Back from Spring Break

Last class, Dean had a discussion with my teacher about what we have for the music video so far. After reviewing, she pointed out stylistic film elements in our video such as intro/outro credits, like a film or movie would have. But we've been tasked to make a music video, not a movie. She said we could keep those elements in there, but we'd have to explain why we chose to stray from typical music video conventions.

She told us that she thought the video was very aesthetically put together, and that she was impressed by what we have so far. She said that our set ended up working perfectly with the band's look, and suggested that we switch out the shot we have for the intro with literally anything else. According to her, the rest of our shots are so interesting and dynamic that the first shot we have is boring. I don't recall her saying so, but Dean said that she "hated" it because it's so poor in contrast to our other shots.

I'm glad that Dean asked to review the video with Stoklosa. It's always refreshing, albiet scary to get her advice, as she knows Cambridge and what they'd like. She's truly wise beyond her years, so getting praise and criticism alike feels great. It gave Dean and I a lot to work with as well as a renewed confidence moving forward.

Posted On Twitter

I still plan to post a short video clip as a teaser, but I also want to space out these tweets. It'll look more authentic that way. Dean sent me the clip we're going to be using, so for now I'm just sitting on it.

Twitter Account

Due to Saving Herald neglecting to send us their Twitter info, I took the initiative to make a whole new account. Most likely, their account is under the name "@savingherald" so I had to opt for "@saving_herald" instead. Ideally, the band would be aiding us in figuring out their branding and how they want this account to look, but they aren't. I chose to include the same bio as the one they have for their Instagram, at least for now until I figure out what else would work to make the account look cool and on par with their band. 

Nothing's been posted yet, but I'm considering posting pictures that ultimately are promoting their song Breathe, and the music video's release. These teasers seem great to promote the upcoming video, however, when Dean had asked the band members to post teasers before, they hadn't. Which is fine in the end, because it appears we'll be doing it for them. We'll be posting teaser clips of the music video so far, and some of the photos that I took of them during the performance.

Twitter Account

Photos from the Set

Filming, Day 1

Dean and I went to film today. We picked up Angelo and Rodrigo, prepped gear and props, and got to moving. We were probably fifteen minutes late to the set, so the band got there before us and checked out the house we would be filming at. We met up and began bringing all of the band's instruments inside the house, along with all of our camera gear and equipment. Setting up everything probably took about an hour. Setting up cameras on tripods, having the band set up drums, their amps, and lastly, setting up balloons onto the walls of our set. We'd also gotten a broom, so we were able to sweep up a lot of debris to clear room for us to move around, and effectively reduce the chance of one of us getting hurt.

Maxx couldn't find any place that sold letter-shaped helium balloons, so Dean and I ventured out to buy some that spelled out "Breathe" and just blew them up before coming to the set. Because they weren't filled out with helium, we thought that attaching them to the ceiling would be cool, but when we got there and tried placing them we realized there were multiple issues with this idea: the ceiling was too high, the wind in the house would push the balloons around, and they wouldn't be in view of the camera. We figured out that we could just tape them to the wall instead, which worked spectacularly. I taped the letters strategically so that it was hidden behind the lettering and looked more seamless.

The filming went great. We got two takes of them performing the song altogether, and then a few of them individually: Madisyn singing in a bathroom in front of a mirror; Kenzie drumming; Maxx and Nick playing together; and then one with Nick and Maxx playing separately. 

Seeing them perform the song for the first time, and see how into it they got was refreshing like they really care about what they do. It just sucks that they don't care that much about helping us, since this is for a school project. They can very conveniently use it as a music video for their branding, etc. although we're the ones being graded on it, amongst other things. It's a lot more of our time and money at risk than theirs.

While prepping equipment, and while filming, I was the photographer, taking pictures of the band members. We don't know exactly what we're going to use the pictures for at this point, but it's still good to have. We could probably use some for their Twitter social media page. I don't know, but I really like some of the pictures that I took. I have quite a few of the band members messing around behind the scenes, and nice shots of them during their performance. I believe I got around 100 photos taken in total.

There was also some cute stuff that went down during the time we spent working. A praying mantis had gotten on one of Kenzie's drum pieces when we'd first brought everything into the house, and after double-checking on google that praying mantises aren't poisonous (just to be safe, because admittedly I've never seen one in real life), I nudged it onto my hand and held it a little. It jumped off pretty quickly and hid underneath some rubble in the house, however, I went back to retrieve it after prepping some more equipment. It was much calmer about climbing onto my hand, and this time was extremely still. Just straight chillin'. I ended up bringing it outside onto a tree, where it proceeded to stay on the bark and look at me all funny. 

I thought it was really cute. Instead of climbing or crawling away when I put it down, it just turned its head and looked directly at me. So I gave it a little pat or two. It let me pet it without a problem, and after fawning over it for a minute and taking pictures, I went on my way to help everyone finish setting up for the performance.

After we finished filming and were making the trek back to our cars with equipment, we had a little bit of another, albeit very cute, problem. There are cows in the field where this abandoned house is. They were far off when Dean, Claire, and I had gone to scope out the place for the first time. Today was no exception, except for when we were ready to go and realized that the cows had migrated towards the property due to the noise we were making. All that music playing through speakers and Kenzie's drumming definitely attracted them, as they're very curious creatures. The herd walked over and were staring at us. 

We were scared at first that some of the cows with horns would charge at us. Particularly Angelo believed that the bulls may be aggressive toward us, chase us, or whatever else. Cows aren't necessarily violent or aggressive, but they're hundreds of pounds and could kill us without even trying, really. 

They seemed to be really sweet and I like cows, so I ventured over. There was a flimsy fence separating us and the house from the cows, so I wasn't too afraid that they'd trample me or anything like that. I walked up, much to the dismay of Dean and Angelo, but to my surprise, I scared them off. Upon my greeting them they all flocked away from us and back to where they were before. So we were able to bring our belongings back to our cars and get home for the day. 

Regardless, we spent a while filming and working on the performance aspect of the music video. Overall I think we spent a good four hours at the set, working together and getting everything we need to make this project look great. Undoubtedly, myself, Dean, the crew, and probably the band as well were very tired, and in need of some water and rest by the end of it. That was a whole lot of working, filming, and spending prolonged amounts of time standing up with no end in sight nor air conditioning, but we got it done. And pretty well I believe. Dean and I are excited to see what we got. He's particularly excited about getting down to editing it all.

Vinyl Cover

We finished the Vinyl cover/digipak portion of the project! I'd finished the art a long time ago, but we let the cover art sit around in photoshop for a while so that Dean and I could perfect it. We'd sent it to Madisyn and she didn't like the font, so we had to change things around a few times, but nevertheless, we got it done. 

We still need to film the story aspect to the music video this weekend and finish editing the music video, and other than that we're waiting on Saving Herald to give us their Twitter info for an account that they don't use. We've been asking for ages but they have failed to do so. 

Dean and I are thinking of making a new Twitter for them entirely because although we could make them a Band Camp account, it would require their music to be downloaded onto the site. It's too much work, and they wouldn't want to put in that effort anyways.

Frustrations

Saving Herald hasn't been as enthusiastic about helping us with the project as they are about performing for the video. It's been really stressful.

We noticed this early on when Madisyn said she'd help me with making the vinyl cover and it took about three days of asking/pushing for her to send me any inspiration, or ideas that she had for the cover. Since then, even the crew (Angelo, Rodrigo, and Isa, who at this point won't be able to help us film due to visiting family for spring break) started noticing how dry the band has been; not answering our messages, saying they'll send us stuff for inspirations or ideas, or things like info for their Twitter so that we can remodel it for the project, and then barely pulling through for us. It's gotten really tiring because we need to depend on their input for certain things, but we keep coming up empty. It's pushed us back on our schedule quite a bit.

Dean and I are still pretty much stuck when it comes to what the story aspect should be. The band wants us to do something that isn't your traditional storyline. They want randomness and chaos, in an artistic way of course. But that isn't as easy as it sounds, especially when they aren't giving us any ideas about what these clips should be. To try to get a better grasp on a good storyline, or anything else we could incorporate that would inspire us to come up with cool ideas that link to their band, I've been pushing them to send me audio messages about their individual experiences with mental health struggles. This is because they pointed out that Breathe is about mental health, although they don't want that to be too heavy a topic in the music video nor cliche in some way.

I found out that Maxx wrote the song lyrics, so I asked if he could give me some insight into his own experiences. No audio messages were sent to me despite my asking, multiple times, as well as in the group chat to the whole band. I ended up calling him, and unfortunately, he told me that there wasn't any profound experience that led him to write Breathe. It just came to him naturally and sounded good. To be fair, I do understand where he's coming from. I write poetry sometimes and have had moments such as these, as rare as they are. However, that doesn't coddle my disappointment. 

Dean and I need to come up with a cool concept for our storyline, ASAP. I don't know where to turn for ideas. I'm thinking of talking to friends of mine about the situation and see what kind of input or advice they could give. I would talk to my Aice Media teacher, but it's spring break, and I have no sure way to contact her and get her sage advice. Fingers crossed.

Story Elements

Dean and I are planning to have the story be intermittent between the band’s performance in the music video. The main character will be Madisyn, and the other characters are Kenzie, Maxx, Nick, and possibly Angelo, Rodrigo, and Claire; since Saving Herald has been super flakey, we're hesitant to work with them further on the story. Dean suggested we use some of the crew who's helping us out as the main character instead. We're not sure what to do yet.

So far, we have that the storyline is centered around the deteriorated house being a metaphor for the main character’s poor mental health. Saving Herald wants it to be more random and artistic than a linear storyline, so we're gonna try implying the plot visually through cool scenes.

Possible Ideas To Use:

- Include symbolic props?

- Costume design for the main character, red, or white (although it could get dirty) in contrast to the all-black clothes during the performance

- Candles, several candles around the house in rooms with no windows, possibly at night time

- Black balloons and at the end, colorful balloons

- Start video with someone submerged underwater, ends with them emerging out of the water (to play with the whole "breathe" idea)

- Maxx recommended buying balloons that spell out the word Breathe to include in the video. He said he was going to do it before we start filming Wednesday, so we'll see where that goes. Dean and I really like the idea. If he can't buy them, Dean and I will be looking into it. 

Second Teams Group Meeting

This second Teams Group meeting was helpful. Because Saving Herald has been kind of flakey when it comes to responding to our messages and inquiries about the music video, and not responding to us in general, Dean and I need a lot of help with ideas.

Talking to some of the classmates in my group, I narrowed down the ideas that we had in place so far: Half of the video is the band performing the song, "Breathe." The other half is the story, which takes place in the abandoned home we're filming the performance in. So far we're thinking that Madison, the vocalist in the band, will play the main character.

Off of that idea, they suggested that we ask the band members if they have personal experiences with mental health struggles and incorporate them into the storyline. I really like this idea, but I doubt that the band will give much input.

They also suggested that the house is symbolic of the main character's mental state: broken down and decayed. One classmate said we could really emphasize this point through visuals, such as showing destructive behaviors to make it obvious that the house represents their mental state, like the character breaking objects in there, or perhaps that they're trapped in the house, and wrecking it shows how (symbolically) they are breaking free from it. Or, on the other hand, the rest of the band members come together to free her from her trapped state of mind, and as a group, they leave the home at the end.

The set we're working with is in a field, where a herd of cows lives far away from the house. I'm thinking that maybe if there’s a friendly cow around, we could film one of the band members or Madison petting it; or laying down in the field, showing their free state of mind, finally at peace.

Another classmate also gave some examples of music videos that she believed reminded her of our idea, or what we could get inspiration from:

Paramore - Ain't It Fun

and

Foo Fighters - Everlong

While I like these videos, and the latter in particular is a great example of a half performance/half story music video, we don't have access to these elaborate sets and props shown. Saving Herald also has their own visions in mind for the music video and doing as ambitious an idea as Paramore's music video doesn't align with what the band is looking for.

Filming Location

Dean and I had a hard time trying to decide where we would be filming at. There aren't a lot of places around to film a music video that are cool, and that work with our target audience, etc. We looked up cool abandoned places to film at during the start of this project, but when Dean reached out to any owners for permission, he came up empty as they didn't respond. 

Thankfully, he's been around quite a bit and spotted this abandoned home area in our county. Angelo, a friend who's also a filmer and is helping us with our project, went to this same location a while ago to do a project. He let us know that the place is blocked off with a gate, but other than that, there are no "No Trespassing" signs or anything else of that nature. The location doesn't even show up on maps with any information about what the structure was supposed to be. It can only be found through specific map coordinates. However, it's not totally secluded. 

Dean and a friend and I visited the location today and went inside. It was my first time seeing the structure up close, let alone setting a foot inside it. The place is entirely run down and abandoned, and there's a wasp problem in the back where there are overgrown bushes, but as long as we didn't go through the backyard they didn't bother us. 

The structure has several rooms, all broken down or deteriorated in some manner, but these are the largest (and cleanest?) rooms available. We're considering that these rooms are where most of the main story and band performance will take place. 

Couple of Vinyl Covers

We plan on using one of these old vinyls that Dean and I picked up from Goodwill to glue/tape our finished vinyl cover art onto so that our Saving Herald vinyl looks more legit.

Vinyl Artwork

After sending the reference photos that I collected to Madisyn, she ended up choosing this image as her favorite. It took me at least two hours straight of working so that we can get back on schedule, seeing as we're a little behind, but I finished it. 

What's left now is the logo, which I still have to design, and then Dean and I gotta photoshop it all together. Afterward, we're going to go to Office Depot to print out a laminated sheet of our cover art to put onto some vinyl cases that Dean and I bought at Goodwill. We bought a few in case we mess up and need to redo our Saving Herald vinyl. 

Getting Started

Admittedly, the band has been a tad bit unreliable when it comes to keeping in contact with Dean and me. We planned on starting the artwork for the digipak portion of this project Monday of last week, and I was supposed to talk with Madison via phone call or text to discuss her views on what they want the album cover to look like. I'd sent a text in a group chat with Saving Herald and the production crew asking for the band's opinions on digipak covers, however, it took a few days for anyone to reach out to me, let alone Madison. 

Eventually, sent me some photos that she envisioned the album cover to look like. Then I got to work.

To keep up this whole minimalist concept that she had in mind, I decided to use pencils as my material of choice. I was torn between this and using digital art, but sometimes the process of saving or downloading digital art will lower the quality, and I didn't want this to interfere with the quality of our digipak cover. Besides, I'm hoping that the vintage, traditional, black and white look to the artwork will be fitting after Dean and I edit it around in photoshop and add a background and logos, etc.

After Madison reached out, I began collecting reference photos that I could possibly use. Here's what I have so far.

Music Video Genre Conventions

There's a lot of combined elements that go into music videos.

Firstly, we'll start with techniques. Technical techniques cover camera angles, shots and movement, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, pace, style of editing, and music genre. Symbolic techniques cover facial expressions, gestures, poses, and mise en scene. 

There are three types of music videos: Performance, Narrative, and Concept. 

Performance music videos focus on the artist or band plainly performing with no storyline, showing a collection of camera angles and movements of the band members continuously throughout the video. This is popular amongst rock artists or pop artists. 

Beyonce - Love On Top

Narrative music videos follow a storyline, but there are two types: linear and fragmented. Linear narratives follow the standard storyline structure with a beginning, middle, and end. A fragmented narrative story doesn't necessarily need to depict lyrics from the song and is told throughout the duration of the video.

Alicia Keys - Un-thinkable

Conceptual music videos are unusual, obscure, and surreal, based around a single idea. They use abstract imagery and narratives to maintain engagement with their audience and can be used to suggest a metaphorical meaning behind the song. 

Sia - Chandelier

Mixture music videos show a combination between performance and narrative. The artists are featured in the performance style of music video while the story elements act as a B-roll of sorts. 

Weezer - Buddy Holly

Camera equipment and the way the camera is used are also incredibly important for the making of a music video. Different angles, shots, and movements create different effects such as moods and are reflective of different genres to emphasize elements of the video. Music videos use mostly long, mid, and close-up shots, but also utilize other kinds (medium, extreme close-ups, over-the-shoulder, wide shots). As far as camera angles go, there are several different kinds that can be used: eye-level, high angle, low angle, bird's eye, slanted, etc. Camera movements include panning and tracking and help to follow the focus of the video or are used artistically to transition between shots.

Editing includes cutting scenes down, adding special effects, stylizing or colorizing the video, sound editing, etc. These forms of editing help to finalize music videos and add an extra flair or specific mood to the video. 

Sound consists of diegetic (already present in the film) and non-diegetic sound (which can be edited in).

Mise en scene elements focus on lighting (how the scene is lit, artificial light, sidelights), props (performance equipment, band merchandise), costume design (clothes and costumes that tell the story), hair and makeup (style of the artist), location, and color (specific colors that represent a mood, which can be done during filming or colorized during editing). Mise en scene helps to make the style and genre of music more concrete. 

Artificial lighting, strobe or colored lights would most likely be seen in dance, hip hop, or pop music videos. Natural lighting is often associated with country-type music videos. Grunge or alternative style videos use darker, higher contrast lighting often using a filter or overlay. 

Props can be used for entertainment value or to show inherent symbolism, as well as costumes, although costumes are also used for representative reasons. 

Representation in music videos includes the way that events, issues, individuals, and social groups are represented through processes of selection and combination. 

Planning, Planning, Planning

Dean's the real cinematographer between the two of us. I can make art and help around as best as I can, but as far as filming and camera equipment goes, I'm a rookie. He's made project after project and has had years of experience under his belt whereas I've only been into cinematography for the last couple of years due to this course. Other than that, I haven't taken any film classes. Art is my forte. 

Dean's Youtube Channel :)

That being said, Dean's organized a schedule/to-do list so that we're as organized as can be as we move along in this project. 

From now to the 18th, Dean and I will be in the pre-production stages. Working on storyboards, scripts, etc. I will be working with Maddie on the CD cover art from the 8th to the 13th. Dean's brainstormed that we make the cover art collage-like, as this is an area of art that I really enjoy- and not to stroke my own ego, but I believe I'm pretty good at it too. 

I have my own ideas about what to do, but Dean suggested we make it similar to the Weeknd's style of artwork. All artsy and cool looking. Or we could take individual photos of each of the band members and photoshop them together, and I make an artsy logo to put on top of that as well. 

My partner and I will be going to Georgia the first few days of spring break, where Dean's going to order all of the gear that we'll need to produce the music video. Dean's already got his fair share of equipment, but he'll be renting other equipment that he doesn't already have. We'll prep for shooting the 23rd and pick up our equipment, shoot the performance on the 24th, and then the story from the 25th to the 28th. 

After that, it's editing and finalizing all aspects of our project so that it's ready to turn in by the 12th of April. Dean's also got some filmmaker friends who are willing to be a part of our camera crew, Angelo, Isa, and Rodrigo. Dean's made our schedule into a Google Doc, so all crew members and Saving Herald have access to it. 

Talk with the Band

Dean and I had a facetime call with Saving Herald to get things cleared up for our project. They decided that the song they'd want a music video for is their song Breathe. 

Maxx and Kenzie discussed how its message is about mental health. They suggested that they'd want the video to be of random stuff, so that it could be interpretable in any way, however they don't want the video to be taking away from the message of the song. Mental health struggles are important to them, and they also don't want the premise of the music video to romanticize or glorify mental health issues, nor be too edgy or serious, as this is an overused depiction of mental health struggles in the media and they don't want it to look cheesy. 

Dean suggested that we go the hybrid video route, with its premise following half-story, half-band performance. To make things as easy and put together as possible, we're going to record the band "performing" the song, and put the studio recorded audio over the video. 

As far as places to film go, we have a few ideas: abandoned areas around Florida such as the Miami Marine stadium, UFO homes, and some bike trails behind regional park that lead to an open area (which is our last resort, because it'd be hard to bike/carry our equipment over there). 

After prompting them a little bit, the band let us know about some of their own specific visions for the music video, such as having coordinated outfits, and a saturated and bright aesthetic look to the video. Maxx gave us an example, the song These Days by Wallows. 

We told them about what's required of us for the project, so we also discussed how we're going to make them a digipak and new website to promote their band. They said they'd be fine with us taking over and remodeling one of their accounts, such as Instagram and Twitter, or making them an account on a different platform where they don't already have an account set up, such as Tiktok. As far as this goes, we're still waiting on the band to send us their Twitter login info, because none of them know it by heart or have it saved in their Twitter app other than Maddie. 

Target Audience Research

Determining the target audience for music videos is too broad a subject, so I'm going to determine the target audience for grungy, indie-rock, alternative band videos (such as Saving Herald). Alternative rock is a broad term that consists of music that differs considerably, in both terms of sound and social context. This genre covers a wide demographic and may attract a large audience that may originate from the emergence of alternative rock from the late 1900s.

For indie-rock bands, their audience is primarily younger, taking influence from their favorite bands and artists of the genre. They use their favorite bands and lyrics to influence their personal identity or as a form of escapism from their regular routines. 

The age and gender of their audience would range from students aged 14 and above to adults aged up to their late 50's (because the genre originates from the post-punk scene in the 1980s). Students aged 14-21 would most likely listen to alternative rock or indie rock. It is generally a 50/50 split between female to male listeners of this genre.