Ancillary

We have decided to make an Album cover and a CD face and produce a home page for a website for our ancillary task.

I will be focusing on the webpage, Alex will be focused on the CD album and CD face and Glenn will focus on editing the film. We will help each other with these tasks and run ideas past each other, but it is down to us to do our own job. This will help speed up production time and should allow us t work through it quicker.

We've had a few ideas for the CD face. As the band is called Accidents we felt it would be fitting to have a hospital chair on the CD face. we are uncertain as to whether there should be someone sitting there. But Alex came up with the idea of a pregnant lady in the chair with a split condom on the front cover. Although this would be fitting, I feel it is a little inappropriate and may be seen as comical.

Glenn came up with a better idea, seeing as the album will be called "This is a Burial" he thought that the album cover should be a photo taken at night, of a man digging a grave.

Whilst the boys were sitting there, not doing much, I decided to make a rough version of the album and CD. Here's what i made:

It's not a final, but the practice was good. I used pictures from the internet, however, we fully intend to take our own pictures for the real thing.

REVAMP.... AGAINNNNN

Okay, so for the (hopefully) final time, we have rethought our ideas and have gained a group member. Glenn Rice was initially planning on being in our group, but decided he would prefer to work on his own. We accepted his views and started our work. However, Glenn's ideas fell through, like ours and he asked to join our group. We were ecstatic that he would be joining us as me and Alex were having trouble agreeing on certain ideas.

Once Glenn joined us we came up with an idea that we could all agree on. A performance video.

We have the hall that we would like to use, Riverview, we have the band we would like to use, Accidents, and we have the audience we would like to use. So far, so good.

Setting Ideas

Alex and I have decided to do some of our filming in Brighton as we feel it will fit into the idea of our story. We decided that Brighton Pier would be ideal with all the lights on.

I wasn't sure whether Brighton Pier would be open, seeing as it will be December time, so I looked up some information on the Brighton tourist website and this is what I found.

Letter of Permission

Yesterday, Alex wrote to Island Def Jam for permission to use the song 'Walking Disaster' by Sum 41.
This is the letter he used:

Dear Copyright Holder,

We are A level students and we are writing to request your permission to use one track from the latest album by Sum 41 entitled Underclass Hero.

The track we wish to use is 'Walking Disaster', track 2 on the album.

With your permission, this track would be used in our current A-level Media Studies
project which involves creating a music video for a popular music track, as well as
producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist.

If we received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational
context and be viewed by our media class, our teacher and the OCR exam board
moderator. It would NOT be released to a large audience or uploaded to any public
video websites.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout pre-
production and the final video itself. A copyright notice, with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full
details.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Alex Newcombe and Sophie Brown

Main Character

Seeing as our character has been away from home, it is logic that his clothes will be shabby and dirty.

Here are a few pictures of what I thought it should look like.

Our character's going to have to be wearing ripped, dirty clothes if it is going to look realistic so here is an image of some jeans I found:

Whilst looking for clothes for our character to wear, I came across this image:

This is the exact image we want for our character.

We are also going to need a few more people in our video, and two of these characters are going to be adults, who pose as the mother and father, currently we are having a bit of trouble finding adults that will be willing to help. Both our mothers said they wouldn't mind helping out, but we need to find a man to act as the father.

Here is how we want our adults to look.

Character Ideas

Like I said before, Alex and I have very different views and ideas and our first (for this project anyway) problem came when we had to decide what the main character would look like.

I thought he should have short hair.

Alex thought he should have long hair. (At least we both agreed that he should be a boy as the male vocals would sound out of place if it were a girl character)

In the end we decided that he should have long hair, as we plan to have him be a little bit younger than our age (so we think he should be 14/15/16) and long messy hair seems to be the 'style'. Here is a picture of boy band 'One Direction'. This is the age that our main character will be and they all have long hair styles.

Ideas TAKE 2

After listening to 'Walking Disaster' again, and again, and again etc. and looking at the lyrics, we decided that we would base the video on a boy who has left home due to disagreements at home. We came to this decision as the opening lyrics to the song are 'I haven’t been home for a while/
I’m sure everything’s the same/ Mom and Dad both in denial/ An only child to take the blame.'

We've both got our own ideas of what the video is going to look like and so we are going to have to agree to disagree on a few things.

We are currently drawing out a brief story board, just to get a few ideas down so we'll have somewhere to start when it comes to filming.

Yet Again

Once more, we've decided to change our idea. We did a bit of filming last Sunday (24th), but it really wasn't good enough. We thought it might be quite simple to do, but it really wasn't. The filming wasn't too bad, however certain members of the ban were putting in more effort than others and so the less enthusiastic members didn't look the part and you could tell they weren't interested. It wasn't just the lack of enthusiasm that was holding us back, the setting we chose was slightly too small, although it did look better than we expected, it was a lot smaller than we initially thought and there wasn't enough room for the whole band. We also found that we weren't as good at filming as we thought we were. All the shots we did were static and we found that we needed a lot more movement.

After discussing this back at school, Alex and I decided to use 'Walking Disaster' by Sum 41. After first hearing it, I instantly thought of a few ideas. I compared these with Alex and this definitely seems a better choice. We are going to do a narrative based video as we found that the performance thing isn't for us.

Here is what we filmed and what it looks like once we edited it all together. We like to think of it as a learning curve!

Equipment

My brother has kindly allowed us to borrow his DJ lights for our music video. We should have a strobe light and a light that shoots squares all over the place. We're not too sure of the effect it is gonna have yet, but we'll try them out and see how they look. The lights are called:

Acme Duet

Skytronic Double Derby

Clothing for the Band

After a bit of research I found some items of clothing similar to the clothes hat our band will hopefully be wearing. I asked Glenn what sort of clothes they wore to gigs so I could get rough idea of what they will be comfortable wearing and this is what I found.

This is the sort of outfits they will be wearing. I have looked further into each item and here's what I thought would look good:

For Tops:

Ideas

I've been looking through a few music videos in the same genre as our band. I took a few screenshots of some of the ideas I really liked.

As you can see, 'Kids In Glass Houses' have recorded their video in a small room, similar to the container we will be recording ours in. They have covered the walls with the name of their song, 'Give Me What I Want'. I like this idea. However, as we will be unable to actually paint the walls of the container, we will write on large strips of paper and attach this to the walls. We hope to use the name of the band, the name of the song and the logo.

A Crash Course in Collision

The band we will be using is called A Crash Course in Collision, it consists of 4 members;

Nick Nowak - Lead Vocals
Rory Bevis - Guitar/back up vocals
Glenn Rice - Drums
Dan Smith - Bass Guitar

They will all be supplying their own instruments and this will save us a lot of work. Alex came up with a few initial shots that we can use:

Overview of drum kit
Bass drum close up
Close up of cymbal
Close up of guitar, angled facing up towards the end of the guitar.
Same view of other guitar
Medium shot of Dan
Close up of Rory with mic (in stand).
Nick close up
High angled shot of the band playing
Eye level shot of the band playing
Eye level shot of Nick singing
Over the shoulder shot of Glenn playing the drums
(Unclean Lyrics) Close up of mouth
Shot of Nick in the close, Rory in the far, switch of focus, during when they are both singing
When the band are being very lively, we would use longer shots.

We plan to develop these into better ideas with more shot angles and develop the ideas of camera movement. Also once we know where we're setting the video, it will be easier to determine what shots we can use, as well as the lighting. Also, whilst filming, we will have some spur of the moment ideas for different shots, and the band will also have a say in what they want us to film.

Homepage Ideas

I know it is a long way off, but I came up with an alright idea last night that I thought I could use on the band homepage website and I want to write it down before I forget it.

I would like to have each band member holding a bit of paper with words on it (Home, About Us, Gallery, Shop, Members etc...)

Each picture will be put on the website and will act as links to different pages. I have seen similar effects to this on other websites such as John Lewis' Career page.

Idea Setting

We came up with an idea to film our video in a "big yellow box" sort of container. I know it sounds a bit mad, but we are mad :)

We plan on turning the lights off and using lamps and strobe lights for lighting. My brother runs his own DJ business and has some equipment that we should be able to use. We plan on using the 200 square foot box as it gives us a bit more room for the band and all their instruments.

Video Analysis Geri Halliwell

Here is the analysis of a video I did a while ago. We were asked to analyze this particular video as a practice, hence why it doesn't fit into the genre of our planned video.

The video begins with a track and tilt of Geri Halliwell wearing a short vest and brief pants, walking into a room towards a table of serious looking judges. Halliwell is holding a record in her hand. The opening sequence is intertextually similar to 'Flash Dance' suggesting that Geri Halliwell is there for a dance performance. The Mise En Scene also supports this image using iconography, such as the leg warmers she wears.

The camera lingers on one of the people at the table as Halliwell walks past them and a look of shock crosses his face. The position of the people suggests that they are judges, reinforcing the dance performance look.

The next scene shows her walking past one of the female judges towards a record player, another look of disgust from the judges shows the viewers that the judges are doubtful of her performance.

The audience is left with no doubt that Geri Halliwell is performing a dance sequence when she puts a record on.

The genre and setting of the video seems like an extract from a musical. Possibly Billy Elliot or Fame. The audience are unable to see the performers face until 30 seconds into the video. This lack of recognition is integral in the video as it builds up the tension, already established with the presence of the diegetic sound at the beginning of the sequence. Anticipation is continuously created by a series of fragmented body images as she begins to dance.

A music video is a vehicle for stars to promote themselves and Geri Halliwell uses this well. She recently released a Keep Fit DVD. The constant view of Geri's new figure is used to promote the effectiveness of her DVD.

Alex has done a few video analysis too, most of them are performance based. So have a quick look here and here.

Video Ideas

Here are the three videos to the songs Alex and I chose. Each one tells a story, but also has a performance in the video.

The Setting and Mise En Scene is completely different in each video, showing us that although the songs are in the same genre, the videos do not have to have any similarities.

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to 'The Great Nothing'.

Is this your idea of killing time?
You're crushing bones with words
And to make matters worse you're still some kind of friend to us.
A man of profound history you stole away our dignity
But we're still alive, and it's all because of you.

Maybe we just understand each other,
A bit too perfectly
But now you're shouting at me through closed doors this time
Surely it's a remedy, but it's so sad to say
You're nothing to me.

Sound alarms, hold the phones, it's time we take over the town

This has never meant more to me this very inspiration
This view has never been so clear
And we're making our mark

MAYBE WE JUST... understand each other,
A bit too perfectly
But now you're shouting at me through closed doors this time
Surely it's a remedy, but it's so sad to say
You're nothing to me.

You've had your day, and we're on our feet without you.
You've had your day, and we're on our feet without you.
You've had your day, and we're on our feet without you.
(Without you)
You've had your day, and we're on our feet without you.
You've had your day, and we're on our feet without you.

So you know the lyrics, but what do they mean?

Crash Course for Collision have had a pretty rough start. Their main singer left the band, for rationale reasons, and was quite bitter about it. The lyrics reflect the pain the band went through and we hope to show some of this pain through our video.

Video Analysis of Scouting For Girls

Although our video will be a band performing, I have found a video that has both a performance based aspect and an underlying story line. The video is ‘Elvis Isn’t Dead’ by Scouting for Girls. The video begins with a close up of a suitcase and a girl packing it. We can see, in the foreground, a statue, closely resembling Elvis. Although the statue is in the foreground, it is slightly blurry. This effect is called deep focus, where the background is clearer than the foreground. This effect may suggest that the item is relevant, but not important for this particular scene.

The next shot we see is of Roy Stride (the main singer) playing the keyboard. This is important, as the beginning of the song is a keyboard.

The cuts are not long in the video, but not too fast allowing it to fit with the tempo of the music. The singing begins and the camera jumps to Roy’s face as he sings the lyrics. He constantly looks at the camera, to give the viewer’s the impression that he is singing to them. Here we see the opposite effect of Deep Focus, Shallow Focus. This is where the foreground is clear and the background is blurry, as we do not need to see it.

The video returns to the story and we see the girl take away her suitcase, leaving a bobble head statue of Elvis. Here we see a focus pull from Deep Focus to Shallow Focus. The Focus Pull is useful for directing the viewer's attention from the suitcase to the statue.

At 12 seconds into the video we see another band member (Pete Ellard) on the drums.There are three members of Scouting for Girls, however we do not see all three of them until 30 seconds into the track. This is a long time to introduce the members of the band.

Throughout the whole video, we see seven different shots of Pete Ellard playing the drums, but we only see one single shot of Greg Churchouse, the rest are of Roy, the main singer. Greg is wearing a hat and constantly looking down whenever he is in a shot with another band member. This insinuates that he may not be as an important member of the band, or perhaps that he is just shy.

We hope to include all the members of our band in our video.

The video uses Shallow Focus throughout the video as shown below where the singer is in the foreground and cannot be seen clearly and another band member is in the background in sharp focus.

A Focus Pull is seen and the opposite effect is achieved. I like this effect and hope to use it in our video.

I have also found that the camera rarely stays still when the band is performing, showing pans, tilts and zooms. This matches with the tempo of the track and ends up with a good effect.

RESTART

Alex and I have still not received an email from the acting agency and so we have decided to rethink our ideas.

After a long brainstorm and plenty of arguments, we came up with these ideas:

This Ain't a Scene - Fall Out Boy

Mr Brightside - Killers

Misery Business - Paramore

All these songs fit into a similar genre and we felt that they would be simple to interpret into a musical video. After a few lessons of discussion, we still couldn't decide on a song. Luckily our good friend Glenn Rice, chipped in and told us he has a band and asked if we'd be interested in using them and their song 'The Great Nothing'. We felt this would be a great idea as we could use the actual band and have them singing the song would make it easier for us to film.

I am going to leave the research from our previous idea on my blog, as I think it shows our ability to research. However, I removed the survey I had up as it no longer fits in with our idea and may confuse people. Although we are restarting, I felt that I should include the survey that we placed on my blog. It was a good way of researching and got our audience and classmates involved.

I am going to research some well known music videos that will be similar to ours so we can see what looks good and know what not to use.

We Need Actors!

Here is the email we sent, we're waiting for a reply!


To whomever it may concern,


Our names are Sophie Brown and Alex Newcombe and we will be producing a music video for our A2 (G324) Media Coursework.
We would like to enquire into the possibility of using 2 or 3 of your acting students in our mock music video.
The video will not be broadcasted or shown to the public, however it will be seen buy our fellow peers (for peer marking), our teacher and the examination board.
We would like to keep cost to a minimum as we feel this will give valuable acting experience. The actors will need to be between the ages of 16 and 19 and we will need 2 boys and possibly a girl (we will alert you in the near future whether this will be necessary or not). The actors will have a fair say in what they feel comfortable doing and we will gladly take to account any preconceptions they may have.


We look forward to your reply,


Sophie Brown and Alex Newcombe

Letter of Permission

We have drafted a letter of permission that we plan on sending to Island Records. We may have to change a few things, but that is the beauty of a first draft. We've both looked through it and this is what we've come up with

Dear Sir/Madam/Whomever it may concern/Island Records,

We are writing to ask permission to use the song ‘Little Lion Man’ by Mumford and Sons in our A2 (G324) Media Coursework. It is for the Advanced Portfolio in Media. If we receive permission to use this song we would attempt to create:

- A Music Video for the song
And then two of the following three options:
- A website homepage for our fictional band
- A cover for its fictional release as part of the Digipak (CD/DVD Package)
- A fictional magazine advertisement for the Digipak (CD/DVD Package)

The people used in this video will be unrelated to the band, and the video and other creations will NOT be sold or released to the public on sites such as ‘Youtube’. The only people to see this will be ourselves, our peers (for peer marking) and the examination board.

We eagerly await your reply on the matter.

Yours Sincerely/Faithfully,

Alex Newcombe & Sophie Brown

Once this has been approved, we will be able to send it to the company.

Alex and I have found it quite difficult to find people who will be willing to appear in our video, so we have resorted to emailing an acting agency. This will allow us to use actors who, will hopefully, be willing to star in our video. We have found a few agencies and will email them now.

Problem Solved

We had a bit of confusion with which company we needed to contact, regarding permission to use the song! We have managed to sort it out now!
Alex admits that he mistook the logo on the privacy policy page for the Record Label for the band. After some major research we then discovered that the record label was in fact Island Records. This left us confused as to who to contact as we now had 2 possible labels. However, whilst looking through the Island Records website we found that Mumford & Sons had only recently been signed by them and that explained why we may have seen 2 different label names. So now we know who to contact, we just have to write the letter and find an address.

Permission To Use A Song

Whilst Alex was researching Mumford and Sons, he found the Privacy Policy page on their website. It suggested that we should be trying to contact Universal Studios. However, after more research I found that Universal Studios only operate the website. More research (on Wikipedia)revealed that we should be looking at Island Records. On further inspection we found that Mumford and Sons are in fact signed to Island Records. So now we know who to write the letter to, we can begin to draft it.

So The Planning Begins!

I have just started all my planning for my coursework this year!
I will be working with Alex Newcombe (his blog is HERE)
We're going to be making an amazing music video... hopefully!
We've also planned to make a website for the band (this will be my side of things) and a cover for the CD (this will be Alex's side).
We've decided on the song 'Little Lion Man' by Mumford and Sons. Alex managed to find that Mumford & Sons are signed to Universal Studios Operations Limited so we're going to draft a letter and send it off to ask permission to use their song.
After we've done that we must:
- Find people who are willing to appear in our video. We need to ensure that they fit the genre and stereotype of the video.
- Find suitable locations and settings for our video. Again we need to find suitable locations to fit the genre.
- Plan and draw up a story board... This will be drawn by me.
- Research the genre of our video to see what makes a video of that genre popular.
Once we've completed all of this, we can begin filming. Yay!

When I heard that we would be making a music video, I looked up the definition of a music video so that our work would fit into this description.

"A music video or song video is a short video or film that accompanies a piece of music or song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip"."