CD COVERS RESEARCH 2

Here are some CD/ record covers from similar bands to Skid Row who were working around the same time, that could possibly provide some inspiration for when we produce one.

A few notes I have made from these covers are that the colour black features prominently throughout, as-well as heavy rock music imagery such as skulls.

CD COVERS RESEARCH 1

Seeing as one of the ancillary tasks is to produce a CD cover, I have been looking at some of Skid Row's album/single covers to see how the band are represented, and how they promoted themselves.

I like these pictures, I see them representative of the fast paced rock and roll life style that the band carried out, which influenced their genre of music. I think we should consider this when producing our CD cover.

FILMING PROGRESS

We have since filmed another scene of the narrative, in which Ricky is shown at having a rough time at his day job working as a carpenters assistant. (My dad kindly acted and allowed us to film in his workshop.) He is shown quitting his job after being mistreated by his boss. This represents the misfortune and aggressive nature of the charactor, connoted by the song's lyrics.

On top of this, we have also filmed the required band shots at our chosen location of a run down barn. Dificulties involved carrying all the equiptment across a road and through some fields in the bitter cold. I think we got some good shots, however, and what lies next is the challenge of editing the instromental close up's to the music as well as lip - synching. Due to the sun setting early, we ran out of time to film all the vocals. To overcome this issue we have come to a desision that we will film the rest of the vocal shots in the schools photography studio. This will provide a change of scene, which I believe will make the video more interesting.

NEXT SHOOT: 01/12/10

Charlie Jones has booked out the school's photography studio for Wednesday 1st December. We will use this opportunity to film the rest of the vocal shots. We should be able to get some good quality shots due to the background and lighting facilities available. Props required: microphone stand and microphone.

BAND SHOTS LOCATION

This is a short video I made last weekend at the location where we have decided to film the band shots.  There is a lot of light as is an open barn, which could make for some interesting shots. Although it is the band shots that are being filmed here, I think that the derelict nature of the barn is reflective of the corrupt life of Ricky, the central character of the music videos narrative.

FOOTAGE UPLOADED

For our music video we are using two cameras (booking one out from school, the other is mine) in order to film the same shot from different angles, resulting in a lot more useable footage. One is a tape camera and the other uses a memory card - which we found takes longer to upload due to the amount of converting that needs to be done, so we will bear this in mind for future editing sessions.
We filmed our closing shot, which is James walking down a hill dropping an empty vodka bottle and disappearing into a twilight horizon. We started experimenting with creating a time-lapse from twilight to dark and will finish this experiment next lesson.

INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO

I love watching videos by bmx videographer Richard Thorne. In this particular one, he uses impressive filming and editing techniques to make an interesting video. The idea of colouring (perhaps a sort of de-saturation) in this is something which I think we could experiment with for our music video to give it an unhappy sort of feel that the song's lyrics imply, which we are using characterise the protagonist.

FIRST SHOOT

Today we met up our actor, James Wheeler, in order to film some of the outdoor shots for the narrative section of our video. It's getting darker a lot earlier now so it was wise to get these done whilst there is daylight time after school, because we tend to have various other commitments on weekends. The first scene we filmed included Ricky almost getting run over by a car, followed by an argument/confrontation with the driver. This was to demonstrate the character's aggressive nature, suggested by the songs lyrics.

For our first ever shoot, I think we worked well together and we got some brilliant shots, using two cameras to capture a broader range of angles. It was also a really enjoyable experience. 

THE BAND

Local band 'The Croft' have a agreed to learn '18 And Life' and perform in both the location and a few shots in the schools photography studio for our video's band shots.

MEETING NOTES 3