Sunday 27 February 2011

Filming, Take 2

Having reviewed the footage we already have we decided to take another day out to film more after realising that there was so much more potential for this video than we had thought. So we set out to London, Myself and 2 other group members. We was extremely lucky with the weather on this day, it was definitely shining to our advantage. We created the usual set up; bags done, tripod our, DSLR ready for when needed, camcorder ready to go & i-pod playing. We thought it would be a good idea to have an i-pod playing the song in order to make it easier when putting the lip sync and song together, it mad our singing more accurate and in time with the music.
This time however, instead of just staying in the current location we deviated from here and found ourselves filming in a park which added to the Bohemian style of the song.
It was another successful day shooting.

Saturday 26 February 2011

What I aim to achieve from filming

From tomorrow's filming I am to....

. capture footage from a range of shots (long, mid, close up)
. take advantage of the lighting
. successfully reflect the genre we chose to focus our video on
. to capture the footage that will make up the quick edits of our video

Monday 21 February 2011

Filming, Take 1

Yesterday we began filming for our music video, we wasn't quite sure what to expect. As we approached Bond Street we immediately knew this was where we was going to film. It was an interesting day and we managed to successfully film a majority of the video, we experimented with camera angles, distances and motions to ensure that our video had a wide range.
We went up to london with a strong idea of what it was we wanted to create, but when we was up there we was hit with so many more ideas, which is a good thing.
Throughout the day we was lucky enough to use HD video camera's and DSLR still cameras. The fact that we was able to have access to a still camera as-well was very beneficial, it enabled us to capture photographs throughout the day of each of us using the equipment which will aid us when explaining the processes.
Following our video we will upload the footage we have captured onto apple mac's and begin editing.
This is a collage I have created, I have tried to include photograph's of each of us to show our equality in the filming process.

Saturday 19 February 2011

Camera work

The camera work was shared out equally between group members, we ensured that everyone was capable of using the equipment that was required to continue with our filming. Jack was particularly keen with the camera and was happily able to aid the rest of the group if they found themselves having difficulties.

When we first began filming, although we recognised what conventions were needed to make a successful video we struggled in actually capturing these conventions. This wasn't because we was unaware, simply because we was so caught up in the moment and was enjoying the task that we just forget. Having filmed and watched our footage back however we did recognise this, and we was lucky enough to have noticed this so early on because we were then able to go back and film more footage to replace some of the old footage.

I am not angry nor annoyed that we made these simple mistakes, because we did as a group realise and it did then give up both the experience and ability to go back and correct the mistakes that we had made.

Location location location;

Having noticed VV Browns connection and love for London via other videos and photoshoot so we have decided the do the majority of our filming up London, however we would like to do some filming in rural area's also (taking inspiration from Ellie Goulding's video). An area we used for a large majority of our filming was Gilbert street, a road just left of Bond Street Station, from here we travelled the short distance to do more filming in Mayfair. 

Friday 18 February 2011

Band Name

After several discussions we made this decision to call our band Canute, we have take the name from 'King Canute the Great' who was a viking warrior who became and English king. Stories say that he was in control of the tides and seas, he could command the waves to go no further out and come no further in. However he explained to men and proved that kings power might appear greater than all else but no one can stand in the way of God's powers. Because the song we chose had relevance to the ocean we decided to go with this as the name, as most bands/artists had meaning behind their name we thought this was a reasonable reason that could also have influenced the song choice. 

Story line :)

Story Line...


We have decided to create a narrative for the lyrics because this makes the video more accepted and interesting to watch, we aim to create this narrative with the aid of camera, lighting & location.
Having listened to our chosen song numerous times we have gathered our idea's on what the storyline to our video will be. We have gained inspiration from the original video, other music videos, personal feelings & fashion. This is how we have interpretated the lyrics and this is what we want to create. 
The story line will be similar to VV Browns in a way that it will follow the relationship of a couple, however this time the main focus will be the boy (jack) who is cheating on each girl, therefore making it a love square. We will use a variety of conventional camera shots that appear in many music videos and hope to portray codes throughout the video that show and add deeper meaning to the song.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Target Audience

As a group of young student's myself and my group have decided to gain idea's for the target audience through the current artists. We would like to liken ourselves to the likes of VV Brown, Ellie Goulding, Lissie, Adele etc therefore putting our main focus towards the indie/pop/soul genre.

There will be no specific age limit but the audience would probably range from 17/18+.
 We will aim to reach to all social classes and genders

Other influence: Ellie Goulding


Ellie Goulding has been another influence we wanted to keep in mind through this project. We particularly liked this video because it fits in with the ideas we have with personalising the the songs. The director has used a method that makes the viewer feel like it is a home made, this is something we hope to use in our video. I feel this convention would help improve our narrative.



Things to consider

Wednesday 16 February 2011

VV Brown further research...

It is clear from other music video by VV Brown that she fully appreciates British society. This is shown through the union jack flag appearing in her other videos. Because of this we have chosen to locate our music video in the heart of Britain, we are planning on filming in and around Bond street. This is because it a central location that is easy to get to and we are familiar with the surroundings. This therefore takes the stress away of not know where anything is.



Monday 14 February 2011

The History of Indie

Indie music is a sub-genre of alternative rock.
In society today 'indie' is probably the most popular genre of music, it has been taken from 'independent music' which is a term used to describe the independence from major commercial record labels.

The beginning...

When Indie music first appeared it was a genre of music that satisfied those independant of what was considered to be popular music, the dominating genres. Consequently so called 'indie bands' weren't signed to major record labels. Instead they controlled and managed themselves in the promotion, production and performing, like the Arctic Monkeys they often refused the help of any commercial record labels.  A huge impact on the movement was Velvet Underground who were actually involved in the early part of the movement who achieved everything themselves from productions to albums, this created a dramatic deviation from the traditional styles of music. Although Velvet Underground wasn't as successful as they had hoped and could possibly have been had they accepted help from the record labels they are considered today to have been highly influential people in breaking the existing boundaries for future bands. Moving on form the 1960's in the 70's & 80's along with fashion music made another leap into independance gaining sub-genres such as "progressive-rock" and "alternative", which all upheld the ideology of indie music being different from what is regarded as "mainstream" by representing slight diversions from what was considered to be "popular music". This belief and ideology however was jeopardised in the 90's when so-called "indie bands" began signing to major record labels rather than staying true to the original ideology of independant music. This therefore affected the indie genre entering it into mainstream genres.

However like many things, over time this has changed. The relationship between music and ideology has been questions. What was originally known to be "indie" which was a representation of an ideology deviating from social trends couldn't have ended up more opposite. Indie music is now considered among other musical genres as simply a "style of music" rather than an ideology. This change is down to one main thing, the audience that Indie music attracted has grown significantly to a point whereby Indie bands can sign to commercial labels and become just as successful.

Initial Ideas

VV Brown Shark in the Water analysis

'Shark in the Water' is our song, VV Brown is the artist, Travelling Like The Light is the album.
It was released on the 6th July and it a metaphorical record about anxiety, VV Brown found inspiration from her own personal experience between her and a previous boyfriend who liked to stalk he in his free time.





Shark in the Water

VV Brown | Myspace Video






The video produced by VV Brown holds a strong narrative, that has been inspired from a personal experience. It opens with a typical music video convention of the artist singing, something that I noticed when first watching this video is the amount of edits before Brown begins singing, there is 10 different shots from a variety of angles and distances within the first 12 seconds. This montage of edits is a convention of music videos, the purpose is to gain a brief understanding of the mise en scene and to establish the area that the narrative is in.
18 seconds into the song we enter the narrative that occurs alongside the song with no dialogue, this could change throughout the video but doesn't have too. I am also introduced to Brown who plays as both the narrative and artist. I like this idea because it reveals to the audience to relationship between the artist and the narrative and almost personalises the situation.
In the beginning Brown enters a new location, what seems to be a coffee shop, she is surrounded by 2 other men, who are playing the drums and guitar. There is no evidence that they are together, just happens to be at the same place at the same time. This is a interesting because there is no composition between the three to encourage that they are a band, instead it looks like 3 seperate people.
Throughout the video there is a series of long shots showing the person Brown is spying on, these could be point of view shots, its is not clear. I like the use of still images throughout the video, they emphasise the realism of Brown and her stalking. Brown changes her actions regularly through the video which again is a convention of typical music videos, this is important to ensure that the audience do not get bored.
At one point in the video, when Brown 'defeats' the cheat, he appears behind railings in his house, this composition works fantasiticlly in hand with the striped shirt he is wearing, possibly a code and resemblance of being convicted of a crime.


This music video keeps a strong narrative with the song for the whole duration. The range of shots throughout the video create both a cinematic vibe for the audience without taking their interest away from the song. I hope that we can recreate this video with a slight difference but a good outcome.

Saturday 12 February 2011

How I feel about our decision...

As an individual I am happy with our choice of music video, I feel as a group we will work better together and there will be less conflict because we are all fans of this particular genre and this song. I look forward to working on this project with my group and hope that we work well and overcome any issues.

Choosing a song

When we first came together as a group things seemed to flow nicely, with no tension between ideas. However this soon changed, we faced decisions on locations, song choices, and filming ideas difficult to put together. I think we forgot that we can use more than just one idea, instead we thought we had to focus on one idea and expand it. After numerous discussions and few minor disagreements we decided to use VV Brown's 'Shark in the water' song, we thought this was a good idea given the group circumstances (ratio of girls to boys). The song tells the story of a woman in a relationship who's boyfriend is having an affair. She is aware oWhen we heard the song and researched into the lyrics we instantly had ideas of what we could do. However we wasn't ready to let go of Ellie Goulding and her way of expressing her music. We particularly liked the video to her version of 'Your Song'. So instead of using this song we have to decided to incorporate some of the codes and conventions she has used into our music video.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Introduction to group

As a student I am automatically placed in a group with other students for when we come to create our music video. My group consists of; Danielle, Madeline, Jack and myself.

Once we were put into our group we were faced with the difficult decision on choosing a song to 'recreate'.

We started off by talking about or preferred  genre of music, what artists we enjoy and also a little about fashion and the way it is portrayed in the music industry.

Favoured bands:
Eliza Doolittle, VV Brown, Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons & Bob Marley.

Fashion:
Indie/alternative & Chic

Below is the Link to our group blog, this is an area that we can all connect to and update you on our progress as a group.