A Few Ideas On Album Covers

We looked into humour for our album covers as in we could have random pictures with no relation to the band itself. Here are a few of our ideas that we all put together, it includes what we want and for our final product we will try to incorporate it into our final product. We looked at different colours, random humour and what we liked as well.

Treatment of Lyrics

The Roscoes Feedback

We emailed The Roscoes in response to their email saying that they didn't want the idea of the lead singer beating the woman in the video. We discussed our plan and decided that this isn't going to be included as we are going to change that for something comical.

This is just to reassure them that they won't be made to look like they think domestic violence is okay and that we are on the same terms in that we are listening to their feedback. Furthermore, by having them say what they don't like about our ideas gives us time to change it and create a true representation of what The Roscoes meant when they came up with the song. 

Location Photos

Location For Video

Today we went to cambridge to take shots of the places we discussed would be a good place to film. We did this as we could look in real life what the place looks like and if we are to take shots, where we are to film from to get it. We looked at Parkers Piece and decided that we'd take a shot of the drummer playing on the roof of the parking lot in the back of Parkers Piece so that we could have the park in the background.

We also took some shots of other places that we found that we don't know the name of it yet but we also took shots of urban areas so that we could have the band playing in the streets as the lead singer chases his girl. We looked for a place that we could set the ending of them back together, we thought a cafe would be the best place to have them but we thought that a large chain such as Starbucks would not let us film in there so we are looking at the smaller coffee shops. One in particular is the Coffee and Crepe shop by the corn exchange. This is seen to be a popular place by the students in Cambridge so the area is perfect. We are going to ask for their permission to film in their store but if they say no we have other options.

Initial Digipack Ideas

My main idea for our digipacks is that i would like to have it being simple and basic. This is because i want to have the main piece of artwork to be on the CD itself as in that it is different inside to the outside and that things are not what it seems. I would also like to have the album look like a vintage album as in maybe there is an image of a vinyl with our band name in the middle, this would present the album to look old or 'retro' which could be a market that we could exploit as it is seen to be 'retro.'

Digipack CD Artwork

We have been looking at the CD artwork so that we can get an idea of what we can do for ours. It is not normal for artists to have an extravagant design on the CD it's self as the main part of the advertising and artwork would be on the digipack cover. This however is a different case with indie rock CD covers. We will have to create our own CD artwork so it is helpful that we see some of the main indie rock examples so that ours can look truly indie.

Filming Dates Update

Unfortunately I am out of the country over the half term so we said that we would film everything the first week back but continue to have group meetings through things like Skype and FaceTime as even though I am away i can still give ideas to the group. This means that they can can things ready or create a list of what we need to get done in order of importance. It has set us back a few days but it also gives us a chance to get our planning to be absolutely solid so that we know what we are doing as soon as i get back. This is after all a minor set back but will not affect the work at all as i can access the blogs from my laptop,

The Roscoes Email Feedback

We received an email back from The Roscoes on what they think of our ideas. We also asked them what they didn't like in terms of what our ideas are so that it can give a true representation of the song as in how they see the song. This is what they said:

Your ideas sound great. A little concerned about one bit I saw though;

Film

3 takes of guy apologising 1. Beating her 2. Text and says sorry 3. Raining (hopefully) cold wet just walked down road drenched in water

"

We're not comfortable with being associated with domestic violence/ violence towards women. This might be something to reconsider?

I have discussed with our group on what we should do about this and we have already cut this out of our production planning and have taken it out of all ideas from now on.

Motifs In Our Video

I think that we should have a motif in our music video that can help for us to be recognised and to be remembered for something. For example, we could have the album title gratified on the wall as a way to also advertise our album cover. This is similar to Phoenix's song Lisztomania, they have the album title printed on a blimp that they're walking with through the town.






Another motif that we could try to use is with costume, we could have the band members wearing a certain piece of clothing that they would wear all of the time. For example, the drummer could be wearing a type of hat or be wearing a certain style that helps him and the group to be remembered. I found this idea from the song Henrietta by The Fratellis. The lead singer wears a top hat all of the time and is seen to be wearing this in all of The Fratellis's music videos. This would be another idea that we can add to our video to make it and the band more memorable.

The Roscoes Help

We asked The Roscoes for the mp3 version of their song as we had no way of getting their song through iTunes or the next best music site. We also put the links to our blogs as well as we thought that they could see our ideas and maybe give us some information on where the song came from and what the true narrative is about.

Group Meeting 18/10/13

Today we looked over what we wanted to do for the narrative, we decided that we might cut away the drum kit but actually keep the drummer in it but every time there is a drum solo he plays on any object he can find. For example at 0:39 seconds we could have him playing on someones head on a bench in the middle of Parkers Piece in Cambridge. We also looked at the type of car we could use for the video, we decided that a Mini would be best to use. After this we looked at the humour part of the video, in our plan for Chapter 2 there is an idea that after the argument had ended the lead singer comes out and the rest of the band members are holding up scoring cards as a joke. This Chapter idea is similar to the Vampire Weekend song Oxford Comma.

Narrative Ideas

We discussed that our main idea for the narrative of the video is going to be the lead singer trying to get his girlfriend back by presenting her with gifts and using the band members to play their instruments as if they are singing for her. We thought that we could use this as we could have the part of the band in the background of the scene playing or getting involved in the actual process of getting her back as they can give the lead singer gifts that he can give to the girl. This happens in the U2 song Sweetest Thing as its the same type of narrative only you can't see the lead singer Bono singing.

Group Meeting 16/10/13

Today we had a group meeting to discuss what our theme and narrative structure would be. We decided that we are going to change our idea of having cross cutting between narrative and band performance to us just going to have a narrative of the lead singer trying to get his girlfriend back whilst he is walking through a urban area/town. As this is happening the band are in the background playing as well as at certain times they are also trying to help the lead singer in his efforts to get his girlfriend back. They do this by giving the lead singer certain objects that he can use to sway the girls decision i.e with flowers.

We then looked at the possible locations for the urban scenes of this video. Certain scenes could be shot in:

- Parkers Piece in cambridge for when he meets her at the lights in the centre (Reality checkpoint)


-Bishops Stortford


 -Saffron Walden


We also discussed what the band could be doing to add humour to our video:

- Guitarist could give the girl flowers/ try and stop her
- Drum kit could have something written on the bass drum
- Bass Guitarist could give the girl a teddy bear
- Lead singer can sing passionately to the girl
- They could go to a coffee shop but not a major franchise 
- The lead singer can follow her throughout the day trying to get her back with the band following him and trying to help

Group Meeting 14/10/13

We sat down and talked about what would be necessary for costume, props, lighting etc. We have also been talking about ideas for our video in terms of having a narrative and what shots we can include in the video to convey a certain aspect in our video i.e the cassette player needs to be shown as its is played in the actual song.

Ideas
Filters for memories
Cassette player in black and white
Walking down road with curtain sider driving past
Band at house as guy walks past
Curtain sider opens at end when it goes 321and band play
Spot light such as chealsey dager not right for our film
UV lights to show a different picture

Costume
Suits- no not indie
Skinny jeans, blazer shirt and tie for band
T-shirt, jeans, jumper, for character

Film

3 takes of guy apologising
1. Beating her
2. Text and says sorry
3. Raining (hopefully) cold wet just walked down road drenched in water

Filtered for each story
Split screen showing all 3 zoom in on each one individualy

Props
Take 3- flowers, eye liner (running in rain),
Band- drums- Richard,
Amps- Alex, Britney,
 Electric Guitar- Richard, Alex.
Acoustic- Alex
Alcoholic Beverage- Richard if he hasn't drunk it


Lighting will be very important throughout

Narrative Story Idea

Here is an idea we had for what we could have as the narrative performance, we both included the reverse footage like Tongue Tied's song Grouplove as he is going to his girlfriends house but before he knocks its put on reverse and you see why he's going there. When you see the reason why he is doing all those things in reverse, the footage is played as its 'started again' and then you watch him go on a journey towards his ex girlfriends house as then he wants to sort things out and 'start again' as is in the song. We have also included shots that relate from the lyrics, i.e walking this lonely highway being him walking down a motorway bridge to get to his ex girlfriends house.

Music Video Ideas - Rewinding Footage

In our discussions we thought that we could use the footage of the cassette rewinding as a way to convey that the person in the story is 'starting again' as is in the lyrics. An example of using reverse footage to go back to a certain place to explain an event on what has happened is in Tongue Tied's song Grouplove. They show footage of the person running and tripping  into a paddling pool and then it reverses back on how he gets there and the reason why he is running. We can use this in our video to explain what has happened in his life and why he is singing about it, this adds footage to the story that he is singing so it makes it easier for the audience to understand why he is singing about it. 

Music Video Ideas

We looked at Vampire Weekend's song Oxford Comma and a element that was in the video that we thought was interesting and that we should use is the idea of using 'chapters' or 'scenes' shown on the video as an idea of a play or a book. This means that we can use this to convey a story which is what we want to use as well as combining it with a band performance. The use of chapters in this video also gives the audience an idea of how we can explain whats going on in the shot if it isn't obvious to the audience.

Filters On Our Music Video

Whilst looking through music videos that sound like ours and that have the same type of storyline to it we found that most of the indie rock music videos have some kind of filter to them. An example of this is in The Fratellis song Henrietta. There is a constant black and white filter in the music video which we discussed could be a possible thing to add to our music video to use it as a way of conveying that what the audience are seeing is a memory and then remove the filter when it goes back to the current time.

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Another example of the use of filters to represent a memory is in Foster The People's song Pumped Ip Kicks. The vintage type filter is used to create the idea of an old film taken with a handheld device i.e a phone camera as it is poor quality. This is used to start off a memory in which the lyrics can go on to explain. This is yet another idea that we can use in our music video to help convey a memory that has happened in which the whole idea of the song is about, for example, if we add a small clip of something thats happened in the lead singers life i.e his girlfriend leaves him, then we can add a clip of her leaving and then for him to go on and sing about how he's lonely and on his own.

Feedback and Potential Themes

We put all of our feedback on to a whiteboard to see what we need and we also put what themes we think there should be in our music video. Some of these ideas we probably will not use but it has given us a chance to see what our options are in terms of  what route we can take when making a storyline for the video as we have a split performance of band performance and narrative.

Playing In A Public Place - The Fray - You Found Me

One idea that we could incorporate from other indie music videos is that they mostly play their instruments or film the shots in public places. This happens in the music video You Found Me by The Fray as they are seen to be playing on a bridge and around town exposing New York. I think we should use this as we can have them playing around a place that specific to the problem at hand, say the band can chase someone round a busy street to make them seem important and make them stand out from the crowd. The use of them playing in the streets is also another way for the band to show that they can play an instrument which is a convention of the indie rock genre. This is just an idea that we can choose from many as there are a few routes that we can take.

Music Video Ideas - Old Fashioned Tv / Camera

I think that in our video we should use maybe a filter that represents a old TV type of filter as in it crackles and the quality isn't at all good. We could use this in the chapter where we see the argument to emphasise that maybe the argument happened a long time ago, so that the things that the band members are doing can seem more important and more current. This is alike the song Lisztomania by Phoenix, on this thy have a Bad Tv filter like the one you get on Final Cut Express. This is used as when they start singing the lyrics talk of a memory or something that happened in  their child hood.

I think that this could be a key idea for our blog, it can also be used to add to the theme of vintage as we think that it could be used to express that what the audience see as a current argument is actually something that has happened in the past i.e a few days before the actual video is set to take place, this is why we want to put a fast forward effect on the footage to go 'forward' to the actual day.

Starting Sequence Ideas

Using the smart board we brainstormed and came up with what we believe we could have as an idea for the starting sequence of our music video. It is just a rough idea of the sort of thing we can use, for example, we listened to the song and at the start we heard a cassette player rewinding, this as you can see is listed as the first thing we should start off and what it could mean.

Production Planning

We discussed that we were going to use a split performance of narrative and band performance this is seen in the popular indie rock music video Say You Don't Want It by One Night Only. The idea of this helps us to keep close to the indie rock conventions of seeing the band members play their instruments and a narrative of the lyrics. We have our lyrics on the blog and we are continuing to brainstorm ideas on what kind of performance we should do and the narrative that we follow to get the correct storyline for our performance.

Indie Rock Digipack Analysis

We looked at 3 individual indie rock album covers to see what type of things we need to look for and to emulate when making our digipacks and when we look at other digipacks we can quickly analyse them for future reference. Here are the 3 digipacks that we posted as a group as the top 5 songs that sound like ours or have the same storyline as ours.

Indie Moodboard

We have been discussing what we think we should have as our front cover on our digipack. The main thing we discussed it the positions of the artists and their expressions, here is a moodboard explaining our theory on why we think the artist should be made to look tough and angry. This helps us with our actual footage because we can make the video to look angry and aggressive about a certain subject. To look at the subject please go to this post:

Micro Elements of The Jungle Giants - She's A Riot

We looked at the micro elements of The Jungle Giants's song She's a Riot because it has a similar tempo to our song. This helps us as we can look at how the camera and editing are used to emphasise the lyrics and the overall performance. The purpose of us looking at these key elements of camera and editing in the indie rock genre is so that we can emulate these and put them in our video to make it as close to our chosen genre as possible.

Micro Elements of Last Dinosaurs - Time and Place

We have been researching on the internet for artists who sound similar to our band. This is to help us with what type of thing we should do with our video as if it is important that we make our video as close to the indie rock genre as possible. By looking at these artists such as Last Dinosaurs and The Jungle Giants who fit the indie rock genre we can take note of certain things such as costume and what type of shots that they use.

YouTube Audience Research

We looked on YouTube to help us with research on what the audience actually look for and like in indie rock videos. The feedback from this was that we need to have a girl in the video as many people have liked the videos because there is a 'beautiful girl' in the video. The other thing we looked for is what people looked for in the video on what tone it had and how they could relate to it. This helps us create our video in a way so that it targets our target audience.

Indie Research Survey

We have done two separate surveys for research into the indie rock genre and its audience. We did a survey on the indie rock genre itself on what themes do the audience think are the typical themes in the video and what they look for in it. We then did a audience survey on the typical audience of indie rock. This is the indie rock research survey.

Music Video Planning