Possible Future Issues: Filming Inside a Car

We are currently creating drafts of our storyboard for our music video and we are planning on using a car for a considerable amount of shots, we aim to film a few scenes from inside the car but the majority will be from the outside. Within the next two weeks will attempt all the angels and in car shots we wish to do to see the likely hood of the shots being of a high quality. With the ideas and plans we have any poor shots could ruin the quality of our video.

While i was researching online on how to film safely inside a car i came across a number of blogs which recommended using a small "fire wire" or a webcam mounted on the dash board or windscreen, however due to the lack of budget we cannot afford a fire wire or a mounted webcam so we will have to make sure the shots we produce inside the car are of a high quality.

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.

Progress!

Today we received an email to confirm the use of I Ran You Down by Tweed. We had previously been granted permission to use another of Tweed's songs "The Better Part of Me" however when we had listened to it a few times we thought that we could not do much with the song due to its heavily emphasised chorus.

Today we received an email which contained the lyrics and an Mp3 copy of the song, and once we had printed out multiple copies of the lyrics we each began highlighting strong lyrics, turning points in the song and parts where we think it will be suitable to lip synch. After five or so minuets we began drafting rough storyboard ideas and came up with some impressive scenes. At the moment the story of the video involves the main character who will be a male, realising his partner has left or cheated on him and he is trying not to let it get to him. He goes out driving and through out the song the key turning points make him realise that he is better off without her. We have many ideas for the ending but at this moment in time the main ones are; she wants him back but he drives past her in the car and moves on, or that he simply finds someone else and is happier.

We made solid progress today and have many ideas for shots which do not just mirror the strong lyrics but give meaning to song and gives the video a good balance, we have selected parts where we think lip synching is suitable and we don't want to just turn it into a boring four minuet band scene, we aim to balance the story with flashbacks, turning points, subtle reminders and make the most of the powerful meaning of the song.

Similar artists

Now we have permission to use I Ran You Down by Tweed, I have started to research similar artists to give me ideas to put forward to the group for the video. I have found a British artist called The Hoosiers who were the one hit wonders of July 2007 and have a similar sound and appearance to Tweed. I have researched the Hoosiers to give me ideas and inspirations of the conventions from the Hoosiers which may suit our video.

The Hoosiers are made up of Irwin Sparkes (Lead Vocals and lead guitar), Martin Skarendahl(Bass guitar and rhythm guitar) and Alphonso Sharland (Drums and percussion.) The Hoosiers are described as an English pop/rock band however they are not a conventional British band, NME puts the Hoosiers under the Odd-Rock category. I do not particularly like the Hoosiers and the main reason i have chosen to compare them to Tweed is simply because they have very similar images. I think that although Tweed are unsigned by a label they are a better artist, while looking at the lyrics of I Ran You Down it is clear that the song is based on real feelings, where as The Hoosiers lyrics are simply odd meaningless jingles.

Here is a link to the Hoosiers one hit wonder Good Bye Mr A:

hrrp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ielkqnieva&ob=av3n

Tweed

Tweed are a five piece band from Australia who have made relative success and have their album The Power Of Silence on ITunes. They consist of Oliver Jones (guitar, lead vocals, bass and keys), Artie ( vocals, guitar, bass, keys and sax), Matty C (bass and vocals), Karl (drums, percussion and vocals)and Watto (keys and vocals). We have a slight issue at the moment we have permission for their song "Better Part Of Me" however we no want to use " I Ran You Down." I Ran You Down has a slow intro which builds and builds into the chorus with great effect. The song also has a few strong lyrics such as "My hands tight on the steering wheel, I lined you up with a ton of steel."

Atlantis

In the past week we have been granted permission to use songs by three different artists; Atlantis, a Course Of Action and Tweed.Atlantis are a four piece band made up of; Paige LeFleur (Lead Vocals),Scott Weiss (Bass), Will Ragsdale (Drums) and Patrick Phelan (guitar) from Little Rock , Arkansas, USA. The song Signs has a smooth bass line which isnt too overpowering and allows the lead singer Paige's strong voice to stand out, the only problem is we would have to get a female with the right look and who would give a strong performance that complements the strong vocals.

A Course of Action

Finally the third band is an american quadrette called A Course Of Action the members of the band are; Greg Lucy (drums), John Culberson (vocals and rythm guitar), Jonathan Byrd (lead guitar) and Tony Hawkins (bass guitar). A Course Of Action seem to have achieved relative success and have toured through out Europe. There song screaming at first seem good for our video however the song stays at the same pace all the way through, and also the guitar riff overpowers the vocals.

Tweed I Ran You Down LIVE

While doing some research on our band Tweed i came across a live performance of the song we wish to use I ran you down. It is a pretty normal for a live set however it gives us more insight onto the style and possible Mise En Scene of our video.

Monatage Of Tweed Ideas

This is my montage of ideas and images that i collected while listening and reviewing I Ran You Down by Tweed, the australian four piece band we are currently seeking permission for use of their song. The basic idea is that a man is reflecting on a boken relationship, which due to the lyrics seems as the woman was the one who ended it. However it seems as the man is reflecting he realises he is better off without her and seems happy.

Four Year Strong: It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now

The video It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now by Four Year Strong is a great example of lip syncing. The video involves 20-30 fans of the band lip syncing the lyrics while walking down a street, every thirty seconds or so another group of fans come from behind them and take over the mock instruments, such as Guitar Hero guitars and blow up mics and guitars. The video has a real fun feel to it because it is obvious that the fans are enjoying the experience to star in one of their favourite bands video.

From watching the video it is clear that it may have taken many takes and planning to get all the timing right, but it seems they have succeeded in the end. The video is simple but effective; the single continues shot of the fans walking around in East London's Brick Lane looks amateur; however the fans performance makes it a fun enjoyable video to watch. The final scene where the actually band turn around and start singing completes the video and make's it what I think one of the best "fan" videos around

Preliminary Excercise: Warren Holmes- I Need Your Pain

In the last week we have produced our first video of the year. The short video was produced to practise lip syncing and I have to admit it was harder to do than I first thought it would be. We had the track "I Wont Forget You" , a song from a past students music video. Although we have a male lip syncing a females lyrics the video was reasonably good, we managed to film the first verse and chorus from three different angels and then tried to put them together when editing.


There have been a few changes in our 6th forms Media department since last year; andthe most impressive of changes is the upgraded editing software: Apple's Final Cut Express. Final Cut Express is significantly more complex and advanced than our previous software (IMovie). The purpose of the lip syncing attempt was to make us discover the many options and effects that are available on Final Cut Express

What Is A Successful Music Video?

In the current media climate because the way we consume music videos has changed so has the criteria we use measure a videos success. As the Internet has evolved sites such as YouTube, Itunes,Myspace and LastFm have become big players in the music industry and have achieved a large fan base. Music Videos are now judged as a success through;

• The number of YouTube views the videos receives


• The number of Itunes Downloads it achieves


• Record sales (although downloads are more popular)


• Big awards such as MTV's Video Music Awards (VMA), The Mercury Prize and NME Music Video Awards.

The xx Crystalised

The xx are a new alternative band whose music could be mistaken for ambient background music. Most of their tracks have mellow low tone vocals accompanied by a sightly more upbeat base. The xx have been called "Britain's new favorite band" in the current media as they have recently shot into the music charts with their first album simply named The xx. The xx recently picked up the Mercury prize and the £20,000 prize for their hit album "xx"



Mise En Scene:
Most of their tracks have mellow low tone vocals accompanied by a sightly more upbeat base. The video for the single Crystallised from the album The xx does not involve any movement from the band or does not follow any story. However the background constantly changes and moves. The background is projected on to what must be a plain white painted wall or a blue/green screen. This effect gives the video a unique and interesting feel that most other alternative bands fail to produce.

Cinematography:

Throughout the video a majority of the scenes are slow panning shots focusing on the band members faces, the instruments and the band all togeather. The lighting produced by the projected background creates some the perfect lighting for a few deep focus shots of instruments . The video has a calm but fast paced feel to it and although it is simple and uneventful it is still enjoyable to watch.

Below is a link to an article about The xx wining the mercury prize:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts011224473

The Purpose of a Music Video

Music Videos are produced for many different reasons; from self publication to artistic statements, big egotistic artists take the concept of the video more seriously that the music itself. The first music video burst on to television with "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggels and from then onwards artists have changed the way we consume music. Music videos were created to:

• Promote a single or album


• Promote a product which is appears in the video


• Create an artistic statement


• Promote a film in which the song features


• To attract a wider online audience, who may watch the video without understanding the song (YouTube)

The one artist of the modern day music industry who puts a lot of thought into her music videos is Lady Gaga. However her concept is simple; wear something odd and dance, her career is built on her music videos, because after all she is not a powerful impressive singer, just someone who has used image carefully and got extremely lucky. Her first video Pokerface shot her into the spot light because of her odd dress sense and the semi-graphic scenes of her covered in men. Lady Gaga did seem to have her own "unique" feel when compared to other artists in the same genre but in a mainstream industry when her image is analysed has borrowed her look from multiple people. Although not everyone likes Lady Gaga everyone knows her, this is how image and representation in the media thought music videos can work to promote an artist.

Using a Camera and a Tripod

In the last few weeks our project has taken some big steps. We have now filmed and are finishing editing Preliminary exercises, but before we could film we had to learn the basics of how to use a camera and a tripod. The camera was fairly simple to use, the only task that required any thought was removing the tapes. However the tripod was more complicated. The tripod is made up of three expendable legs which balance and stabiles the camera. The camera its self is attached to a removable plastic stand and screws in to place using a small bolt to attached to the thread, which is already built into the camera (and most cameras on the market today.) There are a few handles on the tripod, which are used to position the camera to make sure it is level, and to extend the camera to improve its height and range.

The camera and tripod was simple to use however making sure the camera was level was a harder task, after filming a few shots once we watched our film on the computers it was obvious that the camera was off center and unlevel. We were told to look through the camera at a doorframe to make sure its lines appeared vertical on the camera.

Requested Music Video Track

In the past week I have continued looking on websites such as; Myspace.com, Unsigned.com, LastFm.com and FreePlayMusic.com while browsing on Unsigned.com I came across a band called Atlantis from Little Rock Arkansas in the United states. The band have a powerful lead singer called Paige LeFluer whose vocals standout while not overpowering their songs, I enjoy their music however they slightly remind me of the American band Paramore. Their demo track Signs was quite impressive, I like the bass and the change of pace attracted me also the song was just over three minuets, which is the time period recommended by our teachers. I sent the band a message over MySpace to ask for permission to use their song.

Survey

Today I created a short survey to obtain some information on the music video market. We will use the results to guide us when making the video. The link below will take you to the survey homepage. I created the survey using the free websire SurveyMonkey.com

Click here to take survey

Finding Tracks: Last FM

In the past few days i have been browsing free music sites for tracks to use in my music video by unknown artists. My plan is to find four or five decent tracks which i can see my self using and then send out emails to the artists requesting permission. I am currently feeling confident that an artist would agree to let me use their track in my music video, but you can never speak to soon!

Powerful Performers: Zack De La Rocha

The recent return of Rage Against the machine has brought back to life the powerful personality of the bands front man Zack De Le Roach. When thinking of Rage Against the Machine there is no doubt that their unique front man Zack De La Rocha pops in to mind. The singer’s political outbursts received so much attention because of his powerful on stage performances; Rocha seems to attack the government with his powerful style of what can only called shouting. However his deliverance of lyrics has its own unique sound which emphasizes the meaning of the song. Rage the machine has songs attacking racist policemen, the government and corporate America which seem to be above the law. If Rocha was a softly spoken front man there is no doubt that Rage Against the Machine would have not made the impact they have on the music indistry. Rage Against the Machine are of one the lucky few to be inducted in to Kerrang's hall of fame; which includes Slipknot, Metalica, ACDC, Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne.

Magnetic Man-I Need Air

The reasonably new video I Need Air by Magnetic Man has received some good publicity recently and is rated highly by NME as it has been shown recently in NME's most requested. The video it's self is a fairly simple club scene, however the blue lighting vastly improves the music video's basic mise en scene. What i like about the video is how the semi-slow motion camera shots make the people in the crowd stand out, and also the way the club scene rewinds slightly to emphasise the movments of the people in the scene (1 min 24 sec). The blue tinted lighting in the video is accompanied by dark shadows of the dancers which i think is a nice contrast and what i think is great about this video is that for a simple widley used style of video it does not become boring to watch or padded out.

Below is a link to the music video I Need Air by Magnetic Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vWQFHP3D0

Copyright ©

Copyright will most deffinatly be the biggest problem with the music video project this year.Obtaining permission for a decent music track from an artist will be a big time consuming task. I have been browsing websites such as Myspace, Freeplaymusic and Unsignedacts.com for artists offering copyright free music. However I have not yet decided on what genre the song for the music video will be. I would like to gain permission from a good up and coming artist by mid september. I believe an up and coming artist will be most willing to grant me permission because if the music video gets a hint of Youtube success it could put them in the spotlight, and if the video is failure there reputation will not suffer.

The History of the Music Video

The first ever music video to be aired on MTV was ironically called Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggels. It was shown for the first time on the 1st of August 1981 at 12:01 am. The Buggels had created a new trend in the music industry, music videos were at first used to promote artists songs and as music videos were being shown regularly on television it became a battle to create the best music video.

Music videos have grown in the same ways films have; as technology evolved new innovative techniques and effects became popular and each new development inspired a creative mind to push the current technology further. A good example is Money For Nothing by the Dire Straits; this revolutionary music video was the first to use computer generated animation. In modern times the video looks like a humorous Lego like animation, however in 1985 it was ground breaking technology.

Noah and the Whale: 5 Years Time

I have always been a fan of this song but recently while researching I came across its video. I was surprised by the quality of its video; it is defiantly one of the best original videos I have seen in a long time. What I like best about this video is the Costumes and the Performance of all the actors taking part. The ridiculous retro costumes accompanied by big aviator sunglasses make the actors look odd; however the performance and attitude of the actors make the video great to watch.



The simple dance routines also stood out to me, they gave the video the simple but “summer-ish” feel. I think the producer of this video has made a great video for what seems to be a reasonably small budget; the small pub it was filmed in gave the video its calm old Mise En Scene which matches the costumes perfectly.

This video has many small details which when put together create an impressive originality, and because of those small details such as costume, setting, handheld camera angle, dance routines and the great miming/instrumental matching the video makes it unique. There is a good match of the characters playing the instruments to the other events which occur such as the dance routines which makes the video run smoothly and doesn’t seem “padded out”.





Below is the link to the video 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YCSJpF4g4

Lips To The Floor

Lips to the Floor is an interesting music video by UK grime artist Dubbledge, the video and song its self was an attack on “Waste” Grime MC’s (according to Dubbledge himself.)The video is made up by a collage of well known YouTube accidents and fights. The video may be a huge breach of Copyright however I believe it is a great video. The music video it's self is hard to analyse in terms of camera angles and mies en scene, from people falling of stages to a man being chased by a lion this video has it all.

It’s not just the humorous clips that make this video enjoyable to watch I think the animated words that appear on the screen as dramatic subtitles emphasizing the lyrics in the video make it more than just a collage of simple humor. The video which was first uploaded to YouTube on the 26th of December 2006 I believe may have inspired some other collage videos.

In most cases collage videos go horribly wrong, it is easy to create a “padded out” idea of what someone believes is funny which in most cases the extreme opposite of the general public is. On the other hand a good example of a collage video that received public and online praise was Weezer’s Pork and Beans. Pork and Beans was realized on the 24th of April 2008, that’s more than 2 years after Lips to the floor. Also considering some of the clips used in Pork and Beans featured in Lips to the Floor two years earlier, the American rock band Weezer must have enjoyed Lips to the Floor enough to make their own version.

Below is the link for: Lips to the Floor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxLbLvCRrk