Original Step Outline

Since our pitch we have decided upon a clear direction for our video. Below is the original step outline, which we wanted to include on the blog to show the development of our work and ideas...

Originally we had a lot of mixed ideas; we wanted to follow a theme of a 'Midsummer Nights Dream', as it is mentioned early on in the song. We also found the idea of making 'Laura' (the girl whose name is repeated through out the chorus) into a wombat - as a form of self-promotion for the band as they're name is 'The Wombats'. Trying to keep in line with genre conventions, we thought of making the narrative follow a 'boy meets girl' relationship, but with the wombat twist, transforming into a 'boy meets wombat' scenario.
However, since our pitch feedback we found that our peers thought the 'Midsummer Nights Dream' idea was taking a single line too far as an entire concept. Following this theme would have also meant spending more money on costumes and investing more time on organising a range of extras and how they would feature in the narrative of the video. The majority of our peers liked the wombat idea but thought it was a little complicated and confusing. After researching into wombat behavior we decided to adapt our narrative, in a similar style to that of this 'One Night Only' video. We wanted to present the characters as humans, but displaying slightly odd behavioral signs, to later revealing in the video that they are infact wombats.

We were also undecided about how we wanted to portray the band's image - whether they should dress to fit under the fairytale-like theme, or stick to genre conventions and keep to a casual dress code. In the end we opted for a 'casual everyday look', as we feel this relates more to our target audience and makes the video recognisable under the indie genre.

Lorna.

Camera Practice Run

We filmed some shots we intend on using in the video. We used a variety of mid-shots, long-shots and close ups, high angle and low angle and a side profile. The quality of lighting was good overall, but as this was only a practice we had to go with standard classroom lighting. For close-ups we made sure we could only see the singers face, so that you can see the lyrics come out of our singers mouth. The only shot that wasn't framed as well as we liked was the low angle shot, it didn't seem low enough and we cut off the top part of the singers head. This was just a performance based video, not a narrative we didn't use our actors. 

Steph, Lorna and George.

CD Ideas

Once we'd got our idea for the video itself I started to look at ideas for the cd cover. Initially I started with the artists previous album art to get a sense of what they usually have on their covers;

I like the top left and bottom right covers as they have a depth with the different images 'layered' on top of one another. Also the images we see relate to the song(s) on the cd itself. The top left one is the album cover whereas the other three are for singles. The album cover features little things that feature in their songs; like the minutare Statue of Liberty on the top relating to the track 'Moving to New York'. One all four of the covers they have same font - making it easier to identify the artist. I personally like the font as it's a casual type of font - as if someone has written it with a pen.

After looking at these cd covers I thought I'd look at similar artists to see if there were any similarites between them and see what the differences where.

The artists I looked at were; One Night Only , Artic Monkeys, The Pigeon Detectives and The View.

I chose these because they are all of the same type of genre - indie/indie rock but also because they are all british to see if that affects there cd cover art.

One Night Only (top left) - the cover shows all of the band with a low key lighting affect on the picture. The font for the writing is just capitalised and bold to make it stand out. I do like the fact they put the band on the cover to show the audience this is who they are but it doesn't seem to stand out all that much - it looks a bit dull.

Artic Monkeys (top right) - The band's logo is on the top left of the cover - showing the artists name, there is no picture refference to the band on the album cover. The only image on the cover is that of a man smoking. I like the black and white effect giving and edgy look but yet again this doesn't seem to make it stand out in my eyes.

The Pigeon Detectives (bottom left) - The white space of the cover makes it seem brighter and contrasts well with the red images. The font of the writing seems very simple and easy to read and the colours of red and black give a clear distinction between artist name and album name. The images of the deer in red make it very bold and stands out quite well - I do like the cover but it seems to simple to me.

The View (bottom right) - I like the use of colours and difference images on the cover. The text stands out against the background despite it being brightly coloured. The image in the corner I feel reflects the target audience of the band and how they look. Like the Pigeon Detectives the text is very simple but has been placed on seperate blocks of white helping you to recognise the bands name and the album name. Out of all four of these designs I feel this is my favourite as it stands out better then the rest of them - it's eye catching and would get people's notice easier. I like the use of the simple objects ( the hearts) to make it an interesting background in which to build a cd cover around.

posted by Steph

Letter/E-Mail

Dear The Wombats,

We are three A Level Media students from Bilborough College, Nottingham.

We are creating a music video for our coursework this year and we would like to request your permission to use your song "Party In A Forest (Where's Laura?)".

Yours Sincerely,

Steph, Lorna and George.

This is the e-mail we sent to the band asking for permission to use the song " Party In A Forest ( Where's Laura?)"

Steph

Pitch Evaluation

Overall, I believe the pitch was success. We gave plenty of indepth research of where we got our ideas and supported this with visual and spoken aids. Using evidence through a powerpoint, we showed both aspects from our blog and several music videos we had analysed, to give a clear understanding to the audience of our intentions. However, from the feedback we recieved, it was clarified that improvement was needed in the step outline of the music video. Although we had several detailed ideas and explanations in the step outline, the idea as a whole was too complex. We were able to recreate a revamped step outline, which is posted on the blog below.

George Palmer.

I am proud of how our pitch turned out and I feel that it really helped us to define a direction for our project from the feedback we recieved. We have now re-written our step outline and I feel it is much more achieveable than the original concept. We tried to justify our ideas using a range of sourcessuch as : from our blog and other music videos we felt were relevant, including; 'Florence & The Machiene - Dog Days' as it was set in a forest, and 'One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It' - from the typically indie style and the interesting twist at the end.
I am excited about furthuring our idea; that instead of simply following a 'boy meets girl' relationship in our video, we plan to create a twist at the end where the couple turn out to be wombats - which satisfys as a subtle form of self-promotion for the band as they are themselves called 'The Wombats'.

Lorna Spencer

Well I feel the pitch went rather well too. Our ideas came across well with the audience as they like all of our ideas. The only problem they suggested we had was that we had too many ideas and maybe needed to simplyfy it more. The videos we used in our presentation helped us show the audience what we meant with our performance ideas, narrative twists and location for the video itself. Also I felt we all work great together as we all pitched in and help to explain things throughly to the audience.
After the feedback from the audience we have now simplified the idea of our video, put more detail into the step outline and have a more focused idea.

Steph Sverdloff

PITCH

Moodboard

We collected several images of the band so we can more effectively interpret the bands image in our music video.

These images have helped us to realise a clear image of the band and what to make our performers look like.
Posted by George, Steph and Lorna.

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

Posted by George, Steph & Lorna.

Step Outline

Our general idea for the video is to have the band play in a forest - relating to the title of the song, Then the lead singer sees this 'girl' and they begin to playfully flirt and chase each other around the forest. Then as the music and song comes to an end they lie on the floor and we reveal that the lead singer and the 'girl' are actually animals - in this case we are going to try and portray them as wombats - a refference to the band name.

Steph, Lorna and George.