RESEARCH: DIGIPACKS

diiigii from elliothoganmedia

SECOND SHOOT - BAND SCENE

On Tuesday 19th November, Ellie, Max and I planned to film our band scene to the song Californication by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers after school, in order to gain access to the school's gym. The gym is empty and rather large enabling us to experiment with lighting, whilst having an enormous amount of space to place our props wherever we deemed appropriate. Thankfully, upon realising we needed three band members and only having three of us in the group, with at least one of us on the camera's, a friend, Huw Carey, stepped up to be our drummer for the evening. Max, Huw and I were the members of the band, with Max playing the bass whilst singing, Huw on the drums and I played the guitar. Ellie was in charge of the camera work and used different angles and shot types to create unique, professional and sophisticated shots of each of the band members and the band as a whole together. 

This shot taken from my iPhone 5S was simply to show the basic set up of what the framework was going to consist of. Typically, the drum set sits in the middle of the shot whilst the two guitarists (Max and I) stand at either side. Due to the specific lighting needed we had to use guidelines along the floor (sticky tape) in order to understand where we had to stand to be in shot continuously throughout the shoot. This was difficult, as we wanted to make the most out of the immense amount of space we had on offer, however, we needed to make sure we remained mostly in the shot for the majority of time. 

This was the completed set up of the drum set where Huw would sit throughout the shoot. 

Here is an enthusiastic picture showing Max the bassist pulling off a pose whilst we all began to set up the lighting and smoke machine. We previously didn't realise we had access to a smoke machine, however, our teacher managed to get hold of one for us and we began testing it out early on and put it on a specific timer in order for the smoke to come out without the need for anyone to press the button. This also allowed us to set the smoke to release itself at specific points within the song, which allowed for great effects especially during the chorus of the song, where the beat and tempo is extremely heavy, loud and fast paced. The smoke against the darkness and specific lighting also created a very professional image. 

Here I simply took a picture of Ellie and her camera that we were using to film parts of the music video with. It is a Nikon camera. 

Here is an image of the smoke machine we used during the music video shoot of the band. It was really heavy, and quite large so we had to be careful during filming that it didn't come into shot, although we wanted all of the smoke in its timer on display. The smoke machine took 30 minutes to heat up before it worked completely. 

Here is simply an image of one of the two tripods we used to mount our cameras. 

Here is an image of the Go-Pro we used in order to get close up shots of the instruments and the finger movements on the guitars. We only used this Go-Pro for the guitars. It was really useful because you could link the Go-Pro up to an iPhone and see the imagery on the iPhone whilst filming so you knew what the quality and positioning was like. This was simple and easy to do and therefore only took a few minutes to get around 30 seconds of video recorded. We held the Go-Pro in place because if we used the 'sticky mount' it would have been hard to move the Go-Pro from guitar to guitar. 

Here is simply an image of a close up of the Go-Pro held in place on Max's bass. 

Overall, the shoot went extremely well, and although we were time pressured due to a late start because of the lack of availability of the school gym until 4pm, we got a lot of brilliant work done, with these shots we have taken providing us with near a minutes worth of screen time for our music video. We will review what we have filmed on Thursday 20th November and begin to start editing the shots so that they are ready to be incorporated in the music video, when new scenes are filmed. 

SHOOT 1 IMAGES - MONEY THROWING SCENE

Here is a picture of the tripod and the car we were using during the filming of our first shoot - which was the money throwing out the window scene. The weather was sunny and crisp and therefore it was an ideal time to film this scene as we could see everything clearly when filming and reflected the Californian image. 

We photocopied 5, 10 and 20 pound notes so that we could use something that looked realistic to throw out of the car window.

We used a normal tripod to film the car and simply zoomed in and out to follow the car successfully rather than having to follow the car in order to get the shot we wanted, as that would have been hard to do and we may not have got a clear shot. 

This scene is influenced directly by Adorno's Theory of the culture industry. Adorno suggested that today's society influences and encourages needless materialism and that people are kept satisfied by this need for things that are not actual necessity's, which has been manufactured by a huge industry that churns out basic brain food to keep the human population satisfied .

Bibliography: 
Adorno, Theodor (1991), The Culture Industry: Selected essays on mass culture, Routledge, London.

PLANNING: CALL SHEET - BAND SCENE

Title of page: A2 Media Studies Call Sheet for Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication

·                     Track – Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Californication

·                     Length – 3 mins 22 seconds

·                     Shoot date – Tuesday 18th November 2013

·                     Location – School small gym, Claremont Fan Court

Crew: [Ellie Walton, elliepw@hotmail.co.uk,]

·                     Crew: [Elliot Hogan, hogan.elliot@yahoo.co.uk, 07825563046]

·                     Crew: [Max Day, maxday@hotmail.com]

·                     Camera equipment (Nikon Camera (Ellie’s cam), Media camera's from Mrs Mann x 2, Huw Carey's 'Go-Pro' and tripods from media)

·                     Lighting equipment (Lightings from media, x3)

·                     Props (Musical instruments brought over from Music School, Drum Kit, Mic Stands, brought in guitars etc)

PLANNING: CALL SHEET - MONEY THROWING SCENE

·                     Title of page: A2 Media Studies Call Sheet for Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication

·                     Track – Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Californication

·                     Length – 3 mins 22 seconds

·                     Shoot date – tbd

·                     Location – Money throwing out of car window – Ellie’s Car – in car

Crew: [Ellie Walton, elliepw@hotmail.co.uk,]

·                     Crew: [Elliot Hogan, hogan.elliot@yahoo.co.uk, 07825563046]

·                     Crew: [Max Day, maxday@hotmail.com]

·                     Camera equipment (Nikon Camera (Ellie’s cam) and tripod from media)

·                     Lighting equipment (N/A as will be done in natural daylight)

·                     Props (Photocopied money – preferably £20 notes)

·                     Wardrobe [Preferably American branded clothing to represent the Hollywood image]

PLANNING: DEFINITION - CALIFORNICATION

Californication - defined - website where definition was discovered.

The process by which the American television and film industry, for the most part based in California, spreads their own highly sexualized, consumer driven, version of American culture that heavily emphasizes sex, violence, celebrity, and youth as both virtues to be extolled and goals to be achieved. Ignoring and often doing everything in their power to blur, if not erase, the dividing line between the fantasy of the cinemas world view and reality. This process has become pandemic with the proliferation of reality television wherein a person can achieve "Californication" without possessing any real talent but rather just the ability to make a fool of themselves on a world wide stage. 

Theodore Adorno shares the same views as the song Californication about the manufacturing of cultures and the inappropriate images and promises it expresses. Adorno said that the culture industries produce 'unsophisticated' products that replace critical art forms which then makes people forget about the important things such as the question of social life and the meaning of it altogether. He also said that people are too materialistic and like things purely because of how much they cost, or if everyone else has one. A lot of the things Adorno says here are very relevant to the song Californication and it was therefore, extremely important that we learnt and studied about him and it will be a big help when coming to shoot the video and to write about it.

Bibliography: Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), The Culture Industry: Selected essays on mass culture, Routledge, London.

CALL SHEET: SNAPBACK SCENE

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

·                     Title of page: A2 Media Studies Call Sheet for Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication

·                     Track – Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Californication

·                     Length – 3 mins 22 seconds

·                     Shoot date – tbd

·                     Location – Snapback scene – Top Car Park – Claremont Fan Court

  

·                     IMAGE: FROM GOOGLE MAPS

·                     Crew: [Ellie Walton, elliepw@hotmail.co.uk,]

·                     Crew: [Elliot Hogan, hogan.elliot@yahoo.co.uk, 07825563046]

·                     Crew: [Max Day, maxday@hotmail.com]

·                     Camera equipment (Nikon Camera (Ellie’s cam) and tripod from media)

·                     Lighting equipment (N/A as will be done in natural daylight)

·                     Props (Collection of Snapbacks)

·                     Wardrobe [Preferably American branded clothing]

Californication Story Board

Californication - Story board

The Animoto previously below was our first storyboard draft - after much discussion we changed it to this animoto that is the proper storyboard.

PLANNING: STORYBOARD ANIMOTO

Californication - Story board

This was our original storyboard that we planned but after much discussion we changed it to the storyboard above.

This is the preparatory work for our story board which we plan to present as an animatic using post-it notes. In our group of three, each of us undertook one third of the drawing task, this post reflects the initial class work. 

STORYBOARD PLANNING

PLANNING: HOW MY BAND DEVELOPED ITS STAR BRAND

Formation and first album (1983?1984)

A promotional flyer featuring the band from 1986.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem) were formed by Fairfax High School alumni Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons and Michael "Flea" Balzary in 1983. RHCP's first performance was at the Rhythm Lounge, to a crowd of roughly thirty people, opening for Gary and Neighbor's Voices. One song had been created for the occasion, which involved the band improvising music while Kiedis rapped a poem he had written called "Out in L.A.". As Slovak and Irons were already committed to another group, What Is This?, it was intended to be a one time performance. However, the performance was so lively that the band was asked to return the following week. Due to this unexpected success, the band changed its name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing several more shows at various LA clubs and musical venues. Six songs from these initial shows were recorded onto the band's first demo tape.

Several months after their first performance, the band was signed to the record label they were noticed by EMI. Two weeks earlier, What Is This? had obtained a record deal with MCA, and as Slovak and Irons considered the Red Hot Chili Peppers a side project, they quit to focus on What Is This?. Instead of dissolving the band, Kiedis and Flea decided to recruit new members. Cliff Martinez, a friend of Flea's, was asked to join the Chili Peppers shortly thereafter. Auditions for a new guitarist produced Jack Sherman.

Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill was hired to produce their first album. Despite Kiedis and Flea's misgivings, he pushed the band to play with a cleaner, crisper and more radio-friendly sound. The Red Hot Chili Peppers was released on August 10, 1984. Though the album didn't set sales records, college radio and MTV airplay helped to build a growing fan base. The album ultimately sold 300,000 copies. During the ensuing tour, continuing musical and lifestyle tension between Kiedis and Sherman complicated the transition between concert and daily band life. Sherman was fired soon after, with Slovak returning to the Chili Peppers after growing tired of What is This?.

History - where this information was found 

Richard Dyer - Stars (1980)

Richard Dyer's view on 'Stars', meaning those people or bands who come into the scene quickly is that they are signed by a record label in order to do this, and then are made to sell - not for the quality of the music - but the image that record label can set for the particular artist. 

His hypothesis on 'Stars' in the RHCP's point of view is not applicable because the first record company that they were signed too, didn't provide worldly success for the Chilli Peppers with their first album actually released and produced by a record label only managed to sell 300,000 copies which although this is a lot for a first album it would seem, it wasn't enough for the RHCP's to go global - it was up to other organisations such as MTV who had no association with the RHCP's in anyway to promote them as much as possible, and therefore it was the RHCP's own style, determination and image that gave them success. 

Therefore, by the time the RHCP were signed by Warner Bros. a big record label, they had already distinguished an audience of people who liked THEIR own personal style and therefore this couldn't be changed as they would have lost the fanbase they already had, however, because of Warner Bros superior status in the music world, the Chilli Peppers individuality was easily promoted to those who hadn't heard of them or listened to their genre of music.

In this case - the hypothesis of Richard Dyer's was not applicable. However, in the RHCP's song - Californication, they seem to share the view of Richard Dyer's Star's saying that today's music is fake and manufactured by those record companies who are out purely to provide an image - no involvement in the quality of the music whatsoever. This is very helpful to understand considering this is the song I am using for my A2 piece of work and will therefore be very interesting to write about and delve deeper into. 

PLANNING: FINAL PERMISSION TO USE TRACK

Above is confirmation that as a group, we in some way contacted the Red Hot Chilli Peppers directly in order to ask them whether we were allowed to use their song Californication for a non profit media A2 piece of work. I did this using my Media A2 Twitter account, that isn't massively active and this enquiry was my first tweet on the account.

PLANNING: SHOT LIST - Part 2/3

SOUND/VOICEOVER	VISION	ACTORS	PROPS	NOTES
15. Celebrity skin is this your chin	Surgeon peering over subject – surgeon has stitches for a mouth -  could be filmed in mothers dentistry – showing the fake image of Hollywood.	Ellie, Elliot or Max	Suitable place to film a surgery environment. Tbd – dentistry
18. Hard core soft porn	Band scene – white photography room – candy coloured gear	Ellie, Elliot, Max and final member to be decided	Musical instruments as mentioned above
21. Marry me girl be my fairy to the world	Bubble bath – one of the cast is running a bath full of bubbles and relaxes in it	Elliot or Max	Bubbles
23. A teenage bride with a baby inside	Candy floss – one of the cast seen enjoying a massive stick of candy floss	Any of the cast can play this	Candy floss
25. And buy me a star on the boulevard	Enjoying a bottle of champagne showing the high life of Hollywood.	Any of cast	Empty champagne bottle
27. Space may be the final frontier	Snapbacks flipped off a row of peoples heads.	Any of cast tbd	Snapbacks	I have plenty.
30. Singing songs off station to station	Pimp My Ride scene (number plates, shopping bags, seat covers)	Ellie – car owner and has personalised number plate	Car

PLANNING: CALIFORNICATION LYRICS

1.Psychic spies from China     (just before song starts, Band Scene – photography room – in completely white bare photog studio, a blank canvas – performers in mono chrome as candy colours come later)
2. Try to steal your mind's elation
3. Little girls from Sweden                       transition - Dream figure (lips and eyes)
4. Dream of silver screen quotations      Different cuts of nails
5. And if you want these kind of dreams
6. It's Californication

7. It's the edge of the world
8. And all of western civilization
9. The sun may rise in the East               Gym scene (weights lifted, yoga poses)
10. At least it settles in the final location
11. It's understood that Hollywood
12. sells Californication

13. Pay your surgeon very well                           Mirror scene (playing with cheeks)         
14. To break the spell of aging
15. Celebrity skin is this your chin                  Surgeon (from patients POV, crazy surgeon has stitches for mouth)
16. Or is that war your waging

Chorus:
17.First born unicorn
18. Hard core soft porn              Band scene
19. Dream of Californication
20. Dream of Californication

21. Marry me girl be my fairy to the world Bubble Bath
22. Be my very own constellation
23. A teenage bride with a baby inside  Candy Floss 
24. Getting high on information
25. And buy me a star on the boulevard                 Champagne
26. It's Californication

27. Space may be the final frontier Snapback snatch
28. But it's made in a Hollywood basement
29. Cobain can you hear the spheres
30. Singing songs off station to station     Pimp My Ride scene (number plates, shopping bags, seat covers)
31. And Alderaan's not far away
32. It's Californication

33. Born and raised by those who praise Throwing money out window of car
34. Control of population everybody's been there and Policemen chasing us
35. I don't mean on vacation

Chorus                                   Band scene

36. First born unicorn
37. Hard core soft porn              Prison mug shots

38. Dream of Californication      All 3 pushed into individual cells
39. Dream of Californication

PLANNING: Californication Lyric Analysis

 'Californication'

Psychic spies from China      (just before song starts, Band Scene)
Try to steal your mind's elation
Little girls from Sweden                           Dream figure (big boobs and bum)
Dream of silver screen quotations       Different cuts of nails
And if you want these kind of dreams
It's Californication

It's the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East                   Gym scene (weights lifted, yoga poses)
At least it settles in the final location
It's understood that Hollywood
sells Californication

Pay your surgeon very well                                      Surgeon (from patients POV, crazy surgeon has stitches for mouth)
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin            Mirror scene (playing with cheeks)
Or is that war your waging

Chorus:
First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn                Band scene
Dream of Californication
Dream of Californication

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world Bubble Bath
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard    Champagne
It's Californication

Space may be the final frontier Snapback snatch
But it's made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station      Pimp My Ride scene (number plates, shopping bags, seat covers)
And Alderaan's not far away
It's Californication

Born and raised by those who praise Throwing money out window of car
Control of population everybody's been there and Policemen chasing us
I don't mean on vacation

Chorus

First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn                Prison mug shots

Dream of Californication       All 3 pushed into individual cells
Dream of Californication

RESEARCH: TREATMENT

'Pimp my ride' 

One of the things you think of associating with California is pimped out cars, so show off how much money you have. 

We came up with the idea of using Ellie's car as the basis of our pimped out car for our music video Californication. We immediately thought that most pimped cars in California have a personalised number plate that says something personal on it. This was a great concept for us as recently Ellie had acquired a personalised number plate and this could useful in filming the video as we could show the transfer of the original plate to the new one that is 'pimped and personal'. 

We also associated wealthy female Californians with little dogs that they take everywhere they go for image purposes. Ellie has a cocker spaniel which isn't a really small dog, but they aren't too big either and therefore we thought we could use the dog for the filming in the car. The dog would sit on the front seat of the car, with a bow on the head of the dog to show that it's the prized possession of the Californian girl (Ellie). Max does know a friend with Chiwawas and we were considering asking him if we could use them but theres a strong chance we may not be able to use them.

We also thought that the car's inside would be very wealthy looking and girly, with pink fluffy cushions and pink dice hanging from the mirror etc, with even some of the car seats having pink covers of some sort accompanied by shopping bags with expensive designers on the bag to show the wealth that is shown or said to be shown in California. 

'Bubble bath'

We came up with the idea of different types of 'bubbles' signifying the Californian image of wealth. 

One scene we were planning to have someone in the group lying down in a bubble bath relaxing to signify the dream like place that California is and how relaxing it is supposed to be. Champagne also came to mind when thinking about 'bubbles' and this is a good thing to include in filming as Champagne signifies wealth, as you only have it on special occasions whereas in the California, the video can portray that the character in the video has it most days. 

RESEARCH: DIRECTORS LABEL

Directors label from elliothoganmedia

RESEARCH: PERMISSION

PERMISSION 

Obtaining permission to use music is usually a little more complicated than people think and it takes several times and attempts before the record label either tell you no, or give you guidelines on how to use the song appropriately without breaking any recording rights. Because there are two different rights in any piece of recorded music this makes it extremely complicated to get permission and these are: 'the rights to the song itself, which is what can be written on sheet music, and the rights to the particular recording.' 

The Songwriter of the song usually has the rights to the song as they have composed it, but they hand most of the responsibility over to the producer as they probably get many inquiries a day asking for permission. A particular recording of the song (what's on the CD) is generally owned by the record company that released the CD. If you want to use a recording of a song, you have to get permission from both the music publisher (to use the song itself) and the record company (to use the recording). 

Sometimes, people choose to make their own recording of a song. If this is what you want to do, then the only permission you would need to obtain is permission to use the song, which you would obtain from the music publisher(s). Many songs can be owned by more than one producer, so whilst one may give you permission, another may not, so it is important to delve deep into who produced the song before inquiring about using it. 

Below is the email confirmation of our group asking for permission to use the song Californication for a non profit A Level project.