Test shot video

This week we decided to try out a few test shots so that we could have some experience and know what shots will and won't work. We have yet to make a fridge and do test shots of that but we did the POV of the ghost, the 4-way split-screen of Matthew and tried out some shots that we'd like to use with the skateboards (though we weren't able to get an actual skateboard at the time so had to use a dolly from the media classes track and dolly).
We found out that some shots just didn't work so had to try alternatives, whilst discovering that other's did work and that we could use them in our music video.

Green screen

Green screen is an example of chroma key compositing, which is a way of layering two images together. Blue screens are also used, but green is popular as it requires less light and image sensors in digital cameras are more sensitive to green, creating a clearer image with less 'noise'.

None of us have ever used green screen before so we have had to research the technique. 

The following are examples of music videos that use green screen:

Tony Christie ft. Peter Kay- Is This The Way To Amarillo

After some discussion, we decided that instead of using green screen, we will try to re-create a fridge as it should make the shot look more realistic.

Our Ghost Costume!!!

Ghost sheet before we have cut out the eyes - Annaliese

Ghost sheet before we have cut out the eyes - Matt

First problem we encountered - when drawing the outline of the eyes it left a stain on the back of the sheet...

After learning from our mistake the second sheet was done better, with no stains on the other side

Zara cutting out the holes

Teamwork of cutting the holes to finish quicker!

One eye successfully done!

The finished sheets! Matt and Annaliese

Close up of Annaliese's ghost costume



Close up of Matt's costume!

 To create the ghost costumes, we firstly put the sheet over the person who was playing the ghost and we leveled the sheet out so that it looked as good as we could get it. We then put a purple dot where the persons eyes were. After this, we laid the sheet down and put a bottle of water over the dot and drew a circle around the bottle. We then cut out the circles to have our eye holes and our final ghost costumes.
We encountered a couple of problems when creating our ghost costumes. The first problem was the purple stain which was left on the back of Matt's ghost costume, in the shape of circles. This is because the sheet was folded over when we started drawing the holes. It will cause problems in our music video because there would be some over the shoulder shots of the ghost, in which case the marks would be visible. To sort out this problem we are going to try bleaching the stain, or washing the sheet, if this doesn't work, we will just have to change and play around with some of the angles that were supposed to be in the video so that the mark isn't visible.
Secondly as you can tell from the pictures, the eye holes of the ghosts are a little too big. There is a lot more of the persons face visible than we had hoped. It isn't a major problem as there aren't too many close ups of the ghost so we can hide the fact that the holes are big when shooting the video. We also thought that we should colour in our eyes black so that the circles look dark and the skin and the eyes are not as visible. We will use face paint, and paint around our eyes black to give the ghost costume a better effect. We will test this out in test shot week, next week.

Our Target Audience

Our target audience is an audience who listens to 'Indie' music. 'Indie' music is mainly followed by teens, and it is very popular amongst them. This means our target audience is boys and girls aged thirteen upwards. Obviously there is no age limit on the people that enjoy the 'indie' genre but it is mainly enjoyed by the younger generation of males and females.
The characteristics of the 'indie' genre are quirky ideas, bright colours, funny concepts, and a retro feel. We feel we can live up to these characteristics in our video. This is why the music is mainly targeted at the younger generation. They enjoy the unique ways in which 'indie' bands work, with their 'strange' videos that don't always make sense.

What we have done:
To appeal to the target audience, we have tried to include as many of the characteristics as possible. Firstly we have the quirky idea of the lead singer being chased by lots of masked people, including a ghost dressed in a bed sheet. Secondly, we have tried to tackle the bright colours characteristic by filming in the sun light, so the whole video will be bright and sunny, even though the lyrics of the song are horror related. This gives a contrast which also adds to the quirkiness of the video. We have a funny/strange concept through the idea of the ghost and the fact that they will appear in everyday places e.g. the supermarket. Finally, we have a retro feel through that of the ghost who will be dressed in a very retro costume, where we'll just be using a bed-sheet, it is the old style view of a ghost costume.
As well as these characteristics, 'indie' fans do enjoy the performance aspect of the music. Many fans enjoy seeing their favorite bands playing live so we are going to capture this in the video by having some performance based shots.

Skateboarding shots.

Skateboarding video
For our music video we want to have a scene in a skatepark where there are some people skating and the ghosts and masked people take over and convert them. We want to add lots of interesting shots of the wheels and movement to add an abstract effect to the video and to make it more of an interesting piece to watch. In this skateboarding video there are lots of interesting shots such as a low angle shot watching the skaters coming over the camera and then a match on action cut to the skaters landing on the ground from the view of a camera placed on the round.
Following that there is a shot that we are definitely going to use in our video which is a POV from the skater which sees him picking up the camera, mounting the skateboard and then skating off after the other skaters. There is then a cut with the continuation of the POV of him skating after the others; the handheld shot giving the shot a sense of movement.
Another good shot in this video is later on when the camera is again placed on the floor but this time at the side of a half pipe and you get to see the skater riding past it with a good close up on the wheels.

The lighting in this video is also good as there is some glare from the sun but it is slightly overcast and cloudy like it usually is in Britain. I think the glare would be good on the camera as it can make a shot better by blocking parts out, highlighting some things and adding movement when moving the camera from the glare to normal lighting.

Test shot ideas

There are a few shots that we would like to practice shooting before we shoot the real video, as we need to practice the techniques in order to make them look effective.

We will do test shots for the following shots:

P.O.V from the eyes of the ghost as we need to make sure that we can see the outline of the eyes as well as what the ghost is looking at: we will need to make sure that Matt can be seen in the frame.

The 4-way split screen of the lead singer walking in various locations as although we have already practiced this technique, we need to make each frame equal in size and time the shots in sequence.

Green screen of the masked head in the fridge as we have never used a green screen before. We need to make sure that it looks realistic.

P.O.V from the skateboarder as we need to get the masked person in the frame, and also try to keep it as steady as possible so that it does not look amateur.

Dropping the orange juice as we want to be able to time the spilling of the juice with the shot of Matt's feet running away in the background, whilst making sure it is an artistically effective shot.

Supermarket Inspiration

This is the video that we got our inspiration from for the supermarket scene. The difference will be that the person who is being chased (in this video pac man) will be the lead singer of the video. Similar to pac man, he will be chased by a ghost, however the ghost will be dressed up in a white sheet. We want the people in the super market to have genuine confused and possibly scared reactions to what is going on around them. We will have to inform the authorities at the supermarket just to check that they are alright with it and that we wont get arrested like Remi Gaillard does in this video.
This video uses amateur handheld shots so obviously doesn't look as professional, we wouldn't want to have this style as our video wouldn't look the best quality it could. We plan to have a rapid succession of different angles and still shots of us running through the supermarket. We feel this would look better and more professional, and fit well in our video.
We want this scene to convey the quirky aspect of our music video. The reaction of the teen audience should be laughter.
We are going to use the ghost costume and someone will also be dressed up in a parrot costume as those two are full body costumes and we feel they will get the best reaction. We may use other masked people but we don't want to push our luck at the supermarket.

Location list

This is a list of all the places we will be filming our music video at.

Matt's house- the kitchen scene

Matt's Kitchen

The fridge where the head will appear which we will use green screens for.

Matt's garage- the band performance scene



This is where the performance scenes will be held. We will decorate this area to make it fit the video a bit more, maybe have it darker with candles, we are also ceating a back drop to go over the curtains or plain wall.



Oxleas woods- the wood scene

Dartford skate park- the skate park scene

Dartford Sainsbury's- the supermarket scene

Music video director: Marc Webb

Miley Cyrus- Start All Over

In this video, there are many examples of some of our own ideas that we can take inspiration from. For example, at the beginning, the lead singer closes her eyes and then wakes up in a different location. We would like to do this in our video, when Matt falls over after running from the hauntings and then wakes up in the performance room. Also, the setting of the skatepark which we will also use and the idea of costumed extras to add a whimsical atmosphere.

All-American Rejects- Move Along

In this music video there are many montages of the lead singer. In our video, we will use a similar idea, but instead there will be a montage of all the masked characters to the beat during the performance.

The director of this video is Marc Webb, who has also directed videos such as multiple My Chemical Romance and Green Day videos for over the past 10 years.

Final storyboard

Cast list (preliminary)

Matthew Alexander Tierney (lead singer/bassist/main character)

Annaliese Kerry Law (drummer/ghost)

Alexandra Susan Osben (guitarist/masked peson)

Zara Talula Callow (masked person)

Jodie Carol Young (masked peson)

Federico Rice (masked person/skater)

(possibly their friends Sean Coughlin, James Stockman, Olly Meager, Josh Banham)

Cameron Wingfield Blower (masked person/skater)

Joely Christine Osben (masked person)

Myles Benford (masked person)

Shooting Schedule

Sat 8th October @ Oxleas Woods @ Matt's house
Thurs 13th October - Time to re shoot if needs be.
Sat 15th October @ Dartford (skate park and supermarket)
Thurs 20th October - Re shoot time, and extra shots.
Sat 22nd + half term - time to shoot any remaining shots

Matt and Annaliese's Storyboards

Storyboard!

First page - Starts with close up of drums and guitars, includes mainly performance with a few chase shots.



Second page - chase shots, at the skate park, and shots of the ghost.

Third page - This is the instrumental section so there is quite a few performance shots, accompanied by some skating shots, with close ups of the supermarket.



Fourth page - running through the supermarket shots, followed by performance and some more chase shots.



Final page - climactic chase shots, with lots of close ups of the ghost, then the singer, wit some performance, and finishing with the sheet being placed on the singers head.



Our Split Screen Idea

We want to use this four way split screen effect in our video where four different shots are going at once. We have experimented on imovie and figured out how to do it. We will do some test shots first to see whether it works as we want to use it in the start of our video, we just need to make sure it has a good effect. One of the shots will then get bigger and that shot is focused on.

Prop List

PROP LIST

• Lots of orange juice! we need this for our scene in the kitchen where the singer drops the juice on the floor after seeing a haunting in the fridge. we feel we'll need lots because we may have to shoot a number of different shots with the orange juice.

• Lots of masks! we need all the masks for all the hauntings, we want to try and have as many different people wearing masks and following the singer as possible. Matt does have most of the masks already.
• Two white bed sheets - with holes! This is for firstly the main ghost character, chasing the singer, and then the second one will be the one that is placed over the singers head at the end.
• Drums, Guitars and a mic - we need these for the performance aspect of the music video. Matt already has drums and two guitars in his garage (where the performance will be held) and Alex has a microphone and stand at home so she will supply this. 
• Skateboards - We have a scene in a skate park, where people are skating, including the singer. The skateboards will be supplied by our friends who are also going to be some of the skateboarders in the video.
• Trolley - this is necessary for our supermarket scene as the scene does have to look genuine and so we wanted to use a trolley. This will be found at the supermarket.
• A pound coin - this will be needed to pay for the trolley at the supermarket. One of us will supply this from our own pockets.
• Tea light candles - we want to create a creepy kind of ambience for one of our scenes, most likely a performance one, we thought that having many tea light candles laid out and lit would help this, so we are going to need lots of tea light candles and some matches.

FINALLY!!! : 

• We will all need to be wearing "indie" clothes so we will ask to borrow friends clothes and study the style and try to recreate it from our own wardrobes. 

Examples: 

The geeky style glasses and retro looking spotted shirt style is very commonly used. 

Skinny jeans and the hat are widely worn. The idea or striped clothing is an indie style.

Knitted jumpers are a new indie style. The indie style is very retro and they tend to wear retro styled clothes. 

The tight shirt and tight jeans combination is another classic indie style. The top button is usually done up and the jeans are extremely skinny.

Band Examples:

The Wombats - Notice the bright colours, retro jackets and skinny blue jeans.

One Night Only - Top buttons done up, very skinny jeans, retro looking.

The Kooks - Striped t shirts, skinny jeans, retro scarfs and knitted jumpers.

Zara & Alex: Ideas

We decided to split up into two groups to storyboard, me and alex came up with some of our own ideas so we could then storyboard.

Opening 
0:00-0:08 seconds; shots of different scenes of Matt walking, the shot will then shrink and go into the corner whilst the next one appears, thus resulting in the frame being divided into 4. then at 0:09-0:10s the house shot will expand and continue.


Scene 1: House
There is a mid shot of Matt walking down the stairs, and then a match cut of him walking into his kitchen and opening the fridge.
0:16: He absentmindedly grabs some orange juice, and unbeknownst to him, there is a masked head behind the juice, singing 'hello o oo o'. There is a pov from the head as Matt closes the fridge door. He then drinks the orange juice, goes to put it back and then notices the head.
0:28: Scared, he drops the juice, quickly picks up his stuff and goes out the door, and an extreme close up shows the orange juice spilling out onto the floor.



Scene 2: Woods
0:34: Matt is walking through the woods, and there is a pov shot from the ghosts eye holes as they peer round a tree, watching Matthew. There are then various shots of the hauntings peering out from behind trees as Matt walks by.



Scene 3: Skatepark
0:52: Matt walks into the skatepark and begins to skate but then he sees a masked person skating past him.
1:10: Confused, Matt falls off his skateboard, looks up and sees a masked person. He closes his eyes again, rubbing them, and then when he opens his eyes, he sees a non-masked person trying to help him up. He then gets up, grabs his skateboard, and runs off.



Scene 4: Supermarket
1:20: Matt walks in to the supermarket, and is tracked picking up items and putting them into his trolley. He is becoming increasingly nervous, looking around but trying to forget about the events of the day.
1:30: He goes to pick up an item in a pov shot, but another hand goes to grab it, so he turns and there is a masked face very close to his (extreme close up pov). He becomes scared and runs down the aisle, followed by the masked hauntings, chasing him with a trolley in a track shot.
1:40: Matt then falls, and as he closes his eyes, there is a montage of all that has happened to him throughout the day.



Scene 5: Garage
1:52: there is a fade in of Matt's face as he opens his eyes, and as the camera zooms out, the audience can see that he is now in the performance room. Matt rubs his eyes as he gets up, shaking his head and feeling bewildered. Eager to carry on with his day, he begins band practice and starts to sing the lyrics to the song, surrounded by the other members of his band all playing their instruments. 
2:11: On each beat, there is two shots of an instrument and then one of its player, showing their now masked face. There is then a close up of Matt's face, and as it zooms out, we can see he is surrounded by his bandmates who are in costumes.
2:17: On the last beat of the song, the bandmates pull a white sheet over his head and then there is a quick fade to black.




Ending
2:22: As the music fades out, the shot fades back in to reveal Matt and all the other hauntings walking off into the sunset together, with Matt as a ghost.

Preliminary visuals for location in our music video

One of our scene ideas for the ghost

We thought about filming some of the ghost scenes in Oxleas wood as it is local and easy to get to. We want to do it when there's a lot of sun about so we will have to do most of it in the day tie as we want to have sun glare shining in to the camera and for the nice weather to give it a happy, light spirited feel. We also wanted to contrast this open, natural scene with the enclosed and unnatural environment in which the band will be playing in during the performance scenes in the video.

Another scene idea for the haunting

We also thought about having the ghost and its masked friends creating havoc in Dartford skatepark as it is a place where alternative people hang out, engaging in skating activities. We thought that we could use some people that we know to skate on the half pipe and the ghost and masked people would interrupt them and over power them so that they could convert them into one of them, but in a light hearted way.

Supermarket for the ghosts and masked people to run around

For one of the scenes in our music video, we will have the ghost leading the masked people around the aisles in a supermarket, scaring customers and creating general havoc. Though we will have to ask permission in the shop first so that we won't get into trouble but we won't tell the customers so that we can get a genuine reaction from them.

Band in a garage

For the performance attribute in the music video, we are going to have the band playing in Matthew's garage as he already has instruments set up there due to him being in a band called Your Life in Ruins. Its shows the low budget and indie aspect of the song and video. Matthew has some inappropriate curtains hanging in the back drop which don't match the genre so we have decided to get sheet or canvas to paint with bright colours to correlate with the genre.

House/kitchen 

We were thinking of shooting some shots in a house where the lead singer goes about his day to day activities, for example pouring juice. Then the hauntings will appear through the glass of juice.



Car park in Dartford retail park

We are going to set some of the music video in Dartford retail car park as it is near to the skatepark so easily accessible. We want to have the ghost and masked people pushiong the lead singer around in a trolley, taunting him, in a humourous way.