A2 preliminary

our class remake of the busted video edited by Harley, Me, Neil, Aiden and Andy

Pre production

to create our first attempt on a music video we had to discuss implications of the filming such as shots per minute, mise on scene etc. in watching the actual video for busted we watched the shots and how the process was carried out. we saw that the professional filming was more accurate than most student films were capable of, and the actual video had flawless lip syncing without a single mistake or continuity error. Having looked at the video, we looked at other preliminaries done by other schools and studied their methods to help in our own filming and editing. we watched the scenes from videos filmed by Latymer college, which all had very slight variations of the original video but had obviously tried to copy it shot for shot but had to vary in location slightly, even though the surroundings were fairly similar.
after watching both these videos we drew up a precautionary risk assessment to make sure props and people were not hurt or damaged. this involved in some cases actually going out to the location and have a look at potential dangers such as rouge pebbles in the car park. from this we drew up all the possible dangers and did anything we could to avoid them, for example making sure that guitar straps were fassened on tightly to prevent the possibility of one being dropped and therefore being damaged.
once this was complete the next stage was to construct a total frame for frame step by step storyboard for filming. we did this by watching the actual video on YouTube and using post it notes on black sugar paper. we would draw up small rough diagrams and then a small description of the shot in the corner of the sticky note. we also noted down timings for the shots to make the lip syncing work as fluently as possible. we knew we would also appreciate this when it came to the editing stage , as the mac doesn't have the Internet so we couldn't compare with the actual video on a site such as YouTube or other music hosting sites. after this, we went back over the video and listed down all the props we would need for the video. at first the seemed easy and we picked up the major ones such as school uniforms, desks, chalk, blackboards etc. but in going back over it with a teacher we realized how much we had actually missed out, such as a screwed up piece of paper for one shot and a red pencil.
After the prop listing and storyboard composing we had to decide lead rolls and camera assistants etc. i was and extra in the background, and i also helped out a lot with props and arranging borrowing from the music department. in hindsight, i wish i had put myself forward as a lead roll, as i think i would have enjoyed that and would have been able to make a better contribution to the construction as a whole. Neil, Harley and Andy then went with a camera to practice lip syncing to the music and filmed themselves for trial and improvement.

Underdog

i've been watching a lot of music videos and think a lot about what i'd like to do for my music video over the summer, one imparticular is underdog by a band called you me at six. i like the songs chorus and fast moving tune. the lyrics seem odd to follow, and supposedly according to fan sites the song is about someone in the band's ex girlfriend, and others say it's about other people trying to use them who didn't care about them before because they were becoming quite famous at the time they wrote it. the video appears to have a different meaning, as i've found so do most music video's in comparison to the song itself. The video is about a boy who has a girlfriend and feels or discovers that he can do better, at which point he leaves her and "messes around" with other girls, upsetting the original girlfriend. When she leaves him he finds that she was actually what he wanted in the first place and is upset by this. the video does match the lyrics of the song as in "underdog, look at the mess you've made".
To me the song is reflects on the way i see social groups around me, in school particular. the song makes me thing in particular because of this year just passed we were all turning 17, certain people who passed their driving test and owned a car suddenly seem to have a huge rise in popularity and seem to be driving other people around that they havent seemed to be particularly close to in the past. the song makes me think about when something along those lines happen and all of a sudden everyone loves a particular charater who in the past has been hurt or looked down on or perhaps even bullied by the people who now recruit him as their friend because of his new found leverage, e.g. a car. When he becomes popular, it's his turn stir and look down on other people and he makes as a bigger mess of everything that he can amongst this social group because he can get away with it and he sees it as his revenge for being cast off by these people in the past. He's doing things like the video suggests, as in causing trouble with girls. i think all this reflects strongly on the line "revenge loves company, three makes a crowd". however later on in the song comes a bridge, where the music slows down and changes slightly, at which point something goes wrong for example he looses his car and with it everyone who formely respected/used him for it.
The biggest problem with this is that i dont know how i would relfect this idea in a music video, which why this song is one of the weaker of the videos i have been looking at. with some of the others i have clear ideas in my head about how i will fashion the video around the song, even some camera shots i will be using to film. i could not embed the video from youtube as it was disabled by request. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcAns_hqtM