[Task 17] Pitch of Ideas

For my music video I want to tell a story about two ninjas (enemies) coming together in a intense battle to death. I want the music video to start with a lighter going off with a shot looking through a fence and would like to add mist in order to make the video more mysterious, create more horror & fear, and also make it as intense as possible with a sense of enigma. I would like the battle to go to a stand still when the fighter clash swords and create energy and possibly explosion. I wanted my music video to be heavily edited because I believe this is not only conventional to the particular genre but also fits my aim of creating high intensity well. I want to the music video to end with a sword through one of the ninjas and blood coming out but would also like a flashback to the beginning scene of the lighter and misty fence.

The storyline will not be so important as it was requested by my audience that the performance shots created a live feel and made them think they were there, creating more intensity for the audience and therefore more enjoyment.

[Task 16] Health and Safety - Risk assessment

This task has helped me identify potential risks and how to minimise them creating a safe environment for band members and film crew. The process can never be completely safe and all members of the music video will be shown this assessment before we can start filming.

[Task 15] Magazine advert plan - draft/sketches

For my magazine design, it only took me one design to be satisfied. This design came mainly from inspirations from the research stage. The Slide is shown below:


I used their idea of showing the band members and choosing a cool location. For my location, I had used a dark wooded area.

The main colouring scheme however is completely different and dark rather than the cool light colouring shown above.

The designs will come out very much different as I am planning to use a real photograph of the band members and planning to put it all together in Adobe Photoshop.

[Task 14] Digipak plan - draft/sketches

I have one main idea for my digi-pak and this is a very dark coloured and simple but yet attracting piece.  This will likely change when it gets to me editing in Adobe Photoshop but will look based on the above design.

I made my design conventional by making it simple, dark themed and graphical with a picture of the band members featured on it.

This task will help me greatly for when it comes to creating the digi-pak as I now have a good idea on what to feature on the digi-pak. Furthermore, this task has helped me link conventions from my research, style of the band i'm recording and my own ideas to create this design.

[Task 13] Timeline of Music Video

0:00 - 0:10

Intro - Fading between shot of gates, high frame rate slow motion shot of a lighter being lit and two fighters doing their entrance 

0:10 - 0:12

Intro - Fades to guitar being played

0:12 - 0:16

Straight to a two shot of the performers screaming their first lines

0:16 - 0:17

Long shot of drums

0:17 - 0:19

Back to the two shot of the performers screaming

0:19 - 0:21

Back to the long shot of the drums being played

0:21 - 0:24

Mid shot of one of the performers doing a solo

0:24 - 0:26

Long shot of the drums 

0:26 - 0:30

Close up of the other performer doing a solo

0:30 - 0:35

Back to the two shot of the performers screaming

0:35 - 0:37

Long shot of drums being played

0:37 - 0:40

Back to the two shot of the performers screaming

0:40 - 0:42

Close-up solo of one of the performers doing a long scream

0:42 - 0:45

Back up intro fade between fence and lighter

0:45 - 0:50

Long shot - fighters initiate battle

0:50 - 0:52

Back up intro fade between fence and lighter

0:52 - 0:55 

Over shoulder shot - fighters clash swords 

0:55 - 1:00

Low angle shot looking up at two fighters clashing swords and giving out a lot of energy

1:00 - 1:010

Fading between a long shot of drums, mid shot of drums and performers dancing 

1:10 - 1:20

Long two shot of one of the performers on drums and the other screaming. Both performers interacting with each other with intense screaming.

1:20 - 1:30 

Behind the shoulder shot of one of the performers doing a solo

1:30 - 1:35

Back to narrative and a long, two shot of, one of the fighters being stabbed 

1:35 - 1:40 

Long two shot of one of the performers on drums and the other screaming. Both performers interacting with each other with intense screaming.

1:40 - 1:42 

The killer dragging the victim in a dolly close-up shot

1:42 - 1:47

Long two shot of one of the performers on drums and the other screaming. Both performers interacting with each other with intense screaming.

1:47 - 1:50 

Fading between solo of one of the screamers in a studio and one in a dark space, screaming the final line.

1:50 - 1:55

Fading back through the fence and lighter while slowly fading out to pitch black as the music fades. 

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I believe this was help me a lot with the production and filming stage of the making of this music video as I have now have a straight idea with what's going to happen and when. 

[Task 12 B] Editing plan

For my music editing, I will be using a huge range of plugins and techniques in order to make it sound intense, fast pace and most importantly, professional. Some of these techniques include:

• Compressions (to level out the tracks and keep the volume and peak at a steady rate). 
• Reverb (to make it sound like its playing live) 
• Reverse Revereb (to give a ghostly effect) 
• Delay - making the sound wet (to add a echo to the track and make the song more intense
• Pitch shifter (to correct the singers pitch of voice
• Pitch correction (also referred as auto tune, this looks for parts in the recording for certain keys that are out of place and forces it to stay on a certain key). 
• Chorus (particularly for the chorus, I hope to make certain parts of the song sound like its being sang by more than one person). 
• Many more... 

For my film editing, I will be using again a huge range of editing techniques but will be trying to make the editing as natural as possible at time in order to keep this live feeling to the audience. I will be using: 

• Slow motion 
• colour grading 
• Optical Flares (to create a fake and artificial sun). 
• Masking (to mask out the sky and replace it with something more visually attracting and linking to the music video. 
• Motion tracking (to motion track logo's or objects in the video which will make it seem like the characters can see them. 
• Many more... 

This task has helped me successfully plan and put together my ideas from the research and myself into a plan. 

[Task 12 A] Editing machines/Programs

For the editing stage of this project, I hope to use a various amount of editing programs. These applications include:

• Adobe Premier Pro CC

• Adobe After effects CC

• A huge range of video co-pilot plugins (products) 

• Logic Pro X - This will be where i'm going to sound engineer, edit the sounds and record in the band members for their cover of the Katy Perry Dark Horse song. Furthermore, I will be mixing the music and editing it to sound professional.

• My home editing machine has Windows and Macintosh built in so I will be using both but mainly Windows for film editing and Macintosh for sound editing. 

• I will be recording the band in a music studio at Bristol Brunel Academy

• I will be using a macintosh for my musical editing machine. 

[Task 11] Analysis of Lyrics

[Task 10] Shot list

Producing this shot list plan has kept me confident and greatly organised for the filming. I believe it will come greatly to me (the director) as less pressure will be be placed.

[Task 9] Storyboard

 This will greatly help me with the filming and production because it has given me a fair idea of how to lay out the video and how every scene should look like. These ideas are sure to change but are helpful as they are an outline. 

[Task 8] Filming and Editing Time Plan

Currently, I and all the band members are working so therefore, mainly Wednesdays are free days for filming. Editing on the other hand is no worry and can be done at any time when I'm as I am editing on my own machine at home. I will be prioritising most time into editing because  that is was particularly time consuming during the workshops that we had carried out.

This plan will be highly useful to me because it will keep me on track and therefore, this is something I can refer back to at any time for organisation.

[Task 7] Letter to Label

For my song, I will be recording in a band doing a Heavy Metal cover of 'Dark Horse' by Katy Perry. Even though it is completely legal for us to do this as no profit will be gained, I decided to send a letter for permission from the record label anyway.

[Task 6] Props List

For this music video, I am mainly going to be using music props typically seen in metal music videos as shown from my research.

Electric Guitar (x1)



Bass Guitar (x1)


Full drum set

The drum set is obviously very large and difficult to move around as so a backup plan would just be to film parts of the music video in a music studio.



Cigarette (x1)








This task has helped me stay organised and plan out exactly what props we will need. From the looks of the type of music video we plan to produce, not many props will be needed but some of these props such as the drum set will be extremely difficult to move around to the location. A solution to this will be a big production crew of friends including at least one which has a car and can drive. Another possible solution to this would be to use a separate filming location for the music equipment i.e. studio and use a green screen.

[Task 5] Camera Movement Plan - Location

I am not planning to have much camera movement in my music video as this is seen as unconventional for this particular genre as instead of movement, there is fast cuts to narrative and shots of performance which make it seem like it is all done in one or two locations.

Below are a few possible camera movements I could use:

[Task 4] Location Planning

For the location, I refer back to my research and typical conventions of a normal metal music video as the song I am going to use, is going to be a metal screemo cover of Katy Perry Dark Horse. This means that the song is going to be quite and dark and very intense/fast pace.

My idea for this is firstly a dark wooded forest. This will be where the narrative will take place but I am still unsure if all the heavy props and musical equipment can be delivered to a location of this sort. We will have transport but there are no roads leading up to my desired location.

My first location for this is a park called 'Vassals Park' in Fishponds.

My second idea is more of a ambitious location as it is extremely far but would be great for the idea of this music video.  The location is a park is Clifton called 'Durdham Down.' It is very famous and will be extremely busy but with a little investigation, I found that inside the woods at a good time, it is actually pretty quiet.



And if it does snow this Christmas, then this location will be ideal.

My final possible location is a backup plan for unexpected weather and will mainly be used for the filming of the band members and music equipment. It is the music department studio at Bristol Brunel Academy. I already do music technology there so this will be a easy and nice location to use. The '.gif' used below is a showing of the recording studio. The room next door is very spacious and where we plan to film parts of this music video.

This task has helped me stay organised and plan my locations to decrease pressure for later and also a good way for me to connect ideas and conventions from the research stage into planning.

[Task 3] Costume Planning

For costume planning, I decided to put multiple images together and similar to the mood board, discuss what I hope to mirror (inspirations) and the similarities these different bands of the similar genre have in common.

Straight away we notice casual but band like clothing again as talked about in my research. The casual clothing is suitable for the particular weather and location but not specific to the genre style and could be clothing that anyone could wear. In other words, the costumes are not too flashy and therefore can be mirrored (copied) by the audience in order to increase the bands fame.

What is particularly interesting about these bands is the contrast in colour they have between them. They are not all wearing dark or light clothing and therefore all separated in style. The only exception to this would be the top photo on Linkin Park which all seem to be wearing dark clothing. This seems to work pretty good with that style of music but probably not something I will be considering when it comes to my own music video.

Furthermore, the general style of clothing (contrast, brand, etc.) makes the band actually look like a band and separates them to what we may see on the streets. This will be a high aim for me as even though it is not noticed by the audience, it has a huge effect on how to band stand out to the audience.

For my music video, I hope to not fuss too much about dressing up my actors but just suggesting they were something in style with this genre and possibly something quite dark. Plain clothing with no text on would be best but certain shirts with graphic pictures on will be fine.

From this task, I have not only developed my ideas but also made up my mind and successfully planned what the actors in my project will be wearing.

[Task 2] Mood board

Making this mood board has helped me put my inspirations together and form ideas for costume, colour, editing, camera shots, etc. This is great because from this mood board, I can tell the similarities and therefore what I can integrate into my own project keeping it conventional.

[Task 1] Initial Planning

I had a lot of ideas from the research stage and also a lot of ideas I wanted to experiment with outside typical conventions. Because of this, I chose to mind map out my ideas and note down all the ideas I had for the music video.

I found this task really useful as I could narrow down my ideas into choosing what might be best for my music video.

[Task 15] Magazine advertisement research

From this task, I have developed my ideas and gained inspirations for my magazine advertisement I will do for my own project. I am particularly interested in giving this live performances atmosphere to my magazine advertisement because not only do I think that this is conventional within this genre but also that it works to spot the viewers eye which would most likely be a fan of the metal genre. Furthermore, this will become very useful for when I sum up my ideas for the planning of this advertisement as I will already have inspirations and ideas in mind from this task.  

[Task 14] Digi-pack Research

Conclusion  

In conclusion I have found that most metal Digi-packs have a sense of creativity within them but also feature very plain and simple (dark) colours which gives the product this feeling of negative space. I am particularly interested in adding similar graphics from the 'Linkin park' album to my Digi-pack while keeping the same dark tone as the 'under the sunrise' Digi-pack. these are ideas and inspirations for when it comes to creating mine and this will come extremely useful as I now know what the audience of this genre are looking for, what is successful and finally the most beautiful.