Filming and such...

Our filming day was thoroughly successful!
The night before the filming ewan and i contacted the actors to let them know what they needed to do and when and of course what they needed to wear.

I had organised with mr Broadbent, head of music, to borrow a few guitars and the drum kit which we then shifted into the main hall which i had booked out for a few periods to help us film in a more appropriate atmosphere. Our actors were : Martyn nash on drums
James Labdarbs on electric guitar
Louis Bozzi-Catlin on bass guitar
James Ward on vocals.

Ewan and i had taken out two cameras and tripods along with a selection of SD cards so we could film as much as possible.
We played the music and let the boys play along with and whilst ewan and i gathered the appropriate shots. These included some panning shots of the performance, some over the shoulder shots of james and some over head shots oh martyn while he was drumming.

For the narrative shots i came up with a good idea that we could film James walking around the backstage of the school hall which looks remarkably like the back of a stage at a gig or recording studio, so i filmed james walking through from different angles and speeds and also some still shots of him up against the wall singing. I also thought it would be a cool addition to the narrative if as james was walking through the backstage the other musicians would come out of the side doors and join him as he walked through. This section is yet to be filmed.

We have planned our next load of filming for after half term and have begun editing the footage that we have just collected.

Filming Plans

Today Ewan and i properly planned our second load of filming for tomorrow.
We decided that our group would work better and produce a better quality film.
Our Actors are: James Ward
James Labdarbs
Harry Bullot
Tom Clark
Josh Alport
Martyn Nash

We also decided that this time we would like to keep to the original storyboard and have the actors in matching costume- to some extent- wearing white shirts and ties with either jeans or suit trousers and sunglasses.

We have also decided to film in the main school hall as the stage has a great white background and plenty of space to incorporate instruments and dancing. I have booked out the hall which means that we have priority over other groups in using it.

We will need to get hold of some instruments so this is a list of who is getting hold of what:
Lauren-Bass Guitar and Mic with stand and lead
Drums will be supplied by the music department
Guitar- Tom or james
Keyboard- Music department

More Inspiration

The link below is Mike Posner's "Cooler Than Me"
I wanted to look into music videos that looked very realistic and as though they were done on grainy, lower quality cameras. i liked this video particularly because it was quite gritty and i liked all the dancing shots which is something we want to replicate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S_H1KDjW9Y

Filming

We changed the location slightly and decided to film in the drama studio as it had huge black curtains that we could pull around to get a plain background for our actors: James Labdarbs, Harry Bullot, James Ward.

we took out two cameras and filmed the boys dancing from two different angles.

Today's lesson

Right!
Today we are going to spend half the hour blogging and researching for our digipack anc the second half of the hour we will be aiming to scout our location and make sure that our actors can do filming this thursday!

Filming Progress!

We've finally sorted out what we're doing and when!!


Actors:                                        Costume and Props:

Harry Bullot                                Black suits                                              
Dan Bambridge                           Turned up jeans/ black tops and shoes-Grease-esque
Charlie Collett                            Musical Instruments-Bass/Keys/Drumkit/Electric/mic...
James Labdarbs                                                               
Joe Jonstone
Martyn Nash
Ollie Sandles
Ewan Smith
James Ward

Photos of the band performing...

The fact that the whole band perform in suits is a feature that we would like to incorporate into our music video. 

Digi-pack Ideas

As part of the A2 project we have to develop a media digi-pack for our chosen band to promote the music they have released. this includes The music video, Album cover and a magazine advert.
Subsequently i have been looking at examples of rockabilly album covers which i will display below...

    

   

  

I found that by looking at these album covers and others like them predominantly feature photographs of the band members either performing or just plain portrait shots and the covers are usually in black and white with flashes of colour. 

Institutions and Distribution

Institution

I have been doing some research on institutions that may possibly market our music video if we were trying to release it into mainstream viewing. so far i have found a website called "Western Star" which is a relatively unknown record label which devotes its attentions to Rockabilly, Psychobilly and British Rock 'n' Roll music. Below is a link to the site...

http://www.western-star.co.uk/


When looking through their website, i came across a list of links to other associated record labels and i discovered "Jumpin' from 6 to 6" which is a label focusing on rockabilly and jazz and blues music which i felt was a much better institution for our music video which is a "Mash Up" of rockabilly and jazz.

the website featured artists such as "The Pinstripes" and "Red Hot & Blue", artists who's musical styles are similar to "The New Town Centres". below is a link to the website...

http://www.jumpingfrom6to6.com/index.htm

Distribution


I found that both of these labels primarily market their products online and rely largely on the knowledge of their intended audience. However, after visiting a few record stores and music/ instrument shops such as James Dace &Son in Chelmsford and of course HMV, i discovered that this type of music was still readily available in sheet, CD and vinyl forms. Although the genre is not quite as popular as hip/hop, pop and rap; the increase in retro fashion in modern society has brought back a demand for older musical genres. AND my dad is still buying this kind of music as well...


iTunes


When i was on my iTunes account last night, i searched rockabilly, blues and jazz music and found that it was also very commonplace there as well. People are obviously still very interested in this genre of music hence why it is seen on popular music players and sites such as Spotify and iTunes.

Research and Planning Treatment Filming

Our class decided to take some inspiration from "The Vixens", a group whose blog and video we watched a few lessons ago for inspiration, an film ourselves talking as a group about the research and planning that we have done and want to continue doing during the planning process.

Today we entered class and were expected to film. The previous lesson i had written down a few pages of notes that our group could refer to when filming the clip.
We set up the camera and tripod on the table and set up the shot so that you could see the three group members sitting together with my blog on the computer screen in the background.

We started filming by each talking into the camera in a continuous narration, using my notes, of exactly what we did and why. I realised that the video would look quite boring if we did it this way and that the group would have even amounts of things to say.
Therefore we changed the idea and i suggested that we film our group simply discussing the questions presented to us the previous lesson about our research and planning because i felt that this way our ideas would flow more openly and we would be able to express all our ideas fully.

I still feel that we could ahve said a bit more and have been a bit more detailed as i put a lot of work into it, however i feel that the clip will surfice as it fits the brief.

The clip will be uploaded soon!...

More ideas...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1evzhSast8

The link about takes you to a youtube page showing Amy Winehouse's music video of "Back to Black".

I have linked this video because i quite like the idea of filming some of our piece in black and white to give off the retro vibe!

Storyboarding process

Prior to starting our storyboarding, as a group we had to come up with some form of vague synopsis and theme so that our ancillary tasks along with our actual music video would be linked by this common theme.

The theme that we came up with was " Rockabilly" and a majority of our research has revolved around acquiring ideas for our piece.

The boat That Rocked

I have got some inspiration from the stag party scene of the film "The Boat That Rocked".
I liked the scene because it showed all the lads going out on the town and walking to different pubs, an idea that my group had been considering.

Unfortunatley the site wont let me embed the video so i am having to simply post the link instead.

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

Inspiration and Ideas

The video above comprises several of the themes and ideas that our group ahd for our version of "Bacalao"
Ideas such as: gangs
mild violence
set in the past

Chosen Song- Original Video

This isthe original video recorded by band "The New Town Centres".

Guitar Shots

In doing some research on rockabilly bands and musical styles,in several of the videos,for instance The Hillbilly Cats' "Long Black Train" there are lots of shots that zoom into the guitarist and the guitar in particular.

Email Reply!

The text below is copied fromthe email a group member recieved fromNew Town Centres guitarts Jan Bednarz, confirming that we could use their track for our A2 project.

From: jan.bednarz@gmail.com [mailto:jan.bednarz@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Jan Bednarz
Sent: 06 October 2010 11:41
To: Ewan SMITH
Subject: Re: The New Town Centres



Hi Ewan,
Go for it!
We'd love to see the final results.
Good luck,
Jan

Jan Bednarz
Producer/Director
Buzz Films Ltd.

Influences

To try and gain some inspiration for our music video we have been looking at other artists who's music styles are similar to those of The New Town Centres.
In the process we came across the music video of "Roses" By Outcast which ,although it is a different musical style, showed someof the concepts we wished to conveyin our project video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAPACD8_Zzw

The link above takes you to the video on youtube.
It includes shots of gang culture, confrontation and is set in the past.
All these things are similar to what we want to replicate for "Bacalao" with our 50's rockabilly theme.

Music Video Inspiration

The video above accompanies Dan Sartain's Song "Replacement Man".
We liked the style of the video as the shots were filmed using a relatively low quality camera, similar to the kind of cameras thatmy group will be using for our filming.
We also liked the dark humour and stage scenes which are elements we would like to include in our video.

Music Video Ideas

Themes for "Bacalao" Music Video:

• Rockabilly
• Fight Scenes
• Culture Clash
• 50's
• Smoking and Suits
• Quiffs
• Dark humour

We are also hoping that we may be aloud to film the actual band at one of their next pub-gigs and use the footage in our video.

Email Correspondance to "The New Town Centres"

We have just sent off a respoectful email to the lead guitarist of the band to ask for his permission to use the song. We have also emailed the band's Myspace email but have not heard back from them as of yet.

A2 Music Project- The New Town Centres

For my A2 Media Studies Project we have been asked to make a promotional music video for a band of our choice. Primarily there were issues with which songs we could choose as the exam board didnt want us to use copyrighted music. However we are now able to use copyright music as long as we gain suitable permission from the band themselves.

Therefore we have chosen to use the song "Bacalao" by The New Town Centres, a reletively un-heard of band from Stevenage.