R+P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

Over the past week, I have been doing a lot of research and trying to find specific evidence for our promo shots. In preparation for our shoot, I have drawn up various different sketches for the key 4 types of shots as well as a list for potential shots, provided we have sufficient time.

Sleeping With Sirens Promo Shots

The first of our key shots is a wide of the four band members. The different facial expressions on each character represent the 4 different versions we are planning to take of this shot. We want to have one where they are serious and looking straight at the camera, one where they are looking at each other, another where they are all smiling and lastly where they are all laughing.

This style of promo shot is very conventional in the rock genre, more specifically in the alt. indie sub-genre. The image to the right is a promo shot for 'Sleeping With Sirens'. This was my primary reference as I really like the soft yet striking nature of the image, as well as the clever color combinations. Furthermore, each different sitting position individualizes and aids the audience in personalizing each band member. However, it was not the only one; many bands such as 'Nothing But Thieves' and Catfish And The Bottlemen' also use similar shots that have the same effect.

Neck Deep Promo Shots

Secondly, we decided to do various different standing shots as well. We will do some where the band members are in two staggered line, another where they are all in line and a final one where Luke (lead singer) is in front of the rest of us. We will also vary our facial expressions throughout the shots, from serious to happy. This will give us as much flexibility as possibility when choosing the usable promo shots for our website.

The image on the left is my main reference for this shot. This is Neck Deep, an alternative punk rock band. I really like their subtly staggered effect and by placing Ben Barlow (lead) in the front it really helps to give the band "a star" who will act as the primary representative of the band. I have found that this style of shot is very typical for most rock bands as it draws attention to the lead singer without completely ignoring the rest of the band. As a result, I think this type of image is crucial for our promo shots.




These images on either side are the final two key promo shots. The sketch on the left depicts Luke in profile, however I wrote (x4) to signify that we will do the same for each band member. Likewise on the right I have drawn him in a headshot that we will reproduce for each character.

I had two main inspiration for the profile shots. The first of which was the Gorillaz album cover for 'Demon Days' (below left) and the second was Darlia's promo shots (below right). I really like the edge nature of the profile shots and i think it would compliment our bands image well.


The headshot is quite conventional and important when selling an artist as it clearly represents the band member without over complication. Having said this I really liked 'Madness' by Sleeping With Sirens as it incorporates the idea of the headshot, but through the use of striking shadows they do not completely adhere to conventions. I would like to take a similar approach when taking my headshots.

'Demon Days' by Gorillaz 

'Madness' by Sleeping With Sirens

Darlia Promo Shots

R+P Post 21: My key shots storyboard

We have now completed our timeline, however we still feel that we would like to create a further in depth outline of our whole video. I feel very strongly about this because by compartmentalizing the video into small key very specific shots, we will all be able to have a strong visual understanding of what we are trying to achieve and which shots we know are essential to capture.

We have decided to use post-it notes to create our storyboard as from past experience i have found that it is really useful having the ability to move the shots around and add more shots without having to redraw anything. We have also created a key in order to differentiate between the framing of each shot. The green post-it note denotes close-ups the blue ones are mid shots and the yellow ones are long shots.

The first page of our storyboard

As you can see in the image above we are planning to start the video with a long shot of the band walking into frame on the rooftop followed by a similar one of Luke walking into the infinite white paper scene. In addition, we have used arrows to denote both the actors movement and the camera movement.

Overall, I am very happy that we have created this storyboard as it has really helped me to consolidate my ideas and thoughts and it has allowed all the potential shots I had been thinking about in my head to be turned into finite ideas that can be explained to others through the drawings. Furthermore, having this storyboard means that during post-production we will be able to constantly refer back to our original idea in order to give us some guidance during the editing process.

R+P Post 20: My Music Video Timeline

My initial breakdown and identification of
the key lyrics in the song.

Now that we have all finished drafting our key inspirations and analyzing the lyrics in depth we are now ready to start consolidating our ideas and create a overall layout and structure for our video to follow. I think that this will be very useful for our group as it will really help us to ensure there is a progression throughout the video.

We have begun this process by listening through the song and writing down the timing of each key lyric and instrumental build in the song. Here is this initial break down that we have created.

00.13 - "Sharing secrets with another world"
00.24 - "Trip Switch"
00.29 - "Make a wish and"
00.40 - "Trip Switch"
00.45 - Chorus 1
00.56 - "Down down down"
01.12 - "Gimme data cause I need a hit"
01.23 - "Trip Switch"
01.28 - Chorus 2
01.39 - "Down down down"
01.50 - Bridge instrumental
02.01 - "They put out the lights"
02.12 - Chorus 3
02.23 - "Down down down"
02.34 - Chorus 4
02.44 - "Down down down"
02.55 - "When the lights go down....."
03.01 - Instrumental stops.

Although this is very useful, we are all still in agreement that we would like more visual representation of the song's outline as these time codes are still quite difficult to process.

Therefore we have now created this timeline on the computer:

Overall, I think that creating this timeline has been very crucial to my understanding of the structural outline of the song, however in terms of helping process our ideas I think a further detailed graphical storyboard will be much more useful.

R+P Post 19: My Influences and vision for the project

After extensive individual research, we have pooled our ideas together and have collectively came up with the concept and visual styling of our music video. We have now created a 'steal-o-matic' in order to visually represent our ideas whilst also highlighting our key influences.

As can be seen from this video, there are 3 different key set-ups that we want to create.

Performance

Firstly, there is the performance scene. This part of our video will contain all four band members and will adhere to the key conventions of a performance rock music video. We used clips from 'King For A Day' by Pierce The Veil, as well as multiple other bands with similarly inspirational performances.

Paper Scene

The second third of our video will be taken up by the "paper scene" that we are developing. We really want the video to have a strong conceptual aspect that is slightly unconventional. I have had many inspirations for this part of the video, the most significant being 'Whats happened in Soho?' by The Correspondents. This video was extremely influential as it has really aided my visualization of our own concept and it has helped us learn how to build up the textures and layers of meaning without overcrowding a scene.

UV Face Paint

Finally, the last aspect of our video will be the UV black and white face paint. These images have been our main references, however the initial idea was from just a circuit . We feel that this section will help anchor the technology theme and expose the universality of its effect. These shots will add depth and give the concept more complex subtleties.

An inspirations and influences board that I made for our edit suite that we could all leave post-it notes on.

R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

During one of our group meetings we decided to write out the meaning and our interpretation of the lyrics. This was a very useful exercise because it enabled us to underpin the concepts that we want to connote in our music video. Below I have created a neater, typed up version of the lyrics, with our denotations and the time code on either side.

As can be seen above, our analysis picked out the technological message that threads through the whole song, as well as some minor, more subtle connotations. We want to play on the drug-like obsession and the angst that consumes him throughout the song, in order to aid the progression of our video. In addition to the theoretical concepts, our main singers acting must convey this same development.

In our next session we made some more notes on our various different concepts and found some interesting inspiration for our visuals. This information was highly important, but due to its text based nature, it was hard for others understand our ideas. As a result, I decided to create a mood board and by using post-it notes and pictures only, we were all able to constantly add to it and modify it, whilst keeping the text concise.

Our Mood Board.

R+P Post 17: My Chosen Track

The track that my group have decided to use for our music video is 'Trip Switch' by 'Nothing but Thieves'. I have embed the song below.

I have done some background research into the song, including the legal setup of the label and the copyright holders. Firstly, the song is included on their self-titled, 16 song, album 'Nothing But Thieves', which was released on the 16^th Ocotber 2015, however the single itself was released earlier, on the 30^th June 2015. In addition the band, who originated in Southend-on-Sea, have recently signed to RCA Victor in 2014. RCA Vistor is a sub-division of RCA Records; an American flagship recording label that are owned by the conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment. Furthermore, their album is also copyrighted to Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited.

I brought this song to the group during one of our production meetings for which we had organised to all presented our different track ideas. There were many reason for why I initially chose this song and it was predominately based around the distinct yet replicable vocals, the potential for strong artist identity and the dynamic breakdowns and builds in the song that would keep the video interesting. Furthermore, after sharing the song with my group, we have collectively found many more benefits of the song and it immediately catapulted our creativity.

As a group we have made this list of all the advantages and disadvantages that we think concern our usage of the song.

After discovering that the song was owned by Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited, we contacted the relevant body, through email, and asked for their permission to use the song for a non-profit school-based A2 media project. Below I have embedded a photo of our email to them.

Unfortunately we have not received a reply to date and as a result we decided it would be appropriate to continue with our project on the condition that they do not reply saying no.

R+P Post 16: My Band or Artist

After much deliberation we have decided upon the multiple representations for our band.

Our band will be called 'Come What May', which was devised from a British idiom that describes an acceptance of the future and fate. We felt this was a strongly significant message for our band to promote, due to the naturalistic, refreshing and slightly counter-culture approach to the world. Furthermore, we feel these semiotics will be easily marketable to create an effective appeal to alternative music fans. In addition we also liked the abbreviation potential of the name, much like other successful rock bands such as 'Black Veil Brides' and 'Sleeping With Sirens'.

Our artist will be a post-indie, alternative rock band that prides themselves in their love for music and the enjoyment they experience when playing as a band. 'Come What May' will include a male lead vocalist, two female guitarist and a male drummer. As one can see, we have carefully constructed a strong gender balance, in order to ensure the whole target audience is met. The band will hold post-modernist views and will encourage their audiences to question the mainstream without being anti-establishment. This is a concept that is becoming increasingly common and we feel it would be a very effective branding technique. Moreover, we feel that the band should hold strong values on equality and promote feminist values without making the girls in the group seem like token girls or just one of the guys.

Below I created a diagram depicting a visual illustration of each band member through inspiration and influence from other, similar groups.

{ENTER DIAGRAM}

R+P Post 15: My Record Label

After much research into record labels and multiple meetings within my group, we have come to a decision on our own label. It will be called Intrepid Records and will be an independent alt. rock company that signs small, new artists in order to bring something unique and edgy to the music scene. 

Initially, we had found that creating a record label was somewhat tricky and we didn't know how to pin down all that we wanted to encompass in our company. Despite this, after revisiting our primary interests; Rough Trade, Marshall Teller and Young Turks, we were quickly able to define our brand. This is because we were able to gain a better understanding of their specializations in one genre and their constant pushing of boundaries.

The choice of the name 'Intrepid Records' stemmed from the definition of the word and the connotations it expresses. The word Intrepid means 'fearless' or 'adventurous' which we all felt should be a key representation of our brand. We want the label to be perceived as daring and inventive as well as successful and clever. In addition, we will use the image above as our logo, which has been carefully designed to enhance and enforce the symbolism of adventure, through the depiction of a compass.