The Editing Process

After I had cut the footage down into shorter bits that I thought went well with the video, I watched it and decided there was something missing. I figured that if I added some effects I could give our video an extra little kick that it needed to be a success. I started with an effect called motion blur, which was used on the shots rotating round the singer. I thought this looked good, so it was used on a few more shots. I then found an effect called 'Bad TV', which cuts the shot in half and makes look like a broken TV. In order to make this shot more interesting, I copied the footage it was used in, placed it above the other footage so I could move them up and down at the same time and it would look like the screen was rolling properly. There is another effect being used called 'Echo', which isn't used as much as the others, but I decided it would look good in some places. It basically plays the footage over itself a few times within a split second of each other.

Lip Synching

I thought this video was quite easy to sync up, because a lot of my footage of the singer, he had his hand covering his mouth, so you couldn't really tell what he was saying anyway. This makes it slightly harder to prove I did any lip syncing, as does the effects I used over the singer. I removed a few of the effects from the start of the video so you could see a bit of lip syncing, and put more effects on at the end, so it builds up as the song progresses. 

Health And Safety Review Part 2

I decided to create a list of health and safety aspects that I need to take into consideration whilst editing the music video. They are as follows:

1) Do not stare at the screen for long periods of time - Take regular breaks to avoid straining your eyes.

2) Save my work regularly incase the computer freezes or shuts down. - This avoids me from losing my work. 

3) Do not have the track playing too loudly from my headphones - This can be avoided to keeping the music to a minimal level.

Filming The Not So Narrative

Today was the day that I was due to film the narrative and let's just say that things did not go according to plan.

I went to the area outside Cineworld. Having just set up the filming equipment, a security guard approached us and told us that we were unable to film on their site. He then gave us a number to ring to see if we were allowed to film there. I was then told to ring another number. This person told us that we were not allowed to film there, so we had to find a new filming location.

We filmed some parts along Hills Road and that was when I realised that the camera was nearlky out of battery. I also released i was unable to do any tracking shots and the following camera shoots looked slightly unimpressive and not very cool.

We embarked back on the trek to Long Road where we managed to get hold of a chair to do some tracking shots around the college. We then had to explain ourselves to a few members of staff as to why we were filming and we filmed one final scene out in the quad before lunch.

I felt that today went okay. I didn't managed to get very good footage, but I feel there was some good bonding between me and the other people who helped me shoot the scenes.

Feedback From The Commissioner 

Having spoken to the band, I explained the situation regarding the failure of filming the narrative. They explained that the narrative wasn't exactly essential and instead we should just make the video entirely performance based.  I took the band's advice and settled on this idea. 

Filming With The Band

I felt that today was a success in that I managed to film everything that I wanted to with the band. I caught a bus to Chesterton, where the band were rehearsing that day. Somehow, I ended up in Milton where the Park and Ride used to be. Now completely lost, I started a trek back to Chesterton.

I asked a couple for directions to the Cave Industrial Park, who kindly showed me the way. Fifteen minutes later, I had arrived, only ten minutes later than what I said I would be there for. But I still managed to arrive before half the band did. Once they were all there, they set up their instruments and asked me what I wanted to do.
They played through the song once to warm up. After setting up the filming equipment, I filmed all the footage that I needed to. I left with over fifteen minutes of footage. Now, all I needed to do is film the narrative on Wednesday afternoon.

Health And Safety Review Part 1

This is the health and safety review I created for filming the band on the weekend and also for when I was to film the narrative.

Filming

On the journey to the filming location, I had to be careful when crossing the roads. There was a danger that I could've been hit by a car. To avoid this, I looked before crossing and even crossed at traffic lights whenever they were available.

I also had to be careful of not dropping the camera whilst I was filming. I also had to be careful of not tripping over wires, as the band rehearsal studio had several wires on the floor. To avoid tripping over and humiliating myself, I looked where I was walking and avoided going to the areas where the wires were.

The band were also playing for me live, so the noise of the instruments playing were very loud. There was a danger that my hearing could've been affected. To avoid this, I was going to bring a set of ear plugs for when the band played.

For the narrative, I have a person running, so I have to do it in small takes in case the person trips over. This could result in an injury, so that is why the takes are going to be brief.

Props / Costumes

The prop's needed for the shoot are: a guitar, a microphone, a drumkit and whatever instruments the rest of the band members play. We would also need a poster advertising the band's gig. A watch would also be needed for the narrative side of the video.

In terms of the costumes, the band members will be performing in casual clothes. The person in the narrative would also be wearing casual clothes.

Creating The Storyboard

Storyboard

As my music video is a performance, it also has a narrative. I had to storyboard the person running to get to the gig on time. This was the easiest part to do as I knew exactly what shot types I wanted and it was also easy to draw. Drawing the band's performance was the hardest part. I had to draw each band member from a different angle and since i am not the best drawer in the world, this was very hard to do. I managed to draw most of the shots, but in the end i gave up and instead wrote a shot list.

Shot List

These are the different camera angles we are hoping to get whilst filming the band's performances.

1) A mid-shot of the band playing together
2) A mid shot of the band playing from behind
3) A mid shot of the vocalist
4) a close up of the vocalist's face
5) A side on shot of the vocalist
6) A pan around shot of the vocalist
7) A pan around shot of the guitarist
8) A pan around shot of the drummer
9) A mid-shot of the guitarist
10) A close up of the guitar itself
11) A high angle shot of the guitarist
12) A close up of the guitar (only the solo)
13) A mid-shot of the drummer
14) A close-up of the drummer
15) A high angle shot of the drummer

Animatic

I then worked on creating the animatic with the frames of the storyboard that I did draw out. Here is the finished version of the animatic, which I edited / created using FinalCut.



Having shown the animatic to the band, they were impressed with the look of the video and agreed to let me carry on with the plans for the video. Their only concern was with me filming the narrative and I said I would start planning that after I had filmed them during their rehearsal on the weekend.

Filming Date

Having spoken with the band, we decided that I decided that I would not film them during the latest gig at The Junction Fiver. This was due to the fact that I was unable to get the necessary permission to film at the Fiver and would be unable to get the necessary footage to get the video to work. In the end, I negotiated with the band and I agreed to shoot footage of them rehearsing on the following Sunday, in preparation for their next gig.

Ignorance - Paramore

Having spoken with the band, they told me that their rehearsal room was quite a compact room. This made me remember about the music video called 'Ignorance' by the band Paramore.



This video features the band in a tight room which is similar to the size of the room that we would be filming in.

Model Release Form

I decided to create a model release form that the band will need to fill out in order to appear in the music video. This is them giving me the permission to film them.

Bands

Having spent a lot of time researching into the various types of indie-rock music videos and what their qualities were, I decided to take a step back from the music and decided to look at a few bands themselves.

General Fiasco

General Fiasco are an indie-rock band from Northern Ireland. They were formed in 2007 and the band consists of Owen and Enda Strathern and Stephen Leacock. They have toured with bands, such as: The Wombats, One Night Only, The Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy and most recently, Kids In Glass Houses.

In March 2o10, they released their debut album 'Buildings' which reached number forty six on the iTunes album download chart. They are most renowned for the track 'Ever So Shy'.

The Arctic Monkeys

The Arctic Monkeys are an indie-rock band from Sheffield, United Kingdom. They formed in 2002 and the band consists of: Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley and Matt Helders. They have released three albums: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Favourite Worst Nightmare and Humbug.

Teenage Performers / Bands

Having looked at indie-rock music videos in particular, I decided it was now time to look at teenage performers and their music videos. I also decided to look in particular about who their target audience are for their music.

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber is a sixteen year-old singer from Canada. His genre of music is pop / R&B. He has released his debut album, my worlds, an eighteen track CD earlier this year. It reached number one in the US billboard chart. He first gained attention from videos of him singing that were put on Youtube. The nature of his music means that the majority of his fans are pre-pubescent girls. The music video to the song 'Baby' has almost reaches one hundred and thirty-five million views on youtube, which is a very large number of views to recieve.

Having looked at the video, you can tell straight away that the target audience for this is young teenage girls. The setting is in a bowling alley filled with teenagers. It does however try to target an older audience by featuring Ludacris, who is an American Rapper.

FranKo

FranKo are an indie-rock band from London. They formed in 2007. Their lead singer is Tommy Bastow, who is also an actor. He has appeared in a number of films, TV Shows and adverts, most notably in the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and the BT adverts. The band have played a number of small gigs and played at the Junction Fiver in January this year. They have toured with the band Elliot Minor and have recently released their debut album, which can be ordered off their website.

Having looked through the band's myspace account, the majority of their fans appear to be female. But not the fans that Justin Bieber attracts. These are a lot more older than Justin's fans. Most of the comments seem to be directed at the lead singer, whom they recognise from having been seen on the TV.

I looked at their music video to the song 'Night Time' and looked at the visual style of the video.

Having watched the music video, I have picked out that the lead singer is once again the main focus of the video. It focuses on a band performance and intercuts with the band trailing the streets. As the video builds towards its comclusion, it is revealed the band are in fact playing a live gig. This fits in with my idea to the music video for the band 'How To Kill A Conversation'.

Ever So Shy - General Fiasco

I looked at the music video 'Ever So Shy' by General Fiasco to help build my understanding of indie-rock bands.



This video plays to the similar styles of other music videos. The main focus is on the vocalist, but the band do appear in various parts of the video. This is quite a quick sing with a catchy chorus. The video features strobe effects of the band playing inside a room. These cuts are pretty rapid. When it cuts to the narrative, the cuts are a lot less frequent. I think this works with the video.

Having watched these videos, I have decided that my music video for How To Kill A Conversation need to focus particular on the lead singer and that the cuts would need to be quick and maintain the same amount of quickness throughout the entire video.

This Orient - Foals

I decided to research more into indie music and how the style of music affects the look of the music video. For this, I looked at the music video 'This Orient' by Foals.



Stylistically, the video is quite simple with just the band playing inside the room. The video features everything on a side on view. This video is visually less interesting than the previous videos that I have looked at.

Lostprophets - Where We Belong

I looked at the music video of Lostprophet's song 'Where We Belong'.



This video is very similar to the music video 'Lost In Stereo' by All Time Low. This video features live footage of the band playing to an audience whilst regularly intercutting of the lead singer's performance. The main difference between these two videos is that with the All Time Low, it is a fairly upbeat song and the video features lots of humour, whereas this video is a lot more moody, which is what Lostprophets's style of music is about.

You Me At Six - Liquid Confidence

I looked at the music video for You Me At Six's latest track 'Liquid Confidence'



The reason for me looking at this track is because I wanted to get a sense of what rock music videos look like so it would help me with the planning of my music video for How To Kill A Conversation.

Due to the slow nature of the track, there are not as many cuts as what there would've been if it were a fast paced track. The video focuses on the lead singer in particular, although the other band members appear at various times throughout the video.

All Time Low - Lost In Stereo

I looked at the music video for 'Lost In Stereo' by All Time Low.



The reason why I chose to look at this video is because it fits in well with my idea of what I wanted to make the music video for How To Kill A Conversation. The music video features a live performance of All Time Low and it intercuts with the band backstage. The backstage scenes are quite humourous and creates a light-hearted feel to the video.

The Junction Fiver

The Junction Fiver is an event held usually once a month at The Junction in Cambridge. It is where five bands, aged between 13 and 18, play in front of a live audience. Tickets for the night costs £5 per person and tickets can be brought from the bands who are due to be playing at the Fiver or on the door on the night. In January, the Fiver held a January sale where six bands played for £5.

The Fiver takes place in Junction 1, which can hold on average eight hundred and fifty people. The bands that play at The Fiver usually range from indie rock. The whole idea for The Fiver is for the Junction to nurture unsigned bands and give them the chance to play at The Fiver to increase their popularity and confidence of performing in front of a live crowd. How To Kill A Conversation are a band that plays at The Fiver on a regular basis.

Pitch Feedback

Class Feedback

Having pitched the two ideas to the rest of my class, they thought the second idea was funny, but at the same time, highly unlikely that I would be able to pull off a video like this. Instead, the class liked the first idea and insisted that I pursued with trying to get that idea filmed. They also said that it could be hard to get the band together at the same time. My suggestion to resolve this was to arrange a time the whole band was free and get them to come together. I would then have to hope for the best with them turning up.

Band Feedback

Having pitched the ideas to the band theirselves, they literally laughed at the idea of the second idea and said that it completely ruined the meaning behind the song. They liked the first idea and thought it would be a cool video if it worked out well. They also worked on getting permission for me to come and film their performance at the Junction Fiver

My Final Decision

After recieving the feedback on my ideas from the rest of my class and the band, I decided that the suggestions that they gave me were reasonable and so I decided to develop my ideas further and prepare to make the music video for the band.

The Pitch

Idea 1

My first idea was to feature the band playing at a gig, either playing at the Junction or possibly the hall at College. That is my preferred filming locations. I would also have a narrative featuring someone running to get to the gig on time, whilst intercutting between the two. As he reaches the Junction, the video would fade out or possibly have him running into the Junction and showing the band packing up after the gig.

I also know that the band are due to play a live gig at the Junction on the 16th October, so I was hoping to go there and film possible crowd shots and a few of the band playing. This would be brief as trying to synch the performance up with the track, would be too time consuming for the time I have got to do this.

I wanted to create a video that fitted in with the theme of the song, but as the theme was about the war in Iraq and people dying, I decided to scrap that idea as I couldn't literally kill anyone, not that I wanted to.

Idea 2

The second idea was to have the band on top of a City Sightseeing bus and playing the song. This would've been an expensive way of filming the music video and would've required a lot more time than I had available to make the music video for the band. I knew the likeliness of the band approving of this idea would be very unlikely, but I decided to pitch it to them no matter what.

Oil Track Lyrics

These are the lyrics to the track 'Oil' by How To Kill A Conversation.

Slipping and sliding
And pulling you under.
Convincing you your going
In the right direction.
Releasing, reloading, aiming and firing
Convincing you it's for your own protection.

How do you sleep at night?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?
Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted
To think of the loss, yeah?
Think of the time.
Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?

Soldiers are fighting and killing and dying.
Fighting in a war that nobody wanted
Waring and dying and killing to live.
Fighting in a war that leaves them haunted.

How do you sleep at night?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?
Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted
To think of the loss, yeah?
Think of the time.
Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?

Ain't it a nightmare to see your sons out there?
Fightin' in a war that nobody wanted
To think of the loss, yeah?
Think of the time.
Hundreds a day for one mans crimes.
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?
Was it really worth it?

How To Kill A Conversation

I was commissioned by a band called 'How To Kill A Conversation' to make a music video for one of their tracks. They are an unsigned indie-rock band from Cambridge. There are five band members in the band. They have played several gigs around Cambridge, such as The Junction Fiver on several occasions and also gigs at Man On The Moon.

By the time it came to choosing a song to make the music video, they only had two tracks to choose from. The first track was fairly slow paced which wasn't what I wanted to make a video for, so instead I listened to a track called 'Oil'. This track was a lot more fast paced and was a lot more enjoyable to listen to on a whole.

The Band Members

1) George - Vocals













2) JJ - Guitar

3) TT - bass













4) Oli - Guitar









5) Chris - Drums

I was approached by JJ, who I have known for a number of years. He explained that the band wanted a music video made to help increase the popularity of the band. Having learnt that the have played at the Junction Fiver, I made the assumption that the majority of the band's audience are teenagers so in some way, I had to make sure that the video appealed to the teenager's target audience. Hence the decision to make a music video based on listening to Oil.

They gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted with this video, but I insisted on working with them more closely so that by the end of this project, we would all walk away with having a strong video that they can also use to increse their online image. I got the impression that from the friendliness of the band, that it would be quite enjoyable to work with them.

What does a commissioner do?

I decided to look at the role of a commissioner for the music industry. If one of their artists are planning a music video, the commissioner would send the track that the band were hoping to have made into a music video, out to several music video directors. It would then be down to the directors to pitch their ideas for the video to the commissioners. The commissioner would then choose who they wanted to make the music video.

For example, Jake and Jim, a working partnership for music videos were sent the track 'Sweet Disposition' by The Temper Trap. They had to pitch their ideas to the commissioner who eventually decided not to use them to direct the music video. This is what the music video looked like.



I researched into Jake Wynne, half of Jake and Jim. He is a music video director and has made

music videos for artists, such as Geri Halliwell, Stereophonics and most recently 'Kick Ass' which was performed by Mika. He has also made adverts for TV and recently directed a short film called 'Did'.

Jake explained that with some music videos for bands, they comed directly to him for him to make a music video for them, having previously worked with them on a music video. This proves that they worked well together.


This is the music video called 'Kick Ass' by Mika.



The Process Of A Commission

I have listed all the key stages that form the process of a commission. They are as follows:

1) The commissioner emails the music video directors or the agencies they work for.
2) The music video directors create their ideas and pitch for them.
3) The commissioner decides which idea is the best and most likely to succeed.
4) The music video director then works with the band to produce the music video.