Question 4;

Question 4; How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?



This is a director's commentary about the technologies we used in creating and editing our films and also in working on the blog. It includes working with Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and the Internet to enhance our blog.

Question 3;

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Justine Lord-Female, 18 years old.

What did you think of the music video overall?

The performance aspects of it is good which I like. The music video is good because it uses different locations, the building looks effective with the girls in the building.

How was the editing?

It cuts to the beat which is good and effective.

How does it compare or differ from the real world?

The genre of the music suits the performance in the video as it's drum and base and most drum and base videos have disjuncture and not a narrative or performance type video.

Any improvements?

Overall, I think it does not need any improvements.


Kyle McPherson-Male, 17 years old.

What did you think of the music video overall?

It's weird and unsual with the two characters running around the house.

How was the editing?

The editing was fast which cut to the beat.

How does it compare or differ from the real world?

It’s weird just like other drum and base music videos.

Any improvements?

It could have been improved by having different locations to show more weirdness of the characters.

Nicole Hamilton-Female, 17 years old.

What did you think of the music video overall?

Really good, I like the fast pace of the music video and the idea.

How was the editing?

It was really good editing. The effects are really effective and work on this music video.

How does it compare or differ from the real world?

I can see it on an actual music channel like Kerrang because it’s really good and looks like a professional video.

Any improvements?

One improvement could be that the car park should have not been visible in the background but overall it’s good.

This audience feedback shows us that we created a good product which would be representative of the real world media music videos. We used the correct type of production (disjuncture) for the song, and the comments we recieved reflect and support this. Our choice to use two locations also went down well, however some feedback suggested that we could have used more than two. If we had time to change this, we could go and explore other locations and get ideas for them but since we do not have enough time to do this we could not change it. The two locations seemed to work effectively enough, and help to reflect the different personalities of the characters. Another thing that has been praised is the editing. We worked tirelessley to make the shots cut to the beat, and make them look effective and professional, and therefore it has paid off by generating praise from people watching the video. The effects were also enjoyed by the viewers, and provided more positive comments for us and praise for the video. The comment we liked the best was by Nicole: "I can see it on an actual music channel like Kerrang because it’s really good and looks like a professional video." Our goal was to make the video look as professional and high quality as possible, in order to help compare it to real world media music videos. This comment shows that we have managed to produce this, and therefore our hard work has paid off.

Nicole's comment about the car park was something we had already picked up on-we were unhappy that this was in the shot, and tried to use shots where it was not included. The problem with this is that in order to see the faces of the characters when stood in the woods, the background had to include the car park. Therefore, there was not much we could do about this if we wanted to include the characters faces and have them standing in the specific position that we wanted them in (on top of the small hill, just before the entrance to the woods. The reason we had them standing here was it was metaphorically reflective of the characters changing personalities: the entrance to the woods was the entrance to their other personalities). If we had have had more time to film, we may possibly have found a better place to film the characters changing; however in the time that we had we thought that position was alright.

In light of this feedback, we haven't changed anything with the film. It seems to live up to expectations and is reflective of a real world media music video, which is what we were aiming to achieve. Constructive criticism contains changes that cannot be made as they are involved in the filming which we do not have any time left to change. If we had time, we would change this in order to make our film better and appeal better to our audiences.

Question 2;

Question 2; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The video involves two main characters, both girls, changing personalities from playing nicely to playing strangely and 'hurting' toys. The video is dark and gloomy, and has a strange and sinister vibe running all the way through it, enhanced by the effects on the video. We wanted to encorporate the ideas of a strange personality into the design for our CD and magazine cover, and the best idea we came up with was to use one of the girls that was in the video in our CD and magazine cover. We wanted to use just the eyes on the front and back of the CD cover; therefore we chose Erin because of the colour of her eyes (blue) and the make-up she wears-the blue eyes surrounded by eyeliner and pale skin stood out and looked effectively sinister when zoomed in. Also, we wanted to play on the idea that the 'eyes are the gateway to the soul'. For something to control these two girls, it would have to get in through the eyes and this was reflected in our CD cover. Therefore, we used just one eye on the front cover and zoomed in really close, and enhanced the contrast on the eye so the blue became piercing and electric. The writing we used was simple and plain and bold; it stands out against the eye and is easy to read. This CD cover appeals to our target audience as it is a young girl on the cover which they can relate to; as well as the blue of the eye is something many young girls strive to achieve with coloured contact lenses-the majority of these girls will listen to Pendulum, therefore it links back.
For our magazine cover, we had two ideas of which we were not sure which one we should use. One is a still taken from the video itself, therefore it has a direct link to the video and helps to sell it as it gives consumers an idea of the video that portrays the song. The other is in the same style as the CD cover, focused on Erin and the blue eye that is included in all four CD covers. Since we could not decide which one to use, we decided to put it to the classmates (who are in our target audience) to get feedback on which one they liked best. After 6 votes that were split down the middle (three for the masks and three for the eye), so we decided to go with the eye design, as it links directly to the CD cover and therefore if people see the magazine advert and decide to go out and buy the single, they will have a similar idea of what to look for when trying to find it. It also helps to keep the continuity between music video, CD cover and magazine, and ties them all together with one link-the eye.


This is the Magazine cover that we changed our minds to and decided to use. As you can see the text is the same font as we used in the CD cover, and the blue of the eye has been kept whilst everything else has been changed into black and white. This helps to make the eye stand out, and create an appealing but sinister effect, which reflects the video and the CD cover.
This is the Magazine cover that we decided not to go with. The masks are taken straight from the video, and in this way it links into the video. However, it does not have any links with the CD cover and could make the consumer confused about the song and what it is about. Therefore we decided to go with the more eye catching and continuous magazine cover.

This is the CD cover. The blue eye is well defined with the black make-up around it, and is relavent to the song especially since a line in the song is 'they are watching'. It also relates to the video in terms of the two girls becoming possessed and their eyes are covered by the masks.

The CD covers and Magazine advert are very effective as they both provide continuity to each other, and the magazine cover provides the best help in aiding consumers when buying the product, as they will have an idea of what to look for when searching through the CD racks in a high street shop. They relate to each other and to the video, and also appeal to the target audience as they can relate to the young adult on the cover. The images are appealing to the eye but also create a sinister effect which is reflective of the video, therefore providing an overall effect where they all play a part in helping to sell the product.

Question 1;

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music videos can be put into three categories; Narrative, Performance and Arthouse Abstract (disjuncture). We decided to go with Arthouse Abstract as we thought it would look best with the song that we chose (Granite by Pendulum). This song is in the genre of drum-and-bass and most drum and bass videos have disjuncture or performance videos, therefore we wanted our video to look as professional and similar to popular produced videos that are played on music channels such as MTV and VIVA. To do this, we had to put as much time and effort into the production as we could.

As we decided that we wanted a more disjuncture aspect to our music video we decided that we was going to reference some of the edits out of the Prodigy by the omen this was because when we was looking at this song, we liked the way he used the flashing light effect especially at the start of the video when the have the some on the girl, this is where the flashing light effect comes from in our music video.

We used a variety of equipment and conventions that would be used in the real industry. Although our camera was not particularly expensive or professional like the ones used in the real music industry, it was still advanced and did the main job it was needed for. To give our scenes a professional appearance we mounted our camera on a tripod so that we could change the height, angle and position of. This helped to keep the camera still when we needed it; however at some points in our video we did take it off the tripod and use hand-held shots to give the scenes a 'jerky' atmosphere. Thanks to the tripod our scenes looked of a high quality which could be compared to the real-world videos.

We had to make do with natural lighting; we didn't have enough money or people to transport lights to help illuminate the scenes or create shadows, therefore we used the natural lighting. Although a light may have helped to make the scenes look more professional, the natural lighting did the job well enough.

When we were filming we tried to keep the shots as consistent as possible, wearing the same outfits each time we were filming and trying to film in the same weather. This added consistency to our video and helped it to look professional as things weren't changing that shouldn't e.g. make-up, hair, costumes etc.

We used Final Cut Pro to edit our music video. This software enabled us to edit our video to a high standard, adding effects and distorting video clips to make the whole product look as professional as possible. We used the 'blade tool' to cut longer clips into shorter ones and help the scenes to flow consistently into one another. We used a lot of jump-cuts in our video and using the 'blade tool' helped us to cut small bits out of the scene to achieve these cuts and make the scenes 'jump'. We also used a video filter (bad film) to make the film look as though it had been filmed in the olden days; the juxtaposition of the bad film and modern day settings helped to add to the strange, uncomfortable vibe that we were aiming for in the video. The visual quality of our video looked impressive when using this 'bad film', and almost looks as though it could've been produced professionally.

We've challenged the forms and conventions of real media products by attempting to produce a high standard and high quality music video that could be compared to real media products, while using only the college equipment we had to hand and by working without a budget. Most music videos would have been produced with a high budget behind them, allowing them to use fancy sets, props, costumes and equipment that we did not have access to. We did have access to a green screen however, but this was the only thing that could have been compared to working with a budget. We couldn't afford to hire cast, or make a big performance video with a stage and a band.

Although we only had the college equipment to work with, I do think we have produced a high quality video that could have a chance to compete with the high standard of the real media music videos.

Research;

Most of our research is from the Youtube and the Internet. This is because they give useful and helpful information for us to use but also to take information from. The Internet isn't as reliable because some of the information can be faked or edited by other users for example Wikipedia. YouTube was useful because it allowed us to view videos that are related to our video for example, The Prodigy which was our intial idea to cover a music video. This is allowed us in lesson to watch the Prodigy videos quickly and get ideas. The internet, such as google helped us to find information about Pendulum, go to their website and find out more about them and their type of genre. We used the google to find out information about the Drum and Base genre.

http://www.djdownload.com/browse-music/drum-n-bass/11
This helped us find out information about drum and base and other related bands to Pendulum.

http://www.youtube.com
YouTube was helpful because we could watch videos as soon as we needed to see Pbedulum's original music video.

http://www.muzu.tv/gb?locale=en
MUZU is another video source which helps us watch videos when YouTube was not working.

http://www.pendulum.com/
This is Pendulum's official website which has lot of information on their tours, photos, albums, about the band etc. We used this to research their album covers.

http://www.wikipedia.org/
We have used Wikipedia although it is not a reliable source, we have looked at the information and then researched the information into detail to see whether it's true. This was particularly useful when we were researching Escape the fate's album cover and about their history.

To research the locations, we have one member in the group who lives in Chorlton which was helpful as she lives close to the abandonned building which we used for the video.

Finished CD Cover and Magazine

This is one of our final finished magazine covers. The shot we used is actually a still taken from the film of the masks on the floor. We edited it so that the masks and dolls were in colour but the leafy floor was in black and white. This gives the image a strange effect and puts emphasis on the toys.
Pendulum is written in the same font as when it was written on the CD cover; we wanted to keep this consistent so that people know what to look for when they are looking for the band's merchandise. This time, we have put a yellow glowing effect around the name, to make it look as if it has it's own light source. This helps it to stand out against the black and white background.
The rest of the text is in the same font, to keep it continuous and make sure there is not too many changes on the page that would make it look cluttered and uneasy on the eyes.
We have put the release date in a large font to make it stand out, and made the glowing colour the same colour as the text, so it looks like the text itself is glowing. Apart from the band name and single name, this is most important as it is what the advertisement is trying to sell. Again, we have put the bands website on the bottom of the page to give people who want to find out more about the band a way to do so.


This is our second Magazine cover. The girl in it is the girl that has been used in the CD covers and also in the video. This creates links to both the CD cover and the video, and helps to keep a continuity going across the different medias. The text is also the same so that it keeps the style the same and it would be easier to recognise when seen in a shop. The image is also eye-catching so that the consumers eye would be drawn to it in a shop.




CD Cover
This is the finished back cover.
Pendulum is written again in large font, with the blue glow around the edge to make it look almost like the blue of the eyes is reflecting off it. The track list only has a few songs because this is a single, not a full album.
The track list has an embossed effect on it which we darkened to make it stand out and sized it so that it just finishes above the eye so that nothing is intruding over the most important parts of the image. We put the band's website at the bottom so that if people want more information they can go to it. The last thing we put is the barcode, to make it look as realistic as possible.


This will go on the inside right hand side, where the cd will go. The image is plain because it will be underneath the plastic cd holder and therefore anything written on it will be hard for the consumer to read. Therefore we have left the image as it is, simple and plain to provide a background for the cd but to also link it in with the rest of the cd cover, and also the video.



This is the inside left cover of the CD case. Sometimes there will be a booklet with lyrics inside in this particular place, other times there is information about the band or songs etc. We decided to put information about the band's website, as most of the target audience will use the internet a lot to find and download music, therefore the information on this will lead them to it.
The text is in a bold font with a glowing effect around it which matches the colour of the girl's hair. This gives the text a nice effect, and makes it fit in but stand out of the image. It is also easy to read.


This will be the front cover of the CD. It is a simple image but extremely effective, as most people believe that the eyes are the 'gateway to the soul'. In our video, the two girls change their identities as their souls have been taken over which gives whatever has taken them over complete control. Therefore they do strange things. Another way this image links in with the song is through a lyric near the start of the song 'they are watching'. This image aims to provide a small insight into the song, and also a link into the video.
Pendulum is written in a large, bold font as it is the name of the band and the most important thing on the image, as the name is what people will look for when searching for it in a shop. It is large, bold and clear so that it stands out and is easy to see. It also has a glowing blue effect on it; this is to help it fit in with the blue of the eye-we want them both to link together so the image is easy on the eye and doesn't look confusing with too many colours.
Granite is written in the same font but smaller, and embossed to make it look almost like the texture of 'granite'. Both texts have been put into the top left hand corner to leave the rest of the image clear to see.

Album Cover draft

These are our drafts for the CD cover, back and insides. We have not fully decided on using these yet, we may go in a different direction.

This is the front cover for Granite album. The eye is representing one of the psychotic girls in the video. The hair is slightly covering bit of the eye which suggests some darkness within it. The eye looks 'gothic' as it has eyeliner and mascara which makes it look the type of person who would listen to this album. To do this album cover, we have taken a picture of Erin's face and cropped it so we had the eye. We then increased the hue/saturation so it looks bluer. We have also used the clone tool because there were reflections in the eye. To the title, we have added a glow to the white font because we want it to stand out. The glow is in faint blue. The title is simple and easy to read and catches people's eye. Granite is in much smaller font because it's the album name and not as important as the band's name although it's promoting the album. Granite is in a grey font colour.

The back album cover shows more personality of the person as the eyes are wide and they're not afraid of being being weird. The back cover includes the track list and a bonus track. The bar code is essential as its scanned and is an actual product. The website is there for people to log on to and find out more about the band, album, tours etc. The track list is also in a fancy font to make the songs stand out.

This is the right side of the album, it's half of Erin's face, this is because she features in the music video so if people have seen the video they will recognise her.

The left side of Erin's face. They almost look symmetrical, as the face would come together in the album. This is to prmote the video/song and the album itself as it's based around the song.

Finished Video

Video Analysis

The music video is an art house abstract video that does not use any narrative or performance. The video is simply about two females being psychotic and running around. The song starts off slow which makes the video start off slow by showing the abandoned building and setting the location/scene. Then the beat starts and so does the video which cuts to the beat of the song. Granite uses alienated sound effects at the beginning and shows footage of aliens, in our music video we have done this by using a hand held camera and moving it around in the air to get shots of trees and sky. This makes it seem alienated with the alien sound effects in the song. The video follows by the two females running around inside the building in a dark room and being strange. Then there is a close up of them being next to one another, the camera pans right revealing the room and also the characters in a mask. The masks look scary for younger audience but laughable for older audience. The video is freaky by the two characters playing a hand game by the window when suddenly they turn around and it makes it seem like they’re heads are twisted. The characters then find two dolls and start abusing them by throwing it against the wall, knifing the eye out and burning them. The editing transitions we have used are the sped up scenes to make it seem comic. A tint over the whole video has been added to Bad Film which makes it seem old. The video has minor flashes which extra effect of Bad Film. The location then changes to the woods in Chorlton. The characters drag the dolls on the floor and run around in the woods and being silly in front of the camera. The video has been changed to monochrome for a more Bad Film effect. There are scenes that contain ‘blood’ on the walls but this is only food colouring. The video finishes by the two characters spraying white party spray on the floor. We have not used any green screen because we thought it would not suit this type of video especially the scenes in the building and in the woods.

Pendulum CD Cover

We decided to take a look at Pendulum's website, to help us theme the CD and Magazine covers. We wanted to see the original CD cover, and see what colours/images/writing they had used to help us decide what we should do.

As you can see, the style of the website is quite industrial, with red stormy clouds as the background behind the writing. Their website reflects their style of music; loud, imaginative and also a little sinister and dark-most of the page is in black, apart from the background which is a dark red/purply sky (reflecting storms/trouble brewing).










This is the album cover to 'Immersion' by Pendulum. The image depicts two people swimming in water, but the image has a magical feel to it-the colours and the reefs and also the light coming from the top of the water gives the image an element of the supernatural. The font is a standard block capitals font, in a silvery-grey colour. 'Pendulum' is in bold, and is bigger than the album name 'Immersion', highlighting the band.


This is the actual artwork for the single 'Granite' by Pendulum (the song that we have done). This artwork is very simple: a black background with a red 'crop circle' type image taking up the whole of the space. This image gives nothing away about the song, or the video. Again, 'Pendulum' is written in bold block capitals, with 'Granite' underneath it. This time, 'Granite' is not necessarily smaller but it is not in bold. Both words are placed centrally in the image, showing clearly the band and the song.

This is the album cover to 'Hold Your Colour'. This artwork is very detailed, with lots of colours used but mainly green showing through. There is also an eye in the midst of the swirls of colour; there is no clue as to why the eye is there in the name of the album. The writing on this cover is different to the other two I have looked at; this time pendulum is written in lower case letters, in white with a black background. 'Hold your colour' is also written in lower case, smaller letters in black with a white background.

Looking through these album covers, we have decided that we will use a similar idea with the name of the band and the song; they will be written in capitals and most likely placed central in the image, to clearly show the consumer what they will be buying. However, even though these CD covers mostly do not relate to the video, we still want to link ours to our video. An idea we had was that we could put the writing on the knife that will be held in the girls teeth.

The finished video

The video has now been finished; fully edited with sound and effects, and it has all been turned into black and white, to enhance this sinister feel. We are pleased with the way the video has turned out, and how well the shots we have filmed work with the song. Our video has turned out to be a little more gruesome and sinister than we expected, so in light of this we are raising the target audience age to 15. The video a small amount of violence in it which may not be suitable for anybody under this age.

Now that the full video is finished, we can move onto the CD cover and the magazine. We want these to reflect the sinister atmosphere that runs through the video, so that the audience can tell what kind of video we are marketing. This means the images in both will most likely be dark, with a sinister kind of text to match it, with dark colours.

These are the final images of our timeline:

CD Cover Idea

For the CD cover we have thought about putting one of the characters (Erin Swan - one of the people in the music video on the front cover). The front cover will be similar to Escape the Fate's album cover. We will have Erin's eye on the front cover with a bit of her hair covering the eye. This is because we want it to reflect the unusual theme in our music video on the cover - being 'psycho'. We want to show the dark side and evilness of the two characters but also how they're evil to other objects such as the dolls. One of the characters uses a knife to stab the eye on one of the doll's head. This scene is gruesome as it makes people flinch because it's horrible to think about it happening to you. The back cover is going to be Erin's both eyes and on there will be the song list. We have decided to use this, although it's simple it shows the evilness and the characters that are used in the video. We are not using both characters but only one of them. The two insides of the video will have Erin's face, the right side on the right side of the album and the left side of the face on the left side of the album. We want the album cover to look dark, mysterious but evil.









This CD cover by Escape the Fate, which uses a girl that looks gothic, tattooed and bruised. The band has a gothic theme which relates to this cover. Although we are not using a gothic theme/genre, we still want to use this idea because it shows the psychotic and evil side of the character. We are going to try and achieve this type of look but we don't want it to be the same. The target audience will be likely teenagers who are into this type of genre (rock/electro). Some elctro/rock bands use 'gothic' themes because most 'gothic' teenagers will like this type of music. Escape the Fate are post-hardcore metal band which targets at gothic teenagers.

The Video

The Music Video has been edited and there are only minor editing transitions that need to be added and polished up on. The whole of the song has been edited and finished, we just need some editing transitions to add for example; speeding up scenes, change colour into black and white, add an effect. In the meantime we are deciding on our digipak - CD cover and a magazine advert.

Final Shooting Scenes

15/11/2010

We have finally finished filming our music video and now are focusing on the editing. We filmed the tow characters in the woods and in the building. The characters were wearing masks to disguise themselves and become more ‘psycho’. The characters were playing a primary type clapping game that we have sped up to go with the beat. The characters in the woods were dragging toys – a doll and a doll’s head around on the floor by a string. We also used a red colouring food which we threw at the wall to make it look like they were killing the toys. We have also used different methods for the characters to look more ‘psycho’. One of the characters tried to take out the doll’s head eye. The video is now 1 minute long with sped up footage and a filter put over the video for an old effect.

Editing Process 3

So far we have managed to edit about 1 minute of the song. We have added an effect that will run all the way through the film, which makes the images darker and more sinister; this is called Bad Film and flickers as if the film was made in the past. The flickering in the video also runs well with the beat, and enhances the different textures of the song.The effect looks like it is an old film that was made in the past.

Editing Process 2

Today I came into the classroom in a spare hour to carry on with the editing to make sure we get the film finished by the deadline.

Some changed I made today were I made a couple of gaps in the clips longer at the start of the song so that they fitted in with the beat and the section of the song better. This made the clips at the start look tidier and made them flow better with the song. So far, with the editing, we have approximately 48 seconds of footage. This is just before the lyrics start in the song, and we have filled it in with our location clips and the first few clips of the two characters in the house. So far, we only have location shots of the woods included at the start of the song, but soon we will include more clips of the woods as we get further on in the song.

Next lesson, we aim to edit up to the end of the first verse. This includes the lyrics:

You can hide your eyes, you can dim the lights, but they are watching!
This is a new time, with a different kind, they are the future
The only one!

This is the final call for the setting song as they get closer.
And with full blown grace, thy will be done the show is over.
Its a new dawn!

Just leave this place behind,
Ill grill your place, don’t mind.
And you’re the only one, ‘cos you’re up on defense.
This is a new way!

The Editing Process

8th November onwards

We have finished filming and now are onto our editing. So far we have edited 30 seconds of the song. The music video contains short footages of the two characters running around and watching out of the window. Some of the footage is sped up. The video cuts to the beat of the song for a good realistic effect and also to look like a good quality music video. We are experiencing some technical problems with the editing software - it will not render. We have added a different colour tint - an old looking colour with flashing.

Location Images

These are some of the images we took from the Abandoned Building. The building is located on Edge Lane, Chorlton, and was formally know as the Chorlton Masonic Lodge. It was specifically used for Freemason meetings, although the building became vacant around 10/15 years ago. Due to this the building has been vulnerable to squatters and vandals; portrayed by old mattresses left lying on the floor and broken windows and graffiti scrawled on the walls.

The building is the perfect place for us to film one of our creepy scenes, as it looks as creepy as it feels.

Filming Schedule

The schedule for filming will start on the 4/10/10.

4/10/10-Location scouting/filming. We will go to the location and have a look around to find out the best places to film inside and out. Then once decided, we will film the opening scenes and other scenes for our music video. The video only contains two characters.

11/10/10-Filming in the woods. The filming was of the two characters in the woods; they do the same things as in the house only a little creepier.

14/10/10-Filmed two characters in the abandoned house when they have changed doing strange things dancing around, looking out the window, being psycho.

18/10/10-Filming the two characters inside the abandoned building again.

4/11/10-Filmed in the woods of the two characters walking around the park and also in the building. The characters were running around.

8/11/10-Started editing on Final Cut Pro, updated blog.

15/11/10-We have filmed final scenes and footage for our video. We now have footage of the two characters in different masks to disguise their faces. We have used toys - dolls, dolls' head in our video to add weirdness to the two character's personalities.

18/11/10-All filming is done. Editing the video now.

Video Analysis; Does It Offend You Yeah-We Are Rockstars

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars on MUZU.

This video is shot in an abandoned warehouse. The tone of the video is very dark; the colours are mainly grey and similar and there is low-key lighting which enhances the feel of the video. The crowd are dressed in dark, scruffy clothes-they're dressed for a gig not a party. Although we're using two characters, they will be dressed in their usual clothes.

There are many different shots used in the video; close ups of the bands face, to show the performance aspects and the band singing the words. There are long shots and also mid long shots to show the crowd; the density and the size of it, showing that the band has a lot of support from the fans. There are also close ups and extreme close ups shots of the instruments, demonstrating that the band are playing live instruments. There are also a lot of quick pan shots that move with the sound of the guitar. This is particularly effective as the camera movements are synchronized with the song, making a smooth continuity editing.

The editing/cut rate is cut in time with the change of the beat and the guitar, adding to the rhythm of the song. It helps to enhance the beat and the guitar changes and makes the video fit very well with the song.

The video suits very well with the genre of the music, and was most probably low budget as it is all shot in one place, with no costume, location or scene changes. The only props are the instruments the band are playing, and the florescent lighting is the only lighting used to light the area.

This video is predominantly a performance video, and the focus on the band on stage is a main part of the video. This video is where the group received most of their motivation and ideas from and has inspired us to create our own ideas similar to this type of video. Although we aren't going to use a performance video, this is useful because we are going to use a low-key lighting and an old building.

Location

The location we have found for filming is on Edge Lane in Chorlton. The building is called Chorlton Masonic Hall and used to be a meeting place for Freemasons before it was shut down and left abandoned 10/15 years ago. It is still abandoned now, and due to 10/15 years with no care and occasional inhabitants of gypsy's and homeless people it has fallen into disrepair with peeling wallpaper, broken windows and graphitized walls. It is an ideal location for our video as it is a large, empty space similar to an abandoned warehouse. There is a lot of space for a large crowd to dance around in so this is useful, as we need a large space for the two characters to be psycho.

The location in the woods is on the edge of Chorlton meadows, and is perfect because there are lots of trees and large spaces for the girls to run around in. The woods look creepy which will be needed for the video to look spooky and relates to our song's original video.

Treatment

Our idea is going to be a music video to the track, 'Granite' by Pendulum. The track is categorized in a drum and bass genre, which is 3:41 minutes long. It has a little bit of the lyrics, so it's mainly instrumental. As the track isn't that well known, we'd like to say the target audience would be aged from 13-40 years of age. As we're creating quite an unusual video with sinister, surreal scenes which is aimed to create an illusion, it most probably won't be suitable for an audience under the age of 13, and a generation over the age of 40 wouldn't be likely to be interested in the style and genre of the song. The video will appeal to both genders, as it is not gender specific, although there are two girls being followed it will not be targeted at females.

The idea for this video will be based around a disjuncture idea that will relate a little bit to the lyrics of the song about 'being watched'. The start of the song is quite slow, therefore we will use this part of the song to put in scenes where the two girls are running around in the building, and being rather strange. As the song builds up, the two girls will be acting stranger and stranger. At the middle and most loud and hectic part of the song, the song will be edited to the tempo of the song at this point will have a fast cut rate. The two bewitched characters will appear in both places - teleporting with fast cross cut editing to make them look like they are teleporting between the woods and the building, the woods and the abandoned building, and different shots of them will be used to demonstrate the surrealism of the video, such as close ups of the deformed places, and panning shots down the toys on the floor.

Roisin, who's a member of our group came across an abandoned building during a photography project, and realised it would be the ideal location for our part of our idea. The atmosphere of the building with it's peeling walls and creepy rooms makes it perfect to add a sinister feel to the video.

For the video, the characters will wear their usual day-to-day clothes but look dresed up. This will fit with the video and the atmosphere of the building.

Original Video for Granite

Pendulum - Granite on MUZU.

This song became an interest to our group because it definitely has that weird hint to it that we were going for. We originally started looking at songs from the Prodigy, but as we couldn't all agree on using one Prodigy song we eventually found this song of the same genre which we all were interested in. The music video is about people being watched and intruded by aliens and that they’re coming for them. The video contains footage of handheld camera, original footage for TV news, people screaming etc. Although our video will not be as similar to this because we feel that our idea might work well with the song. The music video has fast cut rate to fit the song’s rhythm.We are going to use one similar feaure which is the hand-held recordings looking up at the sky. We are not going to edit or use any alien relation except for some footage of looking up at the sky and walking through the woods. The costume will be slightly related to this because the characters are going to wear their usual everyday clothes and then masks added. The video is cut to the beat awith some sped up footage. The video shows some signs of aliens invading the place.

Initial Ideas

We have two initial ideas. Both are to the song Granite by Pendulum.

We'd like both ideas to have a sinister, unsettling atmosphere. Since the song is very fast paced and has a lot going on in it, we want the video to reflect these aspects of the song.

Idea 1: This will be a narrative/abstract video, centering mostly on a party in an abandoned building. It will be filmed mainly at night, with a few opening shots discovering the building in daylight. The main objective of the video is to make it look as surreal as possible, with people in fancy dress and the only light coming from torches people bring with them. We will have people in dark, scruffy dress since an abandoned building will most likely be dirty, messy and altogether a low quality building that would not be accessible in heels. This idea will use mainly mid-long shots of people dancing, having a good time, and generally enjoying themselves, with extreme close ups of the people in fancy dress.

Idea 2: Again this video will aim to look as surreal as possible, and similar to our first idea it will be a surreal, disjuncture video. The idea centres on the above-featured abandoned building, but also incorporates scenes within a wooded area. Two characters will be filmed in the abandoned building and the woods, but at some point their personalities switch and they become, in a way, possessed by something or someone. In the woods, the couple will be followed by something, but this is only shown in the view of the camera; we will never actually see the person following them. We will see somebody controlling them with a voodoo doll of some sort, but they will always be hidden by either a hood or a mask. The video will aim to enhance the idea of somebody 'watching', which relates to the lyrics of the song.

Genre Research

Pendulum – Granite (drum and bass/electro rock)

We have initially looked at The Prodigy but decided we want to focus on the drum and bass genre so then moved onto Pendulum as it fitted with our idea well. Drum and bass isn’t much focused on lyrics but rather the ‘drum’ and ‘bass’ that are heard throughout which is more dance like music. If there are lyrics, they aren’t heard or if they are, they tend to be distorted with the sound so it doesn't sound like they are singing. Pendulum are rock influenced therefore use drum and base in their music to sound electro rock. As well as using guitars, drums, bass and vocals they also use keyboards and synthesizers for the distorting effect. Pendulum's videos tend to have a lot flash lights and performance videos. The video for Granite is self-explanatory, the song is about aliens and the video features spaceships and TV coverage of news and people running. To present Granite in different manner we have decided to do a party scene of people dancing etc. We have chosen to do this because we think it fits with the idea and music.

Lyrics to Granite;

You can hide your eyes, you can dim the lights, but they are watching!
This is a new time, with a different kind, they are the future
The only one!

This is the final call for the setting song as they get closer.
And with full blown grace, thy will be done the show is over.
Its a new dawn!

Just leave this place behind,
Ill grill your place, don’t mind.
And you’re the only one, ‘cos you’re up on defense.
This is a new way!

We are standing by, no time to hide, no meeting half way.
You were sucking life through the needles eye, this is a new day.
They have won!

We would have reckon now, what we have done, left in the open.
The cool we know will rise under, they are the future.
Future!

When all your fears combined, the Memphis was refined.
And I know you really tried to understand.
This is a new age!