Friday 14 January 2011

Filming preparation

After having general meetings with the rest of the group, we have yet to definitely decided on a location, although we have many options. These include, mainly, fields and public areas of land. Tort Hill in Sawtry is our most popular location so far. This is only the case recently, after having a lot of trouble trying to contact Connington airfield about using a disused runway. Tort Hill, shown below, consists of 3 to 4 fields, a wide open space, which will be perfect for filming. 
 This location may cause problems when filming as the turrane is not level, and the weather report for our filming date, which is the 15th January (tomorrow) is dry with possible showers, but frequent rain may be problematic.

Monday 10 January 2011

Logo ideas

As part of my role as designer, I have come up with some new logo designs for the band, after them agreeing to let us change their original logo.
(to be added later)

Live performance

On the 18th of December, myself, Emily and Jamie took up the bands offer of seeing them play live at a party. The host of the party agreed to let us attend for a few hours and film the band while performing. This resulted in a long drive through the snow to a small village near Cambridge, where we set up and prepared for filming. The band performed other songs, as well as the one they wish to use in their music video. We filmed for approximately 2 hours, getting a lot of good footage, but unfortunately since then we have had problem concerning transferring the footage off the camera. But, this was not a wasted trip, we had the opportunity to meet the rest of the band members, and take a lot of photos.

Further Band Research

After looking at the 3 bands I was assigned, I decided to look at the different bands body language and positioning in promotional photos, seeing as we will have to use photos such as these in our project. These photos will be used on our DVD sleeve and Magazine advert.
The Killers  


 These images of The Killers show all of the band members as equals, the lead singer is not singled out in any way, their clothing is quite dark, yet casual. For example, the mix of smart shirts and converse, this may also appeal to Starfish.
This other photo that I came across during my research singles out the lead singer completely, opposite to the theme of the photos shown above. The smart yet casual costume still applies. The band members are also shown in a wide open space, which is the preferred theme of our music video. The way in which the members of Starfish will be photographed is completely down to the bands personal preference.


Other Examples


These are some examples of New Found Glory's promotional shots, these also show the same theme of equality and casual costume.

Group meeting

We have had many group meetings over the past few weeks, these include meetings where Kerrin has given out questions answered by the band, as the producer, she has been the only person contacting the band representative, which changes between different members. These meetings have given us opportunity to show each other our progress, and decide on the next step. Although between meetings, we have also kept in contact via email, facebook and text. Communication has been very successful within our group.

Our main concern to begin with was that we hadn't actually met any members of our band, where as all the other groups within our class had met at least one member of their band. We knew that we had to meet someone from our band to understand what it is they actually want from a music video, and to get some general ideas that they might have.

On the Monday 13th, we finally had the chance to meet two members of our band, Steve and Mark came in during one of our Media Studies lessons, this gave us a chance to get to know them and talk about some of our ideas, as well as theirs. This gave us the opportunity to put a name to a face, to a point. We gave them a few filming dates and possible locations, regarding different ideas, they approved most of our ideas, and showed definite interest in the idea of filming in a wide open outdoor space. During this meeting we were also informed of a live performance that band would be doing on the 18th, we expected the invite, hopefully being able to use this as a good time to film the performance section of the music video, and get to meet the other members of the band.

Our meetings have since got longer, and much closer together, as we progress through our project.

Research on the bands musical influences

Our group then assigned 3 of the bands shown on Starfish's website to research in more detail.


The Killers
The Killers are an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, formed in 2001. The band consists of Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, backing vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (drums, percussion).

Seeing as The Killers are an alternative rock band, they draw some of their influences from the style of music of the 1980's.
The band has sold over 6 million albums in the United States, over 5 million albums in the United Kingdom and over 15 million worldwide.

Their music videos mainly consist of the main singer, with some sort of weird twist, the lead singer is often shown is a place that doesn't always relate to the lyrics of the song, making their style of music video very unique.


Katy Perry
Katheryn Elizabeth Brand (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American musician. Born in Santa Barbara, California. Katy grew up listening and singing gospel music at her local church, making Perry a strange influence for a rock band such as Starfish.

She has since become well recognised for having an unconventional style of dress and often combines bold colors and vintage fashion. This unique style is definitely apparent in her music videos, which seems to be a theme when it come to band preference.


New Found Glory
N
ew Found Glory, an American pop punk band from Coral Springs, Florida, formed in 1997. Founding members were lead vocalist Jordan Pundik, guitarists Chad Gilbert and Steve Klein, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Joe Moreno. The current drummer Cyrus Bolooki replaced Moreno after only a handful of shows and the lineup has since remained unchanged. Their music is drawn from influences such as Green Day, to hardcore acts like Hatebreed and Madball. This band are much closer to the style of Starfish. New Found Glory are also recognised for for their energetic live performances.

Where it all began

After finding out my fellow group members, and the band we would be working with, we set about deciding roles, we eventually came to the conclusion of:
  • Kerrin Gilbody - Producer
  • Emily Walker - Director
  • Jamie Cashin - Camera and editor
  • Myself - Designer
We then began to research the band we had been given, Starfish. After researching the band online, and finding their website, we collect a few pieces of information.
The names of the members of the group:
  • Stephan Streater
  • Alan Westwood
  • Mark Roden
  • Alan Thompson
Also finding out the instruments they use, which include Guitar, Drums and Bass guitar. The other information collected from the bands website was the genre of music then tend to play, rock music, and there main musical influences, which include, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Take That, Stereophonics, Greenday and others.