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.

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.

The Songlist

After looking at the type of Music Videos we liked, we got together and drew up a shortlist of songs that we could make our own for. As you can see the list is quite extensive. But we were happy with the fact that we had made a group decision. Influences from each of the members of the group can be seen in the list. It contains music from each member's tastes, and some group favourites.

The full list is:
Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Frank Turner - The Road
The King Blues - Let's Hang the Landlord
The King Blues - I Got Love
Paramore - Brick By Boring Brick
Frank Turner - Photosynthesis
Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Frank Turner - Reasons Not to Be An Idiot
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
Oasis - Some Might Say
Muse - Hysteria
Torn Out - Chasing Lost Nights
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere in the Between
Reel Big Fish - Brown Eyed Girl

Initial Meetings

For our 2009-2010 media coursework our first task was to set up groups and decide on possible songs. Our group was made as Me, Tom Foreman, Jacob Peeling and Jake Clements. In our initial meeting we discussed our ideas and decided on possible songs and made a shortlist, which I will present in the next post.

Also in the meting we decided that we should research music videos individually as a source of inspiration and personal interest. We decided that this would help us expand our knowledge of the medium as a whole, and also the individual genres we were looking at.

Meeting Number: 1

Aims:

- Group Members

- Initial Ideas

- Song List

Outcomes:

-Group members decided

- Initial song list made

For the next meeting:

Everyone will carry out some independent research into existing music videos, and present any findings in the next meeting.