Thursday 15 December 2016

Final song choice: Tempesst 'Tidal Wave' (AW)

Originally, our group was planning on using Corey Bowen's 'If birds wish to fly' for our productions because we liked how the song was in chapters. Sadly, Corey Bowen unexpectedly deleted all copies of his song we chose and shut down all of his social media pages. This meant that we had to change the song because we cannot download it or contact the artist the same way as we did before. 
 
To replace our first choice, we chose Tidal Wave by Tempesst. We chose this song because it gave us a blank canvas to work with, as its music video is animated. It belongs to a similar genre to our other song and its beat unique, conforming to our genre. I feel as though thinking of a good idea and gathering high quality footage alongside this song would result in the overall product being fantastic. The song also provides clear chapters which will help us in the filming and editing process as our group will be able the divide each scene to a particular verse/chorus. As well as this, the song contains psychedelic elemets, which will suit the ideas we have for our music video becuase its the theme we wish to work with. The song title/lyric 'Tidal wave' can be presented within a variety of themes and representations, as it can have more than one meaning than an actual tidal wave. The only issue I have found with the song is that it is rather slow paced, which means it would be difficult to include fast and quick shots alongside it.


Tuesday 22 November 2016

UPDATED Music video Pitch + representations

Pitch

Genre: Indie/alternative/rock. I feel as though the pitch for my music video will conform many conventions attached to this genre because it is cinematic and challenges popular music videos within the music industry. It is becoming more common for other music videos with the same genre to tell a story/include a narrative, as this can help to explain the lyrics to the viewer. Unlike a lot of indie music videos, mine will not include the band performing or lip syncing because we want ours to be enjoyed and appreciated like a film. 

Basic premise: 

  • Someone anonymous puts a stimulant in a drink next to a sleeping male character. After he wakes up and drinks the liquid he begins hallucinating and his vision goes wavy and more vibrant - this will be created through effects. 
  • A girl walks past him and he follows her, in an attempt of discovering who is behind the mask. The boy will not know that this 'someone' is the girl he loves, until the figure takes off the mask and reveals her identity. 
  • The audience will find out half way through the music video that it was actually the girl herself who put the stimulant in his drink.
  • Throughout the video, she will disappear and keep reappearing, making the male character confused. 
  • The girl eventually takes off her mask and they meet face to face.

I am pleased with this outcome of ideas my group and I thought of, as I feel as though it is something original - especially for a music video. Although the representations are hard to follow, the outline of the narrative is not, so the props and characters can be interpreted in any way depending on how a viewer sees it. 

Representations

Love is the most importance theme in my music video, and it is represented through the stimulant. Therefore, the video is not about drug indulgence or drug abuse, but it will aim to demonstrate the complexity of love in a creative way.


  • The stimulant: Love. As the male character begins to hallucinate in the bed, the 'sparks' of first attraction are produced. Love is produced by the combination of three neurochemicals - phenylethylamine, norepinephrine and dopamine. Therefore, the effects expose the bonding of these neurochemicals and the formation of love in a visual way.
  • The male character: The target of love - has caught feelings and can't escape it easily because humans cannot control who they fancy. 
  • The mask: A false identity. The phrase 'putting on a mask' to hide your inner emotions is a popular one, so by interpreting this in my music video, the mask has one solid emotion that cannot be changed, so the girl wears to to pretend nothing is affecting her.
  • The girl character: Wanting to feel love (hence putting the stimulant in the drink), but not necessarily wanting to give it back - until the ending where she takes off her mask. She does this because the stimulant had proved to her it (love) happens.

Tidal Wave Initial Ideas (KA)


Planning Costumes (KA)


Choosing locations (CD)


Tempesst Artist Permission (KA)

We decided to use Facebook as a means of contacting Tempesst as we assumed they are a fairly 'current' and modern band, so we used to simplest means of contact. 
We are currently still waiting to hear back from the band.



Selecting Actors (KA)

(I altered the POV of this blog post from Katy to mine)

Actors



When it came to choosing who we wanted to act in our video, we decided to keep the actors in our group. We thought this would be easier as we knew, as a group, what we wanted to achieve. Therefore, instead of having to relay our ideas to other people who may not understand the kind of things we wanted do with our video, we decided to use Cody and Katy for the main actors for our video.
In a similar sense, we decided not to ask people to be extras for our video as all the locations we are using are city centre locations that are always highly populated with people. We thought this works well with the distorting concept of our video.
We chose to cast people of our age in the video is essentially about two teenagers, ones who is fixated on the thought of being in love with a certain girl, who may be a figure of his imagination. 



Male Character



Our male character is a seemingly secretive and closed off person. Cody can easily achieve this, with his costume; it’s extremely easy to create the representations we wanted.
Cody isn’t a drama student,and neither is Katy. This could cause issues, but we realised the roles are simple enough to easily create the images we wanted to, regardless of whether the actors are drama students.



Female Character



Katy is taking the role of the female character. This is a fairly simple role, and because she is not a drama student, it is easy for her to carry out.
Our female character is a very illusive and, in a sense, mysterious character in that we, as the audience don't know if she actually exists.  
However, Katy is 17 and Cody is 18 - we felt this would fit perfectly with what we were trying to achieve with our portrayal of our characters. Like many teenagers, we are showing them to be extremely closed off and secretive people who are extremely susceptible to ‘love’ even when it doesn’t really exist.

UPDATED Shooting Schedule (+ Prop list) (AW)

I concluded a shooting schedule for our group, which lists all the shots our music video needs in the order we film them in. All of the shooting days require the same actors, crew, props, costumes and transport. This is because our music video only involves 2 actors (2 members of our group) and the events within it happen in one day, so the actors are wearing the same costumes for every shooting schedule.

Prop List

  • ·      SLR Camera
  • ·      Tripod
  • ·      Mask
For the final shooting day (Additional):
  • ·      Photo Frame
  • ·      Photo of the two actors (for the photo frame)
  • ·      Glass of water
  •  Intoxicant 
Despite that our prop list is very short, it means that there is less to remember when it comes to shooting the footage. I like it how our idea for our music video is creative and unique, yet it only displays the use of one prop – the mask – which behold significance in the video.
The last shooting day requires 4 additional props as it is when we are filming the introduction of our music video/narrative. Because the setting of this is based in a house, it is easy to access a photo frame, glass of water and a drug. The picture for the photo frame can be printed off at our school by connecting the mobile to a computer using a USB cable. Therefore, all of our props are essential to create the narrative, yet they are easy to access.

Our group was also planning  to use a GoPro camera to film some hand-held shots, as we thought these would add realism to our music video so the audience can see from the actors’ perspectives.  We experimented with Katy’s tripod but the footage was blurry and lacked good quality. Therefore, we decided not to use a GoPro for our video.


Shooting day 1

Location: Market Place, Norwich
Date : 24/10/2016
Start/end times: 10AM-3PM
Transport: I can easily access a bus to Norwich due to frequent bus timetable and a bus pass. Katy and Ben can either get a bus or a lift to the city and Cody can cycle into the centre.
Actors Required: Cody and Katy
Crew required: Ben and I
Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod
Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not to be decorated as we are filming the actors walking through and around the Norwich market.
Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 2 (1-5)


Shooting day 2

Location: The abandoned prison and the top floor of St Andrews car park, both in Norwich
Date : 30/10/2016
Start/end times: 12-4PM
Transport: Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)
Actors Required: Cody and Katy
Crew required: Ben and I
Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod
Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not need to be decorated as we are filming in a public area.
Shot numbers (from storyboards): -
Notes (things to remember): This is the time to film shots that have different angles e.g. high angle shot, close up

Shooting day 3

Location: St Andrews car park, Norwich (and the Norwich market to film transition shots)
Date : 1/11/16
Start/end times: 2-4PM
Transport:  Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)
Actors Required: Cody and Katy
Crew required: Ben and I
Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod
Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not need to be decorated as we are filming in a public area.
Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 8 (1-5)
Notes (things to remember): Consider the possible reflection of the camera being shown on the door (whilst filming the shot of Cody opening the door), and give plenty of time for filming this scene as time will be wasted waiting for people to walk through the camera shots.

 Shooting day 4 

Location: Ben’s house, Poringland
Date : November 9th
Start/end times: 3.30 – 4.00PM
Transport: Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)
Actors Required: Cody and Katy
Crew required: Ben – I am not required for this scene as Ben knows how to use my camera and it will take less than 30 minutes to film. Poringland is a long car journey from where I live.
Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod (as well as the additional props)
Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. More consideration needs to be taken with the set than the other shooting days because it is inside a bedroom – therefore, it is important that the bedroom suits the character it belongs to.  
Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 1 (1-5)

Tuesday 6 September 2016

A2 Coursework brief

For our A2 coursework, we have been tasked to create a promotional package for the realise of an album of an unsigned British band/artist. It has to include the following: 


  • A 2-4 minute music promo video
  • A Cover for its release as part of a Digipak (CD/DVD Package) including 4 panels (minimum) 
  • A magazine advertisement promoting the digipak/artist/band (CD/DVD Package) 


This construction part of the coursework is worth 60 marks of the total a level mark.  The written component (research and planning) and the Evaluation question are worth 20 marks each. 

Because I joined City of Norwich School in September, I missed out on the opportunity of creating a group. Therefore, I was left to decide between two groups because the others were full. I decided to join Cody, Katy and Ben because I knew them before I moved sixth forms and they all got good grades in their media coursework at AS level. This is important to me, because I want to work in a group who have similar aspirations to me as to what grade they want to achieve at the end of the year. 

Saturday 23 July 2016

Summer - September 2016: A change in direction

Due to several I peter not to mention, I left Wymondham High Sixth Form when the summer holidays began and joined City of Norwich School Sixth Form. This means that I was unable the complete the Preliminary task (e.g. designing the CD front cover and write about the editing process and evaluation questions). The finished project has not been posted on Youtube yet, meaning I cannot link it to my blog. I thought that this blog post was necessary to explain why I left the preliminary task blog posts the way they are, and to not cause further confusion. 

Thursday 14 July 2016

Preliminary: 1st & 2nd Day Filming and photos

1st Day 



The permission we asked the site office team for the use of the north hall stage was accepted. We made sure that everyone would arrive outside the north hall at the start of the period so we had the hour to film. However, the fact that we had limited time affected the outcome of the task. Everyone was stressed as time was taken from experimenting with the camera's settings, as well as moving chairs and things on stage so they were outside the shot. Additionally, the tripod we were given was broken so all the shots we filmed were hand held, making them wonky and look unprofessional. Harry found the he lip syncing aspect of the task difficult because he did not listen to the song before hand, yet he managed to do it successfully. It is also good that both Harry and Richard brought their guitars with them, otherwise we would have not been able to film. 
Overall, the first day filming was not very successful but we may be able to use some of the decent shots in areas of our music video. I certainly feel as though using a tripod and having a longer period of time to film would certainly increase the level of productivity and success of filming impressive looking shots. 

          



2nd Day 


After filming on the first day, Harry and Richard said that they will film them playing in their band studio as their practise hours are quite spontaneous and additional access may be denied. 
Unfortunately, I was not present on the second day of filming so I was unable to see how successful the day was. This is because I only had an hour to spare before my appointment in the city, but Harry could only make the afternoon. However, judging by the images taken on set, the second day was far more productive than the first and a variety of location were managed to be covered. 









Wednesday 13 July 2016

Preliminary: Final locations

One of our initial ideas was that we would film Harry exploring and walking outside houses around Wymondham. However, our group ventured around Wymondham to look at a variety of buildings but we thought that none of them would fit sufficiently into the aesthetic of the song, although some members of our group know where some run down areas are. I feel as though this type of setting would be more suited to the song. Additionally, we are going to include shots of our actor in the countryside of Wymondham because this setting contrasts to the urban scenery that features within the majority of our video. 

We concluded that the second location for our music video would be the North hall/stage inside Wymondham High school. This location is certainly appropriate for what we are going for because we want our video to consist of some shots of live music. For the 3rd location, The band will also be filmed during their practice in their own studio (located behind Morrisons in Wymondham). By using two different environments of the band playing music, it makes our music video different from the original version. 





Preliminary: Update week 3 (Final Week)

Everything is nearly finished, we have 2 more days of filming to do and then it is Kate's/Richard's job to edit the footage together. If this goes as planned, we will meet the deadline on the following Monday. However, there is still a lack of effort from some members of the group and it has delayed us - especially with the blog posts. Everyone need to be fully updated before we need to hand in our work. Our music video is taking a lot more time than it needs to but I feel like it's the case of lack of communication that should be blamed. The amount of teamwork has dropped since we started the project but I feel like people will contribute more to their roles once we finish filming and begin editing. We will meet the deadline but the project has been left at an extremely short notice so we have put a lot of pressure on ourselves.

Preliminary: Casting Auditions and Chosen actors

We auditioned 2 people to play the lead singer in our music video - Harry Buxton and Richard Bate-Weldon, who is also part of our initial group.

Harry 


What makes you want to star in our music video?

 "I am a big fan of the smiths before is started to really get into music and I really liked your idea of the music video so I was really excited to get involved and I am now a lot more confident to be on camera because of my gigs I've been doing recently."

Do you think that our idea is original and will the final video look good?

 "I like how you've changed the original video into having narrative as well as live performance because it shows you've put thought into your idea and that you really want to show that you've thought about the lyrics and the whole song. I feel that after it has been edited it will look really good and well put together."

How do you feel about the locations we decided on to film our video?

 " I think that you've chosen really good locations especially the stage in the hall because, it shows can show the and from loads of different camera angles. Also I think that the run down areas are very good because, again it shows though and time taken over where to film. Also the location on the train track looks really good because it does look like something from a smiths video and I think that its a really good place to film the music video."

Would you change anything about the props, location or the actors in the video?

 "I would only change a few things because most of it sounds like it will look really good. But instead of a stage it would look better to film the live performance in a basement or somewhere more rundown because then the music video will be symmetrical with the narrative. I think the locations are fine but more rundown places would be better because some of them aren't that rundown and doesn't really show what the songs meaning."

Richard 


What makes you want to star in our music video?

 "I have been a big smiths fan for as long as I can remember and I would really feel like I would fit into the role the best. I feel that I am confident on camera and can sing the song not just lip sync so it doesn't look fake. I am passionate about media and would really like to be involved."

Do you think that our idea is original and will the final video look good? 


 " I think that the idea is very new and that it will be challenging to get right because, it is hard to get the lip-syncing to look good. But overall the idea is refreshing and will look professional if it is done right."

How do you feel about the locations we to film for the video?


 " I think that the locations are good because it fits well with the meaning of the song. I think that filming in a rundown place would be good and because they are hard to find it will show that you've done your research and that you've thought about the best place to do it. I feel that you could film it in a city where it is more rundown because it will really capture the song and show your effort."

Would you change anything abut the props, location or the actors in the video?


 " I would change the time of day that you film for example, I think that it would look better at night rather in the daytime/ sunset, because I feel it would be more dramatic. I would also change the location to a city rather than a small town and the countryside."


We didn't audition the other band members because are planning to film when they are doing band practise, so to them it will feel like another normal day at band pactise - this will make them feel more relaxed and comfortable on camera. We also decided to choose people to audition who can play an instrument (preferable guitar) and hopefully in a band so they already feel comfortable playing to a large group of people/being on camera. They don't have any lip syncing/singing roles so we just asked their permission to film them when they are playing their instruments and they agreed. The two other band members said that they liked the idea of being on camera and they liked the idea of our music video. We felt that we only needed to audition for the main role, so we chose between Harry and Richard and came to the decision that Harry fits the role better
and suits the voice of the chosen song.

Preliminary: Final Plot ideas

At the beginning of our music video, the curtains on stage will open and the band will be revealed. The camera will gradually move closer to the band and the song will start when the camera will switch to a shot of Harry (the main singer) walking around the rundown areas of Wymondham. The camera will be angled to make him located in the centre of the shot. It will switch back to the band's performance, but this time the camera will focus on each band member at different angles. After this, the camera will go back to the narrative scene where Harry will be walking around old houses in Wymondham. The shots in this scene will not show him lip syncing as he will be singing the song in the performance on stage.  After some more close ups of harry in the performance it will switch to a shot of him on the train track. There will also be shots of him running away into the distance on the track. We hope to have hand help shots and on a tripod to get the full effect and to see what looks best. It will end with the band not playing their instruments and it will fade away slowly as the song finishes.

 The plot fits with our stimuli because we hope to have some of the instruments attached to the actors to suggest that they are puppets.

Preliminary: Week 2 Update

It is now week 2 and our group are writing the blog posts that will help us construct our video and arrange when we are going to film and edit it. We aim to finish the majority of them before we film footage so it is not a mad rush to finish everything at once before the deadline. Now we have planned our shooting schedule, we appear to be on track. I've noticed that I haven't put in as much effort as I should  because I feel as though there is a lack of conversion between our group outside school. It can be agreed that editing and filming require more work than the role I've been applied to.

Preliminary: Shooting Schedule

Our group are planning to film between 10th - 16th July 9the last full week before the summer holidays). We have arranged a time to film the performance scene in the north hall on Tuesday 12th July at 11:15. I  did this by emailing a member of staff the week before and asking when the North Hall was free to use. Our group also arranged to film the outdoor scenes in Wymondham on Thursday 14th July. We chose this day because it is when our group (including our main actor) is free. We hoped to film on a rainy day for dramatic effects but the weather forecast shows that it is meant to be dry and sunny all week. If we prepared our task earlier then we could have filmed the previous week where there may have been a chance of rain. Once we have got all of our footage, we will edit  them at home and create the single cover. We will finish all remaining blogs after we have made the music video.

Preliminary: Music Video Research

The Clash - London Calling




I feel as though this song is a good one to reference to because it is similar to what we want our video to look like. The lyrics are similar to this charming man because London calling shows that other bands are feeling the same about England's economic situation in the 70's-80's. It also has the comparable beat and rhythm due to songs' similar genres. because of the similar genre of song. Although London Calling is more slower and darker than This Charming Man, there are many similarities.

The Cure - Friday I'm in love



Similarly to This Charming Man, Friday I'm in Love has a more upbeat tone than London Calling. Although the meaning of the songs are different, I chose it because of how the video relates to the composition of This Charming Man. Both of these music videos possess live performances and narratives, which keeps the viewer entertained as two settings are combined into one video. This is similar to the puppet stimulus because of the changing of the scenery and how hectic everything is. This is what we want our video to look like but with different camera angles and more thought going into them so we can get the most out of each shot.

Say Anything - Alive with the glory of love



This music video is a fantastically accurate representation of the idea for our video. For example, the shots of the live performance and then the narrative with it is what we want to create. I feel like the beat of the song is very similar to The Charming Man because it is upbeat. I feel that this is the closest thing I have found to our original video and our idea.

Preliminary: Plot ideas

Our main plot ideas are that we will have a live performance on the stage. We assume that the stage in the North Hall of our School would be a suitable place to film this. It will start with the curtains being drawn back and the band playing the song. We will also film the main singer walking around a very deprived area as well as some open fields to show the dramatic difference between the two conditions. . Also we will have many shots of the main singer rebelling against the natural order to show their opinions on society and how it affects people. The reason for these decisions are because, we feel that it will make sense with the song so they aren't random choices about where to film due to the meaning behind the song. The reason why we chose deprived areas rather than middle class areas is because of the meaning of the song being about not needing glamour and you can live without it.

Preliminary: Week 1 update

Today we decided which song and stimulus we wanted to do for our preliminary task. There was confrontation on which song to choose but we chose the smiths because Richard made it clear that he had a good idea for the video and that he would make sure it would look good. We decided our roles between us and decided that Kate and Richard would do the practical stuff like filming and editing where as Molly and I would make sure blog posts are up and look into locations and props. We haven't decided a date to film yet but we will work around when we are all free and we are planning to cast actors and discover when they are available.

Preliminary: Song Lyrics

Punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet?

When in this charming car
This charming man
Why pamper life's complexity
When the leather runs smooth
On the passenger's seat?
I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "it's gruesome
That someone so handsome should care"
Ah ! A jumped-up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "it's gruesome
That someone so handsome should care"
La, la-la, la-la, la-la, this charming man
Oh, la-la, la-la, la-la, this charming man
Ah ! A jumped-up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things

The lyrics affect the video because it shows the social differences for example "why pamper life's complexity" meaning that there is no need for extreme wealth and you can live without it. This means that our actors can't be wearing really fancy clothes and that we have to base our video around the lyrics and the more important things in life. It is meaningful so, the tempo will be different to a song that has a less significant backstory. The genre of the song will effect our idea because it is a difficult song to make an impressive music video of. We have to put a lot of thought into our location of the video and who will be in the video otherwise the song won't fit with the video and we will drop marks.
 

Preliminary: Format of the video

After researching the original music video and looking at the lyrics, we have decided to do a mixture of live performance and narrative. This is because the original music video is all live performance so we didn't want our version to be too similar. Also, our idea is based mainly around the narrative side of the video because we feel that that is going to be the most challenging and thought provoking part of the video. The live performance will also be hard to film but, the narrative is going to need a lot of planning and patience. There are other factors that affect the narrative, such as the weather and the type of location. There will probably be more narrative than performance but it will make our music video better if we have both.

Preliminary: Roles within the group

Our group sat down together to decide roles and which one suited who so that people were happy with what they are doing. We also based our selection of roles on what people enjoyed doing in Year 12. I was happy to have any role that contributed to the creation of our preliminary task, so I was given the option of being in charge of gathering props and guiding actors. However, I feel as though I want to give more to our music video than my role as weeks go by and when we get round to recording footage. Despite this, it is important that everyone sticks to our roles and puts in the equal amount of effort, otherwise easy marks will be lost.
As agreed, the roles within the group are:

 Kate - Filming/ directing
Molly- making sure we meet deadlines and blog posts are in detailed and are on everyone's blogs
Richard- locations, casting, editing
Me  - props, in charge of actors

Preliminary: Song Choice

The Smiths - This Charming Man


Our group and I were debating between two songs - This Charming Man by the Smiths and Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris. It was a difficult decision to make because they were very different songs accompanied with disparate music videos. However, we ending up choosing This Charming Man because it was the song out of the two that we had an idea for. We feel that the pace of The Smiths song would be easier to work with because Sweet Nothing is more upbeat, therefore it would be more challenging to film something that would match the pace of the beat. Additionally, we felt that the other songs wouldn't work this the stimulus as well as This Charming Man does, which supports our song choice decision.

First A2 Task - Preliminary

In preperation for our A2 coursework, we have been given a trial effort over the next month to produce an original music video, and an accompanying original CD cover for the release of the song. I will be working with Kate Lankester, Molly Collison and Richard Bate-Weldon. Here is a picture of us.

We have been given the following songs to choose from:
DJ Sammy - The Boys of Summer
Sugababes - About You Now
Sia - Cheap Thrills
David Bowie - Life on Mars
Blink 182 - Another girl another planet
The smiths - This charming man
Calvin Harris and Florence Welch - Sweet nothing

Our class was not given a condition to include in our music videos. This is because our groups had no trouble with brainstorming ideas for them. However, we were all given a stimulus to base our idea(s) around to see where it would take us. For my group, our stimuli were Jack & Jill, The boy who cried wolf, and Puppets. The stimulus we chose was puppets because we were thinking about having the singers in the band as puppets because they feel like they are tied to social inequalities and differences and it is the only stimulus that works well with our idea.