Risk Assessment Form

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Below is a link to a video showing how I went about looking for the font that we were going to use throughout our ancillary task...



Meet Our Actors

Tom Mcmahon  

Tom is our Lead singer, front man and keyboard player...you may notice him from our rough cut, he was the drummer!

Matt Dickinson 

Matt is our new drummer...

 

Tom Hammond 

Finally, Tom (#2) is our guitar player and only member of the band from our rough cut that has the same role! 

Album Cover Plan

This is a plan for the cover of our album that I have drawn. The album is called Torches so I wanted to make the picture thats on the cover relevant to this title but also want it to look artistic and original. We plan to take a picture of my friend, Laura Bennett, in designer shoes, wearing nice clothes, however, using photoshop we are going to replace her head with a lit lightbulb. I was inspired by this idea when looking at the 'Beacon' cover by Two Door Cinema Club. I plan to have the background of the cover black, and then place the picture in a square in the middle of the cover. The name of the band will then be printed above the picture in either orange or white and underneath the picture will be the title of the album in the same font and colour. Like most bands' albums, our album cover will not feature a photograph of the band on the front, instead we want it to feature artwork, this also applies to the rest of the CD elements.

This is my drawing/plan for the back of the case, like the front, the background will be black and the colour/font of the writing will be the same of that which is featured on the front of the album, which creates a house style. At the bottom of the tracklist will be a barcode - obviously for purchasing the album. We also need to feature the logo for the publisher of the music and we will also write the foster the people website at the bottom of the back cover. The back of a CD case has less detail that what is on the front, this is because its purpose is to simply show the audience what songs are featured on the CD, where as the front cover of the album needs to entice the potential buyer into looking at the CD and turning into a buyer.

This is what the spine of the album will look like, it is perhaps the simplest element of the case that we have to create; the majority of CD's only have the name of the band/artist on the spine as well as the catalogue number at the bottom of the spine. Sometimes the name of the album is also featured on it - this is because when the CD's are stacked up, people can easily look down the CD's and see which album is which because it is marked on the spine.





Our actual CD is going to have a print on it that makes it look like a vinyl, I like this idea because it goes with the genre of music that the album belongs to; vinyl's are not sold in many places but the clothes shop Urban Outfitters sells vinyls of not only old records, but new albums aswell for display - they sell frames with them so that the vinyls can be framed and put on the wall. It is for this reason that we have chosen to make our CD looklike a vinyl; our target audience shops in urban outfitters and so would also be the target audience for our album.


Equipment

Final Cut Filming Schedule

  We learnt from the filming of our rough cut, that when we filmed our final cut we needed to be more organised in order to get the shots that we needed quickly and easily. We have made a list so that we can tick off when we have filmed certain shots so that we leave knowing that we have all the shots that we need and havent forgotten anything. We have given a copy of this list to our actors so that everyone knows what we will be shooting and when, we have two cameras so that we can film more than one person at the same time.

This is what we plan to do and when, we have borrowed lighting from our friend so that our video will be professionally lit. We have allowed time for our band to practice what they are going to do, get dressed and look over the lyrics again so that the miming is perfect, this allows us to go into our location and get filming straight away.


I have planned how our video is going to be edited exactly so that we can go into the filming knowing exactly what our video is going to look like from the footage that we gain, this also allows me to make sure that we get all the shots that we need.

The schedule and editing list has allowed us to be more organised with our filming - which admittedly we weren't when filming our rough cut. The list of where all our footage is going to go in our video and how long the shot will be will allow us to put all the footage on the timeline easily, almost like knowing where all the pieces of the puzzle go, and just having to actually fit them together.

Feedback

This is some of the feedback that we got from some of our classmates, we plan to fix all of the problems that have been commented on so that we can improve our video 

In order to make our music video better we are going to change the editing so that the drums are timed a bit better with the music, make some of the shots shorter in length and re-shoot so that we have another chance for our singer to get the lyrics right so we can appropriately place them in the video

We also need to shoot a lot more footage of our guitarist because a lot of the footage that we have of him cant be used at all because he isn't actually strumming the guitar so we need to remedy this.

Here is a link to a presentation that I have made about the planning for the filming of our final cut...

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Shot Composition Planning

In the performance part of our music video we are planning to have close up's of both the band, and specific instruments, medium close ups of the bands with their instruments and medium shots of the entire band playing. We also plan to have over the shoulder shots of our drummer and singer

We have taken ideas from some of The Killers' music videos as well as some from Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian, we looked at their videos that were performance based and looked at the way that the band and the instruments were represented and how the camera moved to flatter the band

We want some close ups of our band's faces similar to this one, we are going to film the close up from the front and side and see which one looks better and creates more of an effect, the main person that we are going to have close ups of is our lead singer so that is establishes him as the band front man.

We like the angle in which the camera looks down the bass guitar because it actually shows the instrument being played, we plan to do a shot similar to this but start at the body of the guitar then move the camera up to the neck to add camera movement into our video.

We want to have over the shoulder shots of both our drummer and our lead singer so that it offers a sort of point of view perspective to our audience, we want them to be able to feel what it would be like behind a drumset or microphone because even if you go and see a band live you dont get the availability of seeing everything.

 We like the close up of the hands playing the instrument and plan to get a shot similar to this in our music video, we would also like to have the lighting similar but will find it hard to recreate this with coloured lights so we are going to create an effect with white lights

Music Video Animatic

Clothing

The song choice for our music video is in the indie genre so the clothing that our musicians wear is important to how they will be perceived by their fans, fashion is a big part of the indie genre so we plan to make our band members look stylish whilst still fitting the indie genre. We want our lead singer to wear a harrington jacket and we want it to come across as though it would be his signature thing to wear, we are going to put all of the band members in skinny jeans, Tom in a plain t-shirt and Tom Mcmahon in a shirt.

It is harder to dress boys and give them more than a couple of outfit changes, we think, because you can easily put girls in a skirt or a dress or shorts but boys' clothing genereally centers around trousers and a t-shirt. Because of this we're going to add accessories such as Ray-Bans and, in Joe's case, a hoop in his ear, this will compliment the clothes more and give us more outfit changes. We kind of want a 60's element to the fashion side of our music video so we've been looking at mod clothing, this is also convenient for us because Joe tends to dress like this anyway so he can help us with the outfit choices.

We have looked at the clothes that are worn in a lot of bands in the indie genre, we looked, obviously, at Foster the People but decided that we didnt want to copy what they were wearing, we want every aspect of our music video to be completely different to the video that already exists for 'Pumped Up Kicks,' we also looked at Arctic Monkeys, Stone Roses, The Courteeners and mods in the 60's, we think that a combination of all of these clothes will be perfect for our band. We just want to take pieces from each band that we have looked at and create our own signature look.

Here are some screenshots from music videos, we actually looked at a Foster the People video and saw that they're quite casual when they perform, wearing t-shirts and jeans, but when they arent performing they dress slightly smarter. Because our video is performance based we want to encapsulate the casual clothing that they wear when they are performing. Many bands take the casual approach when they are performing - especially drummers - for comfort and ease.

Locations for our Video

There are quite a few locations that we need to go to to film the different parts of our music video. We want to have a kind of fun 'boys on tour' aspect to our video so want to film our cast just doing what a band would do if there were in London waiting until they have to play their gig. Although some of the shots that we shoot in London will be based around this idea, we also want some serious images that establish the band as legitimate. We plan to go to:

The Millenium Bridge - we have chosen to do some shots here because it is a very recognisable location and we think that it would look good on a winter evening. We plan to have the boys standing in the middle of the bridge and we will film it for about 5-10 minutes then in editing we will speed it up so that the boys are standing still but people are blurring as they walk along beside them.

Brick Lane - we have chosen to shoot in Brick Lane aswell because the surroundings and feeling of it generally fit the genre and target audience that we are aiming our video at. Brick Lane has been established as an 'Indie' locations because of the amount of vintage shops that are there, as well as this, the famous record label 'Rough Trade' has a store there which we think establishes Brick Lane as a place that musicians would be interested to visit

Charing Cross - underneath Charing Cross station there is a tunnel that leads to southbank, a lot of busking happens in this tunnel and we think the brick setting would be good to film some of our video in, because there are a few shops along this are this is kind of where we want to get our tour video type effect with the boys just laughing and looking around London. This is also a convenient location for us because its really close to Southbank and the bridge that we want to film on so it will be quick and easy to get some shots here

Pub Hall - to film the performance side of our video we are going to a hall that has a stage, we are going to put the boys on the stage with instruments and film them as though they are performing to a crowd, this is also where the opening part of our video is going to be set; we are going to film the boys setting up their instruments then speed it up and perhaps put it in black and white for the opening instrumental of the song. This adds to the authenticity of the video because it establishes them as an independent band.
 

Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics

"Pumped Up Kicks"

Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't
tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth, he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun.
In his dad's closet hidden with a box of fun things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you.


[Chorus: x2]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Daddy works a long day.
He'll be coming home late, he's coming home late.
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger,
I reason with my cigarette,
And say, "Your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah."

[Chorus: x2]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

[Whistling]

[Chorus: x4]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Although the song itself is quite upbeat and dancey, the lyrics actually add a really dark meaning to the song. It is basically about a psychotic teenager who wants to kill everyone and many have speculated that it is actually about the Robert Hawkings shootings. Mark Foster himself has said, "'Pumped Up Kicks' is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He's an outcast. I feel like the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It's kind of an epidemic. Instead of writing about victims and some tragedy, I wanted to get into the killer's mind, like Truman Capote did in In Cold Blood. I love to write about characters. That's my style. I really like to get inside the heads of other people and try to walk in their shoes."

The phrase, 'Pumped Up Kicks' actually refers to the Reebok trainers that were popular in America in the 80's/90's which had a pump at the back which added extra air into the shoe for "an extra lift," the lyrics are saying that those who can afford 'pumped up kicks' should run from the psycho killer. Its an indirect threat.

So that our music video actually relates to the title of the song, we are creating a character for our music video that is slightly psychotic and as well as this we are planning to create a montage of different 'kicks,' our music video is going to be a mix of shots that are relavant to the story line behind the title/song, and some shots of the band touring and generally being laddish.

To create the look of the band touring, we are planning to take some shots of the boys in the car, we want it to look similar to the shots that are used in the Arctic Monkeys video to 'R U Mine'

We like the handheld effect of this video because it makes the band seem more independent and the simplicity of the band holding the camera and miming whilst still making the video entertaining to watch inspired us to want to use similar shots.

Copyright Permission Letter

Our group e-mailed Startime International, the company that manages the copyright for Foster the People, to ask for their permission to use 'Pumped Up Kicks' in our music video. We are yet to receive a reply but are hoping that they will take the time to e-mail us back.

Song Choice

We found deciding which song to feature in our music video one of the most difficult things in this process. We considered a range of songs such as:

Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are Over
The Vaccines - Wetsuit
The Vaccines - If You Wanna
The Naked and Famous - Punching in a Dream

We finally decided to use 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster the People, this is an upbeat song and we plan to use three boys and film most of our video in London, we have chosen this location because the band is from California so it would be difficult for us to stay true to the origin of the band, so we are aiming to make the band seem British as opposed to American, and what better way to portray this to the audience, than to use London! The landmarks are easily noticed as being British and the scenery is urban. 

Foster the People have only released one album, 'torches', and since its release in may 2011 it has already won, aswell as being nominated for, over six awards in 2011 alone. As well as this, they played in the NME tent at Reading, only second behind the headliners and the album has already gone platinum. The band are well known in the indie genre so this is why we have chosen their song; people would want to watch the music video if they had already heard the song.




As this picture shows, Foster the people have won 3 awards, two of which were for the specific song, 'pumped up kicks', from the album and one for the new artist of the year. They have been nominated for awards from big names such as MTV, Q, BRIT Awards and NME. Considering the fact that the album only came out just over a year ago, that is a long list of awards. This is another reason why we want to use this song for our music video, it is a well known song and we are fans of the band so we would like to do the song/album justice.


This picture shows that the band have only released one album, but three singles which would add to the recognition that the band gains, the best received one of these singles was actually Pumped up Kicks which is why we have chosen to do this song.

Target Audience

The audience that we plan to target our video at are the...


According the UK Tribes, bands that Indie Scenesters like are bands such as Vampire Weekend and The Kooks, although this was true in 2008, when the site published these findings, the Indie Scenesters have moved on to newer bands like Spector, Kasabian and Two Door Cinema Club.
The brands that the website claims that Indie's like are still very relevant today,  


Fashion is an important part of the 'look' of being an indie scenester, again, the look that is described on the UK Tribes website was published in 2008, since then the look of Indie's has changed - although the favoured brands have remained the same. 

The kind of person that we want to aim our music video at would be a 'festival goer,' someone that you would expact to see at Reading or Glastonbury. And considering the fact that the band who created the song that we intend to do our music video to have played at Reading, I think that this is an appropriate relationship between the audience and the song.
 

The media that UK Tribes says that Indie Scenesters are interested in has changed a lot since it was published, the media that Indie's are now interested is more along the lines of NME, XFM and E4.



I took some pictures of the type of audience that we are aiming to target...

A classic sign of an indie scenester is the Baracuta Harrington jacket, very popular amongst mods and skinheads in the 1960's so are now seen as being vintage a retro - a label that Indie scenesters strive to uphold.

Whilst taking these pictures we asked our 'models' questions about where they shop, what they do in their spare time and what music they listen to.

Tom Mcmahon:

Where do you shop? 
- Asos
-Topman
- Brick Lane (Rokit)
- Urban outfitters


What music do you listen to?

- Oasis

- Jake Bugg

                                                        - Mumford & Sons

                                                        - Paolo Nuitini

                                                        - Foo Fighters

                                                             - Vaccines

                                                             - Arctic Monkeys

                                                             - Stone Roses

                                                           What do you do in your spare time?

                                                           - Go to the gym

                                                           - Read magazines (NME)

As well as speaking to Tom Mcmahon, I also spoke to Tom Hammond who likes similar music and shops in similar places to Tom Mcmahon. However, his interests were different, he likes to play football and has more of an interest in media, he watches TV (mainly E4) and also reads magazines.

I spoke to Joe Robinson, (bottom right picture,) the answers that he gave to my questions were very different to that of Tom Mcmahon and Tom Hammond, he likes music such as Joy Division, Madness and the Specials. He buys his clothes from Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Uni Qlo, charity shops and John Lewis and in his spare time he plays rugby, goes to the gym and works, this shows that he has little interest in media because he spends little time on the internet, watching TV and reading magazines/newspapers.

We want our target audience to be able to relate to our band and feel as though they understand them; this turns a target audience member into a fan, the distinct difference between someone that we want to target our music video to, and someone that we want to be a fan of the band is that a fan will may like the band for many reasons other than because they like the music that they produce, they may like the bands appearance, like them just because everyone else does or even just generally like the band as a whole, but we want our target audience to specifically relate to the music that is produced by the band as well as all the other reasons why a fan may like the band, it is for this reason that we want our target audience to be music lovers and in turn, festival goers.

I think that British youths will be able to relate to the band especially because the indie genre is more or less an evolved version of British pop which was created when - The Beatles especially - the British took American rock like Elvis, reconstituted it and sent it back to America who in turn added their own style and created bands such as Foster the People.

Planning