Making my Video- Costs and Caps

An issue arose during recording my footage from Call of Duty. There is a cap/limit to how many films you can have saved for uploading to the internet- 8 films. This limited how many edited clips I could have. What's worse is that all footage must be under 2 minutes long, meaning I couldn't merge some of the footage I had done into less videos. This presented me with two options to solve this issue:

1. I could upload clips of less than two minutes for editing, and then delete them afterwards. The issue with this being I would be losing the original footage permanently, meaning if there was an error with YouTube after I deleted my footage, it would become problematic getting that footage or anything similar again; costing time.
2. There is an option to purchase an upgraded file limit from the Call of Duty store, costing £1.45, allowing for storage of 40 clips over the previous 8 clips. This would mean I could store everything from the test shots and the actual footage I will be using.

In the end, I decided to fork out for the upgraded capacity so I could store everything. It will give me more freedom when getting said footage from the game, allowing me to experiment more and save it.



*Other Costs*
Other costs that arose during pre-production included the cost of the face paint and blood. This amounted to about £7

Concept 3 : How I would obtain gameplay footage

In a previous post wherein I detailed some of my ideas for the video, I mentioned that a segment of the music video (guitar instrumental) could have a montage of Call of Duty Zombies footage. This would mean using a service on the game to capture footage, however I didn't know how to transfer that footage from game to YouTube. So how would I do that?

Well actually it is quite simple:

1.Go to the theater mode. This is accessible in both multiplayer (shown to the right) and zombies.
[For the purposes of my video I will be accessing it in zombies.] 










2. Go to Select film. This should bring up a list of recorded footage from any games played (shown below). Select the footage you want to playback.

3. Find the part in the footage you wish to record and upload. Pause it at the start point, and hit X to start recording, then stop it when you wish. Pressing Y will put you into free cam. Any movement you make in free cam will be recorded- you are the camera. There are other tools you can use such as dolly cam to predetermine movement etc.

After recording what you wish, you can then name and save the clip. As shown to the side.







4. Press the start button on your controller to bring up the menu shown to the left and select upload edited film.

5.After uploading the edited films. Exit back to the menus and return to select film menu. This time, instead of scrolling to the recent games tab, go to the edited films tab. This should now contain what you have just recorded. Select the video you with to post to YouTube

6. After selecting the desired clip, return to the menu and select render video. Then select save, adding it to a page on Call of Duty Elite.

You will then have to wait for the video to render. Depending on how long the video is, this could take a while. Once this is successful, you should see the notice shown to the side. Following this link on internet explorer will take you to where the video has been uploaded to.




From here, there should be an option to upload footage to YouTube after signing in with the account connected to my Xbox Live account, and to obtain that for editing I would have to find a website which would allow me to download videos.

So, that is how I will obtain gameplay for a montage sequence in my music video. Despite the controversial nature of obtaining my gameplay, it is the only way of obtaining it without expensive capture card equipment. 

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nck5QYzrH6M   All screen shots and instructions are adapted from this video source. 

Audience Research Focus Group

The focus group only being small, didn't give me a detailed idea of audience opinions and attitudes towards my concepts. Also, the environment was relaxed so the discussions tended to be informal and really chatty. However, I was able to learn about what an audience expects based on a variety of things.

I asked a variety of questions in order to get a better understanding of a general audience. I asked about how they use technology to access music videos, which helped me to see how people may access my own.

I posed open questions in order to allow the people I questioned to tell me exactly what they thought, rather than giving options between answers which would have restricted what I could have been told. One of the open questions I used asked the group about my song specifically and allowed me to get feedback on the lyrics.

Prop/ costume item List/ Ideas

List:

Face paint- This will make my actors look like zombies. For the zombies I will need black/ grey to make the skin look dead. Possibly a purple shade (rigor-mortis- when blood all gathers at one part of a dead body). I might also need different colours to mix so I can show the survivors wound being infected/ starting to rot, possibly yellow or green.

Fake Blood- I can either get red food colouring for this, as it works quite effectively, or, i could get a tube of fake blood while its Halloween.

Torn/ worn clothing- for the zombies, makes them look uncivilised, inhuman- typical of a zombie.

Gun- toy gun, for survivor as normally they are seen to be armed.

Some kind of meat- For zombies to be devouring in some of the shots, as normally they are seen eating flesh. To make it look more gory I could soak it in a viscous red liquid made of red food colouring in water thickened by cornflower.

Mood Boards: 

Audience Research Questions

The below questions were designed to be open for discussion, and are not closed questions. I chose to ask about genre, music video watching and expectations in order to determine a rough idea of how many people listen to music of my genre, how people watch music videos and to get a general idea of what people want to see. I also chose a question that asked about the band name and the bands creators to determine whether anybody in the small focus group may have heard of the people who made my song.

I also wanted to get a general idea of what people expect of my song based off the song title and lyrics, providing examples and asking for their opinions based off the information given. By asking a question about the lyrics, i hope to learn what people expect to see from these lyrics etc.I also wanted to mention the basis of the music video- Zombies. This would allow me to get an idea of what people expect in a zombie and gives me an idea of how to direct my actors.

The final question is to see whether any interest was generated from the previous questions, once more to try and determine the audience; so i can see how appealing such a video may be. 

What Genre of music do you generally listen to?

Do you watch music videos? If so, how do you access these videos?

What do you generally expect from a music video? What do you like to see? Narrative, Performance?

Have you heard of group 916 or Play The Game Central?

The song I am doing is Murder, what ideas does this song title give you? Connotations?

If I told you the music video was about zombies, how would you expect them to be represented? Costume etc…

What would you expect to see in relation to these lyrics:

Welcome to hell, don’t mind the smell that’s just the rotting flesh you once knew well,

Our only purpose is brains

My broken nails tear off your face

Would you watch my video once its finished?

Health and Safety

Risk assessment- possible dangers
Hazard	Who or What’s at risk	Solution	Measures	Severity of injury/damage	Chance of injury/damage	Risk
Running while filming	Camera operator, camera	Use strap to secure camera to arm,  jeans to minimize damage on fall	Do test runs without camera, tied laces and minimize trip hazards	Equipment- 2 Crew- 1	3	3
Rocky/uneven ground, trip hazard	Talent, camera operator	Clear some of the stones, brief talent on hazard	Make sure talent and operator are aware of ground	Crew- 1	2	2
Broken glass	Talent, camera operator	Avoid areas with glass	Brief crew on risk of glass shards	3	2	3
Bikers riding around	Talent, camera operator	Stay out of their way, film when they are not around	Make crew aware of possible bikers	3	1	3
Possibility of being mugged	The equipment	Don’t have the camera open for other people to see	Hide the camera in a bag.	5 (loss of camera)	2	5 (using borrowed equipment)
Wires, trip hazard (green room, interior locations)	The crew (camera operator, talent)	Make sure wires are secured, not loose	Tape Wires to the floor, make crew aware of wires	3	2	3
Busy roads on the journey to the location	Talent and Camera operator	Pick less busy times, use common sense when crossing road	Make crew aware of busy roads, don’t cross while cars are speeding by	4	3	4
In the event of any of these dangers occurring, I will call paramedics for medical emergencies or police for criminal emergencies on 999. I will make sure it is known where I and my crew will be filming by family, friends etc. so that in the event of an emergency they can be contacted. All measures will be taken in order to prevent any of these events occurring. If they do occur, I must take responsibility for the consequences. All equipment must be taken care of and kept safe with the director.
Other issues that may arise on set- less severe
Issue	Outcomes of issue	Solution	Measures	Severity of issue	Probability of issue arising	Risk to the production
Hungry/thirsty/ irritable crew	Crew may leave for food, take time to return or not return	Provide food, drink, make sure crew are happy/ comfortable	Make sure I have money to cater for the crew, have the occasional break	4	3	3
Face paint or blood runs short	Slows down production, zombies may not look as good	Have a lot of face paint and blood on the day of shooting	Buy plenty of makeup items before the shoot	2	2	3
Camera battery runs flat before shoot ends	Halts filming entirely	Make sure battery is charged	Work quickly, do as much as we can as fast as we can	4	3	4
Lack of communication	Affects production. Either by not directing affectively or organising shooting effectively	Keep all crew informed of everything that’s happening, explain exactly what I want precisely	Keep storyboards on hand for directing and make sure I can contact all crew if and when I need to	3	3	4
Emergency arises based on dangers listed above	Injuries and damages, halts production, possibility of having to compensate for damages	Follow safety procedures and make sure everybody working on the video knows emergency numbers etc.	Brief crew on health and safety, make sure all dangers are outlined and they understand.	5	2	5
These issues are less severe, affecting things such as crew morale and how smoothly the production goes. Safety procedures must be followed, the crew must be catered for and communication is vital in making sure the production stage of the video is successful.

1( Minor), 2, 3( Medium),4, 5( Major)

Storyboard Template

This is the template for my storyboard. I have included all of the required fields for information. Shot number and length to say which shot it is and how long it lasts. A box to draw the basic idea of the shot. And I have included four boxes for the four micro-features to dictate what the shot consists of. In the corner is the name of the song and the group who made it, just so I keep all the storyboards in one place.

Camera test- "Evil Dead" shot

This is a camera test for a shot from the Evil Dead series of films. This is a shot I plan to use in my music video as a homage to the series. In my music video, the audio will be cut out of the shot when I shoot it, and the survivor will be running from the camera, as its intended to be zombie perspective.

Also, I might need to shoot this shot a number of times, as the camera is very wobbly while running across the area as its a very stony area and there's a lot of bumps. a bit of wobble in this shot will be alright, but not too much otherwise it will look unprofessional and won't look very good.

Also, as my genres horror, I will need to darken the video in editing as it doesn't look very dark and horrifying in this shot. I might also add an effect to show that it's the zombies perspective.

History of... The Music Video

The history behind the music video is a history dating back many years.Here is over 100 years of music video history condensed into one blog post.

The Illustrated Song- in the year 1894, two sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern asked an electrician, George Thomas and a group of performers to perform one of their songs, "Little Lost Child". The performance would be the first instance of an illustrated song, a song performed to accompanying images. This would also be the first step toward the evolution of music videos as we know them today.

Talkies and Soundies- These are what could be considered another influence on the music video industry. They are short films featuring bands, dancers and vocalists. These were sometimes imitated, a good example being Michael Jackson's 'Bad', influenced by 'West Side Story' 's stylized dancing.

Promotional Clips- Promotional clips are the true beginning of music videos, featuring bands/ singers in movies in order to promote their new album. A couple of examples of this include The Beetles 'A Hard Day's Night'.



















*What's important to remember is around this time, music videos weren't main stream, and didn't exist as the form we know them now. There was no conventions, no concrete rules or methods of how to present a music video, The Beetles' Hello Goodbye music video is a good example of this, it is atrocious...


Shots are long and drawn out, repeated frequently, and the bands movement, or lack thereof, makes the video just look so dull. The lack of variety clearly demonstrates a lack of conventions for music videos in this era.

The Start of MTV-"Video Killed the Radio Star", is all I can say to this, and in fact is the first video shown on the Music Television channel back in the eighties. This is when the rise of music videos truly begun, with icons rising such as Michael Jackson, who had one of the most expensive music videos ever made in the eighties with "Thriller".
Also, computer animation was becoming popular around this time, with videos being made like Dire Straits' Money For Nothing, and Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, meaning the technology of music videos was adapting to new, modern technology



Sources:
http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/26/the-amazing-history-of-the-music-video/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video

Lyrics- Ideas/ Storyboard

Here, i have considered the meanins in the lyrics and tried to consider how to portray some of the images given in the song. All images are taken from Google and in no way belong to me. 

So for the first line, i want something considered quite hellish, dark, secluded. I chose an image of Hell itself as it clearly represents i want a place where you wouldnt want to be.

The following lines, reffering to the "rotting flesh" and "cuz you're like me now", i could show a close up of the infected wound on the survivors face. Showing the survivors wound is starting to rot (rotting flesh), showing the survivor is like the zombie now.

The next line, reffering to their only purpose being brains, is self explanatory- zombies eat brains.

For "so shoot your guns at me", i may need a gun as a prop, or atleast something that looks like a gun.

It's just a dream could be hard to portray, i'll need to consider a way to differentiate reality to a dreamstate. or maybe the zombie is just toying with the survivor.

"You can't run from me" is self explanatory.

"Why dont you join me" could be an interesting lyric to present in the video, it would show the zombie inviting the survivor to join him, which could look quite strange. I'm unsure of how to portray this line.

"D:ark Bay:B" could also be quite hard to present, as nobody knows what it looks like. It could be an ark of some kind, a bay within the ark. Or it could be a dark bay. Its a confusing lyric which could be hard to show, i could possibly fade in a location of some kind of bay.

"fall to the floor" could show the survivor on the floor, possibly from trying to retreat. This could show the protagonists vulnerability.

"broken nails" and "tear off your face" are also pretty straightforward, it would be an act of aggression from the zombie, attacking the survivor. this could be easy to portray with a close up of the nails scratching at the survivors face.