Showing posts with label Annaliese Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annaliese Law. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 November 2011

CD cover research





We did a powerpoint presentation on CD covers and what subliminal meanings and messages they could represent based on the images, colours, layout and text used in preparation for our ancillary task.

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Editing so far...

Up until now we have completed a lot of editing of the video.
The whole beginning of the music video is completed:
-Matt walking down the stairs and entering the kitchen
-Matt seeing the masked head in the fridge, dropping the orange juice
-Matt running (scared) out of his house, on his journey to Oxleas woods.

The next scene is a work in progress, we have all of the footage of Oxleas woods and are currently editing it together for our narrative in order to have an effective and consistent plot in our music video.

We did film and edit the following scene at Dartford Skatepark but we felt that it didn't have concept or co-ordination so we have decided to use some of the shots of the skating tricks but re-film the majority of it in order for it to tell some sort of story and fit in with the rest of the video, rather than just being a series of good shots.

The supermarket scene is also completed and fits in with the narrative. Our main focus at the moment is editing the performance at the end of the video. This was the first sequence we filmed and edited, but it is the last set of clips in the video, therefore the editing which we did do has now been put out of time because of the clips before.

Then all we have to do is the skateboard shots and final editing to the beat to make it perfect.

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Filming 03/11/2011

Today we went to Oxleas woods to film part of the narrative section for our music video.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't sunny so it was dissimilar to our previous filming, however we over came this by filming this scene in a well covered area so that the audience would be under the influence that the dark lighting were caused by the surrounding trees and overgrowth, rather than the poor winter weather.
We felt we were much more efficient compared to previous filming experiences as we created a separate storyboard so that we could have a detailed plan and a clear focus on exactly what we should film.
We brought along the masks for Annaliese and Alex to wear, along with the 'indie' clothes that we've worn throughout the filming that we've already done for continuity and consistency.
Because we were filming in Oxleas woods there are a number of people who walk their dogs, therefore we had to make sure our shots weren't interrupted by dog walkers. There was one occasion where dogs ran in to our shot, so we had we had to re shoot that scene again.
We used a wide shot to match the running from the first scene at the house as a transition to the woods, along with other wide shots of the masked characters which Matt couldn't see to convey dramatic irony. There are also close ups of the masked people along with others of Matt's confused face and an extreme close up of Alex stepping on a twig which triggers Matt's confusion.
We decided to include POV's from the perspective of both Matt and the masked characters; from Matt it was a simple POV done by him holding the camera, whereas with the masked characters we decided to get a piece of cardboard and hole-punching two holes in it to represent how they are observing Matt through a mask, giving an obscured view of him.

Monday, 17 October 2011

15/10/11

On Saturday we went to Dartford skate park to film the skate scene of our music video. We all went and initially thought it would be packed and slightly awkward as other people would be there and may not participate, however as soon as we got the masks out a lot of people come over and got involved and we found that people were more then happy to help. A lot of the time we just filmed anything we felt would be good and not shots that were necessarily on the storyboard. In particular we thought of a shot where Matt would hold the tripod around him and it would film his face as he ran down the hill, this was not an original shot however we felt that it would really work.
We hope that we have got the right shots that we need however we as we have started early we are able to re shot anything, we are going to film the Oxleas wood and fridge seen on saturday.

Saturday, 8 October 2011

8/10/2011

Today me, Alex and Zara went to Matt's house to do some filming.
We each took an instrument -with Zara filming- and played 'My Little Haunting' on repeat in order to get a wide variation of shots, doing it with the masks on and off, doing close-ups of band members and instruments and we think that we have got all of the performance shots that we need.
We weren't able to make a back drop for the performance area to cover Matt's "inappropriate curtains" but instead took them off to reveal some velvet curtains and hung some fairy lights from the curtain pole which we think looked nice and matched the light-hearted mood whilst also adding to the 'low-budget- indie music video effect.
We also lit lots of tea candles and positioned them around the performance area and though they weren't really seen in the wide shots of the performance, they were clearly visible in the low angle close ups and also when we filmed Matt getting up from the floor (a shot we plan to use at the beginning of the music video) and they also added a really nice light to the shots.
Another thing we managed to film was the last shot when me and Alex have our masks on and throw the sheet over Matt in order to turn him into a ghost. We experiemented with these shots, doing handheld shots, ones from behind, infront and also from the side so that when we edit, we have a lot to work from.
When we do the four way split screen we plan on having one of the quarters of the screen to be a shot of Matt walking down the stairs with the others being close ups of instruments but we managed to get shots of Matt on the stairs from lots of different and interesting angles and thought that maybe we could have alternate angles of Matt walking down the stairs appearing in time with the beat to the song and following the close ups of the instruments could replace these shots.
We were going to do the fridge shots today, with the head inside the cardboard box but we painted it and left it for a few hours to dry but unfortunately it didn't dry in time so we're going to do that another time.

Friday, 7 October 2011

Costume

We are all going to wear the same costume throughout shooting as we want continuity. Also, Alex and Annaliese and Matt will wear the same costume as we want the audience to be able to connect our masked characters to the band members at the end of the video.

As the band, we will wear clothes that are similar to that of the target audience which can be categorised as 'indie'.

These are the possible costume choices for Alex:
This is the possible costume for Annaliese: a plain white shirt with an indie bow-tie, a moleskin skirt along with black brogues.

Matt will wear a checked shirt with the top button done up and some rolled up skinny jeans.

Monday, 3 October 2011

Fish and chips and vinegar!

At the beginning of our music video we plan to have a 4 way split screen of the instruments building up during the introduction to the song. We decided to attempt something similar by recreating a 'Fish and Chips and Vinegar' song that we found on YouTube. We decided to try this out as it's something we definitely want to do but we think it could also be the most challenging part of the music video. As you can see it isn't perfect, the lip synching isn't great and there are lots of timing issues with parts of the split screen disappearing at times but we think with a bit more time with the editing, we could tighten it up and make it perfect.

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

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.

Sunday, 25 September 2011

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.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

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.

Monday, 19 September 2011

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

Friday, 16 September 2011

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.


Monday, 12 September 2011

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.

Friday, 9 September 2011

Preliminary costume ideas for music video

Our idea for the ghost in our music video. whom will be the main "haunting"
We thought that for the ghost costume we would use something cheap and simple to support the indie genre as it can be seen as retro as it is related to old video games such as Pacman played in the 1980's. It is also quirky to give the music video a light hearted and happy feel.

tourettes:

Passed out on the landing floor last night and pissed in a train bin.
Then came home at 10 and found my driving instructor at the door
had a drunk driving lesson then came home went and bought beans and mushrooms and made a fry up now I am happy

in case you missed my fun story about yesterday
Our idea for what our band members will dress like during the performance section
This is what we envision the band members during the performance to look like as this is a typical "indie kid" which matches the genre of the song and also our target audience.




This is the idea we had for all the other members of the haunting, they would all be wearing masks but be in normal everyday clothes. 

Saturday, 13 August 2011

Hot Club De Paris: research

Hot Club De Paris are a band from Liverpool, England and are signed to Moshi Moshi Records which is a London based record company that has signed other indie artists such as Florence and the Machine and Bloc Party.
They were formed in 2004 and consist of two brothers (Alasdair Smith who plays the drums and sings; Matthew Smith who plays guitars and sings)  and a mutual friend (Paul Rafferty who plays bass, baritone guitar and sings).
Though quite unknown, they are quite a successful band, touring extensively and playing in places such as: India, Scandinavia, Europe, The United Kingdom and The United States.
They have also played alongside and supported artists of a similar genre such as:
Joan of Arc, Battles, Jamie T and The Who.
Since 2004, they have released two albums (Drop It 'til It pops, 2006 and Live at Dead Lake, 2008), released a string of 7" singles (with the song 'My Little Haunting' that we're making a music video for being one of them) and in 2010 alone released two six song EP's called 'With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?' and 'The Rise And Inevitable Fall Of The High School Suicide Cluster Band' which were later combined -among other songs- to make an album called 'Free the Pterodactyl Three' and released in late 2010 in Europe and North America.
Though Hot Club De Paris are unknown to mainstream music listeners, as an indie band they have had great success and worked among lots of other good artists, making many good songs long the way.
Hot Club De Paris

Thursday, 7 July 2011

Nero Horror Mashup



What did we learn?
how to edit to the beat
how to be abstract
how different speeds makes it more interesting
using different effects
we learnt that we work really well as a team

What did we find challenging?
the amount of shots we had to use and time them on to the beat
keeping a story/concept

Everything, Everything-Photoshop Handsome

"Everything, Everything-Photoshop Handsome" music video
In lesson we were made to listen to a song and plan a music video just from listening to the audio. We wrote down things that we associated with the music and mentally placed it into a genre in order to plan the music video that we -as a group- would make for this song. Me, Zara and Alex imagined the music video to involve a house party because of the upbeat and indie nature of the song, involving some performance aspects from the band to highlight the importance of their instruments and the fact that the band would hold performing live as a key aspect to their nature. We also imagined there to be a carnival/circus incorporated within this to add a more abstract level to the video with stereotypically retro objects placed within it. We then listened to Matt's juxtaposing ideas of the music video being animated and involving a video game nature to it -an idea which he came up with from listening closely to the lyrics- and decided to incorporate his ideas into our final plan and merge the two together.
Our final idea was that the music video would take place in a house party and that someone there (most likely a band member) would be playing on a retro game station and that each video game character would relate to a person at the house party and their actions would be linked too. For instance the lyric 'dorsal fin' could be interpreted as sharks which could be placed in the video game and represent a group of boyish lads at the party, and if someone were to punch someone in the game, it would also happen in real life at the party. The band would also be performing in an animated way in the game and also in real life to give the performance aspect of the video. Bright colours would be injected into it, with flashing images and cuts and movements matched to the beat of the song. The retro and colourful aspects of our music video would be genre related as they are stereotypical elements that are usually associated with indie music-which was what you could classify the song as.
Every other group in our class came up with similar ideas of the music video being a video game, and after watching the original video, we saw that all of our ideas were completely different to what it actually was (a series of photoshopped and green screen images of the band members) though ofcourse, we felt that our ideas were a lot better than the original :).
-Annaliese

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Enter Shikari- Snakepit: video analysis

Enter Shikari-Snakepit
Enter Shikari are a band who attract a wide audience from people who enjoy metal to indie people de to their electro/dubstep/rock/metal genre combination.
In this music video, it opens up with a close up of Rou's face in the darkness, singing the opening lyrics of the song; this calm state juxtaposing the next shot and giving it more of an impact as the lighting changes from black to green and the scene changes from darkness to a performance room with lots of electronic-style cuts to the crowd, the band and a symbol, cutting to the beat of the electro introduction of the song to give it a dancey-feel and highlights the genre. There are quick zoom ins and zoom outs of the people dancing, along with extreme close ups of two-steppers to speed up the pace of the video along with the song. The continuous close ups of Rou's face show the importance of his image as he is the lead singer and also the one in the band who makes the dubstep which is further emphasised with the extreme close up of the mixing board.
An interesting shot following this is when a member of the crowd jumps through the symbol that keeps being editied in and it's quickly reversed and them put forward again which shows that there is some significance to this symbol, like there will be with the ghosts and masked people in ours.
The instruments and music is then made significant when the dubstep and the hardcore music is about to start, there are a series of close ups of the musicians picking up the guitar and drum sticks, for instance, just before the instruments are about to come in to the song.
There is then a good sequence of shots when Rou sings in to the camera to show his importance and then headbutts it, pushing it backwards on a possible track and dolly through the wall of death in the crowd which is someone which we could attempt to do but in the skatepark with the skaters. This, along with all of the wide and ariel shots of the hardcore dancers and mid shots of Rou singing whilst leaning in towards the people shows the significance of the audience to the band.