Practicing with photography

We recently had two lessons based solely on photography, this was to increase our awareness for good angles and shots. Here are some of the shots we took.

These are some shots i took with my own camera while in town.

Feedback from pitches

Similar videos

A video that draws upon some ideas that we are using as well is the video for the Badly Drawn Boy video for the song all possibilities, it features heavily on busking which will feature a lot in our video

Badly Drawn Boy |MTV Music

Treatment for Mansion in the Sky

Set outside a bank, all camera shots are taken from inside or outside the bank. 2 Men dressed as hobos (or not haven’t decided quite yet). Sit facing the bank with a guitar each and begin to play to start the tune.

They have a sign saying “Jobless men keep going, we can’t take care of our own”. The song switches between shots at a steady slow rate at first, including some shots at night with them sitting on the sidewalk busking. Bank shot on first lyric “Could you forget the awful things i’ve done?”. A pedestrian (actor) will walk by the two performers stop then sit next to them.

This is clipped in with shots of singing at various busking spots. Throughout the song more and more pedestrians come and sit down with the two performers. The most start to come to sit down on the second verse “Sweet Jesus could you wash my sadness away?”

In the solo following the second verse people from inside the bank begin to walk outside and sit with the performers too. The group is quite large now, the solo clips in-between shots of the group sitting and the two performers writing the sign and tuning their guitar, there are also shots of them walking to the bank and shots of busking spots again.

Last verse is comprised of all shots previously mentioned clipping between one another with lip synch on all of them. When song finishes people are still sitting and the shot fades out.

Alternate take

Set outside a bank, scruffy looking man walks up to bank with a sign and holds it up/attaches to himself, the sign is saying “Jobless men keep going, we can’t take care of our own”. The two performers are seen down the road and a preparing to perform. As they start playing the song cues in, camera shots cut between the two performers and the man at several banks holding the same sign (performers will be at same location throughout song, just with different angles).

As the first verse starts the man is seen talking to various people as they walk into the bank, he is trying to get them to hold up the sign with him. (has a megaphone if possible if not then just shouting it doesn’t matter what he’s shouting as you wont hear it). Hopefully gets some people to hold up the sign as he shouts down the megaphone. Throughout the first verse shots clip between the man’s protest at different banks and the performers playing the song on the street.

All people who hold up the sign must be real people in order to get the dramatic effect right. no matter what happens the shots will look good as if people agree to hold up the sign there is a upbeat feel to the song if they refuse then there’ll be a sorrow feeling to the song. Either way will be fine.

As the second verse begins the man is seen sitting across a desk (he is well dressed) talking to a man sitting across from him in a suit (Banker). The man is looking very desperate and looks as though he’s begging, the banker is looking very solemn. On the last line of the verse the banker stamps a form or signs a form DENIED. During the whole verse shots are only clipped between the meeting and the performers, not the actual protest.

As the solo starts at the end of the second verse the man is seen wrecking the bankers desk (sweeping of papers, kicking over things). Security (anyone wearing a suit) drags the man away as he manically struggles. Shots clip the same as the second verse but once he is taken away he is seen making the sign. On the second half of the solo clip between making the sign, crying/breaking down and the performers playing the solo. The last verse opens with the banker sitting at his desk in a solemn/depressed state, he lip-synch’s the first two lines of the last verse. These two lines clip in between the banker the guitar playing (on the street) accompanying it. the last lines of the song switch between the performer lip-synching, the banker doing the same and the man outside the various banks protesting. Last shot is man Either being taken away from protesting or leaving by his own accord.

Actual Music Video

Here is the music video that is officially for "Mansion in the sky" by the brian jonestown massacre


It is rather uneventful and am looking forward to comparing it to our finished video

LYRICS

Could you forget the awful things I've done?
Could you forget the awful things I've done?
Well I'm sure I will become your favorite son.
If you forgive the awful things I've done.

Sweet Jesus could you wash my sadness away?
Sweet Jesus could you take this pain away?
If the devil offers know that i will say.
"Sweet Jesus blood it washed my sins away."

Make room in your masion in the sky
Open up your big house in the sky
But don't ask me what I've done cause I will lie.
Just make me in your masion in the sky
Make room in your masion in the sky

Music video

Here are some other music videos from the band Brian Jonestown Massacre

GOING TO HELL

WHEN

Moodboard

Jasmines presentation

On tuesday morning we were given a presentation on music video making by Jasmine Blackborow.

She had submitted a music video she made with her class to the BBC BLAST competition and won. This meant she was given a £5000 bursary and a whole crew to make another music video.

There were several stages to the process. First there was the treatment, this is where she had to write out and pitch her idea to the producer "Margo". She had to have a pitch which described almost everything that would happen in the video. Here is a snippet from what she wrote.

When planning for the shoot she had to name and link every prop that would be used and exactly how she wanted the actors to be dressed. This would be down to exactly which site and shop where these costumes and props could be found. Like for every video Jasmine had to create a mood board, she seems to go with the youthful tacky look mixed with old nostalgic pictures.

Although before all of this she had to have some initial idea of what she wanted her video to be like, much like the process we go through as a class she drew out several spider diagrams outlining her ideas.

All of this was always cc'd to the producer as she had to overlook everything and to see if it was of possible to accomplish. Before shooting a shot-list had to be made. At first a shot-list was made outlining basic ideas of what Jasmine wanted for each shot. Then she needed to make a perfectly detailed list so the cameramen and cinematographer knew exactly what to shoot.

At last the shooting of her video happened but everything had to be run to a strict schedule so as to fit everything in on one day. If any shot overstayed the allotted amount of time of which it was to be shot in, it would have to be stopped as the schedule had to be followed.

I really enjoyed her presentation, it was very useful to hear from someone who had worked right in the industry and probably has a high chance of working there again. Of the two videos she made (college video "taking it over" and professional video "Lets dance to joy division") i actually enjoyed her college video more. This isn't her fault as when it came down to editing she had no say when it came down to editing the final piece when she worked in the BBC.

Here are the two videos

Checklist of essentials needs for a good music video

• Convincing performers
• Good lighting
• Good understanding of editing software
• Props
• Costumes
• Good original idea
• Real instruments

Shapes

We were told to make a short sample of a music video using only geometric shapes

We first created the shapes in photoshop using the custom shape tool then exported each shape one by one. Then we imported the shapes into final cut and using motion editing and keyframe timing to time the shapes to move to the music.

Ancillary task project

We were told to make a front and inside cover for a cd album, to practice for the final project. We also made a magazine advert. We were given a track to make the cover to. It had to express the feel of the music. Here is my front cover.

Here is my inside cover.

Here is my Magazine ad

I think i'll do well when it comes to my final project

Personal Statement

Tech Skills

I can edit fairly well, i edited a film recently for the Libra Film Company. I also have made movies with friends before and so know the ins and outs of a camera and its various functions and settings.

Creativity

I can normally spot a fairly good shot if there is one which i used when making the film opening. I also can tell if a location is camera friendly and whether lighting is actually necessary.

Organisational Skills

I can write up a days work in an interesting but informative way. I used this mostly in my RISK project. I can also adapt when pressures are put upon me. This is most evident when i'm at work, if one of the other teachers don't show up i need to be able to adapt and change the lesson.

Special Powers

I can play piano, guitar and ukulele if needed for any live scenes. I am a wing chun practitioner and can choreograph any fight scenes if required. I also have completed several courses in drama inside and outside of college and school.

Old student vids

Most innovative concept = Sunday Morning Song Mk1.

I really liked this video the story and the planning seem well thought out and well done.

The whole idea of having a twist at the end whereby the ex-girlfriend was the person they

hit in the car worked really well.

Best band performance = My Neighbor’ s House

This was the second video of which we were chosen to evaluate that had a live band performance, it's not great but the Cage the Elephant footage is truly poor compared to this.

Best male vocal = Morning Song Mk1.

Best female vocal = Settle Down

The lip synch on this video was done well as it actually looks as though she is singing all the words which is a hard 

thing to do when being filmed

Best use of location = Harms Way

While this video was not very well done the main premise of changing the background

while the main protagonist stys where he is turns out as a good idea for location but not

very well executed

Best camera work = Sunday Morning Song Mk1.

Best editing = Do No Wrong

This video cleverly uses a mix of sepia shots and colour shots so as to create a past and present effect which really comes across nicely in this video.

Wooden spoon award = Morning Song Mk2.

What's such a shame is that this is a different version of my favourite of all these videos. For one the

editing is poorly done giving away the twist at the very beginning. The woman sings with a mans voice

which just makes the video plain weird and overally the story is disjointed and confusing.

Music video

I really like this music video for many reasons. The whole concept is really visually interesting and it really captures the attention of the viewer, the idea of having old famous logo animations edited to show the words to their song is really fun and cool to see. There is only a small bit of performance at the end whereby two members of the band are seen playing the piano and they re-enact the logo sequence of Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The whole video fits the pace of the music perfectly and is really one of a kind as I have really not seen anything like this.

Fridays lesson

i enjoyed todays lesson, i have learnt skills which will be useful when making my final project. I enjoyed acting and throwing myself into it which will prove useful when it comes to my project. I worked with Tom, Rob and Louis. The good thing about this group is that we all agreed on who and what we wanted to film with no argument. We decided to do the song "let me entertain you" by robbie williams.

Tuesdays lesson

Today we learnt how to cut and edit different clips to fit to a piece of music given to us. We were given clips of people in mascot costumes breakdancing and 4 music tracks of which we could choose between. Me and Yas made this video using the clips we had.

We also learnt how lip-synch works whereby you play the music when you're filming when you're filming so the camera can pick it up. This is so when you import it you can line up the audio from the footage wit your own clean footage by finding significant parts of the songs and putting up markers at these significant parts of the song then lining them up

welcome