pre-production
Thoughts and ideas (brain storm)
1) Lazy song by Bruno Mars
The song explains itself and what I could do for a video. I feel like a lot of people including me can relate to this song. In the video I was going to show me being on the sofa watching a lot of tv and ignoring friends messages on meeting up.
2) Bad day by Daniel Powter
Bad day is a song that I quite enjoy listening to. I think for this I could shoot a video of me or one of my friends just having an unlucky day. Tripping up and just being unlucky. Trying to get through their day. I came up with this idea after watching the movie falling down. In the film Michael is trying to see his daughter as it's her birthday but faces a number of obstacles which tests his temper. The character is later on revealed to have a bad temper and to be very aggressive. But the thing i wanted to take from that film was him just losing it. I think scenes borrowed from that film would work well for my song.
3) Imagine by John Lennon
Imagine is deep song that has a strong message on society, war and beliefs. I could put together videos of history and missiles as well as people going to work. I would also capture videos of my own such as the country sides and cities. Collecting and putting together a montage of clips that reflect on society and war. It's a scary subject to think about but this song will be quite easy to do that with.
Idea and song
The song I will be using is called 'Violet city' by mansionair. I'm thinking on making a music video that will include some animations and will have no driven story telling. I will be walking down the street that I live on in one big shot. In the video I will have animations constantly happening changing the background and what I look like. The song itself is about letting go and being yourself so having a creative song with this will work well together. If the song is about expressing yourself then having outgoing visuals will blend well. My music video will be a homage of another band's music video 'Heatwaves'. I will be following the same arty style in the heatwaves music video. The band that made is called 'glass animals. I will still be referencing the song I'm using by adding techniques in their video. In my video I will be focusing on the visuals, not any storytelling.
In the Heatwaves music video a man is walking down his road with a boombox attached to some wheels. I really like the idea of using a road as a film location rather than filming in a building or in the woods. I like how easy to use this style of location would be if I used it in my project. I want to combine the violet filter look in Mansionair's video with the heatwaves music video. I think this will blend well together.
Mind mup of my idea
Mood board
The idea I had when making this mood board was that I would use a lot of animation and the glow line effect to create this stop animation looking video. I think this idea is possible but very time consuming. The post production of my video would take the longest time doing. I think this idea would pay off though for my grade in this project if done right. My inspiration from this is by the stop animation music video by Peter Gabriel. He made a music video called sledgehammer which involved stop animation being used in the whole video. Although I won't be using the same effects he had in his video I think the outcome could look similar.
Pitch
I had to give a presentation on the concept of my music video to my teacher. My pitch was around 15 min long, talking about the idea of my video and how I was going to film the project. I don't have any regrets in the pitch other than speaking more confidently. I knew what I was going to say and the idea of my pitch so there was no reason to be afraid. I think I covered everything I needed to in order to progress in to the next planning stages such as making the location recce. Every student had to do this giving our teacher a greater understanding of what we were filming for our project.
I think the main standout my pitch had was the idea of combining two music videos in to one. A lot of people have taken inspiration from just one music video but I decided to take some ideas from another music video called 'Heatwaves'. In the 'Heatwaves' music video a man is pulling a cart carrying a boombox down his road. I thought this would be an interesting idea to use with the colour filtering from the other music video by Mansionair that I was taking inspiration from. I like the idea of having some movement in the music video even if it is just walking.
I do want to try and use the colour isolate tool in my video so that I can highlight the purple to the song 'Violet city'. As a reminder the colour isolate tool highlights one colour and leaves the rest of the colours black and white. I want some use of purple to be used so that it fits the song.
Location and time
For my location for filming I will probably use the street outside my house and other walk way. The problem with this is that I have to keep in mind that there are pedestrians that will be walking by so choosing a time where people are working will be ideal. I'm considering on filming during a College lesson, so I'll have to take myself out of a lesson to film.
This is a picture of my driveway that I'll be using to film a section of my music video. I won't be filming everything here just a small amount because it's known to be used a lot. I'm also thinking on filming at one my friends driveway just because it's smaller and more quiet making it easier to film more shot.
Story board
When making the story board I decided that I would instead play some kind of narrative with the song. I think it would make the whole video seem more interesting and creative. Originally I was planning on having no narrative what so ever but after planning the idea of my music video through canva I've decided to change that. The idea of this music video is to make the environment seem like a dreamworld with all these filtered effects going on. Just like Mansionair's video of Violet city I want to still include the purple effect. I've also decided to spend my time filing in the forest. I have a place in mind which is quiet easy to access. This setting compared to the street I was planning on filming at is bigger giving me a lot of space to use. Also I won't be having to stop a lot of my filming because for pedestrians here. The forest will also have more of an interesting environment to work with since it's home to a lot of wild life. This is a late change that I think will change the music video for good.
Updated location
Albridge park
This is where I will probably film my music video. I couldn't get any pictures of the forest I will film in but an entrance to the forest is on the right of these images. The Forest is called Westmorland woods. It's massive and I rarely see anyone in the woods so it's more ideal to the road I was going to plan filming on. This forest isn't too far from my house but I'll need a lift to bring the equipment, also the location is very close to my friends who I'll be asking for their assistance. I've previously filmed in these woods for my friends project in the level below so I do have an understanding of location and difficulties when filming. Great thing about the woods is that I can get some shots from above. I have small cameras that I can balance on some branches for nice shots.
I want to shoot here because I think the location is quiet, open but also mysterious. I think the woods has a mysterious theme to it and I want to introduce that in my music video. That's the theme I want to achieve in my music video.
Location recce:
Crew
Because I'm going to be the main subject in my music video I will need other people to help out and set up the equipment as well as use the equipment. I've asked two of my friends who are familiar with all of the equipment and have the experience to help me with my music video. Both of which live near the filming location. Their names are Adam and Louis. Both attend the College and are currently taking the same course as me. I chose these two because I trust them with turning up and using the equipment sensibly and also because they both have great creative attitudes that I think will push my music video further.
Risk assessment
For the risk assessment there wasn't too much that needed to be added for my filming. This is a public area so there isn't many possible risks. The only one that the crew will have to be aware of is tripping and falling over. I put that as a medium because I think that will be a caution that the crew will have to bear in mind on the day. I think that the crew will trip on the day at least twice each and I think it's important that we stay cautious on the day to prevent any injuries especially when filming. I will be choosing more open areas to prevent this as much as possible.
The other risk I put down I have no issue that there will be any issues with animals. That is a very low risk that I put down just because we are filming where some animals live in so there's still a possibility.