Audience Feedback Video

Here is an audience feedback video we have created in order to see if our target audience would like the video concept that we have in mind. We asked males and female (17/18 years old) what they thought of the track and what they thought of our concept for the music video and we used their responses to help us develop our idea and also to help us decipher whether our concept came across well and whether an audience would like it. From my point of view this video has helped us see that our idea comes across clearly to an audience and strangely some of the audience members were already picturing elements of our idea before we told them about it meaning that the themes and  ideas that we have created translate well to an audience. I think that this video has helped my group and I realise that we are on the right track to creating a music video that our target audience would enjoy, understand and appreciate.

Music Industry presentation from Ollie Allgrove

We had a presentation today from Ollie Allgrove who is the executive producer of The Mill. He came in to talk to us about the music industry and the process that happens and give us some general information about his role within the music industry.

Below are some pictures of the notes that I made during the presentation about things that stuck out for me and things that I thought were important and would be good tips to take on board during the pre-production process of making our music videos. 

I found the talk really interesting and it helped me gain a better understanding o the process that occurs when making material in the industry and it also provided me with some useful tips for when we are producing our own music video. 

I really liked the video from The Chemical Brothers for the track Wide Open as I was really impressed that they were able to create something so creative and effective with such a small budget. I was really intrigued to find out about the whole process and all the elements that they had to consider when making this video such as what would be shown through the back of the wire mesh and how complex the movement and the manipulation of the 3D model process was. I think that this idea and this video is such a simple concept but is incredibly challenging to produce and do effectively. I would really like to try and incorporate an element of this robotic, manipulated and mechanical style into the dance element of our own music video.

Overall, I found the presentation really interesting and it helped me to gain a new perspective and appreciation on the music industry and the amount of time and effort that is involved in creating a few minutes worth of footage. 

Our new idea

We have come up with a new concept for our music video which uses a completely different track and different visual elements. This is due to the fact that we decided, as a group, that our original idea wasn't going to work very effectively and the various elements that we had come up with weren't going to fit together effectively ass well as the fact that we realised that the track wasn't very dynamic and there wasn't much to it and it would not provide us with a good basis for our music video.

Therefore we have chosen a new song which is 'Beatophone' by Caravan Palace who are a French electro swing band. We really liked this track as we think it is very different to anything that the school have created before and we like the abstract and bizarre sound as well as the opportunity to do something a bit different and quirky with it.



Due to the fact that the genre of music that the song comes under is electro swing we want to create something that reflects this genre within the visuals. However, we have had the issue that because we have to cast it with students it is very difficult to find students who play jazz instruments such as the clarinet, saxophone and the double bass as they are not very common instruments.



Additionally, the track doesn't have a lot of vocals and although this isn't an issue, it does mean that it is going to limit our ability to have a lip sync element in our video. Therefore we are thinking of replacing the performance element that would be for the jazz band with a dancer as this will make it easier to cast and will also be a much more interesting element for a performance element due to the limited vocals. However, this is just an initial thought and we have talked about the possibility of a band if we can find people to play the instruments.  We are not sure what kind of dancer we are looking for, but due to the fact that the song is quite upbeat and funky I would say that it is likely to be something quite robotic and along the hip-hop lines.



We want to create a narrative as we believe that this would fit the track quite well and I think that if the three elements that we come up with have a link between them then this will make the video a lot more dynamic, interesting and engaging for the audience. At the moment the idea for the narrative is that there is a man who is hanging photos up in a shipping container which is made to look like a photography dark room and this man is blackmailing these other people who we see in one of the other elements which is located in a concert/performance location where the dancer/jazz band is performing. This idea is quite weird and abstract but we think that ti will work well with the song and we were aiming to create something that was a bit out of the box and unique.



Below are some pictures of our ideas that we drafted on paper in class when we were developing and creating ideas.

We have taken some inspiration from Will.i.am's music video for the song Band Bang which features a jazz band and a 1920's element which is similar to that of what we want to create. I think it would be really fun to experiment which incorporating a 1920's element into the video as I think that this would work well with all the other elements that we have in addition to it tying in nicely with the swing element of the genre of music.



 Overall I really like where this idea is heading and I think that it could be really effective if we develop the ideas well and create a good concept. I think that this track and this idea has a lot of potential and we are all a lot more engaged and excited about his idea than we were about our original idea so I think we are on the right track.

Timelines

We have been drafting our idea for a time line to the song Deluka. However we have now decided to adapt our idea and we have chosen a new track and come up with a new concept as we all thought that Home wasn't going to provide us with a strong option to create a memorable and exciting video and we found the song quite bland and boring after a while and we found a new more exciting track and have started to develop a concept which I believe has a lot more potential.

Below is our original timeline for the song 'Home' by Deluka:

Due to the fact that we are now working with a completely different track and we have been re-thinking and developing our new concept, we have been creating a new timeline. The track Beatophone by Caravan Palace has a weird beat and rhythm to it and it doesn't appear to be clearly split into choruses and verses which makes it quite challenging to timeline. We have split the track into sections depending on whether there are vocals, new instruments being introduced or any specific sounds being made. This has made it easier for us to see the track in distinct sections rather than as one long line of sound. We still need to develop the timeline in terms of deciding what visual elements are going to come in where in the music but I think that we need to develop our idea further and discuss it thoroughly as a group before continuing with the timeline.

Below is the timeline that we have started to create for the track 'Beatophone': 

Developing our idea

We have been thinking a lot about our idea for our music video and unfortunately we realised that the song we had originally chosen, 'Home' by Deluka was running out of steam for us and that we were struggling to come up with fresh new ideas for the video. Therefore after an in depth discussion with our teacher and a long conversation as a group we have decided to are think our idea.



We have decided to change song to 'Beatphone' by Caravan Palace as we believe that this track is more dynamic and interesting and has more potential. I also think that this new track will provide our group with the opportunity to come up with some highly creative and imaginative visuals to match the quirky style of music.









Additionally, we want to keep the original idea we had of using a shipping container as we all really liked this idea anyway and so it would be nice to incorporate it into the new idea. I think that this location/background will create some good texture for the video and will also work effectively with the mechanical, stylised and quite robotic style of the music.




I'm pleased with the progress that we have made and I think that we are on the right track now to create something very visually interesting and engaging for an audience as well as it being creative, fun and imaginative. I would really like to play around with all the different options we have as I think that this track can provide us with a lot of opportunities.

 


Here is a picture of some of our thoughts and ideas about what we can include and how it would look:

The next step is to start creating a timeline for this new idea and to consider what exactly the three elements are and what we want to show in the video, but we are definitely on the right track now!

Work in progress...

We have been working on and developing our idea and we have been trying to come up with some new elements for our music video.

Additionally, we have been creating a timeline of our ideas which involves marking out where the choruses and verses come in during the track and then deciding when we want the various elements to appear within the video.



After the feedback we received in our pitch we have been trying to develop upon our idea and change some of the elements. We have talked about incorporating an element of using geometric designs and patterns such a through the use of lighting or structure.

However, we are still trying to come up with some other elements that will work effectively with the geometric idea as we are not convinced that our previous idea of using an industrial sight or the use of a photography dark room will tie in well with this new idea of using a geometric theme.

Unfortunately, I get the feeling that along with the other members of my group we are getting a bit sick of our idea and the track and that we are running out of creative ideas and therefore we need to either take a break and re-think what we can do with this track and maybe go back to the drawing board and re consider what w want to get across. Our other option is to pitch our back up idea and see whether this works better. Our back up idea is for the song Beatphone by Caravan Palace. Our initial idea for this track is to do an office set up with people doing fun and wacky tings dressed in 1920's costumes and create a very fun and out of the box, original and highly creative music video.

 

Here is a photo of our production group working on the timeline as well as coming up with some new ideas for visuals for our music video.

Pitch Video

We decided to film our pitch so that we would be able to go back and review it and check the feedback that we received. 

Overall, our pitch was quite successful and they liked the idea of using the industrial building as well as the element which involves developing photographs in a dark room which would take place in a shipping container. 

However, there are a few things that we need to discuss further and develop or change as they might not work with the rest of our ideas. 

Below is the video footage of our pitch: 

Pitch Feedback

We pitched our ideas for our music videos today in class and it was quite successful as our idea has nearly been green lit which means that we are nearly ready to go ahead with the pre-production stage soon once we have adapted and changed a few things. 

Overall everyone really liked our idea and they liked the fact that the song was very upbeat and fun. Our class really liked the idea of using the a shipping container as one of our locations/backgrounds as they though that this would create a very visually interesting setting and would tie in nicely with the characteristics of the band's star image. 

On the other hand, they did suggest that we re-think how the different elements link together in order to make a smooth transition between the different elements. They weren't quite sure how the harsh industrial building was going to fit nicely with the delicate and careful process of developing and hanging photos that happens in the dark room. I think that as a group we need to consider this more carefully and make sue that all of the elements/locations tie in nicely together and create a video that looks very cohesive and well put together. 

Another issue that was brought up during our feedback session was to do with re-thinking and possibly finding an alternative to the zooming into different memories part and going into different photographs as they didn't think that this would come across clearly and they also didn't think that this tied in well with the other elements and would make the filming quite challenging. Therefore I think that as a group we need to further discuss how we are going to tackle this issue and try to come up with another idea for a third elements to our music video. We need to make sure that whatever we come up with for the third element to the video that it ties in nicely with the other elements and also fits the message we want to convey with the song. 

  

Another issue that was raised during our feedback session was the fact that through using a 17/18 year old girl as our actress in the memories section it is going to make it very difficult to make it appear as though she has got younger in the memories sections and generally trying to back in time in a music video is very difficult and can prove o be very tricky when trying to execute this effectively. It is also hard to think of memories that a 17/18 year old has experienced as they are not very old and therefore won't have had a lot of life experience therefore this also makes this part of the video quite difficult and not very appealing. 

   

Therefore we have decided as a group to abandon the idea of zooming into different pictures of the different memories that the girl has experienced and we are now looking for an alternative for this third element of our music video. 

Overall, our pitch was quite successful and they liked the majority of the ideas that we have although thee are a few things to be re-considered and to be discussed further in order to create the most effective and visually interesting music video.

Below is a Sound Cloud file with the feedback we received from Luke: