ANIMATIC

a VAGUE idea of that we want to achieve with having lots of costume changes.
since making this we decided on the camerawork (explained in last post).

CAMERA WORK

we thought the still camera work of the 'Move Aong' video was too slow for our song,
and we like the camera work in this video:

we like how it follows the people in the room, and we also like the idea in this video of repeating a sequence more than once and then editing it together to make one sequence. they show the same sequence with different people in the same place, shown at the same time. we will film the same sequence in different places with different clothes, but the same person, shown one bit at a time.

to make the cuts work, we got the idea of changing location/cotume when the camera passes a near object, a bit like in this adevert:

HOMEWORK

Grade:B/C
Good Points:
the green screen background works well with the original band style and it includes the band name whch is a nice touch altohugh not really necessary
The lipsynching is good, it is fairly accurate in most places
The carousel shots are good and fit with the upbeat nature of the song
We likke their referencing to the numbers and letters in the song

Areas needing improvement:
The singer lacks enthusiam and seems to be suffering from mild stage fright or bordem. The song is quite upbeat and needs stronger performance.
Slightly repetative with random unrelated shots and narrative
The editing of cuts is quite weak and lacks interest and speed needed for the song.

song meaning and ideas

We listened to our song a lot and discussed the meaning. We thought about how the artist sings about 'change' and how "this is gonna be just like yesterday", and how everything is the same even if it feels or looks different.

Working with what we already planned, with the use of costumes, and the inspiration of this video:



We came up with the final idea of having one singer whos outfit and location changes as she sings. simlar to the above video but not as fast paced, with some close ups and cut aways.

We plan to cut and change costume keeping the girl in the same position roughly after each line, to the beat of the song.
We may vary positions! and we may have a small bit of narrative for some scenes as the cut aways, but not much.

CHANGE OF PLAN

Change of song and change of idea!!

We are thinking of doing a song by Candie Payne called By Tomorrow.

The song's strong female vocals gave us the idea of a karaoke-style video, as then three of us could lipsync without just one of us pretending to be the actual singer or artist.

This gives us abstraction from the actual song meaning, but we could still work with the idea of 'tomorrow' and 'yesterday' which is frequently mentioned throughout the song, and we could base the video around costumes and show different eras of style.

Some existing music videos have been made by fans of bands and singers, in a karaoke style. Such as this one, Just A Day by Feeder.


We are thinking of combining the comical kareoke passion of this video with the costume change/era representation we have seen in videos like Danni California by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

and 1985 by Bowling For Soup


We also think these videos have similar elements to the idea we have:

Bootylicious by Destiny's Child - 3 girls and lots of costumes, singing to the camera.


U and Ur Hand by Pink - extreme costume change.

P.O.V shots

During our research, we also noticed how boring overuse of static shots were, so we decided that, to keep the identity of the running man slightly hidden, we would use point of veiw shots to make it seem more interesting.

Here are some examples:

The Offspring - Hit that
This music video uses this technique extremely well! it gives an unorthodox angle that adds a freshness to what could have been quite a conventional music videos


The Prodigy - Smack my B***h upjavascript:void(0)
This is a good example of what we intend parts of our video to look like, particularly the shots down the corridors and alleyways. But, the video is rather racey towards the end and didnt think it appropriate to post on this blog

VOYERISM

While researching music videos, we noticed that lots of them had a tendancy to have "people watching other people" without them knowing, so, we thought that seeing as this was a popular theme for music videos at the moment, something simular had the potential to work very well in our music video.

Here is some examples of what we mean

FallOutBoy - Grandtheft Autumn

In this video the boy is watching the girl get dressed.
In our video it wont be QUITE as erotic, but she will be dancing and he will be at the window watching!


This video also has a simular voyeristic feel, it also incorporates the idea of a darkened running figue offest against shots of a woman in much lighter brighter surroundings

Background Information about the Band

We thought it would be a good idea to research a bit about the Band Robots in Disguise to help us come up with ideas or themes we could use in our video to make it a bit more original!

http://www.myspace.com/robotsomfg

Robots in Disguise is an English electro punk band and DJ duo who formed in 2000. The two members, Dee Plume and Sue Denim met at the University of Liverpool and subsequently went on to form Robots In Disguise. The group appeared on The Mighty Boosh five times as Mutants, Electro girls 'Neon' and 'Ultra' and Goth girls 'Anthrax' and 'Ebola' respectively.

Delia "Dee Plume" Gaitskell is an English vocalist, guitarist and songwriter known for her work with Sue Denim in the band Robots in Disguise. However she is perhaps better known as the long-term girlfriend of comedian Noel Fielding, whose comedy series The Mighty Boosh she has made numerous guest appearances in.

Suzanne "Sue Denim" Powell (born 12 March in Colchester, England) is an English vocalist, guitarist, songwriter and DJ best known for her work with Dee Plume in the band Robots in Disguise. Sue is also well known as DJ $U€™ d£NiM, guesting at bars, pubs and clubs not just in Britain but all over Europe, including her hometown of Berlin.

Dance Moves

As dancing will be playing a part in this music video, it is importnant that we find dance moves that are reflective of the techno rave music.
Therefore, while researching on youtube, we found some interesting clips portraying potential dance moves:



I particualarly like these video, especially the backgrounds and graphics used. it may be possible to re-create a simular effect to this using photoshop! Perhaps incorperating images linked with words in the song, Eg.Peaches, speakers, or voodoo!


There is a possibility that we may use three different girls in our video for dancing inside, therefore, something simular to this but using split screen and different backgrounds, may be good?

Possible Costume Ideas

For the figure outside running:
Jeans and a hoodie, although the majority of the shots of this person will be in black and white, colour will be restored in the closing shots to reveal bright, floresent "rave" colours
Perhaps with Rave style make up? Thus keeping in theme with robots in disguise?


Simular outfit for the girl dancing inside, although perhaps in a skirt?

Song titles mentioned in TURN IT UP

Through out the song TURN IT UP, there are several references to other 80's song titles! We are determined to include some of this in our video to create some intertextuality as is common in many music videos. We will print posters of these bands or artists and place them along the alleyways in which the man is running, we will also have simular posters in side the girls bedroom which will create links between the paralle editing



'Ashes To Ashes' - David Bowie


'Curl', 'Grazes' - Sneaker Pimps


'Pretty Vacant' - Sex Pistols


'Teaches of Peaches' - Peaches


'Delia's Gone', 'I Walk The Line' - Johnny Cash


'I'll Keep It With Mine' - Bob Dylan


'Birdland' - Patti Smith


'Clouds' - Hole


'Sous Le Soleil Exactement' - Serge Gainsbourg


'Sunshine Superman' - Donovan


'I Want You' - ? (Dylan or Gaye or...)






'Ghosts' - Japan













'Some Velvet Morning' - Nancy Sinatra - Primal Scream?





'Paper Wings' - Gillian Welch












'Virginia Avenue' - Tom Waits
















'Laura' - Frank Sinatra - Scissor Sisters?





'Summer's Almost Over' - Cheryl Wheeler









'A Night Like This' - The Cure









'Strange Fruit' - Billie Holiday










'Hatful Of Hollow' - The Smiths











'Boys', 'Voodoo' - Robots In Disguise

Song Genre

Turn It Up is a mash up of bass, bleeps, beats and heavy breathing. Leaning more towards the industrial end of the electronica spectrum doesn’t generally make for an infectious dance song, but Robots In Disguise have bridged the gap with ease. This song combines rhythms to dance to and gritty lyrics. Electronica is also not particularly known for its witty or clever lyrics, but the Robots have changed that while they were at it too. The clever use of 80's (and some more recent) song titles not only draws in a wider audience but gives deeper meaning to the song to those that are familular with the other titles. There is also blatent self promotion in this techinique as "Boys" and "voodoo" are both their songs.

Hopefully, during our video, we will be able to keep the grit and darkness of the song visable to the viewers, whilst relying on costumes to draw on the electro influences.

Meanings behind the song

The song is about escaping the world through music, that is why there are refferences to plenty of older songs in here.

In the beginning line 'I woke up weak today, and needing your voice' the 'your' is reffering to music. The song is simply about escaping life with an obsession, if not addiction to music.

Our Group

Hi, we are Rosie Katie Denise and Todd
We have been in the same media group since last year, but this will be the first time we will all be working as a group! we are quite excited about this :D
Firstly, we all have very different ideas, that, suprisingly, all seem to fit together quite well. We also all have different strenghts and experience in making and editing videos.
Rosie in particular has made lots of different music videos for fun, so she helps strenghten the group no end!
So
:D
Watch this space, hopefully our video will turn out how we want it to!

Our pitch

Our original idea is to have two sides to a narrative.

-It starts with someone waking up outside at night, referencing the first lines of the song,
and then follows their journey back to a house/building where somone else is puts on on the song and starts dancing.

-The person will be dancing in their bedroom however through the use of photoshop we will create coloured animation that will move and swirl around the dancer in time with the beat. This will relate to how the girl is escaping into the music and becoming thoroughly absorbed in the music as is referenced in the lyrics.

-P.O.V shots and long shots will be used when filming outside and it will be lit by street lights and torches/lights on the camera. all out door shots will be black and white.

-Indoor shots will be close, interestingly angled and moving, sometimes handheld. close ups of body parts/shoes/speakers/ipod/etc, and the indoor footage will be bright and colourful.

-There are references in the songs to existing tracks by various artists and we will include intertextual references to them with posters and CD', in the room and outdoors.

-We will try to avoid lots of static shots, using panning when using a tripod, and handheld shots. We will use the concept of people looking/watching, which is typical of muisc videos.

-we have found existing music videos which have been filmed at night, and will include as inspiration on our blog.

Our song

Turn it UP - Robots in disguise!

Robots in Disguise Lyrics

I woke up weak today and needing your voice
Crawled into the speakers and turned up the volume
Felt so sick today but cured by your noise
My head in the speakers is drowning out volumes

In "Ashes To Ashes" I'm falling falling
In "Ashes To Ashes" I'm losing losing
In "Curl" and "Grazes" I'm feeling feeling
In "Curl" and "Grazes" I'm losing losing

Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn me on

I dress up bright tonight and needing the beat
Dance into the speakers and max up the volume
Feel so high tonight and moved by my feet
My heart in the speakers is loving the volume

In "Pretty Vacant" I'm jumping jumping
In "Pretty Vacant" I'm moving moving
In "Teaches Of Peaches" I'm speeding speeding
In "Teaches Of Peaches" I'm moving moving

Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn me on

In "Delia's Gone" "I'll Keep It With Mine" "Birdland"
"Clouds"
In "Sous Le Soleil Exactement" "Sunshine Superman" "I
Want You" "Ghosts"
In "Some Velvet Morning" "Paper Wings" "Virginia
Avenue" "Laura"
In "Summer's Almost Over" "I Walk the Line" "A Night
Like This" "Strange Fruit"

In "Hatful Of Hollow" I'm diving diving
In "Hatful Of Hollow" I'm screaming screaming
In "Boys" and "Voodoo" I'm living living
In "Boys" and "Voodoo" I'm screaming screaming

Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn it up turn it up turn it up turn it up
Turn me on!