Excellent pitch - thorough, well considered, creative visual ideas. You will now need to make some decisions on the nature of your narrative, however 'fuzzy'. Excellent blog, detailed. Nat - you will need to transfer over your product analysis.
Well done - keep up the momentum.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Monday, 3 December 2007
Story Board Initial Ideas
I've listened to the track, and have thought about the story board, where we have to draw shots that relate to key parts of the music track. I found that there were seven main breaking points in the track. These happened at 10 secs, 21 secs, 41 secs, 84 secs, 106 secs, 115 sec, 157 secs and 218 secs. I also determined that the song could be cut down from 8 minutes 35 seconds to 3 mins 49 secs or 4 mins 10/12secs, and be faded out to end the track as 8 minutes is a long time space to fill.
-10 seconds in - the first sign of lyrics.
-21 seconds in - the introduction of the main beat to the song. A key part to the song.
-41 seconds in - the start of the 1st verse.
-106 seconds in - start of the 1st chorus.
-115 seconds in - end of 1st chorus.
-157 seconds in - new instrument introduction.
-218 seconds in - "God Knows your lonely souls" start to be repeated.
The ending of the music video could be at 3.49 but it would probably be best to finnish it at 4m 10s as there is a few dramatic twists to the track which we could use in our music track between the two times.
-10 seconds in - the first sign of lyrics.
-21 seconds in - the introduction of the main beat to the song. A key part to the song.
-41 seconds in - the start of the 1st verse.
-106 seconds in - start of the 1st chorus.
-115 seconds in - end of 1st chorus.
-157 seconds in - new instrument introduction.
-218 seconds in - "God Knows your lonely souls" start to be repeated.
The ending of the music video could be at 3.49 but it would probably be best to finnish it at 4m 10s as there is a few dramatic twists to the track which we could use in our music track between the two times.
Our Pitch
Our Music Video Pitch
•Our track choice is “Lonely Soul” by Unkle.
•British musical outfit founded 1994.
•James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy.
•Originally categorized as “trip-hop.”
•“Lonely Soul” featured in trailer for Xbox 360 and PS3 game “Assassin’s Creed” in 2007.
Initial Response/Ideas
•Use of voyeurism
•Ideas of being lonely, anchors the track name, and corresponding to the lyric of “God knows you’re lonely souls”
•The idea of searching for someone/something that isn’t there.
•Lots of facial close ups, especially lips and eyes
•On-screen text use
•We don’t want our video to be as if we are trying to reinforce/create a star persona. The actor in the video is not necessarily the lead singer of Unkle.
•Just like “Natural Blues” by Moby, we are going to perform a completely narrative based video, with very little or no lip-synching.
•We think that we will use little or no non-diagetic sound in our video.
•The video will be shot almost if not entirely at night time, however this presents us with the problem of lighting issues.
Location/Mise-en-scene
•We have come to the conclusion that this video will be shot entirely in an urban location, as this meets the conventions of this genre of music track.
•We are going to use (if possible) somebody else who isn’t in our group as our actor.
•The lighting will be one issue which we must address or research because with the cameras we are using and halogen lights in streetlights, you often get a pinkish light.
•Some of the shots may be in black and white or very high contrast levels.
•On Wednesday 28th November Josh and Rob went out in Tunbridge Wells town centre at around 11pm to take some location reccie shots for mood board and ideas.
Location Recce
•Tunbridge Wells town centre has some interesting areas in which to film, especially at night on a weekday, as it is fairly derelict, and entirely artificially lit.
•Some notable locations are alongside the AXA PPP offices, where there are dark alleyways (but lit enough to film well), the Assembly Hall multi-story car park, the road alongside Que Pasa and the area around the back of Currys Digital.
•These locations include dark alleys, tunnels, spiral fire escape staircases and large concrete buildings (very suitable for an urban environment).
Camera Usage
•We will use mostly steadicam, following the actor as he walks around looking for something he can’t find.
•The use of CCTV voyeurism will be from a high angle looking down, which will pan across as he walks past the area, as if it is following him.
•For the majority, if not all of the video the performer will not realise he is being followed, so will not interact with the camera at all.
•For any dolly shots we will take, we will use something like a shopping trolley, or a chair on wheels to attempt to create a smooth footage shot.
•There will be the use of low angle shots
Feedback
We have received feedback regarding our ideas for our music video pitch, and one of the main criticisms is that with just a simple narrative, this will become slightly boring and will not work for a full four minutes. To target this, we have been advised that perhaps getting a female to star in the video along with a man may be the solution. Lucy Shilling (TWGSB Class of 2007) has expressed interest, and we will be following up this offer.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
AUDIENCE RESEARCH - Focus Group
Rob gave me a list of questions he had written for me to carry out a focus groupas agreed, as a method of obtaining feedback from the track we have chosen. However, I decided to add and edit the questions slightly with the permission of Rob. I got 5 people to take part in the focus group, all aged between 19 and 23. Only two of the people I questioned had heard of UNKLE, however they are into a similar genre of music. We gave them each a sheet of the questions we had already planned and I will analyse this feedback in this post. Here are the questions we asked:
- How often do you watch music videos per week?
- What emotions does this track make you feel?
- Where would expect a music video for this track to be shot?
- Do you think this video should be narrative based (story based), concept based (idea based), or performance based (band performance)?
- What would you expect the singer/actor to be wearing? What would he look like generally? eg. haircut, attractiveness, facial features.
- How many people would you expect to see in this video (i.e. less than 5, more than 5, more than 10 etc.)
- Why would you expect to see these things stated in your previous answers in a music video for track?
- Did you enjoy the track? Would you be interested in seeing a music video made for it?
- Any other comments?
We feel that with these questions we had left quite a lot of room for creativity in their answers. They are all open ended questions, offering no multiple choices for any. We found the results of the audience research interesting and it will definately contribute to when we come to storyboard our ideas. It has helped us get an idea of what the audience are looking for and what they are not looking for.
From carrying out this audience research we found out that four of the five people questioned watch music videos on a fairly regular basis, whether it be online or TV. The second question brought about a number of answers, quite varied. Some of these include chilled out, a sense of movement, a feeling of freshness and a new adventure, mellow, loneliness and even a feeling of being in a club due to the bass. So as you can see, the video brings about mixed emotions, something we have to take on board to try to account for everyones expectations. Every single one of the people I questioned thought that the track should have an urban setting in the video. This was reassuring as Rob and I have already discussed this and decided that this would be the location. It was a positive sign to see people within our target audience feeling the same sort of emotions just from listening to the track. 3 of the 5 people questioned said that the video should be concept based while the other 2 said narrative based. Nobody said performance based, which was also reassuring as me and Rob did not think that the track suggests images of performance, with lip synching in the video as probably the furthest the performance would go. When questioned about the image of the character in the video, I found I recieved a wide range of answers. Most suggested a young male, however one person thought that a middle aged man searching for something within himself would be a good theme. One person thought that a student backpacker would make a good lead character whereas three of them had similar ideas that he should be a young rugged, dark haired character, wearing rugged clothing to match his looks. The last suggestion was the middle aged man, who they thought should also be rugged, but in a more aged way, giving the sense that he has experienced quite a bit of his lifetime already. The question about the number of people didn't really show a pattern, suggesting that the question was unsuccessful in terms of looking for trends in audience expectation. However, every single person questioned said they enjoyed the track and upon being told there is no video for it, said they would be interested in seeing one if made. Finally, in the any other comments section, one person stated that a black and white video would be worth looking into while another said that bright city lights was what he was reminded of throughout the video.
On the whole, I would say that the audience research has been very successful. I feel that we approached it in a very professional way and our feedback represents that. We have some very useful information now that we can consider when making our music video. It was particularly useful as the people questioned were within our target audience, young people from about 16 to 30. I think the reason it was useful is that the questions are presented in such a way that leaves it open for individual responses, something that we thought would be very important when planning our audience research.
- How often do you watch music videos per week?
- What emotions does this track make you feel?
- Where would expect a music video for this track to be shot?
- Do you think this video should be narrative based (story based), concept based (idea based), or performance based (band performance)?
- What would you expect the singer/actor to be wearing? What would he look like generally? eg. haircut, attractiveness, facial features.
- How many people would you expect to see in this video (i.e. less than 5, more than 5, more than 10 etc.)
- Why would you expect to see these things stated in your previous answers in a music video for track?
- Did you enjoy the track? Would you be interested in seeing a music video made for it?
- Any other comments?
We feel that with these questions we had left quite a lot of room for creativity in their answers. They are all open ended questions, offering no multiple choices for any. We found the results of the audience research interesting and it will definately contribute to when we come to storyboard our ideas. It has helped us get an idea of what the audience are looking for and what they are not looking for.
From carrying out this audience research we found out that four of the five people questioned watch music videos on a fairly regular basis, whether it be online or TV. The second question brought about a number of answers, quite varied. Some of these include chilled out, a sense of movement, a feeling of freshness and a new adventure, mellow, loneliness and even a feeling of being in a club due to the bass. So as you can see, the video brings about mixed emotions, something we have to take on board to try to account for everyones expectations. Every single one of the people I questioned thought that the track should have an urban setting in the video. This was reassuring as Rob and I have already discussed this and decided that this would be the location. It was a positive sign to see people within our target audience feeling the same sort of emotions just from listening to the track. 3 of the 5 people questioned said that the video should be concept based while the other 2 said narrative based. Nobody said performance based, which was also reassuring as me and Rob did not think that the track suggests images of performance, with lip synching in the video as probably the furthest the performance would go. When questioned about the image of the character in the video, I found I recieved a wide range of answers. Most suggested a young male, however one person thought that a middle aged man searching for something within himself would be a good theme. One person thought that a student backpacker would make a good lead character whereas three of them had similar ideas that he should be a young rugged, dark haired character, wearing rugged clothing to match his looks. The last suggestion was the middle aged man, who they thought should also be rugged, but in a more aged way, giving the sense that he has experienced quite a bit of his lifetime already. The question about the number of people didn't really show a pattern, suggesting that the question was unsuccessful in terms of looking for trends in audience expectation. However, every single person questioned said they enjoyed the track and upon being told there is no video for it, said they would be interested in seeing one if made. Finally, in the any other comments section, one person stated that a black and white video would be worth looking into while another said that bright city lights was what he was reminded of throughout the video.
On the whole, I would say that the audience research has been very successful. I feel that we approached it in a very professional way and our feedback represents that. We have some very useful information now that we can consider when making our music video. It was particularly useful as the people questioned were within our target audience, young people from about 16 to 30. I think the reason it was useful is that the questions are presented in such a way that leaves it open for individual responses, something that we thought would be very important when planning our audience research.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Group Roles
We have discussed what roles we are going to have in the production of our video. Due to our group consisting of three members we thought that it would be best if we all played a part in all aspects of creating our video. Therefore, Rob, Nat and myself will all Direct, Edit and Produce different shots. These leaves room for our own individual creativity and we can all try out shots that we wish to experiment with. As for the performance part of the video, Lucy will play the main character walking through the streets.
EDIT:
We have now decided to have a narrative fuzz in our video and it will be Ed Thorn playing the role of someone following a female character, played by Lucy Shilling. The other roles of director, editor and producer is unchanged.
EDIT:
We have now decided to have a narrative fuzz in our video and it will be Ed Thorn playing the role of someone following a female character, played by Lucy Shilling. The other roles of director, editor and producer is unchanged.
Location Reccie
Rob and I went on a location reccie to see what sort of locations we can use in the music video. We walked around Tunbridge Wells and found quite a lot of good potential locations that we can take into consideration when storyboarding our ideas. Some of the many pictures we took can be seen on the right side of our blog page. We also filmed some footage.
After seeing some of the shots afterwards we feel that we have found some good locations, such as a dark alley, a large car park and the middle of town near the Millenium Clock. However, after going out on the reccie we have realised a few problems. For example, we didnt predict how hard it is in such a popular place to get a shot with minimal movement from other people or objects in the background. We also realised that there was a potential problem with lighting in the streets. Some of the footage has a 'reddish' look to it due to the lighting in town. However, the Blacks' car park seems like an ideal location as the lighting is exactly what we are aiming for and it is often empty at night time.
After seeing some of the shots afterwards we feel that we have found some good locations, such as a dark alley, a large car park and the middle of town near the Millenium Clock. However, after going out on the reccie we have realised a few problems. For example, we didnt predict how hard it is in such a popular place to get a shot with minimal movement from other people or objects in the background. We also realised that there was a potential problem with lighting in the streets. Some of the footage has a 'reddish' look to it due to the lighting in town. However, the Blacks' car park seems like an ideal location as the lighting is exactly what we are aiming for and it is often empty at night time.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Initial Response to Track
Here are some of the basic ideas that Rob and I have had. At the moment, they are just initial plans, themes etc:
- Voyeurism - This is conventional in music videos but me and Rob want to take it further than just the obvious use or mirrors etc. We would rather use reflection and be more subtle with the idea of voyeurism. CCTV and Television for example.
- Speed cutting - We have seen other videos where quick cutting has been successful. We have not yet decided what we are going to use the jump cutting for but we think it will be a good recurring theme throughout the video.
- Camera movement - We want to use 360 shots and maybe some POV shots. We will experiment with the camera before we start filming and hopefully this will give us some ideas for our video.
- Text - We have discussed inserting text onto the screen in the video. We do not want to do lip-synching and we think that text on the screen will compensate for this.
- Camera shots - We think that we will include quite a lot of close-up shots of our actors face. We think that this adds a bit of emotion to the song and after studying other music videos, we think that this is a successful technique.
- Star persona - We do not feel like our video will be constructing the star's image very blatantly. The band will not be in the video, only the guest vocalist, who's voice is Richard Ashcroft. The actor will remain quite emotionless throughout, as we feel that this is unconventional and will grab the audience's attention. It will also make the video more interesting and the emotion from the song will be drawn from elsewhere, like the camera work and the background along with the mise-en-scene.
- Editing - We will do the editing after filming but we want to leave a lot of ime to edit so it is vital to film as early as possible. We will use slow motion and other editing techniques to create different feelings on-screen such as speed.
- Sound - We will use little or no non-diagetic sound in our music video. We may have a point where there is our actor/singer speaking over the top of the music.
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