This music video has a very similar theme to ours in terms of lyrics, but is only performance based. We'd like to have a lot of performance in ours, but we also want the other element to stop it from getting boring. It's also more of a live performance whereas we want a studio performance.
The lighting kind of fits what we aim to achieve, except for the red sirens/lights flashing occasionally.
The band are a lot older than ours, but still have the more serious approach to their music.
We proposed our water ideas to Matt, and he said that it could work, but would only take up a few seconds every now and then in our video. Our other plan was to include a beautiful 'siren' who 'lures' in the singer. Matt suggested using this kind of idea with TV monitors facing each other at a slight angle. They'd be interacting with each other, or trying to, but there'd always be the barrier between them. In the final shot, the 'siren' would come out of her shot and go into the singer's, or he'd go into hers. We'd connect the cameras to the monitors and film them at the same time. We all like this idea so are hoping to go along with it.
This is the kind of TV we want:
A prototype is a scale version of the project being worked on, from which the final product is developed. Phil showed us a video of how the Williams racing team create their prototype:
Prototypes are very useful because you can see if the final product would work without spending the full amount of money or time on it. It means things can be easily tweaked before the final product goes into development.
Our test shoot is a prototype because it's a smaller scale version of what we wanted for our final video, to see if it looked good. It also allows us to make adjustments to the video idea and structure before we shoot the real thing.
We showed out test shoot to the class again and got some more feedback. I've made a table on the key points that were said and what we'll change to improve it:
To test some water techniques I got a glass, flat bottomed lasagna dish and filled it with some water. I attempted to light it but I don't have my own professional equipment. using the slo-mo setting on my phone, I moved the dish to get waves in the water. I then made some bubbles in the water and used a macro lens to get much closer to them.
At first I did it over a magazine (nearer the end of the video), then I used footage of the singer from the test shoot. It wouldn't be over the actual performance in the real thing, but those clips were the closest I could get to what we'd actually use which would be shots of the singer not lip-syncing, and being quite moody.
Our shoot day at the moment is 7th November, so we need to get all of our planning done by then.
Phil Tidy is from Squire Production Company. He's a music video producer / director and has worked on videos for: Spice Girls, Mcfly, Bastille, Sugababes, Jamiroquai, Oasis, Muse, Shakira, and many, many more. He is also also a co-curator and producer of the BUG at the BFI on Southbank. It's reaching its 10 year anniversary, and is an event 'celebrating creativity in music video' to showcase new and inspiring works.
He spoke to our class today to about the music industry and what music videos are actually for. Here are some notes from what he said:
He spoke to our class today to about the music industry and what music videos are actually for. Here are some notes from what he said:
- A music video is essentially a commercial for the song, and the artist is the product they're trying to sell
- The music industry is worth £4 billion in the UK each year
- 31% of all music is consumed on YouTube
- Michael Anderson (a director) said that music videos "came along in the early 80s and unblocked a constipated film industry and were a creative playground of experimentation and fun, and a proving ground for talent"
- Music videos are a portal to other creativity and getting experience in the film industry
- Directors and crew start on music videos and go on to do adverts, TV shows and feature films etc.
- As a first time producer / director, you need to think about some things such as:
- what will be on your showreel?
- who will take you seriously?
- what skills do you need?
- To get the job you need a treatment, to be able to follow the brief, have a contract to keep to, and stick to the budget
- Budget is important because you need to think about the little things, such as: food, toilets, toilet paper, parking etc. and using what resources you have
- Woody Allen spoke about how on the 1st day on set, the truck of compromise drives in
Phil Tidy then gave us some examples of things that he's worked on. One of them was 'Photoshop Handsome' by Everything Everything.
They had a 1 line pitch from the singer: 'I want the band to be photoshopped and mucked around with as much as possible'
Tidy filmed the band in front of a green screen and sent short clips to loads of different animators to get different effects:
I really liked this video because of how weird it is, and how most of it is done in after effects / post production. We might do a similar thing if we cannot find another cutaway.
The other video he showed us was Jamiroquai's 'Runaway' that he produced and co-directed. JK the singer wanted to be in a space buggy, going around London in a space suit.
I like the different elements of this video and how it's very dynamic, but I don't think anything similar would fit with our video.
This is a video previously done by the school. They use one technique from 1:12 to 1:20, but we don't want to use anything like it because the colours don't work for ours, and the effect in general is not what we're after. The same goes for the bath scene - it's a bit too sad for our theme.
For our test shoot we asked the band to come in costume (mostly black, well styled). Gareth (the drummer) will be wearing a different shirt on the actual shoot, but the rest of the band will be wearing the same or similar.
