Inspiration: From 'On the Road'

We have got some inspiration for the storyline and the feel of 

the music video from the film 'On the Road'.

This is one of the shots from the film ‘On the Road’. It portrays a similar image of what we want in our music video. You can clearly see the character is on the ‘move’ due to him carry his luggage whilst walking down a train track. The audience can instantly identify this. His dark costume is a contrast to his bright surrounding which support Levi Stauss’ theory of binary opposition.

We like the effect of the sun behind the characters head in this shot. We are aiming to recreate this shot for our music video as it portrays the image we are looking for. Our idea is to have the sun in the background when our character is filming her smiling (handheld) to give the audience the impression her mood has changed to happy.

Another scene from ‘On the Road’ sees one of the characters dancing in the middle of a group of people which indicates she’s comfortable around them to be herself. As time goes on in our music video our character begins to loosen up and find herself. When she’s around her friends she becomes more comfortable and happier.

This shot from the film is something we want to portray in our music video as is focuses on the emotion of the main character which is a big part of our project because of the song and our storyline. Showing how she is feeling throughout the music video at different points and in different situations she is put in within it helps the audience to know how her emotion changes within the stages so that the viewers feel the same way and get more of a vibe from it.

The scene from 'On the Road' where there is a close up of a women laughing is a shot that we want incorporate into our video. We want to show her happiness every stage that she smiles or laughs to really emphasis upon it as this.

Permission to use song - 'Alone In This'

One of the benefits of using a unsigned bands song is your more than likely going to be able to obtain permission to use the song. We browsed through The Shape of the Earth’s website and after a few minutes were able to find a email address we could contact the band via.  I emailed them straight away explaining our reasoning for wanting to use their song 'Alone In This' for our music video. The email I sent can be seen below:

  

Unfortunately the band hasn't been very active in the past year so we were unsure if they still checked their emails or were even still together. However not long after sending the email, I received a reply. Gavin (from the band) went on to say how they are happy for us to use any of their music and if we would like to send them a finished version our music video they’d be delighted to see it. The reply from Gavin can be seen below:





Budget

Our production is rather small; we won’t obtain funding from any outside sources like directors of music video featuring signed artists. This restricts us to some degree. Luckily our school provides us with the editing software, we have a camera within the group and the costumes needed are everyday clothes which we can pick out of our own wardrobes. The only cost we’ll have to pay out for is travel. We are planning to shoot some of the music video on a train to give the illusion the character is travelling far away from her home. Train tickets can become quite costly therefore to cut this cost we thought it would be easier if only the character and one other person to film were to go and shoot these scenes.

Costume Idea

To the right is costume we’ve put together as a group from looking at online shops. The music video is set in the present day therefore the costume needs to be up to date with the latest trends. On the other hand our main character comes from a working class broken home meaning she wouldn’t be able to afford the clothing from expensive shops; her outfit consists of all high-street stores.  Lateshia (our actress) will feel comfortable when filming in this costume as it’s quite baggy. The outfit is effortless and shows she doesn’t care about her appearance. By adding a beanie to the outfit it portrays the character opts to keep her appearance low key. Often when people are feeling down and depressed it reflects in their clothing, this is something we took into consideration when deciding a costumer for our main character. We are going to recreate this outfit from clothing that Lateshia already owns.



Music video synopsis

The music video starts off with our main character - Lateshia – waking up because of an argument between her mother and brother. This is the norm for her. She’s had a violent upbringing as her father used to beat her mother until he walked out. Before the song starts we’re going to add a voice-over of muffled shouting and arguing; Lateshia won’t react like you’d expect a ‘teenager’ to. This is because it happens all the time. From the first few seconds in the opening the audience can why the following events happen. The song immediately starts as the door slams.

We aim to shoot the majority of the music video like a home video, therefore Lateshia will be filming herself  a lot (handheld). Everything that surrounds her will be dark and unresponsive to reflect what she’s feeling. Upon hearing the argument she starts to pack her little amount of possession into a backpack and leave.

Once she’s left the house the atmosphere begins to change; getting a little brighter and brighter as time passes. She starts to embark on a journey, she walks through rough estates, towns, catches a train, anything to get away from her troubled past. On her journey she makes friends who influence her mood, who begin to make not so ‘alone in this’.

Digital technology we plan to use

The main piece of technology we’ll be using is a Fujifilm S2995 Digital Bridge Camera. We’ve decided to use this as it was better quality than the ones provided by the school, the battery life is longer and it just gives our final piece a more professional look to it as it films in 1080p (HD). 

Alongside this we’ll be using a tripod which will make it easier to film shots we in-vision whilst making making the final product look smooth and not shaky. Like the camera we have chosen not to use the tripod provided to us by the school as theirs have a tendency to break, not something we want whilst out filming.

Another piece of digital technology we'll be using this year is Adobe Premier Pro; this is the editing software available to us. Adobe Premier Pro is advanced enough to help us create the final product we want. It's simple to import and edit videos, you can also add layers of music and images.

Finally we'll be using Blogger to record our planning and research process of making our music video for A2 Media Studies. 

- http://image.ceneo.pl/data/products/17447535/i-fuji-finepix-s2995-czarny.jpg

The Shape of the Earth - 'Alone In This'

As a group we decided to use a song from an ‘unknown’ band. We came to this conclusion because we thought it would be it easier to create a music video for an unsigned band rather than a well-known artist. Creating a music video for a well-known artist has its downsides; you’ll be consistently comparing your own to the original.

I came across the band The Shape of the Earth on YouTube a couple of years ago and really liked their sound. I thought their song ‘Alone In This’ would be perfect for our A2 Media project. The song has meaningful lyrics (which can be seen below) whilst having a steady beat. We didn’t want a club, dance or rap song because when we starting researching into previous music videos created by A2 students we found making a music video to a fast pace song was quite hard without making it look amateur.

‘Alone In This’ lyrics:

'All these names and people places,

Oh I’m not that sure,

I’m not that sure,

Am I alone in this X4

                                                                             And I          

All around the world they tell us oh we’re not that sure we’re not that sure,

Am I alone in this? X4

And I

I don’t know how to breathe,

 Oh I’m not that sure,

I’m not that sure,

Am I alone in this? X4

And I

I always try and work on this a lot,
What I have I’m sure you haven’t got,
I can only, only tell the truth

Oh oh oh'

The Shape of the Earth - 'Alone In This':

‘All these names and people places’ suggest that your surrounded by so many people whether you go but your still questioning yourself am I alone in this?

The character in our music video relates to this part of the lyrics as she has family and friends but still feels so alone because they don’t show any affection; her family has a lot of issues. She needs to leave her current situation and surroundings by leaving home to try and find herself.

-http://theshapeoftheearth.com/?page_id=12