Another Song Change

When we tried to work with the footage we had, the true extent of the difficulties of our first day of filming presented themselves. What we had wasn't nearly enough and the footage we shot was full of errors. The lighting wasn't up to standard and the quality of the footage was poor overall. There was a general feeling of dejection and Jacob and Jake raised the point that perhaps our ideas weren't good enough and suggested another song change. Again, we had allowed ourselves to fall into the trap of a narrative piece and it simply wasn't good enough. The general feel was that we should pick more of an upbeat rock song, and have a purely performance-based video.

After some discussion, we chose "Times Like These" by The Foo Fighters. It is a fast paced song with a good rock feel to it. We felt that it would be suitable for a live performance and we decided to go away and carry out a small bit of research each, and come back and present any ideas we had. However, this needed to be done quickly because, again, time was running short.

I decided to take a closer look at the lyrics, which I had analyzed earlier, but in no real depth. I have also noticed that the lyrics I looked at before had a couple of inaccuracies.

I...I'm a one way motorway

I'm the road that drives away and follows you back home.

I...I'm a street light shining

I'm a white light blinding bright and burning off and on.

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

I...I'm a new day rising

I'm a brand new sky to hang the stars upon tonight.

I...I'm a little divided

Do I stay or run away and leave it all behind?

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

I've found that I really like this song personally and working with it proved a worthy experience. Like I said before, the lyrics suggest an independence, but also an uncertainty. The singer seems to be facing a time of great change in his life and is having trouble deciding where he should go. Despite this sombre tone, the music is very upbeat and I think it would be best if the video was energetic in it's feel. It has a fast-paced drum beat and the main riff running through the song is also played at a high tempo. I had images of a lot of moving shots. The editing should probably be fast paced as well, i.e. quick cuts etc.

Final Planning and Filming

Upon meeting with the group again, I found that the others had similar ideas to me, and that my own personal contributions were well received. The vision for the video was to have an older man, performing the piece, but also, reflecting the message of the song by attempting to be young again. To achieve this we decided to have him performing actions traditionally associated with children. We hoped that this would look comically ludicrous and reflect the vibrant feel of the music. By this point, beginning our filming was becoming a massive priority, so we decided to start as soon as possible. After making our final plans, we agreed to start filming on January 23rd.

Our initial filming was riddled with problems from the very beginning. By leaving it so late, we weren't available to get together to film, with our actor, until 3 o' clock. This meant that we couldn't film any exterior shots, because it would get dark very quickly. So we decided to start filming an interior performance shot at our first location. This location was a cellar used by a friend of ours as a music studio. The room seemed to have the right feel and was available when we wanted to film. However, more problems arose as soon as we arrived. Due to a limited amount of lights and space, it took a long time for us to set up our first shot. What we managed to shoot was fairly good, but we simply didn't have enough time to shoot a suitable quantity of footage. So, we returned to school with what we had, to see if we could do anything with it.

Planning

After finally deciding on a song, we got on with planning. Our first planning meeting was very productive, and our ideas came together well. Everyone had their own individual ideas and there was good contribution all round. However, we did run into several problems. Despite our initial caution, our ideas were largely narrative based. We decided to create a narrative based piece, with supporting performance sections. In themselves these ideas were good. However, we didn't feel they worked together as a whole video.

With this in mind we got together to discuss our options, and unanimously agreed that it would probably be better to change songs. If we stuck with "The Real Damage" we'd be too tempted to create a narrative line or basis to the video. We still thought that Frank Turner would be a good artist to stick with, so after some discussion, we selected our favourite song, "Photosynthesis". I personally thought this was a good choice, because it seemed like a good idea to stick to songs we liked so we still enjoyed working with it.

We agreed to look into the song individually and come back with our ideas. I chose to look at the existing music video for the song

In my opinion, this is a weak music video, especially for the potential that the music has. Although it captures the vibrant feel of the music, the content doesn't really reflect the meaning of the song. I envisioned an adult in an eternal chase of his lost youth, rather than interaction with youth in itself. The song suggests he feels out of touch, and even dislike for the youth of today, so seeing him interact with them didn't really make sense. With this in mind, I decided to present the group with my ideas.

Song Choice and Permission

The time had finally come for our group to choose a song. The general consensus was that Frank Turner would be the most suitable, since we had the most ideas. Our initial choice was the song "The Real Damage". We began our planning for the video straight away. The idea was for a performance-based piece, with a loose narrative backup. We planned for around three settings for live performances, which would form the spine of the video, with the narrative section filling in the remaining time. We felt an exterior setting would be appropriate to the music and general feel of the song. With this in mind, we brainstormed locations that we knew that would be possible. A park in Dartford was deemed suitable, as was a local riverside. For the interior shots we chose a friend's shed and a cellar.
To make the video, we would also need to try and get written permission from the copyright holders of the song. Frank Turner's recording label is the UK-based company "XL Recordings". I used the contact section of their website to email them to ask permission to use the song. However, after two weeks there was still no reply, and we couldn't hold off filming any longer. We decided to begin at the earliest oppurtunity.