New Timeline

Timeline for Music Video

0:00-0:32
Alien ship lands, alien steps out, walks down a street, and explores. Few short shots of band in the room.

0:32-1:08
Band performs. Shots are very close up, and in the bands face. Intercut with short parts of narrative.

1:08-1:17
Narrative. Alien attempts to interact with people. Dog barks at him and scares him.

1:17-1:53
Band performs again. Intercut with narrative shots: after seeing two people making out the alien attempts to make out with a guy he sees and gets hit in the face.

1:53-2:11
Alien is sitting on a doorstep, head in hands, when a hand comes in shot holding a contract, and the alien signs it.

2:11-2:29
Alien is immediately seen dating supermodels, signing autographs and being on the fronts of magazines.

2:29-2:33
Lyric: "Beastie Boys known to let the beats.......mmmm drop?" alien's supermodel gf drops a pill in his mouth while he holds a beer in his hand.

2:34-2:52
Band performs intercut with shots of alien drinking, doing different drugs. Quite fast paced editing.

2:52-3:10
Introduction of the third strand: band in the room doing things like fighting with lightsabers, shooting blasters, doing the robot and posing like fictional characters and in action poses, stuff like that. Magazine covers of alien pop up with him doing drugs, getting drunk, doing stupid things.

3:11-3:31
Alien stumbles down the street, remembers his ship, and runs back through the streets. He gets to where he arrived and beams himself back onboard. The cockpit of the ship is revealed to be the room the band was performing in.

Music Video Conventions

A music video is used for promoting a band, but it can also be thought of as a brand targeted for mass consumption. The bands or artists talent is showcased through the performance, dancing or musical creativity. The video that matches a track often reflects the mood of the song, as well as the image of the band. By using a thematic element that matches the band's image, the audience will be able to relate to them by adding other ideas about the narrative into the structure of the video. Music videos often conform to the use of three strands; the narrative, the performance of the band, and a third enigmatic strand where the band does something separate from the performance which is surprising to the viewer. Usually this third strand shows the band in a quirky, personal light disregarding realism. To give a greater sense of the rhythm of the song, the video is often edited to match the pace. If the mood of a song is more sombre then paler colours will be used but a faster paced and upbeat song may contain brighter colours.

Research and Development

Feeling most confident about the idea of the Beaste Boys track, we decided to use it for the video. Watching several other videos of the Beastie Boys, it was clear that the band aims to create a spoof as well as a tribute to older content, for example, Sabotage is a tribute to low budget 70's American cop shows, and their own music video of Intergalactic is a tribute to old Japanese monster movies like Godzilla. I came up with the idea as a way of making a tribute to sci-fi films like 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'E.T.' with some elements of 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek' in the performance, as well as mocking society for its obsession with fame and success, and how easy it is for someone with little talent to become famous.
The idea came from a Good Charlotte video of the track 'I Just Wanna Live' where the band, dressed as different foods, become famous but quickly end up very unpopular for various reasons.

Music Video Ideas

Idea 1.
Extreme - He-man Woman Hater

Narrative: At first there is a solo (1:40), similar to 'flight of the bumblebee' so there is an overhead shot of a fly buzzing around a bar. As soon as the solo ends, the fly is killed and the band is seen hanging around in the bar, drinking, playing pool, chatting up barmaids etc.
During the chorus, the band is on stage playing the song. At the end of the video, the band drinks up and leaves the bar laughing, and the lights turn off.

Idea 2.
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic

Narrative: Alien lands on earth and explores. Soon lands a movie role, record deal etc. and gets famous very quickly. He is seen in magazines dating supermodels and going out, but is shown taking drugs and drinking so becomes unpopular, goes on a downer and leaves the planet.
Performance: Three band members rapping in a set room in the studio. The room is silver with computer terminals and lights. The band themselves are wearing silver jumpsuits with their own things (caps, chains etc.) This room turns out to be the inside of the alien ship at the end.

Idea 3.
Stay Together for the Kids - blink-182

Narrative: Young couple with a small girl are living in a dirty little apartment. The parents often fight and the girl is caught up in the arguments making her constantly upset. One day when her parents return home fighting they leave the door open and don't realise that the girl leaves the house. Straight after she wanders into the road and there is an accident. After the girl is admitted to hospital, the parents fight some more but inevitably have to be there for eachother in the time of despair. When the girl returns home, she is in a wheelchair with a cast on he leg and bandages around. Her parents give her presents and welcome her home and shes happy, and the parents are as well.
Performance: The band plays in one of the small rooms of the apartment.

The Five Stages of Production

1) Research and Planning
In order to create a realistic music video idea, everyone had to do some research into other artists and their videos. This stage is important as it helps us direct our video towards our target audience. In doing research we can also find the bands star image, which acts as another way to appeal to our audiences.

2) Pre-production
Pre-production involves the planning of the music video. This includes getting the performers, planning the video and what happens within the time of the song, deciding shot types, as well as getting any costumes or props that would be needed.

3) Production
This is the shooting of the video.

4) Post-production
At this stage the footage is edited and fitted to the music. After effects are often used for many features of the video that would not be possible through the use of props. If a greenscreen or bluescreen is used while filming a backdrop may be inserted in the video.

5) Distribution and Exhibition
The distribution and exhibition of the video after the video has been fully edited and finished. Distribution involves the advertising of the video, and getting the film known in the world, while exhibtion is how and where the video is shown.

A2 Course Intro

Preliminary Task Screen-shots

Audience Feedback

SERINABRAVE - remember the nameLUKAS DRESSLERwoho :Di love youuu XDgreat done...like it very much

justeMExp - best one! aber alle 3 sind gut!uhh. sau gut eiifreu mich schon dich bald wieder im lande zu haben haha (:<33

These comments from Youtube are from an unseen German audience. This shows that people from outside of school have seen it and liked it which is good for us. It obviously shows that it is liked among others.

Evaluation of the Final Product

On our prelim task the shots we used were very basic. We had a list of shots we had to use in the task, while when we were preparing the final product we we able to come up with the shots that we wanted, giving us more independence and also teaching ourselves what shots would work and which wouldn't through trial and error. The editing on the final product was also more complex and we were introduced to after effects. On the day of the prelim task we didn't record any sound but merely recorded some after we had edited it, but when shooting the thriller we recorded sounds and we learnt how to import sounds onto the video.
When editing we had the idea to use the close ups as the first few shots, to create a sense of fear, confusion and closure as close ups would show little of what the audience wanted to see to answer the questions in their mind "where is he?" and "why is he there?" Initially we made the scene very slow paced before speeding up towards the end. We planned to have quick shots cutting between the bodies and rory's reaction but this didn't work as it looked poorly done. We realised that with the first shot it was a long take that lasted 30 seconds of the film. Because the film is only 2 minutes long, this dictated that the film wouldn't be fast paced. However, in order to make it faster and to make the horror more realistic we used several POV shots. POV shots enabled us to show the full extent of the horror on the screen, and also enabled us to get some quick shots and speed up the action. This gave the audience a sense of the horror of the situation.
On the day of the shoot we recorded many sounds, like a light switched on and off, a glass breaking, a table falling over and metal poles hitting and rolling on the floor. The scene didn't feature any music, only the sound effect we added over the top as well as the sound captured with the shots. When the final shot blacks out and the title appears, there is a loud strong metallic noise. This creates a further sense of fear, as the noise relates to the kinds of places generally feared like hospitals or prisons. Most of the film however has little or no sound, which makes the audience feel sympathy for the protagonist as the lack of music makes them think he is more alone.
Before the sequence starts, we introduce the production company 'Redrum'. It is a ficticious company that we liked the name of as it is inkeeping with the horror genre being murder backwards and being a famous phrase from horror classic The Shining. It comes in on a black background for a few seconds before it fades away to say the name of the director, another ficticious name. Both of these titles are in lower case. The title of the film however comes in after the sequence ends and is in capitals to seem more important. We didn't put any titles in the sequence itself to maintain tension.
I think the use of close up shots at the beginning was a good choice at it makes the audience want to keep watching in order to find out the key questions they would be asking. Redrum would intice any other horror fans who would have probably seen The Shining. The lack of sound creates an eerie sense of emptiness and helplessness in the scene, which again will make the audience want to know what happens to the protagonist. The increasing in pace increases tension which hopefully, after the title of the film appears, would make the audience want to keep watching. We had the aim of creating a horror film and the choices we made were influenced by targeting horror fans. Our choices were designed to maximise fear in out audience which is the desired effect of a horror film. We felt that keeping it to close ups emphasised the claustrophobia in our film, like in other films like Saw. POV and close ups were used to show fear on the faces of our actors which in turn would lend the film the look of a horror film and target our audience.

In what ways does your product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Redrum isn's an existing production company, instead the name was created for the purpose of the film. The name, before the film even starts, suggest the genre of the film, being murder spelt backwards as well as being a well known part of the cult classic thriller The Shining.

We used the shot of the eye as the opening shot as the eye is an image that automatically evokes fear. It is a sensitive and important part of the body, so having a close up shot on the eye creates a sense of vulnerability. It also gives a claustrophobic atmosphere as its all the audience can see.

This shot challenges the idea that the protagonist of a thriller is better as a woman, as they are seen as weaker figures and more vulnerable to the villains of films, but manage to overcome the obstacles with their resourcefulness. We used a male character, but made him look more vulnerable by making him look beaten up. Many horror and slasher films made in recent years open either the protagonist(s) living their lives unsuspecting of whats to come (e.g. Silence of the Lambs), or by introducing the antagonist and how they came into their position (e.g. Halloween, My Bloody Valentine). Our films however starts with the protagonist already caught by the antagonist and in the situation that would last for the whole film.

In this shot we challenge the conventional forms of horror by creating tension and suspense without use of the hero or villain. Using the antagonist is a common way to build tension, and is used in many of the slasher films (e.g. Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees).

This shot only has one source of light, being the torch in Rory's hands. This puts the focus on his face, showing an expression of fear giving him the audiences sympathy. We conform to current media that has successfully used this method, like The Blair Witch Project.

Here we conform to the current use of gore in horror. This shot, without being too revealing of whats to come, sets the scene for something brutal and gory. However, unlike many modern horror films that rely on it, like Saw, we are not heavily reliant on gore. This also challenges the style of modern horror because of this, as we use it as a way of creating tension instead of scaring the audience.

This shot challenges most modern media conventions as it is overlayed on a black screen instead of a real time shot. However on some levels it conforms to it as well, as in a title sequence the title of the films is expected as some point. We used it to separate the opening sequence from what would come next, leaving the audience wanting to know what happens after it appears and the sequence ends.

How does your product represent particular social groups?

All actors in our film are young people. Because we had constraints on who we could use for our actors there wasn’t a lot of choice. In the end it was a good choice to not get any older actors from out of school. Using teenagers would be ideal for what our target audience would be (15-24). The fact it is horror makes it leave an impression on the audience that they are not safe from a certain person or group because of their age, some thing they cannot control, making it more threatening. Many films have done this and tried to use this tactic on audiences to scare them both during the film and after it. Films that do this very well are Saw and Hostel. Saw features mainly young people, although they are often older than teenagers, in their late 20’s. These people are targeted because the protagonist “Jigsaw” believes he is punishing them for doing badly in life, and giving them a reason to live and appreciate life more in cruel and grotesque ways. Hostel, set in Holland, features the victimisation of young American university students on holiday in Amsterdam, also possibly because of their age being seen as more of a weak spot as opposed to a threat. The victims in our film were young people, much like those of these two films. We wanted to make a sense of fear and panic that people felt they had no control over like the victims in Saw or the backpackers in Hostel. They were taken somewhere strange and unknown for a reason not known to them or the audience before coming to a painful and horrible fate. This is what we aimed for in our film, by showing the protagonist’s realisation of what went on in the place he was in, by the bodies placed around the room covered in blood and taped at the mouth.

The reasons for the younger people being targeted in our film is unknown. A show like Skins portraying the life of teenagers in Bristol helps create a negative view of teenagers, having a fixation on drugs, sex and alcohol, as well as being reckless and aggressive. Today in the print media the idea had been created that young people are no longer victims but instead the attackers, creating a moral panics by focusing on youths as perpetrators of knife crime. However in our film the roles are reversed and young people are seen as victims. The bodies are all of young people as is the antagonist. This creates the idea that young people are being targeted possibly because of their age, and that the unknown protagonist is carrying out these acts against the social norm.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We aimed to make our film very simliar to other films of the same genre; horror with a high level of blood and gore, like Saw and Hostel. The whole idea of the protagonist waking up in a room somewhere in a strange environment and situation is itself symptomatic of the horror genre, creating fear and suspense.
A company like Lionsgate would be ideally suited to produce and distribute our film. They have made a series of many low to medium budget horror films as well as having a reputation for making quality independent productions such as The Cooler (2003). Lionsgate specialised in creating hits from low budget films; Saw is an example and has become a very popular franchise spawning many sequels. Our film is very similar to Saw and deals with similar issues, that include kidnapping, torture and murder. In Saw the antagonist "Jigsaw" chooses his victims because he believes they are unappreciative of the life they have so he attempts to make them appreicate their life more by focing them to go through painful and near-death experiences.
A big part of our film would be why the antagonist in our film chooses his specific victims, or maybe if the victims are not specific at all but are in fact random. Because the protagonist wakes up at the beginning not knowing why he is there, throughout the film he would try and find out why he is there.
Our film would appeal to teenagers, as the film features that age range, which would suit the other films made by Lionsgate, which also appeal to teenagers like My Bloody Valentine and Hostel.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would be the age range of 15-24 of both males and females. The typical fan of the horror genre would be someone who appreciates thrills as well as someone who likes gore in films. While many of the males could watch it the females prefer not to but still watch the films because of the idea of a thrill of being scared being exciting.
These fans would be what is described as "emo", probably listening to metalcore and hard rock. They would usually wear dark tight clothes and maybe some make-up. The gore and brutality of the film may be the point of interest for them. They would most likely be students, or possibly be new into work. This would allow them to have a disposable income that they could spend without having to save their money for more important things like mortgages etc.

How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.slideshare.net/hurtwoodhousemedia/acestudents11alex-robertsmy-documentsappeal-to-audiences

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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

When filming our preliminary task, we had a set list of shots to include. The shots were very basic, although we did try to fo further with some trickier shots, like tracking and panning. Doing these shots however made us feel well out of our comfort zone, and they also turned out not as well as we hoped. But because we attempted these we were quickly able to learn about how to master them as we had some experience of how they worked as well as knowing how hard it actually was. There was a massive difference between the types of shot used between the two activities. During the shooting of the final product we used tracking, panning and overhead shots. We tried doing a shot while holding the camera ourselves but we decided not to use the shot when editing as it wasn't well done.
Between the time of editing the preliminary task and the final product we learnt a lot through the lessons in the editing suite as well as observing the intro sequences of other horror films. Editing the preliminary task was a very simple task, and we only used simple cuts from shot to shot. In the final product we didn't just use these, we instead used a variety of cuts. We used a fade in at the beginning of the sequence, and added text over black and the real time shots.
When we filmed the preliminary task we didn't record any sound, so when editing we couldn't rely on the voices for when to cut. This didn't make a difference however as we had the chance to record sound over the images. Tom went and found someone and together they recorded the voices and layered them over the top of the video.

The Day of the Shoot

Overall the shoot went very well. We started at 9 and took 7 hours, resulting in about half an hour of footage, which will be edited to end up as 3-4 minutes.
We went in to the studio to find our set built. It consisted of 2 rooms, as we planned. One with a window boarded up, with light coming through onto a bed Tamara had bought and we had attempted to wreck with a hammer the day before giving it a worn feel. The other a dark room, with no windows, and no light. On the walls was some paint smeared and it looked really unrealistic and rushed, so with the time we had I mixed some red and a small amount of brown and black paint, and JJ and I began to flick paint over the walls to look like blood spatters. We ended up covering all 3 walls. My mum and sister were coming in to do the make up, but were held up a little bit causing a delay. When they arrived at 9:30 they went straight on the make up. Rory was one of the first to get his make up, making him look like he was drugged and bruised. This gave us time to take several shots of him doing his actions in the first room while the others' make up was still being finished. Tamara made sure the other actors were where they needed to be, those who needed it were getting their make up, and also made sure they were all blue carded.
While waiting for the other actors, we recorded sounds of objects hitting the floor for when the table is knocked over, like nails, metal poles, a glass and a torch, using the boom mic, and Tom considered shots and put Rory in different areas of the room and looked at them on camera.
It took about 2 hours for the make up to be done, so we were behind schedule as we had only recorded a few minutes of footage and 3 hours had passed since the beginning of the shoot. The actors playing the bodies came down and they were arranged against the wall to look like they were piled up. Duct tape was put over the victims mouths. in the hour we had before the lunch break, we worked quickly to get all the shots of the torch light going around the room and the discovery of the bodies, and where Rory pulls the tape off one of the victims and it wakes up. we had to work quickly as some of the victims would not be available after 1:00pm.
When everyone returned at 2:00, we took a few final shots of the victims, of their faces and of them waking up. we were then able to dismiss the victims and continued to take more shots of Rory. We filmed him falling through the door using the tracks, following his movement from one room into the other. We also took one of the first shots in the scene, an aerial view of him lying on the bed before waking up which JJ took from the lifting machine. We also recorded some more sounds like the shuffling of feet on the floor.
Finally at the end of the shoot which went a little passed 3pm, we had recorded over 30 mins of footage. Te day went well and despite certain hold ups, the group worked efficiently and we got everything we needed finished. Tom worked as a great director, but was a little too enthusiastic towards the end of the day. Other issues included JJ having to try the tracking shot several times before getting the timing right, but this was a minor issue and didnt take too long to overcome, and JJ was very good the rest of the time.

Pre-production Effectiveness

As a whole I think we were a very well organised group. Each member of the group contributed well and suited their role in the group well. Everyone contributed in some way towards props and costumes, as well as making sure the set and actors would be ready for the day.
One of the best aspects of our pre-production was that Tom's idea was very solid from the start. The idea was changed in some areas but mainly stayed the same, while other groups had to change a lot or even re-think their whole idea completely. This allowed us time to work on other important parts of the planning like storyboards and the treatment earlier than others.
The worst part was that we had all of the planning done but we didnt have it all together in the folder until very late in the planning process, so we couldnt easily find out information about our shoot when we needed it. Also the shooting schedule was written very late as well, so when we knew what we were doing, we had no real idea of when we were doing it on the day and what order we were doing each part in.

Shooting Schedule

We planned the schedule to have all shots of the bodies except for a few reaction shots done in the first half of the day, ie. before lunch. After lunch was meant to be the time where we shot Rory in the first room, his reaction shots and the little part of him in the second room without the bodies. This would mean we could use the actors playing the bodies in the morning and dismiss them in the afternoon.

Final Cast List

Along the way there were many changed to the cast list. These were the people we used on the day:

Main Protagonist:
Rory Skeoch

Victims:
-Bea Campbell
-Cate Hoare
-Elly Sams
-Gemma Dyer
-Gabby Meech
-Lainy Black
-Lottie Tolhurst
-Lukas Dressler
-Oscar Mitchell Heggs
-Jamie Hajigeorgiou

Costumes and Props

All of the props were sourced locally. Tom bought the costumes, which were just everyday clothes from Cranleigh, which, later in the evening, he scrunched and begun to tear up. Tamara bought a bed which we all smashed and beat with hammers and poles to give it a worn and old feel. I brought in a mattress and sheets for it. The torch was from the theatre department. In the morning my mum and sister came in to do the make up for the actors, which was very good especially on such short notice.

Scheduling Conflict

Our main protagonist, Alex Poynter, had an exam on the day we were shooting. He wasnt able to be in the shoot so it was decided that we would use Josh Jackson as the protagonist instead. However this was never a definite choice so Tom continued to ask people to be the lead. Eventually we had Rory Skeoch as our protagonist which we were all pleased with.