Diary Entry: Monday 14th November

Today we are filming the very last part of our narrative. Katie and Iona's characters (the teacher, and the librarian) preparing for the tea party, will not take long to film, and then we are done filming. The editing is progressing, and we will be able to devote almost all of our time to it, once the filming today is done. The audience research is now being finalised. I am making small edits to blog posts, and will be editing once my group mates are done using the hard-drive for audience research.

Props

 

Here is a scanned image of a prop list I wrote and crossed off for the tea party filming. There is frequent inclusion of watches to symbolize the idea of rushing against the clock but largely as a motif for life changing 'when the sun goes down and the colours are replaced'. I thought a disco ball would be appropriate in highlighting the contrast between the characters 2 lives, re infusing the flamboyant fun atmosphere of the life the characters desire. Union Jack bunting and tea cups relate to the conventions of a quintessential British theme which we have present in our tea party, being proud of where your from could relate to the song we are using as The Futureheads are known for their ties with the local community of Sunderand and Newcastle. Various random objects such as flamingo fairy lights have also been included into the prop set up to again represent the unusual and extraordinary feel of the party and allow our video to become that bit more memorable and impacting, similar to the alternative style of our genre. (photos taken by Katie)

Diary Entry: Saturday 12th Novemebr

Laura had a brilliant idea of filming the homeless character finding his tea party shoes from the famous shoe tree in Armstrong Park in Heaton, a wonderfully interesting location that we considered filming in previously. This Saturday we were able to film those shoe scenes as well as scenes of the business woman and the librarian running from work and finding their costumes. We were careful of filming in a variety of locations around the park and in the streets nearby so as not to repeat similar shots. We have very nearly re shot all the footage needed to make our video as good as we can and are again pleased with the results.

Diary Entry: Friday 11th November

Something beneficial about our group having the same free's is being able to film in them. For example today, Alfie filmed me as the Librarian in our school library and we both agreed that the cluttered claustrophobic feel of this library helped to convey the theme of being trapped in a mundane life a lot more effectively than the Library used in our rough cut video. We are pleased with the footage we collected and our teachers agree that the new costume is more appropriate than that I wore in the rough cut. As we were filming, Katie and Laura watched through our new edited footage, tweaking and tidying certain parts and adding their own new editing. Once our proper lesson started I and Alfie continued working on editing the footage of our band performance that I began in my free earlier on. It was successful as the singing is in time with the song and looks very convincing and professional, especially in comparison to our original performance. Filming from many different angles has really been beneficial. Whilst doing this, Katie and Laura were discussing exactly what needed to be improved and added to this blog with our teacher. Laura wrote a list which we are all currently working through in our free time and after school Katie stayed to finish work on our audience research videos.

Current Video Director Research

Chris Milk

Screen shot from 'Touch The Sky'- Kayne West

Chris Milk is a media specialist from America who has worked on TV commercials, political videos, music videos and short movies. He has directed videos for the likes of Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Audioslave, Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, Natasha Bedingfield, Jet, Courtney Love, U2, Gnarls Barkley and Green Day. Milk also directed the second unit on "A Mother's Promise", the Barack Obama bio film that played before his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Screen shot from 'The Wilderness Downtown'

Milk’s latest pieces of work have been Arcade Fires ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ and ‘The Johnny Cash Project’ which are both fantastic and are well worth a viewing. 

Opening page for 'The Wilderness Downtown'

‘The Johnny Cash Project’ is a global art project which is a testament to Johnny Cash. Over 561046 people from 194 countries have taken part Cash’s last video by drawing still images to create his very last music video to the song ‘Ain’t No Grave’. Cash’s last album dealt heavily with the themes of mortality and everlasting life, so in extension so does the video and although it is a poignant piece it is still a fantastic tribute.

“The Johnny Cash Project is a visual testament to how the Man in Black lives on – not just through his vast musical legacy, but in the hearts and minds of all of us around the world he has touched with his talent, his passion, and his indomitable spirit. It is this spirit that is the lifeblood of The Johnny Cash Project. Thank you for helping Johnny’s spirit soar once more. God bless.”- Chris Milk

All if Chris Milks work is visually dynamic, edgy and artistic, I would like to take inspiration from his work to create something as equally visually dynamic, by perhaps using different types of media like photography and artwork in our music video.

Samuel Bennetts

Samuel Bennetts is an Australian director who attempts to use a range of different techniques and styles to better his work and evolve his own talent. Samuel Bennetts mainly works with the band ‘Bluejuice’; an indie band with their own set style of an abstract almost ludicrous view of reality which Samuel Bennetts has been able to exhibit in all of the projects that they have collaborated on.


The director often stylises his work to the genre he is working with, (even though it is mainly indie) such as in the ‘Fur patrol’ video ‘Get along’. This video was far darker than his usual style, and adapted to fit into the bands genre. This ability to ignore his natural style, and to be so adaptable in an alien directing environment, is why I have chosen to study Samuel Bennetts in further detail. I plan to emulate his techniques and base my all of my ideas on the conventions and templates of our genre.

Samuel Bennetts often uses his style to mix morally questionable situations, and odd, almost surreal happenings to convey exactly what he means, but in an interesting and engaging way. An example of this would be the ‘Bluejuice’ video ‘Act yr age’. The song ‘Act yr age’ is obviously supposed to convey the message that age should not be a limitation on your life, and that you should be able to do what you want no matter what other people say, but Samuel Bennetts chose to show this is an extremely odd way. The video flips the idea that is expected, (and is hinted to at the beginning) on its head by changing it from people thinking the lead singer is immature, to people thinking he should act younger. I also hope to imitate this factor of his directing style: mixing the surreal and, the almost dull by comparison, real life to make our video as interesting to the viewer as possible without sacrificing narrative.


Motifs and metaphors have been a large part of Samuel Bennetts work, such as the constant Pinocchio metaphor in the video ‘Ain’t telling the truth’. We will also be using a similar technique within our video, by having a constant motif of clock, and looking at looks. Our song is largely based around time, as it repeats the lyrics ‘Sun goes down and the double life begins’.

Samuel Bennetts also likes to make a sceptical in his videos. Almost all of Samuel Bennetts videos contain a very memorable scene that people look upon in awe, which has been one of the reasons he has rose to prominence, because these scenes are eye catching and memorable spectacal’s. my group and I fully intend to include a memorable and unexpected yet not unfitting scene in our video, and make it as surreal and expertly done as a Samuel Bennetts spectacle.

Research of current directors

MICHEL GONDRY is a French Academy Award winning film maker noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scene. His skills transcend across screen writing, music video/ film directing and advertising. Gondry is the grandson of an inventor and his son is an artist. Within Gondry’s work there is emphasis on emotion and from 1988 till present he has made videos for numerous artists including Beck, Paul McCartney, The White Stripes, Kylie, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz, Daft Punk, Inspiral Carpets, Massive Attack, The Rolling Stones, Sinead O’conner, Nenah Cherry, The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead and Bjork. (most more than once)

 

In my opinion, one of his most noted videos was for The White Stripes; Fell in Love with a Girl. It is a concept video of the band performing as Lego characters. I appreciate the time and effort dedicated into stock motion and feel it’s a very inventive method of filming a performance. The unusual style of video relates to our unique narrative of a flamboyant tea party. The mise en scene in this particular video includes a lot of simplistic block colour which I think highlights the Lego characters more as various tones could drown their silhouettes. Within our own video we could take inspiration in terms of colour to enhance the themes of double lives, for example dull saturation of the characters at work to contrast with the lively colours of the tea party