Dear Moderator

Dear Moderator

This group blog belongs to:

Claire Buswell - 4145
Wanda Dunham - 4275
Dominic Crewe - 4215
Kerry Mcallister - 4540


Firstly, thank you for spending the time to look through our group blog. You can read a bit about us on the right hand side and see the links to our individual blogs, our website and also to our central "Latymer Music Video" blog page

this group blog consists of research, planning, production and some sections of our evaluation that we made collectively as a group. In addition to this each of our personal evaluations are on our individual blogs - which include text, links, pictures, videos and audio.

We decided that we wanted to produce an album cover and a website as our additional ancillary products (to our music video), which you can see at the top of our group and individual blogs.

Please use the labels down the righthand side to help navigate through different sections of our project. Hope you enjoy our work!

Regards

Claire, Dom, Wanda and Kerry

Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This video explains the new processes we learnt and went through when editing our music video on Adobe Premiere Pro

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here is a clip of our exclusive Erwins Felicide screening to gather audience feedback



After our audience screening we interviewed two of our members from our target audience to get their feedback of the video

Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We took on the roles of the managing directors at Live Records ltd. to discuss our creative decisions concerning Erwin's Felicide. Therefore, we discussed the branding and the revenue streams we create through the combination of music video, album cover and website.

Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Here is a discussion about the forms and conventions of our music video. For individual detailed anaylsis, see our individual evaluation on individual blogs.

Signed Off Website

Today we got our website signed off and published. And with that, the production of everything is over!

Now, we just have to evaluate everything and the project will be done.

Screening of the Music Video

Today, we 'premiered' our music video in the media block.

Based on what we read on the questionnaire, the general concensus is that our music video was good although we have to do some proper statistical analysis to find out more information.

After the screening, we also got to do an interview with two people who came along.

Finished Music Video

It may have taken longer than we thought but our music video is FINALLY FINISHED:

Completed Album Cover

After weeks of working with photographs, logos and fake song titles, the album cover is finished!

The album cover has been sent off the the printers and we can't wait for our individual copies.

The finished design is at the top of the blog if you want to see it.

Rotoscoping...

After watching through our music video, we thought that the narrative was really good although the performance wasn't as good.

The different colours of the blue wall, orange costume, pink accessories, etc. were quite distracting so we've started to use a new technique of rotoscoping. What this does is make everything in the performance black and white apart from Angus.

We're very optimisitic that this will be done in a few days if we all put in some hours.

All going well

were making good progress on both our website and album cover. weve design the inner squares of the album with our band logo and a 4 close up of the band. Were dividing up the different pages for the website such as about us, contact us etc and have made a basic homepage.

Album Cover and Website Photoshoot

After staying behind today with our band, we got over 80 photographs to sort through and decide which ones go on our album cover, website and anywhere else we may need to put them.

Here are just a few of the more interesting ones...

Editing Music Video

After capturing the performance, the actual footage looks incredible.

I think that with just a few changes to brightness and contrast, it will look even better but we all need to be working on the post-production to get it looking perfect in two weeks.

Performance Shoot

After weeks of planning, we've just filmed our performance!

Overall it went very well, we managed to get plenty of shots to use from close ups to wides. We also managed to film behind the scenes to edit into a video if we get the time. And we've got plenty of photos to put on the website.

Now that we have all the footage, we just need to edit it into a music video and we're done with that part of the production.

inspiration

we were inspired by the filming and choreographey of performance videos such as Greendays "American Idiot" and will reference this for movements of the band and lead singer

Jack's Timetable

Hey guys, I managed to get hold of Jack's timetable:

 

Tada! We can organise everything properly now 

Also he just told me this:

• There's a tutorial on Tuesday's that can last up to a few hours which he might have to go to
• He has extra music stuff for an hour before lunch on Friday
• Thursday's have a half hour extra of German

So basically it's gonna be all after school stuff for him

Final update, he can't make this Saturday as he has to help out at an open day, but we can rearrange that right? But Tuesday 9th is thankfully completely fine

Studio Booking

Currently we are booking the Seward Studio for the following times:

A - Angus
I - Izzy
J - Jack
T - Tom
C - Claire
D - Dominic
K - Kerry
W - Wanda
R - Robyn

Wed 3rd - 12:30 3:45 - Technical rehearsal / teaching - C D K W
Thu 4th - P4 P5 - Photographs -  I T C D W
Fri 5th - P6 - Rehearsal - A R D K
Fri 5th - P7 - Rehearsal - I T C D W
Fri 5th - P8 - Rehearsal - A I T C D K W
Mon 8th - P2 P3 - Photographs - I T C D W
Mon 8th - P7 P8 - Photographs - A D K
Tue 9th - 3:45 - Real Shoot - All

To do before performance shoot

• Book studio
• Arrange crew/cast to be there
• Arrange drum kit and microphone
• Storyboard performance
• Shot list performance
• Scheduele day(s)
• Plan photos to be taken
• Practise lighting and strobe lighting
• Book any extra equipment
• Design the set
• Tom's costume

Narrative Shoot

so our narrative shoot went quite well although we were stopped from filming in some of the places that we had tested out. our antagonists looked really good and got alot of stares from tourist, some even took pictures.

Storyboards

To work out the timings of our music video, to serve as a reminder to us of what specific shots to shoot and to give our actors a general idea of what we want them to do, we made a storyboard.


The storyboard on the wall of our edit suite

  Wanda put the effort into drawing the Post-Its because of her artistic abilities but we had all previously worked out generally what we wanted to happen and when.


Shot 57 - MS of Angus walks through market at 1:10

 The storyboard currently has considerably more shots of the narrative than the performance, this is because most of the performance shots will be repeated and also, it's not too much of a priority because our narrative shoot is in a week's time.

In further preparation for the narrative shoot, in pairs we went around London to film a reccie. When we got back to school, Dom spent a week overcoming technical problems to edit the footage into this.


We made this video because:

• We didn't know which shots we could actually get without visiting the location again.
• It's considerably clearer than the storyboard for us and the actors.
• Any of us can watch it outside of school to remind ourselves of what needs to be shot.

Antagonist Facepaint Tests

Angus' Performance Outfit

Test for Antagonist costumes

We tested the white hair spray used for the antagonists outfit on dark hair ensuring it looks effective

Logo

• Dead cat - 'felicide'
• Referencing the Blink 182 dead person logo - similar target audiences
• Bold, simple - looks good on t-shirts, stands out, albums

planning and organisation of tasks and ideas

post its of tasks to do

line by line lyrical breakdownbrainstorm of ideas for antagonists

Final Costume - Lead Guitarist

Wanda and I (Claire) put together the best of the clothes we got in for our female guitarist and have finalised this costume. We aimed to ensure its indivdual, colourful and trendy while still being comfortable enough to play guitar in.

Studio Hire

We have been researching studios we could use for the performance and have emailed the directors for rates, avaliable times etc.

To do for this week

The narrative shoot is in half term (next week), so before it we need to get done the following:

• Finish detailed shot list
• Storyboard
• Scheduele the day
• Practice the antagonists face paint
• Complete the antagonists costume
• Confirm Angus's costume
• Have meeting with all actors showing them the shots we need to get on the day
• Finalise with all cast and crew (Group x4, Angus, Antagonists x4, Tess, Robyn, Zarah) the exact times and arrangements of the day
• Plan food preparations for the day (snacks, drinks, lunch for the cast/crew)
• Organise make-up/hair stylings for the actors
• Get all filming equipment ready to go

Other:

• Group discussion on website
• Group discussion on album art/ideas
• Confirm studio for performance
• Confirm Angus and Tom's costumes for performance
• Ideas on band photo for album cover - and costume/props needed

Result from lip sync test

• He is excellent at convincingly miming the words as his cofindence grew
• More aggression needed to suit the tone of voice
• Angus can't wear glasses due to reflections and lack of eye contact with the camera
• The inprovised movements look good from Angus (head banging, leaning forwards) - choreographing needed to make these look more clean cut for real video
• Microphone limits movement - keep it to only a few shots, arm gestures for the rest

Lip Sync Test - Angus

Yesterday, Kerry and I (Dominic) used our lesson to film Angus lip-sycning to the song again now that he had practiced it more.

This was so that:

• We could get a feel for what the music video may look like
• Angus could rehearse the song some more and prove that he could perform confidently to the camera
• We had an idea of what shot types we could use in the music video

Antagonists

Graphic Match Test

Purpose of this test was to see if it was possible to seemlessly cut walking from one location into a completely new one without the audience noticing (a smooth graphic match). We filmed someone walking steadily in many different places around school, edited them together and this is the result:



From this test it was concluded that:

• The switches of location look smoothless providing it doesn't cut from in to outdoors
• The movement would look faster if the actor had a faster pace and there was fast editing to cutaways/inserts such as the feet/face etc.
• Changes of camera distance give the footage interest and don't stand out which works well
• We are not recording sound so the changes in the pace of the footsteps is not an issue

Make-up for female guitarist

This make up connotes a rock star, sexy, punky individualism which is the attitude that we are aiming to create for Izzy. We believe with the aid of a semi-professional make-up artist/hair stylist we can do this for Izzy and the other band members

Costume organisation

To get the costumes we need most cost effectively, we chose to use Facebook to email round to see if anyone has the costumes to offer

New Narrative Ending

When getting feedback on our line by line plan of the video, we realised that we had a problem with our narrative's ending.

In our very first draft of the treatment we had the antagonists being defeated by the lead meeting his band mates at the end of narrative. However, as our ideas developed we soon lost the idea of him meeting his band mates due to practical reasons, but we did not reconsider how we would now defeat the antagonists, so they just dropped away for no reason.

After a considerable amount of verbal brainstorming, we came to the conclusion that we would have to have some sort of confrontation.

Our final idea for this is the lead getting trapped in a dead end by the antagonists, but in this, he finally faces up to them and his acknowledging their presence defeats them.

This follows our symbolism of the antagonists as temptations of teenage life, as by standing his ground against their pressure and facing up to them he is defeating them

Group Meeting 5 (12/10/10)

Plan for today:

• Meet with cast for performance (Angus, Tom, Izzy, Jack)
• Sign contracts securing dates for shoot and practices
• Establish numbers between everyone for communication
• Get the actors dress/shoe sizes for costume purposes
• Inform everyone of action plan for the rest of the project

Results:

• All signed contracts and happy with dates/arrangements (Fri 29th Oct narrative, Sun 7th Nov performance)
• Tom is prepared to have his hair dyed and is happy with the costume arranged, and starting to rehearse backing vocals
• Angus has booked his lip sync practice and is memorising lyrics
• Everyone has swapped contact numbers
• Actors gave their cloth sizes so we can start looking for costume

This weekend:

• Detailed reccie, find 10 shots in designated location and photograph/film a walkthrough

Kerry & Claire - Southbank (3 temptations), Trafalgar/theatres (4 temptations, Westminster/Underground (Ending scene/entrapment)
Wanda & Dom - Covent Garden/Brick Lane (1 temptation), Camden/Roundhouse (2 temptations)

Narrative Prop List

Antagonist Costume (x4):

• White hair gel

• White/red/black face paint
• White long sleeved t-shirt
• White braces
• White belt
• White trousers
• Black boots

Protagonist Costume:

• T-shirt
• Open shirt
• Jeans
• Converse/vans
• Headphones (& mp3)

Group Meeting 4 (11/10/10)

We briefly went over what had to be done and generally when it had to be done by.

We finished our actor / extra contract (see below) so that they could sign them and agree to work with us.



We listened to the song to finish our lyrical / audio effects analysis so that we could complete our list of shot ideas for specific parts of the track.

[ Photograph of "Lyrics and Shots" ]

Band Name - Erwin's Felicide

We came up with the name "Erwin's Felicide" as it references the science thought experiment "Schrödinger's Cat". "Erwin" comes from the scientist's first name and "felicide", meaning the killing of a cat comes from the experiment itself where a cat is killed.


Graphic representation of the "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment

We think that this would appeal to our young alternative target audience because it appeals to a niche audience group that has the specialist knowledge required to understand the reference within in it. This should provide gratification to those who have such knowledge. Furthermore, we would hope that the explanation would spread through word of mouth.

Binary Opposites In Our Music Video

After learning about Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposites and seeing how effective they work in our sequence, we tried to include several such as:

• Professional & Guerrilla style in performance and narrative
• Colour & Black And White
• Good & Evil
• Busy backgrounds & Plain backgrounds
• City & Studio
• Fast & Slow movement and editing
• Wide Shots & Close-Ups
• Surreal & Everyday
• Loud & Quiet sounds
• Smart & Casual costume

favourite idea for antangonist

These antagonists  are representing (drug) temptations and would have:

• white face paint with rosy cheeks and or big red smile
• head to toe in white
• white hair dye - may be hard to do without it being permanent
• white wigs/hair dye

We want them to represent the good, fun, nice appeal of temptations by using white signifying good and helping them stand out from the busy london background ; and a fake OTT smiling face to give the sense of a false friend.

They would look at and follow the protagonist (lead singer) but he would not directly interact with them to show they are thoughts in his head playing on his mind rather than real people.

We were thinking that at the end they would be overcome by collapsing in a pile showing that the music has protected the lead from the dangerous temptation.

Although we came up with the idea ourselves  - it would reference this all white look from clockwork orange as an effectivly creepy and disturbing antagonist.

Edit Room

Me and Kerry using the wall

Dom working on the narrative map

In our edit room we now have a series of things up on the walls to help group communication and organisation. These include:

Claire updating the to do list



• To do list
• Calander
• Line by line shot plan to the lyrics
• Band costume sketches
• Group proposal handout
• Antagonist brainstorm
• Narrative map
• Tube maps

We will also eventually put up our meeting schedules for week 1 and week 2 once the week one schedule has been finalised

Band Costumes/ Props

Angus

• Hornrimmed glasses
• Black waistcoat
• Black tie
• Black Dr Martens
• Orange shirt
• Dark striped skinnies
• Belt (possibly pacman)
• Sweatbands/bracelets

Jack

• Black shirt
• Coloured tie
• Baggy jeans
• Converse
• Bandana

Izzy

• Trilby

• Brightly coloured/wooden beaded necklaces
• Striped top/tshirt
• Chunky waist belt (brightly coloured/metallic)
• Denim skirt
• Plain tights
• Leg warmers
• Heels

Tom

• Band tshirt
• Black skinnies
• Chain
• Metal jewelry
• Sweatband
• Vans
• Band pins
• White belt

Instruments

• Guitar
• Bass
• Drum kit
• Microphone and stand
• Amps