Group: Animatic

Our Animatic - Group 1

This is our animatic containing; rough storyboard shots, Studio attempts and footage we used in our recce to give a more visual effects. This process was huge for our group as we now have a clear understanding of our concept and we can now film as we have enough to work with. From this we have realized the feel of the video we want to go for is actually more disjuncture then a narrative story line. Some storyboard shots can be hard to tell what is happening so here is a rough treatment of exactly what will happen shot by shot. (This will change when we go filming)

Timeline:

0:00 - 0:05 - Extreme Long Shot of Woodland Location (Either Time lapse or slow motion) Will have typography of Band name on top of shot. - No movement in shot. This shot is planned to be filmed at Knowle Park.

0:06 - 0:10 - Long shot of present and absent character facing away looking over urban location of building. This will Include Typography of the name of our track 'These Streets' - If there is movement in this shot it will be very subtle panning upwards. This shot was originally planned to be filmed on top of local  shopping center 'Royal Victoria Place' we have been told we need a 'liability document' which could take a while to organize so we have been given alternative high rooftop car parks near by where we could possibly film. 

0:10 - 0:12 - This is a complete new Idea we had of a continuous shot that is shown and progresses throughout the video. The shot is planned at a high-angle with subtle movement. This will also be a long shot. The shot follows a man walking down a dark road on his own pictured in his suit with a briefcase and is later revealed that the other characters that are introduced are shown walking behind him to show he is not alone. These shots will be very quick roughly ranging from 2-4 seconds. So far we do not have an exact location on what road to film on, however a rough idea of what we want it to look like. With this shot comes difficulties of how we plan to film from a high angle, this will need to be discussed by the group very soon. 

0:12 - 0:15 - This is the shot where you see our character first. It is a long shot of our character sitting at a bus top in his work gear looking upset and fed up with life. This shot has no movement. The plan is that this is filmed when raining however this is completely dependent on weather conditions which we do not have the time to rely on. 

0:16 - 0:20 - During these four seconds are quick cuts of two different Ideas. 1) Is close ups of work associated equipment e.g. Tie, Briefcase, smart shoes etc. These will be used as one half of an inter cut with close ups of our second idea. 2) Woodland creatures - These will be brief close ups of the face to introduce the characters. 

0:20 - 0:25 - This shot will go back to a shot we have already introduced but from a Point of view. You will be positioned just behind the character sitting at the bus stop with a time lapse of the cars going past. This will be filmed at the same bus stop we choose.

0:26 - 0:28 - This is another cut of walking down the road, by this point he will still be on his own.
(See 0:10 - 0:12)

0:29 - 0:39 - This shot is the biggest gap we have. As it stands it is 10 seconds long. The shot idea is a pan that starts from the bottom of our character and follows him all the way until the urban location behind him is introduced. (The storyboard shot says; pan down, which is incorrect) However we believe that we will include filler shots in between this to break it up a bit because a long shot does not fit to the style we are trying to achieve. Again an area needs to be fully decided.

0:40 - 0:47 - This is the first introduction of our studio work. The Animatic includes a practice shot we completed that we were very happy with. This was a projected Image we found of a slow-mo paint bucket on YouTube simply put over our main character. See blog post ' Projection Practice Shots'

0:48 - 0:51 - This shot is a quick shot that starts of as a close up and ends up as a long shot but will be cut up to the tempo of the track which is about 3 beats a second. This is the way we introduce our character to the woodland location, because of the disjuncture of the video we do not need a clear link on why and what it portrays however the Idea is that the studio work is based on the mind of our character and links to the loose narrative of the woodland area.

0:51-0:53 - This is a shot of a woodland creature shown hidden behind a tree to show that they are there in the are with him and as if he is being followed and watched. This will be a close up.

0:53 - 1:00 - This is a shot we filmed during our recce at Knowle park. This shot is an example of just our character in the location and will be shown walking away from the camera. In this shot we pan upwards, this has not been decided if it will happen yet. However the idea is there.

1:00 - 1:01 - This will just be a quick chance to show of the location, an establishing shot again. This will include minimal movement. In the Animatic we included a quick still Image of the possible location which is also at Knowle Park.

1:01 - 1:06 - This is a shot we have planned to show the link of the studio work being based on what is happening in his mind. The shot will be a mid-shot that moves towards an extreme close-up of our characters forehead, from this we will pan outwards from the forehead and show the character in the studio in which  two of our woodland characters will walk in either side of him into the shot. This is the one time we have a strong link to what is happening to the lyrics, as at the same time the lyric is;

'In my mind its like you haunt them'

Group:Planning - Calender

We have made a calendar of important dates and what tasks need to be achieved this month. The two important tasks that have to be undertaken in this month is our group Pitch and Animatic. These are two key projects towards our planning so we will need to focus most of our effort this month on completing them. During this month we also have a planned recce at Knole Park, where we will scout the area to see if the area is what we are looking for, as well practice specific shots.

Towards the end of the month we have a Half-Term break so this gives us a chance to start getting some filming done, so it is very important that we have finished our planning beforehand. As months go, this will be our biggest for planning, so we need to make sure we undertake everything in the correct manor.

Mrs Fernandez - Planning Feedback

Well done, your concept development has come on significantly in the last two weeks and we were impressed with some of your visual ideas and enthusiasm for your concept in your pitch.  Your blog does have some L4 research at this stage, particularly the audience feedback, some of the print analysis and collaborative posts.  However, it is not yet consistently L4.  In order to achieve this, which is more than do-able, you now need to do the following:

1. Review technical analysis (JP missing?) and video analysis - at the end of each post, reflect clearly how this then links to your concept development - what can you take from that research process?
2. This same observation needs to be made on audience research, Brighton, mood boards, in fact any process you do such as a recce or practice shots.  LINK explicitly back to your concept
3. Technical analysis summaries not detailed enough
4. JP - missing tech analysis?  Also Print analysis needs semiotics used explicitly
5. CC - video analysis - needs more detail for media language questions
6. Location recce - needs to be done ASAP with visuals
7. video clip for practice projection shots

Group: Projection Practice Shots

Here is a short video of some practice shots we have done as part of our studio work. These will be used as a visual idea for our Animatic. We are very please with the outcome and from this have thought of new creative Ideas we can undertake for our actual video. e.g.

• Projection clips matching what is hapening infront of studio
• Links between visuals in narrative and studio work

These clips were a mix of both pre and post production, at first we had Chris standing infront of a white board with the projector facing directly at him, we projected clips of aesthetic visual effects like paint splatting, this is a creative Idea we had and wanted to be in our video. From this raw footage we added effects on Premiere to make the clips bring out the bright colours as well as the Dark colours. To do this we increased the contrast as well as adding a set effect called "

Group: Pitch/Feedback

Pitch – These Streets

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Script:

About the band: So as a group we have decided to choose Bastille to be our artist, this band is English and has only recently started growing. The genre of this band has been deemed as alternative. We originally started to look at this band when we were creating mood boards and when we were analysing videos. When we started to look at other videos by the artist we realised there were only a small amount which all had very different meta-narratives and Ideas which was great for us because as a group we decided we wanted to create a disjuncture/narrative based video, and with this track we knew we had the freedom to not have to follow a set in stone way. We also knew we had to look at print work when choosing the band and what we found was there was a common link with all album covers and posters used. We decided to choose the track “These Street” and we will play you a part of the track now.

Moodboard: One of the first things we decided to do was create a mood board just on Bastilles music videos. We thought this would be a good idea just so we could see visually what ideas they were creating for their meta-narrative and what was common in their videos. We found that “Extreme Long Shots” were normally used to introduce the location of where the video was set, this was also a chance to show what we saw as a title sequence and where the band’s name and the track name was shown. We also saw the idea of characters being both present on the screen however also absent as a lot of shots were with backs to camera or hidden by masks. These were two ideas which we knew we also wanted to include in our video.

Initial Ideas: At first when we chose the song we found it hard to discuss ideas and choose really what we wanted to do, so as a group we sat down and listened to the track multiple times and wrote down what we got from the song. Here is a list of everything we knew we wanted to do. We then decided that what we believed the song was about Childhood and your past memories. So we decided to list everything we thought about childhood and what ideas we had we could include in our video. This was a big success for us because as a group we finally managed to start heading in direction and create a simple narrative.

Audience research: We then did Audience research which turned out to make a huge impact on what we had done so far. We had a focus group of 5 people in our target audience aged between16-22. We got our group to listen to the track and brainstorm ideas on a piece of paper on what they thought of when they heard the track. On the slide are two examples of mind maps created by two individuals in the group. The two different mind map show the huge difference in how people read the song. One individual thought the song should be set in an urban location with the whole feel of the video being dark and lonely. They saw an idea of him being followed by mysterious characters that were dark and not seen by the audience. However another individual saw the track as bright and colourful and liked the idea of it being set in a woodland area with magical and mythical creatures following a character who was wearing a mask. We also got character ideas drawn by a member of the group to show what they thought it would look like. Because of this as a group we knew we had to reconsider some aspects of our video as our audience research has such specific ideas of how they thought it should have looked however sometimes these ideas conflicted so we knew we had to further our research. 

Audience research cont.:So to gather a full understanding of what we wanted to do, we also did a quick survey using Web 2.0 asking friends what they thought when they heard the song, however this time we had constructed questions based on our audience research to try and gather quick quantitative data to conclude our ideas. The questions we asked were…1) In your opinion, what location would be the most appropriate for a music video for this song?

Woodland
Beach
High Street
Other (please specify)
2) After listening to the song, Is there anything specific that you think should be in the music video?
3) Do you think that the music video should be set in the past, present or future?
4) In your opinion, what mood does the song portray?
5) What demographics would you expect to appear in the music video?
6) Would you expect to see any particular colours in the music video?
7) Finally, what message do you think that this song is trying to get across to the audience?

The results we got were positive as it reinforced what we found in our focus groups and how the video should be bright, and positive. Doing Audience research has been the most helpful planning resources to use because from this we were able to find out what our target Audience felt when they heard the song, after doing this we have decided to make changes to the narrative but still keep strong Ideas that we had before. e.g. Now our character will still be starting in an urban location and arriving in the woodland area however from this he will meet other characters (Creatures, Masks, face paint) who will change the structure and course of the video.

Treatment: The audience research and all our other research into the band and music videos have helped us come up with a concept for our video.

Timeline: Here is a brief timeline of what we want to happen in our video. (Read Timeline) Unfortunately there are a few gaps.

Lyrics: We then briefly looked at the lyrics however we knew we wanted our video to be more disjuncture then having strong links with the lyrics and what was happening on the screen. Some ideas we had when looking at the lyrics were ideas of studio shooting and stop motion of faces being covered to the lyric “I won’t show my face here anymore”. We also had an idea of our character being pulled back by a rope which connotes modern day life and how much power it has on someone. We got this idea when we saw the lyric “They pull me back, and I surrender”

Video analysis: We’ve looked at numerous videos for some ideas for our video including a lot of Bastille videos as we want to have similarities and links with their other music videos. From the Bastille videos we know that we want to include establishing long shots in a similar style to many of the opening shots for their videos. These are often of landscapes or cityscapes. We also would like to include the typography seen in the videos with the band name and song title over the establishing shot.

We also looked at a number of videos with studio performance and more conceptual ideas.

Cont.:These are some further ideas we had from our audience research and examples of videos our group thought it worked well in. They liked the idea of projecting images over characters in a studio and the use of colours. The idea of using a projector was used in the Paramore video Still into You in a way that could be done in a studio for our purposes.

They also liked the idea of colour being expressed using paint and suggested another Paramore video ‘Now’ which uses powder paint and has an interesting use of colours which is an aesthetic we would like for our video

Storyboarding: After our audience research we decided to storyboard some ideas and shots we knew we wanted to create, sorry if some are hard to see. We know that our first shot will be an Extreme Long shot of our woodland area which will happen before the track has started, this will give us a chance to also introduce the track with the artist name and track name. We have also storyboarded shots of a pull focus which is an example of an A* shot we want to create.  The idea is that you will see our character in the foreground with a rope being pulled from this we will follow the rope and focus the background of the other characters pulling the rope. We have also storyboarded ideas of stop motion and what kind of ideas we want to create in the studio.

Print analysis: We have looked at the print work for Bastille in detail and we are planning to use the ideas for our own work. The band use images from their videos and large font typography over these images. We have looked for a similar font with the triangle symbol for an ‘A’ to use for our own work and want to include this typography in both the video and our print work.

What we need to do: Before we start making and filming the video we still need to create a shot by shot storyboard so that we are clear on the exact narrative; we need to practice some more shot ideas in the studio and be sure of lighting. We also need to finalize the exact costume of characters. The biggest thing we need to decide is the gaps in our concept and treatment.

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Feedback:

We have received a lot of useful feedback from our pitch of our idea. We received positive feedback about the audience research and focus group as well as on our ideas for the studio concept and print analysis. However we still need to work on the ideas for the over-riding woodland narrative and re-think the rope aspect. We also need to work out all our mise-en scene and do a complete storyboard to make sure we know all our shot ideas.The Pitch for us was great as we were able to gather further responses on our concept and Ideas, we decided that there are a few things we need to work on and improve, but these are things we would have not known otherwise.

Feedback Sheet no.1

Feedback Sheet no.2

Group: Initial Storyboarding

Initial Storyboard Shots

Storyboard slide taken from Pitch.

After doing our audience research we decided to storyboard some ideas and shots we knew we wanted to create. We know that our first shot will be an Extreme Long shot of our woodland area which will happen before the track has started, this will give us a chance to also introduce the track with the artist name and track name. We have also story boarded shots of a planned shot we want to try and achieve of a pull focus which is an example of an A* shot we want to create. The idea is that you will see our character in the foreground with a rope being pulled, from this we will follow the rope and focus the background of the other characters pulling the rope. We have also drawn out rough ideas for stop-motion and what kind of ideas we want to create in the studio.

Doing initial story boarding was a task we completed after our audience research because our initial drawings were no longer valid after the vast difference in both our narrative and conceptual work. This was a very helpful process as it helped us visualize our ideas in an expressive way to not just our group but to or Teachers and peers during our Pitch. However from this stage we need to match our treatment with a full storyboard ideas to know exactly how much footage we will have and how are narrative comes together.To do this we will have to create a "Animatic" which will show exactly what we have done and what we have left. 

Group: What Needs to Be Done - Group Update 11-10-13

LB: To make sure we have a full understanding of what we want to do from here, we need to have a shot by shot storyboard of what we want to do. The ideas we have do not give us a full understanding of what our video is going to be like. For our narrative there are still uncertainties of what is going to happen. We do still need to practice certain ideas that we want to create in the studio such as the idea we have of a slow-motion shot of powder paint thrown at our cast to create a visually aesthetic image. As well as this we need to practice our ideas for stop motion face paint and get a good understanding of lighting and how our shots will look. 

Example of one of our storyboard shots 

For our narrative we have added new characters, and for this we have a very important decision to make about what they will look like. So far our Idea is to stick with the work theme of characters in suits however they will have masks to give an Idea of hidden identity to look different to our main character. Finally the biggest thing we have to decide is what will be happening in parts of our video, so far we have a gap in our treatment in which what will happen when our character arrives in the woodlands. However as we are creating a disjuncture video we are aware that there does not need to be a strong narrative, and as we carry on with our Animatic we will gather a full understanding.

Group: Audience Research

Focus Group

For audience research, we decided to do a small focus group of five people to discuss our ideas and receive qualitative data. This was very useful for us as it helped us understand the perspectives of our target audience and to see what ideas would work and what ideas would not work.
We played the track to the group and asked them to write down an initial response to the song. After that we discussed the things they associated with the song. We then told the group our ideas for the video and asked for their response and opinions.

Here are two examples of the mind map responses:

Mind-map by focus group member.

Mind-map by other focus Group member.

 Drawings by individual in our focus group.

Drawings by member of Focus Group

These responses have influenced and caused us to reconsider some aspects of our video ideas, particularly for our narrative ideas. Our focus group had some quite specific ideas and images that they thought should be included in the video, however they often conflicted with each other so we couldn't incorporate all these ideas into one video.

Quick Survey

We also asked a few people what they would expect to see in our video because of the huge differences and response we got by doing our focus group. Here are the questions we asked;

In your opinion, what location would be the most appropriate for a music video for this song?

• Woodland  Beach  High Street  Other (Please Specify)

After listening to the song, Is there anything specific that you think should be in the music video?

Do you think that the music video should be set in the past, present or future?

In your opinion, what mood does the song portray?

What demographics would you expect to appear in the music video?

Would you expect to see any particular colours in the music video?

Finally, what message do you think that the song is trying to get across to the audience?

The results we got were quite positive as it reinforced what we found in our focus groups about how the video should be bright, and positive, however some responses we are unable to use as people were unsure about questions or how they felt about certain things. Here is some example answers;

1. Woodland
2. Excitement. I think it should be of a group of peoples journey through woodland. Then during the chorus something exciting happens. One of the group is videoing it and videoing himself to give a cool realistic edge.
3. Present
4. happiness, excitement, positive
5. Don't really know what demographics is
6. Blue and Red
7. A bad history that you don't want to go back to, you don't want to remind yourself of.

1. Start of in a city like London and then move to woodlands, wants to get out of crowded places
2. Idea of running away from mistakes 
3. Present
4. Kind of freeing and absolving of sins
5. Initially men, but on reflection I think a girl running away would be quite good
6. Bright colours, lights, blue 
7. Guy wants to be in the outdoors

Doing Audience research has been the most helpful planning resources to use because from this we were able to find out what our Target Audience felt when they heard the song, after doing this we have decided to make changes to the narrative but still keep strong Ideas that we had before. e.g. Now our character will still be starting in an urban location and arriving in the woodland area however from this he will meet other characters (Creatures, Masks, face paint) who will change the structure and course of the video.

Group: Treatment/Rough Timeline

Here is a rough Timeline of what we think will happen in our video.

Rough Timelime

Rough Treatment

The start of the video begins with an ELS of a woodland location, this will be before the track has even begun. This gives us a chance to show the title of the track and band. The early parts of the video will be set in an urban location with Chris being down because of life, he will be shown in a Suit as a working man and will find himself in the woodland location. From here we are planning to include conceptual studio shots of paint being thrown on Chris as well as projected Images in the studio. In the woodland area we want to include other characters wearing masks being a part of the conceptual ideas with Chris. We are not sure if there will be a narrative fuzz in our video as of now but we will create our Animatic to help us.

Group: Update 3-10-13

Bastille Mood Board 

JP: We have been working on our pitch for our idea.This has included creating a mood board for Bastille of ideas and A grade shots; this may be useful for when we are looking for shot ideas for our video.We also have looked at the album and single cover images for the band and looking at the important aspects that we will want to include in our print work. We also looked for the similar fonts used by the band for the titles as the font is customized but we would need the same or similar to create uniformity.

Pitch Slides

LB: In Today's lesson I have been working on Pitch Slides on our Print Analysis as well as creating a rough Image using a photo from Google of Typography Ideas we have on the cover. The font was just found online, however if we were to create a single edition cover we wouldn't have white around the text and the Image would probably Include our character on as well. From now on we will just continue to finish our Pitch before the deadline.

Rough Concept for Digi-Pak

Group: Concept Development 3

Shots

• Studio - Mid shots and close ups
• Outside location - Long shots for establishing shots 

Colours

• Black in studio with mask over the top. Specific things colour, e.g balloons and facepaint to stand out to audience.

Characters

• Possibly Chris
• Possibly a child who represents characters younger self

Narrative Ideas

• Establishing shot of pretty location
• Man in formal clothing, bare feet, wearing face paint walking in wooded areas or isolated location.
• Shots in studio of things associated with childhood, e.g balloons, facepaint and toys.

Location

• Studio
• Isolated location
• Pretty location
• Possible urban feel from the start

LB: Technical Analysis - Bastille - Things We Lost In The Fire

Seconds	What is in the shot?	Camerawork.
0-3	Sunset – Exotic Location	Extreme Long Shot
4-7	Another Sunset – Exotic Location – Smoke moving slowly	Extreme Long Shot
8-16	14 Men silhouette backs to camera.	Tilt upwards Long Shot
17-22	Dogs running towards camera	Long shot slow motion
23-30	Men walking, sideways angle	Long shot to Mid shot Slow motion
31-39	Close up of bullet in hand tilts upwards reveals man in close up	Close up tilts upwards
40-44	Wolf on top of abandoned car, exotic location	Mid Shot
45-51	Dark characters running towards light area which reveals a man	Close Up
52-57	Dark characters running past the man	Pan Mid shot
58-1:01	Man with back to the camera, bullet  visible in hand	Mid Shot
1:02-1:04	Performance shot, man lip syncing	Close Up Rule of Thirds
1:04-1:07	Bullet in the hand, starts to tell a narrative	Close Up
1:08-1:11	Man turns around, the shot zooms in and reveals another shot	Zoom Cross Cutting
1:12-1:29	Panned left to right, shot is revealed/ Slow motion of girl walking, turns to the camera and the background disappeared	Panning shot Slow Motion Mid Shot to Close Up
1:30-1:36	Performance of singer, dark lighting of background	Mid Shot
1:37-1:44	Girl dancing in dark location, fades and reveals next shot	Mid Shot
1:44-1:52	Car fades in and revealed	Long shot
1:53-1:55	Man walks and gets in car	Mid Shot
1:55-1:56	Man in car fades (dark)	Close Up
1:56-2:00	Man in car (light) Different Location when in the car - Flashback	Close Up

I Decided to do a Technical Analysis for Bastilles video "Things We Lost In the Fire" this video if narrative based with a conceptual disjunctured Idea to the track. There are a few visual links between the lyrics and what was on the screen e.g. "We Lost in the fire" Flames are visible.

The main reason I decided to do a technical analysis on this track was to see what band image and meta-narratives are portrayed in Bastilles videos. As well as this, to see what type of format and style the videos may follow. From this video the clear links we can make to our work would be the idea of an idividual character being followed and his story being shown. In this video we are positioned with a dark story of the male character with the narrative coming to a conclusion. In our video we are planning to have a male character also being followed, and positined as our main character.

In this video and also other videos by the band I found examples of lip-syncing while being present but also absent staring int the distance. However this is something we dont want to try in our video as we dont believe it will work with the ideas we have, we also have the problem with our main character looking young so it would not look right.

For the style and types of shots that we want to relate into our own piece would bethe use of the exteme long shot at the beginning to show our location as well as the title of our track. We have also realised the use of slow-motion shots which is something we want to try in our studio work and also in exterior locations. A lot of shots are positined in mid-shots to see both a character in the locations which helps with the narrative while also showing the character and what there expressions are like.

Doing the technical analysis was helpful as from this I have gained a greater understanding of lengths of shots and what type of format the bands videos create. From this we can carry on with the development of our concept so we can get storyboard shots done.

Group: Concept Development 2

We have decided to finally choose the Bastille track, however we have also decided now to include studio based shots and ideas as filler shots in our video. As a group we had a discussion about the track and what ideas we had when listening to it. We brainstormed and decided what we wanted to be in the video and out of the video. Afterwards we also thought of ideas to do with Childhood as this is what we thought of as a group when listening to the track.

INITIAL IDEAS

Ideas – In and Out

Bastille track – In

Two lines of action, conceptual studio, external location, symbolic costume – in

Clown = creepy, sad,

Masks = in

Marginalisation – being alone,

Face painted clown

CHILDHOOD

Superheroes

Toys

Parties

Balloons – colour pop idea

Sweets/candy

Broken toys

Sadness- lost/on your own

Moving school/house

Friendship

Transition = growing up

Playground

Swings

Outside- wood

Outside of the house

We have also decided that for our studio shots we want to play with stop motion and implament the key ideas we see with a perfromance based character in our video. The idea of childhood and the fact of our character being hidden, we can create lots of intresting shots and ideas of faces being covered or drawn on.We could also use the connotations of the triangle Bastille use in there videos ontop of the video in post production or as part of our studio shots.

 

CC: Technical Analysis - Bastille - Bad Blood

• I have decided to do a technical analysis of 'Bastille-Bad Blood' because it has provided me with an insight into Bastille's typical conventions used in their videos. In addition, it shows Bastille's meta-narrative, allowing us to use similar conventions.
• From this analysis I have learnt that there are a lot of mid shots and close ups. We have decided to make a music video for 'Bastille-These Streets', therefore we should use similar conventions and editing techniques as this video by 'Bastille' because they are both indie rock/alternative.
• The cutting rate in this music video is very fast at certain points, and by using Goodwin's theory it is clear that there is a relationship between the visuals and the music.
• This video is conceptual based and we have also decided to make a conceptual video for our chosen song. We are going to do this because most of Bastille videos are conceptual based therefore we want to keep to the same conventions.
• We have decided that we are going to use slow motion shots for the studio work. In addition we have also decided that we will use an extreme long shot for the establishing shot.