Uploading and reviewing footage

In todays media lesson we began to uplaod footage we had filmed in the music studio, and the animation we had done the day before. While uploading me and my group reviewed what we had filmed and began to make notes on what we could maybe film again. Overall the shots we captured were very good - well framed and interesting. However some were not quite so. As we were using the fig rig for a lot of the filming, there are quite a few shots the same distance from the singer, we could maybe do with a few more interesting close ups to break these up a bit. Also in a few of the shots the camera films through a window into the studio control room, where it can clearly see the rest of our group just sitting and watching. When filming through this glass into the live room with the singer, there are also some reflections of the camera and group members. There are all little problems that can be easily fixed with a quick reshoot, which we will do at a later date.

Moving Houses

Siobone had an idea of moving houses in which they move up and down the screen mimicing levels in a studio. Although this isea sounded good we felt it would be very difficult to achieve, as we would need to use photoshop to animate the photo frame by frame, which would take a long time and would be very complicated. We therefore decided to drop the idea.

Second Lego Filming Session

This time we could not get into a drama room, so Alex surggested using the old 6th form common room. It was dark and we knew it would be free. We used a plain white sheet as a backdrop and animated the lego on top. We used the Eqyption character and the wizard character - the wizard making the Eqyptian appear. We filmed it in a long shot, so it would be possible to see the whole action. Again we each took it in turns to animate.

First Lego Recording Session

During our media lesson me, Siohbone and Lewis went to find a drama room in which to animate, as it would be dark and therefore easier to control the lighting. We set up the photocamera on a tripod to make sure the shot would remain in one position. We each had a go at animating - I went first to show the others what to do as they had not animated before. We had quite low lighting to give a mistic strange feel that would relate to the genre.

Lego Idea and Model Making

We thought the best idea to produce animation sequences quickly would be to use Lego. I had a large collection of lego people pieces which I brought in to use. Lego would remain sturdy and stay in one position easily for us to keep moving it to create the stop motion effect. We spent a session making a set 4 main characters from my lego, which we could use in our animation sequences.

Model Filming and Dismissle

I thought the best way to test the blob idea would be to actually try and animate with them, and we imidiatly encountered problems. As the models were not properly made with metal armatures, they would not stand up or move as we wanted. They kept falling over, and would not stay in the disired position for long enough. After a short while animating we all finally decided to drop the idea of clay models.

Clay Animation Model Making

We wanted to make blob-like characters, who would be able to dance around Lorna as she walked around. We planned on filming the blobs on a coloured background, then colour-keying the background out,so we could layed the blob characters up to create an interesting shot. We spent a lesson with the clay creating the blob-like characters. Each member of the group contributed to create 3 characters, one red, one green and one of both them colours.

As this genre is particularly out of the ordenary, we have to create an out of the ordenary world for the lead singer to be in. We idealy would want to build a strange colourful set in a studio, but we don't have the resources for this, so we feel using stop motion characters is a cheaper and in a way more effective option. We don't have the budget to create a strange world for our lead singer to be in, we feel adding strange stop motion characters like this into the real world around her would compensate for this.

Animation Test Sequence

Today we wanted to test our animation skills, to try and get an idea of how the final shots would look. We used a cut out animation method, cutting out some pictures from magazines and moving them across a flat background. This greated a nice effect and we were all impressed with what we achieved. The stop motion effect gives the video an original style which would be appealing to an audience trying to seek new music.

Location Shoot - Ally and Field

After school we went to our ally location to begin filming our location shots. We arrived at the ally at 4pm, which was difficult nas it was begining to get dark. It was a race against time to get everything shot. We filmed many shots, such as Lorna walking down a footpath. We did this in close ups, long shots and mid shots, meaning we can cut between them all. We also filmed shots such as close ups of her shoes, and we even went to a nearby field, and got Lorna to spin around whilst holding the fig rig, meaning she stayes in shot whilst the background spins. Although what we filmed was good, it is quite dark, meaning we must refilm some parts.

Postal Strike Problems

Now we are done filming the Music studio things we want to crack on and film the 'walking' shots down the Ally. However Lorna has ordered a new outfit for us that is coulourful and interesting that she wants to wear whilst doing it as she feels it would best suit the genre. However due to postal strikes happening up and down the country, Her dress has not been delivered, meaning we have had to pospone our filming session.

Keyboards

This time we went to the studio, but instead of filming Lorna we filmed some shots with a MIDI keyboard. The synthpop genre (as the name surggests) is bassed around synthisised sounds and instruments using keyboards and other plugins to create many strange sounds. I wantd to reflect this in the video. I worked out how to play some melodies from the song and we filmed me playng them (whilst listning to the track, so we could sync it up with the final track later.

Second Studio Session

This time we planned to build on what we already had - Lorna was waring different clothes which was good. We filmed primarily with the fig rig, using shots we had used before to build up the amount of footage we had - to give us lots to work with when editing. Alex and Lewis could not make this session, so me and Siobhorn had to cope as best we could. We also tried another idea where Lorna pulled different faces, which she found a bit embarrising so we couldn't capture much.

First Studio Filming Session

Liking what we did in the stduio practice session, the whole group then went back to the music studio to film some more, this time planning on experimenting firther. After setting up the microphone we locked a camera off on a tripod and did a few shots like this in different parts of the room. Lorna did a brilliant job miming the song, and she was vary co-operative, agreeing to change her hair styles for us to suit our genre. We even got the studio technition to do some mixing on the desk to look like a producer in a studio.

We then began to use the fig rig - We each had a go and throughout tried to mimic what we had filmed in our practice session.

Practice Filming Session

Today we decided to have a practice filming session in the music recording studio, to experiment with different shot types and using new equipment such as the fig rig - a wheel-shaped device in which the camera sits, which steadies it as you do hand held shots. This device also enabled us to mimic crane shots and dolly shots.

We set a microphone up in the live room and each had a go at using the fig rig to move around Lorna, trying out shots we had thought about in our storyboards. We also experimented in the control room filming the mixing desk and filming through the glass window into the live room.

Choosing our 'Star'

No member of my group (including myself) felt they would be up to performing in our video; I personally wanted to concentrate on being behind the camera filming, or directing, or doing other such jobs. We finally decided to ask a friend of all of ours - Lorna Gleeson. We felt she had the perfect look for this sort of artist, and she was up for the challenge. She even agreed to die her hair for us, which is typical of the genre (big ever changing hair styles).

First Shooting Schedual

Siobhorn decided to draw up a table that showed when all members of out group had free periods, so we could plan shooting session in the music studio. Using this we came up with a rough schedule of when we planned to shoot all our footage.

Unfortunately due to some technical issues with the macs at school our official shooting schedules were lost. We were never able to find time to create a new one. Here is a rough outline of what our original schooting schedule said:

Days Location Props Who's' needed? Frames from storyboard
October Music Studio Microphones Lorna and rest of group 20-35
Nov 5th Alley Fig Rig Lorna and rest of group 15-20
Nov 10th Classroom Lego Just Group 1-10,13-16

Later re shooting days
Jan 25th Alley Fig Rig Lorna and rest of Group 15-20
Feb 2nd Studio Fig Rig Lorna (New costume) Not from Storyboard

New Location

As we are no longer using country lane, we wondered where else we could go that again was not too far. We also wanted it to still be qhite 'green', as we felt the colour complimented the genre and having an artist walk around outside would be something that had not really bean seen before. Normally Synthpop artists stay inside in studios, so going out to a location would make our artist new and original. We finally decided to use an Allyway near all our houses, as it was easy to acces - even from school, so we could go n lessons and film if need be.

New storyboards

As we now had a new idea we had to alter our storyboards, we have adapted them to fit our new location and to accomodate for our ideas of using the music studio and blobs dancing down the street. We have also come up with an idea of moving houses, that move in time with the beat much like the lights in a studio.

A Change of Plan

After much discussion we have dicided to drop the idea of a country lane for the basic reason it would be too difficult to do. Between us we would have have to have brought lots of different props, which considering none of us could drive would have been difficult. However, we have decided to keep the music studio idea and the blobs dancing down a street.

Location and props

We have decided to base our idea around one initial location - a country lane. We plan to have our lead singer walk down this lane over and over again, each time something new is happening around her.Other things that happen include a man riding a bicycle backwards and a black bin bag ful of rubbish stands up and begins to dance.To pull such an idea off we would need to think carefully of where we film - as we need somewhere quiet and out the way to film, yet quite close to home and the amount of props we need. I surggested filming near Epsom Race Course, as this was not too far and I knew of a perfect country road nearby that was quiet and easy to access. Lewis also surgested we do some filming in the new music studio at school, which I felt was a great idea as one aspect of our genre is it is quite a commertial song. Therefore recording it in the studio would reflect this. I surggested a surgessted a stop motion animation idea with dancing blobs, which the whole group liked. I then went away and storyboarded my idea, and decided to set in a london street for diversity from the country lane.

First Storyboards

Now our whole group is together: me, Siobhan Lewis and Alex. So me and Siobhan spent a little bit of time explaining our ideas to our other group members before we started cracking down with our storyboards. We all began to discuss the video and between us came up with a whole video based around the main singer walking down a country lane, and meeting other obsticals on her way. She then repeats the journey over and over meeting more and more obsticals untill she meets someone at the end. We all began to storyboard this between us. I personally came up with an idea of the singer meeting someone driving a bicycle backwards, which was down to me to storyboard.

Developing our intitial ideas

Now we have come up with our initial ideas we can develop these and start to be more creative. We all wanted to create an idea that was stange and weird, which suits our genre and will be fun to do. We then came up with the idea of moving houses, and thought we might use a stop motion technique to achieve this. However, after closer inspectin we found this would be too expensive, as we'd have to make the houses from scratch, so we decided to use photoshop instead on a photo of houses to create the desired effect.

Bulletproof Lyrics

Below are a scan of annotated lyrics from our chosen song 'Bulletproof' by La Roux. As a starting point me and the rest of my group have gone through the lyrics and tried to pick out key lines, whilst trying to come up with ideas of how best to portray the lines.

Theories we will apply to our video

Synthpop videos don't tend to be literal portrayals of the lyrics, and tend to be more abstract, with the main artist singing on her one in different settings (sometimes dancing in different costumes). Therefore our video will also follow this disjuncture theme, and we will also use a montage style as this is most common in music videos.

Planning

Now the research section has been complete I have a better overall idea of how music videos work, and I also have an idea of my chosen genre, and the image I have to portray with the help of my group. I can now begin to plan my own music video using all the theories, techniques and key features I have picked up from my research, in particular the idea of colour and costume. These are aspects I feel are important to the genre (vibrant colours and costumes that stand out). I also like the idea of using a country-like location which I observed in videos by Allyson Goldfrapp and 'Jenny again'; I feel this will give a new slant on the genre, though still staying true to the style.