My Idea for the 'cassie' video

Here is my idea for the video, they are listed in chorus and verse sections to show you that this is the image i want to get for this verse, etc but the bullet points are not set for each line in the song.

1st Verse,

*Girl 1 walking through a graveyard. in the distance.
*(Flashback) Close up of a Mans face saying, 'do you believe in god', we also get a mid shot of the guy holding a gun to girl 2's head.
*(Flashback) We get a close up of girl 2's face, she opens her mouth to speake. to answer.
* (Flashback) Black out.
*Girl 2's Grave Stone, Her name fades in (possibly mixes between the 13 people's names(these are the names of the people that actually died in the columbine shootings)) Close up of grave stone.
*Girl 1 kneeling at the grave with a rose or flower in her hand.
*She puts the rose or flower on the floor infront of the grave stone.

2nd Verse,

*Girl walking past Jesus on the cross.
*She stands and looks at it. long shot.
*Extreme close up of the gun and the man pulling the trigger, but we only see the gun and hand.
*A shot of the man holding the gun infront of him. we see from directly infront of the guns barrel.

1st chorus,

*Close up shots of Girl 1 singing.
*People running up the church steps into the church.
*Shots of more grave stones showing alot of people peoples gravess. 
*Columbine peoples photo's
*

3rd Verse,

*In church, priest at front, preaching,
*People in the puew's all heads are bowed. long shot from priests point of view.
*front shot of them all drying tears, (not at the same time, cos thats cheesey)
*Girl 1 singing at the front of the church, alter, (we see her singing from 'the alters' to 'repentance'
*outside the church, we see teh guitarists on the ground, surrounded by grave stones,
*we have a couple atching( different angle shots) at this point in the song it'll be at 'perfect love kills all fear, rejoice in this delverance'.

2nd Chorus,
*
*
*
*

Letter To Flyleaf Asking Permission For Song Usage

Hey guys,
This may be freaky but i gotta ask.
Is it possible to use your song, 'Cassie' the acoustic version, for my media video.
It is for my A level practical work, what this intails is me making a video that would have cassie playing over the top of it.
I am writing, asking for permission because as a rule from the exam board we have to have evidence that we have asked permission to use it, otherwise we would be failed due to copyright issue's.
I am going to do a cover of the song, however as they aren't my lyrics i must ask permission to do this.
I would appreciate it if you messaged me back giving me permission to use your song.
Thank you for taking the time to read my message, i would appreciate it if you got back to me as soon as possible.

Natalie Palmer

Cassie Acoustic - Flyleaf Lyrics

The question asked in order
to save her life or take it
The answer no avoided
death, and yes would make it

Do you believe in God
written on a bullet
say yes to pull the trigger
and my sister Cassie pulled it

They didn't love their lives so much
as to shrink from death
inspired in their footsteps
we will march ahead
don't be shocked that people die
be surprised you're still alive

All heads are bowed in silent reverence
the floor is wet with tears of sorrowful remembrance
the altar is filled with hearts of repentance
perfect love kills all fear
rejoice in this deliverence

They didn't love their lives so much
as to shrink from death
inspired in their footsteps
we will march ahead
don't be shocked that people die
be surprised you're still alive

Research

die romantic by aiden is another song/video based on another real life event, this one is based on someone that put suicidal thoughts into people's head. i believe its known as the whisper murders. but im not sure about that, i need to check it out. one of the reasons why i am looking at this video is because the band have made the video to reflect on the meaning behind the song. they also record in a church yard. which i have decided will be on of the settings for my video.



i have just found this video that someone else has done for a media project of some kind but i thought that it sort of fits with the idea i have about a girl walking through the grave yard and her kneeling at someone's grave stone. so i thought that adding this video to my research was a good idea because of the way the girl has used the grave yard and the setting around the church to fit it with the songs lyrics.




this is a video of a tribute that was made to the columbine shootings, written and sung by two of the boys that went to the school during the time of the shootings. i am using this video as inspiration to include some images of the those that died. or maybe just include some kind of reference to those that died in the shootings.




dispite the fact that this video is just an animation video i like it because the creator of the video has taken bits from different video games to fit with the lyrics of the song. they have timed it just right so it works really well. i want to use the idea of havign things in the video that represent the lyrics, and i want to have them in there to fit in with the timing of the music.



i like this video because within it they're is a young lady walking through a forest of some kind, the way she is walking through it and the sort of outfit she is wearing, is the sort of image i was thinking of having for my video.




Gone with The sin is a song and video dedicated to a member of HIM that died a few years back. there are a few parts in this video that i think portray a similar image of what i want to achieve in the grave yard scene. around 2.00 - 2.20 in there are several shots of ville valo walking through a grave yard there are some really nice shots in there that i may incorperate into my video. the next bit in the video i really like is 2.59 - 3.30 minutes in this is where valo is kneeling at his departed friends grave, i think it reflects his emotions really well, and there is a nice shot showing villes emotion whilst visiting his friends grave. i also like in this video the fact that there is no footage of any of the other band members.

Cassie - Flyleaf

there hasnt actually been an official video for this song as far as i know so i am going to make the video to fit the story behind the song.
here is the video that flyleaf have made for the song, however as you will see, it is just of the band.
The song is based on the columbine shootings in america in 1999. The song revolves around Cassie Rene Bernall who died in the shootings. Cassie was asked by one of the shooters, believed to have been, 'Eric Harris', 'Do You Believe In God?' after witnessing the murder of one of her classmates, she answered him saying, 'yes'. and therefore resulting in her being murdered for believing in god.
Lacey Mosely the lead singer of flyleaf has said that we should all take a leaf out of cassie's book in the way that we stand up for what we believe in even if doing so would result in death.

10th October 2009

Today i went into town for band practice and to film for the media video.
i first went to tk max to make sure that it was still okay to film from their balcony, they decided that saturday was not a good day for them to let me out on the balcony, they said that if i came back any other day then it would be fine, however i cant get into town any other day except from saturday so i may have to think of another way to do the opening shot. i went round the hay market going in and out of shops asking if i could use they're balconie however it isnt possible unless i get the school to contact the haymarket security people.

i went to band practice and i recorded the guys playing and singing the song i wrote, we did it three times and it sounded different each time they played it as they wanted to edit it alot. after woods at around 2.00 in the afternoon i recrded lex and rorie doing the argument around clock tower.

in al honesty this didnt go too well, lex really couldnt be bothered to do it, and this shows because she stopped and laughed alot through it all, alot of the shots are really bad because she wasnt taking it seriously also she made rorie laugh alot so they both lost concentration. also after arranging for 20 people to in town to be the crowd of people, none of them actually turned up so i had to get a bunch of randomers to be in the video. this didnt really work very well because they didnt really want to be in the video in the first place.

however after around an hour of shooting i got some footage, we then went to the fountain so that i could record the fountain scene, but again lex just said to me that she really couldnt be bothered to do it, and she then went home. so i had to end the day's filming.

After watching the footage back at home i thought to myself that lex isnt going to take it seriously and the song sounded rubbish, i really didnt like what i came home with, so i have decided to change my idea completely. i am now going to do a cover of the acoustice version of cassie by flyleaf. and therefore changing the setting to somewhere closer to home so i can work on it more. and also then i can use different people that will take it as seriously as i do. because i was really annoyed earlier by the fact that they thought it was a joke and that everyone let me down.

Youtube

i have put the initial song  on youtube so that i can make it into a mp3 format using listenyoutube.com.
to do this i had to create a youtube account. this is all now done and here is the video.

3rd October 2009

today i had band practice, where i recorded the band playing the song which i had written. i got the band to play it through a few times to make sure they had the sound just right, and then i recorded it usung my digital camera, i was going to record it using a video camera that i had booked out of the libary however i forgot to bring the tape to record it onto. so i took the band photo's today rather than recording any footage. also i realised after getting to clock tower that there was several tents and stalls around clock tower so even if i had bought the tape i wouldnt be able to record the opening scene which takes place around clock tower.

I have attached to my blog few of the photo's that i got of the band. the pictures are situated at the top of the blog, these are to be used for the CD cover and/or the Advertisement.i will select one or two to use, i will not use all of them.

Theory Tuesday :)

 Okay, so for a few weeks now Mr Smith has been doing this 'Theory Tuesday' thing. We did the things about 'Narrative Theories' and the things to do with Roland Barthe in one of these lessons. The week after that we went on a treasure hunt type thing around lutterworth, we were in search of signs. the idea of the treasure hunt was to show us that they're are signs everywhere telling us things and informing us about things without us really noticing them.

i thought i should mention some of the theory lessons, although i mist a few of them because i was ill, but i intend to investigate what i've missed.

Todayss lessons!

Mr Fords lesson;
we learnt about 'post modern media'.
post modern media is basically 'the distinction between reality and the media representation of it'. the idea is that the media's version of real life becomes what we think of as real life. an example of it would be friends in reality and on myspace or facebook, someone could have 200 friends on myspace or facebook, whereas they wouldnt nessascerally be actual friends, friends that you know in the real world. the world of internet social sites is created as a now alternative reality that people class as the true reality rather than a made up one.
its the idea that we can no longer see the boundreys between real reality and media reality.

The definition of 'post modern media' that we were giving by mr ford was as follows.

    Post modernist claim that in a media saturated world, where we are immersed in media 24/7 - the distinction between reality and the media representation of it becomes blurred ir even invisible to us.
    we no longer have any sense of the difference between real things and images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them.
    Media reality is the new reality.
    In the modern perios artists experimented with the representation or reality.
    in the post modern period the idea of representation gets 'remixed', played around with through pastiche, parody and intertextual refrences - where the people that make texts deliberately expose their nature as constructed texts and make no attempt to pretend they are 'realist'.
    - Value judgements are blurred.
       Everything is down to taste.
       Anything can be art, deserve and audience, and culture 'eats itself'. There is no longer anything new to produce or ditstribute.
    - The ditinction between media and reality has collapsed and we now live in a 'reality' defined by images and represntations,
     images refer to each other and represent easch other as reality rather than some 'pure' reality that exists before the image represents it.

i think that i could avoid incorprating a post modern media stance to my video by making the video seem less realisetic, in terms of mixing the scenes up so that you can tell that it isnt a true story.

Whilst making my Pitch

okay whilst i was making my pitch i re-read the brief, and i realised that i had the wrong sort of idea, i thought that i had to make and write a magazine article, which i had done, i had taken photo's and found pictures of articles made by several magazines. but then obviously after reading it again i realised that i was wrong, i need to make an advertisement for the CD or DVD and not make an article advertising it and going into detail about my band. so i then got my magazines back out and tried to find some CD advertisements of bands CD's, but i was trying to find bands that are similar to diabolical dispatch. in the end i found a fair amount of examples all of which i put on my pitch power point.
because i realised of my mistake the night before i had to pitch my idea to the class, i didnt have too much time to re-write everything, so i mentioned when i was talking about that particular page in the powerpoint that i did make the mistake and that some of the pictures i had found weren't relevent. but i think everyone understood my mistake and saw the examples that i had managed to find and i am hoping that they understood what the type of advertisement that i wanted to achieve was. i didnt get any questions about the CD advertisement so i think they all understood.

List of Some of the stuff i was asked after my presentation

* i refferred to myself as an 'out of the ordinary' person several times during my pitch. my audience asked me afterwords what i ment by 'people like myself' which is what i said. i pointed out to the class that what i ment was, people that go into leicester every weekend, they love music of all kinds but generally punk, emo, gothic metal or rock. also people like me would wear, the majority of the time, dark clothing and wear alot of black make up. i pointed out that a percentage of people like myself go out drinking in parks and causing people hastle on a regular basic purely because they have nothing better to do. also some people like myself, if they had problems at home or problems in gerenal, would cut theirselves (self harm) and do things that are over the top, purely becuase they cant deal with they're problems. i pointed out that my idea was to show people that not all people do that, not all people like myself go out and terrorise people for fun or drink alcohol purely becuase they have nothing better to do during the day. Also not all people like myself self harm and dont deal with they're problems in a sensible way, my aim is to prove to people that the majority of us deal with any problems the same way everyone else would. we are the same, the only differences are, our taste in music and the things we like.



*where am i going to be filming the actual footage?
my response was that i am going to be filming inside and out of band practice (stay free music) and in a few places within the town center. i am also recoding from the tk max balcony. at this point i was asked how was that possible, because usually noone is alowd on the balcony itself, however i have been into tkmax and i have gained permission to go up there to record the footage.



*how are we going to know who the characters are ?
i have decided to put a few introductry photo's at the begining of the video, and to do this i may get the band to extend the intro.



*how is a break up going to show the audience that people like yourself are happy the majority of the time?
i am going to show it, so that lex and rorie break up, but then she deals with it in the same way anyone else would and then i'll show her having a great time with her friends and being generally happy, hence breaking the thoughts that if a 'out of the ordinary person' (like myself) does break up with their boyfriend or girlfriend they dont just go all sad and then get drunk at 12 in the morning and they dont self harm.
obviously there is a percentage of people that do, do that sort of thing but my message is that not all of them do it, so it isnt fair to just assume that they all do.


''jeez i really cant remember that much about the hole questions area of my pitch, all i remember is this bog spider running across the room and then half the girls in the class screaming. i hope i get the video of the pitch back soon. it'll jog my memory a bit more. so then i can add in more of the questions and my responces and then write out the things i could do and change so that my video would be really good :)''

Presented My Pitch

okay today i watched two groups pitches, asked them a few questions about their ideas and got some positive answers from them.
then during my second media lesson, i pitched my idea to the class. it went well so i thought, but it was scary doing it because i was on my own and everyone else in the class did it in pairs or in a group.
i pitched my idea and a lot of people asked me things about my idea and the reasons behind why i said certain things, such as i kept referring myself as an 'out of the ordinary person'.
i got told that i had missed a lot of crucial details from my power point, however because the class asked me all the right questions all the information that was missed out was then given to the class via the answers to the questions.
i was asked at one point how was i going to inform the audience of the characters were, at that point i came up with the idea of the video opening with a pictorial shot of each character. this shot thing would introduce each character so that the audience knows who they are looking for when i am recording in the towns center.

Mr Smith and Mr Ford have a recording of my pitch and the questions and answers so that i can pit it on here.

pitch

Natski's Pitch Finished

View more presentations from Natski.

Story board & Pitch

since i last posted a blog i have started to do some mock up drawings of my video plan, sort of like a story board. i have only got 4 shots done soo far which isnt much but im having to fit it in with doing the pitch and with all my art work because there is alot of homework that we get in art, so im tryin to jiggle it about so i have time to do it all.

here is my updated pitch, ready for me to present to the class. (it's in the next post (Y))

Magazine Article, rough idea

something wrong? - the new single by a young inspired band, Diabolical Dispatch.

This young British band from the east midlands formed in late September of last year with original band members Bam, Dunn, Katie, Forde and Eddy. However as time has past, members were lost and now the band consists of 32 singers/screamers, a guitarist, a drummer and a bassist. Bam, Eddy, Dave, Lexi, Joe and Nat.


[I am a part of the band, but as it is my media project and i don't want to loose points because i am in the video i am going to cut myself out of the band temporarily so that i can do the work to the best of my abilities.]

The bands musical influences, range from bands like Paramore to Circle of Dead Children, and they have done several covers, such as Flyleaf's Cassie, Underoath's writing on the walls, The red jumpsuit apparatus's face down and Paramore's emergency.


This band is different to other bands in several ways because unlike most bands each member is different, they like different styles of music. They each have different fashion statements and generally different personalities. however they each have the shared view of wanting to change the stereotypical view of a rock band, and this is what bought the individuals together.


they're new song 'something wrong?' is about the typical teenager thinking that the world is against them and them thinking that they've done something to force them away. its also about them realising that people are there and that people don't hate them.

i spoke to the band to see what they're views are about the song.

At this point there will be an interview.

The royal tenenbounds

we watched this clip in class. and i think it is good in terms of representation of the character because 'Wes' adds in little things that all represent the characters. for example each child's bedroom represents the type of person they are.
there are a lot of Roland Barthes Theories involved in this video, as if the whole thing was made to fit with each different theory of his.

Newer Video Research

You Me At Six - Gossip

The reason why i have gotten this video is because the lyrics are about something bad but then something that's looking upwards. another reason why i like this video is because it involves the initial idea i had of the characters having a fun time. this is good simply because i still want the element of fun to be in the video. 2 minutes 6 seconds in there is some really nice close up shots, which are similar to the type of close up shots i want to involve in the video.



You Me At Six - The Rumour

The reason why i have selected this video is because it has the element of realism, in terms of the lyrics, they reflect a teenagers life, just like the lyrics i have written for my song. i chose this song more for the lyrics rather than the actual video itself, which is why i have put a video on with just the lyrics.




Jojo - Too Little Too Late

The reason i like this video is because around 1 minute 30 it shows one character sad and alone whilst the other is with friends and having fun till he See's the phone call. this is the sort of the thing i want to include in my video, the idea that one is happy and one is sad.
The reason why i haven't embedded the video in this post is simply because the embed code is disabled at the min, so all i can do is leave you with the YouTube link ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzIQGUIxzE8

Avril Lavigne - I'm With You

around 40 seconds in you see a clip of Avril walking through the street, this is sort of what i want to achieve.
2.59 there is a shot of her leaving to go elsewhere, this is inspirational because of the way she looks in terms of her facial expression. The embedded code is also disabled within this video so again here is the link to the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW2LTnzD-vE

Avril Lavigne - Happy Ending

this video is good because we see Avril as a punked up chick. which helps to represent her group choice. i like the way that the director of her video has represented her gothic background in terms of cloths, setting (when Avril is playing the guitar) and the black and white memory clips, they have a darker feel to them. also around the point 2 minutes 28 into the video we see Avril Lavigne fighting with her boyfriend. shoving him just like my characters will be in my video, also straight after this we see Avril running away towards her band who are playing on the roof, i want to also achieve this effect of Lexi fighting with her boyfriend and then she runs to band practice. i think Lexi running would be a better idea than her walking because it adds more drama and effect and emotion to the scene.
thankfully they haven't disabled the embed code!!! so here it is, one song that represents what i want to achieve in the video, more than any of the others.

Year 13 Induction Video's

I thought that it might get a bit annoying clicking on the links to get to any of the older inspirational video's therefore i have created this post in order to embed the video into the blog. All the annotation for the video's are in a post from a while ago. so if you wanted to read what i put about it, go back to almost the first post. :)
enjoy.

Blink 182 - Rock Show


Andrew W K - We Want Fun



Viva la Bam Season 2 - Bam Margera & Crew's Mardi Gras Skate Road Trip Episode Compilation/Montage




Anti-Flag - "When All the Lights Go Out" Side One Dummy

Pitch

Nat's Pitch

View more presentations from Natski.

13th September 2009

Today, i have;
*added around 6 more steps to my detailed plan for the video.
*re-written the interview format for the magazine cover.
*arranged for Rorie to play the part of the 'ex boyfriend' in the video.
*re-edited my pitch power point, and created an account so that i can add it to my blog.
*added a slide show of my power point.

12th September 2009

Today i have had band practice with Diabolical Dispatch, we went through the song that i have written for the video, and we came up with several different ways in which we could make the song sound different. also we organised that we will do the photo shoot next Saturday so i could take the newer photo's for the magazine and CD cover.

Also today i went into TK Max to ask them whether or not i could use their balcony to do the opening shot. i spoke to the manager of the shop and they have granted me permission to do this. they let me out on the balcony so that i could look up the different possible angles i could record it from.

More Detailed Plan With A Few Camera Angles

*Extreme long shot of Rorie (R) and Lexi (L) arguing in the middle of Leicester.
*From the T K Max balconies, pan around the scenery and then a slow zoom into the crowd where L and R are arguing. It pans from the right to the left into the action.
* Mid shot of R and L arguing. Several over the shoulder shots of each of the two faces.
*long shot of them fighting, L pushes R away. Within this we get a Point Of View (POV) shot of L's Face, this is to show the upset and angry in her facial emotion.
*Then we have a POV shot of R walking away towards a group of people.
*Close up of L's face, sad, distraught
*Another POV shot from someone in the crowd of people, this person is watching R walk towards the group, they focus in on R's face then look slightly to the left, over R's shoulder to see L miserable in the distance.
*Close up. the camera focuses on L's face. it pans round from the right to the left.
*R starts to talk to the guys, this is an over head shot (at this point the music should start to play in the distance).
*Long shot from a 45 degree angle behind L, R and the crowd start laughing.
*Close up of L's face - shows the hurt. she stands there, looks down, then up at R and then down again (she's making the decision to go elsewhere).
*Close up of L as she turns her head and turns away.
*Camera switches to a shot of L from the front, she walks towards the camera.
*We get different shots of L sitting on her own, being lonely whilst seeing her friends happy.
-She sits at the fountain, staring at the fountain. we see this by using an over the
shoulder shot.
- Close up of L's face as she See's the people having fun and having a good time on the grassy
bit behind the benches. we will see this through a long shot but a POV shot.
*We get several different shots of her walking towards band practice. (the way I'm going to do this is, i will record some footage of her walking but then stop it and when she is a bit further up the road i will record again so that you can see the progress of her walking. i will get this from several different angles. however when she gets the bridge outside stay free i will stop that type of recording.
*We see a long shot of (Bam(B)) leaning on the wall. As L is walking up to the bridge.
*L gets to the bridge. and then we see a POV of her seeing B on the wall. at this point B has his head down and cant see that L has turned up. (i am either going to do a POV shot or an over the shoulder shot from behind L on the bridge. within this show we will be able to see B leaning against the wall.)
*When L See's B we see a close up of her face, she's trying to withhold a smile.
*Next B looks up and smiles (close up of him) but L doesn't see that he's noticed her.
*The camera is then stationary at a 90 degree angle from where T is standing (the camera would roughly be at the canals lock gate). the camera stays stationary but follows L as she walks towards B.
*She walks past B not expecting him to be waiting for her. the camera at this point would be stationary at the front of L, it will be a mid shot of the two. the camera will follow the action from the front of her.
*As L walks past, B catches her arm. at this point the camera will be behind the action but focused in on the two arms and hands. this will mean it is a close up shot. the camera will stay there as B moves his hand down L's arm so that they can hold hands.
* the camera is then moved to the previous position where it follows the action from in front of the action. B pulls L round the corner and into the Stay free back entrance.
* Then the camera is stationary outside the black room, we see B and L running through the corridor into the room.
*The camera then moves to follow them into the room. we see the crowd of people and L and B pushing their way through. we get a shot from the POV of someone in the audience and they are watching L and B pushing through the crowd. it then switches to a front, mid shot if them pushing through the room.
*Going Onstage
B jumps up seeming 'macho' and confident, he looks down at L and then holds out his arm to pull her up. She pulls an 'oh jeez' face then she takes his hand and get pulled onto the stage.
(Camera Angle within that scene)
-B Jumping Up - Side Shot
-B putting his hand out to pull L up - Long shot from floor, looking up at him, from L's POV
-L's Reaction - high angle close up (looking down at her face)
-Pulling her up - the camera is behind her as she takes his hand, and then he starts to pull her up, and then the camera switches to behind B, so it is an over the shoulder shot, when B has finished lifting L onto the stage.
*someone in the crowd throws a mic' on stage.
*Shot Of Crowd
Camera on the stage floor looking over the audience.
*over the shoulder shots and over head shots of the audience.
*standing on one of the amps, over head shots and long shots of the band on stage and the audience.

*I will get several different shots of Dave drumming, Eddie playing the guitar and of Lexi and Bam singing.
*i will get some shots of them when the camera is on the floor, looking up at them and i will get some shots of them from the eye level.

Video Basic Plan edited slightly

1. Rorie and Lexi are arguing.
2. Lexi pushed Rorie away.
3. Lexi stands there on her own, watching Rorie walk away.
4. Friends and Rorie laugh, and Lexi feels as if they are all laughing at her.
5. Lexi realises she isn't wanted and turns to walk away, she hesitates then starts walking.
6. Lexi walks to band practice.
7. Lexi gets to the bridge and See's (Bam) waiting outside the building, leaning against the wall.
8. Lexi hides a grin then walks past as if to ignore him, because she doesn't think he's there for her.
9. As Lexi walks past (Bam) grabs her arm as if to no let her go.
10. Lexi smiles feeling happy he's there for her.
11. (Bam) moves his hand down Lexi's arm so that it is at her hand until they hold hands.
12. (Bam) then pulls Lexi through the crowd of people in band practice and then onto the stage.
13. they (hopefully) start to sing as they get to the chorus, where Lexi actually starts singing.
14. we see several different shots of the band and the audience.
15. Lexi and (Bam) are hanging out with their friends and the band.
16. More footage of the band practice.
17. Lexi and (Bam) are in a big queue looking happy and general in a great mood, then we see a contrast where Rorie looks miserable and looks terrible in terms of what he wears.
18. shots of the band just chilling at the fountain or something.
19. group of friends together hanging out and skating.

Things I Need To Do Part 2

* Go to TK MAX in Leicester near clock tower and ask them whether or not i can use their balcony to record the opening shots.
* Finish writing up the more detailed video plan (I have added to this since i posted the last 'things i need to do' post.)
* Find a friend to play the part of the ex boyfriend.
* Take photo's of the band that don't include myself in them. so i need to kinda section out myself for now. (I have organised this so next Saturday at band practice i will take the photo's)
* Organise a date where i can get a lot of friends into the band practice room so that i can record the guys playing on stage.
* Record the song and make it an mp3 file.
* Take photo's of the story board and finish drawing it out.
* Write the script for the argument

Video Basic Plan

1. (Ex Bf) and Lexi are arguing.
2. Lexi pushed (EX BF) away.
3. Lexi stands there on her own, watching (EX BF) walk away.
4. Friends and (EX BF) laugh, and Lexi feels as if they are all laughing at her.
5. Lexi realises she isn't wanted and turns to walk away, she hesitates then starts walking.
6. Lexi walks to band practice.
7. Lexi gets to the bridge and See's (Bam) waiting outside the building, leaning against the wall.
8. Lexi hides a grin then walks past as if to ignore him, because she doesn't think he's there for her.
9. As Lexi walks past (Bam) grabs her arm as if to no let her go.
10. Lexi smiles feeling happy he's there for her.
11. (Bam) moves his hand down Lexi's arm so that it is at her hand until they hold hands.
12. (Bam) then pulls Lexi through the crowd of people in band practice and then onto the stage.
13. they (hopefully) start to sing as they get to the chorus, where Lexi actually starts singing.
14. we see several different shots of the band and the audience.
15. Lexi and (Bam) are hanging out with their friends and the band.
16. More footage of the band practice.
17. Lexi and (Bam) are in a big queue looking happy and general in a great mood, then we see a contrast where (EX BF) looks miserable and looks terrible in terms of what he wears.
18. shots of the band just chilling at the fountain or something.
19. group of friends together hanging out and skating.

Things I Need To Do !!

* Go to TK MAX in Leicester near clock tower and ask them whether or not i can use their balcony to record the opening shots.
* Finish writing up the more detailed video plan
* Find a friend to play the part of the ex boyfriend.
* Take photo's of the band that don't include myself in them. so i need to kinda section out myself for now.
* Organise a date where i can get a lot of friends into the band practice room so that i can record the guys playing on stage.
* Record the song and make it an mp3 file.
* Take photo's of the story board and finish drawing it out.
* Write the script for the argument

Including Roland Barthes Theory In The Video

Action Code _ i think so i can involve some obvious action codes within my video, when Lexi is about to leave the old boyfriend(Random Guy(This will be replace by the name when i have found someone to do it)) the soundtrack will start, thus suggesting that Lexi is going to be wondering off on her own sometime soon. also i am going to get (bam) to hold his hand out near the stay, therefore suggesting that Lexi will take his hand and he shall help her on the stage.

Enigma Code _ i think to involve this within the story i may show a few things like the ex boyfriend hanging out somewhere and about to do something, and just show it to a point where then the audience starts to question what's going to happen to the other guy.

Semantic Code _ i might have a picture of the 'stay free sign' so that i can get the audience to connect that Lexi is going to be going to a band practice, however the only way that they could understand what's going on is is the audience is familiar with 'stay free' so i think in order for that to be the case. during the argument between Lexi and (old boyfriend) i will maybe have the (old boyfriend) say something like 'you spend too much time at stay free with the band, its like your married to them when you should be spending time with me'. i think this will be appropriate to inform the audience of what stay free is. this will then add in the 'cultural code'.

Cultural Code _ The audience would now know (if not before) what stay free is, because of the argument at the beginning of the video. they would have the understanding that stay free is a place where bands practice playing their music.

Symbolic Code _ the way i am going to incorporate this into the video is, nearer the end of the video i will have different shots of the ex boyfriend and Lexi being in complete contrasting moods, happy and sad. maybe the ex boyfriend will look a complete mess which would also incorporate the 'enigma code' because the audience will be asking how did he get like that? what has he been doing? on the other hand Lexi will look great and happy and seem to have her life completely in order.

Narrative Codes

Roland Barthe had a theory about each narrative having some kinda of code, included in the narrative. he's suggests that each narrative has either an open or closed story my music video has a sort of closed narrative, where you only get one obvious interpretation of the narrative. in my music video the thing that i am trying to get across is the fact that no matter how many or how little people you have around you there is someone looking over you. this is what i am trying to get across to the audience.
Roland Barthe also had the theory that each narrative has '5 narrative codes'.
*The Action Code - This is any action or sound that may give the audience the hint that something is going to happen, for example if someone pulls a gun out of there pocket, the audience assumes that there will be some kind of fight coming soon.
*The Enigma Code - This referrers to any element in the story that isn't explained within the story. It leaves you asking questions about the plot. for example. when the episode or film has finished it will leave you asking questions about the character, questions such as what happens to her next. its sort of an un-obvious cliff hanger.
*The Semantic Code - This is an element within a text that suggests a certain way of thinking. for example if you saw some snow, you would automatically think; Christmas, winter, Santa, presents, family etc.
*The Cultural Code - this is when a part in the text or narrative suggests something. that is only understood when and if the audience has some kind of background knowledge about the subject of the text. eg if there was a society where school was not known about or needed then no one in the society would make a good audience for something like 'grange hill' simply because they wouldn't understand why the people would be in a massive building, or wearing matching cloths etc. they wouldn't understand why they're there or what they're doing there.
*The Symbolic Code - This is the grey areas that you as the viewer fill in yourself, the narrative doesn't tell you. the audience is given two points eg, a healthy person, and an unhealthy person. we as an audience fill in that the unhealthy person has done something to make themselves unhealthy. its individual, each person interprets the two points in there own way. The two points that would be interpreted would be 'binary opposites'. two things that are completely different but when you say one, you automatically think of the other. some examples are,
black white Grey
rich poor Middle class (just getting by with what they have but not rich nor poor)
fat thin Just the right weight (healthy)
old young Middle Class
happy sad Indifferent feelings
The symbolic code would be the things you figure out between these things, examples are shown in blue

I am going to try and involve some of these codes within my music video.

18th July 2009

okay so i do this a lot. write out what i need to put on my blog, but then i end up forgetting to put it on... seems kinda silly to me now, but at least i already had it written out :)

Lexi and Bam (from my band 'diabolical dispatch') came over today, we had a crack at trying to get some music to that song i told you about, but bam suggested that we write a new song, because 'its not right' would have more meaning to the guys that played it organically, and we thought it'd be better to write a song for diabolical dispatch that we could actually perform with out another artist saying 'dint want you to sing that'.

okay so here is the song that we came up with. we have basic guitar tabs on it, which we will improve on during band practices during the future.

you sit there all alone,
thinking you've done wrong,
you can't imagine there's nothing,

cause no-body's there,
and no-one seems to care,
you don't know what they're thinking,

(chorus) cause there's someone there for you,
they're looking over you,
just open your eyes to see them, (x2)

you sat there all alone,
thoughts of what went wrong,
you imagined there was something,

(musical interlude)

now you know there is nothing

i will get a basic recording when we've gone through it at band practice.

15th July 2009

okay, so i know I'm writing this out really late but i had it all written out on my PC at home and i forgot to add it in when i went on the Internet so i am now :)

today i spent the day going through all my old 'bagige' songs (my old band) to see if any of them fitted into the sort of genre that we are aiming for. i found one called, 'It's Not Right' but there were a few 'not so happy' lyrics so i spend around half an hour editing the song so that it fitted into the right genre. i then spent another hour and a half trying to figure out what sort of tune could go with it.

I've just been txting my newer band members and i asked them if they thought that we could cover this song, but i can't remember all the old tabs so i have planned to have Lexi and bam over so that we could figure out together what we need to do to make the song work.

8th September 2009

today we spent the lesson creating these blogspot pages and putting all the stuff off the VLE on here. i also spend the majority of my free time getting some pictures for my magazine cover.

7th september 2009

in the past few days every time i have tried talking to Jamie about our media work and what we each need to do before our pitches need to be sorted out, but it was hard to get hold of him again. so i have spoken to Mr ford about what i could do and have came to the decision that it may be best to work on my own as 95% of the work done, has been my own anyway. so i have mentioned this to Jamie, so that he knows that he needs to find something to do for his new solo project.

1st September 2009

i have started to create the pitch (powerpoint) for when we go back to school so that we are able to pitch our idea to the class. i have managed to get a hold of jamie. and he is coming down later on today to do some work on the project and to hopefully complete the power point (pitch) that i've started. And add to the video plan.

Jamie has just been at mine. he was here for around 6 and half hours. we got a little bit done but i thought that i still did the majority, i did try to encourage jamie to add in his own ideas so that the project isn't completely my work. I asked him if he had done any other work during the holiday that he may have left at home however he didnt give me the slightist impression that he had made any effort to do any work before today. He contributed a few ideas such as the camera angles for the scene where 'lexi' goes onto the stage. oncee we had figured out a few of the camera angles i suggested that we do some more work on the pitch so that he could have some input on what we are doing. we added a few things from my blog to the power point and simplified it so that it didn't look like a huge essay on the power point. i asked jamie several times to help my pick out the individual photo's for the powerpoint so that the audience (for our pitch) could see who would be staring in the video. we managed to finish writing up the powerpoint and then jamie decided to go before we discussed which parts of the powerpoint we would each cover when pitching our idea. i then went through our pitch thinking about who might do which pages. i then fowarded the powerpoint to jamie so that he could also go through it as we had discussed. I got fairly annoyed that we only got a little bit done, because i have so far done a fair bit of work, and it seems as if jamie has done nothing other than what we have achieved today. The thing that annoys me most is the fact that i had to keep saying, 'jamie, can we actually get this done?', 'Jamie put that down, thats not yours' (as he kept picking up random things around my living room that belongs to my family), 'are you gonna write anything?', 'do you have any ideas about what we could do in this scene?', 'can you just go through this and add in your own ideas for the pitch please' and 'Jamie i feel like i'm taking over because i have done the majority of this can you please do something'. This, i didn't i would have to do, and i felt really nastey for doing it but no disrespect to him but i don't want him to get all the grades for my work, because i think thats totally unfair. I think i am going to talk to one of my media teachers about what i could do to sort this out.

24th August 2009

Over the past few weeks i have put together a basic plan for the magazine article and the CD cover. i have tried to contact Jamie more and still had no luck in getting in contact with him. meanwhile i have added to the basic plan for the media video. although it isn't complete at the minute, i have added to it so that it is around half completed. i have gotten my band to perform the song a few times during band practice and i have recorded a basic version of the song so that i have something to work with in terms of timing for the video. i have decided that the genre may have to be altered slightly because of the lyrics of the song. so it is more about the life of a teenager rather than going out there and partying 24/7. i am, in the near future, going to find some more YouTube links that are more related to the type of music that it is now. and as soon as I've found them i will post them on here so that you can see what sort of genre it is now.

28th July 2009

So far i have managed to get a friend (Edd) to produce the music for the video. i am still however awaiting the lyrics so that i can put together a story board for the video.
During the past month i have contacted my partner, Jamie Pennel several times so that we could meet up and get some work done, however i have failed to get in contact with him each time i have tried. i have over the past eight days organised my band to produce and sing the other song that i have written. i have put together a basic plan for the video, based on the lyrics to the song i have written and i have planned a date to take the photos to use for the CD cover and magazine article. i am currently planning to talk to my media teachers about working on this project on my own as the things i have achieved so far is all my work.

30th June 2009

We were shown as a class a variety of film shots and music video's. the ones that we were shown are, Battle Royal a Japanese film about a class of students who have to kill each other. this was shown to us as proof as people can take a chance with film making. We also watched several music video's by Chris Cunningham, two that we watched were, 'come to daddy' by the 'Alphex twins' and 'frozen' by 'Madonna'. Chris Cunningham specialises in weird, out of the ordinary video's for example in 'come to daddy' all the children have the same face, which gives the video a bizarre appeal to it. i thought that this would be quite useful because we wanted the video to be crazy and out of the ordinary in some ways.

20th June 2009,

I booked out a camera from the school library and had a photo shoot with the band, Diabolical Dispatch. We took the photo's so that we could put together a photo covered CD booklet (the things that come with the CD, Telling you who the band members are etc) and so that i could include photo's of the band in the magazine article. i haven't managed to get all the photo's to a good quality so i will at some point have another photo shoot where i will get better photo's and maybe have an interview with one of the band members, in which we will be discussing the song and the video.

I have mentioned to Jamie that i do like to complete work before the deadline so if he doesn't pull his weight and do some work then i may mention to the teachers that he's not working and discuss what i can do in terms of maybe working separately.

Year 13 Induction

For our media project, we have decided to work with brief 1.
 Brief - a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with; a cover for its release (DVD/CD package) and a magazine advertisement.
Our initial ideas for this would be to write and record a song with 'diabolical dispatch' and then to make the video based around the song. we intend to include some shots of the band members skating and playing (the music within a band practice). video's that inspire our ideas for the video are as follows;
Blink 182 - Rock Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWemwyqpIpg
From this video we want to take the idea of having a big crowd of people to cheer on the music, like in the shot taken 1 minute 33 seconds in.
Andrew WK - We Want Fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49mDdQSwPaA
One thing we want to take from this video is the bounciness of the music. we also would like take the idea of throwing someone into a pool as it adds to the fun element that we want to achieve. we like the idea of getting people to fall over as it shows people that skaters fall over as well as achieving the desired trick. i like the idea that they use on the opening, as in this video they show a mysterious car driving up to the camera, i would like to achieve a similar effect by getting the band members to walk towards the camera.
OPM - Heaven Is A Half pipe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1QMFOR5wi8
The thing i want to take away from this video is the camera angels from when the skater is skating, and doing tricks on the ramp. i think the angels used are really effective when it comes to showing the height achieved by the skater and the different skills used throughout the video.
Viva la Bam Season 2 - Bam Margera & Crew's Mardi Gras Skate Road Trip Episode Compilation/Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSiy3BW89ro
The inspiration that i have got from this video is more related to the food fights and the mud fights. Also the idea of messing around with the skate boards is also appealing. there is a great shot of a skateboard trick at 3.30 in the video, i would like to be able to get this sort of angle from a trick being performed as it has a great effect.
Anti-Flag - "When All the Lights Go Out" Side One Dummy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVGw8nMUl-8
the idea that i want to take from this video is the one that you burn your past. in this video there is a slight hint of optimism and the thought of moving on. i want to be able to portray this in our video, the idea of burning the past and moving on and making use of what you have rather than letting it go to waste.

Representation

Audience Theories

Reception Theory. This theory suggests that an audience would interpret and dissect a media text in individual ways which may relate to their own social and cultural groups and their own individual experiences. It also suggests that an individuals response to a media text would change depending on influences by family and friends, social class and how they've been taught by people at school i.e teachers. Each audience member would interpret the text in a way they have been taught to. this theory links into our music video because people have been bought up to believe that 'out of the ordinary' people are always sad or depressive, therefore they would interpret anything produce by them as a sad or unhappy mooded text.

Theory

The theory that fits this genre of video is by Leon Festinger, it is the 'cognitive dissonance' theory. The meaning behind the words 'Cognitive Dissonance' is to have an bad/uncomfortable or inconsistent feelings between two things or ideas that contradict each other at the same time (simultaneously). Leon Festinger claimed that people rarely change theory attitudes about something unless they are faced with overwhelming evidence against their view point. This theory suggests that people seek out confirmation of their view points. The reason that i have highlighted this theory is because most people stereotype alternative music such as 'punk/rock' to be depressing and miserably, however this is not the case, and most of the time people need the proof to help them to adjust their attitudes towards the genre. We want our video to be the proof to change at least one persons perception of the genre.
Another theory that might be relevant to my video and the style that it will be is, the 'pluralism audience theory'. which states that different audiences' have different views about the same thing. Audience The main target audience for my music video is people who stereotype 'out of the ordinary' people, people that believe that all groups of people such as 'emo's', 'goths' and 'punks' are all sad people and don't know how to have fun. The purpose of this music video is to show them that they are wrong to judge people like that, and that the video would be sufficient evidence to prove their beliefs wrong. The video isn't going to be aimed at a certain age range however, it may not be suitable for people under the age of 14 as they may think about copying some of the stunts within the video and may end up hurting themselves. i think the video would appeal more to people around the age of 17 to 19 as the people in the video will be roughly that age. They might be able to relate to the video.

Genre

As we are doing a music video based on Alternative music, we want break people's stereotypical ideas about the alternative musical genre. we want to show that not all alternative/punk rock music is sad and depressing. We aim to show people that most alternative music is happy and is about people enjoying life and having fun despite the fact that the may unintentionally hurt themselves in the process, they would still have fun. This links to the Cognitive Dissonance theory because our video would be the evidence needed to persuade people to change their views about this genre of music.
Anti-flag/rage against the machine/Simple Plan/ Sum 41/Blink 182 ... these are just a few of the bands that have previously made music within the genre, 'Punk Rock'. The reasons why we are using these bands as inspiration is because of the speed of which they're music video's are. They have shots that move at a very fast pace and make the video seem more exciting.
The conventions for the 'Punk Rock' genre vary as it is open to different interpretation. The music can vary too, going from bands like rage against the machine to bands such as Betty curse.
However the video itself fits into the action genre. simply because of the action, tricks and stunts that will be involved. One convention of an action genre film is that it would be fast pace. Our music video will be of a fast pace and it will flick from different shots pretty quickly.
A director that has directed several video's that work within the rock genre, is Frank Borin who directed music video's such as 'The Anthem' by 'Good Charlotte'. http://frankborin.com/main.html On this website they is several videos that he has directed that fit to the thing we want to achieve. one of those videos is the anthem.
The generic conventions for a 'punk rock' Video/Music are; Short songs (usually less that two minutes), Fast - edged music, the video's usually express 'youthful rebellion' and usually emphasise the different and distinct clothing styles, the style itself usually emphasises the whole 'do it yourself' idea where as if you want something to happen then you'd do it yourself instead of wanting someone else to do it for you. It also encourages individuality.
Theory
The theory that fits this genre of video is by Leon Festinger, it is the 'cognitive dissonance' theory. The meaning behind the words 'Cognitive Dissonance' is to have an bad/uncomfortable or inconsistent feelings between two things or ideas that contradict each other at the same time (simultaneously). Leon Festinger claimed that people rarely change theory attitudes about something unless they are faced with overwhelming evidence against their view point. This theory suggests that people seek out confirmation of their view points.
The reason that i have highlighted this theory is because most people stereotype alternative music such as 'punk/rock' to be depressing and miserably, however this is not the case, and most of the time people need the proof to help them to adjust their attitudes towards the genre. We want our video to be the proof to change at least one persons perception of the genre.
Another theory that might be relevant to my video and the style that it will be is, the 'pluralism audience theory'. which states that different audiences' have different views about the same thing.
Audience
The main target audience for my music video is people who stereotype 'out of the ordinary' people, people that believe that all groups of people such as 'emo's', 'goths' and 'punks' are all sad people and don't know how to have fun. The purpose of this music video is to show them that they are wrong to judge people like that, and that the video would be sufficient evidence to prove their beliefs wrong. The video isn't going to be aimed at a certain age range however, it may not be suitable for people under the age of 14 as they may think about copying some of the stunts within the video and may end up hurting themselves. i think the video would appeal more to people around the age of 17 to 19 as the people in the video will be roughly that age. They might be able to relate to the video.

Camera Angles :/

Low angel shots looking up off of the floor. showing the height of a trick, off of the floor.