Editing, Album Cover and Myspace Page

This week we have been working on editing the music video as well as the album cover and myspace page as the deadline draws closer (Friday).

We have decided now that the name of the artist will be Evie and the album cover is called 'Girl Afraid'. We are going to play on the idea of fears with the visuals on the cover of the album as this will tie in with the title and a theme of the music video. We still need to decide on an effective shot for the front cover of the album. We already know that the back will consist of a shot from the tunnel in which a silhouette of the girl can be seen in the distance.

In terms of editing, our video is coming together. We have satrted to put the ending together with the footage that was shot at the reshoot at the weekend. One option was to have the girl walk away with the the mask attached to her foot by string. However we did not like the look of this and after getting some similar negative feedback decided to have quick cuts of the girl getting up from the floor after the 'spark' bit putting the mask on. Originally the spark bit would have been the ending but we though it was not dramatic enough.

Apart from this there aren't many major issues or gaps. We did have a small gap at the beginnning where we planned to put together quick snap shots of the rest of the video. We got some feedback from Ms Blackborow who didn't like this but suggested we introduce the girl to the audience with some shots of her in the tunnel. We working on this at the moment too.

Inspiring Album Covers

We took inspiration from the key iconography of this shot. There is a strong theme of nature with the flowers and birds in the background as well as the colour scheme of green and blue, which connote authenticity and freshness. The lungs on the outside of the artists body are quite surreal and suggest to the audience that the artist is unique and quirky. The way her body is posed with her eyes looking down demonstrate her quirkiness and also makes her stand out from other artists.

The key image on this album cover is quite surreal as the house in the background is reminiscent of a cottage in a fairytale. The bright red and yellow that are prominent in the image reinforce this. The horse imagery is also suggestive of mythical elements and the prominent green in the image connates more natural elements. The daisies also connate a sense of nature and also summertime and therefore a sense of dreaminess. Both these qualities suggest that as an artist Kate Nash is unique and different with an element of authenticity.

The image on this album cover has a cartoon/animated effect on it. It is very simple as is the colour scheme and the animated artist is dressed simply and is not groomed which suggests that she is again authentic and that her music is in a sense 'real' and sincere.

Editing, Album Cover and Myspace Page

We are getting even closer to our deadline with only about a week to go. I have summarised our progress so far in terms of all three products.


Editing

It is going well so far, but we only have a week left and still don't have all our footage! We are going to reshoot this weekend and I think we have enough time to edit the new footage. The only thing left is the ending. So in the meantime we have been working on the rest of the song. We were trying to listen to the lyrics and so when the song says 'I'm taking it slow' we have deliberately edited at a slower pace. We have also been adding more effects such as cross dissolves at this point in the song and at the beginning to make it more dreamy.

We need to get feedback from a teacher next week to find out if anything needs changing.

Album Cover


At the moment we are still planning and discussing our ideas for the fornt of the album. We already have the shot for the back, which is a ELS of Mia in the tunnel where only her silhouette can be seen.


For the front cover, we have been looking at album covers from the same genre as our song and artist, which is alternative/indie rock. We want to convey the genre and therefore have been analysing their signiifers. The main convention is that the image and style is unique and often abstract and weird.


Some of our ideas have been based around mythical imagery or images associated with nature such as trees. One idea was to use the silhouette of tree branches. We do not want to use an actual photo of a tree but only a image that is almost cartoon like. However, with a photo of Mia alongside this the feedback we have got is that it would be weird.

Myspace Page

We have not decided on the name of our artist and so have not created a Myspace yet. However, in preparation for the creation of it, we have looked at the myspace pages of other artists such as Kate Nash who we have taken much inspiration from. Her page is very personal and she has put a lot of herself and her personality into it. We like this idea and have decided to try and do something similar for our artist's myspace.

Idea Development

We have developed our idea quite a bit from the original idea we had. After having talked to Ms Blackborow we developed our idea even further.

We are going to use three locations: the tunnel in New Southgate, Grovelands park and Trent Park where there are thinner trees. We have decided not to use another plainer location like the black room we initially wanted.

We are currently trying to resolve the issue of the length of the song. The song is over 5 minutes long but we must cut it to at least 3 mins 30 secs. We were originally going to cut it and after Mia and Selina tried doing this they found it was still too long as it is still over 4 mins.

The very first shot will be a few bright lights in darkness perhaps out of focus. We have decided to have the main girl, played by Mia, initially be asleep but stirring in the tunnel and then in the forest where she will wake up. At this point she is entering the forest through another tunnel we found in the forest part of Grovelands park. She will then unknowingly be led by the main masked figure through the forest. In between we cross-cut to shots of Matt fire juggling. We will also cross-cut to Mia back in the tunnel, using a ECU shot of Mia's eyes closing before going to the tunnel shot. Mia will only lip-synch when in the tunnel.

Miss suggested that we should perhaps focus on reflections throughout the video. She suggested that in the tunnel there might be unusual things that wouldn't normally be there like a mirror or perhaps the shattered pieces of a mirror. She also said that perhaps at the beginning Mia should be looking at her body as this would tie in with the idea of self-discovery. There should also be a lot of focus on skin at the beginning with plenty of CU shots.

Near the end of the video we will cut to shots of Mia standing by a lake with shots of her reflection in the water. We have decided that at the end of the video we will have shots of both the main girl (Mia) and the lead masked figure (Selina) graadually getting closer to each other whilst mirroring each others actions. Finally their hands will touch and at this point we will add the effects of sparks when they touch. After this point we will use graphic matching where their actions match each others so that it appears as if they are the same person. The final shot will be of Mia, having dropped the mask, walking away with the camera on the floor and tilted to one side so the shot is a long angle.

Brainstorm Initial Ideas - Camera work

Brainstorm Initial Ideas - Location

Brainstorm Initial Ideas - Costume

Test Shoot 2: Grovelands Park

Now we have changed our song and idea this test shoot was for the song 'Eyes on Fire'.

Costume

MAIN GIRL
Sparkly dress
Black glove
Tights
Converse

Props

Glitter
Wool

I think this test went very well, especially in comparison to our last one! We found a spot in the woodlands part of the park that Mia and Selina had earlier come across. We set up there and began filming shots of the main girl played by Mia walking through the trees in character. The shots were mainly handheld.

Problems/Lessons Learnt

Having looked back at the footage, I think the lighting may have been an issue. Although we had enough lighting as we used paglights, the lighting from them makes the shot look unnatural. I think natural lighting looks better and so we will probably have to shoot earlier in the day. We also need more still shots to have a combination of handheld and still camera work in the video.

NEW TRACK!!!

Our new track is called 'EYES ON FIRE' by BLUE FOUNDATION.

Blue Foundation are a Danish alternative Rock band and this track is feature in the film 'Twilight'.

They started out in 2000 and their music can be described as a mix of melodic dreamy pop influenced by indietronica and shoegaze.

Apart from Twilight their music has also been featured in the film 'Miami Vice' and the American TV series 'The O.C'.

This track is very atmospheric with quite an eerie feel to it. Although it is very slow we could still use fast editing at various points to build tension, particularly when there are long pauses. Our idea is very abstract. The general idea is to have the main girl, Mia. in prefereably a white dress and barefoot walking through a forest (Grovelands Park). In the background, actors wearing masks will be walking around though the main actress is oblivios to them. One masked character (maybe Selina) will represent the main girl's alter ego and will lead her through the forest although she does not realize she is following anyone. Shots will show the masked figure running her hand over a tree and will then show the main actress doing the same thing in the same place. Finally at the end, the main girl will either put a mask on or the mask will shatter to piecses (if that is possible).

Test Shoot

We had our test shoot yesterday in the tunnel in New Southgate. It didn't go that well and so we decided we didnt want to do 'Fences' by Paramore for a number of reasons. First of all we are not sure we could get all the actors needed to perform in the band apart from Mia and Selina. We also weren't clear about our idea from the start and had massively over-complicated things. So we thought it woudn't be practical to continue.

So we have a new possible track called 'Eyes on Fire' by Blue Foundation that is featured in the Twilight film. It is way more atmospheric and we discussed more abstract ideas for this track that our actually practical and can be done with mainly one actress, most likely to be Mia.

So I will post more on this track once we are sure we can do it.

Initial Ideas Brainstorm

Our pitch was yesterday and went quite well as we got a lot of feedback (there is more about all that on the group blog).


I have decided to put up a brainstorm and rather than just writing out all our ideas I thought I could convey our ideas more effectively through pictures. Therefore I have created a few visual brainstorms as you can see below.

We have a track!

We have decided on a track at last! The track is:

'Fences' by Paramore

Paramore are an American indie rock band with a lead female singer which is perfect as we want to use members of our group. Mia will probably play the lead female role. We already have some ideas on what we are going to do. They will soon be put up on this blog.

Garbage - Track Selection

After our first official meeting on Friday, we made a list of possible bands/artists that we would further research for possible song choices.

There were four:

Hey Monday
Garbage
Avril Lavigne
Paramore

We each chose one to further research and so this post will focus on possible song choices by:

Garbage

I think I'm Paranoid

This was chosen by Selina and could work even though it is a slower song than we would have liked. I think it would be a good song to make a video as the lyrics are open to different interpretations. The theme of the song, the idea of paranoia, is strong and therefore it is easy for me to visually imagine our video. It would be quite edgy and could work on different levels. I think voyearistic shots would work well in the video as a link to the idea of paranoia and somebody watching you. The video for this song focuses on extreme close-ups of the lead singer's lips and is therefore sexualised. In order to establish our band image as separate to that of Garbage, we would not use sexualised imagery in ours. A problem with this song is that I can't imagine Mia or Selina, one of which is likely to be the lead singer in our video, lip-synching to this as the voice is quite mature.

Cherry Lips

Having heard this song a few times, I think it could work and I particularly like the chorus. It is hard to think of ideas for this song as it is about a girl who captivates all men that she meets. Apart from demonstrating this literally through visuals that are illustrative of the lyrics, I can't think of a particularly interesting video other than one that is performance based.

When I grow up

This song is faster and more upbeat than the others and so it is easier to visualise a video for it, particularly as it so catchy. I chose to develop my idea for the video based on the line 'When I grow up I'll be stable'. The video could have a fun playful video, with people dancing and with the focus on one girl. However, throughout the video there will be a darker undertone illustrating the girl's unstable state of mind. One line in the song is 'Watch my temper, I go mental', which gave roots to my idea of having the girl or maybe everyone else she is dancing with as well go completely mental and thrash the place they are dancing in. This idea may need adapting as it is obviously not practical and would be expensive.

Track Research / Initial Ideas

Hole - Celebrity Skin

My idea for this involves the actress(es) doing a lot of dancing around.

My interpretation of the lyrics is that they are commenting on perhaps how women are labelled and pushed into certain roles or professions. They are often labelled in a derogatory manner. The line ‘hooker, waitress, model, actress, Oh just go nameless’ demonstrates this. SO I thought the girl(s)

In our video could wear loads of different outfits and could perform walking and dancing on the streets.

The video could have layers of meaning - about women having to look a certain way. Trapped by their gender.

The Like – What I say and what I mean

My interpretation is of lyrics – about the past. Not able to let go.

My idea for this involves a girl dancing and walking but then we can speed up and slow down shots when editing so she goes back and forth fast and slow according to the beat. My idea has fun with the serious (sort of) message.

The editing would be very fast in order to go with the beat of the song.

The Donnas – New Kid in School

The video for this song could have a possible slight narrative.

I could imagine the video with fast editing

Garbage - I’m only happy when it rains

This song has a slower beat and so I haven’t developed my idea for it as we agreed as a group to go for faster songs unless we find a really good slower one.