Time to scrap another idea...

So only Simon responded to my post regarding the Bear Hunt. He said he liked the idea. However, apparently there was a group meeting that I knew nothing about. As far as I know now, the song has been changed to the following...



And there is an idea which is incorporating a bad dream into reality. I have called for another meeting within the next couple of days to make sure we're all singing from the same song book. I'm a bit concerned at the lack of communication within the group. I would have liked to have had this filmed before Christmas but I can't really see that happening. We all need to be a lot better on the communication front and stick with the one idea and just go with it.

Chase ideas...

Endlessly thinking of different ideas for our chase sequence I wanted to try something simple but something effective. In opting for simplicity I decided to research some children's fiction, very early years to see if there was a way that we could adapt that into modern times. I came across the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'...

We're goin' on a bear hunt,
We're going to catch a big one,
I'm not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! It's some long, wavy grass!
Can't go over it,
Can't go under it,
Can't go around it,
Got to go through it!

I then thought we could easily adapt this into a modern style using adults who go on a hunt to find something with a cash incentive. I thought that there could be a team of about 3 or 4 people and they all need money, one of them comes across an advert to find 'the bear' or a yeti or some other mythical creature, with a cash reward. So they all get there exploration gear and decide to hunt it down. I thought it is a simple idea that could probably be filmed in the woodlands around the university campus.

I then remembered something I saw in the cult TV series, Spaced, which was a mimed gun-fight. By overlaying sounds of artillery with the mime it looked really effective. I then tried thinking of ways we could incorporate this type of thing into the bear hunt idea and thought that perhaps the main group of hunters could bump into a rival group who look quite similar and then have the mime gun-fight with them. Perhaps while they're fighting, they are oblivious to the fact that the creature they are trying to hunt-down sneaks past in the background.

I also came across this music video for the Art vs Science track 'Parlez Vous Francais' which incorporates mime. I have sent my ideas to the rest of the group so hopefully they will be on board.

2nd meeting

Unfortunately due to Simon being unable to complete his tracks in the studio we were left with no other option than to not use one of his songs and opt for someone else. Harry then suggested that we use one of his housemates tracks. Harry lives with a couple of drum & bass DJ's who have been doing very well on the drum & bass circuit so we decided to have a listen through some of their tracks and choose one to use. We decided on a track called 'One of These Days' because we liked how their was a hip-hop esque intro and middle 8 meaning that we had much more dynamics to work with.

We thought that we would like to involve a chase scene because, although being a very simple idea, it can prove very effective especially with the pace of a drum & bass track. So we tried to come up with different ideas for the chase:

• We thought of having a guy chasing another guy for no apparent reason, making it look as though their was a violent undertone but at the very end have him shouting something like "Mate, you left your wallet" only for the guy being chased to turn around and say, "That's not my wallet"
• Then we thought of having a guy reading a newspaper who was being stared at by another guy. Feeling uncomfortable, the guy carries on reading the newspaper, only to turn the page to see a 'most wanted' picture of the man who is staring at him. Feeling scared, he runs off and the most wanted guy chases him.

We brainstormed some more ideas but decided it would be best to adjourn this meeting and have a think on our own and come back to the next meeting with some more ideas.

Meeting 1

For our group project, Simon, Edem, Tom, Harry and I have decided to work together on a music video. As of yet we are unsure of what song to do but as Simon is a musician we would like to base it on one of his tracks.

Simon has said that he will be recording some tracks in the next week or so and that he will let us have a listen when they are finished. Then we can choose which song we would like to work on and then work out a narrative.

I decided to research some of Simon's tracks on Youtube to see what kind of genre and feel I got from the songs to see if that could help point me down the right road in terms of the asthetics of the video. Although we didn't have a song decided yet, I feel that this helped.




His style reminded me of a couple of rap bands that I had heard of and like so I decided to look up the style and tone of their videos to see if it would give me an idea of what one of Simon's videos should look like. I found the video for the track 'Guarentees' by Atmosphere as it had the similar kind of acoustic feel to Simon's song, 'Underdog'.



I really like the simplicity of this video. Just the one static shot and with the emphasis being on the lyrics. It uses very subtle smoke and lighting effects which doesn't detract the attention away from the songs meaning.

I also found the video for the song 'Your Glass House' by Atmosphere which I think has a similar feel to Simon's track 'Consequences'.

There is a strong narrative to both of these tracks and I like the way the video for 'Your Glass House' follows the lyrics really well. I also like the way the video seems to have a greyish, almost greeny yellow effect at the start to represent the hangover. It uses colour really well to describe the girl's feelings in the video.