The song ‘Silence is Golden’ by Garbage was our second choice for our video, and originally we didn’t like the idea of doing this song. However, as we began to come up with ideas for the video we soon found that it was actually a better song choice for our group than the one we originally wanted. We found that this song works well with a performance based video, which is the type of video we decided to create.
Originally we came up with the idea for a party scene when filming our music video. However we soon came to realise that this idea was not going to work for our group because we did not have access to the facilities we would have needed, such as the number of people needed to make this idea look effective. As a result of this there was a period of time where we didn’t know what we were going to film. Problems with our filming arose when we began to think of locations for our video. Because our original idea of a party scene was not going to work with our new, performance based idea, we were stuck with ideas of where to film. Another contribution to our problems with location was a lack of communication between the members of our group. We were supposed to borrow a camera over one weekend so we could film away from college. However, on the weekend that we were meant to borrow a camera, no one in our group picked it up on the Friday afternoon. This meant that we were restricted to filming only in college hours and on college grounds.
However, despite of these problems with filming, the end result and the positive aspects of the filming outweighed this. The problems that we had with our locations turned out to make the end result of our music video more effective than if we used our original ideas. We think that the most effective location we used is behind the stage in the main hall, where there is a wall covered in graffiti. Matched with the graffiti style on Alphie’s top and the rock style of the song we chose, this location looked very impressive. The way in which we filmed the video also worked out well. Because we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to film our video, when we filmed it we did not mess around and got straight on with it. We also feel that we made a good choice in choosing Alphie to star in the video as she looks very confident in front of the camera, which is essential as the camera focuses on her throughout the video.
IDEA CHANGE!
In our group we had to have a talk about our original idea because there where alot of problems with location and time to get certain footage.Our first idea was going to start with a party scene and as the singing started our singer (Alphie) was going to start walking between the people of the party as if she was not there and for the chorus had that band in the middle of the space we were having the party in with the people around the again oblivious to the band and the singer. Also we were going to have point where evryone in the area dissapeared and left Alphie singing then which to members of the band etc. But because of some unfortunate events we could'nt do what we wanted with this iea so instead jsut trying to make the best of the idea we changed our idea from the whole band to just Alphie doing a solo perfromance. Our new idea starts with Alphie crounching bewteen some gutiars amps with a graffitied wall behind her, this is the location for more of the chorus. the verses are mostly done outdoors in different places which we thought reflected the meaning of the song with the idea of silences and loud rock music.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
A change of wardrobe
After talking we have desided to change have Alphie is wearing from her very trendy style red top and scarf etc to a much more punk rocker look, the reason for this is that we thought it reflected the meaning and the style of the song.
This is the original idea for what Alphie would wear for the music video, we thought that her clothes went well with the first idea we had for the video which was a party scene all around her and a band and an empty room whiching between each other which was to try and bring across the idea of silence and loud music.
But because we desided to change our idea from the party scene with the band to a solo performance from Alphie as a group we thought that giving Alphie a much more punk look which we thought would look better this our new locations and the song itself
This is the original idea for what Alphie would wear for the music video, we thought that her clothes went well with the first idea we had for the video which was a party scene all around her and a band and an empty room whiching between each other which was to try and bring across the idea of silence and loud music.
But because we desided to change our idea from the party scene with the band to a solo performance from Alphie as a group we thought that giving Alphie a much more punk look which we thought would look better this our new locations and the song itself
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
location ideas
The group decided to go out and find some potential locations for our music video. The locations we found were either dark brick corner etc or bright colourful areas because our video needs both these types of place:
We think that this would give a good effect if we filmed in the dark with small lights, e.g torches.
We liked the colour of the background in this picture and thought it could potentially be used as a location.
In this photo we liked the way Alphie is shadowed and looks darker than the background.
in both this and the next picture we liked the light that comes through the leaves of the trees and the shadow that id cast by the tree.
we also like the the look of the natural colour of the leaves and branches mixed with the colours of Alphies hair, top and scarf.
we really liked the look of the leaves and the greenery which again look really natural and was the complete opposite of the trendiness of Alphie.
these pictures we took because we wanted to have a colder side of the video, so that we brought across the sad side of the song and also the plain colouring of the brick is a real change from the bright colours of the leaves and tree etc.
We think that this would give a good effect if we filmed in the dark with small lights, e.g torches.
We liked the colour of the background in this picture and thought it could potentially be used as a location.
In this photo we liked the way Alphie is shadowed and looks darker than the background.
in both this and the next picture we liked the light that comes through the leaves of the trees and the shadow that id cast by the tree.
we also like the the look of the natural colour of the leaves and branches mixed with the colours of Alphies hair, top and scarf.
we really liked the look of the leaves and the greenery which again look really natural and was the complete opposite of the trendiness of Alphie.
these pictures we took because we wanted to have a colder side of the video, so that we brought across the sad side of the song and also the plain colouring of the brick is a real change from the bright colours of the leaves and tree etc.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Ed Lovelace continued
Ed Lovelace was a student of long road college in the years of 2000 ans 2002, back when he was a student he was using the old software that was on the old apple IMac that came out in 2001. Despite the change in technology there projects where the same such as the thriller and music video which the song choice was very unusual song by today's standards.
After his long road experience he went on to Bournemouth University for the years of 2003 and 2005 which he said was a great experience with a lot of experienced tutors and real people from the industry to guide them through there university experience which within there time they had to do find a 3 month placement. Ed found himself a place as a runner which he felt was not useful and would not recommend it as work experience.
After his time at uni he started working at for a music label called Creations which had signed such bands as Oasis and Libertines. This this label he started watching the gigs and filming them which then went towards putting together music videos on a low production value. One of the video's he out together for £100 won a MTV2 music video award for the band Gallows. Despite the low budget he created the award winning video using 8 cameras filming the whole set and putting together an hours worth of performance together to create one video.
With the award under his belt he went on to get signed to a production company called Pulse Films which is based in Soho London. Along with Ed is his production partner Daryl who has worked on all the music video's along side him.
He explained how the production company gets the music video' in the first place. Firstly a music label send them a concept along side a track and then between them they put together a pitch to convince the label to choice there idea. he also went on to say how hard it is to get noticed as low budget films are becoming more popular and the programme such as final cut are more and more avaliable. For example lasts year grammy video music award was filmed on a video phone.
His also told us how professionals make a video compared to how we make them at college. For example instead of story boarding they search the internet for stills of films that already exist to visually show what they want to achieve. Another major difference is the budget for example one of his videos "In One Ear" by cage the elephant cost roughly £40,000 (£20,000 of which was spent on the set alone) and shot in just one day and including the editing the whole thing is over in 2 and a half weeks.
All in all a very interesting talk.
After his long road experience he went on to Bournemouth University for the years of 2003 and 2005 which he said was a great experience with a lot of experienced tutors and real people from the industry to guide them through there university experience which within there time they had to do find a 3 month placement. Ed found himself a place as a runner which he felt was not useful and would not recommend it as work experience.
After his time at uni he started working at for a music label called Creations which had signed such bands as Oasis and Libertines. This this label he started watching the gigs and filming them which then went towards putting together music videos on a low production value. One of the video's he out together for £100 won a MTV2 music video award for the band Gallows. Despite the low budget he created the award winning video using 8 cameras filming the whole set and putting together an hours worth of performance together to create one video.
With the award under his belt he went on to get signed to a production company called Pulse Films which is based in Soho London. Along with Ed is his production partner Daryl who has worked on all the music video's along side him.
He explained how the production company gets the music video' in the first place. Firstly a music label send them a concept along side a track and then between them they put together a pitch to convince the label to choice there idea. he also went on to say how hard it is to get noticed as low budget films are becoming more popular and the programme such as final cut are more and more avaliable. For example lasts year grammy video music award was filmed on a video phone.
His also told us how professionals make a video compared to how we make them at college. For example instead of story boarding they search the internet for stills of films that already exist to visually show what they want to achieve. Another major difference is the budget for example one of his videos "In One Ear" by cage the elephant cost roughly £40,000 (£20,000 of which was spent on the set alone) and shot in just one day and including the editing the whole thing is over in 2 and a half weeks.
All in all a very interesting talk.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
ED LOVELACE - TALK IN THE HALL - WEDNESDAY 7.10.09
Former Long Road Media student Ed Lovelace will be talking about his music videos and career path into the film industry.
Please remember to take notes on the talk and the videos discussed - In the next lesson you will be writing up the talk on your blogs and from YouTube adding the videos he will be showing in his presentation.
'Ain't No Rest For The Wicked' - Cage The Elephant
'In One Ear' - Cage The Elephant
'Abandon Ship' - Gallows
'Laser Hannon' - Cutting Pink With Knives
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Red Mist
Red Mist are the band (rock trio) we are going to use to support Alphie in the music video we are making. I spoke to Daniel Sparrow and this is what he had to say about Red Mist.
Red Mist was formed in early 2009. The combined complementary writing styles of myself (Dan Sparrow) and Alex Wales formed an individual music style for the band; almost straight away. This was of course always supported by the fantastic drumming skills of Matt Gibson aka Gibbon; we call him Gibbon because we think me looks like a monkey when he's on the drums. After four months of practise and hard work we thought Red Mist were ready to record there first EP; which was recorded in Cottenham Cambridge. We are now busy finding gigs and writing new material for an album that is anticipated to be recorded by late 2009 early 2010.
Red Mist was formed in early 2009. The combined complementary writing styles of myself (Dan Sparrow) and Alex Wales formed an individual music style for the band; almost straight away. This was of course always supported by the fantastic drumming skills of Matt Gibson aka Gibbon; we call him Gibbon because we think me looks like a monkey when he's on the drums. After four months of practise and hard work we thought Red Mist were ready to record there first EP; which was recorded in Cottenham Cambridge. We are now busy finding gigs and writing new material for an album that is anticipated to be recorded by late 2009 early 2010.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Contacting the band
Here are the screen grabs from us contacting the band through my space and the email we sent them
CD Track Timeline
Our Ideas:
For the intro that we have edited down to 8 seconds we were thinking we would have a close up of the lead singer in the video's feet walking into a crowded club or party. We thought this would be good to have the steps keeping in beat with the music to keep the tempo in time.
For the first verse which is a lot slower than the intro we want to change the mood and atmosphere of the video to match the music. To do this we thought about doing a close up of the lead singer blinking and when she opens her eyes again the crowd has disappeared giving her some peace and silence that the song is essentially about. Although the crowd has disappeared we want the surroundings to stay the same.
For the first chorus we want the crowd to come in for the heavy music and have the band playing in amongst them with close ups of them playing their instruments and panning around in time for the music interlude where the crowd and disappearing and re-appearing with the band moving around.
For the second verse we want to change the surrounding to a different part of the party and have the singer trying to touch people and they freeze which of coarse results in silence.
For the second chorus we want to follow some more of the conventional music videos types and just have a range of close ups and wide shots of the band playing to the chorus.
In the song about half way through the music gets a lot more intense and for this we want the singer in a mosh pit getting knocked around and looking very uncomfortable in the close proximity.
One of our next ideas is to have a reverse of some of the previous action giving the singer some space again which leads into the next part of the video.
When the intense music starts again which we have edited down we want her to walk towards the stage and as she goes the crowd gets close and closer until she emerges on the stage alone and with the crowd gone to whisper the final line "silence is golden"
Screen grabs from Garbage band
Here are the screen grabs from some of Garbage's existing videos and the styles that they have used.
In the image above which has been taken from there video "only happy when it rains" as you can see it is the lead singer in her own singing to the camera with lots of blues representing the rain and the irony being it isn't stero-typically a happy colour.
Above is another image that we have chosen from one of their video's "I think I'm paranoid" as you can see it is a very surreal image with Shirely Manson's face and head distorted in black and white tone that is set through out all the video.
Something that is clear in both of the video's so far the lead singer is nearly always the center of attention with close up's of the band playing to the music which although it is not unusual for a music video it does seem to be a signature style for the band.
This clip is from there song "milk" this is one of there more unusual music videos as it seems a lot brighter and club based with the red strobe lighting in the background complimenting her hair and making her face and features seem very bright and striking. This video actually seems very simular to a lot of ideas and pictures from our mood board.
In the image above which has been taken from there video "only happy when it rains" as you can see it is the lead singer in her own singing to the camera with lots of blues representing the rain and the irony being it isn't stero-typically a happy colour.
Above is another image that we have chosen from one of their video's "I think I'm paranoid" as you can see it is a very surreal image with Shirely Manson's face and head distorted in black and white tone that is set through out all the video.
Something that is clear in both of the video's so far the lead singer is nearly always the center of attention with close up's of the band playing to the music which although it is not unusual for a music video it does seem to be a signature style for the band.
This clip is from there song "milk" this is one of there more unusual music videos as it seems a lot brighter and club based with the red strobe lighting in the background complimenting her hair and making her face and features seem very bright and striking. This video actually seems very simular to a lot of ideas and pictures from our mood board.