Pictures of the DigiPak

Rough Cut.

Third editing process

After filming for the third time, we have finally finished our rough cut for the music video. I will be uploading this as soon as I can.

Looking back at the animatic, it would be fair to say the rough cut has ended up fairly different, however not in a bad way. We only planned on having a narrative for the chorus' but as it turns out, the whole music video has pretty much followed a narrative, but we think its led to a better end product. I think the overall feel of the video is very good, it is an enjoyable watch. However, this isn't about the music video being enjoyable, it's about gaining marks, and in terms of skill and craftsmanship of the video, it isn't too varied. We will continue to edit and try and find some hidden gems in terms of camera angles and shots, so the longer ones don't just seem to drag, but if we can't, we will go out filming again.

Nonetheless we will be showing this to AS media groups to gain some feedback to say what they think about it. Hopefully the feedback will be good enough and critical enough to enable us to improve on what we have edited and filmed thus far. Overall I'm very pleased with the rough cut though.

Filming - Monday 23rd November

This is our last scheduled day of filming as we plan to cover everything that needs covering. Sadly weather was once again an issue but it was a challenge we overcame well, it was a very windy day and different to the weather on our first day of filming but it hasn't come out noticeable on camera, so luckily the consistency will still be there.

Filming for the day once again began at our actor Luke's house, which is being featured in the video more than originally planned thanks to the weather, meaning we've had to improvise. But again there is not too much of the house in the video for it to become tiresome and repetitive, filming is in different sections of his house too. On this occasion, we filmed in his front room in front of the tv. After finishing this we went out to film again and re-shoot a few of the shots that weren't up to standard or just 'didn't fit in'. We also found a quiet area with a convieniently placed wall, so we used this instead of our original bench shot, with Cosmo sneaking up over the wall to sing to Melanie. I think that the filming on this day was the most comedic we have done yet, as we really got into it today and our creative muses were always being ticked into gear.

Overall, the filming was a success and if we need to film again I think the good work done here will continue to flow into the next day's filming.

Successful Shots.

These are a selection of my favourite shots we have filmed so far. These are ones that I would consider successful, as in they fit in with our representation of Cosmo/Mel. These freeze frames also shows the vary of shot types that have been filmed so far.

Second Editing Process

We uploaded everything on the Friday lesson, and quickly realised despite filming everything we had planned that we didn't quite have enough and some parts of the video, although looking good on paper, did not come off in reality. So it seems we will be filming again to improve these things. Editing went smoothly other than that, with the use of Final Cut Pro becoming more and more easy as time goes by, as we familiarise ourselves with the program.

Filming - Thursday 12th November

This was our second filming session for the music video. It was more successful than the first as not only did we finish what we planned but we also finished the entire storyboard and also improvised to create more shots, to add vary. Our actor Luke has many instruments so we thought we'd utilise these and create more potential footage for the video. One of our improvised shots shows Luke on the toilet playing the Guitar in a laid back manner, like playing the guitar on the toilet is the norm for him. This shows the playful side to Cosmo's music and that he doesn't take himself too seriously.

The day did not go without its issues though, one of those issues we had no control over was the weather, with the rain pouring heavily throughout the day. We had to change our plans to suit the weather so one of our scheduled locations, Marine Lake, had to be replaced to an indoor location. We decided to go with the Sovereign Centre, the shopping centre in Weston-Super-Mare. This also was not without its problems as its a busy place, even busier due to the rain outside, many people who would be in the shops outside were shopping inside to avoid the rain. We went to a section of the shopping centre that wasn't too busy, so we didn't disturb shoppers (and so they didn't disturb us!).

Production Company Logo

Our group has designed our own company logo, we've had the freedom to design what we wish and we've designed something that would match a company that would be a possible representative of Cosmo Jarvis were he signed. There are many company logos, some known Worldwide, such as Nike and Pepsi.





<-- Pepsi Logo, synonymous with the recognisable red and blue circle.

The music industry however, does not have many stand out logo's in terms of producing companies. I'm an avid follower of music and I can't think of any logo from the top of my head. This is where our producing company could stand out. One of the most famous record companies, Universal Music Group, is the parent company of Def Jam recordings. Def Jam recordings are a company known Worldwide in the rap industry, yet their logo is very simple and recognisable.

<-- Def Jam recordings, powerhouse in the rap industry.

Our production company will be lesser known however, so our will need to stand out. Def Jam recordings have a reputation so can do a simple logo because it guarantees quality. A smaller company in the music industry is Roc-a-fella Records, created by Shaun 'Jay-Z' Carter. Their logo is much closer to the feel we want for ours, to stand out and be instantly linked to our production company. This is the Roc-a-fella Records logo.

<-- Roc-a-fella Records, up and comer in the music industry.

With all that said, we also wanted our logo to serve more of a purpose than being a recognisable image. We wanted it to clearly represent the company, and what its aim was. We wanted more colour than most logos, so it grabs your attention and prints an impression in the mind. And it needed to be adaptable, so it could fit on a small scale, such as on the case of the DigiPak. We decided to go with 'Purple Tortoise Productions' as the name of our production company. It just sounds like the kind of company that would pick up a talent such as Cosmo Jarvis, it sounds fun and not too serious. Two drafts were drawn up for our image, the first is a simple design of a purple tortoise, drawn on photoshop with the 'freedrawn' tool.






<-- Draft one. Tortoise drawn using purple paint. Draft Two was done on Adobe Photoshop, using a photograph of a tortoise found on Google Images and editing the colouring and adding text, which is used in all 3 above well known examples.

<-- Draft two. The image we decided to go with.

Final Cut Pro vs iMovie

Two editing programs, two programs designed by the same company, two very different results.

Final Cut Pro is the editing software being used by our group for this year's coursework, the music video. As mentioned in previous blogs last year we used iMovie. I would be hard pressed to say i prefer Final Cut but I can't deny it gives crisper results. The wider range of abilities available, such as transitions (many yet not explored) mean it is not as limited. The viewer window is alot more accessible, with the use of tabs allowing you to change things in simpler ways, such as the motion tab, containing tools to adjust the scale, opacity, cropping, rotation, motion blur and many more things of the clip.

With all things said though, I still preferred iMovie. It was more 'student friendly' for what its worth and simpler to use, but this is coursework, not a playaround, so there is no doubting the best results will come from Final Cut Pro. iMovie is best used in amateur editing, I can't name a film from the top of my head (or know if there is a film) created using iMovie, but I know many a film edited using Final Cut Pro, many in fact amongst my favourite movies, including:

• Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
• Super Size Me (2004) - a somewhat amateur documentary anyway but still a huge (or super size) success
• Jarhead (2005)
• No Country For Old Men (2007) - Received global acclaim and numerous Golden Globe nominations, 2 winners.

As well as being used in other successful films, such as The Simpsons Movie and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

The history is shown here that you can produce quality with Final Cut Pro, and unlike iMovie, there is no excuse for us to not do so. Final Cut Pro will open a new world for our editing process, so lets just hope we can learn how to use it correctly!

First editing process

After a semi-successful first day of filming, we began editing on our first lesson back from half term. In our AS year, we used iMovie to do the editing process, and overall that went quite well, but we did run into problems because it was so limited. So for A2 we are using 'Final Cut' to do our editing. This is a more complex program, therefore it is more difficult to use, but it's a challenge our group looks forward to facing, and hopefully it will produce a better quality video.

To upload the footage was the first new difference from iMovie. We had to go "Edit --> Log and Capture" in order to upload and segment our filming into different frames so it wasn't just one long frame with all the filming in it, making it harder to cut successfully. This was quite time consuming as you'd expect and it took around 15 minutes for the work to be completely uploaded to the computer.

Once that was done, we uploaded Heidi's MP3 of 'Mels Song' so we could make a smooth transition with the video matching the song and the lyrics, making it easier to position the clips where we wanted. The remainder of the lesson we just cut and pasted around half of the clips filmed on the first day into the video, realising where our gaps were, what may need to be filmed again etc. We fear we may not have enough angles but thats something we will look at when we finished our rough cut.

Filming - Tuesday 27th October 2009

During half term, our group along with our actor Luke Milsom started filming. Overall it went well although we didn't get as much done as we anticipated. In the production schedule we underestimated how long it would take to get the desired shots and in the end we managed to film the bedroom scenes and a few outdoor ones, such as shots at the Beach, Arcades and Woods. These are the shots captured in accordance to the shot list:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 23, 24, 29, 32

Unfortunately, Luke was also suffering from illness so the planned workload would of been a strain on him. We've planned to shoot next on Thursday 12th November, rather than the 29th October, because Luke is going to London for the 29th and 30th.

List of planned shots

(Click on the image to enlarge)

This is our proposed shot list for our music video. There are 32 shots planned in all, which will hopefully be different enough from each other to gain marks. 32 shots are not guaranteed to get you high marks, and we will need more than different mise-en-scene. We intend to incorporate a few different angles to make it fresh. This would be similar to the opening of the Taio Cruz video 'Come on Girl', except not just one location.

Link to Taio Cruz video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgooVlVc4_o

Using the information from this shot list, the production schedule should make more sense. The numbers on the production schedule represent the shot which is on the list.

Production Schedule - Final version

This is the proposed schedule for the first day of filming. As you can see it will cover the majority of shots posted on the shot list. We're going to start filming at 11 a.m, and need to finish by around 4 o'clock, because it now starts getting darker around that time and we want camera light consistencies, unlike the thriller opening we did in AS.

If we don't manage to finish on the 27th October we will film on the overflow date, 29th October.

Production Schedule - Rough Draft

When? All of our filming will take place during half term on Tuesday 27th October. Should we find any issues we come to the editing stage after half term we will go out and re-film certain parts (wherever the problem is occurring).

Who? Actors needed:

• Luke Milsom = Cosmo Jarvis
• Heidi Martini = Melanie
• Pedestrians = Extras

Props needed:

• Clothing - Trackies, Hoodies - Dirty, worn out
• Cardboard signs
• Chips

Equipment needed:

• Camera
• Digital Camcorder
• Tripod
• Tape
• Camera bag

Where? We will be using numerous locations to film, but all will have a similar feeling. Places in a town which looks very average, which fits into how we want Cosmo to seem, average. Locations to be used include:

• Bedroom (Luke's room most likely)
• Arcades (in the Town Centre)
• Park benches
• Underneath a Bridge
• Train subway
• Bus
• An old car (possibly Elliot's Metro)
• Elevator
• Caravan site
• Scrapyard

What?

Bedroom - Shot 2, 3, 4, 5 - 'My duvet smells but...' Zoom into face and groin region

Arcades - Chorus - Filming Cosmo (Luke) walking through miming the lyrics

Park Benches - 1st verse/chorus - Cosmo comes into 'contact' with Melanie

Underneath a Bridge - Chorus - Cosmo sings to Melanie and she is dismissive towards him

Train Subway - Pass eachother

Bus

An Old Car - During a verse

Elevator

Caravan Site - During a verse

Scrapyard - During a verse

Animatic

Album Artwork Analysis

"Encore" is the fifth studio album released by mainstream US rapper, Eminem. The cover starts with the name across the top, with a backwards E starting off the word, which is something that Eminem does with his own name, the first E is always backwards on his artwork. Eminem is in the centre of the album, the focal point, and it is just him bowing. This ties in with the album title, as it looks like the end of his performance, known as the encore.

This was also representative of the rumour (or fact) that Marshall Mathers planned this to be his last album with his alter ego (Eminem). If you listen to the album, you'd notice it was made to be seem like it was a live performance, with simulated audience applause and chants at times.

"The End of Heartache" is the third album released by American rock band Killswitch Engage. The image shows bright red hands clutching a stone shaped like a loveheart, which is grey, and 'stabbed' by around 40 needles. This ties into the title of the album perfectly, as the heart has turned grey, suggesting the love (which is traditionally shown through the colour red) has gone and the pain is over, therefore its the end of heartache.

Treatment/Pitch for Music Video

Summary of the treatment:

After doing some research on videos previously made by Cosmo Jarvis, (Mel's song and She's Got You) we've decided to go with something which is a different twist, he normally makes 'jackass' type videos, videos which only appeal to certain groups and therefore have something of a 'cult' following. He doesn't usually focus on the narrative of his song, but we're trying to incorporate both aspects, the 'jackass fun-loving' side of Cosmo Jarvis and the deepness of his narrative.

Our character of Cosmo Jarvis will be played by a friend of ours, Luke Milsom. He was also the actor in our AS piece 'Dreams'. He fits the role we desire in our representation of Cosmo, which is fun loving, not too serious and young.

In our music video, Luke will be shown walking through various areas of Weston-Super-Mare, lip syncing various lyrics, in a style similar to The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony'.



There will also be 'extras' shown throughout the video, people who will be standing in the background of these areas, and after he walks past they will hold up signs, with some of the lyrics and/or interpretations of the lyrics. This helps the viewer follow the narrative of the song, as its not the most simple song and also it keeps the audience interested in where it is going from there. At some stage Elliot, Jordan and myself will hold a sign, as a brief cameo appearance and its also nice to be in your own video. The ideas of holding signs to explain narrative can be used in both film and music. A film that use signs is 'Bruce Almighty' while a music video is All American Rejects' 'Dirty Little Secrets'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ikv7TI87io

The locations we are planning on using are:

• Train
• Bus
• An old car (possibly Elliot's Metro)
• Elevators
• House/flat
• Arcade
• Caravan Site
• A train station Subway
• Scrapyard
• Underneath a bridge
• Bench (possibly in a park)
  

As well as these locations, we will also need a number of resources:

• Male actor (Luke) and Female actress to play Mel (most likely to be Heidi, the female member of our group)
• Cardboard signs (to write lyrics on)
• Chips
• Pedestrians (extras)
• Filming equipment (Camera/tripod/tape etc)
  
• MP3 version of Mel's Song

This is the summary of our ideas thus far, which are of course subject to change at such an early stage in production. The majority of the locations are accessible as are the resources, so there should be no huge difficulties in filming this music video.

Our choice of song - Mel's song by Cosmo Jarvis

After thinking hard about a song our group (Elliot Lowndes, Heidi Martini, Jordan Carr and myself) could use, we chose to go with Mel's song, sung by Cosmo Jarvis.
Cosmo Jarvis is an artist born in New Jersey, America, and he moved to Devon in his childhood. He is an unsigned talent whom i had never heard of before, but Heidi had been a fan of his for a couple of years. Cosmo is yet to become mainstream, but he has developed a big following, there are 1600 subscribers to his MySpace page.

http://www.myspace.com/cosmojarvis

'Mel's Song' is a song with a narrative, in which Cosmo Jarvis talks of a girl named Melanie whom he has feelings for but nothing has come of them. She is someone he desires but has little chance with.

There is also a video on YouTube for Mel's Song, made by Cosmo Jarvis, and this can act as an brief idea on what to do. We can see what type of idea he had for the promo by the video he himself made. His video was homemade and its claimed on YouTube it was "made using one camera and no budget". This is well within our means but we are aiming to make ours more unique, which we will come to on the Treatment.


^ This is the YouTube promo for Mel's Song, filmed by Cosmo Jarvis.

Although Cosmo Jarvis is unsigned, and therefore his material is free to use, Heidi, the only member of the group with a MySpace account, emailed Cosmo Jarvis asking for permission to use Mel's Song, however we are yet to hear a reply.

Videos i like - Movies - Alien Ant Farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhrIN75Y2Mk

I really like this video because of its film references, it takes me back to times i would sit and watch them all day. It is a very playful and enjoyable song and music video. In the video they play the roles and re-enact some films, such as Ghostbusters (shooting Axl Rose with their instruments), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (starring as Oompa Loompas and a girl in the crowd turns into a blue ball like Violet), Edward Scissorhands (one of the band members get AAF cut into their hair by Scissorhands) and the Karate Kid (with Mr. Miyagi healing the injuries). It is always a good video to watch and it relates to the song title, but not particularly the lyrics.. bar one line in the chorus 'And just like the movies, we play out our last scene.'

Videos I like - A Million Ways - OK Go!

(Not the actual video, it couldn't be embedded) The dance is the main focus here. Alot of my favourite music videos include dances. This is because i really enjoy seeing the dances, and the more unusual the better! Ok Go are by no means brilliant dancers, but they've took a
relatively hard track to make a music video for and turned it into a fun experience for the viewer! I love this video because its just
fun to watch, and you can tell the performers are having fun making it! And thats what music is all about in my view

Videos I like - The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang

I like this video because there is always something going on. The mise-en-scene is a simple town, but the outfits and costume really sparkle up the video. I love the outfits as it keeps me interested, and the video is really simplistic, and includes an easy to learn dance in the video. Having a dance in a video is a good way to get people talking about it, and it can bring people joy if a friend can do the dance, as its a funny video and people will know what they are doing