Genre

Our music video is very much in line with the rest of the Rock Genre, a performance video, preferably in an interesting location.

It follows the example of bands such as Metallica and U2 in their locations, with their songs I Disappear and Vertigo, and with the relatively simple, up close and personal camera work which is common throughout the genre.

Helena & Frazer

Representation

Representation would be constructions of reality which represent the 'real' world to the viewers.

The one-man band, attempts to fulfill all the roles of the stereotypical band within our music video;
- Using the appropriate instruments, and the typical band layout.
- Giving each member a unique costume, all in the style of "rock stars"
- We related the locations to the lyrics, with the song starting within the desert, and transitioning through the lyrics to Vegas at the end.
- Using Butch's Walkers location in the USA as a basis of our location. With the video based in Arizona.


This is a shot from Stuart and Stephen's thriller project. In this shot we wanted to represent the character as a "Bad Boy", and the cigarette is symbolic with criminals in other films.

Music Video Evaluation- Helena

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our product uses, develops and challenges conventions of real media products by creating links between the lyrics and visuals; like Andrew Goodwin says in his book “Dancing in the Distraction Factory” (Routledge 1992) music lyrics will have some relevance with the visuals. We achieved this by having the background as a desert in the night time which gradually turns into day time, when the singer says begins the song with the line “And the sky is falling on a summer desert night” which is illustrated in our video. Also in the 3^rd verse the singer mentions celebrities in Vegas; therefore we had chosen to have a Vegas like background on our product.

Our song comes under the genre of Rock, so a record company producing records for bands similar to ours, would expect the artists to be represented in a ‘rocky’ manner, we achieved this through the costumes our performer was wearing e.g. the head scarf. Many rock music videos have shots of all the band members playing altogether at some point in the video, in the chorus of our project we had all the band members playing and singing together.

We used various inter-textual references; one of them being the music video ‘Vertigo’ by U2 (2004), this music video gave us the idea to have a desert in the background, as it does the same thing in their music video visuals. Another example was by Rick Astley ‘Take Me To Your Heart’ in 1988, where he takes role as singer, camera man and mimes some lines of the female backing singers this gave us the idea to have Stuart playing as every member of the band.

The camera shots we used were varied, like in the Rick Astley video there are sections of it which are filmed with the camera hand held, we also achieved this technique, like for example with the outside shots. We also had low angle shots and mid-shots, we used varied shots to keep the audience interested.

Our mise-en-scene consists of instruments and costumes, they are important because the audience has to be able to tell and see the difference between the 4 different characters. During our planning time we watched a couple of music videos to give us ideas on what to include on our product. One of the music videos we watched was ‘The Masterplan’ by Oasis (1995), it consists of 3D animation to give the illusion of a 3D environment, and this gave us the idea to create ourselves some 3D backgrounds. Also we watched ‘I Disappear’ by Metallica (2000), where it has full band member shots; like in our project we did this for the chorus.

For the Digipak we looked various examples, most of which had all of the band members in the front cover e.g. Queen- Greatest Hits. The front cover of our digipak has a picture of all the members with one of our 3D backgrounds. Also we did a parody of the Abbey Road album by The Beatles. Magazines typically use persuasive/informative language e.g. ‘Out now’ we also tried to use this type of language our on magazine advert, we achieved this by having a review quote and an album summary.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The reason why each panel of our digipak is slightly different is because we wanted to achieve a sense of individuality, but keeping with the four band member concept. One way we combined our ancillary text with our product was by having screen captures from the video on the digipak, so that it links together, also for the magazine advert and the front cover of the digipak we had the four members of the band standing on the 3D Vegas background, we did this because we wanted to maintain the brand identity. For the track list on the digipak we used the night desert picture as the background, we did this because it has a connection with the video, it being a “Summer Desert Night”. The panel with the Abbey Road parody also shows the four members of the band, which in some way pays honor to what can be considered one of the best album covers of all time. The panel which consists of a silhouetted version of the four members was to show the difference the band members without colours. There are two disc trays because we wanted to have a CD with all the music tracks and one with just the video.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The feedback from the class on the rough cut said that it was in an unfinished state with the green screen background incomplete; however the class commented that Stuart gave strong performances. The teacher’s feedback on this was that we had unique 3d background ideas, and the idea of having the same person playing as all members of the band worked well. In consequence of the feedback we continued working on the backgrounds, and finalizing the effects e.g. Chroma Key.

The overall feedback on the blog was that the posts were detailed, good research ideas on the digipak and good Photoshop work. The things we needed to improve on the blog according to the feedback would be to have a post with information on what’s on disc 2, also we need to cut down the length of the posts, as some are too lengthy, and make another post, to increase the number of posts on out blog.

The feedback we received regarding out digipak was that the visuals worked well, the Photoshop work was good and that it had the band details. The areas we would need to improve on would be some information on what’s on disc 2, and to stick to a theme.

The feedback on the magazine advert was that we had good attention to details, the landscape layout was also praised and that we had a good amount of information. However we also received comments that it was possibly a little plain and that the theme might not have fitted in too well.

The feedback we received from our final product was that the idea of using a green screen was good, the effects were good and that we had a good range of camera shots. The feedback also mentioned that the drums were out of sync and that we needed to work more on sharpening out green screen effects.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We filmed using a Canon MD205 camera both for our video and documentary, which then was uploaded on the Apple Mac. We used Facebook to talk to each other to plan things for the next lesson, we also used Twitter, Facebook and Myspace to try to contact Butch Walker (The artist of our song) which unfortunately up-to-date we have received no reply. In addition we used YouTube to look at other music video examples to gives ideas on our piece. The programs we used to make the piece were, Photoshop for picture editing (Magazine and Digipak), Final Cut for composing and editing the project and Modo to do the 3d backgrounds.

Editing

The two images on the left show the program "Final Cut Express" with our video project file open.As you can see, we had many video tracks to edit. This is because of the multiple takes of every "Band Member" we took. Although this meant we had a lot of editing to do, it did give us a lot of flexibility with camera shots.

The image on the left here is a screenshot of the image manipulation software "Photoshop". This screenshot shows our Abbey Road parody image along with a cut-out Band Member.

Finished Digipak Design

Above is the design for our Digipak. Our front cover shows the title of the Digipak - Butch Walker; Paid to Get Excited - as well as clearly showing our four band members and the record company "Briefcase Records".

With our back cover, we wanted it to act - in a way - as a second cover. This is why we did not place any text it. We also chose to stick with the idea of making an Abbey Road parody when it came to this final design.

Digipak Template

This is the template we gathered from the internet for our Digipak. It contains spaces for six panels.
(In Lesson, write a brief paragraph about where each of the six panels are in "real space")

Abbey Road Parody

For our Abbey Road Parody shot, we needed a shot of a Zebra crossing. Our original shot (shown on the left) is of Luard Road in Cambridge. As well as a lack of a Zebra Crossing on the shot the weather was dingy and dull.





Here is the edited version of the photo. It now contains a Zebra Crossing and we have made the image look much nicer and appealing.

Photo shoot for Digipack and Magazine Advert

For our Digipack and Magazine Advert we needed to get photos of the band members in the poses we required.
To get these photos we decided to hold a short photo shoot. Below are the raw photos we took and approved for possible use.

Initial Ideas for Magazine Advert and Digipack Design

DIGIPACK

FRONT COVER IDEA

Our idea for the front cover of the digipack is to use the image displayed on the left with the four band members positioned on the right on a diagonal, with one in front of the band member behind.
On the right is a pencil sketch of this idea.

INSIDE-FRONT COVER IDEA

For the inside cover of our Digipack, we intend to use a screenshot from our finish video. The screenshot is the same as the one shown on the left here. We decided on this freezeframe because it contains all four band members during the song's chorus.
The left of this screenshot will contain a track list.

BACK COVER IDEA

Our idea for the Back Cover was inspired by The Beatles album "Abbey Road". We plan on getting the four band members walking across a zebra crossing in the same way The Beatles have.

MAGAZINE ADVERT IDEA

We plan, for the Magazine advert, to use the same idea we have used for our Front Cover, but to do a few alterations to it so it contains the relevant information for a Magazine advert as well as changing the aspect ratio to fit a magazine advert.

Feedback for Final Music Video

CLASS FEEDBACK
The feedback we got from the class greatly praised the performance from Stuart, saying the lip-syncing was done well and the act was very believable.
We were told that despite the few technical problems with the Chroma Keying effect in the final video the backgrounds worked well and fitted the lyrics nicely.

TEACHER FEEDBACK
One of the main pieces of feedback that we got from the teacher was about the 3D backgrounds. Although he commented on the advanced look of these backgrounds he said that he imagined them having more animation in them - for example, a car driving past in the Vegas background.
He also commented on the strong performance from Stuart, as well.

3D Background Test Render

Over the past month or so, Stephen has been creating 3D backgrounds that will be used for the GreenScreen effect in our Music Video.


To the left is a screenshot of the program Modo of an in-progress 3D model.





Below is a test render of the "Desert" scene that has been created. It consists of 240 frames and is still in progress - rendered as a test to make sure it would all render correctly.

Time Plan for Last Two Weeks

Across the next two weeks, before the deadline date for the project, we have a lot of opportunity for editing and final filming during our free time. This means that we have a set time to do particular tasks, but we have set aside spare time should the task be a tad more time consuming than first thought.

Today (Wednesday 4th November 2009), we are continuing to edit our footage - Chroma Keying and Cropping, mostly.
We have an hour or so later on in the day, should we need to continue on and finish up this task.

On Thursday 5th November 2009, we will be planning on the weekend filming session of Stu. We will be filming "The Drummer", "The Bass Player" and any last bit of footage required for "The Guitarist".

Saturday 7th November 2009 is the date we will be filming the sections we planned on the Thursday before. Because of the lack of college Over-Weekend Camera Bookings, we will be using Stephen's camera and the GreenScreen sheet we bought.

During Monday's (9th November 2009) our main task will be to get all of our footage uploaded to the computer and commence the editing on this footage.

Tuesday 10th November 2009 will be the continuation of this task. From 4:10pm until 8pm Tuesday we will be staying in college for extra editing time. During this time, the 3D backdrops Stephen has been creating will be finalised.

The last two lessons we have before the deadline, Wednesday 11th/Monday 16th November 2009, we will be completing the editing stage and rendering the final project, in time for the 3:25pm deadline on the Monday.

Class Feedback

Our rough cut Music Video garnered praise for various features, such as shot variety, and Stuart's performance and lip-syncing.

However, in it's rough form we appear to have peoples main criticism as being the unfinished state, with the Green screen incomplete and backgrounds missing. As well as a lack of other band members, seeing as we intend to composite the band together from various green screen shots of Stuart as the separate band members, as well as focusing on the ancillary details such as people walking past out of shot which will be cropped out. However they do criticize the close-ups of Stuart and a shot in the college grounds.

Our New GreenScreen

We all chipped in to buy a green piece of fabric which we will use our own green screen instead of borrowing the college's one.

Unfortunately we couldn't get a single piece that would meet our needs. Instead we bought two pieces of fabric, and sewed them together, creating an adequately sized screen.

This fabric, along with the thread used to sew it together, cost just under £15.00 in total - Coming to £3.75 per group member.

ROUGHCUT MUSIC VIDEO

This is our Roughcut video, uploaded to Vimeo.
It consists of the camera angles we plan on using at the particular moments of the song. However, we have not yet Chroma Keyed out the Green from the Greenscreen and composited the other band members onto the video.

We plan on getting more filming done between now and final editing to ensure we have exactly what footage we would like in our music video.

Filming

So far, we have filmed successfully 3 times.
1. Conference room
This was our first greenscreen session that produced useful footage. We used a greenscreen cloth borrowed from another student, and filmed more Singing footage, as well as some of the Guitar footage. Half of one shot was lost, as the tape reached the end. 3 cameras were used, a college camera, Steve's and Helena's cameras, and this session is where the core of our filming took place.

2. Field
This was a in-lesson shoot, on the college playing field. We did this as we were asked if we had any other shots in our video other than greenscreen. Two shots were taken, A handheld shot folling the singer, and another handheld shot, held by Stu while he was singing. These shots are unsteady, and so it is likely little of these shots will be used.

3. Music Room
This was our most recent shoot, and focused on the drums. Still greenscreened, most of this shoot was used to film cutaways of the drums, as we were limited by music lessons in other rooms.

Also, we have attempted to film 2 unsuccessfully.
1. Outside
This shoot, although giving us footage, was unsuccessful as although it was goodfootage, it was difficult to cut out and chromakey as wind meant ripples in the greenscreen. This was our first shoot.

2. Tuesday
We attempted to shoot on tuesday, but we were limited as the conference room was unavailable and the greenscreen was in use.

Green Screen Testing and Set Up

Originally, we tried having the green screen sheet secured outside. We found this problematic for a few reasons.
The first of these problems being lighting issues, mainly the weather/position of the sun. To get good light on Stu, this meant that a shadow was cast on the greenscreen which meant the Chroma Key made it difficult to cut out.
The other problem was the wind. This meant the Green Screen was being blown a little and therefore the creases were obvious and hard to Chroma Key out.

Our second setup was inside (Using a different Green Screen Sheet). We found this to be a much better set up due to the matte lighting and on casting shadow.






After Chroma Keying out the Green we found that the inside set up worked much better.

Visit from Ed Lovelace on 7th October 2009

Former Long Road Media student Ed Lovelace gave a talk to the media students on Wednesday the 7th of October, he talked about his music videos and career path into the film industry.

After Long Road he went to study Video Production at Bournemouth University (2003-2005). After he finished his university degree he went to work for a production company in London named Pulse.

Now he has a production company called Daryl.










With the company Pulse, Ed Lovelace has produced a numerous amount of videos, including the ones below

'Ain't No Rest For The Wicked' - Cage The Elephant


'In One Ear' - Cage The Elephant

Both Cage The Elephant videos were filmed on a £40,000 budget.

'Abandon Ship' - Gallows


'Laser Hannon' - Cutting Pink With Knives

This video was filmed in just 2 hours! In someone's friend's basement, it was made to look like it was filmed all in one shot, however it was a "faked" one shot - with the use of pillars and walls as places for the shot changes to take place.

Contacting Butch Walker via Myspace

This is a screenshot of our message to Butch Walker through Myspace. The message is as follows;

"Hi, my name is Stuart Lowe and i am part of a A2 Media group studying at Long Road in Cambridge, UK. for our assessed piece we are presented a series of music tracks and asked to make a video. We chose your track "Paid To Get Excited", and as part of our task, we have been asked to contact the artist, with regards to ideas about the song. Any information on the song, such as inspirations or ideas regarding the video would be welcome.

Thanks,
Stuart."

Contacting Butch Walker Via Facebook

Along with our attempts to contact the artist of our song choice through Twitter, we have posted a comment on Butch Walker's Facebook page.

To the left is a screenshot of Butch Walker's profile page on Facebook, with Helena's post, which reads:
"Hello there! I'm a student at Long Road 6th Form College in Cambridge, and for our Media coursework we have to make a music video, and we picked one of your songs "Paid To Get Excited" and we would like to ask if you've got any tips or anything for us. I hope to hear from you soon. thanks :)"