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.

Questionnaire Draft Questions

1.       Would a narrative and performance based video be suitable for this song?

2.       Are you male or female?

·         Male

·         Female

3.       What is your age group?

·         14-16

·         17-19

·         20-25

·         26-30

·         30+

4.       If you could create a music video for this song, would you base the narrative on a male or female?

·         Male

·         Female

5.       Do you think black and white footage would be appropriate for a rock song music video?

·         Yes

·         No

6.       Do you think slow motion is effective in a music video?

·         Yes

·         No

7.       Do you think a fast cutting rate is appropriate for this track? Why?

8.       Rank the following locations in order of suitability for our music video, 1 being the most popular.

·         Black studio (e.g. for special effects)

·         Urban Landscape

·         Countryside

·         Seascape

·         School

·         The character in the narrative’s bedroom

·         Iconic locations

9.       What style of lighting would expect in a music video for this song?

·         Low key lighting (Dark)

·         High key (bright)

·         Spot lighting

·         Coloured filters