Making the Most of Available Locations

While searching for well known videos with low budgets on YouTube I came across another Bombay Bicycle Club music video this time it is "Always Like This". The video makes excellent use of simple locations, something which we will have to do because of the lack of budget. During the video the band are playing at a bus stop, in front of garages, in a park, on a high street, in front of a row of houses, in a car park and in front of a ice cream shop.

The video has a homemade feel which is emphasised by the stop, pause and play logos on the top left corner as if the audience was viewing it through an old camcorder, also the framing is changed to make it seems as it is being watched on an old TV. They play around with reversing and fast forwarding the characters playing the instruments while moving side to side which creates an odd interesting effect. The video for Always Like This was the first thing that put Bombay Bicycle Club into the charts and gave them an impressive fan following. The video is a quirky introduction to the band which gives them some originality while also creating the video on a low budget.

Below a link to the video Always like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qkj62rkbrm&ob=av2n

Bombay Bicycle Club: Evening/Morning

Apart from having a great sound Bombay Bicycle Club have some interesting videos with simple but effective ideas. The video Evening/Morning is one that i am interested in particularly; the video has an odd them that doesn't really make sense but it is enjoyable and fun spirited. What i like in particular is the deep focus in the opening scene of the "Panda man" sitting on the bench, this year with the use of high definition cameras I believe we can make some very high quality scenes if we use natural light correctly. The problems we experienced last year were due to poor light conditions because we started filming approaching sun down at around 6pm, for this years project for outside scenes I think because of the time of year and the mood of our song we should start filming around 5pm to catch the autumn sky's sun sunset. The scenes we plan to shoot outside involve our main character driving or being driven down a country/forest one way road which is covered by tall trees on each side. I think this will create a conditions good effect because there will be light shining in between the trees and due to the autumn the orange/brown leaves will off set the trees and bring some colour to our scene.

I also like the semi-slow motion scenes which make up a majority of the video, however I am not sure if the character is moving slowly or the film has been slowed down, obviously I know that the two men chasing him are over exaggerating every step to add comic effect. However the lead singer Jack Steadman seems to be lip sycnhing in real time. I think the slowed down effects emphasises the location and colours within in the scene although they are plain and dull you notice them more.

The band scene where they are playing the instruments is also interesting the use of stop/start jump shots gives a simple but unique feel, the band are wearing bright colour clothing and as it jumps from shot to shot they have exchanged clothing, this is another simple but effective idea which can bring colour and a fun feel to a music video. Also i like the fact that they are in front of what seems to be a garage with no one there but them. Gig scenes with screaming fans appear in too many music videos and have no real effect unless it is a parody, yet again another simple but effective idea. Evening/Morning is one of my favourite music videos by on of my favourite bands and with different ideas than most artists their videos portray them in a different way than other similar artists.