Filming Plan : The Weather

As you can see from the screen shot, the weather forecast for this weekend is sunny, this helps us out with filming as we do not have to contend with the weather. Also, the weather looks fine throughout the rest of the week, meaning we could film throughout the week if needed.

The Lyrics : Emailing the Band

In order to get the most accurate lip syncing I asked one of the band members to send me the lyrics to the song , I got the lyrics from another member of the band as a result:

Unfortunately, The member of the band we had been contacting has since left the band, leaving us to find the lyrics ourselves.

Video Planning : Our group's jobs

In our group we designated certain jobs for each member to to whilst we are creating the film. For example my job will be to control the camera work whilst we are filming. Emma, another member of our group has the task of finding the people to play the members of the band. And Ahmed, the third member of the group, will be tasked with constructing the sets for our different shots in the video.

Despite having individual main jobs, we will try to alternate them between us so that we all get to learn a new skill from each different practice. This will give us a better overall understanding of the processes that go into creating a music video. This alternating stance to tasks will continue into the post production phase of the video.

Video Planning : Final Idea

For our final idea that we are going to try to obtain as many distinctive settings as possible and link them together in editing. In order to do so we are going to go to a number of locations, and shoot individual parts of the video at those locations.
Locations needed:
Various Park settings
Various garages
Shops
Playparks
Pathways
Other distinctive settings.

We need to have the 'band' members who aren't singing in motion whilst they are on screen, otherwise they are pointless to the viewer. Other than this, they can distract from possible problems with the film, as the viewers concentrate on the band members.

We are going to need enough takes to be able to edit them together for quick edits.

Possible filming ideas

To make our film stand out more we could use certain post production techniques to increase the colours of our video and make them stand out more. The advantage of this comes from a visual aspect as the video would look more distinct and would stand out more.
However it is possible to over edit the video and ruin it. This is possible by over stressing the colours and shading, or by continually switching effects. The best way to edit the video is to make subtle changes, not drastic ones.

Survey Monkey - Results

Here's a screen shot of my SurveyMonkey Questionnaire,below it shows two results for each question :

As you can see from the couple of results we received the participants answers are varied and show a variety of interests. However the fact that they both watch videos on youtube is not a coincidence. Generally most young people today watch music videos on the internet as it is free and widely available on a multitude of outlets, including mobile phones.

'Fire + Bones' Audio Clip

Here is the audio clip for our music video we are making:

Survey Monkey : Music video surveys

Here is a link to my survey about music videos on Survey Monkey:

Click here to take survey

Here is a screenshot of the survey:

Student digipak analysis

This is an example of a student made digipak for a Student screen academy event. As you can tell from the title of the event, the film is based on Screen activities. This digipak is a very good example of a product that meets the theme that is set. Using the image of a Clapper, which is used to distinguish between takes whilst filming.
The digipak has a well made, clear, straight forward design that fits it's purpose, in this case a Screen event.
The one area in which the digipak is lacking comes from it's simplicity. Generally digipaks for cd's and albums nowadays are more elaborate and colourful. Despite it fitting a purpose it lacks a distinctive image or design to be suitable for a music digipak, therefore we wouldn't be able to produce something similar.

Storyboard Animatic number 1

Here is our first storyboard animatic for our music video:

Ideas Prezi

Using Prezi.com I created a short presentation on how we came about our idea and a video we used for inspiration for the video:

Ideas Spider diagram on Prezi

Possible settings

For our video idea we are going to rely on having different settings to switch the band into and possibly having them switch their outfits. This is vital in creating our video as viewers will lose interest in our video if it begins to be repetitive.
We narrowed it down in our search to use a couple of base locations for our film. Our main search criteria was to look for places that have a gritty look to them, with a bit of colour. but mainly that they have distinctive characteristics about them. Here is an example of one of the set pieces we will most likely use:

As you can see this image of a local park fits our description for what we are looking for. And parts of it will most likely be used in our filming process. Along with the distinctive colours of the tress at this time of year, it has a slightly darker look that is brought about by the colours themselves.
This will be one of our settings in the music video due to this.

How our idea fits with the genre

Considering the band we are using (The Midnight Heavy) come under the Rock/Indie genre of music. We decided to try and create a video that has unique shots in it, but borrows from other famous videos in the genre. We saw a video by Bombay bicycle club in which the band moved between various colourful backgrounds that appeared gritty on camera, such as a colourful garage. The idea of moving between different settings sounded appealing to us as we could make it look like the lead singer lip syncing was singing the song all at once in these different positions. However where our video is different is we have decided not to go with a story based video, something that is common in the rock genre.

Resources for our music video

For our video we will need:
4 band members ( At least one male)
Camera
Tri-pod
Several locations, varying from parks to places of distinct colours perhaps, Example garages and parks.
several types of clothing for those playing the members of the band.

An example of a band that dress in stereotypically indie clothing:

As you can see it's a very casual style that is represented here by this generic band.
Nothing too extravagant is shown in their clothing, which will make it easier for us to obtain.

More Developed idea

Since my last post our group has come up with a few base ideas that we are going to structure our video around. These will be stressed throughout the video and will attempt to keep up with the tempo of the song. The ideas will be visualised slightly onto a storyboard in a later post.
1. We're going to have shots during the main chorus where the band is set infront of alternating locations. Whilst the actor playing the lead singer is miming the sing, an idea maybe to have the other members of the band in motion. Creating something that takes focus away from the lead singer lip-syncing.
2. Linked to the first idea. Having the different members of the band wearing different costumes as we cut to the different settings, creating more variety in the video.
3. Another possible idea may be to have similar shots of the lead singing but from different angles. That way we can cut between the the different angles during the video.

We're most likely not to have a story that our video is based around. However the idea of having the many settings and costumes is most probably going to be our base idea. This creates variety in our video. But also, means we can be more creative. As we don't have to stick to one strict idea we can variate things as we are filming to create better shots from our ideas.
A key part of our filming process will be creating enough variety and change to keep the viewer interested despite there being no actual story, a challenge we are going to tackle with some hopefully unique shots and edits.

Information about copyright

Copyright gives the creator of an original concept of product exclusive rights to it's production and sale. It gives the owner the 'rights to copy' and the right to be credited for their work. Along with this , it gives the owner the right to decide if anyone can use or distribute their work.
This is important when creating our student music videos. As is we break these rules, we can be prosecuted legally. That is why we ask permission from artists before we use their songs. As if we didn't we would be liable for prosecution.

Broadening Audiences and increasing sales through and for a music video

A music video increases sales in itself it it is unique or of good quality. The same could be said for a magazine advert. Both are ways in which to appeal to new audiences and those that are already possible fans of your products. Here is a slide rocket giving two ideas of a music video that increases the value of the song and a magazine advert advertising an album.

Initial ideas #1

Just over a week ago , our group discussed some possible ideas for our music video, during this discussion , one member of our group suggested an idea to work into the music video. He said that we could have the actors playing the band moving between different backgrounds wearing different clothes as they go. This ideas inspiration comes from a video by The Midnight Beast. The challenging part of this idea is working it into the video but at the same time making it fit with the genre of our song , which is rock. But the positive to this idea is the opposite to that , maybe by using a completely unrelated idea to our genre we can create a more unique and successful video.

Audience research : Wordle

Using Wordle I was able to get a small consumer feedback on what they would expect in a music video. Here are the results:

As you can see, the two largest words on the wordle are 'Location' and the 'Song'. Showing us that out of the people we asked this is what they most expected to see in a music video.

Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine adverts are another way to attract an audience outside of your original fans. They generally are quite stylised in order to stand out inside a magazine. Here is an example of a magazine album advert for Plan B's Defamation of Strickland Banks album.

As we can see from this advert. It uses bold fonts, bright colours and shades on a black and white picture that really stands out. This is important as it catches the eye of whoever is reading the magazine and forces them to pay attention to what has been written.

Vox Pops

A Vox pop allows people to give an opinion on different questions in a short edited video. To produce a vox Pop you ask different members of the public questions, film their answers, and the edit them together to create a video of their answers.



Vox pops are a good way to gain people's opinions on subjects of your choice, in this case we are asking questions about music videos.

Music Video success criteria

For a Music video to be successful it needs to hit certain goals. Initially and arguably most importantly, the song needs to be of good quality and unique to listeners. Whilst also hitting certain conventions of that particular genre , for example guitars in a rock song .
Secondly, the video has to have a creative look to it that makes it stand out compared to other music videos , like an interesting theme or idea. And finally in my opinion, the video needs to be able to withstand the test of time, some of the greatest music videos of all time are successful in part because of their longevity, for example Michael Jackson's Thriller , Which was number 1 on channel 4's top 100 music videos list.

Artist research - Attracting an audience

A key to selling songs an albums is selling to your original fans whilst creating a product that branches out to other groups of fans. So it is important that you mix different styles to create something's unique and different to genre conventions. For example, a rapper working with a rock band to create a song.
In 2007 Rapper Kanye West worked with singer Chris Martin to create the song "Homecoming" , it mixed West's rapping with Coldplay's style of music.
The album cover in which the song appeared , named "Graduation". Used a colourful background with a Cartoon Bear in West's clothing on the front , a far cry from stereotypical rap album covers. The album enjoyed critical success and went on to be a platinum album.