DiaryBlog Entry 5: Update of what's happening

So far, I've ticked off a lot of criteria for the first part of my coursework; which is really good! And now I plan to do some film testing this weekend with my friends younger brother on the last scene of the video itself (as this is when he is featured). I still have to complete the "No-Fee Release Forms" which shall basically prevent me from being sued by angry parents :3

I won't need to take one of the school's cameras, as it's only just a test shoot for the scene, which shall help me to understand, and hopefully, perform the scene better when the time actually comes. This will be my first time in testign with actual footage, so I'm not expecting MASSIVE results. But it would be nice to upload this to my blog as a "first attempt" of filming with the prop bear and actors with it :)

I shall update when I get confirmation for the release form from him and his mum (as he's in year 4), which will tick off the paperwork that needs to be made.

Ice Nine Kills

Band Name: Ice Nine Kills

Origin: Boston, Massachusetts

Genres: Metalcore

Years Active: 2000 - Present

Labels: Red Blue, Ferret

Associated Acts: Remember Tomorrow

Website: www.iceninekills.com

  

History:

 The band was formed in its earliest incarnation in 2000 by middle school friends "Spencer Charnas" and "Jeremy Schwartz". They originally pursued a pop-punk, emo, post-hardcore and ska combining style that would eventually further to develop the bands own innovative blend of rock, however the band have moved on since then to become more of an experimental metalcore hybrid. This is because of the influence of band members who have left and joined. Charnas remains the only founding member to still be in the band.

Back in the time of their uprise and major starting development, the band was originally called "Ice Nine", but they changed their name before the release of their first album.
Following the on Novemebr 20th 2007, Ice Nine Kills released their EP, "The Burning" through Red Blue records, where they then set off on a several national tours in support of this. Throughtout this they had opening slots on tours with "Eyes Set to Kill", "I See Stars" and among many others.
Through the fame, garnered in the same year; the band's song "We Ate Gilberts Grapes" was used in the opening and closing credits of the Lionsgate skateboard comedy "Dishdogz" starring Luke Perry, Haylie Duff and Ryan Sheckler. By 2008; the band had been invited to open for well-known acts such as "As I Lay Dying", "A Day to Remember", "Thursday", "Paramore" and a one-off performance at Taste of Chaos 2009.

Charnas was made the only founding member left in the band in mid 2009, as Schwartz decided to leave after struggling with life on the road. Charnas then recruited the former members of the Rochester NY based psot-hardcore band "Remember Tomorrow" which had recently disbanded. And because of this, this is what changed the bands song into more of an experimental metalcore sound; which "Ferret Music" took notice of, and so signed the band in the spring of 2009.

After their appearacne on the "Warped Tour 2009", the band began writing and recording what would be their next record. They released their second album on July 12th 2010, it was produced by a three-man team "James Paul Wisner", "Steve Sopchack" and "Tom Denney".
This received praise from the heavy metal magazine "Revolver" in the 2010 Hottest Chicks in Rock Issue and subsequently; they were invited to attend the Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles CA on April 20th 2010.
After this they carried on through the promotion of their album through numerous tours and concerts which lead up to the release of their music video, insipired by the film Inglorious Basterds; for their song "The People Under The Stairs" on June 20th 2011.

On the same day of the music videos release, the band announced their partnership with Outerloop Management who represent numerous bands such as We Came As Romans, Refused and Periphery among others.
Currently (as of November 2012) they are recording their yet to be 3rd album in Marcellus, NY; which will be full-length and will be produced with Steve Sopchak.

Here is a list of their Current and Former Members:

Current Members:

• Spencer Charnas - Lead Vocals (since 2002)
• Justin "JD" deBlieck - Lead Guitar, vocals (since 2009)
• Justin Morrow - rhythm guitar (since 2009)
• Conor Sullivan - drums (since 2009)
• Steve Koch - bass guitar (since 2011)

Former Members:

• Shane Bisnett- bass guitar, vocals (2009–2011)
• Jeremy Schwartz - guitar, vocals (2002–2009)
• Grant Newsted - drums (2003–2008)
• Hobie Boeschenstein - bass guitar (2004–2008)
• Dave Marvuglio - bass guitar (2008–2009)
• Dave "Brittney" Sieling - vocals (2009)
• Joseph Merturi - lead guitar (2008)
• Terrence Donnelly - touring vocalist (2008)
• Andrew Justin Smith - bass, vocals (2002–2003)

Albums are:

Last Chance to Make Amends

(and)

Safe is Just a Shadow

The song that I have chosen from this band, is actually one of their covers that they've even done a music video on:

This is their version of "Someone Like You" by "Adele".

Music Genre and intended audience

As I am using the metalcore band "Ice Nine Kills" did a pop-punk / Easycore version of "Adele's" no.1 single: "Someone Like You".

Despite the song being of a genre like this, it can still aspire to the metalcore and other relate-able genre audiences, as-well as the fans of the band itself.
Others who may like the song: "Someone Like You" by "Adele" may wish to have someone else influence the style of the song, as to deprive it of it's mainstream fame, and present it in a new form, to a whole new audience that may would not of originally conceived the song in this way.

In general, this music I hope to attract the following:

Gender: Male and Female (as the metal genre generalises the video as being more masculine, but with the innocent toy aspect may attract just as much a feminine audience)
Age: 15-19 year old (this will be my own generation as when they watch the video; they shall reminisce over their own past and share the same new experiences that every young adult witnesses before maturing into adulthood.)
Personal Genre Preference of Fans: Metalcore, Metal, Easycore, Pop-Punk, Pop, Punk, Hardcore, etc. (generally going towards more of the metal genres than that of the mainstream ones)
Background: General mix, as everyone is different, but this will largely involve those who are fans of the band itself.

Later I shall post about the band, and their general history and development over the years...

Camera Work Planning 1

The main theme of the video; is the reflection of childhood, and how time has passed. For this, I'd really like to involve the effects of the camera from the Toy Bear's Perspective! This would involve things being brighter than what they are, even if the scene is of a negative matter, as the bear still wants everything to be positive and fun, like back when I was a child. This perspective will be heightened if there are any flash back scenes within the video (especially of the room changing between times, etc.).
For this the brightness setting will be adjusted to a higher intake of light, and I may involve more contrast upon the image itself. For the alteration of flash-back scenes, I'd create a blurrier focus (to make it seem dreamy - flashback etc.) by turning off auto focus and using the camera manually. And the contrast shall be made more extreme within the scene.

There will be other posts after this one, where I shall further the detail of my ideas!

DiaryBlog Entry 4: Pitch Aftermath

I have just performed my pitch to my Media Studies class, it went quite well a-part from the fact that I had to do most of it again as the camera ran out of memory space :/
Now I'm planning for what I'm going to do for My Digipak and Magazine Advertisement. Got some really good consistent ideas so far!

Research of the Digi-Pak

Here is my research on the Digi-Pak, as this shall be one of the products that I shall produce for my Coursework.

This product is a patent style of CD, DVD or BD packaging which is personified as an upgraded version of a the normal casing featured with the above products.
This usually consists of a gatefold (book style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. This form is usually used for special editions of the products, especially CD's, as this presents a higher quality of work than the standard packaging for the above products. This offers greater quality in display, protection and aesthetics as it produces a new medium for products, such as these, to be sold at.

The history of the Digi-Pak consists of trademark changing ownership between different companies. Originally it was owned by IMPAC Group, Inc where it went through great changes to now be owned by a combined company called "AGI-Shorewood".

Here is a picture of a Digi-pak, in comparison to a CD case:

Resource Audit

From what I understand, a Resource Audit is a simple list of different resources that is available to a specific entity, in this case it shall be my Music video. These I shall list briefly, yet may edit further on if  something new comes to availability!

• "Canon EOS 550D" (camera used to film and take photoes of the music video)
• Camera Tripod (used to stably position the camera within a comfortable position to take photoes or film at a higher quality)
• The contents of my Bedroom (this is my main setting for my music video, all contents in my room will be used to set the scene of a modern teenagers and kids room, when looking back in the past, etc.)
• From my Bedroom, the most important prop is my Toy Bear which is the star of my video.
• My house (again, will most likely be involved as a setting)
• Mac OS X, Version 10.5.8 (my home computer that I shall use to store, create and simply use as a necessity for the making of the video itself)
• Computers at school (these will be used for the same reason as my home computer, YET this will probably have the software that I'll need to finish and most likely make the video itself)
• I pod Touch (my I pod that shall be involved in one scene)
• Haribo Star mix (prop in one scene)
• Beer bottle (prop in one scene)
• Laundry bag (prop in one scene)
• Internet (research tool)
• TBC

Human Resources:

• I will have myself as a character in my own video, for the camera I will use either a tripod to film myself, or I'll have my brother, friend from school, or other such person film me in a scene.
• I will use a few friends who come round mine as other characters featurted in my video including close friends, my friends little brother (who shall be given the toy at the end), etc.

Classification of Performance

Performance - I will most likely not be having a performance section in my video, and if it does come to one, It shall be very obscure and quick, as to not show the detail, etc.
Animation - Highly likely won't be present
Narrative - Shall be presented through intended actions related to the lyrics or mood of the current theme in the song, etc
CONCEPT - I have a nice concept idea of having my old toy bear, trying to reconnect with me, after so many years of him sitting at the bottom of my wardrobe, waiting for me to finally see him again
This I'll achieve, by controlling him, like a puppet, showing him to spy on me (representing voyeurism), whilst he goes round trying to get my attention.
He interacts with new technology, and discovers new ways of having fun (inspired by the series storyline of Toy-Story and the concept of how they feel if they were alive).

For this, I'd like to use the song: "Someone Like You - Adele" (COVER) by "Ice Nine Kills", this'll show how the toy bear shows his feelings for me, wanting things to be back like they were before in my childhood when we played together.

I also have ideas for certain parts of the song:
Like the lyrics: "And, you're married now", obviously it'd be stupid to have me married by the age of 17, so I could have a friend (posing as my girl friend) to have a bag of "Haribo Starmix" (intertextuality) where I can use the certain sweet, shaped as rings, to then let us be in a scene where we joke and eat together, showing a pun of the lyric.

Other such scenes, would involve the toy's interaction with current technology, like how he tries to send me an email saying to play with him, yet because he hasn't got fingers to interact properly with the Ipod touch, he ends up sending a mess of text to me, simply making me confused.

Another really good idea that I had, would be to have the toy bear, stand in the centre of the room (showing that the plot is focusing on him), and then have the camera rotate around him (looking slightly up at the character), as it shows the viewers my room, as it rotates, it constantly changes from past - to - present, with the items of the room simply being swapped around (like Xbox 360 - Playstation 2, DVD's for Toys, books for children's books, etc, etc).
Also another good point here is to show a lot of intertextuality, as I plan to have posters (in the present room) of screenshots from the videos that I have analyzed for this music video.

This was inspired by my first music video analysis of "Walking Disaster" by "Sum 41" where it used the toy robot as it's focused character. From this I may involve performance scenes, yet it will most likely be of the toy bear (which shall be very hard to achieve) as he is the main character, and if I have someone else singing, then it may detract from the attention of the plot itself.