EG2: Bastille - Pompeii

ACT: Bastille
TRACK: Pompeii
YEAR: 2013
DIRECTOR: Jesse John Jenkins
MAIN AUDIENCE: 15-24
LYRICS





Relationship between visuals and lyrics: 

ash covered eyes

There is quite a strong link in this video to the lyrics, the music video mainly focuses around a man who is running away from the eruption  in Pompeii ("Great clouds roll over the hills, bringing darkness from above")  he keeps seeing people with black eyes and he realises  that the ash from the volcano is chasing him. There is also a lot referring to eyes in the song which ties in with the visuals of the ash covered eyes.

Lip syncing

Performance, Narrative and/or concept:
There are no performance elements in the video, however throughout the strong narrative shown there is some lip syncing involved. This fits well with the lyrics as he comes across more emotional and narrative then connects with the lyrics more effectively. 

camera following

Looking/Mode of Address:
Throughout the video the main singer doesn't look directly into the camera lens, but the camera seems to be more following him on his journey. This helps with their being no performance footage as the camera isn't acknowledged.

other brief characters

Star Treatment:
The main character in the music video is the lead singer of the band, Daniel Smith. Any other characters are only breifly shown and aren't any other members of the band. The story revolves around the lead singer of the band and framing and shots are all based around him and his reaction to things he sees and comes across.


Pace:
Throughout the video the lead character is running away, so naturally the pace increases as he is seeing more people with 'ash' eyes that he is afraid of. At the end of the video the pace slows right down when he finished running away and the song is drawing to a close.

ash eyes

FX:
Special effects are mainly used in this video with the creation of the 'ash' eyes. As this is a key element to the narrative it is important that they look realistic and relatively spooky. 

Urban Setting

Locations + Mise-en-scene:
There are a few locations in this videos the main two sets were in LA and Palm Springs. There are multiple shots across the city and they chose to use a more run down urban and dark part of the city at the beginning of the video. This strongly contrasted with the end location on the mountain which is light and very open and  calm. The mise-en-scene such as the graffiti adds to the urban feel along with the run down buildings.

Rural Mountain Setting

Video:

Class Vid - Final Cut

This is the edit that me, Kate, Millie and Ben did.

Timing Sheet

As a class we created a timing sheet. This is a very important document as from this we can work out cast, costumes, props and locations needed for the shoot. It also helps with the eventual editing process as all the timings of each line of lyrics are listed, hopefully making our remake very accurate. To save some time, and to distribute workload, each person in the class was given a certain amount of seconds to work out and write notes on and when this was done all of these were combined to make the final timing sheet. After completing this timing sheet we can now move on to the important call sheet to help us with our final shoot, and the timing sheet will have made this process a lot simpler.



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Steps Involved in Planning

1. Costumes
2. Props
3. Locations/Mise-en-scene
4. Characters
5. Timing Sheet
6. Lyrics Sheet
7. Work out repeated shots
8. Casting
9. Call Sheet (casting, when and where we are going to shoot)

Chosen Pitch Idea

The chosen pitch was One direction One thing. The idea of this pitch is a remake of the original video (2nd Video shown). Compared to all the other pitches, this seemed the most realistic and easiest to recreate. All the locations are easily accessible other than the bus scene, which we are going to come up with a comical alternative. The remake of this is meant to be quite comical and one of the main characters will change throughout the video to help incorporate everyone in the class. 

Pitch Video:




Original Video:

Pitch Feedback

My pitch was Queen 'I want to break free'. Overall, I had quite a positive response to my pitch, but there were some issues that made it less appealing to the group.

Not everyone in the class seemed willing to dress up in clothing similar to the original video. Due to us having to incorporate everyone in the class and their being limited main characters in the video, it would have been difficult to achieve with this issue.

There were also a lot of questions asked about the locations that we could use for this video. As we have limited time and a lot of people in the class, the locations we choose had to be very accessible to the whole group and somewhere we could all go and film. As the video starts in a house, we would have had to have found someone willing to let us film in their house at the very last minute. Another issue may have been costumes. As people may not have these kind of clothes hanging about at home it mat have cost money to purchase this from a charity shop, compared to some other pitches where this wasn't necessary.

Although my pitch had some drawbacks, people did say it was a good idea and would have been very comical to recreate.

Class-Vid Pitch - Queen, I Want to Break Free

The song I have chosen to Pitch is Queen, I Want to Break Free. It's very famous video by an extremely famous band and I this would help add to the comical elements of it as people will recognise the original. My idea is to make a remake of the original video. The original video is meant to comical and mimicking coronation street.

We would have to find some willing volunteers to dress up as girls for the first half, but I think this is manageable as the end result would work so well. For the second half of the video where there is contemporary dance and lifts, this would also be very comical. In the original they are trying to be emotionless which makes it more comical and as all these lifts will be hard for us achieve, we could do more comical alternatives.

The costumes would be very easy to find as one is a school girls outfit and the others are women's clothing and a night gown. All these would very easily accessible. As for location the second half could be shot in any open plan space and for the first section we would need sofas, or a sitting room type environment. For props we would need a hoover and other everyday props which would be easy to find.

Class-Vid Track choice and Idea

The track I have chosen for my Class-Vid pitch is 'I Want to Break Free' By Queen. I chose this track as it is a very famous and comical video, and remake it would be fun and the end result would be amusing. As it is such an iconic song it will be known by the majority of the class, hopefully increasing the chances of my pitch being appealing to them. The second half would require a lot of volunteers or the whole class to help recreate it as a lot of people need to be involved. But if everyone involved is committed to making it as funny as possible and putting themselves out there then it should be a success.

Queen is a British Rock band and this song was written by its bassist John Deacon. The song was featured on the Queen's 1984 album The Works. It was included in most live concerts by the group, in several videos, and in The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

The song is largely known for its music video for which all the band members dressed in women's clothes, a concept proposed by Roger Taylor, which parodied the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. The second part of the video included a composition rehearsed and performed with the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Wayne Eagling. Whereas the parody was acclaimed in the UK, it was considered controversial in the US and banned by MTV and other stations. 

Here is the original video:

Class-Vid Task

The target of the Class-Vid task is to produce a full vid (at least 2.30). The aims of the task are too:

• To consolidate our understanding behind track selection. 
• Further practice in pitching.
• Compete using the pitch.
• Provide editing experimentation and creative expression.
• Provide a sense of scale.
• Deepen familiarity with FCProX.
• Improve planning and organisation.

The track selection and idea is down to us individually, therefore a competitive and impressive pitch and idea is necessary.

Feedback and Reflection of MiniVid

In class my cut of the MiniVid was shown and everybody gave their feedback and constructive criticism of what I could've done to improve it.

Repeat Loop
They told me to start with that the repeat loop at the beginning and throughout was very effective, but there were other places where it could be used and look effective for example the opening shot as he is walking outside. It was also pointed out later in the video that the repeat loop would have been more effective if it had been timed better with the music as there were prominent times in the music that it would have fitted better to. An example of this would be the football repeat loop landing on the drum roll just after.

Layering
Another idea they had which would have worked well was if I had layered into the lenses of the sunglasses Jake was wearing. As they were mirrored sunglasses this would've been easy to do and could've of been a good way of linking the narrative and the lip syncing sections. They also suggested that the opacity levels at the end on the layering need to be changed as the layers didn't stand out enough.

Flashbacks
When storyboarding the video, it would have been a good idea to use some flashbacks. This was pointed out by the class and would've worked well as we didn't have much relation to the lyrics and the narrative.

Low Angles Shots
Throughout the video the main character is meant to look dominant and in control. Therefore, we should have used low angled shots to anchor this.

Jump Cuts
The class said that it would have been effective to use jump cuts on the lip syncing when words were repeated. This would have added extra shot variety and been effective.

Cone Kick
When Jake kicks the cone it has little effect in my cut. To improve this I could have made the whole frame shake which would have anchored his dominance again by making it look like he has the power to do that.

Ending
The end of my video isn't very good. I could have improved it by either giving it a narrative ending or a fade at least. I could have also added more effects to an early section and added it to the end for a rounded ending.

My Reflections
Even though my video could have been a lot better and there is room for a lot of improvement, I was reasonably happy with what I managed to achieve in the short time that we all had. With more time I think I would have recognised a lot more of the flaws that were in the video and could have tried to experiment with more effects and get a better understanding of final cut pro. Even though I do feel I am more knowledgeable with the software I think further tasks such as the ClassVid will help me to extend this.

My MiniVid Final Cut - Stayin Alive by Ozzy Osbourne

Here is my cut of the MiniVid. The track is Stayin Alive By Ozzy Osbourne. I chose to use this 50 second section of the track because it included a good intro and lots of lip syncing opportunities.
Everyone in my group was spread out across the classroom so we could show our own interpretations and ideas of editing without being influenced by their work. Therefore, all of our edits are quite different and have interpreted the track and narrative in different ways. We have all still chosen to do similar things such as layering, which we all thought would work effectively.