GG - Music Video Idea/4 - Fatboy Slim (Praise You)

For this idea I was thinking we could relate an idea to the 'big beat' genre of Fatboy Slim by using footage from a party. The song sticks to a basic structure, it follows a catchy tune throughout and the lyrics are the same all the way through.

My idea would be to have a narrative performance and a male falling in love with a girl. We would get a range of shots of him looking at her from long distance's and from hiding positions, this making it clear that the girl is unaware of this boys presents. The idea would be to create a 'stalking' feel with the main male not having the confidence to approach the girl. This would then lead to them both being at a party, they would both make eye contact (with them being surrounded by dancing people). The boy would both gradually approach each other leading the viewer to think she likes him. Then at the end she will walk straight past him and to another person behind him.

We would use a range of shots and a lot of fast pacing editing at the party scene. Also we would cross cut a lot of shots to signify the people their are drunk, also possibly using a fish eye lens. We would film all throughout Ilkley, on the grove and in the woods. The party scene would then either be shot at an actually friends party or in my basement where we will get a load of friends to act for us.

I have found a good persons videos to look at for ideas is David Guetta. 
Fatboy Slim - Praise You on MUZU.TV

GG - Music Video Idea/3 - The Swing Movement (The Town or The City)

My reason for choosing The Swing Movement is because we would have easy access to the band, also we have all the instruments to film with. My idea would consist of mainly the performance aspect of music videos. 

We would film a huge range of shots of the band playing in my basement at home, this would cover around half of the video. The rest would be a narrative of a male or female character struggling to come to terms with city life. We would create an impression of unhappiness and a sense of suffering as the person walks the city streets of Leeds. We will pick quite a rough area of Leeds to film, the main character will just be walking through the streets looking at his surroundings, this being the tall building and all the people who surround him. We would film the narrative aspect in black and white to create a sense of uncertainty. 

We will use a range of slow a fast takes, whilst also using transitions to cut between the two scenarios. 

I believe if I look at some of the Arctic Monkeys videos they will help with this idea. 

GG - Music Video Idea/2 - The Clash (In Hammersmiths Palais)

The Clash originated in 1976 and emerged as a Punk Rock band, they were very popular during their time under the spot light.

My idea would be to have all footage in black and white, representing how old the song is. We would film in a rough area of a city or town, with the main characters dressed in quite old fashioned clothing, the 1980 puck look. The idea of the video would be four males searching around the derelict area, they all then come across some old instruments near a tip. They then gradually pick them up and start playing along to the song. Slowly a crowd gathers around them, and they start performing to an audience. At the end they all just put the interments down, everyone leaves and they continue with their routine before they found the instruments.

We would film in a rough run down area and all footage will be in black and white. We will use a range of shots to keep the audience guessing.

The Clash have made some very special and significant videos during their time, including the well received 'London Calling'video.

TW - Idea 4

My 4th idea is Song 2 by Blur. This was made in 1997 which means that making a video for this would be no problem, as it is now 14 years on.

The idea is to have cross cuts between performance and narrative, with the band being in both aspects. It would begin with performance until the first lyrics begin, in which it would change to a man walking, he would lip sync with a various range of cuts. The lyrics would not match the narrative though. The man will be walking in dark attire down a long road, with occasional shots from an ELS shot from the end of the road in order to show the distance they walk, and possibly some slow motion.
Every now and again throughout the walk another member of the band will appear, until finally there will be all 4 band members at the end of the alley, the camera will then track them as they turn a corner in slow motion, into the middle of a road. The will then stop there as another group come out opposite them. They will then run at each other and a side view of them almost clashing when it cuts to black to end the video.
My inspiration for this idea came when watching This is England and Green Street as this song is commonly used in user made football videos on social media such as youtube, and the collison idea came from Green Street especially to give an indication of football hooliganism, or hooliganism in general.

TW - Idea 3

My 3rd idea is to use To The Bone by The Swing Movement. This is George's brother's band therefore filming performance footage would be very easy, compared to getting other bands. I had this idea on Friday, and after speaking with George, we both like the song as an initial project. It was made in 2008 but no video has been created for this song.

The idea would be of a male character walking around, with lots of close ups from snori cam in particular, looking around at people. many people are staring back at him, and this causes paranoia inside him and he begins to become agitated, This would continue until he finally snaps and proceeds to push around one particular person who is staring at him. The violence escalates and he ends up slamming the person to the floor, and walking away, while everyone stares at him, this time with reason. He would then break into a run, people still looking at him, and his pace increases until he is going full pace. His destination is his house and the last shot would be of him opening his door, and slamming it behind him, before he walks into a deserted living room, which would be just darkness, no lighting. This would meet the eerieness of the song, and a winter atmosphere would only add to an eerie theme.


The Swing Movement - To The Bone from Ben Symonds on Vimeo.

TW - Idea 2

My 2nd idea is How Your Remind Me by Nickelback. Both the song and it's video was created in 2001 and is still extremely popular today.

My idea would again include performance shots, whilst the narrative would show the protagonist struggling with day to day life, as he is constantly reminded of a past relationship. This could be shown by having the woman seemingly appear in situations such as escaping a robbery, driving, or anything that could take his mind of an important situation, as these are early ideas that can be changed or improved. The idea is that seeing his ex partner will in short ruin all activity that is important or could be a big deal for him. Eventually, he will get extremely frustrated and go on a rampage in his house, destroying anything related to his ex, or just anything that crosses his path, beginning with a photo of them both together, that he rips in 2 to show the separation.

TW - Idea 1

My first idea is Hunting For Witches by Bloc Party. Although this song had a music video made in 2007, in the year of release, the video is purely of performance. This would mean as long as our idea differs from this, the video will be completely different in every aspect.



My idea would be to have increasingly fast paced shots of a paranoid character from 0- 25 seconds as it meets the strangeness of the song opening. It can then be cross cut from black and white, to showcase the past, to colour as to how he has got to where he is, which is the paranoid feeling of being followed. The black and white would show the character watching the news, and seeing a report on 'witches' to meet the song lyrics. The cross cutting would see how he reacts to the report, and then shots of him trying to escape, and seeing people in hoods to be the 'witches'. The news report would meet the lyrics of 1:02. After the initial paranoia, the character would run to the loacation of the band playing (as performance shots would be included), and recruit them to go 'hunting' for the 'witches'. The final shots of the video would be of the group chasing the 'witches' into the woods, and the main character getting lost, he stumbles and as he turns he sees all of the hooded figures around him, indicating they will decide his fate.

TW - Music Vid Ideas

As you may know, we have had difficulty setting an idea in stone for the track we decide to compose a music video for, so both myself and George have come up with 5 ideas each, and will decide on one of the 10 ideas we have, subject to approval.

Sample Footage

Here is some sample footage for one of our video ideas, Tarantula by The Swing Movement. It is 30 seconds of what we would expect the footage of the band to look like in the performance shots of our video. We included myself, George and a cast member we hope to retain in Jeremy Whitehead.

Fatboy Slim Practice Footage - 'Praise You'

Please note that this footage was short before the track change. We do however still regard this is still useful footage as some shots could easily remain in our new video idea. This footage was filmed by George completely as my idea was 'Right Here Right Now'

TW - Further Ideas

After deciding to drop the 'Superman' idea we are now focusing on getting solid ideas down for several music videos, before narrowing it down to not only our favourite song choice, but the one with the best idea. This change has come due to audience feedback not being favourable, and a struggle to set a conceivable and story onto the music video, that the audience will understand.

Early ideas on this heavily include George's brothers band, 'The Swing Movement' and we will be looking at numerous songs by them, whilst also looking at other genres and ideas to bring to the table , in order to get a real variation of ideas and possibilities.

This choice should be completed by Monday, and along with the practice footage and vodcast we plan to shoot at the weekend, this should greatly further our progress in this task and put to bed any issues with plot or creation for our music vid.

TW - Production Company

We have created a production company named 'Two Twigs Production' and this link can also be seen at the top of my blog, in the links list. This production company will keep you updated with filming, creation of magazine ads and digipaks.

The company will also showcase behind the scenes footage and promote our product on popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter

GG - Practice Footage

We plan to take some practice footage this week with the music from our new band selection 'The Swing Movement.'
Plan
We are going to take 30 seconds of performance shots of them playing. They are not all living in Ilkley at the moment so we will get others in to play the role of the band. This wont be a problem nearer christmas because they will all be coming home.
Location
We will film in my basement at home, in here there are all instruments including a microphone making it the easiest and best place for us to shoot some practice footage.

TW - Rise Of The Directors

In December 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. Directors such as Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as Lasse Hallström and David Fincher.

Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time: Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million. "Scream" remains the most expensive video of all time. During this period, MTV launched channels around the world to show music videos produced in each local market: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997, among others. MTV2, originally called "M2" and meant to show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.

Source - Wikipedia

This bares significance as it shows how directors became more and more of an influential part of creating music video, the fact that their name began to appear in song credits is a reflection of this. This increased knowledge of director's contribution was recognised around the same time that many new directors broke into the industry, such as spike Jonze

TW - My Consumption Of Music Vids

My main access to music comes through spotify, so I do not get the music video with this music source. I do however frequently use youtube to watch new music videos and ones that I particularly enjoy. I would say I access this source specifically for music videos around every other day.

I am in the 15-24 age bracket so my music tastes are extremely varied, so I would say that there is no specific genre that I would not watch music videos from, although my favourite genres would be Alternative and what I would call 'Mainstream' music.

I have not bought any CDs purposefully for the music videos as I see them as a bonus on this format, If i intended to buy music videos on a DVD format, then I would want the music videos included as I believe that recently they have become more and more important in the music world, not to mention the increased costs of these products.

TW - Podcast No. 2

TW - Filming Update

We have decided to take some practice shots next week, mainly of the male's change from normal to super-hero, as this was unclear after taking audience feedback into consideration. These shots may be edited with the transitions and effects we plan to use, however this will only be if we feel the change is not apparent, or believable that is only a re-creation of his thoughts.

We also plan to film our first vodcast by the end of the week, and new podcast also, we expect one to be completed Thursday, and the other to be completed on Friday.

TW - Narrative Difficulties/Audience Feedback

For our music video idea, we had planned to have a narrative, in short, that showed a man failing at everyday tasks, before he turned into superman and succeeded, until he meets a girl. This girl does not like him as superman but as the everyday guy, so he ditches the outfit and walks away with her, meeting the chorus 'I'm no superman'.

However after a conversation with our media teacher, the following question was put forward; 'Would we need to show how the change from normal to superhero originally came about?' Despite the explanation that the superhero parts are all fantasy and in the male characters head, it became clear that although we as the producers know that, the viewing audience may not. This answer was provided by Mel and Ellie, two fellow A2 Media students.

This has led us to come to the conclusion that we will be conducting practice shots ASAP so that we can test and see whether the video will be a success

GG - A brief Idea of our Music Video Lazlo Bane - Superman

Our Treatment

Here is our treatment for 'Superman' by Lazlo Bane

Lazlo Bane - Media Treatment

NOTICE

Any posts on my blog from now will either be headed 'GG' or 'TW.' This is just to show who has done the blog post as we will be sharing work from now. 

Podcast 1

Here is our group's first podcast. It highlights our idea change from Fatboy Slim to Lazlo Bane and also gives minor detail into when practice shoots will begin.

New Idea - 'Superman' By Lazlo Bane

George and I have recently had doubts about filming a music video for Right Here Right Now by Fatboy Slim, and after brief location scouting throughout the october half term, we decided our idea was not the best. This led us to change our idea to Lazlo Bane's Superman, which is most recognized as the theme song to the hit TV show, Scrubs.

Our new idea is very narrative based, with aspects of a performance. The narrative would centre around a young man's endeavours and how he fails to achieve his goals, until, meeting the lyrics, he becomes 'superman' (which would be met with a costume and screen effect) and he succeeds. However, at the end, he meets a girl who likes him for who he is and not superman, so he dumps the costume which would meet the main lyric of the song, 'I'm no superman'. This narrative would be cross cut with scenes of the same character playing an acoustic guitar and lip syncing with the lyrics of the song.

Early ideas for location is Ilkley, perhaps at the bandstand or in a spot commonly used by street performers. We also have plans to use a snori-cam to show the change between normal and superman outfit. We also have plans to cast Jeremy Whitehead as the lead actor for the video (see right). Jeremy can play a guitar extremely well and has proven in the past to show great effort with lip syncing duties when required, so this experience will prove extrememly useful.

Here is the song we are basing our idea on, and with it the music video that was originally created for it. It is a concept video with performance and shots of on set footage from Scrubs, with lip syncing in the performance shots. Both these methods have been intertwined with shrinking the footage and allowing it to be played next to each other, showing more than one piece of footage at once.