The London Eye

During our time up London on the 30th November we decided that filming the London Eye for a whole 360 degree movement then speeding the film up would be effective. We took some photos of the eye itself from two different angles to see which would look more effective for the video.

Once the photos were taken we then thought we could have our artist standing in-front of the eye singing in normal time, with the eye itself moving faster as we would have sped the footage up. This idea however proved difficult to create in reality, so we thought again amongst ourselves as we still wanted to film the London Eye. After discussion we thought filming the Eye from across the River Thames would be ideal, as this could show pedestrians walking by, thus emphasizing the idea of time going quickly as they too would be under-cranked. The lyric to this visual is "Some say you might lose your mind", the idea of the Eye being under-cranked would therefore illustrate the concept of someone losing their mind as time is going by much faster than normal.

Filming the Eye from this angle would portray a sense of loss of control as the movement of the wheel would be easily distinguished, the cloud movement shown in the footage could also create the idea as the clouds would be moving faster across the shot. Using this location to film the shot would be ideal as the shot would solely show the Eye's movement along with the clouds. A second idea would be to shoot the Eye from a bench which is a few meters from the side of the pavement which could include pedestrians walking past to, this may however over-crowd the shot.

This is the second possible angle we could film the Eye from, it is located on the bridge by the Royal Festival Hall which therefore gives a higher angle to view the Eye. Filming from this angle could show the movement of the Eye as well as the cloud movement, we did however think the Big Ben clock tower in the background of the Eye was an effective shot, as it illustrates another famous landmark of London. This photo was taken at around 4pm which in Winter means the sun is setting, under-cranking this shot would therefore show the sunlight disappearing which could reference time in the song, as the time of day is moving on as would the song.

Leake Street

On Wednesday 30th November the group and I went to London to find some ideal places to film our video. We planned to go to Leake Street which is near Waterloo East train station, this street is dedicated to street art and it therefore holds some very creative work on the walls.

We took some photos of the location which are seen below:

Leake Street will therefore be evident in our video as we all decided it portrayed some of London's finest street art, as well as it being relatively busy which could prove to be an ideal place for a busker. It also follows our idea of the artist coming in from one end of a tunnel, and walking out the other at the end of the song. The tunnel itself portrays a range of cultures, with the street art representing a younger generation of people, and because the tunnel is near Waterloo East many business workers use the tunnel which could show the higher class people of London. There is also a car wash company near by the tunnel and therefore more working class people are seen there, thus showing a varied amount of people use Leake Street.

Our Artist

The image above shows the artist of our video, he name is Jack Thomas and is Jay's team-mate at their football team.

He is a keen musician who sings and can also play the guitar and piano. His passion for music makes him an ideal character for our music video as he can learn the lyrics to the song 'What A Life', and he can actually play the guitar so it doesn't look like he is simply putting his hand over the strings.

Due to the fact that he plays live music on a regular basis we may gain advantages such as his advice on certain shots or location, as he could give us a musicians perspective on the video. With him being a natural musician he is therefore confident in standing up in front of audiences, so filming in busy areas such as London should not cause a problem.

Deadlines

Here they are guys. They have been carefully thought about and planned in order to break your work up into manageable pieces and for this reason they are non-negotiable.

There is SO much to do this year and your ancillary tasks come out of your main task so getting that finished is of the utmost importance.

As well as this you have a huge amount of work to do on your Evaluation questions which are going to be more detailed in terms of content and more sophisticated in term of presentation so these will take you about a month to complete.

Monday 30th January 2012 - Rough Cut

(Feedback completed by Friday 3rd February)

Friday 24th February - FINAL CUT

Friday 9th March - BOTH ancillary tasks

Evaluation Question 1 - Thursday 15th March
Evaluation Question 2 - Friday 23rd March
Evaluation Question 3 - Friday 30th March (end of term)

Evaluation Question 4 - Friday 20th April

FINAL deadline for EVERYTHING finished and posted on your blog - Friday 27th April

Sour Mash Records Copyright Letter

Above is the copyright letter the group sent to Noel's record label:

Sour Mash Records

in which we wanted to ask for permission to use 'AKA...What A Life' for our music video.

A problem we encountered was that we could not find an e-mail address to contact Sour Mash Records, however we managed to find an address in London so we will therefore send a letter to the company and wait for a response.

The group will now await a response from the company deciding whether we can use their song or not. If we are not given permission to use the song we will need to re-plan and choose another song by a different artist.

Possible Locations

Wembley Way, Leading to Wembley Stadium

The walkway leading up to the stadium could show as an effective area to film part of our music video, this is because the crowded area will portray many types of person as watching football is done by a varied group. If we go before an England match at night we could also catch the arch in the background as a shot, this will help show one of many landmarks in London which can show the different ethnicities and social groups of London.

Leake Street, Near Waterloo Station

Leake Street is a dedicated street art tunnel which is sometimes known as 'The Banksy Tunnel', the street was used for the 2008 Cans Festival which is primarly for street artists to show their work. This area would help show the varied culture in London as it differs greatly to the more upper class areas of London such as Westminster and Chelsea, as our main idea is to film a vast amount of cultures within London to show many types of life.

Southbank, Opposite The Houses of Parliament

Southbank offers a whole host of landmarks such as Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament and The London Eye. Showing these famous landmarks will hopefully connote the idea of having a range of culture, religion and social class across London and thus portraying the varied lives people experience in the city. The Southbank also has many street performers which may help with some shots as a street performer's daily life will differ to the tourists surrounding them.

Wellington Square, Chelsea

The area of Chelsea is a well known high class area of London, using this location will definitely help evoke the sense of varied cultures in the music video. This place will differ greatly to other areas we plan to visit as poorer regions such as East London will have a completely different culture to those in Chelsea, this could be heavily influenced by the variety of ethnicity in East London, where as West London is mainly white and of high social classes dominate as the area is expensive to live in. Having our artist in these areas will also be a clear way of showing how he has traveled London and experienced all the cultures and religions in those areas, thus showing a range of people's lives.

Piccadilly Circus Tube Station

Filming within a tube station may prove difficult due to certain regulations, however if we are allowed to do so we may use tube stations such as Piccadilly Circus at busy times to film. Using a tube station to film will guarantee too show a diverse range of people as London's tube network is used by thousands daily, as we want to create an image of the variety of lives people live in London so go with the song 'AKA...What A Life'. Using the tube stations and filming the tube itself will also help show the areas of London and the famous attractions to London, as the tube network is widely known across the world.

AKA...What A Life Video Release

The official video for the song 'AKA...What A Life' by Noel Gallagher was released on October 6th 2011.

This image is from Noel's official website which shows the video for the song and a short description for when the song is available for download. It also goes on to give a brief explanation to where it was filmed and who was involved, the actor and comedian Russell Brand plays a large part within the narrative of the video.

"Noel Gallagher has shot an amazing video for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' new single 'AKA… What A Life!'. The video was co-directed by Mike Bruce and Blake West, who worked with Noel on the video for 'The Death Of You And Me'. Filmed in California, Arizona and New Mexico, the video features an outrageous performance by actor / comedian Russell Brand"

Below is the video for the song which will therefore give us many new ideas for our own video, it may also evoke some problems for the group as we cannot plagiarize the original video.