Sunday, 31 January 2010
Photography Task
Here are a couple of the photo's I took
This photo represents our location as we will be shooting in a wood area.
This photo represents the Tea Party theme/shoot we are planning to have in the video.
This photo represents the light concept we are planning to have in the video.
Blogger isn't being very friendly today and won't upload my photo's. sadface.
Friday, 29 January 2010
I'm most excited about shooting the video and seeing how light concept works out.
Photography Task
I'd firstly like to point out how cold it is outside, which made it very difficult for myself and my group to want to go out and take photos.
29.01.10
The professional music video we looked at was 'Sad Song' by Au Revoir Simone
There was a total of 17 cuts in the first minute of this video
The student music video we looked at was 'Where You Go'
There was a total of 11 cuts in the first minute of this video
Th Hurtwood House video we looked at was 'Sweet Disposition'
There was a total of 33 cuts in the first minute of this video
We mainly looked at music videos for songs by Au Revoir Simone or in the same genre as it helps us to know how paced the music videos are, which gives us an idea of how paced our music video needs to be.
We noticed that the shots in the student music video are held longer than the ones in the professional and Hurtwood house videos.
This is something we will need to be careful with during editing as we don't want our shots to drag on - we need to keep the viewers interested throughout the whole performance/video.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Hurtwood House
The students were given a budget to create their music videos.
I mostly like this video as it has a similar concept to our ideas for Shadows, and this video works which give me confidence about our music video. I also like the colours of the light and the storyline - towards the end when the girl opens the box to reveal the band inside, which creates a surreal atmosphere.
This video links into our concept for our own music video as the location is set in a wood area and it also includes light (light bulbs) as well as a band performance.
It would be pretty simple to re-create this, as we're trying to do something similar we could just use the location and props we already have in mind.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Shadows!
This is the original music video for Shadows by Au Revoir Simone
The video was directed by Brendan Colthurst and Vikram Gandhi (2009)
It is a very simple video which I didn't expect as you could do so much with the song (tell a story).
I don't think the stop motion is necessary in this video however it does make the video look a little more interesting.
What I first noticed about the video, was the lights in the background and the colours - which fits into our idea.
I really like the minimalness of the video, which I think will be interesting to compare our finished video too as ours is almost opposite.
About the band
Au Revoir Simone is an electronic indie pop band from Williams Burg, Brooklyn, New York.
The band consists of members (all female) - Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard) and Heather D'Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard).
They formed in late 2003.
The band's name comes from a line Pee-Wee Herman says to a minor character (named Simone) in Tim Burton's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_Revoir_Simone)
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Pitch Feedback for Everywhere
This pitch wasn't as detailed or planned out as Shadows as we didn't realise we had to pitch for our back-up plan also.
Nevertheless hear is the feedback for Everywhere:
- Band scene and everyday teenage life is good
- Good Concept
- Locations
- Very Detailed ideas
- Good idea very interesting
- Planed well
- Story line fits in well with the lyrics of the song - 'i like the shadows idea better!'
Pitch Feedback for Shadows
My group pitched for Shadows and Everywhere.
Two other groups we're also pitching for Shadows, so we tired to make our pitch as good as possible. I think we put a lot of effort into our keynote and really thought about our ideas.
The feedback we received for Shadows was mainly positive and everyone seemed to take the light concept which is good. I also noticed that that the only negative feedback concerned the lights as people thought it may be a problem to get power to our location.
Here is the feedback:
Positive
- Light Concept is really good. - Lots of Research.
- Like the costume idea.
- Vintage look will be effective.
- Realistic.
- Good Vibe.
- Insane Moodboard.
- Like the Tea Party idea.
- Good list of props.
- Detailed idea.
- Fairy Tale idea is good.
- Band idea is good.
Negative
- Lighting may be a probelm.
- Costumes may be hard to find.
- How will you find power for the fairy lights?
Monday, 25 January 2010
Chris Cunningham
Unfortunaity I missed this lesson where the class looked at Chris Cunningham. Chris Cunningham is a music video director, very influential with a unique style. I understand that they looked a some of his work and discussed it etc. The slideshow above is from the lesson.
Moodboard for Everywhere
Treatment for Shadows w. Adjustments
The video will have a fairy tale/Alice in Wonderland theme throughout. It won't be completely Wonderland themed just aspects that will come through in the video (e.g. a few props and maybe costumes) The video will mainly be a band performance in this fairy tale setting, however it may cut from this to a Tea Party with the band and guests.
It starts with an establishing shot of the forestry location where the band performance will take place. It's dark. Lights come on to reveal the fairy tale-like setting/location. Fairy/Christmas lights, lanterns, garden lights, candles etc will be used for this.
The song starts on the queue of the lights coming on.
The band instruments will be set up in the middle of all the lights - this includes one or two keyboards (depending on how many we can get hold off) a bass guitar and possibly a microphone + stand (Rob has a bass guitar and I own a keyboard). The aim is for this location to look something along the lines of this:
minus the furniture and plus instruments.
I have a rough idea of where i'd like to shot. Behind college theres a lot of trees that would fit this (i've shot there before) This would also be a good place to shoot as theres a classroom near by where we could get power for lights. (an extra long extension cable will be needed - I have one)
I'd like the shots of the band performance to be quite abstract in the sense that the camera will do wide, mid and close ups of the band (tracking and still) however the camera will also do closeup shots of the props in focus with the actual band performance out of focus in the background etc.
There will be mid/close up shots of the fairy tale themed props we will be using, this includes 'drink me' bottles (hanging off branches), tea cups, playing cards, candles and fairy lights (shots of lights out of focus coming into focus)
The camera will cut from band performance to a tea party full of guests in exaggerated costumes. These shots will be used nearer the end of the song roughly on the chours after the lyric 'reasoning aside'. Also shot in a foresty locaton but during the day when its light? The guests will laugh and smile lots (in editing this might be put in slow motion) However the band members will be motionless and expressionless - links into lyrics 'i'm moving on' - they don't want to be stuck in the past or present, they want to 'move on'.
Costumes will be spilt - Alice in Wonderland style and bands own image which is like boho/vintage
Using effects on top of the footage such as old film grain for a textural effect like in the mood board.
Treatmeant Feedback
However Inisecond lesson the class swapped Treatments with people that had written one for a different song. Elliott read mine and I read Louis'.
The feedback Elliott wrote me for my treatment was:
- Where does the tea party start/end?
- Does anything happen during the party?
- What camera shots are used for the band?
- What is the most focus put on?
- How will you get power/lights/instruments to the woods?
- Where will you get props/costumes?
- Understandable with the band at the tea party, good style concept
Whilst reading Louis' I noticed a differnece between his and mine. His treatment had a kind of 'this happens, then this, then this etc' apporach which was good as it felt like I was being taken through the treatment stage by stage. He also had alot of camera shots he knows he wants to use. Whereas mine has a 'I want this to happen and this but i'm not sure how' apporach.
Taking this and Elliott's feedback on board I am going to improve my trearment before tomorrow pitch.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Everywhere.
However our back up song is Everywhere by Michelle Branch, although as a group we haven't really spoken much about this song, I think we all agree on a stereotypical girl boy storyline. In the original music video this stereotypical storyline is displayed but in my opinion not in a very interesting way, so I'd like to think of a more creative way to do it.
I also discovered that Everywhere is a first choice song for another group, which means if we don't get Shadows the chances are we won't get Everywhere either. I think myself and my group should re-evaluate the songs on the play list tomorrow just so we're not stuck if we can't produce a music video for our first choice song and back-up song.
I'm really rather excited about our Shadows idea though, so if we don't get Shadows, it would be nice to try and incorporate the idea into another simiular song.
'I'm Moving On' Test Photo's
This gave me the idea of using this in the video for Shadows (as it fits into the light concept were going for) but using lyrics from the song such as 'i hope your coming with me' or 'i'm moving on' or 'don't blame it on your shadows'
As I have nothing better to do today I decided to test this out myself.
Friday, 22 January 2010
Treatment for Shadows
Stages of Production
- Pre-visualisation (Mood board, shot list, animatic, treatment etc)
- Production design (pros, costumes, locations, hair and makeup etc)
- Production manager (Logistics)
Production
- Director
- Cinematography
- Production assistant
- Performance
- On set photographer
Post-Production
- Editing
- Graphic design (digipak and magazine advert)
- Marketing
Getting in Touch
We also gave them links to our blogs so they could see what were getting up to, or if they wanted to know anything more about the project etc.
We recieved a reply a few days after sending the message from their manager saying that we can use the song.
Postcard for Shadows
This is the postcard we made
It includes the song title, artist name and release date. I think the background image works on a literal level as it shows lights creating shadows.
Moodboard for Shadows
We particularly looked at images portraying light; fairy lights, lanterns, candles etc and came up with the idea of creating an image like the photo I posted further down on my blog (http://musicvideocm3christina.blogspot.com/2010/01/au-revoir-simone.html). We also thought of using tea cups as candle holders and placing them on the ends of the keyboards or around the location. Another idea was to have ‘drink me’ bottles (like the bottle in Alice in Wonderland - http://www.flickr.com/photos/onibabah/2793138216/ and http://blog.yimmyayo.com/post/74736468) hanging off branches which relates the to the image of the light bulb hanging off a branch in our mood board.
In our keynote we added keywords around our mood board which includes Lights, Alice In Wonderland, Fairytale, Woods, Vintage, Tea party, Keyboard.
22.01.10
We firstly looked at a treatment for the DJ Format - We Know Something music video (which can be found further down on my blog from a previous task). A treatment is...
We were then set the homework of producing a treatment for our top song choices. My group decided that we'd do one each. I'm producing one for Au Revoir Simone - Shadows, whilst Emma is producing one for Michelle Branch - Everywhere and Rob Two Door Cinema Club - Cigarettes in the Theatre.
I expect these treatments shall be posted on my blog over the weekend.
We than took a lyric from one of our top songs and were asked to think of 3 possible shots for lyric that could appear in the music video. Our lyric was from Michelle Branch- Everywhere and read 'And when I close my eyes all I see is you'. The shots were split into categories
1. Literal
2. Metaphorical
For the literal shot we came up with the idea of having a shot of eyelids closing then the face of the person they 'see' appear with faded edges and all bright as if it were a dream
For the metaphorical shot we came up with..
Lastly we had the task of preparing for our pitch on Tuesday for the song we are most interested in. For us this is Shadows by Au Revoir Simone - which seems to be popular among other groups. We made a moodboard and postcard for the song and then created a keynote, hopfully our ideas are good enough to be chosen.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
My Generation Edit.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Video Inspiration
The video is mostly themed around the Mad Hatter's tea party. Which could help us as we're interested in the Mad Hatter's tea party theme.
Another video we've looked at is Daisy Dares you - Number one Enemy
We mostly looked at the costumes and the Tea Party shots.
Another video is the Smirnoff Advert.
This advert really appealed to us as the characters in the background relate to our idea, but on a bigger scale.
The fairytale, and woodland concept to our video also relates to the advert.
Shadows
I'm not sure how feasible it would be to re-create something like this for our music video but I think it would fit the fairytale concept I want to create, which would also fit the song really well.
This kind of setting would be good for shots of a band performance (minus the furniture)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Top songs
1. Au Revoir Simone - Shadows
you tell me
that its getting better
but every time that we say goodnight [goodnight goodnight]
I'm haunted by your eyes
and how long they've been crying
don't tell me about a bad reaction
don't tell me that you plan to hide [to hide to hide]
reasoning aside
I'm moving on
I hope your coming with me
I hope your coming with me
anyone can answer their own questions
all you have to do is look inside [inside inside]
you know it insideyou know it will be alright [alright alright]
you know its alright
I'm moving on
I hope your coming with me
cause I'm not strong without you
don't blame it on
your shadows
cause I know all
about you
2. Michelle Branch - Everywhere
Turn it inside out so I can see
The part of you that's drifting over me
And when I wake you're never there
But when I sleep you're everywhere
You're everywhere
Just tell me how I got this far
Just tell me why you're here and who you are
'Cause every time I look you're never there
And every time I sleep you're always there
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone
I recognize the way you make me feel
It's hard to think that you might not be real
I sense it now, the water's getting deep
I try to wash the pain away from me
Away from me
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone
And when I touch your hand
It's then I understand
The beauty that's within
It's now that we begin
You always light my way
I hope there never comes a day
No matter where I go
I always feel you so
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I catch my breath it's you I breathe
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
You're in everyone I see
So tell me
Do you see me?
First inital ideas
1. AU REVOIR SIMONE
- Fairytale theme/Alice in Wonderland (exaggerated costumes, oversized props, colour themes, playing cards)
- Coloured lights?
- Female performer
- Band performance/instruments
- Keyboards (props and costumes?)
- Two main locations 1. inside with band performance, 2. outside with wonderland theme
- Surrelism
2. THE BLACK KEYS
- Band performance
- Black and white in some shots?
- Tainted Love by Marliyn Manson style
3. MICHELLE BRANCH
- American highschool theme/style
- Lots of locations
- Stereotypical girl boy storyline
- Car?
- Band performance
4. TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB
- Band performance
- Shot of band out on streets misbehaving/messing around
- Fast paced editing with lots happening
- Costume - skinny jeans/topman
19.01.10
The list is as follows:
Myself and Rob listened to all of the songs, sharing thoughts after each. We then narrowed the list down to the songs we're interested in
1. Au Revoir Simone - Shadows
2. The Black Keys - Strange Times
3. Michelle Branch - Everywhere
4. Two Door Cinema Club - Cigarettes in the Theatre
Au Revoir Simone seems to be very popualr among the class with most groups wanting to use it. However I hope that the ideas myself and our group have come up with is interesting enough and different to other ideas to other groups. At this moment in time I am leaning towards this song, although if we were to produce a video for a different song I wouldn't be too disappointed.
We then thought more about ideas for each songI made notes in my book
Jasmine - BBC Blast Music Video Winner
I took notes while she spoke about her experience.
This is her media A level video she produced
She said that her inspiration for this video came from Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera and she wanted "colour, costume and madness" to be protrayed in the video - i think she succeeded in this well.
Her college music video was entered into BBC's Blast competition which won Best Music Video. She then received £3000 Bursary to create a music video for a song chosen by the BBC.
This is the bursary video she directed
She told us that the first thing she did was create a treatment for the video.
The treatment, as she described it as, is the paper verison of your music video, including thoughts and ideas combined with visuals, not set in stone (if something changes then the treatment will change), straight to the point and video referneces and visuals needed.
The second thing she did was listen to the song throughout with a copy of the lyric sheet creating a timeline of shots.
Then she created a storyboard.
She told us that the experience was more limiting then collegeand gave us a tip which was:
Don't have more than three locations - preferable one inside and one out
In my opinion I think her student video is better than the bursary video, mainly because the performancers look like they are enjoying themsleves more and it's more fun.
Monday, 18 January 2010
18.01.10
I am moderatly pleased with my digipak and magazine ad but I feel l could of put more effort in.
I also got to find out who I am working with for this project, which i'm glad is done now so we can move on and start planning and producing. I'm working with Rob and Emma whom I havn't worked with before, should be interesting.
Previous Student Music Videos
Q3-50 MUSIC VIDEO 2009 from SATMEDIASTUDIES on Vimeo.
I think this video really works with the song, and you can tell the group really thought out and planned the shots. The lip syncing is also very well done by the performer who is also wearing clothes that fit the genre of music, which shows research and planning had been thought out also. I like the animation used as well, which fits the lyrics.
Overall a very good student music video in my opinion.
This is the student music video I thought didn't work so well
[need to finish]
ANCILLARY PRACTICE TASK - MAGAZINE ADVERT
As you can see the theme from my digipak runs through onto this advert which shows continuity.
I'm not too keen on this though and it was a little rushed
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Personal Statement
My main techinal skill would be my experience in editng using Final Cut Express. I have also Shot, Directed and Edited a music video before for a project last year, which will be helpful (even if it wasn't my strongest piece of work).
CREATIVE SKILLS
I created costumes and did make-up for performers in a video that had the theme of 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' which looked effective and fit the theme well. I also know my way around Photoshop and enjoy editing using this program so I feel that the Digipak and Advert will be to a high standard (I hope).
ORGANISATION SKILLS
I'm good with keeping deadlines.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Checklist
Friday, 15 January 2010
My Generation Session
- Performers (Max, Rob, Liam, Louis, Angelica, Tilly, Hannah and Emma)
- Camera Operators (Tom B and Zven)
- Dicretor (Ali)
- Floor Manger (Tom H)
- Lighting Director (Elliott)
- Still Photographer (Sophie)
- Production Designer (Charna)
- Music Player Operator (Charna)
- Lyric Sheet/Production Assistant (Myself)
- Executive producer (Tom B)
and had a pratice session in creating a music video - mainly to pratice lipsyncing aswell. The song we used was My Generation by The Who, however it was only the first minute or so of the song. I took on the role of Lyric holder, as I wasn't keen on perfomring and the camera roles had already been filled. I'm not too bothered as I still enjoyed the session.
(photo of me taking on the lyric sheet role)
We firstly set up the instruments, lights, cameras, etc in the Coleridge Drama room - borrowing intruments from the Music department. We then all got into position and had a pratice run through, after this we begn to film.
We did a toal of 6 takes; 1. Establishing shot 2. Mid shot 3. Mid shot (different angle) 4. Close up of Max (leadsinger) and 5 and 6 were extreme close ups of the Bass and Guitar. Including footage from the hand held camera. We then packed up and headed back tothe classroom. Unfortunitly we didn't have enough time to start editing the footage, but thats something we'll do next week.
Overall, I enjoyed the session and I think it went well.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
ANCILLARY PRACTICE TASK - DIGIPAK
To create the digipak we were given two templates - one of the front and back and the second of the inside of the digipak. Research for this task had to be done by us so I started off by going on Au Revoir Simone's MySpace (www.myspace.com/aurevoirsimone.com) where I looked at the band's photo's, page layout and information. I then decided to use the background on the page layout as the background on my digipak. I then went on the bands offical website (http://www.aurevoirsimone.com/) where I took some graphics off to use in my work.
here is my finished digipak
Inside:
The image on the front of the digipak is an image I really liked - which is why I used it. However when I added it on to my digipak template in Photoshop it looked too cut and paste, so I used the easer tool around the edges of the photo, but changing the brush to a rougher texture one, so it created a erdoded effect and visually looked more interesting. I like how it turned out.
Although I am pleased with this, I forgot to add the Album title, so I shall add that in on Monday morning. I also don't like how the inside of the digipak has an image of the band in black and white, as all the other images are in colour (mainly green and red). I may change the image on Monday.
I really enjoyed this task, and look forward to creating the digipak for the music video later on in the project.
Here is an original album cover for Au Revoir Simone
Monday, 11 January 2010
Shape Video
I created my shapes in Photoshop - I decided to use simple shapes, two different sized and different coloured squares, and a hand, just so there was something a little more interesting.
I then saved and imported my shapes into Final Cut Express and began to edit them to the soundtrack.
This is what I produced, it's not very long or interesting or good, but I understand why we did the task.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Music Video: Blink 182 Always
blink-182 - Always
Uploaded by Blink-182. - Explore more music videos.
The video uses a unique divided screen where three different shots are set up with each band member on a level each (Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker – accompanied by Australian singer Sophie Monk). The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn in 2004.
The camerawork and editing is what I really find interesting about the video – the movement of the camera really helps the editing of the divided screen. The whole video has a pretty simple concept which I think works well and fits the song. The video also features the band playing their instruments, which is a classic thing to see in this genre as bands like their fans to know they can play their own instruments etc.
After researching into the video I found out it is based on the music video ‘The good life’ by Weezer, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Karaoke
Elliott Music Video Test from cmdiploma on Vimeo.
Lip Sync Video Task
here is our lipsync video
Music Video Task
Here is the video we edited:
It’s not very long as we spent most of our time making sure everything matched up to every last detail – which I think was worth it, and I’m actually quite pleased with this. The ending of our music video was fairly rushed and we ended up using lots of footage of the Turtle.
This is the original music video, from where our footage came from: