Research into real artists of a similar type

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine - Savage Garden

This is on Australian due boy band, who base themselves on being indie/rock performers and their style is sort of 'bad boy' indie, which appeals mainly towards a female audience



There songs have now made it world wide, and all of their songs are written by themselves and have some inner heatfelt meaning to them which also again makes them appealing to a female audience.

There music mood is Brooding, Innocent, Party/Celebratory, Carefree, Whimsical, Stylish, Theatrical, Cheerful, Calm/Peaceful, Playful, Bittersweet, Sentimental, Passionate, Confrontational, Reflective


htp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_garden


http://savagegarden.com/

The Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with these two options


a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

What is a music video?

1. first and foremost a music video is a promotional device to try and market the music companies artist, if an audience watch an interesting or fun music video then they are more likely to buy the song, it also promotes what the artist is like so take Katy Perry, her msuic videos show to an audience what she is like and attract her fan base

in comparison to Chase and Status who have very different styles of music, so therefore the video different and promotional in a different way

2. Music videos are also creative, they have a narrative generally throughout them which tells the story of a song, and generaly have a very creative background to them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_Face_(Lady_Gaga_song)

3. they are also used as advertisment to promote say an unpcoming artists new album that is coming out where if there is a good music video that has good songs and audience will be more willing to purchase a whole album, which also generalyl have music videos with them nowadays


4. music videos are also an example of a synergy Eminem's film 8 Mile inspired his album 8 Mile which  caused his song 'Lose Yourself' to have a number one hit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Mile_(film)

5. music  videos are also very artistic such as Lady GaGa who has very abstract and artistic videos which bring in a larger audience as they are weird but interesting to watch, which therefore creates more money for the company, with her being artistic and different to other artists

Initial ideas for a music video

1. 'Two beds and a coffee machine' - Savage Garden, has a good narrative about a wife who is beaten by her husband and wants to leave with the kids but cant bring herself to, i thought we could film it in a house that was all smashed up and have the woman walking through it looking a a montage of pictures from the happy days till now, and end looking at her husband knowing she cant leave.

2.  'Feeling the moment' - feeder, thissong was written when their drummer died so is in memory of him, the only problem witht this would be finding a band who could play the song, as it doesnt work well to have people miming it. If we found a goood band there could be a nice mixture of narative and shots of them playing their instruments.

'A Drop in the Ocean' - Ron Pope

We also considered this video because it tied in with our ideas about having a song with meaningful lyrics, which are sung by one person playing piano, however after looking at all of these we chose to go with Savage Garden

prelim whole video task

Prelim evaluation task

We had already been influenced but other music videos on their ideas of shots and themes, which gave us the ideas for ours. Therefore we simply had to listen to the track and write a timeline of where seemed appropriate to change shot and which shot worked best where. Alongside this we also had a list of shots and also the order in which we would shoot them. An example of this would be we started off with a wide shot, then a mid-shot of the instruments and close ups of things such as the bass. However, due to timing we made sure we got the shots necessary but couldn’t get other ones we would have wised to have filmed if we had had the whole day, not just 25 minutes.

Once in the studio we had to swiftly set up the band how we had planned it and the way we thought would look the best. So we had to lead singer in the front with the two backing vocals behind her on either side. The instruments then surrounded them in a semi circle shape on the right, so all members of the band could be seen in a wide shot

In general all of the shots were filmed without fail first time round, there were a few which needed to be re-done to make sure that they were perfect, such as the close up of the lead singer, we found that there was a symbol from the drums in the shot so we had to film it again. This is however expected, as not all of them can be perfect. There were a few problems which arose when we made the decision to as the BV’s to stand out of the close up of the singer, not much of them would have been seen, but it would have made a big difference while editing as the continuity looked slightly strange when cutting from all 3 girls to just one.

It was useful to us to be filming in the studio as it meant we could plan in advance as we were well aware of which space we were using. We could get into the studio quickly and position the band in very little time as we new the pace and what would go where. The studio was also brightly lit which was convenient when it came to editing as it seemed like natural light and therefore setting.

We had already written out our timeline and because of this it made the editing process much more straight forward as we more or less new where each shot was going in comparison to the music. Though saying this, we did end up changing quite a few things depending on how well the shots were filmed on the day and as we had now met the band we new more about the image they represented so could fit the shots better to the music with this in mind. I defiantly think my editing skills have developed since the AS thriller task, I also think though as I composed the music for the thriller and had to match it to the action this helped me match what was going on to the music.

We all took turns to do the different roles during the production process, so I would start off as director and say what I wanted to happen in this section and then would swap with someone in my group to being on the camera and shooting was I was being told. I think as a group we worked well together and got the job done quickly with little dispute over what would look best, we listened to each other and respected the others ideas.

Overall, I was happy with the final section we produced, it worked well with the bands image and style and fitted in well with the track. We worked well as a group and I think I have learnt a lot from doing it.

Album Cover

We had to think long and hard about the album cover that we wanted, as it would in the end represent to image of the band that we wanted to create.



We chose to design the cover in black and white to represent the style of music that the band make, which is in the style of retro. Their style also seems quite 50's or 60's like, and so the black and white photo suits the band for this purpose. Furthermore, in the photo the 3 girls are dressed in a sort of retro/60's style so this just emphasises the image even more. We chose the three girls to be on the front cover because they represent the band more than the boys who are on the instruments as they are the front girls and give off the image. We kept the writing to be simple but effective, and so it is just bold and black. This was so that the band did not seem tacky.


On the back cover, we have the 3 girls in a more natural position and they have not realised a photo has been taken and so are laughing and having fun. This gives off the feeling that their image is not false and stops a fake image being given off. In the photo on the back cover, there is a boy (the drummer) sat next to them to show that there are more band members and that it is not simply a typical girl band as there are boys present in the band too.

shoot pre production

Before our shoot day, we needed some sought of plan to go in with. So Myself and my group which consisted of Isabel boddy, Niall Green, Patch Wadsworth and myself. We did some research into some videos that are quite similar with the genre of the band we were making video for. We looked at a video that our previous A2 media classes made. It was called 'Crazy in love'

Literal Video - Hero by Enrique Iglesias

Verse 1:

i am gonna kiss your ear lobe
i am gonna stand infront of the sun
when your leg gets out of the car
would you come fill up my car
i am leaning on a petrol tank
a tracking shot of my height
as i grope you as i get pissed

Verse 2:

lots of wind but your hair doesnt move
now i will sleep, when you play the piano
now we kiss and i hold you tigh

Chorus:

oh i am driving in the desert
i am chilling in my shades
now suck yout lollypopa
all my money flys away

Verse 3:

now i wear a rediculous hat
the mafia in a derlict house
why is that man playing my piano
i follow her all night

Chorus:

now we kiss infront of jesus
counting money in a sexual way
now i am scared of the mafia
so i stroke her face all day

oh the mafia gets angry
oh were in the desert
oh oh
he throws the gun
she's so angry
oh this is an unfair fights

Lilly Allen - Smile

Lilly Allen in this song has a very feminist view and a complete narrative about her breaking up with a boy, which would appeal to the female audience, in comparison to the Artic Monkeys this was a high budget video with a narrtive and not just shots of the band, she was also given a lot of camera time which inforces upon the audience who she is and who they are watching, so it seems to be a lot more about just getting fans. She does want to relate to a wide audience though of teenagers who are rebellious as it seems to them that they are being understood, another artist who did this similary was Avril Lavinge.

Artic Monkeys - star image

The Artic Monkeys are a boy band of 4, all of them came from Sheffield which makes them relatable to their fans as they are consdered as 'normal boys'. Most of their videos are from live footage which allows the audience to see what they are like on and off stage, their song 'Fake Tales of SanFransico' had a small budget of 1000 pounds which again makes it more relatble as it is nothing flashy or to high tech. They also filmed their instruments playing which is a sign of rockstars and not just mainstream artists, similary bands such as 'Guns n Roses' had shots of Slash playing his guitre, which is where the idea may have arisin from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b70Crpl2s2U&feature=player_embedded

The new A2 course

In this A2 course i will be producing a music video on a chosen artist and track, plus desgining a album cover for them which i think best represents their star image, and creating a advert or magasin article about the chosen artist.

Britney spears star image

http://www.slideshare.net/hurtwoodhousemedia/britney-spears-presentation-9165439

task 7 - looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The preparation and planning for the prelim task was very different to the main, which was in a lot of depth, we made prop lists, cast lists, story boards and shot lists and were constantly changing our ideas. Where as for the prelim very little planning was put in, there was only a shot list for what to do for each section.

the development of our film making skills improved massivly during the transitions of our prelim task to our our main task. for example in our prelim task the close up of the girls face, didnt have her whole face in the screen and things such as using lots of wide shots with the whole room in it.

this is in comparison to the use of close ups we used in our main task and on different objects such as the gun

and close ups of her moving feet

we used a variety of different interesting shots in our main task, such as pans, shot reverse shot and we also did the whole sequence mainly handheld to give the feel of the chase. where in our prelim we used on wide, medium and close ups and did the whole thing on a tripod and didn't use an awful amount of imagination.

Having to think how to tell a story visually not with dialogue posed a challenge at first, but when we knew what type of mood and tone we wanted to convey, it seemed easier just to portray things visually rather than with speech.

The use of sound in both has completely changed, in our prelim task there was very little sound and all of it was diegetic, which in retrospect made the whole sequence extraordinarily dull. Where as in our main task i was confident in using sound track pro and finding the ambient sounds that are a main feature in our film, and then compose the rest separately. While composing it and copying it into final cut pro i changed the sound levels during it to give it a rough edge and to help heighten the tension. Another instance when the volume of the music was used effectivly was when she goes into the room and the music drops down quieter, giving a sense of tension and suspense. We also used a lot of stock sounds such as the bones breaking and the gun fire.

In our main task we used After Effects successfully to do the credits, which the prelim task didn't cover and this is something we have looked at during the course.

This was much more sophisticated than anything we had done in our prelim task. The way in which we can now use Final Cut Pro has dramatically changed since our prelim, we are now confident using cross fades and preventing shots from jumping from one to another.

Overall, the skills we have acquired have grown massively over the time we have spent, from rough work in our prelim task to much more competent filming and editiing in our main task.

Task 6 - what have you learnt about technologies from the process of contructing this product?

evaulation task 5 - how did you attract/address your audience?

Task 5

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evalutation task 4 - Target Audience

The target for our film is ages between 15-30 year olds, mainly because of the violent and bloody images in it, which makes it unsuitable for young teens. However, it is more appealing to the older range as it is relevant to events taking place in the world, such as politics and in the government. The genre is a thriller and is similar to the film ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ so it would appeal to people would had also seen this, and the television series ‘Spooks’.




The film is orientated around top secret government information being accessed by a female hacker and sent to a client. Our film will draw in younger people because of the technology aspects of our film, as the hacker is dealing with hi-tech technology which teens will find interesting and appealing. Also because of the high extent of violence in it, it will attract boys but also because it is a female hacker it means that many women will also be more likely to go watch it.

The secondary audience will be the over 30 bracket, this is because although they are aware of current events occurring in the world they may not be exposed to adverts and trailers for it as they are not seen as primary audiences. Also they may not appreciate the violence in it, although some males over 30 may still find it enjoyable but you will find fewer women over 30 will watch it.




Our film should appeal and draw in both males and females equally to a certain extent because there are aspects that will appeal to both genders. For the males there is the excitement of the chase and the violence, and for women they will appreciate that the man role is a women who is it seems stronger than men.

evalutation task 3 - who would produce my film?

Who would produce my film?

The company i have chosen to produce my film is Lionsgate, this is predominantly because they have produced many films in the same genre as mine; such Saw, Hostel, Buried, The Condemned and many others, all with the genre of thrillers or horrors. Our film fits the ethos of the institution as it is a low budget film and they often make films by independent directors, also our film is a thriller which fits the category of what they are looking for. To help make money from my films they would possibly use ancillary markets in order to sell our film abroad and therefore make more money. As it is low budget there wouldn’t be much merchandise but they could bring it out on DVD and then possibly in 3D which they did for Saw which would make it more appealing to an international audiences and help us sell rights in advance to ancillary markets to help finance the film. The company also targets a particular audience of 15-24 year olds which would make them more likely to produce our film as it does target this audience as it is an action packed thriller.

evalutation task 2 - how does your product represent particular soical groups?

Our product represents certain social groups, one that now days young people have a far better idea of technology than the older generation and it seems to rule their lives.

However, usually people that are good with technology are normally seen as ‘geeks’ so in our product we took away from the stereotypical view that anyone that could hack into important government files must first be male and second a ‘geek’. So even though this idea of rapidly increasing use of technology in young people is touched upon, it is with an attractive girl. This idea is similar in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’.

Also the social group nowadays that is thought of to be violent such as gangs is questioned when a girl turns out to be the violent one:

Here we chose to represent violence in an abrupt and visual way, but it still takes away from the stereotypical view that the media normally presents, that male characters are usually the ones who are the violent ones and the killers, where in our product the initial victim comes out alive and the man she was being stalked by ended up dead. The product does still highlight the violence such as the close ups of the gun and the fact that we see him getting shot.

evalutation task one - in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here we have our female hacker, which first overall does not normally fit with the general ideas of hackers. But is similar to the conventions of 'The Girl with the Dragon tattoo'.

The violence that happens in this opening squence upholds the typical conventions of a thriller, that there is some type of actions already happening and makes it exciting and the audience would be expecting it.

The technology side is also sterotypical to thrillers as many are based around them nowadays about identity fruad and the wiki leaks. this is also intresting to people in the technology proffession.

The chase element also upholds the conventions of a thriller, and that is a defensless girl being chased by an armed hitman is stereotypical as women are normally seen to be week.

These title squences tell the audience what type of thriller they are going yo be watching, as the numbers and graphs that are sliding down and crossing around the place represent the idea of hacking and top secrect important information.

Here the female hacker is attacting the hitman who has come to kill her, this does not conform to the typical conventions of a thriller film as usually the women either gets resuced or killed. but in this case she beats the man on her own and kills him.

She is attractive which upholds the conventions that main female characters in films usually are attractive as the male audience are attracted by this.

audience feedback

it seems that our audience enjoyed the music and feel of our piece, and that the title cards were effective and the dynamics made it more exciting and interesting. However, it seems that some people didnt fully understand that the girl was a hacker until the title came up at the end. i do not see this as a promblem however, as it is clear that she is trying to send something important and no matter if it was understood at the beggining it all makes sense when the audience are let in on what the film is about

shooting day

Shooting Day.

The day began with a meeting with the crew and cast to decide whether we would go up to London and shoot our film in a flat or somewhere closer to school in one of the boarding houses.
We decided to go with the idea of one of the boarding houses as it did have the essentials we thought we needed, and it would save a lot of time as it wasn’t a long drive, which would enable us to have more time to shoot the film. However, when we got to our location we decided that the house looked more like a hotel and instead of having her set in a flat and running on our original idea we thought it would be more interesting if we did a chase scene through the corridors and ending with a fight scene. So, it wasn’t much like our original story board although the basis was taken from it. It was still a hacker trying to send vital information to someone and a hitman trying to kill her, but the way in which we shot it was that so it looked as if he was only seconds behind her and when shooting the Hitman we tilted the camera slightly to give a different perspective.

So when we decided on having a chase scene we went around the house to find good corridors that suited the purpose and see what different types of shots we could do so we had a good idea of what needed to be achieved. This chase scene we decided also took away from the unknowing of whether it was a horror or a thriller and made it unmistakably a thriller as it was full of action in the first two minutes and didn’t have anything stereotypically scary in it, such as been set at night. For most of our shots we used the camera handheld; this was beneficial as it gave more of a sense of a chase and things being chaotic because we wanted to create tension and drama that you associate with a thriller.

We didn’t need to set up much in our location and we only had basic props such as a gun, laptop and walkie talkie which all gave the impression of more of a thriller than a horror as they related more to action where as in a horror maybe a knife would be more appropriate. However, in the opening shot where the Hacker is sitting on the sofa she has papers which are covered in information about the wiki leaks, which related back to where we got our original idea and gave more of a sense of what the film was about and we wanted to make it contemporary to an audience and that people could easily relate to as it has been on the news recently. We used some tracking shots to show that she was being followed and some close ups to get her reaction of panic and stress in. However, in our fight scene we only used one shot (a wide handheld shot) which was effective as it gave the flowing movement of the fight and made it more realistic without having loads of cuts and different shots put in it.

Our casting choices were different from what we had originally planned, at first we thought it would be better to have a male hacker but as we progressed more into our thriller and came up with new ideas we thought that it would be less stereotypical to have a female hacker, and this idea came from the film ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ which takes away from the idea of women being less important than men. We had our hacker dressed all in black but still in everyday clothes, nothing out of the ordinary, firstly to make it seem that she was trying to blend in and also because it didn’t suit her character to be wearing something such as a balaclava. Our Hitman however, wore a suit which could be seen as stereotypical but was effective for what we were trying to show, that a girl who looks weak and innocent can kill a man who seems to know what her is doing and the suit showed that he was professional at his job. For the most part we used just the natural light in the location as we didn’t see any need to use lighting and it was more effective and naturalistic. However, when it got later during the day and the light had faded a bit, in order to keep continuity we used a light with a blue gel to create a similar light to the rest of the film.

   As far as sounds the hacker just had very heavy breathing and with both actors you could hear their heavy footsteps to show the intimacy of the chase. Also in the fight we added sounds to emphasise the Hitmans head being smacked on the desk and the loud sound of the gun. My role in the production of the film was coming with many of the ideas once we decided to change the idea of the shoot. The part where she sneaks into her room and tricks the Hitman to where she was, was my idea, although I did ask the rest of the team first. I also took part in lots of the filming, and making sure that the tripod was bubbled before filming.

Teamwork was vital to making sure that the filming was a success, before each new scene we decided which would be the best shot to use in order to make it as exciting as possible. We also discussed different ideas on how to cope with the new location and what would be the most appropriate course for the film to take. So when we decided on a large chase scene we all knew that we wanted the majority of it to be filmed handheld. We also changed roles at different points so we each had a chance at shooting in order to make sure that we were making the right choices shot wise. Overall, I was happy with the result of our filming day, even though we were unable to go up to London I think that it may have benefited our film for the overall result as it gave us a new idea that was more successful and also that fitted better into the thriller category as it was much more exciting.

floor plan for orginal idea

we create this floor plan for the original idea we came up with.

Target - final idea

Target

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Cast List

William Edgley - the hitman

Lillie Resta - the female hacker

New thriller idea

Friday, 14 January 2011

New Story Plot

We decided to change our plot. Instead of using a male hacker, we decided to subvert the stereotype by using a female character, inspired by the hacker Lisbeth in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. We also abandoned the idea of having an armed response team coming to get the hacker, as it seemed unrealistic. This plot is more believable, and more interesting.

It starts with a girl sitting in her room on her laptop, looks quite calm, smoking and drinking coffee. She stops, puts her coffee cup on a stack of papers, sighs and gets up to go to the toilet. The shot is of the door, and you hear the toilet flush. When she comes back in she notices her coffee cup has moved and she becomes suspicious. She’s looking around and she sees the barrel of a gun around a corner, which she grabs and comes face to face with a man in a suit. There is then a struggle to get the gun and they fight for it. Then you hear a shot whilst both characters face each other. She stares as the assassin falls to the floor, dead. The girl is shocked and then she drags his body and puts him in the bath. She is tired after dragging him, but looks relived. Then, she notices a radio crackling in his pocket. Realising people will come for her, she picks up the gun, and faces it at the closed door.

Pictures of the Props

 Here we have pizza boxes to show that she is busy working and can’t go out to eat, also coffee cups to show that she is tired and trying to stay awake, the ashtray shows her addiction and tells us something about her character. The stacks of paper and laptop show that she is busy working on something probably important that has taken up a lot of her time. Then the gun and walkie talkie represent the man and that he is an important person that has now been killed