Performers/Bands

Having decided that we wanted multiple bands, we first had to find some willing to contribute to our music video. First we made "Bands Wanted" posters and put them around school and in particular the music department, making sure music teachers had them to pass on to any year 10 - 13 bands they knew. We also contacted the head of music through school email and asked if she would recommend any to us. This way, we were able to gain information of a year 10 band called "Terminal Moraine", so we gained their drummer's class information from reception, stalked him down, and asked politely (beated him to submission) if he and his band members were interested. With one band as a 'definite' (Terminal Moraine) we then needed more band members to join Jemma's "fake band" that would be comprised of other people who did not necessarily have to be in a band (or musician - although preferable). Jemma typed up a contract that those interested had to sign, to ensure we could be relaint on them to turn up to any scheduled shoots. To conclude, performers for our "Just A Day" music video are...

• Terminal Moraine drummer - Ben Price


• Terminal Moraine guitarist and singer - Dylan Manners Lolley


• Terminal Moraine bass player - Alex Bennet


• Simon French


• Luke Goodliffe

Location Test Shots

This was briefly mentioned in the Just A Day ideas post, but I'll clarify here what we need to do exactly.

Due to the fact that there will be multiple performers and a two characters for the narrative story line, it makes sense that multiple locations are also necessary. This conforms to music video conventions where the performer(s) are seen in alternating sets or back drops for interesting visuals. There are several locations that I thought would look amazing with the styling of the performers and would suit the rock genre is Bristol, however as a group that lacks money and transportation it will have to be filmed in Portishead. Below is a list of possible locations to film at...

• The Quarry
• Back of Open Air Swimming Pool
• The Vale's park area
• St. Peter's church graveyard
• Jam's living room (for Guitar hero shots)
• Jack's house (for narrative)
  

Location: Battery point, behind open air pool. Angled shot of wall length.

Long shot/establishing shot of graffiti wall

Close up of graffiti wall. Here, the light is coming from the right corner of the image, making it possible to film here on afternoons as the over casted shadows will bend left. If we position the tripod correctly, the shadows should not affect the shot too much. And shadows casted on the actual wall may be a good effect.

Close up of wall. There are many interesting backgrounds that could be used for alternative back drops (therefore giving a variety of shots and locations). This background has the "quirky-ness" we wanted, but may be too colourful or "cartoony" for a rock music video.
Close up. This background, however, looks less childish. Although it seems to be more suitable for a "RnB" music video due to its "street-graffiti" design. Although, with some editing of saturation (could even make it black and white) it has the possibility to look professional.
In my opinion, this background is perfect because its a drawing as opposed to graffiti. The ancient diving suited diver with arms reaching out for something looks mysterious and with editing could look interesting.

Location: Port marine park. These sculptures of faceless women could be an interesting background for our performers as it gives off an ominous, Celtic cult-like feel. If filmed at night (there are lamps around this area and we could bring the redheads from last year) it could bring a "stereotypical horror movie" aesthetic to our rock music video.

Low angle shot. Here, I'm testing (and imagining) the shot if our performers were here. Low angle shots are a convention of rock music videos as it makes the performers look more powerful and also shows the guitars (etc) in more detail.

Another low angle shot. This shot represents what the back ground would look like if the performer was to lean towards the camera.

Email to "Just A Day" Copyright Holders

Below is a copy of the email that was sent to enquiries@chrysalis.com
To avoid breach of copyright laws, it was important to gain permission or atleast alert The Echo Label (Feeder's label in 2001), a branch company of The Chrysalis Group. Although they no longer support Feeder, they are the producers of the single "Just A Day".

_____________________________________________________


Dear Copyright holder and Echo of the Chrysalis group.

I am an A level media student writing to, and also on behalf of my media group to request your permission to use Feeder’s 2001 single, “Just A Day”.

With your permission, this track will be used in our A2 practical coursework which involves the scripting and creating of a music video. Feeder, producer Grant Nicholas and your company will be fully credited and recognise through out the production of our coursework and the final video itself. We will also be making a digipak with the music video, where you will also be credited on the back respectively.

The track and video will only be used in an educational area and viewed only through our media blogs, by other members of my media group, teachers, and the OCR exam board moderators. I can assure you that it will not be posted on any third party, public video sites or viewed by public audiences.

If we gain the permission for the use of this track, we can also include a copyrighted statement written by you for assurance if necessary.

With regards,
Sonia Wan

Project Proposal

Title of Project: FEEDER – ‘Just a Day’

Names of Students Involved and Roles Allocated:
Jack Blinman – Director, Cameraman, NARRATIVE MALE.
Jemma Rowlston – Director, Cameraman, SINGER.
Sonia Wan – Director, Props & Costume, Cameraman, NARRATIVE FEMALE.

(Editorial tasks are also shared out)

Estimated Time Allocated to Production: 3 weeks

Dates of Production:
Friday 1st October – Opening shots
Monday 4th Oct– Narrative Shots
Thurs 7th Oct – Green Screen
Friday 8th Oct – Quarry scene with performers
Thurs 28th Oct (half term) – Pick up shots

Estimated Time Allocated to Post Production: 3 weeks

Dates of Post Production: Monday 11th october onwards

Brief Synopsis of Project:
A music video for the song ‘Just a Day’ by the British band Feeder.
The video will be a combination of performance and narrative footage that will reflect the lyrics of the song.

Perfomance: The video will pay tribute to the original official video for the song by having multiple bands performing the song. However, unlike the original, these bands will be filmed as if they are the primary band (using proper framing, steady-cam shots, individual performances and a range of interesting locations). This will be integrated with the Narrative.

Narrative: Following the storyline within the lyrics of the song, our video will feature a platonic teenage friendship between MALE and FEMALE where MALE has fallen into a dink and drug addiction that is tearing the friends apart. The narrative will thus link to the lyrics as if the words are the internal thoughts and feelings of MALE.

Equipment Required and Dates required.

01/10/10, 04/10/10, 07/10/10, 08/10/10, 28/10/10
Camera
Tripod
Lighting
Microphone (for camera)

07/10/10
Green Screen
Editing MAC

Locations:
Jacks’ Living room
Jemma’s living room
Jemma’s hall
Outside Jemma’s front door
Street outside Jack’s house
Blackrock quarry
Battery point (behind the open air swimming pool)
Small Hall

Costume and Props:

Costume will be provided by the bands themselves in order for them to promote themselves and their band image. The general consensus will be jeans, t-shirts, possibly leather coats as these fit the genre of Feeder’s work and would thus contribute to the feel that each band is the primary band.
PROPS:
Guitars (provided by the bands)
Microphone
Drum kit
Guitar Hero™ 4 World Tour kit and game (and consequently an xbox™)
Assorted bottles and junk food rappers
Assorted ornaments

Casting (including extras)

BEN’S BAND – Ben Price, Alex Bennett, Dylan ?
FAKE QUARRY BAND – Jemma Rowlston, Luke Goodliffe, Simon French
GUITAR HERO™ BAND – Sarah Owen, Jemma Rowlston
FEEDER “STIG” – Jack Blinman
CLIMBER – Jack Blinman
MALE – Jack Blinman
FEMALE – Sonia Wan

Further comments:
Storyboarding shall be rough around the bands as the exact moments and people used shall depend on performance, however the storyboard shall be a main point of reference.
Extra Credit also goes to Adam Blinman for overseeing and partaking in the climbing scenes off camera.

Bands Wanted Posters

To create awareness of our project and hopefully find enthusiastic band volunteers, Jemma created a quick "Bands Wanted" Poster. We took pictures of Jack and Jam doing the "Our Country Needs You!" post and edited them for our poster, however the image is not included in this post, the frame of it is below.

BANDS WANTED

Are you in a band?

Can you play an instrument?

Want free publicity?

Want to rock out?

We need bands and musicians to feature in our music video; 'Just a Day' by Feeder

Anyone welcome to come along and join in with the super fun times that we shall have :)

Prior meeting IS necessary!

Call Jemma, Jack or Sonia by pigeon, mouth, snail mail or other means of communication you deem suitable:

HYPERLINK "mailto:jemrowlston@hotmail.co.uk"jemrowlston@hotmail.co.uk

Scheduling

Media's group's personal schedule for after school filming(Click to enlarge image)

Free lessons and Media lesson avalialable film times
Week 1

• Mon - p1 and 2
• Weds - p1 and 2 (No Sonia)
• Thurs p3 and 4
  

Week 2

• Mon - p3 and 4
• Thurs p3 and 4

Project Gantt Chart Schedule (Click enlarge image)

Styling

These will change slightly once band members are decided and after finding what there is in terms of clothing that we can work with (Click to enlarge images)








































































Slanted text in the middle says: Less stylised - these dudes represents our demographic - must be relate-able and not glamorised!

Project Storyboard

View more presentations from soni758.

Just A Day: The Pause

NOTE TO SELF: Do not look at the original music video for "Just A Day"(for now). It is easy to be swayed by the original's ideas and unconsciously copy them!

Below is a video of the song we will use (which will DEFINATELY be Just A Day!)



At exactly 1:16 of the song, there is a pause. We thought it would be really creative to expand this pause and have a 10 second clip of something funny, (to match the lighter pop-rock genre and the up-beat melody that makes this song different from conventional rock songs). This 'something funny' thing could be...

• Part of the narrative - protagonists could have an arguement and this will be heard by the audience as the song has stopped - could script the dialogue to be funny and have intertextual references?
• Part of the performance - band members could have a random conversation? Script? Random fight?
• "Breaking the fourth wall" - both performers and actors from the narrative could talk TO the audience?

As mentioned in another post, this idea's main inspiration was from Ok Go's music video for "Get Over It". (Below)

At 1:57 there is a completely random ping pong game!!! This is humurous. Very humourous because the song is at its climax and the performers are rocking out, and then they surprise the audience and break music video conventions with this. I also feel, this kind of 'randomness' represents our style as a group and suits the quirky directional aesthetic I mentioned in earlier posts.

Just A Day: Video ideas

Due to the fact that we changed our project's song, we had to draft some narrative and performance ideas again. Each of us printed a copy of the lyrics, and annotated around it with our narrative ideas, clearly displaying where each clip could be placed in the song.
(Click to enlarge image, and click again to zoom in)

Ideas Discussion 2: Feeder

Today were were meant to have completed a storyboard and begin a Project Proposal. However, it seemed we struggled with completing a story board for Eagle Eye Cherry enthusiastically and it was clear that although we liked the ideas behind the song, we felt it did not represent us as a group sufficiently. Therefore we quickly listened to our short list of songs and made clear to each other out ideas (something we did not do very well at the last group ideas discussion).

We came to the conclusion that Feeder's Just A Day was the perfect song to do. It has a upbeat tune, with an under tone of adult themes that could be closely linked to the social issues that happen to our age group. As we are the audience for this genre of pop/punk song, it would be easier to create the music video. It was also decided that although we wanted the video to conform to mainstream video conventions*, we still wanted to stay loyal with conventions of the rock genre**. So, we made note to include steady-cam shots rather than using a tripod for all of them, and also have tight close-ups and tilts of guitar solos and the drummer.

Below is an image of the notes I made during the discussion. (Click image to enlarge)
(Referring to image: I especially liked Jam's idea of elongating the pause in the song and filling it with a clip of something random, similar to what Ok Go do with the music video of "Get Over It")

*As result, our music video would conform to the Mass Audience model of audience theory types. This way, it would reach a larger demographic and gain a wider audience.

** This relates to the media theorist Steve Neal's idea that "Genre is repetition with an underlying pattern of variations". We want our music video to be recognised by viewers and an aesthetically professional music video through its conventions, but at the same time we want to our creative/individual ideas to differentiate the music video from others.

Ideas Discussion 1: Eagle Eye Cherry

This past week our group has been behind in deciding a song. We're lacking in ideas and the only one we seem to have a narrative for is Eagle Eye Cherry's '"Are You Still Having Fun?". So, it has been chosen as our choice of song today.



Lyrics | Eagle Eye Cherry lyrics - Are You Still Having Fun? lyrics



From the lyrics, we came up with three narrative plots lines that would be integrated with the performance. This included a couple's decaying relationship, a wealthy "daddy's girl" who struggles with her drug addiction, and as mentioned before in my stop animation research, a young boy imagining himself as a monster whilst playing. These three ideas will be edited alongside their related lyrics, which are "With all the drugs you take you can hardly stand" and "This was your mistake and your master plan". This way, our music video conforms to the conventional music video that shows narrative and performance.

To avoid scheduling and reliability problems with band members, we decided that it would be efficient to have one male performer with an acoustic guitar (most likely performed by Jack). The setting could be early evening, and the performer will stroll down a street playing towards the camera. For multiple camera movements and smooth editing proposes, the frame would pan to the left or right, and zoom towards a window where one of the three narrative plot lines would be shown. By the end of the performance, it would be night time and the singer will move past the camera and enter his own house, the door closing in the camera's frame.

It would be difficult to edit the narrative scenes in without having to jump-cut after the camera zooms to the houses' windows, however we could resort to green screen for this matter. Or, (as we cannot use houses that belong to randomers) we could use our houses (three, conveniently) and use a "fast forward" effect when filming the performer walking past our houses so it uses less film time. This way, there are many opportunities to use interesting effects whilst editing and in result giving the video very stylised visuals.

Music Video Class Notes

The Construction of Music Videos
(Click to enlarge image)



Notes:

• Do not JUST follow the lyrics - interpret them and construct a narrative around your own, creative interpretation.
• Opening shots is often longer to establish the mise-en-scene, characters, and mood.
• Could include intertextual references that only your target audience would understand, therefore adding niche audience appeal.
• When editing - change pacing and cut lengths according to the moments in the song.
• Be symbolic.

Analysis of Stop Animation Research

I was really enthusiastic about the stop animation idea. When Jam, Jack and I were discussing, Jemma came up with a narrative idea for Eagle Eye Cherry's "Are You Still Havin' Fun?" with many short stories of different people's lives. One of these included a young child who represented the innocence mentioned in the song's lyrics, stacking books and toys in his room to create a city scape. We thought we could do 'post production stop animation' where we would take screen shots of the clip, and using Adobe Photo shop CSI, draw a thought bubble with the child imagineing himself as a dinosaur, destroying the city scape he was creating. The animation (drawing of the thought bubble) itself would be done in a scratchy style to mimic a child's doodle, and therefore symbolic to the thoughts of the boy.

However, after some consideration I thought about the time limit and realistically, this would be difficult. Although we had the equipment to create an amateur's stop animation video, we would have to start with 15 frames per second. This inevitably, would mean the animation would be slow and the movements would not flow well together. I did think this would be an interesting effect that could also represent the child's undeveloped thoughts, but as a creator of media I really wanted the stop animation (if we would do it) to look as professional as possible. In industry, animators that use stop animation (Wallace and Grommit, Fantastic Mr.Fox) work with 50 frame per second and sometime more.

Therefore, I came with the conclusion that the stop animation idea should not be used. Although it would be intriguing to try and possibly give us more credits in terms of using different technologies, it is not realistic in the time schedules we have currently.

Research: Stop Motion/Animation

During one of our group discussions today, I thought it would be a great idea to include some kind of animation element to our music video. It could be a form of presenting symbolism (such as animating the 'alter-ego' of the protagonist of our narrative) or just be used as a way to make our music video individual in its aesthetics. As we don't have access to animation soft wares suitable for the industry, the best way to create animation for beginners like us could be Stop animation. It would be effective with narrative and performance so that there is a range of camera and editing techniques, as well as providing a more interesting visual for audiences.

Below is some quick research of how to do your own stop animation videos. Because pictures of each minuscule movement of the subject must be taken, it is likely that even if we do stop animation, we would only be able to have a total of 20 seconds footage at the most. However, in terms of film time 20 seconds is quite a lot, and therefore this limit seems a suitable aim to go for.

Inspirational stop animation videos...

DEADLINE


THE MAKING OF DEADLINE

Directed by Bang-yao Liu
Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
Sound design by Ian Vargo, Shaun Burdick
Actor: Chun-yao Huang

(They used adobe illustrator to make the designs on the computer and adobe flash to animate them. They then projected it on the projector so they had a floor mat to follow of where to put the post its. When the post its were done, they would cover the projector.)



Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance


Minilogue/hitchhikers choice - short version - by Youtuber Kristoferstrom

STOP ANIMATION FOR MORONS!

By Youtuber- Saxma

http://www.mamshmam.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5#5
Step-by-Step guide on forumn - by Youtuber Mashman

Research: Inspirational Music Videos

OK GO - End Love

• Could take inspiration from the way they use the stop animation - Gives the idea that the performers and "sliding" over the pavement through the town - could do this backwards so it looks like the world is passing by them
• The eccentrics of the poses could be used - interesting, makes audience wonder what moves they're going to come up with next
• Simplicity - less symbolism and narrative, just entertainment

Regina Spektor - Samson

• Opening shot - sets the scene with stop animation paper cut outs.
• There is symbolism in the birds - could represent freedom and purity
• Mix of animation and performance
• To go with the bittersweet, melancholic tune of the song, it is filmed in low saturation. Despite being in an almost black and white, the performer stands out due to the glitter and embellishment on her top. She can "pull-off" the simple shots where she is just playing on the piano due to her powerful voice, change of expressions, and eye contact with the camera - draws in the audience.
• Folding out, picture book of stop animation doesn't follow the exact lyrics but shows symbolism - open to interpretation and therefore interesting and unique
• 2:32 - the origami folding out into a set of lines that looks like piano strings, then a jump cut to the actual piano strings is clever - shows continuity and gives flow
  

Paolo Nutini - Coming Up Easy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQ2Rxh1k9Y&ob=av2e

(Video embedding code was disabled by the owner)

• Love the quirky-ness of this video, also sells the performer's style/personality
• Unexpected rabbit-suit - meant to represent singer's best friend that got involved in alcohol
• Has a care-free attitude but the lyrics have a deeper, personal meaning
• It leaves an IMPRESSION
• Opening shot is narrative - performer is also the character - shows how the song relates to him personally
• Foreshadowing in the narrative; before his "best friend" the rabbit is shown, statues of rabbits outside his house and photo frames of them inside the house is shown in panning shots
• Performer - never looks at the camera in the eye - camera is hand held, giving a very natural feel
• Performer sings in all the narrative location shots, in no particular order

Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love the way you lie

• First shot is longer (6 seconds approx)- extreme CU of Rihanna singing - she looks at the camera with powerful eyes that catches your attention immediately. Flames in the background compliment her red hair and style; also acts as symbolism as it matches the lyrics of "burning" and masochism.
• Narrative shots use jump cuts, and are shorter. The first narrative shot may be the "equilibrium" in Todorov's narrative theory. It also sets the scene from a bird's eye view angle. Low saturation gives a more melancholic atmosphere; suiting the song.
• Megan Fox, opening her eyes and then the rapping begins - this is deliberate, gives continuity as it seems like the rapping after she opens her eyes is her thoughts, her character's story. Also shows the beginning of the the problems in the relationship shown the the narrative - Todorov's "agents of disruption" - handheld cam is used here, shows distortion.
• Eminem - low angle, puts attention on him and makes him look more powerful. Shot behind the grass gives an artistic view. Later on, 1:30 tilting down shot of Eminem in the middle of the field - symbolises being lost; he's pacing.
• Although performers are in one location, it is made interesting to watch by the multiple camera angles and shots.
• "Where you goin'" "I'm leaving you" and "No you 'aint" is mouthed by the narrative actors/characters - shows a link in the lyrics and narrative, giving continuity.
• Often, instrumental interludes only show the narrative shots, no performance.

Bowling for Soup - High School Never Ends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IRs7e58dsY&ob=av2n

(Video embedding code was disabled by the owner)

• Love the way it is a mini-movie in itself
• Clear narrative and balances with performance
• RELATABLE - draws in audiences of all kinds - universal
• Mostly mid-CUs and Long shots
• Unlike other videos, it matches the lyrics almost perfectly - but it works with this song because of its fun, energetic vibe.
• In a way, this video is VERY 'American Highschool' type of cliche, but at the same time is satirical and mocks its own cliche-ness. Humourous.
• Love the pranking element in this - makes adults feel like children again - entertaining

SamboMaster - 世界はそれを愛と呼ぶんだぜ/Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobundaze/That's What the World calls Love

• QUIRKY-NESS!! The idea that the performers are there physically everytime someone listens to their song shows a stronger connection between them and their fans - also, its entertaining to watch and is humourous in the way they go about it.
• Mostly performance
• A range of camera angles and shots

Initial Ideas

At our first group discussion, it was decided that we would use the conventional music video style where there is a narrative along side performance. We also wanted to have a certain edge to our music video, in the form of a controvertial theme such as drug of alchohol abuse (its overused in a conventional kind of way anyway!) We wanted to use music along the rock or pop-punk genre, and these themes are often prevalent throughout many music videos in these genres.


It was also made clear, that we should decide on a certain directional type or video aesthetic, as we did with Poker's advocate (in which we used a lower filter and saturation). However, whatever style this would be, at this point of time is not clear to us yet. (Although we know for definite that it should look cool and stylised)

Several songs were put forward. This included Eagle Eye Cherry 'Are You Still Havin' Fun' and two songs from Feeder - 'Just a Day' and 'Seven Days in the Sun'. Right now we're still indecisive because its difficult to find a song that suits everyone (this is important, especially considering we will be working on this project for a while and therefore we need to be enthusiastic about it). Moreover, all three of us have very different music tastes. Although at the discussion, I made it clear that I would be willing to use a song that isn't my taste/first choice if I could be in charge of styling and almost acting as a creative director (in a way this is important, as a group its best to give 'lee-way' for others ideas, otherwise the group discussions would have no development).
So as a quick conclusion to this discussion, it has been decided that we would all consider those three songs and listen to them (I have never heard of these songs before…) as well as do individual research on various music videos and have a re-cap of ideas next lesson.

Intro: Task Analysis

For my A2 coursework practical production, I plan to do a Music Video, with a digipak and magazine poster (for the subsidiary task) with Jemma Rowlston and Jack Blinman.They are reliable team mates who excell in different skills and areas of media that I get along with, in which we have worked well with previously in our AS practical production, Poker's Advocate.

Task Analysis
I Will begin the project by...

1. Researching inspirational music videos
2. Finding video-directors that I particularly like
3. Finding artists that I particularly like
4. Study the length of shots and alterations of narrative/shots when the beats to the music changes
5. Discussing with team mates and decide on a song that we all agree upon
6. Begin storyboard, propject proposal pan, schedules, location planning/booking, casting, etc...

And.. all along recording it onto this blog, and referring to media theorists when applicable.

Brief

For this year's media coursework we will need to produce one of the following:

• A Music Video
• A Local newspaper/magazine

Equipped with a subsidiary task which could comprise of:

• A digipak (including sleeve, and inside information) and magazine poster advertising your music video/digipak.
• A radio advert and local flyer advertising the radio programme.

The conception and progression of both these elements should be presented in a media blog (this!) which gives details on research, planning and evaluation. I plan to work in a group of three (including myself). In which, the evidence can be presented collectively in a single blog, however, we would be assessed on our individual contributions and evaluations.