Statement of Intent

 

Final submission

 https://17-msla.wixsite.com/losboys 

Website 

Easter eggs:

- stick man holding t shirt 

- stick man holding hand grenade

- hover over the records for information on why they have inspired LOSBOYS

https://youtu.be/4cMQ_B1GWTk?feature=shared

Music video

Final Website

 

Click on stick man holding clothes

ABOUT US PAGE

click on stick man

Summary of Intertextuality used in website

1.   "I love the smiths" - this is a very iconic quote from the film '500 days of Summer', in which the main character and his love interest, Summer, bond over their shared fondness for The Smiths.       As well as this, the quote has become an infamous 'sound' on TikTok, with over 180,000 videos using it as a backing track, and the most popular video having 36.1 million views. My media literate audience should understand that the quote is from the film '500 days of Summer', but a preferred reading of this reference would be that they know it from TikTok

 

2.    2.  The five albums that are listed as some of the bands favourite and most inspiring, are famous indie rock albums that suit the style of music that LOSBOYS produces

 

3.    3.  The stick man holding the grenade is a reference to the rock band GreenDay whose cover art for their single ‘American Idiot’ features a bleeding grenade that is shaped like a heart. Audiences who have a wide cultural competency will understand this reference to infamous rock band, GreenDay, however for those who don’t, when clicked, the GIF causes a lightbox to appear that explains the significance of GreenDay to LOSBOYS

4.    4.  The playlist that I have made which LOSBOYS encourages their audience to stream is designed to resemble the film posters from the A24 movie ‘mid90’s’, a coming of age about a group of skater boys, whose cinematography and narrative I have used to inspire the music video itself. The audience of A24 is described as media literate and therefore my audience should understand the reference

 

  

Animation for website

 For the header of my website I wanted to animate the band’s name LOSBOYS to create a cartoony and juvenile style, that fits in with the coming of age style music video I have created.

I used FlipaClip to create a skateboarding animation that relates to the video. This was a rather long process that was very detailed as I had to make sure that all of the clips lined up and flowed to create a smooth animation, but I did get there in the end and am happy with the way it turned out.

I converted it from a video into a gif and uploaded it to my website

Animating the music video

I am using FlipaClip to edit the intro to my music video where I have the song title and the band name. This is a completely new experience for me but it’s getting easier and is rewarding once it is all put together. 

I have kept the rough, childlike style of animation that looks hand drawn because it fits the style of music and video (coming of age) and I am hoping to carry on some of these animations throughout the video and at the end. I also think the animation is quite stylised and creates a consistent brand image that is recognisable and will resonate with the target audience.

I still need to add some cross platform convergence by plugging the bands website, merch and social media pages, but I am hoping to do this at the end as to not distract from the song and the band as a whole 
 

Editing my footage

 I am currently in the editing stage of making my music video on iMovie. I have compiled all of my footage and matched up all of the clips to the music, in time with the beat of the music and with the lyrics. I am now cleaning up the edit and attempting some animation at the start and end

Reflection on shooting

Over the summer I spent 5 days shooting my music video footage. The process was tiring especially when having to know what you want for each shot, and getting multiple takes each time. I think because my music video is so fast, I knew I needed to have lots of clips in time with the beat, so I tried my best to film as much as possible so that I didn’t run out of footage. 

 

Filming the skateboarding videos was the most enjoyable as I wanted the footage to be quite relaxed and fun, so a lot of the time I was just following the boys around and filming them doing random tricks. Because the song is so fast, I wanted the clips to not be stationary, so a lot of the time I had one of the boys filming whilst skating to get tracking shots, which look really great. 

 

The videos of the band singing were very hard to get organised but the filming itself was simple. I really didn’t want the clips to get too repetitive and boring for the audience, so I made sure to get multiple camera angles and close ups of each band member singing and playing their instruments. I really like how the location turned out in these clips as I feel like having it in a home with the garden in the background feels very authentic, and matches the vibe of the band being ‘lostboys’, finding their way in the world, but still being young and living at home. 

 

The main way for me to get the narrative across was through the clips of my mum and Hayden. These clips needed to be shot at night to align with the storyline and lyrics, however this meant that the lighting wasn’t always that great. This was the same for the clips at the start of Hayden by the door, as the lighting was unpredictable and would always make the shot too dark. 

The videos at the start of Hayden in his room are extensive because I really wanted to have jump cuts that all fitted nice and smoothly together.

 

The filming in general took a while to get used to and some of the shots are out of focus and a bit shaken, so I did have to reshoot them, but in general I was able to execute my vision and am happy with the results.

Contact sheet