Final Video

Magazine Advert

This is one idea for my magazine advert. This kind of advert would be a full page spread in a magazine such as Kerrang! or NME.

The image at the top is what i am using as my album's cover, so viewers will see the advert, and, even subconciously record the image and would notice it and are more likely to see it in shops.

It is similar to this other magazine advert, in a sense that it is simply the album cover with some information below it. Many magazine adverts feature just the album cover, but they are usually longer or cover the entire page. The words sometimes go over the image, however i don't think there is much i could do to make my image fill the entire page without stretching it or missing bits off.




This advert would be more used as a banner type thing, or possibly a sticker. Some digipacks come with free stickers, and people stick them up around the place so other people see them and look up the band.








This would be a banner advert on a website like Myspace or Facebook. It has an image of the band in the background, and the band's logo in the foreground. It doesn't specifically tell you what the new album is, but tells you when it comes out so you might go and look it up.

Digipack Design

This is one idea of how i would deisgn my digipack. The top right hand corner bit is for holding a booklet, which is why there is a line through it.

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

For this task, we had to take 9 frames from our music videos that would be able to show how the products we made challenge or comply with traditional media conventions. Once we had done the frames with our video, we had to take images from other music videos and show how they have taken ideas or influenced other media products.

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

This is the video with a voiceover by Me and Mike. it explains what we did and why we did certain things.

This is the script:

The genre of the song we chose to use is Indie rock. the way we presented the band was to put them in a rehearsal room to give a more authentic feel to the song.

There are no big budget set pieces in our video. We put them in a rehearsal room, and they played through the song several times while we filmed them.

We thought if they were all in the same room, it would give the song a more real feel as if you were in the rehearsal with them. We put some effects over it to make it confusing. This gives the video an edge, so you aren’t really sure what’s going on. this makes the video more exiting to watch.

We both created our own digipaks. My cover is hand-drawn which gives it a raw feel to it. It is coloured in. I decided to make it like this as not many indie album covers feature the actual band on it.

My digipak is somewhat different, the middle pages of the band is a picture of the band, with a neon outline. The individual inside panes show the separate band members in publicity style photo shots. The front and back were both created using creative commons images put together in photoshop.

Task 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I posted my video on facebook, and asked some people for feedback. I got several responses, however my friends aren't fantastic at giving feedback or answering questions. but this is what they said. The general feeling was that the video was very well done, but nobody really told me i should change anything.

Barney watched the first rough cut i made the other day, and gave us some feedback. Basically, he said that if it is entirely performance based, we should probably get the narrative filmed so we can do something else in the video. He also said that we shouldn't cut from singer to different angle of singer, which i did accidentally as the different layers were on top of each other, so when i cut a bit out of one, it just showed the one beneath it, and i put the 2 of the singer on top of each other.

I also need to sync it up a bit more, some of the singing is slightly out, which i only noticed after watching the video a few times, and there is a bit of the drummer at the end which is totally out of sync. I also put in a lot of footage of the drummer, and should probably use something else.

- A few of the shots were badly framed. But with the effects, we were able to make it less noticeable.

- A few of the effects were too over the top, such as the one we used on the bassist. We had to remove this as it did not fit in with the rest of the video.

- They liked the CCTV / blurred TV effects and that we should have it recurring more than just the one time we used it. Upon re-editing the video, we put the effect in at the start and another time during the guitar solo.

- We had to synch up some more of the vocals at the start of the video. With the effects, they were unable to see if we had synched it up properly. They suggested that we should do it more at the start.

- We also had to use the footage of the guitar during the guitar solo and not of the bassist. In our new edited version, we included the guitar.

We watched all of our music videos with some people form the junction giving us feedback. When it was projected onto the screen, the video was much darker than it looked whilst editing. This is what was said about our video.

They liked it really dark, you couldn't quite see the band much, so it made them more mysterious. They liked that.

They liked the effects, especially the bad TV one, which they said i should use more of as it gave it a totally different feel to if it had just been them in a room. It caused a bit of confusion and made it better.

They also liked the fact that it was done in a small room, and made it feel like you were just in a practise room in a warehouse/industrial area.

I e-mailed David O'Neill, a director i met recently, and asked him what he thought. this is what he said.
Hi Tim

Wow! love the band, they're great. Good find.

As far as the video is concerned, its a live performance film, shot in a studio environment which is familiar territory, so you expect it to be quite straightforward/raw and about the music. The lighting is dark and moody which gives it atmosphere. the guy with the white shirt is overlit though and when you cut to him it breaks the mood a little. there is a moment where you see a white plug in a socket which catches the eye, but otherwise its all fine. Good to see some more close ups of hands on guitars etc. I'd throw in a bit more of that if you've got it, as the camera movement and frame size is a little repetitive.

The lead singer is so key to the bands identity, that I wanted to read a bit more in his face, so I'd have given him a little more light. I've seen a lot of films like this, and to be honest, its about selling the band. If the band is shit the video won't keep me there, but they're great, a bit like early Cure, so I wanted to hear the whole thing. Their next step is to find a way of getting people to be more excited about them, which is about stage performance/personality and style/image.

Dx

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

In this project we have used a number of pieces of new technology that have made our work a lot easier. I have taken some screenshots and explained what each one is and why it has helped in my work.

This is a picture of Mike working, as i have labelled the various technologies we used to create our video.

This is a screengrab of YouTube, the site we use to upload most of our videos to. This allows our videos to be seen by a much wider audience than if the technology was unavailable and wee had to physically show people tapes.

This is Hotmail, we used this to communicate with the band to organise shooting and times and things. This made our project slightly easier as it is easier to send an e-mail than phone people, as they can respond whenever they want and they don't have to be available at the same time.

This is Google Images, we used this to get ideas for our Digipacks.

This is Final Cut. We use this programme to do all of our editing, as it is easy. This has changed a lot recently, as if this technology wasn't available, we might have to be physically cutting bits of VHS tape and sticking it back together in order to cut out bits of footage, whereas now we can just cut it and move it along the different timelines.

This is the Creative Commons Search. I used this to find images that i could use for my digipack. Any images found on a creative commons search can be used for other purposes, without fear of breaching copyright laws as you do by taking images for google images.

This is Facebook, we used this to tell everyone to watch our video and get some feedback. It is much easier to send everyone a link on here than to ask people individually to watch it. It is a social networking site so you can tell all your friends about something all at once.

This is Blogger, the website we use to keep all our work and keep tack of what we are doing.

This is Photoshop, i used this programme to create my digipack. This was much easier because it meant i didn't have to do anything by hand, as i can't draw very well.

Digipack

I decided against using the images i posted in my digipack. As i had taken the images from our music video, they were out of focus and quite blurry, so i decided to get some different photos of theband and put some effects on them using photoshop. I decided to give them the same effectt that iused on the front cover. I think it looks quite good, because it looks sort of cartoony, but still resembles a photograph.

Digipack Design

This is the design i am going to use for my 8-Panel CD digipack. I am not going to use 4 CD's, but this gave me a good idea of how i should go about making my digipack. I would have one CD, maybe a DVDand a booklet.

CD front

This is the image i am using for my front cover. The image is compiled from 5 different creative commons images, all put together on photoshop with a few effects put in. The sign above the shop gives you the name of the band, while the sign in the window gives you the name of the album. I like this idea for my album cover as the various names aren't just out there on the cover, they are moulded into the image so people will look at with a bit more care.

Ideas for Digipack

I started to work on an idea for our digipack, as we need something shiny and different in order to grab peoples attention. Many 'Indie' artists album covers are cartoony or drawings of some kind, so i decided i would have a go. As the song we had done was called Oil, and i haven't heard any of their other music, i based my design around that idea.

I made this in photoshop using images i had found in various Creative Commons searches. The thought behind it, was that some guy in the desert had found some oil, so as seems to be the case, an unspecific army had turned up, heavily armed, to take it from him.




I realised after looking at it, i realised the inspiration for my artwork may have come from the opening credits of Have i Got News for You. I wasn't trying to do this, but subconciously i suppose i thought of the image and made my own..

Magazine Ads

This advert for Sinatra's digipack is quite good, as it shows an image of the guy, so everyone can recognise who he is and buy the thing, but next to it, it also shows a picture of the physical object, with all the disks and book sticking out to show you what you get for your money.


This one is alright, as it shows the bands logo, so it is instantly recognisable, and again, it shows you what you are paying for so people will know exactly what the are buying.

This advert is more interesting, as it is designed to be an amp, with all the information on. While it doesn't show you what you are buying with an image, it tells you exactly what you get on CD1, CD2 and the DVD.


This advert works because the picture is big, showing you what you are buying, and they haven't tried to fill the page with information. 25 years, 63 songs, 1 rod stewart is quick and easy to read, it doesn't try and pack information into you, it simply tells you how many tracks you get. It suggests it will be a sort of massive greatest hits collection, and it comes with a book.


This advert is really simple, as the main focal point is to Foo Fighters logo. This is a well known logo, so is easy noticed by people. It aims the target audience towards fans of the band, as it concentrates less on attracting attention of other people with promises of special features and focus' on telling you who it's by, so fans will buy it without thinking.

These are all examples of adverts for either CD's or digipacks that can be found in magazines. Adverts for music can be found in most magazines, as it is a very mainstream media, but it is far more common to be found in music specialist magazines such as Kerrang! or NME

Digipack Images

For our digipack, we needed to find 4 images to go on the inside covers. We also need to find something to go on the front. For the inside images, we decided we could use pictures of the band members, then have the CD's or whatever on top of them. As there are 5 members of the band and only 4 inside sleeves, i think we should put the drummer on the back cover, with the track listing in front of him.

The shot of the entire band can be used as a double spread for the inside cover.

Syncing

I thought this video was quite easy to sync up, because a lot of our footage of the singer, he had his hand covering his mouth, so you couldn't really tell what he was saying anyway. This makes it slightly harder to prove we did any lip syncing, as does the effects we used over the singer. We removed a few of the effects from the start of the video so you could see a bit of lip syncing, and put more effects on at the end, so it sort of builds up as the song progresses.

Editing

After we had cut the footage down into shorter bits that we thought went well with the video, we watched it and decided there was something missing. We figured that if we added some effects we could give our video an extra little kick that it needed to be a success. We started with an effect called motion blur, which was used on the shots rotating round the singer. We thought this looked AWESOME, so it was used on a few more shots. We then found an effect called 'Bad TV', which cuts the shot in half and makes look like a broken TV. In order to make this shot more interesting, i copied the footage it was used in, placed it above the other footage so i could move them up and down at the same time and it would look like the screen was rolling properly. There is another effect being used called 'Echo', which isn't used as much as the others, but we decided it would look good in some places. It basically plays the footage over itself a few times within a split second of each other. I think it looks good.

Album Covers

I like this album cover because it is the image of Michael Jackson dancing, but instead of it just being a picture of him, it is filled with smaller pictures taken from the 'This Is It' movie. It is quite a simple concept, but the more you look at it, the more images you see hidden away in the larger picture. I also like the way the center is white, and gets darker as you get to the outside.







I like this album cover because, as it is a sort of greatest hits type thing, covering songs from 1980-1989, it references some of the other album art from that era. It has the pyramids from the powerslave album, and Eddie from the somewhere in time album. They have also changed the pyramids setup to look old and worn away. It also looks awesome, as the zombie bursts out of the top of the pyramid.







I like this album cover because it's weird. It's a mess and it's busy and it's all over the place, but it's looks good. The closer you look at it, the more you see within the picture itself, which is a cool thing to find on an album cover. I also like the fact that half of the stuff scattered around his room references various things that appear in the different songs on the album.






I like this album cover, not only because it looks awesome, but because it has hundreds of hidden in-jokes and things for people to find if they look hard enough. These are usually for fans to find as they usually reference other Maiden songs or albums. These are much easier to spot on the full size vinyl cover, but a couple are easily visible on others, such as the clock being 11:58 - or '2 minutes to midnight.'

Junction feedback

We watched all of our music videos with some people form the junction giving us feedback. When it was projected onto the screen, the video was much darker than it looked whilst editing. This is what was said about our video.

They liked it really dark, you couldn't quite see the band much, so it made them more mysterious. They liked that.

They liked the effects, especially the bad TV one, which they said i should use more of as it gave it a totally different feel to if it had just been them in a room. It caused a bit of confusion and made it better.

They also liked the fact that it was done in a small room, and made it feel like you were just in a practise room in a warehouse/industrial area.

Rough Cut 2

This is the second official rough cut.

Feedback from Rough Cut

Upon showing our rough cut, we were given some feedback on how our music video could be improved. This is what it consisted of.

- A few of the shots were badly framed. But with the effects, we were able to make it less noticeable.

- A few of the effects were too over the top, such as the one we used on the bassist. We had to remove this as it did not fit in with the rest of the video.

- They liked the CCTV / blurred TV effects and that we should have it recurring more than just the one time we used it. Upon re-editing the video, we put the effect in at the start and another time during the guitar solo.

- We had to synch up some more of the vocals at the start of the video. With the effects, they were unable to see if we had synched it up properly. They suggested that we should do it more at the start.

- We also had to use the footage of the guitar during the guitar solo and not of the bassist. In our new edited version, we included the guitar.

Upon our feedback, we made all the necessary changes to improve our music video.

Digipacks

A digipack is basically a CD with extra stuff. This usually comes in the form of either a CD or DVD, with behind the scenes footage or alternative versions of songs. Someone might be tempted to buy one of these because they are interested in the band and want to know more about them than just what music they put on their CD's. However if it can be put on a CD or DVD, it can be downloaded, so many people don't see the point in paying more money for something they can find online. For this reason, some bands have started to do different things with their digipacks. A good example of this would be the Pick of Destiny deluxe edition, which came with 8 tarrot cards, it came in a nice book like box, and you got a replica of the 'Pick of Destiny'. Obviously you also got the CD. As you couldn't get this stuff anywhere else, it was more of a motivation to buy the digipack instead of the normal one as you physically got more stuff. It is, however around £6 more expensive on Play.com, so some people would rather save the money and buy somethign else than have some extra stuff that you really aren't going to use for anything.One example of a digipack is Madnesses 'One step beyond 30th anniversary edition) This expanded edition of the 1979 debut by Camden's finest ska act contains B-Sides from the era, Peel Session tracks and five promo videos as well as exclusive liner notes by novelist Irvine Welsh. The top 10 singles 'One Step Beyond', 'My Girl' and 'Night Boat To Cairo' are featured here alongside a wealth of further material produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. People may be interested in this as it gives you previously unreleased tracks from the band. Other people might buy it because you can't get the original one new anymore, so they re-released it to hit a whole new audience.Some digipacks come with a lot more than others, but obviously that will change the price. Like the digipacks above, an extra CD or a bonus DVD will only cost you a few extra quid, however someting like The Pixies Deluxe Edition for Minoutaur.

Includes all five Pixies' studio albums in the following formats:
24k gold plated CDs
five 12" - 180 gram virgin vinyl LPs cut from the original analog tapes
Blu-ray audio mastered for 5.1 surround sound at 24/192, and 2 channel stereo
DVD mastered for 5.1 surround sound at 24/96, and 2 channel stereo
Also included is the previously unreleased Pixies 1991 live performance from Brixton, on both Blu-ray and DVD, mastered for 5.1 surround sound at 24/192 and 24/96, respectively. All discs are housed in a custom designed folio.

In addition to reinterpreting all of the original album covers, Oliver's and Larbalestier's extensive work is featured in a 96-page fine art book, measuring 22" x 14" inches, and an additional 54-page book, measuring 7.75" x 8.25". Also included is a 12" x 19.5" giclee print of the duo’s work, and two double-sided fold-out posters measuring 48" x 36". On Amazon.co.uk, this pack will set you back £292. This pack is clearly only for massive fans of the band, and not intended to be something available in many shops.Some bands create box sets of their back catalogue for die hard fans, and either release them with different features or in a weird case. KISS are one of these bands, and have released KISS: The Box Set. It is 5 CD's with 94 tracks of digitally remastered material spanning their entire career with a full colour booklet of track by track commentary by the band. 30 of the tracks are previously unreleased demos, out-takes or live versions. On Play.com, this will cost you about £322.70, again, not the kind of thing you would buy on a whim. It does come in a briefcase though.

Bazza's Feedback

Barney watched the first rough cut i made the other day, and gave us some feedback. Basically, he said that if it is entirely performance based, we should probably get the narrative filmed so we can do something else in the video. He also said that we shouldn't cut from singer to different angle of singer, which i did accidentally as the different layers were on top of each other, so when i cut a bit out of one, it just showed the one beneath it, and i put the 2 of the singer on top of each other.

I also need to sync it up a bit more, some of the singing is slightly out, which i only noticed after watching the video a few times, and there is a bit of the drummer at the end which is totally out of sync. I also put in a lot of footage of the drummer, and should probably use something else.

When i was first editing this, i really like the quick cuts at the start, but the more i watch it, the less i like it, because it just seems too quick and out of place. I prefer the slower cuts that start about halfway through. I also think it would be easier to use slower cuts because it means i can use the other footage at other points int he video. The music all sort of blurs into itself so there isn't really definitive tunes to try and sync to, which means i can put some bits of footage pretty much anywhere in the video.

Problems

We had decided that we were going to use some footage of the band in their rehearsal, and some of their live gig at the Junction. We had planned on filming some of the show tonight, as we were told they were playing around half 7. However in reality they are apparently not playing until half past 9, and neither me or mike can hang around long enough to get the film and get home, due to relying on public transport to get home.

We also tried to film the narrative but the guy we agreed to be in it, decided not to turn up so we didn't do that. The video is now entirely performance based instead of having a narrative, but we may try and re-record it if we feel necessary.

Target Audience

This is the target audience for our music video.

First Rough Cut

This is the initial rough cut for our music video. I edited this together in about an hour earlier, so it isn't perfect. We have yet to get all the footage for our actual video, but i decided to see what it would look like with just the video from our initial shoot.

Process of making a music video

When making a video, there are several steps to comsider before it is released. Firstly, the video commissioner at a record company asks potential directors or production companies for ideas. Then the directors must pitch their ideas/concepts, based entirely on a simply crief they have been supplied and the track.

The record company then chooses the pitch they like most and allocates a budget. This has decreased massively in the past years, but is still a decent amount. The producer looks after budgeting and arrangements. A percentage of the budget is allocated to this role. The director of photography and art director are bought on board. The art director oversees the planning of the look, scouts for locations and plans shots etc.

The shoot for the music video usually takes place in one very long day. There is then on offline edit, where the editor assembles all the footage over a few days. Record companies and artists may want to watch it and suggest changes. The next step is the online edit, adding special effects and readying the final version. The video is then delivered the the client, and shown on TV etc.

Ad for Music Video

This is an advert i made for the music video we are creating. the date at the end is a rough estimate of when it might be finished.

Model Release Form

This is an image of the model release form that we need signed in order to use people in our music video. i will need each member of the band to sign this before i can use it.

Editing

We started editing today, we captured some test footage, to make sure that the video and audio was working right and stuff. We then cut the various different songs out. We recorded the same song over and over again so i cut the one long video into several shorter ones so we could watch each video with no trouble. When Mike gets here, we will be able to sync the video up to the pre-recorded version of the song, and hope it works.

Filming

Today, me and Mike went filming for our music video. We had arranged with the band to have a practice session, where we could basically get some footage of the band and assorted close ups and whatnot of them as they played the song. We got totally lost on the way to the place, but we found our way there in the end. We got the band to play through the song about 8 times, and recorded it every time. This is so we have plenty of footage to sort through, so there is no chance that we can miss any part of the song. We have also organized to get some footage when they play at the Junction on Friday. Simon has kindly said we can go on stage and get some shots into the crowd, and we are also hoping to get some video footage from in the crowd, looking up at them.

Talk with Ed Lovelace

Ed Lovelace was a Long Road student between 2000 and 2002. This was around the time when iMacs had just come out and the only editing software they had was something called iMovie. They were also using tapes and stuff so editing was an incredibly long and boing process. After finishing at Long Road he went on to study at Bourneouth University. During his time at Uni, he had to do a work placemnt so he became a runner for a few months. This is usually what you are told to do because it is seen as your way into the industry, however he says it is a waste o time because you are just the team guy and nobody is going to give you a chance unless you can prove to them thatyou can make stuff. Don't just sit around and wait for the opportunity to come to you.

He also told us that planning is key to a succesful project, but mood boards and storyboarding not so much. If you have a good idea and plan it well, it should work out well, but if you have a bad idea, no matter how much you storyboard it, you aren't going to get a better product.

After deciding being a runner is a bad idea, Ed went to a music label and started to make really low budget music videos for them. One of these is Gallows video for Abandon Ship. This ideo if quite cleverly done, as it looks like it is all done for the same song, however it was recorded throughout the entire gig, and they just put the footage in where they thought they could get away with it, which is easier in that style of music, as the mike was held very close to the singers mouth and his hand was covering it so you couldn't try to lip sync it ayway. They used 8 cameras, and for such a small venue, did a very good job of not getting ay footage with the other cameras in. He was lucky to get the video done, because a few weeks before the shoot, Gallows got signed to a much bigger label.

Him and a friend then joined Pulse Films, in Soho, and who act as their agent, and find them work to do. They formed their own production company D.A.R.Y.L, and have started to make music videos with a budget of more then £100 (Gallows). They made 2 videos for Cage the Elephant. each with a bidget of around £40K. While deciding what to do for the music video for CtE, they talked with the band, and the frontman basically wanted to go nuts on every video idea they had. They then decided to just have a video where the lead singer was alowed to go nuts. They set it in a mental home and just let him do it. Surprisingly, it worked.

They have recently started to work on their frst feature film entitled Werewolves in America. They basically follow this guy around on tour, who plays in peoples front rooms and then asks for somewhere to crash as he has no money and lives on what he is given.

Storyboard

This is our animatic storyboard.

Storyboard

As our music video is a performance, it also has a narrative. I had to storyboard the person running to get to the gig on time. This was the easiest part to do as I knew exactly what shot types I wanted and it was also easy to draw. Drawing the band's performance was the hardest part. I had to draw each band member from a different angle and since i am not the best drawer in the world, this was very hard to do. I managed to draw most of the shots, but in the end i gave up and instead wrote a shot list.

Props/ Costumes

The prop's needed for the shoot are: a guitar, a microphone, a drumkit and whatever instruments the rest of the band members play. We would also need a poster advertising the band's gig. A watch would also be needed for the narrative side of the video.

In terms of the costumes, the band members will be performing in casual clothes. The person in the narrative would also be wearing casual clothes.

Shot List

These are the different camera angles we are hoping to get whilst filming the band's performances.

1) A mid-shot of the band playing together

2) A mid shot of the band playing from behind

3) A mid shot of the vocalist

4) a close up of the vocalist's face

5) A side on shot of the vocalist

6) A pan around shot of the vocalist

7) A pan around shot of the guitarist

8) A pan around shot of the drummer

9) A mid-shot of the guitarist

10) A close up of the guitar itself

11) A high angle shot of the guitarist

12) A close up of the guitar (only the solo)

13) A mid-shot of the drummer

14) A close-up of the drummer

15) A high angle shot of the drummer

Any crowd shots of their gig at the Junction on the 16th October may also be used.

Shooting

My main problem with our music video is that Mike seems to know what is going on, but apparently won't tell me. He is going to see the band tomorrow to organise when we can use them all and when we can film them so i will upload an actual shooting schedule when i get some times and dates off him.

Problems

Some of the foreseeable problems we can see happening is not really being able to get the band together at the same time to film the core of the video will be quite hard to arrange as they are all from different parts of Cambridge and go to different colleges, so their timetables will be very different. We could possibly film on a Saturday where all of the band are free.

Another problem we see is some of the band may be unwilling to take their instruments to the desired filming locations. We have to make sure that we choose a filming location that is of equal distance away from each other and hope that they take their instruments there.

Filming at the band's gig may also be a problem as we may not be allowed in to film them on the stage. A way to get around this is by asking the Junction if we were allowed to film. If that doesn't work, we could do some undercover filming.

We have also found out that the band are doing a rehearsal on Sunday, however due to other commitments i am unable to make it, which is a shame as it could have helped to get some extra footage.

Pitch 2

Me and Tim realised that we needed another idea, just in case the one at the Junction didn't work out. We came up with the band going on the top of a Cambridge City Sightseeing bus. They would be playing invisible instruments as they toured the sights of Cambridge.

We pitched this idea to the band and they weren't too impressed with the idea. They said that it ruined the theme of the song, so me and Tim decided to scrap that idea.

Pitch 1

Our first idea was to feature the band playing at a gig, either playing at the Junction or possibly the hall at College. Those are our preferred filming locations. We would also have a narrative featuring someone running to get to the gig on time, whilst intercutting between the two. As he reaches the Junction, the video would fade out or possibly have him running into the Junction and showing the band packing up after the gig.

We also know that the band are due to play a live gig at the Junction on the 16th October, so me and Tim were hoping to go there and film possible crowd shots and a few of the band playing. This would be brief as trying to synch the performance up with the track, would be too time consuming for the time we have got to do this.

We wanted to create a video that fitted in with the theme of the song, but as the theme was about the war in Iraq and people dying, we decided to scrap that idea as we couldn't really kill anyone and get away with it, and faking it can look pretty stupid sometimes, especially with students who don't really take it seriously.

Feedback from Pitch

Basically me and mike, mainly mike, pitched our idea to the class and told them what we were planning to do and when we were going to do it. Pete said it seemed like a good idea, it had been done before but as long as we produce something different and inventive it could work really well. Sam was nice enough to inform us that we couldn't rely heavily on live footage as the band play their songs completely differently when they play live, so it would impossible to sync up to the studio recording.

The band is also split up between several different schools so getting them all together at the same time and organizing them to turn up could be quite tricky.

Similar Music Video to Ideas

Linkin Park, Given Up. Filmed entirely with live footage from concerts, works well, quick cuts, fast paced song. Use of shots from crowd, not clean shots from HQ cameras etc. Use this idea?

Tenacious D, Wonderboy. Mainly story based, predominantly story based, little if any show or band singing as they are portraying characters other than the band.

FatBoy Slim, Weapon of Choice. Has absolutely nothing to do with the song, simply a guy dancing around somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNAr5tzZxdk Cartoons, Witch Doctor. My passing suggestion of taking some acid and coming up with an idea seems to be somewhat taken already with many videos fromt he 90's such as this one.

Bowling for Soup, My Wena 2 versions, original ridiculous video, video compliments listeners initial idea of what song is about by showing you a giant dick walking around. The song is actually about a dog, as is revealed at the end.

Bowling for Soup. Clean Version. Changed from dick to mainly clips of dog with band playing in middle of road. Changed so suitable for TV and a younger audience.

Nickelback, Rockstar. This video is comprised completely of guests and 'normies' singing the song, and throughout the entire video only gives each person a few seconds at a time. It then ends with the band playing live onstage, so throws in a different style of video.

Chosen Song

As Mike knew the band better than i did, i let him listen to the songs and give his opinion about what he though we should do. He chose one of the more fast paced songs entitled "Oil". It's alright. We now need to plan where and when we will shoot, what shots we want and if we will need people and costumes. As much as i would like to, i don't think we should make this video quite as amazing or elaborate as some of my other posted videos.

Band

I am working with Mike on this project and we decided to use a band called "How to Kill a Conversation" Mike seems to know one of the people in the band, so it shouldn't be too hard to get them to be in the video or perform or whatever we decide they need to do. Here is a picture of them.

Here is a link to their myspace:
www.myspace.com/howtokillaconversation

Song Lyrics

Slipping and sliding

And pulling you under.

Convincing you your going

In the right direction.

Releasing, reloading, aiming and firing

Convincing you it's for your own protection.

How do you sleep at night?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?

Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted

To think of the loss, yeah?

Think of the time.

Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Soldiers are fighting and killing and dying.

Fighting in a war that nobody wanted

Waring and dying and killing to live.

Fighting in a war that leaves them haunted.

How do you sleep at night?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?

Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted

To think of the loss, yeah?

Think of the time.

Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?

Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted

To think of the loss, yeah?

Think of the time.

Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Was it really worth it?

Permission for Song

In order to use the song, we had to ask the band permission. We alter decided we could use them in the video instead of making it concept video and make it a performance based video.

More Music Videos

I have continued to look at music videos that i like, but i have also started to look at other things that could be inspiration for a music video.
I love this video because it has been very cleverly thought out. The video throughtout is basically looking at Jacksons image given to him from the press and the things they claim he has done/was doing. I really like the way at the start, he is shown in the images in, for example, the newspapers or the money. I also like the somewhat bizzare part a little way in where you hear a repetitivate clapping sound, whih is revealed to be a large set of teeth snapping shut in time with the music. I also like the video because it is just so different and weird compared to most music videos. It is unlike any other video i can think of.

I like this music video because of it's simplicity. The band didn't tell anybody they were making a video as they thought it would be funnier if only they knew about it until it was released. All they did was buy 8 treadmills and record the video in one single continuous take. It took 17 attempts to get the video right and the official one has had almost 50 million views on YouTube. The reason i like this video is because it shows you don't really have to DO anything in a music video, you just need to be original. It is also a good video because as it got so popular, you can't copy it or do anything similar to it to even close to the same level of popularity because people will think it has been copied.

I like this video because it shows you many of the ways that music videos can be shot in studios, depsite it seeming as if it has been shot, for example in an aeroplane or a forest. I also think it is clever how it shows you how they can edit the people faces as they are filming to make them look different or 'better'

I have been looking at many different music videos to get inspiration for our music video project. This was realtively easy as i watch loads of music videos on TV, but very few of them are particularly interesting. This, however is not the case for all videos as a few of them are fantastic. The only artist who seems to take such great pride in his videos and puts in the effort to make them worth watching again and again is Michael Jackson. Most of his videos are realistically short films. Many of them going way past 10 minutes in length, and all being amazing. Jackson is an amazing performer and puts so much effort into everything he does. However there are also a few videos that are very good by other artists.

I like this video because it is utterly bizarre. The coloured in eyes make the people look incredibly weird, while the coloured in, slightly jumpy effect as the stopmotion makes it look really cool.

I really like this video, and most of Michael Jacksons other videos, but i really like this one because i think it is incredibly cleverly done. The way they swap between scenes by using things that are in the scene already, such as when they go from dancing in the street in the snow, to the cossacks, the scene is changed as a white car drives past the screen obscuring the view, so you don't notice the scene is different until it is completely gone from view. I also really like the ending, where they have the different people singing the song and it changes between them. I'm not sure how this was done, as a similar thing could be done by simply fading in and out different footage, providing the eyes are kept in the same position during the transition. However i think something different has been done with this video as it doesn't just fade out it looks like it's been sort of rubbed out bit by bit.

I like this video, partly because there are so many different versions of it, but also because it is tehnically the longest music video ever made. Ghosts, is a music video, but also a 45 minute short film. I love the bit right at the start where he rips his face off and then smashes his skull, to reveal himself again. I have no idea how it was done but i think it looks amazing. I also like it when the dancers are jumping around on the walls and the ceilings, as it gives the video a totally different feel to it.I like this video because it shows that a music video can be entirely story based without needing to show the band physically playing their instruments. Many music videos rely quite heavily on featuring the band either playing their instruments or doing things as the band. This one doesn't and i think it sticks out because of it.

First Music Video

I started to plan and make a music video as soon as i found out we were going to be making one for the course. I instantly knew i wanted to do Alestorm as they are a small band, so it wouldn't be hard to get permission to use the music, they're pirates, so i love them and, well, they're a good band. The hard part was choosing a good song to use. In the end i did 3 different stroyboards, which all got very comlicated as i decided i wanted things to happen. However, i first needed to get the artists permission to use their track as otherwise i would be going through copyright stuff and that wasn't a good idea. So i sent them a message on 'MySpace' and they replied and said i could use whatever i wanted. I had also decided to create a plasticine video, as i think some animated music videos are much better than any real time videos. I really like 'Sledgehammer' by Peter Gabriel and 'Stay Alive' by Trapt. After that i drew up a final storyboard of the one i wanted to use and made a list of things i would need in the video, and subsequently the amounts and different colours i would need.

The first stroyboard i did was for the song Wenches and Mead. Basically it started with the boat going along in the water, then it zoomed in to the deck to see the pirates playing their instruments on deck. At this stage, the pirates were meant to respresent the members of the band. The song is only about 3 minutes at most, so i didn't think all that much needed to happen. Halfway through the first verse, a wench comes on and gives the band members some beer. They take it and give her a swift kick up the backside and she falls over the side of the boat into the water. They then continue to play. After the first chorus, the camera rotates round the boat, the mast opbscuring the view temporarily, and when it spins round you see the actual band, playing live bluescreened onto the boat. This would then fade out at the end. I decided not to use this idea as i figures even though it is a catchy, short song the video would get quite boring, and i would need to see the band several times to get some footage of them playing.

The second storyboard was much more visually intense, however the song was 5 and a half minutes long, so it would have to be to keep viewer attention up. It starts at a long shot of a boat, like the previous one, but this time it zooms in on one of the connon holes, and you see a guy there dressed as a pirate, grinning. It then cuts to a shot from behind as you see him aiming the cannon at a wall and lighting it. The scene then switches to show an explosion and the wall caving in. You then see a close up of some steps and feet running up them. The next shot is from high up, possibly as if someone was looking down from the crows nest of the ship, as the crew throw a plank of wood down and run over it into the town. The next few minutes of various shots of fight scenes, mainly swordfights of pirates vs guards. One of the pirates then runs up a building, jumps to another one and swings on a conveniently places bit of rope. He jumps off and sails down, his sword landing on top of a guards and slicing him in half. Then he runs up to the tavern, meets up with his crew and kick the door in. They wander in, grab a tankard of ale and drink it. Then they wander over and pick up some instruments. The next bit would be hard as i was going to have some live action footage and move the figurines around to exactly the same places as the real footage so it could fade out seamlessly and go into live footage. I didn't do this because i decided it was slightly too adventurous and would take far too long. I also figured that i would again need to get some live footage and as none of the figures stood up on their own, getting them to run, jump and wsing on things would have been nearly impossible.

When i had gone and bought all the plasticine and stuff i started to make the models. I hadn't really thought about it too much, but i made a very basic wireframe, then covered it in plasticine. I didn't really think about the fact that they would have a hard time standing up and would be quite top heavy. That was a problem we came across while shooting the video and we had to work out how to overcome it during filming. After we spent almost an entire day creating the figures (Including makingthe wireframes and stuff) we put them down for the night and hoped they wouldn't harden too much. When we got around to doing the filming, they hadn't hardened much and we were able to move them about quite well with very little trouble.

Unfortunately, the tripod i had didn't have the screw bit on it to keep the camera attatched, so we had to improve using string, blu-tack and whatever we could find to change the angle and prop the camera up. I had to change certain bits of the stroyboard as they were simply too long, too short or wouldn't work with the resources we had, and we ran out of idea near the end so bits of it is simply looped round, which i really don't like, but there wasn't much i could do about it. I wanted to re-shoot some bits, but i didn't have a camera and when i got one the models had all fallen apart or hardened up.

While we (my brother helped) were filming, we had to overcome several problems. The first main one being that the ideas looked much better on paper and we thought they could go on for a bit longer than they actually could without getting dull. To get past this we had to add in extra bits and change things so it seemed worth watching and didn't just bore you having one long shot after another. Another very large problem we had was simply that only 3 of the models could stand up on their own. The wench, the 3 headed monkey (TOTALLY a Monkey Island™ reference), and Davy Jones (The weird dragon thing). In order for the other pirates to stand up, we had to wedge pencils and pens in their backs, and prop them up, which then made it hard when we changed angles to keep the things out of shot.


Another problem was that i wanted some shots of the captain singing, as he was vaguely based around the singer of the band, but when i tried to move his mouth, it simply smudged and looked a mess. So we covered his mouth with more white plasticine, and then just got 3 different shaped bits of black plasticine and simply alternated them every few frames to make it look like his mouth is moving. This worked surprisingly well and when you watch it, given that it is all animated, it seems quite convincing.

Here is the final video, that i uploaded to YouTube. It is quite low quality, and has the words across the screen plainly because it han't been marked, and i have yet to deicde if i am going to use it for my actual project. If i do, i don't really want someone else stealing it first. Alongside it, is Alestorms video for the song, which they released AFTER i had made mine. I was very surprised to see some of the ideas i had (but didn't use) for my videos were very similar to scenes and shots that were used in the official video. I was even more surprised to see that some of the scenes and shots i did use are quite similar. Not exactly the same, but they ideas were there.