Music Video - Setting up and Shoot day

As a group we decided a good way of showing how we set up and decided what the set would look like would be a video diary, so as we set up and got ready for shoot day we used a camera and our phone to record and take pictures of our video set. We enjoyed doing this as it was a different way of recording the events that happened and its more interesting then just simply putting photos up.

The video shows all the different things that had to be done before the day of the shoot to make sure everything ran smoothly. We first of all cleared out everything from the last shoot and took down all the lights so we could have a blank canvas to start over again. We then decided what position our lights should be in so that we got the setting we wanted. Once the lights were up and checked we started to move in all the instruments and put them in place ready for the band members on Monday. We were then ready to shoot what shots we wanted of our performace side to our music video.

As Imii struggled to put it up on blogger straight from her computer, me and her decided that if I created a YouTube account We could put it on to YouTube and then upload it on to our blogs. This was a lot easier as it didn't take long to set up an account and it also means we can share our experiences with other people on YouTube.

Band practice

To get ready for our shoot day we decided on do a badn practice to make sure everyone was clear on what part of the band they will be playing and that they new the chords and lyrics and deffenetly heard the song before the day. That was important as we couldn't have them turning up on the day not knowing anything they were do let alone not knowing the song. We did this pactice one evening to make sure we were all free at the same time so that we could record it:

As it was quite difficult to get Freddie who is in another house over to our house we asked Oscar (the drummer) to learn his part so that if he had a chance before Monday he could teach it to it which made the process a lot quicker.

Charlie who is our lead singer and Guitarist he had to learn both lyrics and guitar part ready for Mondays shoot. Learn the lyrics wasnt that difficult for him as we had to cut down the song any way from 5 minutes to 3 minutes which meant charlie didn't have so much to lear and could consantrate mroe on the guitar part. He took away the chords and came to the shoot on Monday ready to get on and shoot.

Oscar worked on the drum part for the video and found it easy to learn and we were pleased with how well he got into his part.

Narrtive practise

As our narrative element of our music video was very intense we decided that we need to get the two main characters Connor and Peter together to have a practise so they didn't get embarrassed or awkwardness; that may happen on the day. We needed them to get it all out before the shoot so we could get on the shoot as quickly as we could. So we did it in a room with just those two and Me and Fergus and we just practised doing compressions so that Connor wouldn't hurt Pete.

Videos that worried us about our idea

This was a video by radiohead called Just that we looked at on youtube that worried us as it had a very similer concepts to our first idea. After looking at it and going away and adding some different elements to our video we felt a lot mroe possitive and felt we could pull of our new idea.



Too double check that there were no other videos similer to our idea we googled 'ambulance music video' to see what else had been done. First oen we found was this:

Then came across this country track which had a slight comdy factor to it:

and then this one by Nikelback

We knew that nothing would be completely original that we came up with but it was mroe the way we executed our idea that will make it a sucess and give it its unique identity.

Quote from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996):  “Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements:  a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation.”

Other quotes on creativity:

"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)

Final Decision on Location

 Guildford car park was our final attement at trying to get a public place to shoot at, after trying so many times to ring up south west trains for permission to shoot at Horsley station we decided that it would be a safer opposition to use the contacts the school had and asked permission from Guildford bough counsel to shoot in Guildford station car park, we got the all clear for shooting on Monday 7th November. This is a perfect location and it meant we could have public reactions watching this scene unfold. We could use huge amounts of space and set the scene perfectly in this quite car park in the early evening.

We felt a lot better now that we had finally sorted out the off campus location. Guildford is a perfect location as it only takes half an hour from school to get to and it meant that our cast could get home easily as it was close for them as well so it was very convenient.

Extra props and cast

Cast List

A2’s	AS’s
Charlie Lindsay – Lead Vocalist Oscar Jackson – Drummer Connor Vickery – Performing CPR Rose Salvage – Passer by Charlie Manton – Passer by	Freddie Dixon – Bassist Peter Bergin – Collapsed guy Henry Hammond – Passer by

As a few cast members we had origanally decided to use were busy or had other priorities, we decided to use Charlie Lindsay as both the Lead Vocalist and Guitarist. This would make it easy to contorl as well only have a three man band.  

Props List

School will provide:	We will provide:
Fake Blood Blue flashing light (ambulance) Paramedic Outfit: fluorescent jacket, green trousers and green shirt Mic Mic stand Electric Guitar Bass Guitar Business Suit - Phil	Bag of shopping (things that can roll and be visually interesting) – can of baked beans, oranges etc. Drum kit – Oscar Jackson

 

Due to the fact that an ambulance would be too difficult to source, we have decided to just get a blue flashing LED light. We have looked on amazon at possible blue lights that we could buy cheaply.

Letter to recording company

We sent a letter to the record label that released Our bands song ‘Climbing up the Walls’ in order to ask their permission to use their song in our video and to confirm that we can go ahead.

To Parlophone Records,

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

Radiohead, Climbing up the Walls (Ok Computer)

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purpose and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artists and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation materials that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours Sincerely,

Fergus Brown, Imogen Holmes and Laura Cheese

Hurtwood House School