Christopher Sziranyi - My Contributions So Far

Throughout the past 4 months a lot of work has been done and we are now at the point where we can begin recording. I have been a huge motivational factor to the success of the team and have always been there to sort out any technical difficulties the group may encounter.
One of the more important tasks that I have completed so far has been the creation of a questionnaire on surveymonkey asking our potential audience about the song we have chosen. I had to make sure the questions I asked encouraged people to answer in a more detailed way and therefore I did not include many multiple choice questions as these are less useful when finding out qualitative information. I received some minor help from my team in deciding which questions are most suitable.
I then waited until we received a suitable number of survey completions before I analysed the results. This encompassed gathering all of the answers that were given to each question and document it in a general form mentioning any key points that were stated. An example of this could be shown on the question "What kind of elements do you think would relate to the lyrics", as one of the better answers was to show the progression of a person's life from poverty to success. We ended up using this idea.
Finally, I filmed one of the 3 production meetings in which we discuss what we have done so far.
The biggest tasks however, still lies ahead of me as I will be editing the majority if not all of the music video. This will be done on Sony Vegas 10, CINEMA 4D, Adobe After Effects, and Photoshop. A combination of these should ensure a professional looking final cut.

Tyrone Francis-My contribution so far

So far in this project I have put forward many ideas on the production which we are to produce. I came up with ideas for the location and some of the events which are to take place during the video. In terms of production work I have created a story board for the production using http://www.pixton.com/. I did this to ensure that a variety of different medias were used to give the production work more variety. I also included information on the equippment and editing software to be used to produce this music video. The treatment of the music video was also completed by myself. Other tasks which I have completed include assisting Christopher Sziranyi with the questionnaire and reasearch of the target audience as well as recording the 3rd production meeting for the group, keeping the blog up to date with any changes which we have made since the beginning of the production.

Tyrone Francis - 3rd production meeting

Today we talked about the changes with the hobo design and the changes in location that we have made, also we spoke about how we used the questionnaire to gather information and also how we have used pixton to create our storyboard online.

Tyrone Francis - prezzi on 2nd draft of script

http://prezi.com/dtbkfa3yedxe/sum-41-no-reason-shooting-script/

Tyrone Francis-Changes we have discussed to make to the video

Due to use realizing that most groups are planning to film in Southbank we discussed and agreed that it would be better for our video to look more original if we didn’t all have similar scenery.
And so because of this we have decided to film our intro shot in crystal Palace Park, we feel that this idea will also be better for us on a whole as it can link in with the common conception that hobos sleep on park benches.
Another thing we have decided to change is to get rid of the skaters and bikers shot near the end of the video, as we felt this did not link in well with the song and so have come up with the idea to do a short of "flashback" shot of the band enjoying themselves drinking and laughing, we feel this will also be effective as to how it can correspond with the previous shots of people laughing in the park.

Christopher Sziranyi - 2nd production meeting (progress report)

 

This is the second production meeting we have had just giving infomation on what we have completed this week and how evrything is going.

Christopher Sziranyi - Questionnaire Results

The feedback we received from our questionnaire was generally positive though somewhat mixed which tells us that the for our audience the video is what would make the music attractive rather than the music itself, meaning the video must be very high quality and well done.

The majority of the audience asked agreed that it would be best if the attitude of the music video were to be serious, which would be our choice as well. It seems much easier to tell a story with a serious attitude than humorous one and especially as one of the suggestions in another question was to create the video about poverty.

The rest of our questions were not multiple choice as I believe that more detailed information can be gathered from specific questions requiring more detailed answers.

Question 1: What comes to mind when you hear the lyrics of the song?

This question had mixed answers with some of them being rather honest such as “Madness”, and “What the hell is going on?” However, these results are just as important as any other as this information tells us that the video is supposed to explain the lyrics and give meaning to the words to help the audience understand what is going on.

What kind of elements do you think would relate to the lyrics?

This question was answered with detailed thought and many good suggestions were given. The best answers given included a character progressing through life and showing all of the hardships they must pass in order to find happiness, a character choosing their own destiny and even someone doing their hair in a very unusual way to break out of the normalities of life and go against the Marxist views in society.

What kind of editing techniques do you think would make the music video effective?

This question generally received very similar answers with the majority of the people being asked responding with fast paced cuts and many cut away shots as well as black outs, split screens, blurring, fast motion, and even strobe lighting.

Are there any particular ideas that come to mind based on the song?

This question was created to allow the audience to use their creativity and give us some inspiration. Some of the words mentioned in the answers include: destruction, anger, disappointment, society, fire, explosions, break-up, pain, life.  

Christopher Sziranyi - 1st production meeting

So yes this is our first production meeting basically letting everyone know what we have so far completed on the checklist and to fill everyone in on our progress.

Tyrone Francis- Equipment and Software

 For the recording of our Music Video Production we will be using the Sony DCR-72 camera.

This is the tripod which we will be using for the production of this video.

This is Sony Vegas Pro 10, the programme which we will be using to edit the Music Production. We also used this programme for our movie production last year and it worked well.  This programme offers a lot of variety in transitions and effects which can be applied.

Tyrone Francis - Analysis of 3 exsisting products

1) bon jovi - my life:

the first product is the one which gives the most inspiration for the video, due to our video having the theme of the "hobo" running around and metaphorically away form his life the video gives me the main idea.

that is the man running around the town/city to get to the concert.

this is where i came up with the idea for the hobo to get up and start running with what seems no explained purpose.

2) 30 seconds to mars - From Yesterday (video version):

this product aided me in how it gave me two styles in which i want our video to conform to, the first being that the song dose not start straight away but gives the audience a kind of background into the video thus to make them seem more interested.

the second convention that i wish for our video to include is that with how the music cuts out halfway through the song in order to give more detail and allow out of song dialogue to also make the video more interesting.



3) fallout boy - this aint a scene, its an arms race:

this product gave me the idea for at the end to add humor into the video and thus make the film more enjoyable, with this in mind the video gave me the idea to add in at the end (or maybe through the video) either people with masks on or some sort of props of people near the end of the video, this would be when the song finishes it looks to the audience and realize that it was only practice and it was only the band members the whole time. 

Nathan Larkin - 1st draft of script

1) Hobo on ground begging for money
2)Man in suit walks past spitting on him and walks away
3) Hobo stands up kicking box away in rage and starts shoutiong first part of some as song starts and begins running down street
4) camera shots of him from all angels circling him as he starts running
5) ends up at riverside and runs past group of people chatting and enjoying selves
6) close up of people laughing in slow motion and seeing hobo watching them from far away
7) hobo throws hat on floor in anger  and looking around to other places
8) notices bikers and skaters has cuts to monatge of sorts of bikers and skaters performing tricks
9) cuts to guy in suit being shouted at and fired by boss
10) back to hobo running in park wiping forhead and taking off fake wig and beard
11) running up steps taking off big puffy jacket to reveal him in better clothing
12) runs into room with other band members ready waiting for him
13) Song cuts out and band member says "he man what took you so long"?
14) he picks up guitar and starts playing
15) band start playing with 'audiance' being baloons stuck on chairs with faces drawn on them
16) manager walks in telling them they have 5 minutes till the real show starts.

Tyrone Francis- Treatment

Sum 41- No Reason
By Tyrone Francis

The song which are are creating a video for is of the Punk-Rock genre. Punk-Rock videos gernerally involve alot of editing throughout their videos showing a large variety of shot types. The band who made the song which we are creating the video for have created a number of songs of this genre, however our video will be unique to our style, so it will not be like any video produced by this band for any other music video.
The visuals of the music video will not directly match the lyrics word for word or line for line but will instead interpret the overall meaning of the song, mainly focusing on the title 'No Reason'. This is why we have chosen to make the main character in our video a hobo (homeless person), because a hobo has 'No Reason'.

Throughout the song, the lyrics talk about change and taking control of your own destiny so for this reason gradually throughout the video the hobo will change and take control of his own destiny until eventually towards the end of the video he has a purpose. Lyrics such as:
All of us believe
That this is not up to you
The fact of the matter is
That it's up to me
back up this point. At this point in the song is when the hobo will begin to take control of his life. The way that the video will be made will make it seem like the hobo is the one singing the song or as if the lyrics are running through his mind, like the audience can hear his thoughts.

The target audience of this music video would be those who enjoy listening to Punk/Rock music from lower class area, ranging from teenagers to young adults (from 14-35 year olds). For this reason the visuals can not be explicit and no violence can be involved. The reason that the target audience must come from a lower class area is because then they will be able to understand the hobos lifestyle and what he goes through. Not because they will have experienced it but because they will have seen hobos around whereas in an upperclass area they are less likely to understand what the character is going through or have seen a hobo themself. The music is mainly directed at males (although a few females may take interest). We found this out from our user survey results.

As our video is of our character progressing through life the mise-en-scene will be constantly changing. There will be a variety of different locations used such as the streets of South Norwood and Croydon, all the way to Southbank where we shall film some skateboarders. We may also use Wandle Park skate area. Each of these locations are quite urban and 'ghetto' which is the type of location you would expect a hobo to originate from. As he progresses and changes into a new person the mise-en-scene will change with him until eventually he ends up on the stage taking the spot as lead singer of the band. The editing will be key for our video as this is a video for a rock/punk song and this genre generally has quite unorthodox editing in its videos. For editing we will use the programme Sony Vegas Pro. The reason for this is because this programme proved successful for a previous assignment and there is alot of flexibility with the editing on this programme such as with the transitions, effects and so forth.

Nathan Larkin - Mood Board

Mood board

Ideas for clothing:

Band

  

From looking at different images of the band, I can determine that they seem to dress in casual clothing; this will be easy for us to film this way due to how we don’t need any specific clothing to dress actors playing the band members to look.

Business men:

For the business men costumes, all we really need is suits. This will be easy to do due to how we all wear suits for school so this will cause no problem.

Hobo:

For the hobo design, we were thinking of having a big puffy jacket and having a fake bear and wig in order to show how he has been homeless.

This should be ok as all we need is the wig and fake beard as I already have a big puffy jacket which would be suitable.



For the hobo design, we were thinking of having a big puffy jacket and having a fake bear and wig in order to show how he has been homeless.

This should be ok as all we need is the wig and fake beard as I already have a big puffy jacket which would be suitable.

Ideas for location:

Skaters and bikers –

For the video we would need the hobo to run past all the things me “wishes he could do in life” and so we could go down to south bank in London and ask the skaters and bikers there as I doubt they would say no.

  

High street –

Due to us needing to start out with the hobo in the street, I thought it would be better for him to be in a packed high street with no-one paying any attention to him.