Album ideas inspired by sirens

These are our primary sources that we are going to use on our CD ocver. This is the original version. Once Ronnie had drawn this picture, Ronnie took a photo of it on her phone, and then added different effects. We have chosen to draw this picture because it follows our research on Sirens that we have done earlier on. The next steps are to put the images on the iMac, so that we can use the photoshop to edit it to perfection that suits a real life CD cover. We may also use this image on our website too.

Above I took the photo we found and put an effect on it as well as cut the bottom part off as it think that this part of the picture shows the band is pretty and they are good sirens.

Above I hand drew the pictures using the picture we found and then painted them and went over the finer details in a black pen to make them stand out. I took inspiration from the cartoon Ariel. 

Ronnie did the three pictrues above.

This is an initial idea for the title of teh CD cover. Similarly to the picture of the siren, Ronnie hand drawn this first and then transported it onto Photoshop.

Whilst on the photoshop, Ronnie decided that she did not want to have the paper background on the CD cover and thus, she used the "eraser tool" and erased all the background, untill she was left with no paper. The writing is now 'not as neat', but decided to keep it like this because it carries a mysterious look, which goes well with the theme of sirens. Ronnie added a bit of colour to the siren and left the 'reflected siren' black and white. This is becasueshe  believed that the black and white looked most effective and scary, whereas she chose warm, welcoming colours for the siren above. She chose this contrast to emphasize on the duplicity of sirens.

Recent emails

This is a screen shot of an email conversation between us and one of the band members as we contacted her to find out more information about the meaning behind their band name.

Sirens in films

Sirens in films are portrayed differently depending on the film. In Pirates of the Caribbean they are represented in a way were they are evil though they are beautiful apart from one who is good.

In Peter Pan the 2003 movie they are also seen as evil and not very beautiful.

 http://youtu.be/DA_UubjXWi0

 

 And in Ariel they are portrayed as kind creatures who hide in the sea.

 

 

And in Aquamarine they are portrayed as good creatures as well.  

 

 

We researched Sirens in films as it is the best way to see how they are seen differently. It helps us to see the good and the bad of Sirens, or mermaids as they are known these days. We are going to use this research to help us create a album cover which will appeal to the audience whilst staying with the disjuncture film.  

Sirens

In Greek mythology, Sirens were very dangerous but beautiful creatures, portrayed as femma fatales (mysterious and seductive woman) who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.













When the Sirens were given the name of their own, they were considered the daughters of the river god Achelous. He was the patron deity of the "'silver-swirling' Achelous River, which is actually the largest river of Greece.
 



However, the Roman wrote linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys. This God was hidden in the dangerous depts of the sea.

Basic Information

Grouping	Mythological
Similar creatures	Harpy Mermaid/Merman Undine
Mythology	Greek
Habitat	Seagirt meadow

We researched sirens because it links with the name of the band and so we thought of using something like a picture of a siren for the album cover. It doesnt fit the genre but it links with the name and also carrys on our disjuncture them. Also the actual idea of sirens having two sides to themselves makes us think that the song we are using has two sides to it.

Filming day plan

6th of November - Performance and town scene
  -  Tabby and Ronnie on the stage performing and a town scene with Ronnie, Tabby and Laura going through town and looking at shops.

8th of November - Couples scene at house and the woods and field scene
- Pick Ronnie up at 9
- 9.30 at Laura's
- Start at 10
-Woods for filming in morning till 12 ish
-Laura's house for pics in afternoon

Final storyboard

These pictures are of our new storyboard. You can see that we have changed the order of some of the shots as well as adding or taking out some shots. We changed our storyboard due to the fact that we improved our shot list becuase we thought this order made more sense and looked better than the other one.   

Ending idea

An idea which will link in with the theme of the video, freedom. There is going to be a shot of a firework explosion and it will be placed at the end of the video as Laura walks out of the concert onto a field, then Laura will look up and fireworks will appear in the shot. After the spark have fallen, the shot will fade and end. When the spark do fall it represents calmness and peace in her life since he has finally gone.

Starburst of emotions?

As Ian McEwan would say in his novel "On Chesil Beach", "The word was a starburst in the night sky", exploring the theme of freedom and release.

We have decided that we want to put this 'burst' into our music video too, by using fireworks at the end of the productions. This will represent, similarly, a woman that has been through so much in life and she got to the point of 'bursting out' her emotions and the falling sparks after the explosion of the firework could represent calmness and peace.

This is how Katy Perry has done this.Katy Perry's video is a great example of expressing yourself and being your own person not someone your not.   

The video below is showing our ideas with the fireworks exploding and also the sparks falling.

Final shot list

Start

• Long shot of the two performers on stage setting up with their guitars. This will set the scene for the performance and give an idea of genre.
• From the long shot, pan around to the side of them. We will show the audience half way through panning fully - mid shot.
• Close- up of Tabby and Ronnie (hands on guitars and faces)
• Performers point of view shot of the audience - Actors (looking down from stage)
• We were think about getting an audience to watch and to get a shot of them scream showing that they are enjoying themselves and can't wait for Sound of the Sirens to begin playing.
• High angle shot from the feet - guitar then zooms into the picture which will be on the guitar.
• From the last picture of the performers - it slowly zooms out to mid shot (and we are going to put an effect in it to show the transition between and performance to the narrative and showing both performers).
• Burst effect of pictures of couples in their house.
• The two characters are going to act like a couple but the man does something that annoys the women off and she storm off - The camera zooms to mid shot of shouting at each other.
• But before she leaves the room she look back at him like to say 'im done with you'.
• There is going to be a long shot for when the camera follows the female actor upstairs into her bedroom.
• Before she enters the room, she takes a breath, places her hand on the door handle (close-up) and step in.

• A mid shot (panning) a girl in a random field with different clothes (dress and sandals)
• The camera will then slowly zooms out as she looks around and smiles with a sigh of relief

The above is going to be very quick stop motion.

• The music will begin as soon as she is in the field and the shot will go to performers playing and singing the first line of the song.
• Goes back to long shot of actor running through the field, spinning and laughing.
• Goes to performers on 'I only went out last night...' shot of one performers then to both then to the other as well as shots of playing the guitars.
• Back to actor going into woods then out where sees friends (the two performer).
• Shots of actor having fun with her friends, laughing while having a drink.
• Flash backs (pictures and videos) of times with her boyfriend.
• Goes through the town which links to the park.
• Different types of shots of their performers playing/singing.
• Actor goes back to house.
• As she goes through door it goes she return to the concert on her own knowing it was only a memory.
• She will have 'The End' on her lips (smiling)
• Fireworks at the end - Point of view shot.

Rough shot list and Narrative and Performance placements and storyboard

This is a screen shot of the lyrics. It shows where we are going to have the narrative and the performance but this may change.

Shot list (red writing is sound and blue is pictures and black is video)

Start
- Long shot of 2 performers on stage setting up the guitars.
- Close up of performers hand/faces.
- Only audience screaming.
- Pan from one performer to the other then zoom in on pic that is on the guitar and goes to pictures.
- From that picture it slowly zooms out to mid shot.
- The faces start to look at each other and get angry.
- Zooms to mid shot of shouting at each other.
- Then long shot of following female actor up the stairs and into bedroom to take a breath then walking out door.
Middle
- mid pan shot of girl in field, with different clothes on, and slowly zooms out as she looks around and smiles.
- Music starts and shot goes to performers playing and singing the first line.
- Goes back to long shot of actor running through the field, spinning and laughing.
- Goes to performers on 'I only went out...' shot of one performers then to both then to the other as well as shots of playing the guitars.
- Back to actor going into woods then out where sees friends.
- Goes through town looking in shops, flash backs of times with her boyfriend.
- Shots of performers.
- Shots of actor having fun with her friends, laughing while having a drink.
End
- Actor goes back to house.
- Shots of performers.
- As she goes through door it goes back to pictures and shots of her looking around then smiling and camera zooms in on her mouth which has 'THE END' written on it and the video finishes.
- People partying in the audience for the performers they have black shirts on with the spray paint and writing on.  

Storyboard

Above is our rough storyboard. It is only rough as I created it from the rough shot list our group decided on and then we went through the shot list adding and changing parts to it to improve our video. As soon as we went through the shot list in detail as a group we developed the storyboard after to make sure that we knew what to film when we went out to film. 

Our main idea!

 These scans are of the brain storms of what we are doing in our music video. 

Tests

The door scene from pictures to film

This video is of pictures that we took. It is an example of stop motion and is one of the things we are going to be using in our video. 

This video is a test of the picture to video effect which we are going to use in our video.

These pictures are from Ronnie's phone.

We have done these range of shots to see which would work the best and from which angles.
Next, we are going to do some try out videos to do a run through of what we are going to do. They will be a  range of videos that will be taken with 3 different cameras.  Ronnie's  camera, with the 'burst' effect, creating lots of shots within the space of seconds, Shannon's camera that has also done a 'burst' effect and the school camera that we used for the videoing side. The video will be used when the actor goes through the door. This is because we want to show the two different concepts between the two worlds that we are trying to portray. This goes with our idea of the Narnia concept of two worlds.   

Editing analysis for ideas

Hollywood undead

 

 

 

Hollywood Undead is an American rap rock band from Los Angeles, California. They released their debut album, Swan Songs, on September 2, 2008, and their live CD/DVD Desperate Measures, on November 10, 2009. Their second studio album, American Tragedy, was released April 5, 2011. All of the band members use pseudonyms and wear their own unique mask, most of which are based on the common hockey goaltender design. The band members currently consist of Charlie Scene, Da Kurlzz, Danny, Funny Man, J-Dog, and Johnny 3 Tears. The band has sold over 2 million records in the United States alone, and about 3 million records worldwide. Their third studio album, titled Notes from the Underground, was released on January 8, 2013.

 

Hollywood Undead in 2013, from left to right: "Funny Man, Charlie Scene, J-Dog, Danny, Da Kurlzz & Johnny 3 Tears"

Masks
Each member has their own unique style of mask, of which have been upgraded from album to album, these are the masks the band have used up to today. Some masks have a meaning to them whilst others are just for looks.

• Johnny 3 Tears: The number 3 represents his previous band known as '3 Tears', whilst the butterfly is a reference to the book 'Paradise Lost'.
• Funny Man: His mask recently refers to the Mexican Lucha Libre, as a sign that he is Mexican related.
• Danny: His mask bared the Christian cross, showing that he is of Christian faith or belief.

Names Each member has their own band name, each with a reason:

• J-Dog: From his initials 'Jorel Decker'.
• Johnny 3 Tears: Johnny being a name he likes, and 3 Tears was the band he was in before Hollywood Undead.
• Charlie Scene: A mix up with Charlie Sheen in order to cause confusion, and Charlie Sheen admitted to being a big fan.
• Funny Man: Meant to be ironic. As Charlie Scene explained in the Desperate Measures interviews, Alvarez was given the name because "he was so un-funny, it was funny"
• Da Kurlzz: Due to his curly hair.
• Danny: His literal name.
• Deuce: Shortened from 'Tha Producer', he was the bands producer.
• Shady Jeff: His real name is Jeff

 

(The first video is the one I am talking about)
I looked at this video for ideas about our editing, ignoring the fact that it is a different genre. In the video the editing is very fast to match the beat but also the lyrics. There is a new different shot on each word or every few. It is a very good exmaple of what we need to consider for the editing style in our video.

Technology

This is a prezi that Ronnie did about what we are using for our music video in terms of technology.

Actors

Two female performers - Tabby and Ronnie
Female for main acting role - Laura 
Male for the boyfriend role - Chris
(Extras if needed)

Laura is almost 18 and Chris is aged 18. This is ideal because the girls in the actual band "Sound of The Sirens" are all looking young and fresh, staying faithful to the genre and the conventions. 
When we chose our actors we took into account how they would appeal to our target audience but also how they represent the folk genre. The look each one of them has are the right age to appeal to our target audience and also their look is right for our genre.  
Below is a prezi on the actors which Ronnie did.


In the end we didn't use Tabby as one of the performers due to time managment problems. So we changed our storyline to Laura being the performer, that she wrote the song and the narrative is what she is singing about. Even with this change it still keeps our disjuncture theme but also it flows much more easily. Each of the actors are the kind of the age that you would see in a folk music video as they are young and still have their lives ahead of them. This is what we wanted to capture in our video.  

Locations

This a map of one of our locations. Its called fox woods, which is located just outside of Bourne. We chose this as it is easiest for us to get to but also it is a good place to shoot. And below are Pictures of another location called Shillingthorpe park near Deeping.    

 We looked at these locations as they are close. Even though they are close by they still look good. We will visit each one and then decide which one to use. They both go with our ideas and they also go with the folk music genre. 

 

We decided to choose these types of locations as you would can sometimes find in folk music videos. We also thought that these types will also keep to our theme of disjuncture as we dont want to do a typical folk music video as it is too simple for our tastes.

Setting/location ideas

At the minute we are thinking about two to three different locations. First the video will start at a house then it will go to a field and then possibly somewhere else before returning back to the same house. We chose these different types of locations as they are things you can find in a folk music video but it also will help show the Narnia concept.(Aren't actually Places we are using)

Prop ideas

This is a picture of one of my guitars which we are thinking about using in the music video when there are shots of the performance. This is because guitars are always found in folk music videos but the track we are using is an acoustic one so the use of the guitar shows performance and links to the track as well to make it more authentic. 

This picture is of a standard microphone which we will be using in the video. This is because we need one for the performance part of our music video. 

We are using these props in our video as these are the things you would see in a folk music video. Folk music videos typically stay to simple conventions such as doing mainly performance on a stage with a instrument. As our track is acoustic we are going to use guitars as they are used on the track so it would make the video more realistic.  

Credits and titles ideas

These pictures are of my guitar. I was thinking about putting the name of the band as well as the song on the guitar near the start of the video. This is because a guitar is a typical prop that you would find in a folk music video which is what links it to the genre but it is also a different and interesting idea instead of adding the titles on later. 

These two pictures are other ideas for the titles or credits. It will be a plain black shirt which we will spray paint across the front and then write on top of it. These aren't what you would normally find in a folk music video but it is different to show the credits and titles.

Make up ideas

This is a make up idea to use on the performers. It is natural shades for the eye shadow then black eye liner as well as blue eyeliner to give the look that edge that will go with the clothes. This idea is simple but also goes with the disjuncture theme. It links to the folk genre because of the simple, natural colours.  

Costume ideas

These pictures are some ideas of what to wear for the costumes for the performncae part of the video. We chose these as they arent what you would usually see in a folk music video, this is called disjuncture.

The pictures below are the costume ideas of what the main actor will wear.

The actor's costumes



Laura -

We have chosen the easy, realistic costumes to portray real life in the video. The picture below is showing a summer blouse from the retail ship, Topshop. The blouse it light, airy and it will fit Tabitha beautifully. The outfit is only going to be worn only before she go through the door/ wardrobe. We choose this look as it is a modern look which is typically worn by girls these days. It gives the concept of disjuncture but doesnt totally take the video into that typical pop look and keeps to the folk genre because of the simplicity of the look. We took the target audience into mind when we chose this outfit as if they looked at it they would think the video is a pop video which is what we wanted.    

   

   

Chris -

The outfit below is for Luke and even though the picture is of the Internet, the picture is perfect because it shows masculinity, strengths as well as a great fit. This outfit is going to be worn when he gets introduce in the video and throughout. We chose this look at it is a modern simple look in which we want to keep the image of disjuncture at the start. The gender had a strong impact when choosing the outfit as we wanted something that showed masclinity but also to look simple. The age of our target audience was also important as this type of clothing is the kind of thing guys would wear these days. But even though the look is modern to appeal to our audience it really translates our genre of song as in folk music the music videos are stripped down to the raw elements with simple costumes.

These costume choices are suited to the genre of our music video because this is the type of look you would typically see in folk music as it is a natural style that makes sure videos stay set to the music rather than the extreme performance that you would see in pop videos. In spite of all this the costumes also hold our choosen theme of disjuncture, we chose to do this so that it will interest a younger audience as they are our targeted audience.