Music Video Rough Cut and Brief Update

So as promised, here is the video of what we have done so far for the music video. A few quick things as well. First off in regards to the video, this video is still in the editing production stage, which you will obviously be able to tell watching this video, given that there is no footage of the band and that we haven’t altered and fixed up the image just yet, it’s still lacking polish to it. Also what you will obviously notice is that there is no audio tack along with this cut, I was going to put it on, but I had a bit trouble trying to find the track. I do have the track somewhere either on my laptop or external hard drive at home, because what I do with my music is when I download songs or albums, I save them onto my external hard drive because basically my lap top is suffering from very low memory, so it has to go straight on there. Now obviously I have the track, because I’m a huge fan of the band, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere on my lap top or the external hard drive, so I’m going to try and look for it again over the holidays, or download it again, and then I’ll put up this same video but with the track on it. So recently me and Chloe have left the editing for a bit, as we can’t continue without the band footage and the end we are going to re-shoot, and have been focusing on the publication side of the project, mainly turning our attention to the magazine, in particular the magazine cover. At the moment we are doing a basic rough design on Microsoft Office Publication software, to get a feel for it will look like and to sample it and mess around with it, to see what fits best and what looks the best. After the rough design, we will be using Photoshop to put the cover together to create the best outcome.  At the moment we are using real photos of the actual band taken off Google, but over the holidays, I’ll be taking the people who are going to be in my version of the band and get loads of different photos of the band which I will use to incorporate into many of the publication side of things, such as the magazine and the digi-pack for the CD. Not to mention both me and Chloe will be focusing all of our attention to all the different aspects of the publication side of the project and getting things organized to shoot the band footage, so when we return from the holidays, we can just jump straight into filming and get it all finished off, and hopefully finish the video completely. If you want to know more about what we are doing over the holidays check out my last entry which explains a little better of what will be occurring and keep your eyes peeled over the blog for posts during the holidays.

Editing Updates - A Couple of Problems

So as I have stated in recent blogs, I’ve been busy working away at the edit, well of the edit of what has been done so far. Right now I’ve edited all I can and there are a few issues that have sprung up. I’ve just realised that a lot of the footage that we shot as the end, the first footage me and Chloe ever shot for this project, will have to be scrapped from the looks of things as a lot of it is basically unusable, now by that I don’t mean that it’s bad or looks terrible, far from it really as it does look pretty good. No the problem is that, while editing it all together, I’ve been using the story board as a brief template for the timing order, as at the moment I don’t have the track to place over it. When I created the story board, I continuously listened and played back the track over and over, and used this to map out a sort of time frame for each image, so basically all the images time equalled the full song, which is why I have been using to work out how long the each scene should be from the footage we shot and where to place the band parts appropriate to how the song plays out, so key vocal parts which I had mapped out for in the story board still occur in the video etc. Now of course as you know I had to change my initial setting of the music video which I had drawn onto the story board, instead of it being set in a woodland area, it changes to a combination of suburban area and some woodland, which made it a lot easier to film. Unfortunately I didn’t fully take in to consideration time frame when filming and only used the story board for certain parts of the filming, so I’ve ended up with too much footage of the chase, so the final few scenes are ultimately going to have to be cut and changes, which isn’t a problem as the video should still make sense. The song itself is roughly 3 minutes 16 seconds long and right now I’ve edited all the footage up to 2minutes 44 seconds, which leaves which only leaves around 32 seconds of footage left to film the ending, much isn’t much. I’ve already gone back through and cut and shortened all I can out of what we have so far, so I’m only left with this short space time. Luckily I’ve got the Christmas holidays coming up soon to have some time off to plan and write a miniature storyboard for the ending and try and work out how me and Chloe can finish this video. In the meantime by the end of this week I’m going to upload what we have done so far and show you how the video has been coming along. Also in the holidays a lot of work is going to be going into arranging the filming of the band scenes for when we get back and during the holidays both me and Chloe are going to be working on the other aspects of the project, mainly the print projects, such as the album cover, single cover, magazine, adverts etc. So very busy times a head.

Updates

Quick progress update on what's been occurring. So recently there has been a great focus on the editing stage, despite not all the filming been done.  Now when I say that, that doesn’t exactly mean panic, the only bits that haven’t been done are the band shots, the big and constant issue of this project. Me and Chloe managed to get all the chase shots done just fine because there was less issues to factor in with just the two of us filming it. The band shots on the other hand has had numerous issues which I admit may have overlooked. Firstly issues getting the actors, this has been the main annoyance. At times I was missing half my band with no time to obtain replacements, and then there were times when they couldn’t do it because of other commitments, and finally there were times when they just weren’t in sixth form altogether from being ill or away. I did however try to find replacements some days but a lot of the time it was too short notice for those people having already made prior arrangements, so that was the main issue. The other issue was being able to get one of the places to film in, that being either the hall or the drama room at my sixth form. These two places different places are only free at most one or two nights out of the school week, with the drama room being used for extracurricular activities such as drama club after school some nights and the hall being used for different music rehearsals and clubs, the hall has become even more used on a night for these rehearsals due to the schools winter concert coming up, with the hall eventually becoming unusable during the week of the concert as the hall will to decorated and set up for the concert and me and Chloe wouldn’t be allowed to move or change the setting to film. Now obviously I could of filmed on a night when they weren’t being occupied but I’ve just had the worse luck as my actors have always either been off, away, ill or busy on these days when the rooms were available, so me and Chloe have just had terrible luck, not to mention me and Chloe have been busy on some of these days with things such as our job s and I was ill for a few days one week, so wasn’t in. But despite not having all the footage needed we started editing anyway, bet this than sat twiddling our thumbs doing nothing.  Plus it gives us a great head start with the edit and allow us to in a way keep up with the schedule so we aren’t completely off track. Currently I have been editing all the footage and have shortened the chase footage and cut out all the bad bits and pieces and have been watching it over so it looks good and there is no continuity, and so far nothing has been noticed which is good. As for the band footage, at the moment we are just using the images of the band from the story board and dropping them into the time line so we have an understanding on what it will look like and what we need to do. So there is still a lot left  to do and things are a little stressful  but I’m not completely panicking yet.

Brief Update

A quick update, of what’s been going on. As I stated in my last blog me and Chloe had a busy week ahead of us to get all filming done. I’m pleased to say things have gone somewhat well, we managed to secure all the chase scenes we need and they are currently being rendered into a suitable format by Mr Earl so we can start editing and start piecing everything together. However we have still yet to shoot any of the band scenes due to issues with securing either the hall or the drama room to shoot it and issues involving actors not being able to shoot due to other commitments, which also apply to me and Chloe, we have had other things to attend to. But hopefully the entire band shots will be done on Monday, I’m really hoping it will only take the one night, and then I can get the footage to the sir the next day for rendering and start slotting in the band shots with the chase scenes. I feel more confident now that me and Chloe will definitely have the rough cut video up by next Friday which we have been given an extension for, due to the problems we have had with filming which Mr Earl knew about. So yeah chase scenes all shot, it’s funny how it ended up in a creepy wood setting like I first envisioned. The video goes through a suburban estate, into some woods, the back into another estate, then into the building where the band is playing. So it’s quite varied in the different settings, I’m just hoping all the footage looks good and we don’t have to go out a re-shoot and that sir thinks it’s at a decent standard. I do have a backup idea for video if sir thinks it’s not up to scratch or doesn’t look good, so I’m not too worried, it’s just the hassle of having to do all this again which would bug me if happens. Me and Chloe also used various shots throughout the chase scenes to give it a decent variety and some of them do look really good and work really well with the video, the hardest ones was the point of view of the mystic force chasing the man in the video and the ones where it had to be an extreme close up of my face running which was difficult because I had to hold the camera, made sure it had my face in shot, run and have a face full of fear and panic, which is really difficult, but I managed to pull it off to the best of my ability. When it comes to the band scenes there is a whole variety of shots we are going to use, so I’m definitely confident we will have a varied range of shots altogether. So next week we finish the filming (god I hope so) and then we start editing, which I’m not overly looking forward to because I have only used editing software once and that was for a basic task, this one is going to take a lot more work and also definitely require a lot of work as well. So that’s all for now stay tuned for the next update and the rough cut next Friday x

Updates and Shooting

So me and Chloe are currently filming away with a hope of having all the filming done by the end of the week and to have a rough cut of the video up by the end of next week, so very bust at the moment.  At the moment none of the band scenes have been shot, but there is a hope that all of the filming for that will go ahead tomorrow and be done in one session as it should be the easiest to shoot as we don’t have to factor in things such as weather, plus filming it in doors means if we don’t get it all done in that session we can come back again, set up the instruments and finish it in another session. So far all the filming that has been taking place outside has gone well with little problems stopping us. Not much of it has been done however due to problems such as the change in weather, which was somewhat of a problem for continuity but seen as how we are in the winter weather period, I don’t see the weather changing dramatically too much so that won’t be too much of a factor, unless the rumours are true about snow coming soon, if so I hope it holds off till next week. So far we haven’t had much problem from people of the public getting in the way or interrupting except for one person who wasn’t happy with us filming outside her house. This occurred when me and Chloe were last filming, we were shooting in my street and then all of a sudden an old woman with curlers in her hair just stormed out her house and started yelling at me and Chloe, saying she didn’t want us filming in front of her house, despite the fact I tried explaining to her we were media students filming to gain our A levels and education, to which she had no understanding of what media studies was and no care for our education so we had to move on. A final thing that sort of halted filming was that I was very ill last week and was off for a couple of days. But I’m feeling a lot better and I’m very confident that all filming will hopefully be finished by the end of the week. Me and Chloe have everything mapped out fairly well, we know what we are doing in terms of the chase scenes or should I say for the rest of the chase scene, all the route of it is mapped out and so there are no problems there, we just need the middle sections of the chase scenes as we already have the beginning and most of the end. The band stuff should all be done soon like I mentioned earlier, although more changes might have to be made to those scenes again in terms of the skull dancers, we might have to drop them because of lack of props for them as I have no funds at the moment to afford the skull masks but we are debating to maybe using make up, plus there is the problems of finding people who can all work after school to help us get the footage but a final decision has yet to be made about the dancers. That’s all the updates I have for now, so stay tuned because I’m sure there will be some more, I’ll discuss what takes place with the band footage and of course that all important rough cut.

Gig Review

This is a gig review from when I saw Pulled Apar by Horses at the Cluny in Newcastle in February of this year : http://www.nme.com/reviews/pulled-apart-by-horses--2/11803/photo/7

The Singles Cover

As I have stated before as well as doing a digi-pack cover, that me and Chloe will be doing a singles cover as well to go with the song we are doing, “E=MC Hammer”. For the digi-pack, the cover and all of its inside is being had drawn artwork by yours truly, but for the singles cover we are just going to photograph it. The idea for the cover I have taken from the band Hard-Fi’s album cover for “Killer Sounds”.

Hard-Fi "Killer Sounds" cover.

The reason for this is because in the video we have the people dressed in skull masks dancing around during the video while the band are playing, and the idea for the cover would be to take these masks and lay them out in a similar fashion to the “Killer Sounds” cover, but obviously not have the picture as bright and vibrant as the Hard-Fi cover, but to instead give it a more dark tone to fit with band and have relevance to the video. The reason for this is because single covers fall into different covers for what they look like and what they have portrayed on their cover. Single cover will either have an image on the front of it in relation to the music video that goes with it (which is what we are doing for our cover, see below for more examples) or it could be artwork similar to the album the single has been taken from (see below for examples) or it can be a completely different image all together.



The singles covers both reflect the music videos that accompany them. The Gorillaz "Stylo" cover features the car that is in the video and the Pulled Apart by Horses cover for "Yeah buddy" is actually an image taken from the video itself for the single.

The top image is the album cover Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" withe the accompanying images singles taken from that album, with these images showing how a singles cover can reflect the artwork taken from the digi-pack

This is the cover for Biffy Clyro's single "Mountains" and shows how singles covers can have their own individual artwork.

 Out of all three options we are choosing the first one and having an image that reflects what's going on in the music video, it is an option that is easy to do and at the same time allows for a lot of creativity, in terms how we can arrange the masks and the background we could take the picture against. Also we will be taking pictures of the shoot so if that idea for the cpver goes wrong we could do what they "Yeah Buddy" cover (see above) has done and take a still from the video itself for the ocver, which would act as a sort of contingency plan.

The Contingency Plan!!!

So if any of you have read the Treatment and past blogs, the setting for the video was going to be in a woodland area. However on my last blog I expressed the concern and difficulty me and Chloe would have shooting in these woodland areas and that as a contingency plan we would have to change location to a suburban area. So after careful concideration we have decided to go with the contingency plan. Basically the storyboard wont need to change at all because we will still use the same shots but the setting will be the man being chased around a suburban area, and with that it gives us a load more locations to film at and beable to piece things together alot more easier in the edit stages. So basically the areas that will be used to film at is Newton Hall (where I live and is one of the biggest housing estates in Europe, so thats absolutly loads of locations to film at) and to use the Framwellgate School (where both me and Chloe attend Sixth Form) and to use either it's drama room or main hall, to film where the band is playign and decorate which location we choose to give a better feel and atmosphere to the video. A big reason for choosing our school, is because it has all the fascilities we need and it has all the instruments we need, including several drum kits! So happy days, so with filming occuring at school we aim to get all of our filming done over the next week and may possibly a little bit the week after and then just dive straight into editing. 

Filming and Updates

Filming for the video will begin shortly I am happy to announce. The plan is to film the video over two different days, rather than get it all done in one. One day we will shot the chase scenes with the man running from the supernatural force that is chasing him, as that is the easiest part to shoot and only requires me, Chloe and the actor playing the man, so that is really simple, and just basically just get as many shots as we can of him running through the woodland area, looking paniced and scared, and get all the shots that adds and builds tension in the video, as most shots like that in the video are done with the chase bits. The second day will be all the band parts, which is going to be the most difficult bits to shot, for several reasons. One that day we will need the band, the skull dancers and the man being chased, so in total that is around 9 different actors ( 4 band members, 4 skull dancers and the man) as well as Chloe and myself. However I may be taking up the role of the man in order to reduce the numbers, plus it will be just a lot easier to shot in terms of direction and because both me and Chloe know how we want it to look, so it'll be a lot easier coming from one of the minds who came up with the video idea. Another problem is trying to find somebody willing to lend us a drum kit, especially when we will have to hike it into some woods, that is the real main problem. I know many people who own drum kits and places that have them but it's just getting those peoples permission to use the kit. I think overall if the woodland area is the main problem for shooting the back up idea is to just change the setting of the video like possible to a suburben area or maybe around a building, we will both be thinking of a back up setting anyway but fingers crossed if I get my hands on the drum kit because that is the main issue in regards to where we are filming. The final problem is that both me and Chloe have jobs that we both have to go to, so it all falls on if work allows us to have time off, but the plan is to do the filming on a Sunday and a Monday hopefully eirther the 13th and 14th of November or 19th and 20th. So there is still quite a lot to do but hopefully everythign will come out smoothly in the end.

The Band and Live Performances

So as seen in one of my very first posts I posted a band profile of Pulled Apart by Horses, so people knew who the band was, what the history of the band is so far and just general information about them. I think however that better light needs to be placed on the band so people have a better understanding with other things on my blog, such as themes I am using, influences for my video and just other relative information to all aspects of the project.

The BandObviously as stated numerous times before, the band are called Pulled Apart by Horses and are from Leeds, England and have been formed since 2009, comprised of lead vocals and rhythm guitar player Tom Hudson, lead guitar player James Brown, bass player Robert John Lee and drummer Lee Vincent. The band have immediately grounded themselves as really raw and heavy band, famous for fast driving hard hitting songs, delivered with aggression and humour. The band have also picked up a big reputation as an amazing band to see live, which I can vow for having seen them several times, and is something I will touch upon later. Since their formation the band have released numerous EP’s and singles and released their self-titled debut album back in 2010, with the band currently working on the follow up with a release date on sometime during 2012. The reason I picked this band (not only because they are one of my all-time favourites) is because they are simply one of the best around today and are doing something different compared to most music that is being released lately. In a time where guitar music is pretty close to dying out, and is struggling to survive, this band came along with such amazing style, charisma and image, and has the music to back it all up.  They are a band who can be placed in different genres of music, but they just do something so different. They produce such hard hard-hitting songs filled with amazing riffs and lyrics that can times mean nothing and at other times mean a lot to people, that they fit so perfectly into the alternative rock genre and the bands that defined it such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden. The music also has such strong connotation and links to the hard-core punk genre, once again going back to the structure of the powerful riffs, let done with simple structure and also the bands use of power chords, not to mention the vocals used which a lot of the time is lead singer Tom Hudson screaming and yelling till there is no air left in his lungs to do so, it just all fits so incredibly well into the hard-core genre and the bands that once again define it such as Black Flag, Bad Brains and Husker Du. But also fits into the post hard-core genre influenced by hard-core punk and that bands linked to that such as Fightstar, Funeral for a Friend and The Used.  The band is often linked to the indie rock genre, which seem strange but you can kind of see. A lot of indie rock music takes influence from all different kinds of music genres such as rock and punk, using a lot of the simple riff and power chord structures for songs and in that respect it is easy to see why Pulled Apart by Horses can be linked to this genre of music, not to mention the fact that indie rock is actually a sub-genre of alternative rock, so it all fits in really well, with bands such as The Libertines, Manchester Orchestra and The Enemy.  

Tom Hudson

James Brown

Robert John Lee

Lee Vincent

Live Performance

Live performances, as mentioned before, are very important when talking about the band. PABH have gained a big reputation as a live band. The show are very notorious for having crowd surfing, stage diving and the fans flailing their bodies around in very intense mosh pits. I have seen this band around 4 or 5 times now, and each time I see them, the live shows just blow me away (see below for pictures of me at their shows). The band just completely tears up any venue or festival they perform at, through their amazing performance and energy and the fact that you never know what to expect when you go and see them live. The live performances just fit the bands so well, with their heavy music being the perfect thing to just basically go crazy to at shows. If anybody ever goes to one of their shows, be prepared to be pushed, shoved, thrown, surfed and have fans hurled towards you, as when this band plays it’s pretty much any rules go and you will most likely get hurt, but that is all part of the fun and is just expected with a band such as PABH. Even the band themselves get injured during their shows, due to their reckless antics on stage. As you can see from the photos (see below) the band like to scale, climb, and drop and jump of any structure at their disposal. The second time I saw the band play, was when they were one of the opening support bands for hard-core punk band The Bronx at the O2 Academy in Newcastle, in which, during the bands second song lead guitarist James jumped off one of the amps and blew his knee out, but instead of stopping because of it, they just wrapped his knee up in duck-tape and carried on. The reason why all of this is important is because the way they play live comes through the band’s music so well, that pure raw and heavy power comes through recording just as the same as it does live. Plus Their live shows just show so much of the bands attitude as well and what they are about, just a band who is all about the music they play, the hard-core spirit, and just a basic care free attitude and a band who deos what the hell they want.

James Brown being crowd surfed by a bunch of crazy fans

James taking a big dive of an amp, once again living up to the bands reckless live shows

Tom Hudson and James, lying in a heap on the floor

Tom, James and Robert Lee Vincent, with the guys going basically insane

Spot Me If You Can

 I had to en-large this photo the most or else you wouldn't spot me. See the inflatable flower in the lefthand top corner? Go right a tad to the first beareded fellow and that is me. This from Sonisphere 2011 and the guys truly rocked the show as usual!

This was taken from the bands performance at The Cluny in Newcastle, I'm really easy to spot here as I am the one wearing the bright yellow shirt.

The Cluny again. You should be able to spot me quite easily here.

Cluny again. With me joing the manic fans trying to grab some of Tom.

Final photo is the Cluny again, thsi time I am just visible, trying not to get crushed from a crowd surfer.



Storyboard Part 3

Storyboard Part 2

Storyboard Part 1

Apologises for the lack of blog entries lately. Me and Chloe have been really focused lately on getting things prepared and ready for the video and other parts of the project. I have been working on the story board and I am no glad to say it is complete! It took a very long time to construct but here is the first part of many.

Magazine Cover Research 4 - Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer magazine (as you can tell from the name) mainly features on metal music and all the different metal genres and also features heavey rock groups as well. The magazine features both new and classic metal groups, and features news, reviews and articles on everything metal. Metal Hammer definitley has the most intresting and exciting magazine covers and always do something different with each cover, rather than Q, NME and Mojo which are always very repretative with what they do with their covers, as you can see from the covers above, there is always something that grabs you about the cover, there is always something about these covers that grab you and don't just feature the band focused on in the issue, they always have them looking or doing something intresting e.g. the cover with Slayer with the clever effect to make it look like there skin has pealed away to reveal their skulls. Also the logo for the magazine really grabs you as well, similarly to Mojo it cover the top of the magazine cover page and also the magazine isn't afraid to mix it up and change it's appearance e.g. the Slayer cover looks like it's painted in blood and on the Disturbed cover the logo looks like its crumbling. I don't have much criticism with this magazine covers, they are very vibrant and grab peoples eye, however one thing I do have to say is sometimes the cover doesn't always features enough information on what is featured inside, with the exception of the Megadeth cover featured above.

Magazine Cover Research 3 - Mojo

Mojo is a music magazine that covers all different types of music similarly to Q magazine, however Mojo pays more focus to classic and vintage bands and musicians, as well as doing music related reviews such as albums, DVDs and books. Mojo has a very different layout to Q and NME, it's logo is always spread out across the very top of the page and is very bold and simple, really makes it stand out. The featured musician on the magazine cover always takes up the majority of the page, which is a really good feature, it is very noticable and shows very clearly what the issue features, once again making it stand out and showing cleearly what is featured. The cover also features a whole load of text on it about the articles featured inside, most of the time the text is the same font and usually the same colour, except for the band name featured on the cover e.g. The Who issue above, the bands name is done in a mod style design. Only problem with all the text on the front cover is it sometimes comes off too packed with information, it looks very blanned with to much information, just makes the cover come off as boring at times. Another criticism is it very lacks vibrancy, it features heavily on mono colours, which at times makes it look good but they tend to use them for each cover which makes it very boring and bland at times.

Magazine Cover Research 2 - NME

NME (New Musical Express), is a weekly music magazine that tends to focus on particular music trends of the time, it mainly focues on bands and musicians that are very popular and tends to focus on specific genres that are popular of current times, but it also features vetran and classic bands and musicians (see Ian Curtis cover) as well. NME follows a similar layout to Q, in terms of how the logo is positioned, how the band are photgraphed and teh backgropund. The differences here though is that NME has alot more vibrancy that Q lacked, alot of their covers feature a big array of colour and font schemes, that really grab the eye. The cover is also packed full of otehr pictures as well which brings in more focus on otehr things featured in the issue i.e. album covers and pictures of other musicians. I only have oone criticism of this magazine cover and that it's sometimes a bit too packed full of things, sometimes tehre is so much packed on the cover it becomes a bit of a mess and just becomes really muddled and confused. Theses covers don't portray this well, except maybe the Oasis one a little bit, but passed NME covers have just been a bit of a mess.

Magazine Cover Research 1 - Q Magazine

As part of the project, one of the tasks is to design a magazine advert, but as I have stated before I am extending that into a bigger magazien package and part of that is a magazine front cover featuring the band. So over the next 4 blogs I'll be looking at 4 different magazines and talk about what goes into their covers and what possible inspiration I can draw from them.

Q magazine covers all different types of genre and music and reviews pretty much all the latest music releases and features articles of all the latest musicians aswel as articles with veteran and classic musicians. Q's album covers are very simple in design, all there magazine have the basic layout of the magazines logo in the left hand top corner, with the main featured musician or band featured on the front cover standing in front of a white background (except for the odd expection like the U2 featured cover above), and feature lots of different colour text in the same font about what is featured in the issue. What I like about the Q covers are is that they are very simple and straight to the point, when you look at the cover you know whats going to beside and whats featured, its very straight to the point which I feel is what is needed for a magazine cover it just gets straight to the point, as well as the photos used for the front cover, they have been taken incredibly well, some front covers reaching fantatsic in terms of photography . However saying that at times the covers do come off as a bit blanned and boring, there isnt much in the way of vibrancy, it doesn't always grab your attention, the only way some people might pick it up in this case is if a band or musician they like is featured on the front, other than that, it just comes off as a little boring at times.