'NIN - Metal' Location, Location

To put it simply Bradford is the perfect location for the music video- not only as a former industrial town itself (not in that sense!) but as a town with a clash of different and opposing idea's- the old Victorian style which clashes with the more modern aspects of the town in a whole host of different locations. Then there's the Bolton Wood quarry, where the final 'section' of the music video takes place. And various sections are filmed very close to it.

So here is a shot of the quarry from an angle similar to our closing shots of the main narrative, obviously very high up with a near panoramic view of Bradford, ideal for a closing location, with this it's a case of how we fit everything we want into the frame rather than what we don't want in the frame.

 The location once again from a different angle, as you can see it lends itself to the look desolation and isolation, it looks quite far from locations nearby and generally a wide open space, now for obvious health and safety issues we can't film IN the quarry- which makes the ending problematic somewhat, as the final shots of the main narrative is a shot of the protagonist lying on the floor on the quarry, but luckily we can substitute here as the shot will be a close up/ extreme close up it makes it extremely easy to find an ideal location. 

KM - Group Progress Update

Over the last few days I have been working on a new draft of our magazine advert, I started again with the same background, using the same images, but the layering is going a lot better this time around. Hopefully it should be finished by tomorrow, and then I can ask for feedback/ improvements.

Over the holidays Ben has been doing some more filming for the narrative side of the video, so we should have a new rough cut sample finished over the next few days

Harry has recently started work on the first draft of the digipak, after finishing research into different digipaks, that should be finished hopefully by the end of the week

'NIN - Metal' The Editing Process

example of editing

The editing process on the video is one that's been through one, the sample footage measuring approx. 34 seconds. 

The editing was more  fast paced than before which meant that we had to cut 10 mins of solid footage into around 34 seconds. The pace was very fast which meant that we had some issues with the amount of footage recorded but obviously with more footage we can afford to do some longer takes. The screen of final cut (left) is a neat example of how we created the video footage effect, combined with total desaturation. Also notice the frame around the footage which we dragged out to tighten the framing on some shots where the framing would detract form the image. Overall to get the 34 seconds- the editing must have taken around 7 hours overall to generate the desired effect. Of course to create the sample footage we exaggerated the special effects somewhat so that the more FX side of the video is on display, in the final video we expect the effects to come in somewhat more gradually rather than seemingly random.

'NIN - Metal' - Performance filming

This weekend we will be filming our performance scene in Ilkley, we are thinking about filming up near the cow and calf, using basic equipment (2 guitars, amps, microphone and basic drum-kit) to contrast with the technology based narrative of the video. We have several people in mind, however nothing is final and we're still discussing this.

"NIN - Metal" Feedback from sample footage

The last 3 weeks we have been working hard on producing some sample footage for our video, we currently have 45 seconds of footage that was shot over 4 shooting sessions, two were at school, one by the railway bridge and one down at the industrial estate location.

The sample footage helped us get a better understanding of what our end product can/will look like and what effects looked good, what locations and camera angles were right, and even what wasn't so great.

The first time we showed our work to others was at the schools creative art's evening, this was an evening put on by school showcasing work from the media, drama and music department and was full of creative minds who could offer helpful feedback about our product, we were even lucky enough to have the headteacher view our work which was a great honour.

The feedback we got from creative arts evening:  

• People didn't really know what was going on, there wasnt any anchorage that gave the audience an idea of what was happening in the video and why and what our character was trying to escape from and what relevance did all the shots of Mac's and other miscellaneous objects have to do with this. 

How we will change our product after the feedback:

• We think the main reason people didn't know what was going on was because the footage we showed them was only 45 seconds long which really isn't that long to provide any real anchorage especially with our idea that 'Technology is Bad' it is hard to portray that in such a short clip so we think that we will just have to work on getting more footage and then getting more feedback to see whether with more time the audience got a better understanding of what was going on.

We also showed our work in our Media lesson which is full of young talented minds ready to make their break in the music video world, so is good to get other media students to give their creative opinions on our work.

Feedback we received:

• Include more subliminal messages
• Perhaps get the character to get on the train, this would give us scope to go to new locations
• The fast pace editing was good gave an intense feel to the video
• Good use of effects, thought that the Black and White effect worked well.
• Expand locations to more urban areas such as Leeds and mainly Bradford.

How we plan to adapt to feedback:

• Start location scouting around Leeds and Bradford, we already have one location in mind in Leeds and two of us being born and bred in Bradford have good local knowledge and and a few locations in mind for places in Bradford.
• We need to think about good ways to include our illuminati symbolism 

Feedback from our media teacher:

• The scene when Ben walks backwards should be changed because it gave a comedy feel, which wasn't all what we were wanting.
• Didn't think that Ben was right for the role.

How we are going to change:

• We are going to edit out the backwards walking scene to make sure we have the correct intentions for our video.
• We have started looking for different people to cast for our role instead of Ben.

'Nine Inch Nails - Metal' Sample Filming

Yesterday (5th December) we started the outdoor sample filming in Ilkley, this included some performance (lip syncing) shots mixed in with the narrative of the protagonist being followed/ surveyed. This footage was to get an idea of what the shots would look like, and to spark new ideas for our later filming in Bradford. Today we are going to carry on filming at the bottom of Ilkley before adding this footage to our sample footage back at school, we are hopefully going to have some finished sample footage by the end of the week, that we are going to screen for the rest of the class for feedback and suggestions.

"NIN - Metal" Original Idea

After receiving feedback from our re-pitch on our idea for the music video, we have re-thought a few aspects of what we're going to include, and as a quick outline: Our video is centered around one protagonist, who is living in a dystopian like world, and has been brainwashed by technology, the video goes through the character (who we decided would be a teenage male) trying to break free from the hold that is over him: this is going to be shown through various scenes, such as him smashing a laptop after being shown staring at the screen. We also have decided to use (as mentioned before) a slow zoom shot of a corridor, which we are going to cut to as the video progresses, eventually having the door at the end of the corridor open at the end of the video to signify the protagonist's freedom.