Photography Task

As agreed I took some photo's over this weekend to make up for the lack of photo's taken on Fridays photography session.
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.

What are you most excited for on this project?
I'm most excited about shooting the video and seeing how light concept works out.

What are you most worried about?

I'm most worried about not getting power for the lights because then our whole idea will be ruined.

How will you overcome this concern?

First of all we need to go see Dan to see if it's possible to use power from the art class near where we plan to shoot.

If he says no, then we could use candles instead so we wouldn't have to rely on power or find a new location where power is available.

Photography Task

This task involved going out with our groups and a camera. The aim was to take photo's of possible locations/settings, shot set up's we might be using in your video and abstract ideas for textures and close-ups for the digi pack cover and magazine advert.
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.

However Steve and I came to the agreement that I would take some photo's over the weekend to make up for the lack of photo's taken today.

We did take a few pictures of how we want to position the performers although it's difficult to create an idea of this when we're not 100% on what our location is or what it will look like.

This is one of the photo's we took

(from left to right) Rob represents the bass player, Emma the lead singer, and Ali the keyboardist.

The idea is to have Emma (lead) in front with Rob (bass) on the left side of Emma and Ali (keyboard) on the right side slightly off a straight view.

OH

We did manage to take a quick photo of a tree...

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn Photography Session

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29.01.10

In today's lesson we looked at three music videos - Professional, student and Hurtwood House videos. The objective of this was to count how many shots there are in the first minute of each video.

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.

Hurtwood House

This is the Video Sweet Disposition, produced by A Level Media students at Hurtwood House Media.
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.

Shadows!

I am very pleased that we are definitely producing a music video for Shadows - The only down side to this is that another group is also producing a music video for this song. I guess that'll just motivate myself and my group to work harder.

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).

It's a band performance set in one location throughout and has a stop-motion effect. As we are also having a band performance in our video I particularly looked at some of the shots used for this, e.g. The cinematography and the shots of the instruments.

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)

Pitch Feedback for Everywhere

We also pitched for Everywhere today.
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

Today we all did our pitches for our chosen song and back up song. I enjoyed listening to the other groups ideas and thoughts for their songs.
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?

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham

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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

I made this mood board for Everywhere as part of our back up plan.

I did it at home so i'm not sure what my group will think of it, although I did use a few images Emma posted on her blog for this song as well as additional images I found on flickr. I kinda rushed it and only used a few images but it creates a sense of what were going for... I think.

The mood board mainly shows our idea of the stereotypical girl boy relationship.

I used the image of the word 'Dream' and the pillows with writing on as in the song the lyrics read 'and when I close my eyes all I see is you' which in a prevouis task made us think 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. The pillows with writing on also made me think of creating a mid shot were the main actor wakes up in bed and gets up and walks out of shot, the camera would then change to a close up of the bed where the pillows would lie with a lyric from the song. Just a thought.

I really like the Polaroid image and I think it would be fun to use polariods in this video (i know that in the original music video they use polariods but I'm not a fan of the music video itself). I own two polariod camera which we could use, I also have this software on my laptop that converts images into polriods, so it's something we could do if we wanted (if we end up with this song)

Treatment for Shadows w. Adjustments

This is my second draft of my treatment for Shadows. It's mostly the same with a few changes regarding shots and i've also gone into more detail where I felt necessary. Here it is

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

Today, I missed first lesson about Music Director Chris Cunningham which I need to catch up on.
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.

Everywhere.

I feel like my group and I have been very focused on the song Shadows, which probably isn't the best thing to do since we're competing against two other groups for the song.

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

So basically, I found this image of fairy lights with paper over the tips of the light bulbs reading 'i miss you already'

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.

Here are a few photo's I took...

(close-up)


I used the lyric 'I'm Moving On' as you can see, the photo's aren't very good and un-edited.

I think this could work using a tracking close up shot, i'm not sure how keen I am on this idea yet but tomorrow i'll see what my group thinks.

Treatment for Shadows

This is my treatment for Shadows.

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 ect 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. The aim is for this locatin to look something along the lines of this:

minus the furniture and plus instruments.

There will be mid/close up shots of the fairy tale themed props we will be using, this includes 'drink me' bottles, tea cups, playing cards, candles and fairy lights (shots of lights out of focu coming into focus)

The camera will cut from band performance to a tea party full of guests in exaggerated costumes. 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'.

Stages of Production

Pre-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

As you can see from our Keynote we got in touch with Au Revoir Simone.

We used Myspace as we thought that would be the easiest way.

We asked them for permission to use the song aswell as asking for their thoughts on our ideas

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.

Keynote for Shadows Pitch

Christina, Emma & Rob Shadows Pitch

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Postcard for Shadows

Well this isn't as strong as our moodboard but I like the backgroud image we used and the font for 'Shadows' which I found on dafont.com

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

This is the mood board we created using images we found on flickr. We used fades on most of the images allowing us to layer up all our ideas, we then added a photo of light exposure on top of the whole mood board which helps create texture that I’d like to re-create in the video (if we get the song).



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

Today we were set a number of tasks to help us with ideas and planning for our music video and song pitches.

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.

My Generation Edit.

Today I edited the footage from the My Generation session last Friday. 

I didn't do much to the footage, just basic cuts etc.

Here it is:

Video Inspiration

I found this music video from the eighties that has an Alice in Wonderland theme. What I really like about the video is the costumes, make-up and props used. I also like the black and white checkered background used.



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 love this photo. This is the kind of thing I imagined when I thought of lights (inital ideas for Au Revoir Simone)



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)

Top songs

Here are the lyrics and original music videos for our 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

Here are our first intial ideas for our top four songs

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

Today we we're given the playlist containing the songs we can pick from for our pitch/music video.
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 song
I made notes in my book

Jasmine - BBC Blast Music Video Winner

Today Jasmine came to speak to us about her Media A Level music video that won her the opportunity to work with professionals producing a music video.
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.

18.01.10

Today I finished my digipak and magazine advert, as well as catching up on missed work.
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

I have been looking at previous student music videos, and came across one I really enjoyed and one I thought didn't work so well.

The one I really enjoyed is by a media group here at Long Road.

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

This is the magazine advert I created for the part 2 lesson of the Ancillary task.
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

I used the same colours and font from my digipak, as well as the same image from the front cover.

I used the image in the same way as before using the easer tool to create the eroded effect edges. I also copied and pasted the same image another four times on the tamplate making them rotate in different directions underneath the central image so it would look more abstract and would stand out in a magazine.

I also added a Review from The Observer and the record label 'Moshi Moshi'. What I failed to do however is add the release date.

Personal Statement

TECHNICAL SKILLS
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.

Checklist

Today we had a class discussion where we made points/notes on what we think will make a good music video for our project and what we think we will need to do so.

Here are our thoughts:

Convincing performers

Props

Lip synching

Lighting

Space/location

Editing

Teamwork

Instruments

Time management

Being organized

We also said what we think we need to do to ensure we get the best mark possible:

Blog work

Digi-pack

Records of production

Evaluation

Planning on blog

Time management

Research

Dance moves

Location

Costume fitting to genre of song

Poster

Good editing

Lip synching in time

Monitor your process

My Generation Session

In today's lesson the class worked together taking on different roles
- 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.

ANCILLARY PRACTICE TASK - DIGIPAK

In today's lesson we had a practice task of producing a digipak for a band we were given, mine was Au Revoir Simone - which is a band I have come across before.

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

Front and back:

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

18.01.10

I changed the front/back of digipak by adding the album title and record label along with a barcode.

here is the finished image:

Shape Video

In today's lesson I created an animated video using shapes and a soundtrack given to me by Steve. The objective to link the shapes up with the the soundtrack. Another practice task to prepare us for when we get started on our own Music 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.

Music Video: Blink 182 Always

I chose this music video because I have always loved how it is set-up – with each band member in the same scene but taking a different level in the divided screen.



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.

Karaoke

Unfortunately I wasn't in college today so I missed out on the Karaoke video task. This task was where the class divided up into groups and created one minute music videos using popular classic songs and lip syncing.

Here is Elliott and Ali's karaoke video

Elliott Music Video Test from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

I chose to upload this one as Ali looks like she is really enjoying herself, and I like the shots especially the shots with lens flare.

I think it is important for the performer to look like they are enjoying themselves as it helps make a convincing performance which helps to make a good video.

Lip Sync Video Task

In the second part of today’s lesson we were given more footage to work with, this time from an old Media Students music video, along with the soundtrack. The task was to link up the music with the footage using markers on Final Cut Express, for practice in lip syncing. I thought Angelica and I were pretty good at this task.

here is our lipsync video

Music Video Task

For practice in editing music and footage together, ready for our very own music video, Pete asked us to use the selected footage (from an existing music video) and one of the soundtracks he had provided us with. Angelica and I worked together and selected the music called ‘Grandmaster Flash - The Message’ as we thought it would go with the footage best.

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:

welcome