Questionnaire Results Analysis

(Click To Enlarge)

Above are the results from our questionnaire, which we handed out to various people of various age and gender. Looking over the results, we can see that the majority of our potential audience are male aged 16 to 21. The preferred music genre of our potential audience is Metal / Rock. This shows that most people we asked would most likely enjoy the track and video, which is a subgenre of Rock, meaning that the rest of the questionnaire will be more useful than before, as their favoured genre is likely to influence how they feel to most music videos. The majority of people we asked like to listen to the track, rather than watch the music video. This shows us that a band performance and lip-synced vocals are essential, as they can be used to highlight key points in the song and emphasise their meaning/impact more. Pretty much all of the people we asked said that the video should be shot in London. This is because of the highly patriotic lyrics. The majority of people also said city scenes are essential to a band of our genre, and luckily, this can be linked with our shots of London. Many people also agreed to putting posterized CGI images of London trademarks such as London buses within our video. The higher preference of narrative over performance also needs to be taken into account when filming.

After Filming: we took into account our questionnaire results and pitches feedback when filming & editing, as it was important that we get just the right amount of band performance, lip-syncing & London shots & CGI in the final cut and placed appropriately so that the video runs smoothly and effectively, resulting in a high quality video that looks professional and suited to its audience.

How The Editing Went

We edited our footage on Matt's Macbook, using Final Cut Express, as we feel this editing software is far more versatile than iMovie or Sony Vegas (which is what I used last year). It took us roughly just over a month to edit the promo video, at around 4-5 hours per week. Matt did that actual editing, as we all as a group decided what parts to cut, what shots to use and where etc. Matt did the typography and I did the posterized images.

I feel the editing went relatively smoothly, only encountering a few hiccups along the way which we managed to iron out, such as wonky footage & starting to run dry on footage towards the final 40 seconds of the video.

The only underlying problem was the expected disagreement between our group of what shots to use and where, and where to cut it etc. but none that ended in a complete fall out within the group thankfully.

Creating the Digipak - Step One

It's important that the Digipak relates to the band and the song, hence why in London, we took photos of London Landmarks and can also get stills from the video to use on the cover. To fit with the typography and posterized images in the video, we thought it would be fitting to use the same idea for the overall theme of the digipak.
First of all though, we have to make a logo that suits the bands style.

Here is a snippet of the band logo I created in Photoshop CS3. The image size is 5000x5000 so that quality won't be an issue on the final Digipak design. The logo is meant to simplistic yet effective, going with the overall posterized feel. Obviously the outline of the man in replace of the I is meant to represent 'Andy' - just a design feature to make the logo more interesting.

I had to obtain a copyright free image and literally 'cut out' the man to give the effect of his presence actually being missing, which was more complex than I anticipated.

The rest of the Cover will feature a photo of the band members, and the song title underneath 'The Way We're Made (Made In England)' in the same font.

How The Filming Went

We filmed the performance part of our video first, spanning 3 days, including the set up and packing away. We filmed the performance in Matt's garage, using a black sheet to cover the door, allowing us to film in a seemingly black room. The sheet wasn't too difficult to set up, and setting up the drum kit & amps was also relatively straightforward. We placed the floodlights behind the amps and the spotlight at the far end of the garage, for the best results in lighting, however at times it was fairly difficult to navigate the camera around the lights while filming without disturbing the footage.
We filmed mainly individual shots first, first of the drummer (Tom) and the bassist (Steven) as Tom wasn't able to perform on the 2nd day and Steven wasn't able to perform on the 3rd day. For the majority of the individual shots, we focused on the instrument and the performer, but made sure if another instrument was visible in the background, that that person was still performing, so the continuity was smooth.
We made sure to film far more than necessary, incase some parts didn't turn out as good when editing, and at times filmed with both cameras from different angles to help even further with continuity. The only other problems we had when filming the performance was the sound; we had to muffle the drums incase of complaints from neighbours.
For the 'narrative' part of the video, i.e. the various shots of London and Kieran singing in London, we had to arrange a day where we were all available to go to London. On the day, we got the train from Peterborough to King's Cross and from there just visited iconic locations throughout London, again taking multiple shots of the same locations, such as Big Ben, Downing Street and the London Eye. Overall this day was far more hectic than the previous 3 filming days, as we had to move very quickly between shooting locations due to our limited time before it got dark. It was also hard filming in some locations because of the congestion caused by pedestrians. The fact that some of the Tube Workers were on strike also made getting around London trickier than it needed to be, but we worked around this.
Overall, our filming went reasonably well, thanks to good planning and storyboarding, just the problems we did encounter was expected lighting issues and general problems with transport.

Blur - Parklife Music Video

[Blur] - Parklife MV from yjchae on Vimeo.

This music video by Blur is of a similar style to what we hope to finish up with - a portrayal of British life and culture, with a very simple narrative. However this video is more of a sarcastic outlook on life, especially with the lyrics.

Filming Plans

As we were filming on a tight budget, We though it would a good idea to try and make the most professional type of shots using simple items found around the house, and other various items obtained online. In the professional music industry, they would use a track dolly to get the smooth pans, These cost in excess of £700, so Matt decided to construct his own dolly.


Matt constructed a makeshift dolly using some basic DIY products. The track is constructed of 32mm PVC pipe and more pipe can be added to the ends to extend the track length. The base is made from the bottom of a wooden cabinet,which has four office chair wheels attached to it. This in turn rests on the two pipes that are parallel to each other, thus creating a smooth camera movement.

Alongside the dolly Matt created, we also purchased two small floodlights off of eBay and we will place these behind the amps in the music video in order to get a good lighting in the master shot. Our friend has also allowed us to borrow his lighting machine which will allow us to get a realistic spotlight shot on various band members without having to re-adjust the equipment or lighting. Finally, we also purchased some large black sheets with which we use to cover the garage walls, giving the appearance that we are performing in a studio, as opposed to a amateurish garage. Luckily, actors and instruments are not an issue, as, between us, we all have the correct instruments and enough people with which to play them.

The cameras we are using are two Panasonic HD Cameras, and we will be filming with both of them in 1920x1080 Resolution, sometimes at the same time, to make editing easier and smoother when creating continuous lip syncing.