Final Video

L3/13 - SLITS ON YOUR WRISTS (Sam & Alex) from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Client Feedback

Hey Sam,


This music video is crazy good! We can't stop watching it here at Betty HQ! Just passed it along to the label as well where it has received a big thumbs up and free beer for me in my meeting with the label director the other day ;) Your video seems to have gone above and beyond the call of duty!


We will definitely be using this in the PR campaign following the release of 'Slits on your wrists' even if it is later on in 2010.


We must go out and celebrate soon!


Cheers,
T

More Feedback

1) Class rough cut feedback:

They thought that the shot with Rosie dancing in front of a white background was a bit tedious, and that there wasn't enough going on. However we thought that the lack of events in that time made the sudden fast cutting and active live footage straight after this scene more effective. Also, the band liked that scene very much, so we had to find a compromise for both. So we added the effect of fading Rosie in and out of the white background as she sings to make it more interesting to view.

When the main narrative character is in the bathroom, we were told that this section wasn't broken up enough, and that it was far too slow paced. We solved this problem by adding snippets of the life footage and breaking up the clips to the beat of the music (like we did near the beginning of the video when she was walking) so that they came over as more energetic and lively. The time cutting also added pleasing effects to the overall look of the video and scene.
We also had a lot more footage at the beginning of the video. We were told we had too many hair dying shots, they stretched out to almost fifty seconds without the music even starting, so we sorted out the most effective shots that got the point across and looked the best out of all of them before got rid of all of the other shots. This made it far more snappy and brings it down to a normal length of time before the music starts for a standard music video.
There was also a shot near the beginning of the video that didn't look right as it lasted too long. We cut this down and added a different line of video footage as well so it looked better.

2)Social networking feedback:

I posted my video with these three questions on face book and asked people to give me feedback:

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?
What do you think are the strengths of my music video?
What do you think are the weaknesses?
this is what was said...

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?

It follows the typical ‘narrative music video’ structure: it starts with the equilibrium which sets up the narrative before the song itself starts. It then progresses to follow-up the narrative interspersed with both crowd action and shots of the band themselves. The band then proceeds to dominate the video before the fade away. In addition to this, technical features such as the production companies and the title of the song and name of the band at the start of the video also make it seem professional.

It has a narrative behind the video with fast paced editing as engage the viewers' attention to the piece. Due to the handheld camera, it fits into the indie music genre of underground video like that of early Hadouken or more recently the band Hockey.

What do you think are the strengths of my music video?

Very good editing control: looks professional. Cut to the beat which I think emphasises the rhythm of the music. I particularly liked it when it cuts as Rosie motions with her arms in time to the beat, (just before the ‘drop’ is it?). Overall kept with the pace of the music, didn’t lag behind or move too fast. Good use of special effects with the fading in and out and the white-light backgrounds for Tom and Rosie. General look of the video seemed to be in keeping with the tone of the music and the narrative followed the lyrics fairly well. Camera work looked professional, not excessively slick, but in the style of music videos during the performance sequences especially. Being present at the filming of the crowd scenes I know how unresponsive the crowd initially was, and how they didn’t appear to fill the space. The camera shots don’t show this at all but instead give the impression of a packed venue.

Has continuity in edit and a variety of techniques.

What do you think are the weaknesses?

I think that generally looks very good; however, there are a few, subjective, issues that I had with the video. The narrative doesn’t appear to conclude fully which means that it seems unresolved, this is a noticeable issue as the setup isn’t fully explored. The title shot fades too quickly to see what the focus-pull has revealed. In one or two of the shots of the band performing the lighting is a bit excessive and washes out Tom’s face.

Could be argued that the camera work is handheld that it is not professional but could add to the charm. Is quite blurry in places though, but you mentioned that this was intentional.

Feedback from Junction Staff

On thursday 5th of november we went to the junction again for a group veiwing and feedback from a panel of judges from the junction who both have 20+ years of experience in the industry. Sadly mine wouldn't play very smoothly due to the laptop it was on and after mine was played they got a different laptop to play the rest, but it was still good enough quality to give feed back on.After watching my video Pete Edwards and Rob Tinkler gave feed back; what they said was that it tells a good story and the actors are very beliveable, the live shots look profesional and the crowd looked far bigger than it was. How ever they did also say that whilst both the live show and the narrative sections are good individually, they don't blend together very well, which spoilt the flow of the video. they also said that the artist needs to be established ealier on

Model Release Forms

This are pictures of the model release forms i gave to all 30 of my actor/actresses that took part in the video. on the bottom is a screen shot of the document and on the top is the filled out forms.

Rough cut feedback from the Client

Here is the rough cut of my music video, i'm very happy with the out come so far and have had alot of very positive feedback on it. My Client Tom said he was very impressed and thought that the crowd shots were really well shot. However he did say that with such a prominant drum beat he would prefer it much more if i were to continue to cut on the beat through out. and also, he said it could do with cutting quicker. here we have cut to the beat but not as quickly as Tom would like.

Photos from editing

Various screen shots of editing the music video.

This is a screen shot of Me editing the blue screen footage in Adobe After Effects

Capturing the footage into Final Cut.

Filming Thursday 15th

Rosie performing infront of the Blue screen

Alex filming the confrontation between Girlfriend and stalker in the toilettes

Me directing becky in the opening sequence.

Filming wednesday 14th

Alex getting a top down close up on beckys hair being died


another of alex zooming in on the dyed water running down the drain


me getting a zoom shot on beckys hair

Filming Wednesday 14th & Thursday 15th

On wednesday the 14th after college, Alex and I went and collected clothing, props and equipment, before heading off to our actresses house. When we arrived there we got to work filming the introductory scenes for the music video. These involved the girl (Becky) looking up the band Betty on MySpace, before seeing that they have a gig coming up. When she reads this she jumps straight into the act of dressing up in an 'emo' fashion.

This took a while to film, as we had to film her dying her hair. This was one of the more impressive points about the video, is she genuinely dyed her hair black for the video. So after filming her on her computer, Sam and I went about filming her dying her hair black, trying to use the long time it took to dye to our advantage as we could set up some good camera shots. We shot lots of footage as this was one of the parts in our video that it would be impossible to shoot twice. The cost of the dye was around £12.

After this we filmed Becky putting on the more prominent items of the emo style. Showing the audience clearly what she was doing. We referred to the storyboard a lot. This was to get all of the shots, making sure we didn't miss any.

Today, on thursday the 15th, Alex and I arrived at the Junction at around 11 o'clock. We sat around for a while and discussed the storyboard. It was useful being there before the others as it allowed us to liaise about the storyboard and plans for filming and organising the (up to 25) people coming to be the crowd for our shoot.

Other diploma students began to arrive later on (nearer twelve o'clock). Alex and I were able to go and get the first peek of the studio where we would be filming and were quite pleased with the results. It was set up nicely and the venue looked professional. James set to work filming his music video which gave me and Alex time to look around and scout for other locations (that would work in the storyline of the video). By the time we had located these it was almost half past one and a fairly large crowd was gathered outside, waiting for us to tell them we could film.

Several people also helped us to go and find other people that may be able to appear in our film. Due to lack of time, we only gave each person My model release form (contrary to our previous plan to give each person both Alex's and mine). Once we had those filled out it was almost time to film.

Alex went back in to the studio to find that James was just finishing up. One of the most difficult parts of doing this was keeping the crowd interested while we were waiting to go inside to film. During this time a few of them got bored and left. If this happened too frequently then we'd lose the crowd, thus ruining part of our music video. To prevent this from happening, we tried to keep at least one of us outside at all times to talk to people and not let them feel bored.

When James finished, alex came outside and called the whole crowd over to the doors, I then gave a quick safety briefing, making them aware of all the cables etc around. We then lead them into the studio. They gathered around the stage quickly and efficiently, making the procedure quicker and making Alex and my life a lot easier. We were able to get started very quickly. The crowd were perfect. They did exactly what we'd asked them to, they were lively and looked like they were having fun.

This left Alex with the task of making it look good. So far in the project, he has acted as the lead camera man, because he has a steadier hand with me organizing everything, as I'm more organised. With both of us giving our input on direction and editing. I think that we have worked well in this team and have no complaints on how things have gone so far.

I feel Alex was very succesfull with getting good camera shots, and managed to make it look like a real concert venue, with more people then were actually present. As well as getting effective music video-esque footage of the band in performance.

After we had finished filming in the studio, we left the main building and headed to the bar. Through a stroke of luck it wasn't locked and we were able to use it to film. This was great as it added a new depth to our video that we weren't sure we could get filmed, due to the bar normally being locked.

Filming here was easier than having to use a different venue and we were able to get all the shots we needed relatively quickly as we only had a small number of people to organize and there was no one else waiting for their turn to film. As a result Alex was able to take more care in getting good shots filmed whilst i directed.

We filmed in a variety of locations today. Including the junction corridors, the studio, the bar and the girls' toilettes

Shoot plan for wednesday 15th (part two of filming)

Shooting the main video on Thursday the 15th

Where - the junction 3, bar, and rear car park

When - Thursday 15th 12 - 5 pm

Who - Me, Alex, Becky, Tom, Rosie and 27 extras.

What - Filming the crowd shots, and narrative.

Shoot plan for wednesday 14th (part one of filming)

The Plan for the shoot on wednesday is like this;

Where - Beckys house

When - 4pm - 6pm

Who - Me, Alex and Becky

What - Filming opening shots and becky dyeing her hair

Whats needed on the day of filming

Here is the Email that i sent to simon telling him what we needed for when we were filming in the Junction:


Day:


We want to film on thursday the 15th.

Setting:

We would like the set to look just like a standard music venue:
Stage, two microphones, a table for DJ equipment (laptop, mini keyboard and mixer 20x20cm). There will only be two people on the stage.
Black backdrop.
We may possibly want the use of smoke (dry ice) effects in the video.
Standard and/or blue & green lighting
A strobe light if possible.
A stage, and room for a crowd of 25 to look large. (Space constriction using black curtains to make people more compact)
If possible, the use of mirrors to give the illusion of a larger crowd.

Inspiration

This is the video for Peices by Chase and Status Ft Plan B.
I took inspiration from the narritive in the video, it tells the story well, fits the song and keeps you interested to see what the Ex-Girlfriend is going to do and how he reacts.

Possible difficulties

One thing that Pete pointed out in class was the fact the the singing in Slits on your wrists is layered up, Toms vocals have a delay on them so that it sounds like there is two of him singing and could therefore become difficult to lipsync. How ever i don't see this as a problem as i will have acces to a version of the song that hasnt had the lyrics layerd up on yet, so i can sync to that then sync the 2 tracks together and take away the original one, being left with the track with layerd up lyrics and a lip synced video.

i think The Avalanches would have probally employed a similar technique to makeing their video for Frontier Psychiatrist

Planning - Extras

For the shoot, i decided i'd need around 30 extras to act as a crowed for the shoot, i used the social networking site Facebook to make an event for the shoot and get as many people as we could through that. 

Here is a screen shot of the event.

Planning - Location #2

After loosing the Soul tree as a venue i had to find a new venue to film in. After having meetings with Simon Bates at The Junction at the same time as this project, i decided that The Junction had great potential and gave me the ability to do loads of extra things that i wouldn't have been able to do previously. The Junction is now going to be our set for filming, all i need to do is confirm a date with Simon Bates.

Equiptment and software

The equipment Alex and I will be working with consists of :

Sony HVR-A1U HD DV video camera at a cost of £1600
Mac G5 desktop computer £1900
Canon ixus 75 digital camera £150
4 x 3meter green and blue screens £50 each

The Software we will be using will include :

Final cut express
Adobe After effects
Adobe Photoshop

Target Audience

The typical Betty fan would be A seventeen year old girl that attends sixth form college, with a 'Preppy' style. Her main interests would be going to indie cinemas such as the arts picture house to see more cultural films, going to local gigs and listening to bands like Pendulum, Crystal Castles and Noah and the Whale.
She would happily change her style to fit in with different groups of people and be fairly 'Middle Class'

animatic

This video is my story board animated to change to the music to give more of a feel for how the final video will look.

Planning - Location

Our original plan was to use a club in town called The Soul Tree, however they wanted £200 for the use of it and this obviously was out of our reach so we re-planed. Below are some location shots we took before we found out how expencive it was going to be.

Planning - Cast

This is Tom (left) and Rosie (right). Tom and Rosie make up the band, Betty and will be performing in the video as the band.

This is Becky, she will be playing the part of the stalker girl that is trying to get Toms attention. i've chosen Becky because she is reliable, enthusiastic and a big fan of the band.

imagery idea

This is a screen shot from the music video 'Friends and Foes' by Isaacs Aircraft, i saw this shot and really liked the focus on the keyboard and the angle it's shot from. it's a very effective shot, showing everything the keyboardist is doing while somewhat concealing his identity for that shot and keeps the back ground out of focus to bring your attention to the keyboard.


I put the shot forward to Tom, who i am in constant contact with at the moment and he agreed that it was a really effective shot and would be a shot style to go for.

Artist's similar to betty

i decided to look at other artists similar to betty to see what they have done with their music videos. When thinking of artists with a similar musical style to betty, i immediately think of Noah and the whale. although they are different genres, the stylised out of tune singing make them sound alike.







Another band i find have even more of a likeness to betty is Crystal Castles, they have the same styleised, out of tune singing and also have the electro synths and electronically generated beats.
here is an example

Effect i want to use

theres a specific effect i want to use at the start of the video which ive seen used many places but pimp my ride is the only one i can remember. Baisicly you take a tracking shot of the girl walking to the venue and edit it so that she jumps forwards in time with the beat of the drum in the song.

ive been trying for ages to find an example of this but cant

Song Lyrics

theses are the lyrics to the song, 'Slits on your wrists'

you dressed up emo to his gig
stole some vodka took a swig
and as it burned your throat you looked at him
and wondered if he thought you were thin

can't wait to recall the night to the toffs at school
yeah his band's song is cool
have to say he's no james blunt
and when you talk to him you found he was a cunt

his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare
his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare

he doesn't care how you dress to his gig
if you steal vodka take a swig
it slips down your throat you look at him
you realize he doesn't give a shit if you're fat
or if you're thin

so you recall the night to the toffs at school
now you look uncool
and off your ipod you delete james blunt
because you think it makes you look like a cunt
it doesn't

i think the shit is hitting the fan
i've been putting up with behavior so uneven its giving me a streaky tan
one minute you're so loud the next you're not there
the toffs ignore you the emos don't care
as you sprinkle your sadness everywhere
i wonder why i hand my life out to share

he's got a girlfriend and he blocked you on msn
he doesn't spare a thought
he resisted cause the facade was a shit idea
now your caught
despite your best efforts you never kissed
now all you've got is slits on your wrists

his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare
his girlfriend is giving you a dirty stare

Clients reply to video pitch

Hey Sam,


Just dropping a quick email following up our meeting about the 'Betty' music video.


Both me and Rosie are really excited about the ideas bouncing around and after a little chat with the label it seems we're going to have you on board! All I need from you is some solid ideas so that the label have something they can touch before we shoot and edit etc. I'm not sure what kind of 'pre-video' material you film folk provide as my experience lies with audio production... Maybe a storyboard or something to wet some appetites?


Drop anything you can over to me asap so we can get the ball rolling with this one!


Cheers,
T

Music video pitch

For my music video i'm going to be using the song 'Slits on your wrists' by Betty the song is about a teenage girl giving into social peer pressure and changing her image to try and stand out and make the guy in the band (tom) like her. how ever he doesn't care, thinks she's acting stupid and childish and is just embarrassing. For the video i want to shoot at the soul tree in town, i have approached them about it. My friend Becky has agreed to play the girl in the video. the video will start with short fades of her 'dressing up emo' as the lyrics depict. then the music develops an obvious drum beat to which she will be walking to the venue where betty are playing and jumping forward on the beat, and up the stairs into the venue. she will head straight to the toilet to drink her stolen vodka, as the lyrics once again depict. she then goes back to the venue and watches the band, trying to get noticed. at points she will blend into the crowd and it will turn to a live video and at other times the crowd will disappear. at one point the song brakes down and has just a vocal solo to which i want to green screen Rosie (the female in the band) dancing and singing. and a similar effect for tom at the end when he has a vocal solo

research into music videos & Directors

I often sit in my room and watch music channels on TV, as a result i've seen 100's of music videos from different genres etc. And i've noticed that Michel Gondrys videos far surpass the creative styles and boundries that more ordinary video directors set.

For example when he directed Around the world by Daft Punk, Gondry put so much more thought and effort into it. had a less inspirational, talented director made it they would have probally just had normal dancers. but Gondry had multiple groups of dancers all with there own dance moves to a certain beat in the music, this is far far more complicated than you would initially think.

Much like Gondry, Spike Jonze is some what of a pioneer in creative thinking as far as music videos are concerned. One of Spikes favorite techniques has to be single shot filming. Single shot filming requires weeks of planning and rehersing to get everything to happen at the correct time etc. Jonez decided to take this technique, make artists The Pharcyde learn their song 'Drop' backwards, perferm it in one shot and then play it backwards. As far as in concerned this is a stroke of genius.

the process of making a music video

Last year we had a talk from two professional music video directors, Jake and Jim. In the talk they went through the process of how a music video is made.

1. The record label or band (if unsigned) releases the track to potential directors and production companies.

2.The directors that are interested 'pitch' for the track with their ideas and concepts, they have come up with bassed on the brief from the record company and the music track they have listened to.

3. Then the record company chooses the directors pitch they want and allocates a budget, which can be as small as £100 to as big as £250,000 depending on the artist, genre and director. The producer looks after budget and arrangements for the process- a percentage of the budget is allocated to this role

4. Director of Photography and art director(production designer) then join the team. It's the art director's job to oversee the planning for the look of video, they must scout for locations and plans the shoot location.

5.Then everyone (artist, director etc) meet at the shoot location and the video is shot usally in a single day

6. It's then time for the off-line edit where an editor assembles all the footage with out effects over a period of a few days; the record company and artist may want to see it and suggest changes.

7. Afterwards is the online edit when the editor adds all the special effects and tidys it up for a final version.

8. Fianlly the finnished product is deliverd to the client and if it is to their standards then its released.Steps 1-8 may take as little as 3-4 weeks these days as budgets have fallen and demands are greater.

My role in the project

for this project i am working in a pair with Alex, we decided as we have similar tastes in music and work well together, it would be a good collaboration. due to the fact we are working for a client, and theres only two of us on the project, there are no real job roles as such, it's more of a case of working together to achive somthing that the client is happy with.

some things like final cut editing Alex will do because he is better at it than me and Adobe after effects editing i will do becuase i'm better but for the best part it will be a case of team work!

My initial thoughts on working for Betty

I am looking forward to working for Betty, am good friends with Tom (1/2 of the band) and know the music well there fore i think working for them will be quite a relaxed and creative commission. Music is my passion so i am very excited about making a music video and i couldn't think of anyone better to work with.

First contact with client

Hey Sam,

Just letting you know that i've spoken to the label and after the meeting you and i had earlier, we're all really excited to be working with you and are looking forward to hear the official pitch!

My client

For this Commission my client is Cambridge based indie/electro band Betty. Betty have been around for about 6 or 7 months now and with their original style and combination of live vocals and DJ production, have interest from multiple record labels. The Label they want to join, Morph Recordings, have said they want a video to go with the release of the first single.

What Betty are after for a video

Today i had a meeting with the band and discussed everything, from what they're doing at the moment, what song they want a video for and how they want it to look.

In the meeting Betty told me how they have been approached by local record company, Morph Recordings and Morph have told them they want to release Bettys first single. but to go with it they want a promotional music video. Morph suggested a few directors but Betty had seen some of my other work and wanted to give me the opportunity.

Betty and Morph decided that the song 'Slits on your wrists' was the best too be released. The song is about an emo girl that is obsessed with a guy in her favorite band. It makes a lot of in joke style stabs at the emo genre and mocks it in general. 

I was told that they wanted the video to amplify the lyrics and to follow the story quite closely but other than that they gave me creative rein over the project, this added to my excitement for doing this project because it meant i could essentially do what i wanted.

What is a Commission

A Commission is when someone is employed to produce something to a certain set of specifications for someone. this could be a piece of art for a sign of a shop, it could be a sculpture or a piece of music for to go as a movie soundtrack. In my case, i was commissioned to make a music video for Cambridge based Indie/Electro band Betty.

Betty

Previous Commissions

I have previously been commissioned by Sawston Cinema, Tony Jones as part of the cambridge film festival and Jenny Grahame, editor of Media Magazine.

1. I was commissioned by Sawston cinema in autumn of 2008 to produce a Logo for the cinema, i came up with several ideas for them but none they liked. They decided to look else where for a logo in the end. I felt i did the best i could with what they gave me, but they were very vague with what they wanted and very picky on what i gave them, but gave me no real feedback.
2. Tony Jones Commissioned me in May of 2009 to produce a show reel comprised of Archive footage from 1950's -1980's cambridge, silent comedy like buster keaton and footage from long road projects to be projected in empty shops to try and liven them up and make them look less of an eyesore. This commission went better than the first. it was a painstaking process to sort thorough all the footage and not a very inspiring project but it was a commission and i did as i was asked.
3. In November 2008 i was commission by Jenny Grahame to write an article on Freedom for Media Magazine. This commission was an interesting one because i was able to write about what ever i wanted as long as it related to Freedom in some way. I chose to write about the freedom of music, and had my article published. I found the freedom of this commission much more inspiring and there fore found it far easier to do better work.

What is the process of a Commission.

When being commissioned to make a music video, the normal process is like this:

• Either the band or record label put out an advert for directors to make a video for them and you reply to that advert with a pitch of your ideas. Or the band/label contact you specifically and ask you to come up with a pitch. ( you will usually be given a set of restraints or guidelines to follow to start with)
• Once you've pitched your ideas, if the band and label like your pitch best (normally multiple directors will pitch for the same song) then you will be employed to develop that pitch and then make it into a music video.
• Once you have been employed, you are expected to make what you have pitched and any changes have to be agreed by the commissioner first.
• When the video is finished, only if the commissioner is happy you have for filled your agreed pitch will you get paid.

A Commission isn't normally a chance to let your creativity flow and make what you want, you normally have fairly strict boundaries.