Music Video - Final

My Final video. I have sped up the music video to match the music and have gotten rid of boring bits by adding more shots and flashes. Using Adobe After Effects CS6, Mr Wallis taught me how to add in the CRT TV Static Effect which I think looks really cool as it makes the less flickery, less jumping chorus shots more interesting

Music Video - Draft

 

I have finished and exported my music video draft and it has been uploaded to the Ashfield School media channel on YouTube. This is a draft of my final product because there are are a few changes I need to make including issues with video speed not matching the speed of the song, there are some boring bits and shots I feel dont quite fit in where they have been place. I'm also going to put the video on facebook and get some feedback and ideas on how to improve it. I'll then make appropriate changes based off of my own views and the feedback I get.

Digipak is Finished

Turns out even with my crazy limited knowledge of photo editing and with only Pixlr for editing software I can still manage to put together an awesome Digipak in less than a day.

 I created the image for the front and back covers by taking a weird static-looking frame from one of my shots from my filming and edited this in such a way that it looked bot industrial and a bit digital. I added noise and pixelated the image then adjusted it with the colour editing tools available on Pixlr. I actually really like the way they came out.

Using made up names and the (real) company Warp Records I added all the necessary information that needs to go on the back of an album over the image that I had created for the front cover. I think that the similar covers are cool as it'd look as though the cover continues all the way around the back. The lack of focal point in the images is interesting also as it draws attention to the text without being completely lacking in detail; cool shapes and lines are visible in the image

My favourite panel of the design is the inside front cover. For the background image of this panel I used a still frame of the cloudy sky from one of my days of filming and edited it using tools such as Gaussian blur, Add noise, pixelate and many more. I again played with the colours until it looked perfect (to me, you may think otherwise). I then had to go onto paint to add the text in the font i liked as it is not available on Pixlr. The font I used was embarrassingly called 'MineCrafter 3' which I already had on my computer because I'm a bit of a Minecraft nerd. I came up with some names I thought sounded cool to go on there along with 'Transmission' the track for which I created the video.

Panel four the inside of the back cover wouldn't be attached on the seam nearest the fold (if it we're real) to create a sleeve for the disk itself to go in. For this panel I took a picture of Gracie which is actually already on the 10,000BC site and edited it on Pixlr until I was happy with it.

I really like the way all of the panels turned out, I feel they're all similar looking enough to be part of the same digipak and I feel they match the artist brand and the song really well.

 

Filming - Day 05 Kingsway Park

Itinerary: Light, Camera and my phone(to play the song)

Last night me and Gracie met on Kingsway park. I decided on this location as the batting cages on the park resemble well cages. I thought this'd be ideal for the 'Come on little Fucker you can let me out,' Lyric. I had originally planned to just use the side of a building site near my house as they mark the building site perimeter with a similar fence but Gracie suggested the batting cages which seemed slightly more appropriate.

I got shots of Gracie lip-syncing the 'Little fucker' lyric a few times. I think the shots look really cool as I filmed them without the tripod as the shaky look came out well in the other shots. I also again used the light as we filmed at night as the dark shots from our fourth day of filming looked really cool.

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 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 - 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.

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

 

Website Research - KORN (Changes)

Korn update their site the day after I made my last post. Their website is now themed to reflect their ablum newest album 'The Paradigm Shift'. The changes include the obvious background change; the page has now been made blue with what is made to look like dirt marks at the bottom. They have also added the giant, weird, translucent faces at the side which is the main element on the album cover.

 

The page colour scheme as also been changed; the frame around the youtube video player has been changed to fit the new theme and all the navigation links and stuff have been made yellow to contrast the new blue background. The Register/Log in button has been moved to the top of the screen so as to not abstruct the images (of the faces) at the sides, the button still remains in place when you scroll down as it did before.

Website Research - KORN

KORN WEBSITE

Research - 'With Teeth' Digipak

'With Teeth' (stylized as [WITH_TEETH]) is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

I think that the Digipak album art for 'With Teeth' by Nine Inch Nails nicely captures the genre of the music on the album and the music that the band normally make. The cover shows the band logo very largely across the top but nowhere on the cover does it say Nine Inch Nails; this has been done because the logo is very well recognised by their fans and people in general. On the cover their is the Parental Advisory tag, this is there to indicate that the album contains explicit content. On the front of this digipak there are two stickers; one stating that there are 15 new songs on the album along with 2 bonus tracks on the digipak vertsion only, and the other sticker simply shows that this is the special edition version of the album.

The front folds away to the left like a book revealing the track list on the inside of the cover and a weird, smeared looking, glitchy image of something on the other cover. 

The picture behind the track list continues on carries on through all three panels when the digipak is fully opened, stood infront of the image, in the middle panel, is Trent Reznor who is like partly faded away in a sort of glitch art effect. On the right panel is the housing for the disk and the background image is carried on behind it.

 The disk has a similar stripy effect running across it to the background of the panels. The disk reads 'NINE_INCH_NAILS: [WITH_TEETH]' across the top, with all the 'N's backwards. The disk also says 'HALO_19' on it, this means that it is the 19th CD that Nine Inch Nails have released. On the disk, in the bottom right, are the record labels, distribution details and copyright details etc.

Here is the back/outside of the digipak when it is fully opened out, on the back of the middle panel, in the bottom left corner, we can again see the record label, copyright and distribution details. We can also see the whole of the cover picture extended across the three panels. In the bottom right corner of the back (middle) panel is the Barcode; this is obviously there on the outside (when closed) of the digipak so it can be scanned by shop cashiers when the album is being bought.

Planning - Shot Ideas

Seeing as my video doesn't particularly need a narrative I have just drawn a few shot ideas rather than storyboarding. Instead of putting my crude little etchings on here I'm going to list a few of the shots and ideas in writing so as to not ruin my blog:

• I decided I'd get quite a lot of shots of my actor Gracie (who is transgendered and thus looks like a dude despite being mentally female) walking round abandoned places such as the few old factories and abandoned places in Kirkby whilst looking pretty vacant. I'll also get a few shots of her walking around town at night and in the rain.
• I'll use close-ups of her face looking serious as well as maybe one with her middle finger to the camera.
• There's a building site near my house that we used to go on and climb about on, we can break in and climb on there at night to get some cool idustrial shots
• We can use the chain link fence around the building site to look like a cage and use that shot to match the line "Come little fucker, can you let me out?" because "let me out" implies the artist is trapped or encaged within something.
• I'll use close ups and mid shots of her looking at the camera when it's raining showing her wet hair and clothes with a serious look on her face.
• For the line "followed by the vision of my God" I'm going to show the clouds and the sun because the sky connotes God and religion.
• Close ups of like moving worms and maggots and stuff that is 'angin'
• At the begining I'm going to have a picture of a perfect red apple and then at the end have it looking all gross.
• I'm going to get loads of shots of just normal things; I'm going to just film a busy road at night showing loads of cars.
• I'll get a bird's eye shot from a really high building like the big Westgate building thing in mansfield and film the town below .
• Shots down the Quarries including the running water in the little river thing. There's a little concrete shelter with grafitti everywhere, we could get a shot or two there of Gracie looking mysterious and sinister.
• Down the quarries there are some train tracks that we can get a few shots of Gracie on, just like walking about on them.
• POV Shots looking down on Gracie's feet walking around
• After feedback it was suggested that I just use few shots of my cat just doing cat stuff
• A blurred shot out of the bus window just showing the street, possibly when it's raining
• Sped up shots of people walking around, in groups eg. getting off of a train
• Feedback suggested I should only show the actor in blurred/unfocused shots, I may use this in a few shots to create more mystery around the actor.
• Something, like a glass or a window or something, smashing in slow motion
• Footage/ Stock footage of moths and other bugs
• A flickering light

 

Research - Digipak

We have to, as part of this project, produce a digipak for the single/LP with our tracks on. These are the dimensions of a regular 6 paneled digipak are: 139.5mm x 6mmx 125.5mm.

This will be usefull as i can print this out and produce some little sketches of my ideas.

Eat Raw Meat - Editors

'Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool' is the full song name.

 

The song is not industrial at all really and it's not the happiest song in the world and isn't a fun song you can dance to but the video includes some similar imagery that wouldn't be out of place in an Industrial Rock music video.

 

 

Mise en Scene

The video uses dark, almost propaganda-esque animation that looks like it may well have been animated by Cyriak. Cyriak frequently uses something normal like a sheep going baaa and make it a crazy creepy video of a sheep falling apart into different mechanisms. The Editors' video uses dark animated imagery to make social statements.

Editing

When the song gets faster the scene cuts come quicker and the video clips used are shorter.
 

Goodwin

The video relates to Goodwin's theory of music videos in a very small way as it shows no video of the band themselves like most videos. Infact the only way this can fit to Goodwin's theory is though the few instances where the lyrics relate to the music video for example when the lead singer says 'When I'm a gun in a fist fight.', on screen there is a loaded gun on screen.

_

 

Obviously I wont be producing anything like this in my video because I don't now how to be an awesome animation jedi. There aren't many ways I can use this video to inspire my own because it's all animated. Although I like how the video is greyscale (black and white) throughout, which I was thinking of doing anyway, but this video has probably made this more likely because it gives a cool sinister effect.

Planning - Band name?

Iwas distraught after finding out that H2So4 was already a band so instead I simply searched 'Industrial band name gnerator in google and came to a site. After clicking the 'This name sucks. Find me a new one' button about 70(approx)times the site started throwing out great words and word combonations that fit my track (Track 4) incredibly well.

.

 

Binary Future is far from a finalised name but it's fairly good.

 



Digital Hazard

The Grinding Mechanism

The Broken Machine

Archaic Violence

Digital Violence

Future Data

Damn The Chains

Binary Hazzard

Mass Effect

Broken Chains

Zombie Slaves

Future Nature

Desolation

 

These are just a few of the awesome name suggestions that the generator gave me, plus some ones I thought of during the searching process, but at the moment I think I am fairly settled on Binary Future, for now at least.



Planning - Ideas so far

Stigmata - Ministry

The video for Stigmata by Ministry is the video I like most out of all the videos I have chosen to research as I want to make my video similar to this. I especially like the flashing of images that is frequently used in industrial music videos.