Final Music Video

This is the final version of our music video.

DigiPack outside cover

This is is the outside of my DigiPack, on the right is the front and the left is the back.

I decided to make the Pack look like a teenage girls diary because it reflects the meanings of songs well. To get this effect i hand drew the covers and coloured them in Photoshop. The characters on the front are Tom and Rosie, the band members. I made the heart look like a speech bubble so it looks like Rosie is saying 'Betty'.

Whilst on the back the heart has dropped and broken and the track names are flying out.

I decided to make the cover look overly stereotypical and cliche because the songs are sarcastically stereotypical and cliche.

I also put the record labels logo on the back so people are aware who the band are signed to (some people choose albums etc because they like other bands on the label)

And the DVD logo on on the front so people know there is a DVD inside and not just the album.

Finally i put a green promotional sticker on the front telling you its a bonus pack and has more than normal inside

digipack inside cover

This is the inside cover of my digipack album. The left side is the inside of the front and the right is the back.

I made the front look like the girl whos diary it is had drawn in the and stuck pictures of Tom in the heart because she is in love with the band and Tom.

The back is a collage of photos of the band at the video shoot, live shows and from photo shoots with the lyrics of their song 'Love is tough' "never was a tale of such woe, than that of Juliet and Romeo" Which the girl has written over the photos she stuck down, i chose those lyrics because they fit to how the girl is feeling.

Magazine Advert

This is my magazine advert for my DigiPack. I decided to use the same theme as the DigiPack it self with the hand drawings coloured in photoshop and the text font Luismi Murder which is a handwriting style font.

Once again i put the record label on it, for the same reason, people may like other bands from the label and are therefore drawn to it. I also put the HMV logo so people who see the advert are aware where they can buy the album from.

I decided to put quotes from two well known music magazines on the advert. Which if people respect the general opinion of those magazines they may be persuaded to buy it if they weren't intending to in the first place.

In the heart i've written what what is on sale, what you get in the pack and when it will be released, in the same font as on the album to make it even more clear what the advert is relating to

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?

1: This image (taken in the bar scene) shows our main character stealing some vodka from the bar. This section is accompanied by lyrics saying 'stole some vodka, took a swig'. Showing that we have related our narrative to the song. This happens quite a lot in the song and video, however none of them are as synchronised as this.

2: This image typifies the way the record company would want their artist to be presented as it depicts the band standing on a stage in front of a seemingly large crowd of cheering fans. Making the band seem loved and popular.

3: This is a shot of Becky dressing up in an 'emo' style. This is a clear representation of genre, as emo is one of the largest groups of fashion around. This also correlates to the song name being 'Slits on Your Wrists' as self harm is a trait often associated with the emo style.

4: The bathroom scene in musics video is a very common affair. For example the music video for Bowling For Soup's song Emily revolves around this sort of venue style toilet. And also this bathroom reminded us loosely of the one used in the film the Shining (that was also recreated in the film Charlie's Angels).

5: The camera styles we use (mostly in our live show footage) are often 'up-close and personal' to the band. They show the band and the bands' equipment closely and in detail whilst always maintaining a hectic moving theme to make the video seem more lively. This shot perfectly shows the combination of stylistic lighting and equipment shots we have tried to integrate into our video.

6: This shot shows our use of lighting in the video. Our most prominent lighting design was in the live show. We sent a clear email to the lighting staff at the junction describing what it was that we wanted. I think it turned out really well. At one point we also had a strobe light which worked really well with the video but I couldn't capture a picture of the strobe effect.

7: This shot not only shows our location, but character and clothing mise-en-scene. It shows the girls dress, the Junction and her make-up and hair.

8: This shot I got the idea from from watching other music videos. I liked the idea of the characters in the background and an inanimate object occupying some of the foreground. I think it makes the shot more interesting, as well as more stylised.

9. Before we filmed our music video I was watching a video for the live performance of the singer José González' song Heartbeats. I noticed that it looked very effecting because it used several close up shots of the equipment (such as the microphone and the guitar) and the singers face. I tried to recreate some of this style when filming, and this shot is the result.

This is a selection of 9 key frames from selected music videos (click to enlarge)


1) This is a shot of the music video for ''White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovich, we chose the shot because at this point in the video the character is riding a segway and the lyrics are "They see me roll on, my segway". Clearly with the video referencing the song.

2) Is a shot from Chamillionairre's "ridin' dirty'', This shot tipifies the way the record label want to portray the artist because hes a gangsta with a big chunky chain infront of bright lights making him seem very important and powerfull.

3) Shot 3 is of My Chemical Romance's song ''Welcome to the black parade'' it illustrates the typical 'Emo' genre that MCR are commonly put into by having everyone dressed up in alot of black with pale make up etc.

4) The 4th shot is from another Weird Al Yankovich song called ''Fat'' the song is a mock of the micheal jackson song ''Bad'' and there for has extensive intertextual refrences to micheal jackson and his style etc. The video is a literal copy of Jackson's video but with altered lyrics and characters, it is a parody.

5) This screen shot shows a good use of camera technique by framing the crowd half brilliantly with the artist silhouetted in front. The way it is framed makes the performing artist This shot also uses lighting to create the desired effect.

6) Has a good effect of lighting by making the outside in total darkness and only lighting the center where the dancers are, much like the effect we attempted to have in our video, the lighting is also selective, giving each 'sound' a different light.

7) Demonstrates a clear use of mise-en-scene by putting each group of dancers in a different costume, these different dancers represent a different sound and rhythm in the song.

8) This is a shot of the Black Eyed Peas video for their song 'Boom Boom Pow'. I think that it relates to our video well as we have our lead singer Rosie dancing in a similar abstract style in front of a completely white background, which relates to this singer standing in front of a background that's completely green and black.

9) At this point in the video I took this screen shot as the song quotes Daft Punks' lyrics ''Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger'' as well as the dancers in the background are dancing in relation to the sounds and beat like in Around The World, also by Daft Punk.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is a voice-over we made to our video to answer the question above. In it we talk about the effects and filming in our music video. As well as the digipack and magazine advert designs.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1) Class rough cut feedback:

They thought that the shot with Rosie dancing in front of a white background was a bit tedious, and that there wasn't enough going on. However we thought that the lack of events in that time made the sudden fast cutting and active live footage straight after this scene more effective. Also, the band liked that scene very much, so we had to find a compromise for both. So we added the effect of fading Rosie in and out of the white background as she sings to make it more interesting to view.

When the main narrative character is in the bathroom, we were told that this section wasn't broken up enough, and that it was far too slow paced. We solved this problem by adding snippets of the life footage and breaking up the clips to the beat of the music (like we did near the beginning of the video when she was walking) so that they came over as more energetic and lively. The time cutting also added pleasing effects to the overall look of the video and scene.

We also had a lot more footage at the beginning of the video. We were told we had too many hair dying shots, they stretched out to almost fifty seconds without the music even starting, so we sorted out the most effective shots that got the point across and looked the best out of all of them before got rid of all of the other shots. This made it far more snappy and brings it down to a normal length of time before the music starts for a standard music video.

There was also a shot near the beginning of the video that didn't look right as it lasted too long. We cut this down and added a different line of video footage as well so it looked better.

2)Junction feed back.

On thursday 5th of november we went to the junction again for a group veiwing and feedback from a panel of judges from the junction who both have 20+ years of experience in the industry. Sadly, ours wouldn't play very smoothly due to the laptop it was on and after ours was played they got a different laptop to play the rest, but it was still good enough quality to give feed back on.

After watching my video Pete Edwards and Rob Tinkler gave feed back; what they said was that it tells a good story and the actors are very beliveable, the live shots look profesional and the crowd looked far bigger than it was. How ever they did also say that whilst both the live show and the narrative sections are good individually, they don't blend together very well, which spoilt the flow of the video. they also said that the artist needs to be established ealier on

3)Digipack rough feedback:

Feed back on my DigiPack was on going from family and friends. For the front and back covers (which i made in class time) Barney and Nick both made frequent comments about what looks good and what needs tweaking. The main points they made were that my original colour scheme wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as it could be and that the hearts needed to be more defined. I changed the colours from dark red and black to blue and a lighter red and i outlined the hearts in black to define them more.

For the inside cover and the advert (which i did at home) the main suggestions were that the text on the inside back cover wasn't very legible in red and that the there was too much text on the advert. To rectify these i changed the text from red to white and halved the amount of text in the heart.

4)Social networking feedback:

I posted my video with these three questions on face book and asked people to give me feedback:

1. In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?
   
2. What do you think are the strengths of my music video?
   
3. What do you think are the weaknesses?
   

this is what was said...

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?

It follows the typical ‘narrative music video’ structure: it starts with the equilibrium which sets up the narrative before the song itself starts. It then progresses to follow-up the narrative interspersed with both crowd action and shots of the band themselves. The band then proceeds to dominate the video before the fade away. In addition to this, technical features such as the production companies and the title of the song and name of the band at the start of the video also make it seem professional.

It has a narrative behind the video with fast paced editing as engage the viewers' attention to the piece. Due to the handheld camera, it fits into the indie music genre of underground video like that of early Hadouken or more recently the band Hockey.

What do you think are the strengths of my music video?

Very good editing control: looks professional. Cut to the beat which I think emphasises the rhythm of the music. I particularly liked it when it cuts as Rosie motions with her arms in time to the beat, (just before the ‘drop’ is it?). Overall kept with the pace of the music, didn’t lag behind or move too fast. Good use of special effects with the fading in and out and the white-light backgrounds for Tom and Rosie. General look of the video seemed to be in keeping with the tone of the music and the narrative followed the lyrics fairly well. Camera work looked professional, not excessively slick, but in the style of music videos during the performance sequences especially. Being present at the filming of the crowd scenes I know how unresponsive the crowd initially was, and how they didn’t appear to fill the space. The camera shots don’t show this at all but instead give the impression of a packed venue.

Has continuity in edit and a variety of techniques.

What do you think are the weaknesses?

I think that generally looks very good; however, there are a few, subjective, issues that I had with the video. The narrative doesn’t appear to conclude fully which means that it seems unresolved, this is a noticeable issue as the setup isn’t fully explored. The title shot fades too quickly to see what the focus-pull has revealed. In one or two of the shots of the band performing the lighting is a bit excessive and washes out Tom’s face.

Could be argued that the camera work is handheld that it is not professional but could add to the charm. Is quite blurry in places though, but you mentioned that this was intentional.

4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is a picture made in photoshop that shows the main aspects we used to reseach, plan, document, produce and promote my music video.

The top left picture is a screen shot of the social networking site Facebook. We used Facebook to promote the video shoot, i set up an event group asking people to come the the junction for the shoot saying when they need to come, where to meet and what they will need to do. This was a very succesfull way of getting a crowd in our video. We also posted the rough cut and finnished video on Facebook and asked people for feedback this was also an easy

The top right picture is of the physical technology we used and the programs we used to edit. We used a Sony HD camera to film, we also used a tripod to film the blue screened shots, which we edited on Adobe after effects on the Mac G5 computer. The rest of the footage was edited on my MacBook because that meant we would be able to edit far more freely as opposed to only being able to edit every monday and wednesday morning. We used our LG KU990 phones to take on set photos and location scout photos as the phone has a 5 megapixel camera which is high quality and meant we didn't need a digital camera.

The bottom left picture is of the video upload site YouTube. We used YouTube to up load our rough and final video so we could use the 'Viral marketing' technique and post the link in many different place to get more people to see the video. The final version of the video was uploaded to Vimeo because it produces a higher quality.

The bottom right picture is of blogger. We used blogger to document the production and planning of the music video.

Album cover research

Unlike pop albums, most indie, rock and alternative bands debut albums do not show the artist on the front, they are usually fairly plain like the Prodigy's first album and Franz Ferdinand's debut album both shown bellow

Some do show the artists on the front but often not in great detail like the kooks debut Inside In Inside Out shown below.

Magazine Album Adverts

Magazine adverts for albums differ slightly magazine to magazine and due to genre of the music they are advertising. But offten keep the same basic layout and style.


some adverts are basic and simple like this one for Rammstein's new album. the advert shows you the band name, album art work & name and date of release. this is the minimum key information to keep it interesting and to the point.



Whilst some adverts give a little more information but still keep it mainly about the visual interest like this one for 'The Chemists' new album which has the art work with the band name, album title and a picture of the actual album on top on the left.


In the middle is the release date and highlights of whats on the CD (people who dont know the album or somthing may see this and reconise a song and potentially buy it)


And on the right is a quote from a review by Kerrang magazine and the record lable ( some people may buy the album because the respect the opinion of the Kerrang reviews or they like other bands on the same lable)


Some adverts for albums rely more on text and less on the visual asthetics of the art work like this Funeral For a Friend one which has a fairly dull picture refrencing the album with the band name/logo and album name.







Then bellow it has quite alot of text information about the album.

Digi pack work

The style/layout of my digipack Cd case i want is going to be like a teenage girls diary and have 4 pages that turn on a ring bound spine. It will have two Cds inside it being a page each, the first will be the album and the second will contain the video, the making of the video and remixes of the album by a selection of DJ's. the main single will be remixed by Tom the keyboardist & sampler aka TheKnobJockey (The KnobJockey is his DJ name) . The third page will be a book of art work and inspiration references from singer song writer Rosie. the fourth page will be a booklet with special thanks, web links and lyrics.

Feedback

On thursday 5th of november we went to the junction again for a group veiwing and feedback from a panel of judges from the junction who both have 20+ years of experience in the industry. Sadly mine wouldn't play very smoothly due to the laptop it was on and after mine was played they got a different laptop to play the rest, but it was still good enough quality to give feed back on.

After watching my video Pete Edwards and Rob Tinkler gave feed back; what they said was that it tells a good story and the actors are very beliveable, the live shots look profesional and the crowd looked far bigger than it was. How ever they did also say that whilst both the live show and the narrative sections are good individually, they don't blend together very well, which spoilt the flow of the video. they also said that the artist needs to be established ealier on

Album cover inspiration

This is the album cover for the Gallows 2009 album Grey Britain. I think the album cover is simple but effective, it portrays patriotism to the country with the flag but shows how its a broken country by draining it's colour. the album it's self is about the same veiw on broken britain.

What is a DigiPack

Acording to about.com the definition of a DigiPack is this:

Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.

Digipacks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers, the generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.

Digipacks have pros and cons:

They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.

• Digipacks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.

• The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.

• When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.

• Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way.

How ever DigiPack's have progressed and evolved and come in all sorts of diffrent shapes and sizes now.

A DigiPack is most commonly, a special edition version of the album. And is normally released for a limited time at the first release or on a big aniversary of the first release if the album is really popular (i.e. 10 year aniversary).

DigiPacks usally consist of fancy case, a box or a sleeve etc. on the inside is the album (often with bonus tracks) a second CD with anything from live show footage to music videos to digital art work. there is also the occasional gimic item, a special guitar pik, stickers or drawings.

They are normally priced between £15 - £20

Animatic

This is the Animatic of the story board for our music video project

Videos for inspiration

I found out that the video for invaders must die by the prodigy uses a similar frame skiping technique i've been looking for. it's not exactly the same but a very similar idea, here it is

Model Release Form

This are pictures of the model release forms i gave to all 30 of my actor/actresses that took part in the video. on the bottom is a screen shot of the document and on the top is the filled out forms.

Back up plan

Our original plan was to shoot at the soul tree in town, and most of the story board was planned for this. However we quickly realised the soul tree was no longer an option when they said they wanted £200 to be able to use the building.

Our back up plan was to use the corner house down newmarket road as we have connections with them and would be more likly to be able to use it cost free or at least alot cheaper.

But once we had our 1st session at the junction and were shown what we would be able to use there, we decided we would have to be stupid to not use that space. So we organised with simon from the junction and confirmed the use of the junction for our shoot.

the option for the corner house was still there had the junction plan failed in some way.

Music video rough cut

Here is the rough cut of my music video, i'm very happy with the out come so far and have had alot of very positive feedback on it. My teacher Nick said he was very impressed and thought that the crowd shots were really well shot. However he did say that the starting shots (before the music) wern't necessary and that with such a prominant drum beat it would be much more effective to continue to cut on the beat through out. here we have cut to the beat but not sorted out the opening scenes.

The process of making a music video

Last year we had a talk from two professional music video directors, Jake and Jim. In the talk they went through the process of how a music video is made.

1. The record label or band (if unsigned) releases the track to potential directors and production companies.

2.The directors that are interested 'pitch' for the track with their ideas and concepts, they have come up with bassed on the brief from the record company and the music track they have listened to.

3. Then the record company chooses the directors pitch they want and allocates a budget, which can be as small as £100 to as big as £250,000 depending on the artist, genre and director. The producer looks after budget and arrangements for the process- a percentage of the budget is allocated to this role

4. Director of Photography and art director(production designer) then join the team. It's the art director's job to oversee the planning for the look of video, they must scout for locations and plans the shoot location.

5.Then everyone (artist, director etc) meet at the shoot location and the video is shot usally in a single day

6. It's then time for the off-line edit where an editor assembles all the footage with out effects over a period of a few days; the record company and artist may want to see it and suggest changes.

7. Afterwards is the online edit when the editor adds all the special effects and tidys it up for a final version.

8. Fianlly the finnished product is deliverd to the client and if it is to their standards then its released.

Steps 1-8 may take as little as 3-4 weeks these days as budgets have fallen and demands are greater.

Editing Photos

Various screen shots of editing the music video.

A screen shot of editing the blue screen shots of tom together.

Capturing the footage into Final Cut.

Filming thursday 15th

These are some photos taken on set at the Junction on thursday 15th

Me directing Becky

Alex filming Becky and Melinda

Rosie performing infront of the blue screen

Filming Wednesday 14th

These are some photos we took while filming Becky dye her hair at her house.

Me getting a zoom shot on becky rinsing the dye

Alex filming the dyed water running into the bath

Alex zooming in on the water running from beckys hair into the bath

Filming Wednesday 14th & Thursday 15th

On wednesday the 14th after college, Alex and I went and collected clothing, props and equipment, before heading off to our actresses house. When we arrived there we got to work filming the introductory scenes for the music video. These involved the girl (Becky) looking up the band Betty on MySpace, before seeing that they have a gig coming up. When she reads this she jumps straight into the act of dressing up in an 'emo' fashion.

This took a while to film, as we had to film her dying her hair. This was one of the more impressive points about the video, is she genuinely dyed her hair black for the video. So after filming her on her computer, Sam and I went about filming her dying her hair black, trying to use the long time it took to dye to our advantage as we could set up some good camera shots. We shot lots of footage as this was one of the parts in our video that it would be impossible to shoot twice. The cost of the dye was around £12.

After this we filmed Becky putting on the more prominent items of the emo style. Showing the audience clearly what she was doing. We referred to the storyboard a lot. This was to get all of the shots, making sure we didn't miss any.

Today, on thursday the 15th, Alex and I arrived at the Junction at around 11 o'clock. We sat around for a while and discussed the storyboard. It was useful being there before the others as it allowed us to liaise about the storyboard and plans for filming and organising the (up to 25) people coming to be the crowd for our shoot.

Other diploma students began to arrive later on (nearer twelve o'clock). Alex and I were able to go and get the first peek of the studio where we would be filming and were quite pleased with the results. It was set up nicely and the venue looked professional. James set to work filming his music video which gave me and Alex time to look around and scout for other locations (that would work in the storyline of the video). By the time we had located these it was almost half past one and a fairly large crowd was gathered outside, waiting for us to tell them we could film.

Several people also helped us to go and find other people that may be able to appear in our film. Due to lack of time, we only gave each person My model release form (contrary to our previous plan to give each person both Alex's and mine). Once we had those filled out it was almost time to film.

Alex went back in to the studio to find that James was just finishing up. One of the most difficult parts of doing this was keeping the crowd interested while we were waiting to go inside to film. During this time a few of them got bored and left. If this happened too frequently then we'd lose the crowd, thus ruining part of our music video. To prevent this from happening, we tried to keep at least one of us outside at all times to talk to people and not let them feel bored.

When James finished, alex came outside and called the whole crowd over to the doors, I then gave a quick safety briefing, making them aware of all the cables etc around. We then lead them into the studio. They gathered around the stage quickly and efficiently, making the procedure quicker and making Alex and my life a lot easier. We were able to get started very quickly. The crowd were perfect. They did exactly what we'd asked them to, they were lively and looked like they were having fun.

This left Alex with the task of making it look good. So far in the project, he has acted as the lead camera man, because he has a steadier hand with me organizing everything, as I'm more organised. With both of us giving our input on direction and editing. I think that we have worked well in this team and have no complaints on how things have gone so far.

I feel Alex was very succesfull with getting good camera shots, and managed to make it look like a real concert venue, with more people then were actually present. As well as getting effective music video-esque footage of the band in performance.

After we had finished filming in the studio, we left the main building and headed to the bar. Through a stroke of luck it wasn't locked and we were able to use it to film. This was great as it added a new depth to our video that we weren't sure we could get filmed, due to the bar normally being locked.

Filming here was easier than having to use a different venue and we were able to get all the shots we needed relatively quickly as we only had a small number of people to organize and there was no one else waiting for their turn to film. As a result Alex was able to take more care in getting good shots filmed whilst i directed.

We filmed in a variety of locations today. Including the junction corridors, the studio, the bar and the girls' toilettes

Video shoot requirements at the junction

Here is the Email that alex and i sent to simon telling him what we needed for when we were filming in the Junction:

Day:

We want to film on thursday the 15th.

Setting:

We would like the set to look just like a standard music venue:
Stage, two microphones, a table for DJ equipment (laptop, mini keyboard and mixer 20x20cm). There will only be two people on the stage.
Black backdrop.
We may possibly want the use of smoke (dry ice) effects in the video.
Standard and/or blue & green lighting
A strobe light if possible.
A stage, and room for a crowd of 25 to look large. (Space constriction using black curtains to make people more compact)
If possible, the use of mirrors to give the illusion of a larger crowd.

Target audience (stereo typical fan)

The typical Betty fan would be A seventeen year old girl that attends sixth form college, with a 'Preppy' style. Her main interests would be going to indie cinemas such as the arts picture house to see more cultural films, going to local gigs and listening to bands like Pendulum, Crystal Castles and Noah and the Whale.

She would happily change her style to fit in with different groups of people and be fairly 'Middle Class'

Shoot plan for Thur 15th

Shooting the main video on Thursday the 15th

Where - the junction 3, bar, and rear car park

When - Thursday 15th 12 - 5 pm

Who - Me, Alex, Becky, Tom, Rosie and 27 extras.

What - Filming the crowd shots, and narrative.

shoot plan for Wed 14th

The Plan for the shoot on wednesday is like this;

Where - Beckys house

When - 4pm - 6pm

Who - Me, Alex and Becky

What - Filming opening shots and becky dyeing her hair

Videos for inspiration

I found this video by a student at Hurtwood house and thought it was a very cool concept, some parts of it are done very well although the amps spoil the look and make the background animation look shoddy.

Videos for inspiration

This video captures the artistic style i want to re-produce when making our music video

Videos for inspiration

This is the video for Peices by Chase and Status Ft Plan B.

I took inspiration from the narritive in the video, it tells the story well, fits the song and keeps you interested to see what the Ex-Girlfriend is going to do and how he reacts.

Equipment and software list

The equipment Alex and I will be working with consists of :

1. Sony HVR-A1U HD DV video camera at a cost of £1600
2. Mac G5 desktop computer £1900
3. Canon ixus 75 digital camera £150
4. 4 x 3meter green and blue screens £50 each

The Software we will be using will include :

1. Final cut express
2. Adobe After effects
3. Adobe Photoshop

Ideas for Imagery

This is a screen shot from the music video 'Friends and Foes' by Isaacs Aircraft, i saw this shot and really liked the focus on the keyboard and the angle it's shot from. it's a very effective shot, showing everything the keyboardist is doing while somewhat concealing his identity for that shot and keeps the back ground out of focus to bring your attention to the keyboard

Junction visit #2 thursday 8th October

We were at the Junction again today, we had a discussion with Helen and Ed about how they market the Junction and it's events.

As Helen put it, Marketing is basically telling the right people about the right things at the right time = Profit.


General notes :

- Job is pretty hectic
-There is usually only around 2 or 3 days a year with nothing on
- Each event is marketed with a different technique
- The Junction, corn exchange and arts theater work together so not to put similar events on at the same time
- Xmas time is the hardest time of the year
- Main target audience is 13 - 30
- Convince the people to buy things they don't need!
- Research is KEY to the success of selling the tickets!


What the job involves:

- Keep the staff updated on what's on
- Take from emails what information they need for the promotional items for the events etc
- Type up brochure info
- Tell the box office when tickets can go on sale
- Must not put tickets on sale too early or too late!
- Work out how many posters etc are needed for the event
- Contact local press for promo stuff
-Work out how ticket sales went post event and figure out if they need a different tactic next time

Some of us also went upstairs with Simon the tech manager to discus what we need in the way of time and equipment, Alex and i told him that we need:

• Blue/green screen
• Stage with 2 mics
• Blue and Pink stage lights
• Black curtains
• A table for Tom's DJ equipment

Ed Lovelace

Today Ed Lovelace, an ex longroad student and now profesional music video director came in and talked to us about how hes got the where he is and what it's been like.

Ed was a student at longroad from 2000 to 2002 and did the same course work as is done now in the media studies a level, but had to edit on Imovie and the cameras cost about £1200 for the same quality you get for about £100 now.

After long road he went to Bournmouth university from 2003 to 2005 and had profeshional tutors from the media industry who directed things like harry potter

After Uni Ed went onto work for a music video production company called creation with who he made videos for Cut pink with knives and Gallows for a budget of £100. The video for Abandon Ship by Gallows won best music video at the MTV awards and Ed got instantly recognised.



he left Creation and joined Pulse films with who he made videos for Cage The Elephant on a budget of £40,000.


Ed is Part of a directing duo called D.A.R.Y.L with Pulse Films. D.A.R.Y.L have made videos for Gallows, The Subways, Funeral for a Friend, Hard Fi, Lethal Bizzle and others

http://www.pulsefilms.co.uk/daryl.html This is their profile on the Pulse Films website


He is now making a feature film called werewolves across america on a budget of £10,000, its about a guy called Viking Moses who left home aged 14 and has been touring america with his band for 16 years solid

Shoot plan re-visited

After finding out that the use of the soul tree, although a perfect venue, was out of the question due to the cost. We had to settle for the corner house which was going to be more difficult. however after our visit to the junction and Simon telling us all the possibilitys there were with the venue we decided that the junction 3 is the perfect venue with being able to black out and light in any way we want. i cant plan exactly when i want to shoot before i know when the junction is actually free.

location shots

These are location shots of the alley that i plan to shoot the jumping track shot

The Junction (#1 1st october)

Today was our first of many visits to the Junction (a very popular cambridge music, theater and comedy venue). The visit was an introduction into the venue it's self and what we will be doing throughout the next 8 or so weeks.

When we arrived we were greeted by Simon (head of eductional links with the junction) and introduced to the rest of the staff. We were then given the grand tour and shown every room in the entire junction complex. starting off in J1, the main and original building. J1 is used for bands and big club nights. we then went into J2 which is a much smaller room and is used for theater and comedy nights and some smaller club nights, it also opens up for some of the big clubnights like Warning (which uses J1 J2 and upstairs). We were then taken upstairs and shown the 3rd room which is sometimes used as a practice room for some bands and often used as another arena for music on big club nights like Warning and Uprizing. We were then shown all the ofices etc and told about how the venue is run. We were also shown what is called J4 but actually known as J3 because there is no J3. This room is a studio space and used for band practices, dance workshops and other such things. This room is 10m by 20m and this is where i will be shooting my music video.

After the tour we discussed what each of us have planned, what we want to use the venue and what we wanted from the junction. For our video alex and i are making the most of whats on offer and using kirks green screen and shooting a live performance in the studio room and using the bar area for a few shots also.

Shoot Plan

We're planning on using the soul tree by the corn exchange to film, however they want £200, if this can't be worked round we will use the corner house which is a much easier venue to secure, just not quite as suited. I have cast sorted

Key cast members

This is Tom (left) and Rosie (right). Tom and Rosie make up the band, Betty and will be performing in the video as the band.

This is Becky, she will be playing the part of the stalker girl that is trying to get Toms attention. i've chosen Becky because she is reliable, enthusiastic and a big fan of the band.

possible difficulties

One thing that Pete pointed out in class was the fact the the singing in Slits on your wrists is layer up and could therefore become difficult to lipsync. How ever i don't see this as a problem as i will have acces to a version of the song that hasnt had the lyrics layerd up on yet, so i can sync to that then sync the 2 tracks together and take away the original one, being left with the track with layerd up lyrics and a lip synced video.

i think The Avalanches would have probally employed a similar technique to makeing their video for Frontier Psychiatrist

effects

theres a specific effect i want to use at the start of the video which ive seen used many places but pimp my ride is the only one i can remember. Baisicly you take a tracking shot of the girl walking to the venue and edit it so that she jumps forwards in time with the beat of the drum in the song.

ive been trying for ages to find an example of this but cant

online moodboard

Music video pitch

for my music video i'm going to be using the song 'Slits on your wrists' by Betty the song is about a teenage girl giving into social peer pressure and changing her image to try and stand out and make the guy in the band (tom) like her. how ever he doesn't care, thinks she's acting stupid and childish and is just embarrassing. For the video i want to shoot at the soul tree in town, i have approached them about it. My friend Becky has agreed to play the girl in the video. the video will start with short fades of her 'dressing up emo' as the lyrics depict. then the music develops an obvious drum beat to which she will be walking to the venue where betty are playing and jumping forward on the beat, and up the stairs into the venue. she will head straight to the toilet to drink her stolen vodka, as the lyrics once again depict. she then goes back to the venue and watches the band, trying to get noticed. at points she will blend into the crowd and it will turn to a live video and at other times the crowd will disappear. at one point the song brakes down and has just a vocal solo to which i want to green screen Rosie (the female in the band) dancing and singing. and a similar effect for tom at the end when he has a vocal solo

Song Lyrics

theses are the lyrics to the song im planning on using by Betty

you dressed up emo to his gig
stole some vodka took a swig
and as it burned your throat you looked at him
and wondered if he thought you were thin

can't wait to recall the night to the toffs at school
yeah his band's song is cool
have to say he's no james blunt
and when you talk to him you found he was a cunt

his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare
his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare

he doesn't care how you dress to his gig
if you steal vodka take a swig
it slips down your throat you look at him
you realize he doesn't give a shit if you're fat
or if you're thin

so you recall the night to the toffs at school
now you look uncool
and off your ipod you delete james blunt
because you think it makes you look like a cunt
it doesn't

i think the shit is hitting the fan
i've been putting up with behavior so uneven its giving me a streaky tan
one minute you're so loud the next you're not there
the toffs ignore you the emos don't care
as you sprinkle your sadness everywhere
i wonder why i hand my life out to share

he's got a girlfriend and he blocked you on msn
he doesn't spare a thought
he resisted cause the facade was a shit idea
now your caught
despite your best efforts you never kissed
now all you've got is slits on your wrists

his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare
his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare

artists similar to Betty

Another band i find have even more of a likeness to betty is Crystal Castles, they have the same styleised, out of tune singing and also have the electro synths and electronically generated beats.

here is an example 

Artists similar to Betty

When thinking of artists with a similar musical style to betty, i immediately think of Noah and the whale. although they are different genres, the stylised out of tune singing make them sound alike

heres an example of Noah and the Whale


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YCSJpF4g4

Permission from Betty

From: theknobjockey@hotmail.com

To: samc_w@hotmail.com

Subject: FW: Music video

Date: Sat, 29 June 2009 21:04:38 +0000

Sam,

I'm sure it will be fine to use betty in your video so long as you do not use one of our songs that is being released. Due to contractual obligations we would have to refer to the label before doing further promo work with these songs.

After our last meeting I seem to remember talking about using the tune 'Slits On Your Wrists'? This one should be fine as we are not releasing it and it doesn't seem like we will in the near future.

I look forward to the final result!

Cheers,

T

From: samc_w@hotmail.com

To: theknobjockey@hotmail.com

Subject: FW: Music video

Date: Fri, 28 June 2009 21:04:38 +0000

Hi Tom

 

At college my next project is to make a music video, i was wondering if it would be ok to use your band (Betty) to make my video?

 

Sam

Betty

Betty are a brother and sister elctro duo from cambridge.

I've chosen to use Betty for my music video project. I chose them because everything is electronically generated and controlled, this makes life much easier right from the beginning because i know everything is going to exactly in time and i know when each sound is triggerd. Another element that makes Betty a much easier act as opposed to HTKAC is that there is only two of them which means its far easier to get everyone together.

Betty's music can be heard here   www.myspace.com/theressomethingaboutbetty

How To Kill a Conversation

How To Kill a Conversation are a 5 piece cambridge 'Indie' group, being good friends with all the band and also really enjoying their music, they were my first port of call when i heard we were going to be making a music video for college.

choosing my friends band was always going to have its problems but the one thing i didn't really think about was the fact they had no professional recordings.

the recordings the band do have are here 

www.myspace.com/howtokillaconversation

Choosing an artist for my music video project.

Now that we have done alot of work on editing other peoples video, and making group videos to famous songs etc it is now time for us to start thinking about our final project, our own music video.

For our music video we are aloud to use any artist we want within reason, so long as they're not too famous (some one like Red Hot Chilli Peppers or Madonna) because it makes it increasingly hard to make a video to a very well known track or artist as most people already have an idea of how it SHOULD be done to them.

I made a short list of artists i liked and thought i would be able to use, those artists were;

2 of my friends bands called How To Kill A Conversation and Betty

i also considered slightly less well known but still famous artists like Matchbox 20 or Enter Shikari.

i quite quickly decided against the famous artists because i thought they would be more difficult to do.

Having already spoken to How To Kill a Conversation in depth and being fairly involved in the band at times i originally went with them. How ever after i spent a while closely listening to their recordings trying to decide which song to use i realised that the recordings were not really to a good enough standard for what i needed and that occasionally parts were out of time, which although sounded good, would have made syncing more difficult.

As a result of HTKAC's recordings not being up to scratch i had to head back to the drawing board. However i am glad this happened now because i then started working with my other friends band/duo, Betty.

Editing the brittany video

I knew from the start of the filming that this project was going to be a tough one to edit, due to the amount of similar shots and fast cuts back and forth.

When i started looking through all the footage i realised just how tedious and hard it was going to get. we had hours of footage to go through and only a minute or so that was actually needed.

I made it easier for my self by having a youtube window with the original playing at the same time so that i could sync up the scenes and make them all the right length etc

Brittany Spears remake

Britany Spears - hit me baby one more time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ohYJUu0ujc

this is a link to the official video for hit me baby one more time. i was going to embed it but the function has been disabled.

Roxanne

As another practise exersise we were given a section of a popular song with relativly easy lyrics and in groups had to film each other singing it and then use the footage to make a new music video. the exersise was set to teach us how to edit lipsyncing to make the video look beterand more realistic. I was in a group with Alex, Ash and Tim, we were given Roxanne by The Police. We shot all four of us individually singing, in different locations, with different camera angles, we then shot all four of us together doing the chorus.

Spike Jonze

Much like Gondry, Spike Jonze is some what of a pioneer in creative thinking as far as music videos are concerned. One of Spikes favorite techniques has to be single shot filming. Single shot filming requires weeks of planning and rehersing to get everything to happen at the correct time etc. Jonez decided to take this technique, make artists The Pharcyde learn their song 'Drop' backwards, perferm it in one shot and then play it backwards. As far as in concerned this is a stroke of genius.