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

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

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.

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

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

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)

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