Very Very Rough Cut

Obviously we have a lot of work to do, as we had to just put in some footage at the end as we didnt have enough time in lesson to complete it. We also need to capture more footage to have a wider shot variety, and more close ups of the vocalist to try and sekk the artist. We really just need more close ups all together.

Second Day of editing

Today we've had our second lesson of editing. So far we've managed to cut down our footage to all the main clips we're going to be using and sorted them into some kind of order. We've got about 2 minutes of rough cut ready to be submitted and the rest we can sort out next lesson. We're yet to add any effects to our piece and sync any instruments and lip syncing with our music.

Ideas For Editing

Our music video is being produced using thematic editing techniques. A rapid montage of disconnected footage collects to communicate feelings rather than a narrative. The fast paced nature of the video should maintain the attention of a viewer, rather than allowing uninteresting footage to progressively lose the focus of a viewer. The image below shows part of the editing process, in which we are gradually arranging the footage we've approved to fit the criteria of thematic editing.

First day of editing

We've come to start editing our footage, which we have over 30 minutes of at the moment. We plan to cut each different scene into pieces before we start deleting footage we don't need, or moving it around. We're going have a lot of work to do before we have our footage in a good order in which we'll all agree with. We're going to have a lot to work to lip sync certain parts and to fit the dance routines in with suitable parts of the song.

Filming: Day Three

In todays filming we managed to accomplish all the necessary shots to form a collage of performance footage with the clips we've got from other days of filming. The dolly proved itself useful and we captured some great movements which really promote the artists and give a professional edge to the music video. However, there were some major problems with todays filming. Firstly, the tripod didn't fit the dolly! This made capturing the movement shots particularly difficult and required two cameramen as a posed to one. Unfortunately this wasted valuable time from the recording process and overall less was achieved in todays filming. Another problem we faced today was that the battery for the camera was empty when we came to film. We were expecting to do some additional shots besides the filming at Sawston Village College. We had arrived at a river an hour before we were expected at Sawston and we were going to film Scott and George jumping into a river which was going to be our final shot. However when we got there the battery on the camera was out of battery and we couldnt film anything. As well as this the equipment available to us at Sawston was a lot less than we had hoped for for example there were no microphones, no guitars and we had to find drum sticks and symbols for the drums. It would have been helpful for us to know a bit more information before we had gone for the shooting day, as it could have looked a lot more proffessional.
Our next shooting is of the band. It will take place on the Long Road Sixth Form College site and we will use the pictures obtained to produce our digipack. We need to arrange a day and time for this shoot.


Before arriving on site, all group members had to be 'briefed' with the sites Health and Safety Procedure, which is pictured below. Also, the hier had to sign and date the lettings agreement which show my complience with the regulations and obligations within the college site.

Mood-board for Filming Day Three

The picture below is a collage of ideas for shots we can use at the third day of filming. They are taken from music videos such as "Falling In Love" by Mcfly and "Charlotte" by Air Traffic.

We also have the entire rig of lighting from the venue available so we can have sketched some ideas for lighting plots for our performance. They will help achieve the professional image from some of the pictures in the mood-board. We will use close-ups of the instruments and hopefully include some shadow effects from the lights to highlight the artists.
We also have to shoot the scene between two characters on a bench and the water reference in Mondays filming because these were not included on day one of filming.

Filming: Day Two

Thursday 15th October 2009

Todays filming took place at location three; The Lock Up. After much struggle of finding the location, we arrived at the rehearsal studios and began our filming. The lighting in the studios were difficult because the rooms were sealed and had no windows. We tried to reflect the lights we had off the white ceiling to gain as much synthetic light as possible. This created some interesting shadows on the artists. There were a couple of problems we faced in todays filming which we can act on before the next day of filming. Firstly, being the artists in the band, we found we hadn't put enough preparation into learning the song. When we came to play together, we couldn't get the timing correct. This could make the lip syncing difficult because the other instruments won't be synchronized with the track. We will have to use the editing process to try and change these problems. Our next day of filming is on Monday 19th October at Sawston Village College. We were posted confirmation of this filming and a copy of the terms and conditions were sent too. These are as follow;

These terms and conditions outline the regulations we must obay when using the site for our filming. It covers information about the facilities through to the responsibilities that fall within the hier. The majority of the terms and conditions apply to large events that take place in the hall, and therefore didn't apply to our recording session.

Filming: Day One

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Todays filming took place at location two; in and around the city centre. Our target was to collect a montage of simple dance steps from members of the public that could later be mixed into our music video along with other footage. The speed of this footage may later be altered depending on the speed of the dance, so that the overall footage will match the tempo and be fitted to the beat. Some successful footage was obtained in todays filming, however we were quite disappointed with the attitude and unwillingness to dance from some of the public. However we did manage to find some of our friends who did agree to be in our video so we did manage to get some dancing footage. The success of todays filming lies with the editing process of our music video. We managed to use some abstract shots and some small movements so that we have a variety of camerawork but the footage and music video will only look professional depending on the editing of the video. We are currently researching using our editing software Final Cut Express, to find possible editing techniques and colour schemes/patterns to make todays filming effective.

Our next step is to concentrate on Day Two of the filming process. This takes place o Thursday 14th October 2009 at The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms in Chesterton. The camera and tripod have been booked for this day but we will also need our musical instruments and a form sound projection so that we can hear the track as well as play along to it. The traveling to this location will be by car and the address is as follows:

The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms

Unit 9

Cave Industrial Estate

Fen Road

Cambridge

CB4 1UN
When we arrived we proceded to film the whole song in a static position which did look quite good however when it came to trying to walk around with the camera we had no one to film for us because we were all playing however we did manage to get around this by just filming one or two of us at a time but making it look like we're all playing.

Call Sheet

After changing our initial ideas for locations, we now have to change the information provided on the call sheet. Theses changes are as follow.

Obvious changes show that we're no longer filming in Saffron Walden. This is because the venue is always very busy and it would be difficult to gain permission to film on the grounds. This hasn't caused many problems because we have several other locations to film at, so we wouldn't be short of footage. Also, we have changed the Histon filming to The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms, this is because we couldn't find a time suitable for the host of the Histon location that matched the availability of all the group. Instead, JJ seeked permission to use The Lock Up. This venue has a much more professional layout and would be better suited for our music video because it would portray the band as successful and professional. However, at this venue the lighting is very limited, therefore we have also booked some lighting that we can take to the venue for better image quality and lighting effects.

Learning the Song

To produce a music video with any realism in the performance, we had to spend some time understanding the song. This meant finding any material from the song that was available from the internet and briefly 'rehersing' the song so that the performance in the video would syncronise with the audio track we will later add during the editing process. Aside from JJs research into the guitar parts, we also had to figure the basic drum pattern that lies beneath the song and any independant motifs from the drums (ie recognisable cymbol crashes/any other drum patterns).

Along with the learning the musical parts of the song it was down to JJ to to lip sync to our track. To help him with this we found the lyrics and he learnt them. We did encounter some problems when lip syncing for example JJ sometimes forgot some words and also when we came to doing some close-ups at Sawston Village College we didn't have any microphones so JJ had to mime.

The below pictures show up practising the music.

Edit after performance:

In heinsite after filming our footage we found that it was very hard for us as un-experienced musicians to make it look like we were actually playing the correct notes. Especially for George on the drumkit. We have figured to help us get around this problem we are going to use clips that are quite small and don't have such a big focus on the miming of the instruments.

Guitar parts

Ok guys pretty much i learnt our song, thought it may bear some relevance to the cause. So heres a video of it we can use it later or whatever you fancy.

Location Report

Location Report: Cambridge City Centre




In revising the possible locations that would be suitable for our music video, the two most appropriate places were either The Grand Arcade, Cambridge or The Grafton Centre, Cambridge. Our final decision was based on several factors. Primarily, we wanted a location that was busier and friendlier. The way we judged these were by carry out small surveys at both locations. The following sheets show the results from these visits. These results were taken on the week begining Monday 5th October 2009 to Thursday 8th October 2009. In conclusion, we decided The Grand Arcade and surrounding area would be better suited for this section of our filming. The likelihood of co-operation within this area would be greater than at The Grafton Centre. Furthermore, the table from the location reports suggest we would be best visiting The Grand Arcade on a Wednesday of each week, therefore we have booked the camera and tripod for Wednesday 14th October at the correct time (10:50 to 14:40). Hopefully this survey will give successful results and reduce the duration of the filming at this location.

Feedback

Feedback from Q2-38
Like the mood board gives us a good feel for the type of music video they are making.
The shots of possible locations is good because shows they are up to date with their work.
The in depth evaluation is very long, but informative.

Feedback from Q2-41
The only thing that we thought it would need is a few more visuals.We really liked the location planning and has inspired us to do something similar.

Feedback from T2-47
Good use of storyboard as it shows us your idea really well.
In storyboard, gave us a strong idea that there will close ups of the artists.
Really good background research looking at different bands for inspiration, adverts and relevant information.
Good idea of practice shots for your advert, noticing that the front man tends to be in the foreground.
To improve maybe you could add more pictures, so that there is an even amount of writing to pictures.
Possibly add a mood board of ideas.

Feedback from T2-45
Storyboard; couldn’t quite fully understand what it was describing.
Lots of images though not many of artists or description of the artists.
Loads of detailed background research with bold headings colours and good media terminology.

Feedback from T2-45
Storyboards are good and give a clear idea of what you will be filming and your shot types.
There is some good background research and good examples of videos that have influenced your own video.
The pictures of you as a group are good but you need to describe more with a bit of writing how you are going to dress in the actual music video.

Feedback from T2-44
It's nice to see somebody got a reply from the artist they're replicating for a music video.The way you have a lot of work but also a lot of pictures shows your enthusiasm and makes it very user friendly to read.
It's nice to see a lot of pictures used to demonstrate your inspiration.There are good links between the storyboard and the timeline and the shot list.There are also good research of other bands in the same genre for example Blink 182.

Feedback from T2-43
Like the research into the posters/digipack and the pictures which come with this.
Well illustrated along with the good research.
Was very informative and well written.
The storyboard explains in detail where your going to go and you used a lot of visuals with the text.Liked the short but sweet Auteur research and all the research you've put into rock bands. Concerning the contacting of the artist, impressive.


Those points shown in an italic font are the negative feedback posts which need consideration. Generally, from these feedbacks we can see that our main weakness's are;

1. Add more pictures
2. Add a spider diagram / mood board / format our initial ideas
3. Revise our storyboard and add further detail and understanding
4. Add description of costume to the digipack and our costumes in the actual music video

Location Permission

In order to have full rights to take pictures or capture footage in the performance area we had to seek permission from both Lesley Morgan; Arts Development Manager or Sawston and Linton and the local area, and also the School Manager.
After communicating with both, we obtained their consent to film in the performance space in Sawston VC and were allowed to evaluate the area to judge whether this space is suitable for performing our music video here.

Location Report

Location Report: Sawston Village College

After gathering ideas for possible locations it was our next task to select the most suitable places for our filming. For the stage performance we agreed either Sawston Village College or Hills Road Sixth Form College would be most suitable for our music video. Sawston VC would be easier to access, after insurance and legal issues, because me, Karl and Scott are all ex-pupils of the college and those who attended the college are favoured over people trying to access the site without a history within the college. After visiting both locations earlier in the production process, we compared the following checklists to see which would be best suited for our music video.
The image above is a copy of the location report we took to The Robinson Theatre. We judged various elements of the theatre space from the lighting in the theatre to the slots that were available which corresponded with the deadlines assigned to this task. Unfortunately, there was no time available for our recording of the music video before Monday 19th October 2009. This meant this performance space was not currently available for the recording of our music video.


Fortunately, the performance area at Sawston Village College was much better suited for our recording. This meant we were't struggling for an area to shoot the performance aspect of our video. The following picture shows a copy of the location report we took the 'Henry Morris Hall'.

In conclusion, for Location One, Sawston Village College is the most appropriate yet accessable location for shooting this section of our music video. The first stage in arranging the theatre for our music video was seeking permission from those incharge of the performance area. We started by emailing the admission office on site at Sawston VC who could steer us in the direction of the person in command of sanctioning our use of the stage, this was Lesley Morgan. We emailed Lesley Morgan asking for her approval in this matter. The email is shown in the following image:
In response, Lesley Morgan submitted our request to the School Manager and College Principal, who contacted us with their approval in the request. Next, we had to contact the theatres approved lighting technician that could supervise our recording and arrange the lighting plan appropriately to our video. Finally, we had to arrange a flexable time that was suitable for both Steve Williams (light technician) all members of Group 48, an on site caretaker for supervisional purposes and a time that didn't conflict with college activities. Overall, we settled with Thursday 15th October 2009 at 16:30. Then, we had to check if a college drumkit was availble for use on Thursday 15th October. This would make the transfering of musical instruments easier. Luckily, we obtained verbal permission from Janet Macleod, Head of Music Department at SVC, to use a college drumkit for our performance at the time and date specified above.

In light of all the communication with the college, we were allowed to obtain some still images of the area we had booked so we could plan, in further detail, the positioning and types of shots we were to use in the performance, and any other information we needed to make our recording problem-free. The images we took are shown below.

Pacific Ocean Blue Lyrics

In order for us to fit our production to Goodwin's points of analysis we need to be aware of the lyrics, in Bold are the lines we will be implementing to our video:-

It's OK to beat the living shit from the drum kit
[Drummer Plays Drums Intensely]
It's OK to take what you don't have, if you want it

That's alright, that's your way
Water's cold, December, Del Ray
Through those eyes, made me cry
[Close up of an eye with a stick coming towards it]
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer

And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue

It's OK to leave your jacket on in the ocean
It's OK to sing the saddest song, Vibrations

Thanks a lot, you can be
What you want, honestly
Magic days, golden nights
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer

And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue

I don't need no explanation
All I got is best intentions
I got fears, too much to mention

You're not there, when I'm scared, terrified
Jump right in, the water's fine.
[All 4 members of the band jumping into water, either river or swimming pool (depending on weather)]

For those lyrics that are not in bold we will performing to the camera with shots including:
- The Band On Stage
- The Band Playing In A Garage
- Street Performances

Call Sheet

This picture shows the call sheet used for our music video.
It determines the overall outline of each day of filming, giving a clearer understanding of what is needed for each filming sessions and a general understanding of important details. These include the nearest police station and medical centre aswell as contact details of the group for emergency purposes.








It was specified that the call sheet needed to include obvious details such as the date, time and location of the filming. Other necessary but often overlooked details are the weather forecase (where filming is outdoors) and the estimated duration of each filming session. Other information included on a call sheet could include times of lunch breaks and parking details, but these peices of information are irrelavant to our project.
The following images are call sheets specifically for each day of filming. Providing we keep to the information given from each call sheet, our filming process will be swift and should avoid time consuming activites. Furthermore, it should prevent delays in the schedule, often caused by weather conditions or forgotten equipment.

Shot List

The following table gives a little detail about the different shot types, shot positioning and any other relevent information. This table will prove itself useful when we start our filming process because its a written explanation of what we will need (props/costumes) to aquire before we start the filming so that we're not delayed or postpone the next stage of our production.

The first collumn (labelled 'Shot No') gives an idea of the order of the shots. One being the first shot used at the begining of the video, and 40 being the final shot used at the end of the track. Each number establishes the shot frame used and the purpose of the shot. In the last collumn there is also an option of Location One and Location Two.

Location One is set in the Henry Morris Hall at Sawston Village College. In this location we will be performing the song to the camera and the footage captured will be distributed throughout the video, so that there is variation with the video. The costumes will be different in each location so that in the final cut of the entire video, our costumes will alternate and show off different fashion icons. This is a very conventional technique of an alternative rock music video as the artists like to look their best and show that they look good in different clothes. In the first location there are the obvious props that haven't been mentioned on the Shot List, such as musical instruments. The drum kit will be booked along with the stage and lighting rig, however the other instruments will be brought in by the other members of the group. We hope not to use any audio cables on stage, this makes the artists movement less restricted and also they're unncessesary due to the fact that we're not aiming to broadcast the music, simply mime it. Although, a few cables might be placed around the area or plugged into the instruments to give the impression that this footage was taken at a live performance.

Location Two is very different and much more vague. It will be around Cambridge and where ever we find members of the public willing to dance for the camera. Some decided places will be the Granchester river and Jesus Green/Midsummer Common where a bench is available to shoot the scene between two lovers. These green areas are shown below.

Midsummer Common

Jesus GreenOther locations include 'The Garage' and 'The Skate Park', these are not mentioned because we are still investigating their availability and producing ideas for shot techniques that could be used at these places.

Music Video Storyboard Timeline

This time line is just to back up which part of the videos go where, again we will use this for a rough guideline so we know what to do when we are filming to get it done efficiently.

Story Board

These are our story board in two halfs, we will use this when we go out and film for our rough guideline of where we want each shot and what kind of shots we want for each part of the Video. The illustrations show our ideas and at what point of the video we want them to take place. They are a rough guideline which we are very inclined to stray from if we feel we need to.

Video's We've Taken Inspirtaion from

This has both performance elements we want to include in our video, a stage performance and one in a garage, as it suites the music label. The Sum41 video also shows the lifestyle side we want to include of having the band and other members messing around. We want to take these same elements to amalgamate our video.

Mise~EnScene

In our music video production we plan to have a recognizable sense of band Mise-En-Scene, we have established that we will be using the conventional Mise-en-scene expected in an Alternative rock music video. For Example:-
- Instruments

The Instruments we will be using during the performance parts of our video are:-
- Full Drum Kit
- Electric Guitar
- Bass Guitar
- Mic
However while we were filming at SVC we were unable to use a mic as we did not have one so to cover this we simply had minimal close up shots of JJ singing and when we did it would be from behind with bright lights in the background (silhouette shots) so it is noticeable but you have to be looking for it.

- Stage

- Expected costumes

- Speakers

- Stage lighting

Contacting the Band

This is a copy of the email sent to Jason Perry, lead singer of 'Pacific Ocean Blue'. He was also the song writer and record producer for A. We wrote to him ask permission to use this track in our music video.
Dear Mr J. Perry
We, in order of importance (George Baglin, Scott Lansdale, Karl Lambourne, Josef James) are writing are writing to seek permission to use the track "Pacific Ocean Blue" by the band 'A' for our advanced media Production Project here at Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge. As part of our course we have been instructed to plan/film/edit and produce a music video from a selection of songs from different music genres. Consequently, we chose Pacific Ocean Blue as our track and therefore would appreciate your approval in using this song.
Long Road Media: Group 48

This is Jason Perry's response.