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Showing posts with label Research and Planning for Music Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research and Planning for Music Video. Show all posts

Friday, 29 January 2010

Lyrics and Plans of What to Do with Them

We had some difficulty deciphering the lyrics, so Becki messaged the band, 'Happiness', via myspace and here are the lyrics!

Happiness- 'Look At That Rabbit Go!'


I see you on the side
Of my otherwise wasted time
I cant speakI cant breathe
when you're around

When the longest hour has passed
And we'll be out of ways at last
With the final rest at hand
We will know by then

Occupy my empty house
Bye byeGet on with life
Occupy my empty house
Bye bye
Get on with life

Can you afford to never let go at all
And everything points towards
You having no points at all
And every pause reflects your uncomfortable
You hide it of course

Now look at that rabbit go!

Occupy my empty house
Bye byeGet on with life
Occupy my empty house
Bye bye
Get on with life
Occupy my empty house
Bye byeGet on with life
Occupy my empty house
bye bye
Get on with life


PLANS:-
To add to our editing techniques and to make sure our music video is entertaining, we plan to add clips of the protagonist lip synching. I will be the one doing this, as I am the protagonist. I have discussed what my group imagine the clips to look like; and we have decided that the guideline are to shoot:-
*handheld *close up shots *medium shots *long shots *the same costume as in the music video's party scenes for continuity *try singing with passion *try to look as if you're having fun, at the party, sitting on the floor in the corner, singing to yourself drunkenly *with and without props, to see which version is the most effective. *props, if used should include party-related objects, such as alcoholic beverage bottles.

Friday, 4 December 2009

I made 4 variations of bunny mask

I've made variations of the bunny, and the fox, masks. The reason being, so that the video will be more visually interesting; and so that it will make the people coming to the party more excited (and encourage them to come all the way to Epping, from Enfield). But, the main reason, is so that the main Fox and main Bunny can have a 'Better Mask'; so that they can appear more important in the frame. We plan to decorate the main masks in an interesting and eye-catching way; maybe with the use of Swarovski crystals.

I have collected card, so that the masks will be durable. The pieces of card for the Fox maks are orange and red. The pieces of card for the Bunny masks are white and grey.









NOTE: As you can see, the masks lack "Bunny-noses". We plan to draw them onto the guests' noses as they arrive, perhaps with black eyeliner. We could also add "Bunny-whiskers" to their cheeks.


Thursday, 3 December 2009

I made 3 variation of the FOX mask, based on an image from Flickr








Costume for Girl

I picked out clothes from my wardrobe and have photographed them (see below).

I did this in preparation for the party scene. I wanted to photograph every possibility, so that I could send the images to The Team before tomorrow. I needed their opinion on which costume to wear, and which representation each garment would give me.

I have chosen clothing items that individually fit under the genres of "indie"; "indie/vintage"; "indie/girly"; "indie/sexy"; "indie/provocative".

I need their opinion, as tomorrow I will be travelling to the location, to set up. I will stay there overnight and prepare for the party.

We will all be on location on Saturday, all day, before the party begins, and throughout the night. As a team, we plan to experiment with the best angles and lighting beforehand, as preparation. We also plan to make finishing touches to the masks.





Friday, 27 November 2009

props and costume research

PROPS TO BUY/ORDER/FIND

*Props

Table
Yellow Pages
Beer glasses

silly string
lipstick - red
bottles
glow in the dark stuff
punch bowl
card game
feather boa
beer goggles
party poppers
spin the bottle


COSTUMES TO ORDER/FIND/MAKE








Diamantes will be used to decorate the "Pretty Bunny"'s mask.
I found these on Amazon.com
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diamante-Rhinestones-Colour-pieces-diameter/dp/B000M0
AV0C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1259321230&sr=8-1-fkmr1)



(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhinestone-Embellishments-Medium-Hearts-11mm/dp/B002
M3CFE2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1259322118&sr=1-6)

Storyboard: completed









Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Alternative ideas to fall back on if all goes wrong!

We seem to be having trouble finding a location as, understandably, most people would not accept the idea of a wild house party being held in their home. We have tried and failed when asking parents and friends if we could use their homes. Due to this fact, I felt that we must make sure we have a back-up plan, if our 'ideal ' is not executable.


I have thus played around with ideas that relate to the song-title: "Look at that rabbit go!".
The title, to me, offers imagery of a rabbit going at speed. This reminded me of the story of 'The Hare and the Tortoise'. (And in case you don't know:) In this children's tale, the Hare ridicules the slow moving Tortoise; who then challenges the Hare to a race. The Hare does not pace himself, thus needing a nap in the middle of the race. He wakes to find that he has been beaten by the Tortoise. To link this story to modern ideaologies of our teenage audience, the attitude of the Hare can be seen as a representation of Youth. This is because teenagers usually go by the motto: LIVE FAST. DIE YOUNG.

Therefore, as an alternative plan to fall back on, I think we could movie a person (dressed as a bunny), speeding through life.
Either: RUNNING. SKATING. (OTHER).

See below, an expression of my ideas in colloquial terms, as addressed to my team in an email.



____RESEARCH OF BUNNY-SUITS___








_____MY IMAGE-RESEARCH OF PEOPLE AND ANIMALS ROLLERSKATING_____











_____________...AND OF "RABBITS" RUNNING____________


http://www.universalhub.com/images/2009/marathon-bunny.jpg
http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-6/bay-to-breakers-race-bunny-suit.jpg
http://www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds-6/bunny-rabbit-and-bud-light

Sunday, 15 November 2009

The Maccabees - Band of Same Genre - Research


The Maccabees



The Maccabees are an English indie band, based in Brighton and originally from south London. They have released two albums so far, Colour It In, with a follow-up, Wall of Arms, released on 4th May 2009.


Name

The band came up with the name by flicking through the Bible and picking out a random word.[1]. Despite adopting a name with religious connotations, lead singer Orlando Weeks has more recently affirmed, in an interview onSteve Lamacq's BBC Radio 1 show, that none of the band are religious. Their lyrics often include an atheistic theme, in particular their second album's title track, "Wall Of Arms".


Band members

  • Orlando Weeks – Vocals and Guitar
  • Hugo White – Guitar
  • Felix White – Backing Vocals and Guitar
  • Rupert Jarvis – Bass
  • Sam Doyle – Drums

Robert Dylan Thomas left the band in 2008 in order to enter rehab



Fiction Records

Fiction Records is a UK indie label started by Chris Parry in 1978 that is best known as being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. .

Fiction has released records from the likes of Stephen Fretwell, Jacknife Lee, Delays, Alberta Cross, Guillemots and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The current Fiction stable includes Ian Brown, The Maccabees, Kate Nash, Elbow, White Lies, Yuksek, Filthy Dukes, and Detroit Social Club.


Fierce Panda Records

Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fierce Panda is also credited with releases by Coldplay, Astronaut, Air Traffic, Seafood, Art Brut, Embrace, Kenickie, The Blackout, Keane, Death Cab for Cutie, The Polyphonic Spree, Boy Kill Boy, Placebo and Shitdisco. Fierce Panda Records has its own customised content channel on Audiotube.

Friday, 13 November 2009

Animal masks















Today, I thought because of the song's name: "Look at that Rabbit Go!", that we could maybe change the idea of a masquerade theme, and introduce animal masks.

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Using, developing and challenging conventions. (Pre-production)

CONVENTIONS:

The situations are realistic and so it appeals to a young audience for they can relate to the narrative.
The narrative tends to include a party and the connotations that come with it such as drinking, dancing and a band.
The lighting also tends to be low which helps to reinforce the party theme
The cast tends to be young, attractive and well dressed which should appeal to our target audience furthermore many of them should be able to relate to it. A large number of people are involved to help reinforce the party atmosphere.
Tended to feature the band either performing or as the protagonist
The camera movements were primarily hand held follows to create a jaunty personal feel which helps to engage the audience for it makes it feel more realistic.
The shots used tended to be either wide or long so the costumes and mise-en-scene were revealed rather than placing emphasis on people and emotions
The editing consisted of mainly straight cuts or continuous movement rather than wipe or dissolved transitions, this once again gives a realistic feel to the video.
There is also a use of still frame animation which makes it fun and interesting
The majority of the videos had a saturated look to them which made them look high quality

USE:

Our narrative will include a house party so that our target audience can relate to it and feel they can recreate a similar situation.
Our cast is going to include a vast number of our friends to reinforce the party atmosphere and also to create a realistic situation for they are already well acquainted. This is also useful for they are our target audience.
As well as using the narrative and cast to engage our target audience we’re planning on the costumes being fancy dress to make it more comical and interesting.
DEVELOP:

The main area we need to target is the techniques we are going to use for example we will have to improve our editing skills to enable us to make transitions on the beat.
To create the saturated effect we will have to spend a lot of time adjusting the exposure so that the effect is continuous throughout the music video to make it appear high quality.
Last year we used a phone light for our lighting however this year to create a party atmosphere we will need to practice more professional lighting techniques so that our music video will have a ‘romantic’ feel to it without distorting our images.
We will need to extend our use of camera movements to replicate the effect in Naïve where the camera follows the protagonist furthermore we will have to find a way to make it look ‘home video’ as well as professional.

CHALLENGE:

The music videos tended to feature the band members either performing or as the protagonist however due to the fact we downloaded our music from a copyright free website we are unable to feature the band.
As our budget is a lot less our mise-en-scene won’t be as intricate or as professional looking however this may make it appear more realistic.

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Locations


Today we explored possible locations that would be the most beneficial to us in reflecting the indie genre.
We pondered over interior and exterior locations; deciding that a small 'student-style' house would be better than an Americanised mansion; that we could include reference to the magical film 'Narnia', where party-goers enter into a wardrobe (or telephone box/photobooth - to modernise it), and exit(maybe, into a lantern-lit field) with their new costume; and we also pondered over the idea of filming a group of party-goers arriving on the train.
We felt that the smaller, messier, 'student-style' house would: create a feeling of a packed-out party even if we only have a handful of people, as the rooms are smaller; that it was more likely for somebody to allow us to use their house if it was not decorated beautifully and precious to them, etc; the appearance would conform to the genre as it is a place that young people could relate to - for the reasons that it could be any of their houses and so the party would be attainable, unlike if they watched stereotypical American parties at (unattainable) mansions.

Cast
Our target audience is the younger generation, from ages 14-24.
14, because this is when the people in our production team began partying; and 24, because this is the age when young people generally finish university, and thus partying.
We have an idea to cast a very young boy as the main character. "Rock This Party" by Bob Sinclair was a successful video for this reason.

Effect
  • Slightly saturated
  • "Cool", like it could be in Nylon magazine
  • a bit gritty
  • Skins -esque
Editing

Jerky editing - sticcato


Outfits

Just fancy dress.
Song is reminiscent of the 80s - could we ask people to wear 80s style costumes?



INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOS FOR LOCATION, AND HOW WE VISUALISE THE RESULT.





Monday, 19 October 2009

Party!

Today, we felt uninspired to start out story board, as we were having doubts about how to construct our idea.
We discovered problems such as:
  • Where would we shoot it?
  • How could we get the camera so high that it would fit in the character and its surroundings?
  • How could we suspend it? Would it be dangerous for us, and the equipment?
  • How could we find a way to keep the camera in position while we move the objects for the next shot?
Billie was busy showing us videos that she'd seen over the weekend.
We particularly fell in love with this video:



We loved its fun nature; the dancing!; the fact that it was upbeat (compared to our current, dull song choice); the fact that it mixed real and non-real footage much like we wanted in the first place.

Our new plans are to stage a house party. We will have a set of planned actions for the guests to perform (such as, a routine dance; playing spin the bottle, etc). We will film these first, and then take turns to film general candid party-behaviour. Between real footage, we will insert short stop frame animations of, for example: a growing pile of shoes (as guests arrive) and emptying beer glasses.

Our movie will reflect young life: a scene that listeners of Indie music will be able to relate to.

Choice of Song!!!

From the last post, you will be able to see that I have posted two sets of lyrics for two different songs: Castaway and Hold On.

We have as a group decided that they were not suitable for our production (see the reasons why below). Instead, we have decided to use the song from Jamendo.com that I found and introduced to the group.

It is called LOOK AT THAT RABBIT GO! and is by a band called HAPPINESS.


Why I didn't choose the two first songs that we found:-

*The beat was too slow and therefore depressing.
*This depressing nature doesn't reflect the ideologies we associate with young, fun, Indie followers - like ourselves.
*The ideas we had for music videos to accompany them were unrealistic to produce.
[1). A time consuming chalk-drawn stop animation, inspired by Coldplay's music video]
[2). A bird's eye view of someone dancing on a bed/grass, using stop animation. This would require a boom to attach the camera, which is not accessible].

Why I chose Happiness' 'Look at that rabbit go!':-

*Happiness reflects the happy-go-lucky disposition of Indie followers.
*''Look at that rabbit go!' is a quirky song title. Quirky things appeal to Indie followers.
*The song was upbeat. This would allow us to have fun with editing to the beat; thus creating an upbeat feeling.
*The lyrics inspired an achievable idea for the music video: "Occupy my empty house" inspired the idea of representing a house-party.

Lyrics for inspiration

HOLD ON - Gareth Johnson

stand tall my friend
we will back again
hol on hold on
it's the same for everyone
you've walked for miles
inside these shoes
never gave up
got nothing left to lose
hold on hold on
it's the same for everyone
hold on hold on
it's the same for everyone
hold on hold on
it's the same for everyone


CASTAWAY - Barrie Gledlin
summer love
oceans still left to cross
cast away
on a moment
friendly word
whispers left unheard
on a shell
out of mind and out of reaching
a change in me
a change in you
funny how fragile change is
seasons ripe
seasons fall
pass me by
ocean left to cry
no one knows
where the hurt is
hidden smile
i know ill breathe alright
sun will shine
close my eyes and feel you breathing
a change in me
a change in you
funny how fragile change is
seasons ripe
seasons fall

Friday, 16 October 2009

Target Audiences

  1. Do you think that a Text creates and audience, or vice versa?
  • Audiences shapes the outcome of the text
  • Text has to exist first
  • The relationship is not direct, it is complicated, as the audienc'es preferences vary.

2. We watched, on Youtube "A Short History of Marketing"

  • It showed that brand loyalties used to exist.
  • But then, the number of companies escalated.
  • For example, there are now lots of ways to access music, instead of just one.
  • Many different music distributers exist today, and some offer more narrow genres (e.g. just RnB).
  • You can buy CDs, download, go clubbing, music channels, word of mouth, adverts, myspace, youtube, radio, shops.

3. Where would we reach our audience? We'd broadcast our music video on the music channels: Mtv2 and Q. And on radio channels: Radio 1 and XFM.

4. Does music create an identity?

I researched whether music tastes say something about your personality.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7598549.stm


INDIE

Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

Whereas,
SOUL
High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease

5. Are we secondary or tertiary users?

  • We are secondary users when we choose to play the music - when we play music on our iPOD.
  • We are tertiary users when we walk into a shop, and the music playing in the background is not chosen by us.
  • We are, however, given the choice to be secondary users in some cases. For example, in some shops, jukeboxes are available. They are intended to entertain the boyfriend when the girlfriend is taking forever in teh changing rooms. But the main preferred reading is to keep the people in the shop, to heighten the chance of them buying something, too.

Friday, 9 October 2009

Audience. (Media Concepts)

Hypodermic Syringe Model

It refers to the media being like a syringe that injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who are powerless to it therefore are under the influence. This theory is based on the actions of people after watching films, especially violent ones, such as A Clockwork Orange. An example is Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer, who watched a clip of his favourite film to excite him before a murder. This example also rejects the theory as others who watched the same movie, Star Wars, did not have a similar reaction.

Cultivation Model

This is an advanced take of the hypodermic syringe theory. It states that although one viewing may not have much of an effect years of viewing may make people become desensitised. This means people may become less shocked by real life violence making it become ‘normal’ especially if the violent behaviour goes unpunished. The opposite to this is sensitisation where the violence is so shocking it puts people off and makes them more aware.

Gratification Theory

According to this theory we all make our own choices concerning what we watch to satisfy our own needs. It is has been scaled down into 4 types of gratification.

Information: we want to find out about society and the world.

Personal Identity: we watch television to look for someone to model our behaviour on.

Social Interaction: to find out more about other peoples circumstances e.g. empathise

Entertainment: we use media for enjoyment, relaxation and to fill time.

However it ignores the fact we do not always have complete choice as someone else may have chosen the programme we are watching or the posters that we are objected to as we go about our daily business.

Reception Analysis

This insinuates that the audience themselves create the meaning of the media text they are looking at therefore even though people are watching the same programme they still have the opportunity to find a different meaning in it. Factors that may influence the meaning we create are gender, our place in society and the context of the time we are living in. David Morely stated that there are three different groups based on the readings of peoples texts.

Preferred: the meaning media producers hope people will take from the text.

Oppositional: people who reject the preferred, and receive their own alternative meaning

Negotiated: people acknowledging the preferred reading but modifying it to suit their own opinion.

_________________________________


Market Research

We've set out to survey a group (of FORTY??? people) to gather some market research.

The aim of the survey is to discover, in brief, the habits of

Sunday, 4 October 2009

The History of Alternative/Indie Rock

RESEARCHING AND UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY OF MY CHOSEN GENRE: -

[[[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_rock ]]]

Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The term is often used to describe the means of production and distribution of independent underground music, as well as the style of music that was first associated with this means of production. Indie rock artists are known for placing a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on independent record labels (sometimes self-owned and operated) and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, airplay on independent or college radio stations, and in recent years, the Internet for promotion. Musicians classified as indie rock are typically signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels, although there are many examples of indie musicians switching to major labels mid-career. This practice blurs the lines between indie and mainstream music and is often the subject of debate amongst fans. Indeed, some bands that have spent most of their careers on major labels are still occasionally referred to by the press as indie rock because of their sound or aesthetic.

Stylistic origins

Alternative rock, Post-punk,Electronic music

Cultural origins

Early 1980s, United Kingdom,United States and Canada.

Typical instruments

GuitarbassDrumsKeyboardSynthesizer

Mainstream popularity

Widespread worldwide in the 2000s.

[[[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_rock#British_genres_and_trends_of_the_1980s ]]]

Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Britpop, gothic rock, and indie pop.

One of the key alternative rock bands to emerge during the 1980s was Manchester's The Smiths. Music journalist Simon Reynolds singled out The Smiths and their American contemporaries R.E.M. as "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day", commenting that they "were eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". Despite the band's limited chart success and short career, The Smiths exerted an influence over the British indie scene through the end of the decade, as various bands drew from singer Morrissey's English-centered lyrical topics and guitarist Johnny Marr's jangly guitar-playing style.

The C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring such bands as The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels, and the Soup Dragons, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole.

Other forms of alternative rock developed in the UK during the 1980s. The Jesus and Mary Chain wrapped their pop melodies in walls of guitar noise, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with technoand house music.

Shoegazing bands dominated the British music press at the end of the decade along with the drug-fueled Madchester scene. Madchester bands such as The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop.

Stylistic origins

Punk rock, post-punk, hardcore punk

Cultural origins

Early 1980s United Kingdom and United States

Typical instruments

Electric guitarBassdrums

Mainstream popularity

Limited before the success of grunge and Britpop in the 1990s. Widespread since then.

Unsigned = Uncopyrighted?

Having failed the other day at finding inspiring music from Jamendo.com...

I have been hunting down Unsigned bands/artists that classify themselves in the Indie/Alternative genre.

I assume that Unsigned bands' music would be un-copyrighted - which would help us over the Copyright issue, and thus the obstacle of making our own song via GarageBand. It's not out of laziness, but rather lack of musical talent within the group that we have come to this decision. Also, it would mean that we could use this time to realise our ideas for our music video.

I found a range of artists via Myspace.com. They are as follows: Two Door Cinema Club; The Filthy Youth; Olivia Broadfield; Bombay Bicycle Club; Slow Club.

Being unsure about whether unsigned bands = un-copyrighted songs, I decided to tackle the question firsthand by e-mailing each band with the following. I'm awaiting replies.

"" Hiya,

I'm an A2 student, and have been given a project to make a music video, website design, and album cover for a band.

But, it has to be sans-copyright. Am I right/wrong in saying that Unsigned Artists' music is un-copyrighted?

I really love your music, would you be okay with me using it for this task?

Thanks, and be in touch...

claudiagardnerpickett@gmail.com ""

Jamendo.com - Researching Indie Songs

Jamendo.com is a site that allows you to download uncopyrighted music.

I searched through a few Indie/Alternative artists.

I found: Happiness; Garp; Hello Citizen; Not From Georgia; and, VANDA.

I sampled a song, and then downloaded each of their albums.

However, after listening to their albums again, I didn't feel any of them inspired me.