Feedback #4 - research assessment

Owen, you have made some effort to respond to my previous feedback and have improved your planning progress and this is evident in the improved standard of your work over the project. You do attempt to use critical theory and are documenting changes to concept, however you still need to improve on this – be more interactive, use images, embed links, improve design. Also – I understand your concept from our discussions, but can’t visualise it from the blog – be more explicit as to your plans. As it stands, your planning research is a L3 – 14/20

Nathan, you haven’t made the improvements as I identified and your research is the minimum. You also haven’t met interim deadlines. You have carried out some research, but not always focused and as far as I can see, the technical analysis is on the same video as the previous analysis. You must improve your approach to this significantly. Current research planning grade L2 10/20

General feedback:

• Concept development has improved, but your planning at this crucial stage needs to be much improved
• Analysis of the first shoot needs to be MUCH more detailed – photos? Detail on shots, weather, issues with camera, tripod, shots tried, problems…
• Upload pitch slides
• Photos of band
• Reflection of recce in drama studio
• Post evaluation of audience research
• Nathan – your posts are not very well laid out; you need to include images, highlight key words, add more detail
• Comment on each other’s posts – this is a way for ALL group members to be involved in discusson and collaboration and to show that you are reading each other’s research
• There are no real reccie photographs or footage on the blog – this is vital
  

OS, NW - First Shoot

We went to Camber today in the hope of shooting 80% of what we needed with the possibility of using the drama studio for further performance shots. We took all the band shots first and some of them came out really well, especially where we set the band up with the sea behind them and the wind blowing in there faces. We followed the storyboard we had created but also improvised a little when it came to some shots. We found that the lyrics matched the weather perfectly such as 'there are storms, i must brave' which was useful as the sea was rough and there were strong winds.

OS- Mise-en-Scene

 For the costumes and props for our characters, we have decided the following:

Band Members
Ryan Bunce: Blazer with either Shirt of T-Shirt. Jeans and smart shoes.
Oli Maurice: Either Blazer or Shirt with black jeans and shoes.
Harry Maurice: Shirt or T-Shirt with jeans.

Characters
Dan (boy): T-Shirt with jeans or shorts depending on the weather.
Lisa (girl): Depending on the weather either a dress or top with jeans.

OS - Drama Studio Practice

Yesterday we went into the drama studio to practice with the cameras doing different performance shots with the lead singer Ryan Bunce. We did a few shots of myself moving with the camera around him and a few close ups of him. We also took a shot outside of the building with myself pretending to be the boy in the video walking along an alley with Ryan just leaning against the wall singing which represents a shot we will use in the actual video.

OS - Ending Change

Concept Change
Instead of having the boy run to the beach and meet the girl, we will have a slightly more depressing ending where the boy will run to the beach but the girl will not be there so he has a look but doesnt find her. Then the song ends.

This creates a much more depressing ending for the audience but it also leaves more questions than answers. I think this will be more effective as it may be more powerful and emotional for the audience as long as we can have the whole cast nail their performances and we edit it to the best of our ability. Nathan had the idea that the necklace which i talked about in the other post about 'Mise-en-Scene' could be left on the beach for the boy to find, but with no sign of her anywhere.

OS - Futher Concept Development

Plan
We are considering just using Camber Sands as a location rather than using London as well. This is because it would be much simpler for us to get everyone we need to get together at one location rather than having to drive to Camber as well as getting the train to London. The concept has changed also because of the location change. We have taken many of our ideas from the video ' For The First Time ' by The Script. In that video they use black and white flashbacks and washed out, blurred shots to show the location as a new city that they don't know much about.

Concept
There will be a guy and a girl on the beach of Camber Sands. They will possibly have an argument or something to upset the boy so he walks off. He possibly walks to Rye or another location with the girl still on the beach upset. Flashbacks will be shown throughout the video showing his love for her and how he misses her. At the end of the video he will come back and meet her.

Shot Ideas
We have a few more shot ideas also such as near the start we might have close ups of the girls reaction throughout the argument and the sadness her face will show when the boy walks away from her. Futhermore we are looking at using black and white for the flashbacks of which will include 360 pams of the girl and the boy together on the beach and close ups of their hands touching. This idea has come from ' For The First Time' and ' The Man Who Cant Be Moved ' by The Script. In the latter video they use a lot of time lapse to show how the man is waiting on this one corner of a street for the love of his life to come back to him. I quite like this idea and we could possibly use this for the girl waiting for the boy to possibly come back to the beach.

Mise-en-Scene
At the moment, apart from costumes for each character and the band which will include shirts, blazers and jeans, we dont have the need to have too many props. As we are possibly not using London as a location we will not need a suitcase to show how the boy is carrying his clothes and to show that he has left Rye for good. We may have a small object to symbolise there love but we dont want loads of props that will make the video look corny.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16nOViwmSJ4&ob=av2n

Feedback #2

Owen/Nathan

You do have some interesting visual ideas and discussions today showed that your narrative is taking shape - but there is no real documentation of how your concept is evolving (London / flashback ideas / band performance ) or posts on mise-en-scene.

You still need more detail on concept development.

Evaluation of the Pitch

Pitch
We pitched our concept yesterday to the class but the PowerPoint was clearly not detailed enough and had vital bits of research missing. This is why we are going to improve our pitch and re pitch it to the class. We need to develop the secondary research and put the mood boards onto the PowerPoint. Furthermore we will add photos of all the characters we plan to use in the video and the band itself.

Pitch Improvements
The pitch itself started off alright but we needed on two slides a lot more information. The main criticism of the Power Point was that there was not enough detail and evidence that we can pull this video off. However we realised throughout the pitch that we lacked depth I our work and the main improvement we need is to gather all the details from the blog and add them to the PowerPoint, otherwise all the research was for nothing.

All these things will be added:

Moodboards
Photos of Characters
Better Secondary Research
More Listed Shots
More Depth of Concept
Proper Shot Ideas Throughout

NW - Planning - Storyboarding

In order to do our story boarding we will go through a very similar process that we did last year, we will work our way through the pieces we know for sure are happening then we will work our way through the pieces in between these.

This will be useful to us as there are a lot of shots we are going to be doing and it will be confusing if we do not have a storyboard and a list of shots we need. Last year we had a list of shots but did not stick to it, but there were a lot less shots and a lot less people involved so it was possible to be a little bit more open minded.

OS - Deconstruction of the album cover by Bombay Bicycle Club

Step 1
The Linguistic devices used are the name of the band ' Bombay Bicycle Club' and the name of their album ' I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Lose'

The iconic sign is that of a person being thrown up into the air by 10-15 or so people. This has many connotations mainly of trust and unity.

Step 2
There is quite a stand out font on the album with the title ' Bombay Bicycle Club' in bold blue letters with a square box around it. This stands out because of the fact that the photo behind the title is in black and white whereas the title is in a bold blue to stand out for people buying the album.

The album name ' I Had  the Blues But I Shook Them Lose' connotes the feeling of depression or sadness yet when you hear this music you will feel much better. Its like the album is trying to advertise positive feelings towards the audience. The music itself is also uplifting as the indie genre normally is upbeat and enjoyable to relax and listen to.

Step 3




Step 4

NW - Anlysis of The Script - Science and Faith

Step 1.

• The Linguistic devices used in this are obviously the name of the band "The Script" and the name of the album "Science and Faith"
• The Iconic signs used in the are the hands of two people holding each other, and the background which gets darker as it gets further away from the top of the hands embracing and has an aged look to it.
• There are no Non-Representational graphic signs on the front of this album cover.

Step 2.

• The font used for the words "The Script" and "Science and Faith" are different this makes the name of the band stand out, the font for the name of the band is itself quite indie looking in the way that the "S" isn't quite complete and at the bottom of the "I" it comes to a point that is lower then then rest of the word. By doing that they are creating a leading line that causes you to be drawn down then album cover, you start at the top with the word "The" then come through the band name, into the album name, then down the hands.
• The words "Science and Faith" in conjunction with the hands embracing is implying that the hands are representing Science and Faith coming together in unity. The way the hands are embracing represents strength and they both look very masculine anchoring the concept of strength.

Step 3.

• The myth of Science and faith not getting on together is being challenged through the way the hands are embracing, this could be seen as quite controversial as people may not agree with this idea of science and faith being together.

Audience Research Results

Results of Research

Person 1
Do you like the track?
Yes i enjoyed the track, especially the upbeat tempo towards the end.

Do you like completely abstract music videos such as 'Fire' by Kasabian?
I haven't seen this video but i do like weird videos which don't seem to have any meaning.

Do you prefer videos with a fast cutting rate or a slower cutting rate?
I prefer videos that have a quick cutting rate so i don't become bored and change the video.

Do you prefer videos with colour or if  they are in black and white?
Colour.

When you listen to the track, who do you see singing the song?
I see a white male singing the song, maybe wearing a shirt and tie.

What do you like to see in a music video? A performance based video or a possible narrative in the video?
I like to see a romance or some sort of love story involved.

Is Brighton or London a good location for our music video?
I think London would be a good location as it is very busy so you would be able to get some good film from there.


This was person 1s response from the focus group questions I asked. From this person we have gathered that London may be a better option than Brighton because of the amount f people who travel through London, which may benefit us when it comes to how it looks as the more realistic the better.  I also asked four other people which came out with similar results such as everyone went for colour than black and white when we asked the group what we should shoot in.

Everyone envisaged a white male singing this song which is what we assumed they would think and that result is perfect for us as we have the lead singer of Midnight singing for us, Ryan Bunce. We asked the group if we should shoot in black and white, or colour and we were strongly advised to use colour. However for the flashbacks we may need to incorporate black and white as we need to show the contrast between the past and the present.

Technical Analysis of "For The First Time" by The Script

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtCpC8jE_Cs

Starting from 1:10 I have done a shot list finishing at 1:46;
boy of motorcycle MS
cut to lead singer on piano MS

cut to CU of lead singer
cut to boy drinking CU panning to the girl
cut to CU of lead singer
cut to boy and girl in bed MS
cut to girl crying CU

cut to guitar CU
cut to guitarist CU
cut back to girl crying CU
cut to boy and girl kissing MS
cut to lead singer MS
cut to the front of the lead singer CU
depth of field changes when he holds up his hand to focus on the hand
cut to drummer MS
cut to guitar CU with lead singer in background
cut to low angle shot of the boy MS
cut to him riding off on his motorcycle
cut to boy and girl holding hands CU
cut to girl CU
cut to low angle shot of trees LS

OS - Pitch Ideas

Plan
For our pitch we plan to use a simple structure throughout which will help explain our concept thoroughly so the idea will look good and at its best. We will have an introduction, middle and a conclusion hopefully showing off the music track. We will have many slides such as:

Location
Treatment
Audience Research
Digipack
Band Promotion
Secondary Research
Track and Initial Response
Shot Ideas
Characters involved and Band

OS - Location Reccie

Reccie Possibilities
For my part of the reccie, I will be travelling to two places; London and a rural area near my home town of Langton Green. I will be going to London in the next few days and I will be going to the rural area tonight, at around 4.30 before it gets too dark.



I will be hoping to achieve pictures like this and many more. The rural area may be good for the girl as she will be feeling lost without her boyfriend.





In London I will take shots of a few different areas to get a feel for the location and maybe to use it for the boyfriend when he leaves his girlfriend.

Here is the pictures i took while i was in London. This is similar to one of the photos above but i thought i would take a picture anyway to prove i have been there. The photo below is that of a train station in London, Charing Cross to be precise. I felt the need to take photos in the station as when the boy returns to Rye we may use a train to show him travelling there.

OS - Representaion on Youth

Youth in Music Videos

In the Jamie T video 'Sticks and Stones' youth are shown to be rebellious and aggressive towards life such as them throwing stones at the train window. This video can be seen as negative towards the youth in general however i believe there is some realism in what they are doing as it happens a lot in this culture. In other music videos though, the youth can be seen as good citizens such as 'Written in the Stars' by Tinie Tempah. In this video you can see a small child all alone but never doing anything wrong, even though he is bullied by other kids. This can infer the life Tinie Tempah possibly grew up in or maybe something he feels strongly about - bullying.

Youth in Our Music Video
We plan to use the band Midnight, who are aged between 15 and 17 and also two other characters, a boy and a girl, roughly aged 16. There will be a romance between the two characters and we will show the youth in a positive light. The general ideology of this idea will be that they will separate yet at the end will meet each other and be in each others arms. We will also use the location of Camber Sands to enhance the romantic feel to it, as beaches are often associated with romance.




Furthermore they show the boy in 'Written in the Stars' as being treated badly by is mum who is a prostitute. This shows an emotional response from the boy who waits outside while his mum does her work in the house.

The above image taken from the video shows the mum going into her flat. Below shows the boy being bullied by some basketball players; they throw all his work everywhere in front of him. This shows that the general consensus is that bullying is wrong

NW - Band Image

I have decided to look at band image to get an idea of the clothing we need and what style of music videos they actually have. From looking at "love you better" and "no kind words" I can see that they are into very interesting and different music videos to the mainstream. Also in quite a lot of their music videos they do not have a lot of screen time of the actual band and it is more about the narrative and the concept of the music video itself.

In the video "first love" the band are in less then a third of the shots and this video is the narrative video that i have found that has the most amount of shots with the band in it. This means that we will need to consider keeping with the way the band are being shown in their current video style or going out own route.

NW - Camber Sands Reccie

I went on this reccie as we had the idea in our concept for the guitar solo to be shot from atop some dunes with amps on either side of him, and i thought that camber may make a good location.

OS - Concept Development 3

Location
Both myself and Nathan plan to go on reccies by Wednesday and i believe Nathan will go to Camber Sands on Monday while i will go to Brighton on Tuesday. We will both take cameras and take pictures and possible shots we may use in the final video. We picture Oli Mauirce on top of the sand dunes with an amp either side of him for the guitar solo at around 2.18 mins into William Powers. I will go to Brighton and see if i can find any possible locations and take more shots while trying to think how we can include the band Midnight and the lead character.

Characters
We plan to use the band Midnight to aid us in our video. We also plan to use two lead characters; a boy and a girl. They will be around the age of 15 to 18, so hopefully when i complete our audience research, the audience will be happy with the two ages of the characters as they can relate to them.

Concept
What we plan to do is to have the two characters move away from each other in the beginning of the video. They were together living in Rye but the boys family had to move to Brighton so they are separated. The video will show how they cope without each other and what maybe there final reunion at the end of the song. Hopefully we will use trains to show how the boy will visit her in the end part of the song. This song is emotionally powerful so we thought we needed an equally powerful concept to match the lyrics of the song.

Lighting
For lighting you can see the post below but we will encounter some problems as we need to decide what time we want to shoot it. We may decide to try and incorporate a sunset to the final ending of the music video which may look good with the couple reunited. In Brighton the filming should be easier as there will be many lights in the city which we can take advantage of. Furthermore the pier maybe a good location to shoot with him looking out to the sea with the girl in Camber looking out to the sea as well.

Grain of Voice
For the grain of voice we feel we have someone capable of looking fine to sing the song of William Powers. This person is the lead singer of the band Midnight, Ryan Bunce. He would suit the song perfectly as he can sing indie songs naturally. This will be useful as we don't want someone who cant sound slightly similar to the lead singer of The Maccabees as it would look funny and wrong.