Ideas for the Music Video, Song Chosen

Song Chosen

Speaking with Maxx, Kenzie, Nick, and Maddie was such an amazing experience. After our 2 hours conversation, this is what was put down on paper.

Key Video Ideas 

• Hybrid style video - Story blended in with a short narrative video
• A message about mental health and integrity, but not share the same bland drama of other films or TV shows. A little more serious and respectful, something birthed that's more unique and modern. 
• Not to focus on the lyrics so much, but more metaphorical, artsy, and colorful in heart. 
• The song carries enough weight in seriousness, so the video is intended to be lighthearted, playful, but matured. Not so childish in character.
• Maddie will play not only her main position as the lead vocalist, but the main character in the film. She might want to include puppies?
• Make sure it doesn't follow any gruesome, romanticized, and edgy garbage like 13 Reasons Why did. 
• A creative color scheme thats saturated in diversity, but muted and morbid.

Mentioned Roll Model Video

A video that's more charming and creative! They picked this as a good representative of their concepts.

Wallows – These Days

First Facetime Call with Saving Herald

I was texting Maxx quite a bit in order to pick an appropriate time to work with him, and Gianna and I eventually organized a FaceTime call to set some ground work for the project. 

We decided to work on a hybrid still music video that incorporated the band's full performance in a particular set, and the cut back and forth between that and a short narrative that's going to go by the themes and messages of the music itself.

We'll probably have to shoot sometime during spring break, as I'm traveling to Georgia for the first weekend to visit SCAD and investigate their ideas, campus, and so on. 

Most music videos I see that include some live performance of the band itself almost always have multiple cameras on set to capture in one take, to get the whole performance in one go. This saves time and definitely is a valuable technique to protect the continuity and quality of a production. I'm going to budget at most, a $1000 dollars for this project to really sell my future off, as this is the end of the line as far as high school goes. LensRental.com is an incredibly favorable site where I can grab the gear I specifically need for a set timeline. I'd like to have more than one of my Blackmagic Pocket 4k camera that I use, so I'll need to rent the camera along with a tripod, SSD system, and something usable for extended power. Research tells me this will be $400/5 days of rental. Ouchy.

I'm also going to need some extra assistants to help me produce this along with Gianna. After throwing up an advertisement for a $50 gig on my Instagram story, I've had 3-4 people come to me willing to do the work. Check mate! I already have known Angelo and Isa Perotti for quite some time, so I'm not worried. 

After talking to Saving Herald, there are some key features or ideas that they want implemented. I encouraged them to reach out to me and Gianna since this video will represent their interest, so we created a group chat for everyone on Whatsapp to stay on the same page. I'll post their ideas in the next blog. 

Now the goal is to start scripting ideas and checking back in with the team to see how they feel about it all. The goal is to have a full plan, schedule, and video ready to shoot when Spring break rolls around. After that, we'll edit! I'll keep this updated.

What to expect with their concepts?

 Still holding on a response from the band, but Maxx Nunn seems great with the project so far. We want to hold a Zoom meeting with their group and start setting the ground for the project. For the mean time, I'm doing some homework about the stylizing and cinematography of alternative punk rock music videos. 

Here are some great examples!

Numb [Official Music Video] - Linkin Park

This video couldn't be a more perfect example. We have a brief story following a girl's personal story of isolation and self-reflection combed in with scenes of the band's performance of the song. They shot their performance within a garage/man-cave/church scene to deliver the goth and dark themes in the video. Nice flavors of layering and shallow-depth of field also contribute lots to the shot sequence. The story seems to also create a connection between the lead performer and the girl character, and she visits the now empty band room at the end of the video. 

Audioslave - Like a Stone (Official Video)

Much like Numb, this recording offers a setup in the early 2000s goth style. However, this video is solely the performance of the band in particular. This gives me some key points to recognize. Depending on how Saving Herald would like to structure their video, there are some things to keep in mind.

• Set design for the music recording.
•     Do we capture it live or overlay with the published recording?
• Do we create a narrative story?
•     What casting due to COVID-19?
• Do we use my current gear or do we rent a multitude of cameras to capture the whole live performance in one fellow swoop?

More to discuss on Friday, cheers!

Music video concepts...

    When people construct their ideas for content in a video, in usually consists of different hybrid blends of storytelling techniques. The most common ones I see for music videos vary depending on trends in the genre of music, or whatever is popular in that culture. We can see videos that are fully a short narrative or story, little events happen and it's basically a short film. Others have a mix of a briefer story and making cut backs to a band performing on camera to fill in time and block out the video. Less common, but still happening, are recordings of the band only - On stage, in a studio, in public, at a party, at a concert, and so on. These last ones are almost always done by a third party and are not controlled by the band's artistic values beyond their actual performance. Basically, while in the video, don't cut it up, etc. Here are some examples.

Narrative

 

Hybrid

 

Performance

    I'm planning on getting in touch with the band Saving Herald soon this week! I can't wait to hear what they'd like to do. The whole goal idea is that they are the artists, and Gianna and I are the pencil. We will make something amazing. Stay tuned!

They're already popular?

Gianna and I spoke with Mrs. Stoklosa this morning! Our main concern was how do we develop a social media page for the group Saving Herald if one already exists on a multitude of platforms? Then she offered some great suggestions about alternatives/solutions.

• Developing a website
• Publishing a Bandcamp
• Choose another obscure platform
• Ask to operate one of their current pages for the time being, with their consent and approval for additional content. 

Now that we have some ideas for what we can do, we need to pick. I already started creating an account for Saving Herald on Bandcamp. They do have their own website domain but when arriving, the domain goes nowhere and leaves a 404 error. Bummer. Hopefully we can ask for that instead and create a Wix for them, something of that sort. I spent the rest of the morning grabbing photos of their group from Facebook, Youtube and other establishments online. 

The next stage is to contact them and see what they'd like to do and then accommodate for that. I'll let everyone know. I'm happy to start producing a music video soon (we'll include some smoke machines for a little flavor in the video!)

Saving Herald's Youtube banner

First contact with Saving Herald.

I've messaged the group, more specifically, the leader in particular. Maxx Nunn has been a mutual friend of mine since the beginning of our Geometry class during freshman year. A serious goofball, he loves what he does and so do I. I didn't break any sweats about whether he wanted to participate or not. 

My particular assumptions about his enthusiasm were completely confirmed! If anything he's happier about it than I am because of all the fun we'll have with it. A whole music video production from yours truly, a quality production value that will be a great highlight for both him and I. We've done projects in the past where I join his local events around Broward and capture the shows for him, and he gets a copy. It's been mini-concerts, birthday parties and so on. 

His band, Saving Herald, is such a fantastic and talented group. Their music follows a very punk alternative taste in music, so I want to make sure I can work with him to properly brand and produce a video with him to showcase one of his newest and most famous songs, "Lady in Waiting." They've been together since mid-2018 and take inspiration from blink-182, Led Zeppelin, and Rex Orange County. The plan now is head to the drawing boards Monday and keep a consistent contact with them about our ideas, sketch a music video and do our homework on their group. I'll keep you folks updated. 

Saving Herald on their Facebook profile.

Left to right. Mackenzie Fortino (drummer), Madisyn Racine (vocalist), Nic Lawdan (guitarist), and Maxx Nunn (bassist).

Saving Herald Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrcvBxtmixJVCoRQtsWhnQ

Their Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/savingherald/

My recording of their September 2019 event in Sunrise, FL.

"Breathe" by Saving Herald

"Lady in Waiting" by Saving Herald

We're back in action! Senior year, 2020-2021.

 Oh. My. God. Senior year already? This is truly the most perplexing paradox to me. After a whole year, I've had the pleasure of enjoying an eternal time at home, yet the end of my junior year and time in AICE Media Studies AS level feels like yesterday. It's so odd that not only does it just feel like the start of 2021 even though it's February, I have gone through the larger segment of my senior year already. It's almost over anyways. It feels like so much nothing yet it's only 3 more months 'til graduation. Strange.

I will admit, I did overload myself this year quite a bit. That senioritis thing they always talk about? Yeah. I know what they mean now. You get all excited freshman year, sophomore year you know the drill and stay away from drama, junior year is a reality check about career and college, and by senior year... you just want to leave and fry some way bigger fish. 

Ironically, despite my rapidly deteriorating mental health and increasing burn-outs, I'm readjusting my life. The final villain. The biggest boss is now here. Finals in the fourth quarter.

I'm genuinely so excited for this one because I know a great local band I can get in touch with for the music promo project I'm doing with Gianna, my amazing partner! It's going to be amazing.

I'll talk more about it tomorrow.