Reply from Kid Harpoon

preperation

Genre Conventions

Our artist Kid Harpoon defines himself as lyrical/Alternative. This is not too difficult as many contemporary artists define themselves as this today. Wikipedia defines it as: Alternative (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. The term "alternative" was coined in the 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired bands on independent record label that did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time.
We will create our video with this in mind, which is why we think our mixture of animation and real footage is so effective, we will also be able to follow some of the more conventional and traditional elements of a video such as lots of shots with the artist (or in our case actor) and the images highlighting the unusual lyrics thus promoting the song whist giving the impression of going against commercialism, which this artist and his fans clearly values.

Performance/ Lip sync.

Before choosing our actor we asked him to show us if he would be able to lip-sync convincingly in our video, luckily he was sufficiant and is practising with Caitlin to improve. We are teaching him instead of finding someone who has more skill as he general apearance and natural attitude fits with the character in the song. We practiced our lip syncing with Caitlin and posted it on the blog, so our actor could get more of a feel of his task.

Camera work

whist thinking about our camera work, we decided to look at previous Kid Harpoon videos to see if their was a clear style, and if it would be appropriate for our video, we noticed it used a lot of long still shots, then contrasted them with sudden close ups and broken up with angle changes. we thought the bases of this (the unique contrast) would be appropritat with our video but we decided that a lot more moving shots would 'go' with the the song better, as their are few location changes and a lot of camera movement would give the feeling of being trapped and unable to get out as this song so strongly places empasise on.

Editing

Obviously, when editing caitlin and I will have more of a task because we have to edit in all the animation gabby and lauren will produce, in addition to all the standard footage cutting and lip syncing. We plan to use a veriaty of quick cuts and slow fades depending on the tone of lyrics, if it is a line such as 'whenyou know damn well you will survive' it will have a quick cut to the next shot, however when there's a line like 'its a few years on, and i'm still inside' we'll have a slow fade. we feel this interesting mix will add to the unique look of the video, and not solely rely on the animation for uniquity.

Shooting Schedule

When:
we will have the camera from 3rd - 5th October during this time we will shoot all our real life footage, our actor is avalable thoughout this period and Lauren is able to do alot of the filming with us on the friday night and the rest of the group will complete the remainder on the saturday.

Where:
We will film at Caitlin house and surrounding area including local streets. We will be shooting in these limited areas to reinforce the songs feeling of detachment from society.

What:
Primarily focused in a bedroom, as its a perfect example of the feelings of isolation within the song.

Backup plans:
We have a back up location of daisy's house, which doesn't have everything we wanted but close enough if necessary.

Prop List.

• Baseball bat - Gabby/Daisy
  
• Sketchbook - Loren
  
• Posters - Caitlin
  
• Clock
• Flour
• Book
• Newspaper
• Chair
• Pencil
• Bed
• Window

lip syncing practice

This is our lip syncing practice, we could not use our actor in this due to camera constraints, however we know our actor can mime well, and we have sufficiently practiced our editing so I'm confident we will still be able to make our video to the best of our ability.

Test animation footage

This is our tester animation. In our opinion it was successful, and it allowed us to learn new skills.

• Animation on top
• Footage on bottom
• Effects - Video Filters
• Key - Colour Key
• Select colour using the Pipet
• View - Final
• Tolerance 38
• Edge thin -13
• Edge feather 4
  

A-Ha Take on me music video

We have just found this music video by A-Ha which shows real life and animation which collides and is an inspiration to our video as we wish to have those two things together.

Animatic feedback

• We have looked at another animatic (The Gorillaz) which we have already posted on our blog. We found that it had 27 shots in the first minute compared to our 10 so we have descided to re-vamp our animatic and we feel this will make our music video a lot better and give us a real idea of our shots needed and what we will be creating.
• Loren and Gabby are adding more shots into the animatic which we will post up shortly.
  

Music Video Animatic

This is the first minute of our animatic, when we were creating this we decided that lauren and gabby would draw it, and caitlin and i would upload the images and edit them to the track, this worked well as it played to the groups strengths.

Storyboard Shots

These are the description of each shot of the storyboard:

Shot_1: a tracking shot thoough to the characters bedrood
shot_2: a close up of a hand picking up a pencil
shot_3: a close up of the hand drawing
shot_4: zooming into the artist drawing, over the shoulder
shot_5: a close up of the artist drawing someone lying on a bed, this will then fade into the actual feet of our actor
shot_6: a close up of our actor lying on his bed, taken from his feet this will become a pan over his feet
shot_7: a long shot of the actor laying on the bed, this will zoom in on him
shot_8: an extreme close up of his face
shot_9: a POV shot of the celing
shot_10: a mid shot of the character sitting on his bed
shot_11: a long shot of of the character pacing around his room
shot_12: a close up of his face, looking depressed
shot_13: a panning shot of the whole room
shot_14: a close up shot of drugs of a desk, which will pan across to see him walking past
shot_15: a close up of the back of his head as he stares from the window
shot_16: a close up shot of him staring from the window, thought the window
shot_17: an extreme close up of him rubbing his nose
shot_18: a POV shot of the street below
shot_19: a mid shot of him sitting down though the window
shot_20: a POV shot of the street below
shot_21: a close up though the window of him with his hands pressed against the glass
shot_22: a POV shot of the street below
shot_23: a mid shot of a hedge
shot_24: a high angle shot from under neith a car
shot_25: a long shot of clouds
shot_26: a long shot of an airoplane
shot_27: a mid shot of him by the window
shot_28: a mid shot of the back of him looking from the window
shot_29: a mid shot of him though the window
shot_30: a mid shot of the clock
shot_31: a close up of him looking confused at the clock
shot_32: a mid shot of the clock
shot_33: a close up of him looking angry at the clock
shot_34: a close up of him hitting a book with ihs boot
shot_35: a close up of him looking down
shot_36: a long shot of him picking up the book
shot_37: a mid shot of him flicking though book pages
shot_38: a close up of a blank book
shot_39: a mid shot of him throughing the book over his shoulder
shot_40: a mid shot of book landing on floor
shot_41: a long shot of bedroom
shot_42: a close up of him looking scared
shot_43: an extreme close up of his mouth
shot_44:long shot over shoulder -missiles appear.
shot_45: long low angle - him running from room
shot_46: mid shot character looking down stairs high angle.
shot_47: mid zoom in down stairs.
shot_48: reaction shot-suprise
shot_49: longshot - running from the stairs to the bedroom.
shot_50: close up of his hand closing the door.
shot_51:close up of grabbingthe baseball bat.
shot_52: long shot of him sitting in the chair.
shot_53: mid shot of him holding the baseball bat in chair
shot_54: Extreme close up of him gripping the bat
shot_55: zooming out of him scrunched up on chair
shot_56: close up of comic writing
shot_57: a close up of loren drawing
shot_58: Loren drawing on comic
shot_59: close up of lorens face - fed up
shot_60: loren drawing the comic
shot_61: loren closing sketch book
shot_62: long shot of loren standing up (from behind)
shot_63: loren walking across landing (camera @ bottom of stairs)
shot_64: extreme closeup of loren face
shot_65: loren looks downstairs - high angle.
shot_66: mid angle loren looking angry shaking head.
shot_67: close up of loren pushing door open
shot_68: close up of loren peeking round door
shot_69: scan of room
shot_70: loren looking around room
shot_71: mid shot of him looking surprised
shot_72: close of him peeking around from chair
shot_73: over shoulder from him looking at loren
shot_74: mid shot him standing up from behind chair slowly
shot_75: close up of lorens face
shot_76: over shoulder of loren him looking sad
shot_77: over shoulder him reaching out to her
shot_78: POV loren -don't see him
shot_79: close up - him sad
shot_80: she turns to leave (long shot)
shot_81: long shot of him looking at her as she leaves
shot_82: close up of loren looking sad
shot_83: him fading out
shot_84: loren rubbing drawing out
shot_85: close up of lorens face

Our Animation example

This is an example animation from Loren's previous work!! This animation shows how we are going to animate or sequence with the cartoons characters. The format of the file is GIF, made in Photoshop. Loren is the one working on the animation as she has the program and the skills to complete it. There is no music in this example because all of the music and other effect will be inserted and edited in Final Cut.

We can't download on the blog but here is he link where you can find

http://alatariel-amandil.deviantart.com/art/14-Smile-ANIMATION-51457036

Timeline

0.00-0.09 Instrumental

0.10-0.37 1st verse
Bang, and now I would like to test my neon lights
Aeroplanes have lifted the sun from the sky
here we want to begin with the artist drawing on a sheet of paper, these pictures will run though the video. it will then zoom in to the picture to symbolise that the video is going to be within her art book.

Through net curtains and bay windows, your heroine names
Your crack cocaine’s insane, why did you play that game, big boy at all.
here we will begin our footage of the window and slowly pan towards the actor who is just lying on his bed obviously doing nothing, (we will come back to this image at the end of the video to close it.)

0.38-1.02 Chorus
So come on, my son, use your head,
it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
here our actor will be looking from his window onto a bleak street, with weird images appearing such as a lock-ness body seeping in and out of the tarmac road. we will edit the location to emphasize the bleakness with the saturation effect.

1.03-1.17 2nd verse
ou moisturise me with your rain
here it will being to rain (drawn)

The favours and time I invest in you,
not time enough, when time falls through alone.
here we would have a weird image of a clock. such as, one with no hands or the hands moving faster than they should.

1.18-1.21 Interlude

1.22-1.35 3rd verse
you’re reading books on how to live your life,
When you know damn well you will survive.
here we think it would be effective to have the lyrics appear on the blank pages of a book he has just picked up, he will throw the book over his shoulder and we will see a clip of the book landing face face down with the title of the book being 'survive'.

1.36-1.57 Chorus
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
here well have these lyrics come out of his mouth.

1.58-2.06 4th Verse
I know you are coming up my stairs,
here we will have the actor leave from his bedroom and walk along the corridor and reach the top of the stairs. here he will see a variety of anamated things which will cause himto escape back to his bedroom (eg an octopus arm curling round the banister)
following this Bring it on… he will close the door and stare facing the door with a baseball bat with the lyric's slogan on it.

2.07-2.20 Instrumental

2.21-2.54 5th Verse
It’s a few years on, and I’m still inside
here we'll portray as though time has gone by (by darkinging and relighting the saturation of the room in editing (night and day effect etc)) and he will still be sitting in his chair. still holding the bat but drooping slightly.

I’m petrified of the news headline
he is looking over his shoulder looking at a cartoon news paper with something animated on his desk.

2.55-3.12 Chorus
3.13-3.43 Chorus
So come on, my son, use your head, it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Awoohoo awoohooo awoohoo
here for the closing scene we'll have him looking from the window once more with animated images and 'awoohooo' roughly schetched onto the scenery. he will walk away from the window and go back to lying on his bed just staring at the cieling. slowly the whole image will fade away to white, and cleverly cut so you won't realise the difference to the white of the paper, it will zoom out from the page, revealing the artist blowing rubber dust from the sheet having rubbed out the images, symolising the end of this creation.

Costume Ideas

These are a few ideas of what the character may wear, in the video. This is because it reflects the personality of the character and shares similarities of other Kid Harpoon music videos. The scraggy jeans reflects his 'torn up life' and the t-shirt represents his 'longing and despiration' which is also visualized through the lyrics.

Animatic

Example of an animatic shown by the Gorillaz-Dirty Harry, with the music playing. There are no colours but instead its written inside the frame, just like the non-diagetic sound. The movements are within the drawing shown with arrows in order to have a easier idea on how we filming it. Its hard but convinient YEAHHHH!!!!!


Loren and Gaby are going to draw the animatic and Caitlin and Daisy are putting it together with music and transitions.

Pitch2

Actor(s):

We have chosen a main character for our music video, he is one of Lorens friends. He will be playing the role of Kid Harpoon and after asking many friends he was the most willing person to help out. He was also the best at miming.

Location:

We have selected a location called Bottisham where Caitlin lives, and we are going to film our video around her house and village. It looks the part as it is the most appropriate place and ticks all the boxes (mentioned earlier).

Costumes:

For this we have decided upon contemporary clothing that is scruffy everyday wear. He is going to be a contrast between his dull lifeless costume and the bold colours in the space surrounding him.

Adverts/Film Sequences

1. BECKS BEER ADVERT. This combines animation with real life footage, including an animated and real person. This would be useful as we are considering drawing a companion for our character.

2. NISSAN CAR ADVERT. This inspired us to create an illusion, so our character thinks the image is real, despite it's not. This is relevant as our character is on drugs.

3. BP GARAGE ADVERT. We chose this advert because of the strong contrast between the bold and vibrant colours to the dull grey and blacks. This will be used to contrast the outside world with the character.

4. ULTRAVIOLET TITLE SEQUENCE. We chose this film sequence as it shows non moving imagery, manipulating by camera shots and angles, used to create an effect and to appeal more to the audience.

5. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN TITLE SEQUENCE. We chose this film opening due to the fact of the writing and how it links with the characters movement with in the clip. This is good for us because we wish to use words with our character.

Pitch Feedback

As a group, we presented our pitch to the class and they offered some constructive feedback to help our video:

• it would be improved if we affected things that were in our real life footage, for example the audience willl be able to see a bush from the window, we could affect with anamation to make it seem sinister, like the song.
• look at more inspirational videos such as the car advert which combines the two nicely as well as the becks beer ad '4 steps' which also does this.

we will take this on board when continuing with our project

Caitlin's Location Shots

This is the Stairs in which the octopuses tenticle will creep up.






This is the neighbour hood in which we will show under cars and the sky



This is the room the plot takes place in mostly as it has everything we need in it.



This is the window where everything takes place when he looks out into the neighbourhood.

current video ideas...

at present the group have formed the basic premise of our music video, which we have already mentioned. going into more detail Lauren and i went thought the lyrics depicting ideas for the amimation/footage dynamic. :

Bang, and now I would like to test my neon lights
Aeroplanes have lifted the sun from the sky
here we want to begin with the artist drawing on a sheet of paper, these pictures will run though the video. it will then zoom in to the picture to symbolise that the video is going to be within her art book.

Through net curtains and bay windows, your heroine names
Your crack cocaine’s insane, why did you play that game, big boy at all.
here we will begin our footage of the window and slowly pan towards the actor who is just lying on his bed obvioulsy doing nothing, (we will come back to this image at the end of the video to close it.)

So come on, my son, use your head,
it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
here our actor will be looking from his window onto a bleak street, with weird images appearing such as a lock-ness body seeping in and out of the tarmac road. we will edit the location to emphasize the bleakness with the saturation effect.

You moisturise me with your rain
here it will being to rain (drawn)

The favours and time I invest in you,
not time enough, when time falls through alone.
here we would have a weird image of a clock. such as, one with no hands or the hands moving faster than they should.

You’re reading books on how to live your life,
When you know damn well you will survive.
here we think it would be effective to have the lyrics appear on the blank pages of a book he has just picked up, he will throw the book over his shoulder and we will see a clip of the book landing face face down with the title of the book being 'survive'.

Aaaaaaaaaaaa
here well have these lyrics come out of his mouth.

I know you are coming up my stairs,
here we will have the actor leave from his bedroom and walk along the corridor and reach the top of the stairs. here he will see a variety of anamated things which will cause himto escape back to his bedroom (eg an octopus arm curling round the banister)
following this Bring it on… he will close the door and stare facing the door with a baseball bat with the lyric's slogan on it.

It’s a few years on, and I’m still inside
here we'll portray as though time has gone by (by darkinging and relighting the saturation of the room in editing (night and day effect etc)) and he will still be sitting in his chair. still holding the bat but drooping slightly.

I’m petrified of the news headline
he is looking over his shoulder looking at a cartoon news paper with something animated on his desk.

So come on, my son, use your head, it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Awoohoo awoohooo awoohoo
here for the closing scene we'll have him looking from the window once more with animated images and 'awoohooo' roughly schetched onto the scenery. he will walk away from the window and go back to lying on his bed just staring at the cieling. slowly the whole image will fade away to white, and cleverly cut so you won't realise the difference to the white of the paper, it will zoom out from the page, revealing the artist blowing rubber dust from the sheet having rubbed out the images, symolising the end of this creation.

Pitch

For us we wish to compose a music video for Airplanes and Neon lights by Kid Harpoon.

Objective: To produce a music video with both elements of real life mixed with animation.

Loren - Animatic
Gabby - Make-up/ Costume
Daisy - Editor/ Props
Caitlin - Director

Loren lives in Bishop Stortford & Daisy lives in Brandon so the most appropriate location would be around Cambridge and Newmarket as they are somewhere in the middle.

We need:
An actor(s)
Location
Costumes
Specific Ideas

Lyrics of aeroplanes and neon lights

Bang, and now I would like to test my neon lights
Aeroplanes have lifted the sun from the sky
Through net curtains and bay windows, your heroine names
Your crack cocaine’s insane, why did you play that game, big boy at all.

So come on, my son, use your head,
it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Awoohoo awoohooo awoohoo

You moisturise me with your rain,
wash me with your air its strange
The favours and time I invest in you,
not time enough, when time falls through alone.

I hate my life cos I work to hard,
You hate your’s cos you cant get a job
You’re reading books on how to live your life,
When you know damn well you will survive.

So come on, my son, use your head,
It’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Rat a tat tat tat
Leave and don’t come back

I know you are coming up my stairs,
I’m waiting for you if you find me there,
Bring it on…

It’s a few years on, and I’m still inside,
compiling notes on the world outside.
I’m petrified of the news headlines, of the aeroplanes and neon lights.
I’ll live in here until I die,
I would rather eat myself alive, then be shocked and surprised,
be ostracised when I expose all of your cruel cruel lies.

So come on, my son, use your head, it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Awoohoo awoohooo awoohoo

So come on, my son, use your head, it’s this neighbourhood
Aaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s the neighbourhood
Awoohoo awoohooo awoohoo

Inspirational ideas

Like the band Gorillaz, we have the basic idea to have animation with in the real life footage, because it would have relevance to the lyrics and the theme of the song, in the sense that it would reflect the strange images seen whilst under the influence of drugs.

Another Song by Kid Harpoon

Previous Work called Riverside. We like it as it quite sinister and relates to the lyrics.

Helloo...

This is group 45 with Gabby, Loren, Caitlin and Daisy.

After looking and listening to many tracks chosen by Rick.. we have eventually chosen aeroplanes and neon lights by Kid Harpoon

We are very interested in the song because it is wacky and superficial and many images can be linked with the lyrics to create a unique music video.

We immediately emailed the artist to inform him of our actions.


KID HARPOON KID HARPOON

myspace.com/kidharpoon

Date:
08 Sep 2008, 09:43

Subject:

Music Video

Body:
Hey Kid Harpoon,

This is Caitlin, Gabby, Loren and Daisy from Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. We are media studies students and have chosen your track, aeroplanes and neon lights, to create a music video for our project.

Thought you ought to know that your songs are inspiring us to create this music video. We will send you a link once completed.

Your work is great. Keep it up! :)

Thanks.


We hope to use and share each others skills to create a successful video.

Blogs:
www.bebo.com/kid-harpoon
www.myspace.com/kidharpoon
www.kidharpoon.net
www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=698130267

Welcome to GROUP 45

Welcome people to our BLOG!!!!