Music Video: Two Hundred Kings - Broken Knees

Shorten The Song

When we chose to use our own song, we then went through it as a group and picked out some sections we did and didn't like, we were then able to go back into the studio and change these (a huge bonus in using your own recorded track), however when it came to editing the video, we felt that some sections in the song really weren't needed and made the song, as well as the video look almost repetitive, we also felt that it dragged out the song a bit too much.

We decided that we should cut out some of the breakdown, this didn't really affect the song in any way, it just cut it down and stopped it from getting boring in that section, we also decided to cut off the piano section at the end, this is because we felt that we wanted to keep the high energy of the song throughout after the second section, we thought having at the end made the song very choppy, removing this also allowed us to have a very bold and strong ending to the song and help to give it a very punchy finish, which is more conventional of a hardcore music video.

Graphic Match Influence

When creating our ending, we wanted to have a very bold and strong ending shot, we first had a shot of the vocalist throwing the microphone down on the floor, to which we changed it to a shot of the male character within the narrative throwing down the spade and filling the hole, both of them were effective shots and we roughly the same in terms of shot type, both being a long shot, after several watches of both ideas, we thought about combining the two clips, the idea came from the ending of the shower scene from Psycho where the water is draining from the bath with the blood, to which it goes to the eye of the lady on the floor.

Once we had fit it so that when the vocalist throws the microphone, to which it quickly switches to the male character throwing the spade down, we found that it gave us a very effective ending and also really helped to glue the storyline with the performance.

Ancillary Task - Website

For our second ancillary task, we have decided to create a website, we wanted to do this because we felt that making a DVD case would be too similar to just making the digipak, so we wanted to create something that was a little more complex and something that was digital as we are already doing something that is an actual product, we could also then link that on there which will interlink our ideas and designs a bit more.

Everybody goes on the internet and surfs hundreds of internet pages but I myself never really look at where things are placed and what they do, so I chose to do some research on what another band has done for their page and what makes it so good, for this I chosen While She Sleeps' band page, this is because this band is very much the same genre as ours and I have used this page a lot before and know its a really effective band page.

This is the homepage of the website, the first thing you see is the very bold symbol of the band at the top in the centre, this is a very conventional place to put a logo as it will attract your attention straight away. Along the top you have a very simple link system, you can go on to find out about the band, to watching the videos or even buying their merchandise, making all these features interlink makes the website very useful, the link on the far right says 'Free Shit' this is however very unconventional on a website, usually try to make it very formal and posh, however, I like that they have kept their 'Hardcore; attitude throughout their website. 

On the left just below the banner you have a picture column, the use of pictures instead of just written information makes it much more visually appealing and also just makes the friend more friendly to be on and browse through, the fact that they constantly update their website means that it keeps people wanting to come to it and visiting it to see what the band are up to and what is coming for the fans.

The right column is simply to show the tour dates, this shows the date, the location and the venue, you then have the ability to be able to tell the band you are going, this is a really nice addition to the website as the fans feel a lot closer with the band, this is linked through Facebook and done through the While She Sleeps' Facebook page, a nice way to link the two sites.

At the bottom right of the screenshot you see a pop-up that comes onto the screen when you visit the site, this is linked through to Twitter so if you aren't already you have an easy way to access their page and follow them, being able to keep up to date even more through the use of social networking, as technology grows, this has become more conventional on a website as it boosts the popularity because it seems as though the artist/band is doing a lot more, this is also evident at the top right of the website, you had the link to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube all at the click of a button. As well as the links to other sites at the top right, you also have a link to purchase their newest album, this is a great way to promote the album on their site as its very visible on the homepage, the colour scheme of the faded white on the leather black also works extremely well and keeps the text very easily readable and is very much their trademark.

This is the page you come to from clicking the 'Videos' link, this page has all of their videos that they have, its very simple and user friendly to navigate through, you have both links from videos off Youtube which are the first three, and then at the bottom right you have a video from Vimeo, the videos aren't just solely music videos either, they have videos from events such as Sonisphere ect.

Above is the page you come to when you click the 'Merch' link, this page is a very conventional page in terms of layout, most merchandise pages will have model pictures of the clothes, however, While She Sleeps have it set so that you don't see all the prices and what the clothes are called until you hover over them, this is a very unusual method, but actually it makes it all seem a lot more slick and professional and just make it seem less cluttered. You also have the large photo reel that is going on above the clothes, this is again a way of showing off the clothes in model shots, these are all edited to suit the band style and genre and the pictures are all in high quality as you would expect.

Ancillary Task - Digipak

The picture above shows a very conventional digipak, they are usually made of cardboard, this means that they are actually relatively cheap to produce, they are also then able to charge a bit more when they create limited edition versions, thus pushing the profit even higher. A conventional digipak will consist of either 4, 6 or 8 panels, this will depend on how much the band are going to put in it, usually you will get a pull out booklet, this will usually just consist of lyrics, however, some booklets have biographies of the band in them to give the costumer something to read, making them feel more knowledgable about the band, this makes it feel a bit more personal.

Bands will try to give their album/e.p the most aesthetically pleasing look as possible, they want it to draw peoples attention as soon as they look at it so the front cover its an extremely important factor, as is the spine, the writing on this will need to be clear and bold to make it very eye catching if you were just flicking through albums.

Modo - http://www.modo.co.uk/
Modo are a company that formed in 1998 to supply the highly demanding need for a specialist and creative packaging company to create products for the entertainment business.
Modo offers a large range of products that are actually already available in normal market places but they create pieces that are clearly specialised to be new and exciting packaging ideas that enhance the product but very much remain within peoples budgets.
Modo has a large global supplier that allows it to be competitive and source a large variety of materials and products.

Tinie Tempah Digipak:

This is Tinie Tempah's digipak for his album called 'Discovery'. The colour theme is very much a purple/pink tint, this could mirror the look of a galazy out in space, thus linking to the background of space and also helps to link it with the title being 'Discovery', as if he has seen everything on this planet and wants more, or maybe he wants to find himself.

Having the artist on the cover allows you to see his appearance, something that over the years has become a huge factor in music, you can see that he is wearing expensive jewellery on both wrists, this could imply that he is very 'flashy' which replicates the stereotype of a rapper. Tinie Tempah is well known for wearing sunglasses in pretty much everything he does, including things such as his music videos, so the company know that if they get him to wear sunglasses on his album cover, you would have a very strong link and know exactly who it is. This could be a selling technique by these people to make him recognisable as when this album came out he was relatively now to the music scene. The album has been made thoughtfully as it all interlinks together, such as the font with the background, as you can see the 'A' in Tempah is just a solid traingle, this mirrors the background image behind the artist, making the whole album look more visually appealing and more of an attraction to it.

This album has been kept relatively simple, however it is extremely effective, you just have one cimple image of the artist on the front and then the back cover is just the background image of space and the stars, this has helps to bring your attention to the front cover, enhancing the image and it also make it seem less busy and cramped, the actual CD is very simple also with just a purple colour used and the the white writing on top, the writing is very visible on top of the images because the background is dark yet the writing is very bright.

Institutions And Promotion Techniques

Bands have a huge selection of ways in which they are able to push their music out to the public, one of the most important ways is through the internet, there are many different sites that allow you to upload promos onto them and also interlink them all together, the main two examples are YouTube and Vimeo, these are both extremely successful sites in which people upload videos and share them for anyone to watch, this really helps to push the bands visual and performance presence, as time has passed you are able to do more with these sites to link them to other social medias, such as Facebook and Twitter, this allows you to interlink all these sites, making it easier to find and watching peoples music videos and listen to their music with just a click of a button.

Most bands have multiple links to accounts that they hold or are part of, such as ‘While She Sleeps’, they have a channel called WhileSheSleepsVEVO in which they post their official music videos, this is because it is attached with VEVO who create music videos and publish them making them hugely famous, enhancing the amount of people who will see or listen to the band.

They also have their own separate channel called WhileSheSleeps1, this is where they can post videos of their tour that they have maybe taken themselves or practice diaries, this is all to keep the fans interested and keep a constant flow of content coming out.

Promotion Strategies:

Bands/Artists have lots of ways to really push their music into the industry, the main one is through social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, sites like these have millions of people on from all countries, people on sites like these love to find out new things and like to be in the know, so a new song or album can be easily shared between thousands of people within minutes. On Facebook, if you set up a band/artist page you are able to link other sites such as BigCartel for merchandise and Soundcloud for the music, this helps everything to be in one place, pushing the ability to show everything the band/artist has to offer on one page.

Its not just the Internet that allows you to promote new material, you also have the radio, stations such as Radio 1 and Heart play all types of music and they are listened to by millions of people everyday, so a new song can be easily played out and promoted to all their listeners, they also have interviews with bands/artists and they usually try and plug a new release or upcoming tours ect.

Magazines are also a very simple, yet effective way of promoting new material, magazines such as Kerrang! Are also having bands on the front cover that are having a new album drop that week, this helps both the magazine keep update with the fans and also let any fans know that new stuff is coming their way.

Split Clip Issues/Improvement

Upon editing the piano sequence in the middle of the song we found that we had a problem with producing the idea we had in our minds, we were able to actually create what we wanted, but we found that a very small natural light change meant that the two clips weren't identical to each other which is what we needed to be able to spilt the clip in half.

We really wanted to keep this idea on the piano section as we could see it would look very effective and professional, so after sitting and playing with ideas about how the clips would work together, we found that we could just simply layer the clips on top of each other being that the camera didn't move and then alter the opacity of the two shots so they were able to merge, although this doesn't give us a strong look to both characters, it actually looks extremely effective and works well to create the shot we were aiming for.

 

Filming Issues

When we were out filming on Monday we filmed the production on an ISO Setting of 3200, this meant that we were able to keep the lights fairly low, when viewing the clips we had taken on the camera’s screen it looked extremely effective and very professional, however when uploading it into our editing software and viewing it on a larger screen the footage was very grainy/noisy and looked awful, we tried to place our footage into Adobe After Effects and remove the noise in the clips, however this took hours to render a 3 minute clip so was very unrealistic to do and it also still didn’t give us the crisp, effective looking footage we were after.

We then decided to contact the farmer and ask if we could possibly have another day in the barn to re-film our video, he was very understanding and allowed us to do this.

Because we had researched as to why we had grainy footage, we knew we had to increase the intensity of the lights and have the ISO below 1000, we set it on 800 as this gave us the clearest picture, we were also able to re-film it very fast and very effectively, we also decided to take the Macbook Pro with us and then we were able to do tester shots whilst we were setting up and then put them onto the editing software and watch it through to make sure it looks as professional as we had hoped.

Becuase we filmed the narrative on Monday in the woods, all that footage was clear and looks effectise so we decided to not film the fireworks/bonfire night in Thurlby on Tuesday, we felt we had enough narrative to fill our video, we also felt it would be very hard to capture what we wanted because we knew it would be very dark and would find it hard to light our shots sufficiently enough to see what we wanted.

Idea Influence

When filming again for our music video it allowed is to have a bit more time to think about even more effective ways of producing the shots of which we filmed on our first shoot, one of them being in the piano section in the middle of the song, we were originally just going to have the singer lit up whilst the other members of the band were not, we have stuck with this idea but felt we needed something a bit more to add to the detail, I had watched a video of a past student who used an effect that allowed them to clone a clip and have two going at the same time.

We thought a lot about how this could work and have come up with the idea of having the main character from the narrative sat looking at the memories we has through pictures ect and have the vocalist which be the same person shouting at him, we feel this will give a really dramatic effect to not only the video, but the lyrics aswell, we also feel it will make our video stand out.

Narrative Change - Storyboard

 
Above is a picture of our new narrative, we felt we wanted to change the narrative as it wasn't going to be as effective as we had first thought, we have decided to write up a new storyboard just for our narrative as then we can go off this for the day we film this part, the drawings are very simple but we have also wrote the shot type and movement below it so we can see it and produce what we want very easily.

Storyboard

Below is our storyboard for our production, this includes both the performance and the narrative, we found that it took up a lot of shots if we wanted everything in that we have planned, this storyboard will give us a very strong base to work from when filming as it allows us to see our plans clearly and quickly, I have also make it act as a shot list by writing what the shot will be and if there is any movement in the shot.

Media Timings

9:00 – Get to the location and start to unpack the equipment as fast and efficiently as possible.

10:00  - Start filming, start by doing drum close ups.

10:30 – Start on bass close ups, this will include drums and possibly guitar in the background.

11:00 – Start on Guitar close ups, this will include drums and possibly bass in the background.

11:30 – Start full band shots, this will have everyone in.

12:30/13:00 – Once packed all the barn equipment away we must now start on the narrative, shots in the fields and the woods.

17:00 – We should be finished by this time if all times are met and stayed to.

Weather Planning

Monday Weather:

Monday's weather looks very promising in terms of it not raining, we are planning to film from around 8am, so when looking at the weather it will be fairly cloudy, the fact that isnt not going to rain will help us to be able to move all the stuff into the location without any hassle however we weren't too concerned on the weather whilst were filming this bit as were all in the barn and will stay dry however the weather decides to go.

Once we have shot all the performance material we will hopefully move straight onto filming some of the narrative, but looking at the weather it will be even better and sunnier mid-day, this will give us a really nice happy feel to the most part of our narrative where we want it to be.

Tuesday Weather:

Tuesday's weather isn't brilliant, however I believe this wont cause us too much hassle as we are looking to film at night at a firework/bonfire night in a local village for the last part of our narrative, looking at the weather it just look like it will be a dry night, this is what we are hoping for as it will give us difficulties when filming if it is raining.

Narrative Changes

After having another group meeting, we have decided to alter the narrative to fit more with the location we have chose, this is because we feel it will be more of an effective video and we will be able to film more of our production in one location.

We have came up with the narrative being along the same lines as our original narrative which is the couple being together and having a really close reltionship and then they start to argue and it then ends in them fighting and breaking up, the male character then goes into the woods which they walked in and buries the memories of the relationship in a small box.

This we feel will gives us a very strong narrative and will help the story in the video link with the lyrics about digging a hole and burying their feelings.

New Location - Pickworth

After speaking with a friend, I have been able to secure a barn to use for our video, this barn is in Pickworth, although this is a bit further than our other location, it is still within a resonable distance.
 

This barn location owned by the farmer is a large barn which has a shutter for a door, this isnt what we were looking for, however, it will shut out all the light, this means we can film in the day and just use our lights, this will help to show any continuity errors with lighting.

 

This location is also next to a wood, this has meant that we wanted to look more into our narrative and use the resources we are given on the location.

Group Meeting - Location

We have had to have a group meeting as our location that we were planning on using on the outskirts of Bourne has fallen through, we have discussed other possible locations but we feel we should stay along the same type of building, I have contacted a friend who works for a farmer and we hope he will come back to us with good news about being able to use one of his barns, this means we will have a location of the same type, if not better.

Once we have confirmation of a location to film our band shots on, we can then think about our narrative more in depth and whether it will be best to alter it to fit to this new location.

Try Out Shot - Burning Photo

Below I have done two tester shots of me burning a picture of a couple, this is something we wanted to incorporate at the end of our video so I have done the first one using a lighter and the second using a match, this will give me a good feel of which works the best and will look the best in the video.

This first video was with the lighter, this worked well and burnt just on the ladies face and then burnt outwards from there, this is an effective look, however maybe in the video we should use a vintage lighter to go with the old feel.

This second clip was filmed using a match, this could work well at giving the old feel as you would have to strike the match. The match burnt well, however it burnt more as a spread and not direct on the woman's face, this could still work in our video.

I think overall the lighter worked best for having more of a direct burn and will look effective with an old style lighter, we just need to be careful on how the flame effects the light sensitivity on the camera, so this shot may take some perfecting when shooting it.

Laser Lighting Idea

After watching the video for 'Earth Medicine' By 'We Are Fiction' we all liked the creative lighting used in the live shots with the use of warm back lighting and the use of a laser to add some color and creativity to the shots. The use of lasers in this genre is not very conventional as the music videos are usually created very low budget in small venues where the lighting is very basic and more natural with not many gobos, effects, or colors; however we feel that the use of it in this video creates a unique and memorable effect that works well with the live shots, and helping them keep interesting.




 

We are going to try and create a similar effect with the lighting equipment we have already arranged to borrow and use from various people but after taken influence from this video we have decided to use a 4 Lens Laser light owned by me along with the previous lighting to attempt to create a similar effect from this video. In order for this to work we will need a smokey atmosphere at the right density so that we can still get clear shots whilst still enhancing the lighting and laser effects.
Below is a picture of the laser light we intend to use and a video of it in action in a smokey atmosphere.

Posted By Daniel Harris

http://danharrisadvancedproduction.blogspot.co.uk/

 


Costume Planning

For our costume we wanted to keep it very stereotypical of a hardcore video, so for our video we have chosen to have a very basic costume design, we have chosen just a simple t-shirt (maybe a band shirt if possible) and then some casual jeans and trainers, this means the actors have a very simple look to them, focusing on the video and what is going on more than the clothes.

 

I have taken a few screenshots from other hardcore music video to show how we have taken influence from them to get our choice of clothing.

Prop Planning

Instruments
The Sechter Omen 8 string guitar is the instrument that our track was recorded with and is the instrument that will feature within the video. This guitar looks very attractive and is very large due to having 8 strings rather than the conventional 5, so fits very well into our heavier genre as it produces a much meatier sound.




The bass guitar we will use is a Washburn T24 bass owned by Ben Thorogood who has given permission for actor Harry Thornburn to use during the performance shots in his role of bassist.


 

We will use a Perl Drum Kit also owned by Ben Thorogood who will also be acting as the drummer in our live shots. The same kit setup will be used as when the track was recorded to ensure instrument syncing is as accurate as possible.

We will also be using a Peavey and an Ashdown guitar amplifier owned by Charlie Green and Harry Thornburn who have agreed to let us use their large amplifiers that will fit in very well to our genre and will enable our live shots to look realistic to a gig style setup.

Microphone, Cables & Stand

Matthew Jones is going to bring two cheap dynamic microphone's similar to what would be seen at a gig, along with cables and a stand so our live shots look as close to a real gig as possible with everything looking in operation for real rather than looking like a simple prop.

Poster By Dan Harris
http://danharrisadvancedproduction.blogspot.co.uk/