First Chunk of Filming

The delay on blog-age is due to the harsh reality of UCAS and time consuming planning to be able to film our sequences.


Our first shoot was for the opening scenes of our music video. We roped in a few more of our friends: Rebecca Allen and Anu Vatish to help us, and keep an eye on the camera when we were all on stage. They also kept the music going to make sure we had the timings right and the lip sync in time with the music.

For this part i had to look like a proper lead singer of a rock/metal band. This required no effort on my part as i already have the gothic dresses and accessories in my wardrobe. The difficult part was choosing the right outfit that would look the best and be most convincing, as we tried to make me look similar to the singer Amy Lee in dress sense.

As I explained in an earlier blog, we all had hints to who we are in the dream world, in the band. As I was playing the Cheshire Cat in the dream world I needed cat eyes contact lenses, which proved to be a lot more of a challenge than any other part of the outfit. After i had put them in and my eyes had adjusted to them, we noticed on the camera that they kept twisting to the side instead of being straight up. This was something we dealt with, and everyone was chipping to let me know if the lenses had turned again.

The first part of the song is the extreme close up on my eyes. This for some reason was absolutely hilarious at the time and none of us could keep a straight face. After managing to do it perfectly with Paul behind the camera, we looked over the footage we had as soon as we had finished that shot and realised Paul had cut half of my face off and we had to repeat that part. Luckily we noticed before we had done the rest of the filming and took it to edit.


Paul, as the bassist and Mad Hatter was wearing his normal clothes and a top hat which is made out of laminated black paper and a strip of ribbon around the base. Paul, however brilliant he is, could not 'rock out' for the life of him and has the most footage of him....failing. Eventually, after a few lessons from me, he managed to pull off the few seconds we needed to put into our band sequence without his hat falling off.

Zoe, who is Alice and the drummer, was wearing blue clothes in the shot to imply she was Alice. As she is the one slipping into the dream world we didn’t really think she needed too much of an 'introduction' through the band. We had a few issues with the timing of the drumming in comparison to the music as it would need to fit with the track when we edited.

Zoe like me ended up giggling while we were filming; again overcome by endless takes :). We also had the distraction of dinner time approaching and our belly’s rumbling thankfully this sped the filming up as everyone was getting tired and hungry and we all just wanted to finish.

We decided to edit some of our footage as soon as we could. We used a HD camera to film to try and make it a little more professional and better quality.

In our lessons we use the Apple Macs to edit. The footage from the Camera we used wasnt compatible with the Mac and so we had to find a converter we could use that was free. After various downloads we eventually found one that worked and put the footage onto the Mac.

We realised when we started to edit that the sound from the clips was out of sync. luckily we chose to do a music viddeo and the sound on the footage was not needed. If we chose to make a film opening it would have been very diffficult to overcome this problem and hours of time would have been wasted.

(I'll add pictures as soon as i can the windows computers at school dont let you do anything.)

Lyrics and Lip Syncs

Now that our idea has been completed and the final touches are being added I felt it necessary as the acting lead singer to learn to lip sync professionally.

I found these tips on http://www.ehow.com

1. Pick a good song. This is the key to a quality lip sync that will be popular for years. Choose something well known with lots of feeling. Pick a song with lots of words and stay away from those with long music solos.

2. Learn the words but be flexible. Know exactly what the artist is saying but pay attention to his pronunciation. Mouth what the word sounds like coming out of the artist's mouth rather than the exact word written in the lyrics.

3. Mouth the words while the artist sings them-exactly. Pay attention for backup singers or another member of the band singing. Rest during those parts and stick with lip syncing only the lead vocals.

4. Throw in some good moves. Swaying to the music just won't cut it here. Watch the artist and try to mimic his style. Remember if you're going to mimic you have to be good.

5. Make it your own. Give yourself a distinctive look or show off original dance moves. Something different and funny will be passed along the Internet for years to come.


Read more: How to Lip Sync to Music | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2122416_lip-sync-music.html#ixzz1664wk2lb


Just need to have a go now: These are the full lyrics:

How can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I’ve become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

now that I know what I’m without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life

frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

(Bring me to life)
I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

We feel these fit with our Alice in Wonderland theme as it has a dream feel and as though she is running from herself and needs someone to help her.


Example:

(A bad one) :P

Muse were told to mime to their song and they didn't like this therefore they all swapped instruments ... yet no one seemed to notice... Note: The 'drummer' is in fact the singer Matt Bellemy.

Who's Doing What?

Now we have done all the work that has to be done together such as the story boarding, we decided to allocate roles.

Costumes & props will still be done by all of us as sizes will need to be checked in order to decide if its appropriate to use.

I have been given role of producer.

Zoe is make up.

Paul is roady :P

Album Cover

The song we have chosen is 'Bring Me To Life' by Evanescence. This is off the album Fallen; Its cover is a close up of Amy Lee the lead singer. Amy Lee is one of the main female idols in the Rock/Metal Genre and so just her face is enough to be appealing to the fans of this type of music. The blue tint keeps to the typical view that this type of music is cold or evil as it has an emotionless feel to it.

The dark make-up creates a contrast between the pale skin and contributes to the dark frame of her hair. this all sticks to the conventions of this genre of music. Emphasis on her eyebrow piercing also shows the style sub-cultures that tend to listen to this type of music.

I think our CD cover needs too keep the eerie feel that this one does and keep to the conventions as this is what the audiences want.

Another Evanescence album cover which applies to out chosen theme is 'The Open Door'. This shows Amy Lee at a huge open door which could apply to the Alice In Wonderland story where her size is continuously changed after eating various foods. The image is again tinted slightly blue which makes Amy Lee look pale which is appealing to people who prefer a gothic lifestyle. The patterning on the door itself matches the design of the writing and is Celtic/gothic. The dress Amy Lee is wearing is similar to the more modern versions of gothic victorian dresses.

Ideas For Our Album Cover

We decided to investigate a few ideas into how we could make an effective album cover with a strong theme. One of our ideas consisted of an edited image of us in our costumes which we are using for our video. we thought this may be too easy and investigated further.

My favorite idea was using the original drawings:

I think these pictures show how the original book was in fact, still quite dark and gothic whilst being a children's publication. We thought about using these as a basis for our image worked well and as one of our group does art we decided to have Zoe Lloyd draw the above image and incorporate the cheshire cat in the same style. I f this proves to difficult we were going to take a picture of us in this arrangement and have the picture traced so it is still in the same style as the old drawings.

Review Of Final Product

Permissions And Our Creation

Wind - Up Records is Evanescence's Record label. This means they legally hold the rights to use their music. We sent an email from my email address to ask for permission to use this track, however as of yet we have not had a reply. This is the email I sent:

If we receive a reply, that says we cannot use this song then we will have to find another song to use which will fit with the theme of our video and with the genre we need to use.

Planning the Music Video:

Storyboards

We decided to hand draw our storyboard and scan it in as we feel it is more creative. It also meant we could all contribute easier, whereas with a computer only one person at a time can operate it. This however proved more difficult than originally thought and failed to show up. This was solved by re-tracing the drawings in pen.

They entail quick insights to our music video. Our storyboard is broken into 11 slides and all have details of the shot types.

As a group of creative individuals we all felt it made sense to keep the storyboard simple as to not limit our ideas when filming or if we change our minds at a later date.

As the illustration came out smaller than expected I will add extra description to each block .

1) This will start off with an extreme close up of paul whom is positioning the camera in order to film the 'band practice'. It will purposely look shaky and unprofessional. This is to show no one in our video has the camera as we will all be on stage. Of course, this wont be the case and is more for the viewers benefit.

2) The next screen will be as the music starts, this will be a blank screen an introduction to the video. The effects we have chosen to use are Pixie Dust, Lens Flare and Organic main. These can all be found on iMovie.

3) The first lyrics within the song are: 'How can you see in to my eyes like open doors,' we decided to link these lyrics with the shot and have an extreme close up of my eyes (as I am the cheshire cat I will have cats eyes contacts) while slowly zooming out to the full face and finally the whole stage.

4) The next shot is of Paul rocking out on the bass as the beat drops as she sing 'without a soul'. His action have to be clearly planned as he cannot really play bass so we need to film in ways where the audience cannot see what he is doing. We are going to use a mid shot for this so more focus is one Paul rather than what's happening elsewhere.

5) Zoe is introduced next and will have a pan around the drum kit to show what she is wearing and who she is out of the dream world.

6) This will be the next day and will show Zoe waiting for the others — me and paul-to go to band practice. She falls asleep, bored of waiting, and slips into a dream land.

7) Waking up in the dream land ('wake me up') Zoe goes towards some flowers she sees (This will all be in really creepy shots and with jumping movements). As she sneezes the flowers wither in her hands. It will be shot in fast motion, and will have the typical horror movie jerky movements, as our 'Alice' adjusts to her dream world. This is a parody of the old Disney Alice In Wonderland cartoon where the flowers bully her we decided to let 'Alice' get her revenge — from 8 mins 54 seconds:

8) When Zoe meets me: as the cheshire cat she will reach down to stroke it but as she touches the cheshire it will vanish... As alice continues to walk the cheshire will follow her.

9) At the tea party, The Mad Hatter will offer her tea... Zoe refuses and this is where her dream turns to a nightmare.

10) Each character we seen will get mad a Zoe and so she runs and a chase begins. Cheshire becomes unnatural and becomes similar in appearance to 'Samara Morgan' from the film - 'The Ring' or the creature from 'The Grudge'

11) The closing images will be of Zoe waking up with us around her side this will re-confirm it was a dream for viewers.

Our Idea

The idea is to have a twisted Alice In Wonderland themed video which is in fact a dream. This was my original idea and it was developed by the group to create our final idea. As you can see in the storyboards above the story pans out within a dream which turns into a nightmare. The characters are the band members as different characters then themselves.

According to dream interpretation sites, nightmares of being chased imply stress and fears in the real world are distressing and make you feel like you want to run.

The group feel that unlike film Music Video is an artistic vision of your mind and can make as little sense to viewers as the director wants. Again the difference between film and music video is proven as the imagery in film needs a meaning and symbolism for the viewer to be able to understand what is happening a music video is mainly for enjoyment to accompany a song.

As a group none of us conform to the typical 'normal' stereotype and so feel our work also portrays our personalities and weirdness.

I feel this is fitting as our group and majority of the people in our age group are currently facing the stresses of UCAS and Exams.

A2 Album Analysis

The album art for our created video would need to be fitting with theme we chose of a twisted Alice in Wonderland compared to the Disney version which is much lighter and innocent. We have drawn our ideas from the recent release and success of the new Alice in Wonderland made with Tim Burton who is known for more dark films. which can be observed from the images of the old cartoon version and Tim Burton's version.

The Album we took our song from is called Fallen and is a image

research for music style and video style

To begin with we came up with the idea of a twisted Alice in Wonderland style video. we looked at music videos from the band 'Tool'. theses included:

SCHISM

We liked this one as it was strange and had a real feel although it was completely made up. The meanings of these videos are usually up to the viewer to decide. i think this kind of video is amazing as it's scary and intriguing and the 'creatures' remind me of films like the old 'Clash Of The Titans' and 'Simbad'. This type of creature is also shown in the 'Tool' video: 'Parabola'

At this point we were thinking of using this type of animation with real actors as 'Tool' do in 'Stinkfist':

We also watched the song for the new 'Alice in Wonderland' film by Avril Lavigne called 'Alice':

After this video we decided to add a gothic feel to the typical children's view on Alice In Wonderland. We decided we wanted to appear to be a band who were singing the song in a old style gothic wear and have each of the members with hinters of the alice in wonderland characters e.g. the Mad Hatter who wold be Paul with a top hat. The Alice In Wonderland world will be a dream which is turning into a nightmare.

We started to look at more gothic songs which fit into dream world style lyrics.

Firstly we thought of Evanescence and looked at the video's Lithium, Everybody's Fool, Call Me When Your Sober and Bring Me To Life. We decided to go for Bring Me To Life:

We chose it as it fits with the gothic alice and her dream world.

As we make an appearance in the video as 'the band' we decided we needed a name. To fit with the alice theme we researched the book and chose our name as the first chapter of the book 'Down The Rabbit Hole' as it isn't too obvious yet it still gives the right theme.