Storyboard

Why are we doing an animatic?

Before we start filming we are planning the process towards our final animatic video. We are going to do this so we can get an overall image of what our music video will look like. Also, none of us have used final cut to edit videos before so it is almost a learning platform for us before the real thing.

We all had a go at the programme and I started the editing however Vicky seemed to do very well in the editing therefore herself and Emily were in charge of the editing part.

In the process, Emily and myself were the ones that come up with the ideas and put the narrative together, then Vicky and Voke were the artists of the group so they took charge of drawing each scene then taking photos of it. Then I edited the photos so they were up to the correct brightness and exposure, in photoshop and after that they were ready for uploading into final cut!

Here is a grab shot of the editing done in photoshop before uploading into final cut.

Here is a picture taken of Vicky in the process of editing the animatic...

This image below is a grab of the small part where we edit the pictures to go in sync with the music:

This is our first photo we did, it is of Jake coming out of Camden walking up the stairs with the sign above him. This picture has not been edited and adjusted in photoshop yet.

This is an image of Victoria in the process of editing our animation and actually get used to Final cut, using different tools and finding different transitions such as "the earthquake" to create our music video.

Visiting our location

Visiting our location...

Before going to actually view our Location, I thought it was a good idea to plan where we are going to go and how we are going to get there. We wanted a clear agenda before visiting our filming place.

Therefore, Voke and myself put together an agenda whilst Vicky and Emily were editing our animatic.

We put together key images of camden that we wish to visit when going there. The pictures show the station, camden lock, an alleyway and the underground. We have put ideas around the images to why we want to visit these places and how we are going to use the locations in our music video.

Here is a close up of the agenda, showing camden situated on the map and the nearest train we have to get there.

We thought is was necessary we planned where we wanted to go in our to find the best filming spot, I shall give a post update when we have actually visited the location and taken pictures ourselves, ready for filming!!

UPDATE

Cast

CAST MEMBERS

Jake Verlander- Male Protagonist

Age? 17 years old

Clothing when filming? We hope Jake will dress in skinny jeans, a hoodie and a print t-shirt which links in to our genre indie. Our character also has sweeping hair which is very popular amongst our target audience therefore will appeal to them. Furthermore we hope that this quirky fashion sense has an urban electro vibe to it which is very much similar to our song.

We want jake to channel confusion, despair which leads to loneliness and aggression when filming. This will accumulate throughout the process which eventually leads to the male becoming delusional about the obsessive girl.

Emily Fry- Female obsessed character

Aged: 17 years old

Clothing when filming? We want Emily to be recognizable when in her clothes as this will highlight to the characters and audience that her presence is key to the plot of the narrative. We want her however to look delusional and abnormal in order to create the sense of fear and isolation for the male protagonist.

She will need to show emotions of determination and we will use her as the catalyst to the males state of aggression and despair

Inspiration

Inspiration

I thought it was a good idea to do a blog post on where our inspiration has come from, It has come from very different things from previous bands to group members ideas.

Use of overlays

In our research and planning all the group really liked the idea of overlays within our music video. We hope this will show the state of flux and will work greatly with our fast past editing. We have taken inspiration from Rhianna and Pixie Lott and their continuous use of overlays.

In the video "All about tonight" Pixie Lott, I love the use of overlays in the overall video it gives the video shape and the sequence moves gracefully. Despite our use of fast editing I would really like to achieve this look and think it will work very well with our song.

Another example of this is Rhianna- Russian Roulette. The second shot of her with here hands masking her face is a similar image we wish to create in our music video, in the chorus with the strobe lighting I believe this looks very intriguing and gives the atmosphere we are looking for.

Use of holding up signs

An idea within the group came up suggesting that we should hold up signs with bold words being read out, this inspiration was taken from a few iconic videos such as Dirty little secret- All American Rejects, How to save a life- The fray and Ugly by the sugababes.

All these bands have used signs within their videos to captivate the audience, which we hope to do in our video. We want to do this with the lyrics "State of flux" and holding up wanted posters.

Our main theme of obsession/losing control/stalker

We wanted to create something evolving around a theme in our music video and we got inspiration from the lyrics and also other influential music artists. We looked a similar indie music videos and films and realised that the use of an obsessive character is very much conventional and well used. We were very fond of this idea and thought we could put our on perspective upon it and create a very ominous atmosphere.

This film is called "Twilight" and part of it captures a girl running through crowds from the vampire James, we gained inspiration from this especially with the scene where she keeps imagining seeing him whilst surrounded by mirrors. This helpless atmosphere is what we are trying to create.

This is a montage of images I put together in photoshop to show where our inspiration came from with the stalker/paranoid state of the character. We looked at Ed Sheeran- Lego House then at Example ft Laidback luck- Natural disaster and both videos had two male protagonists, one was racing with emotions, one which was paranoia and the other video showed an obsessed stalker to a star- similarly to Stan- Eminem.

Also, I loved the mise-en-scene within Example's video, with the guy in the hoodie with skinny jeans, we hope to achieve this look and atmosphere in our music video.

Character we want to create

The character we are hoping to create has been very much based around the artist Plan B, his rnb edge yet indie vocals are what we very much like. Also, image below is what we hope to replicate. The use of a sigarette gives the egde to the character.

Bloc Party

An Insight into our band Bloc Party...

Our band is Bloc Party therefore think it is essential to explore the band in order to gain inspiration and try and present the atmosphere in the video. Bloc party is a british indie baned with Kele Okereke as the lead vocalist. The lead guitarist is Russel Lissack and Gordon Moakes on the bass guitar.

Here is a picture I put together and edited in photoshop, as you can see they are very much the stereotypical indie band. With their clothing and body language. Furthermore, on stage they are very much about lighting, with strobe lighting and different colours to captivate the atmosphere and enhance the Bloc Party experience.

Here is a interview I found from Dummy.com the online 21st century music site which gives news, videos and interviews.

In this interview it gives a great insight into the band. In our music video we are running on the themes of vulnerability and despair and this is exactly what Bloc party wish to achieve in their music. Furthermore, they claim that the their songs always occur between two people- which is what we wish to achieve with our video of our actors Jake and Emily.

Also, we wanted to steer away from the stereotypical break up music videos and Bloc party actually reinforce this saying "It isn't just about the end of a relationship".

Our video is about the mental state of someone being obsessive and stalking believing they are in a relationship.

Lead guitarist also quotes:

This image will definitely be created in our music video, we hope to create the image that for Emily the hardest thing is she can not recognize that something is not there. It builds the theme of unrequited love which we wish to displays with the girls unstable state of love towards lead character Jake.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere we wish to create is a state of confusion and actual flux. As you can see, this is a clip from Bloc Party performing flux live and their use of strobe lighting is very much a signature of their band, we hope to create a house style and to achieve this we will use strobe lighting with fast pace editing.

Discussion for Storyboard

Here is a short audio of a discussion involving the planning of our media video from Emily Fry and Myself.Whilst Vicky and Voke were drawing our storyboard we continued to structure the sequence and this shows how our plans came together within the process to our animation.

Storyboard 1

This is an image taken of all members of the group when we were planning our storyboard and drawing it scene by scene. It was mine and emilys job to come up with the music videos ideas and time it in sync with the music. It was Voke and Vickys role to draw the images and take pictures of it them in order to work on our animatic in final cut.

Iconography 2- Fashion elements

Before filming or even planning, I thought it was essential that we insure our actor/actress has the correct fashion that corrosponds in sync with our genre- Indie.

I have already carried out research into our target audience, however I thought it made sense to do a posting on the clothing we want our actors to wear. So, I looked at all my friends fashion sense and spotted if any were the stereotypical indie, I found two people that fitted our vision perfectly so I took a photograph of them to display this. I think it is essential we get this part correct in our research in order to successfully appeal to our target audience and also create an indentity for our actor. Looking at my research within indie genre, they are very much known for their sweeping hair and tattoos on their slevles, I believe this photo shows this exactly.

In our music video, we hope to use similar people and believe that their look is very essential in order to create this identity. Also, they have to look the part, without this it could seem a little amateur-like which we definitelty do not want to achieve in our final cut.