inside.

 

This album cover is yet again surreal as a cloud is not normally that low. Possibly we can use Adobe Photoshop to create a strange affect like this one.
Click here to visit the website. The part which paticularly appealed to me was the 'Discography'. This is the histrory of their album artwork. Aswell as the songs which are in the album.

 

These album covers are weird, and almost surreal. The orignial Placebo album cover is simple, affective and strange:

http://placeboworld.firebrandstore.com/

 

My Animatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNni98MPHeM&feature=share&list=UUwxVEfHzBUtutL-OGAFRwGg

Storyboard

Making of our storyboard

A Storyboard is a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned. Our story board constisted of us working with the previous timeline we had created. We chose the sort of shots we would like to appear in our video, and in which order they would look best. We sketched the shots out, adding the type it is (for example extreme close up), the type of lighting, the lyric that will appear at that time, the timing of the song, and the shot number. This is going to be very helpful to know when shooting what shots we need to get.

Timeline

How to Create an Album cover

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewkelsall.com%2Fhow-design-cd-album-local-band%2F&ei=IMN_UKXfNYKGhQe45YEI&usg=AFQjCNEi4goyweUQIVc0nP8Ehp-vGvJRGw

Target Audience using VALS

Our primary target audience is 16-19 year olds.

This target audience would be 'experiencers' (young, impulisve and rebelious). They seek variety and excitement, looking for new, the offbeat and the risky.They are avid consumers and spend much of their money on clothing, music, and film. Both male and female.

Our secondary target audience is 19-23 year olds.

 

This target audience is older and slightly more mature, yet still 'experiencers'. They possibly hold down a small part time job, and so spend more willingly, yet still on clothing, music, film, possibly more on going out, and maybe taxes if they have their own appartment. Both male and female.

These our some Placebo Fans from Hurtwood House :

They match Placebo's primary target audience between 16-19.

Placebo's Twitter

This is Placebo's twitter, i have added their twitter as a gadget to my blog. This way i can continuely look at their tweets aswell as get a better insight into who their target audience are.

Target Audience for Running Up That Hill Placebo Remix

This is the official video for Placebo Running up that hill. The video starts off with dark black and white images. It then soon changes to colours but keeps changing back to this dark look. This could reflect the image of the audience as also being dark and alternative rock. The are images of girls with black makeup falling down their cheeks, which could enhance this feel.The video seems to flick between different people singing this song, almost as if the lyrics to the song relate to them. I think that the males and females in this music video all resemble the target audience that there are. People listening to the music and singing along because they feel they can relate to the song.

This is the link to 'Placebo World'. Click  Here to enter. This is where the band sell all their merchandise. This gives us more of an idea towards the target audience. The clothes sold are all quite dark colours and seem to be going for a grungy look with skulls, moons, hands and fire. These can all connotate creepy dark almost gothic- like images. This could be reflected into the target audience, suggesting them to be young (16-25) alternative people with a gothic style.

Organisation of Props and Costumes for the Shoot Day

click on image to enlarge

Casting Photos

We are thinking about casting Jake Goodbody as our main singer. We took some images of him so ensure he is the correct look for our band. These are the images we took:

We think Jake is good for the part because he is a good looking young boy but yet doesnt look too young to be in this band. He also has a unique and quirky style already and we believe we can enhance this and make it more gothic for the day.

i edited this photographs on my Iphone app as i think they bring and old affect to the images. They look quite dark and sinister which is the look we are going for. The lack of colour also brings the attention to his face. Maybe this could be something we could work with on our website or album cover.

We took simple photographs of our main singer sitting down on a wooden chair. These simple photographs work well with the image we want to portray to our audience. Jake is also quite a quiet charming boy who seems to be in his own world. This mysterious personality trait will hopefully be reflected in our singer. Jake is not too load and wont get carried away with acting on this shoot. Although he is not a drama student we don't want our main singer to be acting too much just singing into the microphone looking good and mysterious. 

Cast photos

Here is a photograph of our dj. This is the type of look that we are going for with our band. Below are photos of our full cast. Starting from the far left (keyboarder, main singer, dj, and guitarist.)

Set Design Drawings

When we spoke to Dan about our set designs we drew these images out to give him a better understanding of what we would like the set to look like:

 

 

 

prop list and set design

Initial Ideas For Music Video

Initial Ideas

Deconstructing Album Covers

This album cover by Madonna uses intertextuality to allow the audience to have a reference back to something. Most people refer to Maralyn Monroe as a glamorous, famous icon with a lot of sex appeal. Through using a famous image of her and placing Madonna's face inside it, allows people to see her in the same way they thought of Maralyn. However, the Madonna album cover has weaker colours, and i think is more sexual then the print of Maralyn. The background is also more dark and rusty looking suggesting she is careless.

Meet With Dan

We spoke to Dan about the lighting and set design that we will be using in our video.

• It was discussed that the lighting will be very dark, mainly coming from the outside, through windows.
•  There are going to be three rooms in this strange 1970's looking house, consisting of the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom.
• The band will also be performig in the living room of the house as if they are next door.  
• Girl in bath of white milk, getting dirtier throughout the clip
• The girl is mad and starts to recreate her ex boyfriend out of the strange objects in her house.
• She is dressed in a nurse costume as she has gone slightly insane.
• There will be shots through the wall that will be taken on a 'dolly', so that the camera seems to be going through one room to the next (cutting between performance and narrative).
• The band will have a smoke machine

Media Treatment Of Our Music Video

Media Treatment of Music Video

Music Video Pitch To Luke

Music Video Pitch

Task 3 - Star Image In Music Video

Star image in a music video is very important for some artists.

For example, take Kyle Minogue who began as an actress for the soap 'Neighbours'

Her pop career began in 1987.

 

Her star image was constantly re-invented through concerts, music videos, and her songs. When Kyle first started her career as an artist her target audience where 11-13 year old girls.

This is one of her songs from her early career:

 She had the innocent girl next door look where she hardly wore much make-up and didn't wear provocative clothing. She was continued to be portrayed as this innocent young girl in her music videos through the use of mise en scene and the lyrics of the song.

About 10 year later during her career, in the early 90's, Kylie Minogue's  target audience changed to older teens, both girls and boys. She started to appear more glamorous and sophisticated in her videos in a sexual way so that she was admired by her target audience of girls, and attracted to by the boys.

This is one of her songs from later in her career where this is shown:

Things like the red lips exaggerate the new sexual side of Kylie in this video.

As Kylie began to attract a wider and more defined audience as she grew, her star image became more apparent.

Music Video Group Discussion

In our music video we are trying to convey the star image as been dark and gothic like, strange and unusual.

These are some images of jelousy, surrealism, freaks, weird, abnormality and sexual innuendos that we are using for inspiration for our video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mood Board for Bastille 'Flaws'

We then looked at the mood board for another song we could use.This is the song :

This song we would like to take a more happy and sweet image too. This is our mood board for the song:

Music Video Mood Board - Running up that hill

Our group decided we liked the gothic dark look in our music video. This is a mood board for the song Running up that hill: