Final Video

L3/13 - UFO - NEWTON FAULKNER (Loz & Ash)

Our Magazine Advert

Here is the magazine advert for our Digi-pack, it has a picture of the album cover on it and it tells you what comes with this Digi-pack as to make it more attractive and for people to buy it. I wanted to keep this idea simple but stylish at the same time. I like the look of this advert as it

Digipack Inside

This is the inside of the digi-pack on the left will be the special DVD disc that includes live footage of Newton Faulkner and on the right is where the CD of the album will be. The inside of the album is the inside of the robot.

Digipack Front Cover

This is the front cover of our Digipack that Laurence had designed I really like it, it is simplistic but that is it's visual strength.

The album title's font is very nice and looks nice in orange against that backdrop. The robot itself looks very nice in the way its drawn I like the sketchy feel to it, it makes it stand out more and kind of plays well with the title of the album "hand built by robots", and the robot in this picture is hand drawn

Back of the Digipack

Here is the back of the Digipack it is the back of the robot with all the tracks written on him, it is a very simple idea but very effective and looks nice.

Evaluation Task 3

Here is some feedback that I have recieved from The Junction:

After taking all my out door footage from my music video we went to the cambridge junction to get feedback from Rob Tinkler and Pete Edwards.
Pete Organises club nights Djs at the junction and has worked there for over 15 years.
Rob books all live music and comedy events and has worked in the industry for over 25 years


After watching my music video. they both really liked it and felt the simple idea worked really well but maybe not have so big effects like the mirror as it didn't work as well. most of it was in sync and some of it wasn't as well in sync

Evaluation Task 1

1: Here is a shot that represents the lyrics or music to the visuals of the video. The way in which it does this is by using the humor and randomness of the lyrics and manipulating them to create a visually funny and weird shot.

2:


3: This is a typical shot of the artist that really symbolizes the music genre as the lighting emphasises the weirdness of the music and he in the way he is dressed and his hair style shows the hippy style of music that is portrayed here.

4: In a lot of acoustic videos they have a lot of fade shots with the artist or artists in them, it creates a nice feel with the music. And the camera shots also are commonly used techniques, such as wide shots and closeups.

5: With the camera we tried to create a sense of dense atmosphere, by keeping the camera just below the character but being able to keep all of the effects in the shot.

6: We had two lights behind the artist crossing over which when they hit the smoke made a really cool effect and lighting. We also had a very simple spotlight on the artist which really brought him out.

7: The artists costume really gives you the feel that he is the real artist, hippy style clothes with his trousers, jumper and the bandana.

8/9: These two shots are very commonly used with music videos. it shows all the mics around him creating an ambience of live performance.

1: The first shot is a direct representation between music/ lyrics and visuals because the artist is signing the lyrics.

2: This is how the record company would want the artist to b portrayed with his guitar and he has clearly just strummed it with a good scenary in the background.

3: This shot tells you what type of music this band is using as it is clearly a 5 piece rock band.

4: This frame uses a technique which projects an image on a plane of glass and you are able to see through but the image behind is fainter this is an old theater technique

5: This is a pan shot looking at the whole room showing the roof

6: Shows the Lighting set up. They have light above each performer.

7: This shows how they dress and act which is like a relaxed rock star shirt jean long hair and a gibson guitar of some kind.

8/9: A classic close up which is used alot in rock video beacuse it give teh performaer chance to show as much passion he can give.

Evaluation Task 2

For our second task we have to create a directors commentary version of our music video, and so here is a short bullet pointed script of what we are going to say:

Video was based around a live performance like at the jools holland show.

We originally had outdoor footage but the scenery cluttered the shot and it didn’t work.

We also originally wanted to create some sort of storyline with the video but without outdoor footage it wouldn’t have worked well.

We wanted to create a weird looking set to match with the song.

We started playing around with visual effects and felt that the fade ins and the kaleidoscope effects worked the best

Lip syncing was the No.1 Priority for us as that would give us the most marks and makes the video look professional.

We did have problems getting the lip sync right because our artist did start to sing one of the takes faster than the actual song, which obviously made it complicated to use the footage and some of the footage from this take was very useful and nice.

Keeping the video interesting was also important.

We also worked on making the editing look good as we had great footage if the editing wasn’t any good the good footage would have gone to waste so that was key as well.

Even though our performer sang a bit fast a few times his performance was still really strong and that is what is important. It is better to have a confident strong performance otherwise it will look terrible.

Here is our directors commentary version of the Video:

Evaluation Task 4

1: This image is all the physical technology that we used, the mac pro's the Sony HD cameras and tripod. This set of top of the range equipment was very useful for creating our music video and enabled us to work at a much quicker pace. The computer had the ease of use of uploading our footage and seeing it there in front of us and then being able to quickly make modifications to it. The camera has given us the opportunity for us to shoot really high quality footage and take as many shot as we would like.

2: This is a screen shot of blogger, blogger is what I am using right now to post all of my research and planning of my piece of coursework. Here I can explain what I am going to do and show proof of my work. Blogger is a very useful tool and I prefer to use it instead of writing in a journal of some sort, it enables me to write out my thoughts and ideas and one stage and then later on come back to them and work on them making this a very versatile tool.

3: This is a screen shot of Facebook, I have blurred out some of the writing and images for security reasons of course. Facebook is another usefull tool in the internet, it enables anyone who has an account and friends with each other to connect and communicate with ease of use. Being a social networking site this makes it ideal for us to post our videos up and get feedback almost instantly from our friends and family.

4: Here is a screen shot of YouTube, YouTube has been a major hit on the internet for a fair amount of years with millions of hits a day. This makes it an ideal place for us to upload our videos as well to get from people who may be professionals in the music video business or in any other forms of business. It's just as good to get views from the public as well considering they are the consumer of a music video.

Student Music Video

Here is a student made music video made for the song Eat it by Weird Al Yankovich which is a parody of Michael Jackson Beat It

Behind the scenes

Here is a short video of me directing and filming the artist me and Laurence was using to make our music video. Shooting the film was a lot of fun and a I really enjoyed it. Having the opportunity to work in this space and environment, having this area really improved our music video in the way it looks.

Working In Progress

Here are some screenshots I have taken from Final Cut Express, this is the software we use to import all of our video footage and edit it into the final movie.

On the far left of each screenshot is the "Bin" which is where all the footage we have shot is stored. On the bottom is time line, this is where we drag our footage and edit it and cut it up and add effects to it such as fades or colour effects.

Rough Digi-Pack Cover

Here is the rough version of the Digi-pack idea that Laurence had drawn.

We have to create a Digi-pack as part of the research and planning of our music video project. We have to draw and plan a special album package for the artist and song that we have chosen. We then have to create an magazine advertisement for this Digi-pack.

Album Covers

This is the album cover to the band Godsmack, the album is called Faceless.

This cover resembles the title of the album exactly, it shows someone who has little facial features trying to pus their face through some sort of material, maybe rubber or silk.











This is the album hold your colour by the band Pendulum.

This album cover again directly resembles the name of the album. The album cover has loads of colours spilling all over the it, they seem to come from the eye which brings me to quote the saying "in the eyes of the beholder" .










This is the album Rosenrot for the band Rammstein.

This album cover isn't directly representative of the name of the album except for the fact the battleship is called Rosenrot.

Rosenrot translates (from german) as Redrose.

In some places I have read that this cover resembles Rammstein's music. "ROSENROT finds the East German group offering up more of their uber-dramatic club/industrial chug that's as cold and massive as the hulking battleship that graces its cover"

I believe that that is the meaning of the cover, although it would seem to be very big headed of them.

Junction Feedback

After taking all my out door footage from my music video we went to the cambridge junction to get feedback from Rob Tinkler and Pete Edwards.
Pete Oranises club nighs Djs at the junction and has worked there for over 15 years.
Rob book all live music and comedy events and has worked in the industry for over 25 years


After watching my music video. they both really liked it and felt the simple idea worked really well but maybe not have so big effects like the mirror as it didn't work as well. most of it was in sync and some of it wasn't as well in sync

Magazine Advert Analysis

Digipack

What is a Digipack?:

A Digipack is an version of a album that includes the normal CD of the album but would include extra items such as DVD's of a live performance or maybe include particular items for example the Tenacious D album "The Pick of Destiny" has the CD album and a plastic model of the pick of destiny and some tarot cards in the form of the band and other people in the movie, this Digipack also comes in a sort of old style book.

Why would someone be tempted to buy one?:

If a Digipack includes items that are not downloadable and the Digipack itself is very atractive then people will be persuaded to buy it, aslong as it doesn't cost too much money. So if the Digipack was maybe an extra £5 then it would be very attractive.

Where to shoot? What to shoot?

We are planning to shoot in multiple locations to give us a lot of footage to use. One of the locations we are going to use is the area behind the college which is full of lush greenery, there are multiple trees with their leaves fallen down one tree had all its leaves on the floor and they had all turned a vibrant red colour that looks really good with the solo artist.

So what now?

Me and Laurence have decided on a new idea and are going to work with a different genre of music. We have decided to use the artist Newton Faulkner using the song UFO, his music is very hippy style and very calm and soothing. Now we are going to do a performance music video rather than a form of visual concept. It is just the one solo artist making everything easier for us and if we are clever about it we can make it look very good.

We are planning to use a number of locations with loads of different takes and different angles with multiple shot styles. This gives us a lot of footage to play around with and enables us to make it look visually interesting.

Explaining

I should have probably put a post up before hand explaining why my idea has changed completely. After having looked at our footage for the Pendulum music idea, our teacher decided to hit us hard with the truth. He had told us that our footage was all wrong and that it was nowhere near to looking like it would get loads of marks, although it was very harsh at the time it was the best of ideas to do and has helped us a lot. So me and Laurence have decided to do a new idea altogether.

First Rough Cut

This is the first rough cut to my music video of UFO by Newton Faulkner

The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba

This music video is a good reference video for our music video, it has a lot of locations and only a few actors makes this a great idea to base ours on. It has alot of camera shot and angles that couple together to make a great music video.

Our idea is to have one actor or artist playing the guitar to the song UFO by Newton Faulkner, to create a load of angles and shots of him performing this song and in a few locations.

Target Audience

I think that the target audience for my music video would be teenagers around the age of 17-20, both male and female who listen to soft rock and and pop music. I think that this would possibly be shown on Kerrang during the day and the night time because this song has no cencorship i it.

Animatic

Model Release Form

This is a screenshot of my model release form, a model release form is where everyone who is going to be in my film signs it to give consent in allowing me to use them in my recordings.

New idea new song

Now that we have joined together we spoke about which song to use and wether or not to change the idea. We have decided to keep Laurence's idea rather than change it, Laurence wanted to keep his song choice and I wanted to use that song aswell I prefered it to the song I was going to use for my music video.





The main idea for this song is to use after effects to its potential in the first 57 seconds with an intro of light streans and particles that act in time and place with the music.

Joined Forces

Me and another class mate have decided to do the music video together juste like other groups in our class. We have decided to do this because for his video he was going to do a lightshow for the intro and my music video was a series of lightshows, so that is one reason to pair up. Another reason to pair up was because we were sharing a computer anyway so if we are workeing on the same project it would give us enough time to complete the project rather than half the time for two different projects.

Any planning and storyboarding that I post from now on will be based on his idea, he will be shooting the live action and editing it while I will be working with the after effects stuff creating the intro and helping with editing the live action footage.

Ed Lovelace

Today we had a talk with an ex LongRoad student called Ed Lovelace he has become a music video director since leaving longroad and university. I had taken some notes during the talk.

He was at LongRoad from 2000 to 2002 and he then later on went to Bournemouth university, while at LongRoad he was using the current state of the Mac computers running iMovie rather than the proffessional software we use today.

He said that the music video he made when he was at long road made no sense at all and that he wishes he had planned it out a lot better that is one of the advice he gave us on our coursework project to make sure that we have a good idea and plan it out well.

Bournemouth universty had a good choice of lecturers come to see them all from the media industry, they had at one point the director for Harry Potter and a guy from channel 4.

When he left uni he started to work for a record label called creation in London, at first he started to work for free just so he could set some foundations he then started to make music videos for The Gallows.

After that he went to work for a company called Pulse Films who do features films and documentaries.

Evolution From Feedback

After recvieving feedpack on my ptich from my peers and my teacher. I ahve thought about changing my idea slightly wether I am allowed to do so or not is a different matter.



I would like to follow up the idea of having someones face and using that as the "stage", a stage of lights more like. Having strobe lights and any other lights emmiting from the face, also having streams of light flowing from the face and around the face creating a nice atmospheric look.

Feedback from pitch

People seemed to like my idea for my music video. Te only problem they actually had with it is the length of the song as itsself and keeping the same thing over and over could get boring very quickly. An idea that I had from another student for my feedback would be to use that idea but mix it with live footage of a rave to take place with some strobe lights and to cut own the time of the song.

Another idea that I was given was to have a face and them to sing the lyrics but the lights are on the face instead of the skin and they are mimicking the music in time.

Final Thoughts

I have decided to use The Omen by The Prodigy, the music style and tempo will go very well with my visual idea. And it has little vocals making it easier to work with.

To sum up how my idea is going to look. I am going to have an array of lights and bangs and flashes in a multitude of colours and size trying to create a good scene to go with the music. THe lights are going to be in time with the beats of the music and continuous sound will be used with streams of light, bass beats will be used with bangs and or flashes. Obviously depending on the loudness of each beat depends on the size of the flash and or bang.

I am not going to need any actors or a location to use be at for filming and I will not need a camera. This saves me some time on filming and getting prepared for filming. I can just straight away get working on making my music video. I am going to obviously need to use post production software (After Effects).

Which song to use?

I am torn between two songs to use for my musiv video, one of them is The Omen by The prodigy which I posted before and the other is Shut Me Up By Mindless Self Indulgence :



Both of these songs would go brilliantly with my music idea, the second song has more lyrics though which could be a problem though i think I could create some light effects to look like a moving mouth.

Starting on the pitch

Righteo here goes, this is the decider time. For my music video I have decided to go along with using the idea of a lightshow containing of streams of light bangs and flashes. The lights would ahve to go with the music, of course suttle bangs or pops for little beat tempos. Streams of lights could be used for continuous sounds that are made.

23rd september 09 production progress

So far I have looked at a few music videos and analysed them to have a better look at how a music video is made and what techniques are used. I have come up with a few ideas so far as to what my music video can be but I am still indecisive about it, and I am still indecisive about that. I think I need to do some more planning so I can come up with a good pitch for friday.

Thoughts on Artists,The Prodigy - The Omen

I really like this song it's really upbeat and catchy. This song could go very well with ideas 1 & 2 that I have creating a mixture of "wow" sensation and appreciation of the music itself.

This song doesn't really have lyrics to it except for the same words over and over again. So with this there aren't any lyrics to match with my first idea unlike with Gojira there is. This doesn't mean that it wouldn't work with that idea it would just be a different concept. The Gojira song would be a more "literal" realisation of the song and The Prodigy one would be more irrelevant but fun video to watch.

Thoughts and Ideas 2

This is a game on the Xbox 360 called Boom Boom Rocket. I have never played this game but it looks very fun. From what I have gathered of this game it is a game where you match the foreworks colour to the buttons on the gamepad and hit them on time with the bar at the top of the screen. The fireworks themselves match the music and make the beat, much like with Guitar Hero I pressume.

I posted this game because I like the idea of a light show to create for my music video, not as bland and simple as this but a really bright and vibrant show full of different colours and lights and beams and streams of lights going in pace with the music.

Britney Music Video Conclusion

I've found that working in a group can be very stressful and sometimes not very rewarding. Initially I was a backing dancer, but then that devloped into being sort of a choreographer due to our lack of time in learning the dance moves.

We hadn't planned this task our very well between us all and the lack of communication between us was shocking. There were a few people who sat down almost throught the whole of the filming and did nothing if anything.
I admit I did sit down a few times but not for long I was soon up again dancing or helping the others learn to dance.
With out the assistant director it enabled things to spiral out of control even more.
I would like to pin the blame of us not doing much on the heat of the space we was in, it was too hot and too close.

If we had planned this out a lot nicer or had the class split itno two groupd working on the project this could have turned out very well. Other than that I think the video itself turned out fairly good.

Thoughts on Artists, Gojira - Sight To Behold (Lyrics)

Reflecting ourselves in the blood of all the beings we slay
Misunderstand each other, out of control we remain
There is a mystery, we're facing a sight to behold
This is what we make of the world, we throw everything away

The way we all behave is not understandable
It is so sad to see the wealth of our planet fade away
We all behave like children, taking off the head of our teddy bear
to see what's inside, taking, not giving back
We drain the oceans and suck all the blood out of the soil
We spend the time we have left fighting and killing each other
Lust for comfort, entertainment becomes an obsession
And there is so much time to kill

The way I see things is so simple
The fact I'm walking standing on this land
Exhausted is the realm of nature, friends are dying
The living creatures on our side
The way I see myself so confused so sophisticated
I have to stay away from me
But I still don't get the point
What's worth destroying all the worlds
Try not to get it anymore

You burn yourself, set fire for good
We die eyes closed, dig our own grave now
Tossed in the blaze naked on the flame
Lost with no pride, drowned in the filth
The giant snake is coming down to eat our heads
and the flood will kill us, Mantus is rising from under

The way I see things is so simple
The fact I'm living dying on this land
Exhausted is the realm of nature, friends are dying
The living creatures on our side
The way I see myself so confused so sophisticated
Don't have to stay away from me
But I still don't get the point
What's worth destroying all the worlds

Try not to get it anymore [4x]


This band Gojira have a tendancy to sing about real things and problems rather than drugs or sex.
The speak about our planet and about us as a destructive race, thats what I like about this band they are more "real" because they're songs are "real".

This song in particular would be a great one to use to resemble my first idea a lot of the lyrics would fit in with some of my mental images. Here are some examples of the imagery I get from the lyrics.

"We drain the oceans and suck all the blood out of the soil
We spend the time we have left fighting and killing each other"

These lyrics project the image of war into my head, I know it seems very obvious but that is how I see it. Maybe a tank rolling across the battefeild to resemble the oil and quick shots of shooting from soldiers.

"The giant snake is coming down to eat our heads
and the flood will kill us, Mantus is rising from under"

This gives me an image of a nuclear warhead being launched in the air and coming down onto the armies, creating the finale finish to the song with a mushroom cloud.

Music Video Analysis 2

Love By Gojira



This music video is a mixture of live action footage, camera still shots and some green screen. The camera shots take up most of this video clip. Most of the shots of the man in the video are close ups of his face where the rapid burst camera shots create a nice laggy feel and make it work nicely with the music. There are also mid shots of the man in the bath where we see him duck under the water and then come back up bald.
The are shots where the man is running along the screen these look to have been done by photoshopping and image of him to over exaggerate the running to make it match the fast tempo of this song.

Original Britney Music Video (Hit Me Baby One More Time)

Here is the music video that we was set to recreate, we didn't have to do the whole thing they just wanted the first 60 shots or so to be done. I think this was a hard video to create because of the choreography that is within this sequence and the amount of people that there is on set at a time we just didnt ahve those amounts of people or time on hand for us to do the work we needed to do.

Music Video Analysis 1

Wonderboy By Tenacious D (Directed by Spike Jonze)


Watch Tenacious D " Wonder Boy" in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

This music video mainly focuses on the use of close up shots and a few mid rangs shots, I think this is to emphasise the fact that the song is really story like and to tell it they need a story teller so they use the close up shots to use Jack Black as the story teller.
As the story progresses mid shots are used more I think they do this to bring in more of the surrounding area to help tell the story, to show the audience where they are and what theyre doing. There are alot of pan shots in the clip to help show what the characters are doing, for example when Jack Black is walking in the snow the camera follows him to keep the focus on the "Story Teller", also when he is climbing the mountain the camera follows his feet moving up and his arms and hands climbign higher this might be a camera trick to fool ours eyes into thinking he is climbing or maybe to emphasis the tension in this at the fact he could fall.

The Mise en Scene in this music video is really good. The landscape and scene is amazing, where they are looks as though they are in the mountains in a Lord Of The Rings movie ( New Zealand ) I don't know if they had shot it there but they must have had a big budget to make this video. When jack black reaches the top of a mountain you see in the distance in front of him more mountains and with him in his costume and the scenary it creates a powerful aura especially with the music mixed with it. The props and costumes they have suit the era that they are trying to capture. The sword and the guitar seem to fit the same time era, if I am not mistaken the guitar is a lute.

I particularly like the editing in this video. They use a lot of fades and quick cut shots to emphasis the emotion and speed of what is going on through the story. They use quick shots near the end when Jack Black goes into the cave and meets the "Hydra" and fights it, the quick cuts show rage and anger in the scene and also show the fear in Jack Black through this. The fade shots are very useful when there are "inspirational" parts of the story, the fade shots include Jack Black slightly transparent with the mountains and snow in the background. The raw power of the mountains size mixed with Jack Black's powerful voice makes this part of the story awe inspiriing.

Thoughts and ideas

I have been a big fan of this music video for ages, it is an official video for Linkin Park's remix of their own song "Points Of Authority". This music video was made around the year of 2002, the CGI in the sequence was very advanced for its time.

I would  like to create a scene like this for the song that I am going to choose, but instead of being  all CGI I would like to bring in short cuts of live action of a band playing to the song. If I had the time it would be possible to create this scene, but I am not aware of my time limit as of yet.Another idea would be to create the whole thing in CGI no live action but to have the band maybe playing in a tower in the middle of the battlefield.

Another posibility would be the band playing behind one of the armies on a stage or some sort of fortress and them playing their music sends out streams of light creating a morale boost to the army.

Goodwins 6 Points

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within
screens,telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Britney Spears Reconstruct Animatic

We all worked together on this as a class but some of us had different jobs, Hayden in our class created an animatic sequence for us to try and follow or help us with our planning.

Here is the sequence:

Britney Spears Reconstruct 3

As the day went on with the filming, we had to do on set choreography and learn the dances as we shot them and I helped in getting everyone to work together and work out what it is we need to do and help with some of the shots. We really could have done with some time of doing choreography but that didn't happen we managed to pull of the dance routines pretty well and were are in sync most of the time.

Although we were trying to be comedic with our costumes we could have worked harder, I could have worn the skirt properly without my jeans and I could have worn a wig and maybe some makeup, it would have kept the comedic feel infact it would have increased it and made it feel more real.

Britney Spears Reconstruct 2

As a backing dancer I had to learn all the dance moves and keep them in time with everyone else who is a dancer. But unfortunatly we didn't get time to do much choreography. But what we did instead is on set we learnt the dance moves for each shot to keep it fresh in our minds.

Britney Spears Reconstruct

On Friday we were given a task to reconstruct the first 60 shots of the hit me baby one more time music video by Britney Spears. We all had different roles to fit in this task, my role was to be a female backing dancer. A few of the people in our group were off during this task but we still managed to pull it off and get all the props we needed.

Lip Sync Testing

The next task that we was set was to shoot a short music video to a song that we picked randomly from a set our teacher had, after choosing this song we then were given the lyrics to the song and given cameras and the song to play while filming. The main objective of the task was to create a decent looking music video and to make sure the words and synced with the music.

In a group of four we decided to have each of us singing in all different locations and then a shot of us all together. We filmed each person singing the whole song all the way through so we then had loads of footage and the same with all of us together.

Filming this was a fun experience but also embarrassing to watch people miming and to also be doing it yourself. The last part of the task was to individually edit the footage to get different music videos and here is what I came up with.

The Beginning

For the past few days we have been set different tasks to do with creating and editing music videos.
Our first task was to create a music video from a set of footage from an existing music video and then apply a soundtrack to it, we were given a few different songs to try out with. This task as a whole was a great idea and it gave us a good sense of how to edit a music video and get it how you invision it.

The second task was to lip sync a music video with some music, we were given the footage from a music video that some students made for this song and then had to match it to the real song. This gave us a great sense in editing once again and also gave us a feel for lip syncing.