Inspiration - Websites

Ellie research websites to take inspiration from for Alleyways' website.

"Two websites I took inspiration from when creating ours were Paramore and We Are The In Crowd's. The first thing I decided on was the link bar at the top of the website and what it should include.

We chose to include photos, videos, and a store, taken from both websites, and added a 'contact us' taken from the We Are The In Crowd's website.

Our store has the same layout as Paramore's, with a grid featuring pictures of our merch (which we hadn't uploaded at that moment in time). Our photo page also has the same layout.

Our contact us page is based around We Are The In Crowd's 'connect' page, involving each individual member's twitter account and all of the band's accounts."

Further Inspiration - Style

For our 'Fast In My Car' video, we will attempt to replicate the styles of Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Gia Coppola and Spike Jonze. Examples of their work that we will be referencing are Wes Anderson's 'Hotel Chevalier (2007)', Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides (1999)' and Gia Coppola's 'Palo Alto (2013)'. Spike Jonze's 'Her (2013)' and his music video for Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs (2013)'. All of the aforementioned pieces have a specific style or colour scheme that I am interested to incorporate into our Alleyways music video.

Spike Jonze's 'Her' - 2013

 

Gia Coppola's 'Palo Alto' - 2013

 

Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides' - 1999

 

Arcade Fire - 'The Suburbs (2013)'

 

Wes Anderson's 'Hotel Chevalier' - 2007

 

To accurately integrate these influences into our video, we will all wear brightly coloured clothing and alter the video with a muted filter.

Inspiration for A2 Final Music Video

The 1975's 'Girls' music video is a huge inspiration for our music video in its aesthetic - beginning in black and white and descending into exaggerated colours. We hope to begin our music video in black and white and switch to full colour when the chorus kicks in.



Arctic Monkeys' 'R U Mine' music video is also a significant inspiration as most of the video takes place from within a car. Due to the title of our song choice, we aim to incorporate a car into our video by attaching a Go-Pro video camera to the dashboard of Dom's car to shoot scenes for our A2 Final Music Video.

 



 

Tigers Jaw's 'Hum' music video, directed by Alex Henery, will be a big influence on our video too. Towards the end of the music video, the band will be performing in the cramped space of the recording studio where a revolving disco ball will illuminate all of their actions.

Lip Sync Task

Lip Sync Task

 

 

 

 In this task Ellie practised for our main music video by lip syncing to the song 'Fast In My Car' which we will be used in our music video. As well as making sure everyting went smoothly for our final run.

Inspiration for final video

Johnathan's post

The 1975's 'Girls' music video is a huge inspiration for our music video in its aesthetic - beginning in black and white and descending into exaggerated colours. We hope to begin our music video in black and white and switch to full colour when the chorus kicks in.



Arctic Monkeys' 'R U Mine' music video is also a significant inspiration as most of the video takes place from within a car. Due to the title of our song choice, we aim to incorporate a car into our video by attaching a Go-Pro video camera to the dashboard of Dom's car to shoot scenes for our A2 Final Music Video.

inspiration - style

Jonathan's post:

For our 'Fast In My Car' video, we will attempt to replicate the styles of Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Gia Coppola and Spike Jonze. Examples of their work that we will be referencing are Wes Anderson's 'Hotel Chevalier (2007)', Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides (1999)' and Gia Coppola's 'Palo Alto (2013)'. Spike Jonze's 'Her (2013)' and his music video for Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs (2013)'. All of the aforementioned pieces have a specific style or colour scheme that I am interested to incorporate into our Alleyways music video.

Spike Jonze's 'Her' - 2013

Gia Coppola's 'Palo Alto' - 2013

Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides' - 1999

Arcade Fire - 'The Suburbs (2013)'

Wes Anderson's 'Hotel Chevalier' - 2007

To accurately integrate these influences into our video, we will all wear brightly coloured clothing and alter the video with a muted filter.

'Fast In My Car' Lyrics Timeline

From Jonathan's blog

Today I created a vague timeline accompanied with the song's lyrics to help us figure out how long we have for shots, certain verses and lyrics. Our next step as a group is to compose a storyboard for timings, lyrics and shots.

Group Timetable

	Dom	Jonathan	Ellie	Zahra
Mon	X		X
Tues	X		X
Wed
Thur	X
Fri			X
Sat	X-Morning
Sun			X

X=Not available for filming.

Days free for filming are Saturday evenings and Wednesday. 

Similar Artist To Paramore

Similar Artist To Paramore

 

Although this is obviously a Paramore song this is the kind of video that we will hope to replicate with its fun and upbeat nature as well as the colourful and energetic background of the set. By drawing inspiration from this video we hope to create a high marking music video.

Panic! At the Disco

 

This video is among the kind we want for our final media product due to the energetic nature of it with it being very hyped and flamboyant with quick camera movements and shots which accompany the high passed tempo of the song which we will hope to match.

 

 My Chemical Romance

 

This band and the style that they present is a bit too extreme for our bands image however the style of there songs and the creation of their music videos is something that we can borrow from i.e. the energy they preformed on stage with and their initial usage handheld camera style of recording. All these aspects we will hope to emulate for our media product.

Our Final Choices For Our Music Video

Fast My Car-Paramore
This idea was put forward my Jonathan and would be a nice pop-rock song to do. It is a fun and energetic song so the video for it would match that level of energy.

 

Feeling Good-Nina Simone

This was my contribution to our selection with a classic jazz/blues song which would allow us to break away from pop music and try and create a down to earth sombre video.

No Scrubs-Bastielle

 This progressive rock song is a cover done by Bastielle which would be a excellent choice as it would be a faviourte of mine.

Group Meeting (1)

During the first meeting, we displayed and discussed all of our music video ideas and picked from the repertoire three of them to chose for our final A2 music video. We selected the following choices for our music video, either: Paramore's 'Fast In My Car',  Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' or Bastille's cover of 'No Scrubs' . Then we proceed to uploaded the three tracks to our blogs and spoke about our opinions of them.

Ideas for a music video

 1) Nina Simone-Feeling Good

This a choice of mine due to the slowness and timing of the song as it would make it easier for editing when it came round to it. Not to mention that it is a classic song which everybody is familiar with it. This song has many lyrics that could be incorporated into the songs video such as 'Birds flyin high...' which could be replicated by showing a flock of birds up in the air.



2) Johnny Cash- Ain't No Grave
Ain't No Grave is my second choice as its lyrics are very slow and heavy which would allow us to make a very solemn and deep music video for the late Johnny Cash which would appeal to many people. The video would use long wide shots to show the depth of the location as well as an almost found footage style of shooting with the man actor pretend as there being recorded for a home movie.

3)Oasis- She's Electric 

This is the last choice for what I think will work well as a music video as the funny and bouncy nature of the song will allow for an energetic music video with bright shades and funny acting due to various humorous lines in the lyrics of the song which could be mirrored in live action such as 'She's got one in the oven, but it's nothing to do with me'.

Panic! At The Disco: Prelim Task

1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you? 

I worked with Ellie, Zahra and Johnathan. We made sure that everybody was included in the acting as is evidenced by us all being in the video. Behind camera was similar as well with us all helping one another in some way as Ellie did a bulk of the editing but myself and Zahra both helped and took over in some places. Other task were similar where both me and Johnathan helped each other complete timings for the prelim as well as location shots.

2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? 

We planned out sequence by mapping out the time it would take to complete one shot on the camera in comparison to how long the shot was shown in the actual music video which helped us hugely with timings.

3) What theories could you apply to the video you chose? 

The theory of the male gaze can be applied by the way the cheerleaders are all dressed in proactive clothing.

4) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it? 

We used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit and render our video and a CS6 HDR-CX180 camera to film our prelim task.

5) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing? 
We had to acknowledge the fact that some scenes in the music video could not be replicated such as a bar on fire. So with this knowledge we used a green screen and adobe to create a background that suits the video better.

6) How successful was your music video copy? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently? What did others say about your production?

Overall I believe that we were successful in creating a good prelim task especially considering the technicality that was need for some scenes. I think what went well was the usual dynamic in that we all work very well as a group and want to do the best we can. I would try and improve the time frame in which we had to make and edit our film as we were defiantly on a deadline. Others seemed to like our video and some of the people i talked with said it was the best they had seen.

7) What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your music video, do you think? 

We found out ever bodies strengths and weakness when making a music video as some of us can act better while others are more gifted with camera work or editing and we will keep this in mind when making our video.

8) How does it compare with filming an opening to a film? 

It is a lot more difficult as when filming another persons work you have little creative freedom so it is hard to film in such a way as you have to match it perfectly to their video.

9) What are your strengths and weaknesses as a group member? 
My strengths I would say is directing our group. While my weakness is most likely not acting amazing.

10) Looking at the other group's videos which do you think were most successful and why?

The Kanye West prelim was my personal favourite as they matched the lip syncing almost perfectly as well as the outfits which made it more believable to watch and more like a real music video.