Update

As I wasn't able to get in today and won't be able to tomorrow, I am still waiting to hear from Reece and Sean about script and storyboarding - whilst I read Reece's update the other day, it was more of a justification for doing certain scenes, rather than an actual script and Sean has not yet produced one; with Sean away tomorrow as well, this process will be detailed. Part of the blame is to go to me for being unable to come in, but these reasons are external and important and these planning stages cannot be fully reliant on contact time in class, so it would be nice if the boy's could contact me about planning via facebook or texting - in reality it wouldn't be that hard.
If they want it done (which in reality it will have to) I and Reece will have to make decisions by this sunday so that I can story board as I am away filming next week for NSA unless he wants to take this responsibility. Our planning needs to be complete by this week or the half term at most so that we can start filming in the first week of November.
Working with camera's is still a possibility, though I have recently been looking into the

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 as it good video recording capabilities and is reasonably priced. Whilst working with higher quality cameras isn't the be all and end all, it would help in this project to create a better looking video as of course our video needs to improve from last year as well. This could be a possibility as I do have money saved up as I have been thinking about getting a camera, whilst is a DSLR camera compact and not a DSLR or professional camcorder, from what I've seen it will still do the job (as advised from my DoP mentor Kyle from NSA).

Story Development

Script / Scenario

Lyrics:

All the, small things / True care, truth brings / I’ll take, one lift / Your ride, best trip

Always, I know / You’ll be at my show / Watching, waiting / Commiserating

Say it ain’t so / I will not go / Turn the lights off / Carry me Home

Na, na ,na –

Late night, come home / Work sucks, I know / She left me roses by the stairs / Surprises let me know she cares

Say it ain’t so / I will not go / Turn the lights off / Carry me home

Na, na, na

Say it ain’t so / I will not go / Turn the lights off / Carry me home

Keep your head still / I’ll be your thrill / The night will go on / My little windmill

Say it ain’t so / I will not go / Turn the lights off / Carry me home

Keep your head still / I’ll be your thrill / The night will go on / My little windmill

Intro to verse:

(Night performance): The video opens with a high 3 shot of the band playing the intro for 2-3 seconds before cutting to a montage that follows the teen-male character running through the streets in desperation (exterior night) to an unknown location (this is linked back at the end as he finds the female teen and they resolve their ‘isolation’). Cuts continue to exchange between the live performance and the narrative.

The narrative should jump to a slow-motion party, where he is walking around isolated (the actual beginning) close-up to mid-close-up shots should be made whilst cutting between the teen-male and the teen-female character at the party; he cannot find her. Cuts are made between the narrative and the band.

Verse Intro:

‘’All the, small things’’ – Iconography shot: close-up shot of lead singer, (day) teen-male character now at school, emphasis on isolation as he moves between class, extreme fast-motion of the day passing – cuts to band again – notices teen-female character in class. Exchange in close-up shots again, jump to live performance and back. Notes are passed between them, emphasis on notes.

Up to ‘’Na-na-na’’ emphasis on isolation is made, whilst in school.

‘’Turn the lights off, carry me home’’ male-teenage character walks home alone under street lights.

Chorus:

‘’Na-na-na’’ – back at party scene, abstract shots of taking pills, alcohol (other themes) more continuous cuts to live performance. Continue shots of alone, build up to the party, he notices this girl more and more where he is. Some abstract shots of ‘working’ – e.g. store clerk or something (this would only take a couple of minutes to shoot if we got it right). Drinks before party, abstract shots, flowers on stairs, messy room, etc.

Solo/climax:

Range of slow-motion shots and sped-up shots as he arrives at the party, abstract shots of alcohol, drugs, and couples together, he continues theme of isolation. Comes back to original point again of him noticing the girl at the party, they go upstairs and ‘sex theme’ – abstract / suggestive shots whilst cutting out to live performance continuously. After emphasis on this, ‘the night will go on’ goes back to running scene where he is chasing her, ends with them together under lights walking home e.g. resolved happy ending.

Blink 182 - All the small things

I thought it would be interesting to have a quick look at blink 182 all the small things - what's interesting is that the video actually has no narrative, it's all just performance or the band, meaning that whatever we do - considering that we are going to have a narrative, will actually be completely different from the original; more so, it's kind of mixed it in an abstract sort of way.

Short Prop List/ Costumes

Short Prop List/ Costumes

Prop list. – Night performance

Acoustic Guitar
Bass Guitar
Acoustic Drum Kit
Microphone
Microphone Stand
2 AMPs
Leads
400w Floodlight

Mise en scene

Lead singer – simple unkempt shirt, blue jeans Punk style.

Guitarist – roughly same

Drummer - roughly same

Narrative boy – Black jacket, Blue jeans, shirt

Narrative girl – band tee, Jeans

Locations -  School hallways, tennis court, classrooms.

Night time

Tennis court with floodlights
Skatepark (Possibly)

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This is the current prop list and costume list, when collected, images will be uploaded onto the blog though these have the ability to change at any time if needed on set; this will be reliant on the producer however.

The All American Rejects - Move Along

Again, this is just a quick little look into relivence of what we might do. In terms of themes in mind, this one is bang on the money - it really homes in on that isolation and youth teen spirit with the football and romance scenes, and the ending too warps up nicely with the whole themes involved being resolved in some way, particularly as theirs suddenly a live audience there; whilst we're not having a live audience, we can concempensate for that in narrative. What really interests me is the editing here, with over lapping shots, each the same but with different scenes, there's about 6 edits per second and it's perfectly synced - it's really unique and therefore alternative, anyone who watches it realises that it belongs to this genre of music due to the set up, the clothing/costume, the themes and of course the editing in relation to sound. Whilst the video doesn't have much to offer in terms of narrative, it's well worth a look into what we could do come editing; editing to music may be a challenge, so this could always be a possibility (though I don't see this to be likely due my natural ability to count beat tempo in seconds due to drumming).

Sum 41 - Motivation

So I've done some detailed analysis of alternative rock music videos, and de constructed how the genre works and how the audience receipts this, but I thought I'd have a quick look at some interesting videos. This video by Sum 41 is insane, its all performance in a room - it's worth a look at because we're not getting a live performance (to further persuade the theme of isolation, but also due to the fact that we can't cast that many people too) but this is intense. It has a lot of those same conventions such as camera moment, extreme close ups - as it will do in the tight space - but it also works in those themes and relates to its target audience through youth. It's crazy because when it's trying to connect with the target audience, it's staged probably we're they'll be, in their room; so it sort of turns into this live performance in your room effectively. In terms of what the audience wants to see, its very expected from the alternative rock genre, those conventions that they notice for an alternative rock music video are all there, emphasis on instruments, short cuts, extreme close ups, close ups, pan, follow shots whilst at the same time doing something that's slightly unconventionally, there's no narrative. It's 100% mainstream iconography. Whilst audiences notice this, the image of the band too (costume) sells the genre more and relates to their audience as its generic stuff, the room, messy, relates to the audience further more too because the age group is mostly teenaged and steryotypically, this is how most teenages live.
A lot of the shots are interesting too, as well as how the video is basically constructed from the room.

Chosen Song

This is our chosen song by Tweede (who we have permission from) for the music video. This version is slightly (minor different to) the original song by Blink 182. One of the things we'll have to take into consideration in terms of performance and props to this song is that the guitar is acoustic, meaning we'll have to scrap the electric guitar and get an acoustic or an acoustic electric one - this should be simple enough, just a minor adjustment to the prop list.

Check List / Update

This is just an update of the documents that we have done so far - we've done the pitch and treatment (which is uploaded to my blog) and the prop sheet and costume sheet (which was done by Sean and Reece whilst I looked more into narrative) will be uploaded soon.
We should have clearances ready soon, we have most of our people bar narrative, and we just need to bolt down our locations and then we're good to go. The rest more or less depends on the narrative and script being drawn up, then we can get to work relatively quickly on the rest.

We all realise there's one slight problem with our shooting time; me and Sean are away during the october half term, which means we can't film until the 3rd of November at the earliest - though there's slight news on the horizon. Instead of using standard hand held cameras, we might be able to use a DSLR or professionally HDV SD camera after talking to my grandfather (which will require some training also) but this also means we will only have this equipment for a limited time, but we think it would be better because it gives us the opportunity to film in a higher quality; more so, this is further opponistic as I'm apart of northern stars film academy, I already have experience with DSLR cameras, so I'm prepared to use focus, white balance and exposure correctly or to the style we want. Hopefully, this will go ahead however ironically I won't find out until the 2nd of November at the earliest.

Treatment

 



TREATMENT FOR AN ALTERNATIVE ROCK MUSIC VIDEO

2^nd October 2012

Song: ‘’Blink 182 – All the small things’’

 

Synopsis

The music video will be accordingly 2 minutes and 53 seconds from a cover song from Tweedaa, the choice being ‘’All the small things’’ by the original title artist blink 182. The song focuses on five of the conventional themes, alcohol, drugs, freedom of youth, sex and isolation (at the beginning); the piece will focus on a three person band and two main characters.

The narrative of the music video will be chronological follow a young man and woman over a day, transcending from the theme of isolation to alcohol, drugs, freedom of youth and sex (and possibly party themed). There will be a lot of emphasis of these themes and during both chorus and verse, the narrative will reflect/portray (conventionally, reflect a ‘’fantasy’’ of the lyrics) the lyrics of the song. The chorus particularly will have abstract fill shots to emphasis on these particular themes.

The music video will also have a live performance section, often out weighing the narrative in terms of seconds; the live performance will take up just under 2/3 of the song (effectively the live performance will be 100 seconds whilst the narrative will be 73 seconds) in accordance to genre based conventions.

The characters in the narrative and live performance band members will reflect the themes of the genre as well as identifying conventions with their audience (teenage, male / female, young adult) e.g. this will be attributed through school narrative, type of song, themes, costume and possible props that we have identified throughout our research into the genre.

 

Style

The video will generally be up-beat and light hearted (with very little drama and tension except for the pre-get together of the two characters) whilst focusing intensely on the genre themes. The nature of the tone and atmosphere can be shown through the editing style of pace in relation to song tempo and emphasis on particular notes from instruments; in production, lighting may be used to further expose the shots to bring this method forward. In post-production (e.g. editing) template effects will be used to alter colour control (e.g. possible white balance could be slightly off put and slightly colourful) to reflect this further.

Audience

In terms of a demographic classification the age group “All the small things” would have will most likely be the age group oriented around the 13-17 category as the themes present in the song reflect the themes often associated with youth culture such as freedom of youth and a theme of the glorification of sex, drugs and alcohol. It is difficult to determine a specified gender since seemingly the audience for alternative rock is usually not specified as they try to attract both men and women and do not always emphasize a clear preference.

 

Technical requirements

The technical requirements of this production will be:

-          Digital Camera

-          2^nd Digital Camera (for behind the scenes recording)

-          Adobe After Effects CS5

-          Adobe Elements Premiere 4 &10

-          Adobe Photoshop Elements 10

-          Adobe Premier CS3

 

The availability of the cameras will depend on our shooting time scale (estimated at 2 weeks) and the availability of the equipment; all other software we have 24 hour access to for the period of 6 weeks.

 

Contingency Time

The project will have ¼ of the total time frame for production to finish, giving us 1 and ½ week if all else fails.

Percentages between narrative and live peformance

So I decided to look at the percentages of narrative in relation to live performance from several alternative rock music videos as suggested in the pitch. I decided to look at some videos I had collected, 30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens, Jimmy Eat World - The Middle, All Time Low - Time Bomb. These are all alternative rock music videos, and whilst I have looked at other music videos, and have a large collection of such, some of them are too live performance orientated, and considering that we are looking to do narrative to live performance, it is best that we view these percentages.

30 Seconds to Mars  - Kings and Queens
A lot of this video has promotional 30 seconds to Mars work, such as intros and credits, they're really stylized and artistic, more so from the new album This is War.
The narrative of the video was 743 seconds, whilst the live performance was 141 seconds.

Somewhat, this isn't what I expected, as I guessed in the pitch I estimated that it was roughly 40% narrative and 60% live performance, yet this video has proven otherwise - immensely. This is an interesting turn of events, because whilst watching it, I felt like I was watching the band a lot; but this is probably due to the fact that the band pop up in the narrative too.


Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
So The Middle is probably one of the most conventional and a very effective music video for an alternative rock genre. Though again, its still kind of stylized in terms of lighting, as I said earlier on in the blog, I like the idea of this music video because it is stylised, which is something I'm looking to do.
The narrative in this video was 109seconds whilst the live performance was 227 seconds - roughly 1/3 is narrative and 2/3 is live performance.

This is more around what I expected and over all, what I actually view in the music video, whilst the narrative and the live performance is set up in the same location/setting, at the same time it never crosses over, which is pretty effective. Typically, as this is one of the most conventional music videos I've looked at, I'm not surprised that there is a more overwhelming percentage of live performance in relation to narrative (as this is what I expected from the genre, as effectively an audience member would expect from this alternative rock genre).

All Time Low - Time Bomb
Again, this is another video I looked at, and whilst this was extreamly focused on iconography (though it's probably also the shortest of the videos I've viewed above) and even product placement, I'm not surprised that there is indeed more live performance than there is narrative because the band really tries to sell themselves.
The narrative was 86seconds whilst the live performance was 109seconds - though the two crossed over by the end.

Whilst the margin between the two is much much less than Jimmy Eat World, there is still more live performance then there is narrative.

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So in terms of reflection over the three examples above and an effective vote of 2 to 1, we are going to do more live performance than narrative (again, Kings and Queens is quite a stylized video whilst the other two are far more conventional) though we will have to work out how much. The issue that the videos raise is the more developed a narrative is, the more it will exist in context, which will be conventional to represent that fantasy or 'reflection' of the lyrics in video. In reality, whilst I'm slightly surprised by the Kings and Queens video, I'm not by the other two because they do what I predicted, there's more live performance than narrative, and because there's no average percentage between them, this means we have diverse choice to do this. This also means that we could satisfy our audiences more because there's no specific percentage between the two.