Rough Cut Progress

So far our rough cut editing has been going well and we have been very pleased with our progress. We have now realised how our previous experiences with lip syncing practice have been particularly useful as we know how important this is in making our video look authentic and have a high quality final effect.

All group members have had a large input at this weeks production meetings and by combining all our ideas and skills with the footage we have managed to produce 1.30 minutes of high quality video.

When it comes to our final cut we have a few details we are considering changing, for example:
- the lighting on certain layers of the split screen needs to be adjusted
- we also need to adjust the shot to make the ground level, as at the moment its slightly tilted
- the borders between the shots on the introduction could be possibly removed.
- add the zoom effects onto the singers lips in the introduction.
- add effects to the narrative sequence. For example, reversing the footage, increasing speed etc

We are also thinking ahead for the future for the production of our DVD cover and poster and have been brainstorming ideas based on the behind the scenes photographs we took whilst filming. For example, the shots involving the two characters and the car.

Currently we feel that we have a sufficient amount of footage but this could possibly change.

Album Ideas: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What I'm Not

I chose to analyse The Arctic Monkeys album cover as they are an indie band, and that is the type of music we have made our video to. The band is an all boy band and the music is mostly fast paced with many guitar and bass solos. The boys are all messy and the style of clothing is edgy and indie, with skinny jeans, shirts and messy hairstyles. Although the Arctic Monkeys dont have a leading female singer, I thought their music was similar to Be Your Own PET - Girls on TV.

The album cover is interesting because the band arent on the picture and the photo of the man doesnt indicate anything about the album. It is totally random but it somehow has relevence as, to me, it shows the man being a rebel by smoking when everybody knows its bad for you. I think the Arctic Monkeys have chosen this image to show they dont care and just want to have a good time and do what they want, and the man in this photo demonstrates this perfectly.

The black and white effect is effective because its different and shows the simplicity of the photo. It makes all the attention go straight to the man in the photo and also works well with the text which is also in black and white. If there was colour there would be too much going on and would look slightly messy, so they have done the right thing. It also makes the album cover look old, as if it was taken with a camera that is years old, as when photos were first taken they were all in black and white. It adds a touch of vintage to the cover and shows that the boys have wanted to make it edgy.

The background is also simple; it looks like grey curtains, which also shows the minimalist effect. It works well with the man in front as it looks as if he is in contrast to it due to the brightness on him.

In conclusion, it looks like a low budget album cover as it is minimalist and looks as though there haven't been any effects used, therefore it is successful as it is memorable without having to do much to it or change it in any way.

Editing for Rough Cut

We have now begun our editing process. During the last few lessons we have been watching our footage (which is in total 26 minutes long) and working out which shots we need for the music video and where we need to put them. We have a good idea of where to put our shots as we have our storyboards and shot lists to guide us. As some of the shots were on a running camera, we had to cut a lot of the shots to make sure we gave some variety to our video, and doing this means we are cutting down our footage but still ensuring that we have plenty to play around with.

Poster and DVD cover Pictures

While filming we also took some photo's that we could use for our poster and DVD cover which is also an element of our coursework. These are the photo's that we took and will look through and edit later:

Filming

During our filming we took a few pictures to show the progress. We had a bit of trouble because there was building work going on, this caused a few cars to drive across our shot, meaning re-shooting a few scenes.

It was also really really cold, so we had to do costume and make-up inside our cars.
Also after shooting when we looked through our footage we thought that the lighting was too bright, in final cut we will put a filter over the footage to make it look darker in the day.

Test Footage Of Intro

Here is test footage of what we plan to do for the introduction of our video. The still pictures will be video's of the actual performance when it comes to the final cut.

Panic! at the disco - I write sins not tragedies

I have chosen this video to analyse because the costumes are the sort of thing we are hoping to dress Tom in. There are mimes, each with different looks; some look scary, some eerie, some sad etc. We are hoping to pick a mime and make Tom look as close to it as possible.
The first shot of the band member is a close up from above, looking down on him from under the hat. We are thinking of introducing a shot into the shot list of Tom doing a similar thing, with the similar kind of shot. The whole theme of the music video is eerie and we are hoping to achieve this with Tom as closely as we can. When I thought of a video that would show different types of costumes and clowns to give us inspiration I thought of this video. There is a wide range of styles and make up techniques we could use so we have a variety to choose from for Tom.
In the video, the mimes are all happy in the beginning. Then as things start to go on and chaos arises their make up is changed and they are made to look sad. We are looking to do this with Tom to show the different types of emotions through the music video; as he will have a lot of paint on his face, there will be no other way to show his emotions then to keep wiping off then reapplying face make up with a different emotion on it. This will be quite difficult and time consuming but it will look effective, just like it does in this video.
The close up shots in Panic! at the disco's video make it easier to see how to achieve the look and use the make up effectively, and it will be easier to do it stage by stage, slowing down the youtube video so we can see exactly how the make up was used in the music video so we can use it for Tom.

Be your own PET Myspace

Be Your Own PET





While we were emailing the band we looked through the bands Myspace photo's to see what they look like and there dress sense and how they present the band. The general idea for costume was what we had thought of. This will help us to style our selves to look more appropriate to their genre. The pictures will also help when we are designing the poster and DVD cover, by using their location ideas, props, costumes and camera angles.
The first picture above looked similar in how gritty and rural our filming location will be.

Message to Be Your Own Pet

We have just written to Be Your Own Pet to ask permission to use the song for the video.
Above is a copy of the message.

Similar Music Video

To give us ideas and inspire us with our music video, we looked at a range of video's that match our song genre which is indie rock with a female lead. We looked alot at the Gossip to see how they portrayed the female lead and showed the performance of the rest of the band. This lead us to looking at other video's that represented the tempo and style of our song. (upbeat, fast tempo, and busy beats) The song reminded me of OK GO's 'Here it goes again' because of the fast tempo. We wanted to something similar with either lots of fast shots or lots of things happening in the shots to give the effect of confusion and rushing.




We liked this video because of how original yet clever the concept was.
With Girls on TV I think that our lead woman singer unlike the OK GO video where the whole band is featured all the time, will be shown on her own for some of the time. She will be the centre of attention on camera some of the time, this will be shown by her position on camera and her bright costume and make up.

Props and Costumes

Instruments have proved quite difficult to acquire for our filming. As we need bass, a guitar, an amp and drums we have not been lucky in the sense that finding these instruments has been proven a difficult task.
We have managed to find friends who have these instruments; Tom in our group has a black and white guitar (which would look extremely effective as he is acting as a mime) and an amp, Claire in our group will be able to get hold of bass from her brother and Bryony in our group will be able to get drums from a relative. We will have to get all of these instruments to the place where we will be filming which will be a slight problem, but as 2 of us drive we will have to make 2 trips to fit everything in the car, depending on how big the instruments are. When we get to the scene of filming we will have to set all the instruments up then act as if we are using them in our footage.

We will have to experiment with costumes as the main girl needs to be in colour. We are hoping Bryony will wear something like coloured/patterned leggings, a long top, converse, colourful cardigan and a lot of jewelry. We need her to be in complete contrast with the black and white mime (Tom) and by doing this it will make her stand out as the lead singer and sex symbol.

I will have to bring in colourful make up on the day, as Bryony will have big eye make up and stand out by looking very indie. We are hoping to mismatch her make up with her outfit so she looks edgy, unique and memorable.

Preparation

Before we go ahead with the filming there is alot of preparation that we are going to have to do. For my part in the music video, being the lead singer i will have to learn the lyrics of the song in order to film me and lip sink well.
I have put the song on my ipod and phone so that it is accessible to listen to at most times.
The lyrics i have to learn are these:

My other half wants to run away with me
It's too hot and too fast
If you tell him once just let it be
We don't want love, no love

And if it's real like the ghost on the sea
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And if it's real like the ghost on the sea
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And is it real, and is it real
And is it real like the ghost on the sea?

If our emotions get to heavy to carry
All too hot and too fast
They won't know and we won't be sorry
We don't want love, no love

And is it real like the girls on TV?
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And is it real like those girls on TV?
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And is it real, and is it real
Is it real like those girls on TV?

Tick tick, do that trick trick
Tick tick, now you're sick
Hide in the closet, we kiss
Neither of us feeling this

And is it real like the girls on TV?
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And is it real like those girls on TV?
Shut up and smile cos you just cut into me
And this ain't real, and this ain't real
This ain't real like those girls on TV

As well as learning the lyrics i have got to make a costume and find some make up that will fit with the genre of our song. This is indie, edgy and colourful to contrast will the plain colours of the mime costume. Also we must remember to bring duck tape to mark the places that me and tom (the mime) will stand so that editing the different shots of tom will be easier and more fluent.

Test Footage

This is test footage that Tom and Claire put together in a production meeting on Friday. There is a slight mismatch of the brick wall which we used as a back drop. To avoid this next time we are going to leave the camera running throughout everything and cut out what is not needed, from doing this we do not have to touch the camera at all and hopefully will achieve a neater effect.

Locations.

For the location of our music video shoot, the group decided we wanted to have somewhere quiet and isolated with a feeling of being lost. With this idea in mind I suggested an abandoned house and warehouse which I believed would provide the ideal setting.

In order to give the other group members a good sense of what the location would entail I took several photos for them and received their approval to use this as our location.

Copies of the photos can be seen below.

The Gossip - Heavy Cross

The Gossip front woman Beth Ditto has become an icon since the band's first hit "Standing in the Way of Control" which featured as part of the soundtrack to the popular teen drama Skins.

The new album features the above track, Heavy Cross and the video shows their alternative status in the music industry. The video features an abstract styled performance which focuses largely on Beth Ditto, the band members are also featured within the video but mostly in the background.

When compared to our production group's aspirations I found this video particularly good to look at as it provides another example for how female fronted bands in the industry are protrayed.

The minimalism with the use of shadows to create an effect of eerieness and abstract art rather than a narrative makes it interesting to watch and with the focus on Beth Ditto the power is given to her.

With Girls on TV I believe that our front woman also needs to be the centre of attention on camera, because of this as a group we are looking into appropriate clothing and make up.

A blog will follow up on our research shortly.

Singer costume ideas

Bryony; Edgy indie look
- shirt
- skinny jeans
- converse/plimsoles
- back brushed hair
- lots of jewelry, big earrings, earrings in all piercings
- big eye make up

Bryony; More girly indie look
- leggings (coloured, patterned)
- long top - tunic top - black & white, picture on it/patterned
- converse/boots
- chunky cardigan - coloured
- lots of jewelry
- big eye make up and face make up - blusher etc

Tom; Mime 1
- black top
- white jeans
- braces
- black shoes
- top hat
- stick
- black and white face paints - with a tear etc

Tom; Mime 2
- stripey black and white top
- white/black jeans
- beret hat
- plimsoles - black or white
- braces
- stick
- black and white face paints - with a tear etc

Costume ideas - Mime

Using face paints, we are hoping to be able to recreate a similar effect as the one in the above picture. The tear drop like eye make up we thought would look particularly effective as we want the mime to be particularly eerie to give the video a surreal edge and create a good divide and be significantly different from the ideal love stories you see on TV.

The bottom picture shows a typical mime's costume which we are going to be recreating simply with the striped t-shirt and skinny jeans

Paul McCartney - Coming Up

We were recommended to watch this video because the techniques used in it our similar to the ones we are aspiring to achieve.

The video, released in 1980, was a very early example of technology trickery and Paul McCartney is seen to be playing 10 different band members and his wife Linda plays a further two. The different members were depicting various different impersonations of artists such as: The guitarist, Hank Marvin from the Shadows and Ritchie Blackmore Rainbow/Deep Purple.

We have found watching this video very helpful to watch and its given us high aspirations for the final results of our video.

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

Final Concept and Shot List

At our last production meeting we pitched our music video concept and got approval from the group.
The concept we have decided on include the split screen introduction that we discussed in our last blog. We will be focusing on the performance and having cutaway shots to create a narrative which will link to the lyrics of the song. The performance will be a member of our group being filmed playing all instruments and dressed as a mime edited together using a cut screen to make it look as if he is playing all the instruments single handedly at the same time. We will also have a female lead singer with an indie style and wearing colourful clothes in contrast to the black and white outfit of the mime.

Shot List:
Shot 1: Begins with a black screen
Shot 2: One quarter of the split screen will introduce the guitar
Shot 3: Repeated with the bass
Shot 4: Repeated with the drums
Shot 5: And finally the singer's lips
Shot 6: The shot zooms into the singer's mouth and then back out to the girl in our first location, walking towards hand held camera, singing.
Shot 7: Long shot of band in line (split screen to show Tom as all band members)
Shot 8: Girl enters shot from the right, Tom on the right sees her, stops playing and walks towards her. Other mimes look over and watch.
Shot 9: Zoom onto to singer and band member pulls her towards band. Girl starts singing, mimes look at her oddly.
Shot 10: Girl runs away. Cuts to shots of girl running away, each getting further away.
Shot 11: Cut away narration at second location. Mime chasing girl.
Shot 12: Stiller, calmer shot of mime and girl happily together - "like the girls on tv"
Shot 13: Mime chasing girl.
Shot 14: Cut back to singer performance
Following shots will be alternating between:
- the mime chasing the girl
- the mimes performance
- the singer.
The final shot: Camera zooming into the singer's mouth and fading to black.