Monday 29 November 2010

Technology & Equipment

We used lots of technology in making our film. We used two DV cameras for filming the production although one was set to the ratio 4:3 instead of widescreen so we couldn’t really use this footage in our final film. We also used the homemade steady cam the media department has, which helped with keeping our moving shots and close to the action (including using a hockey stick and some gaffer tape). Jack learned how to use After Effects well for our special effects we would edit into the film.
Premier Pro: This is the program that we used as a base to edit all of our footage and chosen track, we have had previous experience on Premier Pro editing a Romeo and Juliet trailer and a Preliminary exercise as well as my successful As Level project. The software allows you to edit different audio and video on multiple tracks, it is laid out so that your imported files are on the left, the track are at the bottom and the video is on the top right however the only sound we would use is the sound track (piranha- prodigy) and a gun shot . This is a very easy system to use once you’ve had some practice. This 5 second worth is 1 lessons worth of special effects and editing involved.

Camera: The camera we used to film, obviously, the model was a Panasonic GS230 and was very easy to use and operate. However we did encounter a dodgy camera which didn’t capture any footage to a computer and a second camera which chewed the taps which we filmed on. This thing unfortunately kept on setting us back.


Equipment: As well as the camera we also used a lot of extra technical equipment such as a steady cam, tripod, and an additional camera. We used a hockey stick and gaffer tape which I would hold and run with so I was in focus and the back ground is moving. This effect is used in “Placebo-The perfect drug” perfect for our film. The steady cam came in handy when we needed to film action shots because whoever was filming could run alongside the action but the footage wouldn’t appear too shaky whist still being in. We tried to uses a second camera on site on the filming day to film different angles of the scene so instead of filming the scene twice. We also used some props such as a baseball bat and a toy gun (to imitate a real gun.)
   


Ancillary projects
Adobe illustrator- This is a system where I would design and create a design for the album artwork and the net on which we would print it on. This is a simple programme to use, and one in which I have experience in using last year to show our target audience
Wix.com- None of our group has designed a web page before. After looking on the internet researching different methods we could make our web page. We feel that from using MySpace is a simple way out of making a bands web page. “Loud Noises” would be more independent of this and so we decided to use a more professional look by using Wix.com. This looked simple enough to master and if done correctly and with a group effort would look as professional as possible.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Shooting Diary

Shooting Diary

Day 2- After our failed attempt on making the opening seen in our chosen location jack, Sam and I went back to re-film the footage we lost. Again we encountered many problems before we even started we had to return to school and pick up a tap which we failed to pick up. We made the location, character, costume and mise en scene, including the pool table to be kept the same. The only difference was that we included an extra actor/ character not originally in the script to make the opening flow more easily and show the audience that the party the night before did have others there. Throughout our filming we tried to keep the continuity flowing as clean as possible this proved difficult because we had to film the same scenes over and over but from different angles. Sam, who played the other character had to remain extremely still in order to not ruin the continuity of the shot unless needed to. We decided to film too sides of the story shown through Sam’s character. A white mask appears, hopefully putting questions to the audience in order to make them more involved, this was all in hope to create a choppy effect when editing. We got this idea from “fight club” when Brad Pitt/ Tyler Derden appears and then disappears from the shot. On the receiving end of this technique we felt that this was a clever a freaky effect, the same effect we hope to create. 
We started off filming using a camera which seemed to chew up the tapes. A quick change of camera meant that we could continue, however again only filming with one camera meant that we would have to change the camera angles and re-act the scenes over and over until we felt that we had enough to use and more.
We filmed exactly the same footage however this time we didn’t have my grandparents this time round to star in our film. The second day of filming was after a brainstorm and run trough of the script, all these changes effected what we filmed. The things that we changed were after the opening scene within the pool/ party venue. From there we filmed the first “clone” scene. This was again hard to achieve and unfortunately we weren’t successful when filming, breaking the 180 degree rule and also making us unable to film our clone.  This scene took place in my bathroom because of the shower (to make the psycho shower scene) and a mirror in which I was to be reflected in. Outside a window is a landing area which we used to show the character jumping from to escape.
Because we unfortunately were unsuccessful again with the filming of a scene we will re record what we can and use previous footage which we can edit into our film. This is not a loss however we have not filmed what we wanted.  We hope to re-film this scene to how we envisioned it and begin to film the dog scene, running scenes and possibly the final scene in order to have more in editing. 

Shooting Diary

 Shooting Diary

Day 1- Jack and I had an attempt on making the opening seen in our chosen location. We chose the costume, location and Mise en scene, including the pool table. Throughout our filming we tried to keep the continuity flowing as clean as possible this proved difficult because we had to film the same scenes over and over but from different angles, in hope to create a choppy effect when editing.

After setting up the scenery (scattering bottles, to create a previous drunken night), cameras and actors we were set to film. We have chosen to use a free hand approach when filming, we intend to do this as much as possible to create and effect as if the audience is following the character and experiencing his episodes.  We have inherited this idea from “Fear and Loathing from Las Vegas”, in this film the majority of the footage is with moving scenery, noting is still, stable or structured. This makes the audience and the characters seem unstable and the film edgy. We want to use this effect because we feel that this would be a good technique to involve the audience and make the enjoy it.

Because of our spontaneity and improvisation we only had to have a rough guideline to what we were expecting to create. With this we were able to play around with different use of shots. We felt that this was a good way to film because it meant that we got a lot of footage captured in a small space of time and with the weather slowly closing this was important to get as much as possible.

We had filmed our first scene. Around 10 minutes of footage for 30 seconds worth of film. We felt that all of the footage could be used, and would look good with a hard cutting shot to shot. this is cleverly done in ”Alfred Hitchcock’s psycho”, he uses different angle of the same action to create a edgy build up to the famous shower scene, some extremely subtle. 

The next scene we filmed was again spontaneous. We decided together that a running scene filmed from outside of a car would be a great way to film a chase scene. Films use tracks and from the sides of vehicles but because of our lack of equipment all we had was a car and a camera to film with, this meant that it was very joggy and obvious it was form outside of a car unlike it we had a track to film from like this one: 




We filmed a running scene but encountered a few problems. This included the car moving the camera accidently jogging it and a few times making the car become in the shot.  Another problem was the pedestrians; a few times bystanders would suddenly appear in the film and look directly in the camera or get in my way whiles I was running.  This proved one of the most difficult scenes to crack however one clean run meant that we had a complete footage of which we could use and clips of good footage from other takes from which we could edit into the film.

Again just from improvisation we decided to use our surrounding and include my grand-parents in the film. They were at the location at the time and so we decided to see if we could use some effect that we researched and incorporate this into our storyline. We had a rush of creativity and came up with using a warp effect that could make my grandparents look evil. This effect is used in “” to scare the audience and hopefully this will be the same effect when audiences watch our film. We justified using an old couple to become devilish and demon like was to show  the audience that even kind innocent people are effected by our main charters trippy experiences, we expect to use this effect again later on in the film when a dog a kindly dog walker change into vicious, scary beings.

Unfortunately all of the footage captured on day one of filming was unable to be downloaded and put onto a computer. The 30+ minuets worth was useless and so we would have to film again using a different way of capturing our footage. The 30 minutes were the equivalent of 30 gigabits and so was pointless to download. We were disappointed with this however we decided to use our experiences and so on day two of filming we will be able to quickly and efficient capture all and more. 

Location

Scene 1- Set in a pool room. It will be a darkened and mess up room. The mis en scene is important when on film on this location because it will be the scene introducing the audience with the setting and the character. The room is outside my house and can easily be used as a drunken party pad.



Scene 2- Set on the street. This is where someone would normally meet a dog walker and so we decided this would be the best place to set the scene where the dog barks at our character. This we feel would be set in an alley way/ on the road down Northfield road also where part of the running scene will be set.



Scene 3- Set in a bathroom, because of access and mirror positioning we felt that it would be easy and suitable just to use my bathroom as it is easily accessible form the pool room and so loss of sunlight is minimal when going form scene to scene.



Scene 4- The chase scene will be filmed in as many places as possible, including: Buildings, Ringwood town, housing estates and gardens. Anywhere that we can film myself running or being chased we will film. Alley ways are the main focus in the hope that we can encounter fewer obstacles when filming including pedestrians and cars that might ruin the mis en scene or the shot, ruining the continuity as well as the film.

Scene 5- A house which the character I am playing breaks into. This could be Jacks house, however because he is moving house soon this could be difficult if we have to re-film any shots from this scene. We hope that this wouldn’t be necessary but is a factor we have to consider. Jacks house is perfect because it’s easily accessible to us and we can film what we want when we want.

Our locations can be changed if we feel they don’t suit our film in any way. We have though hard in what location would suit us and our film best but with the scope to change we feel we can get suitable footage in different locations giving a variety of options for us to film in.

Plot

Music Video Plot
Our plot takes on our ideas and researched media influences. I feel that the concept takes on all of our ideas, with story boarding and brainstorming we have all come up with a clever and interesting plot.

Scene 1- It starts out with our main Character (played by myself) awaking from a night of heavy drinking, parting and drugs. Evidence of this is shown by the bottles and dirty setting, the mis en scene was very important to show/ tell the audience about the character and what the film will include.  The character wakes up, confused and disorientated and unsure of the night before. Still dazed and confused he leaves the place he spent the night.

Scene 2- As he walks home he encounters random people on the street, who carry out their normal lives. One is a man walking his dog. Weird and off the wall moments occur throughout the film scaring and confusing the audience and the character. The dog acts normal when walking down the road, a hard cut reveals the dog as violent, barking and going crazy. Other people on the street also become freaky, for example by standers wearing masks and act strange within the back ground, almost subliminal.

Scene 3- Becoming freaked out by what is happening to him he runs home and manages to recover slightly from the events and to wash himself from the night before. Still on edge he begins to question his own reflection. We use a sense of disharmony between him and his own refection by using a masking effect. The reflection doesn’t match the movement precisely and then becomes more noticeable as it goes on. We then see that the reflection is actually appeared behind the character and is out of the reflective world. This is again created by a masking effect one in which we have had a good practice at and hope will make the film. (A lot more editing is required when making this section of the film) because of the surprise of his own reflection/ clone he pushes him out the way, the clone reacts to this and shoves him back. This goes back and forth throwing bathroom object when finally the clone slips on the wet floor and cracks his head open falling into the bath. We then see blood spiralling down the plug hole, copying the well known scene from “Alfred Hitchcock’s- Psycho”.  Our scared and anxious character decides the best way to escape is to jump out of the secondary story window. The character isn’t thinking at all straight.

Scene 4- As he runs away his texts his friend, possibly a person he spent the night with. The text reads “Mate, I’m freaking out. I think it could be the stuff we had last night, I dunno but I need help!” a reply comes quickly reading “meet me on the corner”. We see that when he gets to the meeting place that his friend is again a clone. This begins a chase scene. He runs through towns and back alleys trying to escape the clone. The clone appears in random areas, making the whole experience seem more trippy in the eyes of the character. Acting irrationally he breaks through a window of a home and then searches for a weapon.  Looking through draws, kitchens and searching local spaces he picks up a baseball bat, noticing a quick refection he swings the base ball bat. It crashes through a mirror with his own refection; he drops the bat and runs away from the area. He looks in a draw and finds a gun. Turing around he sees his clone in a door way. A stand-off and almost a western like shoot out occurs. As the character raises his gun pointing it at the clone the clone raises his fingers in the shape of a gun aiming it at the character.  A gunshot rings out in time with the music as it reaches its climax. A bloody scene sees the characters, both myself and my clone bleeding from the stomach from where they had been shot.  Both stumble around and fall backward at the same rate (like a mirror). We then cut between them falling and the falling image of me on the pool table which is also at the beginning of the film. The two falling images relate to each other. We got the idea for this scene from- the opening scene of “Trainspotting” when he gets hit with a ball in the head and also hit of heroine, we see a contrast of quick cutting shots of both scenes which make the two relate and look effective. We felt that the use of drugs and transfer of shots created a good look and clever use of editing. However  when our character falls we feel that if he is showing something which really links the two scenes together would be an even better effect rounding off the story. For example when he falls on the pool table he would be showing signs of still being in a drugged out state or still holds the gun in one hand or has a blood stained shirt. I feel that holding a gun would combine the two shots (and a hard cut of 2 frames worth of the character wearing a freaky white mask appearing all over the film) subtly and effectively and clearly rounding off the film. 

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Digital Packaging Research

Digital Packaging Research
As part of our specification I am to design a Digipak for our chosen track. There are many different nets and ways to make a Digipak all in which we have considered. We will also have to design our album artwork. This will make our album stand out and be a unique product that could be instantly sold if on the market.
We have been influence by many designs and methods to make our package. These are the one that we looked into and were influenced by: 



The album artwork was a very difficult concept to agree on. We all like different album artwork for different reasons and all felt that these aspects should fit on the front cover. However these mixed together didn’t suit the genre like other music singles do.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Extended Music Video Research

The Pharcyde - Drop
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Squarepusher - Come on my Selector
Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire - Ghosts N Stuff

These are the music videos I have selected to write about as their videos are very interesting either by terms of editing, filming techniqes or have just inspired us. theses are always added when filming or when editing. inspiration come from everywhere and these are some of them from the industry added to our other research.

'The Pharcyde - Drop' was brilliant, all filmed backwards. This (and a scene from Shutter Island where a cigarette's smoke is going back into the cigarette itself to represent Leonardo Di Caprio's dream like state) made me want to incorparate it into our music video to represent the altered consiousness our actor is experiencing. This was also like the "Enigma- Return to innocence"  

Beastie Boys - Sabotage . The quick cuts, unconventional camera angles and constant camera movement just give such a feeling of action and excitement. We love this effect it playes on the audinece, drawing them in and encapturing them in the film.  They manage to make it quirky at the same time by mimicking the 70's cop style TV shows, or the more recent 'Ashes to Ashes' or its prequel 'Life On Mars'. They editor has also chosen to cut shots to certain beats in the song. For instance, when the police officer kicks down the fence (over enthusiasticly to add to the quirky style) the vocals, drums and guitar all kick in and create a sort of powerfull crashing through effect. This technique is used many times in the first 10 seconds and carries on throughout. It creates a fluidity between the music and the video and we will be using this a lot in our music video.

Squarepusher - Come on my Selector uses the 'edit to the beat' technique that Beastie Boys use but to the extreme. The breakbeat style that the song is offers many oppurtunites to edit footage too. This song made us want to choose a fast tempo song so we can have losts of cuts and have lots of freedom in the editing stage.

Deadmau5 used a technique called 'clean plating'. This is when you shoot a piece of footage twice, one without the change (the scene where the boy is lying in the hospital bed) and one with everything exactly the same apart from one thing (the ghost laying next to him). Using this you can overlap the footage and mask out the change, and fade it when you want. The costume made me want to encorpirate costumed characters in our film.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Music video research

Music video research
We decided to get so ideas from other films in the music video industry. We started out choosing songs and music videos we liked and thought looked good. We then stared selecting parts of these films and aspects that we liked so it could influence our film.
Others in my group have done a detailed analysis of the music video. Similar to my first analysis of “Aha- Take on me”, they all did ones from this list of songs that we all created. I chose “Aha” because of the special effect created with the Pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination. Even though this is a good music video it doesn’t match our song choice or the other music videos we were influenced by. However we could add this in to our “trippy looking film” but it wouldn’t have the same brilliant effect.
The technical aspects of all these films will also have a key influence on our project. Mise en scene, continuity, narrative, context, action, dialogue (if we use it), make up, effects, lighting camera shot, sound, and most importantly editing.

Here are some of the music videos we were influenced by=

Gorillas- Stylo. I like this music video; it’s so modern and uses so many effects including the live action and animation effect. I feel that the way that the cloud covers the sky in order to make it dark and sinister is an awesome effect and one that we could use in our film, that’s if we have the skills or equipment to do so. Having Bruce Willis as a cameo is possible out of our reach, however we aren’t that bothered by that. The fast action shots and editing is another aspect that we would want to put into our film.
























Faithless- (at the start of Muhammad Ali when it zooms in) - this zoom is an effect that real took us. We like the way that it focuses on one person from so far away. We would put out own style on it but we want to put this effect into our film.






















Enigma- return to innocence- the whole film is filmed in reverse. It’s meant to be a person’s life but from death to birth. This is a clever effect and I would like to incorporated it, but possibly only parts of our film, this would be like “The Pharcyde- Drop”.  



OK GO- here it goes again-we just enjoy this video, this would be ridiculously hard to make because it is all one take.
Oren Lavie- Her morning elegance- this is stop motion video, this is very cleverly done and I feel that this would be a cool effect to make someone like as if they were flying or running really quickly. This could be used in our film however this would be really hard to edit or even flow with the rest of our effects. This is also similar to “The used- paralysed” where he give the effect of flying. (This would take month and extreme precision, both we don’t have.



Kasabian- shoot the runner- the colours in this film are very basic, the song choice is similar to our chosen song “The Prodigy= Piranha”. The splatter over the lenses is something that we can create possibly with blood, maybe? This is something that our team could think about when looking to creating our film.



 Kasabian -Fire- Overall i think this is a good video, but not great because it doesn't challenge any pre-conceptions we have of the genre. The only unique selling point this video had was the 'guitars for guns' and the underlying message of music piracy. Jack has done a very detailed analysis of this video.  http://msrjarnold.blogspot.com/2010/09/kasabian-fire.html 


Kasabian- Fire
Other influences
San Miguel- it’s not a quick beer. The way the rest of the world is rushing passed him. We like this effect and we think I would work in our film as a “tripped out” effect. San Miguel- Advert
Shutter island (2010)- where the smoke goes back into the cigarette to represent the dream like status


Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - the whole film is within the mind of a drugged out character. His visions are influence to what our character will also see when he is under the influence.


We have researched hundreds of music videos and researched effects that we like and could replicate. I hope that these can fit in our film alongside our ever growing storyline, which we are still to finalise. I think that we will be influence up until the end of our editing when we can add no more. The research will be on going. I will again comment on other effects and music  video styles that we feel suit our project.  

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Example- Kick Start. Music video replication



Kick-start practice-


We decided to see how hard the music industry is to replicate. This was in order to get some idea of how much it takes to get a good enough look for our video. We decided to use a song which had a modern video, with no effects but with a lot of editing to get practice with. Kick-start by Example was chosen by all of us because it was a cool music video to use with quick editing, our actual film will be much darker with other effects but the practice of lip-sinking and replicating the motion in the film would be invaluable to us before making our film.
We decided to match the beginning of the film but we ran out of time towards the end.  Capturing the footage was the most difficult part. We had about 4 days in which we recorded over 2 hours of foot tapping, when we realised that there was only 2 back grounds. We had to recapture our footage. Whist jack was editing this first half of the foot tapping process me and Sam were continuing filming our other footage, dancing and lip-sinking to the song. Annoyingly this footage wasn’t edited into this film. Other than the 30 seconds worth of our edited film we would have had over 2 minutes. This would have been extremely difficult to edit we then ran out of time and so only ended up with the 30 seconds you see in our film.
The quick foot tapping at the start proved the most difficult piece of editing we had ever seen and had to do. In the future we will use the techniques we gained but we will not do anything as complicated as this. Instead we will use other techniques to create a cleaver effect. We think we will use special effects an effect we learned last year when making our AS film “After Death”. Hopefully we have become more advanced since then and we can create something a little bit better.
We now hate the song now and we think that when editing our actual film we will listen to it less so that we are not annoyed or changed by the song.  I enjoyed making our version of this film and hope to create something at the same standard.

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Analysis of Take On Me





A2 course

All future entries are to do with the A2 aspect of the course.

Specification-

A practical coursework unit where you will produce:

• a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts; • a presentation of your research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s):

this year I have chosen to- Design a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

 a website homepage for the band;
 a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
 a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).