Health and Safety Two

Once again I need to take health and safety into consideration before I film at my second location.
This time I am filming inside a car on a driveway. 
As it is a driveway I need to keep an eye out for other cars that may drive onto the same drive or drive past and create noise. 
I'm filming at night so I need to ensure that my talent is careful when making their way to and from the car so they don't get hurt.
I also need to be careful as my camera won't be positioned on a tripod, it will be placed on the car's dashboard. Therefore I need to make sure it is secure so that it doesn't fall off the dashboard and break or hurt one of my talent.

The Technology I Plan On Using

In order to make my video the best that I can I need to use the best technology that I can. Filming my video will need a lot of technology as I am using four people to create a performance video and therefore I have a lot of different aspects to cover. 

For the filming side I am planning on using three different cameras to get it all done from as many different angles as quickly as possible. I am planning on using an Olympus SP-620UZ, Canon 550D and a Lumix G10. Each of these cameras gives very sharp and clear shots and so will be ideal for my filming. 

I will use a Velbon CX 686 tripod to station each camera and ensure that my filming is as stable as possible.

For my lighting I am planning to use a Zero 88 Leap Frog 48 lighting desk, along with two Equinox RGB LED bars to create the colour wash that I want and 6 Harmony 1kw Profiles to create my white wash to enable colour edits.

Talent

Instead of using friends or family to be my talent I have chosen a local band. I've emailed them in advance with my song choice to ensure that they knew it and I told them that I was doing a performance video so they have a rough idea of what I am expecting from them tomorrow. I chose to use a band as they will be used to performing and will have a much better stage presence than my friends would if I put them on stage and handed them instruments. They are used to playing together and are therefore comfortable around each other which is not necessarily something that my friends would find easy to do. I also feel that by using a band I will be able to work on a more professional level as they will want to look good and so will work as hard as they can and do exactly what I tell them to whereas friends may not agree with some of my ideas and therefore refuse.

Call Sheet

It is important that I keep on top of which of my talent I need and when. Call sheets are effective in doing this as not only will I know but I can send it to them as well so that they know where and when they are needed and also what they will need to bring with them.

Monday 28th October:
6:30-9:30pm - all talent at the theatre for performance filming.

Friday 1st November:
7:00-9:00pm - guitarist and bassist only at the theatre for car filming.

Health and Safety

Before I start my filming I need to take health and safety into consideration to ensure that none of my talent gets hurt.
I am filming inside a theatre which has been booked out, so I don't need to worry about other people being at my location whilst I film.
However, in order to create the effect I want I need to turn the house lights off, which means the space will be dark. Therefore I need to make sure that my talents knows exactly what they are doing and when to prevent accidents.
The microphone lead is also a potential problem as someone could fall over it. Once my space is set up I will make certain that it is clearly marked so that my talent know exactly where it is which should avoid any problems.
My final problem is that my talent could walk or jump into one another whilst filming. In order to prevent this I am going to have a quick run-through with them when they first arrive so that they are aware of their own and other people's spacing to avoid any collisions. 

Props

 In order to make my video look like a realistic and professional performance video I need several props. The key props that I need are the instruments, which I need to ensure my talent are happy playing.

The singer I have booked is bringing their Shure SM58 microphone and Neutrik XLR lead. Shure microphones are used by bands like Arctic Monkeys and Don Broco and it gives a very professional sound.






The two guitars being used will be a Fender Squire Strat and a Westfield Les Paul. I chose to have the band bring their own instruments as I want them to be comfortable playing them and look comfortable on the stage. The bass is a Fender 2012 American Standard Jazz Bass. All of the instruments are high quality and will look and sound good in my video.

The drum kit is a Mapex Birch Fusion Jazz Kit, which doesn't belong to the drummer. However, he is bring his own Zildjian Cymbals, as he is more comfortable playing these and they give a better quality sound than the Mapex ones.

Specific Target Audience

When creating anything for the public it is important to take into consideration several different aspects to do with your chosen target audience and genre.

Age
The typical age range for Indie Rock fans is 16-25 years of age and so this is the age range I will be aiming for my piece to appeal to, especially as my talent is of this age themselves.

Gender
I have chosen to aim my video at both males and females as I feel that performance videos tend to do this anyway, and it is not a genre that is aimed more at one gender than the other. I am aware that my video may inadvertently appeal to one gender more than the other but I am aiming to keep it as neutral as possible.

Lifestyle
My target audience would typically be associated as a party animal and someone who is up for a laugh and a good time. They would enjoy spending time with their friends, going to gigs, listening to music and writing and playing their own music.

Interests
Their interests would mainly be music related. They would enjoy listening to music, writing music, learning music, going to gigs and buying merchandise. They would go to see both local and mainstream bands. They would enjoy being slightly unique, so would take the time to find one of a kind merchandise and find new indie bands to listen to.

Socio-economic group
Although the socio-economic group for the indie rock genre is predominately middle-class there will be nothing about my video that will relate to this and therefore differ other classes from watching it. The majority of viewers, and Indie Rock fans, would fall into band E as they are students, but they would probably come from a B-C2 background.

Mass or niche?
The majority of music videos are aimed at either the older or younger end of my age range, there aren't many videos that are aimed at both, something which I want to incorporate. Therefore it could be said that my target audience is a niche audience. However, the Indie Rock genre itself is growing and becoming more mainstream, and bands such as Arctic Monkeys who started off with a niche audience now have a mass audience. My target audience fits into both categories. The demographic for my video is niche but for my chosen genre it is mass.

My Target Audience

The demographic for the Indie Rock genre is people whom are 16-25 years of age. I have chosen to aim my video at both males and females as I feel that performance videos tend to do this anyway, and it is not a genre that is aimed more at one gender than the other.

The majority of the demographics money would be spent on things music related, such as gig tickets, CDs and merchandise including clothing, posters and badges. They would spend a lot of their time at gigs and festivals, not only local but also of a larger scale. They would enjoy seeing local, up and coming bands along with the more 'mainstream' bands of the Indie Rock genre. Their aspirations for the future would be something to do with media, sound engineering or photography to enable them to meet some of the bands that they idolise, or to follow in their footsteps and become a band member themselves.

Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma is an American film direction and screenwriter who is renowned for his use of split screens in many of his films, most notably in Sisters. 
He uses split screens to show two images juxtaposed next to each other, showing the same action happening at the same time but from different perspectives. 

His aim in Sisters was to use multiple images to simultaneously involve and disorientate the viewer.



He used split screens in the climatic scene of Carrie in order to create suspense for the viewer watching, and Carrie was consequently the film that made his split-screens become one of his film characteristics. The split screens used reflect Carrie's sense of madness and makes it a very disturbing and uncomfortable scene for the audience to watch.

In his later films, such as Dressed to Kill, he uses split screens to show two events happening simultaneously, which makes it seem more realistic. 

New Video Ideas

In order to give me some more ideas I decided to have a look at the official video for the original version of R U Mine. My favourite part the video is the beginning, where Alex and Matt are driving, singing and air drumming in their car. I have decided that I would love to interpret this into my own video in some way as it draws the audience in and it's relatable to almost anyone who drives.

After testing different edits on extracts of my draft filming I realised that I liked the black and white effect. So, I've decided that once I've done my filming with coloured lights I'm going to use white flood lights and then film again, as then I will be able to change some parts of my filming into black and white.
I also had a think about other editing techniques I could use to make my video more interesting. I watched Don Broco's video for Hold On and absolutely loved their use of split screens and splitting the middle image in half in order to create them. Therefore I am going to use this technique in mine as I feel it will look effective with the mixture of coloured lights, flood lights and black and white, and also with performance and extracts filmed within a car.

Editing Tests

I've finally been able to upload my footage onto the Apple Mac and decided it would be perfect to do some editing tests on, as I am unfamiliar with editing videos.
My first edit was pretty basic. When watching my footage I liked how the singer involved the audience by throwing his arm out to do, linking with the word "you" in the song. Therefore I thought I would slow this down and see what it looked like. I used the blade to cut down the footage, leaving a small section on either side of the part I wanted. I then used the blade again to cut out the section I wanted. I then went on "Retime" and chose "Slow - 50%". The sound becomes disorientated in this section as is it slower and this is something I'll have to take into consideration when doing my final piece. Overall I think it looks effective and it is definitely something I will consider using in my final piece.



Next I decided to play around with the colours of my video as I used white lights when filming to allow me to do this. First I made a sepia colour on Final Cut Pro by adjusting the global colour, shadows, mid-tones and highlights alongside the saturation and sharpness. I'm not too sure about whether or not I'll use this particular colour in my final piece but I'll definitely test different colours to find which looks best. I'll also sharpen the whole piece as I feel it looks a lot better now.



Below are two screenshots to show the contrast between the original colouring and my edited colouring. It also shows how I adjusted the colour.

My second colour edit involved using a pre-made edit called "50's TV". I feel that the white is too overpowering on this, and so I would edit it slightly and made it a more grey and subtle. As my final piece involves a lot of bright lights I am going to film a white light edit so that I could then use some black and white at certain points as I feel it makes my video look a lot more classic and sophisticated. 

Tester Shots

When I went to the theatre to film a few weeks ago my time was very limited and I was in the back studio. However. I managed to get footage from two different angles, the front and left hand side. I feel both angles work well so I will incorporate them into my final piece.

Wide Shot

Left Hand Side Angle Shot

The Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who came up with the concept of the Male Gaze Theory.

The Male Gaze Theory 
In this theory the camera is a man that looks at and objectifies women. The camera tends to pan from the legs up.

The main features of Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory are:

1. The representation of women in a sexual fantasy and from a heterosexuals male point of view
2. Scopophilia - the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies
3. Objectification of female characters
4. Patriarchal society
5. Active male and passive female
6. Men - controlling subjects
7. Women as an image
8. Men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at
9. Needs of the male ego

We watched a couple of example clips to see if we could apply the Male Gaze Theory to them. 

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Jessica Rabbit

Jessica Rabbit is a character who is dressed very provocatively. She wears a floor length strapless red dress with a high thigh split, combined with red lips. This fits in with the Red Dress Theory which states that men find women in red dresses more attractive. She has the perfect hourglass figure and most of the scenes she is in tend to have saxophone music in the background, making it more sexual.

Transformers - Mikaela Banes



In this clip the camera is representing the male character, Sam Witwicky's, perspective as he admires Mikaela. Mikaela is dressed in a crop top and shorts and the camera pans slowly from the rear upwards.

Music Videos Over Time

In today's lesson we watched a variety of different music videos. We noticed that even though some of them were filmed years apart the concept was still the same.

The first video we watched was for the pop song Tell Him by The Exciters, filmed in 1962.



It is filmed in a zoo and the camera switches between the singers and the animals. The video itself has absolutely no relation to the video at all. The singers are bright and cheery which fits in with the bright, cheery song lyrics and music.

We followed this by watching What Makes You Beautiful, another pop song, by One Direction. This video is a lot more modern as it was filmed in 2011.



The video is filmed at beach and once again the lyrics don't have a lot of relation to the video. It therefore follows a very similar structure to Tell Him, which was filmed 49 years earlier. It is another video portraying bright, cheery people singing a bright, cheery song.

Blink 182's video for All The Small Things is a parody of the stereotypical pop song video. It was filmed in 1999.



The video is made up of stereotypical elements commonly found in a music video. It has the performance element of them singing to a crowd of fans, singing and posing at a photo shoot, at a beach, singing to the camera and following a strict dance routine. The video has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song and as it is a parody they are merely only pretending to be bright and cheery.

The song You Got It, by New Kids on the Block, filmed in 1989, is very stereotypical boy band pop song.



They follow a structured dance routine and drive around being filmed having fun. It has a lot of the elements within it that Blink 182 over-exaggerated in their parody.

We then went on to look at a different style of video that has been carried on throughout the years.

We looked at Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit. The video was filmed in 2000.



It is made up of fan, the band and various celebrities singing the lyrics straight into the camera. The singers get more aggressive as the lyrics do, so to that extent the lyrics do relate to the video.

We also watched Rockstar, by Nickelback, which was filmed in 2007.



It takes the same idea as Limp Bizkit and is made up of fans, celebrities and random people singing the lyrics. In some cases the lyrics obviously relate to the person who is singing them.

Finally we looked at two videos by Bloodhound Gang. We watched The Bad Touch, filmed in 1999, and Why is Everybody Always Pickin' on Me, which was filmed in 1998.



Both videos are very humorous and each video have an obvious concept. The lyrics heavily relate to the video the whole way through making it easy to follow and understand.

Location Recce

Below are some pictures of the two locations I will be using for my filming. For my draft filming I have had to use the back studio as the theatre was in use. It was still a good sized space and I was able to film my two different angles easily. 

Once all the house and side stage lights are turned off the stage will look a lot darker and therefore a lot more effective with my lights. It is a very big space and so I need to be careful how I use it as I don't want it to look cramped or too spacious. My aim is to black as much of the space as possible apart from the background, which I need to keep white in order for my lights to work. 

Costume

Another important element for my video is costume. 

If I don't tell my talent what I want them to wear they could all turn up wearing different styles meaning that my video will look messy and unorganised. 

In order to give me some ideas I looked at other bands to see what kind of outfits they were on stage.

Don Broco

Don Broco always go for smart casual. They combine shirts, polo shirts or t-shirts with jeans and trainers to create an informal yet presentable look. When they perform they run around a lot and, as you can see in the photo below, jump and go pretty mental. The clothes they wear allow them to do this with ease. 

The Strypes

The Strypes are a band who go for smart clothes. They always wear smart jeans or trousers paired with a shirt and jacket and brogues or loafers. They don't move around as much compared to Don Broco which their clothes wouldn't allow them to do anyway. 

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys go for a more edgy look. Their look could be classed as smart casual but it's definitely on the smarter side. They chose to wear jeans, brogues, shirts or t-shirts and leather or denim jackets. They move around a lot on stage which their outfits allow them to do and although they must get hot in their jackets they don't remove them as they don't want to ruin the atmosphere that they give.

I want my talent to be able to move as much as possible and go a bit mad as I feel it will fit in more with the song I have chosen. Therefore, I want them to go with the Don Broco/Arctic Monkeys style of jeans, a shirt or t-shirt and possibly a jacket. I feel that by having them looking smart casual it will fit in with my style of video and help it to look professional. 

Positioning

An important aspect to take into consideration before filming is the positioning of the band. As they are the main focus of the video it is important that they can all be seen.

A stereotypical band layout:

You tend to have a line of three at the front. The singer is the central point with the guitarist on the left side (from the audience's perspective) and the bassist on the right. The drummer is either at the back centre or to either side.

However, I want to try something different and see if it looks and works better with my style of video:

I've kept the singer as the central focal point and kept the guitarist and bassist either side, but I've moved the two back slightly to create a kind of V-shape. I've placed the drummer in the middle of the stage as I feel that they are often overlooked. The drummer is the one who keeps the time and is just as, if not more, important than the actual lead singer and frontman. By placing him in the middle he will be more focussed on by the viewer watching the video and he will closer to the band which he isn't when placed at the back. It also allows the other band members to move around him, adding another dimension to the video.