Contacting B2-Norwich

I was a bit stuck in terms of where to film the video as there were so many factors of things to include:

• Electricity
• Quiet/Empty
• Dark
• Dystopian
• Small-ish
• Easy Access
• Safe place to work- Meets health and safety

So I felt like a good thing to do was to message the band to see if they had any ideas as to where would work and if they think my previous thoughts on using the B2 were a good idea. 

So I sent the band a message explaining roughly what I needed the location to be like, and my previous ideas for using the B2.

Although he wasn't sure on what the final narrative was (which I then informed him and the rest of the band about) he agrees that the B2 would be a good option I just need to think about the issue of the public and sound. 

After talking the band through the narrative of the music video he agreed that he likes the idea of the music videos and informed me that the B2 would be up for it. The band really often play at the B2 so they have a good, close relationship with the band so are trusted.

I let the band know the day I was intending to film, December 19th;

And as you can see they were up for it. This day would also mean that I can walk down to the location with the majority or all of the actors and get them ready straight after school or just meet them at the location if they can't come straight there for some reason. 

I needed to email the B2 Venue to ask if this was possible but couldn't find an email address, but did find a facebook page, so I messaged the venue on their facebook asking if they had an email address or other means of contact to discuss my request. 

Zombie Make up

A major thing I need to think about is my make up for the zombies in the video and what look I want them to have; conventional, unconventional, comic like etc.

After looking into a few different styles of make up for a zombie, I think I want to keep it away from the conventional zombie, with the green face and things like that and still for a more contempary style of make up like that of the character from warm bodies shown above on the left. A white pale face with dark eyes. In terms of costume for the character, I considered all the actors wearing the same thing, like all black or something similar. Like the actors in the video for Black Chandelier and also considered the actors in their own clothes, just a bit scuffed up and dirty, which I feel would work better. If there was a zombie apocalypse, it would make sense that the zombies are just in there own clothes from where they were bitten. So for continuity wise so work with the narrative of the video, their own clothes would make more sense.

Filming

Something I will need to consider is the time at which I film the video. I needs to be dark, but as I learnt last year the time I choose to film has to be planned very rigorously, last year we had an issue with the quality of the filming ruined due to how dark the it was when we filmed. This year it should be a little bit better as I will be filming with a camera or better quality but I still need to be careful as to how and when to film.

Todays date is the 30th of December and I intend to film within the next two weeks. Today I checked the sunset times in Norwich;

As you can see the sunsets at 3:44pm, school finishes at 3:25 so if I were to film after school I would be cutting the filming very, very fine as I would have to get all the actors dressed up and with all there make up, set all the cameras up etc. Which probably wouldn't happen, as I will also have to film it before the sunsets as it will be dark and have the same problem as last years filming. However, on Friday December 19th, it is the end of term at school and we have a half day so finish the day at 1:15. This would then give me time to get the actors to the location, do their make up then sort the cameras and lighting out. This means that I could make sure all the actors know what they are doing for the filming outside atleast, then start filming, hopefully before 3:44, so around 3 ideal.

December 21st is the shortest day of the year so the sun will set later and later from that date onwards meaning I can film later as it will get dark later and later.

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Cinematography

Cinematography nadine from nadine_sccb

Above is a slideshare explaining the principals of cinematography, which is something that will be important for my product even though it does have a parody, comedy theme to it. The use a long shot to start the video will help to establish how empty and alone the characters are in their location. There will also be long shots when the camera views the bushes outside, as it forces the audience to physically look for the noise and the distruption, whereas a close up on the mystery thing in the bushes would simple focus the audience to see it straight away. By making the audience look for it then it ruins the tension the audience feels. The use of close ups to show the confusion, pain, fear and upset of the members faces when encountered by the zombies.

Narrative Structure

The music video will follow a linear narrative, as there is no flash backs, but follows the film in chronological order from start to finish.

However the narrative doesn't follow a narrative code as simply as its follows the linear narrative. The closes code it follows is that of Todorov's enigma code.
Tzevtan Todorov:
He believes that the point of narratives is to solve a problem, and that characters pass through many stages, and all the events caused through these stages unfold chronologically. He also believes that the narratives follow the 'Equilibrium, disruption, resolution to equilibrium' rule. 

There will be slightly disrupted equilibrium at the start of the video due to the radio station and empty surrounds, however this equilibrium will then be completely disrupted when the zombies enter the building and begin to attack and kill the members of the band. There is technically a resolution to equilibrium, but not a conventional one. The members all become zombies and play a concert as zombies, to the zombies that killed them. If it were to be a conventional resolution to equilibrium then the members of the band would have killed the zombies and saved the world from them taking over the world. 

Horror Film Conventions

I have previously mention that I would like the music video to have that 'trashy', conventional horror film feel too it, with all the key buzz lines that are used in all horror films, to help set the scene of the parody, none serious feel to my video.Below is a Slideshare I found explaining that the codes and conventions of horror films.

Horror Genre Conventions from CallumCarmichael

You can see the conventional location for horror films are quiet, excluded abandoned areas of isolation, where no one would hear the characters scream. I do intend to film my music video in a very quiet excluded place as previously stated.

In terms of the low and high camera angles I intend to use them, but mainly mixed in with he POT t camera angles. I will use these shots when giving the feel of seeing the band from the audiences eyes looking at the zombies and visa verse, particularly when the zombies a killing two of the band members. I will not be using the high and low angle shots in the penultimate scene, when the last band member is hiding up high, as the zombies will be looking up at the member, making them look like the weaker characters, however they will be the more powerful characters as they ultimately win, and kill the whole band.

The lighting will represent the whole feel of the location and theme to the music video, it will be low lit and have a dystopian feel to it. If I do decide to film in the pub they normally play in, there are stage lights that we might have access to to help create the right lighting.

There wont really be any conventional props, as the weapons will be the bands musical instruments and like most zombies, they wont have any weapons themselves.

The opening to the film 'Scream' has all the sterotypical conventions of a horror film in terms of everything I previous discussed but also convention lines and buzz dialogue.

Although the narrative of the film is very different to that of what my music video will be, you can see the clear conventions in this opening scheme.



The scene is set very clearly, a teenage girl home alone, a weird guy stalking her and shots like the gas cooker lighting to create tension with the audience, and creates a risky environment, leaving the audience ready for the character to die or get injured. There is a lot of silence in the opening scene, and when there is music, it is tension building string instruments which again builds that tension. After the door bell rings and the character shouts who is there, the stalker on the phone even says, 'you should never say whose there, dont you watch scary movies, its a death wish.  you might as well come out here to investigate a strange noise or something', they are drawing attention to the conventions of horror films. Conventions my film will follow. The memeber of the band does go out to investigate what the noise is, and ask, whose there? so meeting those conventions in such an obvious way it makes it parody-like.

Planning the music video

I recently put together a rough planned list of what I want to happen in the music video. Following the opinions of what the band requests of being cheesy and follow the conventional lines of horror films to set the scene. 

I am very keen on the idea of the radio situation, with the announcement but the member having headphones in so wont hear it. So I will need to also record a radio announcement to then add as non-diegetic sound later in the post editing process. I will also need to record the band professionally in a studio or use a recording they have to add over the record and implied diegetic sound as when recording the music video, I will be directing over the top of the band playing. 

Equipment Update

I have recently bought a new £700 camera, that also has a filming function on it. It is a 20.2 mega pixel camera, with the ability to film in full HD 1080p quality.

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_70D/

When it comes to filming my product the main camera I use will be with my own camera due to the high quality. I can also attach a microphone to make the audio quality better. http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Video-Shotgun-Microphone-Pentax/dp/B003TTMFM0
However this isn't massively necessary as I will probably remove the sound from the footage and add the song in later, as they quality won't be perfect, but I will also been directing and probably talking over the filming of the footage.

When I bought the camera it also came with two lens adapters to add to the end; a telephone adapter and a wide angle lens adapter. The wide angle lens is used a lot in music videos, particularly heavy rock or punk music videos where the singer often leads close into the camera.

As you can see from the screenshots of Blink 182's music video First Date. You can see if also adds a small level of distortion to the image, it gives it almost a slight fish eye effect to the video; which is also an effect I can achieve built into my camera. 

The standard shooting setting on my camera gives and image that looks like this, you can see it isn't distorted at all.     

As I said, my camera comes with a fish eye setting and this is a photograph taken on the weakest level of fish eye. As you can see there is some level of distortion but not a huge amount, just has a slight bend on the walls if you look closely. 

The is the camera set to medium fish eye. As you can see it is much stronger and has a fairly high level of distortion. 

The is the camera on the highest fish eye setting and you can see it has a really high level of distortion to the image.

I also got a wide angle lens adapter for my camera. When it is zoomed in the distortion isn't that high, similar to that of the fish eye setting on the lowest setting- there is only a small bend on the edge of the walls and door frames. 

You can see when the camera is zoomed out the distortion is much stronger and adds a kind of fish eye effect to the view. But does also result in a vignette effect over the photograph. 

Catch up with Band

I have recently been considering the style of video I want for my music video, and whether I want it to be serious or more of a glam rock parody. I felt like it was important to ask the band what they wanted, but knowing their personalities I knew what they would say.

I was correct in my thinking that they would want more of a parody, glam rock styled video. Videos from artists such as Alice Cooper, Steel Panther, Slade, Queen, and The Darkness etc. All the members of the band are often very silly, and mess around all the time. In terms of directing, if I decided to make my work a parody it makes easy in some ways to direct as they will need to be silly to some extent.

Planning- Location

The location for my filming is going to be a very hard to find and plan, which keeping within Health and Safety regulations. But I have done some research into places around Norwich I could film in, but if I can't find something perfect and safe, I might have to use somewhere not perfect and make it more dystopian.

Below is a mind map of the main things I need my location to do and be for my production and I hope to find somewhere that meets those needs.

After doing some research on the internet to find suitable places, I came across a few that seem a good option. (Click images to link to the page online about the building)

This area is more appropriate than the nursery  shown below, as it has the industrial look to it, which is something a lot of rock/heavy metal music videos feature. However there is a very obvious, big health and safety issue. Looking at the photographs on this website there are a lot of structurally unsound, however I wont really know how bad it is until I see the location, if I choose too.  

This is an abandoned nursery in Norwich that as it says on the website is 'Possibly the closest I will ever get to a zombie apocalypse!', however I'm not sure if it's gonna have the right feel for my work. I want somewhere that looks abandoned and dystopian, but I feel with this location because there is still children toys etc around, I'd have to clear all that up and tidy the area up before filming in it.
One difficulty with the both of these locations is trying to find exactly where they are. On these websites authors are often very secretive about where the buildings are which could prove to be difficult when trying to find it. 

Another option I have is to find somewhere less derelict and abandoned, and make it feel more dystopian by the way I film and construct the location. One option would be to look into filming in a local pub called the B2. The band often play in this venue, and it is a small room situated behind a pub, and has a dark dingy look to it. The fact the venue i small, it could be an advantage as it means I don't have to worry about making sure I have lots, and lots of actors for zombies to fill the space. 

Animatic

A good way to consider and plan and visualise films is to create an animatic. In year 10 we did a unit in Media Studies where we planned a music video so created an animatic.


VTS_01_1 by morrighanrocks

As you can see it does demonstrate what my intentions for the music video have been very clear in the animatic. Although it doesn't show all the detail in terms of camera angles and lighting etc. But I could have then develop my animatic later to show these details.

Once I consider the story to my music video more, I will create a story board that I then animate later to show the story of my footage better.

Demographics and Target Audience

We found a website online called YouGov Profiles, its a site that has gathered information from national census and other questionnaires to compile profiles for people. You have the ability to search a band or product or brand, and it will give you information on their age, where they live and social grade but also their lifestyle habits etc.

I searched bands similar to Black Syndicate to see what profile turns up.

As you can see the demographics are male, aged 25-39 and part of the C2DE category, which is correct to the information I gathered during my survey and the target audience I identified through personal experience of gigs and concerts of similar genres, but also what the band said they felt were their audience.

Questionnaire answers

After receiving answers from my questionnaire, I created an Emaze presentation to deconstruct and analysis' the answers I got.

Finding Actors

Although I'm filming the band for the video, I will also need lots of actors(bit parts) as the zombies in the video, so the best way to do that is to ask on social medias. I have 760 people on my Facebook, so theoretically they will all see my post requesting actors. But also the lead singer of the band i'm working with is also in my Media Class and always uses a website he found where up and coming actors request jobs, so I will also post the advert on there.

I decided that making an event and adding everyone who promise to come, and the make up artists is the best idea as that way getting the information to everyone is easier, but it also means I can constantly check who is ok to do what days and who is actually coming. The more people I have the easier, but on the other hand, as long as I know if I dont have loads. It gives me an opportunity to consider how I film it to make the most of however many people I have as actors.

Plan to ensure I have all the necessary primary and secondary audience research

Secondary;

• ABC1, what categorises people into the ABC1 (once Primary is done, link back to the ABC1 groups).
• BBFC age categorises, also look into the recently decision to censor music videos with an age restriction. 
• Apply Pete Buckingham concepts of audiences to my music video.
• Find 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory essay'

Primary;

• Questionnaires on Facebook, asking what people like in Music Videos (styles, themes, genre etc).
• Watch videos of the band and see who is in the audience of their performances.
• Interview the band themselves and ask who goes to their gigs.
• Create a focus group.