Here is the selection of ideas we decided to ignore from our storyboard, or any footage that we decided to take out of our final video, and any ideas or footage that we decided to include in our video which was not in the storyboard.
Lego stop motion; we decided to leave this out of our final piece as it is difficult to relate to the music video, though it seemed a good concept at the time, we thought that the addition of the Lego footage would begin to over-complicate our video. The main reason for this is that it is not related to the song specifically and is not really an appropriate speed for the song as the chorus is the fastest part of the song, and these areas are already occupied by lip syncing and also the stop motion of the card board pieces.
Shots of the crowd; despite being good shots, and also in good rhythm to the beginning of the song, which is where we intended to have them originally, as a group we have decided that the slow-tempo shots of the antagonists, where they are standing on their bridges were most appropriate regarding the rest of the video, as it is the slowest part of the video, and therefore makes it clearer that the sequence is speeding up as the song progresses.
Card board stop motion; although it has been mentioned earlier, it was not in our original storboard to include the cardboard stop motion, and we thought that this would fit in nicely with the chorus, as the other chorus has the lip syncing. Moreover with the card board, we decided to develop the ideas from the storyboard, which was initially going to be a person crying, for "tear", a person blowing a kiss, for "kiss, and so on, but we instead decided to go with the card board for clarity.
Finally, split-screen; this is an effect in editing that we first had in mind, and wanted to use it to compare and contrast the on-screen characters, but we instead went for other features that we thought were more appealing, and more thought provoking, so we have just kept to the straight forward, single-picture screen, as opposed with the picture-in-picture feature that we had considered right from the start.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Friday, 26 November 2010
poster research
A common tendency in posters that are intended to promote singles or albums is that they are most often kept in continuity with the CD cover, but are not necessarily identical. From what we have seen from our research of posters and CD covers, some features that appear on the CD cover may not be on the poster, for example the explicit sign is not present on most posters if it is on the CD cover such as the Nas poster below, also Nas' name is not present in this poster, whereas it is on the alternate CD cover. If the picture on the poster and CD cover is not particularly focusing on the representation of the song, then the image is highly likely to change from the CD cover to the poster, so long as the audience can still immediately identify the poster with the CD cover, such as the temper trap poster below, which has the same effects, colour, text and is still a close-up of a persons face, then is can still be easily recognised with the CD cover.Also the poster is most often in a portrait form, this would also enable the poster to fit perfectly onto a magazine cover if it is promoting the song or album.
There are similarities and differences between these adverts, and are used as different tools for engaging in the audience. The "hero" poster, is primarily to look good and draw the readers awareness; adverts such as this would be most likely in a music magazine, or a poster that is sold to promote the tour. It looks good because it is dark and therefore attractive to the target audience, it shows the male on his own but in a powerful position, which would also attract fans of the artist or of the genre. Despite this, the poster does not have any dates, that may say when the artist is going on tour and where they are playing, which the temper trap does have on the advert. Also the temper trap poster has a website address at the bottom and sponsors of the website, band, or tour that they are promoting. The temper trap poster would most likely be used in a magazine, or a newspaper which may 
attract readers, and gain their interest. In the poster of the verve, which is promoting a new single release, differs in content further from the other posters, it not only contains the artist, song title,
attract readers, and gain their interest. In the poster of the verve, which is promoting a new single release, differs in content further from the other posters, it not only contains the artist, song title, 
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Lip Syncing
After going on a google search for help with lip syncing, we were directed to Wikihow who provided us with several tips to help us to synchronize our scenes with better performance. They suggested the following ideas.
- learning the song will always help, it said that if there are any parts of the song that we did not know, it would be clearly inorganic if they were read or just weren't learnt properly, so would be easier to learn them.
- watch how the artist says the words, this is helpful in situations where the artist has a dissimilar accent to yourself, so we tried could try to adapt to that of the singer in the temper trap. Furthermore we could learn the sounds of the words as opposed to the actual words which would be easier when trying to apply the accent to the words rather than going through the mental process of reading the lyrics, and then trying to remember the accent. For example "example", may actually sound like "ik-sam-pull" depending on who says it.
- Know the entrances, or cues for when to begin lip syncing, this is very important, particularly if there is more than 1 singer in the 1 shot, this would be because it can be editted much easier as it can just be cut down and moved along th timeline so that it is in perfect sync with the song, however if there are 2 or more interchanging the lip syncing in the 1 shot then it is not as easy to just edit. To help avoid this we could play the song as we were lip syncing, to help us with cues, and timing.
-Also it states that it is not necessarily vital that the lip syncing is in perfect timing, so long as it is reasonable, understandable, and so goes along with the tune of the song, as well as the song lyrics, itshould still make for accurate lip syncing.
- learning the song will always help, it said that if there are any parts of the song that we did not know, it would be clearly inorganic if they were read or just weren't learnt properly, so would be easier to learn them.
- watch how the artist says the words, this is helpful in situations where the artist has a dissimilar accent to yourself, so we tried could try to adapt to that of the singer in the temper trap. Furthermore we could learn the sounds of the words as opposed to the actual words which would be easier when trying to apply the accent to the words rather than going through the mental process of reading the lyrics, and then trying to remember the accent. For example "example", may actually sound like "ik-sam-pull" depending on who says it.
- Know the entrances, or cues for when to begin lip syncing, this is very important, particularly if there is more than 1 singer in the 1 shot, this would be because it can be editted much easier as it can just be cut down and moved along th timeline so that it is in perfect sync with the song, however if there are 2 or more interchanging the lip syncing in the 1 shot then it is not as easy to just edit. To help avoid this we could play the song as we were lip syncing, to help us with cues, and timing.
-Also it states that it is not necessarily vital that the lip syncing is in perfect timing, so long as it is reasonable, understandable, and so goes along with the tune of the song, as well as the song lyrics, itshould still make for accurate lip syncing.
CD cover research
After doing some extensive research, we believe that every CD cover should have the name of the song, the name of the artist, often in different sizes and different writing to make both of them stand out individually clearly promoting both. They are most commonly the first layer to the cover, as the title and artist name are the most important things that will be on the front cover. Other than this most CD covers will also have a picture of the artist on the front, but not necessarily on all covers. The cover will contain either a background or a location in particular, or sometimes an image in general if the artist is not on the cover.
The CD covers will usually contain effects on the front, but often subtle and not too many effects so it makes the image engage with the audience, if there were too many effects on the CD cover then this would be of poor taste, and be less appealing to our target audience, as well as unprofessional.
If we are going to use the characters on the front of the CD cover then we would also have to decide what type of shot it is going to be, such as an extreme or just long-range shot, showing perspective and showing the scene of the video. It may be a mid-shot, just showing the characters in their surroundings. Or there could be a close-up of 1 or both of the characters showing emotion. Whatever we were to choose we would still have to take our target audience into account, and ask ourselves would they like this CD cover and does it appeal?
We need to identify the message of the song and music video, then reflect this message in our CD cover. This would help to give us a better response from our target audience, for example showing the appropriate emotions if we choose to use a close-up shot.
The CD covers will usually contain effects on the front, but often subtle and not too many effects so it makes the image engage with the audience, if there were too many effects on the CD cover then this would be of poor taste, and be less appealing to our target audience, as well as unprofessional.
If we are going to use the characters on the front of the CD cover then we would also have to decide what type of shot it is going to be, such as an extreme or just long-range shot, showing perspective and showing the scene of the video. It may be a mid-shot, just showing the characters in their surroundings. Or there could be a close-up of 1 or both of the characters showing emotion. Whatever we were to choose we would still have to take our target audience into account, and ask ourselves would they like this CD cover and does it appeal?
We need to identify the message of the song and music video, then reflect this message in our CD cover. This would help to give us a better response from our target audience, for example showing the appropriate emotions if we choose to use a close-up shot.
target audience
We must establish who exactly our target audience is, as there are people of all ages who would listen to a song like this, and is not transfixed to a stereotype as easily as other songs, we can only provide a rough guide to who would listen to our song, as mentioned below it would be a typical young teenage audience, mostly girls would find this song appealing as it is a love song, although it may also appeal to boys too. We do not want to be too biased in who we are targeting as it will attempt to attract all ages and genders. So therefore we want to make it appropriate for young teenagers, so they could relate to it, but however we do not want it to appear as distasteful to other age groups.
Our target audience is very important for our music video, it must be appropriate for the genre, it must be appealing to the genre, but like the Kings of Leon example earlier in the blog it is not essential to include relevant material to the lyrics throughout the whole video. We have a main sequence but other than that, we have some shots of a crowd, like in the Kings of Leon video; and some shots of a fountain nearby our filming location, these could be use to speed up the song and thereby doing so would appeal to any audience, not ours in particular.
We are also studying other videos by other artists that have similar target audiences, from these we could maybe take ideas from. Below are some of the videos that we would consider as being a similar target audience and music video.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Starting filming
As we began filming we had to get used to the new type of equipment, we took a tripod, camera, and our memory card on every filming date, they were easy enough to adjust to from last years equipment; Furthermore we had a new filming concept this year which we were unable to use last year, this was the new green screen where a scene could be filmed in front of the green screen, and then, using the layers on final cut pro, later projected on top of another scene that we had filmed and intended to use as the background originally but were unable to film, for example another group used it to stand somebody in fire, which of course they would have been unable to do otherwise.
Our first day of filming, we got lots of various shots, trying out new ideas, using a variety of close-ups, long-shots point of view shots, as well as high and low angle shots. Our first day went quickly as it got dark fast so we were only able to film part of the Male's part of the sequence. As we had to go back to film, he had to make sure that, to keep continuity with the sequence, he had to wear the same clothes for the next filming date. on the first day, we managed to get him walking down from the bridge, and then started to walk under the bridge he had just been on.
On the second filming date, we started filming in the afternoon so we had more daylight to film, so we were able to finish the Male's role in the sequence, right up until he runs up to the Female. After this we then began filming on the Females part of the sequence, which we did backwards to save more daylight, and so that we could get more shots in before it got dark. After finishing the main sequence, we began to edit what we had, and realised that we really needed a third day of filming for this sequence, which we went back for, and then began filming our amendments to the sequence, and therefore had to wear the same clothes again.
We later had to arrange a date that we could film our additional footage which mainly took place in a derelict area nearby our filming location. We managed to lip sync to lines in the chorus, and we also did a verse each. The stop motion was easily done too, the words of the chorus which were earlier used on previous filming dates, were placed on a field in chronological order to how they appear in the song. Our second stop motion was with the lego which was played to the same sequence as the main sequence, such as the lego men were seemingly walking towards each other, and then eventually begin to run towards each other. As well as the stop motion, we also went into the middle of town and filmed crowds of people with long-range shots to add into the video at some point.
Our first day of filming, we got lots of various shots, trying out new ideas, using a variety of close-ups, long-shots point of view shots, as well as high and low angle shots. Our first day went quickly as it got dark fast so we were only able to film part of the Male's part of the sequence. As we had to go back to film, he had to make sure that, to keep continuity with the sequence, he had to wear the same clothes for the next filming date. on the first day, we managed to get him walking down from the bridge, and then started to walk under the bridge he had just been on.
On the second filming date, we started filming in the afternoon so we had more daylight to film, so we were able to finish the Male's role in the sequence, right up until he runs up to the Female. After this we then began filming on the Females part of the sequence, which we did backwards to save more daylight, and so that we could get more shots in before it got dark. After finishing the main sequence, we began to edit what we had, and realised that we really needed a third day of filming for this sequence, which we went back for, and then began filming our amendments to the sequence, and therefore had to wear the same clothes again.
We later had to arrange a date that we could film our additional footage which mainly took place in a derelict area nearby our filming location. We managed to lip sync to lines in the chorus, and we also did a verse each. The stop motion was easily done too, the words of the chorus which were earlier used on previous filming dates, were placed on a field in chronological order to how they appear in the song. Our second stop motion was with the lego which was played to the same sequence as the main sequence, such as the lego men were seemingly walking towards each other, and then eventually begin to run towards each other. As well as the stop motion, we also went into the middle of town and filmed crowds of people with long-range shots to add into the video at some point.
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