Opening title.

When I finished my music video, the last thing I did was the opening credits you see on any music video. This was last thing Friday afternoon, so I put a draft there for now.

I placed the basics there, merely to see what it looks like. I will soon be changing it to something similar to this.

Scart 12 & the Blur

"Spiracle"

Out of Focus

Rough Trade Records 2010

Director: Tara Costello

Music video = FINISHED

Update.

I have almost finished my music video!

Things that have changed

- A time lapse of Hannah now takes place at the end of each chorus on the word 'spiracle', I think this is repeated about three or maybe four times.

- I have inserted the old child footage every time the line 'Please help me' is repeated. This works well as the footage I have used I seem to be struggling. For example in the first clip I cannot blow my birthday candles.

Update

I was aiming to have edited half of my music video before breaking up for Christmas. & I have.

I have been editing for a few weeks now, and I have successfully incorporated child footage. The narrative has a real nostaglic feel to it. Many of the clips are reversed and it feels like the act is looking back and remembering her childhood. With this more resolved narrative, I have also been working on my promotional album cover. I have decided to call the album 'Out of Focus', as I felt it summed up music video and worked well. It ties in with the use of blur, and the use of photography. It is revelant and works. I have also included a rewind sign on the front of my album cover. I am currently working on the track titles but I would quite like them to do consistent and I plan to use this running theme based on the notion of remembering.

Consistency

Update.

I've started editing.

This year I have only used iMovie for uploading footage. I haven't done a rough cut.
I was really eager to edit and I don't feel the need to do a one for this particular creative project. I suspect this is because I made an animatic, and was so ashamed of it. So I've gone straight into final cut pro. It seems to be going really well. I was a little frustrated at first as I thought I did not have enough footage. My music video opens with an establishing shot of the TV shoot. I shot this as one long establishing shot, so I have cut it down and placed piano cut aways in between - giving my video a fast, edgy feeling. I forgot how fast the tempo of the song actually is. I really, really don't want my video to be repetitive - despite the fact that most music videos are. When I need to repeat a shot, I always do something different to it. I have flipped a few shots, reserved and added effects too.
So early into the editing process and consistency is starting to show. A running theme of televisions, which is good.

Timelapse photos

I haven't blogged for a while. Been either busy or ill.

Above are two photographs from two different series that I am going to be using.

Photograph #1

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 0.6
Aperture: f/14.0

The first photograph has been taken from the first batch. My first attempt was the generic long exposure shot that many people have done. I felt the need to do this just as a starting point. Before getting a successful shot, I had to experiement and test different shutter speeds, ISO and aperture.

Photograph #2

ISO: 3200

Shutter Speed: 1/40

Aperture: f/5.6

I prefer the second shot. In recent years I have grown to love out of focus photographs. I never understood them before, As I was going to be working with a subject area that has been explored many times, I decided to also take some out of focus shots. I wanted to make the most of the location while I was there as I probably wasn't going to find any more time to re-shoot if I needed to. I am definately going to use the out of shot photographs.

I plan to use about five or six in a short sequence. It will appear quickly somewhere in the middle of my music video. I am also eager to play the sequence backwards.

Timelapse Shoot.

Yesterday evening I took the still photographs that I will be using for the timelapse.

It was very, very windy and there was light rain. Luckily, all the heavy rain happened earlier. I went out about eight in the evening, but I should have gone out later as it was not really dark enough.

I stood on a bridge over a motorway - there was so much light around: the light from the cars, and the street lights.

It took me many attempts to get what I considered a successful shot. I wanted something quite dark, but not too dark I guess.
In order to get my successful shot I chose to use a short exposure as there was a lot of movement in the photographs.

Album Covers

Everytime I create an album, I'm never happy with it so I am either going to do:

A simple yet unqiue cover with just text.

Or use a really obscure shot from a photoshoot.


I am warming to do promoting a band, but I'm not too sure.

Album Attempt, #2

After experiementing with layers, I was tempted to do the same with a black and white image (as I wanted to use a black and white image in the first place).
I decided to use a photograph of JUST Hannah's face. I used my one of my favourites from the black and white series and cropped it, so only Hannah's face was visible.
For the layer I used this photograph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleblackcloud-in-a-dress/4085694486/ and made it black and white.

These two attempts are my first, although I am happy with them I feel like I can produce something so much more better. I want to pay homage to an artist or a musican or something.

You can see that on my first attempt there are no track names.
I quite like the idea of producing a concept album, but I do not know how I would go about it.

Hmm.

Album attempt #1,

I never actually had any idea what I wanted my album to look like. Having said that I knew I wanted to include a shot from the music video on the inside or on the back of the album.
Here is my first attempt. When I first did this, I wasn't happy with the front cover. It was too dark, and I felt it was really boring and I wanted to include a close-up shot Hannah took of the fuzzy television so I decided use it as another layer:

Feedback

I still have a pitch to deliver, and it has been postponed to Wednesday 11th (next week).

I have had some feedback from the roughcuts that I have taken into much consideration.
The one factor that everyone has spoke about critically is the lighting. You cannot see my act that clearly, as the majority of the establishing shots taken are only television lit. The room is black itself and my subject is wearing black also.

The concept of the video was that my act would be revealed at the end of the video, but I will still need to get some more shots anyway.
I plan to film again Friday 20th November, which is a staff training day. In the evening an event I am collaboratively organizing is taking place, Battle of the bands. The bands will be coming into school for rehearsals from the afternoon onwards so I will have to come in early.

Creating the mise-en-scene will be the only element that will take up most of our time. We have had a practice run and now know where everything is, so it should not take as long.

Plans for re-shooting
- Have my subjects perhaps wearing a colour not so different from black, such as: grey or white.
- Have a television out of the shot, but close to Hannah so she is visible.
- Use external lighting, such as a lamp from the art department (which I used when photographing). Need to move the lighting closer.

Rough Cuts

Yesterday I began my music video shoot. This was the only day I could get the broadcast camera and I wanted to get a head start as my setting is very experimental. I felt I would benefit from starting this early so I can decide exactly how I want my setting to be like. So really, the shoot was just to establish the mise-en-scene and to record a few establishing shots.

It took quite some time setting up the mise-en-scene as I used about six or seven televisions. The room I filmed in lacked plug sockets so about three extension cables were in use.

I tried my best to film all the footage I needed but I might have to shoot some more.
Next time round it will probably not take as long, as I will know exactly where to get the televisions from and the extention cables from.

I wanted to make the most out of having the broadcast camera so I filmed as much footage as I could. I want my music video to be dark, urban and gritty. It rained this morning so I got some footage of raindrops like I wanted to. This is quite a basic shot so I experimented with different focuses and angles.

I will probably include some of this footage in my pitch tomorrow.

Animatic!

I added another three pages of story boarding today and actually finished my animatic. :D


I really, really do not like the way animatics look in general. I cannot draw and I feel my animatic does not portray how I want my video to look. Having said that I do think animatics are vital when it comes to making a film. I like how they do so much more than storyboards. But with this one, I did it because I had to.


My animatic may come across as repetitive, but I can assure you, my video will NOT be at all repetitive.
I found that there was only so much I could draw, and the majority of the things I wish to do in my video I did not really know how to draw. When it comes to the pitch, I feel I was probably be able to explain my concept a bit better.


- At the beginning of the video, I would like to have some sort of establishing shot without any music. At the time, I wanted to start the video with a mid-shot of my act with her back to the camera, but now I want to start with an establishing shot of the room she is in with the televisions. I felt a fade transition would work best as the image fades out, the music will begin.


- Throughout the video, I had to repeat the same drawing of the piano. I did not think it mattered using the same drawing, but I guess it does look a little repetitive. I plan to use several cutaways of Hannah playing the piano. I want to use them in a subliminal fashion and have them appearing in between other clips. When it comes to post-production, I plan to edit them in a way which makes them appear and disappear quickly, I want them to look edgy and modern. When it comes to filming, I will shoot the same shot from different angles.

- I also decided to repeat the shot of polaroid a few times. Initially, I was only going to use an establishing shot (as I wish to surround Hannah with polaroids). When producing another three sheets of storyboards, I decided to include a sequence of Hannah throwing the polaroids in the air.

- I want my video to have a gritty feeling to it, and for some reason the rainy/windy weather sprang to mind. I wish to film the wet grass, leaves

blowing in the wind (haven't drawn), and raindrops falling down the window.

When creating this animatic, so many more ideas came to me.

I'm worried about presenting my animatic as I fear people will be critical when this does not really portray how it looks in my head.

Good News

I found a metronome and a date to film. :D

I hope I don't have the same problem as last year though. My cast being unreliable, when shooting a continuity task last year I was always running after my actors (as I needed to re-shoot). After weeks and weeks of failed chasing, I decided to use completely different actors, and start over. (http://videokid-media.blogspot.com/2009/02/continuity-piece.html).

It was worrying because this was such a small task, and when creating an opening title sequence last year I was worried I was going to run out of time and waste my time chasing up people. But I managed to create a opening anyway.

I plan to film the first day back after halfterm, after school.
We're supposed to be pitching our music video on the first lesson back after halfterm, which is the Wednesday.
If all goes to plan, I should have some footage I can show as opposed to an animatic, and all the planning stuff?

Hmm.

Storyboarding.

Today I found out we only have til December to film and edit!!!!!!

AH!

:(

Story- boarded today and will be uploading it shortly.

I want to create a real unique setting for my music video, but I'm not entirely sure how I want it to look. I have a few motifs that I want to be the main focus but at school my creative juices got flowing and now I want to do so many different things with my music video.
I'm definately going to include projection. I plan to record some footage of Hannah (my act) being deadpan, and then project it at some point during my music video.

I also wish to use this footage from this music video:



I want to use this existing sequence from a linkin park video What I''ve Done. The sequence is a short time lapse of weeds growing tall but rewound. It only lasts for a couple of seconds, and I thought it would be relevant as my act's name is called Bad Weeds Grow Tall.

I also wish to have several televisions in the set, but when they are not working and are fuzzy. I think this would be something simple and different.

Mood Board

Songs

Here is the song I wanted to use. Out of all the songs I jotted down, this was the song where I listened to lyrics and imagined a video to marry up with it. Little did I know that I had to market a brand new act alongside it. The singers in my song are two older men, David Byrne and Brian Eno. They are both amazing but where am I going to find two older men willing to be promoted? I feel it will be a lot more easier to do something different, in order to market a new act. So yeah, I am kind of back to square one (sorry Whittacker)..but it's not all bad, I have some sort of idea what I want to do.





I wish to use an obscure piece of music, but is there such a thing as being too obscure? I want my piece to be markable.
There is a few tracks by Soap&Skin I would love to use.
Their sound would be easy to market as it is just a 19 year old female on a piano. There would be a range of shots I could use, different angled piano shots I am thinking as the act has to feature in the video, doesn't have to be miming.





I also wish to play around with long exposure this term, I spent a year looking at it in photography now I wish to push the boat out a little and experiment with it a little differently, perhaps with traffic.
By long exposure I mean this:

Songs I'm thinking of doing:

Girl Afraid - The Smiths

Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads

Bedlam - Elvis Costello

Hoist that Rag - Tom Waits

Bad Body Double - Imogen Heap

One (U2 Cover) - Johnny Cash

Me! I Disconnect From You - Gary Numan + The Tubeway Army

Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads Cover) - Nouvelle Vague

Over & Over - Turin Brakes

Gone! - The Cure

Maybe something off the Everything that Happens will Happen today album (David Byrne and Brian Eno)

Or something by Soap&Skin.

THIS IS SO HARD D;

.