Group - Print Work

Group - Music Video

WB - Post-Production Contribution

Throughout this last week I have contributed to both the process of editing our music video as well as working on the promotional posters. Most of the times we worked this week I was creating a promotional poster, taking a secondary role in the editing. Nevertheless for one of the lessons I took on the responsibility of being primary editor. I completed one of our promotional posters as shown below.

A variety of image manipulation tools were used, for example curves, to create the poster we felt looked as professional as possible. Curves enabled me to make the image black and white along with increasing/decreasing the brightness and contrast. In concern with the editing software, DaVinci resolve couldn't render when we would add the desired effects. Thus in the final stages of the project we had to export our video without the effects before putting the exported file in a new timeline to create the video we wanted to achieve. Shown below is our finished production.

DW - Post Production Contribution

During the past several weeks I have made contributions to both the music video and the promotional campaign. I have changed between the two during lessons and free time to make sure my time has been split between the two effectively, to maximise our efforts.

For the first few weeks after shooting our footage we suffered severe technical difficulties, resulting in our performance footage having to be converted from 50fps .mts to 25fps .mp4, and us working on a new machine with DaVinci Resolve. During this time we planned our photo shoot and created several mock ups for both the digipak and advertisements, as well as finding a suitable font to use. After getting some concrete ideas we had our photo shoot, and got to work editing the images in Adobe Photoshop. I spent several lessons cutting out Will and I from the blue screen background using the quick selection tool, and then learning to remove the blue reflection fro our leather jackets, using a new colour layer with a dark brush over the image to colour in the blue without taking away the texture and detail of the image.

My main contribution came in the editing process for the music video. While waiting for our performance footage to be sorted out, we imported all our narrative footage into Adobe Premiere and cut together a rough ordered timeline. We then slowed down the appropriate shots and desaturated the colour before exporting the timeline ready to cut together with the performance footage.

Once we were up and running on the new machine I spent time learning the new software. I then took a co-edit position with Ross as we went through syncing up the performance footage  and selecting which takes to play when. As a musician I found it useful to watch through the performance as I found it easy to identify if shots were in or out of sync, and when the band played wrong notes as to be able to cut out bad takes. Once we had our final performance timeline we exported it for use in the final project.

I then created a new timeline and imported the final performance export as well as the narrative export. From here I went through the narrative export and cut up the different sections, placing them in appropriate places over our performance footage. I made sure to cut to the beat, and add narrative over any shots that had a strong meaning. There are some parts in the song that we previously agreed to have jump cuts to, so I made sure to include these while cutting to the rhythm of the bass or drums.

After a few days we had our first rough cut with narrative and performance merged together, but identified the narrative was weak in meaning. We then started to plan another shoot in which Ross and Will would fight, after Ross sees the girl with Will. I went through the footage and the imported it into our timeline, shifting some of our existing narrative footage around. Because we shot our fight scene at short notice we used a different camera to the rest of our footage. I went through and matched the colour to our other narrative shots, by reducing the saturation and bringing out the blacks. Once I was happy with the chronology of the narrative I went through and repeated certain shots like the fight and the pills. This was to connote the problems in our protagonists head and time passing.

It was at this point that our timeline on DaVinci Resolve hit its limit, and every time we added more layers it would crash. We made sure we were happy with what we had, and then exported it to a final cut without effects. On a new timeline we imported this export and then added the narrative audio, celluloid film overlays and the widescreen overlay we had planned on using. I went through and made sure that every shot was well framed for the added widescreen filter. Those that weren't I moved up or down appropriately so everything was well positioned. On the celluloid film overlays I reduced the opacity and set the mode to 'multiply' the image, meaning that the black was removed leaving just the grain and distortion we wanted.

Because DaVinci Resolve was still very slow at this point, we had to export our final timeline before we could watch it back. Once watching through multiple times we decided we were happy with our music video.

DW - Progress Update

In my free time I went through our photoshoot and picked out the 7 best photos to use with our advertisement. 3 of Will and I together, and 2 each of us separately. This way we have some choice when it comes to editing.

I then made a start on the advertisement, after selecting an image. I cut out the people on photoshop using the quick selection tool, making sure to refine the edges and get a smooth cut out. I then created a new colour layer and went over the image reducing the blue reflection from the blue screen we used, to ensure that the picture looked professional.

In the next lesson and most of my free time, I took primary editing role. We have now complied a full take of performance, and I am going through overlaying the narrative export we made on Premiere, by cutting up the different sections and moving them about on our timeline.

DW - Progress Update

In my free time I went through our photoshoot and picked out the 7 best photos to use with our advertisement. 3 of Will and I together, and 2 each of us separately. This way we have some choice when it comes to editing.

I then made a start on the advertisement, after selecting an image. I cut out the people on photoshop using the quick selection tool, making sure to refine the edges and get a smooth cut out. I then created a new colour layer and went over the image reducing the blue reflection from the blue screen we used, to ensure that the picture looked professional.

In the next lesson and most of my free time, I took primary editing role. We have now complied a full take of performance, and I am going through overlaying the narrative export we made on Premiere, by cutting up the different sections and moving them about on our timeline.

Group - Plan For Week

This week we have a lot of work to do regarding both the digipak and music video itself. We have been set a deadline for this Friday for both which will mean we need to spend lesson time effectively. On top of this we will need to spend some extra hours working in order to meet this deadline.

Group - Photo Shoot

In todays double session, we plan to take a photo shoot for our promotional poster. We have brought all the equipment and costume needed and will shoot it as soon as possible. Once we have done this we will begin to work on our final promotional poster as well as digipak. Along side this we will also continue to edit our final piece. We are aiming this lesson to export our narrative part and move it into the file on DaVinci Resolve along with the performance part of our piece.

DW - Progress Update

Today I went through the blog updating posts with reference to the mark scheme, making sure they take full advantage of being a multimedia web page. I updated a few posts in detail, adding videos, images and screenshots with reference to our progress. 

I also exported and uploaded our demo RGB channel split, and our narrative footage. Our narrative footage was edited and colour graded in Adobe Premiere, ready for importing into our performance timeline. To get the narrative shots into DaVinci Resolve, it had to go through Premiere Pro to be exported as an .XML. Because our narrative footage was already edited and colour graded, to save time I exported the Premiere timeline to an .m4a which we will import into Resolve and can edit if need be. 

WB - Progress Update

Within todays the task I took on was to touch up the blog as well as well as take a secondary role in editing. As an editing post has already been made I wont talk in much depth about it but we have started to make some great progress after a very slow start due to some technical difficulties we have faced.

Regarding the blog work the Storyboard Animatic post was very vague as we hadn't answered the questions regarding the post. Thus I worked on this beginning to answer the questions in order to then present how the animatic has influenced our production of our piece.

I also went through other blog posts reading through, adding images to posts that need them as well as correcting grammatical errors and rewording certain phrases and sentences that would not be up to standard.

Within the lesson before, I worked on the blog much like this lesson except I didn't take any part in the editing. Instead I continued my previous work on the promotional poster in which we will be conducting a photo shoot for hopefully in the next few days.



JP - Progress Update

In the latest lesson I was tasked with drawing the mock-ups of 2 of our panes for the digipak. I ended up creating the base concepts for both the front and back cover, as shown below:

Group - RGB Channel Split Tutorial

After being moved over to a new machine running DaVinci software as opposed to Adobe, we have had to find a new tutorial to create an RGB channel split. DaVinci Fusion is their equivalent of After Effects, so I started looking for a tutorial on that. I then found out you can do an RGB channel split on DaVinci Resolve, and it is a lot quicker than After Effects.

Ross and I experimented and managed to do one in 15 minutes on a test shot of me playing the drums. In the final product, the RGB channel split will only be a short shot, but we left it longer to fully see what we could do in Resolve.

- Vimeo tutorial we used to do our RGB Channel Split



- Screenshot of our RGB channel split, using nodes, matte layers, and channel mixers

- Our RGB channel split demo

Group - Editing Update

We got off to a slow start with editing, as we found our footage was too high a quality for Adobe Premier to handle, as we needed to run 10 tracks at a time. This left us unable to edit performance footage for a few weeks, while the school technicians figured out what to do with our group.

We spent our time working on Royal Blood digipaks and advertisements, and editing our narrative shots on Premiere.

We have now moved all our footage to a specialised machine with an improved graphics card, which can handle our footage with up to 15 tracks. We are also now using DaVinci Resolve as opposed to Premiere. This has taken a little bit of getting used to but we are starting to appreciate the benefits of the software, like being able to mute channels while we cut out the unwanted bits of each performance track.

As of today we have now started editing out performance footage, and are making progress on getting a finalised performance track before overlaying our narrative footage, which needs to be converted into .xml through Premiere Pro to be compatible with Resolve.

Group - Promotional Campaign Update

Our promotional campaign will consist of a four pane digipak, and an A4 and A3 advertisement.

We have chosen to go with a 4 pane digipak over 6 pane, because it is more conventional for our genre of music. We plan to conform to Royal Blood's existing digipaks with a very plain, black and white look, but then for the inside pains add a performance shot of the band to add colour and depth to the print work.

For our advertisement we are going to have two magazine advertisements that would appear in magazines such as NME. The first one will be a landscape A3 double page spread, consisting of an image of the band against a wall. We will take use of filler space to insert text, promoting the band and their Careless EP. The second will be a portrait A4 image of Ross, using similar techniques to also promote the EP and music video.

30 Second Rough Cut Extract (Opening)

Group - Digipack And Promotional Poster Electronic Mock-Up

These are some rough mock ups Joe and Will have done on photoshop, to get a rough idea of our designs before starting the final process.

 

 

 

Group - Week 10/11/14 - 14/11/14

Throughout last week we began to edit our performance part of our video. We also made a start researching and creating a mock up for our promotional poster and digipak. On top of this we completed our Storyboard on Premiere and then finished all our filming by going to Halsted as well as Will's house to shoot our narrative part of our music video. The details of this shoot have been highlighted in another group post.

Group - Shooting Update

Over the weekend we filmed our narrative sequence, and have now got all our footage ready for editing. We ventured out to Halstead, and visited an old bomb hole, allowing us to get some really low angle shots of the protagonist, as well as over the shoulder surveying shots. We also went to Will's house in Seal, where we filmed the opening to our video, as well as some filler shots for various points in the song.

We have reviewed the footage as a group, and are very pleased with the variety and quality of shots. We have a large amount of footage for both narrative and performance, so putting them together should be easy as it will be hard to run out of shots, therefore we will avoid repeating shots too much.

We will now start overlaying our narrative onto our performance footage, to merge the to ideas together. We have had some slight technical issues regarding our computer and Adobe Premiere, where it will not respond to the high quality and frame rate of our footage. This has slowed down our editing some what, but we are on our way to getting the first rough cut together.

Group - Storyboard Animatic

Throughout this process of creating a Storyboard Animatic we have learnt a lot about what we want to achieve within our video, regarding camera, distance, movement, and angle. We have now emulated some of these shots within our piece such as close ups on the instruments and the band throughout the performance part. We have also aimed to emulate the mirror shot shown by having Ross cycling away from the screen getting closer to the mirror of him before disappearing.

Whilst constructing our Storyboard, we came to the decision that we would quite like to have quite an illustrative link between lyrics and visuals. This led us to base our narrative on a teenage boy who has broken up with his girlfriend; as she has recovered and moved on, he is distraught and thus leads him  to go off the rails.

We also used some of The 1975 videos and took inspiration from the locations they use. The shots where they are in a skate park on a half pipe we felt were really effective. Although we didn't go to a skate park, we did emulate a few of these shots by using the edge of a bomb hole in which we filmed at. We felt the mise-en-scene in this was really good and the location really fitted our concept for our music video.

Although this task took a very similar format from last year, within this years animatic we had to think about a lot more making it a great deal more complex. Whilst last year we thought from shot to shot, this year we had a very different task. We didn't really work in a chronological order to begin with and instead just thought of all the different shots we would like to include at some point throughout the song.

Group - Band Image Print Work

Through researching Royal Bloods print work, it is evident that they often have very simplistic designs. Usually they have a white background with the same font for their typeface. Moreover, many of the digipak's hold a similar style in using a weird, peculiar image, with black and white. This can be shown in a few images below.

For the promotional poster, it follows a similar pattern in that there's a basic, but effective design. The only problem with Royal Blood is that due to their designs being quite simplistic their is only so much we can do to make it look as high level as possible. We are considering, in order to change the design from the digipak, to use the band members on the promotional poster.

Group - Shoot Update

We have now completed filming for our performance shots, and acquired over 30 minutes of footage for what will equate to about half of our video, around 2 minutes.

We shot in a drama studio with the band and instruments positioned in the middle of the room. We turned the exposure down on our camera, and lit the band with bright stage lighting. This caused the background to be completely black, and leave the band in full view at all times.

Overall we are really happy with the quality of some of the shots we have, as we made sure to shoot at a variety of angles and distance, as well as lighting conditions, so we have something to fit every point in the song.

We made sure to record full take of the song at every angle, including tracking and moving shots, as well as extra chorus and drum fills to get emphasis on those sections. This way when it comes to editing, we will sync up every take in multiple lanes of Adobe Premiere, and slowly cut out sections we don't want until we are left with a full rough edit of the performance. Once we have filmed our narrative shots will when then overlay them in the appropriate places until we have our finished sequence.

RG - Digipak Analysis

The 1975 Front Cover



The 1975 Back Cover

The 1975 Inside

Throughout the digipak the images follow a black and white colour scheme. This connotes darkness and makes the digipak seem more edgy. This causes the digipak to apply to two target audiences, the edginess would cause it to appeal to a young adult/teenage audience, where as, the black and white also creates a more polished, classy look which means the album could also be targeted at an older audience.
The use of black and white is also an example of showing synergy throughout all parts of the product. This will also make the cover stand out when placed with other albums as it is unusual to have a black and white cover. Also shows synergy with music videos from the album.

The costume worn in the image is very simple, the black hoody worn by the lead singer could be seen as intimidating to the older audience as it gives connotations of hooded youths causing trouble, whilst also attracting to a younger audience as they are able to relate to the artist. Also, the clothing worn is very plain, this suggests the band are similar to their target audience and do not need or have the want for expensive clothing. Could suggest a lack of interest in their appearance.

The image shows the artists to be looking away from the camera, which shows no direct mode of address. Therefore, the digipak does not create a connection with the audience, which suggests attitude being shown from the artists which will appeal to the hormonal feelings many teenagers have.

On the front cover there is use of neon lighting this suggests nightlife such as clubbing which could attract a younger audience as this is an activity they are likely to take part in. This goes against the connotations of the genre which the album is part of (Alternative/Indie Rock).
The word 'Deluxe' being on the front also attracts people who are already fans of the band as it shows that there is something special about this album over their other ones.

The use of their very simple band logo on the front of the cover gives them identity. As it shows they are an established band as all that's needed on the front is the name of the band to appeal people to buy the album.

On the back of the album cover it features record label logos, which are not only there for copyright reasons but also attracts fans of other music signed to these labels. The images suggest that the album will be worth buying as the record labels have backed it.
The back cover also features stylized track listing, for example the use of "//" at the beginning and end of the disc numbering. This creates a link between this and other communication from the band (e.g tweets) where they have previously used a similar layout. This appeals to a media conscious audience as they will be able to recognise the band across all platforms. This audience is likely to be a younger one as they often spend more time on social networks.

DW - Digipak Analyisis

The genre of the artist is noise rock, a style of rock music that uses a lot of dissonance and distortion to create extra noise. This is made prevalent through the grungy overtones of the album cover and the use of visual techniques to covey this.

The black and white colour scheme is very minimalistic, and stereotypical of the genre as it is harsh and bare, lacking contrast, depth and emotion. The typeface used is also very edgy, and looks distorted in some way.

The titles and artwork mainly lie in the centre line of the frame, and little attention has been put into the rule of thirds. There is also equal lettering on either side of the centre line, royal - blood. This connotes a polished feel and a symmetrical, clean look.

The use of a Victorian style image connotes the bands isolation, as it is seen as a regressive step back in history. The way only the eyes and hands are fully shown also connotes this. The head of the person is coloured with what looks like the solar system or space, further connoting their isolation and coldness of the digipak.

These techniques are used to connote star status when looking through Dyer's principal of the star image. The ideas of rebellion, anger, disregard for social values and drugs could all be seen through these visual techniques, connoting the band as a teen idol of angst and rebellion.

There are very little linguistic devises used on the digipak. The album is self titled 'Royal Blood', so no analysis can be undertaken of the album name, and the only other writing is the song listings on the back. The songs however can be used to connote isolation and anger, for example such song names as "You Can Be So Cruel", "Little Monster", "Careless", and "Better Strangers".

As an album cover for a rock band, the print text is unlikely to be consumed on a large level, as it will be targeted towards select audiences, who will be likely to have already heard of the band, making them more prone to consuming the record.

Overall, the band are represented to be very alone from the album, and distant from the audience. This could be for two reasons. Firstly, it is their debut album, so they do not have a fully established fan base ready to consume their material. The isolation of the album could be a reflection of their isolation in the music industry, and a metaphor for the start of their careers, as it will build up over time. Secondly, and adding to this, when seen through Dyer's theory, the digipak portrays the band to be absent from the audience and incomplete. This will make the audience go out and actively listen to their songs, and consume their videos, to feel indulged in the incoherence of the band image.

JP - Digipak Analysis

Rammstein - Made in Germany (Digipak)

Genre:

• The genre of the album is Industrial Metal which is known for its minimalistic style using continuous riffs and relying on instrumental development. This is evident in the digipak through the minimalist art style used as it consists of simply the band members' heads painted to seem like marble statues, overlayed by uniform typography to denote the album and song names.

Media Language:

• The visual techniques used convey the artistic nature of the band yet also their uniform image through each member being framed in the centre third of each section. Futhermore, the lack of mise-en-scene (apart from casting) creates an ominous tone which is evident in the band's overall timbre in their songs and their lyrical themes.
• The album title, 'Made in Germany', connotes that the band (like statues) were forged and 'chiseled' in their home country and exported globally.
• The subjects in the images, whilst being the band members, are seemingly intertextual references to human statues and the idea that they are viewed as living art such as musicians in the modern day are too.

Representation:

• The band are represented as embodying their work through literally being a part of it in the form of real life art. This adds to their postmodern meta-narrative and helps to sell the product through audience intrigue.

Institution and Audience:

• The text would be consumed through ambient observation as there is very little to it due to its minimalist nature and would mainly be used for finding out what's on the album.

Typography:

• The gold font colour denotes the paramount nature of their music and highlights it on the digipak.
• The text is always centre on the page making it the second point on the reading path of each pane.
• The typography style itself is industrial and clean, connoting both the blatant connection to industrial metal and the refined and methodical nature of the band.

WB - Digipak Analysis

Royal Blood are part of the rock genre, thus they present themselves to be quite edgy and grungy. This is represented on the album cover from the grungy overtone it holds.

The colour scheme on the album cover is black and white, a very minimalistic style quite stereotypical of the rock genre, and the noise rock sub-genre more specifically. The black and white typeface is also very edgy typical of the horror genre. The use of a white background is an example of synergy within

The Victorian style image is typical of their band and could represent there isolation from the rest of society as they often present themselves to be regressive in the way they step back in history. This could be reinforced in that the character in shot, only shows his/her hands and eyes.

Dyer's theory of creating a star image is enforced with Royal Blood. They present themselves to be youthful, rebellious, and have a disregard for social norms and values. This is represented throughout many of their videos, lyrics, and digipak's.

As Royal Blood are a rock band, there music is unlikely to be consumed on a global scale. Instead it is more likely to be consumed by a selective audience.

On the front of the album cover the only text shown is 'Royal Blood', the name of the band, so apart from 'royal' possibly linking to the Victorian theme, there is no other real analysis liking to the name of the band. Nevertheless, on the back of the album cover, although once again having a very simplistic design the names of the songs give us a very good idea of the style of the band. The grungy rock theme is enhanced with song names such as 'Blood Hands', 'Ten Tonne Skeleton', 'Little Monster', 'Careless', and 'Out Of The Black'. The name of the songs connote anger, frustration, and generally negative dark themes.

Group - Plan For Shoot

This week we are planning to film the performance parts of our video. We are using the drama studio and have booked to use it Wednesday after school. We need to organise the attire and props needed for our shoot although already having everything we need already at home. Will and Dan have both learnt the song on bass and drums as well as Will learning the lyrics for the song to add realism to the performance. We will film the whole song multiple times from different angles in order to have multiple choices for what angles suit what parts of the song. We will also then fill other shots with narrative shots that include Ross as the protagonist next week.

 

This is the type of look we will be hoping to achieve. Will as the one on the left and Dan as the one on the right.

Group - Teaching Will the Bass Part

We want the performance aspect of our production to look as realistic and believable as possible. However, as Will (the bass player and singer in our video) can't play bass, I spent some time to learn the part myself and teach it to him. The shots above show how it was taught through example as well as utilising some practice angles that we want to try in the final shoot (mainly CUs on specific aspects of the performance such as just the right or left hand and shots angled down the fretboard as he is playing).

Group - Change of Location

After contacting Mid-Kent Metals we have been told we will not be given permission to shoot on their property. Luckily within Ross's village Halstead there is an old bomb hole that was created within World War Two. Its in quite a rural area which suits us as Royal Blood have videos set in areas such as this; such as their new video 'Ten Tonne Skeleton' in which the narrative is set predominantly in a field.

JP - 6 Frame Storyboard for Performance

JP - Six Key Frames

The shots above highlight the key aspects I think work well in performance shots. These include high angles over the drum kit, side on MSs of the singer/frontman, and CUs of the singer's face. Specifically, the use of colour (and lack of it) appeals to me as I think it adds another visceral layer to the performance. Such as in the Lost Society video above where there is heavy colour manipulation and almost sparks of colour when the music picks up.

Furthermore, the overall use of MCUs and CUs make the performances seem more intimate regardless of their style which I find interesting and want to try out as well as shifting the intimacy away from the performance and towards the narrative too.

Group - RGB Channel Split Inspiration

 

 

The use of RGB channel split has already been discussed in our group as a post-production special effect which we would definitely be interested in using in our music video, specifically, on the action for when the drummer hits the snare at the opening to our song. However, after showing this video to Dan and Will, we all discovered we liked the use of the RGB split in this music video, specifically at the beginning. The main aspect we liked was the fact that the artist (main character) was not affected by the split, but everything else around him was. We felt this was successful in creating a depth of field that positions the character away from everything else. If we were to do this in our piece it would obey to the themes of isolation. Therefore, we are interested in applying this use of an RGB split in our music video.

WB - Planning Update

In todays lesson I have been working on the storyboard as well as planning out where we are going to film some of our music video. Unfortunately we have heard back from the scrap yard and have been denied access to film there. Nevertheless, we have had other locations planned and therefore will now look to shoot by a local bomb hole made in World War Two based in Halstead. I will continue storyboarding tonight in order to gain a real perspective of where are video is heading.

JP - Planning Update

In today's lesson we have been working on storyboarding and finalising our shot ideas. We are also having to reconsider the scrap yard location as we have not been given permission to shoot there. In the lesson we suggested different locations such as fields and alleys. Also, we are in the process of arranging shoots at days and times that are convenient for all of us.

DW - Planning Update

At the  moment I am working on our storyboard for the animatic. I am trying to get down ideas for shots I have had for certain areas of the song, and we will then put the shots into Premiere to create our animatic.

RG - 'Jareem - What' Inspiration

 

 

After viewing this music video, I specifically liked the use of post-production and would be interested in using an effect similar in our music video. In particular, the use of overlays, specifically the grainy effect, and the white rectangle over a section of the video with a lower opacity to create a widescreen effect. The other effect created in post-production I like in this video is the mirror image effect. It's inspired me to come with the idea of having the narrative character walk in a diagonal line along a long road in the original footage, and after the mirror image effect has been applied it will create the effect of having a duplicate of the character walking along the road, and walking into each other so eventually the character disappears. 

RG - Reversal Video

 

 

JP - Contribution to Pitch

While the group as a whole made significant inputs into the pitch, mine differed to the others. Due to me joining the group at a later point, pretty much all of the pitch slides were already created so my input (other than suggesting various points to be added to the slides) came verbally during the pitch itself.

I was tasked with talking about locations, representations and difficulties. For these I had to make sure I had a clear grasp of the group's idea and spent time going back through all their posts and asking them directly to catch up to a place where I felt comfortable talking about the idea. I made brief notes with keywords on a piece of paper that I referenced as I spontaneously presented the group's ideas from memory.

DW - Contribution to Pitch

For our pitch we all contributed by adding slides to our Prezi, and helping construct the performance. In our pitch we used the Prezi to show mainly visuals and key words, and relied on our voices to explain our ideas, as to keep the audience hooked on the key images on the screen as opposed to a block of text. Personally, I uploaded the locations, costume, visual effects, props and difficulties slides. These were all informed by my research individually, as well as research from the rest of the group.

Locations
This was informed by three location reccies we had completed, the Drama Studio for the performance shots, and Brighton skate park and Will's bedroom for our narrative shots. The picture shown for the bedroom was a found image, as we hadn't planned to create a messy room on the reccie. We have also had a relatively new idea to use a scrap yard for some of our narrative shots, while our protagonist is smashing up things. Because it was a new idea, we hadn't had time to perform a reccie.

Costume
For costume I analysed various images on the band for our two performers, which was relatively simple and all black. For our narrative character we wanted fashionable clothing, and a typically 'indie' style, which helps connote the idea of individuality and isolation we plan to show in our video.

Visual Effects
From my research I had found several effects that I really liked the idea of. We already had experience with using 50fps to achieve slow motion shots, like on our reccie to Brighton. I then found an RGB split in a video I liked from a band called Dorje. Ross is in the process of learning how to do this, as he is already confident on After Effects. The third technique we want to experiment with is an artificial celluloid film overlay, like seen in a variety of Royal Blood videos. This adds a natural distortion and grunge to the shot, which we think would be effective in our video.

Props
In our group we have a clear idea for props and visuals we want to include, so the props slides were relatively straight forward. I used a mixture of primary and secondary images as well as key words to help identify the props. We are in the process of souring out some of the props, like Mike Kerr's bass, just to help with the mise-en-scene.

Difficulties
I analysed the locations and ideas we had, and assessed them for risks and problems. Our idea for using the drama studio involves low key lighting, which could be a problem when it comes to filming, however our location reccie seemed promising. Our new idea of going to a scrap yard will involve broken glass etc so we need to be cautious of our actors, and carry our an appropriate risk assessment before shooting. We also have had the idea of showing our narrative character to be reckless, and hope to connote an illustrative relationship between lyrics such as "another pill no good for my health". However, we do not want to actively show this, so part of our challenge is to effectively connote these actions without showing them.

Group - Pitch Reflection

 

 

After showing this Pitch to the class and our teachers we received some feedback that we need to take into consideration to ensure our final piece is of the highest standard, and also some positive comments about our ideas.

• The themes of teen rebellion/growing up are appropriate
• Ensure an explosion of emotion is shown
• What is the cutting rate going to be? Ensure there is lot's of movement
• What will the character be doing his bedroom?
• The narrative linking with the lyrics is a positive idea
• Suggested to watch 'The Family Rain - Reason to Die'

 



RG: Contribution to Pitch

For our groups pitch, we each made a significant contribution to the separate aspects of the presentation. Personally, the two main contributions I made to the group individually were the sections on 'Shot Ideas' and 'Digipak'.

For the shot ideas section, I filmed the recce in the Drama Studio for the performance based section of our video, and then also completed the editing of this in Adobe Premiere. While editing, I was able to practice with placing the song in time with the footage so the lip-syncing and drumming was realistic. Additionally, the recce allowed us to see which lighting would be appropriate for our video, and whether the lighting looked successful on the camera. Also, in this section, I completed the video which showed our key frames from other music videos, this was a compilation of a variation of music videos which we each have taken inspiration from as a group, with our track placed in the background to see whether our ideas would appropriately link with the track.

Then in regards to the Digipak section of the presentation, I began by researching the different artwork previously released by Royal Blood, and found out the artist that has designed all of these pieces of artwork. From this, I discovered that the artist Dan Hillier, and his style of Victorian drawings. Therefore, from this I created a mock up of the artwork for our single 'Royal Blood - Careless'. This can be seen in our Prezi.

WB - Contribution To Pitch

We all contributed significantly to create our pitch. I personally initially focused on writing the treatment for our pitch, mocking up a storyline of events that had been discussed throughout the past few weeks. Within this everything that we would like to include in our video was condensed into a brief summary. This also included another blog post I wrote up that initially was going to be part of our pitch, but after some consideration thought it would be difficult to present effectively as it is very lengthy and wordy. Thus it has stayed as another post on the blog but is extremely useful to us as a group as it outlines what we specifically want to do within each part of the song.

I also focused on looking at the posts and our research in order to create prompt cards for people then to use within the pitch as well as creating an order of which slides go where and who says what when. As our Prezi was mainly pictures with a few cards we felt prompt cards would be useful in order to help us with what we were all trying to say.

I read out the treatment with the lyrics, along with the props and audience research. We felt overall as a group our pitch went quite well as we all knew what we were talking about and thus it flowed quite nicely.

Group - 'Ten Tonne Skeleton' Music Video

Over the weekend, Royal Blood released a new music video to their song 'Ten Tonne Skeleton'. Some of the shots in the video are very similar to the ideas and discussions we've been having as a group, and we are now confident we are on the right tracks for our video.

One thing that is evident in this music video compared to their previous ones, is the high production value. Their last video, 'Figure It Out' was released before the summer festivals, where they really got big. Their videos before that mainly consisted of live performance mixed with little, if any narrative. Now they are a lot bigger, they can afford the high production value of the  'Ten Tonne Skeleton' video.

At the start of the planning process, one thing that was attractive to us was the size of the band, and therefore their low budget videos and production. With their videos now having a high budget and production value, it may be harder for us to efficiently emulate the style. However, the new video has some really positive outlooks for us as a group, as it is clear our concept is on the right tracks, and our shot ideas are conventional for the band.

JP - Links to Previous Research

Having just joined the group, all of my research posts into music videos and the industry are on my old blog. Below are the links to the individual posts so you guys can see what I've found and hopefully find some useful points that can inform our production:

Institutional Context

Analysis and Ideas for Initial 'Lonely Boy' Section

Original Track Ideas

Music Video Theory

Original Track Concept

Music Video Performance Moodboard

Responding to a Track

A Music Video I Enjoy

Semiotic Analysis of a Music Video

Original Planning for Brighton

Deconstruction of Music Video 1

Deconstruction of Music Video 2

Deconstruction of Music Video 3

Technical Analysis of the Performance Sequence of a Music Video

Feedback - Planning and Research

Well done Dan, Ross and Will. You have completed some excellent research and analysis tasks.  Your deconstructions could all be improved as they lack the detail and development of ideas for a level four.  However your planning and reflective content is excellent and the progression of ideas is clear as is the engagement of all of you with the brief.  I am now needing to see more visual evidence of these ideas so as well as the performance reccie you are doing tomorrow, you should visit all your other locations and also attempt a test of the RGB split in after effects before the pitch on Monday.  Please be vigilante about meeting deadlines for tasks and email me when you have made changes so that I can adjust your marks accordingly.  You are all on a level four for planning, the individual grade will largely depend on the changes you make to individual tasks. 

Group - Treatment

At the beginning of the video, before the music comes on, the main focus of the narrative calls the girl he is in love with, but the call is rejected.

I'm tired of kidding myself
Another pill, no good for my health
So I sit and smoke on my own
Think about you baby, are you feeling alone?
Cause I'd die just thinking that you'd forget
But I guess you won't

Within this verse it will be predominantly narrative with little half second shots throughout of the band in close-ups. As for the narrative, the protagonist will be in his room taking a tablet, with empty pill packets left laying around on the floor. We will also have a lighter on the side and empty cigarette packets implying that he has been smoking in order to have an illustrative link between visuals and lyrics. We have decided to use predominantly handi-cam shots although we will include static shots in order to have variety in our piece.

 I wish I cared less, but I'm afraid I don't
You couldn't care less, so I guess you won't
Change your mind again

Throughout the chorus the shots will predominantly be performance. We think a close-up on the singers face when the first line 'I wish I cared less' is spoken would be very effective before going into other band shots. This will be alternative to the first verse in which performance is the main focus and narrative will be shown in small flashes throughout.  

I can't stop dreaming of you
It does me no good and it's turning into
A splinter that I can't find under my skin
So I'll make another hole in the wall
Think about the times I didn't love you at all
Cause I just can't make myself again
So I guess I won't

When the last line of the chorus ends, it goes back to narrative in which the protagonist is leaving his house and walking down the road. Links will be made between lyrics and visuals with signifiers such as walking through a broken wooden fence (hence 'splinter').  It then alters focus to performance, showing the band performing, before returning to some form of narrative. At the end of the verse, the protagonist enters a scrap yard with a close-up shot of him throwing a cigarette on the floor.

I wish I cared less, but I'm afraid I don't
You couldn't care less, so I guess you won't
Change your mind again

Throughout this chorus an equal split of performance and narrative will be evident. Slow-motion shots of the protagonist throwing items at the wall and hitting things in the scrap yard will be shown in unison with moving shots of the band.  

I've tried to right myself
But our love came crashing down
Like a tidal wave, a tidal wave
I'm fighting with my hands
And I hope you know we're digging our own graves
For your mistakes

I wish I cared less, but I'm afraid I don't
You couldn't care less, so I guess you won't
Change your mind again

I've tried to right myself
But our love came crashing down like a tidal wave
I'm fighting with my hands
And I hope you know we're digging our own graves 

When the music ends after a brief pause, the protagonists phone rings, and it is from the girl that he has been acting recklessly over.

Group - Link to Pitch Presentation

Below is the link to our Prezi for our pitch, as we progress with ideas for our pitch they will be added to this Prezi and we will update this post with ideas as a group.

http://prezi.com/xortekq-juia/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Group - Concept Developement

In todays lesson we have continued discussing our concept and have made a few more vital decisions. We have completed our questionnaire created on survey monkey and now we just need to send it off and compile the results. We have also decided we are going to complete a location reccie in Brighton and Bat and Ball along with using Will's bedroom for shots within our narrative. We need to look further in the drama studio to gain a greater idea of how the lighting works for our performance part even though we already have a basic idea of the technicalities of how it works. The last thing we are currently doing is creating a Prezi filled with visuals and key phrases that will help to aid our pitch when we come to present it.

Group - After Effects Idea

In regards to post production special effects, as a group we have decided we want to use After Effects to create the effect posted previously by Dan. To do this, I have found a tutorial that teaches us how to produce an RGB channel split. We aim to do this on the shot of the drum being hit to begin the song. Below is an example of where its been used effectively in the Dorje song Aeromancy.

Group - Lesson Progress

Today we had a double period in which we continued to discuss our concept making some vital decisions. We came to the conclusion of using the location of a teenagers bedroom that has been turned over within our piece and furthermore, go to shoot somewhere vibrant like Brighton or Camden. Within the lesson itself we completed our questionnaire for audience research that is now ready to be distributed and completed. We then all worked on and completed our analysis of six frames before putting them together in Premier. This was with our song played over the top in order to gain an idea of how these shots would look within a song such as the one we have chosen.

Group - Audience Research

We decided as a group to create a questionnaire to achieve the data for our audience research. We decided to use the platform of the website SurveyMonkey as it is all electronic and appropriate for us, as we are able to send it to a wide audience online, such as through social media. Therefore, we can gain a large range of responses and also hopefully achieve our target audience as the respondents as most of our online friends are of the same demographics.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LTX3WRQ

RG - Storyboard Draft

Here is a video of our 6 key frames which we each chose from our analysis of music videos, combined with our track to get a draft idea for our storyboard.

WB - Six Key Frames

Young Guns -  Bones

Close-ups within performance of the musicians as well as there instruments is a very conventional   method used by rock bands within music videos, and is used again in this one. We would like to try emulate this in our piece, having shots of the artist singing into the microphone as well as shots of the drummer hitting a part of the drum. We believe these shots can look very effective when done well and moreover with added effects such as RGB channel crossover.

 I also like this shot as the use of stage lights, and a spotlight, creates a silhouette of the drummers body. This works really well and we believe would be really effective if we created a shot similar to this one.

The 1975 - Settle Down

This shot, although not directly linking to our video, looks very effective and a similar shot could be used in ours if we choose to. The character looks annoyed and is giving a glare at the driver in the front. This could relate to our concept as we have a teenage boy who is annoyed and frustrated. 

A shot like this could be used in our piece because it is a slow-motion shot in which the boy is punching the air. A narrative shot like this is not necessarily linked to ours and thus would not be replicated, but on the other hand, the use of slow-motion is very effective and something we would like to experiment with in our piece.

   

 

 

RG - Six Key Frames

The 1975 - Robbers

Drenge - Backwaters



DW - Six Key Frames

Royal Blood - Out of the Black - Key Frames

By focusing on this video, I can pick out 6 key performance shots that we can experiment with in our music video.



In this shot, Kerr and Thatcher are shown as silhouettes, creating an absence from the video. The use of the celluloid film overlay also helps to connote this, distancing them from the audience. They are however simultaneously present as they are seen playing their instruments, conforming to one of Dyer's key paradoxes of the star image.

This shot, similar to the previous one shows Kerr and Thatcher playing their instruments. Although there is still low key lighting, they are more well lit than before, showing their faces and instruments. They are positioned on a third each, Kerr to the left and Thatcher to the right. The use of the reading path draws the audiences eye to Kerr before Thatcher. This is important as Kerr is the front man of the band, who audiences will connect with most.

Here, a close up is used to show Kerr's bass and Thatcher's cymbal, on the right and left thirds respectively. The shot is out of focus and uses the celluloid film overlay. This creates a distance between the band and the audience, and is used at a very high cutting rate as a filler shot.

Kerr is shown on the left third as an out of focus silhouette, distancing him from the audience. His microphone is shown in the top right third, also out of focus but well lit, to maintain the idea that he is the anger, and fully establish who is in shot. The way the lighting is positioned creates a glow coming from behind Kerr, making him seem powerful despite his lack of prevalence in the shot.

The close up shot of Thatcher's snare drum is a shot we are going to try out in our song, as it starts with a hit on the snare. The drum is in focus showing its prominence in the song, with the background out of focus. The way the lights are out of focus causes them to blur, which takes the attention off of the lights, and more on the drum, causing the audience to feel part of the music.

This shot is one of the most exposing shots in the music video, as Kerr can be seen in focus in good lighting conditions. In Dyer's terms, this is the present shot that rewards the audience for their consumed consumption, however the short is short enough to leave them wanting more. The non-verbal language is key in this shot, as you can really see the emotion on Kerr's face, to the extent he looks in pain. This positions the audience with Kerr as he is shown to be ordinary and humane, as opposed to a rock star who is distant from his audience.