Music video 2nd cut

Our filming for our narrative didn't exactly go to plan as we could not find a VHS player anywhere so when it came to the day we had to improvise a new idea. For this we decided to film a man coming back from work and listening to the song on the radio whilst making a cup of tea and rocking out whilst making it. We filmed him singing whilst using a wooden spoon as a microphone and drumming on the worktop and stuff like that. We don't know if it looks good enough as we had to improvise but if we were going to use this idea as our main narrative it would need a reshoot as we need more shots of him properly going for and going mad so we can add it in the part of the song where it goes mad. 

Filming the narrative

When we filmed for our narrative it didn't exactly go to plan as we could not find a VHS/Video player anywhere so when it came to the day we had to improvise a new idea. For this we decided to film a man coming back from work and listening to the song on the radio whilst making a cup of tea and rocking out whilst making it.
We filmed him singing whilst using a wooden spoon as a microphone and drumming on the worktop and stuff like that. We don't feel  it looks good enough as we had to improvise and when we put it with our performance it looks cheap and unprofessional, but if we were going to use this idea as our main narrative it would need to do a reshoot as we feel that it needs more enthusiastic shots of him rocking out to the song where it really goes mad.
Overall, we are going to have to reshoot this

Effects to make it look 80s

This is the green screen overlay we have used to make the performance look like it's on a VHS and get that effect we want. We chose this one as a lot of the other ones had massive chunks of fuzziness going through the screen or had writing going through it.

We chose to put the film grain filter over the performance as we wanted it to look like it was filmed in the 80s and it looked weird with really clear footage and the green screen overlay. 

This is a clip of our video with the effects on it and we feel it looks good and looks like a VHS tape but we want to put like a date across the top and the word 'play' on the bottom so it looks like its been recorded on a old camera.

Preparation for for filming the narrative

We are filming our narrative this Saturday and almost everything is ready. Our actor has confirmed he is available and can get to the location we our filming at. We have a SLR camera from school and tripod as we will need to film a lot of still shots. We have studio lights as we are filming inside so we need the lighting to be right otherwise the footage could look grainy and not right. We have our costume which consists of trousers, a shirt and tie as we want our actor to look as if he's come back from work. The only thing we can't get hold of is a VHS player which could effect our whole narrative as if we don't have one we cant film him putting a video in and watching it which will mean we can't do that idea.

Music video 1st cut

This is our first cut of our music video after filming the garage band on the weekend. It only contains performance as we have not yet filmed any narrative but we do need to include narrative in it to break the performance up. Overall we're very happy about how the performance went and how our first cut looks, we felt we might have needed a bit more of a variety of shots but once we add the narrative it should look alright as the narrative will add a bit more variety and make it a bit more interesting.

Editing of performance

The editing of the performance took a while as the performance makes up the bulk of our video and there was a lot of clips to put together. We made sure we edited to the beat as much as possible and use a variety of different angles. We got a feedback once we started editing on it so far and we were told that our clips were too long and needed to be shortened to make the pace quicker and snappier.


We then added a green screen over the top to give it a VHS recording look as it had the date and time in the corner and fuzziness going through it every now and again.

Setting Up The Garage Band

These are the before and after pictures of the garage we shot in so it's obvious a lot of effort went into clearing the garage out and setting everything up.We had to clear out all the junk into the garden but we couldn't clear the whole garage out so we hung a black backdrop halfway into the garage so you couldn't see the mess behind it.We also got a Foo Fighters band flag to hang up so it wasn't just a plain black backdrop.We were trying to make it look 80's so we put our surfboards in there and we also brought our skateboards and penny boards to put in there so it still looked like a garage. We got the drums there in the back of my dads van and set them up along with a retro guitar amp and guitar.We also put a message out on Facebook asking if anyone had any 80's vehicles and someone got back to us saying they had a 1980's VW Sirocco we could borrow so that just adds to 80's mise en scene.

Calendar for shoots and reshoots

Digipak shoot planning

For my digipak shoot I want to take pictures of the band members in costume for the performance part of the music video. They will look like they are from the 80's for this as the performance part of our video is set in the 80's so they will be wearing 80's clothing. I want to take pictures of the three of them stood in front of the car holding the guitar and drum sticks. I also want to take pictures of the car we are going to park there for our performance as it is an old school VW Sirocco which I think will look very cool on my digipak.
I have a Nikon SLR camera to take the photos and also a tripod and some studio lights but as the shoot will have to be done outside the lights probably won't make a difference.

preparation for filming

We're ready for filming tomorrow, we've had to do a huge amount of planning for this as we've had to find 3 middle aged men to act in it, drums ,guitar and microphone, 80's clothing and a suitable garage to shoot in. We are going to use my brothers drums, and one of the other actors in the film has a guitar which is handy. We've sent out face book posts asking if anyone has any 80's clothing or anything that might help us but no one got back to us so we've asked our actors if they have any 80's clothes and most of them have.
We're going to use my Nan's garage to film in but it will need to be cleaned out a bit because it's full of junk and we're going to put skateboards and a BMX in there as well to give it more of a young 80's feel to it. Zoe's friend has her own photography lights which she is lending to us so we will have decent lighting rather than relying on natural lighting as that could have the potential to not look as good..We're getting our camera from media and another one from photography so we can film more than one thing at a time and we're also going to use a tripod for some of the shots so they aren't shaky but some of them we want to look shaky to give it a more amateur feel.
We're pretty much ready and hoping it goes well.

Research into garage bands and how they're filmed

I've been looking at a few videos that have been filmed in a garage and had a look at how they were filmed. There a few shots in the wayne's world clip were there is close ups of the guitars and then their faces when they sing. It looks like its been filmed on a hand held camera and looks quite unprofessional but it gives a more of 'garage band' feel to it. In the Weezer video you can see someone putting things in the washing machine in the background which again makes it seem unprofessional but gives it the garage band look that we want to go for.

Updated Music Video Idea

After doing our storyboard and shot list we then decided to change out idea completely as we feel that following someones life throughout the day more than likely would become repetitive and predictable.
We've decided to change our idea to a man getting bored of his everyday life but just showing the repetitiveness of him getting up everyday and doing the same thing in the morning, this will only be at the start of the video. He then goes on to get so bored of his life that we show him day dreaming/ reminiscing about how he used to be in band when he was younger. We then have decided to shoot a throwback theme of him being in a band in the late 80's - garage band theme as our performance, with him rocking out with all of his mates, but reuniting their band together to relive the "good times".  The video will entail his dream of being in a rock band and then will flip between reality and his dream.

We have got our inspiration from Wayne's World and how they have their own band and play in the garage, we also want to achieve some of the camera angles and shots that they have used to give it a more unique feeling. We also thought this time period would be a good idea because its our parents era that they grew up in as teenagers so they know what to wear and can help it look as organic as possible. Also all the late 80's early 90's fashion has come back into fashion now so will be able to recreate the fashion part of the styling for our video very easily.

 

 

Storyboard and Shot List

After doing our storyboard and shot list we then decided to change out idea completely as we feel that following someone's life throughout the day more than likely would become repetitive and predictable. We've decided to change our idea to a man in a metal institution sat at a table day dreaming about being in a band. The video will entail his dream of being in a rock band and then will flip between reality and his dream and then will end of him being in a mental institution.  

Charcter profile



Character profile

Actor Name: Rich Tyrrell

Age:37

Gender: Male

Character name: Dave Cobain

Height: 5foot 9 inches

Description: White, beard, tattoos, short dark hair.

Location and actor planning

Fashion and Prop Planning

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This task was useful as we were able to plan what kind of clothing we would dress our actor in as the clothing needs to fit to the genre of the music we're doing. It was also useful to think about the props we need as this gives us time to try and think where we'll get the instruments from.
We have changed our idea since doing this task so the only thing that will change is the clothing as we need 80s clothing like leather jackets, denim jacks, ripped jeans ect.

Initial Ideas

In this task we pitched our idea to the class to get feedback about our idea. This was useful as it was good to get an idea about what else we need to think about when creating our video. However not many of our class mates had any questions so the teacher ended up asking the questions so we didn't get much feedback from people our own age.After doing this we decided to change our idea as we thought it could become boring and repetitive just following a mans day so now we've decided to do mainly performance and use an 80s theme for the band.

Lyric Analysis

In this task we looked at the lyrics and how they can be interpreted to come up with ideas for our music video.We particularly looked at the chorus lyrics 'Breakout', for this we are going to show someone breaking out of their everyday cycle of going to work everyday and the repetitiveness of it.The lyrics 'You make me crazy running circles in my head' also link to this idea of everyday repetitiveness.  

Genre Research

From this task we learnt what typical rock music videos consist of and their codes and conventions. Rock videos are mainly performance based with some or little narrative.However some videos are mainly narrative based with very little performance so it can vary. They have a lot of quick cuts as the songs are often fast paced so to edit on the beat it would have to be lots of quick cuts. A lot of the mise en scene for rock videos is quite weird and alternative, for example women coming out of the walls in Royal Bloods video and red hot chilli peppers doing weird stuff in their video.

Music Video Research - Task 3

Music Video Research - Task 2

I emailed one of the label companies that the Foo Fighters are signed by "RCA" and asked for the Foo Fighters permission to use their song "Breakout" in our music video.

Music Video Research - Task 1

The song we've chosen:

Breakout Lyrics

You make me dizzy running circles in my head
One of these days I'll chase you down

Well look who's going crazy now
We're face to face my friend
Better get out, better get out

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

You know you make me breakout

You can see this on my face
It's all for you
The more and more I take
I break right through

Therapy still scares me
Put me on my back again

I may be crazy, little frayed around the ends
One of these days I'll phase you out

Burning in the blast-off, burning in the blast-off
watching me crawl away
Try to get out, try to get out

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

Breakout!
Breakout!
Breakout!
Breakout!
Go, go, go!

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that
I don't wanna look like that

You know you make me breakout
Make me breakout
Make me breakout

Yeah! 

Thinking of a Concept

This task was useful to brainstorm ideas for our video as before this task we were stuck as we didn't know what to do. We were able to think about narrative ideas aswell as the different clothing and the different locations.

Detailed analysis on a music video

From this task I've learnt what different mise en scene techniques need to be kept simple and what ones need to be developed depending on your genre and music video narrative.This is because maybe their budget wasn't huge so they filmed all of it in a plane which is very simple and effective. I've also learnt how theories can still fit into music videos as the narrative still needs to follow the usual codes and conventions to be entertaining. The representation of people in the video is also shown really well as their are lots of different characters in the video all represented in different ways.

 

Music video research and music consumption

 

From these surveys I can begin to get an understanding of how people consume music videos and where they get them from. From this I can tell most people get there videos from youtube and sometimes on TV. Personally I see a lot of music on the TV at the gym I go to as they usually have MTV on with the chart music playing. Most people watch music videos of a band they like to see them playing and to see the story of the song. Foo Fighters always do good music videos which put a twist on the song but are usually quite funny aswell.From what I can tell most people don't download the videos as there is no point as you can get it easily on youtube or vimeo ect.

Analysis of different genres

From this task I've learnt how different genres of music have different narratives to their videos and also the performance to narrative ratio. For example the slipknot video which is heavy metal consists of men rioting and smashing things up whereas the blurred lines video which is pop consists of singers dancing around semi-naked girls. I've also learnt about why the audience watch the video and how it can affect the way they like. For example after viewing lots of videos where girls are made to look like objects you will begin to thinks that they are which is the hyperdermic needle theory.

Music video research and analysis

From this task I learnt how different micro-elements are changed depending on the genre of the music, for example the mise en scene of the 'Bring me the horizon' was a lot darker than that of 'Mumford and sons' as they are both very contrasting genres of music. I also learnt what different theories can be applied to music videos, especially the theory of male gaze and how a lot of videos feature girls in bikinis.etc to entertain a male audience rather than a female one.

Analysis of previous students work

From doing this task I've learnt what needs to be included in a video to make it successful and what shouldn't be put in. I've learnt that location and costume make a big difference in the success of a video as it can make it look authentic whereas if the location and costume are bad then it can look poorly made and not very well thought through. I also think that everything in the music should kind of relate to each other as in the first video I analysed there was a part in the middle of the video where everything stops and they throw a pack of cards which I don't think flowed with the rest of the video. I also learnt how to create a digipak that relates to the genre of music I am doing as I think that the digipak that was created for the song 'pacifier' didn't relate to the genre as it was quite dark and I would have associated that with maybe a more heavy genre like metal.

Branding Research

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From this task I've learnt how different artists portray themselves in the media, from how they dress to what they say.I've learnt that the most popular artists are the ones who don't dress in glamorous stuff and who are humble. I've also learnt that a band logo is very important as it can be used to identify your band and also as a key marketing tool. The way you address the media is also important as you can make people dislike you if you come across as a tool.

Digipak analysis

From doing this task I've learnt what digipaks are, how many panels they contain and what they are made of. I've also learnt that they are more expensive than normal CD's so only good fans of the artist would buy it.The genre usually associated with digipaks are rock and indie music as pop or rap music don't usually make them. Mainly I've learnt the typical codes and conventions used when making a digipak.

Digipak poster analysis

From doing this task I have learnt what codes and conventions are typically used when creating a poster and also why they are made.Ive also learnt where a poster would most likely be advertised and how to use colours and different typography to make it appeal to the audience.
The codes and conventions used in a poster are:

• Band Name 
• Album Name
• Release Date
• Album Art
• Typography Styles
• Information on Album

Advanced editing

From doing this task I've learnt how to use different editing techniques to make things look like they are appearing from nowhere and things changing shape. For this task we decided to make a video like a real life video game where the character can change clothing and weapons and change his surroundings. We chose this as we thought it would be a good example of the different editing techniques we can use. One thing we do need to improve on is our planning as we didn't have a tripod so we struggled to keep the phone upright and ended up having to sellotape it to an ironing rack but we then couldn't see the phone screen so couldn't always see whether I was in shot or not as you can see at one point I'm almost off the side of the screen. Another thing is that in the shot where the chair changes the big bench in the background is in one shot but not the other.I'm not sure whether we will include any of these effects into our video yet as we have not decided what we are doing.

History of music videos

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/1542112

From this task I've learnt what music videos were important in changing the way videos were made and the progression from performance based videos to videos being completely based on narrative.Ive also seen how technology has influenced how music videos have been made as the Gorrilaz make music videos just with animations.

digipack photoshop practise

Front cover

Back cover

From doing this task I learnt how to use photoshop and the variety of different techniques and tools you can use.To create the front cover I got the template of a man sitting on a chair from google and also a wolf head. I started off by cutting the mans head off using the lasso tool and then placed the wolf head over it.To put the different things inside of the mans body I cut parts of him of using the lasso tool then created a new layer.To create his torso I used a picture I'd taken of the sea at sunset which I thought would look good.For the rest of his body parts I found pictures off the internet, once I'd done that I merged all of the layers and turned it to black and white.To create the back cover I used the brush tool and lots of templates for it to create the eroded effect of it.I got my inspiration from the 'Royal Blood' album as seen below.

Analysis Of Music Websites

From this task I learnt the typical codes and conventions that are included in a music website but also what weird things that can be used in them to make them more interesting like the royal blood one. This task was useful as previously I had never looked at any music websites so it was a good task to do.

30 Cut Chorus

Storyboard:

From this task I learnt how to edit the video to the beat and get the cuts on the beat so the video flows with the song. I also learnt how to use jump cuts to make the video flow better as at one point I would have had to walk through the beach car park but we used a jump cut to skip that part as we felt it wouldn't have looked as good. From this task we also learnt that you need to film a lot of shorter cuts rather than long cuts as we had that problem as we did lots of long cuts and ended up having to cut them all down.To improve this video I think it needs to have shorter and snappier cuts and make the pace of the cuts quicker.I think the cuts need to be edited to the beat more and that would have been easier if there was more footage to play around with but I think we filmed too many long sequences which we then had to cut down as the video was way too long.

Lip Sync

What I Learnt:
From this task I learnt how to lip-sync to a song and how much planning it takes to film something like this.From this I've also learnt how to edit the different cuts to the beat of the song.I have never created a music video before and this was useful as it gave me a good idea of what needs to be included in a good music video and how to prepare for it.To make it better I could have used some better editing techniques and also edit to the beat more.Also I could use some different camera angles when filming to make it more interesting.