Final Cut of Doubt

Doubt Final Cut from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

Rough Cut 2

Doubt Rough Cut 2: from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

After our change of idea, here is our second rough cut. As you can there is a lot of changes to our video, not only have we finished the filming for the whole video, we havbe changed the verses to make a more narrative based video, which are interspersed with cut aways of the night before, flashbacks if you will. The next stage is to fine tune this video into our final cut, we want to change a few shots as well as edit the flashbacks to differentiate them from the main narrative. Our second rough cut was well received by Mrs. McCluckie. The change from Jack miming in the verses to more narrative based scenes was seen as a vast improvement. This rough cut however is by no means perfect, and we know that. Scenes Miss did pick up on include;

* The shots of the two of us holding hands reveals that it is a homosexual love affair too early on, due to the hair on my arm. Therefore that needs to be re-filmed.
* The scenes whereby Jack gets up to go to the bathroom and where he is getting dressed are too long and monotonous. We planned to rectify this by breaking these shots up with a variety of cuts, featuring the party or flashbacks.

In addition there are a few shots we don't personal like, and some of the editing needs tweaking, but apart from that it seems we are finally near the end of the process.

Production Schedule Revised

this is the revised production schedule, with added shoots, revised filming and proof of filming.

Individual Responsibilies

This post is all about the individual responsibilities of me and my group. In terms of Research and Planning, the majority of the work was done as a group, we always discussed our plans as a group whether it was in an official meeting or outside of lessons, we always conversed with each other whether it were through phones, internets or in person. When it came to the filming, we shared the time on camera between me, Jack and Sam. The Majority of the shots were down to me and due to the fact Jack would be involved on screen. However as we moved through our video, there was less of Jack on screen and more of him behind the camera. While one person was filming the rest of the group would be in charge of lighting. When it came to editing the Video, I took the reigns due to my previous knowledge of the software, however all three members of the group helped out on editing certain sections of the song. Sam was in charge of the website while Louisa and Jack focused on the digipak, but once again we swapped and switched between each task to make it and even workload. Here are the main titles of each member:

Jordan (me)- Video Editor, Cameraman, Digipak Editor, Website Editor
Jack Osman- Digipak Editor, Cameraman, Actor, Video Editor
Louisa Herbert- Lighting, Digipak Editor, Video Editor
Sam Avery- Website Editor, Video Editor, Digipak Editor, Cameraman

Filming- Plan For Final Shoot

Shooting Schedule 4:
Thursday 11th March
Hopefully this will be our final shoot. Here we expect to film the remaining shots, which include;

Flashbacks:

* Jack getting dragged out of the strobed party (POV).
* Jack being led upstairs (POV).
* People smoking outside and then Jack being offered drugs by a man in an animal masks.
* Jack taking the drugs, in pill form.
* Jack back in party dancing away in a hallucination state, with everyone surrounded round him staring.
* Argument/fight in the party involving Jack.

Verses:

* Jack going downstairs in the early hours of the morning after getting dressed, to find party goers scattered about, in an untidy fashion.
* Jack walking to the kitchen to make himself a drink, but is trembling in a state of shock. Someone comes up to him to see if he is alright, Jack then looks up and they are wearing an animal mask.
* Jack rushing out to the corridor to be greeted by four party goers draped in animal mask, surrounding him, until it becomes to much for Jack and he storms out of the house.
* Jack then walking outside across the road to get hit by a car

this however may change due to our decision to cut the music by 30 seconds.

Rough Cut-Teacher Feedback

Doubt Rough Cut 1 from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

Here is our first rough cut, this is from our intiial filming shoots. After we edited the first verse and the first chorus we decided to show our teacher, unfortunately she did not like a lot of our footage and she found quite a few problems with our video. She disliked the party scenes and felt that our protagonist, Jack, was not a good enough actor. As well as this she disliked our lighting in certain areas as there was too many shadows (as you can see in the screen grab from our original edited footage). Therefore we spent a long period of the week rethinking our video and trying to develop the idea and make it more successful and more to the liking of our teacher.



After much deliberation we decided to scrap the verse footage we had, and look into a more narrative based music video. The main story of closet homosexuality and the unravelling at a party will stay but we will not use the idea of singing and lip-syncing. Jack is staying as our protagonist as we believe in him being the right look for our character plus we still have some footage we wish to keep.

The next stage was to organise a new shoot, which was arranged for Monday 1st March. With the ideas to film the narrative of the verses which runs like this, he would be waking up, after the party, early in the morning, confused about what has happened he looks around for signs of what happened that night, he sees clothes, condom wrappers and alcohol splayed across the bedroom floor and throughout this there will be small flashbacks to what was happening a few hours previous. All of the flashbacks are shot from the point of view of our antagonist, so as to hide there identity. The second verse would then be jacks escape from the bedroom then in to the bathroom where he would be washing himself constantly, trying to rid himself of what he feels like is dirt. The chorus will still be filled of the juxtapositional shots of the young jack and the older jack. while the bridge will be filled of jack trying to escape the house after coming downstairs and finding people from the previous nights party, ending in the unveiling of the mysterious partner from the night/party before. Throughout the video we will be following a motif of having animal masks across his bedroom, this is to confuse the viewer and Jack as he does not understand what they mean, until the end when we realise his partner was wearing one.

The Influence from Existing Products.

Warning- The video contains nudity, sex and violence.

Smack my bitch up from dwayne koh on Vimeo.

The Prodigy's controversial video for their single "Smack My Bitch Up" was a great influence to us. We unintentionally came up with similar themes of unravelling a mystery person at the end of the music video, it was only after we realised the similarities that we decided to relate to this video. The hidden conclusion in this video is very similar to our hidden conclusion, however the Prodigys way of presenting the story is a lot more controversial and impactive, as well as being quite abrasive and rude. However this is the brilliance of this video. They cleverly used the technique of Point Of View filming to hide there protagonists identity, as well as causing the viewer to assert stereotypical views of assuming the lead would be a male down to the actions they take as well as the band being male dominated. We have decided to try and effectively use this technique to our advantage to succesfully hide the identity of our secret lover.

Filming-Take 2

We went round to Jack Clegg's to film the small clip scenes for the various montages as well as the young boy segments. However we decided to get the young boy(ie Todd Cook)to mime the chorus. We set him up on Jack's bed and he sat there with a vulnerable look on his face. This is meant to be the result of what he had just scene. Which is of course a sexual act. Consequently he is shell shocked and confused. The character of the young boy is supposed to be the protagonists younger self. Therefore we filmed Jack sitting in the exact same position, so we can flip between them during the chorus to show the progression, and how seeing the sexual act has affected him as both a youngster and his present self.


Todd and Jack don't look like each other as much as we hoped, but i think it is suggested through the positions that they are the same person. Additionally we did film scenes of Todd in the closet (implications to the plot's narrative) watching the sexual act. However it is unlikely that we stick with the original idea of this being projected on either a wall or television screen. We will include most probably include these scenes during the chorus itself, so it isn't just a boring miming section.

Filming-Plan for Shoot 2

As I said in the editing post, after reviewing our footage from our first shoot, we decided that some scenes were better than others, and we found ourselves with a lot of small gaps in which we would fit in small random clips. Although we need to film some of the party scenes again, most people couldn't make it, so we compiled a list of shots to film, as well as this we were finish shooting our video with the culminating "running scene"

A homosexual kiss
Lights being switched on.
A spinning coin.
Rolling of dice.
Protagonist looking into a mirror.
Washing hands.
Shower scene.
Crying.
Biting of lip.
Rolling/ Smoking a cigarette.
Drinking Milk.
Scrunching hair.
Key in a door.
Biting an apple.
Close up of eye opening.

All these may seem random, but in context they have hidden meanings and relevance to the narrative of our video. We will have to plan a date in the half term or soon after for the remainder of the party scenes, as well as the stuff we have to re-shoot.

The Process Of Editing

Here are a few screen shots of our editing process, at this stage we have the introduction, which you see below. We fit a large group of shots in to the first 17 seconds of our video. This section works really well so far and the use of strobe lighting really brings the effect we were going for.



This screen shot of our verse footage shows a nice over the shoulder shot, we felt during our shoot that these shots were working it very well. However on viewing the edited footage, we felt that the footage was not good enough to fill the whole verse. Our teacher told us on her first view that the footage was too static and although some of our shots were really nice, as a whole it was not exciting enough. Therefore we have rearranged filming again so that we can get some more animated shots. The editing is quite swift, I found the process quite tough at first but after getting used to using finalcut I managed to get to grips with it. We shared the task of editing between the four of us, with each of us taking a section of the song to edit.

Hard at Work

Possible Album Artwork ideas

This idea is taken from the music video, it is the two main characters facing each other, to represent the themes of homosexuality, it is a simple prototype of early ideas.

Organising the Film Shoot

Due to our video needing a large group of people to give the sense of a house party we organised our shoot through a facebook group. We chose to do a facebook event because it makes it easier to keep in contact with all our "actors" and make them aware of the situation.

Location

We talked through a variety of locations for the shoot, firstly we looked at a few of our friends houses, trying to find the perfect house for our party. This set of images shows our friend Joshs House.



We liked the layout of this living room. However there was an outlining sense that it didn't feel right amongst the whole group.

The next house is a friend of ours house in Bromley. We shot this small video in his house to try and get a good feel of the house, just from this video we can tell that the house is good however we need a lot of good lighting to make the video succesful.

Untitled from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

Cast

Here is our protagonist, Jack Clegg. He is suited to our role as he has the look that is popular in a target audience. He has cutting edge fashion to fit in with the cutting edge music. Below, is our antagonist, the other main character, he is not necessarily going to be in the film a lot, until the end as his identity is revealed. The rest of the cast will be made up of our friends that are similar to our two main characters, creating a good party setting

Music Video Analysis- The Maccabees

This music video, is the new single by The Maccabees featuring Roots Manuva. I chose this video because some of its characteristics and styles are similar to our music video. Some of the camera angles, framing are really clever. The simplicity of the people and the static of their main characters is something we are reiterating in our music video that our cut up by random images, such as the coin spinning in this video. Around 2 minutes into the video there is a beautiful close up of the boys chest, with a focus pull onto the sweat, this shot is really powerful and gives us a lot of inspiration for our video. The remainder of the video after this section is really strong and effective too. The editing is sublime in this section and we want to be able to mirror this in ours. The editing from 2.14 to 2.19 and then again 2.32 to 2.39 is really effective and this is the main part of the video that we can link to.

Scene By Scene

With Our idea established, we decided to post this scene by scene to show the idea that's in our heads.

WGSB Media by wgsbmedia1

Intro - 0.00 to 0.16During the intro we shall have our protagonist centred in the shotwhilst the party is going on around him,we will edit it to make it look like different numbers of peopleflash in and out on each note. This will look good with the pace of the intro whilst still setting apart our main character from the rest of the crowd by looking uncomfortable in the scene.

Verse 1 - 0.16 to 0.52Verse one will consist of much more camera movement, involving point of view and over the shoulder shots.It is set in the main hub of the party, with the main character miming the lyrics as if he was in mid-conversation. we never get to see the identity of the converser it is only ever hinted at. None of the characters face the camera and we get a a sense of voyeurism, looking in on the building relationship. This theme we are showing within our verse, of a natural party will be kept throughout the other verse to cut the narrative randomising events and keeping the audience guessing and interested in what happens. The verse ends with the two characters going upstairs.

Chorus - 0.53 to 1.20 For the first chorus the main character is back in the party after his excursion upstairs, he is sitting on a sofa, looking at the floor, clearly distraught singing of regret it fits with the lyrics and he leaves the party to go to another room. On his way through he walks past a TV screen which shows an old homemade video that sees him as child witnessing some event that he shouldn’t have seen. The main theme of the chorus is to see his doubt.

Verse 2 - 1.21 to 1.56 Before the lyrics in the verse start we have our sex scene it is not explicit in its reveleations but we clothes discarded and movement on the bed merely suggesting what is occurring during verse 2 will shall bring the narrative back to the party, where he is now enjoying the party still in mid conversation, miming the lyrics as if he was talking.

Instrumental - 1.57 to 2.08 There are a few points like these throughout the song. This is where we wish to take the two main characters upstairs away from the party. This will be done by using a point of view shot from the main character we do not know the identity of. This will allow us to see the emotions the main character is feeling during the time he is being pulled around and doing actions he will later regret. We are planning to use these parts of the songs to build on the narrative quickly as the speed of the filming will be quicker which will create a sense of adrenaline which the main character would be feeling.

Chorus 2 - 2.09 to 2.36 This is pretty much the same as the previous chorus, however, there are small bits added to it. For example the main character trying to pour himself a drink and being unable and spilling it to due to the actions which are yet to be revealed. He thendraws a question mark in the liquid and freshens up to head back in to the party.

Bridge - 2.37 to 3.33 Bridge - 2.37 to 3.33 The first part of the bridge sees our protagonist regretting his actions and deciding to leave, we see him struggling while his counterpart upstairs chases him using a variety of angles and shot we will film him leaving the house as the small break occurs before a resurgence pace he will open the door and leave as the pace of the song increases he will run fast leading into a chase.

Chorus 3 - 3.34 to 4.00 This chorus will feature large sections of the chase as well as a montage of images from the rest of the party, mirroring the conscious of the man who is running

Ending - 4.01 to 4.06 After the chorus we shall carry on with a few montage shots which slow down and show our main characters again. This is most likely to be from the point of view from our unknown character until they finally embrace. This is when the identity of the character is revealed and turns out to be another male.

Target Audience Research

Delphic are a manchester based Indie/Electro band, they are a relatively new band to the scene that have just recently came third in BBC sound of 2010 poll. They are not, they say, "a bog standard indie band of the sort that was in plentiful supply when they formed in 2007" or "one of the many electro acts that caused dance music to lose its soul and are definitely not one of those groups still desperately clinging to the Madchester glory days." They have frequently been featured in the prestigious music magazine NME as a favourite new band, for example I first noticed them in the Radar section of the magazine. Therefore I have taken some of the facts to relate to our target audience for this video. The median age is 23 and I would predict that our target audience would consist of 16-25 year olds, specifically due to the genre of the music and the more adult theme of the video, also due to the fact that the band are quite young themselves, the music is quite electro and progessive, aimed at the younger audience.

Furthermore a typical reader of NME would be labelled as an "Indie Kid" therefore to analyse what that means I took definitions:

Urban Dictionary defines it as: "Mainly teenagers who all share a common love for the arts and music. They listen to many bands most people haven't heard of and tend to dress however they want, usually ruling out the rules of fashion"

Whereas the website www.uktribes.com suggests that indie is "A staple of British culture since post-punk and the early 80s" going on to say That people defined as Indie Kids are "A confident, energetic and enthusiastic tribe, which have become one of Britain’s largest and most influential. Musically, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, The Killers, Klaxons, Friendly Fires, Bloc Party are currently important – and members don’t go off a band just because they have chart success. Indie kids are particularly fond of bands with teenage members so that there’s a small gap between the band and their audience. All Age gigs and festivals are extremely popular and are indicative of the emerging ‘youth pride’ of this group. Instead of having to fake ID to get into gigs, Indie Kids have taken over the party – and if you’re over 18, you’re not coming in. Fashion-wise, the uniform of Converse and skinny jeans, fringes, band T-shirts and lots of jewellery remains unchanged. Clothes are second-hand not vintage."

This definition highlights exactly what an Indie Kid might be and mentioning bands such as Klaxons, Friendly Fires and Bloc Party helps me highlight the audience for Delphic. The Manchester band could easily be linked with these three highly popular names in music style and the idea that Indie Kids like unknown music helps my case of choosing indie kids as my target audience.

All of this research helps me realise that my assumptions of my Target Audience are correct, that a young 16-25 "indie kid" is my target audience.

Animatics- Storyboarding

Animatic from WGSB on Vimeo.

Mood Boards

our mood board shows some of our ideas in picture form. We decided to present it in this way to help us see what in physical form what we are all picturing. As well as this there images of the themes that are covered within the narrative of our video. Voyeurism is often used in music video and is perfect for our video with the idea of seeing what you are not meant to being included in our video. Closet homosexuality, regret and secrets are the basis to our narrative and this clearly shows this. The other images show some ideas that are included in our narrative, random images that will feature to keep the theme of confusion.