Storyboarding Part 1

Before we go and shoot out video we think that producing a video storyboard of what we want to happen in the video would help to outline what types of shots we need and hopefully forewarn us of shots that are out of our reach to obtain. Another objective of the storyboarding process is to get more familiar the application Final Cut Express in preparation for the final piece video editing.

To make a storyboard, we first drew pictures of lots different shots as we heard them in the song (right). Once we thought we had enough, we uploaded the images onto the computer and opened Final Cut. Jamie and Alfie mainly worked on the storyboard as they needed the experience of working with the program more than I although we did have to keep going back to produce more drawings for shots that we hadn't thought of originally.

This post will be used as an easy-to-use guide including links to all of my blog posts. I will list all of my posts along with other posts that compliment or flow together.

The first post of my blog contained the Project Brief. It outlines how I narrowed down the many possible briefs to three of the most likely candidates and how the music video brief seemed to be the most appropriate of the three.

After determining what brief I would be working to I begun to make some initial research into the area of music videos. I begun by conducting research into the Role of Music Videos over time, the History of Music Channels and also Trends in Album Sales to get an overview of the music video situation.

I then began to branch out and develop further into the project itself. I made an In-depth Analysis' on Eminem's Stan to get a good insight into some of the conventions of music videos.

At this point it was time to begin searching for a song for our own music video. We got into a group (I work with Alfie Fraser and Jamie Hodgskin) and begun to Search for Song Candidates.

After Choosing Our Song (lyrics and video can be found here) I did some more research on Editing and Conventions of Music Videos and another video analysis on the alternative rock song 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve so that I had a broader understanding of music videos before going into planning stages.

In order to use our song legally we Sent a Letter to the Copyright Holder. As of yet we haven't had a reply so we are taking that as a 'yes'.

The song that we chose is 'Secrets' by One Republic. In order to begin to plan our music video appropriately it was necessary to do some Research into the Audience of the Song.

After that, we began to plan our music video. We used a website called bubbl.us to create a Brainstorm of Ideas. We also made a mood board to further look into ideas.

We looked at Locations and Settings for the video to take place at and decided that a good setting for our video would be a church. At this stage we begun to Look for Churches that both look the part, and are accessible. The first church to contact us was St Micheal's and all Angels church so we looked around and decided it would make a good setting to film.

Soon we began to start story-boarding so I had a look at ways that some of the Diverse Instruments used in 'Secrets' are shot in music videos. I also made one last video analysis of . At this point I begun to Learn the Basics of Final Cut Pro, however, the group decided that as I would be in charge of much of the ancillary task work someone else should take charge of the final cut work. I taught Jamie what I'd learned and he went on with Alfie to Complete the Story Board.

It was now time to get some filming done. We gathered all of our band members and set a date with the church and went along with all of our equipment on Friday 29th of December to film. Unfortunately on this occasion the person who was supposed to let us into the church never arrived so we couldn't get any footage. This set us back in terms of timings and we were then told that the church was going under construction for the next six months. Luckily, we had arrangements with another church as a back-up so we organised a meet as soon as was possible. This time was a success and we ended with a lot of footage to make a rough cut with.

With the footage at hand we begun work on the rough cut. This was mostly left to Jamie to edit the video together with mine and Alfie's occasional input. At this time I began to work on the digipack photoshop work. I did a research post into logos and styles of bands for their digipaks and then brainstormed some ideas about themes that could be included in the digipak. I came up with a first idea for the digipak cover featuring doves that tie in to the theme of secrets and confessions. The rough cut was finished and we soon got round to collecting feedback on it.

I continued to make different drafts for digipak covers and I experimented with some interesting ideas. At this time we had another shooting session and got the rest of the footage that we needed to finish the final cut. Shortly after finishing the final cut for our main task the final digipak design was finished. I logged the detailed construction notes for the first 2 panels, the 3rd panel and the 4th panel separately. The final digipak can be found here.

Next was the magazine advert. First I did some research and planning into it. The plans that we made were well recieved by those we showed it to and the construction of the adverts kept close to them. The finished adverts were done around the time that we had a feedback session for our final cut.

Lastly to finish for the project were the evaluation questions:
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4

Learning Final Cut

We first planned that I would be involved with the editing of the music video. To this end I began to learn how to use Final Cut Pro. I used a combination of video tutorials and a book called 'Final Cut Express, Video Editing for the Digital Enthusiast' to learn some basic video editing techniques that would be necessary for the completion of the storyboard and eventually, the video itself. I learned how to:

• Insert video clips and audio onto the timeline and move them around
• Insert and manipulate text onto the video
• Insert and manipulate video transitions
• Render the clips

After a while, however, we decided that as I would be in charge of much of the ancillary task work someone else could be working on the editing since we'll be doing both tasks at the same time. I have taught my team mate, Jamie everything that I've learned so that he can take over as chief editor.

Location Progress

We have received an e-mail back from one of the churches we contacted and a spoken reply from another. Both of these are good potential locations that we are looking into in more detail now. The churches are called 'St. Micheal's and all Angels' and 'Stone St. Mary's church'. We are looking around St. Micheal's next Tuesday afternoon and St. Mary's on the following Sunday, after that we will decide if we want to use one (or both) of them and continue to set up filming dates. Below is the first e-mail we received from them and our response.

 

Diverse Instruments

Because of the diverse instruments used in the song, it is important to make sure that we know how to shoot them in a professional way. As there are not too many rock bands that make such use of cellos and violins, much of this research will be from studying One Republic themselves.

The following images are taken from the official video of 'Secrets'. These show good ways of portraying a cello in shot solo and with the rest of the band.

Another band that uses a cello is 'Murder by Death'. These are some shots from one of their videos.

 

For the violin I went back to 'Secrets' and found more screenshots. The violin was much less focused on than the cello in the video and the cuts were shorter.

Location and Setting

Our group has decided that to work best with the style of the song, filming in a church would make for a fitting and unique setting. The song is slower than traditional rock songs and the cello and violin create a smoother sound than guitars that lends itself well to a church setting.

Also, lyrics such as 'Need something that I can confess', 'I'm gonna give all my secrets away' and 'Something to get off my chest' all lend themselves well to a church setting. These lyrics show how the song is about the singer confessing his secretsOur group is thinking of including the confession box from the church in the video to create a greater relationship between the visuals and the lyrics.

These photos are taken of a local church that is a possible candidate for a filming location. We have created an e-mail to send to various churches asking for permission to film which we will send when it is proof-read. I will post a screen-shot of that e-mail when we send it and any replies we get.

We also needed to make sure that the churches we asked would have the correct look for our video (ie We do not want to film in a modern church that doesn't have a holy or grand look about it. Churches made of stone and with stain-glass window(s) are what we are looking for.

There is however a problem with lighting in churches that will need to be adressed since churches are so dimmly lit.