29/01/10

This morning we had a task to write about things that we look forward to and what problems there might be and how we can solve them.

Looking forward to:
Seeing how the video looks like when its finished because I want the video to be very appealing to anyone who sees it.

A problem:
Finding people who look like they fit into the music video and act convincing because otherwise it won't look good.

Solution to problem:
Have lots of auditions for the parts that appear in the video or be prepared to change the story and stick with one convincing performer.


After we completed this task we looked at music videos that have the same music genre as ours. We then had to count how many cuts there are in the first 30 seconds and the first minute.

1. Professional music video:
First 30 seconds: 12 cuts.
First minute: 40 cuts.

2.Hurtwoodhouse music video:
First 30 seconds: 19 cuts.
First minute: 32 cuts.

3.Old Long Road Media studies music video:
First 30 seconds: 10 cuts.
First minute: 18 cuts.

As you can see the 'Old Long Road Media studies' music video has the least cuts of all of them which lets most of them down. A good music video has lots of cuts at a good paste.


Our last task of the day was to go around Coleridge and shoot pictures paying attention to framing and style of our music video. Here are some picture which I find particularly interesting:
Max on the stage - framing would be different but the empty stage and the setting would be almost identical.


Close up of a guitar.


Another picture of a stage similar to what we would use.


A green, also a location of our music video.


Jahmal playing the guitar - framing similar to what we would use.


A picture of the weather we hope to get when shooting the music video.


Stairs - will probably not occur in the music video, but like the framing.


Jahmal again, framing is nice.


Canvas reference, focus on one word only, framing very nice.

Thanks to Max and Jahmal for being in the pictures.

Feedback for presentation of treatments

Here is the feedback we received in class today for the presentation of everywhere and 1234

Everywhere by Michelle Branch:

1.

• Obvious concept
• Band?
• Like the idea - approval?
• locations?

2.

• I like the dream idea
• Camera shots should be effective
• How will you get water dripping from the celling?
• Writing on the wall will be effective
• I like the first ending better (all a dream)
• Sounds like it will be a very effective video.
• Good ideas guys.

3.

• Good location
• Nice story plot!
• How you do water effect?
• Cool interest in editing (fast pace)
• Sound calm and relaxed get some good shots with that idea

4.

• Good idea
• Where will you film?

5.

• How will the water drop from the ceiling?
• I like Elliott's idea for the second half

6.

• Good concepts
• water drops? A bit typical
• The Master (dr. who) nice touch!
• Prefer 1st ending
• Bus filming?

7.

• I like the idea of the two different story lines.
• Good idea having two ideas for the song.

8.

• Good idea - performance - dream
• Canvas idea is amazing.
• Water idea maybe difficult
• Imagery is good
• multiple endings

9.

• Performance & story mix is good
• Story is good
• Linking lyrics with video

10.

• Good idea of the dream
• Canvas - Brilliant
• I like the trickery idea.

Answer to questions:

1. Elliot has friends who play instruments

and for the stage we will use either Long Road sixth form college's stage (the hall) or the performance room in Coleridge. For her room we will use any possibility. For the busy street we might film near the Grafton Centre or near Grand Arcade in Cambridge.

2. We will use a watering can or something similar. We won't show the celling just the floor and the room and water will fall on it from above.

1 2 3 4 by Feist:

1.

• I don't understand the switching idea very much.
• Static - nice idea

2.

• Difficult lip sync
• Placement might be difficult
• Band performance is good idea

3.

• A quite detailed idea - I like the idea of the changing locations.
• What sort of costumes will be used?

4.

• I don't understand
• What locations?

5.

• Like the concept

7.

• 1st idea is better.

8.

• Cleat what you want it to look like
• Might get a bit repetitive
• Band performance. good idea, but where would you get the equipment from?
• I like the idea of switching the location

9.

• Boy? Girl?
• Where will you find the band?
• locations?

Treatments for "Everywhere"

Treatment for Everywhere by Sven

We start the video with the lead vocalist (girl) sitting on a chair playing an acoustic guitar, wide shot. She is on a stage or something similar. We have close ups of different parts of the guitar, while she is playing it. We also have extreme close ups of her face showing mouth and eyes etc.
These shots are intercut with footage of her sleeping in a bed. She is moving slightly. When the first lyric is sung [“Turn it inside out...”] we have a shot of her face singing on the stage.

After we cut back to her sleeping [“And when I wake you're...”] she wakes up lying in a double bed no-one lying besides her. When she lies down again and falls asleep a boy appears besides her [“But when I sleep you're, you're everywhere”]

After this we cut back to her playing the guitar on her own, and when the drums and the guitars begin to play louder the band appears behind her.

[“The water's getting deep”] - Water dropping from her room's ceiling like in 'Shine On'- The Kooks'

During the song she is in her room singing and/or playing guitar and the boy appears in different places as if she is seeing a ghost/transparent person. She is also performing with the band - different shots and angles used. When she is performing with the band the boy is not there.

In the fifth chorus when she sings “I'm not alone” three times, she painting 'I'M NOT ALONE' onto her wall in red paint.

Near the end she is going out of her flat and walking through a city. Waiting for a bus and getting on it - looking through the window and seeing buildings going by, while singing and looking thoughtful. Intercut with her performing with the band.

When she goes off the bus she is walking along a busy street and everyone has the same face – the one of the boy she always dreams of.

Final chorus [“Do you see me?”] she stands still and everyone is walking past her in a quick paste (time-lapse).

Locations:

Stage: Either Long Road sixth form college's stage or the room performance in Coleridge.

Her Room: My little sisters room or any other possibility.

Bus station: Cambridge

Busy street: St Andrew's Street, Cambridge.

EVERYWHERE- MICHELLE BRANCH BY ELLIOTT

The video begins with the singer sitting down in an empty location, playing an acoustic guitar, singing to the beginning of the song. Camera shots mostly on her face and guitar, and a wide of the whole body. Cut in with shots of a double bed, with the singer on one side, singing the song. During the line ‘And when I sleep’, extreme close up of the singers eye closing, and then opening up. When the singers eye is closed, begin a filter that makes the situation seem more dream like, and cut to a wide of the bed, revealing someone in it. The singer rolls over. Cut back to acoustic performance for a static camera shot of the singers face for the line ‘You’re everywhere’.

Singer begins to wander round house, and sees the same man in a room, as she double-takes, we see that he is no longer there. We see her leaving the house and wondering down the street, and seeing the man talking on his phone/ upon looking again, we see it is a diffrent looking person talking on his phone. During this we intercut with acoustic performance singing the long. At the line ‘Always there’, we are at the acoustic performance and track into her face, and then pull back out to reveal our first band performance, where the singer is standing, and has no guitar, but a band instead. For this first chorus, mostly static camera angles should be used, with slight, sharp tripod based movement on some parts, and camera angles on all performers (Singer, Guitar, Bass, Drums). A small amount of performance on the chorus should be on the acoustic performance. Close up of the singers face for the first ‘I’m not alone’, and on the second ‘I’m not alone’, QUICK flash cuts of the singer writing/spray painting the line on a wall or sheet of canvas, but because of the flash cut’s we shouldn’t be able to see too clearly what she’s writing.

For the second verse, we see the singer sitting alone at a park, singing the song, and on a shot from behind we see the man, running past, cut back to the singers face, and then back to the runner who is just a normal runner. Singer still singing the song, out of focus is a bench, with two people, both are the same person, as the singer looks over, it is just two people having a conversation. This verse is designed to explore the use of the line ‘You’re everywhere’.

Second chorus, we have band performance again, but the camera is moving on a dolly around the performers, focusing from one to the other, intercut with the singer sitting in the park singing, instead of sitting down at the acoustic performance. At the ‘I’m not alone’ at the end of the end of the second verse, we see her writing it like we did at the end of the first verse, but it is clear what she is doing, and we keep cutting back to this throughout the solo, cut with band members on a stage? playing the music. At the end of the solo we see the singer standing next to the wall/canvas. For the slow bit after the solo, cut back to the acoustic performance, and cut that with singer sitting at park.

For the final chorus, the band is in full swing, with big movements from all performers, and fast dolly panning throughout the performance, and handheld camera shots of the area, with the singer singing in front of the ‘I’m not alone’ wall/canvas. This is intercut with the singer seeing the man at the park, and after seeing again, it’s still him. She chases after him, but he fades away, along with everything around her. We see the singers eyes open, like at the beginning of the song, with her alone in bed, revealing that the song was a dream.

We will use the best ideas of the treatments and combine them so that we have one good treatment we both agree to.

Presentation for everywhere and artist

Everywhere by elliott and sven

View more presentations from longroadcreative.

Moodboard and first ideas for Everywhere

These notes are ideas for the video we are making. (click on image to see everything)




This is the moodboard for our music video everywhere. (click on image to see everything)

Music choices

On Friday we finished listening to every track on the playlist. We then discussed our favorite 4 tracks out of them all and ordered them to preference. Our 4 favourite tracks where:

1. 'Everywhere' by Michelle Branch
2. 'Shadows' by Au Revoir Simone
3. 'Number One Enemy' by Daisy Dares You
4. '1234' by Feist

We could not really decide between 'Shadows' and 'Everywhere' because they are both really good songs, yet very different. We had different ideas for both songs, for example, a really nice looking story for 'Shadows' with close up hold for a long time and visually really beautiful. For 'Everywhere' we thought about a nice story and a band performance together.
After thinking about which one would make a better music video we both agreed on choosing 'Everywhere' because we felt that it would suit a music video.

Music video jobs

1. Preproduction

• Previsualition: moodboard, timeline, - together. storyboard, - Sven. animatic. - Elliott
  

• Production Design: locations, costumes, props, make-up, set. - Elliott.
  

• Production Manager: logistics, budget, cast & crew, organisation. - Sven.
  

2. Production

• Director: shotlist, directing. - together.
  

• Cinematography: camera, framing, lighting. - together.
  

• Production assistant: lyrics, music, props, costume. - Elliott
  

• Performance/Choreography: dance routine. - together.
  

• On-set Photographer: evidence for blog and for digipak. - ?.
  

3. Postproduction

• Editor: lipsynch, colour correction, special effects. - together.
  

• Digipak/Poster: together.
  

• Marketing: together.
  

Tracks we have listened to so far

The songs we have listened to so far and my comments and ideas for them:

• Summertime Clothes by Animal Collective - this song I thought would be very hard to do because there is so much going on at the same time. I did not really think about what we could do for this video if we would choose to do it. Here is the video:

• Shadows by Au Revoir Simone - this song was our favourite song of all the songs we have listened to so far. We agreed that we need shots that are really beautifully, have a good framing, and just look amazing. I also had the idea of someone lying on a bed. Here is the official video, which in my opinion is very good:

• Margarita by Brakes- I found this song not too bad but Elliott did absolutely not like the voice of the singer so we thought not to do a music video for this song. Here is a live performance of this video:

• Mansion in the Sky by Brian Jonestown Massacre- I did not like this song which was acoustic which I normally like, but because it is strongly connected to religion I thought it would be better not to do a music video for this song. Here is the video:

• Feel the love by Cut Copy- I like this song. It is really good for a band performance video intercut with a storyline. Here is the the track:

• Number one enemy by Daisy Dares You- This song was our second choice (after Shadows) out of the track we have listened to so far. I really like that a second singer sings with her in the middle of the track. They both could be in the video discussing and screaming at each other and singing. Here is the official video:

• Let's Go Surfing by The Drums- This song had in my opinion nothing exciting about it. It was all one one line. I thought about them getting up in the morning and having breakfast. Here is the video:

• Wicked Little Girls by Esthero- This song was okay. You could imagine a group of girls messing around with boys. Here is a live video of the song:

• 1234 by Feist - I really like this song. It is very catchy and joyful. Here is the amazing video which is in my opinion a really good concept and a creative idea!:
  

• Lie by Jazzanova- This song would be in my opinion very hard to do because of all of the music instruments that are involved. Here is the track:

• You've no clue do you by King Creosote- This song is in my opinion good but very even throughout so it seems that there would be little or no change in the band performance. Here is the video

• Lovesick by Lindstrøm & Christabelle- all I could think of when I heard this song was something like the Powers video a Media group did a few years ago (Youtube). Similar to that, several frames in one and the mouth singing. Here is the track:

• I'm Good, I'm Gone by Lykke Li- This song was also very much the same time over and over again. Which is okay for a short period of time but not for the whole song. Here is the track:

• You'll disappear by The Phenomenal Handclap Band- This song was also very repetitive. I also did not like the voices of the lead singers. Here is the video:

My Generation test shoot

This is the final edit of My generation I did.

This is a screen shot of the project and the timeline.

Jasmine's presentation report

Today we had a guest explaining to us how the standards differ from an A-Level to the real life in making music videos. She also told us what she has been doing in this area.

Jasmine Blackborow who did Media as one of her A-Levels, won the BBC Blast competition when she was 18 years old.

This is the video she did with her a-level group and won the competition with:

What I like about this video is that it is very colourful as well as different shots/angles. It also has a party feeling to it.

After she won the competition she got £3,000 from the BBC to produce another, professional music video. She got together with a team of people who are professionals in producing music videos and got a role as director.
She then had to come up with ideas to a song which the producer chose for her. After everything was done she knew what differences there are in producing a video for A-levels or for the music industry.
Here is the video she directed with the professional team:


After we watched both videos she explained to us how she worked with the professionals and how a music video is produced.

• The 'Producer' is in charge of budget and the team (director etc.) The producer is also in touch with the artists and producer company.

• The 'Treatment' is a paper version of the music video, with quotes of the lyrics and visuals such as pictures to pinpoint specific ideas.

• 'Referencing' is getting ideas of other music videos as well as films and the media in general.
  

• The 'Shotlist' is every shot explained in text. There is a rough one and after l while a detailed one, so that the team knows exactly what shot to shoot.

• 'Storyboarding' is the rough 'shotlist' but in visuals, mostly hand drawn images.
  

• The 'Contact sheet' is very important because it lists the people and equipment plus a map. The contact sheet is normally produced by the assistant producer.

• The editors use the storyboard and shotlist to edit the music video.

• Mindmap to see what connects to each other and to see what could work.

• Schedule for the day of shoot - to plan and see what next to film.

• Lyrics breakdown and timeline to get ideas what to come when and where.

She then told us that it is very important when we are producing our music videos to take these points into account:

• Updating: discuss ideas with the group and constantly update any changes and any ideas on a 'Treatment' so that everyone in the group is up to date.
  

• Know what's going on: stay constantly in touch with each other.
  

• Make decisions: be creative and productive.
  

• Have individual ideas: and compromise so that everyone is happy.

• Have not more than 3 locations, otherwise it gets too complex.

It was really helpful to have someone who has worked with the music industry, but also knowing what we need to do in order to produce a good music video.

1. Technical Skills:
I have made several films including a film for the Sawston Fun Run, the opening of an Public Garden in Sawston and a wedding. I edited them by myself and used Adobe Premiere for it. I am also familiar with other editing programs such as Sony Vegas and Final Cut.
I am also the projectionist at the Sawston Cinema which screens a film every month.

2. Creative Skills:
I have done several animations in the past which include stickman animation, hand drawn animation and light painting animation. Examples on Youtube.

3. Organisational Skills:
By making films, such as for the Sawston Fun Run, I had to organise my own team, and facilities such as cameras, tripods etc.
I am also currently a director of a film the Sawston Cinema group will produce in a few weeks time.

4. Special Power/s:
Connections to reenactment group if music video would be set in the dark ages.

What makes a good music video:

• team work - communication
• convincing performances from the actors/musicians
• good lighting
• space for the equipment
• time management
• organisation
• props/costume
• good lipsynching
• choreography
• smooth flowing
• variety of shots
• costume fits genre

Karoke - Generation music video

Today we created

Finished Digipak

This is the finished Digipak with the barcode and the small writing.

Ancillary Tasks: Digi-pack

I got the band and song called: Robots in Disguise - La Nuit, this band has two members - Dee Plume (guitar and vocals) and Sue Denim (bass and vocals). They main genre is Indie and electropunk.

This is Robots in Disguise's cover of the album 'Get RID!' - It also contains the song 'La Nuit'

This is my first try of producing a digipak for the album 'Get RID!'

Shapes Music video

This is the Shapes test music video I created today:

sven shapes from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Student music videos

In today's lesson at coleridge the first task which we had to do was look at a variety of previous college work music videos and nominate which ones we thought had the following:

Best male vocal - Powers
Best editing - Powers
Most innovative concept - Powers

Best female vocal - I Don't want to see you

Best use of location - Back against the wall
Best camera work - Back against the wall

Wooden Spoon (worst video) - Boston

The reasons why I nominated Powers as the best male vocal, best editing and most innovative concept is because in the video you see excellent lip synching when the rapper comes on, and it really takes off.In my opinion the editing at the beginning is really unique because I like the way they have four different shots in the same frame at the same time. They have really thought about this video very well, and what the song is talking about goes well with what is happening in the video.

The female vocals in 'I don't want to see you is quite good because the lip synching is in time, and they have used close-ups to show how well they have got the lips moving in time with the artist singing.

Back against the wall has a variety of locations including people in front of a wall with their back against it. They also have an office shot and a playground shot, but it is ironic because the little boy is in the office and the man is in the playground. Jahmal and me both agreed that the camera work is very interesting as they have a variety of interesting shots.

Finally the Wooden Spoon award goes to Boston. Lip synching wasn't in time, they didn't really use much camera shots, and the editing for me didn't work well.

Music video - Sway by The Kooks

This is the music video I chose to write about.
I really like the interesting shots used, for example, low angle shots looking up to the lead vocalist of the band, and many close ups. The video is in black and white which is visually different.
The shots are not cut to the beat, which makes the video less predictable.
The performance and the special effects of this video are really great and that is probably why I like the video so much. The best effect is when the ceiling is being blown off.
The video also has a sort of story which you would not know about from just listening to the music.
At the beginning of the video you can see all of the band members whereas this changes halfway through. This change of only seeing the main vocalist of the band shows that this song is very personal to just him.
The music is very powerful and intense which the video also represents very good.

music video

This is the video Jahmal, Tom B, and I created on Tuesday. It was a test shoot to make us more familiar with lipsynching and creating music videos.

This is a screen shot of Final Cut showing the whole time line and the video strips.
This is a screen shot of the time line showing the markers which I used to align the sound with the video.

The first thing we did was get into groups and decide which of the four songs we would like to make a music video for. I got into a group with Jahmal and Tom B. We then got a sheet with the shots we must include while making the video. I was the bassist/guitarist of the band, Tom B. the lead vocalist, and Jahmal the drummer.

Making this video I improved my skills in creating music videos in general. I used more than one time line for the visuals so that I could easily switch between the different performances.

Tuesday lipsynch video

This is another practice Rob and I did on Tuesday. We did that exercise to learn how to lipsynch.
The first thing we did was opening the project and then putting the original music onto A1 on the time line. We then got the main video performance and put it onto V2 on the time line. After that we looked on the audio of the original and searched for a significant change in the sound wave and put a marker there. Then we looked for the same change on the audio wave of the performance and put a marker there as well. After we did that we aligned both markers on the same spot so that it would match both video and original soundtrack. We then did the same thing to the other parts of the performances. The last thing we did was to remove the recorded sound of the video so that only the original was audible.

Doing this task was very easy and straightforward.

Tuesday video 1

This is the first video we created for the music video project. It was edited by Rob and me.
Our task was to choose a music track and then edit video clips of an existing music video to it.
By doing this task I learned how to edit certain clips to music. We sometimes changed shots to the beat to make the visuals more relating to the music.
This task was very fun to do because there were dancing animals involved.

welcome