Live Project 1- Poster Lighting

The final thing that we had to do for this poster was to light it for the shots of just the poster. This is only a short post because we got the look we wanted relatively quickly. At first we tried using the rig lights in the studio but eventually decided that it would be much easier to set up and position three red head lights and add filter to them. This is what we did.

This is a very basic lighting plan for what we used to light up the poster, with each circle being the light and the colour being the filter we added to the light. While this is very basic it is still useful on set as it gives a clear indication.

This is what it turned out like when we had lit it up, personally I feel that the blue could have been stronger but on the whole I think that this came out great. We then decided to add roller skates to the picture to show the actors kicking off their skates which we filmed, then I took a still of the skates in place.

All things considered I think this was very well lit up and looked fantastic on screen.

Live Project 1- Poster Photoshop

After we had made the poster from my previous post, but not yet added the stars, I was given this photo to try and tidy up the poster on photoshop in case we wanted to use a still of it on the video.

This was the completed poster without the stars as they were a decision we took later to add them in. The first thing I decided to do with this poster was to make a digital version, I did this simply by colouring in the areas in block colour of what they were on the original.

This is what the digital version came out like, it was very rough but I think that it benefits from block colouring because it makes it more vibrant and also less streaky. From here, if we wanted to incorporate this as a logo I could remove the background to make it transparent so that the image could be easily super imposed onto whatever we wanted.

The new thing I did with the poster was a lot more subtle but also very effective. What I did with this was blur the lettering and the background to remove the creases and streaks but still keeping the look of being hand made. It is unclear at this point whether either of these effects will be used in the final edit but it is of note that they were both done relatively quickly as a showcase and not to be considered the best they can be. If theses were needed in the final edit, it would be done much neater and more time and care would be taken over it.

Live Project 1- Poster design and creation

In the music video theres is a large poster that lays on the floor which has the band name on it (Lost State of Dance), as a result of this poster being in the film, obviously we had to make it, so we did.

First we had to make a single piece of paper big enough for what we wanted so we took some old posters that weren't needed and attached them together then flipped them over so we could paint on the white side.

It just so happens that our lead actor is on the illustration course at out university, this meant that we could tell him what we wanted and he essentially nailed exactly what we wanted when he drew it onto the paper. Then it was just a case of painting onto the paper what had been drawn out.

Apart from the "state" this was the poster finished until we later decided that there was too much empty space and we concluded that there needed to be some stars in the gaps to bring it to life that little bit more.

This was then finished and we just needed to film it. Although we did experiment with photoshopping  the poster to touch it up as well as experimenting with lighting to get the best effect of the poster, these are both things I will post about later.

Live Project 1- Actors.

This is just a short post to show the actors that we have cast for the music video as the 80s girl and modern boy.

This is the girl (Jess) who will be playing the 80s girl, we decided to choose her because she was the most like the vision that we had for how the girl would look, also with her having green hair it made her a bit more vibrant and even more suited to the role.

This is the modern boy we chose to cast (Ryan) as he is very modern in how he dresses so it would be a lot easier for us to dress him in a modern way, also he was extremely comfortable and confident during the audition, this set him head and shoulders above the other auditions.
It is also of note that both of the actors said that they had some experience on roller skates and thus this meant that we could work better with them as there was no need for doubles.

Live Project 1- Costume

As mentioned in previous posts, the music video that we are making is 80s themed with a modern element as well. I have also previously mentioned that this was going to be done by having an 80s girl and a modern boy meeting up. As a result of these two culture clashes we need two distinct clothing styles so the difference between the two is evident on screen. Because of the need for distinction between the two eras on screen I decided to do some research into costume for the two characters and the type of things they could wear.

The Boy
The boy is the modern one of the two, this means it will be substantially easier to dress the actor because in all likelihood they will already have the kind of clothing we are looking for.

One quick google search of modern clothing and you find this image and I think this is a good starting point for what we want him to look like, in particular note the dull colours, nothing neon or bright like it was in the 80s, I think in particular the middle one of these men would be the best for what we are trying to achieve, I think the other two (in particular the left one) are perhaps a touch too smartly dressed.

Looking into more casual wear I found this and think this is more or less exactly the aesthetic we should look for, although the white is a bit bright, it will add to the vibrancy of the overall video when it is lit up but will still look more dull in comparison to the neons of the 80s girl.

 The Girl

With the girl being 80s themed and me being born in the late 90s I had to do a little bit of research into the clothing styles of the time, I knew they were neon and bright but aside from that I had very little knowledge.

I eventually came across this image and thought that this was more or less the image we wanted for the actress, however, her legs were a little bare and also considering that they will be at a roller disco she would need dressing up a little. The best way for us to do this would be neon leg warmers, the most quintessentially 80s piece of clothing ever created. If we were to add this to the costume coupled with some bright coloured roller skates I think that the outfit would be perfect.

Something on the lines of this to just add that extra 80s factor to make the costume perfect and really sell the idea that she is a girl out of her time. The only other thing to think about is her make-up, this will also be 80s themed so as to really push the image, the man will not have any make-up because it wouldn't be normal for a modern man to be wearing make up. The make up that the girl will be wearing will be brightly coloured and it will most likely be the David Bowie lightning bolt, as this is one of the icons of the time and also it is something of a tribute because of his recent passing.

If you are unsure of what this looks like it is the picture above, this should be relatively easy to replicate as we have a make up artist coming along to the shoot who will be able to do this for us and thus make the ultimate 80s girl come to life. 

This is what we eventually put onto the actress as a nod to Bowie but not a copy Although it is clear of our influence there is a lot that is different about our version.

Live Project- Song 3 Idea

This is the third and final song for Lost State of Dance's brief for making them a music video for each of their three new, yet to be released songs. This was the song that (of the three) was hardest to think up a solid concept for although we did come up with a fairly strong idea which we had no problems with pitching to the client.

The song talks about the break up of a boy and  a girl and the struggles involved, because of this the core aspect of our idea for the video for this was the boy following the girl through a maze but never catching up to her. In and amongst all the chasing we will cut in shots of the band playing with each one being filmed individually as well as full band shots.

With regards to the actual maze we were thinking of doing it in the style of maze-like streets which we will manipulate regular streets and turns to appear more like a real maze as this would be substantially easier for us to film. However, we did also consider the idea of using a real maze as one of the crew members owns a couple of drones we could use for aerial views of the maze, however, finding a maze would have been hard on such a small time frame.

One idea we had was to have the band playing at every dead end that they hit in the maze just so that we can put the band into the video in a more imaginative way than cutaways. Another idea we had (which links to the narrative) is that at the end of the maze one of them exits into a countryside and the other into a city or town showing that they are so different and don't belong together. Another idea we had was that they could reach the end and then the girl leaves with one of the band members after we find out that the band was waiting for them at the centre of the maze.

I personally think that this was our weakest of the three ideas that we thought of, but it is still a very strong idea we could put into production relatively easily. Some of these aspects could be used in other videos but most of the ideas for this were specific to this video.

Live Project- Song 2 Idea

This post is to explain the idea we had for the second song (this is the song that the client wanted us to make). This song is much more straight forward and requires much less of a narrative focus and is simply about an encounter between a man and a woman on the dance floor, alright there is more to it than that but thats the angle we presented to the client. So as the song talks about being on a dance floor we wanted to avoid the safety of just having people dancing and instead we decided to instil something that is quintessentially 80s, a roller disco.

We decided upon this as they were one of the key images of the 80s and thus would easily represent what the band is about. In addition to this it gives us a blank canvas for some adventurous visuals that will look fantastic on screen. This backdrop for the video gives us a great platform for neon colouring and bright lights that will give it that feel good 80s ascetic. The client expressed an interest in keeping the 80s girl, modern man theme throughout all the videos so this is something we will incorporate into our video quite easily by dressing the characters appropriately. With regards to making it look 80s the woman underneath is basically what we are looking to dress the 80s people like so that we can be accurate in our portrayal of the era. One idea we had for this video is that the skaters could have paint on their skates and could skate around and create the band logo in the process, however this is something that may be hard to get permission for as many places may be reluctant to let us paint their floor, this may be possible to add later using after effects but it would need some research doing into it before we give it the go ahead.

Live Project- First song Idea

This is a blog post to show and discuss some ideas and inspirations for the first song we were given as part of the brief, there are three and we have been given the second one but we will be working closely with the other groups on the other videos so I feel it would be useful to show my ideas for these videos too. There is very little I can say about the songs themselves as they are yet to be released so I will talk more about themes and ideas.

The first song is a story about a man obsessing over a girl he has seen who he thinks is beautiful, it basically talks about how people don't see what he sees in the sense that she is beautiful and perfect. This is all delivered in the bands 80s style. Given that the band want to acknowledge their 80s themed roots and want something feel good and visually beautiful we came up with the following idea.

Our idea was to show a boy and a girl getting ready in a split screen before going on their respective journeys before meeting up on an open street with the band playing in the middle, this will all be mixed in with cuts to the band playing the song. However, this probably sounds quite uninteresting, well, what makes this idea more interesting and a bit more relevant to the band is that we will have the girl in the story be from the 80s and the man be from present day, this makes the journey of them meeting up like a big metaphor for the band and how they fall perfectly in the middle of the 80s style but in the modern era, which is shown as the two converge together. In and amongst the respective character's journeys we will have them doing similar things but specialised to their eras. So for example they will take selfies but the girl will do it with a polaroid and the man will do it with his phone. Another idea we had is that when she passes by modern technology it transforms into 80s equivalents, the main one we had thought of was televisions, she could pass a store window and the sets on display turn from modern to the old CRT screens. Another idea we had in the interest of having strong visuals was to use neon paint heavily to tie into the 80s theme and also make the video, more striking. We had two ideas for the use of paint.

The first idea was that we can do something similar to the blue man group with the drums and have the paint splashing up onto the wall behind the group, then at the end of the video they could pull a stencil away to reveal the band name left on the wall in bright vibrant colours. This would be fairly easy to do it is just a case of putting powdered paint onto the drums and then filming it, some research into paint types would be needed should the client want this tough. The other idea we had regarding paint was that we could see paint splashing from the feet of the girl as she walks down the street, this would be much harder to orchestrate as it would require some clever cutting or someone to add it in using after effects, which I would be unable to do as I have never used the program.
That was the main idea behind the first song we were given and although it was not chosen we can still perhaps borrow aspects from this idea as the concept we have for song 2 is not yet set in stone.