Myspace message to M.I.A

We're a group of students from Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge making a music video for your song Bird Flu. The BBC have approached our college asking to show our videos on BBC 2 but if ours is to be shown we need your permission.

http://www.longroadmedia.com/newsite/

There is a link to the Artist Release Form on this page. Could you please look at it. If you are ok with allowing the BBC to show our video could you please reply to this post with an address so we can send you a physical copy of the form. Alternatively you could print out the form and send it to this address:
13 Friars Place
Littleport
Ely
Cambs
CB6 1LG

Many thanks
Abi, Marc, James & Rob
Long Road Sixth Form College

Pitch in full

We are producing a video for Bird Flu by M.I.A. This song is an high tempo alternative track. Our idea for this video uses green screen to a large extent, this is because previous videos from this artist used green screen and many of the videos that inspired our ideas did too. Also, green screening suits this genre of music. Our idea is to have several layers of green screen that intertwine, weaving through each other to create an effect of complex moving layers. This effect will escalate throughout the video.

Background layers will consist of image such as rubber ducks on water and fridge magnet letters on a plain background. To create other layers stop-motion will be used on objects such as rubber chickens and chicken nuggets. There will also be layers of people: four people dancing (this will open the video) and a 'rave' scene.

Through-out the video person in a chicken costume will chase or be chased by people respectively in medical masks then beaks. Lip-syncing will also be used, being done by several people from different angles. The lip-syncers are not intended to act as the artist herself.

Animatic

Animatic

For our animatic most of the images we were using were put together on photoshop, images for our animatic were mostly assembled from the internet but when making the video we will shoot the backgrounds ourselves. We put our animatic in precise order by using markers on Final Cut Express to pin-point the right moments to change the shot or edit the shots as time went on. Markers were placed in certain places of the track where a dramatic sound (for example the squawking in the background) or vocals occur. We mark this spot on the time line so we may place an image or change the scene at that exact spot. In shots of our animatic we are able to show dance movements in the specific shots by adding motion lines to one or more of our photoshop layers. This is not done in every image but just in some to illustrate the kind of movement we intend to use.

The Pipettes - ABC



Camera work:
This video uses both tripod mounted camera work and hand held camera work. For example the establishing shot of the merry go round uses a tripod but the footage of the girl swinging round the pole is hand held. The mixture of these two techniques is effective because the tripod gives the video a professional feel while the hand held camera work brings a freedom to the video that suits the genre.

Shots are mostly either medium-shots or close-up. Close-ups are used effectively when the singer is lip syncing and also at times on the pick on the strings, giving credibility to the performance aspect.

Performance:
Though the close-ups were affective it was unfortunate that they high-lighted the poor performance aspect of the video. The girl often look uncomfortable in her role and didn't bring any energy to the video. The boy looked comfortable in his smaller role as the guitarist.

Editing:
The parallel editing used in the video suited the genre; the live performance side in particular linked the video with the genre of the song and the fairground side brought fun to the video.

The green screen was used effectively on the performance side, though slight green tints could be seen around the people this is hard to avoid and it was generally well done.

A mirror effect was also used early on in the video which was good because it was quite stylish, however, it did seem out of place. It is also black and white but there is another section of black and white so this was more grounded in the video.

The section of the video were stills are used to spell out ABC and then people appear on the "one, two, three" is wicked, it's interesting and suits the video because it's fun. This bit is well edited because each scene change occurs on a word.

Settings:
Both green screen and the fairground were used through-out the video.

Genre conventions:
The live performance and close-up on lip syncing and guitar playing fit genre conventions for this type of music. They have made their video fun and upbeat which suits the song.

Music Timeline

In our music timeline we went through the track many times looking for the best time to cut from shot to shot. We talked about how our different ideas would fit into the song. Even as we were doing the timeline we came up wth more ideas. As our whole music background is going to be done using a green screen we put the type of background and how long it will will be played on our timeline.

Stop Motion Background

We want to use iStopmotion to make most of our green screen backgrounds. We hope to set the animations up on a horizontal surface, in this way we can use flimsy objects (such as rubber chickens and paper shapes) without difficulty and also catch the movement of rolling objects (such as mini eggs).

We also would like to experiment with adding words and flashing colours, to break up the background and save it from getting boring. This will involve creating pictures on photoshop combining them with the animations.

We have found animations of dancing chickens, it might look rubbish but we're going to try it, just because we can.

We will green screen some of these animations so that they can be layered on top of one another and the live action we will also film.
We will achieve this by using a plain-coloured background and placing the objects over the top. When it comes to editing, we will remove the colour of the background. Wham bam! We're amazing.

Chickens/chicken suit/rubber chickens



(We could not find a chicken suit like the one in this picture so instead had to settle for one that isn't as expensive but which we could hire it for longer giving us more time to film stuff with the chicken suit)



We want to base our blog around chickens because of the song's title ("bird flu"). We also want it to be a very active video because of the song's high tempo. Previous videos by the M.I.A have used green screen and we want to aswell, we want our video to have multiple layers of green screen and hope to achieve this by filming most of our footage in the green screen room. Below is a list of some of the things we would like to use as backgrounds and layers...

Background:

We like the idea of having both static and moving backgrounds, things such as these eggs would make and interesting layer in our video, especially if we change the colour saturations in photoshop and switched between the images...



We want multiple layers that interchange.

rubber ducks (these would be a good, bright visual that would fit with our bird theme)



flashing colours
chicken nuggets
words
patterns
moving chicken
origami birds
fish eye lens for close up lip syncing (possibility)
different perspectives:

The idea of different perspectives is that particularly when lipsyncing we use interesting angles on different layers: this would mean having, for example, a close-up side-on veiw of one person lipsyncing with a medium shot of another while a third was shown from a completely different perspective (maybe from above) while also lipsyncing.

at least 3 different vocalists (at least one female, but we would make it clear that the lipsyncers were not supposed to be the singer herelf such as in the video for "pissing in the wind" by badly drawn boy...)



around 5 layers including background
bright colours
beaks (because of the bird theme) and masks (because it's bird flu) for the ravers



(the mask in this picture is a real health mask where as we would probably use D.I.Y masks)

ravers (we want to have it people heavey because this will help bring energy and suits the song's genre)
4 people dancing (sucha s in Phil Collins' intallation at the tate britain "They shoot horses")- black and white clothes (to offset the colour of the rest of the video)



The artist:



Lyrics

BIG on the underground
What's the point of knocking me down?
Everybody knows
I'm already good on the ground

Most of us stay strong
Shit don't really bound us
Then I go on my own
Making bombs with rubber bands

I have my hard down
So I need a man for romance
Streets are making em hard
So they selfish little roamers
Jumpin' girl to girl
Make us meat like burgers
When I get fat
I'll pop me out some leaders

A protocol to be a Rocawear model?
It didn't really drop that way
My legs hit the hurdle

A protocol to be a rocker on a label?
It didn't really drop that way
Our beats were too evil

But I put away paper for later so I'm stable
A better something better come
So I could get cable
Ghetto pops, food drops
I store them in my stable
I cook em up , pop em down
Eat me it off ya a table

The village got on the phone
Said the street is comin' to town
They wanna check my papers
See what I carry around
Credentials are boring
I burnt them at the burial ground
Don't order me about
I'm an outlaw from the badland

Put away shots for later
So I'm stable
Live in trees chew on feet
Watch lost on cable
Bird flu gonna get you
Made it in my stable
From the crap you drop
On my crop when they pay you.

The lyrics are intersperse whith bird-like noises that we hope to also lipsync.

Music Video Pitch

M.I.A. - Bird-flu
genre: Alternative
www.myspace.com/mia

Ideas:
Chicken suit (yellow)
Rave
Mulitple Lip-synching (close ups)
Fast cuts
Green Screen
Colourful
Rubber Chicken dancing
Escalating

Videos we liked...

The GO! Team - Doing It Right


This video has very simple animation and green screen which we like. The idea of using stop motion to create patterns and animations creates an interesting and exciting back drop. The movement of the camera over the green-screened background makes it appear as though the figures are drifting and shaking.

White Stripes - Button to Button



We like the fragmented, stop-motion style of this video. The roughness of the cuts make it more interesting, there has been no effort to cover up the disjointed editing. It looks real and gritty. <----Good word!

Friendly Fires - On Board


In this video we like the simplistic, home-made-style costumes. Also the kind of surreal dressing-up dance at the end - this is similar to the idea we have about possibly having a "rave" during our video.

The GO! Team - LadyFlash


Here we like the mix of green screen and live performance. The way they use instruments in this video is also interesting, our song is mainly percussion based when it comes to instruments so the idea of simple live performance is useful to us.

Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control


This again is a good example of live action with green screen, the interweaving layers are also good here. From this video we got the inspiration of using many different layers for our video. The use of so many different layers allowed for some great shots, for instance one layer is of a brick wall which slowly dismounts to show another two layers. We also liked the use of odd effects such as the brushing teeth.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E


We really like the animation here; the way the T-shirt designs come to life. We also like the use of words. I would be difficult to create something as complicated and intricate as this but nevertheless we could add adapt the idea of using words form the lyrics as visuals and possibly attempt a less complex version of animation on t-shirts with green screen.

Sister Rosetta - Noisettes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGLYNtqGuyQ (unable to embed)

We like the ripped looking animation/green screen that comes about 42 seconds into this song. It turns quite a bland performance video into something which grabs the viewers attention, increases its pace and gives it an exciteable feel.

GROUP S2-48 MUSIC VIDEO TIMETABLE

3-5 Sept THIS WEEK Get into groups & listen to the CD tracks.
10-14 Sept WEEK 2 Plan pitch & start storyboards.
17-21 Sept WEEK 3 Storyboards & animatic.
24-28 Sept WEEK 4 View animatic / planning & shooting.
1-5 Oct WEEK 5 Shooting.
8-12 Oct WEEK 6 (Shooting) editing & roughcut.
15-19 Oct WEEK 7 Feedback week (directors visit & view roughcuts).
22-26 Oct Half term Cameras available for any re-shoots.
29-2 Nov WEEK 8 Final editing & DEADLINE (Evening editing slots).
WRITING 1 due.
5-9 Nov WEEK 9 Feedback (for writing) & Picture House viewing.
12-16 Nov WEEK 10 WRITING 2 due / 2733 finished.

Planning 40 - Blog / Storyboard / Animatic / Locations / Props / Production design / Organisation

Construction 60 - Filming & Editing

Production Report (3000 words) 40 - Goodwin / Analysis / Examples / Production detail / Feedback & Reflection

Group S2 CD Tracks:

01 Camera Obscura - Suspended From Class
02 Candie Payne - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More
03 Cherry Ghost - Mathematics
04 Flamboyant Bella - Crazy Cool
05 Howling Bells - The Wild
06 Jaymay - Gray Or Blue
07 Johny Panic - I Live For
08 MIA - Bird Flu
09 Optimus Rhyme - Just Forget it
10 Ra Ra Riot - Dying Is fine
11 Self Service - KnockUOut
12 Sia - Sunday
13 Ting Tings - That's not My name
14 The Whip - Frustration