Audio;

The song we have decided to use for the music video is the song Tread Softly, by Catharsis Collapse. This is of course Mikey's band, so we don't have to use any permisiion from any artist or recording labels.

The song is roughly around 3:30.

Below is the song:

Catharsis Collapse – Tread Softly

Tread soft tonight my dear,
or you walk on my dreams,
This is all I ever wished for,
All I’ve ever hoped and craved

My fate remains unsure
But I’ll fight until the death,
These walls will never fall
I’ll fight till the bitter end

Tread soft tonight my dear,
For you walk on my dreams,
This is all I ever wished for,
All I’ve ever hoped and craved

Give this your fucking all
Pour in your blood and sweat
Give this your fucking all
And die with no regrets

My fate remains unsure
But I’ll fight until the death,
These walls will never fall
I’ll fight till the bitter end

I need to be set free,
Your pushing down on me,
I need to be set free
I feel you pushing down on me

Your energy
Your hiding
I’m twisted
I’m ready
I’m waiting
Antis-apating
Your wasting away

Free me
Your energy is wasting away
Free me
Your energy I hold to me
Free me
Your energy
Is wasting away
Free me
Free me

Here are two images of the band, these were taken professionally and we are considering using them within our ancillary product.

Screenplay/Narrative notes;

We originally went in to film something that was very similar to the "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse". We realised after completing the story-board and narrative notes that it may be too ambitious to carry out.

Our original narrative notes are seen below, as a word document. These were very rough ideas of what we wanted, as we wanted the video to have an element of spontaneity about it.

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We have completed the narrative structure, but we have decided to record the video completely as a performance video.

Research and planning;

We wanted to make something that replicated a DVD and CD cover as much as possible.
Our research has shown us some really good examples, and from this we have produced a high standard ancillary product. Our front cover replicates that of a metal band such as Black Dahlia Murder.

It has similar artwork to our front cover, this is the front cover for Black Dahlia Murder.



We originally wanted to copy the conventions of the Black Dahlia Murder, we wanted to copy their video also but seen as this was a little too ambitious we decided against it. We have since shot the music video, and to make our ancillary products we have used replicas of the cover above.

For the back cover we have used an image of the band (see below). We have used this and distorted it a little because we feel that our back cover is well represented. According to Dyer (1985) this is presenting reality over again to us as an audience. Reality is mediated through forms of representation, and this has been represented successfully.



This is the final product of our back cover, we are going to tweak the product if necessary but so far we are both extremely pleased with the ancillary product.



For us to make a back cover which was this good, we took some inspiration off the Bloc Party album.



We have incorporated the same text with the same sans-serif font, but we have changed the picture to highlight that it's a metal band. I feel that the picture is a reflection of the band because the aesthaetics to the image are quite grainy and distorted.

In creating our media product, we had to meet the codes and conventions of being able to reach out to a specific audience. Our demographic audience for this band would be a 21 year old male who likes to socialise, go wild and likes heavy, fast music.

For us to be able to meet the verisimilitude expected from any metal video, we watched many music video's, in lesson and outside of lesson to enhance our knowledge of what should be expected.

There are shots in this video by the Dillinger Escape Plan of the band's performance, we really liked this so we asked the band if they could act naturally. We were going to create a music video of a complete performance, without any narrative structure to it because we can focus on the editing techniques on the video, and so far, the editing techniques are going to make the video what it is. A lot of metal video's have a subjective point of view in their video, with close-ups of the band playing their instrument or singing.



Again, as mentioned previously before, the excessive use of editing techniques are frequently used within the metal genre when producing videos, so we have used plenty of editing techniques within our video to enhance the verisimilitude of our product.

Equipment used;

Certain equipment used to record the video was a Canon MD101. We bought two tapes from the media department, as we shot the footage plenty of times and to make sure the footage was enough, we shot everything twice with the different cameras. We had one on the tripod, and the other handheld to capture different shots.

This is the camera we used:



We didn't think it was going to be of good quality, but once the video was uploaded the quality was fine.

We experienced problems with the equipment used, this was uploading the video from the camera onto Adobe Premiere. The video was really pixelated and we thought this was a really big problem, but we managed to salvage the footage by uploading the tape using the same camera.

The other programmes we used during our task for production was Photoshop to create our ancillary task, we used Elements 5.0 in order to achieve this.



We used a Jessops tripod, which is pictured below:



We used this to capture still shots of a band member, as we wanted to keep the 180° transition line between most of the shots.

Filming;

We have decided to shoot the video at the band practice room, which is Get Sorted in Rotherham.

We were originally going to follow the same story and narrative of the Black Dahlia Murder video, but we realised this was too ambitious so we decided to keep the video within the band practice room.

Problems we had with the filming was mainly the battery in the camera, it had to be constantly on charge but we shot enough footage to capture shots that were really good to use in our video.

We used two tripods, but we had a "hand-held" approach, as this looked better within the video. We cut these shots, and edited these frequently within our video so we represented a metal video as much as possible.

We also decided to turn the video to black and white after filming. We thought this looked better because it follows the same convention of the video "Set to Fail" by Lamb of God.



Above is a picture of Randy Blythe. This is an extract from the video of Set To Fail. We had the vocalist of the band (Jamie) looking into the camera with the mic, pretty much the same as the image. We showed Jamie the picture and video, and asked for him to try and copy Randy's moves as much as possible.

We also asked the other band member's to try and demonstrate "metal" personas as much as possible. They were all fine with this, and demonstrated this really well.

We showed them two videos, including War Ensemble by Slayer. Below is the video, we watched it carefully and grabbed some shots and showed the band what we would like them to do to make the video of ours look as real as the Slayer video.



These are the pictures we used to show the band how we'd like them to perform.





These are just two examples of screen shots that we showed the band, as we also showed them the video of Day 69 - Decapitated. Below is the video, and again there are many shots in the video that show certain shots we'd specifically like to use.



After watching other several videos, ranging from Meshuggah to Black Dahlia Murder, we realised that all of the metal videos we watched and researched showed that the genre of metal, specifically in their videos, use excessive editing techniques. There were many cut-aways and high-angle shots used. When the video was recorded, we made sure that when we were filming the band with the hand-held technique, that they were filmed at a low-angle so the member we were filming looked dominant. This is a common interpretation, and high-angle shots represent dominance, and as the audience we are the sub-ordinates as we are subjected to watching the video with the dominant figure.

We produced our call sheet, which is below:

Textual Analysis;

Me and Mikey have decided to shoot the video of the chosen sub-genre death metal. In order for us to achieve the codes and conventions that are within death metal we have put some research into this. We were going to use a narrative theme, but seen as this is a little too ambitious with deadlines to meet we have decided to focus our main attention on making a high replica of a metal music video.

For our ancillary task, we have decided to go for a death/heavy metal CD cover and DVD cover. Below is an image of the band Decpitated's Nihility album. We are going to use something along the lines of this as we feel that it's the most suitable to what sort of cover we would like to have.



In order for us to achieve in making a successful music video, we have decided to incorporate close up shots of the band performing, cut these and blend them in the video together. We feel this would make the video look professional, and mediated in the sense that it works well as meeting the conventions of a music video, especially that of a metal video.

Treatment;

For our media project, we are going to create a music video using my band. The video is basically the band playing a song with a ‘short video’ incorporated into it.

Below is Mikey's band:


The target audience of the production would be people into the metal scene between the ages of 16 – 24. To make sure that the video does actually reach out to our target audience, we will be using the same conventions and stereotypical ideas of other metal videos for example The Black Dahlia Murder’s video ‘What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse.’

To film the video, we will be using my my band and my bands practice room, which is located in Rotherham at Get Sorted. We have already asked for permission to film there and it has been granted. In the practice room we will be filming the band playing a song using an array of different camera shots. In this scene, we would need the band playing there instruments and a group of friends that will be coming over to join in on a mosh pit that will be surrounding the band as they play. There will no be specific costume, but a stereotypical dress of a fan of this genre would wear, e.g. band t-shirts. Another scene will be filmed in the toilets of college, which will be specifically of the band. This will be a toilet circuit (Using the toilet, washing hands) but we will be having the band head banging during the process, dress code will be casual. Another scene will be in the woods, we will be having a character stalking the band through the woods. In this we aim to make a sort of spoof movie to add humour to it. Once again, the dress code will be casual. Apart from the stalker who will be wearing a mask, a hood and other typical things that a mediated stalker would wear.

To create and adapt to a stereotypical representation of a metal video, we will be following the same ideas as producers who have created metal videos professionally. This means we will be using lots of panning and tracking shots that will basically last for a few seconds at a time to make the video fast up beat and in your face. We will have establishing shots in the video to show where the video is set. Crowd shots will be featured when the band are playing the song, this will be the most hectic scene as people will be head banging to the song. To do this successfully, we will need many different shots at different angles so we can edit them and make them into fit into the music successfully. The mise en scene will follow a stereotypical metal video; we will be having lots of metal fans in the scene that will be head banging to the music. We will have all of the band equipment (Drums, amps, guitars etc) in order to make it look realistic, in this scene we will be using lots of close ups for example close ups on the instruments and the band/audience. When we shoot the scene in the woods, we will be using the band for the protagonists and my friend will be the antagonist who follows the band round. To do this, the antagonist will be dressing up in a balaclava, with dark hooded top and dark clothes. In this scene, there will be lots of tracking shots and panning around to make it look more like a chase scene. Were going to follow the typical conventions of framing e.g. the rule of thirds to show the importance of the band, the crowd will be to the sides of the shots, but I want the band to mix with the crowd to make the audience believe that the band are willing to get down and dirty with the crowd. The sound featured in the video will be a song created by the band ‘Tread Softly’ the song is ideal for a video as it has lots of diversity and sets different types of mood.

To ensure we stick to the rules of health and safety, we will be strictly abiding by these rules by making sure that we prevent any hazards and make sure that we will not be causing danger to anyone. For example, one scene in the practice room is where a Mosh pit will be performed. In this, people will be running around and could possibly run into each other and cause danger; there are also cables that will be on the floor which people could stumble on. To prevent this, we will be briefing everyone who takes part and getting consent off them to prevent anything happening that could jeopardise the creation of the video, we will also ensure that all cables are out of the way so know one can trip and injure themselves. Another scene is in the woods, it would be easy to trip over and injure someone, so we will have to take precautions whilst doing this.

To plan our music video, in lesson, me and Louise went through different ideas of which we created a presentation on to show the rest of the class. We handed out questionnaires that allowed us to gain feedback on our ideas by our class mates. The feedback we gained changed some of our ideas slightly for example we wanted to do a scene in the corporation nightclub, which got removed as the lighting would not have worked. We also asked several friends outside the class what they thought of our idea, the feedback was really positive and we all agreed that the shots at Corp were a little too ambitious.

We are yet to complete the story board, but we are going to do this together and we will be using several shots including shot reverse shot, over the shoulder, subjective point of view shots and several different types which will be shown in the story board.