Revised Idea

Whilst in the final stages of planning our shoot on Sunday, we realised that our rave scene was dependent on the weather. As a factor that we can not control, and a tight deadline, we have had to re-think our idea.

Fortunately we have come up with a new idea for a rave at the end of the music video.
Instead of being outside, with having uncontrollable weather factors, issues with setting up in the light and waiting until dark to film, set up a generator for electricity, in a location that is quite hard to get to without a car; alternatively we can film in my house, in the basement room, which is a standard sized room, so can easily be filled with people, has electricity and easily controlled lighting, can be done any time and hopefully will be easy to get to for extras in our music video.

We now have two choices:

1. Abandoned Hospital. There is a near by abandoned hospital, which could be used for the outside setting, and then the basement which we film in, we make it look like the rave is in the abandoned hospital by cut away shots of the outside and a few people around it, but have the ease of being able to film in an environment we can control. Like the previous idea, the central protagonist will go from the house party he wakes up at, on a journey and ends up at this abandoned hospital.
2. Non-linear music video. Have the music video start with the morning after the house party, and as the central protagonist wakes up, he is dazed as to how he got there... Then the music video goes into how he got to that situation, which would be the street and car scenes as previously planned, and the ending will be the house party of which he woke up from. Ending on him crashing out on the bed his wakes up from at the beginning of the music video.  

Target Audience

As part of research and planning, we are conducting some research into our target audience.
Here is the set of questions we plan to ask people between 15 - 24 in order to get some feedback.

1) Do you recognise this song? {Play 19/2000 soul child remix}
2) What kind of music video would you expect to see for this song?
3) What would you classify the genre as?
4) Any songs or remixes you consider to be similar?
5) Do you tend to prefer original records or a remixed version?
    - is there any examples you can think of?
6) Which do you prefer, the original 19/2000 or soulchild remix? {Play clips of both}

We will create a vodcast of our target audience.

Re-Drafting of Street Scene

After considering filming the scene in which the male role hands out leaflets to passers-by, giving information about the rave that night, we realised that we would need even more extras, different to those in the house, but around the same age group and we were struggling to get definite numbers.
An alternative would have been to put up posters, however with the rave being an 'illegal rave' it wouldn't be very realistic.

 {Axwell - I Found You}

So instead, we have come up with the idea that when the central protagonist gets into the car, he will send a text out to a load of people; this will be shot through over the shoulder shots and close ups.
This also gives us the opportunity to film people receiving the text, creating some shot variety.

Whilst filming on Sunday, we filmed two different ideas, firstly the original idea of our central protagonist walking around the streets, but when we saw the footage it looked very jumpy because of the snorricam, so we came up with an alternative idea on the day, of having our lead role skateboarding with the snorricam, which creates smoother footage, and also does not need to be sped up in editing unlike the walking footage, as that was one  long take in which nothing exciting really happened.

EG - Treatment

Gorillaz - '19/2000' Soulchild remix

I am keen to get involved with the direction and production of the video. I felt that these where my strongest points during the production of last years film opening production, I also took a crucial role in the editing last year whereas this year Beth Cooper has expressed and interest in being in charge of the editing process of our production, as she requires the experience. She also will take the role as director of photography, with taking control of setting up shots.This should mean that we each have our key roles within the production of our music video and the work should be shared relatively equally.

Song Choice:

The original track by The Gorillaz was released in 2001 on their self titled album 'Gorillaz'. It featured alongside the more commonly recognised remix by Soulchild, which reached no.6 in the UK charts. The song has had many appearances within other media products suggesting it would be rather well known outside of a straight forward Gorillaz fan base. For example, it featured on a channel 4 television programme '100 Greatest Kids' TV Programmes', the football themed video game FIFA 2002 and the 2008 blockbuster 'Cloverfield' which is where Beth discovered the track.

Our Video:

Our video will combine influences of television programmes such as 'Misfits' and 'Skins' which are predominately aimed at teen audiences, and also aspects of both dance, performance and 'indie rock' music videos. The overall aim is to produce a music video which includes both narrative and performance scenes which is typical of an 'indie rock' video, though the twist is that the music of a dance style and will appeal to a younger audience similar to that of programmes such as 'Skins.'

Target Audience:

As previously mentioned our key target audience will be young adults aged 13 - 24, this is because they are the target audience for the genre as well as the style of video. As well as this, this is the age range which will watch music video channels such asMTV. A secondary target audience would be possibly slightly older, fans of Gorillaz work which has been popular since the early nineties which would make an older fan base aged between 25 - 35. There is also the possibility of the parents of teenagers showing interest in their music tastes which would broaden the secondary target audience further up to perhaps 45 or 50.

Genre:

This remix of an originally HipHop track creates a sub-genre which is closer towards dance, as the new beat is faster, therefore making it suitable to dance too. This is why we chose to use a 'rave' scene in which the 'ravers' will be dancing to the remixed track.

Straightforward dance videos often feature scantily clad women who almost always perform a dance routine, some often focus on the artist or DJ, the scenes are often artificially brightly lit. This has been a popular and typical style of many dance records over the past decade, here are some examples:

KiD CuDi vs. Crookers - Day'N'Nite from Lawrence on Vimeo.

Alex Gaudino - Destination Calabria from ibrahim-sahin on Vimeo.

Another style is more similar to the style Beth and I are working toward which features scenes of clubs or raves. This has become more popular recently with current chart singles such as:

Other videos by this artist follow a similar style, which would suggest it is a typical style of video for remix producers, therefore making it applicable to our video.

One - Swedish house mafia (Your name) from ldelarosa on Vimeo.

What i like about these three videos are the scenes which feature people dancing, they really adds atmosphere which suggests to the audience these tracks are enjoyable to dance too. Also they all feature a build up which is another aspect of our video which will cover the first couple of scenes as the set up the rave. The lighting in the 'Pharrell Williams - One' track features strobe lighting which is something which we are aiming to input within our own music video production.

Locations:

We have a variety of locations in our music video. The first scene will feature numerous rooms within one house, following this there are some street shots, some shots in a car and finally the 'rave' scene which we hope to film in a car-park surrounded by woodland, this means that we can use both cars and the woodland setting. By using a variety of setting we will capture our audiences attention and keep it as the variation should stop it from becoming dull.

Mise en Scene, Props, Costume:

House Scene - Here we will need many extra’s dressed in clothing which would appear to the viewer as having been worn the night before and slept in. However our central protagonist will have slept in underwear alone, as in our rough footage, he sleeps alongside another girl. This could be interpreted as sexual activity. Other props we will require are empty alcohol bottles, cans, glasses strewn across the floors, and possibly other typical party debris. We will need some items of clothing strewn around which our central protagonist can pick up and put on. We need a mobile phone, which will need the track on in order to play it out as a ring-tone. In order to achieve verisimilitude we need to create an accurate portrayal of a house party aftermath.

Street Scene – For this scene we need our central protagonist, two other characters to play his friends, one male and one female. We would like to dress them in a typical youth style, for example jeans, t-shirt, hooded jacket and pumps. We will need some extras as we need some ‘general public’ characters for the three main characters to hand flyers out to. We have decided, as these characters will feature at the rave scene we will need to actually cast these and they will also need to be within a similar age range of ourselves and our main cast. We will need some flyers on paper, which will advertise the rave.

Car Scene – For this scene we need only the three main characters, and of course, a car. As well as this we will need a generator, as this fits within the narrative plot as they go to collect one to set up their rave. At this point we may also include a strobe lighting machine which they go to collect as well. The characters will be listening to the track on the radio so we will need an iPod to plug in which will play the record.

Rave Scene – This scene will require the most extras, we hope to put glo-paint on them which will light up in the strobe lighting, other than that we have no preference on costume as it will be dark, and to keep it realistic we would expect that everyone in the crowd were individualistic in their outfits. We will need the generator, the strobe lighting, a number of cars (between 6 -7) with their headlights on to light up the car-park and we will suggest to each extra that they bring their own alcohol such as beer bottles, cans or alco-pops etc. 

Planning our shoots

In preparation for filming our music video, we needed to get a group of people, around our age, willing to come to the rave scene and be the crowd. 

The easiest way to get people to know, and to be able to update them quickly and easily is through Facebook.

By creating an event for our shoot, we have been able to select people, and see if they are willing to help out. 

I created the event last night, and so far have 21 people confirmed, which hopefully overtime might increase to get a larger crowd of people at our rave.

DigiPak

After brainstorming ideas for our own digipak, Emma and I came up with the idea of having an animated digipak, instead of using photography. This gives us the opportunity to develop our skills with I.T. and design, as well as linking with the Gorillaz theme of animation.

We thought about having the front cover with a young looking person with a huge speaker, which incorporates the 'Soulchild' remix into the digipak design.

I have drawn out two ideas and scanned them into the computer. Using an editing program to create a graphic version of the front cover, if it looks good we will use one of them, if not we will go back and re-design or instead look at a different style for our digipak.

Here is one design, in the middle of being edited.

Slightly different but same concept, this design stands out more

Since the digipak is for an album rather than single, we have taken out the soulchild remix on the front cover, however we may incorporate that on the inside of the digipak along with other references to different songs.

This is our first draft of our front cover.

Casting

We had two people who we thought might be suitable for our music video, as the both live in Burley, the location in which we are filming, and they are both willing to give time to help us film our production.


Casting Vodcast from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

finalised storyboard

Here are the finalised storyboards for our music video, we have basically thought about the type of shots we think might work, but there is also the possibility that on the day of shooting we might find a different angle or shot which looks better. 

This is a non linear music video, in which the beginning is waking up from the ending. 

Location scouting - Rave

Criteria for finding a suitable location for the rave scene

• Open space
• Accesible by car
• Preferably near woodland
• Away from buildings

Here is the location we chose to have our rave scene

Location Scouting/Test Footage - Rave Scene from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

{Update}{28/01/11}

Unfortunately we came across some problems with this overall idea for the rave scene, as it would be dependent on weather, and would be hard to control when we filmed which then cause issues with getting the cast and extras in our film. So instead we have chosen our new location.

Location - Rave 2 from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.


Here is a short vodcast on the basement for a location for our rave scene. I go through the basic equipment we will be using, and what it will look like.

Initial Storyboard

After brainstorming ideas, Emma and I designed our storyboard for rough footage. 

The aim was to see how the shots fit in with the song, and how short each shot would have to be and whether we could include all our ideas for the opening scene. 

[Each is hyperlinked to full pdf on Scribd]

[Update]
We decided to redraft the scene of walking through the street, and swap it with the idea of skateboarding instead. So we have a new storyboard on the 'Finalised Storyboard' post.

Call Sheet

Full version on Scribd

Filming Locations

Our music video consists of 3 parts.

The Opening
The music video starts at the morning after a house party.
Our chosen location is at my house, and rooms involved will be bedroom, stairs, kitchen, living room and then leaving through the front door.
This location will contain a lot of props and mise en scene, to give verisimilitude that there was a house party there. To create this look we will have empty bottles of alcohol scattered around the place, cigarette packets, clothes, people, and such like.

The Middle
After leaving the house, our central protagonist will walk up the street to meet his friend.
The idea behind this middle section is linking the night before to what is about to follow, which shows his party lifestyle.
In this sequence, we will be using a snorricam to capture the lead role on his journey, with cuts into different angles giving some shot variation.
{A SnorriCam (also chestcam, bodymount camera, bodycam or bodymount) is a camera device used in filmmaking that is rigged to the body of the actor, facing the actor directly, so when he walks, he does not appear to move, but everything around him does.}{Wiki}


The Ending
The final location for our music video is in a woodland car park area. We needed a location in which is accessible by cars, in order to use car headlights to light up our scene that will be at night.
The place we found gives us quite a wide space, as well  as street lights and trees surrounding the space in order to create a place to hold our rave.
 Mise en scene in this sequence will be the rave equipment, alcohol, people. 
We have purchased 2 portable strobe lights, which should be effective to create a rave affect with people, holding the strobe above the camera whilst filming. 
We have also decided to use a fisheye lens, to create a sense of distortion to individuals as they are 'raving'. 

WeWow on the Music Industry & DigiPaks

[ a speaker from WeWow came in to tell us about the advances in 

distribution of album and singles in the music industry.]

Here are some brief notes made throughout the talk

• Jewel case is made from Polycarbonate, an increase of 15% in production costs makes it more expensive
• There has been a recent increase in downloads
• WeWow aim to reduce the cost of production
• 50% decrease of polycarbonate
• 50% decrease in production energy
• Digipak -

• Paper-Frame tray - 100% recycleable
• Bio-lise tray - 100% bio degradable
• Cost effective packaging + cost effective production = low pricing
• Cheap disk production 
• 17p per disk when producing thousands
• 4p per pack when producing millions
• Machine produced digipaks to keep cost and time low. 
• Jewel case = cheaper than digipak, but less environmentally friendly
• Main suppliers of digipaks are Amazon

How digipak idea came about

• Sony media produce a lot of music
• They decided to reduce their carbon emissions
• Decrease by 30% by 2015
• They figured that Jewel case was not sustainable
• Digipak will become less expensive to produce over time

Digipaks are just as creative in imagery as a jewel case.
WeWow charges £65 - £85 per hour for design, cheaper than competition
Digipaks are popular for retro-looks, some older record labels prefer.

Wow Spiral

• good for promotional casing 
• cheap giveaways
• production costs for 50 would be 70p
• 60% mark up on packagaing
• 30% mark up on disk

Window Wallet

• Printed before
• Booklet and disk added by band
• which makes it cheaper
• costs around £200 for 50 disks and 50 wallets.

Keane - Hopes and Fears album was available jewel case or limited edition digipak release, with around 10,000 digipak copies available.

Roll Fold DigiPak for 2 disks or more
VCD - video CD involves album tracks and a music video. popular in large releases, no extra cost.
LancingPak - Digipak without a tray
Design should flow throughout the digipak, with images etc.

Equipment for the shoot

 We have been focusing on planning the rave scene at the end of the music video, as it involves a lot of planing in terms of lighting, special lenses, which can create verisimilitude to the scene to make it look like a real rave.
We have come up with a location, a place suitable for what we need - an open space in which cars can park for use of headlights and there is enough space for people, but not too much so that it looks like there isn't enough people. There are trees surrounding the car park, which links into our original idea of having a rave in the woods, but there was a problem with lighting the scene.

Here is a list of equipment we will be using on the rave shoot.

• HD Camcorder
• Fish-eye Lens
• Homemade snorricam [Made by Callum Moreman]
• Car headlights
• Portable strobe lights
• Tripod

SnorriCam

The idea behind using the SnorriCam was influenced by a variety of films that I have watched, such as Requiem for a Dream,  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kidulthood and Adulthood. The use of the SnorriCam, a device which is mounted onto the body of the person being filmed, which keeps the actor in the same place of the frame, making them appear not to move, but the surroundings moves instead.

Commonly used as a distortion effect, when something has happened in the film which has had a dramatic affect on the character, and the camera remains as a closeup of their face, showing all emotions and as the surroundings of them blur and distort, the viewer is left with an unusual viewing. 

   However in the section which we want to use the SnorriCam, it isn't as such a negative, claustrophobic sense towards the central protagonist, but instead we aim to have it show his emotions whilst walking to meet his friend, which to fit the song, will be up beat and happy. 

If this idea does not work, we will just use the SnorriCam in the rave scene, to show the effect of the music on the people, as they are centered and unaware of their surroundings, engrossed in the music.

[Update] 
For our new idea of having a skateboarding scene as opposed to walking. We are still using the Snorricam in this sequence, along with cut away long shots.
We have also decided to use the Snorricam at the rave scene, to signify the central protagonist being drunk, used when walking up stairs to the bedroom with the girl.

Music Video - History Influence

Chase and Status - Blind Faith 

















A music video directed by Daniel Wolfe.
The concept of this video goes back to the Acid House youth subculture, with illegal raves in warehouses, 24 hour party people and an insight to The North back in the mid 1980's.
The target audience that this music video is aimed at is those who were involved in this time, who remember and can relate to the fashion, the music, and the general atmosphere of the illegal raves. The target audience also has a secondary audience, that of the younger generation, who enjoy this music, and through the video learn the history of the music genre, and possibly be inspired to re-create.

Unlike music videos in a similar genre, in which performance videos are just the gigs of the band, like magnetic man, this video is semi-documentary, and is centred around the people who go to the raves, and that is then reflective of the band and their style of music.

 “Daniel spent five days in Manchester street-casting himself, going to night spots where he’d find the right people,” explains Tim Francis. “Everyone there at the rave was invited.” In fact, the production put on their own rave at a Manchester warehouse that was quite an event in itself, featuring legendary DJs who made their names at the time – including Slip Mat, Crowhead and Matt Ward – as well as Chase & Status. “It was like a proper revival night,” says Tim. “And the response we got was that it was the best party that Manchester had seen in a while.” [promonews]

Band Convergence

For a new upcoming band to be able to have a budget to cover costs such as music video production, design and production of digipak and advertisement; sometimes it is cheaper for the band to do it themselves.

An example of this is Modestep.

A band which has been together for about 2 years, in the relatively new genre [to the mainstream] of dubstep.
Their music video [which I linked to in an earlier post about influences] was created by the band themselves. They thought up of the concept of the music video they wanted for their song, and asked people to get involved, without being paid, to help create the music video.
The director was their friend, a film student who studied at Sheffield Hallam, Dave Bispham; They edited the video themselves, and all the budget involved came out of their own pocket.
To say this music video is completely their own, without 'professionals' being involved, I think it is a successful video in the start of this bands up coming.

The band also does a lot of its own advertising; as one of the band members has previously worked in advertising, they have been able to use their own knowledge and skills to get the band to their target audience.
The have a weekly online radio show, their own YouTube channel, a Facebook page, as well as being linked to a Dubstep page on facebook which gives fans links to new artists and songs. Myspace page [myspace is well known for its music base.] They have created their own website and Blog, Free Tracks/Mixtapes, Free Stickers, basically viral marketing, using social networking and the internet to spread the band profile by fans and word of mouth.


Here is a behind the scenes of their music video which is featured on their myspace.


Modestep - Feel Good (Behind The Scenes)

Modestep | Myspace Music Videos

Music Videos of similar genre & ideas

Whilst finalizing our own ideas, we have been looking at examples of music videos of a similar genre, or videos which incorporate similar ideas which have inspired and influenced our overall production.


Modestep - Feel Good


This music video incorporates a similar storyline to ours, with the idea of the song starting with the ringtone on the phone, to following the person and meeting another person. There are also performance shots, and scenes from a gig, which could be similar to our 'rave' scene.

 Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire - Ghosts N Stuff


A music video of a electro house/dubstep genre, featuring some good shots of a rave scene, along with some good shots following the 'ghost' which could be influential to our own production.

 Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends


I like the shot variety of people waking up after a house party, which inspired us with different shots for our own production.

Magnetic Man - I Need Air


Good ideas for the rave scene. Strobe lighting etc.But obviously location will be different.




Deadmau5 - I Remember



Influenced by the idea of a music video in which involves the setting up of the ending - planning for the rave. 
I like the idea of having people dressed up at the rave, with different make-up and eccentric outfits.

EG - Music Video Final Idea

Music Video Final Idea

Beth and I have discussed and drafted the final idea from her original pitch for the music video for the Gorillaz track '19/2000 (Soulchild remix)'

The opening scene will be set in a house, including mise en scene which should signify a house party the previous night. The idea we chose has derived from teenage dramas such as 'Skins' and 'Misfits'. We chose these programmes as inspiration as they are aimed toward a youth audience of a similar age to the audience of the genre for the gorillaz remix which is dance, hip hop, electro etc. Other aspects of the video such as the 'Rave' scene have also been inspired by such outdoor raves which have featured in these youth programmes. However it isn't just youths who watch these programmes, for example, shameless which is relatively realistic portrayal of council estate life and youth is a big hit with older audiences as well. In hope of drawing in a wider audience range we could take aspects from this type of programme also so that original gorillaz fans who may be slightly older than the typical 15-24 age bracket will still find our music video product appealing.

We will include establishing shots of people laid out on the floor, possible with things on top of the or drawn onto their skin. As well as this we will include close ups of the mise en scene for example, empty spirit bottles, etc. All or most of this will be shots which come before the song intro begins.

We have then decided to have the introduction to the song coincide with a close up shot of a phone ringing. We have an idea for the male central protagonist to answer this phone and subsequent shots will be mostly of him as he gets up and leaves the house, as well as cut away shots of various things around the house.

We want our central protagonist to lip sync some of the lyrics in the song. Other lyrics such as the second line 'I'm buying that Nike shoes' will matched the narrative and feature him putting on his 'Nike dunks'.

We need to hold some castings to choose our central protagonist. So far we have no preference on appearance just somebody who is willing to work hard and be reliable.

Following the scene within the house our central protagonist will take out some flyers and dance along the street outside. This will mean using extras to fill the role of pedestrians. Our narrative plot follows the protagonist as he meets two friends as the set up to hold the 'rave' in the woods. This will include some car shots. Throughout the central protagonist will lip sync the lyrics, though we may cut a few shots of other characters lip syncing as well to add some variety.

Finally we will film the 'rave' scene which will include typical performance shots, such as close ups and long shots of the crowds dancing. As well as this we will include the typical shots of the performer which in this case will be the DJ. Therefore we may need to find methods to create smooth panning shots and also low angled shots the make the DJ appear bigger. We could take inspiration for these performance shots from other performance videos of a dance genre, for example the 'I Need Air' single by Magnetic Man. However one downside to having a 'rave' video is that many include strobe lighting which we may find it difficult to get hold of. Also it would only work during night hours and as we don't have the equipment such as lighting for night conditions we will probably be unable to shoot during the night. We would also find it difficult to draw in enough extras to create a crowd of this size despite having picked a location which has the capacity to hold them.

Initial Ideas Vodcast

Emma and I talking about our initial ideas, rough footage, and where we need to go from now.


Initial ideas vodcast from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

Rough Footage 19/2000 (Soulchild Remix)

After our initial ideas, Emma and I created a rough cut of the opening to our music video, in order to test out timings and get audience feedback to how the footage fits the song.



Rough footage to potential music video from Sarah Elizabeth Cooper on Vimeo.