Storyboard Animatic

This is an animatic of the storyboard we made to illustrate our plans for the video using the edited version of the song. This is only a rough template, as in our finished video we will have many more shots than were inlcluded in this cideo.

Magazine Advert

This is my magazine advert for my digipak. I used the iconic image of the metal style guitar with a tree, inside the woodland setting of the rest of the digipak. I included details on how to purchase the CD.

Finished Digipak plan

This is my finished digipak plan. I have used a woodland setting throughout the design. I used close ups of the band members for the side panels and scenery shots for the back and CD case design. The front cover has an iconic metal style picture of the frontman of the band walking away holding the guitar over his shoulder.

Digipak production update

Digipak production update

Here is an update of my digipak front cover:

The way the numbers appear is supposed to connote confusion and complication. The way the numbers appear was inspired by this video game (Call of Duty: Black Ops):

I chose this title and theme as it is the title of the song an I believe it adds a simple and memorable title just like the bands name "AlterVertigo".

Digipak Plan

The plan for my digipak is to photograph some frosty winter scenery with my black guitar contrasting the white surroundings. This ties in with the themes of our music video. The black guitar will be a bold contrast in the frosty natural surroundings and will be a good recognisable image for the band. This design is similar to a punk rock band named A.F.I.'s album "Decemberunderground":

Mood board

This mood board shows the style of our music video.

It shows such elements as the undead/zombie type creature, the gloomy, winter setting, gothic architecture which will be the theme of the video and the guitar which represents rock/metal music.

Performers/Casting

We have cast some actors who we feel have the right look to suit a rock/metal song.

Alex Moore - Guitar

Keiran Curtis - Guitar and vocals

Dan Biddle - Bass

Giorgio Manganiello - Drums

We feel these people would enjoy performing and would give an enthusiastic and authentic performance as they play their instruments in real life.

Digipak back cover

Today I made the back cover of my digipak:

Magazine advert

Today I began the creation of my magazine advert.

Production Update

To make our video easier to complete I used audio editing program Audacity to edit down the song. I feel I edited it so that the song is still good, but a little shorter.

I changed the song from 06:48 to 05:20.

Developing Technology skills

I developed my skills at Photoshop by looking up tutorials online and getting advice from my teacher. This web tutorial was very useful in the development of my Digipak cover:

http://psdlearning.com/2008/07/cd-cover-design/

Test shoot; Jump Cuts

This is a test shoot our group did to test the "Jump cut" technique which we plan to use in our video.

Media Trip Evaluation; London 2010

A group of media students went to London for a music video workshop on the 9th November 2010. We got to hear tips and a step by step guide from the chief examiner, Pete Frasier on how to plan and create our music video. We also got to hear some music video directors working in the industry producing videos for artists such as Paulo Nutini and Biffy Clyro, give us advice on making our music videos and also an insight into what it is like to work within the industry. It was particularly interesting to listen to Corin Hardy as I was already familiar with his work on videos from Biffy Clyro and The Prodigy. The chief examiner put into perspective how many shots are involved by explaining that each minute of film must contain at least 50 shots, far more than that of a film or television show. This means that our song at just over 4 minutes long will clock in at over 200 shots, total.

AVERAGE SHOTS PER MINUTE: 50

4 MINUTES OF FOOTAGE = 200 SHOTS

What follows are some notes on the process of planning and creating a student music video:

Step 1:

Before we begin filming proper, Pete advised that we do test shoots (which are group has breifly started) and experiments with different types of footage and audio. Learn to lipsync and do practise videos and experiment with multi-angles.

Step 2:

Do good planning. Have a strong and simple idea. Don't be too ambitious but don't use a boring idea either, strike a good balance between a realistic, doable idea and an exciting idea that will be interesting to watch.

Step 3:

Be organised. Make sure you have everyone's numbers and you are sure you know what each person is doing. Plan in detail costumes, locations, props, actors. Shoot early and make sure your performers are rehearsed and prepared (know all lyrics etc). Make a detailed storyboard and possibly an animated storyboard.

Step 4:

Blog and take notes of any useful ideas you get. Make notes of influences and things that inspire you.

Step 5:

Get to know equipment and editing software before filming. Bring speakers to play music on and be prepared to try practised techniques.

Step 6:

Shoot performance at least 10 times to make sure you have enough footage. Have plenty of cutaways and remember you need many shots. Shoot more than needed. Use lots of close ups and enthuse your performers.

Step 7:

When editing label each shoot and break footage apart into manageable chunks. Make sure you capture the whole performance more than once.

Step 8:

Cut constantly, get whole picture rather than small detail. Keep screen grabs of each edit.

Step 9:

Get lots of feedback and post on blog. Show what you've learned/improvements. Utilise Youtube and it's comment system. Also sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

I plan to use these notes as much as possible during the production of our video.

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/

Digipak design planning

Here is a template I found on the internet for a 6-panel digipak. There are other styles of digipak such as 4 panel but this is the type that I am creating.

When the digipak is finished it should look something like this:

Our Pitch

This is the powerpoint presentation for our music video, "Numbers" by AlterVertigo.

Pitch; Numbers - AlterVertigo

We recieved some good feedback from our classmates which helped us consider whether we were going about our video in the right way. Many commented that the zombie/undead idea would be to difficult to look convincing in a student video, however if we take a more symbolic approach I feel the eerie atmosphere and effect can be acheived. Here are some of the comments students in our class gave to the powerpoint presentation:

• "Sounds really interesting but it could be hard to achieve a convincing looking undead creature."
  

• "I love the ideas and look forward to seeing the final product. I like the location choices and theme of the video."
  

• "The song is a good choice for this kind of video, could be difficult to achieve but still soundss good."
  

Audience Board

This audience board shows a variety of imagery that we associate with out target audience. This includes interests, hobbies and preferences. It would be mostly males aged 16-20. They would be interested in going to gigs, getting drunk with friends and would be described as hedonists/individualists, ranking c1-D on the Jicnar scale. Many will still be in education. They will enjoy bands such as Metallica and Rage Against the Machine and will like tattoos and activities such as skateboarding.

Spike Jonze

I have chosen to research music video director Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze has directed such famous music videos as "Buddy Holly" by Weezer and "Praise you by Fatboy Slim.

Spike Jonze's videos have a high level of entropy as he often tries to create something outside of what you would expect from a standard music video. The "Buddy Holly" video is entropic as it is not what you would expect from this band. Weezer are a rock band so you would not expect them to adopt the smart, formal style of the 1950s band and the audience would also not expect this kind of setting (TV show "Happy Days"), you would probably expect them to adopt a more "rebellious" and entropic attitude like many other rock bands. The video also uses audio from the original TV show, which is unusual for a music video. You can see throughout all of Spike Jonze's videos that all of them have an entropic twist, none of them conform to genre conventions which is what makes them interesting and different. Spike Jonze's original and creative videos show an Auteur signature of entropy and comedy as most of his videos have an element of comedy to them, often from the strangeness of the video itself. Most of Spike Jonze's videos don't adhere to Proppian or Todorovian narrative structure, they are instead more abstract art pieces. The target audience for "Buddy Holly" would be tennage males aged 16-20, probably students or C1, C2 or D on the Jicnar scale.

Digipaks

This is an example of a digipak. Digipaks are a four panel paperboard case with a plastic interior containing a CD, DVD and lyric booklet. This form of CD became popular in the early 2000s, offering the consumer more content for their money. Digipaks are the "Premium" edition of a music album allowing the artist to include extra content such as music videos, "making of" documentaries, interviews, photo galleries etc. Digipaks are slightly more expensive than regular CDs. These types of CD are more popular nowadays as they offer more value for money as opposed to a simple download., also offering extra content unavailable anywhere else.

Research and Planning

This is a typical pop music video. The style of this video is Performance/Narrative as there is a small thread of story but we mostly see Katy Perry performing ; singing and dancing. I would classify this video as "Amplifying" as it is not directly representing the meaning of the song instead showing a fantasy world that still fits in with most of the lyrics. This video shows a lot of typical conventions of pop music videos such as the sexualised females and lots of focus on the main singer, with lots of close-ups. Because of this I find this video redundant however it has a degree of entropy depending on the audience because of unusual "Candyland" setting. The video represents women in a way typical to music video conventions and the ideology of pop music. Women are mostly displayed in a sexualised way or as "sex objects". The way the main singer is shot with lots of close-up and the mise en scene and costume creates this idea of sexual objectification. The way the singer in this video is represented is voyeuristic which relates to Laura Mulvey's theory that film is seen through the point of view of a heterosexual man and as such are often represented as sexualised and fetishistic, this point of view is especially evident in the video from 00:57 - 01:08. This theory is known as "The Male Gaze". The target audience for this video would be 12-16 year old girls who are students at school. They are mainstreamers and will listen to anything that's on the radio. It also has a smaller audience of teenage males who enjoy the video for the sexualised females and the guest vocals by rapper Snoop Dogg. Many viewers will take an oppositional reading and think that the depiction of women is over-sexualised.

Research, music videos

This music video is very entropic. The way the band is shot as they play is quite redundant and generic as we see this style of filming in lots of heavy metal videos. The fast paced editing goes well with the fast tempo of the song. The imagery of the old man working on insects in entropic as the audience doesn't know what it is intended to mean. The lighting is typical of heavy metal videos dark but with bright background lights. This style of music is entropic as it is very heavy and uses mostly screaming vocals. The mise-en-scene has the band performing in a small room in which the old man is seen working. The style of the video is dark and serious which reflects the tone of the music itself. The target audience for this video is 16-19 year old males, most likely individualists who are probably D or C2 on the Jicnar scale, possibly students, middle class. This audience would identify with the members of the band and may have aspirations to be in a similar band and play and instrument.

Redundancy, Entropy, Convention and Genre

"Generic texts have mass appeal." - I agree with this quotation to a certain extend as the more people that can identify with the subject matter the more people will enjoy it, however if something is too generic then audiences will find it boring and repetitive. Music videos must strike a good balance of generic ideas and entropic ideas to appeal to the largest audience.

"Creative media texts are highly entropic." - This is true because all creative media must have an element of entropy or else it would be boring and worthless. People are intrigued by creative media because it adds the element of entropy that we would not normally see in everyday life. Most creative texts also contain a lot of redundant elements as well, some more than others depending on genre, so that most people can relate and understand it.

"Genre is dependant on high degrees of redundancy" - The recognisable features of a specific genre can be considered quite redundant as in order to recognise it as a part of a genre it must contain elements that we see in all media of this genre.

Redundancy and Entropy in Music Videos

This video is quite entropic but is easier to understand if you can follow the narrative. This video makes fun of other types of music that aren't heavy metal type music such as the Goth band, the pop singer, the rappers, the acoustic guitar band etc. At the end of the video all these bands die and the real band comes in to finish the song. The last shot reveals that the other musicians were killed by a Death Note. This video is entropic as we don't expect to see all of these musician stereotypes in one video even though it is making fun of them. The image of the goth band is entropic as they have a very unusual and over the top look about them and its not something we expect to see. The second half of this video is quite redundant as it is what we would expect to see in a heavy metal music video which is the band performing.

This video is entropic as the appearance of the monster is something bizarre that people would not expect to see in a music video.

Video Skills - Technical and Planning

Creativity/Originality - I think the most important thing in a creative project is to have an original idea. I am confident that I can think up interesting and original ideas in most areas of media.

Camera Skills - I would like to improve my camera skills as I have not had much experience with operating the camera.

Storyboarding - I need to do more storyboards as they are the best way of displaying how the film is intended to look. You can use photographic storyboards or drawn storyboards, drawn storyboards are mostly useful for planning whereas photographic storyboards are useful for analysis after the filming is finished with.

Actors, performers and Models - It is important to get the right person for the role and in order to get the best performance it must be clear to them what the intention of the work is, so it is important to communicate well with your performer.

Reconnaissance - I need to do more recce as I have previously overlooked this part of the work. I will make notes on lighting, possible noise sources, health and safety implications, etc as often as possible.

Music video task

We re-created the first 50 seconds of the following video, "What I Go To School For" by pop group "Busted":


Digital Technology - During this task I became more proficient in using the digital video camera, over the course I would like to develop my editing and filming skills so that I can produce high quality footage in a shorter amount of time.

Research and Planning - For research and planning our group created useful things such as a video storyboard and a shooting script. The shooting script proved very useful for helping the group get organized and working around times when some members of the group were absent. The shooting script made the filming process much more efficient because we instantly knew what was needed for the shot and helps us get organized. The video storyboard was even more more useful as allowed the group to see each shot quickly as well as the timing for each shot.

Post-Production - I improved my editing skills and enjoyed using programs like Premiere Pro. I began to consider things such as continuity and the flow and timings of shots more than before. When making a music video I had to consider how the timing of each shot went with the beat and rhythm of the music.

I feel this project could have been improved if we had redone some shots that didn't come out as well as we had hoped and by also getting more people in the class so it looked more realistic.

A2 Media

Preparing and Planning - We need to do more planning next time as this time we pretty much did it on the fly.

Filming - We did some good shots using the whiteboard however we should work on positioning the shots better.

Working with performers - I realised thatinvolving myself would make my co performer more confident and willing to participate

Terminology - I have learnt many new words which are useful in the production of music videos, particularly editing and filming terms such as high angle and low angle and ripple effects.