Roughcut

List of tasks we need to do for final deadline...........

1) Capture Still images of the boy
2) Shoot more footage of the lead singer
3) Lip syncing!!!!! Close ups, Distant Shots.
4) Change Location of footage
5) Band together????
6) Change the location of the opening of music video
7) Re-think stop motion.
8) Go over storyline.

We will discuss what we have talked about with each other and Tanya with Lisette when she gets back.

Editing

While we were editing today , we were thinking about what we could improve, and that was to have more visuals of lip syncing, close up of the artist singing and distant shots of the artist singing to ensure that we have a variety of different shots of the artist.
We also realised that we need to be tighter on the singing, because often the words said are not the words in the song and this becomes obvious when putting them on to final cut.
We also think that we should include another location of the lead singer because although he is shown at home, and then in a field, it becomes quite repetative when trying to piece together footage. So when filming next time we plan to still shoot outside but like we did with the lion, change location a lot more to prevent the audience becoming bored.
We also found that when we went through the rough cut there were blacked out parts, that we are now attempting to fit footage into, so it flows better.

Expenses

In order to get the props we wanted for our music video we had to buy/rent:
-a lion suit (as the bear was unavailable)
-toy army men
-newspaper
The over all cost for this was around £65 between us.

editing

We've beagn to start our editing for our music video ready for the roughcut deadline this week. Using a range of filters we have changed the colour resloution and balance to give it a wierd and blurred look which will then mege back on the line " see a little clearer" we have chose to do this to give a dream like feel to it as the lead singer is in bed most of the day. To link with the tempoi and beat we have used different speed changes to fit with this. for example the beat is very upbeat and fast so we have chan ged the speed of the clips and fastened them up for both humour and style. We have had had some trouble with not having enough footage of the lead singer singing but with some work we have managed to mix some stuff together and hopefully will get a good response back to this.

mood board

Target Audience

When filming, we were talking about what would be our target audience for the music video, we have decided that we are aiming it at teenagers between 12-19 years old. The reason for this is because the video is fun, upbeat and has an element to comedy to it.
In the music video there is a young boy, which they can relate to the target audience as they are around a similar age. We have tried to fit the genre of the music to what the characters do. With the lyrics we have tried to match them to visuals so that the younger audience can relate the lyrics and images together.


For example, this image shows the childish element to the video.

Photos =)

while we went out filming i thought i would take a few images on my camera to use as the DVD cover and magazine cover.

We are not totally sure which one to use yet and how to change them..

Contacting Locations

When filming we had to think about locations and permissions to film. We contacted the local bus service in cambridge Stagecoach, and asked their permission if we could film on the bus dancing around when stationary. Due to health and safety reasons we were not allowed to do this.
We also got in contact with Cambridge University as we wanted to shoot some footage on their grounds, but we were unable to due to student privacy and confidentuality.
We then got in contact with some of the university accomodation and they allowed us to film in their gardens provided that people werent around. The shooting we did here was very successful.
In lion yard we were not allowed to film on the lower ground, as it was busy and could cause health and safety issues. They allowed us to film on the upper floor as it didnt disrupt the public. We were not allowed to shoot on the escalators again due to health and safety issues.

Stop Motion research

Transformers Stop-Motion Bumblebee beats Optimus Prime -

This stopmotion of the film Transfromers has been done extremly well and is slick without little faults or editing faults. The special effects of this baffal us on how they managed to cretae the flying effect without visable strings or other objects.

lego harry potter -


However this spoof of harry potter is a little bit more jerky in tits movements and tends to look a little obvious at times that it is a stop motion ratehr than a movie likr the transformers above. the use of the beard is a good effect that is slick and humerous.

lego indiana jones -

Stop Motion-







Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie -







Sweet Dreams by Kirsten Lepore -










Chris Seed army men stop motion animation episode 3 -

Other insperations for our music video

We wanted to get the style of a unsual thing aongst normal things, so that's how we came up with the idea of following a bear/lion around cambridge doing normal things but looking out of place. with this idea we found other cinerios where things look out of place and fit in aswell.

OU Mascot "Boomer" - Music Video 2009 -

Malaise de L'Orange -

Analysis of Other Bands in the same genre

Wheatus - A little respect



wheatus a pop rock band from the 90s is a similar genre to harvey danger in it's se of wacky songs with wierd lyrics. this music video involves a very basic storyline that follows a young boy inlove with a girl but unable to prove it to her. It uses a range of different split screens merginging together to give a strane feeling to the viewer. It has had a filter used on it to give it a very brigt blod look like something out of a barbie house or a Tv programme this puts accross the style and genre aiming for young teenagers. The band playing are messing about and joking giving us the feel of what type of humour they have. They use thier traied mark checked background, found in most of thier videos and CD covers, throughout the video to give the Viewer an idea who they arewithout listening to the music.

Wheatus - teenage dirtbag



Again in this video we see the main protaganist fighting to win the heart of a girl that is out of his leauge. Filemed in a a school they use a range of camera and editing styles to create a film atmospher. repeated in this video they use a film actor to be in it (jason briggs &brittany Murphy) to again give it a teen movie genre. As if they are using film contexts but breaking the mold slightly. from shots back and forth from the storyline and the bandwe once again see the band members joking about with maracers and apples giving a very light hearted feel to the video. with the film elemnt thrown in you get remnded of films that came out in that time like Clueless, American pie or She' all that.

Props Used Whilst Filming

lightsaver thermometer sword

eyepatch newspapers Framed photograph

Book Superman cape Book Witches hat

Refrences and other sites on Harvey Danger

• http://www.harveydanger.com/news/2009/05/index.php -"Harvey Danger's Breakup Announcement
• http://www.harveydanger.com/shows/ - show Dates
• http://flagpolesitta.com/ - Fansite
• http://jeffjlin.typepad.com/ - Jeff J. Lin's blog, with background information and analysis on the free release of Little By Little....
• http://www.archive.org/details/HarveyDanger - at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:4jnsa9wgu23s~T0 - profile site
• http://www.becomingadot.com/albums.aspx?category=9&id=89 - review of 'Where have all the merrymakers gone'
• http://globecat.blogspot.com/2008/06/interview-harvey-danger.html - Interview Harvey Danger

Band Break Up...

May 28, 2009

Dear Friends,

After 15 years, three albums, hundreds of shows, and far more twists and turns than we ever imagined possible, we've decided to put Harvey Danger to rest. The decision is totally mutual and utterly amicable. Everyone is very proud of the work we've done together, but we've also come to feel that our collaboration has--in a very positive way--run its course. We're all eager to try our hands at other projects, musical and otherwise. Chances are we'll all work together in one form or another; if we've learned anything, it's that you never know what will happen. Of course, putting an end to something we've been working on since our early 20s can't help being accompanied by a soupcon of melancholy. Nonetheless, as the Chambers Brothers remind us, time has come today. Rock bands have life spans, and Harvey Danger's has been longer, and more eventful, than even we would have predicted.
We've been incredibly fortunate throughout. We've made great friends, shared the stage with incredible bands, worked with truly inspiring people. Beyond question, our greatest good fortune has been the relationship we've been able to maintain with our audience, particularly those who have followed the band through its various phases and line-ups. It's a corny rock band trope to extol the virtues of "the fans," but in all seriousness... The fact that our music genuinely has meant something to people, and that we have been able to get to know so many of those people (both in person and online) and learn about how they connected to our songs--that interaction became a lot more than just a way of connecting to our increasingly private public. It offered the rarest gift: an opportunity to learn what our own work actually meant. We're deeply grateful to those who know they are. Being in this band has been a long, rewarding experience, and without you, it would probably just have been long. We hope that the relatively small body of work we've left behind (a bit more than the Sex Pistols, a tad less than Prince) continues to find a place in people's music libraries. But regardless, it's a legacy that will always mean a lot to us. Thank you for listening.

Please watch this space for details about our final shows, coming soon

http://www.harveydanger.com/news/2009/05/index.php

Harvey Danger Research and Background

• Harvey Danger was a rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1992, and rose to prominence in 1998 with the single "Flagpole Sitta." On August 29, 2009, the band played its final show at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle.

(This is an intresting fact as it give us an outline of where the band have been and where thier going. Since they broke up this year we could use that to our advantage in making the DVD as a greatest Hits limited edition cover. )

• (1992–1996) Early years -
  Harvey Danger began in 1992 with University of Washington classmates Lin and Huffman deciding "it might be fun to start a band." Taking their name from a phrase graffitied onto the wall of the UW student newspaper office, the duo played house parties and bars as they were until the following year, when they invited Evan Sult to be their drummer. Despite his complete lack of drumming experience, Sult agreed, bringing along his own similarly-inexperienced classmate Sean Nelson.
  
• The band recorded a three-track demo tape with producer John Goodmanson, a demo tape which drew attention from some generally uninterested major labels and the very interested Greg Glover, a London Records intern who ran his own small label, the Arena Rock Recording C0. Glover expressed interest in releasing a 7" single, and Harvey Danger provided him with an additional three songs—including "Flagpole Sitta"—also recorded with Goodmanson. On the strength of these, Glover agreed to bankroll a full-length album.
  

(This is also helpful as it outlines a sense of style for the band as a low budget but popular band, again helpfull for our early ideas of what to do with the DVD Cover.)

(1997–1998) Success

• Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? was released in July 1997 to local critical acclaim. The record performed well on college radio charts, and sold steadily in Seattle and New York, among other cities. By the end of the year, however, the band felt as though the record had lost its momentum and the group began to contemplate breaking up. Shortly before taking January 1998 off to contemplate their future, Nelson gave a copy of Merrymakers to a KNDD DJ. Within weeks, "Flagpole Sitta" had become KNDD's most-requested song.
  
• Influential L.A. radio station KROQ picked the track up, and stations across the country shortly followed suit. When Greg Glover of Arena Rock Recording Co. was hired at Slash/London Records, Harvey Danger were signed to the label. "Flagpole Sitta" made Billboard magazine's Top 40, and appeared in a number of films and television shows. Its video got heavy rotation on MTV and VH1. The song also became famous globally as one of the most memorable songs on the soundtrack for the film American Pie, despite not being on the official soundtrack sold in stores. It also appeared in the movie Disturbing Behavior and its trailer. More recently, the song was used as the opening theme to the British sitcom Peep Show for the second series and onwards.

(I Found this the most intresting and usefull out of the research as it gives us another option and idea to explore for our DVD cover. It goes to show that Harvey danger is mostly a popular American band. The fact that they have only really hit the UK in the last year or so gives us the idea that e could base the DVD release cover and poster on a UK market advertising it as a new band even though they have been around for a while. )

(2009) Breakup
On May 28, 2009, the band announced, "After 15 years, three albums, hundreds of shows, and far more twists and turns than we ever imagined possible, we've decided to put Harvey Danger to rest. The decision is totally mutual and utterly amicable." Harvey Danger played eight farewell shows in August, the last three of them in Seattle. The band closed with the last song it wrote, "The Show Must Not Go On," scheduled for release as a free download in September.

( this really works well with our video as we based our idea of not haveing the band in the video but rather the illusion that they are in it. Since they have just broke up we could aim the music video based on the idea tat the badn has gone. We included this in our Video with shots of missing instruments ad a sign saying " where's the band?" the humerous twist works as from research the band is non for its quirky style which is protrayed in our Video which could be seen as thier last fun day out.

Members
Sean Nelson – vocals (1993 – 2009)
Jeff J. Lin – guitar, piano, violin (1992 – 2009)
Aaron Huffman – bass, guitar (1992 – 2009)
Evan Sult – drums (1993 – 2001)
Michael Welke – drums (2004 – 2009)
Rob Knop – keyboards (2005 – 2009)

Final locations

When planning earlier on this year we collected a range of different images of where we thought we were going to film. After some discussion we decided on new locations that would work better and provide more variety, these were them.

Problems when filming

When we came to the day of filming we had the idea of shooting footage on public transport. We wanted to film dancing footage on a stationary bus, but due to heath and safety issues we were not allowed to do this.

DVD cover ideas

Whilst we were filming this week we took a range of different photographs. We took photographs in both the city center and along the river. We did this in order to see what locations would look good as a DVD cover. We thought that the busier images looked better because although there is more going on it doesn't take away from the focus on the lion.
When looking back at the footage, we have also seen a range of different shots where we can take screen grabs.
when looking at other images of Harvey Danger we found a few examples of ideas that we could follow to produce our DVD cover.


We came up with an idea of using a close up shot of the lions face, or even of the band members face contrasted with the lions face on the final DVD cover. We found this image that illistrates our idea well. We also thought that by having a close up shot it would mean that we should use a simple font to insure that the writing doesn't take away from the image.
This is a contrasting example of the type of image we could use that use that doesn't include an image of the artist or band. As the song we have covered is quite unusual we thought that a DVD cover that includes an element of whats shown in the video but not an image of the band, could work quite well.

Test footage

We did our test footage on stop motion. We chose to do this, as it was an element that we have not covered broadly in the past. When we were filming we found that a lot of the footage we captured appeared to be too jumpy as the spaces we moved the toys in to were too much of a jump from the previous position.
This really helped us to realise the amount of time we will need to get this element of the video done as we will need to do very small subtle movements in order for the footage to be affective.
We also found that the location was very important as we need to have a smooth even surface to prevent to army soldiers falling, and also to make sure that this footage links in to the footage we have capture with the lion in as we want there to be continuity and clear links between the different characters shown.

Filming

On the 12th of October we went out in to Cambridge to film some of our footage. We went to a variety of different locations to film the lion doing both day to day things and unusual things.
We used a range of different shots, over the shoulder, close up, long shot, panning shot, high angle, low angle, establishing shot to make sure we had enough variety to work with.
Although in our original planning stages we planned to film in London, we had to change the location due to cost reasons. We also had to change to idea of using a bear to a lion due to availability reasons.
Over all we were very pleased with the footage we captured. We also got a range of different photographs in different locations as options to use for DVD and album covers.
We have a lot of different footage to work with, we captured around 30minutes that we now need to reduce down to three. We were happy with this amount though because it then allows us to have a broader range of shots and locations.

Crew and group members

We are Filming the Bulk of our Footage on Monday the 12th of October where we hope to get a lot of footage to go back to the editing room and play with. We will be hiring out a bear type suit and filming around Cambridge, then off to St.Ives to film with Tom for the Chorus parts. However If the weather does not work with us then we will have to shoot another day and change our planing ideas. Fingers Crossed.

In Our group and Crew We have Lisette Cooke, Lydia Scott and Vicky Pearce.

Lydia Scott

Vicky Pearce

Lisette Coooke

Although we all have our main roles in the project we are all getting involved with every aspect of making the music video. For example Vicky is stronger at using Photoshop, Lydia is stronger at filming and Lisette stronger at editing. But to insure that we all get a fair chance at the highest grade possible, we are all getting involved with every role.

Cast

This is our cast for our Music video -

In the bear/Lion Suit is Lisette cooke, we chose lisette to be in the suit for one she was little :) two she could do a range of dnace moves and cartwheels and third for her background in Acting.

Our lead singer is Tom Bletsoe we chose him because he has a very unique and different look a bit like the lead singer in Harvey Danger. Again We chose him for his Acting background and because he brings a wierd look to the video to link with its inicial Idea.

Tom Blestoe Lead singer of harvey danger

Edd Lovelace Notes

Notes on Edd Lovelace

Company - Creation made low key bands videos which included The Gallows. It was a £100 budget that won Best video for MTV2. The main focus of the camera was on the Lead singer and his tattoos, the crowd, guitars and other instruments. There was a range of speed changes for the mosh pit, mix of hand held cameras, repetitiveness like the song and no set changes. based as a Performance Video and how gigs work and are done on the road with the band. A documentary rather that a big budget music video it was crewed by 8 camera men which was the bands idea.

Pulse Films - production company in so Ho where the majority of film companies are based. On Myspace they have set up 12 different artists ( Dirty Pretty Things)

DARYL - His main company he is with. The tracks come in then you pitch to do them whilst being up against a lot of competition.

In One Ear by Cage the Elephant - The budget was about £40,000. Got lot of his ideas from films and used them as film contexts in his work. He does this in his pitches by picking a film that he wants the video to look like then he gets stills and presents them. Bands and producers want two different things, mostly original but still Poppy so it will sell in the Charts. Hard to find the balance.
To highlight and emphasis the storyline and setting they created a slow bit with a range of close ups, jump shots, neon for the punts to blend with the poppy look, movie reel feel, weird guy, crazy but believable setting and a patient ill setting.
Art director built set for £2,000, used 16mm film, one day shoot 6am à 12 midnight, DV Format, 1 strip costed £1000.

Initial idea can change with the editing
- 3 days to pitch
- week to plan
- 3 days editing
- 2 and a half all together

Aint no rest for the wicked by Cage the Elephant - Strip adjuster movie reel chemical, natural born
killers à film reference, back screen drop of the movie road and Archive Footage.
Colour correction - looks like just one shot, it colours the whole film to blend the footage.
(Online and offline à Downgrade the footage to edit then upgrade it again)
Cutting Pink with Knives à £100, use of the lyrics popping up on the screen, one track panning shot, simple lighting and camera angles, , no resources or money this is a good way to shoot as it is easy but effective.

Werewolves across America Trailer - Half documentary and half Fiction, went to London and New York for briefs for money, Low budget £10,000 went on tour for Two weeks.

Changes over time - AVI Format à DV Format à HD Formant
Editing timeline - AVID Suites à Adobe Premier 100 à Final Cut Express

Letter To Band

Here is a copy of the email/letter we will be sending to the band to get consent for using the track.



Dear Harvey Danger,

We are from LongRoad 6th form college in Cambridge the UK.
We are studying media studies and for our A level project we have to create a music video. After listening to a range of different music, we have decided that we would like to use your song flagpole sitter. We are emailing you to ask for your concent for us to use your song to create our own music video.

Thankyou for taking the time to read our letter, we hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Lydia Scott, Lisette Cooke and Vicky Pearce.

Ed Lovelace notes

Adding film Contexts

After attending a lecture with Ed Lovelace we got inspired to create snippets of film contexts into our music video.  theses are some film moments that we have researched - 

Test Footage

This is our test footage that we experimented in to help us come up with ways to improve our project. after doing some shots we have faced difficulties while shooting that we will have to rethink before starting our official filming. 

one problem we faced was filming the stop-motion sequence, as we didn't have that much time film  it it came out rather jerky and uneven. we also decided that filming on the ground would not work as well as filming on a flat surface with a tripod. we have decided to reconsider before filming the real thing. 

We have also decided after testing the footage that we want to use a range of speed changes to emphasis the craziness of the main protagonist.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard, and a rough combination of our ideas.

Shot list

Panning shot
Long shot
distinguishing shot
close up shot
Over the shoulder shot
Tracking shot
extreme long shot
High angle shot
Low angle shot


After looking at this video we have decided on certain shots to use, and also had ideas about using unusual shots

. This is an example of the type of close up we will use



This is an example of a long shot