Casting the rest of the band

For my ancillary tasks, I knew I needed more band members than just Connor. I have therefore been enquiring around my friends to find other boys willing to be part of Suburban Typo. This is who I have found. 

Jack Cooper

Patrick Cole

Louie Bentley

Making a logo

After we had decided on our band name, I was thinking particularly about our ancillary products and how most bands have a common logo that appears on their website, their merchandising and digipacks. I thought this would be a good idea to incorporate into my coursework so I immediately set out to create a logo of my own. This is what I ended up with:

 

In this logo  I decided to also incorporate the idea from our video of a girl going back in time. This is why there are the lines in the middle: I wanted to make it look like a timeline. I like this because it makes it stand out more than just having the band name written in a specific font but it is still simple and easily transferable to merchandising and such. Also, when I can easily insert this anywhere by making the white background different colours to fit with whatever colour scheme I use or which ever photo I layer it on top of.

Changing our performance idea

Although we had a well established and good idea for our performance, we decided to change it for a number of reasons. Firstly, in order to complete our idea where Connor was singing to the TV, we would have to export our edited eras to DVD and this is quite hard as we haven't finalized the edits on each era yet. Secondly, if we did do this, we would need to plan which words of the lyrics would be sung during each era: another editing risk we did not want to take. Thirdly, we knew we were running out of time and we do not want to complicate things.

Due to these reasons, we decided to change our idea to having Connor walk down a street and sing as if he is looking for her. Our new idea is quick and easy to get done, and still ties into the narrative. We've scheduled this shoot for the Friday of half term in Raynes Park as this is convenient for Connor.

Choosing our band name

Despite the fact it's so late in our project, we have only today decided on a band name!! We have chosen the name 'Suburban Typo' as we feel this could mean that our band are misfits, as 'typo' means mistake. This would mean that our band felt like they did not fit in with the typical perfect suburban lifestyle. This would fit our genre as a lot of indie rock bands present themselves as scruffy and have a particular focus on being independent, which is not at all the suburban lifestyle.

Ideas for our performance scene

Obviously it is now quite late to be filming a performance, but unfortunately due to January exams it was a necessary delay. As soon as our lead singer (Connor) recovers from the flu we plan to get going and film the performance straight away, which can hopefully be done in a day.


The idea for our performance is that we will film Connor in the previously established location of the living room, where he was seen cuddling with the girl. There, he will be on his own, watching the TV. He will change the channel, and then he'll see the girl go back throughout the ages, singing 'If Ya Wanna Come Back' to the TV as he watches.

We like this idea as it's a simple but effective way to have him directly singing at the girl without actually being included in the scenes. Also, as we currently have a lot of narrative footage, it allows us to film his performance and show the eras on the TV simultaneously so that we do not have to shorten our video by much more.

To do this, we have to finish and export our era sequences to DVD, which needs to be playable on a TV. We will then film Connor singing from a variety of angles, singing the whole song so that we can match up the right parts of the sequence to the right parts of the song.

We hope to film this  very soon as we need to get it done ASAP, but for now we're waiting in limbo until Connor recovers.

Album design #2

Another idea I had for my album art design was using double exposure. I wanted to incorporate both the boy and the girl in this design, and to do this I decided to use the girl's scared eye with a picture of the boy inside. As the boy, Connor, is also the main singer for the band this is useful because it will fit with the convention of displaying band members on the album cover. This cover could also be textually analysed, with  the boy being trapped inside the girl to mean that he is always with her no matter where she goes. This is a theme we have presented strongly in our music video, so I like that my album art could reflect that.

Alternatively, I could reverse the roles here. I could make the eye a picture of the boy, and have a photo of the girl visibly trapped inside: as she cannot escape in our music video, it makes sense if this was carried onto the album art. I could also experiment more with the photography that way, by having a photo of the girl miming with her hands against the iris and edge of eye, as if she's actually trying to force her way out but can't.

By doing this mock up I learned how to double expose and change opacities on Photoshop, which is going to be useful for my final design.

Album design #1

After doing some research into the digipaks, I tried to make a mock up of what mine would potentially look like by making some sketches and putting them into a CD case with a title on Photoshop. For this idea, I would dress up each band member (all male) in the female costumes the main character wore in all the different eras. This would be something unusual and abstract, but also use the convention I've found in my analyses of presenting the band members as the face of the album.

Meeting #8

Today we got several things done., the first of which was contacting Costa Coffee in New Malden for permission to film there. We needed this as our second location for the break up scene, and the coffee shop were immediately happy to let us film there. We plan to go this Friday. 

We also kept on storyboarding and creating our shot list as filming was fast approaching and we needed it done beforehand. We filled out a planning sheet for our next few filming dates, and then went to our media technician in order to book our relevant equipment. We have booked a camera, tripod and lights for our first three confirmed filming dates, and plan to book the rest as we go along.

Meeting #7

In today's lesson we got on with several tasks. We went online to look up different costumes, considering the possibility of getting a flapper style dress of eBay for a cheap price, and also considered contacting charity shops to see if we could borrow clothes in return for a small donation.

We also continued with the storyboard, which is close to finished. This was good as our filming begins on the 23rd, and we aim to have the storyboard completely finished before then.

A third thing we did was touch up our blogging: we'd spent so much time discussing our work and planning our shoots, we had ended up getting slightly behind on our posts. As soon as we got the necessary planning discussions of the day done, we ensured that our blogs were up to date, helping each other where necessary.

Shot List/Meeting #5/#6

Today in our meeting, we decided to verbally storyboard: create a shot list. We talked through each scene together, imagining it in our heads so we knew what shots we wanted to take, from what angles, and of what subject. We spend most of our lesson doing this, and plan to continue it on into the next lesson.

As well as our shot list, we also got in contact with Frank B's diner in order to find out the possibility of us using their restaurant to film. After contacting the manager of the diner, we were redirected to the Operations Manager of the entire Bentalls Shopping Centre (where the diner is located), who gave us permission to film there. As he did not want other customers to be disturbed, he also offered us the diner after ours, which is perfect as it means we can fill it up with people in 1960s dress and do near to anything we want without having to worry about disturbing other people. 

We also talked more about the costumes, especially in regard to the diner scene. 

Scene List/Meeting #4

In our group meeting today we wanted to firmly narrow down our list of scenes before storyboarding, so we could book our actors and equipment ASAP. We wrote down the location, the cast needed and the story of each scene so it was clear and concise to us all what we wsere shooting for each era, and who we needed. Our next step now is to draw up a call list and then begin storyboarding. 

We also tried to think about extras in each scene: we decided that we could repeat the same extras in each scene, purely for practicality. We've come up with a list of our friends we can use: Georgia Batemen, Ella Baker, Evie Forte, Poppy Cunningham, Robyn Stuart, and our own group and class members. 

Scenes/Meeting #3

Today when we met, we ran into quite a lot of trouble. Our aim was to begin storyboarding but we didn't get around to this as we disagreed when discussing the scene list. We had now replaced the 40s dance with an air raid scene, and moved the dance scene to the 70s, but we discovered that this would pose a challenge too. On a limited budget, with such a specific need for somewhere containing 70s mise-en-scene we found that throwing a disco would be too hard for the time and money we had. Instead, we started looking at other options.

 

 

We realised after doing some research that there were quite a lot of iconic things happening in the 70s: namely, protests. We decided that instead of filming a disco we could instead film a march, with people protesting down a street filled with houses made in the 1970s. 

Potential Locations and Cast/Meeting #2

When we met today, we tried to get into greater detail about where specifically we would film. We decided that instead of having a dance for the 1940s, we would move the 'dance' to the 70s: to a disco. In order to have a party for the 70s scene and make it look realistic we decided that we should actually throw the party rather than asking people to be extras, as this would eliminate the need for good actors and instead just people that like costume parties. To do this, we would need to hire a hall and in this meeting we began searching up places to hire on a small budget and began emailing them.

While waiting for their replies, we started looking for places for the other scenes. We replaces the dance from the 40s with a scene in an air raid shelter: luckily, my shed is actually an old air raid shelter which we could use. As it is quite nasty inside, we decided we would film an establishing shot of the shelter and then film the scene by candlelight in a dark closet/room, therefore making it seem like the same place. Obviously, I would also try and get rid of all aspects that make the shelter seem modern.

We also decided that for our 50s/60s diner, we would find a restaurant that has kept the theme and ask to film there. After considerable research, we found Frank B's which is fairly close to us all and had a suitable theme. We have also emailed them about asking to shoot there.

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We also started casting for our video. For our male lead, we knew we needed someone who was good at acting, not shy and more of an external person. For this, we chose a friend called Connor Bingham. He is a drama and music student who plays guitar, piano and several other instruments as well as sings. This means that he would be perfect for our music video as he is used to being in front of a computer, handling instruments and singing.

  

 For the female lead, we decided that I would play her. We decided this as it's a lot of shooting work and we couldn't risk someone externally not being committed to the project and flaking out. I also know the male lead the best, which is convenient as it means when we are performing scenes in which we have to be close, there won't be any awkwardness and therefore it should hopefully look quite good. 

Initial Planning/Meeting #1

Today we met and decided to start planning our music video. We'd already come up with an initial pitch, and now it was time to start thinking about who we were going to get to be in it, where we'll film it and what specifically we needed to film. 

To do this we sat down and talked it through; we contacted some of our friends to ask if they'd be interested in starring in our video, and whilst waiting for replies we discussed 'what' and 'where'.  

First we narrowed down the eras: although we would love to do every decade in the 1900s, we are realistic and knew this would not happen. To combat this, we have decided to do every second decade, starting in the 1920s. We also thought we could throw in the 70s if we were having difficulties as it is so iconic.

We had mainly sorted the costume before this meeting, so it was just the setting to go. Influenced by the book and film 'The Great Gatsby', we decided to set the 1920s scene at a small party, as many of the books scenes are set that way. For the war era, the 1940s, we were thinking of having the girl dancing with a boy in war uniform to a dance such as the Lindy Hop as this was all particularly iconic of the time, especially with the damage done by WW2. For the 1960s we thought we could either shoot in a 60s style diner or throw a 60s themed party, but it depends on the budget and availability of certain people.  For the 80s; an aerobics class and finally, a house for present day. 

Our Initial Pitch

We decided to change the idea for our pitch slightly from our original brainstorm as we wanted to do something slightly more complex. The newer version is still a mainly narrative video with a deep storyline involving many different eras. The narrative would instead be centered around a boy and a girl and their relationship. In our story, the two are a couple in modern day, but they break up as the girl wants to search and take some time to 'find herself'. She runs from the boy, and from the relationship, but while trying to move forwards she finds herself moving backwards, through different decades in the 20th century.

Writing our pitch 

To do this, we plan to use one location (e.g; a hall), and dress it up in different ways in order to make the time jump obvious. We could use running through doors as a transition, by using continuity editing to make her run out of the hall, and just enter back into it again, as if the next era was on the other side of the doors. This would help to convey how stuck she is as well  as every time she tries to escape she finds herself even further back in the past.

The various scenes in this hall could include things such as dances, and using the iconic dances of the time - the Lindy Hop, the Macarena etc. This would also enable us to have a band on the stage: therefore including the performance piece of the task. However, we feared this may not be enough so we were considering a green screen to make up the rest. We were going to film the main boy (who is both the character in the relationship and the lead singer of our band) singing in front of a green screen and walking around. We would then put a black and white filter on it before layering it on top of the party image, making him appear ghostly and letting him be omnipresent during all the party scenes, with the change in colour also hinting at how disjointed he is from the main girl.

Obviously, to make this idea work we would need a lot of planning as the props, costumes and other general mise-en-scene is extremely important in order to avoid an amateurish look to our video. We have already begun thinking about costumes, and drew up some sketches of some typical costumes from different eras that we can try and resemble.

We do have one source for our costumes so far: authentic outfits from grandparents etc., but if we want to make this look professional we would probably need many costumes for extras. This would be extremely difficult to do and potentially very expensive, so to remedy this we will ask around all our friends and friends of the family to see if they or their parents have anything we could use.

Song Choice

When we were trying to find a song to do for our music video, we had a lot to think about. First we thought about our genre: we didn't want to do an acoustic song as the slow music wouldn't allow room for much clever editing. Similarly, we didn't want to do a rap song as they have a very specific set of characteristics and it personally wasn't our type of music. Comparing music, we decided on a rock or indie rock band, as we felt this would have an adequate story in the lyrics and also a good beat. We all went through our personal playlists looking for music, but found there to be simply too much so we decided to come up with an idea first and then try and find a song to fit. We had recently had a lesson on intertexuality, and we had all fallen in love with the idea of doing something set in a different era. Our idea grew quickly, and soon we were sure we were going to do a story about a girl not belonging and trying to find her place. We were going to cut from her getting ready in a mirror to her in different parties, different time periods, trying to find where she belonged and failing miserably.

We immediately started searching for songs, but it proved to be rather difficult as it was now too narrowed. Finally we came up with two possibilities, and after studying the lyrics and imagining our idea to each song, we decided on the Vaccines' song 'If Ya Wanna'.