Animatic of Storyboard

Beginning to Storyboard

We have begun story boarding and have got about a minute of our 3 minute song so far. It is taking much longer than we expected and proving to be much more difficult to think of every single shot type. It is likely that the final product won't look exactly like the story board however i think it's really important to have a guide line of what we want to produce: as this will make filming much easier and more efficient.

Treatment Pitch (2)

As we changed our idea we thought it would be a good idea to do another treatment pitch to get there thoughts on the idea. It was all positive feedback therefore we are positive with moving forward with it and putting in our all. 

Getting the Ball Rolling

We feel quite deflated about our lack of inspiration so I decided to set the ball rolling and coming up with my own plan and concept alone and see what the others thought about it in hope that this would spark some ideas.

So firstly, as we all liked the mental idea i thought it was best for my ideas to stem from this. 

While listening to the song i thought about where the protagonists craziness could stem from. She is directed the song to someone in particular which is shown through the pronoun 'you' as she is 'screaming for you' i thought this was maybe a cry for help. 

Going from this i then decided that maybe she was in a bad relationship but then came to the realisation that going to an all girls school finding a male character would be quite tricky. 

After this i thought maybe she was being bullied?  So i went with this idea and started to story board while listening to the song which i found helped me to envision what was happening much better. 

 

Here are my rough story boards- 

1) So first i thought we could have an ECU of the protaganists eye which zooms out to an empty room which would end up being a 'room in her head' with her sitting in the centre with cuts and bandages on her. 

2) Then i thought there could be a flashback to her at school in a classroom with the whole class laughing at her (wide shot) and then an ariel shot of her with everyone throwing things at her. 

3) Then there would be a flicker of her sitting in the classroom alone and her being really sad (lip syncing) 

4) Go back to this room in her head. With nurses trying to give her medicine or an injection or something and she is restisting. It would then black out leading to the next flashback. 

5) The next flashback would be at a park. We would have shots of her swinging on a swing and flickers of an empty swing swinging and a roundabout going around by itself creating a really eery atmosphere.  The same girls then appear bullying her again showing that she has no escape from them. 

6) Go back to the room again. I thought it would look really effective to have a time lapse of the girl doing crazy things such as swaying in the corner or looking dead pan into the camera or scratching at the walls along with other things. Then the end shot will be her screaming maybe? and then collapses again leading to the next and last flashback. 

7) she is being chased by these bullying girls and she is looking back to no one being there and then shes corned under a bridge and they begin fighting or something like that. 

8) The last scene would be back in the room and I thought maybe throughout each flashback she will be adding to a drawing. Then the nurses in this room- show her this drawing she's made and she gets frightened and then they take of their nurses masks and reveal that they are the bullies.

The end. 

There would also be lip syncing in between to create a more performance element rather than just a film with music over the top. 

Inspirational Video

I really like the kalidiscope idea in music videos as I think it gives an edgy effect. I found this video which shows a modern take on this concept.

Collard greens by SchoolBoy Q comes under the RnB genre therefore has the conventions that go with this genre running through the whole video such as alcohol, drugs and half naked girls.  However , the beginning of the song gives a unique take to the genre which I particularly enjoyed watching and this feature would make, me, the audience want to watch it again and again. 

Questionaire

Before starting any research into song choices etc. I set up a questionnaire which I asked on social media platforms such as Twitter and Whatsapp. I thought this would help with choosing a genre and to see if there was any specific features people looked for in a music video. 

These are the questions I asked. 

1.What genre of music do you prefer listening to?

2. What do you like in a music video?

3. What makes you watch a music video more than once?

4. Where do you watch music videos?

5. How do you find new music?

Change of Plan

It's not just you, I am also sick of hearing that we've changed our idea but we began filming for our previous idea and we all hated the outcome of even the one idea we liked the most. We thought our idea was very basic and lacked substance because of it's abstract concept. We wanted to achieve something better. So, we went back to the drawing board and this is going to be our song choice last and for all.

We heard the song White Noise by PVIS and all fell in love we thought the beat was much better and because of it's indie/pop rock genre the conventions are better suited to the style of video we wanted to create.

Also, as this song doesn't have it's own video we won't fall in the trap of stealing ideas from it and then end up creating a re make instead of a some what original video. 

The song is quite strong and therefore needed a strong narrative to go along with it in our opinions. 

I asked friends and family what they envisioned for a music video when they heard this song which set a foundation for our ideas to flow from. 

*insert video you will make* 

From this we really liked what one person said about someone going crazy in somewhere like a mental institution and we thought this could be something we could achieve and make look quite professional. 

From the start we were all a fan of the grey scale videos as we thought it just gave a nice effect and a professional feel. We have also seen overlapping techniques in videos before and the kaleidoscope affect which are some elements we wanted to create during post production.

"White Noise"

It's hard to be what you need through a static screen. 
Been trying to speak for weeks and weeks. 
Open my mouth, 
All that comes out is white noise and incomprehensible sounds, 
And all you ever do is turn me down. 

I'm watching.
I'm waiting.
I'm aching. 
Suffocating. 
I'm breathing. 
I'm speaking. 
Can you hear me?
I'm screaming for you. 

Day by day, 
I'm slowly replaced in your picture frames. 
A brand new face on your pillowcase. 
Come the night you dim the lights and close the blinds, 
But I still see them running down your spine, 
Cause I illuminate the room, 
Just enough to watch you. 

I'm watching.
I'm waiting.
I'm aching. 
Suffocating. 
I'm breathing. 
I'm speaking. 
Can you hear me?
I'm screaming for you. 

Sick of the lack of signal. 
Sick of the lack of touch. 
Sick of the static voice. 
It's not enough, it's not enough. 
Baby it's hard to be just what you need when all I speak is static screams.
Can you hear me? 

I'm watching.
I'm waiting.
I'm aching. 
Suffocating. 
I'm breathing. 
I'm speaking. 
Can you hear me?
I'm screaming for you.

The lyrics connote anger and sadness so we think the grey scale affect in post production would go with this nicely as the dull tone will correlate with the way the protagonist feels. 

Filming (1)

We began filming today for the first verse of our song; 'he's got a rolling stones tee, but he only knows one song' where we are doing stop animation of a rolling stones t-shirt. 

It took longer than expected as first we had problems with our memory card which wouldn't function with the speed of the camera. However we found a replacement and it was fine. 

We also took a few takes of the top moving, using both photos and a continue video to see which would look better during the editing process. 

As the idea is quite straight forward we imagined it wouldn't take too long however it took much longer due to some technical difficulties which seem to haunt us when attempting to film. 

The camera kept coming up with this message after filming for only a few seconds. 

However,after googling it we found out that it was because our SD card that we had wasn't fast enough for the camera therefore after changing it we managed to get it working and were finished filming shortly after. 

We decided to use artifical lighting as the natural light kept changing and made it difficult therefore to keep it consistent this worked much better. 

Here is a vlog we made after filming where we explained the problems we faced. 

Codes and Conventions

The song we've now chosen falls under the indie genre which has different conventions to our previously song therefore will affect our decision making when planning our video.

Conventions:
1) Live Performance
It keeps the focus on them and doesn't take away from the talent of the artist.

2)Narrative
This is common in order to link the lyrics to a visual keeping the audience more engaged.

3) Mise-En-Scene
Indie rock artists usually have a unique image which they like to portray through props and sets in their music videos.

4) Sound
Hearing directly from the instruments so the audience can appreciate the talent.

5) Extreme Close Ups
To introduce characters or the artist themselves or to portray what emotion they're feeling.

6) Editing
An effect is laid on top of the footage to create a consistency and give an old fashioned affect.
A range of fast and slow cuts to reflect the pace of the music.
They also use special effects to make the video more interesting.

Inspirational Video

Taylor Swift has recently brought out a new music video for her new single Blank Space.

This video has a lot of performance elements as well as having a strong narrative. I feel like this video really fits the definition of a music video as the narrative corresponds to the lyrics well and there is lip syncing throughout. 

I especially like the symmetry of all the frames. I think framing is really important and needs to be something that we should pay extra attention to when filming our music video because it gives the video a professional and aesthetically pleasing visual. 

Furthermore,  she looks staright at the camera a few times which creates a relationship with the audience and shows her as a 'star'. 

i also like the build up of the video. It shows the couple happy and then the destruction of the relationship in all of the same locations/rooms. This creates the idea that not everything is what it seems. There are also comical elements which I  like as it doesn't make the video too serious and makes an audience want to re watch it.

The video is also cyclical which gave us an idea to begin and end with the same thing as well. 

Digipak Research

A digipak is an alternative to dual casing packaging.

Digipaks are: 

• Made mostly from thick card, the digipak is virtually shatterproof and allows great graphic display.
• Originally used for the album packaging of leading musicians, the digipak and digipak family are now priced reasonably enough to be used for any CD or DVD project.
• The digipak is an extremely versatile packaging. It can be made to accommodate a booklet either by placing in a die-cut slot or gluing onto one of the panels
• In addition, the panels can be increased from 4 to 6, 8 or more.
• The DVD Digipak is a popular alternative to the DVD box which is now widely used for feature film DVD releases which are special editions because it increases the value and creates a premium product.
• CD and DVD DigiPaks make a big statement, they represent the ultimate custom packaging for your CD or DVD replication project. ADigiPak is also a more environmentally friendly option when compared with traditional plastic jewel cases or DVD cases.
• Material: 300gsm card with matt or gloss varnish. Printed 4 colours (CMYK) or Pantone colours. Spot varnish, lamination and embossing available.
• Dimensions (based on standard 4pp digipak): finished size of 139.5mm x 6mmx 125.5mm

Here are some examples of existing digipaks from our genre...