Shot location - Adapted

Now I have changed my idea for the video, I need new locations for my shots.

Opening scene 


I am in two minds whether or not to film the breakdown scene at Lyndhurst road or not. Although this location would still give me all the qualities i need, i have problems with getting people and equipment to the spot. I feel somewhere closer to Ringwood, where transport is generally easier would be a safer option, especially if I am forced to re-shoot. I found a little place, with a little car parking bay at the side of the road, with a gate next to it ,  which i could get the character sat on whilst singing. The sun is fairly similar, and is at the top of the road around 1 o'clock at the moment.

Bridge + Chorus


Dan's house- Stairs up to his room.

Second Verse


This incudes shots of the main character skating to meet his friends. I haven't much of an idea, where to shoot this, but i think i will drive round the back roads and see if i can spot a suitable location.

Bridge + Chorus 


Dan's house - Stairs (down) , outside pavement and layby.

Final scene


The final scene will be set at my friends cabin. this is a place where we usually chill out , and so i feel it would be nice to film it. Also it matches the track very well, with a warm feel about the place, and random gear like surfboards that will fit the video.

Ideas - 2

Instead of the final scene being a camping outdoor scene, i feel now this just will not be possible with the ranging factors. So i will have to create an an indoor enviroment for the last party which suits the video. This will be hard as the outdoor element was a key part of my video, so getting the right setting will e vital.

If i change my last scene, this changes the other scenes with exception of the opening. This is because all the scenes build up to this last scene.

Chrous 1

I think now i will make the chrrous more performance based , instead of the chrous seeting the scene for the last section. However this leaves me with one verse to get the hitchhiking band from one place to another, I could use jump cuts and imply they have recieved a lift, but this still leaves problems with the second verse.

Second verse - finish

This is the main problem, i was thinking the band traverling to a gig venue. However although this idea could work, im faced with a few issues with the number people and the setting. I am going to hold a gathering round my house, and get some footage for the last scene. I don't think it will give the same impression, but i will get the footage and that will determine how i will shoot the second verse. As the second verse builds up to chronologically to the last scene, so i need to try and keep contiuity.


Last scene

I am going to try and get to different scenes shot, and then i will decide which works the best.
-First scene i will try and shoot is the camping scene , however in my garden this time.
-The next scene i will shoot will be a performanced based, gig style atmosphere in my house.

I will see which turns out the best, and go from there.

Filming - 2

I have checked the weather report for this weekend, and it's looking sunny which means i will be able to get my filmimg finished. I need make sure i have my cast together as the last time i went filmimg i struggled due to casting issues. Hopefully this weekend i will get the introduction shot again and the second verse.

I am keeping in mind that light is running out around 4 o'clock these days, so to successfully film i will need to get an early start. This is a problem for getting the cast, so i think i will get the cast to stay round my house the night before so i can get started quickly the following day.

I am going to film the opening scene again, because although i had all the shots for the opening sequence, they were too washed out and didn't look good enough to use.

Digi-Pack + Poster

Creating the Digi-pack

Whilst creating the digi-pack, I had to keep in my mind the genre comventions for my track and how i could translate that into a digi-pack. I first set about on the task of coming up with ideas for the front cover, drawing inspiration from similar artists, or just other covers that really stood out to me.

I liked the 'white denim - D' album because of the colage effect contrasted agaisnt nothing, i thought that was quite a good, slightly abstract idea. I was planning on doing a similar image, instead with bumber stickers, signs and words.

I loved the fatboy slim cover for it's simplicity, and the sunglare effect which has been theme in my video. Yet again there is a  sharp contrast, which i think I am planning on using.

I really love the idea behind The verve album cover, and at the same time provides a interesting image to look at at. An album cover should reflect the album and the band in some way, send some sort of idea or feeling out.

Trying out the colage effect

I attempted creating a similar effect to the white denim album cover. I used skate stickers, signs (road and warning stickers), and general images. I collected these images in a bank.

These were the style of images i was going to use to hopefully build up a 'retro style' colage. However when it came to piecing the images together I came across a few problems. The images, download from the internet, tended to have a border round the outside of them, and cutting around the edges of each image took a fair deal of time. When it came to adding these together colour clashes occured and i found it was hard to put text over the images. So before  I fully comitted to the idea and process lots of images, I decied it would not be effective and their were other, more efficent ways of conveying a similar feeling.

Photos

I decided to take a camera, out into the forest on a warm ( orange coloured ) evening and take some photos of the leaves and general nature. I came across a pile of leaves, threw them up against a sunlit background and managed to captuure a single leaf in the centre of the shot. Using an out-of-focus effect to blur the shot.

I processed this image through the online editing software 'Picnik', to add more warmth to the shot, and to soften the background. This is what i ended up with.

This was the image than i chose to represent the album, and became the album cover.

The poster

 For the poster we have been asked to create, I am debating whether i should used the same image from album cover however slightly edited, or use a different image completely ( mabey a image of the band.) I'm personally more inclined to use the same image to keep conituity and to keep a running theme through the project, as it gives the album and the band a image.  Something that when people see the picture they will instantly relate it to the band/ album.

Updated

I sat down to have a think about the poster image, as i thought, although keep continuity between the poster and digi-pack would be effective. However I felt I should really get another image, which also conveys the orangy, autum feel. So once again i ventured out into the wider world with a camera, and with no real general direction, apart from the idea of capturing this 'feeling' i set off. I walked around taking photos of the silouette of trees and other various kooky nature stuff. Untill yet again I came across a pile of leaves, and took about 5 photos.

That sort of stuff. After returning to school, I decided to take the second photo listed through, to the editing stage. And it turned out abit like this......

Updated - again
As I started to add Writting and images I came a across a few probelsm. Due to the different shades and colours of the leaves, there were only select areas where I could add text where it would be clear to read.

As you can see, there are select areas where text would work. In the end to add the 'The courtiers" I added a banner to help highlight the band name . I thought this actually added a new layer to my poster, in the sense of an 'extra something' .


 

Band Name

So, I would of course have to come up with a band name. Although this sounds relatively easy, especially for a musician, coming up with band names is something i do struggle with. It's a weird one, because any name after a while, once you get use to it sounds okay , but it's still the thing that people may see first before listening to a track , and form a name, they can start to form an opinion, of the what the sound that follows will be, or the members are like in the band.

First ideas;-
I flicked through a dictionary , allowing my finger to drop onto random words..... 'Toaster' , hmmm perhaps " The toasters" , no that was crap. Most of the subsequent words, followed suit with equally disappointing names such as " The Fez's" , "Treehouse".... "revision" ! Not a lot of gems there really, so the dictionary idea didn't work entirely, but i thought concept was interesting.

Ideas continued;-
I was trying to keep in mind, the connotations of the name and how it would relate to my tracks genre, Folk. I started browsing the web, with no real direction just hoping something would jump out at me. Words such as "Cabanas" , "Caphs" , and " waves" jumped out at me. However the more i was looking, the more i began in my mind to associate the letter C with my track, until it only felt right to start off with the letter C. I again returned to my orginal idea of the dictionary, this time being around 95% more specific. I searched again, jotting down a couple of names in my media class on a piece a paper, one in particular came up ..... " The Courtiers". In the following lessons in that day i had history and during that class, that name came up as part of the history lesson, so i decided on that coincidental  basis that i would stick with that name.

"The Courtiers"

CD front cover shots

This is a shot i took of the sunset in burley. I used the Piknic photo editing software on the interent to bring out the shades of black, to give a dramatic contrast with the sun like on the 'Fatboy slim'  album cover. I love this shot for the wamth incapulated within it. I am not too happy with the framing with this shot, although the sun is centred, i think there is too much of the trees (right) and the bush  ( bottom) in the image.

This shot provides a different feel,  with heavy empahsis on the balck shades of the trees. Contrasted yet again with the sun, this time however i didn't empahsize the orange/yellow of the sun , instead i added brightness to the sun area and then changed the contrast to give that white in the sun. Although there is abit of lense flare, i feel this almost adds something extra to the shot. In comparison to the first shot, i prefer the framing of this shot, but because of the patches of black and white, i feel this would be harder to make into a front cover due to the spacing for the writting (Band name + album name).

Filming - 1

The first attempt at filmimng didn't go entirely to plan, to be honest most things went wrong.

I planned orignally to film the first main scene, parts of the second verse and the last scene. However problems with the weather meant i could not have a fire ( a focus point of the last scene ). It was too wet and windy for the shots to take place for the second verse. Another issue, wasat my video needs about 13 people in the last scene in the correct enviroment to get the idea across. The situation on the night of filming, was basically the opposite. Not enough people turned out so the shots just were not possible, even the opening shots with three characters  I couldn't do.

This means I'm am going to have to rethink my video, as now the weather is deteriating i wil have to come up with a new setting for the last scene, which in turn means i need to change everything apart from the opening scene.

I may put in more performance than orignally planned to fill the gaps. This will alter my video, so i will have to have a rethink of whats now possible.

Shot location

Opening scene

For the opening of the hitchhiking scene, I would ideally like to have the sun faced down a long road. the place I feel that would be best for this is a road named, Lyndurst road. It is a long straight piece of road in the newforest, and at the moment in the sun for an hour so is in the center of the road. This is going to be my location for the opening scene.

Second verse + Final scene
I will shoot this scene at mill lawn in burley, as it has open spaces a river, which i intend to use as part of my video , and of course forest. Making it an ideal place shoot the second verse which is the characters traveling to the camping scene at the end.

Storyboards

Institutions - research

As with all music, the record label draws connections with the genre in hand so as to keep contiunity, and as to give the audiences a recognizable name to refer to and relate to when sampling other music surrounding that genre.
My genre is Folk/alternative rock/ Low Fi and so i need to to find a suitable label to reflect my music.

 I would preferably want an independent label, something a bit low key that fits with the vibe that comes with folk  and alternative music. Also I am in favour of supporting the smaller companies, even though isn’t a real release, the point still stands in terms of why.

I’ve come across a few labels I feel would be suitable, including one from Hampshire, UK.

-          Free spirit records is an independent label based in lately, Hampshire, United Kingdom. They formed in 2002 as an outlet for acoustic singer/songwriter sonny black.  It is a fair low key label, so this one is pretty tempting.

-          Fellside records, is a fairly congratulated label that has been recording and producing since ’76. ". In 2007, BBC radio celebrated the company with a program called "30 Years of Fellside.  Also Three of their acts, 'John Spiers & Jon Boden', 'Nancy Kerr & James Fagan', and 'Kirsty McGee' were nominated for BBC Folk Awards and two of the acts were winners on the night.

-          The Village Thing was an independent record label in the United Kingdom which published folk music, blues and acoustic music between 1970 and 1973, under the tag of "The Alternative Folk Label". Yet again this is a smaller label, something that I would prefer to use when considering the genre is folk.

-          Irregular Records is a British independent record label , which was established in 1985 by the singer Robb Johnson. In addition to Johnson's own recordings the label has also issued albums by artists such as Barb Jungr and Des de Moor. It has been runnning since 1985- onwards .

Although i would like to go for a more renound label, I think with my view of things I would opt for 'Free Spirit Records', just for the reason that even if the album didn't make , perhaps another record in the future would bossting this small companies revenue.

Sun glare shots

      In this photo i like the way the sun glares through the trees and silloetes the person. This reflects what i want to achieve in my video for the second verse,  laidback slow or stationary shots.

 

This shows the warmth that i want to try and incorparate in some of my shots.

This shot is very similar to what i want for my opening hitchhiking scene, very similar in respects of sun glare at the top of the road and also the angle in which it is taken from. If you imagine the band members sat on the verge on the right side.

This picture shows the filter color i want to aim for in some of my shots. Also the type of surrounding possibly for the second verse. 

Ideas for video

I want to set a bohemian atmosphere to my video, so as far as a plot is concerned it will be fairly simple;

I think i will start the video off with the band members sat next to a road in the forest surrounded by items such as - tents, sleeping bags, guitars, radom outdoor equiptment ect. They will be sat down hopefully on a log on the ground. They will be attempting to hitchhike however it is unclear where they are going. After 35 seconds the minuture bridge kicks into the chorus, at this point i will cross cut to another scene in which the band is perfroming. I havn't thought of an enviroment/setting entirely for this part yet.

After the chrous we go back into the verse again, at this point im not sure yet whether i should continue where the band left off and now have them travelling in a car somewhere, or have them just getting out the car and are now at a different location. If so , when it gets back to the chrous i will not cross cut to the same performance place this time unless i can make it fit,instead i may just carry on with the scene from the previous verse. This is because after the second chrous we get a lot more layers and power in the song. At this point i want to show something like a party, a gig, or anything with a lot of atmosphere, so it may help to keeping the same environment flowing.

Audience - Research

Looking into my expected audience for my genre.

Taking into account the culture surrounding my music genre of Folk - Folktronica. There is very much a bohemian style of life surrounding this genre. A life based around simplicity and friendship.


However the folk genre, ties in closely with many other genres such as Reggae, world music, alternative rock, low fi ect. All relating to each other because of a similar set of ideals. Peace, friendship, unity, simplicity.

So to appeal to my audeince, a on the whole fairly wide audience, I will have to incorparate some of these ideals into my video. Bearing in my mind i can be fairly flexible with these ideals, to as another concept assicated with this culture and genre is that of acceptance, and so these ideals could to an extent be pushed as to keep the video interesting and to open it up to a potenially wider audience.
As whislt the track itself, whilst not a pop orientated song does conatin features that opens it up to a wider pop audience, for example standard song convetions assciated with pop.... verse-chrous-verse-chrous ect. This means that my audeince may be wider than that just the folk/alternative rock/blues audience.

Taking into consideration age aswell, I feel my track being that of an alternative nature would be reaching audicenes from I would say from say 5,16- 50. A fairly vast audience, but the video itself perhaps a smaller range, from say 15- 40, as music video platforms such as channels, youtube ect I would imagine be predominately accessed by the younger generations. Due to the use of technology, and other media products assciated with those platforms ( a sort of reputation). So on the whole , whilst my video will generally be specific to a certain style of audience, I stil think that the track allows a potenial wider audience than may be orianlly anticapted.

Audience - Research

Looking into my expected audience for my genre.

Taking into account the culture surrounding my music genre of Folk - Folktronica. There is very much a bohemian style of life surrounding this genre. A life based around simplicity and friendship.


However the folk genre, ties in closely with many other genres  such as Reggae, world music, alternative rock, low fi ect. All relating to each other because of a similar set of ideals. Peace, friendship, unity, simplicity.

So to appeal to my audeince, a on the whole fairly wide audience, I will have to incorparate some of these ideals into my video. Bearing in my mind i can be fairly flexible with these ideals, to as another concept assicated with this culture and genre is that of acceptance, and so these ideals could to an extent be pushed as to keep the video interesting and to open it up to a potenially wider audience.
 As whislt the track itself, whilst not a pop orientated song does conatin features that opens it up to a wider pop audience, for example standard song convetions assciated with pop.... verse-chrous-verse-chrous ect. This means that my audeince may be wider than that just the folk/alternative rock/blues audience.

The Focus Group

All the media students met for one lesson to discuss our ideas and how far we got. This was a good chance to hear other peoples ideas about our projects and helped me a great deal withy ideas.

What people suggested;

- Using focus to blur certain areas of the shot.
- Using performance but in the background of shots and not nessiceliary the focus of the shot.
- Using the glare of the sun.
- Using a range of filters

Lyrics

I am going to try and attempt to match up the lyrics within the song with whats going on my videos, however i am not going to follow the lyrics religeously, and instead use the occasional line for added effect.
I have highlighted a few lyrics that i might link shots with;

This is the definition of my life
Lying in bed in the sunlightChoking on the vitamin tablet
The doctor gave in the hope of saving me
In the hope of saving me

Walked in the corner of the roomA junk yard fool with eyes of gloom
I asked him time again
Take me in and dry the rainTake me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain the rain
The rain the rain the rain now

Dusty brown boots in the corner
By the ironing board
Spray on dust is the greatest thingSure is the greatest thing
Since the last since the last

Walked in the corner of the room
A junk yard fool with eyes of gloom
I asked him time again
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain the rain
The rain the rain the rain now

I asked him time again
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
Take me in and dry the rain
The rain the rain the rain now

Radical Face - " Welcome home"

This is a track by radical face called welcome home, you can see some of the charteristics displayed in this video.




-You will also notice the use of filters in this video, they all create a sense of warmth in the video. Which in turn makes the viewer feel comfortable.

- You will also notice that there is a lot of "in and out focus" shots. This is something i wish to include within my video.

- I also like the edits that cut to a completely different place and scenario, they don't add to make a story as such, but instead helps to create a sense of a laid back lifestyle. This is another feature i am considering adding to my video.

Eels - "In my dreams"

I like the range of shots in this video, especially the range of camera angles.



-When the two characters get into the forest there is a series of wide angle stationary shots, these helped to capture the natural surroundings quite nicely and set a laid-back tone to the video.
- The use of the sun to create glare is featured in many of shots, and to silouete the two charaters.
- finally the use of filters in this video helps to create a very warm feel.

Jason Mraz - " Im yours"

This isn't a folk song however it includes some shots and edits that i am considerding replicating within my video.



This Video, like the radical face video shows the Singer/songwriter invarious locations through the use of inter-cutting. However in this video there is a bit more of a story line and a bit more structure in what he is doing.

In this video,

- there is use of slow motion to create a relaxed feel.
- there use of the sun to create siluets.
- use of establishing shots
- Use of fluid edits, for example when hes under water at the river, when the camera comes to the surface hes at the beach. I would like to achieve something similar in my video.

Genre and research

The song i'm am creating a music video for comes under the genre of Experimental folk/ Folktronica. As i know from watching videos in the past of folk genre that they have some common charteristics, for example;
- Slow editing but generally speeding up with the tempo of the music.
- Shots of the outside and natrual world ( on the whole ). We are shown people amoungst nature or in relatively calm and quite places.
- Promotes the bohemian style of living, through edits and also the props and actions within the shots.
- There is usually performance in folk videos, its rare not to see performance.
- Use of in and out focus shots.
- Use of warm filters .

Some of these features are displayed in the following videos.

A2 Music Video Project

This year we have been given the task of creating a music video for a particular track. I will be working alone this year as i feel it will be a challenge, however it also interests me to see what i can achieve when it's just me working on it. I will be investigating the use of cameras, filters , lenses and various techniques used in other videos of this genre and similar style genres to gain some insiration.