Rushers review

Today we did a rushers review of our production to gather feedback on our development thus far. We decided to note down the feedback so we can gather what our audience thought.

Our Audience confirmed for us that our idea of enhancing the colour red and desaturating the other colours would make the clips stand out better and really emphasize the character's costume. We told them this would be good for displaying one of the main emotions which is loneliness. The audience also suggested that we try not to limit ourselves to a london environment as it would restrict the shots we want to use as London can look very different to the oxfordshire area. This made us realise that the bonfire clip at the end wouldn't link in as it is in a field which people would typically link with a rural area.

 
This is the the Rusher Review Clip (The black transitions are meant to show when the clips are further in the video)

The audience also picked up on the costume design and decided that it was very effective, as they got a sense of the characters identity. We believe this could make it easier people to see themselves as the character if they can relate to loneliness. Also we didn't want the characters identity to influence the production in anyway.

Enhanced Colours

We were looking into how to develop a treatment to build a better atmosphere and convey a sense of isolation or loneliness. When looking at our costume we noticed that we could utilize the red hoodie to make it stand out even more. We decided that we should try to find a way to washout all the colour over than the red. This will make our character stand out against the background and any people walking about the shot. I gathered this idea from the film Sin City.

           

In this trailer we can see that the majority of the background and characters are in black and White. However there are certain objects highlighted and parts of characters. This would work very well in our music video as it will emphasise the main character and show that he is different to the general public.

This is an example of how it will look:

Email

Below is the email we sent to the UK contact for ODEZSA. This was just to confirm that we were allowed to use the music for our music video. I decided to keep it short so its easy to get the point across and the contact will be more likely to check it as there will be a lot of other emails.

Production Plan

This is the production plan we set out for ourselves. We decided it was important to keep to a schedule as the filming is a very lengthy process which we wanted to make sure it was not rushed. It was also quintessential we had enough time to edit as editing is what makes or breaks a production.  I feel these dates are very realistic as the footage that will take longer has enough of gap between if we need to re film or do extra.  

Filming in London Plan

On 18/11/15 we will be travelling to London to grab some location shots, the point of doing this is to take footage of landmarks that the audience would recognise of London such as the London Eye and Big Ben. This is to get the audience to believe that the whole of the music video is filmed in London. This in order to achieve a grimy and dark atmosphere that most people tend to link with London. An example of this is seen in the new james bond film Spectre. It is seen at 1:54  where its meant to be set in Rome but the uses parts of blenheim palace as its building structure looks similar to what you would typically see in rome.
       

          

We are mainly going to film around South bank in London as we felt this had the best diversity for shot content and is one of the busier areas round london which is what we needed for our timelapses to be effective.

Production Plan

Below is the production plan we made to ensure that we kept on schedule and to make sure we left ourselves enough time to edit as this can be the longest process of the whole production. 

First Timelapse

This is my  first attempt at a time-lapse. This was 2 hours of footage which came out to be approximately 35 seconds of film. This is a good first attempt and now we can see that the camera must stay in an identical spot to get the best outcome for our music video. It also shows that the song is correct for this style of footage. We are not going to use this clip in the final production but may film something similar at night.

Trial Run of Timelapse Intro

This is my first attempt at a time lapse with the audio matched over. I feel this shows how well our song fits over a time lapse. Also it suits the treatment of this clip which is something we may consider however its unlikely we will go for warm, bright treatment. 

We may use this footage as an intro to our music video.

Costume and First location

As a group we have decided to make the main characters identity covered. This allows us to use more than one actor which will be good for the bike scene as it requires the actor to pull off different tricks on the bike. Also have a blank identity will help the audience to relate better as they have to use there imagination. The mask we are using can be seen on the right. We are using a morph mask as it is plain which makes it neutral; leaving the character open for interpretation.





We have decided to go into the filming stage now as we have an idea of what want to achieve from the storyboard. Our first location will be in Oxford where we are going to start doing some time lapses of traffic and people. The main locations we have chosen are:

 St Giles 

Corn-market St

St Giles will have the best traffic for us to film a time lapse. We have to film around 12:00 or 4;00 - 6;00 as this is when there is the most traffic. 

Corn-market St is normally very busy early afternoon. However we may have to go down on Saturday if we are unsuccessful during the week.  

Storyboard

Here is our story board:

Shot-list and The Meaning Behind The Video

Today we composed our shot-list. This shot list is a basic idea of what we want to involve in our music video. We will most likely add more shot as we get further into the filming stage.

We have finally decided on what the meaning is behind the production we are going to make. It is going to be a metaphor for a person going through change alone. The emotions we are trying to get across is loneliness, tension and excitement. These emotions contrast a little which is going to make it a challenge to make them work together without confusing the audience. The music video of Pompei by Bastille has given us some inspiration. You can see the music video for Pompei below.

     

In the first scene we decided to use our time-lapse idea of the busy road. We wanted to make sure this linked up with the song and as this will be at the beginning of the song we have decided to fade the footage in and out in time with music like the music is awakening the footage. The busy road is also meant to symbolise the chaos and pressure that can come with change. Then towards the end of the time-lapse it will turn into video footage inside a car going down a slip road splashing a puddle at a stranger which will be viewed from the path in slow motion. This will used be as a transition to the next scene.

In the second scene there will be shots of plates and cups being chucked against a wall in slow motion. This will symbolise the change as everything is braking and also the frustration that comes a long with it. At the beginning of the scene there will be stacks of plates and cups which will then switch back and fourth to them braking and the stack becoming smaller and smaller.

In the last scene there will be a bonfire being built. There will be a 360 degree pan showing the environment around the bonfire and the stranger from the beginning collecting sticks for the fire. This scene will end with the bonfire eventually burning out which will be filmed with a time lapse. This is open for interoperation as it could mean the person is accepting the change and leaving the past behind or is losing grip on the comfort of there past.      

   

Idea Testing: Time Lapse

Today I decided to test out our time lapse idea. I decided to film on a motorway during the times of 5:30 - 7:00 as this was going to show busy traffic eventually becoming less busy.

           

The only problems I encountered during this test was the fact the camera would eventually fall over which takes away from the smoothness of time-lapse. This could easily be fixed by making a rig or stand that will prevent the camera from falling over.  This is only test footage so I can get an understanding of the technical side and less on the content. In the footage for the production  I will have the time-lapse capture the sun setting in the back-ground so you can see the  transition into night.

Research Into Similer Products: Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

Peter Gabriel's song sledgehammer involed partnering up with Aardman Animations and Brother Quay. As you can probably guess in the clip most of it is claymation (clay animation), pixelation and stop motion. Looking at this clip made me think if it was possible to mabye do this style in my music video. 

Claymation is animation technique that relys on stop motion. The animator will make models then put them into a certain pose then take a picture. The animator will then adjust the pose very slighty and take take a picture. After repeating this a mulititude of times the Animator will have eventually made an animation. Below is an example of one of Aardmans claymations.

Pixelation is also another stop motion technique. It has the same idea of claymation when you make animation by taking a picture and moving the subject a bit. However pixelation uses live models. The technique is often used to blend live actors with animated ones. There is an example below of pixelation and raw stop motion.

The way they achieved the shots with peter gabreiel at the begining was to have a sheet of glass placed over peter gabriels face this allowed for the animators to achieve the use of pixelation and claymation has they were able to put the effects they wanted on to the glass sheet giving the illusion it is behind or next to Peter Gabriel. The chicken at the ends where normal chichens that had just been pulled from the oven. The animators just used stop motion to malunipate the chickens into dancing.

I believe all this is possible for us to implement in to our production as it only takes a camera and paientence. It would be intressting to see where we can take this.

Research into similar products: Blue Man Group

The Blue man group is an award winning global entertainment company, it was first formed in 1991. The Blue Man group are reknowned for there creative and unique perspective on audio and visuals.

The group is trio, in this trio is Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. 

The reason I have chose to look into this group was because they use visuals as well as audio to present the preformances. In the clip below the show off there creative nature and show how powerful sound can be. Further into the clip they invole diffrent visuals which are achieved through either physical means for example spilling paint or through animation and technology. 

I admire how effective the first clip is as they use sound to fill in for the missing props. The sounds they use may not be the most realistic but they are obvious to the audience as they are used in many films and music videos. 

Pitch for Our Media Production

         

We had to pitch our idea to an audience. This was to gather feedback that can help improve our production or to confirm which of ideas we should go for.

Our audience told us it would be a good idea to focus on visuals as it provides a lot of oppurtuinity so we have decided to do many different visuals other than just a bonfire as this will add variety to the music video and also gives us the oppurtunity to malnipulate the visuals to appear to be reacting to the song.

A technique we believed would look best in the music video would be a time-lapse; the audience agreed on this as the felt it was a good way to capture the atmosphere we were going for, which was a chilled night time vibe. The audience also thought that the song Bloom - ODESZA would be the most effective with the time-lapse and also agreed that this was the best song to create the atmosphere we want. 

Choosing a Brief

Most of the briefs I would be happy doing but there is one where I am missing technical knowledge and require software that isn't present. This is the brief that involves designing a game or game level, I have ruled this one out but that still leaves 12. The briefs I am considering are as follows:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

·                -a website homepage for the band;

·                -a cover for its release on DVD;

                 -a magazine advertisement for the DVD

     

      A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

·                -a website homepage for the film;
·                -a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;

·                -a poster for the film.

                                                                                                                           

3   An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with two of the following three options:

                -a radio advertisement;

·               -a TV programme sponsorship sequence;
                -a web pop-up

·             

      We came to the decison that It would be between a Music video and a TV advert. We felt these two sutied us the best as we could straight away think of ideas. The way we decided was by seeing which brief gave us the most ideas. This turned out to be the music video.

      

     With the Promo music video we feel we can apply our knowledge and ideas best to this. We felt the other two briefs would limit our ideas where as the music video would allows us to be creative. We have already had some good ideas. The two main ones we are considering are a festival music video or a time lapse video. 

Briefs

     These are the briefs we have been given to chose from for our A2 production:  

     1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

·         a website homepage for the band;

·         a cover for its release on DVD;

·         a magazine advertisement for the DVD

2.  A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

·         a website homepage for the film;

·         a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;

·         a poster for the film.

3. An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with two of the following three options:

·         a radio advertisement;

·         a TV programme sponsorship sequence;

·         a web pop-up

4. A promotion package for a new computer/video game, to include two TV advertisements, together with two of the following three options:

·         the cover of the game’s package;

·         Two hyperlinked pages from the game’s website;

·         a magazine advertisement for the game.

5. A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with two of the following three options:

·         a listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap;

·         Two hyperlinked webpages(with video extract) for the soap’s website;

·         a poster for the soap.

6.A selection of materials related to an original children’s TV drama, to include the title sequence to the TV programme, together with two of the following three options:

·         the front cover to a magazine for the series;

·         a DVD cover for the series;

·         a radio advertisement for the magazine

7. An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

·         a radio trailer for the documentary;

·         a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;

·         a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

8.The first two pages of a new local newspaper, together with two of the following three options:

·         a poster for the newspaper;

·         a radio advertisement for the newspaper;

·         two hyperlinked pages from the paper’s website.

9. A website for a new TV channel (to include a minimum of three hyperlinked pages with original images, audio and video extract), together with two of the following three options:

·         a newspaper advertisement for the channel;

·         a double page spread for a listings magazine, focused on the channel’s launch;

·         an animated ident sequence for the channel.

10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

·         a poster for the film;

·         a radio trailer for the film;

·         a film magazine review page featuring the film.

11.The first level of a new computer/video game, together with two of the following three options:

·         the cover for the game’s package;

·         a magazine advertisement for the game;

·         a radio advertisement for the game.

      12.  An extract/package from a local TV news programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

·         two hyperlinked pages from the programme’s website;

·         a generic radio trailer for the programme;

·         a short title sequence for the programme.

13 An extract from a radio play, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:

·         a newspaper advertisement for the play;

·         a double: page listings magazine feature about the play;

·         a page from the radio station’s website promoting the play.

AS Media Studies Production

This is the opening sequence I made for my AS final production.Through the development of my opening sequence I have furthered my knowledge in the use of media techniques.

   

Synopsis:
The story to our opening sequence was based on a hitman who had a target to take out. The identity of the hitman is ment to be believed  to be the buisness man. We achieved this by having a voiceover over the buisness man as he returns to his home. The buisnnesman turns out to be the target as the identity of the real hitman is reveled. This buisness man is also involed in the transfer of prison inmates which could lead to either people the hitmans needs to take out or people the himan is trying to save. The opening sequence was ment to represent the more gritty and realistic side of crime and the UK. We wanted to create a thriller that will have twists and gritty tension.

Areas of Success:

I feel the types of shots we used were very successful. The main shots I am proud of was pan into the business man's car this can be seen at the 41 second mark. This camerawork was very smooth and matched the the movement of the actor. I felt this helped the audience's immersion due to the smoothness also it makes the tension more effective later as it goes from relaxed smooth atmostphere to immenient death. The scene were the hitman hears the buisnessman at the door was also very effective as this is low angle shot shot showing who has the power in the situation and also confirming the identity of the hitman.

The choice of music track was a good addtion to the non diegetic sound. Classical music is common convention in thrillers when trying to imply tension. This is due to the contrast from the classical music and action on screen as it makes the audience unevered as it is misleading.

The CCTV filter was also a good addtion to the opening sequence as it gives the hint that the actor on screen is being watched or followed by someone. We achieved tyhis by lowering the saturation and lifting the contrast. We also cut the clip into bits to make it look more athentic as jagged motion can been seen on some cameras in real life.

Areas for Improvement:

Although the majoriety of the shots we used were good there was one shot I felt we could have made better. This is the shot from the back of the car when the buisnessman turns up to his house. I felt this shot looked clumsy and tacked on as it didnt really give anything to the open sequence. I felt the voiceover could have been improved if we could have found better recording equipment as you can hear static everytime I spoke. There was also a crossfade that wasnt necessary when the buisness man leaves the door and enters his car. This I felt broke the imersion a little for the audience.

Conclusion:

In all I am proud of my AS production I felt I applied a vast array of knowledge of film techniques I knew at the time. My AS production has taught me were I need to improve. This will help me to learn from my mistakes and better myself for my A2 production. This post is also a handy referance for me to go back to for inspiration.

Lables