These are my initial ideas for the design of my digipak cover. I am aware that these may change slightly over the course of making it. Idea 3 (below) is the idea I like the most so this is the plan I am going to use.
Idea 3 is my favourite concept as it is simple and the geometric pattern is by far the best due to the way they seem to emanate from Tamas' face and the designs without the geometric pattern are a little dull and have too much happening.
I really like the idea of making a bold statement with the digipak cover by using bright primary colours against a black background to create a striking stand out image. I also think it is important when a band is new to have a picture of the band members or the lead singer on the front to make them easily recognisable and to promote the band's image, however many bands do not do this in their first album release for example:
On top of this I want to create a recognisable image for the band that can be used in promotional merchandise; the use of red and yellow in a geometric pattern makes a bold statement next to the pallid grey scale face of Tamas.
Update: I have just realised that although I love this colour scheme, it is the colours of the German flag which makes this album cover quite confusing in terms of nationality as the band is called The New York Fund, it has a German flag background, a review saying 'Best new British Band' and vaguely Russian looking text.
Although this may be a good design and if it was to be used in 'the real world' this would be fine, however in the specification it defines that the digipak should show elements of Britishness! This is why I have had to change my design slightly (see below).
By adding the green and blue graphics to the design some ofthe simplicity has been lost from it but the added brightness and the way it no longer looks like the German Flag makes this a lot better.
Many comedy films have been made about the Music Industry, however in recent years the music industry seems to have become increasingly obsessed with money and the power struggle between consumers and producers. On top of this the age of Rock 'n' Roll is over and it is no longer a socially acceptable fact to take drugs and drive your car into a swimming pool. This is shown by the condemnation of Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty for taking drugs. Don't get me wrong I am not condoning copious amounts of drug taking that colours the lives of Ozzy Osbourne and Jimi Hendrix but the music industry now seems so uptight, only accepting mainstream artists if they fit a certain genre: tall, skinny, muscular, good looking and an ability to sound just like everybody else. The days of liking music for musics sake and forgetting the private life of artists is at an end!
Still Crazy Trailer This film released in 1998 spans the careers of a hit band of the 70's and their attempt to revive their music lives with a reunion tour of some of the most disgusting venues. This film is a satirical view of rock stars and their lives incorporating good music with alcohol, drugs and jokes. This sort of film has also been released recently with 'The Boat That Rocked', in this respect it is not unusual to see comedy and music hand in hand. However these film are all based in the past music scenes and the current stars of the music industry are taken extremely seriously, with magazine stories covering parts of their lives and constantly analysing what they wear and what they do. This serious view on the industry dictates the type of mainstream music that is now produced and all sounds slightly similar as to stray from the tracks of acceptable behaviour is to be under ridicule and is career suicide in the eyes of the music industry.
'Big Bottoms' by Spinal Tap from the film This is Spinal Tap, as you can tell from this clip comedy is used satirically just as in Still Crazy through a fictitious band and their lives. Set in the time of release (1984) this moc-umentary tries to reveal the lives behind the music and the use of comical songs like 'Big Bottoms' certainly does make a satire of the music industry.
As I have said before the world of comedy and music often combine to create a whole new experience. Comedians like Tim Minchin, Victoria Wood and Bill Bailey do this perfectly, as during their stand-up performances they perform funny songs.
Basically what I am trying to say is that Music and Comedy mesh so well and yet the music industry is full of rules and intrusion from the media industry that the comedy is often overlooked. so wouldnt it be great if audiences were not so concerned with the private lives of the celebrities but are more interested in enjoying the music and having fun!
Without a doubt in mind if I had to choose a Disney Character that reigns supreme it would have to be Genie from Aladdin. He with stands the pass of time and the pass of new generations of Disney characters (that are now fused with Pixar)to still be the popular icon that he is today.
It is not only this that persuades me, he is the king of Disney. I have formulated a list of reasons why he is Disney's best creation and have backed some these points up with evidence:
He is the ultimate performer - sing, dance, entertain, magic, comedy, impressions (Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver - 'You Looking at me?'
He is blue and so easily recognisable, i mean how many floating blue men with no legs are there?
He is a huge symbol of magical power and prowess
He is compact
Powerful
Immortal - never ending peace
He can change shape!
Knows how to party
One man army - so can defeat anyone (even Russia)!
Speaks many different languages
He gives wishes to anybody who rubs his lamp meaning that he treats everyone fairly and with the same rules applied:
No wishing for more wishes - shows intelligence which is also shown by his rule of no refunds!
No Killing - Shows morals
No bringing people back from the dead - also shows morals and intelligence but free thinking and an ability to rule
No forcing people to fall in love - he does not mess with minds
All of the above are shown in the clip below:
8. The Genie cares about friends - knows who to trust 9. He promotes selflessness - didn't hold Aladdin to his promise 10. He doesn't care about looks with a big blue belly and a silly comic hair cut 11. He is now free to do whatever he pleases and so he has more power
All of these things are shown in the ending scene of Aladdin:
By adding all these factors together you discover that the Genie would be a magnificent ruler and the fact that he has been locked away from the world for years should not be a draw back, for example all you need to do is look at Nelson Mandela who was locked away for years but ultimately became a peaceful ruler.
From the point of view of the creator's side the Genie is very interesting because they have implemented many stereotypes but at the same time broken many, for instance the genie is over weight with a bubbly cheerful disposition which is a huge stereotype. On top of this he has a gold earring and a curly beard signifying that he is from the middle-east. These techniques are rife within Disney but the Genie breaks some of these rules by transforming in to American icons like Forrest Gump (Aladdin and the Prince of Thieves). So he is unique in the way that he is designed and the methodology he transmits. If you were looking for a Disney character to reign supreme in terms of representations the best one to choose would have to be Mulan, who although has to masquerade as a man to do what is neccessary, she is an empowering symbol to women, showing that what men can do so can women in so doing creating an equality between the sexes.
Going back to the Genie however we should always remember that underneath all the blue satirical comments he is .... Robin Williams! Which in itself deserves a crown!
Theories of audience consumption have developed over time along with the evolution of consumption habits in conjunction with the proliferation of hardware and content.
'Uses and Gratification Theory’
This Theory was initially created by a man named Lasswell in 1948 but was then adapted by Katz, Bulmer and another colleague for the modern audience who use new technologies.
The Uses and Gratification theory views the audience as active, meaning that they actively seek out specific media and content to achieve certain results or gratifications that satisfy their personal needs. It contradicted older views that said the audience was passive.
The uses and Gratifications Approach has five basic assumptions:
1. Audience conceived as active 2. People use the media to their advantage more often than the media uses them. 3. The media competes with other sources of need satisfaction. 4. People are very aware of their motives and choices and are able to explain them verbally if necessary. 5. The audience can only determine the value of the media content. It is the individual audience members who make the decision to view the media; therefore, they place the value on it by their individual decision to view it.
In yesterday’s lesson we were thinking about why audiences consume certain media and this links with the theory because the theory states that the audience actually seeks out the specific texts it wants instead of stumbling on them randomly meaning that there are reasons behind consuming texts and the media has to abide by those reasons to create an audience.
So far, we were intending to have a suicide scene at the end of the video using a fake gun the would be used to shoot Tamas; however we have decided that we are trying to promote the band and this scene would create a depressing image which is definitely not the way the band would want to be promoted, on top of this there have been recent concerns expressed in the media of cluster suicides in Wales so there is also the possibility that an audience might be offended by the suicide scene. This means that the record would not sell very well and seeing as how music videos are designed to boost record sales that would be a pretty unsuccessful video.
We have already shot a scene in which Tamas walks into the light signifying his death, by using this scene the death remains ambiguous but we can still use this great shot. Because we are not using our Death scene we therefore are having to get some more footage to fill the time we have decided to use this as an opportunity to shoot some more close-ups to strengthen our narrative and make our video more interesting for the audience.
We are using Madonna's video for 'Like a Prayer' as inspiration for this
If the embedded video does not work properly follow this link for a better quality video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fzeNUqQbQ&feature=fvsr
This video for Madonna's song "Like a Prayer" has shown us that a narrative can be transformed by a myriad of different shot types and lots of close-ups.
For example, as you can see there are plenty of close-ups of Madonnas face, by doing this the audiences attention is kept and it promotes the artist. This type of shot is really easy to achieve and is very effective so we will be using this is our own video.
In the video this shot is played with a slow zoom as are other shots in the video. By using a slow zoom in the mellow sections of the song whilst the artist is the focus of the shot is a more imaginative way of promoting them and it allows for the shot to be slightly longer than usual as the added dimension of the zoom keeps the audiences attention for longer. This is also another technique we can easily utilise in our own video to create an improvement to our medium to close-up shots. The extreme close-ups above and below are also really useful because they add significance to the subject matter. In the picture above for example the extreme close-up reinforces the recurring image of roses which connotes love. However it also symbolises the outward beauty of the man with the difficult racist past represented by the hidden thorns. These extreme close-ups enable a theme to be quickly produced.
The extreme close-ups are also convienient for use in our music video. Madonna's video has taught us that a theme, in this case religion, can amplify the meaning of the lyrics but can also make the narrative easier to comprehend. We have not got a connoting theme like this video has but it is useful to know if we do create one or if we ever make another music video.
Inspired by The French Lieutenants Woman by John Fowles we are thinking of having two alternative endings to our music video to give a new dynamic and create a wider interest. On top of this it is a nice feature to add on to our DVD allowing the audience to pick their favourite ending and increasing our demographic whilst creating an active audience that will consume the product more thoroughly.
Ideas for alternative endings:
Where the male and female meet and forgive each other to create a more conventional, Americanised ending. This would appeal to a wider more international audience like American's which is a market that every artists wants to conquer as that means a lot of money.
Where the couple walk past each other and ignore one another; which is what happens in the end of The Third Man (below). To create a sense of mystery through the ambiguity.
We already have some nice random shots of Tamas and Lucy walking into the light which consumes them . This would create a really stylistic ending and leave a great deal of ambiguity because is he dead or merely dead to her? - This is probably the ending that we will use but if we get the chance we will try and make the others to be able to market for a wider audience.
The use of alternative endings does mean a lot more work so they will only be made if we have enough time.
During our lesson time at school Ms Barton our teacher for the Production part of the course allowed us to film which was extremely useful considering we have two, two hour slots with her which meant that we had the potential to film for four hours a fortnight. As a group we grabbed this opportunity by the horns and went out for two hours just to find the locations in the city. We also went out twice to film during these lessons. However this was not enough because we have several different locations so we decided to go out after school on random dates to film. So we ended up filming.
11.20am - 1.20pm on Mondays during our lessons.
4.00pm - as long as it takes monday, tuesday and occasionally wednesday evenings
By filming at the beginning of the week this enables us to edit our existing footage and identify early on whether their are any shots that could be improved or if some footage is just not good enough.
Before half term (26th October - 2nd November) we filmed a lot of footage on Friday 25th October, it was because of this that as a group we decided to push on with the editing and shooting throughout the holiday, so I inivited them both round on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th October. We had previously decided to edit our video using software that Tamas had () on his laptop instead of using the less advanced programme on the school computers, this enabled us to edit at my house over the holidays. We also shot a lot more footage in the village where I live on the 27th, to create an interesting mise-en-scene of the vibrant city life next to the river juxtaposed with the bleak, silence of Mulbarton graveyard.
The initial raw footage that we have filmed down Elm Hill has not turned out very well as we didnt film enough close-ups and extreme close ups which is hard to achieve when filming someone walking across cobbles. It is for these reasons that we have decided to refilm and not use much of this first shoots footage.
We have also had to film some extra dream/memory footage which we are going to film at Cringleford park on 9th November. this footage shouldnt take too long as we intend to just use the swings to get closeups and high angle shots etc. Update: Unfortunately when we got to the park the swings had been removed a few days before hand and we had to improvise using the Carousel. However this footage has turned out really nice and is better than it would have been if we had used swings.
I recently bought a Creative Zen music player and on it came this music video by Parka. They are an 'indie' band as it says on their MySpace page, and I am putting this on my blog merely for the fact that their video has amazing utilisation of balloons.
The video although a little long and tedious has shown me that narrative is not neccessarily needed within a music video however an added dynamic is needed like here the balloons are used. On the other hand this video would benefit from more dynamics instead of just the balloons which by the end the novelty has gone. So in music videos without a narrative, like this one, more than one interesting dynamic perhaps different coloured lighting or more special effects and a larger variety of shots is definitely warranted to grab and keep the audiences attention.
Whilst looking up some live footage of The New York Fund I ran across this video for their song The Guns of Camden Town. Previously I had not realised that they had any music videos to their songs and suddenly thought that they might be signed however after watching it you can tell that it is an amateur video. It is extremely long with no narrative but random short references to musical instruments and old looking lamps. The editing is really good; fitting in with the beat of the music especially at the start where the lights are switched on and dimmed and the foot is stamping.
This is of stark contrast to our proposed music video because we have a large narrative that runs throughout with no shots of the band playing. However our song has greater potential for visual images because of the lyrics whereas this one doesn't.
Before we started actually researching our target audience, we decided to make an estimate as a group based on stereotypes and the genre of our music video. Here is the result:
This was a little bit of fun really: we decided that due to the fashions at this time which are popular our target audience would be predominantly 16-25 years old 'indie kids' which the Find Your Tribe website defines as:
"There's nothing like the twang of a guitar to get your converse tapping. Indie Kids are part of a mass - whether that means swaying with their friends at a gig, commenting on Drowned in Sound's message board or trawling through band profiles on My Space for the next exciting sound. It's amazing what can still be done with a guitar, you know."
Although obviously this is only a hypothesis and will only be proved until after our questionnaires have been handed out.
I have had a look at several different digipak covers for different bands and have decided that the majority of the time for genres like ours of indie/rock the digipak covers will not relate to anything on the album or will use shots from one of the tracks music video or imagery from one lyric or will use/create a band identity so that they are easily recognisable.
A great example of a digipak not relating to anything is this one by the rumble strips. However the images presented are how the band want to be viewed; with the stained vest showing his chest coupled with the scary sharp toothed dog creates a 'tough guy' image. Which fits in with their video 'Not the Only Person' (shown below)
In this video the main protagonist defeats a large amount of thugs with a magical woman who emerges from his chest so the tough image fits in thus creating an identity for the band as young tough and experimental.
This Razorlight cover from what I can tell has little or nothing to do with any of their music videos, but instead is a collage of random everyday items like keys and memories. This could fit in with the title 'Up All Night' as this could be the memories or it could represent the chaos caused by being up all night. The title of the album tend to be the debut song/video and in this case it is. The picture of the lead singer in the television screen is a good way to advertise the band through the primary figure who everyone will recognise.
This album cover by The Rakes is very interesting it took me 10 minutes to figure out that what appears to be random shapes actually reads as 'Klang' which is the German word for sound. This album does not have any pictures of the artist on it but it has created a band image (as you can see below) that can be repeated effectively using different forms and colours. This does show the fact that parallel lines and block colours are very popular in the fashion of album covers at the moment.
This is why I think that using block colour imagery on my album cover will appeal to the modern consumer market.
I love this album cover as it uses patterns within patterns which also fits in with the title of 'Perfect Symmetry' and follows the fashion of straight lines and block colours. The inventiveness of the design including triangles of facial features made out of what seems to be a collage adds an extra dimesion to the pattern and makes the cover more interesting. The font is also really interesting and has a russian hint with an original shaped E.
Overall looking at these digipak covers has given me some ideas of what to use in me own digipak production:
This is an extremely famous piece of art by Edvard Munch called 'The Scream' it is so famous that he actually made several. We have the concept of being haunted by past relationships in our music video, but we have left it ambiguous within the video as we do not clarify whether the male protagonist is dead or is just a memory that is possessing the female through grief. The main message that we get across is that she has lost him in one way or another. We were inspired by this artwork because of the look of despair on the wasted face of the character on the bridge epitomising our female protagonists thoughts and feelings which fits in with the lyrics "I hear my devil start to sing", showing the torment caused by their inner demons. On top of this the dark background meeting the sunset juxtaposes the nightmare with romance which is a predominant theme of our video. Lastly the vanishing point disappears into the side of the picture which signifies the never ending journey of our character's plight to find their lover.
This is another work by the artist Edvard Munch, and is called 'The Madonna'. It has influenced our video with the sensual fantasy element of the picture. The female's alluring and inviting posture also bears a mysterious, dangerous air with the dark swirling background adding to this feeling of intimidation and dream like state. Within our music video we are trying to create a dream like state of fantasy about the female or male to signify their love lost. On top of this we want the characters love to seem pure just like the name Madonna which signifies the Virgin Mary and the narrow dark band around her head furthers this. However there is very little holiness around this image and we believe that is exactly like our video with the innocence of the characters love juxtaposed with their inner demons.
This Scene from American Beauty was also of great inspiration to us as it is another sensual fantasy scene. The protagonist (played by Kevin Spacey) describes his feelings in an internal monologue during this scene and says:
“It’s the weirdest thing. I feel like I have been in a coma for twenty years and I am just now waking up... Spectacular”
This feeling of a dream like state is what we are trying to convey within our video with our fantasy scenes. The film has lots of dream fantasy scenes but this fantasy scene is particularly clever because the way in which it takes place on the ceiling which shows that it is not quite reality, it also enables the falling of rose petals on to the bed signifying lust and passion. Dream scenes will be great for our video because then we can vary our choices of locations, also it shows the love that still belongs between the couple although they are no longer together. These are examples of the use of the male gaze within media to portray women, in what some audiences would argue is a negative light, however we are not intending to have sexual dream scenes because we understand that they would alienate a proportion of our audience, but we are going to include innocent dream scenes, that mirror memories of the time they spent together as a couple.
The video above also influenced us; it is the first dream scene in American Beauty. We would love to do a dream scene where the background is dark and the female is lit by a spotlight; using this chiaroscuro lighting encompasses the dark side of the fantasy where she is not actually real and the other alluring side.
This is The Rumble Strips video Not The Only Person which influenced our walking scenes because in this video the walking leads us through the journeying narrative to the penultimate scene.
This is a link to Coldplay's video for their song The Scientist which has influenced the beginning of our music video greatly as you can tell by playing the video backwards adds interest and an extra focus point is added to an otherwise bland beginning to this video. However we have decided to not use lip-sinked lyrics during these shots because to learn to sing the song backwards is labour intensive and takes too long, so we do not intend to have Tamas lip sinking to the music whilst walking backward.
I was trawling through some older music videos the other day to see if there was a great deal of different between then and now and i stumbled across this video by Celine Dion which has the same sort of narrative and has some of the same shots as what we have already used. This Just goes to show that nothing is ever really unique.
For this video along with costumes we will also need props to create the right look and the right action, the things we will need are as follows:
Camera (always handy)
Tripod - enables us to film steady fluid shots, with the added advantage of creating a smooth panning effect.
Pictures of Male and Female characters together so the female character can cry over them and some really nice messy extreme close-ups can be utilised
Red Coat for the female connoting passion/blood and romance. By wearing just black shoes and tights underneath we keep the red coat standing out also a great connotation of the mourning colour of black underneath the coat brings the theme back to death again.
Fake but real looking gun to use as a method of suicide. Guns also create and ora of danger and desperation mingled with the sense of modern life which is just what we are looking for.
Update: The photographs are no longer going to be used.
For Izzy's costumes we are going for a theme of red to connote danger, passion and madness. For the fantasy scenes she is going to be wearing a red dress and for the outdoor scene she will be wearing a red coat, this way we create a visual distinguishing feature between the real Izzy and the masked ones.
The masked Izzy's will be dressed in full black to keep a sense of mystery and also to connote mystery and bleakness which is the mental state of our male character as he is being haunted by the multiple fake Izzy's. The inspiration for these masked nightmares came from some of my favourite videos by Chris Cunningham with Aphex Twin because they are so creepy and scary which was the atmosphere I was going for. (see Aphex twin below)
For Tamas' outfit we are going to be dressing him in skinny jeans and a polo shirt which follows the popular culture in fashion making him just one of the many that dress like this in so doing creating an anonymous character that could be seen as anybody. The song is indie/rock and that is the sort of outfit that would be worn by the fans as this type of music is mainstream. As you can tell from the two pictures below the band is of the same style as Razorlight so we have based the image around their style.
Razorlight ^
The New York Fund ^
This sort of fashion is sold at shops like Topman and H&M mens and is the current fashion in mens clothing here are a few examples from http://www.topman.com/
This is an example of the type of straight leg/skinny jean that we will be using in our music video along with this type of polo shirt which are quite anonymous so our character fades into the background like a ghost.
This Polo shirt is very popular with many different fashion styles and so we are appealing to a wider demographic. and as it is bland it connotes the blankness that is left in his life now he cannot find the woman.
Update: We are no longer using masks of Izzy's face because they look cheap and tacky, also we have thought of a better narrative where one of the main characters is a ghost; so the explanation about Aphex twin is irrelevant.
I recently watched the film 'Once' (trailer shown above) starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. It is a beautiful film about a busker and his relationship with an immigrant; set in Dublin, their love story is told through their music rehearsal and recordings, which sends out the message that music is life or at least should be. On top of this it shows that real people make music and that music should tell their stories.
This film offers a unique insight into a depiction of musicians lives. The film is not cliched or main stream however it appeals to a wide audience although it was not a huge blockbuster and was filmed on a very small budget it received high acclaim and average box office revenue. This film represents the music industry as very difficult as the main character lives in a pokey flat with his dad and has to busk to get his music out there in the wide world.
Another film I watched about the music scene in Britain is August Rush starring Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. This film is a higher budget mainstream film aimed at a larger audience, however it bears many of the same connotations about the music industry as 'Once' which is a lower budget niche film.
As a modern reworking of 'Oliver Twist' its the story of an orphaned boy who runs away from the care home in the country and comes to London where he discovers his natural ability to play, compose and conduct music. He seems almost possessed in his abilities as he rapidly learns to play many different instruments and write an entire orchestra's concertos in about a day and all because his parents were two contrasting but fabulous musicians, now this seems a little weird that musical ability is hereditary but after all it is a hollywoodised film.
This however is not what we are interested in for this film depicts the music industry from four different points of view, the dominant being that of the young boy (Freddie Highmore), another from his mother an award winning cellist, his father (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who is the singer in a rock band and a homeless man/squatter (Robin Williams). All these contrasting views mingle and give a fuller picture of what the music means.
The film shows the music industry predominantly through the little boy's eyes as a magical talent that comes naturally to him and will eventually bring back his parents to him. In the end at a concert that he is the star of, his music actually does bring his parents miraculously together in a crowd of thousands and August just so happens to see them in the crown and recognise who they are although he has never seen them before, this is somewhat far fetched and extraordinary but i think this is the point that the director is trying to get across. Kirsten Sheridan the director is showing us that music brings people together, evokes many emotions and is a complete miracle.
Similarly Robin Williams' character, Maxwell 'Wizard' Wallace, looks after homeless children in London who have a talent for music as he himself is musical, however although the music brings them together an awes the children he is also using the music as a way to keep the children happy as they give him all their earnings from busking around the city. So Wizard represents music as a way to make money and manipulate people.
There is another film I must mention in connection to this topic just because it is a great film and gives an insight into the irish music scene. Released in 1991 its called 'The Commitments' and the trailer is shown below:
This film portrays music as a way to interact with people and make new friends but it is also shown as a very competitive business that disguises the people behind it. For example the lead singer of the band that is formed has an amazing voice and wows everyone who hears it but behind his music and away from the publics eye he is an egotistic prat.
Here are some photos showing a session in which all of us in the group drew pictures of possible scene ideas and we organised them in a chronological order and stuck them to black pieces of paper to make the pictures stand out.
Here are the storyboards we made together during the session shown above:
I am creating the music video in a group with Tamas and Lucy, it is for this reason that we need to meet during the week to plan and execute our video. We have free study periods in school where we dont have lessons but can do work and as a group we are very lucky because a lot of these free periods coincide together. Overall we meet at these set times.
By following this link you can find The New York Fund's myspace page and can listen to the song we are using called 'Nobody's home'.
After we decided on our band we sent an email asking for their permission to use their song here is a screen shot of the email we sent them:
The band replied asking what our ideas were for the music video, we replied with the following email:
This is all we have heard from the band and have assumed that we have permission to use it as they have not told us otherwise. Here are the lyrics to the song:
Well I woke up on a Monday With the morning streaming in, And I rode over just like I always do
Cos when I sleep I keep forgetting You don’t live here no more And when I wake I keep on thinking of you
So I was walking down the street With myself for company For so long I getting ready to die
The girl up in the store Says you don’t come round here no more She ain’t seen you for quite some time Quite some time Quite some time
Oh baby where did you go? Where the lights went off There’s nobody home Where did you go? Oh baby we got so close My darling where did you go? Where the lights went out And there ain’t nobody home Oh where did you go? Oh my baby we got so close
I got my finger on the trigger Got your number in my phone I wanna call, I wanna say Baby wont you come on over? And I hear those bells ringing I hear my devil start to sing He says ‘
So you can find me on the street Where I been dragging my feet Yeah I been dragging them round all night I went back up to that store And that girl don’t work there no more She ain’t been working there for quite some time Quite some time Quite some time
Oh baby where did you go? Where the lights went off There’s nobody home Where did you go? Oh baby we got so close My darling where did you go? Where the lights went out And there ain’t nobody home Oh where did you go? Oh my baby we got so close?
The lyrics for 'Nobodys Home' are all about a man who wakes up and cannot find a woman, for this reason we have decided on two different narratives running side by side would be nice and enable us to use different shots like split screens. The narratives are from the point of view of the woman and the other of the man.
The beginning of this song is much like Paolo Nutini's 'New Shoes' song (shown below):
However we have decided that going with the norm of getting out of bed has been done thousands of times and sometimes is not very effective but boring! So we are going to do something a little bit different, if you want to see what we have planned you will have to look at the post called Storyboards, and labelled Planning music video.
As a group we have played with the idea of filming live footage of a band to integrate into the plot line, however we do not know the actual band and making a different band sing the song and lip sink it successfully is incredibly difficult, so instead to root this video to a music video we have decided to come up with a motif that does the same job, also we intend to have a few words to lip sink said by the main protagonist played by Tamas Dalmay, just saying the lyrics 'Nobody's home' as that is the title of the song as well.
We had originally planned to use masks of Izzy's face to haunt our main protagonist played by Tamas however we cannot make masks that are overly convincing and that don't look lousy. I made a few specimens and have taken pictures of me wearing them and an outfit entirely black which is what the cast would be wearing also (Shown below).
Face on view of the mask, this just doesn't look right because it does not fit the shape of the head, reflects the light, and is not as spooky as the look we are trying to convey.Side on view of the mask, we would not purposefully be trying to film to side of the peoples heads but if it did come into view it would not look great but whatever we do with masks this is going to happen, however if we use hoods as well with the new type of masks that will give a great contrast of the black hoods surrounding the very white face.
Instead of the masks shown above that are very mediocre we are going to use proper theatrical white masks that look like this:
After filming some of our footage we have decided to change the narrative a little to create a more interesting mysterious plot. Within this change we have decided that the use of masks should be discarded as it does not fit with generic conventions of love songs and they are more widely used within dance routines, which is not the look we are going for.
Our narrative now runs thus:
Man and woman
Man is suggested as dead
Woman does not know
We have a ghost of the man
Memories
For more information on the Narrative Structure view Post entitled 'Narrative structure'
The New York Fund are an indie rock band and so for the casting we need to find people who fit this genre of music.
After laborious searches for a female and male to cast in our music video we have succeeded in recruiting Izzy Davies who has had previous experience in acting on camera as she acted in a thriller opening for some students last year. Izzy fits in with the genre of music as she is tall, with long brunette hair, on top of this she is perfect for the role as she is very pretty.
As for the male we have asked Guy Walker who has also had lots of acting experience amongst the theatre and also he acted alongside Izzy in a thriller production last year so they will be used to working together and look more authentic. On top of this he fits the profile of an indie rock star in the clothes he wears and his general look. However Guy does work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday which is a down side but I am sure we can work round that for the shooting schedule.
*Update: Due to unforseen circumstances guy can no longer act in our music video which is quite annoying because we had created a meeting schedule around him and now have to find a replacement actor in about 2-3 days.
*Update2: We think we have found another actor for our music video; his name is Johnny Lawrence and fits the profile in the type of clothes he wears. Also he is a music student and so will have a good concept of the music and the way in which we are trying to interpret it.
*Update3: We appear to have been plagued by bad luck because after organising the days to film, Johnny backed out on us at the last minute and left us in the lurch. However me and Lucy managed to persuade Tamas into acting in our music video which is great for the group as he is part of the group so knows what we expect, is used to working with us and also it keeps things simple to organise as we see him 8 - 9 times a week in meetings and lessons anyway. However we are not just using Tamas for convienience, he also fits the profile; by dressing him up in the appropriate clothing (see post entitled costumes) he will look just the part as he is tall, with dark hair that we can sweep across his forehead or vaguely spike up for the desired lookthat is rocked by the man below. Rick Edwards T4 Presenter. T4 presenters always tend to follow the popular culture of the older teens to young adults around the music scene and so are always worth a look at.
This is a photo of Tamas who is going to be our main protagonist.
Unfortunately Izzy never appears to be available when we want to shoot so we are having Lucy Garstka as our female protagonist who, like Tamas, is a member of our group which bears the same merits. Lucy also fits the categories we were looking for as she is pretty with long hair and dresses in the sort of style we were looking for with the costume. Plus an added bonus is that my red coat that we were intending to use to connote danger, passion and death, fits her perfectly.
These are my initial ideas for the design of my digipak cover. I am aware that these may change slightly over the course of making it. Idea 3 (below) is the idea I like the most so this is the plan I am going to use.
Idea 3 is my favourite concept as it is simple and the geometric pattern is by far the best due to the way they seem to emanate from Tamas' face and the designs without the geometric pattern are a little dull and have too much happening.
On top of this I want to create a recognisable image for the band that can be used in promotional merchandise; the use of red and yellow in a geometric pattern makes a bold statement next to the pallid grey scale face of Tamas.
By adding the green and blue graphics to the design some ofthe simplicity has been lost from it but the added brightness and the way it no longer looks like the German Flag makes this a lot better.
This is why I think that using block colour imagery on my album cover will appeal to the modern consumer market.
The New York Fund ^
