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