Intruments Recces

We decided to take images of some of the various instruments and musical kit that could potentially be used within our music video. As mentioned in our brief we will be using a guitar, drum set and microphone are all most definitely being used but because of the fact that there is clear focus on instruments, which is connoted through the artists star persona.

Cast Selection

Below are images of Disha Patel, Francesco Rea and Jubel Rahman all of which have been considered for playing some of the essential roles within our music video. The roles in which they have been considered for are the boxers, ring girl and referee and we chose these particular individuals because of the fact that they're all attractive models but also represent our young demographic, which encompasses a range of different ethnicities and ages.

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Disha Patel

 

Francesco Rea



Jubel Rahman

14/11/11 - 25/11/11: Week Post

Throughout the past two weeks we were putting together our pitch that need to be presented on the 16th and it had to contain a shot and scene list, digipack, poster, animatic, interetexual references, location, props, costumes, codes and conventions and our target audience profile. Whilst some of those elements weren't presented in the best way possible such as our animatic, which was not only filmed poorely  but the drawings weren't to a high enough standard. After presenting our pitch which turned out to be mediocre we than had to collect audience feedback from our audience which gave us any final indications on what part of our idea didnt seem to work.In addition we haven't posted all of our planning reserach. During the middle of the second week we had begun finishing our pre-production research due to earlier technical difficulties. Furthermore we are now into production and have been required to fill in some paper work, such as production schedule, call sheets etc.

Institutional Research

Mercury Records are a standalone company based in the UK and are part of Island Def Jam Mowtomn Musci group as well as bieng a subsidary of Universal Music Group but also have bases in America, Australia and France. The instituation that our artists would be signed to are Mercury Records and this is becuase of the fact that the artists signed to them all don't stem from the same type of genre showing the level of versatility the institustion possess but also that they're open to both mainstream and underground styles of music.. For example mainstream artists such as Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Adele and Pixie Lott, all of which originate from Rap, Pop, RnB and Soul genres. Yet the record label have artists that whilst being mainstream come from underground genres such as Nero, Maverick Sabre, The Killers, Noah and the Whale, Arcade Fire, and I think that by having a institution that is so open to various types genres would help to give them a good platfrom in order for them to potentially market to an audience that is wider than their intended dempgraphic. In addition due to the fact that they have institutions all over the world it would further help the band to market them selves on a global scale.

Scenes + Shots list V1

1.     Scene starts with a long shot of a person gradually walking towards the camera. From there it goes into a close up of the male or female's face and from there instantly zooms into the persons eyes creating some level of tunnel vision into a different scene.

2.     Zooms into a mid shot of the band and vocalist in this white glowing room with them at the centre of the room. Goes into a low angle of the vocalists as he leans forward

3.     From this low angle pans into the eyes of the vocalist and goes into a scene with a free runner/s jumping from one structure to another, as the pace gradually begins to build up. There would be close ups, longs shots and mid shots of the free runners.

4.     From there it was zoom into the eyes of one of the free runners going into a scene consisting of riots, protests etc. They would consists of long shots and close ups. In addition time manipulation effects would be added.

5.     Camera goes into the eyes of one of the rioters and then pans out of the eye and towards the drummer and has close ups of his drumming, with fire or water slashing out every time he hits the drum. Furthermore there was be rapid shots (cross cutting) between him and the gutiarist in order to fit the flow and pace of the music.

6.       From there the last rapid cross cut scene would be on the guitarist and the camera would zoom into his eyes and go to another scene once again. It would then go into an elemental fight scene consisting of earth, fire and water (ae.tutplus.com). This scene would consist of long shots of multiple characters throwing elements at each other.  Mid shots of the characters with their individual elements and close ups of the characters faces.

7.      From there the last rapid cross cut scene would be on the guitarist and the camera would zoom into his eyes and go to another scene once again. It would then go into an elemental fight scene consisting of earth, fire and water (ae.tutplus.com). This scene would consist of long shots of multiple characters throwing elements at each other.  Mid shots of the characters with their individual elements and close ups of the characters faces.

8.       From there it would zoom into eye of one of the characters and go into a scene of a light sabre duel in an abandoned warehouse. Pan from a long to mid shot behind one of the characters. Furthermore it would track one of the characters as he runs towards another character and jumps then goes into a high angle shot of the two characters slamming into each other. It would then cut to a mid-shot of both characters an track them as they move across the location, and possibly add some slow motion effects.
 Possibility of buildings falling in famous locatiomns such as london, paris etc. Using cinema 4D

9.       From there it would then zoom into one of the characters eyes and go into a scene with a fire breather (performance act if possible) and then have high angle and low angle of him. Add slow motion effects on the fire as it comes towards the screen.
Possibilty of world destruction scene via atomic blast, sonic wave etc.

10.       From there it would zoom into the eyes of the fire breather and go towards a warrior scene of two people fighting. Add slow motion effects and speed up time at points to increase the dramatic effect. Furthermore it could spin around the characters at some point (also if possible)

11.       Zoom back into the warriors eyes towards the band and artists and cut between close up of the instruments.

12.       Right at the end of the video it will zoom rapidly through all of the scenes seen within the music video and then go back to the initial scene with the first character. He then winks and you see a Phoenix or fiery image within his eye.

13.       End of video.

Obviously due to the elaborateness of this video many things are subject to change as most especially due to the avalibility of these acts and performances.

Animatic (Poor version)

When Scott was making the animatic lets just say he didn't do it to the best standard possible and therefore we intend on uploading another one, which still represents our initial idea and not our changed one in order to show the development throughout the course. In addition it isn't amazingly clear in some scenes to see what is actually happening and I apologise for the bad quality of the video.

Audience Feedback

SMJ Presentation - Fire In Your Eyes on Prezi

http://prezi.com/ceyeei6p8ztj/smj-presentation-fire-in-your-eyes/   (Due to the fact that the prezi isn't adjusting its size to fit the blog you may want to go and view the prezi on the site)

We pitched our idea to a selected audience and we were given a range of different critisms that have allowed us to potentially develop our idea and fix the issues the may not work. This is the general feedback consisted of:

• Exciting idea with clear USP and focus on genre and the audience.
• Range of locations considered but not sure about elemental fight scene and the warrior scene because is this far too ambitious of us?
• Not enough ideas about the digipak and poster and how will they have a clear link to the video but also be a stand alone album.
• Clearly too much heavy focus on this fire element and needs to not incorporate it into everything.
• Make sure our ideas always have links back to the drum and bass genre.
• Lots of reliance on post-production and special effects. Have we practised those?
• Need to insure that there isn't purely special effects but also have raw footage.
• Possibly focus on this boxing concept and develop more on it.
• Good intertexual reference to Inception will our tunnel vision idea.

After all of this critism we have decided to take it on board and alter our idea. Some of the key changes that we have decided to incorporate are:

• Focus on the boxing idea but also insure that add all the post production till the end as circumstances can change the situation and time would've been wasted on trying that particular effect.
• We're keeping our tunnel vision effect but not add any other effects until post-production.
• Keep the fire spinner scene to still have elements of "fire in your eyes".
• Making the video a combination of conceptual, narrative and performance.
• Incorporate the band members into each of the scenes to make them more dramatic and draw in audience attention.

Genre Study: Pendulum - Watercolour

Pendulum is a drum an Australian drum and bass, electric rock band, who were inspired to delve into the drum and bass genre after attending a club called "Messiah". In addition their album "Hold your colour" is a true example of the drum and bass genre, a genre that possess distinctive codes and conventions that are required for an artist of band to fit that style of genre. Furthermore Pendulum is one of the drum and bass artists that have been compared to our chosen song "Fire in your eyes".

Digipak:

When it comes to the digipak they usually consist of very dark elements, whilst being combined with more vibrant visual styles, and also posses very apocalyptic and destructive concepts connoting aggression, passion and power. Furthermore the album cover doesn't always have a direct link to the lyrical themes of the songs, and can sometimes have alternative perceptions, which allows the audience to interpret multiple meanings. An example of this is Pendulum's "Hold your colour" album cover which has a wild, random structure along with a combination of dark shades of the more vibrant colors as it begins to span to the edges of the cover. Furthermore the lighter colors start from the middle in order to draw focus onto that section connoting that its the most important part of the album. In addition the combination of the dark and lighter elements helps to create a more modern feel, and makes links back to the club, rave scene, which is wear drum and bass originally stemmed from. As well as having a plethora of colors the use of the eye creates a mystic effect, stopping it from directly anchoring the album title. Drum and bass as a genre has become a lot more mainstream, and bands like Pendulum and The Prodigy have helped insure that, and this has therefore allowed artists of the drum and bass genre to have "randomness" on their album cover giving them an infinite number of possibilities.Therefore making it almost expected for a band/artist to not have a direct link between the album cover, and the title of their song.

Artists' image:

When it comes the the artists' image they can be a band or an artist. The band usually consist of a lead singer, drummer and guitarist, and they're overall theme of clothing is usually connotes a sense of uniformity.

                                                                              
When it comes the image of the artist they usually are depicted singing into a stand microphone. In addition the artists clothing never seems to be branded fashion, and is quite plain and dark, and possibly relates back to the themes shown on the album cover. Furthermore the artist usually wear one outfit throughout the majority of the video, connoting that the band or artist focus is one their music rather than their image. An example of this is the main vocalist from the band Pendulum in their music video for Watercolor. We can denote him wearing an all black outfit, standing on his own in an unknown location, singing into his microphone. This connotes once again that the band focuses more on the music they produce rather than what they wear. In comparison to other genres such as hip hop, RnB and Pop as they would have multiple costume changes, whilst in this video there an none.

 When it comes to the drummer, they never tend to be the main focus within the music videos as they usually help further enforce that sense of the band being focused on the music rather than their image. For example the drummer in Pendulum's music video Watercolor is always seen drumming, and isn't never seen doing anything else within the video and their are more shots of him playing the actual instrument rather than of him. In addition the clothes that he wears tends to always be the exact same in color and theme as the main vocalist creating a sense of uniformity. Furthermore artists' representation within the drum and bass genre isn't always the prime focus, and therefore it allows them to able to wear what they like depending on the themes of their song, and can potentially relate back to the album cover.

Themes & Editing:

Obviously the themes of the drum and bass genre are purely up to the band or artist but their connotations usually are all the same within the genre. These connotations usually consists of things such as aggression, passion and power all off which are conveyed through conceptual performance based videos. In addition despite the name of the song it will usually contain elements of action or destruction as a way of making the video more visually exciting, and that is then made through the addition of various effects within post-production. Furthermore there is usually a gradual build in that sense of passion and aggression throughout the music video until it reaches a climax.
     

                                                                                            

 Within this shot we can denote a space and mystic theme, which has most probably been made using some editing software, and it connotes the notion that there is a gradual increase when it comes to the level of passion and aggression throughout the music video, and within the drum and bass genre both thee music and their video start in a quite tranquil and calm manner. Furthermore it shows the conceptual elements within Pendulum's music video, and there is no clear link between the song title and the events taking place.

 At this point within the video you are able to denote the sudden change in pace and energy, and it has connotations of danger, power and passion, but also in looks as if the effect used it in rhythm with the music, evident through pulsating effect on the black liquid; this then shows that the bands focus is more on the music instead of their image. Furthermore the use of the black liquid relates back to the dark themes explored within this genre of music but also helps to relate back to that futuristic concepts that are explored as its more mainstream drum and base rather than underground drum and bass.

In addition within the drum and bass genre they tend to consists of very dramatic events that may very well juxtapose the more tranquil lyrics reinforcing the elements of "raving" and "clubbing" that appeal to more of the mainstream audience. These elements are evident within the drum and bass genre and are portrayed through the use of high scale visual and effects e.g. light particle effects or the destruction of structures which are present in Pendulum's music video.

Mise en scene:

Location

When it comes to the locations usually seen within this genre due to the fact that it's a conceptual video. Therefore the locations seem to be focused around a stage with the artist or band performing to large group of people. Furthermore the area that they're in may not be made completely clear to the audience creating a sense of mystery. This can be denoted in Pendulum's video when the camera cuts between the artist and the audience.

Within this picture we can once again connote elements of the rave and club scene that more modern drum and bass seems to divert towards. In addition it once again reinforces that idea that the music is the focus and that its main aim is for the enjoyment. In addition it helps to show that feeling of a performance by both the band and the audience. 

Poster trials

Relating back to our Phoenix concept  Scott then produced various concepts that could potentially be used as the poster. He tried to represent it in a way that was unique and didn't always connote the element of fire but focused more on the emotions such as fury, aggression and passion. He created these potential poster images on Adobe Photo shop and added various effects in order to see which ones worked best. These examples are shown below:

             
                                                                 Techno Coloured

                                                                       Glossy Finish

                                                                  Matted Scratched

                                                                    Silver Mirror

Intertexual Refrences - Inception

Another one of the references being made within our music video is towards the critically acclaimed film Inception. Due to the fact that within in our video we want it to have this "eye within an eye" theme that corresponds to Inceptions "dream within a dream". In addition we took that element of one thing inside another creating a further sense of depth that can be used to amplify that personal feeling of passion, anger and fury. Furthermore the film its self had heavy emphasis on visual effects and linked them to perceptions of the mind and also influenced us to have a heavy emphasis on emotions and the ways in which we would portray those emotions to the audience. Therefore it caused us to create a conceptual theme to not only to make it aesthetically attractive but find a unique way of exploring these emotions. In addition some of the highly destructive and cinematic moments such as when the city scope begins to fold over is similar to how dramatic we want the scenes within our music video to be. Some of the images that have influenced us are down below:

Intertexual References - Phoenix

We have a range of different different intertexual references within our music video that is represented throughout our overall theme, and is  represented in our poster, album cover also. One of our references links to the marvel characters Jean Grey, who inhabits that entity known as the Phoenix, and we wanted to include that sort of element connoting a struggle of power that helped to reinforce that element of fire. Furthermore this would help to relate back to our target audience who would have grown up with these comics and therefore create a unique demographic within our audience and appeal to them in a way that the genre may not have originally done. These are some examples of this Phoenix, and it will show some the elements that we liked. Images are courtesy of Marvel Comics:

There are various elements that we wish to incorporate within our poster and digipak. Some of these consist of that fire, anger and passion that is shown in a calm environment with a central destructive focus; these things can be seen in the second and third image. In addition to create a further sense of realism we wanted try and add a person within the main image, and have the phoenix rising out of them to make our themes of aggression and fury more personal to the audience. Furthermore I wanted to try an incorporate that rave and club elements which connotes freedom and exploration, which the Phoenix helps to represent. We wanted to make to fully place these themes in our poster and digipak and have more conceptual theme in our music video.

Conventions of a Digipak

A digipak is a 6 pane gate fold structure comprised of a paper stock or card stock binding, with one or more plastic trays holding a CD pr DVD.  There many convention within a digipak that are essentially despite what ever genre it may be representing and some of these consists of:

• Artist image
• Name of album
• Track listing
• Bonus extras, deleted scenes or the "making of" another video on the album
• Website, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Official website (Website banner)
• Record label branding and logo
• Relevant images real or conceptual that link back the artist individual star persona or genre
• Price of album
• Recording information, producer, location recorded, who wrote what song
• DVD logo
• CD logo

7/11/2011 - 11/11/2011 Week Post

During this week we started the planning for our main Media production and we were given a checklist with a list of things ranging from genre study to theoretical approaches, and everybody within our group has to be assigned certain roles an tasks that needed to be achieved by a certain date. Scott was given most of the art based tasks such as the Animatic, typography and digipac and poster research for a genre. Whilst Jubel was primarily given tasks that consisted of essay based tasks e.g. audience research as well as other art based tasks similar to that of Scott. I was given the major analysis tasks such as star persona, genre study and the theoretical approaches. Scott wasn't able to finish his typography concepts, and hopefully next week we as a group will be able to confirm our idea for definite.

Target Audience Research

Target audience

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Typography Idea's V1

Typography plays a vital role in the visual development in our music video and its used in the digipac, poster and possibly during the introduction of the video. We intend to make our typography bold and unique, not to only retain the interest of the audience but to insure that we don't create a typography that's expected by our audience and may juxtapose the connotations of the songs title.  Furthermore "Fire In Your Eyes" obviously connotes fire therefore we wanted to create an alternative interpretation of the name and present the text in a more visually conceptual way. Scott using Adobe Photoshop in order to create an array of different that could appeal to certain genres, that may or may not be incorporated into our own music video.

This effect was composed in Adobe Photoshop and when choosing the font for the text Scott decided  to use a simple and clean font to contrast to the grungy green texture, whilst creating connotations such as untidy and wild despite its clean back layer. He added a drop shadow so it had some depth to it, aswell as a outer glow to make a 3D looking edge. The satin effect also contributed to the toning on the edge which further give it that 3D effect. Despite the fact that this doesn't particularly relate to the genre of drum and bass the fact that their texts tends to be quite "poppy" and very vibrant in order to draw the audience attentions, yet some drum and bass texts consists of dull, dark, and bold texts.

When producing this text it was going to represent the pop genre, as this is evident through the splatter effects combined with the vibrant colors in order to make the text stand out more and becomes the main focus. Furthermore this is further emphasised by making the text black, and giving it a slight 3D effect as well as adding a drop shadow. This links more to the drum and bass covers that tend to be bubbly, fun and exciting, which is usually more for the mainstream drum and bass album covers rather than the more underground album covers.

This is an example of a drum and bass album that posses more underground elements, which is then conveyed through the use of the chrome effects, along with the sharp jagged edges. This has connotations of danger and an raw power, which is then further emphasised by the yellow and black striped baarrier surrounding the main title. This album isn't from a particular artist an is more an amalgamation of different drum and bass artist but this helps to convey these artists as aforementioned underground and more raw and dominant.

Initial Pitch - Fire In Your Eyes

Smj records pitch

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