Friday 30 September, Whole group, Beddington park

Today we headed off to Beddington park, in the strange heat with the intention of filming all of our naturalistic shots. We managed to get a few graphic matches, such as filming the river, to be used with "fish in the sea".

We got a lot of lip synching done, which we felt important as there's a lot more footage of the main character walking about looking melancholy. We also filmed a very interesting shot of the me walking backwards, whilst taking off some clothes. Although this doesn't sound very special, we are going to reverse the footage, so it appears I am walking forward, and the clothes will 'magic' themselves onto me. We think this will be a very good visual effect.

We filming some stock of the guitarist playing as well, which will be interspersed with me singing. We also discussed making him always appear in the background of shots a running theme.

Tuesday 27th September 2011- Whole Group- Croydon Car Parks:


Today was our first filming session, and we headed off to Croydon in order to begin filming of the video. Our first location was Centrale Car park, and after we took a few pictures for use in our digipak, we were asked to move on, as we had not asked for permission to film on their premises.
So we moved across the high street to the Whitgift centre car park. We were a lot more successful here, and we managed to film the entirety of our introduction (which also doubles as our ending), a creative shot involving the opening of an elevators door, and our main character lip synching.
After the filming here, we headed further down the high street to the market, where I began recording of some POV shots, which we hope to add to the video at different points, as these shots can be used very often.
We finished our filming with the main character descending a long flight of stairs, the camera facing him at a high angle. We hope to use jump shots somehow with this footage.
We then filmed a short 'behind the scenes', with Ryan and I talking about what we had achieved today, which will go on the blog at some point.

My inspiration

Hello everybody!

We are just about to begin the filming process, which will mean many long hours of filming, re filming, and 're re filming' in order to get the best shots we can, and I know we will be pushing ourselves hard to make a good finished product.
I have decided to show some of my favourite music videos, as well as some that have features I would love to implement in our own product.

The first is the iconic video to the song 'The Scientist', by Coldplay.





So this video has been critically acclaimed on many occasions, partly due to the storyline, but mostly due to the fact that it is all shown in reverse, that is, we begin at the end, and the world moves 'back to the start'.
Coldplay have made the most out of a video in reverse, Martin often jumps back over walls, bicycle tricks are  performed backwards, and most of all the sadness of Martin' character is not revealed until the end of the video itself.

This is among my top ten music videos of all time, and I would also love an oppurtunity to use reversed footage in our own video, as I love how the effect looks.


The second video I want to show is 30 Seconds To Mars- Closer To The Edge.
This is actually my favourite song, ever, and although I love the video, I do not see very much in there that I would like to try and implement into our own.



The video is comprised entirely of stock footage from the bands concerts, as well as a few short clips of themselves out and about (Miami, Grand Canyon). I can personally say that just by watching this video, it makes me want to go to on of their concerts. The spotlight on lead singer, Leto, drummer, S.Leto and guitarist Tomo helps to promote themselves as a label, as they are drawing attention to themselves, something important in this genre (alternative rock).

We intend for our video to mainly be a narrative, however with aspects of a performance style video on the sidelines, as making sure the story is easy to follow is very important.

Adverts for Digipaks

From looking at this advert, we can clearly see that it has not been made professionally. However, this is not a bad thing.
The title of the song is 'Windows' and the producers here have taken this in a very literal sense, and have cut the advert into little boxes (or windows). We can see the artist through these windows, however some of the boxes have been cleverly used as a way to present important information, such as critical acclaim and release dates.
From looking at the artist, one may assume that the genre of music is 'indie/alternative rock'. This mainly due to his clothing (Branded hoodie, beanie hat, jeans and worker boots).
We can also take note that he is sitting on a bale of hay. This gives connotations that perhaps he is performing country music, or that this particular song has nature based themes and lyrics present.
Finally, the artist could be seen as very friendly, as he is smiling or laughing, and sitting in a very casual pose, facing away from the camera. This could give the suggestion he is laughing at someone else, giving this particular shot a 'candid camera' feel.

Research into digipaks

Islands- The xx

This digipak, designed by 'The xx', features very soft blue lighting. The light is clearly made from a projector, and the band member's shadow is seen behind them.

The band is classed under the indie genre, which would generally mean that their fan base takes a lot of stock in the artists image, thus it makes sense that the artists should appear on the front cover of the pack. 

The projected image looks as if it is a view of the water. This would relate back to the name of the single, as obviously an island is on a body of water. 

The simplistic white font could suggest how they are not a band that goes over the top with their music and designs, rather they would stick to producing a very clear and real image, about the CD and the band itself.

Andrew Hone- The journey

 This digipak, which has been created by the artist 'andrew Hone', is very simplistic in design.

However, this works very well. It is a simple panorama of an empty field, with some woodlands in the background. This could give the name 'the journey' a deeper meaning perhaps the journey is one of spiritual value.

It is a very natural scene, so therefore it could be that the song is about nature as well.

This cover seems to break CD conventions, as they largely feature images of the artist. This could mean that maybe this artist is not too concerned with his image.

The font can be described as transparent, as we can still see the sky through the writing. 

I should definitely keep the fact that the majority of digipaks use images of the artist, or images that relate to the major themes recurring in the film. For this reason, it may be an idea to have an image of the main character, and perhaps the band as well. We could also reference an event in the video. 

Mise en scene

ow are we going to utilise mise-en-scene in our music video?

Lighting is often overlooked when talking about mise-en-scene but we want to use lighting to create an atmosphere as well as captivating the audience. One idea would be to use flares combined with lens flares to create a streak of light across the screen. This is a powerful image and something that isn’t done often; it will set our music video apart from others and it is also an interesting and creative technique.

The lead singer plays an important role in our music video because we are following his story and the video revolves around him. However, we also want to make him look vulnerable and make the audience empathise with the character. The use of props and lighting will reflect heavily on the character, as will their surroundings. For example, looking in a mirror in a rundown bathroom will give connotations of his emotions or rundown life.

For costume, as the theme of our song is ‘rebirth’ we feel it would be important to change the costume of the lead singer. Binary opposites of black and white are likely to be used for the costume with changes throughout the song to indicate progression which leads back again to the connotations of change and- with white, for example- innocence.

To communicate the rock/indie genre it is typical of other bands to use instruments as props in their videos so we are likely to do the same as it is a reference to the genre to show we understand different conventions. This can also be said for costume as there seems to be a ‘dress code’ for indie bands with certain clothes being worn and certain clothes being avoided.

The message of our song is the change in life so we can show that through a variety of locations to once again reflect the change in character but it also is an effective way of telling the audience what is going on without explicitly stating it.

To attract, appeal and entertain our audience a lot of unique techniques and elements may need to be used. We are considering unique lighting effects as well as abstract ways of delivering our message and also a unique take on the song through the video. The twists in the narrative are also good examples. The non-linear structure of the video would appeal to the audience. This is similar to other videos in the genre including The Killers’ video for ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’

By Connor Sleet, Bradley Russell, Ryan Almond, Jacob Caria-Preen

Description of Target audience

Our song (Muse-Feeling good) is classed under the alternative rock genre. This genre can be seen as similar to the indie genre, as many of the themes portrayed in songs are the same. The look of the bands in both genres, however, are very different.
Although they have the word 'alternative' branded unto them, the bands in the genre are essentially rock bands. This is echoed in the songs. They tend to be loud, medium pace, with a heavy drum beat and bass line. The melody in this genre is not as important as it is in the pop and hip hop genre.

The majority of rock audiences come from the late teens (16)  and early/mid twenties (20-25/6). The fans of such bands will generally follow these bands for much of their adulthood once they have started listening, as sometimes the artists image is just as built up as the music is. One example of this could be the fan base of '30 seconds to mars'. Although the majority of their fanbase may be in their mid-late teenage years, there are also plenty of adult fans who still follow them. This is because the band was formed in the late 90's, when the fans who are now approaching 30 would only have been 16 or 17. This genre of music tend to to use a performance style video as rock bands rely largely on their public image. 30 Seconds To Mars are no different to this, however their videos often follow concept based videos with a performance aspect. One example is their video to 'This is War'. The band act as US marines on patrol in Afghanistan, with the theme of war being played out. There are plenty of graphic match ups, however the main singer, Jared Leto, is seen singing with the video.


This is the sort of fanbase Muse has managed to garner, so it would make perfect sense if we were to appeal to the fans the band has already built up; rather than attempt to gather new fans.

We will be aiming our video at the CDE social demographics. This is because the majority of our fans would be very likely to still be students. This means that although many may be highly intelligant, they do not live a lifestyle that is sufficient to be in the B-A demographics. We will, of course, have some abnormalities. There could well be members of the higher demographics that wil enjoy and watch our music video, as we intend to portray a deep video with plenty of rich and contrasting colours, creating a wide range of visual effects that (we hope) will be stimulating to watch.

From the uses and gratifacations theory, we intend to offer our audience the Identifacation, escape and entertainment uses. We hope that although some viewers will be able to identify with the depression that our character feels, we do not want them to identify with the situation he finds himself in. We hope to change their view on the world by using bright colours throughout, which will steadily increase in brightness and vibrance in order to show how the world can be a bright and cheerful place.
The escape use will be used in the fact that the main character will clearly be enjoying his long walk through both country and city. The vibrant colours should also provide a sense of the world as our character  is able to see it- new and fresh.
The final 'entertainment' is going to be represented through the use of colours, creative shots and interesting locations. We will also use the storyline to keep the viewers interested, and hopefully the final plot twist should give the viewer something to think about.