Task 23 - Photo Shoot Planning (Done)

Shot plans for pictures 1, 2 and 3

	1	2	3
Shoot Date and Time	Start – 29th November End – 5th December	Start – 29th November End – 5th December	Start – 29th November End – 5th December
Image Description	Ollie will be looking right at the camera with some kind of exaggerated, bemused expression. His body will be apart in a star shape and we will need to make sure that the wall is relatively clean so that the shot gives us the effect we need	For this shot, we will only take a close up of his face, so that the shot will match the planning of the Digipak flap. Ollie will be looking straight at the camera.	For this shot, we will take a close up of the back of his head, according to the planning of the Digipak flap.
Shoot Location	Alley – this will give us something to work with, especially props and editing afterwards	Field – this will give us good lighting of the face. We could edit it afterwards to make it stand out more	Field – likewise with shot 2, it will give Ollie the lighting on his face that we need for possible editing after
Model/Person Contact Details	Ollie Craig We have his phone number	Ollie Craig We have his phone number	Ollie Craig We have his phone number
Lighting	Natural lighting and some artificial lights	Natural lighting	Natural Lighting
Costumes	Bright and strange clothing (we’re going for alternative, after all)	The only thing Ollie will need will be his hat and glasses. If not, we will find something more ‘alternative’ to match our chosen song	Likewise with shot 2, we will need Ollie to have his hat and glasses, or we will use different costume props otherwise.
Plan of Shots	This will be a typical, straightforward long shot of Ollie and the wall. We may need to add some random props to link directly with our chosen alternative genre	We will take a close up of the front of his head	We will take a close up of the back of his head

This is our photo shoot plan for our digipak. This will ensure that we have an idea as to what kind of shots we need to do and who we need to do them with, as well as the props we're going to use to achieve the desired effects.

Task 22 - Band Logo Creation (Done)

I first thought of the band name - since I wanted something to do with an alternative rock band, I didn't want heavy rock, which was something that kept coming into mind. I remembered how the word "Redrum" was used in the Stephen King novel, "The Shining" and therefore decided to utilise it in the logo. Redrum, spelt backwards as 'Murder' is a topic related to rock, but at the same time the only thing the audience will see will be Redrum - this therefore works in my favour, as a kind of scotoma takes over and makes the pejorative word seem innocent.

I wanted something that was more hard rock and goth, but realised that this wouldn't work well with the chosen band. I then caught the idea, while surfing through Google Images, to create a logo with the theme of a typewriter. I was easily able to find the font on Dafont and played around a little bit with the letters, adding and playing around with them on Photoshop before choosing that I should give the audience a hint of what the letters actually say.

The way I did this was to simply place the letters Redrum at the top and then create a copy and reverse it, reducing the opacity and placing it at the bottom. The word Redrum also has the words 'red' and 'drum' in it. I therefore looked online for one which specifically had the features I required and when I found it, I got rid of the background as well as the logo on the drum and placed it into around the 'D'.

However, I was still not very satisfied about the whole background itself. I finally decided to place the image of a typewriter keyboard and play around with the filters, finally deciding on a neon glow, which seems to go well with the alternative genre. I then erased some of the letters off of the keyboard and put mine in. This worked relatively well and also made the font stand out, which worked in my favour. I later pasted it into Microsoft Word and played around with the edits there, changing the neon blue to a dark green.

Task 21: Ancillary Task Digipak

This is my final digipak. I am fairly happy with it, due to the fact that it does give off the right impression and had I had the right equipment, it would have been much better. As it was, I needed to roughly fit the pictures of the two artists onto the individual sides. Since I didn't get the required picture of the house where the filming took place, as a background to share the side with some of the artists' previous work, I decided to miss out the picture and put the song titles on their own, against the orange background, which I created using the DaFont website. I must admit, it nevertheless looks good...perhaps better than it would have with the picture in the background. This digipak includes:

• A picture of the main artist facing the camera, with the lyrics of the song on either side
• A picture of the supporting artist facing the camera, with the lyrics of the song on either side
• A picture of the main artist looking away from the camera
• A picture of the supporting artist looking away from the camera
• A side with the artists' previous work, their songs, for the audience
• A picture of the two artists standing together in an edited picture
• The side where the actual CD will be held

This is my improved version of my digipak for the band. This time, I fixed the colours around the CD holder and added more colours to it, so it looks neater and more attractive. Also, I realised that I needed a whole album of songs, which is why I added more songs. Additionally, instead of the lyrics, I put in the 'WANTED' signs against the two pictures of the artists facing the front. This will give the desired effect. Lastly, I repaired the picture of the artists facing the front and the side. I think this now further gives the desired effect, as they are neater and I was able to fix them onto the digipak sides more efficiently, reducing the need to stretch them to the necessary size.

Task 21 - Ancillary Tasks Planning

These are my ideas for the ancillary tasks. I decided keep these a bit 'blank' because its the song of an alternative band on which we're going to base our video on and therefore I wanted them both to be different.

Task 20 - Storyboards and Shot Lists (Done)

This is the storyboard we made for our music video. It includes the angles that we will use and the descriptions of the shots and props.

Task 19 - Permission Email (Done)

Since we will need to use a farmer's field, we decided to write an email to contact the farmer with a request to shoot footage on his premises. This needs to be done if we are to be able to film legally on the farm.

Task 18 - Fashion and Props Planning (Done)

These are our planning boards for the music video. This will help us to be better prepared and we will have something to come back to in case we forget what theme we are trying to establish.

Task 17 - Mood Board (Done)

Our Mood Board for the music video we are going to do. The above pictures are of different clothing and props we will need to make the music video effective. Since we're doing an alternative song from an alternative band, where the lyrics don't matter as much as the filming, we need to acquire clothing which is, in some respect, completely random. After thinking it through, we also decided to add a drum and several other instruments which will help us depict the song and its meaning. We need some randomness to add to the alternative theme, which will appeal to our audiences. The dressing gown and the old style clothing, for instance, are examples which don't actually add up to the theme, although the gown does work well at the beginning of the music video, where we plan to film Olly getting up in the morning with the same dressing gown on.

Task 16 - Pitch Ideas (Done)

Clit from tommygunengineer

Finally, here is our pitch idea presentation, along with a full explanation of what we're thinking of doing and answers to some of the questions about the flaws of the music video. So far, we haven't changed much. Olly is still our main actor, having had previous experience with acting before and the house we planned to do the filming in is still available. For props, we still need to acquire a few objects like a drum with straps, but that won't be much of a problem. Overall, our idea and the theme of the music video we plan to do hasn't changed at all.

Task 15 - Lyric Analysis (Done)

This task has allowed me to delve into the actual structure of the song and lyrics and especially their meanings. The website Genius.com has allowed me to do just that - this was crucial because, due to the meaning of the words, I can now choose the appropriate theme and style of the music video. The lyrics of the song seem quite moral and are written in a subtle manner, but nothing that I wouldn't already understand, despite the help from Genius.com. The lyrics are also repetitive and may sometimes not make any sense, but this only reinforces it because we know already that the words are from an alternative band, which is why they may have a tendency to confuse. Its just the repetition of the words 'when the morning comes' that catch my attention - they seem to be placed in a lot of places and give a positive message, since mornings, in contrast to nights, are stereotypically the positive binary opposites. I noticed that this repetition is exactly what the theme of the song is meant to be about - a new day, with all the troubles and worries abandoned. This is reinforced by the other repeated line, "You know you can't keep letting it get you down", which does not present any contrast to the chorus.

Task 14 - Music Videos Similar in Genre (Done)

"The Middle" - Jimmy Eat World: This music video was shot by Paul Fedor and has all the theme of a teenage party. The style in which it was shot is a fast paced one. It has mostly mid-close ups and mid shots, which focus on the near nudity of the teenage actors, who don't seem to wear anything except their underwear. This, however, does not include the main actor and the band. The location for the music video was decided to be a house, at which the party is seen taking place, as well as its surroundings (the front and the back garden swimming pool). However, it is mostly shot indoors. The video choice is unusual, as I don't believe I know many music video directors who would use near-nudity to represent teenage sexuality, although this would be a more blunt way of doing so. This is also used to separate the main actor from the rest of the crowd (except the band), as he unsuccessfully tries to fit in and therefore has a secondary theme - relationships. This is supported by the ending, when he finds a girl in a similar situation. The unusual form of 'make-up' is the scene at 00:48, when we see the teens with marker pen left on their bodies, which could support the theme of a teen party, through the use of the stereotype of teenagers. This is a video which includes a 50/50 mix of narrative and performance.

"Numb" - Linkin Park: This music video was directed by Joe Hahn and includes decreased saturation and a rather depressed mood. The speed of editing roughly matches that of the song, especially when the song reaches a climax. The angles that the camera uses often include wide shots, mid-close ups and the occasional close up shot. The whole video was shot in the Czech capital, Prague, mainly at the St Vitus Cathedral. We receive wide shots of the city and occasionally get a glimpse of the actress on its famed Charles Bridge. All its indoor scenes were shot at Johannes Kepler Grammar School. It involves a usual teenage fashion. However, this excludes the actress, who wears clothing that almost resembles a gothic style. This could be a link to the theme of the song, as its all black which nearly matches her hair. The only difference is the band itself. Whilst playing, we notice that they are dressed with clothes which match her own, further creating a link to the depressed mood. The music video is mainly narrative based, although with a small mix of performance.

"Bring Me To Life" - Evanescence: Philipp Stölzl's music video includes a lot of CGI and animation, especially for the entire city we see in the establishing shot. Its theme is very dark, as evidenced at the start. We see that most, if not all, of the shots are shot with a mix of mid close ups and mid shots. Even though the entire city is made with CGI, the shots of the actual mix were done in January 2003 in Romania. The main actress (and unlike the other videos, the main band singer Amy Lee) is seen throughout the video in a nightgown, whilst the rest of the band is featured in gothic clothing. What is an exception are the party-goers upstairs, who are dressed in regular party clothing and masks. Whilst one of the girls takes of her mask, we see her make-up ruined, suggesting a broken heart and effectively adding to the song's main theme. To add to the goth style, we see Lee with heavy eye make-up and piercings. This video is similar to the other two - a mix of performance and narrative, although it would be more associated with "The Middle', by Jimmy Eat World.

These are the music videos I chose to compare to "This Too Shall Pass". They are considered to be alternative rock videos, or close at least and therefore help us in comparing all three to our chosen music video and what we would do for our own. I had a bit of trouble finding the right videos because of their respective natures - although they do have the alternative side to them, I noticed that none of them are COMPLETELY alternative and therefore couldn't decide whether to simply do the rock category, pure and simple. However, I didn't think this would then have any sort of link to This Too Shall Pass, because of the simplistic and rather light hearted nature of it, not people yelling into the microphone and slamming their guitar down on the stage floor, or so the stereotypical rock style goes. Therefore, even though that This Too Shall Pass was entirely performance based, I decided to do my previous idea of these videos because they are all unique in some way that TTSP also is.