Website is Coming Along

Using a template on Wix.com called 'Black Barby' I have managed to make quite a bit of progress into building a Wensite for my artist 10,000BC. I really like how it's coming along

 

 

The Tour dates section at the side remains from the template but these will be changed to be 10,000BC's tour dates and it'll all look awesome. I still have to do the other 3 pages but they shan't take too long

Filming - Day 04 Filming in the dark

On Moday 25th November, Gracie came round so that we could filmed some more. We managed to get quite a lot of footage. we went back up to my upsatirs where there is the nice plain white wall to use as the backdrop. I filmed her lipsyncing the two main verses in the light because the original clips were barely usable. We then did the same again in the dark using my really bright 20 LED light. I filmed this by hand, without the tripod to make the shot less boring and make the video seem less repetative and dull.

The shots in the dark were particularly hard for Gracie as it was difficult for her to read the lyrics which wasnb't helped by the fact that she was without her glasses. We managed though, and I think a lot of the shots we got look really good.

Filming - Day 03 Commotion in the Quarries

Itinerary: Camera, Tripod, Lyrics sheet
Location(s): Portland Park, The Quarries

We managed to get quite few shots including a few lip syncing shots under a bridge on the way to the quarries, multiple shots of Gracie just walking around looking creep and a few other shots, like establishing shots of locations and a couple others such as water flowing in a river whilst it was raining.

 

Our filming was cut short by me noticing I had lost my phone so we had to go looking for it. We eventually found it though as we heard my gay-ass ringtone of  'A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton' it had fell out of my pocket as we were walking down a hill, luckily it didnt fall out when we were jumping over rivers, that'd have been really bad.

 

Overall it was an alright day as we did manage to get a fair few shots and my phone was eventually found.

Planning - Album name

Using the site I used to get my idea for my artist name I found an idea for my album name. After clicking the 'This name sucks. Give me a new one.' button I came across the name 'The Grinding Mechanism ' which I think sounds pretty awesome.

Filming - Day 02 No Success

Itinerary: Camera, Tripod

Location(s): Portland Park

We took the camera and tripod to Portland Park, planning to get some cool shots there and down the Quarries but it was too dark by the time we got there and Gracie was barely even visible in the shots; She suggested brighteneing them up in editing but that would create a lot of static and noise so we went back to my house.
On the way back to mine we managed to find a little residential road right near mine called Sylvan Avenue, that looked creepy enough at night so I managed to film a few shots of her looking mysterious walking around under lamposts and stuff.

 

Filming - Day 01 Lipsyncing

Itinerary: Camera, Tripod, Gracie
Location: My Bathroom

Filmed in my bathroom we got the lipsyncing done. I chose that my bathroom would be an ideal location as there is a plain white wall to have as the background. In every take of the lipsyncing Gracie messed up a little bit but I think I can crosscut it together and make it look good enough, if not the we could always re-film it if needed as it wasn't a very taxing task.

 

I also managed to finally get the costume photos needed for my blog which I uploaded on the day we filmed. Obviously a lot more needs to be done 'til I get even nearly finished but it feels good having finally made a start.

Planning - Costume, Hair and Make-up

As Gracie is going to be the only one in the video, and there are no real, major costume changes only one costume needs to be planned for.
 

Throughout the video she'll be wearing her black, ankle length leather coat, with a black shirt underneath some black skinny jeans and her black converse.
 

 

I chose to go with the black shirt as it looks amazing, the white shirt simply didn't match the rest of the attire. Gracie actually has and incredibly Gothic waistcoat that I sold her because it barely fit anymore and it was far from my style. I figure this will look good with this outfit as it seems likely. Next time we do some filming,I'll have her bring the waistcoat along. Gracie independantly decided the studded choker should be added. I really like the choker, it makes the costume more alternative and less plain black however the plain blackness won't be an issue once the waistcoat ius added because although it is black it is also really cool.

 

The waistcoat is a black sort of denim material, the sleves look asthough the have been ripped off  which creates an awesome effect and it does up with a thickish steel zip along with keyring type clasps that lay over the zip. this should make the outfit look less boring and plain.

 

[Picture of waistcoat here]  [Picture of costume+ waiscoat here]

 

No major make-up should be required as her face is already very pale which will contrast the (/mainly) black costume and fit the alternative genre characteristics as a lot of alternative artists / actors in alternative videos are in dark clothing looking pale.
 

Gracie currently has dark brown hair, this may fit the video well and look good but if it doesn't then it wont be hard to make her hair look darker with brightness and contrast settings in editing. Her hair for this video will be made to be a bit messy so as to look industrial and alternative, but not so messy that it looks scruffy. 
 

Some of the scenes will just show Gracie lip-syncing to the track, these will be filmed in my house against the plain white wall of my bathroom, I think this is a good choice scene as there is a lot of natural light. For these scenes I may not have her wear the leather jacket and instead just have the shirt. As these kind of shots will be close ups - with just head and shoulders showing - it doesn't really matter what shoes and legwear are worn for these shots.

Planning - Actor/Actress

This is Gracie, probably my best friend. She will be playing the character of 10,000BC in my video and will be the "artist" of the song. The song is clearly voiced by a male; this isn't an issue as Gracie, previously Adam Saxton, is transgender and is thus biologically a dude despite feeling mentally that she is female. She has agreed, and wasn't offended with much relief to me, to play the guy in my video.

Planning - Name

After further thought into artist's alias, I've established that he will simple be know as '10,000BC' as oppsed to '10,000 Broken Chains' [Ten Thousand Broken Chains] and instead have the name '10,000BC' just stand for 10,000 Broken Chains. Just as the band 'H.I.M' [pronounced 'him'] go by 'H.I.M' but that stands for His Infernal Majesty.

 

The logo remains as what i posted on Tuesday.

Location - My Bathroom

Weirdly one of the filming locations I have chosen to use is the upstairs bathroom in my house. I chose to use this room for filming as it is a well lit room, with lots of natural and artificial light, but the main reason that i chose this room were because there is a plain white wall that can be used as a nice clean looking background to the lipsyncing scenes such as the ones we filmed Thursday. I also thought this room would be ideal as it is ver close and easy to get to for Gracie and it is crazy-easy for me to get to it as it is in my house.

Planning - Shots

Planning - Name and Logo

I had the idea to call the artist '10,000 Broken Chains' [Ten Thousand Broken Chains] instead of just 'Broken Chains' because it can then be shortened to '10,000BC' which is an awesome artist name because it sounds like the year 10,000BC. I have adapted the logo from the original and have produced this logo draft

I really like the idea of a crossed out zero meaning broken chain because it looks like a chain link, it is crossed out to show that it is a broken chain link rather than a normal one, and also because if it weren't crossed out it'd look like the artist was just called '100,000'.

 

I need to have more of a play around with fonts before I make final descisions on the logo.

 

Another logo idea that I have had since deciding on '10,000 Broken Chains' as the artist's name is to just have 10,000BC as the logo. I had the idea that I could use a more digital looking font to contrast the fact that 10,000BC was a very long time ago. Although this does look very cool, I have decided against this as I dont think the song sounds digital enough for the logo to properly apply.



 

After playing around a bit more on Dafont I have found a few examples of good fonts to use to make my artist's logo. Here are some that I thought looked cool.

Font names (top left to bottom right) 'Face Your Fears','Inky','Levi Brush','L.C Smith 5 Typewriter','Bad Gudge' and 'c39hrp48dhtt'.

My favourite out of these 6 designs is 'L.C Smith 5 Typewriter' as it looks alternative without looking scruffy like 'Levi Brush' or 'Face Your Fears' which look as though they'd fit better with a more harcore, metal band. The barcode styled one is the collest looking but like 'Digital 7', I feel it looks like it'd suit a more digital or electro band a bit better.

I've spent lots of time exploring fonts and have concluded I'm going to use the 10,000BC logo in the font 'L.C Smith 5 Typewriter'. I've decided this looks better than the crossed out '0' logo and it is more obvious that it is supposed to represent an artist called '10,000 Broken Chains'.
 

Finalised artist logo

 

Research - My Target Audience

To get a better idea of my target audience I took a look at the target audiences of the bads I looked at such as 'How To Destroy Angels' (HTDA), 'Nine Inch Nails'(NIN), 'Ministry' etc. and have deducted from this an idea of the audience that would enjoy the type of video I'm imagining I'll produce.

 

Trent Reznor's bands HTDA and NIN are aimed at a similar audience despite being music from very different genres (NIN make Industrial Metal music whereas HTDA make Post Industrial/Electronica music). Their audiences' are, particularly for Nine Inch Nails, are older (35-50 year old), Industrial, Alternative/Metal fans however a lot of their (NIN's) target audience was younger (20-25 year old) Industrial, Metal/Alternative fans back in the late 80's- mid 90's meaning most of their fans have aged with them whilst maintaining their like for the band's music.

I feel most of the people within NIN's, HTDA's and Ministry's audiences fall in the demographic range of E-C1 (maybe B also).

 

I feel my song applies well to a similar demographic as these bands; anyone from early 20s - late 40s. My song is  an Industrial Metal track so I feel it is also aimed at Alternative/Metal fans like NIN's music. However the song is quite fast paced, it is for this Reason I am picturing a fast paced, flickery video which applies more to a younger audience as I see thge product I am going to make to be energetic at the same time as looking industrial and alternative