Test Shots

Today we finished creating our test shots for our music video. This was to test a variety of things, from lighting and location (to make sure the places we decided to make the video were suitable) and camera shots and timing (to test what our music video would look like)

From this, we will decide on aspects that need changing, if any.

Location Shots

Location Shots Presentation

Company Name and Logo

After a small discussion, we have decided to name our company Pilgrim Records. This is based on the film 'Scott Pilgrim Versus The World' and its views on rebellion and teenage culture.

Our logo is shown below

General Design Research

Focus Group

Today we finished editing our focus group, finishing at eight minutes long. We asked 3 girls, Aletta Vaida, Gabby Cotton and Holly Cantle, a variety of questions, including their favourite genres and what they expect to see

The video can be found here

http://niallcorisha2jcamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/focus-group.html

Video Research : Down

To get a more in depth concept of Blink 182's music video style, I have decided to look at and review a few of them, starting with the song we are doing, 'Down'.

Blink 182 Vdieo analysis

Blink 182 – ‘Down’

Initial plans

The music track we have chosen is about a break up. When planning our music video for this song, we wanted to keep it around the same basis.

Characters

Band: Singer and Bassist : Niall Corish

          Guitarist: Jack Gill (Not Confirmed)

          Drummer: Samuel Banks (myself)

Narrative: Girlfriend: Aletta Vaida

                   Boyfriend: Tom Howell

                   Driver: Gabby Cotton

                  Party Attendees: N/A               

Setting Ideas

Band: Open area, Forest, sunset or night (depending on how much light we need and can get)

Narrative: House Party ---> Streets---> Forest--->Road

Costumes

Band: Black Trousers, white shirts, Ties, Trainers.

Narrative: Casual clothing, trainers.

Storyline

Blink 182- Down Lyircal analysis

The song is about a relationship falling apart, where a boy just can't get the girl tostay with him. it was partl written as an ode to Mark's Girlfriend. The chours derives from the rain puring down on the couple whilst they are sat in the car, also showing that for the girl to leave she'd have to brave the storm outside.

This gave us the diea of making our video about a breakup. To do this, we will need a very strong narrative piece, in order to pull off the true effect of the lyrics of the song.

Here are the lyircs to the song:

The drops of rain they fall all over
This awkward silence makes me crazy
The glow inside burns light upon her
I'll try to kiss you if you let me
(this can't be the end)

Tidal waves they rip right through me
Tears from eyes worn cold and sad
Pick me up now, I need you so bad

Down down down down [x4]
It gets me so
Down down down down [x4]
It gets me so

Your vows of silence fall all over
The look in your eyes makes me crazy
I feel the darkness break upon her
I'll take you over if you let me
(You did this)

Tidal waves they rip right through me
Tears from eyes worn cold and sad
Pick me up now, I need you so bad.

Down down down down [x4]
It gets me so
Down down down down [x4]
It gets me so 

Copyright infirgment

One of the main problems we have with using a previously made song is copyright infringement. In order to stop this, my partner Niall has sent an email to osny explaining our position, and asking for permission to use the song

Social Research

After deciding on our music video, we decided to research into the ways the band 'blink 182' communicate with its fans. We looked on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as the bands personal website.

The bands website was running a flash promo for their new album, Neighbourhoods. It consisted of using your postcode to find people who have pre-ordered Neighbourhoods in your 'Neighbourhood', thus creating a way for fans to communicate with each other. This helps provide an experience past the music, allowing people to socialise and be exposed to other fans, and share ideas and memories about the band.

The groups social network prescence consists of a facebook and twitter page. Their facebook page is used to broadcast about minor updates, such as a new poster or fanpics and news, as well as event updates and tour details. The band joined facebook on the 13th October 2011 and have 6,969,915 fans.

The band also has several twitter pages, one for the band, and one for each individual member.

Choosing a song

Today we have accomplished a variety of things and have make quite a bit of progress.

We have decided to do 'Down' By Blink 182

The genre is pop rock. I belive this genre combines the chilled outstyle of most pop songs with instruments and style (riffs and beats) of rock songs. The song and music video itself proves this, as it is very chilled out.

We have started planning our music video, learning from the music video while not actually copying it directly.

Initial Idea Music Video

Ive had many music video ideas, and may make a second post, but Ill put my current one down, due to the fact that as they come up, the ideas get replaced pretty quickly

The song would be 'Famous' By Puddle of Mudd

The video would have a scenes consiting off

A Wealthy House- The actors consiting of casual clothes/sugnalsses and hat and jewelery

A Club- Smart Clubbing clothes and sun glasses

A Classroom/Work place- Work clothes/Uniform

And a variety of outisde places- casual clothes

My idea was to have one main singer, but during certain bits, have other actors singing. These actors would look like normal people off the street. Like the NickelBack Rockstar video.

Initial Idea Trailer

My first idea was to do a trailer for the entire film of our film opening, Justified Sins HD.

The trailer would begin of flashes of the opening, in slow motion, including the scream and me running. After each flash, the screen would slowly fade to black, then the next one would start.  During this flashes I would be talking about revenge. At the end of the flashes, It would show me sharpening a knife. Cut to onscreen text "What would you do for revenge?

The trailer then cuts to me chasing someone, and a screams can be heard. Another cut to me grappling someone Shouting 'where is he?'. Antother cut to a man warming me "Your going too far", then another cut to me ina fight, followe dby a cut back to the man sayign "Your gonna lose yourself"

Fade to black, with the text 'Revenge Corrupts' on screen for 3 seconds, followed by the title 'Justified Sins' then followed by the release date.

Initial Idea Short Film

A  man opens a book (possibly a bible) , then starts to say the lords prayer. A series of events of life, in chronalogical order from cradle to grave, is then played out, with the lords prayer being said in the background, a line said by each of the actors. After this is done, the scene would return to the man reading the book (or bible) who would then say the last line of the lords prayer and close the book, with a zoom out showing him teaching kids in a  field.

We would need alot of actors for this idea, but I think with the right planning, we could pull it off.

Review of Skills

What do you think your best skills are?

I think I my main skill area is planning and designing. I consider myself able to express my ideas and opinions and make sure they are heard, I am also good at makign sure everything is planned to the smallest detail. Both of these skills are indespensible in a project, as without planning any task is extremely prone to failure. I also believe that my teamwork skills are something to promote Iswell.

What skills do you need to further develop?

I believe the main area of improvement for me is my timekeeping skills. Although not lacking enough to ruin any projects performed so far, having a  better ability level in this area would considerable help our work, especially duringgroup work, where others are relying on you to keep up with whatever task you have been asigned with. I also believe my camera skills leave something to be desired.

Video: Genres and Ideas

In the video work, we have to make sure we can make an effective video for our selected gerne. Therefore choosing the right genre is essential. You also have to make sure your video is effective in three areas, Creativity, technical and correctness.

I believe making a Techno dance music video would be really effective in my situation, as I can get access to a nightclub setting on demand. I can also get enough actors to act as dancers, creating a discoey theme and feel. I beliebe this would be a really effective music video.

Short Films

What are Short Films

A short film is a film considered too short to be a feature film, generally the peak being 40-45 minutes (which includes credits). The main aim of a short film is to generally provide a message or lesson in the form of a film, or provide quick entertainment for something that would drag on in a  feature film. Short films are generally used as fillers, both on tv and in movies.

Short films are very useful to new producers. They can use short films to get into the movie industry, because they are cheap and easy to make, and can show the companies skills in move making in a short amount of time. Short films get mainly shown at film festivals, but some get shown in cinemas as well.

Important facts about short films

Short films main aim is to provide a message to the viewers in a most entertaining and creative way as possible, although in most cases entertainment is sacrificed for creativity.

Current Skills

Skills Learnt


I believe that the last year has helped me develop a variety of skills, as well as some new ones too. My research skills  developed in a way that shows that I can get the right information from people while being quick and straight to the point. I also believe my time managing skills have significantly increased, as working as a group required me to keep up with the rest of the group, in both group tasks and updating personal work and my blog. The classwork we did prior to the start of our coursework helped me a lot in defining shot types and camera techniques, as well as terminology and editing. It also give me essential experience in filming and operating a camera, and although I didn't film our movie opening for our AS coursework, I was able to suggest a variety of ideas to help make the filming better, and I can use this in my A2 coursework to either help with the filming, or film my own video if I work alone or take the role as director in a group.

The AS coursework provided a lot of experience in managing and creating a short movie, including planning (storyboards, costumes, props and locations) filming the footage, and editing (credits, cropping, on screen edits and sound). This experience will help me understand the process in making a video, and will help me cause less basic mistakes. My acting in the movie will help me should I become another actor, as I now understand how I portray onto the camera.

Skills to Develop


The past year has also given me a insight into what I need to improve in order to make my A2 coursework.  I have learned that my research needs to be more varied, and cover a lot more areas, as this will help make sure everything is ready for the actual filming. This will be especially important if I work on my own, as I wont be able to rely on  others for the information. Another thing I need to imporve on is the accuracy of my work. Last year had a very fast time schedule, and falling behind proved to be a big disadvantage, as the workload piled up. This mainly happened  because of slight errors in our plans, causing us to repeat certain steps over and over until they were correctly done. To stop this this year, I will take my time and make sure to proof read all my plans before putting them into motion, so I dont have to continually backtrack and waste time. A third skill I can improve on is my precision with a camera. I need to work on what shot suits what situation, where to put the camera and how to move it correctly. This could prove to be cardinal if I am working alone.

ALthough working asd a group could be slightly improved, due to the chance that i may be working alone, this skill may become dispensable, and thus improving this skill may be a unnecessary waste of time.