Broken Glass Effect Test

I found a video tutorial on how to do a shattered glass effect to use on 3 of the images that will be featured on my digipak. 

I decided to using the tutorial as guidance, i decided to attempt a test shot using a stock image of shattered glass and a close up shot of Matt Bellamy, the frontman from Muse

 These were the two images that I used and after following the video tutorial I realized that it is actually not that difficult to create the shattered glass effect.

 This is the end result of my test. In order for this to work properly when I take the pictures of my band members I will have to have the framing done so that they are to one side either the left or right so that I can cut each band member out and place them onto a black background then I can add the shattered glass effect and hopefully the end result will be something that looks pretty professional and good.

Album Cover Research

This is my powerpoint presentation on my Rock Album Covers research. In the presentation I looked at 3 different Rock Album Covers which are: Muse - Absolution, Foo Fighters - Wasting Light and Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.

Filming Day 4 and 5

Tuesday 24th November and Friday 28th November 2014, with the help of my friend Scott I completed the narrative shots for my music video. We filmed all the shots that feature the male character who has woken up much like the female character to an apocalyptic Britain. We managed to get some really good shots by using the fig rig to get some really good angles. The last shot is especially good as it came out better than we was expecting

Props 2

I have added to my original props list now that my LED sunglasses have arrived and my Media teacher gave me some old broken mobile phones which the boy will use in the narrative to try and call the girl as he lost his mobile phone. These are the connecting factors to the narrative, the boy has lost his phone and the girl finds it in the woods.

LED Sunglasses:

The LED Sunglasses are better than I expected them to be they're very bright and have 3 settings 1 normal one, 1 slow flashing and 1 fast flashing. These Glasses will work very well when I re-shoot the band shots and get some additional artist shots in the dark where the LED Sunglasses are the main source of light.

 

Old Mobile Phones:

Filming Day 3 - Narrative

On Sunday 16th November 2014 me and my actress Phoebe filmed some scenes that go to the narrative of my music video. I filmed almost all of Phoebe's narrative shots which take place in a woods as part of the Apocalyptic setting. Phoebe plays the girl who in the Narrative is trying to find the boy who she has a romantic connection with but she is unsuccessful in finding him she does however find his mobile phone. I managed to capture some very nicely framed shots and the whole day went very well the woods setting looked great and we found a cool little shed thing with a danger warning sign on it which will work very nicely as a cutaway.

Music Video: Raw Footage

So like in my Filming reflection post there are some shots of my band that need to be re-shot as they do not look amazing because of some issues that I'm going to fix in the re-shoots. The biggest problems were lighting, framing and drumming, the lighting was not done very well in some of the band shots as it ended up with the drummer left in darkness and the light started glaring off of the Bass Guitar causing some major issues. Additionally the shot was not framed very well as there was a huge space on the right with nothing in it and the end result was Scott's guitar getting cut off on the left side.

Example:
 

The other issue we faced is because we was filming this during the school day Josh decided to not actually hit the drums but pretend to so that the drama teachers didn't get annoyed. However the miming was not done very accurately as it was fairly clear that he was actually hitting the drums. 

Examples:


 Apart from the obvious issue of it doesn't look like Josh is actually hitting the drums this shot isn't actually too bad I quite like the idea of having the guitar solo as shots cutting between Scott playing the solo and the drummer and bassist playing together as it's a big section in the song and it looks good rocking out in time with each other.

GoPro Test Footage

On Tuesday 11th November 2014, Me, Max and Lucy during a Media lesson learnt how to use the GoPro and then filmed some test footage. Here is our test footage:

Filming Day 1 and 2

So on Friday 7th November 2014 I started filming my Music Video. I filmed some performance shots of the main artist and the band. The end result of the day is that some of the shots look really nice and work really well where as other shots encountered some problems which need to be fixed with re-shooting. One problem I encountered was one of the shots was not properly lit therefore resulting in a drummer left in the dark and the bass catching the light causing a glare. Additionally there was a lot of space on the left that needs to be covered, the shot needs to be framed properly.

The second day of filming was on Saturday 8th November 2014. I began filming the narrative of my music video. However this is where I encountered the most problems we planned to film in a woods and due to the time of year it is it got dark very quickly and it poured down with rain. This meant that annoyingly all my shots were unusable and so this Sunday I am planning to re-shoot them as well as some additional footage for my narrative.

Location Permissions Update 2

After hearing back from Mr Barnett who told me to email the head of Drama Mr Walsh, I emailed Mr Walsh 

 However it was also brought to my attention that DH2 could be in use due to Year 12 and 13 Drama performances so I also decided to email dance about potentially using D25 or SPD just in case.

 

Performance shots and Editing Ideas

My planned idea for editing was to have the typical on beat, fast paced, montage editing. However when watching some music videos I can up with the idea of starting the performance shots out as quite a calm and controlled performance and then like a lot of rock bands do when the music is big and loud over exaggerating the performance. Bands such as Muse and Foo Fighters do this all the time.
 
In Muse's Time is Running Out Video, when the music builds in the pre-chorus and becomes much bigger and louder in the chorus there performance is much more over exaggerated. Foo Fighters do something similar in there music video for Monkey Wrench, example below.
 
So when it comes to filming my performance shots I plan for me and my friends who are playing my other band members to give a much more over exaggerated, high energy performance so that it feels much more like a Rock music video rather than keeping a more controlled performance. This would allow me to work with some shots that keep to my genre and highlight the genre much more.

Narrative Change

My original idea for my narrative was to have a boy and girl who were separated from each other because society is corrupt and it doesn't allow them to be together kind of like Romeo and Juliet where they are divided because of a family feud. This idea came from after I chose my song The Groove by Muse I decided to watch some Muse music videos for inspiration as Muse usually have a wide variety of styles of videos that have messages and deeper meanings on topics such as corrupt government, love and the end of the world. My initial idea was inspired by the Music video for the song Madness 
 
In the first 29 seconds of the music video it establishes the idea of a man and woman who are stuck in a world full of corruption and it has divided them because they can not be together whilst society is so corrupt.

This was how I came up with my initial idea but after much thought and consideration I decided to change my idea to something that might be a lot easier for the audience to understand and showing a corrupt society could prove to be a challenge.

I decided to have my narrative as a boy and girl who are still divided but rather than being divided by a corrupt society they are divided by the collapse of civilization/end of the world. My idea now is to highlight the idea that when civilization collapsed the boy and girl were the the only two that survived and are now currently the last two humans left however when the end of the world had occurred they were not together so now they are in a desperate struggle to find each other by continuously walking through woods and other derelict locations to find each other only to narrowly avoid each other. This idea came from listening to the song I chose again and being a muse fan I know that frontman Matt Bellamy has many theories about the end of the world and how it will end so it seemed like a good idea for my narrative. This will also allow me to do some very interesting shots like one of their phones running out of battery and becoming useless as well as one of them finding some older phones and tries to find one that has some battery and is able to contact the other. How I came about with the end of the world/collapse of civilization idea was from one of Muse's albums their 3rd studio album Absolution is an entire album which is telling the story of an apocalypse and how the world is ending or is going to end and it features songs such as Time is Running Out and Apocalypse please which helped give me end of the world ideas especially in the Time is Running Out music video which shows the band performing on a table where a group of world leaders have met to discuss their plans to resolve the end of the world. These songs can be seen below:

    

I'm hoping that changing my narrative to center around the end of the world idea will make my narrative much more clearer and will give a bigger emphasis on the boy and girl genuinely being separated with a very slim chance of being able to find each other again.

Location Permissions Update

Due to the scheduling of PDH I am unable to film there when I want to so I have emailed the drama technician to see if I can film in DH2 Period 3 and 4 on Friday 7th November 2014.

So hopefully with a little over 2 hours to film I should be able to film a large chunk of my performance shots with the whole band. After sending the email to Mr Barnett I received this email back

Shooting Schedule

These are my completed and finalized shooting schedules for Friday 7th November, Saturday 8th November, Sunday 9th November and Monday 10th November. These cover all my shots including my performance shots both band and just frontman as well as my narrative shots and if I am able to shoot everything over these four days then it gives me some extra time in case I need to plan any re-shoots. On Friday I plan to film a large chunk of the band performance shots and some of the frontman shots as well as filming the intro where the band sets up their instruments i.e. plugging in jack leads, sitting down on the drum stall etc.

Animatic Feedback

In class we were asked to watch each groups storyboard animatic's and give video feedback for each one.
 

After watching the feedback and listening to what my class mates had to say about my animatic and the improvements that I could make. On the whole everybody did grasp that my genre was Rock and that there was a story of a boy and girl trying to find there way back to each other. The biggest issue that was raised was that some of my shots needed to be varied more and made a bit clearer, as most of my shots seem to go from Long shot, to Mid-Shot to Close up. I have planned to make sure that my shots are very varied and work together by using some establishing shots and some low angle and high angle shots and just try to get some more interesting shots.
Muse - The Groove Animatic A2 Media by jonesc462

Inspiration

There are quite a few videos that inspired me when I came up with the idea of my video especially the narrative. I picked a Muse song which is a B-side on The Time is Running Out single and being a big Muse fan I have always liked the strong views they take on many different issues whether they are political or moral. In addition to this as well Frontman Matt Bellamy has a strong belief in the end of the world happening.This is shown in many of their videos which gave me idea of having two people separated by the collapse of civilization.

Narrative Update - Derelict London

After some feedback, I have come to the decision to slightly change my narrative and have a much more dramatic emphasis on the collapse of civilization and how the boy and girl are separated due to the collapse of civilization and the whole end of the world idea. 

 The idea is to find some derelict looking locations like the ones in the picture examples above. The first three are from Derelict London and are currently acting as a visual substitute for the actual locations that will be used. The last two pictures are from my friend's dad's Go-Kart business in Croydon and may be a potential location that I will use for my Music Video. Additionally during half-term as a final push for my planning stages I will be doing more location scouting for some derelict looking places in Morden and Sutton. I plan to make a video to showcase the derelict locations that I find and focus on the ones that I will definitely use in my Music Video, I have a couple of people who will accompany me in my video and help me find the best looking derelict locations for my video.

Year 13 Advice

It's interesting to see how the previous Media class looked back on the process and the advice is very helpful. It's interesting to think about planning and how that will pay off and how you need to make some unique and not just try to make a really simple, easy to make music video.

Record Label Permissions

 

In class we were asked to send a letter asking the record label for permission to use the song for my music video and then I had to screen capture the letter that I sent to the record label which in my case was Warner Brothers Music.

Props

In my music video I will be using 7 props which are: LED sunglasses, LED strips, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Drum Kit and Drumsticks. The only props that are still needed to acquire are the LED sunglasses and LED strips the instruments are all sorted with either my own instruments or my fellow student's instruments or the school's instruments.I have ordered the LED sunglasses and should hopefully have them for Friday's shoot. 

Pictures:

Bass Guitar:

Jack to Jack Lead:

 Microphone and Mic Stand:

Costumes

I have 4 main costumes for my music video which are all already acquired there are: the band costumes which is the black suit or leather jacket with a dark or light t-shirt and black jeans and then there is the girl's costume which is dark trousers a light top and an army camo jacket. i have yet to get all costume pictures but I will I have most of them by Fridays shoot and all of them by the weekend shoot.

Location Permissons

When planning I had to ask for the availability of certain rooms in school that I would like to use. I then screenshot the emails.

Record Labels

Location Post

The street location will be used in my video's narrative I have chosen the road that I live on Wickham Avenue in Cheam as it is a pretty quiet road which will help to show the characters being divided as well as it will be easy for us to film as there will be very little distractions. Additionally the street idea will help to show the corrupt society as it appears to be a normal street but once the characters are seen and appear to be cautious the audience will be able to understand my idea of having a corrupt society

I came up with the idea of using a forest when I took the pictures of my street as it is at the end of my street and it leads into Nonsuch Park. I thought using a forest in the narrative as well could be interesting as I could use to show how lost the characters are and how they just want to be able to find each other and to be accepted by society. The location also has very nice natural lighting and is a really good location to shoot at as it is quite and there are little to no distractions that could interrupt filming.

Music Video Animatic

Muse - The Groove Animatic A2 Media by jonesc462
This is my storyboard animatic for my music video and it features all my final ideas such as the band recording the song in the studio, the band performing with the LED lights and the narrative of the boy and girl being separated by a corrupt society.

Note: My idea for my narrative has slightly changed since posting this post rather than the boy and girl being separated from society they have been separated by the collapse of civilization and the the end of the world and when the audience sees the boy and girl they get the impression that they have been separated for quite sometime and are still searching for each other and are desperately trying to get back to each other. 

Concept Presentation

This is me giving my concept presentation to my class. In the video I go over my main ideas for my music video including: 

- Band Name
- Band Image
- Narrative 
- The main concepts of the music video  

This was my finalized ideas put together in a presentation with an oral pitch that I gave to my class. I thought that my oral pitch went well and i was able to get across my ideas fluently and clearly and so that everyone understood what my plans for my Music Video are. 

Concept Prezi

This is my concept prezi which i created as a visual aid to help with my video presentation and to express my concepts for my music video better. My concept prezi covers all the main concept areas including the band name, band, image, narrative and the 3 main sections of the music video as well as the song choice 
 

Target Audience Research: How do media industries target those audiences?

For Muse, media industries tend to target their audience by making all their music videos very contrasting from each other for example Hysteria doesn't feature the band in it at all it is just one whole narrative which reflects the lyrics
So for Hysteria they try to engage their audience by featuring a narrative throughout the whole video but one that reflects the lyrics so that the audience can try to relate to the video and song. The way they contrast their videos is by doing a video like Hysteria which is just a straight narrative with no cutting to the band and then they would do a video like Hyper Music which is purely the band in their element.
 And when they do videos like Hyper Music it allows them to be themselves and portray themselves the way they want to be seen to there target audience

Similar artists
1. Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters who share a very similar target audience to Muse reach their audience by using celebrity cameos for example 
 

Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly, in this video they draw their target audience in by having celebrity cameos they have Jack Black and Kyle Gass for are famous for being the duo that make up the comedic Rock band Tenacious D, Jack Black also famous for being in School of Rock and many other movies but this would attract their audience as they would most likely be fans of Tenacious D if they are a fan of Foo Fighters.

2. Radiohead 
Radiohead are very similar to Muse and have a very similar target audience however they reach their target audience by making their videos a lot more simple and minimalistic making it all about them as a band and how they want to be seen for example:
 

Messages:
Muse tend to put across very complex messages which I think reaches a wide range of their target audience. They often have messages of uprising and rebelling against corrupt Governments as well as very personal issues such as Alcohol addiction and other very personal issues that they have been through.  

Target Audience Research: Who are the specific audience for particular products?

The audience for Rock music generally is male teenagers who wear black/dark clothing an example of this would be Nirvana fans:

 They have the sort of teenage rebellious image of the 90's rock era that Nirvana was a part of. This image has managed to transcend itself through time as even with more current rock artists this is the audience that the artist tends to have.

Another example would be Muse fans, Muse fans are predominately white male teenagers who dress in dark clothes and seem quite rebellious

  As can be seen in the picture Muse's fan base is predominately white male teenagers who dress in dark clothes however there are some exceptions to this some of them in this picture are wearing brighter clothing and look less rebellious than the others.

Muse also have quite a large female audience however this depends on the female rocker chick type of audience so girls in their late teens and young adults to about mid 30's 

  Once again you can see that their female audience much like their male audience they also predominately white.

Target Audience Research: What do real audiences consume?

The way audiences consume media in the music industry has changed over the years with the introduction of the internet, there are now many more ways to hear music and to see music videos.

Taken from: ifpi:
 
Overall recorded music revenues grew in Europe and Latin America and continued to stabilise in the US, growing 0.8% in trade terms.

Graph:

The industry's digital revenues grew by 4.3% in 2013 to US$5.9 billion 

Revenues from advertising-supported streaming services, such as YouTube and Vevo, are also growing — up 17.6 per cent in 2013. 
Less people are buying physical formats such as records and CD's with their share declining from 60% to 51% in 2012, However the physical formats still account for the majority of the industry's revenues.

 Where Rock is currently:
- Rock is still quite popular but not as popular as it used to be currently in the UK top 40 chart the most popular songs seem to fall under pop or dance music with only one rock song which is at 37 in the UK top 40. Where as in the the UK Top 40 rock chart you can see that Rock still has some popularity. With a new up and coming artist Royal Blood at no.5 however it is also very reliant on older artists such as Queen, Nickleback, Goo Goo Dolls, Foo Fighters, Bon jovi, Aerosmith, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Green Day and Muse. Here's an example of the UK Rock Top 40 charts and how it is currently looking:

 
 Having a newer rock artist such as Royal Blood at No. 7 and No. 5 on the chart shows that Rock hasn't lost it's popularity as there are still people who listen to Rock music. However the two Royal Blood songs that are on the UK Top 40 chart have dropped down. The Chart does rely quite heavily on older artists as well with Guns and Roses at 12, Queen at 13, Muse at 15 and Bon Jovi at 17 which would make things seem that Rock is slowly dying out as there seems to be less and less new up and coming Rock artists. Although Rock has lost popularity over the years it still is popular and Rock still has an audience people are continuing to listen to Rock music.

Music Videos are also becoming cheaper to produce - "most music videos now cost between $15,000-50,000 to produce" - Passman, where as before music videos would cost around $200-250,000 to produce. The most expensive music video ever made was Michael Jackson's Scream which cost $7 million to produce. However as time has moved on technology has improved and music videos have become much easier to make, artists can now produce music videos for a lot less money.