Location - By Matt

Location has a huge influence on music video can completely separate differences between high and low quality videos. Therefore it was key for us to try and find the best places t film the narrative and performance.

Narrative

The narrative is made up of numerous locations and scenes. As we trying the capture the idea of youth and having fun we wanted to have different groups of people and friends enjoying themselves in relatable places, adding a sense of realism to the piece. This means however that each individual segment will have to filmed on a separate day and overall filming and production may take loger purely due to travelling etc. 

Field walkthrough from Crazydodobird 

First play i went to was a filed which is local to our area. This is just one of many fields some are very open similar to this and some are slightly different. This is the area which we were planning on using for a group with the balloons like in the foals video. 

 

Skate park walkthrough from Crazydodobird

This is one of our local skateparks that we were planning on using during the video to film tricks. There are also other skateparks

 

Tunnel walkthrough from Crazydodobird

Filming - By Luke

The pictures shows the problems that we encountered well as in the first clip you can see someone in the background which ruins the entire shot. However probably the most prominent problem that we had to overcome was the terrain with the uneven ground making it hard to get clear and steady shots. This lead us to try and make a steady cam out of pipes bought from B&Q which you can see in the second picture to the left. This was not that effective at first but after some adjustments it proved to be useful and helped us with some of the shots especially with the Go Pro camera. In the first picture you can see the way the sunset makes a good effect on the scene in the way the light comes through the trees.      

We each took it in turns to film but we all had a say in what shot we thought was best at the time. When we had a selection of clips we then could decide what looked best and what would fit in with what we already had. The benefit of having 4 people in the group is there are lots of ideas and angles available so we never really get stuck with what to do next.

In the woods we filmed some of the cross fades of the nature shots. Such as the raindrop on the leaf etc. We also got the actress to do her solo wandering through the woods listening to the song we have chosen for the video. We also got her to walk over a fallen tree as a possible idea - just encase we thought it looked suitable. Therefore we have other ideas to fall back onto if our initial plans do not turn out how we would like them to. 

Animatic - By Danny and Dom

We story-boarded a list of ideas that we had and drew them out as in what shots we wanted, what scenes and the way these would be presented.

Danny done the animatic video on final cut pro but taking pictures of the storyboard and then editing them to an animated video so it move in time with the song - Young Blood by The Naked and Famous. The problems we had with this were that the drawings did not come up brilliantly against the white paper and were quite faint therefore it was hard to see what was being shown.

There would also be a lot more cuts and transitions in the actual music video but it was not plausible to get these all fitted in. A lot of the shots also wont exactly be planned in a sense as when we begin filming we will decide on doing shots we had not planned - going with our gut feeling on what we feel looks good etc. So when for example we have sown the band from a long shot , within this would be a series of close ups from different angles focusing on different things but this will change without a doubt during the editing so it is almost impossible to plan everything already before we have started filming, although we can get a rough idea.

Equipment - By Matt and Dom

Time Managment - By Luke

I made a Gantt Chart for a number of certain tasks which we had to complete in order to speed up our research and planning process after our pitch. Our pitch as a whole went down rather successfully with a few changes needed to be made which can be seen in the post 'Pitch 1'.


These tasks above were mainly in order to see what steps we are going to take in the production of our music video and the necessary research needed in order for the filming to go smoothly. By taking pictures of potential locations and costumes we can decide as a team what is best for the video and whether it would go with the direction we are wanting for it to go in - the indie alternative market.

By splitting the tasks up evenly between our group we can each focus on different aspects and give much more detailed analysis as opposed to having to do everything individually which would surely result in a lack of research for out video as a whole. Some posts we can do ourselves as we can put our own personal opinions in such as clothing and how the band should look - because then this way we have lots of ideas which can then be deliberated upon as a group. There is a wider choice and more options that way.

Risk Assessments - By Luke

Young Blood - Lyrics

We're all young and naive still
We require certain skill
The motive changes like the wind
Hard to control when it begins
The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-between
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Can't help myself but count the flaws
Claw my way out through these walls
One temporary escape
Feel it start to permeate

We lie beneath the stars at night
Our hands gripping each other tight

You keep my secrets hope to die
Promises, swear them to the sky

The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-between
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

As it withers
Brittle it shakes
Can you whisper
As it crumbles and breaks
As you shiver
Count up all your mistakes
Pair of forgivers
Let go before it's too late
Can you whisper
Can you whisper
Can you whisper
Can you whisper

The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-between
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-between
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
 
I believe that this song represents the fear and sorrow that can come from growing older. It suggests that whilst people grow they try to understand themselves and the world around them but have to forget the bad aspects with drinking, smoking etc as they are unfulfilled. Life is still bittersweet. We are young, but we are sad.


This feeling is shown by using a school/teen feeling through out the song. "Can't help but think of all the flaws, Claw my way out of these walls". You get the feeling that there are so many things wrong with you and your school, you just want to leave it. The song shows an escape in looking up to the stars at night and taking your mind off you and your issues which aren't really that important in the greater scheme of things. The bittersweet is the feeling that it's supposed to be a great time when you are young and beautiful, but it's also the most depressing stressful part of life(Will he/she go out with you? Will you make the team? Are you going to get good grades? Not to mention how tired you always were and are your friends trusting and good or will they turn on you? that's what makes school/youth bittersweet.

 Their is truth to the words of the song.  When we are young we are still naive.  With freedom and youth comes experience and leaving our youth for adulthood requires his experience, skill and wisdom.  The need to become an adult happens virtually overnight and once the process begins their is no turning back.  The bittersweet may be the looking back at youth and wishing you had accomplished or experienced more or lament the idea of leaving youth altogether.  There is difficulty in this transition and the strife sends people to seek refuge in some sort of middle ground they reference to be " in-betweens" in the song.

Clothing Ideas For The Music Video - By Luke

As the song that we have chosen is to of the indie electronica genre, the clothing and styling of the band members is absolutely crucial to how the band will be portrayed to the public.

The main focus for us is to create a typical indie band and to try and keep strictly to indie styled clothing and hair styles etc. This will prove difficult but if done correctly it will give us the star image that we want to give the band. This is seen in our research as most artists have an iconic look which not only attracts a fan base but also reflects their persona. A key example of this is the band 'Kiss' who consistently wear leather with their black and white face paint - giving them their identity.
Recently we have been searching the internet for different sort of outfits for the band members to wear and we decided on the lead singer, as she is a female that she should wear a typical floral type dress for the performance part of the video, here are some ideas;

When researching what makes an indie outfit we looked at a selection of blogs and websites such as googling 'How to dress indie?' - sites such as 'WikiHow' came in very useful as there are lots of tips that we can use to enhance our own knowledge that we have already. The research sort of already confirmed the image we had in our heads of what 'indie' actually is but we could just get a better insight through the experts advice. We could then go away onto websites (below) with our new knowledge. The key thing to remember was that indie literally means 'independant' therefore we have a lot of flexibility and options

Florence Welch is a fashion icon and we can use her example to see what makes a unique female music artist as our lead singer as mentioned is a girl and we want her to stand out in the music video - by creating a qwerky alter-ego we can achieve this look. 
Florence usually performs in flowing dresses which contrast against her hair colour. Because she has such a distinctive hair colour and style, she compliments it and almost highlights it as her identity even further. Even when she is dressed casually as you can see, she dresses with independence and this reflects her personality.




This little slideshow shows some of the ideas that we have had from looking at fashion websites such as; Topshop, Urban Outfitters, ASOS etc. and google images. As a group we may need to purchase a the perfect outfit for the lead singer. We want to portray her as a fashionista, leading the way for other people to follow. In this case, she needs to stand out as being a unique individual who does not neccessarily follow any trends - she sets them herself. This being said, the style needs to be in keeping with the indie feel of the music video otherwise the two elements of music and fashion will not compliment each other. They need to show what direction we are heading in.

The other narrative based part of the video is going to be slightly different, as its going to be lots of different groups of people doing lots of different activities, the clothing will be tailored to who the people are and what they are doing in the scene that they are in for example, in the camping scene, all the actors will be dressed up warm around a camp fire wearing jumpers in sleeping bags etc, in the scene thats in the field it will be the same sort of attire that they were wearing during the performance.

We decided that the males in the performance part of the video will be wearing clothes that represent the indie genre also, for this we also looked into fashion website for the males like; Topman, Urban outfitters etc. Here are some examples of what we are looking for.....although some have hipster/electronica elements fitting into groups such as Scenester kids.

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Styles that I personally like are the bright and vibrant AZTEC ones. This is actually very in fashion at this present moment in time with the winter season. You can see these styles appearing in a lot of retail stores...it is the idea of patterns and bold colours being put onto a piece of clothing. It makes a big statement and has 'indie connotations'. When looking at websites this was a prominent theme. Also a lot of people at our age of 17/18 have started to settle into this Aztec niche market and if adults in bands are wearing this style they do look much more young and almost appear more creative and exciting.

The band Spector are good examples of making bright colours look qwerky and quite trendy. Normally it is common to think you stand out in a bad way but they have their own unique style and star image. Their style I think opitimizes them. Thry are normally seen with tie-dye shirts in yellows, reds, blues and various other colours. It separates them from the crowd and also highlights this fashion revolution.  I think that the clothing item of a shirt looks smart yet can be made casual at the same time - looking rather effortlessly cool.

Bands like Foals have the common look of skinny jeans and short sleeve shirts - shown in the Balloons video. It gives a summery feel despite the fact that we will be shooting our video in the middle of the winter period. They look tailored, especially with button down collars as these give the look a more casual appearance. Foals provide a contrast to Spector as they are more often seen in pastel coloured shirts as opposed to a variety of vivid colours.

Band History

The lineup: David Beadle, Thom Powers, Aaron Short, Jesse Wood, Alisa Xayalith. 
  
Background: The Naked and Famous have  slipped into the market, since they committed commercial hara-kiri earlier this year. The five-piece from New Zealand, began as an electro duo in 2008 after the two members, Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith, met at music school. They have taken the sound indie rock and turned it into a their own style of electric rock. That's have found a gap in the market and are filling it with a commercialised version of a successful, cool American band's most popular tracks.

The New Zealand post-punk revival band from Auckland formed in 2008 when Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith recorded two EPs with engineer Aaron Short, a fellow student at Auckland's MAINZ music college. The EPs were subsequently released on a local independent label and Powers and Xayalith began performing live with Ben Knapp (bass) and Jordan Clark (drums).
In 2009, the group recorded the single "All of This". Aaron Short became a performing member of the group and Jesse Wood (drums) and David Beadle (bass) joined the band as full-time members.

The band were involved in NME's rising stars for 2011 and did an interview. There is a clip from that interview below.

 The group then set about recording the single "Young Blood" and their debut album, recording mostly at home and at Auckland studio, The Lab. "Young Blood" debuted on the New Zealand chart at number one on 14 June 2010 – the first New Zealand artist in three years to do so. The Naked and Famous released their debut studio album, Passive Me, Aggressive You, on 6 September 2010 on their own label, Somewhat Damaged. The album was produced by Thom Powers and Aaron Short and mixed by Billy Bush.

Target Audience

 In order to get a good understanding of what and who our target audience will be, we decided to interview variety of different people above you can see the videos of the people we interviewed. There are also pictures of each individual and an explanation to each piece of there style. The videos were edited by myself and the pictures were labeled by a colleague in my group, Luke Chance. While we did this the other members of the group went about working on the brief.

We, as a group decided that the most appropriate target audience would be the 'The Indie Scenesters'. the definitions of the variety of groups that are about are on UK tribes  'UKtribes.com'. The definition of Indie Scenesters on this website is 'The Indie Scenester still likes to be ahead of the game when it comes to discovering new music. They still can’t quite shake off the skinny jeans though'.
   
Fashion is important for this group and tend to not wear mainstream outfits instead choose to be different and stand out.

 

 

Topman is a very popular shop between indie tribes as it offers a wide selection of alternative clothes. denim shirts, striped t-shirts, baggy tops and vintage looking out wear are all very popular within this group and top man can provide them all. Above you can see a image that I have taken from the Topman website it shows a model wearing cloths typical associated with indie  Scenesters. It is also common for them to roll up there sleeves ans short and long sleeved shirts as well and rolling up the bottom of there trousers to show the ankles. common footwear worn would be Van's, boat shoes, desert boots and espadrilles. Commonly associated with the indie is the 'Old Man' look also called 'Vintage' where many people wear striped and patterned jumpers and shirts with colors such as beige being very popular. and knit wear often is worn.  Although baggy jumpers and tops are popular skinny clothes are also extremely popular and very common with skinny jeans a must for all indie 'wannabes'.




Top shop is the equivalent of Topman except for women. It again offers a wide variety of cloths in the indie style and to the left you can see a model showing one of the outfits typically found in this shop. the women style tends to contain a wide variety of light colors with light pink, light blue and beige all being common in there outfits.


However Topman and Topshop both also offers a assortment of cloths for people with a less extreme sense of fashion such as plain polo shirts, jumpers, suits, skirts and dresses.


Music is also extremely important as is how you tell the difference between the true indies and the ones who just try to be. Music is like a religion and there are rules to it, they do not like music that is in the charts or what is extremely overplayed. Instead they listen to bands such as 'Bombay Bicycle club' and 'Kasabian'.  

 

Pitch 1 - By Matt

After doing research in techniques and ideas of music videos we have recorded a list of potential clips. From the song choice we wanted to do a mix both including narrative elements and a performance based video. Firstly we started with the performance as this was the going to be our bulk/core of the video so we had to investigate how and what we would film it. This is from the post that my group has discussed as a whole regarding the potential setup of our music video. This is taken from one of our team members Matt Dickinson  as well as Dominic Lake. We also had to email the management of "The Naked and Famous" to ask permission to use their song. The track we selected is called "Young Blood".

PERFORMANCE

With the performance part of the video we wanted to keep it as simple as possible. As researching the instruments behind the band were very stereotypical with two guitars, a drum kits, keywords, synthesiser and a lead singer. We were thinking of finding an empty room, blacking it out and then having a single light (Maybe coloured) shining through from the background silhouetting and lighting up the band members.

Matt Dickinson created a 3D model in cinema 4D and rendered out to produce a similar reconstruction of the scene. Unfortunately the lighting isn't as realistic with a lower contrast than in real life but we can see a rough layout and style. The good thing about shooting in the dark is that the location wont have to be as important as shooting in the day time. There is also a video below of short rotation of the 3D models showing it a little clearer.

Also below are screen shots from the music video from the song "Speed of sound" by Coldplay. This shows a similiar sort of idea however instead of using a single light they use a massive screen which later lights up in the video. However the idea of light from the background creates a very clever effect. 

There are also screen shots from Muse's "Time is Running Out" and The Arctic Monkeys' "Brianstorm". The Arctic Monkeys' song also recreates a very similar effect with a sepia tone to the video but I included Muse's song because I think the overall blue lights and tone look better in comparison.

NARRATIVE

With the narrative elements and part of the video we wanted it to be quite random but sort the atmosphere and mood of the song. Therefore we were thinking of filming sequences of groups of different people and friends enjoying themselves and having edited to the music very similar to some of Calvin Harris' music videos. One idea I wanted to expand upon was a group of friends having a camp fire in a wood or field during dusk.

In the music video to "Olympic Airways" a song by The Foals there a small clip of a group of people with a bunch of black balloons in a field and then letting them drift off into the distance. This was a very clever idea that looks very appealing while suiting the style of video we want to shoot. It is also very easy to recreate and can involve or be applied to all different age groups making it a viable option.

I also really like the use of balloons in this advert by aero for their chocolate bar "Aero Bubbles". Although it has no relation to music video i think the concept is really clever and as we were planing on doing some shots based in a skatepark it maybe really cool to try and recreate this concept into the narrative. This could link into the previous scene with the group of friends in a field. We could then use balloons to create a relationship between all of the narrative clips despite them being different locations and people. 

Other related shots of use of a forest or wood in a music video by the artist The Maccabees who have a fight scene in a woods. It wasn't the scene that interested me but the way the shots were filmed with the sun rays coming through the branches and creating lens flares on the camera. These shots are very well suited to the style of narrative that we are aiming to accomplish. Luckily one of our members of the group lives right next to a forest so this is easy access and flares can later be magnified in post production if needed.

Also as we have go pro camera's we are able to film under water scenes in HD and slow motion as the camera has a frame rate of 128 which is four times better quality than a normal DLSR camera.

This idea of using bubbles in slow motion could be included if it suited the video. In conjunction we were thinking of shooting a beach scene with friends running and around on the sea front and caves so this sort of shot could be tied into that. A shot of someone diving into the water filmed from below. This could create a very cool effect especially when played in slow motion.
Proof that this sort of narrative fits style fits the music is the video (Left). This was created in final cut where we took the music video from Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close" which has the same idea of different groups of people dancing and having fun to music and then replacing the song with our music choice. Even though they are completely unrelated they fit together really well. The only parts which show the video isn't real is when the Calvin Harris sings along to his song in the video.


TYPES OF SHOT

Obviously mentioned before was the use of a go pro camera to achieve slow motion shots and underwater shots. But we have also researched into other types of shot we could play around with. One is called the vertigo shot which plays with the perspective of the shot. This was firstly used in the film vertigo and most famous for its use in Jaws but is a type of shot (Video) which we can try. It is created by zooming out the same distance as walking towards the character. This bends the background and focusses/stresses the importance of the object or character in focus. However i don't exactly know how we are going to be able to fit this in with a music video but it is a concept and idea available at our disposal.


 This is a shot which appears where the camera flys through glass and in this case a window. This would be particularly good in the intro of the song, for example where the camera could fly through a window of a car into a shot of a man tuning a radio into the song. This is created in after effects and adds a professional element to the video giving it a making the overall video look a lot more realistic. Other techniques that I personally noted can be seen on my post 

Inspirational Techniques/Shots In Music Videos.

Song Title and Directors

Our first idea was to create a performance video with maybe a small amount of narrative added in. some of our early song ideas were 'Time is running out' by Muse and 'Closer' by Miles Kane. we liked these songs as they are both upbeat and have instrumental sols which we would like to include in our videos. We also looked at songs by 'The Foals' and 'Bombay Bicycle Club'. these last two bands in my opinion are rather dull and there is not much variety of tempo throughout.

My personal favorite was 'Time is running out' by Muse. this is due to the catchy chorus which I believe would be perfect for a performance video. also there is a part where the music builds up with the drum beat for the first chorus which would be perfect for a close up for the drummer.

David Fincher

In the end we decided to use the song 'Young Blood' by 'The Naked and Famous' this was a group decision as we all liked different aspects of the  other songs and this one seems to include most of them, with instrumentals and good chances for narrative scenes.   

I also then looked at different music video directors and the best seemed to be... 

•  Chris Cunningham - Madonna
• David Fincher - Madonna/ the Rolling Stones/ George Michael
• Michel Gondry- Paul McCartney/ the Rolling Stones/  Kylie Minogue/ Foo Fighters
• Spike Jonze - REM/ Jay Z



Michel Gondry

• Hype Williams - Missy Elliot/ Nicki Minaj
•  John Landis - Paul McCartney/ Michael Jackson

Michel Gondry particularly stood out to me as he has worked with some of the biggest artists in the world including Paul McCartney, but also he has worked with a lot of artists that I enjoy to listen to. Therefor I decided to have a greater look into his past. He was born May 8, 1963 in Versailles France he is an Academy Award-winning French filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scene.

Another director that I was interested in was John Landis who has worked with artists such as Sir Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. The main thing that intrigued me about this man was the fact that he directed 'Thriller' which is widely considered the greatest music video of all time. The way that the background dancers are perfectly in time is one of the greatest dances in music videos and has influenced all since then.