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.