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