DESIGN TO REALITY

A while back Eddie and I sat down to design costumes for our band in the band shots of our music video. The two tops drawn at the bottom were for Lily Pearson our female drummer and as a female punk/ rock artist we decided her top should be both ripped and black to symbolize and express our chosen genre. We decided on the bottom right version as it was a more modern adaptation and as shown in the pictures below - these are the stages I took to create this designed top.

The first step I took was to make the top shorter as stereotypically punk/ rock female artists show a fair amount of skin, so I wanted to create a semi-crop top.

 Next I had to lower the neckline, to once again show a little bit more flesh and to give a wide neckline, but also to make the edges a bit ragged and torn, keeping with the house style and genre.

Then I gave the top a 3/4 length sleeve as I wanted her wrists to be shown because of her being the drummer and finally I cut two holes down each sleeve and two further holes over the shoulders to finally get the design we had planned.

BAND SHOTS

SUNDAY 16TH NOVEMBER

Filming the main band scenes:-

Location/ mise en scene:

• Desolate, broken down barn in the middle of the countryside
• Rubble scattered on the floor to represent destruction of lives
• Ivy on the walls to show danger

Actors/ Band Needed:

• Oliver Trivett (main vocalist)
• Lily Pearson (drummer)
• Lewis Macnamee (bassist)

Props:

• X1 Acoustic Guitar (Brown)
• X1 Electric Guitar (Black)
• X1 Drum Kit
• X1 Bass Guitar
• X1 Microphone and stand
• X2 Amplifiers

Equipment: 

• X1 Car
• X2 HD Digital Camera
• X3 Film Lighting
• X2 LED Lights
• X2 Tripods
• X1 Dolly
• X4 Extension Cables

Costumes:

• (Oliver Trivett) - Black skinny jeans, black shirt, red skinny tie
• (Lily Pearson) - Black skater skirt, black tights, black cut shoulder ripped top.
• (Lewis Macnamee) - Army combat trousers, black t-shirt and red checkered jacket.

RISK ASSESSMENT

CASTING THE BAND

OUR BAND:

We have chosen a three member band which is typical of a punk/ rock band, including a main singer/ guitarist, bassist and drummer.

OLLIE - Lead singer, acoustic and electric guitarist. 

We felt he gave the punk/rock vibe we needed in a band singer.

Favourite Music: Alexisonfire, City and Colour, Bastille, Metallica etc.

Instrument: Voice and Guitar (acoustic and electric)

LEWIS - Bassist.

Very talented guitarist who could capture our punk/rock image.

Favourite Music: Greenday, Bowling for soup, Patnt Pending, Biffy Clyro, 
Foo-fighters, etc.

Instrument: Bass

LILY - Drummer.

We wanted to subvert the genre by having a female drummer, which is very rare in punk/rock bands.

Favourite Music: Bastille, Alt-J, Imagine Dragons, Kodaline.

Instrument: Drums

OPENING SHOTS

  SUNDAY 9TH NOVEMBER

Filming the opening sequence:-

Location:

• Old cut-down cornfield (themes of death) with large singular tree in the middle
• Countryside
• Desolate
• Lonely

Actors Needed:

• Ollie Trivett (protagonist)

Props:

• Beige/ army rucksack
• Photograph of army group

Equipment:

Video camera

Transport to location - by Car (special thanks to Angus Hilton)


Costume/ Mise en scene:

• Grey trousers
• Blue woollen jumper (comfort / warm clothes - dressed for the cold weather - not dressed for fashion, merely practical)
• Green Barbour coat (feels safe amongst nature - country theme)
• Muddy shoes (Been walking for a long time/ long journey)

STORYBOARD

This is our storyboard that we created to give an overview of our shots and camera angles. By doing this we were able to break down the lyrics and beats of the song which helped us focus of our aims and intentions for each shot. This process slowed our thoughts down and directed them into ideas of camera angles, analysing why each shot would need a particular transition and angle to portray our preferred meaning.

This was a vital process of our product as we outlined the narrative to our storyline, allowing our diagrams to create an idea of the visuals of bringing our music video to life.

Audience

Audience

Why is audience important?

An audience is either an individual or a collective group of people that read or consume media texts.

Audience are important because without them, there would be no media or no media profit. Media organisations rely on audiences to make money through consuming their products. The market towards mass media is also becoming more and more highly competitive every year in terms of attracting more audiences through different platforms to stay profitable.

The Mass Audience:

'Broadcast Audience' - People who consume mainstream media/ popular texts. This type of audience is targeted at a very large diversity/ range of people.

The Niche Audience:

Smaller, but very influential. This group contains only a small, select group of people with a unique interest.

Although my music video can appeal to a mass audience, a niche audience that are interested in my particular genre of Punk/Rock Alternative will be more drawn to my product. Therefore to interest them and satisfy my audiences expectations, I need to understand the genres codes and conventions in order to adhere to them enough, creating a strong grounded piece of that particular genre.  



Sarah enjoys listening to music from the classical, pop and folk genres; including artists and bands such as - Aha, Crowded House, Seth Lakeman and the Pet Shop Boys!  Her hobbies include, writing, cooking, gardening and photography. Sarah would be part of my 'mass audience' as she wouldn't choose to listen to a punk/rock alternative song, yet my video has global messages which appeal to all, so she may be attracted by the narrative of my video with effective advertising.

LIGHTING

Lighting Workshop

Playing around with lighting in the media lab has significantly helped and improved our filming. When using artificial light for our band scenes in a dark barn, these skills we learnt in lesson were then applied very simply to our shots. In the first image on the left and the image at the bottom, we have used one light to the side of his head to create a split down his face of light and dark.  In terms of the mise en scene this technique may be used to show the character being a split between good and bad - suggesting their inner thoughts/ motives and conflictions within the character. 

The shot on the right shows the light held behind Eddie's head, which clearly outlines the shape and features of his head and casts a dark shadow on his face. This technique may be used to show and angelic side but also a dark, mysterious side because his face is hidden from plain sight and cast into the shadows.

Copyright Email to Record Label - Greenday

Dear Warner Bros Records



Me and my friend Jessica Opie are A2 media students. I am writing to you to request for permission to use your song "wake me up when september ends" by Green Day. I believe that you own the rights to this song.

We are hoping to use this song within our A level media project where we have to make a music video for a song out on the current market. A long with the music video we are also required to make a digi pack and album poster for the band.

If you give us permission to use the track. It will ONLY be used to for educational purposes to make our coursework. The examination board which requires us to do this is OCR. We will not be taking the track as our own.

A bonus will be that the artist who is with you will gain further publicity through the video and the other productions. If there is a need for a copyright notice to be included in the records of my project then I will do so. I will be happy to this if you send me the details.

Me and my partner will be looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards



Edward Towers

Jessie Opie

BRAINSTORMING

Eddie and I over the last week have been brainstorming ideas on paper. Creating spider diagrams full of ideas to help organise our thoughts and to share them with the other person. The image on your right is just setting out some basic ideas of the setting, lighting and themes.

Setting out all our ideas on paper has helped us to finalise ideas and brainstorm, by drawing images etc. I think this has helped our project massively and will influence our video greatly!

The image on the left and right show another of our spider diagrams - this time focusing on the band and their costumes and make-up. We need to stylise their outfits and faces to keep with the punk/rock alternative genre that Greenday's music focuses around! This was really important to gain an image of the way they will look to our audience in the video.

The main colour theme for their costumes will be black which is the signiture colour of punk/ rock bands, but we also wanted to add block colour in there as well, because punk often does this and has a strong focus on colour. The colours red and green will also have a significant focus in our video as a whole - the red symbolizing blood, becoming a colour motif showing that its always in 'his' mind and the green sygnifyes nature and bright green is often associated with punk bands.

This image contains some of our initial costume drawings. 

• For Josh we wanted black baggy trousers with a bright green belt as shown on the top left. These types of trousers are often worn by punk/rock band members and we have added block colour to focus more on the punk aspect of the genre. 
• For Ollie, our main singer - we wanted skinny black jeans with rips down both sides which again reflects the punk/rock genre. Extra focus will be taken on his make-up as he is the main focus of the band and will have many close-ups on his face. From our research of punk/ rock alternative music videos - the main singer is always the main focus of the band, so we have taken inspiration from this code/ convention of the genre.
• For Lily, the costume proved more difficult to create. We had subverted the genre by having a female drummer so her costume had to both reflect her femininity and keep with the genre conventions. (Keeping to conventions will help our audience understand and recognise our genre.) We had two designs of her top, but eventually went with the second option on the right which we feel went best with the genre, yet showed enough skin to reflect her femininity and reflect the way women are often portrayed in these genre of music videos.

DIRECTORS COMMENTARY OF OUR PRELIMINARY TASK

UPDATING MY MOODBOARD

I have recently been updating my moodboard on pinterest - upgrading the images used and adding more images with a sense of narrative to them. All of the images and GIFs I have used have inspired me in some way and are part of the image and atmosphere I wish to create with my video.

I have put costume ideas among my pictures, as well as particular shots I have found that will work well with our video. I feel that my moodboard has captured the essence of how I would like our video to turn out with many punk rock themes set amongst this so we stick closely to our genre.

http://uk.pinterest.com/jessieopie/media-moodboard/

THEORISTS

I have chosen the main theorist in which we will use and apply his particular theories to our work.

1. Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes -

In a summary Barthes concludes that "a text has many meanings, or is like 'a galaxy of signifiers' which can be interpreted in many ways."
Taking the highlighted section into account - the 'galaxy of signifiers' is an element we would like to apply to our work. Our story of a man suffering from post-traumatic stress, chased by the army and ends up getting caught at the end, could have a variety of interpretations to the storyline. Is he really getting chased by the army or is it all in his imagination? Is the stress too much that he is suffering from flashbacks or hallucinations? Or is this very real and he has become in trouble with the army for a particular crime he has committed?

I really like the fact that our story can have a different meaning to whoever watches it, as it makes the video more personal to them. The idea of the audience questioning whether it was real or not at the end really interests me too. Our video will contain many action codes but the biggest enigma code will be - Is this real? Or has he really killed someone or not?

Symbols and signs will give clues that should help the audience in piecing together the plot - Our idea of having the colour red in almost every shot with become a motif of blood as our protagonist cannot get it out of his mind.

PUNK ROCK/ ALTERNATIVE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

• Band shots flipping to a storyline
• Close ups on instruments and artists
• Focus on lead singer
• Close half shot of lead singers face
• Low angle shots
• Wide shots of the band
• Constant variety of depth of field shots
• Usually a small band - 3 - 4 members
• Occasionally edited with a black and white filter
• Dark Clothing (rebellious)
• Make-up (eyeliner etc.)
• Crazy Hairstyles
• Outdoor shots - nature
• Natural light
• Indoor artificial light
• Always a form of narrative, but it doesn't always have to link with the song/ lyrics
• Many videos take one idea from a song and create a narrative around that.

Eddie and I have taken all these factors on board and have chosen to use the highlighted ones above. We believe these in particular portray our genre very well together as a package and will hopefully make the genre very clear to our audience. We have taken a lot of inspiration from other music videos of the same genre and have worked out which elements work best in each video - from there we chose the codes we will take and insert into our video.