Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Target Audience

Our Target Audience
 
 
The song we chose was from the indie or alternative rock genre, therefore automatically we wanted to target that audience. We looked at the artist, and his other songs, and started to look at other artists who had a similar style. Since we had chosen a slow song, we needed to find examples of songs that matched, and then research into who listened to it.

Firstly we thought about who has access to indie music, since the nature of the genre is ‘independent’, it is to be assumed that most of the typical stores won’t stock the music and that it can mostly be found online for sale. Therefore, we instantly thought that stereotypically young adults, ranging from 13-25 would be able to access it. Since typically, it is the younger generation who have the most access to the internet, we also assumed that it would appeal to males and females.

(an example of The Killer's Music)
Since the music is independent and doesn’t rely on a big studio’s reputation, we believed that social status wouldn’t matter in this case, as any of the different social classes may be willing to buy. Depending on either end of the genre, the more gritty end would appeal less to the higher classes, but the less gritty end would still hold appeal.  Typically it is people of a white ethnicity who listen to indie music.

Though we haven’t just aimed it at teenagers, it would probably appeal more to the mid teens and young adults (15-18/19 year olds) since most of that group will have some interest in artists like the Killers, Imagine Dragons and others like Lenka and Artic Monkeys, dependant on the gender.

(Demon by Imagine Dragons)
 
We thought that because 17-25 year olds are more likely to go to music festivals and concerts they are more likely to come across different types of music. Such as our artist, Joni Savero. They may be attracted to the ‘professional look’ on indivual artists/bands and try to emulate it themselves. Since our music is guitarbased, we felt that would appeal to a wider audience, as typically guitar music is easier to get into than say piano music.

Since the videos tend to have a very casual style, and informal clothing, it can be said that this helps to appeal to our audience who would dress in a similar fashion, ie, jeans and t-shirts, hoodies, casual shoes, or even retro band t-shirts. A good example would be, Two Door Cinema Club, an indie band who dress very casually, and have been classed as 'Indie, Alt. Rock' we wanted to target a similar audience to theirs.




Since many indie tracks are a narrative of an relationship or life,  it can be argued that on one hand girls will listen to the more relationship based songs, while men will want to listen to the ones based on life.  The use of costume can somewhat reflect the ideas of the song, and the use of black and white  could signify a depression, since we have the couple in the video get so close to being together, then time winds back and they are torn apart again. This could be a statement on how many youth relationships are fated to fail.

Another indie band we got inspiration for our target audience from was 'The Enemies', they are an unsigned band, who mostly do alt. rock music. Their songs focus on love and life, and appeal to teenagers, since one of their members is the actor Colin O'Donoghue, they are able to gain a bigger fan base as his reputation grows.
 

 
All of these things have influenced our decision of how we made our music video, as we decided to target an audience to male and females, aged 15-24, and who have an interest in music.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Rough Cut Feedback

Feedback we got from the rough cut was:

Our video needed major improvements which we did, the quality of the photo was slightly damaged in the transference. We realised that compressing to quicktime was not the best option and that exporting the video made the quality much better.

One of the most common comments was that the stop motion was not needed, so we took that out, and replaced it with an entirely new section.

Another comment was that the lip syncing wasn't quite right, therefore, we spent a lot of time perfecting it as best we could, since we couldn't reschedule another shoot.

Other improvements suggested was to lengthen the video, which we did, on the rough cut it stood at around 1 minute, and we lengthened it using different techniques like the reversal of clips and made it to 2 minutes approx.

We didn't upload the questionairres because a majority of the answers were similiar and as we realised, covered many of the same aspects.

Camera


Camera
Here is a picture of one of the cameras we used we used to film. We used it to film our performance shots, and it gave us some high quality shots. Unfortunately, it was the camera which I managed to change the settings on and therefore we had trouble gaining the footage off of the camera.

Plan for Ancillary.




Here's a shot of our planning for our ancillary product. I drew a couple of sketches of images we wanted.

Storyboards + Icon Design

This is my initial design for a music production label. I was just doodling and thought that it could work. Since our group first name initials are L. A. and Z.

 Here are some of the pictures I took of one of the storyboards.
 Another photo of the storyboards

Storyboards and logo design

Digipak Ideas



We chose the name of another single on MP3unsigned as our title, as we wanted to make sure we knew it was indeed an album release and not just an single. So we called it frozen apple.

I went on a search online and found the blog of 'Malin Bolmstedt' a swedish photographer, and found a picture that could be perfect for our idea. So I intend to email or get in contact with Malin, in order to ask permission to use the photo.  I have inserted the image below. 

It fits with the idea of 'Frozen Apple' and we have got a copyright free image of an hourglass to go with our chosen track 'Hourglass' where we will have the lyrics to that song.

 

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

The Lumineers, Ho Hey [wip]

Ho Hey by The Lumineers




Here the Lumineer's use the lights to help the narrative along. We have taken inspiration in having the lights flash on and off in the video. We feel this helps to keep the viewers attention. The Lumineers are very much the same genre as our music track, however the sub genres vary. We took inspiration from the differing setting and the idea of the lights. We also liked the costumes which seemed to be slightly vintage in style.

Monday, 19 November 2012

People in Our Video

The new song is called: Hourglass by Joni Savero. People involved within the video:
Abigail Mayes - The photographer/angel in the video/help with editing Zoe Farrell - The woman in the photo shoot/the one that's ill in the video/help with editing Lauren Blowers - Camerawork/other photographer/help with editing/designing digipack Chris Taylor - The other half of the woman/man in the photo shoot in the video Connor Sams - Performance, Lipsyncer.

Camera



We had a little bit of a problem with the camera. Some how I had managed to save the clips as mpeg4. This meant we couldn't open the clips to edit them. However after talking to the technicians we are able to import them to Imovie and then save them to my usb card to put on the computer.

Performance Shots



We filmed an shot of our performer. We filmed in the music section of Suffolk One, in an spare room. We had a blue backdrop behind him, but we are thinking of desaturating the clip. We kept the shot as an mid shot, to show the music stand and headphones we had placed on the said performer. This is to try and include 'star image'.

Editing



We were editing today. We had to edit in time with the beat. We also desaturated the picture. We quickly cut between two different clips. To show the 'angel' disappearing. We had to make sure that the shots matched up enough, and didn't look overly out of place. Over all, I think we did quite well.

Storyboarding

We storyboarded what we thought the performance bit of our video would look like. I have uploaded a picture here.

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Journey/Walking



A lot of Indie Music videos use walking, and journeys. We wanted to show this somehow, so we incorparated the guiding of the woman into our video to show her journey and her confusion. The idea that the angel is guiding her suggests the long debated ideal that someone is looking over you at all time, ie an guardian angel.

We took the idea from Robbie William's Video Angel, but decided to not only have the angel following her, but to have her guiding her at times. As well as from the video Candy. We also took inspiration from the video 'Two Fingers' by Jake Bugg. There is a close up on the feet when Jake Bugg is walking, a shot we used in our video. Likewise in manchester indie singer Noel Gallagher, we took inspiration from the video '

We wanted to use shots like the ones in the Foo Fighters 'Walk' an band of a similar genre to the song we are doing.

We liked the idea of a moving shot, and the idea of following the main character. We now want to add in shots of performance to make the video seem more like an music video.

Change of idea/song.



Last week we decided to change our song, keep the footage we'd already filmed but changed the song. We stayed in the same genre, and went for a song called Hourglass by Joni Savero. We have downloaded it and added it into final cut pro. We went with the idea of the timer based on the title. We also were able to get lyrics for this song, which made the planning easier.

Costume Recces



[image] - Zoe. Shoot 1.
Plaid shirt, with blue jeans and cream/brown brogues.


[image] - Abby. Shoot 1.
Angel costume: Halo, white dress w/black belt and black heels. No other accessories.

[image] - Lauren. Shoot 1.
Devil costume: red dress, horns and tail


[image] - Chris. Shoot 1.
White iguana shirt, jeans and dress shoes, with the same scarf








[image] - Zoe. Shoot 2.
A cream vintage style dress, with long necklace and flowery designs, w/brogues.

[image] - Abby. Shoot 2.
a calf length vintage style plain button up green dress, with collar and 3/4 length sleeves. w/camera.

[image] - Chris. Shoot 2.
Dark shirt, with dark jeans and dress shoes.


 

Risk Assessment


RISK ASSESSMENT

 

Hazard:

 

What could cause harm? The lighting falling over

 

 

What is the likelihood of this happening? Not very likely

 

 

Who or what would be harmed? Those in the immediate area. The light.

 

 

How much harm? Electrical burns maybe? Cuts from glass.

 

 

Applying the following priorities, how will this risk be managed?

(1)   Eliminate. – Take away the light?

(2)   Reduce or substitute.- Make sure the cables are out of the way

(3)   Isolate – Stay away from the light.

(4)   Control. – Only allow one person to move the light.

(5)   Personal protective equipment – Gloves?

 

 

Hazard:

 

What could cause harm? Someone tripping over the wires.

 

 

What is the likelihood of this happening? Somewhat likely, since the wire was trailing

 

 

Who or what would be harmed? The person who tripped over.

 

 

How much harm? Depending on how they tripped, it could have been very serious.

 

 

Applying the following priorities, how will this risk be managed? We would move the wire out of the way and if nessecary we would tape the wire down.

(1)  Eliminate - Remove the wire
(2) Reduce or substitute. - move the wire away
(3) Isolate. - Make sure the wire is away from people
(4) Control. - tape down the wire
(5) Personal protective equipment - wear a hat

 

 

Hazard:

 

What could cause harm? Stray Twigs and  Covered holes in the grass

 

 

What is the likelihood of this happening? Somewhat likely

 

 

Who or what would be harmed? The two 'actors' in the film

 

 

How much harm? Again depending on the trip, it could have been quite serious.

 

 

Applying the following priorities, how will this risk be managed?

(1)  Eliminate. - Move to another spot
(2) Reduce or substitute. - Check the ground
(3) Isolate. - If a hole is found, mark it out, and remove any twigs/branches
(4) Control. - Make sure the space is clean
(5) Personal protective equipment

 

 

Pitch Presentation



A band member (Zoe Farrell) uploaded our powerpoint to Slideshare so that we can upload it too our blog. However there are some amendments to this that need making. For one we have changed our song and are thinking of 'ditching' the stopmotions due to the audience feedback.

Candy - Robbie Williams

We got some inspiration from the new video 'Candy' by Robbie Williams. Robbie in the video is wearing a halo, which we decided to use. With an 'angel' guiding the girl. Which is also shown in the video Candy, as he is constantly moving people and things out of her way. The video is very fun and the beat is very quick. We want our video to be quite fun.

Monday, 22 October 2012

Location Recce

A shot of our second location. Just outside Suffolk One. We decided to add a new location as the foggy weather made for a good effect.

Filming. One of our actors getting ready for the shot


Another shot of the location.
One of the actor's costume. Black High heels to contrast with the white halo and dress.
Another shot of the location. The slightly damp and woody location meant that it had a very open feel.


Shot of the halo.


Walking back with the camera.



The camera and Zoe.

Zoe, Chris returning from the shot.

The halo.


The Halo.

Another location recce

Location. Again.

The worn down path we used. With the fog it had a very ethereal feel. Matching our use of the angel.

Zoe in her costume for the shoot.

Zoe in costume again.



Our camera woman for today Lauren. In the other shoot, myself and Lauren were both working the camera and an angel and devil respectively.

The camera and tripod.


Monday, 1 October 2012

Stopmotion - Stopmotion Studio


Today, we had a play with the stopmotion studio. We were a little unsure of what the effect of taking constant photo's would be, but after the computer overlaid the photo's it came out looking quite effective. We were very pleased with the practise, and can't wait to get started with the actual music video. 

We also started to produce an additional backdrop. For when the characters are outside. We got materials from art and started to paint our 'sky'. We also cut out some 'clouds' to stick onto the painted cardboard later on. 

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Star Image Task

McFly – Star Image

Star Construction in a Music Video:
One For The Radio:




The use of the scene from Back to The Future, linking to the bands name as McFly, helps to promote their image. Since many people will link the scene with the film, and therefore realise where the band name came from.






Lots of quick shots between the band members, mostly focusing on the main member, eg who is singing at the time or the drummer when it is mostly drums. There are a lot of close ups on the band members to show them singing. At the moment, we have avoided this type of shot


However I feel that our video could benefit from Direct Address and Lip Syncing, we have used the close up shots in out video of an performer lip syncing to add an star image to our video. We have kept the shot to an close up and at the most its an mid shot. We have had a one colour background, and if we kept the colour, it would be quite striking since it's blue and blue symbolises melancholia. 
 




These shots are contrasted with long shots to show the instruments being played. Which helps to construct the star image since the band are known for playing their own music.





The costumes also help to promote the bands image, the band are all dressed very casually, all in denim bottoms and normal shirts. This is made appealing to customers since they all look 'good' in the typical boy-band sense, and they are casual, which it could be suggested they look more approachable.


The background is very dull compared to the artists – Tom is in a bright green shirt and Dougie is in bright pink. The drum is also bright red, making the band stand put from the location.
 The bands album image is shown on the drum and the back screens, helping to promote their album, since people will recognise the symbol in the stores and hopefully buy it. An idea is to use the timer as the album cover, therefore, having close ups of the timer throughout is key.
 
The use of dark lighting helps to make the viewer focus on the main member on screen, i.e, in the screen shot below the background is made darker – looking almost black – to make the vocalist stand out.
 
The back lighting also produces an highlight for the vocalist (and guitarist) to make him stand out from the background. We have used to idea of a dark background with the actor/character in front of it. To make her stand out.





Star Construction on an Album Cover:

The Album cover here, features the aforementioned symbol, which is symbolic of the album. The band name is central in the album and due to the 'glowing' nature of the name it stands out, drawing an persons eye to the album.

The use of the black background and light pictures draws your eye to the 'boxes' which four of them include the band members all looking towards the band name. This helps the audience to associate them with the name, and therefore helps to promote their image.

The 3 colour scheme helps to promote the band as it isn't too distracting and bright and colourful. The use of the green on white and then contrasted on the black, sets the images and the writing out.
The photos in the corners are made to look drawn, which draws your eyes as the sketchy lines are not often seen on album covers. 
The glowing colours around the band's name 'McFly' help to connote the album title. The idea of glowing green is often associated with Radioactive material, and the title is 'Radio:ACTIVE'. 






Star Construction in a Website:



The 'supercity' website promotes their star image, as it advertises their own record label. Super Records, it also relates back to one of their latest albums. The site is interactive, and has a lot of different features to it, and depending on the subscription you have, you can access a different amount.

You can pay to go to a 'meet' and 'greet'  this makes the band seem more approchable and friendly therefore adding to their image, plus people can meet their idols and therefore relate to the band more.

The band upload personal content onto the site and it allows the fans to feel closer to the band. The amount of videos they upload also promote their star image since they can upload their music and pictures to the site.

They also direct you to their store, where you can buy their tour merchandise, this makes means that you know the stuff you are buying isn't fake and is appealing to customers who may or not have been on the tour as it makes them feel involved. 

The band are thinking about removing some of the fee paying sections of their site, so that fans can get more involved.  


The second site is the site which lists their tour dates and other important events. It is set up with the newest logo prominent at the top. The site also links you to the Supercity site, which is the site used most by McFly. The site is very dark, to make the white writing eye catching.

The second site has fewer links and is less interactive, but has a news feed which allows the fan to write down key dates for new tours etc. 

Friday, 28 September 2012

The Song.

http://www.mp3unsigned.com/The_Sleepless/49833/#She%27s+All+Angles

The song opening reminds me of a somewhat 60's like song. I feel that the song has found inspiration from the Beatles on MP3unsigned, peterquinn writes "Great melodies with plenty of Beatle influence, but this sounds very contemporary somehow" - much like the band McFly, who's members like 60's music, and their son Ultraviolet sounds as if it were influenced by the Beatles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQSfeVUcH9A&feature=related

The song Ultraviolet has the same sort of beat, and has an ethereal feel to the video.

Monday, 24 September 2012

Live Action.


Live Action...

We decided to introduce live action into our video as well as having the stop motion.

We brainstormed ideas and came up with: a performance shot of someone playing a guitar or other instrument

A young child playing with Barbies when they come to live, and play out their own story.

A girl and boy, in their daily routine, switching between stopmotion and live action. Maybe a Disney theme, though we weren't sure how we'd fit that it.

Props.


Props...

Most of our video will be filmed using stop motion and Barbie dolls, therefore the props were crucial.

Firstly we needed to have a variety of barbie dolls, to use in the video and then the clothes and accessories to dress them with. My group thought about buying in some barbie dolls, but I had a large box of them in the attic so we decided to wait and look at what I had in my loft.

Secondly we would need Barbie furniture, we decided that we would possibly need kitchen stuff, living room stuff, chairs and a table and a bed. Also we decided we would need a car, to make the stop motion easier. Since pushing the car along seemed relatively simple.

Since I had a barbie car from when I was young, and most furniture we decided we wouldn't need to buy anything.

Location and Treatment


Today, in Media. We started on our Music Video Treatment and then went to scope out a possible filming location, in the building. With a selection of 'Barbie' dolls and the 'Barbie' car, we plan to use, we decided that the room would indeed be possible to use, if only we can design a background sheet.
We tried out a few different ways to place the Barbies, and eventually decided that we would have to try again with the stop motion studio.

Storyboarding - Video Discussions





In our Media class, my group discussed the storyboards, and we decided to film it.

Saturday, 22 September 2012

Music Video Conventions

MUSIC VIDEO CONVENTIONS!


Camera Shots: Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. Long shots are often used for band performances, to show the band and the intsruments being played.

Camera Movement: The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene: This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en- scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example is, ‘Mad’ by Neyo. The mise-en scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood. This is just one example of the mise en scene used to give an idea of how mise-en-scene works. Usually the setting, mood of the song and costume will all reflect one another. For example with a sad song, it may be raining in the video and the singers may be dressed in dull colours.


Editing: Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts. 

Other main conventions consist of: 

Lighting: Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look.Usually consists of 'hard' or 'soft' lighting. Hard lighting is where there is an abundance of lighting, to make the scene look bright, usually will be all 3 of the '3 key lights'. In soft lighting one or more of the lights will be removed to create different effects.

Sound: Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.

Props: These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people. 


Costume: This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models 

Colour: Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark colours are used more in rock songs such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos. 

Music conventions in Indie/Rock:
• The colour of the video changes depending on the lyrics of the song and the tempo of the music it can be bright, dark and sometimes black and white.
• Tends to be black and white 
• The artist/band is shown throughout the video 
• Use of extreme close ups and long shots are popular  to show the main artist singing and other band mates performing as well as wide shots of the whole band.
• Dark costumes
• Usually a mixture of performance/narrative; sometimes the whole band performs and other times just the main vocalist sings. When Indie music videos do have a narrative they are often quite symbolic and do not literally follow the lyrics.
• Dark locations 
• Fast paced 
• Some use of special effects 

Examples: 
• Noel Gallagher
• Kings of Leon
• Blur

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Foo Fighters - Walk

Foo Fighters - Walk




'Walk' is a mix of performance and narrative, the beginning of the video uses a lot of quick cuts, and changes in audio, to reflect confusion and chaos, and the utter madness of the main character from the world he is confined to. The video focuses fully on one man's journey. Journeys are often shown in music video. He is shown to be walking down a road in time to the music. It is an example of rhythmic editing.

The many cameo performances of the band in roles that are detrimental to the main character makes the viewer feel sorry for the character, and want to watch on. The song itself is very catchy and the lyrics could appeal to many, who feel trapped in the job they do, and the daily routines they do.

The character is carrying a guitar case the whole way through the video, suggesting that he will go back to performing. His costume suggests that he has been locked into a office job that he didn't like, since his top button is undone, suggesting he is stressed.

The video is rather mad, with the character running a man over in a golf buddy then crashing it into the water. Towards the end of the video it has the character getting back to music, and 'learning to walk again' since he is back doing what he loved. The shots of the band, are very typical of the music video genre. The close up shots, are also typical of the performance side.