our music video ! !

.....

WE HAVE DONEEEE OUR MUSIC VIDEO

Friday the 7th November.

......is the deadline day!

We still need to do, the following:

*Do final filming on Becca singing.
*Cut all the footage of instruments & sync to music.
*Make sure split screens are introduced at the right moments, to the beat.
*Decide on the editing, and if it suits the footage.
*Blog any problems and how we resolved these.

progress...

So far we have got about an hour of footage! Most of it we filmed a few weeks ago, but more recently we have all decided that only some of it will be of good use e.g instrumental part (drums and guitar) so therefore we agreed to film more shots of each group member singing so we can use it as a split screen. Also to film a shot of the whole group singing together. At the moment we have filmed 3 of the group members and are missing the other member which we will do Thursday when we all have a free together.

At the moment we don't have much completed edited footage, this is due to the fact that we decided to re-film different parts so it looks more professional and also that every lesson not everyone is present which delays editing, decisions and filming.

Things we need to do next include filming Becca and the group together and then just edit and put everything in order.

Final Cut image

This what our final cut software looks like, we use this software to produce our music video.

History of music video's.

Started in the 1920's-30's.
1960's promo-'hard day's night' and other rock films-focused on band.
1970 promo- top of the pops started to use them as a substitute when performing bands were on tour.
1975-start of the experimental/breakthrough era-Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody-(CLASSIC).
Early 80's- Beginning of MTV-artists began to take promotion of the band and the release of the song seriously, so all songs all had a video.
Multichannel music TV- growth of different genre of channels and real divide of music.
Mid 80's-Black music broke out into the market.
90's-other channels broke out channels from spin-offs e.g. kiss, smash hits, Q etc.
Nowadays - every song produced (singles) all have videos, and they are getting more conventional and experimental.Music videos in order of release and conventions used!
1935-colour box

Target audience

Veruca salt, never emailed us back which is unfortunate as we would of wanted their ideas and input in the music video that we were doing. So we have looked again at their myspace and sent another email. We have looked again at their myspace, to work out the type of people that would listen the the bands music, as we have agreed that it is quite niche as the song is quite old, but if people listened to the song to date then I think that people wouldn't believe it is so old. The type of people that we think would like this song, are teenagers who are into the indie genre, even though that our song is quite soft rock as well.

We think that the audience who would listen to our songs would also be interested in similar bands and artist like - Arctic Monkeys, Athlete, Black Kids, The Kills, The Kooks, Kate Nash etc

Feedback on rough cut.

We couldn't share our rough cut, to the class as we were having technical issues, but now it is up. Here are the questions we are going to ask:


Do you think that it is similar to our first idea, and the animatic?
Do you like the camera angles?
How do you think we should improve and what should we include?
If you saw more of it, would you understand - the continual of the piece?

So far,

Whilst we have been editing our footage, we have decided to use a black and white tone, through out the music video, apart from the clips of the male actor as we want him to stand out. We want to use a b&w tint so that it looks more professional and gives the eery effect we want. In addition to this to also make our music video more professional we are giving all our clips a black border.
Also speed up some clips, like the guitarist so that he is playing to the speed of the music especially where there is a large mount of just instrumental footage.

We have about 3 weeks until the music video has to be done, INCLUDING half-term. we have made a short list which things we have to do:
* film a few shots of us singing as a group
*the male actor and one of the singers, singing near him - seducing him.
*clip of when singer, sees the actor cheating - going to use a camera shot - like CCTV
*close up of the smashing of light bulb
* group shot of all four singers, performing in a cage.

Rough Cut

This is our rough cut, and due to the fact that we were still filming on the Thursday and that we filmed over 40 mins of footage, we only had 10 mins to actually edit some of it. All of this concluded we only have a couple of seconds of footage that is cut to the music.

Pictures of Veruca Salt

A photo shoot of the band.
This Veruca Salt live at gig



This is Veruca Salt in New York Magazine - photo by Roger Deckker

Some background information about Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt is an American alternative rock band founded in 1993, which gained popularity in the '90s with hit singles "Seether", and our song " Volcano Girls'.
The band was named after the spoiled rich girl from the novel ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Veruca Salt was formed in Chicago by Louise Post(guitar/vocals) and Nina Gordon (guitar/vocals). Post and Gordon were introduced through mutual friend and actress Lili Taylor , and began playing music together. They wrote songs for a year and a half before being joined by Gordon's brother, Jim Shapiro, on drums and Steve Lack on bass. The band had done a handful of shows when Jim Powers of Minty Fresh Records asked to sign them to the independent label. The band's first release was the single "Seether"/"All Hail Me" on Minty Fresh Records, in 1994.

Veruca Salt's popularity skyrocketed after their second full album, Eight Arms to Hold You, was released in 1997. Produced by Bob Rock, the album generated the hit lead single "Volcano Girls", which gained exposure as the opening theme to teen comedy Jawbreaker. Veruca Salt performed another single, "Shutterbug", on Saturday Night Live however, instead of the featured musical group performing two songs as had been tradition, the musical performances were split between Sting and Veruca Salt. Shapiro left the band soon after the release of Eight Arms and was replaced by Stacy Jones (of Letters to Cleo and now American Hi - Fi) Jones toured with the band on the Eight Arms tour, but never recorded with them.

We emailed the band

We have emailed Veruca Salt with this comment:


'Hi, were students at a sixth form in Cambridge and we have to do a music video for our A level Piece.
We have chosen to do your song, Volcano Girls and we love it. And were gathering up ideas and trying to make it quite dark, if you were to do the video again in the 21st Century, how would you like your song to be portrayed in the music video. We would love to hear from you, and we love your song.
From the Group 07
XXXXXXX'


and now we are awaiting a reply :)

Equipment needed for filming

Costume: Black tops, bottoms, leggings with red material around neck and arm areas.
Make-up: Red or black smokey eye make-up to give an eery effect.
Hair: Back combed big hair.

Equipment:

-Rope
-Duck Tape
-Box
-Wool/ String
-Light Bulb
-Smoke/Cigarettes
-Camera
-Tri-pod
-Man
-I-pod speakers
-Microphones

Risk Assesment

Pictures of possible locations

This is where we will shoot one of the group members, sat down singing under a light bulb, similar to the shot in the Girls Aloud video 'Sound of the Underground'. We believe that using this bulb effect lighting will create an eery atmosphere to portray a secluded feeling the group member will experience, as this evokes the narratives of the lyrics being sung.


This shot is to show the type of shot we want of the man being held back and tide down by black duck tape.


This is the type of drum kit we will use for our group member to mime the effect of playing the drums, as our song includes lots of snippets of music instruments being played for a particular period of time. This shot will be displayed using the split screen effect.

What to do list take 2

- Location pictures
- How videos potrays to audience
- Choose two days in which we can shoot
- Make a shoot list
- Pictures of props and visuals
- A more detailed Test Footage
-More Ideas

Planning Blog Peer Assessment

1. List below the content of each of the posts (e.g. analysis of real music video). Are there any types of post that you think are missing from the blog?

- Good use of other video.
- Lots of analysis of other videos but could evaluate on how they evaluate to ours.
- Good call sheet.
- Good analysis of other videos and how things have influenced you.
- Call sheet is good and detailed
- May need more ideas.

2. Is there evidence in the blog that the group has:
Completed background research?
Organized personnel, locations and equipment for shooting?
Developed ideas since the initial concept.

YOU MUST GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AS EVIDENCE

- Lots of good videos
- Good call sheet
- Well organized group
- Lots of background research- call sheet, style of videos.
-Video analysis /pitch mentions target audience
- Need shot list
- Need to analyse more (vague?)

3. (Your assessment question)

Improvements:
- Need to upload test footage
- Need pictures of props and other visuals of what will be in your video and will give a clearer image of what we are trying to portray.
- Add more ideas and make them clear by a shot list and locations shoots and test footage.

If you were to give this a blog a marking level, what would it be?
Level 4: Excellent planning 24-30 marks.
Level 3: Proficient planning 17 - 23 marks.
Level 2: Adequate planning 10 - 16 marks.
Level 1: Poor planning 0 - 9 marks.

WE GOT LEVEL 3,
but from the overall assessment we know how to improve it

Test of a test footage

here we are testing the split screen idea, we really like this and we think it will work really well with our music video as it grabs the target audience attention.

Production Sheet

Production: Volcano Girls
Call Sheet No.1 - ?/10/08

Production Base: Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.
Tel: 01223 507400
Director/producer: Izzi Newman, Becca Jones, Hollie Seymour, Mara Chowdhury.

Call Times:
Camera.production crew: Loc 1 @ 0900

Locations:
1. Izzis house
2. Long Road music department
3. Dark alley way in Cambridge
4. Behind the stage in the main hall at Long Road (behind the cage)
5. On the stage in the main hall

Location Contacts:
1. 01353 (izzis house)
2. 01223 507400
3. n/a
4. 01223 227791
5. 01223 507400
6. 01223 507400

Production Contacts
Hollie Seymour:
Becca Jones:
Mara Chowdhury:
Izzi Newman:
(mobile numbers have been withheld due to privacy)

Shooting Schedule
TIME LOCATION SKETCH/SCENE EXT/INT CAST
1800 Loc no.1 Izzis brother will pretend to play drums. INT Joe Newman
Loc no.2 Couple of us will pretend to play an instrument. INT. Us
Loc no.3 Man tied to a chair down a dark alley. EXT. 'Tom' and 'Izzi'
Loc no.4 Us 4 dancing behind a cage like thing behind stage. INT. Us
Loc no.5 Performance of us 4 on the stage, lip sync. INT Us.

Feed back on Animatic

Overall, the class liked the clear drawings which gave the class the story line of our music video. In addition to this they also liked the multi/spilt screen effect and how it focuses on a different section.

First day of production

We have decided that the first thing we are going to do towards the making of are amazing video is a test footage to get an idea of what it could look like in the real thing and also to get practice.

We will film the test footage during lessons, around college campus as we cant yet take out the cameras and we want to save that time we've been allocated (two days) to shoot our actual video.

What we need to do list...

We are running out of time to film, so we need to decide on :
- When are we going to shoot?
we only have two nights!
- Where are we going to shoot?
All Saints changing room, ally way near Cambridge pool, concrete stairway, behind a building site or long road stage (only performance bit, as we don't want it to look tacky if it all the clips are all in the college location.
- How long will it take?
the weekend, two nights, or certain days after college so we NEED to decide on a date which suits all of our group.
- Who our 'man' is going to be?
hopefully one of our group members boyfriend or we are going to need to go searching for a good looking man :)
- What props we are going to use?
light bulb, stand up microphones, drums, guitar,

Animatic Storyboard

We have done over 1 minute of the Animatic as, we had to find a good place to stop.
we took still images of the Animatic and then uploaded them to the computer on to a folder, then saved our 'Volcano Girl' song on the desktop then edited it on Final Cut, where we have tried to cut to the beat. And now you can watch it on the blog, hopefully we have work continually on to the idea, and it won't change too much.
ENJOY!

analysis of a professional music video

I have decided to analise the professional music video "Cassie - is it you" to get an idea of all the different techniques that we could use in our music video to make it successful and look professional. This song is a different genre to the song we have chosen in our group but we can still get ideas to improve. This video is of the RnB genre.

This song is also one of the soundtracks to the recent film 'step up 2' which is a street dancing film so the genre of the song fits in with the film and although the lyrics from "is it you" doesn't really link into the film it still really works. During the video of this song, in parts it flashes to sequences in the film of step up 2 as the artist of "is it you" is in the film, so this music video demonstrates genre characteristics by flashing back to scenes in the film.

Although the lyrics of the song have no relation to the film as in the storyline of the film, in this music video they have used intertextual reference quite frequently, for example, there are flashback scenes in which the artist of "is it you" (who is also in the film) wants 'Chase' who is one of the main characters and so this fits in with the lyrics as they describe how she feels for 'Chase'. Therefore the lyrics fit in with the visuals. They have used clips from the film to show how the lyrics fit in with the visuals.

Apart from flashes of scenes from the film, there isn't really anything else happening in the video apart from 'Cassie' singing next to someone playing a piano, so there are no special effects or techniques used and the only narrative is when there are flashes back to the film. The music still plays during clips of in the film.

sorrrrry i really couldn't concentrate in the internet cafee :

More video's which we liked X2

Here are the video's which we liked he various techniques in
The video's are played in this order.
- Noah and the whale - 5 years time - The multi-screen and writing.
- Sugar babes - Denial - The writing on the various objects, such as on the nail varnish and the rewinding of the writing and a still image, suddenly moving to life.
- Sugar babes - Change - has the idea of our makeup, B I G eyelashes and when you only see half of a face.
- The Cell Block Tango in the musical Chicago - has the idea of ours for our film shot number 8





Noah and The Whale - 5 Years Time




Sugababes - Denial



Cell Block Tango

Story Board

Today we have gone through the story board gathering up more idea's. Videos which we liked were:
Sugar babes - closer and Denial
Noah and the whale - 5 years time
and we will post these up later

Analysis previous student’s work

To help us develop our own video ideas, we had to analysis previous student’s work and professional music videos which mirror or influence what we want to achieve in our music video. Although this is song is more ‘pop’ and our music video fits in the ‘Indie’ genre, however this music video betrays many qualities which a music video MUST have. The student video, which I have chosen to evaluate, is group R-16‘Girl Love’ by Self Service which is Punk/Rock/Pop genre.

In the student music video they demonstrate some genre characteristics (such as in a stage performance gives the genre of a metal video and a dance routine is for a boy/girl band). In this video, typical characteristics are shown. There are performances with some ‘dance’ routines from 2 girls, in the same locations – bedroom and outside. This is typical to a 'girl' song but it works well and is effective overall.

Following this, the relationship between lyrics and visuals is important. To understand the lyrics compared to the visuals, we need to know are they illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. The lyrics are about two girls going out to impress the same guy; but then they realise they like each other too. Therefore getting drunk and having a good time. This is shown by many techniques. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals are illustrative but not to every line which would make their piece very boring.For example the lines ‘two vodka shots’ is shown by the two singers drinking shots in parallel screens and the same for the line ‘checking on my make-up’.

Next the relationship between music and visuals is either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting. In ‘Girl Love’ the shots were very quickly cut, to match the fast tempo of the song. In addition to this flashbacks used throughout the video and the two girls performing on a bed, parallel to this. By doing this they are incorporating several techniques and styles of filming.

The varieties of camera angles used to make the shots are portrayed in the right way. The variety of close ups of the protagonists, and the odd long shot is effective. Shots of the two girls had random angles, like multi shots etc, and where they look into a camera when they are spying on a boy is very effective. This makes the video very abstract and modern looking. The music and visuals also match, as they are scenes cut in time with the music. The dancing and split scenes are also timed with the music.

Similarly another important convention in music video, which is also taken place in this student works. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). The close ups on the females characters help to develop a closer relationship between the viewer and the actors. This enables a connection to be made.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. This is to help the audience gain the impression of anger in the video, to find out that they are dating the same guy. And ‘seductiveness’ is shown when the visuals betray that the two girls like one another – on the bed.

Lastly there is intertextual reference in this music video, either from films, tv programmes, other music videos etc. as they follow many of the conventions that other music videos show and follow. This helps the audience to link this to other music videos, especially of the same or similar genre.

Teachers Feedback on pitch

Through your pitch you evidenced clear ideas about the style of your music video. This included ideas about mise - en - scene (costume, make-up, props etc) and ideas about camerawork and editing. You will have to have a serious think about whether you intend to make a feminist video as you mentioned. If so a lot of though needs to go in the representation of your character. Lots of good, strong ideas, partically your consideration of the relationship between the images and lyrics. Well Done.

Our Pitch

Our idea for the music video is as followed.

Our target audience, are teenagers who like similar music to the genre of 'indie' which is also the genre of the band and song'. The relationship between the music and lyrics are literal in parts of the music video and amplified where we abstract the idea to its potential. And the relationship between the music and visuals is going to be amplified.


Our location where we are filming is going to be down a ally way, and also a main hall where we are showing our performance. In addition to this we will be using 'dark' locations, like passage ways, old houses to create a trapped atmosphere.
The idea behind the music video is about the several band members being 'trapped' with their man or any situations.

A man, will be taped with black duck tape in a chair down a ally way and we will use different camera angles and techniques to betray again the idea of being 'trapped'.
To also give the genre of 'experimental' we will be showing strobes and flashes of light.

We got our idea's from a previous student work called Grounding and Rihanna video 'Disturbia'
However both of these materials are quite 'Gothic' we are going to contrast this with electric pink makeup. And 'Fighter' by Christina Aguilera

To gather up our images, we are going to take some photographs at a later date, to give the right idea

Deadlines

Pitch: 10th Sept
Animatic: 19th Sept
Rough Cut: 10th Oct
Final Video: 7th Nov
Picture House Screening: 12th Nov
Writing Draft: 1st Dec..Complete TBC

Music Video Analysis

Papa Don't Preach- MADONNA



The narrative is about the story of a girl, her boyfriend and the girls father. The girl is pregnant and she is trying to tell her father.

The visual symbolism's are important as there is no verbal speech.

There are lots of transaction techniques used throughout the video 'Papa Don't Preach' for instance the break between Madonna singing and dancing is called a Loop construction.

The images go along with opening shots of different locations and are very narrative to the lyrics used in the song.

Volcano Girls Lyrics

Leave me
Lying here
cause I dont wanna go

Tell me tell me what you really want from me
Youve got me let me know
Im falling off and I need you terribly
One down and one to go

Volcano girls we really cant be beat
Warm us up and watch us blow
But now and then we fail and we admit defeat
Were falling off we are watered down and fully grown

Leave me
Lying here
cause I dont wanna go

A million miles of running and I hit the wall
I bounce back and I run some more
But this is it, Im giving up, Im calling quits
So get down and meet me on the floor

Way to go to flip off everyone
I steal your thunder then I try to bolt
But I could stand a little pity now and then
Im falling off I am watered down and fully grown

I told you bout the seether before
You know, the one thats neither or nor
Well heres another clue if you please....
The seethers louise

Leave me
Lying here
cause I dont wanna go

Go I dont wanna go I dont wanna go I dont wanna go I dont wanna go

Our Group Roles

Risk Assesment: Izzy
Going to the locations and seeing if it safe. Also to take precautions in case an accident happens.
Research of locations: Becca
Finding locations to shoot in and to see how well it fits into the plan.
Animatic: Mara
Drawing a rough draft of the initial idea to the music video.
Analysis of music videos: Hollie
Looking at previous music videos from students at college and also professional videos done in the big music industry.
Shooting and editing: All of us
Using the camera to take the shots used in the music video. Editing can then be done later to add different effects.

Group Members

Mara
Izzy
Hollie
Becca

We chose to have the track 'VOLCANO GIRLS' by the artist 'VERUCA SALT'.

Welcome to GROUP 07