Silhouettes?

At the moment it is still unsure whether or not the band members can be blacked out from the background. Jerry the great is experimenting with what we have on a different program and if possible we are going to use it. Alternatively, we can use effects on final cut. They may not be able to darken the whole person( which wont look as convincing because george Kirsty and Ross weren't singing along to the lyrics) but we will play around with what we have.

Re-shoot!

Yesterday afternoon we shot the band section of our music video with George, Kirsty and Ross who are our "Crimson Cucumbers!"
We would like to have the band silhouetted so we found a white screen to use behind them. Later we will play around with the clips on final cut pro to do this.
George Kirsty and Ross each individually stood in front of the screen and sang along to moths wings while singing in my singstar microphone.
At the end the 3 danced around together in front of the camera and we hope to use that also.






we will take profile pictures of the band and combine them together in photoshop. We are originally going to use split screen, but its easier for us to do it this way. Like the the pop up city at the beginning, there will be effects on these pictures and also we might use this effect on the pictures of the band when they are dancing together.

The day went successfully, but now we need to transfer the footage to final cut where we can play around with effects and to see whether we can use silhouettes.

noooooo

On Friday, we shot one of our filmed sequences for the beginning. The original plan was to project our film onto James t-shirt which would link into the start of our video. We found an empty room in the school where no one can interupt and it isnt so obvious we are on the school site. Imstead of projecting onto James shirt was thought we could project onto the white wall behind him.
We took this time to also film the ending. once the photo animation stops we come out from the projection back into the white room where James is standing,making full circle, and now Sarah is standing on the other side of the projection. Sarah is another actor in our film who James passes in the video and at first she wasnt going to be a main element in the film but i started to think that if she wasnt in it, the video wouldnt have much point as it is just James wondering around the city. The short subtle story is that they meet on the bridge briefly at start of the video and they finish by walking of together. Its not a storng story but its something to add to the video rather than just having a technique. But

DISASTER.................
The taped we have filmed on has crashed so we've lost our footage

HOWEVER......................
There was only around 4 minutes worth of filming and it was shot in the school with school students so hopefully we can get that done as soon as.
We are also planning to film our band shots either this week or next week. :)

quick pic of what we are trying to do. James standing with the white wall behind:

Pitch

Today we gave our pitch to the class....

these are a couple of slides from the pitch.

we briefly explained who our band members are and that this would be one of their 3rd releases, because they do not feature in the video. Themes of the video also featured in the pitch.In Half term we filmed up london on the south bank and it was quite a sunny day which was handy! We asked our friend James to act in our film, by walking along the embankment while we snapped our photos. Our other friend Sarah(james girlfriend) also appeared in the footage, and now we are beginning to piece together a narrative involving her. Once we've uploaded the photos we are going to add in moths to follow James,which tie into the title of the song. We are pondering whether the moths will bring colour to black and white photos.

These are a couple of photos from the day of James walking across a bridge and along the embankment.

The Day of the Shoot

Today was a really lovely day to film as the lighting was bright. Instead of recording on a video camera, we used a DSLR camera to take high quality photographs of James walking along the southbank. On burst mode, the camera can continuously take photographs one after the other, capturing every half second. Looking at the storyboards we followed james from behind, in front, and profile to get a range of shots. we have to make sure we keep continuity, as james on a journey across the brige and over. When we return to school we can show what pictures we have taken in a pitch to the class and see what they think. The rest of the filming will happen with the band members later on .

Animatic

After taking photos of each frame i uploading the stroyboards onto i-move to create this animatic.
The storyboards help to plan out how the music video will be shot and the time each frame will last for happen, but the animatic gives a real sense of how the video will look in movement and also gives the opportunity to plan the pictures alongside the music. The finished product probably won't look like this, but it gives us an idea.

Storyboards

This is a basic commentary on what our storyboards show:

James walks into a room where the band are projected onto this t-shirt. The camera zooms into the porjection and turns to band footage. This is followed by pop up city which focuses on an umbrella, that cuts to real life (james spinning an umbrella). The camera tracks james' movement along where he hands a girl the umbrella.

Moths beginning to follow james behind him and in between a silhouette of the singer sings along to the song (a few lines at a time, in beat with the music). We have C/U, W/S, and profile shots of James. At the instrumental 2mins 48secs in, James looks up and the camera tilts upwards too, panning across the sky where we will add in moths circling above. It then tilts back down to James where the whole video reverses.

The camera zooms out of the t-shirt to reveal James back in the room where he started, going full circle.

Album covers

These are a few album covers that stick in my mind. I think its because the of COLOUR!! The cover is vital in promoting and representing the band. I could go for something modern like Blur or keane or choose something along the lines of P.o.d whose cover reminds me of the moth image feautured in the music video.It looks old fashioned and danity which is quite apppealing.

Elements of album covers:

• Name of Band
• eye cathing/memorable image
• Title of album
• List of songs
• Websites
• barcode
• Record Label

Mood Board

this time weve stayed away from NMT and gone for the more traditional pen and paper!
The poster presents the
# name of the band
# Band members- name,age, job
# Song we've chosen
# Song lyrics
# Themes and references

There is also a huge moth on the front, which has beome our symbol, or motif of our new video
it was good to jot down everything we'd like to do for our band and video so we can refer to it whenever we wish for inspiration.

Elements of our music Video

Yesterday we started storyboarding our music video. We have a few elements going on at the same time which we've put on the mood board also, and i put this up as soon as i can. On the board we've written the lyrics, a brief profile of the band members and pictures of styles we wish to add into our video. The title of our song is moths Wings, so the moth will be our motif of the video. They will be animated to fly across the screen and bring colour to the video.

These are the lyrics:

Passion Pit- Moths Wings

Dear friend as you know

Your flowers are withering

Your mother's gone missing

Your leaves have drifted away

But the clouds are clearing up

And I've come reveling

Burning incandescently

Like a bastard on the burning sea

Chorus

You're drifting like a fire

Buried deep beneath the water

Your resting on your laurels

Is stepping on my toes

Whose side are you on?

What side is this anyway?

Put down your sword and crown

Come lay with me on the ground

You come beating like moth's wings

Spastic and violently

Whipping me into a storm

Shaking me down to the core

But you run away from me

And you left me shimmering

Like diamond wedding rings

Spinning dizzily down on the floor

Chorus

Our intertexual reference is to the video by Justice- DANCE.

We would like to start our video by projecting an film onto a t-shirt and go into the video from there.

Instead of having someone lip synch directly to camera we're thinking of filming a silhouette so its less cheesy. This video is going to be The Crimson Cuecumber's 3rd song release so its ok to not show their faces because the public will already know the bands identity.

We'd like to have a pop- up style city at the start to go along with the long intro in the song. it also sets the mood and can show people and places about the town.

The umbrella will be the transition between our pop up city and real life. As the umbrella spins, moths will fly off and reveal the start of the video.

Rueben J Presentation

Our task was to choose a picture of a band/artist and from that image work out how you would promote them to gain a fanbase. I chose Ruben J because his looks style would be easily promotable with a girly audience. The brief we were given was that he has already performed local gigs and that he is quite laidback.I noticed that he has an alliance with a fellow Bristol band, Portishead, have been already established in the music industry. This would be a great opportunity for Rueben if he was to be the supporting act when Portishead tours the country.

Star Image:Tracing Star Development through Music Video

The Star im going to analyse is Robbie Williams. I'm going to look at the begining of his career, the changes, and what he is up to now. Starting out as a young lad from Stoke-on-Trent, to joining Pop band Take That and launching a Solo career, Robbie has sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history and has won more BRIT Awards than any other artist to date.

Robbie's first solo hit after leaving take that, was a cover version of George Michael's "Freedom" in 1996. In Video Robbie expresses his happiness to be "free" from from the manufactured Boyband. He is clearly celebrating his seperation and is acting like a young mischievious boy. The song managed to reach no#2 in the UK single charts, twenty-six places higher than George Michael's original version.

Robbie's debut alubm "Life thru a Lens" held the singles "Old Before I die," "Lazy Days," and "South of the Border" made it onto the UK charts but struggled to make an impact on International charts. It was his fourth single "Angels" that skyrocketed Robbie's career and sales of the Album. Without knowing of the sucess it would bring, "Angels" became the biggest single in the UK so far, being certified 2x Platinum by the BPI and becoming one of his most well-known songs.The album eventually managed to sell over three million copies in Europe alone. This achieved success helped push Robbie through his battle with paranoia, schizophrenia, alcoholism, and drug addiction.
[VIDEO ANGELS]
the video for "Let me Entertain You" become an iconic one for Robbie. The video is filmed in black and white and features Robbie dressed as a member from the band KISS with the extreme face make up and a tight costume, dancing wildly on stage with a band and pole dancers.


Robbie continued to work with Guy Chambers who worked with him on his first album. The first single "Millenium"(1998) was inspired by James Bond music and the video references the Bond Films and aspects of Bond as a character. For example Robbie plays in a casino in a tux which later cuts to him driving a speed boat with an attractive woman.


By this time Robbie has become an established worldwide popstar and began working on his third album.His first single was"Rock DJ" which was released in 1999 and the video became of of his most controvercial. The content involved Robbie stripping...all the way down to his bones. He rips and tears of his flesh and muscles and flings them at the dancers around him. It's known for Robbie to be a cheeky chappy but for some channels such as Top Of The Pops it went to far and had to be censored. i remember having to wait up till 12 to be able to watch the video. It was a little gore, but ultimatly i admired it for the special effects and i was hooked on the beat of the song.

In Robbie collaborted with pop princess Kylie Minogue for single "Kids."

"Love Supreme" video, titled "Gentlemen racers" as seen in its opening credits, is a tribute to British Formula One driver Jackie Stewart. Williams portrays the fictitious character Bob Williams, a rival driver competing for the 1970s F1 World Championship. The video includes footage of Robbie digitally inserted in many scenes with Stewart, pursuing the championship title. The split-screen technique is used throughout,which is often seen in movies from the 1960s and 70s, and the scenes with Robbie were given a grainy texture to match the faded look of the original footage with Jackie Stewart. Also during the video fake newspaper headlines are shown of the race and characters to help narrate the story.

Passion Pit

The Band/genre we have in mind, and have picked is Passion Pit. Currently they arn't a well known band as they only formed in 2007,but actually this is quite handy as they are not easily recognisable and not many would know their music videos.
"The slang Passion Pit is derived from traditional Variety-speak used in the Hollywood industry publication. The trade used the slang to refer to drive-in theatres, because of their privacy and romantic allure for teenagers."
Passion Pit are described as an american electronic band.Their Genre is Electronic/ alternative/ wonky pop! There are 5 members with musicical accompaniments of a keyboard, bass, drums, synth and guitar. Their record label is Frenchkiss Records, an independant record label based in New YorkThey produce music of the Indie Rock genre .Ive recently bought Passion Pit's newest album "Manners." The song we've chosen is called "Moths Wings"

http://www.passionpitmusic.com/- Official Website

http://www.myspace.com/passionpit - Myspace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfqs0OihSo
I can't embed the video because it has been disbaled by Sony Music Entertainment.



This is the video The Reeling. Its the first song i heard from Passion Pit and i wante to listen to it all the time! The video is very creative and exciting :) i dont want to take my eyes away from the screen, encouraging me to hear the music. The footage is edited with animation and moves from location on the streets at night. The singers face is made from paper and the shot changes involve colour paper ripping to reveal something new.

Target Audience

The band members age between 20-23 so i think our audience will be of that age, Teens particularly. The music is quite funky, using synth sounds and having a youthful creative image. Having an indie label the band don't have a lot of money so are relatable for any young musicians wanting to make it in the music industry. They have a myspace, facebook page and account on youtube and so are very much involved with the social networking age of today, which is were most young adults find themselves these days. I imagine one of the fans to be an art student at uni who enjoys the social life at night listening to the upbeat tunes of The Crimson Cucumbers and also chilling outside in the day whist hearing the more mellow tunes. Other artists they would enjoy would be Empire of the Sun, Radio Dept, and The avalanches.

The Crimson Cucumbers coming your way!

Today Hannah and I were begining to create our group and put together a small profile the band's identity and what their ideologies are.we have 6 main catagories:

1. Artist/Group: Group made up of 3 members.
Lead Male Singer
Male Drummer
Female on Keyboard

2 Name:......
we are still thinking about the name at the present moment because it needs to be memorable catchy and inavative.It normally takes me a little while to make a name up for a product so i may have to leave it for a couple of days. By throwing random words/names together we have got

The Crimson Cucumbers

I think we will stick with this name though, because throughout the day it has grown on us and we actually remembered it! The Crimson Cucumbers sounds like a funky and creative indie band which is what we are going for. I guess it works in the same way as "The Arctic Monkeys"or "The Radio Dept." I think our group name stands out from the crowd and would become a popular and recognised name.

3 Back Story: The Crimson Cucumbers me and formed at University. They have a passion for music and art and favour indie bands. They began performing whenever they could at open mic nights and gained popularity in the local area. A Myspace page also helped the band gain popularity. They were later discovered by an independant record label who signed them on. The members enjoy staying small/indie than being mainstream.

4 Ideology: The Band believe they have a unique sound. They appeal to the public in their late teens and early 20s. They would like to convey a laidback attitude with a real passion for the music.

5 Image: The Cuecumbers, being in their early 20's, wear fashionable clothing with is smart, but still casual to portray their laidback approach in life. The Girl on the Keyboard is dresses very quirky and excentric.

6 Record Label: Island Records

Glogster

This is my glogster showing my taste in music and why i like certain genres.

http://beccky.glogster.com/Beccasgloggie/

The Avalanches

Another one of my favourite bands is "The Avalanches," who are an elecrtonic band from Australia. They belong to independant record labels, Modular Recordings, XL Recordings, and Elektra.

Their official website and the music track is very fun so take a peak ..
http://www.theavalanches.com/

This song is called "Since i left you" which their successful debut album which shares the same name. The song consists of approximately 3,500 vinyl samples
even though they are using other peoples samples, i think they create something that is totally their own. Sometimes i hate it when artists these days rap over a perfectly good song and call it their own, but i think The Avalanches are creating something different for the dj/party scene.This won Video Of The Year at the MTV Europe Music Awards.



In the video, two diggers underground find a tunnel that leads to a dance studio where a couple of girls are dancing in front of judges. The two guys seemed confused but then randomly break into a dance routine! The girls start dancing along too and the judges continue to mark their performance. Its amusing and very sweet. The song and the video are very uplifting and its makes me smile when i see it. It also has stylistic elements, of colour/black and white. It begins in black and white when the guys are underground, and the place they discover brings colour/life/fun.

Directed by Gondry

I didnt realise that Gondry directed some great videos!

this one by the chemical brothers is also repetitive, but it is the actress who has been repeated for effect. I feel hypnotised when i watch it! The editing must have taken ages.

Directed by Gondry

This video by the white stripes uses photo animation and is repetitive.

Directed by Gondry

These are the three music videos i have picked which were directed by Gondry.
I remember this video really well and it makes me think about when i was younger! i used to reanact the dancemoves of the robots around my living room! Each person/element repressents a different instrument and they move around in a cirle, like a vinyl record. Its become a very popular music video

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is a french film commerical and music Video director. He relies on videotography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference.I chose to look into GOndry because he has directed for one of my favourite bands Daft Punk and also Chemical Brothers. Gondry started his career making music vidoes for the french rock band Oui Oui. His videos caught the attention of singer Bjork and asked him to direct the video for her song "Human Behaviour." He later went on to direct seven Bjork music videos. Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. He pioneered the "bullet time" technique later adapted in The Matrix in a 1998 commercial for Smirnoff vodka, as well as directing a trio of holiday-themed advertisements for Gap, Incorporated.
Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with Human Nature, and " Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in 2004. Eternal Sunshine uses many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry has directed short films, documentry films, advertisments and a tv episode for Flight of The Concords "Unnatural Love."

Music Videos
1993- 1999
"Let Forever Be" - The Chemical Brothers (1999)
"Gimme Shelter" - The Rolling Stones (1998)
"Another One Bites the Dust" - Wyclef Jean (1998)
"Music Sounds Better With You" - Stardust (1998)
"Bachelorette" - Björk (1997)
"Deadweight" - Beck (1997)
"Jóga" - Björk (1997)
"Everlong" - Foo Fighters (1997)
"A Change Would Do You Good" - Sheryl Crow (1997)
"Around the World" - Daft Punk (1997)
"Feel It" - Neneh Cherry (1997)

"Sugar Water" - Cibo Matto (1996)
"Hyper-Ballad" - Björk (1996)
"Like a Rolling Stone" - The Rolling Stones (1995)
"Isobel" - Björk (1995)
"Protection" - Massive Attack (1995)
"High Head Blues" - Black Crowes (1995)
"Army of Me" - Björk (1995)
"Fire On Babylon" - Sinéad O'Connor (1994)
"Lucas With the Lid Off" - Lucas (1994)
"Little Star" - Stina Nordenstam (1994)
"This is it (Your Soul)" - Hothouse Flowers (1993)
"It's Too Real (Big Scary Animal)" - Belinda Carlisle (1993)
"Human Behaviour" - Björk (1993)
"Believe" - Lenny Kravitz (1993)
"She Kissed Me" - Terence Trent D'Arby (1993)

2000- 2009
"Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor" & "Carol Brown" (unofficial videos) - Flight Of The Conchords (2009)
"Soleil du Soir" - Dick Annegarn (2008)
"Declare Independence" - Björk (2007) [2]
"Dance Tonight" - Paul McCartney (2007)
"Cellphone's Dead" - Beck (2006)
"King of the Game" - Cody ChesnuTT (2006)
"Heard 'Em Say" (U.S. Version) - Kanye West (2005)
"The Denial Twist" - The White Stripes (2005)
"Light & Day" (movie version) - The Polyphonic Spree (2004)
"Winning Days" - The Vines (2004)
"Mad World" (Donnie Darko soundtrack version) - Gary Jules (2004)
"Ride" - The Vines (2004)
"Walkie Talkie Man" - Steriogram (2004)
"I Wonder" - The Willowz (2004)
"The Hardest Button to Button" - The White Stripes (2003)
"Behind" - Lacquer (2003)
"Come Into My World" - Kylie Minogue (2002)
"A l'envers à l'endroit" - Noir Désir (2002)
"Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" - The White Stripes (2002)
"Fell in Love with a Girl" - The White Stripes (2002)
"Star Guitar" - The Chemical Brothers (2001)
"Knives Out" - Radiohead (2001)

Response to Cd covers

Looking at all of The Radio Dept.'s abums as a whole they do keep a similar theme going, even when they are released years down the line. The band name is always either in the corners or like Pet Grief, at the top. The album title is then printed in a smaller font underneath it. The images chosen for the album do look a lilttle random but often envolve people. It is unlcear whether it is the band or not. I Artists havnt exactly promoted themselves but the name. Its all about "The radio Dept." not the members in it. The relaxed style of music does compliment the album covers which look dreamy and quite simple. Although the single "Freddie and the Trojan Horse" has a dead animal on the front, it looks calm and deserted. Ive also noticed that the titles of the albums/singles dont really have any reference to the picture in the background, again showing that its about the brand name. The albums have an arty theme and black and white images are a common feature.


The Radio Dept. -The Worst taste in music : this video combines film, and photography.

A closer look at The Radio Dept

The Radio Dept.

The idea for the band was first concieved by two schoolboys in 1995, called Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson. The name came from a "gas-station-turned-radio-repair-shop called "Radioavdelningen" which is Radio Department in Swedish. In 1998 they were joined by Martin Larsson,Lisa Carlberg,Per Blomgren andDaniel Tjäder.
The three remaining band members are in pink.

LabradorRecords signed the band up after the group sent recordings to a Sonic, a music magazine ( the magazine also came with a free cd with sampler songs!)

For great success all bands/artists need to promote themselves globally . The Radio Dept. are going on tour in 2010 to play in Japan, Denmark, and will be in the UK next month.


20 May 2010, Thursday, 7:30pm

Bush Hall
310 Uxbridge Road
London W12 7LJ
United Kingdom

For more info: http://www.bushhallmusic.co.uk/

*
Stag & Dagger Festival 2010 - London
w/ People Under The Stairs, Filthy Dukes,
Friday, 21 May 2010
Shoreditch, London,
United Kingdom

For more info: http://staganddagger.com/
*
Stag & Dagger Festival 2010 - Glasgow
w/ People Under The Stairs, Filthy Dukes,
Saturday, 22 May 2010

For more info: http://staganddagger.com

http://theradiodept.com/
of course, The radio Dept have their own website where fans can have their own login. The website features daily posts, samples of latest releases, a "community" page and even a "Discography"


http://www.labrador.se/artists/radiodept.php3
- Labrador records website with a page dedicated to band with information of who they, how they were formed and posts of their latest releases.

http://www.myspace.com/officialradiodept
the band also have a myspace, which is great for the fans because they feel they have a personal connection with the band members and they can also check for tour dates and post comments.


This is the poster for the China Tour in 2009. The photograph in the background takes up most of the poster and therefore catches your eye. However it is interesting that there is no colour but maybe thats the style of they were after. The name of the band is in bold, and white so it stands out and the tour dates are listed at the side. There is a lot of information but in the way its been positioned, the poster isn't overtaken by text. At the bottom they have included websites and record labels.

Single/ Album covers



Pet Grief
(album released 2006)











Freddie and The Trojan Horse
(single released 2008)













Lesser Matters
(album released 2003)













David
(single released 2009)














Pulling Our Weight
(single released 2003)