School Number

Greenacre School - 61219

Candidate Numbers

Samuel Wildes - 7280

Joshua Brodie -  7350

Final Music Video

Question 4 - A2 Media

This a link to question 4 in the form of a Prezi Presentation. 

Question 4

Question 3 - A2 Media

Question 2 - A2 Media

Question 1 - A2 Media

Final Digital Ancillary Task

Final Ancillary Task This the final version of our ancillary task is which we've followed the conventions in the classic rock genre

Rough Ancillary Task

This is our rough version of the Digi Pak in which we realised that the price needed to be take off and that the black and white picture of me would look better with a quote.

Location Location Location!

Girls School Piano

Bluebell Hill

Bluebell Hill

Here we have three of the locations pictures used for our Media project. Above you can see the piano in the girls school used for the shot of Sam 'writing' the music. and to either side the two location shots for the solo on Bluebell Hill can be seen, both the view, and the shot of Sam playing the guitar with the view behind him.

The Lyric analysis

The Analysis 

Part 1 

The first lyrics to me suggest that child hood memories that he’s talking about could be about the first women in his life his mum. A warm smile to brighten your day meaning the bright blue sky part refers to what he had with his mum, which he has been reminded of by the time he’s spent with this woman.

Part 2

The second part “She takes me away to that special and if I stare to long I’d probably break down and cry” This here to me shows that maybe he’s lost this women who gives him those child hood memory’s because if you look at someone who in any sort of relationship that you've lost, it can be quite upsetting or on the other hand she could of past away and he’s staring into the memory’s he and her shared. He could be sad because might not have that again. 

Part 3

This section, “She’s got eyes of the bluest skies as if they thought of rain I hate to look into those and see an ounce of pain.” This to me seems that maybe he’s done something wrong and that he can’t face to see the pain in her eyes. Or perhaps there upset for losing one another and he knows that she’s sad when she sees him.

Part 4

This part “Her Hair reminds me of a warm safe place where as a child I’d hide and pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by.” Suggests to me that he misses the security he once had and that he desperately wants that back. He wants those feelings of his child hood to return. Where the protection that he had, would make the pain in his life just pass him by. He doesn't have that any more so he misses it.

Part 5

Part 5 “Oh Sweet Child O Mine” A child is a precious thing that connects to their parent with just a natural bond. He in my opinion is referring to this and talking about his natural bond to this woman and the words just sound like he misses her.

Part 6

Part 5 “Oh Sweet Child O Mine” A child is a precious thing that connects to their parent with just a natural bond. He in my opinion is referring to this and talking about his natural bond to this woman and the words just sound like he misses her.

Part 7

The “where do we go now” Section meaning to me basically is what it says, as in where do we go from here, where do two people in any sort of relationship go if there in a bad place and then there is the question of whether or not the two should move forward in that relationship. That’s what I think this is referring to.

Part 8

The Final Part, “No, No, No, No, No, No” This to me is the realisation that it isn't going to go the way that he wants and that has to face the fact that it’s done. However he doesn't seem to  want to accept that. Or he on the other hand could be fighting against the end by saying no.

Editing Day 12

Editing Day 12 

Today we watched what we believe to be the final cut of the video, all the cuts were in time and lined up with the music itself, not just that but we also made sure that it was all lip synced, and that the instruments themselves were lined up with the track. We made a couple of final edits such as adjusting the contrast level of the threshold effect, and then put a final shot at the end of the song to complete it. The final cut will be uploaded to YouTube over the next couple of days before being posted on the blog.

Editing Day 11

Editing Day 11 

We thought a good effect to add to the last section was a cross fade when my shot begins and his one ends e.t.c. During these shots we both really look as if we are putting are heart and souls into it, which in its own right reflects with the emotional lyrics in the song, and the spirit of Rock music itself. The cross fade really fits in between these two shots, standing out from the rest of the song, and helps to bring the end of the song to fruition.

Rough Cut Feed Back

Feed Back

The feed back that we received suggested that we are making good progress and that we have got footage. The only thing that was suggested that we needed to change was the last minute of the song; The shots need to change more between me and Nathan, the singer, because we are both doing solos. It would also look better if we were both on screen at the same time, like a split screen shot, near the ending.

Editing Day 10

Editing Day 10

Today we changed the shots at the ending so that they are more of a question and answer between the guitarist and the singer, both matching in time with the beat of the music, and with the lyrics of the music. Not only that, but as the song nears the end it picks up the tempo a bit, especially after the long guitar solo.

Stages of the Poster

Stages of the Poster


The final Poster! We've added a multi
coloured font to keep in with the rock love
theme. We have made that rose and the
shadow the same colour as it makes sense
the shadow reflects him and the rose his love
together they isolate and show that he is in love
and on his own.  Also we wrote that this was the
début album and we kept the same signature font as
it added a personal touch.

Editing Day 9

Editing Day 9

Everything is now perfectly in time and we have re-added the black and white effect throughout the music video in video, and this goes in tandem with the threshold effect seen below. We are now deciding if the shots for the ending work or if we should change it up a bit, because as it stands, it's just the singer for the ending after the guitar solo, w a slight bit of guitar every now and again.

A2 Media - Sweet Child O' Mine - Rough Cut

Ancillary Task Drafts

Album Art

Magazine Advert and Album Art

Here are the two drafts for the Ancillary Tasks, on the left we see the Album art, both inside the case and on the back.

On the right we see the Magazine advert art, and the art that will be used on the front of the album. These are both still to be worked on, for example the magazine advert needs a release date for the Album itself, and the album art will have

a list of the songs being played in the

album.

Stages of the Poster

Stages of the Poster

Decided to add bigger text as it was clearer/more readable. Also considering it's a poster it needs to be quite big and bold.

Editing Day 8

Editing Day 8

We've been making sure today that everything is perfectly in time as it would look rather unprofessional if the miming on the vocals or any of the instruments was out of time. Though we did actually play the parts it was all overdubbed. This is why each shot change needs to be on the beat. Timing in any music video is one of the most important and key elements of any music video and we feel that we have achieved this during this day of editing.

Editing Day 7

Editing Day 7

We have decided to add a Threshold effect into the shots such as the solo e.t.c. as the effect it gives really reflects on the drawn silhouette of our poster. Not only that but the effect itself also matches the kind of 'overdrive' look you expect when hearing a rock guitar solo, which in its own right matches with the Media conventions of a Classic Rock Genre style of music.

Editing Day 6

Editing Day 6

We have finished our rough cut, and we are just making sure that all of the shots are cut in time with the beat of the song. We have removed the black and white effect for the time being and will experiment with other effects to see what we like, and what we can use for the final product.

Editing Day 5

Editing Day 5

We started out trying to use as many of the story arc shots as we could but in the end we have just deciding on using just the one to give an initial idea on what the story is about. Though some different location shots are going to be used throughout to explain the narrative of the story. Therefore we are going to focus mainly on band shots which is still following the conventions of the classic rock genre.

The Stages of the Poster

Stages of the poster 

 Added the smaller text which is the name of the song
originally "Sweet Child O Mine" by Guns N Roses.

Editing Day 4

Editing Day 4

We are nearly half way through the initial editing. We have decided that a lot of the story arc shots don't work as well as we had hoped, so we are just using what we can with that and deciding whether or not more filming is needed. If so then we will plan another day to film what is needed, and edit this in accordingly.

The Stages of the Poster

The Stages of the Poster: Stage 5 

In this stage I started experiment with back grounds
to see what fit the theme also added a shadow to reflect the loneliness of the character.

Editing Day 3

Editing Day 3

This is a screen shot of the first two minutes of edited footage. This is us syncing the song in time with the raw footage and adding a black and white effect for the band footage, which as mentioned in the last post was quite a nice effect.

The Font

Example Font  

The Font: Viner Hand ITC

For our ancillary task we have decided to use a signature style font. This is to keep in with the theme of love that we are trying to achieve, a signature is quite personal to someone as is love so we wanted to express that through this.

Our Font 

Editing Day 2

Editing Day 2

At this point we have chosen the majority of the shots we wish to use, we have started laying them out into a single track and choosing the effects we wish to use, Sam recommended a black and white effect to use on he video, which in a preview looks quite nice. Next week we will begin to sync the footage in time with audio.

The Stages of the Poster

The Stages of the Poster: Stage 6

I added the Black background do draw attention to the character and to create the feeling of isolation. I also shaded the shadow red to keep up with the theme of love that we are try to achieve but I am still experimenting with the exact shade of red that I want for both the rose and the shadow. Also as you can see here I have put up an example of that the signature font.

The Stages of the Poster

The Stages of the Poster: Stage 3 

The third stage was about adding texture to both of the drawings and defining the darker shakers and beginning to paint the rose red.

The Stages of the Poster

The Stages of the Poster: Stage 4

I have added more texture and toning to the edges and I have improved the texture and color of the rose and added a shade of green for the stem and leafs.

Editing day 1

Editing Day 1

Today we went through all of our footage and started to remove the bad shots in order to see what we have to work with. This allowed me to start lining the shots up in order and also to eliminate any potential problems that could arise from bad shots. As I lined the shots I used several rows worth of footage in order to get a rough semblance of how the final product may look.

The Conventions We Used

The Conventions We Used

During the production of our music video we aimed to match several Rock Music Video conventions. This post will outline the ones we used and how.

• Storyline

During our filming we used the idea of a storyline to back up the emotional lyrics of the song. This is a huge part of any music video alone and is a strong convention when it comes to it.

• Live band/recording sessions

A lot of rock music videos consist of the band playing in a recording booth, or live at a gig. We went for the recording booth idea as we could utilise the schools own recording booth, and this helped us to come up with a strong idea of how the video will go

• Guitar Solo

An important piece of any rock music video, as most could argue, is the guitar solo. We matched this by using a separate location for guitar solo in order to allow it to stand out, to achieve this we used Bluebell Hill. During the guitar solo we employed the threshold effect which added to the feel of the guitar solo being more powerful.

• Theme

A lot of music videos use a certain theme, such as love, or anger, which always ties in with both the lyrics and the storyline. As our storyline revolved around love we kept this 'love' theme by having Sam "Write" the song after his break up, showing his love for her, and how she is his 'sweet child'.

The Stages of the Poster

The Stages of the Poster: Stage 2

The second stage was to draw me but we added a twist
of a rose which then in turn connects and reflects with the love shown
in our music video.

The Stages of the Poster

The stages of the poster: Stage 1

The first part was taking a picture of the character so that it could be drawn to drawn.

Filming Day 7

Filming Day 7

The final day of filming, we shot the parts for the guitar solo in our song at a location called "Blue Bell Hill". We videoed another version of the break up and both with close ups and long shots. We then took a pan shot of the view point on blue hill to try and try the isolation of the character. The shots of the guitar solo include an extreme close up and mid shots with the hill view in the background. This is why in our earlier research we looked for a big isolated location in which we have somewhere to reflect the emotions of the character and the same location in which he gets dumped seems so fitting to unleash the most creative part of the song the "Guitar Solo"!

Sam on the hill

Poster idea

 Poster drawing ideas

We got the idea for the poster from a band
called a-ha and there music video take on me
we liked the idea of a drawn silhouette which also matches the fresh hold effect we used in our music video. 

Filming Day 6

Filming Day 6

We shot the scenes at my house, starting with shots in my living room both a point of view and a free hand shot of me. The first shot was a over the shoulder shot looking down on my phone. The second shot was of me living the room then going down the stairs. The third was of me on a point of view shot walking down the stairs of which you can see a silhouette of Ella who's plays my characters girlfriend through the blurry glass door. We then have a shot of me and Ella meeting on a street in which she breaks up with me then she walks away of which we have a point of view shot where I hold the camera and watch her walk away. in both of these instances we changed clothes for continuity reasons. This was because she was meant to have come back on a different day not at the same time. The only issue then was the weather as it was dark when she dumped me and came back but that doesn't matter to much as we where both wearing different clothes.

Plan of filming

General overview 

For perfect timing we are going to film all of the instruments separately all the way through that way we can chop and change and then select the shots that we want. We will also have the song playing in the back ground so that our timings will be perfect. In some cases we will wear headphones because of how loud drum kits can be and how they can put us off time.

Props

Props

We have a full array of musical equipment from

• Guitar
• Drums
• Bass
• Microphones
• Amps
• Jack Leads 
• Xlr Leads 
• Pianos

We kept the same clothes for each shot that was the following shot for continuity reasons

• Jeans 
• Shirt
• Hoodies
• Jumpers 
• Shoes

We had some recording equipment being used

• We had Mixing desk
• Cubase running in the background
• We also used monitors on which cubase ran on.

Advert/Album Examples

Advert/Album Examples

These are examples of both posters and album covers. They themselves really tell a story of the band and what the album might include.

• The Album cover at the top shows a deathly looking figure standing over some one who looks as if there having a nightmare this goes hand in hand with the name of the album "Nightmare". The wing evil figure is consistent with the band Avenged Seven folds usual art work. This is consistent with the metal genre where this sits.

• The Poster at the bottom another one by avenged seven fold shows the words on the page incarnate the album is called buried alive and there is literally someone digging out of what looks like there own grave. The dark winged figure is still present on the tomb stone. This all sits in with the conventions of metal.

Final Idea

Final Idea

Our Final after roughly following our story board is My character and his girl friend break up. However he is still in love with and he drives that into writing a song "Sweet Child O Mine". This involves lots of different shots of me writing the song and then of course getting the band together to record the single! in the end Ella my Characters ex girl friend possible re appears though it's hard to tell as the shot of our music video is just a blurred silhouette through and blurry glass door.

Advertisement Research

David Bowie

         

This is the same album cover over two different albums all he did was cover over his face and in the top had corner of the next day cross of the album title. which I think is very clever because obviously he looks allot older now then want he did then so by doing this he is portraying classic Bowie. Both of these Album covers where used as poster to. despite the fact that the "The Next Day" didn't have much advertising it was till there. it didn't have much because really it didn't need it it's David Bowie!

Filming Day 5

Filming Day 5

We filmed today with most of the band together the singer couldn't make it so we've had angle the shots that when we do film with him it will still look as though he's there we are all wearing the same clothes from before to which is plainly for continuity reasons otherwise it wouldn't make sense. We did the band shots as it's part of the classic rock convention possibly feature live band sections for your music video. We also wanted to create different shots to work with more then just close ups and mid shots. So we went with a walking free hand camera where everything the band did was up to them as long as they played the right notes/beats and where in time.

Unedited shot of the drums

Filming Day 4

Filming Day 4

This was my turn in which there was a close up of me doing the the lead guitar part for the song and for the rhythm section of the song we did the same thing at both a close up and a mid shot of me playing the guitar. We also added an extreme close up the intro of the song and is it's quite a distinct part of the peace. doing this I had the same backing track as we were going to use for the editing playing in the background I did this to make sure everything was on time and on the beat.

Filming Day 3

Filming Day 3

The shots filmed on day three where for the the story arc of our music video in which our main character me is writing a song about a girl that he loves. therefore this doesn't have to be in time as it is part of the story of our music video. we filmed the shot with me playing the guitar but whilst sitting at the front of a grande piano to really make it look like I was composing a song. I then would take brief moments to pause and then and then write down what I supposedly written.

Filming Day 2

Filming Day 2

Day two was very similar in terms of filming to day one, only we put two together in the same room but at different angles. They were still filmed separately but each ran the song the whole way through. so that way like the vocals we could cut the recording where we wanted. Luke (Drums) and Joe (Bass guitar) they # were glad to be a part of the filming. mean while in the other room at this point was me on the guitar sitting in the same possession that I was in for my solo filming other wise it would of been a continuity error. We planned on having the singer there two on this day but he couldn't make it so made do with just the musician part of the band. We had the same version of the song playing in the back ground that we are going to use for our editing. This way everything would be in time and the editing process will be easier as everything will already be on the beat.

Luke playing away as the song plays in the background making sure it's in time

Joe concentrating on the notes as he plays his bass making sure there in time

Luke and Joe playing the song in tandem making sure it's in time



Filming Shots

Filming Evidence Shoots

These are photos of one of our filming days for which we used a music practice/recording
room. for this section we filmed the close up of the guitar part being shot. Every part was filmed more then once for the individual bands we did this process for all of the shots as because we wanted to find the best angles. So as you can see here for the pictures on the right it's to different angles which where both then put into our music. These consisted of a close up and a mid shot we worked like this for all of the filming the individual and the band shots.

Filming day 1

Filming day 1

We got close up shots of Nathan, the singer, in the vocal booth. We filmed him miming through the whole song so that we aren't limited to what shots we can use and we can chop and change with what vocal shots  we like. We also filmed a mid shot of him miming so we can get two different angles when we go to edit the tape. We had the same version of the song that we plan on using for our editing playing in the back ground that way the timings where spot on. Also the editing process will be allot faster and everything is already on the beat.

Chosen Location

Chosen Location: Blue Bell Hill

The location that we have chosen is called blue bell hill it is exactly what we are looking for in terms of scenic views and open space. It really gives the feeling of isolation just the character and his thoughts.

The Music

The Music 

The Instrumentalists who took part in our filming are actually musicians who learnt the song by notation.
Example of guitar notation for the intro of the song.

----------------14----13---------------------14-----14----------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------------13-------13----13------------13--------13----13---------11--------11-----------------11--------11-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------14----13---------------------14-----14----------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------------13-------13----13------------13--------13----13---------13--------11-----------------13--------11-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------14----13---------------------14-----14--------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------11------13-11----13----13----11----13-11-------13----13-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------14----13---------------------14-----14----------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------------13-------13----13------------13--------13----13---------11--------11-----------------11--------11-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2 - only play this 1 time
----------------14----13---------------------14-----14----------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------------13-------13----13------------13--------13----13---------11--------11-----------------11--------11-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------14----13---------------------14-----14----------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------------13-------13----13------------13--------13----13------           ---13--------11-----------------13--------11-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------14----13---------------------14-----14--------------14---------------------------14-----------------------------11------13-11----13----13----11----13-11-------13----13-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3 - played just before the words come in.--11----11-13-14-13-11-14-------------------------------------------14-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------            ---------------------------------------------------------------            
Intro - guitar 2 part--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3------------------------------------------------------3-3h4-6---6-4-3----4-2p1---2p1--------4----4p3---4p3---------4------------------6-------2-----2-4--4----4-----4-----4------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2 - chords - strum how you think it fits.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6------4-------------6-----------------------------------------6------4------4------6-----------------------------------------4------2------4------4-------------------------------------------------------2--------------------------------------------

Album Art/Advertisement Comparison

Magazine poster advert for Recovery

Album art for Recovery

We can see in these two images that the artwork is near enough the exact same, however there are differences to the image, the poster has more contrast and is much darker, and also had text in the lower right corner replacing the parental advisory label.