Introducing Band at the Beginning

FUTURES appears and stays on the screen for a good couple of seconds after the video has begun. This is an effect we would like to include into our video.

Ageing our Shots

Having looked at Lana Del Rey's Blue Jeans video, we gained inspiration with the effects we will be using for our music video, in particular the shots of the buildings and landscapes. The random flashes of clips throughout between the shots of her in front of a wall - with the contrast of black and white are inspirational and are what we were aiming to create. Below is the the video we have produced with all our best shots from the filming day with cutaway shots of previous filming - despite it simply being experimental practise, we will include the parts we like in our real thing.

Walking Shot

We need to still film the walking shot of our girl by a brick wall - which we were going to include at the beginning although we may switch the places of shots around a little bit according to what looks best. This video by Passion Pit contains the ageing effects as well as the shot of the girl walking in darkness. I hope we create something similar, which emphasises the girl's new found freedom.

My Digipak

Orginially, I planned to have some DJ decks on the front cover of my CD, however, after taking the photographs and deciding they looked too unprofessional and rather cliche for what I intended to achieve, I have gone for a completely different idea. Using the whole 'hunt' theme with our brand band of Hunt The Noise, I am going to use a fish lens and take a series of pictures - perhaps, 4 or if 1 looks more effective and experiment with having this as my front image. The images I wanted to take were to be not of faces but of maybe someone vandalising a brick wall - maybe even writing the band name in chalk on it.  Our storyboard did include some ideas of using a fish lens - as if spying on the male in our video - which ties in brilliantly. 

Artist CDs 2

CHASE AND STATUS
Chase and Status are a music production duo, with most of their music being Electronic or Dubstep. As they themselves – alike to Pendulum – are not recognised visually, it is not surprising they have chosen a symbolic image of a pit-bull to place as their background CD cover. Many of their songs could be considered controversial, aggressive and represent the youth of today, which is why the (rather miserable-looking) pitbull is a great dog to use alongside Chase and Status. Stereotypically, the type of youth who appeal to this music are young adults who attend raves and understand the issues spoken about in the lyrics that Chase and Status work with. 

The contrast between the close up, detailed image of the black and white dog underneath the bold yellow writing adds a brilliant effect. The connotations of black, yellow and white are typically danger and hazard, which is deliberate in the label they are trying to put across to their audience. The back of the CD cover is very basic - plain black with the distinct yellow writing on top aligned on the left hand side. After analysing Chase and Status' CD cover, I have confirmed that I definitely want to create an uncomplicated yet effective cover relating to the type of music my band brand would be producing. I like the idea of using neutral, toned-down colours as a main background alongside an eye-catching font/colour for the band brand name and CD name. 

Artist CDs 1

PENDULUM

Pendulum’s music is a cross between drum ‘n’ bass and classic rave music. As they are a band, whose faces may not be known to their audience – I think this CD cover is a perfect choice. There is definitely something quite surreal about the pastel coloured patterns and shades surrounding the eye, which is aligned with the CD name. The main colours used are green, evoking the idea of money and success of perhaps, the band. By looking closely at the cover, it appears as though the eye is lying on top of a tree growth, which could be representing musical wires and cables. The mystical focus on the left hand side by the band name can be seen to be enhancing ‘Pendulum’, adding a real electronic, rave-y feel and establishing their genre with their audience. ‘Hold Your Colour’ brings into mind Art and by using these water-coloured effects suggests the band’s creativity. The back cover is the exact same as the front and contains the track list – with numbers – aligned on the left hand side below the band brand. In my opinion, I would not have used the exact same image to the front – as it lacks variation, however, Pendulum may have preferred the simplistic option. They have also been sure to include their website, which will encourage their audience to continue viewing their songs and products to advertise their band further.  The use of a clear, bold font for the band name is powerful on a black background and the white writing is the focal point to catch any viewer’s attention.

Scenic Shots

Without realising, Wiz Khalifa seem to have shot similar building in similar ways in his Black and Yellow video! It was really inspiring watching his video, as it gave us some ideas as to where we could put our shots to enhance them within our video and ensure they were fully acknowledged by our audience. The opening shot of his video is a below shot of a building, appearing highly effective in setting of where the video is based. 

[outtakes to be uploaded]

Filming Day 2 - Scenic Shots

We had a very successful filming day today! Despite being freezing, the lighting was brilliant and we used this to our opportunity by filming all our scene shots. Lana drove Joely and myself around to various locations - starting from Ponders End right through to Cuffley. We were able to get some great shots of the flats and some scenic shots of Canary Wolf after climbing a staircase of flats to get the full view on camera. On Monday's lesson, we will begin uploading and editing the clips we have!

Hunt The Noise has Twitter!

Being a Twitter user, I follow many celebrities and music artists - as a group, we thought it would be a brilliant idea to make our own twitter to promote our band and let our 'fans' know all about the latest tour dates! 

Filming Day 1 - Balloon Shot

This was our first filming day, where balloons were set up in the bath along with fairy lights and Georgia was placed inside where we shot the movement of the balloons. The lighting and colour of the balloons will add a vibrance to our video and the slow motion effect which we used fit our theme of freedom, independence and having fun. 

Digipak Ideas

As the deadline for our digipak is so close - I have finally decided on some ideas I am going to experiment with. As our song is a remix created by 'dj's, the front of my CD cover will feature something in link with this - preferably some decks which I have access to. I thought perhaps having a woman's hand reaching over to the decks would make it a little more interesting, with  "Hunt the Noise - Dreams" being on the digital screen of the decks them. Although it is a rather simple idea, I think it could work really well without being too overcrowded, especially if I ensure I have dim lighting with a real focus on the band name and title. 

DIGIPAK

WHAT is a digipak?

A Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD. It is registered trademark of AGI MEDIA, a MeadWestvaco, Inc.resource, which acquired the original trademark holder, IMPAC Group, Inc., in 2000. MeadWestvaco licensed the name and designs to manufacturers around the world.

Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub rather than a full plastic tray.

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Such packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, it tends to show signs of wear relatively quickly. Licensed digipak manufacturers such as domestic U.S. printer and disc replicator Oasis Disc Manufacturing recommend coating the raw printed paper with a protective UV coating, thus ensuring greater longevity. Manufacturers have sought to reduce environmental impact and improve functionality by introducing recycled components into its trays; one has announced a 100% post-consumer PET tray made from recycled bottles.

Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package remains rather brittle and is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.

Filming Schedule

Today we are setting up our filming schedule, as we realised it's not long til Christmas!

Our first filming date is going to be this Thursday at Lana's house.

Location

                            

Here are secondary source images I have found, showing what kind of settings we would like to film our music video in. The beginning running shot, we would like to be filmed against an urban-y, rough setting such as a brick wall or an alley as shown in the first picture. We also like the idea of shooting in an abandoned building or something with similar effect, particularly when showing the distress of the ex-lover. We have also come up with the idea of having a shot of the girl having fun in a room full of over-sized balloons, which would be a brilliant shot of her going through them and perhaps, popping some. 

Selena Gomez has also used this balloon idea in her new music video, as shown at 2:28.

Todorov's Theory

Relating Our Narrative to Todorov's


a state of EQUILIBRIUM, displaying normality
We plan to have this flashing shots of this at the beginning of our music video, particularly when our main character is reminiscing at the times when her and her ex lover were together
a DISRUPTION of the equilibrium by some action
This (positive) disruption takes place when our character sets free and the running track shot takes place for the initial parts of the video
a RECOGNITION that the disruption has taken place
This recognition of disruption could be portrays, perhaps by showing our girl to have fun with her friends and entering her new found freedom
an attempt to REPAIR the disruption
We wanted to show this attempt to repair by the ex lover trying to win back the girl, by maybe sending her messages to meet up. My group and myself definitely want to create a sense of ambiguity to leave the audience questioning what will happen next
a return to a NEW equilibrium 
As we are having a twist element in the end of our music video, our character will not actually return to her old lover, however, it will be apparent that her a resolution will be found with her new lover. 
Our narrative will be have an OPEN structure, as the audience are left to wonder what happens next and make sense of it themselves.

Audience Theory

It is vital to know our audience
- We then know our *target audience*
- We can fulfill the audience's expectations of codes and conventions depending on our genre
- See who will BUY our music and videos
- We know what will appeal to our audience, therefore allowing us to promote according via our music video/digipack
-We may be able to relate to them, using specific iconography
STUART HALL
Developed the concept of audience positioning as a result of examining news reports on industrial strikes. Claiming that media representations established a framework for possible responses – this is like setting an agenda for issues to be raised with audiences. The responses to an audience watching a media text would be likely to fall into three main categories:

 Dominant readings - Audiences respond to the way narrative is constructed and adopt the points of view implied

Oppositional readings - Audiences reject the way the narrative is constructed, question and challenge the points of view implied
Negotiated readings - Audiences partially accept the way the narrative is constructed but can see both points of view

the dominant and oppositional readings

Aberrant readings is an additional interpretation, where the text is read in a deviant and largely unanticipated manner, the preferred reading not being recognised at all

Split Screen/Opening Idea

How we intend to begin our music video (0.00 - 0.06)...

Metronomy - The Bay

The first six seconds are how we want to start ours, as it introduces the video in an original way.

We also plan to use a split screen towards the end (0.39-0.43)...
Due to our narrative having a slight twist element in the end, the audience can be considered to be perhaps, 'tricked' into thinking that the girl is going to meet up with her ex-boyfriend, yet essentially stitches him up when she actually meets her new lover. We thought the idea of having both the ex and the new lover on split screen would represent this nicely, then squashing the split screen gradually towards the ex so the full screen turns on the girl and her new love. 

Marroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

Maroon 5's video to this song, displays a strong narrative featuring a male and female relationship. I am especially captured by the ending, as there are extreme close-ups used of each character, which I hope to interpret in our music video. This effect will bring into motion the expression and mood of each of our characters.

Developing our Concept

Whilst storyboarding with my group, we thought of a main narrative for our music video. Although we don't want this narrative to completely dominate the entire film, we want our audience to know roughly want the song is about and how we are portraying it. As the song we have chosen suggests, it is about LOVE. We are going to represent this love in a damaged way, involving both a main boy and girl.

This love they previously had will be displayed in flashbacks of them together, mostly sad times yet happy times too, perhaps. These flashbacks will be very quick and will only be at the starting point of the song. As the lyrics state, freedom of the girl is going to be shown - where she goes out with her friends, 'forgets' the boy and generally enters her new single life. 

                                       

The character of the male, however, will be portrayed as a control-freak who begins to obsess over her after their break-up, where we will use pinhole shots and represent him as a moody, depressive person who cannot deal with his former girlfriend's new found freedom. 

                                 

Storyboard's Done!

Here we have one page of our storyboard - we tried to make ours as detailed as possible so we could know EXACTLY what to shoot on the day. We have explained what location, what shot type and the details of what we would need at the time. This is a good outline to go by, even if we do alter or change some of it along the way. 

Rich Mix Trip

Today we visited Liverpool Street, where a Media music video seminar was held. I found it really captivating how we had the chance to listen to a couple of professional music directors and learnt the journey they went through to produce famous tracks. 
I found the music videos directed by Corin Hardy the best - the 'Warrior Dance' track by The Prodigy is one of favourites and the video to go with it is definitely creative and very quirky (making the cigarette packet people come alive!). He appears to have used stop motion film in order to produce this, which he said was a very length yet effective process.

Another amazing video of his is by The Horrors - She Is The New Thing - as they are a very rocky, solemn sounding band and Corin's work also reflects this, his ideas for this video worked perfectly. He explained how he simply filmed the band for roughly two hours, then added layers of ink painting he had created over the course of 4 weeks managing this edgy, scratchy music video.

During this trip, I was also able to learn about the different budgets of film - Corin Hardy explained how most of the music videos he makes are for much cheaper budgets of around £5,000. However, the other music director we were also able to hear from directed Britney Spears new music video - Criminal (which is not available on YouTube yet) and stated a much larger budget, including flights, costumes, location and of course the cast/singers.
Overall, it was a very successful trip, where a great deal of useful information was given particularly from the chief Media examiner. Looking forward to shooting some footage now with my group!

British DJs

This is an example of quick flashing shots by a well-known DJ called Rusko. I really enjoy this music video, as it does have an edgy British feel to it. The beginning is a build up to the actual song, similar to our song where we will be including a fast moving tracking shot. The location is based in urban-y settings of London, which is exactly where we intended on filming ours, especially Brick Lane etc.

Video Montage

Here is our video montage of all the techniques we'd love to include in our music video. We have only experimented with a few so far, but as we are getting further into our storyboard, we will be able to carry out more and will upload them onto our blogs.

Our Treatment

This is the link to Prezi, which is what we used to do our pitch to the rest of the Media class. Below, there is also the recording of our treatment. We, as a group, thought our presentation really well and we were able to express our overall thoughts and final ideas of what we want to achieve.

http://prezi.com/ifqwvubbgfty/media/

Production Journal - 7th Oct

This current week has just been focused on completing our treatment, which we are going to present to the class on Monday. We are using Prezi, where we will include our key words, loads of pictures and links to the videos that have influenced us on our final ideas!

Voyeurism Idea

We found this Nero video and aboslutely love the voyeurism aspect! At around point 0.33, the young girls are singing karaoke on the television and we think this would be an original, quirky element to include in our music video.

Song Lyrics

Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it

But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering 
What you had
And what you lost...
And what you had...
And what you lost

(Oooooh)

Oh, thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say, women...they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
_____________________________________________________________
On elyrics.net, I found the lyrics to Fleetwood Mac's Dreams (the song we are using for our music video) - here I have highlighted and enlarged the key words signifying the main themes for our music video. It is obviously about love, however the song is not specific in anyway and we can therefore choose to play on many different aspects such as freedom, independence, relationships, friendships, love, hate and our surroundings. 

Band Brand

After some a long, hard think, we finally settled with a band name, Hunt The Noise. It's original, slightly chilling and I think its a suitable choice, as we have to play the role of being DJs remixing this classic Fleetwood Mac song. Also, it is a very versatile choice because it can be the name of ANY genre. 

COSTUME

CASUAL

ripped denim shorts

jewellery

converse?

attitude

effortless

scruffy

MAKE/UP

daytime

bold lips

subtle eye makeup

nighttime

heavy make up

masks

Website Analysis

CHASE AND STATUS
They are one of the most famous British music production duo, having taken a close look at their website, it is clear to see that there is a distinctive theme to their label. The main colours were black and yellow, which can be seen as giving the connotations of danger - similar to the black and yellow hazard tape in crime scenes. Their website is ultimately to promote. The first thing on their website is the social networking sites to allow interaction between fans, also giving them the opportunity to sign up and become a member.

Various tour dates and events of where Chase and Status would be performing was also shown on the homepage, giving fans a chance to buy tickets via their website. This is most likely to notify 'members' who have signed up to their fan club whenever available tickets come up for sale.

Like many artists' websites, sneak previews or full songs for their most recent song is displayed on their homepage for viewers to watch and listen to. Photographs and videos of previous performances and events are usually put up as well in order to interest those who perhaps, have never seen them live.

As years go by and less and less CDs are bought in person, it is only right for Chase and Status to promote their album on their website for fans to buy it straight up. Their 'store' also contains various C+S hoodies and tshirts, further encouraging their publicity. After analysing the Chase and Status website, it is evident to see that like all websites, they MUST have a consistent theme and logo, making the brand recognisable for all. 

New Song Choice Permission

As we have changed our song from Justice's D.A.N.C.E to Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, we have to first get permission from Blue Horizon records (Fleetwood Mac's record label) to ensure we are able to to use it without committing anything against the copyright act.

OUR NEW SONG

We have finally found our new song! It is catchy with a good beat where we can incorporate all our original ideas into, along with lyrics so we have include lip syncing in there too. Despite being an old song - The Twelves have made a remix version, which creates the dance-y/electro sound to it as well as it having that retro/aged feel to it.
FLEETWOOD MAC - DREAMS