Sabbatical with options, Prefuse 73 Feat. Aesop Rock

Feed back from Teacher. Dr. Nick Potmitus!

This is my feed back from my Teacher Nick:

The use of free running was effective, but could have been more. Lyp syncing was good, as fast paced song, good flow. Skate Boarding more skateboarding. I could have also made my own grffiti animation, as this would have given have given me a sense of pride.

Once I had posted my video on Youtube I got some feedback from a Rapper from Florida America named Nephilim Muse real name Danielo Rojas. He had this to say about my music video - Superior editing with the animated graffiti. and feathering in the rapper / performer. Great choice of music and skateboard talent, but the thing that really impressed me was the animated graffiti. Looked real. I would pay to have this guy produce one of my videos.

Green Screen

For the performance part of my video I used a green screen for the first time.

Final Cu

Final Cut.
I used Final Cut for my editing. I became very comftable with using Final Cut during this project even though I have used it before. I advancedin layering and effects.

1) Apple Mac Laptop - The Mac was pretty much the main resource of my project, research, blogging, planning, editing and evaluation. Without the mac my project would probably have been rendered impossible. As the laptop has been at college and at Coleridge I could only use it during lesson so I've had to use the time wisely.

2) HD Camera - This is the secobd time I've have used these HD Cameras, compared to the college cameras these are pretty amazing. The HD cameras are so much more advanced and gave the project a more professional feel.

3) Camera - I used the camera to take pictures of shoot.

4) Microphone - I used this for my voice over.

5) Tripod - Keeping the camera steady while recording.

6) Head Phones - Listening to the music track so lip sync was possible, also to edit the footage so to keep in time with the lipsync.

7) Fire wire Cable - Connecting Cameras to the Mac.

Voice over Prefuse73

Task 1 Cont.

1. My first screen grab from a music video is 'Around the world' by Daft Punk. Rather than how the lyrics relate to the shot, but how the beats in the music relate to how the dancers are dancing.

2. My second screen grab is from the music video 'Rock show' by Blink 182. This is a good shot of how the record company would want the Artist to be represented as the shot is of the band playing to fans and acting in an upbeat way.

3. My third screen grab is from 'Freak on a leash' by Korn. The rock music is complimented by the shots ability to be dark but still have an energetic feel to it.

4. My fourth shot is from the same video as 3. and it features an intertextual reference. In the film Bad Boys 2 it features bullets going through objects just like in this Korn video

5. My fifth shot is from the Blink 182 music video and uses a fish eye lens on the camera which is frequently used on skateboard videos. This use of Camera is effective due to its target audience, Skaters.

6. My sixth shot is from the Korn video and has interesting lighting. Throughout the video a bullet flys through shots. The sot is filmed in a dark room and the walls have bullet holes in which let light seep through revealing the band playing.

7. My seventh shot is from the Daft Punk video. The costumes in the video give good imagery of what the music sounds like as they are lively and colorful.

8. My eighth shot is from blink 182 video. The shot is of the band performing a live performance which is commonly used in music videos as it is a good way to show the band.

9. My last shot is from Daft Punk, this music videos features a concept, a standard live performance and cuts back to a narrative video. Around the world is a good example of this due to the concept being that you see sounds and hear colors.

Task 1

A shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals:
The lyrics in this scene are 'He steps with a double back shuffle' and within the scene the free runner jumps from the building to the concrete block, this links the to the lyrics 'He steps' then he proceeds to do a back flip which can almost be linked to the lyrics 'double back shuffle'.

A shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented:
I think that this scene is the best shot of how to represent my Artist. The way my artist is almost see through with a urban surrounding with graffiti on the walls, this shows a link between his genre Hip-Hop and activities which can be linked.

A shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre:
As my Genre is Hip-hop/IDM I went for a extreme sport and urban mix, so I feel this shot illustrates my music genre as it has the Skateboarders and the Graffiti.

A shot that shows an inter textual reference:
This shot uses both my own work (my artist infront of a green screen) and video footage, the Graffiti, from YouTube which has creative commons.

A shot that demonstrates your use of camera:
This shot shows my use of camera as I set up the shot on a tripod and I tried my best to create an almost symmetrical effect with the skate park and the bushes behind it.

A shot that demonstrates your use of lighting:
This shot shows my use of lighting as my artist is in front of a green screen so I had to make sure the lighting was correct, this means that I need the whole green screen to be lit up so when I came to place something behind my artist the green screen would not be seen.

A shot that demonstrates your use of mise-en-scene:
This shot shows Skaters on top of the skate park, this shows mise-en-scene as they are wearing typical skateboarding fashion, baggy jeans, skate brand t-shirts and hoodies.

Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos:
The first shot shows I have watched other music videos as I have used an interesting effect and the actual footage is eye catching due to the stunt involved.

This second shot shows I have watched other music videos as this image has an interesting background and holds your attention.

Final Cut - Prefuse 73 Feat. Aesop Rock - Sabbatical With Options

Junction Rough Cut Feedback

We all showed our music video rough cut at the Junction on Thursday, I was given this feedback.
The footage outside of the skateboarding and the free running is all very interesting especially the footage which has been edited with special effects, also my performer was worked very well as was very confident but they felt that the footage would be better if it was refilmed outside rather than on a green screen.

Using this feedback if I had more time I would reshoot the performance outside maybe in a more urban setting.

Digipak cont.

I found that this digipak was very interesting duet to the cd being placed in the middle and pictures on both sides. I think that this would work well with my digipak because I intend to use more images than text as my video is very visual due to the effects I have used.

Digipak - Distorture - Revere

Distorture's first release: 'revere', a professional six-panel digipak ep of seven tracks totalling some 35 minutes of dark folk and ambient, noise and industrial song-form

1. Conversation of Scarecrows
2. Limning the Incarnadine
3. Carcosa
4. Eiton Euclarion
5. Remeant
6. Sinecure Saccade
7. Hour of the Spiral Dawning

I really like this digipak due to its design, its very bold with the contrasting red and white.

DigiPak

A Digipak is 4 pages with a CD size template, contains the outer front cover, the outer back cover and the two inside pages. Also contains something extra which is a benefit from buying the actual CD as opposed to downloading online for free. The something extra could be a booklet, a behind the scenes CD or footage, and exclusive interviews with the band perhaps. A digipack’s function is to advertise the CD album, it must have an attractive front cover in order to promote the album and must attract the right customer and age group relevant to the genre of music. The digipack is something extra which adds to the benefit of buying the actual CD, it may also contain some extra footage, interview, DVD or extra for this same benefit.

Green Screen Animation

e

I decided I would use a animation for my green screen. I looked on youtube to find an appropriate clip. I felt that I should use a video with an urban feel, so in a city. I also wanted the video to link to my genre Hip-Hop/IDM so went for Graffiti.

This stop frame animation was perfect as it was creative commons meaning I ca use it as long as I am not making money of it.

Rough cut - Prefuse 73 Aesop Rock - Sabbatical With Options

This is my music video rough cut.

Editing my video

Here is a screenshot of Final Cut and my rough cut.

Process of making a Music Video

Earlier in the year two directors named Jake and Jim talked us through the process of making a Music video.

1. This first step is that a Video Commissioner at a record company puts out track to potential directors/production companies. Unfortunately this is a hard process for a student as not many Video Commissioners would want a student to make their video, so I had to choose a track, which was Prefuse 73.

2. The second step is the Directors 'pitch' for track. This involves ideas and concepts which will be based upon the brief from record company and the track. For my project I came up with a Pitch then read it to my class and teacher.

3. The third step is that the Record company chooses the one they want and allocates a budget; The producer will look after the budget and arrangements of the process. The producer takes a percentage of the budget for his role.

4. The fourth step is the Director of Photography and art Director is called in. The art director oversees the preparation and organisation of the look of video this involves scouting for locations, planning of shoot. In comparison to my music video, I searched for a good skate park which I could film my out door footage.

5. The fifth step and one of the most important is Shooting. My shoot took place over a couple of days as I had outdoor footage and indoor.

6. The sixth step is Off-line edit where an editor assembles all the footage over a period of a few days, the record company and artist may want to see it and suggest changes.

7. The seventh step is the online edit, adding special effects and getting final version ready.

8. The final step is the delivery of finished video to client and play it on tv and/or online.

Student Music Video - 101 Pianos

This student music video has many elements which I want to incorporate in my video, it has a performance part and skating. This is a good video but I don't think there are enough effects and makes it look unprofessional. The use of a mask is effective although and makes it easier to skip the lip syncing, but I don't think it makes it any better.

Last.FM - Aesop Rock

I did the same for Aesop Rock, I typed his name in then found other artists who his musical style is similar to. I found that the Hip-Hop group Atmosphere was very similar, this is not so surprising as they are part of the same record label 'Rhymesayers Entertainment', Atmosphere also feature a lot on my blog. Another Artist who Aesop Rock is similar to is Eyedea and Abilities who I also have a video of on my blog.

Last.FM Prefuse 73

I looked on Last.Fm on which I typed in my artist Prefuse 73, it came up with other artists who they sound like or are similar artists. The first artist shown was Flying Lotus is a hip-hop producer and beat maker, who coincidentally was my first choice of artist to use for my Music video. Another artist Prefuse 73 is linked to is Hudson Mohawke, who started out as a young bedroom producer who has a large interest in Hip-Hop, Hardcore, Techno, Prog, Fusion and Electro.

Model Release Form

This is a picture of my model release form which I will give to my actors for permission to use them in my video.

Light Trail-Skate Park

Skate Video, Night.

In my last post I said I wanted to incorporate night Skating. This is another video filmed on Jesus Green Skate park, but this time filmed at night with flood lights.

This is a Cambridge Skate Boarding video, filmed at Jesus Green Skate Park. My music video will have Skating in and around Cambridge so this video is a good example of what I could film. This video also has some elements of a music video as it involves clips of Cambridge, such as punting on the river. As well as shots during the day I want to involve some night scenes as I could incorporate light trails.

Perfect Strangers by Jin (student assignment)

This is a student made video for the song Perfect Strangers by Jin. It's an all animation video with lyrics.

Apart from the song I am really impressed with the video. The use of images is first class as they relate to

the lyrics and the continuity is constant all the way through the video for example when the lyrics 'I've seen

you at the store' come up a picture of a queue in a shop comes up. The animation also keeps your attention

all the way through even though there isn't a great deal of detail due to the block colours.

Target Audience

The target audience for the track and my video would be between 18 to 25, as these are the ages the genre, Hip-Hop and IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), appeals to. The reason my video would appeal to a mature audience is that it's a concept video with no real story line. The video also involves skateboarding which is said to be an adrenaline ridden sport. The track also has explicit content unsuitable for younger people.

Email for permission to use music track

This is my email to the artist Prefuse 73 to his music track to go with my video.

Skateboarding

During the video there will be some skateboarding as I feel this goes well with the urban atymosphere, there are also some great effects I will be able to mess around with to make my video better. This is a picture I found which shows the effect I want to use, Light Trails.

Aesop Rock - MC

www.myspace.com/aesoprockwins

This is the Myspace page to Aesop Rock.

Prefuse 73 - Producer

www.Prefuse73.com

This is the official website to the songs Producer.

Costume

I want to give the video an urban feel but at the same time keep with nature, so I have decided that my singer will be wearing a hoodie much like this one.

This fits well with some of the lyrics as they talk about how animals will lock down New York.

Green Screen

For the performance part of my video I will be using a green screen so I can have my performer in different settings, moods and atmospheres. A second reason why I'll be using this is that I want to create some footage which makes the background seem to pull away as the figure gets closer to the camera.

Polaroid Effect

In my music video I will be incorporating a stop motion effect mixed with real time, but in some cases I will put a frame around the picture much like a polaroid picture.

Ghost Test - Echo

This is my second attempt at a ghost effect.


I much prefer this attempt I feel it's much less blurry and the people are much more defined but still seem to have ghosts following them.

The way I did this was on Final Cut, I went to Effects, then Video Filter, then to Time and finally Echo.

Ghost Test - Trail

In my video I want an effect in which the singer seems to have a ghost behind him. This is my first attempt at a test shot.



I like this effect but I feel it's a bit too jerky and less like a ghost more of a blur.

The way I did this was on Final Cut, I went to Effects, then Video Filter, then to Time and finally Trail.

Strobe light

Much of the filming within the junction will involve strobe lighting, this will give a much more glitchier effect, for example in the song there is a bit where the singer starts to rant and swear so this will be a good place to use it to give it a more vigorous feel.

Venue

Some of my video will be video inside the junction, the room i will be filming in is a 20x10 meter room.

Pitch

Prefuse 73 Feat. Aesop Rock - Sabbatical with Options

For my video I propose an urban feel with backgrounds of Nature as the first lyrics are 'Are you leaving for the country, You say the City brings you down.' The few shots will be a car drving from the city to the country and then the singer will be stood in a field laughing and fooling around.

After the introduction that will be quickly scrapped and two new elements will come in to play. The first is performance footage, where the singer will stand in front of a background which will gradually pull backwards as he stays in focus, during the performance footage, there will be a mixture of effects such as strobe lighting to give it a more glitchier feel, it will also have a doubled up gost effect.

The performance footage will then be combined with city shots incorporated with skateboarding and performance. For example in a city scape the performer will be stood singing while a skater skates round him. The effect I will put on this is the performer will be live acytion and moving freely while the skater will be stop motion and then have a polaroid frame placed around him.

Prefuse 73 Feat. Aesop Rock

This is the song which I will be using. The video is not the official video for the track but a College motion graphics project using 3D animation integrated with video footage. The track is Prefuse 73 ft. Aesop Rock - Sabbatical With Options.


Even though it's not the official video it still has some amazing elements to it for example the 3D animation which gives it a really urban feel which fits in with the roller blading. I also like the start, the in car shot of the two driving, I think I will use a shot much like this in my video as it fits well with the lyrics.

Felt - Early Mornin' Tony

This video combines a lot of elements which I want to use in my music video. For a start the whole video surrounds a comic book, it involves animation with drawings, and the drawings link back to the lyrics. At the same time there is also live action footage, with both of them combined you can see its extremely effective.

This video is a montage of images which link to the song, it's about the year 1988 and shows pictures from that year. I put this video up to show the simplicity of the video, still images mixed with slight animation. I think using still images could be very effective in my video but it can't be like this video, as it get quite monotonous so would definitely have to mixed with live action footage.

P.O.S. - Purexed

This video incorporates a main idea for my video, the stop motion pictures mixed with free moving footage. I particularly like how occasionally the pictures don't necessarily fit but make an effect much like a scrap book of photos memories and places.

Eyedea and Abilities - Junk

This video incorporates a lot of what I wanted from the other videos below. For example the fast cuts with loud and in your face movements, also incorporated are figures which seem almost ghostly, a scratchy old look with the black lines and dots. I have also found that the screen with in a screen effect can be very well worked. I also think I will incorporate the flickery effect by using a strobe light.

Lucas - Lucas With The Lid Off

This is an excellent music video that aired briefly on MTV in 1994 and soon became largely forgotten. This one was filmed in B&W to produce an old-timey ambience that works very well with the ragtime sound. You should pay close attention to the continuity. The whole video was filmed with a steadycam in one continuous shot in one studio which is an unbelievably difficult task that only someone like Michel Gondry could pull off. As it was one continuous shot the singer had to run from shot to shot with out being seen inbetween.

Atmosphere - You

This is a second video from Atmosphere. This song is a lot more up beat and and the video more complex and much more interesting. The video is

mainly a performance video, Slug on stage with a crowd dancing. The interesting part of the video is the tech-deck as it makes its way around the gig

venue. This makes the video that much better as the idea is simple but with out the skill impossible to pull off.

Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an American Hip Hop group. The members are Rapper Slug (born Sean Daley, September 7, 1972) and DJ/Producer Ant (born Anthony Davis). Active in various forms since 1993, they are one of the most commercially successful and long-lived independent hip hop artists.

Atmosphere are my favorite Hip-Hop group so I have watched many videos of there songs and have nearly all of their albums so they would be a perfect choice.

This is just a simple video from Atmosphere just to show their lyrics and style. Slugs lyrics are always very well thought out and more times than not have a strong message behind them and his songs are always about real life situations rather than the common misconception that Hip-Hop is about Guns and Drugs.

New ideas

My favorite genre of music is Hip-Hop. At the start of the project I wanted to stay clear of it as I felt doing something different might stir up a myriad of individual ideas out side of my comfort zone. But since thinking that my current song wont be very interesting I've started to think that Hip-Hop could be the way to go, especially if I were to choose an upbeat song which would go well with a fast paced video and flickering cut scenes.

Thoughts on my current song

At the moment I feel my song is the perfect length but I feel the song isn't very interesting, the beat and lyrics are quite repetitive so this would effect the final outcome of my video as I don't feel I could come up with enough ideas to fill the song, therefore would be quite monotonous for the viewers.

Flying Lotus Lyrics

Lyrics:
Hey (X4)
Now I can't seem to get it
and in my mind I'm bettin
My times made up, I gotta go
and its alright if you want
to see through your tomorrow,
but right now I gotta go.


if you want to stay then you can
be here with me.
but I can't let go all this love, oh no, so easily

I said if you want to stay then you can
be here with me.
but I can't let go all this love, oh no, so easily

No I can't seem to forget
In my mind Its ready
my times made up, but I'm at home

And its alright if you want
to be who you want to be
but right now, I gotta go.

if you want to stay then you can
be here with me.
but I can't let go all this love, oh no, so easily

I said if you want to stay then you can
be here with me.
but I can't let go all this love, oh no, so easily.

If you want to go babe, you can.
but hear me out.
Oh I can't let it go so easily.
So easily
So easily

(Harmonizing)

No No No
If You want
If you want
So easily
Its alright
Believe me it's alright.

Flying Lotus- Tea Leaf Dancers

This is a possible song which I will use. This is a possible choice as the Artist isn't as well known as other Artists, the song also has lyrics which can be

lip synced.

Progress Report

So Far I have one possible choice of song, I have also got a few ideas for my video, examples of these can be found in the two videos for Jeffrey Lewis - Anxiety Attack both the official and unofficial video. The First video is very flashy and involves a strobe light there are many effects used such as a layering effect. In the second video it is all stop frame animation.

Unofficial Music video to Anxiety Attack

I have put this video on here as it is an unofficial remake of Jeffrey Lewis Anxiety Attack. The video is all stop motion concentrated around a boys head while objects move around him, for example the last the shots where a can of beer slowly fills the glass with out being touched.

Jeffrey Lewis Video

Anxiety Attack - Jeffrey Lewis


I've posted this video due to the effects used, for example the strobe light effects with the almost stop motion. The clips with the people in the lift is also very effective due to the dual imagery as if there were a ghost.

'Monkees' Lip Sync

This is a video me and Joe created to practice lip sync and performance schools which we then edited our selves.


This a screen shot of my time line in Final Cut.

'You Wanna What?' Lip Sync activity

This is a video clip I edited myself of a music video created by Long Road Students some years ago.