CHARLIE FLOSSY SOPHIE SIAN GROUP 23 - Music Video 2008/9

2008-11-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

2008-11-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

2008-11-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Final Piece XD

2008-11-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

Music Video Feedback

2008-11-10T02:19:00.000-08:00

When the rest of our class were showed our final Music Video, this is the feedback we recieved:

The genre of this music was "Woman Rock" or Rock, and our video suited the conventions of the genre well.
The target audience could possibly be 18/19 year olds, but probably has no specific audience.
The camera work was good, we had a good variety of camera angles.
A member of the class particularly liked the green ribbon being "shot in front of the sun" (the light.)
Another member of the class liked the shot of Flossy running through the field, and thought it worked well within the music.
The shot of Charlie playing the drums and Flossy&Sophie from the side was also mentioned as a good shot.
Some members of the class also mentioned the opening scene, and said they liked how the light, followed by the traffic in the dark, then the ribbon, then Sian miming worked really well and looked fluent.
They thought the editing was good, and the mise on scene worked really well; the field worked within the music, and it gave us plenty of space, and the video was well spread out instead of a band just crammed in a small space.
Most of the class really liked the ribbons and thought they went well, especially as they were used throughout the music video instead of just for a bit of it. However one member of the class did not understand the ribbons and thought it was a bit too irrelevant.
The lip syncing was really good throughout.
An influence of our video was the ribbon used in the live performance of the song by the lead singer of the band, no similarities of other bands/songs/videos were picked up on.
The music video was said to have a "chilling" effect on the audience.

A couple of bits of negative feedback were that the shot of the traffic could have been used more throughout the video, and that there were a couple of subtle mistakes within the shot. E.G. Sophie chewing and nodding through one of her shots, and me talking through one of mine. However one member of the class said that this talking and nodding gave off a sense of us having fun in the field instead of just performing.

change of location...

2008-10-16T03:53:00.000-07:00

we ended up changing the location of the band being on top of a grassed hill to a long grassed field as when it came to moving all the props such as the drum kit we realised we were being very unrealistic, furthermore it would have been difficult to use the camera and tripod on such a slant. overall we prefer the new location as it has enabled us to create (fingers crossed) a perfecrt ending...

filming...

2008-10-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

The day we first got the camera we did alot of footage in town of Sian's main singing bit and a few small other bits, this was so that we could get the basic outline of the video right and start to get the basic lip syncing done. One of our next targets was to get some footage of each individual so we could make a suiatable rough cut. This involved alot of footage at night in Cambourne, we tried to do severall takes of each setting but from different angles so that we can vary the image in our final piece.
We chose settings such as fields, a lake, a business park and an alley, we used lighting to help make the footage look professional.One of the things we were really pleased with was the filiming of the traffic which will be used sped up so that it has effects used on other music videos.

After succesfully uploading the footage we began to edit and created a suitable beginig, our main focus after this was to get sum more footage as we had small detailed clips but needed some bulk to fill the time.
This was our main focus for day 2 of filming.

Our second day of filming began in Cambourne and we went to collect the drum kit and carried it to our location. we had to flatten some grass and do some test footage to see how it looked. this worked well and we also had a nice background as the sun was about to set with clouds in frobt, this looked good but wasnt too bright to interfere witgh what we were filming.

along with getting alot of footage of the band playing together we together created a brilliant idea for a possible ending. it consisted of all the band members running into the libne of the horizon, this could work really well with a fade.

We are now in the editing process and cant wait to see the end product!

Contacting the band

2008-10-03T04:39:00.001-07:00

We wanted to try and get a better feel about what the song was about, what it was trying to represent, and if there was any hidden meaning so that we could try and put this across in our video; So we messaged one of the band members via MySpace, asking how we could get the lyrics across.

Unfortunately, the member who responded didn't have the information we were looking for, and the conversation went as follows;

From: The Grates

Date: Sep 30, 2008 2:11 AM

Subject:

RE: Music

do you know.. i have no idea. patience wrote it, i'm not even sure if it means anything!
:D
john

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: ..rahnface.
..
Date: 15 Sep 2008, 06:52 PM

Hi i'm a student from long road sixth form college doing a media course. For our new project we have to make a music video. We're using your song "Rock Boys" and we would like to know what the lyrics are trying to get across?

Any help would be GREAT!

Cheers

Following this response we then replied to the message asking if the band would be interested in seeing the final product when we have completed filming and editing our music video.
We are now waiting for a response.

2008-10-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

Plan for the video
Who is going to be in it
Do we need to get more people
What are we going to wear
What day we are using the camera
Time slots for different locations
using lesson time efficiently to complete all footage and get on to editing quickly

All of our group members will be in the video, we are hoping to get several other people in the video like we planned in the animatic. We will get mostly friends to be in our video as they are readily available and close to the locations.

We want to wear clothes that are related to our genre of music the band members must stand out more than other extras. The lead singer could either be casual in a bright colour or wearing something like a dress which clashes with the relaxed surroundings.

We will have the camera during lessons and two over nights during the week this allows us to do all of our filming in a week, so we can then edit during the lesson time and get a rough cut in for the 10th of October. We will try and do the shooting in Cambourne during the over night this allows us to have the maxium time to set up the drums arrange people and have use different shots.

Targets

2008-10-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

shot list .....

2008-10-02T03:49:00.001-07:00

list of all shots we will do ...
1. long shot of light in the dark - slowly getting bigger
2. ribbon on a stick in front of the light when its big
3. mid shot of someone walking down an alley holding the ribbon on a stick walking towards the camera
4. someone running along a rural road
5 comes to a bench where the ribbon
6.Just the a close us of the ribbon wafting in the air
7. Shadow of person holding the ribbon
8.close ups of drum just seeing bit of it -never see whole drum
9. see a girl walking along the street
10. car goes past
11. once car has past the girl has got a ribbon and carrys on walking along the street
12. close up of mouth lip singing song
13 back to the person in the alley coming out into the open
14. close up on guitar playing
15. ribbons in the air agian
16.

Blog assessment Feedback

2008-10-02T03:44:00.000-07:00

1.List below the content of each of the posts:
Pitch.
New choice of song.
Reference to other singers.

2. Is there evidence in the blog that the group have completed background research,
Organised personal locations, and equipment for shooting.
Developed ideas since the initial concept.
you must give specific examples as evidence;

Band research.
Locations.
Good in depth pitch with good examples.
lyrics and detailed information.
Lots of research, developed ideas.

3. Who do you think the target audience for our music video would be?
Teenage girls/Teenagers/"Hungry hungry teens"

4. Overall Assessment.

Level 4: Excellent planning 24-30 marks. * 24.
Level 3: Proficient planning 17-23 marks. **

Research on Locations

2008-09-29T01:16:00.001-07:00

One of our possible locations is in Cambourne as it is not recognisable as a iconic city like cambridge is, it will set it apart from the rest of the videos. Cambourne will look more deserted than if it is in the city which will suit our genre of music.

We want to have shots down an ally to give a mysterious effect so the audience doesnt know where the band member is going

We got some inspiration from the pide piper we like the idea of people following the band up to the hill from all different directions with different shots to make it look interesting and keep the audience intrigued

This video is also inspiring as it is what we want to achieve in the style of a music video

Evaluation of practice footage.

2008-09-26T05:22:00.001-07:00

Although our footage is not relevant in the sense of the content of the film, we have practiced effects that may useful in our final production.
We used the effects of speeding things up to give the illusion that things were happening at a much faster pace than reality. This may be used in our piece in order to keep the audience engaged as ordinary things happening at an ordinary pace are boring and become repetitive.
A further technique which was effective was close up shots of normal things like the coke can give a surreal effect and hold suspense as the audience wants to see the full picture, the idea of keeping things withdrawn from the audiences one of our key themes ( that the individuals filmed in our video will all be part of a band but the bigger picture of them all together will not be revealed until the end)
A futher technique which we did not get chance to practice was the light contrasting effects and different csmera lenses. we plan to have some test footage of this even if not alot.

Test Footage

2008-09-26T05:17:00.002-07:00

Pitch the 2nd feedback

2008-09-26T05:17:00.001-07:00

People thought that the pitch showed very clearly what we are trying to achieve and many liked the idea. One individual highlighted that the locations need to be unrecognisable in order for the video to work other wise it has the risk of looking very amateur. others liked how we bought together the band playing live and our video by the iconic ribbons.
They think lighting effects should have a key role in our piece, something we did not mention in our pitch.

New Pitch

2008-09-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

The song we are using for our music video (The Grates - Rock Boys) is in the genre of Indie/Rock. Starting off as Indie and developing in to Rock as the song progresses.
The drum beat in the background gives a majorette feeling as it is a similar beat to that of a snare drum that would be used in a marching band.
This video by Gwen Stefani also has a marching band kind of tempo/beat and they have chosen to use the idea of majorettes and cheerleaders in the music video to compliment this.

We have decided to the majorette/marching band feeling to our advantage by using ribbons that a majorette or a gymnast would use. These types of ribbons are included in already existing music video of The Grates - Rock Boys. This video is a live performance of the band, and while the lead singer is singing she is also using one of these ribbons to enhance her performance.
We had the idea to use a ribbon like this to bring a band together; The filming will take place on Cambourne hill, along streets and possibly down alleyways. The video will start with someone finding this ribbon, and using it to dance/spin/run with while they mime. This will be the singer of the "band." Where this band member stops using the ribbon, the next one will pick it up, and each band member will leave it somewhere else, along the street for example, where the next band member will find it and pick it up, starting their performance. The band members will eventually be led up the hill (Cambourne Hill) where the band will be complete at the top. The song develops by adding instruments in to it gradually, building tension and reaching a climax, becoming louder and bolder. It will be the climax of this song when the band members have all joined at the top of the hill and begin playing together to the song on their instruments. We feel this idea will work well as we have taken the idea of a pre-existing music video by The Grates and developed on it, where they have used it as a minor additive to their video, we have decided to use it as the main idea for our entire video. It will compliment the genre of the music well and also have a narrative.
The target audience of this music video will be to the fans of the Rock genre. We exaggerate this genre by building up the video as the tension in the music builds up. As the band become closer to forming together, the music gets louder with more instruments being added in. And on the complete climax of the music itself, the narrative finds it's ending with the band becoming complete. It is then that you discover it is actually a rock song.

The student music videos I am including in this are the same as those from the original pitch, as again, they have decided to use the idea of setting up a band in an outside area, which is linked to our ideas.
In one of them they have set up a band and a very large group of people on the top level of a carpark, and in the other in a forest.

The Band Playing Live

2008-09-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

This clip of the band playing the song we will be using live is very usefull. We will be using the idea of lighting as if they were playing live as they are quite affective and could look very good in combination with the ribbons .
This has also given us an idea for costumes: to keep them simple yet colourful. This will be effective as it is suitable to the genre.

Band Research

2008-09-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

The Grates are a three-piece band from Brisbane,Australia, comprising Patience Hodgson (vocals), John Patterson (guitar) and Alana Skyring (drums). They are renound for their catchy songs and lively energetic shows. their music is often described as "fun".

Patience Hodgson had known Alana Skyring since they were children, and met John Patterson in a drama class all three were attending to avoid physical education classes.

A month or two later after performing at a kareoke bar patience suggested they form a band, they began to play in johns garden shed .

The Grates name stuck once people started hearing them, as they were previously playing under different names. In 2004 a rough demo of the song "Trampoline", recorded on an 8 track recodring with two cheap microphones in John's shed was sent to national youth network Triple J accompanied by a hand-written bio and press release. The song was well-received, and appeared on the nominations list for Triple J's 2004 Hottest 100 along with two other Grates songs, "Rock Boys" ( the song we are using )and "Sukkafish".

The band has a distinctive style all three have a background in art and design their costumes and album covers.

Their debut album, Gravity wont get you High , was released on April 8th,2006. It debuted at #9 in the ARIA charts and reached a peak of #9. It has also been released in the UK and the United States (June 2006). The first single off the album, "19 20 20", was released in March as a 7" and iTunes.

animatic feedback

2008-09-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

Although our animatic did not clearly show what we intend to do, after describing our plans to the class we got some very useful feedback:
The class liked how we had taken the idea of the ribbons from the live footage of the band as it showed a link between the two, this also shows we would be portraying the genre of what the band intended.
Someone suggested that having each band member with a different colour ribbon could show each persons identity and when the band play together at the end it could show everyone in union and a ray of colours.
Long shots on the hill will look very effective.
Some futher advice we were given was not to film in cambridge as it will be too recognisable and it could make it look unproffesional.
This feedback has been very usefull as it can help us create an effective video which should target the appropriate audience.

animatic

2008-09-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

The perfect beginning....

2008-09-18T03:20:00.000-07:00

We have taken a shot from the band playing live and are going to use it to create a similar effect in our video. it will engage the audience as they do not know where the location is or who they are about to see, this creates suspense.
This can be create with a dark room and a free standing light.

Artistic footage

2008-09-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

We have picked out that instruments play a key part of this track so have decided to highlight this in the video. We are going to focus on artistic shots of a drum kit and close up shots of the singer instead of making up a narrative which may have a negative effect and not really work.
A further idea is to use extremely contrasted footage(colour wise) this use of colour will engage the audience and fill the video but with its simplicity.

The Songs Intensions

2008-09-15T01:52:00.000-07:00

To find out the true meaning of the lyrics, so we as a group can decide whether to make reference to them in the video we have emailed the band on MySpace asking what the lyrics mean.
We are now waiting for a response.

Reference To Other Singers

2008-09-15T01:43:00.000-07:00

After listening to the song several times and still looking for inspiration we decided to listen to the tone of the main singers voice and see if we could make any connections by the sound and not lyrics. We thought that the voice of the female singers sounded similar to the female singer in the cranberries so we went on YouTube and watched the video zombie.
although we are not planning on using any of their ideas we have seen how quite a plain song can still make an interesting video by the use of different locations and quick cutting. Therefore this piece of research has been affective by giving us some points to focus on.

New Choice of song

2008-09-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

the new song we have chosen to use for our music video is Rock Boys by The Grates, we had to choose a new song as we lost the vote in the pitch battle for our original chosen song.

Lyrics to Rock Boys :
Rock, rock, rock, said the boys on top,
and how'd you miss them? how'd you miss them?

rock, rock, rock, said the boys on top,
and how'd you miss them? how'd you miss them?

nothing...
nothing, yeah, oh,
nothing...
nothing, yeah, oh,

ew, ay,
wo-oh, nothing for you,
yeah, yeah,
wo-oh, nothing for you,

yeah, yeah, wo-oh, nothing for you,
yeah yeah, wo-oh, nothing for you,

rock, rock, rock, said the boys on top
and how'd you miss them?
how did you miss them?

This song has no narrative, we think it would be best to stick to this and make the video abstract instead of trying to fit it into something.

The song is quite repetitive so the video has to be visually appealing so that the audience in engaged. We want to use a variation of different shots so that we have a lot to work with wen editing and we can chop and can the shots to keep the audience wanting to watch more. We could use shorts from above the person singing on the microphone, close ups, mid shots and long shots.
To make it more visually interesting we will change the location often by the band interacting with the video moving the shots to each side or up and down to reveal a new location and possibly a new mimer. We want to make the locations different so the suprise shock the audience so they dont predict or have expections of what will happen next.
I think its important to include some miming from the band members and possibly using intruments as the band is under the indie/ rock genre.

Pitch

2008-09-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

For our music video we have decided to use the track The Remedy (I won’t Worry) – Jason Mraz.
We have chosen this track as we had more initial ideas for this particular track than any of the others. Some ideas we came up with for the music video of this track were:
Shooting scenes in places such as Punting in Cambridge, possibly London, the River Cambs, or the seaside (possibly in Hunstanton)
We also had the idea of setting up a drum kit in other settings such as a field, or the top level of a car park when dark.
The inspiration for the music instruments set up came from the following videos;

For the editing we had the idea of Camera Cranking one of the scenes, for example a busy scene with a lot of cars or people passing behind the person in the video. We could for example film the actor moving half the speed they would normally, with everyone/everything else travelling at normal speed and then sped up to twice the speed when uploaded on to the computer.
Another way of achieving this effect would be to use split screen.

Another video with an idea we thought we could use is It’s Only Love – The Maccabees. They base the entire video on a sketchpad, drawing and writing things which has been sped up and cleverly edited together after filming. We thought rather than basing a whole video on this idea like they have, we could use little snippets of this idea. Drawing relevant pictures on a sketchpad and fitting them together in to short animations using Istop Motion.
The following video is where the inspiration of this idea came from:

This video uses iStop motion all the way through, this effect is used well and gives the illusion that the notepad is 'alive', and that it tells a story on it's own. Although occasionally you see the artists' hand drawing the pictures/writing the speech, most of the time it is made up of separate images put together of the gradual progression of the drawing/writing.

For our production we could also integrate actual footage with drawings in the sketch pad; we could draw cartoons and Istop motion them to mimic the actions we film in our chosen locations, blending them in together to create the effect of the sketchpad telling the story of what is actually happening.

Welcome to GROUP 23

2008-09-01T01:41:00.001-07:00