elephant costume

after not being successful in finding an elephant costume in a fancy dress shop we decided to create our own.

we bought grey painting overalls from ebay.
we then bought a mask from a joke shop.

then to cover hands and feet we bought grey shoes and grey gloves.

Location research!

the first part of our music video is shot on a bus. it will be shot on a bus that looks just like the one above and it will be a citi 7 so that we can travel to town for our second location whilst also filming and therefore "killing two birds with one stone".

for the majority of the rest of the video we will be shooting in cambridge town. below are some pictures of the different locations we may use. we are not entirely sure where we are goin to shoot every shot because we don't not what will be happening in town on the day we shoot so we will go with the flow.





there is also a small possibility we will include some footage from a cage the elephant gig. if we do so the gig will be held at the junction. below ar some pictures of inside the venue.

who are cage the elephant?

Cage the Elephant is a rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. Their single "Ain't no rest for the wicked" reached number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. The band released their eponymous debut album, Cage The Elephant, on 23 June 2008. The album obtained favorable reviews, which praised its delivery of powerful rock. Cage the Elephant increased their fanbase after appearing as a support act on tour with The Pigeon Detectives in early 2008.

animal video

this is a video that includes animal costumes. we took inspiration from it as they made the video very fun so we hope to have the elephant dancing and what not making it fun just like this video.

Shot list

opening shot = medium shot of elephant on bus. (music not play. bus noises)

close up of elephant putting head phones on.

close up of elephants ipod and see the elephant turn the song on. as the elephant presses play the music begins.

back to a close up of the elephant wearing headphones but this time it will be bobbing his head in time to the music.

long shot of the elephant standing up.

medium shot from behind the elephant as it walks off the bus. camera follows the elephant.

long shot of the bus as it stops.

medium shot of the doors opening and the elephant stepping off.

long shot of the elephant walking off into town.

medium shot of the elephant dancing around a pole.

long shot of the elephant jumping in the air showing that he is happy.

target audience

cage the elephant are good friends with the bands the wombats and foals. therefore, their target audience will be similar which means that they aim their music at teenagers and people in theor early 20s or so.

group incentive!

together as a group we decided that it would be a great idea to take it in turns to bring in sweeties for each other.
this gives us the incentive to come to each lesson to see what sweeties we get to eat!

team bonding!

we thought it would be a great idea to take photos together to make us grow closer as a group. we are very happy the outcome and think they are just beautiful!!

lyrics from the band

we once again e-mailed the band. we asked for the lyrics to the second verse so that we could write the lyrics down on big white boards for the elephant to drop in time with the music. they replied with the lyrics very quickly and offered any more help that we might need :)

nice band indeeed.

Harry's Music Video Analysis

The video is indie rock and shows a performance by the band, which is typical of the genre.

The only relationship between lyrics and the video is the lip-syncing which happens for most of the video.

The visuals and the video match loosely, it cuts on the beat and different animations come on the screen when the is a new verse, etc.

There are some close ups of the singer but not excessive, as they are not a completely mainstream band and are on and indie label, where the need for a star image is less then with major labels.

There is no voyeurism or intertextual.

michelle's homework

Some of the characteristics of a pop/indie video that are used in this music video are; guitars being played, drums being banged, skinny jeans and exagerated dancing.

there are no relationship between the lyrics and the visual as the visual stays in the same room and does not move whereas the lyrics talk about the city.

the drums are banging, guitars playing and band members singing completely in time with the music.

the vocalist moves closer to the camera when he is singing. therefore, people will recognize his face as the record company would want them too.

there are no use of frames inside a frame. the camra position and setting stays the same.

no intertextual reference.

Chris's homework

This is a video from the same band which gave us a good idea of the genre and tempo of the music that cage the elephant would play.
I will use Goodwins five point frame to analyse this video.

1. This video has an old school american feel which relates very well to the type of music. It is fairly clear that this music is form the indie genre. The video has scenes of the American desert giving it a very simple visual atmosphere. The costumes of the band fit the genre of the music in order to create an effective dynamic between all factors in the the video.Members of the band wear clothes that are quite smart and well fitted. They do not wear baggy clothing showing they take care in their appearance. This is shown by smart shitrs with top buttons fastened. This kind of fashion is typical of the indie genre. The picture below shows the main characters costume.


2.There is a clear link between the lyrics and the visual straight from the start. The first line is "i was walking down the street". At this point the main character is walking at the side of a long road. It then goes onto to talk about "a pretty little thing" which is then illustrated by an attractive woman looking at our main character. This can be related to my fifth point about voyeurism within the video. From this point the lyrics do not have a relationship with the visuals. This may be due to the fact that at this point the chorus is being played. This would mean they would have to repeat part of the video with for the chorus.

3.As i said in my first point, there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. The genre of the music is well mirrored in the visuals. In a way the music amplifies the effectiveness of the visuals.

4.Being a small band, cage the elephant don't have a record label, but with anything they have moulded into the role well and developed the original conventions. Obviously with he help of a music video director. They have found things that they think work well in a video and occasionally have a reoccurance throughhout their work. Due to the fact that cage the elephant do not have a record label they had some limitations to what they could do in their video. Instead of flying to Arizona and filming in the desert they created a good atmosphere within in the video using footage previously shot and pictures they may have found online or elsewhere.

5.In this video one the main focal points in a projector screen in the backgroung playing a variety of scenes. Later on in the video they performers find themselves in the places that are presented on the screen.

Homework

HOMEWORK:
Do an individual analysis of a music video that is influential to your idea.

Use Goodwin's five points as a frame work.

Tag it with your name.

Final Animatic

this is the animatic we made using our storyboards to plan out what we want our shots to look like when we film the music video. we also added in some transitions to make it more exciting and keep the audience entertained.
once we had cut all our shots o the length we wanted so that they fitted in time with the music we then added the song that we are creating this music video for in. once this was done we used the voice over tool on finalcut to add in our own sound effects such as duck noises and bus noises.
we are very pleased with the out come of our animatic and look foward to filming it now :)

Camera Allocation - Teacher Post

Make sure you discuss and plan your filming times now. You can start filming next week, assuming you have returned your signed camera loan letter.
Cameras can be used in your usual class blocks (just for that hour and a half), in addition groups can book out either one weekend (Fri 16.10 - Mon 9am) or two overnights during the week (excluding Friday night, for example Tuesday 16.10 to Thursday 9am).
There are around 60 music video groups and nowhere near 60 cameras! Book your camera slot as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Inspiration

We are going to do a section of the video with boards containing the lyrics of the song like in Bob Dylan's video - while wearing an elephant costume it will be impossible to lip-sync, this is therefore, the perfect way around that problem, that still allows for a connection between the video and the lyrics.

Teacher Feedback

Guys your blog looks very good and contains most of the key things needed at this stage. It's great that you too the initiative to contact the band and I'm glad they replied.
Your ideas are solid, make sure you include some images to illustrate the overall mise en scene you are trying to create. Also blog a link to the Bob Dylan music video you talked about in your pitch, analyse it thoroughly using Goodwin as you will be able to use that analysis in your first piece of writing.
Keep up the good work.

story board plan.

INTRODUCTION = 0 - 21 seconds.

opening shot = elephant sitting on a bus. crossed arms. medium shot. 2 seconds.

elephant listening to ipod on the bus. long/medium shot. 2 seconds.

closeup shot of the ipod screen - "cage the elephant - soil to the sun" is playing. 5 seconds (longer because the audience need to read what is on the screen)

long shot = elephant standing up to get off the bus. 3 seconds.

medium shot = camera behind elephant following it as it get's off the bus. (3 seconds)

long shot = elephant stepping off the bus (2 seconds)

closeup = elephant with thumbs up. NOTE: do elephants have thumbs?

FIRST VERSE = 21 - 43 seconds

elephant walks off into town, camera follows him. 4 seconds.

big struts around town (he owns the place) = 3 seconds

nice elephant picking up litter and putting it in the bin = 4 seconds

swing round a pole = 3 seconds.

heel click all happy and jolly = 4 seconds.

sharing his peanuts with the ducks = 5 seconds.

BRIDGE = 43 - 51 seconds

elephant holding sun and moon.. moves the sun down and the moon up. medium shot. 5 seconds

close up of the elephant laughing = 3 seconds












CHORUS 51 - 1.09 = the elephant turn nasty because the sun is down and he runs around dancing causing trouble and having a lot of fun but BAD fun.

time line of shots.

introduction - where's the elephant gone? show location, set the FUN mood.

first verse - WE FIND THE ELEPHANT! it's face jumps into the screen in sync with the first word.

bridge - perhaps the same thing every time as this part of the song is repeated three times throughout. the elephant holding sun and moon and acting out the words.

chorus - elephant dancing, causing trouble, at gig perhaps? having a good time!

second verse - elephant holding lyric boards and dropping them in sync.

bridge - same as the first bridge, perhaps a little altered.

chorus - elephant dancing, causing trouble, at gig perhaps? having a good time! in different location?

instrumental - peoples reactions to the elephant.

repeated words - people with signs saying "cage the elephant!"
IDEAIDEAIDEAIDEA!!!! we shoot footage of when people protesting against the elephant then place it into the back of a news room so that it looks like a live report. using green screen perhaps or a previous newsreport.

bridge = same as before.. sad elepant?

chorus + fasing guitar = sad elephant doesn't want to dance. shown behind bars.

timeline of song

introduction = 0 - 21 seconds

first chorus = 21 - 43 seconds

bridge = 43 - 51 seconds

chorus = 51 - 1.09 seconds

instrumental = 1.09 - 1.15 seconds

second chorus = 1.15 - 1.30 seconds

bridge = 1.30 - 1.44 seconds

chorus = 1.44 - 2.02 seconds

instrumental = 2.02 - 2.17 seconds

repeated words = 2.17 - 2.32 seconds

bridge = 2.32 - 2.46 seconds

chorus + fading guitar at end = 2.46 - 3.20

did we win the song war?

yes we did! our pitch was better then the other groups so we now have the song that we wanted to make a music video for! :D :D :D

presenting our pitch.

our presentation to the class of our pitch went quite well. no one seemed to have anything majorly negative to say about our idea and we seemed to have nearly everything sorted about what we would need.
there was another group in the class that were pitching for the same song. however, we felt that we should win the song over them as our idea is based completely around the band and their song and to change our idea to a new song would mean a whole new idea being former. where as their idea could be altered to fit a new song very easily.
one of the thing that we did take note of from the feedback we received was that we would need to break up the story of the elephant running through town with some other cut shots of a band/the band playing music.

the band love us!

i (Michelle) took it upon myself to e-mail the band via their myspace and ask them for the lyrics to their song as all members f the group have been unable to find them anywhere. I thought that i should take full advantage of the possibility that they might reply i would ask them if they had any ideas about what they would want the music video to be like if they were making it themselves.

and.. HURRAH! the band replied!

they said that they will be happy to help us with anything and will do what we need when they have returned from New York in 2 days.
therefore, we will continue planning our own ideas untill they return but when they do, and they tell us their ideas, we may combine both together to form a SUPER PLAN.

woop! :D

Our pitch...

This is our idea to make the music video for cage the elephants song "soil to the sun."

Our first thoughts of this song was that its a mix between indie rock and old school american rock. So our first ideas originated from a cage the elephant video. We would put a video performance of the band on and have a projection of old school american rock artists in the background. This though was a bit vague so we decided to turn our attention to some other aspects of the band.
The name!!!

We (Floyd and Michelle) thought we could have an idea based on the name of the band. We would dress one of us in a fancy dress elephant costume and film it causing havoc around town. this leads to public distress and causes them to stage protests with banners (cage the elephant.) The elephant continues to cause havoc and in the end the final shot is of the elephant and a cage dropping on it from above.

In consideration for potential problems in our project... we thought that because of the costume, lip syncing would be an issue. Too counteract this we would get the person dressed up to hold up cards showing the lyrics on in the correct time to the track. Another issue could be how to cause havoc around town without causing major disturbances, we need to make more consideration about this before shooting but we have some ideas about how we could be cautious in where we could film and how we could do this. So that the havoc we cause isnt sustainable etc...


x

Pitch

written summary-
First of all we shall summarise what we think of the song; the song is one of the most upbeat of the list which interested us. We feel we can transfer the upbeat nature and general feel of the track into our music video. Would achieve this by using fast cuts when we edit our footage. Most of our scenes will move with the beat of the song to create a good flow and relationship between the sound and visuals.
We are also interested in the old school american style of the song. This triggered some in depth ideas for our video. There is also a touch of indie music in the song and we will hopefully integrate this into our project.
We will talk about the performers, props, locations and targets within our ideas.
our first idea was to have something similar to the Apple Ipod advert with performers silhouettes with very bright background colours. this would be acheived by using a green roomand then changing the colour of the background.

BIG NEWS! new member has joined the group. MICHELLE!
she has also bought a new idea with her...

someone is dressed up as an elephant and runs around town causing havock. we then film peoples reactions and what the elephant does. this leads to people protesting against the elephant with boards that say "cage the elephant". the elepahnt is then filmed behind bars as the end shot.
however, the costume will restrict our ability to lip sync. therefore we came up with the idea that the elephant can hold up boards and drop them in time to the music so that they match.

TEACHER POST - What your pitch must include

All groups must produce and present a pitch as an integral part of the planning stage. Your pitch is a proposal for your music video to the record company thinking of hiring you:
It must include:

* A clear written summary of the content/key idea for the video (at least 500 words). The summary should include a reference to performers, locations, props, target audience for the video, reference to research conducted on the band, genre of the band and the song, relationship between the music and the visuals, relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, if the video will conform to or oppose the generic conventions of videos within that genre of music

* 2-4 (embedded) actual music videos which you think are similar to yours or that contain something that has influenced your idea (plus analysis, use Goodwin’s framework for analysing music videos)

* 2 (embedded) student videos which you think are similar (plus analysis)

* 4-6 Images which indicate location choices, overall mise en scene, costumes, props


If there is more than one group pitching for the same song, ensure you have a back-up choice and also try to make your pitch memorable.

pitch brainstorm- cage the elephant- soil to the sun

The music we have chosen is a mix between indie rock and old school american rock.

Ideas -

A similar style video to the ipod adverts in the sense that we would silhouette the performer(s) if possible.

The video would have to be able to suit the groove in the song.

sharper cuts

we could incorporate the american feel of the video - its sounds like a road trip song.

Look at the lyrics and see whether we can create ideas from these... as inspiration.

Tribute to old school american music.

By looking at one of cage the elephants videos, we have the idea to have a big screen projection of old american rock legends with our own performance in the foreground. (yet to think of something for our own performance)

Welcome to GROUP 02