Album Covers Analysis.

Filming - Monday 14th November

We planned to re-film many of the skateboarding shots that we previously had because we felt that they didn't fit the narrative. The shots we had were too unstructured and we had planned to film more shots to fill in some gaps we had, and give more structure to this section. We also felt that it was necessary because the weather in the previous skateboarding shots didn't fit with the wather in the rest of the sequences. For example the shots in the woods were a lot darker, and the skateboarding shots were extremely sunny. Therefore we had to re-film in order to make this scene fit.
However, we encountered a few problems on this day of filming. Other members of the group could not make it to film, and that left just two members of the group available, we went to Dartford anyway to see what we could get done. When we arrived the skate-park was desserted, meaning it would be hard to film any shots that would fit with the previous footage, as well as this, the poeple that we thought would come and skate for us had other commitments and then couldn't come. Therefore we thought it unlikely that we could get any of the footage that we wanted.
To overcome this problem we decided to film as much footage as we could in a childrens play park. We thouht of some ideas and how it oculd fit the previous narrative, we have now decided to use this play park footage instead of the skatepark because as a group we felt this would fit in much easier and it gives the whole video a lot more structure. We now have all the footage we need and we will continue editing to get the finished music video.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Running Shot Idea

When he is running and the camera is always on his face, it shows the running motion and the facial expressions. This camera angle and shot we feel would make our music video more exciting when the lead character is running away from the "hauntings". We have tested this out and we found a way that we can achieve this shot. I will have to hold the tripod close to my waist with the camera on the tripod focused on my face, and i have to run away steadily looking scared. We are going to try and put this in our video after the skatepark shots. It is very effective as it gives the audience a claustrophobic out of control feel. The audience are confused and slightly disorientated as all you can see is the face and movement.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.